¤ Alexi Murdoch seems like a really cool guy. Born i London, raised in Scotland, Greece and France and then moved to North Carolina. Nowadays he lives in two places, New York and a small house on the west coast of Scotland where he spends his days writing and working on a small wooden sailing boat. I see – and thoroughly enjoy – that picture.
Now this british singer-songwriter releases his third recording, Towards The Sun. I was told this album was recorded in one sitting, one remarkable night in Vancouver during his 2009 North American-tour. Man, the intensity and the guts. Toward The Sun is a quiet and intimate album. It is often simple but touching lyrics, as in the beautiful Through The Dark: “I love you girl, I love you more than I can say, even with my heart in the way”.
I can´t help of thinking of two Swedes, Christian Kjellvander and Jose Gonzalez, with their unique sound. Together with Alexi Murdoch they are brothers in arms, wheter they like it or not. A kind of ruthless talent that won´t cave in. A sound of silence. It´s compelling and precious and right there infront of us.
¤ This night was something else. Woody West gathered three bands, all in that crowded, rowdy place called Pusterviksbaren, a small yet beautiful Thursdayfestival. The Head And The Heart started out, and man – you can tell why they were the talk of the town in Austin (SXSW). A band that just made new friends, Kentuckyseven will follow their great path. Then Woods did their folk-psych-thing and killed it. Jeremy Earls voice is from space, intense stuff. And then they entered stage, The Low Anthem.
These Rhode Island-fellas brought everything with them on stage, 14 instruments to choose from. Singer Ben Knox Miller started out with Ticket Taker from their 2009-album Oh My God Charlie Darwin and just rolled with it. We heard Hey All Your Hippies, Boeing 737, Apothecary Love and their most swedish song ever I´ll take out your ashes. The band mixed their folky roots with some aggressive rocktunes and let it all out. The place was packed, I had to lean over on the harmonium just to write these lines.
The Low Anthem is a great liveband. This Bella Union-quartet tours all the way to November and I would enjoy every gig. They lay their hearts out on stage and don´t think twice about it. It´s what they do. Jeff Prystowsky hitting the drums, Jocie Adams with that trumpet, it all makes sense, live music at its core. Before the lights went off they did a couple of a cappella´s and you got that religious, goosebumpy, powerful feeling. You know, just glad to be around when it happened.
Judge says: 6/7 Kentuckyseven´s.
Best song: Charlie Darwin.
They play next: Hamburg, Germany, March 25.
Look out for: Kentuckyseven got an interview with The Low Anthem coming up, stay tuned.
Cocoon – Where The Oceans End Label: Co-op / Sober & Gentle Release (SWE): 2011-03-21
They could have fooled me. This is french folk, with no taste of strong cigarettes or week old red wine.
The french duo consisting of Mark Daumail and Morgane Imbeaud create gloomy soundscapes and beautiful moods. Throughout the entire record, the stories are laid out, naked and intimate. This is music for those who love a good romance. This is like hooking up and breaking up, all at the same time. Emotions rolling on the carefully sung harmonies.
Comparing Cocoon with artists like Eliott Smith, Sufjan Stevens is easy, but still this is something else. The sound of a man and a woman.
In this genre, this is extraordinary, considering it is a thin line between to much, and not enough. Where The Oceans End makes you wish there was another album in the sleeve.
Close to a seven, the number six fits like a glove.
The second album from Reading-based DIOYY jumps at you from the get-go. This is excellent, full of emotions, uplifting stuff. Buckle up and upset your neighbours.
DIOYY have toured with Prodigy, Nine Inch Nail and Bloc Party and their music is the centerfold of that magazine. Electronic with a prevailing attitude. These guys take shit from no man, woman or animal.
Singer James Rushent is really convincing, his voice will not let go, get´s to your inside. It´s neon light music with that party-punk-dance you actually need every once in a while. Loud and clear.
The band took their bandname from a David Brent-quote; Ricky Gervais´ Office-dude said “My drinking, does it offend you, yeah?” Not a bad start.
And to quote DIOYY themselves; ”The funky monkey is coming.”
Thousands is Kristian Garrard and Luke Bergman, hailing from Seattle, voice-match made in heaven I’d say.
Their debut ”The Sound of Everything” is something special. Recorded throughout the US vast pacific northwest. The record contains sounds of not only great vocals, hymnal sound and instruments, also the sound of birds chirping, leaves falling. Nature recorded on their journey to create the album that would become ”The sound of Everything”.
As Thousands themselves explain ”- We want people to listen to this with headphones on and feel like they’re immersed in these locations, and there’s us, sitting next to you, playing a song.”
This is yet another delicate example of great debut records, and another golden star in the book of magic artists signed to Bella Union.
Fleet Foxes’ guitarist Skye Skjelset, brought the attention to the label, and somewhere in the beauty of this album, there is a little fleet fox hiding away.
Listening to this, makes you feel good. It is by definition a feel-good sound throughout all 12 tracks, and it appeals to me. The way I need to feel. Kristian and Luke’s vocals are somehow mixing, melting together and gently steering the way in to the listeners heart. I am sure that it will not be long until I am driving my car to the store, humming these tunes.
Looking for something new and fresh, which will make your day just a little brighter. You might just have found it.
The Sound of Everything is a sure 5/7, and Thousands will be something to try and catch this year…
Check out more about Thousands @ Thousands.com or get a feeling of the album to come here…
The first impression of Shore To Shore is that Norman Palm is a great vocalist. Pleasant. The voice sounds like it was meant to do one thing. To sing.
My favorite track on the album is Easy. Pop, electro and stylish out in to the corners. With the right amount of bass playing in the background. This is art.
The album in its entirety is like a exhibition, in a dark gallery, you can imagine the songs as paintings. The artist Norman Palm knows how to paint a soundscape, breathtaking sometimes, enjoyable and powerful. All at the same time.
Integrating a great variety of instruments, like the guitar sound in the song smile, Norman Palm shows his width again and again.
Shore To Shore is nothing less than a 5 out of 7 K7’s. A large album. Something to write to your friends about. I am hoping for great things for Norman Palm in 2011. Which I am sure he will receive.
Haruki Murakami. This japanese writer, born 1949, has destroyed the thrill of reading other authors. He has rolled them into a carpet and thrown them in the cold river. I can´t see why I really should read anyone else?
It´s like when you first discover – truly discover – Bob Dylan. When you go from his 1960-songs to his 1970-songs and the ground beneath your feet starts to quiver, quake and finally disappear. You got no safety line, no protection, no turning back. You got no shelter from the storm.
Norwegian Wood is the third book I´ve read from Haruki Murakami. Kafka on the Shore and Sputnik Sweetheart is already done and I can´t wait to start reading stuff like The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle and the marathonbook What I Talk About When I Talk About Running.
It´s a lovestory from the 1960´s. A sad, lonesome tale but still compelling and profoundly well-written. Toru Watanabe hears the Beatles-song Norwegian Wood and gets overwhelmed with emotions and memories. We go back with Toru to the university in Tokyo, his love for the fragile Naoko. Naoko goes to a Cuckoo´s nest in the mountains, Toru waits. It´s vibrant, between the lines, great stuff. It´s the heartache of growing up.
Haruki Murakami wrote this book 23 years ago. It just became a movie and is less of that magical realism you will find in Kafka on the shore, this is more of a straight shooting novel. Well, I like that side of this japanese moon as well.
This Rhode Island (a sauce in Sweden, a place in America) quartet got all the checks they ever gonna need. Facial hair. Check. Lo-Fi. Check. Checked shirt. Double-check. This is an introspective, honest bunch.
Smart Flesh aint no Oh my God Charlie Darwin – the bands breakthru from 2008. Then it was a splattered Wilco/Bon Iver/Tom Waits/Fleet Foxes-vibe. This is more of a one way street, recorded in a Pastafactory with an eerie sound. Some parts I don´t understand, like the instrumental song #6 Wire. Puts my focus elsewhere.
This is a beautiful album. It´s lullabies for the people, it´s rootsy ballads, it´s that folk-acoustic music that belonged before us, long before man and his guitar. It´s the greater picture and you will have to kneel down to the power of songs like Boing 737, Hey All You Hippies and I´ll Take Out Your Ashes.
Smart Flesh is a record who needs your full attention, or it will get lost.
¤ Judge says: 5/7 Kentuckyseven´s
¤ Best track: Hey, All You Hippies
¤ Drink while you listen: Anura Pinotage Syrah (heavy, southaf, darkred)
Drive-By Truckers have three singers (Mike Cooley, Patterson Hood, ShonnaTucker) and have recorded eleven albums. Go Go Boots puts them right where I like em.
This is a step into the bona fied countrygrass, a familiar place for the Truckers yet not always their most abraded runway. It suits them perfect, like a strong cup of coffee in the morning sun.
As always you hear the roots, the Neil Youngs and the Tom Pettys, the blues, the soul and the heartland of great americanamusic. It´s a soundtrack to that movie you love. Long, slow, steelpedaltunes. Three great voices. And a couple of songs that really makes a difference.
As DBT state in the first song: “I do believe, I do believe, I do believe.”
Fair enough.
¤ Judge says: 5/7 Kentuckyseven´s
¤ Best tracks: Everybody needs love, Used to be a cop.
The high standard of bands out of Denmark the last years is tremendous. The Kissaway Trail, Oh No Ono the list can be made long. Now it is time for the world to say hello to Treefight For Sunlight.
With their first album on Bella Union, the band gives us a taste of what’s to come. The sound is sprung from bands as Beach Boys, Bee Gees, Beatles and other era-making bands. Treefight takes the sound and makes it their own, in the 21:st century-style. Harmonies mixed with melodies and dreams. My favorite songs on this album, Rain Air, Facing The Sun, and the invigorating What Became Of You And I?
This is one of those albums that will make you listen more than once, just to see if you missed anything. There is a lot to discover. To listen to again. And again. This is my kind of music.
Treefight For Sunlight is definitely a band to follow. They are bound for something big. I sure as hell hope so.
The verdict: 6/7 this is the album to buy this spring.
Listen to What Became Of You and I? Courtesy of Bella Union…
