Beirut’s blend of folk and world music (especially Balkan folk music) gives them a distinctive sound that makes them unique.
For me their stand out record is the Lon Gisland EP which comes with the UK release of Gulag Orkestar. In it’s five tracks it manages to blend and condense all the things that make Beirut great. A perfect starting point for any new listener.
As Lon Gisland’s opening track, Elephant Gun manages to mix the great folk stylings and tempos of Balkan folk. Everything falls into place as soon as the hopeful yet mournful melody of the brass section starts to develop:
LCD Soundystem’s development culminated in their last ever gig at Madison square gardens, whilst they were still at the peak of their careers.
Fortunately this gig was heavily documented and released as feature documentary “Shut Up and play the Hits” which followed front man, producer and musician James Murphy on the 3 days surrounding the gig. The Bonus feature on the release of the Blu-ray was the entire 29 song strong live show which features “You Can’t Hide” my track of the week.
Originally the opening to “45:33” a continuous track on a single CD “You Can’t Hide” was a bit rough arround the edges. But performed live It sums up what LCD manged to do best, apply their unique synth punk aesthetic over another genre. What starts as a arpeggiated synth line breaks into classic disco and the vocal mix of James Murphy and Reggie Watts is magical.
Unfortunately I was late to the party with LCD, only picking up on them seriously after they disbanded. In hindsight LCD soundsytem are a seminal act, Marking the turning point of american music. The integration of synthesis in modern rock, The development of the producer as a frontman and the proliferation of dance influencing mainstream american music are all evident here. LCD were a bellweather for things to come, filling a gap that music needed and all done with Murphy’s over analytical and witty lyrics in songs like “loosing my edge” which seem do define a generation. Their legacy will live on through many acts and the DFA Label which Murphy fronts.
This week I’m going back to highlighting music from video games. FEZ was a wonderfully complex puzzler that manged to develop its world to such a level of detail that it felt natural. The game is a real pleasure to just spend time in, aided in part by the brilliant score by Disasterpeace.
This Synth heavy soundtrack influenced by chiptune has been remixed by a collection of artists into two albums entitled Side F and Side Z. The original score of FEZ Manages to create allot with a very limited pallet due to the amount of detail in each part of the tracks.
This detail creates lots of great hooks throughout the soundtrack wich provide inspiration for the remixes found on these two albums. Synchrosynct is The opening track from The Side F Remix album and from Disasterpeace himself. The Track opens with a disorienting Syth note which Gives way to a sidechained Compressed Kick drum and Large open snare similar to most house music. Its bold and brash and I love it:
I watched Team Ghost live a few weeks ago and bought their album Rituals. I’m a fan of the ‘NuGaze’ genre that is gaining prominence in modern pop. Team Ghost add a garage rock element that provides a contrasting rough edge to the produced electronica sheen found with other bands, whilst still keeping its catchy melodies and shimmering synth pads.
Things Are Sometimes Tragic Is powered by its metallic percussive line, built on with other percussion and synths throughout the piece and swelling to a driving collection of melodies and percussion that I can’t help resist tap my foot to:
In One Day James Blackshaw & Lubomyr Melnyk have improvised a beautiful album in The Watchers.
On the linked site for the album James Blackshaw quotes: “We set up, Lubomyr at the grand piano, me directly facing him with my 12-string guitar and began. I would retune at random between songs and together we would find interesting chord progressions, hints of melodies and ways in which to weave those immense overtones that Lubomyr is able to generate on the piano with those of my guitar. No more than two takes per song. Improvisation, spontaneous composition, whatever you want to call it. Either way, it truly felt as if the piano and guitar were as one – inseparable, parts of a bigger whole, a means by which for two people to make one sound. It never felt forced and never less than engaging. Lubomyr was always humble, jovial and open to ideas. The whole session lasted six hours.”
In those Six hours these 4 tracks were recorded and have intrigued me into many listens. What starts as almost chaos, slowly drifts in and out of these beautiful melodies, unpredictable but unforced, glimpses at true majesty. The continuous playing of the guitar and Piano Creates this element of complexity, making it hard to attach your attention to any element for to long or even at all. This makes repeat listens highly rewarding as I still notice things in my 17th listen to the album. You truly get as much out of their music as you put in.
As my track of the week was from Boards of Canada I thought it would be perfect to add their new track to my blog. As I have waxed lyrical about them in my previous post I will keep this one short.
This is their first release from one of my most eagerly anticipated albums Tomorrows Harvest. The 5th of June can’t come soon enough:
Since the teasing and then the announcement of a new Boards of Canada album over the past few months, my feelings of excitement and anticipation have been growing.
I came to Boards of Canada fairly late in their history, around the release of the album “the Campfire Headphase”, but the sound of this album had something unique with its sampled guitars and vast collection of different soundscapes it was unlike anything I had heard before. This convinced me to go through their back catalogue (the stuff that was easily accessible, anyway) and I slowly came to like all of it.
I find it hard to put my finger on why I like it. It’s hard to explain anything about Boards of Canada’s music in a way that makes it understandable. I can tell you their music is made from a collection of synths, naturalistic samples and depending on the album progressively more traditional instruments but I can’t explain how these fit together to create the music they do. Or why they are so distinctive, that a single note from their record store day sampler is enough to know they are responsible. The closest description I could put to how it makes me feel is like waking from a dream that you can’t quite remember. You get the feeling that something profound and maybe even sinister happened that caused you to wake, but the more you think about it the patchier it becomes, evading your thoughts and burying itself in your subconscious.
The music doesn’t seem to have a time or a place and almost feels like an alien language, a puzzle you don’t even understand the conventions to. In different emotional states the same song can make me feel uneasy, uplifted or relaxed. It seems to connect to a fundamental part of myself the same way as looking up at the stars or out on a scene of natural beauty can make you feel both inspired and insignificant.
I know this may sound like hyperbole; maybe others won’t get the same feelings I do. But for me Boards of Canada evoke these emotions unlike any other band. And it’s this uncertainty of their work that keeps me coming back. It makes you feel and think the way great philosophical questions do, it’s unsolvable and fragmented but it doesn’t stop you trying:
It’s been a while since any of my own music has been put up on the site. As mentioned in previous posts I have been working towards an album to release online.
However things have taken longer than expected. My initial idea was to have the album released by my birthday last weekend. This dream has been hampered by my success in other areas, work has increased over ten fold since the start of this albums creation and my days of free time a week have been shortened into hours making everything slow down to a crawl.
The album is coming along though and most of the tracks are now recorded in one form or another but it still needs a lot of work. I felt guilty about not having something to show on my birthday and that’s where A4 came in.
Over the past few months I have been working on this track as a way to relax and clear my mind from the more electronic orientated album. It’s taken some time as all the instruments have been played and recorded by myself along with the creation of the animated video. What started as a small lofi guitar line grew into something far more than I originally envisioned and overall im happy with the result.
I hope this gives you guys an idea of where I’m going with my new music and hope I can get the album finished as soon as possible. In the mean time I will continue to post my TOTW and add a few more blog posts to the site.
Please let me know what you think of the track In the comments section below. Try to watch it in HD as the animation looses something in lower resolutions. It also contains flashing Images wich could be a problem for some:
I have just noticed that I haven’t put any music by Apparat as my track of the week and after listening to his most recent album I thought it was about time I should give him some credit for his solo work outside of Moderat.
For me Apparat is one of the most interesting electronica producers working today, managing to create his own sound with a heavy use of strings its beautiful stuff indeed.
I’m a huge fan of all of his work and although this track wouldn’t have been the first one I would usually play people as its less accessible than some of his other work. It is my favourite track from his most recent album and therefore the one I’m listening to the most which makes it take pride of place as my track of the week.
His current album is actually edited versions of his music for a play of war and peace and strips away a lot of his usual electronic sounds for classical instrumentation. PV develops slowly with an ominous opening of what sounds like a mix between a broken squeezebox and audio static. Slowly elements of strings, woodwind, vocal samples and finally piano are added before it breaks into a driving drumbeat at 3:50. It’s this driving line that really makes the track stand out and become something to anticipate on repeat listens. I highly recommend it:
This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish.AcceptRead More
Privacy & Cookies Policy
Privacy Overview
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
