The Ocean Floor offer festive visual treat

19 December 2012

To celebrate the festive season, Portland’s quintet The Ocean Floor are offering a cover of ‘Toyland’, the theme from Victor Herbert’s operetta “Babes in Toyland”. The song comes with an accompanying video, directed by Kurtis Hough, who had previously directed the incredible video for ‘My Shelf‘, off Falling Star Castle.
The Ocean Floor describe the new effort as a “festive technicolor dreamland”.  Watch it below.


The Ocean Floor’s recently released album Falling Star Castle quickly conquered our hearts and is one of our Album Picks of the Year. You can get it now digitally and on tape via Single Girl, Married Girl.

AK/DK offer taster EP ahead of debut album

16 December 2012

Here’s a little treat from AK/DK, the duo of Graham Sowerby (drums and synths) and Ed Chivers (drums and synths) based out of Brighton, UK. The pair are currently recording and mixing their debut album, slated for an April 2013 release. Ahead of it, they’ve decided to drop a taster in the form of a free EP entitled RnRnR, featuring a couple of new tracks, an older one and two remixes they’ve done.
Listen below to ‘Great Scott!’ and ‘Toucan Tango’, two high-powered and infectious tracks from the EP. And head over to AK/DK’s bandcamp to grab your download of RnRnR.


Hayden confirms new album release date and shares opening track teaser

14 December 2012

Toronto based singer-songwriter Hayden has confirmed his seventh studio album Us Alone will arrive on February 5th via Arts & Crafts. Hayden plays all the instruments in Us Alone, and as he explained, “I wanted the sound of five people walking into a room and playing a full set. With the exception of some stellar help from friends on a song or two, those five people were mostly just me”.
Speaking about the recording, Hayden said there are no stories around the album. “I didn’t go record in a Norwegian Village or at the bottom of a shrimp vessel. I walked upstairs where every instrument has a microphone and hit record. And, as usual, the songs came together over a long period of time.” Hayden’s music is dreamy enough to let us drift into places filled with warmth and delicateness.
Listen below to the lead single ‘Old Dreams’, and straight after check out the vignette for the album’s opener ‘Motel’.


Graph Rabbit unveil accompanying video for ‘Falling Snow’

13 December 2012

Graph Rabbit‘s debut album Snowblind, released last October via Butterscotch Records, won us over here at Cast the Dice and was one of our Album Picks of the Year.
Hot off the heels of the magnificent Snowblind release, the duo of Austin Donohue and Shy Kedmi have unveiled a fittingly stunning video to accompany the song ‘Falling Snow’, conceived and directed by Christopher Vetur, who had previously directed the video for ‘Make It Stop’. Filmed in an historical landmark theatre in Patchogue, New York, using the sets of ‘The Nutcracker’, snow machines and eight ballerinas, the video “creates a storybook tableau that takes the song fully into its intended fictional realm of snow and disorientation”, as the press release explains. In the video, Austin Donohue plays the lead role dancing as the “bewildered wanderer who is blown about and ultimately won over by the falling snow”. Here it is.

The Face’s debut EP free to download

13 December 2012

With the year quickly closing in, we’re glad the excellent debut EP from Los Angeles based experimental rockers The Face made its way to us. The self-titled EP came out in May via Sweet Tiger Records, and the effort is free to grab on their bandcamp.

Jose Castillo, Jeff Laos, Manny Madrigal and Tyler Morrisette, who make up The Face, draw influences from outfits like The Mars Volta, Flying Lotus, Os Mutantes, Portishead, The Octopus Project and other bands and art forms. With the four members hailing from different places – Peru, Mexico and the US -, The Face blend their tastes with their ethnic influences and cultural background.

‘Anesthesia’ is one of the incredible cuts from The Face EP and it was picked for a film called ‘What Maisie Knew’, featuring Julianne Moore and Steve Coogan and premiered in the Toronto International Film Festival last September.
Listen to ‘Anesthesia’ below and don’t let the other five opulent tracks from the EP slip away.