Robbie Furze and Milo Cordell formed their duo The Big Pink in 2007 after working extensively as solo musicians and members of several acclaimed electro formations. An upcoming opening slot for Muse has notched another accolade into The Big Pink’s already-impressive resume, which includes winning the prestigious NME Philip Hall Radar award for Best New Act in 2009 and earning rave reviews for the four singles that predated A Brief History Of Love, their debut album. The band’s name is swapped from Southern rock legends The Band and, in less honoring circumstances, could be taken as an insult. But The Big Pink pull it off  — and who really cares anyway in this age of rampant appropriation? 

A Brief History Of Love is an exploration of the specific emotions associated with love’s strife — hurt, happiness, sadness, and despair. Love is a fickle bitch, and this target message aside, The Big Pink’s debut composition is a work to be proud of. “Dominos” is primal electro-rock, perhaps the band’s best pre-album single. The song is regimented but berserk, and is sure to make it to the multi-floored discos of Czechoslovakian oil tycoons by next year. Right now we have the chance to cherish the original form as The Big Pink intended, with French supermodel Valentine Fillol-Cordier providing backing vocals and PRE frontwoman Akiko Matsuura tapping on the drums.

Dominant, catchy tracks like “Velvet” incorporate thickset electro elements, with The Clash co-founder Mick Jones’ daughter Lauren on vocals and Matsuura once more on percussion. The Big Pink deliver an immediate image of a mass text message informing me I have one hour to join hoards of 15-year-old Euro-punks and 40-something goth heirlooms all wide-eyed on MDMA in a cathedral warehouse ready to sweat and hug the night away. I’m not going, though — instead I’ll stay home and listen to A Brief History Of Love straight through, because this love album is completely worthwhile in its undivided form. By Will Tunstall

Times New Viking is the definition of lo-fi. This Columbus, OH, trio has captured a number of endearing qualities that make a good lo-fi album so enjoyable on their most recent release, Born Again Revisited. Crude, humorous, and opinionated song titles (“Martin Luther King Day”, “City On Drugs”, “Take The Piss”), pop breakdowns, undecipherable vocals, punk-rock speed, and a hot female member are all essential elements of a good lo-fi band. And Times New Viking simply sounds good, looks good, and bubbles with warm, energetic goodness.

The band consists of guitarist Jared Phillips, drummer Adam Elliott, and keyboardist Beth Murphy. Elliot and Murphy mash their vocals together during short tracks like “These Days” and “Half Day In Hell,” allowing a blurry progression to take hold and pull you back to the ridiculous if overshadowed talent of the group. I think Born Again Revisited will become one of those albums some of my friends say sounds like a dying deer after I’ve listened to it 400 times — and I will say something like, “Go away.” Actually, I’ll say something really mean and aggressive, because I’ll be all pumped and relentlessly psyched up from listening to the brilliant jams made by Times New Viking.

This trio has stolen the things I love from other lo-fi ensembles, while leaving the rest for the bitter and those overly concerned with individuality. So before we go, I’ll quickly recap: hot babe on keyboards, sweet rock ‘n’ roll jams, heaps of youthful energy… and if you think they sound like a dying animal, well, maybe you’re stuck in a rut and you need to claw out. By Will Tunstall 

Dappled Cities have received recognition for their maturity and tenure in the audio-scape of our musical world. They have shared stages with both aggressive and passive acts, including fellow Aussies Wolfmother and indie rock royalty Modest Mouse. The quintet’s sophomore full-length Zounds is another career-building keystone in the foundation of this Australian crew. The roots of the Sydney-based group date back to 1997, when 15-year-old friends Dave Rennick and Hugh Boyce formed Periwinkle with Alex Moore and British-born Tim Derricourt. They later adopted the nomenclature Dappled Cities Fly, mostly because it made everyone in the band laugh, and eventually shortened their handle simply to Dappled Cities.

Yet for their everyday beginnings, Dappled Cities is a rare configuration of true curiosity. After their initial success Down Under, the quintet moved to New York City and subsisted off of ten-dollar per diems in a one-bedroom flat in the East Village, turning to street jobs once entirely broke so they could hold the infinite limits of independent production close to their dirty sleeves. They made history by recording 26 episodes for the Disney children’s show “Alphabreaks,” they partied with movie stars, and they remained nobly poor all the while.

The release of first single “The Price” found a positive embrace, and rightfully so, but every track on Zounds seems to possess a unique blend all the band’s own. Immense time and creativity spill from start to finish, but Dappled Cities’ one-of-a-kind America-by-way-of-Australia experience only played a small part in their appeal. Foretold success comes strictly from the simple equation of musical brawn, hard work, and eloquence — all attributes exhibited often by Dappled Cities, who usher in a singularity so clearly found on Zounds. By Will Tunstall