Distractions plays an intense style of pop that’s dark and brooding. Amidst ringing guitars and synths is front-man Tom Owens’ deep tenor vocals. They would seem to dominate Dark Green Sea, but they do not; instead they complement and occasionally contrast with the instrumentation that accompany them. If anything, Distractions’ sound is a nod to Scott Walker’s weirdness, with the epic greatness of Phil Spectre’s early work, all while enclosing it in an 80s post-punk sound.

Dark Green Sea is all kinds of good, in the most unique of ways, from the pleasant quietude of “Baby Steps” to the fantastic pop of “All Night”. This eight-song LP is packed with interesting, dreamy pop melodies, emphatic in the most bizarre of ways, and strange to its very core. That’s not to say it lacks merit — it most certainly does not. Dark Green Sea is among the most unsettling endearing albums I have ever heard. And that makes it a completely brilliant work of art.

Pick up one of 500 limited pressing records on LP from Infinite Best Recordings.

Download: “All Night” by Distractions

Infinite Best Records [LP, 2011]

1. All Night
2 Money Is Ugly
3. We Were Better Off In The Rain
4. Baby Steps
5. My Gold
6. Please Slow Down
7. Not Gonna Go Away
8. Heartbeats

Twin Sister pushes out one atmospheric pop song after another on Color Your Life, the band’s second EP. Opening tune “The Other Side Of Your Face” begins smooth and soft, but gradually grows into a minimalistic, calming fuzz drone by the end of the song. One part post-rock jam and one part electro-shoe-gaze drone, Twin Sister’s music flirts awkwardly between the hip, nerdy teen girl and the socially inept dweeb she once was. The insecurity is all for show. “All Around And Away We Go” adds in a beat that screams cool, while “Phenomenons” concludes the EP with an electro-drone. The experience is quite like having a pre-drunk buzz for the first time in months. It feels so good, you just want to sit in the corner and smile.

Color Your Life has that indie cool without being overly pretentious. It’s fun, but in a mellow, lazy sort of way — like staying in on a Friday and Saturday night and being bored for the sheer thrill of being bored. “Milk & Honey” begins, despite a humming drone of synth and cymbal roll, on a near-a cappella note before diving into a weird beat with complementary vocals that wouldn’t be out of place in, oh, say an understated Deerhoof or Fiery Furnaces song. But, as noted before, it lacks the pretension. It’s not nerdy for the sake of being nerdy — it’s nerdy because it is inherently so. And that’s what makes it really, really good.

Download: “Phenomenons” by Twin Sister

Download: “The Other Side Of Your Face” by Twin Sister

Infinite Best Recordings [12" LP, 2010]

1. The Other Side Of Your Face
2. Lady Daydream
3. Milk & Honey
4. All Around And Away We Go
5. Galaxy Plateau
6. Phenomenons

Earning best album of the year is a notable feat, one not to take lightly. But to garner such a cherished spot, and that from a noted collective like La Blogoteque, without having a “proper” release is something else altogether. Well, Forest Fire is ready to give Survival, the recipient of La Blogoteque’s best album of 2008, that proper release via new label Infinite Best. And the first single off the album is “Fortune Teller”.

Listening to “Fortune Teller” one is given a taste of experimental folk-pop mixed with Americana, a combination that, while familiar in so many ways, is also entirely fresh in its eclecticism. It’s a sound and a style that Forest Fire has made their own, their signature, their namesake. And it’s viable to expect nonetheless from Survival in its entirety.

Forest Fire: Fortune Teller [mp3]