Even with this knowledge Learn To Sing Like A Star still remains rather surprising. Lead single and first track In Shock bawls with the same energy as the Muses’ Bright Yellow Gun, but lurches from one heart pummeling beat to the next, with former bandmate David Narcizo taking care of those drums. Kristin’s piano accents the rhythm and longtime cohorts Martin and Kimberlee McCarrick provide an emotional counterbalance – the whole making ‘You wanted to be wanted’ sound so painful.

For much of the album, tracks connect in sequences of light and dark, acoustic and electric. Sometimes both. Three varied incidentals, perhaps remnants waiting to be cultivated in the future, separate sections of the album. The rest are typically autobiographical snippets twisted inside daydreams and nightmares. There are other common factors: the McCarricks’ strings form a critical part of many of the songs, giving Kristin an opportunity to let her tangling guitar lines weave underneath, no longer needing them to direct melodies. Listen to the refrain and breaks in Nerve Endings to hear how this works best, emphasising the lyrics “Nerve endings think they see / Pleasure coming I know better”. A violin traces the verses of Peggy Lee, whilst guitars underpin the choruses – every song is an experiment to confuse expectation. That each works so well illustrates her song-birthing skills.

Because of this subtle adjustment, when the guitars do lead, they make the most of it. Day Glo and stand-out track Wild Vanilla glister with buzzing acoustic strums, visceral slides and picks; both paired with the sweetest choruses. Ice too (tying with Vertigo and Sugarbaby as Winner of The Loveliest Chorus Competition) highlighting with a simple piano line and weeping strings. But if you’re looking for penetrating grooves, Wild Vanilla is clearly ahead: shuffling rhythms drive the song forward before being joined by a guitar-organ solo that fades out far too quickly.

David Narcizo’s drums are generally more subtle than one would have predicted. His trademark military style litters many tracks, recalling less rocky Throwing Muses songs, particularly on Winter, but they never dominate. Even when they reach further forward, Kristin’s choruses lap at the tumbling beats to bring everything to order.

I once considered Kristin Hersh’s solo albums to be unaccompanied or alternative reinventions of missing Throwing Muses albums. Learn To Sing Like A Star proves me wrong, although poignant closer The Thin Man blows smoke rings around this thought via Limbo’s hidden White Bikini Sand. With this album she reforms that history to mould her second best release. At this moment I can’t imagine anything surpassing 2001’s Sunny Border Blue, but seven years on, Kristin’s CASH Music project is laying new paths – each monthly release a new invention unsullied by concepts of ‘before’, ‘after’ or the weight of (and wait for) an album. She’s now at the point where she can do anything and I’m head over heels in the ozone snow..

In Shock:

Learn To Sing Like A Star – Amazon UK
Learn To Sing Like A Star – iTunes UK
Throwing Music
CASH Music – Kristin Hersh

Over is the excellent lead-off from her debut living-room-recorded album Inner Radio and begins with thoughtful guitar twangs and strums before the song bursts forth. The beauty of this song is revealed inside the unexpected two-stage chorus.

Inner Radio – Amie Street Music Store
Cathi Bruns – MySpace
Cathi Bruns – Facebook

PS: Inner Radio is also an album for those who like Liz Tormes, Sofia Talvik, Säkert! or Hello Saferide.

The other part is that while The Slip is a great consequence of the creation of Ghosts, it doesn’t Climax enough. Maybe it shouldn’t. The appropriately titled Discipline is the best merger of the clatter and flow of Ghosts, matching corrosive drum exercises and noisy guitars with a single piano line that provides the female yin to the others’ yang.

The Slip – Download

Beautiful So Far – iTunes UK

At the moment A Broke Machine lives in the section of my brain labelled ‘Interesting..’ which means it will get listened to far more often than if it lived the almost-identically-named ‘Interesting’ section.

Wasteland ties filtered industrial broken beats to the legs of one of the prettier ballads on the album and together they jump around like a new born lamb. That means I like it.

Terami Hirsch Official Website
A Broke Machine – Terami.com
A Broke Machine – iTunes UK

Kristin Hersh’s The Grotto was an album born out of loss and the resulting reflection on life and relationships. Fools and Orphans is different – its main theme is also loss, but barely offers sanctuary. The Grotto tears me apart and then rebuilds me; Fools and Orphans does the former then leaves a lingering sadness, although it’s more compelling as a result. The open arrangements, often rhythmically fluid and spontaneous are charmingly beautiful and ideal for such stories. It’s up to us to fill in the blanks, to empathise and to draw comparisons with our own lives.

Those who love Island might be surprised by the results – these songs make more sense if you were left breathless by The Amber Sessions. Jo is joined by a brilliant set of musicians who accompany her piano, synthesizer and concertina. There’s no major explosion of fireworks and no ego: Jo’s piano is here to set scenes, mark out rhythms and to dynamically sweep songs through their various emotional phases – you’ll probably end up loving every note she plays. Much of the greatness of the album is in Jo’s interplay with Matt Turner’s cello and Mark Urness’ upright bass, both of which better Andrew Bird’s string performances on The Grotto. Linda Mackley continues her percussion duties, but is barely noticeable such is the subtly of her performance – which is exactly what’s required – and Wendy Schneider occasionally adds guitar and something called ‘the little machine that could drone on.’

Melodies and rhythms often appear where they are least expected, developing their own counterpoints and shifting tempos but the experience and process of knowing each song is reward in itself. A line from Of Love and Ether, “to touch between sensations” perfectly summarises how this works. It’s just as important to delve between and beneath each note. That’s why the live birdsong on that song, and the happenstance rebar chimes on God Grant She Lye Still work their way so coherently into the mix. But it’s no coincidence – by the time these songs begin to appear, halfway out, we’re already trained how to listen to this album. The more you listen, the more you’ll learn the flow of each track.

Jo enthralls me with her unusual delivery of language, compressing or mutating phrases to track against the music, creating its own instrument: on The Habits of Shadows a moaning vocal interlude bridges the verses, later joined by Hannah Fury’s whispers for some shivery layering. Of Love and Ether, a song which epitomises the ephemeral themes of the album, echos this vocal styling. But it’s the climax of God Grant She Lye Still, when the title repeats and shatters, where the vocals have the most dramatic impact.

As is the case with albums that are as intense as this one, it’s difficult to pick out individual tracks for particular noteworthy attention. I should mention that How The Devil Falls In Love brings to mind the loneliness of The Cardigan’s 03.45: No Sleep, but adds guilt and frustration, and the final song Poison in the Well is an understated anthem, using strong piano chords where you might expect an avalanche of strings.

Fools and Orphans marks a new phase in Jo Gabriel’s musical career and although I’ve only discovered her music recently I feel privileged to witness her journey. For all its sorrow Fools and Orphans is a glorious creation.

Fools and Orphans has an artist’s limited release from 7 May 2008 through Ephemera and will also be released in Winter 2008 through Kalinkaland.

Jo Gabriel – Official Website
Jo Gabriel – MySpace

Asking for Flowers – iTunes UK
Amazon UK
Official Website
MySpace

Wobbly Boat (Demo 1):

Official Website
The Brooke YouTube Channel
The Brooke Last.fm – for free music!

Like all of the tracks, Of Love and Ether has this paradox of richness and sparsity – in this instance bringing together a duo of string instruments (and birdsong) to join Jo’s piano and unique voice in a delicate yet powerfully emotive poem.

Fools and Orphans has an artist’s limited release from 7 May through Ephemera and will also be released in Winter 2008 through Kalinkaland.

Jo Gabriel – Official Website
Jo Gabriel – MySpace

However, the approach of the opening combo of Crocodile and Beautiful Burnout is entirely predictable. Crocodile begins with Underworld’s traditionally layered bass and bassline, before Karl Hyde’s over-treated and chorused vocals appear. These take on more musical qualities than one usually gets and the structure of the tune is entirely song-like. The chorus and break are particularly lush. Beautiful Burnout leads on from this, going darker, constructing further layers of percussion and bass before Karl’s dour voice comes in to pair with a buzzing pad synth. But, there is lightness here – the synth drops and guitar. I would have liked a couple of extra minutes on this track to fully enjoy the conclusion which employs breakbeat filtered snares to recall previous achievements.

If you’re looking to make sense of the lyrics – don’t even try. They’re even more isolated and spartan than before, but that’s entirely the point. Recollections and half sentences exist to build or complement rhythms and to tweak listeners’ imaginations and open interpretation. It’s no different to the abstract or ambiguous lyrics that traditional songwriters often use. Holding The Moth brags jazzy deep house and splits its time between almost comprehensive phrases and gibberish. It’s not a problem, mind.

To Heal is where things get interesting. The bright shimmering pads that dominate this brief interlude are inspired. I’m thinking old Polaroid’s of Orbital – an aftermath borrowed from the pages of The Girl With The Sun In Her Head. History and memories blurred. More Orbital moments occur immediately later with the percussion in Ring Road. Oh, and that ’..tagged’ pause. Wow.

Glam Bucket is synthy ambience used to separate Boy, Boy, Boy from Ring Road – two tracks that wouldn’t work jammed together. Larry Mullen Jr’s splashy drums support Karl’s dissertation on Boy, Boy, Boy, bringing extra depth and width. The gorgeous simple pad that ends this track is another welcome surprise but when you’ve lived with the break and build of dance music for so long, you expect another phase of development.

After the weird interlude of Cuddle Bunny vs The Celtic Village, Faxed Invitation returns to the sinister rhythms of Beautiful Burnout, but in a minor way. It then floors by forming a gentle marriage between a weedy pad and bouncing bassline. Given all that surrounds it, it’s the most impressive track on the album.

By now listeners will realise that the opening tracks are as exciting as things get. Most of the album turns downwards – the fine closer Best Mamgu Ever consists almost entirely of vocal cut-ups placed over ambient dub. But this strategy gives opportunities to really listen from the inside of each song, to allow each of those peculiar lyrics to spark thoughts and to reflect on everything in the context of Underworld’s career. I don’t want or need another Born Slippy (Nuxx). Nor it seems, do Underworld.

Oblivion With Bells – iTunes UK
Amazon UK

Saturdays = Youth is a different matter. This album inevitably hooks into the continued rebirth of shoegaze, but time travels a quarter of century into the past and in doing so removes the word ‘shoe’, because this is music so shimmering and reflective that it feels like standing in a wind tunnel full of stars.

Much of my change of heart is to do with the arrangements – more songs, more structure and vocals. Guest appearances from Morgan Kibby ride beautifully alongside Anthony Gonzalez’s breathy vocals. Skin of the Night is one such occasion – it devastates musically and emotionally. In amongst these mid-teen desires, the micro-dramas, the angst.. there is bliss.

Saturdays = Youth – iTunes UK

Official Website

Jo Gabriel’s album lives alongside its darker sibling The Last Drive In. They’re both naked instrumental recordings borne out of musical passion – a boundless urge to create and to express emotion. The Amber Sessions is also a 4 track affair, but definitely not lo-fi (apart from occasional tape drop-out.) Indeed, the unexpected richness and depth of the recordings is to be admired, and yes, it’s stunning when played loud.

Synthetic string pads and processed loops form the bedrock of much of the album. Jo’s piano accompanies their shifting sounds, diverging at will or brushing across them. Although centred around progressions, it darts off periodically to embrace song structure. Subtle dissonance emphasises the melodies and sometimes the piano falls away completely, to let the accompaniments peek through, unadorned. These tiny moments are breathtaking. This clash of the simulated with the real is critical to the mood and success of the album.

Considerable attention has been given to the sequencing of the pieces, so whilst it’s possible to cherry pick individual tracks that work on their own, the album is probably intended to be heard as a complete work. It can be intensely consuming. Curiously, The Amber Sessions also excels as ambient music – the choice is yours.

Introduction to this landscape comes in the form of the opening tracks Sway, Flicker and Crush. Sway immediately generates tension due to the slowish attack on the lower strings, which rub against the organ drones and chord-less piano lines. The melody changes subtly, incorporating additional pads to round off this slow starter. The shorter Flicker picks up the pace, but cuts back on the melody. Here, little sonic experiments begin to emerge – a trait which considerably enriches the second half of the album. Crush uses abrupt organ stabs and delayed piano to tease out variations in rhythm, relishing the space it has been given.

Delightful though these are it’s only when Moments Like Drops arrives that the first fully realised tune unfolds. Here the piano deviates from its previous excursions through greater variation in tone and dynamics. Only a cycling plucked instrument keeps it company. Savage Bliss continues on this new course, re-introducing the organ and strings, then constructing recurring cascades of harmony and modulated tempos. By now the importance of those first three tracks becomes obvious.

Passing / Arriving temporarily returns to that isolation with crumpled samples and screeches but chooses to re-invent itself twice, firstly as lounge music, which confines the piano to one side, then again by adding strings, becoming more elaborate and beautiful in the process. This stunning piece boasts the vital links between what has already been heard and what is to come.

In the meantime, the strings and guitar that open The Sun King tempt three times before the long-awaited keyboard arrives. When it does, this stereo mix contrasts with its recent restriction. Summoning is all about percussive rhythm but it’s important not to ignore the counterpoint which at times becomes the dominant melody.

Mistress of Time begins the four tracks which gradually build to complete the album. Here Jo plays busily alongside a dusty operatic loop. It’s initially unsettling, but through familiarity these two resolve their differences. What follows next is more remarkable: Juno blooms in the wake of Passing / Arriving but nuzzles up to a scratchy, detuned cello which is granted its own little solo for the coda.

The final two pieces, Amber and Mothlight unexpectedly replace the strings with snippets of renaissance music. Amber is the baby of the two – a sleepy diversion from Juno’s perkiness. Mothlight develops further: the ebb and flow of tension that threads carefully through the album is finally released, by using two or three individual piano tracks wrapped around Thomas Tallis’ acclaimed motet Spem in alium. This brings the album to a dazzling and deeply satisfying conclusion.

Jo Gabriel’s most widely available album, Island, is set firmly in the mould of singer-songwriter. Only the brief instrumental If Not hints towards The Amber Sessions and if you love Island I implore you to investigate this too. The Amber Sessions is a fascinating complex piece of work that becomes more impressive with each listen.

The Amber Sessions is available from Jo Gabriel’s website.

This opening piece, like all its companions, appears to pair structure with improvisation. The repeated phrases which shift key are emphasised by a subtle organ drone which follows them around, sometimes joined by strings. These movements turn incredibly pretty at times. Upsetting and unsettling this balance are occasional flourishes of keys and synth pads which draw the music back to its primary intentions.

The Last Drive In
Official Website

I marvel at how the song hangs together. I half-expected some of it to run on beyond the end of the tape – some of it is unsettling, but it’s great to feel your brain trying to work out the sense within it.

Speedbath – Free Download

Number 10 of 2007 — Pluramon: The Monstrous Surplus

Turn On opens the album sounding like Alison Shaw fronting mid-career Lush, but when the enveloped vocals of Julee Cruise hide beneath the expanse of string-like noise (or noise-like strings) the tone of album is set. On Border, there’s no such foreplay. We land directly where Marcus wants us to feel. Just when we’re comfortable with this, an organ picks up the main melody to tweak the emotional connection with the song still further. Elsewhere there are more obvious reference points to genre: the portmento guitar slides that characterised My Bloody Valentine’s sound is mimicked on If Time Was On My Side, but without the expected queasiness. Similarly, the collapsing frantic drumming of their music is ignored. Instead Pluramon uses traditional rock percussion that serves to emphasise the rest of the music.

Drowning In You turns vocals into noise, the guitars and bass simply swirl and cut, this is where sensation comes from. For some songs it’s not necessary to internalise what is sung (that comes later), initially just the notes and how they’re sung will suffice. Language is unimportant. For others, particularly in the standout cover of Sham 69’s The Kids Are United, the lyrics are critical. This is also true for Fresh Aufhebung, which features Jutta Koether’s spoken words, taking the drone-pop of Loop and turning the dreams nightmarish.

When the noise drops as it does on crossover between K-Land and Can’t Disappear – essentially one song split in two – piano, strings, high hat and vocals – it arrives more beautifully than if it had appeared without its predecessors. Even the clichéd thunderstorm feels right, complementing with its own bassy rumble. Perhaps these couple of songs are merely a lead to the key point of the album. Once you know what’s coming, the drawn out conclusion of Can’t Disappear teases further. If The Kids Are United strikes home immediately with folky tambourine bashing. The vocals, sometimes just adding a layer to the other songs, take centre stage for this song, choral and chorused they bring a sublime blissful state. This isn’t enough however – the pop desires of this album push forward once again with a masterly key change.

After this the final two tracks are unsatisfying, but this album is clearly at the front of the continued evolution of the genre. I never expected the celebration to last this long.

The Monstrous Surplus – iTunes UK
Pluramon – Official Website

Live:

Island – iTunes UK
Jo Gabriel – Official Website

Do Not Despair is based in walking organ chords, a soft bass line and Sarah’s chorused, quietly optimistic vocals. And horns.

From the Valley to the Stars – iTunes UK

Co-operation – Amazon UK

Asylum comes from Ghost Stories, an excellent album which easily sits in the same box as Charlotte Martin’s more commercial work. Asylum lushes up the production with strings, but finds the right balance to her piano.

Ghosts Stories – Amazon UK
Ghost Stories – Allmusic Review

Because it lacks vocals and obvious melodies and rhythms it is firmly rooted as an ambient soundtrack, but unlike most such music, it cannot be experienced this way. Ghosts I-IV demands and rewards listening. The tracks have no titles except for their number (even SAW2 had photographic textures) so it’s up to the listener to attach meaning to each track and link them together.

14 Ghosts II begins with distorted electronic beats and buzzy guitar pads before sickeningly warped slide guitars pick up the tune, jamming around each other. That’s about as pretty as it gets – the introduction of skewed electric guitars knocks the track sideways.

Nine Inch Nails – Ghosts

The ever reliable Fake Steve Jobs called it a little unsubtly with a long list of companies that he now deems ‘dead’, perhaps over-egging the consequences, but even at this beta stage, the iPhone SDK hints of a truly practicable move away from the desktop. The whole video from the launch is available here. Here’s why it marks the Death of the Desktop – in no particular order:

OS X

Apple, predictably, has leveraged and built upon the operating system seen in its desktops and laptops. This means developers can produce desktop quality applications but specialise them for mobile usage. The free SDK builds upon Apple’s Xcode developer tools, but with an additional simulator and remote debugger and an Interface Builder for quick realisation of an iPhone friendly user interface. The result will be rapid migration of existing desktop-bound Mac OS X applications to the iPhone.

The Thick-Thin Client

I’m a great fan of web applications and I had no problem with Apple declaring Web 2.0 as the choice application development solution when the iPhone was launched last June. However, with limitations on network speed (when outside of wireless internet connectivity) and Javascript performance, together with Web 2.0 applications becoming more client-centric (moving more business logic over to the client rather than the server), some web applications are clunky with the iPhone.

The SDK provides an alternative solution: Develop an iPhone client application that provides the presentation logic but keep the business logic on a server on the internet. That’s ideal for applications that require co-operation amongst a number of users.

But the way software development is going, particularly on the web, is agile, which means releasing updates often. What happens when the presentation logic needs to change? This is where the Apple App Store comes in.

The App Store

Living alongside the iTunes Store, the iPhone will include an application store, allowing owners to browse, buy and download applications on their iPhone, either through EDGE or Wi-Fi connections. Moreover, the App Store will notify users when their application has been updated and allow them to download the update. Apple handle the storage, billing and downloading of the application, in exchange for 30% of revenue. Free applications won’t cost anything to their developer. Some people are complaining about this 30%. Tough – it’s nothing.

Casual gaming

Casual gaming is a huge growing sector of personal entertainment. If you’ve watched the video you’ll see what can be achieved on the current iPhone technology: ‘minor’ things like a three-dimensional accelerometer, three-dimensional audio, Core Animation etc. Now think what will happen when the internet comes in: social casual gaming. The social and casual nature of gaming will draw more players away from their desktop.

The Mac-only SDK

Oh yeah, perhaps one use of a desktop or laptop will remain – developing iPhone applications. That means more people buying Apple kit and less people developing for other platforms, because once you’ve developed for OS X, you probably won’t want to develop for any other operating system.

The $99 obstacle

If the 30% revenue cut is one obstacle to developers, the $99 fee to test on an actual iPhone is another. That’s cool, because it stops the store being swamped with stupid simple applications. Hopefully, we won’t get 100 RSS readers when the App Store launches, which brings me onto:

The June launch

I know people are complaining the App Store (along with the rest of the iPhone 2.0 software) won’t come until June. That’s a smart move, because it gives developers three months to get their applications developed and tested. We should get quality applications immediately when iPhone 2.0 arrives.

The iFund

That’s $100,000,000 to support new business ventures centred around the iPhone. If you’re a start-up, that’s money offered to iPhone development rather than desktop development or other mobile devices.

around dusk
you walk the seven blocks to paradise

Sorry Kristin, for not listening to this when you gave it to the world just over one month ago.

and throw your arms around it

But, but.. it’s got a drum machine on the chorus, which leads to a wonderful play-off with the organic sounds of guitar, piano and voices: turning it from a typically reflective song into something more commanding, yet it still aches. The last seven seconds burn.

part of the cattle call to harmony

One of the (perhaps unintended) side effects of this periodic release of music is that each song now births its own universe. Unencumbered by what was released previously each can have its own style and reference. If you don’t believe me on this – check out Morning Birds.

at dawn it breaks
but much too late to wreck the night
we spun a silken effort
wrapping the day in softer company

Around Dusk (Download page)

Once I Was Like You teases with two beginnings (breaks, actually) which when Andrea’s voice drops in, blend to form something more recognisable as the Firefox AK sound and is one of the many highlights of the album.

If I Were A Melody – Klicktrack
If I Were A Melody – iTunes UK

I guess I’ll have to make do with Firefox AK’s new album If I Were A Melody instead, which you can get here. (Or iTunes, but you’ll get sucky audio quality)

Official Website
El Perro del Mar – iTunes UK

However, I’ve realised this week that this approach is sometimes required for people who work in the same domain or have similar roles to me. The benefit of using domain knowledge and terminology is that it allows you to be explicit and succinct. However, if others aren’t being as explicit or succinct as you think they should be (inferring their expected expertise) then problems can occur. My advice is to question everything, especially if it just seems wrong. Sometimes just one character can make all the difference.

Ugh.

No, really.. The Trinity Session should have been left to age respectively, because it is a masterpiece. Play it loud and you can hear everything in that church, the reflecting ambience, every brush of drums, every twang or stroke of guitar string, every syllable of Margo’s voice. Each separate and unique, but together bringing a textured intimacy that overwhelms. There’s no need for extra paraphernalia, or visuals – because they’re already in your head. Some still criticise the lo-fi nature of the recording, live to tape, with just one microphone. But that’s the point – that simplicity brings with it fidelity.

The Trinity Session – Amazon UK

[Apple] have the opportunity to establish QuickTime and H.264 as the de facto standards for mobile video on the web.

I agree with John, apart from a couple of words which should be struck out, and two added. Here’s my alternative:

[Apple] have the opportunity to establish QuickTime and H.264 as the de facto standards for video and film.

As well as revealing new iPlayer traffic figures, the BBC also today announced that the iPlayer service is to be made available on Apple’s iPhone and iPod Touch devices.

So says the Guardian.

If it’s not realised through Adobe Flash (which these devices currently don’t support), then it will probably be similar to how YouTube works on these devices. Alternatively we’ll get some lame web pages that merely direct to Quicktime content.

Back in July last year I suggested that the BBC should ditch iPlayer and sign up with iTunes. BBC Worldwide – a separate commercial entity – started on this path this week with the release of programmes on iTunes after they expire from their iPlayer obligations.

What’s the betting that we’ll eventually see everything via iTunes as the iPlayer solution for the Mac? And for Windows too?

This Time starts and continues in a very ambient fashion, adding percussive decorations to emphasize how much was lost – explained through the lyrics. Sure, there’s a gradual build towards the end, but the climb is wonderfully subtle. Check out the sparse use of acoustic guitar which is usually the dominating factor in such downbeat songs.

Bertine Zetlitz: My Italian Greyhound – iTunes UK

There’s an outstanding remix of Sensual Seduction with the hook sung by Robyn, minus the vocoder manipulation. But really it’s just another milestone in Robyn’s march towards being the best pure-pop female performer in the world.

There are potential warning signs here: do we really want Robyn to pop up anywhere and everywhere?

When it comes to business, many people don’t like to spend a lot of money on an unknown venture, especially if they’re not sure that the direction they’ll be going in is the right one. Perhaps they don’t trust their instincts enough, or perhaps they don’t trust the people who are advising them.

But if such a timid approach leads to reduced productivity, mis-communication, loss of sales or of staff, or maybe something more calamitous, it becomes easier to step back and decide to throw lots of money at an alternative solution.

Translation: it’s easier to blame technology than Policies, Procedures or People.

This track from the “French electro-popper”’s debut album doesn’t know whether to be rave, rap or pop. So in the end it decides to be all three.

Live:

Yelle: Pop Up – Version deluxe – iTunes UK
Yelle – Official Website

Strike the Colours make music that seems to grab the best bits from all my favourite bands and weaves them together in tingly shifting ways. This track from their debut EP (and yes, it’s a proper EP) is my favourite because of the way Jenny Reeve’s voice curls round the words and what happens after the piano break.

Inexplicably discovered on the BBC’s TV show Rapal. I don’t know quite why they turned up there, rather than somewhere more accessible, but I’m glad they did.

Rapal: Strike the Colours
The Face That Sunk A Thousand Ships – iTunes UK
Strike the Colours – Official Website

Oh my.. I’ll say it again. Forthcoming.

After years of waiting, Butterfly Boucher’s second album is now showing signs of being released. This should be the title track of the album which should turn up sometime this month. Hmm.. two conditionals. Not good.

Downbeat and acoustic, chorused vocals, with a splash of organ, percussion and some very brief, expensive sounding strings. There’s more going on than might first appear. I guess this time she’s not playing most of the instruments. Shame.

Hear it on her MySpace page.

Sofia undersells herself via the lyrics of the title track, whilst making the point musically and vocally that she’s achieving her goals. A new album Jonestown is due out later this year.

Street of Dreams – Official Store
Sofia Talvik – Official Website
Sofia Talvik – MySpace
Street of Dreams – iTunes UK

• That the space under my Apple Cinema Display could be put to better use
• That my USB hub appends itself ridiculously to my working environment

Then, today, I discover this solution:

The LowKey Stand. More here (although the guys commenting on that post clearly don’t understand how to connect all of their equipment.)

Will it appear in the UK? Please?

More fairies:

Warning: this song is likely to stick in your head once listened to.

Bertine Zetlitz: Rollerskating – iTunes UK

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.”

Sweet Injections – iTunes UK

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.

Oh look, a video:

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.

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.

Robyn – iTunes UK
Robyn – Amazon UK

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.

Oblivion With Bells – iTunes
Amazon UK

As a software development and web design company we do quite a lot of work that requires various types of tools: compilers, operating system emulators (i.e. Windows and Solaris), web development tools (e.g. Coda, TextMate, Macromedia Dreamweaver and Fireworks), design tools (Adobe Creative Suite, iWork), photo editing and video editing software. All our Adobe and Macromedia software runs under Rosetta – Apple’s PowerPC to Intel dynamic code translator. All of this software works fine on our Macs, so what Macs do we use?

First generation MacBooks. Running Mac OS X 10.5.1.

That’s right: ones that are underpowered compared to the MacBook Air. Laptops too!

I don’t expect our experience to be typical – most businesses need even less computational power and storage. So why the uproar?

Because people don’t want to be ordinary. They don’t want to admit that their needs are about the same as everyone else. My assertion is this: the MacBook Air suits the computing needs of 90% of the population. For personal or business use.

The benefit MacBooks bring our business is striking: we can hook up an external display to them – I use a 23” Cinema Display. We can take them on visits to clients. No hassle or need for synchronisation. We can take them on holiday with us – when a customer needs a quick tweak or change to their website or software, we can do this remotely. It makes us more efficient and available.

And.. it amuses us when we see the junk that other people use.

The Monstrous Surplus – iTunes UK