try 1
try 2
listen
buy

tracklist:
Tracklist:
1. In My Sleep Instead Of In My Life
2. Left
3. Black Light (feat. Sol Thomas)
4. Retalation
5. Interruption
6. Of View
7. Perfection/Stillness
8. Product Of Chaos (feat. Counterstrike)
9. Fear
10. Black Light (Scorn remix)
11. Nothing
12. Sublime (feat. Sol Thomas)
13. Interruption
14. Product Of Chaos (remix)

Enduser’s Lynn Standafer breaks a period of silence with this ambitious full-length release for the Ohm Resistance label. The opening synth-orchestral suite might have a title straight out of the Billy Ocean discography (how much does ‘In My Sleep Instead Of My Life’ sound like ‘Get Out Of My Dreams, Get Into My Car’?) but it’s a fittingly grandiose piece of soundscaping to commence the album with. Left plots a path through various permutations of drum’n'bass, dubstep and more atmospheric modes of composition, with pieces like ‘Retaliation’ and ‘Of View’ establishing a precedent for the level of damage Standafer is capable of causing with the percussive aspects of his programming, while ‘Black Light’ (featuring the vocals of Sol Thomas) takes a more Massive Attack-like approach to dark fusions of hip hop and mood-sculpting ambience. The title track manages to straddle both extremes, maintaining a fearsome beat presence alongside a consistent melodic integrity, necessarily investing a more exploratory tone in End.user’s more instantly appealing, ferocious productions. One of the highlights on Left comes from a Scorn remix of ‘Black Light’, which scoops out the vocal and toughens up the drum pattern to establish a monstrous, half-stepping behemoth with a snare that sounds like a small incendiary device. It’s another track that contributes towards a finely tuned, multifaceted album of energised beat narratives and cold urban gloom.
boomkat

Not the wma transcoded shit that was floating around lately. Enjoy.

1. “I’m Jim Morrison, I’m Dead” - 6:46
2. “Batcat” - 5:23
3. “Danphe and the Brain” - 5:18
4. “Local Authority” - 4:15
5. “The Sun Smells Too Loud” - 6:58
6. “Kings Meadow” - 4:42
7. “I Love You, I’m Going To Blow Up Your School” - 7:33
8. “Scotland’s Shame” - 8:00
9. “Thank You Space Expert” - 7:55
10. “The Precipice” - 6:42

Download part 1

Download part 2

This isn’t just B.B. King’s best album in years, it’s one of the strongest studio sets of his career, standing alongside classics such as Singin’ the Blues and Lucille. Where those early titles highlighted his youthful, wailing vocals and stinging guitar, this one plays to King’s current strengths: the tear-stained vibrato of his mature voice, punctuated by raunchy licks. For too long, King has drowned in slick production, propped up by stiff duets with the likes of Eric Clapton. Here, King is front and center, with a killer backing band — Jim Keltner (John Lennon, Mick Jagger) on drums, Nathan East (Clapton) on stand-up bass and Dr. John on piano — that remains in the background. King is heartbreakingly intimate on standards like Blind Lemon Jefferson’s “See That My Grave Is Kept Clean” and John Lee Hooker’s “Blues Before Sunrise.” How did the 82-year-old find his old passion? With T Bone Burnett, naturally — the producer whose understated touch helped bring Robert Plant and John Mellencamp into their twilight years with dignity. Those projects were mere dress rehearsals for this one. (review by Mark Kemp, Rolling Stone magazine)

official site

download

try
listen

tracklist:
1. Ain’t No Lord
2. Black Shoe
3. Ol’ Blackbird
4. Save My Soul
5. Changing
6. Night & Day
7. Undertaker
8. Jesus On The Mainline
9. Long Time Coming
10. Old Hound
11. Make It Easy
12. Bogachiel Rain Blues
13. I Want You To Know

Written by Fense

Wow, everyone seems to be channeling 60s and 70s folk these days and you can add The Moondoggies to that ever-growing list of bands. Don’t Be A Stranger can be found somewhere between the folkier side of Crosby Stills Nash and Young, and country-ish side of Neil Young himself. All this is apparent in opener “Ain’t No Lord”. Hell, you can even toss The Band and Lynyrd Skynyrd and Grateful Dead in as further influences.

Now, that doesn’t mean The Moondoggies aren’t worth a damn, cause I’ll tell you now: they are. Don’t Be A Stranger is that perfect road-trip album for driving along I-90 as you head through the rural areas of the country, or as you burn up the pavement on rural back roads. Roll down the windows. Crank up the tunes. Yeah.

The backing music may side on the folk and country of the 60s and 70s, but the vocals have an added soul in them—there’s a heartfelt, if not spiritual, element that push forth the better side of Summer Of Love, minus much of the psychedelic and pop elements, of course. It’s like Summer Of Love for the Midwest.

And Midwest is right. The Moondoggies inject several tunes with a religious aspect that is impossible to overlook—but don’t let that sway you, they’re spiritual along the same lines as The Cave Singers. Listen: It’s time I start changing from “Changing” and Jesus gonna save my soul from “Save My Soul” and If you’re sick and you wanna get well / Tell Him what you want from the soulful hand-clapper “Jesus On The Mainline”.

All this leads you to think the group could easily be from Ohio or Kentucky or even Nebraska or Tennessee. You wouldn’t think The Moondoggies hail from an urban location like Seattle, but they do. Proggy folk? Country-tinged jams? Sure thing. These songs are just as fitting for ol’ country church sing-a-longs as they are for that old popular country tavern.
fensepost

try
listen

tracklist:
1. Take Care
2. Good Times
3. Ones And Zeroes
4. Catching Up To You
5. Alone
6. Kandy
7. Nothing
8. Lies
9. Divine Beloved (Ho Hum Song)
10. Dream
11. Satellites (Venus To Mars)
12. Stay
13. Hold On
14. Closer To Me
15. In The End
16. Sleep

“No, it’s not a computer button combination. There’s nothing mechanical about their music. It’s majestic and enchanting in a way that has become sparingly rare in the last few years.”

“…gently undulating melodies cocooned in layers of reverbed guitar, keys, and Joe’s pleasantly processed vocals, augmented at seemingly all the right moments by organic instrumentation (particularly glockenspiel) or various synth layers, and pushed along by April’s subtle brush strokes and cymbal crashes.”

“…simple narratives of love and longing slipping past like half-remembered dreams.”

Most new-century boy-girl duos seem intent on making as loud a racket as possible, if the White Stripes, Quasi, Viva Voce, et al, are any yardstick. Not so North Carolina husband-and-wife team Joe & April Diaco, who lull listeners into a state of ecstatic bliss via their debut’s lush, stately paced dream pop. Evoking the sensuous sounds and introspective lyrics of 4AD or Projekt forebears like Mazzy Star and Love Spirals Downward, the Diacos’ Myspace demos were also unique enough to attract the interest of dream pop guru Mark Kramer (Shimmy Disc), who publicly raved about Alt-Ctrl-Sleep and offered to produce the band’s debut. Logistics kept that from happening and the band produced it themselves, though the internet demos resulted in their signing to Lakeshore Records. It’s easy to hear what attracted Kramer and Lakeshore — gently undulating melodies cocooned in layers of reverbed guitar, keys, and Joe’s pleasantly processed vocals, augmented at seemingly all the right moments by organic instrumentation (particularly glockenspiel) or various synth layers, and pushed along by April’s subtle brush strokes and cymbal crashes. The melodies tend to enter and slowly add volume and texture, patiently building to a crescendo before unwinding one layer at a time into swirls of synth buzz, simple narratives of love and longing slipping past like half-remembered dreams. Despite the record’s holistic feel, there are variations enough to keep the songs sounding fresh throughout: the spacy “You Alone” or “Satellites (Venus to Mars)” could have come across the pond with Spiritualized; “Kandy” has the spot-on accoutrements typically associated with the studio tinkering of Sparklehorse’s Mark Linkous, and when the duo synch their voices together on “Nothing” it suggests Summer Sun Yo La Tengo. One or two tracks could have been lopped off without much anguish, but the Diacos’ create such a blissed-out vibe you’re far more likely to just get lost in it than worry about the running time.
-John Schacht (All Music Guide)

Chad VanGaalen’s musical roots date back to the first part of the decade, when he made a living busking on the streets of Calgary. He is also an accomplished animator and illustrator whose music is very much informed by his appreciation of visual arts. He has produced a voluminous wealth of material, by himself, at a rate that might best be described as alarming. And whatever his motivation for doing what he does, or creating what he creates, the result is that it is always both genuine and good. The proof is in the songs themselves. They have heart. They have pain. They have hope. They have humor. And most importantly, they have fun.

Recorded on a Tascam 4-track and other analog devices, using synthesizers, guitars and a collection of his own handmade instruments, Chad’s first two LPs, Infiniheart (2005) and Skelliconnection (2006), were wildly eclectic and ethereal, texturally imaginative, sometimes ambitious and sometimes restrained.

Recorded primarily on an old tape machine and a JVC ghetto blaster in Chad’s Calgary basement, Soft Airplane retains the handmade charm and singular character of his previous records, while incorporating new layers of sophistication and weight. Recalling Neil Young at his most fragile and plaintive, and Thurston Moore at his most resolved and vital, Chad’s emotive vocals anchor these songs while tackling the pervasive themes of death and dreams with an unexpected air of certainty and hope that is far from ominous—-instead it’s luminous. Through a complex interplay of guitar, drum beats, loops, samples, found sounds, unorthodox percussion, xylophones, distortion, synthesizers, accordions and more, Chad has made an album that sounds bigger than one man.

It sounds like a lifetime.

01. Willow Tree
02. Bones of Man
03. Cries of the Dead
04. Inside the Molecules
05. Bare Feet on Wet Griptape
06. Phantom Anthills
07. Poisonous Heads
08. TMNT Mask
09. Molten Light
10. Old Man + The Sea
11. City of Electric Light
12. Rabid Bits of Time
13. Frozen Energon

Buy ~ Download ~ Myspace

Bitrate: V2

One of two EPs to be released before the third Final Fantasy album, Heartland.
Spectrum, 14th Century, due September 30 from Blocks Recording Club. The five-song set is comprised of so-called “fake field recordings” taped out-of-doors in Quebec in May 2007 by Pallett with the help of all of the members of Beirut. It’s due on CD and on a 10″ EP in an edition of 1,000.

Tracklist:
01 Oh, Spectrum
02 Blue Imelda
03 The Butcher
04 Cockatrice
05 The Ballad of No-Face

Buy ~ Download ~ Myspace

Bitrate: V0

try
watch

tracklist:
1. Prelude
2. A Song For Me
3. Indian Queen
4. Marching Band
5. Loving You
6. One Song
7. At Your Death
8. Cotton Strings
9. Midtown Fair
10. This Year’s Parade
11. Before Sleep
12. Them That Are Writing These Songs

“Noa Babayof has been gathering momentum in the Israeli media as one of the most unique voices in recent years. Noa, 25, (not to be confused with the other Noa – Achinoam Nini ) originally from Be’er Sheva, first emerged onto the scene as a performer in 2005. Since, she has been performing regularly as a solo occasionally collaborating with musician Amit Erez for joined shows, and many other local artists.

Her mesmerizing caressing vocals have been compared to some of the greatest female vocalists of all time, such as Nico, Joni Mitchell and Vashti Bunyan.”

“You said I play my guitar as if it had cotton strings,” Noa Babayof sings on “Cotton Strings”, a track from the Israeli singer’s new album, From a Window to a Wall. And whoever it was that said that is exactly right. These songs, from vocals to guitar to the swelling of strings surrounding both, is played softly and with care. Babayof’s voice is always faint, near breaking she’s so quiet, but beautiful despite its limited range. On some tracks, like the breezy shuffle of “A Song for Me”, and the more threadbare “This Year’s Parade”, Babayof’s light touch is affecting and brilliant in its gentility. She sounds genuinely hurt, genuinely searching. In those moment, she sounds like a fresh female voice, one that can rise above the pseudo-folk you’re likely to hear pumping through the overhead speakers at your local Borders.

But those moments on From a Window to a Wall are few and far between. Too often the deliberate nature of her delivery, and the meticulous instrumentation, come off as overly careful. The album’s gentle nature slips into something a little more safe and sleepy, as Babayof’s tone rarely changes and, from song to song, the strings that start the album so well begin to repeat themselves, wailing the same way over each track. It is certainly an album by an artist with promise, but Babayof seems too concerned with using what she assumes will work, instead of exploring riskier elements that might pay better dividends.
popmatters

try
listen

tracklist:
1. The Space In A Song To Think
2. A Million Miles
3. Just A Boy
4. To Prove Them Wrong
5. What Feels Like Home
6. Lullaby
7. As For You, Raba
8. After Midnight
9. Make The Days Run Fast
10. Free At Last
11. Pieces

It’s been four years since Rebecca Martin last led a record date. In the interim she’s given birth to her son Charlie, recorded on a Paul Motian project, and founded a citizen organization dedicated to local projects and government. Luckily for us, she’s also taken the time to harvest a fresh batch of beautiful, original songs to enjoy on her CD The Growing Season. It’s a strong continuation of her songwriting and fits squarely into her wider creative continuity.

It’s also a reunion of sorts. Three members from Martin’s 1995 group, Once Blue, work together for the first time since their excellent, and only, recording 13 years ago: Martin, guitarist/writer Kurt Rosenwinkel, and songwriter Jesse Harris. Harris co-wrote only one track with Martin but his contributions are always creatively strong and his presence adds to the project’s sense of continuity.

The CD opens with one of its strongest and most accessible songs, “The Space In A Song To Think.” It’s a perfect example of Martin’s knack for writing lines that combine melodic and harmonic sophistication with effortlessly catchy hooks. This hook will catch anything that moves. Martin’s warm and easygoing delivery, the relaxed harmonic rhythm, loose bossa-ish feel, soft background vocal harmonies, and Rosenwinkel’s mellow Rhodes piano riding the rhythm section, combine to make this tune an equivalent to comfort food: Comfort Music. It creates a space you want to fall into and revel in long past closing time.

Not one to shy away from difficult subjects, The Growing Season takes a somewhat dark turn about halfway through. “As For You, Raba,” co-written with Rosenwinkel, concerns an act of violence and a victim’s defenselessness. Rosenwinkel’s piano introduction creates an appropriately melancholy landscape for Martin to enter into this brutal tale. Yet in her hands, confronting the truth in song is a kind of healing. The subject matter is as rough as anything on P.J. Harvey’s terrific, yet ghostly chilling release White Chalk (Island, 2007). Yet somehow Martin comes through as comforting while Harvey is mainly frightening (not a bad thing for either). Following “Raba” are two songs dealing with war and how it separates families and leaves soldiers psychologically damaged when (if) they return home. Martin isn’t a folk protest artist per se, but there are shades of that element on this record.

As always, Martin brings a band that is second to none: the ever-evolving Rosenwinkel on guitars, various keyboards, vibraphone, and producing; her husband Larry Grenadier on basses; and rhythm master and all-around musical sensei Brian Blade on drums and percussion. These friends have all traveled in similar musical circles for a long time and the personal rapport shines through the music. They’re something of a fellowship you might say.

Martin’s poetic lyrics, rich and sweet vocal delivery, and sophisticated songwriting arrangements continue to flow on The Growing Season. Her challenging writing of things worldly, things unseen, beauty, pain, learning, changing, and loving are as artfully rendered here as on any of her past recordings. She is still growing.
By John Dworkin
allaboutjazz

try
listen
watch

tracklist:
1. Hooves
2. In Our Talons
3. Human Hands
4. Dark Horse
5. Bur Oak
6. My Oldest Memory
7. The Marbled Godwit
8. Slow Down
9. The Ticonderoga
10. Olive Hearts

“I have been listening to this album for a few days soaking it in. It was released in 2007 and has been re-released after they toured back in Feb/March in 2008 and played SXSW. If you like Samamidon, Efterklang, Bon Iver, Phosphorescent, Fleet Foxes, etc you will adore this album.”

buy
try

disenchanted hearts unite!

amazing twee album. bastard son of Sarah Records

try
listen

tracklist:
1 Ain’t Much of a Soldier
2 The Devil’s Won
3 Dolly & Porter
4 Fiddle Girl
5 Upstate Living
6 Back of My Mind
7 I’m Your Son
8 Wall Around Baghdad
9 Dance to This Song
10 Lady
11 Carnival

I think it must be damning on the soul to never recognize the potential for greatness that lies just under the surface of each of us. I mean, we toil endlessly at these jobs, these relationships, these goals we set for ourselves, and some of us never figure out how good we really are at what we are until the years have slipped by us. Anthony da Costa is in no danger of being struck by this curse. At the tender age of 17, da Costa has quietly made a name for himself throughout the Northeastern U.S. playing coffee shops, bars, schools, and music festivals big & small. As an observer, I’m struck by the casual observation that da Costa’s songwriting and performing is wise far beyond his years, and I’m definitely not alone. His appearances at the 2008 Folk Alliance reassured those familiar with his resume while earning him a large audience of new fans.

People are quick to make comparisons between da Costa and Conor Oberst because of the relative ages in which the two began their songwriting and performing careers. I think that the comparisons pretty much end there; where Bright Eyes is the posterized emotionally distraught poetic anti-hero of disaffected youth, da Costa’s poetry and passions lack the relative bleakness of Bright Eyes, offering the protagonist in his songs hope. In da Costa’s world, our hero’s emotional reactions to what is happening will always leave him a real chance at achieving the life and love he seeks. On his latest CD, Typical American Tragedy, we are offered a clean window into da Costa’s exceptionally complex understandings of love and hope, an unflinchingly moving portrait of a love we’re often curious how da Costa could know about at so young an age.

Regardless of why or how, the combination of spare arrangements and consistently solid songwriting place his current achievements in a class with some of our greatest American songwriters. One has to believe, upon hearing his work, that Tragedy is only the beginning for da Costa on a long string of accomplishments as a performer. Personally, I couldn’t be more excited to see where the future leads or more fortunate to have seen him so close to the beginnings. I sincerely hope and believe that ten years from now, we will all still be talking about Anthony da Costa.
loudersoft

try

“Bass Communion might sound like some awful Euro-dance atrocity, but it is in fact a rather fine drone project headed by Steven Wilson, whose music alternates between fearsome guitar vs. laptop experiments and more sedate, ambient soundscapes. At his best, he channels the blurry melancholy of Stars Of The Lid, as on the beautiful ‘Glacial 1602′, which displaces string sounds into a canyon-sized echo chamber, all gleaming and dewy in their minor key tonal shifts. In a not dissimilar fashion, ‘Haze 1402′ occupies a hypnotic structure, ebbing and flowing across twenty-three minutes if near-stillness. The piece does offer glimpses of the ferocity Wilson can unleash however, bringing a rasping, digital quality into play, something harnessed brilliantly on the strident low-end fuzz of ‘Molotov 1502′ and the punishing extremities of ‘Corrosive 1702′ - an overture of noise and bitrate shattering distortion. Molotov and Haze is an album of polar opposites, but Wilson’s compositional abilities see him navigate through both noise and ambience with considerable aplomb..”

try

tracklist:
01. Smog (feat. Paul Conboy)
02. Butterfingers (feat. Fujiya and Miyagi)
03. Old John (feat. Paul Conboy)
04. Burn the Bunker (feat. Toob)
05. So Special (feat. Paul Conboy)
06. No Bones (feat. Paul Conboy)
07. Black River (feat. Mark Lanegan)
08. Hold Me Up (feat. Paul Conboy)
09. Fuzzbox (feat. Jon Spencer)

“UK dance music pioneer Tim Simenon returns as Bomb The Bass this September with Future Chaos.

Simenon, who is often credited with helping to raise the profile of dance music in the UK through his classic “Beat Dis” single, has been relatively quiet since 2001’s Tracks, a 12-inch collaboration with Meat Beat Manifesto’s Jack Dangers. It hasn’t been for lack of inspiration, however. Instead, the producer has been working quietly on things ever since. But after building up a number of tracks for a proposed album, Simenon trashed the results, deciding to strip everything down to a Minimoog synth and little else. “There’s so much that goes around producing records; doing things this way and that. But this was us saying, Fuck it, let’s just record some tunes, you know,” says Simenon in the press notes accompanying the album.

Along for the ride are some indie favorites: Jon Spencer, Mark Lanegan (Queens of the Stone Age), Paul Conboy, and David Best (Fujiya & Miyagi) all turn up in some capacity—mostly providing vocals to Simenon’s dark tunes. Collaboration, of course, is Simenon’s specialty: he was the one behind the decks on Neneh Cherry’s “Buffalo Stance” and Seal’s “Crazy.” That said, we expect the results on Future Chaos to be a tad rawer than those studio confections.”

Department Of Eagles are actually a Grizzly Bear spin-off of some kind, and “In Ear Park” is their second album. I have vague and not-hugely positive memories of the first one, “The Cold Nose”, which I dismissed at the time as mildly quirky indie-rock. This one, though, is very much on-trend, and very much in the vein of Grizzly Bear’s ravishing “Yellow House”.

The vocals are high and quavering, a more orthodox melodic take on that Animal Collective schtick. The musical backing is somehow at once frail and lush: pianos drift in and out of a dazed dreamscape of acoustic guitars and banjos. Occasionally, as on “Waves Of Rye” or “Floating On The Lehigh”, there’s a massed momentum that’s reminiscent of Mercury Rev at their most pretty and unsteady.

At other times, Department Of Eagles conjure up a sound which calls to mind an overgrown Tin Pan Alley, a sepia-tinted woodland idyll. The last person I can remember trying this sort of thing is Richard Swift on “The Novelist”, and “Teenagers” here could almost have been lifted from that nostalgic, crotchety concept album. “Herring Bone”, too, is comparable to Swift, chiefly because it shares Swift’s evident love of Paul McCartney’s more tender and less showy piano ballads.

“In Ear Park” often, as you can probably tell, feels like the work of a band experimenting with different styles while sustaining a dominant aesthetic mood; “No One Does It” even hijacks a Motown beat and makes it sound just as bucolic as the surrounding tracks. Fortunately, though, Fred Nicolaus and Daniel Rossen are too artful to make it all sound like an exercise in pastiche. It’s a lovely record, in fact. John Mulvey/Uncut

MySpace

Try it

Ever since the appearance of Tedio Boys, Coimbra has been acclaimed as the rock capital of Portugal. The debut album from this multi-instrumental trio (Joao Rui/Susana Ribeiro/Jorri) holds up to that, going from a more bluesy and rootsy side to a more songwriter way of crafting songs. It counts with the participation of Kalo (Tedio Boys) on drums, Raquel Ralha (Wray Gun) on vocals, Sergio Nascimento (Humanos, Sergio Godinho) on percussions and drums and many more guests. One must wonder how they managed to get 15 guests to spice up these first recordings. No less is the idea of debuting with a conceptual album that got appraisal from all sides. By keeping the indie rock folk country blues spirit alive, they managed to put out one of the best albums of 2007 and one wonders what is to come.

01 - Lion’s Eyes Louder (03:26)
02 - The Waltz Of Fear (03:32)
03 - You’re The One I Want The Most (02:41)
04 - New Man Waiting (02:11)
05 - Blame Me (03:41)
06 - A River For A Wife (03:19)
07 - Letters From The Boatman (02:57)
08 - Return From Winter (05:01)
09 - My Kindness (02:15)
10 - With My Voice (2:04)
11 - Life’s Like A Riverboat (03:56)
12 - To Whom Shall I Give My Blood (01:54)
13 - Of Those Who Know You’re Right (01:47)
14 - Leave If You Can (01:20)

Buy ~ Download ~ Myspace

try
listen

tracklist:
1. Pears And Milk
2. Something Important
3. Trust Your Feelings
4. Stupidest Things
5. From Over There
6. Mothersisters
7. Land All At Sea
8. Lose A Day
9. Born In The Sea
10. He Runs Like The Wind
11. I Love The Snow

Well-travelled both geographically and musically, Tammy Payne’s Jukes project looked to have dropped straight off the map after its 2004 debut for Twisted Nerve, A Thousand Dreamers, led to a few years of relative silence.

Now with a new label but still with the same cutely-inflected, silky voice, if the observational nature of We Might Disappear is anything to go by Payne should have spent these past few years passing her time in coffee shops, people-watching and narrating their storied lives in her head. It’s an album which mirrors the first-person recollections of Suzanne Vega, from the girl who’ll only sit eating pears and milk in the surprisingly-entitled ‘Pears and Milk’ to the conversation which triggers a life-questioning mental ramble in single ‘Something Important’, driven throughout by folk and country influences and then backed up with the merest suggestions of jazz and the faintest of psychedelic touches laying somewhere under its easy-listening, lounging skin.

And lounge is the operative word - with help from the nine-strong group of musicians that join her under the Jukes moniker this time around, Payne is almost permanently relaxed. Nothing about We Might Disappear is rushed, with nearly all of its offerings being executed at a reduced pace, but instead of it being the recipe for prolonged boredom it actually suits her well - even at the high points where she finds her ideal note and hits the volume button, Payne’s vocals still sound little other than soft - and when the tempo is briefly upped for ‘The Stupidest Things’, it doesn’t seem to work quite so well anyway.

In contrast, the highlight of the album is probably its slowest point, the period during which it coasts from walking pace down to little more than a crawl for ‘From Over There’, a lazy wander made all the better by multiple vocal parts delivering the same lines in slightly different timings to the main one, weaving in and out of time with each other with various complementing melodies for a serene sinking sensation found nowhere else on this album. But as well as being the highlight track, ‘From Over There’ also marks the point after which the album begins slipping away into a real slumber, as past this glimpse of greatness opens a yawning chasm to claim Jukes for its own, away from Tom’s Diner and into an average place at an average time, with songs that shuffle superficially and lyrics that wash over the listener and continue on their way instead of encouraging them to follow to the bitter end.

But the underwhelming conclusion isn’t completely astonishing – from the start, We Might Disappear doesn’t put on airs, not making a break for anything particularly original and instead content to settle for comfortable familiarity. In the end it keeps its head above water, the first clutch of songs coming to the rescue, well-rendered and personable, even if it does fade away post highlight track.
drownedinsound

try mpeg-4
buy

tracklist:
1. Two Organs and Dumbek
2. Clouds and Their Shadows
3. BRDDRMS
4. Synthesizer Solo
5. Mbira, Harp and Voice
6. Green Vines
7. Percussion and Voice
8. Pan Pipe Ensemble and Voice
9. Berimbau
10. Wood Flute, Berimbau, Mbira and Voice

10 tracks, 42 minutes. Third album from Ben Vida under his Bird Show moniker. With instruments ranging from elephant bells to a ten string harp, this is a festival for the ears!

- Follow up to the acclaimed Lightning Ghost, also released on Kranky.
- Ben Vida is an active member of a whole host of experimental bands including Town & Country, Pillow, Central Falls, Terminal 4 and Everyoned.
- About previous release, Lightning Ghost: “a superb balance of psych-folk-inflected songcraft and extended, raga-like drones” - Tiny Mix Tapes

This is the third album by Ben Vida under his Bird Show moniker following his Lightning Ghost album from 2006 on Kranky. Bird Show, Ben’s alter ego, is an active member of a whole host of experimental bands including Town and Country, Pillow, Central Falls, Terminal 4 and Everyoned. As Bird Show he truly taps into the US free-folk psyche movement which has been gaining a lot of deserved praise and attention in recent years.

His new album, which is untitled, contains a whole host of instruments including: Hammond XB-2, microKorg, Moog Voyager, Gibson SG, Berinbau, Shona Mbira, Slit Drum, Pan Pipes, Shakers, Vietnamese Jaw Harp, Tambourines, Ride Cymbal, Congas, Wood Flute, Ring Modulator, Elephant Bells, Violin, Qraqeb, Zither, Voice, Ten String Harp, Frame Drum, Finger Cymbals, Triangle…. to name just a few. It is his ability to fuse together all of these different sounds which makes Bird Show such a unique artist and which makes his new album such essential listening.
southern

try

tracklist:
1. Wondersmith and His Sons, The
2. 17 Summers
3. Secrets of the Undersea Bell
4. My Old Man’s Badge
5. Two Years Before the Mast
6. Mr. Blessington’s Imperialist Plot
7. Episode of Sparrows, An
8. Case of William Smith, The
9. Trouble Hunters
10. Avalanche Patrol
11. Most Important Track On the Album, The
12. The Story of My Life

“With two full-lengths under his belt, Astronautalis has been busy crafting his careful balance between hip-hop, country, and American indie rock. Hand picking members from The Polyphonic Spree, Midlake, and The Paperchase, he composed this indescribably diverse album under the guidance of Grammy nominated producer and engineer John Congleton (Explosions In The Sky, The Polyphonic Spree, Modest Mouse). Pomegranate plays out like a collection of short stories, each song as varied in style and sound as they are in subject and character. Astronautalis’s pop sensibility manages to weave catchy melodic strains that’ll haunt you for days.”

try
listen

tracklist:
Tracklist
1 The Slow Wait (1)
2 The Slow Wait (2)
3 Call
4 Bump
5 Intermission
6 Lights Dim
7 Transcendence
8 Our Hearts Are Read
9 Anything You Synthesize
10 We’re Hitting Everything
11 Starscapes

The American Dollar - A Memory Stream
Record Label: Yesh Music
Release Date: August 19, 2008

Pensive, melodic embroideries with dulcet beats and ambient tones are the components that make The America Dollar’s music magnetic. The duo of multi-instrumentalists and multi-faceted artisans John Emanuele and Rich Cupolo have returned with their latest offering, A Memory Stream, the follow up to their 2007 record, The Technicolor Sleep. The two friends started this music project in 2005, and today, they pride themselves on being able to attract fans that come from different sectors of music, including one fan whom they acknowledged in a recent press release, that liked System of a Down. It’s the sign of a mega-star when fans from different areas of the music spectrum flock to a particular point, and The American Dollar’s star is becoming one of those points.

Each song has its own billowing dynamics and glowstick patterns that cause the movements to light up and go dim along the chord progressions. The melodies are like skillfully conducted laser-light shows with sections that magnify the electrolytes to a baseball stadium fluorescence and fade to a shadowy luminescence. Each song is as good as the next showcasing spectacular feats in the movements and cinescopic dimensions built by the soundwaves. The American Dollar’s music shows a propensity for ethereal tones liken to The Color Wheels, a craftsmanship for imaginary landscapes with symbolically ringed notations sharing this instinct with Sigur Ros, and valves that open the passages to kindling wavelets of tranquility displaying a sensitivity resembling Explosions in the Sky. The transitions linking the areas of active flux with laid back surfs in The American Dollar’s music have a kinship with Shapes Stars Make, always keeping a nice fluidity and polished artistic impressions

The duo’s layering of conventional instruments like the guitar, drums, and bass with electronic enhancements, made for an album that has a temporal pitch embossed in supernatural hues. The dewy synth-flaked hazes have a classic ambient touch with chord bolts that streak through them etching a gorgeous penmanship. It is one of those albums that if you knew how to make, you would. The American Dollar’s balance of earthy and airy tones is attractive. The duo do not lean more on one side than the other, which makes the graphic images permeating from their songs resound with a human voicing while piped in idealistic esthetics.
absolutepunk

try
listen

tracklist:
1. Knickerbocker
2. Uh
3. Pickpocket
4. Goosebumps
5. Rook to queen’s pawn
6. Sore thumb
7. Dishwasher
8. Pterodactyls
9. Pussyfooting
10. Lightbulbs
11. Hundreds & thousands

“Their sophomore release following the successful debut “Transparent Things”. “Lightbulbs” is a journey littered with fragmented images, anecdotes from the sublime to the ridiculous, and blurry stories that you feel you shouldn’t have overheard. Each track is an aural contamination set to itch your inner ear every waking moment.”

try
listen

tracklist:
01. Coat of Many Colors
02. My Love is Like a Red Red Rose
03. Ain’t Doin Too Bad
04. Chain of Fools
05. Won’t Be Long
06. Walkin’ After Midnight
07. Early One Morning
08. A Bold Young Farmer
09. If I Give My Heart
10. Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain
11. Summertime
12. Somewhere

“Eva Marie Cassidy (February 2, 1963 – November 2, 1996) was an American vocalist known for her interpretations of jazz, blues, folk, gospel, country and pop classics. She released her first album “The Other Side” in 1992 followed by a live solo album “Live at Blues Alley”. Cassidy was virtually unknown outside her native Washington, DC when she died of melanoma in 1996.”

1. Ohio (2:24)
2. Slipped Dissolved And Loosed (4:50)
3. I’m Thinking Of A Number (6:18)
4. National Talk Like A Pirate Day (5:59)
5. A Hold Of You (5:38)
6. Sharing A Gibson With Martin Luther King Jr. (4:34)
7. Of Raymond (3:02)
8. Please Rise (3:39)
9. Popeye (6:18)
10. Close Up (3:52)
11. I Believe In You (3:27)

Buy ~ Download ~ Myspace

try
listen

tracklist:
01. Standing Bird
02. Your Song
03. Everybody Needs Somebody
04. Lady Madonna
05. Fantastic World
06. Unchained
07. My Last Fight
08. Last Smile
09. All Over Love
10. “O”
11. These Days
12. Neverland
13. A Day For You

HIS IS LOVE PSYCHEDELICO, the forthcoming album on HackTone Records, is the first album by LOVE PSYCHEDELICO to be released outside of Asia.

Kumi (vocals) and Naoki (guitar), two obsessives of the British Invasion and 70 s classic rock, formed Delico (as they re affectionately called by leagues of fanatics) in Tokyo 1997. With an ear for big hooks and even bigger guitar, the duo digested and reconfigured their influences with equal nods to the dance floor, the mod squad, and Laurel Canyon.

Kumi s lyrics slide almost invisibly between Japanese and English, emphasis on the latter. A mistress of the two languages, Kumi is fiercely devoted to creating a third through her music. No throwaway, nonsense choruses. No cartoon caricatures. No stale bubblegum. Instead, it s futuristic rock n roll swagger with a big heart.

more here:wikipedia
plus
Fantastic World EP

tracklist:
1. fantastic world
2. romance

try

tracklist:
1 Eleven Months
2 Seeking Juliet
3 More of the Same
4 Nazareth Bound
5 Dance in the Evermore
6 Willow Tree
7 Middle of the Bed
8 Movie Queen
9 Tears in Your Rain
10 Cold Touch
11 Day Keeps Coming
12 How Little I Sleep

“Her writing is mature and her lyrics flow in an almost conversational manner, which is wholly engaging” - Maverick Magazine (UK) - 4 stars

“Another new talent from Canada is about to take the music world by storm” - Leo Kattestaart, Alt.Country.com (NL) - 4 stars

“Canada has produced another excellent new singer-songwriter!” - Ctrl.Alt.Country.com (NL) - 4 stars

“Like an old friend checking in after a long absence, there’s a rolling, open road accessibility to Lynne Hanson’s music that I find very old school and refreshing. Again and again I have listened to Things I Miss and each song stays with me, engaging me to leave the disc in the player and to hell with whatever else might come down the pike.”- Mike Jurkovic, Folk & Acoustic Music Exchange
————–
Leading up to the release of her debut CD, Lynne has been attracting critical praise for this 12-song collection that invites the listener to explore universal themes of love, life and relationships. River By My Side off Things I Miss won the 2006 Blues Award for the Ontario Council of Folk Festivals “Songs from the Heart” contest, while the title track was chosen as one of the best songs of 2006 by the Indie Acoustic Music Project.

The youngest in a family of eight children, Lynne was exposed to a diverse array of musical eras and styles as she grew up. Older siblings were quick to pawn off babysitting duties to the likes of Neil Young, Johnny Cash and Bruce Springsteen, and Lynne was only too happy to sit and sing along for hours with the stacks of records and tapes.

The result is a hybrid brand of her own that merges thought-provoking lyrics with Texas soul-country. Roots-style instrumentation drives songs like the toe-tapping Old Dog Run, while Lynne’s soulful voice is laid bare in River By My Side, and takes on a sultry tone in Little Stage Fright. “Shot through with chances-missed and if-only tunes, this debut album by Ottawa’s Lynne Hanson makes for fine listening.” (Patrick Langston, Ottawa Citizen)

Things I Miss follows five years of performing and honing her musical skills with Ottawa guitarist / songwriter Shane Simpson (David Francey, James Cohen) in coffeehouses, bars and festivals across Canada. Prefacing each song with a story, her coffeehouse approach is good-natured and down-to-earth.”