Spring is drawing nigh, and all the musician types are preparing to emerge from their dens of iniquity with new releases. This week we bring you brooding electronic beats from Flying Lotus and fellow Warp Records 8-bit artisan EPROM.

Playlist Podcast: Episode 20 https://downloads.wired.com/podcasts/assets/playlist/Playlist0020.mp3

We also check in on the latest project from DJ-cum-super-indie-producer Danger Mouse, and leave the sheen behind with some decidedly coarser, throwback sounds from Dr. Dog and Harlem. All artists featured in the podcast, with the exception of EPROM, have records due in April or May.

Who: Flying Lotus

Song: “Bonus Track”

Album: Reset

We open this week’s podcast with a jam from Flying Lotus, whose latest effort, Cosmogramma , drops May 4 on Warp Records. This bass-heavy bonus track comes from his Reset EP, which came out in 2007. The artist describes his forthcoming LP as a “space opera,” replete with the usual heavy-handed beats but wider in scope and more ethereal than previous releases.



Who: Broken Bells

Song: “High Road”

Album: Broken Bells

Over the past six years, Danger Mouse has transitioned from a struggling DJ to the go-to producer for all things indie. After dropping The Grey Album , he crafted the beats for MF Doom’s Adult Swim collaboration DangerDoom , engineered Gnarls Barkley’s phenomenal 2006 crossover success and manned the boards for The Black Keys and Beck. Now he and The Shins’ James Mercer have co-founded Broken Bells (pictured right). The band’s self-titled Columbia Records release drops March 9.

Who: Dr. Dog

Song: “Army of Ancients”

Album: Fate

Dr. Dog (pictured top) has always betrayed a sentimentality for player-piano saloon romps and groove-heavy psychedelia, as in this track from 2008’s Fate . The Philadelphia five-piece will make its Anti- Records debut April 6 with Shame, Shame . We can’t play that for you yet, although we’ve been enjoying our press copy immensely. For now you can listen “Army of Ancients” from Dr. Dog’s fourth LP, the final recording on their former Park the Van label.

Who: Harlem

Song: “Friendly Ghost”

Album: Hippies

It is often said that those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Well, those who do learn from history are often equally blessed to repeat it. Such is the case with Austin, Texas, trio Harlem, whose style of sweetly off-kilter garage rock has seen a successful resurgence of late in other groups such as The Black Lips and The Strange Boys. This song comes from Harlem’s sophomore LP, Hippies , out April 6 on Matador.

Who: EPROM

Song: “Hendt”

Album: Hendt/Lands and Bones split single

We close this week’s podcast in the same vein as we opened it, with psych-dance punks (and Flying Lotus label mates) EPROM. The band’s Hendt/Lands and Bones , a double A-side 12-inch split with Eskmo, came out last month. Here we play “Hendt” from the EPROM side of the Warp Records release. Bask in its 8-bit glitches and reminisce about simpler times, when your biggest worries revolved around Battletoads and Contra .

Dr. Dog photo courtesy Anti- Records

See Also: