Need More Sources, And So I Watch You From Afar, Not To Reason Why Reviewed

I'm feeling a little less than inspired of late so your just gonna have to trust me on these, let the music do the talking so to speak, I guess that’s how it should be anyway...over the last few months I’ve stumbled over some of the most lovely instrumental music I’ve heard in sometime, delicately reassuring textures of warmth wrapped in electronic washes, peppered with simple yet piercing piano, an instrument I’m growing to love by the day, so much feeling in each note, I really want to learn how to play properly yet I don't have the will power to do it, one day I hope.
Need More Sources is the brainchild of Chris Stewart a delightful mix of pianos, stringed instruments and delicately treated electronics, falling between Motoro Faam, Colleen and Max Richter and a welcome addition to any weekend when your week has just been too much, an album to cherish.
At the other end of the spectrum sit, well maybe not sit, perhaps a more accurate picture would be of an agitated, impatience, and standing up and sitting down, standing up and pacing up and down, are And So I Watch You From Afar. Although I will always stick up for post rock when the critics shake their sticks so predictably at it for its ...erm, predictability, I do find myself occasionally getting tired of all the Explosions in the Sky wannabees out there and more often than not prefer those who go to the effort of making strings, violins and cellos particularly, a strong feature of their sound. And So I Watch You From Afar choose not to yet manage to throw in some great dynamics on a par or maybe even better than Russian Circles and Let Airplanes Circle Overhead..I like this alot...
And So I Watch You From Afar - I Capture Castles MP3
And So I Watch You From Afar - Holylands, 4am MP3
...I also like Not To Reason Why, again fitting undisputedly into the post rock scene but with enough about them to stand apart from the crowd, gentle piano riffs lull you in before they kick in without ever going to far into the obvious crashing, epic climaxes so often called upon. 1.21 Jiggawatts!? stands out...
Stream tracks here

Sources
Tapas n Tapas

Kashiwa Daisuke - Program Music I (noble) - Reviewed

Kashiwa Daisuke - Program Music I (noble)

I was stupid enough to make the mistake of mixing up Kashiwa Daisuke & Daisuke Miyatani both releasing albums this year and both with similar artwork & names to the untrained English man, so i was rather suprised to see the normally reliable Silent Ballet raving over this release and more suprised still to see it awarded number 6 in their end of year top 50 instrumental albums of 2007 as i'd been less than impressed by Daisuke Miyatani's work.

Hence why i'm sat here giving Program Music 1 the attention it deserves. Two tracks, the first Stella is stella by name and stella by nature, clocking in at almost 36 minutes its an awe inspiring trip through a fragile and beautiful outlook of the world. This again shares an affiliation with World's End Girlfriend, snow blowing in your eyes, cold and harsh yet ultimately turning the tired landscape you see day in day out into a winter wonderland of enchantment. Kashiwa has the ability much like Godspeed to write a song that clocks in well above the average length and yet never outstays its welcome. Within a loosely knit genre that often relies on repitition and indelibly written formulas never once does Stella sound like its treading familiar ground or running short of ideas.

Track 2, Write Once, Run Melos clocks in at a mere 26 minutes and again is nothing short of astounding, seemingly more electronic, this will thrill anyone who was even half as consumed as i was by this years Motoro Faam or Cloaks albums, a lovely melding of classical piano and electronic decay for a world weary, politically tired generation. This could well turn into this years favourite mistake.

Myspace

Website

Noble Label

Kashiwa Daisuke - Sample mp3

Motoro Faam Reviewed ...(Boards of Canada, World's End Girlfriend etc)

Motoro Faam - …and Water Cycles (Preco)
Motoro Faam are three highly talented twenty five year old musicians from Japan mixing classical and contemporary music with irregular beats and sampling. This is probably the most genuinely moving thing I’ve heard since Johann Johannsson’s IBM 1401 – A Users Manual and perhaps the most original and thought provoking thing since I was first wowed with Godspeeds intelligent outlook on modern music. It’s like Lucky Dragons should they ever decide to soundtrack a ballet recital, pianos roll and electronic glitches flicker like decaying static.
The sound will satisfy those partial to the sounds of Max Richter and the like, however this is one if not two steps ahead of their game and is one of the most exciting discoveries I’ve had the pleasure to stumble across lately, timeless yet undeniably original. …and Precipitation weaves and delights with bubbles of waters and waves, sandstorms and gentle pianos beneath stormy rainfall, it’s unlikely you will find anything quite so delightful this year.

Motoro Faam – …and Surface Runoff MP3

Motoro Faam – …and Condensation MP3

Motoro Faam – … and Evaporation MP3

Website

Preco Records

Myspace

Normans Records - We have another great Motoro Faam CD on the Preco label from Japan called 'And Water Cycles'. This is pretty lush sounding stuff. Gorgeous electronics and neo classical nubbins mixed together in a sexy love pot all ready to pour into your unsuspecting ears. There's a healthy dash of Ryuichi Sakamoto in there and maybe some more. It's quite experimental and there's an awful lot going on. The sound is very dense and full, but together it makes a really beautiful listen, what with all the lovely classical-ness being chucked into the electronic mix. Mingus thinks it sounds a bit like Takagi Masakatsu....highly recommended anyway!

Boards of Canada

Long term readers will need no introduction to the fact that i absolutley adore Boards of Canada, I stumbled over these videos on youtube, the excellent video for ROYGBIV, the song that turned me on to them (thanks to an NME compilation!!) and then a rather crazy but suprisingly good Audio/Video mashup/blend of David Hasselhoff's cover of "Blue Bayou" mixed with Boards of Canada's "An Eagle In Your Mind"...nice!!

And a couple of other videos i saw that summarise some of what i'm getting more and more into at the moment...beautiful stuff

at the close of every day - Hemelsblauw

World's End Girlfriend - We Are The Massacre