The Blue Walrus - indie & electro music for the masses » 2008

Alex Sheppard, Adelaide’s Cape & Bonnie Dune

Posted on 04.13.08 by lauren @ 9:36 am

My name is Lauren and I’m the newest walrae to haunt these parts. I’m based in Norfolk, England and my city of Norwich produces some pretty great music. I’m privileged enough to be located near some fantastic venues, such as Norwich Arts Centre, Wensum Lodge Music House, and the Queen Charlotte pub. We get some great underground folk and indie, and so much of this unsigned talent goes unnoticed by the rest of the world. Thus, my hope here is to show you some of that fantastic talent!

I approached The Blue Walrus to start writing because Tim had noticed Alex Sheppard, who is an indie gem from Norwich, whose career I’ve been following for quite some time. Alex is an amazing musician and a particularly good lyricist and she’s gaining increasing recognition now that she’s relocated to London. Now at uni in London, she’s hanging out with Carl Barat and Zane Lowe, which has made me feel quite privileged to have been the first person to ever review her! You can listen to some of Alex’s music on her myspace page (see below) and her first album ‘Fairy Lights & Lairy Nights’ can be bought at any of her gigs, or you can email her directly to get your hands on a copy. It’s one of the best albums I’ve ever bought.

Another fantastic little band from Norwich is Adelaide’s Cape. They mesh folk and indie sounds together, and strangely enough, it really works. Adelaide’s Cape is the sort of band that imprint themselves on your brain; from just one listen, you’ll be humming their ditties for days. They play gigs around Norwich, and are currently recording some new tracks. You can visit their myspace page here to have a listen. They currently have no material for sale, but an EP release has been announced for this summer.

One band that I have to mention, though not local to me, is Bonnie Dune. This Los Angeles-based band is currently unsigned, but they ooze talent and potential. Frontman Justin Wilczynski has recently been on MTV’s TV show ‘Kaya’, which is how I discovered Bonnie Dune. They’re really worth a listen; think an American version of The Kooks, but with smoother edges.

That’s all for now folks. Happy listening :).

-Lauren x

Links:

Alex Sheppard: www.myspace.com/alexsheppard

Adelaide’s Cape: www.myspace.com/adelaidescape

Bonnie Dune: www.myspace.com/bonniedune

Filed under: Music

3 Comments

New discoveries…

Posted on 04.05.08 by rhino @ 5:19 pm

The Internet is a wonderful thing, particularly it seems, for finding new classical music. Until recently I hadn’t realised how much contemporary composers had embraced t’interweb, assuming unfairly that their chosen musical discipline indicated a lack of technological aptitude… How wrong I was! Myspace is veritably alive with classical music, a great many young composers posting interesting, unusual and often compelling examples of their work. One such is Caleb Burhans. Have a listen to ‘the things left unsaid’, an extremely rousing piece for several cellos, and then click on his friends’ pages and you’re off.

http://www.myspace.com/cburhans

A favourite of mine among this new (to me at least) breed of composers is Nico Muhly. He is quite a prominent figure, having contributed arrangements to the work of Bjork and more recently Sam Amidon, on the excellent album All Is Well.

The music he composes under his own name is really worth investigating. In 2007 he released Speaks Volumes, an album of chamber music (as you’ve never heard it before) - written and recorded in collaboration with Valgeir Sigurðsson of The Bedroom Community label - that consciously incorporates electronic sounds. Indicative of the composer’s all-embracing attitude and openness is the appearance of Antony Hegarty (of Antony and the Johnsons and Hercules and Love affair fame). His vocal blips are sampled and woven into the stirring melancholy of final track ‘Keep in Touch’. Many of his pieces – I particularly recommend ‘Seeing is Believing’ , the first performance of which I recently attended - can be listened to in the projects section of his website, which is itself regularly and often amusingly updated. A new album, Mothertongue, is slated for release in May.

http://www.myspace.com/muhly

Supporting many of these new musicians, especially those working in New York, is New Amsterdam Records. The label describes its genesis thusly: ‘New Amsterdam Records was formed as a haven for the young New York composers and performers whose music slips through the cracks between genres’. Their website has a extensive library of mp3s which are available to stream.

As well as all this classical music I have been listening to a folky musician called Lucie Wren, and a punky band who call themselves Past Lives.

Lucie Wren is from London (and some other places that sound like they must be in Wales). She has a beautiful voice that brings to mind What would the community think? - era Cat Power, and is not afraid to use the recorder - staple of primary school music lessons - to surprisingly good effect on woozily warm ‘patience’. Listen to this song and others here: www.myspace.com/luciewren.

Past Lives are a new band from Seattle. So new in fact that they don’t have any songs on their myspace, only live videos. The singer, Jordan Blilie, once of the now defunct Blood Brothers, presides over a band with bite and a fondness for distortion, but also an appetite for experimentation. The song ‘Beyond Gone’ exemplifies this, with its sampled xylophone pattern and occasionally dissonant guitar lines. Watch/listen here: www.myspace.com/pastlivesmusic.

Over and out.

Filed under: Music

2 Comments

Clap to the Electricity Vol.8

Posted on 04.03.08 by tim @ 10:56 pm

So it has been a big last couple of weeks here at The Blue Walrus. I have officially written my last essay for university - just exams to go - which makes that an end of an era - and also means that I have revision leave which means I can spend more time updating you lot on the best music around. Secondly, we have a new author on board - Lauren - which is awesome and will mean (hopefully) more regular updates. Look forward to her first post in the coming few days and let us know what you think. Thirdly, a couple of friends and I have launched a free bi-monthly magazine for the Edinburgh area called The Supplement - which is basically a little bit like The Week, but more irreverent along with some arts reviews and a music section by yours truly.

Onto the electro…

As usual we have some awesomeness from a variety of places with some bands/artists you should have heard of and others you may not. I have to say a special thank you to Electrorash for a few of these gems who have been getting it right all the time for a while now. (edit 05/04/2008 - oops posted the wrong Cajuan track at first so please re-download it if you want the one I originally meant to post)

We’ve got The Shoes making Primary 1 sound even better, Rogerseventytwo adding his special touch to Yelle creating a French disco track that I think betters almost anything I’ve heard this year. Boys Noize are keeping their level of filthy hard electro where it should be, with Fantasadon going even heavier which I wasn’t sure was possible without becoming just straight growling distortion. Toxic Avenger finishes the mix with a Lies In Disguise remix creating some beautiful beeping climaxes that has defined their sound for a while.