The Collaboration between the two german musicians, "Apparat" and "Modeselektor" culminated into what is probably one of this years greatest album releases. The selftitled album "Moderat", an obvious coupling of their two names had a number of great tracks on it, though the track "Seamonkey" is probably the most impressive, I've found that "Rusty Nails" is somewhat more easily listened to, and is probably my personal favorite. Now they've released the video for Rusty Nails as well, and I really, really like it.
When I came across "Tim Exile" over on "Keytars & Violins" a while back I had an almost revelatory experience. This guy released his third LP this year and it's by far his most mature stuff so far, while his first two LP's are in comparison alot more like a boy playing with a drum machine, "Listening Tree" is - I think - "lil' Timmy's" big break at this point, he's been getting some good press for it, and it's just so well deserved. This englishman in Berlin exile has been doing his thing for 10 years now, so he's pretty much a veteran of the art at 29. "Pro Agonist" and "Tim Exile's Nuiscance Gabbaret Lounge" were both released through "Planet MU", and they were very much so verbal of Planet MU's more ploy-ish sound. Now "Listening Tree" was a colab-release between "Planet MU" and "WARP", bringing in" WARP's" electrosmartness, if you will. Also new to "Listening Tree" is Tim Exile's vocal talents which - at times - kinda reminds me of the lead singer in "Depeche Mode", "David Gahan", at other times of "Syd Barret", leadsinger of "Pink Floyd".
Tim Exile
Now you can probably tell I'm pretty extatic about this guy, I mean just look at that awesome helmet he's wearing on the picture above! Look! Now!
Anyway, heres's a couple goodies from the one and only Timmy in Exile. I have to say Family Galaxy is one of the greatest tracks I've heard this year, and 2009 has been pretty good for me with new albums from "Phoenix", "Röyksopp", "Fink", "MSTRKRFT", debut albums from "Passion Pit", "La Roux", "Fagget Fairys", "Moderat", "Discovery" as well as the first EP's from "Marina and the Diamonds", "Yes Giantess", "Chiddy Bang", and a bunch of cool Mixtapes from the likes of "Theophilus London" and "Wale" and on top of that a shitload of remixes. And that's just off the top of my head, yes, 2009 has been good to me.
"Hess Is More" is a danish band concocted up of a six-man group, under direction of "Mikkel Hess". They also have a number of reaccuring live-only appearances, making them sometimes as many as 8 people on stage, making for a very entartaining night. They're turning up here in stockholm at the Jazz-club "Fasching" this September on the 7:th, and I for one am anxiously awaiting it. Here are a couple of tunes to send your mouth watering for the main course.
Now for some more Danish firepower, in the form of the "Fagget Fairys", consisting of "Ena" on vocals and "Carla Cammila" soundmixing, produced by the Grammy-award winning "Rasmus Bille Bahncke". The story of these two women is a real love story for the ages, meeting at a night club in Copenhagen about two years ago, Carla being the DJ that night, Ena fell in love at first sight, bringing to mind that old song by that highly forgettable (latina-ish?) woman "Chenelle", who thankfully never made anything else. But now, this post isn't about failing artists, quite the opposite. She wanted to impress Carla so much that she ended up stage diving from the DJ Booth onto a beer bottle ending up with 15 stitches and a busted knee. At the time Carla was already in a relationship, but their love nor their music could be denied.
Ena came to a refugee camp in Denmark when she was only one year old, her family fleeing their home-country in turmoil, Yugoslavia. Her muslim upbringing has somewhat put her aback, since being homosexual she has been shunned by her family. But her different vocal talents inspired by her noble herritage has also been a big factor in their success, leading to interresting Club-folk mashes. This year they came with their first full length album, titled "Feed The Horse" and they're touring all over europe.
Here's a couple of tunes, the first being their hit-single "Feed The Horse" as well as the remix by "Gambit", the second being "Uzela" off their EP released in 2008.
I think I've once again fallen into one of those unrequited love affairs, this time with this french guy called "Robert Le Magnifique". You may call his musical work a more modern and grimey version of "Serge Gainsbourg", throwing in bits of rap in the mix aswell. I especially love the work he did on the album titled "Hamlet" released back in 2003, in a collaboration with "Tepr" - another personal favorite of mine - and "My Dog Is Gay". In that album they mix Tepr's great synths with Robert's creative and imaginative world, all the while citing Shakespeare's Hamlet as a sort of rap in the background. And the french language itself just adds such a great layer of artistic ingenuity to it as well.
Rap is an even more essential part to his other works, which may be part of the reason I don't like it quite as much as "Hamlet", but to me it's hard for any album to achieve what "Hamlet" did. I now feel even more inclined to learn the french language just so that I may understand the lyrics in Robert's music, and sadly I was barely able to fetch any information on him at all since all I can find written about him is in french. Well, I guess that kind of just enhances the mystery around him, and that can be a good thing.
Robert Le Magnifique
These first songs are taken from "Hamlet". I especially like "Ophélie#1", I find Hiron's vocals to be extremely soothing, and moreover I really like the piano in there, just a simple few notes being played throughout the whole song, but they really get their point across, so to speak. The next track is "Hamlet#1", one of the tunes containing the rap strings I was talking about, featuring the vocals of "Nicolas Petitsoff". The third is titled "Les Comédiens", I especially like the short opening with the typical Baroque'esque music. Then there's "Ophélie#2", following up on the piano from #1, riding off into some really harsh beats by the 2.20 mark, no doubt symbolizing Ophelias descent into madness.
Next I'm throwing up a few selected works from some of his other albums. First off is "K.A.M." off of his 2004 release, "Kinky Attractive Muse", heating up a few nice beats, followed by some more piano. Next one is also off of "Kinky Attractive Muse", titled "Impasse D" and it follows the same structure as all the other tracks off KAM, with a slowly progressing, somewhat monotone beat. But I really like it. Next is "Pom Pom Ace" off of his selftitled 2002 release, showing off some of his talent on mixing Jazz. Last but not least, although shortest is the track "Oh Yeah Baby" off of the album with the same name released in 2008, with some really nice sampling from 50's songs.
Now I really couldn't go on without typing a few words about the late king of pop, the one and only Michael Jackson. After all, what I mainly write about here is pop and Michael is in many ways the big groundstone that stands as the base for that whole genre of musical entertainment. Although in the nineties his videos started to show of a greater ego and he later went on to being the wreck that he was for the later parts of his years, he still is a great icon and I'd like to remember him as he was in the 80's, at the prime of his life. In the musical world he was a god, no more, no less.
Don Diablo made this tribute to Michael, and I found myself kind of emotionally touched the first time listening to it. Right now I think what we all should do is remember the olden days of MJ.
Also posting this short MJ video tribute made by the guy behind Lastnightsparty.com. I kinda wanna marry that girl at the end, gotta love those glasses.
I just now came across this new video for MSTRKRFT's song "Heartbreaker" featured on their latest album released this past march featuring John Legend. I just think it really portrays that feeling of young reckless abandon so fudgin' well. Plus the guy in the glasses is just really cool. Enjoy, or not, it's your choise.
Cleast Eatwood consists of the swedish duo Erik Lindestad and Li Stanley, they're exactly the kind of band that I'd like to write about on this blog, serving a steaming hot dish of dreampop. They make me want to take that last train out to nowhere, lay down on the nearest beach and watch the sunset, feel the sun drench me from top to bottom during it's last few minutes, and just be overflown with that great feeling that I as a music fan am looking for in music.
Li Stanley and Erik Lindestad
Now to the song that I want to talk about, "Get Related". It's subject matter can easily be derived from the lyrics. It's about, well, getting related, nestling into the bedsheats without the late nights, booze and bad decisions. "No talking needed, let's jump ahead and get related".
This song conjures up an image of high romantic tension, while there is no harsh tone in the entire song I cannot help also getting a feeling of melancholy as the voices so beautifuly interrupt the acoustic guitar . That while in the ideal world this is what "hooking up" would be like, without the emotional connection, a night of unbridled passion is easily ensued by a goodbye the next day. This also follows the idea that only unfulfilled love may be truly romantic, while our greatest love stories told such as Romeo and Juliet also follow that idea, it is at the same time a somewhat sad prospect, that of lonely hearts.
But in a world dominated not by harmony, but by chaos, as Werner Herzog so nicely put it, it seems only right that we all should grab life by the throat and live it fully and without shame.
Apart from the really cool track by Aphex Twin, what really stands out here is the ridiculously bizzare video by Chris Cunningham. But strange and bizzare are usually to be favored, according to me, as long as it doesn't pass the border to grotesque, which this video does at times try to reach over, although in the best possible way. Magnus believes this is probably the coolest music video ever created, and I'm pretty much ready to agree, press play and be amazed, grossed out or humored, take your pick.
Now for a slight change of pace. If you were to say that Hiphop isn't my cup of tea, then you'd be quite right, but how is it then that I can't get enough of this five-piece Hiphop group from Philly called Chiddy Bang? So far they've released 8 songs out of which their remoddeling of the smash-hit from last summer by MGMT called Kids is their best work to date. And I say remoddeling, because frankly it's by far the greatest sampling of Kids out of all the remixes out there. Although their other tracks aren't quite as good, simply being in the same ballpark makes for a good effort.
Oh and did I mention these guys just finished their first year in college? Yeah! These guys could easily school most of the Hiphop acts out there.
These tracks will be the soundtrack for many of my summernights.
Starting this blog has been an idea of mine for quite some time, and now with the assistance of my brother, friend and mentor, Magnus L, it finally came into fruition. This idea was for me to get some sort of creative output also while dealing with something I adore and love, namely music. The beats that make my head go from side to side. The longing for life in all it's parts it instills in me, the pure joy and calm it lends me every day. It was also to inspire amongst my friends as well as anyone who would stumble upon my humble blog-abode the belief that music can be much more than just a form of media. It is an artform that can excite any feeling of awe and revelation as much as any other. And to just be a part of a scene that I live every day.
My intentions are to kick off with a few songs made by the mysterious Moondawg. Who is this half man, half wolf-like creature, and where did he come from? Only time will tell the tale.
I feel these tunes create a highly audiovisual state, and I think that with time and effort when Moondawg has established his own sound he'll be able to come up with some truly groundbreaking stuff.
His music portrays at times a scenery of green fields and dark forrests as far as the eye can see, flying past your car-window at high speed. All the while attempting to take in and process what is shown before you, with the beats growing and interloping, you may find yourself at the scene of a hectic city, people in their cars on their way home, all the hopes and aspirations of that entire city, a city growing and living on it's own terms.
If you are the owner of the songs posted on this site and you don't want them online please feel free to post a comment and we'll have them taken down as soon as possible.
