Tuesday, 13 May 2008 |
Yeo Choong,
from Brisbane, Australia is smart. I say this not because he is the
mastermind behind Yeo and The Fresh Goods, or because he makes music
with mathematical precision.
I say it because he is a 21 year
old Masters student in Audiology and because his debut album 'Trouble
Being Yourself' sounds like a nerdier version of N.E.R.D. Indeed, the
production on his standout track 'Two Sides Of A Door' would make
Pharrell proud.
But Yeo isn't just in the mood for making funk
rock and singing in a slight falsetto. He jumps and jerks between
genres, sometimes in the same song.
The reggae-pop intro of
'Fishin' With Aidan' melds into a salsa infused party jam, all the
while mixing the ska-delivery of Sublime and the 'Thank You' message
from Dido's long-forgotten hit of the same name.
From his sneaky
horns to his hand-claps and Super Mario samples, Yeo recorded, mixed
and produced the entire album. It's catchy, cheeky good fun.
Fresh goods indeed. By Nick Christie
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Monday, 28 April 2008 |
Context is everything.
To record 'For Emma, Forever Ago', Bon
Hiver - aka Justin Vernon - retreated to the remotest corner of
Wisconsin and recorded alone for three cold winter months.
That
sense of loneliness, that dull, confusing ache that swells up when
things just fall apart, it's all captured here in hearty acoustic
strums and softly whispered vocals.
Bon Iver is a play on the
French words for 'good winter'. And that is notable because what could
have been a very bad winter for Vernon was salvaged by the recording of
this extraordinary album.
Sitting on the sonic spectrum
between Iron and Wine and Jose Gonzalez, 'For Emma, Forever Ago' is
nine songs of subtle, layered acoustic guitar and Vernon's healing
falsetto.
It's an album you spin when your lover leaves you. In that context, Bon Iver will make you feel better about being sad.
Context is everything and 'For Emma, Forever Ago' is brilliant. Download 'Skinny Love' here:
myspace.com/boniver
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Tuesday, 22 April 2008 |
Santogold’s 'L.E.S. Artistes' is a whole lot of good. With a spin of
the single and the accompanying faux-gore video, it sounds like it was
pieced together over several late nights at M.I.A.’s loft with help
from with invited guests Tegan & Sara serving drinks, Nick Zinner
controlling the stereo with all those obscure late ‘80s noise bands
you’ve never heard of and revered UK beatsmith Switch twiddling a knob
here and there for effect.
All the while Philly native,
Santogold, bellows above it all with rousing, fists-clenched intensity.
CSS’s Lovefoxx was there too, overseeing the green sausage guts
aesthetic of the clip but she passed out in bathtub before the end.
Sounds pretty damn great, don’t you think? Me too. By Dave Ruby Howe
myspace.com/santogold
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Friday, 11 April 2008 |
Foals make me jealous. I mean, how embarrassing is it to see these kids
blast their way onto the scene with the kind of awe-inspiring, frenetic
indie-meets-dance-punk you wished that second Valentinos EP would’ve
had? Pretty embarrassing. In the spotlight for less than a year and
Foals have already featured on a Kitsuné Maison compilation, inked
major deals, and had their drummer pose for Burberry’s Spring/Summer
line. Shit, these kids get their record produced by TV On The Radio’s
main man Dave Sitek and essentially scrap his mixes in favour of their
own. Next thing you know they’ll be ignoring all those MySpace messages
from Timbaland. Damn them.
Then they go and rub it in my face
with their terrific debut album Antidotes. Look at them…flaunting those
nervous guitar lines, those booming drums and fevered vox. Even the
horns can’t slow down the raucous second single Cassius, nor the stomp
of Heavy Water. By Dave Ruby Howe.
Get envious at myspace.com/foals
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Monday, 07 April 2008 |
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Thursday, 03 April 2008 |
Ah Presets, you haven't let us down. When a pre-release copy of The
Presets new album 'Apocalypso' landed on the Coolhunter desk last week,
it was with great anticipation that we gave it a first spin. And Bam!
straight away, it hit us – that crispness of sound, Julian Hamilton's
semi-comatose delivery and the wailing synths - it was indeed The
Presets we have come to know and love. 'Apocalypso' is a more complete
album than its predecessor 'Beams', the songs more fully formed and
subtly layered.
With the pounding 'My People' a club staple for
months now, the album's second single 'This Boy's In Love' has all the
hallmarks of glittering synthpop classic with its rising verses and
dream-like chorus backed by tear-drop piano keys. Elsewhere, 'If I
Know You' sails by on skittering hi-hats and while Hamilton croons atop
pulsating bass. On the album closer 'Anywhere', The Presets get
emotional as sparse four-to the floor drums and empty vocals get
overtaken by bouncy synth stabs and a New Order-esque,
lighters-in-the-air crescendo.
The new album 'Apocalypso' drops on April 12, followed by a world tour. It's going to be a monster year for The Presets. By Nick Christie.
www.myspace.com/thepresets
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Wednesday, 26 March 2008 |
Hot Chip's new album 'Made In The Dark', is a wild ride. From the
popping, stomping squelches and whistles of 'Out At The Pictures', to
the LCD Soundsystem-esque groove of 'Ready For The Floor', the album
jumps frenetically between styles and influences.
With moments of delicate intimacy, soulful croons and straightforward
dance-pop, Hot Chip truly are the kings of hipster electro-pop.
Full of infectious, imaginative hooks and schizophrenic mood and tempo
changes, you can lose yourself in 'Made In The Dark'. With so
much to process, it's an album that will reveal its more subtle
elements on repeat listens.
Music for sound-tracking times of bliss and glee. By Nick Christie myspace.com/hotchip
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Monday, 10 March 2008 |
The Spice Girls landed on our doorsteps more than a decade ago with
promises of ‘girl power’ and telling us what we wanted, what we really,
really wanted.
With the pop and fizzle of The Spice Girls’ stunning rise now a distant
memory, the UK is undergoing a second wave of ‘girl power’.
Instead of pre-fabricated, hyper-merchandised glitz, this new crop of
‘girl power’ artists embody lyrical honesty and authenticity.
Where the Spice Girls relied on sass and cleavage and commercial pop
smarts, the UK’s current crop of female singer-songwriters embody
honest self reflection and realness.
Amy Winehouse and Lily Allen led the way with their upfront,
unforgettable reinterpreta-tions of contemporary pop. In the wake
of Winehouse and Allen’s success arrives the next wave of UK female
singer-songwriters.
20 year old Kate Nash
smashed through with her single ‘Foundations’ and won the hearts of the
indie crowd with her cover of the Black Kids’ ‘I’m Not Gonna Teach Your
Boyfriend How To Dance’.
Duffy,
currently sitting at #1 in the UK with her track ‘Mercy’, has a voice
that sits com-fortably between Winehouse and Dusty Springfield and
comes with the promise that her music will last decades.
Adele
too, with her soulful croon and anthemic single Chasing Pavements’, is
cramming the airwaves and poised to take her sound global.
All in all, it’s a welcome arrival. It’s ‘girl power’ you can actually believe in. By Nick Christie
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Wednesday, 27 February 2008 |
With their new album 'In Ghost Colours' to be released next month, Cut Copy
are going to be everywhere very soon. Radio, TV, car stereos and who
knows - maybe they’ll go down the Pnau path and put their tracks on
slick commercials.
'In Ghost Colours' is certainly one of the most hyped Australian
electronic albums ever. With the release of the first single
'Hearts On Fire' followed soon after by 'So Haunted', musical appetites
were whetted worldwide. Then came a freely downloadable mixtape which
dropped Cut Copy gems in between indie classics like Panda Bear's
'Bros'.
Backed up by a world tour and a support slot at Daft Punk’s
Neverland shows, Cut Copy have well and truly done the groundwork to
build the excitment. Now when we can't take any more, the clip
for 'Lights And Music' emerges. The tension is palpable. People are
dying to hear the record in its entirety. Bring on March! By Nick Christie
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Tuesday, 19 February 2008 |
Produced by Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo of Daft Punk and released by Air's label Record Makers, Sébastien Tellier's new album 'Sexuality' is a rhythmic ode to - you guessed it - the art of love making.
‘Sexuality’ explores the common ground between Daft Punk's 'Make Love' and Air's 'Sexy Boy'.
Tellier's songs traverse voluptuous synths and sweeping strings.
The drums throb and whir soothingly at the edges of the sound.
Tellier sings in a convincing coo and whisper as if he is updating
Serge Gainsbourg and Brigitte Bardot's ascendant 'Je T'Aime Moi Non
Plus'.
Where Tellier's French contemporaries like Justice head for the
euphoric, chanting hooks, Tellier goes mellow, radiating warmth and
revealing subtle analogue textures.
On the film clip for the instrumental track 'Sexual Sportswear',
Tellier loops his keyboards like a double helix as a female body, lit
up to resemble the iconic cover art for A Tribe Called Quest's 'The Low
End Theory', writhes and moves to the music. By Nick Christie
Most definitely one for the lovers.
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Monday, 14 January 2008 |
While it my be true that music can be found everywhere, we all know
good music – music you want to keep coming back to – takes a bit of
effort to collect. Of course the annual releases of the Buddha Bar and
Café del Mar compilations help amp up our playlists – provide a subtly
cool vibe at our cocktail parties – get us through that final mile on
the treadmill and even persuade us to stay for one more dance.
A new service provided by a company called AWDIO
has combed the globe for live music played in the coolest clubs,
boutique hotels, bars, lounges, restaurants, festivals, and studios.
AWDIO makes exclusive agreements with venues and streams music live
from sound systems in real time through their site with high quality
sound via Techcrunch.
The path to great music has never been easier. From London’s Favela to
the trendy Colette Shop in Paris, from the Endup in San Francisco to
Hong Kong’s ultimate lounge experience, Dragon-I, AWDIO has gained
access to 50 hotspots worldwide and allows the hottest house, hip hop,
jazz, alternative, lounge sessions, underground sets and more to flow
freely through your own computer’s speakers. By Andrew J Wiener
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Thursday, 12 July 2007 |
Katie Noonan,
lead singer of Aussie band George, will soon release her first solo
album 'Skin'. After the critical and commercial success of George's
'Polyserena' and the successful follow-up 'Unity', Katie has a solid
foundation from which to launch a career as an artist in her own
right.
On lead single 'Time to Begin', Katie transitions
seamlessly from the rock band and jazz-infused stylings of past work
into a crooning pop princess with her layered whispers entwining around
dancing flutes and stepping bass. The music's focal point, as always,
is the depth of Katie's voice. It's a voice that you don't easily
forget and on 'Time to Begin' it sounds vaguely reminiscent of Velvet
Rope-era Janet Jackson.
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This next stage in Katie Noonan's career, as a sophisticated pop
singer, will be an intriguing one. The key of course is keeping Katie
Noonan and her once-in-a-lifetime voice front and centre. On the
strength of 'Time to Begin, expect 'Skin' to appear all over critic's
best lists for 2007. By Nick Christie via TCH Aust
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Monday, 18 June 2007 |
John Cusack immortalized the making of the mixtape in the movie High
Fidelity saying, "the making of a great compilation tape, like breaking
up, is hard to do and takes ages longer than it might seem". And he's
right, making a mixtape does take ages. From the song selection,
tracklisting and transitions to the attention grabbing start, mellow
middle and the euphoric end, it's an involved process. To add another
level to true mixtape mastery, 5inch.com
is offering you the ability to silkscreen your CD-mixtapes with a
plethora of sharp designs depicting everything from Hong Kong
streetscapes and radiating love hearts to interstellar satellites and
sushi roll layers. It's about taking your CD mixes to the next level,
personalizing and preening them to perfection. Make one to do your
ironing to, make one for the love of your life, heck, you can even make
one for the stranger on the bus whose eyes keep lingering on yours.
With 5inch.com <http://5inch.com> , you can say goodbye to drab,
factory-issue CDs smudged with marker pen and squashed handwriting and
say hello to a new level of mix-CD cool. People lament the death of the
cassette tape but 5inch has breathed new life into the CD-format mix.
Get selecting now. By Nick Christie
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Tuesday, 12 June 2007 |
The creation of Parisian electronic masterminds Gaspard Auge and Xavier
de Rosnay, Justice first implanted their pogo-inducing sound in last
year's massive remix of Simian's 'Never Be Alone'. While Justice's remixing fingers have also moulded the sounds of stars
like NERD, Soulwax and Franz Ferdinand, it's their critically-lauded new album '†' which is causing the most fan-fervour.
The band's current single 'D.A.N.C.E' - looped around the Jackson 5,
chanting-child refrain of "Do the D.A.N.C.E/1 2 3 4 fight/Stick to the
B.E.A.T/Get ready to ignite" - sounds like an electro-funk Go! Team
shouting orders to the disco infantry.
The 'D.A.N.C.E' film clip follows two torsos as they charge in circles
through a dark club. As they move, their t-shirts act as projection
screens for a myriad of evolving graphic prints and patterns created by
the art director of Justice's label Ed Banger.
Following the clip's release, a number of its featured t-shirt designs
were put up for sale (Colette, Paris ) causing a feeding frenzy amongst the music-nerd
elite and the fashion frantic alike.
Justice might be the best thing to happen to French electronic music
since Daft Punk and given the buzz they are generating, expect more
monster singles in the coming months. For now though, as Justice would
say, things are 'prêt à allumer'. By Nick Christie
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Thursday, 10 May 2007 |
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‘Beach
Party’, from Air France’s ‘On Trade Winds’ EP, is the summer song to
get you through the warmer upcoming months.
Originating from Gothenburg, Sweden, Air
France are the most obscure of the obscure. Their myspace page
looks like it was put together by their grandmother. A google search
reveals a disjointed, almost un-navigable website that sells strange
clothes and, for no apparent reason, the ‘On Trade Winds’ EP.
Other than that, your guess is as good as mine. No interviews, no
press, no iTunes or Amazon.
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Their music however, is pure ecstasy. It shimmers like summer
oceans and bounces like beach balls across outstretched hands. In
its joy, it’s reminiscent of Junior Senior’s ‘Move Your Feet’ without
the frantic hustle.
On their second single, ‘Never Content’ Caribbean keys, orgasmic
breathing and ocean sounds wash together creating a sound that Cafe del
Mar could only dream of catching.
This is toes-in-the-sand electro, beach music from chilly
Scandinavia. While Sigur Ros made icy soundscapes to decipher the
depressing Icelandic freeze that surrounded them, Air France makes
music for the imaginary tropics they dream of when Gothenburg ices
over. May I have your attention please. Flight Air France
is ready for boarding. By Nick Christie
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Tuesday, 01 May 2007 |
Crystal Castles, the Toronto two-piece, are the remix artist of
now. The first sniff of their mastery came in the remix of The
Klaxons’ Atlantis to Interzone’ - a blippy, abrasive entry into their
electronic wonderland.
Then came the Castles’ remix of the Goodbooks’ ‘Leni’ which turned the
original guitar pop goodness into a future-pop masterpiece.
‘Leni’ hinged on the pitch-shifted central vocal, reminiscent of Karin
Dreijer from The Knife. Underneath the vocal, the track chugs along on
the back of a hi-res synth loop and Super Mario keyboard squelches.
It’s the sound of a couple, madly in love, freebasing orange
sherbet.
The nadir of the Castles’ discography is the remix of The Little Ones’
‘Lovers Who Uncover’. Opening with the desperate cry of, ‘Where do all
the lovers, meet with one another?’, the track again centres on a
haunting central vocal and a driving low end. The arpeggio makes you
feel like a kid staring through a kaleidoscope and the voice rattles up
and down, building intensity then releasing into the distance with an
ecstatic ‘ooooh’.
While their original work is yet to reach its potential, their remixes
are enough to make you dream of a future musical world ruled by Crystal
Castles. I Heart CC. By Nick Christie
myspace.com/crystalcastles
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