Shamelessly fresh and sparking pop music mixed up smoothly with swing, funk, ska, big beat, and everything you can name it which brings pulse, balance and danceable, but charming feel-good attitude.
Lisa Milla on vocals, Bambucci on saxophone, Florian Reindl and Marc Schemmer on guitars, Bernhard Hiergeist on keyboards, Alex Trier on bass and Daniel Treimer on drums are seven musicians from Munich, Germany and they put the band together back in 2005 and made a deal with Chicago´s record label “Jump Up Records”. The band cranked out clubs and prestigious festival performances and “Mutable Transformer Act” was accomplished in 2010 in Fraknfurt´s Hazelwood Studios with the assistance of the notorious producers dyad Two Horses and Kaneoka One. Read more Black Cat Zoot – Mutable Transformer Act (2011)
Life and Living
pop
Blondie – Panic Of Girls (2011)
Ladies and gentlemen, light up, Blondie’s back. While “The Curse of Blondie”, their previous release from 2003 was a return to their roots and a more rocking approach – and it only peaked at no.36 in the U.K. charts – , the ninth studio album by the American Blondie bring us back to the care-free, relaxed 80s. Quite surprisingly they included for instance “Girlie Girlie”, a cover of Jamaican singer Sophia George, a Top-10 hit in the UK in 1985 and one song of Gilles Riberolles called “Le Bleu à l’âme” (“Blue In The Soul”), a homage to Jacques Brel and Serge Gainsbourg.
“Panic Of Girls” kicking off pretty cool with “D-Day”, an almost classic new wave track with all the good Blondie traditions incorporated, but that spirit it’s left aside, maybe only “Mother”, the lead single, have some charming left-overs of the glorious days. Still, I don’t believe Blondie managed to deliver another “Heart of Glass”, “Hanging on the Telephone”, “The Tide Is High” or “Maria”. Read more Blondie – Panic Of Girls (2011)
Let’s Get It – Masters Of The Universe (2011)
Joe, Tyler, Taylor and Chris from Dayton, Ohio delivering their debut album called “Masters Of The Universe”. This is a blending of pop, rock, club and dance punk schemes witch may remind us eventually of The Black Eyed Peas, Datarock, La Roux, The Veronicas and a few other artists from a wide range of genres, you just can name them. As an exercise, imagine New Kids On the Block playing Linkin Park songs… It’s not only hard, but maybe quite unnatural. Anyway, something like this came out from this four guys and I’m actually pretty curious if this will be the next success story. It depends exclusively on the support of the media. “Keep It Up” may be anytime a mainstream hit. Read more Let’s Get It – Masters Of The Universe (2011)
When Saints Go Machine – Konkylie (2011)
It was a quite nice surprise, I admit, I didn’t heard them before. Saints Go Machine are a band from Copenhagen, Denmark and they play a kind of dark pop which sometimes reminds me eventually of Japan (the British band of the 80s of David Sylvian, Mick Karn, Rich Barbieri, Steve Jansen and Masami Tsuchiya).
When Saints Go Machine was formed in 2007 and debuted with their selvbetitlede Ep in 2008. In May 2009 they released their debut album “Ten Makes a Face”. In October 2010 the band signed a contract with German label !K7 Records and “Konkylie” was released on 16 May 2011.
Silas Moldenhawer (drums), Jonas Kenton (synth, vocals), Simon Muschinsky (keys) and Nicholas Manuel Vonsild (vocals) balancing smoothly between minimalist pop themes and gloomy textures which bring an interesting, exotic taste into their music. Read more When Saints Go Machine – Konkylie (2011)
Lady GaGa – Born This Way (2011)
Why we should buy an album? Obviously for the music. Unfortunately the “normal” answer is not quite the right one. As music becomes part of the entertainment industry and artist becomes brands, just like with the clothing, we pay for and buy the brand. Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta aka Lady GaGa conquered the world after releasing her debut “The Fame” in 2008 with some catchy songs, singable choruses, “Poker Face”, “Paparazzi” and later “Bad Romance” from “The Fame Monsters” (2009) were strike at first, easy to memorize, singable, catchy songs. Sledge hammering dance beats, plodding keyboard patterns, pumping drums are not necessarily everything, not without melodies. “Born This Way” seems to be written for performances as part of the show where music mainly becomes secondary and much more matters the costumes, the scenography, the dancers, the lights and lasers and well, for the singer it becomes difficult to focus on singing while she have a main role in the show and have to dance as well, so complicated or consumptive vocal scores are not quite recommended. Lady GaGa becomes part of a pop cabaret, a traveling circus and her music is only an accessory of the whole picture. And that brings be back to the beginning. In that case, if this is “only” a soundtrack, part of a bigger production, why we should buy the album? Read more Lady GaGa – Born This Way (2011)
Kate Bush – Director’s Cut (2011)
I kind of miss her as I miss “Babooshka”. Her previous album, “Aerial” was released six years ago and that material was released after a 12 years gap. And well, “Director’s Cut” is a compilation consists of a revisitation/revision of selected tracks from her 1989 and 1993 albums “The Sensual World” and “The Red Shoes” and it will be available on 16 May 2011. While “Aerial” was one of Bush’s most critically acclaimed album, not surprisingly “Director’s Cut” have something from the atmosphere of its predecessor, is a multi-layered work, incorporating colorful elements of Folk, Renaissance, classical, Blues and pop music into one soft, mainly kind of intimate, nice and quiet music, but having a fresh, alive breath. Read more Kate Bush – Director’s Cut (2011)
Karen Souza – Essentials (2011)
Karen Souza is around for a while, under various pseudonyms she provide vocals to some electronic music products, mostly in house gender. She had a nice, smooth voice, some may say quit sensual, but I guess if any man will take a look at her pictures, most of us will thinking about other qualities she may had then about singing, but hey! what the hack, that’s why they call us “pigs” after all, isn’t it? 😀
Karen Souza begun flirting – what else she could possibly do? 😀 – with the idea of singing jazz and this was the starting point of her Cooltrane Quartet and they take a ride on the path of pop and rock classics set to jazz beats and arrangements. It’s hard to fail with a set list made of all time greatest hits as “Strawberry Fields Forever”, “Creep”, “Tainted Love”, “Personal Jesus”, “Billie Jean”, “Bette Davis Eyes” or “Every Breath You Take”. Read more Karen Souza – Essentials (2011)
Panic! At the Disco – Vices and Virtues (2011)
Baroque pop I guess covers pretty good what singer/multi-instrumentalist Brendon Urie and drummer Spencer Smith dose on this third studio album by Panic! at the Disco. 10 tracks, 37 minutes, nothing complicated, a little bit rock filtered through that indie approach, some electronics with discrete retro perfume, positive vibes, good grooves, danceable stuffs – I guess 😀 – and most of their themes aim to hit the charts. And the first single, “The Ballad of Mona Lisa” entered in heavy rotation across the MTV Networks and received positive reviews. Actually I prefer the heavier “Let’s Kill Tonight”, the smooth tunes of “Ready to Go (Get Me Out of My Mind)” or the real retro taste of “Sarah Smiles” and “Nearly Witches (Ever Since We Met…)”, probably Urie thought about everybody and delivered something for everyone. Read more Panic! At the Disco – Vices and Virtues (2011)
Sting – Symphonicities (2010)
Au trecut 27 de ani de la lansarea ultimului şi fabulosului album The Police „Synchronicity” şi Sting ne propune acest „Symphonicities” care nu este altceva decât încă un Best Of, cei drept ambalat după modelul „Scratch My Back” propus anul acesta de Peter Gabriel.
Dacă Gabriel a reorchestrat simfonic, dar într-un mod absolut original piese mai mult sau mai puţin cunoscute al unor artişti marcanţi, Sting susţinut de The New York Chamber Consort, The London Players, The Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra şi doi dirijori – Rob Mathes şi Steven Mercurio – a reorchestrat 12 piese din repertoriul The Police/Sting. Nu lipsesc hiturile „Roxanne”, „Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic” sau „Englishman In New York”, „When We Dance”, lipseşte în schimb „Every Breath You Take”… sau „It’s Probably Me”.
[youtube= http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLFF2P8fInI]
Am fost un fan The Police, infuzia de Raggae, atitudinea Punk, paralela cu The Clash, experimentul Rock propus de cei trei a fost colorat şi plin de viaţă. Read more Sting – Symphonicities (2010)
Lena – My Cassette Player (2010)
Pentru cei ce n-au aflat încă, Lena Meyer-Landrut este nemţoaica „picată de pe Lună” care a câştigat Eurovision-ul şi are 19 ani.
Adică mahării din show biz vor să ne convingă că se poate. Că nu trebuie să stai capră, nu este necesar ca tati – sau amantul, unchiul să fie un producător celebru, actor faimos, milionar excentric sau bancher respectabil, că showurile tembele de televiziune gen „American idol” (sau idiot?) sunt pe bune, că… şi lista asta ar putea continua cu: nu este nici o criză, trebuie salvată ciocănitoarea cu creasta violetă, viermele cu două cozi, trebuie să reciclăm deşeurile, nu vine încălzirea globală şi… lumea vrea pace, pacea o vom apăra.
Dragii mei: bullshit.
E fix ca bancul acela cu baba de 99 de ani şi Făt Frumos în pădure când baba îl convinge pe flăcău că dacă i-o trage ea se va transforma într-o splendidă prinţesă de 19 ani şi după ce actul sexual se consumă şi baba tot babă rămâne iar Făt Frumos se arată tot mai revoltat Read more Lena – My Cassette Player (2010)
