The Electronic Anthology Project

The Electronic Anthology Project EP

This is Doug Martsch and Brett Nelson from Built To Spill doing 80's synth pop versions of BTS songs, and it fucking kills. This is like all the totally rad remix EP's you've heard but ten times better because they are Built To Spill songs. These aren't remixes they are totally new recordings (vocals and all). One song from each of their seven studio albums gets the synth treatment here. Party time.

Cool Cavern

CC - CTLY

This is by far the best thing that I've heard all year. I've really got to hand it to Wes Eisold and crew as they've really knocked it out of the park on this one. Wes has almost single handedly created the album of the year, although he did have a hand on this one from members of Chavez, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Glassjaw. Every song on here is ready for the big time, nine serious bangers that you need in your life right now. From dancey numbers that remind me of New Order to dark synth that could make David Gahan and Martin Gore jealous. The songwriting on this is so good that I bet Wes could write circles around most bands with one hand tied behind his back.

Abe Vigoda

Abe Vigoda - Skeleton

Abe Vigoda - Reviver EP

Abe Vigoda - Crush

Abe Vigoda were born out of the noisy punk scene of L.A.'s The Smell (where Health, No Age, Mika Miko got their start) and played tropical/world infused punk music. But in the two years since Skeleton was released the band has evolved into so much more. By adding dark synths and Ian Curtis influenced vocals to their noisy punk sound they have created one of 2010's best albums in Crush. Everything is upped on Crush, the melodies, the songwriting and especially the execution. If you like No Age, Joy Division, Cold Cave and The Cure then you're going to love Abe Vigoda's new direction.