January 27th
6:58 PM
6:58 PM
Resonance FM #33 In India, Memoryhouse, IVVVO, SNOWMINE, Coma Cinema, Carnivals
LISTEN: This Music Wins #33 (MP3) 28/1/2012
Tracklist
January 25th
11:33 PM
11:33 PM
New: StaG - Lived Like String
Some of the ambient music which I find most compelling is the kind in which reverb decorates a steady, driving percussion. Similarly, much of the value of music I find consists in what the musician chooses to leave out, rather than what they choose to include. On StaG’s newest single, ‘Lived Like String’, I’m hearing a sunken, Church-like drift suggestive of enormity, hinting at an reserved emptiness which is totally out of reach of the listener. The beat is slow, mechanical and restless but not at the cost of organicity, and a kind of spiritual solitude and richness displaying itself in the follow up to their first full-length album is consistently vast and flowing. Rifle Meeker was one of my top albums of 2011, and perhaps Lived Like String will be up there with my songs of 2012.
1:43 AM
New: Carnivals - Absences/Ino (Parts 1 & 2)
Having uncovered Carnivals’ first release just under a year ago in the form of the Mavi Kara EP, I’m seriously excited for the year ahead now the Sheffield ‘romanticist’ producer has returned with a double sided single ‘Absences / Ino (Parts 1 & 2). In a field of moody electronica suffering saturation and lacking true pioneers, Carnivals is leaning towards an amalgamation of his former sounds: leading to the minimalist and vaguely exotic hip-hop sound particularly prevalent on ‘Leeda’ (which I broadcast at the Netaudio Festival in May), and its being combined with the claustrophobic tendencies, overcast, disconsolate murmurs and climactic, scintillating motifs to bring us ‘Absences & Ino’. One of this year’s most promising surprises has come very early on indeed..
January 24th
11:43 PM
11:43 PM
Live: M83 + Porcelain Raft @ Concorde 2, Brighton January 22nd 2012
Porcelain Raft and M83 certainly share a penchant for the ethereal, even if Porcelain Raft instantiate this through a totally unpretentious set of bedroom loops and samples and M83 do so through sheer size and spectacle. The opening act, a duo fronted by London-based Italian Mauro Remiddi and recently signed to Secretly Canadian, release their much-anticipated debut album ‘Strange Weekend’ on January 24th.
Though working within a similar sound-pallete, Porcelain Raft eschew the kind of sprawling, multi-layered, synthesized bombast of M83 in favour of some gentle backing drones, live drummer and fleeting guitars. It still swirls, but in tune with a classic 60s vibe, particularly on the mildly anthemic ‘Unless You Speak From Your Heart’. ‘Put Me To Sleep’ brews a powerful mood from stark beginnings anticipated in a searing, rushing ambience.
‘Strange Weekend’ at Secretly Canadian
M83, having broken through in the UK on a previously unimaginable scale, largely due to the strength of ‘Midnight City’, released album ‘Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming’ in the UK in 2011, the follow-up to 2008’s excellent Saturdays = Youth. The show began with this creature’s atmospheric entrance before a show dominated by older songs kicked into force. ‘Graveyard Girl’ was a mysterious absence; ‘Couleurs’ a predictable highlight with exaggerated middle-techno section. The airy strides of ‘Kim & Jessie’ as second song made way for a substantial section of the middle being made up of new, abstract and essentially more minimalistic, space-age and European themed dance tracks - altogether with less harmonies and more instrumental. Not quite so engaging on an individual level, though in the context of a live show defused the sheer power of their ‘wall of sound’ in to something with a little more dynamics.
M83 “Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming”
- Porcelain Raft - Put Me To Sleep (MP3)
- M83 - Midnight City (MP3)
January 20th
1:02 PM
1:02 PM
Resonance FM #32 Aaron + Alia, Dorian Concept, Matthew Dear, J Biscuits, Porcelain Raft, SEVERAL SYMPTOMS
LISTEN: This Music Wins #32 (MP3) 21/1/2012
Tracklist
1. Dorian Concept - Greenish Things
2. Porcelain Raft - Unless You Speak From Your Heart
3. J Biscuits - The Fatigue
4. Matthew Dear - Headcage
5. SEVERAL SYMPTOMS - Stylist
6. Aaron + Alia - Wicked Game (Chris Isaak Cover)
January 1st
5:57 PM
5:57 PM
This Music Wins Review Of The Year 2011 on Resonance FM
After writing an albums of the year list longer than probably all my posts across the entire year put together, putting together a 90 minute radio show for Resonance FM seemed like a breeze. So, here it is: 15 or so of my favourite songs of the year in Radio Show format. View the written list here.
DOWNLOAD: This Music Wins Review Of The Year 2011 (MP3)
To air New Years Day 10pm (GMT) on Resonance 104.4FM London, and again Saturday 7th January 10.30am.
1. Kuhrye-OO - Soul Handsome
2. Kurt Vile - Runner Ups
3. Mutual Benefit - Auburn Epitaphs
4. Swansea Recreation Centre - First Time European
5. Youth Lagoon - July
6. Woodsman - In Circles
7. Twin Sister - Kimmi In A Rice Field
8. Deptford Goth - Real Love Fantasy
9. Dead Gaze - Fishing With Robert
10. Evenings - Lo-Velo
11. Little Dragon - Ritual Union
12. Conifers - Legs And Arms
13. How To Dress Well - Here In Heaven (Elite Gymnastics Cover)
14. Ricky Eat Acid ft. Arrange - P.S.L.W
15. Dive - Sometime
16. Porcelain Raft - Amateur’s Feeling
17. Braids - Plath Heart
18. The War On Drugs - Come To The City
19. Fleet Foxes - The Shrine / An Argument
And with these musical highlights of 2011 in mind, we can put it behind us. I wish everyone a great 2012.
