One of the most interesting debuts of the year was the eponymous record of the band created by Avi Zahner-Isenberg with his mates from high school in Long Beach. Despite their tender age, Avi Buffalo impressed blogs and critics alike by displaying an impeccable taste for the finest in psychedelic and Americana sounds. Comparisons to the likes of Wilco and Band Of Horses promptly followed; even the recently reunited Pavement fell for their charms and invited them to join the bill of their All Tomorrow’s Parties curated festival.
‘What’s In It For Me’ was the Californian four piece’s presentation card after being signed by Sub Pop records. Avi’s high-pitched vocals distilled naivety; teenage charm and its well-crafted tune have had it stuck in our mind since we first heard it.
After her classic self-titled album unexpectedly rescued her from a lost decade in corporate oblivion, an empowered Robyn took control of all aspects of her career and began piling up the songs for the follow-up. Aware of the changing ways in which people are consuming music, the Swedish star decided to change the traditional album/single process by releasing ‘Body Parts’ divided into three mini-albums through the year, hoping for a more immediate delivery of her songs to her fans as soon as they were recorded.
The project didn’t exactly bring Robyn back to the top of the charts, and the third installment became a compilation of former two with a few new songs instead. However, ‘Body Parts’ has turned her into a fixture of the blogosphere, building up the excitement by virtually dropping a new song online every week or two. Among them her excellent collaborations with likes of Diplo, Röyksopp and Snoop Dogg plus three superb singles of which ‘Dancing On My Own’ was the best and most popular.
‘Dancing On My Own’ tried to capture the feeling of being lonely in a club and was inspired by gay disco anthems from the likes of Donna Summer and Sylvester as well as Ultravox’s electronic pop gem from the 80’s ‘Dancing With Tears In My Eyes’. The song flaunts an irresistible synth beat and one of the catchiest choruses of the year. Another triumph to add to the singer’s impressive CV.
Arguably the unsung father of chillwave; LA artist Ariel Pink spent the last decade developing his own brand of lo-fi home recordings, where dreamy psychedelic sounds met Prince-ish funk and pop-rock nostalgia. Raised in the orbit of Animal Collective – his first albums were released by AC’s label Paw Traks – Pink formed Haunted Graffiti as a band to play live with and cemented his reputation as one of the weirdest and most influential acts of the noughties.
With the turn of the decade, Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti were signed by 4AD where they have delivered a career-changing record, saluted by the critics as their finest collection to date. On ‘Before Today’ the band has discovered the possibilities of a proper studio without losing their glorious leftfield spirit. The first single ‘Round & Round’ recalled the catchy vocal choruses of US AOR stars from the 80’s such as Hall & Oates, giving us the closest thing to a radio-friendly hit Ariel Pink has ever produced and one of our favourite moments of 2010. Its impressive psychedelic video was directed by The Flaming Lips singer Wayne Cone, who apparently shot it on his phone.
PJ Harvey is ready to surprise the world again with her imminent new album, ‘Let England Shake’. Her eighth solo studio record – tenth if we count her two collaborations with John Parrish – will be released via Island in February.
Not a stranger to pushing boundaries, a few months ago Harvey’s performance of the title track during ‘The Andrew Marr Show’ raised a few eyebrows due to a new found political approach in her lyrics. Now the first single, ‘Written On The Forehead’, get us all amazed again with an unexpected mix of reverberating shoegaze and reggae samples that nicely captures the spirit of its recording location inside a church in Dorset and wouldn’t feel out of place in a Glo-Fi mixtape. You can stream it now via Soundcloud.
Right after the release, PJ Harvey will be playing a series of live shows around Europe, which will mark the beginning of an international tour carrying on into the summer, when her band is expected to be one of the festival season’s main attractions. More details about the tour can be found at the album’s web page.
‘Let England Shake’ is out on February the 11th via Island Records.
The guys at ATP are heading for a packed 2011. To their excellent, holiday resort based All Tomorrow’s Parties – a festival that has branches in New York, Australia, a stage in Barcelona’s Primavera Sound and different locations in the UK, where Animal Collective have been announced as the curators for its spring edition – they are now adding a new series of city based events which, carrying on the Velvet Underground themed names, is called ‘I’ll Be Your Mirror’.
The first date for this new venture was confirmed a few weeks ago when the organization announced Tokyo would be its first destination and favourite doom mongers Godspeed You Black Emperor! As curators, headlining a bill for which Boredoms, Dirty Three and Boris have already been confirmed. More details can be found here.
The second ‘I’ll Be Your Mirror’ will take place in London’s iconic Victorian location Alexandra Palace and Portishead have constructed a program including music, film and art activities with at least fifteen artists performing per day over the weekend of the 23rd and 24th of July. Bristol’s finest will headline both nights, which will be their only live shows during the year.
Grinderman, Liars, Beach House, Doom, The Books and a reunited Company Flow are the first acts confirmed in what looks like one of next summer’s most exciting line-ups. Tickets are available now, for booking details and more info head to I’ll Be Your Mirror’s official page.
For years, France has been an essential hub for the distribution of world music in both traditional and contemporary forms. It doesn’t come as a surprise then to find our Tag Chart in the Gallic country packed with such exotic rhythms as Zouk, Kuduro, Ragga and many other African and Caribbean genres, whose influence is expertly distilled by local producers in many tracks aimed at the dance and the hip-hop markets.
Fresh examples are the Paris based hip-hop act Neg Marrons, formed by musicians from Martinique, Cap-Vert and Congo. Their zouk-infused collaboration with female vocalist Lynnsha, ‘Mon Ideal’, has been a fixture in French clubs during the summer and was one of the standout tracks of the popular compilation ‘TropiKal Jukebox’. An even more recent track to surface comes from Kuduro star Iboz with his latest and contagious offering ‘Dkle Wolof’; currently storming the nation’s thriving tropical/urban scene.
The San Miguel Primavera Sound festival in Barcelona has been a constant source of news this week. The organizers have launched Primavera TV, where a selection of past highlights will be shown online; beginning with Pavement’s acclaimed reunion tour from last year. A two-hour set that includes all our favourites and can be viewed in full for a two week period only. It will be shortly followed by sets of The Charlatans, Superchunk and local post-hardcore band Standstill, among others. Watch it here.
The first headliners for next year’s festival have also been announced, in what it looks like a mouth-watering bill for lovers of non mainstream music. Apart from being the first confirmed date so far for Pulp’s much heralded return, the line-up will also include such heavyweights as Animal Collective, Fleet Foxes, The Flaming Lips, Belle & Sebastian, Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti, The National, Mogwai, Suicide and two classic album performances likely to become some of 2011’s live sensations: John Cale playing his solo classic ‘Paris 1919’ with a band and an orchestra and Mercury Rev revisiting their career peak ‘Deserter’s Songs’. More additions to this fantastic bill are to be announced shortly.
For its 11th edition, Primavera sound is expanding over two more days – May the 25th and the 29th- to its earlier location at the city’s stunning attraction Poble Español; where a replica of a typical square from every Spanish region will make an unusual and picturesque setting for the gathering. The festival’s core three days, from May the 26th to May the 28th, will still be held at its current Forum Park location.
The San Miguel Primavera Sound 2011 will take place from May the 25th to the 29th. For more details and ticket info check the official website.
When Noah Lennox aka Panda Bear released his solo album ‘Person Pitch’, few could have guessed that it would become one of the most influential albums of the past decade, only rivaled by the achievements of his own band, Animal Collective. Its psychedelic loops, walls of distortion and sample-based tunes have been a source of inspiration for many a young artist since.
Following up a classic album is never easy. Lennox has announced his intention to leave the samples behind and focus on a more organic guitar and rhythm approach to song writing. Like he did with his former work, the album is being anticipated by a series of limited edition 7” singles released through different labels. We have already enjoyed the title track ‘Tomboy’ and his b-side ‘Slow Days’; as well as ‘You Can Count On Me/Alsatian Darn’. The third one in the series –and last before the album- is called ‘Last Night At The Jetty’ and offers another taste of musical greatness with the distinctive Panda Bear multilayered vocals trademark. You can listen to the single here.
‘Last Night At The Jetty/Drone’ will be released on December the 6th via FatCat. A release date for ‘Tomboy’ is yet to be confirmed.
With his first single ‘Forget You’ on its way to become a modern standard thanks to the incredible amount of covers it’s inspiring –from newcomers and YouTube star-wannabes to such veteran performers as William Shatner- Cee-Lo Green couldn’t have wished a better return to his solo career after the global success of the Gnarls Barkley project.
Cee-Lo’s new album ‘The Lady Killer’ was released this week and has been received as a retro soul classic that echoes the defining references of the genre; Tamla-Motown, Stax and Otis Redding among them. ‘Bright Lights Bigger City’ is one of the many aces up his sleeve. It’s another catchy vocal showcase by Mr. Green accompanied by a glamourous video shot in New York, where the star gets in special agent disguise for the occasion (watch it here).
Michael Jackson’s legacy keeps on beating records. After his tragic death last year turned his entire back catalogue into a global selling phenomenon once more, his record company promptly offered to the singer’s state the biggest ever deal in music history; an estimated £250 million for 10 projects over the next seven years.
The king of pop’s archives were rumoured to have at least three albums worth of unreleased material; the first of them, ‘Michael’, will be released on December 13th and is expected to be a big attraction in the lucrative Christmas market. Details of its content are still sparse, but it is expected to include material Jackson was working in to follow his live comeback in London with a new record, his first since 2001’s ‘Invincible’.
A handpicked selection of collaborators have helped completing the unfinished recordings and the first taste of the album, ‘Breaking News’, can now be streamed at the superstar’s official website.
