Joywave Betelgeuse (Ft. Miike Snow and LCD Soundsystem)

Mashups and mixtapes are a dime-a-dozen these days, so much so that I've heard  a number of people complain that mashups require very little original contribution: find two tracks, align their beats, tweak it a bit, and hope it sounds cool. I suppose it's true -- with the exception of hip-hop artists such as Hoodie Allen, I can't think of many songs that feature much in the way of original content.

We try to highlight some of the better ones on Indie Shuffle. Occasionally, however, works of music come along that are substantially ahead of the pack. Joywave's 77777 definitely falls into that group.

Founded in 2010, the group of five wanted 77777 to act as a "concept mixtape" -- a storytelling piece with the intent of "maintaining humanity away from humans." While the idea may be a little confusing, the reality is anything but: they just sold out the Bowery Ballroom and have enlisted the help of producer David Kahne (The Strokes, Paul McCartney among others). The success of their sound undeniably lies in their ability to overlay familiar tunes with peacefully harmonic vocals and well-thought-out instrumentation. To boot, the production is fantastic.

You can listen to the full album by visiting this link, or download a zip here.