Forward Music

Breakbot

February 7, 2010 · 2 Comments

No, this isn’t Jesus. Breakbot is the new face of Ed Banger. He’s not just another knock off of Justice, he is writing and producing some feel good music which will make you feel really good. Like seriously good pop tunes which manage to get stuck in my head, a notable feat because of my ADHD  listening habits. The actual music is made up of falsetto vocals, piano arrangements and funky analogue bass lines. On paper, it sounds like generic rubbish, but listen below and you’ll understand.

Baby I’m Yours, Make You Mine, A Thing for Me (Breakbot remix) – Metronomy , Baby (Breakbot Remix) – Pnau

myspace, single, amazon

→ 2 CommentsCategories: Breakbot · Justice · Metronomy · Pnau · Remixes

Los Angeles – Flying Lotus

February 1, 2010 · Leave a Comment

I’ve never heard anything like Flying Lotus. I discovered him after a recomendation from one of the members of Late of the Pier and I am very grateful he did. It’s completely weird, sampled electronic hip-hop. Underline and circle the weird part. And that’s what makes it so good. The albums flows smoothly through tracks which contain very individual two minute ideas. I hope the first two tracks will get you hooked. Though the best so far has been the second, the first track is still vital. A harsh 4/4 beat made up of some high-pitched sample dominates the track, with strings and other sounds circling around the beat. By the end, I am so excited for the second track to drop. It starts with a ghostly piano intro that is the kind of bliss where you just have to tilt your head back and close your eyes. The beat drops and heaven ensues. If none of this post makes any sense to you just listen to the mp3s below.

Brainfeeder, Breathe . Something/Stellar STar, official, myspace, amazon

→ Leave a CommentCategories: Flying Lotus · Late of the Pier

Grand Ledge – Paul Baribeau

January 28, 2010 · Leave a Comment

This music is made up of simple, acoustic chord progressions at high tempos. It’s the lyrics that hade me hooked. They are made up of heart-wrenching truths. They aren’t pretentious at all, they are simple, easy to understand poems on the simple things in life; love, friends and family. Every song I can understand, appreciate or relate to. Though hidden behind punk ethos, Paul Baribeau makes music which anyone can listen to and feel remorse for this sorry soul. It’s partly because of the wavering voice, the lack of instrumentation, but mainly, it’s the power that he has to communicate that makes his music really special.

Christmas Lights

myspace, amazon, emusic

→ Leave a CommentCategories: Paul Baribeau

We Were Promised Jetpacks Live

January 26, 2010 · 1 Comment

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3514/4013049622_3b8cdfb0b7.jpg

Firstly, I have to say they were forty-five minutes late. Now for the review, it’s not the usual song by song type affair. Oh and I gave guys tenth album of the year in 2009.

We Were Promised Jetpacks by wildernessTX.

I was expecting some solid, indie rock action from these guys, something similar to the album. But they were something far better, for a couple of different reasons. For one, they re-arranged the album into an all together different beast. Next, We Were Promised Jetpacks know how to layer sound. Seriously, are these some hip new noise rockers from Seattle in Scottish disguise? The lead singer was the rhythm guitarist while the second guitarist was just a noise maker. And of course, they had the energy. Not because they can play fast and sing loud, because you could tell they were feeling just as euphoric as the crowd. Half the time they had their eyes shut, just feeling the music drift everywhere. Which leads me on to another point in this shambolic post; they knew how to get loud and really, really quiet. As well as building huge levels of noise and screaming loud enough (without a mic) to be heard over the rest of the music, the singer somehow knew to whisper while singing.

So in conclusion (like an english essay), We Were Promised Jetpacks gave the crowd a set which was played with skilful musicianship, one which was also fun and managed to convey such passion that it easily engulfed the room.

Thanks to WildernessTX for the images.

Ships With Holes Will Sink, Roll Up Your Sleeves, myspace, twitter, amazon, emusic

→ 1 CommentCategories: We Were Promised Jetpacks

Machine Dreams – Little Dragon

January 19, 2010 · Leave a Comment

Think 80s synths… wait! Before you start screaming and running into the corner, trying to consolidate yourself in mumbling hysteria, they are definitely not another crappy synthpop band. Little Dragon’s sound is made up of space-y, cliché 80s nostalgia synthesizers, but molded into a captivating chill out sound and tucked under the female vocalist’s incredible voice. The two tracks I’m sharing now are both excellent examples of this style. Feather starts off slow with a laid back bass line bolstered by pads which wrap around the Thievery Corporation chill-out bubbles. Then you hear Kraftwerkian electro as the verse comes in. It criss-crosses through out, kept alive by the soothing vocals. My Step is more fast paced with robotic, jumpled synths put to the robotic beat of a drum machine. The whole album puleses with many different electronic sounds, but it is all restrainted by the carefully by the vocalist.

official, myspace, amazon, emusic

→ Leave a CommentCategories: Kraftwerk · Little Dragon

Best Remixes of 2009

January 12, 2010 · 1 Comment

Electronic music has become a much larger part of my musical listening now, and so this post has evolved into a “let’s put as much random electronic stuff in here as possible” list. We now have the main dance-y list and a bunch of little snippets of random genres within electronica. And this year I’ve put the dance mix into a large mp3 file for your pleasure. Do you like that? Should I make one mp3 mixes more often? Should I actually mix it myself or just let my program do it? Any advice on this post would be much appreciated. Thanks for the picture Tanakawho.

Relaxed/Chilled/Spacey Non-Dance Electronica

This section has seen some of my favourite discoveries, with the likes of Four Tet, The Field and other such types really blowing my mind with their fantastic sound manipulation. Great for studying, sitting back and zoning out.

Mash-ups

Mash-ups are generally fun, but never amazing. My favourite this year was definately Party and Bullshit because it managed to make me dance to Miley Cirus with a smile on my face. This year DJ Earworm’s billboard project was really good, probably because there was a much faster beat to his previous work.

The Rest Which Don’t Get A Proper Heading And Because They Wouldn’t Go Well In The Dance Mix
The Actual Dance Stuff

This mix is a good hour and a half and makes up my favourite dance tracks of the year, starting with some slow funky stuff (The Twelves being my favourite new DJs this year), and then moving to some electro, which gets pretty hard with Boys Noize, another discovery from this year.

Forward Music’s Dance Mix of 2009 mp3!!!.

→ 1 CommentCategories: Anti-Pop Consortium · Astronomer · Black Noise · Boys Noize · Crookers · Crystal Fighters · David Bowie · Dirty Disco Youth · Disco Villains · Dj Earworm · Empire Of The Sun · Erol Alkan · Fever Ray · Flight Of The Conchords · Florence and the Machine · Four Tet · Friendly Fires · Gold Panda · Jack Peñate · Jay Z · Joy Orbison · Justice · MGMT · MSTRKRFT · Mark Ronson · Marvin Gaye · Metronomy · Miike Snow · Neo Toyko · Noah and the Whale · Parov Stelar · Passion Pit · Phoenix · Pixies · ReSeT! · Remixes · Schwarz · Sex Machine · Spiral Into The Storm · Stardust · Surkin · The Bloody Beetroots · The Field · The Juan Maclean · The Notorious B.I.G. · The Twelves · The Very Best · The XX · Theophilus London · Washed Out · Wiley · Yacht

Top 25 Tracks of 2009

January 10, 2010 · Leave a Comment

This year I thought I should at least describe some of the tracks of the year, but without falling into just using amazing, awesome, outstanding etc.

  1. Brother Sport by Animal Collective is the greatest song ever. I say this with all sincerity. I’m wrestling with myself to make a songs of the decade list, and this would very likely be number one. After their album collected virtual dust on my hard drive, it came up on shuffle and made me immediately listen to the rest of Animal Collective’s eighth album. The initial part of the track isn’t legendary, it’s the siren noises which come in afterwards that push it high up on my list. The synth backbeat gets stronger and stronger until it starts to hurt and then the relief comes of the intro once again as the Animal Collective sing their harmonies again. It builds you up again and knocks you down. And finally it finishes with everything mixed together. Perhaps the most impressive part is that the siren part is sung by one vocalist in live performances. Yes, really. Also it was my first vinyl single and cost me $15. Worth it? Yes.
  2. Dananananaykroyd’s best is Infinity Milk. Listening again, the build up to the main riff is excruciating. As the band let’s go, the guitar solo riffs on a sound which is quite possibly thee best guitar sound ever. Dananananaykroyd continue their frantic pace with a mixture of cheerful and screaming vocals, which just force you to shout along.
  3. Unlike Animal Collective’s number one placing, My Girls, is blissful in its vocal harmonies and synth layering. I’ve caught myself singing this under my breath wistfully, after this song has finished playing.
  4. You’ve Got the Love (The xx Remix) is the best thing The XX have done to date. Sure they released an awesome album, but if all of it was made up of stuff like this, then The XX would have stolen album of the year away from Fuck Buttons. The remix far out passes Florence and the Machine’s original, because its backbeat is just so damn strong. Sit back and relax to this masterpiece.
  5. Whereas Discovery’s debut was pretty rubbish, this gem shines out. So Insane is a fantastic example of synthpop, with stop and start rhythms and some beautiful sounds.
  6. Temecula Sunrise - Dirty Projectors
  7. Apples and Pairs - Slow Club
  8. Young Hearts Spark Fire - Japandroids
  9. CrystalisedThe XX
  10. Little Girl (feat. Julian Casablancas) - Dangermouse & Sparklehorse
  11. Lisztomania - Phoenix
  12. It’s Thunder And It’s LightningWe Were Promised Jetpacks
  13. Bite Hard - Franz Ferdinand
  14. Make Her Say Feat. Kanye West & Common - Kid Cudi
  15. Let’s Go Surfing - The Drums
  16. Lust For Life - Girls
  17. So Near - Jack Peñate
  18. Hope You’re Happy - Blakroc
  19. Bored Of Each Other - Friendly Fires
  20. Tonight’s Today- Jack Peñate
  21. Arrows Of Eros - Golden Silvers with Hypnotic Brass Ensemble
  22. Love of an Orchestra - Noah and the Whale
  23. DeathWhite Lies
  24. Sea Within A Sea - The Horrors
  25. Daylight - Matt & Kim

→ Leave a CommentCategories: Animal Collective · Blakroc · Dananananaykroyd · Dangermouse & Sparklehorse · Dirty Projectors · Discovery · Florence and the Machine · Franz Ferdinand · Friendly Fires · Girls · Golden Silvers · Hypnotic Brass Ensemble · Jack Peñate · Japandroids · Kid Cudi · Matt & Kim · Noah and the Whale · Phoenix · Slow Club · The Drums · The Horrors · The XX · We Were Promised Jetpacks · White Lies

New Stuff

January 7, 2010 · Leave a Comment

Welcome to the future! It’s 2010! No, this isn’t the cutting edge bands list. We still have to do songs of 2009, remixes of 2009 and the albums of the decade list. Until then, I wanted to do a quick breather post (no, that’s not what the last two weeks have been for). I bought and received more records than I ever have on one of my trips (Munich CDs are ridiculously expensive). So here are just three really cool songs.

I actually bought this album randomly after putting it on the “listen to later so I can decide if I actually want to buy it” list. Imagine my surprise when I found out that Islands is the Ex-The Unicorns frontman’s new band, which he formed shortly after they split. It’s their third album, Vapours, and I haven’t been captured. It’s a real mixed bag of different sounds wrapped in a traditional indie pop formula. One of the best songs so far is Switched On, which has a weird rhythm section and other bleeps and bloops which correspond nicely with the soft vocals.

For your electronic music goodness comes The Japanese Popstars. Found through Disco Demons‘ posting of Eat Christmas!, I immediately knew I was buying their album. It’s a lot of fun, and this track does what it says on the tin; Face Melter.

You’re probably well aware of Blakroc, co-founder of Def Jam got together with The Black Keys (still need some albums from them) and several different hip-hop artists. My favourite track is definitely Hope You’re Happy, because it has that headbang quality that you get with awesome blues backing and solid rhymes. The album as a whole is not a one trick pony, so make sure you check this one out.

→ Leave a CommentCategories: Blakroc · Islands · The Black Keys · The Japanese Popstars · The Unicorns

Albums of 2009

December 21, 2009 · 7 Comments

Is it me or are albums getting shorter? This list has an average of 10.2 tracks for each album, if you are a statistic obsessive like myself. It sure makes it easier to review albums. Another observation: it seems like the first half of the list is fantastic music, while the second half is all really emotional. Anyway, here are my favourite albums of 2009:

1. Tarot Sport – Fuck Buttons

Though I enjoyed their first album, Fuck Buttons‘ second blew me away. There are no words that can describe how epic this album this is. I could just throw random metaphors out there, but none would give it justice. Well, maybe this album is like Usain Bolt beating the triathlon record, in space. Or Zeus racing in the grand prix in the year 20,000. Perhaps I should just stick with describing what music they are creating? If you don’t know them, it’s pretty simple; just four-on-the-flour steady bass pounding with layers of noise, melodies and other cyclical movements. And if you know their second album, listen to the track Bright Tomorrow and imagine it ten times more powerful, spread seven times over an album. This record is perfect.

Olympians

2. Hey Everyone! – Dananananaykroyd

Dananananaykroyd captured my heart this year, because of their mix of really happy music, orgasm inducing riffs, screaming vocals, their overall hardcore sound and because they have two drummers. They have two drummers! Though I can’t say it’s the most polished album on the list, it was their unique sound that had me stuck to them. I rarely listen to hardcore or metal, it’s far too aggressive for me, I normally don’t want to be angry when I listen to music. But with these guys, I can shout along with a huge smile on my face, and easily resist the temptation to punch the nearest passer-by.

Infinity Milk

3. Merriweather Post Pavilion – Animal Collective

Yes, I am one of the people who had never heard of Animal Collective before this record (yes it’s their eighth and yes I am a bit late), but I don’t care. They make some damn good music. It didn’t quite seem to grab me as much as the rest of the world, by forcing me to herald it as the best record of the decade, however, their layered synthesized beats, basic melodies and captivating vocal arrangements made this album an intense one, rotating throughout the year and being my most listened to album. It only really lost out to the two above, because I love air punching and it wasn’t quite overall perfect like number one.

Brother Sport

4. Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix – Phoenix

Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, is an album of masterfully create pop music. It’s catchy and every song has in its grasp, a single. Even as they veer off into a completely different direction with Love Like A Sunset, Phoenix take it in their stride, creating a barrage of sound dynamics which is, with everything on this album, perfectly produced. Phoenix are not a typical pop rock band, they combined enough interesting types of sound to place it at number four.

Fences

5. Everything Is New – Jack Peñate

I did like Jack Peñate’s first album. Yeah, it wasn’t amazing, but he quickly became a whipping boy of the music world for the crime of making simple, happy indie pop. Tonight’s Today was the first track I got my hands on, after having kept Jack Peñate’s debut lying dormant in my record collection, and (if you remember rightly) it entranced me. Jack Peñate had me under his spell, like most music fans. His complete turn around was welcome, and the rest of the album managed to keep up the pop vibes, wrapped in strange Latin, African and many other, seemingly random, influences, much like Friendly Fires did with dance music last year.

Pull My Heart Away

6. Yeah So – Slow Club

It’s not really a case of justifying why Slow Club managed to get onto the top 10 albums of 2009 list. If you like emotional folk duos, you’ll like Slow Club. If this is an instant turn off because of the whole Juno phenomenon, wait a moment. The heartbreaks, the falling in love and just the good old-looking at somebody else wistfully, seems so genuine. And when your wrap it in the vocalists voices’, well it’s something quite special. Plus they can make some great fast tempo songs (Giving Up On Love and It Doesn’t Have To Be Beautiful are just two examples). The only reason this didn’t grab the number one spot, was simply because Slow Club couldn’t keep up the incredibly high quality of their initial EPs.

Apples and Pairs

7. XX – The XX

The XX created an awesome collection of stripped down, mysterious songs, with minimalist guitar riffs, intertwining the girl/boy vocals. I really don’t care where their sound came from, it’s fantastic to listen to.

Crystalized

8. Bitte Orca – Dirty Projectors

Most people throw around the term experimental with these guys, but don’t assume you’re getting into some weird, fuzzy noise rock, or complex, pretentious melodies. Dirty Projectors use fascinating start and stop rhythms, something which makes them pretty unique. This combined with sweet melodies, wavering girl backup vocals and finally pulled along by awesome guitar solos makes for a brilliant record.

Temecula Sunrise

9. The First Days Of Spring - Noah and the Whale

Instead of indie pop tunes this year, Noah and the Whale made some really stunning music, with incredible emotional depth, which isn’t full of its self. Describing his recent breakup, this piece of art steals the award for the most beautiful music award this year. And unlike The XX, you can actually understand what the vocal’s raw, and powerful emotions are.

Blue Skies

10. These Four Walls - We Were Promised Jetpacks

We Were Promised Jetpacks‘ debut is as bleak as the cover. The lyrics are incredibly depressing, not helped by the mumbled Scottish vocals. Oh, and of course the steady, minor dominated indie rock guitars, violently fighting alongside, just add to the cause. Halfway through, the album slows to acoustic tracks, but with the same vocal style kept throughout. It’s a really neat package, with my favourite track being It’s Thunder And It’s Lightning. With its gradual build, the constant guitar riff and the crashing explosion halfway, this track rivals Fuck Buttons in its epic qualities, and therfore making it one of my favourite tracks this year.

It’s Thunder And It’s Lightning

→ 7 CommentsCategories: Animal Collective · Dananananaykroyd · Dirty Projectors · Friendly Fires · Fuck Buttons · Jack Peñate · Noah and the Whale · Phoenix · Slow Club · The XX · We Were Promised Jetpacks

Christmas Mix!

December 18, 2009 · Leave a Comment

This is a little collection of music which are just some of my favourite Christmas tracks, ranging from classic rock, indie numbers, crooners, jazz tracks and folk duets. This mix has been made to enjoy for an hour or so, but hopefully this will show some of you guys that there can be good Christmas music. Please buy any of the albums that the songs are from (except for the God awful RTL Christmas Fever), they are some of the best of the best. I’ve added some links to buy a couple of these Christmas album classics.

The Beach Boys’ Christmas Album, A Charlie Brown Christmas, Songs For Christmas, Christmas With The Rat Pack

  • Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow! – Dean Martin
  • Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas – Frank Sinatra
  • Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer - Jack Johnson
  • White Christmas – Frank Sinatra
  • Christmas In Prison - Lightspeed Champion & Emmy The Great
  • Skating – Vince Guaraldi
  • Christmas TV – Slow Club
  • Winter Wonderland - Phantom Planet
  • Is This Christmas – The Wombats
  • Christmas Time All Over The World – Sammy Davis Jr.
  • Peace - Norah Jones
  • Driving Home For Christmas - Chris Rea
  • Silent Night - Sufjan Stevens
  • O Tannenbaum – Vince Guaraldi
  • Little Saint Nick - The Beach Boys

Playlist zipped.

Thanks for the image Chris Jones.

→ Leave a CommentCategories: Chris Rea · Dean Martin · Emmy The Great · Frank Sinatra · Jack Johnson · Lightspeed Champion · Mixtapes · Norah Jones · Sammy Davis Jr. · Slow Club · Sufjan Stevens · The Beach Boys · The Wombats · Vince Guaraldi

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