Micachu "Jewellery"

This is one of my favourite albums this year, perhaps. "Jewellery"... what an awesome work it is! I love how they can be at the same time a lo-fi band and keep a classy touch constantly in their records. It's Micachu and her backing band, the Shapes... You got to love them! Even Björk loves them!
I first heard of them in 2008, thanks to the Patrick O'Dell's website. They started in August 2008 and released this album in March 9th 2009. This album received mainly excellent reviews. Check these reviews out: Metacritic's, Drowned in Sound's, The Guardian's, All Music's, BBC Music's, FACT Magazine's, The Times' and Pitchfork's. I also advise you to hear this album... It's the debut album of some distorted awkward pop, with some "punky energy" as many critics recall it. It has nothing cliché, it's a new own particular genre, that has made them a hype band with a relevant somewhat-underground indie cult behind them.
The track list of this album is the following:

1. "Vulture" (2:49)
2. "Lips" (1:21)
3. "Sweetheart" (0:53)
4. "Eat Your Heart" (2:20)
5. "Curly Teeth" (2:27)
6. "Golden Phone" (2:43)
7. "Ship" (1:59)
8. "Floor" (1:22)
9. "Just In Case" (2:46)
10. "Calculator" (3:09)
11. "Wrong" (3:35)
12. "Turn Me Well" (2:58)
13. "Guts" (3:12)
    • "Hardcore" (1:33) is an unlisted hidden track at the end of the record.

My favourite tracks are [not in a particular order]: "Golden Phone", "Sweetheart", Eat your heart", "Curly Teeth", "Wrong" and "Turn me Well". What, I just said I prefer almost half of the album? No wonder! It has lots of cool songs on it. The album's lenght is around 31 minutes and 57 seconds.
By the way, last Saturday, this is November 21st 2009, I saw Micachu and the Shapes live at the Loft, here in Lisbon (I also got the opportunity to see a bit of Jon Hopkins show next). It was awesome and what I find more peculiar, is that some of their songs are even more appealing live, like the song "Wrong" for example. I also got the chance to take a pic with them, along with my friends. I'd love to see them live again. Oh, their t-shirts are also original and worth the price! Go grab yourself a Micachu goody!
If you want to hear the album, click here. Hope you like this album.
PS:I'm going to post a live review about Micachu and Shape's performance at the Loft, when I have enough free time to do such thing.


Next, is the song "Golden Phone" which is about suicide, according what Mica said live:

Aphex Twin "26 Mixes for Cash"

Another production of Richard D. James, this compilation was released in 2003.
Aphex Twin has always been asked by many artists (including Madonna herself, which he denied to make a remix of any song of her). This time, he was more ambitious and wanted some money, so he made this compilation, so that he could absorb some cash into his bank account.
I find this record quite good, although Richard has done better works during his career. The main genre of this album is electronic music, although it can be considered as some "aphex twin-ish" ambient music too. It includes 22 remixes and 4 original Aphex Twin tracks.
The track list is the following:

Disc one

1. "Time To Find Me, AFX Fast Mix" – 7:34 – remix of Seefeel
2. "Raising The Titanic, Big Drum Mix" – 8:42 – remix of Gavin Bryars' 1994 recording of his 1969 The Sinking of the Titanic orchestral piece [1]
3. "Journey, Aphex Twin Care Mix" – 10:14 – remix of Gentle People
4. "Triachus, Mix by Aphex Twin" – 4:12 – remix of Kinesthesia
5. "Heroes, Aphex Twin Remix" – 5:18 – remix of Philip Glass' orchestral version of David Bowie's Heroes, mixed with samples of Bowie's singing from the original
6. "In The Glitter Part 2, Aphex Twin Mix" – 5:02 – remix of Buck-Tick
7. "Zeros and Ones, Aphex Twin Reconstruction #2" – 5:49 – remix of Jesus Jones
8. "Ziggy, Aphex Twin Mix #1" – 4:25 – remix of Nav Katze
9. "Your Head My Voice, Voix Revirement" – 3:15 – remix of Saint Etienne
10. "Change, Aphex Twin Mix #2" – 4:16 – remix of Nav Katze
11. "Une Femme N'est Pas Un Homme, Aphex Twin Mix" – 4:06 – remix of The Beatniks
12. "The Beauty of Being Numb Section B, Created by Aphex Twin" – 3:27 – an original track; "The Beauty of Being Numb" was remixed by Nine Inch Nails for their remix album Further Down the Spiral.
13. "Let My Fish Loose, Aphex Twin Remix" – 5:26 – remix of Nobukazu Takemura

Disc two

1. "Krieger, Aphex Twin Baldhu Mix" – 3:23 – remix of Die Fantastischen Vier
2. "Deep In Velvet, Aphex Twin Turnips Mix" – 3:50 – remix of Phillip Boa and the Voodooclub
3. "Falling Free, Aphex Twin Remix" – 7:41 – remix of Curve
4. "We Have Arrived, Aphex Twin QQT Mix" – 4:23 – remix of Mescalinum United
5. "At the Heart of It All, Created by Aphex Twin" – 3:49 – shortened version of the track created for a Nine Inch Nails remix album.
6. "Flow Coma, Remix By AFX" – 4:59 – remix of 808 State
7. "Windowlicker, Acid Edit" – 4:15 – acid remix of the title track of Aphex Twin's Windowlicker
8. "Normal, Helston Flora Remix by AFX" – 6:51 – remix of Baby Ford
9. "SAW2 CD1 TRK2, Original Mix" – 6:30 – alternate version of the track from Aphex Twin's Selected Ambient Works Volume II commonly known as "[radiator]" with added beats (Was included in the April 10, 1995 edition of Peel Sessions)
10. "Mindstream, The Aphex Twin Remix" – 3:42 – remix of Meat Beat Manifesto
11. "You Can't Hide Your Love, Hidden Love Mix" – 5:05 – remix of DMX Krew
12. "Spotlight, Aphex Twin Mix" – 6:57 – remix of Wagon Christ
13. "Debase, Soft Palate" – 5:50 – remix of Mike Flowers Pops

My favourite tracks are "Falling Free", "We Have Arrived", "Heroes" (this one is kind of bizarre, since it mixes the original David Bowie song with Philip Glass) and also "At the Heart of it All".
The album's lenght is in total 139 minutes and 17 seconds.
You can get the cd1 and the cd2.

Next is "Heroes" remix by Richard D. James... Kind of awkward (in a good sense), just hear it for yourself to see I'm right:

Death in June "The Guilty have no Past"

Death in June is probably one of the most important bands of the neofolk genre, a sub-genre of the more famous Industrial movement. Founded in the 80s by Douglas Pierce, which had previously a punk band called "Crisis" (draining its sound to a mix between the extreme right political movements and the post-punk music). This previous band evolved to a more melancholic, but still (as we hear in this album) which post-punk influences. Take into consideration that this album collects songs since 1983 to 1993 and almost all of them are from their early performances.
You can download the album here.

This is the 4th song from their album: