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That Great Love Sound

2012-01-09T10:53:00.000+01:00

Bottom/ Chemical Chords (Duophonic/4AD, 2008) by Stereolab includes the tracks "One Finger Symphony", "The Ecstatic Static", "Fractal Dream of a Thing" and "Vortical Phonotheque". Stereolab are an alternative music band formed in 1990 in London, England. Called "one of the most fiercely independent and original groups of the Nineties", Stereolab were one of the first bands to be termed "post-rock". Their primary musical influence is 1970s krautrock, which they combine with lounge, 1960s pop, and experimental music. They are noted for their heavy use of vintage electronic keyboards, and their sound often overlays a repetitive "motorik" beat with female vocals sung in English or French. Stereolab often incorporate socio-political themes into their lyrics. Some critics say the group's lyrics carry a strong Marxist message, and songwriting team Tim Gane (guitar/keyboards) and Lætitia Sadier (vocals/ keyboards/ guitar) admit to being influenced by the Surrealist and Situationist cultural and political movements. However, Gane is sceptical of labels such as "Marxist pop", and defends the band against accusations of "sloganeering". Top/ On Pretty In Black (Columbia, 2005), Sune Rose Wagner and Sharin Foo from Danish pop duo The Raveonettes lay down hard-edged electric guitar songs overlaid with liberal doses of noise. Characterized by close two-part vocal harmonies inspired by The Everly Brothers, their songs juxtapose the structural and chordal simplicity of 50s and 60s rock with intense electric instrumentation, driving beats and often dark lyrical content, similar to another of the band's influences, The Velvet Underground.

Detour Thru Your Mind

2012-01-06T10:42:00.000+01:00

Top/ Scorpio Rising (Concrete, 2002) is the third album by British electronica band Death in Vegas. The album takes its name from an experimental film by Kenneth Anger. Scorpio Rising features guest vocalists Liam Gallagher, Hope Sandoval, Nicola Kuperus, and Paul Weller, as well as string arrangements by Dr. L. Subramaniam. "23 Lies" includes a sample from "Goin' Back" by The Byrds, written and composed by Carole King and Gerry Goffin. "Scorpio Rising" takes its main riff from "Pictures of Matchstick Men" by Status Quo. Several songs on the album have appeared in television advertisements and on film soundtracks. "Girls" is featured on the soundtrack to the 2003 film Lost in Translation, directed by Sofia Coppola. "Hands Around My Throat" is featured on the Animatrix soundtrack. Middle/ Tuning in with Clearlight Symphony (Virgin Records, 1975) by French progressive rock band Clearlight, led by keyboardist Cyrille Verdeaux. Featured on Clearlight Symphony are friends from the Gong family, among them saxophonist and flutist Didier Malherbe, f.k.a Bloomdido Glad de Brass, one of the founders of the Canterbury sound band Gong. Malherbe is currently performing his own brand of wind-led, acoustic ethnic-jazz under the name Hadouk Trio with multi-instrumentalist Loy Ehrlich, and percussionist Steve Shehan. Clearlight's music has been called symphonic, sometimes psychedelic. Artwork by Jean Claude Michel. Bottom/ 10 000 Hz Legend (Astralwerks, 2001) by French electro band AIR is the follow-up to their debut LP, Moon Safari, once called a "pop masterpiece". On this album, more electronic-oriented experimentations find the duo expanding their capacities and working with other artists including American musician, singer-songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Beck and Japanese rock band Buffalo Daughter.

Orbiting Your Living Room

2012-01-05T10:55:00.000+01:00

Bottom/ The Songs Of Distant Earth (Warner Bros, 1994) by English multi-instrumentalist musician and composer Mike Oldfield has ethnic world chants and Native American influences, evoking earlier works such as Ommadawn and Incantations that featured extensive use of chanting and drumming. Oldfield works a style that blends prog-rock, folk, ethnic or world music, classical music, electronic music, New Age and more recently dance. His music is often elaborate and complex in nature. He is best known for his 1973 magnum opus Tubular Bells. Top/ Oldfield's single "Let There Be Light" from The Songs Of Distant Earth shines down on an album inspired by the late Arthur C. Clarke book of the same name.

Chant Of The Paladin

2011-12-22T07:51:00.000+01:00

Top/ Birthed in Las Vegas by baroque pop band Panic at the Disco, second album Pretty. Odd. (Decaydance, 2008) includes "I Have Friends in Holy Spaces" and "Mad as Rabbits". It is possible that the song's title is a reference to Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, alluding to The Mad Hatter and the March Hare or the White Rabbit. Middle/ Canadian singer, composer, harpist and pianist Loreena McKennitt is often compared to Enya, but McKennitt's music is more grounded in traditional and classical invocations, using literary works as sources of lyrics such as "The Lady of Shalott" by Lord Tennyson, Yeats' "The Stolen Child" and William Blake's "Lullaby". To Drive the Cold Winter Away (Quinlan Road, 1987) is McKennitt's second album. All the songs were recorded in churches, many in Glenstal Abbey, Ireland. Bottom/ Foxtrot (Charisma, 1972) is the fourth studio album by British progressive rock band Genesis and the second from the "classic" lineup of Peter Gabriel, Tony Banks, Mike Rutherford, Phil Collins, and Steve Hackett. Featured in the album artwork is the "fox on the rocks". The figure in a red dress with a fox's head was one of Gabriel's earliest stage costumes. Both "Watcher of the Skies", which is based on Arthur C. Clarke's novel Childhood's End, and the 23-minute "Supper's Ready" rank among some of the band's most beloved works. Also included is "Horizons", which starts with the central idea of Bach's Prelude of the first Cello Suite and then develops its own piece, baroque style.

Come And Play In The Milky Night

2011-12-05T22:49:00.000+01:00

Top/ Midnight Juggernauts are a Melbourne based band, described by Rolling Stone US as "David Bowie if his Berlin Trilogy was a collaboration with Kraftwerk and Faust." Their debut album, Dystopia (Siberia/Inertia, 2007), is sometimes reminiscent of Scissor Sisters. The band has been described as anything from 'prog dance meets cosmic film scores' to 'slasher-flick disco' to 'deadpan landscape'. It also received reviews stating Dystopia was an "euphoric hammering together of Krautrock grooves, psychedelic flights of melodic fancy and post-Justice grindy synth noises". Middle/ The Devil, You + Me (City Slang/Alien Transistor, 2008) is the sixth studio album by German indietronica band The Notwist. The album Neon Golden (released in 2002) put them on the map for American listeners, with its heartfelt sentiment and catchy tunes. While singer Markus Acher, in addition to his work with The Notwist and 13 & God, also works with indietronica band Lali Puna, lead programmer Martin Gretschmann also leads side project Console. Relying heavily on elements of electronic music, Console is reminiscent of some electro bands, such as Ladytron and Miss Kittin. Cover design by Yokoland. Bottom/ In 1982 British alternative rock band The Cure released Pornography (Fiction Records), the third and final album of an "oppressively dispirited" trio that cemented the Cure's stature as purveyors of the emerging gothic rock genre. Recorded with the group on the brink of collapse, it represents the conclusion of the musical journey started with Seventeen Seconds and Faith. Often cited as the most disturbing product of The Cure, the album's opening lyrical line is "It doesn't matter if we all die". Now considered one of the key gothic rock albums of all time, Pornography has gained much respect over the years.

Beautiful Chaos

2011-11-17T17:39:00.000+01:00

Bottom/ The Return of the New York Dolls: Live from Royal Festival Hall 2004 (Attack) captures the reunion of the U.S. proto-punk/glam rock group at the 2004 Meltdown Festival in London, curated by Morrissey. Formed in New York City in 1971, the New York Dolls prefigured much of what was to come in the punk rock era and even later; the Dolls' visual style influenced the look of many new wave and glam metal groups, and their playing style set the tone for many later rock and roll bands such as Kiss, Hanoi Rocks, Blondie, The Clash, Ramones, Guns N' Roses, The Damned, Japan and The Smiths. They were also a large influence on the Sex Pistols. Top/ Self-titled debut album Psychedelic Furs (Columbia, 1980) by English post punk band The Psychedelic Furs was produced by Steve Lillywhite and includes "India" and "Sister Europe". The band recorded their next album, Forever Now, with producer Todd Rundgren in Woodstock, New York. The Psychedelic Furs is an English rock band founded in 1977. Led by singer Richard Butler and his brother Tim Butler on bass guitar, the Psychedelic Furs are one of the more successful acts spawned from the British punk rock scene. Their music went through several phases, from an initially austere art rock sound, later touching on new wave and hard rock. They scored several hits in their early career including "Love My Way" and "Heaven", but were launched to international attention in 1986 when movie director/writer John Hughes borrowed their song title "Pretty in Pink" for his movie of the same name. The Furs went on hiatus in 1991, and the Butler brothers formed a new band called Love Spit Love. The Psychedelic Furs later regrouped in 2001 and continue to perform around the world. Richard Butler has released a solo album called Richard Butler, and has hinted at a possible new Furs album. In 2011, the band launched a spring/summer tour of the U.S., performing the album Talk Talk Talk in its entirety.

You Can Be Special, Too

2011-11-16T17:41:00.000+01:00

Top/ The album cover for Aion (4AD, 1990) by Dead Can Dance shows a detail from the Dutch painter Hieronymus Bosch's triptych, The Garden of Earthly Delights. Assigning a musical genre to Dead Can Dance is difficult, as its style is particularly eclectic. However, its early work could be considered darkwave. In their later work, including and subsequent to the release titled The Serpent's Egg, Dead Can Dance would take ancient or various musics from around the world as primary sources, with contralto Lisa Gerrard singing glossolalia (commonly called "speaking in tongues"), giving it a very distinctive style. As a result, their later albums such as Into the Labyrinth (1993), Toward the Within (1994) and Spiritchaser (1996) sound quite different from the first three. Various sources have labeled those latter releases as neo-classical, or ethereal. Bottom/ "More Than This" is a single from Roxy Music's eighth studio album Avalon (Virgin, 1982), generally regarded as the culmination of the smoother, more adult-oriented sound of the English art rock group's later work. Cover painting ‘Veronica Veronese’ by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, 1872. Bill Murray performs More Than This in a memorable karaoke scene in the 2003 movie Lost in Translation, directed by Sofia Coppola.

Crisis? What Crisis?

2011-09-05T17:00:00.000+02:00

Top/ With its timeless cover artwork and title, Crisis? What Crisis? (A&M, 1975) was British progressive rock band Supertramp's first LP to be recorded in America. The band had a series of top-selling albums in the 1970s and early 1980s. Their early music included ambitious concept albums, from which were drawn a number of hits including "Goodbye Stranger", "Bloody Well Right", "The Logical Song", "Breakfast in America", "Dreamer", "Give a Little Bit", "It's Raining Again", and "Take the Long Way Home". Supertramp attained superstardom in the United States, Canada, most of Europe, South Africa, Australia and Brazil, although they were not quite as popular in the UK. Nonetheless, the album Breakfast in America was a big hit there. On April 21, 2010 it was announced that Supertramp would give 35 concerts in the fall of 2010. This tour called "70-10" was to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the group's first release. Bottom/ Bandwagonesque is the third album by Scottish indie rock outfit Teenage Fanclub, released in 1991 on Creation Records. Bandwagonesque achieved notoriety by beating Nirvana's landmark album Nevermind to be voted 'album of the year' for 1991 by US rock magazine Spin, also beating Creation stablemates My Bloody Valentine's album Loveless, and R.E.M.'s hugely successful Out of Time. Bandwagonesque is included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. The cover is designed by Sharon Fitzgerald. When Kiss member Gene Simmons (who trademarked a moneybag logo) was made aware of the record he sent a letter to Geffen Records - who in turn gave in and sent Mr. Simmons a cheque, according to Simmons audiobook Sex Money Kiss. Originally a noisy and chaotic band, Teenage Fanclub emerged from the Glasgow C86 scene. Their sound relies heavily on chiming, Byrds-esque guitars and harmony vocals reminiscent of West Coast bands.

Forever Blowing Bubbles

2011-08-02T00:39:00.002+02:00

Top/ Neo-Krautrock band Black Moth Super Rainbow from Pittsburgh lay down yummy synth bubbles and Vocoder hums on their third album Dandelion Gum (Graveface, 2007). Their music contains elements of psychedelia, folk, electronica, and pop. Track listing includes "Neon Syrup for the Cemetery Sisters", "Jump into My Mouth and Breathe the Stardust" and "Lollipopsichord". Middle/ Fireball is a hard rock album by Deep Purple, released in 1971 on Harvest. It was their fifth studio album, and the second with the classic Mk II lineup featuring Ian Gillan (vocals) and Ritchie Blackmore (guitar). Deep Purple are an English rock band formed in Hertfordshire in 1968. Along with Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath, they are considered to be among the pioneers of heavy metal and modern hard rock although some band members have tried not to label themselves any one genre. The band has also incorporated pop and progressive rock elements. Within weeks of Fireball's release, the band was already performing songs planned for the next album. Machine Head, recorded at the Grand Hotel Montreux, Switzerland with the Rolling Stones Mobile Studio, and released in March 1972, has since become one of the band's most famous albums, including tracks that became live classics such as "Highway Star," "Space Truckin'," "Lazy," and "Smoke on the Water." Ritchie Blackmore ranked 55 on Rolling Stone's 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time in 2003. Deep Purple was once listed by the Guinness Book of World Records as the world's loudest band, and it has sold over 100 million albums worldwide. Bottom/ For her sixth full-length studio album Volta (One Little Indian, 2007), Icelandic singer Björk put together her own fourteen-piece brass section of female Icelandic musicians who play on three tracks on the album. Antony Hegarty, frontman and lead singer of Antony and the Johnsons, appears on the album for two duets.

Telepathic Surgery

2011-07-28T23:30:00.004+02:00

Top/ Sacrilege (Spoon Records, 1997) is a double remix album by German electronic pioneers Can. Can was a musical group formed in West Germany in 1968. One of the most important "krautrock" groups, Can had a style grounded in the art rock of bands such as The Velvet Underground, with strong experimental and world music influences. Described by keyboard player Irmin Schmidt as an "anarchist community" and by guitarist Michael Karoli as "a geometry of people", Can constructed their music largely through free improvisation and editing, which bassist Holger Czukay has referred to as "instant compositions". Through albums such as Tago Mago (1971) and Ege Bamyasi (1972), Can exerted a considerable influence on avant-garde, experimental, underground, ambient, New Wave and electronic music. Bottom/ Cunning Stunts (1975) by Caravan blends psychedelic rock and jazz. Caravan are an English band from the Canterbury area, founded by former Wilde Flowers members David Sinclair, Richard Sinclair, Pye Hastings and Richard Coughlan. Caravan rose to success from 1968 onwards into the 1970s as part of the Canterbury scene. Along with their contemporaries Soft Machine, Caravan were a leading exponent of what became known as "the Canterbury sound" - a concoction of styles including jazz, classical and traditional English influences. According to Allmusic, their 1971 album In the Land of Grey and Pink is considered by many to be the pinnacle release from Caravan. In the Q & Mojo Classic Special Edition Pink Floyd & The Story of Prog Rock, the album came #19 in its list of "40 Cosmic Rock Albums". The Tolkienesque cover art was by Anne Marie Anderson. Caravan still remains active as a live band in the 21st century.

Shiva In The Mix

2011-07-25T00:01:00.001+02:00

Top/ Mother of Punk, so what the Funk? Nina Hagen is the Hindu goddess Kali on the cover of her full-on devotional album Om Namah Shivay! (SPV, 1999). Artwork by Pierre & Gilles, whose collaborations include actress Catherine Deneuve, designer Jean-Paul Gaultier, model Naomi Campbell, musicians Marilyn Manson, Madonna and lo-fi duet CocoRosie. Although sometimes presented as dark and violent, Kali is often considered the kindest and most loving of all Hindu goddesses. Bottom/ Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!! (Mute, 2008) is the fourteenth studio album by alternative rock band Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. It is the second Bad Seeds studio album without long-time guitarist and backing vocalist Blixa Bargeld and features the same line up as the Abattoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus double album. Nicholas Edward "Nick" Cave (born 22 September 1957) is an Australian musician, songwriter, author, screenwriter, and occasional film actor. He is best known for his work as a frontman of the critically acclaimed rock band Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, established in Melbourne in 1983, a group known for its eclectic influences and musical styles. Before that, he had fronted the group The Birthday Party in the early 1980s, a band renowned for its highly dark, challenging lyrics and violent sound influenced by free jazz, blues, and post-punk. In 2006, he formed the garage rock band Grinderman that released its debut the following year. Cave's music is generally characterised by emotional intensity, a wide variety of influences, and lyrical obsessions with "religion, death, love, America, and violence."

Direct To Mental

2011-07-19T00:24:00.001+02:00

Bottom/ Sea Change (Geffen, 2002) is the eighth studio album by American alternative rock artist Beck. Produced by Nigel Godrich and inspired by the dissolution of a relationship, Sea Change received overwhelmingly positive critical acclaim upon release, with several reviews regarding it as Beck's magnum opus. Much of Beck's trademark recondite, ironic lyrics are replaced by more sincere, simpler lyrical content. "Lost Cause" and "Guess I'm Doing Fine" were released as singles, respectively. The term sea change is defined as a broad transformation, which reflects the departure in style from both Beck's previous effort Midnite Vultures and previous, sample-based recordings, as well as Beck's desire to give each album an identity. On Sea Change, Beck eschews the heavy sampling of his previous albums for real, live instrumentation. It is said that the album sound concept is inspired by the sound of Serge Gainsbourg's album Histoire de Melody Nelson. Beck would later produce an album for, and record with, Gainsbourg's daughter Charlotte. Critics have also compared the acoustic and relaxed melodies of Sea Change to the works of British singer-songwriter Nick Drake and Bob Dylan's 1975 album Blood on the Tracks. Over time, the album has become highly regarded as one of the best albums of the 2000s. Top/ Just a Souvenir is an album by Squarepusher, which was released on October 27, 2008 on Warp Records. The album's genesis came from a daydream, in which Tom Jenkinson envisioned a rock band performing a concert against the backdrop of a large, glowing coathanger. The performance quickly became surreal: among other things, a river forces the band to kayak whilst performing; the guitarist is able to accelerate or decelerate time at will; and every drum in the drummer's kit begins to switch places with one another. As such, the majority of the album consists of Jenkinson's own version of jazz fusion, threaded through with classical guitar, math rock and funk recordings. Squarepusher is the performing pseudonym of Tom Jenkinson, an English electronic music artist signed to Warp Records. He specializes in the electronic music genres of drum and bass, musique concrète, and acid, with a significant jazz influence.

We Mean It, Man

2011-07-14T02:04:00.002+02:00

Bottom/ Soundtrack album to the film Performance by Donald Cammell and Nicolas Roeg features music from Randy Newman, Ry Cooder, Jack Nitzsche, Buffy Sainte-Marie, The Last Poets and Mick Jagger (Warner Brothers, 1970). Performance pushed boundaries by featuring extremely explicit sex scenes and use of drugs, both of which have been rumoured to be real instead of simulated. It has been reported that during a test screening, one Warner executive's wife vomited in shock. Middle/ Frontwoman Courtney Love and Los Angeles band Hole released Live Through This (DGC, 1994) just four days after the discovery of Kurt Cobain's body, Courtney Love's late husband, singer/ songwriter of grunge band Nirvana Top/ Rising from the ashes of the pivotal punk group the Sex Pistols, iconic frontman John Lydon (formerly known as Johnny Rotten) and Public Image Ltd. (PiL) rolled out First Issue (Virgin Records) in 1978. Arguably the first post-rock group, PiL branched out to a more experimentalist sound, and early work is often regarded as some of the most challenging and innovative music of the post-punk period. Album credits read: "Public Image would like to thank absolutely nobody".

Excursions Into "Oh, A-Oh"

2011-07-01T01:16:00.000+02:00

Bottom/ "Utopia (Genetically Enriched)" is an electronic song performed by British groupGoldfrapp. Released as Felt Mountain's fourth single in June 2001, "Utopia (Genetically Enriched)" became Goldfrapp's first song to chart in their native England. The song was written and produced by Alison Goldfrapp and Will Gregory for the duo's debut album Felt Mountain(Mute, 2000). The album featured Alison Goldfrapp's synthesized vocals over cinematic soundscapes and is influenced by a variety of music styles including cabaret, folk, and electronic music. Goldfrapp is a British electronic music group known for their visual theatrics and contribution to the popularization of electronic dance music. Their fourth album Seventh Tree (2008) placed a greater emphasis on ambient and downtempo music, drawing inspiration from nature and paganism, while their fifth album, Head First (2010), found the group exploring '80s synth-pop and dance. Middle/ "Christine" is a song recorded by English rock band Siouxsie and the Banshees. The song was written by Banshees members Siouxsie Sioux and Steven Severin and it was released as the second single from the band's third album Kaleidoscope (Polydor, 1980). "Christine" marked a change in musical direction for the band, with new guitarist John McGeoch, formerly of Magazine, and the brand new drummer and composer Budgie from The Slits. Veering from a punkish, more guitar-oriented sound, The Banshees (reduced to a trio) began their experimentation with electronic soundscapes and Middle Eastern exotica. Lyrically the song continued the band's exploration with mental illness (as they did on previous single "Happy House"), as it describes Christine, a woman with "22 faces" ("...Personality changes behind her red smile / Every new problem brings a stranger inside / Helplessly forcing one more new disguise..."). Two of Christine's identities, the Strawberry Girl and the Banana Split Lady, are mentioned in the lyrics of the song. Top/ Goldfrapp's "Lovely Head" was released as Felt Mountain's first single in May 2000 on Mute.

Reset The Preset

2011-06-30T01:32:00.000+02:00

Big Men Cry (Mammoth Records) is a music album by artist Banco de Gaia, released in 1997. Banco de Gaia is an electronic music band from England, formed in 1989 by Toby Marks (born 1964, South London). The music of Banco de Gaia is best categorized as ambient dub, but Marks works to cross genres, often using Arabic and Middle Eastern samples against a bass heavy reggae, rock, or trance rhythm to produce deeply textured tracks that progress layer upon layer. Key albums by Banco de Gaia include Maya (1994), Last Train to Lhasa (1995), Live at Glastonbury (1996) and Farewell Ferengistan (2006). On 20 September 2009, Banco De Gaia played an album launch show for his album, Memories Dreams Reflections at Dingwalls in London. This show was to celebrate twenty years of Banco De Gaia. Marks was joined on stage by three members from the original five piece band, Ashley Hopkins, Larry Whelan, and Ted Duggan, and vocalist Maya Preece, who sings on the latest album.

A Kiss In The Dreamhouse

2011-06-29T09:04:00.000+02:00

Bottom/ Floored: Something Wrong (Recall, 2003) is the second album by electropop darlings Bang Gang from Iceland, starring songwriter/producer Barði Jóhannsson who formed the band and lives in Reykjavík. Middle/ Mixing influences from trip hop, rock, rhythm and blues and pop, Dive Deep (Echo, 2008) is the sixth studio album by English group Morcheeba. It is also the second studio album recorded without former lead singer Skye Edwards. Dive Deep features many guest vocals, such as acclaimed singer-songwriter Judie Tzuke on the first single "Enjoy the Ride". Billboard described the album as a "gorgeous collection of folk- and blues-inflected electro-pop ballads". BBC Music noted that guests "appear chosen less for who they are than what they can bring, sweet and soulful voices that supply an emotional backbone to the Godfreys' languid, slo-mo funk grooves." Morcheeba's most popular albums include 1996 debut Who Can You Trust? and 1998's Big Calm. They achieved huge international pop crossover success with the single "Rome Wasn't Built in a Day" in 2000. Top/ Always in style: high priestess of punk Siouxsie explores a variety of musical styles, including pop, glam, industrial and electronic in her first solo album MantaRay (Universal, 2007), preceded by the "Into a Swan" single. Siouxsie Sioux is the lead singer of Siouxsie & the Banshees, formed at the advent of the British punk scene, and that soon became one of the major bands in the post-punk erea. The Banshees' music influenced a wide range of very diverse bands over the years, amongst them The Cure, Massive Attack, Garbage and more recently LCD Soundsystem. Key albums by Siouxsie and the Banshees include Kaleidoscope (1980), Juju (1981) and A Kiss in the Dreamhouse.

Voices Of Syn

2011-06-28T02:21:00.002+02:00

Bottom/ Blues for Allah (Grateful Dead Records, 1975) is the eighth studio album by the Grateful Dead. The Grateful Dead was an American rock band formed in 1965 in the San Francisco Bay Area. The band was known for its unique and eclectic style, which fused elements of rock, folk, bluegrass, blues, reggae, country, jazz, psychedelia, space music and gospel—and for live performances of long musical improvisation. "Their music," Lenny Kaye wrote, "touches on ground that most other groups don't even know exists." Top/ Blackdance (Brain/Virgin, 1974) is the third album by Klaus Schulze. Klaus Schulze is a highly influential German electronic music composer and musician. He was briefly a member of the electronic bands Tangerine Dream and Ash Ra Tempel before a solo career of more than 40 albums lasting over 3 decades. Highlights include 1976's Moondawn. Schulze often takes German events as a starting point in his compositions. His use of the pseudonym Richard Wahnfried indicates his interest in Richard Wagner, which also informs other albums of his music, notably 1975's Timewind.

Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out

2011-06-23T20:27:00.000+02:00

Top/ Berlin-based electropop duo Stereo Total get down with "Discotheque" (Disko B, 2006). Their music can be described as a humorous mix of synth-pop, New Wave, electronica, punk rock, and pop music. They also tend to embody a retro-hip European 1960s mod style, and references to that period can be found in their music. Some songs strongly evoke a mod/psych/garage-rock vibe, both in production aesthetic and lyrical content. Sixties French pop in the vein of Francoise Hardy can be heard in the mix also. Some of their tracks are playful, low-fi versions of pop/rock/soul songs that employ the use of analog recording equipment and reverberation. Middle/ In 1983 British impresario Malcolm McLaren released Duck Rock (Charisma Records), an album which mixed up influences from Africa, Central and South America and the USA, including hip-hop. The album proved to be highly influential in bringing hip-hop to a wider audience in the UK. Two of the singles from the album ("Buffalo Gals" and "Double Dutch") became major chart hits on both sides of the Atlantic. Guest musicians featured on this album include Trevor Horn, Anne Dudley and J.J. Jeczalik, three artists who would eventually become the Art of Noise. Clips of the World's Famous Supreme Team radio show appear between songs. Cover artwork includes art by Pop/graffiti artist Keith Haring. Malcolm McLaren (22 January 1946 – 8 April 2010) was an English performer, impresario, self-publicist and former manager of the Sex Pistols and the New York Dolls. Bottom/ Fingerlickin' good artwork for Let It Bleed (Decca/ABKCO, 1969) by the Rolling Stones displays a surreal sculpture designed by Robert Brownjohn.

In Search Of The Lost Chord

2011-06-20T00:01:00.000+02:00

Top/ There Is Love in You is the fifth full-length album by Four Tet, released on 25 January 2010 on Domino. Kieran Hebden (born 1977, Putney, London, England, UK) is a post-rock and electronic musician. Hebden first came to prominence as a member of the band Fridge before establishing himself as a solo artist under the moniker of Four Tet. Hebden's music typically eschews the traditional pop song format in favour of a more abstract approach —his sound and melodies incorporate elements of hip hop, electronica, techno, jazz, and folk music with live instrumentation. In late 1999, Hebden contributed a remix of the opening track of Aphex Twin's Selected Ambient Works Volume II. This relatively high-profile exposure attracted new interest in Four Tet from fans of electronica and IDM (intelligent dance music), genres in which the Warp brand has a preeminent status. Hebden's fourth studio album Everything Ecstatic (Domino Records, 2005) brought with it another shift in style, leaving behind the breezy "folktronica" of 2001's Pause and 2003's Rounds for a darker, more complex sound. Hebden's recent output includes a number of improvisational works with veteran jazz drummer Steve Reid, and a collaboration with Burial. In 2008, Hebden collaborated with composer David Arnold to write "Crawl, End Crawl", the song used for the end credits of the film Quantum of Solace. Bottom/ On their first collaboration album (No Pussyfooting) (EG Records, 1973), a dense, multi-layered piece of ambient drone music, Eno (right) and King Crimson guitarist Robert Fripp (left) used similar techniques that eventually became known as Frippertronics. Best known as the father of modern ambient music, with an art school background and inspiration from minimalism, English electronic musician, music theorist and record producer Brian Eno recorded four highly idiosyncratic and original rock albums, before turning to more abstract soundscapes on records such as Discreet Music (1975) and Ambient 1/Music for Airports (1978).

Shake Well Before Opening

2011-06-17T08:01:00.000+02:00

Bottom/ Loaded (Cotillion Records) is the fourth album released by American rock band The Velvet Underground. The album was released in September, 1970, one month after Lou Reed had left the band. Loaded is a commercial effort aimed at radio play, another step away from the Warhol-influenced days. The album's title refers to Atlantic's request that the band produce an album "loaded with hits". The album holds two of the best-known Velvet Underground songs, "Sweet Jane" and "Rock and Roll." When bassist John Cale was eased out of The Velvet Underground in 1968, Doug Yule (who had befriended the band in 1967) joined as Cale's replacement. Yule's contribution to their third album, The Velvet Underground (1969) was considerable, and his distinct melodic style suited Reed's desire to move into a more mainstream direction. On Loaded, his role became even more prominent, singing lead vocals on several songs on the LP (Loaded’s spin-off single "Who Loves The Sun", "New Age", and "Oh! Sweet Nuthin'"), and playing six instruments (including keyboard and drums). Reed was critical of the album's final mix. After its release, Reed discovered that Loaded had been re-edited and resequenced without his consent. The band essentially dissolved while recording the album, and Reed walked off just before it was finished. Almost three decades later, the album would be reissued as "Fully Loaded" with the edits restored and all versions included. In 2005, Loaded was #109 on Rolling Stone's reissue of their 500 greatest albums of all time. Middle/ Tommy is the fourth album by the English rock band The Who, released by Track and Polydor in the United Kingdom and Decca and MCA in the United States. A double album telling a loose story about a "deaf, dumb, and blind boy" who becomes the leader of a messianic movement, Tommy was the first musical work to be billed overtly as a rock opera. Released in 1969, the album was mostly composed by guitarist Pete Townshend. It has sold over 20 million copies worldwide. The cover is presented as part of a triptych-style fold-out cover. All three of the outer panels of the triptych are spanned by a single pop art painting by Mike McInnerney. The drawing is a sphere with diamond-shaped cutouts and an overlay of clouds and seagulls rendered with a figure-ground ambiguity similar to that in the work of M. C. Escher. Top/ It's Great When You're Straight... Yeah (Radioactive, 1995) by alt-dance band Black Grape from England was Shaun Ryder's first musical project after the disintegration of Happy Mondays, due to his multiple drug addiction. The album cover featured a photograph of international terrorist Carlos the Jackal colored in pop art style. Shaun Ryder appears on "挑戦 (DARE)", a single by Gorillaz from their 2005 album Demon Days.

Your Consciousness Goes Bip

2011-06-16T00:09:00.004+02:00

Frenchman Chris Joss is a self-taught multi-instrumentalist and autonomous studio producer. Having lived in London for most of the 90's, Joss digested the vibrant music scenes of the city while working as a sound engineer and playing bass and guitar in various bands. In 1996 Joss recorded his first album The Man With a Suitcase, the soundtrack to an imaginary 60's TV series, released in 1999 on indie label Pulp Flavor with the Bombay By Bus EP. In 2000 Chris Joss started recording his 2nd LP Dr Rhythm, released confidentially in 2002 by Irma. Encompassing electronica, breakbeat, funk and soundtrack music, Dr Rhythm upped the ante for Joss' musical catalogue. In 2004 Chris Joss’ third LP You've Been Spiked was released by ESL Music. With its thick funky bass lines, wah-wah guitars, Rhodes and Hammond riffs pulsating over live rootsy drums, the album was a vibrant tribute to 60's and 70's dance music. In 2005, Joss contributed to the soundtrack of the movie Inside Deep Throat, reworking original songs and producing new ones, some available on the soundtrack album on Koch. Seriously injured in a domestic accident, almost costing him his right arm, Chris Joss recorded a version of John Williams' “Superman” theme song in between hospital stays in January 2006. In February 2008 ESL Music released 13 new tracks from Chris Joss on Teraphonic Overdubs, a collection of grooves influenced by the diversity of Library music, crossing genres that were years apart while staying true to the funk. Flower power times 10! Chris Joss’ 5th LP, entitled Sticks, saw release on ESL Music in March 2009. Sticks is a smoky sonic journey through the Asian sub-continent. Filled out by a lush tapestry of ethereal sitars, rubber-funk bass, cheeky organ riffs, snappy drum kicks and smoky atmospherics, Sticks captures a deep and irresistible vintage groove that defies categorization! French multi-instrumentalist and music producer extraordinaire Chris Joss is back again with a new album Monomaniacs, Volume 1. Like a long lost vintage LP plucked from a time capsule buried sometime in the 1970’s, this album brings Joss back to a distinctly traditional and dusty funk groove. Recalling the iconic blaxploitation and grindhouse film soundtracks of that era, Monomaniacs is filled with ricocheting breakbeats, whirlwinds of wah-wah, rubber-band basslines, cosmic organs, and even a few shredding rock guitars to put some hair on your chest. Can Volume 2 be far behind?

Journey To The Center Of The Mind

2011-06-10T12:14:00.000+02:00

Top/ Music Has the Right to Children (Warp Records, 1998) is the studio debut album of the Scottish electronic music duo Boards of Canada, consisting of brothers Michael Sandison and Marcus Eoin Sandison. The album was recorded at the Hexagon Sun studio, an atelier maintained by the duo, in Pentland Hills, Scotland. The songs utilize a number of field recordings and intense sound manipulation. Boards of Canada's music is reminiscent of the warm, scratchy, artificial sounds of 1970s media and contains themes of childhood, nostalgia and the natural world. The album received universal acclamation upon release. Interviews with the Sandison brothers provide some insight into their creative inspiration. They have cited several acts that have influenced their work, including Joni Mitchell, The Incredible String Band, The Beatles and My Bloody Valentine, which use of distortion, pitch bending, and digital reverb resulted in the sound that was to become known as shoegazing. They have also expressed a strong interest in the power of subliminal messaging and their work is full of cryptic messages, including references to numerology and cult figures such as David Koresh of the Branch Davidians, amongst other vague hints. Bottom/ Major releases by Boards of Canada include Geogaddi (Warp, 2002) and 2006's The Campfire Headphase. Geogaddi revisits the innocent, child-like melodic and harmonic structure found throughout the band's previous album, Music Has the Right to Children. The artwork of the album carries a distinct kaleidoscopic motif.

Pumping On Your Stereo

2011-06-08T12:22:00.002+02:00

Eagles of Death Metal's third album, Heart On (Downtown Recordings), was released on October 28, 2008, following Peace, Love, Death Metal (2004) and Death by Sexy (2006). Eagles of Death Metal (EoDM) is an American garage rock revival band from Palm Desert, California, formed by Jesse Hughes and Josh Homme. Despite the name, Eagles of Death Metal is not a death metal band, but music that Josh Homme thought would be The Eagles crossed with death metal. In a 2003 interview Homme described the sound of the band as a combination of "bluegrass slide guitar mixed with stripper drum beats and Canned Heat vocals." Jesse Hughes is known and somewhat loved by fans for his over-enthusiastic and charismatic interaction with audiences at live performances. In 2010 the track "High Voltage" from their album Heart On was featured in an online campaign for Head & Shoulders shampoo called "It's Showertime Joy!". In the video a man in a robe dances with four sexy nurses in a shower to the track.

Slow Emotion Replay

2011-06-08T01:13:00.000+02:00

Bottom/ It's What I'm Thinking Pt.1 – Photographing Snowflakes (One Last Fruit Records) is the seventh studio album by Badly Drawn Boy, released on October 4, 2010. Photographing Snowflakes the first of a planned trilogy of albums all to be released under the title It's What I'm Thinking. Top/ Following the success of his early EPs, Damon Gough (stage name Badly Drawn Boy)'s debut album, The Hour of Bewilderbeast (XL Recordings/Twisted Nerve Records), was released in June 2000, accompanied by four singles. The cover art, produced by Andy Votel, is loosely based on Leonardo Da Vinci's drawing "Vitruvian Man". The original art also featured Woody Allen, however his picture had to be removed due to copyright issues. The album featured members of Alfie and Doves as backing musicians. In 2002, Gough returned to score the film adaptation of Nick Hornby's novel About a Boy. His third album, Have You Fed the Fish?, introduced more guitars and an increasingly mainstream pop sound which was not welcomed by all critics. The album is a play on Gough's minor celebrity status and namechecks fellow musicians such as Madonna and John Lennon. 2009's Is There Nothing We Could Do? featured music taken from and inspired by the television film The Fattest Man in Britain. This was released on his own BDB Records label. Badly Drawn Boy is a Mercury Prize-winning alternative rock singer/songwriter. He was born on October 2, 1969, in Dunstable, Bedfordshire, England. A supporter of Manchester City Football Club, Gough is a Bruce Springsteen, Jeff Buckley and Pixies fan. He is parodied in the adult comic Viz as "Badly Overdrawn Boy", a pop singer who fails to sell any records and resorts to busking outside his local bank. In 2002, Q magazine named Badly Drawn Boy in their list of the "50 Bands to See Before You Die", although this was as part of a sub-list of "5 Bands That Could Go Either Way" on account of Gough's tendency to talk and tell stories for extended periods in concert rather than play songs.

...And The Forest Began To Sing

2011-06-01T11:45:00.000+02:00

Bottom/ The Lost & Found is an EP record by Rasputina, the first edition of which was self-released in 2001 and the second edition released in 2003 by Instinct Records. It consists of covers of songs by Creedence Clearwater Revival, Pink Floyd, Marilyn Manson, Pat Benatar, The Velvet Underground, and Led Zeppelin, as well as a rendition of Mother Goose's nursery rhyme "This Little Piggy." Rasputina is a cello-driven band based in New York that is renowned for their unconventional and quirky music style as well as their fascination with historical allegories and fashion, especially those pertaining to the Victorian era. The group is fronted by cellist/vocalist Melora Creager, who also writes all of the lyrics and creates art for the band's albums, singles, and website. Album releases include How We Quit the Forest (1998), Frustration Plantation (2004) and Oh Perilous World (2007). Sister Kinderhook, the seventh full length LP album from the cello-rock outfit, was released on June 15, 2010 on the Filthy Bonnet Co. label. Middle/ Peasants, Pigs & Astronauts (Columbia, 1999) is the second album by the British indie and psychedelic rock band Kula Shaker. Like its predecessor, K, the album continues the band's hybrid of 1960s-style psychedelic rock, groovy indie pop, and Indian instrumentation, albeit with a more progressive rock slant than on previous releases. Musically, many of the songs make use of Beatles-influenced psychedelic effects, swirling guitars, and Indian chants. Top/ The Secret Migration (V2 Records, 2005) is the much-anticipated sixth album by American indie rock group Mercury Rev. With their early records, Mercury Rev offered experimental, psychedelic rock, which gradually shifted to a melodic, ornate sound. Labeled anything from chamber pop to space rock, their music is often compared to the Flaming Lips' lush, multi-layered psychedelic arrangements.

Before The Dawn Heals Us

2011-05-25T12:43:00.000+02:00

Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts is the second album by the French electronica group M83. The album was released in 2003 on Gooom to positive reviews. The cover art is by Justine Kurland, and called Snow Angels. M83 is an electronic/dream pop act by French musician Anthony Gonzalez. It is named after a spiral galaxy, Messier 83. The band was founded in 2001 by Gonzalez and former member Nicolas Fromageau in Antibes. The musical style owes something to the shoegazing genre in its extensive use of reverb effects and lyrics spoken softly over loud instrumentals, though M83's songs employ considerably less guitar than most shoegazing bands such as My Bloody Valentine. For the third album released by M83, Before the Dawn Heals Us, Gonzalez decided to part from Fromageau and record mainly on his own. Saturdays = Youth, M83's fifth studio album was released on April 15, 2008 on Mute Records. It was recorded with Ken Thomas (known for his work with Sigur Rós, The Sugarcubes, Boys in a Band, Cocteau Twins and Suede), and Ewan Pearson (who has also produced for Tracey Thorn, The Rapture and Ladytron).

Nonstop Disco Powerpack

2011-05-19T16:11:00.008+02:00

Bottom/ Hot Sauce Committee Part Two (Capitol Records) is the eighth studio album by alternative hip hop group the Beastie Boys, released in late April/ early May 2011. The album was originally planned for release on September 15, 2009 under the title Hot Sauce Committee, Pt. 1, as the first installment of a two part set. However, the album was delayed after band member Adam "MCA" Yauch was diagnosed with cancer. Yauch stated that the cancer is localized, and that he should be fine after surgery. The album was previously known by the working title Tadlock's Glasses, which was stated to be a reference to a former bus driver named Tadlock, who used to drive for Elvis Presley's back-up singers. Presley once gave Tadlock a pair of glasses which he was proud of. It was later speculated that the Tadlock's Glasses story was simply a joke misinterpreted by the media. The album was launched on April 23, 2011 by live-streaming the album online via boombox inside Madison Square Garden. "Lee Majors Come Again", which features hardcore punk, was released as the album's first single in 2009. Promo singles of the track were given out in very select copies of the group's third studio album Check Your Head quadruple reissue boxset. The track made its first appearance in media on the game DJ Hero, where it was mixed with Daft Punk's "Da Funk". A version of the song "Too Many Rappers", featuring Nas, was released as the album's second single in July 2009. It peaked at #93 on the Billboard Hot 100 making it the Beastie Boys' first single in five years to chart on the Hot 100; the last time being "Ch-Check It Out" in 2004 that peaked at #68. The next single, "Make Some Noise" was released as a download on April 11, 2011 and five days later as 7" vinyl single for Record Store Day. Beastie Boys are an American hip hop trio from New York City. The group consists of Mike D (Michael Diamond), MCA (Adam Yauch), and Ad-Rock (Adam Horovitz). The Beastie Boys began as a pop or punk rock band in 1979, first appearing on the compilation cassette New York Thrash before releasing their first EP, Polly Wog Stew, in 1982. They are one of the longest lived hip-hop acts worldwide and continue to enjoy commercial and critical success in 2011, nearly 25 years after the release of their debut album. On September 27, 2007, they were nominated for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In 2009, the group released digitally remastered deluxe editions of their albums Paul's Boutique, Check Your Head, Ill Communication and Hello Nasty.

Pop Will Eat Itself

2011-05-12T13:40:00.000+02:00

Bottom/ Distortion (Nonesuch, 2008) is an album by The Magnetic Fields. As the album's name implies, several of the musical performances featured were distorted by various means. In particular, this sound quality was influenced by the 1985 album Psychocandy by The Jesus and Mary Chain. No synthesizers were used to record the album; it is the second in a "no-synth trilogy", after the 2004 album i and before the 2010 album Realism. The Magnetic Fields is the principal creative outlet of singer-songwriter Stephin Merritt. While the particular musical style of the band is usually as malleable as Merritt's songwriting, they are commonly attributed to pop genres and subgenres: synthpop, indie pop, noise pop, and, most recently, folk-pop. The band is recognizable for Merrit's lyrics, often about love, that are by turns ironic, bitter, and humorous. Their best known work is likely the critically lauded 1999 three-volume concept album 69 Love Songs. Middle/ Everything That Happens Will Happen Today (Todomundo, 2008) is the first collaboration between David Byrne and Brian Eno since 1981's My Life in the Bush of Ghosts and Eno's work producing and co-writing with Talking Heads. Both have described it as "electronic Gospel", in particular the track "Life Is Long." Byrne has speculated that the hopeful lyrics might be an antidote to being "completely pessimistic and cynical about politics and the state of the world." Eno has also said the album is about "paint[ing] a picture of the human trying to survive in an increasingly digital world." Themes of humanity struggling with technology are apparent on several tracks. Top/ Jollification (Epic) was the Lightning Seeds' 1994 album and contains the UK hit singles "Lucky You", "Marvellous", "Change" and "Perfect". Its cover, designed by Mark Farrow, featured the then innovative use of computer graphics to create an enormous strawberry with people's faces as its seeds. The Lightning Seeds are an alternative pop/rock band, largely the brainchild of writer, singer and guitarist Ian Broudie. The group has its origins in the English city of Liverpool, breaking through with the shimmery, psychedelic synth pop hit, "Pure", from the album Cloudcuckooland. More UK Top 20 hits by The Lightning Seeds include a cover version of The Turtles' breathy-trippy 1969 hit "You Showed Me" (written by Byrds members Gene Clark and Roger McGuinn), which was featured in the Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery soundtrack.

Myths Of The Near Future

2011-03-09T08:39:00.001+01:00

Bottom/ Surfing The Void (Polydor Records, 2010) is the second studio album by British alternative rock band Klaxons. The album was produced by "The Godfather of Nu Metal" Ross Robinson, and was recorded in Los Angeles, California. Bassist and vocalist Jamie Reynolds described the work as a "prog doom" album. Media response to Surfing the Void was generally favorable, with many professional reviews commented on the band's progression from their 2007 debut album, Myths of the Near Future. BBC reviewer Andy Fyfe noted the band's move away from their New Rave labelling, comparing the band favorably to The Prodigy and Depeche Mode. HMV describes Klaxons as "acid-rave sci-fi punk-funk", a phrase lifted directly from Tim Chester's Radar feature in NME. Though the band's sound is rock-based, they draw upon some less common influences - notably the rave culture of the 1990s, represented in their covers of rave hits "The Bouncer" by Kicks Like a Mule and "Not Over Yet" by Grace. Top/ Say It is the second studio album by Canadian indie rock band Born Ruffians, released on June 1st, 2010, by Paper Bag Records in Canada and Warp Records worldwide. They have toured with artists such as Franz Ferdinand, Caribou, Hot Chip, The Hidden Cameras and Tokyo Police Club. In 2009 they recorded a cover of two Aphex Twin songs for Warp20 (Recreated), a compilation. Say It is the follow-up to their 2008 LP, Red, Yellow & Blue. Born Ruffians, formerly known as Mornington Drive, are a Canadian indie rock band formed in 2004, originally from Midland, Ontario, located near Georgian Bay. They are currently signed to Warp Records.

If We Don't Make It We'll Fake It

2011-03-07T23:51:00.004+01:00

Bottom/ Scissor Sisters did it again with the gay/hedonist anthem "Filthy/Gorgeous" (Polydor, 2005), the seventh track on their self-titled debut album. Scissor Sisters is an American band named after a sex position between two women. Their style draws from disco, glam rock, pop and the club scene of New York City. Their first hit was in 2004 with the release of a disco cover of the Pink Floyd classic "Comfortably Numb". Several media outlets have noted that Scissor Sisters 'stick out like a sore thumb' on the list of artists who have sold over 2 million copies of an album in the UK in the 21st century — the others being James Blunt, Robbie Williams, Keane, Dido, Coldplay, and Norah Jones — all artists considered 'mainstream' or 'middle of the road', as opposed to the Scissor Sisters' brash and controversial image. Middle/ After a seven year wait, The Prodigy's fourth studio album Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned (XL Recordings) was released in Summer 2004. It is the first studio album by the electronica act after 1997's The Fat of the Land and its highly controversial single "Smack My Bitch Up". The Prodigy are an electronic music group formed by Liam Howlett in 1990, in Braintree, Essex, England. Along with The Chemical Brothers, Fatboy Slim, The Crystal Method, and a few other lesser-known acts, they were pioneers of the Big Beat genre. The Prodigy are a difficult band to classify, because they have developed significantly with time and continue to innovate. Their music consists of various styles ranging from rave, hardcore, industrial and drum & bass in the early 1990s, to alternative rock and big beat with punk vocal elements in later times. They have sold over 16 million records worldwide which is unequaled in electronic music history. Top/ Canadian dance punk duo Death From Above 1979 played loud synth-infused drum and bass combination. Romance Bloody Romance: Remixes & B-Sides (Last Gang Records, 2005) is a collection of remixes of songs featured on the album You're a Woman, I'm a Machine.

Truth Doesn't Make A Noise

2011-03-03T15:30:00.000+01:00

Top/ Meg White and Jack White of punk blues duo The White Stripes delve into truth as number one theme throughout the album Get Behind Me Satan (V2 Records, 2005). In 2006, it was included in 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die, edited by Robert Dimery. On February 2, 2011, after a long hiatus, the duo announced that they would officially cease recording and performing music as The White Stripes. The announcement specifically denied any artistic differences or health issues, but cited "a myriad of reasons ... mostly to preserve what is beautiful and special about the band". The White Stripes was an American alternative rock duo, formed in 1997 in Detroit, Michigan. The group consisted of the songwriter Jack White (vocals, guitar, and keyboards) and drummer Meg White (drums and occasional vocals). After releasing several singles and three albums within the Detroit independent music underground, the White Stripes rose to prominence in 2002, as part of the garage rock revival scene. Their successful albums White Blood Cells and Elephant drew them attention from a large variety of media outlets in the United States and the UK. The White Stripes used a low-fidelity, do-it-yourself approach to writing and recording. Their music featured a melding of punk and blues influences and a raw simplicity of composition, arrangement, and performance. The duo was also noted for their fashion and design aesthetic which featured a simple color scheme of red, white, and black. The band has sold approximately 12 million albums worldwide, two million in the US alone, and their latest three albums have each won the Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album. Middle/ Rather Ripped (DGC, 2006) by American alternative rock band Sonic Youth is the last album the band had to release to fulfill their contractual obligation to Geffen Records. Formed in New York City in 1981, Sonic Youth are inspired by the guitar symphonies of Glenn Branca (with whom most of the band have performed), the heavy protopunk of The Stooges, the punk poetry of Patti Smith, the Krautrock of Can, the psychedelic garage rock of The 13th Floor Elevators, as well as avant-garde composers like John Cage. The band were often praised for "redefin[ing] what rock guitar could do" using a wide variety of unorthodox guitar tunings, and preparing guitars with objects like drumsticks and screwdrivers to alter the instruments' timbre. Bottom/ "You Don't Know What Love Is (You Just Do As You're Told)" is the second track to be released from The White Stripes' sixth studio album Icky Thump (XL Recordings, 2007), recorded at Nashville's Blackbird Studio. After Get Behind Me Satan, Icky Thump marks a return to the punk, garage rock and blues influences for which the band was known. Additionally, the album introduces Scottish folk music, avant-garde, trumpet, and bagpipes into the formula. Meg White has said one of her all-time favorite musicians is Bob Dylan; Jack claims "I've got three fathers – my biological dad, God and Bob Dylan".

Lazer Guided Melodies

2011-03-01T00:01:00.000+01:00

Glasser is the one-woman orchestra of Cameron Mesirow. Her debut album, Ring (True Panther Sounds, 2010) is a singular work. Glasser entered public consciousness in 2009 with her debut EP, Apply, on True Panther, and a UK-only 12” on the Young Turks label. The intimate, luxurious music resonated widely, despite being made by Mesirow, alone and in airplanes and shoe stores, on GarageBand. With Ring, however, Mesirow worked for months with producer Ariel Rechtshaid to re-imagine her musical arrangements, incorporating organic instrumentation like strings, woodwinds, bass, and a wide array of percussion into her once-sparse recordings. Her simple, minimal melodies and rapturous vocals evoke, side by side, the optimism of a woman captivated by creation and travel, as well as the anxiety that accompanies nomadism and change. Of this duality, the New York Times said “these are beautiful songs, both sweet and abstract, deeply felt and anodyne.”

Lullabies To Paralyze

2011-02-18T00:01:00.000+01:00

Top/ Fever Ray (Rabid Records, 2009) is the debut solo album from Fever Ray, an alias of Karin Dreijer Andersson of the electronic duo The Knife, formed in Sweden with her brother Olof Dreijer and currently on hiatus. It was widely praised. Andersson was previously the vocalist and guitarist of the alternative rock band Honey Is Cool. Her vocal style is notable for both shrill and deep, distorted tones combined with her distinctive accent and the use of pitch-shifting, while her image as a performer tends to include the wearing of masks and other theatrical elements. "If I Had a Heart", the first single of the album, was released digitally on 15 December 2008. In 2009 the collection of feminist pornographic shorts Dirty Diaries was released with a soundtrack composed by Andersson. The Knife have listed David Lynch, Laurie Anderson, Aki Kaurismäki, Korean cinema, Trailer Park Boys, Donnie Darko, Doom, and Black Hole as inspirations for their work. In addition, Olof Dreijer cited techno, grime, and Southern hip hop, while Andersson named Sonic Youth, Kate Bush, dEUS, Le Tigre and Siouxsie and the Banshees. Bottom/ Cosmic tunes for the party tonight. Acid Washed is a two-man process primarily, following the blueprint devised over the past year by Richard D’Alpert and Andrew Claristidge: two DJ’s keen on using modern and vintage equipment to create sophisticated electronics with a sharp pop aesthetic. The result is the self-titled Acid Washed (Records Makers, 2010), a fusion of late nineties French house vibes and DFA disco touches that acknowledges the influence of Chicago and Detroit without being overly reverential. Throw names like Steve Reich and Giorgio Moroder into the hat as well if you like. Artistic direction for the project comes from British designer Anthony Burrill. His striking, geometric visuals adorn their record sleeves as well as providing the hypnotic, focal point of their music videos and visceral live show.

Duchess Of Coolsville

2011-02-09T22:09:00.000+01:00

Joanna Newsom is a harpist, pianist, harpsichordist, singer and songwriter from Nevada City, California. A follow-up to the The Milk-Eyed Mender (2004), her second album Ys (Drag City, 2006) (top) was named for a mythical city in Brittany, and features full orchestra arrangements by Van Dyke Parks and mixing by Drag City label-mate Jim O'Rourke. While the media have labeled her as one of the most prominent members of the modern psych folk movement, Newsom's songwriting incorporates elements of Appalachian music, avant-garde modernism, and African kora rhythms. On February 23, 2010 Drag City released Have One on Me as the official follow up to the harpirst's highly acclaimed second studio release, 2006's Ys. It is a triple album produced by herself and mixed by long-time collaborators Jim O'Rourke and Noah Georgeson, with the accompanying arrangements by Ryan Francesconi. Have One on Me received perfect scores and extremely positive evaluations by many publications, as well as earning Newsom favorable comparisons to other singer-songwriters such as Joni Mitchell, Laura Nyro, Rickie Lee Jones and Kate Bush. Allison Stewart of The Washington Post called Have One on Me "her magnum opus, a three-disc set being likened to a freak-folk Sandinista!, though it feels more like a musical Ulysses." Spin's Andy Beta expressed that Newsom "gives what few artists can deliver: a self-contained world of warmth, crystalline detail, and intimacy that lies far beyond a Twitter feed" in his 4 star review. Will Dean of The Guardian pointed that "at two-hours-plus, it's a record that demands concentration to appreciate its splatterings of beauty. But pour yourself a glass and listen, because they don't make them like this too often."

Break The Night With Colour

2011-02-04T14:46:00.000+01:00

Bottom/ Fredo Viola is an American singer/songwriter and multi-media artist. He was born in London, England, but has resided in the United States for most of his life. He graduated from Tisch School of the Arts at NYU, but has always been most passionate about music. Viola lists some influential artists, such as Shostakovich, Britten, Bartok, Stravinsky and Belle & Sebastian. In 2004, "Let the Sad Out" was licensed for use in Jonathan Demme’s film The Manchurian Candidate. In 2007, he signed with French label Because Music. He released his debut album, The Turn, on December 2008. Most recently, "The Sad Song" was used in the 2008 film Birds of America. Viola currently lives in Woodstock, N.Y. Top/ In an interview with Rolling Stone magazine, Julia Stone of Australian singer-songwriter duo Angus & Julia Stone revealed she recorded a solo album in New York in late 2008. Her song "This Love" appears in the 2009 Australian film The Waiting City. She has described the album as mellow but darker and spookier in tone than the brother-sister duo's 2010 album Down The Way. On August 24, she confirmed the album would be called The Memory Machine. Both Angus and Julia have distinctive vocal styles. Their song "Big Jet Plane" came first on Triple J's Hottest 100 for 2010. The Sydney Morning Herald's Bernard Zuel described their vocals as such: "Her voice has a fractured feel like Jolie Holland; his has a smoke-on-the-beach drawl." UK journalist Johnny Sharp stated, "Most impressive, though, are the songs - simple but blindingly effective acoustic compositions, warm boy-girl harmonies and delicate, less-is-more arrangements. Resistance is surely futile."

Sons Of The Silent Age

2011-02-03T23:04:00.000+01:00

Absolute Dissent (Spinefarm Records, 2010) is the fourteenth studio album by Killing Joke. Absolute Dissent has the sludgy sonic quality of their 2006 release Hosannas from the Basements of Hell, much of the same metal influence of their 2003 album Killing Joke, and the melodic grandeur of 1986's Brighter Than a Thousand Suns. Apocalypse, geopolitics, population, societal control, and random acts of kindness are some of the main themes in the album. The opening track, "Absolute Dissent", with its chopping guitar, the frantic dance beat, the hymn-like chorus, and the apocalyptic content, sounds utterly euphoric somehow mimic their classic 1980 song "Pssyche". The album's second track, "The Great Cull", is a heavy song in the style of their 2003 album, Killing Joke. It talks about Malthusianism, the Codex Alimentarius for creating a sick population, water fluoridation and dopamine increased in the brain, chemtrails, malleable population, and mass control to maintain the population preferably around 500 million. Single "European Super State", the most commercial track on the album, is a mixture of dance-punk, UK hard house, and electronic body music, with a soundscape fitting of Depeche Mode's Violator era. It is a continuation of their convictions about the European dream. Q magazine gave the album a rating of four stars out of five, pointing out that "The post-punk provocateurs' 13th album finds them straddling post-millennial metal and ritualistic pounding, Jaz Coleman still roaring like he's the only sane person in a world of fools". Killing Joke are an English post-punk band formed in October 1978 in Notting Hill, London, England. Founding members Jaz Coleman (vocals, keyboards) and Geordie Walker (guitars) have been the only constant members. A key influence on industrial rock, their early music was described by critics Stephen Thomas Erlewine and John Dougan as "quasi-metal ... dancing to a tune of doom and gloom," which gradually evolved over the years, incorporating elements of electronic music, synth-pop, gothic rock and alternative rock, though always emphasising Coleman's "savagely strident vocals."

Novocaine For The Soul

2011-01-27T01:17:00.000+01:00

Philharmonics is the debut studio album by Danish singer-songwriter Agnes Obel. It was released by PIAS Recordings on 4 October 2010 in Denmark, Germany and other European countries. Agnes Caroline Thaarup Obel (born 1981) writes, plays, sings, records and produces all her material herself. She is influenced by artists such as Roy Orbison, Joni Mitchell, John Cale, Sonic Youth, Patti Smith, Joanna Newsom, Kate Bush and also by French composers Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel and Erik Satie. Philharmonics has garnered generally positive reviews, with James Skinner from BBC saying that "the compositions... are slow, sombre, sepulchral even, but not without a sense of occasionally singular beauty". In Musicomh, Ben Edgell writes: "Obel sings with a hushed and tender grace that waxes wistful and serene over yearning cello, harp, and piano vignettes. She's a fey siren, with a dusky, near-whispered vocal that speaks to Ane Brun or Eva Cassidy." In the French cultural magazine Les Inrockuptibles, Johanna Seban mentions a "disarming purity". All of the songs in Philharmonics - except for "Close Watch" (by John Cale) & "Katie Cruel" (a folk traditional) - are original work. Obel lives in Berlin.

Hydrogen Jukebox

2011-01-18T09:53:00.000+01:00

Maximum Balloon is the solo album debut of record producer and musician David Andrew Sitek, released on September 21, 2010 on Interscope . Maximum Balloon was number 24 on Rolling Stone's list of the 30 Best Albums of 2010. David Andrew Sitek (born 1972) is a guitarist and record producer based in New York City, best known as a member of the band TV on the Radio. He has also worked with bands such as Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Liars, Foals, and Celebration, and produced free jazz-influenced remixes of songs by artists such as Beck and Nine Inch Nails. He is also a photographer and painter. Though Sitek has collaborated with several Brooklyn-based indie bands he looks upon the indie music movement with skepticism. In an interview with the Danish music magazine Soundvenue he explains that he is dissatisfied with the opportunistic turn music has taken, referring to the self-promoting indie bands moving to Brooklyn only to claim that they are from "the creative mecca" in order to get the attention of music magazines. "Those bands complaining about other bands selling out, got their iPod filled up with illegal music". This may explain why Sitek has settled down on the West coast in Beverly Hills, California. On his solo project Maximum Balloon Sitek collaborates with many of his old friends (among these are Karen O, David Byrne and Kyp Malone from TV on the Radio), whom he claims are still interested in creating beautiful songs, not only songs that the music magazines want to write about, which, he thinks, keeps the music interesting. In April 2008, Sitek was named Number One in NME's Future 50 list of the most forward thinking people in music today.

This Ain't No Disco

2011-01-04T11:47:00.000+01:00

Top/ The front cover of Talking Heads' second album, More Songs about Buildings and Food (Sire, 1978), was conceived and executed by David Byrne. It is a photomosaic of the band made of 529 close-up Polaroid photographs. More Songs about Buildings and Food is Talking Heads' second album, the first of a string of three produced with Brian Eno. Driven by its rhythm section, the band's blend of funky bass, bubblegum, country, reggae and punk influences, with David Byrne's nerdy, off-kilter voice, established the group as a critical success known for their rabid live shows. Bottom/ Created by the notable graphic designer Tibor Kalman to represent the electro-centric direction the band had taken, the cover of Remain In Light (Sire Records, 1980) shows digitally distorted faces of Talking Heads band members. A mind-warping classic produced by Brian Eno, the album features funky African polyrythms. Eno and Byrne released the groundbreaking My Life In The Bush of Ghosts a year later.

Songs That Make A Difference

2010-12-31T00:01:00.000+01:00

Top/ "This Is Radio Clash" (CBS) is a single released by The Clash in 1981. "This Is Radio Clash", like their previous single "The Magnificent Seven", is a dub reggae, rap, punk-funk song that was influenced by old school hip hop acts from New York City, like the Sugarhill Gang and Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five. The Clash were an English punk rock band that formed in 1976 as part of the original wave of UK punk. Along with punk rock, they experimented with reggae, ska, dub, funk, rap and rockabilly. The Clash's politicized lyrics, musical experimentation, and rebellious attitude had a far-reaching influence on rock, alternative rock in particular. Their record label's A&R director dubbed them "The Only British Band That Matters," which fans picked up and transformed into "The Only Band That Matters". Middle/ Sandinista! is the fourth album by The Clash. It was released in 1980 on CBS as a triple album containing 36 tracks, with 6 songs on each side. Some critics have argued that the album would have worked better as a less-ambitious, smaller project. Others think of the album as a breakthrough that deserves comparison to the Beatles' White Album. Dub versions for some of the songs and toasting was done by Mikey Dread, who had first hooked up with the band for their 1980 single "Bankrobber". With Sandinista! the band reached beyond punk and reggae into dub, rhythm and blues, calypso, gospel and whatever else. The album clearly displays the influence of reggae and in particular producer Lee "Scratch" Perry (who had worked with the band on their 1977 single "Complete Control"), with a dense, echo-filled sound on even the straight rock songs. The song "Washington Bullets" was Clash lyric-writer Joe Strummer's most extensive--and most specific--political statement to date. In it, Strummer name checks conflicts or controversies from around the world; namely in Chile, Nicaragua, Cuba, Afghanistan and Tibet. The rock music world hailed Sandinista! as a masterpiece. Bottom/ "The Magnificent Seven" (CBS) was the third single from Sandinista! The song was recorded in April 1980 at Electric Lady Studios in New York City, built around a bass loop played by Norman Watt-Roy of the Blockheads. Joe Strummer wrote the words on the spot, a technique that was also used to create Sandinista!'s other rap track, "Lightning Strikes (Not Once But Twice)". "The Magnificent Seven" represents the first attempt by a rock band to write and perform original rap music, and one of the earliest examples of hip hop records with political and social content. It is the first major white rap record, predating the recording of Blondie's "Rapture" by six months.

Pop Will Eat Itself

2010-12-29T22:17:00.000+01:00

Mercedes-Benz by Sonic Nurse

2010-12-29T00:00:00.000+01:00

Curated by Music Advisor Max Chavanne of SONIC NURSE | Le Design Sonique for CLM-BBDO advertising, this Mercedes-Benz TV commercial feeds on the track "She's a Rainbow", taken from the 1967 Rolling Stones' psychedelic outing Their Satanic Majesties Request (Decca/ABCKO). Radio commercials curated by SONIC NURSE were also aired by the brand of luxury and high-performance automobiles.

When The Machines Rock

2010-12-28T22:36:00.000+01:00

Top/ Technique (Factory Records) is the fifth original album by New Order, released in 1989. Partly recorded on the island of Ibiza, it incorporates balearic and acid house influences into the group's techno-rock sound. New Order were an English musical group formed in 1980 by Bernard Sumner, Peter Hook and Stephen Morris. New Order were formed in the wake of the demise of their previous group Joy Division, following the suicide of vocalist Ian Curtis. They were soon joined by additional keyboardist Gillian Gilbert. New Order combined post-punk and electronic dance, and became one of the most critically acclaimed and highly influential bands of the 1980s. The band's 1983 hit "Blue Monday" saw them fully embrace dance music and synthesized instruments, and became the best-selling independent 12" single of all time in the UK. New Order were the flagship band for the Manchester based British independent label Factory Records, and their minimalist album sleeves and non-image reflected the label's aesthetics. Like the label 4AD Records, Factory Records used a creative team (most notably record producer Martin Hannett and graphic designer Peter Saville) which gave the label, and the artists recording for it, a particular sound and image. New Order's music has trodden the line between the rock and dance genres, which can be seen on signature tracks such as "True Faith" and "Temptation". They have heavily influenced techno, rock, and pop musicians including Pet Shop Boys, The Killers, and Moby and were themselves influenced by the likes of David Bowie, Neu!, Kraftwerk, Cabaret Voltaire and Giorgio Moroder. They have also significantly influenced electro, freestyle and house. In June 2009, it was announced that Bernard Sumner had formed Bad Lieutenant, and that they had completed an album, Never Cry Another Tear. Middle/ "World (The Price of Love)" (London Records) was a 1993 single taken from the album Republic, New Order's first album after the demise of Factory Records, and their last for eight years. Bottom/ "Ruined in a Day" was released as the second single from Republic.

That Voodoo That You Do

2010-12-21T18:59:00.001+01:00

Material is a musical group formed in 1979 and led by bass guitarist Bill Laswell. Early Material was primarily instrumental. The music was often funky — a few singles, such as "Ciquri", were popular in New York City dance clubs — but decidedly experimental. 1982's One Down marked a change towards relatively more accessible mainstream "funk and disco tunes delivered with a minimum of weirdness." "Memories" was one of Whitney Houston's first recordings as a featured vocalist. Herbie Hancock hired Laswell and many of his Material collaborators for his 1983 album Future Shock, including the important single "Rockit". Laswell has since used the Material name for a variety of projects featuring his usual revolving-door cast of talented musicians. Notable was 1989's Seven Souls, featuring William S. Burroughs reading portions of his novel The Western Lands; that song was also predominantly featured in The Sopranos' season six opener, Members Only. 1993's well-named Hallucination Engine was released on Axiom and features a vast array of guest musicians including Trilok Gurtu, Jonas Hellborg, Zakir Hussain, Bootsy Collins and William Burroughs again, this time on the hilarious track "Words Of Advice".

Toward The Within

2010-12-10T12:26:00.002+01:00

Top/ Stratosfear is an electronic music album released in 1976 by the German group Tangerine Dream. It marks the beginning of the band's evolution away from their uncompromising early 1970s synthesizer experiments toward a recognizably more melodic sound, a trend they would pick up again in 1979's Force Majeure. Founded in 1967 by Edgar Froese, Tangerine Dream released this album following 1975's Rubycon and Ricochet. Drummer and composer Klaus Schulze was a member of an early lineup. Tangerine Dream's early "Pink Years" albums had a pivotal role in the development of Krautrock. However, the release of Phaedra in 1974 marked a divergence of that group from Krautrock to a more melodic sequencer-driven sound that was later termed Berlin School. In that same year Klaus Schulze delivered one more LP of pure Krautrock, Blackdance, and began to release more hypnotic versions of what TD was doing.Their "Virgin Years" and later albums became a defining influence in New Age music, although the band themselves dislike the term. Bottom/ EP "Lifeforms" by The Future Sound Of London (Astralwerks, 1994) features the ethereal voice of Cocteau Twins singer Elisabeth Fraser. The Cocteau Twins were a Scottish rock music band active from 1979 to 1997, known for complex instrumentation and atmospheric, nonlyrical vocals. Though formed in the post punk and new wave era, the Cocteau Twins tended to defy concise categorization, and their music was a key influence on dream pop. Although the entire band was praised for their performances, Fraser received the most attention. At times barely decipherable, Fraser seemed to veer into glossolalia and mouth music.

Vortical Phonoteque

2010-12-09T12:29:00.000+01:00

Bottom/ Do It! (Domino Records) is the fifth album by the band Clinic, released on 7 April 2008. Clinic are a Liverpool based indie rock band noted for their often fast-paced, eclectic sound. Ade Blackburn's distinctive acidic vocals are a trademark of the band, and they are also known for wearing surgical masks and costumes while performing and in promotional photos. Middle/ Rinôçérôse is a French band founded by Jean-Philippe Freu and Patrice Carrié that mixes rock music and electronic dance music. The duo of musicians also work as psychologists, calling themselves, "Psychologists by day, musicians by night". "Schizophonia" (V2, 2005) marks a new turning point in the band's music, with a more mainstream rock groove rather than a more ambient electronic sound. Included is the single "Bitch". Top/ Taking its cues from soul, funk, hip-hop or 60's pop, In The Mood For Life (Atmosphériques, 2009) is the third album by Wax Tailor. Wax Tailor is the alias of French trip hop/hip hop producer Jean-Christophe Le Saoût. A sweeping, cinematic hip-hop album that had critics citing similarities toDJ Shadow, RJD2 and Portishead, WT's debut album Tales of the Forgotten Melodies (Under Cover, 2005) was heralded as Radio Nova's album of the year. His sophomore effort, Hope & Sorrow was also very well received by audiences. Wax's track "Seize The Day" recorded with Charlotte Savary appears in the soundtrack of the 2008 Cédric Klapisch film Paris. Other musicians who have appeared alongside Wax Tailor include Marina Quaisse, Big Dada rapper Infinite Livez, Alela Diane, North Carolina hip-hop duo The Others, Ursula Rucker, Sharon Jones, Voice and A State Of Mind.

Psychic Karaoke

2010-12-08T12:34:00.000+01:00

Top/ Dean Wareham and Britta Phillips are best known for being one-half of Luna, one of the most critically acclaimed rock bands of the past two decades. Wareham is also known for fronting the seminal indie band Galaxie 500. As Dean & Britta, they have scored for films (the Academy Award-nominated The Squid and the Whale among them) and worked with producer Tony Visconti (David Bowie, T. Rex) on their lauded debut album, L'Avventura (Jetset Records, 2003). After hearing the album, Peter Kember (a.k.a. Sonic Boom of Spacemen 3, Spectrum, & E.A.R.) fell in love with it and did a remix mini LP entitled "Sonic Souvenirs". Back Numbers (Zoe Records, 2007), also produced by Visconti, picks up where L'Avventura left off, with the spotlight on Dean & Britta's laconic, dreamy vocal interplay on originals like "Words You Used to Say" and "Wait for Me," along with covers of '60s gems such as The Troggs' "Our Love Will Still Be There" and Lee Hazlewood's "You Turned My Head Around." Luna was a dream pop/indie pop band formed in 1991 by Dean Wareham after the breakup of Galaxie 500. In mid-1993 Luna supported the reformed Velvet Underground on their European tour, after which they recorded their second album, Bewitched. Velvet Underground guitarist Sterling Morrison played guitar on two tracks. Luna's third album Penthouse was released in August 1995 to critical acclaim, with Rolling Stone declaring it one of the essential albums of the 90s. The album featured Television guitarist Tom Verlaine on the tracks "Moon Palace" and "23 Minutes in Brussels." Bottom/ Penthouse also featured a cover of Serge Gainsbourg's Bonnie and Clyde as a hidden track. The song featured Laetitia Sadier of Stereolab duetting with Dean Wareham. Bonnie and Clyde (Beggars Banquet) was released as a single in the UK and was named Melody Maker single of the week.

Dreams That Breathe Your Name

2010-11-29T01:08:00.000+01:00

Channeling meaning and emotion through sound: picks by Music Curator Max Chavanne, founder and driving force at Sonic-Nurse.com, transcend music genres, breaking down musical boundaries. Top/ The album cover of Queen Of The Meadow (Jetset Records, 2000) by enigmatic art rock band Elysian Fields depicts Ophelia, a character from Shakespeare's play Hamlet, singing before she drowns. Elysian Fields is a Brooklyn, New York based band founded in 1995 by co-composers Jennifer Charles (vocals, instruments) and Oren Bloedow (guitar). Their music has been sometimes described as "noir rock", due to its sultry, dark and mysterious inflections, be it sonically or lyrically. The band uses mainly acoustic instruments, predominantly guitar, piano, bass and drums, with the occasional appearance of eastern instruments, classical strings, and subtle electronics, the focal point being the voice of Charles in the forefront. Their music is lush and melancholy, with poetic and surreal lyrics. Author of The Dark Stuff, Nick Kent says of their music, "Maybe we have their out-of-the-mainstreamness to thank for a sound that is still unique -- as sensual as a sleepwalker's wet dream." Bottom/ In The Aeroplane Over The Sea (Merge, 1998) is the second studio album by American indie rock band Neutral Milk Hotel. Pitchfork Media's M. Christian McDermott gave the album an 8.7 out of 10, referring to Neutral Milk Hotel as "one psych-rock band making music that's just as catchy as it is frightening" and said that the album "does a credible job of blending Sgt. Pepper with early 90's lo-fi." Jason Ankeny of Allmusic wrote, "lo-fi yet lush, impenetrable yet wholly accessible, In the Aeroplane Over the Sea is either the work of a genius or an utter crackpot, with the truth probably falling somewhere in between."

Black Tie White Noise

2010-11-24T16:05:00.000+01:00

Bottom/ Featuring Juno Reactor, Total Eclipse and The Infinity Project, Trip Through Sound (1997) unleashes an interstellar, urgent vibe. Some consider Blue Room Released to be one of the most important labels in the psychedelic trance genre. Top/ Cutting like a diamond: 100th Window (Virgin Records) is the fourth studio album from the Bristol-based trip-hop group Massive Attack. Of the band's original core trio, the album only features Robert Del Naja. Andrew Vowles departed shortly after the release of Mezzanine, and Grant Marshall refused to participate in the making of the record. Released in February 2003, 100th Window was written and produced by Del Naja and Neil Davidge, and features vocals from Horace Andy and Sinéad O'Connor (on tracks including "What Your Soul Sings"), as well as an imperceptible appearance by Damon Albarn. It is the first album by the band that made no use of samples, and contains none of the jazz or jazz fusion stylings of the band's earlier recordings. 100th Window received a generally positive, though somewhat muted critical reception, many arguing that whilst Massive Attack's previous three albums had all broken significant new ground for the group, 100th Window's dark, brooding sound was merely a continuation, although in some areas, less dark, of Mezzanine. The title of the album comes from the book The Hundredth Window: Protecting Your Privacy and Security in the Age of the Internet; this title is an allusion to the idea that one's security is compromised if even one window is left open.

C'mon Feel The Noize

2010-11-22T14:34:00.000+01:00

Bottom/ Kimono My House (Island, 1974) was Sparks' third album, scoring a number 2 hit with the glam single "This Town Ain't Big Enough for Both of Us". In contrast to the esteem in which they are held by such peers as Morrissey, Depeche Mode, New Order and the Pet Shop Boys, who all cite the L.A duo of Ron and Russell Mael as a major influence, Sparks' almost constantly changing styles —including glam pop, power pop and electronic dance music— and unique visual presentations have sometimes seen them dismissed as a novelty act. The album title is generally assumed to be a pun on the Rosemary Clooney hit "Come on-a My House". Sparks have been highly influential on the development of popular music, in particular on the late 1970s scene, when in collaboration with Giorgio Moroder (and Telex subsequently), they reinvented themselves as an electronic pop duo, and abandoned the traditional rock band line up. The 2002 release of Lil' Beethoven, their self-described "genre-defying opus", as well as the more recent albums Hello Young Lovers (2006, their 20th studio album) and Exotic Creatures Of The Deep (2008) have brought Sparks renewed critical and commercial success, and seen them continue to "steer clear of pop conventions." On August 14, 2009, the band premièred the radio musical The Seduction of Ingmar Bergman. Middle/ LP It's Only A Movie (Raft Records, 1973) is the last original studio album by English rock band Family before they disbanded that year. Top/ Single "Afrodiziak" from debut album Glee (Audiogram, 1997) by Bran Van 3000, an electronica collective from Montreal, Canada founded by the DJ James Di Salvio.

I Am Your Shadow

2010-11-15T19:40:00.001+01:00

Bottom/ Described by Dr. Dre as "the perfect epitome of anger expressed in music", "Bullet With Butterfly Wings" by The Smashing Pumpkins originally appeared on their album Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness (Virgin Records, 1995), from which it was the lead single. The Smashing Pumpkins are an American band that formed in Chicago, Illinois in 1988. Less overtly sharing the punk rock roots of many of their alt-rock contemporaries, the Pumpkins have a diverse, densely layered, and guitar-heavy sound, containing elements of gothic rock, heavy metal, dream pop, psychedelic rock, arena rock, shoegazer-style production and, in later recordings, electronica. Frontman Billy Corgan is the group's primary songwriter—his grand musical ambitions and cathartic lyrics have shaped the band's albums and songs, which have been described as "anguished, bruised reports from Billy Corgan's nightmare-land". Top/ Misery Is A Butterfly (4AD, 2004) is the sixth studio album by New York indie/shoegaze trio Blonde Redhead. Comprised of Kazu Makino and twin brothers Simone and Amedeo Pace, the band performs in multiple languages including English, Japanese, Italian, and French. Makino is noted for her high, eerie voice, which hovers over melodic guitar riffs and clockwork drum beats. The large span of time between Melody of Certain Damaged Lemons and Misery Is a Butterfly is attributed to Makino's recovery time after being trampled by a horse. Much of the visual and lyrical imagery of Misery Is a Butterfly is reflective of the accident.

Zing A Zing A Zing Boom

2010-11-10T11:22:00.001+01:00

Bottom/ The Avalanche: Outtakes and Extras from the Illinois Album (Asthmatic Kitty, 2006) is an album by indie rock singer/songwriter Sufjan Stevens, consisting of outtakes and other recordings from the sessions for his 2005 concept album Illinois. The cover features a cartoon depiction of Stevens wearing a cape and costume held aloft by strings, a likely reference to the image of Superman he was forced to remove from the cover of Illinois. Top/ On the vinyl edition of the album Illinois, released on November 22, 2005, Superman's image is covered by a balloon sticker. The varied instrumentation and experimental songwriting on Illinois invoked comparisons to work by Neil Young and The Cure. Sufjan Stevens (born July 1, 1975) is an American singer-songwriter and musician born in Detroit, Michigan. Stevens has released albums of varying styles, from the electronica of Enjoy Your Rabbit and the lo-fi folk of Seven Swans to the symphonic instrumentation of Illinois and Christmas-themed Songs for Christmas. He is considered part of the folk revival in indie pop, but his influences are very broad. His music has been likened to electronica and aesthetically compared to the minimalism of Steve Reich. Stevens' music often has spiritual themes, and many songs (most notably on Seven Swans) draw inspiration from Bible tales. The Age of Adz (pronounced "odds") was released on October 12, 2010 by Asthmatic Kitty Records. It is Stevens' first song-based full length album in five years, since the release of Illinois in 2005. The album features a heavy use of electronics augmented by heavy orchestration, and takes inspiration from the apocalyptic artwork of schizophrenic artist Royal Robertson.

We Own The Night

2010-11-05T00:22:00.000+01:00

II (Drag City, 2006) was the third album from Espers (presumably so called because it was their second album of original material). Espers is a psych folk band from Philadelphia that is part of the emerging indie folk scene. Their music is reminiscent of late-sixties British folk as well as many contemporary folk acts such as Six Organs of Admittance. Most of the band's members have also featured on recordings by a number of other folk artists such as Nick Castro and Vashti Bunyan and as a result have become an important part of the psych-folk revival. Their album of cover songs, The Weed Tree, released in 2005, featured the band's versions of songs by artists as diverse as Nico, The Durutti Column and Blue Öyster Cult. An esper refers to an individual capable of telepathy and other similar paranormal abilities. The term is derived from the abbreviation ESP for extrasensory perception.

Morning Light Forgives The Night

2010-11-03T13:01:00.000+01:00

Bottom/ Neil Halstead is an English songwriter and musician. He was a founding member of shoegazer band Slowdive, and is currently the principal singer and songwriter in dream pop/country rock group Mojave 3, also playing guitar in the band. In 2001, 4AD Records released a solo album, Sleeping on Roads. Following his departure from 4AD, a second solo album, Oh! Mighty Engine was released by Brushfire Records on July 29, 2008. The term shoegazer was applied to bands that followed My Bloody Valentine's example of abrasive guitars and ethereal vocals. Middle/ Sumday (V2, 2003) is the third album by indie rock group Grandaddy from Modesto, California. Musically, the band features guitars in the indie rock style, keyboards reminiscent of Philip Glass's minimalist style and vocals in the key of Neil Young. The band's musical style (somewhat classifiable as indietronic) often combines experimental electronic sounds with elements of folk and high-energy rock. Lyrics generally focus on isolation in a high-tech world grafted onto rural America. Top/ Recorded in Brittany, London and Paris, French pop/folk band Cocoon's sophomore album Where The Oceans End (Sober and Gentle, 2010) tells the tale of a boy who meets Yum Yum, a thousand-year old whale believed to swallow people's nightmares and problems, only to regurgitate happiness. Previous releases by Cocoon include EPs I Hate Birds and From Panda Mountains, and the band's 2007 debut My Friends All Died in a Plane Crash.

Together In Electric Dreams

2010-11-02T18:24:00.000+01:00

Bottom/ Faith and Courage is the fifth full-length album by Irish singer-songwriter Sinéad O'Connor, released in 2000 on Atlantic Records. The album includes the single "No Man's Woman," and featured contributions from Wyclef Jean of the Fugees and Dave Stewart of Eurythmics. On the eve of its release, O'Connor came out as a lesbian, and then retracted the statement. Her second album, I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got, was reissued in 2009 with an accompanying bonus disc containing B-sides and previously unreleased material. The Serenity Prayer, an originally untitled prayer, most commonly attributed to the theologian Reinhold Niebuhr, kicks off the album in the song "Feel So Different". Top/ "Produced under the universal influence of C.O.I.T. (Compagnie d'Opera Invisible de Tibet)", You (Virgin Records, 1974) by progressive /psychedelic rock band Gong is the third of the legendary Radio Gnome Invisible trilogy of albums, following Flying Tea Pot and Angel's Egg. Their music has also been described as space rock. From the infamous Camembert Electrique (Virgin, 1971) on, the Gong mythology is a collection of recurring characters, themes, and ideas that permeate the albums. Among them are the mythology's central character, Zero the Hero, the "great beer yogi" Banana Ananda, the Octave Doctors, Hiram the Master Builder, as well as a number of Pot Head Pixies from the Planet Gong. These pixies are green with propellers on their heads, and they fly around in teapots. In Angel's Egg, the second installment of the trilogy, Zero locates the Planet Gong, and spends some time with a prostitute who introduces him to the moon goddess Selene. Places evoked throughout the Gong mythology include the One Invisible Temple of Gong, Bananamoon Observatory and the Isle of Everywhere. The characters of the story are often based on or used as pseudonyms for band members.

Pocket Symphony

2010-10-27T00:01:00.000+02:00

Top/ Broken Boy Soldiers (Third Man/V2, 2006) is The Raconteurs' first full-length and contains the lead single "Steady, As She Goes". The Raconteurs (also known as The Saboteurs in Australia), are a rock group, featuring four members previously known for other musical projects, including Jack White of The White Stripes. The band is based in Nashville, Tennessee. Bottom/ Nixon (Merge) is a 2000 album by Lambchop. A band from Nashville, Tennessee, Lambchop is loosely associated with the alternative country genre, though its music resists easy classification. Allmusic refers to them as "arguably the most consistently brilliant and unique American group to emerge during the 1990s". Never a band with a "core" lineup, Lambchop through the years has consisted of a large and fluid collective of musicians focused around its creative centre, frontman Kurt Wagner. Initially indebted to traditional country, the music has subsequently moved through a range of influences including post-rock, soul and lounge music. Whatever the style, the characteristic mood of Lambchop's music is evoked by Wagner's distinctive songwriting - lyrically subtle and ambiguous, the vocals melodic but understated.

Orchestra Of Bubbles

2010-10-22T02:32:00.002+02:00

Bottom/ Apparat is a German electronic musician (Sascha Ring) living in Berlin and one of the owners of Shitkatapult Records. Starting out with dance floor-oriented techno, he later started to create ambient music. Recent music is closer to glitch or IDM, accompanied with classical string instruments and other sounds. He collaborated with experimental techno artist Ellen Allien in 2003 on the album Berlinette, and again in 2006 on the album Orchestra of Bubbles.2007 saw the release of his own Walls (Shitkatapult). In March 2009 he released an album with Modeselektor under the name Moderat. Middle/ An unfinished version of the album Orchestra Of Bubbles (BPitch, 2006) by Ellen Allien and Apparat, was leaked on the net months prior its release. Ellen Allien, born Ellen Fraatz, is a German electronic musician, music producer and founder of BPitch Control music label. She lives in Berlin, Germany. She sings in both German and English. She has said that one of the main inspirations for her music is the culture of reunified Berlin; her album Stadtkind was dedicated to the city. Allien's music tends to be difficult to classify stylistically and is best described as a distinctive blend of techno and electromusic, which is dance-floor oriented, yet at the same time has noticeable experimental elements. Top/ Chromophobia (Kompakt, 2007) by Brazilian DJ and electronic music producer Gui Boratto (born 1974 in São Paulo) was awarded the title of Mixmag Album of the Month. Boratto's sophomore full-length, Take My Breath Away, was released in March 2009 on Cologne-based electronic music record label Kompakt Records. They specialize in microhouse and minimal techno, and are known for their Total compilation series. According to Grooves magazine, "Kompakt’s chief aesthetic objective has always been the perfect marriage of ambient texture and linear 4x4 structure—blending deep, granular sound design with the 4-bar rhythmic intensity and patterning that makes house and techno so club-effective".

Prophecies and Reversed Memories

2010-10-20T00:01:00.002+02:00

Originally released in a die-cut gatefold sleeve with a two tone coloured inner sleeve, Dazzle Ships is the fourth album by Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, released in 1983 on Virgin Records. The title and cover art (designed by Peter Saville) alluded to a painting by vorticist artist Edward Wadsworth based on dazzle camouflage. The album was the follow-up release to the band's hugely successful Architecture and Morality. In contrast with its celebrated predecessor, Dazzle Ships met with a degree of critical and commercial hostility, due to the inaccessible nature of half of the material it contained, particularly musique concrete sound collages, utilising shortwave radio recordings to explore cold war and eastern bloc themes. The "Radio Prague" track is the actual interval signal of the Czechoslovak Radio foreign service, including the time signal and station ID spoken in Czech. "Time Zones" is a montage of various speaking clocks from around the world. Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (most often abbreviated to OMD or O.M.D.) are a synth-pop group whose founding members Andy McCluskey and Paul Humphreys are originally from the Wirral Peninsula, England. OMD were originally assimilated in the greater new wave batch of synthesizer-based acts of the later 1970s-early 1980s. On 3 March 2008 a remastered compact disc with bonus tracks was released, to coincide with the 25th anniversary of the album. The critical hostility towards the album had cooled and the reissue of Dazzle Ships received positive reviews from Pitchfork Media and Popmatters, among others.

Schizophonia

2010-10-14T12:55:00.003+02:00

Bottom/ Richard D. James Album (Warp Records, 1996) is an album by Richard D. James under his pseudonym Aphex Twin and is an archetype in the drill 'n bass genre. On "Logan Rock Witch", James sampled children's toys as percussion instruments. Some of the tracks, including the single "Girl/Boy Song", play plucked and bowed string sounds. Richard David James (born 18 August 1971), better known as Aphex Twin, is an electronic music artist who has been described as "the most inventive and influential figure in contemporary electronic music". Mr. James has also been quoted as saying, "I never listen to the same record twice, there's no point". Richard's own Rephlex Records label coined the term "Braindance" in 1991 to describe Aphex Twin's otherwise uncategorisable music. "Braindance" applies to "forward-thinking" electronic music that can appeal to the mind as well as the desire to dance and party. Middle/ Velocifero (Nettwerk, 2008), literally meaning "bringer of speed", is the fourth studio album from British electropop band Ladytron. "Black Cat" and "Kletva" are both sung entirely in Bulgarian. Ladytron are an electronic pop band originally based in Liverpool, England, although members originate from Sofia and Glasgow as well as Liverpool itself. Ladytron have a cult audience worldwide. Across Europe, they opened for Nine Inch Nails in early 2007 at the invitation of Trent Reznor. Top/ The Knife is an electronic musical duo from Sweden formed in 1999. The band consists of siblings Karin Dreijer Andersson (a.k.a. Fever Ray) and Olof Dreijer, who together also run their own record company, Rabid Records. They first received international attention after their song "Heartbeats", covered by José González, appeared in a commercial by Sony. One of the group's distinguishing characteristics is their unwillingness to cooperate with the media or the mainstream music scene. The group rarely makes public appearances, most of their promotional photos feature the members wearing masks, usually venetian masks and until recently, they outright refused to perform live concerts. The group has shown themselves in public wearing masks formed as birds' beaks, similar to the traditional Venetian Medico Della Peste (plague doctor) masks worn during Carnival. Silent Shout was named the best album of 2006 by Pitchfork Media. On August 4, 2009, the band announced that, in collaboration with Mt. Sims and Planningtorock, they would be writing an opera for the Danish performance group Hotel Pro Forma. The opera, titled Tomorrow, In A Year, is based on Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species. In January 2010, the band announced that they would release a studio version on March 1.

Satin Chic

2010-10-13T10:22:00.004+02:00

Bottom/ Supernature (Mute, 2005) is the third album by British electronic duo Goldfrapp. The album represented a change in Goldfrapp's musical style, and featured pop and electronic-dance music; inspirations were disco music artist Donna Summer and New Wave band New Order. Goldfrapp is a British electronic music group known for their visual theatrics and contribution to the popularization of electronic dance music. The band's sound has progressed from an ambient sound in Felt Mountain (2000), through electronic music in Black Cherry to a more glam rock sound in Supernature, and most recently to a blend of ambient, folk, and electronic in Seventh Tree (2008). Will Gregory's musical background was classical music and has cited Ennio Morricone as his main influence. In 2003, Alison Goldfrapp modified her image, from a sophisticated Marlene Dietrich inspired look to that of a New Wave diva. The reinvented image included false eyelashes, customized T-shirts, military uniforms and fishnet stockings. Sections of the 2004 Wonderful Electric Tour stage show featured Goldfrapp in a white dress wearing a horse tail and dancers with deer heads, and were inspired by Goldfrapp's interest in animals and mythology. Top/ "Strict Machine" is an electronic dance song written by Goldfrapp and Nick Batt for their second studio album Black Cherry (Mute, 2003). The single describes laboratory rats in neuroscience experiments. Alison Goldfrapp read in a newspaper about experiments in which scientists stimulated rats' brains so that the rats would feel joy when following commands. She was inspired to write "Strict Machine" based on images of the experiment and "more human aspects of machines and sex and control."

You Turn Me On, I'm A Radio

2010-10-04T00:01:00.003+02:00

Bottom/ Crazy Itch Radio (Astralwerks, 2006) by UK electronic dance duo Basement Jaxx features guest vocals by Lily Allen Middle/ Wild Planet (Island) is the second studio album by the The B-52's, released in 1980. The album has a slightly more psychedelic and even paranoid sound than that of their debut. The B-52's' sound is marked by the vocals and feminine harmonies of Cindy Wilson and Kate Pierson, and the generally spoken-word male vocal counterpoint or sprechgesang of Fred Schneider. Presenting as a positive, enthusiastic, slightly wacky party band, the B-52's have focused on songs telling tall tales ("Rock Lobster", "Girl from Ipanema Goes to Greenland"), glorifying wild youth ("Love Shack", "Deadbeat Club"), or celebrating wild romance ("Strobe Light", "Hot Pants Explosion"), all set to a danceable New Wave beat. Top/ Guitarist Poison Ivy of The Cramps purrs on the cover of "Can Your Pussy Do The Dog?" from the psychobilly group's album A Date With Elvis (Big Beat Records, 1986). A punk rock band originally formed in 1976, The Cramps were part of the early CBGB's punk rock movement that had emerged in New York, along with other emerging acts like the Ramones, Patti Smith, and Television.

Wonderwall To Be Here

2010-07-27T00:11:00.003+02:00

The Adventures of Ghosthorse and Stillborn (Touch and Go, 2007) is the third full length studio album by CocoRosie. It was produced by Valgeir Sigurðsson, Björk's longtime collaborator. CocoRosie is a musical group formed in 2003 by sisters Bianca "Coco" and Sierra "Rosie" Casady. The sisters were born and raised in the United States, but formed the band in Paris after meeting for the first time in years. As children, the sisters spent summers with their father, an Iowa farmer who became interested in Native American religion, while he visited Indian reservations and took part in vision quests. The album's cover is a photo by Pierre et Gilles that features Sierra, Bianca, and Bianca in drag. Their music has been called "freak folk", and incorporates elements of pop,blues, opera, electronica, and hip hop. On May 13, 2008, CocoRosie released a new single entitled "God Has a Voice, She Speaks Through Me". The nomadic duo (currently and temporarily residing in New Mexico) spent much of 2008 writing and recording in Buenos Aires, Melbourne, Berlin, New York, and Paris, finding amazing and diverse musicians to collaborate along the way. The result is their 11-song 2010 Sub Pop debut, Grey Oceans. CocoRosie was named the 16th most influential artist of the decade by betterPropaganda in 2009.

Hymn Of The Big Wheel

2010-06-24T00:01:00.001+02:00

Top/ Tormato (Atlantic, 1978) is the ninth studio album by British progressive rock group Yes, issued as the follow-up to 1977's acclaimed Going for the One. The original album title was to be Yes Tor, referring to a geological formation in southern England. The photographs taken by legendary design group Hipgnosis for the album cover were seen as so unimpressive that keyboard player Rick Wakeman, in frustration, threw a tomato at the pictures. The cover and title were adjusted accordingly. Yes are an English progressive rock band formed in London in 1968, generally regarded as one of the archetypal bands and pioneers of the genre. They have sold over 60 million albums. The band's music blends symphonic and other "classical" structures with their own brand of rock music. Although the band's sole consistent member has been bass player Chris Squire, Yes are also generally noted for the distinctive high-register vocals of former lead singer Jon Anderson and the eclectic musical stylings of a succession of guitarists (including Steve Howe), keyboard players (including Rick Wakeman), and drummers (including Bill Bruford and Alan White). Long-term band members Squire, Howe, and White are currently touring with a lineup featuring vocalist Benoît David and keyboardist Oliver Wakeman. Bottom/ Despite acquiring a reputation as an example of the worst excesses of "prog rock", Tales from Topographic Oceans (Atlantic Records, 1973) became the band's fourth consecutive gold album. The album's concept, a two-disc, four-piece work of symphonic length and scope (based on the Shastric scriptures, as found in a footnote within Paramahansa Yogananda's book Autobiography of a Yogi), was their most ambitious to date. The four songs of the album symbolise (in track order) the concepts of Truth, Knowledge, Culture, and Freedom, the subjects of that section of text. On release it received notably hostile reviews. Gordon Fletcher in his review in Rolling Stone described it as "psychedelic doodling". Artwork for the album (design and illustration) was done by Roger Dean. Dean designed many of the group's album covers, forming a continuing story in pictures. Dean had also created the Yes logo. The cover of Tales from Topographic Oceans has often been included in lists of the best album covers of all time.

Lady Dada's Nightmare

2010-06-17T00:01:00.001+02:00

Bottom/ Moderat (BPitch Control, 2009) is an album by the electronic project of the same name with origin in Berlin, Germany. Moderat started as a collaboration between Sascha Ring, also known as Apparat, and Gernot Bronsert and Sebastian Szary, also known as Modeselektor. The album has received mostly favorable reviews. Fishpork calls first single "A New Error" one of the best tracks of 2009. Modeselektor is an electronic music band formed in Berlin, featuring Gernot Bronsert and Sebastian Szary. The group draws heavily from IDM, glitch, electro and hip hop. In an interview the group said regarding their sound: "Happy metal, hard rap, country-ambient, Russian crunk. We don’t like it if people tag us as being a certain style or school or scene or whatever. We don’t really care about all that." Top/ Congratulations (Columbia, 2010) is the second album from MGMT. MGMT (officially pronounced em-gee-em-tee, but colloquially pronounced 'Management') is an American band based in Brooklyn, New York, consisting of Ben Goldwasser and Andrew VanWyngarden. MGMT began writing for the album in early 2009 in a "small cabin in the woods", eventually heading to Malibu to record with Pete Kember, ex-member of Spacemen 3. VanWyngarden has stated that the album is influenced by the band's massive rise in popularity since Oracular Spectacular's release. MGMT stated that they would prefer not releasing any singles on the new album. In an interview with NME, Goldwasser explained: "There definitely isn't a 'Time to Pretend' or a 'Kids' on the album. We've been talking about ways to make sure people hear the album as an album in order and not just figure out what are the best three tracks, download those and not listen to the rest of it." On March 9, 2010, the band released the song "Flash Delirium" as a free download. MGMT have described the album as "a collection of nine individual musical tours de force sequenced to flow with sonic and thematic coherence." Writer Shelby Powell noted the group's homage to British pop musicians Dan Treacy of Television Personalities and Brian Eno of Roxy Music, complete with faux accents in MGMT's delivery on a few songs.

Get The Balance Right

2010-06-08T20:49:00.007+02:00

Bottom/ "Rock The Casbah" is a single from the album Combat Rock (Epic, 1982) by The Clash. One theory is that the song was inspired by the banning of rock music in Iran under Ayatollah Khomeini. The song gives a fabulist account of the ban by the Sharif or King being defied by the population, who proceed to "rock the casbah". The King orders jet fighters to bomb any people in violation of the ban. The pilots ignore the orders, and instead play rock music on their cockpit radios. The song's lyrics feature various Arabic, Hebrew, Turkish, and Sanskrit loan-words, such as sharif, bedouin, sheikh, kosher, rāga, muezzin, minaret, and casbah. According to the album notes on the box set Clash on Broadway, "Rock the Casbah" originated when the band's manager Bernie Rhodes, after hearing them record an inordinately long track for the album, asked them facetiously "does everything have to be as long as this rāga?" (referring to the Indian musical style known for its length and complexity). Joe Strummer later wrote the opening lines to the song: "The King told the boogie-men 'you have to let that rāga drop'". The Clash made low-budget music videos for several of their songs, and the one for "Rock the Casbah" may be their most memorable. Filmed in Austin, Texas, it depicts an Arab, played by Austin actor Titos Menchaca, and a Hasidic Jew, played by local stage director Dennis Razze, befriend each other on the road and skanking together through the streets to a Clash concert at Palmer Auditorium, often followed by an armadillo, interspersed with the band performing in front of an oil well.
Top/ Once described as "the sound of the earth vomiting", English post-punk band Killing Joke's music influenced many later bands, such as Nirvana, Nine Inch Nails, Metallica and Korn. Ominous single "War Dance" was released on Malicious Damage in 1980. Jaz Coleman's vocals are sometimes a malevolent-sounding growl and sometimes emotional and melodic. Killing Joke's music typically consists of metallic guitars and heavy, tribal, and danceable rhythms.