love hides in narrow corners

Oh drats! I missed my blog's first birthday!! %*&£^$*&£^&*"$(&%"^&(*"^$. Well, while I could console myself on the fact that I was actually still in Europe during the actual first birthday, but to think it slipped my mind even after coming back.


Anyhow, on to what has been procrastinated on for too long. Wonderful folks from Holiday for Strings, particularly Pony, dropped an email with a promo of their entire album. Here's what's said about them on their site, "The group's music is a subtle mixture - post rock, kraut rock, pop, disco, and dub music all turn up in their experimental recipes.".

On to the music itself, I have to admit only two songs really caught on to me initially, kinda like instant gratification. With the number of songs available out there, songs that fail to hook you in say the first minute is just tossed out. That's the world we live in - instant gratification. Nevertheless, I'm glad I gave "Favourite Flavor" a listening chance based on how much I liked Two of You and Particles. Their songs are worth the listen as it grows on you.

Particles has that bouncy playful vibe at the start, as they make use of various sounds to provide an almost systematic feel to the song. The rapid beat almost seeming like it needs to etch itself within one's memory, providing a solid foundation upon which the song builds upon. Past that bouncy playful feel, the song develops more into one shrouded in mystery, as if a plan, maybe sinister, is in the works.

Particles is one of the three instrumental tracks, taking it's place as the 5th track on the album, while Shelter Island and I Cry take 7th and 9th respectively. Shelter Island reminds me a little of The xx with the minimalist approach (and coincidentally, Shelter and Island(s) are two individual tracks on The xx's eponymous album). And if I wasn't really paying attention, the tang-ing sound would have really made me think of a certain chinese instrument. Very soothing and pleasant down tempo song, short of being ambient, that I could really listen to over and over. In a similar vein, I Cry is pretty down tempo too and enjoyable, but with it's roots seemingly of the electronic sort.

Unwilling/Not Able has a slow twinkly build up for all of 3 and a half minutes before Magnusson's baritone vocals appear, a solid contrast to the lightness of the build up. But it doesn't last, giving way to yet more repeated synths. Cue complementary female vocals courtesy of Titiyo which seems to add a different dimension to the song. A song which many may not be able to appreciate due to the song clocking out at 8:33, many mainstream songs last 4 plus minutes tops. The whole building up and evolution of the song in that 8:33 is actually a beauty, like an exploration in process, searching for the unlimited end, the horizon. Maybe it's similar to HFS as a band, searching for the identity that best represents them.

Love feels purposeful and yet when singing about something as unfathomable as love as Magnusson intones "love comes when you least expect it", he seems lost and almost like a little boy. But that's the truth of the matter, and the entire song conveys it perfectly. New wave influences are present in Light Years Ahead as the spacious song fills the emptiness around you. Finally, the titular song is almost as much an experimentation as it is an ode to the prog-rock gods.

Go on this exploratory cosmic journey with Holiday For Strings, and let "Favourite Flavor" grow on you. So what's your flavor?

Holiday For Strings - Two of You

Holiday For Strings - Unwilling/Not Able Dance Mix (mp3)

Holiday For Strings - Shelter Island (mp3)

i still feel the pain even after the prayer

Here we have an entirely free album offered to the masses by Fear of Tigers. Check it out here. So far, the only thing I've managed to glean is that Fear of Tigers is a one man electronic band from London, who is producer and former dolphin trainer Benjamin Berry.

You see that picture right up there, it's perfectly apt for this entire album. As you hit play, the image opens up and like a black hole, sucks you right into his fantasy world of happiness with 80s feel-good disco resonating from the trees. And if you see the trees bopping to the beat, funny looking beings that seem like oompa loompas going wild in this discobeat paradise, don't be surprised - it's natural. It's pure aural sugar rush, jazzing up your synapses as you need to start moving. Moving those feet right to that pulsating beat. Not moving is criminal, the biggest crime one can commit in this land of euphoria.

The title track is right where it belongs, in this lush soundscape made possible with samples. Disco muzak with catchy synths that rise and fall, clearly mimicked by your heart rate, it's still not the best there is in this solid album. Please Don't Leave has a solid driving beat with vocals by him(?, not sure) whilst I Can Make The Pain Disappear is the sonic equivalent of morphine, echo-ey vocals backed by a four-on-the-floor beat. Mr Berry here even manages to sneak in a little sweet surprise, as The Rich Cry Too with all that Daft Punk-ish keyboards might seem like just another song in happyland, but voila, a jazzy segment out of nowhere (prolly a sample) sets this well apart from the rest. Female vocals grace What Did I Do?, and if I had to answer that, I would be hard pressed not to tell Mr Berry that he made such a fantastic album. An oddity is Calling Your Name, it's very trance (but how does the rain and thunderstorm fit in? - I wonder) aka Groove Coverage yet manages to retain that nu-disco beat.

A fantastic album with 10 tracks each individual unto it's own, but listened together, you feel the all-too-familiar 80s disco infusion which reminds you that this is an album. A marvelous debut, an with none too few remixes under his belt which have been well-received, this man is gonna create planet Cossus or Snufsigalonica (whichever you prefer) where we'd wanna join him and his ragtag bunch of oompa loompas and grooving trees. Here's some magic for you to sample.

Fear of Tigers - The Rich Cry Too (mp3)

Fear of Tigers - Please Don't Leave (mp3)

Fear of Tigers - Calling Your Name (mp3)

but i'll just keep playing along

My friend actually introduced me to her music quite a while back, but I put it on the back burner for a while. A few days ago, I re-looked into her stuff, and I realised what I've actually been missing from this local gem. She was previously from rock band Allura which she fronted. I think this clearly presents to us her versatility, moving on to acoustic/electronic from rock. And I must say she's doing pretty well.



On first listen, she reminds me a lot of Priscilla Ahn. Her dulcet voice leaves something lingering while you listen to her songs. Her self released solo album, aptly titled "The Bedroom", as she recorded it in her bedroom, is a 4 track EP. It provides insights into what her music is like post-Allura. With gentle guitar arpeggios, and not afraid of using electronica, which was inspired by outfits such as Bjork and The Postal Service, coupled with her dynamism and versatile vocals, she melds all these into one easy to listen EP, which slowly grows on you as you start to appreciate her talents. Lead in track Rule The World utilises electronic beats quite generously to provide a gentle accompanying beat to a pretty song. The playful feel of this song isn't lost as well, as she sings of ruling the world and sharing the riches of the world, when it's just two of them - she and her loved one. When she sings of this lasting until they last till they are really old, you know she means it.

the pavements abound/looking to be found/and i'm cruising slowly
Aqueous Oblivion is purely stripped down to the basics, just the guitar and her. She exploits this fully, showcasing her abilities on the guitar and her vocals to the best she can.

Devotion In Reality delves deep into her past, musing about lost love. Of (broken) promises and heartbreak, you realise that this album could be about personal experiences. Well paced, with what sounds like a xylophone? in the background, the song slowly introduces you into her world, where the lack of lyrics mid song coincide with the opening to the door into that cosy, intimate world of hers and moves on, as if she's showing you around this wonderful place. I'm reminded of The Little Prince written by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, where the title character lives in a really tiny world (actually an asteroid), which is just about as big a house could be.

With a title like Find Fix and Save, it screams vulnerability of the heart. The layering of the song using synths is evident, ala Imogen Heap, but she never deviates from the heart and soul of this EP - her voice and guitar - to carry the song, and I might say the EP to the great distance it is already going.



With cleverly crafted songs that tug at your heartstrings and please your ears, it's really hard to fault this EP. As she prepares to release her full length album at the end of this year, which I'm eagerly awaiting, we'll have to settle for these 4 songs. And interestingly, like the lyrics in Find Fix and Save, there is indeed an emptiness that lingers in me when I stop listening. It's that good. If I had to rate this EP, (I hate rating because it gives numbers to the song/album/whatever is. I prefer words, as it can evoke much more - be it good or bad.) I'd say 4.5/5.


Official Site
Essentially her official site is where you'd go to download her EP for free, otherwise it's just miscellaneous stuff. Get the whole thing right now, and immerse yourself in her voice, and don't forget to get on the Inch Chua ride, which is only gonna get better.

THIS MONTH: Fires in Snow and Miike is Friendly

This is my 100th post since I started this blog! It doesn't even feel like I've been doing this for more than 3 months. And somehow it coincided nicely with this month's end of month post. (I didn't plan this. Honest)

What this post would be about is 2 albums that I've been uncovering more about day by day. After finding out yet another song in the album that hooks me in line and sinker, there would be another song glittering under everything else, waiting to revel in it's full glory.

I hear that the Miike in their name was derived from Japanese director Takeshi Miike, that they are fans of his. For Miike Snow's self-titled album, Animal came out guns a blazing as the first single. (oh btw, this came out at the unusually sweet ending for the latest Gossip Girl episode. also, I think they got the singer wrong for Ready For The Floor which is by Hot Chip. They listed a female singer when the song obviously was sung by a guy.) These guys, Andrew Wyatt (who does the vocals and the songwriting) combined with the production of Christian Karlsson and Pontus Winnberg (more known as Bloodshy & Avant and produced/wrote Britney Spear's Toxic and Piece of Me), spared nothing in their arsenal. There's the balladic and emotional Silvia contrasted with the heavy house beats present in In Search Of. I can't make head or tails of what A Horse Is Not A Home could mean, and the cryptic lyrics did nothing to help, but it is a pretty catchy number, though not the best they could muster. And one wonders what Miike Snow could be doing with a song on the affairs of the heart, but here they are with Cult Logic, wondering if somebody can free him from the logic of love that he knows. There are slow numbers like Faker - very pop-ish with the piano in the background and a tinkle of electronic, to the uber catchy buzz of Burial sang to the tune of morbidity.

A very pop-ish feel, with heavy electronic influences, it's reminiscent of a male version of La Roux, with a vocalist fronting the production. However, Miike Snow is(or are) Miike Snow, and it's hard to fault what Pontus and Christian are doing and Andrew doesn't let down either with meaningful (and a dose of huh?) lyrics not usually present in pop. But of course, the album isn't perfect, with a song like Plastic Jungle which sounded like a mish-mash of odd lyrics plus weird la-la-las. Like "sometimes i wanna get slain" and "I was choked by the jailor and fucked the gorilla." just throws you off kilter. A lot of people say they sound a bit like Passion Pit, but I think both are unique and have their own identities, and I love them both.





Next up is British group and Mercury Prize nominee, Friendly Fires, also with a self-titled album. Ed Macfarlane met bandmates Jack Savidge and Edd Gibson at St Albans School, said to be one of the oldest school in Europe.

First things first is their really arty cover. It's obviously something broken, but I really can't think of what it could be. The white stuff that seems to be scattering, immediately brings to mind the Skeleton Boy video, which by the way just oozes with catchy beats and trippiness. They seem to be going all ravey in the video. Suspiciously, Lovesick sounds very similar, even the lyrics are about love. What do you think? There's the obviously dance and remix friendly Jump In The Pool. Dance beats, check. Awesome chorus, check. Groovy melody, check. So there. Like Miike Snow(the album), there are songs that just don't fit. Maybe as a debut album, it's experimental on their part, but Photobooth has Macfarlane going so high(as in pitch) about a photobooth. Ditto On Board which sounds like something out of a drag show. But here, we have a saviour inParis. It makes me just wanna turn it on on the rooftops of an apartment (doesn't have to be in Paris), but preferably somewhere with an awesome night view under the stars, like in the song. Just dancing to it, or leaning over the parapet gazing out and over, even just lying down and watching the stars, see if they twinkle to the pulsing beat. And here I am wondering how they could make ooh-ooh-oohs sound good in Kiss of Life while Miike Snow just botch it with la-la-las. (ok it could get a little grating after repeated listens to the song - the ooh-ooh-oohs). White Diamonds is just unadulterated rock. While it doesn't culminate in a bang, it has the prerequisite chorus and highs and lows, not forgetting the hard drumbeats pounding behind.

Like what Edd Gibson notes: "The hardest thing I think is to know what to leave out, to know when something is enough." They nearly got that, except for a few ughs here and there, like Miike Snow, it's rolling as a debut. I particularly love these lines in Paris - "I'll find you that French boy/You'll find me that French girl", don't ask me why.

These two have put together really tight songs that just literally force your legs to start moving or sometimes pensive songs that want you still - just listening. Not forgetting the dearth of remixes for both album, I could leave them on for hours and maybe not finish one cycle.

And now essentially, I've actually done 2 album reviews in one post, but what I was looking to do was to just talk about them, which I realise the music has more than sufficiently done. Really look forward to their sophomore album. This marks the end of this post, but with these groups, it just heralds more for us music lovers.

this is one plane i can't miss.

The lovely folks over at AAM, particularly Tom, gave me Aeroplane Pageant's latest LP "Even The Kids Don't Believe Me" to sample. Earlier, I featured their song Stars Still Pretty here. Aeroplane Pageant(from here on AP) are Brian Kelly (vocals/guitar), Timothy Watson (bass/vocals), Michael Areephituk (lead guitar), Christopher Aguis (guitar/electronics/percussion) and Erik DeAngelis on drums.

What stands out the most in this LP is Kelly's vocals, it seems to be what's driving many of the songs. But it may seem this way because quite a few songs are actually pretty stripped down, featuring simple beats and acoustic plucking to complement Kelly's good vocal range. Like in the titular track, this is very evident. Even The Kids Don't Believe Me sings of feeling lost, and not telling that to a particular person, which should be a girl. Seems to me that this is a song about lost love, but the lyrics are a bit abstract so I'm not too sure myself.

I’m in the closet trying on all of my old shoes
Waiting for someone to come by, say something of use..
I’m in the kitchen listening to the snow hit the ground
Hope to hell someone will tell me, "It’s okay you can go now."

You can really feel the emotions bursting out of his voice, trying to tell the listener something, in both the previous song and this song After The Car Crash. They employ the same plucking of the guitar and light drumbeats and allow Kelly to bring the song to it's greatest height, at "So much for us foxing around/So much for us forgetting ourselves/So much for everything else".

You can hear the percussion in Nobody Gets Hurt where the main character is a spider, who was invited to witness a man and his mistress, and subsequently where a crowd has gathered. But the stand out track is probably Stars Still Pretty. It's the most "un-stripped down" song in the LP. There's a really catchy beat, their standard abstract lyrics. Most of all, they sound like they're having loads of fun in this song.

AP really has lots of imagination and stuff up their sleeves, for I can't really fathom what they're singing about, because the lyrics in one song never seems to be always about one thing, and this could be a good or bad thing. The jury's still not out on that. One thing for sure, is that this LP still seems a bit experimental, trying to find out their best sound, though they somewhat find their ground in songs such as Stars Still Pretty, Even The Kids Don't Believe Me and After The Car Crash. They've got a good vocalist in Kelly, and they need more songs which would showcase the abilities of their guitarists and drummer, which I believe are just as good. One gripe about this LP is that they could have done away with all the less than one minute songs, which seem to be there for the sake of being there. Otherwise, this is a laudable effort by AP and I would expect their first full length album to be nothing short of brilliant, having given us glimpses of it in this LP. Watch out for them for this is one plane you won't want to miss.

You can listen to them at their myspace or head over to last.fm. Their official site also has stuff you might want to check out. And here's a repost of Stars Still Pretty. Really fun and hilarious, not to mention random video of them, certainly befitting of AP.

Aeroplane Pageant - Stars Still Pretty

For those who want to download Stars Still Pretty, here's the link provided by Spinner, as their free mp3 download of the day. (Right click and Save Target As/Save Link As)

saturday night fevaaaaaaaaaa. not exactly saturday though.

Well, what's reaching fever pitch here in Singapore is the upcoming F1 race held from 25 to 27 September 2009. It's the first night race in the whole world, and this is the 2nd year that Singapore is hosting this prestigious and supposed glamour that comes along with it (think Monaco). It's all up to the Singapore organisers to put out all stops to make this year's event even better than last year's, which set the bar pretty high, in the eyes of most industry insiders. That said, something else is reaching fever pitch, and that's FEVER RAY.

Some may have heard of The Knife, and in fact along with Fever Ray, I've featured them before. The Knife is siblings Karin Dreijer Andersson and Olof Dreijer, who run Rabid Records, which also released Fever Ray's eponymous album. So now, The Knife is taking a supposed 3 year hiatus, and Olof has gone back to working on his solo DJ project while Karin... obviously did something. Something that could be so huge and reach fever pitch in the genre of electronic music - releasing her first full length solo album.



While I won't profess to know much about electronic music, I think anybody with a discerning ear can tell that Fever Ray is something different (whether good or bad is another question altogether but I'll leave that for later). So electronic music sounds electronic (it's really retarded but for the lack of a better word, I'm really bad with words), there's a different spin to her electronic, which I'll put it as tribal sounding? I feel as if I'm being tied to a totem pole, with these face painted tribal people dancing around me. Ok I digress. But there's this manic, demented and catatonic feel to her songs. The lyrics, the melody, the accompanying electronic beats. Does "i learned to not eat the snow/my fur is hot, my tongue is cold" sound vaguely sane? Seems like she wants to become an animal or sorts to me. This unhinged feeling resonates throughout most of the album, accompanied by a alluring sort of warbling and elusive feel. It's like the lyrics are floating towards me, and try as I might to grab it, everything just slips through my fingers. Again, the discerning ear is able to tell that there are all sorts of different sounds, produced by a plethora of instruments I would suppose, proof of her experimentation in this genre.



When I Grow Up evokes a certain rawness, coupled with measured insanity, "i put my soul in what i do/last night i drew a funny man/with dark eyes and a hanging tongue" You would give your all say, in your favourite sport, or maybe in rigorous academia, or even drawing. Yet all her soul was put into what she did, drawing a funny man with dark eyes and a hanging tongue. Seven is a stark contrast, singing about how she talks to a friend she knew since she was seven, about banal things such as the dishwasher tablets, intimate stuff like love, and dreaming together about heaven. But one might be inclined to wonder if that friend actually exists. What is said at her site, is that you can figure out for yourself whether a song such as If I Had A Heart, which sings of “Dangling feet from window frame/ Will they ever reach the floor/ More give me more give me more”, is inspired by observing her young children. Or if Concrete Walls, despite its ghostly demeanour (that seemingly masculine vocal is, as always, Karin working the voice transformer) and sense of entrapment, is actually about new motherhood, as revealed in “I live between concrete walls/ In my arms she was so warm/ Eyes are open and mouth cries/ Haven’t slept since summer.” Or whether the regular references to snow reflect anything more profound than the national climate. (Note: I took this from her site because I wanted to present a different side to what her album is like, and it's hard to say what was said without differing much from it, so I figured showing everything as it was. So note that the portion after the 'her site' link, was not written by me.)

This is a Swedish gem (more and more good stuff coming from this Nordic country it seems), and I hope more can actually uncover it's brilliance. That said, Karin/Fever Ray's different is something sublime, and it enthralls you for all it's feverish mania. Personally, I can't find anything to fault in this album, and it could mean more to come for both Karin herself, and The Knife as a duo. To sum this album and Fever Ray up succinctly, one would only need to look at If I Had A Heart's "more, give me more, give me more". More indeed.


Fever Ray - If I Had A Heart

Fever Ray - Concrete Walls

Fever Ray - When I Grow Up (D Lissvik Remix)

Fever Ray - Triangle Walks (Rex the Dog Remix)




Bonus:
The Knife - Heartbeats (Rex the Dog Remix)

hokay.. here's the earth. nawww, here's WHITE LIES!!!!!

Alright, one of my favourite upcoming new bands, and certainly doing awfully well. White Lies consist Harry McVeigh, Charles Cave and Jack Lawrence-Brown. During live performances, Tommy Bowen complements with the keyboard.

Their debut work, "To Lose My Life" is macabre and dark. Oddly enough, with the darkness, there were subtle glimmers of light that speck the songs. With loss, there was redemption, with despair, there was hope.

Title track "To Lose My Life" poses the question 'to lose my life or lose my love' and that indeed is a hard question. The question is subsequently answered, in that they should grow old together and die at the same time. Simple and ingenious. Yet within this whole nightmare, lies a sliver of hope as a part of him still believes, that his soul will soar above the trees. Strong pulsating drum beats drive this song, which is the recipe for about the whole album. "E.S.T." is personal yet again, disturbingly dark lyrics lead me to wonder what it would really be like to leave my memoirs in blood on the floor, and my fears with the nurse on the stairs. Personally, I feel that "Unfinished Business" managed to show his extended range of vocals for a rock song and thus, him at his best. The lyrics tell a story, of betrayal and forgiveness, and stands out the most in this album. The most telling of what the album's idea is about, "Death" is surprisingly the most mild of all. All that he did was picturing his own grave, and he's frightened of dying.

The songs actually sounds almost the same, it's like there's a recipe, the steps are the same, while the ingredients are different. All they need to do is change the lyrics. It's pretty anthemic and could actually be radio-friendly, which is a double-edged sword. The thundering bass supplements the drum beats which are the driving force behind this album. However, if one would notice, the keyboard and synth could actually be heard lining most songs, adding a difference to this album. Overall, it sounds very clean and crisp, but sometimes a little too much, very methodical.

While this album received mixed reviews, I would like to say I quite liked the album, as it somewhats grows on you and that I'd like to see how they develop as a band. Partly, I don't think they can milk this dark tone anymore for their next album and it would be interesting to see what they can come up with. Ultimately, this may not be a stellar album, but it sparkles in it's own way and certainly makes them one to look out for.


White Lies - Unfinished Business

White Lies - To Lose My Life

White Lies - Death


official site, myspace, wikipedia, last.fm

With respect to last Saturday's The Saturday Mix, here's Au Revoir Simone's new album, "Still Night, Still Light". This is their third album, following "Verses of Comfort, Assurance & Salvation" and "The Bird of Music".

While this outing may seem like the superficial electro-pop one expects from an all girl band, it's all that and so much more. They are all 3 keyboards and drum machine at once, and yet their own individuality stands out behind all that fussy group harmony. Sounding disarmingly minimalist, with their plain yet dulcet voices which are so oddly appealing, you're drawn slowly into their world of fantasy. Their alarming naivete and disconcerting emotional bedlam cannot be taken at face value for there is sincerity, tenderness and grace as can be seen in Shadows, where they sing "I'm moving on/I hope you're coming with me/because I'm not strong without you". The piercing simplicity of Take Me As I Am, "We’ve talked a million hours to end up just where we began", svelte keyboards a deft contrast to the stark beats of the drum machine in Shadows.

This album is their best yet, brilliantly executed, intimate and personal, it combines its veneer of naivete with an almost contradictory fervour, choosing to retain its fragile beauty without ever breaking it.

Au Revoir Simone - Shadows

Au Revoir Simone - Take Me As I Am

Au Revoir Simone - All or Nothing

ok, decided to start a music blog.

first off, i'm so damn frustrated that i forgot all my html and now i've got no idea how to edit the template on my own. ugh.

secondly, as a result of the first point, the blog looks WAY too minimalist.



to start off, Bon Iver is essentially a one man outfit, founded by Justin Vernon. For Emma, Forever Ago was it's debut album, self-released in 2007 and subsequently released by Jagjaguwar in 2008. While made up of mostly acoustic songs, one should not take this lightly but indulge in the melancholy and nakedness of these songs. The almost title track, For Emma starts off with an intro that tingles ever so slightly, the entire song is aural plesantry that makes you crave for more and you definitely won't be disappointed. With songs like Re: Stacks and Flume, this is one album you shouldn't be missing out on and has seen regular time on most of my current playlists.

For Emma, Forever Ago is one fantastic album. Absolutely beautiful music from justin, it is totally something you'd turn on while lazing around at home. Actually, I could listen to this anywhere, over and over again.

Bon Iver - For Emma

Bon Iver - Re: Stacks

Bon Iver - Flume