Kafka On The Shore

24 Plays • Download

Bowerbirds - Chimes

I recently went to see Elvis Perkins play at the Bowery Ballroom in NYC and what a nice surprise to see Bowerbirds as his supporting act. I saw them open for Bon Iver last year, and between then and now it seems that Phil’s beard’s grown thicker, Beth’s pretty face’s grown even prettier and, well, as for me, I’ve grown to like their music even more.

Their latest album is a very delicate and beautiful thing that required a few listens before I could fully appreciate it. Take “Chimes” for instance: not love at first listen but after experiencing it live it’s now one of the songs I always go back to when I play Upped Air. Pity that not one single soul has hearted this song on hypem.

38 Plays

Memory Tapes - Green Knight

Is that a basketball dribbling we can hear in there? And also the screeching sound that shoes make on the basketball court? Whatever that is, I love that sound effect. And this track is my favourite on Seek Magic.

Other cool songs from the album already posted by fellow tumblers:
Swimming Field via mmddyyyy
Plain Material via thenotes
Bicycle via Britticisms

21 Plays

The Flaming Lips - The Sparrow Looks Up At The Machine

Embryonic is such a great album. I couldn’t choose which track to post between this one and that one.

Also, Karen O’s turn in I Can Be A Frog is too cute for words.

57 Plays • Download

The Flaming Lips - Silver Trembling Hands

Embryonic is such a great album. I couldn’t choose which track to post between this one and that one.

Also, Karen O’s turn in I Can Be A Frog is too cute for words.

25 Plays

Mumford & Sons - I Gave You All

“But you rip it from my hands, and you swear it’s all gone
And you rip out all I have, just to say that you’ve won
Well now you’ve won”

This song is like a punch in the guts. Marcus Mumford’s voice and lyrics are so full of drama that the live stage is probably the best arena to experience them properly. On that note, I’m kicking myself for having missed them live the other day just because “I couldn’t be arsed” (just as I should be kicking myself for using what has to be the ugliest British expression known to man).

Mumford & Sons’ debut album is fantastic: folk music with a lot of attention-seeking instruments like the cello and the trumpet, which add richness and layers to the music and give it a dramatic kick. And let’s not forget the banjo for those of us who like the taste of bluegrass now and again.

Sidenote: Looking back at the BBC Sound 2009 selection (Mumford & Sons were on it), I like a lot of the acts appearing on their long list, but there are probably only a couple of them that I’m confident l’ll still be listening to a few years from now…Florence, for one. And Mumford & Sons, definitely.

Other M&S songs to have landed on my shore: White Blank Page & The Cave

805 Plays • Download

Fuck Buttons - Olympians

hungryghoast:
“like Kraftwerk firing pink noise at the inside of Vangelis’ skull as he composes “Chariots Of Fire.” In Goa.”  - Warren Ellis

Oh look! Isn’t that me standing on that very crowded platform at Pitchfork station, trying to jump on the Fuck Buttons band wagon? Yes, it is. And I can see that the peeps already on board are looking rather irritated by that sudden influx of button fuckers. Tough shit, I say, they’ll just have to make room.

30 Plays

El Perro del Mar - Let Me In

When this tumblrette says of an album that it’s all good, I pay attention. So I went to Spinner and gave the latest El Perro del Mar a full spin. Yep, it’s all good imo2. Which makes singling out one track a rather difficult task. “A Better Love” and “Let Me In” are two great examples of songs that use simple melodic hooks that I get blissfully sucked into.

24 Plays

Sufjan Stevens - Movement III - Linear Tableau with Intersecting Surprise

I’ve been trying to stitch Movements III and IV together but to no avail. I’m giving up. Fuck, it’s annoying… Movement III is my favourite track on Sufjan’s latest album but I think that movement IV works really well in the context of its predecessor so it would have been nice to have them both here in one audio file. Anyway, moving on…

This album is really growing on me today, now that I’m in the mood for it. Best enjoyed as a whole, as with most orchestral symphonies I guess. I’m choosing to ignore the fact that the music is a celebration of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway as I find the idea contrived and pompous. I’m also trying to ignore the artsy-fartsy visuals of heavy traffic and hoola hoopers that are sold with the album (I had a quick look at a clip on Pitchfork and it made me roll my eyes so hard it actually hurt).

68 Plays

Lykke Li - Possibility

veronique:
This track is stunning. The more I listen to the New Moon soundtrack (yes, from the Twilight Saga), the more I fall in love with it. I’ll probably end up posting most of its contents by the week’s end…

Lovely. A lot of the songs on the New Moon soundtrack are.

280 Plays

Lake - Gravel
(via britticisms)


From Let’s Build A Roof, I also like “Don’t Give Up” and “Madagascar”

1,236 Plays • Download

Grizzly Bear - Slow Life (feat. Victoria Legrand of Beach House)    
(via britticisms)

Work has been somewhat intense and all-consuming the past month and a half so I’ve got a little catching up to do music-wise. And while I wasn’t looking, it seems that New Moon got itself a rather awesome soundtrack, with original tracks from a myriad of heavy indie weights. Impressive. Forgive me if I give the movie a miss, though.

27 Plays

Miike Snow - A Horse is not a Home

I posted a different song from Miike Snow’s album a few weeks ago, but “A Horse is not a Home” is the one song I keep coming back to every time I need a taste of Snow. I quite like its title too.