Paavoharju - ‘Italialaisella Laivalla’
To perfect honest, I’m not even sure what this album is yet, but it already seems like one of the more interesting albums of the year. My guess is that this Finnish group have tried to created a carefully sculpted transmission of obscured sounds recycled into fresh composition in the same style [...]
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David Karsten Daniels - ‘Martha Ann’
I’ve been fortunate this week. Plenty of musical gems have come my way and this album is most certainly one of them. Evocative of Will Oldham but with enough colour and variety to retain its own identity, Fear of Flying sticks out like a beacon amongst an overcrowded genre of [...]
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epic 45 - ‘Lost in Falling Light’
I listened to this song while sitting on top of a mountain, staring out at a sea of gentle waves…and it couldn’t have been more perfect. May Your Heart Be The Map is a soothing, softly flowing album ideal to get wrapped up in on a shimmering sunmmer’s day. [...]
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Sharon Van Etten - ‘You Didn’t Really Do That’
I’ve just discovered this song and have made an instant connection with it. I want to plaster myself in the words and own it forever…so I’ve gone ahead and bought the EP via her website: $6 (€3.99) for a handmade CD of beautifully stark folk songs recorded [...]
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Our Sleepless Forest - ‘Nomads’
This album is a beautiful collection of sounds. If you get as little shut-eye as I do, you’ll appreciate ambience as finely crafted as this. I cherish records seemingly created just for sleep (Lucky Pierre, Stars of the Lid, Echospace); whether it be soundtracking a 10 hour bus ride, a 32 [...]
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Jens Carelius - ‘Come Back to Me’
I think it’s safe to say that most people will have the same first impressions of this record: Nick Drake. Nick Drake. Nick Drake.
But if you can get past that - and perhaps it’s a big if - this really is a set of similarly beautiful and stark folk [...]
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Quiet Village - ‘Rolling On’
It’s difficult to sum up Silent Movie in one fell swoop. To say that it’s sample-heavy or electronic-based would be quite misleading. It’s a hybrid album that ‘interpolates’ extended pieces from obscure records (e.g. Writing on the Wall’s ‘Buffalo’, which I posted earlier) and adds new elements to form a slow-burning [...]
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The Ruby Suns - ‘Tane Mahuta’
This is a gorgeously sunny song from a record chock-full of them - perfect for that Friday feeling.
I had been hearing nothing but good things about Sea Lion for some time yet some niggling and seemingly unexplainable waver of cynicism made held me back. I’ve been giving it a few spins this [...]
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Joseph Arthur - ‘I Wanna Get You Alone’
Helping to put a sultry step in your stride for whatever tonight may hold…
Joseph Arhur is a prolific painter and musician from Brooklyn who has just released his second of five schedules releases in 2008. Crazy Rain is just one of four EPs to surface along with a full-length [...]
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Posted in Recommended Listening, tagged beatriz yanos, cantante, Cyndi Lauper, eureka records, Girl Just Want to Have Fun, I love your glasses, just Like A Wall, realizadora, russian red on April 14, 2008 | No Comments »
Russian Red - ‘Cigarettes’
Russian Red is an exciting new songwriter from Spain whose debut album, I Love Your Glasses, has made a welcome appearance on my musical radar.
Russian Red - ‘Just Like A Wall’
Though there may be countless female folk singers overcrowding the shelves at present, there’s always room for one more good one…and that’s [...]
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Fight Bite - ‘Swiss Ex-Lover’
Okay, one last song for Sunday. I promise. Then fade to black, close out to dreams…with this as the perfect soundtrack.
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The Oh Sees - ‘Block of Ice’
For anyone out there getting ready to go out, ignoring clocks, mirrors and phonecalls just to take one last listen to a song that will get you in the right frame of mind - this is for you.
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Cloudland Canyon - ‘Krautwerk’
This number, on the other hand, is a rollicking epic that pays tribute to those who pioneered the Krautrock and motorik genres in the ’70s - a sort of pseudo-cover of Neu!, in fact, as it recreates the backbone of their stunning first-album opener, ‘Hallgallo’.
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White Denim - ‘Goldie Locks’
While I’m in the mood, I’m going to post up a couple more new tracks by bands quite clearly tipping their hats to the forebearers of garage rock. Take these White Denim tunes for starters: they’re visceral, loose and full of the kind of energy you can only get from recording [...]
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{{{Sunset}}} - ‘Man’s Heart Complaint’
I feel like I’m on a roll today. Brilliant stuff from this Austin-based group who dabble “in psychedelic volks-rots.” Two mp3s from their album Bright Blue Dream can be downloaded for free over at their MySpace.
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Perhaps it was the name that mislead me, but M. Ward and actress Zooey Deschanel’s collaborative project had me expecting an album of luvy-duvy duets. In reality, Ward’s gravely croon makes few appearances here - and that’s not the only reason his fans may find this a somewhat frustrating listen.
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Posted in Recommended Listening, tagged indie, mp3, listen, plants and animals, with/avec, with/avec ep, montreal, faerie dance, Warren C. Spicer, Matthew Woodley, Nic Basque, Secret City Records, good friend on March 4, 2008 | No Comments »
Plants and Animals - ‘Faerie Dance’
Having grabbed Plants and Animals’ new album the second I saw it, last year’s With/Avec EP is starting to feel like a discovery that’s still paying off. Where ‘Faerie Dance’ was the standout track on the latter release, their full-length debut sees the band raising their game substantially, ensuring [...]
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Posted in Recommended Listening, tagged take away shows, download, mp3 download, listen, sub pop, Sun Giant, Fleet Foxes, bella union, Robin Pecknold, Skye Skjelset, Craig Curran, Nicholas Peterson, Casey Wescott, Christian Wargo, seattle, free mp3s, drops in the river, sxsw, Sun Giant EP, white winter hymnal, english house, ragged wood on February 29, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Fleet Foxes - ‘White Winter Hymnal*‘
I’ve been waxing lyrical about these guys since the day they signed to Bella Union. Now I can exclusively reveal that Fleet Foxes have recorded their very own Take Away Show at Noise Pop just yesterday, and given that Pitchfork have just stamped n 8.7 on their new EP Sun [...]
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Posted in Recommended Listening, tagged American Music, Bob Dylan, Bright Eyes, Conor Oberst, Frankie's Gun, Ian Felice, Team Love Records, The Band, The Felice Brothers on February 24, 2008 | No Comments »
The Felice Brothers - Frankie’s Gun
It’s just about impossible to listen to the Felice Brothers without Bob Dylan and The Band coming to mind. It doesn’t matter if the constant comparison bothers them, it’s simply unavoidable. So much so that any talk of coincidence feels just downright insulting. Hailing from the Catskill Mountains of [...]
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Posted in Recommended Listening, tagged Aly Walk With Me, Dead Sound, listen, Lust Lust Lust, Sharin, streaming mp3s, Sune Rose Wagner, The Chain Gang of Love, The Raveonettes, vice records on February 21, 2008 | 1 Comment »
The Raveonettes - ‘Aly, Walk With Me’
I can assuredly call this my album of the week. Danish duo The Raveonettes have returned with an album of slick, stylish and sultry pop songs to reclaim the form of 2003’s The Chain Gang of Love.
The Raveonettes - ‘Dead Sound’
Lust, Lust, Lust plays like an inebriated walk-through [...]
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Posted in Recommended Listening, Song of the Day, tagged Bon Iver, DeYarmond Edison, download, Jagjaguwar, Justin Vernon, listen, mp3, Skinny Love on February 20, 2008 | No Comments »
Bon Iver - ‘Skinny Love’
This song was recorded during a three-month solo sojourn by Justin Vernon somewhere in the woods of Northwestern Wisconsin. Apart from committing songs to tape, these solitary days were filled with bouts of wood chopping in the onset of winter (the [...]
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P:ano - ‘Clapping Hands’
‘Clapping Hands’ is the perfect example of what indie-pop is capable of. It’s the sort of infuriatingly catchy but criminally overlooked gem that most open-minded people would find difficult to resist. Condensed into just over two minutes, every single ingredient of its simple but sugary charm is perfectly placed: the swaying vocal [...]
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No Age - ‘Everybody’s Down’
L.A. drum-and-guitar duo No Age are another band that have been earning plaudits via their let’s-play-everywhere-we-can-all-the-time touring philosophy. I first saw them sharing a crowded bill with, amongst others, Dan Deacon, where the lights were all but out, no one could get a drink, the heating was busted, the schedule running [...]
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Born Ruffians - ‘Red, Yellow, And Blue’
Born Ruffians are a spritely dose of indie-pop from Ontario, Canada, cheeky and cheerful enough to be landed on the ever-dependable Warp label. Their cover of Grizzly Bear’s ‘The Knife’ never made an impression of me, nor did the amount of airplay and column inches they received for [...]
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Posted in Recommended Listening, Song of the Day, tagged mp3, mp3 download, listen, MGMT, Oracular Spectacular, the management, Andrew VanWyngarden, weekend wars, the handshake, streaming on February 16, 2008 | 1 Comment »
MGMT - The Handshake (demo)
Few bands have enjoyed a wildfire of hype in 2008 to the same degree as MGMT (a pair of music students from Wesleyan University formerly known as “The Management” 
and their colourful new album Oracular Spectacular. At this point it may seem as if Brooklyn’s capable of producing an infinite [...]
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The Straw Bear Band - ‘Comfort in the Stars’
I’ve had their tunes rattling around in my head for a few days now, but it came as a little bit of a surprise to find out that the Straw Bear Band are in fact a little-known UK act and not, given the extreme similarities between Cooper’s [...]
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Posted in Recommended Listening, tagged folk, like a mountain, medicinals, oh messiah, Scott Cudmore, shuffling feet, Taylor Kirk, Timber Timbre, twist and shout, under your spell on February 12, 2008 | No Comments »
Timber Timbre - Like a Mountain
This is a beautifully stark album that really makes me think about the triviality of genres and the essence of music itself. What is the foundation of a good, well-written song? If something is infectious, memorable, makes you move or is any way immediately affecting, then there’s a tendency there [...]
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Posted in Recommended Listening, Song of the Day, tagged A Place to Bury Strangers, Jay Space, Jono Mofo, killer pimp, Missing You, Oliver Ackermann, shoegaze, Skywave on February 11, 2008 | 1 Comment »
A Place to Bury Strangers - ‘Missing You’
Despite the name, this is a song of eager anticipation. It’s perfect for fueling the right kind of rush, that slight flicker of giddiness when you’re not late and you’re cruising along to somewhere you actually want to be. Every week I hear a new band that tries [...]
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The Magnetic Fields - ‘Three-Way’
For some time, the new Magnetic Fields album, Distortion, had been languishing inexplicably at the bottom of my “to-listen” pile. But as one cursory listen will reveal, this album is full of surprises. Recalling their earlier work, Distortion’s production values make it sound an unreleased album consigned to the archives [...]
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Beach House - ‘Gila’
While the heavy-hearted dynamic that characterised Beach House’s debut is alive and well, Devotion boasts a much more expansive pallet. It’s denser, more colourful, and seems intent on asserting itself as much more alive and reactive than its predecessor. But while these are welcome additions, they do little to put any considerable [...]
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Posted in Recommended Listening, tagged download, Foreign Born, holy splinter, in the remote woods, keep it all inside, listen, Matt Popieluch, mp3, On The Wing Now on February 5, 2008 | No Comments »
I’ve slowly grown into this album and it has already become one of my favourites in 2008. Okay, so it may have been released in October and the songs were originally recorded back in 2005, but I’m hoping it will be a big year for Foreign Born…because for the life of me, I can’t figure [...]
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The Cave Singers - Belmar
No doubt many of you will have found this post after seeing The Cave Singers support Band of Horses on their upcoming tour, charming the early arrivals with splintered, rustic folk tunes.
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Sibylle Baier -’Tonight’
Where the belated championing of Vashti Bunyan has been a case of beautiful folk music being re-discovered, the story of Sibylle Baier is one of a talent that never made it far enough to be forgotten. Colour Green is an album of songs from home reel-to-reel tape recordings Baier made in Germany between [...]
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As one of the best albums of 2007, much of the attention that Liars’ fourth (and, arguably, best) album received centered on how the band had finally forsaken their conceptual efforts to simply focus on the art of the song, and the diversity that yet another stylistic U-turn displayed. No experimental electronic music with elaborate [...]
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The Fiery Furnaces - ‘Ex-Guru’
Unconventional, intriguing, literate, experimental, hectic, flustering - much as I’ve tried to be taken by the music of this arty brother-sister combo, time and time again, everything about the Fiery Furnaces has made it a surprisingly difficult task. But with the ’70s bounce of ‘Ex-Guru’, however, a door has finally [...]
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Posted in Recommended Listening, tagged panda bear, free mp3, listen, free download, El Guincho, Alegranza, kalise, antillas, fata morgana on January 31, 2008 | No Comments »
El Guincho - Fata Morgana
You have to feel for El Guincho. As good as his album, Alegranza, may be, this could be one of the most unfortunate cases of bad timing in recent times. Coming hot on the heels of the undisputably brilliant Peson Pitch by Panda Bear, the comparisons were both inevitable and unenviable.
El [...]
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Kelley Stoltz - Mother Nature
I’ve been giving this album repeated spins for the last couple of days, its loose ’60s pop sound allowing me to dream, albeit temporarily, of the onset of spring.
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A soul saving tour de force of utter jubilation. Need I say more?
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Quite surprisingly, Jonquil still remain a well-kept secret several months after their breathtakingly cohesive second album ‘Lions’ was discreetly released on Try Harder records.
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Listen to the studio version:
Deerhunter - Fluorescent Grey
‘Cryptograms’ seemed to split a lot of people right down the middle and, funnily enough, it is a record of vastly different sides
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Listen:
Magic Arm - Reprise
Though it may not appear on many best-of lists this year, ‘Outdoor Games’ is an intensely catchy record that I virtually lived with all summer.
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While ‘The Mysterious Production of Eggs‘ was always going to be a tough act to follow, I’m surprised ‘Armchair Apocrypha’ hasn’t made it on to more best-of-year lists. Densely layered, beautifully written and charmingly neurotic, I can’t imagine how anyone could fail to be disarmed by Andrew Bird’s showcase of weaving idiosyncracies.
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Posted in Recommended Listening on December 17, 2007 | No Comments »
The National never seem to break a sweat or as much as raise a voice and perhaps that’s one reason why I think this album requires time to be properly absorbed. I bought ‘Alligator’ when it first came out and I just couldn’t warm to the dulled, monotones of Matt Berninger voice. Yet seeing them [...]
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Posted in Recommended Listening on December 16, 2007 | No Comments »
Certainly the most colourful and sprightly album of the year, this tracksuited madman has used his degree in composition to create a phenomenon that never fails to get everyone bouncing in fits of giddiness.
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Describing a band’s music in terms of other acts has always been something that bothers me. But Gravenhurt’s ‘The Western Lands’ is something not of its own. It walks a quaint and peculiar path that meanders from The Smiths to My Bloody Valentine and in doing so, leads you to an unexpected conclusion: that music [...]
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Dr. Dog do a cracking version of Architecture in Helsinki’s timpani-loaded stomp. Perfect for that Friday feeling.
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Posted in Recommended Listening, tagged covers, final fantasy, foggy notions, hawk and a hacksaw, joanna newsom, live, mariah carey, miracle fortress, requests, setlist, vicar st on December 6, 2007 | No Comments »
Final Fantasy’s Owen Pallett has told fans he is open to all song requests at his live shows…but only at a cost.
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Hailing from Angel City, California, Jeremy Jay provides a injection of retro pep into your day.
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A perfect song for some winter dreaming.
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High-brow indie purists beware: if you’ve been dreading the day when Animal Collective outgrow their cult following, now is the time to resign to such a fate.
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I’ve seen Dirty Projectors twice this summer, and at first I thought that David Longstreth’s odd between-song banter, his colourful choice of cardigans, and the seemingly stream-of-consciousness nature to his songs were part of some idiosyncratric foible that one would only pick up on during a live show. But to have a poke around in [...]
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I’ve only been awake for 15 minutes and already I have come across this little nugget, begging for further exploration.
myspace.com/nancyelizabethcunliffe
nancyelizabeth.co.uk
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Hmm, is it just me or is there still some noticable friction between the re-united Stooges? There are a couple of somewhat cringe-inducing moments for both Iggy and Ron Asheton whenever the other is talking…
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Rio en Medio, New Mexican songstress, Bride of Dyanmite, signee to Devendra Banhart and Andy Cabic’s Gnomosong label, one half of The Water Island, performer of ukulele renditions of the Bee Gees, and supporter of Grizzly Bear…has done a Blogotheque Take Away Show.
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