Lana Del Ray - Video Games (Video)

A beautiful new discovery care of Gorilla vs Bear blog.

Very lovely in a Cat Power meets Joanna Newsom manner. Been on pretty heavy repeat lately. Love that line "I heard that you like the bad girls/Honey, is that true?" Its delivery is simply perfect.

Enjoy

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

Scout Niblett, Loscil, Hylozoists Reviewed

Scout Niblett, Loscil, Hylozoists Reviewed

Posted on 2007.09.08 at 18:52

Current Music: Scout Niblett - This Fool Can Die Right Now

Tags: bill callahan, bonnie prince billy, cat power, cue, espers, hylozoists, joanna newsom, kranky, one net label, scout niblett, smog, too pure, will oldham

Oh how I love Scout Niblett… I’ve just got my hands on her new albums “This Fool Can Die Now” due for release by Too Pure on October 9th…there’s something wonderful about Scout, her voice, so powerful and emotive, especially on Your Last Chariot, like she’s been up all night crying and then just picked the mic up and poured all her deepest sorrows into song.

The opening brace of songs are duets, the first Do You Wanna Be Buried with My People, I know not who this is with, the second is instantly recognisable as Will Oldham, a lush and powerful six minutes of love and emotion aptly entitled Kiss. The duets tend to show a newer more mature and produced sound to Scout Nibletts already high standards, the kind of touch needed to put her up in the big league (she has always been there, if not above in my mind) the push that will see her recognised clearly amongst the Cat Powers (of whom she is unarguably far superior, if not to the eyes of the mass media) the Will Oldhams, the Bill Callahans and the Joanna Newsoms. However her stripped down sound I was first attracted to (some songs on here feature violins and full band) is still present on a number of tracks that stand out to me, the ferocious Nevada and Let Thine Heart Be Warned.

I’m only half way through but already I know that This Fool Can Die Now is destined to be an album I cherish for some time…oh, how I love Scout Niblett.

MySpace

Website

Too Pure

Scout Niblett - Kiss MP3

Loscil – Plume (Kranky)
Loscil – States (One Net Label)
I would never have understood this music five years ago but now I feel instantly at ease with the swells and drones that make up the music of Loscil, namely Scott Morgan who for a living makes sound effects for computer games.

The music is slow and dreamy, the kind of music you imagine is fed into the womb, the comforting caring sounds of a loving mother, the heart taking its first beat and the embryo slowly developing into a little human in its own right, this is the music of miracles, mesmerising and transfixing, music to send you off into dreams and restful sleep.

Website

MySpace

Kranky

One Net Label

Loscil - Sous Marin MP3

Loscil - Stases Full Album ZIP

Hylozoists - La Fin Du Monde (boompa)
The music of Hylozoists is sweeping and endearing, it is Francophilic in sound, carrying a certain Parisian romance in its sweeping upbeat orchestral arrangements.
Man who was builds up into a wall of hope and fantasy conjuring images of Tim Burton-esque sets, mysterious and magical, where limits have no place, anything is possible and all is within your reach, unicorns roam freely and fairies fly like butterflies unafraid of being seen. At times their cinematic sound strays into areas covered by the wonderful Espers yet not quite so folk-sy. Now and then there are hints of About a Boy, but I’ll let you decide if that’s good or bad.
Much like Cue it’s refreshing to hear a less bleak and more upbeat sound in an instrumental band, triumphant and joyous, let these well arranged orchestrations soundtrack whichever occasion you choose.

MySpace

Website

Boompa

Hylozoists - Strait is the Gate MP3