Currently Digging: Games

Where did all the chillwave go? If 2009 was the year for it, 2010 was the year for slow, boring indie snooze-rock galore.  Once the xx got all famous, that sound (as pretty as it is) over-saturated our hipster culture.  Damn it, sometimes I just gotta dance! — to music that chops up samples, mixes 80’s new wave with trip-hop and electro, and usually consists of indecipherable, reverb-heavy vocals.  Love it!  So thank God for Brothertiger, and now thank God for Games.

While I personally haven’t been a huge fan of Daniel Lopatin’s drone-heavy Oneohtrix Point Never project, I adore this collaboration with Tigercity’s Joel Ford.  The crew’s latest EP That We Can Play (above) is a six-track synth-y treat.  The highlight is, of course, the Cocteau Twins-channeling “Strawberry Skies” featuring vocals from Brooklyn singer Laurel Halo, while “Shadows In Bloom” sounds like something clipped and diced straight from a deep Phil Collins bootleg.  So in short – the backlash is over; can we start hyping this stuff again? Please?

Games – Heartlands

Games – Strawberry Skies

Games – Shadows In Bloom


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