LP's of the year/advent

In any old order here are my favourite, full length, LP’s from 2011:

Balam Acab - WANDER/WONDER

Bon Iver - Bon Iver

Brontide – Sans Souci

BvDub – One Last Look at the Sea

Explosions in the Sky – Take Care, Take Care, Take Care

Fleet Foxes – Helplessness Blues

Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie XX – We’re New Here

Ghostpoet – Peanut Butter and Melancholy Jam

Hurray for the Riff Raff – Hurray for the Riff Raff

Iceage - New Brigade

Jamie Woon  - Mirrorwriting

Jeniferever – Silesia

Kanye West and Jay Z – Watch the Throne

Sun Glitters – Everything Could Be Fine

SBTRKT – SBTRKT

Three Trapped Tigers – Route One or Die

Tubelord – Romance

Wild Beasts – Smother

Forgotten a big one no doubt.

Every day in December I’ll be posting a song from the last year that I have loved and appreciated. Not surprisingly many will derive from this list – but a lot has come from EP’s and what not.

It will be a mish mash of different stuff, much of which has been on the blog before, much of which you may have heard somewhere else.

Hopefully the music and the rationale will resonate.

BUFFALO TIDE

Buffalo Tide (aka Chris Oliver) is a producer and musician who straddles two continents, having a base in North America (Vancouver) and Europe (Brighton).

As well as the Buffalo Tide project Oliver is also the co-founder of the music collective BLBX.

His latest EP, Arabia, is out now. So how to describe the latest work:

'Arabia' was intended as night music, it was written at night, and for the most part, to be listened to at night. On this record I also sampled my voice a lot to add the human element of sleeplessness. I like a lot of space in my music to allow it to breathe better. Not loads of clutter. It's electronic music at the core.

Such a nice, dance and electronic vibe here: the lead track, Divine Tide, for example, starts off with a fairly standard beat before injecting an eccentric 80’s synth style overtone from a minute and a half onwards. Great stuff.

Fans should check out Geneva another of his tracks which is on Soundcloud.

Arabia, Geneva, bit of a geography theme developing here, so Buffalo Tide – man of two worlds – are you city or country?

Hard one, I love the country side at home where I grew up, and I especially love the countryside a lot in Asia where I've spent time travelling, I'm definitely a wildlife man at heart. But, I live in Vancouver, and there's certainly something that's quite evocative and understated about walking through an empty city at night/early morning. The lights here are ridiculously beautiful.

I’ve never been to Vancouver, but it’s on my list, and the chance to walk empty streets like something out of28 Days Later is an added plus.

Here’s more on BLBX. Enjoy.

 Divine Lions by BUFFALO TIDE 

more ARTHUR

Here is the latest track from Arthur, it's called Finally though I don't think the wait has been that long.

The future for this Swedish artist, whose music is wider and more broader than any label is big, so big thanks to him for letting me expose him. 

  Arthur - Finally by Arthurr

ARTHUR

After a brief hiatus this blog is back with a bang.

Arthur (Linus Johnsson) is a Swedish post-dubstep artist, who hates all the post-dubstep labels. Primarily because he doesn't fit in to any of them.

His music is right up this alley though. Danceable, but with an element of stoicism and coolness about it. He might not have a label but does he have a place in the Stockholm scene?

Not sure where I'd fit into the scene here, we have quite a few underground dubstep clubs here that are going more into experimental sounds so I guess there!

Anyone with an ear for this kind of music, after having listened to Arthur, won’t need this question answering. But I asked it anyway. Arthur, who from the UK are big influences on your music?

Burial, obviously. He's been a HUGE inspiration on my music. Jamie XX is also one of the biggest influences.

Good lad. With influences like that it would be hard to go wrong. Wonder if he has other, wider influences and interest. Arthur, what was the last book you read?

That would be The Talisman by Stephen King. 

Arthur has a fair few songs on Soundcloud. I’ve put You on here. It battles with Sea for being my favourite tune. Enjoy.  

 Arthur - You by Arthurr 

ZAMBRI

Zambri have featured on this blog before. But because their music is worthy enough and Jessica, who makes up one half of the band, lent some meat to the bones this time round it makes sense to give them another shout out.

We lifted sounds from our daily lives/routines, so it makes the music somewhat nostalgic and familiar even though it’s drastically new. 

It certainly has a drastically new feel, like something from the not too distant future.

The heavy distortion adds to that dystopian feel and in general it feels like there is a whole lot of experimentation going on.

So what were the influences?

The music on Glossolalia is wild and maybe even a little animalistic. We stuck close to what we know best musically, and that is our voices, so you'll hear lots of sounds that originated from there and grew to places we never knew it could. 

You can listen to some of their stuff on Facebook. But for now here is one of their tracks, On Call.

Enjoy.

 Zambri OnCall by kaninerecords 

BORDEAUXXX

                                                                                                                     

If you’re ever in need of cheering up, perhaps you’ve got withdrawal symptoms from the baking summer (autumn?) that we had, then throw on a bit of Bordeauxxx. These guys and girl are a exuberant little four – piece from round the way.

You’ll love their fresh indie style, and vocal quirks.

You’ll also love their taste in music. I asked them what the last albums they purchased were:

Nat (guitar): Jonny Kearney &Lucy Farrell after I saw them, and I let them know in no uncertain terms how much I didn't mind spending my £6 on it.


Martin(lead vocals and keyboard): The new Girls record on the day it came out and Stagecoach We Got Tazers. 


Charlie(guitar): Janelle Monae and the new Girls album.


Amy(bass): Beethoven’s 3rd Symphony and Peter and the Wolf.


Jon(drums): Laura Marling's new album, but it was for my dad's birthday ‘cause I'm generous like that. 

No idea why they are called Bordeauxxx, but, thankfully, when asked about their favourite wines they had plenty to say for themselves.

Nat: My favourite wine has the heady aroma of being given to me for free at some public event that underestimates my shamelessness in repeatedly going back for more


Martin: Free event wine is both the best and worst kind of wine. If people are giving out wine it probably means they're more important than you so you should probably show some self control so as not to make a fool of yourself. But, it's free. Catch 22 or what? I like red wine most, then rosé, then white. I'm not particularly fussy as long as it's cheap, though I once had a brilliant rosé. I can't remember what it was so I've never had it again.


Amy: My favourite wine is the “brilliant” rose that Martin mentioned and I was lucky enough to have it on more than on occasion.


Charlie: I'm not really that much of a wine drinker. Rose is the most pussy one right? I think I like that the most.


Brace yourself...


Jon : Given the choice, I'd go for a sharp red with sophisticated berry accents, filtered for 2 weeks through Claudia Schiffer's cleavage into a bottle made of the frozen tears of joy of all of my adoring fans. #rockstardreams

Bordeauxxx are currently touring – If they keep the booze in check they could be ones to watch.

Here are some of their songs. Enjoy.

 Mother's Ruin by bordeauxxx 

BNRY

Bass driven. Slightly melodic. Repeated vocal chops.

This is how BNRY describes his music. Succinct I think you’ll agree. And certainly not something I’d disagree with.

What we have here is some very intelligent dance music, progressive even, but more on that later.

I got to asking what BNRY’s favourite nightclub was and it turns out to be Plastic People, and why?

It’s Dark.

Fair enough, and succinct again. BNRY is playing Binnacle, a festival featuring progressive (that word again) musicians. It starts on 15 October and is at the Old Blue Last, Shoreditch.

Here are a couple of my favourite tracks from BNRY.

 Crayola by BNRY 

 Gold Leaf by BNRY 

zambri

If all this economic doom and gloom is starting to get you down then why not try listening to Zambri. Zambri are a New York based group whose style is similar to contemporaries such as Creep, but perhaps, with a slightly more eccentric nature to keep you guessing.

They’re signed to Kanine Records and should have a quite a healthy output of new material in the near future; so if the your nations growth figures have just been downgraded by the IMF this could be just the tonic you need. 

 Tonight We Fly by Zambri 

VINDUR BOK

Vindur Bok, roughly translated to mean ‘wind book’, is a Lithuanian artist mixing familiar folk melodies to a darker backdrop. Atmospheric and soothing as well, the music has the effect of putting one at ease. Here’s what he had to say on the matter:

It’s indie folk or dark ambient mostly influenced by Lithuanian nature and visual art. Musical influences could be William Basinski, Panda Bear, Cocteau Twins, Sigur Ros, Balam Acab, Fennesz, Grizzly Bear, Alina Orlova. 

I’ll be sure to check some of those names out as they are new to me (Sigur?). There’s new material in the pipeline which will have post rock and chillwave elements, so look out for that.

Here’s Tyliai Rauda Girios. Enjoy.

 Tyliai Rauda Girios by Vindur bok 

back

Quick message to the fan, I have my laptop back. Don’t worry though I won’t bore you with the grisly details.  But I will bore you with a flurry of content. Podcast soon, some more of those featurettes are in the pipeline as well. Sorry.

I will leave you with another new track and again it comes from an Oxford  band I have written about ceaselessly. Here's Trophy Wife, those great purveyors of “ambitionless commuter music", with the lead single of their new EP, Bruxism. The has been been produced by a whole host of people including Yannis from Foals.

Should be a good ‘un. Here’s Canopy Shade

 Trophy Wife - Canopy Shade (Produced by Plaid and Trophy Wife) by trophywifeband 

Until I get back from End of the Road,

Toby

x

message to fan

My computer has gone and messed itself up good and proper, so no podcast, no blogpost, none of that for the foreseeable future (a week or two).

This is a shame but despite technologies conspiracies against me and the rather more hectic lifestyle I lead these days I endeavour to write and put up podcasts showing new music as much as possible .

I leave you with a case and point of what I just said, a couple of  new tracks from some bands I can’t stop raving about, Jonquil and Solid Gold Dragons. Both tracks are stellar, and make me feel the happiest that music has made me feel in years.





Until soon.
Toby

Jonquil @ Hoxton Square

Walk the streets shouting “I’m easy come, I’m easy come I’m easy go” and people are likely to give you a bit of a wide berth and probably not believe you but this is the effect that Jonquil can have on you as I’ve found out. I’ve already written about how great some of their music is so neither of us will be surprised when I say that it was a really great gig; how great? Really, very.

The vocals have always been good and I’ve always known that but seeing them live really brought home how just how strong and powerful Hugo Manuel’s voice are, to the extent that they sound reinvented live. The new stuff they showcased off their soon to be released LP seemed to show off his voice a little bit more so the new stuff promises to have me singing in the aisles. Can't wait.

Support came from Get People, a band I’d never before but, with their heavily distorted afrobeat sound they made for another pleasing surprise so they are definitely worth checking out.

JONQUIL /// GET UP from B A N K S on Vimeo.

pet project

After fronting the post rock outfit Youthmovies for the best part of a decade Andrew Mears is on to pastures new with his new project, Pet Moon. The music is a little less post rock this time round and a bit more prog rock. It’s different, more dancy for one thing, but he still an artist worth listening to.

Here is some of his new demo stuff. Enjoy. 

 THE FLOOR (demo) by pet moon 

 HOLD THE DIVIDE (demo) by pet moon 

NEVEREST SONGS

Margate is a seaside town on the south coast of Britain. It’s beautiful in its own way, but a site of faded glory. Does that kind of backdrop provide any inspiration for Luke Twyman, known as Neverest Songs, who is from Margate?

Sort of ... it feels a little cut off here and it's difficult not to want to incorporate that feeling into whatever I'm doing, but I can't say I've felt the need to specifically write about the town yet.

Even when the town produces great artist like Neverest Songs it somehow never gets the credit. The inevitable follow up to this is, of course, what do you write about? Luckily I asked this.

I tend to jump between high fantasy and real life. Some songs are introspective, perhaps recounting my own experiences, while others are start-to-finish imagination. But I'd say there are a good number now which sit somewhere in-between, they might start with a memory or a story that I've read about, and then I adapt or expand on it.

It’s a good job we now know because one of the most striking things about Neverest Songs is the storytelling element that you find in all his songs as well as the strong musical composition and vocals.

Luke is playing a precious few dates this year such as Green Man Festival and a support gig for William Tyler in October. Below is Paper Trumpets, his latest release.

 Paper Trumpets by Neverest Songs 

NB Luke did a really awesome photo interview for A Negative Narrative which you can see here 

(more) SIMA

The artwork from the Texture EP is very eyecatching, so much so that I thought I'd share some more of it as well photos which give a bit of insight into the creative process.

 Artwork and photos are courtesy Sima and Matt Millar. Enjoy.