So we are right in the festival season of the year. Exciting times. Melt! is one of the biggest German festivals, opening its gates next week for the intro party on Thursday and the regular extravaganzas starting on Friday July 19th. Four days packed with good music. It really is a brilliant line-up the lads put together this year. Besides the obvious headliners there are loads of wonderful bands to be found throughout the schedule. This tips of a series of bands you should not miss.

First off, Glass Animals. Saw these chaps last fall and it was hands-down one of the top-10 gigs of the year. And Team Poule saw a fair amount of bands last year. Attached is Exxus – b-side to the Brits’ last single Black Mambo.

Glass Animals play Intro Zelt on Thursday, 20h30.

Illustrator and businessman by day, sound collector and DJ by night. Seemingly restless, Kirrin Island is a man of many facets. Some say that he never sleeps and that his seasonal sweaters give him all the energy he needs. And some say that by pure choice he prefers to stand and never sits down. All we know is that after a handful of shorter releases, he now unleashed his debut full-length titled Cassette.

Kirrin Island started a couple of years ago as merely a sampling project, using all sorts of recorded noises and clicks and clacks to create something worthwhile listening to. Over the course of the last two years then, it developed into something genuinely unique and new with Kirrin Island steadily finding his sound and purpose. The Hamburg-based beat wizard’s debut album Cassette then is the pinnacle of two years in the making. With a keen eye for detail, Cassette is a masterful blend of all sorts of instruments, samples and abstract recordings into a yet harmonic electro ambient sound.

Coming in at 13 tracks, Cassette has a clear story line despite the multitude of influences. Mr. Kirrin Island engineered a homogenous sound throughout the whole track list. Attached is the catchy opener I Love This. Cassette is out now through Bloody Handy Ltd, available on bandcamp. Make no mistake though, Kirrin Island is best to be consumed live in front of his video screen. Catch him at Dockville Festival in Hamburg and Thalia Gardens Festival in Dresden. There are more dates, all here.

So, I just had a bit of an intellectual attack and read Kerouac’s On The Road. Like, the whole book. Feeling vewy vewy sophisticated now. And just when I had finished the book, Daniel Amedee sent over an update with his new album. So then, in this Kerouac beat mindset, I hit play on it and the first listen couldn’t have been better. Although the book does more swing to the jazzy end of the music spectrum, I feel like Daniel’s husky voice and folk’ish tunes do fit the overall atmosphere of Sal Paradise and Dean Moriarty quite well. Being from New Orleans certainly adds to that vibe.

Daniel Amedee’s new album Climbing has ten all new tracks, driven by his husky crooning vocals and energetic production. I reckon he is quite enjoying to catch live too. Daniel will embark on a larger tour towards the east coast, find all dates here. Climbing will be out tomorrow, July 9th.

One of my favorite labels Cascine managed to re-activate vintage dream poppers Boat Club and will release a remastered version of their epic EP Caught In The Breeze originally released in 2007. Hit play and swoon away, so good. Those swedish smoothies.

Caught In The Breeze will be out July 23rd. Watch this space.

Summer brother David Alexander more commonly known as Summer Heart has put together another big one. Milano is the second track off his upcoming second album. Visualized to perfection by Sweden’s Jonas Börjesson. Hit play on Soundcloud or Youtube above, all in one.

Also, if you happen to be at Roskilde this week, don’t miss their gig on Wednesday at 18h00, more info here.