pilole 2014 febbraio/marzo

FEBBRAIO 2014	MARZO 2014
BROKEN BELLS "After the disco" At times, Broken Bells' self-titled debut was so hazy that it felt like it was about to dissipate in a cloud of West Coast melancholy but on After the Disco, James Mercer and Brian Burton give that atmosphere a little more form. Building on previous highlights like The Ghost Inside and The High Road, the pair dive deeper into their synth pop, new wave, and disco fascinations to soundtrack songs. [ file under: disco pop ]		BECK "Morning phase" Morning Phase is the twelfth studio album by American musician Beck. According to a press release, Morning Phase is a companion piece to his 2002 album Sea Change and harkens back to the stunning harmonies, song craft and staggering emotional impact of that record, while surging forward with infectious optimism. Several of the musicians who recorded parts for Sea Change returned to record for Morning Phase. [ file under: folktronika ]
CIBO MATTO "Hotel Valentine" On February 14th, the trip-pop collective will release their first album in 15 years, Hotel Valentine, via Chimera music. The follow-up to 1999's Stereo Type A was self-produced and recorded over the last two years by frontwomen Miho Hatori and Yuka Honda. The 10-track effort features guest spots from Wilco’s Nels Cline and Glenn Kotche and Atoms For Peace’s Mauro Refosco, among others. According to a press release, it’s a concept album involving a “love story and a group of ghosts in a hotel.” [ file under: trippy hop ]		NENEH CHERRY "Blank project" Neneh Cherry releases her first solo album in 16 years, a collaboration with RocketNumberNine, produced by Four Tet and featuring a guest appearance by Robyn. While her energy and demeanor may not have changed since the days of Rip Rig + Panic, Blank Project is a departure from anything Neneh has previously done, initially written as a means of working through personal tragedy. [ file under: my cherry is in sherry ]
I BREAK HORSES "Chiaroscuro" Chiaroscuro is the contrast of light and dark in art or literature. Sweden's Maria Lindén plays with these shades on her second album, recording mournful songs using the brightest possible synth-pop sounds. Her 2011 debut had the drift and shimmer of shoegaze but Chiaroscuro is sharper, even flirting with all the electronic styles of the Eighties. [ file under: indie pop ]		FUTURE ISLANDS "Singles" Future Islands release Singles, their debut album for 4AD. Despite the kind-of-just-a-little-bit-confusing title, it is not a collection of singles but is, in fact, a completely new full-length record for 2014. Frontman Sam Herring's poetic tales of heartbreak, love and loss are finally up front and in high fidelity, thanks in part to a newfound creative partnership with producer Chris Coady (Beach House, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Grizzly Bear). [ file under: pop wave ]
JAMES VINCENT MCMURROW "Post tropical" Irish singer/songwriter James Vincent McMorrow turns expectations upside down on Post Tropical, his sophomore follow-up to Early in the Morning. Though his debut attracted listeners with its quirky meld of soft vocals and acoustic and electric guitars, McMorrow shifts gears entirely here. Recorded in a Texas studio between the Rio Grande and Mexico, its production textures are made up of electronic beats, electric guitars, synths, samplers, and piano and other sundry instruments, mostly played by the artist. [ file under: electrosoul ]		HAUSCHKA "Abandoned city" Abandoned City was recorded in Hauschka’s home studio in a burst of creative energy following the birth of his first son. With the exception of Elizabeth Bay, which is based on a piece of music he wrote for a reinvention of Wagner’s Flying Dutchman, the music was composed and recorded in ten days. The compositions on awaken the loneliness and unattainable romance of timeless, unfamiliar places, with cinematic melodies full of resonant overtones, bright cheerful keyboard patterns and dark percussive touches. [ file under: contemporary ]
MOODYMANN "S/t" As with pretty much all Kenny Dixon Jnr releases, Moodymann - his eleventh full-length - has caused something of a stir, with vinyl copies selling out in the blink of an eye. Now on CD, the album remains one of his best - a kaleidoscopic, fast-paced sprint through soul-soaked deep house, baked drum machine jams, jazz-flecked interludes and low-slung grooves. [ file under: deep house ]		IBIBIO SOUND MACHINE "S/t" Fronted by British / Nigerian vocalist Eno Williams, Ibibio Sound Machine combine elements of West African highlife, disco, post-punk & psychedelic electro soul. Folk stories, recounted to Eno by her family as a child in her mother's South-Eastern Nigerian Ibibio language form the creative lyrical fabric of the album. A large dose of electronic elements and an approach as influenced by their hometown of London as much as by West Africa, give the vocals and guitar lines space to breath without being overwhelmed. The LP version also comes with a free download. [ file under: post afro punk ]
SNOWBIRD "Moon" Snowbird are the duo of singer / songwriter Stephanie Dosen and Cocteau Twins’ Simon Raymonde. ‘Moon’ album features a stellar list of guests lending their talents to proceedings: Radiohead drummer Philip Selway and guitarist Ed O’Brien, Midlake guitarist Eric Pulido and drummer McKenzie Smith all contribute, plus guitarists Paul Gregory (Lanterns On The Lake) and Jonathan Wilson. Crafted via the wonder of technology, and yet ‘Moon’ has one unifying and intimate sound and vision, from gently pulsating, pop-centric trails to lingering, luminous ballads. [ file under: bella uion ]		JOAN AS POLICE WOMAN "The classic" The Classic is named after one of its ten tracks. Part is to do with the way we recorded mostly live; the way records used to get made, she explains. But I wrote The Classic itself as a classic girl-group doo wop song and the lyric refers to classic old songs of Marvin Gaye and Tammy Terrell and, Stevie Wonder's Joy Inside My Tears and at the end, I spell out the name of the song, like Aretha Franklin did with R-E-S-P-E-C-T! [ file under: joan as doo wop ]
SUMIE "S/t" On her self-titled album, Sumie builds on the wispy acoustic pop of her EPs but not too much. Her music's beauty lies in its economy, highlighting the purity of her singing and playing in a way that feels timeless and also of a piece with '60s and '70s artists such as Linda Perhacs. Most of Sumie was crafted with just her voice and guitar, which she plays with harp-like picking instead of strumming to make songs such as Spells You and Burden of Ease even more weightless and intimate. [ file under: japan folktronika ]		KANGDING RAY "Solens arc" Solens arc is Kangding Ray’s fourth album on raster-noton and the follow-up to the pentaki slopes ep. The twelve tracks of this record are assembled in the form of four arcs, one for each side of the double LP. The different sequences are arranged seamlessly into dense, evolving compositions, while keeping their autonomy, and their role in the global dramaturgy. [ file under: minimal dub ]
TEMPLES "Sun structures" After a steady build up of stateside buzz and support, Kettering, England's favorite psychedelic sons Temples are announcing their debut full-length, Sun Structures. It's a record that's destined to set out the band's stall as Britain's premier retro-futurists, with influences ranging from '60s psychedelia to Motown, glam, and Krautrock, all viewed through a very modern kaleidoscope - and always keeping the song at the heart of it all. Recorded in the box-room of guitarist/vocalist James Bagshaw's home, the aim was Jack Nitzsche on a DIY budget, and with one listen to first single off the record, Mesmerize, it's pretty clear that they've succeeded. [ file under: new psychedelia ]		LINDA PERHACS "The soul of all natural things" Linda Perhacs’ Parallelograms was created in the heart of hippy country, LA’s Topanga Canyon, by a dental hygienist who was inspired by nature and by the cultural revolution going on around her. When Parallelograms was finished, it sounded like a masterpiece, but the label had pressed it so poorly, sales were non-existent. By 2003 Parallelograms had become a cult album. Slowly, Perhacs began making music again. In 2010, she connected with a new generation of LA musicians attuned to her vision and this is the result. [ file under: west coast ]
WARPAINT "S/t"' Warpaint is the follow-up to the LA four-piece's critically acclaimed debut album 'The Fool' (2010). Warpaint was co-produced by Warpaint and Flood (PJ Harvey, Sigur Ros, New Order, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds and Foals), and mixed by Flood and Nigel Godrich (Radiohead). [ file under: shoegaze ]		CHRISTIAN PROMMER "Ubermood" UberMood is a very personal travel of Christian Prommer into his roots. To describe the music of this album is quite a challenge.This record travels through all of Christian Prommers musical interests. From classical, jazz, electronic soundscapes, folk and soul-music to deep house music.The rhythm and the improvisation is always a very distinctive element in the music of Christian Prommer. [ file under: trippy hop ]
WILD BEASTS "Present tense" Present Tense is a dramatically new album – taking cues from the most intense and effervescent of 1980s and 1990s electronic sound but rethinking and retooling these elements with exquisite detail for the 21st century. [ file under: pop wave ]		REAL ESTATE "Atlas" Atlas, the new album from Real Estate, was recorded over the summer and fall of 2013 with producer Tom Schick [Rufus Wainwright, Mavis Staples, Low], and the ten-song album will be preceded by the release of the single Talking backwards. [ file under: indie pop ]
		TYCHO "Awake" For nearly a decade, Tycho has been known as the musical alias of Scott Hansen, but with the release of Awake – his second LP for Ghostly International – the solo project has evolved into a three-piece band. Relating closer to post-rock than ambient soundscapes, the record is situated in the present, sounding more like Hansen than drawing from his influences. This is, in many ways, the first true Tycho record. [ file under: post ambient ]
		THE WAR ON DRUGS "Lost in a dream" Lost In The Dream is the third album by Philadelphia band The War on Drugs, but in many ways, it feels like the first. Around the release of the 2011 breakthrough Slave Ambient, Adam Granduciel spent the bulk of two years on the road, touring through progressively larger rock clubs, festival stages and late-night television slots. As these dozen songs shifted and grew beyond what they'd been in the studio, The War on Drugs became a bona fide rock 'n' roll band. [ file under: american wave ]