Lucy Rose

February 28, 2010

Last year was as much a good year for support-act discovery as it was for fantastic live music in general. Alessi’s Ark, The Joy Formidable, Sam Amidon – all unexpected, all intentially re-visited live.

First seen at The Lexington supporting Pete & the Pirates, Lucy Rose is an unsigned singer-songwriter from London who’s been doing the rounds in the small-but-celebrated gig venues (The Lexington, Old Queen’s Head, Hoxton Bar & Kitchen and, coming up The Luminaire, The Lock Tavern and Upstairs @ Ronnie Scott’s).

She has that Kate Nash London pronunciation but with a softness and an emotional crack to the tone that evokes a genuine connection as opposed to disconnected appreciation.

There’s no description up on her Last.fm page at the moment and no downloadabe or streamable mp3s that I could find in the public domain (other than the MySpace), but I’d highly recommend catching her live, especially with the band behind her.

My favourite so far is the live demo of Don‘t You Worry – for some reason it really feels like an Emily-Katie Fitch moment…

Again, no picture as no album cover.

Leave a Comment » | Musing | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by nishajl

It’s like Hollywood, but with a “B”…

February 28, 2010

I’m a British-born Indian and, over the past 10-15 years at least, have immersed myself mostly in what I suppose would be deemed Western (with generous sprinklings of “world”) music.

It's like Hollywood, but with a "B"...

From time to time, though, I’ll go to an event, or a family gathering, or even just a club, that’ll remind me just how much I love Bollywood/Bhangra/other music of Asian origin.

It happened  at my cousin’s wedding a couple of weeks ago  (first cousin – not dad’s uncle’s sister-in-law’s nephew’s daughter’s aunt on the other side…) so I thought I’d post about some of my personal favourites from a few specific sub-genres.

GHAZALS – Originally a form of Arabic poetry dealing explicitly with the theme of unattainable love, the popularity of Ghazals was boosted in the 1960s by artists such as Ravi Shankar and later in the 80s by accomplished Bollywood playback singer Pankaj Udhas. The below is a personal favourite, with opening lyrics that translate to “Your complexion is like silver, your tresses like gold”:

Chandi Jaisa Rang Hai Tera (Last.fm)

BOLLYWOOD SOUNDTRACKS – The term “Bollywood” is often used as a collective term to refer to the entire Indian film industry, and the soundtracks typically comprise songs performed (i.e. lip-synched by the actors to a pre-recorded playback track) in full within the movie. I’m a bit of a nineties Bollywood fan so the tracks below are from films of that period:

Kehna Hi Kya – Featured in the award-winning 1995 film, Bombay, with songs by Slumdog Millionaire composer A.R. Rahman
Taal Se Taal – Performed by Alka Yagnik, Udit Narayan and Sukhwinder Singh in 1999 movie, Taal
Jab Koi Baat Bigad Jaaye – Sung by Kumar Sanu and Sadhana Sargam for the movie Jurm, 1990.
Chaiyya Chaiyya – Another A.R.Rahman soundtrack, this time performed by Sukhwinder Singh and Sapna Awasti for 1998 movie Dil Se and a bit of a modern Bollywood classic.

All very theatrical and dramatic…

BHANGRA – It’s all about the beats. It started as a form of Punjabi folk dance in celebration of a sikh festival, the key feature being the rhythm of the dhol drum and other percussion, but Bhangra has developed over the past years into sample-infused, remix-loaded dance music incorporating hip-hop, reggae, jungle, garage and other Western influences. Some favourites from the weekend’s DJ…Read more

2 Comments | Tonic | Tagged: , | Permalink
Posted by nishajl

The-Dream – Rockin That Sh**

February 25, 2010

The-Dream - Love Vs Money

No explanation – Just listen.

The Dream – Rockin That Sh*t

I wish every song made me this happy.

Leave a Comment » | Musing | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by nishajl

Charlotte Gainsbourg – Trick Pony

February 23, 2010

Lately I’ve been able to group a lot of the music that’s been hitting the spot together into little pockets – Canadian music, Scandanavian music, dreamy electro, covers are a few of them. There has been a bit of crossover and I think this track could very easily pick up a couple from previous pockets to form its own splinter group but I’m going to give it its own.

Charlotte Gainsbourg - IRM

I may have completely made this up or it may actually exist, but I think ‘darktronic’ fits pretty well…and Turnstile Blues, Eyes on Fire and When I’m Small belong in there with it:

Charlotte Gainsbourg – Trick Pony

It’s sultry, seductive with a dangerous air – and there’s also a fuzziness around the vocal that’s similar to the other three tracks. This one verges towards the positive, though, in contrast to the others which have a more ominous edge to them…

The whole album, IRM, co-created with Beck, is available to stream on we7 (IRM, Le Chat du Café des Artistes – the French one – would be my other picks) but this is the track that always stops me mid-task and demands full, rather than background, attention.

I think she might be French….?

Leave a Comment » | Musing | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by nishajl

Summer Camp – I Only Have Eyes For You

February 19, 2010

The Flamingos version of I Only Have Eyes For You (Dames) is, without a doubt, in the winning half of my top 10 songs of all time list…a.k.a. my top 5 songs of all time.

Summer Camp

Summer Camp

To cover this song is the equivalent of trying to copy the Mona Lisa – there is no way of authentically replicating the eyes that follow you around the room short of putting real people behind eye-cutouts in the painting in humanly-possible shifts to actually follow you around the room with their eyes.

The dreamy harmonies and genuine innocence of this particular version is yet to be fully captured by anyone else.

I think it was @CitizenMeh who first brought the Summer Camp version to my attention indirectly on twitter a few months back. My instinctive reaction was “it’s good, but nowhere near the original” and then I pretty much forgot about it until I heard another version, by North Atlantic Oscillation (who will get their own post next week).

Summer Camp – I Only Have Eyes For You

They seemed to be a little bit secretive when the Guardian approached them in January, and only have a MySpace to their name, but the brief entry on their Last.fm page reveals a first single is due out on Moshi Moshi at the end of March before an appearance at SXSW.

Back to the cover – they’ve managed to maintain dreamy and innocent but take the song to a far off galaxy at some point in the distant future. The background riff sounds like the “alternate ending” motif from Wayne’s World (just before 7min) and is the main reason I keep going back to the track, along with the final female vocal that kicks in about 30s from the end.

And….it’s a good cover, and I think the unpolished, I-made-this-music-with-my-mates-in-my-parents’-garage style of their sound in general will do well. Particularly with the air of mystery…

That’s my 2p.

Leave a Comment » | Musing | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by nishajl

Sync & Me…

February 18, 2010

Twisted Firestarter....

Another “I’ve been thinking…” post – this time syncs across different media and the impact they’ve had on me, personally. The list could become fairly substantial so I thought I’d focus on 4 types, with one track for each.

Video Game: Aside from the mind-penetrating, specifically composed Mario Brothers theme tune from the original Nintendo game, the standout sync moment from my computer game-related past was The Prodigy – “Firestarter” on Wipeout for Playstation. I could play to that song over and over again because, for me, the motion and momentum of the track perfectly complimented the speed of the gameplay.

Advert: Another computer game, this time Tomb Raider Underworld, which used the simultaneously melancholic and euphoric trip-hop anthem Lamb – “Gorecki” in tandem with visuals from the game. More of a pensive track that builds momentum for a strategy-focused adventure mystery.

Film: The 2005 Grammy Award-winning soundtrack to the movie “Garden State” featured, amidst for me a genuinely standout selection, Zero 7 – “In The Waiting Line”. The combination of the interwoven slow-motion, blurred and fast-forward visuals with the overall hazy feel…Read More

Leave a Comment » | Tonic | Tagged: , | Permalink
Posted by nishajl

The Knife – We Share Our Mothers’ Health

February 18, 2010

Perhaps a bit of a generalisation, but Scandanavian music seems to be hitting the mark more and more for me over the past year or so…Little Dragon, Those Dancing Days, Blue Foundation, Ida Maria, and potentially my favourite track of the year so far from Lindstrom & Christabelle.

The Knife - Silent Shout

This song is from another Swedish electronic duo, The Knife, who’ve actually been around for more than 10 years – they originally formed in 1999.

The Knife – We Share Our Mothers’ Health

It opens with a sound effect-style intro and is, in my mind, perfect for a Terminator attack build-up scene unfolding into a full-on chase sequence… it’s also perfect for Met-line tube dancing.

The band are brother-sister duo Karin Dreijer Andersson (now of Fever Ray) and Olof Dreijer and the track is from their 2006 album, Silent Shout.

I also recently came across Colouring of Pigeons on Stereogum, which is from a collaborative album with Mt. Sims called Tomorrow In A Year (to be released on Mute on March 6). Starts fairly strangely but evolves into a wonderfully dramatic epic of a song. Give it about 3min 8s…

Leave a Comment » | Musing | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by nishajl

« Previous Entries