Gold Panda

Remember earlier I mentioned that a third London producer was surely about to release something - I forgot it was this dude. I'm not really sure that any of this kind of cut and paste and re-cut style music will stand any test of time, but it's of a moment.

In fact, it sounds a little bit like a pan-pipes reworking that you might hear in a museum shop.

Gold Panda LP, out now, available in shops and that sort of thing.

Gold Panda : Same Dream China

The first problem with Summer Camp is the name. A wealth of associations are brought forth before you've even got to the music; beaches, long summer days, childhood, kitsch, washed-out guitar-based pop; to me the name betokens Best Coast, Beach House, etc.

This isn't too wide of the mark; Summer Camp's music is certainly "washed-out", with faded female vocals, a loose bass, sparse synths. I feel like I've stumbled across this too late; my ears are telling me that it's still summer, but the weather begs to differ.

I've been reading Jameson and Baudrillard for my MA, and it strikes me that bands such as Summer Camp do both reaffirm and challenge what we might think of as "postmodern" culture. Whilst they seem to be exhibiting forms of "pastiche" as Jameson terms it - a recycling of the forms of the past, albeit without the knowingness of satire, a kind of "blank parody" - I don't feel that contemporary music scene has nothing to offer. This is where bands like Summer Camp approach Baudrillard's idea of the simulacra; it's the 60s summer as seen from the 21st century, referencing not the 60s themselves but nostaligic visions of the 60s. We've had a spate of these bands recently, and I feel they're taking a very modern aesthetic whilst ostensibly dressing it in the trappings of 1960s pop.

But that's not to say that it's not enjoyable; every generation needs its own 1960s. I wasn't there - I don't remember it - so this is my version to appropriate and call my own. And, to be fair, they are actually quite good.

Summer Camp: Round the Moon

: Ghost

Warpaint // Undertow

Warpaint : Undertow

Bag Raiders

Don't know too much apart from they are dancey and Australian. And are not Cut Copy.

Bag Raiders : Gone Away
Bag Raiders : Castles In The Air

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Caribou // Leave House (Remix)

If you like the slow build, check out this remix of Swim's second best track.

Caribou : Leave House (Motor City Drum Ensemble Remix)

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Fontella Bass // Soul of a Man

Fontella Bass' B-Side to Rescue Me.

Fontella Bass : Soul Of A Man

Deerhunter // Halcyon Digest

Behind the drag curve again on this one - Deerhunter's Halcyon Digest has been considerably blogged about already - but I like to take my time and arrive at a full critical apprehension of a record before I go wasting valuable blog space extolling its virtues. Quality, not quantity, at Music on the Sea.

Halcyon Digest is an excellent record - I've loved Deerhunter ever since Cryptograms, and revisiting Microcastle this week has reminded me of just how good they are. They have a real signature sound - you know it's a Deerhunter track you're listening to, from the distinctive progressions and melodies, let alone Bradford Cox's voice (or Lockett Pundt's, for that matter). The songs are self-contained and yet, like the cover of Cryptograms, draw you inside and have a meandering, wandering quality that manages to avoid becoming vapid. The dichotomy between their more ambient and their more poppy / rocky tracks is much less pronounced that in the very overt split of the first record. For those of you, like me, whose favourite track on Microcastle was the haunted doo-wop of Twilight at Carbon Lake, there are a few tracks here with the spirit of the 50s, which I've particularly enjoyed.

Deerhunter: Desire Lines