Far from my usual musical tastes, I must admit that when I first picked up a copy of Rasmus Faber’s ‘Everything Is Alright’, I didn’t really expect to be impressed. This assumption, however, was completely wrong.
This set of remixes is clever and artistic. The versions of ‘Everything Is Alright’ are completely distinct from one another, yet clearly linked and still pleasingly recognisable. We are guided through the same song expressed in many different ways, each appealing from its own unique direction – from beauty to an almost audio-erotic feel, there’s …
Lou Cowell is a television presenter, author, Reiki master, and co-founder of a wildlife organisation. Impressive. Now she’s trying her hand at being a singer-songwriter, and one might say surprisingly, is very good at it.
This debut studio album, descriptively entitled ‘I…um…’ is fantastic. Filled with epic piano-heavy ballads, Cowell’s sound encompasses the epic beauty of artists like Sarah McLachlan alongside the raw feel of edgier artists like Alanis Morissette. To top all that off, Cowell possesses a quality I can only describe as Britishness; and it works brilliantly.
Despite my comparisons …
Arch M is from London. He crafts spluttering, beautiful, barely-there songs from urgent guitar melodies and skittish, overdriven bass lines. You can find the seven track E.P. The Mountain Tan Commercials, free to download, by clicking here. It only lasts nine minutes long, but the brevity somehow adds to it all. Not included on that record is the excellent ’21st Union’, which can be heard at www.myspace.com/archm.
The Young Equestrians, who make rather lengthier songs, are from New York. They use, according to their myspace page, “ keyboards, electronics, accordion, guitar, cello, …
Some things are just bizarre, and this is one of them.
The saxophone playing walrus that has adorned these pages over the past few years has come to life.
My Christmas wish may just have come true.
I don’t have a full Christmas mix this year due mostly to licensing issues, but I do have a trio of some beautiful Christmas tracks and a new Christmas compilation you can buy and feel all warm and fuzzy inside as your hard earned cach goes to a very good cause with Peace on Earth Vol.II.
First of all, here is a video of First Aid Kit playing Blue Christmas. It’s a beautiful, quite traditional, rendition with just a guitar and organ from the promising Swedish duo recently signed to Wichita.
and …
Most of what I put here are mixtapes, but Ivana XL deserves her own post. She’s already had a bit of blog press (I think Matt at YANP has a bit of a love affair with her – understandable), but I missed it and had a wonderful surprise when a CD-R with Ivana XL – Demos scrawled on it dropped through my letterbox this morning.
Ivana XL is a Brooklyn, New York songstress whose singing style most seems to resemble a mixture of Regina Spektor, Cat Power and a gypsy artist. …
