How much we love a young independent artist? A lot!
Therefore, let me introduce you to The Koniac Net. A bit of pop, a bit of rock, all spiced up with some nice guitars and a great voice of David Abraham.
Let's cut to the chase - it will not blown you away with an extreme alternative sound..if that is what you're looking for. However, it's got something else - a great pop / rock balance and a tender wave of emotions from the independent artist. Citing David's own words: One Last Monsoon is ...like a love letter to the Indie & Alternative genres from a boy who spends his time locked up in a room with his countless records...
So give it a try as The Koniac Net was so kind to allow us to stream it in a full lenght at bandcamp.com
This one is smooth, delicate and pure. It is kind of resemblance to youth... just play- it is worthy of a moment of the solitude and undivided attention.
I was impressed and amused at the same time. And the youth is not only a metaphore to the delicatesy of their music. You can see it in the clip, you can hear a bit of it in the vocals - the facts about the sisters are as follows: Asya (preferred name Asy, born February 2, 1992), Chloe (born March 5, 1994), Maia (born September 5, 1996). So this is Smoosh and I am trully impresed.
Another short one: Anna Ternheim - What Have I Done (Live @ Lydverket Studio).
Her voice is like a delicate thunder in the silence of a brand new day...
...and the simplicity of the piano tones - this one is so powerful... remarkabele union of the asceticism and tenderness.
Generally I am not a fan of the Live performance albums therefore I was not really interested when I got this message:
The Dø will soon embark on a North American tour in July and August in support of their album, Both Ways Open Jaws. To coincide with the tour, the band is releasing the digital-only album Live Sessions At Studio Pigalle on July 10th.
Live Sessions At Studio Pigalle includes live versions of key tracks from Both Ways Open Jaws, as well as two new songs – an original song titled “Mind Police” and an epic nine-minute version of Janelle Monae’s “Tightrope.”
Ok, two additional tracks from The Dø it is something worth to consider. Epic long track it is something really exciting for me but the rest? It is bit like a hoary old chestnut, really great one but still only great hoary old chestnut... That was my opinion until my mind escaped to the parallel universe when I pressed play on this clip...
So, be carefull...
...or you may fall in love with it like I did... Now I am puzzled...
Blondfire is Bruce and Erica Driscoll, a Brazilian-American brother and sister indie pop duo. And this is the lead track from the group's upcoming album, Win the Game. Raise the volume up and enjoy...
Erica: It kind of wrote itself (...) Where the Kids Are' is basically our little anthem reminding everyone that youth is fleeting. You have to live it up to the fullest and enjoy life before it passes you by.
I keep my finger crossed for the whole album to... write itself! You can get Where the Kids Are free as a consolation in the anticipation for the full album - thanks to the rollingstone.com.
Do you know Damien Rice?... I would be surprised to hear 'no' but regardless of the answer I recommend you to spend a minute with the mind blowing Volcano...
The truth is that I am not going to deal with Damien today. It is about more feminine sound.
Anyway, if your answer to the first question was 'yes', I have some more. Have you ever wondered who is completing Damien beautiful songs with such a soft and delicate voice? If you are in the dark- I am content to share the response - it is Lisa Hannigan.
So, welcome in 'dry facts' paragraph...
Lisa Margaret Hannigan - 12.02.1981 - an Irish singer, songwriter, and musician. From 2001 to 2007 she was a member of Damien Rice's band. In 2008 she started her solo career. So far she has released two albums: Sea Sew (2008) and Passenger (2011).
...and that was enough..
So I have quite of a hangover in here. Damien Rice lost its important part and I guess it was not so peaceful:
I suppose it was coming for a long time. I had become pretty outspoken about my frustrations at the direction the band was going in, and I'm sure he was starting to find me a pain.
So, what does it look like with Lisa solo?... I Don't Know...
... but I am glad that I was curious.
It has its kind of magic, great voice, cheerfulness in the performance and such simple and great lyrics. This song came from her debut. The next one is from the second album.
So now I Don't Know :] little bit more about the singer and this motivates me to not delve into the past and grieve over the loss to the Damien Rice band, he will manage. I am hopeful now as I saw the next bright point in the sky. You know; an object- so called... star.
Major Lazer is a collaborative musical project from DJ/Producers Diplo and Switch, and this is their single Get Free featuring Amber of Dirty Projectors. Enjoy...
Stunning voice flowing through exotic sounds... disturbing words.
Of Monsters and Men is an indie folk/indie pop band from Garðabær, Iceland and at the same time the winner of 2010 Músíktilraunir -an annual battle of the bands of Iceland.
The group members are: singer/guitarist Nanna Bryndís Hilmarsdóttir, singer/guitarist Ragnar Þórhallsson, guitarist Brynjar Leifsson, drummer Arnar Rósenkranz Hilmarsson, piano/accordion player- Árni Guðjónsson, and bassist Kristján Páll Kristjánsson.
They were also invited to perform at the 2010 Iceland Airwaves festival, and it is where the Seattle based radio station KEXP recorded them performing Little Talks from a Living Room Session.
They sound really amazing; as there is something raw and a bit rough about them...covering the timid maybe?.., but this is perhaps due to the original circumstances of the plain title living room in which the young band was processing slowly their accelerating success. Give them a year and listen to Little talks again...
So there it is still bursting with vivid energy, brilliance and with more self confidence. A strange incorporation of what goes around... comes around - when you put the beauty in, you feel alike- and we can hear it right in this very case.
The buzz around the band had positive outcome and they signed with Record Records in February 2011 for the release of their debut album in Iceland. Their debut album My Head is an Animal was released in Iceland in September 2011 and shortly after topped the charts. Lifted with the success back home in Iceland, and growing popularity in the States, the band was signed to Universal for a worldwide release of their debut album. The band released its Into the Woods EP on December the 20th; 2011, and then My Head is an Animal in the United States on April the 3th, 2012.
I can give you one more date to this dry fact section - 02.05.2012. This is a day when I was buying my copy of their debut album, it is still fresh in my head but it has already permanent place there. It is impressive package of exotic warmth and even some catchy pop/folk songs. But what spice things up even more for me personally, is that I trace an incredible amount of joy coming from the fact: a group of people playing music together.
Donora is an Indie pop-rock band from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The trio consists of a drummer Jake Hanner, his younger sister- vocalist/guitarist Casey Hanner, and a bassist Jake Churton. Their self-titled debut album was released in December 2008.
History of the band's name is a history of a road sign spotted by Bethany Hanner, drummer's wife. That was the sign pointing direction to the little town- Donora.
Before formation of the band, none of the members visited the town until sometime later, when they performed there as a part of the town celebration.
So these are some dry facts about them and now let me show you why I am writing about the trio... click play to enter the good mood zone...
...are you with me?
Melodic? Cheerful? Does this revive your mood? Does your soul start to dance? Did they manage to lift your spirit? Are you singing with them even though you do not know the lyrics...? My personal answers are Yes! and this way I am defining Donora as pure light rock-pop indie. 'Happy to be alive'- music I would dare to say.
In 2011 trio released their second album Boyfriends, Girlfriends. So what has changed after almost three years?...
Even more fun seems to be the right statement as the album is of revitalizing energy bursting between the notes and beautifully crafted lyrics. Melodic guitars, synths, and keys, hearth driving drums and bass lines all a smooth match up with the lyrics about love and relationships. And on top of that you just feel good listening to what Donora has to sing...
Take the opportunity they give us and explore the sound of the Boyfriends, Girlfriends. It is worthwhile and rewards you with great mood if you just let it to do so...
Lamb is an electronic music duo from Manchester, England, which music is influenced by trip hop and drum and bass. If that genres does not convince you, I ask for a little bit of faith and patience - please press play for their most recognizable song listed below - Górecki ( Live At Glastonbury 2003 ).
...hopefully it draw enough of your attention to go further.
The duo consists of a producer Andy Barlow as well as a singer-songwriter Lou Rhodes, although in the past the band were subsequently expanded to include the bassist Jon Thorne, an Icelandic guitarist Oddur Mar Runnarson and a Danish drummer Nikolaj Bjerre. Moreover, London-based string trio Chi 2 Strings and trumpet player Kevin Davy were frequent guest musicians.
Their self-titled debut album was relased in September 1996, and followed by Fear of Fours (1999), What Sound (2001), Between Darkness and Wonder (2003); all of this over the next eight years. Culminating point of the duo"s cooperation was a release of the greatest hits album, Best Kept Secrets, in June 2004 and their final live appearance at the Paradiso in Amsterdam in September 2004. Then Barlow and Rhodes went for their solo careers.
Fortunately Lamb story was or should I say still is - not over...
In 2009 band announced re-forming to perform in various Festivals; in the end of the year the band announced the concert dates for 2010. During one of those shows, on 3 January 2010 at The Tivoli in Brisbane Australia (the 32nd gig out of an initially planned 7), Barlow stated that it would be their last gig ever, but who knows.
In December 2010, the band sent e-mail to fans, announcing the recording of their fifth album, to be titled 5. A special edition of the album (limited to 2800 hand-numbered copies) was shipped to fans in May 2011, followed by the commercial release of the standard edition on 9 June in the UK and slightly later release dates for other European countries.
Curious what it sounds like?... Just click play it.
So after an eight-year hiatus the duo still sounds brilliant. Despite the lack of the next Górecki I find them a remarkable return...
It is like fog... but the fog that you can hear. It will surround you, it will absorb you and isolate you. It will preoccupy your senses with claustrophobic gloom, desolation and non-confrontational state. Are you ready for it?...
...hats off the heads to 2:54 for this climatic experience.
2:54 are sisters Colette and Hannah Thurlow, joined in later on by Joel Porter on bass and Alex Robins on drums. Their debuted with 7" On A Wire/Cold Front in March 2011, then released the Scarlet EP in November 2011 and Single You're Early in April 2012. Their debut self-titled album is due for release in May 2012.
It is pointless to try to cage 2:54 in particular style. Their sound is a complicated mixture of styles sneaking between different definitions. Grounge, punk, shoegaze... None of them, all of them... and it sounds great!
Thus, the question is: what can we expect from the full album? They set the standards high... so I keep my expectations high and fingers crossed.
Me and rap? Well, somewhere there in the basement lies the cassette tape of Mc Hammer, the past willingly buried. Except that? Streets, Just Jack, Nelly Furtado... I am not really sure if I classify them correctly but there is not much more to be put in this bag of mine. Moreover, this is not the land I know and visit often, simply not my thing...
Yet I was seduced from the very first sound...
...or should I say - first recited word...
Dessa - Margret Wander is most notably known as a member of the Minneapolis based Doomtree Collective. Fortunately for the listeners though, she decides to record her solo albums, among which you can find Castor and The Twin. Thus- even if me and rap are not the best buddies, Dessa has the means to bent the reality by 180 degrees for me. Her album is a mysterious landscape of the spoken word art, poetry and interesting musical arrangements. This leaves me no option but sooner or later (and sooner is preferrable..) introducing her workshop to he Quarterwave's air.
What do you think when you see xx? Do you have natural tendency to add one x? I do not... not after my mind was marked with the sound of the xx.
Continuing in a bit more formal way - The xx are the English indie band formed in 2005. Crystalised comes from their 2009 debut album xx. It was very well received from international critics ( metacritic shows 87/100 from 25 sources ) as it ranked one on the list of The Best 2009 Albums by Guardian, second for NME and ninth for the Rolling Stone. On the top of that, band won the Mercury Music Prize for it in 2010.
This formal presentation was added just in case, if the clip did not catch your interest to hear the whole xx. As for me, one song was just enough. It struck me by its ascetic, half-whispered and emotional sound.
Recorded and mixed mostly at night in the small garage of the XL Recordings studio, xx embeds you with its whispery nature, almost as it was the condition of the recordings. Was it? I tend to believe that it was no coincidence but the deliberate choice. And what really impresses me is that band so youth was able to create recordings where every sound and silence matter,where melody and voice whisper through the night in such emotional way.
And when stated before about rather not adding an extra x to xx ...-up to my mind.. As ironically for some critics the issue became their main impression about the band's performance:
The xx are four 20-year-olds from South London who make predominantly slow, furtive pop music, mostly about sex. - pitchfork.com
Have a look on live and acoustic versions of the Crystalised...
Angus & Julia Stone are an Australian brother-sister duo from Newport on the Northern Beaches of Sydney. At very young ages, their father introduced them to music and encouraged them to join the school band. Julia played the trumpet, Angus the trombone and their older sister, Catherine, the saxophone.
They also learned many songs from their father's cover band "Backbeat" during band rehearsals in the family's garage.
Angus and Julia began to collaborate on their musical endeavours in early 2006. Prior to that, both performed as solo artists. In terms of composing material, they write on their own, then work together on structure and harmonies.
Most impressive, though, are the songs – simple but blindingly effective acoustic compositions, warm boy-girl harmonies and delicate, less-is-more arrangements. Resistance is surely futile.
Johnny Sharp
As a band new and happy owner of Down The Way and Memories of an Old Friend I can't disagree with Mr. Sharp...
Sóley Stefánsdóttir is Icelandic songwriter, musician, singer. She is a member of the indie-collective music group Seabear. In 2010 she released her debut EP Theater Island which was followed by her first full-length album We Sink. Sóley''s music carries Icelandic mark of exoticism combined with her ethereal vocal, creative instrumentation and dreamy melodic lines...
...which corresponds with the fact that the main inspiration for We Sink were ...her dreams. But be aware,as they were seldom sweet dreams. The songs create a dark an dreadful atmosphere filled with an anxiety. The world that the artist is animating with her music invites us to enter into a mood of horror film or a childhood nightmare. The lyrics and the music create a kind of unique contradictory experience where beauty is at the same time distressing.
The reason earning her a comparison to Tim Burton in the world of sound.
Imaginary Cities is a Canadian musical duo: Marti Sarbit and Rusty Matyas.
The two met, when Rusty did some mixing for the cover band called the Solutions in which Marit was playing at the time. Collaboration started when Rusty decided to write a song for Marti. An all-night writing session was a turning point and came up with a triumphant and soulful beginning – the track “Say You.”
The momentum they gained from the “Say You” session carried on through and the duo regularly spent 12 hours straight writing and working on a single song.
Rusty: If it was going well after a few hours, we would stay until we had a finished song to take home. There’s an energy and excitement on the day you’re writing and recording a new song that will almost guaranteed be absent if you come back to it another day.
Disovery of that energy was an ultimate push for the band in a direction of the full album. Marti’s stunning voice supported by Rusty original arrangements became the soul of the emmerging album.
“Say You” is the song that really got things started, but “Hummingbird” stands out as a key song on the album.
Marti: The day we started working on ‘Hummingbird’ Hummingbird we actually didn’t have a song in mind. Rusty just started playing a few chords and I realized that I had a song that sort of fit with it.
So the faith was smiling to the world back than as we got this masterpiece to listen...
…this name hides
a gorgeous singer/musician/songwrier - Elena Tonra.
Beauty has
taken multiple dimensions in her world, reflecting itself in her music, poetry and simply…
in…herself.
So who is Daughter?
Singer, songwriter, musician and… a graduate from the Professional Diploma
in... Songwriting.Yeah, so shaking off the disbelief that such a faculty really exist-we have no other choice but to surrounder to the fact that she turned out to be a briliant
student! Her music is simply irresistible and leaves a permanent mark on the
listener…
Described
by The Institute as… …an
artist, Daughter tells tales of ghosts, drowning lovers and setting fire to her
insides for fun. Her haunting voice and delicate guitar playing make her live
performances spell-binding. She talks about unrequited love, lost hope and
death… in the prettiest way imaginable.
If this is
not enough for you to be convinced, try to listen to her EP His Young Heart.
Big thank you to Elena for your music and generosity of free streaming at bandcamp.com.
