Pretext: Chris Cornell is far and away one of my favourite vocalists in any genre. From the adored Soundgarden , through Temple of the Dog , his solo efforts on 'Euphoria Morning' , and even the mixed output of Audioslave , his voice is immediately distinguished and evocative. It soundtracks most of my later teens and recalls many great memories in doing so. Now, recently Mr Cornell's efforts [...]
The Appleseed Cast have popped on and off my radar frequently over the past 10 years, starting off with a chance download of 'Fishing the Sky' on the nascent Audiogalaxy p2p service (anyone remember that? Preferred it to Napster as it would queue songs overnight, which in dial-up days was more requirement than convenience). From there, individual songs have found their way onto my CDR's and playlists, followed by overdue purchases of highlight releases Mare Vitalis and Low Level Owl volumes. See, majors? Freebies lead to sales. [...]
Many bands upon which I've recently stumbled have been firmly entrenched in the contemporary hip camp, ranging from minimalist indie-folk to upbeat pop/synth electronica. Nothing wrong with that per se, but it does begin to meld into one slightly too familiar sound after the twentieth band aping MGMT . Alternatively, it does make finding something a bit different a notable pleasure. As was the case for my beleaguered ears yesterday with The Engravers . Although far from perfect - the vocals could complement the [...]
A somewhat schizophrenic musical week, covering anything from alt-indie through late 90's British hardcore to contemporary electronica, prompted me to summarise the week in tracks. I'll try to do this most Sundays where possible, as it gives an opportunity to post some lesser-known stuff without getting bogged down in the back story (my main delay on posting....spiralling descent detail distraction). So here are some of the tunes that have rocked my week. If anyone does want more info, I can always whack it into a comment reply......... [...]
Wasn't intending to post tonight but music has that lush serendipity that sometimes can't be ignored. The now playing song as a background to reading the top story, then considering those following, was perfectly timed: Iran Palestine/Israel N. Ireland I'm not that impatient. These situations are complex beyond measure, of course. But I want great outcomes. Now. Thankfully, it looks as though someone important finally does too. [...]
...songs of love, destruction and other synthetic delusions of the Electric Head... Lots of posts about current musical output and the various trials of the industry recently (well, at least one full one and a bit of getting off track in most of the others......writing style of a sieve/colander, is how I see it). So I want to take things back - way back - to a simpler time. This is a time when MTV played music videos (thank heavens they changed.....I know I for one can't get enough of [...]
What's the difference between this year and last? Well, one could make any number of extreme economic (confusion/recession), political (villain/hero), or even personal (Liverpool/NYC) comparisons, but the music carries things through here and that's where this comes from......... This time last year I'd already posted a couple of times about releases I'd missed from 2007. January provided a couple of interesting listens but, overall, the new offerings up to March had been somewhat lacklustre. As a result, I frequently turned back to [...]
Although the album still means pretty much everything to me and the way I listen to music, it's undeniably something that's fading from the new modes of consumption. With a la carte downloads and the increasing importance of that killer track on a blog or MySpace page, listeners are tending to give new bands only the briefest of opportunities to impress before moving on to the next mp3. With the liberation of supply that resulted from Napster and ever-increasing bandwidth capabilities accessible by home users, the power of the individual song has returned. [...]
Our next installment comes back south (and home now, for me) to New York City. Far from being urban, however, I want to focus on a band whose sound recalls sun-baked Western desert states and long, lonely road trips through dust bowl, one horse towns. That band is And The Revellers Fell . The band has only been around for a little over a year but is already making some noises that nod towards the ambiguous 'alt-country' tag. More pertinently, they remind me of songs by great artists like [...]
My original review for this dark, brooding slice of left field hip-hop was cruelly consigned to the digital dustbin in the wee hours of Saturday morning. Suffice it to say that my faith in the auto-save option is now to be replaced with obsessive-compulsive pasting into Notepad and back again once I've finished. Part of my spiel, however, was about cutting down the length of reviews (and subsequently getting more completed), so perhaps this was a (harsh, frustrating) way of modifying my scribblings. [...]
I've always wanted to keep this here chiefly about music and themes somewhat off the main blog motorway and off onto the country lanes, although often there are great releases back in the limelight that fully deserve the attention. In an effort to drag things back into the thickets, though, I'll be aiming to post some form of 'Uncovered' post at least once a week. Not as an attempt to be ahead of the hipster curve but simply as an outlet for music or a topic that has slapped me in the face and demanded I pay attention at any [...]
A few recent posts have included links direct to ultra-ace labels who see no problems in offering their visitors free MP3's of their bands. This got me to thinking about the motivation for doing so, then onto comparing this approach with those that don't sanction it......usually the majors, though they're not alone in this miserly outlook, with other indies following suit on occasion. I suppose the reasoning could be made that others stream releases/videos etc, whether directly or through MySpace, so the savvy online fan can still enjoy their music before committing to buy. Some users still have [...]
Well, these things tend to happen when one ocean hops and here's the latest instalment: Faith No More , complete with tapped-in-the-head icon Mike Patton , will reunite for a European date only tour this summer. No specific dates or fests at this point but a firm rebuff on the chance of US dates. These things do have a tendency to snowball into full blown recording/touring affairs (as I'm hoping is the case with Far [...]
Heavier ~ Than ~ Air
Avicii – Two Million
Video: M83 – “Reunion”
Check Out: Los Campesinos! – “Tiptoe Through the True Bits”
