DAFT PUNK. DAFT PUNK. DAFT PUNK. DAFT PUNK. DAFT PUNK. DAFT PUNK. DAFT PUNK. DAFT PUNK. See? You can’t escape them. Not even here at Musika Towers. ‘Get Lucky’ is a fantastic tune, but (ssssh) apparently, the album is a little bit self-indulgent. Even so, I think they’ve earned the right, but if ‘Get Lucky’ has earwormed the hell out of you, then Daughter’s cover will drag it out (screaming in a Pharell falsetto) and throw it on the bonfire.
Okay, here’s a confession that will probably make you think less of me and not win me any friends here at Musika…but I’ve never really been able to ‘get’ David Bowie. That being said, this video absolutely knocked my socks off. How can an amateur musician playing a cover song create probably the coolest music video to date? Well, being an astronaut helps, I guess.
What do I know about Luxembourg? Well, it’s very rich, it’s very small, it’s has a royal family and they’ve legalised euthanasia – lucky them! They also have a very well kept secret that I unearthed strolling through SoundCloud the other day and they’re called Monophona.
Formed by DJ/Producer Jorsch and folk-singer Claudine (no last names as yet) in 2010, despite sucessful careers in their own right, they were eager to take on a new musical challenge. Monophona melds Jorsch’s knowledge of electronica and Claudine’s passion for intimate melodies and together create something that half resembles what we would call ‘trip-hop’.
You hibernate for a winter, and then in the space of two weeks, you’ve helped out at a charity gig night and seen some amazing talent, attended a local band night that was a real eye-opener, and been to see a personal favourite incinerate Village Underground (!!!). It’s like a musical trifecta has romped home and showered me in an embarrassment of sonic riches.
On the charity night at The Sebright Arms, there was an amusingly named band called All Girl Ninja Death Squad. They were neither stealthy, girls, or remotely assassin like. What they were was an alternative pseudonym for Francobollo, a Swedish band in London that play gloriously fuzzy, angular, stop-start pop that has the minimalism and stylings of a punk band, but with a delightful sense of playfulness and sense of humour.
Now I know I’m incredibly late to the party with this Australian electronica duo but when I saw this video I couldn’t help but share the feel good vibes.
For those that aren’t aware, Fishing are Russel Fitzgibbon and Doug Wright who are from the Blue Mountains outside of Sydney and they make the kind of electronica which makes you swell with happiness inside. This is no more apparent than on this special live recording of ‘Pee Green Bote’ they did in a tiny rowing boat sailing down the Thames. Doug’s face on the left is priceless. The song is pretty chilled too.
Watch the video below:
For all the teenage dirtbags in the world that are seeking music to writhe in their own self-pity and stinking thrift store clothing – Wavves is undeniably the band for you. Well into their third album, Nathan Williams’ small surf-rock recording project has evolved into something that brings back that fashionable 90’s nostalgia without having to look at some petty teenage boys trying too hard in tie-dye t-shirts.
Luckily for all you hipsters that refuse the mainstream – they’re still a small, fairly unknown band that have kept to their lo-fi roots (although their debut album is so lo-fi it sounds like it’s being played through a 1940’s wireless radio – don’t think it’s a bad thing, it’s an oh-my-christ-my-ears-are-melting kind of amazing).
Dr. Graham Wiggins is an American physicist, who gained his Ph.D. from Oxford University specialising in solid-state physics and who has helped develop MRI scanners and penned such gripping reads as ‘Direct parallel image reconstructions for spiral trajectories using GRAPPA’.
He’s also known as Dr. Didg, the pioneering didgeridoo player whose band of the same name was one of the earliest innovators of the world electronica genre and the use of live looping technology. Creating music that fused trance, electronica, rock and funk underpinned by Wiggins’ didgeridoo acrobatics (including on his self-invented saxophone-inspired keyed didge), Dr. Didg were one of the hottest bands on the world music scene in the mid-1990s to early 2000s.
There is nothing quite like a new band who write hits like they’re already popstar monoliths.
ASTR are pop duo from New York who’ve been causing a stir with their latest track and our Song of the Day, ‘Operate’. It’s the kind of song you’d imagine Rihanna should be singing. In fact it doesn’t sound a million miles away from tracks found on her darker hip-hop inspired, post-Chris Brown break up album Rated R. This is only a good thing in my opinion.
Listen to the track below to see what all the fuss is about.
Guitar is dead. Blah blah blah. Where are the new bands? Blah blah blah. Well, if you look under the lid of your small town, you’ll probably find a seething hotbed of talent.
On a night in Newbury last week, I was fortunate enough to go to a band night. ‘This is a local pub, for local people’ I initially thought, but, you get a real sense of community from the off.
Basically, Firestate RAWK! The long hair flows like cider on a summer’s day, and the riffs are bigger than a Euromillions rollover. It’s like the 90′s are slapping you in the face, reminding you of when grunge and rock took centre stage.
The longest piece of music to be released so far this year, ‘Deathbed’ is nine minutes of Jefferson Airplane power, trembling guitars and unusual church organ-based composition.
One of City Slang’s newest signings, Anna Von Hausswolff (daughter of controversial artist CM von Hausswolff) has the soaring voice of Kate Bush, but with much less of a “song” driven imagination. She’s currently on tour with Efterklang and apparently the UK gigs are selling out fast. The hints of Nick Cave darkness and PJ Harvey strength leave me eager to hear her debut album Ceremony, to be released May 17th 2013 in Europe.
