January 2011
14 posts
5 tags
Braids - Native Speaker →
Dreamy and atmospheric, Native Speaker is all over the place in exactly the right kind of way. Keyboards and guitars fly in and swirl around as tracks build up slowly to a gorgeous, climactic euphoria and then quickly deconstructs to an intense five minute instrumental section. This is an album that takes its time and deserves the effort that it demands and requires - an engrossing and beguiling...
5 tags
Tom Vek - We Have Sound →
Sunday Sermons
We Have Sound was the 2005 debut album of a young Londoner, Tom Vek, whose garage productions of disjointed, lo-fi electronic indie drew comparisons with LCD Soundsystem, Pavement and Beck. Sadly, we’ve heard nothing since (his website hasn’t been updated in years - proudly bearing an ‘Available on Compact Disc’ badge!) but that fails to diminish the record....
4 tags
Cold War Kids - Mine Is Yours →
This album is perfectly titled for the job. It’s like Cold War Kids realised that they weren’t making music for themselves but for their listeners. After hearing Nathan Willett’s booming bluesy voice drive a gripping first album, the follow-up took the ragged, abrasive nature of that and ripped it apart into something that was hard to love. This one is a more polished piece of...
4 tags
Iron & Wine - Kiss Each Other Clean →
I love Iron & Wine, so it would admittedly take a lot for me not to like this record. Kiss Each Other Clean is indeed very close to the comforting, pulled-together, earthy sound that I love. However, in the spirit of critical listening, I do think it’s missing a few logs from the fire of past albums. I was also hoping for more of a progression with this one - something a little...
5 tags
Akron/Family – S/T II: The Cosmic Birth And... →
Despite it’s ridiculous title, S/T II: The Cosmic Birth And Journey Of Shinju TNT sees Akron/Family taking a few cues from one of last year’s least prog breakthrough acts: Sleigh Bells. Whilst the first minute of the record makes you think you’ve stumbled in on a secret folky version of Treats, the rest of the album is more subtle - stripping down the music to the basest of...
4 tags
Hukwe Zawose - Chibite →
Sunday Sermons
I recently watched a documentary about the Zawose family and, in particular, Dr Hukwe Zawose: probably Tanzania’s greatest musician. Master of the ilimba (a large thumb piano), the izeze (a string instrument) and his most memorable and vivid tool, his voice, he went on to represent Tanzanian music on a global stage at the behest of Julius Nyerere, the newly independent...
4 tags
LCD Soundsystem - London Sessions →
What’s that? A new collection of LCD Soundsystem live recordings? Yes please, sounds delicious. Mostly taken from This Is Happening (but including a couple of old classics), these slices of silver crown a pretty successful year for LCD and, although not a recording of one of their legendary live shows, a spell-binding example of why they’re one of the best and most innovative acts of...
5 tags
The Decemberists - The King Is Dead →
After 2009’s rugged and sometimes rambling Hazards of Love, Colin Meloy and his ragtag band of literary misfits have traded folk-operas for their most straight-up pop record yet. It’s still the Decemberists but it’s sort of a Decemberists Lite - all the same whimsy and story-telling but packaged up into a more accessible, tighter and country-tinged record. But saying it’s...
1 tag
The Ones That Got Away
HotSpotMusic started with the simple premise that there’s so much music being put out there in this modern-digital-mp3blogs-usbtoasters-streaming age that there needs to be a guide and a filter. A guide to find out what’s new and a filter to define what’s good. But not just to single tracks and buzzworthy bands but to albums:(usually) the best representation of an artists work...
1 tag
December Playlist
Another quick roundup of all the featured artists on HotSpotMusic last month.
The new Girls EP brings good tidings for 2011’s sophomore album whilst a Ryan Adams double album is always appreciated, no matter how much it has been picked up from the studio floor. But Twin Twins were the pick of the bunch as Twin Shadowreleased one of the year’s best albums and Twin...
1 tag
Top Albums of 2010
The list of the Ashley
Hi there. I’m really pumped about the music that came out this year. There are several really solid, interesting new albums from great bands and many newer names getting the attention they deserve. Cheers to all the musicians out there and the rest of us who help them make a living!
25. Hot Chip - One Life Stand
24. Avey Tare - Down There
23. Good Old War - Good...
1 tag
Top Albums of 2010
The list of the Thom
Since the number of HotSpotMusic writers doubled in 2010 and we like to squabble, this year we’ll have two lists for the top albums of 2010. First up, me. What an honour.
Firstly, I’ll make the obligatory and oft-repeated reference to how 2010 was a superb year for music with a huge number of great albums that made it really, honestly very hard to pick this...
2 tags
Top Albums of 2010
Yes, folks, it’s that time of year again. Team HotSpotMusic has been hiding itself away in a cave for the last few days and feverishly moving lines of a spreadsheet up and down until peace, clarity and a soothing sense of acceptance arrived. Now our secretive veil can be lifted as we announce… the HotSpotMusic top 25 albums of the yeah!
Read Thom’s list
Read Ashley’s...