Gold Panda's new single has come out of the blue. The 7” has two sides: “Mountain”, a delicious electronic fantasy with an oriental aftertaste (Japan and it's folklore on the horizon), and “Financial District”, more lo-fi and with unstable oscillating synthetizers, that sometimes remind of a more tender and childish version of Boards Of Canada. Out digitally today, with a 7″ release due through Notown/Wichita and Ghostly on June 11.

“Vantaa”, his first album on Raster-Noton, came out only five months ago, but Sasu Ripati is already testing new material for his upcoming two Vladislav Delay releases. At the end of May, there will be an EP entitled “Espoo” on Raster-Noton, as a warming up for a new album, “Kuopio”, which should come out in the second half of this year. Ripati played part of that material during his recent concert at the Bimhuis venue in Amsterdam. According to the Fin, “the set consists of almost only unreleased work-in-progress material for the forthcoming album. A broken mixer added some nice extra challenges for trying out all that new material in a live setting for the first time ever...” Pump up the volume if you want to hear the recording in all of its splendour.

Three big champions of the new classical sensibility, American Dustin O’Halloran, German Hauschka and Icelander Jóhann Jóhannsson, are about to launch themselves into a joint tour that will lead them to play in cities like Amsterdam, Berlin, Brussels, London, Dublin and Paris in the company of Samuli Kosminen (the musician from múm will accompany Hauschka) and a string quartet (in the case of O'Halloran and Jóhannsson). For this tour, the FatCat label, through its neoclassical division 130701, has done a limited series of 12” records that brings together new and exclusive cuts of the three composers mentioned and live takes or different versions of already-existing pieces of each of theirs. You can listen to the six cuts after the jump and, if you like, you can reserve your copy here.

“Dark York”, the first mixtape by young LE1F, confirms that we're dealing with one of the most promising talents in new NY rap. A compendium of incessant inventiveness and subversive spirit, the effort features productions by Nguzunguzu, Tom Richman and Morri$, among others, apart from LE1F's own works. Listen to it below.

“Violence” is the debut album of Portuguese producer Purple for the Porto label Terrain Ahead. In it, we find nine cuts ranging from the fizziest bass music to alkaloid witch house, all with an obscurantist perspective. The release is already available on CD and will soon see the light of day in digital format. Listen to it after the jump.

Days after Air France' disbanding, it's good to know Sweden is still fertile ground for restless and fresh youngsters willing to further develop that Balearic pop style they love so up north. Next week, on the 10th April, World Tour will see their first EP, “Believe”, released on Cascine. It features four heavenly and euphoric slices of music. The title track is especially attractive, with laid-back house piano and blurry vocals that can stand side by side with some of John Talabot's tunes.

West In Dust is the label recently started by Bay Area producers Rave Deep and Glenn Jackson. Based in Oakland, the platform will release its first title at the end of this month. “2012” is a compilation featuring fourteen tracks by mostly new producers, according to the label, “from the stonier side of bass music”. No final release date has been set as of yet (though we do know it will be freely downloadable), but it should be soon. For now, we leave you with the full album stream.

Jess Williamson is one of the new talents to come from Austin, Texas. She's just uploaded her new EP, “Medicine Wheel / Death Songs”, to her Bandcamp page. It features five songs (plus a bonus live track for those who buy the EP in its entirety) of laid-back folk-pop, with a voice reminiscent of Joanna Newsom and the banjo as the main instrument. If you like it, you can get it for a mere three US dollars.