Sunday, January 29, 2012

Björk - Biophilia

I had an idea to post about something quite different but then came upon Björk's new album Biophilia! Which was actually published in 10 October 2011. It's the eight album of Björk.



Been listening some of the songs and they are quite awesome. Biophilia is a transformantion of nature, music and technology mixing together. I hope this album really would get people more interested about world, how it works and where we live. We know still so little from the place we live, about the seas and space. World is still there to be searched! There's Biophilia apps specially for apple Ipad etc. You can hear the opening app they made with David Attenborough:



Björk is some of the big artists that always keep evolving. She is some of the most inspiring artists ever. On this album she has took new elements again, bit more electro style and even a tesla coil! It is calm before the storm! Love the icelandic accent she has. Here you can find "Thunderbolt" performed live with a tesla coil! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQnFzcuL83o&feature=related

Björk - "Mutual Core"



On this album you can hear very often organs. In "Hollow" I would say they rock organs in a new way!
Would be actually really awesome to hear some of the songs from this album in a big church. It would get quite apocalyptic with the big sounds! Love the evolving of this song when the drum and bass style hits in the end, even tough I'm not a drum and bass fan but here it fits.



This album doesn't leave the listener in any sort of ease, it's not easy listening, but takes every part of your head with it. This you can't just put in the background and wash dishes, or I bet if I would try it I would get quite mixed up with everything big time! Listen this song from good speakers (no computer speakers) or headphones or good earplugs. It's awesome!

Björk - "Hollow"



Björk - "Crystalline" live at Jools Holland



This song has beautiful lyrics, parts like these really struck me:

I'm blinded by the lights, in the core of the earth.
I conquer claustrophobia and demand light.
We mimic the openness of the ones who we love.
It's the sparkle you become, when you conquer anxiety.


"Underneath our feet
Crystals grow like plants
I'm blinded by the lights
In the core of the earth

Crystalline
Internal Nebula
Rocks growing slowmo
I conquer claustrophobia 
And demand the light

We mimic the openness 
Of the ones we love
Doth til' our generosity equalize(s) the flow
With our hearts 
We kiss the quartz
To reach love


Crystalline
Internal Nebula
Rocks growing [slowmo?]
I conquer claustrophobia
And demand the light


Octagon, polygon
Pipes up an organ 
Sonic branches
Murmuring drone
Crystallizing galaxies
Spread out like my fingers


Crystalline
Internal Nebula
Rocks growing [slowmo?]
I conquer claustrophobia
And demand the light

Internal Nebula
Rocks growing slowmo
I conquer claustrophobia
And demand the light


It's the sparkle you become
Conquer anxiety
Sparkle you become
Conquer anxiety


Sparkle you become
When you conquer anxiety
It's the sparkle you become
When you conquer anxiety"

Here's a breath taking live performance of Cosmogony.
Björk - "Cosmogony" live in Jools Holland


Cosmogony has also very beautiful lyrics with I want to end this post. Here you can find what cosmogony is: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmogony It's about the beginning of it all.

"Heaven, heaven's bodies
Whirl around me 
Make me wonder
And they say back then our universe 
Was an empty sea
Until a silver fox 
And her cunning mate began to sing 
A song that became the world we know

Heaven, heaven's bodies
Whirl around me 
Make me wonder
And they say back then our universe was a cold black egg
Until the god inside burst out
And from it's shattered shell
He made what became the world we know


Heaven, heaven's bodies
Whirl around me, 
Make me wonder
And they say back then our universe was an endless land
Until our ancestors woke up
And before they went back to sleep
They carved it up into the world we know

Heaven, heaven's bodies
Whirl around me, 
Make me wonder
They say back then our universe wasn't even there 
Until a sudden bang
And then there was light, was sound, was matter
And it all became the world we know

Heaven, heaven's bodies
Whirl around me and dance eternal"

Friday, January 27, 2012

One song - it's a bubblebath in the middle of an ocean

"Analogue Bubblebath". Aphex twin. Haven't listened lot Aphex twin even though it's huge. But some years ago when I found this, I was so happy! It's amazing. I get the feeling from this song that I would be floating in the middle of a warm ocean. And I like it. Just amazing. Even though this song is magically from the 1987 it hasn't lost anything. Just brilliant.

Aphex Twin - "Analogue bubblebath"


Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Live material from Florence and the Machine at Summer Soul, Sao Paulo

I was lucky to find out from FATM Army that there was a live stream of Florence's gig from MTV Summer Soul festival at Sao Paulo! Join with The Florence + the Machine Army at facebook if you want to get news about the band. Gig was great, even though the video quality wasn't so good. It was worth of waiting until 00:00 to begin.

Here's the setlist of the gig (copied from FATM facebook)

[01] Only If For a Night
[02] What The Water Gave Me
[03] Cosmic Love
[04] You've Got The Love
[05] Somethings Got A Hold On Me (Tribute - Etta James)
[06] Never Let Me Go
[07] Between Two Lungs
[08] Shake It Out
[09] Dog Days Are Over

[10] Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up)
[11] Spectrum
[12] No Light, No Light (Ending)



It was great to hear all the songs. Especially the live version of "You've got the love" with only guitar in the back (electric?) was very beautiful. It was almost the best song of the setlist. It sounded fresh! And it's always great to hear the huge crowd singing "You've got the love". After Florence sung a tribute song "Something's got a hold on me" to Etta James, who inspired Florence a lot. 73 years old Etta James passed away 20.1.2012, she was one of the famous blues, soul, gospel and jazz singers.


After the tribute she sung "Never let me go". Which gets a very beautiful feeling after the tribute song.
"Between two lungs" sounded also amazing on a big stage with big crowd, who was often singing together like in "Shake it out" and "Dog days are over". The songs that didn't fit to be recorded from the live stream were:

"Rabbit heart(raise it up)", "Spectrum" and "No light, no light". Spectrum was the second song that really stood up because it's live version, which was awesome. It get's to it's right on a big stage!
Thank you again FATM Army! It was great gig! Now waiting for Berlin!

Etta James - "Something's got a hold on me" from a live show 1962



And if you like more dance, hip hop check the version of Flo rida: "Good Feeling", and for those who like drum and bass check Avicii: "Levels".

Monday, January 23, 2012

Paul Kalkbrenner


Paul Kalkbrenner is a German electronic music artist. I found about him last year. It's great to get to know new artists! Was so happy to find this one. At first "Aaron" catched me. It felt the best summer hit for some time, the beats were captivating. It's very simple but you just can't help it, it makes you move. And now when the winter starts to be gone, at least in The Netherlands, and spring coming is a good time to play this again!

Paul Kalkbrenner - "Aaron"


And the other day I found back a very beautiful cover of the song "Mad World" by Gary Jules. This song was on repeat for some time.

Paul Kalkbrenner - "Mad world"


The original song, this including have very beautiful lyrics.

"All around me are familiar faces
Worn out places, worn out faces
Bright and early for the daily races
Going nowhere, going nowhere

Their tears are filling up their glasses
No expression, no expression
Hide my head I wanna drown my sorrow
No tomorrow, no tomorrow

And I find it kind of funny, I find it kind of sad
The dreams in which I'm dying are the best I've ever had
I find it hard to tell you, I find it hard to take
When people run in circles its a very, very
Mad world, mad world"

Next one is also a nice song, I think the video is taken from the film "Berling calling" (2008), directed by Hannes Stöhr, that tells about a DJ and a producer, where Kalkbrenner was playing the part of the producer.

Paul Kalkbrenner - "Sky and sand"


The soundtrack of Berlin calling was released 2008. The newest album from Kalkbrenner is Icke wieder 2011. I have listened only very short clips from it but it sounds very impressive! Here you can listen Kalkbrenner introducing his new album Icke Wieder.


Saturday, January 21, 2012

Machines

Machines. They control almost everything now days or are present. Your toothbrush is a machine. You dry your hair with a machine. You listen machines. You hear bleeps and sounds in the elevator. You type on your computer. You hear how the engine of you car starts. Machines have not overruled us even though they are almost everywhere. Mostly they are there for the help. But sometimes machines are built to destroy. It gets funny when you think about the idea of how people build machines to destroy. To create to destroy. It's a paradox.


Like this picture or this:


How can the water run down before reaching the top of the water fall?
Pictures are drawn by M. C. Escher.

Electric. Industrial. Man built machines. Music machines. Man machine. Kraftwerk.



German electronic music band Kraftwerk was founded 1970 by Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider. Now days the band consists of Ralf Hütter, Fritz Hilpert, Henning Schmitz and the video technician Stefan Pfaffe. The band have influenced the whole electronic music genre. I got to own one lp from them some time ago. The man machine from the 1978. Was so lucky to find it from the fleamarket! It has some glamour to play on a lp-player songs like "Robots", "The Model" and "The Man Machine".



http://www.kraftwerk.com/ and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kraftwerk

Kraftwerk - "The Man Machine"



Kraftwerk - "Das Model"



Kraftwerk - "Robots"


I was interested about machines when I was small. I liked how so many things can flow past you so fast. And things get done by machines, step by step. Remember watching the newspaper belt where all papers ran past.



Felix's Machines is a great project by Felix Thorn from the UK. He has created something very cool.
His own style music machine where everything gets played by a machine.

Saturday, January 14, 2012

Long brake - New year

I had a long brake from blog. I was some time ill, and having holidays but now back. I wish to do some day a big post about the music in 2011.

I want to start the new year with one actually quite old song, but from a artist that is always interesting.



I want to present you Kate Bush. I have now the new album "50 words for snow" but have to still listen it trough. Here's some quite interesting songs and videos from her:

Kate Bush - "Babooshka"



Kate Bush - "Army dreamers"


And from her "Aerial" album
"A coral room"


And one song from her newest album.
"Mistraldespair"


Visit her official webpage at http://www.katebush.com/ or find more info about her from here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kate_Bush