la patère rose ~ la patere rose (grosse boîte/dare to care records, 2009)
coming from the vibrant quebec scene, la patere rose makes kaleidoscopic music; to give you a hint of what they sound like put stereolab and camera obscura on a drink mixer and you'll have la patere rose. sometimes serious and melancholic pianos, sometimes upbeat electronic beats, sometimes melancholic pianos and upbeat electronics together! a wide range of atmospheres and moods throughout each song. when you think you're going to listen to a piano concert suddenly turns to be an upbeat song. the vocals have that fuzzy recording, similar to the radio dept. fresh and extremely original. catchy is a word that also should be mentioned. great for those experiencing the first summer feelings! (duet tacet is a highlight and one of the cutest songs e-ver)
dream bitches ~ coke-and-spiriters (recommended if you like records, 2007)
just heard about them, but had to share because it's straight-in-the-face, lovely, upbeat, uplifting and poppy till you say 'enough'! a once two girls piece has grown into a quintet and this second album is a combination of what they've been doing on the last five years. as they describe on their website, coke and spiriters is "packed with snarling pop anthems and hyper-literate acoustic ballads, this concise collection captures the bitches at their most vibrant and volatile". listening to the bitches you'll probably think about the breeders, tullycraft and most of k records 90's catalogue... great jangly guitars, wry lyrics and cuddly sensibility, full of new york references!
01. bad luck bill 02. hierarchy island 03. bronxy marie 04. maniaca mechanic 05. mother's day 06. spoke on a wheel 07. me and the major (belle & sebastian cover) 08. sweet anneth 09. video games 10. way to go
joe crepúsculo ~ escuela de zebras (producciones doradas, 2008)
lately, i've been listening a lot spanish pop (discovering things, rediscovering others)... spain has one of the most interesting, fresh and creative scenes. and for coincidence i've been listening to artists that often work together... i've already posted 'romancero', from la bien querida. today's music comes from joe crepúsculo that appears as guest in the (beautiful) a.d.n. from her album. the producer of 'romancero' was david rodríguez, that plays guitar in 'después de la muerte' and also has a side project with joe called junco y diamante (david also is the guy behind the awesome la estrella de david). the artists above are among the most important of today's spanish scene, setting a more experimental approach on pop music. 'escuela de zebras' is one of the best albums of last year, according to various blogs, sites and magazines and is easy to understand why... it contains creative tunes, mostly with electronics, transitions and synths. sometimes, the choice of sounds stay close to bizarre but it works extremely well to create joe's odd and decadent universe full of karaoke rooms, impossible loves, philosophy and simple subjects. it is decadent but, also, very original. musically, it seems that is twisted and elements that would be questionable, like the use of screaming backing vocals or rhymes that don't really fit, sound extremely coherent. joe crepúsculo has a peculiar point of view that sounds childish but in fact works as another angle on naivety ( what else to say about a guy that spends almost five minutes singing about the four elements of the nature... or about old people and what it takes be feel and act like one...).
(ps: couldn't forget to mention that this and his latest album are available to download on his website!)
01. escuela de zebras 02. los cazadores 03. gabriela (with dani descabello) 04. los cuatro elementos 05. canción estival 06. los cazadores parte 2 07. fiesta mayor 08. los viejos (with thelematico rosa) 09. la lucha 10. ya llega la navidad 11. después de la muerte (with david rodríguez) 12. suena brillante 13. la amistad
gasca is this spanish techno pop band from st feliú de llobregat. actually carlos andreu gasca started working with electronics because wanted to make music. he couldn't sing too loud because his parents were sleeping on the room next door. this facts had deep influence on how his music would turn out to be... melancholic, dreamy, atmospheric. but don't get me wrong, when i say techno pop i don't mean the usual. with the beats we hear a trombone throughout the songs... the record also contains guitars, drums, strings... but the highlight is the trombone. the sound from gasca may appear quite similar to family, at first. but that's a first impression: slowly gasca creates an atmosphere towards transcendental subjects. the name of the album is perfect because the songs sound like they were made to be listened at night and looking to/for stars. the construction of the album is flawless: 'lugar soñado' sets the mistery and melancholic mood that will be there till the end of the last song. 'vacaciones' is a happy-sad song with beautiful whistles... (what i really like is the abillity to create happy melodies contrastating with gloomy lyrics). 'estratosfera' comes back with the melancholic/airy melodies and with orchestrations and guitars that are amazing. (so amazing that in the vinyl released by elefant there's a bonus track only with the instrumental of the song). 'pensando en ningún lugar' is one of my favourites. it has an uplifting beat and gorgeous trombone and beautiful lyrics talking about nowhere. 'pol' is in the middle of the album and it's an instrumental piece that for a long time was my favourite song to walk around the city. again beautiful trombone lines with jangly guitars and amazing synths. (there's some words in french at some moment... i don't understand much of french but i think it's a song about pizza). after the middle, the album turns towards a more introspective mood and a mix of a wider range of electronic sounds. 'telescopio' is the last track of the album and seems to get the feelings a bit happier, which is great! this is an overlooked gem from the beginning of the decade ready to be (re)discovered. (and if someone has any news about gasca, let me know!)
01. lugar soñado 02. vacaciones 03. estratosfera 04. pensando en ningún lugar 05. pol 06. viaje entre los pubs 07. el barco que describes 08. nube gris 09. nunca vas a volver 10. telescopio 11. (bonus)
ciao bella is a duo from alameda, california that creates indiepop/rock songs and (taking google results, seems to be adored in japan). mario hernandez and jamie mccormick started the band in 1992 under the name teeny hi-fi and released one single called 'weekend go'. after that, they spent years recording at their home... in 1996 an ep was released on the canadian label endearing and a year later their lp '1' was ready to be released on march records. after appearing in some compilations the band seemed to be over. no material was released after that and they went separate ways: hernandez produced for acts like the aislersset and mcmcormick started to release music under the (well succeded) act from bubblegum to sky. their songs resemble 60's pop and acts from the indie scene in the 90's such as holiday, bunnygrunt, some jangly stuff from the windmills and experimentations from saturday looks good to me. attention to the lovely opening track 'in'.
01. in 02. how low? 03. old school digital watch 04. dropped once 05. meet the great life 06. another pill 07. astronauts in love 08. details from the deep end 09. we were always too young 10. sink 11. i've should i? 12. brown make-up 13. party song 14. feeling low
