Small Craft on a Milk Sea is Brian Eno's first album on Warp Records, a marriage of design and ambient goodness. This album vacillates between the glowing ambient songs we've come to expect from Mr. Eno and songs incorporating guitar riffs, IDM beats and other electronica. The first track on the album gives you a false sense of security, as it sounds mellow, luscious and what one expects from Eno. From there it's a steady build towards sounds that challenge what ambient music is all about.
Take a listen to Horse, track 5, when things start to get a bit more abstract and the Small Craft on a Milk Sea takes a twist...
Get your own copy of Brian Eno: Small Craft on a Milk Sea here.
“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.
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
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.
The original press release from June 1, 1982, announcing the release of land of giants debut single Cannibal Dolls/ Seven Men opened with the line; “land of giants - three talls and a girl”. It went on; “Their combined heights are twenty four feet and one inch. From this elevation they are granted perspectives that lesser groups can only dream of.” It ended with; “Their debut single is a rarefied and effortless blend of technology, timing and great height.”
Heady stuff – but then again it was a time of style over substance. The minimalist electro pop band featured Anya Varda (vocals), Henryck Jesiak (synthesizer), John Tucker (programs and synthesizer) and Marc Wonnacott (synthesizer and back up vocals). Jeff Packer of Boys Brigade made a guest appearance providing extra percussion.
That summer, the single was a top hit in Toronto's alternative clubs and receiving regular airplay on alternative radio. That July in Germany, there was a review of the single in Guerilla Beat and that opened the door that made the single available in small numbers through Polydor Germany as an import that Christmas. In New York City the single made it on to the turntables of some of that cities hippest clubs. In September, they recorded Thing Called Love, Fountains, and I Will and a video was shot for Cannibal Dolls (unfortunately now lost). Supplies of the original pressing of the single had run out by Christmas and since the band was talking to record companies the decision was made not to press further copies. Instead the band concentrated on recording further demos. Shortly after that, rumour has it that John Peel played the single on his BBC radio show early in 1983. The next recording session early in 1983 brought a rocky Security Squad, featuring John Tucker on guitar, and an early rap fusion Fire with Fire that had John Tucker rapping alongside Anya's vocals. Music historians might find it interesting that Kenny McLean of Platinum Blond fame joins in on the backing vocals. Later in the spring of 1983, John Tucker became one of the first in Canada to own a Fairlight CMI (computer musical instrument) and land of giants started experimenting with the new technology, which resulted in Just Yet. Rusty Egan of Visage, and Midge Ure of Ultravox fame both expressed an interest in producing the album, but talks with the record companies fell through later in 1983. John Tucker's commercial music business Keen had started to blossom and he left to concentrate on that.
The remaining members took some time to regroup and re think things. A new member (Jon Andrews) was brought in to attempt to put together a live show. This didn't pan out although Jon, Henryck and Anya recorded a three-song demo, under the land of giants banner in the spring of1984. Marc Wonnacott returned to the project at the end of 1984 and later that winter he and Henrych built a studio in Henryck's dining room where they recorded Room with A View, and Key To Your Heart in early1985. Again the tape was well received by the industry, but again, they wanted to hear more. Unfortunately, time had run out for land of giants and everyone decided it was time to move on to other ventures.
Today Anya lives in Los Angeles, Henryck lives in Toronto and is involved with the film and television industry and renewing his interest in music, John now resides in Canada's west and remains active in music scoring and production (still utilizing his faithful vintage Fairlight CMI Series III). Marc is an artist, who still writes songs from time to time and lives in Toronto. John Tucker has re mastered all the material and it sounds amazing.
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