radioSpin

PJ HARVEY
Let England Shake

PJ Harvey has long been considered one of England’s most innovative and iconoclastic female artists and with her 8th studio album Let England Shake she embarks on a historical musical voyage as she seeks to define her relationship with the land of her birth. This is a musical excavation of England’s very soil, of its history and the violent and bloody cycles of conflict that have shaped the nations geography and psyche. It’s sometimes bleak, sometimes beautiful but it is always utterly compelling.  Maybe the boldest statement the album makes with understated eloquence is, to quote George Bernard Shaw “we learn from history that we learn nothing from history”, war it seems is as cyclical and inevitable as the changing of the seasons.

ARTIST: PJ Harvey
TITLE: Let England Shake
LABEL: Island
RELEASE DATE: February 11, 2011
TIME: 39:51 min.
WEB: http://www.pjharvey.net/

01. Let England Shake [03:07]
02. The Last Living Rose [02:21]
03. The Glorious Land [03:34]
04. The Words That Maketh Murder [03:41]
05. All and Everyone [05:42]
06. On Battleship Hill [04:06]
07. England [03:07]
08. In the Dark Places [02:56]
09. Bitter Branches [02:26]
10. Hanging in the Wire [02:40]
11. Written in the Forehead [03:37]
12. The Colour of the Earth [02:34]

PJ Harvey – The Words That Maketh Murder

get it here.

KAT BOELSKOV Amateur

“If you want something done, do it yourself”, the old wise man said.
Kat Boelskov did it, and it’s well done: Danish singer-songwriter’s debut album Amateur is a sort of box randomly filled with what you could call electro-pop-rock and a dash of acoustics and jazz, inspired by Kate Bush, Dragonette, 90′s Bjørk, Sia, Fiona Apple, Fever Ray and The Knife amongst many others. In other words, the dark and sweet sound of Amateur is a genre-confused combination of electronica, rock, and acoustics, which are nevertheless bound firmly together by the raw, emotional voice and feeling of unashamed honesty which runs throughout the album. Instead of calling on professional help, Kat chose to stay 100% in charge, handling every step of the writing, recording and production herself, resulting in a deeply personal piece of work.
A fantastic, enjoyable, lovely personal piece of work.

ARTIST: Kat Boelskov
TITLE: Amateur
LABEL: self-released
RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2010
TIME: 44:47 min.
WEB: http://www.katboelskov.com/

01. Everything [03:10]
02. Disengage [03:46]
03. Peace [03:05]
04. Girls in Love [02:42]
05. Tapestry [05:16]
06. This Time [04:17]
07. Mood [03:24]
08. 1 Thing U Should Know [03:24]
09. Scars [05:05]
10. Peace (remix) [07:22]
11. Stronger [03:16]

Kat Boelskov - Everything

HOLY SONS Survivalist Tales!

Emil Amos, world renowned as drummer of the illustrious experimental rock groups Om and Grails, has an increasingly prolific, though relatively unknown, solo career under the moniker Holy Sons. Home recording over 1000 songs since the project’s inception in 1992, Amos has spent the better part of the last two decades honing his song writing and production skills over a wide swath of genres in a mission to capture his internal world sonically. Survivalist Tales! is Holy Sons‘ 9th record, and represents the apex of Emil Amos‘ obsession to push stylistic genres to their breaking point while wrenching psyche-anthems out of the darkest frontiers of self-confrontation. The songs are a seemingly impossible blend of nightmarish Blade Runner-esque moog music with the darkest side of 70′s easy-listening psyche and feature some of the most unabashedly soaring choruses Amos has ever put to tape. Combining avant-sound collage with lyrics culled from the hard-won truths of self-exploration, Survivalist Tales! builds a beautiful imagining of future music.

ARTIST: Holy Sons
TITLE: Survivalist Tales!
LABEL: Partisan
RELEASE DATE: October 12, 2010
TIME: 39:39 min.
WEB: http://holysons.com/

01. Survivalist Intro [02:03]
02. Payoff [05:36]
03. From Home [02:09]
04. Look of Pain! [04:50]
05. Golden Child [03:27]
06. Reckless Liberation [04:10]
07. Sympathetic Strings [02:59]
08. Slow Days [03:36]
09. Deprivation Thrills [06:10]
10. A Chapter Must Be Closed [02:55]
11. Survivalist Outro [01:44]

Holy Sons - Slow Days

ALASTAIR OTTESEN Alastair Ottesen

Alastair Ottesen is a disciple of classic pop and folk such as The Beatles, The Beach Boys, Neil Young and Bob Dylan as well as a fan of their musical descendants such as Elliott Smith and Radiohead. He crafts delicate vocal harmonies and counter-melodies and sets them atop simple piano and guitar chords. His toy piano, harmonium, and sparse arrangements are reminders that at the heart of great pop music lies melody, poetry, and steadfast attention for the songs. Alastair Ottesen is something about a shiny, bright, nostalgic dream-pop, something as sweet as Alastair’s songwriting.

ARTIST: Alastair Ottesen
TITLE: Alastair Ottesen
LABEL: self-released
RELEASE DATE: July 05, 2010
TIME: 22:55 min.
WEB: http://www.alastairottesen.com/

01. Little Red Piano [00:37]
02. Tonight She’s Leaving [02:01]
03. December 16 [02:52]
04. Mockingbird [01:49]
05. Alone [01:44]
06. You Loved Him So [01:43]
07. Wind Calls [02:19]
08. I Want You to Make It Rain [02:37]
09. From the Heart [01:18]
10. Still [02:13]
11. If There’s No Love [02:04]
12. Lullaby [01:38]

Alastair Ottesen – Still

EELS
Tomorrow Morning

Brand new release, their ninth studio album, from Mr.E‘s Eels. The album is the final part of a concept trilogy, including Hombre Lobo (2009) and End Times (2010), which flourishes here into a bright and reflective piece. Lead singer/songwriter Mark Everett conflicts the optimistic concept by using the cold sound of electronic melodies and an array of loops and drum machines. Still, Everett produces a positive and uplifting album that finishes the trilogy on an uncharacteristic high.

ARTIST: Eels
TITLE: Tomorrow Morning
LABEL: E Works
RELEASE DATE: August 24, 2010
TIME: 57:44 min.
WEB: http://www.eelstheband.com/

01. In Gratitude For This Magnificent Day [01:26]
02. I’m A Hummingbird [03:14]
03. The Morning [02:17]
04. Baby Loves Me [03:27]
05. Spectacular Girl [03:16]
06. What I Have to Offer [02:41]
07. This Is Where It Gets Good [06:18]
08. After the Earthquake [01:39]
09. Oh So Lovely [04:18]
10. The Man [03:52]
11. Looking Up [02:57]
12. That’s Not Her Way [03:49]
13. I Like the Way This Is Going [02:35]
14. Mystery of Life [04:21]

01. Swimming Lesson [02:55]
02. St. Elizabeth Story [02:30]
03. Let’s Ruin Julie’s Birthday [03:16]
04. For You [03:27]

Eels – The Man
Eels - Swimming Lesson

get it here.

PHILIP SELWAY Familial

Knowing time waits for no one, Phil Selway has delivered Familial, a collection of sublimely fragile, haunting, and heartfelt songs that will surprise many, and not only because drummers traditionally don’t do this kind of thing: Familial is so persuasively good, it sounds like Selway has always been a singer-songwriter.
It’s a sideline solo project, mind: the morning he talks about his record for the very first time, he still has to leave for a rehearsal down the road by an acclaimed Oxford-based band, named Radiohead, for whom Selway has drummed immaculately and imaginatively for the last 20 years. And with the admission “it’s a cardinal sin for drummers to come in to rehearsals with the comment ‘I’ve got this song’!”, he knows the time has come for his songs, put on ice when drumming took over in his late teens, to emerge into the light.
Listeners to Familial will immediately recognize the ring of absolute truth, melodies and words fired by emotions, and not a whiff of dilettante posturing.

ARTIST: Philip Selway
TITLE: Familial
LABEL: Nonesuch
RELEASE DATE: August 31, 2010
TIME: 34:29 min.
WEB: http://www.philipselway.com/

01. By Some Miracle [02:36]
02. Beyond Reason [02:52]
03. A Simple Life [03:14]
04. All Eyes On You [02:31]
05. The Ties That Bind Us [03:39]
06. Patron Saint [03:27]
07. Falling [03:13]
08. Broken Promises [03:02]
09. Don’t Look Down [05:03]
10. The Witching Hour [02:52]

Philip Selway – Beyond Reason

TRUE BYPASS True Bypass

Chantal Acda (Sleepingdog, Chacda) and Craig Ward (The Love Substitutes, iH8 Camera, A Clean Kitchen Is A Happy Kitchen, ex-dEUS and Kiss My Jazz)  first met onboard an aeroplane bound for Glasgow. Later that evening they performed together onstage  which speaks volumes about the spontaneous and intuitive character of the pair, who felt from the beginning that there was something unique in the air whenever they picked up their acoustic guitars. Two sensitive souls who, automatically and without planning, started writing songs together, acoustic and pure. Whether in a farmhouse attic in Hoegaarden, a bedroom in Portland, Oregon, or a studio in Mechelen, the songs kept coming.
Their debut album True Bypass, mastered by Uwe Teichert (dEUS, Public Enemy, Placebo), is something like a sweet jewel.

ARTIST: True Bypass
TITLE: True Bypass
LABEL: Jezus Factory
RELEASE DATE: October 04, 2010
TIME: 37:33 min.
WEB: http://www.myspace.com/truebypassmusic

01. The Lake [02:14]
02. Hallway [03:10]
03. Elskan [02:50]
04. Love We Are [05:43]
05. Trying to Make It Home [04:58]
06. Drawing the Lines [04:36]
07. Fot This Life [03:55]
08. How to Find [05:53]
09. Ticky Tok [04:14]

True Bypass – Elskan

LELAND SUNDRIES The Apothecary

Leland Sundries is the musical project/band of Nick Loss-Eaton. He bridges the biting blues of Michael Bloomfield, the sardonic humor of Cracker or Todd Snider and the plaintive, plain spoken, situational songwriting of Greg Brown. The Apothecary EP was recorded at the Creamery studio, under the Pulaski Bridge on the Brooklyn-Queens border and instrumentation includes resonator guitar, banjo, accordion, vintage synthesizer, slide guitar, and Rhodes. Laura Minor appears on guest vocals on the EP’s wistful closing waltz.
In the end, perfect storytelling in a classic americana style.

ARTIST: Leland Sundries
TITLE: The Apothecary
LABEL: L’Echiquier
RELEASE DATE: October 05, 2010
TIME: 22:49 min.
WEB: http://lelandsundries.com/

01. Elegy [05:40]
02. High On the Plains [03:31]
03. Oh, My Sweet Cantankerous Baby [05:32]
04. The Man in the Giant Russian Overcoat [02:37]
05. Hey, Self-Defeater [05:32]

Leland Sundries – Oh, My Sweet Cantankerous Baby

DEER TICK The Black Dirt Sessions

After two albums of wily, adolescent country, Rhode Island’s Deer Tick hits adulthood (and all the heartbreak and fear of mortality that comes with it) hard on these ragged, shadowy ballads.
John McCauley III’s fiberglass croak couldn’t sound further from Neil Young’s whimper, but The Black Dirt Sessions is this band’s After the Goldrush, stuffed with devastating songs laid bare by weathered, redemption-seeking renegades. Dirt is pensive, painful stuff, tougher than leather and rawer than a bleeding steak: but that’s life, right?

ARTIST: Deer Tick
TITLE: The Black Dirt Sessions
LABEL: Partisan
RELEASE DATE: June 08, 2010
TIME: 46:21 min.
WEB: http://www.deertickmusic.com/

01. Choir of Angels [02:55]
02. Twenty Miles [03:44]
03. Goodbye, Dear Friend [04:58]
04. Piece by Piece and Frame by Frame [04:09]
05. The Sad Sun [04:34]
06. Mange [05:16]
07. When She Comes Home [04:31]
08. Hand in My Hand [04:31]
09. I Will Not Be Myself [03:22]
10. Blood Moon [04:41]
11. Christ Jesus [04:33]

Deer Tick – Twenty Miles

SUN KIL MOON
Admiral Fell Promises

New album by Sun Kil Moon, entitled Admiral Fell Promises: this 60 minute, ten song album is Sun Kil Moon‘s fourth, but only the third of original material after 2003′s Ghosts of the Great Highway and 2008′s April. Additionally it is the first that is all acoustic, played entirely by Mark Kozelek on nylon string guitar.

ARTIST: Sun Kil Moon
TITLE: Admiral Fell Promises
LABEL: Caldo Verde
RELEASE DATE: July 13, 2010
TIME: 60:44 min.
WEB: http://www.sunkilmoon.com/

01. Alesund [06:26]
02. Half Moon Bay [06:53]
03. Sam Wong Hotel [05:10]
04. Third and Seneca [07:14]
05. You Are My Sun [04:55]
06. Admiral Fell Promises [03:51]
07. The Leaning Tree [07:54]
08. Australian Winter [04:40]
09. Church of the Pines [06:05]
10. Bay of Skulls [07:36]

Sun Kill Moon – Admiral Fell Promises

get it here.

THE NIROBest Wishes

Second album, following the good 2008 debut, for Davide Combusti, a.k.a. The Niro, who proves again to be one of the best italian musical expressions. Best Wishes is made of folk arpeggios, electric strikes, great Buckley-voice and never featureless melodies.
Check it out.

ARTIST: The Niro
TITLE: Best Wishes
LABEL: Universal
RELEASE DATE: Apr 16, 2010
TIME: 39:47 min.
WEB: http://www.theniro.com/

01. No Innocence [02:58]
02. In My Memory [04:07]
03. The Wrestler [03:48]
04. London Theatre [03:06]
05. Stop It [03:01]
06. Johnny [02:55]
07. Best Wishes [04:11]
08. When Your Father [03:06]
09. Circle [10:38]
10. He’s a Pray [03:55]
11. Post Atomic Dawn [04:48]

The Niro – Circle