AirCassette

AirCassette is now free for a limited time #indiedev #iosapps #freeapps

— AirCassette (@AirCassette) May 26, 2013

I have been making a conscious effort to limit the amount of apps I load up on my iPod Touch. It’s not about spending the money. Sure, that would be a valid reason, but most apps on the iOS platform are cheap and supporting indie software developers gives me the warm fuzzies. It’s about reducing clutter and options. In some cases, Apple’s built-in apps are too simple and lack the feature set I need, so I’ll opt for one better alternative. For instance, I use Simplenote over Notes (don't get me started on the unchangeable market felt font for the Notes web app). If a feature set is good enough, though, like with Reminders, I don’t need to download additional software.

The exception to this is AirCassette. Do I need it over iTunes? Not at all. iTunes has the feature set that I need. Two things about AirCassette draw me in, though. First, is aesthetically, it’s really pleasing. Getting to pick the cassette design and watching the tape reel as you play through your mixes really lends something of the physical to a process that has become in some ways too abstracted. Secondly, the app is actually very utilitarian. The lock screen override and easy controls on the tape are really useful at work, when I may get interrupted five times during one song and I don’t want to have to hit too many combos to pause the music.

This app is now free for a limited time, so there’s really no excuse for not trying it out. Give it a spin and see if it brings you back to the good old days of cassettes without the tape hiss.

A Dancing Shell

The comparisons to the Talking Heads, though completely understandable, almost kept me from listening to this track. That would have been a real shame.

The intro to the video includes a nice transition from the previous song on the new Empty Estates EP, Data World.

Soundtrack Subtract

This is the first compilation I've put together on Soundcloud and I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. These are mostly tracks that have come to my attention over the past few months and that I have developed an attachment to. As always, when I'm grouping together a bunch of songs, I'm concerned with sequencing and flow, trying to expose organic similarities in the different tracks. These songs should pair well with the transition from a cool, damp spring to a hot, muggy summer. Hope you enjoy.

Chvrches

I suspect I’m like many others in that too much hype actually makes me so annoyed about a band’s very existence that , before I’ve even listened to them, I’ve already passed some sort of judgment and I try to stay away from sampling their music for a while. Even though I was a fan, when Wilco’s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot came out, I got to a point where I had read so much about it that I didn’t really feel like I needed to even explore it myself. To this day, I haven’t heard more than a couple of songs from that record.

Chvrches almost fell into the category of overexposed bands that I thought I had heard enough about to not even care to investigate any further. Then I read this from Frank Yang at Chromewaves.net:

The hype around Scottish trio CHVRCHES has probably put some off of them entirely already, some six months from the release of their debut album, and that’s a shame. Because as far as I can tell, they’re not being posited as saviours of anything, just a new band with some really good songs.

I didn’t want to be someone who fell in that foolish group of people who never gave the band a chance simply because they were buzzed about. Or, frankly, because their name seemed a bit pretentious, until it made sense (no one wants to do an internet search for a band called “Churches”). So I started with the song above, “The Mother We Share.” My initial impression was kind of the same one I had to hearing Passion Pit’s1 “Little Secrets” for the first time. It’s a bubbly, joyous, synth-driven anthem that could be blasted at full volume over and over again and not lose any of its infectiousness. In fact, I’ve been delighted by the results of testing that theory over the last few days - the song does indeed hold up after repeated plays.

I’ve read Chvrches newest single, “Recover” described as "the ‘Midnight City’ of 2013.” At first listen, I have to admit, I thought, “this is what American Idol winners will sound like in five years.” The sound is almost that glossy and the hooks are very obvious. Not that you can’t love that kind of thing, but I actually thought “The Mother We Share” came closer to earning the M83 comparison (the backing vocals near the end of the song especially remind me of “Midnight City”). In my book, that’s some of the highest praise you can give. I’m glad I didn’t let the hype machine deter me from checking out a promising new band.

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1. Chvrches recently toured as an opening act for Passion Pit. ↩