Arcade Fire's new album: The Suburbs

The Suburbs is the upcoming album by Canadian indie rock band Arcade Fire. The album was announced May 27, 2010, and is scheduled for release on August 2 in the United Kingdom and August 3, 2010 in North America.

The album has received positive reviews from critics. Writing for the BBC, Mike Diver wrote, "The Suburbs is [Arcade Fire's] most thrillingly engrossing chapter yet; a complex, captivating work that, several cycles down the line, retains the magic and mystery of that first tentative encounter." Referring to the critically acclaimed 1997 Radiohead album, Diver went on to say, "You could call it their OK Computer. But it’s arguably better than that." Rob Sheffield, in Rolling Stone, awarded the album four out of five stars and described The Suburbs as "their fantastic third album". Having awarded the album four and a half stars out of five, David Marchese's review in Spin describes the album as, "Radiant with apocalyptic tension and grasping to sustain real bonds, [it] extends hungrily outward, recalling the dystopic miasma of William Gibson's sci-fi novels and Sonic Youth's guitar odysseys. Desperate to elude its own corrosive dread, it keeps moving, asking, looking, and making the promise that hope isn't just another spiritual cul-de-sac."

I've had a listen to the album and can only say that in my opinion, The Suburbs is the best work Arcade Fire brought on so far. It's purely amazing.


I'm not longer posting new (read:leaked) music on here. So if you're interested to give it a listen, drop me a comment and I'll get back to you.

Sky Sailing

I told you about Adam Young's new project Sky Sailing a few entries back. Today at midnight their debut album "An Airplane Carried Me To Bed" was released.

Letter from Adam Young:

"Three and a half years ago, I recorded a collection of songs in my parent’s basement during the bleary-eyed hours of night when sleep and I could not bring ourselves to meet. I was a metalworker, working 6 AM to 4 PM at a warehouse in my little southern Minnesota town. I was writing, creating, thinking, imagining and breathing music with every second I had to spare. Music has always been my dream, but at that point in time, it was merely a feather tossed to the wind. Regardless, my spirits were far from dampened and I created music as fast and as furiously as I could. In my little basement bedroom, I had an old Dell computer, Reason 2.5, a friend’s borrowed Behringer C-1 condenser, a Behringer 8 channel analog mixer and my uncle’s old Alvarez. I didn’t have a clue what I was doing but I was a dreamer and music was my escape so I gave it everything I had. Never expecting my music to be heard anywhere but by my parents through the floorboards above, I wrote for my own ears. I was both artist and audience and I called myself Sky Sailing.

I’ve kept these recordings secret for a long time and they’ve never seen the light of day until now. Long before Owl City was ever a spark of a flame, a lot of blue-collared working days were spent absentmindedly daydreaming about what would ultimately become this collection of songs. From the perfectionist musician’s perspective, a song is never truly “finished” but rather “abandoned” and thus, after a lot of inspiration and reckless experimentation, I emerged from the basement with a 11 song record which I affectionately entitled, An Airplane Carried Me To Bed.

This album is a step into the past, the documented account of a shy boy from Minnesota with more hopes and dreams than he knew what to do with. When you listen to this record, you can hear naivety, innocence, inexperience and the wide-eyed imaginings of a wishful thinker. It’s both light and dark, optimistic and melancholy. Unpolished and dusty, it’s an antique and therefore holds a truly unique and graceful aesthetic within. Though there has always been just one artist behind the music, before there was Owl City there was Sky Sailing and I consider it a great honor to finally find this opportunity to share it with you. I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed creating it.

If by chance you ever feel as though you’ve come to know these songs or empathize with the emotions therein, please consider yourself a friend of mine because in a manner of speaking, you know me. As the saying goes, one can truly glimpse the artist through his/her art, and that expression certainly proves faithful in my case. This music is my heart and soul. This is who I am."

If you're interested in the album, leave me a comment and I'll get back to you :)

Song of the Week

Is there a Ghost by Band of Horses

Faded Paper Figures

Faded Paper Figures began, like all great endeavors, as a side-project. Writing songs between dissertation chapters and frenetic bouts of southern California traffic, John (vocals/guitars) and Kael (guitars/keys/machines) were simply looking for an aesthetic and rigorous diversion. Two or three songs into the process, however, things started sounding incredible—much too good to have come from Kael’s apartment bedroom. Eventually Heather (additional vocals/keys) began adding some beautiful harmonies, and FPF became the brilliant blend of indie-tronica that dazzles and sizzles on every track in their debut album, “Dynamo. ”

Their latest album "New Medium" was released in May 2010.



Faded Paper Figures - New Medium

Song of the Week

Das Gezeichnete Ich was the supporting artist at one of the concerts I went to this year. He's amazing and I loved his music from the first second on. About a week ago he released his first album (self-titled). This week's song is my favourite on it so far.

Das Gezeichnete Ich - Beste Zeit

340ml

340ml (pronounced: three forty mil) is an African musical group who originate from Maputo, Mozambique, but are now based in Johannesburg, South Africa. They have therefore jokingly been described by some as being "Jozambican". The band incorporates many different elements into their music including Dub, Jazz, Ska, Afro-jazz and Reggae. It is therefore very difficult to attach the band to any specific music genre, as their style is rather unique. The music that 340ml produces is often described as having a very relaxed African-feel to it.

Four years after releasing their debut album, Moving, 340ml released a second album entitled Sorry for the Delay. The name of their second album is a result of the many delays the band experienced while producing it, mainly due to the fact that they had been victims of Johannesburg crime four times, twice having their cars filled with equipment stolen, and twice having their studios broken into and stripped down.




340ml - Sorry for the Delay