QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE

Josh Homme is back with another masterpiece and re-established his status of the emperor of rock. He is back to fuck up the anesthetized rock genre. A mature icon, Kurt Cobain of the 21 century. Genius, and a true macho bugger. Astonishing collaboration with NIN's Trent Reznor results in a devastating ballade Kalopsia. Celebrity list of collaborators includes Arctic Monkey Alex Turner and Scissor Sister Jake Shears and Foo Fighters Dave Grohl. Elton John called him to offer collaboration on this one by playing the piano. He s not in this video. The next song contains everything good about QOTSA - firm and dark chorus, masterful guitar riffs, excellent Josh's vocal. Yet it differs from the previous QOTSA albums by lack of social satire but giving us the world of 70s futuristic dystopia of sins and longing. They will be playing at VOLT Festival in Sopron 3rd July. Until then listen to all of QOTSA albums and prepare your whiskey with ice.. See you there!!

Shoshana

yesterday i bumped into a link to Shoshana's gig at a38...it s worth checking a38's program during weekdays, god knows how many bands have i missed.. with this thought i ventured into the Buda side of the Danube on my bike.. breeeezy!!
as soon as I came there, Broken Cups started to play.. they are Budapest based lo fi post punk quartet. (4 guys - bass guitar, electric guitar, drum machine, singer.. )
it s worth checking a38's program during weekdays, god knows how many bands have i missed.. what can i say.. the idea of reviving post punk is inviting and they have potential to mediate teenage punk angst, but... the vocal is completely out of tune, songs have no structure, there seems to be only chorus, or a theme that is on a constant repeat for 3-4 minutes... the guy produces some noise and swirls on the stage for some reason.. as i said, there is potential for a decent melodic post punk here, guys just have to compose a structured song, if they want to attract more listeners...

hear their album here! maybe u ll like it more than me

then she came, i mean they started..Shoshana is an Israeli rock duo - songwriter Tamar Aphek (guitar, voc) and Jonathan Harpak (drums), they formed in Tel-Aviv in 2012. Tamar was dressed in dark t shirt and jeans she held her guitar like nothing else mattered.. she was young polly jean harvey in a rougher phase/nirvana/sonic youth.. stoner rock phase... sadly my camera was n t charged. this is how it looked and sounded like: it was a seductive blend of whimsy guitar riffs, energetic drums and Tamar's pleasant vocals.. she was leading us through her world of broken relationships, expectations of israeli youth, zest and despair... all packed in tasty candy of heavy riffs.. before the end of the gig she turned to the audience with a dip of sarcasm: "soooo... what s going on? i guess i have to play another song..because... im an entertainer.. this is what i do" ehmmm...it s fine, not every performer's duty is to be an angel of kindness... so be it.. then she rocked on.....!! hear this one too..for the end.. their central European/Balkan tour is nearly done... come back soon!!!!

Fol Chen

ladies and gentlemen!!
im back! it s been a while... time to get movin'!

there have been a plethora of quality albums this year (mid 2012 and on)... Garbage, David Bowie, Depeche Mode, just to name a few...
in future posts i will mention and write about the albums that i have listened the most since the last post (June 2012, jeez!!)..
 in this world of singles/EPs/remixes as if people forgot about the concept of the album... do we buy/download albums at all? do we listen to them with enough attention and care as we used to in our teenage days? is time the crucial obstacle, or simply laziness?

if you re in the mood for some fresh and interesting pop music, LA's musical gem FOL CHEN is here to please your taste.. they have 3 full length albums and quirky videos, unfortunately not widely known, as a bunch of great bands... one of the videos/singles is this one.. miranda july meets david lynch... sexy misteryyyyy


  

anyway, they released the new album this March, their bandcamp profile states: "Fol Chen makes soundtracks to a future that never was. To listen is to leave the comfort of nostalgia and land with both feet in a bolder 21st century. Think of it as pop music for people who aren’t sure where or when they are, but who know it’s nowhere they’ve been before." this video and song fully back this statement, the romantic astronaut Odyssey in space

or this one, blend of fol-chen-esque rnb and pop;) they combine rnb beats with strings and multi vocals in the chorus.. so complex and yet it all works out!! some of the album reviewers think that this song has a forced pop sentiment to it, but i completely disagree...it s a well done pop song with elements of electroclash, don t ya thinkkkkk??? if you like all of these songs, don t be lazy and buy/download all Fol Chen albums!! my writing got a bit rusty, i admit, but i ll improve!! hahahhaha!! till the next time!!

LADYHAWKE

The lovely Ladyhawke is back! sexier and most dangerous than ever before!! After 4 years of the excellent debut self named LP, the new zealand. it s powerful pop melodies bravely cover the painful lyrics that are the result of her diagnose of Asperger syndrome.. the album is more pop rock, not so much electro pop like the debut..retro gitar riffs catchy tunes, talent, looks, she has it all.. you go girl!!! now lets follow her shows and see if she comes anywhere nearby

whomadewho

after almost a year of absence im back!! what occured since then? well i found a new job, i bought a flat.. a lot of good stuff. i still don t know what do with my life, what to do that would make me really happy.. with this new job i can t really take so much holidays ,darn.. i know i wanna travel some more more more but hey this is a music blog,. hahahha nothing particularly interesting was happening to post about..however, there are bands that never drain you out.. one of them is the danish Whomadewho... last year they released a small LP, or was it EP called Knee Deep from which the best video clip of 2011 was born out. the reflection on the survey taken in 2011 with outcome that Danish are the happiest nation in Europe. they just played in Vienna 2 weeks ago, can t believe i missed their show :( i have to be more careful with planning vienna trips and observing the concerts around budapest.. the song i played often on my dj sets is inevitable and dark Two feet of the ground when you hear those synths bashing on the speakers you just want to toss your mind on the floor on tap on it smash it and roll on it they are the ambassadors from the hell announcing the rise of filthy kingdom of the dancing skeletons!! OK, my imagination took its swirl hehehhe their last LP BRIGHTER is just breathtaking.. just when i thought Knee Deep is what they had to share with us for 2011, my friend Zrnka gave me the new album..they are alive and kicking, delivering more mol tunes and mellow melodies, just how we like them,.. no major difference in the style that they designed for themselves, but is there a need for the constant change? this is the first single Inside World with this little pedophilic venture they are the clerks in combining disco with melancholic electro with live instruments... every song is addictive and can be smoothly be released as a single.. so hit-ish, pop-astic, fuck-atastic...mmmmm.... the whole album is a compact unity, it has the complete narrative structure.. it ends with an epochal discopunk hymne Below the Cherry Moon if u ask me, the best album of 2012 so far!!! next post will be about BLOUSE! hugs!

Nosaj Thing

it s the season of festivals... Croatia, Serbia, Hungary..plenty of music festivals.. im kinda lazy to go anywhere, except to the beach on the Adriatic sea. so i stick to good old Budapest, anyway there s always something happening here.
like this weekend, on Friday we ll be pleased to hear and see Nosaj Thing, who is returning after a year to a38. back then he had an excellent live set, everyone went ecstatic..
here s how he sounds



dreamy melodies, atonal rnb/hip hop beats... like Boards of Canada in the club..
he can suprise us with some electro like he did the last time..

he also made the XX remix





day later, Saturday, we ll be witnessing sytnh wonders of Xeno&Oaklander and Martial Canterel..oh yeahhhhhhh..

Komeda

This time I d like to introduce a band that is dear to me for this whole decade. A band that is so unknown, I would never have known of them if I hadn't had discovered them on Soulseek 6 years ago. Komeda is a creation of vocalist Lena Karlsson, guitarist Mattias Nordlander, bassist Marcus Holmberg and Holmberg's brother Jonas on drums. They issued 4 LPS, all of them are magnificent representations of pop music. Non pretentious, charming, intelligent and honest. Just like Scandinavian people seem to be. Texts are

- anti consumerists

like this:



pro philosophy and pro psychoanalysis

like this:







falling in love

like this:




loneliness,

like this:




sometimes frolic sometimes nihilist... as life is..



LA LA LA or PAM PA RAM PAP..

They have overall 4 albums, all of them are real pop gems that will satisfy even the most demanding audience. Too bad they don t exist anymore.

Xeno and Oaklander

I wont hide it..I'm so fucking psyched about this event..At last it s happening!!! ROAAAAAARRRR AAAAAHAHAHSDHHHHA!!!!!!!
Raw electro/minimal synth event in Budapest!!! in the abundance of french electro DJ gigs and recently dead nu rave, miserable breakbeat (except the queen of beats Ludmilla) this is a real refreshment in this city.. and who is coming? The pioneers of minimal synth genre Xeno and Oaklander from Brooklyn, whose member has his own project Martial Canterel that is also going to be shown..both prodigies of Brooklyn's Weird Recordings.. 2 flies in one hit..in Roham bar, July 16th under the organisation of the promising party series Kuss Mich.
Xeno and Oaklander made two LPs and their main motto is to make music with only analogue instruments AND everything live, nothing should be recorded. thumbs up to the example of the DIY art in its most complicated form.


their entity of off key synthesizers, Liz Wedelbo's polyglot singing and Sean McBride's reciting flows you into the world of dark and scarce caves, German post punk clubs, Brooklyn streets and horror movies from late 60s.Repressed traumas and fears come to life, you enjoy and suffer, tap tap, you dance...clap clap!!!!
Lets not mix this genre with EBM or goth wave,.. this is more subtle, profound and gentle in a way. as if they were cousins of Kraftwerk who took more drugs and had fucked up relationships.





I was and still am overwhelmed with this song, I dont know what Liz is sharing with us in French, but in me it evokes rapture of peaking on enhancers on the dance floor, the ecstasy of an upcoming orgasm but you want to hold on a bit more for the longer lasting effect, the rage when someone messes around with you..all of that while listening to this:




The next one is the hymn to gods, ghosts, dead people who besiege your dreams and unconsciousness..they sing to you. it s up to you how to deal with them..
You may notice around 3:20 that there are soo many sounds, synthesizer layers fighting, overlapping and matching each other, and instead of sounding terribly messy it sounds so fucking harmonic.. well done mr Mcbride.




Speaking of McBride, he has this project called Martial Canterel which he will also present at Roham bar. the video was made by Liz and this is how he sounds:



How will he combine all these synthesizers and samples in live performance we will yet see..im sure he ll be brilliant.. im counting days and nights until this gig!!

Soundpool

There is plethora of so called dream pop bands in the last couple of years, you cannot really differentiate them, they all sound the same. However, one of them is so beautiful. I discovered Soundpool on Last Fm, they a dream pop band based in New York but releasing their albums in Japan. The critics often apply the adjective 'shoegaze' band when describing them. I always wondered what the term shoegaze means - it is a sub-genre of alternative rock typified by significant use of guitar effects and indistinguishable vocals that blend into a melody. The term was brought up by NME and Melody Maker, the members of the bands stood relatively still gazing at their shoes :)

Let's switch back to Soundpool. When in bumped into the song Span the Universe on Last Fm, I knew this band is going to leave a trace in me. Although their lyrics are not really deep and serious, they focus on abstract ideas like space, air, water, moon, stars, sun, universe and glorifying those. Nothing mind blowing, but so irresistible and dreamy.




Moonglow is an ode to a summer night, Ladytron and Stereolab in a dream pop version.





Their second album brings more dreamy melodies and nostalgia.
You can notice that they don't pay attention to their visual representation, they focus more on audio.






Last year their third LP Mirrors in Your Eyes came out. Here they touch mild disco influence which fits perfectly to their world of visage and stargaze. The first single is Sparkle in the Dark accompanied with their first strong video.




so my fellow droogs, enjoy stargazing, sungazing, daydreaming and creating with Soundpool, you wont regret it!!

Bye Trish, Again

Now, more than a month has passed since Trish's tragic death. She was only 42. Even though I didn't know her and have never met her, I feel as if a part of me has vanished. I know, the music still remains, but being conscious that she s not present in this world is saddening. The fear of death is omnipresent. The closest person who died were my dog Lora and my childhood friend Bojan. I fear of death of my loved ones, who doesn't after all?

The beginning of zeroes when VIVA2 was an abundant fountain of new and remarkable bands, rise of Ladytron, peak of Placebo, Goldfrapp's arrival, discovery of Towa Tei, Stereolab, Pavement, Queens of the stone age...I remember, Ivan lent me the yellow CD "Noise Made By People". It seduced me with the tender crystal voice, tedious analogue synths, Antionioni's Blow Up feeling of presence of death, 60's women clothes and 60s TV shows, dreams from which you wake up with tears but you forget what you dreamed of.

This is the song from their first record, the collection of singles before 2000. I only discovered it now after her death.



Retro pop style they never actually changed, they developed it. In fact, Trish sings of the memories from the past world, the music is reminiscent of 60s TV show music.
"This phenomenon of carefully enunciating strange narratives over a psychedelic background can perhaps be viewed as a relic or a lost art form in itself, recalling the tendency in 60s British children's TV to combine whacked-out ideas with cheery, polite delivery. Trish emphasized that these memories of a pre-lapsarian, futuristic education through media were not her own (she was born in 1968), but that they were part of her imaginative heritage, like dated paperbacks that could be plundered for inspiration."
source: http://www.tinymixtapes.com/features/trish-keenan-broadcast-1995-2011



The following video is Papercuts, taken from their most praised LP The noise made by people.





Somewhat darker world comes from their LP Haha Sound from 2003. this song is my favorite from the album



Tender Buttons came out in 2005, with only Tish and her partner James Cargill. It nourished the true pop gem Michael a Grammar.




Although I was more concentrated on paying attention to her melodies and music, the texts are really amazing. Jessica Monk's marvelous post encourages me to observe Trish's lyrics more carefully.

We are mankind
We are manikin
With and without mind
With or without Darwin

Classify me
The strings of my autonomy
Classify me
The strings of my autonomy
Corporeal corporeal





The band's fourth proper album was expected this year and they announced the tour, if the band will still exist without Trish, that is still unknown.


Trish, you ll never be forgotten...

LONE

Matt Cutler, AKA Lone is a guy who makes great stuff. Thoughts directed somewhere far away, dreams that are yet to be made and voices yet to be heard. Beats that massage your brain in this -5 degree winter, funky samples that enhance your imagination..




The following track combines traces of the Boards of Canada and funky melancholia that is unique to Lone. You just have to like it, like those snow flakes falling outside your warm room.




His LPs Ecstasy and Friends (2009) and Emerald Fantasy Tracks (2010)are IDMish,neo-house, broken beat, dreamy tracks that will make you winter funky. mhmmm!!

FM Belfast

I subscribed to Last Fm to which I'm sometimes listening at work...as they tend to frequently repeat songs by same artists, I discovered FM Belfast. They sound just the way I like, low fi synth pop, female and male vocals singing about nonsense, VHS, toys, = icelandic Hot Chip.. their lyrics are a bit childish, their music synth-ish and so sexy.



These cute Icelandic synth geeks published How to Make Friends LP already in 2008. Even though I am 2 years late, it s never too late to get addicted!!

O Children

when u listen to this band the first thing that crosses ur mind is the melancholy and guitars of Joy Division and the vocal of Nick Cave...



why? why are they copying them so much? why does the singer sound like the spitted copy of Nick Cave and Ian Curtis? i have one answer: I DON T CARE...
their music is fantastic, production flawless, each song on the album is catchy in its way...what else should i ask for??:)

Mount Kimbie

the name sounded so catchy, so i gave it a try....now im addicted to them. it s not really dubstep (or post dubstep as someone might call them), it s more of abstract hip hop/garage layers with micro sounds that overwhelm you.. if you listen to the album while cooking, fucking, sleeping or whatever u r doing u ll get addicted to it..it s perfect for everything! listen to the whole album, your days will be colored by the newest sounds of London.
this is the single i suppose followed by a nice hipster video



and this is my favorite track from the album

Autolux

This LA band swings you into the lake of melancholy, new regrets and old thrills. It is my kind of emo :) the same one i felt while listening to Smashing Pumpking in teenage days, although this is much maturer nihilistic melancholy..

There are dozens of bands like this, the main parent being Sonic Youth, but this one has just stuck to my ear. Sugar male vocal, distorted riffs, great mastering, misanthrope lyrics. They have 2 LPSs, the new album Transit Transit just came out.

Kill this summer and fuck in sadness!!!

Midnight Juggernauts

BOOOOOOOOOOM!!!
Midnight Juggernauts's new album Crystal Axis is out!! Oh my god, yes it is.. This album is on eternal repeat, I just can t get enough of it. This band comes from magical Australia. (what is it with that country, they all make groovy synth pop - Presets, Cut Copy,..) When their first album Dystopia came out in 2007, I was blissed. First three opening tracks were total hits. They introduced melodic synth pop-ish retro sound to symphonic rock. The new world is announced. the world where nostalgia and joy intertwine. the world of broken hearts and boogie woogie.
after their debut I thought: well, they can t overcome the grandiosity of the first album..fortunately,they surprised me. This album is even BETTER. every track is a unit of its own. Magnificent Vital Signs opens its door to this wealth of pop,



Lifeblood Now is red carpet leading to the castle of pop kingdom, New Technology is the grand dinner table where the pop deserts are served,


while the Great Beyond is the king and king's throne (or queen and queen's) !!



The best of all, I will see them live at the EXIT festival. Counting the dayssssssssssss tik tak tik tak..........

Bear in heaven

Bear in heaven is Brooklyn based indie rock kraut rock band. I first encountered them in Pitchfork, their second LP Beas Rest Forth Mouth was voted for Best New Music. This is the single Lovesick Teenagers



If you look carefully, the video follows the literal meaning of the lyrics. Interesting idea.. This song and the video is like waking up after the nightmare and also realizing that you've cried, you see the tears on the pillow.
It's also the nostalgic feeling of teenage love (which i didn t have actually), but lets say i did. Depressing, enchanting, sad....yeah, dip into Bear in Heaven..

These Are Powers

from a dim twisted caves of distorted guitars, sexy whispers and long forgotten melodies comes Brooklyn noise trio THESE ARE POWERS with their uplifting LP All Aboard Future in 2009. The evil is back formed in the attractive lead singer Anna Barie, The Liars's bassist Pat Noecker and drummer Bill Salas.
My first thought was: this is MIA on acid and Bjork on speed with Lollipop looking clothes in this forest trash massacre




Experimental noise pop always finds the way to my world. its atonality, chaos makes it more systematic than the usual chorus - verse - chorus structure. This album illustrates the melancholic and destructive order of chaos (similar could be applied to Micachu's Jewellry.
Silver Lung is their first single



And this is the newest one. the catchy Candyman - sexy up lift...I want their costumes and that kind of decadent dinner!! bring it on and dance your tits off!!

The Irrepressibles

If you happen to be in Budapest this weekend, DO NOT MISS this concert.
In the peak of their career, The Irrepressibles are giving live performance in Trafo this Saturday.. I wish I could be here this weekend..



Its the project of Jamie McDermott - composer/vocalist/artistic director who gathered 9 more people. Their music is just divine..Sensible, gentle, yet destructive..
I even like them more than Anthony and the Johnsons.
This performance will give you the ultimate baroqe, bizarre experience with costumes and great singing. Im so sorry i have to miss it.
If you go i expect the report!!!

phantogram

Lauren introduced me to Phantogram, NY based electronic rock hip hop duo. Their music is melancholic, dreamy. Similar to Morr Music label bands like Guther, Lali Puna and also Portishead. Yet they offer novelties mainly thanks to the production. I wonder how they sound live.
They remind me of the early 0's bands like Kinobe, some Ninja Tunes stuff and Boards of Canada and CloudDead.
This is their first single from their debut album Eyelid Moves



This one is also great



Give them a try, they will conquer you ;)