Round-up January 2015’s best Bandcamp releases
Tom Walters rounds up the month’s finest Bandcamp releases, featuring Attendent and Sitcom.
Having set the standard for music discovery last year, Bandcamp looks poised to retain its position at the top, as it hits the ground running at a colossal speed in 2015. It’s far too early to say which of its hundreds-of-thousands of plucky up loaders will make it this year, but as the industry turns it head further and further towards the direction of internet distribution and discovery, it’s only a matter of time before more and more breakout acts begin dropping “yeah, mate, I started on Bandcamp, of course,” into their high profile broadsheet interviews. In one way or another, Best of Bandcamp aims to highlight the finest.
Here’s a selection of January picks, from Tom Walters:
Attendent - Sun Room
Despite giving off this unshakable feeling that a post-Christmas hangover might last forever, January can actually be alright sometimes, as the sun beams down, shifting surroundings into bleary-eyed bliss. It’s in these little moments of beauty that songs like ‘I Won’t Try to Change Your Mind’ by Attendant can be fully appreciated, the murmur of soft vocals spitting lyrical about bus rides and relationships; the dreamy acoustic guitar dancing a gentle, slow dance with the vivacious violin. This sets the scene for the rest of ‘Sun Room’, a gorgeous 6-track record that’s as inviting and invigorous as a breezy winter walk.
Sitcom - Drum set
Attendent might’ve been channeling the sunnier side of the month, but Sitcom is more in touch with a rainier, moodier side to a year’s beginning. ‘Drum kit’ is a tongue-in-cheek soundtrack for the January blues, a record crafted with humorous observations on the mundanity of everyday life. “The day wasn’t so bad,” one-man-band Jake Lazovick sings though on ‘traffic was okay,’ over a flurry of off-kilter electronics, afro-caribbean rhythms and zippity boom-baps. “I’m whistling to myself!” he exclaims before launching into an impressive whistling solo, which can either be interpreted as a moment of insanity (we’ve all felt it this month, right?) or a joyous middle finger to everything that’s getting you down.
Band Practice - Make Nice
Sure, it was released in early December, but everyone needs to be fully aware of Band Practice’s debut album. From the euphoric opening of rattling guitars on ‘Band Practice Theme Song’ to tackling the brutal honesty of love on ‘Freddy’, Jeannette Wall and her band have crafted a record of joyous indie pop that’ll cause limbs to be thrown around in ecstatic fits of joy. There are songs on this record to laugh to, cry to, dance to, sing to and have fun to; the exact kind of music that should be slung on headphones after you crash out at the end of the day. It’s unabashed indie pop, sure, and it won’t be for everyone - but there’s an authenticity to Jeanette’s words and an obvious talent to that way these songs are crafted that make it one of the most genuinely engaging albums around at the moment.
マクロスMACROSS 82-99 - セーラーチーム
Sometimes music can be so ridiculous that the only thing you can do is give yourself up to it. I don’t know what a マクロスMACROSS 82-99 is, the only certainty being that ‘セーラーチーム’ continue their streak of ultimate early-00s vibes, crafting pop songs that don’t let up the pace on any element whatsoever. Falling somewhere in-between the sunny sheen of early chillwave and the adrenaline-fuelled guilty pleasures of the Dance Dance Revolution soundtrack, it’s escapism at its best; a brilliantly bonkers track that’s sure to turn heads at whatever party. Their record from last year, ‘A Million Miles Away’, is well worth checking out too.
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