There's a long story (Which would involve me namedropping like an ass.) behind how I heard about and became semi-demi-quasai-aquatinted (Read: Occasionally interact on Facebook) with Gentle Jones. Regardless, the gentle man, gentleman rapper released his latest album - "Slack Jaw" today over here for FREE!
I think my favourite thing about this album is how eclectic it is - Each song is a different style from the last and Mr. Jones flows (or sings in a gravely voice.) perfectly on top of every beat. Electronica? Check. Rock'n'roll? Check. Jazz? Conga? Well you see where I'm going here. Don't expect gangsta rap 808 beats and defiantly don't expect de rigueur, stereotypical rap subject matter. It's not only the sound of the record that's all over the place - This album covers all kinds of important subjects such as planetary invasion, hair, the adventures of Doctor Indiana Jones, Scientology and Karma.
Wether you're usually a fan of rap or not, check it out! I mean free's free, right?
This is my Monday face.
But! It's a happy face! Because today Lapalux's debut album - "Nostalchic" became available for download/began to be shipped! Luckily my physical pre-order came with a free download, so I was able to listen to it today. Won't you join me?
As you might have read before, I adore Lapalux's sound. His use of slow pace, complex, layered beats and synthesised sounds and vocals comes together to create some seductive, chilled songs, perfect listening for rolling around on something soft. (Possibly with someone else - Track 4.)
After four stunning E.Ps released over the last five years comes his first full length album. Nostalchic feels both new and familiar - IAMSYS (Tape intro) and O E A (Tape outro) feature wonky, distorted cassette tape warblings that are reminiscent of parts of Lapalux's debut Forest E.P. but they also break into much bigger, grander sounds than we've heard from Lapalux before. Maybe it's me, but I don't recall hearing a Lapalux track with real sounding drums before now, everything felt as if it was produced electronically or form vocal samples. Now, in the very first track, we can hear very real sounding snare hits and four tracks feature guest vocalists. I could be totally wrong here, I've never professed to being a musical expert. Much as an avid lover of art might never truly understand how to paint, I love music in it's myriad guises but have learned all I know about it from listening, not study or creation. I digress. The entire album feels and sounds like the Lapalux we know, just bigger and a touch more lavish in some areas.
If you were previously a fan you're going to dig the album and if you've never heard of Lapalux before, prepare to feel the off-center sensuality.
The internet is abuzz with this, today. If you've somehow missed it...
The french robots have done it again! Another ridiculously tantalising and short clip from the forthcoming album! As I mentioned before, Discovery is my favourite album of all time and this clip most defiantly hints at a return to a more vocal element in this new album.
We now have a title - "Random Access Memories." (A play on computing term RAM meaning Random Access Memory.) But that's not all! The album has been put up for pre-order at iTunes with a release date of May 21, less than two months away and is already at the top spot in France's chart - Despite not even being released. I can't WAIT to hear this record and it looks like it's going to be the soundtrack to many people's summers.
And in case you can't wait either, here's a live set from Daft Punk, secretly recorded directly from the mixer in the 90s!
Good day to you, Sir! I SAID GOOD DAY!
Well, this is a nice surprise. I had no idea this was in the works at all and then BAMF! It's out!
Parov Stelar's name has been mentioned in passing here at TISFWO! before but today he's got his own post with the debut album from The Parov Stelar Trio! Parov has released many (Excellent.) albums under his own name but the Parov Stelar Trio includes musicians who perform with him when he plays live shows. The result is a pretty different sound from Parov's solo work which relies on sampling from old records. Now, Parov's club beats and chopped vocal samples are a backdrop for some awesome saxophone, double bass, piano and drums who all play their own compositions - Rather than samples we have real live musicians and it transforms the Parov Stelar "Sound" into something more lively, energetic and diverse. This feels a lot more like a swing record than an electro record, so I imagine that a few Parov Stelar fans will be disappointed by the new sound - but being a fan of both club music and swing I really dig this one!
Parov also announced a tour a few days prior to this release and last time he played in London his show sold out. This time, of course, I bought my ticket as soon as I could so I'm hoping this is the kind of stuff I'll get to hear at a live show of his. Roll on May 31!
Today I've got some awesome Turntablism for you from C2C!
I just heard of C2C this very morning when a friend of mine invited me to see their show in London, HMV forum June 20. I checked them out and then bought my ticket.
C2C use various styles and some bitchin' turntable skills to create some really interesting tracks. I picked the two above because they incorporate things I love - Blues harmonica and old Japanese instruments, and spin them into something modern and fresh. Awesome stuff! Take a gander and if you'll be at the show, come say hi why don't you?
Well hello again, sweet cheeks!
22 views again today without so much as an update! It feels so nice to be sharing with strangers. I hope someone found some music they love here.
What have we got today, then?
An obscure little number, isn't she? Ever heard of Poliphony? Neither have a lot of people, but if you take a look at the youtube comments, people are really digging this! I can't really give you much information about Poliphony, other than that this was their only album, released in 1973 on British record label Zella.
I can also tell you that it is a wellspring of flowing, cool, jazzy funk, infused with flutes, organs, pianos and guitars. From the feel of the tracks I'd say it was part improvised but without information I couldn't tell you for sure. It sounds like the musicians had a hell of good a time playing, though. Those piano and guitar riffs are just perfect and the drums flow so perfectly. It's hard to believe such a thing fell into obscurity, it really is a stunning piece of work.
Tuesday to you, too!
Before today's update TISFWO! broke it's own record and got 30 page views! That's a lot! I'm pleasantly surprised and I hope many of you who visited will join us again. It makes me feel good to know I've shared music I love with people who may not have heard it before.
Well, tally-bally-ho! On with the show, then!
Today's ear-pie is an introduction to one man band and musical wizard Mario Hernandez under the alias "From Bubblegum To Sky." Mario's a veteran musician, having been part of the band Ciao Bella before releasing three albums as From Bubblegum To Sky. These days he still kicks out tunes as part of Kids On A Crime Spree. The guy's been busy.
FBTS's style blends Lennonesque vocals with the bubblegum rock sounds of the 60s and 70s resulting in some really catchy stuff, some learning more towards pop while other tracks lean more toward rock. The whole sound gives off a sunny vibe and FBTS is always on my music player of choice for summer. (Along with The Cardigans' first few albums.) While most of his songs sound upbeat and happy, the lyrics themselves are another story. From those that I can decipher, FBTS's lyrical content is pretty cutting, hiding behind it's happy-poppy sounds. Mario's FBTS albums are all available here plus some t-shirts (Which I own!) and posters of Nothing Sadder Than Lonely Queen's awesome cover art.
Another name to add to the growing list of this kind of artist I follow is Sorrow.
I actually heard of Sorrow thanks to the announcement that his album "Dreamstone" will be coming out over here in May, following a string of awesome E.Ps available here and a feature on Submerse's excellent E.P. Sorrow is yet another artist who's music evokes a deep introspective mood in me and who of course uses those complex claps synonamous with this particular "Sound."
Just bloody lovely.
If you like any of the above artists, I throughly recommend you check it out. It's full of gorgeous deeply layered, moody beats, complex claps, chopped vocals and little electronic tweaks. There's a fair bit of this kind of music around and I honestly have no idea what to call it. Whatever it is, I really dig it and I hope you will too. Lay back with some headphones on and just sink slowly in.
As I mentioned in the previous post, I spent a lot of time looking at Jazz this weekend. Clicking related videos on YouTube led me all over the place, eventually to Aphex Twin and then on to this album. Thanks to that, I can't give you overmuch information on this band.
I have never heard this album before and I don't know how that has managed to happen. I have a guitar-crazy uncle who introduced me to Joe Satriani and hung around with plenty of the metal heads back at school. Whatever happened, it's rectified now.
This is a non-stop explosion of heavy, guitar and drums with some awesome, whirling keyboard and bass thrown in there. Despite the heavy sounds, the tone of the album feel light, energetic and cheerful. Just listening to it makes me feel excited, so much that I had to post it here for you, shunning my normal, slightly informative style for a "HEY GUYS YOU GOTTA HEAR THIS!" approach.
I bought this album before I finished listening to the first track.
I've spent a disproportionate amount of time looking at the careers of the big, big names in Jazz this weekend. Jazz and Blues are quite difficult genres for me in that it's very hard to pick an artist you like and just...buy their albums. All the huge Jazz artists cross over and work with one another at some point and I don't even want to try and total how many albums some of these guys have made.
No, when it comes to Jazz, I just have to find a song a like and find which album that song appears on. It's always nice to find out that another huge name appears on a track by a different huge name and below is one such example.
This is Miles Davis's lovely rendition of Someday My Prince Will come, featuring John Coltrane. This song has become a Jazz standard since it's first appearance when it was performed by The Ghetto Swingers in a German concentration camp during World War II. (Which, while not at all pleasant, is a fascinating fact.) Since then it's been recorded by many famous Jazz musicians, including Herbie Hancock.
I can't pretend to be any kind of expert on Jazz (More a clueless but appreciative amateur) and break the song down for you, I can only say that it keeps it's recognisable tune from Disney's Snow White but it's extended, differently paced and just...lovely.
Soundtrack to: Dancing hand in hand.
It's been a little quiet, hasn't it? I've been a little busy, but fear not because it is the weekend! That means there's lots of time for me to sit next to the internet and find amazing stuff. And stuff I did find!
First for today is Laura Mvula, who's making waves here in England since the release of her debut album on the 4th of this month. Laura's actually someone I discovered on Facebook a while ago, but the songs she had posted at the time didn't really grab me as much has she herself did. Maybe it's Skin of Skunk Anansie's fault, but short haired, dark skinned women have a bit of sway with me...
Ehem, anyway, as I said nothing I heard at the time stuck and I moved on to other things. Then I heard this track, Green Garden, again on the radio in my mum's car. It sounded great, the vocals are lovely, but it felt like the track was building up to a break or crescendo that never showed up. So I left it again. Today, while I was listening to stand-up comedy on Spotify, the song played in an advertisement and this time, it did grab me a bit.
The song starts with twinkly bells, (Which remind me a little of Strawberry Letter 23. Just me?) soulful vocals with just a hint of distortion and some lovely claps. It already has a very "Old scratchy" feel to it but it manages to still sound modern - It's taking the claps and chimes from old soul and mo-town records but using more recent sounds to create this kind of "Retrofitted" feeling. The vocals have a wonderfully old-fashioned feel to them too, feeling a lot like the great jazz songstresses of the past combined with modern distortion effects. Some synthesised backing ooohs and aaaahs in the background and Mvula throws in to higher pitched vocals before switching back to the sultry, saucy lower tones that make up the majority of the song. Some drums join the mix and the song starts to swell and feel "Bigger." This is where I feel it really needs a break into some faster paced drums and vocals, but instead the song strips down and builds up all over again, up to the end. It's a really, really nice song but perhaps my own expectations are what made me pass it by at first. I still feel like it's a bit of a tease, but it's a tease I like. It took a few listens, but you can ignore a voice like that in a time where incessant warbling and auto-tune are seen as not only acceptable, but are the norm.
Soundtrack to: The end of a garden party
Reading up on this recording online only adds to it's bizarre nature. All proceeds from this album's sale are being donated to a charity to clean up the Baltic sea, famously well endowed porn star Rom Jeremy finically backed the album after being given a one-of-a-kind E.P from the band. The album took six years to complete because some of the instruments used to create it had to be restored - Including a 500 000 volt Tesla coil synthesiser, a machine originally created to speak to the dead and this album features the ONLY commercial recording of the largest instrument in the world - The Great Stalacpipe Organ. I don't yet own this album, but before we even move on to the amazing music, all these strange facts alone make me want to buy it. Now.
A track that stuck out for me especially is the one featured above called "Contain Thyself."
Starting off with some twangy guitar and gentle vocals, this track sounds like it was recorded in the 60s, not the very tail end of 2012! At 1:30 the track breaks into a harpsichord, recorder and synthesiser moment before 2:06 smashes it up with fat drums and a heavy electronic sound. Right after that, all the ingredients come together and the track ascends to a climax featuring a trumpet.
Soundtrack to: Riding off into the sunset wearing a poncho.
Anyway, brace yourself, Agatha. This is gonna get rough.
DeadFader has popped up on TISFWO! before (Because I'm a liiiiittle bit of a fan. Understatement.) but he's been quiet since summer's release of Work It, No. He's back today with a new track "Potion Shop" which will feature on Cutting Room Record's upcoming cassette compilation, CRRMMXIII releasing April 8th. More information on that can be found here. I'll be keeping an eye on CRR to see what other treasures they unearth.
Anyway, as expected of DeadFader, this track attacks your ears like a baseball bat with rusty nails sticking out of it. The initial wobbly, screechy, bassy beat kicks into a what I can only assume is what a guitar sounds like if it's been driven insane and thrown into a machine. After a dizzy, fuzzy solo those nasty bastard drums come back in and pound out the last part of the track.
Soundtrack to: Creation and destruction
Breton are a band I was pushing for hardcore long before TISFWO came about. They're a London based group mixing hip-hop influenced machine drum beats with synths, guitar, bass and fuzzy, laconic, thoughtful vocals. It's been a bit quiet in the Breton camp for a while, I think because the album launched and they've been going around touring it and doing this and that in France. They're back with the new instrumental "Little Knives."
The hip-hop influence comes though in a big way on this one! It's a really breezy sounding piano and strings beat which would be happily at home behind some Talib Kweli vocals. It's taken from their new EP and book "Escalation." which is limited to 250 copies and can be pre-ordered now over here ahead of it's March 28th release.
Again, Breton is a band I watch pretty closely, so news as and when!
Soundtrack to: Drivin' with the top down.
Cor, them Mondays, eh? Faf. Gunh. Buuf. Pff.
Cheer up, bugger lugs! It's time for the new music video round up!
Yeah, this hasn't happened before, ever in my life, I don't think! Not one, not two, not even three, but FOUR artists I like have released music videos in the space of a week!
Let's have a gander than, shall we?
First up it's the lovely AlunaGeorge with the video for Attracting Flies, which was blogged here a little while ago. This was freshly baked earlier today so it's hot from the oven!
The video centres around the lyric "Little Grey fairy tales and little white lies." and shows the lovely Aluna as the heroin in re-imaginings of classic fairy stories based in London, including a little-too-literal version of the three "bears." Little red riding hood, Rapunzle, The princess and the pea and Snow white also make an appearance, as does George as Prince Charming on his moped steed. Noice.
Another one hot from the oven, Kyary Pamyu Pamyu's upcoming single "Ninja ri ban ban" had it's video drop today. PEEP GAME! Or something.
Kyary is a rarity for me in that I know she's mass-produced pop-fluff - or what I've come to call "Factory pop." And I just don't care. All her songs are addictive as HELL and sweetly innocent, unlike the sexuality drenched "Idol singers" of the west. She's kind of "Eccentric" too which appeals to me a lot. I like her overly-complex dance routines, this one especially 'cause it reminds me of Robo-Z's dancing in PS1 spent-my-youth-playing-this dance off simulator Bust-a-Groove. (The soundtrack to which deserves a post all of it's own in the future.) Diggin' the ninja costume in this one too. I'd wear that ish. That sums up the video, pretty much. Lots of dancing, some nice costumes and yet another Ohrwurm from KPP.
Scroll down with me now as we dive into Lapalux's video for the single "Without You"
Lapalux has been a busy guy, and been mentioned here on TISFWO! twice already! He's gearing up for his album launch later this month. This song is another slice of ear-pie but personally, I can't stand this video. For me Lapalux's stuff had always felt very sensual and deep but throw this imagery up with it as the soundtrack? It's the first time I've ever noticed that Lapalux's sound could also be taken as intensely creepy. It's funny how images can totally change how, at least I, perceive a song. Listening to it without the video, it still sounds sexy! But that video man...
Perhaps that was the intention, perhaps it's just a personal thing. Anyway, this tells the story of a gimp and his awkward arm-swallowing (Yeah I don't get it either.) relationship, break up and subsequent stay in a hotel outside which he is beaten up by a man in drag. His then vacated rubber suit is found by his ex-girlfriend who is sad and finds a large whole in the wall of his hotel room. It feels Lynchian to me, but then so does anything creepy, a bit slow paced and full of unanswered questions. I don't like Lynchian.
Lastly, and not at all leastly, it's The Knife, with the music video for previously blogged slice of Africana, A Tooth For An Eye.
There seems to be a theme to the videos from this album about challenging gender and age stereotype and going against expectations. This isn't really what I had in mind at all for a video to this music, but it works nicely. I won't detail it since it's spoil the slight surprise the video sets up.
And that's the roundup! I hope you saw something you liked! I certainly did.
Have something nice to wind down to before the week starts up again tomorrow.
This is the latest release from the beautifully wistful Baths. It's been quite a while since his Debut album Cerulean, but Baths' next LP -"Obsidian" seems like it's just over the horizon. This sneak peek is a little different from the stuff we've heard from him before. The beats aren't so layered, warped and skittish here. The main back beat and synths sound quite poppy and feels a bit like something by Hot Chip, but it has some interesting little skips and distortions. The good ol' old falsetto vocals are back, and there's a sneaky banjo hiding in the background. The whole thing feels quite chilled and somehow sad, nostalgic and cheerful at the same time.
Soundtrack to: Walking on the beach in the rain.
This is old-ish news now, but let's stick it here just in case somehow, someone who finds this didn't know.
Daft Punk have had an advertisement during Saturday Night Live! It was a very short clip, but it showed us a sneak peak of what's coming from those funky robots. It sounds like they're going back to that Discovery era disco influenced sound. The clip has some lovely breezy guitar in there. Discovery is my favourite album of all time. Ever. I love Daft Punk and I've really dug all of their albums but I really don't know if they could make a record to top, it for me. If they're going back to that kind of sound though, they just might. I'd love a few tracks which were heavier on vocals than Human After All tracks - I need something to sing along to!
I'll be following this like an angry hawk, so expect news as it comes!
Hello, lamb!
It's been quiet, hasn't it!? I'm sorry. I had a busy week crammed full of social engagements. Don't worry, that doesn't happen often. I was surprised too!
Anyway, I've found a real diamond for you today and if you knew about it before, I'll consume my fedora!
I don't know exactly what's goin' on here, but Prince is back with some new stuff! Why he's using this 3rd eye girl thing, I couldn't tell you. It seems like it's a way to "leak" stuff out - But then the song Live Out Loud has music by Prince by vocals by someone else..? Collaboration project? I'm not sure.
What I will say if if you have the change spare, check out Breakfast Can Wait, which is a saucy funk track with that Prince vibe. I'd link it to you but Prince is notorious for blocking his music online so if you want to hear it, you'll have to cough up some pennies. Sorry, sweetness!
A twitter friend introduced me to this band as the result of his search for bands similar to The Black Keys.
Rival Sons blast out sounds you can feel all the way down to your marrow. This track is overflowing with slamming, gut-punch guitar riffs and soulful bluesy vocals. I can't even write more, I don't know what to tell you other than this sound is BIG, dripping with energy and just incredible. I have to see these guys live as soon as I can. Go! Click play!
Soundtrack to: Driving far too fast down a strip with the roof down.
I don't have much information about this band for you, I picked up this CD for 100 yen in Japan, because it was cheap and had in interesting cover.
I don't think this band got very big. I decided to share this album on youtube for all the people who would never get to hear it otherwise over two years ago and I'm happy to be sharing it here. It's a really great experimental instrumental rock album. It's mostly guitar, bass and some big fat heavy drums with a few other sounds mixed in. It's pretty much a raucous, noisy fun album full of banging beats and deep, funky riffs. Check it out! (Most especially track 7, Dive.)
One more for tonight, you lucky thing. I do spoil you!
Boredom's "Super Roots 7" is something I came across thanks to Fischerspooner's cover of their track "Vision, Creation, Newsun." I liked the cover of the track so much that I looked into Boredoms. This is the coolest thing from them that Youtube had to show me. I can't put my finger on the genre exactly, only say that it's like a trance or techno track if it were played with rock instruments. This is actually a three track CD, but all three tracks blend perfectly into one twenty minute marathon of non-stop driving guitar and drum rhythms. It reminds me just a little F.E.O.D, who'll be getting their own post here tomorrow. Some synth makes an appearance here and there with varying degrees of intensity, the pace undulating and building, slowing and building again.
Super cool stuff.
A late night/Early morning update today, depending on how you look at it.
So, now and then I stop by a club. Most occasions now are with colleagues from work, who I have to hold as my benchmark for the general populous. (Because the company I keep is rather...niche.)
Anyway, one of the people I went with today already knew this song, and the youtube video for it is has a LOT of views, so I guess it might be a song a lot of people know and I just missed it, but here goes...
This is "Thrift Shop" by Macklemore & Ryan Lewis Feat, Wanz. In no uncertain terms, this is an Ohrwurm. Don't see why? Wait until 20 seconds in. THERE ya' go, bucko! That damn trumpet riff is perfectly designed to stick in your mind. (Comparable to the addictive "Baby" by Pnau.) Combine that with some of those good ol' 808 clicks, claps, and drums and some great lyrics and you got a recipe for a damn tasty track! If anybody knows of a second hand store that sells fur coats like that, let me know. Damn.
Soundtrack to: Looking fly on the cheap.
