Wednesday 4 May 2011

Song of the day: Wild Beasts "Albatross" (Domino)

First released track from Wild Beasts' new album, "Smother" which is due out next Monday. The team are from Kendal, they recorded the album in a remote part of North Wales and they sing about sea birds. To these city ears, it all sounds wonderfully rural - like a nice ramble.

Sunday 1 May 2011

Song of the Day: Higuma "The Veiled Lamp" (Root Strata)

Higuma is Evan Caminiti (of Barn Owl) and Lisa McGee from San Francisco. This is a track from their recent album, Pacific Fog Dreams, which was released in February. It is a wonderful crescendo of dark atmospheric ambient drones.

Album Review: Colourmusic "My______Is Pink" (Memphis Industries)

Colourmusic are from Stillwater, Oklahoma, and "My _____ Is Pink" is their debut album They are friends with Flaming Lips and plough the same musical fields leaving obtusely angled furrows across the landscape. They claim that their music is based on the colour theory of Isaac Newton. If I were to believe this for a minute I would probably do a little research into this fascinating scientific subject for the purpose of this review, but as I think it is clearly a red-herring I shan't bother. Instead I shall focus on the evidence provided in these thirteen tracks. "My _____ Is Pink" is stacked with brash and ecclectic art-rock that is teaming with ideas. Beard opens the album with an uber-cool funk drone, a post-punk rhythm section and snarled vocal delivery. Jack & Jill (A Duet) still has the same droney production but is in essence a California style low-fi garage excursion. Feels Good To Wear is highly stylised indie rock with a dreampop undercurrent and, again, a funk rhythm drive. We Shall Wish (Use Your Adult Voice) is the highlight for me; the clearest attempt to carve out something raw and surprising. The new single, You For Leaving Me is the sound of a deranged gospel choir over filtered heavy rock and Tog is another wonderful rythmic sprint - burundi drumming and playground nursery rhyme vocals. Dolphins and Unicorns is a throwaway pyschedelic-disco number and Pororoca is a brooding new-wave misery workout "lights out, lights out, looking for a way out". Which leads us to the off-centre piece of the album The Little Death (In Five Parts) a ten minute prog thrash which, while interesting, trips up in the sense that the scary moments are not nearly scary enough and the pretty moments not too pretty. Things are now slowing down - Fold/Unfold is an atmospheric ballad and Mono follows in the same folky shoegaze vein. Penultimate track, Whitby Harbour, is a field recording of waves crashing and Yes! is a singalong pop song.
Colourmusic have demonstrated a prowess for their craft on this record and it is clear that they are a group of restless creatives looking to impress. There are some wonderful moments throughout and some big highlights. Even the less interesting forrays are pleasurable enough. However, I feel the need to interrogate this a little more. The verse of We Shall Wish (Use Your Adult Voice) declares "These are the days of easy answers" - and yes of course, as long as you ask easy questions. The next challenge for Colourmusic will be to take their admirable spirit of adventure and push harder against more difficult subjects and structures - I want more danger. The title of the album "My ______ Is Pink" invites the listener to fill the gap. I would have thought that the intention should be to conjure raw and shocking words that would make ladies blush, but it just doesn't seem appropriate. On this outing I'm saying "Delicious Lollipop" but next time around I want to say "Tight Pussy". (8/10)



Friday 29 April 2011

Song of the Day: Okkervil River "A Stone" (Jagjaguwar)

A Royal Wedding Special. This is not a new track at all, but a lovely ballad from Okkervil River's 2005 album "Black Sheep Boy". I post it today in commemoration of Will and Kate's bethrothal, as there is a nice verse in it about a princess falling for a prince (or something like that). Okkervil River's fantastic new album "I am Very Far" is out on May 9th.

Song of the Day: Marsha Ambrosius "Hope She Cheats On You (With A Basketball Player)" (Sony)

Some sugar to sweeten the pill. I couldn't find a place for this on the April mix (It didn't seem to fit anywhere). It's just a fine slice of poppy R&B from London's own Marsha Ambrosius, ex Floetry - and now with a debut solo album released earlier this month. No.2 in the US Billboard charts mind you - go girl!

Here is my Spotify mix of new music for April. Last month's was subdued and pensive for Spring. As an antidote - this mix is dark, brooding and chaotic - probably brought on by the current status of my respiratory system and consequent ill mood. My IT is now up and running in a makeshift fashion so I will try and get back to more regular posting.


(2011)DigitalTenderness-April on Spotify

Sunday 3 April 2011

Song of the Day: Austra "Beat and The Pulse" (One Big Silence)

Apologies for the lack of posts. I spilt a glass of Spitfire oer m computer last weekend. It has onl just started working again. Onl problem is the "y" and "v" kes are not working.

Song of the Da: A nice piece of dark electro. This is Austra's debut single. Their album, "Feel It Break" will be out on Ma 16th.

Sunday 27 March 2011

I'm not stopping. Just darting by to post the monthly spotify playlist. Previous two mixes also linked below, as I didn't bother to post them here at the time.








(2011)DigitalTenderness-March on Spotify

(2011)DigitalTenderness-February on Spotify
(2011)DigitalTenderness-January on Spotify

Song of the Day: Kozzie "Spartan (Remix)" (No Hats No Hoods)

As an antidote to the grime cheese of Chipmunk, Tinie & Tynchy. Hailing from Blue Borough (aka Lewisham), MC Kozzie's new single demonstrates how UK hip hop should sound. The album "Problem Started" out later in the year.

Saturday 26 March 2011

Song of the Day: Connan Mockasin "Forever Dolphin Love" (Because Music)

Frank Skinner played this on his morning show today. He said it was his favourite song at the moment. He has gone up in my estimation somewhat. Love the avant garde wig twitching in the video - along with The Irrepressables there seems to be a Dada Pop movement in the offing - I'm all for it. Dolphin Love indeed! The album of the same name is out on April 5th.

Friday 25 March 2011

Album Review: Josh T. Pearson "Last Of The Country Gentleman" (Mute)

Well here it is. The recording that some of us have been waiting for for ten years. Before I start, let us get one thing absolutely straight - Josh T Pearson is a legend. Not because he is a maverick recluse who hangs out in Paris bars; and not because of his freakish hobo looks or his idiosyncratic relationship to the music industry. He is legend because of the music he released a decade ago as Lift to Experience. For many, myself included, Texas Jerusalem Crossroads is nothing less than a masterpiece - the perfectly formed musical vision of a cock-sure young son of a southern preacher. No-one, and I mean absolutely nobody in this whole world apart from Josh T Pearson could have produced a concept record about delivering the message of god through his band as a method of unleashing the prophesised day of judgement and revelations, and pull it off with such confidence and conviction. Now I am a card carrying member of the National Secular Society - but his vision on that album was delivered with so much poetry and musical invention that it astonished me at the time, and it still does. And so it came to pass that the harbinger of this musical prophecy was not the second coming at all. Like the rest of us, he turned out to be a troubled, romantic fool. Lift to Experience split in acrimony shortly after their first major tour, and Josh T Pearson was left roaming the world aimless and unable to find the will in him to deliver the next chapter in his story. Until now.


Musically, Last of the Country Gentleman is quite a departure. Instead of a sprawling musical symphony, we are treated to a minimal country folk approach. The voice and guitar is only occasionally broken up with orchestration. The effect is very intimate, though probably the most startling thing about these recordings is just how much Josh T Pearson's voice has changed over the years. In this I do not mean his physical tone but his voice persona. This is no longer the sound of a young man who thinks he can take on the whole world and heavens above; this story is fragile and damaged. "Don't cry for me baby, you'll learn to live without me. For I'm off to save the world, at least I can hope" - is the opening message of the album - and from that point on we are dragged down with him into a personal hell. His messianic tendencies are laid bare and explained in Sweetheart I Ain't Your Christ - "and when I said I'd give my life, I weren't talking suicide". This presents the backdrop to the album - which is essentially a raw and open account of broken love, specifically relating to his recent divorce. The following two tracks, Woman, When I've Raised Hell and Honeymono's Great! Wish You Were Her is the centre piece of the album. They describe the tragedy of male emotions that can literally run riot through a broken relationship; destructive - "Woman when I've raised hell, then your going to know it. Don't make me rule this house, with the back of my hand"; delusional - "Heaven knows that a man can't control his dreams"; and escapist - "Honestly, why can't you let me be, and let me quietly, drink myself to sleep". This is pretty harrowing stuff, and frankly, sometimes its difficult to know where to look. After the onslaught of these two tracks, Sorry with a Song is a failed attempt at an apology. "And I know it's all my fault, and the bloody marriage to the deep alcohol. I know it's sad to say but right now these shots keep me sane". And after the failed apology comes the failed excuse; Country Dumb comes across as a mythologised rational for the damage he has caused "I came from a long line in history of dreamers. Each one more tired than the one before".  The album ends with a cry for help "Can you help me drive her out of my mind. God damn it's driving me blind".


And this is the rub. It seems to me that Josh T Pearson is only ever going to release records when he has to. For the most part, he is perfectly happy entertaining small impromptu gatherings in cafes and bars - but right now he needs to talk, he needs us to listen and we are compelled to do so because yet again, he has given us a recording that is utterly convincing and completely unique. (10/10).

Song of the Day: Siriusmo "Einmal in der Woche schreien" (Monkeytown)

After a clutch of superb EPs, Berlin producer Moris Freidrich has finally delivered a good juicy long-player under his Siriusmo moniker for us to get stuck into. "Mosaik" was released last month and this fine track, which originally surface last year on the "The Plasterer of Love" EP, is a prime cut.

Song of the Day: Nathaniel Rateliff "Shroud" (Rounder)

A very lovely live acoustic version of 'Shroud' a track from Nathaniel Rateliff's debut album, 'In Memory of Loss' which is highly recommended.

Monday 21 March 2011

Song of the Day: Forest Swords "Hoylake Misst" (No Pain In Pop)

Forest Swords (aka Matthew Barnes from the Wirral) has repackaged and remastered last years EP and a couple of singles. Call it what you want - 'drone-step', 'pyschedelic dub' - whatever.

Song of the day: tUnE-yArDs "Bizness" (4AD)

As a taster to the new album "w h o k i l l", released on 18th April - tUnE-YaRdS have thrown us a bone in the form of this excellent new piece of willfully messy groove. I can only describe the sound as 'afro spaz' (sorry). Free download here.

Sunday 20 March 2011

Album Review: Mutual Benefit "I Saw The Sea" (kassette klub)

Mutual Benefit, is Jordan Lee from Boston - plus a handful of occasional collaborators. He has stated that the project "actually started from me being incredibly sad". I would say that the overall mood of I Saw The Sea is that of existential meloncholy rather than sadness - this is not music to ruin your day. Instead it soundtracks those moments where you spend an inordinate amount of time examining the minutae of your surroundings. Subtle dalliances with detail and mood are intended to resonate with bigger themes. The subject of this recording is the sea and the six tracks on this mini-album provide a delicate interprentation of one of natures great forces. Jordan muses (or "celebrates") the sea's dissipation of all matter into sand, as warm sounds ebb and and flow like a siren wooing us to distruction. Pretty music, and very promising. This is Jordan's third EP and I eagerly await the real deal - perhaps an album later in the year? (8/10) (kassette klub)

mutualbenefit.bandcamp.com - I Saw The Sea
lastfm.com - Mutual Benefit

Song of the day: Belong "Come See" (Kranky)

Belong are a duo sprung from New Orleans - but this ain't no Mardis Gras. Faint melodies permeate dark drones throughout their new album, "Common Ground" released in the UK next week.