China Olympics

Due to the Bejing Olympics (which I watch an awful lot!), I haven't posted much lately. Here's a song that's a bit of sort of appropriate : Mao Tse Tung said (mp3) by Alabama 3.

Check out the funny song Hello... I'm Johnny Cash on their website...

You can buy Alabama 3 music here

The House Of Love

Sometimes the simplest things are the most beautiful and the most treasured. A simple melody, in harmony with a relaxing voice and musicians who don't seek the headlights but just all play their part in making a song work : what more could one hope for in a pure pop song ?
True masters at this are The House Of Love, an English band active initially between 1986 and 1993. In 2005 they re-united.
From the moment I first heard them, I liked them. They have a charm that captures you right away. They know how to play a good tune, and they don't make a big fuzz about it all : it's all just simple and very, very good !
I have added some of their most famous tracks, together with an acoustic performance they gave for a Dutch radio show (2 meter sessie for 2 meter de lucht in with host Jan Douwe Kroeske) :

• The girl with the loneliest eyes (mp3)
• Shine on (mp3)
• Feel (mp3)
• Beatles and The Stones (2 meter sessie) (mp3)

You can buy their greatest hits album here

The 2 meter sessies album seems to be unavailable currently

Manu Dibango

One of Africa's biggest musical stars, is -without any doubt- Manu Dibango. A musical career that started off in Brussels and Paris, led him to Congo and Cameroon and then back to Europe, and that started in the 1960's : not many musicians from Africa can present such credentials...

This saxophone player manages a wide range of musical styles.

For those who hadn't heard of him, here's a little introduction :

• Soul Makossa
• Wouri
• Goro city

Here you can buy his newest album

You can buy African soul : the very best of Manu Dibango here

Boxer The Horse

The majority of Boxer The Horse are still under 20 years old. The band recorded a short five song demo in 2007, only to sell out of the limited pressing of only 50 copies at one show to an enthusiastic group of French exchange students. The band soon went to work on their formal debut EP, The Late Show. I like how they named their band after a character in Animal farm, the novel by George Orwell.

Their songs remind me of The Kinks, the young Bob Dylan (but with an English accent) and a Weezer-meets-Ben Folds type of indie band... But hey, you'd better judge for yourself :

• Boneyard (mp3)
• Jackson Leftfield (mp3)
• Rock 'n roll band (mp3)

You can buy the EP here

Green Velvet

There is something very exciting about a lot of songs by Green Velvet, the alter ego of Curtis A. Jones.
This song is no exception to that, with its pulsating rhythm, its alienating lyrics and its trippy bleeps. Check it out, together with a Cajmere remix. Cajmere is just another alter ego of the same man, by which he made a lot of remixes for Green Velvet songs. Sounds schizofrenic, don't it ?

• Genedefekt (radio mix) (mp3)
• Genedefekt (Cajmere mix) (mp3)

You can buy the songs here

Poésie Noire

In 1992, Belgian band Poésie Noire, originally a 7 piece band, but later reduced to 3, ceased to exist, after their record company failed to release their newest album Delirious. Eventually, EMI would release it, their band name having changed to TBX, but since it wasn't successfull at all, EMI dropped it from its catalog soon afterwards.
They had had some success however, having opened for Dead Can Dance and The Sisters Of Mercy, and having released 14 albums and mini-albums. The album that has been my personal favourite, is Love is colder than death, which offers us a good view of their new wave sound and their dark lyrics. It was released in 1989.
Enjoy these songs :

• Love is colder than death (mp3)
• The lake (mp3)
• Oblivion (mp3)

You can buy the album here or here, as it's very hard to find...

Biosphere

We had a dream last night... we had the same dream... Two little boys claim this in what sounds like the soundtrack to a horror science fiction movie, but actually it's the opening song for the album Patashnik by Biosphere.
It's an intruiging song that I felt always fitted perfectly well with the blue cover of the record. Enjoy it !


Phantasm - Biosphere (mp3)


You can buy the album Patashnik here
You can also download a lot of Biosphere songs offered for free here

Big in Belgium : Bobbejaan

Bobbejaan Schoepen is one of those old time stars from the fifties and sixties, who got very famous in Belgium. I wrote about him once in my post about Dead Man Ray and its lead singer Daan.

Earlier this year, after a long, long silence (35 years!), he released a new record, which got a sort of American recordings treatment, albeit on a smaller scale. With some help from Daan and Elko Blijweert (from Dead Man Ray), Nathalie Delcroix (from Laïs), Geike Arnaert (from Hooverphonic) and Axelle Red, as well as from his song Tom and his wife Josée, he recorded 12 new songs (well, actually one of them is a sort of remake of one of his most famous songs in Dutch, De lichtjes van de Schelde). The record sounds a bit like the Rick Rubin produced Johnny Cash songs, but it also sounds very Flemish and the songs certainly do a lot of justice to the singing voice and whistling by Bobbejaan.

Also, the records is a musical hommage to aged men. It's about getting older and viewing your life in retrospect, and about the experience one gathers throughout one's life, about losing your youth, strength and fysical ability.

Enjoy these songs :

• Je me suis souvent demandé (mp3) : singing in French, together with Axelle Red, Bobbejaan wonders about the bigger and smaller questions of life...
• Flower of Shanghai (mp3) : Daan sings most of this song, about the long-distance love of a sailor in a far away port...
• On a carousel (mp3) : mostly instrumental, with a lot of whistling (something Bobbejaan was famous for in his oldest songs), and with a spoken (Dutch) introduction...
• Verankerd (mp3) : this song is probably the best of the whole record : it's about being old and sick (cancer), but still wanting to live, it's the song which offers the rich palet of Bobbejaan's singing (the voice of an old and experienced singer, a lot of country influences, but at the same time it sounds about as provincial as it can get) and it hits the mood of the lyrics so right on that's impossible to resist to the beauty of it, even if it is sung in Dutch... Of course, as Dutch is my mother language, I cannot judge it, but I wonder if you hear the richess of this even if you're unfamiliar with the language (I would guess so). So please give it a try (and feel free to leave a comment about it...)

You can buy the record Bobbejaan here

Bonde Do Role

It sounds like a house anthem ! But the Portugese just gives that extra touch to make it stand out !
Bonde De Role have created one of the most perfect party hits for me : Divine Gosa. And their album With lasers has even more to offer ! I saw this group live last year at Pukkelpop festival, and they were just amazing... I didn't understand a word, but hell, they knew how to throw a party. And what a singer !
Enjoy these tracks :

• Divine gosa (mp3)
• Solta o frango (mp3)
• James Bonde (mp3)

You can buy the album here

Fleet foxes

They sound like they were making music in the same era as The Band, early Bob Dylan, The Beach Boys, but actually, they just released their first album.
Fleet Foxes are truely the next big thing !
Enjoy their fantastic song : White winter hymnal (mp3)
Buy their debut album here

Big in Belgium : Headphone

They are one of the rising stars of the Belgian alternative scene : Headphone !
I really, really dig their newest single, She is electric, which has just about all the right ingredients to make it here and anywhere (if promoted properly, as beautiful music in itself is not enough to conquer the ears of foreign music lovers, in today's giant mass of musical production). This is the video for it :


Enjoy these tracks from their debut album :

• She is electric (mp3)
• Ghostwriter (mp3)
• Film (mp3)

You can buy the album here

Album of the month : Passion - Peter Gabriel

Music for The Last Temptation Of Christ, a film by Martin Scorsese is what it says underneath the title on the CD back cover.
This was my first introduction to Peter Gabriel's own Realworld label. It was the first release on that label, and it contains some of the most beautiful instrumental music I have ever heard made by a pop artist. Influenced by a lot of "world music" he had heard, Peter Gabriel composed a variety of songs which are all, to some extent, a stunning mix of the influences he absorbed and his own musical idiom.
This album is best listened to as a whole, of course, as the musical journey tells, in its own language, the story of the movie, and it contains such a rich palet of music that is like a multi-course dinner, of which each plate is delicious in itself, but the whole dinner has a surplus by the ideal combination of the dishes...
However, I have chosen some dishes for your enjoyment, to have a little taste to hunger for more :

• The feeling begins (mp3)
• Of these, hope (mp3)
• Troubled (mp3)
• It is accomplished (mp3)

You can buy the album here

Lazy Monday : Sofa Surfers

It's been more than 10 years ago when I saw this CD in the record shop that intrigued me, just by the look of it. It wasn't as if I had ever heard of Sofa Surfers, but still, there was something about their name, about the artwork on the cover and probably (although that's something I cannot remember) something about its place in the shop's CD rack between other artists which drew my attention.

After a listen, I decided to buy the album, Transit, and although it's not a record that I have played many times, every I-don't-know-how-many months it ends up in my CD player or PC.

The phrenetic drum 'n bass sounds woven in the smoother and laidback melodies, sometimes with a distinct reggae touch (like in Sofa rockers) render it a sophisticated and yet attractive atmosphere.

A lazy Monday is just the day to enjoy that :

• Bon voyage (mp3)
• Sofa rockers (mp3)
• Life in Malmö (mp3)

You can buy the album here

Arsenal

Two Belgian bands I know have a name that is all too familiar to all of us soccer fans. Galatasaray, named after a successfull Istanbul side, and Arsenal (just like the London based top team) have experienced different paths of success.

Arsenal have released their third album, which took shape during an unexpected trip to the Finnish frozen lakes. They originally set out for Norway to record their songs, but ended up in Finland. The experience resulted in an instrumental album, which was used as a soundtrack for the TV show De Poolreizigers and in their third album, Lotuk. For this album they were able to work with some of their heroes, including Grant Hart (from Hüsker Dü), John Garcia (from Kyuss), Shawn Smith (from Brad, Pigeonhed and Satchel).

Enjoy these songs :

• Lotuk (mp3)
• Diggin a hole (mp3)
• Who we are (mp3)

You can buy the album here

Zombie Zombie

Was it shear coincidence that led me to this song and (later on) to its magnificent, animated video ? That I don't know, but what I do know is that got drown into the dense, blood-drawing atmosphere of this instrumental song immediately.
The video seems to have captured that spirit very well, as it is a stunning exhibition of how you can create a thrilling story with as little as a couple of play figures, home-made models and a lot of creativity. It's a remake of John Carpenter's film The thing in stopmotion with G.I. Joe dolls...

Enjoy this song : Driving this road until death sets you free - Zombie Zombie (mp3)

Zombie Zombie is a French duo consisting of Etienne Jaumet and CosmicNeman who have their own record label (Boomboomtchak! Records), based in Paris, France.

You can buy their album here

Def Real

Dutch hiphop pioneers Def Real have released various singles that made you feel good : silly lyrics and capturing melodies that did well on the radio, especially in summer !

On their website, they offer their older songs for free. Here's a selection :

• Me & the pizza (mp3)
• Daar gaan we... (mp3) (in spite of the Dutch title, most of the song is in English)

Find them all on their site and donwload the remix of their new single here

Jay-Z

Although a lot of hiphop music just gets wasted on me, it's absolutely not that I hate the genre. To the contrary, you can always make me very happy with some real good stuff !

Jay-Z seems to be able to do the trick for me most of the time. From Chapter One I like to listen to these 3 songs especially, although I have to admit it's really nostalgia that makes me smile whenever I hear the Annie sample in the first :

• Hard knock life (mp3)
• Wishing on a star (mp3)
• Can I get a... (mp3)

You can buy the album here

PS Because of the European soccer championship, which I watch almost every game, I haven't posted a lot lately. Well, it's only a week till we know the winner...

Thomas Bryan Eaton

New York-based musician Thomas Bryan Eaton is set to release his debut solo album entitled Dreams, Demons & Butterflies on July 15th, 2008.

Throughout the 'nighttime concept record,' the listener follows Thomas through a restless night, dozing in and out of consciousness, while contemplating life, death & all the relationships between the two. While based on simple acoustic folk and blues songs, the recordings burst open with careful colorations and subtle textures. The final product is something that is hard to classify. From pedal steel to accordion, whispered vocals to quadrupled drum sets, string sections to the sound of stray cats fighting, no sound was left unconsidered. Not to mention Thomas' tasteful electric guitar playing sprinkled throughout. Although much of this record's charm is due to Thomas' restless vision (or demons perhaps), he relied on a cast of 14 friends and musicians to help create the group sound he was looking for. The result is a complete album that tells a story of one person's take on beauty, sorrow and hope.

To celebrate the release, Thomas has assembled many of the musicians who appeared on the album for a record release party on July 12th, 2008, 8pm at Arlene's Grocery, 95 Stanton St. in New York City

While Dreams, Demons & Butterflies will be his first outing as a leader, Thomas has been an active part of numerous bands in the NYC area since moving there from Ithaca, NY three years ago. Other bands and artists he has played and/or recorded with : Vancans, Hobson's Choice, Willie Breeding, Butane Variations, Jim Miller, Kristin Diable, Tim Emmerick, Richie Stearns, Steve Waitt, Jefferson Hamer, Well Enough Folk Band, Steve Gollnick, Adam Groves, Juge Greenspun, Rachel Platten, Teedo, Your 33 Black Angels, Mohawk Hitchhiker, Hubcap, and many others.

Other musicians featured on the album: Pearson Constantino, James Craft, Nyles Fitzgerald, Helen Gassenheimer, Leslie Kubica, Chris Locksley, Earl Maneein, Len Monachello, Johnny O'Callaghan, Michael Penque, Mike Refici, Aaron Smulktis, Jeremiah Vancans & Michelle Yu.

Enjoy these tracks :

• Naked ear (mp3)
• Meant to last (mp3)

For information on how to buy the album, keep checking here

Big in Belgium : Hoover(phonic)

In 1996, when Hooverphonic released their debut album, they were actually called Hoover (but for legal reasons they had to change their name if they wanted to release music outside of Belgium, if I remember well...) Their music was sort of triphoppy and didn't go unnoticed, as one of their songs was used by Bertolucci for Stealing beauty.
Apart from the radio edit for 2Wicky (mp3), I have also added the DJ Pulse Dub (mp3) of that song as well as the song the original sample was taken from : Walk on by (mp3) by Isaac Hayes.


You can buy the Hoover(phonic) debut album A new stereophonic sound spectacular here

Caesar

The Dutch band Caesar has ceased to exist. On the 3rd of April they played their last concert, and were joined by other Dutch bands. These bands each covered Caesar songs, which can be downloaded from the 3voor12-website.
I offer them to you, in no particular order :

• Ocean sounds (covered by Moss) (mp3)
• Can't make it happen (covered by Paulusma) (mp3)
• No reply (covered by Scram C Baby) (mp3)
• Acid years (covered by Alamo Race Track) (mp3)
• Before my head explodes (covered by Sonja van Hamel from Bauer) (mp3)
• This ain't a lovesong (covered by Bettie Serveert) (mp3)

Here are some rare tracks by the band Caesar themselves :

• Gee oh my (mp3)
• Don't you feel like wow (mp3)

You can buy Caesar songs here