Agathe Max

Hvad er det egentlig, jeg lytter til? Følelsen kan gå i flere retninger. Den negative burde måske være hvad fanden er det egentlig, jeg lytter til?, men når følelsen er god, er den vidunderlig.

Jeg havde fundet en artikel med Memorials, der anbefalede musik på Bandcamp. Jeg havde i forvejen hørt lidt af hvert den aften, før jeg stødte på duoens anbefalinger, men noget hægtede sig fast et sted i hjernen.

Agathe Max er en eksperimenterende fransk violinist og komponist, som nu er bosat i London. Shadoww fra december 2023 er først og fremmest stemningsfuldt. De mørkeste afkroge kan minde om Forest Swords eller andet fragmenteret spøgelseselektronik fra Tri Angle. En sang som 'In Bliss, Joy and Abundance' lever nærmest op til sin titel. Noget ved den minder om A Sunny Day in Glasgow.

/Martin

A Sunny Day in Glasgow: en gruppe af introverte har ladet op

Helt tilbage i 2007 debuterede Philadelphia-gruppen A Sunny Day in Glasgow med det forrygende Scribble Mural Comic Journal. De er blandt de få bands, der virkelig har gjort sig fortjent til beskrivelsen 'drømmepop'.

Det gør de så sandelig også med deres nye single In Love With Useless (the Timeless Geometry in the Tradition of Passing) fra deres kommende plade, som de endnu ikke har offentliggjort meget om.

Der er i højere grad tale om sangskrivning denne gang, og det er vel ikke forkert at sige, at det er blot en anelse mere udadvendt. De slipper stadig ikke for sammenligninger med Cocteau Twins, men det bør man heller ikke skamme sig over. Bemærk også den vilde slutning på sangen.



/Martin

The Ruby Suns

At være signet til Sub Pop er ofte ikke blot et kvalitetsstempel, men også en garant for en god portion opmærksomhed. Dog fortjener The Ruby Suns fra New Zealand en del mere af sidstnævnte - kvaliteten er nemlig tilstede i allerhøjeste grad.

Gruppens mastermind er Ryan McPhun (fantastisk navn), der tidligere har spillet i The Brunettes, der gæstede Århus og Pop Revo i år.
Deres anden plade, Sea Lion, byder på lidt af hvert, men må siges at være et yderst homogent værk. Det er stenet på en yderst positiv, livsbekræftende måde, lidt á la Sparklehorse. Men der er også elementer af ambient-virkemidler, der bruges på samme vis hos eksempelvis Atlas Sound og A Sunny Day in Glasgow.

Albummet byder på en utrolig fornemmelse for detaljer og egner sig derfor utrolig godt til ordentlige høretelefoner. Det har i hvert fald gjort mine togture mellem Århus og Odense smukkere. Det er reflekterende, det er terapeutisk, det er mange adjektiver værdigt. Så længe de kan tolkes positivt. Pointen er, at The Ruby Suns har rigtig meget at byde på.
En enkelt sang, Tane Mahuta, leder endda tankerne hen på El Guincho (læs Camillas anmeldelse!) og Løvernes Konge.

Kort og godt: The Ruby Suns er stadig meget undervurderede, og i vores stræben mod en verden med større kunstnerisk retfærdighed er det os derfor en fornøjelse at præsentere disse sange. Og køb så albummet - det indeholder sange, der er endnu smukkere end nedenstående.

MP3: The Ruby Suns - Kenya Dig It?
MP3: The Ruby Suns - Tane Mahuta

Og hvis du, kære læser, har brug for at blive lidt gladere:

MP3: El Guincho - Antillas

/Martin

15 bud på årets bedste udgivelser, del I / III

Vi har spurgt forskellige musikere og branchefolk om deres yndlingsplader fra 2007.
Enkelte har ikke svaret, andre (såsom The Clientele, Sally Shapiro, Crystal Castles) har åbenbart ikke hørt så meget musik i år. Her bringer vi de første fem:



A Sunny Day in Glasgow:

Lauren Daniels:
1. Tegan and Sara - The Con
2. Interpol - Our Love to Admire
3. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart EP
4. Ulrich Schnauss - Goodbye
5. Suzanne Vega - Beauty And Crime

Ben Daniels:
1. Tickley Feather (She didn't put out a record this year, but this was my favorite music. So good! She has a record coming out in 2008. It's gonna be big)
2. The Field - From Here We Go Sublime
3. Panda Bear - Person Pitch
4. Ulrich Schnauss - Goodbye
5. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart EP
6. Los Campesinos! – EP and that single

The Age of Rockets, Andrew Futral:

1. El-P - "I'll sleep when You're Dead"
This is the most musically inventive hip hop album i have ever heard and I am quite surprised that outside of New York City I don't hear people shouting his name from the streets. There is a song where he raps over a beat in 5/4 time which i had never heard before. To me this is all the craziness that outkast was hinting at but never got close to mixed with the grittiness and absolute insanity of wu tang. It's also very much an album it's a start to finish listen which i always love more than a collection of songs.

2. Michael Showalter - "Sandwiches and Cats"
This is my favorite comedy CD of 2007 and more and more comedy makes up more of my listening than music does. If you watch the documentary "Comedians of Comedy" I think you can see whispers of how insane comedians are. To me they are like rock stars. Showalter is one of the masters ... i got my mother to concede that not liking Michael Showalter (and his comedy troupe Stella) was like her parents telling her the beatles were just a bunch of noise. Go buy this now!

3. Radiohead - "In Rainbows"
There is this little band in england called radiohead or something like that and they put out a CD i think it might have been their first ... no one has ever heard of them surely.

4. Bloc Party - "A Weekend in the City"
This CD seemed to get less fanfare than their last and I don't know why. It's a very different quiet album but it makes the louder parts feel a lot more epic than the louder parts from their first record. It might have been a little sloppier lyrically but there was something so refreshingly honest about that. My favorite song from the first album is "so here we are" and I feel like this release was an extension of that kind stylistic tone.

5. Kiss Kiss - "Reality vs The Optimist"
I am always floored by something new in this CD and I have listened hundreds of times. This is the most amazing intelligent songwriting I have heard in forever. It's really catchy and really really danny elfman-esque. Anyone with a little bit of musical training can make weird hard to follow strange music but it takes ninja like awesomeness to make strange insane music that is somehow easy to follow along to.

Aloha, Matthew Gengler:

(Matthew ville hellere lave en liste over diverse dejlige ting fra 2007, så den bringer vi i stedet, red.)

1. NEW JOB
- In august I started my new job as instruction and outreach librarian at the Cleveland museum of art. I answer reference questions and teach people how to use complicated databases. It is the kind of job you don't believe they pay you to do. I am exceptionally pleased about this, because I worked hard to make it through school while touring.
2. RADIOHEAD ”IN RAINBOWS” AS A CONCEPT
- I listened to the record maybe twice. I don't listen to a lot of new music. but I am still boggling over their method of distribution.
3. BLUE BATHROOM
- My wife and I painted the bathroom this month. It was tan beige. The color of your first pc. Now it is blue. I am underwater while I am under water.
4. GREEN TEA
- I quit afternoon coffee. It turns out everything I eat and drink is acidic. Everything. Somewhere along the line I decided to take up afternoon green tea to counteract this. Now I feel a million times better.
5. TIE COLLECTION
- With every new job, comes new clothes. I obsess over a few things. Books, bikes, food, ties. I buy lots of ties. I like them. I wear a tie everyday now, and it makes me happy if I have a swanky one on. My favorite tie is bright blue.
6. SUSHI MY CAT
- It has been a banner year for Sushi Bean, my black house cat. He is fat and healthy. He talks to me when he is hungry and bites me when I bother him. I love him.
7. REARRANGING THE LIVING ROOM
- We live in a tiny apartment. It is kind of a choice, and kind of a necessity. Nonetheless, we realized if we put the record shelf in the middle of the room as a barrier between kitchen and tv land we could create a small breakfast nook. I adore nooks. I was so taken by the arrangement, I bought a kitchen table.
8. MY '86 VOLVO 240
- My dad found me a used Volvo this year. It is a Swedish tank. 105,000 miles and still ticking. I have never loved a car as much as this silver boxy Sedan.
9. SANDWICHES
- 4 days a week I eat sandwiches for lunch. You would think I would get tired of cheese on bread, but I don't.
10. CLEVELAND
- This year, I stopped pretending I would leave, and started embracing where I live. Yes, I live in Cleveland. It is pretty great here. Nice people. Fun stuff to do. Horrible weather in winter and beautiful weather in summer. I'll take it!

Annuals, Anna Spence:

Here's some of my favorite releases of the year:

1. Radiohead - In Rainbows (duh)
2. Dos 1 and The Notwist Collaboration - 13 and God
3. Björk - Volta
4. Aesop Rock - None Shall Pass
5. Blonde Redhead - 23

The Besnard Lakes, Olga Goreas:

1. David Vandervelde - The Moonstation House Band
2. Sunset Rubdown - Random Spirit Lover
3. Starvin' Hungry - Cold Burns
4. Handsome Furs - Plague Park
5. White Williams - Smoke
6. Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
7. Chad VanGaalen - Skelliconnection
8. Miracle Fortress - Five Roses
9. M.I.A. - Kala
10. Sunday Sinners - ? – (Yet to be released psychedelic masterpiece)

/Martin + Camilla