This week is largely a selection of work my wife picked up, which makes it a little less hard and a little more diverse. Also, the new selection has a story behind it; Danger Mouse and Daniele Luppi set out to record a soundtrack the way the Italian's did in the hey-day of the Spaghetti Westerns, right down to methods and technology and even finding some of the musicians who recorded music forty years ago. There's no movie, just a soundtrack. I've also throttled back a bit, adding only five albums a week to my collection, which is a good number for me to actually listen to them all at least twice through.
New Releases:
Danger Mouse & Daniele Luppi - Rome
Label: Capital Records
Released: 5/17 2011
Genre: rock
The album cover bills this as Starring Jack White and Norah Jones, both of whom lend their voices to this work. It does sound like a soundtrack to a movie, songs specifically recorded for specific scenes. It's not a narrative, it doesn't tell a story, just feels like it's part of one. The music itself is mellow, soaring at times, low key at others, very light. It's also very short, at thirty five minutes it feels both too short and just perfect. Any longer and they might have lost the magic, but you still want it to go on - just like a good story. This is definitely in the top ten of the year so far.
Filling Out The Collection:
Bauhaus - ...And Remains
Label: Beggars Banquet
Released: 2009
Genre: Gothic Rock
This little gem is actually a small set of leftovers from the Bauhaus Omnibus Editions of their re-releases. Three new studio mixes are included: a new mix of Bela Lugosi's Dead, another mix of Terror Couple Kill Colonel, and an early studio mix of Double Dare. Then there's three live tracks from a halloween show at the University of London Union in 1980. It's straight from the soundboard, and you can hear the mix is off a little - bit this is history. And lastly there's a Poem that Peter Murphy ended a show with early on. It's a short little EP of bits for die hard fans, a little bit of Gothic Rock history here.
Yoshida Brothers - The Best Of, Tsugaru Shamisen
Label: Domo Records
Released: 2008
Genre: Japanese Traditional, Rock
The Yoshida Brothers take a traditional Northern Japanese style and instrument, and fuse in a bit of western style with it. It's very much a traditional sound, but it feels like rock and roll when they play it. This collection puts together some of their best tracks over the previous ten years, a good place to start if you're interested in them. Both brothers play the Shamisen, there are very few other instruments on the album anywhere.
Blow Your Head: Diplo Presents Dubstep
Label: Mad Descent / Downtown Music
Released: 2010
Genre: Dubstep
This compilation covers the entire gamut of Dubstep, from the hard fast stuff to the low end stuff. Dubstep encompasses a whole suite of tricks, all of it manipulated music. One track is vocals with nothing but a clap and snare hit behind it, another is a lot like very standard trance music - though it's all basslines and drum hits. One track is even just called 26 Basslines - and it is just that and only that. All of it's danceable (which is the point), some of it more so than others. As I'm just getting into the genre this really feels like it was a great place to start.
Rough Guide To Paris Lounge (with Bonus Disc: Marianne Dissard "Paris One Takes")
Label: World Music Network
Released: 2011
Genre: Traditional, Pop, and many others
Paris Lounge doesn't focus on a style of music (as some Rough Guides do) but a region, in this case Parisian musicians, of all sorts. From pure pop music to electro-swing. Ballads, rockers, dance tracks and styles going back to Paris' lounges of the sixties. This is a good cross section of musicians recording and playing in France today.
Marianna Dissard is from Paris, but based in the US now, the bonus disc on this compilation was recorded in Paris during a one day break in her tour, it's a series of new takes from her debut album and a few cuts from her upcoming album. Her sound blends French Euro-Pop with Americana, it fits well in the Indie-Rock scene if you're looking to expand that horizon, but it's distinctly not that. Her voice melodic and soft, the songs are mostly of an upbeat bouncy nature.
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