This year I stumbled into a couple of excellent Brazilian bands from quite different genres – not that I actually care about labels – , starting from The Tape Disaster and MindFlow to the Campbell Trio and Lisabi. Copacabana Club reminds me of another great Brazilian band: Cansei de Ser Sexy, and by the way, after a three years gap, their new album entitled “La Liberacion” will be released at the end of the next month. So, Copacabana Club have the same kind of vibe and groove, labeled by some as New Rave, they mixing indie pop with 80s funk, rock with pop and push you directly to the dancefloor. Their mixture it’s very fresh, pumping, energy full and catchy, but it’s also kind of glamorous and retro, still absolutely now days, fresh. And “Tropical Splash” is filled with one by one catchy songs, from the anthematic “Peach” to the provocative “Sex Sex Sex”, the minimalist “Pas Toujours” and the catchy “Just Do It” or the bluesy “Darling”. Read more Copacabana Club – Tropical Splash (2011)
Life and Living
indie pop
KYNAN – High Heals (2011)
When I saw the cover and read that is an “experimental” labeled product, I admit, I was pretty scared that I stumbled into another dark and twisted noisy “sick something”, connected to S & M, bondage and god knows what else. Well, I was absolutely misleaded, this is quite a nice, pulsing, even sunny trip into the pop flavored, electro-dance-funk area with charming trance filtered moments, groovy pop punk like turns and tempos, catchy themes and “feel good” spices. KYNAN is a young musician from San Diego, CA, and “High Heals” was digitally release on 31 March 2011 via the Absent Fever label on their Bandcamp page from where you can downloaded for the symbolic price of $1. 10 tracks, extremely pleasant listening, a nice mixture of indie pop and electro-acid, chill moments and quite danceable explosions in a fluid flow of sparking sounds. Read more KYNAN – High Heals (2011)
Danger Mouse and Daniele Luppi – Rome (2011)
Born as Brian Joseph Burton, better known by his stage name Danger Mouse, is a Grammy Award winning, American musician, songwriter and producer. In 2004 he became famous when he released “The Grey Album”, which combined acapellas from Jay-Z’s “The Black Album” with instrumentals from The Beatles legendary “White Album”. He formed Gnarls Barkley with Cee Lo Green and produced their two albums “St. Elsewhere” and “The Odd Couple”. He also produced the second Gorillaz album, the 2005’s “Demon Days”, as well the Beck’s 2008 album, “Modern Guilt”. He has been nominated for a Grammy Award in the Producer of the Year category five times, in 2005, 2006, 2009, 2010 and 2011, and finally won the award in 2011. In addition, Burton worked with rapper MF Doom as Danger Doom and released the album “The Mouse and the Mask” in 2005. He’s works also includes The Rapture “Pieces of the People We Love” (2006), Sparklehorse “Dreamt for Light Years in the Belly of a Mountain” (2006), The Good, the Bad and the Queen (2007), The Black Keys “Attack & Release” (2008) and “Brothers” (2010), The Shortwave Set “Replica Sun Machine” (2008), Martina Topley-Bird “The Blue God” (2008), Joker’s Daughter “The Last Laugh” (2009), Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse “Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse Present: Dark Night of the Soul” (2010), Broken Bells “Broken Bells” (2010) and “Meyrin Fields” (2011) and curently he’s working with U2 on their upcoming album. Read more Danger Mouse and Daniele Luppi – Rome (2011)
Owl City – All Things Bright and Beautiful (2011)
I love Owl City. It’s something familiar, friendly and warm about them music, it’s just feels good. It’s bright and beautiful. Adam Young, formed Owl City in 2007 in Owatonna, Minnesota and he writes, composes, performs, and produces all of Owl City’s recorded music as Young also produces music under a wide variety of other projects, which include Port Blue, Seagull Orchestra, Sky Sailing and Swimming with Dolphins.
Young created the project while experimenting with music in his parents’ basement. Owl City developed a following on Myspace in the late 2000s before signing with Universal Republic in 2008. After two independent albums – “Of June” (2007) and “Maybe I’m Dreaming” (2008) -, Owl City gained mainstream popularity with the 2009 major label debut album “Ocean Eyes”, which spawned the hit triple platinum single “Fireflies” and also the album was certified Platinum in the United States in April 2010. Read more Owl City – All Things Bright and Beautiful (2011)
Eksi Ekso – Brown Shark Red Lion (2011)
Merge some songs left over from David Bowie since the 70s with some experimental indie, dream pop like layers and perhaps the result will sound just like this third album by Eksi Ekso, the band from Boston, Massachusetts, US. For the good of the experiment, eventually try to do this in your living room and bring some neighbors as well. There’s no guarantee at all that you will sound like Tom Korkidis (vox, guitar, bass, keys, samples, woodwinds), Alex Mihm (drums, loops, percussion), Sean Will (keys, samples, trumpet), and their collaborators, but it worth to try. 😀 At their MySpace page at the paragraph “Sounds like” they wrote: “We play instruments in the same room, sometimes in ways that sound like we’re playing together.” Nice. And in their case it worked out absolutely perfectly. “Brown Shark Red Lion” is a strange, sometimes airy, sometimes scattered, waving, rolling album. Million shades and colors sparking around and sometimes you’re not really sure what actually you’re listening at, but still, it’s kind of warm, familiar and friendly. Read more Eksi Ekso – Brown Shark Red Lion (2011)
Empyr – Unicorn (2011)
Empyr is a five-member French alternative rock band formed as a side project in 2006 incorporating members from the bands Kyo, Watcha, Pleymo and Vegastar. Their debut album entitled “The Peaceful Riot” was recorded in late 2008 in Los Angeles and produced by Ken Andrews, formerly Failure, who has worked with Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Pete Yorn and A Perfect Circle. To increase their chances on the international market, theychoose to write the lyrics and sing in English. Empyr are Benoît Poher (vocals) & Florian Dubos (guitar) from Kyo, Benoît Juillard (bass) from Pleymo, Fred Duquesne (guitar) from Watcha & Jocelyn Moze (drums), formerly from Vegastar. Read more Empyr – Unicorn (2011)
The Raveonettes – Raven in the Grave (2011)
Something stinks in Denmark. Actually Shakespeare said: “Something Is Rotten in the State of Denmark.” – Hamlet, Act I, Scene 4, at line 90. Well, when British music press staple NME declare the Danish duo to be responsible for sparking “America’s pop renaissanceâ€, something clearly stinks. On one hand, Brits has been already saved by the Americans by White Stripes, so, it’s pure wickedness to say America need to be “saved” by anybody, on the other hand when a band or an artist are highly praised by the media, there’s no bloody doubt: something stinks. Sune Rose Wagner and Sharin Foo, the duo behind The Raveonettes delivered another nice album, but really, there’s nothing outstanding, nothing sparking, nothing special. In short words, it’s like Robert Smith (The Cure) teamed up with Angelo Badalamenti for a film score for David Lynch. Gloomy, airy, minimalist, kind of clear-obscure and with a particular, distant, but still warm retro taste, with a few nice tunes and a couple of better moments, but really, there’s nothing really impressive about “Raven in the Grave”. Read more The Raveonettes – Raven in the Grave (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)
The Chap – Well Done Europe (2010)
Am dat peste gaşca aceasta britanică pur întâmplător.
Deşii activează de prin 2006 şi au deja la activ 3 albume, acesta fiind al patrulea.
La prima incursiune mi s-a părut un disc lejer de vară. Abordează un amestec de Indie cu Pop la modul cel mai minimalist şi lejer posibil, însă deloc superficial. O culoare aparte introduc prin utilizarea viorii (Panos Ghikas – bas, voce, clape, samplere şi vioară) şi al violoncelului (Johannes von Weizsäcker – chitară, voce, clape, violoncel), faptul că folosesc atât instrumente cât şi sintetizatoare şi samplere conferă avantaje certe. Cu toate acestea sunt extrem de aerisiţi, chiar zgârciţi cu sunetele, totul este redus la absolut strictul necesar.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZxnhIBsBdU]
Pe „Well Done Europe” lansat în data de 24 mai, avem Read more The Chap – Well Done Europe (2010)
