Cantaloup, Trondheim, Net Label Review

I find it really quite amazing that each year some of my favourite albums are those that are made freely available on non profit net labels, over the last few years wonderful free albums have appeared and wowed, occasionally stunning, not least in the case of French Teen Idols Enlightened False Conciousness, all three Bosques De Mi Mente albums and the groundbreaking dreamscapes of Encephala's We are the Dreamers of Dreams along with worthy mentions of the Archaic Horizon roster boasting the healthy releases of Boards of Canada-likes Gabriel and the graceful Future Dream by Statedlife.

This year has been very much the same and though there are probably a thousand albums i haven't heard, two artists that i have been fortunate enough to cross paths with are Cantaloup and Trondheim.
Cantaloup being the project of Thomas Peters is dreamy and ambient, twinkly songs falling between post rock and electronica, arriving not a million miles from French Teen Idols sound but taking it to the next level with the aid of Eva Pauls beautiful voice who features on several tracks that bring a slight folk element to the equation. I cannot recommend Cantaloup highly enough.

Last FM: Cantaloup, aka Thomas Peters, who lives in Marburg/Germany has been producing music since 2003. He decided to use the resources and experiences of bedroom production studios to create music which tries to take listeners on journeys, on which sound evokes images in warm colours. The bigger part of the songs and spheres are played live with instruments, supported by Eva Paul who brings her beautiful voice into a few songs. These fragments - with the little help of some fx - merge to an extraordinary overall view, whose appeal lies in its own form of slowness and in a reduced perception on small things of everyday life.

Trondheim on the other hand is more beat driven and classically influenced, occasionally borrowing from the text book of Detektivbyrån but bringing an altogether more techno feel to the proceedings with stuttering beats complimenting gently played pianos and keys and on tracks like Der heimliche Star des Abends bringing back memmories of Random Number at their best.

Last FM: since pianos fit into laptops, one can finally set them up pretty easily in a small flat without losing one’s bedding. they also get along pretty well with some other wonders of digital technology, while accepting some downsides as well of course. trondheim is ansgar seide, hailing from münster (germany) and produces fragmented electronica with lots of melodies

Cantaloup - On a Hill Not Far Away (full album zip)
Cantaloup - Tonight It Shows (full album zip)
Trondheim - Zum Abschied Album Zip
Trondheim - der erste widersacher und sein untergang
Trondheim - entweder terence hill (full zip)
French Teen Idol - Enlightened False Conciousness (full album zip)
Bosques De Mi Mente - Lo-Fi (full album zip)
Bosques De Mi Mente - Trens De Juguete (full album zip)
Bosques De Mi Mente - Ruido Blanco (full album zip)
Encephala - We Are The Dreamers Of Dreams (full album zip)
Gabriel - Good Old Days (full album zip)
Statedlife - Future Dreams (full album zip)

Aerotone Net Label
Earstroke Net Label
Archaic Horizon Net Label
Lost Children Net Label

Bosques De Mi Mente & Serafina Steer Reviewed

Bosques De Mi Mente & Serafina Steer Reviewed

Posted on 2007.09.18 at 22:18

Current Music: Talkdemonic - Beat Romantic

Tags: bat for lashes, bosques de mi mente, cat power, cocorosie, eluvium, joanna newsom, kate bush, meg baird, serafina steer, sparklehorse, the finches, whistler

Bosques De Mi Mente – LoFi
With the first signs of the winter bearing down us, they bring with them a terrible feeling of loneliness and a bleak reminder of the harsh weather set to follow in the steps of what has yet again been a poor summer. Yet the winter also brings with it a tragic beauty, one that can pull you from the deepest of setbacks and sprinkle you with hope.

The music of Bosques De Mi Mente is your perfect partner to such feelings of melancholy and despair, like the scene from Far & Away when Nicole Kidman gets shot and Tom Cruise hands her back to her former lover and takes the slow walk through the snow, brutal and unforgiving it beats against your bare face, its gets in through any means possible and bites at your defenceless skin. Yet against the odds it’s hard to deny the beauty of snow and its icy mischievousness, its ability to hold a moment in time, the way you sometimes feel the need and occasionally elongate a time and period of sadness, finding comfort from your sorrows and wallowing in your misery, its unhealthy yes but sometimes it serves a purpose yet eventually like Tom you just have to let her go, just walk away from the situation. You try not to look back yet when you do all you see is footsteps slowly disappearing in the snow as the fresh snow covers them up and severs all former ties.

Bosques De Mi Mente is the music to soundtrack your latest tragedy, the music that will bring beauty to the most tragic of happening, solo piano has rarely captured such feeling, this was last done so well by Eluvium and if that’s not a recommendation then I don’t know what is.

Bosques De Mi Mente LoFi - MP3 Album Zip File

MySpace

Serafina Steer – Cheap Demo Bad Science (Static Caravan)
You may have guessed that I have a little more than an appreciation for the female vocal and more than a chip on my shoulder about how highly rated Cat Power is and yet again I find myself stumbling over a stupidly talented female that far exceeds anything that I’ve heard from Chan Marshall.

Serafina Steer will appeal to anyone who has been wowed by the likes of Bat for Lashes, Whistler, The Finches, Meg Baird, Cocorosie or Kate Bush and yes I hate lame comparisons but it’s not just because she owns a harp that I find myself thinking of Joanna Newsom, however it’s not that simple, this is Joanna Newsom gone back in time, a medieval Joanna who at the same time mixes her folk styling’s with modern technology and electronics, as if she’s half stuck in the past and half in the future, maybe the common, poor servant girl who creeps into her mistresses room and jumps grubby handed onto the harp at every opportunity, bashing out beautiful songs that no one will ever hear until now. As creative and original as Cocorosie, as lyrically weird as Sparklehorse, yet as accessible as the girl next door, the girl living on a council estate fighting to hear her harp over the arguments that overpower her playing

Catch now before you regret having to stand at the back of a packed out crowd, next to burger king at next year’s ATP, Serafina is a delightful discovery.

MySpace
Static Caravan

Sadly I can’t find any MP3’s so give her Myspace a try