Posted by Brrriot on May 1, 2009 at 17:04
Tags: indie dance, indie electronic
Around the Bend – EP
The Sun Ain’t Shining No More - EP
Released 2008
Label Small Giants
Usually I only review one album or record at the time, but with this Danish band I try out two EP’s for the price of one. Don’t let the somewhat long and difficulty spelled name, The Asteroids Galaxy Tour, discourage you from getting these two EP’s, because this is really great music!
The band consists of Mette Lindberg (vocals), Lars Iversen (bass, keyboards), Miloud Carl Sabri (trumpet), Sven Meinild (sax), Mads Brinch Nielsen (guitar, keyboards), and Jesper Elnegaard (drums). They formed in Copenhagen in 2006, but everything got even better in the summer of 07, when Mette and Lars spent all their time in his studio – working hard and long hours, drinking on the balcony and making musical magic.
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Posted by Brrriot on April 13, 2009 at 21:24
Tags: indie rock
Free Ride
Released February 2009
Label Diesel
Micadelia is Swedish, 19 years old, blond and really talented. She has just released her first album, but still she’s not lacking in the experience department. She previously did Led Zeppelin materials as Mica and The Other Pages, and also did several concerts performing Neil Young songs under the alias Mica and the Gold Rush. Now she debuts on her own, still doing her covers and still doing it good.
Micadelia isn’t just Micadelia. She is also accompanied by Ferraby Lionheart on vocals, Kajsa Karlsson on backing vocals and a bunch of musicians playing a wide range of instruments.
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Posted by Brrriot on April 3, 2009 at 01:54
Tags: dream pop, indie rock
23
Released April 2007
Label 4AD
Twin brothers Simone Pace and Amedeo Pace, together with Kazu Makino and Maki Takahashi formed Blonde Redhead in New York in 1993. However, Maki Takahashi left the band after they released their self titled debut album. Blonde Redhead then continued on as a trio, with the occasional assistance of different guest musicians and producers. Blonde Redhead got their real breakthrough with the assistance of Steve Shelley, the drummer from Sonic Youth – a band Blonde Redhead shares similar musical soundscapes with, as he helped produce their debut album in 1995.
Blonde Redhead has released seven albums, and has established themselves with a firm fan base in the underground indie milieu. With the increasing number of released albums, Blonde Redhead has also moved away from the earlier Sonic Youth-inspired sound and established their own unique musical style.
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Posted by Brrriot on March 11, 2009 at 21:28
Tags: indie rock, psychedelic
Exquisite Corpse
Released February 2009
Label Self-released
Barely a month ago, the self categorized psychedelic band, Warpaint, released their first EP, titled Exquisite Corpse. Warpaint is a rather young band, formed in 2007 and origins from California. The band operates with the following members on tour: Emily Kokal on vocals/guitar/keys, Teresa Wayman handling the guitar, background vocals and keys, Jennifer Lindberg on the bass guitar, and David Orlando drums. Teresa and Jennifer occasionally also provide lead vocals.
The EP contains five songs, and even though they categorize themselves as psychedelic, I would say that they graze through so many more musical styles during their 30 minute long musical treat: Indie, pop, rock, lounge, ethereal wave and the ever fitting category, alternative. They can easily be musically linked to such great bands as Sonic Youth, Blonde Redhead and Cocteau Twins. One could argue that these bands have a somewhat different soundscape, and they do. It’s exactly why I can compare them to Warpaint. Because Warpaint doesn’t sound like one of the above mentioned bands, they sound like a well orchestrated mix of all of them.
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Posted by Jäger on March 2, 2009 at 16:34
Tags: post-rock
The Power Out
Released January 2004
Label Too Pure
British all girl post-rock outfit Electrelane hit the ground running with their first single Film Music in January 2000. An intense and aptly titled piece, it sounds as something straight out of the soundtrack of a slightly disturbing but really cool Quentin Tarantino movie.
Intense, slightly disturbing and really cool is also a pretty good description of this band. Inevitably compared to Stereolab, Electrelane has that rare quality of being able to combine utter weirdness with very solid song writing. While never boring, always looking to find new ways to express themselves, they seldom allow their sonic experiments to go so far as to ruin a good song. And they have written some really good songs.
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Posted by Jäger on February 25, 2009 at 21:56
Tags: indie electronic, indie rock
Harrys Gym
Released October 2008
Label Hype City
They have been playing together for ages, Norwegians Anne Lise Frøkedal, Bjarne Stensli, Erlend Ringseth and Ole Myrvold. First they were alternative rock group Dharma, but since parting ways with one of its founding members, the remaining group has reinvented itself as indie rock / indie electronic band Harrys Gym. And where Dharma was a lot of potential unfulfilled, Harrys Gym has made it all the way and become a musical dream come true.
Harrys Gym is not easily compared to other artists. They are often linked to such acts as Goldfrapp and Swedish electronic duo the Knife, with whom they quite frankly have little in common. David Bowie has been invoked by critics several times, and within his huge production there are certainly moments that compare to Harrys Gym’s debut album, but it is still a comparison that leaves a lot to be desired. Some similarities to Blonde Redhead are evident, and fans of the American indie rock act will certainly also enjoy Harrys Gym, but most of all Harrys Gym sounds like Harrys Gym, and it’s best left at that.
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Posted by Brrriot on February 24, 2009 at 22:34
Tags: garage rock, indie rock
Midnight Boom
Release March 2008
Label Domino
They met at a hotel; Jamie Hince was playing his guitar when Alison Mosshart heard him in her room on the floor below. It marked the beginning of a collaboration which so far has resulted in three albums; Keep On Your Mean Side, No Wow and Midnight Boom. The Kills have kept their duo stabile even though Hince for a while spent his time on the European side of the Atlantic. Finally Mosshart moved overseas and soon after their debut EP, Black Rooster, was picked up by a record company and the games begun.
Their latest release ,“Midnight boom”was released in March 2008. The Kills have a dirty, hard and rough sound in their music. However, in the time spent between “No Wow” and “Midnight Boom”, The Kills seem to have discovered electro pop, and even though they don’t make electro pop by any means, they allow it to influence their music – making a more modern sound. But still not abandoning their down to earth rough rock. With the vocal wonders of the two band members VV (Alison Mosshart) and Hotel (Jamie Hince) sounding like raw gravel crushed under the tires of a big truck, they manage to balance the sound as to make it worth listening to, in addition to a beautifully melodica.
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Posted by Brrriot on February 23, 2009 at 18:01
Tags: indie folk, indie rock
This fool can die now
Released October 2007
Label Too Pure
”Dinosaur egg, oh dinosaur egg. When will you hatch? Cause I got a million people coming on Friday, and they expect to see a dinosaur, not an egg,” sings one of England’s most exciting singer/songwriters. Scout Niblett is her name and with her latest recording, “This fool can die now”, she is heading for an international break-through.
Niblett presents us with an album that is hard to categorize given it interchanging musical styles; varying from rock to folk to indie to country and then back again. The only thing constant in this album is Niblett’s strong, relentless and distinct voice. Turning every song into something special, giving you that feeling of making acquaintance with a new musical friend for years to come.
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Posted by Jäger on at 17:23
Tags: alternative metal, post-grunge
Auf der Maur
Released June 2004
Label Capitol
Melissa Auf der Maur is a crafty and talented woman who’s been in the music industry for a long time. With her Canadian band, Tinker, she got to be the opening act for the Smashing Pumpkins in Montreal in 1993. She made such an impression on Billy Corgan that he one year later recommended Auf der Maur as the new bass player for Courtney Love’s band Hole. Auf der Maur stayed with Hole for five years, before she then joined the Smashing Pumpkins, as their new bass player. For several years after this she collaborated with a variety of artists and musicians before she finally released her self titled debut solo album in 2004: Auf der Maur.
Although briefly making it onto the charts in both the UK and US, Auf der Maur was not as successful a debut album as it could have been. 2004 was the year of Franz Ferdinand and the Killers, and some critics in awe with the tight, hook based new wave sound of chart winners “Take me out” and “Somebody told me”, were quick to dismiss the post-grunge sound of the Canadian rock vixen as dated. Five years later and with a new album coming any day now (Melissa released the EP This Would Be Paradise, her first solo release since the debut album, last November), it’s about time Auf der Maur gets her full vindication.
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Posted by Jäger on February 19, 2009 at 22:28
Tags: indie rock
A Mouthful
Released January 2008
Label Get Døwn! / Cinq7 / Wagram
Remember that strange girl (or boy) who always wore peculiar outfits, who carried around books by authors you’d never heard of, and who were always humming the strangest tunes that were so frustratingly unfamiliar to you? Who always made the most outrageous comments, who always had the craziest ideas, who never failed to utterly surprise you when you finally thought you had her figured out? That girl (or boy) who almost completely failed to check out any of the boxes in your perceived “girl/boy of my dreams”-list, yet with whom you had the biggest, most heartbreaking crush? Well, wrap that up, and press it on vinyl, and you have French/Finnish indie act the Dø’s debut album “A Mouthful”.
Very quirky, utterly eclectic, sometimes confusing but always surprising, childish yet often deeply mature, and silly yet cerebral. It is what should be expected by a group that sites a list of influences so diverse as to include (among many others) Jimi Hendrix, Ella Fitzgerald, Igor Stravinsky, The Who, Björk, Muddy Waters, Queen, Tom Waits, Frank Zappa, Duke Ellington, Eminem and Wu-Tang Clan. It could very well have been the recipe for disaster. But it’s not. It’s utterly lovely.
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