calls & responses

memory cassette ~ calls & responses ep (acephale records, 2009)

memory cassette, a moniker for dayve hawk, a 28 year old dad living in the rural area of new jersey that is not "very good with computers" is back with two releases: an ep called 'call & response' and a lp called seek magic.
this release (calls & responses) is a sort of celebration of this releases and contains 5 remixes from previous songs.
the dreamy and sleepy lo-fi electronic is back!

dayve history with music includes a post-punk band called hail social and a number of other projects such as weird tapes.
he already caught the attention from blog hunters with his own work and with remixes for various artists like the yeah yeah yeahs, peter bjorn and john among others... even pitchfork made an interview with him.
it seems that his two main projects - memory cassette and weird tapes - will become one and will be called memory tapes... he already released a few things under this name... such a song called bicycle that you can download here.
and here's calls & responses and its versions from friends and dayve himself...




01. surfin (sail a whale version)
02. las one awake (friend version)
03. surfin (weird tapes version)
04. last one awake (cfcf version)
05. sufin (shadow self version)


his previous releases 'the hiss we missed' and 'rewind while sleepy' can also be found here on the blog... just look for the tag memory cassette. it's easy! and the sound is beautiful!

blog
myspace
buy it (the ep with the songs, not this one with the versions)

where do you go to (my lovely)?

biker boy ~ where do you go to (my lovely)? (hybris, 2009)

i've just posted biker boy's debut ep and now it's time for his latest work... some other time i'll post the in between releases.
here's the beautiful version for the lovely peter sarstedt's song that recently (well, not that recently) was used on the short movie 'hotel chevalier' by wes anderson.


ps: the single also features a remix by mr. banana that is not included here.

and here's the video directed by patrik gebhardt.



site
myspace

heart

biker boy ~ heart (hybris, 2005)

a swedish artist making melancholic electronic tunes with highly addictive beats. 'heart' is his debut ep and since then he has released 4 other works.
he spent last year releasing one single per month and that became the full lenght 'calendar' that also has a remix version.
he has just released a free single with a nice cover of peter sarstedt's lovely hit 'where do you go to (my lovely)?'.
he sounds like pet shop boys but has a morrissey-esque way of writing lyrics. swedish newspaper dagens nyheter has a good way to describe his music: "a morrissey on speed - with synthesizers".

heart is a very gloomy and blue ep and with beautiful and honest lyrics about heartbreakings and heartbreakers wrapped in sophisticated synth melodies.
the title track once was (curiously) tagged by me as 'makes me think about the future of transportation' ... go figure... still is a beautiful song with a brilliant video already posted on the section 'music to see'.



01. heart
02. situations
03. worst case scenario
04. please, don't mind



site
myspace
buy it

junco y diamante

junco y diamante ~ junco y diamante (producciones doradas, 2009)

you may already know that i love the music scene from barcelona. lately i've been discovering a lot of great bands and acts that sing in catalan.
junco y diamante was one of the first discoveries and i feel that i should've talked about them a long time ago...
they are a duo:
1. david rodríguez - from the band los beef and the man behind la estrella de david and one of the most important musicians in barcelona nowadays, either for the music he makes and his work as producer (he produced the amazing debut album from la bien querida). he also is, in my humble opinion, who best describes the atmosphere from the city (or at least how i felt it when i visited it some time ago);
2. joël iriarte that you may know as joe crepúsculo and member of the band tarántula, another iconic figure that has been causing quite a fuss since last year with his edgy songs (tacky? genious? both?) and featuring his two albums (supercrepus and escuela de zebras) among the best of 2008.

here you'll find 4 songs, each dedicated to a diferent comarca (compared to a county) surrounding barcelona. a graphic and geographic exploration with free interpretations of those places.
it's beautiful, delicate, intimate and catalan.
('alt penedès' is lovely, probably the best song of this ep (?) and a collaboration with la bien querida).
three songs are sang in spanish and one in catalan.




01. alt penedès
02. solsones
03. pallars sobira
04. osona

you can hear four new comarcas at their myspace.
myspace

maqueta

vicente prats ~ maqueta (independent, 2009)

another fresh spanish band from valencia and another discovery taken from one of the best blogs about spanish music, señor pollo.
this is a demo containing four songs with melodic/addictive hooks and creative lyrics about love. the vocals are quite good too: the kind that makes you actually feel your ears (in a good and soothing way).
15 minutes of unpretentious - and surprinsingly unknown - sunny pop songs to sing along and dance.



01. encuentros
02. empieza el juego
03. tiempo perdido
04. la última vez

here's a video taken from a concert... they sound pretty good (and intense) also playing live.

"empieza el juego"


myspace

home demos 2009

sunshower orphans ~ home demos 2009 (holiday records, 2009)

another release from the amazing holiday records. a four piece band from nyc making shoegazy melodies with influences from my bloody valentine, pavement and sonic youth.
two lovely songs with a urban feeling and full of that melancholic feeling of being alone in the middle of a crowd.
while 'lies in sepia' has a more noisy melody, 'manic flaneur' has a slower pace with awesome twists...
less than 10 minutes are enough to take you through beautiful landscapes of (distorted) sounds and contemplative moods. perfect for those days when it's cold, raining and you forgot your umbrella and your soaking wet on your way home.
(you can listen to more songs on their myspace).



01. lies in sepia
02. manic flaneur

myspace

tada tátà

tada tátà ~ tada tátà ep (cosy den recordings, 2009)

northern sweden is the place where tada tátà and the friend (a lot of friends) create sweet, delicate, melodic and cristaline indiepop. ukeleles, toy instruments and cello are the main instruments.
intimate songs with fantastic harmonies and bridges in songs like 'sticky dumb gum', 'after school activities' and 'ebony'.

here's tada tátà explaining tada tátà:
"when you had too many cakes and you feel like you have to barf but..the moment just before that when everything's still tasty, delicious and really really sweet."



01. someone (intro)
02. hit the wall
03. the brigade
04. sticky dumb gum
05. after school activities
06. ebony
07. anyone (outro)

but it gets better...
some time ago (on june, 25 to be more specific) they played on the 8th edition of a project called oliver peel session, in paris. well, here's the description of the scene...
"some very good home made pizzas , cupcakes ( home made by Mathilde ) and macarons plus lots of rosé..." taken from rockerparis.
all happened inside a cosy and intimate apartment in paris:

the brigade


sticky dumb gum


hit the wall



myspace
buy it

music to see. 03

the videos here are taken from a few concerts in hamburg, germany. there's this nice project called hit the north that promotes and features live shows from bands coming from the north... i had the pleasure to work with them in march when i made a video for the hari and aino concert.
sometimes the party happens in a club, inside a theater and sometimes on a boat, at the hamburg port.

tillmanns, covering 'desert island' from the magnetic fields


the pains of being pure at heart singing 'stay alive'


and boat club singing 'nowhere'