I think I must have a ‘thing’ about percussion. Actually, I’m pretty sure I do. This is evident in my adoration of this song, because the greatest part of this track (which has lots of great things jam packed into its lifetime) is that the hi-hats hiss on the chorus, but not during the verses.
More fairies:
A reggae tinged ballad with horns, fingerclicks and a rarely used but all-important slap bass. Perhaps its something in the arrangement, because each time around, the chorus gets more desperate and pleading.
Warning: this song is likely to stick in your head once listened to.
After the sleek refined pop of albums four and five, discovering Bertine Zetlitz’s first three albums is quite a surprising journey. Collectively they embody fluid, confident, leftfield music, with lyrical chops that expose Bertine as a fine songwriter first, a pop singer second. In my head at least, a sometimes scary hybrid of Jane Siberry and Bjork.
So Beautiful appears on her third album, Sweet Injections. Beginning with IDM-style crushed drums and whispered vocals, she implores “Listen to this: sometimes things don’t turn out the way they should, the way you thought they would.”
Yesterday was a day spent listening to a Last.fm radio station. Unusual for me, but rewarding. Here’s an unordered list of bands and musicians that are now on my radar for further investigation. Prior to yesterday I’d only heard of one of them:
Ugress, Cinephile, Dragonette, Anja Garbarek, Regina, Ephemera, Vive La Fête, Flunk, Hande Yener, Boomkat, Anneli Drecker, Temposhark, Briskeby, Machine Dominatrix
Above links are to their Last.fm page.
If I successfully persuaded you to investigate Margaret Berger, here’s someone else, via the wonders of the Last.fm recommendation system. I knew from the first dozen bars of this song that Bertine Zetlitz’s fourth album Rollerskating would soon be living in my iTunes library. More sleek Norwegian pop music, but grown-up and slightly subversive. It frequently borrows from 70s funk and 80s disco and sometimes lands right in between Goldfrapp’s Felt Mountain and Black Cherry.
Oh look, a video:
Here’s something new:
As of today, you can play full-length tracks and entire albums for free on the Last.fm website.
Currently in beta to the US, UK, and Germany, which limits each track to a three plays. Last.fm plan to launch an additional tier of subscription membership which will allow users unlimited listens and ‘other useful things’. No idea on pricing yet.
Last.fm now have an Artist Royalty programme, which pays artists directly for every single track streamed via their website. So, if you’re a musician of any shape, style or size, there’s no excuse not to get yourself listed on their website.
A valid criticism of Robyn’s latest (and eponymous) album is its unbalanced delivery of songs, collecting the slower more reflective tunes at its end. However I believe this is a better approach than the usual random delivery of ballads that tend to appear throughout every pop-based album. Margaret Berger’s Pretty Scary Silver Fairy works around this by wrapping ballads inside dance tunes. It wouldn’t have worked on Robyn’s album because of her desire and ability to emote, which she does most effectively, and sometimes a song deserves, requires, a certain treatment.
Eclipse dramatically breaks away from what appears earlier by delivering something breathtaking: a ballad without the usual string theory, without the overuse of instrumentation to emphasise words and feelings. Using just a sprinkling of piano keys and an upright bass, Robyn sings a song, not of what has happened, nor what might happen, but of a guarantee of what will happen – all turning on one word.
Stylus Magazine’s review of last year’s Oblivion With Bells criticized Underworld for now being permanently stuck in the ‘morning after’ phase. Fortunately, their latest album is more of a success than A Hundred Days Off, and to my ears it might be one of their best. Don’t believe the reviews. Most of that Stylus review is wrong. There’ll be people that tell you the lyrics don’t hang together. Wrong again. They just don’t recognise themselves in them. After the singular dance-oriented landscape of their earlier work, Underworld are now exploring what it means to write a song – by removing the unnecessary musical utensils, leaving the barest accompaniments to Karl Hyde’s sometimes rambling lyrics, making his words and delivery even more fundamental to their style. Streamlined. Refined.
Faxed Invitation is a track which is almost an incidental. It begins with the merest throb of a bass drum and delicate percussion. Over the course of the next three minutes it becomes fuller: the pinging bassline grows a melody and the weedy pad joins in. It’s just a head nodding experience, which given more time to develop could have turned into something quite brilliant. Karl Hyde’s vocals are typically encoded, the lyrics the usual cracked snapshots of urban life – overlapping scenarios, half-rendered and scratchy.
Emm Gryner:
I've had x number of endings
X number of endings
When do I begin?
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