Day 112: Kensington - No Way Out

It's time for an other Dutch band, but not just another. The band members originating from Utrecht in The Netherlands, is merely the one thing that indicates Kensingston is Dutch. After having debuted in 2010, a powerful follow up single called We Are The Young was released in 2011, before the recent album Vultures was released. 

Kensington lends it name from a London neighbourhood and pursues a sound that easily matches with international bands such as The Killers, The Editors or Kings Of Leon. Anyhow, few Dutch marks can be found when listening to the potent and energetic, lively songs. This may be due to the fact that Vultures was initially recorded in Berlin and thereafter postproduced in London and New York. 

No Way Out is the brand single of Vultures and also has that full sound with pacing drums, catchy guitar riffs and imposing vocal harmonies. Not to the mention the attention that has been given to his special video.

Day 111: Metric - Youth without Youth

Most of the articles I write about singles that I discover through playlist of others, through being played in the radio or through listening to new albums. For this one it was different. The album of this single was in my little list of new albums to try out for this month, until Tuesday morning I read a small article about synthrock band, Metric, in the Dutch newspaper. About how great their album was and how this one was certainly the best of the 5 albums so far. But more importantly, it mentioned the gig they were going to do in the Melkweg the day after.

It turned out that there were still tickets available so I called one of my friends and asked him to join me to the gig on Wednesday. It was a small gamble but it turned to be a reaaly good one as this was one of these performances that are surprisingly brilliant and qualitatively good. Especially singer Emily Haines made quite an impression on stage with her magical, sweet voice and her femme fatale appearance. (find here a link to a youtube movie of Sympathy, the song they finished their gig with)

Canadian synthrock, or Indie electro ( as I like to call it), band Metric has been around since 1998 and in the last couple of years they have aquired their name within the international music industry, with their music (from their 4th album Fantasies) being used in series like House, Grey's Anatomy and the Twilight Films. Now they're back with their 5th album Synthetica and I must say, it is a masterpiece. It rocks, it is exciting with all the electronic bits and pieces, it even contains some references to dubstep and the amazing voice of Haines completes it all. No wonder that Tiesto was keen on working with her.

Today's single is the first single of this album, and it gives a good representation of the rest of the album. Metric, one of the nice surprises of the music year 2012.

Day 110: Netsky - Get Away From Here

What have we here? It’s Netsky, a young DJ/producer from Belgium who succeeds in bringing a real solid piece of drum and bass. This genre nowadays is mostly heard underground, as where its younger brother dubstep get all attention today. An exquisite chance to pick it out out and highlight it at our blog. Active since 2009, Boris Daenen just issued a follow-up to his debut, called '2', showcasing tracks that are reminiscent of old school work of early drum and bass icons such as Goldie and Roni Size. As well, he blinks to the modern sound we know as dubstep, a genre spawning songs that can be as euphoric but have less focus that Netsky’s ultra tight productions. All in all, each song is crafted with interesting samples, accents and groovy basses. Perhaps as a result of living where the axes of Britain and France cross, Netsky cleverly mixes ingredients like British two-step and the ever so recognisable French electronica.

This one is a track he made with Selah Sue, who sings in consonants too nowadays and therefore really adds to the song. I myself look forward going to London in a month, where drum and bass just comes out of the speakers in any bar. 

Day 109 - Between Border- Flowers in my pocket

I somehow have a weak spot for music that is linked to commercials. Last year Don Fardon's - I'm alive is still a song that turns up in different playlist I regularly play and the Brand (dutch beer) commercials that feature Paul Weller's Wildwood and Aaron's U-Turn are also songs that I love to play, especially in the autumn with a nice Belgium beer in my hand while sitting in the last few rays of sunlight of the year.

And last week, I discovered another commercial -song, that wandered around in my head for several days. It's from the new Bose commercial and I love it. It's from Between Border, a Manchester, UK based band. It just gives that summery, happy, cheerfull feel. A song that you want on your mp3 player while you run along the beach or drive towards your favorite holiday-destination with friends.

I am not going to say much about the musical qualities of these guys, or how brilliantly layered this song is, or how beautiful the voice of the lead-singer is, because it's typically not that kind of song that you would want to analyze again and again. It's just a song to listen to and enjoy..

  

Day 108: The Tallest Man On Earth - 1904

The Tallest Man On Earth clearly is a moniker and it's Kristian Matsson's. This Swedish singer-songwriter issues music on his own for more than ten years now. His name and recent album 'There's No Leaving Now'  caught my attention, again, by its describing keywords indie and folk. Now, indie nowadays is not very precise when indicating the sound of the music in question, other than implying it stands aparts from mainstream. Folk, here is targetting better, because Matsson's songs on There's No Leaving Now refer back to a lot of names from the past, such as Nick Drake and also Bob Dylan. For that reason, the music is not necessarily old fashioned , since Matsson, still a youngster, delivers his songs in a modern atmosphere. However, the album sounds perfectly lo-fi recorded and shows how purity can be effective. It is more relaxed than his previous albums and contains a variety in instrumentation that is interesting. The album opens beautifully with 'To Just Grow Away', with friendly chords played on electric piano and guitar and sucked me right in. But today's song is '1904', a nicely decorated and catchy up-tempo acoustic song, that does not lack on strength and might become very recognisable after a few listenings.

Day 107: Angus Stone - Bird on a Buffalo

We know today's artist mainly from his cooperation with his sister Julia and their hit "Big Yet Plane". They had quite some success with their album Down The Way (2010). Unfortunately they made the decission to part and go in different directions. Angus told Surfing World Magazine, “Recording with Julia is cool but we both have our hands on the wheel. This was an opportunity to grab the wheel and do some burn-outs.”

And so Angus Stone was back on his own again, after his first solo debut in 2009 with the album smoking Gun. Soon he will be back with a new album called "Broken Brights" which will be released in July. Today's song is the second single of that album called Bird on a buffalo. For me it provides again that Angus on his own is nothing less (and at least as good as) then when he was still together with Julia.  Pastermagazine writes about the song "While the two animals must collaborate to ensure mutual survival, the lyrics “we got together like the bird on the buffalo” describe a metaphor for a musing relationship between lovers."

What I like about it, the creativity of the lyrics, the relaxt mood of the song and the voice of Angus which makes this song complete, like there is nothing to worry about and so you just have to take the time to listen to this song.

Day 106: Hot Chip - Look At Where We Are

Hot Chip have recently brought out their fifth studio album and it is already acclaimed by amongst other pitchfork.com to be their most lively ones. Producing their music in the genres of indie electronica and pop, Hot Chip is considered to be leading, so worth listening I found. In Our Heads sounds rather diverse and contains smart electronica pop tunes as well as indie dance tracks. Obviously, the eighties decade in musical sense must have been influential and inspirational, when composing the tracks, is what member Joe Goddard has stated earlier too. Not surprisingly, here and there a name such as Nik Kershaw is musically referred to, next to, as co-writer Justin mentioned, tracks that resemble the most to minimal techno.

Picking a song is not easy, since no track represents the album as a whole. So here is my favorite, a nice slow jam, sung in a beautiful melody and a right counterpart to the uptempo tracks. Listen to Look At Where We Are with a decent set of headphones to not miss out on superb production and deep bass. I Like.