Emerging Fervour

A couple of months back, I joined Chima and a few of his friends to be a part of his video for his new single ‘Death’.

The trailers out! The trailers out!

Although my excitement faded only a little when I realised that by debut wasn’t in the trailer but will be when the full video is out – but check this out out to wet your appetite for the full video that’s out in the next few weeks.

Make sure you catch Chima Anya at the Barfly in Camden on April 9th – see our post on this! Buy your tickets now from the Barfly site!

So I’ve been meaning to share my thoughts on current music with you since January, but a combination of winter induced stupor and fingers too numb to type have prevented me from putting words to paper sooner. That said, blue skies have magically re-appeared, day-light is now visible past half-four and so I feel moved to finally share some thoughts on great music that you should be listening to.

The rule of the day is eclecticism. When it comes to artfully arranged sounds, what works, works – rather like paint. One additional caveat – one or two of these have been out for a few months, so before you get all “Hey, didn’t that one come out in like October?” please understand that I’m taking liberties with you, dear reader. Let’s get involved.

Charlotte Gainsbourg, IRM

A dream collaboration that pairs of French model/ actress/ chantreuse Charlotte Gainsbourg and the original mashup king Beck whose cunning pastiches of folk, punk electronica and hip hop haven’t seemed genuinely cool since the early naughties.

Gainsbourg’s vocals are exactly what you’d expect from the daughter of Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin – paper thin, whispery and achingly cool. ‘Le Chat Du Café Des Artistes’ comes closest to the stylings of her father, but Beck mostly sticks to familiar territory – folksy electro pop, psychedelia and the odd Dadaist freakout all of which feel fresh and engaging with Gainsbourg singing. He keeps the arrangements spare and effective – small stabs of dissonance and electronic noises that subtly embellish guitar and piano arrangements.

As for Charlotte, her thin voice isn’t the ideal vehicle but when it works, it soars. Lack of vocal range makes a bluesy number like ‘Dandelion’ a bit flat, but it transforms the sunny folk of ‘Me and Jane Doe’ into a bewitching cross between Joan Baez and Nico. She deploys it most effectively when her whispery monotone drones over some of the darker songs to be found here. ‘Master’s Hands’ revels in S&M undertones while ‘the Collector’ leaks unnamed dread. IRM sounds like Kraftwerk, Sonic Youth and Nico stuck in an elevator, and believe me, that is a very good thing. Overall, the album is delightly moody and sparkling pop that sees Beck find new life as a svengali to a French icon in the making. Charlotte Gainsbourg album IRM is available on iTunes.

Vampire Weekend, Contra

I’m going to make this very clear. Vampire Weekend are the best thing to happen to bands with guitars in a mighty long time. Their debut fused energetic indie power pop with the hypnotic rhythms and patterns of West Africa, a style they called “Upper West Side Soweto”. Their approach was rhythmically inventive, sublimely melodic and showed a knack for genuinely obscure lyric. Their influences include “Graceland”- era Paul Simon and Talking Heads.

Contra, which went straight to number one upon its US release sees Vampire Weekend growing in every way. The world music influences are woven into their songs with greater subtlety than before and the heightened presence of twinkling electronica, sweeping strings pianos, xylophones and in one delirious instant at the climax of the lead single “Cousins”, church bells, mark this as a band embracing the magic of recording studio and reveling in the possibilities.

A short creative piece ..

I am simply somebody who loves music. Music is an art form but is often no longer treated as one and this disappoints me, but without going off on a rant about the good ol’ days I will get straight on to the positives of internet music.

Underneath the sheer volume of musical sewage floating around on the net every now and again you will find something that evades the constraints of the current trends. An artist or band that you just have to wonder why the heck are these guy’s not massive though whether through trying or inadvertently it seems they make steps to doing something which could be deemed classic or timeless.

I may be labelled a purist or a music snob, more likely a hater. I’m never likely to post something just because everybody else has and never in a rush to blog something and co-sign on it being cool when a week later it will just be a solitary invisible mp3 not assigned to any particular playlist in Itunes or Serato never to be played again.

Let’s start with a fact, nobody would deny; music creates fashion. Whether the way Johnny Rotten cut his shirt, David Bowie celebrated his androgyny or Brian Ferry emphasized his dandyism, they created styles.

Times have changed, and so has the synergy of music and fashion.
The good news is, there are artists like Ebony Bones!.
The bad news is, there are people like Liam Gallagher.

Ebony Bones! obviously expresses herself and her music through her style. And just like her sound, this style hits you with a hammer. It’s loud, motley, it’s wicked! She wears woollen bracelets and necklaces combined with Josephine Baker memorial banana skirts. Her outfits are like a declaration of war on all suicidal-skinny-jeans-wearing indie rockbands. Let’s come to the point: this is what punk used be. DIY with no rules.