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FalloutBoy
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Inläggav FalloutBoy » 2012-02-22 20:21

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Damien Jurado - Maraqopa (2012, Secretly Canadian)

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


http://open.spotify.com/album/7mFphqEotE02ptUAV8SPEW

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FalloutBoy
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Inläggav FalloutBoy » 2012-02-23 16:29

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Perfume Genius - Put Your Back N 2 It (2012, Matador Records)

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


http://open.spotify.com/album/5hjlzVCJCePW4DmMJVryla

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zidanefromhell
 
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Inläggav zidanefromhell » 2012-02-23 16:32

Tänkte precis tipsa om den skivan! :D
"stewie just said that!"

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FalloutBoy
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Inläggav FalloutBoy » 2012-02-23 16:38

zidanefromhell skrev:Tänkte precis tipsa om den skivan! :D

Great minds think alike. :wink:

---

Slänger in ett tips till:

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Ryan Teague - Field Drawings (2012, Village Green)

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


http://open.spotify.com/album/2jn4GmdwwedW4PF1nwk0jv

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Inläggav FalloutBoy » 2012-02-25 01:39

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Porcelain Raft - Strange Weekend (2012, Secretly Canadian)

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


http://open.spotify.com/album/3GyDaPSaAHgtELAsxAbZUk

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FalloutBoy
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Inläggav FalloutBoy » 2012-02-25 01:44

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Low Roar - Low Roar (2011, Tonequake Records)

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/


http://open.spotify.com/album/2mR9yWuHj65NkxpgFdaC2b

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FalloutBoy
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Inläggav FalloutBoy » 2012-02-28 16:35

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Xiu Xiu - Always (2011, Bella Union)

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


http://open.spotify.com/album/2g8r94fR0XVDV8u7aWty5N
Senast redigerad av FalloutBoy 2012-04-02 17:37, redigerad totalt 1 gång.

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FalloutBoy
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Inläggav FalloutBoy » 2012-02-29 21:38

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Dirty Three – Toward The Low Sun (2011, Bella Union)

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/


http://open.spotify.com/album/2d1Znypp9Sdjn5oH645HXL

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zidanefromhell
 
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Inläggav zidanefromhell » 2012-03-07 11:24

"stewie just said that!"

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FalloutBoy
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Inläggav FalloutBoy » 2012-03-16 17:25

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Grimes - Visions (2012, 4AD)

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


http://open.spotify.com/album/2jXthXcPiAdhatxYPv4yPk

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phloam
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Inläggav phloam » 2012-03-16 19:59

thnx FB :)

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FalloutBoy
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Inläggav FalloutBoy » 2012-03-18 17:58

phloam skrev:thnx FB :)

Varsågod. ;)

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Inläggav FalloutBoy » 2012-03-18 18:01

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Evenings – Lately (2011)

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/


http://open.spotify.com/album/2j73ulvwarMfCe9rhAXeid

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FalloutBoy
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Inläggav FalloutBoy » 2012-04-10 17:54

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Beth Jeans Houghton & The Hooves of Destiny - Yours Truly, Cellophane Nose (2012, Mute)

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


http://open.spotify.com/album/40EfhFufIqtBPk66294mXp

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FalloutBoy
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Inläggav FalloutBoy » 2012-04-17 17:34

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Screen Vinyl Image – Strange Behavior (2012, Custom Made Music)

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.


http://open.spotify.com/album/0VmEDWje22MPklhkxE4rwZ

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FalloutBoy
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Inläggav FalloutBoy » 2012-04-21 22:42

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Lotus Plaza - Spooky Action At A Distance (2012, Kranky)

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/


http://open.spotify.com/album/0F6VxVTyRvVe00d2AjylBK

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Inläggav FalloutBoy » 2012-05-06 16:27

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Moonface With Siinai – Heartbreaking Bravery (2012, Jagjaguwar)

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


http://open.spotify.com/album/6MK4nCg3LMh880vrPPaTZs

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Inläggav FalloutBoy » 2012-05-10 20:41

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Sand Circles - Motor City (2012, Not Not Fun)

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


http://open.spotify.com/album/6IezD5JAbIsJnxOBAI6O4F

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Inläggav FalloutBoy » 2012-05-10 21:19

Ruggigt bra (enligt mig då...)! :D

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White Poppy - I Had A Dream (2012, Not Not Fun)

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


http://open.spotify.com/album/4CDuMAioLwIqTKMvKcFDS0

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Inläggav FalloutBoy » 2012-05-16 20:48

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Tu Fawning - A Monument (2012, City Slang)

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/


http://open.spotify.com/album/3m64IrPP2qw8wV1fzQs1GH

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Inläggav FalloutBoy » 2012-05-23 14:11

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Exitmusic - Passage (2012, Secretly Canadian)

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


http://open.spotify.com/album/1PE9k1I5mkQzvLppcv5fLr

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Inläggav KarlXII » 2012-05-23 14:47

Stort tack, Falloutboy, för alla musiktips.
Du är en klippa!
T H E. G O O S E B U M P. F A C T O R

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Inläggav FalloutBoy » 2012-05-23 18:24

KarlXII skrev:Stort tack, Falloutboy, för alla musiktips.
Du är en klippa!

Härligt att höra att det uppskattas! :D

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Inläggav FalloutBoy » 2012-05-24 16:51

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Julia Holter – Ekstasis (2012, RVNG Intl.)

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


http://open.spotify.com/album/5hQF40R2Rc7koQiN2wNROf

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Inläggav FalloutBoy » 2012-06-01 19:01

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Sleep Party People – We Were Drifting On A Sad Song (2012, Blood And Biscuits)

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


http://open.spotify.com/album/5sbbiTB42eet8FvdCPGlLD

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Inläggav FalloutBoy » 2012-06-04 19:35

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I Am Oak - Nowhere Or Tammensaari (2012, Snowstar Records)

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


http://open.spotify.com/album/07t4UUSx72RxzV2vW4tvhT

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Inläggav FalloutBoy » 2012-06-06 18:43

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Thieving Irons – Behold, This Dreamer! (2012)

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


http://open.spotify.com/album/0kzi1jNbCb1GfLx8E7pZFj

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Helge lien trio

Inläggav ferm » 2012-06-07 09:52

grym norsk jazz....lite likt EST, men ändå inte....grym ljudkvalitet och stämmning.
http://open.spotify.com/album/7uj2x11XMDZ0IkmooASH7M
Snell E3, Klass-d stärkare

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Inläggav FalloutBoy » 2012-06-08 21:05

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Foreign Fields - Anywhere But Where I Am (2012)

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/


http://open.spotify.com/album/6jaGzAFeqYrMWt08lz4dtH

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Inläggav FalloutBoy » 2012-06-17 16:24

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Alt-J – An Awesome Wave (2012, Infectious Records)

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


http://open.spotify.com/album/7HOzvP7Ta2lLueojdlJtdZ

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