Moderator: Redaktörer
Men det där var väl jäkla fint! Tack på dig Shiftis.shifts skrev:Inget nytt fynd för mig på Spotify, men en väldigt bra skiva väl värd att
uppmärksamma (igen):
Low – Trust: http://open.spotify.com/album/0kWhKPSr0ZPGvESREXPFVW
phloam skrev:Koffe, angående The XX, kul när man känner att det rör sig om talang som kan gå långt
Och Dolly Parton är cool
Tack för en trevlig tråd!
phloam skrev:Ytterligare ett låtfynd bara så där;
Pascal F.E.O.S. & Chris Wood - "A tribute to Hörspielmusik" (Pascal FEOS RMX edit (Notlandung in Bali))
http://open.spotify.com/track/2VkC8XonrF5PE5Jh1yO3xC
Fasen vad första trumljudet lurar en Intressant platta verkar det som..! funkjazzcoolt eller nåt. Playlistan bara växer...
Edit: Fasen vad jag gillar Mantik...!! (se ovan) Ni missade väl inte "Musique non Vertique 2" ovan? Jag är helt såld. Repris: http://open.spotify.com/track/0oGAECsZNxCux7c38kWRig
kolla även dennes "Shuffle cabinet" EP eller lyssna på drivet i denna goa-bakelse: http://open.spotify.com/track/5IDx6KAaiTNKWbQm169gRy Klart kompetent och helt oemotståndligt Kommentarer plz!
Nu går jag lite OT i min egen tråd. Den här har nog alla hört:
James & Karin - http://open.spotify.com/track/4HDc7Wv0sOu5mNHoi0nY4R
... men har ni tänkt på hur djävla bra den är? Och hur bra den låter? Det gör hela skivan förresten. Den är värd en sväng i fin-lurarna eller stor-stereon även utan barn i rummet.
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Koffe skrev:Hurrudu FalloutBoy! Varför tar inte du och skriver lite om
Taken By Trees - East Of Eden (2009, Rough Trade)
Den är äckligt bra! Jaaaa hypad som sjutton men såååå bra! Love.
Koffe skrev:Tackar tackar!
En av min favvosar är Lhasa De Sela. En mångspråkig före detta cirkusprinsessa. Hur coolt är inte det förresten! Den måste vara den ultimata raggningsrepliken för tjejer - "... Jag jobbade som cirkusprisessa...".
Hur som, hennes nya skiva "Lhasa", får väl anses habil. Lyssna gärna. Problement - tycker jag - är att den saknar en låt som hennes "Con toda palabra". Alltså en låt som griper tag och drar in dej i albumet.
[s]Så mitt tips blir BÅDE det nya albumet - "Lhasa" och hennes skiva - "The Living Road" ... [/s]
Ahhh... Vänta nu. Nu förstår jag. Hennes tidigare skivor har legat på Nettwerk nu har hon flyttat till Warner! Ahhh... Det är därför hon har slutat blanda franska, spanska och engelska. Det är därför som alla låtarna låter lika! Okej...
Nä! Då blir mitt tips skivan från 2003 - "The Living Road".
http://open.spotify.com/album/1uUMVi57bxfaDbpQsowmHs
Ton skrev:Port O'Brien – I Woke Up Today: http://open.spotify.com/track/6NG347oNywgSzC2iuptJae
Lite avundsjuk måste man säga att man blir...phloam skrev:Falloutboy, tackar för den! Dead Voices On Air också, bookmarkat direkt. Han är en trevlig snubbe, Mark Spybey, tog sig besväret att hälsa på lilla mig före en Download-konsert i gbg bara pga en gemensam bekant på irc när det begav sig...! Fick säga hej till Key också, det var fucking Stort
Tror inte jag hört så mycket av det projektet. Får åtgärda det.Helt apropå detta gäng; blev lika glad över att även hitta Hilt på Spotify - som består av cEvin Key och Al Nelson (vocals), D R Goettel m.fl.
Brap: (v) To get together, hook up electronic instruments, get high, and record.Väldigt udda, överraskande, vackert, störigt och definitivt pårökt
FalloutBoy skrev:Brap: (v) To get together, hook up electronic instruments, get high, and record.
phloam skrev:Green Guy!
Tack Koffe och TCM för bra tips!
Ja, han har verkligen gjort mycket under åren. Ett axplock gör honom givetvis inte rättvisa (vissa av spåren på samlingen är dessutom förkortade), men fungerar som introduktion.phloam skrev:Falloutboy, gillade Roedelius - mäktig samling verk, varierat.
Den kommer från en skiva med samma namn som han gjorde tillsammans med Nikos Arvanitis och kom så sent som 2002.Skulle vilja veta vilket år "Digital Love" är gjord, hur hipp som helst ju
Det verkar bara finnas ett fåtal album från deras katalog på Spotify (än så länge iaf).shifts skrev:Åhå, visste inte att Alien8 hade musik där. Är det ett undantag eller finnas
resten av katalogen också?
Prometevs skrev:Regina Spektor !!!! Om man gillar ryska sing song writers som sjunger på engelska. Och gud vad det låter bra på ryska.
http://open.spotify.com/album/45EpBsXTy0JkaxbkYDP7Rw
VladDrac skrev:Fin ghettolista! Jag saknade dock den här som kanske är den bästa enligt mig.
Candi Staton med In the ghetto
Håll till godo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCVEyx-ZN8A
Ja, det kan man verkligen säga. Verkar finnas hur många som helst; Sarah Assbring (El Perro Del Mar), Anna Järvinen, Frida Hyvönen, Sofia 'Lilly' Jönsson, osv.Koffe skrev:Fler extremt begåvade svenska tjejer. Alltså, det börjar närmast bli en musikgenre i sig själv - skitbra svenska tjejer!
Koffe skrev:Regina är en gammal bekanting. Men jag tycker faktiskt att förra skivan var bättre. Fast jag är inte riktigt inkörd på "Far" - jag saknar en "Fidelity" en låt som verkligen visar något annat. Men... min sambo älskar "Far", och hon brukar inte ha helt fel. Så jag får väl ändra mej
Men nu är jag grymt nyfiken på ryska singer-songwriters som sjunger på ryska?! Någonting på spotify som du vill visa oss?
Koffe skrev:En darling som snurrat på slutet (... om man nu kan säga så i en värld av bit-stömmar) är Nina Kinert.
FalloutBoy skrev:Tack för tipset om Edith Backlund förresten. Hade faktiskt inte hört talas om henne innan.
Synd bara att produktionen verkar vara alldeles för radioanpassad. Det lät bättre på livespåret du länkade till.
Annars verkar hon ha potential. Påminner lite om Marit Bergman.
Prometevs skrev:Det var en svår utmaning. Ryssarna gillar ju smöriga ballader, smörig schlager eller smörig discopop. Men ändå ......Кристины Орбакайте (Kristina Orbakaite) ...
Koffe skrev:Bill50x skrev:Bättre än Spotify?
Min norska måste var sämst för jag fattar ingenting? Vad är det för sajt?
Jag googlade bara fram en NK bild med rätt upplösning...
Bill50x skrev:Koffe skrev:Bill50x skrev:Bättre än Spotify?
Min norska måste var sämst för jag fattar ingenting? Vad är det för sajt?
Jag googlade bara fram en NK bild med rätt upplösning...
Förhoppningsvis framgår detta om du besöker sajten
/ B
Koffe skrev:Är det den här sajten vi prater om? Ptja... Lite cd recensioner. Mycket annonser och allmänt ful form. Det känns mer som en länk-farm än en sajt. Men jag kan ha missat något.
Koffe skrev:Jorå, det finns all anledning att vara kritiskt till Ediths produktion. Jag tror att artister har all anledning att börja begrunda "long-tail". Med andra ord om man vill maximera sin försäljning så skall man ha ett stort antal alternativt för konsumenten. Eftersom "hyllplats" kostar "noll" kronor på internet lönar det sig att göra smalare utgåvor - man kan tex släppa samma skiva i olika mixar och mastringar samtidigt. Jag tror att alla vi på forumet hellre skulle konsumera en "tapp" från mixerbordet. Det skulle kosta noll att släppa ett sånt alternativ. Men vinsten blir potentiellt högre.
Jag får ångest när jag tänker på det. Jag vill höra all bra musik!Koffe skrev:Jag är också en sökandefas musikalisk. Insikten om att det finns mycket mer bra musik jag ännu inte hört än det jag hört är berusande och det faktum att de görs med ny bra musik än jag hinner lyssna på är närmast överväldigande. Eller?
Tack för tipset. Känner igen de flesta artisterna, men det finns några jag inte bekantat mig närmare med.För bra för att missa: Even Cowgirls Get The Blues. Alltså bara namnet på skivan är ju så bra så man måste snurra ett varv på kontorsstolen.
Hon är bra, men “The Pirate’s Gospel” är från 2004. Hennes senaste skiva heter "To Be Still" och släpptes tidigare i år. Rekommenderas!Men, kära vänner det är inte slut med det. Jag MÅSTE särskilt lyfta fram Alela Diane - “The Pirate’s Gospel” - titellåten från hennes nya album som dessvärre inte finns på Spotify ännu. Vi får hoppas. Men låten är så bra! Missa inte den.
Hoppas ni älskar lika mycket som jag.
FalloutBoy skrev:Hon är bra, men “The Pirate’s Gospel” är från 2004. Hennes senaste skiva heter "To Be Still" och släpptes tidigare i år. Rekommenderas!Men, kära vänner det är inte slut med det. Jag MÅSTE särskilt lyfta fram Alela Diane - “The Pirate’s Gospel” - titellåten från hennes nya album som dessvärre inte finns på Spotify ännu. Vi får hoppas. Men låten är så bra! Missa inte den.
"First released in 2004 as a private CD-R run then later re-released formally in 2006[...]" -- AMGKoffe skrev:Här gick tydligen min reseach helt fel. Nästan. Om vi skall vara petiga så säger Wikipedia -2006.
Kan det vara så att den har getts ut igen? Denna gång på Fargo? Hur som, jag borde ha dubbelkollat mina uppgifter.
Koffe skrev:Jepp! Meg Baird har förgyllt min förmiddag...
Ton skrev:ni verkar ha smak för söta flickor som tittar bort
TCM skrev:Ton skrev:ni verkar ha smak för söta flickor som tittar bort
Jag påpekade samma sak för Koffe häromdagen - och det var inte första gången
http://www.faktiskt.se/modules.php?name ... jer#297150
Koffe skrev:TCM skrev:Ton skrev:ni verkar ha smak för söta flickor som tittar bort
Jag påpekade samma sak för Koffe häromdagen - och det var inte första gången
http://www.faktiskt.se/modules.php?name ... jer#297150
Nu skickade herrarna iväg mej på en låååååång resa i mina historiska analer på faktiskt.
Ton skrev:ni verkar ha smak för söta flickor som tittar bort
Henne har jag inte hört förut. Tack för tipet!Koffe skrev:Emily Jane White har vi inte nämnt ännu va'?
De var också med i "Little Red Rocket" och har gästspelat med bl.a. "Bright Eyes" och "Japancakes".norman skrev:Den gemensamma nämnaren är Azure Ray. Gruppen bestod/består av Maria Taylor och Orenda Fink (som är med i Art in manila ovan), de är/var också med i Now its overhead tillsammans med Andy LeMaster (som också varit med lite på Azure Ray tror jag).
Instämmer till fullo.Iaf, dom gör väldigt intressant och vacker musik tycker jag.
norman skrev:Angus & Julia Stone – The Beast:
http://open.spotify.com/track/6Z2bxdL0pFBubJQe6yI6OE
Den var det länge sedan man spelade...Koffe skrev:Om jag nu skall lyfta något från min vecka så blir det Natalie Merchant och hennes skiva - Motherland - från 2001. Inte nytt alltså. Men väl värt en detour eller kanske snarare en retur....
Jag tror aldrig jag sett henne kategoriserad som jazz förut. Skulle kalla det mer åt singer/songwriter-pop hållet, men det finns väl lite jazz-inslag när jag tänker efter...Hmm. Jag tror förresten att det är den första skivan någonsin som jag gillat och som har haft labeln "jazz". Hmm. Jag börjar bli gammal. Eller rättare sagt jättegammal.
Koffe skrev:Den stora "En dela med sig av spotify fynd"- listan i Spotify. Totalt är det 976 låtar och det tar 2,8 dagar att lyssna igenom allt. Grattis till oss alla. Det är en liten musiksmak i sig själv.
FalloutBoy skrev:Bra idé! Får aktivera shuffle-funktionen och spela igenom listan. Har säkert missat mycket.
Koffe skrev:Jag känner att jag håller på att förlora överblicken över den här tråden. Vilket vore djävligt illa. Det kommer så mycket bra!
För att göra det lite enklare har jag lagt alla tips från alla er (och mej själv) i en enda spelista:
Hade albumet varit helt på franska hade det nog fungerat bättre.Koffe skrev:Hmm. Är det inte lite tyst i den här tråden? Jag hade i alla fall räknat med någon kommentar på den senaste bilden. Eller sitter ni och är förtjust häpna över fröken Brisas talanger?
Koffe skrev:SAMMA TRÅD! Nu med coolare namn
Koffe skrev:SAMMA TRÅD! Nu med coolare namn
phloam skrev:Fransk ton - Stereolab!
FalloutBoy skrev:Hon behärskar uppenbarligen inte det engelska språket riktigt, vilket kanske varit charmigt om hon inte samtidigt haft en så överdrivet fejkad amerikansk accent.
De franska låtarna var dock småmysiga. Lite "chanson" är ju aldrig fel.
FalloutBoy skrev:Lättklädda damer och nytt trådnamn. Allt för att locka in fler tipsare?
Hoppas det fungerar!
TCM skrev:Visst var det marknadföring som var din specialitet?
Amerikanska med fejkad fransk accent då?Koffe skrev:Hon är amerikanska. Nu boende i Frankrike.
Koffe skrev:Jag gillar live... Sweet!
Någon som behöver en "invite" förresten? Jag har några... PM:a mej er mail- adress.
FalloutBoy skrev:phloam skrev:Fransk ton - Stereolab!
Har faktiskt alltid haft lite svårt för Stereolab, trots att de har rört sig inom de genrer jag normalt gillar. Men jag får väl ge dem en ny chans...
Koffe skrev:För att göra det lite enklare har jag lagt alla tips från alla er (och mej själv) i en enda spelista:
Den stora "En dela med sig av spotify fynd"- listan i Spotify. Totalt är det 976 låtar och det tar 2,8 dagar att lyssna igenom allt. Grattis till oss alla. Det är en liten musiksmak i sig själv.
phloam skrev:Xinlisupreme gillade jag (of course ), härligt brötigt på nåt sätt och förvånansvärt varierat...!
Empa skrev:Men man skulle kunna göra listan dynamisk, så folk själva kan lägga till låtar, men halva grejen är att läsa lite om de artister som tipsar om.
phloam skrev:label... kom med förslag!
wendel skrev:Split Enz – Mental Notes: http://open.spotify.com/album/4NqiLICngvsTW8lYLdtdw9
Ett ensastående bra debutalbum. Ett gäng riktigt kompetenta musiker. Deras musikaliska lekfullhet kan kräva viss tillvänjning dock, låtarna växlar ofta tempo, tema och stil, från det vackra till det absurda. Pärlorna på denna platta är enligt mig "Stranger than ficion", "Time for a change" och "Titus".
Ton skrev:Drums – Let's Go Surfing: http://open.spotify.com/track/2VoJwRtnCgbtngglFMbNTy
Koffe skrev:Ton skrev: S-S-Flickor
=super-söta?
Trevligt. Azure Ray (och ett par andra grupper där hon medverkat) har varit uppe tidigare i tråden.Bill50x skrev:Inspirerad av Fink (ovan) lyssnar jag just nu på Orenda Fink - Invisible Ones (2005).
Mycket trevlig musik, kan man kalla den alternativ pop?
FalloutBoy skrev:Men du glömde länken:
http://open.spotify.com/album/5YtAUQDdWE9JOL6ssgHj5j
peetwa skrev:http://open.spotify.com/track/7JDtp95Oa0ZIzGoVVmESeJ
Bill50x skrev:Vad gör jag för fel?
Koffe skrev:Bill50x skrev:Vad gör jag för fel?
Funkar här oxå. Jag gissar att applikationen inte har registrerat sig på rätt sätt. Prova att starta om (om du inte har gjort det). Annars provar att installera om Spotify och säkerställ att du inte har någon browser igång.
Objektivisten skrev:Dolly Parton är ju grovt underskattad som countryartist rent generellt. Personligen föredrar jag nog 70-tals perioden. Men visst har rösten mognat med åren, som hos de flesta.
Will your lawyer talk to god and plead your case upon high
and defend the way you broke my heart in two
Man made laws to set you free on earth but is God satisfied
Will your lawyer talk to God for you
Hum skrev: Jag vet inte vad du har fått för dig att det skall handla om här, du tror inte att du är för enkelspårig.
[...]
Det måste vara besvärande att inte gilla bra ljud och framförallt inte kunna välja bort det man inte gillar, det är kanske någon kurs som kunde genomgås, hur man väjer bort det man inte gillar av Malte Widen.
Koffe skrev:Borde vi inte ha en tråd där vi delar med oss av bra musik som vi hittat på spotify?
Koffe skrev:Som Er ödmjuka TS. Känner jag att jag måste komma med ett förtydligande:
- Detta är inte en tråd om indie eller alt-folk. Det har bara råkat bli så.
- Detta är en tipsa om bra musik tråd. Alla är välkomna, All bra musik är välkommen! Den enda SOM KRÄVS är att det som ni tipsar om skall finns tillgängligt på Spotify.
Tipsen behöver alltså inte vara nya eller speciella. De behöver vara bra. Och intressanta. Det är också bra om man skriver en lite text om varför man vill tipsa... och en illustrerande bild är alltid trevligt!
Hum skrev: Jag vill också tillägga att jag inte är så intresserad av vad andra tycket eftersom jag har egen vilja.
Precis! Han är en fantastisk artist, och en ännu bättre textförfattare.Koffe skrev:Och grejen med Tom är att det är välförtjänt. Jag hörde en gång någon som sa att Elvis Costello hade ett "hål" i rösten där känslorna kommer ut. Fint sagt. Det har Herr Waits också. Så fort man glömmer han konstlade sångsätt och börjar lyssna på vad han säger...
Nice! Kände inte till den inspelningen. Och att Kronos Quartet medverkar gör ju inte saken sämre.Så låten jag fick gåshud av? Tom Waits & Kronos Quartet - Diamond In Your Mind.
CODY skrev:Mycket kul tråd!
En som jag upptäckt på spotify är Kevin Coyne.
Han passar in här eftersom det är mycket Singers & Songwiters, med
sjuttiotalsreferenser. Känns som unik musik och en personlig röst (liknar Tom
Waits?). Knocking Your Brain från 1997 är bra:
Tror att det är ett samlingsalbum. Låten Wonderland är jättebra.
Jag kan inte göra sådana där spotifyspellistor.
/CODY
FalloutBoy skrev:
Emmy The Great - First Love (2009, Close Harbour)
Koffe skrev:Fy sjutton va' bra! Hennes "Easter Parade" är dubbel-grym! Jag länkar den för att ingen skall missa.
Har varit lite svag för henne sen jag såg ett framträdande på TV (tror det var på "The Tonight Show") för några år sedan.norman skrev:Nästa flicka bli Brandi Carlile, tror hon började sin karriär som körsångerska åt en elvisimitatör... (om internet inte ljuger.. ), men det blev bra tillslut trots allt:
Koffe skrev:Vänner,
Överdos! Jag lämnar tråden i en vecka och sätter mej själv på musikalisk diet. Fram till söndag nästa vecka skall jag hålla mej i från ny musik. Som bantningskost har jag alla Rod Stewarts -70tals album. Och det är inte det sämsta. Nu blir det bara Rod i en vecka.
Koffe skrev:Kommer ni ihåg the Orbs fanatiska konceptalbum - "The Orb's Adventures Beyond The Ultraworld" från 1991?
Om jag förstår det rätt är det är en live-upptagning från en spelning i Paris 2008.Svaret fås nedan, en samling äldre material som släpptes 2008 men riktigt bra.
FalloutBoy skrev:Om jag förstår det rätt är det är en live-upptagning från en spelning i Paris 2008.
Koffe skrev:Jag har gått och klurat på en pretto post om bra och dålig kultur och vad som egentligen gör en artist.
profbd skrev:själv gillar jag nog den rundare varianten av dolly
här är hon med ett härligt darr på rösten
Koffe skrev:Wheee! Vi har blivit klistrade! Det skall jag fira med att skriva om första posten ikväll. Happy!
phloam skrev:Kunde inte sätta fingret på det först men jag fick lite Jesus & Mary Chain-vibbar av första låten "Its all a lie" (Karen Ann) Bra!
Nine Million Rainy Days (JAMC)
Koffe skrev:Ahhh... det är därifrån det soundet kommer! Det var många som körde det i början av nittiotalet. Dream-pop? Hmmm... det binder ihop MÅNGA av artisterna i tråden. Är vi dream-popare?
Är inte det mesta på listan representerat i den här tråden?Koffe skrev:Idag har jag umgåtts med - The new Extreme Spotify Galore - Extended version dynamic playlist. Har ni märkt att den börjat leva ett eget liv?
Koffe skrev:Fan jag har lyssnat på Ballad of Fuck All cirka en sillion gånger nu! Det måste var någon sorts rekord. Jäklar vad bra den är!
Band Of Horses är ett band som jag gillat när jag hört dem, men aldrig riktigt lyssnat in mig på.Koffe skrev:Och den kom tillbaka av Cease to Begin. Detta är riktigt bra. Man kan verkligen se dem spela de stora arenorna. Känn efter. Har jag rätt?
Håller med. Han släppte förresten ett nytt album tidigare i år som också kan vara värt en provlyssning.zidanefromhell skrev:Kanske dags för lite kanadensisk pop?
A C Newman från The new pornographers har gjort en charmant solo platta betitlad the slow wonder, väl värd en lyssning!
Håller givetvis med! Synd att bara två av Shearwaters album finns på Spotify. Skivor som "Palo Santo" och "The Dissolving Room" förtjänar också att upptäckas av fler.Koffe skrev:Shearwater är fantastisk fantastisk bra. Det är en skiva som förtjänar mycket lyssning.
Ja, det var en bra jämförelse. "Rook" är dock lite tajtare och mindre utsvävande än "Laughing Stock" (som på goda grunder brukar räknas som ett av de första post-rockalbumen).Nästa det finaste jag kan säga om den skiva är att binda den till Talk Talks mästerverk "Laughing Stock" [som tyvärr inte finns på Spotfy]. Här är den kopplingen klockren - och då menar jag inte bara sångstill och röstlikhet. Nä, "Rook" känns faktiskt som en fristående fortsättning på det som Talk Talk började.
Koffe skrev:Skivan är Andrew Birds Musik of hair. Tänk om vi kunde få våra riksspelmän att göra sånt här...
FalloutBoy skrev:
Krya på dig phloam! Här får du en gammal EBM-klassiker från '89 som uppmuntran:
Leæther Strip - Japanese Bodies (12" Version)
Det var på tiden, men det är ju skandal att inte "Nail" eller "Thaw" finns med!phloam skrev:Jim "Foetus" Thirlwell nu på Spotify! Långtifrån allt, gammalt och nytt ("Deaf" t.ex. är från mkt tidigt 80-tal, inte 2009!)
Är benägen att hålla med. Hon är inte dålig, men det finns så många andra som är bättre och förtjänar mer uppmärksamhet.Koffe skrev:Jag tycker att Regina Spector är en av det mest överskattade artisterna.
zidanefromhell skrev:Neutral milk hotel - In the aeroplane over the sea
FalloutBoy skrev:Här kommer lite småmysig alt-country från bandet "Or, The Whale":
FalloutBoy skrev:Det har varit lite dålig fart på den här tråden senaste veckan.
Så verkar det vara. Det borde ju vara lite fler än du, jag, Koffe, phloam och några till som har Spotify och musik att rekommendera.zidanefromhell skrev:Eftersom du står för minst 60% i den här tråden så blir det väl lite dåligt drag om du inte skriver
FalloutBoy skrev:Så verkar det vara. Det borde ju vara lite fler än du, jag, Koffe, phloam och några till som har Spotify och musik att rekommendera.zidanefromhell skrev:Eftersom du står för minst 60% i den här tråden så blir det väl lite dåligt drag om du inte skriver
Koffe skrev:En låt som jag trodde var hopplöst sönderspelad och förstörd. Sen blir den veckans gåshud.
Joan Baez - Guantanamera
Jag menar - lyssna på hur hon sjunger den. Varenda ton räknas. I min himmel sjunger gudinnorna på det viset.
Koffe skrev:En låt som jag trodde var hopplöst sönderspelad och förstörd. Sen blir den veckans gåshud.
emser skrev:Fredrik / Na Na Ni
Naivt och sagolikt på engelska fast svenskt.
FalloutBoy skrev:Nya albumet med Shearwater finns nu på Spotify!!!
Shearwater - The Golden Archipelago (2010, Matador)
Instämmer! Shearwater lyckas med det mesta.Koffe skrev:Jag spenderade en eftermiddage i tunnelbanan med The Golden Archipelago. En närmast utomkroppslig erfarenhet. En fullständigt fantastisk skiva.
Alexi skrev:Denna tråd innehåller inte så mycket diskussion om de olika rekomendationerna, är detta så ni vill ha det, eller är det ok om tråden spårar ur lite och även börjar inefatta subjektivt tyckande?
americantabloid skrev:Jag hatar när det bränner iväg 4 sidor på massa dravel och personangrepp, i klassiskt faktiskt stil....
americantabloid skrev:Jag gjorde en kommentar tråd för ändamålet här tidigare.
FalloutBoy skrev:americantabloid skrev:
Jag röstar för att hålla kommentarerna i den här tråden tills vidare. Och om det visar sig att det blir för mycket diskussion och för lite musiktips så får man ta ställning till det då.
Gloria Gaynor gjorde den bra, annars var det rätt usla versioner imho. The Rural Alberta Advantage versionen, lyssna jag på häromdan, utan att associera den till originalet.Koffe skrev:Jag har rensat listan från Karaokeversioner och versioner av studiomusiker som gör rena karbonkopior på Survivors version. Och här är den: Eye of the Tiger
Det som är så coolt som hur mycket upptakten till låten betyder. Men också på hur många sätt de första sekunderna kan göra på - ändå känner vi igen dem... omedelbart. Och bilderna börjar komma i huvudet. Sen är det så roligt när något så iconiskt blir tolkat nytt och kärleksfullt.
Några ni inte får missa:
1.2.3.
Och originalet förstås: Survivor - "Eye of the Tiger"
zidanefromhell skrev:Four tet - There is love in you
Pantha du prince - Black noise
Är du tankeläsare?
Tänkte faktiskt rekommendera just de albumen, så jag kan bara instämma.
Har inte hört just det albumet, men jag har ett av hans andra album ("Från Hat Till Handling") och en EP ("Vile").zidanefromhell skrev:Btw Fallout, har du lyssnat någe på Paddington dc - The sun is down and the sky is grey? Har hört några få klipp på tuben o myspace o tycker det låter kul, men vet inte om det är värt att jaga rätt på skivan som inte verkar finnas varsomhelst.
zidanefromhell skrev:Är du tankeläsare?
Tänkte faktiskt rekommendera just de albumen, så jag kan bara instämma.
Haha lite spooky
Btw Fallout, har du lyssnat någe på Paddington dc - The sun is down and the sky is grey? Har hört några få klipp på tuben o myspace o tycker det låter kul, men vet inte om det är värt att jaga rätt på skivan som inte verkar finnas varsomhelst.
Alexi skrev:Jag läser och lyssnar stötvis och uppskattar tråden mycket!Koffe skrev:Är det någon som läser den här tråden eller eldar vi för kråkorna?
Riktigt trevligt, tack för tipset!Koffe skrev:Spotify: Jenny Doveson - All These Wastefull Years
zidanefromhell skrev:Många härinne påstår sig älska musik utan pardon, refererar till ingvars fråga om varför forummedlemmarna lyssnar på musik, men likväl är det mer dött på musiksidorna än på en krog i Arboga. Folk skriker sig mkt hellre hesa över vikten av nivåmatchat blindtest lr diskuterar läsförståelse o diskussions/argumentations teknik sida upp o sida ner på hifisidorna
Men men finns det bara några som tar till sig tipsen är det väl värt det antar jag.
mrGaskill skrev:zidanefromhell skrev:Många härinne påstår sig älska musik utan pardon, refererar till ingvars fråga om varför forummedlemmarna lyssnar på musik, men likväl är det mer dött på musiksidorna än på en krog i Arboga. Folk skriker sig mkt hellre hesa över vikten av nivåmatchat blindtest lr diskuterar läsförståelse o diskussions/argumentations teknik sida upp o sida ner på hifisidorna
Men men finns det bara några som tar till sig tipsen är det väl värt det antar jag.
Tja får man aldrig respons på sina musiktips som man ibland tycker är knasbra så kan man väl hålla dem för sig själva eller som jag , hitta andra forum där man kan diskutera musik med lirare med samma smak. Någon gång ibland lumpar man in nåt tips lite halvhjärtat dock.
Koffe skrev:FalloutBoy, Hörru! Jag hinner inte med!
Sitter och njuter av Caitlins underbara dialekt...
FalloutBoy skrev:Givetvis från Kanada.
zidanefromhell skrev:Ja Kanadickerna är fan rätt vassa på fin popmusik!
Ton skrev:Vit Päls - Nu Var Det I Alla Fall Så
‘Landings’ is the culmination of four years of recording on the moors and hillsides of Northern England. The resulting album isn’t simply a suite of songs in the mould of ‘Marking Time’, but a form of diary; a dialogue with the landscape itself. It is imbued with a real sense of narrative – and of place – that is both epic in scale and yet intimate in feel.
And so we are taken on a literal journey across the threshold of ‘Noon Hill Wood’, with its achingly beautiful interleaved bowed melodies, drifting through ranks of pine, larch and birch. From there we cross the river and climb the slopes of the nearby hills in search of the source of ‘Green Withins Brook’ – a crushing Eno-esque ballad for concertina, recorded by the banks of the fledgeling stream as the ice melted one wintry morning. We are then taken across miles of bleak moorland, and to the album’s desolate centrepiece, ‘Voice of the Book’, a symphony of bowed metallic sounds recorded in the ruins of a centuries-old farm house. Finally, we make a long, slow decent into the valley, and follow the river as it leaves the moorland behind.
‘Landings’ is a demanding, involving experience and is without a doubt Skelton’s most complete work to date, containing within it the very essence of his musical output. Slowly, over the course of its 70+ minutes, he reveals the heart of his compositional skill and with that we are drawn into the depth of his work. Rarely are albums so involving and so absolutely moving.
-- http://typerecords.com/releases/landings
FalloutBoy skrev:Tänkte släppa den lättlyssnade popmusiken en stund och tipsa om lite mer krävande musik.
Här är ett av årets vackraste musikstycken:
http://open.spotify.com/album/1ZctQAfYUoEwRr2d5Hm2sM
wendel skrev:Den var riktigt trevlig.
‘I Could Not Love You More’ is a record that reframes their sound, taking their drifting ambience and pastoral folk and sharpening it at every opportunity. You can hear echoes of Takoma in Lewis’s delicate acoustic guitar playing, shadows of early 4AD in the shimmering drones and all this is wrapped up in an Eno-esque sense of restraint. It sounds almost as if the pieces were written for the mid 20th century, with sounds coming from electric pianos, Mellotrons and guitars rather than heavy electronic processes. We end up with a warming blur of sound, something far removed from the chatter of zeroes and ones we have become accustomed to.
As the album drifts from beginning to end there is a delicate yet defined narrative, enhanced by the inclusion of subtle field recordings and just the right amount of silence. The tracks lull us forward and send us into a state of nostalgic reminiscence, which is in essence the theme which balances the album. ‘I Could Not Love You More’ is simply a gorgeous reflection – exactly what it reflects upon is left up to the listeners themselves. Who would have thought the mean streets of South London could produce such beautiful music?
-- http://typerecords.com/releases/i-could ... e-you-more
Taking cues from the skewed pop music of Arthur Russell on one side and Brian Wilson by way of Panda Bear on the other, Fred has channelled an outsider pop masterwork. Thick waves of decomposing electronics and processed instruments (is it gamelan? Is it something else altogether?) crash and fizz beneath Fred’s singular chanting vocals. There’s a sense that someone, somewhere might be singing along to these songs, but hearing them on mainstream radio might be pushing it a little too far. Sandwiched in-between three-minute pop marvels such as opener ‘Killer Whale’ and the stand-out ‘Summer School’ are extended ambient experimentations, but unlike the occasionally academic workouts you might expect from Type these feel organic and distinctly home-brewed.
There is something magical about Fred Thomas’s distinct and original musical creations, something that grabs you and won’t let go. We’re not entirely certain what that is but we’re sure if you give City Center a try you’ll feel exactly the same as we do. Pop music has rarely sounded so warm or quite so open hearted…
-- http://typerecords.com/releases/city-center
Full length CD album from Jerome aka Message to Bears, Oxfords premiere ambient folker. Here he brings us 10 tracks of his gorgeous acoustic guitar driven melancholy, begining with the the aptly titled "Running Through Woodland", the track sets a menacing pace with layers of guitars and cellos. "Hidden Beneath" is driven by a stomping pulse and delightful percussion. Plenty of glock action and viola sweeps, uplifting choral vocals and delicate piano lines, this is Jerome at his finest yet, showcasing a brilliant melodic ability, combing classical instrumentation into a folk/pop structure taking cues from bands such as Explosions in the Sky. This is an album that will leave you speechless every time you listen as you uncover new hidden details, textures and melodies.
-- http://deadpilot.bigcartel.com/product/ ... -pre-order
Phantogram's music sounds like it's made by a band from the city. Electronic loops, hip-hop beats, shoegaze, soul, pop — each finds its way into their songs. Unexpectedly, the band doesn't live and work in a major urban center, but rather calls the town of Saratoga Springs, NY (population 26,186) home. Despite the cultural influence of local Skidmore College (where fellow beat-experimenters Ratatat formed) and a relatively small scene of adventurous musicians and listeners, Saratoga isn’t exactly teeming with fans of J. Dilla, My Bloody Valentine or Serge Gainsbourg.
But Josh Carter and Sarah Barthel, the duo that make up Phantogram and who grew up in the even smaller nearby municipality of Greenwich, have flourished in Saratoga. In fact, the town itself isn't rural enough for their taste — they drive almost every day another 45 minutes into upstate farmland to a barn they call Harmony Lodge to write and record. Serving as their homemade studio/practice space/think-tank/bat-cave, the barn is equipped with various samplers, tapes, records, synths, drums, and both percussive and stringed instruments. It's there that Phantogram allows their natural surroundings and metropolitan influences to meld together creating beautiful, beat-driven dreamlike pop songs.
-- http://www.barsuk.com/bands/phantogram
Slowhill skrev:SLOWHILL - two highly creative musicians coming from different paths of rhythm and sound. DJ Slow (Vellu Maurola) has his backround in the Finnish hip hop scene, and has also had international chart success with his Levi's advert song Before You Leave. Sax/clarinet player Tapani Rinne is an award-winning jazz musician and one of Finnish pioneers of fusing techno music with jazz. SLOWHILLs debut Finndisc was released 2002 and it was the first so called "electronica " album on the Blue Note label. The band has now moved to PLASTINKA RECORDS with the album Fennika. It fuses elements of world music with a stylish downtempo/chillout background. All with a certain unique Finnish flavour!
norman skrev:Nästa flicka bli Brandi Carlile, tror hon började sin karriär som körsångerska åt en elvisimitatör... (om internet inte ljuger.. ), men det blev bra tillslut trots allt:
Brandi Carlile – Losing Heart: http://open.spotify.com/track/4VUNysMzVB8nBDUoB7viiV
mrGaskill skrev:http://open.spotify.com/track/25cZ1hejpFTQY8rQ9lV7Xu
Ere bara jag som gillar typ sånt där? Inget Svensktoppen-material, I know, men allt kan inte ligga på Svensktoppen ändå så.
UrSv skrev:Som en man med enklare musiksmak har jag en svaghet för musik som t.ex. följande:
Slow Hill - Fennika
Isla, the new album from Portico Quartet, is another step forward. Producer Leckie has brought an extra clarity to their arrangements, while the musicians have made good use of the studio to sculpt and enhance their sound with loop pedals, real-time electronics and overdubs. Nevertheless, 70 per cent of the album was performed live at Abbey Road: this is a band who can deliver on the promise of their recordings in concert; and vice versa. Their collectively written compositions evoke a universe of musical possibilities and influences. 'Eventually, the sum of all our parts - and what we've been listening to - comes out,' says Wyllie. Yet Portico Quartet sound like nobody else in jazz, World or contemporary music. Each of the nine tracks on Isla has a distinct mood and atmosphere, while remaining firmly within their soundworld. From the churning maelstrom of Clipper to the pounding pedal points of Dawn Patrol; from the fragile ostinatos of Line to the anthemic ensemble of the title track, Isla is an album whose contents reveal fresh nuances and facets on each listen.
-- http://www.realworldrecords.com/catalogue/isla
Australian brother-and-sister duo Angus and Julia Stone, while nothing if not easy on the ear, are an acquired taste. Their habit of alternating tracks – she sings one, he sings one – makes them a trickier pitch than one where the dominant voice sets the mood.
This is a particularly unorthodox approach given that Julia possesses the kind of voice that generally sends critics into raptures. High and pained, it bears trace elements of Björk, Harriet Wheeler, Kristin Hersh, Jesca Hoop and Alison Shaw of Cranes. As a solo artist, she’d get quicker traction. Yet the contrasting laidback stoner tones of Angus are essential to the siblings’ appeal. Once you get into step, the yin and yang of his and hers make for a deft emotional map. She sounds edgy, all heartstrings; he’s chilled, all ennui. Hung across minimal, beautiful songs, it’s a powerful mix of gentle angst.
Down the Way, their second full album, is a quiet storm. Their overall restraint is commendable, with fine details proving as moving as pyrotechnics might try to be in less subtle hands. Hold On (opening in a wave of shimmer) and For You are Julia warming up her palpitations, giving us a warning nod before ripping our emotions from our chests. Angus, meanwhile, grooves away to himself like the most talented busker in the world, disinterested in reaching out, bringing an organic sun-kissed vibe to Big Jet Plane. Here, simplistic lyrics gain gradual resonance, like a mantra. (Elsewhere, their lyrics are often their weak spot, lapsing into hippie cliché). Around the mid-point, Down the Way grows into something which surpasses their delicate debut and expands their sweet acoustic softness without getting hard-hearted.
Yellow Brick Road is lovely, developing from a light Angus number with Al Stewart undertones into an impeccably-gauged, muted rock-out, with pinpoint staccato guitar stabs to rival Neil Young or Tom Verlaine. And the Boys, the single, is Julia’s showstopper, a brilliantly arranged and produced anthem-in-waiting which builds, almost invisibly, until its chorus and crescendo set up home in your brain.
With the most basic tools, the Stones build something lovely and lasting. Roll with them.
-- http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/reviews/4vhf
Vilken härlig bild, jag skulle kunna köpa skivan bara efter att ha sätt omslaget, ger en känsla av att vara den typen av musik jag gillar.FalloutBoy skrev:Lite trevlig elektronisk pop.
Alexi skrev:Vilken härlig bild, jag skulle kunna köpa skivan bara efter att ha sätt omslaget, ger en känsla av att vara den typen av musik jag gillar.
The debut full length from Brooklyn (via Los Angeles via New Orleans) songstress Blair is a raucous and seemingly violent nut wrapped in a cute, sweet candy shell. Full of fuzzy guitars, fragile vocals, 80s-ish synths, and delicate strings, Die Young is part dance party and part suggestive exploration.
It barrels out of the gate with "Rampage", an anthem short on lyrics but long on emotional intensity, featuring Blair's tender voice countered by blistering guitar licks and backed by a growling wall of sound. But her animosity seems to be a byproduct of youth. As she grows, and the album moves forward, this fiery persona get tempered. "Hearts" explores the fluctuating nature of love. "Kamikaze" deals with settling for what life actually gives you. "My Turn" and "Hello Halo" tackle the tumultuous tasks of finding oneself and letting go of the past.
Blair seems to get lost a bit in her own daydreams but said dreams are filled with lovely melodies that catch the listener right up in her sense of escapism. "Candy In The Kitchen" is a perfect example, extolling the virtues of dancing as a form of evasion from life's troubles and disappointments.
Ultimately Die Young is a gem of an indie-pop record in the vein of Feist, Stars and Mirah, and fans of those will be done well by picking it up from Autumn Tone Records. No local dates but if you are at SXSW in March look out for her.
-- http://radiofreesilverlake.typepad.com/ ... young.html
When Laura Marling appeared on the folk scene in 2008, aged 17, there was almost as much anticipation of her promise as praise for the music she produced. This was no bad thing, allowing development as an artist, and crucially not placing too much pressure or expectation on not-as-yet broad shoulders. Her debut, Alas, I Cannot Swim, was delivered to a generous critical reception, but the question asked this time round was always going to be one of progression, and the fulfilment of that abundant early talent.
Listening to Alas and second full-length, I Speak Because I Can, back-to-back, a change in tone – if not direction – is evident from opener and lead single Devil's Spoke. The production here is more deliberate and pored-over, expanding upon the earlier bare-bones approach. A leaf out of the Mumford & Sons school of orchestration has also been taken, with Rambling Man the greatest representation of this. The development in vocal styling is also stark; gone is the wispy, quick-fire phrasing and in walks deeper, slower, huskier proclamations. In many ways darkness has replaced the brightness.
It would, however, be disingenuous to paint this record as a collection of Marling's miserabilism. Despite the downbeat opening tracts, certain songs – Darkness Descends and I Speak Because I Can – abound with optimism and the ultimate, swelling crescendo of the latter displays an impressive mastery of dynamics. Similarly, at least a touch of variation is a necessity in folk, and this is demonstrated frequently, no more noticeably than when the boisterous acceleration of Alpha Shallows falls under a weight of heavy strums and gives way to the subtle, tender love letter to a country that is Goodbye England (Covered In Snow).
There was a justifiable argument to be made that Marling's real talent had to be seen live; the recorded compositions not revealing the entire picture. With I Speak Because I Can, that argument may now end. Though just 20, it doesn't appear within her scope to make an outright bad album, and here we are shown a few more glimpses of her gift, but yet not an overwhelming outpouring of it. It's clear that there has been a progression as a songwriter, with a previously unfound depth apparent on these ten tracks. Though it undoubtedly draws on the travails of the past two-or-so years, there remains, without a doubt, more in the can from young Laura.
-- http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/reviews/chb6
The Delgados were one of the UK’s most consistently excellent bands. The Scottish quartet, of whom singer Emma Pollock was a founding member, released five studio albums, and were Mercury Prize nominated for their fantastic third, The Great Eastern, in 2000. That would prove to be their finest hour, but their other records come just as highly recommended.
Since their split in 2005, Pollock has followed a solo path. Her 2007 debut, Watch the Fireworks, was enjoyable but suffered from recent-memory comparisons to her former group. The Law of Large Numbers – released through Chemikal Underground, the label set up by members of The Delgados and once home to Mogwai and Arab Strap – benefits from further time having passed. It opens in stately fashion, Hug the Piano a solo on the titular instrument. But anyone expecting a wholly delicate affair will be in for a shock when Hug the Harbour follows – clean guitar motifs and precise percussion give the song a military feel, and Pollock’s voice sounds sharper than ever. The warmth of her accent remains, but her words cut deeper.
Which is a good thing given the lyrical treats spread across this set – though her first vocal relies heavily on easy rhymes, come the midpoint of this release the ante has received a considerable uplift. House on the Hill is exquisite, a song of amour going awry as the object of one’s affection finds the arms of another: “I wish that I could have it all again,” Pollock sighs, “but now it’s too late for me”. In her voice there’s real ache, and the silencing of the music around her on the chorus emphasises this longing.
At the opposite end of the sonic spectrum is Red Orange Green, which features edgier, focused instrumentation; it’s more post-punk than orchestral pop. Here, Pollock’s on the attack, despite initial promises of protection. “I get the feeling that there’s more going on here,” she supposes, as trust turns to doubt and the song layers on stabbing piano keys and metronomic percussion.
While sentimental on occasion, and certainly possessed by a lovelorn spirit that should connect with all but the hardest of hearts, The Law of Large Numbers never comes across cloyingly, its content ably handled and expressed with the same cliché-free purity The Delgados mastered. Not that this will surprise long-term Pollock fans, whose high expectations will surely be met here.
-- http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/reviews/jzb6
FalloutBoy skrev:Lite trevlig elektronisk pop från Elizabeth Harpers nya band:
phloam skrev:Tackar som vanligt, kul med det där moderniserade lite 80-talsaktiga soundet, och elektroniskt är ju alltid bra ju
Hip-hop's earliest records often relied on faded, scratchy source material run through entry-level equipment. Even as technology advanced, the grain and the gristle stuck around-- sometimes out of necessity, sometimes as an extra ingredient. Over time, those aged, decaying sounds burrowed their way underground to crop up in pockets of IDM, dubstep, and indie hip-hop, resulting in music, built around texture more than bass or treble, that often sounded ragged at birth.
With his second album, Flying Lotus (aka Steven Ellison) has mastered this texture. Los Angeles is filled with the crackle of static, but there's something about this ambient noise-- a nuisance to audiophiles, a sign of weakness in radio signals-- that feels oddly comforting. Rather than audio damage or interference, this deceptively entrancing record (stick with it, it's a grower) feels like nature; it's almost as though Ellison went out of his way to digitize and filter the sound of rain hitting a sidewalk to accompany its beats. Opener "Brainfeeder" bristles with sharp rattling taps, while "Breathe. Something/Stellar STar" transmutes it into boiling-water burble, and even the 1960s sci-fi foley-room chatter on the 43-second "Orbit 405" is underpinned by snarling, distorted, pre-amp buzz. It sounds less like an album built on damaged, beat-up, pre-existing vinyl loops than a clean, shiny new LP put through four decades' worth of wear and mishandling.
The static, of course, is just a single (if crucial) ingredient in the character of Los Angeles: What this album relies on specifically is the way that crackle and buzz reacts to the rhythm at the core. Flying Lotus shares passing similarities to the late J Dilla and fellow Cali beat creator Madlib in the way he puts together his beats, and it's not hard to hear touches of James Yancey's Ummah-era production tricks infused with the same off-kilter slipperiness you might find on a recent Beat Konducta release. And in Ellison's hands, these tricks are stridently odd where they could have been safely derivative, revealing a deep affinity for psychedelic lushness and digital distortion that puts him in his own class.
Los Angeles is also prone to letting its beats hang loosely in the air. Ellison often slips empty space inside the rhythm (another place where the ambient static comes in handy), and even when the tempo accelerates past the album's typical leisurely pace and finds itself driving a track packed with wall-to-wall bass, little of it seems hectic or jarring-- even the jittery tweaker-electro of "Parisian Goldfish" smoothes out into a pleasant pulse once it sets in. At its most stirring moments, the music can be soothingly meditative, though the booming low-end, sharp drums, and all that crackle and fuzz keep it from sounding too polite. With its accomplished fusion of debris and warmth in a place somewhere between b-boy head-nod and laptopper experimentalism, Los Angeles is a big step forward for a still-young career, an album well worth revisiting years from now-- preferably on vinyl, where the pops and clicks can only multiply.
-- http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/12132-los-angeles/
Though the genre seemed to die a rather quiet death back in the early 90's when Kevin Shields decided to move into semiretirement, shoe-gaze music (so named due to the bevy of effects pedal utilised in it's creation and performance) has seen something of a resurgence of late. From the feedback drenched dance-rock of The Big Pink to the ethereal dream-pop of Asobi Seksu, it seems that after almost a decade of basic, jingle-jangle, landfill indie the wheels of fashion have finally shifted. Maybe I can break out my Ride albums now without fear of serious abuse (I don't care what anyone says, 'Vapour Trails' is one of the most beautiful songs ever!).
'Malory' would be daft not to cash in on their chosen genres latest resurgence, and on the evidence of their 4th album 'Pearl Diver' there's no reason the German quartet shouldn't reach an appreciative new audience on this side of the Continent. The familiar trappings of the genre are all present and correct (distorted guitars caked in reverb, distant drums, washes of ambient synth) but Malory have a real way with texture and mood which sets them apart from the herd. Like M83 before them, Malory have managed to blend the aesthetics of the dense, dreamy MBV sound with the epic electronics of Ulrich Schnauss and the results are often exhilarating. It's a stately and demanding album which requires a great deal of patience before it unveils it's rich rewards. Vocals are used sparingly (if at-all on most songs) with the subtle atmospherics and gentle, chiming guitars taking centre stage.
The main bulk of the record is made up of tracks which fall between the 3 and 5 minute mark, and nearly everything contained within is worth hearing on some level with the tortured beauty of 'Dragon In You' the pick of the bunch. Hooks are not exactly the bands strong-point but to argue the albums relative lack of 'tunes' would doubtless be missing the point. The real meat of the record however is in it's opening and closing sections. The album is book-ended by some truly epic tracks that could more accurately be described as 'movements' with 'Ajar Door' in particular capturing the soaring melancholy of Sigur Ros's untitled album, that the song was supposedly recorded live really shines a light on the bands abundant talents. The gentle build of 'Floating' meanwhile flutters into life over some haunting 'found sounds' as disembodied voices float between speakers like lost ghosts. It's a beautiful start to a beautiful album which works (like much of what follows) on the common 'post-rock' dynamics of push and pull. The song keeps threatening to break into something nasty and catastrophic but it never does, and it's all the better for it.
A beautiful record then which should keep men and women of a certain age and inclination very happy until that third My Blood Valentine album finally appears (come on Kevin time's a wastin!).
-- http://www.subba-cultcha.com/album-revi ... tID/17613/
Kul! Misstänkte att det kunde vara något för dig.phloam skrev:Falloutboy! Gillade det smutsiga och drömska soundet hos Flying Lotus, jäkligt kul att Warp levererar än idag Tack för tipset!
Ja, han är grymt bra! En av få som lyckas fånga det klassiska Warp-soundet och samtidigt låta modern.phloam skrev:Av en ren slump satt jag och lyssnade på Clark igår, det är en ny favorit! Tack för länkandet där!!
Kairos is an Ancient Greek word that describes a particularly fortuitous moment in time. It’s also the title of Casey Dienel’s third release as White Hinterland, the album where this Massachusetts-born, classically-educated singer-songwriter comes into her own.
Her 2008 album Phylactery Factory – following 2006’s debut Wind Up Canary, recorded under her own name while she was studying at New England Conservatory Of Music, and a rather overly-precious curio she’d now rather forget – was a painstakingly-etched, winningly offbeat set that suggested Dienel was, like Joanna Newsom, another Freaked Folkie in love with old-time orchestration and tangled songcraft. She thwarted such attempts at pigeonholing with the same year’s Luniculaire, an EP sung entirely in French, and including a delirious cover of J’ai 26 Ans, originally recorded by Brigitte Fontaine for Comme a la Radio, her 1971 collaboration with avant-jazz weirdniks the Art Ensemble of Chicago.
Dienel throws a further curveball with Kairos, doing away with piano, guitar, strings – the acoustic instruments that previously made up her palette – in favour of synths and sequencers, a brave move that entirely pays off. Scoring her songs with electronica, Dienel is making no vain play for the dancefloor – rather, Kairos offers hypnotic digital chamber-pop, the minimal orchestration brilliantly foregrounding her playful and joyous vocals. This contrast, between the machine music and her most-human vocals, is particularly delicious on the sublime Begin Again, as sub-bass smudges and percussive clicks and whirrs play off Dienel’s swooning, lilting voice, pirouetting through effortless pop hooks. On Amsterdam, industrial clanking builds a mood of grey melancholy, Dienel’s multi-tracked yowls and yelps puncturing the gloom. No Logic, meanwhile, strings together loops of percussion and scratchy guitar to cook up a loping trance-pop somewhere between Eno and Byrne’s Bush of Ghosts and Konono #1’s Congotronics.
It’s impressively ambitious, experimental stuff, a brave leap on the part of a young artist. It’s an album that, in translating her Freak Folk into digital 0s and 1s, finds for Dienel a true, unique voice. It’s her golden hour, and you should bask in it.
-- http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/reviews/wwx2
It's easier to seem resourceful when you're working with slender means, as any glo-fi upstart could tell you. But this Swedish ensemble, centered around the LK's Fredrik and Lindefelt, is sophisticated and ingenious. Trilogi, a collection of three limited-edition EPs doubling as a sophomore LP, has a sneaky, consistent sound that's immediate and yet full of surprises. The glinting guitar and twisty vocal harmonies of opening track "Vinterbarn" establish the album's gusty cadence, but piano ornaments keep it from stagnating. The songs finally begin to run together in the final third or so, but it's gorgeous and clever throughout.
Massed, ethereal singing dominates, half the time in wordless harmonies; the other half in winsome folk-pop verses. It's indebted to Scandinavian folk music, but might remind North American listeners of Thom Yorke, or Neil Young at his most otherworldly-- especially on the lingering "Milo". Fredrik rely heavily on finger-picked arpeggios, textured finely with reverb effects. Minimal electronic rhythms pulse through lean, cavernous arrangements. There are waltzes and ballads, chased with trip-hop and synth-pop. The songs come together like puzzles, the pieces scattered on the floor and gradually snapped together in way that feels both meticulous and organic.
Fredrik's best songs have the haunting depth of medieval folk and the towering, evolving feel of post-rock. The sound quality is always pristine-- you can tell they slaved over each part to get it just right. Their guitars plink and ripple like thumb pianos. Mournful horns and cellos blur into eerie digital loops. A couple of songs seamlessly turn folk into Notwist-style electronic anthems: "Holm" does so by cranking up epic bass synths, "Flax" with pillowy beats and aquatic themes. It's forceful, sensuous music with a refreshing clarity of intention. And if you don't mind an emphasis on tone over hooks, it's very rewarding.
-- http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/13939-trilogi
shifts skrev:Håller på att gå genom tråden och tänkte posta de skivor jag än så länge är mycket tacksam över att jag fått tips om.
Less than a year after the critical acclaimed release of “421 Wythe Avenue” the indie collective Alcoholic Faith Mission is ready with the follow up; “Let This Be The Last Night We Care”
2009 was a crazy year for Alcoholic Faith Mission – with 3 tours in Europe and recorddeals in Japan and in the USA. Thousands of bloggers and international music journalists took Alcoholic Faith Mission to their hearts and wrote a lot of fantastic reviews.
2010 will see the release of the 3rd album and even more touring. In spring the band will play live in France, England, Benelux, Scandinavia, Switzerland, Austria and Germany. At the moment a USA tour is in the planning too.
“Let This Be The Last Night We Care” will continue where “421 Wythe Avenue” left us. Still with the intensity know from bands like Arcade Fire and Broken Social Scene mixed with the more soft tunes from acts like Bon Iver and Iron & Wine.
Alcoholic Faith Mission is a melting pot; synth, samples, trombone, guitar, bass, drums and amazing voices – and a lot of other surprises, mixed together and it sounds better an better for each record and for each live gig.
-- http://www.anost.net/Alcoholic-Faith-Mi ... -Care.html
FalloutBoy skrev:Mer elektronisk pop, dock inte från Warp:
White Hinterland - Kairos (2010, Dead Oceans)
http://open.spotify.com/album/0yn7BU5tx7VGI8EVGDR5GS
Bra att veta att det iaf är några som lyssar.phloam skrev:Försöker lyssna ordentligt så det tar lite tid men bara så du vet att det lyssnas Tack
The Sight Below’s debut full-length Glider (2008) established the reclusive Seattle-based artist’s singular sound—a haze of treated guitar, a steady electronic pulse, and little else—and his similarly gloomy visual aesthetic. In the year since Glider’s release, The Sight Below honed his craft and traveled the world, toting his equipment to distant cities and festivals, playing breathtaking audio/visual performances, and wandering off into the night. Evidently, this was time well-spent. With his new album It All Falls Apart, The Sight Below expands upon his strengths at every turn, crafting a paean to impermanence, an ambient meditation that uses the sounds of sadness in the service of sweet emotional catharsis.
Unlike Glider, with its loose, semi-improvised feel, It All Falls Apart was carefully plotted from the first note, as the The Sight Below struck up a long-distance collaboration with Simon Scott, former drummer of legendary UK shoegazers Slowdive. (“Never in my wildest dreams would I have guessed that I’d be working with a former member of a favorite band,” glows TSB.) The pair work together like old friends, their respective styles intertwining effortlessly—the veteran Scott even brings out a little color in The Sight Below’s dour soundclouds. On It All Falls Apart, The Sight Below’s overcast moods give way to a rainbow (such as it is) of brooding, melancholy textures, incorporating strings, brass, samplers, synthesizers, and vocals into the mix alongside the usual guitars and beats.
And yet, for all their darkness, the best moments of It All Falls Apart—the time-release rush of “Stagger”, the serene discord of “Through the Gaps in the Land”, the snowy-day techno of “Burn Me Out from the Inside”, and the aching cover of Joy Division’s “New Dawn Fades” (featuring vocals from Jesy Fortino, aka Tiny Vipers)—provide a simultaneous uplift. Maybe it comes from The Sight Below’s evident enjoyment of his time alone, his clear comfort in solitude; and maybe It All Falls Apart is just too damn beautiful to be depressing.
-- http://ghostly.com/releases/it-all-falls-apart
Hade helt glömt att Seabear var på gång med nytt album. Tackar för påminnelsen!Ton skrev:Islänningar må suga på ekonomi, men Musik , det kan dom
Koffe skrev:hehe!
Natalie Merchant is poised for the release of Leave Your Sleep, her first studio album since 2003’s The House Carpenter’s Daughter. Out April 6 [update: now April 13] on Nonesuch Records, this release is the culmination of seven years’ research and collaboration and is, in Merchant’s words, “the most elaborate project I have ever completed or even imagined.”
A two-disc set, Leave Your Sleep is a collection of songs adapted from poems selected by Merchant including pieces by both well-known and obscure writers. Featured are works by British Victorians, early- and mid-20th century Americans and contemporary writers as well as anonymous nursery rhymes and lullabies. Among the authors included are Ogden Nash, e.e. cummings, Robert Louis Stevenson, Christina Rossetti, Edward Lear, Gerard Manley Hopkins, and Robert Graves. Visit the album page for a complete track listing.
In addition to a new method of lyricism, Merchant stretches out musically on Leave Your Sleep by collaborating with a broad spectrum of artists—some old friends, some she has admired from afar—including the Wynton Marsalis Quartet, Medeski Martin & Wood, members of the New York Philharmonic, The Klezmatics, Lúnasa and Hazmat Modine. “The sessions were recorded in live ensemble settings to capture a fresh and spontaneous energy,” notes Merchant. “They were some of the most magical experiences I’ve ever had making music.”
Having sold millions of records worldwide over the course of her recording career, Merchant has remained busy in the time since her last studio album by curating compilations for both 10,000 Maniacs’ Campfire Songs and her own Retrospective. Additionally, Merchant performed live to the accompaniment of Philip Glass, Dr. John, Pete Seeger, and Wynton Marsalis and collaborated with British composer Gavin Bryars as part of The Royal Shakespeare Company’s Complete Works series.
-- http://www.nonesuch.com/journal/natalie ... 2010-01-21
In late 2008, Beck wrapped up recording his latest solo full-length, titled Dialogue. Unlike previous efforts, which have featured appearances from Saul Williams, Cedric Bixler-Zavala (The Mars Volta), Subtitle, and many more, the only voice on Dialogue is Beck's own. Across fifteen tracks, including two instrumentals, Thavius cleverly critiques many of America's ills with a dry, satirical wit that never falls into preachiness. "I think an MC should be able to draw on their life experiences and translate them into meaningful songs, maybe even grow a bit after reflecting on it during the song writing process. The writing and recording of Dialogue was a very therapeutic process for me for those very reasons: I took what I was going through in my life and put it on paper; I released my demons and let them dance over my beats."
Sonically, the album reaches new heights for Beck. Taking months to mix, Dialogue is Beck's biggest sounding album to date. Every track bleeds immediacy with warm bass kicks and aggressive highs that sound something like if the Bomb Squad had called Miami home. On his production influences, Beck notes: "I really like prog-rock, weird jazz/rock fusion hybrids, heavy metal, industrial stuff, etc., but I also like soul and funk, older hip hop, grime, some roots reggae. There was an earlier period when I was really influenced by drum-n-bass, and the more pretentiously named Intelligent Dance Music."
Beck's longtime roots in the Los Angeles underground music do manifest in the graphic design of the album, which was created by Sonny Kay, owner of GSL Records, the legendary label that spawned such acts as the Rapture, !!!, the Mars Volta, The Locust, Out Hud and a host of others. The two first worked together when Thavius was producing for GSL's first and only hip-hop signee, Subtitle - who would team up with Beck as Lab Waste for 2005's Zwarte Achtegrond.
For fans of iconoclastic music of any stripe, Thavius Beck presents Dialogue, and proves that the only musical boundaries he sees are ones he has already left behind.
-- http://bigdada.com/release.php?id=1595
Oh Jens, oh Jens
Your songs seem to look through a different lens
You're still so young
Love ends just as easy as it's begun.
phloam skrev:Det är riktigt kul att "Samlingssurfa" på potStify; man hittar en en samling med bra techno av diverse obskyra "grupper"
FalloutBoy skrev:phloam skrev:Det är riktigt kul att "Samlingssurfa" på potStify; man hittar en en samling med bra techno av diverse obskyra "grupper"
Ovanstående samling var ganska trevlig. Dessutom lite workout för baselementen.
Tack för tipset! Den skivan har rullat konstant i mina hörlurar i en veckas tid nu, fantastiskt bra!FalloutBoy skrev:Här är en annan bortglömd pärla från förra året. Givetvis från Kanada.
Vacker, drömsk indie-pop av högsta kvalitet. Missa inte!
Lightning Dust - Infinite Light (2009, Jagjaguwar)
http://open.spotify.com/album/5PTdCZy0c4gCTAugiIIgYg
phloam skrev:Visst var den! Bara för det så får du en till; "Spring Particles '08"
Ja, den är mycket bra. Deras självbetitlade debut är också ganska trevlig:Alexi skrev:Tack för tipset! Den skivan har rullat konstant i mina hörlurar i en veckas tid nu, fantastiskt bra!
The Art Museums derive their sound from a very specific time and place. The time is the mid-'80s, the place is the Television Personalities’ rehearsal room. Glenn Donaldson (who’s also in the Skygreen Leopards) and Josh Alper have made a thorough study of the whimsical, undeniably catchy mod-pop that the TVP’s and other bands released on head Personality Dan Treacy's short-lived label Wham Records. The results of this education are displayed on the duo’s debut mini-LP, Rough Frame. On it they deliver nine songs that are true to the spirit of their heroes’ sound, to the point where their slightly shambolic, lo-fi songs sound like they could have been released on Wham Records Well, maybe with a little polishing, that is. The Art Museum’s sound is more 2010 lo-fi than 1987 lo-fi, with more echo and fuzz than a band on Wham Records would have used. (The drum machine the Museums use also sounds like a more recent model.) It’s one of the things that keeps them from being mere copycat revivalists. The other is that the songs are hooky. Too many bands think that recapturing a lost or forgotten sound is enough and they forget to write songs that have memorable choruses. These guys didn’t skimp on that, as just about every song on Rough Frame is blog-worthy. It’s a promising debut that packs a nostalgic punch. Dan Treacy would be proud.
-- http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=am ... fixzwsld0e
Full of subsonic bass rumble and glitchy polyrhythms, Growing’s debut for Vice finds the group fully transformed from their modest beginnings as a band using guitar crunch to make ambient soundscapes into a fully focused (and completely trippy) electronic force. Pumps! picks up where 2008’s All the Way left off in a wash of a drone and noise, and adds forceful beats throughout. Driven by a pulsing kick, Growing’s palette of fuzz shards, goopy gurgles, and vacuum suction is transformed from whispers in the ether to block-rocking beats from a Martian club. As well as becoming more danceable (in a freaky, frenetic way), the band incorporates a vocalist, Sadie Laska, who delivers spoken echoes in the styling of Miss Kittin over “Camera 84”’s techno pacing. It’s not as if the duo has gone all FM radio, though. Everything is twisted and blurred to the point that only the patient and experimental-minded will sift through the murk to find the hidden grooves. Closer “Mind Eraser” manipulates the phrase “I love drugs” in and out of a clubby dub-skitter, along with what might be German elves yelling in an echo chamber. Yeah, it's that stoney and weird, but it's also really, really good. Potentially their most accomplished work.
-- http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=am ... ftxzqsldae
The artwork of Speculation, To Rococo Rot's seventh album and their first in six years, sees an arm reaching into grey space to unlock a panoply of coiled, wound, frayed and notched wires. Though circling in on each other, and replicating structures across the visual field, there's something unruly about the way the dense, steely material folds and curls on itself. Here's the thing: Through repetition, incremental change becomes apparent, and everything's connected, even at its most improvised and uncertain. It's as good a metaphor for To Rococo Rot's music as you're likely to get.
If it's brave for a group to go out in their 15th year and call their album Speculation—by now, according to rock lore, they should be on the downward slide, repeating one idea to diminishing returns—it's also a good marker of how To Rococo Rot continue to function. Back in 1997 they were calling their instruments "tools," analogising their laminar, instrumental songwriting with the fluidity of the contemporary, multimedia arts that were burgeoning across the EU, and thinking through relationships between their micro-managed riffs and the repetitions of everyday life. Nowadays, To Rococo Rot sometimes sound vaguely anachronistic, given the way minimal techno has leapfrogged electronica and IDM in the collective conscious of electronic music fans, but this works to their advantage: there's really still nobody who does this thing (ticking, shuttling, film-projector rhythms, Stefan Schneider's plangent, melodic bass melodies, the clicks, hums and gurgles of their collective kit's central nervous system) remotely as well—if ever.
Speculation was mostly recorded at the studio of Krautrock legends Faust, which accounts for Jochen Irmler's appearance, on spiky, treble-overload organ, on the ten-minute unravel of the closing "Friday." It's nice—To Rococo Rot goes out to sea with their predecessors—but what comes before is the revelation. While they've often included acoustic instrumentation, or simulated acoustica, in their armoury, on Speculation it's often upfront, structuring the songs. The three-note piano refrain that serves as "Seele"'s backbone is oddly reminiscent of The Cure's Seventeen Seconds, and "Forwardness" brings the piano back to duel with Reichian marimba patterns. "Place It" offers an orchestra of bass, from plucked harmonic chimes to sliding, rolling patterns, weaving through electronic melodies in miniature, with the trio's crackling hand claps running interference, all while ghostly waves of synth strings coast and coat the song.
For anyone disappointed by the hermeticism of this album's predecessor, Hotel Morgen, Speculation will pleasantly surprise. Its generous openness recalls To Rococo Rot's signal album, 1999's The Amateur View, and like that record, its melodic flourishes prove the group are no shirkers when it comes to pop music. But I sense something else going on here, perhaps an intensification of character that comes from meeting in such a focused setting after having spent a longer time apart than usual (all three members, Stefan Schnieder and brothers Ronald and Robert Lippok, are busy with extra-curricular activities), leading to a re-tooling of their wonderfully "systems"-oriented approach to making music. Most of all, Speculation reminds that there's always been something deeply human about To Rococo Rot's music, and the way they bring "artificial worlds into correspondence with nature"—as they once described the presence of the tulips that stretch across The Amateur View's front cover—is on fine form here. A very welcome return.
-- http://www.residentadvisor.net/review-view.aspx?id=7236
In a music industry that's becoming increasingly fixated on overnight, flavour-of-the-month success stories and general disposability, it can only be regarded as a great positive that The National are a band whose appeal continues to grow after some ten years of recording together. Despite not being the fresh-faced pups normally required to cause such a stir, High Violet is one of 2010's most talked about and anticipated albums, following on from the massively acclaimed Alligator (2005) and Boxer (2007). The lead-up single 'Bloodbuzz Ohio' previewed the impressive sense of scale this band aim for, and subtly, throughout High Violet they adorn their already very expressive core sound with orchestration (some of which is arranged by Nico Muhly) and big-name guest spots from the likes of Sufjan Stevens, Bon Iver's Justin Vernon and Richie Reed Parry of Arcade Fire fame. None of this detracts or distracts from the continuity and general magnificence of the album, which seems to serve up highlight after highlight: if opener 'Terrible Love' sets the bar awfully high as a first track, 'Sorrow' and the stunning 'Anyone's Ghost' see the standard rising ever higher - seldom has an album's opening fifteen minutes so persistently threatened to raise the hairs on the back of your neck. In a sense - and I urge you not to be put off by such statements - The National are the very thing that Coldplay would probably most love to be. Here is a band unafraid of making big, emotive, ambitious music that treats its audience to grand choruses and guitars that stay just the right side of stadium-rock, all the while preserving a just-enigmatic-enough indie persona so as not to stray into outright schmaltz. If all that sounds a tad calculated, well it's probably not an entirely fair portrait of The National, but somehow they do manage to pull off the trick of sounding like a band for all people at all times in a way that steers clear of wince-inducing cliche or populist hysterics. Whilst coming across as eminently intelligent and credible, you could imagine festival circuit live renderings of 'Conversation 16' and 'England' making U2 sound like Thee Oh Sees. There's considerable depth behind all this cosmetic bombast, however, and High Violet quickly proves itself worthy of the not inconsiderable press attention that has already been afforded it. This is one of the big, 'event' albums of the 2010, and actually, most likely it'll also prove to be one of the year's finest.
-- http://boomkat.com/vinyl/298328-the-nat ... igh-violet
Grey Oceans is the fourth album from sister duo Bianca and Sierra Casady, and continues to chart CocoRosie's departure from their much-beloved but ultra lo-fi debut, La Maison De Mon Reve. After the atmospheric acoustic-electronic fusion of 'Trinity's Crying', 'Smokey Taboo' arrives as a slow-burning treat, colliding tabla rhythms with electronic tones whilst Bianca and Sierra layer their very different vocal styles: while the classically trained Sierra opts for an almost operatic approach, Bianca tends to sound like she's voicing a Tex Avery cartoon. The voices compliment each other beautifully and always ground the album in something substantial and accessible, even when the sonic backdrop is at its most fanciful. In one of their finest moments, the sisters make like a tag team on the outrageously bizarre 'Hopscotch', switching between hauntingly maudlin verses littered with electronic beats to honky-tonk piano choruses accompanied by throbbing sub-bass - it's like a collision between vaudeville-style variety theatre and dubstep during its weirdest stretches. Also of note, the lovely 'Undertaker' fashions an arrangement for an old recording of what is apparently the sisters' mother singing in her Cherokee, and 'R.I.P. Burn Face' develops a kind of melancholic sample-driven swagger. This latter track underlines what the duo do best on the new album: introducing their established fairytale language of glockenspiels, toy instruments and far-fetched yarns to a more sequenced and rigidly programmed approach to arrangement. If anything, the electronics seem to further facilitate CocoRosie's forays into fanciful, adventurous songwriting, making possible a surreal and inimitable brand of music hall electronica.
-- http://boomkat.com/cds/294584-cocorosie-grey-oceans
shifts skrev:Årets absolut värsta skivomslag. Det lär inte gå att finna ett fulare.
Way back when, Kurt Cobain was denied an album title much like Xiu Xiu’s on the grounds of damaging sales. Mega-sales aren’t a problem for Jamie Stewart, however, who has in the past made being an Ian Curtis and Morrissey fan into an artform, while ensuring the music never becomes too easy on the ear. As ever, Stewart veers from acoustic singer-songwriter fare (albeit hyperbolically self-lacerating) to rough-edged electro-rock reminiscent of Joy Division on the cusp of becoming New Order (think also: early singles by The Associates, and The Human League before they became pop monstrosities).
The opener, Gray Death, is an instant new favourite, with a strident refrain (“beat! Beat! Beat! Beat to death…”) and alternating solos for phased guitar and reverbed piano, all as massively catchy as Smashing Pumpkins, but with gritty production. Chocolate Makes You Happy maintains the pace, but brings in chirpily naïve keyboard lines much like The Cure undercutting their own epic-gothery with a Lovecats or The Walk. Thing is, Xiu Xiu have another three decades of sounds / apps / plug-ins to play with, meaning that the menagerie of robot animals frolicking in the background variously sound like entire pieces by Autechre or Matmos (that’d be new synth-player and programmer Angela Seo, and various members of Deerhoof guesting).
Slowing down toward the record’s middle, for Hyunhye’s Theme, Stewart picks out a delicate guitar motif while championing a hard-working Asian girl, but there’s no slowdown in creativity: instruments snuffle and plink like a barn at night, before overwhelming the song with riotous cacophony. In a sense, that’s the whole aesthetic: the title-track has a killer hook, and grabs your heartstrings with its mournful synth organ, but all the other sounds are determined to subvert the song’s prettiness and (potentially) cheap emotion.
After seven albums and various EPs, Dear God… is as engagingly weird as anything before, but flows so much better by incorporating the customary sonic terrorism into verse-chorus-verse songs, rather than breaking off for performance poetry about living in the shadow of suicide, or (say) war as legitimate barbarism for jocks. Nevertheless, the limited edition LP comes with a T-shirt decorated with real blood. With it out on February 15th, it’s an ideal Valentine’s present for the deviant in your life.
-- http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/reviews/b5cg
Critics like to cite musical references in reviews a lot; it helps give the readers something to auralise as they read, as well as allowing for a comparison of tastes. Woodpigeon have made it at once very easy and very hard for this writer. Within the space of 16 tracks they manage to sound like (amongst others) The Shins, Andrew Bird, Jim Noir, 'Bends'-era Radiohead, Belle & Sebastien and any number of musical theatre chorus lines. This is easy, because I can describe to you, the reader, just how varied the sound of this album is throughout. This is hard, because I now have to explain why those references don’t mean that Woodpigeon lack in originality.
You see, 'Die Stadt Muzikanten' doesn’t sound like that list of sounds, those sounds sound like this album. It’s testament to Mark Hamilton and co’s musical prowess that in one album they have created a completely cohesive yet entirely changeable set of songs. From the saloon piano melancholy of the title track to the folk-orchestral sweeps of ‘...And as the Ship Went Down You Never Looked Finer’, every track offers a new slant on the band’s sound as Mark Hamilton guides you through with the purest of vocals.
Because of its changeable nature, the album becomes not only an experience characterised by its songs, but by moments in those songs. When the quiet yearning of ‘The Street Noise Gives You Away’ is finally released, the drums pound and electric guitars kick in and you’re swept away with it all. ‘Empty-Hall Sing-Along’s dark, swirling indie occasionally gives way to the most perfect pop refrain, like a beam of sunshine through an overcast sky.
It can’t be overstated just how much of an achievement this album is – there’s a musical accomplishment at work here beyond what most bands will achieve in their whole career, whilst Mark Hamilton displays a nous for pretty pop that could hook the most sceptical of listeners. 'Die Stadt Muzikanten' is a triumph, and it’s unlikely you’ll hear something quite as complex yet perfectly accessible for quite some time.
-- http://www.thisisfakediy.co.uk/articles ... muzikanten
Treasury Library Canada, the follow-up to Songbook, last September's disarmingly accomplished debut from eight-piece Canadian collective, Woodpigeon, arrives with what appears to be unseeming but altogether welcome haste.
Saturated in a faux-fey and knowingly off-kilter nostalgia, it sidesteps the 'difficult second album' syndrome to produce another sweetly sophisticated display of music-making guaranteed to entertain, intrigue, beguile and charm.
That the world and his wife is now singing the praises of Woodpigeon means you won't be able to claim them as your own private pleasure any longer. Gone, too, is the opportunity to gain the grovelling admiration of those you might have otherwise introduced to this delectable concoction of fanciful lyrics, sing-along melodies and home-spun sentiment. But that's a small price to pay.
A more focused album than its predecessor, Treasury Library Canada gains immeasurably from the delectable contrariness at the heart of frontman and songsmith Michael Hamilton's eclectic and elegantly unassertive art. For all the seductive fireside cosiness and gently swaying, raised-lighters-in-the-night-air prettiness of the surface of Hamilton's meringue-light, sugar-dusted melodies, what lies beneath are beautifully crafted lyrics that excavate into the affairs of both the head and heart with forensic clarity.
Fourteen tracks are packed into this marvellously beguiling package, each and all dealing with returning home after self-imposed exile. Folksy, rootsy, pop-y, indie and all points, perspectives and colours in between, Woodpigeon combine rare intelligence with insight and inventiveness to produce songs that seep and surge into the imagination and linger long after there like bittersweet inherited memories.
-- http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/reviews/gm63
Forgiveness is not a sentiment often associated with rock music. Anger, despair, infatuation, sure. But forgiveness is more complicated, and tougher to fit into a four-minute song. Broken Social Scene know all about heartbreak-- they've spent most of the last decade crafting songs about it with almost unparalleled zeal. Their story is filled with scurrilous encounters, backstabbings, and break-ups on par with most 70s arena-rockers, and they've crashed and rebuilt so many times that it's nearly impossible to keep track of who was where at any given moment. But they've also used that flexibility to their advantage: Their epochal 2002 breakout You Forgot It In People was the joyous sound of friends banding together to boost each other up, while 2005's Broken Social Scene was the dizzying sound of friends fizzing out into solo endeavors and outside pursuits.
Now they're back, and they're forgiving. Who, exactly? Each other, loves, bad decisions, humanity at large, worse decisions, the past, the future, culture, corporations, art, you, me, maybe even George W. Bush. (Well, maybe not him.) And while a 59-minute absolution session sounds excessive for even the most devout fans, Broken Social Scene aren't just throwing out hail marys here. Because forgiveness is hard, especially for a group this grand and this intertwined for this long. The album lets bygones go while acknowledging the pain and discipline involved, and does so while keeping with the band's indie-mixtape rep. There's a song that sounds like Pavement, one that sounds like the Sea and Cake (featuring Sea and Cake singer Sam Prekop), another like a Broadway adaptation of Children of Men, a weightless ballad that may double as an ode to masturbation, and a song that's basically five minutes of atmospheric pop perfection. Their ambition is intact.
Forgiveness Rock Record's thematic bent is mature, and that sense of gravity is embedded into the music, too. Working with band hero, Tortoise/Sea and Cake drummer, and post-rock mastermind John McEntire for the first time, Broken Social Scene made sure to have their shit together. Considering the co-producer's experimental bona fides, it's surprising that this is the most song-based album the band has ever made-- every track but one contains vocals, and a couple seem to be filled with more words than the entirety of You Forgot It In People. Unlike their last album's sometimes indulgent cut-and-paste sonic collages, Forgiveness has distinct targets and leaves little room for wayward meanders.
The band's newfound tightness results in a few of the most chart-friendly songs in BSS history, although as usual, each seems to come with a built-in caveat to prevent the potential of radio play: the sweat-soaked "World Sick", with its massive crescendos building to one visceral, heart-pounding release after another, is nearly seven minutes long with extended instrumental intros and outros. "Texico Bitches", despite its misleading breezy accompaniment, is an increasingly topical indictment of big oil that repeats the word "bitches" 12 times. And the vocals on the beautiful, synth-laden "All to All" are serviceably performed by relative newcomer Lisa Lobsinger, where Leslie Feist's stronger, more possessed delivery may have pushed it into another weight class entirely. (Feist does show up on Forgiveness, but only for background vocals.)
As an alt-hippie with obsessions for Dinosaur Jr., Jeff Buckley, and Ennio Morricone, BSS main face Kevin Drew led the burgeoning band to somewhere completely fresh with You Forgot It In People, an album that read like a non-ironic, indie-rock Odelay for the early 2000s. For the most part, Drew and company are referencing the same beloved bands on Forgiveness, with one key addition: Broken Social Scene themselves. There are now marks that listeners expect them to hit, and they're nailed with focus and precision: the peppy, horn-laden track from Apostle of Hustle's Andrew Whiteman ("Art House Director"), the back-of-the-bus acoustic session ("Highway Slipper Jam"), the immense instrumental to end all immense instrumentals ("Meet Me in the Basement"). All of those tracks excellently fill their respective niches, but the fact that there are niches at all adds a bittersweet tinge to a band that once sounded like everything else and nothing else.
Which leads us to the indiscretion summary "Sentimental X's". It checks off another BSS box-- the subtly devastating Emily Haines-sung heart-tugger. "Off and on is what we want," sings Haines, narrating the band's gift-and-curse plight, "A friend of a friend you used to call/ Or a friend of a friend you used/ You used to call." Which is what Broken Social Scene is: a mess of friends using friends, loving friends, calling friends, wanting to call friends, and then not calling friends anymore. The connections are transitory but also indestructible. Ultimately, "Sentimental X's" is a love song; there's lots of forgiveness, but nobody feels sorry.
-- http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/142 ... ock-record
One of the most promising developments of the last year or so in indie rock has been the removal of the Grateful Dead from the blacklist. Thanks to the valiant efforts of folks like Animal Collective and Arthur magazine, your average Brooklynite is starting to wonder why they ever hated the Dead in the first place. Truth be told, there's a lot to be learned from the Dead, and plenty of bands on both coasts seem to be taking notes. There's a re-emphasis on the live experience, on finding the psychedelic space within compositions, on not fearing the improv, on passing around music in cassette form. It's as refreshing as a 1967 Morning Dew.
Woods sound very little like the Dead; few of these bands actually do. But there's something of Garcia and co. in their DNA, most markedly in the free-form excursions of their live set, where the four-piece weaves through compelling improvisational passages. But the Grateful Dead made albums too, and the country-inflected indie pop that fills At Echo Lake, their fifth full-length and possibly their best, is a worthy heir as well. Loose, shuffling, and tuneful, the abridged Woods experience sounds more like Wowee Zowee than Workingman's Dead, but it hits just the right contradictory note of tight arrangements and breathing-room playing to get that back-porch, weird America vibe.
Where previous records got distracted with lo-fi detours or lengthy workouts that didn't translate from the stage to tape, At Echo Lake is far more concise. Made up exclusively from the soft landing points that punctuate their longer live jams, it's a brisk listen, even down to its half-hour runtime. Only the brief near-instrumental "From the Horn", which sounds excised from a longer jam session, hints at the group's more exploratory and dangerous side. The rest is a sunset daydream flickering by with songs, often acoustic-based, rarely lasting longer than it takes to plant a melody in your head. The endearing nasality of Jeremy Earl's voice is sloughed off by a distorted effect on all lead and backing vocals, making the record sound like a patchy signal from a distant ham radio.
Successful as At Echo Lake may be, Woods are still more interesting live than on record-- a photo-negative of 99% of indie rock bands these days, who mostly remain content to jukebox their catalog on shuffle night after night. Adding a couple of extended jams might help make a Woods record a more accurate souvenir of the live experience, but is that really necessary? Perhaps the most important lesson to be learned from the Grateful Dead is that the show and the album can be discreet experiences, feeding each other, but not overlapping.
-- http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/14224-at-echo-lake
zidanefromhell skrev:Tjoho, inte fel att börja helgen med att lyssna på nytt från Lcd Soundsystem
Lcd Soundsystem - This is happening
Det var nästan ett halvår sedan den kom.Ton skrev::o Har helt missat att de släppt nytt. -Tur då att denna tråd finns
The brainchild of the young and multi-faceted Virginian, by the name of Jack Tatum (also of Jack and the Whale and Facepaint), Wild Nothing’s debut offers the sort of sophisticated multi-layered musicianship that is rarely seen on a debut album by someone at the age of 21. When “Chinatown” made it’s rounds not too long ago, It’s feel for Icelandic pop, angelic flutes and synths made it clear that Wild Nothing’ full length was something people needed to keep an ear out for in 2010. Gemini lives in the universe where it’s uplifted sense of melancholy makes you want to spend hours alone with your imagination and wherever it may may take you. Tatum’s successfully evokes a nostalgic element throughout Gemini that you can distinctively hear as familiar influences weave in and out within his song writing. From the downtempo shoegaze of “Drifter” and “Pessimist” reminiscent of Cocteau Twins through to hints of the Smiths carried by Tatum’s youthfully optimistic voice on “Live In Dreams” and “O, Lilac.”
the lyrics mostly feel like an after thought (something Tatum himself admits), work well nonetheless on Gemini. The stream of conscious approach to fit into the music works well with Wild Nothing’s youthful, carefree innocence; Anything more substantial and the songs would have felt weighed down and Tatum deserves credit for being able to integrate them with organic ease.
Gemini is the sort of light and breezy album perfect for a Summer. It is bound to be the soundtrack to many road trips to the beach or country side. Gemini may take a couple listens for those on the fence to truly appreciate the complexities and dreamy pleasures of Wild Nothing’s music, especially If you’re already not enamored with, or just over saturated by the throngs of new dream pop or shoegaze readily available. But I suspect even the skeptical will discover Gemini a beautiful and even challenging surprise if given the chance.
-- http://mishkanyc.com/bloglin/2010/05/25 ... ng-gemini/
Debut albums are tricky things, but Sparrow and the Workshop seem to know that the secret to success lies in sticking to what you know, only doing it a bit better.
Ten of Crystal Fall’s tracks have appeared on previous EPs, this time produced with a slicker slight of hand. The new tracks fit the mould of a suitably ramshackle take on traditional alt-country with poppy sensibilities, with a healthy dose of boy-girl vocals, slide guitar and rustic, effective drums.
‘Into the Wild’ illustrates from the off the importance of singer Jill O’Sullivan’s vintage-tinged vocal, a cappella over gentle waltzing verses before a cacophonous end of rattling, swelling percussion and jangly riffs. In ‘Blame It On Me’, her style calls to mind a more countrified Cat Power, with a soaring wail of a harmony developing as the song grows. Instruments are given space to breathe, with the format throughout the record seeming to go from lilting melodies in sparse, quiet sections to raucous thrashes and stop-start aggression.
‘Mercenary’ is a down-beat highlight, with muted percussion and gentle guitar picking in the opening bars supporting the soft vocal harmonies of O’Sullivan and drummer Gregor Donaldson. The occasional guttural guitar chord in the background again grows into a heavy ending, showing the three-piece know exactly how to work their dynamic builds by this stage.
‘Crystals’, the origin of the album’s title, sees bassist/guitarist Nick Packer unleash sounds akin to O’Death, the thick tones adding personality. The eerie quality of the female vocals offsets the bells and upbeat, thundering toms and snare fills, coming off at times Mama Cass or Karen Carpenter.
Jim James-style male vocals begin Swam Like Sharks over an almost post-rock instrumental rumble, a switch which adds variety to the format of the record thus far, before both voices are at work on the chorus harking back to June and Johnny. The waltz time signature is once again at play which, although fitting, is in danger of becoming overused at points through the record.
The melancholic delivery of ‘The Gun’ belie the lyrical claim that one day everything will be alright, whilst the aggressive vocal of ‘A Horse’s Grin’ juxtaposing its cutesy words. ‘Broken Heart Broken Home’ tells a lamentful tale of moving on. The offbeat drums with clicks and bells compliment the eerie violin which works as an eerie, extra voice throughout the track. Closing track ‘You’ve Got It All’ opens with quiet meandering guitar, sounding very like She and Him’s ‘You Really Got A Hold On Me’ with dual vocals and another comfortable delivery of the quiet/loud dynamic.
The confusing thing about this trio is that they are clearly making music which harks back to another era, yet it never feels dated, leaving it hard to put a finger on what exactly they sound like. What could have been a pastiche of sounds and influences is not, due to certain individual flourishes. With many musicians claiming to be folk-faced these days to jump on the band wagon of Fleet Foxes and co, it’s refreshing to hear something more authentic and clearly a product of the heart. Whilst hardcore Sparrow fans might feel these recordings lack the punch of their predecessors, the uninitiated will really never know, and be all the happier for it.
-- http://www.thelineofbestfit.com/2010/04 ... stals-fall
Beach Fossils is the home-recorded work of Dustin Payseur, a hipster from Brooklyn whose guitar just happens to be blessed with a most magical jangle. Chiming those six-strings like a young Johnny Marr, Payseur cranks out spangly, jangly, glimmering, shimmering, lovelorned, forlorned, post-punk-ish indie-pop tunes athrill with daydream, romance, nostalgia, and an aching, inescapable sadness.
The few write-ups of Beach Fossils in the blogosphere thus far seem to portray the music as feelgood summer pop, but to me that doesn't stick. Hearing Payseur croon "I lost my heart for you" amidst "The Horse" is, contrary to ideas of mindless optimism, incredibly moving; the sad lament of a guy on the wrong side of a summer affair that never was.
Due to the slightly-fuzzy 'production' at play and his place on Captured Tracks, Payseur will get lumped in with the no-fi-garage-scuzz crowd, but to me Beach Fossils sound absolutely classic; those muffled drums and through-a-toilet-roll vocals and ringing-like-pealing-bells guitars sounding of no fixed era, part of no on-the-ground trend.
Beach Fossils' LP comes out May 25. I'd love to make some proclamation that it's bound to be a huge breakout, but I've long ago given up on trying to make rhyme or reason of why the things that are popular are popular. Just know that it's a really, really great album, well worth your loving.
-- http://altmusic.about.com/b/2010/04/26/ ... ossils.htm
lazpete skrev:Jag har dock noterat att det saknas lite skitigare musik, så jag tar på mig jeansjackan, bootsen och skruvar upp volymen.
Modern indie rock generally treats emotion as something that should be guarded or disguised. The Monitor does not subscribe to this viewpoint. On their second album, New Jersey's Titus Andronicus split the emotional atom with anthemic chants, rousing sing-alongs, celebrations of binge drinking, marathon song titles, broken-hearted duets, punked-up Irish jigs, and classic rock lyric-stealing. And through it all, they take subtlety out on the town, pour a fifth of whiskey down its throat, write insults on its face in permanent marker, and abandon it in the woods.
Loosely based on the U.S. Civil War, The Monitor may be one of the most absurd album concepts ever, invoking the battle that caused Abraham Lincoln to claim, "I am now the most miserable man living," to illustrate the sound and fury of suburban Jersey life in a shattered economy. In the annals of using historical metaphors for emotional communication, it's up there with Jeff Mangum empathizing with Anne Frank. But it all turns out so ridiculously fun-- with Ken Burns-style readings of speeches from Lincoln and Jefferson Davis, daguerreotype cover art, and song titles all participating in the reenactment-- that it never even begins to approach the pretentiousness these elements might suggest.
In the end, the Civil War is just a recurring theme, and one that's more personal than political. For stadium-rock inspiration, Titus Andronicus look no further than their home-state hero, paraphrasing Bruce Springsteen in the first song and name-checking him in the last. And while the central muse is obvious, there's a full menu of influences on display. There's the Hold Steady in its mythology of intoxication, the Pogues in its cathartic singalong gutter-punk, and Conor Oberst's Desaparacidos in its brazen earnestness. There's also the fatalistic fuck-all of early Replacements and the brutalist thrashing of east-coast hardcore in its violent instrumentation and apocalyptic worldview.
Somehow that laundry-list of inspirations all manage to make an appearance in the first two minutes of leadoff track "A More Perfect Union". After an opening half that's equal parts slop and ambition, the album turns a corner on "A Pot in Which to Piss" and settles into a reliable pattern, each song building from frontman Patrick Stickles' self-described "piss and moan" to a punk-rock fury, and finally to an instrumental call-to-arms. The repeated structure feeds the album's narrative arc and provides some much-needed breathers, until the record's big finale. At 14 minutes, "The Battle of Hampton Roads" adds a couple of extra X's to the already XL project: Oscillating even more wildly between the album's twin poles of suicidal ideation and vengeance fantasies, Stickles builds to his frothiest moment, spilling it all out in a verse that rivals Neutral Milk Hotel's "Oh Comely" for uncomfortable honesty. And in the end there's a bagpipe solo.
"The enemy is everywhere," Stickles keeps reminding us over the course of the record. It's difficult to tell what that enemy is, as Stickles' target moves from social anxiety to pure boredom to the symbolic frat-brahs of "Hampton Roads". But as the casualties pile up and the battle hymns keep egging on the troops, it becomes clear that the opponent isn't nearly as important as the fight itself. Catharsis is Stickles' fuel, and The Monitor is a 65-minute endorsement of angst and opposition as the best way to present that combustible sorrow: Light it with footlights, throw a giant shadow against the back wall, and rock the fuck out of it.
-- http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/14010-the-monitor/
zidanefromhell skrev:Bara hoppas nya Teenage fanclub kommer upp på spoten, smakproven lovar väldigt gott!!
The eighth "proper" album from Teenage Fanclub delivers exactly what one expects: gentle, bittersweet guitar pop, which harks back to the 60s without descending into pastiche. Pick of the bunch this time out is The Fall, a meditation on ageing gracefully: "I light a fire underneath what I was/ I won't feel sad only warmed by the loss," McGinley sings in the song's coda, as guitars swell into bloom. The subject matter throughout reflects the band's actual age, rather than that implied by their name – even in Baby Lee, the most playful song on the album, Norman Blake begs not for wild nights, instead demanding: "Marry marry me, oh baby, now I am insistent." More than 20 years into their career, the Fanclub sound as if they could do this in their sleep, but their ability to deliver a quiet kind of joy is undiminished.
-- http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010/ma ... -cd-review
zidanefromhell skrev:Tack o bock falloutboy! Du gör ett grymt arbete med att snoka fram musik! Hatten av
CODY skrev:Helt strålande, Wooden Shjips Vol 2:
Tyvärr det enda som finns på spotify av dem.
CODY skrev:Moon Duo, med Erik Johnson från Wooden Shjips:
Chockerande bra
Switching instruments and experimenting with recording techniques,
Meneguar has cooked up a totally unique(and surprising) record. The In
Hour channels the spontaneity and aesthetics of Swell Maps, the pop
hooks of the Zombies, and lyrical collage of Guided By Voices.
Everything was home recorded at their little Xanadu in Brooklyn, Rear House,
home base to the Woodsist label and the changing roster of Meneguar's
alter egos(Woods, Shepherds). Only six months since their last record,
The In Hour represents a serious departure that still holds true to the band's undeniable pop sensibility.
-- http://www.woodsist.com/woodsist.htm/
"Meth Teeth reside in Portland OR. and in some ways embody the rainy day big country vibe of the city with its youth culture dreamers, old druggies, and rustic history. There is something that is really hard to pin down about Meth Teeth, the songs rely on simple ramshackle rhythms, upbeat shinny guitar interplay, and big fat chord churners, and alot of tambourine banging away on the snare drum. Ultra catchy summertime rockers keep you sad and lonely, and upbeat and hopeful all at once."
-- http://www.woodsist.com/woodsist.htm/
When Tim Cohen told Shayde Sartin he was writing a song called "Be My Hooker," the Fresh & Onlys bassist looked at the singer/guitarist and said... "'There's no way we're gonna have a song with that title, dude,'" explains Sartin. "But sure enough, he laid a riff down and I was like, 'Jesus christ, I can't believe you pulled something meaningful out of such a stupid line.'" Welcome to the push/pull dynamic that's fueled the Fresh & Onlys' steady stream of releases over the past year, including last spring's self-titled LP (Castle Face) and this fall's Grey-Eyed Girls (Woodsist). And to think it all started the old-fashioned way—with Sartin and Cohen simply hanging out after work, playing their favorite punk (Buzzcocks, The Mekons) and classic rock (Country Joe and the Fish, cued up alongside slabs of psych from the group's homebase, San Francisco) records alongside a growing collection of empty beer cans. "I can't really explain what happened or why," says Sartin. "I guess we listened to records until we were on the same page, and from that point on, we never stopped recording." As simple as all of that sounds, the duo first bought a tape machine five years ago. When that failed to produce any concrete cuts, Cohen focused on his previous avant-pop band, Black Fiction, and Sartin split his time between session and live work for such bands as the Skygreen Leopards, Papercuts and Citay. Not to mention his close friend Kelley Stoltz, who ended up releasing the first Fresh & Onlys 7" (the limited Imaginary Friends EP) in early 2008. With so much music hitting shops in such a short time (Sartin says the band already has boxes of backlogged tapes), you might think the Fresh & Onlys camp have a problem with quality control. Quite the contrary; Sartin and Cohen are very careful about what they release. And while the duo writes and records the band's songs, the arrangements are usually fleshed out with guitarist Wymond Miles, drummer Kyle Gibson, and backup singer Heidi Alexander. "If we take a song into the studio or a live setting and it doesn't have wings," says Sartin, "Then we just ditch it and keep the charming demo version." The final mix of Grey-Eyed Girls sounds like a natural bridge between the raucous garage rock of the group's debut and the full-on studio record they plan on wrapping for In the Red later this year. That goes for the galloping grooves of "Happy To Be Living," the shadowy post-punk of "Invisible Forces," and the firework finale freak-outs that drive "The Delusion of Man." Not to mention a stack of hook-slinging tracks that nix any 'shitgaze' assumptions you may have. "We're not trying to hide melodies or do the blown-out thing," says Sartin. "A lot of those bands are great, but I don't want to ever cater to what's popular. It's not that I'm being reactionary; we're just trying to make recordings that are as rich and ear-friendly as possible." It's working.
-- http://www.woodsist.com/woodsist.htm/
The Mayfair Set is a collaboration between Mike Sniper, the man behind Blank Dogs and Kristin Gundred, The woman behind Dum Dum Girls that up until now has only spawned a single 7″ released earlier this year. This is as close as you can get to Lo-Fi supergroup (if you can even apply that term to a two-man lo-fi or a two-man band). While these sorts of alliances in any scene (large or small) usually tend to give way to a lot of back patting and tepid results, that is not the case here. For you see The Mayfair Set’s sum is much greater than it’s already excellent parts.
While Both Blank Dogs and Dum Dum Girls put out some great and ambitious 7″, EPs and albums this year in their own-right… the interplay between Sniper and Gundred on a record is bar-none. The two perfectly play off one another’s strengths, be it the way Sniper’s fuzzy instrumentation make’s Gundred’s Twee and 60s Girl-Group vocal tendencies seem that much dreamier, or how Gundred’s voice and melody can so easily pronounce the casual pop structure in even the most deconstructed, layered and battered of Sniper’s Shitgaze stews. And when the two sing on a track together, it’s game-over. Be it in a backing role (“I’ve Been Watching You”) or as a proper duet (“Dark House”) Sniper’s heavily processed croons paired to Gundred’s confident and captivating voice are in perfect contrast in creating some of the most haunting pop you’ll ever hear. Just from their singular output this year it should come as little surprise that these two utilize the strengths of Lo-fi production like no one else in conveying mood and tone. And as a result Young One plays out like sepia-tinged dream of love letters and closeted skeletons in a dusky attic.
I know for the casual fan the burgeoning Lo-Fi scene’s endless stream of releases and taste for occasional releasing material on outdated formats is a bit intimidating. And if my endless stream of reviews hasn’t peaked your interest to check it out even just a few of the releases then at the very least give Young One a shot. If I had to choose one release so far this year that not only an easy pill to swallow, but also encapsulates all that is great about the sound and scene, this would be it.
-- http://mishkanyc.com/bloglin/2009/08/20 ... ng-one-ep/
Wavves is the one-man noise-pop project of 22-year-old San Diegan Nathan Williams. Since his homemade cassettes and mpfree turbulence started damaging ears last year, Williams has become the focal point of what reads and feels like a maelstrom of chatter. Once something of a left-field mystery, the hype around him has built steadily throughout this young year. Now with drummer and a press photo, Williams has probably played about as many shows as he has songs to be heard. A spate of recent outings in New York a few weeks back had the scene in such a tizzy, The New York Times sent a dispatch to bear witness. And, just a few days later, to capitalize on the swell, his new label expedited the digital release of Wavvves , his second full-length in just four months.
Without delving too deeply into the muck of Williams' proper (and purely self-titled) debut LP, Wavves , it's worth noting that each of his twin long-players share more than just a menu of goths, weeeeeeed, demons, breakers, and vintage skate photography. While his second is the marginally less abrasive, more realized of the two efforts, both feature the same roach-encrusted punk pop. Be it in the opening power chords of "Beach Demon" or "To the Dregs", there's a couple of fried amps' worth of trusted guitar tropes and distortion-- tricks borrowed from the Wipers and Sonic Youth-- enveloping Williams' carbonated choruses. The vocal hooks themselves come fast, usually propelled by titanic drumbeats nicked from 1960s girl group music. It's not immediate--- and hardly the "pop" record that some have characterized it as-- but deep in the froth of highlight "No Hope Kids" lurks more than just a thick dose of teenaged ennui or even volume. There's thrilling evidence of compelling, thoughtful craftsmanship as well.
Wavves' no-fi bent has been compared to No Age's. But while those guys tend to reach far outside of their own feedback for spaces more expansive, Wavves' music feels more insular, self-contained, and unsettling. These aren't shouts from a house party, but from a solitary bedroom. And Wavvves ' outbursts are often tempered and sandwiched between clipped electronics (opener "Rainbow Everywhere" and "Goth Girls") or experimental noise ("Killer Punx, Scary Demons") that help congeal the album as a whole.
As the hubbub surrounding his music and name game began to gather serious cybersteam over the past few months, the San Diego native wisely moved his signature from small-time imprint De Stijl, to the bigger, much more historically distinct Fat Possum. Business measures and consonant gimmicks aside, the hop down South makes perfect aesthetic sense-- this young man is most certainly singing the blues. Hopeless stoner/loner incantations are scattered throughout, though two of the album's most bulletproof moments are also it's most deliciously bleak. Next to the pains of "No Hope Kids" (no car, no friends, no family, no friends, no girl), "So Bored" leaves memorable blisters. It's the record's one slam-dunk earworm, and it's a total bummer. Over three melted chords and his own back-up oooooooh's and aaaaaah's, Williams' moans a mantra that's bled into every track: "I'm sooooo booooored, I'm sooooo boooored." Not for much longer.
-- http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/12783-wavvves/
Sacred Bones presents the CD version of the first Blank Dogs full-length On Two Sides--vinyl was released (and already oop) earlier this year via Troubleman Unlimited. The first long-playing release and the first non-vinyl appearance (save for a very limited run cassette release of this album via Fuckit Tapes) from bedroom punk's new crowned prince of home-recorded DIY synth dementia. After a string of highly coveted and now mostly out of print singles and EP's On Two Sides finds the band holding attention in the long form. Buried under the layers of distortion, fuzz, and synth lines are pop hooks that call to mind The Bats and The Chills as much as Helios Creed or Debris. Psychedelic punk for fans of the more minimal and electro tendencies of the Komische. Which mask will you wear during Blank Dog Time?
-- http://www.sacredbonesrecords.com/releases/sbr008/
Well, I went to the social just to get a little pension
I was sorely in distress, I was needing some attention
They said you don’t get a copper, you don’t get a dime
That’s why I broke his jaw, that’s why I’m doin’ time
But it takes a lotta blue-backs to satisfy my honey
If I could get my hands on some f-oldin' money
Precis. Många skivor kräver ju flera lyssningar innan man kan avgöra om det är bra eller inte. Och den sortens musik kan ganska lätt bli påfrestande om man lyssnar på för mycket åt gången.CODY skrev:De andra fastnade inte riktigt omedelbart, men verkade lovande och det kanske är väl mycket begärt att man skall kunna smälta så många skivor på en gång.
Tackar för tipset! Har faktiskt inte lyssnat på just den Fall-skivan.Vill puffa lite för The Fall, Marshall Suite, som är en skiva som är svår att få tag på och rankades av Mojo som nummer (kanske) 34 på listan av 50
bra skivor som inte går att få tag på
As the Pixies tour still wends its gradual way around the globe, their main man releases what is surely set to be one of his strongest Black Francis albums. Or, indeed, one of his strongest Frank Black albums.
Co-producer Eric Drew Feldman had been holding on to an old black guitar that a fan had given Francis at a San Francisco club. Black finally took hold of it, polishing it up with red wine in his dressing room. Each time he played it a pleasing chord emerged. On a whim, Black instructed his tour manager to book studio time, and he began laying down tracks après-gig, at 4am in LA. Further songs were captured in London, at a studio that Francis believed to be haunted. This comes as no surprise, given the disc's shimmering sonic aura.
Black continues to refine his pop sensibilities, loading each song with heavy hooks and often hitting a chorus before 30 seconds have elapsed. He can drawl with a deeply threatening gruffness, then switch psychotically to a sweetly falsetto howl. At his heart lies saccharine 1950s balladry, but this purity can't survive intact once Francis soils it with his deranged yowling vocals and broken guitar distortion. Velvet-peach melodies are covered with elephantiasis skin.
Vocals emerge from a churning barrage of axes, with Feldman adding to the wall of sound with his antique keyboard crankiness. He floods the background with string ensemble impersonations, cheesy retro settings that sound like they're being forced through a cheap, malfunctioning amplifier. Black's guitar solos are never overlong, but he fills them with undiluted urgency. His sound is reminiscent of Marc Bolan's: choogling and chopping, talking and weeping. Francis is also sounding increasingly similar to Ian Hunter and Alice Cooper, though Wheels, which recalls the latter, is actually a Flying Burrito Brothers cover. It's a grubby rocker, topped by a mammoth guitar solo.
As it happens, most of these songs are rockers, and even the ballads possess a toughened core of energy. Two or three event-crammed minutes are the norm. The entire album barely hits 37. O My Tidy Sum has acoustic guitar strumming to the fore, then Rabbits turns towards nasty psychedelia, coloured by Black's sinister playfulness. When I Go Down On You is the most romantic number in the album's supposed handling of matters sexual, though Francis prefers to keep his words largely abstract in nature.
-- http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/reviews/9vzb
After all of the awful shit Crystal Castles did in the wake of their success, a whole lot of people hoped their new album would be terrible. Sorry, haters: 2010's Crystal Castles improves on their (also self-titled) debut in nearly every way. The latest from the Toronto-based electro duo is reminiscent of the jump forward taken by Deerhunter between Cryptograms and Microcastle, or Fuck Buttons from Street Horrrsing to Tarot Sport. Like those acts, Crystal Castles have reconciled with their detractors instead of running from them. By staying true to themselves, they've created a more focused, propulsive, and satisfying follow-up.
Some listeners might miss the sonic shock that came from hearing the sub-zero Italo chill of "Magic Spells" sequenced next to the 8-bit electrocution of "Xxzxcuzx Me", but clashes like those wore out their welcome over the span of 16 tracks. Here, Crystal Castles embrace continuity and broaden their dynamic range beyond the primitive loops that once constituted the foundations of their songs. The core elements of first single "Celestica", for example, are pure shoegaze, but the waves of distortion that scrape across its chorus squash any concerns that the duo has gone soft. For a band known for its harsh midrange, this record reveals a surprising amount of depth in headphones.
Crystal Castles are far more pop than before, too, which was probably an inevitable move, but hardly a bad one. Like "Celestica", "Suffocation" and "Empathy" mix fanged distortion and sparkly synths, while tracks like "Vietnam", "Not in Love", "Intimate", and the rave-tinged "Baptism" arm the record with loads of could-be singles. But despite this shift toward beauty and clarity, Crystal Castles still rip into some punishing, epileptic moments, like the distorted bass riff on "Birds" and the shredded brutality of "Doe Deer". The fluidity of the music is matched by Alice Glass' frequently manipulated vocals, a showcase for someone too often pigeonholed as a bratty screamer. She sounds at times like everything from a Leslie guitar ("Empathy") to a Cloverfield-style monster ("I Am Made of Chalk"). The obvious comparison is the Knife's Silent Shout, but where Karin Dreijer-Andersson often manipulates her voice to play characters, Glass is just as disturbing for her dehumanization.
As rewarding as this new album is, it's even more impressive when you consider its context: Crystal Castles may have come on at the tail-end of the blog-house/nu-rave/French-touch mini-rage, but they've now transcended it, moving from scene linchpin to indie stars. The reason is simple: Crystal Castles are a singular act who rarely sound like anyone other than themselves. So just as Ladytron's The Witching Hour did for electroclash in 2005, Crystal Castles seems destined to close the door on a fleeting, once-fashionable genre in the best way possible: by making an artistic leap beyond its boundaries.
-- http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/141 ... l-castles/
CODY skrev:Lägger upp en egen greatest hits från Fall's BBC-box om 6 CD. Obs jag skulle köpa den om jag var er. 12 pund Mycket billigt.
Once in a while a record comes along that makes you re-think loud: King of Rock; The Land of Rape and Honey; Nation of Millions; Super Ae; I Get Wet; Kesto. Setting aside the quality of the material-- there are classics here, along with albums I never listen to anymore-- these albums are notable for me because the first time I heard them, music just seemed bigger than it had before, like it took up more space and hit with more force and went further than once seemed possible. When I was getting into these records, I'd get a specific kind of kick just from putting them on. They felt like rides at an amusement park, and I'd get a feeling in my stomach when the first notes kicked in: Here we go. I'm adding another record to my list.
Demos of songs from Sleigh Bells' Treats first started making their way around the Internet last fall, and they immediately served as conversation starters. The distortion in early track "Crown on the Ground" was so intense that every other second the song seemed on the verge of shutting down. But while Derek Miller's overdriven guitar and bass were distressed in the extreme, vocalist Alexis Krauss remained calm as chaos raged around her. Her cadence, somewhere at the intersection of singing, speaking, and chanting, conveyed an easy confidence, like she belonged in the middle of this maelstrom and knew she didn't need to shout to be heard. The contrast between her relaxed bearing-- where she seemed to rule over it all-- and the dangerous splatter of the music was striking to say the least. It was as easy to be taken in as it was to understand why someone else might be repelled. I felt some of both feelings, to be honest, but I also wanted to hear more.
Treats delivers completely on the promise of those demos. Sleigh Bells haven't stopped living the red, but the improved recording quality makes songs including "Crown on the Ground" that much heavier, and the duo have managed to extend their uncomplicated formula across 11 tracks without it wearing thin. The combination of the music's essentials-- jackhammer riffs clipped from punk and metal, mid-tempo beats from hip-hop and electro, and supremely catchy sing-song melodies-- is striking on its own, sounding remarkably fresh and unlike anything else right now. But an even greater source of the record's appeal is how it doesn't sound especially referential.
When so much music seems designed to evoke the mood and vibe of a specific era, either through direct imitation or playing with the memories of the music's context, Sleigh Bells deftly avoid any single pigeonhole. There are references, but it never feels like the music is merely pointing. Genre here is something to be twisted around and pulled and braided with something else, a mangled container struggling to hold the energy and ecstasy of the music. They gather up bits from all over and use them to create music that puts you squarely in the present moment.
The music hits so hard, and in such a satisfying way, and it seems designed to bring you back to the totality of the sound. It's hard to say what the songs are about, since so many words are so difficult to make out, but they work. The lyrics of "A/B Machines" consist only of, "Got my A machines on the table/ Got my B machines in the drawer," repeated over and over, and who am I to question Krauss on this point? We're talking about "a-wop bop a-loo bop a-lop bam boom" and "Da Doo Ron Ron" here, which is just right for what the music tries for.
So my ear on "A/B Machines" goes to the searing guitar lead, which screeches out a few penetrating notes, and then pauses on the clanging low-end and the interludes and Western-sounding guitar rumble. And on the opening "Tell 'Em", the focus goes to the call-and-response drum machine pummel, soaring riff, and finger snaps compressed into sharp little diamonds, as Krauss chirps a short, repetitive melody with the insistence of a pep rally cheer. "Rill Rill" takes the immortal acoustic guitar bit from Funkadelic's "Can You Get to That", blows it up to Hollywood blockbuster size, and loops it along with clicking percussion as Krauss sings what may prove to be the pop earworm of the year, the kind of tune you'd swear you were singing over and over to yourself years ago. "Straight A's" has some of the electro-punk rage of Crystal Castles, the less frantic tracks like "Rachel" have a bit of shoegaze, and the pacing of the album is just so, taking you right to edge in one song and then pulling you back a few inches in the next.
Though both Krauss and Miller have been making music for a while-- he in the hardcore band Poison the Well, she in some kind of manufactured teen-pop group that never got off the ground-- it's easy to see them as a connected band with the right gimmick at the right time. They live in New York, they've played hip shows for important people, and from the beginning the online chatter has been almost as deafening as the guitar tones. But what works in their favor is that they've taken advantage of these breaks and marshaled their talent to make something that oozes joy. There's spirit to this music, and the sonic assault is celebratory, asking only that you come along with it and join in. All of which, for me, anyway, makes the hype melt away. And if it's true that records this intense and exhilarating don't always sustain themselves over the long haul, that's not a worry either. The visceral thrill of Treats may not last forever, but neither does life; right now, this feels like living it.
-- http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/14251-treats/
Most people who follow Ariel Pink were introduced to him by 2004's The Doldrums, the first non-Animal Collective release on that band's Paw Tracks label. From the beginning, Pink was presented as an outsider, a recluse who obsessively recorded at home and had compiled hundreds of unheard songs. The notion that he was a supremely strange person making music in his own world was fully supported by the string of albums, singles, and EPs that followed. First, there was the music itself, which saw Pink using an ultra lo-fo recording set-up to re-imagine cheesy AM radio jingles and lost new wave tracks as surreal, art-damaged pop. His music could be bizarre and disturbing, with warped voices and dark subject manner evoking loneliness, bad drugs, and alienation; it could also be sweet and even sincere, celebrating the pleasure of a well-rendered verse melody and a good chorus.
Then there was the fact that the recordings themselves had apparently been excavated from a cache of material from another time: The vast majority of the music he's released since 2004 was written and recorded years earlier, mostly between 1998 and 2002. So a certain amount of mystery was part of the package, and the recordings weren't giving anything away. His releases never struck me as possessing the level of genius his most ardent supporters hear in them, but that was OK, because he didn't seem like he was setting out to make masterpieces.
Something unusual has happened to Ariel Pink since he first started sharing those tapes with the wider world, though. Think of it like the cliché about The Velvet Underground & Nico, but on a smaller, more craft-y scale: His records didn't reach a lot of people, but many of those who heard them were inspired to start home recording projects of their own. So as different kinds of lo-fi music bubbled up from the indie underground in the last couple of years-- from more placid chillwave to roughed-up garage rock to abstract instrumental music-- and many of these bands were talking about his influence, all of a sudden Ariel Pink started looking way ahead of the game. And now, he's been given a chance to do something few artists working on his scale ever do: record an album more or less professionally for a large independent label and enjoy all the increased attention such a leap provides. He did not waste the opportunity.
Oddly, the difference in fidelity isn't what sets this record apart from earlier Ariel Pink releases. While much of the tape hiss that marked those records is gone, along with the degraded audio quality that came off those old, decaying cassettes, this is still a pretty modest-sounding LP, recorded simply and cleanly but not, from the sound of it, expensively. Haunted Graffiti, which began as an abstract concept, has also turned into a full band featuring experienced members who've spent years playing in established independent acts, and each took care to get their various parts right. The vocal harmonies overlap just so, the guitar fills are in the right places, the drumming is tight and precise, and bassist Tim Koh in particular colors the songs with striking rhythmic and countermelodic depth. It turns out that these details make a big difference, even while the album adheres to the hazy overriding aesthetic of Pink's earlier records. The fact that this is, in a sense, Ariel Pink's first group of songs created to be released together and presented as a whole-- as an album, rather than as a collection of songs recorded years ago-- sets the table for a new focus.
We know from interviews that Ariel Pink grew up absorbing throwaway pop from the 70s and 80s, finding a way to make it all fit into his cracked worldview. Something overlooked about those songs, though, is that the people writing them were pros who knew something about intros, codas, and middle-eights, how a certain kind of chord change can cause the turnaround to the chorus to hit a little harder. Ariel Pink's best songs are surprising, and there's a real sense of musical delight on Before Today; the sections sound logical but never predictable, and there are wild bridges and short bits that emerge seemingly randomly but wind up taking the song somewhere unexpected. So "L'estat (Acc. to the Widow's Maid)" goes from a rollicking organ-led opening section to a catchy call-and-response chorus hook the Monkees might have liked to a short double-time instrumental section to a jubilant coda, and all the while the stitches never show. Songs like "Little Wig" have so many interesting interlocking parts that they can almost feel proggy, despite their relative brevity and tight pop structures.
Since a number of these songs exist in earlier versions on other records, it's easy to hear how they benefit from Before Today's more worked-over approach. "Beverly Kills" was a fine song in its original incarnation on the 2002 edition of Scared Famous (it also appeared on last year's Grandes Exitos comp), but it has so much more power here. Opening with roller-rink keyboards, a popping bass, and car chase sound effects, it feels loose and casual until the falsetto vocals snap into place, sounding suddenly like Philip Bailey on a lost Earth, Wind & Fire jam. The delicate soft rock of "Can't Hear My Eyes", also heard twice before in slightly cruder forms, benefits greatly from just a few more dabs of production mousse. It's a song that wants to be slick, bringing to mind carefully layered singles by Alan Parsons Project, complete with swells of synthetic strings and a smooth sax interlude.
And then there's "Round and Round", one of indiedom's most unifying and memorable songs in 2010, which is barely recognizable from its early four-track incarnation as "Frontman/Hold On (I'm Calling)". It's another song of smartly integrated units of melody, any one of which might be built out into a great song of its own, but which together become something astonishing. Its circular bassline doubles with low-chanted voices that build up tension and mystery, a connecting section that opens the song up with a high-pitched plea, and an interlude section with a ringing phone and some jazzy keyboards, all of which build to the massive sing-along chorus. "Round and Round" was mastered at Abbey Road, and not a cent of that cost was wasted. It is endlessly replayable.
Alongside these grabbier tunes are tracks that retain the uncanny, otherworldly sense that has been a constant thread through Ariel Pink's music. Best among these is "Menopause Man," which goes from grim deadpan verses to a fascinatingly beautiful chorus that sounds beamed in from another era, yet remains elusive and difficult to place. But even given the varied style and tone on Before Today-- there's a queasy instrumental and a faithful cover of the 60s garage rock song "Bright Lit Blue Skies"-- it feels of a piece and uniformly strong, and there's so much going on that it only seems to improve the more you listen to it.
It's a rare feat for artists to maintain a truly unique sound while taking their music in a direction that appeals to a wider audience. For those who've been following along for a few years, this is a groundbreaking record that condenses and amplifies Ariel Pink's most accessible tendencies. But the brilliant thing about Before Today is that no prior knowledge of his catalog is required. Newcomers can dig into this record and absorb all of these weird and wonderful songs now, and save the backstory for another day.
-- http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/14324-before-today/
The opening seven seconds of Made The Harbor feature a brief guitar chord and the clearing of a throat (twice) – suggesting “settle down: we have something to share”. ‘Buffalo’ grows out of a simple guitar line, with the trio of Molly Erin Sarle, Alexandra Sauser-Monnig and Amelia Randall Meath building the first of their signature 3-part harmonies, joining the lyric “follow, follow, follow the buffalo” one-by-one. It’s so easy to forget the source of folk and blues music amidst the rattles and demands of the 21st Century existence, one of the numerous reasons why the simplicity of Mountain Man’s sound – three female voices, layered in a bluesy harmony, and an acoustic guitar – is so refreshing.
Made the Harbor is a tapestry of thirteen incredibly intimate songs, interweaving and concerning animals, nature, womanhood, and the turbulences of romance. The band’s creation occurred a small town in Vermont, when Amelia heard the sound of Molly playing ‘Dog Song’ in a shared house, demanding her to teach it to her. The version blessing this album is a quiet torrent of fear, love and anger (in that order) – worries of a lost dog and howling coyotes culminating in “hurry up baby / hurry up baby / or get out of my site”, taken from a whisper to a heart-torn declaration.
It’s a pursuit of joy that repeated surfaces through these songs – ‘Animal Tracks’ promises whispers in summer air, and seeking out “the bright baby eyes of a chickadee” in a harmony of delighted Americana. The divine vocal of ‘White Heron’, “draw me still”, halts the listener also; ‘Arabella’ is longing for strength in a desperate moment, dreaming for “lost mothers’ instruments”, trying to “keep your birthday and the car ride alive”; whilst “cool green Caroline” is observed delicately through the eyes of a lover on ‘Sewee Sewee’.
There are moments where folk is traded for something else, drawing differing moods into the record: the cover of The Mills Brothers’ 30s hit ‘How’m I Doin’’ is pure barbershop, ‘Babylon’ a melancholic psalm sung as a canon, retaining a baroque hint. The two changes of tone won’t necessarily win over the hearts of fans of quiet intimacies, but they don’t harm a record of this fine crafting, simplicity that rewards repeated listening – drawing one further and further in a hushed world of subtle tape hiss and away from digital age (or whatever it’s supposed to be). Mountain Man is a deservedly welcome addition to already-great Bella Union.
-- http://www.thelineofbestfit.com/2010/06 ... he-harbor/
The charge often levelled at Johnny Flynn is that, while his music bleeds sincerity, his background as an actor brings that sincerity into question. Can we trust someone who made a living of trying on characters to sing honestly about his own? Is all that charisma masking an emotional con?
Flynn’s first album, A Larum, brought him and these questions to the public’s attention. A tightly-produced, classic-sounding record, it wove a fine line between honesty and riddles, offering profundity one moment, and whipping it away with rhyming games the next. Musically, it was also a paradox. A trad-folk aficionado, Flynn chose to record in grunge capital Seattle, and came back with a sound that was apparently all roots, but smacked suspiciously of the post-modern. An easy album to love, it came with an uneasy feeling that the love might lead to heartache.
Been Listening has no such problem. While still possessing the playful way with language and meaning that has become Flynn’s trademark, it has an openness not previously heard in his music. Perhaps he’s become more comfortable in his tastes, because there is less attempt on this album to dilute them with something cooler. That's not to say it's entirely rooted in one tradition. Johnny's second and third instruments, violin and trumpet, contribute, respectively, a cross between Penguin Cafe Orchestra and Latin folk, while a new drummer channels Nineties break-beat on songs like 'Churlish May' and 'Kentucky Pill'. Meanwhile, a musical debt to the Band and Neil Young gives the entire piece a sense of maturity and class, in particular the ham-fisted guitar solo that brings the title track to its climax.
The album flits from the questioning, low-key ballad to a mood you might call 'stomping', but at the centre of it lies a lyrical constancy not dictated by form. Flynn works within the story-telling folk tradition, but uses the format to write about himself, and it is here that, finally, the listener gains some insight into the who he is. Playful, reflective, searching, he comes across as a man on a journey, asking big questions, and weaving religious references and questions of self into his tales of pretty maids and jigs. It's fitting that Flynn should share a range with the great Will Oldham, as both have a knack of turning an internal monologue into something comforting for the listener, which is not to say that you don't feel sorry for the women in their lives.
This review would not be complete until it mentioned the stand-out track 'The Water'. A duet with Laura Marling, it's the kind of song you wish She & Him would write. Parked quietly in the centre of the record, it forms the apex for an album that is, if perhaps not musically radical, radical in its honesty. In making Been Listening simpler, and more imperfect than his first record, Johnny Flynn has held out a hand in a way he never did before. It sounds like the truth, and, this time, we know to believe him.
-- http://drownedinsound.com/releases/1543 ... ws/4140179
zidanefromhell skrev:Lågmält o fint på piano, Perfume genius - Learning
As anyone fortunate or canny enough to witness The Ascent of Everest’s symphonic post-rock in a live context can attest this Nashville eight-piece are something of a beautiful anomaly in the underground music world; producing delicate, sumptuously layered compositions that owe as much to the avant garde of classical music as to anything originating from the realms of rock, AOE weave their aural landscapes with a deft, elegiac grace that more often than not packs a real emotional punch.
‘From This Vantage’, the band’s second album, continues where its predecessor left off, deploying a range of unconventional instrumentation such as violin and cello to sidestep the typical constructional constraints of instrumental rock. Think of a more adventurous take on latter day Mono, or Jonny Greenwood collaborating with Sigur Ros... This is tremendously atmospheric, cinematic music that will probably beguile as many as it will charm. Interested readers are advised to listen through ‘From This Vantage’ from beginning to end, as these eight tracks together form an unmistakable journey, latter sections incorporating sparing bursts of heavy guitar to add an extra power to the album’s dizzying peaks and troughs. Ethereal vocals, unpredictable song structure; we can’t recommend that you check out The Ascent Of Everest enough if you’re after a challenging, intellectually and emotionally rewarding listen.
-- http://www.subba-cultcha.com/album-revi ... tID/19738/
After a bit of a pause Isan return with this predictably lovely full-length transmission, their first in 4 years. Once again encapsulating the same elements they have spent more than a decade perfecting (1970's synth lullabies, percolated Casio rhythms and an unshakeably nostalgic aesthetic), spending 50 minutes in their company here will gently nudge you into a world of pastoral wonder and analogue electronic bliss. On "Device" their weltanschauung is perfectly distilled, painting delicate sound tapestries with quietly spiralling synth cascades and barely audible sound treatments flickering away in the background, while "Merman Sound" does little to disguise the beautifully handmade construction at work, introducing vintage percussive machinery to beguiling effect. There's something disarmingly childlike and primitive about the whole run of tracks here, by the time you get to the incredible closing track "Eastside V34" you barely even notice that some dislocated vocal samples have penetrated the pure and perfectly formed world Isan inhabit. If you've enjoyed the Hauntological fantasies of the Ghost Box label, in particular the Advisory Circle, or the strangely emotive synth works of Onehotrix Point Never, "Glow In The Dark Safari Set" will quickly find a treasured spot in you record collection, it is without question one of the loveliest and most charming releases of the year. Very highly Recommended.
-- http://boomkat.com/cds/298350-isan-glow ... safari-set
shifts skrev:Brian Borcherdt - Coyotes @ Spotify.
Ett av de bästa album jag hört på riktigt länge. Ge de två första låtarna en
chans och gillar man inte efter det kan jag säkert säga att man inte gillar
resten. Låter ibland läskigt likt Nathan Amundson/Rivulets.
Den var mycket trevlig! Tack för tipset!shifts skrev:Brian Borcherdt - Coyotes @ Spotify.
Max Richter's music could broadly be classified as neo-classical, or ambient, or electro-acoustic chamber music. These descriptors give you an idea of his sound, but they don't tell you what the music feels like. So while I can recognize those generic touchstones, I hear Richter's music first as night music, sound that makes darkness feel alive. I don't tend to associate music with a mood or a time of day or a season, but I like to listen to his albums when I'm working late. I have an iTunes playlist called "That Feeling" (so-called because it's something I can't quite name), and it is 50% Richter. His music both captures a specific atmosphere and also feels internal.
Infra fairly brims with these qualities. Scored for piano, electronics, and string quartet, it's an expansion of a 25-minute piece Richter wrote for a collaboration with choreographer Wayne McGregor and artist Julian Opie. The latter contributed video projections of scenes from everyday life that ran behind the dancers. I can see how the music might complement the piece. His work has an amazing ability to interact with and elevate banality. It's not an uncommon trick to pair a mundane shot-- two businessmen shaking hands, someone cleaning out a garage, birds landing on a wire-- with slow and pretty music. But when it's done well, such juxtapositions still have the power to turn the everyday rigmarole we're seeing onscreen into something emotionally charged.
It's as though music allows us to see the melancholy or even futility of activities we take for granted. The more mundane the activity and the more achingly gorgeous the music, the more we feel the effect. And this music is achingly gorgeous. It's also uncomplicated. If one were to transcribe it, it would look childishly simple on the page: long, held notes, a few repeating phrases locked together, some strings working their way through a chord progression, note by note. But it's not the substance of the music that matters so much as the way it's all put together, and the way the composer understands timbre and what it can suggest. Here, on "Infra 7", Richter pulls the strings through electronic processing to give them a hollow, glassy tone that's completely at odds with the sound of vibrating strings bouncing off wood, the dominant sound of the rest of the album. And by setting you momentarily outside of the rich texture he's acclimated you to, he makes you feel all the more at home when it comes back, full bore, on "Infra 8".
I should note that the original inspiration for the whole collaborative project was T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land, a work of great power in its own right that has been over-referenced through the years, to the point where it can feel a bit old hat. But the Eliot poem falls by the wayside as a reference point as the piece progresses, and its haunted aura seems to have remained mostly as an echo in the music. Regardless, Infra works as an enveloping and moving work even absent any knowledge of its beginnings. Others may glean different feelings from it than I do, but that is part of the point. Even if it conjures nothing of the night for you, it is some of Richter's very best work. And if you've ever cared about his music, it will make you feel something.
-- http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/14452-infra/
Brooklyn's Fang Island describe their aesthetic as "everyone high-fiving everyone." So it's appropriate that the band's website features a video of them jamming out with kindergartners and another with Andrew WK-- people so caught up in having a good time that you sometimes wonder if they're bullshitting you. What helps Fang Island steamroll past cynicism is how "fun" isn't just an ornament for them, it's embedded in the band's musical DNA.
Fang Island's self-titled second album is joyous despite its general lack of verses or choruses. It's fractured like any post-punk record while also speaking the language of classic rock, yet often feels like an intricate collage pieced together from elements that make songs memorable-- palm-muted power chords following wide-open intros, blistering solos, double-time outros. Pretty much all of that is crammed into the deleriously infectious "Daisy", an emphatic crossbreed of the Go! Team and the Promise Ring's "Is This Thing On?" The dance routine in the song's video feels like the only natural reaction to hearing it.
As Fang Island's entry point, "Daisy" might come on a bit strong, but what precedes it sets the tone perfectly. The record opens with fireworks (literally), before an armada of severely EQ'd guitar harmonics swoop in like fighter jets. The band then bursts into a dense chorus of four-part harmonies, earnestly intoning the WK-ish positive mantra: "They are all within my reach. They are free." Next comes "Careful Crossers", which has no words but would be shortchanged by being called an "instrumental" when such lyrical riffs pop up every eight bars.
Fang Island aren't total deconstructionists-- the see-sawing rhythms and stutter-step cadence of songs like "Life Coach" and "Treeton" wouldn't be out of place on a Spoon or Modest Mouse album. But unlike other pop craftsmen, Fang Island rarely give you any indication of what direction they might take. "Sideswiper" appears to settle into a Ted Leo-ish 12/8 stomper after its darting intro, until a sudden acoustic guitar and high-wire leads hints that the whole thing might just be one big riff on "Jack and Diane".
The music coordinators at MTV recently tapped "Daisy" to soundtrack a series of commercials for the reality show The Buried Life. The premise of the show-- "What do you want to do before you die?"-- is pretty corny, but Fang Island's exuberance is perfect for chasing dreams. While their manic musicianship and group-hug vibe may inspire more than a few comparisons to the badly missed Mae Shi, they aren't about proselytizing. This music is just honest and life-affirming and infectious, and it's that rare concentration of directness and simplicity that makes Fang Island so uniquely and wonderfully inclusive.
-- http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/14011-fang-island/
FalloutBoy skrev:Crystal Castles - Crystal Castles (II) (2010, Fiction)
Jag skulle kalla det minimal house, den når inte riktigt Trentemöller klass.phloam skrev:
http://open.spotify.com/album/6jXTNRWzksJSMTqUfcSSJM
Detta är riktigt njutbart, bortom stilar och genrer, bara en känsla av musikalitet som gör det svårt att sluta lyssna. Lägger tipset hör eftersom jag vill rekommendera hela plattan. Ett Fynd!
Oj det var avskalat, krävs rätt stämning för att komma till sin rätt, ska lyssna mer på honom och Rivulets.shifts skrev:Brian Borcherdt - Coyotes @ Spotify.
zidanefromhell skrev:Lyssnar på lost in trees nu, verkar mkt bra
Mycket mysig skiva, men är inte den ursprungligen från 2008?Alexi skrev:All Alone In An *Empty House är en av kandidaterna till årets skiva enligt mig.
There is an instant of doubt and trepidation as the CD is readied to be played for the first time as the album arrives wrapped in a sleeve adorned with some of the most pretentious and hyperbolic sleeve notes I’ve ever had the pleasure to read. All trepidation is wiped away as the songs unfold, the album’s content is a beautiful, sparse, understated collection of observations of life - tiny vignettes so carefully drawn that you vicariously experience them as the words gently purr into your ear. I have the scene perfectly in my mind as Mij (three of the band only have first names) sings the tale of a day: joking with friends in broken French, doing the laundry, finding a little red plastic crab in his jean’s back pocket and realising it is a symbol of a love that had never been fully declared. The band support this fragility on delicate acoustic guitar, softly brushed drums, glockenspiel and aching violin.
If they remind me of any other band, and comparisons are not always precise, it is 10,000 maniacs. There is the same slightly jazzy folk ethos that doesn’t pretend to have never heard of rock music, like Simon and Garfunkel without the folk-rock make over. Poetic lyrics that insist you linger over them, listen and listen again.
Mentally stimulating - perspectives are played with in Runaway Clay - a figure drags himself through a burning environment as vultures circle overhead, and once we are emotionally involved with him he is revealed as a fugitive from justice, but is he a wrongly accused "Dr Kimble" like Fugitive or are the repulsive and violent lynch mob pursuing him actually in the right - is he as guilty as they beleive him to be, and if so is he really the embodiment of evil ? Questions. No direct answers here.
Light The Choir is a little more transparent in it’s dissection of love coupled with desire, both the desire to be emotionally loved and also a hot urgent passion "rub your flesh / against my flesh / I swear we’ll set ourselves on fire" can’t help but call to mind all those times you’ve felt this defining human moment yourself.
There’s a touch of The Decemberists about Dwayne, a long ballad tale of a man with two sides to his nature - on the one side a dedicated Father and hard working farmer, on the other a man who see’s that a life of sensuality may be preferable to early mornings with the cows in the milking shed. He tries living life as a part time rake and inevitably it comes to a bad end - it’s a stand out song on an album of stand out songs.
This is a text book example of quiet majesty, a truly impressive album. To quote from In A Den "Don’t think I exaggerate / when I say the moment is sublime". It’s soothing, without being dull, gentle without being bland, intellectual without being pretentious, and emotional without restraint.
-- http://www.perpetualquestforthesilentside.com/?p=606
Låter som en beskrivning av precis hur jag vill att musik ska vara!It’s soothing, without being dull, gentle without being bland, intellectual without being pretentious, and emotional without restraint.
Alexi skrev:Låter som en beskrivning av precis hur jag vill att musik ska vara!
Bäst är att jag tycker det stämmer in också, tack FalloutBoy!
If you've followed Matthew Dear over the years, then you know he doesn't like to stay in one place for very long. Even as a primarily electronic artist in the early 2000s, Dear hopped from label to label, switched aliases often, and made everything from steely microhouse to harder Detroit techno. But his biggest departure was 2007's Asa Breed, the record where he stepped out from behind the decks and reached for the mic. Singing on tracks and leaning more heavily on song structure, he built strange hybrid music that had one foot in techno and the other in pop.
Dear's latest album, Black City, follows this path but pulls a pretty drastic shift in tone. Where Asa Breed was bubbly and squeaky and ultimately dancefloor-bound, this record is dark as night. The music brings to mind blown-out warehouses, desolate alleys, and seedy basement nightclubs; it's some real threatening, grimy shit. The production is as inventive and immersive as ever, but what separates this album from the last is that Dear mostly sticks with one theme all the way through. Asa Breed was all over the place at times, but this album has a cohesive thread to follow and smaller vignettes within it.
It's worth noting on a general level that Black City isn't always an easy listen-- there's a lot of detail that can take a couple of spins to get comfortable with. Part of this is structural. Dear doesn't really do clean electro-pop; his approach is more about pushing contrasting sounds together and leaving the edges jagged. The other part is his vocals. Dear is not a classically strong singer and can often sound pretty flat; importantly he knows how to make up for it. He uses technology to stretch his natural range, wrapping choruses around beats in creative ways and sometimes layering multiple vocals together to create depth.
So the album has a lot of contrast and textural nuance. There's also a good amount of sex. In the first half, Dear explores this really nocturnal, salacious sound. Songs in this section are either slow-paced come-ons or faster club tracks, but they all ooze attitude and lust. Opener "Honey" is a good example of the former, kind of a sauntering R&B number with a gritty noise instrumental at its core. But one song stands out: "You Put a Smell on Me" is just total industrial-dance smut, with Dear soliciting an indecent ride "in [his] big black car." Mechanical synths grind, beats scrape against the wall, and Dear offers up double entendre: "You decide if you want to come." It might just be the raunchiest-sounding track since NIN's "Closer".
Dear gets that there's no point in going any dirtier after this, and he uses the rest of the album to divert the vibe towards something brighter. It's a move that threatens the overall theme, but it ultimately works in maintaining the idea of deep contrast and dark vs. light. So the back-end is more pastoral sounding-- beats don't grind as hard and vocals open up, feel more skyward. Rather than the dark disco earlier on, songs in this portion hew closer toward Eno/Talking Heads ambient pop, and there's some really beautiful stuff here. "Gem", the closer, is one of the album's best. A big, opulent track about loss and regret, it's both deeply sad and optimistic at the same time. And the album needs a big emotional anchor like this, otherwise you might feel a little filthy for enjoying it so much.
-- http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/14533-black-city/
Listen to Blonde Redhead’s 1995 self-titled debut. Note its downright debauchery, punk rock attitude, and experimental use of guitar distortion, especially for that era. Now try on their eighth full length, Penny Sparkle. Sounds pretty contrasting, like hearing All Eyez On Me after For Emma, Forever Ago. But for a real patriot of music who fancies synth pop and trip hop as much as progressive, Penny Sparkle delivers gratification of an equal caliber. Though many die-hard fans were dismal about 2007′s 23, where the usually eccentric outfit sound warm and cordial, the altering moods and sparkles of this record will ultimately sway their convictions. Enlisting the Subliminal Kid (Fever Ray, Glasser) as producer, the trio of Kazu Makino and Simone & Amedeo Pace were keen on creating an entirely new sound on this LP and they’ve succeeded.
On the first few Blonde Redhead records, Makino’s icy vocals could draw comparisons to Bjork, or even The Cranberries’ Dolores O’Riordan. On Penny Sparkle, she sounds like Karin Dreijer Andersson of The Knife. There are undeniable traces of Subliminal Kid all over this album; the savvy electro pop “Oslo” will likely appear on disco blog spots, title track “Penny Sparkle” adopts Fever Ray’s fondness for the offbeat and nostalgic. There are engaging moments that don’t conform to electronica; “Will There Be Stars” sounds like classic Thievery Corporation, “My Plants Are Dead” comparable to Beach House, “Everything is Wrong” reminiscent of the warped dreaminess of Melody Of Certain Damaged Lemons, a pinnacle moment in the band’s career. Lead single “Here Sometimes” is the most accessible Blonde Redhead has ever sounded in their 17 years together; a gloomy synth overtone accompanying Makino’s soft articulation “Now it’s day and I am dreaming/A man walks by I want to be his wife/I’m only here sometimes/Under the tree of life.” Though it appears they have basically abandoned instruments, the group is, for their first time ever, creating significant palpable music.
From dream pop abiding hipsters, to loungers who adore getting stoned to trip hop, to the goths who will appreciate the murky bass lines and sedated electronic scores of this record, Penny Sparkle is repertoire to be loved by all, one that will seriously broaden the BR fan-base. It is a validation of Blonde Redhead’s commitment to the avant-garde, even if it is ridiculously easy to listen to.
-- http://prettymuchamazing.com/reviews/al ... nnysparkle
Tim and Sam's Tim and the Sam Band with Tim and Sam are a treasure chest of orchestrated folkish bliss. Based in the unremarkable village of Ewloe in Flintshire, Tim and Sam have won favour all over the UK - particularly on 6 Music - with their layered - mostly acoustic - instrumentals, spinning guitar arpeggios with piano, glockenspiel, violin, clarinet, banjo and many more tonal colours besides.
The debut album, Life Stream, has taken a couple of years to record but whatever obstacles and false starts the band had to endure in its making aren't at all apparent when listening to it. The opening track, Sparks, barely contains the euphoric potential of the band, as a rolling wave of horns, e-bowed guitar, glockenspiel and xylophone proves to be a fine 'Welcome' mat for the rest of the album.
Summer Solstice, a previous single release, has all of the unbridled, infectious joy of Belle and Sebastian at their least lachrymose. So far, so good - but no real surprises. However, if you've been at all aware of Tim and Sam's music prior to Life Stream, Coming Home is sure to have you checking the mp3 player hasn't skipped to a different band. There is singing - something of a volte-face for a band who'd only been known previously as an instrumental group.
The initial plan for the album was that it would feature a number of guest vocalists but that proved logistically impossible to pull together in time. So Tim and Rebecca decided to give it a go themselves. Remarkable, then, that they should just happen to have voices so suited to the music: pure, sonorous and impeccably performed.
The music eddies from major to minor keys and back again, encapsulating a panoramic range of emotions, sometimes in the space of a single piece of music. Reflections, for example, sounds like a contemplative Slint as it begins, dark of cloud and thought, then a glockenspiel and cello set the horizon ablaze with the kind of hope that gets us all through our most TS Eliot days.
It's breathtaking in a most unshowy way. Where Sigur Rós create music as massive, airy and impressive as the sky caging Iceland's Aurora and the dramatic volcanic landscape below, Tim and Sam are like a ramble in the Clwydian hills Tim has grown up being able to see out of his bedroom window (I imagine): rosy cheeked, invigorating, unspectacularly moving.
It's a youthful album and more evidence that being a young musician doesn't have to be about dull bravado and posturing. More often than its given credit for, it's about a lack of cynicism; a sense of possibilities; raw nerves that feel everything rather than ones that have callouses grown over them.
There is romance here, too - little 'r': no frilly shirts or narcissistic bouffant hair don'ts - and courageous vulnerability. And - in the lyrics of excellent next single Finders Keepers - defiance: "follow my lead, and don't even try to stop me".
Other than the reference points I've already mentioned, I hear echoes of The Beach Boys, Mogwai, Steve Reich, Incredible String Band, Tuung, The Cure (All Tucked Up sounds like an instrumental outtake from Disintegration) -- it's telling that none of the artists I hear in their sound are claimed as influences on their myspace page. This is indicative of a band who - despite the weight of musical history behind them - are following nothing other than their own muse.
That in itself makes them worthy of your investigation, the fact that Life Stream is as accomplished, thoughtful and lovingly-crafted as any album will hear this year makes it essential listening.
-- http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/walesmusic/2 ... ream.shtml
Jansson skrev:Ulver: Peredition City
(Bara FOB eller någon annan inte redan nämnt den, i så fall får jag skämmas... TCM brukar hålla reda på mig.)
In a world of "slow" movements that rail against mindless consumption, rock survivalists Windsor for the Derby represent "slow" music. For their latest outing, they began with a set of seemingly infinite drones and loops inspired by their early beginnings as a band. As those recordings were passed back and forth, the sounds were further sculpted by Dan Matz and Jason McNeely into their own leftfield brand of pop song. This became Against Love.
While they experimented with more formalized rock structures on their past few albums, Against Love finds the balance between experimentation and rock tradition more heavily skewed toward the former. The songs are filled with tried & true conventions; some with pedal steel and acoustic guitar ("Dull Knives," "After Love"), and others in waves of warm feedback and synth ("Queen of the Sun," "Autumn Song"). Lyrically the songs are about how the modern world is changing the human condition, how we decide to land when the floor is pulled out from under us, and how hope is born from loss. The songs were shaped over months in backstage rooms, hotels, vans, and wherever else Matz and McNeely found time during WFTD's European and American tours of the past two years. Tracks were finalized in Matz's haunted Hope Union Studio, where disengaged clock chimes, spectral taps, and mysterious footsteps are a constant cause for another take; some left in the mix.
-- http://www.secretlycanadian.com/onesheet.php?cat=SC202
FalloutBoy skrev:Jansson skrev:Ulver: Peredition City
(Bara FOB eller någon annan inte redan nämnt den, i så fall får jag skämmas... TCM brukar hålla reda på mig.)
Den tror jag inte varit uppe tidigare. Bra skiva är det iaf, så jag instämmer i rekommendationen!
Hoppas vi får se fler tips från dig!
shifts skrev:Oj, Windsor for the derby... Har någon sjutums-EP med dem från det skånska bolaget Speakerphone Recordings. Det var riktigt länge sedan jag tog fram den däremot.
Jansson skrev:Provar med den här.
nosound-lightdark
Siskiyou is the new group led by former Great Lake Swimmers member Colin Huebert in collaboration with Erik Arnesen (who still plays with the Swimmers). The group is based in Vancouver, Canada where Huebert has recently settled after a stint working on an organic farm following his departure from the Swimmers. This is their eponymous debut album.
Colin sent us a first collection of songs in early 2010 just as the bitterest months of Montreal winter were setting in. Working like glowing embers on us all season long, gaining warmth and radiance with every listen, the humble intimacy and composure of these recordings steadily drew us into the deeper tension between economy and epiphany humming at the core of the tunes. Emotionally direct, marked by an underlying darkness and doubt about relationships (to each other, to the environment, to mortality) without overreaching lyrically or musically, and without overriding the quiet exuberance embedded in every melody – the songs compel.
It was no surprise to learn that Huebert had channeled these songs with immediacy and austerity, recording dozens of tunes at home with only voice and guitar, generally within minutes of their conception, as an exercise in unmediated documentation. From this audio sketchbook, Huebert and Arnesen began building gently ornate arrangements on top of various tunes, recording overdubs in itinerant fashion in hallways, stairwells, bathrooms and parks throughout the Vancouver area. Banjo, piano, accordion and electric guitar play the lead roles in adorning Colin’s initial acoustic guitar sketches. The resulting collection of songs thrums with a scrupulous lo-fi backwoods energy and restraint. The music has been described as perfectly conjuring the lush, crisp yet often chilly landscape of the Pacific Northwest, and we tend to agree.
-- http://cstrecords.com/cst067/
Jo, jag vet att många har problem med den sortens "navelskådning" som så många artister i den genren är skyldiga till.Jansson skrev:Han släpper inte in någon annan och lämnar inte riktigt någon plats för lyssnaren.
Bra, för jag har knappt börjat med listan över 2004 än.Sen en annan sak.
Jag har ännu inte hunnit med alla dina decennier, bara så du vet.
Tufft.
During the continued rise of electronic music over the past several years, countless acts have attempted to take the basic facets of the genre and make it their own with little twists of psychedelia and the like. It’s a tricky endeavor, for sure, so we’re glad that bands like Blackbird Blackbird have joined in on the fun with songs that pick and choose the best styles to create something that is at once familiar and fresh. Though their debut doesn’t have any ceiling-shattering moments, it is unfailingly pleasant in its entirety because of its apparently innate carefree breeziness.
Even when singer and one-man band Mikey S (formerly known as Bye Bye Blackbird) definitively sings that he’s going to pack up his bags and leave town, it sounds nonchalant, as though he’s being taken away from something unexpectedly but is still perfectly content to just roll with it. The musician bills his music as “acousmatic”; the adjective is fitting in a way; you can’t help but visualize snowflakes and glitter and clouds without quite realizing why, as the music never seems to force any kind of image on you through words or otherwise. The synth, the vocals, the hollow drum beats—all are so sweetly hesitant that it would be hard to dislike any of the songs on Summer Heart.
Though the whole album works together quite well, there are a few songs that stand out for both their subtlety and the shimmery pleasure they instantly give from their starts. One of these is “So Sorry Girl,” in which apologetic lines like “so sorry girl/that you need my heart” are overshadowed by half-hearted explanations like “I’m a burnout” and “I’m looking out for number one.” It’s kind of melancholy but also strangely playful, creating a unique interplay of moods that comes off sounding just right. “Dreams I Create” has the same sort of strange and pleasurable mix of tones, sounding regretful and carefree at the same time while also being completely danceable as well. “I’m Feeling Hazy” sounds just like the title suggests it should, with only three words backed by echoing coos and ever-so-light synths lending delicate support for the song’s woozy dreamscape. The fact that most of the songs are two minutes or less in length only makes them sweeter in their apparent simplicity.
Another thing that sets Blackbird Blackbird apart from his peers is Mikey S’s quality of invoking his own personal style while still making music that is ripe for remixing. An ideal example of this is the Sunvisor remix of “Hawaii,” which is stunning all around, with a repeating line of “give me one goodbye/ give me one good reason to stay” layered over steel drums and totally catchy beats and faraway back-up vocals. After hearing the remix, it is apparent that a lot of the songs on Summer Heart are great on their own but also provide great raw material for other artists to work with, and should Blackbird Blackbird continue to rise in popularity it will be interesting to see how many other beautiful songs can come out of the original material. Though it’s most often low-key, the music on here is memorable for its wistful, layered hooks and simple but affecting lyrics and instrumentation. Check it out!
-- http://inyourspeakers.com/content/revie ... t-08052010
phloam skrev:Hittade vad som verkar vara en intressant Label vs Label-skiva; skivbolaget Sub Rosa kolliderar smakfullt med Kompakt och resultatet är.... ja, lyssna själva
Screen Vinyl Image’s “Interceptor’s” is like slipping into a dark noir world that reflects on past memories of faded angst and creates sterile images of nostalgic machinery set loose. Yet there is more to discover beyond the dark exterior, as their sound completely leads the listener into another world dominated by car chasing cruisers, planetary spheres, and psychedelic interference.
This 11-track debut album from DC band Screen Vinyl Image showcases them at their fullest extent of sonic punishment. Their previous, 2 EP’s (Midnight Sun and Chaser) were released onto virgin ears unsuspecting of such deliberate ear canal damage and defacto electonic destruction. But now the duo of Jake and Kim Reid that are Screen Vinyl Image, have produced a more complete vision built upon their previous efforts of audio annihilation.
The album’s lead track “Synthetic Apparition” is the perfect droning backdrop to begin the journey. Its ghostly ambience creeps in like a fog with the lead melody spelling out to the listener the forthcoming density that awaits in the succeeding tracks. “Cathode Ray and “Fever” command attention from side A (“Fever” is the first video from the album). On “Fever,” Jake’s reverb enwrapped vocal evokes the feeling of a lost soul crying out for repentance, as samples and fuzz guitar entwine their way to the song’s feedback-drenched ending. Also notable is “Asteroid Exile,” which weaves in the band’s cinematic layers into a fully realized song complete with song structure and vocals.
Side B begins with “Lost in Repeat,” which with its almost dub-like trance bass line flexes the versatile muscle of the band. The bass continues through against an ever-growing gale force of sweeping distortion, filling in to the ear’s higher register, as the bass loops with Screen’s own take on astral dub.
The Gothic bass line intro of “Until the End of Time” crawls against the sequenced bells and simple lamenting vocal, which remains resolute and commanding: “I want you, I need you.” Instrumental “Death Defiance” plays into their more danceable side as upbeat tracks work alongside an electro line and yet another creepy synth – but it’s when the unsuspecting bongos hit that the track really takes off. This song could have been blasted out in an early 90’s warehouse party to thousands of dark wave ravers. As the album ends on “Conscience Collider,” a shifting bass mover, it slowly eclipses back into the record’s initial foreboding dreamlike trance. A bonus track of “Chaser” (Screen’s first single) graces the CD format.
To truly appreciate the music of Screen Vinyl Image you might find you have an affinity for antiquated soundwaves, vintage potentiometers, and old plate reverbs. If you can respect the tensions of loud basement garage rock running alongside an inspired Chicago house beat than you can learn to fall deep under their spell. Both live and on this record they create sounds that inspire visions where John Carpenter battles Jim Reid (no relation) and Blade Runner goes Beyond the Valley of the Dolls. And it’s here where Screen Vinyl Image have created their own original soundtrack to their dark twisted vision of film noir, campy horror and futurism crashing head-on into a stasis-like oblivion.
-- http://www.jezebelmusic.com/1844/screen ... erceptors/
A word of warning: Pivot (or PVT as they now call themselves) have gone a bit Animal Collective on us. Well, not quite, but the Australian threesome have made a leap from the textured sound of their previous output, the rather enchanting O Soundtrack My Heart, released over two years ago on Warp to something which may still bear occasional tints of the old, but has become an essentially much more song-based form, with multi-instrumentist Richard Pike assuming a new full time role as singer within the band. The sound has also evolved into a more electronically-fuelled affair, quite a radical departure, this despite often heavy live drums and occasional outburst of guitars spotted throughout. This is made very clear right from the short opener, Community, with its ethereal choral chords drowned in electronic arpeggios which could have been stolen from a sixties sci-fi soundtrack experiment.
From then on, Church With No Magic descends into a series of harsh and angular songs, drenched to the bone with fat electronic sounds and propped up by Laurence Pike’s drums, which sees the trio cut their way through the hypnotic and heavy footed Light Up Bright Fires and the much more basic title track all the way down to the surprisingly dreamy Waves & Radiation, the only fully instrumental track here, and the sumptuous closing Only The Wind Can Hear You.
The analogy with Animal Collective made earlier is never truer than on the incantatory Light Up Bright Fires, Crimson Swan, Window or Circle Of Friends, where Richard Pike’s voice is more than a little reminiscent of Panda Bear. This is accentuated by the apparent lack of clear lyrics, at least on some of these, and the heavily processed vocals which characterise Light Up Bright Fires or the latter part of Crimson Swan especially. Elsewhere though, this is far less relevant. On the title track for instance, Pike sounds like the bastard child of Elvis and Billy Idol, yet it somehow works in his favour, giving an already strong song a totally unlikely edge, while he appears much more stripped down and vulnerable on Timeless. There are times here when PVT seem to lose focus slightly, especially on the somewhat dated The Quick Mile, but these are only blips in an overall rather convincing collection.
Some may regret the lack of subtlety of this vowel-less PVT, yet the trio appear to operate on a new lease of confidence here. Their sound, much bulkier and grittier, has gained much in the process. The name change may have been the result of a legal challenge, but it also signalled a somewhat radical review of the band’s overall approach, and all for the better.
-- http://www.themilkfactory.co.uk/st/2010 ... p-records/
Halcyon Digest is a record about the joy of music discovery, the thrill of listening for the first time to a potential future favorite, and that sense of boundless possibility when you're still innocent of indie-mainstream politics and your personal canon is far from set. In revisiting that youthful enthusiasm, Deerhunter brilliantly rekindle it, and the result meets Microcastle/Weird Era (Cont.) as the band's most exhilarating work to date. Whether those halcyon days were real or just idealized doesn't matter. With producer Ben Allen, who lent a bass-heavy sheen to Animal Collective's Merriweather Post Pavilion, these four guys-- lead singer Bradford Cox, singer/guitarist Lockett Pundt, bass player Josh Fauver, and drummer Moses Archuleta-- have created a seamless album of startling emotional clarity.
Deerhunter have never lacked ambition. 2007 breakout Cryptograms came as two discrete halves: one front-loaded with ambient drifts and clanging post-punk aggression, the other blasting off into sunny psych-pop. Microcastle turned out to be a sprawling, ghostly amusement park of a double album, with violence and frail beauty never far from each other. And then there are all those EPs, side projects, and rarities. In blog posts and interviews, Cox has shown himself to be a music lover of the highest order, almost a platonic ideal of the artist as fan.
This record marks a distinctly different approach for the band, more streamlined and stripped down, and in its sparest moments, it echoes the stark intimacy and one-take effortlessness of records like Neil Young's Tonight's the Night or Chris Bell's I Am the Cosmos. Fans of the band's earlier stuff may understandably miss some of the old electric-guitar squall, but Halcyon Digest's expanded instrumental palette-- acoustic guitar, electronic percussion, banjo, autoharp, harmonica, vocal harmonies, and saxophone (!)-- creates endless depths of intricacy and nuance to explore in headphones.
In the past, Deerhunter's gift for garbled sonics and Cox's stream-of-consciousness methods made it easy to downplay the group's lyrical ability. That's not the case here. Whether by Pundt, who sings lead on two of Halcyon Digest's best songs, or Cox, Deerhunter's songwriting congeals into a style all its own, with lyrics moved front-and-center. The words fit perfectly together, down to the most trivial minutia: Cox asking, "Did you stick with me?" at the start of garage-pop fist-pumper "Memory Boy", right after the track people are most likely to skip (funny!), or Pundt mentioning a "marching band" on another uptempo proto-anthem, "Fountain Stairs", as Bill Oglesby's sax first appears.
The topical ground covered here is inspired, too: "Revival", a sort of Southern gothic folk-rock baptism, embraces religion. "I'm saved, I'm saved!" Cox exalts, "I felt his presence heal me." Recorded to four-track, "Basement Scene" "dream(s) a little dream" that soon turns nightmarish: "I don't wanna get old" quickly becomes "I wanna get old" as Cox weighs the alternative. And first single "Helicopter" is a beautifully watery electro-acoustic farewell that uses a tragic Dennis Cooper story about a Russian prostitute (graciously reprinted in the liner notes) to support its emotional bleakness.
Then there's seven-and-a-half-minute finale "He Would Have Laughed", dedicated to Jay Reatard, the Memphis garage rocker who died last winter of drug-related causes at age 29. Its lyrics are the most cryptic on Halcyon Digest-- full sentences are rarely formed before Cox closes them off with his usual crisp consonants. A simple acoustic guitar riff repeats as other percussion elements and electronic tones pan across the track, occasionally joined by the full band. Cox admits to growing "bored as I get older," and then goes into a dream-- "I lived on a farm, yeah/ I never lived on a farm"-- until he finally all but asks, "Where are your friends tonight?" The track cuts off unexpectedly mid-note.
Deerhunter unveiled their new album by asking fans to print out a vintage DIY-style poster, photocopy it, and tape it up all over town. In the last couple of weeks, band members have participated in all-night online chats with some of their most devoted fans. We'll never be able to parse every lyric or tease out every technical intricacy-- though somebody will probably try-- but that is what Halcyon Digest is all about: nostalgia not for an era, not for antiquated technology, but for a feeling of excitement, of connection, of that dumb obsession that makes life worth living no matter how horrible it gets. And then sharing that feeling with somebody else who'll start the cycle all over again.
-- http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/146 ... on-digest/
Jansson skrev:Den här är inte helt ny. Men 2008 kvalar väl in?
Welcome to your new favourite band… kinda like your old favourite band.
Okay, so that’s subjectivity raised to the n-th degree, but The Whiskers – who formed through the mediation of a Frog Eyes message board – often sound like a microscopically observed homage to not just one weird band, but the whole damn Axis of Krug, namely: Sunset Rubdown, Swan Lake, Frog Eyes, Blackout Beach, Destroyer… and even throw in some of their tourmates for good measure, like Xiu Xiu and Elfin Saddle. Perhaps in an effort to throw off the older influences, new album War of Currents builds its surreal ballads up from seesawing acoustic riffs stretched out to six, seven, eight minutes, and adds brass, entering Neutral Milk Hotel territory. But with a cast of vampires, ghosts, swans, and seamstresses sewing wings onto doomed lovers, the shadow of Spencer Krug is still cast over quite a bit of it.
Formed around Connecticut-based brothers Thom and Jim Stylinski, the Whiskers are a shifting, pan-American collective. You could call it a Prog revival, if it’s understood that The Whiskers are far more accessible than that makes them sound, if not instantly likeable. Albums one and two (The Whiskers and The Distorted Historian) took the Frog Eyes formula of lo-fi garage-prog with rapid-fire lyrics starring mythical figures, and substantially improved on it with f/x-heavy synths and programming that explodes in several directions at once. That might make The Whiskers sound like a completely different band, but it’s those unplayable, machine-generated sounds that replicate Frog Eyes’ dozen-ideas-a-second, while (paradoxically) having more emotional impact for being tight in a way Frog Eyes just aren’t.
With their third album, War of Currents, The Whiskers have largely retired the synths, and taken a crack at the multi-segmented epic song, with the example of In the Aeroplane Over the Sea or Sunset Rubdown’s Dragonslayer behind them. In a nutshell: it’s a masterclass in epic songwriting, which only falls short of greatness in its reluctance to vary the (new) formula. Then again, unlike yer-akshel Seventies progsters, The Whiskers never bore or jar by dropping in unnecessary movements; always unifying their songs with a strong riff or chord progression.
Granted, there are other precedents for this seven track, 42 minute album, but with songs like ‘The Seamstress’ you have to wonder whether they’re not attempting a deliberate patchwork of Krug-isms (in this case: ‘The Mending of the Gown’ spliced with ‘Shut Up, I am Dreaming of Places Where Lovers Have Wings’). When Krug sings about chameleons and leopards, morticians and magicians, you know he’s fretting about the nature of performance, even as he mythologizes it; when Stylinski adopts many of these figures (and adds a few of his own, like ornithopter-pilots and wing-walkers), for better or for worse, it feels as if you’re cutting straight to the fantasy, unmoored from the personal. (Not that he doesn’t have plenty of original, deliciously quotable moments: “you married on the ferris wheel / honeymooned in the haunted house / you were buried in the cemetery / I want to blow the winter out of the sea…”).
Elsewhere, the Stylinski brothers deliberately mimic the vocal interplay of Bejar / Mercer / Krug on the Swan Lake records (those three songwriter showdowns), and as if they’re worried no-one’s got the point, they even pull Dan (Destroyer) Bejar’s trick of quoting classic pop songs in a comically different key (on ‘Birds of Paradise’: “bird-bird-bird / bird is the word / everybody’s heard / about the bird…”). Somehow, it always comes across as affectionate rather than lazy, fun rather than tired, which is more than good enough for most bands. Keep watching this space for greatness.
-- http://drownedinsound.com/releases/1532 ... ws/4139696
Healy’s songwriting has been praised by Paul McCartney, Elton John and Noel Gallagher. In 2005, Coldplay frontman Chris Martin called himself "a poor man’s Fran Healy". In interviews
Jansson skrev:
Jurij Gagarin!
Prefab Sprout: Andromeda Heights
http://open.spotify.com/album/1rssJ1U1GpcLTCGMdFyIAD
Who was Yuri Gagarin?
He was the first man in funky bass, funky bass
Space, space, space...hahahahaaa
Alexi skrev:British Sea Power En stillsam elektronisk indie version av Joy Division? Jag gillar den instrumentala Man of Aran.
Ton skrev:Delta Spirit
Zombies eh? Back in the early days of Romero’s black and white flicks they ambled about, bumped into shit and got confused by a fence. Admittedly they were pretty eerie, but if you were fleet of foot and didn’t back yourself into a corner your chances of survival were pretty high. But then something happened and the buggers started to run, and I mean really run. Pelting around like Ben Johnson after the stanozolol van, certainly much faster than you or I can fumble ammunition into a rusty old revolver. A similar transformation appears to have taken place to Sweden’s Sad Day For Puppets, as their spooky but sedate debut Unknown Colors has been superseded by the more urgent and high-tempo Pale Silver and Shiny Gold.
Those spooky undertones haven’t been discarded though, far from it. Their ethereal charms now swirl with a cyclonic velocity that when combined with richer and fuller production make their early recordings feel like demos in comparison. From the opening doubled-barrelled vocal assault of the Eklund sisters on ‘Sorrow, Sorrow’ through to the closing blare of ‘’Tingle In My Hand’ it grabs you by the scruff of the neck and propels your through its curios like a runaway ghost train.
As the first bars of the second track, ‘Such A Waste’, burst into life many might lurch toward their MP3 player to check it isn’t set to shuffle and hasn’t accidentally skipped onto Dinosaur Jr. – such is the reverence for Massachusetts’ favourite sons. But it’s not plagiarism or Dinosaur Jr Jr (or should that be Dinosaur Gransdon?), their passion for the complexities and nuances of J Mascis build upon his work rather than trying to offer up a poor facsimile of the virtuoso.
Whilst it’s easy to focus on the increased depth and ferocity that the band has achieved in such a short time, it would mean nothing without the song-writing. Fortunately this has also grown in line with their other facets. Across a dizzying variety of styles there are infectious riffs and melodies a-plenty; album high-point ‘Touch’ instantly leaps out as a classic even on the first play. But after several weeks it will be standing room only in a subconscious populated almost exclusively by the puppets.
Pale Silver and Shiny Gold is a sophomore album that delivers on the promises made by their debut and then some. Too often bands best ideas are spent in the first year. But these cupboards are far from bare and if they remain on this trajectory world domination would seem like a real possibility.
-- http://www.thelineofbestfit.com/2010/09 ... hiny-gold/
I have to admit I've found the last couple of releases from Stars to be hit or miss. The last full length, In Our Bedroom After the War left me with a feeling of indifference. The stop-gap EP that followed, Sad Robot, blew me away with it's direction and potential for the future.
On June 22nd the band release their latest album, The Five Ghosts. A decade into their career and the Montreal band may have released their most consistent, engaging, and entertaining album to date.
The new album is a diverse collection of songs. The band's sound has certainly broadened since they first came into our nation's consciousness with Set Yourself On Fire. The gauzy swirl is still present, particularly on tracks like "He Dreams He's Awake" and "The Last Song Ever Written", but there is far more diversity now.
Earlier in their career, Stars never would have been able to execute a track like the album opener "Dead Hearts". That song is as grand in scope as it is in drama. The back and forth between Torquil Campbell and Amy Millan lends the piece a feel of a score from an indie rock Broadway show.
Continuing on their recent path, keyboards and synthesizers increase in prominence on the new record. The keys shimmer on "Fixed", but it's on "We Don't Want Your Body" where they really push the boundaries. That track has an indie disco flair, with Millan channeling Debbie Harry. On top of that, Campbell performs what verges on a rap, something that easily could have ended in disaster. Instead, the results are surprisingly fresh. It's a bold risk that pays off.
On "Changes", Stars reach back in time, performing the song with a '50s pop sway. With Campbell's sultry delivery and a modern indie rock charge, the track ends up sounding like Del Shannon passed through the prism of Stars.
Stars songs have always been about love and death, often in the same song (eg "Your Ex-Lover Is Dead"). That hasn't changed on The Five Ghosts. What has shifted is the tone of the tracks. Rather than being sombre and reflective, tracks like the fiery "I Died So I Could Haunt You" almost rejoice in positive memories.
Vocally there isn't much different on The Five Ghosts. That's a good thing though, as the pairing of Campbell and the ever charming Millan is one of the best male/female vocal sets in music.
With The Five Ghosts, Stars continue to solidify their place as indie rock elite. Moreover, they've given fans an album that's so consistently good from start-to-finish that it won't be leaving my iPod all summer.
-- http://www.snobsmusic.net/2010/06/stars ... eview.html
Alexi skrev:Veckans fynd på Spotify är underbara Laura Veirs, så det bjuder jag på som en liten present inför helgen till er alla
Following on from the success of the critically acclaimed EP This Desert, Booklyn’s The Hundred in the Hands will release their debut full-length album on September 21st on Warp Records. Time Out New York says “The Hundred in the Hands’ music springs from that sliver of the early ‘80s in which pop was personal, arty and potentially angry,”
The Hundred in the Hands LP is an album of deceptively complex pop songs which hark back to the dance music of NYC’s storied underground. Where their recent This Desert EP feels like a summertime pop dream, THITH’s forthcoming album conjures the spirit of downtown’s mutant disco scene as made legendary by clubs like the Paradise Garage. It’s a product of DIY home-recording plus a series of studio sessions in London and New York with contributions by producer friends including Jacques Renault, Richard X, Eric Broucek and Chris Zane.
The Hundred in the Hands is Eleanore Everdell and Jason Friedman. The two live in Brooklyn and discovered their shared sensibility for early hip hop, French house and disco, ska and dub, post-punk, British invasion-mod and girl pop from the 60’s through the 80’s and decided to form a band. Their first song—the post-punk rave-up “Dressed in Dresden”—was written and recorded in a couple of days, released online, picked up and released as a 45 by a record shop in the U.K. where they were soon playing shows and coming to the attention of Warp Records. Meanwhile, the two retreated to the bunker to write and record. During that time, Friedman and Everdell focused on deciding exactly who they wanted to be. What they discovered and emerged with were 11 startling new tracks and a precise and deliberate sound.
-- http://themst.com/videos/the-hundred-in ... um-release
Okej, jag sökte på bara på Veirs och fick inga träffar.FalloutBoy skrev:Alexi skrev:Veckans fynd på Spotify är underbara Laura Veirs, så det bjuder jag på som en liten present inför helgen till er alla
Ja, hon är grymt bra. Har rekommenderat "July Flame" tidigare i tråden, men hon förtjänar rekommenderas igen!
Alexi skrev:Okej, jag sökte på bara på Veirs och fick inga träffar.
Karaocake’s debut album on Clapping Music was recorded with Stéphane Laporte, aka Domotic (also responsible for the latest Konki Duet’s ep or the ambitious Characters by The Patriotic Sunday), a friend she had longed to work with for years, with additional help from Tom Gagnaire (Charlotte Sampling, who also plays live with them). Rows and Stitches ideally extends Karaocake’s universe from Camille’s bedroom to the stars up and to the History of Rock Music and opens the door onto her secret world as well as on the big world out there, the one filled with nature and crickets from Chambon-sur-Lignon. With it, Karaocake defines their own aesthetic contract, with a humble yet upfront approach on the one hand and a passion for sound and a real pop ambition on the other hand, as well as inventing a world their own stories can unfold.
Like « Eeeeerie » the comet echoing Phil Spector’s productions or the hit-singles « Medication » and « It Doesn’t Take a Whole Week » (the first single to be released as a 7 inch), Rows and Stitches isn’t a simple take off, it is a real transfiguration. The beats from the Casio keyboard are the same as the ones on the first demos, Camille’s voice is still fragile and the major Cs are still major Cs. But everything else is bigger than life : polished with electricity emerging from the spring reverb and an old German console, illuminated with radiant guitar and analog keyboard themes, clouds of saturation and twists of dusty organs, Rows and Stitches hits right into your heart and stands imposingly next to some classic 60s records or Broadcast’s vintage and extraordinary albums. And if you can forget for a moment everything you’ve ever read about content and form, this is no coquetry : surely, it is through this cloud of luminous dust that Karaocake’s music opens up, in its barest and most beautiful self.
-- http://shop.ascorpus.com/karaocake-rows ... p-826.html
Edinburgh band Meursault‘s 2008 debut Pissing On Bonfires/Kissing With Tongues fused together folk and electronic music resulting in a unique and brilliant sound. Their sophomore effort All Creatures Will Make Merry is equally unique but ultimately grander.
The album shows its urgency with opening track ‘Payday’. Lead singer and songwriter Neil Pennycook’s foghorn voice grabs you instantly as over a whiring harmonium. ‘Payday’ then launches into the epic ‘Crank Resolutions’ which hits you at a rate of knots; a tale of feeling forlorn on New Years Day accompanied by thunderous percussion and soaring electronica is an urgent and rapturous way to start the album. ‘All Creatures Will Make Merry’ features its fair share of epic tracks in a similar vein to ‘Crank Resolutions’. The title track is a more restrained number but equally as grandiose while standout track ‘What You Don’t Have’ is a soaring mixture of drum samples, strings and Pennycook’s exquisite lyrics (“it’s not about what you don’t have, it’s the little you’re given and how far you can run with it”). An ode to a German artist of the enfants terribles variety in the form of ‘A Song for Martin Kippenberger’ is the album’s most audacious and ambitious song. A multitude of slow building instrumentation erupts in Pennycook’s vocals announcing “please don’t send me home” in a truly magical and hypnotic fashion.
All Creatures Will Make Merry is really brought together by its quieter moments such as ‘Sleet’, ‘Weather’ and ‘One Day This Will All Be Fields’ with the latter sounding like an old 1920’s recording played on a gramophone. These songs truly demonstrate how brilliant the songsmithery of Meursault is. The closing song ‘A Fair Exchange’ which is a heartbreaking piano lead lament amplifies this with a haunting quality and lines as cutting as “some things take time, and some things time will take”.
The juxtaposition of the epic soaring songs and the folk lead acoustic numbers really gives the album a great balance. However, the production is reminiscent of Mount Eerie, Microphones and early Mountain Goats and works wonderfully on the acoustic numbers but often leads me wondering what songs such as ‘Crank Resolutions’ would sound like if not recorded in an ‘epic lo-fi’ fashion. It doesn’t take anything away from the album and it will no doubt endear a lot of people to the artistic value that it creates but I feel that songs of the caliber of ‘What You Don’t Have’ and ‘Crank Resolutions’ deserve to sound as immaculate as the songwriting that created them.
All Creatures Will Make Merry announces Meursault as one of the best bands in Scotland. The musicianship and songwriting is outstanding, it’s just a shame that sometimes this talent is not hammered home as much as it could have been. They are definitely a band that will keep you guessing and always produce something unexpected and exciting. Surely that is why we fall in love with bands such as Meursault. I already cannot wait for the follow up.
-- http://www.thelineofbestfit.com/2010/06 ... ake-merry/
Righteous anger, fierce intelligence, vicious wit and lyrics so sharp they could slice the ears clean off of your head; it can mean only one thing- The Indelicates are back!!
After being tied up in red tape and doublespeak with their former record label for sizeable part of 2009, a frustrated Simon and Julia Indelicate instigated a course of action which would give cause for your average careerist musician to experience a loosening of the bowels, they demanded that they be dropped by their label! It seemed to be their only option after experiencing first-hand, the industries inability to embrace the digital age or even accept the blindingly obvious fact that the musical landscape had changed forever- the old model was dead and that continually pushing a door marked “pull” will achieve absolutely nothing!! Now free from the shackles of being a “signed” entity, Simon and Julia are poised to finally deliver a new album via their own label, Corporate Records, -“a record company designed for the music market that exists now, not the market that existed in the 80s”. “Songs For Swinging Lovers” is The Indelicates follow up to their critically acclaimed début “American Demo” and once again they prove that in terms of literate, angry, spirited, pop music they really do have no equal.
“Songs For Swinging Lovers” is a musical and poetic tour de force that tackles subjects with the sort of brutal honesty that would give most traditional record labels coronaries. Make no mistake this is a magnificent album that enthrals, shocks and delights in equal measure, full of dark poetic lyricism whilst demonstrating an unerring ability to cut through the bullshit and dismantle accepted societal truisms. “Europe” is the albums opening track and a song which Simon says they wanted to sound “as unpleasant and disgusting as possible- We had wanted to write about Europe for ages. Partly because we wanted to write a song about a major continental landmass on every album – but mainly because we don’t especially like it. If it seems a little bit hasty to dislike a continent in so sweeping a way then yes, it is. And we barely mean it. But there is something to be disliked. The way that class infects it at every level. The horrible tastelessness of high-european fashion with its well cut skirt suits and utilitarianally worthless polished stones. The way that we cling to cosy pacifism while relying on American treaty obligations to handle our security. The way we look down on America generally, while spivvily lining our pockets.*”
The Indelicates have certainly never been a band to pull their punches, take “Flesh”, for example, a sequel in many ways to “Our Daughters Will Never be Free”’. Melodically it’s a gorgeous, slow burning torch song, but lyrically is a biting polemic which reflects on the failings of “women who claim to be different, the young feminists and the gender identity literati”. It also addresses the obsession with body image and the plastic nature of beauty which seems to have been embraced as the only form of female empowerment. Other bands and artists have tackled this thorny subject with varying degrees of success, but there are very few artists who would start a pop song with an opening line such as “Come on girls let’s try and bring out the rapist in the new men” or manage, a few verses later, to quite literally, stop you in your tracks with “Hey Doc take a knife and carve my snatch into a smile/Strip me and dissect me, milk my tears and tap my bile ” Angry, direct and quite brilliant. “Savages” may be their most personal song to date, and in a direct reference to Huxley’s “Brave New World” Simon and Julia question whether people actually need tragedy and beauty and clever songs? And they wonder if maybe they are the problem, the outsiders, the“savages”.
“Songs For Swinging Lovers” not only demonstrates the Indelicates trademark erudite lyrical dexterity and waspish sense of humour but also something that can often be overlooked, the fact they are incredibly talented musicians. Their ability to mix a wide range of styles, attack a myriad of targets and yet still have a coherent “Indelicate-sound” is something to marvel at. There’s the post punk anger of (“possible” anti-industry song,) “Your Money” (which contains one of the most memorable guitar riffs since “Another Girl Another Planet”) the almost gospel-esque sing- along chorus of “Jerusalem” (about private education) to the quite deranged and somewhat disturbing piano ‘murder- ballad’ that is “Roses”. “Songs For Swinging Lovers” proves that if anyone can save music from being sucked into the quagmire of inanity, it’s the Indelicates. They have more to say in the forty five plus minutes of this wonderful album than most bands can muster over an entire career. It’s powerful, angry and more personal than their début and yet is also laced with dark humour and proves that fun isn’t just the preserve of the feeble mined, it’s also the best British album since, well..,.”American Demo”… Why if they go on like this they might well be able to tempt me into believing in musicians again, which of course would be quite absurd!!
-- http://vonpipmusicalexpress.wordpress.c ... rs-review/
Withered Hand is not, alas, a Jeremy Beadle tribute band. It is, however, the nom de plume of Edinburgh alt.folk messiah Dan Willson – and for said dude we should give thanks.
Willson is a curious pop disciple: a deadpan bard eternally vexed by the doctrines of God, the inconsequence of life, and the transparent nature of modern swimwear. Good News, his gorgeous debut album, delivers a compendium of warped-rock sermons that variously reference Seventh-day Adventism (‘Cornflake’); lyrical post-rationalisation (‘For the Maudlin’); and knocking one out on your paramour’s couch (‘Religious Songs’, his signature anthem).
Despite his dedication to a DIY cause that’s seen Withered Hand galvanise Edinburgh’s live terrain and perform with Jeffrey Lewis and Calvin Johnson, Willson’s quavering vocals and acoustic eulogies elicit heavy-hitters Bright Eyes (on woebegone porch-swing opener ‘Providence’) – and even Neil Young at times.
Fans will recognise much of Good News: previous Withered Hand singles feature, but they’re (needlessly) tweaked by producer Kramer (Low, Daniel Johnston). Hence deficit aria ‘No Cigarettes’ surrenders some of its vulnerability, while a refinement of ‘Religious Songs’ misplaces the hymn’s initial scrabbly desperation.
This is a minor quibble. Willson’s sing-a-long afflictions and satirical narratives are marvellous. ‘Lord... won’t you listen to me, your unfaithful servant’s filthy fucking language’, he importunes on ‘Love in the Time of Ecstasy’, a sonorous ‘so-what’ to the hereafter.
‘In the greater scheme of things, I am nothing’, he later claims – which just goes to show that, despite being splendid, Withered Hand is not always right.
-- http://www.list.co.uk/article/20688-wit ... good-news/
Anna Bronsted follows up her 2008 album, When Your Blackening Shows with a beautiful second long-player. The Danish vocalist and songwriter has been known to play keyboards for Efterklang, but this album marks her out as an impressive musical force in her own right. Assisted by various musically-inclined friends (most notably guitarist/keyboardist Soren Bigum and bass player Moogie Johnson) Golden Sea quickly reveals itself as something really quite special; there's something about the overall sound of this record that intimates a nocturnal, bucolic feel, perhaps at times sounding like a more cinematic Bat For Lashes, glazed with a production aesthetic that has a partially dissolved, soft-focus feel. Gauzy opener 'The Departure' finds Bronsted's voice vanishing into a mist of electric pianos - it's almost ambient, yet follow-on track 'In The Lowlands' arrives with a tangibly rhythmic presence that hints at the far more in-depth soundscape featured on this album. The synths here (and on the Kate Bush-like 'Nightsong') have a wonderfully weird, dream-sequence feel to them, and later on, strings surge through mid-album highlight 'The Burial' hitting a similarly ethereal note. With Bronsted's songwriting sounding sharper and more assured than on her debut, Our Broken Garden is a project that's very much on the ascendance, and Golden Sea - without any prior expectations - sounds quite fantastic.
-- http://boomkat.com/cds/342859-our-broke ... golden-sea
Athens band Azure Ray's sparse, folk-inspired music is often described as dream pop, but that's not fully accurate. The eeriness that flows through most of the tracks on the band's latest work, "Drawing Down the Moon," would make a better soundtrack to fitful tossing and turning.
The work of Azure Ray members Maria Taylor and Orenda Fink (the band broke up in 2004 but reunited last year) is often ethereal and breezy, but the duo's tracks are never fully stripped-down: With harp, bass, cello, oboe, violin, bassoon and drums, they often seem sparse but are truly multi-layered. "Drawing Down the Moon," which drops Tuesday, Sept. 14, marks the group's first album since 2003's "Hold On Love." The 12 tracks truly display the group's range, from barebones opener "Wake Up Sleepyhead" to the expansive "Make Your Heart." Taylor and Fink are superb singers, and they use their talent to create songs about bitterness and sadness that will creep into your brain and set up shop in its darkest crevices.
The album begins with "Wake Up Sleepyhead," which starts off with a lush harp from contributor Eliza Sydney. A tale of unsuccessful companionship, the song gives listeners an introduction to the kind of regret Taylor and Fink have mastered in a minute-and-44-second package of all that went wrong: "If you're leaving/All that we see, is it fleeting?/Hard to believe it was worth it/Baby, you took my heart." "Wake up, wake up/This is only a dream," the pair whispers, but it's hard to tell whether reality even matters in these discussions of plundered hope and innocence.
'Drawing Down the Moon' by Azure RaySome of the album's best works are its weightier tracks: "Don't Leave My Mind" benefits from keys and cooing harmonies as the pair murmur about the undeniable end of a relationship ("You can go where each day takes you/Someplace I can't find/But don't leave my mind"). "In the Fog" is heartily masculine thanks to a deep bass beat and aggressive distortion that give the track an almost dub-like feel. And "Silver Sorrow" tip-toes toward pop with its guitars, synths, church bells and omnipresent melodies.
The album is at its most sublime and eerie when Taylor and Fink channel their inner Stevie Nickses and bust out confessional lyrics and witchy atmosphere in full force, like on "Larraine," "Shouldn't Have Loved" and "Dancing Ghosts." With finger-picking guitar, strings, bells and whispered lyrics, "Larraine" is the saddest of them all, a song about a woman plagued by abuse and abandonment ("You spent your whole life/Trying to wash away the dirt ... The nightmares wouldn't stop/So you drank them to a haze"). "Shouldn't Have Loved," a tale of romantic regret, and "Dancing Ghosts," another sad look back ("Oh, I knew it would end this way/But I chose it anyway ... Was I lost enough to believe in us?") recall Nicks in the midst of her breakup with lover and bandmate Lindsey Buckingham.
With its mysticism and patiently pieced-together tracks about love and loss, "Drawing Down the Moon" is a welcome return for Azure Ray after six years apart. But if this is what dreams are made of, I'll sleep with a light on.
--http://www.expressnightout.com/content/2010/09/azure-ray-drawing-down-moon-album-review.php
For this latest album, Mice Parade shift gear dramatically to incorporate elements of West African music and South American guitar styles into their evolving sound. Main player Adam Pierce remains a restless creative presence, but where it's previously been tempting to think as Mice Parade as a solo project, What It Means To Be Left-Handed finds him taking up a more clear-cut bandleader role. On this record Temporary Residence artist Caroline Lufkin, Doug Scharin (of HiM, Codeine, Enablers) and classical guitarist Dan Lippel play alongside guest artists such as Meredith Godreau (aka Fat Cat's own Gregory & The Hawk), Swahili singer Somi and kora player Abdou. These new combinations of artists immediately make a mark, bringing a fusionist highlife feel to joyous opener 'Kupanda' and a strikingly elaborate acoustic narrative to early standout 'In Between Times'. There's more striking applications of kora to be heard on 'Old Hat', whose tumbling arpeggios accompany Pierce's hushed vocal line and a massively compressed beat. Confirming that this is the most ambitiously diverse Mice Parade album to date, the second half of the record finds the more electronically produced and polished home-listening style sounds of 'Tokyo Late Night' rubbing shoulders with straight-up proto-indie strum-alongs 'Mallo Cup' and the excellent 'Even'. The album rounds off with a great cover of the Tom Brosseau song 'Mary Anne', parting on one of Mice Parade's more straight-forward moments that nevertheless rings out as mightily powerful.
-- http://boomkat.com/cds/335127-mice-para ... eft-handed
Ja, även om de mesta de gjort låter snarlikt så finns det guldkorn att upptäcka på de flesta av deras album. Själv föredrar jag de mer avskalade låtarna, t.ex. "Raining In Athens" (från Burn & Shiver).shifts skrev:Gillade verkligen EP:n Azure Ray släppte för ett antal år sedan, men i övrigt har jag lyssnat väldigt lite på dem. Kanske dags nu då.
Known principally as the multi-instrumentalist composer of charming, rainy-afternoon-with-a-box-of-chocolates soundtracks to the movies Amélie, The Dreamlife of Angels, Good Bye Lenin! et al, Brittany’s Yann Tiersen is also responsible for a less heralded quintet of solo albums which mix dainty musette instrumentals, Michael Nyman-esque chamber orchestra essays and miscellaneous songs (his last outing, 2005’s Les Retrouvailles, featured vocal cameos from Cocteau Twin Elizabeth Fraser and Jane Birkin, among others). Tiersen is now a festival regular, too, latterly purveying his eclectic repertoire with a double drum kit and ondes Martenot-assisted chamber-rock combo.
All that diverse, protean musicality seems to have been poured into Dust Lane, the now 40-year-old Tiersen’s debut for Mute. Mostly recorded on Ouessant, the Atlantic gale-blown island off France’s northwestern tip which the composer calls home, its eight, extended tracks embrace a smorgasbord of styles: solo piano etudes, soaring choral anthems, indie rock-outs and synth-drenched soundscapes, often all of them in the same song. His guests this time include erstwhile Third Eye Foundation singer Matt Elliott, Breton chanteuse Gaëlle Kerrien and Gallic indie star Syd Matters; in harness with Tiersen’s band and orchestral players they make a mighty yet dreamy noise.
While the deaths of both his mother and a close friend during the album’s creation have lent Tiersen’s lyrics, mostly delivered in English, an understandably ruminative quality, much of the music is uplifting, nonetheless. The multi-voiced chorus of Amy has a coruscating, rock opera quality – a characteristic shared by the pounding title-track, a synth-suffused choral anthem that implicitly celebrates life even as it acknowledges the Dust Lane of death.
Tiersen gets political, albeit in an implicit, wonderstruck manner, on the less immediately successful Palestine – its title rather laboriously spelt out on the chorus – and returns to matters mortal on the initially doom-laden, ultimately hymnal Ashes which boasts one of the simple yet emotionally stirring string melodies which have become a Tiersen hallmark. The closing F*** Me, meanwhile, is the hook-laden coup de grace, Tiersen and Kerrien’s duet vocals ingenuously saluting the life-affirming joy of conjugal union while grinning banjos circle, Mellotrons wheeze and synths sigh orgasmically.
-- http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/reviews/xxvh
Since his magnificent Sakura (2000) and Grinning Cat (2001) albums the electronic music world has been in thrall to Japan’s Susumu Yokota, a laptop composer whose prolific output of at least one album every year since 1998 is at odds with his compelling creations. When so much of today’s dashed-off ambient music comes off as characterless, indistinguishable and meaningless burble, Yokota shows the way. Not that he should thank us for calling this hour-long opus ambient.
Yokota has released techno, breakbeat, even funky commercial house down the years and it’s this broad-ranging, never-say-never attitude that the spoddy electronicist summons here for an album that’s perfectly impossible to categorise. Eschewing the quasi-classical trance and strict minimalism that’s been cited as a major influence by the terrific Oneohtrix Point Never, Emeralds and others in that fine field of modern ambient, Yokota knits together an album that’s altogether more fun, demented, freewheeling, colourful, narcotic and oddly human.
It’s certainly not background music. As if to dispel any fears that it might be, Kaleidoscope’s three opening tracks provide a vivid introduction to this gently-applied but rampant eclecticism. Your Twinkling Eyes, with its overlapping, looping acoustic guitars and prismatic chimes, suggests a sort of Far Eastern Caribou; the unsettling avant-clang and ghostly choral sounds of Her Feminineness awakens a sense that it’s not all sunshine and fluffy white clouds here; and 9 Petals is a child-friendly romp built on what sounds like the rhythmic, chugging loop of a fairground ride and features the same alchemy of electronics, sax-parping and chanting that Moondog nailed and which Johnny Truck won over fans of freaky music with on his fabulous Sister Woo track.
The chosen character worming its way through Yokota’s latest album – irrational, prone to mood swings and suffering (or benefitting) from synaesthesia – requires all his entrancing sounds, whether they’re odd, beguilingly beautiful or nerve-fraying. And this seamless patchwork of sunny psych-pop, leftfield clatter, shadowy two-step, harmony-based euphoria, Steve Reich minimalism and kaleidoscopic melodies is so much more emotionally walloping and relevant than all the perennially downbeat, whoosh-and-sigh whale music that gives ambient a bad name.
-- http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/reviews/nj3q
zidanefromhell skrev:Inte helt nytt men likväl bra, återigen amerikansk indierock, men denna gången instrumental.
Maserati - Inventions for the new season
http://open.spotify.com/album/5t25i7UEZvZD1TEgw4m8Lw
shifts skrev:zidanefromhell skrev:Inte helt nytt men likväl bra, återigen amerikansk indierock, men denna gången instrumental.
Maserati - Inventions for the new season
http://open.spotify.com/album/5t25i7UEZvZD1TEgw4m8Lw
Jösses, det där var bra! Eller, jag har bara hunnit till spår två, men oj så förlösande!
Hade nästan glömt bort det bandet, och den skivan har jag nog inte spelat sen den kom. Tack för påminnelsen!zidanefromhell skrev:Maserati - Inventions for the new season
Bra band, men jag blev lite besviken på deras senaste. Får kanske ge den en ny chans...Jansson skrev:Red Sparowes
+1 på det tipset! Det är nog min favorit av deras skivor.Jansson skrev:Mono
Woodsman is an experimental ambient post-psychedelic band based in Denver, CO. The quartet contains two totemic percussionists and two sonic animators who employ electric guitars, feedback loops, and recorded samples to build the dreamy astral soundscapes that define Woodsman’s sound. Influenced by hazy mountain passes, the cinema of Stan Brakhage, and early 1970’s improvisational recordings by Miles Davis Woodsman has crafted aural offerings that are uniquely their own
The debut album from British electronic producer Gold Panda is immersed in nostalgia. It's a go-to emotion for every era, but, thanks to the eternal memory bank known as the Internet, this is a particularly fruitful time for looking back. But not all remembrances are created equal. The majority of today's cultural nostalgia is dominated by a cheap, remember-that-show quality that ultimately infantilizes its audience into submission. Shameless nods to yesterday's TV/music/movies are fine for a quick escape, but they can also make tomorrow that much more daunting. Still, when approached with more care, peering into the past can be invigorating. Vampire Weekend's Ezra Koenig summed up the two sides with characteristic eloquence on this year's Contra, singing about how we're "nostalgic for garbage, desperate for time." Koenig is one of the good guys in the current Nostalgia Wars, and so is Gold Panda.
The London-based producer's main instrument is an Akai MPC2000XL sampler, which allows him to rearrange, repurpose, and recycle previously recorded sounds at the touch of a button. By nature, it's a nostalgic machine. And he uses it to push things forward; he's not just sampling what we know already on Lucky Shiner, he's using sounds that mean something to him-- a tapping keyboard, a sped-up or slowed-down recording of someone saying the word "you," exotic-sounding instruments unfamiliar to a Westerner's experience-- and attempting to universalize them. This process is something of an internal challenge, as the beat maker told me in an interview last year. "I usually find stuff that I hope no one really knows or cares about," he said, talking about his sample selection. "If I'm ripping off something that's already brilliant, what's the point?" Because of this, the dusty melancholia of Lucky Shiner feels earned and lived-in. It's a far cry from just naming your new bedroom-pop band Double Dare.
While this is the first Gold Panda long-player after a slew of EPs and remixes over the last couple years, he just turned 30. Not to get all "respect your elders" with it, but the Londoner's relatively advanced age probably adds depth to his stoic reminisces. As a hushed acoustic guitar/found sounds track, "Parents" is a telling anomaly on the album. The song is introduced by some heavily-accented words from the producer's grandmother, after whom Lucky Shiner is also named. It's an interlude that offers little on its own but offers an irrefutable bit of personalization early on and is invaluable to the album's homespun wistfulness as a whole. Even if you can't understand what she's saying, the voice has the unmistakably kind lilt of a grandmother; it draws you into the instrumental elegance elsewhere.
In sonic terms, Gold Panda breathes the same kind of life into his work as Four Tet. His beats are mechanical but also intensely human. But Gold Panda's trigger finger is a bit itchier. His signature tic involves short, unique samples that burst in rhythmic repetition. So on opener "You", the words "you and me" are sliced into individual pieces and then tapped in brain-screwing succession as a bulbous beat makes the song all too ready for the club inside your head. And "Before We Talked" rides on a quicksilver pulse made up of tiny squelches and glitches that are Aphex-like in precision and scope. Oftentimes, plinking notes from various unique, piano-like sounds add a spotlit solemnity underneath or alongside the drums. A sense of well-thought-out album-style completeness is evident throughout, too, with the two aforementioned tracks coming with their own sequels later on in the form of "After We Talked" and a closer also named "You". But the last track isn't a reprise as much as a hard-won ending point; whereas the opener is fast and friendly, it's "you"s popping quick, Lucky Shiner's finale is noticeably more contemplative with the sampled "you" now stretched-out and slowed. It's always about "you," but perhaps not the same "you" as before.
In some ways, the idea of nostalgia is averse to growth. Mourning the loss of time (even good time) can be intoxicating and stagnant. That's not what Gold Panda is doing. He's recognizing that loss, articulating it with a multitude of finely-placed sounds, and then coming to grips with his place in the here and now. He's making nostalgia work for him without consuming him. "I'm just really happy to be happy for the first time since I was about 20," he said last year. "It's nice to just do my hobby and be able to live." It's easy to hear his joy through those rejiggered memories.
-- http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/14732-lucky-shiner/
Over the course of its ethereal runtime, Cold Seeds succeeds marvellously in constructing its own slow-motion mythology, inventing its own musical language, and traversing vast expanses of flickering emotion. Cold Seeds is a collaboration between Kenny Anderson, better known as King Creosote, and Frances Donnelly of Animal Magic Tricks, along with Neil Pennycook and Peter Harvey of Meursault; a Scottish indie-folk supergroup if ever there was one.
The term "supergroup" tends to call up memories of bloated and largely commercial bands of the past. There's usually an accompanying sense of too many cooks stirring the same pot, everyone soloing over each other at all times. But Cold Seeds - who would almost certainly shy away from the term - have choreographed an intricate dance of rotating musicians and traded vocals. The arrangements are sparse and organic, building and falling on their own, often leaning on the steady melancholy of Peter Harvey's cello.
The album carries an almost impossible level of homespun charm. The whole of it is permeated with a warm layer of room noise and tape hiss; the opening track, Leave Me Alone To Die In The Ground, features an impromptu appearance by the family cat.
But accompanying the knitted-by-hand feel of the production, Cold Seeds also makes use of a nearly otherworldly aesthetic. The album maintains a ghost-ship detachedness from all things terrestrial, and the result is a swooning, all-encompassing trip to somewhere you've never been.
It's as if the music has been recorded in some remote, pastoral locale - untouched by modern notions of hipness and cynicism - and transmitted by radio across a frozen sea. And after a journey of untold and unknowable years and distance, the residual music has reached only a single lucky listener who's stumbled upon its phantom frequency while fiddling with the knobs of an old upright in an antiques shop.
Leave Me Alone To Lie In The Ground opens the album with a sense of spontaneous creation, seeming to be orchestrated and arranged over the course of the recording. King is a beautiful fingerpicked acoustic jaunt, haunted by Frances Donnelly's reverb-soaked vocals. Bubble is a serenade dreamt in the waning glow of a shared bottle of red wine; television talking threatens to invade the sway.
Crank Resolutions is a fireside waltz filled with subdued longing for a girl who "wears the perfume of Mexican birds." Later, in The Perfume Of Mexican Birds, she is reconsidered to a sobering admission: "I did it again; I was the wrong boy again."
A new imagining of King Creosote's By Eleven O'Clock She'd Left seems a revelation when the lead is given to Donnelly, whispered and slightly slurred, and lock-armed with the stomping riffraff pub choir.
Please Don't Send Me Home could very well have shattered the illusion, sounding so unlike the rest of the album with its distorted vocals and bleary organ. Instead, though, it fits the whole nicely, adding another layer to the mystery; it's a shouted, desperate plea from the other side, caught in a moment of haunted honesty.
And it's a shock when the album ends. Your eyes open, and it could well have been a dream. Cold Seeds is a staggering accomplishment of emotional transmigration. Each note is a captured fragment of a shared existence, a snapshot of something half-remembered.
-- http://www.musicomh.com/albums/cold-seeds_0710.htm
This excellent debut-proper from hotly tipped duo Altar Eagle finds itself nestled somewhere between the icy drum machine pop of Cold Cave, the Kosmische refractions of Emeralds and the classic layered shoegaze of Slowdive and My Bloody Valentine. Eden Hemming and Brad Rose have previously made music together as Corsican Paintbrush before changing their name and style on a pair of sought-after cassettes absorbing darkwave pop genius and the 1st wave techno moods of Juan Atkins. With a heavy heart and distorted touch they've drafted a deeply affected sound where vocals are typically half-heard and happy to be so, while an ongoing mastery of their analogue synths lends a flush of wide-eyed man/machine pop potential. In opener 'Battlegrounds' they crumble Slowdive-style guitars with submerged drums and viscous distortion, while the effect of 'Honey' is akin to Au Revoir Simone in the early flushes of a heady narcosis. Following this, 'You Lost Your Neon Haze' blissfully smothers Eden's vocal in a blanket of decaying noise signals, while 'B'nai B'rith Girls' filters cascades of bubbling synth juice into spiky drum machines and billowing techno signatures. In the second half of the album their darkwave addiction becomes more virulent, resulting in the pounding effect of 'Monsters', while 'Spy Movie' fuses the warring sounds of Juan Atkins and MBV in an emotive deadlock. One of our faves, 'Breakdown' harks to early Factory and 4AD releases with reverbed shivers of Vinny Riley-ish guitar and drowned vocals. 'Pour Your Dark Heart Out' is the cathartic swansong, perfectly channeling a bedroom spirit, while 'Six Foot Arms' leaves us in a state of cathartic euphoria, comfortable to wallow in a mire of murky inspiration and unbearable glamour. One of the debuts of the year, no doubt.
-- http://boomkat.com/cds/330477-altar-eag ... al-gardens
George Lewis, Jr.'s self-described bizarre and lonely childhood forms the backdrop for his work as Twin Shadow, and he uses the sounds of the past as a foundation. But while the 26-year-old Brooklynite's music is steeped in 1980s new wave-- he sometimes takes on Morrissey's vocal tone and phrasing, and threads of British bands like Echo and the Bunnymen and Depeche Mode run through his songs-- Lewis does well by this much-revisited era. Simplicity is part of what carries it over. On Forget, his debut full-length, he mostly sticks with a small collection of synth sounds-- strings, organ, piano, and brass-- along with electric guitar and drum machine. The instruments are clean, shimmery, and carefully placed. With Grizzly Bear's Chris Taylor handling production, this limited palette proves to be more than enough to work with, and each song is immediately distinguishable from the others. Lewis' execution is immaculate, and he manages to make these familiar sounds into something that sounds refreshing and even dazzling.
The hotel-room production is ideally suited to the subject matter, matching the charged emotions of the lyrics. "Yellow Balloon" is full of vignettes from youth-- "If you hear your mama calling/ Get away from me/ Secret handshakes/ The swimming hole"-- and the icy atmosphere, along with a creepy piano line, suggests that these memories aren't necessarily good ones. On another standout, "Tether Beat", a ghostlike synth ranges around in the lower registers as Lewis asks over and over, "Does your heart still beat?" Album highlight "Castles in the Snow" creates a metaphor from the imagery of the title, using sharp hi-hats, handclaps, piercing strings, and bird-like vocal calls to show that everything the narrator touches "turns cold." Tracks like these create a mood that is nostalgic, regretful, and even sinister.
Roughly half the album consists of these slower, dreamier turns; the other half is faster paced and thus better tailored to the live setting (or a high school dance). On these songs, Lewis tackles the same broad subject of love-- forbidden crushes, dance floor flirtations, serious relationships-- with the same overall aesthetic. But he abandons menace in favor of sweetness: the bass on "Shooting Holes" and "When We're Dancing" thumps out locomotive disco beats; pretty flutes and strings accent the excellent dance floor saga "I Can't Wait"; and the sparkling synths on closer "Forget" create a lulling slow dance for Lewis' loaded refrain, "They'll give us so much to forget." Here, Lewis' lyrics are more narrative and romantic, but they're no less witty or poetic.
Taken whole, Forget feels undeniably of the moment, fitting in nicely with the craftsmanship of 80s pop revivalists like the Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Lewis' labelmate Class Actress, and, to some degree, the xx. And like the best of this wave, the album also has a function beyond its danceable beats and electronic fireworks: It is sophisticated enough to withstand close, repeated listening. The songs may be catchy, but their intricacy and thoughtful storytelling makes them stick. And for its impressive sonic sheen, the album's skillful restraint makes it sound better with every spin. Instead of merely evoking an established style, Lewis' songs feel honest and straightforward, so the new wave glances are a vehicle for the songwriting rather than the whole point.
-- http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/14675-forget/
Är benägen att hålla med. Bra, men det har gjorts förr.zidanefromhell skrev:Twin shadow har gått många varv här hemma, en liten favorit kan man säga
Men kanske aningens mycket 80tals romantik a la smiths för att gå hela vägen.
Psykakuten är en, vid första anblick, märklig (titta noga på Myspace till exempel, så ser ni) pop-duo från Stockholm, som mer eller mindre tvingades ihop då de båda var bostadslösa och tillsammans fick låna en bortrest kompis lägenhet under två månader. Alla låtar på deras kommande och självbetitlade debutplatta är efter inspiration från kända allkonstnärer insjungna i badkaret i sagda lägenhet, trots att ena halvan av duon är extremt rädd för vatten (och båtar). Dessa alster har sedan mixats med hjälp av Existensminimum (också känd allkonstnär) och James Aparicio (som tidigare jobbat med Depeche mode och Erasure). Och resultatet är magiskt, inte alls märkligt.
-- http://nomodestbear.blogspot.com/2010/0 ... kuten.html
Black Moth Super Rainbow’s enigmatic members have pursued a number of diverse tangents with their solo efforts, and most of these have proved just as interesting as the original collective’s work. Both Tobacco’s darker electronic forays and Seven Fields of Aphelion’s ethereal wanderings add bold new aspects to the esoteric mystique of the band’s catalog. By comparison, bassist Ryan Graveface’s Dreamend project seems relatively tame. But this is not a bad thing. While his new record, So I Ate Myself, Bite by Bite, offers nothing new in terms of style — previous albums touched on the sparse post-rock championed by Explosions in the Sky, with occasional excursions into the shimmering folk of Iron and Wine’s Sam Beam — its emphasis on theme pushes it far beyond anything we’ve heard from the artist.
The album begins with a description of a young man negotiating the detritus of daily existence. But after the short “Interlude,” the man recants this endless futility and allows his mind to ponder “A Thought,” afterward confessing over and over, “I cannot stop in the middle…” The latter phrase leads to the simple question, stop in the middle of what? The macabre “Pieces” presents the answer, and the album’s theme becomes evident: Graveface’s protagonist commits a brutal murder, and what follows is a depiction of the event in all its gory detail and a very matter-of-fact description of how the fledgling serial killer develops an appetite for more.
Although it’s a distant cousin in terms of genre, Graveface’s new album recalls Leonard Cohen’s ingenuous ability to paint every image essential to a story in vivid, cinematic color. Graveface also evokes Cohen’s gift for sharing a morbid tale, but he distinguishes himself by placing the tale in a wash of golden instrumentation, tempering the brutal honesty that resonates through every facet of the character's musings and actions. From the sweet tinkling xylophone that opens “Pink Cloud in the Woods” to the honeyed acoustic chords that fill songs like “Pieces” and “Aching Silence,” the wonderfully light music provides the only guard between the audience and the twisted confessions. That seems to be one of Graveface’s points in crafting the piece as he has; sometimes art is the only barrier between lucid existence and utter insanity.
For all its dark and horrific ponderings, So I Ate Myself succeeds in nearly every way. It elucidates the thoughts of a decided anti-hero, and in doing so captures the frustrations of a media-saturated, materialistic generation. On his label site, Graveface pitched this as the first of two volumes, indicating that the next installment would arrive sometime in 2011. With the first, he has clearly surpassed all expectations in the indie-folk field. I can’t wait to see what he does with the second.
-- http://www.tinymixtapes.com/music-revie ... -bite-bite
shifts skrev:Favoritlåten är Authentic celestial music
Ja, det är en klassiker. Andra favoriter är "Horse Stories" och "Whatever You Love, You Are" (som felaktigt heter ", We Are" på Spotify och saknar ett spår ).shifts skrev:Dirty Three-albumet Ocean songs finns äntligen på Spotify. Helt magnifik. En
av mina favoritproduktioner från Steve Albini helt klart och lika fantastisk skiva.
Ton skrev:så jag spelade lite Jesse Woods istället
Having enjoyed a busy and very fruitful 2009, Chihei Hatakeyama is set to kick off 2010 in much the same manner. Last year the Tokyo microsound composer delivered exceptional albums for Room40 and Under The Spire, now he's on the verge of releasing another pairing of long-players over the next couple of months. The first of these comes via the dependably excellent Home Normal imprint, and bases itself upon field recordings made on a trip to San Francisco in 2006. Appropriately, the record is titled A Long Journey, and takes on the feel of a dreamlike sequence of scenes from different locations. The record begins with 'Morning Arrive On The Island', whose hazed-over tones are incredibly warm and welcoming, focusing more on Hatakayama's processed guitar tones than any environmental or field recorded sounds. 'Waves' changes that to some degree, latching onto a sense of place with its denouement of filtered incidental recordings, while 'Confession' dissolves crowd noise into a misty stupor of drones - somehow making an everyday, street-bound racket sound like a beautiful auditory happening. Similarly, 'Within New Trees' You can hear a variety of montaged recordings evaporating into luscious, lulling tones, while 'The Distant Sound Of Bustle' goes largely unconditioned by any post-production, instead becoming a duet between street-side location noises and Hatakayama's delicate piano musings. There are eleven excellent compositions here - let's hope both Home Normal and Hatakayama himself can maintain this standard over 2010.
-- http://boomkat.com/cds/255919-chihei-ha ... ng-journey
The incredibly industrious Chihei Hatakeyama cues up yet another sublime collection of introspective ambient electronics, having given us his previous effort (the no less delightful A Long Journey, on the Home Normal label) as recently as last week. Ghostly Garden combines new sound sources with older, recycled files that have appeared in prior releases, yet Hatakeyama's music retains its freshness, achieving that rare sense of stillness and depth that only the very best exponents of micro-drone come close to. First track, 'Shadows' is typically seductive, transmitting hypnotic flickers of warm tonality that don't really go anywhere in a narrative sense, yet fix your attention regardless. In addition to this Japanese composer's now customary hushed electroacoustics, this album features a strong showing of more luscious, effervescent material too, even approaching abrasion on the billowing 'Stone Wall Island' and the chaotic melange of field recordings that is 'Slight Trail', which offers up a rainbow of electroacoustic hues. Another fine addition to this man's rapidly swelling discography, and a release that's easy to recommend to all fans of Room40, 12k, Spekk and Home Normal, all of which, incidentally, are labels Hatakeyama has already contributed to - a fact that's a sure indicator of just how integral to this scene the Japanese artist has become.
-- http://boomkat.com/downloads/250800-chi ... tly-garden
Keith Kenniff has quietly become one of the most recognised names in the worlds of electro-acoustic and post-classical music with his releases under the Goldmund and Helios aliases. Whilst the latter deals with weightless multi-instrumental compositions which imply vastness and altering form, Goldmund is his outlet for short and concise solo piano pieces. Although Famous Places does see some of these coloured with subtle electronics it still sounds like solo piano in the most appropriate sense of the word; as though recorded in complete isolation. The production lends things a very intimate atmosphere with the pressing on pedals often as audible as the notes themselves, an intimacy further enriched by the fact that each of these songs are inspired by important locations in Kenniff’s own life.
2008′s The Malady of Elegance seemed far less restrained in it’s grandeur than previous work but this album strikes a perfect balance between splendour and understated melody; there are hushed barely audible pieces such as ‘Havelock’ as well as others which strike out a little more, relatively speaking at least. The ghostly choral drones on ‘Bergen’ are a perfect example of the points where the venn diagram of Goldmund and Helios intersect, a rare occurrence in the past. Kenniff more than compensates for such skeletal arrangements with their emotional impact though, the tone of which fluctuates throughout the record. ‘Dane Street’ exhibits a delicate grace beaming with positivity whilst ‘Brown Creek’ epitomises restraint, the disparate notes gradually coalescing to form a beautifully subtle melody which recalls Michael Nyman’s Decay Music. Also quite similar is the resonance of the high notes on ‘Safe Harbor’, which is amongst the most hopeful moments of the record whilst simultaneously exuding a melancholic lethargy which is quite striking.
The slow unfurling of these different moods gives the album a cinematic air, and ‘Fort McClary’ acts as a segue in to it’s third act, a track weighed down with remorse and hopelessness. The quietly expanding swell of ambience beneath patient strokes on closer ‘Saranac’ then lends proceedings an sense of finality, like the final stretch of an epic and life changing journey. Whilst Famous Places isn’t likely to change your life at all, it’s gentle lulling is almost certainly Goldmund’s finest work to date and conceptually acts as a dignified reminder of the sentimental importance of our day to day surroundings which can often go unnoticed.
-- http://www.thelineofbestfit.com/2010/08 ... us-places/
zidanefromhell skrev:Ahh gött me ny Goldmund, Kenniff är snudd på genialisk i sina bästa stunder!
The warmth of the electronic element is almost frightening. By this I mean to say, that music of this tremendous beauty, composed through elements completely opposed to natural history, seems to vaguely hint at a new precipice of human evolution, where we lose track of ourselves entirely. Who is this second Prometheus whom hath given us this blue flame and how does he suffer for his generosity?
But now we must speak plainly... Blooming Summer seems to come together with an un-canny ease, one that could only possibly express a true and monumental love between its two collaborators. Do not even attempt to show me a more beautiful voice or gentle nature than Raphael's, for you will not be able to find one. As Percy Blysse said to Mary Shelley whilst rowing their boat across the River Styx: "I'll love you forever, I'll cherish you always, as long as I'm living, my baby you'll be."
For the moment, I need no other piece of art than Blooming Summer. I am satisfied and can rest in harmony with the blooming summer. Girls and boys, they love in the color blue....
-- http://www.arbutusrecords.com/
Sean Nicholas Savage’s newest release, Movin Up In Society, is imaginative, prophetic, poetic, motivational, and impossibly positive in all the right, simple ways. Savage dismisses all the current trends of the current music ‘scene’ and delivers a record that encompasses the true origins of a great album.
Remember when music was transformative? When it had the ability to take you out of a darkness and into a rainbow of sound? It feels like Savage has found all the right ways to transform the listener into a strange, unworldly, but tangible world.
Musically, Movin Up In Society is reminiscent of a folk, pop, and country sound. Yet, it’s weird and completely Sean Nicholas Savage. Lyrically, it embraces an old fashioned story-telling esthetic, paired with contemporary lyrical sensibilities. The songs on Movin Up In Society show a maturity, but also a persistent childishness that Savage will surely never grow out of.
I am listening to this album on a typical rainy Montreal day and thinking ‘damn, damn, damn – how does Sean manage to put something completely new and progressive out every time?’ This album is about growing up, growing peripheral sensibilities, and
exploring the dark and soft spots of consciousness.
“Paradise O Paradise” is hauntingly reminiscent of an ‘80s Leonard Cohen sound, taking the listener from the slums of ‘oil cities’ to dreams of paradise with it’s ‘pretty flowers.’ Title track “Moving Up in Society” seems to encompass a hopeful youth on the verge of growing up in contemporary society. Savage approaches lyrical subject matter with poise and poetry—lyrics that manage to pinch you in all the right places.
Savage’s lyrics demand attention in their impressive simplicity. It is refreshing to hear an artist deal with life’s problems so effortlessly in song. On “A Golden Dream” Savage sings Who is who and what is what / Who are you and what am I? We can sing, we have wings / We can sing and we can fly. And again, the simplicity of complexity on “Rowdy River of Love:” I know the hard way, and it’s not bringing me down. I’m sailing heart-bound on the rowdy river of live.
“The Bird Nest Princess” is a callback to the beat poets and is perhaps what truly stands out on the album to me.
Like all of Sean Nicholas Savage’s music, it is either love or hate. Over the past few years he has put out a ridiculously confused array of musical genres, yet, they are all equally intriguing and fantastic. Savage’s music is music to get lost in; to fall in love with; to inspire. To run naked and fearless through our oil cities dreaming of flowers and something better.
-- http://www.artistadvocacy.com/music/rev ... n-society/
FalloutBoy skrev:Påminner han inte lite om Phil Ochs?
No Portland indie-rock band playing today has been together longer than Phantom Buffalo. And a good argument can be made that none are better.
Strong evidence to back up that argument is being released this month: Cement Postcard With Owl Colours. Clocking in at close to an hour, Postcard is a surreal indie-rock masterwork.
Though it fits on one CD, Postcard is essentially Phantom Buffalo’s second double-album — the first being their 2002 debut, ShiShiMuMu, recorded when they were known as The Ponys. It’s probably not possible to top MuMu, but Postcard comes damn close.
It begins with a stunning two-song suite. “Listen to the Leaves” floats in on singer/guitarist Jonathan Balzano-Brookes’ falsetto ahs, setting the dreamy atmosphere that envelopes the entire disc. “Rest your head and don’t worry ’bout tomorrow,” he sings as the song touches ground. “You have spent quite a long time worrying and I think it’s time to stop.”
“Leaves” moves seamlessly into “Greenstar Botanical Airway,” seven minutes of psychedelia that builds into a sonic dust storm of swirling guitars and dizzying drums. This is headphone music of the highest order. Todd Hutchisen of The Baltic Sea, who created similarly deep and detailed aural landscapes on his band’s landmark Through Scenic Heights and Days Regrets, co-produced and mixed Postcard, which was recorded onto half-inch tape. The rich, yet relatively lo-fi, texture created by this method recalls the soundscapes of Mercury Rev, who recorded on 35mm magnetic tape in the 1990s.
“Bad Disease,” one of three songs on which guitarist Tim Burns sings lead, has a fantastic “intro” that comprises almost half the track. Like several other songs on Postcard, the sections of “Disease” could be songs themselves. (And one is: the album’s closer, “Goliath Tales,” offers a trippier take on a section of “Disease.”) “Trinket Shop” explicitly references this pastiche approach to songwriting, stitching together four distinct tunes along the way.
The midsection of “Frogman” has one of the catchiest hooks ever recorded in the Forest City. Among the shorter songs here, “Weather the Weather” stands out for its shimmering beauty, “Atleesta” for its jangly loveliness. “Ray Bardbury’s Bones” sounds like one of the best songs Simon & Garfunkel never recorded. Philip Willey — whose guitar, synth and piano add cool elements throughout the record — plays accordion on this track.
“Radio Signal” serves as the album’s big-rock outro. Fans who’ve seen Phantom Buffalo over the past couple years will recognize this song and most others on Postcard, which was recorded a year-and-a-half ago. (The band’s written almost another album’s worth of new material since then.) That doesn’t change the fact this is a momentous release. Phantom Buffalo is for real.
-- http://www.thebollard.com/bollard/?p=7729
Although many, many bands have tried to inject vocals into the instrumental post-rock framework, few have succeeded in creating truly noteworthy albums. Scandinavia has long been a place that has been more interested in vocal-supported post-rock than other areas; we’ve already seen bands like Scraps of Tape, September Malevolence, and Efterklang increase the prominence of vocals in their music, and The Samuel Jackson Five continues to flirt with the idea. However, it’s Norway’s Youth Pictures of Florence Henderson, back from a quite extended hiatus, that is stealing the show. The band returns in grand gesture, offering a double album of immense appeal (both musically and packaging-wise) that shall keep listeners entertained for hours at a time. Youth Pictures hasn’t abandoned its previous post-rock inclinations, but rather it has somehow found a way to slip in the illusive vocals into its long, emotive compositions without disrupting the serene balancing act. The result? Nothing short of spectacular.
– The Silent Ballet, February 2010
Expanding his one man operation into a quartet, front man Erlend Viken leads his troops into epic landscapes on soup's second album, “Children of E.L.B”. Dreamy songs that build and ultimately explode in cascades of guitars and electronica, this is Postal Service, Godspeed you! black emperor, Mercury Rev, Sigur Rós and Sufjan Stevens all in one beautiful bowl.
-- How Is Annie Records
zidanefromhell skrev:Soup var grymt bra!!!
2010 has seen the rapid ascension of Zola Jesus to front a new wave of gothic synth pop. The 'Stridulum EP' was released to the US market earlier in the year to huge acclaim from Pitchfork, and now finally receives a European edition, bulked up with three extra tracks to make an album proper. Zola, real name Nika Roza Danilova, emerged from the relative wilderness of Wisconsin, USA, studying opera from a young age before succumbing to the vices of pop, no-wave industrial classics and the avant-garde. This nurtured the exquisitely dark and resplendent sound of 'Stridulum', probably her defining release to date. Following more lo-fi releases for Aurora Borealis, Sacred Bones and Die Stasi among others, she's now afforded a proper studio setting to really give flight to her professionally trained vocals. Opener 'Night' is the awe-inspiring result, placing epically reverbed vocals in the centre of martial industrial rhythms and towering synthpop chord changes almost guaranteed to take your breath away. Together with a blackened string section, this formula is the basis for each of the six tracks from the original version, while the newer compositions perhaps have a slightly more sludgy darkwave aesthetic, found in the sluggishly grinding 'Tower' and the depressed New Order synths of new single 'Sea Talk'. However, this isn't a formula we can imagine getting tired of any time soon, as it acutely affects us with each and every listen, seemingly reinforcing the fact that this is one of the finest long players you're going to encounter this year. From Fever Ray to Cold Cave, lovers of black lit, emotive pop music are in danger of falling in love with this album from the first listen. Awesome.
-- http://boomkat.com/vinyl/328238-zola-jesus-stridulum-ii
Nearly a year and a half in the making, ‘Opticks’ is a gently enchanting new record that – whilst again home-recorded - dramatically upgrades Silje’s sound and sees her making considerable advances on her debut, ‘Ames Room’, which was released in January 2008 to widespread critical acclaim. Intricately constructed, warm and brimming with melodic hooks, ‘Opticks’ is a record full of wonder and unfurls a series of increasingly accessible and catchy little songs.
Norwegian multi-instrumentalist / singer / songwriter Silje Nes grew up in the tiny town of Leikanger, in Sognefjord, Norway’s largest fjord, before moving to Bergen in 2000. Having previously been in an indie pop band, played timpani in an orchestra and bass drum in a marching band, Silje began making her own music in 2001, recording on 4-track demo software through a tiny inbuilt microphone on a laptop. Guided by the excitement of discovering interesting new sounds and instruments, she made use of whatever equipment she could get hold of – guitars, an old synth, a cello, a drum kit, a laptop, as well as loop pedals to build layers of her own playing. Little by little she also found ways of including her own voice, both as texture and song, and her music has organically evolved from there.
First coming to FatCat’s attention via a unique, utterly charming demo received out of the blue in 2005, her quirky, adventurous debut album, 'Ames Room', opened out like a series of intricate constructions, the whole teeming with a playful sense of life. Followed shortly by a 4-track EP, ‘Yellow’, Silje subsequently embarked on tours of the UK / Europe / USA, but since then has remained quiet, spending her time in her new home in Berlin, constructing this beautiful follow-up.
Whilst once again mostly home-recorded, ‘Opticks’ (the title references Isaac Newton’s 1704 book about the science of optics and the refraction of light) has a far richer, fuller sound than its predecessor and is the result of a more focused approach. Starting from scratch with an end goal rather than being an collection of existing pieces with additions and reworkings (as on ‘Ames Room’), it was made with different equipment and in different surroundings. Created between autumn 2008 and winter 2009, the album was mixed with Tarwater’s Bernd Jestram. More melodic and a little less experimental, it’s a fully coherent album and its beautiful combination of sweet hooks and lush, intricate textural detail ensure that it’s a place that listeners will want to return to. Silje’s beautiful, breathy vocals are projected further forward in the mix than previously, becoming less another texture than a central focus for the whole.
Orbiting around Silje’s unique vocals, tracks are constructed from a wide range of instruments and effects - guitars, drums, viola, bass, xylophone, electronics, keyboards, concertina, flute, trumpet, percussion and “basically anything i have lying around, adding random recordings of things, video clips, effects...” Initially utilising a computer to layer sound, Silje has increasingly tried to remove herself from the machine - reworking some of the material on a 4-track cassette recorder in an attempt to simplify things, but ultimately ending back with the computer exploding the material into "even more complicated stuff than before."
-- http://fat-cat.co.uk/fatcat/release.php?id=330
norman skrev:Noir Désir
Franskt alternativt band som bildades i mitten av -80. Hittade precis dom så jag har bara lyssnat på ett album än så länge. Tycker dom verkar roliga.
It has become somewhat of a cliché in music reviews to refer to an album as defying categorisation – I’ve even been guilty of it myself. Listening to The Quiet Lamb, I realise how quick I’ve been to use this convention in the past; the new album from Her Name Is Calla does not fit into any clear genre pigeonhole and may even be an early entry from a new generation of music. An album of contrasts, its closest relation would likely be post-rock, yet it refuses to be bound by the musical structure of that genre. Coming in at 76 minutes, The Quiet Lamb is an epic journey that transcends musical boundaries, and is both contemplative and exhilarating for its listeners.
Hailing from England, Her Name Is Calla is a five-piece band with a stunning array of multi-instrumentalist talent, playing everything from guitars to a theremin. In a recording process as complex as their music, the band take demos recorded on phones and added to Dropbox, and each contribute their own layers to the tracks. The songs gestate and grow over time, even up to two years, before being deemed ready. This slow and considered process adds to the album’s scale of grandeur.
The Quiet Lamb is a three-act opus of passion, underscored by the life experiences by the band’s front man and chief songwriter, Tom Morris. The first act takes the emotional turbulence of the dark times of an overdose and the impact on his family; the second shifts into a pensive air; and the third delivers a triptych of dark rage undercut with hope. Although this is not a concept album, the tracks and acts dovetail together perfectly, creating a dense tapestry of rich but thoughtful angst with excellent flow.
With the album’s epic length, it takes a few listens to really start to pick up the many nuances in the music, and it is an album of many flavours. For example, “Moss Giant” provides a Debussy-like opening to the first act; “Condor and River”, with a length 17 minutes, is the closest the album gets to true post-rock, unleashing an assault worthy of Godspeed You! Black Emperor before slipping into the lyrics and quieter melodies. There are also moments of the likes of folk and alt-rock making appearances throughout. This variety adds surprises, keeping the listener from being lulled into complacency; one could be listening to a mellow folk part when a horn section comes out of nowhere.
The Quiet Lamb is one hell of an album. It gets the listener so involved in the music that one is loathe to step away, even for a minute. One could read this review and fear the album would be depressing, but this is not the case. The lyrics are so simple and the music complex, that it becomes more of a meditative piece – something to be reflected on. I think that everyone will find something different to focus on; for me, it’s a Celtic vibe around the sound that captivates.
-- http://www.guerrillageek.com/2010/10/he ... quiet-lamb
After a couple of years couch surfing, house sitting and soul searching across the world, Darren Hanlon has emerged with his fourth studio album, I Will Love You At All. Written in a variety of exotic locations from Paris to Coonabarabran it seems travel has made Darren’s heart grow wistful. The result is an album of gentle longing and reminiscence. Darren’s trademark wit and wordplay is ever present on I Will Love You At All but this time around the more understated song settings match a new kind of directness in his lyricism.
As always Darren’s eye for life’s details are played out with charm and joyful abandon. From the light-fingered bounce of ‘Butterfly Bones’ to the evocative and plaintive ‘Modern History’, these songs mainline to the heart. There’s Darren’s first stab at an epic - ‘House’ clocks in at 7.39 minutes, and his most down-home country shuffle yet, ‘If Only My Heart Were Made Of Stone’, followed by the haunting closer of ‘What Can We Say?’. At each turn it’s an album rich in spirit.
I Will Love You At All was recorded at Type Foundry in Portland, Oregon by Adam Selzer (M Ward, She & Him, The Decemberists). Featuring Rachel Blumberg (Bright Eyes, M Ward, She & Him, The Decemberists) on drums, the record also features long time collaborator Cory Gray on keys. Reinforcing the album’s sweet nature are the twin female vocals of Shelley Short and Alia Farah.
-- http://www.flippinyeah.com/item.cfm?action=show&id=87
Jansson skrev:http://open.spotify.com/track/6owzKa078ws8uVOmsPtDjJ
Tycker mycket om den här skivan.
One of the most impressive singles of the past year was the “Apply” 12” that served as the introduction to Cameron Mesirow, a.k.a. Glasser. The Los Angeles artist has made short work of following it up with a full-length for True Panther Sounds, and this is one that’s already been making the rounds as one of the most quietly anticipated records of the year. Rightly so, too: Ring is an impressive full-length both vocally and musically, confirming the belief of quickly accrued supporters and hopefully opening the ears to a mass of new fans.
There is little time wasted in this record’s nine songs, and that Mesirow packs so many wonderful sounds into it without really complicating the chord progressions or basic melodies is perhaps the truest testament to her talent. “Apply” is once again the first song and will provide a similar introduction to people who didn’t hear that EP. The re-recorded version here sounds less homespun, slightly beefier thanks to added handclaps, but the song hinges on an alluring chorus and the particularly deafening note Mesirow hits about a minute and a half in. These remain thankfully unchanged, and it accurately portends things to come.
For a lot of artists, “Apply” would have been hard enough to follow, but that’s not so important with this record for reasons the Los Angeles Times has already pointed out: You can start this anywhere and it wouldn’t really matter. “Clamour” ends the album with a quiet reprise of the same beat in “Apply,” but there aren’t any obvious highlights or weaknesses, interludes or blatant three-minute pop jingles, positive vibes or negative ones. “Glad” is the other returnee from the 12” and is about as close to a diversion from the aesthetic — exotically folky without much reverb. Beyond that, Mesirow is consistent in her self-backed choruses. Her vocals are often compared to Kate Bush, but Mesirow’s are slightly higher in pitch, which can make her both gentler and more aggressive depending on the moment.
The music, too, is relentlessly creative. This is due in large part to Mesirow’s obvious talent at creating melodies, but credit must also go to Foreign Born’s Ariel Rechtshaid and rising producers Van Rivers and The Subliminal Kid, associates of Fever Ray and lately of Blonde Redhead’s Penny Sparkle. The different electronic tricks they help with here are impressive. If the songs are fairly straightforward in structure, the careful addition and subtraction of sounds within them is not. From the vintage Italo synths of “T” to the tropical sounds of “Treasury of We” (suggesting Glasser’s labelmate Tanlines has had an influence) to indications of Pantha du Prince’s bell obsession on “Home” and “Mirrorage,” the music complements without unnecessarily diverting attention from Mesirow’s vocals.
Rings isn’t just the title of this record. It is a way of making beats, and of building choruses, and of constructing songs, and of remembering the fragments of dreams for these lyrics. It is a way of thinking, one Glasser has followed to a beautifully self-assured debut album that won’t take long to start looping in your own subconscious.
-- http://www.dustedmagazine.com/reviews/5990
phloam skrev:Whoa, denna skiva tänker jag inte försöka beskriva. En fascinerande samling. Kan nån förklara...?
FalloutBoy skrev:
Darren Hanlon - I Will Love You At All (2010, Flippin Yeah Industries)After a couple of years couch surfing, house sitting and soul searching across the world, Darren Hanlon has emerged with his fourth studio album, I Will Love You At All. Written in a variety of exotic locations from Paris to Coonabarabran it seems travel has made Darren’s heart grow wistful. The result is an album of gentle longing and reminiscence. Darren’s trademark wit and wordplay is ever present on I Will Love You At All but this time around the more understated song settings match a new kind of directness in his lyricism.
As always Darren’s eye for life’s details are played out with charm and joyful abandon. From the light-fingered bounce of ‘Butterfly Bones’ to the evocative and plaintive ‘Modern History’, these songs mainline to the heart. There’s Darren’s first stab at an epic - ‘House’ clocks in at 7.39 minutes, and his most down-home country shuffle yet, ‘If Only My Heart Were Made Of Stone’, followed by the haunting closer of ‘What Can We Say?’. At each turn it’s an album rich in spirit.
I Will Love You At All was recorded at Type Foundry in Portland, Oregon by Adam Selzer (M Ward, She & Him, The Decemberists). Featuring Rachel Blumberg (Bright Eyes, M Ward, She & Him, The Decemberists) on drums, the record also features long time collaborator Cory Gray on keys. Reinforcing the album’s sweet nature are the twin female vocals of Shelley Short and Alia Farah.
-- http://www.flippinyeah.com/item.cfm?action=show&id=87
http://open.spotify.com/album/6O5Z5idEzpelUcD4IQXIHH
tobm skrev:Här är en video till "I Wish That I Was Beautiful For You" (i och för sig från en annan skiva men en fantastiskt fin låt) med 93-årige Eli Wallach (den fule i filmen "Den Gode, den onde, den fule") i huvudrollen
In the midst of the re-emergence and popularity of folk music (which is very much deserved for a genre that has been so overlooked for so long) you’d hope that it might encourage people to delve deeper and look past those artists who have found an audience in the mainstream like Mumford & Sons and Noah & The Whale and investigate albums that lean towards its roots. If they are so adventurous, they will stumble upon Dear Winesburg.
On first listen to the group’s debut album, it’s far too easy to be daunted but this is a prime example as to why records should be given time. On repeated listens, certain songs start to become much clearer and and within time you’ll discover it to be quite a rewarding listen.
The title track (all four parts of it) has a delightful spring in its step and ‘The Ballad Of Mary Freer’, a two and a half minute instrumental, is particularly intricate. ‘To Let Reply’ is just one of many tunes that show off some of the outstanding arrangements that have been conjured up by the London outfit and ‘Awake’ is a rousing number tucked away towards the end that feels like one last all-out burst of enthusiasm. The record also sounds quite broad and boundless as it allows each individual instrument to shine. From every fluttering violin note to every guitar string delicately plucked, it shows off muscianship that is heavily accomplished.hi
This is not an album that is meant to be savoured on its first listen. It needs the patience of the listener to give it a few more spins to fully appreciate what’s on offer. There are plenty of treats to enjoy here and it’s one of those few LPs that justifies its near hour-long running time. This is a fine interpretation of traditional-sounding folk, particularly for a debut, and well worth a good chunk of your time.
-- http://www.forfolkssake.com/reviews/593 ... -winesburg
Alex Chen is a man that sees beauty in what most of us take for granted or chose to avoid. Whether it's his visual art or his music, he searches for inspiration in areas most people walk past with our heads down and consumed by our complaints and complacency.
That's why when Alex sent over his solo work - under the moniker The Consulate General - it wasn't surprising to hear that he took another step back from the minimal electro-pop his creates as a member of Boy in Static. Gone are the stabbing strings and uptempo, intricate programmed beats that grabbed your ear and without question, the journey he makes as The Consulate General, albeit just as meticulously arranged, seems more personal and introverted.
The record moves at a reserved pace, almost as if Chen is afraid to speed his gate and miss something. From the opening moments of What Time is it Now - the terrific duet with Antoine Bedard (Montag) - until the closing note, Chen uses playful instruments like the triangle, toy pianos, and chimes to support his vocals, strings and programming, but never gives in the temptation to crank up the BPM and rely on energy to win over the listener. The result is you have a chance to focus on the incredibly personal admissions he offers up (Have You Seen My Girl would get lost without the melancholic composition he attaches to it).
That's not to say he doesn't fuse tracks with enjoyable juxtapositions that will charm his audience, he just approaches the conquest in a more one-on-one way. The strings he throws into the IDM heavy 65 or Older gives the track a symphony feel that carries over nicely to picked strings that balance out the heavier bass he experiments with on Half-Day Honeymoon and the delightful Sweet Solano, but the songs won't transfer to party atmospheres or even sunshine filled day. No, Person Number is created for headphones and uses (and almost requires) all 13 songs to let Chen express himself and draw you in, and while understated the results are interesting, accessible and surprisingly engaging.
-- http://www.herohill.com/2010/03/reviews ... number.htm
This compelling new microsound work on Spekk was inspired by what its author describes as "the sensations produced by listening to music while falling asleep." Federico Durand set about producing some wonderfully foggy, suggestively melodic miniatures for this album, each brilliantly capturing the kind of between state your senses are in at the moment of waking up, or drifting off to sleep. The slow moving, gauzy sound designs mirror sleep-tinted perception in all its languid, fuzzy warmth, and invitingly drowsy tracks like 'Mi Pequeno Mundo De Papel' and 'Los Alerces Del Patio' feel every bit like the conduits to the land of nod they were intended to be. Marking Durand's album as an alternative to the more commonplace laptop-generated ambient records out there, La Siesta Del Cipre's was laboriously assembled on an ancient PC with cassette tapes. While the process was distinctly lo-fi, the end result is anything but, and despite the snooze-centric concept the record proves to remarkably well-crafted, lending a special kind of quivering, filtered precariousness to a piece like 'Pudu, Tu Nombre es Tobias?'. Another fine release from this Japanese label, occupying the same upper echelons of the micro-ambient world as Chihei Hatakeyama or even the most accessible works of Stephan Mathieu and Taylor Deupree.
-- http://boomkat.com/cds/298349-federico- ... el-cipre-s
Pine is the debut release from the soundscaping duo of Alex Smalley and Svitlana Samoylenko, who compose and record together as Olan Mill. Using the manipulated sounds of violin, piano, pipe organ and guitar these two musicians introduce themselves with 'Spare Smoke Template', which at first brings to mind the slowcore elegance you'd associate with Stars Of The Lid - diverting a pseudo-classical palette of instruments towards a droning, harmonious soundscape. 'Country' immediately capitalises on this form with an even more discerning take on the same sound, swelling in symphonic ambient waves over a cinematic five minutes. With material like this it's easy to lose sense of what the USP might be - there are, afterall, so many home-listening opuses of this ilk released every week, many of which conform to a similarly high standard. What sets this act apart from the herd is the more naked and exposed usage of live instruments, which contributes to a greater sense of melodic flexibility and all-round musicianship. It's when the live instruments disentangle themselves from the larger, droning soundmass that the record proves to be most interesting, and when strings and piano emerge clearly from the reverberant, church setting of the recording there's a level of unearthly loveliness to all this that transcends the norm: 'Disempowered' is a thing of glacial, patient loveliness, and similarly, the cavernous resonance of 'An Obedient Ear' and 'Pine' are hard to resist. Recommended.
-- http://boomkat.com/cds/303772-olan-mill-pine
Bill50x skrev:
En OT-fråga. När jag klickar på ovanstående länk så öppnas en sida i min browser och samtidigt startar Spotify. Men Spotify startar inte med musiken som länken går till utan på förstasidan. Vill jag lyssna på musiken måste jag söka den.
Är detta någon inställningsgrej eller är det något fel?
/ B
Malte74 skrev:Bill50x skrev:
En OT-fråga. När jag klickar på ovanstående länk så öppnas en sida i min browser och samtidigt startar Spotify. Men Spotify startar inte med musiken som länken går till utan på förstasidan. Vill jag lyssna på musiken måste jag söka den.
Är detta någon inställningsgrej eller är det något fel?
/ B
Hos mig funkar det så att har jag spotify igång så klickar jag på "play"-knappen som dyker upp i webläsarfönstret bredvid skivkonvolutet när länken öppnas. Då laddas albumet upp i spotify!
The brainchild of former Leeds resident P Elam (a member of Hood side-project The Declining Winter), Fieldhead is an ambient electronic project characterised by roughly stitched together, hiss-laden loops and eroded analogue signals. Nothing new there in theory, but Elam's very distinct, personal style proves to be something quite exceptional. This five-track 10" follows on from Elam's self-released Introductions EP and the ensuing 2009 album, They Shook Hands For Hours - which is well worth investigating if you've yet to hear it. For this new release Fieldhead has shifted gears slightly, stripping the focus of his sound to include just a few decaying synth drones and a central vocal, supplied by five contributors: Anna-Lynne Williams (of Trespassers William), Chantal Acda (of Sleepingdog), Anneke Kampman (of Conquering Animal Sound), Elly May Irving (of Glissando) and Esker (of The Boats and The Sea). The outcome is quite magical, perhaps suggesting what a Grouper/William Basinski collaboration might end up sounding like.
-- http://boomkat.com/downloads/332863-fieldhead-riser
shifts skrev:Broken Note - Flood EP
http://open.spotify.com/album/6exU45BmdExgR5t5ZUEuZn
Ond, mörk, industriell dubstep. Om det nu finns sådant.
Planet Mu's armour-plated dubstep ensemble follow their seminal first LP with an addendum of sorts, collating rarities and unreleased cuts produced around those album sessions. 'Cloud Seed' is built from that same sort of controlled dancefloor aggression and appreciation of darker sci-fi moods and aesthetics, blending stunning moments of cinematic dystopia like 'Remains Of The Day' and 'Shinju Bridge' with their reworks of neo-classical compositions from John Richards and Gabriel Prokofiev released on the Non-Classical series. There's a healthy amount of vocal tracks too, from the slo-mo robo-daggering riddim set for Warrior Queens vocal on 'Take Time Out' to scuzzy builds for Jest 'Disposition' and sweetened female vocals from Anneka on 'Heart Space', plus the epic remix of 'Killing Floor' subtitled 'MAH Mix' and the haunting version of Distance's 'Fallen'. Unfortunately the duo are for all intents and purposes disbanded right now, but during this period they achieved a gloriously cinematic sound that defined a darkly maudlin style which many tried, but few accomplished so well. Major respect where it's due.
-- http://boomkat.com/cds/276842-vex-d-cloud-seed
Very few dream/noise pop bands are capable of striking this delicate balance of saccarine and gloom without me wanting to beat them to death with pixie sticks, but Baltimore four-piece the Thrushes juggle the precarious elements with a deft hand. All of the staples of quality shoegaze can be found on their debut record, Sun Come Undone, but woven inbetween the feedback and distortion is a sweetness that sets the band’s sound apart. The songs are loosely structured and dreamy, and the vocalist’s honeyed voice emerges out of the noisy reverb to sprinkle sugar on everything. It’s just sweet enough to make me feel all fuzzy inside, but not so overly sweet that I get the sudden urge to smash Barbie dolls and litter their severed limbs all about and make babies cry and whatnot. Her vocals perfectly balance out and complement the dreamy noise that exists within.
The Thrushes have done their homework, too. They reference everyone from the Jesus and Mary Chain to Joy Division to Yo La Tengo, but do so in such a way that it is non-blasphemous and subtle. When working within a “genre” (if we have to name names), such as shoegaze, it’s difficult to build upon the foundation of the forerunners while still managing to sound unique. The Thrushes pull this off masterfully, as their nods to the past serve only as starting points from which they spin their own brand of sweetened shoegaze.
Sun Come Undone is a strong first release from a talented band that’s doing everything right. I recommend this record.
-- http://music.is-amazing.com/2010/03/7/t ... falls-2010
FalloutBoy skrev:Fieldhead - Riser EP (2010, Gizeh Records)
shifts skrev:FalloutBoy skrev:Fieldhead - Riser EP (2010, Gizeh Records)
Tack! Helt missat.
shifts skrev:Har lite planerar på att skissa upp ett släktträd kring Hood med
medlemmar och deras sidoprojekt. Inte bestämt hur jag ska gestalta det bara.
Revenge was originally inspired by two primary, if conflicting, forces: the actual desire for revenge (on a whole city and, perhaps, on history), and the sadness over this desire. The song "Revenge" by Black Flag has resonated with White since he was a child. The way - in a 59 second song – Chavo (BF’s 2nd singer) manages to scream about how they're "gonna get revenge" while also makes regular reference to how much this is going to ruin his life ("don't tell me about tomorrow" etc.), all whirring and bleating through his cassette player on an old and decaying tape, created a poignant collision for White. You can hear this paradox throughout the album as sounds shift from the chaotic ambience of “Christmas Eve” to the building and frightening “What Happened” to the delicate melancholy of “For To Become” to the robotic love song “Hoods Up.” Tinkling pianos offer reprieve from black metal vocals (all by White himself) and drift into wistful guitars and lush electronics. There aren’t many touchstones for an epic post-genre record like this one (M83 and Fuck Buttons might share some sensibilities), which makes it right at home on Absolutely Kosher.
The use of cassette tape as a recording tool became a part of White’s perspective as well, an attempt to assimilate the influence of the music and media of White’s earliest memories, which, as he got older, he received through decayed cassette tapes and over-watched videos. If you see a video of yourself at age 8 over and over again, do you remember the moment or the recording of the moment? Has technology made us nostalgic voyeurs of our own existence? As that technology decays, what happens to our memory of the actual event? We play out a game of “telephone” with ourselves, overhearing and reinterpreting moments and sounds through the passage of time. The pianos on “Self-Telepathy” are an attempt to replicate the sound of a film soundtrack heard from copied video. As Johnny puts it, “It conveys a necessary sadness about our yearning for childhood, because - as our memories weren't developed enough to properly record anything - it's almost as if we weren't really there ourselves and, as these formative years have such an effect on how we turn out, it sometimes feels like my adult mind is controlled by a dream I had when I was young.”
-- http://www.absolutelykosher.com/artist.php?id=78
Finally, after over a month of unanswered emails and text messages, blown deadlines, and pleas to finish and turn in their new album, last week, a large brown cardboard box showed up at the Dead Oceans doorstep. It had "SHINJU TNT" scrawled across the bottom of the box in black magic marker, and the return address read only "AK, Detroit."
Opening it revealed a sincere but poorly made diorama of futurist swirling spaces filled with toy astronauts and dinosaurs, four blown out song fragments on a TDK CDR in a ziplock bag, three pictures, and a typewritten note from Akron/Family. A post-it on the bag declared the band refused to send the full album to anyone but the vinyl pressing plant, for fear of leaking and possible lost revenues.
From the note and a short video that arrived days later, we've pieced together that the album was written in a cabin built into the side of Mount Meakan, an active volcano in Akan National Park, on the island of Hokkaido, Japan. It was recorded in an abandoned train station in Detroit with the blackest white dude we all know, Chris Koltay (Liars, Women, Deerhunter, Holy Fuck, No Age). Chris, on tour after finishing the record, commented: "this album will transcend the internet."
Akron/Family spent the end of 2009 and half of 2010 exploring the future of sound through Bent Acid Punk Diamond fuzz and Underground Japanese noise cassettes, lower case micro tone poems and emotional Cagean field recordings, rebuilding electronic drums from the 70's and playing them with sticks they carved themselves. Upon miraculous resuscitation of the original AKAK hard drive, the album layers thousands of minute imperceptible samples of their first recordings with fuzzed-out representations of their present beings to induce pleasant emotional feeling states and many momentary transcendent inspirations.
This album is titled "S/T II: The Cosmic Birth and Journey of Shinju TNT." We have no idea what that means.
-- http://www.deadoceans.com/onesheet.php?cat=DOC045
It's easy to remember how you felt at 16.
Yeah, you had two eyes like everyone else, but yours were Infallibility and Invincibility. No one could tell you what to do. A force to be reckoned with -- you were filled with the undeniable feeling that you could take on anything and win.
Having formed in 1994, Deerhoof is now that fateful age and by rites it's the band's turn to go out and challenge the world. The same way a rebellious adolescent turns tough and irrational, Greg Saunier, Ed Rodriguez, John Dieterich, and Satomi Matsuzaki just up and split from San Francisco, the only home they've ever known as a band, and left behind all notions of what a "Deerhoof record sounds like."
The result is Deerhoof vs. Evil. The musical equivalent of hormones raging out of control, it explodes out of the speakers with its gawky triumph and inflamed sentimentality. These are songs that practically demand that you dance and sing along (however elastic the rhythms, or abrupt the melodies).
To document their musical "coming-of-age" the band members could only trust themselves. Besides their cover of an obscure Greek film soundtrack instrumental ("Let's Dance the Jet"), and a song done for NY artist Adam Pendleton's documentary film installation BAND ("I Did Crimes for You"), these songs were completely self-recorded, mixed and mastered in practice spaces and basements with no engineers or outside input.
Ironically the result is polished, blissfully exuberant, and huge-sounding. Going DIY meant freedom to reinvent themselves, playing each others' instruments, altering those instruments so drastically as to be unrecognizable, and generally splashing their sonic colors into the most unexpected combinations.
-- http://www.polyvinylrecords.com/store/index.php?id=1538
zidanefromhell skrev:Ursäkta, ligger lite efter här, men låter inte Gold panda väldigt likt eminenta The Field?
Second album of amazing pop from Sore Eros, a split label release, limited vinyl pressing on SHDWPLY, and CD pressing on Agitated; With "Know Touching", Sore Eros have crafted a record that is simultaneously dense and soothingly melodic, fulfilling the considerable promise of their debut, 2009’s "Second Chants". For this record, the band (Robert Robinson and Adam Langellotti) made a conscious departure from its debut, recording the album direct to a ½ inch 8 track reel-to-reel without the aid of computers. From this the band emerged with a record that blooms with melody and innocent joy that bring to mind such similarly spaced out artists as Atlas Sound and Kurt Vile. When patched together, this detailed attention to arrangement and dreamy melodic sensibilities combine to make "Know Touching" an effortlessly beautiful record.
'People said a lot of the songs [on Second Chants] sounded like I was singing from a room down the hall, this time we wanted it to sound like I was whispering in your ear. This began to give the record a little bit of a creepy feel, however Adam's arrangements on the record countered that creepiness with more of a playful and innocent feel'. - Robert.
-- http://www.piccadillyrecords.com/produc ... 72591.html
phloam skrev:Vem hade trott att jag skulle tipsa om singer-songwriter men råkade hitta Corteney Tidwell när jag letade helt annan musik (se dansmix nedan!).
Opening with the effects-coated chiming of a grandfather clock, Holly Lane immediately sets out its stall as an album steeped in all things antiquated and dusty. Expect a slow barrage of 78rpm static, dissolved, haunted house piano motifs and strategically atmospheric field recordings throughout. Present throughout the album is a floating palette of synthetic ambiences and string-like pads, ranging from the grand and orchestral strains of 'Mistletoe Lane' to the more ambiguous blend of 'Holly Lane', which seems to mix vinyl static with a rumbling rhythmic sound not dissimilar to the to-and-fro of windscreen wipers. A strange and pleasingly evocative cocktail of sounds if ever there was one. Further contributing to the atmosphere of the album, even the song titles drip with a creepy, sepia-tinted quality, although thinking about it, 'Greylings Manor', 'Cliff Castle', and 'Smugglers Top' all sound like locations from an episode of Midsomer Murders. Another very fine piece of work in the Hibernate canon.
-- http://boomkat.com/cds/350032-clem-leek-holly-lane
Listen closely enough, and it’s possible to detect subtle variations in the resonance of the world around you. Different terrains modulate the properties of sound: wind, whipping across moorland, spirits a voice away before it can even reach the ear; the soft, muted crunch of woodland; how a grassy natural amphitheatre almost imperceptibly raises the volume of spoken words. Wandering between these environments reveals a soundworld constantly in flux, never settling for long enough to become predictable. As Forest Swords, Matt Barnes treads similar paths, taking equal inspiration from dub’s studio trickery and the landscape of his home in the Wirral to create music that captures those shifts as they occur. Each track is a languid snapshot of a single moment in time, as though he’s able to pause the clock and cycle slowly through the stacked layers of the present.
In the months following its original release, through US lo-fi magicians Olde Engish Spelling Bee, his bewitching Dagger Paths has ever-so-slowly wormed its way into wider consciousness. Despite its quiet emergence as a six-track, vinyl-only curiosity on a tiny label, it sold out almost immediately. Since then, Barnes’ music has slowly trickled its way through the internet’s usual channels, gradually being discovered by new groups of people and in the process establishing itself as 2010’s most quietly affecting record: a true sleeper hit. This CD reissue by No Pain In Pop, which brings the original 12-inch together with its sister 7-inch Rattling Cage and a limited bonus disc of remixes and rarities, should ensure it only continues to grow in profile.
Upon its release Dagger Paths was almost inevitably filed alongside the backward-looking ranks of his OESB labelmates. And there are certainly parallels to be drawn between tracks like ‘Miarches’ and ‘Rattling Cage’ and the likes of Autre Ne Veut and James Ferraro. But Forest Swords’ music is far more spatial than it is temporal. Shedding the thin haze of nostalgia that peppers the hypnagogic pop phenomenon, he crafts landscapes that are entirely of now. Rather than remain content with abstract expression, his cover of Aaliyah’s ‘If Your Girl Only Knew’ (recast simply as ‘If Your Girl’) is almost overwhelmingly visual. Barnes’ imperfect vocal take, buried in mist and murk, is crisp and autumnal, stretching out a single second into a percussive eternity. His music certainly plays tricks with time but also operates defiantly outside its rigid boundaries - album highlight ‘Hjurt’ hangs in unbroken stasis for five blissful minutes. In that sense it achieves a druggy 5am lucidity despite its low fidelity, low tech gestation.
Dagger Paths’ upward trajectory, subtle, organic, expanding from tiny eddies and ripples to full-blown waves, is mirrored in – or perhaps, more accurately, mirrors – its contents. As simple as it is effective, Barnes’ signature technique is to construct aural illusions of vertiginous depth from layer upon layer of sparse instrumentation, all bound together with the sticky gum of reverb. It’s as if dub had first developed in the windswept, changeable expanses of the Wirral, rather than the sun-soaked warmth of Jamaica. When I interviewed him earlier this year he also cited Simon Reynolds’ seminal post-punk document Rip It Up And Start Again as an inspiration. That book’s legacy becomes increasingly clear while listening to his music: the principle of tearing apart everything that came before and rebuilding it in stark new shapes lies right at its heart.
Crucially though, instead of using reggae or punk as a basis from which to experiment, ‘Glory Gongs’ and ‘Hjurt’ take the crystalline, spidery guitar structures of post-punk and set them buoyant above cavernous low-end. Combined with scraps of sampled voice strewn across its surface, the result is a take on similar ideas of deconstruction but filtered through a modern lens. While not explicitly political, it’s strangely appropriate that, in keeping with the origins of post-punk, its arrival coincides with the sort of vicious governmental agenda not seen since the days of Thatcher.
Beneath its dense, layered appearance, Forest Swords’ music is deceptively simple. Listening closely, you can practically hear Barnes’ bedroom tightly enclosing the music: fingers scraping on frets, failed takes, fruitless nights spent bathed in a laptop’s glow. But what’s so remarkable about Dagger Paths is how it transcends the limitations of that space. Like another of the year’s finest records, Actress’ Splazsh, it refuses to remain trapped between four walls, instead reaching outward to absorb the peculiarities of the surrounding environment. Tantalisingly short but precociously fully formed, operating both within and totally apart from current trends, it’s like nothing else out there.
-- http://drownedinsound.com/releases/1584 ... ws/4141650
There's not a lot of information included with Bottomless Pit's second album, Blood Under the Stars. There are no songwriting, production or performance credits. There are no lyrics. There are no acknowledgements or thank yous. There are no photos of the band. Even the press release accompanying advance copies of the album is limited to four sentences about the album. One might interpret this as an attempt to retain a sense of mystique or anonymity, but more importantly, the stark (albeit neon orange) packaging places the burden on the music to make its own statement, which would be a bold move for a greenhorn. But former Silkworm members Tim Midgett and Andy Cohen are veterans at letting the music do the speaking, reaching a graceful new peak on this second full length.
Continuing in the tuneful and slow burning vein of their 2007 debut, Bottomless Pit take a decidedly measured and dignified approach. Even on a track like the ragged "Late Dixon," in which Cohen belts out such misanthropic lines as "there's so many fuckers in this world...to line up," there's a sense of ease and space that permeates the song. It's loud and raw, but performed with a sense of restraint typically reserved for post-rock. The duality of Bottomless Pit's raw moments against their dreamier, spacious melodies is ultimately what makes Blood Under the Bridge not only unique, but likewise rewarding.
Backed once again by Seam's Chris Manfrin and .22's Brian Orchard, Bottomless Pit open up their second album with a mellow, Krautrock-influenced groove in "Winterwind," a slowly unfolding and hypnotic leadoff track that serves as a baseline from which the band will both escalate and return to. The gorgeous "Rhinelander" finds Cohen and Midgett tapping into the Neil Young influence that has been a part of their oeuvre since their Silkworm days, crafting a bluesy and low-key highlight. By third track "Summerwind," however, the band begins to inject some mighty rock 'n' roll chug into their soulful melodies, and hammer out their most furious riffs on the album's (kind of) untitled centerpiece.
Cohen and Midgett very rarely stir up a sense of urgency in their songs, rather preferring a more subdued melodic approach. That doesn't mean they don't rock, in fact, on the whole Blood Under the Bridge is a considerably heavy album, thanks in large part to the group's rhythm section. But that heaviness is more about foundation than antagonism. But it was smart of the band to let their music speak for itself; no amount of marketing could capture the strength and the beauty within these 9 songs.
-- http://treblezine.com/reviews/3556-Bott ... ridge.html
Tungt och bra. Tack för tipset!shifts skrev:Det var länge sedan jag hörde den här skivan. Blev glad av att den fanns
att hitta på Spotify. Lyssningen är en omskakande resa:
Illusion of Safety - Bad Karma
The EP’s opening title track begins cloaked in a big, flickering shawl that opens up to a Richter-esque cello arrangement that tastefully counters the astral wash surrounding it. A few minutes later, another cello line, this time higher in the register, creeps in just before a dense ambient swell grows underneath. This tapestry stews with a slow, majestic cadence until a single guitar melody drenched in chorus finds its way atop what is now a wall of sound, making yet another solid case for simplicity over theatrics. Guitars, the primary mode of communication in Hammock, enter “Dark Beyond the Blue” in a decidedly more subdued, muted form. An abyss-appropriate bass pad stirs beneath, joining the heavily manipulated six-stringed loop on an odyssey of repetition that somehow refuses to become uninteresting. In this way, the song recalls The Caretaker’s “hauntological” masterpiece Persistent Repetition of Phrases.
At Longest Year‘s midsection, “Cruel Sparks” features the most liberal use of distortion Byrd and Thompson have ever invoked, its presence not only felt in the main, downward driving melody but in the intermittent noises that scurry alongside it. “Lonely, Some Quietly Wander in the Hall of Stars” shares in the former’s sense of yearning, but slowly begins to re-brighten things as guitars are leveraged to actually emulate the sound of stars careening across a night’s sky. It’s songs like this that make Hammock’s name so perfectly suited for the music it’s appended to.
Rounding out the collection is “One Another”, a composition that feels precisely like the Petillo photo: Stark but romantic, desolate but enduring. Insistent strings navigate untold numbers of washed out guitar tracks and synth pads, outlasting them all to close the EP in an organic and poignant swell. It is there that we’re left to decide for ourselves if this year, rife with conflict and unrest, portends our ruin or our reemergence.
-- http://consequenceofsound.net/2010/12/0 ... t-year-ep/
In January, Portishead founder Geoff Barrow took to Twitter to snip at James Blake. "Will this decade be remembered as the Dubstep meets pub singer years?" he asked, not naming the 22-year-old producer who, only that morning, was highlighted in the BBC's Sound of 2011 poll. When dubstep boomed and shuddered from Croydon at the dawn of the last decade, Blake wasn't yet a teenager. Barrow, on the other hand, was almost 40 and already on hiatus from one of the previous decade's most influential bands. He'd heard the rise of dubstep-- its cavernous bass, quick-click rhythms, bent vocal hooks-- and the tall, plaid-wearing kid from Enfield must have sounded a lot like its populist fall.
Barrow's dismissal of Blake is, presumably, a defense of dubstep-- the gesture suggests a purist, an elitist, or both. Reconsidered from the other artistic end, however, the implication is that maybe this is the decade where singer-songwriters-- longtime wastrels of pianos and six-strings with three chords-- finally get interesting, manipulating their pretty little voices and best love songs for something more than plain ballads and pleas. In that case, Barrow is right about Blake's full-length debut. Composed of tender torch songs, elegiac drifters, and soulful melodies, Blake's first puts him in the rare company of fellow singers-- Thom Yorke, Karin Dreijer, Antony Hegarty, Justin Vernon, Dan Bejar-- who've recently bent their own lavish voices, not samples, to make interesting pop music shaped with electronics. These songs are bigger than the defense of any microgenre, and, chances are, they'll soon make Blake a star. He deserves it.
Dubstep producer Untold released "Air and Lack Thereof", Blake's first single, on his Hemlock label in 2009; it was solid, slightly spooky dubstep, with drums darting around a sample that kept eroding. Since that debut, though, Blake has slowly focused on crafting songs-- bona fide, three-to-four minute builders-- around hooks. Last year's "CMYK", for instance, spliced Blake's voice with cuts from American R&B to place an indelible hook inside a number that actually progressed through its four minutes. Blake's more recent Klavierwerke EP draped its dance floor intentions around his own sweetly sung voice. And now, he moves still further from abstraction, to verses and even an occasional chorus.
While the songs are the magnetic center here, Blake's musicianship and sonics are equally striking. A "dubstep" producer with a gentle piano touch and an ear for granular synthesis so sharp it will make fleets of laptop toters envious, his toolkit is seamless. The two-part "Why Don't You Call Me" / "I Mind", for instance, opens with only voice and piano, played with the studied delicacy of a classical student. But Blake cuts it short 30 seconds in by splicing and resampling the piano line. He then bends his own voice and sings the lone verse twice, editing and re-shaping it into a new form that bears only the faintest resemblence to its opening source material. In the suite's second half, the vocals become spinning smears that fall into the background. It's the only time on the album where the drum clicks, static bursts, and piano splashes become the essential motion. It's the type of track you might have heard on one of his recent EPs-- the kind Blake purists lament this album's supposed lack of.
With this new LP-- released on a major label on both sides of the Atlantic, no less-- odds are, a lot of people are going to listen, and I don't mean in the tail-eating, blog-bite-blog sort of way. "Lindisfarne II" takes what Bon Iver's For Emma, Forever Ago did best and turns it into a simple, poignant mantra; if it doesn't score the season's end of some prime-time drama, a music director should be fired. The same goes for the album-ending "Measurements", which somehow pulls the sound of a Southern black gospel choir from Blake's laptop and white-boy coo. Feist cover "Limit to Your Love" works in just enough of dubstep's bass flutter and snare snap. If Blake really does cross over and become the pretty white male who introduces a broader audience to dubstep, with its foundations in Jamaican music and black musicians in South East London, he'll receive the tired, requisite backlash. But these 11 songs-- gorgeous, indelible tunes that are as generous in content as they are restrained in delivery-- will last a lot longer.
-- http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/15081-james-blake/
Mentored by Brian Eno. Signed by Domino Records after a tip off from former Coral guitarist Bill Rider-Jones. Supporting Interpol and chosen as support, to both fan and influence Nick Cave, for Grinderman. Already feted and tipped for success by the likes of XFM, AirHammer and Lightspeed Champion. One debut single release to date, in the form of a cover version of 'Jezebel', and Anna Calvi is on the long list for BBC Sound Of 2011. So, is the attention, praise, adulation and well intentioned speculation justified?
Anna Calvi has spent the best part of the last three years crafting her debut album in dingy basements, a French analogue bedecked studio and her regular home in London. The half Italian, Edith Piaf loving Music degree graduate had to overcome her shyness of singing before she was able to fully flourish as the lead in her talented trio. She has written and co-produced her self titled debut album on which she has also played and arranged the strings, and sung the choral backing to accompany some of the tracks.
Anna's songwriting and performance is full of passion and emotion, drama and intimacy. 'I see my songs as mini films.' Using her trademark Telecaster guitar, as well as the undoubted talents of her fellow accomplices Daniel Maiden-Wood on drums and kindred spirit Mally Harpez, Harmonium, Guitar and Percussion, Anna has produced an album that encompasses classical, film score, Rock, Pop, Folk and Flamenco.
The album is brought magnificently to life through an instrumental, Ennio Morricone, Twin Peaks, Wild At Heart, Chris Isaak's Blue Hotel like atmospheric smouldering cinematic delight 'Rider To The Sea'. Anna's guitar work is sublime and is worthy of more than this years Secret Garden Party tag line.....'Possibly one of the best female guitarists around on the underground.' There is no probably about it, and after this she should no longer find herself classed as part of the 'underground.' Up next we get 'No More Words' which introduces Anna's smooth but powerful vocals set against a Marquee Moon guitar riff, ending with some great rattlesnake tambourine shudders.
The most accessible, and commercial, track on the album is possibly also the weakest. 'Desire' is Anna fronting up the band ala Bono or Mike Peters. Posturing and booming through an anthemic stadium filler that would sit just as well as the original for the bare chested, oiled up lead singer of the band used during some of the opening scenes of The Lost Boys. Although a fan of the cinema I don't think it was these images Anna had envisaged when she wrote and recorded the track. Fortunately Anna redeems this small digression in spades with almost all the other 9 songs.
The highlights, of which there are many, on Anna's debut album include the luscious 'Suzzane And I' where she both excels in producing a wondrously deep and sensuous guitar sound but also manages to capture the range and texture of her characterful voice. This track, coupled with one of Anna's favourites, the epic and emotive closer 'Love Won't Be Leaving', taken in isolation serve to explain Anna Calvi's inclusion in this years 'Sound Of' poll.
'The Devil' is another of the albums gems. Here, and elsewhere to a lesser extent, Anna gives a virtuoso guitar performance that blends her love of Flamenco and Classical music. Wanting to make 'The middle-section to sound like the strings on a Hitchcock soundtrack' Anna builds and breaks the theatrical composition bringing its 'Crescendos towards an explosion, but in a real and honest way.' If you're made of stone you may fail to be moved! 'Blackout' shivers forth to showcase Anna as an Alt-Pop Siouxsie like chanteuse whilst 'I'll Be your Man' could have been written for, or by, Mr Cave with its Red Right Hand movie menace.
Anna Calvi has delivered an album of intensity and individuality. The instrumentation and arrangements are worked perfectly to let both her guitar and voice shine and soar throughout. Rob Ellis has helped Anna Calvi on the production of the album and whilst comparisons may be drawn with his previous collaborations with PJ Harvey, Anna has a style and presence all her own, one which is both sexual and sinister, dark and romantic. 'Music's so sexual. How can you not express that in some way?'
Her song writing, musicianship and technique set her aside from just being another talented singer song writer. Anna Calvi may not become 'The' sound of 2011 when the BBC publish their final five next year but she is most definitely a contender with a stunning debut album that she describes has the 'Culmination of her life so far.'
-- http://www.contactmusic.com/new/home.ns ... anna-calvi
shifts skrev:Där i den sista texten nämndes PJ Harvey, som ju också är aktuell med nytt.
Lyssnar för första gången nu. Lättsmält, men lovande:
http://open.spotify.com/album/7f1aXd7Gd5H9IqFu36zw6m
phloam skrev:Bara nåt jag råkade snubbla över, ej genomlyssnat - men de första låtarna indikerar spännande saker på g.
Lisa Germano är en gammal favorit och Laurie Anderson är stundtals bra. Resten har jag inte lyssnat på, men de flesta verkar vara ganska mainstream.Lågmäld elektronik och flera olika kvinnliga sångerskor (kanske andra kan berätta vilka de är?), bl.a. Laurie Anderson. Lisa Germano, Jane Briklin m.fl.
You have to wonder if Ian Parton ever regrets naming his recording project/collective the Go! Team, let alone affixing it with an exclamation point for guaranteed bonus exuberance. Few bands have gone to such great lengths to forge a connection between their name and their sound. Since its inception, the group has reconstructed sounds that are all about inspiring motion-- cheerlander chants, rollerskate jams, breakdance beats, cop-show chase themes, 90s mosh-pit rock-- into a brass-blasted wall of squall. But the side effect of constant movement is fatigue-- in this case, on the band itself, which charged through its 2007 sophomore release Proof of Youth with the same gusto heard on its dazzingly 2004 debut, Thunder, Lightning, Strike. Compounding the exhaustion on Proof of Youth is Parton's unwavering deference for high-pitch-frequency productions that sound like they're blaring out of an old Zenith, tenuously walking the line between ingratiating and just plain grating.
From the outset, Rolling Blackouts provides little relief: opener "T.O.R.N.A.D.O" announces itself with all the subtlety of an air-raid siren, as lead MC Ninja wages a losing battle against a torrential blitzkrieg of horn breaks and scratch effects. The song essentially serves the same function as the opening themes to the 80s action shows Parton was raised on: it's the Go! Team advertising itself, an instant reacquainting device to remind you of what you're tuning into. But thankfully, Parton proves much more willing to change up the script. His cut-and-paste aesthetic is still very much in effect; he just uses it to assemble more varied and satisfying songs.
There's always been a latent appreciation of 60s girl-group pop buried beneath the Go! Team's hyper-funk ballast, and that quality is given more time and space to shine here, whether in the Motown-by-way-of-Tokyo sweep of "Secretary Song" or the "Ready Steady Go!"-worthy "Ready to Go Steady". Even the typical jump-rope exercises ("Apollo Throwdown", "The Running Range") are leavened by acoustic-based sonics and congenially melodic choruses. Meanwhile, Parton's sound world now absorbs everything from endearingly schmaltzy soap-opera soundtracks ("Yosemite Theme") to Yo La Tengo-style dream-pop reveries (the title track). Of course, "Back Like 8 Track" closes the album by returning to the group's familiar schoolyard terrain. Hopefully, Rolling Blackouts marks the moment in the Go! Team's career where the idea of moving forward becomes less of a literal concept and more an artistic one.
-- http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/150 ... blackouts/
Trevlig lista! Bra introduktion till några band jag inte lyssnat så mycket på innan.shifts skrev:Det är fredag och dags för lite bröt och rens. Satte ihop lite spektakel från ett
av mina favvobolag, Rune Grammofon:
http://open.spotify.com/user/amlux/play ... S03Khegcll
+1! Det bästa han gjort på länge, eller iaf sen samarbetet med Aidan Baker.shifts skrev:zidane: Nej, den är inte mer intressant än bra – den är faktiskt snorbra.
"On tour, Lord of the Flies. Aw, hey kids, what's a guuuii-taaaaar?" So begins the sharply titled "On Tour", a spacious, diary-like explosion nestled just a few minutes into Smoke Ring for My Halo, Kurt Vile's fourth and finest full-length to date. Strings buzz, strummed patterns double back on themselves and from up above it all, the Philadelphia-native showers everything with cosmic, harp-like harmonics. It's a song that's both monastic and vast all at once, the kind of curiously rich work that seems like it was crafted by forty longhairs instead of just one. But Vile has gone great lengths in answering his own question in recent years, finding a way to distill thousands of hours spent with classic American guitar music into one very singular and sublime vision. Whether he's channeling the energies of John Fahey or Tom Petty or even Bob Seger, Smoke Ring makes clear that the end result is his alone.
But to listen to Kurt Vile is to hear him in conversation with himself: That can be said of his ultra-wry lyrical observations just as much as the elliptical, brick-by-brick architecture of his songwriting. In the past, though, Vile's words have been written off as mumbled, unintelligible, and listless-- a criticism made all the more reasonable given the crude recording techniques he employed. But 2009's Childish Prodigy, his Matador debut, found Vile wiping off some of the grimy, decidedly "lo-fi" film that had fenced off much of his work up until that point. (Additionally, he brought his sometime touring band, the Violators, into the studio to help fill out those songs that required more brawn. They also appear here.) It was a jump to the relative big leagues that, despite its cleaner approach, offered more in the way of promise than focus. That's not at all the case here. As hinted at by last year's Square Shells EP, a "stepping stone" to where we are now, the sonics and vocals have been spit-polished to shimmer-- every sonorous detail can now be heard in full, and Vile's voice has taken on a new, mountainous presence in the center of each song. The conversation's grown far more engaging.
What we learn is that Kurt Vile has a lot to say. He can be quick, as on the strong-jawed, electric groove of "Puppet to the Man", when he opens, "I bet by now you probably think I'm a puppet to the man. Well I'll tell you right now, you best believe that I am." And he can yank your heart out, as he does a number of times here, perhaps most memorably amid the celestial fingerpicking of "Baby's Arms", when he tries convincing himself that, he'll "never ever, ever be alone." But he's actually always alone here. Vile's lonesome brand of melancholia is still communicated both plainly and unassumingly enough to be missed, but its that sense that he seems to be talking only to himself that lends these songs such magnetic pull. Between the two seismic chords of "Ghost Town" this album's bulldozing climax, Vile wonders aloud, "think I'll never leave my couch again, because when I'm out, I'm away in my mind. Christ was born, I was there. You know me, I'm around. I got friends, hey wait, where was I, well, I am trying." Although he stretches those last two or three notes, it doesn't feel like he's singing. We're eavesdropping on the most private of dialogs.
Sonically and compositionally, Vile allows us the space to do that. He's still cycling between strummers and fingerpicked mazework, but the battery of pedal effects is mostly gone. Rather than stitch loop to loop to loop, Vile's given every marvelous, carefully placed layer all kinds of room to aerate. In the past, "Peeping Tomboy" may have sunk halfway through its bridge, while single "In My Time" probably would have lost its way mid-jam. But here, Vile has acknowledged limits in length for the sake of depth. It makes for a full-blown journey. Though there isn't an earworm like "Freeway"-- that endlessly replayable, interstate love song from Vile's 2008 Constant Hitmaker LP-- Smoke Rings isn't that kind of listen. This feels like a family of songs, one whose complexion and course changes as a whole with every spin. In the closing moments of "Ghost Town", Vile leaves us with, "Raindrops might fall on my head sometimes, but I don't pay 'em any mind. Then again, I guess it ain't always that way." He knows exactly what he's trying to say.
-- http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/151 ... r-my-halo/
Claire Boucher's debut as Grimes has been a long time coming and has already drawn comparisons with the work of fellow chill/drag/witch/h-pop characters Laurel Halo, Hype Williams and even Autre Ne Veut. When it gets it right - it's quite the killer too, with opener "Outer" managing to integrate sincere, properly sung vocal harmonies with the kind of compressed low-end rumble that would make Salem blush. "Rasik" is another standout, flexing shoegaze signatures with impressively heavy-hitting vocals and throbbing bass pulses that end all too abruptly, before the majestic "Heartbeats" ingests cinematic conceits without falling into the trap of dragging itself through a vortex of cod-emotions, instead playing with timbre and pitch to create something that sounds like Fever Ray crossed with Enigma - in the best possible sense. Over the course of an hour you're drawn deeper and deeper into an alternate pop matrix, with only the occasional misstep (such as the British Airways advertising soundalike "Intor / Flowers") nudging you back to reality. Overall though, "Halfaxa" is one of the more accomplished and absorbing full-length's to have emerged from the genre with a plethora of dodgy names - and comes to you with much recommendation, make sure to check it out.
-- http://boomkat.com/downloads/385084-grimes-halfaxa
Geidi Primes is a landmark album of modern Canadian fringe, an assemblage of space-station pop memorabilia teleported from a time-static nether-zone beyond the scope of our earthly understanding. I’ve been waiting months for this, posting anxious pleas to Grimes after hearing the sinuous, harrowing bass-line on Rosa. With the curiously packaged cassette in my fiending grip, the orbiting swaths of synthetic warmth and echoing drum-machines have caused exciting astral projections outside my usual mental musicalia. Geidi Primes takes off from Rosa’s minimal bass-lines and launches straight into a strange hybrid of Björk, The Cure, Micachu, and other avant seamstresses, leaving a footprint in every decade and thankfully landing in ours. Chord progressions and samples are pulled from any source imaginable and the aggregation results in a Kate Bushian trail of decadence. It seems pointless and restrictive attempting to describe its brilliance, so I’ll stop with this: Geidi Primes is a flagship of hyperbolic dimensions. Get on board.
-- http://weirdcanada.com/2010/01/review-g ... di-primes/
+1shifts skrev:Grimes låter intressant, i alla fall hela två låtar in på den först länkade plattan.
Alexi skrev:Bidrar med två singlar i min smak
Hailing from Gainesville, Florida, Papercranes is not exactly a household name in folk/alternative rock. In fact, everything about them begs to be left alone. Their raw sound doesn’t aim to please anyone besides themselves, and their work is an indication of the reclusive style that they integrate into their music. They seem to march to the beat of their own drum, and their albums are undoubtedly better off for it. Papercranes’ sophomore effort, Let’s Make Babies in the Woods, is a spiraling stream of consciousness expedition into front woman Rain Phoenix’s mind, a black and white soundscape of hurt and abandonment. With folk and psychedelic influences as the impetus, everything from Phoenix’s tortured wails to the music’s underlying depression is put on full display during this unpolished gem.
Let’s Make Babies in the Woods is an album that won’t fully make sense until it is over. Its sound is out of touch, maybe even a little coarse, driven primarily by percussion and Phoenix’s raspy vocals reminding one of a Regina Spektor or Kate Nash who just woke up. The music may not be directly engaging, but what it lacks in immediacy it makes up for in depth and an emotionally profound atmosphere. One could easily cite the glass-tinged piano echoes and New Orleans-style horn section present throughout “Dust Season” as a crystallizing moment for the listener. However, the truth is the album is constantly evolving within itself, even from the opening seconds. The acoustic strums and comparatively accessible chorus of “say you have feelings for a shell, the ghost of me” are an illusion, diverting attention from the album’s insistence on remaining buried in its unrefined production – something that plays to the album’s advantage significantly. The chant-like vocals become more raspy, more raw, and more honest in the desperate-sounding “Headphones”, the real introduction to the record’s signature musical style. The gentle ooh’s and hums whispering up the spine of “Long Way” lend Let’s Make Babies in the Woods a haunting air, one that continues to make its presence felt periodically throughout the album’s runtime. In the meanwhile, mid-album tracks like “Sea Red” and “Texas” give Rain Phoenix even more room to show off her creativity through metaphors and abstract-but-devastating lyrics – proving that filler has no place on this album.
The most impressive moments on Let’s Make Babies in the Woods are saved for last. “Synapses” stands out as a highlight on an album full of phenomenal songs, with haunting hums and harmonies that are startlingly interrupted by heavy drums and rapid electric guitar strums. Phoenix’s vocals are perfectly integrated as usual, with every instrument, every vocal note, every thing interacting in the most dynamic fashion possible. The pure attention to detail in this song - hell, for that matter the whole album – is so immense and so stunning that it escapes words. Yet somehow, miraculously, Let’s Make Babies in the Woods feels as through its roots lay in the basics. The closing “Grace” follows suit with a completely unrestrained vocal onslaught by Phoenix, who holds nothing back in her serenades, wails, and shouts that pay just as much if not more attention to hammering home an emotion – an idea - than they do to holding a note. And because of the album’s untamed, unprocessed feel, moments like these are able to show themselves as innovative; as rare experimentation as opposed to just sloppy. Let’s Make Babies in the Woods is Papercranes coming into their own, and doing it faster than anyone expected them to. On just their second album, they have already bestowed an absolute jewel upon us – one that may be covered in a thin layer of dust, but is still guaranteed to sparkle.
-- http://www.sputnikmusic.com/review/4147 ... ave-Faces/
FalloutBoy skrev:Experimentell elektronisk pop med inspiration hämtad från droger. Kan vara något för phloam?
Ton skrev:Till veckan släpper The Vaccines sin första fullängdare så jag tänkte vi kunde lyssna lite på senaste singeln "Post Break-Up Sex". Klassisk gitarrpop, okomplicerat & omedelbart
phloam skrev:Jäkligt bra tips där, som en vacker kollision mellan flera andra grupper i min smak. Flummigt oh raspigt, gillas! Tackar
ISVOLT is a collaboration with Disaro Records Houston / LA, features 9 tracks of a new, exciting and haunting type of electronic music, which is commonly termed as “drag” or “witch house”, associated with acts such as Salem, Balam Acab and Zola Jesus! The music was produced by artists from all over the world and define the first truly global genre of the new decade!
-- http://www.robotelephant.co.uk/tagged/release
Legendary electronic pioneers Cabaret Voltaire re-enter the musical fray with a new single and album on Shiva Records. The album, “National Service Rewind“, is a collaboration between Cabaret Voltaire and new Sheffield rock band The Tivoli, recorded at Cabaret Voltaire‘s legendary Western Works studios.
“National Service Rewind” is a sonic juggernaut that cleaves all conceptions of dance rock crossover in two and dives deep into the jugular to spit blood, bone and baritone. There are no niceties here, no musical politesse, just a war of electronic attrition, psychotic, psychedelic rock and tower-block rocking beats peppered by juddering, Jamaican Dancehall bass.
South Yorkshire’s hottest new rock band, The Tivoli, have been thrown into the blender for a total shakedown courtesy of the godfathers of electronica, the legendary Cabaret Voltaire. Made in Sheffield, this is a Steel City Ruckus that will reverberate from Shanghai to Seattle.
Already on a local high, selling out every show in Sheffield and now preparing to headline their biggest ever show at O2 Academy 1 on April 17th, as well as being heralded by all local tastemaker media and being tipped by the likes of Richard Hawley, The Tivoli came under the scrutiny of Cabaret Voltaire originator and main man Richard H Kirk at a typically heaving live show some months ago. Discovering that the founding father of the post-punk Sheffield music scene was actually impressed by the politically charged, sample-laced, art-rock furore of The Tivoli, four young musicians got the beers in pronto and hatched a collusion of collision knowing that their own rock’n’roll vision would be irreparably shattered and bombed to bits by an electronic blizzard. The Tivoli sacrificed their indie rock soul at the altar of Cabaret Voltaire’s legendary Western Works studios and the slaughter began.
-- http://www.robotelephant.co.uk/tagged/release
Jag la in albumet samtidigt men tyckte inte resten av styckena höll samma kvalité: http://open.spotify.com/artist/4vkp0Xrh0KIQ5f9D5IlMDmFalloutBoy skrev:Alexi skrev:Bidrar med två singlar i min smak
Singeln från Fleet Foxes var ganska mysig. Ska bli intressant att höra nya albumet när det släpps.
FalloutBoy skrev:Har du förresten noterat att det finns en "ny" våg av mörk alternativ elektronisk musik som till stora delar är hämtad från 80-talets synth/industri-musik?
De verkar inte vara särskilt medvetna om det själva dock (eller så förnekar de bara det).
Kallas ofta för "witch house" eller andra fyndiga namn.
FalloutBoy skrev:T.o.m Cabbarna är tillbaka! Cirkeln är sluten skulle man kunna säga :
phloam skrev:Hittade denna intervju om det (The Quietus är kanonbra, TCM har tipsat om den för länge sen har jag för mig, tackar) http://thequietus.com/articles/04177-ca ... hnny-yesno
Tundra Dubs is a Californian based label dealing in the underbelly of modern music; the ugly side of witch house, the confrontationally bleak electronica that conjures the more inhospitable soundscapes in its seances. Immediately stamping its mark as one of their best, almost signature sounding releases, is the debut from the mysterious (been a surprisingly/relatively long time since I've got to say that) ∆AIMON.
Amen adds some cold-blooded industrial momentum to the labels sound, hip-hop signifiers subducted into convection loops that spits occult themes back out, oily and violated by the darker malevolence that forges these tracks. The album smashes itself out of the speakers with Pure, eruptions of crumbling distortion, breaking apart under the insistent stamp of hollow-eyed drum-machine, its steady mechanistic plod juxtaposed well with the flighty feminine vocals that flit between the spaces, riding in the wakes of the beats that plough through the waves of fuzzy drone, a fizzing presence that threatens to break over each track and flood them with noise - what holds it back is a tense sense of restraint that keeps this release from overshooting itself, and holding the tracks at a nervy peak throughout their relatively short durations. The title track Amen features an earth shaking bassline that ratchets up the tension further until it all peaks with the following keystone; the cover of Swans' Holy Money. It's a rendition that extends the grim futility of the original, rolling right into ∆AIMON's world and out the other side leaving the following tracks ringing with its vehmence.
-- http://nfrblog.blogspot.com/2011/03/rev ... -amen.html
I love Salem’s King Night. More than expected. I’ve enjoyed the previous singles, etc., but they didn’t prepare me for these 45 minutes of dark, weird, hollowed-out beauty. (Hats off to John Holland, Heather Marlatt, Jack Donoghue.) You get Screw fueled by twice the cough syrup (and a Dennis Cooper novel). Starless deep-South mythologies filtered through Traverse City/Chicago street culture. They establish an elegant, pristine goth shoegaze that now and then drops out weird, introverted dance anthems. Or deep, bowel-shaking bass rumbles accompanied by warping atmospherics. A real sense of dirt. (The songs come off like field recordings for the back alleys in Trash Humpers.) As mentioned, bands like Salem, Frank (Just Frank), Blessure Grave, Crystal Castles, and Oneohtrix Point Never (or go back to Svarte Greiner) are currently playing to a soft spot of mine. These bands don’t sound the same: They tap a darkness and a romantic bleakness, the kind of thing I’ve found so attractive, in a different guise, via black metal or deathrock. In “Sick” you get the title repeated and sounding like a “666.” “Release Da Boar” glides across your speakers like crystal fog (unseen folks gargling, impotently howling, haunting within it). The anti-social and strung-out Hot 97 anthems “Trapdoor” and “Tair.” Etc. “King Night”’s the first track on the collection. It works well as an intro, prepping you for the blasted/bleak, catchy/creepy world that you’re about to enter.
-- http://stereogum.com/416181/salem-king- ... iere/mp3s/
”I’m off to save the world” ursäktar sig Josh T Pearson inledningsvis på sitt första soloalbum, men redan i nästa spår konstaterar han att Honey, I Ain’t Your Christ. Någon oproblematisk profet är han med andra ord inte, trots alla sina bibliska referenser och rentav gammaltestamentliga stämningar. Snarare är han en förtvivlat sökande och förvirrad domedagsprofet, isåfall.
På Last of the Country Gentlemen vacklar han på ett djupt oroande sätt mellan självmord och smekmånad, mellan Jesus Kristus och Djävulen, i tio minuter långa långsamma noveller som alldeles för ofta känns självbiografiska. Borta är det oväsendet från Lift to Experiences debut, det enda album han hann göra innan den tio år långa ökenvandring som föregått den här solodebuten. Borta är elektriciteten överhuvudtaget, intill hans försiktiga gitarrplockande och nästan Jeff Buckley-hypnotiska stämma ryms bara något enstaka stråkinstrument. Men det bidrar än mer till skivans apokalyptiska stämningar, och kraften i hans musik har vuxit avsevärt sedan hans gamla högljudda dagar. Även om det stundtals är mycket obehagligt att lyssna på Josh T Pearsons svavel och aska-predikningar känner man sig till slut märkligt renad.
-- http://nojesguiden.se/recensioner/musik ... -gentlemen
Jansson skrev:Tyvärr finns inte 2011 års Ventriloquizzing på Spåttifaj så vi får hålla till godo med ovanstående.
The Soft Moon is Luis Vasquez and The Soft Moon is his debut on Captured Tracks. The sound he purveys gels with the tastes of the man behind the label, Mike Sniper, who is also known musically as Blank Dogs. By this I mean that the Soft Moon plays a dark and minimal, synth-heavy, electronically-enhanced kind of pop with a lo-fi aesthetic. However, Vasquez edges more towards the instrumental or ambient side, eschewing typical song structure for exercises in poppy repetition and drone.
The Soft Moon obviously owes a lot to its krautrock and synth-rock influences, but it also fits in perfectly with the current moment. Though the sound has an expansive reach, it’s a small kind of music, made by one person alone. Being freed from the collaborative aspects of a band also takes this music away from the typical confines of the pop song. There’s more emphasis on repetition and layering. Instrumentation doesn’t stand out, vocals don’t matter; the music communicates a feeling.
All of the songs on this album are essentially versions of each other, but Vasquez always knows when to add a new layer, a new bit of sound, to make it interesting. Most tracks don’t really have coherent lyrics, just breathy vocal vamps to punctuate the sound here and there. The major mode of the Soft Moon is bass and the bare minimum of a beat (that gets elaborated with other percussion). Though these songs exist in time, they have that collage feel of aggregate parts pasted together and hanging there at once. So most of the tracks aren’t really songs. The album ends up resembling the score to a scary Road Warrior type film. The track “Out of Time”, for example, could actually show up on a spooky sounds compilation and not seem out of place. The high pitch-shifting synth is like a haunted cat squealing in the night.
Only three of 11 tracks resemble anything like a “proper” pop song, with verse and chorus structure (based on lyric or melodic difference). These songs structure the album like the beginning, middle, and end of a sentence. The highlight of these three “When It’s Over” is also the major anomaly, having dreamy vocals over a guitar with vibrato. Not that this is a typical song; it opens up with a high pitched groan of pain. But it’s the closest Vazquez comes to an anthem—if an anthem is draining and you can’t sing along to it. It’s more like a tip of the hat to the Soft Moon’s ‘80s British influence.
Album opener “Breathe the Fire” is like krautrock mixed with rockabilly (krautabilly?). Over a bass line that could be a Joy Division song that stands still inside of three notes, Vasquez whispers tonelessly but with a hint of pompadour, while a sickly bending note drones over the song. Whatever melodic component the song has comes in the staccato guitar notes that serve like a bridge outro to the song. Perhaps the most emblematic track is “Circles”: It has a queasy synth and a driving beat with reverb-washed percussion. The song comes in repeating layers that, whether voice or synth, work rhythmically rather than melodically to produce a dark trance state.
As I’m trying to describe the Soft Moon’s sound, I keep coming up with metaphors of sickness. The insistence of bass, guitar, and synth to hover between two notes brings to mind that kind of strange empty focus that comes with the pain of illness. But it’s not just me who thinks this way. Vazquez hints at it: “Sewer Sickness” winds itself into you head like a migraine, with a syncopated gasping vocal that could be a dry heave. This isn’t to say that the album makes you feel bad. Call it a flight into illness—something about the album is otherworldly, not right, but inevitable; and like the worst illnesses it marks the time it takes with an irrevocable beckoning. There’s something about that time that makes it seem like it will never be over, and yet you will keep returning to it.
-- http://www.popmatters.com/pm/review/136 ... soft-moon/
shifts skrev:Detta där var ju rackarns trevligt, men jag tror kompressor är deras främsta instrument! Men det var riktigt bra.
Verkligen på tiden! Hoppas att hela deras katalog läggs upp.shifts skrev:Otroligt glädjande att mina gamla favoriter Stars of the Lid äntligen finns på Spotify med två skivor:
Kan bara instämma.Gör en sökning på "label:kranky" också. Det är helt klart ett av de skivbolag som påverkat utvecklingen av den musiksmak jag har i dag.
shifts skrev:Vet inte hur länge Boduf Songs funnit på Spotify, men jag tror inte det är så
länge. Det är något jag missat i alla fall. Här är en av 2000-talets bästa album
tycker jag, How shadows chase the balance:
http://open.spotify.com/album/2rjk0A6CIciR36YPTP1A9b
Timothy Showalter has a beard, an acoustic guitar, and a heartbreaking backstory-- on the surface, the confessional singer-songwriter start-up kit. But he'd prefer not to talk about his heavy history even if it would make you root for him. For one thing, he'd rather not relive some of the personal tragedy (a bad breakup, a house fire) that inspired his debut, Leave Ruin. But it also would obscure the otherworldly mythology he creates on Pope Killdragon, an astoundingly original twist on the loner-folk template.
He begins the mesmerizing "Sterling" like he's keeping an especially heavy secret, but Showalter is merely an observer and a confused one at that. If his lyrics are occasionally too loopy to pin down what it's "about," they're perfectly suited for an unreliable narrator trying to piece together lost time. In the darkly comic "Daniel's Blues", he inhabits Dan Aykroyd, racked with depression after the death of John Belushi. I won't spoil the ending, but it's by far the most pathos-laden song ever to recall the decision to take a role in Ghostbusters. Meanwhile, the spare "Alex Kona" is the stuff of Mastodon epics-- 12-foot monsters, sermons from the mount, mothers wailing in the streets-- and to drive that point home, it's immediately followed by "Giant's Despair", an honest-to-god doom-metal instrumental.
Those are the attention-grabbing tactics, but Pope Killdragon maintains these strange juxtapositions throughout: historical fact with whimsical fiction, a mournful delivery of absurd lyrics, an odd allure to the bifurcated sonics where synths sidle up with acoustic guitars. It's easy to envision the "next Bon Iver!" plaudits-- Showalter looks and sounds the part, but that would miss the deeper commonality. Auto-Tune, Gayngs, rolling spliffs with Rick Ross-- Justin Vernon has made the most of the spotlight by cutting against an image that requires him to continually hurt harder than others. Similarly, Pope Killdragon's playfulness and sense of humor allow it a broader range of emotion than the typical sadsack folkie. Showalter did a good deal of bloodletting on Leave Ruin, and now Strand of Oaks' horizons are limited only by his fantastical imagination.
-- http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/145 ... illdragon/
Twenty-two-year-old Finn Olli Aarni is a lot like Girl Talk. No, really - okay, he relies far less on the generosity of Fair Use, but both men compose primarily by sitting around, listening to mountains of music. What a living! The similarities end though when you consider what each man samples for. Gregg Gillis wants you to dance, possibly like you've never before. Ous Mal's Nuojuva Halava, an ambient record replete with hip hop and Finnish folk influences, wraps you in a cotton quilt and tucks you in.
The more melodic and rhythmic touches balance the amorphous ambience perfectly, giving you enough hooks to listen to actively, but Nuojuva Halava is best sampled when you're between sleep and waking, so it can envelope you. The drony ambience and Aarni's softly plucked kantele - the national instrument of Finland - is recorded intentionally so it's not clear when one piece ends and another begins, again to replicate the daze of near-sleep.
You could listen to audiobooks, but frankly, this is better - plus it comes with the added bonus of being able to boast to your equally pretentious friends that you're up on the latest trends in Finnish ambient.
-- http://www.sixthousand.com.au/hear/ous- ... va-halava/
In her newest two-part release, AIA: Alien Observer / Dream Loss Liz Harris (Grouper) abandons the once-familiar ascendant vocal presence heard on Dragging A Dead Deer… in favor of a sentimental reversion to old styles in the vein of Wide, Way Their Crept, or Cover the Windows… The only exception is the title track to the first of the two LPs, “Alien Observer”, which slakes the casual listener’s longing for something short, accessible and emotive. In an excerpt from an e-mail she wrote to Pitchfork Media about the album, Harris wrote:
“Dream Loss is a collection of older songs, mostly written before a hard time. Alien Observer, for the most part, is made of songs recorded after that time. Each has a song that belongs thematically on the other, a seam stitching them together. Both albums… explore otherness. Being an other to one’s own self, to other humans; ghosts and aliens, both literal and metaphorical; and other worlds to escape to (beneath the water, in the sky). Thinking about people who have died…
The process of making these albums reacquainted me with what I want to explore in music: friction, exploration of something large and outside of me, describing and traveling to intangible objects and places, unseen movements and connections between people and spaces. Songs that move on their own, that have an autonomous monstrous quality, songs from another world.”
-- http://zentapes.com/2011/04/grouper-a-i ... ream-loss/
Leaving Records boss Matthewdavid drops his debut album proper on Flying Lotus's Brainfeeder label. California's louche, post-modern psych-hop scene is in overdrive right now, and this collection of sun-stroked, lopsided beats from respected freak Matthewdavid is one of its most convincing offerings to date. Matthewdavid collaborated with Sun Araw on the breathtraking Livephreaxxx!!!!! cassette, and he certainly operates in a similarly dubbed-out and hazy field to Cameron Stallones; however, as befits his new home on Brainfeeder, our man is a little more inclined to the dancefloor. It means that Outmind is, at its best, a truly beguiling blend of post-dubstep and heady hypnagogia. FlyLo himself contributes to the marimba'd astral jazz interlude 'Group Tea', which comes over like Alice Coltrane, Roland Young and Dylan Ettinger sharing a brew, while 'Today, The Same Way' sounds like Dam-Funk's good-times boogie fed through a cement mixer. As the album progresses, MD's default setting of hyper-edited, glitchy trip-hop can tire a little, and for us some of the most memorable cuts are the most ambient and abstract - pay special attention to the gaseous, haunting 'Floor Music’ and the prismatic, chiming closer 'No Need To Worry / Mean Too Much'. Fans of heat-spoiled head music -from James Ferraro and Sun Araw to Gonjasufi and Mount Kimbie - get involved.
-- http://boomkat.com/downloads/387389-mat ... id-outmind
Noah Lennox's Panda Bear project has always been about making "difficult" music scan as almost radio-friendly, to translate experimental moves to a broad audience with little interest in such things. It's a strategy he learned, at least in part, from sonic forebears like Arthur Russell and Brian Wilson, along with the avant-techno types he reveres. Like those disparate influences, Lennox has used potentially off-putting compositional and textural ideas to craft some of the most inviting music of his era. In turn, he's inspired more of his own followers in the last four years than anyone might have guessed. Lennox has found himself the unwitting king of the chillwave nation, hero to a whole generation of underground kids drawn to his mix of heavy reverb, sun-woozy synths, droning kraut-surf-ambient-pop songs, high childlike voice, and psychedelic-cum-nostalgic sleeve art.
Tomboy, Lennox's fourth solo album as Panda Bear, was mixed with Pete "Sonic Boom" Kember of Spectrum/Spacemen 3. And again, in a way there's little here that's any further out-there than the blissful psychedelia and dream-pop Spacemen 3 and their peers were playing in the late 1980s, a lineage that stretches right back to stuff we now consider classic rock. With its angelic choirboy harmonies over an unchanging synth buzz, even "Drone", the album's roughest song, is a dead-ringer for the way Spacemen 3 songs like "Ecstasy Symphony" merged the pop high of Beach Boys with the woozy downer feel of the Velvet Underground.
But despite Tomboy's shorter songs and more conventional structures-- especially compared to the loose percussive jams of Lennox's 2007 solo breakthrough Person Pitch-- he's still committed to pushing his music to strange places. And few of his chilled-to-the-point-of-entropy acolytes can match Lennox for warped hooks. Forget comparing his gorgeous voice to their mumbling. Unlike many chillwave and dream-pop artists (and Spacemen 3), Lennox is blessed with the ability to actually sing, and he knows enough about crafting harmonies to do more than vaguely nod in the direction of 60s pop. So Tomboy is a pretty singular mix of the eerie and the inviting.
Despite the murk and terror and noise of Animal Collective's earliest music, there's never been anything particularly ugly about Lennox's mature solo work, starting with 2004's Young Prayer. But even then, he wasn't comfortable playing the laid-back hippie stereotype that's been laid on A.C. by detractors in recent years. Young Prayer might still be the most emotionally wrenching album in the Collective's catalog, an album written by a young man wrestling with some heavy shit. Lennox's father was dying of brain cancer while Young Prayer was being written. "[My father] got to read the lyrics, which was the most important thing to me," he told me in 2005; Young Prayer was a last attempt at confirming the good his father had done for him.
Musically, the album was the least bleak, least difficult thing an Animal Collective member had recorded to that point. But the unembellished recording-- you could almost hear the empty rooms in which it was recorded-- only heightened the fragility of the songs. "I didn't want to spend a lot of time producing it or thinking about how I wanted to get it to sound," Lennox said in that same interview. "I just wanted to get it out quickly." Tomboy is a much more considered record, with thickly layered psych-style production. There's also another heavy dose of dub, the most studio-bound and effects-driven music of the last 50 years, with the kind of extreme echo that plays like an overt tribute to the very different Jamaican psychedelia of King Tubby and Lee Perry.
But Tomboy's also something of a return to the simplicity, if not the emotionally blasted vibe, of Young Prayer after the ornate structures and epic lengths of Person Pitch. Instead of a Young Prayer we now have a "Surfer's Hymn". Instead of a naked guitar and a lot of blank space in the recording we get a wall-of-sound rush and percussion that's like Steve Reich by way of IDM. But the spare droning quality and devotional feeling of the music remains. There was plenty of church music in the Beach Boys and Arthur Russell, too, and Tomboy has a similar quality of embracing both summer fun and hushed spirituality.
The trouble with recording a ramshackle epic like Person Pitch is that you set up a portion of your audience to expect the next album to be at least as grand in both scope and design. There are certainly no obvious peaks on Tomboy like "Bros" or "Good Girl/Carrots", where the 12-minute lengths announced them as attention-demanding stand-outs. So Tomboy's smoothness will likely be mildly divisive among Lennox's fans. Many might have hoped that Lennox would have recorded something less accessible to separate him from the beach-obsessed glut of bedroom pop. But the scaling back on Tomboy in no way represents a scaling back of ambition on Lennox's part. In a way, what he's pulled off here is even more difficult. He's condensed the sprawl and stylistic shifts of Person Pitch into seemingly tidy songs. The fact that he's able to make music that's both otherworldly and familiar-on-first-listen is something that all of his followers would like to achieve, and very few have the chops or inventiveness to pull off.
-- http://www.pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/15299-tomboy/
kulturbloggen skrev:Den här gången har de verkligen överträffat sig själva och gjort sin mest melodiska och finslipade skiva hittills. Varje spår är unikt och återspeglar galant olika känslor samtidigt som de som vanligt är inne och nosar på olika genrer. Som till exempel de tydliga post-rock influenserna på "Sometimes I Remember Wrong" medan låtar som "The Basket" och "Dancing In The Devil's Shoes" verkar innehålla inslag av britpop och till och med synthpop.
Låtarna bygger upp en helhet som garanterar en musikalisk resa att drömma sig bort till, och som kan tillfredsställa även den mest krävande musikälskare.
Halo debuts what is seemingly a more outwardly evident pop orientated direction, whilst maintaining the dream-like principles that last years Summer Heart LP was based upon. The vocals are more poignant and emphasized, alongside a muscular beat, primarily composed of hand claps and tambourines. All in all, a fantastic indicator for what is to come from this impressive young artist.
-- http://www.crackintheroad.com/music/526 ... -blackbird
It has been 13 years since Should's last album proper, the complex shoegaze/postrock haze of 1998's Feed Like Fishes.
While much time has passed, the core elements of Should have not wavered: the ultra-sweet male/female vocal melodies, the penchant for the unexpected, and the ability to find beauty in the minimal.
The band's immaculately crafted third album, Like a Fire Without Sound, infuses the pop sensibilities of Eno and Yo La Tengo while maintaining the personal eccentricities and atmospheric flourishes that have always set Should apart.
Like a Fire Without Sound was conceived and recorded over a five-year period, and infuses idiosyncratic indie flair with pleasing pop sensibilities. Bookended by Eno-esque tributes "Glasshouse" and "The Great Pretend," the hook-laden record is simultaneously spacious and intimate.
Eschewing the fashionable trend of burying production in cavernous lo-fi reverb and fuzz, Like a Fire Without Sound is not warmed-over 1990s-era Should. The layers of fuzzed guitar have been peeled back and the pop quotient is dialed up considerably, aiming instead to balance the twin peaks of soundcraft and songcraft.
The end result of these efforts is an unpredictable record that — like Eno's early pop albums — endures and is not easily ascribed to a particular era.
Timeless yet out-of-place, it's the unwavering soundtrack to daydreams of life's losses and loves.
-- http://www.words-on-music.com/WM32.html
In the early 2000s in Olympia, Wash., it was not uncommon to see Mirah sitting in the back of a show, knitting. To her credit, this was years before the ubiquity of Stich 'n Bitch and Etsy and "Urban Craft Uprisings" and that one woman at the gym who knits while riding the stationary bicycle (hate). No way of proving this, but Thao Nguyen doesn't come across like much of a knitter. Where Mirah's best songs feel handmade and soft to the touch, Thao's with the Get Down Stay Down tend to be a bit more serrated and electrically charged.
The least you expect when a pair of singer/songwriters gets together is that they be harmonious, that their voices don't clash horribly or that one doesn't just steamroll the other under their usual style. The most you hope for is that each player will bring to the table something the other lacks-- that, rather than conflict, their differences will synthesize into something greater than the sum of their parts. Thao and Mirah are two of the more distinctive and accomplished voices in Kill Rock Stars and K Records' neighborly families, and, happily, they also turn out to be massively complimentary collaborators.
Mirah is the more senior of the two artists, and in fact she has a long history of playing well with others, from early recordings with the Microphones/Mount Eerie's Phil Elverum to later works with Black Cat Orchestra and Spectratone International. But on most works bearing her name, she's the main, and often only, voice. It is an incredible voice-- a versatile coo that can flit from low, sultry tones to high, airy falsetto in one breath-- but on recent albums, it's been deployed in service of increasingly staid songs and arrangements. Thao is a less ranging, though just as emotive, singer-- a low, husky alto-- but she's an adventurous musician, as comfortable with exuberant pop fanfare as with twangy, metallic blues, and her songs with the Get Down Stay Down are animated by a level of energy that Mirah's most recent work has rather lacked. Together, they've produced an album that ranks alongside the best of either artist's individual endeavors.
The album begins on the high note of "Eleven" (presumably as in the amp setting), a fire-cracking rhythm of drumstick clicks and handclaps and crowd shouting underpinning rich synth squelches and what sounds like an electrified mbira melody while Thao and Mirah trade lines or come together for the chorus, "When love is love/ Don't let it go away"-- the whole thing is nothing short of jubilant. The song was also co-written by Thao & Mirah co-producer/guest musician Merrill Garbus of tUnE-yArDs, and it has her loopy, Afro-pop fracturing fingerprints all over it.
The rest of Thao & Mirah could just coast on the goodwill from that song, but of course it doesn't. "Folks" takes a simple, twangy waltz-time guitar and adds seeping brass. "Little Cup" has Mirah's voice going from high and hollow-boned to downy and enveloping over fluttering, finger-picked guitar and a whispering a cappella, almost beatboxed rhythm. "Rubies and Rocks" expands a jazzy upright bass and snare groove to include low-swinging big band horns. Thao's measured singing breaks into an unexpectedly robust chorus on "Teeth", over dexterous guitar and a subtly upbeat rhythm of handlcaps and thigh slaps.
Some songs are more clearly led by one singer or the other-- Mirah's mournful unreeling on "Spaced Out Orbit" or Thao's rusty guitar slide and junkyard drum clatter of "Squareneck", as opposed to the back-and-forth of "How Dare You", on which the two trade lines like negotiating lovers over a cruddy drum machine beat. But everything on Thao & Mirah feels of a cohesive collaborative piece, separate from either artist's solo work, a combination that synthesizes their individual strengths to outstanding effect.
-- http://www.pitchfork.com/reviews/albums ... hao-mirah/
Den hade jag missat (trots att den är släppt på ett av mina favoritskivbolag).Ton skrev:Pat Jordache har släpt en av årets bästa med albumet "Future Songs". Eller som ngn skrev:
Jordaches musik låter som ett efterblivet Joy Division, magiskt helt enkelt.
Last year, guitarist Mark McGuire stepped away from the busy production schedule of cosmic drone-rockers Emeralds to craft Living With Yourself, a fine and overlooked album that drew on autobiographical source material. It may have been the first time most people had considered McGuire in a solo context, but he'd actually been equally busy in that realm as well, issuing tracks on an assortment of limited CD-Rs, cassettes, and compilations. A Young Person's Guide gathers highlights from these small-run releases, offering a nice overview of what McGuire's solo work is all about.
Tracks here generally fall into one of a few different types. There are the spacey meditations where single notes are plucked to create a hypnotic effect that nods to minimalism and kosmische explorations that bring to mind in particular the landmark Inventions for Electric Guitar by Ash Ra Tempel's Manuel Göttsching. On tracks like "Radio Flyer", "Explosion Alarm", and "The Marfa Lights", McGuire uses bits of delay and overlapping patterns of cleanly picked tones to create music that feels weightless and airy and meditative.
Other tracks use harder strumming and looping chords and veer closer to the world of rock proper, and here the focal point is exploring the possibilities of a single chord progression. "Dream Team" has a steady pulse, harmonized leads bathed in distortion, and distant vocals, and the way it builds and gradually shifts creates a mood of uplift and even triumph. "The Path Lined With Colorful Stones" takes an even simpler strummed pattern as its base, which allows McGuire to spin out tendrils of melody on top that feel loose and ragged but without clear direction but that nonetheless manage to resonate. Here, McGuire's music feels partway between the thick, mantra-like approach of Roy Montgomery and the fluid melodicism of the Durutti Column's Vini Reilly. And then there are bright, pastoral instrumentals like "Icy Windows" and "Time Is Flying", which have a loose grounding in folk but take on a more mesmerizing quality through repetition.
Tracks vary in length from interludes that last barely over a minute to the 17-minute "Dream Team". Many of the pieces fall into spaces between these loose categories, but taken together, over the course of two packed CDs, they give a good idea of the range of McGuire's interests. It's not an especially wide range, but it is executed very well. He knows where he wants to go and what it takes to get there.
Is almost two and a half hours of guitar-based, mostly instrumental music overkill? It's really not. The way McGuire's music functions, I don't detect an upper limit for when it might grow tiresome. The longest tracks would also work fine even if they were longer; it's music that strives for endlessness in the best possible way. So this is the kind of record you can just put on at moderate volume when you are doing things and it fills a room nicely with warm, inviting sound. And then, when you're in the mood for more intense engagement, you can add another quarter-turn to the volume knob and take in the full force of McGuire's arrangements. The music shows remarkable flexibility.
Part of it is up to the fact that dynamic range is limited. There's little that is jarring or surprising. This is music that wants to wrap you in an affectionate embrace and serve as a companion, to either some other activity or to a more focused journey into of the further reaches of consciousness. And where the dream-driven music scenes that McGuire sometimes finds himself lumped in with can feel like a bummed-out retro hangover, this music is almost uniformly positive and optimistic, seeming to celebrate the restorative possibilities of elemental chord changes, repetition, and carefully sculpted textures. It's music that wants to find its way into your life and do some good, and I can't think of any good reason to resist it.
-- http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/154 ... k-mcguire/
Born of the bedroom recordings of Saturday Looks Good to Me and His Name Is Alive member Fred Thomas, City Center's primary introduction to listeners came in the form of a self-titled 2009 album on UK ambient label Type. While ostensibly a pop album, City Center's debut nonetheless existed in a decidedly more ambient and arty realm, with Thomas creating song formations out of lo-fi loops a la Panda Bear, largely moving away from the more classic pop sounds that marked his work in other bands. A sample of artistic breakthrough in chrysalis, the album wasn't quite the show-stopper it could have been, but certainly showed promise, its ethereal songs suggesting something greater to come.
Now a duo comprising Thomas and fellow SLGTM member Ryan Howard, City Center have signed with K Records and expanded their scope on second album Redeemer. Still awash in dreamy effects and warm, cozy aesthetics, Redeemer is a greater push toward pronounced hooks and memorable melodies. This isn't experimentation in pop so much as pop with occasional experimentation. Thomas and Howard have brought with them a group of ten songs that retain the debut's sense of textural playfulness, but imbue them with a more direct, accessible quality.
Opening with the sound of flowing water, the outstanding "Puppers" begins the album with a gentle, shoegazer-style progression of guitar and effects, slowly blooming into a breathtaking anthem of blissful sonic immersion. "Obvious" finds the duo taking a similar tack, with trippy samples washing over some fairly simple and clean guitar chords, ultimately finding very solid footing when a surprisingly hard-hitting drum beat arrives in the song's final third. All of a sudden the bedroom pop project begins to sound more like a rock band, more explicitly so on jangle pop songs like "Thaw" or the peppy, upbeat indie rocker "Modern Love." In the latter, the band sounds vastly more like The Pains of Being Pure at Heart than Panda Bear, yet on the whole the album seems to bridge those two artists, finding a common harmony between abstract ambient pop and warm, fuzzy indie rock.
While Redeemer ultimately finds City Center painting with similar hues as those found on their debut, their works have taken on new, more interesting shapes. The duo injects a healthy dose of hooks throughout the album's ten tracks, at times more or less abandoning their more abstract instincts altogether and hammering out an immediate pop tune. And when the pop songs end up as good as "Modern Love," there's no reason to obscure them with needless dressing.
-– http://treblezine.com/reviews/3768-City ... eemer.html
När Fredrik Strage i tidningen Pop 1997 intervjuar Jason Pierce från Spiritualized utformar han i texten ett närbesläktat förhållande mellan bandets senaste album, Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space, och Francis Ford Coppolas djungelscener i Apocalypse Now. 14 år senare släpper postrockbandet This Will Destroy You sitt andra album och fullkomligt reformerar inte bara de stagnerade konturerna av en redan abstrakt genre - och därigenom också synen på dem som band - utan återkopplar dessutom till ovan nämnda vansinnesverk.
Texasbandets tidigare alster, undantaget två dronestycken som släpptes på EP under förra året, präglas av simpla instrumentala melodier draperade i svävande uppbyggnader med avslutande crescendon, inte sällan med elektroniska inslag och samples, vilket gjort att de fått leva med att refereras till som Explosions in The Skys arvtagare (eller kopia - beroende på vem du frågar). Cineastiska stycken som omfamnats av såväl tv-produktioner som evangeliska kristna grupper som använt musiken i propagandasyften, utan tillstånd eller ersättning. Milt sagt var det kanske inte riktigt denna situation de föreställt sig när någon presenterade namnidén. Därför är det svårt att se Tunnel Blanket som någonting annat än en mullrande motreaktion mot allting som tidigare varit. Det här är nämligen ingenting som kan tonsätta en ny harmlös storsatsning i tv-rutan eller användas för marknadsföring av den lokala kyrkan. Denna gång lever kvartetten på allvar upp till sitt namn.
Inledningen, den 12 minuter långa Little Smoke, är ett stegrande inferno där pedaleffekterna och de enorma gitarrmattorna lagerstaplas på varandra tills de konvergerar samman i en vacker helhet av kompakt oväsen. Skivan tar en stund. Som när synen vänjer sig vid ett mörkt rum eller ett framkallande av en polaroidbild. Så urskiljs detaljerna steg för steg, och ljudbilden som till en början kunde beskrivas som ett vattenfall av bly får ett betydligt mer mångfacetterat djup. Black Dunes är atmosfäriskt ett återupplivande av den mörka andradelen på Sigur Rós (), Killed the Lord, Left for the New World kontrasterar med sin tillbakalutande ambientstruktur och i Hand Powdered urskiljs doomiga jazzinslag á la Bohren & der Club of Gore. Men mest av allt är Tunnel Blanket en domedagsljudande helhet som inte bör styckas upp i låtpartier.
Precis som på Spiritualizeds 90-talsmilstolpe är det överflödet som slutligen öppnar upp. Pierce berättar i intervjun att de undvek att spela för många toner. Det var viktigare att ljudet var kraftfullt. Primitivt likt slutdestinationen i Apocalypse Now. "Ljuden jag spelar har en tendens att fara iväg åt vilka håll de vill", säger han. "Jag vet inte hur man stoppar dem. Jag är bara musiker."
Orden skulle lika gärna kunna vara tagna från någon av medlemmarna i This Will Destroy You. Det är dags att omvärdera synen på postrock - Tunnel Blanket återför det okontrollerbara kaoset.
-- http://gaffa.se/recension/48417
FalloutBoy skrev:Blytungt!
This Will Destroy You - Tunnel Blanket (2011, Monotreme Records)
shifts skrev:Oj, indeed! Hade helt glömt bort det namnet. Har bara hört öppningsspåret än så länge, men det var verkligen hur bra som helst.
The solo work of cellist Julia Kent deals in different ways with concepts of borders and of spaces which are neither one thing nor the other. Her first solo record, Delay, was based on that most modern (and Eno-esque) of limbos, the airport. Having crossed the globe in a number of different ensembles, most famously as a member of Antony and the Johnsons, but also with a range of more leftfield acts such as Rasputina, Burnt Sugar, Angels Of Light and Stars Of The Lid, she found she was spending rather a lot of time trapped in those places, and elected to use them to her advantage. She made recordings in airports, and used them as the foundation for Delay, naming the resulting tracks after the airports in which they were recorded. The title of her second album for Important suggests she has found the way out, but only to another place betwixt and between: the place where the grey of the city meets the green of the countryside. And exactly how much of an escape that turns out to be is open to question.
Green And Grey opens and closes with cicadas, stridulating in the evening air, with Kent’s looped cello building upon the samples to create the compositions. In between, there are tracks named after trees (“Ailanthus”), water (“Acquario”), landscape features (“Overlook”) and constellations (“Pleiades”), but also in one case, a building (“Spire”). It seems at first listen that Kent is outside, recording the sounds of the natural world, in order to inspire her work. The natural rhythms of those insects, the gurgle of water, the patter of raindrops, all find a musical echo in the tracks which follow them. So in a number of ways, the modus operandi hasn’t changed from Delay, it is just the location (or rather the locations) which is different. What is most telling here, however, is just how unobtrusive the recordings are. They are but brief snatches of very quiet sounds, the merest hints of the ambience of the outside world.
Leaving aside Eno (whether she draws from him intentionally or not), you have an album which takes similar cues as the likes of Johann Johannsson and Max Richter, or perhaps Hildur Gudnadottir with her more diaphonous cello work Without Sinking: modern, melancholic, minimalist, classical. However, in a sense trying to pigeonhole her records goes against their very essence: they seem to be born of a desire to break out, to escape. The short, churning rhythmic loops which underpin so many of these pieces act like an anchor, these ostinati counteracting the melody line’s desire to take the piece into different landscapes.
The more you listen, the more it begins to feel like, despite first impressions, this is less a record about the physical border between the city and the country, and more one about a mental border. The sound of echoing footsteps in “Ailanthus” suggest we haven’t even left the building, while the water heard in “Acquario” may even be the sound of a fishtank, rather than a stream. The cicadas are just as likely to be heard through an open window; let’s face it, you aren’t going to be plugging in a looping pedal in the park. As the surge of those song-like melodies is once more halted in its tracks, you feel that on Green And Grey Kent is as trapped in the city as she ever was in the airport. With the urge to escape to nature being defeated time and time again by more mundane concerns, sometimes all a city dweller can do is dream of leaving.
-- http://www.theliminal.co.uk/2011/02/jul ... -and-grey/
Efrim Manuel Menuck is best known as co-founder of Godspeed You! Black Emperor, leader of agit-chamber-punk group Thee Silver Mt. Zion, and member of the Vic Chesnutt Band (2007-2009); he has a combined thirteen albums under his belt with these three groups. He is also co-founder of Montreal's Hotel2Tango recording studio, with dozens of recording, arranging and guest playing credits to his name, for a list of artists as diverse as British Sea Power, Carla Bozulich's Evangelista, and Grant Hart.
Fans of Menuck will be well versed in his highly original and constantly evolving approach to the sound of the electric guitar – a unique combination of short and long analog delays, biting compression and blown-out clouds of pink noise distortion. His recasting of various folkways through the lens of uncompromising punk-rock is also well-documented in the discography of Thee Silver Mt. Zion, with that band's use of poetically political group singing set against a hybrid of damaged blues, waltz, klezmer and folk instrumental tropes.
Perhaps less appreciated is Menuck's work as an inventive signal-bender and sound-sculptor, with an overriding commitment to analog processing, tape manipulations, re-amping and other iterative strategies. Efrim's aesthetic and techniques remain about as diametrically opposite to the dominant Pro-Tools and DSP culture as it gets for someone working in contemporary multi-tracked rock composition and production.
Efrim Manuel Menuck Plays "High Gospel" rallies all of these talents and sensibilities to deliver a powerful and personal album that serves as an ode to his adopted Montreal hometown (where he has now lived for two decades), the passing of great friends (Vic Chesnutt, Emma) and new fatherhood. Entirely self-produced and tracked at various Montreal locations, the album offers a confident, focused, humble and enveloping song cycle.
The droning, mangled electric guitar beds that underpin group-vocal melodies and dive-bombing electronics on the album’s opening track, and the hauntingly processed field recordings and ominous tape-delayed sound-sculpture of "a 12-pt. program for keep on keepin’ on", establish Menuck’s inimitable sonic palette in uncompromising and inspired style. "12-pt. program" ends in a glorious squall of soaring tones and distorted breakcore beats that yield to the ensuing song's intimate yet wide-screen suite for electric guitar and violin (courtesy Silver Mt. Zion bandmate and partner Jessica Moss). "heavy calls & hospitals blues" closes Side 1 with a simple piano-based ballad that harkens back to Efrim's vocal debut on the first Silver Mt. Zion album in 1999.
The first three songs on Side 2 deploy otherwordly ambience against repeating and contrapuntal melodies filtered through various pedal chains, occupying a distinctive interzone between electronic music and instrumental rock. In the second of these,"kaddish for chesnutt”, Efrim astonishes with lyrics that convey a profound intimacy with Vic, celebrating his life and death in unflinching eulogy. The final scorched-earth solo guitar figures that introduce "i am no longer a motherless child" relent to organ and keyboard oscillations and what is perhaps the most unabashedly celebratory pop song Menuck has ever produced, propelled by a wide-eyed, joyous, deeply proud (and existentially relieved?) vocal that is all chorus: the song title sung over and over....
-- http://cstrecords.com/cst078/
Erika M. Anderson has talked about finding "true bliss and terror" in the live performances of her former band, Gowns. The pressure-cooker atmosphere she and her partner in that group (and in life) Ezra Buchla immersed themselves in had to crack at some point, and it did, fatally and finally, at the beginning of 2010. Anderson's way of propping open an escape hatch from the bruised purging of Gowns was to retreat into herself, by gathering her collective musical ideas and putting them out under her own initials. But it's immediately apparent on hearing Past Life Martyred Saints, her debut full-length as EMA, that she's still all tangled up in "bliss and terror." For the most part, it's a white-knuckle ride. There's no pretense or pose here. No pulling back from the brink to foster an air of cool detachment. Anderson's music has the power to plummet to the depths and drag you right down there with her.
There's a lack of timidity in the way this music is expressed. It's almost as though Anderson snoozed her way through the past decade and is picking up threads that have mostly lain dormant since the early-to-mid 1990s. The boldness in her language, which thematically pings back and forth between emotional and physical duress, has the same naked volatility as Kat Bjelland circa Spanking Machine or Courtney Love in her Pretty on the Inside phase. It's often terrifying, distressing stuff. There's a feeling that you're watching someone in the midst of several life crises. It's a strange kind of testament to Past Life Martyred Saints that it often feels like a daunting proposition to listen to, as if spending too much time with it will leave you as scarred as its creator.
The lyrical fixations here frequently zoom in on Cronenberg-ian body horror, with Anderson exploring the gnarly elasticity of the human frame when it's placed under threat. EMA songs often duck into little mantras; "Butterfly Knife" bears one of the most unnerving of those in its "20 kisses with a butterfly knife" line. "Marked" is similarly nauseating and obsessed with physical abuse. Over a noise that sounds like water chugging down rusty steel piping Anderson devolves into repeating: "I wish that every time he touched me he left a mark." It dwells in the same kind of unsettling territory as Goffin/King's "He Hit Me (It Felt Like a Kiss)", and the bare-bones musical arrangement heightens the severity of the message just as Phil Spector's production did on the Crystals' song.
That ability for her arrangements to acutely reflect her lyrical mood is one of Anderson's trump cards. She knows exactly when to add and subtract elements, bringing "Marked" out of the doldrums at its close with a warm organ tone that she deploys whenever things get a little too heavy (see also: "Milkman"). The opening "The Grey Ship" is one of her most ambitious conceits in that regard. It shifts in style several times, from its earthy, folk-y opening to a midsection where all the instrumentation vanishes suddenly as if the bottom just fell out of the world.
It's a sign of her confidence and ambition that she can open the record with such a multi-faceted song, full of odd diversions and unexpected twists that need multiple plays to really sink in. But the hit-rate here is high. "California" is among Anderson's best works, a stream-of-consciousness rant about displacement and alienation set to a musical backing that feels like civilization collapsing around her. "California" shows off her enviable talent for finding a comfortable place where big-topic sloganeering and personal tales can coexist. It's that sweat-soaked head-rush of repulsion, sadness, anxiety, and nostalgia you get when you feel the tug of home.
Past Life Martyred Saints is a fiercely individual record, made by a musician with a fearless and courageous approach to her art. Crucially, the desire to let such raw emotion out in song never feels forced. It simply wouldn't work this well if there was a hint of artifice, or a suggestion that Anderson hadn't regurgitated all these feelings of loss, loathing, and rejection from a pit of genuinely volatile emotion. There's a conviction to her delivery that leaves you in no doubt that this is something she needed to flush out of her system. Comparisons can certainly be drawn to artists such as Patti Smith or Cat Power, and her dry, deadpan delivery occasionally orbits the same sphere as Kim Gordon's vocal work with Sonic Youth. But this is Anderson's own brittle unease. It hits as hard as a cold slap in the face-- and will leave its mark on you.
-- http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/153 ... ed-saints/
TCM skrev:Bill Wells & Aidan Moffat - Everything's Getting Older
Fantastisk video
http://youtu.be/eu_qjcsF6Gs?hd=1
March 28th sees the release of Diamond Mine, a collaborative album from Domino and Double Six artists, King Creosote and Jon Hopkins.
Featuring lyrics and vocals from King Creosote sung over musical backdrops arranged and recorded by Jon Hopkins, Diamond Mine is a genuine labour of love, recorded over a number of years without the pressure of deadlines, whenever Jon and KC could get together.
The album, featuring instrumental moments as affecting as the lyrical, consists of newly interpreted obscure delights picked out from 20 years of King Creosote’s treasure chest of a back catalogue. Intended to be heard as a single experience, Diamond Mine produces a near classical suite of emotion ranging from cracked despair to patched-up euphoria. Described by King Creosote as a ‘soundtrack to a romanticised version of a life lived in a scottish coastal village’, the record weaves in slices of Fife life, bike wheels, spring tides, tea cups and café chatter to produce a beautiful, unique and timeless album.
-- http://www.dominorecordco.com/uk/news/1 ... new-album/
FalloutBoy skrev:TCM skrev:Bill Wells & Aidan Moffat - Everything's Getting Older
Har haft den i spellistan ett tag men inte lyssnat på den än. Får väl ta och göra det nu då.
Aidan Moffat är en gammal favorit (även om jag inte tycker han lyckats lika bra solo (hittills iaf) som han var i Arab Strap).
FalloutBoy skrev:Fantastisk video
http://youtu.be/eu_qjcsF6Gs?hd=1
Ja, den var fin. Låten får mig att tänka på ett annat fint skotskt samarbete, nämligen det mellan poeten Gerry Mitchell och Little Sparta:
http://open.spotify.com/artist/1ctoMoIBiZqCVXNvgkreUV
FalloutBoy skrev:Och när vi ändå är inne på skottar och samarbeten så är King Creosote aktuell med ett nytt album tillsammans med John Hopkins. Vackert! :
http://img96.imageshack.us/img96/781/kc ... 082933.jpg
King Creosote & Jon Hopkins - Diamon Mine (2011, Domino Records)March 28th sees the release of Diamond Mine, a collaborative album from Domino and Double Six artists, King Creosote and Jon Hopkins.
Featuring lyrics and vocals from King Creosote sung over musical backdrops arranged and recorded by Jon Hopkins, Diamond Mine is a genuine labour of love, recorded over a number of years without the pressure of deadlines, whenever Jon and KC could get together.
The album, featuring instrumental moments as affecting as the lyrical, consists of newly interpreted obscure delights picked out from 20 years of King Creosote’s treasure chest of a back catalogue. Intended to be heard as a single experience, Diamond Mine produces a near classical suite of emotion ranging from cracked despair to patched-up euphoria. Described by King Creosote as a ‘soundtrack to a romanticised version of a life lived in a scottish coastal village’, the record weaves in slices of Fife life, bike wheels, spring tides, tea cups and café chatter to produce a beautiful, unique and timeless album.
-- http://www.dominorecordco.com/uk/news/1 ... new-album/
http://open.spotify.com/album/1Xl61j4RzKINfWTojz51BJ
Natalie Weyes Blood (originally Weyes Bluhd) has existed in the grime-ghost fringe-music catacombs since at least 2006, though originally it was in more of a crouched/hieroglyphic FX pedals style, culminating in a European tour with Axolotl. After two seasons of hibernation and a relocation to Baltimore, she materialized her 'Blood In Bluhd Out' transformation and began writing/playing the darkly haunted narcotic drifter ballads that make up "The Outside Room", her first official full-length.
Recorded and mixed by good friend Graham Lambkin, the record has shadows of The Shadow Ring in the oddly creaking ambient sounds and stark, nuanced production, which lend the eerily beautiful neo-Nico death-folk laments a more modern, art-skewed sheen. There's still echoes of her old drone/tape-ghost-clouds moods on tracks like "In The Isle Of Agnitio" and the long, bells-laden outro to "Romneydale," but the bulk of the LP is swooning and sweeping, with Natalie's gorgeous, quasi-Teutonic vox leading the way. A subtly mesmerizing long-player, very "out of time," and strangely untouched by contempo influences.
-- http://www.piccadillyrecords.com/produc ... 76046.html
Jansson skrev:Du är som vanligt vänligheten själv.
Klart att jag missat att det.
Men som TCM så väl vet finns demens i min familj så därför ber jag dig att ha tålamod med em äldre herre.
Since forming in 2005, Brooklyn's Woods haven't really wasted any time between releases. They have dropped an album each year following their 2006 debut, How to Survive In + In the Woods. So it wasn't much of a surprise when the lo-fi folk rockers announced plans for a new album less than a year after releasing 2010's superb At Echo Lake. Called Sun & Shade, it was recorded winter-to-winter in 2010 and 2011 with production assistance from Glenn Donaldson. He described the album the band's exploration into Kraut and West Coast-influenced sounds, with some psychedelic guitars and wild percussion thrown in for good measure.
-- http://www.prefixmag.com/reviews/woods/sun-shade/50248/
zidanefromhell skrev:King creosotes platta var riktigt vacker!
Berlin-based Will Sansom presents a fragile blend of acoustic pop and ambient electronics through Japan's Nature Bliss/PLOP records - home to music from Rod Modell and F.S. Blumm. 'Hello Friends, Goodbye Friends' is a very canny blend of falsetto vocals strongly reminding of Tom Krell's HTDW album, with tender acoustic guitar, the most tingling brand of lo-fi electronics and decayed piano ambience. We can imagine quite a lot of people falling deeply in love with this release. Check!
-- http://boomkat.com/downloads/404012-wil ... ye-friends
Esmerine enters its second decade with an expanded line-up and a new album – the band's first in six years. As a duo co-founded ten years ago by percussionist Bruce Cawdron (Godspeed You! Black Emperor) and cellist Beckie Foon (Thee Silver Mt. Zion), Esmerine released two critically-acclaimed albums of modern chamber music in 2003 and 2005 that had one foot in the new music/experimental terrain of contemporaries like Rachel's or Town And Country and the other in a more visceral and lyrical landscape populated by the likes of Dirty Three (and GY!BE themselves).
Bruce and Beckie have continued stoking the embers of Esmerine, with occasional special events in their Montreal home town over the past few years, often including invitations to guest musicians. While Esmerine had made deft use of guest players on previous records, their performances over the past two years opened the band up to two new musicians in particular who were invited to join as full members: harp-player Sarah Page (The Barr Brothers) and percussionist Andrew Barr (The Slip, Land of Talk, The Barr Brothers).
La Lechuza documents the evolution of Esmerine under the influence of this expanded membership, and through the lens of a shared trajectory marked by a tragic loss. All four players were brought together through their mutual friendships with Lhasa de Sela, a beloved and internationally-renowned Montreal-based singer. Sarah and Andrew were already part of Lhasa's working band; Beckie and Bruce had been asked to join Lhasa and her band on a planned tour. Lhasa was diagnosed with breast cancer during the making of her album; she was able to complete it, but touring plans were suspended as Lhasa's health deteriorated. Lhasa died on New Year's Day 2010 at the age of 37.
La Lechuza is dedicated to Lhasa de Sela and includes music that emerged in the weeks and months following Lhasa's death. While Esmerine has always forged instrumental songs of high emotive and narrative power, on La Lechuza there is truly a spirit at work, and the group has succeeded in making an album that is both a eulogy to Lhasa and testament to the newfound creative relationships the she helped bring forth.
As with previous Esmerine albums, La Lechuza comprises predominantly instrumental music; the conjunction of Cawdron's mallet playing (marimbas, glockenspiels) and Foon's lyrical cello lines continues to anchor much of the record. Page's harp works in lovely counterpoint to the rhythmic and melodic patterns of the mallet instruments, and at times establishes the song foundation in its own right, most notably on “Last Waltz”, where Sarah also sings. Andrew Barr's additional percussion work and sensibility allowed the group to record more of the album live, in real time and with renewed fluidity. Stunning instrumental opener “A Dog River” includes guest playing by Colin Stetson and Sarah Neufeld (Arcade Fire, Bell Orchestre), who also contribute to “Little Streams Make Big Rivers” on Side 2.
La Lechuza was shaped by another important collaborator, and a dear friend of Lhasa's: Patrick Watson. Much of La Lechuza was recorded by Watson at his home studio in Montreal, and in addition to guest vocals alongside Sarah Page on “Last Waltz”, Watson also sings and plays piano on “Trampolin” and on the album's centerpiece track “Snow Day For Lhasa”.
La Lechuza ends on a genuinely special note, with a previously unreleased version of "Fish On Land" by Lhasa herself, featuring the recording she made with Bruce and Beckie (on bowed marimba and cello respectively). This song was tracked and mixed by Thierry Amar, who had also recorded and mixed the sessions for Lhasa's third and final album.
While primarily tracked in Patrick Watson's loft, La Lechuza was mixed (with the exception of the three aforementioned songs) by Mark Lawson (Arcade Fire, The Unicorns, Islands).
Thanks for listening.
-- http://cstrecords.com/cst080/
phloam skrev:Lite sena kommentarer; uppskattar just nu Aaimon, Salem, Stars of the lid - och skulle vilja se de mörka suggestiva filmer som musiken skulle kunna vara soundtrack till
"The Rookie" is a self-sustaining, consistent breath of ethereal distance and dynamic space. Sounds wave and flex, in and out, from the far end of a rustic warehouse to the inner folds of your ear. The tracks are driven by a funky, electro-house vibe and maintain freshness through progress. Nothing goes stale at any point, and the mysterious vocals give each song, each phrase, and each drop a true purpose.
The New Division is quite the perfect name. Though difficult to categorize, or place in a "division", the sound blends very well with the times. Sometimes 80's in nature with the electronic kits and glitchy bleeps, the tones of each song represent orbs of some large, gelatinous substance sailing through our orbit at a fluctuating, yet never hesitating rate.
Textures and transitions are gradual at times, but unexpected at others, and everybody loves an album that keeps one's interest. Just wait until the last track "Bucharest" and be patient for the extremely unexpected. The group's use of instrumentation really shines through. It is a sign of musical evolution over the past decade and simply feels good.
-- http://www.groopease.com/artist/the-new-division
In an age saturated with soundalikes and retro throwbacks, the truly unique and unconventional can be hard to come by. Storming the 2011 scene with her self-titled debut album, Berlin-based Barbara Panther seems to embody these latter characteristics − and then some. The singer takes risks, blending musical influences and crossing boundaries of musical style innovatively and effortlessly, and the result is a journey through vibrant soundscapes, frenetic arrangements interspersed with moments of beautiful melancholy, and the creative explosion of elements of her past, the present and the future.
Rwandan-born Panther grew up in Brussels, Belgium, before making her home in Berlin five years ago. Describing the minimal role her background plays in her songwriting the artist explains; “I’m intrigued by the universe, water and the moon, and their interdependencies, which is noticeable in both the record’s sound and theme”. In addition to her strong spiritual interest in Mother Earth, Panther touches on themes such as existence in ‘Moonlight People’ and ‘O’Captain’, ethnicity on ‘Rise Up’ and religion on her first single ‘Empire’.
‘Empire’ is a song fraught with variety, tension, arching choruses and a staccato beat. It also incorporates a contrasting gentleness which illustrates well the album’s playful nature. Although her music eludes definition, Panther’s electronic ventures in new musical territories could be described as modern pop with avant-garde and baroque influences. Panther’s debut was produced by no other than Matthew Herbert, renowned house music maestro, also known as Radio Boy and Doctor Rockit. Having produced both Róisín Murphy’s and The Invisible’s debut albums, he has also worked with artists as diverse as Björk, R.E.M. and Yoko Ono. Together, Panther and Herbert create compelling sonic landscapes, designed to generate vivid images in the listener´s mind. “Matthew had the idea of throwing real chains against an electric heater which, in ‘Rise Up’, conveys the feeling of living in a prison in this world. However, the song ‘O’Captain’ communicates a very physical atmosphere as it gives the impression of being on the sea, literally feeling the wind on board”.
Despite the depth of lyrical meaning, the 12 tracks on Barbara Panther also allow room for all sorts of interpretation. Panther’s energetic and eclectic vocals blend elements of pop, rap and soul music, also incorporating an opera flavour on the track ‘Rollercoaster’. The latter song is full of skilfully arranged stylistic contrasts, combining a big band with playful synth and operatic vocals. Considering her offbeat style and the air of mystery surrounding Panther, it comes as no surprise that she has already been compared to the likes of Grace Jones and Bjork.
The singer’s futuristic, outstanding melodies and style are implemented into honest and passionate live performances, seeing Panther set her vocal stylings and expressive movements to visuals. To mark the occasion of the release of her debut EP ‘Empire’ on the same day, she played a one-off show on the City Slang stage at the Berlin Festival, accompanied by a five-strong live band of cellos, violins and trumpet, and is set to bring a little more of her own brand of voodoo to the stage in 2011!
-- http://soundcloud.com/cityslang/sets/ba ... er-barbara
shifts skrev:Explosions in the sky - Take care, take care, take care
http://open.spotify.com/album/4lrd6mzglWeT4cSoP0iC1G
Hmm... har inte riktigt fastnat för hans musik tidigare, men får väl ge honom en ny chans.phloam skrev:Nytt från Dominik Eulberg (Traum Schallplatten) - "Diorama"
zidanefromhell skrev:Cults- Cults
Rock musicians lose their edge once they settle down and get married, goes the old adage. Whether that’s a statistically viable generalization or just a convenient explanation for an artist mellowing with age is still debatable, but the Submarines are doing their best to dispel that myth: The LA-via-Boston husband-wife duo make witty, conflicted nuptial pop about the tribulations and rewards of marriage and commitment, with each album more conflicted and more insightful than the last. In fact, John Dragonetti and Blake Hazard had dated and split before they even formed the band. Recording each other’s break-up songs had a therapeutic effect, and they eventually reconciled and released their debut, Declare a New State!, in 2006.
Love Notes / Letter Bombs continues that chronicle of Dragonetti and Hazard’s relationship, and because of their lyrical candidness and percolating pop production, the subject matter has only grown more compelling. They studiously avoid even the hint of sentimentality and instead embrace devastating observations and lump-in-throat humor, which give them more heft and gravity than likeminded duos such as Mates of State and the defunct Georgie James. For this album, the couple worked with Spoon’s Jim Eno to track live drum parts, which form a strong foundation for these songs. This is the most organic their synth-heavy pop has sounded, with a greater depth and dynamism on “A Satellite, Stars and An Ocean Behind You” and first single “Birds.”
If Love Notes is their best album, it’s because it’s also their most emotionally conflicted. As usual, Hazard sings lead on most of these songs, and where other singers might milk these lyrics for every bit of emotionalism, her bright vocals and breathy phrasing prove cooler and almost matter-of-fact, as if these are matters of the head more than of the heart. As songwriters, she and Dragonetti are incisive enough that these sure songs never come across as one-sided. There’s real tragedy here, but also undeniable happiness: “Maybe I can never be everything you’ll ever need,” she sings on the propulsive “Tigers,” “but I can wrap my arms around you.” And that’s the Submarines’ secret appeal: They specialize in the sneaky juxtaposition of dark thoughts over bright hooks. Rarely does postmillennial pop music sound so energetic and balanced in its contradictions.
-- http://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2 ... bombs.html
After the Pruitt Igoe E.P, Kangding Ray returns with his third album for raster-noton, pushing further his explorations on the edge of digital and analog sounds. With OR, Kangding Ray continues to blur the borders between experimental and bass music, and brings his signature sound to another level, somewhere at the darkest fringe of club culture.
With the massive metallic beats of « athem », the frightening distorded waves of « Mojave », the elevated groove of « Odd Sympathy », the modulated guitar walls of « Leavaila Scheme », or the low-bitrate Everest of « La Belle », KR creates deep atmospheres, loaded with echoes of collapsing economies, dysfunctional political systems, and corporate alienation.
In an abstract manner, OR depicts the desillusions of modern civilizations, while initiating a positive reflection on crisis as a creative state.
OR (« gold » in french), as the only chemical element that seems to keep its value for eternity, refers to the cult of endless consumption and the absurdity of fluctuating currency valuations, while in english, as a logical operator or grammatical conjunction, OR represents the possibility of another choice, an « inclusive disjunction » which suggests that there might be another answer, a different path to follow.
Noticeable inputs have been provided by Ben Frost, who composed a keyboard line for « Or », Rose Tizane Merrill who lend her voice to the anarchist poem « Monsters », and Magne Mostue who wrote the words and sang on « Coracoid Process » as well as the vocal version of the prophetic electronic mantra « Pruitt Igoe ».
-- https://shop.raster-noton.net/
Bit of a quiet legend is this guy, Laurent Girard. He's been making sublime melodic electronica & sound-art with an organic edge for years, releases for electronische labels colossuses such as Static Caravan, Bad Boy Budgie and My Dad is an Antelope amongst others. The last two may be made up. Flicking through there's plenty of rich sonic detail here. The songs all appear to be miniatures - pieces of incidental music if you like. Melancholic piano rubs up against industrial beats, ricocheting techno disappears into a plumbing vortex, pastoral psychedelic folk will be found curling up next to clickety badminton style liquid glitch & wistful curious electronica ala AFX's tenderest moments is found just lounging around in tiny "song chairs" situated near the central hub of the album. There's plenty here, especially for those who enjoy music in soundtracky snippets. This is one of them & it is another little gem from the hardy Frenchman. I'd like to say stalwart but it's a dreadful word so I won't!
-- http://www.normanrecords.com/cd/124972- ... -coloribus
The debut album from London-based solo musician Petrels is described by Tartaruga records as ‘A swirling cataract of a record, a deluge of beautiful noise and crushing melody’; it’s a fitting description for an album that is a unique and mesmerizing ride.
‘Haeligewielle’ is a mostly instrumental record, combining multiple layers of wailing strings, warped electronic noises, occasional haunting vocals and jaunting percussion. At over fifty minutes in length, the album is a mammoth trip of musical intoxication and feels like the kind of listening experience that will have a profound effect on how you look at the core of all music, which is a fantastic accomplishment for any artist.
The album starts with a distant hum at the beginning of ‘After Francis Danby’; a track that sounds initially like whale song, hidden beneath layers of whistling wind. This droning is atmospheric in a way that is both enchanting and strange, sometimes drifting into the soundtrack of a morbid sequence in a horror movie, but pulling you out before you get the chance to feel the chill up your spine. The second track, ‘Silt’, continues the tension and is a disjointed instrumental with a macabre twist. An uplifting feel begins to coast through about halfway through the song with a looped sample spinning beneath the strings.
The tracks coast along almost seamlessly, allowing the dreamy ‘Canute’ to shimmer like gold dust upon a canvas of static feedback, samples from a new-age orchestra and a pulsing undercurrent of noise. The experimental essences continue to shine on ‘The Statue Is Unveiled With The Face Of Another’ with numerous influences from the music of world cultures evident. ‘Concrete’ includes the first clear use of vocals, with a low choir adding to the ambience, conjuring images of colour.
‘Winchester Croydon Winchester’ chimes in and feels like a track with a different purpose. The keys and possible woodwind have starker melodies and the track takes the shape of a song better than anything on the album so far. The final track, ‘William Walker Strengthens The Foundations’ is a fifteen minute monster with a low underwater rumbling and electronic hums and whirrs; blocks of sound trying to drown out the various sound effects that struggle to pull to the surface. The odd mix of vocals and distant percussion brings the whole thing to a close, possibly leaving you feeling like you’ve just returned from another planet with information on a distant race of alien beings. Well, maybe not like that, but you’ll certainly feel mysteriously different.
-- http://www.live-music-scene.co.uk/cd-re ... asp?id=449
FalloutBoy skrev:Kangding Ray - OR (2011, Raster-Noton)
Ja, den är bland det bättre som släppts i genren på senare tid.shifts skrev:FalloutBoy skrev:Kangding Ray - OR (2011, Raster-Noton)
Stenhård och ett givet köp för mig. Har lyssnat på albumet ett tag och tycker
han kanske inte direkt skapar något nytt, men gör det han gör mycket bra.
Tycker den är bättre än "For Emma, Forever ago" (som ärligt talat är en aning överskattad).zidanefromhell skrev:Nytt från Justin vernon. Lite mera, hmm vågat, den här gången om man ska jämföra mot förra avskalade For Emma...
Mention Fink (real name Fin Greenall) and you surprisingly get one of two reactions: head-scratching non-familiarity; or the impassioned response that prompts artists such as John Legend and Professor Green to wax lyrical about him live on air. It is a remarkable void, one which looks set to finally close upon the release of Fink’s latest studio album Perfect Darkness on June 13th.
Recorded and mixed by producer Billy Bush, Perfect Darkness is a smouldering, pulsating, and purposeful book of songs. From its emotion-rousing, self-titled opener, to the darkly cinematic "Fear Is Like Fire", and the uplifting nostalgia of album closer "Berlin Sunrise", the Perfect Darkness LP bristles with tense passion and hypnotic charm. It is in two words, bewitching and addictive.
“Singer-songwriters always get criticised – fairly – for sometimes sounding like a scratched record,” says Greenall. “…moaning about this, moaning about that, girlfriend’s left you, blah blah, blah. With Fink we do sing about relationships and love and emotions – but we also sing about other stuff: embracing fear, Berlin dawns, looking forward. Perfect Darkness was written about a friend of mine who’s just signed a massive record deal and it’s all about to kick off. And I’m saying, 'just roll with it man. It’s gonna get dark but you’ll survive and you’ll come out the other side.’"
Following three critically-acclaimed albums, Perfect Darkness marks the next chapter of an incredible musical journey for the Bristol-born artist. The first and pre-eminent singer-songwriter signed to legendary British label Ninja Tune - after making the transition from world-class club DJ and electronic producer - Fink is also an in-demand collaborator having written for the likes of John Legend, Ximena Sarinana, Amy Winehouse and Professor Green. He has also graced some of the world’s most prestigious stages, and with bandmates Guy Whittaker on bass and Tim Thornton on drums, has toured the globe several times over.
Up until now Fink has remained in the shadows, working quietly and diligently in the background, but judging by this new record he is set to emerge into the bright lights of long-deserved mass recognition.
-- http://ninjatune.net/se/release/fink/pe ... t-darkness
shifts skrev:FalloutBoy skrev:Kangding Ray - OR (2011, Raster-Noton)
Stenhård och ett givet köp för mig. Har lyssnat på albumet ett tag och tycker
han kanske inte direkt skapar något nytt, men gör det han gör mycket bra.
It’s a pleasing synchronicity: the very day that Kate Bush, the reclusive queen of quirk-pop, finally leaves her castle in the clouds to release her first album in six years, another Kate with a voice made for echoing around bleak landscapes, and a penchant for drama and the otherworldly, brings out her debut with Austra.
Former opera student Katie Stelmanis has been filling Toronto with the sound of music since she hit double figures – first as a chorister, then with post-punked-up gay grungers Galaxy; solo, and now, as singer-songwriter in this goth electro trio that bears her (middle) name.
She clearly hasn’t forgotten her training. Feel It Break is full of theatrical intensity, its set hung with murky, velvet synths on which her darkly luminescent vocals soar and swim, inherently melancholic, however exultant they appear. With its dancefloor-friendly beats (think The Knife with soul), it’s the sort of record you might stick on just before heading to an alternative club.
Which would be a bad idea, unless you have 47 minutes (or more – it’s addictive) to spare, for Stelmanis, bassist Dorian Wolf and drummer Maya Postepski have created something that plays as a carefully balanced, organic whole, like an inadvertent concept album. That’s more a testament to the skill with which it’s been put together than because it lacks standout moments; in fact, half the songs here could be released as singles, as Austra are as melodic as they are melodramatic.
Opener Darken Her Horse is a fitting curtain-raiser of a spellbinding debut which revives the heavily-eyelinered, Elnett-sprayed corpse of British new wave, and casts it in mists of ethereal magic. Hymn-like, all chords and church choir vocals, it slowly builds to surging, Japan-inflected heights which lead you to the ‘floor to bust your best robot moves. As does last single Beat and the Pulse, which evokes the era’s sleazier Soho scene with keyboard lines redolent of 80s revivalists Fischerspooner and Soft Cell chimes. Elsewhere, Hate Crime, with its plentiful "oohoo"s (as beloved by Katie as Kate) and the gorgeous, incantatory The Choke (which is reminiscent of fellow Canadians The Organ) are hook-heavy enough to get you repeating such unlikely mantras as "Sign / The consent forms" as you make extravagant arm movements around the living room. You might feel a little daft, but the odd lyrics only add to this band’s appealing mystery.
Let’s just hope Austra don’t find their inner recluse any time soon.
-- http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/reviews/qwvh
FalloutBoy skrev:
Fink - Perfect Darkness (2011, Ninja Tune)
http://open.spotify.com/album/3s8cIQuGT45N56XsJehuvE
Ja, herr Greenall levererar som vanligt.KarlXII skrev:Jäklar vad bra den är!
John Maus lives in his birthplace of Austin, Minnesota. Whilst working towards his PhD in Political Science he also composes music that taps into melancholic fantasy and affirms that we are all truly alive. Questing synthesisers, tensely strung bass lines and chasing drum machines providing the perfect backdrop for John's deeply resonant reverb-drenched vocal. Born in the decade of synth pop and sharing his birthday with George Frideric Handel, John started making music when Nirvana posters went up on every teenager’s wall. It’s this curious conflux of influences that partially helps to describe John’s music. It’s a world where the Germs jam with Jerry Goldsmith, Cabaret Voltaire relocate to Eternia and Josquin des Prez writes a new score for RoboCop. The confrontation of punk, the fleeting poignancy of 80’s movie soundtracks, the insistent pulse of Moroder and the spirituality of Medieval and Baroque music all find salvation in John Maus.
John Maus’ debut album proper entitled ‘Songs’ was released in 2006. It was a record permeated with aching memories; a perfect testimony to lost romance and longing. It’s awe-inspired follow-up ‘Love Is Real’ (released on UTR, 2007) proved a more cohesive listen in terms of focus and emotional depth. Maus finally returned last year to the heavy snows of the Midwest to finish album number three, ‘We Must Become The Pitiless Censors Of Ourselves’, set for release this June.
‘We Must Become The Pitiless Censors Of Ourselves’ breaks new ground for Maus. The shirt pulling and air punching of his impassioned live performance is finally captured in all its frenzied appeal alongside a tender inner space. ‘Pitiless Censors’ looks towards the future in all its absurdity. It’s a record where promise takes the lead for the first time, providing a counterpoint to John’s default existential calling. This is perhaps best shown with new track ‘Quantum Leap’ available through the link above and via iTunes as of now. ‘Quantum Leap’, a song full of dead zones, glancing slaps and oscillating solos. “Heart to heart, mind to mind, we are the ones who seem to travel through time,” intones Maus resolutely through the mist. John’s lyrics are as likely to touch upon themes of Cronenberg gore just as much as the musings of Jacques Rancière. It’s this no-brow approach that makes things interesting, casting Maus as a savant and allowing his music to startle us in ways whereby we open up to the unimaginable.
-- http://hangout.altsounds.com/news/12678 ... nsors.html
Okay so this is weird – in February 2011 Gier Jenssen finished an album dedicated to the Japanese post-war reconstruction and, specifically, the country's futuristic nuclear program. After surveying numerous photos he became fascinated by the idea that nuclear power plants could be built so close to the sea in earthquake-prone areas, and this slowly became the focus for his recordings. A few months later and, alas, the album has gained considerable poignancy – we are now in the aftermath of one of Japan’s most serious disasters and Jenssen’s concepts have a strangely prophetic quality to them. The music itself is hardly melancholy, but has a damaged, cold, digital edge which mirrors the clean architectural perfection of the ominous structures, pre-earthquake of course. As Jenssen’s clipped, purposeful rhythms slowly make their way into synthetic patterns, they guide the record and imbue proceedings with a fitting Kubrickian haze. ‘N-Plants’ almost reminds of early SND (think ‘Stdio’ or ‘Makesndcassette’) but played at the wrong speed. These are slow, booming passages of sound carried out with a masterful ear, displaying the razor sharp precision of a true veteran of the field. Lazy, lackadaisical witch-house this is not, but ‘N-Plants’ shares threads with its purposeful slow-down of dance music tropes. It's a powerful record: without the context ‘N-Plants’ is an affecting, engrossing listening experience, but with the added air of melancholy, it becomes all the more haunting and memorable. Highly Recommended.
-- http://boomkat.com/downloads/411866-biosphere-n-plants
“A Static Place is about the journey of sound. Between 1928 and 1932 the earliest recordings of historically informed performances of music from the late Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque era were etched into 78RPM records. I used some of these records from my collection, playing them back with two mechanical acoustic HMV Model 102 gramophones. The initial soundwaves produced back then by period instruments like the clavichord, viols, lute, hurdy-gurdy are read from the grooves by a cactus needle to be amplified by the gramophones diaphragm housed in a soundbox. Those vibrations travel through the tonearm which is connected straight to the gramophones horn, which releases the music to my space.Here the sound is again picked up by a pair of customized microphones and send to my computer, to be transformed by spectral analysis and convolution processes.”
- Stephan Mathieu, Madrid, Nov. 31, 2010
http://www.12k.com/index.php/site/relea ... tic_place/
Fourcolor is the solo project of Keiichi Sugimoto (Minamo, Filfla) and should be well known to the 12k audience with his two previous releases, Air Curtain (2004) and Letter of Sounds (2006) both highly regarded and now out of print, which established him as one of the label’s leading roster figures.
As Pleat takes the familiar sound of Fourcolor and explores some subtle new sonic territory. It’s as tonal and warm as always but he expands on his style by including more fractured, accidental sounds and an obvious growth in experience and talent. What makes Fourcolor’s music so engaging is how Sugimoto manages to coax a lovely spectrum of sounds from his guitar without it ever sounding too over-processed or digital. From bubbling, low bass that provides a foundation to woven harmonies, pulses, and shimmers, there is a rich palette of sounds created. Add in a bit of careful, jittery skip-editing and implied rhythms and a groove starts to emerge from the ambience. Hints of his poppier Filfla project also come into play once again as Fourcolor brings in some guest-vocals courtesy of Sanae Yamasaki (aka Moskitoo) who lends her angelic voice to “Quiet Gray 1” and “Iris (Familiar)” adding further dimension to the works.
As Pleat is unquestionably Fourcolor, but there is a pillow-like quality to the sound, a softness that plays beautifully off of the more organic edits and sharper plucks that all combines to create the most engaging Fourcolor album to date.
http://www.12k.com/index.php/site/releases/as_pleat/
Once upon a time there were two brothers named Tom and John Lück who lived in a mystical-magical kingdom called Jönköping on the southern tip of Sweden’s storm-tossed Lake Vättern. For much of the year it was dark and cold and the mountains loomed and the wind howled and the water turned to ice and the landscape was desolate and bare and the first step outside your door yanked the will to live right out of your shivering chest.
A conventional reaction to the cold would have been to wait it out on the couch with reruns of The Brady Bunch while noshing breakfast cereal out of the box, but the Lück brothers chose instead to contemplate foreign films, local birds, world subcultures, and the beauty of the great luscious void that is reality. And to create weird, introspective washes of electronic sound punctuated with sound bites culled from God knows where. (I didn’t want to know—that would have spoiled the mystery—so I didn’t ask, but they sound like snippets from police scanners, ‘60s soul tunes, films, and overheard conversations.)
The track titles are poetry (e.g., “The Forest Awakens at Night to Reveal Another World”), enhancing the evocative nature of the sounds, and the cover art is a delightful black and white ‘50s memorabilia photo of a man and a toddler on a beach, apparently having little to do with the album title or, as far as I can see, any of the content. I love it.
I remember listening to this kind of slow, sweeping synthesized music during the ‘80s on Brave New Waves and Nightlines on the CBC when I was working the night shift at the local airport. If another dispatcher happened to be present then three in the morning bore witness to the most bizarre conversations I’ve ever shared in.
My favourite was when a middle-aged father of two turned to me from a bastion of shiny, humming buttons and knobs and mused: It makes you wonder what life is all about. And where are the descendants of Jesus Christ?
With synthesized musical angst droning on in the background, such questions were unnerving but utterly appropriate.
Lots of similarities between Swedes and Canadians, like latitude, love of the outdoors, a melancholy streak, and, best of all, the tendency to feel like you’re not really alive unless you’re experiencing bitter cold, physical exhaustion, and the fear of death.
-- http://www.voicemagazine.org/articles/c ... p?ART=7179
På Rivers, Wildbirds & Peacedrums tredje album, samlas låtar som tidigare givits ut på två vinyler.
Den första heter Retina och innehåller fem låtar inspelade tillsammans med samma kör, Schola Cantorum Reykjavik Chamber Choir, som Björk använde på magiska Medùlla. Gissa om mina förväntningar sköt i höjden när jag först fick veta det.
Andra delen gavs ursprungligen ut som Iris och är fem låtar inspelade i den form vi är vana att höra Wildbirds & Peacedrums. Som slagverk och sång alltså.
Alltihop är inspelat under fem dagar i januari 2010 på Island med Ben Frost och Paul Evans bakom spakarna. Hildur Gudnadottir från Múm har hjälpt till med körarrangemangen.
Det var den torra redovisande delen.
Min kärlek till den här duon känner inga gränser. Jag tycker att Wildbirds & Peacedrums är alltigenom fantastiska.
På låtarna från Retina är stämningen mer högborgerligt kyrklig än jag är van. De mäktiga, men i fösta hand utsmyckade, körarrangemangen svävar som slöjor runt Mariam Wallentins djupt bluesiga röst och lockar fram en helt ny sida av duon. Det är ödesmättat, vackert och andäktigt. Här är det Wallentins röst som står i centrum, allt annat finns där för att bära upp den.
Inte heller låtarna på Iris är riktigt lika köttigt primala som de på The Snake. Andreas Werliins rytmer tar ändå betydligt större plats här och det är svårt att göra annat än att ryckas med. Trummorna är fläskigare och mer utmanande. Tempot generellt relativt lågt.
Allt är alldeles, alldeles underbart.
-- http://dagensskiva.com/2010/08/25/wildb ... ms-rivers/
phloam skrev:O Yuki Conjugate - The Euphoria of Disobedience
Ej genomlyssnat men gruppen/plattan verkar intressant.
One of Finland's most precious musical exports, Paavoharju, have been far too quiet of late, so Fonal have rounded up seven tracks including exclusive and alternate versions from their two peerless albums. Covering cherished older ground, you'll find a slightly abbreviated mix of the sparkling, Kylie-esque 'Kevätrumpu' and the swelling folk rock of 'Aamuauringon Tuntuinen', but fans will probably be almost over-familiar with those by now, as lush as they are. The new material is worth the wait, sashaying from ghostly coastal ambience in 'Tulilehtisade', through deliciously frothy piano and mossy atmospheres of 'Tuonen Marja' and the crackling embers of 'Mista Hän Oli Tullut', sounding uncannily like a spiked Clams Casino cut. Highly recommended.
-- http://boomkat.com/downloads/424449-paa ... at-n-kev-t
Larsen, from Torino, Italy, may be a new name to many DiS readers, but over the course of 15 years and 13 albums they’ve collaborated with enough avant-rock royalty to make Will Oldham jealous. This writer’s first encounter was the XXL pairing with Xiu Xiu – a relatively tranquil, synth-led affair – but they’ve also worked with Michael Gira and Jarboe of Swans, the mainstays of Supersilent, Nurse with Wound, Johann Johannsson, and on Cool Cruel Mouth Little Annie on vocals, and Baby Dee on piano.
'Authenticity' is as much a cringeworthy term as almost anything prefixed 'avant-' but it’s fair to say that Larsen are closer in spirit to Seventies krautrock than most current post-rock groups, and hence closer to what Simon Reynolds originally meant by 'post-rock', writing about Bark Psychosis, late-Talk Talk, Tortoise, and others in the mid-Nineties. Personally, I love formulaic crescendo-rock from Texas as much as loopy German hippie collectives, but often find myself thinking how few Anglophone bands right now dare to be as eclectic as those pioneering Europeans. It’s in that respect that Larsen are 'authentically' Seventies, eschewing the safety of stylistic homogeneity. In a nutshell, this record sounds like Can, Neu!, or Harmonia with the acid-freak ranting replaced by a torchsinger (which is a good nutshell to be in). But it’s also so much more than that.
Many of the tracks here slide into a loose, jazzy groove, and Little Annie’s nicotine-roughened croon (reminiscent of Laurie Anderson) provides that missing link to the nightclub; the woozy late-night moment when the glitterball makes you believe you’re seeing galaxies swirling around you, before you go back to being in the club, and it's no less visionary. Opening with ‘It Was a Very Good Year’ (an excellent, if not superior rendition of Frank Sinatra’s standard) Larsen establish the one pole of what they’ll be doing here, but the undercurrent of dread – the possibility the singer’s viewing everything through the bottom of a glass – make it a perfect fit. The second track (‘Existential Joe’) establishes the opposite pole, riffing on images of Fifties Beatnik / Rive Gauche cool that replaced Sinatra’s generation, over a near-cover (or affectionate rip-off) of Neu! Sure, this sounds excessively retro, but the secret agenda here seem to be to trace the continuities between the sounds and signifiers of hipster cool across almost a century, meaning that Harmonia are as much a reference point here as (excellent Fuck Buttons spin-off) Blanck Mass.
-- http://drownedinsound.com/releases/1635 ... ws/4143045
shifts skrev:Oj, Larsen med nya skiva är alltid en liten happening. Hade ingen aning, det var ett mycket välkommet tips!
shifts skrev:En klassiker och om jag skulle välja en enda skiva som favorit, skulle det
nästan utan tvekan bli denna. Har länge saknats på Spotify.
Fennesz's first formal solo release since 2008's Black Sea LP is as impeccably wrought and moving as you'd expect from the Austrian master, comprised of four pieces that are short in duration but cosmic in scope. He really is at the top of his game at the moment, making some of the most naturalistic, melodically generous but texturally complex music of his career to date: 'Liminal' projects his aching, echo-drenched guitar phrasing across a smoky screen of stirring strings; 'July' is a visceral yet carefully modulated drone piece, with desert-blues inflections rising slowly and elegantly out of forbidding scorched earth ambience. 'Shift' heads into deep space, its stargazing organ tones layered with such grace and authority as to put all those young kosmische chancers to shame, but the best is saved for the closing and title track: there's a return to the plangent, reverbed guitar chords and liturgical strings of 'Liminal', but this time brushed drums and bass are deployed to give all that yearning some extra movement and direction. Most artists would struggle across an album to achieve the depth, range and all-round grandeur that Fennesz compresses into this superlative 10".
-- http://boomkat.com/downloads/430611-fennesz-seven-stars
San Francisco's Barn Owl follow their widely acclaimed Thrill Jockey debut 'Ancestral Star' with the arrestingly evocative evolution of 'Shadowland', a truly outstanding record matching the panoramic visions of Ennio Morricone or Stephen O'Malley. For the past five years it's been a rare pleasure to witness the duo of Jon Porras and Evan Caminiti plane their majestic sound to a transcendent blend of panoramic guitar vistas and levitating synth music which they can proudly call their own. Each new transmission from their perch is greeted with bated breath and consumed like the lushest mid-winter fruit by a range of listeners who hear the genius in their scope and ability to pan the trace elements of drone, americana, black metal and ambient music into a dissolute, distinctive whole. Recorded by Phil Manley of Trans Am, and mastered at Berlin's D&M, 'Shadowlands' is a sumptuously rendered trip gliding from the Popol Vuh-like choral synth ascension of 'Void And Destruction', through the hallucinatory guitar mantra of the title track, and over to the remote wilderness of 'Infinite Reach'. This record is a monolithic episode in Barn Owl's catalogue and one we urge you to spend some time with. Recommended.
-- http://boomkat.com/downloads/416898-barn-owl-shadowland
Raw but focussed, searching psychedelia from two beautifully attuned producers on Thrill Jockey. They first met as participants of NNF's Neon Commune festival in 2007, a label with whom they both share a great affinity, working deeper into those mutual similarities through four tracks oscillating between head-lolling ambient psych and more motorik krautrock. The Dub influence of Sun Araw is largely left at home in favour of a more linear lean, growing from swirling organ and guitar in 'Night Gallery I' to tentatively find a more percussive groove, so you're stomping by 'II', clawing at the sky by 'III' and on a dizzily slow descent by the epic conclusion of 'IV'.
-- http://boomkat.com/downloads/428025-ete ... ht-gallery
shifts skrev:Edit: Med tanke på den återkommande knäppningen skivan genom på Spotify, antar jag att det är en vinylripp som ligger där. Hoppas inte samtliga exemplar är så skadade som det där.
FalloutBoy skrev:shifts skrev:Edit: Med tanke på den återkommande knäppningen skivan genom på Spotify, antar jag att det är en vinylripp som ligger där. Hoppas inte samtliga exemplar är så skadade som det där.
Jag vet inte vad de gjort, men något allvarligt fel i överföringen är det i alla fall. Båda kanalerna har ett periodiskt knäppljud som ligger konstant över alla spåren, men det är betydligt starkare i den vänstra.
Här ser det ut i ett tyst passage (mellan två spår):
Köpte FLAC-versionen för att jämföra och den har inte det här problemet, så den kommande CD-versionen borde också vara oförstörd.
Det verkar mindre troligt. Har aldrig stött på en SRC som beter sig på det viset. Jag skulle gissa att felkällan (trasig komponent/trafo?) ligger innan A/D-omvandlingen (om källan nu var vinyl).xeizo skrev:Det där ser ut som ett sample-rate konverteringsfel, månne har de utan eftertanke konverterat en 24/96-FLAC till ogg 16/44.1 rakt av utan att provlyssna, sånt där händer nämligen ibland med vissa converters.
shifts skrev:Oj! Det ligger inte konstant starkare i vänster kanal heller, utan förflyttar sig ibland mer mot mitten av ljudbilden.
FalloutBoy skrev:
....
Och när jag ändå håller på så kan jag tipsa om några aktuella EPs, bl.a. från en viss österrikare.
Fennesz - Seven Stars EP (2011, Touch)Fennesz's first formal solo release since 2008's Black Sea LP is as impeccably wrought and moving as you'd expect from the Austrian master, comprised of four pieces that are short in duration but cosmic in scope. He really is at the top of his game at the moment, making some of the most naturalistic, melodically generous but texturally complex music of his career to date: 'Liminal' projects his aching, echo-drenched guitar phrasing across a smoky screen of stirring strings; 'July' is a visceral yet carefully modulated drone piece, with desert-blues inflections rising slowly and elegantly out of forbidding scorched earth ambience. 'Shift' heads into deep space, its stargazing organ tones layered with such grace and authority as to put all those young kosmische chancers to shame, but the best is saved for the closing and title track: there's a return to the plangent, reverbed guitar chords and liturgical strings of 'Liminal', but this time brushed drums and bass are deployed to give all that yearning some extra movement and direction. Most artists would struggle across an album to achieve the depth, range and all-round grandeur that Fennesz compresses into this superlative 10".
-- http://boomkat.com/downloads/430611-fennesz-seven-stars
Slidin'. Ramblin'. Driftin'. Movin'. Strugglin'. The War on Drugs frontman Adam Granduciel is all of these things on Slave Ambient, the Philly outfit's second full-length release. Given these professed feelings of restlessness and uneasiness, it's no surprise the band's hypno-roots-rock is all about forward motion and momentum, favoring steady, locomotive rhythms that rarely pause or waver-- elements that reinforce Granduciel's efforts to make his problems disappear in the rearview mirror.
Slave Ambient shares several qualities with its 2008 predecessor, Wagonwheel Blues: a sense of open-freeway abandon and splendid isolation set against a glorious expanse; an unabashed admiration for FM-radio Americana icons of yore (Springsteen, Dylan, Petty); and a willingness to buff the band's gritty edges with serene, if randomly deployed, instrumentals and reprises. In other words, the War on Drugs still deal in "excellent road trip music," as Pitchfork's Stephen Deusner described Wagonwheel Blues. However, this time Granduciel is less interested in documenting the environmental and economic travesties he sees unfolding outside his window as he is the internal dramas swirling around in his head. Nearly every song here expresses some desire to get outta town and start anew.
The band responds by amplifying the more textural qualities of their sound: dreamy synth drones, liquefied electric-guitar leads that linger and fade like raindrops rolling down the windshield, and the most tasteful use of smooth saxophone this side of Kaputt. (Interestingly enough, Slave Ambient was recorded without founding member Kurt Vile, who applies a similarly lysergic approach on his latest solo release, Smoke Ring For My Halo-- for fans of rustic rock'n'roll, the two albums collectively yield an embarrassment of riches not experienced since Wilco and Son Volt released A.M. and Trace in tandem.) When the band's wide-screened psychedelic flourishes are fused with Granduciel's well-worn Dylan- and Petty-isms, songs like "Brothers" and "It's Your Destiny" wondrously conjure nothing so much as the Traveling Wilburys recording for mid-1980s 4AD. Or in the case of the excitable "Baby Missiles" (a holdover from last year's stop-gap Future Weather EP), it's as if the Spiritualized and Springsteen albums filed alphabetically next to one another in your record collection had melted together on a hot August afternoon.
But as much as the War on Drugs make music to accompany an escape to something better, they're the sort of band that believes the journey is more important than the destination. The songs on Slave Ambient don't necessarily end in a place very different from where they began, but through subtle sonic manipulations and layering-- like in the last two minutes of opener "Best Night", where the guitars, piano, and melodica start to blur into the same blissful wavelength-- they give the impression that a great distance has been traveled. The really amazing thing about the album is how anthemic and affirming it feels despite the near total absence of proper sing-along choruses. Case in point, centerpiece track "Come to the City" is all about ascension, rising out of the miasmic haze of preceding interlude "The Animator" and gradually accruing all the confidence and verve of Live Aid-era U2. But rather than work up a chest-thumping, Bono-worthy wail, Granduciel is happy to sit back and ride out the song's dense waves of sound, to prolong the euphoric feeling of anticipation-- the road trip he's soundtracking is very much his own, and he's as much a slave to the ambience as we are.
-- http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/157 ... e-ambient/
Finska kvartetten Siinai debuterar på norska Splendour med en försiktigt magnifik liten skiva präglad av tydliga ekon från kultbandet Spacemen 3 och vidare bakåt till episkt glimrande tysk sjuttiotalskraut och amerikansk garagepsykedelia. De har därmed nära själsfränder i göteborgska Ikons och frossar liksom dessa i syntetiska körer, skira syntljud, monotont malande boogiegitarrer och raka motorikrytmer som strävar mot horisonten som en solblekt autobahn. Temat på den helt instrumentala skivan kretsar kring München 1972 (när och var annars) och ger en stilfull inramning till ett stilfullt album att försjunka i och ryckas med av.
-- http://www.gp.se/kulturnoje/musik/1.684 ... mpic-games
The Paradise Motel have never been ones to do things the easy or the obvious way. Since their first album in 1997, they have chosen to follow in the footsteps of classic Australian bands such as The Go Betweens, in creating subtle, intelligent pop music, with albums built to last and songs that reveal themselves the more that they are listened to.
This is the case with their most recent release, I Still Hear Your Voice at Night, their second since the group’s reformation in 2008, a comparatively lush affair to last year’s Australian Ghost Story.
Once famously described by The Melody Maker as ‘a deliciously unsettling proposition’, I Still Hear Your Voice At Night is all about the spaces in between words, just as much as it is about the physical and philosophical spaces across this country. The sparse nature of the arrangements, somber lyrics and very particular phrasing of Merida Sussex’s vocals has an unsettling effect indeed. Her almost spoken, breathy incantations occasionally recalling Nico at her most androgynous.
On songs such as “Bear Never Left Her Home” the band take their motto of ‘the violence and the silence’ to a new plateau whereby the melodic instruments take turns in playing single note melodies, the arrangements so sparse, the performance so understated, that the music occasionally threatens to stop completely, leaving just a softly brushed snare drum or Sussex’s voice to continue. Eventually, this amount of tension has to give, and the full band and string section appear for the chorus sections, which is far from ‘violence’, but it is indicative of the delicate level of restraint shown throughout the album. The silence, it turns out, can be much more powerful than the violence.
On “Memory of Leonski” the band manage to make strings, organ and guitars sound dangerous, as Sussex repeats the hook line ‘have you ever lost a lover?’ over and over. The effect is threateningly spooky, the drum beat and the string swells building tension to an almost unbearable point. The song is a definite highlight among a series of great tracks, leading on to “Moonlight and the Scrub” in which songwriter Charles Bickford duets with Sussex, his almost whispered vocal proving a welcome counterpoint to the vocalists own understated style.
On “The Exiles” the fast jazz shuffle beat and surf rock guitars married with strings and violin recalls simultaneously The Boys Next Door and Warren Ellis-era Bad Seeds while allowing the band to cast off some of their built up energy. But this sudden burst of movement is only momentary, as on the title track, abbreviated to ‘Ishy Van’, Sussex and Bickford are accompanied by softly plucked guitars and child singers. They repeat themes and refrains from throughout the album, singing together ‘don’t think of me as someone you knew’ in what must surely be the most melancholy sing-a-long ever recorded. Eventually the guest singers and guitars give way, leaving just Sussex repeating over and over ‘I Still Hear Your Voice at Night’, bringing an album that is a lesson in minimalism to its eerie conclusion.
I Still Hear Your Voice At Night is a quietly insistent record, full of maturity and sorrow, and will surely grow upon its listeners with each subsequent play. The Paradise Motel are back, and we are all better off for it.
-- http://www.theaureview.com/albums/the-p ... ht-2011-lp
I was really excited to see that NNF had released something from this great band.They have a handful of releases out there, on various labels like Beko and Bathetic, and all of them are worth checking out.Clausen is their most recent album, and also their most diverse.A nose dive into cavernous pop songs and minimalist gloom.Their sound has always been rather dark and looming, with their hushed, haunting vocals and foggy instrumentation.They often dip into big riffs, with walls of shoegazey guitars and swelling synths, but also make good use of open spaces and barely audible tones.Clausen has it all.Each song is completely different from the last, but they all carry this dense and hazy tone, and it makes this a pretty cohesive listen overall.Here we go.
Acid Classics starts things off with a swaggering drum machine groove, joined by layers of bluesy psych riffs, and a faint, distorted sample loops on in the background.It sounds like two men talking into a fan, in a giant metal room.It's easy on the ears, and a nice introduction to the album.Stolen is next, and this is the Cough Cool that I remember.Layers of gentle guitar melodies sneak into your ears, with a bit of wah sprayed over them, and it reminds me a bit of Real Estate.There's a quiet shaker keeping things at a laid back pace, and the vocals are pleasant and almost whispered.This one has a really loose and easy vibe, and I must have played it three times over.Things start to go dark on track five, Sucker, a slow and heavy tune, that barely changes key at all.The whole song is led by a single blown out chord and a syrupy, thudding beat, and the atmospheric harmonies just kind of build up around the two.This one reminded me of Earth's tamer moments.The vocals are again, just a notch above a whisper, but with a much dark and more serious delivery.It's quite hypnotizing, and probably the most addictive track on the album.
Clausen comes to a end with a hissy, daydreamer disco tune called And Nothing Happened.It's almost too perfect of an ending, with the ultra slow bump of the kick and snare, and the ethereal synth delays that sound like they will disappear at any second, but somehow find their way back before completely withering away.It's kind of like blowing bubbles, and just before they burst, you blow a few more to keep things moving.His voice is soothing and gray, and this could be a real bummer, if it weren't so pleasant.HIGHLY Recommended.
-- http://cassettegods.blogspot.com/2011/0 ... -2011.html
Nearly 40 minutes of wonderful ambience from Milwaukee's Erik Schoster aka He Can Jog. Side A ("Saturday on Flushing / Bowing") is a glitchy folktronica anthem set to a slow beat in the vein of Four Tet, Side B ("The Fire Engine (for Mason) with Echo") is even better, a dreamy drone float, shimmering and ever ascending.
-- http://weedtemple.blogspot.com/2011/04/ ... gbook.html
It has been over five years since Norwegian duo Deaf Center released their debut album, Pale Ravine, yet the ripples of its impact are still being felt today, so much it has proved at the forefront of a whole movement in contemporary music, its dark textured orchestral bridging the gap between atmospheric electronic music and modern classical. Since, Erik Skodvin, one half of the duo, has, through his solo projects, continued to explore deeply cinematic soundscapes, and has fervently promoted other like-minded artists through Miasmah, the label he originally set up in 1999. Otto Totland has remained more discreet, but he was however noticed as one half of Nest, a project set up with Huw Roberts with whom he released a digital-only mini album a few years ago which they complemented with additional compositions and published as Retold through Roberts’ Serein imprint last year.
Recorded in Nils Frahm’s Durton Studio in Berlin, Owl Splinters is a much more ambitious and accomplished piece of work than its predecessor, yet, Deaf Center have retained much of its clair obscure ambiences and refined soundscapes. Owl Splinters opens with the grainy sound of a bow sliding on strings, solitary at first, then progressively layered into an orchestral drone, propped up by rumbling bass and upon which appears to hang a ghostly choir. Things take on an even more haunting turn with New Beginning (Tidal Darkness). In its first half, the piece is once again a densely layered droning form, but here, the strings appear more dissonant. In the second half, the mood is tempered by a piano, drenched in reverb. Surrounded by a continuous clutter of undefined found sounds and electronics and creeping string work, its spiraling melody sounds drowsy and slightly oppressive.
Deaf Center show a much more acute level of complexity in their compositions this time round, and while the above prove highly effective, this is nothing compared to the progressive soundscapes of The Day I Would Never Have. Spread over nearly eleven minutes, the piece is not without recalling the more intense moments of Murcof’s Cosmos. The piece finds its source in a somewhat peaceful and pastoral piano sequence, with little more than distant found sounds echoing in the background. Things take on a more formal tone past the three minute mark as increasingly domineering strings are infused with occasional flashes of feedback until the density of the soundscape becomes such that no individual sound can filter out anymore. The piece deflates rather suddenly a couple of minutes before coming to a close to reveal once again the flicker of a gentle piano theme. Skodvin and Totland apply a similar process to Close Forever Watching later on. Although nowhere near as developed or ambitious, this composition relies on much of the same elaborate clustering of sounds, reaching a point where its entity is much greater than the sum of its components, before slowly collapsing on itself until there is nothing left. Closing piece Hunted Twice is in comparison much more peaceful, especially in its second part where the piano oversteps the strings, with only the melancholic hum of a cello left as an accompaniment.
In between these, the pair insert more stripped down shorted compositions, often centred around one predominant instrument. Time Spent and Fiction Dawn for instance are wonderfully light and sober piano piece, while, streaked by a cutting cello, Animal Sacrifice appears more mournful and angular, as if it was still feeding from the intensity of The Day I Would Never Have which it follows.
If Pale Ravine proved a defining record, Deaf Center have, with Owl Splinters, greatly expanded on their original template, bringing their stunning compositions to life with deeply organic textures and soundscapes. Owl Splinters is a truly accomplished collection of timeless cinematic music.
-- http://www.themilkfactory.co.uk/st/2011 ... ecordings/
shifts skrev:Neurosis - Times of grace: http://open.spotify.com/album/4YSycbGhpYOCpumCTtJTj9
Isis, Tool, osv. är mest blöjor jämfört med detta.
Newcastle sextet Lanterns on the Lake have been quietly honing their sweeping, cinematic songs for a few years now, emerging with a debut LP refreshingly out of step with any current musical trends. The 11 songs that comprise Gracious Tide, Take Me Home source inspiration from the likes of Sigur Rós and Low; they unfurl slowly and deliberately, awash in melancholy and of a keen, natural beauty.
Hazel Wilde and Adam Sykes handle vocal duties, the latter’s deep Geordie burr complementing Wilde’s feathery, plaintive tones. The two combine wonderfully on If I’ve Been Unkind, against a tapestry of swooning strings, guitar, glockenspiel and synth of the kind that forms the backdrop to most of the songs here. "I sailed the seas; you were never even there" they intone – a line that sums up the direct lyrical approach and preoccupation with the elements felt throughout the record.
Ships in the Rain is one of the highlights here, Wilde taking on the voice of a doomed sailor over a spectral wall of backing vocals; equally effective is ode to friendship I Love You, Sleepyhead, subtle for its first few minutes before mournful strokes of Sarah Kemp’s violin haul it into a rousing finale. Opening song Lungs Quicken furnishes Lanterns’ sound with skittering beats and an insistent, circular glockenspiel shape, while A Kingdom ups the tempo considerably – a sweet, graceful pop song where the violin dances nimbly around interweaving guitar lines. Not to slight the record too much – for it is genuinely gorgeous and played with admirable conviction – but a few more steps in this direction might have given it a welcome jolt, leavening the generally sorrowful tone a little.
Yet that sadness is inseparable from the band’s aesthetic, and going on this and its two preceding EPs (where many of these songs originated), they’re only going to get better at fashioning it into delicate yet sometimes muscular music. Gracious Tide, Take Me Home is a luminous, lilting, lovely debut album, and a perfect mood piece as the nights begin to draw in.
-- http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/reviews/pn9p
Hailing from Denmark, Syntaks aka Jakob Skott and Anna Celilia previous releases with record labels like Benbecula, Darla, Ghostly International, Morr Music have all been great pieces of musical works in themselves and so is the musical projects they been involved in with the likes of Jonas Munk of Manual and all.
This latest offering on Parallax Sounds Records is perhaps the broadest ranging Syntaks album to date. It is a massive effort in terms of both style and length, cultivated over the past three years. Nachtblende is the fully realized scope of two danish lover's vision. A vision far removed from the minimalist design and grey skys of Scandinavia.
On the masculine side you got your wall of feedback guitars, swirling arpreggios and dead-pan dusty quater-time beats – all rising, crackling and disappearing into the hemisphere. But what brings the creative counter spark is the muted piano, haunted acoustic guitar picking and wordless soprano sighs of Anna Cecilia.
If making picturesque or cinematic music seems like a concept of the past, Nachtblende is an attempt to rewrite history on it's own terms. Forging a gap between overdriven circuitry and minimalist ambient repetition, Nachtblende moves through the past 30 years of music in it's own unique path.
Drawing on the milestones of Brian Eno & Steve Reich, as well as the Bibio / Takoma-styled folk guitar playing, the ambient textures of Syntaks doesn't stop there - film composers Ennio Morricone, Popol Vuh and John Carpenter flutters through the sonic architecture of the album as well. And then there's the full scope of multi-layered psychedelic pop and kraut-rock as well as the muffled shoegaze-esque cacophony of sounds, so expect similarities to artists like Boards Of Canada, Cocteau Twins, M83, Seefeel, Slowdive, Ulrich Schnauss etc. In the end everything is forged together in a phat inseparable synthesized mix, that is as delicate and fragile as it is dense and ear-shattering. The seemless mix of the turbulence on the surface and the pressure from the bottom is what makes Syntaks an uninhibited display of vibrant emotions, conjured by it's creators inner lives.
The german word Nachtblende is an aberration of the day-for-night filter previously used to taint movies shot during daytime into an illusion of night, also known as La nuit américaine (The American Night).
-- http://www.parallaxsounds.com/#/ps21-sy ... 4552183923
In the last three years, Nika Roza Danilova has gone from being an outsider, experimental, teenage noise-maker to a fully-fledged, internationally-celebrated, electronic-pop musician. It was a huge accomplishment, and, despite her age (young), her origins (mid-western, desolate), her accelerated scholastic achievements (high school and college were each completed in three years) and her diminutive physical size (4'11", 90 lbs), she has triumphed. She has emerged as a figurehead — a self-produced, self-designed, self-taught independent woman.
Zola Jesus is not a singer, she is a musician. Zola Jesus is not a band, it is a solo project. That is not to say the people who have helped her along the way were not deeply important. Her irreplaceable live band (whose drummer Nick Johnson lends a hand on several tracks here) and her friend Brian Foote (who co-produced this album), in addition to the live string players who contribute here (Sean McCann, Ryan York), were all crucial in the process. Still, Nika is a woman who can command a room — any room — without needing a band, a stage, or even a microphone. Her voice is unmistakable; it cuts right to the core.
Conatus is a huge leap forward in production, instrumentation and song structure. The definition of the title says it all: the will to keep on, to move forward. From thumping ballads to electronic glitch, no sound goes unexplored on her new record. It is an icy exploration in refined chaos and controlled madness, an effort to break through capability and access a sonic world that crumbles as it shines.
-- http://www.sacredbonesrecords.com/releases/sbr062/
phloam skrev:Denna tråd är rent GULD Jag ska försöka komma ikapp och samla mig till lite lyssningsintryck. bbl!
This album is a continuation of the "natural elements" cycle by Kateryna Zavoloka launched with the work "Viter" (Wind), which was dedicated to the atmospheric air. Well, and "Vedana" – this is already a dedication to water. It is quite logical to assume that the work will be performed in some, say, smooth-noise aesthetics – however, dozens of other assumptions would be logical as well. And what we have – a kind of idm on the verge of electro-rock, against the background of vast layers of sonic fog, with delicate green shoots of tasty "petty sounds", which sometimes turn into true lush thickets of this, that and every other electronic music-playing. After all, water is a very plastic, magical, universal thing. Whatever it is – steam, ice or liquid – it is always remains itself... The same is true regarding Zavoloka's music, which – and in the new album even more than before – tends to certain universality. The more, the easier it incorporates elements of various styles – absorbs, dissolves, combines, converts – and thus remains surprisingly recognizable, does not betray its native riverbed. But – it becomes lighter, more transparent, gentle... It seems that is paces now barely touching the ground. Still, perhaps it should be so with living water...
-- http://www.zavoloka.com/zavoloka_menu_review.htm
Ton skrev:Bara för det så slänger vi in sveriges bästa platta 2011
http://open.spotify.com/track/4fSq8d1N9PB1UVBRWDWCMj
A product of New York’s Tisch School of the Arts, Brooklyn singer-songwriter Lia Ices is a talent worthy of comparison to The xx. Both have roots in studied composition, with the Mercury winners first exploring their craft while at London’s Elliott School; and both now create music that is restrained and regal, all shadows and glass, fragility and ethereality.
The two are not exactly soundalikes – there’s more of the Cat Powers, St Vincents and Glassers of this world about Ices – but the trajectory they ultimately take could prove to be similar. The xx have broken the mainstream, but it took time. Grown Unknown, Ices’ second long-player and first for the Jagjaguwar label, gradually creeps into the system, slipping under the skin, infecting the blood. It might well be one of 2011’s finest sleeper hits, a record that finds its commercial stride a little down the line, perhaps courtesy of a well-placed sync (there’s potential aplenty). Time will tell. For now, it’s likely to be heard, and loved, as an individual’s special secret, an album to share only with those closest.
Where so many female vocalists fronting arrangements of shimmering synths and warm textures can become too detached from the terrestrial realm, harmonising into the ether rather than anyone’s soul, Ices’ approach is pleasingly direct. Her words are delivered clearly, and she’s not afraid to lay out her feelings for public analysis – the packaging contains sing-along-at-home lyrics. There are some predictable-enough adventures in ambiguity and commonplace metaphor, but while lines like "I’d hate to leave you while we still combine" (Ice Wine) and "Exhale your spirit poem" (Bag of Wind) are clunky on paper, they’re never anything but affecting on record.
There are deviations from the celestial template – but none so dramatic that they upset the flow of these nine songs. The hand-clapped intro to the title-track stirs thoughts of The Knife, and the bells and autoharp of After Is Always Before, combined with marching percussion, shift the mood to a rather more excitable state. But everything sits comfortably in the presented sequence, and the one guest vocalist, Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon, acts as more of a back-up singer than a duet partner on Daphne.
Like Vernon’s For Emma, Forever Ago LP, much of Grown Unknown was recorded far from the bustle of city living – in this case Rhinebeck, with a population of around 4,000. And its maker’s escape from the hubbub is perfectly captured, sonically – (basic) space explored and conveyed. An album to relax into, over weeks and months, this is one many will be coming back to whenever stress levels flit into the red.
-- http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/reviews/fz3q
For an afternoon spent escaping April gloom, head to the kaleidoscopic forests of Arborea's latest record, "Red Planet."
Buck and Shanti Curran are living the dream: co-carrying the fire, married and mutually caring for another while ever in pursuit of their shared aesthetic goals. Both contribute when moved, and stand back when appropriate. In their music, the result is inspired minimalism that has a way of lingering in the old noodle.
The cuts on the self-produced "Red Planet" generally come in one of two flavors: airy, plucked folk numbers or barren drones evoking desert landscapes. The title track is a tense version of the latter -- unrelenting and changing shape as would molasses.
Yet, if you're prepared for this focused, sometimes mournful space, Arborea cuts to the marrow.
The project enjoys an utterly unteachable gift in Shanti's weightless vocals. Her instrument is a rich and trembling bellows capable of holding gauzy pitches on clouds of air. As a result, the tunes she carries, like the lilting "Spain," are easily trustworthy and affecting.
One stunner here is the jubilant closer "A Little Time." Arborea primed the pump for catharsis with plenty of unyielding meditations, but this cut, in three loosely woven movements, allows the couple to open up the toolbox.
An urgent folky fingerpicking gives way to backward alien blips and boops, which then gives way to a campy sing-a-long stomp. At the end of the eight-plus-minute epic, Arborea having some jollies comes as a shock and delight.
Fans of jaunty pop closure should probably leave this record be. "Red Planet" leaves you lotus-flower drunk and calm, but there are very few snap-alongs. Theirs is the old-fashioned art where the reward comes only if you care to put in the work.
-- http://www.pressherald.com/life/go/arbo ... 04-21.html
Twin Falls – AKA Luke Stidson and his slowly revolving door of musical accomplices – is not yet a familiar name. But his first album Slow/Numb is a genuinely impressive statement of intent: in an understated and beautifully produced debut, there are signs that suggest his under-the-radar profile won’t stay that way for long.
The majority of the album is pitched somewhere between wistful, woozy alt-country and the broken, string-laden electronic laments of Grandaddy – although it is bookended by two fizzing, swooning, and quietly epic laments that wouldn’t sound out of place on an M83 album. The production is big and heavily instrumented, providing a deep river of melody for Stidson’s lyrics, which manage to sound simultaneously cynical and full of hope.
On the instantly hummable lead single Janie I will Only Let You Down, sweeping strings shimmy in between twinkling glockenspiels, creating a twee but undeniably beautiful song which deserves the radio play it has received from Steve Lamaq and Tom Robinson on 6 Music. If they could only see us now they’d swear we were ghosts is propelled gently along by chiming slide guitar before building to a Sparklehorse-esq crescendo – one of the album’s strongest moments. Neil Young’s moribund lullabies are not far away from the soft waltz of Every step we take in the snow. Album closer Alameda Sleepwalking is another standout track – a stumbling beat underpinning a wide-eyed, sweeping hook, and a sprinkling of 80s naivety.
The songs stand up on their own, but the real strength of the album is the meticulous, shimmering production. This transforms moments that might otherwise be more mundane into integral parts of the overall sound of the album. Its a striking debut: expect to hear a lot more about Twin Falls in the months ahead.
-- http://www.subba-cultcha.com/album-revi ... ntID=26439
When we (full disclosure) released the devastatingly gorgeous debut 7" from Austin's Sleep ∞ Over in early 2010, it was difficult to envision Stefanie Franciotti's hazy dream-pop project ever again scaling the lofty musical and emotional heights of absolute gems like "Outer Limits" and "La Rose," especially since two-thirds of the group defected shortly thereafter for reasons unknown. But on her debut full-length Forever-- largely a solo effort, with an assist from Christine Aprile of Austin's Silent Diane-- Franciotti delivers on the promise of those alternately shimmering and haunting early singles and then some, crafting a cohesive and immersive collection of spectral love songs.
Out of the haze and murk of opener "Behind Closed Doors" emerge fully-formed, utterly enveloping pop jams like "Romantic Streams" and lead single "Casual Diamond," teeming with the kind of unforgettable, heartbursting melodies that earned Franciotti all of those early Cocteau Twins and Kate Bush comparisons. These lovely, relatively straightforward numbers are interspersed with warped, beautifully ominous ambient pieces like "Porcelain Hands" and the bleak, Grouper-in-outerspace-esque "Crying Game," recalling the more free-form exploratory noise that Franciotti creates under her "psych murk" side-project Raga Chrome. She has no qualms with getting suffocatingly dark on these mood-setting soundscapes, but the eerie and occasionally harsh dissonance only serves to make the pop-focused moments on the record that much more affecting and cathartic.
The depths plunged on the aforementioned "Crying Game" set the stage for the highlight and emotional core of the record: the powerful, one-two gut-punch of "Stickers" and "Don't Poison Everything." It's here that Franciotti reaches her compositional and emotional zenith, definitively transcending any and all lazily dismissive "witch house" tags, and at the same time, cementing Forever's place as one of the most bewitching and essential albums of the year.
-- http://alteredzones.com/posts/1953/zone ... r-forever/
Sverige sluter ögonen och drömmer. Då hamnar musiken ungefär här: någonstans ute på valfritt korallrev. Sällan har ett gruppnamn illustrerat innehållet så effektivt som duon Marcus Joons och The Radio Dept-Daniels Korallreven, sällan har också ett svenskt poparv förvaltats och paketerats så kärleksfullt som på deras debutalbum. Den era som The Tough Alliance och The Embassy – med nästan rockjournalistisk precision – lade grunden för sammanfattas och uppdateras i den här dagdrömmen där Studios vågskvalpsdisco återerövrar new age-flöjten i sällskap av samoanska körer, regnskogsdub och den patenterade Radio Deptska sockervaddsreggaen. Den här så svenska genren kan knappast dras till en mer ytterlig spets.
-- http://www.svd.se/kultur/korallreven_6636954.svd
In a marked departure from Goldmund’s previous, almost entirely piano-centered albums, All Will Prosper promises to bring something new to the conceptual and stylistic table. Representing Kenniff’s ongoing fascination with the American Civil War and the distinct culture on display during that tumultuous period, the album is being marketed as a collection of 14 traditional Civil War-era folk songs, and one contemporary track ‘Asoken Farewell.’ Yes, your intuition is correct — ‘folk songs’ does, in this case, connote the use of an acoustic guitar.
The album as a whole was recorded over a period of five years, and utilized close micing techniques on both the piano and the guitar in order to bring a sense of importance to every note and every detail. Despair and the incomprehensible loss associated with the war are both themes here, but so is the unimaginable strength and perseverance that followed. Kenniff, through his music, has always had an eye toward appealing to human emotion, and what better way to do that than to have in mind one of the most devastating and life-altering events in American history.
-- http://www.tinymixtapes.com/news/goldmu ... ons-emerge
A Fool Who’ll is album number three for Melbourne’s Laura Jean, following on from 2006’s Our Swan Song and 2008’s Eden Land. There’s been a shift in sound since then; whilst Laura Jean’s folk leanings remain as strong as ever, this third release is her first non-acoustic record. She’s assembled a trio with long time collaborators Jen Sholakis and Biddy Connor, with guest appearances on the album from Grand Salvo’s Paddy Mann, ex-Architecture In Helsinki trumpet player Isobel Knowles, and many others.
Gibson SG strums open first track ‘So Happy’, with the vocals playfully dipping in and out of soft purrs and high-pitched yelps. Laura Jean’s voice is diverse, easily transitioning from delicate, soft whispers to whimsical trills and then onto mighty shrieks, often all in the same song. The biting ‘Australia’ is another example of this; it creeps along despondently (“I’m afraid to sing in my own accent, culture cringing like an adolescent”) and as the drums take a beating, the vocals rise to fiery shouts (“We come from people that broke the law, now I need a stamped piece of paper to take a piss”) only to quickly return to a smooth warble.
First single ‘Missing You’ has a melancholic beauty to the ballad, and ‘Valenteen’ is completely mesmeric. ‘Spring’ comprises a duet between Laura and Paddy Mann, which starts oh-so-delicately before the full strength of the vocals rise over the accompanying strings, triumphantly ending in some pretty impressive vocal gymnastics. ‘Marry Me’ is classical folk-pop at its prettiest, high spirited and packed full of instruments (violin, cello and clarinet in addition to the work of the trio).
‘My Song’ is charmingly child-like with its nonsensical lyrics, and is almost old fashioned sounding due to the delicate vocal melodies of Magic Silver White’s Jojo Petrina and Monica Sonand. Just as you feel you’re about to be lured into The Secret Garden, final track ‘All Along’ comes along; a much more straight forward pop song.
A Fool Who’ll succeeds in putting together nine songs which are interestingly diverse, yet all equally strong. There’s no filler, and that is something quite rare indeed. Laura Jean’s gorgeous voice and strong range is well matched by her band and their new electric approach, resulting in an album that’s both dynamic and sweet.
-- http://www.artshub.com.au/au/news-artic ... oll-185637
Ännu ett band inom den belästa halvt elektroniska indiepop som svenskar varit världsmästare på det senaste decenniet, men som inte hade varit något alls utan närstudier av engelska 80-talsförebilder? Japp.
Men det är något mer med Azure Blue. De är konsekvent ett snäpp mjukare, även i uptempolåtarna, än både förebilder och samtida kolleger: Man kan framför sig se hur skivomslagets svala vågor inte slår utan liksom mjukt lägger sig mot stranden. Och det doftar här och där av en gnutta vit 80-talssoul, till och med av The Lightning Seeds och Alphaville, vilket känns märkligt bra. Och Tobias Isaksson sjunger mjukt som om hopplösheten bär ett litet leende, eller i alla fall en acceptans: ”Tja, så här blekt blev livet och det är väl okej.” Och man blir faktiskt lite lycklig av att lyssna på det här.
OliT skrev:Mycket bra svenskt från Tobias Isaksson (tidigare Irene). "The Shore" och "Catcher in the Rye" är grymma.
Balmorhea would make the perfect score to an introspective and desperate western. In their music you can feel the wind blowing the loose, dusty earth against your cheek as the sun beats on your face. There’s also a sense of loneliness and a wild beauty in between the rising strings and storms of percussion, like this might be what you hear as you take your last breath in the open air. For a great visualization of their music, find the video for All Is Wild, All Is Silent, which was shot by filmmaker Jared Hogan (who also used the footage in his short film The Earth in the Air).
Many of the tracks which make up their latest offering, a live recording from Ghent, Belgium called Live at Sint-Elisabethkerk, are taken from All Is Wild, including “Coahuila,” “Truth,” and “November 1, 1832.” The recording’s opener, “Settler,” which also happens to open All Is Wild, is nothing short of moving. It’s a lengthy track that takes the listener through all of the peaks and troughs one would hope to expect from a track plump with emotion. And, the church where the show was recorded has such a massive, natural echo of a sound that it accents the song and the rest of the instrumental ensemble’s set divinely.
An impressive aspect of Balmorhea’s music is their use of minimalism, bringing a sense of poised and emotionally rich calmness in replace of just appeasing impatience with a wall of sound. Tracks like “To the Order of Night,” also found on Constellations, is one of the group’s most moving songs in their arsenal. The hum of the strings ebb and flow, allowing for subtle sounds like sparse piano twinkles to puncture through, which are pulled forth in this recording in sparkling clarity. The new track on Live at Sint-Elisabethkerk, “Untitled,” is up to par with their previous numbers, but leaves you wishing you were there to hear the music bounding off the stone walls of the church engulfed in sound.
-- http://austinist.com/2011/09/09/album_r ... at_sin.php
The making of a great album has everything to do with timing, and songwriter Tamara Lindeman's second release as The Weather Station was caught at just the right moment. After several unsuccessful studio sessions, Lindeman made the wise choice to put her new record in the hands of fellow Canadian songster Daniel Romano. Together, in the comfort of Romano's home studio, they worked through the songs one by one, arranged on the spot, and recorded without hesitancy. Several days passed, studio tracks completely scrapped, and All of It Was Mine was complete.
Without pressure and studio expectations, the album was given room to reveal itself naturally, finding a warmth and power within the simplicity of well written folk songs. Tamara Lindeman's intimate style breathes new life into singer-songwriter folk music. Like a conversation with a close friend, her voice speaks gently and with clarity over each track, sharing vivid stories of home and idyllic summer settings. That's not to say Daniel Romano didn't masterfully craft some great moments in production – because he most certainly did – but for the most part, minus a few stray electric guitars, snare drums, and vocal harmonies, All of It Was Mine is a collection of spontaneous, understated perfection.
-- http://www.naturalbeardy.com/2011/08/we ... -mine.html
The very best type of pop music is the kind that mixes sweetness and light with dissonance and darkness, the sort which injects a perfectly addictive harmony with something sadder, stranger. Think of the gloomy melodrama of “Tell Laura I Love Her”, which kickstarted the “teenage tragedy song” craze in the 60’s, the bleak farewell of “Seasons In the Sun” in the 70’s, even The Smiths’ “Girlfriend in a Coma” in the 80’s – all meltingly beautiful melodies with something considerably darker lurking at its heart; the black cloud on a summer’s day; the bruise on a perfect face. It is a long and storied lineage, and one which London four-piece Veronica Falls are quite happy fitting into. “We love bands like Beat Happening, Velvet Underground, Galaxie 500 and Felt, but we also love over-emotionalism”, says drummer Patrick Doyle. “We all originally bonded over the sinister sides to love songs from the 50’s and 60’s”.
Welcome to the slanted and enchanted world of Veronica Falls, where serendipity, subversion, providence, and a shared love for Roky Erickson’s worldview all have a crucial part to play. Initially forming two years ago when Doyle and Roxanne Clifford (guitars, vocals) moved to London from Glasgow and met James Hoare (also on guitars and vocals) through mutual friends, the band ended up in a friend’s studio in Hoxton, where free downtime enabled them to develop songs at their leisure. From then on, the band have undoubtedly had a charmed existence. How else to explain how they ended up playing their first ever show with critically lauded indie rockers Pains of Being Pure at Heart, or, indeed, how they recruited bassist Marion Herbain, who was a friend from Glasgow who only learnt to play the bass when she was asked to join the band
It is this lucky streak which also saw them being snapped up by Mike Sniper, the head of revered New York label Captured Tracks, a scant 10 minutes after they put their MySpace page up. “He got in touch with us so we thought why not”, Hoare recalls. “We liked a few bands on his label so that helped too”. Doyle agrees: “It felt like a natural home for our first single”. The single in question, “Found Love In a Graveyard”, is a singalong slice of deliciously morbid pop, the breezy harmonies and chant-along choruses slyly belying the off-kilter undercurrent of falling in love with a ghost, and neatly set the tone for what was to follow – instantly addictive pop songs streaked with shades of grey. Subsequent singles on tastemaking labels such as No Pain in Pop and Trouble Records cemented their arrival on the music scene, winning plaudits from the likes of Clash, NME, Stool Pigeon and Loud and Quiet, among others.
A series of live shows through Europe and the US, including a fondly remembered SXSW stint this year (“We played one show outside a family run bike shop in the car park in the blazing sun which was a definite highlight”, Hoare says) have punctuated the recording of their debut album, which originally began as a “doomed residency at a studio in Yorkshire” where they locked themselves away for two weeks in deepest, darkest winter with little contact with the outside world, before the band scrapped the sessions entirely to re-record the songs in 3 days in London. “The previous session ultimately sounded overproduced”, Hoare explains. “We ended up recording live, and it was this old fashioned method which captured the sound and feel of the band more accurately”.
The resultant record is one which nails the band’s quietly dissident colours firmly and vividly to the mast. Fans may already be familiar with the likes of “Graveyard” and the galloping Dick Dale meets Nico surf rocker “Beachy Head” (an ode, naturally, to the infamous suicide hotspot), but also present and correct is an expanded sound and emotional palette only hinted at in the past – albeit one which is always grounded in the shadows . “Right Side Of My Brain” is a snarling and vicious beast, all sharp hooks and barbed wire, while “The Fountain” is more gloriously morose yet achingly beautiful pop, with these duelling contrasts reaching its gorgeous epitome on the astonishing “Misery”, as Clifford sings, “Misery/ It’s got a hold of me/ misery/ my old friend” while, all around her, melting harmonies and chiming guitars ring out, before ending abruptly in an eerie verse sung entirely acapella. Elsewhere, the brightly scrubbed “Stephen” may be one of the most touching declarations of friendship ever, while “The Box” is a bona fide indie anthem in the making. Finally, “Come On Over” makes for a poignant album closer, with its simple yet affecting refrain of “Hey, it’s getting colder/ come on over/ until the summer/ until we’re older”. With their debut album, Veronica Falls have crafted a brilliantly concise, superbly concentrated hit of spiky, marvellously contagious indie pop with a twist – these are songs which will lodge themselves in your head as well as your heart, with style and attitude to burn. Not that the band are content to rest on their laurels – they’re already starting work on a second album, which they say has them more excited than anything else right now. If it is anything like this album, we have a lot of reason to get excited as well.
-- http://www.bellaunion.com/index.php/site/artists/
Ethereal melancholia: sluggish anti-speed delirium, warped in a baritone, empyrean wonderland of instrumental, Scandinavian simplicity. That is Danish-band ‘Chimes & Bells’: a twisted liquorish all-sort of ‘Flashy Python’ meets ‘The XX’, where even the euphemisms dark-chocolate or espresso-black pale in comparison to its pessimistic undercurrent of complete and utter darkness. ‘Interpol’, eat your heart out.
With my insatiable hankering for something bluesy surprisingly satisfied, I return to Highly Evolved after nearly a month of soul-searching midst assignments with an album I just can’t seem to put down. Their official, self-titled debut emerges after their critically acclaimed EP, “Into Pieces Of Wood”, successfully released ‘09 to ever-growing recognition and positive-reception. Debut-comparisons are the likes of ‘Tame Impala’ (“Innerspeaker“), with a refined calibre of uncategorical style and technique. While the overused tag of indie fails to encompass even the slightest margin of ‘Chimes & Bells’, it is similarly rash to singularly suggest either alternative, rock or even post-rock in its place. For at times, it will be all of these things, and then none of these things; a mixture of conflicting acoustical/electrical instrumentation – guitar, percussion, synth, saxophone and string are only the beginning. To listen is to shoegaze: drift across the room as a ghostly astral projection pinned helplessly against the wall. Those optimists still teddy-hugging their pillows to sleep best turn away, for ‘Chimes & Bells’ is anything but happy…
Cæcilie Trier, twenty-six-year-old Danish multi-instrumentalist, is the architect behind ‘Chimes & Bells’, previously a part of such bands as ‘Le Fiasko’ and ‘Choir Of Young Believers’. Spearheading vocals, Trier is like an antimatter Florence Welsh from “Florence + The Machine”. A ten-piece band in all, consisting of: Hans Emil Hansen, Jeppe Brix Sørensen, Silas Tinglef Hageman, Jannis Noya Makrigiannis, Jaleh Negari, Jakob Falgren, Jeppe Skjold, Sonja LaBianca and Maja Zander.
Just shy of the forty-minute mark, “Chimes & Bells” is teasingly short, but nevertheless enjoyable – without distasteful fillers. Instead, a rather filling eight-track listing averaging around four- to six-minutes each. Whether it’s the minimalistic approach towards instrumental-coupling, guitar and saxophone, percussion and guitar, or simply Trier herself with everything else conspiring together in unity, nothing seems overdone, outdrawn or oversimplified.
The tracks resemble melodramatic sludge, oozing and ebbing with tidal angst and malevolent undertones; where pace seems underdog to gargantuan displays of exhaustive lethargy. The dominance of Trier on vocals, in tandem with an almost unyielding combination of guitar-percussion duets, manifest throughout the album in one form or another. Lyrically, words are predominantly distorted in a thick haze of synth, while vocals are resonantly-airy. Its bluesy-jazzy atmosphere reeks of solitude, of late-night wanderings through the underground, a manifesto of the shadow. While their unique flavour remains unvarying within each song – enough to allow a casual bleed from one track to the next seamlessly – it is not enough to impact on their individuality. And being characteristically monotone in effect, crescendos are rounded to the consistency of a dull roar.
“The Mole” opens for “Chimes & Bells” with a relatively hushed beginning, reduced to the skeletal bonds between Trier, the solo hum of an impending synth-scape and the occasional sound of glass bells tolling. The introduction of string conforms the urgency within the vocals into an understated crescendo where everything else just sort of tumbles into place at 1:52. The electro-acoustical harmonies flow effortlessly together, bleeding out and into “Reasons”, where the ethnic, Asian-qualities of a mandolin help to offset Trier in a sort of role-reversing lead. When drum-kit percussion appears at 2:02, the track peaks slightly – and like “The Mole”, everything just eases into place without much need for an explosion. Then this couplet ends, dying away in place of “The Dot” which starts this elegant process all over again.
Tracks like “This Far” and “Do The Right” feature dominating guitar riffs in a simplistic style akin to ‘Interpol’ – their integrity is held together through tidy riffs altering scale but not form. Solos are in turn sacrificed for this repetitive order, and instead act like keynotes or signifiers for ease of recognisability. This same attribute is then turned on its head, following the end of “Do The Right” where saxophones play off one another leading up to “Pool”, where the guitar dominates in a particularly beautiful solo, descending through an effortless string of notes.
“Lashes”, finale for “Chimes & Bells”, is similarly timid and withdrawn in nature. Trier features more explicitly, surrounded less-so by her instruments during speech than previous, which are left to reinforce her breaks. Its miniature crescendos are really the only place where they combine more avidly. But it isn’t enough to look at this track as an ending for “Chimes & Bells” – because of its tracks’ (overall) well-rounded construction – any one of them could be a beginning, and just the same, an end.
What frightens me the most is that this astoundingly brilliant debut had the potential to slip through my fingers unnoticed; I just happened to stumble upon it by accident. And while I wish there was more that “Chimes & Bells” could offer, I write this review wholeheartedly satisfied because of its rewarding impact. I cannot underline its faults, but I think I’ve boot-licked it enough. It is simply epic…
-- http://highlyevolvedau.wordpress.com/20 ... mes-bells/
Koffe skrev:Vänner,
Nu var det länge sedan jag skrev i den här tråden. Mycket ursäkt. Jag skall försöka kompensera.
Jag börjar med en av min absoluta favoritskivor just nu. Genialisk. Brutalt vacker. Om alla skivor vore så här bra så vore världen en bättre plats.
Designed to be intentionally played at random, "The Spectrum of Distraction" is 96 tracks spanning a vast array of genres, creating a completely unique yet rewarding listen each time. Baker solicited drum tracks from 18 different drummers (including current and former members of SWANS, THE JESUS LIZARD, SLOWDIVE, KILLING JOKE, GODFLESH, JESU and more) which he then crafted instrumental work atop of.
In regards to constructing the album, Baker said,
"Originally I was going to stick pretty strictly to Zappa's 'xenochrony' idea of randomly putting pieces of instruments together, so that the drums, bass, and guitar would be recorded separately and then pieced together to see what came out. In the end, because of some different times and textures, instead of taking individual drum loops, I just used the entire track and recorded to everything I got."
Six hours of material was the result, of which Baker then pieced down to two hours across the pair of discs. Thematically complimented by a "Choose Your Own Adventure" style layout, an extended session of the full recordings is also included as an digital download card.
With organizing the playback of the release, Baker had the following to say:
"I structured it so that it would be a different listen every time... A couple of people that I sent it to ... let it shuffle between the two separate discs and not just the one disc. That's yet another possibility... They can listen to it as sequenced if they want, too. I set it up to have some kind of flow that way, but it's up to the listener, really. "
-- http://roboticempirenews.blogspot.com/2 ... nuary.html
Vantzou will be known to some for being within the Kranky and Sparklehorse fraternities, connected with Adam Wiltzie via their collaboration 'The Dead Texan' (also releasing on Kranky) and more recently through creating the cover art for Wiltzie's work with Dustin O'Halloran as 'A Winged Victory for the Sullen'. Three years in the making, No.1 has more akin with Stars of the Lid, or Brian McBrides' The Effective Disconnect than Winged Victory, if we were to make comparisons. The wider spread of instrumentation makes for a less intimate, more cinematic feel but no less emotionally intense. Fans of Kyle Bobby Dunn also will find much hear to fall in love with.
The first moments of opener 'Homemade Mountains' (which was available ahead of release) sets the album off in a beautifully considered stasis, 'Prelude for Juan' however steps out of this mould, boldly incorporating an uneasiness that disallows us from simply letting the music pass us by. Rendered with strings, lonely horns, clarinets and hollow grating synthesisers; cavernous noise evolves with a seismic churning, like slate grey seas, broken only by the white crests of the waves.
Super Interlude Pt1 provides an [almost] solo horn introduction to its second part, before the charmingly delicate 'Small Choir' creates its warming ambience - its nice to hear the bass end used so well to deliver a well rounded sound. 'And Instantly Take Effect' segues between notes, string noises adding atmosphere, a rush of wind. All becomes clear - Vantzou channels the gentleness and power of nature through these pieces. - the majesty of the sea, richness of autumn colours, and locates us within the real world. Before we know it Joggers is playing, ending the album.
Full of expansive string swells that will render the heart both still and moved. Moments of clarity emerge from mists of feelings of being lost. Vantzou knows how to create beautiful harmonies by dovetailing phrases into each other; be that singular notes/drones or slow melodies. The production on the instruments is left for the most part open, allowing the richness to build and embody the emotion. If ever there was an album to soundtrack Autumn, this is it.
-- http://www.futuresequence.com/article/c ... tzou-no-1/
shifts skrev:Mark van Hoen - The Revenant Diary (Editions Mego)
For their first album, Unison members Julien Camarena and Melanie Moran have conjured up a highly unique music, made of dark layered sounds that pulsate their way through waking dreams. They have hit a strange and powerful sonic vein that connects them to a secret place deep in France's electrified soul. Unrelenting beats and waves of guitar tracks by Camarena are met by the siren-like voice of Moran, irresistably calling out from this haunted whirlwind.
-- http://lentonia.com/shop.html
A Pennsylvanian by birth, Keith Kenniff is best known as the brains behind dulcet ambient / electronic practitioners Helios, and the fingers on the ivories of post-classical piano minimalists Goldmund (whose music was once described by Ryuichi Sakamoto as “so, so, so beautiful”).
Keith’s music has been used on the soundtrack to Harmony Korine’s 2007 comedy-drama ‘Mister Lonely’ and on the trailer for the 2009 Academy Award-nominated ‘Revolutionary Road’, directed by Sam Mendes.
‘Branches’ sounds like a journey that ebbs and flows through a wondrous forest, accelerating and slowing up to reveal beauty in all its little nooks and crannies.
The album is a haunting and beautiful work that will appeal to fans of Max Richter, Jóhann Jóhannsson, Nils Frahm and Hauschka.
-- http://www.piccadillyrecords.com/produc ... 80801.html
The shimmering sound of Sharon Van Etten's Jagjaguwar debut album, Tramp, both defies and illuminates the unsteadiness of a life in flux. Throughout the 14 months of scattered recording sessions, Van Etten was without a home -- crashing with friends and storing her possessions between varied locations. The only constant in Van Etten's life during this time was spent in Aaron Dessner's garage studio.
A two year journey brought her to that point of instability. Upon the release of epic (Ba Da Bing; 2010), Sharon Van Etten surprised the music world with a touching embrace. Having established herself as a reliable performer around New York, and coming off the release of her spartan first effort, Because I Was In Love (Language of Stone; 2009), Van Etten created a short album of diverse songs connected by a shared goal of expanded sound and her unmistakable voice. Fans quickly picked favorites, discovered their choices changing, then changing yet again. That is the magic of epic; the intricate, understated record covered so much ground within its 33 minutes, it required more than an initial half hour to absorb. Since epic's release, she has opened the Pitchfork Music Festival, played The Hollywood Bowl with Neko Case and at Radio City Music Hall with The Antlers, sung on new records for Beirut and Ed Askew, and collaborated with Bon Iver's Justin Vernon and Megafaun on the Songs Of The South project.
Dessner, a member of The National, heard Van Etten early on, and in collaboration with Justin Vernon, performed a cover of "Love More" at the 2010 MusicNow Festival in Cincinnati. Van Etten heard about this and contacted him. Almost immediately they formed plans to work together, with Dessner offering both a location for Van Etten to record new songs, as well as the opinions of a wise producer.
Now, one year later, Van Etten unveils Tramp, an album showcasing an artist in full control of her powers. Tramp contains as much striking rock (the precise venom of "Serpents," the overwhelming power of "Ask"), as pious, minimal beauty (the earnest solemnity of "All I Can," the breathtaking "Kevins," "Joke or a Lie"); it can be as emotionally combative ("Give Out") as it can sultry ("Magic Chords"). Contributions from Matt Barrick (Walkmen), Thomas Bartlett (Doveman), Zach Condon (Beirut), Jenn Wasner (Wye Oak), Julianna Barwick, and Dessner himself add a glowing sheen to the already substantial offering.
Van Etten has traveled far, and if her displacement took an emotional toll, she offset those setbacks with a powerfully articulated vision. And so, once again, each listener will discover their own moments along the way, and the debates as to the best song start anew.
-- http://jagjaguwar.com/onesheet.php?cat=JAG201
Sleigh Bells arrived fully formed with blunt rock riffs, crunk beats, and airy, feminine vocals. Their debut, Treats, may be the first record to fetishize the negative consequences of the Loudness War, with guitarist and producer Derek E. Miller pushing an already bombastic sound to absurd extremes by deliberately narrowing the music's dynamic range to the point of clipping even at moderate volumes. Treats owes its greatness to its simple, direct hooks, but the band's overly hot recordings were also thrilling in that they tapped into our positive associations with cranking stereos up to the maximum volume because we loved what we were hearing.
Sleigh Bells' second album, Reign of Terror, is plenty loud, but it doesn't rely on this volume trick. Instead, the duo emphasizes the delicate elements of their sound that mostly got crowded out in the midrange of Treats' speaker-melting din. Alexis Krauss, the former teen-pop singer turned punk-rock badass, is foregrounded throughout the record, and her roots in Clinton-era bubblegum are more fully integrated with Miller's heavy riffing. The beats are less indebted to hip-hop this time around and the guitar parts have gone full-on metal, alternating between elemental AC/DC-like hooks and late-80s harmonics.
Reign of Terror is a brash, hyperactive set of songs, but Miller and Krauss' synthesis of disparate strands is exceptionally graceful, with traditionally macho and girly sounds flowing together seamlessly in dynamic, often ecstatic pop tunes. They refine their take on girl-group pop and cheerleader chants on "Leader of the Pack" and "Crush", and set shoegazer swooning to machine-gun drum fills on "Born to Lose". More impressively, Krauss' melodies somersault over Miller's waves of alt-rock buzz guitar and colorful keyboards on "Comeback Kid", and they fully commit to the gentle, sentimental melodies of "End of the Line" without compromising their noisy aesthetic. "You Lost Me", one of three consecutive songs that lean hard on metal harmonics at the end of the set, is straight-up gorgeous, with layers of clean notes, slow-motion drones, and breathy coos building to a headbanging catharsis.
Sleigh Bells pull off this more sophisticated and nuanced approach without calling attention to their improved craft or maturity. They remain obsessed with overwhelming their audience with excitement and pleasure, and their heaviest moments on Reign of Terror eclipse those on Treats. "Demons", the record's fist-pumping centerpiece, is an adrenaline rush sustained over three minutes, with Krauss affecting her most sinister tone above an overpowering riff straight out of the (original) "Beavis and Butt-Head" series. Miller has mastered the big dumb riff, but his arrangements are full of subtle touches that embellish and reinforce the bludgeoning attack of his chords. All through Reign of Terror, he and Krauss hit upon an ideal balance of texture and simplicity, expanding on their basic formula without losing any of their direct, unfussy charm.
The band makes such incredibly physical music that the lyrics would seem to be beside the point, but it's notable that so many songs on both records are fixated on winning and losing. This isn't a surprise, really-- given the triumphant sound of this music, what else would you want to sing over it? Krauss often sings from the perspective of a supportive confidant, offering a sweet pep talk on "Comeback Kid", or empathizing with a friend's suicidal thoughts on "Born to Lose". She spends a good chunk of Reign of Terror dwelling on the aftermath of violence and tragedy, seeking out ways of coping, moving on, and thriving despite the chaos. Themes of suicide pop up throughout the album, climaxing with "You Lost Me", which seems to be at least partly inspired by a pair of Nevada teens who attempted suicide while listening to Judas Priest in 1985. (One survived and their parents famously sued the band.) Krauss avoids moralizing on the subject, opting instead to project understanding and concern. In a small way, her approach is refreshing and subversive-- this sort of aggressive, over-the-top rock is traditionally a vehicle for narcissism, but she invests this music with kind-hearted concern for others.
-- http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/162 ... of-terror/
Welcome to Maraqopa, population 2. Damien Jurado's newest collaboration with producer Richard Swift drops us into a brutal and benevolent landscape. The bold strokes and new turns the pair made with 2010's Saint Bartlett are taken even further. He throws open the gate on his oft insular dirges and allows them do some real wilding out in the canyon. In Maraqopa, the vistas are miles-wide; the action is more dynamic; the close-ups sweaty and snarling. The strummed desert blues that begin "Nothing is the News" quickly bursts open into an Eddie Hazel-worthy supernova shred session, all of it swirling in tinny-psych and Echoplex'd howls. We've never heard anything like this from Jurado. Fifteen years into his remarkable career, and he continues to blossom. Jurado and Swift establish themselves not only as inventive, trusting collaborators, but as one another's spirit animals in American outsider songcraft --lone wolves in black sheep's clothing. Swift is the Ennio Morricone to Jurado's Sergio Leone.
At Swift's National Freedom studios, the live-to-tape ethos allowed these songs to expand and retract like a great beast's breath. Every in-the-moment bell and whistle here is hung with a natural, casual care. And from this, each song offers up its own unique gift: the enchanting children's choir that echoes each line of Jurado's lament for innocence lost on "Life Away from the Garden"; the breezy bossa nova that begins "This Time Next Year" and rises as effortless as a smoke cloud into high-noon showdown pop; "Reel to Reel"'s wobbly, Spector-symphony and its meta themes; the wonderful falsetto vocal work Jurado pulls from himself on "Museum of Flight." The Seattle Times recently called Jurado "Seattle's folk-boom godfather," a praising recognition to be sure. But also a title Jurado might not yet be ready to accept. That's a title for someone who has settled. With each visit to National Freedom, Jurado is exploring, taking risks. He's not only freeing his songs. The gate is opened wide to allow us all into his once-isolated musical universe. One gets the sense he's just now hitting his stride.
-- http://secretlycanadian.com/onesheet.php?cat=SC250
Perfume Genius is Mike Hadreas, a Seattle songwriter whose jarring 2010 debut album, Learning, was called “an album of rare, redemptive beauty…one of the most uniquely endearing and quietly forceful debut albums of recent years” by Drowned In Sound, and established him as one of the most singular songwriters today. The bulk of Learning sprung from a time of self-imposed isolation in his mother’s suburban home following a period of trauma and self-destruction. The album was actually mastered from second-generation MP3s, as Hadreas had lost the original recordings, and this distant, abraded sound reinforced its harrowing tales and haunting melodies.
“No secret/No matter how nasty/Can poison your voice/Or keep you from joy.” – Perfume Genius, “Normal Song”
Though Learning’s voyeuristic window into Hadreas’s experiences resonated intensely with many people, his new album Put Your Back N 2 It is much more universal, addressing intimacy, power, family, secrecy, and hope not just through his impressionistic lyrics, but the music itself, which is as lush as Learning was stark. It’s a gorgeous soundtrack for anyone trying to keep it together in everyday life, and about moving forward. “I don’t want it to seem like I’ve been through more than other people,” Hadreas says. “Everyone has stuff. Staying healthy can be more depressing and confusing than being fucked up. But I want to make music that’s honest and hopeful.” The hypnotic songs on Put Your Back N 2 It are tender and moving, but they are also surreal and grand, recalling at times the universality of lullabies and hymns, faraway folk songs, the dramatic arc of a film score, and the almost spiritual quality suggests a kind of opiated gospel. He cites as a primary influence not one of the indie icons to which he’s sometimes compared (Cat Power, Bon Iver, Thom Yorke), but The Innocence Mission (“not their sound, but their timelessness”).
-- http://store.matadorrecords.com/put-your-back-n-2-it
zidanefromhell skrev:Tänkte precis tipsa om den skivan!
The always intriguing Ryan Teague follows up last year's Causeway with a delightful album of short compositions that place heavy emphasis on the percussion section. Most tracks on Field Drawings come in under the two minute mark, but this concise format works in Teague's favor; the album is fast-paced, and Teague's compositions ensure that no idea is overspent and each track optimizes its time spent with the listener. The combination of piano, bells, plucked strings, and an assortment of idiophones may remind some listeners of the work of múm (sans vocals), Detektivbyrån (sans accordion), Efterklang (sans a cast of collaborators), or some other Scandinavian magical elf-folk band, the main difference being Teague's tendency to avoid languidness and the album's serious nature, as well as its focus on sprightly music. Field Drawings gets a lot of mileage out of this singular approach, and, considering the repetition present in each individual track, one can only applaud Teague's compositional prowess in forging an album that is much, much greater than a sum of its parts. Once again, Ryan Teague demonstrates that simplicity in approach can often trump the most complex musical projects.
-- http://thesilentballet.com/reviews/2012 ... d-drawings
Home studio recordings can be quite charming: the notion of a man left alone with his creativity, manipulating divergent sounds without restrictions. But with that independence comes a possible downside. The drums may be a little off. Or there’s a persistent hiss you just can’t ignore. Perhaps the mix is somewhat dim. Still, the freedom of making music in the basement works for an artist like Mauro Remiddi, a former member of the band Sunny Day Sets Fire, now recording under the name Porcelain Raft. His brand of fidgety synth-pop sits somewhere between 1990s George Michael and M83: a stomping display of inaudible vocals and restless rhythms.
On his proper solo debut, Strange Weekend, Remiddi builds upon the foundation of his independently released Porcelain Raft work; except this recording, captured in a New York basement, is glossier and more focused than his previous collections. Just five months ago, the Fountain’s Head EP provided a brief glimpse into his withdrawn shoegazing aesthetic, even if the finished product felt somewhat unfinished. On the track Everything From Your Hands, for instance, his falsetto shimmered – and eventually cracked – atop an acoustic guitar melody. But while that set found the artist searching for his creative voice, Strange Weekend is a streamlined affirmation benefitting from a visceral approach. Here, the Porcelain Raft sound writhes with urgency, merging an isolated side with cleaner instrumentals.
On Shapeless & Gone, for example, Remiddi sings like a veteran John Lennon over a bouncy array of echoed drum drips and muffled strings. If You Have a Wish is an airy blend of sputtering thumps, the central voice drifting softly through the melody. At certain points during this efficient 34-minute recording, Remiddi disappears into the music, his ambient voice becoming another instrument in his self-effacing dance mixture. Perhaps, though, Strange Weekend needed seamless transitions between songs, as the awkward spaces disrupt the continuity and stall this album’s momentum. Nonetheless, this is an impressive debut and a solid step toward a more realised identity. There’s something soulful in the cellar.
-- http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/reviews/28pn
If the geographical location that the band call home and the music that they generate is a perfect fit, does it enhance your experience when listening to them? Perhaps it’s just our stereotyping of people from cities and countries that clouds our view, but would The Beatles have been the same if they’d come from Southampton, instead of that well-known northern city of chipper, fast and loose Scousers? Would Radiohead seem the same if they were associated with Birmingham, instead of the quaint and intellectual city of Oxford? Does the home of the band influence the music? With today’s new solo artist we seem to have on show the effect that an environment can have on their output.
Low Roar is the brand new project from a remarkable song writer, Ryan Karazija, who used to call San Francisco, California home. Whilst in the US you may have known him as the singer for the band Audrye Sessions, who managed the mighty task of giving over their signatures to the Sony BMG sub-label, Black Seal. They had attempts at EPs and albums, but seemed to receive mixed reviews at best, eventually causing Ryan to re-assess. He made the brave decision to up sticks and move to Reykjavik, Iceland, and it’s here that his sound seems to have discovered it’s Cinderella moment – this new shoe is a perfect fit.
Maybe it’s the harsh, long winters, or the rocky vistas, or the spring waters, but something rather incredible has infused into his new music. Now recording as Low Roar and setting up for the release of his self-titled debut album – out on Tonequake Records on November 1st – which introduces us to an artist that’s searched his soul and found something so beautiful it simply has to be held up for the world to see. There’s a thousand pretenders that think they can write this kind of music because they believe that they’re clever and introverted, but most of them don’t have the depth of talent required, normally producing bland and self-absorbed results, but this guy is different. We haven’t heard this style of emotional, personal songcraft delivered to these exceptional standards since Bright Eyes.
Just like fellow Icelanders, Sigur Ros, he matches timelessness with the cinematic, beauty and uplift with pain and harrowing melody. His vocals slip over the key changes and play your heartstrings like a royal quartet, much in the same way Thom Yorke did in Numb or Street Spirit (Fade Out). Ryan is an expert in creating fluid songs, full of tears that well up as the tracks build, before the flood gates open. By the end of the album you will feel in an utterly different emotional place from where you started. Only a lobotomy could hold back the effect that this masterful piece of work has on your emotions. At no point does the album feel lethargic or pedestrian, rather it’s more intelligent and wide open. This is music’s equivalent of a snowflake – ice cold and drifting alone, but delicate, momentary and designed to perfection.
As the winter months kick in this album will feel like it’s soundtracking the changing seasons. Whether it’s the folk structures found in the tune, Friends Make Garbage, Good Friends Take It Out, or the strings and rhythms that go on one long crescendo in Tonight, Tonight, Tonight, his skill and ability pulses throughout the LP. What seems on the surface like a bleak, melancholic album turns out to be something of a tale of hope, as what we might just see occurring here is a man that’s finally discovered his masterpiece by moving to a country that’s allowed some serious introspection. The outside has allowed him to discover what was inside all along. After all, the one thing that’s buried deep inside us all, out of view, is our hearts. This discovery shouldn’t depict Iceland as a dark, rocky, icy, remote outcrop, but actually as a place where the people are warmer than you think. Perhaps it’s not the external environment that matters, but actually what is found inside that truly counts.
-- http://therecommender.net/2011/10/14/low-roar/
So you’re a freak. You’re a queer in a world full of right-wing lunatics and jocks who want you to die. You recoil in horror at the exploitation, destruction, macho war mongering, sexism and racism which exist all around you. Bad things have happened to your friends and family. You were bullied at school. You have self-esteem issues. You are a musical genius. What do you do? In the case of Xiu Xiu’s principle songwriter Jamie Stewart, you put your bleeding heart on your sleeve, set it alight to music and watch it burn.
The broad Xiu Xiu agenda is set out on the first track and first single off Always, ‘Hi’: “If you’re wasting your life, say hi/If you are alone tonight, say hi/If you wish you should die, say hi-hi, hi-hi”. It’s a call to arms for lonely fuck ups, fuelled by amphetamine beats. It gets more creative in warped imagery as it continues (“If you have poked out your eyes say hi/If when you open your arms Ferdinand gores you in the chest”), and eats itself at the climax.
There is a musical and lyrical fearlessness to Jamie Stewart’s creations which make Xiu Xiu’s music a thousand times more effective than the music of most people with guitars and synths and low self-esteem. Musically Xiu Xiu blend post punk, techno, synth pop, choral music and classical, never going easy on the percussion. They are not self-obsessed. Stewart casts his eye far wider than the sphere of his own personal misery. Not atypical harrowing Xiu Xiu subject matter is found in ‘Gul Mudin’, a song about a teenage Afghani boy murdered for sport by American soldiers. In this track Stewart’s vocals sound like a drunken opera singer caught in an electronica gunfight. Which is amazing by the way.
The provocatively titled ‘I Luv Abortion’ is probably the most unsettling track on the album but nonetheless utterly compelling as Stewart screams wildly, “There are too many things I cannot be for youuuuu… When I look at my thighs I see death/When I look at my thighs I see death”. The music gets more off beat, disturbing and complex, with techno beats, brass and the barking of dogs creating nightmarish imagery that it’s hard switch off. Definitely not one to listen to before you go to the clinic, but still recounting someone’s experience of abortion as a personal one and therefore not the business of right wing pro-life crazies.
In the duet ‘Honeysuckle’ Angela Seo’s vocal provides a perfect contrast to Stewart’s bruised melodramatic voice. In comparison Seo’s vocals sound almost blank and emotionless, yet still subtly fractured and damaged. The combination could break your heart. The tune is upbeat, breezy and melodic, but the lyrics are embedded with despair. It could be sung from a hospital bed on the edge of breakdown: “They have told you you’ve been lucky but nothing has changed”. And yet there’s something empowered-sounding about the way the pair sing, "I’m gonna lie back down and ask for nothing" as though this is a form of resistance. On ‘Smear the Queen’ Xiu Xiu turn their attention to a horrific gay bashing: “Throw your arms around my throat/A brick in the small of my back/Smear the queen/They bashed his teeth in/Held his throat till he passed out”, but in its unhinged musical wildness the song sounds like life itself.
What Xiu Xiu demonstrate throughout Always, is the way in which they can lay down so starkly how terrible life can be and how fucked up one can feel and create something amazing, angry, political, fierce and defiant out of all of it.
But I do believe that Xiu Xiu are like marmite and there is a school of thought that will always regard them as being too angsty, self-indulgent and relentless. The other school is demonstrated on the cover of Always, they are the ones who get the name of the band tattooed onto their skin. OK, maybe I’m being a bit too black and white, but if I have to choose I’ll be out back with some ink and a needle.
-- http://drownedinsound.com/releases/1683 ... ws/4144534
A genre rife with hollow oversaturation, instrumental rock runs the risk of sounding either stunningly frank or wantonly pretentious. On Toward The Low Sun, Aussie post-rockers Dirty Three have yet again achieved a beautiful post-rock sound both ingenuously carefree and wisely tempered, an impressive feat this far into their careers.
Painting with their usual diverse palette of folk harmonies and jazz grooves, the Melbourne trio continue to show that they’re not afraid to add a little noise to their canvas. Jim White, Mick Turner, and Warren Ellis play with a focused spontaneity akin to Do Make Say Think, as on tumultuous opener “Furnace Skies”, an aptly-titled prog-rock storm similar to what defined the group in their earlier days. However, as Toward The Low Sun evolves, these clouds constantly part, making room for welcome warmth.
Dirty Three have worked with a diverse list of artists, including Cat Power, Nick Cave, and Low, and their gritty blues mixes well with a baroque serenity. The harder post-rockers such as “That Was Was”, featuring feedback-driven chords from Turner and buzzing violin trills from Ellis, complement the more fragile moments found in “Rain Song” and the romantic “Moon On The Land”. Still, possessing the restraint to know the difference between ruminating and sulking is key, and Dirty Three lace even their minor-key progressions with a lightness and encouraging demeanor. The accessible track lengths only strengthen earthy compositions such as “Ashen Snow” and “Rising Below”, which house their own emotional paths and unfurling dynamics.
Toward The Low Sun may not be as raw or brooding as releases like 1998’s Ocean Songs, but it’s just as thoughtful and redolent of both location and mood.
-- http://consequenceofsound.net/2012/02/a ... e-low-sun/
There is a powerful harmony in Grimes. It is a project which is both musical and visual, embodying the arts of 2D, performance, dance, video and sound. Claire Boucher weaves these together to a strong rhythmic effect, “the marriage between the voice of a human and the heartbeat of a machine” [Bullett Magazine].
Boucher, born in Vancouver, Canada, came to Montreal in 2006. Her experience as a performer is deeply embedded in the illegal DIY loft culture of Montreal, where Grimes was one of the prominent figures in the scene surrounding Lab Synthèse – a 4600sq ft re-appropriated textile factory. She developed in a scene where punk ethos and pop music collide, resulting in a distinct sense of community, religiosity and psychedelic revelry.
Visions arises as Boucher’s fourth release in less than two years. Geidi Primes (2010), initially released as a limited 30 cassette run and free download, then followed by Halfaxa (2010) – arguably one of the first witch-house or lo-fi R&B releases. On Darkbloom (2011), Grimes begins taking her first steps as a producer, bringing together the experimentation behind her early work and a cutting edge pop aesthetic.
Each album tackles a different set of influences and styles. Her newest album, Visions, incorporates influences as wide as Enya, TLC and Aphex Twin, drawing from genres like New Jack Swing, IDM, New Age, K-pop, Industrial and glitch. This approach has marked Grimes as a curator of culture, and allowed the project to remain flexible and evolving.
A phantasmic state for the deep listener, sourcing the long forgotten spells running alongside humans for centuries and forcing them through a hyper-futuristic filter. Compositional and vocal delivery are coloured with an emotional trauma. Despite a generally upbeat demeanour, an urgency permeates the music. Calling us between our history and the future it uses the pleasure of minimal rhythms and dance to entice, but beyond its rich, software-sculpted cohesiveness, and vocal energy, runs a very real and odd world.
She describes her work as “the only means through which I can be fully expressive. It is both an ethereal escape from, and a violent embrace of my experience. The creative process is a quest for the ultimate sensual, mystical and cathartic experience and the vehicle for my psychic purging. Visions was conceived in a period of self-imposed cloistering during which time I did not see day-light. ”
-- http://www.arbutusrecords.com/?page_id=21
Last year’s North Dorm EP by Nathan Broaddus (a.k.a. Evenings) was one of the year’s most solid and enjoyable listens in the electronic music scene or otherwise. Despite having only released that EP and a pair of loose singles (including the TK-premiered “Beta Thought“) Broaddus demonstrated a “knack for creating evocative melodies using beautifully textured tones and clever, interesting rhythms that warmly envelope the listener.” The impression it left with me was sufficient to make today’s release of his first full-length record, Lately, an event. Like it’s predecessor, Lately is exquisitely evocative, thoughtful and well-arranged. Again, Broaddus takes care to tease out small pleasures reveling in a rainy monsoon of textures and tones. It’s nimble and meditative, and as a result of the sequencing and song-structures, it has a naturally steady ebb and flow like an active tide rising and falling along a sandy beach.
Written while Broaddus was living in France, Lately reveals an uncanny ability to sonically simulate the wide-eyed excitement of exploring a foreign city. The centerpiece is the gently sprawling “[I] Softly, We Go…” which is a pensive groove built along a plucked taut acoustic guitar sample and reedy whistling tones that softly unfurl before reaching an epiphany-like finale. On the one side, Lately is supported by the introspective, phosphorescent and rhythmically cyclical electronic hymn “Lo-Vélo” (a personal favorite) and the mirthfully alive “Genève.” The latter has a melody that swirls in irregular circles before springing into a smooth, yet stuttering groove. On its other side, Lately is supported by the agile “Saône” (named after a river in Eastern France) which flows, as its name might suggest, with a twinkling serenity that captures the warm ambiance of city lights reflected off the surface of water at night. The album closes with “[Lately] See You Soon” — which features bright, crisp percussion and twinkling keys that glide along a shuffling and hypnotic melody like the rhythm created by windshield wipers during an afternoon rainfall. In all, Evenings has offered another fantastic collection that is sure to grace at least TK’s year-end list.
-- http://www.turntablekitchen.com/2011/08 ... gs-lately/
Brimming with galloping rhythms, vertiginous, hairpin-turn arrangements, baroque string flourishes, brass fanfaronades and soaring choirs, this never less than striking opening salvo exudes artistic confidence, if not downright chutzpah. Typically, opener Sweet Tooth Bird erupts in an explosion of martial drums, parping trumpets and, by turns, towering and witchy vocal descants which make Florence Welch sound like a shrinking violet by comparison. The chimera-like Humble Digs, meanwhile, finds room for banjos, a vocal steal from Talking Heads’ Air and a grand symphonic pop chorus that might have fallen off an Andrew Lloyd Webber musical.
Even when the torrential, kitchen-sink attack abates, as on the delicate, ukulele-strumming intro to Lilliput, the hurtling drums and gilded string phalanxes are soon pouring over the folky barricades, Houghton surfing the music in a delicious formation of immense overdubbed contralto harmonies.
The tag ‘psychedelic’, which is routinely appended to descriptions of BJH’s music, seems somewhat misplaced. Sure, corrida trumpets straight out of Love’s Forever Changes, and vivid, altered state lyrics about ‘boys with eyes of mercury’ abound, but this is music which evinces at least a passing acquaintance with Tin Pan Alley principles, and, for all its art-folk inspirations, it might have been tailored for a contemporary mainstream audience who like their mellifluous pop cut with a dash of vaulting kookiness.
-- http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/reviews/x8pn
Virginia-based husband and wife duo Jake and Kim Reid, alumni of Shoegazer/New Wave band Alcian Blue, released their debut Interceptors in 2009 and are back with this second album on Custom Made Music. It’s quite fitting that they share a last name with the Reid brothers of Jesus And Mary Chain because the tunes on Strange Behavior are shot through with the same scintillating guitar feedback that JAMC is known for, and Jake sometimes even sings in Jim Reid’s lower, more menacing register.
While artist influences are evident (mostly JAMC and The Cure) throughout the album, Jake and Kim overcome mere copycatting with involving, propulsive arrangements of dynamic noise-pop and the occasional addition of a dance-pop element. Like contemporary Veil Veil Vanish, they blend the dark sensibility of searing guitars and ominous vocals and/or lyrics with brighter, yearning synth-work. It’s a winning combination.
The pressing drone-pop of “We Don’t Belong” zips along with an up-tempo beat and limpid guitar chime that recalls The Cure. Rockier guitar jags also make the cut, as well as a shining synth backdrop and Jake radiating a dispassionate coolness as he describes the “…emptiness every time I look in your eyes.” Next number “Revival” lays on a JAMC-like burning guitar grind until an upbeat dance-pop tempo enters the fray. Amid the hard-driving guitar lines and propulsive pace Jake spectrally intones “…a voice in the dark…” Although this is definitely not a full-on dance track, it will make the listener want to get up and (attempt to) shake it.
“Stay Asleep” features 80s New Wave production with a crisp, flat-smacked beat, distanced guitar shimmer, and wavering vocals. High, floating synth notes raise the song up as a downbeat Jake mourns that “…time is passing…” The standout of the bunch is the Western-edged, alt-folk noir “My Confession”, with its measured pace, steady spur jingle, somber guitar refrain, and the sound of sustained wind in the background. Jake sing-talks in a deep, low tone, ominously stating “I’m gonna cast the first stone.” as elongated, snaky synth lines weave around his vocals.
“Rx” brings back the dance-pop tempo with a fiery buzz of synths and a thumping beat played against slower, hollowed out woodwind synths. The layered sonics build up with an added clacking beat, distanced vocals, and guitar frisson. The album ends on a lighter, more hopeful note with “Night Trip”. Space Invaders-like electronics and a restless beat are at mesmerizing odds with drawn-out, melancholic synth lines as a clear-voiced Jake admits that “It’s time to get out of this darkness” before one last blast of noise ends the song.
This is the second album from Lotus Plaza, the solo nom de plume of Lockett Pundt, better known as the guitarist in Deerhunter. Pundt has penned a number of the best songs on the last two Deerhunter albums, and his first album, The Floodlight Collective was a tour de force of guitar pop smarts.
He has the uncanny ability to build soaring, melodic gems from simple musical phrases; a möbius strip of a guitar line and repeating clipped drum roll in "Strangers"; a tribal drum beat holding down the foundation on "Out of Touch"; two acoustic guitar chords and a slight bit of snare as the basis for "Dusty Rhodes"; a series of slowly descending piano chord scales on "Jet Out of the Tundra".
There is a wide variety of songs and moods here, from unabashed rockers such as "White Galactic One" and "Monoliths", acoustic laced introspection on "Dusty Rhodes" and "Black Buzz", to the lysergic electronics of "Remember Our Days".
-- http://kranky.net/
Spencer Krug has made another record under the name Moonface, this time with the help of some new friends. The third product of an ongoing series of changing collaborations and approaches to tune-making is called With Siinai: Heartbreaking Bravery. Surprise, a two-part title. Let's bust in to this brothel one door at a time.
With Siinai:
Siinai is the Finnish band Krug worked with on this album. They live in Helsinki, a beautiful town of extremes: dark, light, cold, steamy, stoic, drunk. Krug met Siinai when their former band, Joensuu 1685, toured with Wolf Parade throughout Europe in 2009. Friendships were born.
Over the following year, Joensuu 1685 went on hiatus, Siinai was formed and Krug unexpectedly received a copy of their first album, Olympic Games. Siinai could safely be described as progressive kraut rock. Their songs are long and heavy, often gorgeous, repetitive, with slow subtle hypnotic changes that bring to mind a single cell splitting into two. Also of key interest to Krug at the time: they had no vocalist.
Krug asked if they wanted to make an album together, a collaboration wherein Siinai would perform the meat of the music, and Moonface would take care of the vocals (and ultimately a few licks on the keyboard). Siinai agreed. They started recording their rehearsals and sent the rough ideas formed in their Helsinki jam space to Krug in Montreal. The process continued: Siinai wove the baskets, laid down the coloured straw, while Moonface painted the eggs.
In August of 2011, Krug arrived in Finland and the new collaboration started restructuring the demos to fit the vocals, as well as writing new songs from scratch. Big beats boomed. Colours burst. Krug's addiction to melody and pop music met Siinai's love for simplicity and their rare patience for music that slowly evolves, and something somewhere in the middle was created. It was a compromise that everyone enjoyed making.
Heartbreaking Bravery:
The lyrical theme of this album is heartbreak. According to Krug, it was not planned, but became obvious halfway through the writing process. Some recently battered, still mildly swollen heart snuck its way into the first lyrics written, so he went with it. He wrote songs based on his own experiences with heartache, stories told to him by friends, and drummed up scenarios of ill-fated love that were absolute fiction. Altogether, the inevitability of life's flawed and failed relationships, the shitty feelings we feel as a result, and the people we become (ugly, brave, violent, crawling like babies back toward the womb) while trying to deal with those feelings are the ideas explored in these songs. It is not a particularly original theme, but one Krug felt worth digging into, perhaps deeper than he ever has before.
If there is a place that is beautiful only because it's too dark to see whether or not ugliness exists, that's where you'll find these songs and their characters. A place where the cry for unrequited love is rich and silky. Where falling bodies hit the ground in time with the synthesizer's arpeggio, while old men hold out their guitars to disinterested young lovers, so that they might study the dark-red patterns in the grain. A place where Moonface stands on a sidewalk not wanting to go home, not wanting to make his flight, doesn't hail a cab, then picks up his suitcase and walks back into the hotel.
-- http://jagjaguwar.com/onesheet.php?cat=JAG210
This is Martin Herterich’s second pass around the NNF circuit in his Sand Circles hovercraft
(following 2011’s Midnight Crimes EP), and though the general schematics and engine design
remain the same – aged drum machines, afterhours analog tape echo, faded synth riffs, derelict
metropolis atmospheres – Motor City’s grace and execution place it in a superior division to
anything else he’s tracked to date. A cool, loner narrative arc plays out across each side
too: “Entering Motor City” across “White Sand” wherein there’s a “Downtown Holdup” in the
“Innercity Haze,” before cruising back out of the urban sprawl, “Distant Lights” in the rearview,
on through the “Endless Nights,” “Descending Into Space.” As with his last tape, the Sand Circles
chemistry of transfusing reverb-refracted electronic horizon melodies with pulsing, primitivist
warehouse-party drum machinery really succeeds in evoking this weirdly poignant
bedroom/industrial reverie mood-sphere, and the 11 instrumentals of Motor City hit this interzone
pressure point better than ever.
-- http://www.notnotfun.com/now.html
From out of the coastal, cloud-covered conifer forests of Canada’s coolest west coast enclave (Vancouver, BC) comes this blithe slice of exploratory gauze-pop majesty by one-woman guitarist-looper-siren-producer White Poppy (aka Crystal Dorval), I Had A Dream. The moniker conjures her soundworld astutely. The spiraling, sunblind ascent of “Wish & Wonder,” “In The Window”, and “Free” feel like levitating over fields of poppies, opiated pollen glowing gold in the air, while a scrappy, early 4AD/Rough Trade 7” obscurity’s rhythm section rides a lock-groove somewhere down by a glittering stream. Deeper in, “In Over” out-Cocteau Twins the CT’s (in terms of delay pedal sensuality), while “I Had A Dream” and “Treeforts” both percolate and pirouette dizzy blurs of electric guitar, practice-amp bass fuzz, cardboard drums and skywashed vocal mists. A lot of the songs have this beautifully bewitching ‘fantasy band’ vibe that makes the project feel less solitary and 4-track-y than its origins. A mesmerizing debut and hopefully a harbinger of things to come.
-- http://www.notnotfun.com/now.html
TU FAWNING return this May with their sophomore release titled A Monument. A mere nine songs short, but enough time to confirm the suspicion raised by the band's debut album: can it be that this band sets itself apart from everything else out there right now? Yes, this is proof.
While the band keep their trademark sound in Corrina Repp's formidable voice, most gone are the swampy blues-guitar howls now replaced by a newfound love for vibrant percussive mania. A more excessive use of keyboards has stepped in the way of the morbidly dark vaudevillian vibes of the last record and one will find these songs much more focused and pointed than ever before. A Monument is in fact a very different record, all the more reason for us to appreciate this band and their artistic merits. Live Tu Fawning deliver a dense, romantic, highly energetic live show, much more powerful than their debut album would have led you to imagine. And on A Monument this sparkles through on every track.
Band member Joe Haege confesses „With as much as the last record relied on samples and teasing out a song from very repetitive ideas, A Monument focuses on collaboration of the four of us (Corrina Repp, Liza Rietz, Toussaint Perrault, Joe Haege). When Toussaint played us some loose ideas he had recorded we all fell in love with them and they ended up kind of defining the record: using synths more heavily yet with no intent of making "synth" or "electro" music. The goal was still one of timelessness, meaning we wanted to capture a feeling that someone listening to it couldn't easily pin down the era it's from. I think we really wanted that for ourselves, For this album we were no longer starting with a vague identity.“
Perfectly designed to fill up one side of a C90 cassette, A Monument offers exactly nine very different pieces to that beautiful and unusual Tu Fawning style. There is no genre to point to, no drawer to throw this band into. These songs are refreshingly all over the place, yet are very much cohesive on a whole. A Monument exemplifies the growth of the band; personally, collectively, and musically. This record is a testimony to the band Tu Fawning have become. It’s a way of sharing a new level of musical communication at which the four members have arrived. This connection comes through a breadth of shared experiences: writing together in Portland, Leipzig, San Francisco, touring for months at a time and performing night after night.
Tracks like "Blood Stains" have moved Tu Fawning south, more the Down Under type of south, with the warped R’n’B styles of a Birthday Party or early Bad Seeds. Less the atonality and surely sans the testosterone. And likewise "Wager" lifts some moment of orchestral nausea out of a Crime And The City Solution track, converting it into a real song. Not all gothic, but certainly all dark. Weird, eccentric, timeless are user-friendly adjectives for the simple minded when trying to describe a band such as this. And lets not forget dramatic! Does it get anymore dramatic than “Build A Great Cliff“ ? Take a rollercoaster ride with the epic seven and a half minute album closer that is „Bones“ ? The latter showing that there is indeed also a sense of playfulness here.
A Monument was recorded at Tiny Telephone in San Francisco and at Type Foundry in Portland. Some additional recording took place at Menomena’s Justin Harris’ house. The album was mixed by Jeff Saltzmann and eventually finished off by Mastering Pope Howie Weinberg at his Los Angeles studios. Above and beyond the usual guitar, bass, keys, drums, the record feautures instrumentation such as a ragini, a tuned down marching band drum, old 80’s synths, actually lots of synths, those samples of South American chants turned into chords. Not to mention the degenerated Four Track recorders, dying guitar pedals, but most importantly: „turning your back to the microphone and yelling…“.
Monumental indeed!
-- http://www.cityslang.com/releases/43680/a-monument/
When I listen to The Night I fear the apocalypse. It’s like a widescreen electrical storm with fragmented noise slowly short-circuiting, a cinematic breakdown. The group’s shoegaze aesthetics bleed as vocalist Aleksa Palladino haunts the songs. I can’t state strongly enough the destructive beauty of what might be the most affecting debut of the year – and then some.
The layered tones of swirling synths and an ethereal soul are dragged closer to the source, with up-close vocals and inventively melodic guitar lines. The stunning, momentous title track is the starting point – it can free-fall between claustrophobia and emancipation within seconds. The aching sincerity in Palladino’s vocal is what we are drawn towards. I could reach for Mazzy Star as a starting point.
Titling your song White Noise sends a clear message – the final moments sounds like the batteries are dying on the cassette player. The pulsating beat and distorted edges have a dark energy.
There is a balance between electronics and organics throughout this record, yet the New York duo (Palladino and guitarist Devon Church) have sensed the need for more than just a carefully created atmosphere. These songs have a feeling. They are emotive from the shadows rather than some well lit stage, but that only makes them more vital and real.
Church has said, “We want our music to confront people in a gentle but powerful way, to make them feel something.” With Passage Exitmusic have achieved just that. You can’t listen to this record and not feel something – enough said.
-- http://www.bowlegsmusic.com/album-revie ... sage-21959
KarlXII skrev:Stort tack, Falloutboy, för alla musiktips.
Du är en klippa!
Though technically her fifth studio album, last year's Tragedy on Leaving Records found diffuse-pop chanteuse Julia Holter finally stretching beyond the embrace of CD-R fetishism into the realms of experimental pseudo-celebrity. Though it wasn't necessarily a leap from the reclining textures and classically-structured take on ambient-pop music of her past, there were newly notable hints at more conventional songcraft and hooks that made it seem a somewhat novel approach to past work. Holter was beginning to forge something at once comfortably allusive—nods and winks to fifty years of minimalism and West Coast experimentalism—but also a distinctive brand of daydrift crawl. But even that subtle nudge toward more open-armed realms wouldn't necessarily have revealed the approachable grace of Ekstasis, her first for NYC's RVNG Intl.
Recorded at the same time as Tragedy—and featuring reconstructed bits like "Goddess Eyes" that appear on both records—Ekstasis looks fondly back at pop-art mainstays like Kate Bush and especially Laurie Anderson while crafting a more articulate take on the gorgeous drone-murk of contemporaries like Grouper and Motion Sickness of Time Travel. Holter's work has always made reference to the myths and time-softened tales of ancient Greece; Ekstasis, a nod to the Greek poet Sappho, translates as "standing out oneself." There's a detached, hovering-above quality to a lot of the album's passages that reinforces the sentiment, like the soft twilight-glow and distant vocal summons of "Boy in the Moon," the almost pagan ritualistic calm of "Our Sorrows," or the divine bell-sparkled fantasia of "Moni Mon Amie." Snippets of song refer to ancient works, but they're for the most part utilized texturally, a kind of multi-tracked choral display that augments Holter's refreshing take on the music of the ethereal.
Elsewhere, "In The Same Room" actually bumps, a bit of forward propulsion that belies some of the album's narcotic sway; Holter underpins her multi-tracked voice and a vocal melody right out of the early '80s with pattering drum machines and strutting synth blurts. "Fur Felix," with its spacious, echo-laden synthesizers—like a vast room of clocks all one minute off from their partners, chimes ringing in a kind of beautiful misfire—sounds like a restrained, art-school take on a band like Strawberry Alarm Clock somehow, and closer "This is Ekstasis" patiently layers in schoolbook synthesizer scrawls, back-room drum rolls, throaty sax blurts and enough of Holter's voice to sound as though she's resounding about the walls of a tiny space until it begins to resemble an Alice Coltrane track reimagined by a bedroom-studio maestro.
And, yet, as bewitching and transfixing as the rest of the album is, it's still anchored by intro and lead single, "Marienbad." Complex and intricate—opening with an organ lead right out of a Terry Riley piece, pounding drums and tumbling stand-up bass—Holter slowly ascends into a crescendo of voice and noise before reversing into a morning-bird kind of, well almost, vocal chirping. It's the best example here of how nimbly Holter bridges the expanse of the avant-garde with the punch of the instantly attainable. Ekstasis is brimming with them though—an album so coherently constructed that it's perhaps more notable for its instants, its moments and sequences, than its full tracks.
-- http://www.residentadvisor.net/review-v ... x?id=10677
Sleep Party People, the masked Danish electronic dream-pop outfit, started as an idea in the head of Copenhagen based multi-instrumentalist Brian Batz.
Having toured with The Antlers and Efterklang their new album 'We Were Drifting On A Sad Song' is out April 9th on Blood and Biscuits.
Mixing the distorted shoegaze of MBV, the uplifting orchestration of Arcade Fire and the surreal imagery of David Lynch, we're certain that Sleep Party People will instantly become your favourite new band.
-- http://bloodandbiscuits.bigcartel.com/p ... ad-song-cd
They have been called night songs. Music that takes you on a journey, that’s what the judges of the 3VOOR12 Award 2011 wrote. That prize was for Oasem (pronounced as awesome) by I Am Oak, according to the judges the best Dutch album of that year.
Thijs Kuijken from Utrecht wrote the folk album alone and performs it with I Am Oak. A trip to Finland was a huge inspiration for the music, lyrics and whole idea of the album. Those big thoughts come in small songs and just because Kuijken is holding back, the album is full of tension. Oasem is the next step in a career that slowly but steadily unfolds. The album before Oasem was more acoustic, now the guitars are plugged in, although every song would hold its strength when played acoustic.
Kuijken made an album to listen to, not just a collection of singles with some fillers, it’s a listening experience. In shows it’s the same thing. At that time there is also a big chance that the music takes you away, wherever your dreams want to take you.
-- http://heistorhitrecords.bigcartel.com/ ... ammensaari
There’s a clue in the title of Thieving Irons’ latest release as to just exactly what you’re in for. Dream states; or, the indescribable period between being awake and being asleep, that odd sense of extreme relaxation where the conscious mind just begins to gently drip into the dream world washes through the album with a persuasive sense of optimism. But this isn’t some disingenuous hippy crap; this is indie rock at its most inviting.
Nate Martinez’s gentle voice guides the listener through a world where nature is a key form of escape; the ocean and the sky seem to be the desired destinations. The band go places that reward the listener with the joy of weightlessness to ruminate and ponder, exemplified by the track “Sleepwalking into the Ocean”. The coast portrayed in many works of art as a place to leave the rat-race will no doubt be familiar to listeners trapped within the excess of city life, the song’s line ‘we want off this road we want ocean’ echoing like a rallying call to modern urbanites. The album excels in creating space, sounding both intimate and inexplicably expansive with a yearning for escape that’s as genuine as it is moving. This is the album to be played atop a summer rooftop enjoying a beer and a sunset with the people you love.
-- http://www.elmoremagazine.com/2012/06/r ... f-released
Anywhere But Where I Am is such a perfect title for a record that doesn’t just exude a sense of escapism but is practically immersed in it. While that sense of departure may be far more prevalent to someone living in a grey city in England, one assumes that the almost-otherworldly atmosphere that Foreign Fields create holds just as much to weight to people from the duo’s hometown of Wisconsin.
Flights are Eric Hillman and Brian Holl and this, their debut LP, was self-produced and subsequently self-released via their Bandcamp page back in December; however it’s majesterial quality is slowly and surely weaving it’s way into an ever-growing number of peoples lives. Comparisons will inevitably be made with Justin Vernon, and not only because of their geographical similarities. The music that Flights make is very much in the vein of Bon Iver, melding gentle and wistful folk with occassional electronic flourishes. To simply label it as some sort of parody however, would be so far wide of the mark for a record that is utterly and completely its own.
Nature, and the landscape around us, dominate the record, from the song titles (Mountain Top, Where The Willow Tree Died, The River Kings) to the lyrical themes found throughout. Opening track ‘From The Mountain To Sea‘ plays out more as intro than a stand-alone track, with its swirling guitar chords and it’s woozy, repeated lyrical refrains. We’re soon into the swing of things though as Taller enters proceedings, it’s playful acoustic guitar line is built upon with slight piano keys, a stark electric guitar part and, eventually, hazy synths. It’s so finely balanced and perfectly constructed it’s easy to forget that you’re only two songs in to a debut LP.
This all-eneveloping atmosphere is prominent throughout the album and is continued on ‘Mountaintop‘, one of the most sombre tracks here, before coming fully to the fore on the stunning one-two of A Difficult Year and So Many Foreign Homes, both of which glide along for over five minutes on finely measured instrumentation, sparse electronica and stunning vocal harmonies.
Just as the album title perfectly represents the music here, the bands name is also an accurate description for the effect this record has on the listener. The sense of flying and of weightless abandonment is tangible throughout; So Many Foreign Homes genuinely plays out as the aural equivalent of being suspended in mid-air, travelling across varying vistas and landscapes.
At over sixty-minutes in length there was always a risk that people would lose interest during the latter half of the record but that’s not the case at all. While there is barely a shift in either tone or pace, the songs are more than good enough to keep you hooked in. It’s a huge record, don’t get me wrong, but on repeated listens the sheer size and scale of it proves to be one of it’s most redeemable features.
On the albums closing track, Fake Arms, Flights sing “If I leave this town for ten, I’ll see mountains again. But if I can’t see you, then I’ve lost it all my friend.” It’s a lyric that means a lot to me personally – a year or so on from swapping a rural(ish) life for the city, but it’s also a completely universal sentiment. Many of us require a break from the day-to-day mundanity of real life every now and again (to ‘see mountains‘) and on this quite stunning debut LP, Flights have created a record that allows us to do just that. Sit back, press play and let it transport you somewhere else.
-- http://www.goldflakepaint.co.uk/album-r ... here-i-am/
It’s hard to place Alt-J. Originally from Leeds, they spend their time in a Cambridgeshire basement making their own brand of uniquely dubbed "folk-step". However, the noises that An Awesome Wave emits far escape the dull, dark depths such a creative location suggests. Instead, it’s a stunning and encompassing affair of both innovative and electrifying musicianship and exemplary song writing.
Comparing Alt-J to contemporary artists or listing their influences is almost pointless. Each song blurs, stutters, and explodes across a tide of instruments and ideas, fresh and addictive. Breezeblocks is early Mystery Jets with Orange Juice choruses while Dissolve Me is post-Skins generation Foals cuddling up to Fleet Foxes by the campfire. It has moments of slick RnB, gorgeous folk harmonies, and even a choir of children glossing nostalgic school memories.
This album spans every workable idea, genre, and influence that can be crammed under the guitar music umbrella, yet it never feels disorientating. Instead, what swoons gracefully through speakers is an entirely comprehendible and accessible collection of beautiful pop songs.
Movement is key on this album. Samples and sounds cascade and cross with elegance, but it’s Joe Newman’s lead vocal that acts as the cement, pulling everything together and guiding it seamlessly into making sense.
Even the lyrics are creatively ambitious. On Breezeblocks he cracks, "She may contain the urge to run away but hold her down with soggy clothes and breezeblocks / Germolene, disinfect the scene, my love." It’s not your usual Valentine’s note but it’s their way of taking on the old in a new way that really marks An Awesome Wave as a deeply exciting record.
Okay, it’s not that Alt-J can’t be pigeon-holed or placed beside peers; it’s more that they deserve more. This debut offering is strong, addictive and enthralling, the perfect accompaniment to any mood, any moment, anywhere.
-- http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/reviews/mvm5
iamamiwhoami is multimedia pop art project that started in January of 2010 with one internet video called Prelude 699130082.451322-5.4.21.3.1.20.9.15.14.1.12. (Seriously, not joking.) This was then followed up by one video per month being released by iamamiwhoami, which led into the March 2010 beginning of the project called “bounty.” The project was a collection of ten short music videos set to an electro art-pop theme. This sent the blogosphere buzzing until it was discovered that the project was fronted by Swedish singer/songwriter/producer Jonna Lee, who already had one EP and two LPs to her credit. Which leads us to Kin. The first glimpse of this project was a 37-second internet video unveiled on February 1, 2012 called “kin 20120611” followed two weeks later by another video called “sever.” iamamiwhoami then released Kin’s music videos one-by-one much like they did with “bounty”, only this time using 2-week increments between video premiers leading up to Kin’s release date. Some recording artists fall face-first when venturing out into the world of pop art, not in this case. The videos are so beautifully done that they can stifle the songs that accompany them, but the album itself stands alone. It is wonderfully colorful and intimately substantive for an electro-pop album. Bjork is an obvious influence, with shades of Homogenic, spurts of Post, as well as layers of Vespertine, which are showcased with Joanna Lee’s unique personality. There are some moments throughout the album where Lee’s vocals just have too much reverb on them and it is uncomfortable, but aside from that Kin is produced quite well. This is an incredibly strong album, which can be listened to on it’s own, however loading a bowl and watching it’s YouTube playlist is highly recommended.
-- http://dankvibes.com/iamamiwhoami-kin-album-review/
One winter I crashed my motorcycle , with a friend on the back. I shouldn’t have been riding that day, but I was young and fearless of the black roads, fast and easy in my ways. As the bike slipped from under us my head filled with words. The slow motion moments of calm just after surprise and just before regret are bliss. I remember in that moment I wanted to say everything to him. How could I say everything in a split second? How could I bury my words in his heart?
I got a new bike and went to LA to record what is now called Confess, which 4AD will release on July 9th & 10th. I took the bike out at 6AM one morning after not having done much riding in the couple years between Forget and Confess. I noticed my head clearing as I came slowly down a hill where the road around a reservoir began. I pulled back slowly on the throttle with my right hand, and felt the bike start to come to life. My head was still crystal clear…nothing. As I kicked the bike into 3rd, I pulled almost all the way back and jumped forward leaning in towards the gas tank, fighting the wind. I got up to 75 and saw that no one was out but the runners and their four legged friends, the sidewalks became a blur of barking dogs and heads all turning. My mind was empty. I put the bike in 4th and hit 90. The engine jack hammered under my legs. My mind was clear. I inched toward 100 on the speedometer and punch the last five. TON UP! My mind is filled with words. My heart is full of love. This is where i want to be. I want to stay here, and I want to tell you everything.
-- http://thetwinshadow.tumblr.com/post/22 ... 01/confess
Port St. Willow’s first full-length album entitled “Holiday” has left me speechless for several days. I have had this 55-minute ambient/folk picturesque artwork on repeat, and don’t tend on changing that anytime soon. This album in three words. Tyrant. Smoke. Motion.
I would describe Nick Principe’s project Port St. Willow to our readers unfamiliar with his work as the boiling narrative of Youth Lagoon’s Year of Hibernation sung with beautiful vocals similar to Peter Silberman of the Antlers, mixed with the atmosphere of a Grouper album.
I would listen to this album from beginning to end for the full effect, but the first track that stood out to me was “Tourist”, a song that sounds like a chase between a beast and prey. On second listen my favorite track was "Orphan" for the powerful vocals. There are some slower more peaceful tracks such as "North" that build into the more powerful, and that is why I suggest you listen to the album from front to back. I was impressed with the horn and trumpet use, especially in "North", without being too overbearing to the overall track. As of now my favorite track is the "Consumed", lyrics from Consumed overflow with meaning, and will shake you down to your bones in the most personal way. The pulsating drums coexist with a glass melody in an very well written conclusion.
-- http://www.fakeplastictunes.com/2012/05 ... liday.html
Barbara Morgenstern returns to her spiritual home, Gudrun Gut's Monika Enterprise label, for her sixth solo album proper, and her first sung in English. Mixed by T.Raumschmiere, its sound is incredibly plush, the minimalist arrangements fleshed out by robust bass textures and opalescent synths. Songs like 'Kookoo', 'Spring Time' and the soaring 'Highway' are perfect pop, off-kilter but not disjointed, while 'Hip Hop Mice' and 'Status Symbol' explore deeper shades of laptop electro, before things culminate in the epic, string-laden techno-romanticism of 'Love Is In The Air, But We Don't Care'. A really lovely record to listen to, one justly billed as a landmark in the German artist's long and illustrious career.
-- http://boomkat.com/cds/531368-barbara-m ... et-silence
Six years on from their Gravitational IV album, Connecticut’s Landing return with a new record for Geographic North. Based around the married duo of Aaron and Adrienne Snow, Landing have clear precedents in the shape of slowcore, shoegaze and dream-pop bands like Slowdive, Galaxie 500 and Low, but they’ve managed to emerge as one of the foremost exponents of the sound. Landing is their eighth full length and, while it doesn’t deviate too far from the established template of ethereal vocals shrouded in swathes of guitar feedback, it keeps things relatively short in such a way as to make every one of these nine tracks a powerful, self-contained entity in its own right. More then ever, especially on songs like ‘Finally’ and the motorik single ‘Heart Finds The Beat’, Joy Division echo through the mist as a primary inspiration. The way the bass flashes around the stripped-back drums and the synths provide a cushion of sublime elevation brings to mind Closer’s more progressive moments. There’s even a song titled ‘Decades’.
Having blossomed out of lengthy, ambient soundscapes on earlier releases, Landing now concentrate on far more pop-friendly mini-epics. Although the songs are largely formless in a traditional sense, favouring the creation of a seeping cloud around the listener’s mind as opposed to a more direct punch to the heart, there’s enough weight in the vocals to make this one of the first Landing albums with clearly decipherable lyrical content across the board. Only the appearance of Adrienne Snow’s voice – which is entirely her own, happily avoiding any lazy comparison with Elizabeth Fraser or Bilinda Butcher – moves the music into more obvious dream pop territory and even then there’s a skipping drum beat to help give it definition. In fact, although the band’s name has always beautifully summed up their sound (always skimming somewhere just above the earth, never making contact), this might as close to the ground as they’ve ever been.
Landing, in fact, is a difficult album to pin down, and this works entirely to the band’s credit. Quite often these albums have a tendency to blend into one long, gaseous drone but Landing magpie from myriad sources to ensure the journey is an ever-changing and thrillingly propulsive one. The first half is particularly striking, containing one of the singles of the year so far in ‘Heart Finds The Beat’, the downbeat but heart-swelling ‘Crows’ and ‘Like The Tide’, a multi-faceted track that stuffs an album’s worth of influences into its four and a half minutes. Opening as a Krautrock melange of drums and electronics it becomes steadily less certain as it goes, eventually slinking into a jagged, tremolo-cushioned ode to the the freedom of the past. ‘I’d like to see you again,’ sings Aaron Snow, ‘I’d like to feel that way again’.
The album does struggle to live up to its glorious opening movement as it draws to a close, but then most albums would. ‘Migration’, the longest piece of music here, provides a reminder of the way in which the band used to operate. Heady, dream-like and undoubtedly pretty, it nevertheless seems slightly out of place on an album that’s makes some refreshingly bold moves in an arena that can get seriously stuffy. It’s possible it was included to keep the die-hards happy but, as the closing ‘Native Land’ testifies, Landing are more than comfortable riding their new found wave of jubilation. Not unlike an extended Yo La Tengo jam (think ‘We’re An American Band’), ‘Native Land’ asks questions that may just as well be focused inwards. ‘Did they fix you where you began?’ swoons Adrienne Snow. On this evidence, Landing are anything but fixed. In fact, they might just be taking off again.
-- http://www.fluid-radio.co.uk/2012/07/la ... hic-north/
What does it say about our lives when music critics repeatedly reward albums with a more-than-slightly dark edge? Are we really all modern day hermits: scared to leave the house and even more so of other people; or simply eager to sink into a sea of self pity and emotional immolation? The question of “why” withstands; the question of “how” does not. Nothing moves us more than tragedy. A brief glance at the most influential musicians of the past few decades will greet you with a recurring scene of loneliness, drugs and suicide; tell-tale signs of people who occupy their own space instead of the world around them. Sometimes the music itself seems irrelevant in all the context: it doesn’t take much to grab us when we’re in the mood. Walk into the past of Bersarin Quartett and you will find no such tragedy, or at least none so openly displayed. Despite the title, Bersarin Quartett is comprised solely of one Thomas Bucker and, despite the lack of emotional context, II might just be one of the most heart-stoppingly sorrowful records of this millennia.
Arriving in the midst of the recent neo-classical/ambient movement, Bersarin Quartett’s self titled debut rose to the top of the pile with its broad array of complementary styles, lush depth of warm strings and relative complexity amongst its competition. It was an extremely successful introduction to his treatment of music, if only a little bit eager to please. II takes what made the self-titled so brilliant and perfects it: it’s more beautiful, more experimental, and progresses in a much more restrained and considered manner. Music that manages to be startlingly graceful without pandering to the cliche styles of beauty. It has class, you could say, though not so much that it is impenetrable and certainly not to the extent that it hides its emotion entirely. From the opener, we’re greeted with different sides of the same coin: the more traditional, lamenting strings in “Im Glanze des Kometen” and the modern, relaxed retrospectiveness of “Jedem Zauber wohnt eine Ende inne” both convey a similar strain of despair. The variation here not being produced by a variety of moods, rather a continuous shift in style. As a result the overall tone is inescapable without being exhaustive; a singular entity that is continuously developed by the next track instead of repeatedly fractured.
Despite the variation present in II, Bucker certainly leaves his mark on each angle he portrays. Even in the more ambient pieces, large, swelling banks of strings are used to great effect. In the finale, “Nichts Ist Wie Vorher”, they’re used almost like a victory cry: rising above the subdued piano and hum of ambience in a brash display of joy and triumph after almost a full hour of morose contemplation. Likewise, the interwoven wealth of strings is often treated much like a staple sound whilst Bucker experiments in the background. Such is the case with “Heir und Jetzt”, which begins much like a rather standard, though stunning, neo-classical piece before introducing heavily distorted keyboards and the kind of pop-and-crackle percussion now associated with more urban styles of music. In its quite sophisticated air, II also remains inward looking. Tracks are never rushed - with the opener taking over a minute to even start - with motifs and patterns given room to grow into their full effect. In the same way the album never jumps at the chance to be instantly mesmerising, instead taking the more long lasting stance of subtlety. This is a decision best reflected in the latter parts of II, and indeed the album’s sure to sink you into the mood softly - as a result your preference for individual tracks will inevitably shift from the beginning to end. Sharpening not only your mood but taste as well.
Regrettably, albums such as this don’t come around too often; the world is far too full of cynics to fall for every emotional tirade that comes our way (at a rate of about three a day, by my count). However, none of these contain the intelligence, expertise or charm that II does. In every sense of the word it’s an album that is beautiful, but at the same time it is not a happy one. In the face of such brilliance, description alone seems as pointless as explaining the Mona Lisa to a blind man; you have to experience it in order to really appreciate it. Mesmerising from every perspective, II just might be Bucker’s masterpiece. We can only hope that it doesn’t slip by unnoticed.
-- http://www.sputnikmusic.com/review/4927 ... artett-II/
Oresound skrev:Världens bästa Trumpna Miles Davis
med sina blåtoner; nu remastrad i "Sketches of Spain 2011"
http://open.spotify.com/track/64wTcXoNEAX4VyZiMGXQkY
Innehåller Joaquin Rodrigos mästerverk
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concierto_de_Aranjuez
Lätt kritiserat:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sketches_of_Spain
men "världensbästa årgångsjazz":
http://cltampa.com/tampacalling/archive ... with-video
Musiken är för bra för att inte vara jazz, så jag till spår i Jazzlistan!
Vill man hellre ha marchingrythm än fingerspitzgefühl så hinner du kanske lyssna på Paco de Lucias tolkning av Concierto de Aranjuez.
Taget från wickipedia:Innan han (Paco de Lucia) blev tillfrågad att tolka och spela Joaquín Rodrigos Concierto de Aranjuez 1991 hade han aldrig kunnat läsa noter. Han lärde sig de flesta passager helt enkelt genom att lyssna på tidigare tolkningar. Med tanke på att Conciertos är mycket svårt att framföra är det ännu mer remarkabelt. Medan han lärde sig att spela Concierto som flamencogitarrist, där rytm och takt är essentiellt, föredrog han att ge lyssnaren en "smutsig" ton när han gick från en låg ton till en mycket hög hellre än att förstöra rytmen. Han ansåg att som flamencogitarrist hade han rätt att tolka Concierto på ett nytt sätt. Pacos tolkning ansågs av Rodrigo själv som den bästa han hört.
Ovanstående inlägg insprirerades av preskriberad butiksrubrik angående "Ljudbutiken i Stockholm AB" hoppas inte någon tar illa vid sig, i såfall korrigerar jag detta invecklade inlägg till ett oinspirerat om någon mer original utgåva.
Inga (flügel)horn i sidan.
New Memory is Malcom Lacey’s seventh release as Arrange in two years. He’s been a busy boy. The 19 year-old singer, pianist, guitarist, programmer, producer (what can’t he do?) crowdsourced the funding for New Memory's vinyl release with the ever popular kickstarter site. The page features a video of an ebullient Lacey on a road trip with a similarly smiling stranger amidst hi-def shots of streetlamps and glowing sunrises, feet on the dash and finally a door open to a new home. On New Memory we can see Lacey’s got that attitude. These ten ethereal and slow burning jams are his paean to PMA. It sounds like something he could call home.
With so many releases under his belt it would be easy to confuse his prolific output with a kind of restlessness. The songs on this album are anything but. His early recordings drew apt and easy comparisons to Xiu Xiu and Bright Eyes (although, they are more Gowns meets David Thomas Broughton) with long, loping songs built up of layer upon layer of guitar loop and Ableton Live effects. On New Memory Lacey builds lush sonic landscapes with sparse, considered arrangements. Here traces of Sigur Rós and Tim Hecker combine with R&B drum programming to develop something his own.
Its hard to believe that in two years his process has matured so much but here we have proof. For an album built out of so little the elements are finely crafted, as if to rhyme with one another. In the piano chords of opener, “Ivory pt.1,” we can feel the force of hands pressing keys as Lacey sings, “I felt the warmth of your hands flow through me.” The tracks on this album never rise above a trot and throughout the album there is space to catch its breath, as in the interlude, “æ.” The title is a character representing a diphthong, a combination of vowel sounds. Vowels are simple, but necessary to make words—think Rimbaud’s “Vowel” here—and in “North,” Arrange further explores how we combine sounds to make meaning backed with R&B-lite beats and a field recording: “spell love,” not “l-i-k-e” but “l-o-v.”
As the title suggests, the songs on New Memory are both contented elegies of difficulty passed and aubade celebrating the rising of a new day. “I won’t become myself undone/i’ve learned that i’m important to someone,” he sings on “North.” Simplicity gives these lyrics their power. The refrain acts as a talisman that shields from the dark while keeping the light close.
One of the album’s standout tracks—“Where I Go at Night” begins with flits of slow rising synths reminiscent of múm before moving to piano and subtle digital clicks, or are those soulful snaps from Lacey’s bedroom congregation? Lacey’s vocals here are rushed. He breaks, if only so slightly, the measured hush he employs throughout the album. Urgency fills the lines, “If I could take your burden off of you / I would if i could.” When his vocal run ends the song cuts to thick slices of tremolo pulse before opening into triumphant hip-hop break—the song refuses to dwell in defeat. Instead, the track provides the celebration the lyrics propose.
“Caves,” the album’s other standout track is available as a preview on the album’s bandcamp page. Piano, a drone, and submerged drums provide the palate for Lacey’s vocals. The formula is simple enough to propel the song to its conclusion, but instead the structure here is the most varied of all the tracks on the album. The drums pulse and vocals layer on top of one another (Lady Lazarus, a California based singer-songwriter, increases the vocal range on the track) creating a dense warm space. The track does not content itself to sit in a single space though. Its varied structure takes us to a breakdown like “La Forêt”-era Xiu Xiu before taking us home.
The title suggests New Memory is something already past. It is something you revisit, but it stays fresh. These songs take strength not from creating a sense of closure but by ending enticingly open, inviting repeated listening.
-- http://inyourspeakers.com/content/revie ... y-07052012
“I’m afraid to move” are the first lines on the new Zelienople album, but this has nothing of the cabin-fever claustrophobia that it might suggest; none of the inward musical gestures of anxiety that the isolationist strands of post-rock display. Instead, The World Is A House On Fire looks outwards to the horizon. Now, post-rock is a term we’ve skirted round before – here, I want to use it to suggest the use of instruments as texture, the non linear song structures, the way the vocals smudge into the ringing tones or arcing parabolas of gentle saxophone. Its this quality that makes lines like “just a thousand faces” part of a whole – song form as colour and shape rather than angst and personal catharsis. Vocals equal to bass lines, hooks from repetition rather than choruses – ‘rock music’ as expanded field.
Mike Weis, Matt Christensen and Brian Harding use percussion, baritone guitar, saxophone, reverb drenched vocals to open up these songs to something loose and spacious. There are hints of deep canyon-country guitar twangs, rumbling toms skirting around the rhythm set by the bass – particularly on the austere landscapes of Chemist. Similar to the way shoegaze tradition or post punk bands used the guitar to create blended snowdrifts of sound, on this album, Zelienople also hint at the ‘inside out’ instrumentation and oceanic backing of late Talk Talk, as well as the textures of Scott Walker’s Climate of Hunter. And though this is a less panic stricken album, the closing Out Of It, with the cavernous pauses between lines and understated production recalls that album’s coda Blanket Roll Blues – if only for its sense of exhaling calm, which even a final rising tide of noise can’t dispel.
And that is another of this album’s strengths – the sense of rise and release – at least in the music. Toward the centre of the album – Island Machine, Colored – we get more insistent drums, more brightly focused synth sounds, more melodically resolved guitar parts – while the opening and closing tracks are hints, suggestions of songs. And what the songs suggest is not anxiety as such, but an inbetween-ness – “at the edge of space” – songs that point to landscapes and skies and underpasses and distant towerblocks. Again with this music, it’s the details that make this special – the almost funky bass line buried at the heart of Old Dirt, the restrained sax, the way the guitar tones almost fray at the edge – and all that glorious space between lines.
A confident, subtle album from Zelienople, and another great release from Type. It’ll be interesting to see where they go from here – back towards the song, or out further into the wilderness and ether. – Highly recommended!
-- http://www.fluid-radio.co.uk/2012/06/ze ... e-on-fire/
Not the least remarkable thing about this Canadian duo’s utterly remarkable debut is the sense of its own world – self-contained, claustrophobic, intense – in which it has wrapped itself. For a band that have only been going since 2010, the coherence which sucks the listener in while never quite allowing them to fully decode each track’s intent is impressively achieved, oppressively apparent.
The song titles (Fineshrine, Grandloves, Belispeak, Lofticries) reformat words into new combinations that convey new, almost-tangible meanings and many of the lyrics, too, are semi-audible, half-caught amongst the futuristic synths’ pulse and crackle, just out of reach. Where they are discernible, they tell of an often grotesque physicality: “Cut open my sternum and pull my little ribs around you,” pleads vocalist Megan James on Fineshrine. Then, on, Belispeak: “Drill little holes into my eyelids.”
The unsettling nature of much of this content is wonderfully complemented by the music, a strongly synthesised counterpoint to the vocals, which switch between high, breathy, unearthly (Grandloves) and ingénue-like (the disturbing Shuck). Crawlersout’s lyrics are heavily treated, vocoder’d-and-Auto-Tuned, so deep and slow as to be (deliberately) almost inaudible. Elsewhere, Lofticries peters out to a near one-note drone by the song’s end.
The post-dubstep whomp of a low, slow, lazy bassline is present throughout, often punctuated by manic tape-played-backwards interludes, or with a raft of effects like Fineshrine’s curious “yipyipyip” vocalisations, Grandloves’ organ throb, or Ungirthed’s shimmering handclaps. Cartographist, at the album’s centre, represents (aptly) the band’s outer reaches, its backing groans and messed-with beats providing no easy route through.
But it is the more accessible moments that form Shrines’ highlights: the unavoidable sweetness of Ungirthed’s melody, or the shoegaze swirls that combine – somehow – with a dubstep-meets-RnB slink on Grandloves.
The temptation to draw comparisons with 4AD’s original conjurers of oblique mystique the Cocteau Twins is strong, but probably also unfair. Purity Ring have pulled off the feat of producing one of the year’s most arresting debuts – a Grimm Tales for the 2010s, shrouded in the illusory threads of contemporary club music – while sounding like no-one else but themselves.
-- http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/reviews/jh5c
zidanefromhell skrev:XX ute med ny platta, förväntningarna är skyhöga men första lyssningen lovar gott!
XX - Coexist
http://open.spotify.com/album/2cRMVS71c49Pf5SnIlJX3U
Koffe skrev:Jag blir ofta nervös när musiker skall hålla på och experimentera. Jag tycker att det är ett dåligt hantverk att släppa ofärdiga saker. Tänk/gör och färdigt först - ge ut skiva sen - är ett grundtips.
Detta är på gränsen. Vissa grejor är uppenbarligen inte färdigtänkta eller har ett budskap tänkt för en publik. Men andra är helt underbara:
Bat for Lashes - Two Suns
Börja gärna med: Moon and Moon
OliT skrev:Kul att du gillar den! Jag googlade runt lite, och det verkar vara Howe Gelb som sjunger.Bill50x skrev:OliT skrev:Carice van Houten - See you on the ice
Väldigt trevlig skiva! Är det Adam Cohen som sjunger på spår 7 Broken Shells?
Ladan skrev:Säga vad man vill om genren men denna skiva ligger mig varmt om hjärtat, med brutalt ärliga texter som skulle få Lykke Li att verkar frireligiös.
spotify:user:tr%c3%b6tt:playlist:4jbcgKMuHQ0wNN0vVhHqW5
On 2007’s Night Drive album, Oregon outfit Chromatics’ jump from noisy no-wavers to synth-pop sophisticates was as bold as it was terrifically executed. What’s more, their svelte harking back to Giorgio Moroder and Arthur Russell prefigured the indie set’s move towards Sapphic electronic textures at the close of the decade, and helped make the Italians Do It Better label a going hipster concern.
If the line’s gone dead since then, that’s because Kill for Love comes with a bit of a knotty back-story. In short, Jewel was approached about soundtracking the superlative Ryan Gosling vehicle Drive, and composed a score only to learn the job had been given to Cliff Martinez. Some of Jewel’s material was reworked on Music for an Imaginary Film, a sprawling collaboration with Chromatics drummer Nat Walker recorded under the name of Symmetry and released last December.
That might seem like a slight return after five years away, but Kill for Love should go a long way to easing concerns. The band’s fourth album extends to a movie-worthy runtime, offering evidence that Jewel is using an increasingly filmic canvas even with the day job.
The results are little short of breathtaking. With its lonesome, auto-tuned vocals poured longingly over a slow disco beat, These Streets Will Never Look the Same sounds like Gaspar Noé’s ghostly skycam that stalks the city rooftops in Enter the Void. A subtle transfiguration of Neil Young’s Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black) continues their run as a fine covers band (check their takes on Kate Bush and Bruce Springsteen tracks if you haven’t already).
The title track offers one of the record’s most conventionally pop moments by way of M83-ish bloops and an unusually exuberant, New Order-like melody line. Likewise, Lady slides like cityscape reflections over the windshield and boasts production worthy of Fever Ray’s still awesome debut, though the intentions may be different. Both are capably handled by singer Ruth Radelet, who is skilled at letting just a whisker of emotion shine through her blank-electro facade.
The band sounds equally at home on extended ambient pieces like the darkly pulsing Broken Mirrors, and the sodium-streetlamp haze of gorgeous slow numbers like The River. Most pleasingly of all, while the record works just fine as an ad for Jewel’s considerable soundtrack smarts, Kill for Love is also one of the finest records to surface this year.
-- http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/reviews/pcnv
We begin in the woods: an antagonistic and strange relationship unfolds. She is being hunted. She is a bad seed. She says, “take my body home,” and it sounds both pleading and assured. She has been marked, and now she searches for a home.
This is the journey of Cold Specks’ debut album, I Predict a Graceful Expulsion. The title of the album, which is sung like a mantra in “Elephant Head” (one of the album’s highlights), is expressive of the paradox that haunts these songs: how does one get rejected, forcefully at that, and land gracefully?
The album attempts to find comfort in two opposing forces: death and home, or at least what they figuratively represent, but neither is ultimately the answer. These songs invoke both burial and blessing; coffin and bed. All are assimilated, unified—these wounds are rubbed with salt and sugar.
All of these questions are irrevocably entwined with religious doubt. In “Blank Maps,” singer Al Spx defiantly asserts that she is a “goddamn believer,” but the key assertion here is that “we were good children.” Spx wants to believe that this was for a purpose, and not simply as a means of appeasing a higher power. The confusion of the record is not whether or not to believe, but what to believe in.
The familial preoccupies much of the content of these songs; there are direct addresses to the figures of a mother, father, and brother, and “Winter Solstice” is built upon a repetition of the phrase “sons and daughters.” This in consideration with the frequent references to a loss of and search for a home imply a disconnection from one’s roots; the album is not explicit as to why, but there is some amount of bloodletting being done here.
As for the music: firstly, there is Spx’s otherworldly voice, which is somehow both timeless and markedly new. The rest of the band knows to builds around this voice, often keeping their distance so as not to intrude on it, which make the moments when they erupt all the more captivating, as in the chorus of “Heavy Hands” and the latter half of “Steady,” as well as the much-discussed and stunning single “Holland.” The touchstones here are crisp guitar and piano lines, steady kick-drum beats, and ethereal choral singing, used to varying degrees with horn and string sections.
It should be stated that the obsession that this record has with death is not necessarily morbid; in many ways, it recognizes it as part of a larger cycle—one which is reflected in the structure of the album itself: we come full circle with her. It is more apparent in “Lay Me Down” that these songs are not so much about death as they are about change. The record works more as a kind of eulogy: Spx is leaving something behind, and these songs are the catharses of watching it burn away, shedding a skin, and transforming into something new.
-- http://www.southernsouls.ca/cold-specks ... expulsion/
Instrumental Tourist, by Tim Hecker and Daniel Lopatin (Oneohtrix Point Never), is the first chapter of SSTUDIOS (Software Studio Series), a new venture in the Software Recording Co.’s expanding catalog. SSTUDIOS invites artists in the field of electronic music to create collaborative works of quality and vision.
With a deliberate focus on source material of a synthetic and mimetic nature, Hecker and Lopatin designed a sound palette from the acoustic resonance of digitally-sourced “Instruments of the World.” The intrepid cowboy sound-voyager was inverted, forging a synthesis with the Ecstatic Other; digested exotic instrumentation fuel the tepid journeys of a sampler tourist. Instead of leaning heavily on the proverbial Malian time signature’s sublime truth, Instrumental Tourist pictures the synthetic veneer of exoticism as pushed air captured by oscillating ribbons.
The studio meetings between Hecker and Lopatin were conducted to mimic the tropes and techniques of jazz-based improvisation, with little preparation prior. In an era where electronic production can produce the totalities of symphonic effect, and solo sound composition is easier than ever, the necessity of collaborative work is questioned. Could their own respective artistic pursuits be neatly compiled and encapsulated by the very sound bank paradigm that they’ve exploited? Why work together at all?
Instrumental Tourist finds two artists transcending their respective visions by agreeing to a new language, one which verbalizes their mutual infatuations and apprehensions with the systems they’ve both built and are buried by.
-- http://www.mexicansummer.com/shop/tim-h ... l-tourist/
Julia Holter is one of the most singular female artists we've encountered from the current groundswell of American indies. Leaving Records is possibly an unusual home for her latest, but then again, what's "usual" about Sun Araw, Matthewdavid or Dem Hunger? Her high concept fifth release, 'Tragedy' is based on the Ancient Greek play 'Hippolytus', and mixes elements of synth work with droning neo-classical strings, cloud-like ambience and dreamily surreal vocals, almost like an amalgam of Robert Ashley, Maria Minerva and Laurie Anderson. There's very little else out there right now with this sort of ambition, and most importantly, such a shockingly effective sense of wonder. A stunning, stunning album and an absolute must regardless of the kind of music you usually listen to.
-- http://boomkat.com/cds/502037-julia-hol ... cd-edition
Evocative and stirring stuff from Jessica Bailiff, returning with her first solo album proper since 2008's Feels Like Home. We're in classic Kranky territory here, at least in broad terms, with a washed-out, shoegazey feel pervading throughout, guitar sounds manifesting not so much as riffs as plumes and wisps - but Bailiff's vocals give the whole a presence and strength of character that's often lacking in music from this gaseous sphere. 'Your Ghost Is Not Enough' sounds like Grouper gone (sort of) pop, with a touch of Julee Cruise's Roadhouse balladry and Dreamscape's gauzy indie worked into its matrix too. 'Take Me To The Sun' is a tribute to MBV's Loveless in all but name, while the prismatic psych of 'Violet & Roses' looks to Broadcast and the United States Of America for inspiration. Crystalline vocals and a sparse, dub-wise backing make 'This Is Real' a dead ringer for Gilbert & Lewis-produced AC Marias; 'Slowly' nudges us briefly into cosmic Americana territory, and closer 'Firefly' comes over like a more world-weary, narced-out and reverb-heavy take on C86 jangle.
-- http://boomkat.com/vinyl/570676-jessica ... of-the-sky
FalloutBoy skrev:Här är iaf ett livstecken från mig
TCM skrev:phloam skrev:FalloutBoy skrev:Här är iaf ett livstecken från mig
Härligt att se, vågar påstå att jag inte är ensam om att ha undrat och saknat tipsen ::)
Inte ensam sa Bull
Koffe skrev:Jocelyn Pook - Untold Things. Grymt! Lyssna nu. Annars skjuter jag valpen.
phloam skrev:FB, särskilt tack för Tim Hecker och Julia Holter, alldeles lagom experimentellt för mig
Crystal Castles har just släppt sitt tredje album, (III), efter de två tidigare succéerna från 2008 och 2010. Det senaste albumet spelade de in i Warszawa, Polen och redan i somras fick vi ett smakprov på albumet när de la upp en kryptisk youtube-video till låten Plague. Duon, som består av Alice Glass och Ethan Kath, har med det tredje Crystal Castles-albumet bevisat att deras experimentella och elektroniska musik fortfarande trollbinder och fascinerar tusentals fans. Men det är inte enbart musiken som chockar; duon har också ett gott rykte om sig att ställa till med helt galna liveshower. Frontfiguren och sångerskan Alice Glass har för många blivit en ikon med sitt speciella, gotiska och ganska slitna yttre. Deras fans är hederligt hängivna till bandet, men hängivenheten går åt båda hållen. Under en period när de turnerade med det andra albumet bröt Alice benet mitt och till skillnad från andra artister ställde dem inte in konserter. Istället fortsatte de turnera trots att hon inte kunde gå ordentligt och showerna blev ännu mer spexiga.
Crystal Castles bildades i Toronto, Kanada 2004 när Ethan träffade den då 15 år gamla Alice som redan var med i ett punkband. Han såg något väldigt speciellt i Alice och bad henne sjunga ett antal låtar han hade gjort. Efter det hade duon inte mycket kontakt med varandra men Ethan lade, utan Alices vetskap, upp låtarna på nätet och låtarna började öka i popularitet. Snart var det ingen tvivel om att duon hade gjort något speciellt. Åtta år senare är duon precis lika heta som de var innan om inte mer och det efterlängtade tredje albumet har mottagits väldigt bra av både fans och kritiker. Alice Glass berättar bl.a. i en intervju att inspirationen bakom albumet kommer från många av de hemskheter som hennes vänner gick igenom sedan de skrev det andra albumet och det centrala temat i albumet kretsar kring begreppet förtryck. De flesta av låtarna är inspelade på endast en tagning då bandet anser att den första tagningen alltid ger det råaste intrycket. Crystal Castles har lyckats behålla det mystiska och speciella elektroniska ljudet som kännetecknar dem men har ändå mognat tillräckligt i sitt musikskapande för att skapa något som inte låter precis likadant som deras tidigare material. För många kan deras musik uppfattas som flera minuter av ett konstiga hopkok av ljud men om man lyssnar riktigt noga kan man hitta spår av rena melodier, distinkta betas och poetiska texter. Det finns verkligen en djupare mening med musiken som man finner om man låter de olika låtarna sjunka in och växa hos en. Crystal Castles är ett band som möjligtvis i framtiden kommer att betraktas som ett tidstypiskt kännetecken för vår generation och med det senaste albumet har de visat att de verkligen kan leverera bra musik.
-- http://radarzine.com/2012/11/crystal-castles-iii/
AUN are a peculiar monster. The Quebecois duo of Martin Dumais and Julie Leblanc isn’t all that easy to categorise, as they’ve drifted between guitar drones and synth-based ambience since the inception of the band. Two things are certain, though: one, they don’t sound like anything else you may have heard, and two, they aren’t afraid to experiment. Yet despite the fairly wide palette of sounds they’ve treated us with thus far, they’ve always been pitch black in heart and soul.
Well, not quite so this time around. “Phantom Ghost” is nothing like AUN’s previous material; in fact, if there’s ever been a moment when this sort of music could break into the relative mainstream, this album would be it. The absence of deep drones, the addition of female vocals and disco-like beats… Afraid? Don’t be. This is no meagre attempt at reaching a wider audience. This is melancholy unleashed in all its facets: bittersweet emotions, psychedelic dreams, flashbacks of vague memories, only somewhat based on actual events. It’s a record that’s utterly emotional. This isn’t to say that all the dark magic AUN’s so good at creating has vanished. Not at all; for such a radically different-sounding record, “Phantom Ghost” has retained surprisingly much of that signature sound that the band is famous for. Somehow, although I can’t really put my finger on it, amidst that torrent of emotions unleashed upon the listener, there’s a distinctly AUN-ish vibe. You’ll recognise the same band that made “Black Pyramid” (Cyclic Law, 2010), just in a much more recognisable setting. This is one of the album’s most bizarre points – the band’s music has never sounded so accessible, yet, at the same time, there’s a whole new complexity to it.
The album opener, “Phantom”, has subtle female vocals at the forefront, backed by subtle synth-laden melodies throughout, instantly hinting that something has changed in the sound. Just when you’ve adjusted your senses accordingly to embrace the new sonic space, “Out Of Mind” explodes almost violently, like a supernova of creativity held back for too long. This erupting volcano of a song bustles with fragments of emotions just popping up here and there completely randomly, moving in all directions, while lavish streams of intensity rush down to engulf everything. The fact that it has an actual beat, rhythm and something of a chorus makes it so surprising and hypnotic, so intricately layered and dense, that there’s no chance you don’t end up completely transfixed and captivated by it. The rest of the album is essentially this eruption slowly subsiding, becoming calmer and calmer with each passing track, although this reduction in intensity doesn’t necessarily mean the same in complexity. It feels like browsing through an old photo-album, really – the actual photo is only half of what you’re really seeing. Think Celer, and you’ll have a fairly good idea of what to expect. Once the album has reached its end, AUN’s shift in sound will be the last thing on your mind. You’ll be too consumed by thoughts of how beautiful an experience you’ll have just witnessed.
Remember all those bands who’ve tried (and failed) to justify their self-imposed commercialisation by breaking the mould, freeing themselves from the shackles of their genre or evolving musically? Well, AUN have done all that, without compromising their integrity one bit. Every single note of this record drips with sincerity as much as with emotions. You can hear that this is what feels right for AUN at the moment. “Phantom Ghost” is dark, but a different kind of dark. The beautiful, masochistic, familiar dark. Why, just look at the cover.
-- http://www.fortheinnermost.com/2011/09/ ... ghost.html
Cold Showers, a band formed in Los Angeles, CA in 2010, fuses the brash power of the shoegazers with the smoky compulsions of the no-wavers—Cold Showers would fit comfortably within the dusty catalog of Factory Records, if only for an industrial subtlety in terms of electronics and acoustics. A piston-precision rhythm section drives all these loud, crafty pop songs. This is the pervasive pop mode against which Cold Showers cast themselves, but they aren’t fired in steel to the darkside. Founding members Jonathan Weinberg, Jessie Clavin, Brian Davila, Renee Adams and Chris King, added since, have a lumbering, sometimes terrifying beast of a band—we’d be remiss not to follow its caustic, addictive trek.
-- http://www.daisrecords.com/
Tender New Signs is the kind of record that exists where experiences connect to the senses, where memories emerge and bring with them all the feeling and imagery that had been resting just below the surface of consciousness. It’s the title of Tamaryn’s second album, in partnership with her longtime collaborator and San Francisco native Rex John Shelverton. Informing the layers and textures found on their debut full length The Waves, this new opus takes a bold step forward in structure and form. With it’s sky-gazing pop songs and impressionistic sketches of once well-guarded emotions, Tamaryn and Rex have created a defining work.
The roots of this musical partnership started over a decade ago. “Rex and I met in New York City where I was living in the early ‘00s,” says Tamaryn. “We bonded instantly and over time started sharing ideas for songs. Eventually we began to collaborate on some recordings, traveling between coasts until the project inspired me to move to California indefinitely.” These activities culminated in a slew of singles and the Led Astray, Washed Ashore EP. In 2010, Mexican Summer released Tamaryn’s critically acclaimed LP The Waves, a collision of hypnotic psychedelia and bittersweet dream pop.
Tender New Signs’ nine songs showcase stadium-sized guitars, surging with softly-lit, languid melodies and a familiar sense of purpose anchored by Tamaryn’s intimate vocal delivery and unmistakable presence. The choice to continue self production seems to be key in persevering their sound. Tamaryn explains how the writing process is intrinsically linked to the recording process, “Rex finds that getting in the studio and taking things apart to adjust the subtleties of their sonics inspires him to want to play guitar more in general, and therefore is probably the biggest influence on how we make music. We like the idea of seeing how far we can take what we have, and we work best together without too many other distractions. The Waves found us in this ‘minimal wall of sound,’ so we took that style and applied it to these more defined song structures.”
Tracks like “Heavenly Bodies” are anthems of surrender and reflection, while “The Garden” evokes those tiny moments of change when numbness gives way to feeling, and projects them into gigantic rock and roll epiphanies. Tender New Signs creates its own hope and transforms it into something sublime. “In making this record, I hoped to transcend the mundane world, by living in a new one of my own creation, ” Tamaryn says, “now it’s time to invite everyone else in it with me.”
-- http://www.mexicansummer.com/shop/tamar ... new-signs/
To put it simply, King Dude’s Love may be one of the first truly American neofolk albums. Too often entrenched in the trappings of traditional English folk, neofolk artists have lived in the shadow of Death in June, Sol Invictus, Current 93, and the other monoliths of the genre for far too long. Undergoing a bit of a renaissance, artists such as Cult of Youth, Waldteufel, and Skurv are taking neofolk and twisting it into their own craven images. Influenced by tropicalia, punk, black metal, and anything else that may cross their ears, theres a generative spirit in all of these bands (and many more) that’s breathing life back into a genre that seemed to be dying with the retirement of the old guard. In the case of King Dude ( TJ Cowgill of Book of Black Earth, and creator of the brand Actual Pain), Love plays out like a Smithsonian Folkway recorded at an Appalachian Satanic commune. Dais records cites Woodie Guthrie and Johnny Cash as two prime influences on this record, but after a few listens it’s clear that his record is a paean to the apocalyptic spirit that inhabits the dark corners of this countries traditional music. There’s murder ballads, love songs to ghosts, spirituals about lucifer; though Cowgill hails from the rainsoaked Pacific Northwest, Love feels like a journey around the frost rimed back roads of all this countries forgotten towns.
-- http://www.cvltnation.com/love-king-dudereview/
Just over one year after the release of his first vocal album Hello Friends, Goodbye Friends, 23 year old Will Samson presents a brand new album of his own personal fragile blend of experimental folk and ambient electronics. The record began its life in Summer 2011, whilst Samson was living in a tiny bedroom in a shared apartment with 5 other people. One of whom was Joel Danell – a wonderful musician from Sweden making music under the pseudonym of ‘Musette’. When Joel moved back to Stockholm towards the end of the summer, he kindly left behind a collection of old cassettes, a Tascam 8-track and a cassette deck for tape mastering – it was then that Will set to work on some new songs. Floating in a gentle haze of melodies, soft white noise & intimate tape crackles, Balance manages to retain the spirit of the aged cassettes and equipment it was made with, whilst offering something altogether unique & new.
-- http://boomkat.com/cds/586398-will-samson-balance
Brian Borcherdt is best known for his role with admired Canadian electronica merchants Holy Fuck who have swept the world with their melodic and ambient sounds. Along the way he’s also managed some more lo-fi guitar-based singing and songwriting, as in the two Remains of Brain Borcherdt records and the ulitimate escape into the woods of 2008 solo outing Coyotes.
He has now teamed up with producer Leon Taheny to form Dusted, and the album Total Dust is the result. Recorded at leisure in Taheny’s garage/studio it occupies a musical landscape that’s many miles away from Holy Fuck. It has a lo-fi, ambient pastoral grunge tone to it, driven by fuzzy guitar and equally fuzzed-up vocals, with lyrics that are almost alt.country in their sense of longing and isolation, and tunes that creep up and grab you through the complex soundscape to stick in your mind.
The tone is set by the opener ‘All Comes Down’. With its Wistful high voice and an aching tune in the chorus, loss is in the air. This segues into ‘(Into the) Atmosphere’ which manages to combine a joyous catchy chorus and jangly guitar hook with an edgy atmosphere. ’Cut them Free’ is a hand-held whirling indie-cinematic song about something disturbing in the trees and in the air between two people. This slightly dreamy lyrical soundscape continues with songs like ‘Bruises’ – full of haunting melody and longing – and ‘Pale Light’, a beautiful ode of regret and incomprehension at the fizzling out of a relationship. ‘Property Lines’ gives a panoramic view of a huge landscape, with catching melody and guitar riffs that worm their way into your consciousness – like the best kind of Neil Young but with a dreamier voice. The title track ‘Dusted’ perhaps best sums up the record – a howling coyote chorus and brooding guitar strumming. The album ends with a quiet ‘There Somehow’ with an almost absent-minded fade out.
This is a great collection whose gritty grunge/pastoral sound and switches from huge vistas to acute personal detail will keep you gripped throughout. Underneath the fuzz there’s real yearning and attractive melody that burns through like sunshine in mist. One to be listened to a lot.
-- http://www.thelineofbestfit.com/reviews ... ust-101762
Grand statements re how Portico Quartet are indubitably the success-bound new faces of jazz are ostensibly bandied about non-stop whenever they release a new album. Sure, they’ve come a long way: gone are the years and months spent busking outside the National Theatre; auspicious debut 'Knee-Deep In The North Sea' was nominated for a Mercury. But the crits’ predictions have never really foretold the truth: follow-up 'Isla' passed most of us by and the band has never truly broken down the barrier between jazz and pop. No one really ‘got’ mesmeric post-jazz.
But fast forward to now and the eponymous 'Portico Quartet' may have just flouted all that. For what we have here is an album which grabs the zeitgeist but still stays true to its roots: callipygously shuffling, painlessly seguing, mingling the darkest rags ‘n’ bones of dubstep, d ‘n’b and off-kilter jazz, all the while interweaving heck loads of new-found textures and electronics. It’s a forward-thinking game-change which feels rich, warm and – quite simply – astounding.
Fleeting opener ‘Window Seat’ is ambient but not exactly easy on the ear – creaking strings and spectral synths give way to clattering layers of fuzz. It’s spooky and cinematic like a curt Phillip Glass piece but as if its creator was brought up in a world teeming with Oneohtrix Point Nevers and Laurel Halos. Single ‘Ruins’, meanwhile, led by their trademark use of reverberating double bass and hang (the latter a 21st century Swiss-developed tuned steel drum-ish instrument), brings in a Jamie XX beat before a celestial tenor sax line soars high up above. Everything is beaten into a glorious pulp as the tune then climaxes in peals of Colin Stetson-worthy sax squeals.
And there is no subsequent chaff. Every track on this record is a standout, be it the booming bass swings and arpeggiating synths of ‘Spinner’, the 9-minute nuclear cacophony ‘Rubidium’, the croaky, morose narratives of guest vocalist Cornelia on ‘Steepless’ (“at the end of times…”, she ruefully repeats) or the wonky grooves of ‘City Of Glass’. In short – this record is a playful, daring and capricious listen, and one of the first truly remarkable records of 2012.
-- http://www.thisisfakediy.co.uk/articles ... o-quartet/
Home is the third album by Olan Mill.
Olan Mill is the recording project of UK composer and producer Alex Smalley, who to date has received rapturous acclaim for his work that holds a sublime measure between the realms of modern neo-classical composition and ambience. On Home, Smalley has mined his most expansive territory yet to create a thrillingly evocative and deeply felt body of work.
The tender clusters of sound that have defined Olan Mill’s tonal space take on a new soaring quality in using voice to propel Home with a new emotional surge. Alongside soprano Patricia Boynton featuring throughout, Smalley has assembled an ensemble of musicians playing woodwind, piano, pipe organ and violin to augment his guitar and field recordings. Together they combine for both moments of heart-rending intimacy and bursts of flowering, floating orchestral sound. Inspired by travels abroad, Home is a both an urban and exotic panorama, keening with waves of joyous energy and direct pulse, as well as the ultimate comedown from such pure euphoria. Recorded by Smalley in his home – a place lived in by his family in generations past – the album has an earthy air that magically weaves through its otherworldy radiance to portray the compelling dynamic at the heart of Olan Mill.
-- http://www.preservation.com.au/product/olan-mill-home
Under the guise of Grand Salvo, Paddy Mann has established himself as a songwriter of unique heart and soul with a depth of lyricism matched by a warm but widescreen musical vision. 2009’s Soil Creatures sealed his reputation, being his most stark and concise statement yet. With Slay Me In My Sleep, Mann has crafted a song cycle narrative similar to his epic fairytale from 2008, Death. An exploration of time and memory, it is a tale of star-crossed lovers. A delinquent boy breaks into an old woman’s home and discovers an antique photo of a girl, instantly falling in love. When he returns again for the photo the old woman is waiting, and so it begins...
Set to expansive and joyous instrumentation, Slay Me In My Sleep is a lavishly decorated and unabashed romantic melodrama. Intricate percussion, harp, recorder and woodwind play to the quick, restless pulse of youth, while in the sparer settings cello, gentle guitar and delicate piano reflect the melancholy of old age and longing. Slay Me In My Sleep also marks the first use of an electric guitar in any Grand Salvo recording.
Slay Me In My Sleep was largely recorded and co-produced in Berlin by composer Nils Frahm, who has worked extensively with other singular artists such as Peter Broderick and Greg Haines. Frahm's exquisite piano work appears throughout, alongside vocal contributions by Heather Woods Broderick, Laura Jean and Luluc’s Zoe Randall.
After the masterful Soil Creatures, Paddy Mann has once again extended himself on Slay Me In My Sleep, telling a tale of strange love with vivid detail, whimsy and beauty, in the special way only he knows how.
-- http://www.preservation.com.au/product/ ... n-my-sleep
phloam skrev:"Iswayski says ur good bread"
http://open.spotify.com/album/3LAELOKu3ANzThkzufje1Y
Detta är en samling..... eh.... weird... varierat...... umm..... äh, lyssna istället.
FalloutBoy - långa titlar, det gillas (Gran Salvo) Tack som alltid
It's not every day you think to drop Religious Knives, Stereolab, The Velvet Underground and Peaking Lights in the same sentence but that's exactly what Beau Devereaux has done with Samantha Glass. After a handful of well-realized tapes on Digitalis, Golden Cloud and Not Not Fun, 'Mysteries from the Palomino Skyliner' is Devereaux first 'proper' album under the moniker and shows the gamut of his influence and reach. The production is skeletal and artfully restrained, but under the flurry of bitcrushed hats and a wave of syrupy synthesis there are real songs to be found. Like Stereolab, the lounge-esque production gives a melancholy resonance, but 'Mysteries...' really takes off when Devereaux uses his voice, lending the album balance and a cool, dry cynicism. An unusually downbeat album for Not Not Fun, but one that pays off in spades.
-- http://boomkat.com/downloads/570416-sam ... o-skyliner
zidanefromhell skrev:The knife släpper ny singel. Riktigt mörkt mystiskt och bra. Lite DAF möter Aphex twin.
Talvihorros is London based composer Ben Chatwin’s study of guitar and electronics. Numerous techniques are used to coax a myriad of sounds from both acoustic and electric guitars. Home-made and vintage electronic equipment are used to loop, process and manipulate improvised material into dense and dark sound collages.
What started out as a personal challenge to make an album in 7 days grew into something else entirely. Over a year in the making, and expanding his trademark guitar sound with drums, strings, bells, organs and synthesisers, 'And It Was So' features contributions from fellow label mates Field Rotation (violin) and Petrels (cello) along with tour partner Jordan Chatwin (drums/percussion) and long time collaborator Anais Lalange (viola).
If last years album 'Descent Into Delta' was reminiscent of plunging into the murky depths, his latest offering 'And It Was So' evokes the expansiveness, dynamicism and density of the cosmos. Attempting to find order in chaos is something Talvihorros has been striving to achieve over the past three albums and he has never balanced these elements so beautifully.
'Let Us Be Thankful We Have Commerce' was the inaugral, cassette-only release on London-based publishing house My Dance The Skull. It was composed as a response to the worrying grasp of consumerism over much of western society. Inspired by the first few Talvihorros live improvisational shows a small, primitave set-up consisting of guitar, mixer, casio keyboard, effects and percussion were used to create two long, vibrant and constantly shifting pieces. It now sees the light of day again as a limited 10'' rerelease via denovali records
Merging the textural noise of Tim Hecker with the psychedelic, guitar soundscapes of artists such as Barn Owl and Sun Araw.
-- http://denovali.com/talvihorros/
‘The Shattered Light’ is many things, all at once – the maiden release of a new imprint, a welcome return after a self-imposed silence, a sincerely personal project many years in the making, a tribute to loss, a reversion to a simpler technique. Also most importantly, music made for the sake of it, free of expectation.
The lengthy six tracks are the rumbling hum of a grand machine, cogs of plaintive guitar squall fed slowly through fizzing tape reels. A recent review used the word “icy” in relation to the tone; totally accurate, likening it to the detail of the intricate patterns of ice you scrape from your windscreen on a winter morning as heavy frost crunches underfoot.
Amongst many highlights, the twenty-one minute behemoth title track – buzzing hornets of choral guitar that dart between howling noise and anaesthetic silence. The album makes demands, many tracks requiring vigilant attention to be understood on their own terms. Within the hertz-y grumble of “The Truant Heart” the detail is startling, but if listened to without full concentration the effect is lost; a flickering trick of the light.
A Sistine Chapel of sound, needing readjustment of depth perception to appreciate; the ceiling, walls, windows, tiles, paint, architraves and tapestries all need the listener to stop and look up, to be quiet and stand still. When the effect breaks at the 1:30 minute mark in “Seas Of Silence”, the thud of returning to Earth is audible.
The project was completed with a self-imposed constraint: no digital trickery. It seems hard to believe, listening to the results. The far corners of the record have the textural complexity of diligent digital layering, but are in fact the actual physical depth of fragmentary sketches, captured without revision.
-- http://www.fluid-radio.co.uk/2012/07/ia ... red-light/
Nestled under textured loops, there’s a sense of doom tethered to the dripping drones underlying Jakub Alexander’s ambient project, Heathered Pearls. The Polish-born Brooklyn transplant stitches a flecked tapestry of sounds with Loyal, steeped with intricacies and a restless fury underneath the surface.
An aesthetic and sonic unity dominates Loyal, from the cover art depicting Alexander’s own mother and aunt to the waves of ambience in all its forms, oscillating from distant white noise to pleasantly present in a seamless matter of seconds. Like building trust in someone, Loyal comes on slow. The more listens, the more the you become bound not only to the foundations of what loyalty is, but also the strained seams that challenge the binds themselves.
Two opposing forces dominate Loyal: ambience and noise. Yet the two fold gently into each other as opposed to becoming dueling forces, balancing handsomely to create what has to be a dream. The dripping keys of “The Worship Bell” fade in like a barely visible mist that envelops you whole, while the gossamer drones of “Steady Veil” and the trance-inducing lulls of “Ringing Temple” warp the senses much like fellow noise contemporary Infinite Body’s roaring drones do.
But it’s the quiet ones you have to watch out for, as the subtle elements of the softer tracks on Loyal are the most unsettling. Muffled keys in “Docile Touch” resonate with such visceral effect that it’s nearly uncomfortable, like standing in a room devoid of furniture. The volume of the instruments in “Precious Dive” increases but in the most minuscule of increments. By the time you realize where you are, you’re already submerged six feet under a cacophony of dissonance and distortion.
Loyalty’s spins are immersive and pining, and demand much of a listener who’s more invested in the search rather than the convenience. A sort of sonic diver himself, Heathered Pearls mines his craft at the darkest, lowest points possible — resulting in pearls whose luster borders on frighteningly beautiful as opposed to the delicacy they may initially imply.
-- http://consequenceofsound.net/2012/12/a ... rls-loyal/
Mackenzie Scott's voice conveys raw, urgent desperation, the sort we flinch from instinctually and are attuned, on a primal level, to heed. It is an "I haven't eaten in three days" sound, pitched between stray-dog growl, moan, and sigh. If this voice appeared on a 3am voicemail, your blood would freeze. Like its owner, it fairly lunges to be heard.
Scott, a 22-year-old from Nashville, records as Torres. This is her first album. She recorded it mostly in single live-band takes, close-mic'ed, and many of the album's 10 stark, stunning songs are set for nothing more than a single electric guitar. The lyrics are full of tricky, messy subject matter-- loaded poses of female need, abjection, subjugation, dominance-- and Scott handles it deftly, furtively, like hot stones slipped from palm to palm, or a lighter flicked under a wrist. Her sure touch with these explosive subjects immediately puts her in the league of artists like PJ Harvey or EMA. Like them, she paints in whole-hand smears when the moment calls for it. Her ability to capture and sustain a single a spellbinding mood conjures the hypnotic hurt of the earliest, best Songs:Ohia or Cat Power. Her record is an overwhelming rush of feeling, and it connects with throat-seizing immediacy.
"Honey, while you were ashing in your coffee/ I was thinking of telling you've what you done to me," she murmurs on "Honey", over three muted implications of power chords. It feels like a depiction of a long-unhappily married couple, maybe, confined to a pair of armchairs, the woman silently glaring a hole in the man's oblivious head. The bass in Scott's voice deepens as the guitar flares, but the song never crosses over from "thinking of telling" to catharsis. "Everything hurts, but its fine, it's fine/ it happens all the time," she mutters; the woman remains rigid in her chair, teeth clenched, leaving claw marks on the arm rests. Often on Torres, Scott plays a coiled, hurt figure willing herself to find the courage to transform into a 50 Ft Queenie, and not quite succeeding.
The songs on Torres, accordingly, are not anthems. Scott recorded the album with minimal resources-- a touch of keyboard here, a cello stab there-- and the skeletal backing band feels less like an unfortunate imitation than the album's single best decision. Songs build and build and build and then die, gazing longingly at exhilarating emotional peaks just outside their reach. Like the woman in "Honey", they would explode, if only they had a little help.
The feeling is echoed everywhere in the lyrics, which take baleful stock of emotional wreckage like so many groceries strewn open on the lawn. "Moon & Back” is addressed from a mother to a baby she gave up: "I'm writing to you from 1991, the year I gave you to a mama with a girl and a son," she croons. Check the year and do the math; this isn't Scott’s baby, but this feels like her story nonetheless. "Little baby, if you're reading this/ You're probably all grown, the way most babies do/ I'm sure your eyes are still that pretty blue," she sings, and by the time the song reaches its emotional center-- "Your new family knows/ I did this all for you/ maybe one day, you'll believe them too"-- the song has has joined the Pretenders' "Kid" in a devastating lineage of songs: in which beleaguered moms sadly explain the inexplicable to their children.
The songs veer between rangy indie rock and hushed folk, unspooling in unhurried five and -six-minute lengths. They never insist on their structure, but eventually it becomes clear that they dip and surge at odd, intuitive moments, suggesting a creative songwriting mind. The music on "Chains" is little more than a single, baleful groan of cello, while scraped guitar strings that feel like ligaments tearing ratchets up tension in the background. The song drops off into a muffled-heartbeat blankness of a drum thud; Scott murmurs "Don't give up on me just yet," her voice hooded. The moment hangs, and you wait for the curtain to drop. It doesn't; the end comes two minutes later in a rude snip of the tape that startles me even at the tenth hearing. The mesmerizing lamp-glow of finger-picked guitar that opens "November Baby" could have shown up on an early Modest Mouse record. It is supported by nothing more than a handful of bass guitar notes, and each one hits at a moment of such breath-held sustained tension that it taps you in the solar plexus.
Corralling all of this is Scott's jugular-direct, impressionistic writing. She reels off gorgeous images like this one, which opens "November Baby": "His skin hangs on me like a lampshade/ keeping all my light at bay." Natural images fill her lyrics-- trees, rocks, seasons-- but they are subject to the same disappointments and rejections as the human world: on "When Winter's Over", leaves drop wearily off of sorrowful trees. On the closer "Waterfall", Scott eyes the ceaselessly tumbling water and sees suicide: "The rocks beneath they bare their teeth/ They all conspire to set me free/ I set my teeth and contemplate/ All the possibilities," she sings. The album fades out right before a Big Leap, fading out in a hum rather than a burst. As the tremolo'd guitar behind her dissolves into a fine mist, she either has or hasn't jumped, permamently suspended between doubt and release: "Do you ever make it halfway down and think 'god, I never meant to jump at all'?"
-- http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/17558-torres/
phloam skrev:Stopp där, detta är ett "ni måste lyssna!" tips, oavsett vem ni är eller vad ni gillar, bara klicka, orkar inte förklara varför, inget jobbigt bara nåt som sätter sig helt naturligt i hjärnan som bra musik gör:
http://open.spotify.com/track/32QzYpCg6ypP9vALdrh88a
...från detta album, ej på Spotify tyvärr (ännu)]
Formerly a knob-turner in the melodic noise rock band Parts & Labor, Dan Friel went solo with 2008's Ghost Town on Important Records and now moves over to Thrill Jockey for Total Folklore. He uses cheap keyboards, chained pedals, field recordings, and knick-knacks to brew his blown-out, euphoric tunes, and records them on an ancient PC. The precarious setup translates into punchy instrumentals instilled with the raw energy of punk. This is noise pop that doesn't stint on either side of the bargain, striking a perfect balance between cataclysmic and catchy.
Friel does not remotely fuck around in getting Total Folklore started: "Ulysses" is a beautiful bastard of a noise pop jam that lasts for almost 13 exhilarating minutes. From the filthy bass and shattering drums to his suspenseful squeals and wriggly neon accents, every part is vicious and volatile. Friel corrals all this unruliness with a heaving boom-clap beat that he keeps milling down to an earthquake-low rumble before rebuilding it differently, with audible allusions to prog, hair metal, trancy electro, and even 90s slacker rock.
Meting out earworms and explosive drops until the end, Friel earns every minute of "Ulysses". It fills a good third of the album, and you might imagine it would leave you worn out for the remainder. But "Ulysses" is so energizing that the shorter tracks seem to whiz by, with plenty of highlights among the desultory interstitials. There’s "Valedictorian", a sweetly screaming anthem in the style of M83; "Scavengers", with its nasty groove and drunkenly weaving pitch, and especially "Thumper", where a touching melody ripples rapidly.
Still, no one could be expected to sustain the maniacal force of "Ulysses" for longer than Friel already does, and the following tracks can't help but pale a little in its shadow. They settle into slightly more prosaic electro pop proportions and cadences, becoming more reliant on distortion than structural instability. Long rows of evenly pulsing notes paired with streaming harmonies make for a low-stakes default mode. But when an album's mild downsides are all relative to its overwhelming strengths, it's hard to complain.
-- http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/176 ... -folklore/
petersteindl skrev:Är det ingen annan än FoB som lyssnar på Spotify?
shifts skrev:Här är en lista med saker jag lyssnat mycket på den sista tiden:
Tropic of Cancer - Permissions of Love: http://open.spotify.com/album/1BIPkh7EXjvxD73ydK35m7
Vatican Shadow - Jordanian Descent: http://open.spotify.com/album/2armFdGbHpeHEitkwbTblo
Bloom - Quartz: http://open.spotify.com/album/6KG5v1SshD3AFn61aI7Pio
Time Attendant - Tournaments: http://open.spotify.com/album/2a9esAUIWaG5w5PF7udXfn
Min stora nya favorit är väl Raime:
Raime - Raime EP: http://open.spotify.com/album/4k7rIsxydPnXfQFE6rIcCd
shifts skrev:Atom™ - Pop HD. Uppföljare till coveralbumet Lassigue Bendthaus - Pop Artificielle. Som jag väntat!
Woodkid - The golden age. Pop och bombastisk sådan.
The passage of time seems to be on Alan Sparhawk’s mind. On “Plastic Cup”—which opens Low’s 10th album, The Invisible Way—the singer-guitarist imagines a far-flung future where archeologists are digging up the ruins of America. They unearth a plastic cup once used to take a piss test and wonder if it might have been the chalice of a king. As Sparhawk unspools his absurd yet haunting premise—one with some curious religious undertones that may or may not have to do with his Mormon faith—he makes his acoustic guitar rustle like a nest of insects. In the background, singer-drummer Mimi Parker takes the high harmony (while cooing the word “high”) and lays down a skeletal beat that marks off seconds as well as centuries.
This year, Sparhawk and Parker celebrate their 20th anniversary—not as a married couple, although they are, but as the core of Low. Since forming in 1993, the band has had its ups and downs, although it’s never stooped to making a bad record. In fact, Low’s been on a roll since 2005’s The Great Destroyer, in which the band rebirthed itself as a bona fide rock trio. Sparhawk and Parker have never lost their signature sense of spaciousness and melancholy, though, even after losing longtime bassist Zak Sally immediately following The Great Destroyer. But there’s a neat loop formed by The Invisible Way. While calling back to the group’s roots as a slowcore pioneer, the disc is mostly an unplugged affair. And where recent albums dabbled in distortion and synthesizers, Invisible is all about acoustic guitar and piano.
It’s also about that singular, heart-stopping Low hush. “Amethyst” converts piano chords into soft, wet snowfalls, even as it lets single notes poke out like naked twigs. Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy produces Low for the first time here, and it can’t be a coincidence that there’s a marked, if stark, country-rock tint to Invisible. On “Holy Ghost,” Parker comes on like Emmylou Harris at her most wounded; “Clarence White” nostalgically pays homage to the late member of The Byrds (along with, weirdly, Charlton Heston). “Four Score” weaves a symphony out of whispers, while “Mother” twangs plainly and poignantly.
By the time a distorted guitar finally makes an appearance halfway through the disc’s penultimate song, “On My Own,” it doesn’t feel like an intrusion. Instead, it’s as if Low has taken its tried-and-true songwriting formula—a slow buildup into a smoldering climax—and stretched it to the length of an entire album. And an entirely superb one. If that’s a metaphor for longevity, so be it.
-- http://www.avclub.com/articles/low-the- ... way,93911/
When Phosphorescent's Matthew Houck came off the road in support of his last album, 2010's Here's to Taking it Easy, he was mentally and physically exhausted, uncertain he wanted to make another Phosphorescent record. So he dispatched himself to Tulum, a small community in Mexico, where, he said, "I just checked out of my life for a while." As he took long solitary walks in the woods and swam, the pieces of what would become Muchacho began taking shape in his mind.
As with everything Houck does as Phosphorescent, from 2007's urban-rustic classic Pride to his 2009 Willie Nelson tribute record, this little story has an endearingly second-hand ring to it, as if Houck was obediently following the dictates of some dog-eared country-drifter playbook tucked in his back pocket. But this credulousness is also key to his music, which glows with simple reverence and purity. On Muchacho, Houck gathers together everything he's attempted-- beery, rollicking country-rock, haunted tribal hymnals, regret-soaked bar room heartbreak-- and fashions it into something close to a defining statement.
The first layer of Muchacho to savor is the simple gloriousness of its sound. Houck records his music largely alone, bringing in key players for individual parts but crafting the end results meticulously, in isolation. With the assistance of engineer John Agnello (Kurt Vile, Male Bonding), he has produced a bright, rich, warmly three-dimensional record, one that fuses the headed-for-the-big-city bar-rock signifiers of Here's to Taking it Easy with the night-sky awe of his earliest work. In fact, the album feels like a daylight version of Pride, a point hammered home by the contrast between that album's "Be Dark Night" and this one's two book-ending hymnals.
Accordingly, listening to Muchacho often feels like being warmed by afternoon sun as it floods your window. Every sound is lovingly recorded and given a cradle of space: The rounded pop of the drum track on "Terror in the Canyons (The Wounded Master)", paired with tumbles of upright piano and softly pattering bongos; the dryly whispering bowed harmonics that open "A Charm/A Blade"; the mournful little mariachi trumpet solo winding through the country waltz of "Down to Go". The first thing we hear on the record, introducing the opening "Sun" hymnal, is a dreamlike, welcoming major-key synth flutter. Those synths reappear on "Song For Zula", mingling with crystalline threads of pedal steel guitar, lifting country's signature instrument further heavenward.
At the center of all these majestic noises sits Houck himself. His voice is an unreliable instrument-- reedy, hiccuping, prone to cutting out entirely mid-note-- but he plies it heartbreakingly, never more than on Muchacho. On "Sun, Arise!" and "A New Anhedonia", he stacks himself into massed, keening layers, like a church full of choirboys. It’s a technique that he’s used before, but he has never sounded as overwhelming as he does here. The persistent catch in his voice, meanwhile gives him an unstable, baby chick fragility, magnifying the pathos of a line like, "See honey I am not some broken thing/ I do not lay here in the dark waiting for thee" from "Song For Zula".
One of Muchacho's main thematic concerns is redemption, and it’s one Houck explores with his customary ringing, allegorical language. Sometimes his writing grows so high-flown that it eludes sense: "I was the wounded master, and I was the slave… I was the holy lion, and I was the cage/ I was the bleeding actor, and I was the stage," he sings on "Terror in the Canyons (The Wounded Master)". More straightforward is this, from "Muchacho’s Tune": "See I was slow to understand/ This river’s bigger than I am/ It’s running faster than I can, though lord I tried." It’s a simple sentiment, pitched somewhere south of Zen koan and just north of heartland-rock cliche, and it maps out the coordinates of Houck’s world: It’s a place where well-worn sounds are the most beloved, where ideas and poses are settled into like old chairs. On Muchacho, Houck invests this world with new beauty and profundity.
-- http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/175 ... -muchacho/
shifts skrev:Mohammad - Som Sakrifis
Det bästa jag hört på otroligt länge. Cellodrone, med rötter i La Monte Young och Elaine Radigue.
Looking at the cover image for Jealous Heart – Mark Templeton’s first new album since his 2011 CD for Mort aux Vaches – you’d be forgiven for expecting something along the lines of Barn Owl’s expansive desert drones, Fabio Orsi’s crackling Alan Lomax homages or even William Fowler Collins’s pitch black country horror. The old sepia picture of a woman and her child on horseback is starkly framed, as though she is being spied on through a tattered flap of sacking by an amorous admirer, or about to be violently accosted by one of Cormac McCarthy’s bumpkin ne’er-do-wells. Bearing in mind Templeton’s serpentine trajectory since 2005′s Standing on a Hummingbird it would surprise few if he had actually ‘gone country’, but the music on Jealous Heart is far removed from his early excursions into pastoral ambience which did actually involve a little bit of banjo. It is hard to come up with a more fitting description of the music on Jealous Heart than Ezekiel Honig’s in the album’s press release. Honig knows this music as well as anyone having released the past four Templeton albums on his Anticipate label, and he uses the image of a ‘jazz club under the sea’ to nail the overriding atmosphere of this one.
The relatively up front nature of the manipulated vocal loops on Buffalo Coulee and Kingdom Key will strike listeners familiar with Templeton’s work first and foremost. Like Leyland Kirby before him, Templeton uses old vinyl to provide a haunted quality; the horns are buried deep beneath layers of silt and any pulse that may become evident sounds as though it’s emerging from bursting bubbles. Only during Once Were Down and the closing Straits are the horns allowed to emerge from the fog with any real clarity and the latter eventually breaks down to reveal the workings behind the entire album like the back of a grandfather clock being flipped open. Certainly there is far more detail to Jealous Heart than might be immediately apparent. Whereas Kirby’s music provides an everlasting tide of time it proves hopeless to try and swim against, Templeton makes sure there is enough variety in these relatively short pieces to maintain interest and reward any number of repeat listens. All manner of sonic clutter is thrown into the mix, with wooden knocks and metallic clangs ticking away beneath most of the record. Jealous Horse, for example, skits by on a series of wire-end fizzes and backwards vinyl scrapes, Sinking Heart introduces a repetitive piano phrase and – for the one time the album gets properly ‘out there’ – Carved and Cared For features a quite frightening squeal of rewound tape that sounds like a mutant baby being tickled. But nothing here is ever forced – Templeton trusts the listener’s patience enough to allow things to come through slowly and organically, and the outcome is surprisingly warm.
Although Jealous Heart represents another left turn for the restless Templeton, a nascent familiarity is still achieved through the album’s sewing box aesthetic. What Jealous Heart proves is that in the right hands these disparate elements can be combined in such magical ways as to result in something we recognise, and the more I listen, the clearer it all becomes; the subaquatic jazz club is certainly not one that is drowning – it is being conjured triumphantly to the surface with every single spin.
-- http://www.fluid-radio.co.uk/2013/02/ma ... ous-heart/
When Solar Year first released Waverly last June, they played hosts to a special pool party where underwater speakers released waves of their fluid, ambient 80s/electro sound collages to those brave enough to swim in a potentially dirty, communal tub. The immersive aquatic experience quickly informed us that the Montreal duo of Ben Borden and David Ertel seem to have a knack for creating atmospheric music that liberates the unconscious and celebrates terrestrial non-sequiturs.
For the album’s re-release, Borden and Ertel have revamped and re-mastered their original output with some new tracks, including Arbutus Records label mate Grimes lending her vocals on ‘Brotherhood’. The result is a spell-binding exploration into the throbbing melodic changes of Western religious and Gregorian choral music, 80s new wave and 4AD gloom pop with sharply pointed production – ‘psalmgaze’ if you want a label. Their label, not ours.
Solar Year have crafted a mysterious analogue persona for their band. Waverly distinctly celebrates ecclesiastical musical theory, the natural elements, and sacred spaces, set to a soundtrack of dreamy, electro-tinged pop. The band’s razor-sharp vision produces an intensity that’s difficult to extract yourself from, especially after the opener ‘Currents’. With Ertel’s fluid, heavily treated vocals and spacious production leading the way, Waverly is innovative, uplifting album, full of tension, subtle melodies and academic introspections into disparate genres of music. Traditional sounds are refracted and produced by experimental collaging that imbues tracks with way too many layers to count. While ‘Lines’ works with staccato, fractured bass synth rhythms, ‘Seeing The Same Thing’ pushes break-beats even farther to create a wide, spacious noise that fills the room. The entire LP is embedded with an architectural expansiveness, which is probably due to the fact that Solar Year recorded the album in a Buckminster Fuller-esque church.
Pitch-shifted vocals give all tracks a new mystic spiritualism, especially on ‘Abby & Amber’ where tinges of contemporary female vocalists, such as Julianna Barwick and Chelsea Wolfe, are referenced. Grimes inflects some vocals on ‘Brotherhood’ which, when paired with Ertel’s voice, creates a sombre, prophetic chorale experience. You and I never sang this kind of music at church – nor did any choir, for that matter.
When asked in a recent interview what image best represents the bands dynamic, Solar Year produced an anthropological diagram of opposing forces. Waverly is just that: a study of tension, mysticism and some natural elements thrown in for good measure. It will be interesting to see how the duo composes the live iteration of the album, and we expect some pretty arresting visuals to take centre stage. If you didn’t catch Solar Year poolside last year, put this record on at bath time and allow yourself to become fully submersed in their nebulous aural galaxy.
-- http://www.thelineofbestfit.com/reviews ... rly-128655
Tim Hecker’s first album under his own name was called Haunt Me, Haunt Me, Do It Again. This was 2001: Ambient and electronic music was still ruled by the penetrating austerity of labels like Mille Plateaux and Raster-Noton—labels whose artists strove to make their music sound as digital as possible. Markus Popp's Oval, which inspired a lot of supposedly funny comments about whether or not its CDs were skipping, is still probably the best example of this—and in an era where CDs are starting to go the way of the public pay phone, probably the most quaint, too.
From its title down, Haunt Me presented a model of electronic music that was spectral, imperfect, and capable of erosion. The most applicable metaphors for it weren’t technological, but natural: Parts of the album sounded like the slow tearing of paper, other parts like wind blowing across infinities of sand. Hecker didn’t just imbue his computers with “warmth”—a lazy term that has long needed to be put down—but with mortality. (Remember that that this was 2001, a year after the Y2K scare made supposedly infallible stores of digital information look vulnerable in a very human way.) At the time, Haunt Me’s most obvious companion was Fennesz’s Endless Summer, a grainy, blissful album that resembles easy-listening music coming through on the broken broadcast of a distant star.
Hecker has more or less followed course for the past 12 years, releasing high-quality albums with the low-key consistency of someone apparently unconcerned with trend. His approach to sound and texture can be traced to mid-2000s Radiohead, the ominous holding patterns of Godspeed You! Black Emperor (fellow Canadians with which Hecker has toured), William Basinski’s The Disintegration Loops, and basically any music that sounds like it has been abandoned by its maker to rot. His peaks are arguable: My favorites are 2006’s Harmony in Ultraviolet (his most conventionally beautiful) and 2011’s Ravedeath, 1972, which was built out of a single session of live organ, piano and guitar, recorded in an Icelandic church, and later worked over in the studio.
Virgins is the first Tim Hecker album more focused on performance than process. Most of it was recorded with a small group of orchestral musicians affiliated with Bedroom Community, the collective that also includes composers Nico Muhly, Ben Frost, Valgeir Sigurðsson and Paul Corley. (Frost helped record Ravedeath; Paul Corley engineered both Ravedeath and Virgins, and co-produced Oneohtrix Point Never’s R Plus Seven at Bedroom Community’s Greenhouse Studios in Reykjavik; Oneohtrix Point Never’s Dan Lopatin collaborated with Hecker on 2011’s Instrumental Tourist: The world of forward-thinking electro-acoustic music is a small and fraternal one.)
The live-room conceit is an interesting turn for an artist who for a long time worked in a primarily digital realm: Rather than having the music conjure a space, the space now shapes the music—a return to idea of sound as something that exists in the air before on hard drives, and of albums as specific records of specific people in specific places. Even the electronics—and there are still plenty of electronics—sound like they’re refracting and ricocheting off of wood and metal, scraping a ceiling, trying to find a way out.
Hecker’s music has always been eerie, but never this forceful. Some sections of Virgins feel like soundtracks for horror-movie climaxes when the camera fixes on a sickening image and refuses to turn away, fascinated and trapped at the same time. Even the album’s quieter moments are more tense than they might’ve been on Hecker’s earlier albums—a function, maybe, of a live-room environment where every creak and whisper seems to be happening a few feet from the speakers instead of at some artificially cavernous distance.
This is music that benefits from being heard loud and/or on headphones in the same way couches are best experienced by actually sitting down in them instead of just brushing your fingers against the upholstery as you leave the room. Like a lot of Ben Frost’s albums (or something like Swans’ The Seer), Virgins feels possessed by the idea that no advancements in society or technology will ever shake our primal reactions to fear, wonder, awe and what in a more naïve era used to be called the sublime. And while it’s a fallacy to think that hyperseriousness is the only way to strike people at their core, it’s still inspiring to hear an artist—especially one who started out as mellow as Hecker—double down and make a statement so confrontational. Once haunted, now he’s the one who haunts.
-- http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/185 ... r-virgins/
There’s a continual tension in experimental electronic music between developing and owning a particular sound and exploring new ones. Creating a unique identity is difficult, and sometimes breaking out of it once it's been established is even harder. Daniel Lopatin of Oneohtrix Point Never is an artist working at one end of this spectrum. He’s restless, searching for new terrain, and his more recent full-lengths have found him reinventing himself with each new record. R Plus Seven, the follow-up to 2011’s Replica, sounds little like previous OPN releases. But despite the radical shifts—and this is what makes this project so consistently rewarding—you can still hear him in it; there are bedrock approaches and clear musical values that you can pick out as Lopatin.
The general approach on R Plus Seven is to build new music using the bright yet cold textures of the early age of personal computing. The aesthetic is identifiably “80s,” but it’s not the 80s of new wave, with its familiar array of synthesizers. Instead, Lopatin focuses on the hauntingly clean and clear pre-set sounds that were available for early, crude digital music production (and which were often used in commercial applications, from bumpers for local PBS shows to soundtracking instructional videos) and adds the kind of short-burst bits of information that were common when a sampler could hold two or three seconds of 8-bit audio. While this sort of throwback is common in electronic music, for Lopatin it serves a purpose beyond reference. R Plus Seven is aware of how music and textures like this are likely to be received, but it plays with our collective unconscious of music technology to develop something that comes off as strange and otherworldly and, most importantly, rich with feeling, despite the icy surface layer.
There’s a weird kind of innocence in this sound palette. The fake horns and whooshing vocal samples evoke a time when “the computer” as a concept was still very much rooted in the future rather than the present. The chintzy approximations of common instruments contain a sort of implicit critique of the idea that technology will save us all, but Lopatin’s music doesn’t get hung up on irony, even though it's definitely in the mix. It’s this quality, of highlighting the vacuous side of this music while simultaneously embracing its humor and poignancy, that elevates the OPN project to another plane.
Along those lines, during my first few listens to R Plus Seven, it was hard not to think of James Ferraro’s recent work in this area, specifically his album Far Side Virtual, which used the impossibly cheerful and polished sound of early digital culture to emphasize the music’s connection to mindless, friction-free commerce. To Ferraro’s credit, he’s kept a poker face when presenting this music, and you never quite knew where he was coming from, which made the listening experience fraught with ambiguity and anxiety. But Lopatin comes at it from another angle. He wants his music to do things that music is traditionally known to do: change, develop, use melody to convey feelings, build tension and then release it. That all of this happens within such tightly controlled parameters makes the fact that the record is emotionally engaging that much more impressive. Common sonic threads include wispy digitized voices on tracks like “Americans” and “Chrome Country” that bring to mind the then-exotic turn-of-the-80s sound of the Fairlight synthesizer, an early sampling device, along with many brittle digital versions of sounds that are distantly “exotic,” conveying the feel of a blocky pixilated representation of a jungle or beach scenes.
Indeed, with “Americans” and “Inside World”, the album makes sharp use of contrasts between the real and the virtual, between “natural” and the representation of natural. I’m tempted to call it Fifth World Music in homage to the 1980 John Hassel/Brian Eno album Fourth World: Possible Musics, a record that has a clear spiritual connection to this one. Hassel and Eno hoped to filter ancient tribal sounds through the sound of technology to create an alien but distantly familiar landscape (their project generated discussion about clumsy wording and potentially problematic ideas of what constituted “primitive” music, but that’s a subject for another time). Lopatin grapples with some of those ideas of decontextualization and colliding worlds, but the meeting place is closer to a tableau from Second Life, providing another layer of disorientation.
Still, I can’t underscore strongly enough that, as with Replica, all of this takes place in a realm where musicality is paramount. You don’t listen to this record thinking about theory; it’s beautiful stuff, with chords and tunes and sections you remember. And it also draws from more sounds and eras than I’ve given it credit for. Opening track “Boring Angel” seems a tribute to the glorious repetition of Terry Riley’s process music, while “Along” and “Cyro” are closer to the mood and structure of that place where late-90s IDM sounds met the winding structures of post-rock. R Plus Seven doesn’t have quite the disembodied weirdness of Replica, but it’s no less accomplished, another intriguing chapter from an artist whose work remains alive with possibility.
-- http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/185 ... lus-seven/
Travelog is a collection of ambient and atmospheric soundscapes mixed with emotion filled layers and recordings that tell stories only possible in this medium. Their vivid use of space sets the stage for a performance of a lifetime. When Michel Banabila and Rutger Zuydervelt (Machinefabriek) finished their first collaborative album, it felt like they were just getting started. Suprised by how fluent and natural their collaboration went, it was obvious that this wasn’t over yet. While the first release Banabila & Machinefabriek was quite an abstract affair, its successor Travelog is lighter, playful and rhythmic. Some moments might recall the mighty Tape, while others showcase motoric krautrock influences and subtle hints of African rhythms. All in all, this album clearly radiates the joy of its creative process and sees Banabila and Machinefabriek on the top of their game. Travelog comes housed in a full colour digipack, graced with photography by Michel Banabila, designed by Rutger Zuydervelt. It’s released by Tapu Records, in collaboration with Lumberton Trading Company.
-- http://soundcolourvibration.com/2013/08 ... -travelog/
shifts skrev:Kul att ha dig här igen!
It’s funny how, when we actually take a long, hard look at our lives, how much there is that is outside of our control; I think we like to fool ourselves as to how much influence we actually have on the things we do and the things we care about but the reality is that, like shadows, we are controlled by external factors, each one driving us and manipulating us in some way. With that in mind, let us now enter the world that 36 has created on this, his most mature and intelligent album to date.
Opener and title track “Shadow Play” brings forth a Drone sound somewhat unlike anything he’s produced before now, with the possible exception of “Saphron”. These thick, faux-string drones are not the dark and oppressive tracks we heard on Hollow or Lithea, they’re practically optimistic and yearning, if a little excessive at over 9 minutes long. There are still whispers of his old work coming through in the minimal vocals and delicate bleeps but something just doesn’t quite sit well with me; it feels like Uncanny Valley territory as it approaches the familiar but is just different enough to make it strange.
But then the beautiful sadness of “Ofelia” chases it up and we’re plunged right back into nostalgia as the fugue descends and a much more serene and clouded drone fog envelops us and tugs on the heart-strings, balancing quavering synths alongside the lo-fi drone haze. That helplessness certainly comes across strongly here, and the extended track length and repetition make it feel like there’s no end in sight. Yet there is always hope, always an opportunity to break free, something which the delicate “Dawnspace” offers us, quietly feeding buried snippets of birdsong and gently reassuring notes to soothe our troubled souls and blow away the darkness building up.
This streak of great tracks culminates in my personal favourite, and possible all time favourite 36 track, “Breathless”. It reminds me a little of “Shiny Tiny Stars” by Loveliescrushing in the manner which it introduces these pulses, these waves, of ambience towards the listener as well as the heavily obscured female vocal samples. Its tidal nature is paralysing in the same way that I can spend hours just watching the waves lap at the shore; always fundamentally the same but each time slightly different. “Ascension” is something of a curveball in the heart of the album, but a neat one at that; I believe this is actually a reference to the start of the game Bioshock: Infinite, both in the track title and the spoken words that close the piece: “Hallelujah”. Like the game it is a transcendental process; the quirky, grinding synths count down to the hard, juddering acceleration of the vast whining guitars that tear through the core of the track, but ultimately fading away as the atmosphere is abandoned and we see black in the cockpit window, propelling us away from the troubles in “the Sodom below”. It’s a surprising track, but a corker, 36 to the very end.
“Eclipse” comes in like some reappropriated “Arc” from Hollow, a shimmering wall of barely moving light that slowly but surely becomes corrupted by the darkness, a slowly encroaching wash of oscillating beats and a low fidelity fuzz that attempts to erode the purity and literal presence of the sunlight itself. Of course, this never truly happens, as the Moon only ever partially occludes the Sun but it is a shortlived event and once it’s over things simply return to their previous state having ridden through the threat of night in the day, of impending darkness and sadness.
Things start to get a little complicated as we approach the end; the mysteriously titled “Heather Spa” briefly flashes distant and almost indistinguishable sounds at us; at times like some bleary, smeared laughter, others like screams and shouts of a regrettable past made all the more poignant (and probable) by the surprisingly dominant violins. It’s a long piece, as many of them are on this record, and there is still something nagging at me that it’s a little overblown and unnecessarily exorbitant in length but the eerie peacefulness and carefully smothering audio keep us away from the fear and revolt lurking darkly below, and it’s captivating. Finally closer “Dangerous Days” serenades us out on antithetic beacons of shining drone that betray their namesake, once more following that trend of deception and carefully compensating or even completely covering up the true problems and misery.
What’s so unusual in regards to 36′s work is the extreme cohesion and truly thematic nature of Shadow Play; that’s not to say that Hypersona didnt have that child-like naivety or Hollow that dark homesickness, it’s just that they were a bit looser compositionally, with more experimentality and variability in the sounds presented. Shadow Play takes that feeling of uselessness and disconnection from reality and repurposes it, drowns it out and turns it around, and it’s charted perfectly throughout the record’s duration. Don’t be a shadow, letting your life get ruled and manipulated, become the manipulator and take it back, that’s the message here, and a clear one at that. Stunning.
-- http://hearfeel.wordpress.com/2013/07/2 ... play-2013/
The void is a place you might shy away from. But Chelsea Wolfe lives there, digging for all the melodies in the abyss. After an album she doesn’t want you to remember about was released, Wolfe took years off and redefined her musical career. Releasing The Grime and The Glow in 2010 welcomed a much darker and moodier vibe to a rewarding listen - one of the better and more underappreciated debuts of the past few years. Apokalypsis was an album more people paid attention to, matching more sinister vibes than her previous and reaching further into the heavier melodies. But last year’s Unknown Rooms: A Collection of Acoustic Songs showed Wolfe taking a reserved approach to her content, making tracks like “The Way We Used To” and “Flatlands” shining brightly instead of dimly.
But Pain Is Beauty towers over all of these. Her fourth album is the summation of all efforts and an impressive one at that. It’s emotionally draining and it’s cinematically shocking, at the very least. Conceptually binding an album isn’t such a new thing, but Wolfe does it with justice and with success, and Pain Is Beauty is one of those listens no one can forget. Throughout this album, there are moments of immense, breathtaking intensity worth delving into and revisiting for years to come. Not only is this a particularly great album, Pain Is Beauty is one of the more unique albums you’ll listen to this year.
One characteristic of her earlier albums is the sheer amount of layers of music. Everything is delicately placed on a platter to showcase the right amount of emotion. In many ways, this is a main characteristic of Pain Is Beauty - the tiniest noises bring you further into the mix, noticing its every detail. All of this sits beautifully in the background, with Chelsea Wolfe’s voice - wounded, heartbreaking, and sharp as a knife - leading the song, with her own voice as an instrument. She deliberately affects her voice with pedals - obscuring her own voice in the darkness - and hits high notes with unyielding intensity that pierces your soul.
Wolfe, along with multi-instrumentalist Ben Chisholm, utilized darker synthetic sounds on many tracks, including lead single “The Warden,” which reimagines the ending to George Orwell’s 1984 and touches on one of the larger themes on the album - love. These evocative and urgent sounds are executed much more prominently and successfully than previous efforts, but do not rule the album’s soundscape. Tracks like “We Hit A Wall” and “They’ll Clap When You’re Gone” are sinister doom in music form, with earth-shattering, heavy, thick, and deep guitars that rumble your mind.
Pain Is Beauty is a complex behemoth. It is filled with primal screams, topical journeys, and romantic statements. Rich in musical variety, “Destruction Makes The World Burn Brighter” has a serpentine-like structure, channeling Joy Division to a certain extent. It’s also one of the better song titles in recent memory. Ambient tracks like “Sick” and “Reins” apply repetition to the max, bringing an utmost haunting tone to these two. The last four tracks are truly various. “Ancestors, The Ancients” is a darkly, synthy, and subtle cut, while “They’ll Clap When You’re Gone” pulls out the guitar for a jangly, acoustic tale. This one has Wolfe singing, “When can I die? / When can I go? // When will I be free? / When will I know?” Beyond the stark depressive nature, Wolfe mystically pleads for answers through dazzling chants.
“The Waves Have Come” is the album’s climax, jarringly putting together a tale about a man who’s about to be swallowed in a tsunami. Tapping at virtually two keys on a piano throughout, the track swells and swells until the ultimate crash wipes away everything you’ve heard up to this point, washing away everything you know. This eight-minute goliath is the zenith of the album, flying to all new plateaus seen thus far, with bleeding strings and Wolfe’s vocals delivering heavenly notes above the layers upon layers of instrumentation. The outro has Wolfe crying vocally, “The waves have come and taken you to sea / Never to return to me / Never to return to me / Never to return to me.” Ultimately, the bleak outro of slowly drawing out the climactic finish is a resounding and cleansing feeling. Chelsea Wolfe spoke about Pain Is Beauty, explaining that the album gave a healing impression. “The Waves Have Come” and the defining outro “Lone” wrap up the album to give it a very healing ending, after the onslaught of doom, intensity, and emotion.
Pain Is Beauty shocks. It loudly proclaims its motives from the very start and explores melodies for the duration of the album. Music doesn’t find very many visionaries anymore, and Chelsea Wolfe brands her darkly emotive music as an artistic representation of herself. Sculpting the greatest sum of tracks Wolfe has ever created, Pain Is Beauty, shines in the void that she dwells in. Bleak, distant, polarizing, and beautiful, Wolfe’s fourth album makes a gargantuan impact.
-- http://www.prefixmag.com/reviews/chelse ... uty/74838/
Journey from Anywhere' is a near-narcotic collection of electronic improvisations by former Coil participant Drew McDowall and current Psychic Ills/Messages man, Tres Warren. It's the follow-up to their 'Origin of Silence' art edition for The Spring Press and follows its themes of patiently explorative, unfolding composition in eight parts working at a "trasportive blur of dark psychedelic minimalism." The dissonant tang of Coil's furthest occult chicanery is clear and present and a beacon for all keener psychonauts throughout the album, at best in the two extended centrepieces of sustained, almost bagpipe-like drone, 'Archaic Atmosphere' and 'Journey Into Anywhere' whilst the shorter sections immerse us in bleakly detached zones with the astral stare case trudge of 'The Hydraulic Regime Vibrates From Within' and 'Cosmic Exhaust: The Selectro (Cut-up composition)'. However, most effective are the rabbit-hole plunge of 'Cosmic Exhaust: The Selector (Cut-up composition)', and the creeping intensity of 'The Outer Sphere' with its shivering nitrous oxide delays and wheezing drones primed for anyone with a cannister and no dispenser to get their fix.
-- http://boomkat.com/vinyl/809475-compoun ... m-anywhere
phloam skrev:Ibland blir man så glad när man råkar klicka på spår som visar sig vara precis vad man behöver:
Den uppenbarligen superba samlingen "Carry on, pretend were not in the room" av/med Efdemin:
Koffe skrev:Visst har jag skrivit om The Wailin' Jennys förut? Det har jag nog. Men detta är något speciellt. Magiskt. Ni får inte missa denna:
Some of the best music comes from musicians who met each other on a whim, forming iconic bands after just a jam session or two. On the other hand, having shared time and experiences over the course of years can also lead musicians to form a bond that goes beyond the music. To say that today’s daily album comes from the latter of these two would be an understatement; sixteen year-old Lily Jurkiewicz and her eighteen year-old sister, Madeleine have been together forever, or at least as long as they can remember. The two have been on a whirlwind ride, touring around the world in anticipation of the release of their self-titled debut LP.
The music of Lily & Madeleine has captivated listeners since the two began making their musical forays public just about a year ago. Flawless, angelic, and beautiful are just a few of the common descriptors for the voices of these young ladies. The first Youtube video the pair released, “In The Middle” showed the girls the power of virality, earning over 330k views to date. The video is rather poetic — it’s hard to believe such aged, ethereal voices are coming from this pair of young, slightly disinterested girls. But the power of the song, the emotion and musical intricacies packed into two minutes.
“In The Middle” is one of five tracks from the pair’s very successful debut EP, The Weight of the Globe, available on iTunes. Still, fans and critics alike knew that the EP was only the beginning for this talented duo. And now, here we are, ten months later, and the girls have answered the call of their followers, releasing a full, twelve track self-titled album. And they do not disappoint.
The album opens with “Sounds Like Somewhere”, a somber, longing tune that draws heavily on the country influences that manage to sneak their way into Indiana via Kentucky. The Jurkiewicz sisters seem to channel muses that Stevie Nicks may have befriended a few decades past. The soft strings add a thematic element to the song, giving the track an atmospheric quality that goes beyond some of L&M’s strum-and-sing acoustic works; it’s a nice touch that reflects the more polished approach to this album. “Devil We Know” follows, and with its quiet instrumentation, the lyrics (and their delivery) shine in the forefront of this track. The liner notes hint at this concept, but it’s as if the shades of distinction between the shared experiences of these two girls are reflected in their harmonies, which are simply unreal.
“Spirited Away” is a mysterious song, utilizing a repetitive structure throughout the verses that quickly becomes hypnotic. The lyrics are no less enigmatic; the sisters speak of musical shadows, dancing in a ballet, and before the two are spirited away, they ask: who haunts you? I would be surprised if the title is not in some way a reference to Hayao Miyazaki’s animated classic Spirited Away, but I also can’t say that I completely understand the reference. The coming-of-age film tackles themes of separation and loss, and in this sense, it may have served as an inspiration, but who can say beyond the Jurkiewicz sisters…”Disappointing Heart” features an awesome progression that sounds a bit like this Radiohead classic, which in turn, sounded a bit like this Beatles hit. The song is eerily honest and unforgiving, revealing another side of Lily & Madeleine’s repertoire.
“Come To Me” is the album’s official featured track, and the girls shot an accompanying video that casts a dark, dreamy haze over the entire song. The lyrics tackle ideas of abandonment and return, of space and loss, and the video ends up producing more questions than answers. It’s a thought-provoking piece, and is sure to bewilder listeners for a bit.
L&M take things back to the 50s and 60s with the melancholy harmonies they belt out in “Paradise”. The country pop that gained momentum in the era has obviously had its influence on these girls, and this one sounds like a modern day Patsy Cline. Where these two found their timing and ideas about harmony are beyond me. Further, that these two are discovering so much talent within themselves in their youth simply adds to their mystique, and it seems as though they aim to take advantage of this.
Lily & Madeleine is a dozen tracks that have all the whimsical heart of music that was made decades ago. The Jurkiewicz sisters have discovered themselves with this album. As they push into the world of popular music, they do so in many directions, but at the center is a pair of tightly-bound individuals who seem bent on staying true to themselves. This album is but a glimpse into the curious world that these two have found. Pick it up at one of the outlets below.
-- http://thedailyalbum.com/lily-madeleine-lily-madeleine/
FalloutBoy skrev:Kul att se dig här också! Det är allt för sällan du tittar in.
phloam skrev:+1 Hej Koffe Tack för en bra tråd! Tack själv FB för alla bra tips och God Jul på er allihopa
Outstanding long-player for all fans of darkside post-techno sound design: Raster Noton's bleakest bot Jens Massel aka Senking follows the trajectory of his 'List' and 'Pong' classics into the abyssal depths of 'Capsize Recovery'; a tortuous journey through eight intense, lightless levels of droning bass, buffeting synthlines and coruscating beats emulating the effect of being locked in a Russian submersible/spacecraft 20000 leagues below/above the sea and far from land. The whole album was recorded sans computer, which makes the sense of spatial dynamic even more remarkable, working in a simulated space somewhere between the illusory architextures of Raime & Powell, and the vast electro-acoustic parameters of Emptyset. Similarly to Raime, he's also honed his halfstep rhythms to a stomach -wrechingly powerful movement, adopting the dynamics of UK-borne halfstep far more concisely than many of his German contemporaries, especially in the glinting roil of opener, 'Chainsawfish', the sepulchral cadence of 'Tiefenstop' or the SP:MC-alike junglist splices of 'Shading' and 'Capsize Recovery'. However, if we've any gripes with his sound, it's that verges perhaps too close to the gnarly rock chops of Distance at times, perhaps coming off like the EDM/rock soundtrack to a Vin Diesel blockbuster in 'Cornered', but it's a minor quibble, and unlikely to stop this becoming one of our favourite electronic albums this year.
-- http://boomkat.com/cds/790779-senking-capsize-recovery
zidanefromhell skrev:http://open.spotify.com/album/27lj323rr5ku9aEUwanp99
Tror inte Nils Frahm har uppmärksammats tillräckligt mycket här.
Spaces är ett bra exempel på hans fina piano/orgelspel+ mer.
http://youtu.be/xLNeZogTsK8
Chaconne skrev:zidanefromhell skrev:http://open.spotify.com/album/27lj323rr5ku9aEUwanp99
Tror inte Nils Frahm har uppmärksammats tillräckligt mycket här.
Spaces är ett bra exempel på hans fina piano/orgelspel+ mer.
http://youtu.be/xLNeZogTsK8
Håller med dig om att Nils borde få en mer framträdande roll, har du sett den här sidan?
http://www.pianoday.org
Du kan ladda hem en skiva som Nils gjort på ett STORT piano, helt gratis.
Mvh
Tangband skrev:Detta bör vara en av de allra bäst ljudande skivorna på Spotify
Bra musik dessutom
zidanefromhell skrev:https://open.spotify.com/user/koffe70/playlist/6Livsu0BtHWsViCSA2zxRt?si=mVu7_Z6BQUWsh4LIV5sMjg
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