demo

cajón de sastre ~ demo 2005 (independent, 2005)

carol, emi and miguel are a band from gijón, spain. their my latest discovery from the rich spanish independent scene. and rich is the best word to describe their music formed by electronic textures and whispered voices. all very sentimental, melodic and enigmatic.
this demo was recorded when the trio still was a duo with carol and miguel.
"carol, emi and miguel angel present a collection of threaded samples where electronic bases and sentimental arrangements make up the cross-sectional threads of a sonorous tailoring where any musical garment is possible. with a dressmaker mother and tailor father, respectively, cajón de sastre inherits the artisan tradition with which they subtly sew their musical wounds." (from their myspace)
originally, this demo had four songs but there's also a song called 'cajón de sastre' that opens the album and the last is another version of it. it seems like their hymn and it was the song that made me pay attention in their music.
involving... enigmatic... melodic... great for late night hours.



00. cajón de sastre
01. el contenedor de ilusiones de david
02. la chaqueta arrugada
03. érase una vez
04. septiembre
05. cajón de sastre (revestida)

myspace

still here

kuryakin ~ still here (shelflife records, 2008)

when someone talks about a duo from sweden making dreamy pop songs with guitars and beats it's certain that it's good and fresh. and when this duo is signed with shelflife records, well, then you know you must check it out.
petter and johan make music since 2003 and their sound was beautifully defined on tweeview as laptop pop (the influence of 60's sunshine pop is also part of their tunes).
“kuryakin is simply trying to make beautiful music. if they could they would have a symphonic orchestra backing them up on every song, but for now they have to be satisfied with all the sounds you can make with a computer.” (from their website)
they live in diferent cities: one in uppsala and the other in stockholm and they create their music sending samples and ideas via email.
it's amazing how they don't get carried away by blips and beats. less is more but still amazingly melodic. still here is a gift to everyone living on the north hemisphere: five songs to welcome the summer and most likely to be the soundtrack of those languid days by the sun.



01. take my hand
02. still here
03. snow
04. rain
05. peace of mind

site
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stolen smiles

the sedgwicks ~ stolen smiles (pop goes on, 1993)

while selecting the songs for the earth hour mixtape i found this gem in my files. this two track single is on my hd since i don't know when and i should've noticed it before...
the sedgwicks were a band from kent that was active from 1990 until 1993. after releasing two 7'' singles and appearing in a couple of compilations, they disappeared and left no trace...
here you'll find their last single: beautiful and really easy listening. two marvellous, unpretentious - extremely underrated - jangly pop-shoegazy songs. one of the finest moments of indiepop from the 90's - i dare to say...

ps: (the art cover is beautiful).



01. stolen smiles
02. here tonight

earth hour mixtape

earth hour mixtape (mixtape #02)

remember, today at 8.30pm (your local time) switch off your lights for one hour and let the earth rest for some time...
take pictures, make videos and post it at earth hour official site. and an idea: make a mixtape with songs to be listened in the dark.
here's a very beautiful picture taken from their flickr... it's pretty cool too because there's pictures from sightings all over the world and people showing how they spent their one hour...

and now the mixtape: 14 songs to put on your player - since all yout electronics will be off tonight - and enjoy a night in the dark.
go outside and look to the stars that you don't usually see, since there's always too much lights on earth shining brighter than the sky.


01. fireflies - the sky turns to black
02. family - la noche inventada
03. the sedgwicks - here tonight
04. the castaway stones - night time is the city's only star
05. vitesse - brighter than the sky
06. japan air - stationen by night
07. bedtime - i'm glowing in the dark
08. all of my brother's girlfriends - turn the lights off
09. jeremy jay - hold me in your arms tonight
10. anoraak - nightdrive with you
11. the yellow melodies - let it be tonight
12. vancouver nights - dark is my heart
13. miniskirt - these fish glow in the dark
14. friday bridge - good night, waterhouse

dare

the mary onettes ~ dare (preview) (labrador, 2009)
release date: april, 29

after the south ambulance album, here's another release of labrador. dare is set to be released on april, 29 after their acclaimed full lenght debut in 2007. the ep will have three songs and now you can listen two of them just to warm up until you get your hands on your copy...
on their blog, philip wrote about the period between releasing the previous album and creating new songs:
"... a long time has gone by since the latest release. a lot of work has been done, but a lot of work was actually just a waste of time.
last summer i basically lost every song i've ever recorded with the mary onettes. my hard-drive with all my music was stolen in my car one fine afternoon in stockholm, the very same fine afternoon we came home from our us tour, the very same day i was feeling thrilled to come home and start the process of finishing our new album. of course i had made a backup copy on my computer at home. but for some reason a power failure in the building made that hard drive
collapse to. unbelievable. i was speechless for days.
the only thing i felt was right at that moment was to take a break.
...
i went to my hometown a lot. as a matter of fact i keep coming back to that stupid city all the time. most of all because our families live there but also because i always find the right inspiration there.
...
'dare' was written and partly recorded in a little studio in my hometown (jönköping) that belongs to a good friend of mine. we used
real strings for the song which we recorded in a small church nearby our hometown.
the other two tracks 'kicks' and 'god knows i had plans' are pretty much leftovers we've never recorded before. i think it's nice we could use them on this ep."

after all the pain and suffering it's time to enjoy and rejoice (even if the songs are a bit sad)...

01. dare
02. kicks
03. god knows i had plans.

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