[Stream] Magicicada: “Took Everything Happy, Again”

Magicicada mastermind Christopher White explains the process behind his latest track:

My friend Adam Babar (Easily Suede) sent me some guitar noodlings in a dizzy fit I stripped all the frequencies apart, emotionally dissected each aural chunk, synthed it up, dumped it to tape and then over an odd evening-day, after 4 wildly different versions, this happened. Shall be working with him on future projects where we record together live, physically in the same room(!) which shall be another entity all together.

I’m enjoying the end result, and so should you:

Ohmpark Mixtape #23: 2012, A Prologue

Here’s a collection of songs by local artists that just missed my 2011 blogging season. All of these deserve their own blog post, but I haven’t had the time. So instead, I used them to build a mixtape. You can click on the album art images below to find more about each song:


Shook Foil : “The Monument”


Cute Boots : “The Fire”


Dark Room : “Ice Swimming”


Easily Suede : “Great Fantastic”


Lotus Plaza : “Christmas In Whosbekistanstanstan”


Damon Moon & The Whispering Drifters : “Seasonal Suite #62″


ODIST : “Pyramid Eyes”


Order of The Owl : “Bandsaw”


Christ, Lord : “I Was” (Live)


Solitude : “Jenny Lee”

Ohmpark’s Top 25 Albums of 2011

Back in 2009, I listened to approximately 75 records that came out of Atlanta that year. This year, I blogged about roughly 75 records, and for every album I discussed, there were at least five I listened to and didn’t blog about. The quantity of music being made in this city is growing exponentially, and the Atlanta music scene runs extraordinarily deep. So needless to say, this was the most difficult year-end list to put together yet.

On a technical note, my 2011 year-end list eligibility extends through the 2010 holiday season because I like to be able to spend enough time with a record to properly evaluate it. So, any record that was not widely available before Thanksgiving this year will go into consideration for 2012.

Here are my twenty-five favourite albums from Atlanta this year:


25. Cassandras : Hari Pari Mandala Gosthi




24. Dark Room : Gothic Picnic




23. We The Lion : Boy Oh Boy




22. Easily Suede / Carey : Good Health Guide




21. Cassandras : Cassandras: 3 Songs




20. Book Club : Ghost




19. Warning Light : Wild Silver




18. Djarum : Don’t Let Me Down




17. Places : The Future




16. Nomen Novum / Magicicada / Tree Creature : Three Way Split




15. The Back Pockets : Fast Cloud Slow Cloud




14. Lid Emba : Terminal Muse: Blue




13. Vocabulary : Faded Days




12. Time Wharp : later.




11. Atlas Sound : Parallax




10. Mastodon : The Hunter




9. Places : Half-Dones




8. New Animal : Eleven Songs




7. Places : March




6. Spirits and the Melchizedek Children : We Are Here To Save YOU!




5. Lyonnais : Want For Wish For Nowhere




4. The Electric Nature : Mount Analogue




3. Today The Moon, Tomorrow The Sun : Wildfire




2. Little Tybee : Humorous To Bees




1. New Animal : New Animal

The story of Atlanta’s independent music scene in 2011 was the rise of a new wave of artists that came out of nowhere and upped the ante on everyone else. Only four acts on this list (veteran mainstays Mastodon, Atlas Sound, The Back Pockets, and Nomen Novum) have appeared on my best Atlanta album lists in either 2010 or 2009. That’s a symptom of the fact that there’s a new generation of local musicians dominating the scene. And at the head of this new class is New Animal.

New Animal‘s meteoric rise over the course of 2011 is unparalleled. Without a label backing them, with very little major publication support, and without even playing a single show ever, New Animal became one of the Internet’s buzziest bands early on in the year solely based on the strength of their 75-minute self-titled masterpiece. It’s hard for me to think of another record with fifteen songs where I love each and every single one. And what’s even more impressive is that they continued to output new material seemingly on a monthly basis, creating a catalog in one year vaster and more compelling than most artists do over a lifetime. There is simply no musical artist in the world that’s had a more impressive year.

My #2 and #3 spots went to outfits that have been on their own upward swing lately, each respectively creating an epic record that delivered on all the brilliance and potential they had displayed in recent years. My #4 is probably the most inaccessible record to come out of the city this year, but if you can find your way inside, it’s a monster. And my #5 goes to a band that I had previously written off, but there’s no denying what an amazing album they’ve put forth.

Of course, everything on this list is spectacular, and if you missed one, be sure to pick it up.

Ohmpark’s Top 40 Songs of 2011

Now that this blog only covers local music, I decided that all of my year-end lists this year will be Atlanta music specific. There’s plenty of sites that do national/international lists anyway. So then, this is my 40 favourite songs of the year by artists affiliated with Atlanta. I spent a lot of time with each of these songs, and if you are unfamiliar with any of them, I strongly suggest you click on the song titles below to give them a listen.


40. “Black Leaves” by Slowriter

39. “A Letter To The FDA” by Where Are We?

38. “Nerve Pop” by Small Reactions

37. “Tomorrow’s Garden” by Imagination Head

36. “Barcelona” by Dark Room

35. “Islands” by Kinisi

34. “The Battle of East & West Virginia” by Mediocre Machine

33. “Santa Maria” by Beachtapes

32. “mandelbrotset” by Time Wharp

31. “Control” by Young Again

30. “Who’s In Bed” by Jungol

29. “Children” by Vocabulary

28. “Black Lion” by Places

27. “Movie Night” by Easily Suede

26. “Edita V” by Balkans

25. “Passion Seekers” by Little Tybee featuring Adron

24. “Q ‘n’ A” by Spirits and the Melchizedek Children

23. “Lights lights” by Beachtapes

22. “Breathe” by Exact Index featuring Casey Harper

21. “No Tomorrow” by Places

20. “Far From The Best” by Cassandras

19. “Things I Like” by Vocabulary

18. “I Think It’s Working” by New Animal

17. “Pacer” by BOSCO

16. “Rise Up” by Cassandras

15. “Creature Lives” by Mastodon

14. “They Don’t Know” by New Animal

13. “Sweet Melinda” by Places

12. “cuspcake” by Time Wharp

11. “Out There” by New Animal

10. “Ivan” by We the Lion

9. “History” by Little Tybee

8. “Old Monster” by Today The Moon, Tomorrow The Sun

7. “Wicca Chimes” by Nomen Novum

6. “Lift You Up” by New Animal

5. “Distinguished Critter” by Places

4. “Still In Mind” by New Animal

3. “Water Story” by Wowser Bowser

2. “Millennials” by Nomen Novum

1. “Two Faced” by Living Rooms






[Guest Mixtape] Primitive Patterns

Atlanta has quite a few record labels doing cool things right now, but one of the best new labels to crop up recently is Primitive Patterns. Their aesthetic seems to line up very close to my own taste. So give a listen to this great mix put together by Primitive Pattern’s Adam Babar of Easily Suede and Faun And A Pan Flute.

Download Mixtape

Primitive Patterns Bandcamp

primitivepatterns mixtape by primitivepatterns

[Video] Easily Suede: “Skippy, My Skateboarding Partner”

[Mp3s] Easily Suede: “You God It” & Carey: “Wake Up You’ve Got A Bullet In Your Head (HD)”

I’m really digging the new Easily Suede and Carey split release on Primitve Patterns, Good Health Guide. The Easily Suede half of the record lies sonically somewhere close to Bibio‘s Vignetting the Compost-era stuff while the Carey side features a bit more challenging but thoroughly interesting material. Here’s a sample from both artists, and then pick it up for any price you name below:

Easily Suede : “You God It”

Carey : “Wake Up You’ve Got A Bullet In Your Head (HD)”

Download/Stream Good Health Guide

Ohmpark Mixtape #21: The Dawn Of Summer

Young Again : “Skin The Arms”
Panda Bear : “Alsatian Darn”
Here We Go Magic : “Backwards Time”
Today The Moon, Tomorrow The Sun : “Old Monster”
tUnE-YarDs : “Bizness”
Mother Mother : “Simply Simple”
Feast Of Violet featuring Featureless Ghost : “Doomsday”
Beachtapes : “Santa Maria”
Places : “Sweet Melinda”
Dark Room : “Stutter”
Easily Suede : “Movie Night”
Radiohead : “Lotus Flower”
New Animal : “Out There”

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