CaruanaTunes

Cloud Cult - Feel good ghosts - “Hurricane and Fire Survival Guide”

“If there are still a few bands who can keep selling records after the music industry’s struggles with technology are all over, I hope Cloud Cult will be one. The Minnesota-based art-rockers make their recordings using geothermal energy and recycled materials, donate proceeds to environmentally friendly charities, and play concerts with an onstage painter. Their grand, unkempt indie rock is at once jam band, emo, and avant-garde. Their songs, born out of personal tragedy, are otherworldly lessons in being human. In usual form, Cloud Cult vent their sadness through songs that combine emotional release with heterogeneous arrangements, and often, head-nodding beats.”

Thomas Dybdahl - That Great October Sound - “All’s Not Lost”

I had to cut this one short so it would fit. ~Pete

“Thomas Dybdahl went out to become somewhat of a shooting-star in Norway. As a solo artist, the former guitarist of the band Quadraphonics released his first single EP Bird in 2000. His first release did not have much success, and his second EP from 2001, John Wayne , was also unsuccessful. Beginning with the release of his first album entitled … That Great October Sound in 2002, the first part of his gold and platinum selling October series, he received national and even international appreciation for his unique work. Since then, and especially after the European release in 2004, Thomas Dybdahl’s notability has increased significantly. The mostly positive reviews tout Dybdahl as a new pop wonder comparable to Nick Cave, Jeff Buckley and other important solo artists.”

Samamidon - All is Well - “Saro”

“Samamidon (or Sam Amidon, as he sometimes bills himself) hails from Vermont and is the scion of a musical family with roots in Appalachia. A contributor to such indie projects as Doveman and Stars Like Fleas, he recorded five albums with his band Assembly before releasing a debut solo album of traditional Irish tunes performed on solo fiddle.  Amidon’s new album, the ominously titled All Is Well (very little is ever well in these songs), again includes new readings of public domain compositions, and yet it feels like a great leap forward, thanks to Amidon’s more relaxed approach and the contributions of composer Nico Muhly, himself a Vermonter. hese songs inhabit their own world, closed off from the rest of humanity. Eschewing the hammy theatrics of indie folkies like Langhorne Slim and Two Gallants, All Is Well is an exceedingly private album, designed to usher you in and shut out everything else around you. It’s a headphones album, but not one that relies on studio effects to maintain your interest. It helps that these songs typically traffic in internal monologues with a first-person narrator. In “Saro” Amidon sings the part of an immigrant from an unnamed country who describes the vast land around him and takes both grief and solace in missing his true love back home.”

Edberg - Voff Voff - “Inside Your Head”

“Eberg, also known as Einar Tönsberg, is an Icelandic musician who made his debut in Iceland in 2003. With his own electronic/ dreampop style, Eberg has many critics praising his albums. His music is London based, making most of his fans from the UK. He released his first album, Plastic Lions, in August 2003 when he created 50 hand-made copies, selling them at 15 pounds, using the profits to print covers with an artwork theme. Plastic Lions was mass produced and distributed by Bad Taste in Iceland and then in July 2004 by Rotator in the UK. Many of Eberg’s whimsical and dreamy songs show a youthful personality.

Eberg’s second album Voff Voff has a more organized arrangement of acoustics and electronics that made most of the songs on the album hits in the UK and Iceland. Eberg explains, “Voff Voff is how Icelandic dogs bark, I’ve always tended to be a bit of a barker. I like barking in public and I do way too much of it when I get drunk, and that’s how Icelandic dog barks, hence the name of the album, Voff Voff.” Music Week comments on the album, “Voff Voff is a glorious treasure trove of off-kilter pop and hummable songs from the Icelandic troubadour, who has found his musical feet.”

Fink - Distance And Time - “Blueberry Pancakes”

Check out “This is the Thing” too. ~Pete

“The former sampler-turntablist Fink continues to serve up the nifty brooding guitar work reminiscent of John Martyn that made his/their debut Biscuits For Breakfast such a treat. The world of Fink is one where tension, pace and melody combine to create a tight web of deft beauty that bears repeated playing. Taking in deft touches of dub, folk, blues, soul, and dance elements, the sound of Fink is warm and accessible, relying on nothing more than tight playing, an up-close intimacy of heart-on-sleeve and a genuine sense of lived-in believability, oddly missing from the host of strummer pretenders.

Chiaroscuro. The artists had a word for it. The dramatic contrast between shadows and light inhabit the world of Fink. The pounding beat and tweaks of Blueberry Pancakes recount the attempt to recreate a lost lovers’ recipe and sounds like The Police (in a good way) with its cod-skanking and corkscrewed harmonies. There’s not a duff track on this record and, although there may not be hooks-a-plenty or a host of radio-friendly feel-good tracks, there is a compelling menu that offers more than most and promises still more to come.”

Kamikaze Hearts - Oneida Road - “Top of Your Head”

“A little Bobby Bare, a little Belle & Sebastian, the Kamikaze Hearts are alt-country with a heavy indie-pop twang driving them up the college radio charts. Critics call it “porch rock,” but their fifth recording, Oneida Road, in its refinement and excellent production, renders the term insufficient. Who, after all, comes up with four part harmonies and a near no-latency DAW recording system on a porch? Rustic in sound and appearance, these upstate New Yorkers (Albany, to be exact) are far from uncouth. The crisp, clean production sugarcoats their earnest country cries and banjo-led, western swing. When you’re not paying attention, it’s beautiful. The melodies, too, leave very little to be desired. Plentiful and satisfying, they’re almost too good, like heartburn after a five-course meal. Upbeat intros and hooks accompany melancholy lyrics of heartbreak and loneliness, each reinforcing the American pastime of crying in your beer. “You Can’t Just Get Up and Leave” and “Half of Me” assemble compelling blends of banjos, mandolins and slide guitar, but if there’s going to be a hit single, it’s “Ash Wednesday.” The track begins with lone vocals and a power-pop drum-and-bass beat before quietly exploding in full guitar chords, accompanied on the road home by a banjo/mandolin breakdown. Three years in the making, the path through Oneida Road is Kamikaze’s celebration of patience and pain.”

Hawksley Workman - Between the Beautifuls - “Piano Blink”

“Workman hails from Canada. In the strange, maybe made-up biography on his website, he writes that he’s a country boy whose life changed when he moved to the city and took up residence in a dance studio. Working day and night to earn his keep and learn his art, he became a dancer who has held the Dutch Royal Family in his thrall. And after learning to sing and collecting some garish stage outfits, he took up a new career as a burgeoning international pop star. Far and away his greatest strength is his voice. Owing some influence to idols like Bowie or Freddie Mercury, his style has been compared to Britain’s 70s glam pop age: his sexual energy encompasses and then tosses aside plain old macho cock-rock. Workman not only possesses chrome-plated pipes, but the style to use them.”

Eisley - Combinations - “Go Away”

“Eisley gets more ambitious with each EP and album, as well they should: Combinations is the band’s second album, but they recorded it when they were barely in their twenties — a time when growth and change aren’t just natural, they’re required. This set of songs reflects Eisley’s evolution; they sound more grown-up and maybe a shade less playful than Room Noises and the band’s EPs, but they keep the uniqueness that made Eisley worth hearing in the first place. The DuPrees’ vocals and melodies remain Eisley’s greatest, most unique strengths. The harmonies the sisters craft could’ve appeared on songs from decades ago (and sound especially sweet on the deceptively beguiling “Go Away”), while “I Could Be There for You“‘s traditional-sounding tune is even more striking when set to a very contemporary arrangement. The album’s eclectic-yet-cohesive feel spans the polished, poppy “Taking Control” and gorgeous “Ten Cent Blues” to the elegant ballad “If You’re Wondering” (which boasts chimes, kalimba, and a rainstorm) and the title track, which with its lavish arrangement and fairy tale sweep, almost sounds like a Top 40-friendly version of Joanna Newsom. Eisley’s mix of old and new, and accessible and unexpected, makes their music utterly charming, and Combinations is a blend of bewitching contradictions.”

Mull Historical Society - This is hope - “Casanova At The Weekend”

“Do you long for the pop of a past era— say, the early 70s? Do you like lots of instruments, whether they all belong in a song or not? Are you into artists who seem to be full bands at first, but then turn out to be just one guy with lots of musical friends? Well, if you answered yes to any of those inquiries, come with me, I’d like to take you on a tour of the Mull Historical Society. Mull Historical Society is not a full band, nor even a society, but rather the creative vehicle of songwriter Scottish Colin MacIntyre. MacIntyre nets a massive haul of guest players, choirs and orchestras to serve his compositions, in much the same way that Neil Hannon used to for the Divine Comedy, or, perhaps more aptly, in the same way that Jake Shillington does for My Life Story. The vintage of his songcraft is probably about 1971 or so, though the production and arranging techniques he implements are more modern. MacIntyre’s voice is a high, nasal whine, extremely similar to Kevin Junior of the Chamber Strings, or kind of like Lindsay Buckingham with a slight cold. It serves his classicist pop melodies quite well, and you could never accuse him of writing out of his range or being off in his delivery.”

Barton Carroll - The Lost One - “Brooklyn Girl, You’re Going to be my Bride”

“Barton Carroll writes like a troubled man. The songs on The Lost One, his second album on Birmingham-based Skybucket Records, are all about downtrodden men nursing dark thoughts like whiskey, ruminating over marriages, sex, children, jobs, friends, life. “Hair’s fallin’ out and my back’s got a pain,” he sings on opener “Pretty Girl’s Going to Ruin My Life (Again)” (that parenthetical aside stings like a punchline). “I’ve been drinking my scotch in my truck in the rain/ I think it’s a fine way to spend the day.” Like Freedy Johnston, to whom he bears more than a passing resemblance, Carroll writes in character, filling his songs with the kind of everyday people you might pass on the street, with no bigger story than the gradual onset of disappointment and regret.”

Lightspeed Champion - Falling of the Lavender Bridge - “Midnight Suprise”

I had to cut this song short a bit so I could upload it. ~Pete 

“There’s no denying that Falling of the Lavender Bridge is a faintly schizophrenic offering, but it actually highlights several qualities in Hynes that were overlooked amid the confrontational chaos of his previous works. For one thing, he’s got a sweetly breathy singing voice not a million miles from Evan Dando, which obviously works a treat when he’s belting out the more alt.countrified numbers here, such as the mandolin-fuelled rumble of Dry Lips or the homespun-yet-oddly-violent Devil Tricks For A Bitch. Moreover, he’s turned out to be an unusually poetic lyricist, with the somnambulant reveries of No Surprise or the amazingly graphic medical collapse of the suffering spirit in Dry Lips revealing a darkly sensitive sensibility”

Peter Bjorn and John - Writer’s Block - “Up Against the Wall”

“Peter Bjorn and John’s third album deserves every bit of attention and hype it’s received, from large media outlets right down to the lowliest blog. It’s a major work of post-everything indie rock that has enough hooks, production genius, and emotional strength to make other rock acts (indie or otherwise) sound like they are just wasting everyone’s time. The group’s previous two albums were excellent power pop records with an excess of brains and style, whereas Writer’s Block scales back the guitars in favor of subtler arrangements that deliver just as much power sonically and ups the stakes in every other way. Every song has that kind of stripped-down, well-thought-out, whatever-works production style that brings the music fully to life. Check the steel drums on “Let’s Call It Off,” the shh-shh-shh percussion on “The Chills,” or the majestic tubular bells of “Roll the Credits” for Spectorian shoegaze production magic. Or look at the infectious single “Young Folks” for the key to why the record sounds so right.”

Pavement - Terror Twilight - “Major Leagues”

“Recording in 24 tracks for the first time, Pavement’s signature sound emerges from its watery fuzz virtually intact-� the band is itself, only more so. The enhanced equipment captures crystal sharp guitar licks and frees vocalist Stephen Malkmus’ ever expanding vocal range, creating a texture that allows for the full fruition of some of the band’s more adventuresome tendencies. Tracks like the aptly dubbed “Folk Jam” and the lofty rocker “The Hexx” would have been impossible under the old regime, but here they flower with ease. Construing this newfound sonic lucidity as a sell out, however, would be erroneous. While surefire singles “Spit On a Stranger” and “Carrot Rope” find Pavement at their most earnest, they bookend some of the band’s meatiest and most esoteric work to date. Both “Billy” and “Speak, See, Remember” shed many masks before revealing themselves, while the album sandwiches the subdued guitar anthem, “Cream Of Gold,” between the swaggering ballads “You Are a Light” and “Major Leagues.”

With OK Computer, Radiohead stepped off alternative rock’s sinking ship on to the dry land of classicism, coloring the grand vision and aspirations of ’60s and ’70s rock with a dose of ’90s realism and integrity. Similarly, Pavement seems poised for its grab at history on Terror Twilight; finally ready to assume the Velvet Underground’s long unworn crown as rock music’s most ingenious creators, diligent observers, and unique, confident voices.”

The Notwist - Neon Golden - “One With the Freaks”

Check out the entire album. ~Pete

“Neon Golden would be a staggering feat for any band, much less a band most people had long since forgotten about (or maybe never really knew). A decade into their career, the Notwist have created a masterpiece by pulling the same trick they pulled on Shrink: mixing things that might not seem to fit together into a beautiful, seamless whole. Neon Golden is replete with textured sounds, drifting (and occasionally driving) pulsations, and mesmerizing hypno-rhythms. It’s been quite a while since the last time I actually felt I’ve been with a record like this. Sounds odd, but that’s exactly the feeling I’ve received over the last two weeks. And when you’ve got that much time to spend with a record, it becomes an entity in and of itself. Most times with a record review, you get a few precursory listens and then by number five or six, you’re spitting out a review. Not so here. With well over fifty listens to this disc, it’s like a relationship has begun to spring forth out of the ether. I guess you could say Neon Golden and me have become well acquainted and it’s already akin to hanging with an old friend. Given that amount of time, realizations occur. One of my first was that, in many ways, this record is about textures: electronic bleats, pulsing waves, the mixture of organic instruments with digital blips and loops, and most notably the serenity of Markus Acher’s voice.”