Ah man, I always forget that Canada is the breeding ground for the best music around – from Suuns to Arcade Fire to Broken Social Scene, Wolf Parade, Feist, Godspeed, Death From Above, and not forgetting Joni Mitchell, Neil Young and… well, Anvil. And Yamantaka Sonic Youth (YT//ST) are another addition to the list.
So YT/ST is Canadian collective, who wrote a ‘Noh-Wave’ Opera under the same title back in 2008 and evolved the collective through a shared love of mixed cultural backgrounds and a love of Asian and indigenous arts. With performances laid out on monochrome paper sets, they apparently:
“blend the poorly appropriated styles of Noh, Chinese Opera, Chinese, Japanese and First Nations Mythology, Black & White Television, Psychedelia & Rock Operatics into a sensory feast of nigh-monochromatic costuming, unique hand-built musical instruments and their own mangaesque cardboard ‘NEVERFLAT’ style of 2.5D set design.” According to their site/
I mean, get your head around that.
In 2011 they finished their first full-length Opera, which is sometihng I’d like to witness and with it comes their first full length LP that has been on repeat via my computer for well over a week now. It’s a mix of heavy riffs, with elements of electronic music in places and kitsch but not annoying vocals. There are threads of grunge in some of the riffs and since I am struggling to make a comparison to any band that I personally know, I’m lumping with describing them as a scary version of Breeders – who are already a little scary. It moves all over the place from delicate to howling – to chorus to pummelling post rock vibes. It’s great, so go buy it/listen here.
In the meantime, take a listen here.
They’re only upcoming gig is currently at ATP in March (aka curated by Jeff Mangum). Please can someone put them on in London? THANKS.
You may remember Breton from months back when Lauren tootled along to the Breton show in Leeds to interview Roman – yeah, remember that? Well finally the chap and band have been signed to Fat Cat – which is basically good because they release The Twilight Sad, Frightened Rabbit, We Were Promised Jetpacks, Maps & Atlases, Mazes and all manner of bands that we are fans of.
Today it was announced that he has released a free EP - The Blanket Rule EP- which is out, well now. Yes, a mixing of tenses but that’s basically what happened, we received an email telling us we’re late in the know and it’s ready and waiting so we better hop to it and get involved.
For lack of time to describe Breton in creatively balanced language, we’d say if you like indie (you’re likely a Foals fan – it’s mainly his voice, in that yeah he is young guy from the south of England) but actually find tou have a wide collection of more dancey electronic related records – you know, those multiple Groove Armada and Tricky records you used to love, the Warp and Fat City Compilations you stole from a house party – then this is right up your street.
So why release this for free? Well it seems these are the tracks they’ve got which didn’t make the album, Other People’s Problems which is out (yes, on FatCat) March 26th 2012. It’s a taster of what they’re playing with, probably a combo of great tracks that didn’t quite fit the albums aesthetic whilst being ‘totally rad’, and yet they’ve termed the final song on the EP a ‘bonus track’. I’d say ‘go figure’ but maybe use that time better and just download the thing. Like me. From here.
And here is something to watch whilst it is downloading.
…Ok, so it’s not really an intro because, like, we put a link on the facebook and his song has been used on the LoveFilm advert, which made a marked feature of itself throughout the great Christmas TV viewing. Didn’t it?
So for a good while we thought it was Bon Iver, but then I noticed my friend – who sings in a metal band of a kind – was singing along, which made me reassess. The result was that the song – Higher Love – is a cover by Irish singer song writer James Vincent McMorrow- of a ballad from the 80s by Steve Winwood – which is a track so peppered with syncopated rhythms it will close make you feel sea sick.
I’ve managed to connect why or how my friend was so familiar with the song.
So Steve’s version is a dance floor act, but James’ is a tear jerking ball of greatness: successfully fulfilling both criterion is the sign of a great song. Bravo Mr Winwood. And bravo JVM.
Proceeds for the JVM track are going to support the teen mental health charity Headstrong, so there is that added value when you fork out your 79p —-> here
And here is a video, handily complete with lyrics (bravo video maker!).
If you like it, then you should check out James album Early In The Morning which is out now. And he is also on tour later this month, check it:
Jan 13 Doornroosje Poppodium Nijmegen, Netherlands
Jan 14 Tivoli Oudegracht SOLD OUT Utrecht, Netherlands
Jan 15 Hedon Zwolle, Netherlands
Jan 16 Rotown Poppodium SOLD OUT Rotterdam, Netherlands
Jan 21 Mitchell Theatre SOLD OUT Glasgow, United Kingdom
Jan 22 Celtic Connections @ Glasgow Royal Concert Hall SOLD OUT
Jan 23 Celtic Connections @ Glasgow Royal Concert Hall Glasgow, United Kingdom
Feb 08 Kazimier Liverpool, United Kingdom
Feb 09 The Sage Gateshead (Hall 2) Gateshead, United Kingdom
Feb 10 The Plug Sheffield, United Kingdom
Feb 11 The Anson Rooms Clifton, United Kingdom
Feb 12 O2 Academy Oxford Oxford, United Kingdom
Feb 13 Norwich Arts Centre Norwich, United Kingdom
Feb 15 Royal Festival Hall SOLD OUT London, United Kingdom
UNLUCKY LONDON
More general info and tickets at www.jamesvincentmcmorrow.com
Ding! Ding! Ding! It’s the home straight until Christmas, and what better way to procrastinate than to listen to some nice new music. Aaaaaaaaah. Phoebe Killdeer and the Short Straws have been popping up on our radar on and off, and so finally star Balladette Tess went off and interviewed her. Hurrah!
What’s the story behind your involvement with the group Nouvelle Vague? What brought you to move on to your current solo project?
I had started writing songs before Nouvelle Vague. My manager sent my demo to Marc Collins, the producer of Nouvelle Vague, who was looking for new singers for the second album. He liked my voice and I felt like it was fantastic opportunity. I loved the idea behind the project. So I toured with them for 3 years. I sang at about 250 shows, which was an incredible experience because as a singer you can really experiment when it’s not your project. You can really go out there and have fun with the project without the pressure of it being your own songs. You can really find yourself on stage. It was a huge learning curve for me and when I got close to who I thought I could be as a performer I was ready to do my own songs. I felt like I’d given everything I could to the project as well. I think they probably needed something new for the album coming up anyway. So Marc Collins said, “Let’s produce your new album together!”
Weather’s Coming comes off as a more jazz-influenced record. What brought about Innerquake and its more electric, louder sound?
The first album was a real recap of everything I’d ever been listening to. It had all of my influences and all of the ideas and songs I’d had for quite awhile. It stretched over maybe ten years or so. You can hear all the different styles that influenced my music in that first album. Then I met the Short Straws who I toured the first album with for about two and a half years. On tour we didn’t have horns [or other instruments we’d used on Weather’s Coming] so we replaced them with guitars redid the songs and changed them for the live sound. The sound developed from there, through four individuals working together and creating a sound. It became quite infectious! People were really liking it and so were we. We really felt we were going towards something. We wanted to do an album to really capture that sound we’d created. A lot of people would see us on stage and then buy the album and think, “Well this is different!” We’re really happy about the album. I think it’s a really good representation of what we can actually do live. I think we’re most comfortable on stage. We’re very happy with the album but I think on stage is even better.
Weather’s Coming has a certain quality about it that seems to address the parts of ourselves that we don’t like. Is this concept prevalent on Innerquake? Is it a continuation?
I think you just described Innerquake as well. Those themes are more prevalent on this second album. That’s why in the artwork [for Innerquake] I have this cross going across my face. People usually do that when they don’t like a photo they cross it out and say, “You can’t use that.” That’s what I’d done in a way, I was trying to portray that through your life you find these parts of yourself that you’re not necessarily “into.” You have to confront them and deal with them and change, or not. It talks about that mainly. It’s true that I’m mostly inspired by the human condition, the way we are and the way we are towards each other. The beauty and harshness of humanity and people. These are the themes that are very recurrent with my writing. I think we’re pretty amazing people on this planet! There’s some crazy stuff going on. It also talks about the fears that we have, like death, the end of the world, all of the fears that we might experience and might be thinking of. There’s another song that deals with adolescence and the social pressures that you have around that time, like sexual intercourse and how to deal with that.
Phoebe Killdeer
How are the songs written in terms of lyrics and music composition?
I write all of the lyrics. My band, the Short Straws, composes the music. I don’t really play any instruments. I’ve got a guitar which I kind of hit occasionally and a keyboard and percussion instruments that I make demos or sketches and things like that for the songs. I did have a Hammond organ on stage on the last tour but I was just hitting it. [Laughs]
As the sole writer of lyrics, are you more interested in the literary aspect of lyrics or the way they sound and their resonance? Both?
They really work together. It’s interesting to take a word and depending on the way you place it and see how the way you use it is powerful. The dynamics of the word are so powerful. You just have to move the comma around and it means something completely different. I’ve always been a lover of words and I think that’s one of the reasons why a lot of my influences, like for example, Tom Waits and Nick Cave, are really incredible writers. They’re always playing with the meanings of the words and I just love all of that. I’m very passionate about it.
Are there any poets who inspire you?
I’m super interested in poetry. But there’s an author, Tom Spanbauer, who wrote The Man Who Fell In Love With The Moon. I don’t know if he’s written any poetry but I love that book so much. He’ll bend words. He’ll say, for example, “I’m staring at forever.” And everyone understands what he’s talking about. It’s very visual, it’s an image. Everyone should read this book, it’s fantastic. It’s very powerful the way he puts a picture in your head. Poetry is the same way, it’s very striking. I love it.<
What is your favorite or most influential Tom Waits album?
Ooh, that’s difficult. I love Swordfishtrombones, I love that period. But I love what he did on Real Gone as well. It’s so rich every time he puts out something. He really challenges himself in new areas. I love that and I love the Asylum [Records] years as well. Using the metallic sounds, the industrial sounds in his music. I think that’s what really caught me the first time I heard him when I was 8 years old. I heard his music and I was thinking, “Oh my god, what is that?” [Laughs] He was using sounds to make music, not necessarily instruments or things like that and I was really drawn to that aspect. Later I discovered the lyrics and the stories [in his lyrics] are incredible. But yes, the early period really drew me towards him. He’s just so different.
Any new bands or artists that you would recommend or are listening to right now?
I’m a real old timer, I listen to very few records over and over again and they’re very old. I did do a radio show a few weeks ago with Mina Tindle. She was very refreshing, and has a nice voice.
Rainy day, cozy bed, Nanna Øland Fabricius (born 20 November 1985 in Copenhagen), is singing “he said, Sorry but you’re never gonna dance again, But my feet just keeps me moving…Trying to break the chain…And I feel like running, and I feel no pain…I feel like running”…old memories came to my mind, I studied Classic Ballet many many years, around 12…I was also in figure skating solo-dance competitions. I thought it was my future, I also took tap dance classes and contemporary Ballet too. There was a time that, dance was my life, my future. But future is never like we thought it will be like I guess, sometimes it it, but not in my case, and not in Oh Land. Nanna was also studying to became a Ballerina. Classic Ballet used to be her future. But then a serious back injury took her dream away. Something very similar happened to me. I could not dance in a professional way because of my health, at least not at that time.
There was a dark moment in her life. There was a dark moment in mine.
But there is always a light, always a way to discover new skills…only if you still believe…you can have more than a dream, and find new ones.
Oh Land song keeps playing.
I was reading an interview where Nanna Oh Land said that this “dark moment” phase made her realize that the reason why she danced was Music…Music was the reason of it all…Music was her Light, her new dream. Music was also one my lights to face the grey clouds. And this song is the song that pulls me to Life! This life, This Stage Life!
I believe everything you do in this life is an art…the art of feelings, like falling in love with somebody and let him/her get your heart, Dance in the rain and don´t be afraid of getting wet…of doing mistakes; Give and take. Finding a new way to dance even when someone says “sorry but your never gonna dance again”.
This song is about being Strong and also about being Fragile, like we all are. But it´s also about getting back on the road.
A new track started playing on Itunes. It´s Oh land again, but now she is singing about “White Nights”.
Life is like music…full of track! Dear Readers, I hope you find yours like I did!
Go out with you headphones and try to capture “your” sound
I bet you will find it!
More about this amazing young inspiring woman: http://www.ohlandmusic.com/
Tearists are a band to keep an eye on. Thing is, the next great band to come along… and their sound whoever they are, is always something that none of us can imagine just now – and when you first hear a great new band what you hear is both totally alien and totally captivating (I have strong memories of hearing Friendly Fires in the early days in 2007, and this is exactly how it felt – you’re a little stunned by what you hear and then hit back for a replay, everyone listening is both super happy and a little lost for words). This is the quality of Tearist. Hailing from LA their sounds is jagged, disruptive but will make definitely make you want to dance. Its basey and the front lady Yasmine is cool without doing anything cool (ya know, like Glasser or Karen O, but not like them too). Balladette Tess met the band – Will and Yasmine. And note, if you like what you hear, you can get FREE COPIES OF THEIR MUSIC AT THE BALLAD PARTY NOV 18TH. So, here’s how it went:
What drew you to create a more natural, less edited record with “Living: 2009-Present”?
Will: I’ve always been drawn to demo recordings of bands I like, and live records, really try to get the raw sound. We just wanted to present ourselves as ourselves in the purest form. I know it’s not what most people like and it’s not for everyone, but it’s what I appreciate. When I find a band I like I try to dig up all the weird, obscure sound recordings and demos. That’s just the way I am. I wanted to be able to present that to people that may feel the same way about that as us.
Yasmine: Peter Kolovos approached us about it. We were in the process of writing new songs and he had been at our very first show. He’s this amazing noise artist and he had been at every single show. Our first show wasn’t even a show. We didn’t have any songs, we played at a bar that should not have shows. We thought it was so funny. We were thinking, “Everyone’s gonna hate this.” I had pieces of paper taped to this column that had a few words I liked, and for certain songs I would swing around the pole and look at the words and swing back around and make up some stuff. A lot of our songs bases came from that first show where I was trying to respond to the crowd. And when you’re in the moment you have to make it sound like it’s a legitimate song. We didn’t expect anyone to be there or for anyone to like it. Everyone who came to that first show came to almost every show after that. Peter was someone I really respected in the community who was giving us these insane compliments. We genuinely thought our friends were gonna hate this, which to us was like the ultimate freedom. We were thinking if everyone was gonna hate this, let’s make them really, really hate it. Let’s go full force into this. When you stop thinking about everyone else, it’s the only way you can get to yourself, to what’s real. It’s innate. My friend Travis, who’s in Pictureplane, randomly came to that show, and since then he’s been pioneering us. That night after the show, we had a two hour talk about performing and what it meant to us. No one knew who he was at the time, and I’d never heard of him so we both were championing each other. We would play shows together and talked on the phone all the time about what was inspiring us, sending each other drawings. From that first show came all of these things. Peter had gone to so many of these shows and he had been recording them, which I didn’t realize. He just asked, “Can I put out a live album for you guys?” At first I was really blown away. We didn’t have a full length out yet, we had an EP. It’s such a high compliment, like people make live albums years down the road. But it is a lot of what we are. The live performance is half of who we are. We had a ridiculous fanbase before we had any albums out, just based on the live performance. I’m consistently overwhelmed by the fans. We were only doing what we wanted to. With a live album, it made the most sense. I couldn’t listen to the songs because we just heard mistakes, so we just had him put it together with what he thinks he likes. When I listened to it I cried. I couldn’t believe it was mine. Some of the songs weren’t there yet. He had chosen some that were such early versions of those songs. I was just remembering where I was at certain places. It was something I would compare to what inspired me. Like when I was a kid listening to live performances of Dépêche Mode.
I know your live performance is extremely important to Tearist as a band. Would call what you do performance art? How does art play into your performance?
Will: Yeah, that’s definitely the way we approach it.
Yasmine: I wouldn’t say it’s an intentionally performance art based thing. That is kind of where I come from. It’s like these different manifestos, and more the idea of them. The ability to fully give into the performance. I’m not aware of the some of things I do or how hurt I get. I’m in this really raw, animalistic state. So I can get really hurt and I get nervous sometimes because I’m not a violent person. At shows, it’s the only place I’m completely vulnerable. It’s been the way I’ve always approached acting I’ve given in fully to becoming the character and it’s sometimes been harmful to me in the sense that I have a hard time coming back to it. Certain acting coaches would get upset with how deeply I’d get into the character. At shows I see everything, but in this other way so that my innate response is physical. It’s truly an animal response, like if something’s going wrong. Once this guy was grabbing this girl in this disgusting way and she kept pushing him. I saw it and I felt this weird need to protect and I felt very disrespected. I couldn’t put it into words at that moment. In the middle of the song, I just jumped off the stage and kicked this guy in the stomach and dropped him to the ground. Then he grabbed my butt and I turned around and did it again. I got back on stage and my mic had been unplugged so I finished song screaming. I was horrified later, like if I had one of the pipes with me I could have really hurt him or myself. I would not have in any scenario just hit anybody. It’s not for me to get a response. It’s me putting myself fully out there. All these songs are so specific to certain things and some are really emotional even if they sound happy. The way I’m dancing is not preplanned. Theatrically we don’t ever stop. One time I unplugged everything, and the only thing not unplugged was my microphone. I just kept singing and Will figured out that I had gotten so into I kicked over his power strip. I just kept singing and then he came back in. Later people came up to me and said, “I really loved the Einstruzende Neubauten part, that was a really strong move.” And I was like, “What?” It is sort of theatrical but it’s not like “Oh here’s our piece.” It’s too real.
What is the audience reaction typically like at your shows? Or is it very different every time?
Will: It’s really different every time. It depends on where we are. Here in the States it’ll usually be like, “What the hell is going on? What do I do?” There will be some people nodding their heads, some people dancing, some people just standing there staring. A lot of staring! In Europe we noticed when we played in Dublin and in London people were really on the same level as us. They were treating it as music and moving and dancing and stuff. When we played the Old Blue Last [in London] it was really packed and it was a really good gig. When we play here [in the U.S.] it’s very different. Although I don’t know if it has to do with Los Angeles. It seems like the toughest crowd. Not that we’re trying to make people dance, but it’s cool when they do. We’ve only been to about 10 cities in the U.S. and it’s similar all around. When we go to a place where we have a lot of friends, it’s always better and there’s more energy.
Yasmine: There have been crowds who fully stood still, and later on they were saying they couldn’t move. They don’t leave, they don’t talk to each other, they just stand there and watch. I remember being in Japan and it was a respect thing. They would stand there, watch, clap, and be silent. I feel like France was like that too. The younger kids get crazy, singing and jumping. It’s so different every time. There’s never been a time when I’ve felt like people aren’t “getting it.” I’m always thinking, either hate it or love it. Don’t be in between and be talking. If I see someone walk away I feel like I’m not doing my job. I feel like I haven’t been honest enough. I take very personally. I feel genuinely like the crowds are really, really with us. As long as we are too, the more present we are, the more present the crowd is.
Tearist’s sound is indescribable and without precedent. Are there any bands out there that you would compare yourself to?
Will: Not really. That’s what we’re trying to do. That’s a huge compliment, to not sound like anything and be completely unique. We definitely have influences. Most of the bands we like or that we’ve talked about in depth have been other bands like that, who didn’t have any influences or precedence. So that’s kind of what we want to be as well. Einstruzende Neubauten is one. They’re a German band and they’re a really interesting band to me. I’d heard of them on the periphery and I never really got into them and still to this day I don’t know a lot of their material. I just feel a certain connection to them. I don’t have to listen I just know there’s something innate about it that I relate with on a very deep level.
Yasmine: My whole life I’ve been wanting to do something that sounded like nothing else and that I couldn’t personally compare it to. When we started this, we couldn’t figure out what it sounded like. I was scared because like I said, we thought our friends were gonna hate it. It was so responsive to him and it wasn’t in a way that I understood why. He was learning how to play certain things and that’s what drew me to him. It was truly coming from him and not some school of music. It was what was coming from his feelings. We would sit there and there was never a moment when were like, “Oh this one sounds so much like this.” And I was really afraid. I wondered, “Is this annoying? What is this?” That’s when we realized we wanted to do this because we couldn’t figure out what it sounded like. That was the whole reason for the name tearist too. Knowing that we’re inspired by everything. I understand that the way my parents spoke, for example, it makes you who you are. There are certain things that were just in our heads that we subconsciously probably brought into it. But it wasn’t like, “Let’s sound like this or like that.” Whenever we get certain comparisons, I’m always thinking, “Wow it’s really not like that.” It’s more like a feeling of that. I just got goose bumps saying. For example, I would watch this Einstruzende Neubauten video of them in this warehouse. It’s really scary, like I couldn’t believe something like that existed. When I first saw it, I just thought, “Oh my god, it could be like this?” I would watch it literally every night before I went to bed. I had to watch it. Now we get comparisons to them and I don’t think we sound like them at all. But it’s the fact that someone can get that feeling from it. And it was the thing that inspired me to go further. I have to be involved in something where I have no rules and the person I’m with feels the same way. Will genuinely shares that with me. Tearist is the movement we created where we didn’t know what we were gonna do, didn’t know what it was going to sound like. We’re involved in all these different areas of art, so Tearist was going to encompass everything. We wanted to break away from everything we know and understand that we have been inspired by those things but what we take from them is something different and where we place them in our brains is different. We get suicide comparisons, which I don’t understand that either, but what a huge compliment. I think it’s all about the feeling and the passion of it and the honesty.
If not, was that intentional?
Will: We didn’t talk about it like, “We want it to be indescribable.” It’s like a total progression, even now it’s still changing. And that’s also the whole reason we did the live record, to show the songs in their infancy. That whole thing was recorded in our first year of playing shows together. If you were to go to a show now and hear one of those songs it would probably sound really different. When we came up with a basic, general idea of how we wanted it to sound we realized it was not sounding like anything we’d heard. That was when we knew, “Okay this is what we’re doing. This is what we have to do.” And that’s another point we make with our live performances. We don’t use prerecorded tracks and stuff so it’s a unique experience every time.
Why do you choose to incorporate pieces of metal into your music?
Will: The pieces she started using were pieces of metal lying around that I’d been messing around with before we’d met. Shortly after we started playing I just brought them out and gave them to her, and said, “You should use these.” We’ve gone to places, especially somewhere outside of the city, where there are abandoned buildings, warehouses, and junk lying out in yards. We’ve found things, even really close to where we’re playing. It’s not like we have to ask like, “Where’s the nearest junk shop?” It’s more organic. We’ve used just any scrap metal, drums, and containers. It’s a great contrast with the electronic music, which is usually thought of as clean and very rhythmic, because then you have the metal which is jagged and percussive. I think we both like contrast.
Yasmine: We had been playing in his room and I hit the wall with them and then he threw them to me. I got my own other metal pieces. I was using a drumstick hitting one of them and I would try out other things to hit on and everything at a different pitch. I remember doing that as a kid, hitting everything I could and hearing what everything sounded like. I was just the noisiest only child. And that’s kind of like now what we do. We were at South by Southwest in this random area. Right next to where we were playing, there was this huge junkyard and we both went through it. There were people watching and taking pictures of us. We were hitting different pieces to see what sounded good and I would sing along with it. Then we turn and there are tons of people watching us do this, just looking crazy in this really dangerous area covered in nails and broken glass. We’re just jumping in it and laughing. Then we brought some of it over and it looked dangerous. We brought long pipes and I brought a giant gas tin drum. Once we were playing at Glasslands in New York I was just going a metal spree. I was thinking, “This is so great,” I was finding all these pieces. I would put them on the stage and see if one of them would come to my attention at any point. The parts are very specific in practice, like I have really specific things I like to do. I get really chaotic on stage. We’re thinking about changing the set-up and having that stuff be on a table so I can actually do percussion in a more controlled way. Part of it for me has been instead of having to do it, I’m feeling that. Not to be a hippie or anything, but hitting it because that’s what needs to happen.
What are you guys working on now?
Will: We’re working on a 12” record coming out really soon. We’ve also got a bunch of more stuff we’ve been recording every time we go out to New York. So we’ll have a few different things coming out in the next 6 months.
FREE STUFF FROM TEARISTS, COME TO THE BALLAD PARTY AT OLD BLUE LAST, FRIDAY.
2:54 are a band. We like this band for a tonne of reasons -some of which are as follows:
1) They’re sisters (ya know, family is important),
2) They’re named after their favourite point in a Melvins song (sorta weird but we love Melvins so we don’t care)
and 3) They have a song called Scarlet that we already really like
Their sound is influenced by heavier bands, but manage a melancholia that’s captivating. Sorta how Big Pink are trying to, put more rock like. They just completed a tour with the fuzzy guitars of Bos Angeles… and are about the embark on more shows with The Maccabbees.
They have a new track out the now called Got A Hold which will also appear on the Scarlet EP which is out TODAY!
So Ballad Music HQ has really been enjoying the latest record from Apparat The Devils Walk. Dark, pulsating, meditative… it’s keeping the brain pinned together as the horror of 5 hr daylight erm, day is starting to take it’s toll. Imagine lying in a field on a hot night (alternatively, ones bed in a bedroom, lights off, heating on), with lots of twinkling stars and space like things around you (candels, fairy lights etc), and listen in to the tinkering light piano samples across low humms of synths, echoing drums and other weather sounds. It’s sort of dark industrial electro meets post rock. That’ll do. Bravo!
Anyway, it’s an album that keeps getting switched on, and doesn’t get turned off, which is pretty much the criteria to a good record round here. It’s a hard one to explain though. Just seems to sound track our day quite well.
This is the video of track Black Water. Open a window and you can add to the samples of drizzling rain – afterall it’s 2011, and this stuff is all about participation of the fans and whatnot.
General band info is:
Apparat is 1 german fella
He was part of Modeselektor
This is his 4th album
John Peel liked him
He ain’t touring the UK for while but europe, you’re in luck!
…not only does she sing about jeans and shirts, write music that is that do-wops vibe that’s been fashionable for ages now, lift ideas directly from Chris Isaak (who is a genius) and try to sound like Kate Bush… but her videos are done vintage stylee, but they’re skaters in american apprel hats - which by the way, is pretty modern in the 80s (ok, those boys surface in song Video Games, which is a soft ballad number, yes, really, it’s called Video Games – cool beans). The whole thing is bloody revolting. It’s like the Rhianna video that just picked as many ‘cool’ things as possible and plonked them in a video in a tick box fashion, directed by the douches at AA… Who do i write to to complain about this? Anyone?
…But the song Blue Jeans is alright like – I think she’s aiming for a Tarantino sound track, cool huh? Plus its plastered all over the big guns in radio (that’s 1, 2 and 6) so I guess I ought to cheer up a bit.
Maybe avoid watching the videos. but listen to the track (yo).
on massive label Island. It features that other american R n B artist Nicki Minaj, one more of those ladies in the ever revolving door of singers who will never be En Vogue. Also no one in their right mind, or over the age of 14 dyes their hair leopard print – yeah, i am talking to you Minaj.
Caption: LOLxLOL
Anyway, it’s called Make Me Proud and it’s probably quite good – except despite the money being thrown at the artists, the online player they sent to me so I could listen to the song doesn’t seem to be working (on this shiny new computer). I’ve had to faff about with log ins, and there isnt even a video to embed and there is probably a picture, but we’re talking about music so what good is a picture. So this is another rant about how dumb big labels are, we want to listen and share, and then we’ll decide whether to fork out the £15 for the album under the guise of ‘buying it for mum’ this Christmas.
I will also acknowledge that I am reasonably lazy too so this pratting about that major labels do so that they can make as much money as possible and make sure that can catch ‘criminals’ that want to participate in music culture… is made worse by how much I do not want to log in and download and read disclaimers and feel accused today.
The song is probably great, I wouldn’t know. It’s out November 14th – 2 days after my birthday.
