September « 2008

September 30, 2008

Everything That Happens Will Happens Today

Filed under: Brian Eno,Coldplay,David Byrne,roxy music,Talking Heads,U2 — AZLTRON @ 7:42 pm

This is really a momentous album. David Byrne and Brian Eno working together again for the first time in over 20 years. They of course worked on the famous “My Life in the Bush of Ghosts” album, and a handful of Talking Heads albums, most notably the classic “Remain in Light”. This album was a great surprise to me as I enjoy the work of both men immensely. Brian Eno really revolutionized production and continues to do so in his solo work and with popular bands and musicians. Artists that Brian Eno has worked with over the years include Roxy Music, David Bowie, U2 and most recently Coldplay. David Byrne is of course an intellectual punk/funk visionary, whose later solo works, while satisfying, lacked a certain immediacy and relevance. It was nice to see him mellow out and his vocals are still as good as ever, but he needed to be pushed out of his comfort zone a bit.

That is exactly what has happened on “Everything that Will Happen will Happen Today”, Brian Eno once again carves a careful soundscape of melodies, beats, and whimsical genius, with the songwriting genius of David Byrne, present at a level we haven’t seen in over ten years. Important themes like violence in society, terrorism and domestic issues skirt around an album that beamingly is two musicians reveling in their craft. There are mostly mid or downtempo songs here, but these guys are seasoned enough to make every song an aural journey worth taking, whether it feels like a sweeping retrospective, a nice sit on the back porch in a rocking chair, or a casual visit to a night club, you can’t help but say “They’ve still got it!”

David Byrne & Brian Eno Official Site

David Byrne & Brian Eno – I Feel My Stuff

David Byrne & Brian Eno – Strange Overtones

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Mt Sims’ dark new electro rocker "Happily Ever After" is Frighteningly Fun

Filed under: Bauhaus,Berlin,Bryan Scary,california,Do they know its halloween,goth,gothic rock,Mt Sims,oingo boingo,skinny puppy,the faint — AZLTRON @ 6:48 pm

With the month of October less than a day away I couldn’t think of a better album to be listening to to get into a suitably goth mood. the Berlin California trio might as well be from Germany circa 1982 for all of their industrial goth glory. They sound like Todd Fink of The Faint, Ian Curtis of Joy Division, and Danny Elfman of Oingo Boingo joined together to create a goth supergroup produced by Skinny Puppy. Seriously, I can’t stress the authentic goth feel enough. Someone get me a cape and some plastic fangs. Fans of She Wants Revenge will find a lot to like here. Including, straight ahead synths, deadpan vocals, an off kilter, yet foreboding atmosphere, and, yes, even some playful horns.

Mt Sims Myspace

Mt Sims – Dig it In

Mt Sims – The Bitten Bite Back

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Twan Von Hovi’s "After a Year" is a Veritable Carnival of Sounds

Filed under: Bauhaus,David Bowie,the faint,The Postal Service,The Talking Heads,TV on the Radio — AZLTRON @ 6:34 pm

Twan Van Hovi is a chameleon. Twan Von Hovi rhymes with “Jon Bon Jovi”. Twan Von Hovi hails from Houston Texas. Twan Von Hovi usees electro/rock stylings to push music that at times sounds like TV on the Radio, The Postal Service, David Bowie and Bauhaus in a blender on high. The music is menacing and fun all at once, switching from instrumental tracks to songs with little to no warning. A veritable carnival of sounds and I’ve a free ride listed below.

Twan Von Hovi – From My Heart to Yours

Twan Von Hovi – Addictionary

Twan Von Hovie Myspace

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September 28, 2008

Mason Proper Streamline their Sound on New Release "Olly Olly Oxen Free"

Filed under: David Bowie,Mason Proper,the faint,The Pixies,TV on the Radio,We Are Performance — AZLTRON @ 7:01 pm

I first heard Mason Proper at an old radio station meeting as the staff were doling out new CD’s for the club members to review. I heard the first few seconds of “A Chance Encounter” off of their acclaimed debut CD “There is a Moth in Your Chest”, and once I heard the swooshing sythesizer and echo affected vocals, I was intrigued. Upon further examination the album proved to have many gems, among which were the manic synth driven “Lights Off” and thier hyper guitar heavy jam “My My (Bad Fruit)”, that was reminiscent somewhat of the Pixies, but with a smidge of synth . The album went on to become one of my top albums of 2007.
The Ann Arbor, Michigan group released a stylistically impressive EP entitled “Shorthand” earlier this year and a few stylistically impressive videos to match. As of September 23, 2008, the band have a new album out entitled “Olly Olly Oxen Free”. The biggest thing I noticed upon the first listen is that Mason proper have adopted a “Less is more” philosophy on this record. Gone are the wild tempos and reckless sounds. Everything here is carefully constructed. Thats not to say that there aren’t experimental sounds to be heard on this record, in fact there are some sounds on here that are as satisfying as anything the Mason Proper crew has assembled. The sound overall is much more premeditated, and dare I say, even pretty. Jonathan Visgr’s capable vocals soar to the front of the mix showing that he can make mid-tempo rockers pump and writhe, and the locking bass drum combo accentuates the pulse of each song perfectly. Don’t fret, those glorious keys and piano that made “There is a Moth in Your Chest” so exciting aren’t absent, making a strong showing on “Only a Moment” and “Shiny”. Mason Proper have even added in some horns on some tracks to expand thier musical pallete. They’ve made a much more cohesive album than their debut, one you could easilly find yourself lost in it for hours. Mason Proper are on top of their game, at their quirky crazy best, and confident enough not to hit you over the head with that fact.

Mason Proper – Fog

Mason Proper – Shiny

Mason Proper Myspace

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September 27, 2008

The Killers Return, and seem more… Human.

Filed under: Franz Ferdinand,Interpol,Modest Mouse,stellastarr,the faint,The Killers — AZLTRON @ 4:18 pm

The Killers have been controversial figures for me, their first album was one of the first in an onslaught of the return of the synthesizer in modern music. They are arguably one of the primary forces in modern contemporary music that energized me to go out and find out what was happening in the world of music these days. It was The Killers, Modest Mouse, Interpol, Franz Ferdinand, stellastarr*and The Faint that reminded me that good music is still being made out there, you just have to look beyond the top 40 sound and production style.

The Killer’s Hot Fuss was a smorgasbord of delicious pop music accessible to many, and delectable for me because of the focus on the use of the keyboard and post punky rhythms, plus a smidge of vocoder on “Smile Like You Mean It”. It sounds cliche, but I was definitely one of those people who “Liked them before they got really popular”, but I did, they opened for stellastarr* back in the day and I liked stellastarr* so I checked them out, and lo and behold they were pretty good. Their debut album stands as one of the biggest stylistic statements, and certainly one of the most commercially successful albums of the mid 2000′s that didn’t depend on a gutteral moan and drop d tuned plucking and grunging or power chords and a whiney voice echoing the frustrations of the pre-teen upper middle class. As that, they need to be commended, but somewhere along the way, they found themselves and mutated into a country/classic rock version of themselves leaving an army of fans saying “Bruce Springsteen?” and wishing for “David Bowie”. “Sam’s Town” wasn’t a bad album by any means, and stylistic progression is commendable. Novelty moustaches are always good for a laugh, but where are The Killers that stole my heart and my money to become one of the biggest bands in the world?

Those Killers stand poised to reclaim their throne, Brandon is de-moustached and once again clothed in lounge-chic sport coats and dress pants. They have a new single, and ,if anything, “Human” brings the electronics and dance beats back into play without sacrificing their newfound sound and Brandon’s new, more earnest, vocal style. This could be the second coming of The Killers. Brace yourselves, only time will tell.

The Killers – Human

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Bayside’s "Shudder" retains irresistible wit, intricate riffs, and haunting melodies

Filed under: Albums,Bayside,Ferdinand Moss,Shudder,Walking Wounded — AZLTRON @ 2:24 pm

Featured Album Review by FM, The Digital Boy

The truth behind Bayside’s fourth full record, Shudder, is that it is all it was hoped to have retained: incredible wit, foot-stomping beats and haunting melodies, accompanied with a sense of aggression, hope, hopelessness, disdain, love and loss. The songs on Shudder are melancholy, but the band tries to tell us that, regardless of the facts at hand, things will be OK in the end.

The album is a bit more optimistic than their previous releases, but captures the dark emotional side of the band, as their other albums have. Shudder takes us back to its punk roots, with songs “Rochambo (Rock, Paper, Scissors)” and Bayside spells out their apathy and misery with its acoustic “Moceanu”. Shudder has its ups and downs, both literally and figuratively; the album starts off strong with “Boy”, which picks up nicely, where the band’s previous album, The Walking Wounded, left off. The 12 songs on Shudder make up a collective whole with remnants of albums in the past, though not as anthemic as some of their previous work. “The Ghost of St. Valentine”, one of my personal favorites from the album, is a song about being stuck thinking about why a relationship went sour and kicking oneself for delving too deep, including the melancholy lyrics, “There is no love just appetite / and it’s consequences keep you up at night. / Well, appetite is lust at best / and it’s up to us to figure out the rest.”

Essentially what makes Long Island-based Bayside such a distinguishable band from a lot of other music out there, is front man Anthony Ranieri’s heartbreaking lyrics intertwined with tremendous apathy. The song “I Think I’ll Be OK”, one that was demoed on their tour earlier this year with Alkaline Trio, can be found on YouTube, and gave fans (or members of the ‘Bayside Cult’) a taste of what was to come on the new album. If you know Bayside at all, you know that most of the songs that Bayside writes are introspective; the songs hardly remark about the world, but rather the hopeless relationships and personal failures that are being grappled with. But again, the songs end up on a positive note, especially on Shudder, and there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Shudder, overall, is about happiness over heartbreak, and finding yourself in the world and realizing your place in it. The album drops September 30th on Victory Records.

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September 25, 2008

Desmond & The Tutus: Dance Punk from South Africa

Filed under: art brut,desmond tutus,german modern,LCD Soundsystem,Modern Lovers,New Order,south africa,the rapture — AZLTRON @ 8:23 am

It’s bands like Desmond and the Tutus that make me glad that I run a music blog. Without this blog I never would have found out about them. Nor would I be as educated on famous South African clerics. The South African quartet takes their name from the Nobel Peace Prize, Albert Schweitzer Humanitarian Award, and Ghandi Peace Prize winning Cleric who became the first black Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, South Africa. He was a staunch opponent of apartheid. Fun cultural references like that in band titles are always welcome.

On to the music though, Desmond and the Tutus’ sound is something like The Modern Lovers and Art Brut playing some African style bass. If you like the poly-rhythms of Vampire Weekend, chances are you’ll enjoy this band as well. I found myself listening through each song on their album “Tuckshop” and thinking to myself “They’ve got my number! but how?”, because there is a song on here about loving synthesizers and wearing New Order t-shirts, “German Modern”, and a song about competitive swimming, “Saggy Bottom Speedo Swimmer”, which both speak to me because I am both a connoisseur of synthesizers and a competitive swimmer. It’s not just that they’re speaking to me though, each song has such vitality and personality that it’s sure to win you over. Give them a try. They’re my new favorite South African band… of course before I heard them I didn’t know any South African bands… but that doesn’t make them any less awesome. For real.

Desmond and the Tutus – Peter

Desmond and the Tutus – German Modern

Desmond and the Tutus Myspace

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September 23, 2008

Marc Ustari is Unbelievable

Filed under: Daft Punk,death from above 1979,DJ,does it offend you yeah,Justice,lodon,marc ustari,producer,Sebastien Grainger — AZLTRON @ 6:33 pm

Marc Ustari is an up and coming electro producer out of London, and if he’s featured on this blog he must be doing something right. Right? Absolutely, his stomping beats and creative use of distortion to further enhance his songs a la Justice. Take a taste of his latest work “Unbelievable” below.

Marc Ustari – Unbelievable

To top it off, Marc Ustari even has a bangin’ remix of Data’s “Rapture” on his Myspace. So just mosey on over and enjoy.

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September 20, 2008

Edwin Van Cleef Remixes Data’s Rapture (ft. Sebastien Grainger)

Filed under: Belle and Sebastian,Daft Punk,data,death from above 1979,discovery,does it offend you yeah,Justice,MSTRKRFT,Sebastien Grainger — AZLTRON @ 11:00 am

Edwin Van Cleef has remixed the newest single from the up and coming French producer Data, “Rapture”. The song features Sebastien Grainger from Death From Above 1979 and some sublime retro synths and guitar work and if it’s possible, Van Cleef has injected the song with even more ideal 80′s nostalgia.

Data – Rapture (ft Sebastien Grainger)

Data – Rapture pt. II

Data – Rapture (Edwin Van Cleef Remix)

Data Myspace

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September 16, 2008

Sex, Drugs and Electro from The Sonixx

Filed under: alphabeat,Black Rebel Motorcycle Club,Bloc Party,bloody beetroots,Daft Punk,House,Justice,moby,steve aoki,The Sonixx,villains — AZLTRON @ 9:07 am

The Sonixx are a new one man electro group out of Montreal, Canada, whose debut EP “Sex, Drugs and Electro” is full of string washes and split second classic house shout outs and grinding synth bass. If you’re intrigued, the EP is now available for purchase on his Myspace via paypal.