Chazz Knapp - Vie comme un Parasite Faisant la fête

Chazz Knapp - Vie comme un Parasite Faisant la fête (Phantom Channel)
I remember being completely blown away by the first Our Brother the Native album, bought simply because it was on FatCat, a strange mix of Cocorosie and Four Tet folkish tapestries. Here on his solo album, Chaz Knapps musical genius shines through strongly once again, maybe not as original but stunningly beautiful. Steeped in classical roots the five songs, for the majority of the time minimal piano based tracks, are melancholy and as beautiful as the piano can be when placed under the right set of fingers. Dreamy walks through secret gardens, the impatient anticipation of a reunital with a loved one mixed with the gleeful reminiscence of past memories.

At times similiar in sound to Becky Foons Fifths of Seven project at their very best, in Chaz Knapp there has been found a healthy dose of musical genius and you'd be a fool if you weren't to take a spoonful.

Chazz Knapp - Vie comme un Parasite Faisant la fête zip

On a similiar note we find the fatcat label on fine form as always, kindly delivering the compilation Floored Memory...Fading Location, the names will be familiar and if they are not I would seriously recommend checking them out, especially if you like the above album, names like Max Richter, Hauschka and Sylvain Chaveau should become firm favourites of yours, each giving three tracks here (max gives four) alongside two new(?) tracks from Set Fire to Flames, try Chazz Knapp first, then check these out.

A Sunny Day In Glasgow, Welcome, David Karsten Daniels Reviewed

A Sunny Day In Glasgow, Welcome, David Karsten Daniels Reviewed
Posted on 2007.08.06 at 20:53
Current Mood: Optimistic Current
Music: Various - Girls Go Zonk (Cherry Red)
Tags: a sunny day in glasgow, blood the wall, clinic, david karsten daniels, deerhoof, elliot smith, empress, fat cat, fatcat, jon brion, notenuf, sufjan stevens, the besnard lakes, the field, tompaulin, welcome

A Sunny Day in Glasgow – Scribble Mural Journal (Notenuf)
I once wrote a song when I was younger called A Sunny Day In Scotland, but that’s irrelevant, all you need to know is that A Sunny Day in Glasgow are a rather wonderful recent discovery of mine. Songs that merge into one pool of sticky mess, as tasty as Rocky Road is ugly and as beautiful as the rainbows stained petrol puddles that reveal themselves as the sun rises following the rain.
Each song is a mosaic of sounds, a mixing desk nightmare to some, to me a dreamy skyline. The vocals merge into the sound to the point that the human voice becomes an instrument itself somehow expressing more than is possible when we actually speak fully formed words. This one’s for the dreamers, for those who can’t express how they feel in words, for those who wonder when they speak if to the majority of people it appears only as a jumble of sounds, us mumblers and those incapable of shouting, us who insecurely think we’re being ignored when really we really should speak that little bit louder.
The sound takes in a number of influences whisked together and dished out in one delicious offering, from A Mundane Phonecall to Jack Parsons Clinic like sound to The Fields tripped electronica, embracing any number of girl pop indie bands, the much missed Empress, Tompaulin and a healthy garnish of all things ethereal…I like A Sunny Day in Glasgow a lot!

www.asunnydayinglasgow.com/
www.myspace.com/sunnydayinglasgow




Welcome - Sirs (FatCat)
Much like label mates Blood on the Wall Welcome put together a lovely racket of surprisingly melodic noise, mixing the spiky, wiry and intuitive guitar riffs with the gravel throated Kurt-esque vocals of Pete Brand or Jo Claxton’s honey like vocals on what has become my favourite song (according to last.fm) Bunky, a rival if there ever was one to Blood on the Walls I’d Like To Take You Out. Elsewhere Deerhoof comparisons are fairly justified but Welcome are a more universal taste, where many people struggle with Satomi Matsuzaki’s vocals, there is nothing to dislike about the often twinned vocals on offer here, mixing anger with pop melodies in way that McClusky do so well. Another great release from the ever reliable FatCat label.

http://www.blogger.com/www.myspace.com/yrwelcome
www.myspace.com/fatcatrecords
www.fat-cat.co.uk/

David Karsten Daniels – Sharp Teeth (FatCat)
Don’t let the cover put you off, instead just sit back and fall in love with a sounds, simple and pure, envy at the way Mr Karsten Daniels can make such a beautiful song like American Pastime sound so effortlessly beautiful, modest even, no doubt he plays all the instruments too yet his sound is so sincere and naturally beautiful. The kind of sound you’d associate with such geniuses as Elliot Smith, Sufjan Stevens and on Minnows, The Besnard Lakes. Not that he mimics them, rather that his sound is pure and inspiring, clean and unadulterated, made in the mountains where the city hasn’t had chance to pollute and corrupt the naivety that exists within the simple communities that reside there, a sound that rises and falls with the sun, like the black and whiteness of Pleasantville before it was drowned and ruined in colour. Beautiful and not a million miles away from the sound that Jon Brion so frequently achieves on his exceptional film scores…don’t let the cover put you off.

www.myspace.com/davidkarstendaniels
www.myspace.com/fatcatrecords
www.fat-cat.co.uk/