Anoice, Takahiro Kido, This is Ivy League, Women, Matmos Reviewed

So it really has been to long since i visited this page and shared good music with you. Much has happened and much new music has been discovered and continues to be discovered on a daily basis, the Japanese in particular, seemingly a nation full of talented musicians, equal parts genius and beauty. An endless stream of musicians similar in style to World's End Girlfriend and dare i say better than. Each one taking the most lovely parts of classical and turning it into something of exceptional splendour.

First up Anoice, whose album Remmings is a real joy, a gorgeous mix of piano and violin, occasionally dischordant but in a subtle way rather than any barrage of decay that you may expect. The almost Tarantula AD had they not discovered 80's poodle rock of Kyoto stands out alongside the yearning violins of Liange.

Anoice - The Three-Days Blow mp3

Anoice guitarist and programmer Takahiro Kido also records under his own name, more sparse and slightly magical in its basic form. Lovely piano compositions

Takahiro Kido Myspace

Yasushi Yoshida's new one for the ever impressive and reliable noble label is a touch of genius in a very similar vein perfecting the mold he so sucessfully created on pevious album Secret Figure. Highly recommended.

Yasushi Yoshida mp3's

This is Ivy League have been catering for my pop requirements. Thir self titled debu album is a breath of fresh summer air, like Belle and Sebastian with a greater love for Simon & Garfunkel, for Modesty Blaise, for Love . like Suburban Kids With Biblical Names if they slept in silk pyjamas, really quite brilliant. Richest Kids, A Summer Chill, Love is Impossible stand out. This is Ivy League - Richest Kids mp3

Women are just brilliant, like No Age playing Shin's covers. Clinic covering the Bach Boys. I need say no more.

Women - Black Rice mp3

Matmos have been getting all perfect on us, less concepts more electronics, the opening three tracks on new album Supreme Balloon are obscenely good, suffocated in retro synths, rubbery and brain meltingly good. The rest of the album doesn't quite live up to the exceptional openings but the three are well worth tracking down.

Matmos - Rainbow Flag mp3

And some old school Matmos

Matmos - Steam and Sequins for Larry Levan Favorite on Hype Machine

Happy listening...

Sources

Girlpants

Glorious Noise
Souls on Tape

Fluxblog

Give me a Song for a Snowy Sunday

Just five minutes back snow was showering itself down like dusting on a cake, nonchalantly falling like everything was normal and we weren't slowly working our way into the month of April...now there's glorious sunshine...I sometimes forget just how great Belle & Sebastian are, even though the blogs very bame is stolen from one of their songs..from time to time i'll revisit, latey i've been trying the newer stuff, swallowing my pride as an old school fan and just ennjoying the fact that as far as "chart music" goes, Belle and Sebastian are indeed a breath of fresh air. Today though I'm feeling sinister and Fox in the Snow seems like the right song to be listening to on repeat, i smile to the line, the best looking boys are taken, the best looking boys are staying in bed in the gloriously simple and instantly loveable Judy and Her Dream of Horses.

Belle & Sebastian - Judy and the Dream of Horses Mp3

Sources
Listen

How can you not love Kimya Dawson, so imperfect yet twice as perfect for it, a hero for those who "can't sing" who aren't afraid of being different yet are secretly paranoid about what other people think. I Like Giants is a lovely song..."all girls feel too big sometimesRegardless of their size"

Something Beautiful for a Saturday Afternoon - Dustin O'Halloran

And so i stumbled over Dustin O'Halloran, classically trained pianist and on the strength of what i've heard so far he is quite certain to become an artist that will soon sit at the heady heights of my last fm chart alongside peers Jon Brion & Michael Andrews. The homemade youtube enthusiast video to Opus 36 is breathtaking, a beech tree in reverse time lapse photography, slowly being rebuilt branch by branch like our own lives sometimes, when so to speak they are so unfairly cut to pieces...

Lullatone - The Bedtime Beat (Someone Good Australia) Reviewed

Lullatone - The Bedtime Beat (Someone Good Australia)
It’s been a wee while since I’ve heard an album that I though I just had to write about instantly but from the wonderful opening track it was clear that Lullatones "The Bedtime Beat" was going to be one of those. Simple, cute and creative beyond belief, like the child who is given a cardboard box rather than a remote control car or whatever the kids are playing with these days, that cardboard box will become to the child whatever he so pleases and so to Lullatone each and everything in their sight is transformed Rugrats style into something else. An unrivalled ability to see the most unlikely things in the most mundane objects and sounds. The bathwater becomes a drum pattern, as do secretly taped snores, there are no boundaries, all objects are instruments in their eyes. So here we have a minor masterpiece, this is the sound of Deerhoof had electricity never been invented, Mice Parade if they had had all their batteries stolen. Cute, clever and certainly more than worth of your attention.

Lullatone - The Bathtime Beat MP3

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