Posted by Ant on Jun 9 2011 to Downtempo
I can’t believe I’ve forgotten to post about these guys. Granted, their one and only album came out before this site even started, but that doesn’t mean their music is outdated. Oh ho ho, far from it.
Anyhoo, I figure it’s time to bam things up a notch by presenting you with The Avalanches, an Australian hip-hop/electronic group. Their sole debut album, Since I Left You is a literal cacophony of old records, classic radio shows, and movie quotes, all jammed up with a dash of deck scratching to tie it all together.
Ok, I’m dipping into pretentiousness, but it’s seriously pretty amazing! Most of the album feels structured and completely melodic with only an occasional dip into more electronic territory, but even that’s ok because it sounds weirdly retro at the same time. The real standouts are Since I Left You, Etoh, and most importantly, Frontier Psychiatrist which has a bizarre, but totally appropriate music video.
Downloadable media is a little hard to come by (this album came out in 2001), but I have some awesome music videos for you! As well as that, I have some bonus videos that show where all the samples come from, which you should definitely check out after you listen to the tunes. Goodness me this is a long post.
Downloads
From Since I Left You
Frontier Psychiatrist – (YouTube)
Since I Left You – (YouTube)
Frontier Psychiatrist – The Samples – (YouTube)
Since I Left You – The Samples – (YouTube)
Posted by Ant on May 19 2011 to Downtempo
There are times where you want to rock out till the sun comes up. There are other times where simple, pretty music is all you want to close out a rough day. You Are Plural are perfect for the latter situation, so fare be warned if you are looking for EXTREME EXCITEMENT with this post.
Not to say that this boy + girl group are dreary. You Are Plural have some of the most soothing and soft tunes I’ve heard in ages. It’s not really the type of music that you could listen to at any instance, but when the moment strikes, it is pure heaven. It’s elegant, pretty, and quietly moving; a blend of classical instrumentation with a smidgen of electro-pop underpinnings, all tied together with male and/or female vocals (and no, that doesn’t mean the singing is androgynous: it just means that sometimes it’s a male singing, sometimes it’s a female and sometimes it’s both).
Yet again, I have no downloadable media, but the entire Hand it Over EP is available to stream as well as buy for the most agreeable price of $5. They also allow you to download it in whatever format you like, so if you’re a crazy audiophile with a thing for lossless audio formats, then they have your back.
Posted by Hugh on Jun 26 2008 to Downtempo
I heard Hafdis Huld for the first time on Aurgasm quite some time ago, which means it’s high time that I wrote about her on here. She’s Icelandic, which made me assume that her music would at least be inside the realm of “weird,” and indeed, it is. It’s not as odd as Bjork, though, which is to say that I actually derive enjoyment from Hafdis Huld’s music. She has a very calming voice which suits her slow songs well. It is the charm she displays on songs like Ice Cream Is Nice that makes me a fan.
Sadly, these songs are only 64 kbps, which I realize is pretty crappy! Hopefully they’ll be enough to get you interested enough in her music to check it out further.
From Dirty Paper Cup
Ski Jumper – (MP3, 1.5 MB)
Tomoko – (MP3, 1.5 MB)
Posted by Ant on Sep 26 2007 to Downtempo
While the Dougster is renowned for bringing you the latest in the world of ska and gyspy and all manner of weird bands you’ve never heard of before, and Hugh is renowned for bringing you a good general mix of stuff you’ve probably never heard of before, I’ve always brought up the rear with stuff you’ve heard before, you know of, or you’ve heard to death. And this post is 100% without exception.
Remember how I was talking about that late night radio station that got me hooked on Wax Tailor? Well, it also got me hooked on Nikka Costa, a charming lady who plays some groovetastic R&B. I’ll have to say, today’s stream of R&B (mainstream wise) was something I generally avoided like the plague, so it was nice to hear some decent R&B for once.
Fans of Arrested Development (rippin’ show that one) should already be familiar with at least one Nikka Costa song: Everybody Got Their Something was featured pretty heavily on it. Anyhoo, Nikka plays a good mix of funky R&B and soul in a really sophisticated way. Well, sophisticated is the wrong word. Basically, it’s not trashy, like so much mainstream music is these days. There’s some really sweet tracks too, such as Push and Pull which would definitely have to be my favourite on the Everybody Got Their Something album. She also has an incredible vocal range: it goes from damn low to ear piercingly high (in a good way, honest).
This is a really sucky post and I can’t find any media for her, short of her MySpace page. So if you know how to navigate that contraption of a website, then please be my guest!
Posted by Ant on Jul 9 2007 to Downtempo
I’ll admit it: I’m not a big fan of hip-hop. This is probably my own fault though, since the only hip-hop I ever get to listen to comes from dodgy radio stations and those mainstream music video shows and it always sounds rather junky. So it’s just as well I was listening to some indie radio station at like 2AM because I happened on some rather delightful hip-hop.
Wax Tailor is a French artist who samples a huge range of old recordings to build up his music. The recordings usually consist of old radio broadcasts, voice samples of long past and goodness knows what other material. It produces a nice “old record” sound, which is then underlined with a smooth beat and some other interesting things. Kinda reminds me of a toned down version of Frontier Psychiatrist, by the Avalanches (a tune I highly recommend).
So, if you like your hip-hop interesting, warming (at times) and just a teensy bit strange, then load up some Wax Tailor! If you don’t, then load him up anyway, as he does do some of the more traditional hip-hop sounds.
Downloads
From Tales of the Forgotten Melodies:
Que Sera – (MP3 Sample, 681 KB)
Between Fellows – (MP3 Sample, 294 KB)
Am I Free? – (MP3 Sample, 710 KB)
If you want the more traditional hip-hop:
From Tales of the Forgotten Melodies:
Damn That Music Made My Day – (MP3 Sample, 475 KB)
Where My Heart’s At – (MP3 sample, 713 KB)
If you can brave the Flash, then there is a bunch of other tunes from this album and his other ones to take a look at. Or perhaps you could click here, but I might get in trouble.
Posted by Doug on Dec 15 2006 to Downtempo
It is like either/or is the new France. Or Canada. Or something! Yet another French artist, is basically what I’m getting at.
I bought Not Going Anywhere for a dollar, but it was definitely worth a bit more. As much as I claim to only get excited if a band features prominant horns or accordions, Keren Ann’s music strikes a chord with me. Very well written songs, and I don’t need to know French to understand the basic idea behind a lot of her music.
Her earlier albums were entirely French, but her last couple have featured more English songs as well. She does well in either language, in her whispery, quiet voice.
While she does sound cheery occasionally (such as on Right Now and Right Here), a lot of her songs seem to, for lack of a better phrase, sound sad. It is the perfect music for hanging out inside watching the rain fall on your window, because while it does sometimes approach a depressing tone, it paradoxically feels uplifting at the same time. That makes no sense, I know, so just listen.
You can listen to samples of all her music at her site, which is all embedded in flash, so you will have to find your way manually (just go to Discography). If I were to recommend anything, I’d say to start with Sailor & Widow or End of May from Not Going Anywhere.
Posted by Ant on Nov 19 2006 to Alternative
Yet another French artist, but perhaps a little less known than Camille: Emilie is (seemingly) known in France (having received awards for her music and whatnot), but hasn’t had a great deal of worldwide exposure. Anyhoo, I found Emilie Simon through last.fm’s artist recommendations for Camille. Strictly speaking, the two artists have very little in common (apart from the fact that they’re both ladies and they both sing in French) as Simon’s music is a pleasing blend of rock, electronic and downtempo, all in the one bag.
Emilie Simon is the name of her debut record and it is quite the corker. She even sings a couple of tunes in English, so you can go ahead and sing along (if you know English and you don’t know French of course). Highly enjoyable tunes include Secret, Lise, Il Pleut and To the Dancers in the Rain. However, as is tradition for my posts, go ahead and check out the rest of her lovely debut album, as there is plenty of goodness under her pretty back (don’t take that the wrong way).
Unfortunately, her website seems to be rather borked at the moment, so I have no idea if she has media or not!
Posted by Hugh on Oct 25 2006 to Downtempo
As I’ve mentioned before, there are bands that I meant to write about a while ago. Brando is one of these bands. I found them a while back on Musical Family Tree’s compilation album and listened to their song Your Nelson Now constantly, just for the damn keyboard. However, MFT has an extensive (and free!) MP3 catalog, and that meant two more albums from Brando. While I do not profess to like every song they’ve done, they have quite a few that are lo-fi indie classics. The ones that I have linked down there, for instance. Chiggity-check ‘em; they come highly recommended from yours truly. I hope they’re not my version of Morex Optimo.
Note: Don’t right-click and hit save target as, since that won’t work… just click ‘em and it’ll do its job.
Downloads
From The Headless Horseman Is A Preacher
The Fight Club Song – (MP3, 3.2 MB)
Pilot Of This Ship – (MP3, 3.2 MB)
Hold Me Mine – (MP3, 5.8 MB)
Posted by Hugh on Oct 23 2006 to Downtempo
There are four things you should consider about this post. 1) This band is French, 2) I do not speak French, so 3) I can’t understand their damn webpage and can’t tell what album the following songs are from. 4) However, you don’t have to understand the language to know that this is some damn good music. If I were to go by the category tags I’ve used, I would describe it as downtempo folk-pop. And since it is indeed French, there is a bit of that seductive romanticism thrown in. Delightful!
If you end up liking these tunes, make sure to check out Aurgasm’s post about them; he’s got two of their best songs on there. Which isn’t to say these songs aren’t great (the first two are, especially).
Downloads
Pourquoi Mon Coeur – (Zipped MP3, 2.3 MB)
Tomorrow – (Zipped MP3, 2.7)
Living On A Boat – (Zipped MP3, 3.7 MB)
Posted by Ant on Oct 10 2006 to Alternative
No doubt I’ll be lauded as a total whore for posting about this soundtrack (the indie peeps get a bit pissed when people hail this soundtrack as “indie”) but I don’t care: this is dang good mix.
The thing about mix CDs ya see is that most of the time around 20% of it is good (i.e. songs you can really get in to) and the rest is generally OK, to poor, to utter crap. HOWEVER. The Garden State soundtrack is quite excellent, thanks to Braff’s excellent vision/audio hearing capabilities. There’s an extremely nice mix of indie (Cary Brothers, Remy Zero, Bonnie Somerville), downtempo (Thievery Corporation, Zero 7, Frou Frou), classics (Simon & Garfunkel) and even some folk (Nick Drake). Granted, the popularity of the album has probably elevated the status of some of the artists (*cough*The Shins*cough*), which is why some tossers complain when some guy says “That’s indietastic!”. Well, I say “Screw you, suckers!” – this is an accomplished mix of goodness that should already have been sampled by everyone out there on the Internetz. Check it out: I guarantee you will like at least ONE tune on there…
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