when i see your face it's like sunlight dripping

Tricky - Murder Weapon
Super funky song by Tricky. Interesting to know that he was part of Massive Attack back in the 90s for a while. Somehow the entire gloom and doom is given an upbeat twist; and the beat and lyrics unconsciously catch on.

Eskmo - Cloudlight
I featured this on my tumblr sometime back but somehow forgot to mention it here. I mean this is one psychedelic trip that way is off the charts, so how could I forgot? That aside, hair-raising tribal-esque beats, vocals that seem to have been run through a vocoder and random samples adding to the soundscape, all add up to one hell of a wicked song.

Eskmo - We Got More
Yet another one by Brendan Angelides, replete with an even trippier video. This Cyriak dude, the guy who does the video animation, is super ace. Big bass beats that match to the changing of animation plus the same glitchy sound makes for a delectable listen.

Bag Raiders - Sunlight
They are a house duo from Sydney that my friend asked me to give a listen to. Gotta say it's a good recommendation. Really love the freshness of the pop imbued into this club number. And we have yet another interesting albeit quirky video today, which a youtube user sums it up quite aptly as "act like monkey = get hot chick". Super groove-worthy.

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'm caught up in a storm that i don't need no shelter from

Oh dear me.

During my trip, I was listening almost incessantly to songs from 2009, and listening through my 50 Favourites of 2009 list, I suddenly noticed a band and their songs conspicuously missing. For some reason, I had failed to include DP - astonishing. And as I played their songs, it hit me like a train as I realised my folly. So the more I listen, the more I'm thinking, "Just how did it slip through the cracks?"Useful Chamber was already fantastic, but it certainly got better with time, like wine. I hereby dedicate this song to be my favourite of 2009, extremely belatedly.


Dirty Projectors - Useful Chamber

Deep sonorous thumps resonate while being punctuated by the high hat, almost like a sense of foreboding. However, you're greeted with measured vocals, as the lyrics roll off like rivulets of water sliding down the window on a drizzly spring day. You sit by the window, staring out as the occasional patter hits the window, cup of hot tea in hand, utterly mesmerised by the song as you are with the dance on the window.

You ponder as he hits the highs in the song, and as he speak-sings, the album title being chanted hits you. Subsequently, melodious ahhs and ohhs that feel like honey to the ears permeate the still air, you drown yourself further in the slow but purposeful beats - almost hypnotic.

The random outburst of guitar strumming and drums again causes a small smile to break across the pensive face, just as clouds give way to the glorious sun, warm rays showering the earth.

This is Useful Chamber for you.

we will triumph again

I have to apologise for the lack of posts of late, as preparations for my upcoming eurotrip have taken up most of my time. Also, moving forward, there might be no posts for the next 5-6 weeks, as I'm still unable to find a guest writer.

Caribou - Found Out
Get a feel of his organic-sounding music, as he seeks to expand his boundaries. "I got excited by the idea of making dance music that's liquid in the way it flows back and forth, the sounds slosh around in pitch, timbre, pan...dance music that sounds like it's made out of water rather than made out of metallic stuff like most dance music does," Snaith said in a press release. Found Out evokes this sort of sloshy feeling - part psychedelic, part liquid - like a kaleidoscope of lights from the surface of the sea, seen from high up above.

Bear In Heaven - You Do You
A tight mix of indie rock plus electronica that defines this song. The song feels endless, spacious, such that it makes it seem like you're but a small speck amongst this sonic vista. A little intrigue, a little of pulsing synths, a little of many things; you feel distant, maybe right in the world of the Watchmen.

City Breathing - Rain and Revolution
It's inevitable that they draw comparisons to 65daysofstatic or Explosions in the Sky, but whatever the name drops, their brand of slow-rock is mellow and dramatic, making full use of subtle reverbs that echo into space, one feels that their band name is a little apt, the heartbeat of the city like such.

City Breathing - A Place to Bury Old Mistakes (mp3)
Beautiful instrumentation that tugs your heart.