The Smittens & Noah & The Whale

Its been too long, yet again i've been snowed under with all sorts and three weddings in five weeks, two family members (obviously not marrying each other) and a close friend.

I have heard so much good music of late i really don't know where to start...

Firstly with some good old pop music i guess

Noah and the Whale have been making me smile for some time, a husky voice not a million miles away from Shady Bard but a whole lot poppier, i've mostly been won over by the horn led Shape of my Heart regularly soundtracking my short drive to work and putting in a fine mood, well for a short while at least. Just lately the two preceeding tracks have been firmly routing themselves in my subconciousness, the wonderful Jocasta and the lyrically sublime 2 Atoms and One Molecule. Lovely Stuff.

And if love is just a game
Then how come it's no fun?
If love is just a game
How come I've never won?
I guess maybe it's possible I might be playing it wrong
And that's why every time I roll the dice
I always come undone

But now I look at love
Like being stabbed in the heart
You torture each other from day to day
And then one day you part
Most of the time it's misery
But there's some joy at the start
And for that, I'd say it's worth it

Website
Noah and the Whale - Shape of My Heart mp3

Source: Music For Ants



For full on Elephant Six esque pop look no further than The Smittens who have recently released a great album on the legendary Happy Happy Birthday To Me Label, bringing back memories of one of my favourite pop bands ever Fablefactory and the adorable Essex Green, no bad thing if i may say so myself.

The Smittens - The Interstate mp3

Source: False 45th

More Soon...ish

Dianogah, El Ten Eleven, The Pains of Being Pure At Heart Reviewed plus Los Campesinos & Marnie Stern

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart – Come Saturday (Fortuna Pop!)
A lovely blast of summery noise pop, contagious as pop music gets with its ooooo-ee-oooo’s and its laid back slacker cool attitude. With the melodic charm of the Lucksmiths getting covered by the Shop Assistants this is a summer classic certain to bring a smile to your face and have you dancing your socks off at every indie disco you attend between now and forever.

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart – Come Saturday mp3

El Ten Eleven - These Promises Are Being Videotaped
Dianogah – qhnnnl
A refreshing pair of “post-rock”ish bands, perhaps both veer more towards math rock. El Ten Eleven remind me of two of my favourite discoveries, back in the day when I’d purchase albums simply based on how much I liked the look of the cover, State River Widening & 33.3. Simple and understated, staccato melodies picked out on deep strings.
These Promises Are Being Videotaped, the latest offering from El Ten Eleven sees a move towards dance, like Justice covering Tortoise, and is a successful attempt at pushing the boundaries of “instrumental” music. Both their previous albums are less beat driven but come highly recommended.
Dianogah’s strangely titled qhnnnl is a dreamy autumnal album, some tracks are more “Alternative/American Indie” but the unusual core set up of two basses and a drummer makes for an interesting listen. When they are instrumental they are at their strongest particularly on the gorgeous Andrew Jackson, don’t be fooled by the Always Look on the Bright Side of Life intro, this is a dreamy number with delicately arranged strings that add the garnish to an already superb musical offering. On A Breaks B they could be mistaken for the Delgados, which is no bad thing in my eyes. Sprinter is lovely too, easily the best of the vocal tracks, again reminiscent of the Delgados Emma Pollack, though please don’t expect a new Delgados album of smooth Scottish pop, this is definitely “instrumental” and “math-y” but tuneful and upbeat in its approach, maybe in the same way that the aforementioned Scots always had a lovely bass line holding their songs together.
Certainly two bands well worth your careful attention.

El Ten Eleven - Jumping Frenchmen of Maine mp3

El Ten Eleven - 3 plus 4 mp3

El Ten Eleven - Hot Cakes mp3

El Ten Eleven - Living on Credit Blues mp3

El Ten Eleven - Lorge mp3

Dianogah - A Breaks B mp3

Source: The Line of Best Fit

And finally a mention of two rather welcome returns, guitar shredder Marnie Stern and indie pop anarchists Los Campesinos...i like them both rather alot :) :)

Marnie Stern - Prime mp3

Source: Cannibal Cheerleader

Los Campesinos - Ways to Make it Through The Wall mp3

Source: Certain Songs

Parenthetical Girls & Growing Reviewed

Parenthetical Girls – Entanglements
Somewhat more loveable than Patrick Wolf and coming on like Final Fantasy if he re met all his childhood friends only to find out they had formed a string section to accompany his somewhat awkward tones and quirky lines. Like Danielson, fun, euphoric and almost nursery like at times yet always with a healthy supply of pomposity on show. Like the Magnetic Fields writing the score for a beautiful ballet, pitchshifted vocals and a healthy regard for all things Magnetic Fields. This is the kind of album that deserves a touring theatre group to pen a play to.

Parenthetical Girls - Four Words mp3

Source: Said the Gramophone

Parenthetical Girls "A Song For Ellie Greenwich" mp3

Source: Fluxblog

Growing – All The Way

The sound of Growing is one that's hard to explain, i did try just a few posts back before the excitement of finding out they have a brand new album on the way. I'm sure it will not be to everyones taste but i can't help but instanstly adore them. Their sound is like half concious visions of the future, blurred and scant of detail but giving enough for you to put your own twists and interpretations to it. A hazy morning hungover F Buttons, their batteries running low, energy waning. A great introduction to the world of drone and noise, a beautiful cover too.

Growing - Green Flag mp3

Source: Raven Sings the Blues

Growing - Innit

Source: 20 Jazz Funk Greats

Hayman, Watkins, Trout & Lee, The Mountain Movers, Cocoanut Groove, Bubblegum Lemonade, Strawberry Whiplash, A Lily Reviewed

A Lily – Wake:Sleep
"sweet, meandering melodies, caught somewhere between sleeping and waking. childrens' voices echo incoherent and lively; electronics, accordian, drums and glockenspiel drift in and out."The Wire

It’s taken me a long time to get into this and I wonder why, it’s so perfectly me, perhaps it’s those final two tracks, far too long for my short attention span, too droney and uneventful, maybe they just don’t fit the rest of the album, the latter being 30 plus minutes in length, perhaps on my way to sleep I would welcome them into my ears but following on from the glorious six tracks that precede them, i’m not interested. Maybe if this is available on vinyl the label will have been discreet enough to have tracks 1-6 on side A and 7 & 8 on the flipside, they seem that far removed.
The album comes with a story...( "In his solo project A Lily, James Vella creates willowy instrumental dreampop whose pitter-pattering beats, chiming melodies, softly murmuring voices, and fluttering guitars sound like they're emerging from behind a translucent scrim. Inspired by his girlfriend Leanna, Wake:Sleep is a valentine set to music created by the Canterbury resident and Yndi Halda guitarist using primarily computer and electric and acoustic guitars, but also accordion, piano, drums, glockenspiel, bass, and pretty much anything else within reach.)...and its every bit as beautiful as the sentiment, six pieces of glitchy goodness, skittering beats and gently whispered sampled laments, like múm if they only shopped organically and avoid e numbers, like a film dropped on the floor before developing, stained half recallen memories of good times, the light that awakens you day in day out, reliable, bright and persistent. Children’s voices reminiscent of Boards of Canada and Isan, twinkles and chimes so soothing on the brain that remind me of I am Robot & Proud, each song slowly turned inside out as if to reveal the inner person, the secret person of the heart. A special special album.

listen at Last FM

Hayman, Watkins, Trout & Lee - Hayman, Watkins, Trout & Lee (Fortuna Pop!)
I wonder where he finds the time, where he finds the inspiration, this being the umpteenth release this year from the wonderfully honest and analytical Darren Hayman formerly of Hefner, one of my all time favourite bands. Darren has the ability to put feelings into words, everything you want to express, all those frustrations you’ve felt, all the sideways glances, all the thoughts you never thought you’d tell into flipping good pop songs. With Hayman, Watkins, Trout & Lee there is a diversion from the normal sound this being a bluegrass project, which would normally be enough to turn anyone off, however alongside Dave Tattersall of the Wave Pictures the Hayman magic shines through as ever.
Hesitation Blues will have you strutting around your kitchen and dosey doe-ing your loved one whilst your kettle boils, Jameater Blues will have you flinging open your windows on even the coldest days and make you eat jam straight from the jar without a care in the world. High Blood Pressure cannot fail to make you smile, alternatively it may just inspire you to go watch O Brother Where Art Thou?
Go embrace Hayman, Watkins, Trout & Lee, let some light heartedness into your life.

Hayman, Watkins, Trout & Lee - Sly & The Family Stone Mp3

Source: Nu Wave

The Mountain Movers - We've Walked In Hell And There Is Life After Death (Fortuna Pop!)
With a title like that of an over ambitious post rock band or a survivor from the lost island writing his autobiography you’d be forgiven for expecting something pretentious and overblown. It won’t help their cause when I tell you that all the songs are about death, the devil and the afterlife.
You’ll be pleased to know however that instead of being some death metal disaster, the kind people at Fortuna Pop! Are treating you to 12 songs as laid back and splendid as everyone’s favourites, The Butterflies of Love.

Listen on Last FM

Bubblegum Lemonade – Ten Years Younger EP
Strawberry Whiplash – Who’s In Your Dreams EP
A lovely couple of releases straight out of Glasgow from the ever reliable Matinee Records. Bubblegum Lemonade are very JAMC and very Creation but loveable all the same. Ten Years Younger is a brilliant shoegazey pop song with an almost Aislers Set/Black Tambourine stomp to it especially as it resurrects itself so brilliantly just before the three minute mark. That Thing You Do! Sounds like something i’ve heard before, it’s nothing new but it’s exceptionally well done. Highly recommended.
Strawberry Whiplash have a similarly familiar sound, this time more drenched in fuzz and keys, like a modern Shop Assistants, and really need I say anything further than just go discover them.

Bubblegum Lemonade on Last FM

Strawberry Whiplash on Last FM

Cocoanut Groove - The end of the summer on Bookbinder road
A brilliant harpsichord drenched track of Left Banke pop with a bass line taken straight from the fret board of the Association. One for those few sunny days when you miss the old Belle & Sebastian.

Cocoanut Groove - The end of the summer on Bookbinder road mp3

Source: Absolut Noise

Lucky Dragons, Goa, Growing, Breathe Owl Breathe & The School Reviewed

Lucky Dragons - Dream Island Laughing Language
Goa - 3

Whereas I fear that Lucky Dragons will never quite achieve the same magic as on the wonderful Dark Falcon, one of my all time favourite albums, admittedly it will never go head to head with OK Computer or be a record collection must for the masses of mankind, it is an undeniably lovely album, snippets of lost conversations, fireworks and basic electronic, I can’t recommend it highly enough, with Dream Island Laughing Language the Lucky Dragons have come somewhere close to the perfection of Dark Falcon. For me it is too long, but I don’t think any of their albums are intended to be sat down and listened to in their entirety, some songs would stand a chance of making their way onto Dark Falcon, others exceed the quality of that and show a more tribal feel to the dragons sound, especially on highlight Givers, a wondrous almost acapella take on the one good song from Four Tet’s Everything Ecstatic disappointment of an album. I Keep Waiting For Earthquakes & Typical Hippies follow a similar formula, electronica carved out of the most unlikely of “instruments” with lovely results.
On a similar note the album 3 by Goa is necessary of your attention. If you don’t have the patience for Lucky Dragons then Goa’s immediate Tribal Pop may be just what you’re looking for. A glorious mix of Deerhoof shipwrecked and taken captive by Erase Errata. The album draws you in with immediate 3 minute songs before it really treats you with the exceptional Fils de Lumière, a sister to the above mentioned Lucky Dragons track Givers, via Au Dessus des Nuages & 5AM Eternal, as the island moves into the night and the party begins. All this would be fairly at home on DFA given the right setting.

Lucky Dragons - Mirror Friends Mp3

Lucky Dragons - Givers Mp3

Lucky Dragons - I Keep Waiting For Earthquakes MP3

Growing – Vision Swim
All of the above has reminded me of the brilliance of Growing’s Vision Swim album, filter swathes of electrical current washing up and down the inside of your ear like the gently lapping waves on a deserted beach at sunrise.

Breathe Owl Breathe – Ghost Glacier EP
A lovely little EP that at its laziest is reminiscent of Bill Callahan at his most accessible, lovely country duets and a sense of humour. Sabertooth Tiger is one of my favourite tracks of late, tongue in cheek and instantly memorable. Window playful and delightful as it is fleeting. Occasional flickers of the Magnetic Fields, regular flickers of genius.

Growing - Swell mp3

The School – Let It Slip EP
I’ll have to admit that the School EP fell through my letterbox on probably the worst weekend of my summer, one that would make me want to listen to miserable melancholic self pitying post rock for an indefinite period of time. Alas I paid this gem of an EP little to no attention until just recently, and how I regret that, this is just the kind of upbuilding 60’s, motown drenched, handclapping, footstomping, happy go lucky pop I really needed. It draws its influence from a different part of the 60’s than Liz’s other band, The Loves, there’s no garage fuzz, instead girl group, reverb infested, upbeat songs as bouncy and smiley as the Trachtenberg Family Slideshow Players fronted by Kenickie. A summer essential.

Friction NYC

Stereogum

20 Jazz Funk Greats

Lakes of Russia - Stars Decorate The Fire

Lakes of Russia - Stars Decorate The Fire

As lovely as the both the name of the artist and album would suggest Lakes of Russia are a rather special new discovery for me. Gentle and lush, slowly played guitars echo against the ivories of delicately handled pianos. Simply described on their website as songs for the lonely and sleep deprived each song burns slowly and never takes the obvious climax of a wall of sound. Simply lovely.

Myspace


Múm - "Rhubarbidoo"

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

Myspace