Audiophilia returns. After last month’s round up of 2011 we’re now back on track to talk about what music has been rocking our world lately. Or soft-rocking it, or hip-hoping it. Or whatever is taking our fancy.

For February, the Audiophilia team nominate Katie and Aaron to fill your headphones. You can CLICK HERE to listen to our previous recommendations.

Katie:

Nothing quite compares to stumbling upon a song and instantly feeling attached to it, only to find out that there isn’t much left for you to listen to. Such feelings worked their way up when I heard the side project of Zola Jesus titled Nika+Rory.

Zola Jesus is the stage name for Nika Roza Danilova, a haunting voice that is most commonly filed under ‘goth’ and ‘industrial’, among others. She is known to participate in side projects, and this particular one struck a chord with me. Starting out as a collaboration between her and Rory Kane in late 2009, Nika+Rory has this amazing synth pop quality that I admittedly eat up. Paired with Nika’s vocals, it’s something I am delighted to find in the current “music scene”.

Nika+Rory released a self-titled demo in 2010, and the track “I’m Not Going Anywhere” may be making it’s way onto a CD of my “Super Hawt Summer Jamz~”.

Aaron:

There is a generation of college kids who watched the film Garden State and fell in love with both the movie and soundtrack hopelessly and deeply. A big part of that was the story of disassociation, about the loss of “home”, and the desensitization of your mid 20s. But equally the pitch perfect score, which featured two tracks from The Shins (one during an incredibly important part of the film) made a small indie film into one of my personal favourites ever made.

Well, three wonderful Shins albums later and I’m chomping at the bit for their fourth release, which has been four years in the making. It’s coming in March but for now all I have to share is their first single from it, titled “Simple Song”. It’s a very typical Shins track with many of the same trappings of previous efforts. So while we may not be getting anything radically different, I am reminded of the phrase “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it”.

Although I’m at pains to say, I’m not crazy about the video.