The best electronic album of 2006 is soon here! “Orchestra Of Bubbles” by Ellen Allien and Apparat is a masterpiece in which their combined ways and sounds have created the most beautiful and fresh techno pop. It’s released on April 17, and you can listen to it at the official site. For you to learn more, I’ve also uploaded as much as I could fit from an interview on the latest Slices DVD magazine to YouTube. Watch it here and enjoy. Update: continues in part 2.
The snippet mixtape of my favourite tracks in March. Click here to listen! (Streaming with Flash in popup)
March 2006
Neko Case – Hold On Hold On
Katatonia – My Twin
Monkeytribe – Zebadee
Gary Numan – Haunted
The Kills – I Call It Art
Moderat feat St Paul Hilaire – Let Your Love Grow
Barbara Morgenstern – The Operator
Danko Jones – Baby Hates Me
Cortney Tidwell – The Light
Benga – World War7
The new Yeah Yeah Yeahs album, “Show Your Bones”, is available in it’s entirety on their MySpace page. Few bands sound this good, great atmosphere! The title refers to what happens when you put your finger in a light socket, according to singer Karen O.
-”Maybe there is some of that electric current flowing through the tracks of our album illuminating us from the inside out for you to laugh at and cry to or fry to. Or not.”
It was pretty obvious that the track called “The world is gone”, played on this week’s Breezeblock, is made by the very secretive Various Production team… but what about the vocals? At first I though it was Beth Orton, but it turns out these guys sampled Cat Power from the song “Great Waves” she did together with Dirty Three. Amazing track nevertheless, can’t wait for the album they’re supposed to drop this summer!
I’ve never heard any of Serge Gainsbourg’s songs in english before, but the new “Monsieur Gainsbourg Revisited” cover compilation just made me appreciate one of my biggest musical idols even more! Cat Power & Karen Elson’s “I Love You (Me Either)”, The Kills “I Call It Art” and Marianne Faithful with Sly & Robbie’s “Lola R Forever” are amazingly beautiful new versions that leave me teary eyed! While the rest by Franz Ferdinand, Placebo, Michael Stipe, Portishead and Tricky among others lack that unique passion or musical quality, they’re still interesting in the language point of view. It’s definately a 2006 essential.
I have my indie days and my grime days, but I’m not so sure about this new crossover grindie thing Statik is pushing for. His upcoming mixtape “Grindie Volume 1″ (download here) is filled with remixed indie hits, accompanied by various Mc’s. I’ll give it an honest chance, but I’d rather spend the next weekend listening to the new Dubstep Allstars compilation…
The first compilation from Female Pressure’s project, Open Sounds, will be released on March 21 as a free CD. Electro ladies from Vienna (homebase of the organization) are first out to “raise the visibility of female creations in the seemingly male dominated fields of electronic music”. Not sure how the CD will be distributed, but it will hopefully also be available to download since the whole project goes under a free to share Creative Commons license.
The snippet mixtape of my favourite songs in February. Click here to listen! (Streaming with Flash in popup)
February 2006
Ursula Rucker – Rant Hat In Here
In Flames – Come Clarity
Sophie Solomon – Holy Devil
Various Production – In This
Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Gold Lion
Metric – Monster Hospital (MSTRKRFT Remix)
Beth Orton – Shopping Trolley
Atki2 feat Renee Silver – Shocking Out Proud! (DTL Salty Mix)
Frank Black – Repo Man
Skream – Midnight Request Line
Listen to Morrissey’s new single “You Have Killed Me” on Myspace (from the upcoming album “Ringleader of the Tormentors”). Can’t wait to get home.
Photographer Simon Wheatley has put together an amazing slideshow with audio commentary portraying the inner city youth and grime scene of London. Check it out.
I was very surprised to find an orchestrated version of Jeff Mills’ techno classic “The Bells” on iTunes. Celebrating it’s 10th anniversary this year, this bizarre sounding recording originates from a live concert together with the national philharmonic orchestra of Montpellier at Pont Du Gard in France last summer. The whole performance, which looks amazing in the trailer, is to be released as CD and DVD in March on UWe. Titled “Blue Potential”, it features 16 tracks total, including two from the Underground Resistance label.
The snippet mixtape of my favourite songs in January. Click here to listen! (Streaming with Flash in popup)
January 2006
Dub Sweden – We’re So Loud
Nellie McKay – Columbia Is Bleeding
Lacuna Coil – Our Truth
Studio R feat Mocky – Clapz
The Gossip – Jealous Girls
Gustav – One Hand Mona
Monochrome – Every Once A While
Infusion – Daylight Hours
Jenny Lewis – The Charging Sky
Evol Intent feat Blip – Flipside
David Bowie’s very cool live performance with Klaus Nomi and Joey Arias at SNL in 1979 can now be seen online:
The Man Who Sold The World, TVC15 and Boys Keep Swinging!
The sunny and great new single, “We’re so loud”, from Dub Sweden is released on February 1! If you’re ready to dig a little in your browsers cache, you can get the 2 new tracks as mp3 in good quality today! Just sort the files by size and open their streaming player. Watch for a new file increasing in size when preloading, copy it elsewhere and add an mp3 extension to it when it’s finished. If you like it you should of course buy it as well! I’m glad they’re back. :)
Doesn’t the voice in Apple’s new Intel commercial sound very much like Jack Ba.., sorry, Kiefer Sutherland’s? If not, it must be the 24 fever. New season starts on Monday! He’s a known fan of Apple, so it’s not impossible at least.
I have to see this! Ricky Gervais met my favourite comedian Larry David for a special interview on UK Channel Four last Thursday! It’s a very rare occasion, and he agreed “because it’ll only be shown in the UK, and no-one who knows me will be watching”. Supposed to be very funny as well according to TV Squad. There’s a trailer for it here, but I want the real thing so bad.
A lot of music I want is only available on vinyl, and when using iTunes for playing all my music there’s just too much work getting it in there. For the latest EP from Evol Intent I decided to try the Beatport digital music store. Focusing on electronic music, they offer MP3 (320 kbps), MP4 (192 kbps VBR) or WAV format on a pay per download basis. Not quite as smooth and easy as the iTunes music store, it was still a nice experience. Most labels and artists I searched for was there, so I will definately return. Cheaper than the real 12 inch and flawless digital copies without DRM protection. Can’t wait for Juno to get their digital apartment up and running.
It’s harder than usual this year. 2005 has seen a great number of releases, from both debutants and veterans, I can still only come up with 5 albums that I’ve really loved. It’s not that I’m disappointed, but I feel more comfortable listing my 5 favourites and 10 highlights instead of my usual top 10 (sorted by date of release).
Bloc Party – Silent Alarm
Their ecstatic indie rock blows me away every time.
Favourite track: “Like Eating Glass”
Mary Gauthier – Mercy Now
Dark and gritty country with a southern gothic ambience that really drags you in.
Favourite track: “Falling Out Of Love”
Porcupine Tree – Deadwing
Less progressive and more rock. Just the way I like it.
Favourite track: “Shallow”
The New Pornographers – Twin Cinema
More addictive power-pop hooks than this is hard to find.
Favourite track: “Stacked Crooked”
Madonna – Confessions On A Dance Floor
Stuart Price is definately producer of the year in my book.
Favourite track: “Jump”
Highlights in alphabetical order:
Aimee Mann – The Forgotten Arm
Coldplay – X&Y
Fiona Apple – Extraordinary Machine
Kathleen Edwards – Back To Me
Modeselektor – Hello Mom!
Ryan Adams – Jacksonville City Nights
Soilwork – Stabbing The Drama
Spillsbury – 2
System Of A Down – Hypnotize
The Mars Volta – Frances The Mute
The snippet mixtape of my favourite songs in December. Click here to listen! (Streaming with Flash in popup)
December 2005
Ryan Adams – Carolina Rain
Princess Superstar – My Machine
50 Foot Wave – Hot Pink, Distorted
Sigur Ros – Hoppipolla
DJ Maxximus feat. Soom-T – Reason
Korn – Eaten Up Inside
Digitonal – 93 Years On
Paul Kalkbrenner – Gebrunn Gebrunn
Charlotte Martin – Under The Gravel Skies
Black Sun Empire and Noisia – Hideous