Best of 2014 - Top 10

So here are the top 10 from my point of view, hope You'd like it....

10. Elysian Fields – For House Cats and Sea Fans

9. Beck – Morning Phase

8. Damon Albarn – Everyday Robots

7. Future Islands - Singles

6. Sharon Van Etten – Are We There

5. Grouper - Ruins

4. FKA Twigs – LP1

3. The War on Drugs – Lost in the Dream

2. Sun Kil Moon - Benji

1. The Twilight Sad – Nobody Wants to Be Here and Nobody Wants to Leave

2013 In Music - The Audience Choice

We are getting to the end of 2013, which was great musical year. Now it's time to show what you liked this year and maybe earn 25$ Amazon E-Card to buy some stuff. All you have to do is choose five albums from the list (You can also choose four and add one of your own in the end) and you're in the lottery... The list will be published at the end of the year without December albums. So what are you waiting for? You can vote only until 30th of November, so have your say down here

Bandcamp Hunting #5 - 5 Things You Should Hear

Keeping up with the Bandcamp project, I find it very joyful. Last week, I decided to "dig" for some new tunes, hoping it may give you an opportunity to listen to stuff which could have escaped from your ear... so let's go...

River Crombie - River Crombie EP

Starting our journey today in Australia, where I found the new EP by the Folk singer called River Crombie. He's making old school acoustic songs, Nick Drake like (but more optimistic...). Although it's pretty short, I found it very relaxing for the late evening hours



Two Moons - Colors

Listening to the remastered release of Two Moons called Colors made me imagine that the Gothic Rock and Dark New Wave are still alive. It seems that the guys in Swiss Dark Nights, an underground label from Switzerland are doing a great job in the revival of this music genre.


When Mountains Move - While Driving

An unknown artist from West Virginia released two songs about watching trough the window while driving. I wish I could know his name or other details but maybe he's anonymity makes it wonderful. Recommended for all the Shoegaze fans


Ulver - Messe I.X-VI.X

Ulver are a veteran Folk Black Metal band from Norway. I haven't heard about them before because I don't prefer listening to this genre. What made me listen to it was the name of the opening title: "As Syrians pour in, Lebanon grapples with ghosts of a bloody past". Like its name, this track is haunting and beautiful at the same time. The rest of the album is as great as the opening song. WOW!!

The Beautiful Word - May Not Be Love/Particles EP

The Beautiful Word are a Casio Folk Pop Trio from Brighton, who reminds me something between Belle And Sebastian and Au Revoir Simone, released a 3 tracks EP a few days ago and its words are as wonderful as the name of the band as well as the voices of Emily Bryant and Megan Clifton. Yes, they are still unsigned, please hurry up....

2013: Top 60 So Far (Part #3): Places 31-40

So we've passed 20 albums so far: Places 51-60 and Places 41-50 so it's time to move on to the next 10 albums, which were worth listening in the past half year.

Number 40: Depeche Mode - Delta Machine

Who Are They? A Veteran New Wave/ Dark Wave Trio from Basildon (13th album)
Why? Because they're still one of the most influencing bands in my life....

Listen: My Little Universe

Number 39: Low - The Invisible Way

Who Are They? A veteran American Indie Rock Trio from Minnestoa (10th album)
Why? Because of the great melodies and beautiful lyrics

Listen: Just Make It Stop

Number 38: Eleanor Friedberger - Personal Record

Who Is She? An Indie Folk singer from Illinois (2nd album)
Why? Because of her Folky attitude and personal songs

Listen: Singing Time

Number 37: Beacon -  The Way We Separate

Who Are They? An Electronic Brooklyn-based duo (2nd album)
Why? Because if there is still trip hop, it must sound like this

Listen: Bring You Back

Number 36: She & Him - Volume 3

Who Are They? A collaboration of M. Ward and Zooey Daschanel (4th album)
Why? Because they are getting better from one recording to the other

Listen: Somebody Sweet To Talk To

Number 35: Olafur Arnalds - For Now I Am Winter

Who Is He? An Icelandic composer and multi-instrumentalist (4th album)
Why? Because it's make me feel like I'm sitting next to a bonfire in the middle of Icelandic winter

Listen: Old Skin

Number 34: Mount Kimbie - Cold Spring Fault Less Youth

Who Are They? An English London-based Dubstep duo (2nd album)
Why? Because they where the second best Dubstep album so far this year

Listen: Meter, Pale, Tone

Number 33: Austra - Olympia

Who Are They? A Canadian Toronto-based Electronic band (2nd album)
Why? Because of the special voice of Katie Stelmanis and the 80's-like sound

Listen: Painful like

Number 32: Widowspeak - Almanc

Who Are They? An Indie Rock band from Brooklyn (2nd album)
Why? One of the new surprises of this year

Listen: Dyed In The Wool

Number 31: Iron & Wine

Who Is He? Talented Samuel Beam from South Carolina (5th album)
Why? Because everything he touches turn to gold (Even though he made better records before)

Listen: Joy

2013: Top 60 So Far (Part #1): Places 51-60

What a great musical year it is so far. Many beautiful and innovative albums have been released so far, making me spending extra time to listen most of them. So I've decided to summarise what I've heard until these days, counting down from 60 to the first places, so let's start right now:

Number 60: Phoenix - Bankrupt!

Who Are They? Four piece Alternative Rock band from France (5th Record)
Why? Because it seems and sounds like a bankrupt...

Listen: Entertainment

Number 59: The Strokes - Comedown Machine

Who Are They? Five Piece Alternative Rock Band From New York (5th record)
Why? Because they sound so tired of playing, like an old band refusing to retire.

Listen: All The Time

Number 58: Deerhunter - Monomania

Who Are They? Five Piece Indie Rock band from Atlanta (6th record)
Why? Because there is so much hype around them so I couldn't ignore

Listen: T.H.M

Number 57: Olof Arnalds - Sudden Elevation

Who Is She? An Icelandic Folk singer, who released her debut album in English (3rd record)
Why? Because of the sweet voice and the simple composition of pure beauty

Listen: Bright And Still

Number 56: Anais Mitchell And Jefferson Hamer - Child Ballads

 

Who Are They? A collaboration of two highly acclaimed American Folk singers (Debut album)

Why? Because of the concept album about lost child ballads

 

Listen: Tam Lin 

 

Number 55: Phosphorescent - Muchacho

 

Who Is He? An Indie-Folk American singer called Matthew Houck from Athens (7th album)

Why? Because of one of the most beautiful songs this year....

 

Listen: Song For Zula (Amazing....)

 

Number 54: Adam Green And Binki Shapiro - Adam Green And Binki Shapiro

 

Who Are They? A collaboration of two young Anti-Folk singers from New York (Debut album)

Why? Because the catchy melodies and 60's scent

 

Listen: Here I Am

 

Number 53: Sally Shapiro - Somewhere Else

 

Who Is She? A Swedish vocalist, who performs Italo-Disco and Synthpop (3rd album)

Why? Because Swedish doing Italo-Disco better...

 

Listen: Architectured Love

 

Number 52:Ed Harcourt - Back Into The Woods

 

Who Is He? An English multi-instrumentalist, who performs Barok and Chamber Pop (8th album)

Why? Because of the special effort of recording this album in six hours, alone!

 

Listen: The Man That Time Forgot

 

Number 51: Eels - Wonderful, Glorious

 

Who Are They? It's mainly Mark Oliver Everett, a multi-instrumentalist from California (10th album)

Why? Because he's still one of the best song writers ever...

 

Listen: Peach Blossom



St. Vincent

Maybe the name Annie Erin Clark is not known for the most of us, but might heard about St. Vincent, which is the stage name of this talented singer from Tulsa, who started her career as a member of The Polyphonic Spree and Sufjan Stevens tour band before she started her own solo career. St. Vincent released three full albums and a collaborative one with David Byrne, The former leading singer of  The Talking Heads. She's also a multi-instrumental player, who can play guitar, bass guitar, keyboards and more while she sings with her clear, soft voice. This beautiful morning gave me an inspiration to go back to hear few of her songs, so here are five pearls I've found.

Cheerleader (Taken From Strange Mercy, 2011)

 

Paris Is Burning (Taken From Paris Is Burning EP, 2006)

All My Stars Aligned (Taken From Marry Me, 2007)

Actor Out Of Work (Taken From Actor, 2009)

Sleep All Summer (Featuring The National, Crooked Fingers cover version)

Best Albums Of January 2013

 January is over and it's been a great month of music hat I'd like to share. We've got new singles by Suede, David Bowie, Devendra Banhart and new releases by Local Natives, Toro Y Moi and Lovely duo Tegan & Sara. But above all, there were five albums that I loved more in January, You Can hear and  watch them below. For all the weekly pick so far you can click on the selected week, enjoy

Week #1

Week #2

Week #3

Fifth Place: Torres - Torres

Song Chosen: Don't Run Away, Emilie

Fourth Place: New Order - Lost Sirens

Chosen Song: I Told You So

 Third Place: Yo La Tengo - Fade

Chosen Song: Before We Run

Second Place: The Joy Formidable - Wolf's Law

Chosen Song: Little Blimp

First Place: Foxygen - We Are The 21st Century Ambassadors Of Peace & Magic

Chosen Song: San Francisco

David Bowie

It's 8th of January and the boy is already 66 years old. It's hard to imagine the modern music without the wide inspiration of David Bowie. With 23 studio albums since the 60's 'till now, Bowie is recognised as one of the most intelectual and talented musician for such a long time. For his birthday, I picked one song from each decade and putting at the end, his new single from the forthcoming 24th record, which will be released on March 2013,called The Next Day. I know it's very far of spanning all Bowie's career but we'll start from here....

Space Oddity (Taken From Space Oddity, 1969)

 

Moonage Daydream (Taken From The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars, 1972)

China Girl (Taken From Let's Dance, 1983)

 

Thursday's Child (Taken From Hours, 1999)

 

Where Are We Now? (Taken From Forthcoming Album The Next Day, 2013)