In the first flush of freedom, new eras, and new lives, Jordan Koplowitz and Reed Juenger met in 2008 as freshmen at the University of Washington. Their fate was sealed one night not long after they met, over a game of beer pong that turned into a discussion of mutual musical appreciation. In his younger years, Koplowitz had picked up the guitar so that he could play along with his favorite Metallica songs. Juenger had gone down a similar route with Nirvana, but found his friends cover bands to be boring and focused on bygone eras so he started learning how to create electronic music. In their new hometown of Seattle, Juenger and Koplowitz began crafting dorm-room beats on Garageband and venturing into DJing gigs, eventually working their way towards the sounds that would be become their first record, Surf Noir EP.
The songs on Surf Noir are at once dreamy and danceable, sophisticated and free, meant to evoke both golden sunsets and glittering city lights. Of the EP, Juenger has said, "This is an absolute indulgence, because the world is an incoherent jumble of perception. So in that spirit of cutting loose, let's have a good time and not worry too much: Saturday night always becomes Sunday morning." Two of the songs, the romantic pop tracks "In The Water" and "Silver Screen," featured the duo's roommate Tom Eddy on vocals; Eddy, a folk-rock singer-songwriter, nailed "Silver Screen" in one take. The rest of these songs are instrumental; cool, sweeping waves of synths, electric guitar, drum machines, and samplers. Beat Connection self-released Surf Noir in the summer of 2010; London's Tender Age records, an imprint of the venerable Moshi Moshi would pick it up for an updated release in April of the next year.

In May of 2011, Beat Connection had toured the UK and Paris with such electronic luminaries as Holy Ghost!, Toro Y Moi, and Niki and the Dove. By June, in anticipation of their appearance at Seattle's Capitol Hill Block Party, they had added a live drummer, Jarred Katz, another musical roommate and a modern jazz aficionado. In September they embarked on their first US tour, opening for Starfucker. They made fans of the Seattle Times, Pitchfork, KEXP, and the Seattle Weekly, who named them the Best New Band of 2011. They closed out the year in Spain, opening for Real Estate.

2012 is poised to become an even bigger year for Beat Connection, who've again expanded, this time adding as their fulltime vocalist and guitarist Tom Eddy, the only man they considered for the job. This summer, the new four-piece will release their first full-length, The Palace Garden, a record that fines the band meditating on the idea of unattainable beauty, an idea that encases magical evenings, flooding happiness, heavy regrets, and sky-clearing epiphanies. They've left all genre constraints behind and now, as four, their music can only broaden, rise, and take them on to new adventures and new audiences.

White Arrows may never divulge the source of their strange magic, but it's hard not to picture a mystic dance floor hidden in the midst of a tropical rainforest. The Los Angeles band stands at these balmy crossroads like a vision from an alternate reality: classic without leaning on nostalgia, visionary but not unfamiliar. What should be a collision of sounds and styles—ritualistic rhythm and four-four thump, synth sequences and strummed guitars, garage-y grind and airy atmosphere—is, in this quintet's capable hands, a fluidly seething whole. Call it Psychotropical pop, something both busy and breezy Call it Paul Simon in space (others have). Call it what you will. This is White Arrows.

The White Arrows story begins with a blind boy. Singer Mickey Church was born seeing the world as an impressionistic smear. His vision was righted at age 11, but his imagination ran wild for the intervening years. Since he couldn't make out those around him, he assumed they couldn't see him either. He rode made-up horses and sung songs that didn't exist. His memory of growing up in L.A. is confined to smells, sounds and swaths of fuzzy color. Mickey's father, a student of African percussion, encouraged him and his little brother Henry to pick up instruments as kids, so they played what was around. With family back east, Mickey eventually left for NYU, and unexpectedly wound up with a degree in shamanistic ritual.

Mickey's studies led him to examine the thin line that separates genius from insanity in art, and inspired him to create music that blurred familiar borders. In a Bowery basement, he made what would become the White Arrows EP—demos that took on new life once he returned home. Soon, Henry picked up the sticks. Their old friend J.P. Caballero joined on guitar, with Andrew Naeve on keys and beats, and Steven Vernet on bass. The five bonded over a shared love for sensory overload both aural and visual—essential to the White Arrows live show. And with only a 7-inch to sell, they toured with Cults, Those Darlins, and the Naked and Famous, played Sasquatch, opened for Weezer, and held residencies at home and in London.

Late last year, however, the guys decided it was time to slow down. They've since been holed up in L.A.'s canyon country recording the songs that will make up their debut LP. Inspired by RAC's propulsive dance mix of their angular banger, "Coming Or Going," they challenged the Portland remix geniuses to produce the entire White Arrows album due out this summer. RAC agreed, and the first fruits of their labors come via an April digital EP led by "Get Gone," the kaleidoscopic single that pits Mickey's transcendent croon against a bursting blend of elements both organic and electronic. When all's said and done, you'll be as likely to find White Arrows playing Coachella as Electric Daisy Carnival. In either case, expect to sweat.

Elbowing his way onto the dais occupied by the likes of Washed Out and Toro y Moi is John Jagos aka Brothertiger, whose pimpadelic grooves are filtered through 80's-fi production.
John Jagos, the brain behind and sole member of Brothertiger, doesn’t aspire to be anything other than himself.

His tunes are ostensibly “chillwave,”

but with a sparkling melodic sense that sets them apart from other artists under that umbrella. Since the project’s beginning during Jagos’ freshman year at Ohio University, Brothertiger has developed a nuanced sound that attempts to blend the human and animal elements suggested by its name. As a live performer in the Athens house party scene, he’s gained a reputation for intense joyfulness. Recorded, his songs are more precious, with details and ideas that only reveal themselves with repeated listens. Buoyed by his voice - which contains both adult timbre and youthful disposition - Jagos’ songs combine layered, interweaving electronics with warm, satisfying melodies. He’s been releasing them at a fever pitch, earning favorable press from places like Pitchfork Media and the Fader while preparing his first full length less than two years after he began. Yet even with this gathering momentum, Brothertiger maintains a personal humility and unassuming nature that echoes the subtle exuberance of his music.