the end of the year so far...

And another year is going by, and the best of the year lists arrive.
As habitual, I've prepared mine, both of them, Best singles of the year and Best albums of the year.
I have to announce new rules for the singles one, rules that I've auto imposed to myself. These are the following rules:
1- All the songs on the list must have been physical single during 2007. If it's not like this, download single or promotional song/video of the album is allowed.

2- Evident re-editions, in a year that they've been so common, are not taken into account. No covers too.

3- No more than one song per artist is included on the list.

4- Songs that appeared in last year's list are not included as well.

So the list is longer than ever, 100 songs that make the soundtrack of this year, most of them with its promotional video or live performance in the case there's no video. Here we go in countdown order:

100- BONDE DO ROLE - SOLTA O FRANGO


99- JOSE GONZALEZ – DOWN THE LINE


98- CRYSTAL CASTLES – AIR WAR


97- WILCO –WHAT LIGHT


96- SHIT DISCO – OK


95- LIGHTSPEED CHAMPION – GALAXY OF THE LOST


94- PJ HARVEY – THE PIANO


93- M. WARD – TO GO HOME


92- SHOCKING PINKS – VICTIMS

91- THOMAS TANTRUM – SHAKE IT SHAKE IT


90- LO-FI-FNK – THE CITY

89- NANCY ELIZABETH – I USED TO TRY

88- A PLACE TO BURY STRANGERS – TO FIX THE GASH IN YOUR HEAD


87- SUBURBAN KIDS WITH BIBLICAL NAMES – MARRY ME

86- PRINZHORN DANCE SCHOOL – YOU ARE THE SPACE INVADER


85- CHROMEO – TENDERONI


84- NO AGE – EVERY ARTIST NEEDS A TRAGEDY

83- SCOUT NIBLETT – THE KISS


82- THE GO TEAM – DOING IT RIGHT


81- DINOSAUR JR – BEEN THERE ALL THE TIME


80- DEERHOOF - +81


79- DNTEL – THE DISTANCE


78- SOPHIE ELLIS BEXTOR – CATCH YOU


77- !!! – HEART OF HEARTS


76- SONS AND DAUGHTERS – GILT COMPLEX


75- SEVENTEEN EVERGREEN – HAVEN’T BEEN YOURSELF


74- PETER, BJORN AND JOHN – OBJECTS OF MY AFFECTION


73- RUFUS WAINWRIGHT – I’M GOING TO A TOWN


72- BISHI – NEVER SEEN YOUR FACE


71- ROISIN MURPHY – OVERPOWERED


70- BONNIE PRINCE BILLY – STRANGE FORM OF LIFE


69- MUM – THEY MADE FROGS SMOKE TILL THEY EXPLODED


68- HOT CHIP – MY PIANO

67- SHY CHILD – NOISE WON’T STOP


66- DANIEL JOHNSTON – DEATH OF SATAN

65- DIGITALISM – POGO


64- BANGERS AND CASH - B.O.O.T.A.Y.


63- CANDIE PAYNE – I WISH I COULD HAVE LOVED YOU MORE


62- THE NATIONAL – MISTAKEN FOR STRANGERS


61- ELVIS PERKINS – WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING


60- LE VOLUME COURBE – FREIGHT TRAIN

59- JAMES YORKSTON – WOOZY WITH CIDER


58- DIZZY RASCAL – PUSSYHOLE


57- NEW YOUNG PONY CLUB – THE BOMB


56- LIZ GREEN – BAD MEDICINE


55- FANFARLO – FIRE ESCAPE


54- THE SHINS – AUSTRALIA


53- ARCHITECTURE IN HELSINKI – HEART IT RACES


52- IRON AND WINE – BOY WITH A COIN


51- JULIE DOIRON – NO MORE


50- BLACK LIPS – KATRINA


49- BENJY FERREE – IN THE COUNTRYSIDE


48- BLONDE REDHEAD – 23


47- I BLAME COCO- I BLAME COCO

46- BLOOD RED SHOES – IT’S GETTING BORING IN THE SEA


45- LONEY, DEAR – I AM JOHN


44- VON SUDENFED – FLEDERMAUS CAN’T GET IT


43- BEIRUT – ELEPHANT GUN


42- MATTHEW DEAR – DESERTER


41- EBONY BONES – WE KNOW ALL ABOUT YOU


40- ADELE – HOMETOWN GLORY


39- RIHANNA - UMBRELLA


38- MILK KHAN FEAT. DOLLY PARTON – HERE YOU COME AGAIN

37- OKKERVIL RIVER – OUR LIFE IS NOT A MOVIE OR MAYBE


36- YO MAJESTY – CLUB ACTION


35- BILL CALLAHAN – DIAMOND DANCER


34- STUDIO – WEST SIDE PART 1 & 2

33- CLAP YOUR HANDS SAY YEAH – SATAN SAID DANCE


32- FRYARS – THE IDES


31- NOAH AND THE WHALE – IN 5 YEARS TIME


30- AMY WINEHOUSE – BACK TO BLACK


29- TUNNG – BULLETS


28- BAT FOR LASHES – WHAT’S A GIRL TO DO


27- LITTLE DRAGON – TEST


26- JUSTICE – D.A.N.C.E


25- GRINDERMAN – NO PUSSY BLUES


24- GOSSIP – JEALOUS GIRLS


23- ANIMAL COLLECTIVE – PEACEBONE


22- FEIST – 1234


21- THE TEENAGERS – HOMECOMING


20- METRONOMY – RADIO LADIO

19- ALELA DIANE – PIECES OF STRING
.

18- THE TWILIGHT SAD – THAT SUMMER, AT HOME, I HAD BECOME THE INVISIBLE BOY


17- KATE NASH – FOUNDATIONS


16- LCD SOUNDSYSTEM – NORTH AMERICAN SCUM


15- LIARS – PLASTER CASTS OF EVERYTHING


14- SIMIAN MOBILE DISCO – IT’S THE BEAT


13 - KLAXONS – GOLDEN SKANS


12- BARR – THE SONG IS THE SINGLE


11- ARCADE FIRE – NO CARS GO


10- JENS LEKMAN – FRIDAY NIGHT AT THE DRIVE IN BINGO


09- DAN DEACON – THE CRYSTAL CAT


08- M.I.A.- JIMMY


07- FRIENDLY FIRES – ON BOARD


06- FOALS – HUMMER


05- BJORK – DECLARE INDEPENDENCE


04- BATTLES – ATLAS


03- PANDA BEAR – BROS


02-DAN LE SAC VERSUS SCROOBIUS PIP – THOU SHALT ALWAYS KILL


01- GRIZZLY BEAR – KNIFE

rear-view mirror: JOY DIVISION

It's the Joy Division year, no doubt. With Control on the cinemas, the deluxe re-edition of their albums, and many groups imitating their sound in the last years, everybody is talking about them again.
If you want some information about the band (is there anybody out there who still doesn't know their story?) you just have to watch the great Anton Cobijn biopic based on the book Mrs Curtis wrote some years ago. Here we are to celebrate that his music is more famous than ever before, and maybe more current and up-to-date are we seem we are leaving again a period of global depression.
Here we are some of their most relevant tunes:
ATMOSPHERE


TRANSMISSION


LOVE WILL TEAR US APART


SHE'S LOST CONTROL

album of the week: YO MAJESTY - YO EP / SPANK ROCK & BENNY BLANCO - BANGERS AND CASH EP

Yeah I know, two EPs don't make an album but these are the tunes for this week.
Yo Majesty is the feminine answer to electro hip hop masters Spank Rock or the new and wilder version of an up-to-date Salt 'n Pepa, and they even make a tribute to them in Kryptonite Pussy where they hum Push It . With only this EP in the market they've already signed to Domino Records for the next release. Their songs are fun and so are they, so they use to perform live topless, No Bra style. And they're going to be huge now that fat is cool (Beth Dito is their declared number one fan). Wait for Club Action to be a massive hit when somebody on TV discovers it and uses it in a commercial or as the tune for a TV series.
CLUB ACTION


Spank Rock's mc, also called Spank Rock, has teamed up with Benny Blanco to make this Bangers and Cash EP. Five songs, all of them including a sample of 2 Live Crew, with dirty lyrics and dirty tunes. But even more dirty are all the different covers and art work they are preparing to promote this release. here you have some of them:






It's difficult to decide which one is more disturbing...

We all know the Don't look back series of events that take place in some venues around the world and commemorate mythic albums of mythic bands bringing them live from the first song to the last in the same order they were published. We've been able to see Slint's Spiderland, Teenage Fanclub's Bandwagonesque, Sonic Youth's Daydream Nation, Low's Things we lost in the fire, and some more.
So they've proved that looking back is not always a retrograde and rancid activity done by some people who always think that, as Karina said, any past age is always better than the present, or "there's not good music nowadays". Sometimes is just a memory exercise to understand better the present or to remind memories and feelings we thought they were forgotten or impossible to revive again.
So this is what I'm going to do with a new section, named with the not-so-original title "REAR-VIEW MIRROR", with unknown periodicity, order or criteria (this is my blog so I do what I really really want).
And I'm going to focus more on bands than on records, bands that were important in one moment of my life and that they are still important nowadays, even if they don't exist anymore.
So here we are, with the first opportunity of reminding our pasts (thanks, Youtube) and the first lucky group is no other than Spacemen 3.
Spacemen 3 were a band formed in 1982 that split in 1990, basically run by Peter Kember and Jason Pierce who were meant to do something together as they were born the same day. We can define their sound as "hypnomonotony" or repetitive drones of two chord noise but it developed in many different ways until they published their last record that was recorded by the two of them separately, each one one side of the record, proving that the difference of styles they were into at that moment was obvious, which took them to split the band, and form Spektrum and Spiritualized respectively.
And now let's watch the music with some of their most famous songs:
REVOLUTION

WALKING WITH JESUS

HYPNOTISED

BIG CITY

K RECORDS TURN 25

And if the Sonic Youth revival was not enough to made me feel old, here we have K Records turning 25!!! Maybe not as talked about as Factory or Creation, but with a longer life and also a lot of influence in everybody who is interested in music. With a Do-it-yourself punk philosophy (originally the K is for punK), Beat Happening's Calvin Johnson, the founder and most important figure in the company, has presented us some of the most amazing bands during all these years, most of them in the 90s but still with many interesting things to offer. With the International Pop Underground series of events he presented unknown bands that later became so popular such as Nirvana, Bikini Kill or The Vaselines or influenced others like The Moldy Peaches.
And as they are not doing anything transcendental for the celebration, the people of Ashmatic Kitty thought they could do something about it and they recruited some of their bands to cover some of the label songs that influenced them during these 25 years. You can listen to them online here:
http://asthmatickitty.com/main.php
And visit the K Records website for further information:
http://www.krecs.com/
Let's remember some of the bands:
Beat happening is no doubt the most emblematic band of the label. With their naive punk pop and Calvin's low voice they took to the limit the simplicity of the three cord song
BEAT HAPPENING - HOT CHOCOLATE BOY


HEAVENLY - TROPHY GIRLFRIEND


BUILT TO SPILL - CAR


MIRAH - COLD COLD WATER


LITTLE WINGS


HALO BENDERS - DON'T TOUCH MY BIKINI


NATION OF ULYSSES - FIGHT SONG

Sonic Youth performs Daydream Nation

I probably was 17 when I first listened to Daydream Nation. I think it was my second Sonic Youth record after Evol. The influence Sonic Youth had in my late teenage years was definitive. It was the years I discovered bands like Dinosaur Jr, Yo la Tengo, Pavement, Beat Happening, Sebadoh and other American bands that marked my musical development and the general music development of the late 80s and first 90s. And now I had the opportunity to travel back in time and go to a concert to celebrate that I'm older and these times that I was in my parent's flat listening non-stop to these records will never come back. But the amazing thing of it all is that the sensation of Deja Vu was not as huge as I thought it would be. Maybe because the record got older so well, maybe because Sonic Youth did a pact with the Devil and they look younger than they are or maybe because most of the public in the concert was around my age. It was a nice experience.
Check the performance of Teenage Riot one of the three nights in London

albums of the last weeks

A PLACE TO BURY STRANGERS
The first album from this New York band is a compendium of songs that can remind when JAMC matter, mixing the best of the Psychocandy era with the industrial sounds of Automatic and accelarating and doubling the volume. Maybe they don't have great songs but they have a great sound.
A PLACE TO BURY STRANGERS - TO FIX THE GASH IN YOUR HEAD





APPARAT - WALLS
The last Apparat album is his most accurate collection of songs, talking about the classic concept of pop song, covered in an electronic environment. What a shame that he chose one of the weekest instrumental songs for the video
APPARAT - YOU DON'T KNOW ME





BEIRUT - THE FLYING CLUB CUP
The only problem of Beirut's second album is his first album, but not even that. When you have a so particular sound and voice you maybe can fall into repetition and what was a great idea for a first album can be the death of the second coming, but it looks like it didn't happened to Beirut. The second record is even better than the first one, and we can see that the sound is not exhausted and they are already trying to find new ways of expression without doing something completely different. And the songs are great, inspired and thay filter deaply inside your veins from the first listening. Watch this magnificent performance in one of the Take away shows for the French Website.
BEIRUT - NANTES





BLACK LIPS - GOOD BAD NOT EVIL
Garage is back. Remember The Cynics or even more far away on time, The 13th Floor Elevators? So here we have Black Lips resurrecting the label with succesful fortune and a fame for beeing banned from some venues because of their wild shows.

BLACK LIPS - KATRINA



DEVENDRA BANHART - SMOKEY ROLLS DOWN THUNDER CANYON
The new Devendra record is a consequence of his previous album, the Cripple Crow. Far from the acoustic bittersweet songs of his first three records he continues exploring electric passages and different styles. He discovered his own "The Band" and it didn't fit him so well. The album is too abstract, with the feeling you are listening to a compilation of jams and with hard to diggest moments too inspired but The Doors and other boring bands. But it also has some great songs like Bad Girl that makes you keep the faith not everything has been lost
DEVENDRA BANHART - SEAHORSE



LITTLE DRAGON
At the beggining of this year a great single appeared in a really small London label. This was Little Dragon's Test, and it has been spinning in my turntable since then. Now is time for the record and the waiting has been rewarded with a beautiful collection of soul pop electronic songs filtered with dub and jazz and one of the most personal voices since Tricky's muse Martina.
LITTLE DRAGON - TEST



OKKERVIL RIVER - THE STAGE NAMES
A lot of good things have already been said about this record, most of them in Pitchfork. This record is the logical progression in the ascending career of this band that everytime is less complexes about playing louder. Here you have the unstoppable hit that everybody is going to know by the end of the year.
OKKERVIL RIVER - OUR LIVE IS NOT A MOVIE OR MAYBE

Some videos

PJ Harvey is back. After the boring UH Huh Her, she comes back with a record based in piano compositions singing with a candid high voice that is sometimes a bit irritating. The single When Under Ether is a good example but I have to say that it sounds better when she sings it live. Check it in this version she did in the Copenhagen opera.

LCD SOUNDSYSTEM's new single, Someone Great, was first an instrumental fragment of the incredible Nike sport jogging dance symphony 45'33'' and ended up as a song in the singles factory that is Sound of Silver.

The new Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip single, The Beat That My Heart Skipped, probably based in the French film with the same title??, is not the automatic generational hit that was the anti-generational hit Thou Shalt Always Kill, but it's more radio friendly, so maybe now they are going to reach the international fame they didn't get with their first anthem.

And publishing in Lex Records as well, we have KID ACNE and his old school new single Roc Roc Radio

but if we talk about old school we better don't forget the new Dizzee Rascal single with the most famous acid-house sample.

The latest SHINS single, Turn On Me, with its camp video about disasters in the white trash American Hollywood type sub culture.

Shocking Pinks

Shocking Pinks, once a band from New Zeland now just a solo project, have recently signed up for DFA. Three albums and some singles published during the naughties with no international success made them think that the first releases for LCD's label should be a compilation of the best moments published before. And the way to do it was no other than for EPs (three 7' and one 12') published in just one month (one per week)before the publication of the album called just Shocking Pinks. They are a limited edition of 500 each, they say we believe, and the packaging is just the same picture in a shocking pink color with combinations of blue, orange, green or red for each single. The B sides, some of them better than the A sides, are not going to appear in the record so hurry up if you want to get them.
It is not a classic DFA band, no dance rock moments but shoegazing emotions of late eighties first nineties inspiration (Ride, Slowdive, Pastels, Vaselines...)mixing noisy fast melodies with quiet peaceful passages.
Check this old video for End of the World

new videos

Siouxsie is back, no Banshees, no Creatures, no band, no husband (got divorced from Budgie, Banshees' drums and Creatures partner, after more than 25 years together), just Siouxsie. And she looks great in the video for what is her presentation as a solo career after 30 years in the business.
Siouxsie - Into a swan


Animal Collective schizophrenic video for Peacebone


Video for delicate Beach House's Master of None


Finally Dan Deacon's Crystal cat is to be released as a single and here we have what we can consider the campest video of the year so far


No Age friends Mika Miko resuscitate riot grrrls spirit. Check it in Business cats

albums of the last three weeks

JENS LEKMAN - NIGHT FALLS OVER KORTEDALA
After a lot of singles, EPs, CDRs and two albums compiling some of this previous staff for Secretly Canadian, we can say that this is the first international record with new songs by Jens. And it has all the ingredients that we've seen before in his recordings: Seventies lounge, winds, kaleidoscopic cheesy lyrics, and some great pop tunes.


ANGELS OF LIGHT - WE ARE HIM
Ex Swans' Michael Gira comes back with a new record from his most recent project, helped by some members from Akron/family as some times before but with his best record under this name. As he explains in his website the album was supposed to be simple and basic but ended up calling a lot of friend to contribute in the final orchestration and choruses that accompany to the personally dark voice that Gira has.



THE GO TEAM - PROOF OF YOUTH
With the new record The go team get more noisy than before. This is the basic difference from the previous record. From the title to the Bull in the heather cover that they make on the b side of the first single, they look now so influenced by Sonic Youth, apart from all the 70s/80s funk, old school hip hop and soundtrack stuff that we are used to. They know that their formula was good for a record but they had to do something a bit different not to repeat themselves, and the difference is not so big, but effective.



SPOKANE - LITTLE HOURS
Spokane is one of this bands that you forget from record to record(they take their time to make them)but you love every record they make. Not many new things on this album, maybe the songs are a bit shorter now, but they keep playing with the vocal harmonies (with more feminine presence in Little hours) with ambient sounds and well-placed silences, leaving a pleasant atmosphere all around your bedroom, the place that this record is designed to be listened to.

weekly videos

And we have the new video from Foals, Mathletics, 7' out this week



And finally, a Gossip 7' that is not a re-issue of one of last year's singles, the Shangrilas-meet-siouxsie Jealous Girls.


And Siouxsie goes... I don't know, probably Siouxsie 2007 in what is going to be her first solo single ever, and also first realise in years with Into a swan


New Jens Lekman single, Friday night at the drive in bingo, has no video but I've found a piece of a live version of the song.


And the new Trans Am video, Tesco vs Sainsburys. Checking the video maybe now I finally understand what new rave means

album of the week: M.I.A.- KALA

And finally, after many months waiting for the album, Kala is here. One year of anticipations, we've already listened to XR2 in 2006 and to Bird Flu and Boyz in 2007, and we also could have listened to the bonus track, the one featuring Timbaland, in his record out some months ago. So when you listen to Kala from head to toe it sounds already familiar, like if it was a kind of compilation with bonus tracks. But this doesn't have to be a bad thing. The tracks that are completely new for our ears are not album stuffing. I suppose you already know the album's been made around the world (mainly around Asia and Africa) with musicians and mcs from the places she was travelling through. And you can feel it in every little sound of the record.
The first four tracks of the record are amazing. In Bamboo Banger she even sometimes sings like John Lydon out of P.I.L.; in Bird Flu she tribalised the arrangements like Sepultura did before in all the Roots period but softening it with cheerleader-like child choruses. Boyz is maybe the less surprising song as it seems out of Arular but is a hit from the beginning. And Jimmy, the new single, is a Bollywood goes Boney M anthem that is born to be a massive hit worldwide.
The next two tracks, Hussel and Mango Pickle Down River are the ones with more protagonism of the collaborations and also the dance oriented. 20$ is another crazydance tribal song and The Turn is a weird sung ballad that quiets the tempo before XR2, a kind of neu-rave goes ethnic anthem that has different and better arrangements than the version we heard last year. And we are already at the end of the record with Paper Planes, another highlight of the record, where she sings as she's never done before and we can dance to gunshots followed by cash till ringings.
The bonus track, the awaited collaboration with Timbaland, is also the less interesting. Maybe last year was timbaland's year but 2007 will probably be his fall.
So this is one of the records everybody will talk about this year and will finish in the top of most of End of the year lists.
You just have to have a look at Jimmy's video.

More videos

The new video from Devendra Banhart's new album, Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon is actually a video for two different songs, Long Old Bean / Seahorse. As we can hear, the next record to be out in September is sadly Cripple Crow like, forgetting the solo attempts he made before.


The new Mum video They Made Frogs Smoke 'Til They Exploded, advancing a new record, with new members (none of the twins are here anymore), is more organic than what they've done before incorporating male voices and acoustic instruments but trying to keep the fragility that made them famous.


New Pelle Carlberg single I love you imbecile is another Swedish style pop anthem.


Everyday I understand less and less to Will "Bonnie" Oldham. What the hell is he doing in this comic version of Kanye West video for Can't tell me?


Once member of Test Icicles, his new solo project Lightspeed Champion has nothing to do with his heavy days. Galaxy of the lost is his first single.

FIELD DAY REVIEW

Last Saturday was what it was supposed to be one of the most important events of the London summer. After assisting, I have confronted feelings and opinions about this first edition of this festival in Victoria Park. Let's say the bad things first:
- The toilets and the bars were definitely not enough as you had to cue for more than half an hour and fight with the people to get a single beer and the toilets were literally overflowing after four hours the event started. As a consequence, the people improvised toilets all around the park.
- The sound was terrible in most of the stages, and you couldn't hear anything even if you were just some metres from the stage. Some of the stages were maybe too small, such as the Homefires stage, that was overcrowded during some concerts.
- Half an hour for most of the acts was probably not enough.

Let's say the good things now:
- We were lucky as it was one of the hottest days of this horrible summer, and the spirit of "one day out in the park" was actually fulfilled.
- The place is great for an event like this, near from the centre and well-communicated.
- The spirit of a small festival with not-so-big names in the year 2007 is not easy to get.
- the apology e-mail from the managers of the event about the toilets-bars chaos.

Let's hope next year they try to solve these problems and keep the good things and probably then is going to be a great date to remember.

albums of the last two weeks: STUDIO - WEST COAST / LIARS - LIARS

STUDIO - WEST COAST
This is not a new record, it was published last year, but now it has been re-edited due to popular demand. And now it's when everybody started to talk about them. They are a strange mix between dub, The Cure circa 82-83, afro beat, post-punk, Can and many other things. Long tracks, sometimes instrumental sometimes with lyrics, from two guys from, once again, Sweden. And check also the compilation Yearbook 1 for more tacks and different versions of the songs. Sorry, no video.


LIARS - LIARS
I don't know if I have some sounds so internalized but some of the new records of some used-to-be-difficult bands this year sound me as the most commercial records they've ever made. And this is also the case of the new LIARS record. It is another step, as they use to do with every record, to new territories. Doesn't sound to any of the first three albums but have elements of all them and you can also recognise from the first moment that it is a LIARS record. Dark sounds, drums and more drums, and strange atmospheres. And again they've made a great record. Maybe their best yet and also their most assorted. And the first single and first video is amazing. Lynch inspired video is terrifying, as it is the song. Check it out:
Liars - Plaster Casts Of Everything

The first videos for August

The first blog of videos for August are from the three electro albums of the Summer: The first records of Justice, Simian Mobile Disco and Digitalism. At the end of summer nobody is going to be able to disassociate Summer of 2007 from these tunes. As we can see after listening to these records they've been created not only to dance at the club but also to be listened to in your house. They have pop songs to be danced to or dance songs to be heard. None of these records are great but the three of them have some great tunes and are fully enjoyable. Let's listen/watch some examples:
Simian Mobile Disco:
Hustler

It's the Beat

I Believe

JUSTICE
D.a.n.c.e.

DIGITALISM
Pogo

Zdarlight

album of the week: TUNNG - GOOD ARROWS

Tunng return with a new record, the first one published in Thrill Jockey, known to be one of the most important labels of the 90s and pioneer of post-rock experiments. We can not hear many changes from the previous record but we can not ask for many new things as it has only passed a year between both publications. Folk and electronics, or folktronica or whatever or just folk and pop in a band where they use electronic elements to fulfill the general atmosphere of it all. Beautiful songs in a beautiful package. Not yet a video for the new single so watch last year's video for Jenny Again

SOME VIDEOS

Here we have a long selection of the last great singles and videos of the season:

The Distance is the single for the long awaited new DNTEL album.


Video for new Feist single, 1234, is another dance along musical inspired colorful happy film



Architecture in Helsinki's new video for Heart it Races is a lo-fi Z film, inspired in Africa, or that's what I think so.


Beirut's beautiful video for new single Elephant Gun


French newest cool band The Teenagers with their hit Homecoming


James Yorkston latest single Woozy with Cider


The Go Team's first single Grip like a Vice from coming new album


Fanfarlo's Firescape


CSS video for next single Alcohol


Bat For Lashes' mysterious great video for latest single What's a Girl to Do

More album updates

It's taking time to update the blog after my out-of-line period, but I'll try.
Other albums I have to mention are:


ANIMAL COLLECTIVE - STRAWBERRY JAM
After the so critically acclaimed FEELS and the PEOPLE Ep, we already have here the so anticipated new record, the first one for Domino. And I say so anticipated because, as it is now so habitual, you could find some songs on the Internet from the beginning of June, and the album is supposed to be released in September. Members from Animal Collective asked the journalists who leaked the songs that, once the damaged was done, please leaked all the album for the people to be able to hear it altogether and they also prosecuted these journalists so the promotional copies were watermarked.
So because of that, we are already able to hear the full new album and they've done a logical progression from their previous works. Less atmospheric than their previous record and more based on samplers and keyboards than anything they've done before, it's their most commercial record to date as well, which it has not to be a bad thing, and maybe not as brilliant as Feels or Panda Bear's this year record, but still in the first class league.
I saw them live last week, and I have to say they were great. They didn't use any guitar, just drums, samplers and keyboards, but you could here many acoustic sounds coming from their machines. As they become more commercial record by record, they still don't make any concession when they play live, avoiding any song from their last record, presenting the new one but without playing what should be the obvious hits, and playing a lot of new songs that maybe are going to have release in a future.
Here you have the video for Fireworks:

LONEY, DEAR - LONEY, NOIR


This is the debut of this Swedish band for Sub Pop but it's their second album, if I'm right. Quiet melodic and euphoric pop as it seems can only be made in Sweden nowadays. The voice of his singer gets high levels that we could only imagine Newsom or Bush could get, and he's a man. Here you have two videos:
Saturday waits

I am John

Out of the line

After one month of many logistic problems, with the computer and the Internet connection, I'm back to misinform. Many records of the week without a post, some videos and concerts and a few more things. During this last month I've been listening a lot to the next records:
THE BOWERBIRDS - HYMNS FOR A DARK HORSE


Coming from North Carolina, this debut album from these indie-folk kids has some of the most talented hymns of the year, such as In our Talons. Guitar, drums, violin and accordion along with voices and chorus from the three members.

IRON AND WINE - THE SHEPPERDS DOG

The new record of Iron and Wine is the natural next step in his carer. Better sound and more instrumentation than the previous two records, more in the line of The Woman King EP. Some will miss the naked intimacy of the first records, also represented here in some tracks, but I don't think that the full-band arrangements destroy any of the charismatic features that has always been characteristic of his songs.

MATTHEW DEAR - ASA BREED

The new record of this electro-pop freak is somewhere between more commercial and less commercial than his previous records. The strange slowdown voices are more present than ever before, the sounds from drum machines, and the convination of electronic and organic instruments is sometimes frightening and dark but it's also his record with most standard and classical pop songs, more slow motion than dance oriented and with clear postpunk influences (and who doesn't nowadays).

THEE STRANDED HORSE.


Frenchman Yann Tambour, known previously for his work in the abstract electronic project Encre, has just made one of the most interesting folk records of the year. his reason to start this project was the discovery of Kora, an African instrument somewhere in between an arp and a big pumpkin, and most of the songs of the record are played with this instrument. The originality of the project is the convination of this instrument, acoustic guitar, his personal voice (that reminds Devendra Banhart's without the overly dramatic component) and the silences, as important in the record as any other instrument. Some people already call him the masculine answer to Joanna Newsom, but its own personality makes it the best folk record of the year so far.