January 2010
34 posts
7 tags
David Bowie - A Reality Tour →
Who can really say no to a new Bowie album? Anyone? No, of course not. This is a double ‘CD’ (just released) that pulls together performances from the 2004 Reality tour. It features classic tunes from across his entire career, interwoven through the show quite brilliantly like the master he is. He might not need the advertising (or tour) money anymore but listen to this on repeat...
5 tags
Oh No Ono - Eggs →
A truly mystifying and psychedelic opus from this Danish quintet who look set to achieve more than just fame in their homeland with their sophomore release and US-label debut. Blending distorted electronica with some oddly-high pitched vocals against an almost operatic background, Eggs scrambles itself way across your stereo and into your sub-conscious.
6 tags
She Keeps Bees - Nests →
She keeps bees in Brooklyn and he turns up to lend the rhythm, but it’s clear who’s running this show. This album is a showcase for Jessica Larrabee’s soulful, sultry and powerful voice (to which a PJ Harvey likening would not be unfair). The music itself is stripped-down, lo-fi blues that inevitably brings White Stripes comparisons and as such should be turned right up to 11.
4 tags
Yeti Lane - Yeti Lane →
This Parisian three-piece has their eyes on Phoenix’s crown and with this diverse and sparking collection of pop songs they’re on the right track. Their self-titled debut album is full of tracks that ring a bell in your head (“doesn’t this sound a lot like…”) but the challenge will be in the recording of their second album and how to make this sound their own.
4 tags
First Aid Kit - The Big Black And The Blue →
The first full lengther from Swedish siblings Johanna and Klara Søderberg features gorgeous harmonies and folky rhythms. They may be a couple of years off the trend in the music industry for this but it really doesn’t matter, this is a beautiful album. A particular highlight is the mournful, agnostic-paean to life found on the stunning Hard Believer.
6 tags
The Magnetic Fields - Realism →
The latest album from indie genius, master of the complicated rhyme, lovelorn screwball Stephen Merritt and his merry band of misfits. A folky companion to 2008’s distorted Distortion. It has the wit and the charm that you come to expect from the Magnetic Fields and before long these songs will too be burrowing themselves into your memory. Get the lowdown on this hoedown, we are having a...
5 tags
Spoon - Transference →
It’s Spoon, still amazing, rocking Spoon, even more Spoon than before, somehow. Like a bigger spoon. Transference has the same characteristic sound - consistent, but maturing into an even tighter mix of complicated and familiar sounds: Britt Daniel’s voice: raw, honest, sharp accompanied by twisting, clear guitar with fleeting appearances of piano and tambourine. Get it now!
5 tags
Nicolai Dunger - Play →
This new 2010 release from Swedish singer-songwriter Nicolai Dunger has some great treaks (a typo that I’ll shortly be copyrighting as a mix between treats and tracks - like a tiny, tuny, musical snack) including the rockabilly-esque Time Left To Stand and Crazy Train to a few more sombre, serious tunes.
4 tags
Tap Tap - On My Way →
Knock Knock Who’s there? Tap Tap Eh? Who’s there? Tap Tap I don’t get it. The band. Okay. We’re from England but we sound like we should’ve been on Elephant 6 way back when. Oh, so you think you’re good then do you? Well, yes. We did just make a hugely fun, bouncy record. Tap Tap. Yeah, about that name…
2 tags
Primavera Sound 2010: The Playlist
Click here: Primavera Sound 2010
After last weeks announcements of all the super new acts coming to Barcelona in the summer, I put together a playlist featuring nearly all of the bands. Looking forward to Panda Bear, Wilco, Spoon mostly but as ever it promises to be a journey of fantastical musical discovery… which starts right here.
5 tags
Eels - End Times →
Whether he’s impersonating the Unabomber, telling stories about life as a disenchanted werewolf or singing about his heart-wrenching divorce, as he does on this latest record, there’s always something warm and comforting about Mark ‘E’ Everett’s songs. Beautiful and beautifully honest, End Times is another great album from Eels that will simultaneously sadden and...
5 tags
Beans On Toast - Standing On A Chair →
Ever feel like the world is going to hell in a handbasket? Beans On Toast does. From the wars to recessions, drugs to videogames, racism to the state of the music industry, this troubled troubadour from London takes his acoustic guitar and lays out his manifesto. This is a ramshackle album of fifty songs about social and political breakdown. It may not be the most accomplished record...
5 tags
These New Puritans - Hidden →
Apparently this year’s Merriweather Post Pavillion can come from the strangest of places. Hailing from Southend, These New Puritans second album is currently getting some rave reviews. Despite the title, there is nothing at all hidden on this album, it is an assault on the ears of the very best kind. It’s definitely a hugely bold and complex album and reviewing it after just a...
6 tags
Gordon Gano & The Ryans - Under The Sun →
Gordon Gano is the former lead singer of the Violent Femmes and The Ryans are former Bogmen. They team up here to create an album that is only nominally more than a Gano solo album. It doesn’t have quite the same angsty bite as the Femmes but given that Gano is now in his forties that is no real surprise. What is left is a decent indie rock album that shows the mark of a matured musician...
6 tags
Letting Up Despite Great Faults - Movement →
Warm electro indie to brighten up your cold wintery day. This EP, mixed by Jeff Lipton who has also worked with the Magnetic Fields, Ladytron & Wilco, is a couple of years old but is a nice collection by the Californian group who released a new album in October 2009.
2 tags
Sounds for 2010: Playlist
Click here: hotspotmusic - Sounds of 2010
A collection of songs from hotly tipped and (maybe a few surprise) acts for the first year of the decade. This list will be continually updated when cracking new artists make themselves known but at the moment it includes tracks from Fool’s Gold, Local Natives, Delphic and more.
4 tags
Adam Green - Minor Love →
Former Mouldy Peach Adam Green released his seventh studio album this week. His wry, comical lyrics take a slight backseat this time around meaning that more emphasis is placed on the composition and sound of the songs. Delivered in his Lou Reed drawl (the obvious extent of whose influence extends as far as the album art), this is actually a welcome change and might just be the Transformer to...
6 tags
Manu Chao - Baïonarena →
I said in a previous post that Manu Chao’s live show was the most fun you can have legally, as an adult… and look what just turned up on Spotify: a live album from that tour. It’s pretty similar to Radio Bemba Sound System, conveying the energy and urgency of the live show and covering his entire career from Mano Negra to his most recent album La Radiolina. Very enjoyable.
5 tags
Yim Yames - A Tribute To →
Yim Yames is the cryptic moniker for My Morning Jacket frontman Jim James and A Tribute To is his cryptically named EP featuring the songs of George Harrison released last year. Pared down to just his acoustic guitar, a microphone and lots and lots of gorgeous reverb, his take on the former Beatle’s songs suits them perfectly. A really mellow, fitting tribute.
5 tags
OK Go - Of The Blue Colour Of The Sky →
It’s taken five years to arrive (after 2005’s stomping Oh No) and I’m not quite sure it’s worth the wait. Yet. Gone are the power chords and hooks galore, replaced mostly by a weird, sub-funky vibe that leaves a slightly, disaoppinting afterfunk. As the first track says: What The Funk?
6 tags
The Mary Onettes - Void →
It’s criminal that Spotify doesn’t have the two Mary Onettes albums added to their library yet. Still, that won’t stop me sharing one of my favourite bands from my iTunes of late.
Challenge: Go for a walk with The Mary Onettes. Stride purposefully and stand tall. Only stop when you reach the end of the record (works better with LP than EP). Then turn around and do it again. ...
2 tags
The Simpsons - Everybody Hates Ned Flanders →
In honour of the 20th anniversary of mighty The Simpsons this weekend, I present to you the Everybody Hates Ned Flanders Medley featuring David Byrne!
You can also find Simpsons Sing The Blues here.
4 tags
Delphic - Acolyte →
Hotly tipped Manchester-based electro outfit Delphic release their debut album today and it’s already up on Spotify. Heralded as the ‘New New Order’, James Cook’s snarl on Doubt alone sounds more like his namesake from LCD Soundsystem (minus the wit) whilst the layered, driving ending to Red Lights sounds almost exactly like Bloc Party. Whilst this is a somewhat patchy...
5 tags
A.A. Bondy - When The Devil's Loose →
For your Sunday evening, here’s some stripped-down, indie-folk music (as almost every review seems to nail it). This sophomore attempt by A.A. Bondy isn’t revolutionary but it’s certainly a warm and melancholic piece of work that bears a similarity to Ryan Adams’ earlier albums.
6 tags
Booker T. - Potato Hole →
What happens when a guitar legend gets together with another rock ‘n’ roll legend and some rockin’ upstarts from way down South? And what if these are Booker T (here without his MGs), Neil Young and the Drive By Truckers? What you get is a raw, instrumental album that rocks hard, with a little bit of organ thrown in for good measure. Particularly interesting is the funky cover...
5 tags
The Clientele - Bonfires On The Heath →
Lovely new album from London’s The Clientele who have again created another slice of indie pop music influenced heavily by the lush sound of the 60s and steeped in rich, traditional production styles. Interesting factoid: singer Alasdair Maclean plugs his microphone into a guitar amp to achieve his unique, whispered vocals.
4 tags
Biker Boy - Calendar →
I generally find X-meets-Y style music journalism a little lame and downright lazy. Still, sometimes it can be extremely difficult to avoid (not to mention quite useful) and I’m not known to be averse to lazy. Therefore, I present to you Biker Boy’s Calendar (with one track dedicated to each month): an uncanny mix of Brett Anderson of Suede fronting New Order with a gentle helping of...
4 tags
Hari & Aino - Hari Aino →
This 2008 debut by Hari & Aino is a blissful, collection of perky, summery indie pop - classically Swedish and bringing to mind other purveyors of fine indie pop such as Sambassadeur and Ivy. First track Gold - Or Something Just As Nice is a real, fun tune to get you dancing through the rest of the album.
6 tags
Fool's Gold - Fool's Gold →
Fantastic new album from this Californian collective fusing together African and Middle-Eastern influences to make something quite celebratory and wonderful. Picking up the Afropop sound that Vampire Weekend successfully transferred to a mainstream audience but diverging to a more blissful, chilled-out and soulful vibe, Fool’s Gold are one of my tips to hit the big time in 2010.
1 tag
Other people's playlists...
The end of a year + The end of a decade = huge lists blowout across the media & blogosphere.
The following is a collection of playlists (mostly put together by other people) that sum up some of the end of year lists.
The Guardian Critics’ Top 10 Albums of 2009
Drownedin2009 - Albums of the Year
NPR’s 2009 in music
Rough Trade Shops’ 10 Top Albums of 2009
BBC 6music top...
4 tags
Maps - Turning The Mind →
On this follow-up to 2007’s Mercury-nominated We Can Create, Maps’ James Chapman both strips down and builds up the sound in varying degrees throughout the album. The result is a more sporadic but personal affair than the debut record as it ventures off into mysterious and occasionally intriguing zones.
5 tags
Hush Arbors - Yankee Reality →
Chilled out, lo-fi tunes from Hush Arbors (and occasionally featuring J Mascis). This is an album best heard in a sleepless stupor, with your mind barely registering the fuzzy folk going on in the background.
1 tag
December Playlist
Click here: hotspotmusic - December
A round-up of all the new music posted on hotspotmusic in the last month including Afternoon Naps, Deer Tick, Neon Indian and more….
1 tag
Best Albums of the Decade: The Playlist
Click here: hotspotmusic - Top 31 of the decade
Featuring 29 tracks from the Top 31 Albums of the Decade as published on hotspotmusic during December.