Beau Navire (2011)

In the wake of the Appleseed Cast post, I thought I would share something equally as soaked in adolescent angst. Beau Navire is a west coast screamo outfit with members who have been involved in Loma Prieta (check their awesome first LP Last City), I Wrote Haikus About Cannibalism in Your Yearbook (short but great discography), and Punch, just to name a few. With great dramatic emo instrumentals, that nostalgic tinge sticks around throughout their demo and EP. Their LP, Hours, is supposed to be just as fantastic, but I haven't delved too far into it yet. All three links are below, and for a little taste, here's a song off the EP thats damn fine.

Demo: www.mediafire.com/?j5twmhmzhjy

Life Moves EP: www.mediafire.com/?g5g6f07mlqmt4ao

Hours LP: http://www.4shared.com/rar/xzRlaTmh/Beau_Navire_-_2011_Hours.html

-A

Bob Dylan - Love Minus Zero/No Limit (1965)

checked the ipod play-count for the first time in a while. tracks listened obsessively include Gil Scott-Heron /Your Soul and Mine (668 times), Talk Talk / Eden (654) and Bob Dylan / Love Minus Zero/No Limit (193).

In the dime stores and bus stations / People talk of situations

Read books, read deep quotations / Draw conclusions on the wall

Some speak of the future / My love, she speaks softly

She knows there's no success like failure / And that failure's no success at all

p

Iggy Pop - China Girl (1983)

-p

PJ Harvey - Let England Shake (2011)

"On what may be her best album, Polly Harvey offers a portrait of her homeland as a country built on bloodshed and battle, not so much a police state as a nation in thrall to military endeavour, however impotent and wasteful that has become. A place paralysed by fascination with past victories, hidebound by the ghosts of an imperial past."
read the independent's review

spot-on poetry, beautiful compositions (am i hearing some feelies in "the glorious land"?). this is not your average album.

buy it here
-p

Machinefabriek - Brokstukken (2011)

"A mini album with 6 short loop based tracks made mostly with guitar, looper pedals and a Korg Monotron"

machinefabriek's brokstukken [tr: machinefactory - fragments] slows time down to an ethereal slumber. late night/early morning ambient soundscapes from rotterdam (NL), definitely worth a listen.



-p

The Appleseed Cast

Blogging about American Analog Set made me think about The Appleseed Cast and just how mind-blowingly awesome they are. Mare Vitalis remains one of my favourite albums of all time and Low Level Owl volumes I and II are rich with beautiful tunes.

First up here's 'Fishing the Sky', something of a bravura track from their album Mare Vitalis. But there's a reason for that, it's popular because it's fucking awesome.



'Steps and Numbers', from Low Level Owl Vol. I is ridiculously good. The finale from 4:00 is just WOW:



Finally - Storms is one of my favourite songs of all time. It's a sprawling 7.39 epic. Perfect travelling tune. I've listened to it on buses watching unknown landscapes and people go by, from Cambodia to Guatemala to Palestine, and it's always made me feel just complete. I also used to put this tune on as I went to sleep for about 2 years. Literally. Obsessive.



All their stuff can be bought from Graveface and they've got a new album coming out this year.

-L

American Analog Set

For me, American Analog Set are one of those bands that instantly put me back to a certain time in my life, remind me of friends and good times. I suppose if you haven't got that experience, then it won't do that for you. But I reckon they're the kind of band that would do that for you whenever you start listening to them. So be prepared for remembering nostalgic things around the time when you get into them, in the future. Memories from now, in the present, when you are loving American Analog Set, which will revisit you when you listen to them plaintively, in the future. ;-)

They've been going since 1995 and they're still doing it six albums in. Just amazing. Drifting, wistful, melancholic indie with warm guitar tones and layered soundscapes that remind me of The Appleseed Cast and some other bands that flourished in the dream-indie/post-rock world of the late 90s.

Here's 'Gone to Earth' off their absolutely phenomenal 2001 album Know by Heart:



And here's 'Using the Hope Diamond as a Door Stop' from their ace EP From Our Living Room to Yours back in '97:



-L

SBTRKT - SBTRKT (2011)

but maybe Holy Fuck is too 2010, so here's the 2011 Young Turks release SBTRKT - SBTRKT. brap.



-p

Holy Fuck - Red Lights (2010)

Young Turks have been releasing some solid material over the last two years, inc. Jamie XX and the xx. but check out Holy Fuck and what may be the best music video ever, in all possible parallel universes.

only serious cat enthusiasts allowed.



-p

Destroyer - Kaputt (2011)

silky smooth dreaminess (and a blissful first 20 seconds). music I can see @spider_boots polish the dance floor to.



-p

Drive OST (2011)

Like many people, I've had a brief and unhealthy obsession with some tracks off the Drive soundtrack.
All pseudo-80s synth pop, which I do have a penchant for anyway. There's a discussion to be had about authenticity vs. aesthetics here, but that would make for self-indulgent spitballing on my part. So, here we go:

Kavinsky - Night Call:


College - A Real Hero:


-L

Rustie - Glass Swords (2011)

Rustie's rightly been getting acclaim for his 2011 album Glass Swords. It's pretty hectic music, but for all the hecticity (that's definitely a word) it's possibly a little polished for some tastes. Here's the track Ultra Thizz:



Grab it or buy it: the moral choice is yours :-)

-L

The Box Tops - The Letter (1967)

just heard the box tops on the radio. always hits me alex chilton was only 16 at the time.


p.s. some serious dancing all over this vid

-p