Resonance FM #34 Kinlaw, Wild Nothing, In India, North Bay, Derek Piotr, Beach Fossils Listen live on Resonance 104.4 FM Saturday evening at 6.30pm (GMT). Or stream/download the 34th This Music Wins below. Listen/Download : This Music Wins #34 ( MP3 ) 1. Kinlaw - BRA§E 2. Wild Nothing - Nowhere 3. In India - Spring Song (Glossolalia) 4. North Bay - Echo (via Gold Flake Paint / [...]
Swansea Recreation Centre + Blood Rexdale And The Walls Are Blonde - Unchained Swan Blood I've always considered the humorous element to Swansea Recreation Centre 's music one of its defining features, so I was pleased to see its patent exaggeration on this collaboration with Toronto folk band Blood Rexdale And The Walls Are Blonde (who provided vocals), for this bouncy synth-pop influenced quasi-cover of The Righteous Brothers' "Unchained Melody". The video teeters on the cusp of sublimity, and I'm so taken up in the Ariel Pink-esque vibe of the whole creation that [...]
Major Napier - Major Soldier EP I first introduced Australian artist Major Napier to you last November; a time when I was particularly enamoured with his cover of Sharon Van Etten's Lovemore . Almost immediately after I wrote, he released a free download EP of bedroom-recorded songs entitled 'Major Soldier', which I was reminded of via an enthused post on Zen Tapes today. The slow, booming drum-sound prevalent throughout "Crowning Observation" (below) is idiosyncratic of the whole release, Johnny Ross careful to keep the beat sufficiently organic-sounding [...]
Resonance FM #33 In India, Memoryhouse, IVVVO, SNOWMINE, Coma Cinema, Carnivals LISTEN : This Music Wins #33 ( MP3 ) 28/1/2012 Tracklist 1. In India - Chime Dance 2. Memoryhouse - The Kids Were Wrong 3. IVVVO - Forests 4. SNOWMINE - Curfews 5. Coma Cinema - [...]
New: StaG - Lived Like String Some of the ambient music which I find most compelling is the kind in which reverb decorates a steady, driving percussion. Similarly, much of the value of music I find consists in what the musician chooses to leave out, rather than what they choose to include. On StaG 's newest single, 'Lived Like String', I'm hearing a sunken, Church-like drift suggestive of enormity, hinting at an reserved emptiness which is totally out of reach of the listener. The beat is slow, mechanical and restless but not at the cost of [...]
New: Carnivals - Absences/Ino (Parts 1 & 2) Having uncovered Carnivals ' first release just under a year ago in the form of the Mavi Kara EP , I'm seriously excited for the year ahead now the Sheffield 'romanticist' producer has returned with a double sided single ' Absences / Ino (Parts 1 & 2) . In a field of moody electronica suffering saturation and lacking true pioneers, Carnivals is leaning towards an amalgamation of his former sounds: leading to the minimalist and vaguely exotic hip-hop sound particularly prevalent on 'Leeda' (which I [...]
Live: M83 + Porcelain Raft @ Concorde 2, Brighton January 22nd 2012 Porcelain Raft and M83 certainly share a penchant for the ethereal, even if Porcelain Raft instantiate this through a totally unpretentious set of bedroom loops and samples and M83 do so through sheer size and spectacle. The opening act, a duo fronted by London-based Italian Mauro Remiddi and recently signed to Secretly Canadian, release their much-anticipated debut album 'Strange Weekend' on January 24th. Though working within a similar sound-pallete, Porcelain Raft eschew the kind of sprawling, multi-layered, synthesized bombast of M83 in [...]
Resonance FM #32 Aaron + Alia, Dorian Concept, Matthew Dear, J Biscuits, Porcelain Raft, SEVERAL SYMPTOMS LISTEN : This Music Wins #32 ( MP3 ) 21/1/2012 Tracklist 1. Dorian Concept - Greenish Things 2. Porcelain Raft - Unless You Speak From Your Heart 3. J Biscuits - The Fatigue 4. Matthew Dear - Headcage [...]
This Music Wins Review Of The Year 2011 on Resonance FM After writing an albums of the year list longer than probably all my posts across the entire year put together, putting together a 90 minute radio show for Resonance FM seemed like a breeze. So, here it is: 15 or so of my favourite songs of the year in Radio Show format. View the written list here . DOWNLOAD : This Music Wins Review Of The Year 2011 ( MP3 ) To [...]
# ALBUMS OF THE YEAR 2011 # What a great year 2011 has been for music, fascinating and fast moving as always. No amount of words will do having these top 50 records justice, but I felt that there's nothing so impersonal as a list with no explanation. At the same time, writing about 50 albums has consumed so many hours of my time. These numberings aren't infallible, nor are they particularly objective. Look at this post more as a collection of albums which excited me in 2011, and which formed the great part [...]
ALBUMS OF 2011 #45 - #41 #45 Crystal Stilts - In Love With Oblivion - Shake The Shackles ( MP3 ) Brooklyn garage rock at its finest; 'In Love With Oblivion' comprises of crisp and courageous, and occasionally gallant post-punk from apparent veterans of the scene Crystal Stilts . The 2011 Slumberland release is afflicted with the dark and incommutable vocals, strange key changes and strikingly full melody. An instant classic of the era it evokes, summed up thematically in the black and white colouration of above album cover. [...]
ALBUMS OF 2011 #40 - #36 #40 Girls - Father, Son, Holy Ghost - Vomit ( MP3 ) Arguably Girls ' most courageous attempt yet, here the San Francisco surf rock band venture in to the realm of classic rock, not stopping short of cheesy licks, walking bass-lines or even gospel choirs. The soulful backing singers and hammond organs characterise most of 'Vomit', a song which strikes at the heart of Girls' sound in pinpointing something deeply moving in amongst an otherwise brilliantly orchestrated and uplifting arrangement. FSHG was released on [...]
ALBUMS OF 2011 #35 - #31 #35 Destroyer - Kaputt - Poor In Love ( MP3 ) A January release date rendered Destroyer 's Kaputt one of 2011's first great records. Its the ninth studio album from Vancouver's Dan Bejar, a re-imagining of 1980s synthpop and glamorous shoegaze, laden with female harmonies and brass sections, squealing dance synths and seamless intertwining transitions of close-mic vocals, watery background noise and modern synthesisers. #34 Gang Gang Dance - Eye Contact - Mindkilla ( MP3 ) [...]
ALBUMS OF 2011 #30 - #26 #30 Tycho - Dive - Dive ( MP3 ) In addition to being a fairly successful graphic designer (as indicated above), Scott Hansen has also been performing as electronic act Tycho since 2002. 'Dive', a Ghostly International release from 2011, eschews paranoia in its constantly unfurling, dream-like soundscapes and vast, holistic appeal. Its recorded with live drums, but assembled on the computer, this approach dowsing a pulsating deep bass with a sun-soaked tone which revels in its own warmth. Buy the album or check out Hansen's [...]
ALBUMS OF THE YEAR #25 - #21 #25 Sleep Over - Forever - Casual Diamond ( MP3 ) The now-defunkt Pitchfork subsidiary Altered Zones presented, amongst many others, an album stream for Sleep Over's Forever in 2011, the haunting solo project of Stefanie Franciotti. I missed them in Brighton with Pure X in the Autumn, but 'Forever' has been a regular spin encouraged by its gangly synthesised riffs, mountainous mid-range and haunting Warpaint-esque female voices in constant competition. #24 Dirty Beaches - Badlands - Lord Knows Best ( MP3 [...]
ALBUMS OF THE YEAR #20 - #16 #20 Peaking Lights - 936 - Key Sparrow ( MP3 ) Peaking Lights are a relatively new phenomena in my world; their sound is one characterised by thick, dubby basslines and wrangled psychedelic vibratos. This isn't reggae, but has some of the same appeal, especially when taken with the sunken Warpaint-style vocals which weave throughout '936'. As the band themselves put it on the Domino website, interestingly, "it's not linear, it's a cycle. A bunch of circles rotating at different speeds but still intertwined like [...]
ALBUMS OF THE YEAR #15 Two Bicycles - The Ocean Instrumental music to wallow in and surround yourself with; from electronic producer Teen Daze's side project Two Bicycles comes an immensely powerful vocal-less mix, of which the Vancouver producer provides this insight: "The record tells the story of a night spent at sea. The beauty and hope that comes with the watching of the sun set, swimming in the moonlight and looking back at life back on land in fondness and happiness. But as the night falls, and the endless ocean reveals itself as [...]
ALBUMS OF THE YEAR #14 LITTLE WINGS - BLACK GRASS The almost-retired pseudonym for label owner, artist and musician Kyle Wilson is Little Wings, who released his first album in four years in February on his own label, RAD Records. 'Come Fall' is a good summation of the kind of sound 'Black Grass' was sold to me for; with a shuffling acoustic rhythm and thick, anguished yet gently elated vocal, polished Devendra Banhart-esque lo-fi recording style and similarly European tinges, I get the impression Kyle Wilson isn't going to stop churning out these simplistic, rural folk [...]
ALBUMS OF THE YEAR #13 The Antlers - Burst Apart 'Burst Apart' turned out a controversial secondary to The Antlers breakthrough second LP 'Hospice'; they discarded their widely revered elegiac songwriting and thematically conceptual outlook, in favour of an album, crucially, with hope. The songs are simpler, merrier (French Exit, Every Night My Teeth Are Falling Out), but still draped in a sombre and vast curtain of coldness. Silberman's striking, life-affirming falsetto is again a defining feature best exemplified in the attached 'Rolled Together'. The Antlers - Rolled Together ( MP3 [...]
ALBUMS OF THE YEAR #12 Wye Oak - Civilian A crunchy and glistening shoegaze record which in its gleaming blueness and tranquility, echoes something of their excessively dynamic and overdriven past, but for the most part executes the choral vocal duets of Jenn Wasner and Andy Stack with an ambience previously only hinted at. Wye Oak - Civilian ( MP3 ) Buy from Amazon [...]
This Music Wins
Lana Del Rey - Without You (Kill Paris Remix) [Dubstep]
Download: James Blake Live Album (Unofficial)
Miike Snow - “Paddling Out” Jacques Lu Cont Remix (MP3 Stream)
Iron & Wine and Patty Griffin
New single from Gemini Club
