Sign In Using Facebook
You are currently browsing the Amie Street Blog archives for April, 2007.
Categorize this!
Club D'elf (pronounced "clubbed elf") is a Boston-based collective, led by bassist Mike Rivard. Since 1998, this eclectic group of ever-changing musicians has combined trip-hop, jazz, electronica, and world music all while maintaining the spirit of collective group improvisation. Many of the group's contributors are well established in their own right including keyboardist, John Medeski (of Medeski, Martin, and Wood), DJ Logic, and members of The Slip.
Check out some improvisational live recordings from Club D'elf, courtesy of Kufala Recordings.
Gravity All Nonsense Now Pt 1
(
)
-
Fire in the Brain
(
) -
Jar Of Hair
(
)
I’m “Having” Some Trespassers William…
If you're a fan of Sigur Ros, Frou Frou, Mazzy Star, and The Cocteau Twins, then you HAVE to check out Having by Trespassers William. The third album from these Seattle-based folksters consists of eleven lush and atmospheric folk soundscapes. Here's a small sample of some rave reviews of the album.
...a beautifully crafted album that never succumbs to any need to provide immediate gratification. Instead, the songs on Having expand and evolve slowly, constructing an unhurried experience that proves to be meaningful and evocative. Having is an album which should be experienced in totality to allow the radiant array of sounds and imagery to wash over the listener. The members of Trespassers William have not only submitted a record that is substantive but have created an atmosphere that rewards the listener for their trust and patience. [Silent Uproar.com]
Somewhere between Mazzy Star and Doves, Trespasssers William fit snuggly. But there is a spacious beauty to them that never really yields to the more pop-oriented leanings of the previous two. Trespassers William get an A in all respects. Its the right music for a troubled heart that needs to go through the motions. [Transform Online]
From the beginning of
Epic musical soundscapes mixed with the beautiful voice of Anna-Lynne Williams make for one of the most relaxing, after lights-out experiences since Sigur Ros... How Ive managed to let trespassers william escape through my musical net is beyond me this is a masterpiece, and given the right exposure they could do a Sigur Ros on us and become the next big underground success." [Sominty.com]
Delerium Translates Soundtracks to Songs
Amie Street is pleased to bring you the newest release from
Delerium, Nuages
Du Monde. This album shows Delerium's transformation from a
group that predominantly created cinematic soundscapes to one that
is centered around the vocal melody and combines influences of
electronic and world music.
Angelicus
(
) features Isabel Bayrakdarian, who
recently contributed to the "Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers"
soundtrack.
Rhys Fulber Conjures up a Solo Project with “Conjure One”
Conjure
One is the self-titled solo debut from Rhys Fulber (best
known for his work with Delerium and F.L.A.). The
album consists of ambient dance pop drawing influences from around
the world and features collaborations with guest vocalists like
Sinead O'Connor on
Tears From The Moon
(
) and Poe on
Center Of The Sun
(
).
The following is an excerpt from an interview with Rhys Fulber from About.Dance.com:
Few artists can honestly say that they witnessed and contributed to the birth of modern industrial music... Rhys Fulber can. Widely known for his work with Austrian musician Bill Leeb on a little project called Frontline Assembly, Fulber has cemented the use of synthesizers and electronic drums in industrial music. Since Frontline Assembly, Fulber has expanded his musical horizons by composing for numerous side projects such as Intermix, Delerium, Synaesthesia and now Conjure One. Living outside of his hometown of Vancouver, British Columbia, Rhys avoids the big cities and mostly keeps to his quiet rural home. There he works on remixes and production for acts such as Mindless Self Indulgence, Megadeth, and the Tea Party. Despite his busy schedule, Rhys Fulber takes some time out to talk with us at About.Dance.com about the release of the new Conjure One album; Extraordinary Ways.
Star: So Delerium and Conjure One are both very ethereal feeling, how do you see them interacting with the more club-oriented genres like industrial and EBM?
Rhys Fulber: I don't know, I never think about it to be honest. I thought it was something kind of different, I don't really connect the two things that much really. The Conjure One stuff is pretty different than what influenced what you would call industrial. So I don't know, it's hard for me to say because it seems to me that it's a different audience, but I could be wrong.
Star: Well, given the similarities between Delerium and Conjure One, I guess could you contrast the two for me, or I guess what was the intention behind having them as two separate projects?
Rhys Fulber: Well, I don't think they sound that similar. The way the music's put together, to me, is quite different, the way the songs are written for Delerium and the way the songs are written for Conjure One, the working process differs a fair amount.
Star: How so?
Rhys Fulber: Well, with Delerium, I'm working with Bill and he will bring an idea of something and then we'll assemble a song, a lot of the times we're assembling songs around samples and stuff like that, whereas with Conjure One it's more like stuff that's just sort of written or it's just a piano and stuff like that. I mean there's a lot more live instruments on Conjure One than on Delerium. I think as I'm doing all the programming on both projects, that's probably where you're going to have a similarity because it's the same person doing a lot of the texturing and stuff like that. But the feeling of the music feels different to me. That's the only way I can describe it, Conjure One feels a little more intimate from my perspective.
Country-Folk Casserole
Like any delicious meal, Nathan's five-song EP,
Casserole, will make you hungry for more. Nathans approach is like one of
a sophisticated chef specializing in modern reinventions of classic
comfort food.
The Boulevard Back Then
(
) illustrates this idea by starting with the main
ingredients of pop influenced country-folk and adding
instrumentation less common to those genres including a brass
section, Beach Boys influenced vocal counterpoint, and the haunting
sound of the electronic Theremin. And as everyone knows, there is
no better way to end a good meal than with a classic dessert or in
this case, Rodgers and Hammerstein's
Favorite Things
(
).
That’s one colorful wheel…
Venus Hum's new
album, The Colors In the Wheel blends smooth vocal
melodies with atmospheric and experimental electronic sounds. While
recording the album, the group experimented with a number of
challenging restrictions by setting out to record electronic music
without using synthesizers. On
Turn Me Around
(
) the group uses computer technology to
manipulate acoustic guitar sounds, creating a sonic landscape which
often masks the identity of the only utilized instrument on the
track.
Here's a cool video of artist and sculptor Mark Sloniker explaining how he created the cover art for The Colors in the Wheel:
The Yellow Stereo: The Submarines
[Editor's Note: This post was written by Paul and brought to you by the fantastic music site The Yellow Stereo. Check it out!]
I've wanted to write about this album for a while now, but I just felt I couldn't do the story of how it came together any kind of justice. It's such a lovely story of a love that seemed lost between two people but as fate would have it was given a second chance through music. It's a collection of tracks centered around the feeling of longing for someone. Lyrics that explain an unhappiness of life without that special person to fill that void, that emptiness. I'm sure it's a feeling we've all experienced at some point in our lives.
Like I said though, knowing the story of how The Submarines and the album Declare a New State came to be makes it that much more compelling and interesting. This story begins with Blake Hazard (her great-grandfather was F. Scott Fitzgerald) and John Dragonetti, the duo that comprises The Submarines. Both who were solo artists at the time, basically met in Boston and became members of each other's respective bands. From that point on, a relationship was formed that continued for four years as the two toured together across Europe. The romance was real which continued on as the two decided to relocate to L.A. together. But the relationship didn't last much longer after the move as it ended in 2004.
After the break-up, the two continued to write and record songs separately, but it's interesting as the music that each had created was basically about their relationship and being away from each other. While recording their songs together at Dragonetti's home studio, realizing what each had written about one another, a fire had been rekindled and a second chance at love was at hand. The end result is The Submarines and this wonderful record that they had written to each other while apart.
Isn't that just lovely? I absolutely love stories like that and being the hopeless romantic that I am, it just makes my heart melt. Knowing all those details that went into the creation of that record just adds so much emotional weight to the lyrics from both Hazard and Dragonetti. Usually with music like this it can come off as incredibly cheesy but fret not as this is honest and real. It's an album that seems bittersweet, but knowing the outcome gives this album a tone that is pleasant and full of hopefulness. It reminds me a lot like Set Yourself On Fire from Stars, but that was pretty much a bitter post-relationship album, and like I said listening to Declare a New State is bit more hopeful. It's such a beautiful record, it's one that makes you believe in love, in second chances and the powerful effect that music can have in that aspect.
I'd recommend this to anyone with a heart, as it's easily one of
my favorite albums of the year. It's a record in which the whole
theme is laid out in the first track
Peace and Hate
(
) as Hazard explained in a
Filter article, "That conflict is inevitable but you live with it.
That you still love each other, so you move on. You declare a new
state."
Mmmm, that Lettuce tastes Funky!
Are you ready for some old school funk complete with dirty grooves, tight horns, and soulful musicians? Then get yourself a good helping of Lettuce's Live from Tokyo. Composed of members of Soulive and The John Scofield Band, these funk all-stars will make you get up and dance even if you're listening at your cubicle! This is a must have for fans of all things funk!
Diamond Jim
Late at night on Amie Street, we like to debut contemporary masterpieces like Big Bad Beautiful Dreams by Diamond Jim.
Jim has worked with a bevy of talented artists on a wide variety of projects (Galactic's Ruckus, Handsome Boy Modeling School White People, Head Automatica Decadence, MC Lars, Kid Beyond, Scissors For Lefty, Rondo Brothers), but this album seems to draw from them all. Read up:
Big Bad Beautiful Dreams is a vibe record. An artist who follows whims to their bitter end, Jim clearly was under the spell of his muse for all these songs - and as an accomplished producer, he was able to let some songs go as a live take, while others are created clearly at the hands of a skilled producer. Kicking off with a quirky instrumental
By the way, this album doesn't get released in stores until June. Be the first kid in your school to have one!
Stay in touch
Fine print
Copyright © 2006-2009 Amie Street, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
© 1992 - 2009 All Media Guide, LLC. Portions of content provided by All Music Guide, a trademark of All Media Guide, LLC.
