Is there some reason why no one is mentioning that How To Dress Well interpolates a bit of the outro of Alicia Keys’s “No One” here?

Ruin & Ruin 2 are among my favorite EPs this year, so I’m intrigued by the covers album. Also, HTDW has grown on my this year - I prefer his covers and features to his original songs.

disconaivete:

“How to Dress Well delivers an ace cover of Elite Gymnastics’ h e r e , i n  h e a v e n 3. Completely in his own style, as if it’s a song of his own. It’s the first track from r u i n 3, a collection of covers by the likes of CFCF and HTDW of Elite Gymnastics jams, out mid November on Acéphale.”

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mp3 How to Dress Well - h e r e ,   i n   h e a v e n   3 (Elite Gymnastics cover)

(via indiernb)

Purity Ring’s 2011 so far:

1. Ungirthed
2. Lofticries
3. Belispeak

That’s pretty incredible for a band’s first three songs - “Ungirthed” is probably one of my three favorite songs this year, and both other songs are great on their own merits (I personally prefer “Belispeak”). Just yesterday I read this show review from Marc Hogan that seemed to indicate that the material we’ve yet to hear is also great, and in the same lane.

The last band who’s sound was this unique and fully formed before they’d released more than a few songs that I can recall was Sleigh Bells. Check this Stereogum post from October 2009: “Ring Ring” (which became “Rill Rill” for Treats), “Crown on the Ground”, “Beach Girls” (which became “Kids”), and “Infinity Guitars”, plus a mention of “A/B Machines” being on Myspace at the time. That’s about half of what became one of my favorite albums of 2010, all floating around almost a year before the album dropped. Sleigh Bells cracked my top 10 in 2009 on the strength of a few demos.

The similarities go beyond an excellent string of early songs: both acts throw pretty female vocals over less pretty music with fractured, strong beats - Sleigh Bells fractured from being in the red, Purity Ring from pitched down voices and choppy, dirty south rap-style beats. I hope the similarities continue - maybe we can expect the Purity Ring equivalent of “Tell ‘Em” early next year, and hopefully a full-length a couple of months later. Here’s hoping it’s as awesome as Treats.