Monthly Archives: June 2012

Jun 28 2012
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Hidden Gems

SYTYCD

EFTERKLANG – MODERN DRIFT

Ya, maybe I watch So You Think You Can Dance. So what? You wanna fight about it? Maybe I like to root for the classically trained ballet phenom from Smalltown, Tennessee as he discovers himself in a Lil’ C krump routine. Or maybe I like to listen to the array of cool music chosen by the choreographers. My first experiences with artist like Frou Frou and the Irrepressibles came from watching SYTYCD, and just yesterday I was introduced to Efterklang. Coming from the Danish word meaning “remembrance”, Efterklang is a Copenhagen based indie band that have enjoyed a fair amount of critical acclaim. However, I have never heard of them, so they are my new Hidden Gem. Modern Drift is a forward moving pop song reminiscent of fellow Scandinavians Miike Snow… if they hung out with Owen Pallett for a few days. It is an inspiring builder of a song, full of strings, horns, and echoing drums. The perfect accompaniment for a Stacey Tookey contemporary routine. Ya, I like contemporary dancing. Wanna fight about it?

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Jun 28 2012
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Best New Music

LONDON FOG

ECHO LAKE – EVEN THE BLIND

This South London quintet create thick, reverb heavy dream-pop. Imagine Beach House, or M83 meets My Bloody Valentine. Where MBV made windstorms of hazy sounds, and Beach House and M83 songs had clear structure, Echo Lake sits somewhere in between. Best of their one album catalogue is Even the Blind, where they not only put a verse-chorus-verse structure into the fog of noise, they also set an amazing build and release that makes for an incredible listen. The final whirling of female vocals alongside crashing drums is just perfect.

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Jun 24 2012
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Best New Music

THIS AIN’T NO SEX PISTOLS

GOSSIP – INTO THE WILD

Gossip is an American trio known for their dance-punk tunes. However, with Into the Wild, they decidedly take the word “punk” right out of the picture. It really is no surprise, as they moved from producer Rick Rubin to Brian Higgins. You would imagine that switching from the man who produced Blood Sugar Sex Magik to the producer of the Sugababes might smooth out any rough edges, and you would be right. Into the Wild feels more Kylie Minogue than it does Sex Pistols, and fortunately, that is a good thing. This electro-pop song resurrects the best aspects of disco-era female vocalists, with the swagger of the bass, and the powerful and passionate singing. Fearless lead singer Beth Ditto feels like she should be wearing a sequin dress while singing this, instead of the usual outlandish next-to-naked gear she dons live on stage. It is smooth and seductive, especially when she belts the romantic line “we’ll self-destruct together”. It is the perfect lounge music. A far cry from the guitar-driven tracks of 2009′s Music For Men, but this diva image seems to suit her better.

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Jun 20 2012
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Thoughts

THE IDLER WHEEL IS BEST

IS FIONA APPLE’S NEW ALBUM THE BEST OF THE YEAR?

What are the elements of a classic album? What is it that makes critics and fans alike place an album on the highest pedestal? For that I have looked back at my favourite albums and asked what they shared:
Continue reading →

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Jun 20 2012
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Best New Music

I SWEAR, I DON’T JUST COPY PITCHFORK

PURITY RING – FINESHRINE

Photo credit – Tom Spray  http://www.tom-spray.com/gallery/recent/primavera_sound_2012_day_1/

Looking back on my “Best New Music” selections over the past couple weeks, I realize I have taken about forty percent of the songs from Pitchfork’s “Best New Tracks” list. It really does make me feel like an unoriginal recycler of information. What can I say? The contributors of Pitchfork have great taste, and they have the ability to hear the songs first, so I will undoubtedly find and write about a lot of music discovered from their site. Oh well, hopefully the readers of IMVERYAPE have found songs they have never heard and really enjoyed, enough so that they don’t just skip it to check out Pitchfork. So anyway, Purity Ring has a new track… oh screw it, just read their great write-up - http://www.pitchfork.com/reviews/tracks/13781-fineshrine/

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Jun 20 2012
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Best New Music

IGNORING NAYSAYERS

JESSIE WARE – WILDEST MOMENTS

South Londoner Jessie Ware made a name for herself when she collaborated with masked DJ SBTRKT on the track Nervous. She went on to work with Sampha and Joker in 2011, and then released her own single (the super smooth Running) in February of this year. However, her best effort to date is the latest track Wildest Moments. In starts off with drums reminiscent of Alicia Key’s Try Sleeping With a Broken Heart, and Jessie Ware’s voice echoes over it with a light synth. It is the chorus where the song really shines, as Ware’s voice seems effortless but the little added elements of a single piano note and varied synth makes it feel like a take off into the clouds. Maybe it is the sentiment, however, that really causes the attraction, as she ignores naysayers to her love singing “from the outside, everyone must be wondering why we try… baby in the wildest moments, we could be the greatest”. Sure, she goes on to say “in the wildest moments, we could be the worst of all”, but for the second before that is sang, you really believe in the strength of those star-crossed lovers.

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Jun 18 2012
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Best New Music

ENEMY OF MY STATE

FIONA APPLE – EVERY SINGLE NIGHT/PERIPHERY

Have you ever experienced a panic attack? It is quite simply the feeling of your mind attacking your body’s state of peace. Like a dog broken from its leash as a rabbit hops hurriedly in the distance, your mind races away and you have nothing to do but watch in fear. Then your brain becomes an antagonistic foreign entity, uncomfortably sitting on the top of your head… kind of like a dead octopus sitting on your crown, with its long cold tentacles sliding across your cheeks, and you would do anything to just get it off. In Fiona Apple’s song Every Single Night from the new album The Idler Wheel… she describes it so perfectly:

Every single night
I endure the flight
Of little wings of white-flamed
Butterflies in my brain
These ideas of mine
Percolate the mind
Trickle down the spine
Swarm the belly, swelling to a blaze
That’s when the pain comes in
Like a second skeleton
Trying to fit beneath the skin
I can’t fit the feelins in…
Every single night’s a fight with my brain

The music mirrors the stress as her trembling voice juxtaposes eerily with the lullaby xylophone. Eventually the fear hits a pinnacle as her voice raises to a haunting tribal chant every time she hits the word “brain”, and a held low piano note looms overtop forecasting impending doom. It is a creepy little insight into the off-kilter mind of Ms. Apple.

And check out Periphery just for fun

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Jun 18 2012
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Best New Music

THAT COWGIRL KNOWS GOOD MUSIC

ELECTRIC GUESTS – THIS HEAD I HOLD 

Image from Shy Anne’s Songs http://shyannessongs.wordpress.com/

Apparently being a random thirty year old suburbanite blogger isn’t cool enough for bands to send me their albums before their release. Weird, I know. Oh well, that just means I have to discover music the “unVIP” way – searching the sites of actual cool people.  And Shy Anne’s Songs is always a good place to start. Never mind the awesome site design with the Wyoming-esque tall pines and a black and white cowgirl shooting landscapes out of her pistol (seriously, check it out), they have some great, great music. The latest entries have been from novel artists like Purity Ring and Beach House, and I recently stumbled upon an interview they did with IMVERYAPE favourite Phantogram (Josh and Sarah actually described what their name meant). Their latest entry is from a band named Electric Guests, with the standout single This Head I Hold. It sounds like simple guilty pop pleasure. It has a big band feel mixed with modern elements, much like Cee-lo and Dangermouse’s collaboration Gnarls Barkley. The sound is unbelievably catchy. However, the song does lag before adding needed new elements (the video game synth in the final seconds), so it may be more fun to dance to than listen intently with your headphones. Either way, this is a fun new track to add into your “dance-off” playlist. Thanks Shy Anne. Now can you shoot me a sunny sky? The weather is crap out here.

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Jun 14 2012
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Best New Music

LET’S GET SOULFUL

HOT CHIP – HOW DO YOU DO?/LOOK AT WHERE WE ARE

When you are British… correction, when you are a British member of a dance-punk group… correction, when you are a British member of a dance-punk group and you look like Alexis Taylor, it is highly unexpected that you would have an R&B singer buried deep within you. I suppose it isn’t a giant leap for a dance music band to go soulful, but take a look at these guys, I’m pretty sure I saw one of them playing with Magic cards in line for Comic-Con. With the new album In Our Heads, Hot Chip not only get soulful, but they get downright spiritual. Stand out dance track How Do You Do? zealously preaches the celebration of life and love – “a church is not for praying, it’s for celebrating the light that bleeds through the pain”. Can I have an amen! The music is just as energetic and blissful as the lyrics, with the fast tempo drums and synth moving forward at a bust-a-move pace. It might make you want to live again. Look at Where We Are feels entirely novel for Hot Chip, as it may be the only song they have released that could go under the category “R&B Slow Jam”. However, no matter how odd, it hits every note perfectly. The slow electric guitar riffs and sexy atmospheric synths drip as slow and sweet as honey. But the real genius is the manipulated vocals they used for the chorus, it is absolutely sublime. It may make more sense for them to start opening for R. Kelly rather than LCD.


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Jun 11 2012
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Best New Music

BEST HOT CHIP SONG?

HOT CHIP – LET ME BE HIM

Other than LCD Soundsystem, no band has captured such a perfect mix of fun and sweetness into electro music like Hot Chip. Classics like the heartwarming Boy From School, or the booty-shaking Ready for the Floor, crossed the boundaries of their genre to become timeless. Let Me Be Him, a track from the new album In Our Heads, looks like it is going to be another in their growing list of unforgettable songs. What sounds like synthesized church organs breathe softly over Alexis Taylor’s gentle vocals, and the drum machine beat builds alongside until the song goes into new territory for Hot Chip. The chorus shows a stadium release created more for Chris Martin than an indie electro band, but it sounds so perfect coming from these guys that you wonder why they never belted out like that before. But before the song gets too heavy, a fat video game synth and chirping birds cut through to keep it light and happy. It feels like Spring – fresh and carefree. It may be my favourite Hot Chip song.

 

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