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If like us you still have a healthy appetite for discovering new music, we would cordially like to recommend a subscription to the very wonderful eMusic. You won’t (currently) find any releases from major records companies, although you will find some familiar names such as The White Stripes, Basement Jaxx, Thom Yorke, Joni Mitchell, Bjork, Miles Davis, Bloc Party, Richard Thompson, The Libertines and the Wu Tang Clan. You can even find some of our very own Paul Martin’s releases as Interfearence.
The eMusic Basicpackage, for example, gives you 30 MP3 downloads per month for £8.99, or 30p per download. If you want to sign up email us at citizensound.net, and we’ll introduce you. That way we both get 50 free downloads each when you subscribe.
David Bowie is their number 1 celebrity fan, the ever on the ball Rough Trade Shop reckon they are the best British band they’ve heard in years, and everyone from the Drowned In Sound and the NME to Mojo and the Sunday Times are raving about the band and their debut album.
Yet they remain unsigned, funding this their self-released debut album with US producer Peter Katis (Interpol, The National) themselves. This either shows a distinct lack of taste amongst the UK A&R community, or maybe a firm determination on the band’s part to keep control of their own destiny for as long as possible. But don’t think that this shows a lack of ambition; this is big music, which probably explains why Snow Patrol chose the band to support them on their recent UK arena tour, including two sold-out nights at the O2 in London.
When it comes to musical reference points Sufjan Stevens, Zack Condon’s Beirut and The Decemberists all spring to mind, or maybe a darker, more baroque take on Belle and Sebastian. Current single “Drowning Men” and the propulsive “Luna” are reminiscent of a British Arcade Fire, while “Harold T. Wilkins, or How To Wait For A Very Long Time” could easily be pre-Fear In Music Talking Heads. Their use of strings, brass, banjo, accordion and glockenspiels certainly sets them apart from the homogeneous ‘meat and two veg’ guitar rock that seems to characterise so much of the UK indie scene at the moment.
Reservoir is a staggeringly good debut, which is decidedly more inventive than the vast majority of records you’ll hear coming out of the UK in 2009, or anywhere else for that matter. If justice is done this album will sit alongside albums from Animal Collective, Dan Deacon, Grizzly Bear, St. Vincent and Bat For Lashes at the top of both the critics and fans polls at the end of year.
You can click below to hear “Luna” from Reservoir…
…or watch the video for “Harold T. Wilkins, or How To Wait For A Very Long Time”…
The album is available now from iTunes for only £4.74, or on CD from the end of May. The first single from the album, “Drowning Men”, is out now on Moshi Moshi Music Club.
So much good music, so little time. Here’s the pick of the best new music from the first three months of this year…
ALBUMS OF THE MONTH:
AtomTM – Liedgut Uwe Schmidt otherwise known as Atom Heart, Señor Coconut, and some sixty other pseudonyms, has gone and made some of the most interesting electronica that I’ve heard in a very long time. This is the sort of music I’d hoped Kraftwerk might be making these days, if only they still wanted to innovate. And the subtle nod to Kraftwerk’s past is made even more poignant with the appearance of Florian Schneider on guest vocals. This album may not be quite as radical as Autobahn sounded back in 1974, but it could turn out to just as vital and enduring. Oh, and the CD packaging, like much of the music is absolutely beguiling and just as classy.
Mulatu Astatke and the Heliocentrics - Inspiration Information If you haven’t warmed to the sounds of Ethiopiques, here’s a fantastic way into this amazing music. The father of Ethio-jazz comes together with Stone Throw’s Heliocentics, former DJ Shadow backing band, whose mix of Hip-Hop, Funk, Jazz and Psychedelia takes the music into some sonic stratosphere that sounds at times like Mulatu jamming with Sun Ra, the J.B.’s, David Axelrod and Herbie Hancock’s Headhunters.
It’s oft been said that when the economy goes down the toilet the music gets better, which probably explains how I managed to listen to so much fantastic music this year. On my reckoning I listened to almost 120 albums of new music this year making it really hard picking my top albums!
Album of 2008:
Shearwater - Rooks last.fm reckons that Shearwater were my most listened to act this year, so it should come as no surprise that this album is my favourite record of 2008. Shearwater make the sort of music that the phrase ’sonic cathedrals’ was meant for. Music that is epic in stature without ever being overblown or insincere. The star of the show is band leader Jonathan Meiberg who has one of the most beautiful voices I’ve ever heard. Rooks is the sort of grown-up record that you suspect Coldplay’s Chris Martin would love to make, straddling that “uneasy ground between experimental noise and hazy AM radio” Here’s hoping that this their fifth album is the one that finally breaks them to a wide and appreciative audience in the way that The Seldom Seen Kid did for Elbow in 2008.
This 33 doesn’t relate the revolutions per minute of a vinyl album, but the number of great records I’ve listened to over the last couple of months. With so much music to get through I’ve had to cut the reviews down a bit this month, but I’ve added links to myspace or last.fm pages, and the odd You Tube clip, so so you can check out the music at you leisure…
This is where all the promise finally comes good. 2006’s Return to Cookie Mountain was a great album, but TV On The Radio have created a sonic masterpiece with this their third album. Their love of dance music has always been there, but often buried in the dense soundscapes that producer David Sitek buillt around their previous two albums. But here the funk is brought well to the fore, even if the lyrics prove they are not shiny happy people. Just listen to the lead single “Golden Age”, which could almost be the missing linchpin from some great lost Prince album, and was the stand-out track on their recent performance on Jools Holland’s Later…
Talking Heads have been referenced as an influence on this record and you can hear it in their new found confidence to give both the music and vocals a bit more room to breath. And like Talking Heads this a multifaceted musical stew, with their influence being most evident on Red Dress, with the Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra providing punchy horns that rub up against highlife-style guitars lines that could be straight off Speaking In Tongues. This record also has more soul than any RnB record I’ve heard in a very very long time, which like Prince’s classic Sign Of the Times reeks of dread one minute, and the next urges us to dance the night away. Along with Shearwater’s Rooks and Portishead’s Third, this is head and shoulders above anything I’ve heard this year. A CLASSIC.
Russell was a real genius, and it’s a cryin’ shame that his was relatively unknown at the time of his death in 1992. Fortunately for us some 16 years after his death his amazing catalogue of recordings are still being reissued. This album will be a shock for many of us who either knew him for his classic jazzy disco tunes, or the avant-garde cello driven music of his World Of Echo album from 1986. It’s no surprise that this record in classified as country/folk on emusic, as this is pretty much where this record starts, merging into classic singer-songwriter territory which at times reminds me Lou Reed, Jonathan Richman (the album features two members of the Modern Lovers) and even Randy Newman.
Some of these tracks were recorded by legenday record producer John Hammond (the man who discovered Dylan, Springsteen and Leonard Cohen) as far back as 1974, and I’m unsure why they never got released at the time. And boy what a revelation this record is, his voice is simply beautiful, and the simple instrumentation that augments many of these lovely songs simply highlights what a great songwriter he was. This album delivers 24 tracks of sheer brilliance. I can’t wait to hear what they dig up next from his apparently vast tape collection. A remarkable and beautiful record.
Micachu - Filthy Friends (Micachu Mixtape Vol.1) Easily the most original and inventive artist I’ve come across this year (or for the last forty for that matter). I caught Micachu along with her band the Shapes at In The City this year and they were a revelation. And boy did they separate opinion, one friend claimed he was obviously too old as he just didn’t get it, while another acquaintance who is a top live agent stood grinning throughout the whole performance. The highlight of the gig was the brilliant “Golden Phones”, which is currently available on iTunes from the In The City Unsigned 2008 compilation, while the only other music available by Micachu other than her mixtape, is their remix of The Streets excellent “Everything Is Borrowed” single (which they effectively covered rather than mixed).
Not surprisingly Mica has been signed by the wonderfully idiosyncratic Matthew Herbert for his label Accidental Records. Micachu is the moniker of 21 year old songwriter and producer Mica Levi. Mica, as her official biog claims, is a bit of a Renaissance artist “equally at home writing and producing stunning, experimental pop with the likes of Matthew Herbert, as MCing with friends in various grime collectives and balancing this with her day time tutorage at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama where she’s studying composition. Her talent as a young composer has not gone unnoticed with Mark Anthony Turnage commissioning her to write an orchestral piece for the London Philharmonic Orchestra that was performed at the Royal Festival Hall on April 29th. She is also a member contemporary experimental classical outfit S’n'M or Society Of New Music.” Currently doing the rounds is Micachu’s ‘Filthy Friends’ mixtape which mashes up a whole load of have favourite acts including the likes of Man Like Me, Ghost Poet, Capitol K, Kwes, Jack Penate, The Fields, Naked & the Boys, Toddla T, Suicidedogz, Golden Silvers and many more of her friends. Her totally unique take on the grime mix album is as mad as a fish, and as much fun as you can legally have in your own home. Download it for free at www.myspace.com/micayomusic. (more…)
Yes I do - and I guess it is a shared feeling within the citizens - so that is why I am posting a video of their live show last night at Cargo.
After a tour of the US where they were highly acclaimed with articles in the New York and LA Times, the super band from Portugal came back to London to give this city a little bit more of “kuduro” energy and power.
And they truly succeeded.
In this video you can see their stage entrance and the first incredible beats they shared with the crowd. They also brought Blaya, a unique kuduro dancer to give them support on some songs like “Kalemba” and “Sound of kuduro” as well as to show the crowd how to get their ass very tight (kuduro means hard ass) and shake it like crazy.
The golden moment of the show was their usual trademark which they have been doing since their first appearance. The band demand everyone goes down on their knees, count 1, 2, 3 and the whole crowd jumps!
With a mix between Portuguese and English as well as African dialect, Kalaf and Conductor (the 2 MC’S) engaged the crowd with their rhymes and thoughts whilst Lil’ John was in charge of the beats giving us stuff from their new album Black Diamond and mixing this with some electronic classics such as “One More Time” from Daft Punk or “Breathe” from The Prodigy. With a little help from Fred Ferreira as guest drummer and DJ Riot playing electronic percussion this was definitely a show to remember.
Or Cynthia Ann Stephanie Lauper or Cyndi Lauper is back and I am still a big fan.
Lets just do a little update on her age, sorry Cyndi, but we know you were born on June 22, 1953, so you can´t be 48 as you suggested on a recent TV show..
Anyways, Cyndi is for me, one of the coolest singers of all time as you can see on this video where she sings Girls Just Wanna Have Fun with a little help - not that she needed - from the young unknown Jesse Jane, recorded at her performance at Shepherds Bush Empire on the 14th October.
Her 10th album- Bring Ya to the Brink - was released last May after Loopy visited England and Sweden and includes a song produced by Basement Jaxx?!
I told you the lady is so cool… (Note that not all the citizens agree with me on this one..)
The summer months are usually a quiet time for new releases. Except nobody seemed to have told this lot, so here’s a few of my favourites…
ALBUMS OF THE MONTH:
The Week That Was - The Week That Was
Jonquil - Lions/Whistle Low EP
It’s not often that I get to rave about a band from my home-town Sunderland, mainly because the only acts we could boast about for the best part of the last 25 years were the Toy Dolls, Leatherface and Laura Laverne’s band Kenickie. But in 2004 along came the Futureheads, and their former drummer’s new band, Field Music. Both bands seemed to be fans of XTC, but Field Music also added the likes of Todd Rundgren and the Beach Boys to the mix. They made two excellent albums (plus a b-sides compilation), and then split. Which is weird as two of the three band members are brothers, David and Peter Brewis. So was this a Gallagher-style falling out? Apparently not. The band apparently wanted to get away from the treadmill of playing live, and no-doubt a chance to do their own thing. An honourable mention goes to younger brother David’s solo debut, Sea From Shore, which came out earlier in the year under the name of School Of Language, and of the brothers solo albums, is the closest to the Field Music sound. However, it is big brother Peter, under the name The Week That Was, who has gone on to make he biggest leap forward. The touchpoints for this record seem to be the likes of Kate Bush’s classic Hounds of Love, Peter Gabriel early trilogy of self-titled albums, and Fleetwood Mac’s Tusk. This is definitely a very grown-up type of pop music; the complexity of the arrangements alone suggests that this was a labour of love recorded over many years, rather than an album that was apparently written and recorded in just a few short weeks. This album, however, has more to do with Brain Wilson’s pocket symphonies, than anything from Tales from Topographic Oceans. And at 35 minutes long this is one record that doesn’t overstay it’s welcome, even though I’d be happy to listen to a triple CD album of the stuff… (more…)
ALBUMS OF THE MONTH: Shearwater - Rook
Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes
Rook is amazingly the fifth album by Jonathan Meiburg’s solo project Shearwater, a band so under the radar they had pretty much gone unnoticed here in the UK, apart from a small feature in the much missed independent music magazine, Comes With A Smile, way back in 2004. Even in the US it was only really with last year’s Palo Santo that the band garnered wider recognition, with the album acquiring enthusiastic reviews from the likes of the New York Times, Pitchfork and US music magazine Magnet; and provided the first indications that this solo project could outshine the music of his other band, Okkervil River, which he has only recently quit. Shearwater were formed in 2001, as as an outlet for the quieter and more introspective songs of Meiburg and Okkervil co-founder Will Sheff, with both bands running simultaneously for much of this decade. Sheff shared the vocals on the bands first three albums, up until 2004’s Winged Life, but has since taken more of an ‘instrumental’ back seat in the band. (more…)
