Grimes

Reverb and delay on the vocals, she uses some synthesizer and piano as background and a good collection of beats. Grimes has already released three albums and I've seen that she has done some touring in Europe (I remember I saw a video log where she makes a joke about being the opening act for Godspeed You! Black Emperor - she was playing in the same night, only in a different place). Grimes is also a music video director and she directed the music video for "Vanessa" (first video).

 I first heard Grimes from the live session at KEXP (last video). I recommend starting with "Vanessa" or the live session.

Swans 18.05

As I entered the room I began to scout the stage: I recognized the Marshall amps from the facebook post before the concert, I then saw what seemed to be some keyboards but I later realized it was actually a lap slide guitar. When the band entered the stage they were all straight faced, despite the audience's enthusiastic response. I would later realize why.

Listening to them on youtube doesn't really compare to the actual thing, though it might give you some insight. I wasn't much of a fan before the concert, I only listened to several songs, but this was definitely one of the best concerts I've been to.

The following two videos might give you a clue about the actual feel I got during the concert. The third is a personal favorite.

Fever Ray - Seven

I remember I listened to Fever Ray a long time ago, but I didn't give her too much attention back then. I recently heard that `If I had a heart` was the main titles soundtrack for the Vikings series on TV. So I decided to give it a second chance and I am glad I did. Interesting vocals, although the effect on the vocals might become slightly annoying from time to time, very nice sound, unique. The last video is the full album (Seven 2009).

The Social Network

Coming up with a full flavor of Nine Inch Nails in it, here comes The Social Network soundtrack. The full album has about 19 songs in it, here is a best of:

Exitmusic & Active Child

Although some time has passed since I last wrote a blog post, I assure you there still is good music being sung out there now. I recently stumbled upon some live sessions from KEXP Radio. Here are a couple of interesting bands, Exitmusic and Active Child.

Exitmusic definitely has a good combination of unique, ghostly vocals, backed-up and completed by a good band. I like all of their songs from this live performance and I'm certainly going to "dig" them up; I would like to hear them in a concert.
On the other hand, Active Child has only one song that really impresses me: "Hanging on". This song really haunted me for several days - the first day I heard it I listened to it about 20 times. The harp and the strange voice go along and easily become an obsession. I listened to the rest of their album, but no other song managed to impress me as much as "Hanging on" did.

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

The collaboration between Trent Reznor (the creator of Nine Inch Nails) and David Fincher started about two years ago when the Trent and Atticus Ross composed and recorded the soundtrack for The Social Network. This worked so well that the following year, the two continued to supply soundtracks for Fincher as in The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.

Although this is a cover song, IMHO Trent Reznor has managed to completely change the feel of the original song.  I'm not a fan of covers (most of the times I prefer the original song), this one really stirs something in me. With it's accelerated pace, it reminds me of Run Like Hell, but this is different: despair and other NIN-like feelings most certainly has something to do with it.

Unfortunately, the movie isn't as great as the soundtrack is. It could have been a great movie, but David Fincher certainly blew it off in the last part of the movie. The so called "rhythm" of the movie is at least one of the mistakes done here.



An article about the soundtrack from The Social Network will follow.

Massive Attack - Just A Matter Of Time

I've just found an old music video from Massive Attack where all the members of the band seem to be searching for Tricky. I would have thought that the video was released after Tricky left Massive Attack, but the song was released in 1990 (which is 5 years earlier).

Most interesting are the vocals on the background coming from 3D and Daddy G with lyrics which can be traced back to Five Man Army ("get a visa card").

Luiza Zan

This is the full concert from the first video.

Sissy

This is the second album of the Canadian duo made up of Johanne Williams and David Trusz. I heard about this band thanks to Trip Hop X. Sissy have an interesting mix of beats (I seriously suspect they recorded themselves hitting a metal barrel with a baseball bat, just listen to All Of Me), synthesizers, gloomy voice effects, piano.

I don't know anything about their first album, but I would definitely like to hear more of their music.

Quantifier - Dark Street

Search for Velure on Last.fm and you will find Quantifier under the Similar Artist section. The vice versa is also true.

Quantifier is a Polish producer and his music is mostly made of mixes which feature trip-hop beats, jazz saxophone and contrabass(double bass) sounds overdubbed with sporadic gramophone-like effect. There are no vocals by the way.

Lykke Li

Lykke Li hit mainstream with her single I Follow Rivers, but few know that this song comes from the second album of an interesting artist.

Her first album, called Youth Novels, was released in 2008 and presents a bunch of styles. The songs on this album reveal two constants: a preference for unusual intros and Lykke Li's beautiful voice. Dance, dance, dance reminds me of Nouvelle Vague, Little Bit of Martina Topley Bird's style and the voice from the beginning of I'm Good I'm Gone sounds like some industrial or new wave stuff (just to name a few similarities).

Note: Time Flies (Youth Novels album) is not a cover song from Vaya Con Dios(that's what my first thought was when I saw the title).





I've noticed that she has a choice for peculiar videos. Do you recognize the song she's playing a cappella in the beginning of the following video?



A couple of her videos including I Follow Rivers were directed by Tarik Saleh. His name didn't ring any bells but when I googled him I remembered that I saw one of his movies - Metropia (you should check it out).

Both albums are good and should make at least an interesting listening if her style doesn't appeal to you.
There are lots of songs from her on Youtube, I wouldn't be surprised to find out that both her albums were uploaded there.

Velure

Velure's songs really are made from velure. Similar in style to Portishead's Dummy album, they bring a more smooth approach to the genre. Although they certainly have influences from other trip-hop bands, they bring their own style. Lynnelle Moran's voice is excellent for this band, they make the band stand apart from Beth Gibbons' hauntingly beautiful vocals (or other "similar" vocalist for that matter).

The band has released only an EP so far - Care For Fading Embers - excellent work, I recommend listening to the whole album. My favorite track is Do you suppose?, unfortunately I couldn't find it on Youtube.







Here's the whole Youtube playlist for Velure.

Sóley

Youtube has started giving me interesting music recommendations. One of these is Sóley, an Icelandic singer, pianist and member of the band called Seabear.

She released her debut EP called Theater Island in March 2010, a good album which brings together piano and folk (as in Smashed Birds) along with a sad, nostalgic mood. Although I recommend the whole album, here are some names: Theater Island, Fight Them Soft (-I especially like the cabinet piano sound from this song) and Kill That Clown. My favorite from Sóley is Read Your Book (it isn't included in the album).








Her songs remind me in weird way of Delicatessen (same mood; the main character's story regarding his partner in the circus - Dr. Livingstone). Looking forward to hearing her next album.

The Silk Demise

The Silk Demise is a combination of Massive Attack trip-hop and Karmacoda vocals (or maybe vocals from Baxter).

The band has released 4 albums so far: The Silk Demise (debut album), Music for a Film, Unlocked, Midnight Eyes. In my opinion, the best album is Midnight Eyes. In this album they included male vocals for the first time, thus bringing them closer to their British "relatives" (the female vocals also sound better). Recommended tracks from this album: "Bound", "Heroin Chic", "The Greys".





Although the vocals are good in their previous albums, they don't stand out. Maybe that's why I wasn't bothered by the second album which has no vocals - actually it's a very good album (I like this band especially because of this album). Recommended tracks are: "Cataclysm", "...and no one else". The following album, Unlocked, features a single track with Edie Marshall's vocals, "Being".

Madita - Madita

I've been listening to Madita's first album (Madita, 2005) and although I've been listening to it for some time now (first heard it about one or two years ago), I still enjoy her music. I find it difficult to associate a particular genre to it, probably because it has a bunch of musical influences, on top of which her voice fits perfectly. My favorite songs from this album are Ceylon, Monotony(could't find a youtube link), Has To Be You.

Phantogram

Phantogram is a trip-hop duo (Sarah Barthel and Josh Carter) which brings together strong percussion, a loud rhythmic guitar and some overlapping keyboards while most of the vocals are done by Sarah.

A phantogram is a form of optical illusion which uses a pair of images which can create a sense of depth if the observer is in the right position; an interesting name for a duo band.

The band has released an album called Eyelid Movies and several EPs. My favorite song from their album is When I'm Small which has a really nice guitar sound. I like the fact that they used a gramophone effect only on the drums - the other instruments have a clean sound.

From their Nightlife EP, Make A Fist and Turning Into Stone are also interesting.

A Mouthful of Diamonds, the first song from the album, reminds me of another band, The Whip.

Emilie Simon

Emilie Simon is a french artist of whom I became aware of through the soundtrack from La Marche de l'Empereur. Apparently, she was working on her second album, which had a winter/polar setting, when she was asked to compose the soundtrack for the french documentary.





She has a unique style, I find it pretty hard to find any resemblance between her and other artists.
My favorite studio album is Végétal (Le Vieil Amant and Dame de Lotus are from this album). Her next album, entitled Franky Knight, should come out by the end of this year.






Youtube Channel: EmilieSimonMusic
Website: http://www.emiliesimonmusic.com/

Björk: Biophilia released

First of all, I've decided to start writing in English (..you don't say...). I hope this might bring in new readers and I guess this won't bother any of my current readers as I am sure they will find no difficulty in reading my posts. Opinions&critique are welcome.

I've  listened to Björk's new album and it's quite different from the older ones. Although this is a very interesting concept album, I'm not quite into her new style. The voice is still the same, but I really don't like the experimental backing tracks. The new backing tracks are really supporting the whole idea of the album, they're very repetitive, almost mechanical, as if she is trying to say that the crystals are growing at a very slow pace (or the Universe evolves slowly compared to us for that matter).


L.E. The original videos were removed from youtube. I've put this Thunderbolt live video instead.
Later Edit: Still haven't figured out the new name for the blog.

Björk: Biophilia 27.09

Björk lansează un nou album, Biophilia, pe 27 septembrie care promite o schimbare serioasă de direcție în privința muncii sale. Din ce am observat (în postările ei de pe facebook și în melodiile noi) se conturează tematica albumului: „where nature and music meet. And structures in nature and structures in music, where they are simillar”. Pe youtube se găsesc câteva din noile melodii, inclusiv un videoclip (Crystalline) regizat de Michael Gondry, după cum ne-am obișnuit (a se vedea și filmul Tokio! la care a regizat și el o parte), dar și o melodie acapella. Melodia „Crystalline” are și o parte de dubstep de vreo 40 de secunde care pe cât de brusc începe, la fel de brusc se și termină.

Later Edit: Merită văzut și site-ul ei dedicat noului album, www.bjork.com, unde Björk explică geneza albumului (citatul e de-acolo).

Esthero

Esthero este o solistă/compozitoare din Canada ce folosește un amestec de chitară clasică, trompete, hip-hop (prin scratch-uri și loop-uri), strings. Se aseamănă cu Portishead și Bitter:Sweet în privința instrumentalului, iar vocea îmi aduce aminte și de Sade pe alocuri.

Numele de Esthero se poate referi atât la ea ca artist solo cât și la duo-ul ei cu producer-ul Doc McKinney. Are două albume lansate: Breath From Another (1998) și Wikked Lil' Grrrls (2005), iar acum lucrează la Everything is Expensive.

De pe primul album, îmi plac mult „Breath From Another”(mult spre hip-hop), „Country Livin' (The world I know)” și „Heaven Sent”. Mai ales chitara de pe ultima melodie menționată.






Al doilea album îmi aduce aminte de Bitter:Sweet, însă este destul de variat și el (ascultați „Wikked Lil' Grrrls” și apoi „Melancholic Melody” unde o dă în jazz curat).