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OK so end of school is here and the best part is…COACHELLA IN 12 DAYS! OK. So, like promised ages ago, mixtape is on the way…for real this time. Expect it within a week. It is pretty awesome. So this post is a quick recap of all the shows I went to in March. It was such a ridiculous time for concerts and I discovered some pretty great new bands. Jump ahead for recaps for Neon Indian, Braids, Silly Kissers, Air, Beach House, Bachelorette, Joanna Newsom, Flying Lotus and more!
***Finally I am posting these decade end lists. Gaaah I love and hate lists. They enlighten me towards new music yet at the same time they’re ridiculously subjective. From one point to the next an album can be the best and not depending on the season, the weather, my emotions, whether I’m under the influence, yada yada yada. Because of all this, the numbers on my list aren’t a ranking system of worst to best—because I think they’re all equally fantastic—they’re simply a form of organization. But, a few times on the lists I will put a clear marker on the artist/album that I feel truly outranks the rest. It’s only here where I exercise a bit of hypocrisy.
I know I’ve left hundreds and hundreds of artists out. Making a “Top 10” list per sub-genre for the decade is trifling, I know. It really should be “Top 100” per sub genre. Every day I keep remembering ones I should add but I have too much music and too little time. I did my best with what I had and what I remember and the time I had! You’ll notice that a lot of the artists are from the last 5 years and that’s because my mecca of music is back home. Home home. Like where I was born jaja. So…sorry for the lack of early 2000 albums. =)
I also dislike one shot lists! You simply can’t compare down-tempo artists to dubstep artists, etc. So, I tried to organize artists into the genres I felt fit them best as opposed to putting them all in the same pool. But obviously some artists mix into the other genres or were put there even though they have a very specific genre of their own (avant-garde, balearic, etc etc). Gaaah and genre is so subjective as well. Bear with me and keep all this in mind! A lot of these artists are featured in my NYE and NYD mixtapes or have been blogged about! So check the mixtapes out or do a quick search on ATM if you feel like more sampling.
Other than that, happy reading and stay tuned for Part II and Part III!
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Ambient, Chillout, Lounge, Down-tempo, Lo-Fi
10. Flica – Nocturnal (2008)
09. Mùm – Yesterday Was Dramatic Today (2000)
08. Emancipator – Soon It Will Be Cold Enough (2006)
- MP3: Emancipator – Anthem
07. Seba – Return to Forever (2008)
06. Röyksopp – Melody A.M. (2001)
05. Ocuban – Behave Decently (2009)
04. M83 – Before the Dawn Heals Us (2005)
03. Telefon Tel Aviv – Immolate Yourself (2009) ♥
02. Air – Walkie Talkie (2004) ♥♥
01. Télépopmusik – Angel Milk (2005) ♥♥♥
Mentionables of 2009:
Eluvium – Life Through Bombardment
Hauschka – Snowflakes and Car Wrecks
Napoli is Not Nepal – Napoli is Not Nepal
Nosaj Thing – Drift
Nordlight – A Deep Dive
Printempo – Printempo
Tosca – No Hassle
Hey y’all! I just got back from an AMAZING concert, Jedi Electro. Remember them? And I vow, I VOW TO SEE EVERY SINGLE LIVE SHOW OF THEIRS IN MONTRÉAL. I don’t care. They are without a doubt, the top 10 shows of this entire year for me…maybe ever!
Ahem. I am FIVE hours away from heading out to New York. I hate that I have no time to make more complete updates but I figure, two minutes in heaven, is better than one minute in heaven. So, one sentence reviews and thoughts are all the time I have right now. BECAUSE I’M GOING TO NEW YORK! Woohoo!
*if you have some favorite’s/recommended places (not touristy stuff, please) PUT ‘EM DOWN! I shall try my best*
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Why am I going, you might ask? Well, I am going to first and foremost see Kylie Minogue at the Hammerstein Ballroom on Sunday. JA JA JA yes laugh all you want, but she is amazing. I adore her. And it will be INCREDIBL(Y SEXY). I am also going for the CMJ Marathon…hopefully I can find a cheaper way in. Mwwwwaaajajjjaa1
So, quick update on POP MTL. Great festival. The third day I went to see the Slew (Kid Koala + Wolfmother). Great combo, but the bass for Wolfmother tooooooooooooootally faded out the turntable skillz but regardless, Wolfmother kicks total ass! They toured for the one and only time but worry not! You can check out their album for FREE here! After that, I checked out the Japandroids. A band whose album I’ve had for so long but still have not listened to because of the hype. Were they good live?! Yes, they totally rocked it. Such great energy for a two person band. There was crowd surfing, moshing, arm flailing and nails flying. But, I didn’t dig it despite this. I STILL wouldn’t listen to the album. Maybe it was because I was gettin’ puuuurdy tired.
The last day, I was at Divan Orange allll night. I still hold the opinion that if you were a band, this is DEFINITELY a venue you want to play at. Great atmosphere. Great sound. Average priced beer…and a mix crowd ranging from super artsy pretentious folk to super smelly non showering people, oh, and hippies. Sometimes. I saw DVAS, Silly Kissers, and Cadence Weapon. I wanted to see CFCF but I was falling asleep! DVAS played this amazing retro club pop music. I felt like it was italo-disco of twenty years ago. CRAZY GOOD dance party. And Silly Kissers KICK SO MUCH ASS!!
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Anyways, I’ve been meaning to do these reviews for MONTHS. I’m not kidding. And it’s just getting a bit silly now, don’t you think? I figure I might as well share the music, and if you like it, go and buy it! And go to the shows! And yada yada yada you know how this works. =)
After the jump for somewhat informative and very terse descriptions of AWESOME albums: Heyoka, Tipsy, Washed Out, Basement Jaxx. Sigh, I guess not as large of an update. I wanted to add TMDP, the Islands, the Flaming Lips, Raekwon, etc etc…but I am getting suuuuuper sleep and alas…now it is another four hours before I leave. ENJOY! COME BACK BC THIS WILL BE UPDATED AS SOON AS I CAN!
Moby is probably one of the most underrated electronic artists nowadays…after having released three albums in the past four years and yes, hitting the top a few times in European electronic dance charts with a slew of singles unheard by most others, Moby is still just “that guy that did ‘Southside’ with Gwen!”. I think in the mainstream, he is best known for this song. And no lie, “Southside” is one of the greatest songs of the decade for sure! But c’mon! This is Moby. Moby, who quit punk in early 90’s, joined electronica, quit techno in 1992 (as he so famously told Eminem), became a great veteran of music more than twenty years later from when he started, and truly was one of the artists of the past decade who exposed electronic/music as an art form and it’s relevance to music history, to jazz, to film, and to activism.
I must admit, I stopped following Moby after Play, an album that produced probably his most well known hits “Natural Blues”, my personal favorite and defs my tops of the decade, “Porcelain”, and “Southside”. Sure I have all the albums since then but only have listened to them halfheartedly and gave my attention moreso to the singles released like “We Are All Stars”–written for 9/11, and ‘Lift Me Up”. What happened? I dunno. Moby is so chill. So perfect for so many occasions but I guess in the last four/five years I’ve become more pre-occupied with artists and genres of the like and discovered them to be a bit more fitting to the time and to my taste.
It’s been a long time (long time), I shouldn’t have left you (left you), without a dope beat to step to. Freaky freaky! A’ight folks, these are reviews I’ve been meaning to do for a LONG freakin’ time. I mean it. Some of them I’ve been wanting to get out since March. Damn my laziness! I’ll be doing a super quick opinion piece of bands that are getting lots of attention like Passion Pit, Miike, Snow, Neon Indian, Bell Orchestre, the Prodigy, and a few others. Not that “mainstream” isn’t cool, well to hipsters it’s probably not ’cause it’s SO last year Vampire Weekend HYUK HYUK!, but I wanna cover artists that are less mainstream in the blogosphere like Zee Avi, Ebrahim, Flunk, Trickform, and a few others so that they get a bit more exposure…that’s what we’re all here for, right!?! But let’s hope it’s not too much at once so that we can avoid a Wavves disaster. More after the jump!
Sexual harassment. Panda! That was a South Park reference. Tee hee. This photo is part of a Zoo series for one of my favorite photography websites, The Big Picture. Anyways, I have finally finished the mixtape I have been meaning to get out with all the stuff I have been obsessed with for the past three hectic months. Some of the artists I have already reviewed, some of them I will end up doing a more in depth review on AtM, and some I am not! This will also be posted on Ca Va Cool, another fantastic music blog I contribute to, but I figured I’d give you guys a sneak peek. This mixtape is almost a week old now, but it’s all be zipped up so I couldn’t make the changes I would have by now. Oh well, it still rocks! Go after the jump to see my to-be-posted post for CVC!
Ok so as you guys know I have been a lazy ass and haven’t made any posts in April ’cause of final exams, graduation, celebrating, and yada yada yada. I’ll be doing super super quick reviews (like seriously under 100 words probsies) on Yeah Yeah Yeah’s It’s Blitz!, Boy Least Likely To’s Law of the Playground, Camera Obscura’s My Maudlin Career, and Phoenix’s Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix. Short and sweet just ’cause these bands have been blogged about like crazy for the past little while already and I’d rather cover albums that have had less attention more specifically. Plus, there’ll be a quick recap of two shows I went to, Mother Mother and Junior Boys. All after the jump!
I’ve been meaning to post these for a while and remembered to take them out of draft status. I love videos. Tiny snippets of art, easy to fit into your busy lifestyle. Or if you’re like me and procrastinate all the time, “busy” actually means spending hours youtubing, vimeoing, and daily motioning. It is always a good time.
The two videos I wanna share use a really cool stop motion technique, and live projection mapping. I’m no expert in this area but what I do know is that these techniques create wonderfully eye catching visually inviting pieces of art.
Video 1: SCINTILLATION
This is an experimental film made up of over 35,000 photographs. It combines an innovative mix of stop motion and live projection mapping techniques.
Vodpod videos no longer available.
Directed by Xavier Chassaing
Music by Fedaden (check him out! Ambient, down-tempo, electronic chill music! Very good discovery me thinks!)
Read the rest of this entry »
RIIIIIIIIGHTS!!! JUNIOR IS PRETTY MUCH AMAZING. ALBUM IS OUT MARCH 23. PREORDER HERE!!! MORE APRÉS LE JUMP.
Man, this post is SO long overdue but it needs to be done! Röyksopp, one of my favorite electronic acts coming out of Norway. Torbjørn Brundtland (left) and Svein Berge (right) have been making fantastic electronic music that ranges from down-tempo lo-fi chillout lounge music to quick paced synths and high tide beats. Your ambient and relaxed night-in can turn into a state of absolute dance induced inebriation with each track change. After nearly four years since their last LP, Röyksopp return with a fire with their wonderful bubblegum electric single “Happy Up Here” off Junior to be released March 23rd. They’ve also premiered their video for this song a while ago and it is simply AMAAZZZING!
acquiesce to... 