DiS' end of the week selection of streams and vids, hand-picked by our editor...

Song I've had on repeat all week...

Eight And A Half

DiS does have a fondness for Canadians, and the combined might of our community helped to compile this Drowned in Canada Spotify playlist recently. One of the tracks on there is by a band called The Stills, whom I'm sure many of you remember as being those guys who made shimmering indie with highly infectious melodies. For one reason or another they didn't get as crazily big as The Killers within two singles and weirdly various people in the media who played their songs on the radio or did features about the band, quickly moved on to the newest hot potato. (The fickle bastards!)

You may or may not also be aware that my fandom led to the Drowned in Sound label releasing The Stills' second album Without Feathers. This was around the time they toured the UK with Kings of Leon. Then, their third album, which didn't really get a fair shake from the critics, was released but seemed to vanish as soon as appeared, which was a really shame as it's ruddy marvellous! Well, I'm pleased to inform you that some of the guys are back under a new film-title-inspired guise. They seem to have taken influence from both Tim Hecker and Fleetwood Mac, and created something with rich textures and writhing hooks that fits somewhere between the ambient and AOR. When they first sent me some music, I got so obsessed with what I heard that I demanded Great Escape festival book them for one of our DiS bills. This week my wish was finally granted, and we announced Eight And A Half, as well as Errors, for the three nights of DiS curated music at The Great Escape 2012. See you down there in May? Here's one of the songs that I haven't stopped listening to...

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Friday desk-dance anthem...

Phantogram

Sometimes I wonder if I could actually listen to every piece of music that hits my inbox in a week but then I realise I don't ever even find the time to read the 700+ emails that spool in each and every day. I mean, how many press releases about Jessie J and festivals in Croatia can one guy read? When I'm not having a panic attack about communication overload, I'm usually pretty angry. Angry about how average some of the Cure tributes bands are that are getting 'blog-buzz'. Angry that things pass me by in the deluge (which is sort of problem that I hope this weekly dose of five things to listen to solves for some of you..,).

Annoyingly, I'd adored Phantogram's previous record Eyelid Movies, and had no idea they had new stuff out until one of the guys who started Barsuk, the label responsible for the likes of Rilo Kiley and Nada Surf, dropped me a line about their new EP and their London show earlier this week. Anyway, I read the email too late and missed the show and have been kicking myself ever since as the new EP is marvellous (especially with headphones!). It's entitled Nightlife and it's one of those records which has the undeniable feel of a band evolving and coming into their own. It has that hard-to-pin-down magic of ethereal vocals scuffing a jiggling 'disco' track, that sort of brings to mind Avalanches and Mercury Rev. The collision of these worlds of music sounds especially special on 'Don't Stop'. This is a live version of the track I found after a bit of googling...

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This week's DiScovery...

Julia Holter

Grimes tweeted about Julia Holter (x3), and then a few hours later DiS-favourite White Hinterland tweeted "This Julia Holter record is gorgeous. There's a womb-like quality to these songs. Like I'm in a sensory deprivation tank," and so I quickly went to have a listen, discovered she's on the same label as Blondes and gorged on everything I could find for an afternoon. Then I woke up to the news that Pitchfork really love the album and that you can stream it in full on NPR. And a quick Google reveals that everyone from Fact and Dummy to NME's Laura Snapes are loving the album, and that she's booked to play Field Day 2012, so I'm kinda unsure how I've never heard her before (seems she's had quite a few things out). But, anyway, at least I got here in the end and maybe you're not 'hip' to her stuff either...

Fans of Joanna Newsom, Carpenters and Laurel Halo will love this. The album Ekstasis is out on March 8th via RVNG Intl. We're not sure if it has a proper UK release as we've not been sent any info about it but you can order it from Rough Trade if this track floats your goat (although you do know record shops don't accept goats, right?):

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This week's DiS premiere...

Moses Gold

A while ago, there was a band called Christian AIDS. I really liked them. Then, for a variety of reasons, they changed their name to Stay+. Moses Gold, left the Manchester-based makers of trobbing 'slow-wave' and this is the first thing he's done since. It sounds defiantly Mancunian with that Ian Curtis-burr and rave-hands inducing euphoric climax...

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And one for your weekend...

Ghosting Season vs The Polyamorous Affair

Each week with this 'five for friday' thing (which probably needs a better name) I have tried to end with something thumping to throw your arms aloft to at around 1am in a club full of strobes, and well, it really doesn't get more euphoric than this remix by DiS-favourites Ghosting Season. They're off to SXSW in a few weeks and then they have a debut album coming out. We can't recommend this pair of techno and trance-loving pair of indie kids enough (especially as they played some Phil Collins and Dre when they DJ'd at DiS' 10th Birthday party).

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Heard anything good this week you'd like to share with the class?