Filed under: free music friday, mp3 | Tags: 2009, chris catchpole, espers, music
Espers
‘Caroline’
It’s October and the gently spectacular spell of autumn is upon us. Keats’s ‘Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness’ is here, which means there’s no better time for a new Espers album. Preview track ‘Caroline’ is taken from the Philadelphia collective’s aptly named third full length, III, released on November 2nd through Wichita Recordings. The music made by Espers is designed for the evenings where the sky has an orange glow, to soundtrack the sweeping of leaves and the careful collecting of apples. This may imply a certain sickly romanticism, but despite its yearnings for the past the Espers sound is remarkably free and light .
‘Caroline’ is a duet in which Meg Baird’s affectingly beautiful voice soars over Greg Weeks’s heavier tones all in celebration (or fear?) of the mysterious Caroline. As ever with Espers, oblique lyrics proliferate – witness “Don’t you cry, go lie down in the day… / I’m frightened and I’m right / your candles are burning again” – thus offering a moody array of images, fragments of stories that give the impression that they are potentially ancient folk songs with their meanings obscured by time and reinterpretation. So whoever Caroline is and whatever she is yearning for, this first glimpse of the new album is comforting and strangely alluring and deserves to be played at your local harvest festival. Alternatively, you could go to theirs; as reported previously, the band are taking part in the latest Shred Yr Face tour that begins November 9th. Don’t miss it! MP3 after the jump.
Filed under: free music friday, mp3 | Tags: 2009, chris catchpole, music, tamaryn
Tamaryn
‘Mild Confusion’
Tamaryn’s music has been labelled under all sorts of genres – a resurrection of ’80s coldwave, a reinterpretation of shoegaze, even goth – perhaps indicating that it’s just not often that we hear anything quite like this spacey chunk of atmospherics loaded with a female vocal. At least, not this side of 1990. It is probably worth pointing out that Tamaryn are a band and that the raven-haired singer of the same name is their frontwoman, as this appears to be a point of confusion in the music press. Although based in San Francisco, their music is creating ripples that have spread as far as New York and Berlin, especially in the ‘death rock club’ scene, appealing particularly to folk who miss the Cocteau Twins and Siouxsie & The Banshees. Today’s free track ‘Mild Confusuon’ is due to be released as a 7” (b/w ‘Light Shadows’) through True Panther Records on December 9th and is a thick soup of a song with flavours of Kate Bush and Bat For Lashes. Reverb-heavy drums crack while an ethereal synth breathes heavily in the background, cooking up a huge sound that’s big enough to put Tamaryn on the map and prick up the attentions of listeners who might never have stepped foot in the ’80s, or indeed into a death rock club. MP3 after the jump.
Filed under: album, review, video | Tags: 2009, chris catchpole, karen o, music, yeah yeah yeahs
Karen O & The Kids
Where The Wild Things Are OST ••••½
Polydor
There are some of us who have somehow never stumbled upon Maurice Sendak’s Where The Wild Things Are; perhaps we are just not quite the right age, or conceivably it’s because this masterpiece of illustrated children’s literature just wasn’t quite as popular here as it was Stateside. But that’s all about to change as a much hyped Spike Jonze film adaptation, six years in the making, hits the big screen in December. The band name adorning the sleeve of this accompanying soundtrack is Karen O & The Kids; Karen O being the iconic Yeah Yeah Yeahs frontwoman and The Kids being, well, an untrained choir of youngsters. However, they are not alone; this extraordinary and peculiar set of songs is aided by a veritable supergroup of indie-rock elite including Dean Fertita of Queens Of The Stone Age, Bradford Cox of Deerhunter, Jack Lawrence of The Raconteurs, Greg Kurstin of The Bird & The Bee and, of course, Karen’s fellow Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Brian Chase and Nick Zinner.
Filed under: album, review | Tags: 2009, alicia keys, chris catchpole, music, whitney houston
Whitney Houston
I Look To You •
Arista / RCA
The name Whitney Houston conjures a whole multitude of disparate, and desperate, elements. One of the big ones, she made it as a singer, an actress, at one point a model, and an all-round money-making powerhouse. Her career defines the ’80s and, for most, she needs no introduction, her status being on the same scale as the dementedly huge voice she is so well known for. Some of what springs to mind, however, fits less comfortably alongside her once squeaky clean image, the Houston who once sang so innocently of wanting to dance with somebody, somebody who loved her. That someone turned out to be a certain Bobby Brown and, well, we know the rest. Rumours of drug addiction, financial ruin, and then finally, after 14 years, divorce followed by rehab.
Many reports over the last decade have focused on how ravaged and incapable Houston had become, her voice described as “raspy” and her behaviour unfocused and at times downright defiant. Her gaunt physical appearance did nothing to console her ever watchful public, who, with the airing of fly-on-the-wall show ’Being Bobby Brown’ in 2004, got a shocking look into the lives of the troubled pair, revealing a somewhat depraved and unhappy world (“She was so constipated I had to stick my finger in and…you remember that honey?” – cringe). This was not the lifestyle expected of an international crossover superstar with fame almost on the same scale as Michael Jackson. Drawing parallels with Jackson’s equally troubled existence is easy; wealth and talent don’t fix everything. What is worth noting, however, is that Houston is not dead and, well, Michael Jackson is. We should definitely celebrate that she’s still around to tell the tale, but what is really left of her we ask?
Filed under: album, mp3, review, video | Tags: 2009, amanda blank, chris catchpole, music
Amanda Blank
I Love You ••
Downtown
On paper, Philadelphia’s Amanda Blank is an exciting proposition. She comes across well in interviews, her strong stage presence ensures that live appearances never fail to be memorable, and, perhaps most importantly, her credibility has been enhanced by having operated outside of the mainstream for the past few years – her cool factor also not exactly damaged by keeping company with the likes of Ghostface Killah, Santigold and Yuksek. It’s fair to say, then, that expectations have been built up high for her long-awaited debut album I Love You, and for 33 minutes, hipsters, scenesters and nasty teens can release all their pent up anticipation that began a few months ago with the release of the unequivocally rude first single ‘Might Like You Better’.
Filed under: album, review, video | Tags: 2009, alison mosshart, chris catchpole, jack white, music, the dead weather, the kills, the raconteurs, the white stripes
The Dead Weather
Horehound •
Columbia / Third Man
Gone are the days when the term ‘supergroup’ was remotely meaningful and applied to such goldmines of talent as Crosby, Stills & Nash or Emerson, Lake & Palmer. It seems that this hugely subjective label is now increasingly applied to almost all collectives formed of relatively famous band members on their day, month or year off. The latest and most lauded in quite some time are The Dead Weather, who pitch their circus tent and climb the highwire of hype with a band formed out of a Raconteurs gig gone wrong. You will probably have heard the story already, but in case you haven’t, a redux: Jack White lost his voice and Alison Mosshart of The Kills stepped up to fill in on the mic; out of this sprang the idea for The Dead Weather in which Ms Mosshart assumes the role of frontwoman while White ditches the guitar and takes rather successfully to the drums. Enter fellow Ractonteur Jack Lawrence and Dean Fertita of Queens Of The Stone Age on bass and guitar respectively, and a new musical entity was born. The band have a clear agenda on this provocatively titled debut: Horehound is about bluesy rock of the fuzzy and distorted variety. This is no bad thing in itself, but sadly what unfolds is an album of less than memorable toe-tappers that rarely hit the authentic intensity associated with the best of the genre.
Filed under: album, mp3, review | Tags: 2009, arnett hollow, bonnie 'prince' billy, cheyenne mize, chris catchpole, music, will oldham
Cheyenne Mize & Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy
Among The Gold EP ••••
Karate Body Records
It is easy to forget that the human voice is a remarkable thing. Perhaps we often fail to regard it with the awe that it deserves because it is everywhere; our lives are constantly soundtracked from every angle by songs and voices in such profusion as never known before in history. There was apparently a time before headphones when a whole family would gather round a gramophone, or even sing together for entertainment. Granted those are times that few of us can recall, but Among The Gold lets us glimpse into that golden era without the need for time travel. A gem of a collaboration between Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy (aka Will Oldham) and his latest muse Cheyenne Mize – resident fiddle whizz in Louisville acoustic roots collective Arnett Hollow and a member of Oldham’s touring band – it follows on from their first recorded coupling on March’s limited edition Chijimi EP.
Filed under: album, review, video | Tags: 2009, chris catchpole, digitalism, drums of death, music, peaches, simian mobile disco, soulwax
Peaches
I Feel Cream ••••
XL
Nine years ago The Teaches Of Peaches turned a whole generation of unsuspecting electro kids into unbridled polysexual slaves, overseen by a stripped-down schoolteacher in spandex with a shock of mad curly hair and a penchant for covering her deviant following in mouthfuls of spat-out fake blood. Oh, and all of this while rapping some of the dirtiest rhymes ever written and throwing in facial hair, lots of balls and, reassuringly, a sense of humour. Peaches came to us like a much needed kick in the crotch, as fierce and disturbing as the result of Sandra Bernhard and Madonna put in the Brundlefly machine along with the entire cast of the ‘Rocky Horror Picture Show’.
For an artist that arrived on the ill-fated electroclash wagon, Peaches has stuck around and held onto a solid fanbase by diversifying her sound, taking on slightly higher production values on Fatherfucker (well, it wasn’t produced in her bedroom between masturbation and marijuana sessions for starters) and a more conscious rock sound with Impeach My Bush. Undeniably provocative, Peaches is not an act that one could necessarily call broadly appealing and three albums worth of titty suckin’ and skittle diddlin’ can be exhausting stuff for even the most hardened of fans. Impeach My Bush notably showed signs of desperation in its unrelenting, frantic need to try out different styles while holding onto the message of sexual empowerment. Now it’s time for our fourth bite of the Peach and I Feel Cream finds her in esteemed company with production mainly from Simian Mobile Disco’s James Ford and contributions from Drums Of Death, Soulwax and Digitalism.
Filed under: free music friday, mp3, review | Tags: 2009, chris catchpole, hanne hukkelberg, music
Hanne Hukkelberg
‘Blood From A Stone’
Hanne Hukkelberg sprang out of Norway in 2004 with her debut Little Things, a wonderful record of remarkable, intricate jazz-pop with a surprising blend of hushed, soft vocals and “found sounds” like rain and, er, washing-up brushes. Inevitable comparisons were made with fellow “Scands” Emilíana Torrini and Stina Nordenstam; however, it was clear that Hanne occupied her own quietly dramatic corner. Rykestrasse 68, her second full-length, won her a Norwegian Grammy, the title reflecting six months spent living on the titular street in Berlin. What is curious, though, is that in reality there is no number 68. Such perplexities ran through the album as Hukkelberg began to show signs of a slightly less mannered approach, her voice remaining honeyed and childlike, however incongruous it sounded on tracks like ‘Ticking Bomb’, a song about the final moments of a suicidal terrorist delivered with a Parisian stomp.
Last year, Hanne spent six months off the coast of her home country on the island of Senja – home to the world’s biggest troll – in an effort to get away from it all and write a new album. Surrounded by the natural drama of this magical island it seems she has been inspired to become even bolder in her approach, perhaps recalling her past endeavours (such as being a member of a high-school heavy metal band called…Funeral!). Describing the sound of the resulting album, Blood From A Stone, Hukkelberg says, “I would call it a mixture of new wave, no wave and indie music…but the music is still wrapped in my personal sound: small sounds, found sounds, weird objects used as instruments and different layers…this is a record more direct, more loud and from the hip – lyrically as well.” To hear what six months on an island that is often seen as a microcosm of Norway has done to our Hanne, the title track is all yours below the jump. Blood From A Stone is released on April 20th.
Filed under: free music friday, mp3, review | Tags: 2009, amanda blank, chris catchpole, music
Amanda Blank
‘Might Like You Better’
Amanda Mallory, better known as Amanda Blank, is famed for her work with alternative electro-rap outfit Spank Rock as well as appearances on records by Ghostface Killah, MIA and Santigold. For anyone unfamiliar with her style, think Lil’ Kim crossed with Jay-Z with a touch of Peaches. Indeed, Ms Mallory could easily have called herself Amanda Frank given the sex-on-a-plate, no-holds-barred approach that has spawned lyrics such as “My rhymes are painful and fresh / my pussy’s tastin’ the best”. Whatever your view on the sort of semi-misogynistic rap normally delivered by the male of the species flying straight out of the mouth of its female subject, and whether Blank’s approach is deemed post-feminist, post-misogyny or a confusing orgy of nastiness, this is provocative stuff.
Preview track ‘Might Like You Better’ is the first single to be lifted from her much-anticipated solo debut I Love You, due July 19th, and finds Amanda suggesting a horny session of relationship improvement via the coital act. Essentially it’s a ballsy ode to every dinner date where someone has thought, “Let’s skip the chat and do the sex,” although the idea of Amanda on a dinner date is a rather unlikely image – ‘Might Like You Better’ certainly gives the impression that she’s not the sort of girl who is into fine dining. Needless to say, it’s a lot of fun and leaves us panting for the album. MP3 after the jump.
