Marrying ethereal vocal arrangements with classical and ambient influences, and relying on a drumless soundscape where the only rhythm is created by vocal loops and the occasional piano chord, Brooklyn artist GABI has created with "Sympathy"  a record of rare intensity and beauty. The album release will be celebrated tonight (04.22) with a show at the Le Poisson Rouge.

DC’s Mittenfields are FINALLY set to release their long awaited full length Optimists. I was blessed with an early listen and was beyond pleased with maturity and variety of the songwriting and production. Fans of Mittenfields wont be surprised if I say there’s a lot of 80’s-90’s indie-rock sound in it, but what they might not be expecting is all the places the album goes in and around the genre.

Just in the second song, "We’ve Become Numbers," there’s a bass groove with the "angular" guitars, which fuse into bright layered guitars/pedals (that remind one that U2 was pretty cool in the beginning), ultimately crashing into an intense surf-guitar covered shoegaze drone. All complementary sounds in a coherent song. The further into the album one goes, the more variety one hears, both within and across songs. Fuzzy and clean, mathy stuff, poppy stuff, gentle songsmithing, hard rocking. All tight, cool shit. And Dave Mann’s voice is pretty good too.

Check out lead single/video "Optimists" below, and go to the record release show an April 30th at Black Cat Mainstage, featuring a stellar lineup (including Greenland, Magnetar Flares, and Night Streets).  –Natan Press

It’s been a few years since the release of Alex Vans’ first full length DJ Booth. It’s a solid and catchy record, full of promise. After recording, Alex formed his backup band The Hide Away, and they’ve played some 200 shows. Recently, most of those shows have been tributes to Beck, and fans (including myself) were starting to wonder when Alex was gonna fulfill the promise of the first album. I’m happy to say the wait is over.

Vans and The Hide Away are dropping their first new single since DJ Booth, "Velocirapture" on May 5th. It’s a bright rocker, exceeding the expectations of earlier work. It’s at least as catchy, with a deeper, more formed and practiced sound. Somewhere between Tom Petty and Beck, Alex has found his home. I, for one, believe in the Raptor.

You can catch Alex and The Hide Away at Iota May 9th for a Beck tribute set (part of a huge 1996 showcase featuring tributes to Ras Kass, Weezer, The Cranberries, Fiona Apple and Tori Amos), before The "Velocirapture" Single Release Party, on May 16th at Hill Country Barbecue (w/ Short Lives). –Natan Press

7-piece NYC band Silver Dollars are a big helping of home-fried Americana. Truly— the lyrics yearn exactly for drinking cheap beer around the fire after supper, slow western winds, old trucks, soul food, and romanticized ideas of a simpler life. Harmonicas are soaring, steel guitars juddering, and a man dips into the lows of his voice to mourn the loss of love and home among a lonesome cityscape. They play The Cakeshop 4/21 and Bar Matchless 4/22. – Leora Mandel

Brooklyn band No Chief is going to play at The Brooklyn Bowl this Thursday and we can’t tell you exactly what they’re going to sound like. The project stems from the vision of drummer/writer Bob D’Amico (he used to play with the Fiery Furnaces) and slightly changes direction every time he pulls a different gifted friend into the mix. Among these collaborators are members from bands such as That Dog, Stranger Cat, Sebadoh, and of course The Fiery Furnaces. D’Amico describes his music as “Percussion as Melody. Pitched Instruments as Percussion.” Last fall he released two songs on Bandcamp that might give you an idea of just what he means by that. "Ride" is a sound example of percussion’s ability to build songs into journeys. See what D’Amico’s been up to on 4/23 when No Chief will be sharing the stage with Celestial Shore and Delicate Steve between the great traditions of bowling lanes and beer. – Leora Mandel

Brooklyn’s dance lovers scene should be ecstatic to have Lazer Cake among its ranks. The band offers some extremely catchy, shakable themes reminiscent of the 70’s, but with the added freshness of modern synth, drummed up with creative vision by a pretty cognoscente… drummer: his name is Robby Sinclair  and he is also the band’s lead singer. Their songs vary in lyrical and effectual melody, using retro falsetto and soft croons and an assortment of key tones, but they all institute a fun, sometimes gorgeous, and ever beat-friendly environment. The result is an exact fulfillment of a mission statement: to get people moving, while exerting a very natural and wholesome chemistry, both in live and studio settings.

Read JP Basileo’s Q&A with Lazer Cake.

We added this song to The Deli’s playlist of Best electronic songs by emerging NYC artists – check it out!

Holy Sons, brainchild of psychedelic songwriter Emil Amos, doesn’t play music that will brighten your day. Emil uses this project as an outlet for dealing with his own ghosts, and his dark, thoughtful, haunted songs don’t do anything to conceal that: the process obviously represents a rather effective form of self medication, considering he’s released eleven records since 2000 (two of them in 2014). Emil recently moved to NYC (from Portland), recruited musicians to re-form his band, and has been playing several gigs in and around Brooklyn. You can catch him at the upcoming Brain Cave Festival on April 25 at Baby’s All Right.

Blood of underground hip hop and jazz courses through her veins as she tightens her traditional grip. Radiohead and Flying Lotus color her psychedelia-coated lips as she paints haunting, hypnotic images laced with electronic beats. She’s waded deep into LA’s DIY scene, playing with bands like Gothic Tropic and Tapioca & the Flea, even interning for LA’s underground hip hop label Stones Throw. Now, multi-instrumentalist singer-songwriter Liphemra steps out front and center to make her own way. Working with vintage drum pieces, pedals, loopers, and synths, the experimental siren has captivated onlookers with dissonant allure and breakbeat rhythms, opening for groundbreaking artists like Connan Mockasin, Blonde Redhead, and DIIV.

Liphemra will perform live at The Echo next Friday, April 24 with Young Fathers. Listen to her newest single "Magazines" below. – Ryan Mo, photo credit: Carl Pocket

In the best punk tradition, with their upcoming EP "Another Bad Year" (scheduled for a May 12 release) Brooklyn noise makers Vomitface show us that they are not quite ready to look at the bright side of things just yet. Preview single "Never Make It" (whose title, together with the EP’s one, brings a much needed ray of… dispair to our oh so accomplished lives – thanks guys!), adds to their grungy noise rock sound an industrial-funk component, reminiscent of Gang of Four or even a version of Primus without Les Claypool (if that’s even conceivable). The semi-dissonant chorus straightens things up rythmically, only to reaffirm, once and for all, the band’s not so optimistic tendencies: "I guess I will never get it, never make it / I could try to suck it up and smile and fake it / what I need is just a shallow hole to crawl in." All the kids who were subject to overly positive parenting may find here some help in letting out their repressed negativity, through the cathartic power of rock’n’roll.

Vomitface will tour the west coast in April and return to Brooklyn on May 7th at Shea Stadium.

Yesterday (April 19) the lo-fi jangly mastermind behind the project Catwalk kicked off his return with a record release party at the Echo: singer/songwriter Nic Hessler performed songs from his newest album ‘Soft Connections.’ Hessler originally started Catwalk when he was 14, when he released ‘Shiny Girl’ in 2006, a surfy indie rock EP that led to 2008’s follow-up EP ‘Past Afar.’ Nic’s continued success led to his induction into Captured Tracks’ roster at age 18: under that label he revealed the fruits of his labor with the singles "(Please) Don’t Break Me" and "One By Words," before being struck by a sudden sickness that put him out of commission and prevented the release of debut LP: ‘Guillain Barré Syndrome.’ Four years later, Nic returns to complete ‘Soft Connections,’ an album bridging new wave textures of past and soulful indie grit of present. Nic was joined by two fast-rising LA acts: The Echo’s resident band Winter and indie babes Cre-Scen-Do, who also have an upcoming album.

Listen below to "Hearts, Repeating," the feature single from Soft Connections, out now on Captured Tracks. – Ryan Mo

Radiator King is the stage name of Brooklyn based singer songwriter Adam Silvestri, who released this past February his sophomore album "Document Untold," a collection of songs whose intent is to re-tell history from the perspective of those who normally aren’t asked tell history: the people at the bottom of the social ladder. This is a worthy effort in a period where raising income inequality seems to condemn the poor to permanent irrelevance and powerlessness. Several visual, literary, folk and rock artists have done this in the past, and while the Brooklyn musical output has been largely apolitical in the last few decades, comments like this one by NRA’ CEO Wayne LaPierre make us believe that maybe times are mature for a renewed focus on the weak and tragically under-represented layers of our society.

Tonight at 10PM, Hypnocraft’s The Hum, an ongoing (and free) residency featuring collaborations between NYC  musicians from desperate genres, will once again take over Manhattan Inn in Greenpoint. The artists bring to bear an expansive repertoire to their respective sets, which shimmer with that always exciting energy of that “new band smell.” I was lucky enough to catch the residency’s first iteration, which closed with a powerful duet between Shilpa Ray and Deva Mahal of Skylines, and this Monday’s offerings are no less impressive. The bill includes Teeny Liberson (TEEN), Zoe Brecher (Brainfreeze), Jen Goma (People Get Ready), Sarah Pedinotti (Lip Talk, streaming), Kalmia Traver (Rubblebucket), Kaila Mallady, Jordyn Blakely (Invisible Familiars), Alyse Lamb (Eula) and Alex Nelson (Oracle Room, also streaming). – Emilio Herce – In the picture,  an image from last’ week’s show by David Andrako.