July 2011
2 posts
Elvis Costello & The Attractions - Home Is...
Jean-Louis Murat - Le parcours de la peine
June 2011
1 post
Lloyd Cole - Loveless
April 2011
3 posts
Susanna Wallumrød - I En Mørk Natt
Spookrijder moved to Blogspot →
9 tags
21 Mini Reviews for the last three months
The Unthanks, Morning Teleportation, Charles Bradley, Wye Oak, The Low Anthem, Iron & Wine, Ruby Coast, The Twilight Singers, Kurt Vile, Earth, Braids, Tennis, Gold Panda, The Joy Formidable, Yuck, Frank Ocean, The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart, The Dodos, The Strokes, Jo Hamilton and Julianna Barwick ALBUM REVIEWS
The Unthanks, Morning Teleportation, Charles Bradley, Wye Oak, The Low...
March 2011
23 posts
6 tags
The Dø - Both Ways Open Jaws REVIEW
French music business shows a long tradition of pop duos. Serge Gainsbourg’s multiple duos, mainly with actresses Brigitte Bardot and Jane Birkin, are the first examples at hands, that of a male musical mastermind, often multi-instrumentist, and a sexy doll of a singer. Stone et Charden could be another example, more or less. That formula really exploded during the eighties, first with...
4 tags
Elbow - Build a Rocket Boys! REVIEW
Elbow as a band was already founded in 1991, under a different name; they changed it in 1997), but their debut and excellent album “Asleep in the Back” was only issued in 2001. Following that release, the band was immediately filed in the bandwagon already crowded with Radiohead, Coldplay, Doves and even Muse. Sure Elbow shares with these bands a similar knack for orchestrated but...
4 tags
Lykke Li - Wounded Rhymes REVIEW
I wouldn’t have given much attention to this Swedish artist whose stage name reminds me too much of crap manufactured stuff like Jessie J and whoelse with such logo as a name if it wasn’t for the buzz around, pretty good reviews and articles about everywhere, from Pitchfork (1) to The Guardian (2). Besides, her music was described as a mix of soul, electro and powdered-sugar pop (3)....
6 tags
Colin Stetson - New History Warfare, Vol. 2:...
Colin Stetson is a Montreal based, Michigan, US, born sax, clarinet, cornet, french horn and flute player who’s got some resume, to say the least. People allergic to namedropping, please jump four lines. He’s a member of Bell Orchestre and Sway Machinery as well as accompanying on stage and in the studio dozens of artists, including Tom Waits, Arcade Fire, TV on the Radio, Feist, Bon...
4 tags
Mats Gustafsson - “Message From...
4 tags
Grails - Deep Politics REVIEW
For little less than 10 years, Grails has delivered more than its share of excellent records full of intense, dark and strangely soothing instrumental beauty. Their first couple of albums (“The Burden of Hope” in 2003 and “Redlight” in 2004) were mostly relying on its musicians versatility, mainly multi-instrumentist Emil Amos, with Alex Hall and Zak Riles on guitars, the...
4 tags
Toro y Moi - Underneath the Pine REVIEW
Toro y Moi is the odd moniker for one man band and sonic child of Chazwick Bundick (he must have been given names), and “Underneath The Pine” is his second album a year after “Causers of This”. Under this nickname, Bundick was making bedroom recordings since 2001, he was then 15. Eight years later, he appeared on the international scene with an album which create a little...
5 tags
From The Stairwell by The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz... →
The Dutch darkjazz combo last digital album can be streamed, and eventually downloaded, on bandcamp. Lush.
(click on the title)
Akron/Family - S/T II: The Cosmic Birth and...
The very idiosyncratic folk-influenced experimental rock band Akron/Family released their fifth album at the beginning of this year, their second on Dead Oceans Records, not counting one complete Michael Gira’s (owner of Akron/Family’s previous label Young Gods Records) Angels of Light’s album as a back up band, countless other collaborations, including vocals to two albums by...
Joan As Police Woman - The Deep Field REVIEW
“Don’t judge a book by its cover” is an idiom I try to apply as much as I can, concerning everything and everyone including music. Unfortunately, being just a man, momentarily bearded, mistakes are not out of reach. The first time and beyond until last week I heard the name Joan as Police Woman and judging on the name only I thought this was another angry lady playing...
Lewis Taylor - Lucky
The song that made me came...
4 tags
Nicolas Jaar - Space Is Only Noise REVIEW
A 21 year old Chilean techno producer from New York, Nicolas Jaar has already produced a handful of EPs, very much appreciated in clubs and among djays, has released his debut full length “Space Is Only Noise” and the least I could tell about it is that it contains more space than noise, if kids playing, water flowing and deep bass could be considered noise. This album is the logical...
3 tags
James Blake - James Blake REVIEW
Young British electronic composer and pretty boy James Blake surprised everyone who was following him through his previous and very recommandable four EPs full of minimalist dubstep instrumental with this debut album where he changed into an electronic singer/songwriter. There were already some samples of vocals on his previous works, but this time James Blake sings and samples his own voice,...
Why i Think Wikipedia is a Force for Evil
scaruffi:
http://www.scaruffi.com/politics/usa11.html#usa0211c
3 tags
Anna Calvi - Anna Calvi REVIEW
Anna Calvi, the name, sounds like a premium luxury brand, a perfume, a scarf, a handbag. Anna Calvi, the singer-songwriter, sounds like a Southern Gothic desperado of a guitar-heroine with a powerful, haunted and evocative voice. Italian musician names can be very misleading, especially for women, it’s hard to sort them out just by name : Nina Nastasia, Cecilia Bartolli, Lisa Germano,...
4 tags
The Psychic Paramount - II REVIEW
Alright, let’s take a goddam rollercoaster ride and be teleported on the roof of a high-speed train wheeling at 350 km/h (218 mph), I wonder how the hell I can still be standing with that hurricane wind pushing against my chest, rubbing my crotch, pulling my hair out, eroding my ears off, squeezing my cheeks and engulfing my eyeballs, but I am standing, I’m not sure how, while...
4 tags
Destroyer - Kaputt REVIEW
As much as I dislike this 80s revival thing which is happening for some years lately, one man Canadian band Destroyer ninth album ode to the blue eyes soul of… the 80s is another matter completely. Dan Bejar is by all means no revivalist, the structure of his music is deeply rooted in the 90s to the present day and his references are too numerous to count. The band’s admitted...
5 tags
Dumbo Gets Mad - Elephants At The Door REVIEW
One man Italian band Dumbo Gets Mad delivers the UFO of the beginning of 2011 with “Elephants at The Door”. After some investigation, it appears that the guy is coming from Reggio Emilia, a small town not that far from Bologna, he’s collecting Sonic Youth albums but don’t listen to them that much, he is obsessed by waves (hence the video for “Plumy Tale”*, he...
4 tags
Radiohead - The King of Limbs REVIEW
Two heavyweight album releases in a 5 days period from two artists/bands who have marked forever, in one way or the other, the now 30 to 40 year old in the middle of the 90s, two artists/bands whose former albums were issued in 2007, so four years ago (tell me if I’m wrong, time is a fluctuating matter), let me tell you… well, I don’t really know what I wanna tell you. PJ...
5 tags
PJ Harvey – Let England Shake REVIEW
My own little PJ Harvey’s retrospective in a somewhat fracked up English around « Let England Shake”.
I would like to introduce this by saying that if it’s written in English, and as clumsy as it is, I just thought of this review this way and writing it in French would be a translation. I know most of the people who would read it have a far better English than I have,...
