Local Radar highlights bands that the local team at The Current is spinning heavily at their desks. You'll be able to preview a track from each as well as hear them on The Local Show and Local Current.

WriteGroove
It’s definitely a good day now that WriteGroove has released his next piece of work appropriately titled TheenKinOfew. I don’t know about everyone else, but I’ve been checking in on Joey Larson’s one-man project regularly since I first got word of him a few months back. He went silent after that write-up to work on these new tracks, and it’s a logical progression – a little less shifty with audibly amped-up groove. As far as I have heard and seen, WriteGroove is still one of the few musicians making music like this in the immediate Twin Cities, accompanying other artists like OK Thief. It’s refreshing and breezy, the perfect introduction to summer and should be listened to in one continuous sitting. It will take less than 15 minutes of your time, and it will become quickly evident that Larson is an emerging producer that we should keep encouraging.

Stream: WriteGroove - "DontWaitOp" from TheenKinOfew out now

Bollywood
Also back in action is Bollywood, who released the seedy throwback EP This Is… last December. While they sounded like a darker version of Spoon at that point (cracked out on some sort of stimulant), this new 7” obliterates that conception, instead opting for something that teeters on Soft Moon territory. Bollywood’s strong suits are its crunchy guitars and Justin Sehorn’s sluggish voice which has moments of total glory on the song “Turquoise.” You’re mostly unable to discern his words and context, but the times when he breaks through the fuzz, especially after the two-minute mark rolls around, is heavy and commanding. It’s their most impressive recording yet and one that has mass-appeal, banking on a style which has become well-regarded in the music world over the past few years.

Stream: Bollywood - "Turquoise" from their new 7" out now

Klondike
Klondike makes music that could be a soundtrack to just about anything. It's no surprise that a recent Northern Spark promo video used this song to set the mood. It's a gorgeous, extremely minimalistic tune that floats by in dreamy haze. The loop alone gets caught up in its own atmospherics, and before you know it, the song is done and the repeat button has been hit. Now Klondike has more than a handful of newer releases, but I've chosen to focus on LP333 from early November because this is the one that really started getting him well-deserved buzz. Sure, this is a style that obviously doesn't attract just anyone, but you can tell there are a lot of ideas brewing in his head. He's not trying to be accessible. Instead, Klondike is making a product that he loves and adores, rooted in years of studying artists that feel the same way as him. There may be a moment when he makes something that ends up being wildly popular (see: Panda's bear progression from early albums to his current incarnation). For Klondike, that may also be the next logical step. But it won't be forced – it will be the result of his musical evolution. There's natural talent here for melody, and it's really great to watch it unfold.

Stream: Klondike - "Memory Children" from LP333 out now

Crystals In The Deep
Crystals In The Deep is a new project from Tim Kraack, who has also played in Dead Kings of Norway. His newest effort is a collaboration with Sarah Rogers-Tanner, and they’ve recently unleashed this 10-song album recorded over the span of seven months starting in October of last year. The immediately striking part of this musical relationship is their voices. Each song offers one of them a chance to vocalize their talents while other tracks see them complimenting one another, giving off the feeling of both a cohesive record or a split LP depending on your jumping-in point. Most of the record is a slow and soaring experiment, so it’s interesting to question why they started everything off with “Sylvia.” Its grungy riff is evocative of the propulsive rhythms that Suuns explored in their song “PVC,” and the tempo alteration towards the end somehow turns the piece into even more of a jam. It ends on an out-of-nowehere keyboard note that echoes so righteously that the down tempo successor in “Tremble Tremble” makes a whole lot of sense.

Stream: Crystals In The Deep - "Sylvia" from Crystals In The Deep out now