My Playlist January 2011

Nach langer Zeit mal wieder der persönliche Senf zu guter (oder auch nicht so guter) Musik.

A Skylit Drive - Wires... and the Concept of Breathing (2008)

(What a say-nothing ordinary record cover...)

Ich habe mir die Mühe gemacht, mal zu untersuchen, was die heutige verlorene Generation von "Emos" so zum Schwarzfärben ihrer Haare und zum Kajallinienziehen inspiriert... Und ich bin auf diese Band (u.a.) gestoßen. Für alle, die Coheed und Cambria auf der zweiten Ebene der Turbine Blade vermisst haben. Hat Claudio Sanchez Geschwister? Oder machen seine Kinder schon Musik? - Zumindest vom Phänotyp her (glücklicherweise?) nicht auszumachen.
Ich zitiere mal die deutsche Wikipedia (dies ist kein wissenschaftlicher Artikel, also geht das): "Die Band ist bekannt für den einzigartigen, hohen Gesang von Michael Jagmin und den dazu im Kontrast stehenden harten Screams des Bassisten Brian White [...]" Das lassen wir mal unkommentiert stehen. Oder doch nicht. Unsere schnelllebige Gesellschaft erlaubt es jüngeren Generationen wohl nicht, die Wurzeln ihrer musikalischen Vorlieben nachzuvollziehen. Ach, und außerdem ist es "experimenteller Post-Hardcore", tut mir leid für die Fehleinschätzung oben (das Label "Emo" ist wohl negativ besetzt?).


Würden A Skylit Drive wissenschaftliche Texte verfassen, hätten sie in jedem Fall ein riesiges Plagiatsverfahren am Hals. Und wer weiß - vielleicht haben sie Glück, dass sie nicht noch eine Anklage dafür bekommen, dass sie einen Vorstimmbrüchigen hinters Mikro geklemmt haben.
Nichts daran ist neu, natürlich, aber irgendwie geht die Mischung doch ab, und ich mag dieses Falsettgefitsche und -gekritsche irgendwie. Für die nötigen Rasiermesser sorgen ein paar wohlgestreute Shout-Einsätze mit Doublebass-Gewitter und der okkasionelle Pathoseinsatz (Track 11 "Ex Machina"). Meine positive Einschätzung rührt sicherlich zur Hälfte aus Nostalgie, aber es gibt mit absoluter Sicherheit schlechtere Kapellen. Ich würde sogar sagen, A Skylit Drive gehören zu den besten 10% im populären Emo.

Anspieltipp:  Track 12 "All it takes to make my hair grow" - Oh, Verzeihung, es heißt natürlich: "... to make your dreams come true"
Schmucke Jungs auch, lange Haare sind wohl wieder in und zeigen, dass sie eigentlich mit Metalmilch aufgezogen wurden... Aber nein, Metal ist ja eigentlich doof, sexistisch und kennt keine wahren Gefühle. Nur die Haare, die fetzen. Wenn man sie durch die Luft schleudern kann... Werden eigentlich mittlerweile Emo-Castings für neue Boygroups durchgeführt?

A Strange Isolated Place - Reflection on 2010

A very nice ambient mix from London. Here is their home page.

  ASIP - Reflection on 2010 by astrangelyisolatedplace

You can download it for free, this is the link to the post.

Marvin Gaye - What's Going on (DJ Friction Extended Disco Mix 2011)

Very cool mix of a great song.

  Garvin Maye - What's Going On (DJ Friction Extended Disco Mix 2011) by DJ Friction

More nice soulful Re-edits by DJ Friction (formerly collaborating with successful German Soul/Hip-Hop Act Freundeskreis) here.

Pianos Become the Teeth - Old Pride (2009)

What a monster of a record!!
I really think I've found a new favourite band in the genre of emo with screamed vocals. This band emits an incredible energy and features an astonishing drummer! The screams are perfect, very emotional and melodic (no Orchid- or Cease Upon the Capital-style screaming). The music is not as hardcore, but could be described as 'post-rock', meaning long songs with complex structures (think of Envy) - I've read them being described as 'ambient hardcore'. Is Pianos Become the Teeth a band which might be able to turn this into something that gets popular with the average listener of emotive music? -- Perhaps the next record (due soon in 2011) will tell. I for my part cannot wait. (Promising new song, New Normal, is on their myspace.)

On the moment together with Suis la Lune my favourite Screamo band. On tour in Europe with the aforementioned in March/April. Watch out for them! Best package deal in years!
Here's for an impression of the raw energy and superb drum play:

The Word Alive - Deceiver (2010)

A revolution in sound! Something you've never heard before! The definition of the shape of rock music to come!
Kidding, of course.
However unoriginal, this album is fun to listen to. It features a drummer like a machine, some nice metal guitar licks, and a good proportion of clean vocals and shouts. Definitely one of the better metal-core records, its greatest advantage being the pure pop appeal of the choruses. In one and the same song one can swing fists pretending to mosh-pit in one's bedroom, and shout pathetically one's emotions in stadium rock pose.
Broadly comparable with As I Lay Dying, but The Word Alive put more emphasis on pop melodies and clean vocals, without missing out on the metal aspects. Good and highly marketable mixture. And yeah, half the band looks like they were being casted into a metal boygroup.

Miss May I - Monument (2010)

Yeah, I confess to listening a lot of metal-core lately.
But The Word Alive and Miss May I simply put two very good records out in 2010. With that thick a production, great guitar riffs, double bass thunderstorms, and the occasional hymnic melody like the sun rising over a field of war, this is just what I need from time to time. It may not be the most sophisticated of music, but sometimes it seems there can be none greater. Further than that, there is not much to say that is much different from above (read 'The Word Alive'), except perhaps for my impression that Miss May I look less casted than The Word Alive. But I have not investigated either band's 'long-standing' rootedness in any 'local scene' or anything like that. For now I am simply enjoying the kick their music is offering.



Oh, and while we're at it, you have to have a look at these two great kids covering all sorts of metal stuff in their parents' (?) living room - if not, they must have a really weird taste in art. Just look at the fancy pictures on the wall. The furnishing is actually hilarious in relation to the kind of music that is being played within it. I love the pure irony of it. Metal is born in the safest of families.

Maybeshewill - Not for Want of Trying (2008)

The monthly (daily?) dose of instrumental postrock.
Maybeshewill are one of the better outfits in this growing niche. And they are not American (ought to like this for the simple reason of cherishing diversity) but from Leicester. Occasional use of samples and electronic music definitely fits in well with this kind of music. Also, they seem to have quite an ethical and critical political position, at least some of their songs feature very interesting and sometimes telling spoken word parts, best illustrated perhaps in the amazing video that somebody did for the song 'Not for Want of Trying'.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1nrtRLhvuQ (no embedding possible)

Although I've been listening to both their full-length records a lot recently, I will introduce 'Not For Want of Trying' here especially for its gorgeous song of the same name. A new album is announced for this year, and this is definitely something you should mark in the calendar. The band is touring Germany in February.
This nice song, 'Co-Conspirators', was featured on their second album, 'Sing the Word Hope in Four-Part Harmony'.

Maxence Cyrin - Novö Piano (2010)

Something very different to the above. I heard his cover of the Pixies' 'Where is my mind' very often on French Radio fip, and it is just a wonderful interpretation of a wonderful song. There is no instrument as wholesome and pleasant as a piano, no effects needed, no strings attached (sic).
Besides this song, on the record you will also find interesting fresh interpretations of 'Around the World' (Daft Punk) and the more recent hit 'Kids' (MGMT), mong others.

Post Rock Mixtape Vol. 1

This is a mixtape I made in July for a girl that I saw at a Caspian show in Leipzig. Actually, I saw her two days before in one of our university buildings, but only after the concert did I know she had great taste in music. Me idiot didn't talk to her, though, but instead I followed the obvious path and went to have a few drinks with my friends. Relying too much on good luck, again, but somehow I felt that since I had seen her twice in three days, I should be confident there would be a third time if this may be fate's will... So I did this mixtape for her, which entailed a DIY booklet and a card, because I did not simply want to ask her out for a coffee or something ordinary like that. Well, end of the story, I forfeited this chance, never saw her again, I left only some weeks later to come here to wonderful Taiwan... Since the mixtape is rotting at home, I might as well try and spread some beautiful music on the internet.

(Hier gibt es noch eine nette Mixtape-Definition:

Unter einem Mixtape (auch mix tape oder mixed tape) versteht man eine selbsterstellte Zusammenstellung (Compilation) von Songs ,welche in einer bestimmten Reihenfolge auf einer Compact Cassette (Audiokassette) oder CD augenommen werden.aufgenommen wurden. Gute Mixtapes pappen die Songs nicht hintereinander, sondern Mixen die Songs in einem neuen zusammenhängenen Rahmen als neue sStück Musikkunst.

Der Essayist Geoffrey O’Brien bezeichnete das persönliche Mixtape als “die am häufigsten ausgeübte amerikanische Kunstform”. Viele Mixtape-Begeisterte sind davon überzeugt, dass durch die sorgfältige Auswahl und Festlegung der Reihenfolge der Stücke innerhalb einer Zusammenstellung eine künstlerische Aussage geschaffen werden kann, welche durchaus aussagekräftiger ist als die bloße Summe der einzelnen Lieder. Will sagen, es entsteht etwas neues Ganzes.)

I did the mix using pacemaker editor, a free software you will find on the net.

Songs I used for this compilation:

The intro is taken from a poem by Hermann Hesse, Stufen, and it means "in every beginning, there dwells some magic, that protects us and that enables us to live..."
The Ghost - Red Slippers, Red Wheels (taken from the album This is a Hospital)
On the Might of Princes - Go Fuck Yrself (Sirens)
Gifts From Enola - In the Company of Others (Loyal Eyes Betrayed the Mind)
Caspian - Further In (You Are the Conductor)
Scraps of Tape
Moving Mountains

margaret's hope - 2 Songs

I've wanted to upload some of our stuff for a long time now, so it feels that now is a better time than never. These two songs date back to the year 2006, and they were recorded entirely by ourselves (well, by Alex, to be honest).
You can stream them right on this page, no need to download anything. I hope you like this music which we created about 3 years ago, which is actually a very long time, especially considering that we didn't keep up with it. I am back in Taiwan now, and so everybody is in a different place. Still, I treasure these few pieces that serve as footprints to what life felt like in our adolescence, the things we valued the most. And I admit that I am still dreaming of a life grounded in arts, musics, and simply doing the things that you love to do... If all else fails, then at least having my own bar and having other people perform, play music or theater. And - why not in Taiwan?
These two songs are called "Phürditsch" and "The Fine Art of Balancing Nine-Inch Squared Balls (In One Hand, While Standing on the Other)", they are not the best we wrote but were easiest to record at the time when I was about to leave the country for Taiwan in 2006.

這是我之前在德國之樂團的兩首歌，style 大概可以描寫是後搖滾樂或所謂 Emo，可是我們卻沒有歌手。 樂團名稱 margaret's hope，這個名字來自我以前喝過的印度紅茶，產生地田就叫為 margaret's hope，好像以前老闆娘之名字。 我只覺得名字聼起來很不錯，而且讓聽者想到 "Margaret 是誰呢？ 是不是因爲失戀而寫歌？" 呵呵。
我很希望你們會喜歡，歡迎留言！ 我也很想繼續做音樂，不過我正在臺灣， 其他樂團員都住不同的地方，事實期望不能太正式。
兩首名稱為 "Phürditsch" (不是真字，我們亂寫我們德文方言一個説法，意思大概翻成 "For You") 和 "The Fine Art of Balancing Nine-Inch Squared Balls" (開始的吉他 riff 我在瑞典想出來的，而夜裏時不斷地彈，也許腦死我的室友 ;)。

Why, oh why do I make you cry? (Suis la lune) awesome swedish Screamo

Wunderschöner Song der Schweden Suis la lune (Screamo oder so). Sehr nette Präsentation auch. Taken from vimeo.
Heißt eigentlich Fingers. Voice. Heart. Shake. Shake. Shake und ist von ihrer letzten LP Quiet, Pull the Strings. (Es fehlt das Intro.) Aber die Melodielinie am Ende des Songs ist so verdammt gut, dass es beinahe schmerzt. Die Band hat vor kurzem eine neue EP herausgebracht, wirklich schöne Musik ist da drauf, so eine Melange aus ruhigen, sphärischen Gitarrenpassagen und lauten Eruptionen mit sehr emotionalem Gesang. Kompositorisch immer durchdacht.
Suis la lune sind schon lange eine meiner Lieblingsbands, und das Besondere ist, dass man jeden einzelnen ihrer Songs hoch schätzen muss, denn man weiß nicht wann überhaupt mal wieder etwas erscheinen wird. In gefühlten fünf Jahren seit Gründung haben sie eine LP, zwei EPs (eine davon wird bereits nicht mehr gedruckt) und mehrere Splits und Kompilationsbeiträge herausgebracht (u.a. einen 30 Sekunden-Kracher zur Emo Apocalypse).
More songs to listen to at lastfm.
Sehr diy, sehr schön, sehr emo in the true sense of the word.