Tom Brosseau - Grand Forks (Loveless)

In my childhood and early youth my dad constantly tried to brainwash with me with all sorts of country music, generally it would be quite horrible and sickly sweet, fiddles galore and yodels aplenty. Ever so occasionally though the odd track or artist would stand out, Johnny Cash obviously (although my younger brothers constant repetitive playing of Folsom Prison Blues should yet somehow didn't turn me off that song for life) Willie Nelson, Lonnie Donegan and perhaps with the most long lasting effect Hank Williams. And so it remains that in my blood I have both a loathing and a small box room in my house of music for out and out country *(I'm not talking bonnie prince billy, Sparklehorse etc)

Tom Brosseau has instantly been promoted to the top of that list with his wonderful album Grand Forks, recalling the Smith Garrett Band, at times Benjy Ferree with his Steptoe and Son pop so delightfully done on opening track I Fly Wherever I Go, Down on Skidrow is like the moody dusty best of Calexico and both At the Close of Everyday and Misplaced Music's Charlie Parr on the accentuated Plain Lined Jacket.

A gloriously simple album to coast down still waters on with a picnic basket and a bottle of cider.

Tom Brosseau - Plain Lined Jacket MP3

Mirah and Spectratone International - Reviewed

Posted on 2007.09.23 at 22:13
Current Music: AGF & Zavoloka - Nature Never Produces The Same Beat Twice
Tags: k, mirah, mirah spectratone international, red square, spectratone international

Mirah and Spectratone International - Share This Place (Stories and Observations By...) (k)

I was a little more than disappointed by the recent Joyride:Remixes album on K with many artists and remixers failing to add much to those Mirah songs we'd grown to love over the years, it seems only a short while ago when I discovered Mirah on a Red Square seven inch compilation, so I was slightly cautious in my approach to this album, fully expecting to be let down. Fortunately that's far from the truth as from the very start this is as lovely and welcoming as the Mirah we've known for all the years.

Opener Community sounds incredibly familiar; whether that be an old tracks of hers or someone else, it's on the tip of my tongue yet I can't quite put my finger on it, either way the duel vocals have a haunting effect that sends a shiver down the spine and relay to us once again what a talent Mirah Yom Tov Zeitlyn really is.

Throughout the album the main difference from previous Mirah albums is the instrumentation, a depth of instruments ranging from cello to accordion that add a nice touch, a worthy compliment to a voice that we know so well, a voice that has nothing to prove but one that has now moved onto higher social circles, gone are the scratchy guitars and cheap drum machines, instead deep warm melodies from every instruments under the sun and what a welcome addition they are.

A truly cherish-able album from one of the last decade's most underrated artists, well worth a try. 

MySpace

Mirah and Spectratone International - Community MP3

Mirah and Spectratone International - Credo Cigalia MP3 

Bosques De Mi Mente & Serafina Steer Reviewed

Posted on 2007.09.18 at 22:18
Current Music: Talkdemonic - Beat Romantic
Tags: bat for lashes, bosques de mi mente, cat power, cocorosie, eluvium, joanna newsom, kate bush, meg baird, serafina steer, sparklehorse, the finches, whistler

Bosques De Mi Mente – LoFi

With the first signs of the winter bearing down us, they bring with them a terrible feeling of loneliness and a bleak reminder of the harsh weather set to follow in the steps of what has yet again been a poor summer. Yet the winter also brings with it a tragic beauty, one that can pull you from the deepest of setbacks and sprinkle you with hope.

The music of Bosques De Mi Mente is your perfect partner to such feelings of melancholy and despair, like the scene from Far & Away when Nicole Kidman gets shot and Tom Cruise hands her back to her former lover and takes the slow walk through the snow, brutal and unforgiving it beats against your bare face, its gets in through any means possible and bites at your defenceless skin. Yet against the odds it's hard to deny the beauty of snow and its icy mischievousness, its ability to hold a moment in time, the way you sometimes feel the need and occasionally elongate a time and period of sadness, finding comfort from your sorrows and wallowing in your misery, its unhealthy yes but sometimes it serves a purpose yet eventually like Tom you just have to let her go, just walk away from the situation. You try not to look back yet when you do all you see is footsteps slowly disappearing in the snow as the fresh snow covers them up and severs all former ties.

Bosques De Mi Mente is the music to soundtrack your latest tragedy, the music that will bring beauty to the most tragic of happening, solo piano has rarely captured such feeling, this was last done so well by Eluvium and if that's not a recommendation then I don't know what is.

LoFi - MP3 Album Zip File

MySpace

Serafina Steer – Cheap Demo Bad Science (Static Caravan)

You may have guessed that I have a little more than an appreciation for the female vocal and more than a chip on my shoulder about how highly rated Cat Power is and yet again I find myself stumbling over a stupidly talented female that far exceeds anything that I've heard from Chan Marshall.

Serafina Steer will appeal to anyone who has been wowed by the likes of Bat for Lashes, Whistler, The Finches, Meg Baird, Cocorosie or Kate Bush and yes I hate lame comparisons but it's not just because she owns a harp that I find myself thinking of Joanna Newsom, however it's not that simple, this is Joanna Newsom gone back in time, a medieval Joanna who at the same time mixes her folk styling's with modern technology and electronics, as if she's half stuck in the past and half in the future, maybe the common, poor servant girl who creeps into her mistresses room and jumps grubby handed onto the harp at every opportunity, bashing out beautiful songs that no one will ever hear until now. As creative and original as Cocorosie, as lyrically weird as Sparklehorse, yet as accessible as the girl next door, the girl living on a council estate fighting to hear her harp over the arguments that overpower her playing

Catch now before you regret having to stand at the back of a packed out crowd, next to burger king at next year's ATP, Serafina is a delightful discovery.

MySpace

Static Caravan

Sadly I can't find any MP3's so give her Myspace a try

Future of the Left – Curses (Too Pure)

It's fair to say that heavy music rarely does it for me, and when I say heavy I don't mean heavy in the sense of Let Airplanes Circle Overhead, Russian Circles, Pelican and the like, I adore them, no I mean heavy as in with screaming and intenseness, it's the combination that I'm not that fussed about. However there will always be exceptions, in the past the main exception happened to be the highly underrated Mclusky and so its no surprise that my new favourite band (for 15 minutes as ever for me) are Future of the Left the new project of former Mclusky front man Andy Falkous and drummer Jimmy Egglestone. This is no nonsense full on aggressive in your face rock, yet for all its no nonsenseness it full on nonsensical lyrics, and melodies that will having you nodding your head and banging your steering wheel as you wait at the lights.

In the tradition of Mclusky amazing song titles are ever present (My Gymnastic Past, Suddenly It's A Folk Song, Adeadenemyalwayssmellsgood) and perhaps less familiar will be the excellent keyboards lines now present used to amazing effect on the fantastic Manchasm, I'll let you discover this years best outro yourself, needless to say that like Mclusky, Future of the Left are a very special band.

MySpace

Website

Future of the Left - The Lord Hates a Coward MP3

Go! Team - Proof of Youth (Memphis Industries)

I'm not ashamed to admit that I really never intended to hear this, planning to avoid it at all costs. I really enjoyed their debut album but was let down with the live performance, it was all very "put yr hands in the air, like you just don't care" and didn't do it for me at all and then a series of events, the plan b interview, to quote "I wanna be a cartoon! I wanna be a comic! I wanna be a watch!" why? why would you ever say that? And then the press shot in the latest Plan B, grotesque and utterly repulsive, again why would you let people print such bad pictures of yourself, and yet I eat each and every one of my words, I take back all my misconceptions, my past experience of bands never quite matching the exuberance and quality of their debut, my everything, Proof of Youth is one of the best albums you will hear this year, full to the brim and overflowing with feel good tunes, songs to pick you up, to make you dance, to let you forget about all the crap you have to deal with, I love this album, only a week ago I could never imagine saying such a thing. Its sends a shiver down my spine how good this album is. Taking the best of hip hop and mixing it in with a serious helping of motown, tracks like Doing it Right have no need to beg you to dance for by the time the first bar has kicked in you're already there on the dance floor, and a series of chants likely to be echoed on a million dance floors "do it do it alright" "extra extra read all about it".

If you thought Annie's Chewing Gum was the song to get you in the mood then now you have a whole album, soo good that you'll be tempted to stay in, it really is that good. I'm having trouble describing just how good, Fake ID is smothered in such northern soul magic where it not for the hip hop twist you'd swear you were down Wigan Casino on a Saturday night.

Don't let your musical snobbery put you off, Proof of Youth is awesome.

MySpace

Website

Go! Team - Grip Like A Vice (Black Affair Remix) MP3

Back when I was a lad, or at least when I when I was first beginning to "properly" get into music, whereby I mean that my record collection no longer consisted of taped music recorded from and occasionally by friends too cautious to "lend" in fear of never seeing their beloved disc again. Instead my hard earned cash gave me the opportunity to fill every possible place I could ram a CD within my (shared) box room…and so I did…and so my findings led me to a pentateuch, so to speak, of bands that I both swore by and adored, bands who could do no wrong in my eyes…a list of which follows

1) Belle & Sebastian

2) Hefner

3) Godspeed You! Black Emperor

4) The Delgados

5) Gorky's Zygotic Mynci

It is from the final and perhaps weirdest and unpredictable of the bunch that arises my latest obsession, that being the solo project of former front man Euros Childs, going by the alias of…erm, Euros Childs. Gorky's a their finest where able to produce both noise and melody, hush and chaos and ultimately a song for each occasion, whether that be the loud and chaotic Sweet Johnny, the literally barking mad Poodle Rocking, the sunshine pop of Spanish Dance Troupe, Diamond Dew and Patio Song or the heart melting four tracks that closed 1999 album, Spanish Dance Troupe, who could forget the "Jodie brown eyes" line, one that to do this day I find myself randomly singing.

And so out of nowhere Euros has given us three albums in the space of sixteen months, Chops (13/2/06) Bore Da (05/03/07) and now The Miracle Inn (25/06/07), a treasure trove of Gorky-like pop. The piano led pop remains, songs like Horse Riding & Ali Day are instant classics, whereas the more ambitious 15 minutes of The Miracle Inn show the ideas and experiments are not running short yet. Costa Rita is a lovely love song told in the normal Euros way, quirky and normally from a distance, the way we all fall in love with that girl that we see on the bus each day, the one who walks past our window at work, the one who works in the florist down the road and yet we'll probably never ever pluck the courage up to talk to her let alone tell her how we feel. Country Girl shows his fondness for country as previously expressed in the much loved yet little heard Johnny Cash Lawsuit Song.

Euros Childs is a madcap genius who deserves your attention, let him put a little sunshine and romance in your life.

MySpace

Website

Euros Childs - First Time I Saw You (Acoustic Version) MP3

Euros Childs - Billy and the Sugarloaf Mountain MP3

Euros Childs - Dawnsio Dros Y Môr MP3

Euros Childs - Amsermaemaiyndod MP3

Euros Childs - Y Mwnci Drwg MP3

Euros Childs - Teen Angel MP3

Oh how I love Scout Niblett… I've just got my hands on her new albums "This Fool Can Die Now" due for release by Too Pure on October 9^th…there's something wonderful about Scout, her voice, so powerful and emotive, especially on Your Last Chariot, like she's been up all night crying and then just picked the mic up and poured all her deepest sorrows into song...

The opening brace of songs are duets, the first Do You Wanna Be Buried with My People, I know not who this is with, the second is instantly recognisable as Will Oldham, a lush and powerful six minutes of love and emotion aptly entitled Kiss. The duets tend to show a newer more mature and produced sound to Scout Nibletts already high standards, the kind of touch needed to put her up in the big league (she has always been there, if not above in my mind) the push that will see her recognised clearly amongst the Cat Powers (of whom she is unarguably far superior, if not to the eyes of the mass media) the Will Oldhams, the Bill Callahans and the Joanna Newsoms. However her stripped down sound I was first attracted to (some songs on here feature violins and full band) is still present on a number of tracks that stand out to me, the ferocious Nevada and Let Thine Heart Be Warned.

I'm only half way through but already I know that This Fool Can Die Now is destined to be an album I cherish for some time…oh, how I love Scout Niblett.

MySpace
Website
Too Pure

Scout Niblett - Kiss MP3

Loscil – Plume (Kranky)

Loscil – States (One Net Label)

I would never have understood this music five years ago but now I feel instantly at ease with the swells and drones that make up the music of Loscil, namely Scott Morgan who for a living makes sound effects for computer games. The music is slow and dreamy, the kind of music you imagine is fed into the womb, the comforting caring sounds of a loving mother, the heart taking its first beat and the embryo slowly developing into a little human in its own right, this is the music of miracles, mesmerising and transfixing, music to send you off into dreams and restful sleep. 

Website
MySpace
Kranky
One Net Label

Loscil - Sous Marin MP3
Loscil - Stases Full Album ZIP

Hylozoists - La Fin Du Monde (boompa)

The music of Hylozoists is sweeping and endearing, it is Francophilic in sound, carrying a certain Parisian romance in its sweeping upbeat orchestral arrangements. 

Man who was builds up into a wall of hope and fantasy conjuring images of Tim Burton-esque sets, mysterious and magical, where limits have no place, anything is possible and all is within your reach, unicorns roam freely and fairies fly like butterflies unafraid of being seen. At times their cinematic sound strays into areas covered by the wonderful Espers yet not quite so folk-sy. Now and then there are hints of About a Boy, but I'll let you decide if that's good or bad.

Much like Cue it's refreshing to hear a less bleak and more upbeat sound in an instrumental band, triumphant and joyous, let these well arranged orchestrations soundtrack whichever occasion you choose. 

MySpace
Website
Boompa

Hylozoists - Strait is the Gate MP3

Vic Chesnutt – North Star Deserter (Constellation)

A quite exquisite release from the ever reliable Constellation label, featuring a host of guests namely all seven members of Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-La-La Band, along with Guy Picciotto (Fugazi), Chad Jones & Nadia Moss (Frankie Sparo), Eric Craven & Genevieve Heistek (Hangedup), Bruce Cawdron (Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Esmerine) and T. Griffin (The Quavers) and quite frankly you can hear their influence, particularly A Silver Mt Zion on tracks such as the epic Everything I Say and You Are Never Alone, both building up storms of sound, dark and yet hopeful, epic and yet easy on the ears along with the near full on post rock assault of Debriefing.

Vic is perhaps sadly better known for the fact that he is a paraplegic rather than for his great song writing talents, hopefully this album will make a difference. In addition to the earlier comparison fans of Lambchop, Will Oldham and Smog will not be let down by what's on offer hear, the lovely slow and comparatively short Wallace Stevens for example, Splendid too, very much alt. country and undeniably familiar in sound yet not afraid to venture of into more experimental waters, kicking in again after seven minutes with a lovely Silver Mt Zion-esque vocal refrain. An album that will no doubt feature highly come the end of year polls.

http://www.cstrecords.com/cst046.html

MySpace

www.vicchesnutt.com/

Amandine – Solace in Sore Hands (FatCat)

Quite lovely album from Swedes Amandine, a lovelorn collection of songs falling mainly into the alt. country bracket but with enough pop sensibilities to appeal to a much wider audience. Silver Bells is a delicate pop song song of desperation and strong feelings that relationships can bring to the fore "honey, distance brings us closer/ and honey hardship makes us strong" and carries a hint of Concretes style horns that melt themselves into your brain.

No doubt this will appeal to those who have in recent years fallen for the likes of Sufjan Stevens and The Broken Family Band. Go let yourself be woo-ed by the gorgeous Americana on offer here from the opening Faintest of Sparks to the gorgeous closer, all six minutes sixteen seconds of New Morning.

Amandine – Secrets MP3

Amandine Website

Amandine Myspace

FatCat Records

FatCat Myspace

Corwin Trails - Corwin Trails (Archaic Horizon)

Stunning little EP from the kind people at Archaic Horizon, as with most of their releases this is ever so slightly indebted to the Boards of Canada, though as I have previously said that isn't often a bad thing. If like me you love tracks such as Dandelion, the simple psychadelic kaleidoscopes of electronica graced with clever samples, children's stories and philosophy lectures then this will more than satisfy your appetite for more. Those familiar with the work of French Teen Idol will be likewise delighted. Each track is a childlike wonder, so much so that its hard to decide between Oasis is Myth and Icicle as to which is the better, childlike innocence matched with curious electronical experimentation.

Corwin Trails LP (zip file)

Corwin Trails - Oasis is Myth MP3

http://www.myspace.com/corwintrails
http://www.myspace.com/archaichorizon



Ascalaphe – The Hollander Café EP (Earstroke)

Another discovery of electronic mischief, treading similar paths to The Books, though on a rainier and therefore muddier day are Acalaphe, the brainchild of Fred Debief whose work has previously appeared on the critically acclaimed Skam label.  Abstract and strange its bound to have its doubters but what we have here are glorious collages of samples, field noises, cat's miaows and electronic mayhem, though slow and organised mayhem if such a thing exists. Well worth a try.

Ascalphe – The Hollander Café EP ZIP 

Ascalaphe – Alter Ego MP3

Ascalaphe – Cat Time

http://www.myspace.com/ascalaphe

www.earstroke.com/