Kordan's shoegaze-electro sound with synths and bleak soundscapes, first received attention and acclaim from Cut Copy, who chose them to open for tours across North America in 2008. Since then, they’ve played with The Drums and dream pop aces The Mary Onettes, gaining a steady following. Their debut album "The Longing" foretells a broken love story in the hazy metropolis of Tokyo, circa 2036. The story is told over post-punk rhythms that evoke haunting imagery and macabre overtones a la The Cure and Bauhaus, as well as waves of guitar distortion and pulsating beats to reflect energy and light in the style of My Bloody Valentine. We heard rumors that the band is temporarily on a hiatus, although band leader Arthur Eisele is still very active in the NYC scene as a DJ and remixer - RCRD LBL premiered his remix of Sacramento based Sister Crayon's "I'm Still the Same Person" on April 4. The band shared the 96th place in The Deli's Best of NYC Emerging Artists Poll 2010 with Taurus and Forgetters.
We've always been big fans of Luke Temple, and it's good to see that, together with the Here We Go Magic crew, the man is keeping at it with increasingly beautiful records and videos. The band's new album "A Different Ship" (stream it here) will be out on May 8, and betrays at least a partial return to Luke Temple's more intimate and melodic sound from his solo repertoire - in this regard, lend a ear to "Hard to Be Close," "Alone but Moving" and "Over the Ocean". This is welcome news for fans like us who always thought that in most HWGM material Luke's noteworthy songwriting skills seemed a little sacrificed on the altar of textural experimentation. This doesn't mean that the band's signature hypnotic, impressionistic sound is lost - it's just that these two elements work together better than they did in past records, and this is what makes this album one of the NYC highlights of the year so far. Indeed, this collection also features songs more in line with the band's past releases ("Make Up your Mind", "I Believe in Action"), which follow on the steps of brainy-pop icons like Brian Eno and The Feelies, but there's definitely a balance here, also betrayed by the almost perfect alternation of melodic songs and less traditional ones.The just released video of "How Do I Know," telling the story of a rejected dancing robot that ends up revitalizing an older man's appreciation for life, seems to reflect on this brain/heart, mechanic/organic dichotomies and somehow bring them to unity. - PDG
