Anyone wondering what’s coming next for Brooklyn might take a look at the kids from Sins of the Loose Buttons. A high-energy quartet able to bring the party with them from Santos Party House down to last year’s Miami Music Festival, Loose Buttons wants nothing from their career but to give some of this energy back to anyone out there looking to bounce a beach ball the next show you head out to. Their debut ‘Silent Snow’ has all the potential of a group of dudes barely twenty, already tackling enormous harmonies and in some cases, complicated choreography.
The group should be announcing new dates soon. Download their record from iTunes in the meantime, and check out the band take the city by music and bicycle in their video for ‘Retrobox’ below. - Mike Levine (@goldnuggets)
Ambient and slightly androgynous, the duo Belle Mare released their dreamy debut EP “The Boat of the Fragile Mind” earlier this spring. The EP resonates with somber tones and almost whale-like howls, unraveling soft acoustic guitar, simple piano melodies, and occasional subtle drones. The title track features the quivering vocals of Amelia Bushell, one half of the Belle Mare duo with guitarist Thomas Servidone, painting a dreamscape portrait of longing. Charade (streaming below) gently develops an unexpected blue melody that can lull you into the deepest of sleeps - I've heard of people dreaming of sleeping, in NYC. The duo met at an open mic night in Brooklyn and recorded the album in Servidone’s apartment, but notwithstanding the DIY approach, the record is full of character and the sound mature. With their mix of rich surrealism and an almost gothic aura, these song sounds as if played through an antique phonograph inside a parlor room... located in the deepest of our subconscious. While “The Boat” could easily draw comparisons to other dream-poppers Beach House, Belle Mare’s subtleties and extreme sparsness create a stronger emotional drive and more nostalgic appeal. - Devon Antonetti
