de-minimis

01 April 2015

the honeydrips - 'fire we light'

Another great Swedish band are the Honeydrips. I love how this tune builds and builds.

breakfast in fur - 'cripple creek ferry'

I do like their album 'Flyaway Garden'. It gets better with every listen.

action bronson - 'easy rider'

I'm not the biggest fan of this type of rap delivery. Similes involving famous people, running through the rhyming dictionary for every single variation on a syllable, lots of repetitions and unnecessary grunts randomly thrown in have all been done before. Roxanne Shante was making these tricks sound boring back in the early '80s but what lifts this song out of the mediocre is the samples and bassline. Oh my goodness, it's quite beautiful. Listen for yourself.

soko - 'lovetrap (feat. ariel pink)'

When Ariel Pink does pop properly, he does it bloody well. Here he is guesting with chum Soko on a track from her 2015 album.

31 March 2015

belle and sebastian - 'the everlasting muse'

I know I promised that last track would be the last of the day but this just popped up randomly on my iTunes and seeing as it's the very best track from a very patchy album, I couldn't resist sticking it on my blog.

missincat - 'don't let her'

Something ethereal to finish the day, I think. This from Milanese singer/songwriter MissinCat and features on her 2015 album 'Wirewalker'.

teitur magnússon - 'munaðarhóf'

Psychedelic Icelandic pop music. Sounds like heaven to me.

looper - 'farfisa song'

One for Belle and Sebastian fans, this is Looper a band with B&S bassist 'Stuart David'. They've been about as prolific as Portishead but there's a new album promised shortly and this will undoubtedly feature on it.

nick cave & warren ellis - 'loin des hommes'

The first track released from the original soundtrack to the film 'Far Men' translated as 'Far From Men'. The album is out in May ALTHOUGH the movie premiered last year. First listen sounds like a halfway house entre Their soundtrack to 'The Road' and the soundtrack to 'The Proposal'. Unfortunately, it's not new Renewed interest in Nick Cave's recent music and That upsets me. I really wish I could get Into His goal newer stuff it just leaves me cold.

oh so quiet - 'motorcycle journey'

Anglo-Argentinians 'Oh So Quiet' have a debut EP out in May but ahead of that they've released this track. It's a pop-rock number with some great harmonies and a sleepy start but a driving, pulsating finish. Great stuff.

son lux - 'change is everything'

Wow! Hot off the press, here's Son Lux's latest single and it's quite something: euphoric, experimental, bass - he's chucked everything bar the kitchen sink at this and boy, does it work.

zero 7 (feat. only girl) - 'the colour of spring'

Zero 7 covers the Mark Hollis classic - and it truly is a classic.

kendrick lamarr - 'hood politics'

I'm warming, albeit slowly, to this album but I'm still of the opinion that it's a little too self-congratulatory. This song however is a corker.

30 March 2015

adna - 'beautiful hell'

Swedish singer Adna has a quite remarkable new album out right now. I've got to say that it's rather scary yet extremely awe-inspiring how these youngsters show so much maturity in their music. I'm quite smitten with the whole album to be honest.

omar souleyman - 'enssa el aatab (produced by modeselektor)'

He's back! Everyone's favourite Syrian wedding singer has got a new album in the offing with prodcution from Kieran Hebden aka Four Tet and this track produced by Modeselektor no less. I can't put my finger on exactly why I love this man's music so much but it pushes all my buttons.

hannah cohen - 'fake it'

Keeping with the downtempo theme, here's Hannah Cohen with one of the best tracks from her new album 'Pleasure Boy'. It's not particularly ground-breaking and she is undoubtedly surfing on the crest of the Lana Del Ray wave, with whom comparisons can legitimately be made in my opinion. Let's not take anything away from her though, her voice harks back to days gone by and even early Hope Sandoval and that means that it's right up my street!

only real - 'cadillac girl'

This lazy track hits the perfect mood for me right now. A lovely mix of smooth delivery, great chorus and top notch lyrics.

fyfe - 'control'

I've lived through a lot of clock changes backwards and forwards and it still doesn't get any easier to adjust. This tune this morning made the commute a lot more bearable.

29 March 2015

evie sands - 'anyway that you want me'

A tune from the 60s from a singer that never quite made it big but a big voice and some cracking Northern Soul classics under her belt means that she has a place in my heart forever.

28 March 2015

the soft moon - 'feel'

'Darkwave'. That's apparently the name for this genre. I love how music slices itself into thinner and thinner pieces each with its own name. To give it a fuller description, I'd definitely keep the word 'dark' but link it to the electronic/Goth crossover of the early to mid-80s but with a fuller, fatter sound to it. Unusually, the artist Vasquez, is a California man, hailing from Oakland and that surprises me as the climate isn't exactly conducive to making dark Gothic music so fair play to him there.