09-07-2013: Must-Have of the Month Weekend Riot Club - PSYCHOTROPIA
Must-Have of the Month for July was a hard decision with a mind-blowing hiphop album by Ugly Heroes and 2 more highly addictive albums battling for some precious airtime on the stereo. The winner is PSYCHOTROPIA by Weekend Riot Club, a hard-rocking, head-knocking album, best enjoyed played as loud as possible.
Beware that 'Fly Away' might get stuck in your head, I've had the experience for the last few days singing "Take a deep breath and hold on tight, Let's fly away" pretty much everywhere I went.
The whole album oozes a 90s rockchick-feel, but with a modern twist to it. Being a 90s-kid this is probably one of the reasons I'm so madly in love with this album. The riffs are cold and hard, the drums loud and relentless, the lyrics are mostly about love, brought to you by lead-singer Melissa.
For some reason I feel I shouldn't be so hyped up about this album, perhaps because of that obvious 90s-link this album holds. But this album is just 100% fun. You can dance, rock, jump, run and basically just go hard to this. It's a primal thing, I'd say typical male aswell, but since there's a pretty girl doing the vocals on this record that doesn't really make sense.
Bottom line: Great! Fucking! Record!
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07-07-2013: Track Crushes - Love Is Lost
The next beautiful Summer day is best celebrated with another great track. This sweaty banger from Crushes is perfect for a hot Summer day. It's their 1st release, but I'm hoping on more great tunes before Fall sets in. But for now, let's dance!
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06-07-2013: Track Anton Walgrave - Celebration
It's weekend for the non-vacation people of the world. It's sunny as hell & we spend about 10 hours at the beach bbq-ing and party-ing yesterday. In a few minutes I'll be leaving on the next trip & I don't expect to be home soon. The Summer is finally here, let's celebrate with a great new track by Anton Walgrave. One of Belgium's finest singer-songwriters.
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04-07-2013: Album Ugly Heroes - Ugly Heroes
After 2 days of listening pretty much non-stop to this hiphop-album I knew I struck gold. Thanks to a good friend who tipped this, I finally heard a great hiphop-album that is actually released in 2013. Based on the major opinion Kanye's new album is also worth hearing, I'll get to that later. For now, I'm still hooked on this.
This album sounds a lot like the conscious rap that was coming up 20 years ago with Mos Def, Common & Pharaohe Monch. The sound of that last group was probably a big inspiration to Ugly Heroes. No matter where it comes from though, what matters is what it sounds like today. And it sounds good.
Usually I just type a few lines and let you enjoy the music and form your own opinion on the things I put on this blog. But this album has me to hyped up that I want to keep on talking about the great lyrics, the fine beats with that oldschool-vibe taking me back to the 1st time I listened to Common and Mos Def and how mind-blown I was back then.
I won't though. You just listen to to these four tracks and you'll probably decide to check out the entire album at http://mellomusicgroup.bandcamp.com/album/ugly-heroes. You should!
Great. Fucking. Album.
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01-07-2013: Monday Morning Kick-Off Peter and Kerry - I Don't Know
Monday Morning Kick-Off by Peter and Kerry. It sounds and feels sunny, just the opposite from what I see outside my window this morning. Good thing there's always a sunny track to be found on the webs to brighten up the horrific Monday mornings. Have a good week!
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28-06-2013: Track Soft Shoulder - Repeat #2
So I had the official Plug in, Baby! Vacation 2013 Tune all figured out long before this day finally was here, but last night everything changed when I heard "Repeat #2" by Soft Shoulder. This track is haunting, mesmerizing, intense, loud, sweaty, cold, hard, rock. It has it all, and more.
Vacation kicked in an hour ago, but already several of those have passed by, and will again within the next 3,5 weeks. I'm keeping up the neighbours with this all night (even though I ain't there to hear it), they will know I'm let out of my cage for the upcoming time. Haunting as Fuck! I love it!
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27-06-2013: Track Bridie Jackson & The Arbour - Prolong
The next insanely beautiful song by one of the best groups of musicians walking the face of the earth at the moment: Bridie Jackson & The Arbour. While they're gathering 1000s of new fans per minute this weekend at Glastonbury, I'll be enjoying this great song they've released yesterday. It has the same "turn off the lights, burn candles & stare into nothing"-intense beauty as previous single Scarecrow, but it's a little slower, a little darker. Perhaps even more suitable for midnight listening. With the world asleep, your phone in a dark corner and some red wine as your only companion.
Sometimes beauty is so easy. Or at least, it seems to be..
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26-06-2013: Album Woodpigeon - Thumbtacks + Glue
Woodpigeon was here last year in February with the beautiful song For Paolo and in February of this year he released a new album called Thumbtacks + Glue. The album takes a few spins to get into your head, but once it's in there, it'll refuse to leave.
The thing with this album is that Woodpigeon lets it start with track 7 (out of 10): Robin Song. I understood from several other artists that they do this because they want to start off with the 'best' or most appealling track of their album. Makes sense, but the downside is that it's easy to miss more of this album, and after a while I just start off at track 7, shrinking the album down to a 4-track EP. A beautiful 4-track EP.
When listening to the entire album from start to finish I can't help the feeling that the album just really sets in at Robin Song. I wonder if that is something only I feel, or that the those last 4 songs are simply the finest the album has to offer.
Decide for yourself: a great 10-track album or a beautiful 4-track EP. What is it?!
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20-06-2013: Album Tiny Ruins - Haunts [EP]
Tiny Ruins have released an album back in 2011 and this 6-track EP is a collection of older songs and B-sides, released exactly 2 months ago. That full album is now another addition to my "Must-Hear"-list (which is over 200 albums long..), because the 6 songs on this EP are 6 beauties.
Definately my personal favorite is the short, but beautiful song "Days Are Long, Nights Are Longer". It's a declaration of love to someone, and like most people I can relate to the feeling described so perfectly here. The song feels like one of those insanely beautiful French lovesongs, usually performed by just a lonely girl and her guitar. Perfection in under 3 minutes, impressive as hell!
Another song with that same 'French girl with acoustic guitar'-touch to it. I am a sucker for music like this and Tiny Ruins plays it so fine. That 2011-release is getting some decent airplay this weekend, meanwhile I'll still be enjoying this beautiful EP for the next months to come.
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