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The The – Ensoulment (2024)

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Is there anybody listening to the lyrics anymore?
Many people I know never do. They consider the vocals just another instrument and the song lyrics neglectable.
For me, the message is important. I learned English by listening to songs and translating the lyrics from the inlay of the records word by word using a dictionary. Especially in a world where “everything you thought you knew is wrong”, words become treasures. Or weapons.
True words were hard to find before 1989, left behind the Iron Curtain. Words meant freedom and carried the flavour of hope.
To our bitterness and disappointment, in 2024, true words only seem like a lost memory from an imaginary world or parallel reality. Yet, the scariest thing is “We can deny reality – but not its consequences”. Read more The The – Ensoulment (2024) ›

Gary Numan – Telekon (1980)

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September 5, 1980, Gary Numan released “Telekon” the third and final studio release of what Numan retrospectively termed the “Machine” section of his career, following “Replicas” with Tubeway Army and “The Pleasure Principle” in 1979, the first album under his own name. Trent Reznor (Nine Inch Nails) claimed to have listened to it every day during the making of “Pretty Hate Machine” while Stephin Merritt from The Magnetic Fields also became a Numan fan through the album. Otherwise, “Telekon” received a largely hostile reception from contemporary music critics. Many critics anyway considered Numan one of the “one-hit wonders” for his most popular song “Cars”, a single from his previous album. For the less ignorants, it is announced that Numan’s new album entitled “Dead Son Rising” will be released on September 12, 2011. Read more Gary Numan – Telekon (1980) ›

Cansei de Ser Sexy – La Liberacion (2011)

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Got tired of being sexy? Free yourself and dance till the end of the world and everything further.
Scheduled to be released tomorrow – 22 August 2011 – after a three years gap, the third album by CSS – abbreviation for Cansei de Ser Sexy – “La Liberación”, is another tasty piece of groovy, extremely danceable, fresh and driving music right from São Paulo, Brazil. last time this vibe was delivered by Copacabana Club, another great Brazilian band. This mixture of Indie Pop and Rock, keyboards and guitars, it’s something extremely simple and catchy way to express yourself effortless, but without repeating yourself or following trends. And this music feels good because it comes naturally, it seems to be honest, Adriano Cintra and his band mate don’t try to sell you something else than they actually are. Read more Cansei de Ser Sexy – La Liberacion (2011) ›

Antenna Trash – Ded Comes for Ded (2011)

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Free stuffs are good stuffs. Worth to give a try, listen to, download for free from their Bandcamp page.
Antenna Trash merged Glitch-Wave with Post Punk, noisy garage Rock guitars with electronic layers and textures, Punk energy with Disco beats and the result is something between Devo and Joy Division, eventually between TV On The Radio and Victorian Halls.
Named themselves after a song of the German experimental electropop band Lali Puna, Sebastiano Meneghini – vocals, guitar, percussion; Marco Menegazzi – bass, vocals; Alessandro Monaco – synthesizer, groovebox, vocals, noises and Alberto Casagrande – drums, percussion, vocals introduce themselves and their music with this four track release. Enjoy it!
Read more Antenna Trash – Ded Comes for Ded (2011) ›

Joy Division and New Order – Total (2011)

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This is most likely an opportunity to discover Joy Division for those who one way or the other miss the end of the 70s, beginning of the 80s, rather than something spectacular for fans. Songs taken in chronological order and placed in the timeline since “Transmission” by Joy Division released in 1979 till “Krafty” from New Order’s latest album, “”Waiting for the Sirens’ Call”, released in 2005, plus a previously unreleased track, “Hellbent” from the same era. Joy Division enjoy the well deserved cult status while New Order gained eventually respect, otherwise many criticism being Joy Division minus the unrepeatable Ian Curtis. Joy Division were pioneers of the post-punk era, their gloomy, dark sound influenced considerably many following generation, they were quite “emo” long before “emo” was invented as expression and label. On the other hand, New Order get on a much more radio friendly and new wave path of the music… Read more Joy Division and New Order – Total (2011) ›

The Cars – Move Like This (2011)

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Some things are never change and it give us a kind of feeling of security. The seventh album by The Cars comes after a “break” of 24 years, but “Move Like This” sounds exactly the same as “Door to Door” or any other previous release of the band, I wonder if they kept all the equipment locked-up in a basement since? The voice of Ric Ocasek (age 62!) sounds fresh and clean as it was two and half decades ago, it’s quite incredible. And Mr. Ocasek it’s also a successful producer, he worked with artist such as Weezer, Bad Brains, Bad Religion, Nada Surf, No Doubt, Guided by Voices, Bran Van 3000, and Suicide, also he released eight solo albums meanwhile. Guitarist Elliot Easton released only one solo album back in ’85, but he joined Creedence Clearwater Revisited, the modern touring version of Creedence Clearwater Revival and also played with Ocasek and he was a member of The New Cars, along with original Cars keyboardist Greg Hawkes, singer/songwriter Todd Rundgren, former Utopia bassist/vocalist Kasim Sulton, and Tubes drummer Prairie Prince. Keyboardist Greg Hawkes signature sounds include the Prophet-5 “touch sync” sound heard on “Let’s Go” and “Hello Again” as well as arpeggiated and syncopated synth lines such as on “Shake it Up” and “Heartbeat City”, he pushed the limits of available technology and sequencing helping to forge the sound of the 1980s and since 2001 Hawkes has been playing and experimenting with the ukulele. Drummer David Robinson has performed with many rock bands including The Modern Lovers and DMZ. The only missing member is bass guitarist Benjamin Orr who unfortunately died in 2000, he sang several of their best known tracks, including “Just What I Needed”, “Let’s Go”, and the major success “Drive”. Read more The Cars – Move Like This (2011) ›

The Raveonettes – Raven in the Grave (2011)

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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 renaissance”, 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) ›

Soft Kill – An Open Door (2011)

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Waving between Joy Division (and New Order) and The Sisters of Mercy, Soft Kill try to (re) open a door back to the eighteens goth rock and dark wave. While their earliest experiments took place in September 2010, Tobias and Shiloe, the two members of the group maybe are too in a hurry for a debut album. Still, “An Open Door” is kind of intimate and warm, which is kind of strange for a dark area of music, but the nine songs of this material are not quite bad. They mentioned influences by Howard Devoto, The Cure, Wire/Colin Newman and Killing Joke. The Cure earliest works atmosphere is present and Soft Kill managed to recreate that feeling. “Be Alone” for example sounds quite Robert Smith. And they have a few more good songs. Read more Soft Kill – An Open Door (2011) ›

Nouvelle Vague – Couleurs sur Paris (2010)

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Dacă e să reduc la un singur cuvânt ceea ce fac Nouvelle Vague (am scris despre ei şi anul trecut), acel cuvânt ar fi şic. Resuscitarea unor piese clasice, altele obscure din anii optzeci al valului New Wave cu iterpretări acustice şi infuzia de Bossa Nova are un şarm aparte, Marc Collin şi Olivier Libaux susţinuţi de un colectiv creativ în mişcare, din 2004 furnizează discuri cochete şi show-uri incendiare.
După vizita din 2008 revin şi-n toamna aceasta la Bucureşti, în data de 22 noiembrie în seria evenimentelor Fusion Nights, la Sala Palatului, preţul biletelor fiind între 65 şi 185 RON.
Dacă pe anterioarele trei albume – „Nouvelle Vague” (2004), „Bande à Part” (2006) şi „3” (2009) – s-au focalizat primordial asupra scenei britanice şi americane, a unor artişti ca XTC, Modern English, The Clash, Joy Division, Tuxedomoon, The Cure, Killing Joke, Dead Kennedys, The Sisters of Mercy, The Undertones, Buzzcocks, New Order, Echo & the Bunnymen, Yazoo, Blondie, Depeche Mode, The Specials, Magazine, etc, noua colecţie de cover-uri a fost culeasă exclusiv din zona scenei franceze al anilor şaptezeci-optzeci şi continuând reţeta anteriorului material, la fiecare piesă au adus invitaţi de seamă, dar de data aceasta nu din trupa al cărei piese au reinterpretat-o, ci din rândul artiştilor din prima scenă franceză actuală. Astfel îşi fac apariţia Vanessa Paradis, Helena Noguerra, Louis-Ronan Choisy, Camille, Adrienne Pauly, Julien Doré, Yelle, Soko, Olivia Ruiz, Emily Loizeau, Mélanie Pain, Nadeah Miranda, etc. Totuşi sunt şi trei piese Read more Nouvelle Vague – Couleurs sur Paris (2010) ›

The Stranglers – Decades Apart (2010)

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The Stranglers au fost prea Punk pentru muzica Electronică şi prea Electronici – şi intelectuali – pentru Punk. Prin „Golden Brown” de pe albumul „La Folie” din 1981 au devenit extrem de cunoscuţi, unda lor a lovit şi marii noştri artişti – cu ghilimelele de rigoare 😀 – şi Sfinx s-au grăbit să ne seducă cu „Într-un Cer Violet”, ciordeala o avem în sânge… Dar şi alţii s-au „inspirat” din creaţia lor – mă refer la The Stranglers, evident. 😀
Evit să scriu despre compilaţii, dar „sugrumătorii” merită mai mult decât un simplu review. „Decades Apart” este un CD dublu lansat în februarie, conţine măcar o piesă de pe fiecare album (sunt 16) şi are şi două piese absolut proaspete: „Retro Rockets” şi „I Don’t See The World Like You Do”.
Eu am avut bulan, un prieten cumpărase albumele „The Raven” (1979) şi „The Gospel According to the Meninblack” (1981), „coadă” – adică la pachet, obligatoriu – la nişte discuri Progresiv şi nu i-au plăcut, mi le-a vândut. Asta undeva prin anii ’80. Aveam salariul de 1250 Lei, un vinil original în stare bună costa 300, uneori chiar şi 500 Lei… 🙂 Pe mine m-au marcat definitiv piese ca „Dead Loss Angeles”, „Baroque Bordello”, „Nuclear Device”,  „Duchess” şi „Waltzinblack”, „Just Like Nothing on Earth”, „Second Coming”, „Waiting for the Meninblack” sau „Two Sunspots”, „The Gospel…” este un album absolut genial. Read more The Stranglers – Decades Apart (2010) ›