Thursday 28 February 2008

M83 - Saturdays = Youth (out april 2008)



M83 aka Anthony Gonzalez is back on duty with a brand new album: Saturdays=Youth to be released on April 15th on Mute. The very first single Couleurs is to be digitally out by February 26th including an exclusive remix by Jori Hulkkonen.

Couleurs sounds like a fulfilling first impression accelarating my positive expectations on the new album. Gonzalez who has worked with producers Ken Thomas (Sigur Rós, Sugarcubes, Cocteau Twins, Suede and Clinic) and Ewan Pearson (Tracey Thorn, The Rapture, and Ladytron) is heroicly fomenting the divine shoegazing feel seething out through the melodramatic noise density collapsed with the under cover soothing vocals. This is good!! Both summery and dark; moving and tranquillizing at the same time. Just like Ulrich Schnauss. It shall probably give you a moment to respectfully commemorate the Cocteau Twins whose spirit has enriched the music to touch our skin and inspired such great bands up to date.

Anthony Gonzalez seems to be quite excited with the new album and the new tour: "I'm really thrilled about going back to North America!” So we are!
You just get ready to be dazed and dive in this ethereal ocean called Couleurs.
Champers mog

Mp3 | M83 - Colours


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M83

Monday 25 February 2008

Foreign Island



If we ever were to bust out of our jaded shells and dance (which is about as likely as our passing up a roadside Hardees), but not like 'all out' dance , just kind of like, you know, dance dance (see Juan Maclean or that Rapture band), these guys would be near the top of our DJ request list.

Mp3 | Foreign Island - We Know You Know It
Mp3 | Foreign Island - We Know You Know It (Filthy Dukes Mix )

Look out for NYC's Foreign Islands. This excitable and ex-spazzable band has so far managed to stay pretty under-the-radar in this god forsaken town (though they did just open for The Hold Steady), but with a punk-with-synths staccato sound that can be described as Nation of Ulysses meets Les Savy Fav and Thunderbirds are Now!, well, how could they not be destined for greatness... or at least a Frenchkiss
record deal?

Video | Foreign Islands - We Know You Know It
Video | Foreign Islands - Fine Dining With the Future

We've never kept it secret that we're a sucker for songs with hand claps, and, boy, do these guys ever bring out some powerful palms on stage. Go see them now, buy them a few beers, and in a few years you can say to those you want to impress, "No big deal, but I totally got wasted with Foreign Islands once." And they'll be all like, "Awesome." oh my rockness


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Foreign Island

Sunday 24 February 2008

mY Indie Soul # 21



Electronica | Experimental | IDM | Indie | Alternative | Post - Punk | Electro

Inspired on the pictures by Anne Sulikowski

Download | Listen



Apparat - komponent ( Telefon tel Aviv Mix )

Apparat is a German electronic musician (Sascha Ring) living in Berlin and one of the owners of Shitkatapult records. Starting out with dance floor-oriented techno, he later started to create ambient music and more recently became "more interested in designing sounds than beats". Recent music is closer to glitch or IDM, accompanied with classical string instruments and other sounds.



Morgan Packard - Mink Hills

Morgan Packard’s debut solo full-length, Airships Fill the Sky, finds him folding cello, accordion and saxophone into a decidedly digital context - involving fragmented elements of techno, house, breakbeat oriented microsound and post-ambient tendencies - retaining his acoustic sensibilities in earnest, while taking advantage of his long-time immersion in a variety of electronic genres. While he has further honed the melodic, textural meanderings from some of his past work, here, Packard returns to his rhythmic roots, and continues to filter his jazz and classical background through everything he does. Deftly using his self-made software techniques, he puts these pieces together with a view towards the hypnotic power of the loop, coupled with a distancing from it. Remembering its importance as the structural basis of a musical landscape which has influenced him, he allows his loops to take on new properties, evolving incrementally and moving further from their origins.



The Books - Smells Like Content

We started working together in 2000 while living as neighbors in Inwood, a small neighborhood at the very northern tip of Manhattan, regularly referred to as 'Upstate Manhattan' by New Yorkers. Over the next few years we moved around a lot but always kept the music going through the mail, and occasional recording sessions. Since 2002 we've settled our working studio in the Berkshire Mountains of North Adams, Massachusetts. We do all of our own sample collecting, composing, writing, recording, mixing, and mastering in our home studios using pc's running cheap software and the ragtag equipment that we've pieced together over the years. What you hear on our records is exactly how it left our hands, with no producer, engineers, or sweetening in between. We are completely independent, beholden to no corporations and we have funded all of our music entirely ourselves



Patrick Watson - Mr. Tom

Patrick Watson (born 1979) is a Canadian singer-songwriter, and the name of the band that he fronts, whose blend of cabaret pop and classical music influences with indie rock has been compared to Rufus Wainwright[1] and Jeff Buckley.

Born in California but raised in Hudson, Quebec, Watson attended Lower Canada College. He began his musical career in high school as a member of the ska band Gangster Politics. He subsequently left the band, and released his own solo debut, Waterproof9, in 2001.

He has toured with John Cale, The Cinematic Orchestra, Amon Tobin, The Dears, Feist and James Brown.
He co-wrote and performed on several songs on The Cinematic Orchestra's 2007 album Ma Fleur including the opening track "To Build a Home". His "Missing You" remix of Champion's "Guy Doune", from Champion's 2006 album The Remix Album, reached #1 on CBC Radio 3's R3-30 chart in early 2007.



James Yorkston - Woozy With Cider (Original Version)

Born and brought up in a house in Kingsbarns, Fife in 1971, Yorkston lived in Edinburgh for many years, before returning to the East Neuk. He started out as bassist for punk band Huckleberry who recorded a number of independently released records. In 1996 he played his first acoustic concert as support for Bert Jansch following a recommendation by a friend. In 2000 he recorded a demo tape under the name J. Wright Presents which was played by John Peel and led to him securing a support slot with John Martyn. The same year he released his debut single Moving up Country on the independent label Bad Jazz.

Subsequently he signed to Domino Records, recording music with a number of friends and associates credited as The Athletes on his records. None of them, however, are actually athletes; indeed, the accordion player - the renowned Scottish musician Reuben Taylor - has been seen smoking a pipe. James Yorkston is an associate of the group of musicians working as the Fence Collective, having worked with members of the group both live and on record.



Ane Brun - Wooden Body

Ane started her musical career fairly late. It wasn't until she had turned 21 she took up acoustic guitar. Her first official live appearances were on 1998 on the streets of Barcelona and San Sebastian playing to anyone who would listen.

After this corner had been turned she returned to Norway but now moving to Bergen. She started composing her own material and for a while she joined the Norwegian band Damsels in Distress. In 2000 Ane moved to Stockholm and started really venturing out on her own, set on making a living of performing her music live. She has worked together with several other artists, such as Norwegian popgroup a-ha, Ron Sexsmith, Madrugada and Koop.



Antony And the Johnsons - Man Is the
Baby

Antony's second full-length album, 2005's I Am a Bird Now, was greeted with positive reviews and significantly more mainstream attention, winning the Mercury Music Prize for the best album of 2005. Rival Mercury nominees, and favourites for the prize, the Kaiser Chiefs suggested that Antony got in on a technicality; despite the fact he was born in the United Kingdom he spent much of his time in the US - although they later apologised for the suggestion that he wasn't a deserving winner.



Fink - little Blue Mailbox

“With the last album, I was very conscious about making my emotions public, and it crossed my mind that I may have had a problem taking that forward. At first, I hoped my writing would become more abstract, in that I would be able to imagine scenarios and write about them, but I think that writing from real experience has to come from the heart, and that’s what people relate to. It’s not that I’m unlucky in love or anything,” he adds, laughing, “I just think that you go through so much when a relationship breaks down that there may be a song for each tiny nuance of emotion that you feel.” There’s a pause, as Fink takes a long drag on his cigarette, “Maybe I just think too hard.”



Autolux - Capital Kind of Strain

Los Angeles noise trio Autolux formed in 2000. Singer/bassist Eugene Goreshter met ex-Ednaswap drummer Carla Azar while collaborating on the score for Dario Fo's play Accidental Death of an Anarchist, and following the addition of former Failure guitarist Greg Edwards, the group made its live debut that summer at the noted L.A. area club the Silverlake Lounge. Upon releasing the self-produced EP Demonstration in the spring of 2001, Autolux signed with producer T-Bone Burnett's fledgling DMX label and began writing material for their upcoming debut LP -- however, in May 2002 Azar fell from a stage and shattered her elbow, making a complete recovery following an experimental surgery that required the implementation of eight titanium screws. At year's end the group finally entered the studio, and while recording wrapped in early 2003, Autolux spent more than a year refining the final mix and Future Perfect did not hit retail until October 2004. Tours in support of the Secret Machines and Nine Inch Nails followed, as did an appearance on the Vincent Gallo-curated All Tomorrow's Parties festival.



Sonic Youth - Tokyo Eye
One of my all time favorites , there more concern with their music than stardust.



Nine Inch Nails - Hand That Feeds ( Dfa mix )

Nine Inch Nails has influenced many newer artists, which according to Reznor range from "generic imitations" dating from NIN's initial success to younger bands echoing his style in a "truer, less imitative way." Following the release of The Downward Spiral, mainstream artists began to take notice of Nine Inch Nails' influence: David Bowie compared NIN's impact to that of The Velvet Underground. In 1997, Reznor appeared in Time magazine's list of the year's most influential people, and Spin magazine described him as "the most vital artist in music." The RIAA certified sales for 10.5 million units of the band's albums in the United States, which accounts for roughly half of the band's reported sales worldwide. Bob Ezrin, producer for Pink Floyd, Kiss, Alice Cooper, and Peter Gabriel, described Reznor in 2007 as a "true visionary" and advised aspiring artists to take note of his no-compromise attitude. During a rare appearance at the Kerrang! Awards in London that year, Nine Inch Nails accepted the Kerrang! Icon, honoring the band's long-standing influence on rock music.



Depeche Mode - Personal Jesus ( Boys Noise Mix )

Depeche Mode's origins can be traced back to 1977, when Vince Clarke and Andrew Fletcher formed a band called No Romance in China, with Clarke on vocals/guitar and Fletcher on bass. In 1979, Clarke played guitar in an "Ultravox rip-off band", The Plan, with school friends Robert Marlow (vocals) and Paul Langwith (drums). In 1978–79, Gore played in an acoustic duo, Norman and the Worms, with school friend Philip Burdett (who now sings on the folk circuit) on vocals and Gore on guitar. In 1979, Marlow, Gore, Clarke and friend Paul Redmond formed a band called The French Look, Marlow on vocals/keyboards, Gore on guitar, Clarke and Redmond on keyboards. In March 1980, Clarke, Gore and Fletcher formed a band called Composition of Sound, with Clarke on vocals/guitar, Gore on keyboards and Fletcher on bass. The French Look and Composition of Sound once played live together in June 1980 at St. Nicholas School Youth Club in Southend-on-sea, Essex.

Soon after the formation of Composition of Sound, Clarke and Fletcher switched to synthesizers, working odd jobs, including carpentry, to buy them, or borrowing them from friends. Dave Gahan joined the band in 1980 after Clarke heard him perform at a local scout-hut jam session, crooning to a rendition of David Bowie's "Heroes", and Depeche Mode were born. When explaining the choice for the new name (taken from a French fashion magazine, Dépêche mode) Martin Gore has said,

“ It means hurried fashion or fashion dispatch. I like the sound of that. ”


Anne Sulikowski

The Presets - I Go Hard I Go Home (Ascii Disko Mix )

The Presets are a Sydney-based electronic duo, consisting of Julian Hamilton and Kim Moyes. In September 2005 they released their debut album, Beams, to positive critical response. That same year Julian Hamilton and Kim Moyes also toured with The Dissociatives, which is co-fronted by Daniel Johns of Silverchair and Australian dance producer Paul Mac. Johns also played guitar on Presets single "Cookie". Hamilton and Moyes are also members of Sydney instrumental group Prop.

Friday 22 February 2008

" A Life Lived Elsewhere " Rothko Interview


Based in London, Rothko have been in existence since the spring of 1997, playing their first show at The Hope and Anchor in Islington in August the same year. Their first release was a 7" single, For Danny, on Fierce Panda in the Autumn of '97 and the original line up of Mark, Crawford Blair and Jon Meade, went on to release EP's, singles and three albums, on labels such as Lo Recordings, Bella Union, Foundry, Kraak, Zeal and Narwhal.


The original line up disbanded in 2001 and Mark carried on the Rothko name.

His first release on his own was his collaboration with Japanese ambient master Susumu Yokota, the 12" EP Waters Edge on Jon Tye's Lo Recordings, and then the album 'A Continual Search For Origins' and 7" single Red Cells on the Too Pure label in 2001.

In 2003 Mark started his own label, Trace Recordings, releasing the critically acclaimed Wish For A World Without Hurt album, a collaboration with BLK w/BEAR [aka Washington DC based sound and visual artist Jim Adams] Since 2004, the line up has been Mark with Michael, Ben and Tom. In the last year they've played festivals and toured in the UK, France and Belgium, and in June 2006 released the EP A Personal Account Of Conflict on BadHand Records.

Mp3 Rothko - Sharps Box
Mp3 Rothko - Breaking The Fall

How could you describe Rothko distinctive sounds ?

hi tiago, thank you so much for taking the time to ask some questions .
well, the sound we make differs from the recorded sounds to the live sounds.
but, everything originates from the melodies played on the bass guitar, and practically every track is built from around a bass melody. that is where everything comes from 4 strings and standard tuning can give some limitations, but, i have never strayed from that way of writing music. I just do what i do and see where it takes me from album to album.


What represents " A Life Lived Elsewhere " ?

this is the last 10 years of rothko. from the very beginning, in 1997, to 2006. it covers so many releases and unreleased tracks from those ten years. it was difficult for me to put it all together and to look back over the years, but, the reaction i have had from people so far has been so incredibly positive. it feels like it's been all so worthwhile.

I believe this is quite a difficult question , but after some of the original line up left left in 2001 , could the directions of sounds been different ? Were the ideas different ?

very good question.

i think things have been very different since 2000. if anything, the recordings have become more and more sparse, even though there have been more musicians involved. this is also because i have been recording on computer since then, which has given me greater [total] control over the mixes and production, but, still, i'd like to think that the sound has continued to progress with each release, with each release since 1998. a gradual moving forward.
these things, real change, in any genre, in any way of life, take time to come to fruition. music is no different.

what's the relation between Rothko the painter and Rothko the Band ?

the only reason i named the band Rothko was because he was/is my favourite artist. when i was very young, i used to go and sit in the Rothko room at the original Tate Gallery for hours, just taking in the feel of his paintings. they will always have a deep and lasting effect on me. always.
his work will always continue to have a bearing on the music that i make. for many reasons.

Could you name a few of the most important inspirations for Rothko actual music ?

time , the lack of time , francis bacon [the painter], alberto giacometti
my father , my brother , alcohol , crawford blair , michael donnelly
tom page , ben page


Trace Recording , how much do you feel proud of it ?

pride? i'm not proud of it.

but, of the releases so far, i have been honoured to put them out. and, the ones that are to come, i am incredibly excited to be releasing them.

i'm not proud of anything i've ever done.

What is it like to work with Anne Sulikowski ? She looks incredibly creative and the movies are so beautiful .

Anne has been incredibly kind to allow me to release her wonderful music on Trace Recordings. her album Secret Land will be out this autumn on Trace.

She is a unique artist. working in music, film and photography at such an incredibly high standard. it's important, vital, for me to have anyone on Trace who works in multi media formats and not just in music. and Anne goes way, way beyond that. She's a unique talent, and I feel blessed to be allowed to release her music.


The films that Anne has done for the rothko tracks Give Every Thing and Be Invisible are, simply, incredible.

i think/hope that she will become incredibly successful in both her music and her films and photography.

What are your favorite records at this moment ?

Pink Violins by Marina Hardy on Public Eyesore Records. amazing album. totally unclassifiable, http://www.myspace.com/marinachardy

Pros and cons for bloggers ?

as long as the facts are straight, no cons.

thanks so much Tiago. best wishes, mark.

Thanks a lot Mark for taking time to answer the questions and that Rothko keep bringing us beautiful music.

The recent album, Eleven Stages Of Intervention, is out now on the very wonderful Bip Hop Recods of France

The new Rothko retrospective album, A Life Lived Elsewhere is now available from Trace Recordings


Video | Rothko - Give Everything a documentary about the art of wandering into the future unknown by Anne Sulikowski

Video | Rothko - Be Invisible by Anne Sulikowski

Video | Rothko - Give Everything from the album, 'Eleven Stages of Intervention', live at the Bull & Gate in May 2007.



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Rothko
Trace Recordings

Wednesday 20 February 2008

Antony And the Johnsons



I'm completely overwhelmed by this record. I Am a Bird Now is beyond any semi-confectionary aesthetic distance that you might bring to discussing your average album. This music grabs a hold of you and doesn't let go. It feels timeless and gorgeous and bigger than life. It may not be "soul" in the strict, music appreciation 101 sense, but it could make even the most jaded atheist approach a metaphysical regard. It is assured, seering and majestic SOUL to the utmost. I'd put on my critic's cap and dive into scrutiny, but I am too enraptured by this artist's music.

Video | Antony sings If It Be Your Will in the Leonard Cohen documentary - Im your Man.

For some reason my CD of I Am a Bird Now is skipping and every skip is like a dagger in the heart. The pure unadulterated emotion on display decries such tedious interruptions. I never thought I could appreciate Boy George till I heard him singing with Antony on the impossibly touching "You Are My Sister." And there is no point in dwelling on the gender bending (I didn't even want to acknowledge it, to tell you the truth) aspects of the artist because his songs are so 'universally' moving. Whereas Antony and The Johnsons was a stark, chilling affair that was arresting and perhaps a little disconcerting, this album is a shining beacon of hope and healing amidst ceaseless pangs of heartache and loss. The gospel-tinged "Fistful of Love" brings in a horn section and Lou Reed for a particularly uplifting experience that bridges the middle of the album splendidly.

Mp3 | Antony and the Johnsons - Bird Guhl
Mp3 | Antony And the Johnsons - Hope There's Someone

I have to see Antony perform these songs. It's not a question of the recorded material not being enough, but I could see the breathtaking sweep of these songs taking on a whole new power in a live setting. I'm reminded of the scene in Mulholland Dr. where the two principal characters are in the theater listening to Rebecca Del Rio's heart-rending solo version of Roy Orbisons "Crying." I love this scene so much; how incredibly heavy it feels. I understood completely why they cried, and probably did a little myself. What's interesting is the one thing that kept the whole thing from utter hokeyness was that the song was sung in Spanish.

Video | Antony & The Johnsons - The Guests (Live BBC4 2006)

In this sense, I Am a Bird Now is authentic and moving because it hits you in ways that are both recognizable and foreign. Like Nina Simone, Antony has this uncanny ability to take your standard blues progression and give it authority that skips whatever reservations and preconceptions the audience might lean toward and aims directly for their empathy and, ultimately, their belief in the innate, transcendent force music can contain. willcoma , tinymixtapes

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Antony And the Johnsons

Cristian Gualpa - Flotante EP



«Hailing from Mendoza, Argentina, here is an EP release of warm ambient idm beats, from Cristian Gualpa, called “Flotante”. In five tracks, Gualpa explores an electronic language of aquatic beats, somehow related with the kind of stuff explored by artists like Arovane, and also a language with the laboratorial driving force that one can usually recognize on releases from labels like Raster-Noton. Indeed, while the last track “Capital Solar” develops a warm sense of melody, tracks like “Buenhogar” or “Al Aire” enter the mathematical domain, with a techno background underneath. Listening to these tracks is like admiring the architecture of a building, with one feet dancing at the same time. Dark ambience comes along with “Previo”, but even here the mechanical beat gives way to an ethereal melody. “Posada” sums up the ideas expressed before, and is both a relaxing or restless place to stay, depending of which things the listener pays attention to: the warm aquatic melody underneath or the drilled beat that gives structure to the track, which reminds of early Autechre releases. With about 20 minutes, “Flotante” is enjoyable brainy electronics, to be listened with headphones, and an excellent debut for Cristian Gualpa.» - César Laia

Mp3 - Cristian Gualpa - Posada
Mp3 - Cristian Gualpa - Buenhogar

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Cristian Gualpa
Test Tube

Tuesday 19 February 2008

William Basinski - The Disintegration Loops



It's impossible: no one could create a script this contrived. Yet, apparently, it happened. William Basinski's four-disk epic, The Disintegration Loops, was created out of tape loops Basinski made back in the early 1980s. These loops held some personal significance to Basinski, a significance he only touches on in the liner notes and we can only guess at. Originally, he just wanted to transfer the loops from analog reel-to-reel tape to digital hard disk. However, once he started the transfer, he discovered something: the tapes were old and they were disintegrating as they played and as he recorded. As he notes in the liner notes, "The music was dying." But he kept recording, documenting the death of these loops.

Watch | Anatomy of Melancholie - Francesco Arena & William Basinski

These recordings were made in August and September of 2001. Now, this is where the story gets impossible. William Basinski lives in Brooklyn, less than a nautical mile from the World Trade Centers. On September 11, 2001, as he was completing The Disintegration Loops, he watched these towers disintegrate. He and his friends went on the roof of his building and played the Loops over and over, all day long, watching the slow death of one New York and the slow rise of another, all the while listening to the death of one music and the creation of another. As I said, it's impossible. The music, however, is beautiful, subtle, sad, frightening, confusing, and ultimately uplifting. What's he created here is a living document: a field recording of orchestrated decay. It sounds like nothing else I've heard, yet, at its core, it's the simplest and most familiar music I can imagine.



The four disks comprise six unique works. There is some overlap on the different disks; in fact, the first work (which Basinski calls "D|P 1") begins on disk one and ends on disk four. Some of the works are very long ("D|P 1" is over 90 minutes), while some are relatively short ("D|P 4" is only 20 minutes). However, each of the six works employs a different, repeating loop that slowly deteriorates into oblivion. The loops are very simple: a lush string or synth melody backed by atmospheric arpeggio countermelodies. The melodies are, as Basinski notes, pastoral: lush, simple works intended as idealized representations of nature and beauty. In theory, then, this is ambient music: music designed to set a mood, evoke a feeling (like a cinematic score), but one that is not designed for deep listening. That, I'm sure, was Basinski's initial design when he first created these loops in 1982.

Watch | Melancholia - William Basinski

But time has slowly killed these loops and the pastoral (and ambient) ideals they once represented. What we hear on The Disintegration Loops are not poetic images of nature or beauty but nature and beauty as they truly exist in this world: always fleeting, slowly dying. What makes these works so memorable is not the fact that the loops are slowly disintegrating but the fact that we get to hear their deaths. In a very real way, we experience the muddled, ugly, brutal realities of life. What's more, these muddled, ugly, brutal realities of life are, in their own way, incredibly beautiful, perhaps more beautiful than the original, pristine loops ever could have been.



As with any natural occurrence, these individual loops all die very individual deaths. "D|P 3," for example, begins as a bright, bold, orchestral melody that, over the course of 42 minutes, is slowly reduced to a sputtering, churning blob of its former self. The melody disintegrates slowly, until, by the end, only portions are audible; the rest is silence and noise. By contrast, the longest piece, "D|P 1," because it is split into three distinct parts ("1.1" on disk one; "1.2" and "1.3" on disk four), actually dies three separate deaths. Each one begins as soft, warm halos of sound, which then slowly mutates into muddled fragments. And then there's "D|P 4," the smallest work. It begins as a full-fledged melody but slowly devolves into chaos: silences slowly spreading across huge gaps in the loop, while the muddled melody struggles on, barely perceptible, until it, too, is silenced into oblivion.

Mp3 | William Basinski - dlp 2.2

This is not ambient music; this is not one melody played over and over to fill the background space of a Japanese restaurant. This is natural music: music created from the elemental forces of life and as a testament to those forces. This is the sound of entropy, the sound of life as it decays and dies before our ears. And like all living things, these sounds struggle and claw for life with their last, dying breaths. Their deaths are a memorial to Basinski's past. That he dedicates these works to the victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks is fitting. I can think of no better tribute, no better response to a tragedy of that magnitude than a work as beautiful and as fragile as this one. hauntedink

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William Basinski

Sunday 17 February 2008

Atlas Sound



One of the most exciting aspects of Deerhunter’s recent Cryptograms was its schizophrenic approach to sound: bone-rattling noise rock one moment, placid, electronica-driven instrumentalism the next. There’s much more of the latter on Deerhunter frontman Bradford Cox’s debut as Atlas Sound, a solo album awash in a vaguely psychedelic haze that masks lyrics about being drowned (in love), waking up with bite marks on your back and being so zonked on tranquilizers that you sleep until you feel drunk. While Cox’s narratives make little sense (much of the time, he’s not even singing so much as wailing wordlessly), the music is surprisingly accessible. There are hints of laptop electronica (“On Guard,” “Winter Vaca-tion”), the mesmerizing repetition of bands like Windsor For The Derby (“Recent Bedroom,” “Ready, Set, Glow”) and the gentler side of shoegaze (“Small Horror”). But Cox is at his best when he doesn’t skimp on melody, particularly on the sweet “River Card” and the slinky “Ativan,” which is replete with Velvet Underground-style echo on the guitars and vocals. Kudos to Cox, who could’ve easily just turned up the volume. By keeping things mostly quiet, he’s conjured a sonic universe all his own. Jonathan Cohen - magnetmagazine

Mp3 | Atlas Sound - River Card
Mp3 | Atlas Sound - Recent Bedroom

Watch | Atlas Sound: live @ The FADER/AT&T Sideshow
Watch | Atlas Sound - River Card


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Bradford Cox

Are you rejected ?



Don Hertzfeldt (born August 1, 1976) is the creator of many short animated films, including the Academy-Award nominated cult favorite Rejected. Collectively, his animated films have received over one hundred awards and have been presented in over a thousand film festivals and venues worldwide. Before the age of thirty, his films were already the subject of several career retrospectives.



Watch | Rejected - Don Hertzfeldt

The popularity of his work is unprecedented in the history of independent animation and his films are frequently quoted and referenced in pop culture.


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Don Hertzfeldt

Saturday 16 February 2008

Beach House - Devotion



We're practically three months from 2008-- it can't possibly be time to start discussing the most anticipated records of next year, can it? Guess so, 'cause here comes one now: Devotion, beauteous Baltimorean duo Beach House's follow-up their stellar eponymous debut of last year. The disc drops February 26 on Carpark Records, and the tracklist is available beyond the jump way down there. It includes a cover of Daniel Johnston's "Some Things Last a Long Time".

As they told us back in June, Devotion takes the comparatively busy "Master of None" as its sonic reference point, and Victoria sounds extra caffeinated this time out.

In other Beach House news, their debut LP is being issued on vinyl -- again! Having sold out of its initial run on Heart Break Beat Records, the label is re-pressing it on white vinyl, re-sticking it into deluxe jackets, and re-introducing it to crates in record stores the world over.


Mp3 | Beach House - Gila
Mp3 | Beach House - D.A.R.L.I.N.G.

Video | Beach House - Master of None




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Beach House

Friday 15 February 2008

Japanther @ Occii 01 Mar



Two guys, bass, drums, tapes falling over anthemic awesomeness. The best and most positive dance band in New York. Like "Holiday Road" from the "Vacation" played super loud with equipment on the fritz. Soulful hip hop hardcore drumming and crazy samples and drum machine beats on old cassettes make for amazing singing alongs. "Japanther make the type of music that dares people to stand still. Poppy surf-punk numbers mixxed with comedy and performance." - Japanther HQ

Mp3 | Japanther - 10
Mp3 | Japanther - Changer yer Life

One of Brooklyn's favorite noise-rock bands, Japanther (Ian Vanek and Matt Reily) unveiled a new rock-opera using a high-energy multi-media format -- their "tool kit" integrates live music, dance, an interactive set, and video projections, plus an animatronic robot dinosaur -- the band and their collaborators create a full-immersion theatrical concert experience that sports a sharp political edge and an equally edgy heart.

Video | Japanther in 3-D

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Japanter
Occii

Thursday 14 February 2008

The 4th Dimension ( 2006 )



The independent oddity The 4th Dimension is a promising, if not entirely successful, debut for co-directors Tom Mattera and Dave Mazzoni, whose proficient style manages to hide a deficit of substance until the film falls apart in its final sequence. The movie tells the story of an antique-store employee and loner, Jack, for whom time seems to break down when he receives an old clock from a mysterious woman. A brilliant young man obsessed with Einstein's Unified Field Theory, Jack enters a state of consciousness in which the boundaries between past, present, and dreams seem to collapse; at the same time, flashbacks to Jack's troubled childhood coexist with present-day events in a fluid, surreal manner. This premise allows the filmmakers to convey a sense of total stasis in Jack's life; he seems literally frozen in time, and his emotional imprisonment is made literal by the physical confines of some impressively claustrophobic sets.

Trailer | The 4th Dimension Movie

Trailer | Carl Sagan 4th Dimension Explanation

Wednesday 13 February 2008

Vladislav Delay - Whistleblower




Is there anybody doing as much with dub these days as Sasu Ripatti? The tricks and tenets of the form have been so integrated into different realms of music production that they're simply part of the weather. Disembodied echoes, horizontal smears, transfigurations of details into plot-points and vice versa-- all such things are base elements that owe to the days when reggae producers started wondering what might be hiding between the wires in their mixing desks.

It would be hard to overstate the importance of dub in electronic music, but it's also easy to take for granted. Part of that owes to how literally dub gets invoked by those most closely associated with it: When the likes of Pole or Rhythm & Sound show their devotion to the dub methodology they hold dear, it tends to come out sounding more or less like re-versioned reggae. Drums fan out over bulbous bass-lines, tempos skew slow, melodies grow lazy and warm, and so on.

Mp3 | Vladislav Delay - He Lived Deeply
Mp3 | Vladislav Delay - Whistleblower

Sasu Ripatti is less literal. Under his working guises as Luomo, Uusitalo, and Vladislav Delay, the Finnish producer has allied with dub as both a method and a mindset. It starts with the interrelation of his three personae, which itself functions as a sort of dub gesture. But it's most evident in the way he trips and rubs each and every element of his sound as it transpires, whether under the schedule of house (cf. Luomo), techno (Uusitalo), or dub that wanders out of line.

Video | Vladislav Delay @ Luci D'artista Torino 6-11-07

The last one is what plays on Whistleblower, the eighth album credited to Vladislav Delay. The sounds are the same as they've always been: miasmic synth tones, rubbery kick-drums that stutter and tap, weird whirligigs given to tumbling around what could well be a big washing machine filled with an irradiated syrup of significant thickness. They're basically the same sounds that Ripatti mines as Luomo and Uusitalo, minus any veritable rites of rhythm.



As Luomo has grown evermore sensuous and inviting, the common knock against the work of Delay is that it's all a big tease. (Who could resist the desire to hear Luomo when he's so close at hand?) But while the tease does in fact taunt in tracks that rarely build beyond a lumbering yawn, the Luomo aura helps as much as it hurts, mostly by making Delay's dubby hesitations and ambient lack of pacing resonante all the more for the decisions they imply. When a series of pounding sounds wanders into a 12-minute track like “Wanted To (Kill)", what initially scans as arbitrary carpentry noise falls into a hypnotic pulse, in part because you're listening for it. Likewise the barely-suggested sound of a voice cut up in "Stop Talking"-- the mere chance that it might turn into a lush chorus in the fashion of Luomo makes it sneak into an ear all the deeper.-Andy Battaglia, May 16, 2007 Pitchfork

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Vladislav Delay

Sunday 3 February 2008

The Amaizing Mr. Andrew Bird



Andrew Bird makes the kind of music that leaves critics groping for labels. A classically trained violinist, former swing jazz musician and now art rock virtuoso, Bird is one of the most imaginative and distinctive voices making music today.

Andrew Bird gives incredible live performances. Essentially a one-man band, Bird plays lines on violin or guitar or whistles a theme, records and loops the sounds, and plays new layers over them. His music is an eclectic mix of gypsy ballads, jazz, folk and rock. "Every night," Bird says, "I am rewriting all my songs for the audience."

Originally from Chicago, Bird was born in 1973 and learned violin from a young age using the traditional Suzuki method. He graduated from Northwestern University with a degree in violin performance.


Daytrotter Session 29.10.07

Mp3 | Andrew Bird - Fiery Crashs
Mp3 | Andrew Bird - Lull
Mp3 | Andrew Bird - Plasticities

Session Noir 03.21.05

Mp3 | Andrew Bird - Why
Mp3 | Andrew Bird - A Nervous Tic Motion
Mp3 | Andrew Birb - Masterfade




Video | Andrew Bird - A Nervous Tic Motion - Live at Bonnaroo Manchester 2006

Video | Andrew Bird - Imitosis - La Maroquinerie Paris , March 2007

Video | Andrew Bird - Spare-Ohs - Playing on the streets of Montmartre, Paris , April 2007


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Fink @ Paradiso 17 Feb



Fink's recording career began with Ninja Tune's release of his debut album Fresh Produce in 2001, a well received chill-out set that fitted neatly with the output of the label. However, it was his second release, 2006's Biscuits For Breakfast, that defined his style and began to bring his name to a wider audience.

“We’ve played some great shows in the last year,” enthuses Fink from his home in Brighton. He’s not kidding, having performed live with his band at the Birmingham and Manchester Academies, Brighton Dome, Colston Hall in Bristol and a string of other venues in support of Zero 7 in the Spring of last year, before hitting the festival circuit with shows at The Big Chill, Bestival, Green Man, and Fruitstock to name but a few. Fink’s debut album for Ninja Tune, “Biscuits for Breakfast,” marked a seismic shift for the label - shelving samples and turntablism in favour of an acoustic guitar and great songs. The record, distinguished by its squeaking fret boards and disarmingly autobiographical lyrics, caught the attention of audiences worldwide. Over a hundred Fink shows across Europe, including dates at the Electron and JazzOnze festivals, were followed by an intense tour of North America, where Fink, together with bassist Guy Whittaker and drummer Tim Thornton, jetted between seven cities in nine days after having received the Single of the Week slot from iTunes US. Since then, Fink has made special appearances with Nitin Sawhney at the 2006 Electric Proms, the 2007 Proms at the Royal Albert Hall, and throughout a 6-night sold-out run at London’s Jazz Café last December.


Video | Fink Live at Motel Mozaique, Rotterdam

While the lyrics on Fink’s follow-up album, “Distance and Time,” retain his trademark tension and honest lines of observation, the record feels more sophisticated and somewhat larger than the last, book-ended by the strung out, softly spoken anger of “Trouble is What You’re In” and the grunting power chords of “Little Blue Mailbox.” Fink feels that was a direct result of this experience on the road. “We did ‘Biscuits for Breakfast’ completely backwards,” he explains. “It was recorded before we’d ever done a gig, while bands normally have to gig for a while before they get a record deal, then get into the studio. This time around we’ve been on the road for a year and the whole experience has given us some insight into what it takes to headline these places.” If you live in the UK, chances are you’ve heard lead single “This is the Thing” as it recently graced a primetime TV ad campaign for MasterCard. “It was weird to hear myself on telly,” Fink admits. “To think that three or four million people have hard your voice during Coronation Street is certainly a bit strange!”

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Fink
Ninja Tune
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