Kickstarter

Hello friends of Ad Hoc,

Today we posted a Soundcloud mix of tracks we've been jamming hard lately. So hard, in fact, that we wanted to offer a little commentary about each one of them as well. We're hoping you haven't heard most of these gems yet-- we like to keep it surprising, as you know ;)-- and that you're as into them as we are.

We're very thrilled about all the love and support we've been receiving from everyone, be it through pledging, chipping in new Kickstarter rewards, or spreading the word. We're 519 backers strong and 64% percent funded, with just a week left in our campaign, and none of this would be possible without you all. Please keep pledging (if you can!!), Tweeting, posting, and talking about us! Without your grassroots support, we won't be able to meet our goal-- which means, unfortunately, that Ad Hoc gets not funding at all. 

In other news, Stereogum premiered Beach Fossils' submission to the Ad Hoc compilation today-- an ultra-dreamy, tremolo-rich cover of Slowdive's "Alison." Last week, Bavarian Broadcasting ran a radio piece on us for their long-running Zündfunk program, which you can read about here. You can also hear us this Thursday on WNYU's Afternoon Show, airing online and on 89.1 FM New York at 4 p.m. EST.

Lastly, we'd like to send a very special thank you to Melbourne's wharff99 for the "Ad Hoc Kickstarter Theme" he posted to SoundCloud last week. 

Keeping it more Altered than Ever,

Ad Hoc
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@adhocfm 

Julia Holter: “In The Same Room” 
There is not much I can say about “In The Same Room,” a track from Los Angeles composer Julia Holter’s forthcoming Ekstasis LP on RVNG Intl.. This one is built primarily from Julia’s own voice, with hits of harpsichord and lilting, pentatonic synth lines. Other than that, It’s just one of those songs that gets you from the very first spin, and I think it would be impossible to anatomize its beauty without going into some very boring specifics about why certain note combinations make us feel more alive. It’s not every day that a conservatory musician writes pop that blows everybody else out of the water, now is it? --Emilie Friedlander

Black Dice: “Pigs”
It’s fucking new Black Dice. Are you kidding me? --Ric Leichtung

Evian Christ: “Fuck It None of Y’all Don’t Rap”
UK-based producer Joshua Leary started dropping bombs on his YouTube account back in December, and just a couple weeks ago released his first mixtape, Kings and Them, via Tri Angle Records. The Mediafire download has it’s share of bangers and shows a pretty diverse palette of influences. Samples in “Thrown Like Jacks” sound straight out of Grouper’s Dragging a Dead Deer Up a Hill, while “Go Girl” rips from the platinum-certified Far East Movement, but “Fuck It” is definitely the track that cuts the deepest. --Ric Leichtung

Tezeo: “Friends”
Ad Hoc contributing blog Dummy Mag just released this digital single from Brooklyn-based Tezeo a couple weeks back and it’s been in heavy rotation since. Produced by Blondes’ Sam Haar, Tezeo’s debut missive shows a more straightforward approach to songwriting than contemporaries Teengirl Fantasy, Gatekeeper, and Light Asylum. --Ric Leichtung

Majical Cloudz & Grimes: “Song for Ric”
Our favorite pair of Canadians hooked us up with an original collaborative track specially made for our Kickstarter comp and we couldn’t be more flattered. Extra huge special mega thanks to Arbutus and 4AD for making this one happen. --Ric Leichtung

Tonstartssbandht: “Hymn Eola”
2011 saw a lot of great releases, but one of my personal favorites was Tonstartssbandht’s Hymn cassette. While the album got nods from a lot of the previous Altered Zones contributors like Chocolate Bobka, Friendship Bracelet, and Weekly Tape Deck, this band has managed to fly by a lot of people’s radars due to their incredibly difficult to spell name (for the record, it’s pronounced ton-starts-bandit), but know that this is one band that should not be overlooked. --Ric Leichtung

Copy City/Chill Pillars: “Jennifer”
Still swooning over the sinister, rock-n-roll-from-the-crypt vibe of this post-punk trio from Lake Worth, Florida after first hearing their very gristly Held Hostage On Planet Chill album over the loudspeakers at a DIY show in Brooklyn last year. Full of sharp angles and economical to an extreme, “Jennifer” feels strangely older than it is, and reminds me that simplicity is what makes pop music pop. Cop City/Chill Pillars’ debut is out now on record label Florida’s Dying, which, in my view, couldn’t have a more appropriate name. --Emilie Friedlander

Beach Fossils: “Alison (Slowdive Cover)”
It’s not every day that a band covers one of your favorite songs, so needless to say we were beyond psyched when Beach Fossils submitted this standout from Slowdive’s Souvlaki. This one fits perfectly alongside Captured Tracks’ Shoegaze Archives re-issues project, so hopefully we’ll hear more CT artists rep the genre in the future... --Ric Leichtung

Imbogodom: “Heir Looms”
Considering how much I’ve been jamming their new And They Turned Not When They Went LP lately, I’m a bit embarrassed to admit that I have absolutely no idea how to pronounce Imbogodom’s name. What I do know about the duo of New Zealand’s Daniel Beban and Britian’s Alexander Tucker is that they compose primarily with analog tape loops, culling their source material from vox and instrumental samples they record themselves. “Heir Looms” showcases the folkier, less abstract side of this latest Thrill Jockey release and it’s hard to see say what moves me more: the dreamy beauty of the songcraft here, or the tape manipulations that spirit it away. --Emilie Friedlander

Demdike Stare: “Ishmael’s Intent”
After dropping three records over the course of one year (2010), Manchester electronic duo Demdike Stare kicked off 2012 with yet another dip into the shadowy recesses of our collective musical subconscious. Elemental, out now on Modern Love, retained the sluggish beats and seamlessly arranged library music samples of the group’s inaugural Trilogy (reissued as such in 2011), but what we got was a single, monolithic statement spoken across four slabs of wax. The good news is that Sean Canty and Miles Whittaker are every bit as exacting as they are prolific, and the darkly percolating “Ishmael’s Intent,” a track from Elemental, is a case in point. Listen for that echoing pop at the end of each rhythmic phrase, or that woosh that sounds like an airplane flying overhead, and see if you can find a better word to describe them than “precise.”  --Emilie Friedlander

Mark McGuire & Charles Berlitz: “MR”
There is something serendipitous about this collaboration between Emeralds guitarist Mark McGuire and Skaters member Spencer Clark (styled here as Charles Berlitz), and it’s not just that these two experimental all-stars started jamming in the first place; more, it’s the surprisingly unstoppable chemistry between Spencer’s rhythmic loop-de-loops and McGuire’s sprawling melodic lines. Named after Aussie surf legend Mark Richards, “MR” starts with some basic power chords and builds into roaring rip tide. Grip Inner Tube straight from Spencer Clark’s very own Pacific City Sound Visionsimprint, and, to quote the tagline on the cover, “witness the revery of a mind filtered through tube...” --Emilie Friedlander

Raajmahal: “Celandine”
Raajmahal is a new project made up of Pat Murano from No Neck Blues Band and Decimus, Carla Backer from Baby Yaga, and Santa Wolanczyk from Flower Orgy. Beautifully depressing ambient guitar work, creeping vocal chants, and contemplative, minimal synth make up Raajmahal’s deeply reflective aesthetic. “Celandine” is the title-track from their first full-length that just came out on Digitalis Limited, but watch out for a follow-up LP from Murano’s own Kelippah Records coming this Spring. --Ric Leichtung

How To Dress Well: “Clowne Towne”
HTDW’s Tom Krell recorded this mantric cover of Fabulous Muscles anthem “Clowne Towne” on the radio last year while touring in Australia. You won’t hear any of the strings, electronic bleeps, or industrial percussion of Xiu Xiu’s original, but Krell has a knack for making silence ring out equally loud. Jam it on our Kickstarter compilation. --Emilie Friedlander