Euphony In Electronics - One Point One
Laura Marling - Alas I Cannot Swim
Neil Young - Tonight's The Night Live At The Roxy
Efterklang - Magic Chairs
Neil Young - After The Gold Rush
Gram Parsons - GP and Grievous Angel
Beginners start here with EFTERKLANG. They came from the electronica and glitchy camp (with Springer/Tripper in 2003), and they have now reached a strange classical/opera type place (with Leaves: The Colour of Falling in 2016). At their midpoint their (only) third album Magic Chairs from 2010 represented a peak of interesting, yet accessible, music.
The GRAM PARSONS double is straight up country music. It's not my usual sort of music, but these songs like Streets of Baltimore, She, Cry One More Time, Brass Buttons, $1000 Wedding, Love Hurts, and In My Hour Of Darkness, are so good as the melodies are so catchy. Superb songs. Every home should have this CD.
One of NEIL YOUNG's most famous albums Tonight's The Night was taken on the road two years before its release. Seen as a typical act of self sabotage after the success of Harvest had bored him, a live album of the tour has now emerged. The songs are great, the renditions are authentic, and the record represents an important document in Young's history. However the album is probably not different enough from the original studio version to warrant anyone apart from the purists and completists investing. To read more about Tonight's The Night Live At The Roxy read my review here.
I've had the LAURA MARLING in the player a few times now and it's an excellent grower. Slightly more upbeat than some of her later more solo work Alas I Cannot Swim was recorded when Marling was only 17 and became her debut album in 2008. The maturity is astounding.
Final album here is a compilation of excellent electronica from local knob twiddling label Kin-Aesthetic Recordings. Here are the links to the tracks and some pleasing words of explanation from their website:
The GRAM PARSONS double is straight up country music. It's not my usual sort of music, but these songs like Streets of Baltimore, She, Cry One More Time, Brass Buttons, $1000 Wedding, Love Hurts, and In My Hour Of Darkness, are so good as the melodies are so catchy. Superb songs. Every home should have this CD.
One of NEIL YOUNG's most famous albums Tonight's The Night was taken on the road two years before its release. Seen as a typical act of self sabotage after the success of Harvest had bored him, a live album of the tour has now emerged. The songs are great, the renditions are authentic, and the record represents an important document in Young's history. However the album is probably not different enough from the original studio version to warrant anyone apart from the purists and completists investing. To read more about Tonight's The Night Live At The Roxy read my review here.
I've had the LAURA MARLING in the player a few times now and it's an excellent grower. Slightly more upbeat than some of her later more solo work Alas I Cannot Swim was recorded when Marling was only 17 and became her debut album in 2008. The maturity is astounding.
Final album here is a compilation of excellent electronica from local knob twiddling label Kin-Aesthetic Recordings. Here are the links to the tracks and some pleasing words of explanation from their website:
ELECTRIC APE
Opening with the uneasy heart-beating toll of Theme from The Infernal Machine, rising up with an inescapable stomp-march, its gloriously cold analogue bite might soundtrack a Zombie attack on the outskirts of Detroit.
INWARDS
Tentatively, Limbic System follows. Rebalancing to ambient calm with half-glanced shimmers and softly pulsing neuro-transmissions, the atmosphere breathes and lulls hypnotically, clicking, popping and geiger-counter ticking from within.
ALPHABETS HEAVEN
The intensity is ratcheted up with Amin, a quick-witted liquid beat that modulates, shifts and snaps, with a knowing nod, yet a fresh tenacity. Spacious, sharp, percussive; this circling groove deserves a jittering dancefloor.
ATOMICO
Re-doubling the energetic leap with this almost-lost production from 99', the taut electronic funk-beat of Forever brings an otherworldly depth, ghostly atmospherics and hot-footed drums serenade the divine closing quarter's molten synth-line.
SCARAMANGA SILK
Condensing into electrically charged cloud cover, the tropical ambience of Velvet Raindrops weighs heavy. The sultry electronic climate swells and swirls, threatening to explode, still the rich humidity reigns supreme.
PROPRIO
Finally, we stumble into the drowsy, drunken, distorted synth-groove of Columbo. Off-balance, world-worn, the excavated crooked beat rocks back and forth, strewn with end-of-night murmurs, yet crucially breaking into thumping coherence.