Mexican Summer Vinyl, CD & Tape 27 Items

Following its release on Erol Alkan’s Phantasy label, the New Zealand-born songwriter enjoyed a flurry of critical and artistic praise from the likes of David Byrne, Johnny Marr, Blood Orange’s Dev Hynes and Charlotte Gainsbourg, with whom Connan is an ongoing collaborator. In addition to touring as Gainsbourg’s live band, Connan has also toured in support of Radiohead and Crowded House – both of which have provided a much larger platform for this off-kilter rising star.There’s a truly mercurial quality cast over Forever Dolphin Love. Much of this can be attributed to its production, which floats and flows with an organic bedroom sensibility, creating a delicate environment for Connan’s helium-inflected vocals. But the songs themselves are equally captivating – full of wormy vignettes, druggy detours and subtle idiosyncrasies that gradually reveal themselves after repeated listens. Tracks like “It’s Choade My Dear” and “Faking Jazz Together” are perfect slices of light-headed psych pop, constructed around spidery hooks, pitter-patter percussion and slow, sinuous grooves. Opener “Megumi the Milkyway Above” and closer “Please Turn Me Into The Snat” inject some dynamic variation – the former with a jazzy, samba-like shuffle and the latter with shouted, melodramatic vigor. The title track acts as the album’s centerpiece – an ambitious suite that clocks in at over ten minutes; slithering through funk-filled interludes and lush passages into one of the album’s most frantic and memorable hooks.Completing the experience are Connan’s lyrics; a mixture of absurd storytelling and hypnagogic whimsy that imaginatively tie into the album’s loose concept about an anthropomorphic dolphin. On live favorite “It’s Choade My Dear” he sings: “I’m a China toad, but I’m in filing mode / please take it off / I have four arms to see things through, for fetching food so we can’t stop…”. This might all be a little forced in someone else’s hands, but Forever Dolphin Love exudes a genuine weirdness that is fully realized in all aspects, particularly in its charming videos. Even the album sleeve, which features surrealist paintings by Connan, feels like a perfect reflection of the music inside, and indeed, of its auteur-like creator.

Think of it this way: Paint’s first album isn’t clean, but it’s very very clear. Sometimes the mess is the message.

For fans of Neon Indian or Toro Y Moi ... solo project of Georgia (via South Carolina) multi-instrumentalist Ernest Greene.

The sunshine of L’Orange, L’Orange isn’t just about brightness and bliss. It’s also about engrossing your mind – creating an omnipresence not unlike that shiny orange orb whose ubiquity defines our days and whose absence fills our nights. For Gregg Kowalsky, music can have that same kind of overpowering effect. The sounds of L’Orange, L’Orange can calm your nerves, warm your mood, and maybe even enlighten your mind.

The atmospheres and auras of Ariel Rosenberg - aka Ariel Pink - and Natalie Mering - aka Weyes Blood - assemble as new hues for Myths 002, the second edition of Mexican Summer's series inspired by - and conceived at - the label's annual Marfa Myths festival in the Texas desert. The four songs of Myths 002 capture musicians at play -- two distinct voices in pop music inexplicably, effortlessly folding into harmony.

Calico Review' was recorded at the iconic Valentine Recording Studio, which gave the group access to historic recording equipment such as a 1964 Universal Audio 610 soundboard - the same board on which The Beach Boys recorded Pet Sounds. Now you know what to expect.

Calico Review' was recorded at the iconic Valentine Recording Studio, which gave the group access to historic recording equipment such as a 1964 Universal Audio 610 soundboard - the same board on which The Beach Boys recorded Pet Sounds. Now you know what to expect.

New Zealand via Paris/London pop sprite Connan Mockasin follows up the widely acclaimed oddball-psych of 2010’s Forever Dolphin Love. Caramel boasts a unique brand of mutated, lustrous soul that was almost wholly self-recorded over a month in a Tokyo hotel room. Described by Clash Music as “a true cosmonaut of inner space,” the new album explores different regions of Mockasin’s singular galaxy, guided by his truly adventurous songwriting that favors reconfigured pop structures with a skewed funk sensibility. If Caramel wasn’t enough, Mockasin has also been writing more material for Charlotte Gainsbourg after penning the exquisite “Out Of Touch” for the actress/singer’s 2012 mini-album, Stage Whisper. It’s another sign that Mockasin is going places, but at his own pace – just as Caramel suggests the process of melting and taking on a new shape, a new taste. That is the true sound of Connan Mockasin.

Pill sind ein Quintett aus New York City und große Fans der No Wave der 80er, incl. schrägem Saxophon a la James White and the Contortions, zackigen Gitarren und Gesang zwischen Lydia Lunch und Kim Gordon.

For the third Marfa Myths release, Mexican Summer is proud to present seven all-new songs written and recorded by Stockholm's psychedelic masters Dungen and adventurous Brooklyn indie-folk pioneers Woods. As the Marfa Myths record series progresses, the spirit of the collaborations between the artists chosen - one a member of the Mexican Summer family, the other for which we share deep admiration - deepens as well.

Los Angeles’s prodigal songwriting son Ariel Pink shares his eleventh studio album, Dedicated to Bobby Jameson, September 15. The album’s title makes a direct and heartfelt reference to a real-life L.A. musician, long presumed dead, who resurfaced online in 2007 after 35 reclusive years to pen his autobiography and tragic life story in a series of blogs and YouTube tirades. “His book and life resonated with me to such a degree,” Pink states, “that I felt a need to dedicate my latest record to him.” Dedicated to Bobby Jameson begins at the end and ends at the beginning. “We follow the protagonist through a battery of tests and milestones, the first of which sees him reborn into life out of death,” Pink explains, referencing the opening track “Time To Meet Your God.” “From there, he seesaws his way between the innocent love and the rock-solid edifice of childhood-worn trauma that together constitute his lifelong initiation into the realm of artifice and theatrical disposability.”

Los Angeles’s prodigal songwriting son Ariel Pink shares his eleventh studio album, Dedicated to Bobby Jameson, September 15. The album’s title makes a direct and heartfelt reference to a real-life L.A. musician, long presumed dead, who resurfaced online in 2007 after 35 reclusive years to pen his autobiography and tragic life story in a series of blogs and YouTube tirades. “His book and life resonated with me to such a degree,” Pink states, “that I felt a need to dedicate my latest record to him.” Dedicated to Bobby Jameson begins at the end and ends at the beginning. “We follow the protagonist through a battery of tests and milestones, the first of which sees him reborn into life out of death,” Pink explains, referencing the opening track “Time To Meet Your God.” “From there, he seesaws his way between the innocent love and the rock-solid edifice of childhood-worn trauma that together constitute his lifelong initiation into the realm of artifice and theatrical disposability.”

On the Echoing Green is an elegant work of shimmering sound, rendered by eternal electric romantic Jefre Cantu-Ledesma. Conceived as an experiment in collaboration, On Echoing Green is eight rapturous and melodic slow dives of swirling guitar, bass, synthesizer, piano, and drum machines, accented by heavenly vocal arcs from Argentinian musician Sobrenadar and contributions from Alexis Georgopoulous and Byron Westbrook. This is music of growth and grandeur, of ascent and exploration; in tune with the beauty of sound and the harmony of light.

This alternate version of “Autumn Dawn” is the punchier demo recording from Kyle Mullarky’s home studio in Topanga Canyon. The instrumental, Mellotron heavy B-side “Hereafter” was recorded during Calico Review sessions at Valentine Studios and has never been released.

Calico Review' was recorded at the iconic Valentine Recording Studio, which gave the group access to historic recording equipment such as a 1964 Universal Audio 610 soundboard - the same board on which The Beach Boys recorded Pet Sounds. Now you know what to expect.

A companion to his last album Love is A Stream (Type, 2010), 13 Moons is a dense, swirling mass. Hypnotic guitar & drum performances coalesce with Modular synth squalls & otherworldly textures - combining overdriven guitars, avant-garde composition with the informal approach of underground tape weirdos (like Robert Turman, K. Leimer) into a lovely brocade of harmony & dissonance.