Music Reviews

Focus On Music: Orchestral Manouvers In The Dark

2011-06-22T08:22:00.001-07:00

Featuring the core members Paul Humphreys and Andy McCluskey, the Liverpudlian synth pop group Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark formed in the late '70s. Humphreys and McCluskey began performing together in school, playing in the bands VCL XI, Hitlerz Underpantz, and the Id. After the Id split in 1978, McCluskey was with Dalek I Love You for a brief time. Once he left Dalek, he joined with Humphreys and Paul Collister to form Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark. The group released its first single, "Electricity," on Factory Records; the record led to a contract with the Virgin subsidiary DinDisc. Using their record advance, McCluskey and Humphreys built a studio, which allowed them to replace their four-track, and recorded with drummer Malcolm Holmes (formerly of the Id) and Dave Hughes (formerly of Dalek I Love You).

In 1980, the group released its self-titled debut album. Organisation appeared the same year, which featured the U.K. Top Ten single "Enola Gay"; Hughes was replaced by Martin Cooper after its release. The band's next few albums -- Architecture & Morality (1981), Dazzle Ships (1983), and Junk Culture (1984) -- found the band experimenting with its sound, resulting in several U.K. hit singles. Recorded with two new members, Graham and Neil Weir, Crush, their most pop-oriented album, found more success in America than in Britain as the single "So in Love" hit number 26 on the charts. "If You Leave," taken from the Pretty in Pink soundtrack, was their biggest American hit, climbing to number four in 1986. The Pacific Age was released the same year, yet America was the only country where it was popular. Shortly after its release, the Weir brothers left the band, followed by Holmes, Cooper, and Humphreys. McCluskey continued with the band, releasing Sugar Tax in 1991; in the meantime, Humphreys formed the Listening Pool.

Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark returned with Liberator in 1993. It was followed three years later with Universal, which saw Humphreys return for some co-writing credits. By the late '90s, McCluskey had moved into artist management, while Humphreys revived the OMD name for occasional shows.

A full-blown reunion came in 2006, including both McCluskey and Humphreys plus Holmes and Cooper. Initially, the band toured around a full-album performance of Architecture & Morality, and released one of their performances as Live: Architecture & Morality and More. Finally, in 2010, the new album History of Modern appeared on the 100% label.

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Moby: Destroyed

2011-04-12T20:42:00.000-07:00

Moby plays keyboards, guitar and bass guitar, and expresses mild irritation at the assumption that everything on his newer albums are samples. He took his performing name from the novel Moby-Dick by Herman Melville, who is his great-great-granduncle.

Moby is an American electronic musician and is also the name of his live band. Born Richard Melville Hall on September 11, 1965 in Harlem, New York. Moved to Darien, Connecticut at the age of two.

He has also released music under the names Voodoo Child, Barracuda, U.H.F., The Brotherhood, DJ Cake, Lopez, On the Rim of the Wheel a Nail, and Brainstorm/Mindstorm.

On his upcoming effort Destroyed, Moby constructs synthetic symphonies out of sounds coaxed from broken-down gear during dead-of-night sessions in hotel rooms.It’s an insomniac artist’s way of making sense of the world during a time when the music industry, and everything else, seems to be falling into chaos.

Destroyed, arriving May 16 in an arty deluxe package complete with a book of Moby’s photography, capably chronicles that dissonance in disembodied electronic music filled with human concerns like love and hope.

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Metronomy: English Riviera

2011-03-23T07:57:00.001-07:00

Named after the musical term for the measurement of time by an instrument, Metronomy are the dance-meets-rock project of London-based multi-instrumentalist and producer Joseph Mount. The live version of Metronomy also include keyboardist/saxophonist Oscar Cash and keyboardist/bassist Gabriel Stebbing. Prior to Metronomy, Mount and Stebbing played together in bands such as the Upsides, a pop group the pair described as "The Original Busted," and "The Customers", with whom they played in university. Using an old computer that his father gave him, Mount started Metronomy in 2002 as a side project to the other bands he played with. When his cousin Cash joined Metronomy, it became the trio's main project. With a sound inspired by everyone from Devo and David Bowie to N.E.R.D. and Pavement, Metronomy earned buzz for their engaging live show as well as official and unoffical remixes of tracks by Gorillaz, Architecture in Helsinki, Sebastien Tellier, Kate Nash, U2, and Britney Spears.

Metronomy's latest The English Riviera is due out April 11, 2011 and features the songs The Look and The Bay.

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Post Punk and the sound of ESG

2011-03-23T07:51:00.003-07:00

ESG (Emerald, Sapphire and Gold) are a band from the South Bronx, New York, U.S.. The band originally consisted of the Scroggins sisters Maria (congas, vocals), Renee (vocals), and Valerie (drums), and friends David Miles (guitar) and Leroy Glover (bass). A later incarnation of the band consisted of Deborah, Maria (congas, vocals), Renee (guitar, vocals), and Valerie Scroggins (drums). ESG have been influential across a wide range of musical genres, including hip hop, post punk, disco, and dance-punk.

ESG's music is centered around complex polyrhythms, a funky bass and pop-flavored guitar. During their first incarnation, the group signed with 99 Records and issued a debut self-titled EP in 1981 that featured three live (recorded at Hurrah) and three studio songs, the latter produced by English post-punk producer Martin Hannett (Joy Division, etc.). 1982's ESG Says Dance to the Beat of the Moody EP continued in a similar vein, as did their first full-length album, 1983's Come Away with ESG. ESG disbanded shortly thereafter, but re-formed in the early '90s, heralding their comeback with a self-titled 1991 compilation of previously released material. The group's work had become popular among hip-hop artists searching for samples, with such acts as TLC, the Wu-Tang Clan, the Beastie Boys, Big Daddy Kane, Gang Starr, Tricky, Jay-Dee (J-Dilla) on his Donuts album, and indie rockers like Unrest and Liars. The group addressed this issue on the 1992 12" EP Sample Credits Don't Pay Our Bills. The album, ESG Live!, was released in 1995 and featured both old and new material.

The band played their final show on Friday, September 21, 2007 at Chicago's Abbey Pub, during the Estrojam festival.

The band announced that they reformed and will be playing their first returning show at NYC's Santos House Party on September 13. They also claim that both more shows and new music will emerge in the future.

Instead of focusing on the music of ESL, we decided to focus on their influence of bands like

Ariel Pink's Haunted Grafitti, Millionyoung and Toro Y Moi.

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Spotlight On Music: Antony Hagerty

2010-11-12T20:51:00.000-08:00

This new york, usa-based chamber cabaret outfit is led by the striking, androgynous figure of singularly named performance artist Antony (b. Antony Hegarty, Chichester, West Sussex, England). His unusual background saw him relocating from his native england at the age of 10 to be raised in California, USA. He moved to New Yorkin 1990 to attend the experimental theatre wing at NYU, and before long had become heavily involved in the city's punk drag scene. paying homage to fabled performance artists Leigh Bowery and Klaus Nomi, Antony began performing late night cabaret sets with the blacklips collective at the city's Pyramid Club. In 1995 he assembled a backing group, the self-styled Antony And The Johnsons, and began to focus on the musical side of his performances. the group built up a cult following at hip new york clubs such as The Kitchen and Knitting Factory, but their debut blue angel remained unreleased until current 93 leader David Tibet signed Antony And The Johnsons to his Durtro label. The cast list of musicians on the album, released under the title Antony And The Johnsons in 1998, included transsexual artist Baby Dee (harp), Francois Gehin (bass), Todd Cohen (drums), Charles Neilson (guitar), and a number of string and woodwind players.

This collection of modern torch songs highlighted Antony's soulful, multi-octave vocals and the johnsons' graceful chamber pop arrangements.

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NEW Tracey Thorn: Without Me

2010-11-04T14:15:00.000-07:00

One of the most enduring English singer/songwriters since the early '80s, Tracey Thorn began making music with the all-female quartet Marine Girls, a minimalist pop group that released a pair of albums. She also recorded A Distant Shore, a relatively moody, if similarly skeletal solo album, for Cherry Red in 1983. Around that time she met Ben Watt -- who was also signed to Cherry Red -- and formed a partnership as Everything But the Girl. From 1984 through 1999, Thorn and Watt released ten albums that shifted from indie pop to slick sophisti-pop to downtempo club music.

Shortly after having twin daughters together, they put EBTG on ice. After several years of inactivity, Thorn began writing again and recorded her second solo album, Out of the Woods, which was released in early 2007. Throughout the years, she has guested on songs by a number of groups, including the Style Council, the Go-Betweens, Massive Attack, and Tiefschwarz.

Tracey Thorn's third solo album, Love & Its Opposite, is out May 17, and capitalises on the critical acclaim of her 2007 release, Out Of The Woods, a mixture of hard-edged dance music and folk fare which bridged the gap between the acoustic and the electric.

Love & Its Opposite finds Tracey and producer Ewan Pearson stripping things back to more organic essentials, embracing a retro sound that references the type of music she would have grown up listening to. Thorn is in pensive mood for much of the album, which is as much about her own experiences as a forty-something trying to make sense of her life as it is about the relationships of others, resulting in a mature and often cynically humorous set of songs that’s sure to be embraced by her stalwart fans.

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Bernard Sumner: Didn't Know What Love Was

2010-10-25T23:21:00.000-07:00

New Order arose from the ashes of Joy Division, one of the most influencial bands in the alternative music scene in the late 70's and early 80's. Joy Division were Ian Curtis, Bernard Sumner, Peter Hook, and Stephen Morris, four young men from Manchester, England. Joy Division drew attention to themselves with the release of their first full-length album, Unknown Pleasures, in 1979. The music they played was a sign of the times: angst-ridden, moody, enchanting, haunting.

New Order was known as the quitessential singles band of the 80's, releasing songs that weren't on any albums, or at least remixing them from the albums. In 1987, these singles (many of them long out of print and difficult to find) were collected on the double-album "Substance". Many of these songs topped the 5 and 6 minute mark, with a few going beyond that. It was with the release of "Substance" that New Order gained even greater worldwide recognition. Many argue that New Order could have been bigger if only they did things differently. They didn't splash their faces all over their album covers, they rarely even put their own names on their record sleeves. In fact, all of the designing of their record sleeves, from their days as Joy Division up to the present, has been left up to Peter Saville, a graphic designer who has sometimes been referred to as the fifth band member.

New Order identified themselves as New Order, not as Bernard Sumner and Peter Hook and Stephen Morris and Gillian Gilbert. No one personality stood out from the others. They were the type of people who could walk out onto the floor after playing a concert and would barely be recognized. Also, remaining on an independent record label, Factory Communications, Ltd., probably didn't help either.

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Pet Shop Boys: Together

2010-10-25T22:28:00.000-07:00

The Pet Shop Boys are an English electronic dance music duo, consisting of Neil Tennant, who provides main vocals, keyboards and occasionally guitar and Chris Lowe on keyboards and occasionally on vocals.

Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe met in an electronics shop on Kings Road in Chelsea, London in August 1981. Recognising a mutual interest in dance music, they began to work on material together, first in Tennant's flat in Chelsea and from 1982, in a small studio, in Camden Town. It was during these early years that several songs that would later appear on future albums were created, including "It's a Sin," "West End Girls," "Rent," and "Jealousy."

Starting out, the two called themselves West End, because of their love of London's West End, but later they came up with the name Pet Shop Boys, which derived from some friends who worked in a pet shop, in Ealing. They said that the new name "sounded like an English rap group."

Their big break came in August 1983, when Tennant was assigned by Smash Hits to interview The Police in New York. The duo were obsessed with a stream of Hi-NRG records, made by New York producer Bobby Orlando, simply known as Bobby 'O'. According to Tennant: "I thought: well, if I've got to go and see The Police play, then I'm also going to have lunch with Bobby 'O'." They shared a cheeseburger and carrot cake, at a restaurant called the Apple Jack, on 19 August (two years to the day since Tennant and Lowe had met) and Orlando suggested making a record with Pet Shop Boys, after hearing a demo tape that Tennant had taken with him. In April 1984, the Orlando-produced "West End Girls" was released, becoming a club hit in Los Angeles and San Francisco. On 2 November it was voted "Screamer of the Week" by listeners of Long Island, New York radio station WLIR. Though the track did not do well in the UK, it was a minor hit in France and Belgium.

The Pet Shop Boys have sold about 100 million records worldwide.. Since 1986, they have had 42 Top 30 singles and 22 Top 10 hits in the UK, including four Number Ones: "West End Girls," "It's a Sin," "Always on My Mind," and "Heart."

At the 2009 BRIT Awards, Pet Shop Boys received an award for Outstanding Contribution to Music. The duo's latest album, entitled Yes, was released on 23 March 2009.

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Hot Chip: We Have Love Exclusive Remix

2010-10-18T10:39:00.000-07:00

We have just finished our remix of the latest track to be released
off of "One Life Stand" by Hot Chip.

Listen to our creation in the jukebox below
and vote for the remix "We Have Love (Give It Up) HERE.

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Focus On Music: French Synth Wave

2010-10-12T20:54:00.000-07:00

Synth pop is a style of popular music in which the synthesizer is the dominant musical instrument. While it might be argued that most current popular and commercial music in the industrialized world is realized via electronic instruments, synth pop has its own stylistic tendencies which differentiate it from other music produced by the same means. These include: the exploitation of artificiality (the synthesizers are not used to imitate acoustic instruments), the use of mechanical rhythms and "feel", the use of vocal arrangements as a counterpoint to the artificiality of the instruments, and the use of ostinato patterns as an effect. Synth pop song forms are generally the same as in "regular" pop music. Lyrically, synth pop has an affection for science-fiction themes.

Synth pop is sometimes referred to as electropop although electropop is generally regarded to be a particular style of synth pop that flourished during the early 1980s most closely associated with the post-punk New Wave music scene.

Several of these bands in the 1980s were quite successful. None of the newer acts have had more than a modicum of commercial success in the United States, although some have done very well in Europe, South America, and/or Asia.

Synth pop is increasingly used in gothic and industrial circles to describe various dark electronic artists, particularly those in the electronic body music and futurepop genres. It is otherwise generally used in its more classic sense, referring to early 1980s synthesizer driven pop acts (e.g., Depeche Mode, Erasure) as well as a variety of New Romantic pop acts from the same era (e.g., Duran Duran, Spandau Ballet).

Below we focus on the French New Wave Movement
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Listen: Swanlights by Antony and the Johnsons

2010-10-05T21:23:00.000-07:00

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Top 25 For Fall

2010-10-05T11:50:00.000-07:00

Michael Jackson: Dancing Machine

2010-09-12T21:50:00.000-07:00

Michael Jackson
August 29, 1958 - July 25, 2009

No matter what your opinion of Michael Jackson, no one can deny the talent he exuded while performing on stage. Michael not only shaped generations but was highly influential to the creation and success of MTV.

In honor of this talent, I have put together a jukebox
spanning the career of Michael Jackson for you to enjoy.

Chromeo: Fancy Footwork

2010-09-04T22:57:00.000-07:00

Synth pop revisionist duo Chromeo formed in Montreal in the early 21st century, a project of Audio Research honchos Dave One and Pee Thug (news flash: not their given names). Dave handled the electronics; Pee was the frequently processed vocalist. From the beginning, Chromeo made it clear that artful detachment, cheesy electro-funk breakdowns, and gleaming plastic beats -- not serious intent or aggressive musical regime change -- were the name of their well-dressed game.

This summer, the party-starting, festival-happy Montreal plastic-funk duo Chromeo returns. On August 17, they'll release Business Casual, their third album and the follow-up to the 2007 breakthrough Fancy Footwork, via Atlantic.

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We Speak No Americano

2010-08-31T21:54:00.000-07:00

Before Pitbull came along and stole it for a mainstream audience, Dcup & Yolanda Be Cool first had a hit with "We Speak No Americano". The original was sung by Renato Carosone under "Tu Vuò Fa' L'Americano".

Lennon and McCartney: Let It Be

2010-07-08T19:42:00.000-07:00

The songwriting partnership of John Lennon and Paul McCartney is one of the best-known and most successful musical and cultural collaborations in history. Between 1962 and 1969, they wrote and published approximately 180 jointly credited songs, of which the vast majority were recorded by The Beatles and form the bulk of their catalogue. Unlike many songwriting partnerships which comprise separate lyricist and composer, both Lennon and McCartney wrote words and music; often however, their songs were principally the work of one of the two credited authors.

Lennon–McCartney compositions have been the subject of numerous cover versions. According to Guinness World Records, "Yesterday" has been recorded by more artists than any other song.

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The Eighties: Pop Muzik

2010-07-04T23:20:00.000-07:00

It wasn't just the decade of Members Only jackets and jelly shoes, it was also the decade of the best music ever. The decade when greed was good, hair was high and everyone learned what a music video was. Prince, Wham!, Madonna, Michael Jackson, Cyndi Lauper and Culture Club!

Arcade games and video games had been growing in popularity since the 1970s, and by 1982 were a major industry. But a variety of factors, including a glut of low-quality games and the rise of home computers caused a tremendous crash in late 1983. For the next three years, the video game market practically ceased to exist in the US. But in the second half of the decade, it would be revived by Nintendo, whose Famicom console had been enjoying considerable success in Japan since 1983. Renamed the Nintendo Entertainment System, it would claim 90% of the American video game market by 1989.

Computers experienced explosive growth in the '80s, going from being a toy for electronics hobbyists to a full-fledged industry. The IBM PC, launched in 1981, become the dominant computer for professional users. Commodore created the most popular home computers of both 8-bit and 16-bit generations. MSX standard was the dominant computer platform in Japan. Apple was committed to resisting the tide of IBM PC clones. Graphical user interface and mouse started to become general features in computers after the middle of the decade

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The Smiths: Louder Than Bombs

2010-07-02T20:41:00.000-07:00

The Smiths were an English rock group active from 1982 to 1987. The group was based on the songwriting partnership of Morrissey and Johnny Marr, and were signed to the independent record label Rough Trade Records.

Considered by some critics to be the most important alternative rock band to emerge from the British indie scene of the 1980s. The Smiths have had a major influence on subsequent alternative music, including the Britpop movement and bands such as The Stone Roses, Gene, Radiohead, Blur, Suede, Oasis, The Libertines, and Doves.

At the time, the group was notable in particular for two things: Morrissey's unusual, witty, and controversial lyrics, and Marr's music, which helped return guitar-based music to popularity after it had fallen out of favour in the UK charts.

The group released a total of four studio albums and several compilations in fewer than five years, as well as numerous singles.

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Serge Gainsbourg: Requiem Pour Un Con

2010-07-02T15:50:00.000-07:00

Serge Gainsbourg (April 2, 1928 – March 2, 1991) was a french poet-songwriter, singer, actor, novelist, painter and director. Gainsbourg’s varied style and individuality made him difficult to categorize. Although famous in France for many years, he did not achieve his first No. 1 album until 1979, when he released Aux Armes et caetera more than twenty years after his music career had begun. But since the 1980s, his legacy has been firmly established.

He was born in Paris, France the son of Jewish Russian parents. He had one daughter, Charlotte Gainsbourg, from his marriage to Jane Birkin.

His early songs were influenced by Boris Vian. However, Gainsbourg wanted to break free from old-fashioned chanson and explore new musical grounds, influenced by British and American pop. During his career, he wrote the soundtracks for more than 40 movies.

His most famous song, Je t'aime ... moi non plus, was vocally very erotic. Originally recorded with Brigitte Bardot, it was released with a different female singer, future wife Jane Birkin, when Bardot backed out. Considered too "hot", the song was censored in various countries and in France even the toned-down version was suppressed.

In 1978 he recorded a reggae version of "La Marseillaise", "Aux Armes et cetera", with Bob Marley's band in Jamaica, which resulted in him getting death threats from right wing veterans of the Algerian War of Independence.

Serge Gainsbourg died on March 2, 1991 and was buried in the Cimetière du Montparnasse, in Paris.

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Bruce McCollough: Snowbird

2010-06-30T08:34:00.000-07:00

Does anyone have video of a skit called "Snowbird" from Saturday Nightlive Season 20 Episode 14 in which George Clooney / Cranberries hosted. If you do, please send me the link or post it. I would be forever grateful.

Erlend Oye: The Black Keys Work

2010-06-30T08:26:00.000-07:00

Erlend Øye is a Norwegian musician from Bergen, Norway best known for being part of the pop duo Kings of Convenience together with Eirik Glambek Bøe. He has released one solo album, Unrest in 2003 and a mix CD in the DJ-Kicks series in 2004. Furthermore he has released his second album of the band The Whitest Boy Alive.

He was born November 21st 1975 in Bergen and formed the band Skog together with some friends in the mid 1990s. He moved to London and played in the band Peachfuzz in 1997. When he was back home in Bergen for vacations he jammed with Bøe. They formed Kings of Convenience in 1998 and released their first album, Quiet Is The New Loud in 2001. Øye had become interested in electronic music and spent the next years in Berlin or travelling around the world, recording his solo album Unrest together with ten different electronica artists such as Metro Area, Prefuse 73 and Schneider TM, in ten different cities. This year also saw the next release by Kings of Convenience.

Erlend Øye’s most recent project is the band ‘The Whitest Boy Alive’. The band originally started off as an electronic band, but slowly developed into a band with no programmed elements. Erlend sings and plays guitar. The Whitest Boy Alive released a single (“Burning”) on 24 May 2006. Their debut album, Dreams has come out on 21 June 2006, via their record label bubbles. Their second album, Rules came out March 30, 2009.

Erlend currently lives in Bergen when not touring with The Whitest Boy Alive or Kings Of Convenience. He is involved in the Bergen music scene and spends time promoting local bands, and assists with booking at the annual Træna Festival in northern Norway.

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Hot Chip: Hand Me Down Your Love

2010-06-30T08:24:00.001-07:00

Hailing from London, Hot Chip entered the picture with the release of their 2000 debut, Mexico. The EP was issued by Victory Garden Records, a label owned and operated by members of London's resident lo-fi psychedelic rock institution Southall Riot. The Mexico EP was a hypnotic wash of subtle -- nearly subliminal -- pulse-like techno beats, acoustic guitars, and plinky pianos, but the vocals were the true star of the show (no small feat in a musical climate overrun with disaffected Lou Reed-esque mumblers and bland Eddie Vedder impersonators). The voices of Alexis Taylor and Joe Goddard are a fine study in contrast. Taylor offers dreamy, effortless falsettos that cut to the heart of the beauty of performers like Jeff Buckley and Nick Drake (minus any of the pretentiousness of Radiohead or even Coldplay or the bland vocal acrobatics of Remy Zero). Meanwhile, scattered throughout the record (and in the occasional duet), Goddard offers a tone that sounds a bit more world-weary and at times almost gruff in comparison to Taylor, calling to mind Damon Albarn's cool monotone tendencies. Self-released by Hot Chip in 2002, Sanfrandisco E-Pee showed the band dabbling in more playful sounds, from the beatbox dubbing of the title track to the closing notes of "Fanta," in which Taylor pleads with the listener to "make sounds of the summer." There are moments of gorgeous melancholy as well, but on the whole the album feels a bit more hopeful than Mexico had.

The group signed to revered N.Y.C. record label DFA in 2005 and released the Over and Over EP, as well as the excellent 2006 full-length The Warning. Hot Chip kept busy in 2007 by supporting The Warning with singles and consistent touring, and released a DJ-Kicks mix album. Late that year, the single "Ready for the Floor" heralded the arrival of Made in the Dark, which featured some of the band's most focused grooves and poppiest melodies to date. The mellower One Life Stand followed in 2010.

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Edward Sharpe And The Magnetic Zeros - Home

2010-06-04T18:09:00.000-07:00

Birthed by Mouth in the year two-thousand and five, young Edward Sharpe had to wait nearly two years before he was to grow his arms and legs and fingers and toes.

Immaculately conceived, his father (a Robot who had magically become a real boy...but that’s another story) declared his undying devotion to the creature. He perched the fleshy bust upon a teetering pedestal fashioned from stacked cereal boxes and positioned the display at his window for all the town to see. Young Edward soon proved no ordinary boy.

Though his father had figured him deaf for his unresponsiveness to sounds, he in fact had the universally unique condition of being deaf from hearing too much or, more correctly put, too well. In plain words, he heard EVERYTHING AT ONCE.

At first it proved rather painful like a wretched whining winding all hours, but very soon those who whisper visited young Edward and revealed to him the Tricks and Truths, the Ways and Plays, the Chords and Dischords of the Universe.

He did not need to eat but the color of the sun, which was F#, and moved his bones to grow.

His arms and legs and fingers and toes grew ‘til the tower of boxes collapsed and he laughed. He moved thru the door which was C over B# and ran thru the village hearing ALL of its music!

The workers and children and painters of buildings and dogs barking madly and trees bristling softly and OH!!

Young Edward could not resist! He began playing the tree which are the chords E and D ‘gainst the mice in the grass which are A played with brass and the wooden fence F and then C and repeat with a drone of B Minor to bring in the street and the Birds B to B Sharp with fluttering strings and the sky mostly C unless he wants to bring in the rain and for rain bring the F Chord bombastic with organ’s distortion and symbols a’crashing.

Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti - Before Today

2010-06-02T22:46:00.000-07:00

The alternative pop/rock and lo-fi recordings of Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti are full of intrigue -- and full of contradictions. Pink, a male singer, composer, musician, and producer who is based in Los Angeles, provides songs that are melodic, catchy, and familiar -- songs that, in their own unorthodox way, recall the most immediate, accessible, straightforward FM pop/rock of the '70s and '80s. But Pink's work also comes across as bizarre, trippy, skewed, and twisted -- and a lot of that strangeness comes from his production style. As a songwriter, Pink has a real sense of pop/rock craftsmanship, but his very muddy way of producing and his oddball, kooky sound effects make the late-'90s and early-2000s recordings of Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti (which is really the name of a project, not an actual group) sound highly eccentric.

At times, Pink (who plays guitar, bass, and keyboards) sounds like he is singing into a mono cassette recorder in a basement or a garage back in 1977 -- he really goes out of his way to sound as under-produced and demo-like as possible. But once you get past his production style, it becomes apparent that Pink has strong pop/rock instincts (sometimes adding a touch of blue-eyed soul). The southern Californian brings a long list of influences to the table -- influences ranging from David Bowie, John Lennon, the Bee Gees, Hall & Oates, and the Raspberries to Frank Zappa, Brian Eno, Roxy Music, and late-'70s/early-'80s new wave. Some of Pink's melodies wouldn't have been out of place on Bowie's Station to Station album in 1976; some of them would have worked well for A Flock of Seagulls, Men at Work, or Talking Heads in the early '80s. But because Pink's production style is so quirky and off-center, those comparisons may not come as easily to listeners who don't have a taste for the bizarre -- and depending on who you talk to, Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti is either mindlessly self-indulgent studio masturbation or the work of an insane musical genius. There are some listeners who just plain don't comprehend what he is doing, but the small cult following that Pink acquired in the late '90s and early 2000s tends to be highly enthusiastic -- Pink's admirers really swear by him and insist that there is a method to his madness.

Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti release "Before Today" on June 8, 2010, in which we presemt "Round and Round" from that release.

Tracey Thorn: Why Does The Wind?

2010-06-01T21:55:00.000-07:00

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Philippe Katerine

2010-05-27T23:25:00.000-07:00

Wrongly associated with the easy-listening wave of the Nineties, the singer Katerine as since proved that his talent is in fact knowing how to juggle the most diverse musical styles. If he fools his world with this classic style, a bit dandy, a bit old-fashioned, he makes himself known as a free musician who has revolutionised French Pop music with elegant strokes of eccentricities and false innocence.

We recommend starting at: "Les Voix Si Les Voix La ".

Coralie Clément

2010-05-27T23:15:00.000-07:00

Sounding more like such classic '60s French pop vocalists as Jane Birkin and Francoise Hardy - distilled with the breathy bossa nova of Astrud Gilberto -- than her contemporaries, Coralie Clément released her first album in 2002, Salle des Pas Perdus. The record is a collaborative effort between her and author/composer/performer - and Coralie's brother - Benjamin Biolay, who wrote and arranged all of the 12 songs. Born into a musical family in Villefranche-sur-Saone, France, Coralie could identify all of the instruments of the orchestra by the age of three, studied musical theory at five, and at six, she took up the violin. She never considered herself to be a singer, though. She spent much of her adolescent years listening to the records of Serge Gainsbourg, Birkin, Hardy, the Beatles, and, oddly, Vanessa Paradis. Calling herself a "groupie" of her brother's, she learned all of his compositions, and she began to reinterpret his songs, imbuing his poetic ballads with both a sensual melancholy and playfulness. It wasn't until a much later Paris visit with Biolay that he found this out, when she began to sing his songs back to him as he strummed. He recorded this informal session, and her first record ensued.

We recommend starting with "Salle Des Pas Perdus". Provided here is "C'est :a Vie" from "Toy Store"

Toog

2010-05-27T23:08:00.000-07:00

Driving along an inspirational course set in between '80s synth pop and indie rock preferences, Toog ultimately offers unique themes filled with stirring melodies. Toog is the real name of Gilles Weinzaepflen, born in the city of Mulhouse, set in between the Swiss and French border. After living several years in Marseilles, a city in the south of France, he decided on moving to Paris, where he started his musical journeys in 1995. Following a tour alongside Momus and Kahimi Karie, Toog decided on initiating his own musical career. Constructing keen compositions set in between the inspirations of late-'80s pop music and bestowing soul and sharp lyrics, Toog rapidly started arranging the release of his debut album. In 1998, he managed to offer his first independently released eponymous album, Toog, one year before joining Momus' catalog, Analog Baroque. 6633 showed up in 1999 as the musician's second studio recording, and in 2001 Easy Toog for Beginners substantiated his better musical creational fields and we suggest starting there.

Jerome Miniere

2010-05-27T22:51:00.000-07:00

Jérôme Minière is a french musician and singer born in Orléans, France established in Québec. He is known for his fictional character Herri Kopter. The name of Herri Kopter appears on many of his albums.

We have been a fan of Jerome for many years and recommend starting with "Petit Cosmonaute".

Mock and Toof: Tuning Echoes

2010-05-27T17:59:00.000-07:00

Following a near-perfect string of singles and remixes for the likes of the Juan Maclean, Hot Chip, Scissor Sisters, Holy Ghost! and numerous others, British electro duo Mock & Toof (aka Duncan Stump and Nick Woolfson) have revealed the details for their debut full-length album.

The release is called Tuning Echoes and will be released on May 24 via the band's Tiny Sticks label. While the band have often been lumped into the “nu-disco” genre, Stump hopes Echoes will break that tag.

“We've never been about 'nu-disco,' whatever that means anyway,” he said in a press release. “Anyone who knows our music will know that we're a bit all over the place as producers. If we like an idea, we run with it, and we're much more comfortable being eclectic and not pigeonholed. Hopefully, the album will help us in our quest for non-categorisation!”

Our favorite tracks include: Farewell to Wendo (featured here), From Kashima, Shoeshine Boogie, Underwater, P2160 and Take Me Home.

Stereo Total

2010-05-26T16:58:00.000-07:00

Though they're based in Berlin, the witty pop group Stereo Total draw bandmembers and musical influences from across Europe. Vocalist/guitarist/drummer Françoise Cactus is French and vocalist/guitarist/keyboardist Brezel Göring is German, and the group has included members from Italy, Scotland, and Bohemia. Their 1995 debut album, Oh Ah!, on Bungalow Records introduced their kitchen-sink approach to pop music, which embraces punk, hip-hop, disco, '60s pop, and rock from France, the U.K., and the U.S., as well as electro and new wave elements.

We have enjoyed the humor of Stereo Total over the years and recommend starting with "My Melody".

Mathieu Boogaerts

2010-05-26T16:44:00.000-07:00

The talented singer-songwriter, who was born in 1970, spent his childhood and adolescent years growing up in the Paris suburbs. A precocious musician and performer, Mathieu began playing the organ at 10 years old. At 12, he was trying his hand on his first drum kit; and the following year, the enthusiastic musician had set up a band. At the age of 17, he also started playing the bass, adding another instrument to his already impressive musical credit.

Matthieu has been a constant fixture on our playlist sinve his debut in 1996. We suggest you look into his back catalogue and start with "Super". Here we have a song from his latest, "I Love You".

Kraftwerk

2010-05-26T16:31:00.000-07:00

During the mid-'70s, Germany's Kraftwerk established the sonic blueprint followed by an extraordinary number of artists in the decades to come. From the British new romantic movement to hip-hop to techno, the group's self-described "robot pop" -- hypnotically minimal, obliquely rhythmic music performed solely via electronic means -- resonates in virtually every new development to impact the contemporary pop scene of the late- 20th century, and as pioneers of the electronic music form, their enduring influence cannot be overstated. Kraftwerk emerged from the same German experimental music community of the late '60s which also spawned Can and Tangerine Dream; primary members Florian Schneider and Ralf Hütter first met as classical music students at the Dusseldorf Conservatory, originally teaming in the group Organisation and issuing a 1970 album, Tone Float. Schneider and Hütter soon disbanded Organisation, re-christening themselves Kraftwerk (German for "power station"), beginning work on their own studio (later dubbed Kling Klang), and immersing their music in the fledgling world of minimalist electronics; their 1971 debut, titled simply Kraftwerk 1, offered a hint of their unique aesthetic in its earliest form, already implementing innovations including Schneider's attempts at designing homemade rhythm machines.

The Acid House Kings

2010-05-26T16:23:00.000-07:00

Singer/guitarist Niklas Angergård, his bassist brother Johan and guitarist Joakim Ödlund formed the Swedish twee-pop trio Acid House Kings in 1991, inspired by their shared disappointment over the breakup of Felt and common dissatisfaction with Morrissey's Kill Uncle album; signing to the German label Marsh Marigold, the group issued their debut EP Play Pop! in early 1992, followed later that year by the full-length Pop, Look & Listen! The group's rediscovery of childhood favorites the Pet Shop Boys informed 1994's Monaco G.P. EP; disappointed by the record's lack of chart success, Acid House Kings maintained a low profile for the next three years, finally resurfacing in 1997 with the single "Yes! You Love Me." Advantage Acid House Kings followed the next year, with the single "We're the Acid House Kings" closing out 1999.

Lo-Fi-Fnk - Marchin' In (Astronomer remix)

2010-05-25T19:21:00.000-07:00

Lo-Fi-Fnk (pronounced: LO-FI-FUNK) are from Stockholm, Sweden and are signed to indie label La Vida Locash. They consist of vocals/instruments by Leo and rap/drums by August.

They are now also part of Moshi Moshi records, with their album “Boylife” released in the UK in autumn 2006.

Singles released have been “Wake Up/Change Channel” on 7” on Moshi Moshi, “Wake Up” on 12” on Moshi Moshi with Justus Kohncke and Beckster remixes, and “Change Channel” on Moshi Moshi with Jitset, Danton Eeprom and Kaos remixes.

We have been a fan of Lo-Fi-Fnk for the past 3 years and are looking forward to their follow-up due this fall. This is the first track of that release.

Familjen - Det snurrar i min skalle

2010-05-25T19:15:00.000-07:00

Familjen (“The Family”) is the name used for the solo electronic music projects of Johan T Karlsson. Hailing from Hässleholm, now living in Stockholm, Sweden.

Johan started off hanging out in local studio Señorita in Hässleholm which more and more became his own. He became something of a house producer, recording all sorts of music just because he could. Sounds have always been easy for him, caressing sweet hertz, disbanding the nasty.

He never really thought that he could release something of his own. He started making small instrumental pieces just because he liked the sound of it, playing small naive melodies just to have something to listen to. Just fingered on the instruments and listening to his analogue delay, tweaking on his little black boxes, dancing in the studio with his friends and bottles.

People are persistently calling him and the last months he’s been playing all over. Up until now Johan has been performing alone with a mic cable around his neck, pushing his black box, dancing and switching things on n’ off, but just recently it was decided that his close friend and Hässleholm colleague Andreas Tilliander, will join in, helping out with samplers at live performances.

Familjen is playing at this year’s Hultsfred festival and his debut album “Det snurrar i min skalle” was released in March with hit singles and videos and such.

Empire of the Sun - Half Mast (Slight Return)

2010-05-25T19:10:00.000-07:00

Taking their name from the J.G. Ballard novel that became a 1987 Steven Spielberg film, Australia's larger-than-life electro-glam-pop duo Empire of the Sun feature the Sleepy Jackson's Luke Steele and Pnau's Nick Littlemore. Steele had previously worked with Pnau on "With You Forever," a track from the band's 2007 self-titled third album, and the pair enjoyed collaborating so much that they started their own project, drawing inspiration from the likes of Phoenix and Daft Punk. In fall 2008, Empire of the Sun released the debut album Walking on a Dream, which the musicians described as "a spiritual road movie." Featuring songs co-written by Pnau's other half, Peter Mayes.

Empre Of The Sun has played heavily on our playlist for the past 18 months and finally seem ripe for the summer as they embark on thier first North American tour.

Club 8 - The Peopels Record

2010-05-25T19:00:00.000-07:00

Club 8 is a Swedish musical group consisting of Karolina Komstedt (from the band Poprace) and Johan Angergard (Acid House Kings, Poprace). Formed in 1995, they were signed to the Spanish record label Siesta. They released a single called "Me Too" and an album called Nouvelle with an anorak pop sound.
Their latest release is titled "The Peoples Record".

Seabear - I Sing I Swim

2010-05-25T18:51:00.000-07:00

Seabear is an indie folk band from Reykjavík, Iceland. Although hailing from Iceland, they sing primarily in English. Seabear started in 2000 as Sindri Már Sigfússon’s solo project and then turned into a band when Sindri was asked to open for The Books in Berlin. Never having performed his songs live, he asked two of his friends, Uðbjörg Hlín Guðmundsdóttir and Örn Ingi Ágústsson, to join him. After some time playing live and practicing together, they both decided to join the band. The current participating members are: Sindri Már Sigfússon, Uðbjörg Hlín Guðmundsdóttir, Ingibjörg Birgisdóttir, Halldór Ragnarsson, Örn Ingi Ágústsson, Kjartan Bragi Bjarnason & Sóley Stefánsdóttir.

Erlend Oye: Boys Don't Cry

2010-05-11T21:36:00.000-07:00

click any track below to listen

Bjork: The Dull Flame Of Desire

2010-05-11T20:05:00.000-07:00

Born Björk Guðmundsdóttir on November 21, 1965 in Reykjavik, ICELAND, at the age of 11 this eccentric singer+songwriter had already released an album and in the late '80s and early '90s she was the lead singer of The Sugarcubes, the biggest group ever to emerge from Iceland.

Björk released "Debut" in July 1993, although this was far from her real debut as a singer and musician, she set the title to Debut to signify a start of something brand new; the album hit the top 3 in U.K. and reached #61 on the U.S. Billboard Top 200 chart going platinum while "Human Behaviour" shot to #2 on The Modern Rock Tracks; the follow-up single, "Violently Happy", became a worldwide club hit and "Big Time Sensuality" was a huge crossover hit reaching #5 on The Modern Rock list and peaking at #1 on the Billboard's Hot Dance Club chart.

Second album, "Post", followed in June 1995 peaking at #2 on the British Sales chart and at #32 on The Billboard 200; it contained two U.K. top 10 hit singles: "It's Oh So Quiet" and "Hyper-ballad" as well as her third U.S. Modern Rock charting track, the Industrial-tinged "Army Of Me".

In late 1996, Björk released her third LP entitled, "Telegram"; a remix-album made up largely of songs from her second album, but Björk has re-recorded several of her vocals, handing the original backing tracks to a variety of producers and musicians; she also co-produced the previously unreleased song, "My Spine". The full-length disc, who's "I Miss You" hit the top spot of the Billboard's Hot Dance Music/Club Play, reached #66 in the United States.

The Icelandic singer's third proper album, "Homogenic", recorded in the wake of her breakup with Jungle pioneer Goldie and released in September 1997 saw her music turn bleaker, angrier and more cathartic, continuing her ongoing evolution as an artist. It peaked at #28 on The Billboard 200 and climbed into the top 20 of the Canadian Albums chart.

In 2000, Björk once again got people's attention by making her cinematic debut as Selma, a Czech factory worker who is going blind, in Lars von Trier's "Dancer In The Dark"; premiered at the Cannes Film Festival to standing ovations and controversy, it was awarded the Palme d'Or, along with the Best Actress award for Björk. Her soundtrack album for the film, "Selmasongs", which featured a duet with Thom Yorke, reached #41 on The Billboard 200 chart.

August 2001 saw the release of "Vespertine"; the CD was another worldwide hit, #19 in the States, #7 in U.K. and #2 in Canada where two singles, "Hidden Place" and "Pagan Poetry", hovered around the top 20.

Following the release of "Greatest Hits", a 15-song CD compiled by fans in a unique website vote and "Family Tree", a special box-set featuring six CDs, five 3-inch discs and one 5-inch, of her own personal favorite songs, in August 2004 Björk emerged with an album of all-new-material, "Medúlla", which hit the top 10 in every European country; the disc also peaked at #6 on Top Canadian Albums chart and at #14 on The Billboard 200.

The Icelandic star's new single "Earth Intruders" is the first track to be lifted from "Volta", her sixth studio album which was released in May 2007.

click any track below to listen

Spotlight on Music: Bollywood Goes Pop

2010-05-07T08:58:00.000-07:00

Indian pop music, sometimes known as Indipop or Hindi pop is pop music of India. Basically, it is Indian folk or classical music, influenced by beats from different parts of the world. Indian pop was reletavely non-existent until the late 1970s to early 1980s. The major push to bring South Asian music into a "pop" motif was Pakistani singer Nazia Hassan.

Several Indians have gained popularity in mainstream popular western music, especially rock. In fact, one of the greatest artists in classic Rock, Freddie Mercury, was of Indian origin and started his first band in an Indian boarding school. Other popular rock musicians include Kim Thayil and Dave Baksh. Also, Tony Kanal of the group No Doubt is Indian. Grammy-winning jazz singer Norah Jones is half-Indian, her father being sitar maestro Pandit Ravi Shankar.

click any track below to listen

Iran Goes Pop: Rock The Casbah

2010-05-06T22:27:00.000-07:00

This article has been archived HERE

Thieves Like Us: Again and Again

2010-05-04T23:18:00.000-07:00

The darkly stylish electronic/post-punk threesome Thieves Like Us are named for the 1984 New Order song (as opposed to the 1974 Robert Altman film), and they take more than just their moniker from Manchester's darkly stylish electronic/post-punk pioneers. Their timely, '80s-indebted approach has garnered comparisons to numerous dance-pop acts of the late 2000s, including Hot Chip and Crystal Castles, but their mix of gloom and glitter may be most closely aesthetically aligned with the seedy electro-disco revisionists of the Italians Do It Better axis (Glass Candy, the Chromatics), groups who employ the tools and techniques of dance music but seem more interested in evoking hazily decadent atmospheres than inspiring actual dancing. Swedes Pontus Berghe (drums) and Björn Berglund (keyboards) met the American Andy Grier (vocals) in Berlin's Mauer Park in 2002, and the trio began hitting the nightlife together, a gang of unregistered expats struggling with the language and culture of a foreign metropolis. Uninspired by the city's techno-oriented club scene, they took matters into their own hands by DJing together, and eventually starting to produce their own electronic music.

Somewhat ironically, considering that their tastes tended toward the Teutonic -- including vintage Krautrock and David Bowie and Iggy Pop (particularly, one imagines, the arty glam-punk of their Berlin periods), in addition to hip-hop, Factory Records post-punk, and French touch house -- they failed to find favor with German clubgoers, and they eventually relocated to New York City. Their first recording, the ambivalently hedonistic, Daft Punk-influenced filter-disco calling card "Drugs in My Body," made the rounds for several years, seeing 12" releases on two Swedish labels in 2005 and 2006 before cropping up on Paris' tastemaking Kitsuné Music in 2007. That same year the trio self-issued an ambient/instrumental album, recorded in Berlin and titled Berlin, Alex, but it wasn't until late 2008 that their proper debut full-length, the moody Play Music, appeared on Austria's Seayou Records, with a North American release on Shelflife in April 2009. The delay was due in part to the bandmembers living in different international cities for different periods of time, but by 2009 they had all landed together in Paris.

click any track from the releases
"Again and Again" and "Play Music" below to listen

Text courtesy: K. Ross Hoffman, All Music Guide

Spotlight On Rap: It's Just A Ghetto Thang

2010-05-02T09:22:00.000-07:00

Hip hop is a musical genre which developed alongside Hip Hop culture, defined by key stylistic elements such as rapping, DJing, sampling, scratching and beatboxing. Hip hop began in the South Bronx in the 1970s. The term rap is often used synonymously with hip hop, but hip hop denotes the practices of an entire subculture.

Rapping, also referred to as MCing or emceeing, is a vocal style in which the artist speaks lyrically, in rhyme and verse, generally to an instrumental or synthesized beat. Beats, almost always in 4/4 time signature, can be created by looping portions of other songs, usually by a DJ, or sampled from portions of other songs by a producer. Modern beats incorporate synthesizers, drum machines, and live bands. Rappers may write, memorize, or improvise their lyrics and perform their works a cappella or to a beat.

Creation of the term hip hop is often credited to Keith Cowboy, rapper with Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five. However, Lovebug Starski, Keith Cowboy, and DJ Hollywood used the term when the music was still known as disco rap. It is believed that Cowboy created the term while teasing a friend who had just joined the U.S. Army, by scat singing the words "hip/hop/hip/hop" in a way that mimicked the rhythmic cadence of marching soldiers. Cowboy later worked the "hip hop" cadence into a part of his stage performance, which was quickly used by other artists such as The Sugarhill Gang in "Rapper's Delight".

Zulu Nation member Afrika Bambaataa is credited with first using the term to describe the subculture in which the music belonged; although it is also suggested that it was a derogatory term to describe the type of music. The first use of the term in print was in The Village Voice, by Steven Hager, later author of a 1984 history of hip hop.

click any track below to listen

80 Of The Best Contemporary Cover Songs

2010-05-02T09:00:00.000-07:00

The term 'cover version', coined in 1966, originally described a rival version of a tune recorded to compete with the recently reeased original version, e.g. Paul Williams' 1949 hit tune "The Hucklebuck" or Hank Williams' 1952 song "Jambalaya (On the Bayou)", both crossed over to the popular Hit Parade and had numerous hit versions. Prior to the mid-20th century the notion of an original version of a popular tune would, of course, have seemed slightly odd — the production of musical entertainment being seen essentially as a live event, even if one that was reproduced at home via a copy of the sheet music, learned by heart, or captured on a shellac recording disc. Popular musicians (and especially modern listeners) have now begun to use the word "cover" to refer to any remake of a previously recorded tune.

In previous generations, some artists made very successful careers out of presenting revivals or reworkings of once popular tunes, even out of doing contemporary cover versions of current hits. Musicians now play what they call "cover versions" (e.g. the reworking, updating or interpretation) of songs as a tribute to the original performer or group. Using familiar material (e.g. evergreen hits, standard tunes or classic recordings) is an important method in learning various styles of music. Most albums, or long playing records, up until the mid-1960s usually contained a large number of evergreens or standards to present a fuller range of the artist's abilities and style. Artists might also perform interpretations ("covers") of a favorite artist's hit tunes for the simple pleasure of playing a familiar song or collection of tunes. A cover band plays such "cover versions" exclusively.

In the contemporary world, there are broadly three types of entertainers who depend upon cover versions for their principal repertoire.

click any track below to listen

Pet Shop Boys: Life In Pop

2010-04-30T10:10:00.000-07:00

At the 2009 BRIT Awards, Pet Shop Boys received an award for Outstanding Contribution to Music. The duo's latest album, entitled Yes, was released on 23 March 2009.

click any track below to listen

New Order: Everything's Gone Green

2010-04-29T19:22:00.000-07:00

click any track below to listen

The Remix: 75 Song Compilation

2010-04-28T21:36:00.000-07:00

Today, remixing involves "repositioning" an old hit to suit the present-day musical tastes amidst digital drums, synths, rap sequences, and so on. Nothing is blasphemous in a remix, with diverse musical styles and languages making for an unorthodox concoction. "Remixes are new arrangements and textures based on a primary, full-length theme. New lead instruments may be used, instruments may be pulled out of the mix, or entirely new melodies may be added," goes one definition of remix music.

This takes us to a realm beyond our judgment about the banality of remixes, to the cultural context in which they emerge. Remixes, clearly, emerge at the point of interaction between two worlds — a hallowed musical tradition and the New Age hip-hop. Remixes, perhaps, reflect a yearning or an anxiety to be "cool" even while not letting go what one chooses to identify as one's "heritage". It is significant that Bally Sagoo, who could well be called the guru of the genre, is described as a "guy of a new attitude for a new age, an artiste at home with various cultures, yet very rooted".

Talking about the many layers of "appropriation and cultural exchange" one sees in Hindi remixes and what they signify to the Indian-American youth, Peter Kvetko, a scholar, writes: "The playful re-appropriation of the past is also a yearning for more immediate connections to a time that may seem better, more meaningful, more genuine... The effect is to allow the listener to reclaim the past for the purpose of the present, not simply to imagine what it was "then" but to participate in the "then" by actually performing it... Diasporic cultural production takes place at the intersection of multiple social, historical, and technological fields." This, perhaps, can be extended to a multiple-rooted generation within India that is keen on an Indian beat that leads on to an international sound.

click and track below to listen

Depeche Mode: Songs Of Faith And Devotion

2010-04-28T08:02:00.000-07:00

Originally a product of Britain's new romantic movement, Depeche Mode went on to become the quintessential electro-pop band of the 1980s. One of the first acts to establish a musical identity based completely around the use of synthesizers, they began their existence as a bouncy dance-pop outfit but gradually developed a darker, more dramatic sound that ultimately positioned them as one of the most successful alternative bands of their era.

Depeche Mode influenced many of today's popular recording artists, in part due to their recording techniques and innovative use of sampling. For example, Pet Shop Boys cited Violator (and "Enjoy the Silence" in particular) as one of the main sources of inspiration during recording of their critically acclaimed album Behaviour. Neil Tennant says, “We were listening to Violator by Depeche Mode, which was a very good album and we were deeply jealous of it.” Bandmate Chris Lowe agrees, “They had raised the stakes.”

Techno pioneers Derrick May, Kevin Saunderson and Juan Atkins regularly cited Depeche Mode as an influence on the development of techno music during the Detroit Techno explosion in the mid 1980s. Appreciation of Depeche Mode within today's electronic music scene is shown by the numerous Depeche Mode remixes by contemporary DJs such as Ricardo Villalobos' remix of "The Sinner in Me" or Kruder & Dorfmeister's remix of "Useless".

According to Matt Smith, the former music director of the modern-rock radio station KROQ, "The Killers, The Bravery, Franz Ferdinand — that whole wave of music owes a tremendous amount to Depeche Mode."

In an accompanying interview for his piece in The New Yorker evaluating the impact of British acts on the US market, Sasha Frere-Jones claims that "probably the last serious English influence was Depeche Mode, who seem more and more significant as time passes."

click any teack below to listen

Tracey Thorn: Love And Its Opposite

2010-04-27T08:29:00.000-07:00

Click on any track to start listening.

Hot Chip: Rare and Remixed

2010-04-27T08:05:00.000-07:00

click any trackbelow to listen

Hindi Pop Music

2009-11-30T08:47:00.000-08:00

click any track below to listen

Bhangra

2009-11-30T08:31:00.000-08:00

Bhangra is a fusion of music, and, most significantly, the beat of the Dhol drum, a single stringed instrument called the iktar, the tumbi and an instrument reminiscent of an enlarged pair of tongs called the chimta. The accompanying songs are small couplets written in the Punjabi language. They relate to harvest celebration, love, patriotism or current social issues.

Today the word Bhangra is more associated with the independent style of dance pop music derived from the above mentioned musical accompaniment.The dhol's smaller cousin, the dholaki, is sometimes used instead of or in addition to the dhol. Additional percussion, including tabla, is frequently used in bhangra.

Bhangra has always been popular amongst Punjabi people all over the world, but it has enjoyed a resurgence over the last ten years or so. Its raw traditional sound is often supplemented with contemporary musical styles. In its more recent history, bhangra has been fused with disco, reggae, techno, house, rap, ragga and now jungle. In fact these new styles are so successful that modern bhangra is now being re-exported back to India. Most of this tends to come from desi scene, a subculture found amongst the South Asian diaspora.

Both collegiate and non-collegiate Bhangra competitions are held throughout the world, especially in the United States, Canada, and the UK. Some competitions in the United States include Bhangra Blowout in Washington, D.C., Bruin Bhangra in Long Beach, California, Bhangra Fusion in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and perhaps the most popular and largest--Dhol Di Awaz in the San Francisco Bay Area.

150 Stocking Stuffers

2009-11-30T08:19:00.000-08:00

Amazon.com Widgets

Pet Shop Boys Release Viva La Vida Cover

2009-11-25T19:23:00.000-08:00

One of the highlights of the Pet Shop Boys’ glitzy, colorful Pandemonium tour this year was the duo’s mashup of their own 1988 classic “Domino Dancing” and Coldplay’s 2008 #1 hit “Viva La Vida.” The Boys announced via Twitter earlier this month that a studio recording of the two blended songs—produced by Stuart Price—will be included on Christmas, a five-track EP slated for December.

We will continually add new releases and more exclusives as they become available.

Listen To The Pet Shop Boys retrospective with excerpts from "Yes"
including the new remixes of "Did You See Me Coming"
and the new track "Up And Down" below.

Critics Choice

2009-11-25T19:15:00.000-08:00

Ranked in no particular order, these are some of the most critical albums of the past five years.

New Music from Weezer, Morrissey, J Tillman and Themselves

2009-11-10T10:52:00.000-08:00

Year In The Kingdom by J Tillman

Year in the Kingdom may not be a feast of eclecticism, but it is a lesson in the construction of compelling, stripped-down folk.

Swords by Morrissey
While a large proportion of these Swords are decidedly blunt blades, a few could have easily found a place on a greatest hits.

3 by Susanna And The Magical Orchestra

Ambitious and diverse, 3 opens new possibilities for Susanna & the Magical Orchestra, but it shares the sense of wonder and beauty in all of their music.

Raditude by Weezer

Driving yet jaunty guitars abound and backing chants fill the required spaces, yet it all comes across too much like a sub-par parody of their former selves.

Crossdown by Themselves
Doseone’s rapping is thicketed to the point of impenetrability; whatever he wishes to convey gets lost in his internal rhymes.

Top 25 Playlist

2009-11-10T10:36:00.000-08:00

New Music from Daniel Johnston, Nick Cave, Warren Ellis and Russian Circles

2009-11-03T08:05:00.000-08:00

White Lunar
by Nick Cave & Warren Ellis
A collection of scores recorded over the period of 5 years. [Soundtrack/Rock]
listen HERE

Earthly Delights
by Russian Circles
The third album for the rock trio was produced by Brandon Curtis. [Rock/Experimental]
listen HERE

And Always Was
by Daniel Johnston
Jason Falkner produced the latest album for the Texas-based artist. [Rock/Indie]
listen HERE

more great music HERE

Psychic Chasms by Neon Indian

2009-10-31T19:31:00.000-07:00

Neon Indian, for the sake of categorization, fit nicely into the tsunami of glo-fi pop chillwaving its way onto shores near you. The sound is stripped and washed-out. The '80s vibe is pervasive. There's something airy and loose and druggy about Psychic Chasms, the group's debut album. It's electronic, but also completely organic.

Spotlight On Music: Civalias

2009-10-31T18:01:00.000-07:00

Hailing from Southern California, Civalias is the project brainchild of 23 year-old Adam Stidham. Conjuring influences such as Aqualung, Coldplay, and Radiohead, the infectiously melodic sounds of Civalias are both engaging and visually enticing. The young songwriter who began his journey in music by playing guitar in his teens soon found that music became a form of therapy. “I found an undeniable peace and calmness in making music. It was me at my most genuine.” It is this vulnerability and honesty that makes Civalias special, attracting a contingent of fans who are seeking not only a uniquely refreshing sound, but the emotional substance to back it up.

read more HERE

The Warm Heart Of Africa by The Very Best

2009-10-31T08:16:00.000-07:00

Though Radioclit seems to draw production ideas from the already existent ether--largely the African-Western pop alliances of the ’80s--that does nothing to take away from this fascinating and happy moment captured on record. We're given a deeper record than some may've anticipated -- sonically, for sure--but more so The Very Best's debut stands up higher as document of seamless (and shameless) cultural convergence.

Passing Behind Your Eyes by Pretty Lights

2009-10-30T21:05:00.000-07:00

Pretty Lights is the musical vision of the ultra-versatile Colorado based producer Derek Vincent Smith, accompanied in the live setting by drummer, Cory Eberhard. Together these two achieve a raw energy rarely reached in the realm of electronic music.

At a time when music lovers from almost all subcultures and genres are finding common ground in the basic form of bangin' beats, Pretty Lights is giving the people what they want; electro organic cutting-edge party rocking beats that fill venues with energy and emotion and send dance floors into frenzies.

What makes Pretty Lights truly different though, is that these beats have serious soul. Derek's latest album, Filling Up The City Skies is a two-disc, 26 track journey through past, present, and future. He juxtaposes collages of beautiful vintage samples against backdrops of futuristic synthesis and dirty broken beats, creating a sound that can snap your neck while simultaneously shedding your tears. The album has been downloaded over 70,000 times from the Pretty Lights website in the short 4 months since its release, proving that the Pretty Lights sound is not only getting around, it's spreading like a virus.

Free Download of his latest album available HERE

Hearing Damage by Thom Yorke

2009-10-30T20:19:00.000-07:00

There’s a brand spanking new song from Thom Yorke of the almighty Radiohead making its way through the hallowed internets. It’s called Hearing Damage and it’s just lovely. It’s on the soundtrack for the upcoming film New Moon aka the next chapter of the Twilight series. For those of us who liked our vampires a little more scary and less glossy, I understand and empathise.

Less experimental than his work on the underrated The Eraser record and a lot more accessible, Yorke goes easy on us and gives us some dark electronic pop that should render the rest of the soundtrack pointless. It’s not quite the head-bopper that Idioteque was but it’s close and one could say that this is more of a mind-bender. I had to play it a couple of times to allow myself to become immersed in the beauty of this track.

Machine Dreams by Little Dragon

2009-10-29T09:56:00.000-07:00

Jazzy instincts and surreal lyrics perfectly offset the music's mosaic minimalism. Overall, Machine Dreams is bristling with invention and teeming with variety, a fantasy world you won't wish to quickly wake from. Machine Dreams is an exercise in scoping out the frontiers of avant-garde electronic pop not seen since the early ‘80s.

What Will We Be by Devendra Banhart

2009-10-29T09:37:00.000-07:00

What once made Banhart such a strange bird--roaming from jazz to folk to indie pop, often within a single song, as on the impossibly catchy 'Chin Chin & Muck Muck'--now seems almost mainstream. Butler’s done well to harness the fuller ideas first explored on "Smokey" but, in doing so, has sacrified raw Devendra for something just a bit too busy.

Through The Devil Softly by Hope Sandoval

2009-10-29T09:27:00.000-07:00

This is a record to be drunk from deeply, preferably in solitude, along with a bottle of whatever makes you purr as warmly as Sandoval and her Inventions can--and evidently still do--at their best. Her husky drawl of a voice remains as precious and fragile as a chandelier, and it well suits these insidiously melodic, intimate songs.

New Jukebox Added

2009-10-29T09:00:00.000-07:00

We have compiled over 40 of our most favorite electronica songs that have refused to leave our jukebox over the past year.

Listen to the collection in its entirety HERE

The BQE by Sufjan Stevens

2009-10-17T09:42:00.000-07:00

it’s an instrumental tribute to New York’s (kind of) infamous Brooklyn Queen’s Expressway. Asthmatic Kitty’s press release described the piece as being “inspired by the programmatic symphonies of the Impressionists, but it aspires to the pageantry of Copland and the melodrama of a John Williams movie score.” Musically, it owes some obvious homage to Phillip Glass, of whom Sufjan has never been cagey about his admiration for. And there’s not a little Brian Eno sprinkled throughout either, but those are only vague inspirations. Really, The BQE is its own thing. It jumps tones and moods with abandon. There are strings. There are wind instruments. There are brass instruments. There are choirs. There’s the electro blitzkrieg that’s been prevalent on his offerings for the I’m Not There soundtrack and Dark Was the Night compilation. There’s every instrument you’ve ever heard of. There’s a few you haven’t. In short, there’s simply no reservation or modesty employed whatsoever. The BQE is a marvelous experience, one of the year’s finest albums, and one more heretofore unexplored side from one of this generation’s most gifted and imaginative artists.

The Brooklyn-Queens Expressway is an incidental 12.7 miles of urban roadway built over the course of several decades (1939-1964), spear-headed by the master architect Robert Moses to accommodate for the increase of commercial and commuter traffic in New York City's outer boroughs. The roadway was a painstaking piecemeal project, poorly planned, badly built, and relentlessly encumbered by the obvious obstacles of the era: red tape, neighborhood protests, World War II, and a congested borough whose sequestering layout proved ill-fitting for the automobile. The resulting expressway-a pockmarked, serpentine, congested BQE-has become one of Brooklyn's most notable icons of urban blight. And, for Sufjan Stevens, an object of unmitigated inspiration.

Texas Rose, The Thaw and The Beasts by The Castanets

2009-10-17T09:21:00.000-07:00

Texas Rose is moody and layered, and Raposa is adept at creating a world that is deep, enveloping, and enticing. Texas Rose is moody and layered, and Raposa is adept at creating a world that is deep, enveloping, and enticing. There’s a certain kind of magic going on here and it needs to be accounted for.

listen to more great music HERE

Embryonic by The Flaming Lips

2009-10-17T09:12:00.000-07:00

This is accessible music pushed to the very edge of accessibility, far away from the safety of the band's song-oriented efforts "At War with the Mystics" and "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots." What The Flaming Lips have accomplished with Embryonic is impossible to ignore: an ambitious double album in an age where the single is making a comeback, a collection of music that makes a 25-year-old band sound vital and new.

Dont' Look Back In Anger by Devendra Banhart

2009-09-29T08:12:00.000-07:00

The only way we can tolerate Oasis...

Listen to other great cover songs at the base of our PEOPLE page HERE

Willow Pattern Songs by Hong Kong in the 60s

2009-09-29T07:59:00.000-07:00

They're called Hong Kong in the 60s and they comprised of Mei Yau Kan (vocals, keyboards, guitar); Christopher Greenberg (keyboards, vocals, guitar); and Tim Scullion (guitar, keyboards, vocals) who are pop crusaders as influenced by Bruce Hyack, Delia Derbyshire and Cecil Leuter as they are modern pop. ‘Willow Pattern Songs’ is the band’s debut EP, a space capsule of dreamy synths and Krautrock lullabies.

Two Sunsets by Pastels and Tenniscoats

2009-09-29T07:52:00.000-07:00

It is indeed a credit to all involved that this album sounds as ego-less and cohesive as it does. The performances throughout also retain a loose, lived-in quality that strikes an even balance between purposeful songwriting and the pleasant surprises of in-studio “mistakes”. The bands' unselfconscious appreciation of each other brings something more: a buoyant confidence that infuses every subtly orchestrated note.

xx by The xx

2009-09-26T07:23:00.000-07:00

xx is a fantastically innovative album, and this band is exploring new territory. The album’s explication of its own interest in contrast and conversation is perhaps its greatest virtue. It is so fully formed and thoughtful that it feels like three or four lesser, noisier records should have preceded it. The xx didn't need a gestation period, though xx is nuanced, quiet, and surprising enough that you might.

Declaration Of Dependence by Kings Of Convenience

2009-09-25T08:57:00.000-07:00

Gently plucked guitars and cotton-soft melodies – the kind of soothing musical therapy that only Kings of Convenience can deliver. It is what we have come to expect for the norwegian duo but with beachy influences and a little more optimism, which makes for a lovely affair which will always be releavent as long as we have the turning leaves of Fall and the swaying palms on Beaches.

Monsters Of Folk by Monsters Of Folk

2009-09-25T08:44:00.000-07:00

With all four players clearly bringing out the best in each other, one hopes that Monsters of Folk makes for more than just a one-off side project. This is not the story of lost faith that these thematic bookends seem to augur, but rather just a bunch of really good songs that have relatively little to do with each other. Overall, there's a natural interplay between the players, and it lends the album a relaxed, easy-going vibe.

The Boy Who Knew Too Much by MIKA

2009-09-25T08:32:00.001-07:00

Anyone who liked "Life in Cartoon Motion's" bright, brash approach won't be disappointed by The Boy Who Knew Too Much--it's clear Mika knows exactly what he's doing. Mika tackles the popular songwriters' gristle of teen angst but filters it through a cracked technicolor symphony of show-tune harmonies, careening falsettos and deliciously manic productions.

Best Electronica Music Countdown

2009-09-19T09:55:00.001-07:00

We have compiled over 40 of our most favorite electronica songs that have refused to leave our jukebox over the past year.

Listen to the collection in its entirety HERE

See Mystery Lights by Yacht

2009-09-19T07:58:00.000-07:00

All these elements, stitched together by Yacht and combined with the kind of melancholy disco utilised so often by DFA associates, have a basic cumulative effect: they make you want to dance. Without a smidgen of a doubt, See Mystery Lights has egghead-party-album-of-the-year potential. But its value is greater than that.

More great music HERE

Break Up by Pete Yorn & Scarlett Johansson

2009-09-19T07:48:00.000-07:00

Between Yorn’s ingratiating tunes, Johansson’s harmonies and the lush, inventive production, Break Up ultimately succeeds in its ambitious goal of capturing the spirit--if not the sound--of the late-’60s musical partnership between Serge Gainsbourg and Brigitte Bardot. Break Up is actually a pleasant enough detour as a light-hearted, retro-pop affair.

Temporary Pleaseure by Simian Mobile Disco

2009-09-19T07:39:00.000-07:00

James Shaw and James Ford are still enforcing limitations on their sound, and while they may be smoothing out a few of the rough patches that would make a more interesting record, their sophomore follow-up is a worthy heir to the original. The songs are better and the production varied enough to highlight the differences between each track.
More great music HERE

Sort Of Revolution by Fink

2009-09-19T07:32:00.000-07:00

It's the finest of Fink's songwriting albums to date, building on the promise shown in Biscuits For Breakfast with a confident assurance of his talent and in what he has to say. Simple, repetitive, often unsettling, Sort Of Revolution refuses to succumb to the obvious. Downbeat dinner parties, say hello to your new soundtrack.

Best Electronica Music Compiled

2009-09-11T12:16:00.000-07:00

We have compiled over 40 of our most favorite electronica songs that have refused to leave our jukebox over the past year.

Listen to the collection in its entirety HERE

More PSB Exclusive Remixes

2009-09-11T11:43:00.000-07:00

New Pet Shop Boys Mixes

The boys have begun their North American leg of the Pandemonium Tour and in celebration we have compiled a player of rare and exclusive mixes below. Exclusive versions include: "Home and Dry", "To Step Aside", "The Way It Use To Be" amongst others. We will continually add new releases and more exclusives as they become available.

Listen To The Pet Shop Boys retrospective with excerpts from "Yes
including the new remixes of "Did You See Me Coming"
and the new track "Up And Down" below.

click on any track to begin

Ese Pedazo De Onda by Les Biscuits Sales

2009-09-11T09:12:00.000-07:00

To describe this music takes to think to us about the music of dance of the eighties, as much in the musical comedy as in the thematic one of discotheques. Although the music is quite simple and endeble and the singers seem that they do not have soul, Les Buscuits Salles show promise with their blend of bad-mannered adolescents and the unique grace.

Love 2 by AIR

2009-09-11T09:00:00.000-07:00

Phoenix came along with the weightless Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix and reminded us that, oh yeah, the French can also be pretty great at luminously suave pop music. Now that our appetite for smoove, starry-eyed Gallic studio-rat music has been restored, it's the perfect time for Air to drop a new album. And that's exactly what they're doing on October 6th, 2009.

More great music HERE

Popular Songs by Yo La Tengo

2009-09-11T08:41:00.000-07:00

These experiments hit their mark as a testament to how shrewdly Yo La Tengo has crafted their aesthetic: They know exactly how hard and in what direction to push. What stops it from being an incongruous mishmash is the mood of intimacy and exuberance: you might be hanging out with them in their basement studio, sharing the jokes, shivering with delight.

Get Color by Health

2009-09-11T08:32:00.000-07:00

On Get Color, though, the frenetic impulses from two years back have been carefully tempered, the percussive backbone more sharply honed and the ear-bleeding textures more cleverly implemented. For many, Health's noisy tendencies will be a bit much, but those who aren't afraid to dig deeper will be rewarded greatly.

Heartbeat Radio by Sondre Lerche

2009-09-11T08:19:00.000-07:00

Lerche aligns all his identities: Gentlemanly melodies glide across elegant guitars and High Llama Sean O’Hagan’s swelling string arrangements. Heartbeat Radio is Lerche's most eclectic outing yet, with no overarching concept beyond a consistent level of excellence. Perhaps a bit too breezy to make a lasting impression. Recommended for those with a penchant for breakup music.

Braveface by Esser

2009-08-18T10:33:00.000-07:00

With a musical bent towards bouncy melodies and eclectic instrumentation, Ben Esser's debut album of fractured pop is still more muddled than sharp. The dark undercurrents in some of his songs make sense. He's often namechecking 1960s British producer Joe Meek, a skilled yet paranoid artist known for both his tragic demise, a shotgun murder/suicide in 1967, and his ramshackle audio experimentation on hit singles such as "Telstar". Esser seems to aspire to create conceptual pop-- not sure if his matching good and bad neck tattoos are commentary on the duality of man or just fashionable ink. But where Meek literally experimented with found sounds and production gear, Esser plays with established techniques and toys to no singular effect.

Two by Miss Kitten and the Hacker

2009-08-18T10:25:00.000-07:00

Two opens up the sound about as far as it can go while still paying homage to early-'80s no wave. Instead of sounding like a remastered ESG rethinking if they're truly "Moody," here the Hacker's tracks sound more like Yaz or Mr. Fingers banging out an alternative score to Koyaanisqatsi. Miss Kittin's occasionally indifferent interjections sound a lot less like parody and a lot more like a woman contented in her superficial surroundings.

Moondagger by Daestro

2009-08-18T10:12:00.001-07:00

Deastro is a project led by Randolph Chabot, an ambitious young guy from Detroit for whom no mode of expression would seem to be wholly sufficient-- in terms of scalability or just sheer size. Everything he does is dramatic and huge. Chabot also has a good grasp on all the things that conspire to make up pop hooks which helps keep his heaviness light and makes Deastro all the more endearing.

Ocean Eyes by Owl City

2009-08-18T09:58:00.000-07:00

The third album from MySpace phenom Owl City, a.k.a., Adam Young, is pristine pop electronica: synths and strings meld seamlessly into dreamy, summery atmospherics. But while Young's compositions occasionally flirt with the nuanced melodicism of Jimmy Tamborello or Jona Bechtolt, he rarely lets even the slightest risky idea emerge. The result is a skillfully crafted record that feels blissfully monochromatic.

Play Music by Thieves Like Us

2009-07-14T08:50:00.000-07:00

Play Music by Thieves Like Us

As might be expected from a trio who collectively name themselves after a New Order song Thieves Like Us are keen to blend lyrically themes of love and alienation with pulsing synths and banging beats. Thieves Like Us deserve credit for making such a consistently exciting album that's arguably already a contender for electronic album of the year.

Wait For Me by Moby

2009-07-14T08:40:00.000-07:00

Wait For Me by Moby

For anyone wanting to hear a genuine progression from the blueprint laid out by "Play" and to enjoy the calmer, more ethereal and undeniably sadder side of Moby's music, Wait For Me is worthy of further investigation. While it may be Moby's darkest record yet, Wait For Me should, at very least, serve as an optimistic sign that Moby's independent creative juices are still flowing.

Spotlight On Music: Koop

2009-06-27T10:23:00.000-07:00

Sweet vocal jazz for the post-club generation that could have been made decades ago, The music of Koop finely treads the line between the hipster posturing and lounge perfection. Lush orchestration and hard bop rhythms make Koop a pleasing sensation. Their Music has been constantly been in heavy rotation on our playlist since 2002 and cannot see it leaving anytime soon.

Pet Shop Boys Create Pandemonium

2009-06-27T09:51:00.000-07:00

Pet Shop Boys have covered a lot of ground in their career, from high-art projects such as soundtracking Eisenstein's silent film classic Battleship Potemkin to pure frothy pop moves such as recording their latest album, Yes, with Girls Aloud producer Xenomania.

It's still somewhat unexpected, however, to find that the key visual reference for their latest, Es Devlin-designed show is Pink Floyd's relentlessly gloomy prog-rock epic The Wall. Happily, where Pink Floyd's wall gradually isolated the band from their audience, the Pet Shop Boys' equivalent was much more fun. The duo initially appeared from doors within it, their heads encased in coloured cubes, and kicked off with their chart-topping 1988 hit, Heart. The set that followed was peppered with new songs, notably Pandemonium, which segued, only partially successfully, into their classic Can You Forgive Her?.

Listen to our Pet Shop Boys career retrospect HERE

Music For Men by Gossip

2009-06-27T09:43:00.000-07:00

As a musical statement of intent to the throngs of the newly interested, Music For Men shows a clear picture of who Gossip want to be--a New Millennial Madonna for whom Danceteria never closes. But for those who have been following Gossip's career, waiting with bated breath to see how the band will evolve, this new record may feel a little too much like they are still Standing in the Way of Control.