Read & Listen

The Radio Dept. with each release… not stay the same… not get better… But - stay very likable, and among the all-time favorites. With their warmth, plush and a bit of raggedness. These Swedes complete the line of simple joys: staring out of the window, holding a cup of hot tea. Heaven’s On Fire is an airy song, holding onto the thin piano threads, with shoegaze-shabby sound, not so easy to understand lyrics.

It seems like everyone you know is on your side – constantly moving against the tide

And the beginning sounds quite socially active: “People see rock’n'roll as youth culture. When youth culture becomes monopolized by big business, what are the youth to do? Do you have any idea? I think we should destroy the bogus copious process that is destroying youth culture.”

This is the music that pretends to be written by a friend of yours, when you listen to it for the first time, it seems that you’ve known it for a long long while.

Waiting for the album, Clinging To A Scheme, due out in April 2010.

The Radio Dept. - Heaven’s On Fire mp3

The new album of the Canadians Broken Social Scene is coming in May, for now there’s a song, World Sick, given out for free, i.e., for a subscription on their site.

An old album, 2006, by Ms. John Soda, and one of the favorite songs, No. One.

Some things some times go wrong
Don’t long for something that’s gond
Don’t try to bring it back
Don’t try to understand

One second I thought, what?
Two seconds later - forgotten…

In the proximity of Bonobo’s “Black Sands” new album release (March 29, via Ninja Tune), there is a beautiful (should I mention this?) track Eyesdown. Follow the flyer link, and it will get you to the mp3.

Bonobo - ‘Eyesdown’ (Preview Edit)  by  Ninja Tune

Today’s song of the day is the second single from the forthcoming Delphic album, Acolyte. The album is already hyped about to the extent of nearly getting in the 2010 tops. New New Order and comment like this… Anyway, the drive and the speed of the track are astonishing!

The video for the song was shot in Chernobyl.

Let’s do something real!

This Momentary by delphic

February will see the release of a new Hot Chip album, “One Life Stand”. For now, an eponymous track, and quite a good remix to add - Joris Voorn Dusty Flower remix. By the way, Joe Goddard’s solo album somehow slipped by. At least, with the first couple of listens I haven’t got anything to say. Unlike One Life Stand - just the right rhythms for the time in-between winter holidays when you need to get to work.

Hot Chip - One Life Stand (Joris Voorn Dusty Flower remix) by MrLukowski

2009 in songs: those listened to more than others or loved deeper.

1. The Radio Dept. - David
2. The Crêpes – What Else?
3. Animal Collective - My Girls
4. Pallers - Humdrum
5. Metric - Sick Muse
6. Franz Ferdinand - No You Girls
7. The XX - Crystallised
8. Camera Obscura - French Navy
9. Burial & Four Tet - Moth
10. JJ - My Hopes and Dreams

Honorable mention:

Masha Qrella - Speak Low
Royksopp - The Girl and the Robot
Four Tet - Love Cry
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart – 103
Sally Shapiro - Love In July

The year has almost ended, and I realize that I won’t have the time to write about everything, or even half of what I listened to and graded A. Still, I want to mention a momentarily passion, a gloomy experimenter from Reykjavik with almost otherworldly sound - Ben Frost. Even his Myspace page is “the ghost of Ben Frost.” His album “By The Throat” has a track with a name very pleasant to a Ukrainian ear, The Carpathians. It can be downloaded here.

Ben Frost Myspace

The song of the day is from someone who is best at touching the heart and soul. The video only adds to this effect.

We think the same things at the same time
We just can’t do anything about it.

It was a slippery, slippery slope…

Thom Yorke, “Harrowdown Hill” from Bent Image Lab on Vimeo.

A new track by The Mary Onettes, Puzzles, is a pure dreamy solemnity. Swedes from Jönköping can write music with the real feel of the 80s and 90s. With the verve that doesn’t make you sick. And though the intro to the song sounds almost like “Kiss Me” by Sixpence None The Richer, the song is still a wonder.

Waiting for the single on September 30

Do you feel strange on the inside?

The Mary Onettes - Puzzles mp3

Labrador