Last.fm Group Journal: Female Vocals

[My Gang] CocknBullKid - One Eye Closed : Reco of the Week 17 Sept 11

Sat, 17 Sep 2011 20:56:55 +0000

Track: One Eye Closed
Artist: CocknBullKid
Album: Adulthood (23 May 2011) [Spotify | We7 | mflow]
Tags: pop, electronica, my gang rotw
Video: Click the pic...

YouTube, official video

I first wrote about CocknBullKid in August 2009, catching her near enough at the start of her career. She released several tracks under her former name, thecocknbullkid.

The end of this period was marked with a name change and the release of 7" One Eye Closed (Moshi Moshi, 8 Nov 2010), this week's recommended track and my favourite from her debut album, Adulthood.

The track is upbeat, positive and cheerful, with a catchy chorus and a dancey beat. The video is a little silly, but creative with it. Pure pop at its finest.

Her upcoming gig on the 7th of October is brought to you by Last.fm Presents Live Fridays, a new series of nights curated by Last.fm's users, based on what's been listened to on their hype charts.

Last.fm group Last.fm Win Stuff is running an exclusive competition from 14 - 29 September to win a VIP package to meet CocknBullKid. Register your details via the link in the group overview to enter.

Taking place on 7th October at the Relentless Garage in London the night will be headlined by CocknBullKid and supported by Jess Mills and I am Harlequin culminating in an indie pop tag for the night.

We’ll also have the Last.fm DJs down there spinning some tracks for an indie disco afterwards. We want to offer you a money can’t buy VIP experience at the event. We will kit you out in a VIP area for you and a friend, you will be given the chance to meet CocknBullKid and have this filmed for you to keep. Once you’ve sampled the night of the hottest hype chart music we’ll make sure that you are sent home with a very special goody bag of treats.

Enter now to be in with the chance of winning and if you simply can’t wait and want some tickets then head to last.fm/presents to find out more and buy tickets.

This competition is open to the UK only.
See the group for Terms and Conditions

Babs

- My Gang

Reco of the Week archives
My Gang Reco of The Week

Disclaimer: Mines

Admin: Stats as of today:

Last.fm listeners of this track - 1,963
No. of plays scrobbled in Last.fm - 13,556
Position in Last 7 Days: 8 / 122
Position in Last 6 Months: 7 / 1,445

Video
Date Added: Oct 12, 2010
Views: 66,466, Comments: 80, Likes: 366, Dislikes: 14, Ratings: 380, Favorites: 464

Stats after 7 days:

Last.fm listeners of this track - 1,986
No. of plays scrobbled in Last.fm - 13,679
Position in Last 7 Days: 8 / 108
Position in Last 6 Months: 7 / 1,445

Video
Views: 66,938, Comments: 80, Likes: 369, Dislikes: 14, Ratings: 383, Favorites: 461

Unique Visitors
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[My Gang] Lana Del Rey - Blue Jeans : Reco of the Week 10 Sept 11

Sat, 10 Sep 2011 18:01:42 +0000

Track: Blue Jeans (16 Oct)
Artist: Lana Del Rey
Album: due 2012
Tags: pop, my gang rotw
Video: Click the pic...

YouTube, official video

And we're back...

Introducing Lana Del Rey.

Blue Jeans is a double-A side, to be released alongside Video Games [watch] in October, with a debut album to follow in the new year.

Unique to her music is the amalgamation of disparate styles that shouldn't go together, but do. Soft, breathy vocals (she's a former jazz singer) and hard sounds; seductive as Bardot, hard as steel. The music is as complete as she is, not so much inviting as on a plate, take it or leave it. You'll take it, it's delicious.

In this track, she's like the female Chris Isaak, with a glamorous and sultry old-fashioned 50s Hollywood sound. This is her Wicked Game.

The video echoes the themes with aged film and 50s iconography, ending with what looks like old footage of Lombard Street in San Francisco and the American flag.

He went out every night
And Baby that's alright
I told you that no matter what you did I'd be by your side
Cause I'm a ride or die
Whether you fail or fly
Well shit at least you tried
But when you walked out that door - a piece of me died
I told you I wanted more - but that's not what I had in mind
I just want it like before
We were dancing all night
Then they took you away - stole you out of my life
You just need to remember
That I will love you till the end of time

Further reading:

Official site
The Guardian - new band of the day
http://www.primarytalent.com/lana-del-rey/

Babs

- My Gang

Reco of the Week archives
My Gang Reco of The Week

Disclaimer: Mines

Admin: Stats as of today:

Last.fm listeners of this track - 7
No. of plays scrobbled in Last.fm - 22
Position in Last 7 Days: 43 / 4
Position in Last 6 Months: - / -

Video
Date Added: Sep 9, 2011
Views: 78,314, Comments: 175, Likes: 1121, Dislikes: 6, Ratings: 1127, Favorites: 937

Stats after 7 days:

Last.fm listeners of this track - 2,928
No. of plays scrobbled in Last.fm - 14,721
Position in Last 7 Days: 2 / 1,026
Position in Last 6 Months: - / -

Video
Date Added: Sep 9, 2011
Views: 304,762, Comments: 431, Likes: 2503, Dislikes: 18, Ratings: 2521, Favorites: 2,790

Unique Visitors
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[My Gang] Danger Mouse & Daniele Luppi - The World : Reco of the Week 10 May 11

Tue, 10 May 2011 17:50:32 +0000

Track: The World [Soundcloud]
Artist: Danger Mouse & Daniele Luppi
Album: Rome (16 May 2011, EMI)
[ We7 | Spotify | mflow | 3voor12 ]
Tags: spaghetti western, my gang rotw
Video: Click the pic...

YouTube, Rome trailer

Oblivious to hype as ever, when I first heard this track and then the album, I thought I was listening to an original soundtrack. This track in particular, The World, has end credits written all over it.

'The World' features Jack White and closes the five year project, the album Rome.

The project between producer Danger Mouse and Italian composer Daniele Luppi was to create an album inspired by Ennio Morricone's music for spaghetti westerns, staying as close as possible to the original 60s/70s music. They recorded on analogue tape and used vintage equipment, recording the album at Rome's Forum Studios, formerly Ortophonic Studios, a converted church and founded amongst others by Morricone. Some of the musicians who recorded on Once Upon a Time in the West and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly were enlisted, as was the soprano singer Edda Dell'Orso who contributed to the music for 'The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly'. Further, they brought in Cantori Moderni, the choir put together by Alessandro Alessandroni for 'The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly'.
Daniele Luppi: It was really the dream to reunite the Cantori Moderni 40 years later. It was a choir put together by Alessandro Alessandroni – think about the Sergio Leone movies, the Morricone soundtracks with those beautiful soprano melodies. Alessandroni was not only the choirmaster, but his whistle is all over those movies. It makes a sound that you could not put together with other singers. [Source: The Guardian]
Jack White was invited to write the lyrics and appears on The Rose with the Broken Neck, Two Against One, and The World. Norah Jones was brought in later for the female vocals (Season's Trees, Black, and Problem Queen). The video (above) explains more.

The result is a mix of old and new. The authenticity of the sound and feel is undoubtable, but to fully appreciate this album, you need to love the work of both Morricone and modern trip-hop. Online, there is much criticism for the 'weaker' tracks, performed by Norah Jones, complaints being that they don't measure up. I don't think it's that so much as you need to expand your mind and take in Morricone via Massive Attack. Listen to Norah Jones as you might Emiliana Torrini and it all falls into place.

Fans of 'The Good, The Bad and the Ugly' trilogy and Morricone's music for them are ecstatic, as are fans of Danger Mouse, who turns everything he touches to gold. Danger Mouse and Daniele Luppi have found the right blend of contemporary classical, 60s lounge jazz and 60s/70s sensual pop. It's cinematic in sound and feel throughout, sprawling and expansive, crossing over to modern trip-hop and back again. Norah Jones is unrecognisable as the breathy 70s songstress and Jack White, too, introduces qualities in his vocals we haven't heard yet. As an exercise, the project is a triumph.

[Source: The Weird Fishes]

'The World' was the first track I heard and the one I keep playing on repeat, making it an obvious choice for this week's article. The most striking thing about the track is Jack White's stretched, strained high vocal, tuneful and passionate. Surrounding that is every gorgeousness from a spaghetti western, the choir, the modern psychedelic 60s organ and the distant bell. In contrast to the darkness and melancholy of the rest of the album, 'The World' is brighter and more upbeat, dancey even. It maintains the sultry heat of the previous tracks and the themes of love, death and happiness, wrapping things up with a feeling of hope. The only downside is it is a little repetitive, but as end credits to a film, it would work.

The album is out next week and is streaming on the sites listed below.

Rolling Stone - listen now
NPR - first listen
The Guardian - full stream

Further reading:

http://romealbum.com/ - official site
BBC review
Wikipedia - Rome (album)
Pitchfork - Danger Mouse/Jack White Project Details Unveiled
The Guardian - Danger Mouse and Daniele Luppi: how we built Rome, 8 November 2010
NOWNESS - exclusive interview
prefix mag - Danger Mouse To Release Ennio Morricone Homage with Daniele Luppi, Jack White, Norah Jones, Nov 29 2010
IMDB: music recorded at Forum Studios, Rome

Babs

- My Gang

Reco of the Week archives
My Gang Reco of The Week

Disclaimer: Mines

Admin: Stats as of today:

Last.fm listeners of this track - 521
No. of plays scrobbled in Last.fm - 883
Position in Last 7 Days: 16 / 367
Position in Last 6 Months: 40 / 1

Video
Date Added: Mar 25, 2011
Views: 68,784, Comments: 41, Likes: 303, Dislikes: 3, Ratings: 307, Favorites: 218

Stats after 7 days:

Last.fm listeners of this track - 1,240
No. of plays scrobbled in Last.fm - 2,136
Position in Last 7 Days: 16 / 367
Position in Last 6 Months: 40 / 1

Video
Views: 99,976, Comments: 53, Likes: 389, Dislikes: 5, Ratings: 307, Favorites: 270

3,041 views in StumbleUpon

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[My Gang] Cat's Eyes – The Best Person I Know : Reco of the Week 03 May 11

Tue, 3 May 2011 15:42:02 +0000

Track: The Best Person I Know [Soundcloud]
Artist: Cat's Eyes
Album: Cat's Eyes (11 April 2011, Polydor)
[ We7 | Spotify | mflow ]
Tags: pop, 60s, my gang rotw
Video: Click the pic...

YouTube, audio upload

I have two albums of the week this week, Cat's Eyes, the new side-project from The Horrors frontman, Faris Badwan, and The Rentals - The Rentals Present: Resilience (A Benefit Album for the Relief Effort In Japan), another side-project, this time from Matt Sharp, former bass player for Weezer.

In the days after the biggest and best royal wedding in 30 years, I thought a love song would be in order, but not being a fan of the mushy slushy stuff, this was a bit of a task for me. One that stands out is The Best Person I Know, a 60s girl-group sounding track that is not only beautifully done, but sweet enough without being saccharine and therefore, most acceptable.

But first, the happy couple.

[Source: The Mirror]

According to reports, a third of the planet watched the royal wedding live, thanks to satellite television and the internet. Google had a link on its homepage to the live transmission on YouTube. Twitter was insane with hundreds of tweets per second; and for once, happy tweets far outweighed the miserable ones. The Palace itself kept people abreast of updates. Regardless of stance or cynicism, there was little doubt of the romance and the genuine friendship between the bride and groom. They each married their best friend.

'The Best Person I Know' appears both on the new album and the Broken Glass EP, released a few months ago. Pared back and minimal with pitch-perfect ethereal and echoey vocals, it's The Shangri-La's via dream pop. The music is familiar to fans of The Horrors, shoegaze and fuzzy, but introduced now is a Burt Bacharach sensibility and lush orchestration. The lyrics support the dreaminess of the music, repeating the same lines, themselves constructed as simply as possible. They could be lines written by a teenage hand on the cover of an exercise book. It's a back-to-basics love song, back to what really matters and what moves us most.

Are they? Aren't they?

The track is typical of some of the album but not all. It reminds me a lot of the Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan albums, the voice of the fairy angel contrasted against the beastly devil-type. Faris Badwan and opera soprano Rachel Zeffira avoid going down the same road too much. Instead, they have created an album with an overall girl-group 60s feel with tracks that branch off to explore different avenues. So there are exceptionally light and airy tracks and later, some of those beastly devil ones. The gothic darkness of The Horrors remains and what we're seeing more of now is a sense of playfulness. I wrote about The Horrors before and I noticed it then. Now, it's more pronounced, and it's with that playfulness, with a light, unworried touch, that the album has been created.

BBC review:
As an album, Cat’s Eyes is simply remarkable. Sounding like all the spectral and slightly "woooh" music of yore, its makers throw in additional elements of Nick Cave gothery, Julee Cruise, early 4AD spook, Italian horror soundtracks and the more otherworldly elements of prime 1960s pop such as Scott Walker and Bobbie Gentry. The result is a hazy, somnambulant treat.

My second album of the week is The Rentals Present: Resilience (A Benefit Album for the Relief Effort In Japan). Prince William and Kate Middleton elected not to have a wedding list, requesting people donate to charity instead. It's a coincidence that I should choose this album too this week and, befitting the occasion, it's for a good cause. The digital download is available now and the CD is available for pre-order. http://www.therentals.com/ The whole thing is streaming here: [ We7 | Spotify | AOL Spinner until Sun 8 May ]

From Ernest Jenning Record Co.
[It] features 18 instrumental tracks by Matt Sharp and Lauren Chipman of The Rentals, all previously unavailable outside of the band's epic "Songs About Time" box set. ALL profits from this album are going directly to the Red Cross

The music is entirely instrumental, orchestral, largey piano-led, with some found sounds and recorded spoken voice added on top, except for track 15, July Twenty One, which incorporates vocals in French but is still not a song. Experimental, it has a foot in both pop and classical music, reminding me somewhat of the work of Michael Nyman but only in that it has a cinematic feel and borrows some of the cadences. More than that, it has a contemplative, thoughtful, dare I say it, zen feel. Nothing grabs, there are no hooks, it's as smooth as water and as refreshing, standing up to repeat plays and the kind of music that lasts a lifetime. Within the music is both the East and the West, obvious with the spoken word but less so in the sounds.

Guests contributors on the album include Portuguese actress dalila carmo, Nikolai Fraiture of The Strokes, Rodrigo Amarante of Little Joy/Los Hermanos, French musician Emilie Simon, Gorka Urbizu of Berri Txarrak, and renowned violinist Danielle Belen.

From the official site:
This album was originally recorded as part of Songs About Time, a photography, film, and music project that brought together a large group of accomplished artists who devoted themselves for 365 continuous days to create what the Germans call Gesamtkunstwerk—a total work of art. Originally titled “Tokyo Blues,” the album is a collection of eighteen original scores that were composed for the films of Songs About Time.

The original title of the album was inspired by Japanese author Haruki Murakami's fifth novel ノルウェイの森, also known as “Norwegian Wood,” which was retitled “Tokio Blues" for the Spanish translation. And now, appropriately enough, what was once “Tokyo Blues” has become “Resilience.”

The change of title is appropriate in more ways than one: The music collected has a touch of melancholy but ultimately, when one listens attentively, it expresses hope and a quiet countenance. The duo of Lauren Chipman and Matt Sharp, who shared the role of musical director, would often start from a simple chord progression that Sharp had intended for a traditional pop song. Chipman would then begin to substitute more complex "altered chords" which added a greater depth of color, creating a more experimental and modern arrangement. The result is what you hold in your hands: an elegant, invigorating and transcendent melodic synthesis.

With its orchestral gestures, delicate piano and poetic interludes, the music paints a fitting tribute to the character and resilience of the Japanese people.

-Derrick Taruc

Further reading:

The Guardian - Cat's Eyes interview
The Quietus - review
Wikipedia - Cat's Eyes

The Rentals official site
The Rentals - Facebook
Wikipedia - The Rentals - Resilience
Pitchfork - news in brief
radioIO - press release

Babs

- My Gang

Reco of the Week archives
My Gang Reco of The Week

Disclaimer: Mines

[My Gang] Anna Calvi - Blackout : Reco of the Week 26 Apr 11

Tue, 26 Apr 2011 14:37:36 +0000

Track: Blackout [Soundcloud]
Artist: Anna Calvi
Album: Anna Calvi (17 January 2011, Domino Records)
[ We7 | Spotify | mflow ]
Tags: romantic pop, female vocalists, singer-songwriter, my gang rotw
Video: Click the pic...

YouTube, official video

I've wanted to write about Anna Calvi since the beginning of January but had to wait; the only place her debut album was streaming was on the Guardian website and there were no videos yet.

Since then, Anna Calvi has appeared on Later...with Jools Holland, the album is widely available online and there's a shiny new video for this week's recommendation, Blackout.

Like the rest of the album, Blackout is all high drama, melodrama, passion and overblown sound. Here is a female vocalist writing romantic songs that comfortably compete with stadium rock artists such as Muse. Favourably compared with Nick Cave and PJ Harvey, the music is built on solid foundations; it is exquisite and detailed, both intimate and ranging, creating a sound that carries and sparkles as it goes.

Then her voice, operatic, intense and powerful. Calvi allows her voice to stand on its own and doesn't try to embellish it with ornamentation. The raw power of her vocals delivered straight and the surreal David Lynch/Angelo Badalamenti music together form an atmosphere of mystery and darkness at once disturbing and captivating, seducing the listener so nothing else matters.

Blackout begins with an ethereal shimmer before the curtain goes up and the song bolts ahead. The beat sets a relentless, galloping pace as Calvi's vocals are allowed free rein. It's so atypical of contemporary pop, it holds you in its thrall throughout, leaving you a little spent come the end, itself as abrupt as the beginning.

The video is very simple, focusing on Calvi and dazzling with glitter and lights. It serves not to detract from the song so you stay with it.

When the album first appeared online on the Guardian website, I played it on repeat. I was taken by her voice, at times just a whisper and others, pure power, trembling as she controls it, the virtuoso guitar and nods to Ennio Morricone, flamenco, blues rock and classical. I found the sinister, menacing tones appealing and what impressed me most was the consistent theatricality that she maintains throughout, changing its shape and colour with every song. There is depth and intensity contrasted against light that comes from shimmers and relief after tension in the music is released. Themes are of love, lust and devils as she broods on fears and longings.

Overriding everything is its sheer beauty. It's in your face with filigree and shadow. The album doesn't make for a light listen and I left it alone for a while, but I'm going to see her in concert tomorrow, hence the revisit and my choice for this week.

Further reading:

BBC review
The Quietus review
Pitchfork review
The Line Of Best Fit - interview with Anna Calvi
The Line Of Best Fit review

Babs

- My Gang

Reco of the Week archives
My Gang Reco of The Week

Disclaimer: Mines

Admin: Stats as of today:

Last.fm listeners of this track - 13,793
No. of plays scrobbled in Last.fm - 45,101
Position in Last 7 Days: 1 / 1,372
Position in Last 6 Months: 6 / 5,960

Video
Date Added: Mar 15, 2011
Views: 61,079, Comments: 36, Likes: 402, Dislikes: 10, Ratings: 412, Favorites: 517

Stats after 7 days:

Last.fm listeners of this track - 14,273
No. of plays scrobbled in Last.fm - 47,394
Position in Last 7 Days: 1 / 1,372
Position in Last 6 Months: 1 / 10,591

Video
Views: 71,189, Comments: 41, Likes: 443, Dislikes: 12, Ratings: 455, Favorites: 586

3,133 views in StumbleUpon

Unique Visitors
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[My Gang] Stereolab - Pause : Reco of the Week 12 Apr 11

Tue, 12 Apr 2011 16:26:55 +0000

Track: Pause
Artist: Stereolab
Album: Transient Random-Noise Bursts with Announcements (Elektra, 1993)
[ We7 | Spotify | mflow ]
Tags: experimental, avant garde, indie rock, 90s, my gang rotw
Video: Click the pic...

YouTube, audio upload

To celebrate the shiny new pause function for Last.fm radios [blog post], this week's recommended track is Pause by post-rock pioneers Stereolab from the classic Transient Random-Noise Bursts with Announcements.

Pause has one of them, a pause, just before the final minute when the track changes tack completely and becomes something else, ramping up the noise and painful distortion. Before that, dream pop is mixed with keyboards, noise, distorted spoken word, drone and fuzzy rock which, with their clever treatment and those gorgeous progressions, offers a moment to stop and reflect before the 18 minute masterpiece, Jenny Ondioline.

'The Groop's' American debut was not without its problems; the majority of the first 1500 vinyl copies had to be destroyed because of bad pressing quality and one of the tracks had to be re-recorded:

The original version of this LP had a George Harrison sample on 'Pack Yr Romantic Mind' for which we were denied clearance - we had to re-record the track without the sample but Elektra had already manufactured some promo cassettes with the sample. [Official site]

Though I was aware of Stereolab in the 90s, like a lot of people, I never really got into them. I appreciated they were good, admired what I heard, but bought something else. Me and everyone else, by the look of things. There is much high praise for 'the groop' and a similar guilt in a lot of user reviews. If I wasn't searching Last.fm for a song with the word 'pause' in the title today, I wouldn't have found this album.

The sound is ahead of its time for 1993 (when I was mostly listening to Saint Etienne's Foxbase Alpha and feeding my head with Megadog compilations). From Stereolab's inventiveness came both post-rock and britpop, Damon Albarn being a particular fan.

Stereolab either legitimized forms of music that were on the fringe of rock, or brought attention to strands of pop music -- bossa nova, lounge-pop, movie soundtracks -- that were traditionally banished from the rock lineage. The group's trademark sound -- a droning, hypnotic rhythm track overlaid with melodic, mesmerizing singsong vocals, often sung in French and often promoting revolutionary, Marxist politics -- was deceptively simple, providing the basis for a wide array of stylistic experiments over the course of their prolific career. Throughout it all, Stereolab relied heavily on forgotten methods of recording, whether it was analog synthesizers and electronics or a fondness for hi-fi test records, without ever sinking to the level of kitsch. [allmusic]

Once again, Last.fm wins hands down as my favourite music discovery site. I voted as much here. I like a lot of the other music sites too, but I didn't find this track on them and they didn't make me want to listen to Stereolab's entire discography, so fair's fair. Be sure to submit your vote too.

Further reading:

Stereolab - official site - discography
Stylus Magazine - review
Wikipedia - Transient Random-Noise Bursts with Announcements
allmusic.com - album review

Babs

- My Gang

Reco of the Week archives
My Gang Reco of The Week

Disclaimer: Mines

Admin: Stats as of today:

Last.fm listeners of this track - 10,846
No. of plays scrobbled in Last.fm - 26,946
Position in Last 7 Days: 89 / 81
Position in Last 6 Months: 89 / 1,396

Video
Date Added: Feb 2, 2009
Views: 7,723, Comments: 3, Likes: 26, Dislikes: 0

Stats after 7 days:

Last.fm listeners of this track - 10,872
No. of plays scrobbled in Last.fm - 27,049
Position in Last 7 Days: 60 / 98
Position in Last 6 Months: 89 / 1,396

Video
Views: 7,880, Comments: 3, Likes: 27, Dislikes: 0

Unique Visitors
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[My Gang] The Go! Team - Yosemite Theme : Reco of the Week 22 Mar 11

Tue, 22 Mar 2011 17:48:29 +0000

Track: Yosemite Theme [ Soundcloud ]
Artist: The Go! Team
Album: Rolling Blackouts (Memphis Industries, 31 Jan 2011)
[ Spotify | We7 ]
Tags: instrumental, indie, electronica, experimental, bollywood, my gang rotw
Video: Click the pic...

YouTube, audio upload

I thought I had written about The Go! Team before, when I first heard My World [YouTube], their cover of Alan Parker's The Free Life [Hype Machine], on Proof Of Youth. Clearly not.

I'm glad I waited because their third album, Rolling Blackouts, released a couple of months ago, is their best yet. My recommendation of the week is the standout track, Yosemite Theme.

Like My World, it's an instrumental, but this time, it's their own, mashing together Ennio Morricone-type country themes, a banjo, a harmonica, a harp and Bollywood, incorporating elements of Yeh Ladka Hai Allah Kaisa Hai Deewana recorded by Mohammad Rafi [YouTube] and Ab To Hai Tumse recorded by Lata Mangeshkar [YouTube, first track].

Yosemite Theme is, like all their work, relentlessly upbeat and hyper, taking on a sophistication The Go! Team have yet to fully explore. It ends on schoolground chants which are kind of by-the-by, reminding you who you're listening to.

I can't honestly say I was much of a fan before. I found the lo-fi, gritty, sometimes shrill sound grating and the euphoria annoying. The inclusion of an exclamation mark in their name didn't help their case. Too hipster for me. However now, three albums down the line and their unique sound firmly established, with the confidence to explore and experiment, now I like them. They haven't lost their early unfinished lo-fi playfulness, it's still there, but now it's measured and balanced.

Musically, they're a mix of indie rock, indie pop, electronica, 80s hip-hop and old classic TV themes of the 70s, heading towards 60s girl bands and Motown, with an eye on Bollywood, Tokyo and the wild west; old school at school. In a sentence.

Like too much time spent with small children, The Go! Team on repeat are exhausting. There seem to be no breaks. This sense, along with the skipping rope chants, further underlines where they're coming from. It would be easy to dismiss them as a band for the pre-teens, but that would be to throw the baby out with the bathwater. Sonically, there is much for adult ears to enjoy, albeit perhaps in small doses.

The album begins with the explosive klaxon of a track T.O.R.N.A.D.O, which is too much for me and I skip. So my first track is the lovely Secretary Song, which sounds Japanese and uses real office sounds, featuring guest Satomi Matsuzaki of Deerhoof. Firmly enticed into Go! Team world, you may as well turn the volume up and join in. Best Coast's Bethany cosentino features on lead single Buy Nothing Day. Track after track, beat after beat, with pea whistles and cheers, it's a party and they're irresistible.

Welcome relief comes with this week's track, Yosemite Theme, the adorable j-pop Ready To Go Steady "Yeah we only just met but I'm ready to go steady", Super Triangle, which is a bit like the Alan Parker cover again, and the strange, acoustic piano piece Lazy Poltergeist.

Some critics have been quick to dismiss these tracks as failings. I think they are essential in order to fully appreciate the high energy of the other tracks. You may not hear them properly if you listen to the album in its entirety, so pick them out one by one.

Rolling Blackouts bounces along and punches the air with infectious, sunny joy. You can't help but smile at the very least. Where The Go! Team go from here, who can say. More of the same but better is always good, but I'd like to see them develop these (for them) quieter tracks.

Further reading:

BBC review
Pitchfork review
Wikipedia - The Go! Team
Titanic Fandalism song details

Babs

- My Gang

Reco of the Week archives
My Gang Reco of The Week

Disclaimer: Mines

Admin: Stats as of today:

Last.fm listeners of this track - 8,905
No. of plays scrobbled in Last.fm - 23,179
Position in Last 7 Days: 13 / 841
Position in Last 6 Months: 27 / 3,832

Video
Date Added: Jan 25, 2011
Views: 2,359, Comments: 4, Likes: 11, Dislikes: 0

Stats after 7 days:

Last.fm listeners of this track - 9,198
No. of plays scrobbled in Last.fm - 24,340
Position in Last 7 Days: 14 / 770
Position in Last 6 Months: 27 / 3,832

Video
Views: 2,566, Comments: 4, Likes: 12, Dislikes: 0

Unique Visitors
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[My Gang] Ladytron – Ace Of Hz : Reco of the Week 01 Mar 11

Tue, 1 Mar 2011 19:02:30 +0000

Track: Ace of Hz [ Soundcloud ]
Artist: Ladytron
Album: Best of Ladytron 00-10 (Nettwerk, 28 March 2011)
Single: Ace of Hz (30 Nov 10)
Tags: ebm, electronic, dance, my gang rotw
Video: Click the pic...

YouTube, official video

Somehow, I have managed not to write about Ladytron yet. I can now correct this glaring omission by introducing the new single and video from the forthcoming retrospective, due at the end of the month.

Ace of Hz, (pronounced 'hearts') maintains the standard and sound Ladytron have established over the last decade, raising their game now with the sophisticated polish of the practiced hand; echoed in their stylish video which takes motifs made famous by surrealist artist René Magritte.

Though formed in 1999, I first noticed Ladytron in 2002 when they released the singles Seventeen and Blue Jeans, from their second album, Light & Magic and both still among my all-time favourites today. I didn't get a personal computer till the following year, YouTube and the world of online music were still in my future. I heard Ladytron on XFM and time stopped.

Ladytron blends electronic pop music and some New Wave influences, along with some more experimental leanings including psychedelic elements, using an array of vintage analogue equipment to achieve their distinctive sound. Albums so far have focused on a balance between pop structures and digitally edited analogue electronic sound. [ Wikipedia ]

To put this in context, around the same time in 2002, indie was enjoying a renaissance, thanks to unparalleled works by Radiohead and a revival inspired by The Strokes. In rock, all hailed Queens of the Stone Age. In pop, we were still mad about Kylie's Can't Get You Out Of My Head, released the previous autumn, and Girls Aloud were to form at the end of the year thanks to a reality show. This was the year Glastonbury featured Coldplay, Garbage, Stereophonics, Orbital, Roger Waters, Rod Stewart, and Air.

Underground, Goldfrapp were just beginning their career and their only release to date was their award-winning debut, Felt Mountain. It was on the back of Ladytron that Goldfrapp took their electronic route later on, and Ladytron would go on to produce some remixes for them.

In fact, it may be fair to say Ladytron inspired a lot of the electronic, EBM music we have enjoyed over the last decade right up to The xx. All take inspiration from Ladytron's mix of old and new, in particular early 80s post-punk synthpop. Artists we regularly recognise are The Human League, OMD and Depeche Mode to name a few. NME finally ask Have We Overlooked The Brilliance Of Ladytron? The answer is yes, yes YOU have.

On to the retrospective. All too often, retrospectives are cobbled together and released too soon with insufficient content and far too much peripheral padding. We're supposed to buy into the merchandising in other words. For this reason, I tend not to pay too much mind to them. In the case of Ladytron, if this is released with a photocopy of the Amazon page, it would still stand above many of the others. It is a good introduction to a hugely underrated and often overlooked band.

Fans and collectors will already have these tracks. For them, there is the new single, released last November and coming in at about 30 mins with all the remixes. You can listen to them all here YouTube: Ladytron - Ace Of Hz Full EP Stream [Audio].

The Best Of Ladytron 00-10 reflects on a decade highlighted by 604 (2001), Light & Magic (2002), Witching Hour (2005) and Velocifero (2008) plus two new tracks; "Ace Of Hz" and "Little Black Angel." A two-disc deluxe version features an additional 16 tracks & 80-page photo booklet.

Track List:

Disc: 1

1. Destroy Everything You Touch
2. International Dateline
3. Seventeen
4. Discotraxx
5. Tomorrow
6. Soft Power
7. Ghosts
8. Flying In Built Up Areas
9. Playgirl
10. Blue Jeans
11. Cracked LCD
12. Deep Blue
13. Light & Magic
14. Runaway
15. The Last One Standing
16. Little Black Angel
17. Ace of Hz

Disc: 2

1. The Reason Why
2. Whitelightgenerator
3. Mu-Tron
4. Black Plastic
5. The Way That I Found You
6. True Mathematics
7. High Rise
8. Black Cat
9. Another Breakfast With You
10. USA vs. White Noise
11. Commodore Rock
12. Evil
13. Beauty *2
14. Seasons Of Illusions
15. Versus
16. All The Way

Babs

- My Gang

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[My Gang] Adele - Someone Like You : Reco of the Week 17 Jan 11

Tue, 18 Jan 2011 17:39:53 +0000

Track: Someone Like You
Artist: Adele
Album: 21 (XL 24 Jan 2011 (UK) 22 Feb (US)) [ We7 | Spotify ]
Tags: blue eyed soul, ballad, my gang rotw
Video: Click the pic...

YouTube, (on 'Later Live with Jools Holland') - Nov 2010

Something leftfield for me. I wasn't a fan of Adele's first album, 19, and I couldn't stand Chasing Pavements, though I liked the video. As a general rule, I try to steer clear of Brit School kids and I wasn't sure at all about her winning a Brit award in 2008 before her debut was even released. Basically, I'd written her off. Too industry and contrived. And then she did this on Later with Jools.

Old friend, why are you so shy?
It ain't like you to hold back or hide from the lie

Someone Like You is devastating. It expands on the break up theme and projects into the future, where Adele imagines she's about 40 and looks up her old boyfriend, who is settled and happy with his family while she's still on her own; and despite that, she imagines herself wishing him well. Unlike '19', which leans towards bitterness, there is a more forgiving and generous tone to '21'. '19' was negative, '21' is positive.

You'd know how the time flies.
Only yesterday was the time of our lives.
We were born and raised in a summery haze.
Bound by the surprise of our glory days.

It is the closing track on the new album, due next week, and possibly the second single. The first was Rolling in the Deep, released last November. [ YouTube ].

I know critics are excited about 21. I don't know what they're saying exactly, I don't want to look till I've heard it myself. I accidentally saw that the BBC are ecstatic (review link below). I'll look at it next week. Hopefully, the album will be streaming the same day as its UK release. It was produced by Rick Rubin, with Ryan Tedder working on two of the tracks and there's a country side to it. That's all I know.

Practically every female artist is touted as the next Amy Winehouse, they were saying it about Adele when she started, but then they would, they gave her a prize before the album was even in the shops. But this time, and with this album, it's possible. She doesn't have that touch of mad genius that Amy has but she does have depth and perspicacity. Her lyrics are thoughtful and insightful and she has a creative approach with ideas. Her voice has evolved, from the self-conscious folky style she began with to something distinctive and sophisticated. Looks like 21 is a long, long way from 19.

Don't forget me, I beg, I'll remember, you said:
"Sometimes it lasts in love but sometimes it hurts instead"

Further reading:

BBC review
MSN interview and live performance

Babs

- My Gang

Reco of the Week archives
My Gang Reco of The Week

Disclaimer: Mines

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Please vote for Serena Lauren in Alternative Addiction's Next Big Thing's contest!

Fri, 1 Oct 2010 23:34:25 +0000

Hello!
I have been entered into Alternative Addiction's Next Big Thing contest for my song "Get Out of My Head." Voting started today and goes throughout the month, however, the first elimination is on October 15th! If you would please take a moment to vote for me and possibly tell any friends to vote for me as well, I would really appreciate it! To vote, you must use the following link: http://bit.ly/aanextbigthing

Thank you!
Serena Lauren
Serena Lauren
In Your Doorway