WJS AUDIO.

Listening to Best Coast’s music is like gazing through the hazy sun at a high school lover on a Southern California beach. The band is basically Bethany Cosentino, a 23-year-old California native and former child actor, whose blog is a steady stream of cat photos, retro YouTube music clips and Fleetwood Mac/Stevie Nicks adoration.

Best Coast delivers lo-fi, catchy, drifty songs that draw heavy influence from sixties girl groups, but feel so fresh they could be from the future, like something your little sister listened to when she was your mom. With a mix of sincerity and happy lassitude, Cosentino belts about infatuation, young love, pop-heartache and walking down the street stoned, and as she does, it’s like you’re walking along beside her, swaying in the summer afternoon. Click Read More to listen to When I’m With You.

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MUSIC: Once in awhile, a band comes along that creates truly soulful music, that band is Delta Spirit. Itʼs easy to imagine their blues infused rock on the streets of New Orleans to campfires in Joshua Tree. Their latest release Ode to Sunshine exhibits their talent for utilizing vintage and unconventional instruments (they actually used trashcan lids) to create a rare sound that hearkens back to the soulful 60s. With a strong penchant for storytelling and narrative, lead singer Matthew Vasquez croons with strained vocals tearing across a musical landscape of jangly piano hooks, sharp guitar melodies, and bare-boned drums.

Theyʼve previously toured with the likes of the Cold War Kids and The Shins; with an appearance on Conan and a track featured on Gossip Girl they are slowly garnering the attention they deserve. Click Read More to listen to their track Trash Can. Written by Michael Chen

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Written by Bruce Campbell: Audio/Visual is the debut full length from artist, club and radio dj, playwright, Anthony Valadez. This album is a collection of beats that became modified with the addition of live instrumentation to add texture. The concept of the album is based on the merge between sight and sound – each song, sample and layer is inspired by a visual that inspired Valadez.

“I’ve always been inspired by the visual elements of everyday life” Valadez explains. “From my college days, taking public transportation, to driving home late at nights from gigs. My mind takes mental snapshots that stay with me while I play the keys, percussion and the mpc to create sounds…” The opening track Vibrations is a clear indication that this is not your typical beat album, but rather an experimentation with samples, live bass lines, melodic chord changes and soulful elements. “I got bored of beat music with simple loops that really go nowhere and I wanted to challenge myself in creating a palette that allows me to change the texture within a song.” Click Read More for additional information.

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Written by Michael Chen: “I guess what I want to do, and what we want to do, is try to make music that feels good, and feels expressive—even as it does so in a new vocabulary.” And frontman Dave Longstreth does exactly that with The Dirty Projectors’ latest release Bitte Orca. Longstreth simultaneously creates intricate vocal patterns and complex orchestration within each track to create a musical personality that is unique yet distinctly recognizable. The tone of the album shifts with string quartets mixed with heavy synthesizer sounds and four different vocalists, including Longstreth himself. The juxtaposition of lo-fi elements and complex arrangements is reminiscent of the Flaming Lips and other experimental rock bands. Bitte Orca is innovative and familiar enough to please longtime fans and first time listeners. Click Read More for additional information and to listen to a track from Bitte Orca.

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Written by Bruce Campbell: Inspired by a consciousness-awakening trip to Tokyo, soulful producer Nicolay presents his latest album, City Lights Volume 2 – Shibuya. Similar to City Lights Volume 1 from years ago, this Volume is mostly made up of instrumental compositions. Listening to the project, there is a unique balance of intricate beats woven together to create the sensation of warm vibrations traveling through space and time.

Harmonious vocals from Nicolay’s newest prodigy Carlitta Durand, compliment a few of the tracks and give the album a beautiful melodic balance. Even though most fans may be familiar with his soul and hip hop productions (The Foreign Exchange, Dutch Masters, Little Brother, etc.), Nicolay is not afraid to step outside the box and explore new possibilities of sound. City Lights Volume 2 – Shibuya is just that distinct, refreshing and exceptional. Click Read More for additional information and to listen to the sampler.

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Los Angeles trio, Pollyn, has a sound that is both ethereal and gritty. Their debut album This Little Night is an outstanding effort, reminiscent of Massive Attack and Esthero. Yet, they bring something completely unique and fresh that’s a little hard to pin down.

The video for their single Gave it Up, is a piece of diy greatness – clueing the viewer in on the band’s creative process. It’s a performance shot at KXLU– you see the equipment and all the records and you get the sense that their influences run deep. It’s an inspiring four minutes and thirty-one seconds. Click Read More to watch the video and for additional information.

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Written by Bruce Campbell: As the weather heats up in these last weeks of summer, Quantic & His Combo Barbaro cools my soul. I’ve known Quantic to showcase his talents in the Latin genre but he has really outdone himself on this project. Recorded in Columbia, there is a beautiful balance of live instrumentation with touches of programmed sketches. Although it was recorded in Columbia, Quantic is spot on in showcasing a variety of Latin American styles. His Combo Barbaro includes the talents of Alfredo Linares on piano, Freddy Colorado on congas, Fernando Ovejo Silva on bass, Angel Hernandez on trumpet, Malcolm Catto on drums and Arthur Verocai on arrangements. This is the perfect soundtrack for your summer getaway or an office daydream. Click Read More for additional information.

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