Perfect little record for a dark & dreamy Sunday night is "Troubles" by Josh Oliver. On the day the summer started he released his debut album, which sounds perfect for walking around in the burning sun somewhere this Summer. But i'm pretty sure this will also work when the leaves start falling later this year. Basically an album that may go far through the year. And it should, cuz it sounds so good and i'm gonna make this a long evening to remember. cheers on a special Sunday night!
It's a little known fact that i'm not a huge fan of the hype-culture. When the whole (blog)world is hyping the new albums of great acts such as Radiohead, Fleet Foxes & The Strokes or is kissing arses of upcoming "next big things" like James Blake or Bon Iver i'm usually done.. It's part of me, i can not stand the temptation of going against the grain, no matter how tough that might be. I do it at work, with friends, in relationships & with my biggest love: music.
When it comes to music though, i do things differently than with other things in life, because i believe that if so many people (including bloggers i really appreciate) call an album great it has to be something special. And i do listen to these albums. And maybe it's me being an annoying arse, but usually i find myself right and in complete misunderstanding with the rest of the world hyping their arses off.. I have found myself a decent number of 'enemies' when claiming the new Radiohead/Strokes-albums were not as good as one could expect and surely not as good as the blogs/magazines said they were, and at that point i decided to keep my opinions to myself (haters gonna hate, but if all emails are unsupportive, i do get fed up with it) when another 'big' release came out. So i never mentioned the disappointment i felt when listening to James Blake's debut album (although seeing him live last weekend was absolutely brilliant) & i never really paid any (well-deserved) attention to that new Fleet Foxes-album, which i think is one of the best albums we'll be hearing this year: It's perfection in all it's forms!
For Bon Iver's (finally getting to the point here, sory for the delay) 2nd album "Bon Iver, Bon Iver" i decided to do what i should've done with the Fleet Foxes-album, sharing my love for the album. I have to admit it took me a few spins before i got used to his voice and the somewhat unexpected music that comes with it. But what was weird and uncomfortable the 1st time, became absolutely brilliant the 4th time i listened to it. Which in this case comes down to the album's opener Perth. It's a song for which i can't turn up my stereo loud enough. I want to hear it louder, feel it more & let it take away any thoughts i might have. I want to loose myself in this album, because i can. Because this is an album só good, that it makes me want to hear nothing else. Comparing it to the other great albums i've heard this year it already matches up to "Helplessness Blues" and i can definately see this album up high in the album charts of every blogger at the end of this year, even if i don't really care about that. All i know is that it'll be ending up high in my list. Because there's not much albums coming out this year that will be better than this.
On June 7th Oax dropped it's debut EP called "This Distance" and it's a nice little EP with this track Love And Crashing being the finest of all 5 tracks, but the quality-level is overall very high. This is an EP that makes me want to hear a full album, because it's a potential great one.
On July 14th of 2010 the 1st post was written on Plug in Baby!. It was (off course) a warm welcome to all new visitors with a live-video of Muse's inspiration-track. Today there are over 400 blogs written and in my humble opinion the blog has evolved a lot. It took me a few months to get myself settled, but the way things are going right now are exactly how i want it to go. Off course i would like to spend more time writing, but real life is also something to enjoy to the fullest. Thank you all visitors for finding your way to this little weblog (the number of visitors is rising every month) & please do keep coming back, cuz i ain't going away & there's more than enough great music to discover together!
Two days ago Zomby released his new record called Dedication (click the link to hear the full stream @ the VPRO Luisterpaal) and it's one of the few dance-albums that keeps my attention from start to finish without me having to focus. A Devil Lay Here is a free track and a good one to start with if you have never heard of Zomby before (like me, 2 days ago). Give it a spin, listen to the rest of the album and you'll have to agree with me that this is a fantastic album!
Memory Tapes has recently released a new album, of which this nice track Yes I Know was taken. There are more sounds to hear on his myspace and soundcloud-page, but they are not as great as this one. There's still complaints from artists that refuse to understand why someone purchases only one track from an artist on iTunes, rather than the entire album. But it's not that strange, there were singles before there were albums when the LP 1st arrived in the music scene and despite all the blood, sweat and tears an artist can put in an album, sometimes 1 track is so much better than the rest that the listener will only want this one. It's only fair, i'd say! But back on track, cuz Memory Tapes have not said something like this (i read it in the paper yesterday) as far as i know and this song just deserves to be heard.
This album is already for sale on iTunes, but Vagrant Records still decided to stream the entire album. A wise decision, cuz when you listen to this abum, you can only love it! John Gold has made a great record!
So after the silent weeks & 3 days of Jazz @ North Sea Jazz Festival incl. previews & the warm afterglow i had yesterday, today is the day i've come back to the regular bloggin' and what a great re-start this is with Letting Up Despite Great Faults's fantastic track Teenage Tide. There's the sun shining and girls walking around in short skirts and there's this fine tune on the headphones. It is a good day already! check out their website for 2 more tracks and the Paper Crush EP is set to be released August 2nd.
After spending 3 days at the North Sea Jazz the only right way to celebrate a new week is with something great from this weekend. Kytecrash was very good show on the Saturday, this was not their best part of the show, but YouTube doesn't offer a lot at this moment, which is pretty strange considering the dozens of people i've seen at every show recording shows with their lousy mobile phones.. Have a good week!
No time for a proper preview, as i'm leaving within the hour and there's a stop in the hospital planned somewhere between now and then.. 1 thing i'm surely gonna check out today is James Blake. Check out his live-version of The Wilhelm Scream here. simply brilliant!
North Sea Jazz 2011 Day 2: less talk, more music. I'm heading back to the festival in 90 minutes and there's still work to do at home..check my expected highlights of today here.
Madeira - 17.30: Antonio Farao Trio
Maas - 19.00 Kytecrash
Madeira - 19.15: Arve Henriksen
Yenisei - 19.45: Harmen Fraanje Trio
(you'll have to delete the guitarist on this vid, cuz they play as a trio tonight)
Mississippi - 21.00: Charles Bradley
Yenisei - 21.30: Portico Quartet
Yenisei - 23.15: Gerald Clayton Trio
Congo - 23.45: Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue
And the best thing of this Saturday is the EBU European Jazz Competition Finalists playing in Volga all evening. Which are 5 performances of 45 minutes with great upcoming artists. Quality guaranteed!
