Music Overload
I'm sure I was meant to be posting about photography on here... but that's been a little thin on the ground recently. In the meantime, I find I've been discussing music a lot with one of my work colleagues, which has inspired me to do a quick review of the strange mix of music albums I've bought in the last few months. Thus:
First up is "Thirteen Tales of Love and Revenge" by the sister-duo The Pierces. I was cunningly introduced to this by bluwyngz and pyoor_excuse and it immediately went on my purchasing list. It's a nice twangy album filled with, well, love and revenge - the songs vary from the slow-but-twisted-and-sweet "Lights On" to the dark but humerous "Secret". I'm pretty convinced that if the Birthday Massacre ever leave the playground and mellow out, they would write lyrics like The Pierces. If I had to level a complaint at the album, it's very front-loaded with the catchy, singable songs - by the end I'm always missing the energy of the start.
Take-away lyric: "But you get scared when we're alone, like I'm gonna suck your - blood."
Next up is a bit more twang, with Amy Macdonald's second album, "A Curious Thing". I loved her first album, "This is the Life", and her special blend of acoustic guitar and pleasant Scottish singing - almost folk music but brought up to date. This new album continues that theme but builds up a much bigger sound - and in some cases, such as the excellent "Don't Tell Me That It's Over", there's a lot going on. I don't think it's quite as consistently good throughout the album as her debut (I'm fairly sure she's over-reaching on some of the singing too) but there's a lot to like especially in the faster tracks such as "Spark" and "Next Big Thing". As a bonus, there's also some downloadable live tracks if you register your CD online. And last comment, the video for "Don't Tell Me That It's Over" is worth checking out, if for no other reason than as an example of making a video feel fast when your subject is essentially static.
Take-away lyric: "I am the light in the dark, I am the match, I am the spark. Don't worry, I'm okay now."
Time for a bit of industrial/electronica. I finally, long overdue bought "Dreamweb" by Mind In A Box. I very much like their trilogy of albums telling the story of Mr White and Mr Black and the mysteries of the dreamweb, and "Dreamweb" (the second album) is definitely the strongest for me. The songs are excellent, including some thumping bass at the start of "Dead End", some cute story/music/sound blending on the opening track "Tape Evidence", and my personal favourite, the no-nonsense high-speed dance beats of "Out of Time". Lyrically it's also very strong, with spoken story parts in a journal/half-phone-call style playing around the sung themes of memory, identity and the nature of reality. The clever part is that it's just good to listen to, but if you want more depth it's waiting for you. I'll be queueing up the other two albums shortly.
Take-away lyric: "You dream the lives of others."
Sticking with Mind In A Box, I had to instantly pounce on another special project of theirs - the album "RETRO". It's very much a tribute to the days of 8-bit computing, with a few modern remixes of classic 8-bit chip-tunes as well as some new tunes in the same style. Everything is presented in a style that is very authentic to the spirit of chip-tunes, complete with bleepy sounds and the kind of wail (in a good way) that only a Commodore 64 can generate. It's worth noting that the resulting sound is very much how you might nostalgically imagine chip-tunes to sound - but if you download the original Commodore 64 music, be prepared for a shock. Mind In A Box have done an excellent job to stay faithful to how good you remember the music to be, rather than how it actually sounds now. The original songs also have some good tribute lyrics, especially in "8 Bits" and M.I.A.B.'s answer to the Beatles with "I Love 64". The remixes of "Lightforce" and "The Last V8" are also especially good, though my favourite is the epic flow and tranquility of the original "Whatever Mattered". I always was a sucker for the slow tunes. There's also a bonus for buying the album - the inlay contains a code which, if entered in the hidden part of the Mind In A Box website, gives you access to video and music downloads from "RETRO" and "Dreamweb".
Take-away lyric: "Last V8: Return to base immediately."
Returning to the present and going horribly mainstream for a moment, I'd like to blame Spotify for encouraging me to buy Kesha's (or if you must, Ke$ha's) album "Animal". It's puerile and crude with a terrible obsession with drinking and yet, some of the lyrics are quite fun and hidden away on the album are a few novel sounds and good beats. I have a soft spot for the very compelling beat of "VIP" and its hushed vocals, but the real star that sold me on the album is the sad and regretful ballad, "Hungover". I'm actually quite sad that it'll probably disappear as a neglected and little-known song seen only by people who buy the album.
Take-away lyric: "Now the party's over, and everybody's gone, I'm left here with myself and I wonder what went wrong."
While I'm blaming Spotify for things, a chance trip down their recommendations showed me the album "Trenches" by Sepiamusic. After Kesha, Sepiamusic comes as a welcome release, being soft, quiet and subtle. There's some surprisingly singable lyrics backed by large swells of strings, plenty of acoustic guitars sounds, some light electronics and some occasional heavy, squidgy electronic bass noise. The pinacle of their sound is definitely the beautiful vocals, especially on the softer tracks such as "Sweet Pollution" and "Skin". But if you have robust ears, the track "Crazy Burn" demands some volume for its ear-splitting, room-filling, smooth-but-shrill vocal sound - you will try to hum along, even if, like me, you have no hope of reaching the pitch, power or duration of the track itself. The only sad part of the album is that it only exists electronically - there is no CD for sale. On the flip side, this album convinced me to make my first MP3 music purchase (from Amazon), so take that as some recommendation.
Take-away lyric: "That’s why I leave you, to live in a world of stone again."
One of the albums I was most excited to buy was the lastest offering from Unter Null: "Moving On". The previous album, "The Failure Epiphany", was oftentimes quite a harsh listen, full of venomous lyrics about a bad relationship. This new album reflects Unter Null moving on with life, as the title suggests, and reflects how the artist has developed. Erica Dunham, the force behind Unter Null, also has another excellent project called Stray with an album "Abuse By Proxy", which is a mix of down-tempo and dance-beat ambient-electronica-trip-hop; "Moving On" is very much a blend of Stray and classic Unter Null. In some ways I miss the unique harshness of "The Failure Epiphany", but to be clear, "Moving On" is excellent and far, far easier to listen to. "Moving On" also brings a good mix of instrumental tracks, such as the excellent soft/hard/soft opener "Journey to Descent" (though still ultimately softer than the previous album's opener, "Blood Lust"), although it's hard to beat Erica's lyrical tracks "Broken Heart Cliche" and "Third Party". For extra joy I bought the 2CD set which includes a second album, "Moved On". This really is another album, with another 9 new tracks and a few remixes that are actually worth having. (The Kant Kino remix of "Broken Heart Cliche" really stands out.) Overall possibly musical purchase of the year so far.
Take-away lyric: "I'll tell you what my secret is to moving on."
After Unter Null, it's still nice to have something a bit more relaxed, so I finally tracked down the excellent album "Ghost Stories" by Amanda Ghost. This is definitely not a recent release - I remember discovering Amanda Ghost almost 10 years ago when I saw the excellent video for the excellent song, "Idol" (good luck finding that video again). Yes, I've been meaning to find this album for some time; I was quite surprised to find Amazon still had new copies. The songs are largely pretty regular pop - guitars and drumbeats, carried by Amanda's slightly warbly singing voice. She does very well even while she's being "normal" and unlike much of today's pop, is very capable of writing interesting lyrics that deal with different issues from man-loves-girl - "Glory Girl" especially stands out for melody and words. But it's also worth noting there are some different songs, such as the should-have-been-massive-in-clubs "Filthy Mind" and the subtle but strong "Empty". Amanda Ghost maintains a style across the entire album while still managing to make a variety of song which are very distinct from each other. It also makes choosing a single lyric very hard.
Take-away lyric: "Could you make a suggestion for an act I would enjoy?"
Last album of the moment is "The Dawnseeker" by Sleepthief. This is a beautiful, peaceful album, reminiscent of Delerium, even down to having a different singer on each track. Taken as an entire album, I think it can be a bit overwhelming - it is perhaps a little too consistent in style. But in sections there are lots of good tracks to be had. "Just Say It" stands out and benefits hugely from the vocals of Kyoko Baertsoen of Lunascape, whereas "The Chauffeur" has a pleasant pacey but mellow beat with slightly breathy vocals. "Sublunar (Sweet Angel)" also brings in some nicely layered vocals and soft sounds. Overall it's not an album I've found myself listening to as much as I expected, but when it comes round in the collection there's not much to object to.
Take-away lyric: "And the droning engine throbs in time, with your beating heart."
That's the biggest intake of music I've had in a long time (a quiet celebration of changing job perhaps). So now they're all done and purchased, what's coming up next? Well, The Birthday Massacre have a new album coming out later this year. I haven't seen any samples of it yet but I've not yet been disappointed by them, so that's hopeful. There's also a lot of new songs on Stray's MySpace page (yes, her of Unter Null again) so I'm hopeful of another new album there. In particular I keep playing the very sombre "Let Me Go", which combines haunting vocals with occasional deep piano and a few strings lying around - it's quite possibly even better than previous Stray quiet song, "Fade Into You".
As a side note, the aforementioned music discussions at work are quite entertaining. We overlap on metal/rock tastes, but everything thereafter is something of a cultural exchange. I wouldn't have expected to find myself listening to assorted tangos, for instance. But I find I lack the music vocabulary to reliably describe the music I listen to - further complicated by some artists being downright cross-genre. I mean, what do you do when half the album is club dance music and half is ambient electronica?
If anyone needs me, I'll be camped out on band websites...
First up is "Thirteen Tales of Love and Revenge" by the sister-duo The Pierces. I was cunningly introduced to this by bluwyngz and pyoor_excuse and it immediately went on my purchasing list. It's a nice twangy album filled with, well, love and revenge - the songs vary from the slow-but-twisted-and-sweet "Lights On" to the dark but humerous "Secret". I'm pretty convinced that if the Birthday Massacre ever leave the playground and mellow out, they would write lyrics like The Pierces. If I had to level a complaint at the album, it's very front-loaded with the catchy, singable songs - by the end I'm always missing the energy of the start.
Take-away lyric: "But you get scared when we're alone, like I'm gonna suck your - blood."
Next up is a bit more twang, with Amy Macdonald's second album, "A Curious Thing". I loved her first album, "This is the Life", and her special blend of acoustic guitar and pleasant Scottish singing - almost folk music but brought up to date. This new album continues that theme but builds up a much bigger sound - and in some cases, such as the excellent "Don't Tell Me That It's Over", there's a lot going on. I don't think it's quite as consistently good throughout the album as her debut (I'm fairly sure she's over-reaching on some of the singing too) but there's a lot to like especially in the faster tracks such as "Spark" and "Next Big Thing". As a bonus, there's also some downloadable live tracks if you register your CD online. And last comment, the video for "Don't Tell Me That It's Over" is worth checking out, if for no other reason than as an example of making a video feel fast when your subject is essentially static.
Take-away lyric: "I am the light in the dark, I am the match, I am the spark. Don't worry, I'm okay now."
Time for a bit of industrial/electronica. I finally, long overdue bought "Dreamweb" by Mind In A Box. I very much like their trilogy of albums telling the story of Mr White and Mr Black and the mysteries of the dreamweb, and "Dreamweb" (the second album) is definitely the strongest for me. The songs are excellent, including some thumping bass at the start of "Dead End", some cute story/music/sound blending on the opening track "Tape Evidence", and my personal favourite, the no-nonsense high-speed dance beats of "Out of Time". Lyrically it's also very strong, with spoken story parts in a journal/half-phone-call style playing around the sung themes of memory, identity and the nature of reality. The clever part is that it's just good to listen to, but if you want more depth it's waiting for you. I'll be queueing up the other two albums shortly.
Take-away lyric: "You dream the lives of others."
Sticking with Mind In A Box, I had to instantly pounce on another special project of theirs - the album "RETRO". It's very much a tribute to the days of 8-bit computing, with a few modern remixes of classic 8-bit chip-tunes as well as some new tunes in the same style. Everything is presented in a style that is very authentic to the spirit of chip-tunes, complete with bleepy sounds and the kind of wail (in a good way) that only a Commodore 64 can generate. It's worth noting that the resulting sound is very much how you might nostalgically imagine chip-tunes to sound - but if you download the original Commodore 64 music, be prepared for a shock. Mind In A Box have done an excellent job to stay faithful to how good you remember the music to be, rather than how it actually sounds now. The original songs also have some good tribute lyrics, especially in "8 Bits" and M.I.A.B.'s answer to the Beatles with "I Love 64". The remixes of "Lightforce" and "The Last V8" are also especially good, though my favourite is the epic flow and tranquility of the original "Whatever Mattered". I always was a sucker for the slow tunes. There's also a bonus for buying the album - the inlay contains a code which, if entered in the hidden part of the Mind In A Box website, gives you access to video and music downloads from "RETRO" and "Dreamweb".
Take-away lyric: "Last V8: Return to base immediately."
Returning to the present and going horribly mainstream for a moment, I'd like to blame Spotify for encouraging me to buy Kesha's (or if you must, Ke$ha's) album "Animal". It's puerile and crude with a terrible obsession with drinking and yet, some of the lyrics are quite fun and hidden away on the album are a few novel sounds and good beats. I have a soft spot for the very compelling beat of "VIP" and its hushed vocals, but the real star that sold me on the album is the sad and regretful ballad, "Hungover". I'm actually quite sad that it'll probably disappear as a neglected and little-known song seen only by people who buy the album.
Take-away lyric: "Now the party's over, and everybody's gone, I'm left here with myself and I wonder what went wrong."
While I'm blaming Spotify for things, a chance trip down their recommendations showed me the album "Trenches" by Sepiamusic. After Kesha, Sepiamusic comes as a welcome release, being soft, quiet and subtle. There's some surprisingly singable lyrics backed by large swells of strings, plenty of acoustic guitars sounds, some light electronics and some occasional heavy, squidgy electronic bass noise. The pinacle of their sound is definitely the beautiful vocals, especially on the softer tracks such as "Sweet Pollution" and "Skin". But if you have robust ears, the track "Crazy Burn" demands some volume for its ear-splitting, room-filling, smooth-but-shrill vocal sound - you will try to hum along, even if, like me, you have no hope of reaching the pitch, power or duration of the track itself. The only sad part of the album is that it only exists electronically - there is no CD for sale. On the flip side, this album convinced me to make my first MP3 music purchase (from Amazon), so take that as some recommendation.
Take-away lyric: "That’s why I leave you, to live in a world of stone again."
One of the albums I was most excited to buy was the lastest offering from Unter Null: "Moving On". The previous album, "The Failure Epiphany", was oftentimes quite a harsh listen, full of venomous lyrics about a bad relationship. This new album reflects Unter Null moving on with life, as the title suggests, and reflects how the artist has developed. Erica Dunham, the force behind Unter Null, also has another excellent project called Stray with an album "Abuse By Proxy", which is a mix of down-tempo and dance-beat ambient-electronica-trip-hop; "Moving On" is very much a blend of Stray and classic Unter Null. In some ways I miss the unique harshness of "The Failure Epiphany", but to be clear, "Moving On" is excellent and far, far easier to listen to. "Moving On" also brings a good mix of instrumental tracks, such as the excellent soft/hard/soft opener "Journey to Descent" (though still ultimately softer than the previous album's opener, "Blood Lust"), although it's hard to beat Erica's lyrical tracks "Broken Heart Cliche" and "Third Party". For extra joy I bought the 2CD set which includes a second album, "Moved On". This really is another album, with another 9 new tracks and a few remixes that are actually worth having. (The Kant Kino remix of "Broken Heart Cliche" really stands out.) Overall possibly musical purchase of the year so far.
Take-away lyric: "I'll tell you what my secret is to moving on."
After Unter Null, it's still nice to have something a bit more relaxed, so I finally tracked down the excellent album "Ghost Stories" by Amanda Ghost. This is definitely not a recent release - I remember discovering Amanda Ghost almost 10 years ago when I saw the excellent video for the excellent song, "Idol" (good luck finding that video again). Yes, I've been meaning to find this album for some time; I was quite surprised to find Amazon still had new copies. The songs are largely pretty regular pop - guitars and drumbeats, carried by Amanda's slightly warbly singing voice. She does very well even while she's being "normal" and unlike much of today's pop, is very capable of writing interesting lyrics that deal with different issues from man-loves-girl - "Glory Girl" especially stands out for melody and words. But it's also worth noting there are some different songs, such as the should-have-been-massive-in-clubs "Filthy Mind" and the subtle but strong "Empty". Amanda Ghost maintains a style across the entire album while still managing to make a variety of song which are very distinct from each other. It also makes choosing a single lyric very hard.
Take-away lyric: "Could you make a suggestion for an act I would enjoy?"
Last album of the moment is "The Dawnseeker" by Sleepthief. This is a beautiful, peaceful album, reminiscent of Delerium, even down to having a different singer on each track. Taken as an entire album, I think it can be a bit overwhelming - it is perhaps a little too consistent in style. But in sections there are lots of good tracks to be had. "Just Say It" stands out and benefits hugely from the vocals of Kyoko Baertsoen of Lunascape, whereas "The Chauffeur" has a pleasant pacey but mellow beat with slightly breathy vocals. "Sublunar (Sweet Angel)" also brings in some nicely layered vocals and soft sounds. Overall it's not an album I've found myself listening to as much as I expected, but when it comes round in the collection there's not much to object to.
Take-away lyric: "And the droning engine throbs in time, with your beating heart."
That's the biggest intake of music I've had in a long time (a quiet celebration of changing job perhaps). So now they're all done and purchased, what's coming up next? Well, The Birthday Massacre have a new album coming out later this year. I haven't seen any samples of it yet but I've not yet been disappointed by them, so that's hopeful. There's also a lot of new songs on Stray's MySpace page (yes, her of Unter Null again) so I'm hopeful of another new album there. In particular I keep playing the very sombre "Let Me Go", which combines haunting vocals with occasional deep piano and a few strings lying around - it's quite possibly even better than previous Stray quiet song, "Fade Into You".
As a side note, the aforementioned music discussions at work are quite entertaining. We overlap on metal/rock tastes, but everything thereafter is something of a cultural exchange. I wouldn't have expected to find myself listening to assorted tangos, for instance. But I find I lack the music vocabulary to reliably describe the music I listen to - further complicated by some artists being downright cross-genre. I mean, what do you do when half the album is club dance music and half is ambient electronica?
If anyone needs me, I'll be camped out on band websites...