Renoir is an electronic/dance band…with maybe a bit of IDM in there to boot. The main thing that attracted me, were the uptempo, happy, uplifting beats that continued to please my ever saddening soul (rough week). Since Renoir is fairly new, it was called Old Houses, I had the pleasure of talking to the mastermind first hand. He allowed me to put up the exciting new EP free of charge! Imagine that RIAA, an artist who WANTS their music on the internet.

The songs remind me of happier times, more innocent times in my childhood when I didn’t have to worry about money, employment, or education. When I could scrape my knee and my parents would take care of it in a jiffy and even kiss it to make the wound better. Those times when you asked you parents about heaven and hell, and cared about it. You would scream, scared of death and try to hide under your pillow where nothing could get you. Just me? I think not. Later you figure out that life is based around banks, and the money that those banks make off of you. Depressing…

Anyway basically Renoir is a mix of Octopus Project, Crystal Castles, LCD Soundsystem, and MSTRKRFT.

Tracks to listen to:
- All of them (it’s an EP!)

• Website: http://www.myspace.com/rrenoirmusic
• Download: Sharebee
  
• Watch: Want to book?
  
• Buy: Contact the Artist

The main attraction to me was the simplicity of the arrangements. Most songs rely on a droning banjo to help progress the song and to keep the rhythm. I love banjos when used in the nontraditional sense, by that I basically mean outside of the stereotypical hillbilly, redneck, tobacco dipping, “Deliverence”, that people associate with banjos. The vocals have a kind of ghostly echo on them, not to mention the vocal layering. They also add electric beats at times, which may seem weird at first…but it works. It works so much that Zach Condon of Beirut released an EP called “Holland” under the pre-Beirut pseudonym ”Realpeople” which contains electronic music that distinctly resembles the music of Beirut.

Le Loup has really hit something special with this album because it combines just the right amount of electronic and folk, and the outcome is a super blend of Grizzly Bear, Samamidon, Bon Iver, and Ghost in the Water.

5 Tracks to listen to:
- Planes like Vultures.
- Outside Of This Car, The End Of The World
- To The Stars! To The Night!
- Canto XXXIV
- I Had A Dream I Died.

• Website: http://leloupmusic.net/
• Download: Sharebee
  
• Watch: Youtube
  
• Buy: @ Subpop , @ Amazon