Thao & The Get Down Stay Down have roamed my playlists for a long time. I started out binge-listening the song ‘Geography’ but got acquainted with the rest of their work in the weeks that followed. Hereafter it eventually took me about 5 years to completely wear out their first two records, ignoring the band’s 2013’s follow up, We The Common, in the proces. Earlier this month Thao Nguyen and friends released a brand new record called A Man Alive, so let me simply pick it up from there. Continue reading
Author Archives: Wander Meulemans
Matt Eliott – The Calm Before
One of England’s most tormented singers returns yet again after leaving us with a heart-breaking myocardial infarction in 2013. I mean this in a figurative way of course because in real life Matt Elliott is healthy as a horse. How else could The Calm Before be his seventeenth (!) album to date. Now let’s hear what this veteran of agony brings us this time, shall we? Continue reading
Hinds – Leave Me Alone
Obviously Bowie’s parting gift was last week’s main talking point. Blackstar will probably, and justly, leave deep imprints on the year that lies in front of us. However, the wheels of the industry keep on turning and forces us to look beyond all sobbing. Luckily the Madrid based indie rock chicks of Hinds offer us 2016’s first bright welcoming gift. Continue reading
Album Year List (2015)
Happy belated non-denominational winter holiday of your choice, everyone! We’re back with another tombola filled with musical endeavours of our choosing. Round and round it goes, where it stops, no-one knows. Except we do, and here are what we thought were the best albums of 2015. Enjoy.
Meridian Brothers – Los Suicidas
It didn’t took the Meridian Brothers long to drop a new release after last years “alright” Salvadora Robot. The ensemble’s search to deepen their distinctive tropical sound is of an exhaustive kind. This time around Eblis Álvarez et al got inspired to set up an organ-inspired trilogy and Los Suicidas serves as its first part. Indeed, all of this essentially means that you will have to get ready for a fever pitch all over again. Get set and let’s plunge into all out blurriness at the end of the year, shall we?
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Kurt Stenzel – Jodorowsky’s Dune OST
First thing that pops into my mind when thinking of Dune is the conversation between Paul Atreides and Reverend Mother Mohiam about prospective Kwisatz Haderach’s who underwent the spice trance. “They tried and failed?[…]”, he asked. Mohiam replied: “They tried and died”. In a way this conversation parallels Alejandro Jodorowsky’s attempt make movie out of the book in 1974. He tried, he failed… but didn’t die though. Continue reading
Nadine Shah – Fast Food
Remember when you were totally pissed off when I didn’t review Deerhunter’s marvellous Monomania in 2013? Well, It’s looks like history is going to repeat itself because I am not reviewing the band’s latest release, Fading Frontier, either. Yes, again it’s a great indie rocker but there is more music around that deserves some attention right? Nadine Shah sophomore album, for example. So take a good look at the femme fatale artwork, count to ten or whatever and read on.
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Low – Ones and Sixes
Honestly, I don’t know if Ones and Sixes, the title for Low’s eleventh album, stands for comparing two things that are the same. However, what I do know is that the slowcore grandmasters Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker have been going at it for quite some time now. Since the 90s they have been building up a mesmerizing repertoire that never reached the mainstreams. Low’s tranquil orbit indeed isn’t for everyone but it’s also never too late to get acquainted, though.
Wilco – Star Wars
Something, something, something Dark Side…
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Kamasi Washington – The Epic
The tree of life of jazz grew strong from blues, swing, bebop to cool and branched out into various directions like funk, fusion and free jazz. Today it still stands tall. Adding something fresh to this one-hundred-year-plus history isn’t quite an easy task. However what is fresh? Something truly new and innovating or finding your place within this history by means of your own creative terms? Kamasi Washington chose the latter path and released a three-hour sprawl called The Epic which takes you deep into the heart of jazz.
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