Anchorsong makes clever and interesting electronic music, I’ve seen him a few times and it’s amazing the sounds he can make by pressing a few buttons. He is playing Cargo next week on March 22nd, see more info on the show here. Anchorsong will also be returning to Soundwave Croatia this July. He kindly filled out a Musical Profile for me.
My Favorite band/artist:
Bjork, J Dilla, Jimi Hendrix, DJ Shadow, Radiohead, Doom and so on…
My Favorite album:
Histoire de Melody Nelson by Serge Gainsbourg
Ege Bamyasi by CAN
Madvillainy by Madvillain
Fan-Tas-Tic vol.1 by Slum Village
Metals by Feist
My Favorite song:
Underwater by Ghostface Killah
4 by Aphex Twin
Guns Blazing by U.N.K.L.E
Killing in the name by Rage Against The Machine
All Apologies by Nirvana
My Favorite gig:
Bjork at Tokyo International Forum in 2001. It was a part of Vespertine tour, and she was backed up by Matmos, Zeena Parkins and an Icelantic choir.
My Favorite lyric:
My culture, glides and attacks just like a vulture
(from Winter Warz by Ghostface Killah)
My Favorite new band/artist:
Bo Ningen
My Dream festival line-up:
Jimi Hendrix, Nirvana, At The Drive-In, Rage Against The Machine, The Roots, ATCQ, The Pharcyde, D’Angelo etc..
I first wrote about BOY back in November of last year. I feel in love with their song ‘Little Numbers’, which is catchy, summery and all round great. It’s also got a beautifully shot video. The album ‘Mutual Friends’ is being released in the UK on April 12th and they are releasing an EP of acoustic sessions at the end of this month. For now though, you can grab a free download of ‘This is the Beginning’ below. The band kindly filled out a musical profile for me, and we have incredibly similar taste in music!
My Favorite band/artist: It’s so hard to choose just one!! You’ll find many of them in my dream festival line up.
My Favorite album: Bon Iver by Bon Iver is the one I´ve been listening to the most lately
My Favorite song: at the moment: Rebellion (Lies) by Arcade Fire
My Favorite gig: I once saw Feist at a pretty small festival in Germany, about six years ago. Her band somehow didn’t make it so she went on stage all by herself and played the most amazing and impressive show.
My Favorite lyric: “People are just people. (…) People are just people like you.” (Regina Spektor)
My Favorite new band/artist: Jack Beauregard, especially this song:
My Dream festival line-up: Arcade Fire, Bon Iver, Phoenix, Jeff Buckley, Nick Drake, Suzanne Vega, Tom Waits, Radiohead, Sigur Ros, Cat Power, Feist, Rickie Lee Jones, The Broken Social Scene, Camille
My Right now I love: The flowers I bought for my apartment because I’ll be at home for longer than a week!
So there is was, my Albums of 2011. Bon Iver topped it for me, but I gotta say that 2011 has been a brilliant year for music. Click here to have a recap of the list.
I have really enjoyed reading everyones end of year lists, and have been introduced to some great music in doing so. Its also been great to see the variation in lists, and some of the similarities, and some of the weird and wonderful choices, mostly present in blogs.
There are quite a few albums which almost made the cut, and also quite a few which would have but I have only got into them over the last few weeks when I’d already started posting. Most of these albums are ones I’ve found through other peoples end of year lists. So I thought I’d make a little list of albums which were just missed off my list, for one reason or another.
Slow Club- Paradise
The Antlers- Burst Apart
Feist- Metals
Ryan Adams- Ashes and Fire
Girls- Father, Son, Holy Ghost
Sea of Bees- Songs for the Ravens (UK release was 2011, but US release was 2010)
Others… Josh T. Pearson, PJ Harvey, Noah and the Whale, Lykke Li, Other Lives, Wye Oak, Real Estate.
Coming next is my Ones to Watch for 2012 posts, followed by some most Best of 2011 posts (such as best gigs and songs) and then we’ll be back to normal for the new year!
Canadian band The Wilderness of Manitoba create beautifully polished folk songs, and have been receiving a lot of praise for the UK shows they have just played. Their EP ‘Orono Park’ was released in the UK last week and you can listen to the title track below. Stefan Banjevic from the band was kind enough to fill in a musical profile for me.
My Favorite band/artist: Bob Dylan
My Favorite album: Nashville Skyline – Bob Dylan
My Favorite song: right now: Feist – Graveyard, all time: Bob Dylan – Don’t Think Twice
My Favorite gig: Playing the End of the Road Festival
My Favorite lyric:
I’m not asking you to say words like “yes” or “no” please understand me,
I have no place I’m calling you to go.
I’m just whispering to myself so I can pretend that I don’t know,
Mama, you are on my mind.
(Bob Dylan, Mama, you’ve been on my mind)
My Favorite new band/artist: Other Lives
My Dream festival line-up: Fleet Foxes, Panda Bear, Joanna Newsom, Jeff Mangum, Beach House.
My Right now I love: Laying in bed, under our new quilt, listening to the rain gently tap on the window pane.
Feist has released a new song, the first single to be taken from the first album in 4 years, entitled Metals. I was a massive fan of The Reminder, released in 2007 and I don’t think I am going to be disappointed with her forth release either. ‘Metals’ is due October 4th and she also plays a date at London Palladium on October 17th. Listen to this gem from it, ‘How Come You Never Go There’.
My last New Treat was the magnificent Shura. I am totally in love with her sound and cannot wait until the EP release. A second track has been released with this lovely video, the song is called Fortunes Fool.
Birdy continues to melt my heart with this demo version of her own song, Without a Word. She is currently recording in LA. I hope it results in an album and I hope its as stunning as this song is.
This weekend I went to the Wilderness festival in Oxfordshire, which was lovely. On the Friday night I saw Rachael Dadd for the first time in the London Folk Guild Tent. She was wonderful, exceeded my expectations. She plays a lot around London, so definitely check her out. Last Monday she released a new album called ‘Bite the Mountain’. This song is from that album, its called Tower Tower.
I am currently listening lots to the the debut album by I Break Horses, which is released on Bella Union on Monday. Its called Hearts and is a gloomy, dreamy combination of pop and electro sounds. Think Beach House on a dark dreary day. This song is taken from the album and is called ‘Winter Beats’ and you can grab it as a free download.
A new Lana Del Rey song has been released online. Its pretty chilled, and not as good as Video Games, but I still don’t feel disappointed. I can’t wait to see what she goes on to do, I think she has the potential to be massive.
Last but not least, another artist I saw at Wilderness festival, the stunning Antony and the Johnsons. Antony headlined the Sunday night of the festival and played with The Heritage Orchestra. It was such a beautiful moment, his voice is flawless and I throughly enjoyed his feminist rants in between songs. This is the first song he played, taken from the new album, its the title track from the album, called Swanlights. After he played with this song it really stuck with me, the melodies are stunning.
The new Noah and the Whale album is now out. I’ve heard lots of high praise for it and also lots of criticism. The Noah and the Whale fans from their first album seem to hate it, but people who were not into that twee folk sound love it. Its full of synths and electric instruments, a million miles away from the fun fun fun of ‘Peaceful the World Lays Me Down’. I however, do like it. One thing that hasn’t changed is the strength of songwriting from Charlie Fink and this album has produced some of his best yet. There are a few songs I’m not too keen on, such as the first track ‘Life is Life’ but L.I.F.E.G.O.E.S.O.N. as well as others are brilliant. This is Wild Thing.
Noah and the Whale also did a Track in a Box Takeover for a week. I found this through that, I’ve heard of Arthur Russell before but never listened to him, anyway this is a brilliant song.
I saw and loved The Pins when they supported Laura Marling on her last tour. They have now renamed themselves Louise and the Pins, and have also successfully got through to the Glastonbury Emerging Talent Competition Finals! There music is stunning, a little country, a little folk and a little 50′s girl group but ultimately a great unique sound. I expect an album out around summer but until then this is Louise Hull from the Pins and Laura Marling singing a gorgeous little duet. They are playing Communion on April 3rd, the day after the Glastonbury ETC Finals.
Last Monday I went to see Georgia Bruce at Proud ahead of her playing my Lazy Sunday night at the Roundhouse. Also performing at Proud was O. Chapman, he is a singer-songwriter and performed some stunning duets with a girl called Faith Barker. You can download a song called ‘Morning Song’ from iTunes which I highly recommend and this is a song called ‘Come On Down’.
Josh T. Pearson has just made a very nice album. I don’t really know any of his older stuff, but this album is really lovely to listen to. He played a few of the songs in a church for Cargo sessions and they are stunning. This is ‘Sweetheart I Ain’t Your Christ’.
Found this the other day, its very nice. Taken By Trees playing a cover of ‘My Girls’ by Animal Collective, but its called ‘My Boys’ now.
The Lykke Li album ‘Wounded Rhymes’ is out now and I am liking it a lot. I prefer her first album, there is a lot of stomping percussion on this one which is good in places but I prefer the prettier sounds of Lykke Li. This is my favourite song from her new album, its called ‘I Know Places’. I can’t find the album version on YouTube so this is Lykke performing the song on the moon.
Essie Jain has a lovely voice, her songs are very pretty and this song is called ‘What a Big Wide World’. So sweet!
The last thing I am going to include is something not new but something I have recently come back to. I decided to listen to The Reminder album by Feist the other day and fell in love with it all over again, such a stunning album. This track is my favourite, the mixture between her voice and the male voice is beautiful.
