1 comments June 10, 2008

Beirut Disco


At only 22 years of age, the prodigious (and disturbingly talented) Zach Condon has already released two albums.

Better known to the world at large as Beirut, Condon's music is an enchanting blend of folk-pop, heavily influenced by Eastern European folk and balkan gypsy music. Despite his youth, and the fact that he grew up in Santa Fe, New Mexico, his music has an unmistakable old country feel, and a maturity that belies his tender years.

His music is boisterous and romantic, the kind of thing you might imagine yourself listening to in the Mediterranean somewhere, late at night, under the stars, seated round a large table with a gaggle of strangers made fast friends through a day of drinking and revelry.

Suffice it to say, it's not the kind of thing you would expect to hear in a club.

Until now.

DJs Fredo & Thang, from the Gameplayer label, have released a mash-up called "Beirut Disco".

Dub inflected beats and snatches of spoken french are woven through swathes of organ and Beirut's slightly nasal vocals to create some kind of gypsy folk electronica hybrid.

It's Beirut gone urban.

And whether in a club, or sitting on a terrace drinking a beer, Beirut Disco is the perfect accompaniment to the heat and bluster of summer.



2 comments June 6, 2008

Baltic Fleet


What starts out like Elastica before morphing into Interpol by way of Joy Division?

It's not a trick question, and okay, I'm doing those annoying reductive comparisons again, but really, Baltic Fleet have to be heard to be believed.

And trust me, I'm not slighting the band in the least. Anything that starts out like Elastica before morphing into Interpol by way of Joy Division has me from the get-go.

When I say 'the band' I really mean Paul Fleming, keyboard player for Echo and The Bunnymen. Baltic Fleet is his baby.

He apparently wrote the album when he was on tour with the Bunnymen, trying to capture, in music, what inspired him in each city around the world.

While Baltic Fleet is a new discovery for me, a quick listen to the myspace page suggests to me that the band (ie, Fleming) is going to be huge.

He certainly deserves to be.

One of my favourite songs (out of an already incredibly strong line up) is "3 Dollar Dress".

It's hypnotic and savage -- a driving slice of indie rock heaven.

And what's more, it starts out like Elastica, before morphing into Interpol, by way of Joy Division...

Here's "3 Dollar Dress":



[Baltic Fleet - MySpace] [blow up records]

0 comments June 5, 2008

Liam Sullivan and Kelly OMG Shoes


I love Liam and everything he does. (And ah-hem [cough] may I just say? What a cutie.)

So, in celebration of Liam and the more than 16 million views Kelly and "OMG Shoes" has had on YouTube: Let's play it again!



And plus Weezer are pwning all your pork and beans with mustachios and YouTube stars:



OMG. Shoez, betch!

0 comments May 28, 2008

Pas Chic Chic


Montreal band Pas Chic Chic has been getting some rapturous press of late, both locally and nationally.

They're often been compared to Arcade Fire, and even though their sound is quite different, they more than merit the comparison because of their energy and their magpie ability to steal from all kinds of music genres to create something completely unique and exciting.

Front man Roger Tellier-Craig talks about his early inspiration for the band:

I wanted to do a band like this for a very long time. When I was around 18 years old and barely playing an instrument, I first heard Serge Gainsbourg. I had been listening to a lot of Anglophone music before that, stuff like My Bloody Valentine, Sonic Youth, the Velvet Underground and Brian Eno and I have to admit that at the time I thought all francophone music was shit ... Stereolab first showed me you could sing in French and make interesting music, but when I heard Gainsbourg I realized that there was a history of French music I had never heard of through radio or TV... [more]


Pas Chic Chic is certainly creating a buzz about town. I just hope audiences outside of Montreal, and Canada, will get to hear this extraordinary band.

Here's "Haydée Morcelée" from their latest album Au Contraire:









[Pas Chic Chic - MySpace] [Band website] [eMusic]

0 comments May 26, 2008

Karkwa


KARKWA HAS A NEW ALBUM OUT!

Oops, was I shouting? I'm feeling somewhat discombobulated. Where the hell have I been? Karkwa has a new album out.

I have this terrible habit with music -- when I love a band, I will thrash their music until I categorically cannot listen to them ever again. (Or not until they've put out new material, at least. And yes, I do realise that this is some kind of failing on my part.)

I have had Karkwa's album, Les tremblements s’immobilisent, on fairly constant iPod rotation for the past year, however, and it has withstood such treatment remarkably well.

I love Les tremblements. It's so fluid and accomplished and intricate, full of dark, moving, complex melodies. It still has the power to give me a rush of adrenaline and to leave me transfixed and elated.

If their latest is even half as good, I'll be a happy camper.

I am rushing out now to buy the new(ish) album, but I leave you with "L'épaule froide" and "La fuite":









[Karkwa - MySpace] [Band website]

0 comments


Danger


Who is Danger? The newest protégé on the so-called Nu-Disco, or French Touch, scene? (Techtonik anyone?)

And who is DatA? Who the hell knows? That's what MySpace is for!

En tout cas, and whatever the label, I am a sucker for that sound.

So sue me.



[Danger - MySpace] [DatA - MySpace]

4 comments May 23, 2008

Sia


I first heard Aussie singer Sia Furler on the haunting Zero 7 tune Distractions.

That song still has the power to make the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.

None of her solo work has had quite the same impact on me, but I've found myself following her career over the years, simply because I find her voice so unique and gorgeous.

Plus she makes it all look absolutely effortless.

Here she is for a live performance on the KCRW radio show with Nic Harcourt, singing "The Girl you Lost to Cocaine" (with the added bonus of some unusual chair dancing):



The tune is from her latest album Some People Have Real Problems, (which unfortunately, and quite possibly, has the worst cover art of all time.)

In person she seems unpretentious, bubbly and thoroughly charming.

Here's another personal favourite from her latest album, the Zero 7-esque "Beautiful Calm Driving":










[Sia - MySpace] [Artist website]

0 comments May 22, 2008

Indochine


Back in the day, and stuck as we were (are?) at the arse end of the world, Kiwi listening tastes were very much dictated by what was going on in the UK, America and Australia.

Very little from Europe filtered down to us.

Consequently I was introduced to the myriad joys of bands like Rita Mitsouko, Plastic Bertrand and Indochine rather late in life.

I certainly made up for lost time, and consumed these icons of trashy pop greatness like a girl starving. (I am pretty much a sucker for anything sounding remotely 80s.)

It's only quite recently I became aware that, for Indochine at least, there was life beyond the eighties.

Indochine are the ultimate purveyors of driving melodic pop: their music is like candy.

It gives you a massive sugar rush, spiking you high into the stratosphere. And although it's true that too much in one sitting has the potential to leave you with a tension headache, taken in small doses, Indochine are almost guaranteed to put a smile on your dial.

Here's "Adora" from Alice et June:










[Indochine - MySpace] [Amazon]

0 comments May 19, 2008


Monday Meltdown - Ladyhawk


When I say Ladyhawke, I'm talking about Kiwi singer Pip Browne, not the execrable 80s movie, and not the band from Vancouver.

Sharon O'Neill lookalike (if you're a kiwi kid of the 80s you'll know who I'm talking about), Ladyhawke wears her influences firmly on her sleeve: Think Stevie Nicks, with a healthy dose of Chrissie Hynde attitude, and a youthful, vulnerable quality vis-à-vis Kim Wilde, circa "Kids in America".

Her track "Paris is burning" has been given the Alex Gopher treatment, and what a thing of beauty it is.

Gopher's mash-up of "Paris is Burning" has a definite 80s aesthetic, which is almost certainly why I find it irresistible. I love the cycling, sinuous synth line, the handclaps, and the LCD Soundsystem-inspired cowbell in the background.

The song teeters on the edge of all-out cheesiness, but this should be true for any good club tune worth its salt.

All told, "Paris is Burning" is a delicious, thoroughly intoxicating pop confection.

Check it out:



[Ladyhawk - MySpace]

1 comments May 18, 2008

Sebastien Tellier


"L'amour et la violence" is the final track off the album Sexuality by french composer Sébastien Tellier.

The album was produced by Daft Punk's Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo, and there are definitely traces of Punk all over this album. But Tellier, a multi-instrumentalist, singer and songwriter, is extraordinarily talented, and "L'amour et la violence" is a beautiful meditation on love, life and regret.

It's not so much in the lyrics of the song, but in the mood it creates.

So melancholy, so sweetly tragic, and oh, so very french....









[Sebastien Tellier - MySpace] [Artist website]