Two of the most blogged about US female artists of the moment have joined forces for a three date mini UK tour that began at London’s Heaven last Wednesday.
South Dakota born Erika M. Anderson, better known as EMA, was formerly part of folk-rock band Gowns, but decided to go solo and explore a rawer guitar-rock side. She practically played in full her debut ‘Past Life Martyred Saint’, a strong contender to feature high in many best of 2011 lists, with confident manner that brought to mind the style of contemporary rock icons such as Karen O or girl-fronted grunge bands of the 90’s.The album’s standout track, ‘California’, was the encore in a set that more than satisfied all her fans in the English capital.
But it was Russian-American vocalist Nika Roza Danilova the one that seemed to have attracted a larger part of the audience and ultimately stole the show with her intense and atmospheric Goth-pop. Zola Jesus has been in the hipster’s radar for the last three years. Her recent third studio album, ‘Conatus’, has taken her career to new heights. Live, she surrounds herself by two synth players and an electric drummer, adding a noticeable 80’s touch to her atmospheric sounds and intensely emotional vocals. ‘Night’; ‘Vessel’ and ‘Collapse’, in the middle of which the singer descended from the stage and wandered among the public, were among the show’s highlights.
Alltogether, they offered two interesting and diverse musical propositions making an excellent night of live music.
One more year, London unrolls the red carpet to welcome a diverse representation of cinema’s brightest talent from all over the world. The 55th edition of the BFI London Film Festival takes place from October the 12th until the 27th with an eclectic mix of arthouse favorites; awards season contenders; experimental cinema and other festivals’ winners. A selection of restored classics and short films complete an excellent program that features over 200 movies.
In such a wide selection it’s easy to find something for everyone and music fans won’t be disappointed. Starting with Madonna, who will be launching the fruits of her new found filmmaking ambition in her second directorial effort, ‘W.E’, which portraits a woman’s obsession with the romance between Wallis Simpson and King Edward VIII, exploring the elements that her actual relationship has in common with the infamous couple’s. Her ex, double Oscar winner Sean Penn, will be also generating some headlines for borrowing the classic Robert Smith look. His impersonation of a retired rock star in search for the truth behind his family’s alleged Nazi past is the main attraction in Paolo Sorrentino’s ‘THIS MUST BE THE PLACE’. The film features a cameo by David Byrne, also in charge of the soundtrack alongside Will Oldham.
Lacking the same glamour but equally appealing to more specialist audiences are a number of high-profile documentaries. For further details read on… Read more…
Fresh from making history by becoming the only artist who has won the Mercury Prize twice, PJ Harvey‘s fans can celebrate the victory of her eighth studio album, ‘Let England Shake’, with an exclusive iTunes Sessions EP.
After twenty years of a solid musical career, Harvey has kept on going from strength to strength, reinventing her sound with every record. One of the best reviewed albums of 2011, in ‘Let England Shake’ the Dorset songwriter has created an astonishing concept album about a world in war, immersed in history and politics, while also expanding her musical palette.
This new digital release features seven recent live recordings. Among them, some of ‘Let England Shake’ most celebrated moments, including the singles ‘Written In The Forehead’; ‘The Words That Maketh Murder’ and the title track. A few old favourites such as ‘Down By The Water’ and ‘Angelene’ and an interview complete the EP’s tracklist.
The ‘iTunes Sessions EP’ makes an excellent complement to PJ Harvey’s timeless latest album and is already available for purchase from here.
A few weeks ago Belgium born and Australian based singer-songwriter Gotye unveiled his latest single, ‘Somebody That I Used To Know’, and it has become a huge smash in Australia. For over a decade the musician, also a member of indie band The Basics, enjoyed a successful solo career that has just peaked thanks to this collaboration with New Zealand singer Kimbra in a duet that goes through some soul baring lyrics, telling the aftermath of a broken relationship and packing an instant emotional punch with the listener.
The track got luckily endorsed by celebrities such as Ashton Kutcher and Lily Allen, both using their twitter accounts to recommend it to their millions of followers. The video became a word of mouth sensation hitting two million YouTube views in record time. Unsurprisingly, ‘Somebody That I Used To Know’ has ended Adele’s seven week residency on top of the Aussie charts, hitting platinum status. It doesn’t stop there, after recently reaching the top spot on Hype’s Machine global chart, it now looks like a strong candidate for an international crossover.
‘Somebody That I Used To Know’ is the second single from Gotye’s third studio album ‘Making Mirrors’, which was released this week.
Our musical journey around the globe goes this time all the way to Mexico, where an former soap opera child star is shaping up as the next Latin sensation, on the verge of a crossover to international stardom. Ximena Sariñana began her career at the tender age of 11, through a number of roles in several popular Mexican telenovelas (soap operas). After a few acting years, she got involved in some musical activities and went to release her first album, ‘Mediocre’ (Average) in 2008; fully recorded in Spanish and for which Ximena wrote most of the songs. The record went Platinum in Mexico and gained her some international recognition, including two nominations for the Latin Grammys and support from a wide range of artists that shortly came to collaborate with the young songwriter –from UK’s Metronomy, who remixed the track ‘La Tina’, to US MOR star Jason Mraz, with whom she recorded a Spanish version of his hit ‘Lucky’.
Her second album ‘Ximena Sariñana’ could mean a complete game changer for the Mexican chanteuse. For starters, it has been recorded in English, produced by her boyfriend and regular collaborator Omar Rodríguez-Lopez – guitar player from acclaimed experimental rockers The Mars Volta- with an eye to break the North American market. First single, ‘Different’ is a radio-friendly slice of summery MOR that will certainly help building up the anticipation for the album’s release on August the 2nd.
The singer is currently touring the States to support the release of the album. You can check the video for ‘Different’ and get more information about her tour here.
Her name is AB and she’s currently enjoying a growing online buzz as Korea’s very own answer to Lady Gaga. But while the video for her recent hit ‘Slip’ generated a great deal of controversy in her country and ended up banned by many TV channels for being overtly sexual; AB comes across as a tad more conventional that Queen Gaga in the style department. Her major offence being to show up as scantily clad in leather and leopard skin as most other female stars around the world, ‘Slip’ also sounds much closer to Kylie’s ‘Slow’ than anything in Gaga’s catalogue.
Controversy aside, AB is an excellent representative of the phenomenon that Korean Pop music -or K-Pop as it is conventionally known- has turned up to be. A universe on its own populated by dozens of massive local artists that is spawning an internet craze with hundreds of internet pages dedicated to it. Some of them, such as kpop music or allkpop bring all the recent news to English speaking fans.
Shazam’s journey in search of the most popular sounds from every corner of the globe reaches this week the dunes of the Algerian desert; where Tuareg band Tinariwen have been recording their fifth studio album ‘Tassili’.
Their blues tinged, folk-rock fusion has helped the Malians become a world-admired phenomenon and their new offering is being greeted as a less electric return to their roots.
But despite digging deeper in their tradition, Tinariwen are not willing to lose any international appeal, as the first single ‘Tenere Taqhim Tossam’ cleary shows by boasting a high-profile collaboration with TV On The Radio’s Tunde Adebimpe & Kyp Malone; both self-declared fans. The album will also feature appearances by Wilco’s guitar wizard Nels Cline and the Dirty Dozen Brass Band.
Tinariwen have just embarked on a massive world tour that began in Paris a few days ago and has on schedule to visit some of the most renowned events of the festival season; carrying on well into the Autumn. Further details can be found at their official website.
‘Tassili’ will be released in August 30th via Anti.
As well as Beyoncé; U2; Coldplay and the surprise appearances by Radiohead and Pulp getting most of the headlines; another highlight from last weekend’s Glastonbury festival was the ex-Outkast rapper Big Boi, storming Pilton’s Worthy Farm with his incendiary performance, backed by a full band on stage.
The rapper headlined the West Holts stage to great acclaim, right after his collaborator Janelle Monae also dazzled the audience. You can watch him above performing his biggest solo hit, ‘Shutterbugg’, a standout from a celebrated set that mixed the songs of his debut solo album ‘Sir Luscious Left Foot: The Son Of Chico Dusty’ with some of the most popular hits from Outkast.
We couldn’t make it this time to the glorious annual mudfest, instead last Wednesday we had the consolation prize of watching Big Boi offering a more stripped down, but equally strong ,warm-up gig in London’ s Heaven; performing in the sole company of his DJ and his guest rapper. For some (admitedly grainy) pictures of the show, read on. Read more…
One of Scandinavia’s best kept secrets; Ane Brun has been going from strength to strength for a decade both in her native Norway and in Sweden. After she relocated to the latter, so began a career paved with critical acclaim that has seen her collaborating with the cream of Nordic pop-rock in her own album of ‘Duets’.
With the world’s growing appetite for female vocalists, it’s not difficult to forecast Ane Brun as the next in line for global recognition. Following the steps of Fever Ray; Lykke Li or Robyn – just to mention a few recent examples coming from those latitudes. Brun’s truly personal vocals and unusually intricate compositions are her two most distinctive assets. Both of them are fully on display in the songwriter’s new track ‘Do You Remember’, a feast of percussions and afro-tinged chants courtesy of indie folk duo First Aid Kid. It’s the first taster from ‘It All Starts with One’, her fourth studio album (fifth if you count her acoustic album ‘Sketches’).
The video for the song is also the first of four chapters taken from the film ‘ONE’, directed by Magnus Renfors, to be launched in the fall when the singer will also be headlining a two-month European Tour. In the meantime, Ane Brun is touring with Peter Gabriel and helping the ex-Genesis singer to complete his latest work.
Our trip around the world goes all the way to Ghana in order to get a taste of the African country’s current popular music. A growing number of Ghanaian urban artists are displaying in equal parts a strong connection to Caribbean rhythms and western Hip-Hop and R&B – mixing an Akon-esque use of autotune with native Afro beats.
One of the biggest hits of 2011 so far is the infamous ‘Shashee Wowo’, an infectious number currently exploding in dancefloors across the black continent. In contrast to the majority of western pop music, ’Shashee Wowo’ features monogamy promoting lyrics that work as a cautionary tale against the perils of sleeping around. In the word of its writer, “It’s just an advice song to abstain from dirty girls and boys, stay with your loved one and not jumping from Kwabena to Kojo.”
The man behind this huge floorfiller is a young star called Stay Jay, who in just two years has generated a couple of nationwide smashes – the former one ‘Sue‘ was a total breakthough- and now he’s about to complete his imminent debut album. ‘Shashee Wowo’ has also helped establishing Jay as the poster boy of Twi Pop, the musical genre born in Tema – a city with a buyoant music scene that features Sarkodie, R2Bees, and Nana Boroo as some of its most notorious musical representatives.
Claiming as influences the songs of international urban stars and local artists as D’Banj and Reggie Rockstone; ‘Shashee Wowo’ is a perfect example of a musical melting pot that merges both global and national elements to amazing result.
