Holger

Does everyone here have a Soundcloud account? If not, might I humbly suggest that you sign up?

Not only is the service great for bloggers who want to embed songs in blog posts like this one, with a visually appealing, waveform-revealing player that’s strangely fun to watch, Soundcloud lets users follow bands, so you can find out the moment they upload new tracks. You have your own personal dashboard with the latest “incoming” tracks, and that’s how I found out that… wait for it…

Holger is back!

If you look all the way back to the dark, primordial dawn of You Hear That, you’ll find that Holger was the second band I ever posted about. NPR highlighted the Brazilian group in last year’s SXSW wrap-up, and I was hooked. A year and a half later, I stand by the adjectives I threw Holger’s way in that second post (which was very short and did not feature what you’d call “complete sentences”) — “danceable, diverse and joyous.” Their first album, Sunga, remains as stylistically rich and fascinating as the day I found it, and new song “Ilhabela” carries on that tradition without losing a step.

If anything, they’ve added more influences to create a product with even greater depth, and “Ilhabela” offers a remarkable opportunity to hear cultures clashing while simultaneously complementing each other. It’s incredible to hear such contrast — the Top Gunnish guitar that kicks things off set against Brazilian pop rhythms that ultimately serve as the song’s beating heart, for example — working together so well, and in a way that’s slightly disorienting and totally ear-pleasing and (sorry, I can’t help it) danceable and diverse and absolutely joyous.

Yay for music that gets you moving, whether that means shaking your tail feather in your living room or clicking “publish” on a blog post for the second time ever, and yay for Holger being back in action! Hear “Ilhabela” below and check back for more info on their sophomore album as it becomes available.

Holger — “Ilhabela” [Soundcloud]