This year is turning out to be real interesting. So far there's been a lot of amazing albums coming out, and since today is the exact centre of 2009 I thought I might mention the records that have been the highpoints for me so far. Here goes:
Grizzly Bear / Veckatimest
Definately my favourite GB record so far. Wonderful structure, wonderful production, wonderful melodies and exceptional songwriting. At some points it really reminds me of some later Beach Boys records like "Friends" for instance.
Here's the single and the accompagnying video; Two Weeks.
Patrick Daughters directed it and it looks swell.
Dirty Projectors / Bitte Orca
As a long time fan I've had great expectations for this release, so when the first single "Stillness Is The Move" hit the www I was kinda surprised, but luckily in the cool "wow" way. The album is reinventing Dirty Projectors, and to me it is still one of the freshest sounds I heard for a long time. Spanning from Nico-like folk to Mariah Carrey-like R'nB to local african pop the album takes you on a mindblowing adventure of sorts. Clearly their most accessible work, and my god it's good.
Animal Collective / Merriweather Post Pavillon
I heard the first glimpses of their new songs at a show in Cph in early 2008 in the shape of the enthralling "Brother Sport". I was immediately captivated by the straightforwardness of it and went around the streets for weeks singing "open up your, open up your, open up your throat". My expectations rose when I heard the leak of "My Girls" and they were fulfilled when the record hit the street.
There's a ton of good jams on it but since I've been rambling on about "Brother Sport" here's what I heard:
Taking these releases into consideration 2009 is already shaping up to be one of the best years musically speaking. We can only hope for more.
Celebrating Germany
Jul 09, 2009 by Kristoffer
Since we're playing the very cool Klangbad Festival in August I thought it would be fun to pay tribute to some great German bands.
So here's some of my favorite German artists & songs for your listening pleasure:
Thulebasen
May 17, 2009 by Nis
Now we've had the pleasure of playing two gigs alongside the brilliantly talented Thulebasen, and I can only say that I am deeply impressed by their beautiful and ethereal music. They are truly amazing.
Here's a vid for their song Yzx.
Looking forward to seeing them again this weekend in Aalborg.
Nis
THE SONOVOX
Apr 28, 2009 by Aske
Some of my dearest friends showed me THE STRANGE SOUNDS OF THE SONOVOX (invented in the mid-thirties)- a precurser to the vocoder...
it uses small speakers attached to the singer's throat which is patched through music instruments. The singer is mouthing the words of a song, and by changing the shape of the mouth and position of the tongue, changing the sound of the instrument.
PLEASE ENJOY!
This performance is from a 1940 film called "You'll Find Out"...
As mentioned elsewhere we put together a playlist/mixtape for the perfect spring day over at gaffa.dk. Since your not able to listen to it from their page I'm putting it up here, so here goes:
Ruby Suns / Kenya Dig It
Animal Collective / Who Could Win A Rabbit
Pink Floyd / Candy And A Currant Bun
White Noise / Love Without Sound
(is also posted below, but hey....c'mon)
Scott Walker / Boy Child
Have a good Sunday
Radiophonic Workshop
Apr 19, 2009 by Nis
We've just had a couple of weeks in Berlin and, as always, we searched around for cool music. My friend Kristian told me about a cool thing which happened at the BBC in the late 50's.. It was called the BBC Radiophonic Workshop and it's purpoise was to make soundscapes for tv shows and radio. They also scored the music for Dr Who.
They where some of the first people to really adapt some of the experiments of musique concrte , like tape manipulation, into broadcast. I really like the sound of their machines. I feel like you can tell that a lot of effort was put into the sounds, and it's safe to say that it took a really long time to develop these pieces. Today we're blessed with samplers, but back then they had to cut their tapes themselves and somehow I think you can tell.
Well enough of me. Here's the music:
Theme from Dr Who
White Noise / Love Without Sound
Which was a side project of some of the producers from the workshop. David Vorhaus, Delia Derbyshire and Brian Hodgson
And last. Here's Delia Derbyshire explaining a bit about how you manipulate tapes.
