Oct. '06 : Music/Movies
~ My top favourite albums, songs & films for October 2006 ~
Current Albums:
*Trentemoller - 'The Last Resort'
*Gotye - 'Like Drawing Blood'
*Delerium - 'Nuages Du Monde'
*Ray LaMontagne - 'Till The Sun Turns Black'
*Alpha - 'Without some help.'
*Sarah Blasko - 'What The Sea Wants, The Sea Will Have'
*Bent - 'Intercept!'
*Honeycut - 'The Day I Turned To Glass'
*The Killers - 'Sam's Town'
*Robbie Williams - 'Rudebox'
*Ministry of Sound - 'Chillout Sessions 9' (compilation)
*Regina Spektor - 'Begin To Hope'
*Guillemots - 'Through The Windowpane'
*Camille - 'Le fil'
*Paolo Nutini - 'These Streets'
*Stephane Pompougnac - 'Hotel Costes 9' (compilation)
*The Whitest Boy Alive - 'Dreams'
*Charlotte Gainsbourg - '5:55'
*Zero dB - 'Bongos, Bleeps & Basslines'
*Kraftykuts - 'Freakshow'
*Freestylers - 'Adventures In Freestyle'
*Beck - 'The Information'
*Human Nature - 'Dancing In The Street : The Songs of Motown II'
*Radio Citizen - 'Berlin Serengeti'
*Elton John - 'The Captain & The Kid'
*'Burlesque : The Art of Pole Dancing' - (compilation : various artists)
*Roger Sanchez - 'Come With Me'
*Mercury Rev - 'The Essential : Stillness Breathes 1991 - 2006'
*Evanescence - 'The Open Door'
*Marcia - 'Discotheque'
*Sparklehorse - 'Dreamt For Light Years In The Belly of A Mountain'
*Nerina Pallot - 'Fires'
*Toni Collette & The Finish - 'Beautiful Awkward Pictures'
*Laura Imbruglia - 'Laura Imbruglia'
*Boy Kill Boy - 'Civilian'
*DJ Shadow - 'The Outsider'
~~~
New Finds/Old Stuff:
*Gotye - 'Boardface' (2004)
*Ray LaMontagne - 'Trouble' (2004)
*Lior - 'Autumn Flow' (2004)
*Tiga/Ajax - 'Inthemix.05' (2005)/Tiga - 'DJ Kicks' (2002)
*Delerium - 'Archives : Vol. 1' (2001)
*Garbage - 'Beautiful' (2001)/'Version 2.0' (1998)/'Garbage' (1995)
*Freestylers - 'Raw As Fuck : Remixed' (2005)/'Pressure Point' (2001)/'Raw As Fuck' (2004)
*Atomic Kitten - 'The Collection' (2005)
*Ciara - 'Goodies' (2004)
*'Centre Stage' - [Motion Picture Soundtrack] (2000)
*Amanda Perez - 'I Pray' (2004)
~~~
Singles:
*'The Tiger' - DJ Shadow feat. Kasabian
*'I Spy' - Erica Baxter
*'You Give Me Something' - James Morrison
*'Bimbo Nation' - TV Rock feat. Nancy Vice (Dirty Version)
*'Borderline' - Michael Gray feat. Shelley Poole (Lee 'Muddy' Baker Acoustic Mix)
*'Tell Me How You Feel' - Kraftykuts feat. Yolanda
*'Dance 4 Life' - Tiesto feat. Maxi Jazz (Tiesto Global Experience Remix)
*'U + Ur Hand' - P!nk (Beatcult Remix)
*'Love Don't Let Me Go (Walking Away) - David Guetta vs. The Egg (Joe T Vanelli Remix)
*'Twisted' - Vandalism
*'This Is Miami' - Sander Kleinenberg
*'Come To Me' - P. Diddy feat. Nicole Scherzinger
~~~
Films:
'Little Miss Sunshine' : ****
'Step Up' : ****
'Beyond The Sea' : ***1/2
'Children Of Men' : ***1/2
'The Covenant' : **
~~~
*Note : This post will be updated regularly as the month progresses.
posted by Another Point of You... @ 9:01 PM
6 Comments:
October ~ The first week:
The Killers - 'Sam's Town' is like Robert Smith jamming with Bruce Springsteen and Starsailor...with an abundance of '80s synths, New Order basslines, U2 riffs, Duran Duran sensibilities, Queen campness, and a dash of Morrissey & Bowie. Ambitious, rollicking, theatrical, bombastic & exhilarating.
Ray Lamontagne - Reminiscent of Otis Redding, Sam Cooke and Van Morrison. Stunning, stirring songs for the soul. Hushed, raspy, sensitive, beautiful & airy.
Regina Spektor - A curious, quirky composite comprising of Jewel, Joni Mitchell, Bjork, Corrine Bailey Rae, Sheryl Crow & Sandi Thom...singing along to lost Fiona Apple compositions. It wasn't until the second listen that I'd realized I had stumbled upon a real, bonafide classic. Musically innovative, lyrically imaginative and wonderfully refreshing.
Guillemots - Part Rufus Wainwright, part Bono, part Jeff Buckley...and a whole lot of atmosphere. Lusciously alluring; deceptively dramatic; and rather astonishing. The final track 'Sao Paulo' is eleven and a half minutes of sheer, intense passion. Remarkable.
Kraftykuts - Deliciously dirty disco funk...with a delightful closing nod to the Samba. Choppy, pulsing, grinding & varied.
Freestylers - Eclectic, funky, breakbeat madness. From electrock to Motown Soul to Prodigy-style explosive beats to old skool hip-hop. Frenetic.
Beck - Listening to Beck is like catching up with that old friend you respect, cherish, admire and appreciate. New album 'The Information' is that positively pumping pub the two of you go to... Bluesy, supersyncopated, percussively clicky, bleepy & fun.
Evanescence - The sound of heaven's angels warring with hell's demons. And judging by the album's closing masterpiece 'Good Enough', it seems the angels have won this round. Blasting, melodramatic & over-the-top.
~~~
Garbage - Transvision Vamp for the new millenium... One man's garbage is another man's treasure.
~~~
'The Tiger' (DJ Shadow/Kasabian) is a sonic meditation into tribal-indie ecstasy.
TV Rock's 'Bimbo Nation' - Princess Superstar soundalike does dirty dance...
~~~
'Step Up' - I am such a sucker for these believe-in-yourself, teen, dance flicks. A guilty pleasure indeed. Made me want to dance right out of the cinema (at the end of course)!
Oct. 11 Update :
'Hotel Costes 9' is an incredibly classy little album - perfect for summer lounging, sunset dancing and cocktail parties. Smooth.
'Burlesque : The Art of Pole Dancing' - The title says it all. Grinding, sensual, primal and sometimes hilarious - with a great selection of tracks from artists like Goldfrapp, Basement Jaxx, Gorillaz, Jem, INXS, James Brown, The Cure, Jamiroquai, and Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds. Sexy.
Roger Sanchez - Crisp, melodic, tribal-lite dance from one of the world's leading DJs.
Mercury Rev - Finally, a 'best of' compilation!
Nerina Pallot - A hint of Tori with a pinch of Jewel, 'Fires' is intelligent, thoughtful and often scintillating.
Toni Collette - Beautiful, slightly awkward, with pictures included.
Oct. 18 Update :
Trentemoller's latest album is a stunning piece of work - icy & glacial yet paradoxically oozing with warmth, depth and emotion. It's the bridge connecting Hybrid and Royksopp...with a slight Sigur Ros snowflake shower gently caressing its structure. One of those rare albums that is the perfect soundtrack to almost any activity - driving, dancing, housework, sex, meditation, starship trips through the universe, etc... Mesmerising.
Paolo Nutini - another earnest, singer-songwriter type, with looks and a soulful voice to match. One to watch out for.
The Whitest Boy Alive - member Erlend Oye was a one-time co-writer with Royksopp, though his new outfit sounds more like early New Order...their lost demos only now released from some vault somewhere.
Charlotte Gainsbourg - Lyrics by Jarvis Cocker, Neil Hannon and Air...with music by Air. Need I say more?
'The Songs of Motown II' by Human Nature - Vibrant, polished, feel-good, and oh so fun, fun, fun!
Radio Citizen - Hailing from Germany, Radio Citizen is a talented collective of Berlin-based musicians making adrenalin-infused and spiritually-charged music for future-funk bass-line dub lovers, dark-jazz heads, and dusty-old-soul fiends. Film noir-worthy with an Eastern funk twist.
~~~
Tiga - Tight, cool and very dirty. Electro-flying...
~~~
Model Erica Baxter's 'I Spy', written by Natasha Bedingfield, is a gorgeous slice of eastern-flavoured pop perfection. Reminiscent of Natalie Imbruglia's excellent 'Torn'.
~~~
'Little Miss Sunshine' was a joy to sit through. And it's true, being in a family is like all of its members pushing along an old van until it's reached enough of a momentum to carry all of you...together.
'The Covenant' - Sexy, but silly. A spell lacking in a few vital ingredients. Did all those hot Calvin Klein models know they had actually stumbled onto a movie set? Give me an episode of 'Charmed' any day...
Oct. 19 Update :
'Beyond The Sea' - Impeccable singing, wonderful sets, great dancing and good acting...Kevin Spacey is one very talented man. As I'm sure Bobby Darin was too.
Oct. 25 Update :
What a week for great new music! Firstly, new releases from three of my favourite-ever bands - Delerium, Alpha and Bent. Then awesome new discoveries like Gotye, Sarah Blasko and Honeycut...
Gotye. They almost knocked off Trentemoller from top spot this week. Almost. A glorious & astonishing collision of musical ideas. Rich in detail & meticulously crafted, Gotye are immensely impressive. Albums 'Like Drawing Blood' and 'Boardface' are simply astounding - adventurous and inspired.
'Nuages Du Monde' by Delerium is a musical kaleidoscope of ecstatic bliss. This time around, much to my resounding delight, they've embraced Indian and Middle Eastern influences. Richly layered, soaring, sweeping & heavenly.
Alpha - This is their remix and collaboration album featuring (amongst others) Massive Attack, Coldplay and Jarvis Cocker. Superb, dynamic, intricate and just plain cool.
Sarah Blasko is like a cross between Beth Orton, Bjork & Bic Runga. Off-beat, undulating, dark, deep, unsettling and compelling.
Bent's new album is like flying inside a lucid dream. Perfect music for happy moments. Warm, charming, bubbly, enticing and irresistable.
Honeycut - Chilling yet extremely inviting. Bass-heavy-sexy, dramatic, funky and surprising.
'Rudebox' - And now we have Re-invented Robot Robbie. I actually think this is one of the best things he's done in ages. Contains collaborations with the Pet Shop Boys (who produce the poptastic "She's Madonna"), Stephen Duffy, Lily Allen and William Orbit. Risky, divisive, lively, exciting, interesting, bizarre, hyper, camp, OTT, thumping, confident & swaggering. An electronic madness.
'Chillout Sessions 9' by Ministry Of Sound features such artists as - Jose Gonzalez, Gotye, Thom Yorke, Peter Bjorn And John, Jenny Wilson, Annie, Nouvelle Vague, Chicken Lips, The Knife, Hot Chip, Kaskade and Mattafix. A top compilation.
Parisienne vocalist Camille Dalmais' second album is intruiging, expressive and experimental. Drawing inspiration from Bjork, there are layers of singing, chanting, and all manner of beat-boxing, cutting & splicing such syllable-ism into songs whose percussive splutter cracks with that hip hopper's make-it-spit desire. Radically avant-garde, as well as being a great pop record.
Zero dB delivers exactly what the album title promises...
Sparklehorse - Ever wondered what it would sound like if Kermit The Frog made an album with Dangermouse producing?
Laura Imbruglia - A revelation. Witty & quirky, teen pop-rock.
~~~
'You Give Me Something' by James Morrison sounds like a jubilant Terence Trent D'Arby...and that's a good thing.
~~~
'Children Of Men' - Gloomy, brutal, shocking, jarring, arresting, and in some parts, gobsmackingly jaw-dropping.
Spotlight On:
'The Last Resort' - Trentemoller.
Acutely aware of what works on the dancefloor and what works on the CD player at home, Trentemoller has opted for the latter on 'The Last Resort'. "It was important for me to make an album that told a story from the first track to the last, that represented some kind of journey. I feel I worked really hard to give this album a kind of mystic quality. It was my intention that when people put on this album they could just close their eyes and float away with the music and maybe have their own movie running inside their head. Pumping house and techno might work great on the dancefloor but it doesn't work wo well in a listening type situation."
Indeed 'The Last Resort' shimmers with icy-cool synthetic textures and atmospheres designed to awaken the listener's inner cinema. Yet instead of freezing us out, Trentemoller adds warmth by introducing a certain amount of live instrumentation to the mix. "I love mixing up acoustic instruments and very cold electronic sounds and really enjoy working with these kind of contrasts. Putting instruments played by humans into the mix with some very strictly programmed patterns generates something special in terms of warmth and randomness that is impossible to program."
For those who like their extras, for a limited time initial copies of 'The Last Resort' will come complete with a bonus disc compiling tracks from Trentemoller's increasingly hard to find vinyl releases.
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