AM AND THE UV - CANDY THUNDER
In the Kiss
[3:11]4.5 Mb
Everybodys Girlfriend
[3:58]5.7 Mb
Whisper
[4:04]5.9 Mb
Mysterin
[3:34]5.1 Mb
Candy Thunder
[3:00]4.3 Mb
Speak
[4:09]6 Mb
Wonderful Beautiful
[3:53]5.6 Mb
Lovegood
[4:23]6.3 Mb
Alone Again
[5:10]7.4 Mb
Spacedust
[4:26]6.4 Mb
Everywhere We Go
[3:39]5.2 Mb
Am and the UV "Candy Thunder" Album Review
Goldfrapp and Portishead Had A Baby!
First of all this amazing CD deserves an item description so here is what Beatservice Norway says:
"international pin-up waiting to happen" Dazed & Confused
"stunning vocals" Mark Doyle, HedKandi/JazzFM
"Karen Carpenter meets François K" Coda Magazine/France
...not a bad introduction to Anne Marie Almedal, the heart-breaking voice and sensual spotlight of Norwegian indie heroes Velvet Belly (Boilerhouse/RCA), the girl you've been in love with, but never met. Now joined forces with Anglo/arctic electronica pioneers Nicholas Sillitoe (DJ/producer behind Illumination, Chilluminati, Ultraviolet) and Ken Theodorsen (respected Tromsø sonic wizard, also of Ultraviolet fame) together at last...AM and The UV.
For this debut solo venture, AM and her cool collective promise an elysian bliss of pop cinematics, a sublime selection of addictive songs - written and performed by a confident artiste ready to make her strongest statement yet. Pop where it really should be, in a post-millennium haze of electronics chanson. the new true cool of Norway.
First song out of the Pandora's box, "Everybody's Girlfriend", featured as opening track on the "Way Out North" compilation, released with Jockey Slut Magazine. AM's bitter-sweet paean to the feminine, a lost highway ride into shimmering seduction, space-echo breakbeats, glockenspiel and reverb heaven.
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At first I was worried that this was going to be another one of those cookie-cutter pop/electronica albums that seems to wash up on our shores from time to time. But I was floored by AM and the UV's subtle use of rhythms and synths, unique arrangements, and mesmerizing vocals.
Immediatetly danceable and yet lyrically accessible to lovers of modern pop as well as electronica acts like Portishead, it wooed me from the start. "Mysterin" is quite possibly my favorite track on the album, whose cold utterance of "cold fever sex" could remind one of Client without the rock elements, but instead manages to summon the sultry seduction of Goldfrapp.
The biggest sucess of Candy Thunder is that it surpasses one track wonders to enter the realm of producing atmosphere, which is hard to say in these days of uber-production with little effect. There's no wonder why their track "In This Kiss" was featured on FX's Dirt.
In my mind this album surpasses Goldfrapp's Supernature in that it incorporates elements from Black Cherry and Felt Mountain as well. It may be less experimental than Felt Mountain but it pulls off the chillout beats without any tracks that make you fall asleep like some other artists out there today.
If you love Portishead, Flunk, or Goldfrapp, then you owe it to yourself to check AM and the UV out.
MAERTINI BROES - LOVE THE MACHINES
Love the Machine
[5:02]7.3 Mb
Dataman
[5:31]8.1 Mb
Psychic Weaklings of Western Civilisation
[0:51]0.9 Mb
(Shes) Heavy Metal
[5:27]8.2 Mb
Big and dirty
[6:22]9.5 Mb
Smile
[2:14]2.9 Mb
Chicken Claw
[5:37]8.3 Mb
High (Risin)
[5:22]8 Mb
Traveller
[5:21]7.7 Mb
The Girl that Pulled the Plug
[5:08]7.7 Mb
Don't Be A Number
[1:14]1.6 Mb
Eight Bars of Fame
[4:30]6.6 Mb
House in Malabar
[5:12]7.2 Mb
Maertini Broes "Love the Machines" Album Review
Album Description
Having been pioneers of dance music since the early 80's in Germany, the long awaited second album has finally arrived from Berlin dance music maestros Martini Bros. <P>The Martini Bros are DJ Clé and Mike Vamp, whom within the past four years have developed one of the most interesting and influential dance projects with their lively, individual songs; sometimes what starts as a sparse rhythm-and vocal-sample framework condenses with a funky guitar and an 80's Georgio Moroder-style bass into music that hits the nerve of the time. <P>They've even captured international attention having worked with DJ Koze & The Tease, Tok Tok, and Canada's electropop wonderkid Tiga as well as being nominated for Best Video in the German Dance Awards. The duo was also asked to debut their live show at the premiere party for the film Run Lola Run. <P>Loves The Machines is Martini Bros' second Poker Flat album and it underlines once more what everybody knew anyway: The Martini Bros are definitively one of the most interesting acts and producers in the scene today. There is no need to categorize their music as they always sound NOW.
RICHARD PINHAS - TRANZITION
Dextro
[10:51]19.1 Mb
Moumoune Girl (A Song for)
[10:35]17.2 Mb
Tranzition
[9:39]16.2 Mb
Aboulafia Blues
[6:50]11.7 Mb
Metatron (an Introduction to)
[24:27]39.2 Mb
Richard Pinhas "Tranzition" Album Review
There is More Rhythm
Tranzition is a wonderful mix of Richard Pinhas's beat works and ambient works that is all new material this past year (2004). He is still an innovator in the musical realms of electronic guitar cacophony- (pleasant ones :)!). With this release he flirts with some of his past musical senses in a way that is fresh.
If you were familiar with the French group Heldon, this record is not really like the styling(s) of that band (though versatile they were).
This record doesn't really compare to his 1990's solo and duet project albums either.
It is FRESH so check it out! Nice spin!
POPOL VUH - AFFENSTUNDE
Dream part 4
[8:43]15.2 Mb
Dream part 5
[4:40]9.5 Mb
Dream part 49
[7:43]13 Mb
Hit
[18:34]32.3 Mb
Hit
[10:30]16.7 Mb
Popol Vuh "Affenstunde" Album Review
Moog synthesizer and percussion
This 1970 debut album by seminal German experimental group Popul Vuh opens on a somewhat pastoral note, complete with the organic sounds of birds chirping. Then a splash is heard, as if somebody jumped into a pond, which then fades into some comparatively cold and mechanical sounds on the moog synthesizer. It is as if another dimension (or distant future) is entered as the listener passes beneath the surface of the water, thus transporting the listener from the "sylvan glade" and the pond directly into what "sounds" to me like the vacuum of outer space. I am not entirely sure if that was Fricke's intention, but it certainly worked for me.
Affenstunde is an excellent and early example of electronica that just features the moog synthesizer along with some excellent percussion. I find the use of the moog at this early point especially impressive when you consider that this instrument cost a great deal of money - something on the order of buying a small house in 1970, or so I have been told.
The lineup on this album is very simple and consists of (the late) Florian Fricke on the moog synthesizer and Holger Trulzsch on percussion. The mixture of the cold synthesizer textures and the warm percussion is very interesting. The two pieces on this album are long and change very little over the course of the piece, with the Dream suite clocking in somewhere around 21+ minutes and Affenstunde at 18'30". In large part, the music cycles between spacey and somewhat creepy sounds on the moog synthesizer, and warmer passages dominated by various pieces of percussion (drums, bells etc). I found the contrast to be pretty interesting and at times, somewhat hypnotic. Based upon later albums by the band that I have listened to (Einsjager & Seibenjager, 1974), the electronic approach had been abandoned in favor of acoustic textures. Evidently, Fricke felt that he was not fulfilling his musical vision with the electronic approach and even went so far as to sell his "big" moog to Klaus Schulze, another excellent German electronic composer.
This reissued CD is pretty good and features good liner notes; some of which were written by Klaus Schulze himself. The meditative bonus track Train through Time (10'30"), is also very good and appears to have been recorded around the time of the Affenstunde sessions. This track features a similar mixture of percussion and synthesizer sounds.
All in all, this is an excellent and early recording of electronic music by a very important figure in the German experimental scene. This album is recommended along with other early works of experimental electronic music by German groups including Electronic Meditation (Tangerine Dream, 1970).
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