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LP Of The Day: Silent Shout

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 08:00:00 -0800

SILENT SHOUT The Knife (2006)

"A much darker, more ambitious set of songs than the Knife's previous work, the album finds the duo stretching their sonics and downplaying the overt poppiness of Deep Cuts and The Knife. Truly unique -- even for a group as different as this one is -- Silent Shout is the Knife's most compelling work yet. " - Heather Phares, AllMusic

Speech Debelle 'I'm With It'

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 13:30:00 -0800

Speech Debelle returns with the lead single from her forthcoming sophomore album, Freedom of Speech. And it’s a love song.

Probably the most accessible and simply enjoyable moment of an amazing new album, 'I’m With It' sees Speech showing a different side to her character from either her more introspective earlier work, or some of the politically charged moments on the new record. Speech co-wrote the song with renowned composer Eg White, whose past credits include both Adele albums, work with Florence + The Machine, Rebecca Ferguson and more. Together they came up with an uplifting piece of pop perfection, which producer Kwes (Warp, Damon Albarn’s DRC project) then assisted in giving a future-Motown flavour to. (via Big Dada Recordings)

Watch the video to 'I'm With It' below

Download The Caretaker's Extra Patience (After Sebald)

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 11:30:00 -0800

James Kirby's The Caretaker has released a mini-album of alternate versions from his soundtrack to Grant Gee's film Patience (After Sebald). The soundtrack for Gee's insight into German writer WG Sebald is available/streaming at The Caretaker's Bandcamp page while you can stream and download Extra Patience (After Sebald) below

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LP Of The Day: There Is Love In You

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 08:00:00 -0800

THERE IS LOVE IN YOU Four Tet (2010)

"There Is Love in You is an accomplished, beautiful record. Vocals, where they appear, are wordless and textural; the few samples are glitchy but warm and hypnotic." - John Bush, AllMusic

Video: Unearth - Watch It Burn

Sat, 18 Feb 2012 11:00:00 -0800

Unearth's new video for 'Watch It Burn' from Darkness in the Light premiered this week on Metal Injection. The video, which was directed by Scott Hansen (A Day To Remember, I Wrestled A Bear Once, Maylene & The Sons of Disaster), is a dark and disturbing video to match the equally bleak lyrics of the song. (via Metal Blade Records)
Watch the video below

Video: Karin Park - Fryngies

Sat, 18 Feb 2012 11:00:00 -0800

Following the release of her UK debut last September, the critically acclaimed Tiger Dreams EP, Sweden’s Karin Park returns with ‘Fryngies’, the first single off her forthcoming album High Wire Poetry. Directed by Tore Franson from Denmark's Bacon Agency, check out the amazing new video for 'Fryngies' below.

LP Of The Day: AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted

Sat, 18 Feb 2012 08:00:00 -0800

AMERIKKKA'S MOST WANTED Ice Cube (1990)

"AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted is a timeless, riveting exercise in anger, honesty, and the sociopolitical possibilities of hip-hop." - David Jeffries, AllMusic

MusicHype's Top 5 Songs

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 16:30:00 -0800

This week, MusicHype shows a fondness to a couple of cover songs with very contrasting deliveries. The unmistakable Karen O teams up with the new golden duo of film scores; Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross, as Zeppelin's 'Immigrant Song' gets a combative industrial makeover for The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo soundtrack. Meanwhile The Kills pull it back for a delicate cover of Patsy Cline's 1961 ballad 'Crazy'. Although it has been floating around for a while, it is included as a b-side to the forthcoming Kills single 'The Last Goodbye'. Elsewhere, Cloud Nothings third record Attack On Memory, produced by Steve Albini has turned heads and 'No Future/No Past' is a killer opener to the album. Burial's new EP Kindred has been melting the electronic world this week and you'll be up against it to find a more evocative piece of modern club all year as the dubstep recluse shows he is both a master of straight four to the floor groove as well as 2-step. Finally, The Asteroids Galaxy Tour's title track from second album Out Of Frequency is a sassy, hooky-as-hell gem of alt-pop that isn't afraid to venture sonically. Enjoy!

TRENT REZNOR & ATTICUS ROSS feat. KAREN O - Immigrant Song
The Null Corporation/Mute/Madison Gate

CLOUD NOTHINGS - No Future/No Past
Carpark

THE KILLS - Crazy
Domino

BURIAL - Loner
Hyperdub

THE ASTEROIDS GALAXY TOUR - Out Of Frequency
BMG Rights

Review: Everyone Needs Something To Hold On To

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 13:00:00 -0800

With infantry-style drumming and a strongly plucked cello, Timothy Blackman's Everyone Needs Something To Hold On To gallops out the gate astride 'A Dance,' a soaring piano and trumpet-lead instrumental that serves as a brief, but enticing march into an album that feels cinematically sunset-hued from beginning to end.

The second song, 'I Can't Blame You,' smarts of lush, Nick Drake-ian sentiment and melody, betraying a fragility that strikes the listener as sincere, unaffected, and effortlessly endearing, with a finely bruised vocal quality reminiscent of early Will Oldham mixed with early Conner Oberst. Each subsequent song, though varied in tempo and emotional nuance, works to further the feeling of a penultimate curtain drop upon a promising, but ultimately doomed performance. 'Erosion' uses short, swift cello notes to create tension at the beginning of the song, then builds with strong, steady drumming to tell the story of this estranged loner, finally easing a bit into the refrain: “I am not a wealthy man, but I'll protect you from the sun / I am not a strong man, but I'll protect you from erosion,” yet never fully lets go of it's strained, uneasy undercurrent of emotion.

Like the lyrics, the music throughout the album is painfully lovely, poised just on the silver lining of the metaphorical stormcloud

Be warned, this is not the record to put on after a messy break-up — unless you're like me, and take solace in the sadnesses of unknown artists. In the case of the latter, you'll be richly and sadistically rewarded, as love, loss, death, erosion and decomposition are the themes of the day. 'Leaves,' in particular, will delight your old goth soul with lines such as, “You carry on into the sun, and I’ll carry on into the soil, where the leaves decompose, where the bodies were buried.”

Like the lyrics, the music throughout the album is painfully lovely, poised just on the silver lining of the metaphorical stormcloud. Blackman’s raw, sensitive vocals flutter over glowing compositions of bittersweet cello, jingling mandolin, crisp drums, soft, bright guitar, trembling keys and a melancholic, yet oddly uplifting trumpet. There is hope to be found here, lessons to be learned, and beauty to look forward to. In short, the album gives you the sense that, however wounded, Blackman is not fated to off himself—so breath a sigh of relief, curl up in your darkened room, and listen to the album on repeat with a bottle of red. - Leslie Henkel, Under The Radar

9/10

Free Album: PS I Love You ‘Muster Sessions’

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 11:00:00 -0800

Ontario indie rock duo PS I Love You have released a free album The Muster Sessions which features all of the songs from the critically-acclaimed Meet Me At The Muster Station album and b-sides recorded at various radio stations sessions as the band toured across North America. PS I Love You were asked to perform on taste maker site and radio stations such as Daytrotter, KEXP, and XM Satellite Radio as well as high profile stations CBC Radio 1 (on Jian Ghomeshi’s popular show ‘Q’) and CJLO in Montreal. The Muster Sessions has been made available for free as a farewell to PS I Love You’s hometown inspired debut album, and in anticipation of launching their new album Death Dreams – an album inspired by their time on the road. The sessions capture PS I Love You at their best; in raw form, performing live off the floor. (via Paper Bag Records)

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LP Of The Day: On Avery Island

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 08:00:00 -0800

ON AVERY ISLAND Neutral Milk Hotel (1996)

"an inscrutable concept album, a chronicle of an insular world told in a remarkably universal language. A fuzzy masterpiece of experimental lo-fi recording" - Jason Ankeny, AllMusic

Listen to new live cut from Soulware

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 16:00:00 -0800

Hot off the back of a big year in 2011 with a full-length release on Optimus Gryme Recordings, NZ dubstep collective Soulware have hinted at future material via a live cut uploaded on their soundcloud. 'Every Little Thing' is taken from their set in Takaka over the kiwi summer. Stream the five minute tune below

Review: Kindred

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 11:00:00 -0800

While I would love to hear a new full-length from this guy, this will do for now. Very happy

- The Needle Drop

LP Of The Day: Intimacy

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 08:00:00 -0800

INTIMACY Bloc Party (2008)

"it's a breakup album that gives personal situations a political heft." - Heather Phares, AllMusic

Lapalux's When You're Gone EP

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 16:30:00 -0800

Stuart Howard aka Lapalux has come up with something special for his first release with Cali’s finest, Brainfeeder. Having made his name with his cassette-only Many Faces Out Of Focus and acclaimed bootlegs and remixes he returns with a seven track EP of such poise and beauty, one listen is enough to know you’re onto something special.

Lapalux bathes your brain in lush textures, surprising and explosive atmospheres set in unencountered, unearthly spaces, all somehow perfectly set against catchy rolling choruses informed by pop and commercial R&B. On the When You’re Gone EP he channels and refines his sound and shapes it into hazy, woozy emotion. Whether working with a singer like Py (on 'Moments'), or deconstructing found samples and his own voice, Howard stretches, bends and warps sound to make soul – not plastic posturing but real emotion made of synthetic sound. (via Brainfeeder)

Stream 'Gutter Glitter' below

The Phoenix Foundation & Bannerman present The Silo Sessions

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 14:00:00 -0800

This Saturday set aside an afternoon to hear one of the most acclaimed melodic pop bands in New Zealand play at the unique venue Silo Park. The Phoenix Foundation, with support from Bannerman, will be gracing the Silo Park stage with their unique blend of catchy pop tunes and psychedelic rock, an act suited to attending on a balmy summer’s day.

Silo Markets will be open from midday curated by Foxes of Auckland with stalls from some of the finest local arts and crafts people plus an eclectic mix of food stalls and the pop-up container bar will also be open selling craft beer & local wine plus yummy food!

THE SILO SESSIONS PRESENTED BY THE PHOENIX FOUNDATION AND BANNERMAN, Saturday 18th February, Silo Park, Midday to 5pm, Free of charge

Disney vs Hip Hop mix at 8Tracks

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 11:30:00 -0800

Created last week and on the hot list of mixes at 8tracks.com, Disney vs. Hip Hop is a new take on the abundant mash-up culture that exists on the web. Described as a selection of Disney songs but now with a hip hop twist. Hip-hop artists that get re-worked include Kanye West, Drake, Lil Wayne and the Ying Yang Twins , including DJ Do You's Lion King-themed re-work of Birdman & Lil Wayne's 'Stuntin' Like My Daddy' which you can download here. Have a listen to the mix at 8Tracks

LP Of The Day: Highway 61 Revisited

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 08:00:00 -0800

HIGHWAY 61 REVISITED Bob Dylan (1965)

"proved that rock & roll needn't be collegiate and tame in order to be literate, poetic, and complex" - Stephen Thomas Erlewine, AllMusic Editor

Jack White's "Love Interruption" video

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 13:54:30 -0800

Jack White has always channeled the spirit of the blues. And while the White Stripes featured a heavy blues influence, it never really felt like White reached his true potential as a bluesman in that band. Sure, they did excellent covers of Son House's "Death Letter Blues" and Blind Willie McTell's "Your Southern Can Is Mine" on De Stijl (the album was also dedicated to the later), but I've always wondered what White could accomplish if he attempted a true blues album, albeit updated for the 21st Century.

So the news that Jack White has announced his first solo album is fairly exciting. It's entitled Blunderbuss and will be available from his own imprint "Third Man Records on April 23/24. The first single is "Love Interruption", essentially a blues song but with a heavy soul influence. Admittedly not what you might expect at first: he's never been one for the predictable, our Jack. The B-side is a much more blues-heavy number entitled "Machine Gun Silhouette". Both are excellent, and bode well for the forthcoming album. Personally, I'm hoping for more stuff along the lines of "Fly Farm Blues", the gritty blues number he wrote and recorded in one take in the It Might Get Loud doco. But hey, that's just me.

Check out the hot off the press video for "Love Interruption" below, as well as streams of all other tracks mentioned above.

Track Of The Week

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 12:30:00 -0800

Every week we give away an MP3 by an up and coming artist for your listening pleasure. Download it here, and by helping us share it via Facebook and Twitter, we'll reward you with Notes for your Track Record. Check out this week's free track:

Nadia Reid - 'Rise and Fall'

Included in the film When a City Falls which documented the Christchurch earthquake, 'Rise and Fall' has already ethched itself into many people's hearts and that's in no small part to its hushed cadence, beautiful vocal performance and glistening acoustics; a gorgeous song on its own

Nadia Reid has been forging a low-flying pathway in music and live performance with her unique brand of understated charm since she picked up a guitar 5 years ago.

Nadia recently dropped her debut EP Letters I Wrote And Never Sent through the label Gold Sounds.

Get the track for free
Nadia Reid - Rise and Fall by musichype

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