May 10, 2009
This week on Soulful Sundays, it is the first LP from Jazz Liberatorz – Clin D’oeil.
I found the album almost by accident and I saw some very familiar names, so I decided to give it a listen. It’s a great album, and I hope you enjoy, the stream is below.
May 8, 2009
This week, I wanted to take a departure from my usual mellow music, because it felt like there should be a change. With that, I present the self titled album from Brothers Martin – Brothers Martin.
Here is the description of Brothers Martin from their Last.FM (It’s real short and sweet):
The Brothers Martin is a collaboration between brothers Jason Martin of Starflyer 59 and Ronnie Martin of Joy Electric.
It’s a great sounding synth-rock indie album, definitely give it a listen. The stream is below!
May 3, 2009
This week on Soulful Sundays, it is the 2007 album of Dela – Atmosphere Airlines.
Definitely a great album from a very talented group of individuals. Take a listen and hope you enjoy!
May 1, 2009
This week on Featured Album Fridays, I am showcasing the 2009 album of Modern Skirts – All of Us in Our Night:
Here is the description of the band from their Last.FM:
Modern Skirts is an alternative pop band based in Athens, GA. The band consists of four members: Jay Gulley (guitar and vocals), JoJo Glidewell (guitar, piano, and vocals), Phillip Brantley (bass, guitar, and vocals) and John Swint (drums).
Short and sweet, haha. Hope you enjoy, the stream is below!
Apr 26, 2009
Starting an entirely new weekly blog entry where, every Sunday, I highlight my favourite kind of hip hop albums: the jazzy kind! This week I’m showcasing Kero One Presents: Plug Label.
Fantastic album, here is the description of the album:
Featuring tracks from Aloe Blacc (Stonesthrow), Ohmega Watts (Ubiquity), Sound Providers (ABB), Kero One, and many more.
Kero One handpicks 16 songs and beats from the plug label vaults. 7 of the 14 are brand new and are featured here for the first time. None of these tracks have not been previously available on CD release.
I’ve been following Kero One ever since I heard him on a Choice37 album so this was very exciting for me to find. It’s a great album, and you should give it a listen. The stream is below!
Apr 24, 2009
This week I am showcasing the 2009 album of Great Northern – Remind Me Where The Light Is.
The album has a great poppy feeling to it, and fits perfectly on this wonderful Friday! Here is the description of Great Northern from their Last.FM:
“It’s like being intimate with total strangers.” That is how Rachel Stolte of Great Northern describes the feeling of performing live and creating a connecting with her audience. The sentiment could be duly applied to the band’s latest release, Remind Me Where the Light Is, on which Stolte and co-writer Solon Bixler pour so much of themselves into their highly personal lyrics and wistful melodies.
On their sophomore album, Bixler and Stolte are not afraid to delve into darkness. Taking that risk helped them find beauty in sadness, the uplifting elements in the devastating. “We took a lot more risks by entering uncomfortable territory that wasn’t touched on the last record,” Bixler says. “We dug deeper into the unpleasant, which helped us to find the beauty.”
Experiencing the negative to find the positive is something Bixler and Stolte are familiar with. “Both of us had been heading in unfulfilling directions creatively,” Bixler says of their situations prior to coming together. “When we started Great Northern, we finally felt like we were starting something that truly expressed what was in our hearts and minds.”
The stream is below, enjoy!
Apr 17, 2009
This week on Featured Album Fridays, I’m showcasing Maria Taylor’s 2009 album – LadyLuck.
Here is Maria Taylor’s description on her Last.FM:
Before you listen to her new album, Maria Taylor suggests you prepare yourself. Listen to it, she says “in a dark room, with a candle or two with headphones, maybe in the bath, but definitely horizontal.”
Though much of the deliciously diverse “LadyLuck” is inspired by the end of a relationship, it’s not dripping with sadness and grief, nor is it in-your-face empowering. Rather, Taylor strikes a stunning balance between melancholy (aching strings, hushed vocals) and uplifting (rolling rhythms, shimmering keys), highlighted by sharp lyrics that draw optimism out of sadness. This is not a woman down on her luck.
Great, relaxing album. Check it out, the stream is below. Enjoy!
Apr 11, 2009
This is a day late, but I’m posting it regardless! This week on Featured Album Fridays, I’m showcasing the 2009 album of Loney, Dear – Dear John.
Here is the description of Loney, Dear from his Last.FM:
Multi-instrumentalist and home-recording phenom Emil Svanängen lives in Sweden and he makes records and plays shows under the somewhat inscrutable name of Loney, Dear. In either his tiny Stockholm studio apartment or the basement of his parents’ house, and with a dedication bordering upon manic, Emil discreetly builds Loney, dear songs using a modest home studio set-up. In this way he has recorded and then released himself on CD-R four albums in the last two or three years. He has managed to sell several thousand of these, pretty much on his own.
The music of Loney, dear has been aptly described as, “soulful indie folk with a powerful mini orchestra.” Layer upon layer, adding instrumentation and vocals, these songs seem to bloom like time-lapse photography, depicting glimpsed scenes of modern disaffection and timeless yearning. When performing live, Loney, dear becomes the band Emil conjures alone in his home studio, and mutates into a full, five-member band complete with guitar, sax, drums, organ and clarinet, shouts and claps. Loney, Noir is the most recently recorded Loney, dear album. It is at once effervescent and resigned, exhilarating and melancholy, joyous and confessional.
Have a listen, as usual, the stream is below! Enjoy.
Apr 3, 2009
This week on Featured Album Fridays, I’m showcasing Au Revoir Simone’s 2009 album – Still Night, Still Light.
Here is the description of the band, from their Last.FM:
Au Revoir Simone is an indie pop band from Brooklyn, New York that formed in late 2003. The group consists of Erika Forster (vocals/keyboard), Annie Hart (vocals/keyboard), and Heather D’Angelo (vocals/drum machine/keyboard).
Forster and Hart became friends while traveling by train from Vermont to New York. The band name comes from a minor character in Tim Burton’s Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure.
A mini-album ‘Verses of Comfort, Assurance, and Salvation’ was followed in early 2007 by ‘The Bird of Music’, on the Moshi Moshi label.
As usual, the stream is below. Enjoy!
Mar 27, 2009
This week on Featured Album Friday, I’m showcasing John Vanderslice’s 2009 album – Romanian Names.
A description of John Vanderslice can be found from his Last.FM:
John Vanderslice (born May 22, 1967 in Gainesville, Florida) is an American musician, formerly of MK Ultra but now performing with his own band.
After mk Ultra broke up in 1999, Vanderslice wasted little time building a solo reputation. In 2000, he gained national media attention over his single Bill Gates Must Die after concocting an elaborate hoax in which Microsoft supposedly threatened legal action over supposed trademark violations (the disc had a similar etching to a Windows installation disc).
Subsequent albums, Time Travel is Lonely, Life and Death of an American Fourtracker, Cellar Door, Pixel Revolt and Emerald City have gained critical acclaim for their melodic quality and sophisticated narrative lyrical content. Vanderslice has spent much of the last few years on tour across North America, Europe, and Japan.
Vanderslice also founded a recording studio in 1997 called Tiny Telephone. Located in the Mission District of San Francisco, Tiny Telephone has carved out a niche as the last all-analog recording studio in the Bay Area, and has a policy of setting recording rates under market prices. Bands who have used Vanderslice’s studio include Beulah, Death Cab for Cutie, Okkervil River and Spoon.
Vanderslice is a proponent of using analog instruments and recording equipment to produce a richer, more raw sound which he has sometimes called “dirty hi-fi”. He has collaborated closely with Scott Solter in the production of his recent albums, with Pixel Revolt being notably shaped by Solter.
Hope you guys enjoy his album, as usual, the stream is below.