Björk’s eighth full-length studio album will be released after a four years gap and the expected released date of September 27 has been pushed back to October 10, 2011. As it’s announced, “Biophilia” will be the world’s “first app album” in collaboration with Apple while the album is “partly recorded” on an iPad and will be released in the form of a series of apps.
I’m only wondering – and worried: what was first, the music or the apps? So, the central part of “Biophilia” is a series of interactive iPad apps made by leading programmers and designers, one app for each of the 10 songs on the new album. Bjork discussed how the apps would represent the scientific and natural ideas within the songs and enable people to play and understand the songs and ideas in different ways, such as “Virus”, a love song between a virus and a cell, in which the “Virus” app will stop playing the song if you are successful in stopping the destructive relationship. Two of the apps, “Crystalline” and “Cosmogony”, were released on July 19, along with a music video for “Crystalline”, directed by Michel Gondry. However, the album will be released in usual form as a series of 10 music tracks as well, including a CD release. Read more Bjork – Biophilia (2011)
Reviews
Gary Numan – Dead Son Rising (2011)
The wizard is back and only after a few moments of listening to “Dead Son Rising” it was pretty obvious this will be one of the finest albums of the year and definitively one favorite. Surprisingly – or not quite – Numan sounds a little bit “Reznorish”, the blueprint of Nine Inch Nails are present all over the album and the (good) student have now some influence on his master, but all those elements are melt into the typical Numan’s constructions and sounds.
Five years after the brilliant “Jagged”, on “Dead Son Rising” Numan collaborate with the same Ade Fenton – producer and co-written. The title track is a reworked version of “What Have I Become” and “We Are The Lost” is a reworked version of “Mercy” and both are from the 2006 “Jagged” sessions, “For The Rest Of My Life” is a reworked version of “Always” and “The Fall” is a reworked version of “Look”, both from the 2000 “Pure” sessions. “Big Noise Transmission” was previously played live under the working title “Captured Underground Noise Transmission” and “Zulu” while “When The Sky Bleeds, He Will Come” had the live working title of “Dragging Loop”. Read more Gary Numan – Dead Son Rising (2011)
Tanzwut – White Nights (2011)
What results from the mixture of bagpipes, medieval and folk elements and industrial metal? Tanzwut. Originated as a sideproject of Corvus Corax-members, a German band playing Neo-Medieval music using an abundance of authentic instruments which often uses bagpipes as the solo instrument, and in 1996 they released the EP “Tanzwut” which combined the elements of metal music with their brand sound of bagpipes. The CD turned out to be a commercially successful experiment and the band decided to continue the tradition of that album in a separate musical project called Tanzwut and became part of the Neue Deutsche Härte movement. In few words: Rammstein with bagpipes.
“Weiße Nächte” is the project’s fifth studio album released on 16th September 2011. Read more Tanzwut – White Nights (2011)
Skunk Anansie – Paranoid and Sunburnt (1995)
Skunk Anansie rose from the mean streets of London in the early part of 1993, in time of social, political and musical changes. As they stated, their name, “Skunk Anansie” is taken from the West African folk tales of Anansi the spider-man, with “Skunk†added to “make the name nastier”. The band, in 2004, was named as one of the most successful UK chart acts between 1952 and 2003 by the Guinness Book of British Hit Singles & Albums, with a total of 141 weeks on both the singles and album charts ranking them at #491.
Skin (born Deborah Dyer, 3 August 1967, Brixton), Cass (born Richard Keith Lewis, 1 September 1960, London), Ace (born Martin Ivor Kent, 30 March 1967, Cheltenham) and Mark Richardson (born 28 May 1970, Leeds) get the public and media attention by their incendiary live show and “vitriolic striking attack on the preconceived image of what a rock band should be at that time.” Read more Skunk Anansie – Paranoid and Sunburnt (1995)
Chickenfoot – Chickenfoot III (2011)
Don’t panic – as I did 😀 -, you didn’t skipped the band’s second album, despite its title, this is not the band’s third album, but second. Some rumors said that the working title was “Chickenfoot IV”.
Scheduled to be released on September 27, 2011, the new album delivered by the “supergroup” of Sammy Hagar, Joe Satriani, Michael Anthony (Van Halen) and Chad Smith (Red Hot Chili Peppers) continue exactly from where they left on the debut album with the same kind of classy, powerful American hard rock. “Last Temptation” could find its place on any Van Halen album. It’s the classic case of something familiar, but fresh. But it’s not the only song which could be on any Van Halen album. “Alright, Alright” follows pumping in that same bright American spirit. Satriani delivered a tasty solo while the whole recording sounds quite raw and alive.
And let’s admit it: this “everything’s alright” attitude it feels so good sometimes and if the band can delivered some good-old fashioned hard rock in it’s best shape and with some fresh breath and timeless taste, it’s just great! Read more Chickenfoot – Chickenfoot III (2011)
Jacuzzi Project – Sweeeeet Muse (2011)
Reminds me of Red Snapper, but still, Jacuzzi Project sounds quite different and more dense. Full of energy, groovy, eventually less trippy, but still filled with lot of different tasty aromas and perfumes, Jacuzzi Project delivered their own genre and style of nu jazz, a powerful mixture of broken beats and nu soul, a twist of psychedelic and juicy brasses with funky basses. Colorful mixture, a nice combination of explosive free jazz sounds and licks with scratching electronics and modern beats and grooves. Read more Jacuzzi Project – Sweeeeet Muse (2011)
Richard Cheese – A Lounge Supreme (2011)
“You know, the world is a crazy place, and we live in troubled times, but despite our differences, the one thing that all of us have in common, is that we all have a birthday. My piano player Bobby Ricotta over there, he has a birthday. Frank Feta has a birthday. Billy Bleu has a birthday. And so do I. Mine is July 11. Feel free to have your sister send me photos.” Well, in few – and his own – words, this is Richard Cheese all about. Cheer up our day swinging. Musician and comedian, still can’t figure out which one comes first, Richard Cheese and his killer Lounge Against the Machine made up of talented guys named all with pseudonyms that refer to types of cheese such as (Bobby) Ricotta, (Frank) Feta and (Billy) Bleu performing mainly popular songs in a lounge/swing style reminiscent of Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Tony Bennett since 2000. Read more Richard Cheese – A Lounge Supreme (2011)
Dire Straits – Love Over Gold (1982)
Some critics consider it Dire Straits’ attempt to turn in the area of progressive rock, “Love Over Gold” released on 20th September 1982, was the band’s fourth studio album. Written exclusively by Mark Knopfler, the album sold two million copies during the first six weeks after its release. Eventually sold over 4 million copies in Europe and reached gold status in the United States in 1986. It was also the last album featuring drummer Pick Withers.
The album featured the 14-minute-long epic “Telegraph Road”, while its main chart hit, “Private Investigations”, gave Dire Straits their first top 5 hit single in the United Kingdom, where it reached the number 2 position despite its almost seven-minute length. Read more Dire Straits – Love Over Gold (1982)
Noisuf-X – Dead End District (2011)
Noisuf-X, the side-project of X-Fusion – German musician, producer & DJ, Jan L. – build an apocalyptic world of out harsh distorted beats, experimental sounds and sequences upon simple, linear, even near-monotony tempos and construction alike many other German electro outfits since the pioneer Kraftwerk up to nowadays Atari Teenage Riot.
In 1988, Jan L. began producing music on a Commodore 64 combining electronic sounds with organ-sequences and vinyl-elements. Constantly he upgraded to better equipment and technology evolution, releasing more improved and better productions as technology evolved.
While under the moniker of X-Fusion he’s style of music evolved in the direction of Techno/Acid/House, with Noisuf-X get down on the path of EBM to get to power noise and aggrotech including some breakcore and technoid influences. Read more Noisuf-X – Dead End District (2011)
Pop Will Eat Itself – Dos Dedos Mis Amigos (1994)
Released on 19th September 1994, the fifth album by The Poppies, also known as PWEI, “Dos Dedos Mis Amigos” bring to the surface a more industrial face of the band. Also, PWEI’s political stance became more explicit with the release of the single “Ich Bin Ein Auslander”, a collaboration with Asian group Fun-Da-Mental, song which was based on the uprise of racial tension throughout Britain during 1994 and reached the UK Top 30.
The album peaked at #11 in the UK Albums Chart and the single “Everything’s Cool” became the band’s ninth Top 30 UK hit.
PWEI found some new popularity after signing with Trent Reznor’s Nothing Records in the US, and touring with Nine Inch Nails, as well as having their songs used on the PlayStation game Loaded. In the same year they featured on The Prodigy’s album “Music for the Jilted Generation”, on the song “Their Law”. Read more Pop Will Eat Itself – Dos Dedos Mis Amigos (1994)
