Snow in Mexico is a shoegaze, dream-pop band out of Rome with a chill, laid back drone to it. They have a free EP of 4 songs to download on their website/MySpace. It’s really good but it sounds like they need to clean up a few choppy edits. Definitely a band to watch.

The Radio Dept., the Swedish electro-dream-pop band just put out a new song called “Freddi and the Trojan Horse”. It has a dancier and darker sound than most of their other stuff which I really like (don’t get me wrong, I like their old stuff too!)

Tesla Boy came to me by way of the VALERIE collective and really knocked my socks off. Coming out of Moscow, this is some bad ass 80s style electro-pop. Listening to it so many times I’ve realized that there isn’t much ground breaking here (it’s like the 80s didn’t happen in Europe so they are do it now to catch up) but when it’s done so clean and well, who cares?

Snow in Mexico – Velvet

The Radio Dept. – Freddie and the Trojan Horse

Tesla Boy – Spirit of the Night

Two new artists I’ve come to really dig recently are Montreal’s CFCF and Computer Perfection from Michigan.

CFCF, like xcuse.fi!ipa, first caught my ear from a Crystal Castles remix. He just put out an EP, Panesian Nights, on the Paper Bag Digital label (which by the looks of it I need to spend more time with). Panesian Nights is really good, but the track I have up, “You Hear Colors”, was part of a 7″ he put out last year. The instrumental track has a slow dream-pop vibe to it with ribbons of electo, a good beat, and a guitar that feels like a sorrowful mourner, giving bursts of pent up emotion at points.

Computer Perfection is a band I happened upon while looking through the line up for this years NYC Popfest. I want to describe them as a psychedelic jam band but I don’t want to make them sound like Phish. They are very much pop, though you can clearly hear that they are not some throw away twee band. I love a song that really builds, has many ups and downs, and draws out the end (Life Without Buildings “Newtown” comes to mind), and their song “Sweetie Pie” does this very well (this track, along with a few others, are available for free on the bands website.) Computer Perfection is playing Saturday, May 16th at The Bell House in NYC along with Eux Autres, The Secret History, Pants Yell!, and The Radio Dept (which promises to be a truly amazing night.)

CFCF – You Hear Colors

Computer Perfection – The Fool is Hurt

CFCF MySpace

Computer Perfection MySpace

If you check out my Last.fm widget down to the side there you will see some of the albums I’ve been loving on within the last few months. The one without a cover is this album, Dragging a Dead Deer Up a Hill.

Man do I love me some dream-pop. It doesn’t get much dreamier than Dragging a Dead Deer Up a Hill by Portland’s Grouper (Liz Harris). DDD fits the genre title well as this entire album feels like the soundtrack to a dream; you don’t always know what is going on and you forget what happened when it ends but you are left with the feeling that you just experienced something magical.

Music aside that cover creeps me out, but in a good way.

Grouper – Heavy Water / I’d Rather Be Sleeping

Type records