26 October 2010

Peer Gynt (Grieg) by William Orbit



“This album is a follow up to Pieces in a Modern Style. Some people climb mountains, some people play Sudoku, but I get immense pleasure from doing these remixes…what drew me to classical music is the way it’s put together. I love the challenge it poses and I love trying to unpick it and find out how it works…sometimes taking diabolical liberties and sometimes being totally faithful to the original…”
--William Orbit

Listen to Peer Gynt here.


Get your own copy of Pieces in a Modern Style 2 here.

21 October 2010

Solitude Is Bliss



Tame Impala are a rock trio from Perth, Australia. Innerspeaker is their debut album, a psychedelia-heavy outing that toys with paisley pop, stoner vibes, and an expansive array of swirling guitars.

On first listen, Innerspeaker provides a lot of dots to connect: There are patches of late-60s American psychedelia, buzzy Motor City riffage, and decades of Brit pop, ranging from the pastoral pop of the Kinks to the vivid expansiveness of the Verve to the narcotic warmth of the Stone Roses. Frontman Kevin Parker shares an eerie vocal similarity with John Lennon, both in tone and in the way he allows his voice to soar with each melodic turn or rhythmic surge. Though most of the album is a little restrained lyrically, Parker's rapturous phrasing conveys the meaning. Mixed by Flaming Lips collaborator Dave Fridmann, each component is here is set on an even plane, allowing bass lines and delay-swept guitar bursts to melt into one another, cultivating a uniform feel that's vintage, far-out, and irrepressibly cool.

Listen to "Solitude is Bliss" from Innerspeaker here!



If you want your own copy of Tame Impala Innerspeaker, email marta@alternativemusic.com

13 October 2010

Come on Sister




Like their fellow indie class of 1996 alumnus Wes Anderson, Belle & Sebastian have created their own precious world out of the remnants of ‘60s pop culture, filtering it through the aesthetics of the ‘80s underground, maintaining a style and sensibility through shifting fashions. A new Belle & Sebastian album doesn’t surprise; it reassures while managing to find a few new wrinkles in its vintage threads. Write About Love, their seventh studio album, is cut from the same cloth as its 2006 predecessor, The Life Pursuit -- it’s also produced by Tony Hoffer, who gives Belle & Sebastian a crisp, clean, full sound without turning them antiseptic, with much of it swinging like London in the mid-‘60s -- but it has its own distinct character.

Listen to "Come On Sister" from Write About Love here.


Get your own copy of Write About Love here