Wednesday 23 April 2014

Warm Wednesday XXVIII

Today a short warm wednesday post but nevertheless a worthy one. I just heard this artist some days ago and I was flabbergasted. This wednesday is for Bachar Mar-Khalifé
Bachar is born in Beirut, Lebanon, and the son of musician Marcel Khalifé (who is actively committed to the Lebanese secular movement). He moved to Paris when he was 6 years old and graduated from the Conservatory of Paris. Bachar Mar-Khalife is a classically-trained pianist and percussionist. First let's listen to the track that blew my mind here's "Distance" from the 2010 album Oil Slick. Convinced? I was...the precious and intimate compositions of "Oil Slick" (made with his brother Rami by the way) released in 2010 make way on his second album for songs fueled by stage experience. This new album includes covers of Serge Gainsbourg sublimated by the voice of Kid A, of his father, Marcel, but also alternate versions of songs from his debut album as well as original compositions. Here you can see him perform the song "Mirror Moon" from the 2013 album: Who's gonna get the ball from behind the wall of the garden today? Here's the laidback single with Virginia producer/songwriter KID A, this song is called "Machins Choses" For those who like to hear the full album "Oil Slick", here it is: via Bachars' Bandcamp page, enjoy!

Thursday 10 April 2014

Tinseling Thursday XV

Let's bring up some veterans to tinsel up our thursday!
How about Eno • Hyde
Famous producers/musicians Brian (Peter George St. John le Baptiste de la Salle)Eno and Karl Hyde (Underworld) will release a new collaborative album on may the 6th (5th in the UK)called "Someday World". Yesterday I heard the song Daddy's Car and I became very happy! Nice uptempo song, nice drums, nice baseline, nice vocals by Karl.... well let's hit it! I love it, it was the second song they shared with us after "The Satellites" which was also impressive but (like someone commented on the video), with very "cheesy horns" and I must admit. It sounds like they found a second hand 80's Roland Juno in the studio's cellar. But okay that's what I like, more cheesiness in todays music! The song was composed and sung by both Eno and Hyde. It features Eno's Roxy Music bandmate Andy Mackay, Eno's daughter Darla Eno, Sinead O'Connor producer John Reynolds, the record's co-producer Fred Gibson, and Georgia Gibson.

I always admired Brian Eno for his minimalistic music and the projects he did as a producer. Karl Hyde's last album Edgeland is also more moving towards that minimal approach so I thought this collaboration would be also very loungy/chilling/esoteric but wrong I was :) Here's Karl Hyde's song from that Edgeland album "The Night Slips Us Smiling Underneath It's Dress"

Thursday 3 April 2014

Tinseling Thursday XIV

Ready to unwrap our todays Boxed-In tinsels?

Boxed In is the chosen alias for the first solo venture from London based producer Oli Bayston and Oliver is no newbie. Being 7 year in Manchester-based band Keith, working as engineer and assistant to producer Dan Carey (Franz Ferdinand, Hot Chip, Bat For Lashes, Toy) and playing keyboards on Willy Mason's and Steve Mason's most recent LPs, he's earned his spurs. But even those experiences won't count if the music is sheit :) Luckily, that's not the case, listen for example to his latest song "No Joke" The quirky bass is played by Mark Nicholls, another fellow band member is Liam Hutton (drums). Here's "All Your Love is Gone" I love this acoustic piano version he played on Sofar London and we end with a soundcloud link to "Legacy", enjoy your todays tinsels!

Wednesday 2 April 2014

Warm Wednesday XXVII

Let's welcome troubadour Nick Mulvey to warm up this wednesday.
I saw this London based singer-songwriter on a documentary about the SXSW festival.
He was dropping his hypnotic tunes and his briljant way of playing the acoustic guitar on the streets of Austin playing the song "Nitrous"...

wait a minute isn't that the 90's song "Youre not alone" by Olive, yes it certainly is, nice way of blending :). Nick studied music in Havana, Cuba. He played the Hang as a founder member of 2008 Mercury Prize nominated band Portico Quartet, until 2011 (when he got the hang of it), he left to pursue his career as a singer-songwriter. In this next song his guitar sounds a bit like a Hang, this is the song "Juramidam"... His debut album "First Mind" is going to be released on the 11th of may. On June 2013 he released the EP Fever to the Form. Here's a soundcloud link to this EP And let's end with his latest song "Meet me There" have a nice warm wednesday!