Wander Meulemans
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.
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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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
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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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.
Something, something, something Dark Side…
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In 2013 Modest Mouse disappointingly cancelled their entire European tour to continue working on their new album which we today know by the title of Strangers to Ourselves. The album did compensate for the band’s absence yet a live appearance to come along with that would truly make up for past events. During their current North-American promotional tour Modest Mouse also made room for a three week ‘make up visit’ to Europe. Last friday it was the turn for the Dutch to re-embrace Brock et al in an overheated and Tour de France-minded Utrecht.
‘Summer, summer, summertime…‘ Yep, we’re both huge fans of DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince. Especially at this time of the year. For that exact reason these are our best releases of 2015 until today. Continue reading
Kyle Field, frontman of Little Wings, is what you might call a postmodern balladeer of rural and urban landscapes. California’s wonderful natural surroundings, youth culture and the big city congestions issues were a source of inspiration for his hymns. Only somewhere during the course of time he expanded his horizon and started residing in landscapes of half truths. Luckily this was just the right place to bring together his fragile poetry and wobbly folk pop. Continue reading
Under the banner of Excelsior Recordings the Dutch alternative rock scene has been blooming for almost twenty years now. Only on rare occasions Excelsior’s artists achieve some kind of success outside The Netherlands, thus keeping most releases under the radar of the international press. Non-Dutch who are always looking for the best kept musical secrets of tomorrow should therefore watch this label like a hawk. One of those very nice Excelsior secrets I’m gonna review today is a band called Alamo Race Track, that recently brought out their fourth album called Hawks. Ahem, sorry about that…
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soundsfromthedarkside 