February 2010
27 posts
4 tags
St. Vincent - Actor →
When rounding up albums at the end of the year, it’s natural to find some that consistently appear in other lists that you just haven’t given the time to. St. Vincent’s second album, Actor, falls into that category. A fine album of interesting, complex and ever-shifting songs that grows on you with every listen (however belatedly that may be).
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Wild Nothing - Summer Holiday →
I don’t usually post singles or (what some bands try to pass off as) 2-track EPs but this double-header by Wild Nothing is so good that I’m breaking the rules just for once. Wild Nothing is just one man from Virginia and has made a couple of tracks here that show off the best elements of 80s shoegaze and C86 whilst also displaying more contemporary influences with second track...
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Various Artists - Rough Trade Counter Culture 09 →
Don’t read the NME anymore? Don’t have time to spend hours thumbing through the new releases at your local record store (if it even exists anymore)? Feeling increasingly worried that you’re getting out of touch with what the kids are listening to these days? Well, fear not because the friendly chaps at Rough Trade have just put out the latest of their Counter Culture series of...
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Efterklang - Magic Chairs →
New album from Danish indie outfit Efterklang was released today. According to Wikipedia, the name Efterklang comes from then Danish word for “remembrance” or “reverberation” and Magic Chairs, their third album, drops the latter in aid of a poppier, more memorable sound than found on their previous records.
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Blind Man's Colour - Season Dreaming →
In a different world this album would have got nearly half as much acclaim as Merriweather Post Pavillion. It wears its influences on its sleeves but it retains enough of a unique feel that makes it worthy of many repeat listens. It’s a glitchy, experimental album of different sounds and textures and its hazy perplexity will make you wonder why you haven’t heard it before. Great...
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Basia Bulat - Heart Of My Own →
Canadian Basia Bulat achieved some critical acclaim with her debut Oh My Darling and she’s back with more of the same on her sophomore release. It’s another album of light folk that’s lit up by her warm, innocent and nuanced vocals.
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The Go Find - Stars On The Wall →
The Go Find are a band from Antwerp, Belgium which began as a side project by Dieter Sermeus whose previous gig fronting Orange Black brought supporting slots behind Pavement and Stereolab. These influences come out strongly in Stars On The Wall (2007) which has a clear penchant for slow, chilled out indie. A new album due out very soon.
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White Rabbits - It's Frightening →
It’s Frightening is the second album from this alt.rock sextet from Missouri and a follow up to 2008’s Fort Nightly. From the moment you stick it on, there is a Spoon-esque sound to it and it’s clear that Britt Daniels, here as producer, has put his sticky fingers all over this one in. It’s a solid record overall but, despite some nice percussional flourishes, the second...
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Shearwater - The Golden Archipelago →
Shearwater’s records aren’t just a collection of random songs - they’re more than that: an immersive experience, a journey. Ably directed by Jonathan Meiburg, The Golden Archipelago’s compositions demand repeated listening, just to hear all the different angles and ideas. A gorgeous piece of work.
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Animal Collective - Fall Be Kind EP →
A new-ish collection of brand new material from Animal Collective, swiftly following up on last years victorious MPP. This 5-track record takes on familiar themes and sounds but still manages to take a small step away. In parts this is exhilerating whilst in other parts it seems more rushed and a little less tight. If Merriweather Post Pavillion was Brazil’s football team, Fall Be Kind is...
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Owen Pallett - Heartland →
Without wanting to succumb to hyperbole, this is such a stunning piece of work that it’s criminal Owen Pallett (even under his old moniker: Final Fantasy) is not more well known. He creates songs that evoke the genius of Brian Wilson in both song structure and ambition. Let’s just hope that he doesn’t disappear for decades after this too. Heartland is a beautiful, complex and...
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Home - Seventeen →
Sometimes you stumble upon bands that sound so lo-fi that they’re actually miniature people playing in your headphones right now. I really feel at Home with this band. It’s the kind of hometown band that you wish had been winning Battle of the Bands competitions in the town where you grew up and playing shows in your local bar for the last 12 years. It’s honest music,...
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The Brunettes - Paper Dolls →
New Zealand duo The Brunettes return with their fourth album of indie pop that flits between the cool and the curious. It’s not an album that’s going to change your world but it might just light it up briefly.
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Grooms - Rejoicer →
Another band, alongside Cymbals Eat Guitars, Surfer Blood et al, attempting to bring the rock back into indie-rock this century. It’s more of a pastiche than a homage to the early 90s bands that influenced so much of the indie music we hear today, mutated through the lens of two decades of commercialism and instant-ism. Expect to hear these guys playing at ATP or Pitchfork Festival...
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The Soft Pack - The Soft Pack →
The Soft Pack’s second album (after changing their name from the slightly more controversial The Muslims) mines the same era of garage rock ‘n’ roll that their predecessors in the New Rock Revolution did 10 years ago. It’s enjoyable, passionate and, most of all, loud. (Also, the riff from Answer To Yourself sounds uncannily like Monaco’s What Do You Want From Me...
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Blair - Die Young →
Recommended to me (and about 1.2 million other people) by Mr @ColinMeloy, this is a collection of folky rock that shows flashes of serious potential. It reminds me a little bit of Annie Clark (of St. Vincent fame) with a more innocent, youthful look at the world. It’s not all cake and kittens though, the title track Die Young is a sad and serious song that captures the attention.
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Danny And The Champions Of The World - Streets Of... →
Joyous Americana from the former lead singer of Grand Drive, Danny Wilson, Streets Of Our Time is neatly depicted by the album cover - a pair of old-fashioned sneakers lit by the sepia hues of the background. It couldn’t be more obvious that this is a tribute to the past, to forgotten times and good memories.
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Hot Chip - One Life Stand →
On One Life Stand, Hot Chip’s fourth album, they seem to have found a more comfortable place for making music. In part this translates to some very smooth, mellow songs that perfect the indie-dance ballads that appeared on Made In The Dark but the overall feeling of this record is that it’s less unique, less innovative and less, well, Hot Chip-esque. A good record that deservedly...
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Yeasayer - Odd Blood →
It sounds like Yeasayer have been listening too much to their Human (League) instead of Animal (Collective) instincts on Odd Blood. While it’s a decent record full of tunes with big swathes of synth-laden hooks, there’s nothing quite as sublime as All Hour Cymbal highlights 2080 or Sunrise. That album was brimming with so many ideas, some of which were never truly realised, so it’s sad to...
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Husky Rescue - Ship Of Light →
It’s hard not to listen to Husky Rescue’s new album (or indeed any of their back catalogue) without feeling like you’re in the middle of a dreamlike state with snow-covered plains stretching out as far as the eye can see. The chilling feeling is driven by the synthesised beat and coupled with Reeta-Leena Korhola’s wispy vocals calling out like a ghost. Don’t be...
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The Flaming Lips - Dark Side Of The Moon →
Of course it’s not just the Lips here, it’s The Flaming Lips And Stardeath And White Dwarfs With Henry Rollins And Peaches. And they cover, in its absolute entirety, Pink Floyd’s seminal proto-prog classic: DSOTM. What inspired them to do this I don’t know. Whether it’s any good, I don’t really know either - it’s hard to tell… But it’s...
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Los Campesinos! - Romance Is Boring →
Los Campesinos! have grown up. They have graduated from Universitwee into fully-fledged alt.indie job seekers. Their latest record finds them in the disillusioned position of finding out that life and love is nothing like they’d expected and yet everything that they’d feared which is reflected in the significantly more mature and gloomy lyrics. So, it’s less “fun”...
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Northern Portrait - Criminal Art Lovers →
Channeling a love of British bands from the 1980s (the Smiths, Echo & The Bunnymen, the Cure), the debut album by Denmark’s Northern Portrait sure is a pretty picture. It is delicious, energetic and upbeat music that I can accurately forecast will be returning to my stereo (or Spotify) with regularity.
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Beach House - Teen Dream →
If you didn’t like 2008’s Devotion then you’re not likely to enjoy this. However if you are in the more sane camp and really enjoyed that album’s breezy vocals over a shimmering wave of shoegazocity (real term) then you’ll be thrilled with Beach House’s new creation. It’s a really composed album that builds on their strengths and brings in a number of...
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Midlake - The Courage Of Others →
You get the impression, listening to this record, that Midlake are the type of band that refuses to be satisfied until what you hear on record sounds exactly like what they’re hearing in their heads. Maybe that’s why it has taken four years for the follow-up to the critically acclaimed Trials of Van Occupanther to arrive. Sonically speaking, The Courage of Others is an impeccable...
1 tag
January Playlist
Click here - hotspotmusic - January
One of the biggest release-laden months in recent memory, January included new albums from established acts such as Spoon, The Magnetic Fields and Eels and superb debuts from Fools Gold, First Aid Kit, Delphic & Yeti Lane. Here’s the playlist with a roundup of the tracks featured on hotspotmusic this month.
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Vampire Weekend - Contra →
The long awaited second album from preppy prepsters Vampire Weekend finally arrives on Spotify. It’s notable that this both expands on and consolidates some of the concepts from the first album with perhaps less immediate standout tracks but a stronger feel overall which is due to an marked growth in song writing covering more genres in one album than most acts do in their career. The...