eashfa
Head is alive. Hence the sound of music.Archive for pop
Nouveau Camille
Generally I wouldn’t post previews, but this is a good one. It’s from Camille’s new album. Sounds as quirky as ever, slightly more mainstream. Who knows, she might pull a Feist with this one.
Cyanide for my sweetheart
Cyanide Valentine have got an album out that is not emo as their name suggests, and as they themselves suggest to de-suggest. So no emo I suppose. Though they do have a fallback plan in that.It’s a good album, it’s free so it can’t hurt to download and check out. The vocals do seem amiss at times, and set me contrary, but on Sugar Coma they silently smithereen you away. All in all, a mish-mash of guitar pop and electronica. And, no, not emo I dare say. I smell a trail of potential.download The Three Sides of the Cyanide Valentine (zip)couple i like:
Sugar Coma
The Reprise
Just when I was wondering
how this song got into my library, I realised, it hadn’t; yet. Very ethereal, and nice, sounds like a soundtrack, like it’s going somewhere.
The Yelle picturesque
The regulars will know: I adore and love Yelle in many different ways. The topics (dodgy misogynistic DJs, bra size and girl-on-girl action), this is quite naturally pop music addressed to the ear that knows no shallow horizons. All the same, it’s dance music that you just jump around to. Demonstration via Yelle herself:
Two new remixes for you, but go grab the freshly-dropped album (Pop) if you like her, or go see her fluo coloured live shows.
Aaron Schroeder: Black and Gold
Though I haven’t been giving indie rock music much thought these past few months, I can’t really ignore Aaron Schroeder. I’ve featured him before with glee, and here he is again.
Aaron is a relentless musician with bittersweet stories. I guess that’s what I like about his music - the story-telling. His sound travels along with him like an over-inflated backpack crammed with instruments. His second album will be out in a month or so, Black and Gold it’s called, so until then I’m giving you the taster Aaron layed on me today, an alternative ballroom ditty for the indie heads out there. Gotta love the vibraphone!
It features Justin Meldal - Johnsen, who gave the gift of bass to artists such as Ladytron and Tori Amos. He’s also friends with Air.
Moths perched on Rainbows
So this is psyche-rock! Psyche-rock, meet the people of eashfa.. Let us bow our heads from side to arrow in this marsupial pocket of a sound.. It sounds like it’s not there, actually it sounds like Air, what era, ah who cares. Great stuff from the LP Dandelion Gum
Black Moth Super Rainbow - Forever Heavy mp3
Black Moth Super Rainbow - The Afternoon Turns Pink mp3
Bang Gang
If you’re on a deserted island right now, and someone were to soundtrack your life, they should at least consider Bang Gang’s It’s Allright, to restore some solitary dignity to your steps.
I know the music’s a tad melancholy, but if you got Lady and Bird (Bardi Johansson’s more explicit collaboration with Keren Ann) you’ll probably like this too.
Forever Thursday
I just love my readers, especially those that obsess about songs and then obsess about finding the song when you can’t remember anything except a couple of lyrics. Paul, that means you. I felt quite silly not knowing who Paul was asking about in the mail he sent me, but that feeling of music-know-it-all supremo comes and flows or goes. Speaking of flow, before I digress, the song Paul eventually found is this:
Get it while it’s hot and JC Penney don’t slap my file hosts with a stick. And before you hear it all over the airwaves inducing that can-someone-cut-my-head-off syndrome.
Lonnndohn, is the place for me
Or is it? The Good The Bad And The Queen have received quite a lot of press, especially since their Electric Proms performance. But heads will turn and ears will tune in when you’ve got Damon Albarn, Tony Allen, Paul Simonon and Simon Tong playing together.
They’re all temping in the band, apparently, so this is just an experiment gone public. In part, it does sound a bit too close to Gorillaz (probably because Dangermouse is producing the record). However, if you take your time, let the lyrics stir you instead of violently shufling through your iPod, you’ll find a bunch of subtle melodies that take urban landscapes, lost romance and- yeah, well- politics; they’ll settle under your skin before you know it. More than that, you’ll maybe work out the joy of listening to a whole album again.
These are guys who are already famous and who aren’t doing it for the money so they don’t need to be overzealous or fake. Their material is based on aesthetics and doesn’t seem to make compromises - against the tone set by most commercial prostitutes artists.
Here’s a track for you all:
You could pre-order the “Kingdom Of Doom” single (and listen to five more tracks if you do), but that’s against the point of the group and it’s reason for being, so I suggest you pre-order the album off amazon if you’re considering buying.
Here’s a clip featuring The Good The Bad And The Queen, taken from BBC’s The Culture Show:
More: listening practice: The Good The Bad And The Queen @ The Hype Machine
reading: an article from Time Out London
While the weekend aways
Regardless of the fact that you’ve either purchased or leached the album Tired Of Hanging Around up until now, here’s the Zutons. You can always check out their un-unnerving, eye-easy myspace for tour dates. Their latest single release is probably meant to re-unleash some sort of interest..? Valerie I remember as the soundtrack to getting my passport, so I’m inclined to give them space here with a very pop-a-Brit-rocker song that you can download off iTunes anyway but here it would be…
I think I mentioned something of a dance of tiny dimensions on eashfa, well here you have it - and no, no Elton John referencing here, just a bunch of funtime-peddlers with conspicuously stuffed animals during performances. Tiny Dancers are growing out their small-town, formerly-marooned roots into a musical role that might seem excessively zealous but isn’t that just the point. There’s a touch of post or prog that wraps like a ribbon around a box of catchy guitar gems. The teeny bunch sound stamina-ridden and sprinkle their multitude of influences (around and over the Pond- The Flaming Lips for instance) like soy sauce on Basmati rice. Mmm.
Their albums’ out, so raise thy warrior and go amazon.
I’ve been listening to Nellie McKay’s latest LP and have been mesmerized whilst ipodding, by her song There You Are In Me. It pianos and pleas in pure unsought-out Nellie style. Her sophomore recording has a playground of its own, and her grandfather did time in San Quentin.
So’s Your Baby Fratelli
UPDATE: Sorry for the bad links, it should be sorted soon with filelodge. Meanwhile I posted mirrors.
Don’t shit your pants ’cause I’ll be talking about an extremely hyped band for the next few lines. 
The Fratellis. When I first read about them in my Warsaw-acquired NME (NME is apparently banned in Romania, de facto), back in July, all I thought was, Not another Brit-rock band, with “sharp” lyrics and a “no-nonsense” attitude. Like I was ever going to listen to them. The only thing that was remotely compelling was lead singer Jon Fratelli saying that no one writes story-based lyrics anymore, and that it was a right shame, Or something.
But I listened to the album recently, and a beast was unleashed on my stereo. A beast what soon will not leave its designated, laser-read handy territory. I mean, fuck, there isn’t one truly bad or out of place song in this post-Libertines earscape. Post-Libertines.. That probably makes the Fratellis post-postmodern-Brit pop. There are highlights in here, on Costello Music, but I can’t particularly say whether some songs are better than others. They are all cotton-candy simmering in a pint.Personally I can’t listen to this too much while I’m on the go, because I’ll feel like dancing and people look funny at you when you prance around on highstreets. OK, I’ll agree with the “no-nonsense”. The Fratellis don’t seem to make any compromises here, but the outcome is freakishly endearing, drawing influences from The Beatles or The Stones, as likeable as The Kooks, but better.
The Fratellis - Everybody Knows You Cried Last Night (mirror location)
Check out their myspace for more music.
I’m also going to squeeze in a mixtape recommendation here: 18 songs For Your Autumn. Deerhoof, Jens Lekman, Gotye, the infamous Girl Talk. I’ve been listening to it a lot, and although most of the songs were familiar to me, this is great sequencing too.
Ali Love
I was tempted to spice up the title with some exclamation marks, three seems to be the norm in this case. Sobriety caught up with me, even though this guy deserves at least one for each of his personalities.
Musically, multiple personalities are good news for Ali Love. The 25-year old Londoner is currently playing hop-scotch with the genres thing, and giving me a headache, if I were the type of person who got headaches. Because I can’t describe this music without getting all sub-genrey, which I can’t stand. Which takes nothing from its quality.
There’s this electronic streak on a glam-pop background travelling one song, then minor keys and a sparse, electricity-filled acoustic earscape on the next. Naturally, he writes, plays and produces all his songs.
We’ll accept nothing else since the bar’s been raised on what I might call faux-indie (the music people like to tag as indie on last.fm just because it’s not exactly mainstream pop-rock; not good enough people). Anyway, this is indie, since Ali’s records are released on his own label, I Love Records.
May I present you with the mighty catchy Rock N Roll Control.
But don’t think you’ve got Ali Love tagged just by that. You might want to listen to this too, where he gets all nostalgic the postmodern-folk way:
To listen to more, go to Ali’s MySpace page.
*I used a new file host here, mooloader. If you have any problems let me know
Joan can be my lighter
Each day I listen to music I’ve never heard before, and every day I get less easier to impress. It’s hard to discern what good music is when it doesn’t fall into the immediate “love” or “hate” categories. I could probably throw away half of my CDs and never think of them again (though if I did, you know I’d be that disheveled looking lass on top of Bucharest’s garbage dump stinkers pulling her hair out cos she can’t find her beloved Kooks album).
I do love some songs, and I don’t have to obsessively play them so they show up on my last.fm to know that. They stick with that unseen part of my iceberg. So, today, I was struck by an artist and I’m still rubbing my eyes like you would when you come out of the cinema and you have to get used to the light. But I’m coming out of the cinema skipping and jumping along main streets, that’s how good Joan As Police Woman are. Joan Wasser is the one under the limelight, a bit of an indie icon - amongst many other projects, her day job for a while consisted of playing violin with Antony and The Johnsons. Her bandmates are Rainy Orteca and Ben Perowsky (bass and drums respectively), also respected indie peers.
“I began singing to myself, very quietly to myself so no one could hear. It’s shocking to hear your own voice. It’s also shocking to learn you have no idea what you want to say.”
Joan talks like that. Imagine how she sings. I can’t profess my love for her voice enough. She’s got Cat Power’s charisma and vocal depth and Annette Peacock’s soul, confiscating all the atmosphere your speakers will or won’t cover.
Joan As Police Woman - Eternal Flame mp3
tracks for streaming at BBC Collective
Buy at You Make Music
Ginger pieces for my Little Red Riding Hoods
I’m out until the 12th or the 13th, depending when or if I choose to come back from Open’er. But before I go, here’s some of my favourite music to smoke, eat, shower, walk, imagine driving, drink a nice bevvie to, this darkening side of 2006.
Love Is All - Make Out Fall Out Make Up mp3
Nouvelle Vague - Ever Fallen In Love mp3
Larrikin Love - Downing St. Kindling mp3 (6 Music - BBC Session)
The Kooks - She Moves In Her Own Way mp3
Conrad Newholmes - Noonday night mp3
Beirut - Rhineland (Heartland) mp3
The Radio Dept. - Why Won’t You Talk About It mp3 (via Labrador)
Sunset Rubdown - A Day In The Graveyard mp3
Herbert - Something Isn’t Right mp3
and a remix - Wolfmother - Woman (MSTRKRFT remix) m4a
Sigur Ros you’ll just have to buy. Or take a look here.
Right, now go and check out some of my fave blogs on the Further music page. Although some of them might be on hiatus too, they’re all worth a try, especially bigstereo. My main inspiration, although it might not look it.
Oh and wolf! Don’t let’s be snarky.
Mirah and Cibelle
Mirah (K Records) is the kind of artist I don't want to know anything about except her music. If I were the kind of the person that got headaches, I'd listen to a looping Pollen. A good thing can creep up on you like the understated bass line in this song. It's folky but not limp; like pink sunshine
Mirah - Pollen mp3 (You've got pollen on your nose)
Mirah - The Sun mp3
Mirah - Apples In The Trees mp3
I love Nouvelle Vague but they can get tiresome. Cibelle takes her kite a bit higher and although I've only heard these two songs, I plan on LP-ing myself further because this must be one of the records of the year, I'll be damned. "You make love at me." Rare understanding of metalanguage right there. Like I said, fly Cibelle fly!!! Some music samples here. I looked through all of her site because of the wicked-witty names for the pages - her blog's called Conversations With Your Own Fingernails… which nails it in more ways than one.
blogs, pringles and crack were all made by the Devil
hrsh
That's creativity for you. I love the martian pringles. The crack - who knows, I haven't gone down that line - though black is no darker than white. But who dunnit? Who made Christina Aguilera?
I don't know how i feel about this. i'm… i'm confused.
Christina Aguilera - Ain't No Other Man mp3 (via sintalentos)
shoegaze? for sure. soft radiohead without falsettos (no matter how lovely they are- for real, thom's falsettos make me twinge with delight) and a female singer surfing on an emo-jazz wave? yeah. i'm in lov. Sara Lov's voice is amazing. Romantic but not mushy - this is a discovery I want to gorge myself with. Free download from betterPropaganda, where you also get the facts on the band - oh and, yes, the band has a name, it's called Devics. Too many angels here? Go hear them, no regrets.
[now.. there is something about that Aguilera track]
oh cam!.. has writer's block and a .. beautiful, of beauty full mix from her brainwaves. we're all DJs here dontcha know. The Cinematic Orchestra, Wilco, Deltahead, Built To Spill, this just put the p in perfect - as opposed to - i don't know (for my mood anyway).
[ah, yes, i played the instrumental version in my head. it's quite nifty]
for some strange reason it reminds me of a track i love with the vocals on it - a Lauryn Hill at-the-decks mix of a Whitney tune. It goes "I was born in New York…". The hell you say
m4a download for that - yeah, it's not an mp3. sue me
Hal
Persephone's Bees Angelina loves them, they've had pretty good reviews and they've been slammed.
But that's not why I like Hal. I like them because they love their music. and they're not afraid to say it. There's been appreciation talk of them, but not nearly enough and I'm gonna root for them some more. David Allen's is high-pitched but not shrill, and a falsetto doesn't sound fishy (which is what horrifies me about Clap Your Hands Say Yeah).
Hal - Worry About The Wind mp3
Oh and I almost forgot:
Afraid of Pop: Sandi Thom and this War Thing
I listen to the BBC occasionally. An array of soft-spoken presenters to ease the pressure of the latest nuclear attack. Anyway, listening to all that grown up stuff, you get an idea as to what's going on. What you don't want to do is write a pop song about it.
Anti-war songs should be impromptu, improvised, a dab of dark here, sarcasm there…
Now allow me to be trivial. One Sandi Thom, directly from her basement 
Are people too ashamed of liking this song to post it? Hm. The debacle on chartreuse.
Oh but I guess you’ve heard this before
The Romanian musical landscape moves around the principle of concentric circles. The robustly-diametered outward circles are the masses listening to a strange breed of pop culture and gypsy music that I will not post. Then there's the mediocre brand of pop, substandard and all. The more you get to the center of the circles, to that one throbbing disc of lava that I like to pop my toe in, you either burn your skin or start dancing (after the convulsive twitching). Yes, bingo, adapting is the word. Again, I hope you haven't gone away. If you're still here…
Exhibit A. proto pop
Here we have a circa 1980s pop tune from a communist-era teeny bopper flick, "Liceenii"(The Graduates). Not as scary as it sounds, the film is a classic and so is this kitschy-catchy electro-pop-for-your-nan song. I still dig it.
Exhibit B. The Take-A-Stab at Indie Rock
Moving on to latter days in rebeldom, here's a band called OCS [formerly Omul cu Sobolani (The Man With The Rats), inspired by Steinbeck's Of Men and Mice]. This song expresses the struggles of having two emptied beers before you and the wish to exchange them with a new foamy pint.
OCS - 2oua beri goale (two empty bottles) mp3
You can buy OCSTV (concept album, la-di-dah) here.
Exhibit C. The Underlying Electro protest
Sometimes I find myself surprised by what my fellow-countrymen conjure up. There's an astute affinity and a growing understand of electronic music here in Romania. I know, shocking. The thing is, this goes beyond that. This, in my book, is genius. This is music for partying, sleeping, being disheveled, being a butterfly, looking at the sky. You have to download this next song. Just trust me. If you hate it, say so. (But you won't). Have you ever discovered music you just wish everyone would love? This is my pet-hype for today. Shukar Collective. Shukar is the gypsies' (Tamango, Napoleon and Clasic sing on this record) clan.
Shukar Collective - Malademna mp3 ESSENTIAL
Here's the iTunes link for the LP Urban Gypsy.
Exhibits D & E (for lack of time)
Folksy: A fable with vivid voice makeovers. Ada Milea - Greierele si Furnica (The Cricket and The Ant) mp3
Electronic: And finally. Music for art's sake with no hidden agenda. Șuie Paparude - Pentru inimi mp3
Du must lernen. Every day in every way.
Let’s knot the strings together
Lily Allen has for some reason been compared to Lady Sovereign, which leaves me in a mist of misapprehension. Upon hearing the first notes off LDN, I thought of Corinne Bailey Rae.
As far as I know she is unanimously liked. Her myspace page is a place of fertility where zebras roam in peace with leopards and rainbows loom over pretty little strawberry cakes. I don't know if that makes any sense, I just mean that her fan base is growing exponentially as I write this.
Well you have to judge for yourselves now don't you.
Lady Sovereign - Ch-Ching XXXChange remix (iHud)
Corinne Bailey Rae-Put Your Records On (keepmyfile) official site
-saved the best for last-
Lily Allen - LDN (yousendit.com). Her LP will be out in July
update. ok so peeps love lily. love to y'all via this:
