A great musician, that currently got the media attention due to his latest release (entitled "Heartland"), Owen Pallett is Final Fantasy. He had to change the well-known musical project's name to his own name since it had copyright issues (the game Final Fantasy didn't allow him to keep going with that name). I got the chance (for only 5 euros!!) to see him perform at Teatro Municipal Maria Matos (located in Lisbon, Portugal). He had a great setlist ranging from Heartland themes to old ones (like "This lamb sells condos"). I filmed almost the entire concert by the way. I still haven't had enough time to post all the videos, but here are some: part 1, part 2, part 4, part 5, part 9. Here are some photos of the gig I found on another portuguese music blog.
Not quite an upcoming band, but a band that I think has been evolving a lot lately... Drum Eyes... Quite difficult to label. The band members currently are: Shige ∞ E-da San ∞ complitly dengerous ∞ Chris ∞ Kathy ∞ Alistair Crawley ∞ Tom Hanks (according to myspace). My bad, I don't how to decifer that so I'll say that it includes there DJ Scotch Egg, a drummer from Trencher [Liam], Eda from Boredoms and a girl from Comanechi. Their music mixes 8bit with drums, heavily-distorted guitars. It's a unique mix, I'd say. Check their myspace here or lastfm page here.
Here it's a video of Drum Eyes performing [courtesy of Last FM].
Giving reason to the subtitle ("A Beginners Guide to the Music of Throbbing Gristle"), this compilation features songs from TG's more audible times to the more noise and gore phases (it's obvious that their sound is always dark, no matter if it has a more "pop" approach or not). In case you didn't know, this band, Throbbing Gristle are quoted as the authors of industrial music.This album was released on [the now dead] Mute (on May 14 of 2004). The track list is the following:
Another great musical group, with members ranging from Einstürzende Neubauten [Ari] to Oxbow [Niko]. The band's members are the following: Chris Spencer (Unsane and also Cutthroats 9), Ari (from Einstürzende Neubauten), Niko (from Oxbow), Xavi (flu.ID) and Roeder (flu.ID). Check out Celan's myspace. Their musical genre is hard to identify... it's original and intriguing. Like they said on their myspace: "a band you can pigeon-hole at your own risk and categorize as noise, rock, avant-hardcore or whatever you like to call it."Settled with frustration, anger, desperation and insanity perhaps, this supergroup promisses to shatter many ears for years. For now, they've released their debut album "Halo".
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:
"So Easy, So Cheap" - 2:03
"Daydrinking" - 3:53
"Little Mouse of the Favelas" - 4:15
"King of Koalas" - 4:50
"The Green Count Tapes" - 4:40
"Last in the Society" - 3:40
"...Nothing About Dwarves?" - 5:45
"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 GaleriaZé 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:
Moondog was the pseudonym of Louis Thomas Hardin. Labeled as an avant-garde musician, Moondog was a vocalist, percussionist and a composer, who was a very inspiring character that decided to live in the streets of New York. It was at the age of 16 that he lost his sight due to a farm accident. In addition to his music and poetry, he was also known for the distinctive Viking garb that he wore, which included a horned helmet. He partially supported himself by selling copies of his poetry and his musical philosophy. This compilation ,"The Viking of 6th Avenue", was released in 2005 by the label Honest Jons. It includes various songs that were selected so that the listener could still comprehend Hardin's diverse ecletic musical works. There are some songs where not only Moondog sings, but he also sings with his daughter. The songs "Rabbit Hop" and "Enough about Human Rights!" were written on the streets. It's a great world of weird americana that still nowadays inspires so many musicians. If you're curious and want to get access to this album, click here. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
I'll show you one of my favourite songs that appears on this compilation:
Frank Zappa was [and still is] a genius. His first solo album is "Lumpy Gravy"- unfortunately I don't understand the meaning of its name. Its a bit inconsistent, as Zappa describes it. The album is divided into 2 parts. The track "Duodenum" which is featured in part 1 is plainly brilliant: exciting, ironic and beautiful at the same time (an awkward piece, for sure). Wikipedia says the following: "On first listening, the album may appear to have no musical structure. But after repeated listening the album's unique flow begins to make more sense.". It's a pitty that I still haven't found the "album's unique flow"- and no, I'm not being sarcastic (I think that Zappa thought about what he was making, not a complete random collage of samples or noise).
You can hear the track "Duodenum" when seing this clip on youtube that I found out some minutes ago:
I found this rather interesting KarlheinzStockhausen video on Youtube. If you don't know him, I suggest you this wiki article about him- click here. He's debating with another person the "humanism" that exists or not in electronic music and how humanism is envolved with art. He has got an intelligent point of view on these subjects.
I made a videoclip for COIL's "Triple Sun" song, from their album "Ape Of Naples". I used some psychedelic effects: a kaleidoscope reproduction, with color blends; a true "coil" effect with the name "COIL" and short clips of a road at night and by day, at a beautiful island (Azores, in Ponta Delgada Island). I made a video for this track because it's a miscellaneous sound wielding melodramatic effects offered by their electronic music with acoustic instruments sometimes. COIL's music can be categorized like a fractal of existential dilemmas, a coil of their emotions and moreover. Their lyrics on this album are [I think] as usual, kind of misterious, like their occult influences. Go have a listen on their latest album "Ape of Naples", if you can- it is really worthwhile.
If you are interested in the album that features this song (which is the band's final album, kind of it's epitaph), you can download it here: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=z86yn843
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