Under The Influence

Another very pretty album. The production is noticeably slicker than her previous effort. They're actually very different sounding albums. Many of the elements are the same but the overall intent seems to be different. Little Things was like stumbling upon a child's music box. Rykestraße is more mature, the interesting sounds are still there but they take a back seat to the writing and fuller arrangements.

In North Wind instead of drums we get to enjoy the clatter of a typewriter (the ending is obvious). Seems that a lot of her stuff is made from found sounds. It's just dawned on me that a lot of my favourite pretty music these days is from Norway. What the hell do they put in the water over there?

She actually won a Spellemannsprisen award for this one (Norwegian music award where everyone in every category is downright amazing). Well deserved. A beautiful work indeed.

What the hell? Where has this been hiding? This is serious stuff - dark and dirty.

Such an original sound, it's hard to describe (as all truly original music must be). Dubstep; strange pulsing rhythms. Scattered rambling vocals sit atop the low rumble that serves as the bassline. The only real recognisable sounds are the electronic kick-drum, snare and hi-hat. Weird electronic noises are dusted throughout to make up the rest. Minimal creation at its best.

I imagine that this is what listening to Photek's Solaris felt like when it first came out in the UK. Distant Lights is an absolute killer, menacing as all hell - third listen now.

I was about to go to bed and now I've got another hour of listening to do - there's no way I can stop this album part way through.

Again again!

One of the dance highlights from Sonar 2007. Slicked up white suits, long flowing hair and keytars - they certainly have an ultra cool look... cool sound too.

The album itself is much smoother than I expected - when they played live the sound system was a bit quiet so I guess I figured the album itself would be more raucous. Great bit of work anyway. Silky electro beats with a jazzy edge.

Coupé is a stomping upbeat track, reminds me a bit of Leftfield. Cooper King has a really cool disco edge to it that then drops away into a funky 70s movie soundtrack vibe.

Great stuff.

3 CDs of Tom Waits... and it's all good! That's hardly surprising though - Tom Waits really knows what he's doing. I've been addicted to his work since first hearing Closing Time back in 1999 (bit slow on the uptake, I know).

In Road to Peace he gives a vague commentary on the situation in Israel & Palestine (I have a few things to say about that myself).

The album feels like an ambling road journey across The US. So many different styles are covered. I love the way it sounds like it's old - not an old recording, but for me it invokes images of olden shipping docks at night.

3 hours of heaven.

I'm sure I've probably mentioned it before but I love the Klezmer sound, it sounds so fresh to my western ears.

There are plenty of stomping tracks to dance around to - in fact almost all of them are really upbeat. A couple of songs are even sung in English so I can figure out what's going on some of the time. The production is great on here too.

Charlatan-Ka is great - it sounds like it's going to be a cover of Those Were the Days My Friend. And I know I've heard Golem Hora before but I can't pick from where... oh wait, The Saints (another Klezmer group from Poland) do a version of this too (though I'm sure the melody is more famous than that).

Alex Schmidt is a dj... I think. I can't really figure out anything much about this guy. It's a random dance set I picked up from somewhere and it's bloody good. I'm very busy at work at the moment (computer geek by day) so I've made good use of this mix. I find that dj mixes (the more housey/electro ones) are great when I'm try to get things done in a hurry.

Mostly you get lots of deep dirty bass built on house/electro foundations. There's a song on here (track 9) that I know I know (it's a classic) but I have no idea what it is. Bugging the hell out of me.

Since I couldn't find anything out about this stuff online... hence the muntovision picture.

Have I heard this before? I think Comfort You is one of those radio tracks that I thought was by someone else (or rather I'd never thought about who it was by). Very memorable piano hook anyway.

Oh right. The title track, Black Fingernails Red Wine was a big hit here recently, right? These guys have definitely been all over the radio - something in which I seldom indulge (so they must have been played a lot for me to pick up on them).

Lots of piano on this one. I like this much more then most the pop-rock I'm subjected to by the British culture. I really like Kavyen Temperley's voice. It's kind of like Coldplay done right (sorry EJ).

Wow. I know every song on here. How can that be? According to Wikipedia they're very popular in their home country (Australia) but not especially so in the UK. Maybe this is another one of the albums I'd spent time listening to and forgotten about. Really cool stuff.

Cheesy to the extreme... though just look at the name, it's a dead give-away. I can't believe people still make music like this (in 2006?!). What's up with the moonlight sax?

Over the top guitar solos form the foundation of every song. Just more Satch style guitar wank when it comes down to it. Haha - Blood Of The Snake, what does that even mean?

52 minutes of self-indulgent guitar work is a bit hard to take - though once one submits to the cheese it's enjoyable enough and there's gold at the end of the painbow - Billy Idol and Slash join them for a light cover of In The Summertime.

All I can think is either I've gotten the dates wrong (reissue?) or there's a pocket of people out there somewhere who have been cut off from the rest of the world since the early 90s. Now, that's just sad.

Another beauty picked up from my Bristol experience. Recorded, I believe, in the same place with the same people as Ivory Springer, and the influence shows. This 3-piece definitely have a harder edge to them. They have the same intelligent-rock feel as Tool.

It's short - only 20 minutes long, but a good 20 minutes. Quality over quantity. I've always said that when we moved to CDs albums became too long.

If nothing else this album reminds me that I still love a good bit of metal.

Oh yeah. The artwork really kicks ass too.

I was lucky enough to get to enjoy the Sunday Afternoon At Dingwalls reunion last year. If I hadn't gone along to that gig I wouldn't have given this album a chance (due entirely to my own ignorance). Whenever I've seen Giles DJ in recent years I've always found it a bit... safe. Just a bunch tracks based around latin beats - see what I mean about ignorant?

The only reason I went along was that a mate of mine (Adrian) insisted that it would be great history lesson. How right he was.

The atmosphere was absolutely incredible. All the old regulars had dusted off their dancing shoes so they could slide around the dancefloor with their slick jazz moves. The music itself was fantastic. See, I had no idea that this event spawned the acid jazz movement - though it's all so obvious now. These were the people that resisted the draw of popular dance music, choosing instead to evolve jazz.

The album is a great little sampler of what the party was like. The songs are all fun and very danceable. If nothing else you get to enjoy a bit of that history lesson.