skeletons is matt mehlan from ohio. with the assistance of an eclectic range of instruments and a rotating roster of collaborators he makes pop songs that plumb the gap between tropicalia and darkness. i know that is the kind of vague fashionable blogo-statement that makes eyes roll, but hey, when in rome. these are great tracks, infused with wild-eyed experimentation, light and airy and also heavy and kind of scary. matt mehlan is also the co-founder of shinkoyo records, whose core ideals of collaboration, experimentation, and unpredictability are the kind of holy trinity that i could totally get behind.

Skeletons & The Kings of All Cities - What They Said
Skeletons & The Girl-Faced Boys - Fit Black Man
Skeletons & The Girl-Faced Boys - Git

these three tracks are available for download courtesy of the wonderful ghostly label, who have signed skeletons. there are many more tracks from ghostly artists available to download from the ghostly website.

Skeletons on MySpace
More mp3s at the Ghostly website

and then…

Roam the Hello Clouds on Myspace

don’t be put off by the too-cute name - and don’t be expecting a twee avant-pop collective - roam the hello clouds are a cut-up jazz three-piece featuring phil slater on trumpet, dave miller on laptop and laurence pike on drums. at the moment there’s just the streaming stuff on myspace to listen to, an album comes out next year on ~scape. its light, the live playing is fluid and the electronics are pretty subtle - there is a similar focused intensity to what i’ve heard of pivot & triosk (dave & laurence are both involved in pivot, and laurence is in triosk). and also a feeling that the players are totally in service to the song as it develops/mutates. this stuff is great. i’m not sure i could handle a whole album’s worth of it. on second thought, damn i could. its great.