Caribou "Swim"

While diving deep into this sea of sounds, I realize how Daniel Snaith, Caribou's mastermind, has this peculiar gift of turning every sound into something catchy and audible. Like if most found sounds were turned into a beat taken away from a pop song.
Let's say this album has been reviewed by most music critics, magazines and other "trustful" sources above 80% in average. It's a must.
It is his first new album of material since 2008 Polaris Music Prize-winning Andorra.

The track list is the following:

1. "Odessa" – 5:15
2. "Sun" – 5:44
3. "Kaili" – 4:41
4. "Found Out" – 3:18
5. "Bowls" – 6:20
6. "Leave House" – 5:11
7. "Hannibal" – 6:14
8. "Lalibela" – 2:25
9. "Jamelia" – 3:58

My favourite tracks are: Odessa, Bowls and Jamelia.

Below is Odessa's videoclip:

[interview] Dazzle Ships

I enjoyed Dazzle Ships music so much that some weeks ago I decided to interview them. Here it is the final product:

1. Why did you start making music?;

TYLER: Sheer boredom. I borrowed my sister's bass that she didn't play in like 6th grade, but didn't know how to play it. I would just make weird noises with the built in effects on the amp and put the pickups to the speaker making it feed back, I loved that shit. I eventually figured out how to route the amp into my sound card and record it. I had tons of recordings of me just talking with effects on my voice and weird shit like that. and that eventually turned into playing guitar and recording 15 second songs with drum machine and guitar. It wasn't until I started to play music with my friend Travis that I took it semi seriously. We started our first band when we were 15 and he's been in pretty much every band I've been in since. Actually I think Dazzle Ships is the only one he isn't a part of..
HATII: I feel like music was already in my blood because of my family. I started making music because I was constantly surrounded by family members doing some from of it. I grew up with all my brothers in several bands and at least a good 5 instruments just lying around the house. I feel like it really clicked with me when I was around 7. My brother was a huge fan of Led Zeppelin and constantly played Stairway to Heaven; I remember using one of his acoustic guitars and teaching myself the opening guitar part by ear. From then on music has been like a second habit, so far I've learned to play guitar, bass, trumpet, cello and am a beginner at piano and drums.

2. When did the band start (and is this your first band? if it isn't, please mention the bands you had before);
TYLER: The band started on December 27th, 2009. Hatii and I were bored one day and jammed and wrote a cool song and then recorded it. and that was that..

I've been in and currently in many bands. including Rapid Youth, Twin Lion, and Norse Horse.
HATII: Dazzle Ships is my first band, it's not my first attempt at making a band though. I've tried several times with friends who knew how to play at least one instrument or another. Nothing ever worked out though. Tyler is the first person who fits my style of playing so far.

3. What are your influences?; TYLER: I know that we both want to write energetic, dreamy, catchy, pop songs. But I'm not sure of direct influences, really. We both really like the Cocteau Twins, Atlas Sound, Broadcast, New Order stuff like that. Also bands like Felt, Talking Heads, Wire and a lot of kraut rock bands, guitar wise. We defiantly have a lot of electronic music influence too, there will definatly be a lot more keyboard heavy songs in the future. Hatii listens to a lot of classical music too, I really want her to play some cello on some of the new songs. I am not sure how she feels about that. HATII: When it comes to my vocals I am influenced by Faye Wong and Maaya Sakamoto. Both women have such delicate yet mature voices, and a style all their own. I aim to be somewhere near that category.

4. Have you considered your vocals a bit similar to The Only Ones' (in a good way, of course) ?;
I, honestly, haven't listened to enough of that band to tell you if we do or not...I have only heard the "another girl, another planet" song. I will have to look more into that band now, for sure.

5. Have you given many shows up to date?;
We haven't played any shows yet, there will be a bunch soon. We want our shows to be very visual also so we are still working out the technical aspect of that at the moment.

-Left: A band photo;
-Right: An image which seems to resemble a tunnel [found on their myspace too];

6. If you could choose a band/artist to tour with, who would it be?;
This is a tough question......David Bowie. He would have to play all the songs from the labyrinth and let us be his backing band, though.

7. Are you aiming to release an EP or album soon?;
Yeah we want to have an album out maybe before the end of this year. We need to find a label first, but we will defiantly have an album written.

8. What country would you like your band to play?;
Anywhere in Europe. We would love to play England, France, Spain, Belgium, all those wonderful countries we've never been to. Oh! and Ireland.

9. If you could pick a label which one would you pick?;
hmmm This is a tough question.....4AD.


Once again, thank you Dazzle Ships for your time! I'm anxious to hear your upcoming album.

Xiu Xiu Larsen "¿Spicchiology?"

This album is a collaborative effort of experimental indie rock band Xiu Xiu and post-rockers Larsen (this collaboration is entitled XXL and this is the second album they've released). The album came out in May 22 of 2007, released at Important Records (the label that Larsen are on).
The first and second tracks have more of Larsen's influence than Xiu Xiu's, as I can hear. But both are very good, smooth and relaxing. They have Larsen's common hypnotic (and somewhat obscure) drone and Xiu Xiu's melodic experiences. The first track is "So Easy, So Cheap" - 2:03- and the second track is "Daydrinking" - 3:53.
The third track, which is"Little Mouse of the Favelas" (4:15 minutes), is more melodic and now has Jamie Stewart's distinctive voice. I strongly advise you guys to hear this one.
The other 5 songs I haven't heard them enough to comment them, sorry, although I think that I enjoyed hearing "Last in the Society"- 3:40.
There are, as you could see, 8 songs:

1. "So Easy, So Cheap" - 2:03
2. "Daydrinking" - 3:53
3. "Little Mouse of the Favelas" - 4:15
4. "King of Koalas" - 4:50
5. "The Green Count Tapes" - 4:40
6. "Last in the Society" - 3:40
7. "...Nothing About Dwarves?" - 5:45
8. "Tale of Brother Cakes and Sugar Dust" - 9:52

The album's lenght is around 37 minutes and 37 seconds. In this album there's an ecletic variety of musical instruments. I deduce they are the following: electric viola, drums, vocals, guitars, basses, synths, acordeon and some others, I presume...
Pitchfork scored it as 7.4 out of 10.0.
You can have access to this album here.

Oh, by the way, I've met Larsen this year, May 15 of 2009, when they played at Galeria Zé dos Bois. They had a successful concert. They signed one album of mine too and Julia Kent was also able to sign it.

Below is the 4th track "King of Koalas":


You can hear and view below a Larsen concert I've filmed some months ago, May 15 2009, at Galeria Zé dos Bois:

No Age "Nouns"

Released in 2008, was nominated by many as one of the best albums of that year (SubPop are their label right now, I think). All Music guide gave them 4 stars out of 5; Blender gave them 3.5 stars out of 5; Drowned in Sound evaluated it as 9 stars out of 10 stars; NME gave them 7 stars out of 10 stars; Pitchfork gave them 9.2 stars out of 10 in total.
No Age's genesis occured in 2005 and the birthplace was Los Angeles. They are a Noise Pop / Nu Gaze / Indie rock band. They've also released an album in 2007, named "Weirdo Rippers".
Personally, I don't like that much this one. When I listen No Age I'm kind of seletive with their songs. There are some that I trully adore; there are others that I seriously hate.
However, I'd label them as a great band (which also made some pretty neat t-shirts).
The first song on this album, "Miner", is great (Altamont apparel, one of their sponsors, used this song on their skateboard short video documenting the skateboard team's tour to Paris). The second song, "Eraser" is their first single on this album: it has a soft start, that bursts into a supernova of original indie rock that reveal the band's irregular frenzy and catchy music. I could go on talking about the other 10 songs on this album (its lenght is 30 minutes and 35 seconds).
The link to Nouns is here or here or here.

You can hear "Eraser" here: