Kev - Ashford E.P. (2013)

Kevin Erskin es un músico multi instrumentalista y estudiante de Berklee, radicado en Boston, originario de Rancho Bernardo, California. La colección de canciones acústicas que recolecta en este EP son un tributo a la calle donde creció y a la casa de sus padres. Enfrentarse a la complejidad de alejarse de tu santuario personal, enfrentarte al mundo, sentirse alienado, cambiar y enfrentarse a la adultez.

Todos los temas manejados en Ashford son las angustias y preocupaciones de cualquier adolescente de 19 años, la edad de Erskin, pero lo que hace que resalte su música es la ejecución y el mérito detrás de esa ejecución. "Far Away" es la primera canción, mezcla percusión y sonidos de pasos con la guitarra imnótica de Erskin repitiendo un arpegio. Mezcla la letra hablando en primera y segunda persona como si fuese una conversación con él mismo; de forma literal se cuestiona la distancia que pone entre él y su santuario. Los detalles de la instrumentación incorporan un set de cuerdas, un banjo y una segunda guitarra, y el énfasis y dramatismo que da la percusión alejándose y regresando con fuerza hace de esta canción la más fuerte del EP.

La segunda canción, "Birdcage Chest", le quita muchísima fuerza al estado de ánimo que introduce "Far Away", a pesar de que el contenido lírico tiene el mismo sentimiento escapista. Esta vez no de Ashford sino de un estado de ánimo, al cual Erskine contesta con un cambio sutil de volumen en la voz "I'm not going back", este momento en la canción incorpora un banjo y voces en el background ejecutadas por él mismo. Los arreglos podrían compararse en momentos a arreglos más simples pero con un firme aire de Sufjan Stevens. Juega con ausensia de instrumentación para centrar al que escucha en el claustro auto impuesto del personaje que crea, replica dulcemente "Still locked inside your birdcage chest". La canción quizá habría terminado en ese momento y habría sido perfecta, pero la alarga innecesariamente sin que la canción evolucione en contenido o instrumentación. Sigue siendo una buena canción pero quizá innecesariamente larga.

El retrato de Ashford se completa con "You Owe Me", un notable tributo a una de sus principales influencias, Iron & Wine. Una balada un poco más suave pero que desde el principio llevó mi mente a "Sodom, South Georgia", no en letra, pero sí en ejecución; hasta que las cuerdas que acompañan al banjo desde el principio estallan, en ese momento Erskin va más allá de sus inspiradores y sobrepasa sus influencias, demuestra su potencial como artista con una voz propia.

El E.P. tiene la debilidad de parecer una referencia muy directa a aquellos artistas que inspiran a Kevin como artista, por eso "Far Away" termina siendo la más fuerte, porque de alguna manera es la que se sostiene como la más genuina y la más similar a algo que no se escucha con mucha frecuencia, más si se piensa en que se trata de un solo artista interpretando todos sus instrumentos con poca ayuda y que ese multi instrumentalista tiene 19 años. Y "You Owe Me" tiene el mérito de lograr expresar emociones en menos de 6 minutos, pinta un cuadro completo e incorpora cambios de ritmo e instrumentación.

Ahora bien, el sentimiento escapista de Erskin va más allá del reposicionamiento geográfico de California a Boston, también va más allá de la voz tímida que no se atreve a explotar, o más allá de la timidez con la que aveces organiza sus arreglos. El escapismo está presente incluso en la idea de no querer dar su nombre a un proyecto que por sí solo es personal. Kev es el nombre que se da en el proyecto, seguramente porque en cierta forma el diminutivo se lo da su familia o sus amigos, pero más allá de que Kev sea un nombre quizá íntimo, hace más difícil que uno se conecte con Kevin Erskin el artista. Kev pareciera más el nombre que se da un rapero para rimar de forma más fácil que un artista folk que se embarca en presentar una historia personal.

Tracklist:

1. Far Away
2. Birdcage Chest
3. You Owe Me

Rate: 6/10

Torres - Torres (2013)

Se habla mucho del regreso de los noventas; tanto en el pop como en el rock se han estado dando pasos en esta dirección, artistas como EMA o Yuck y el retorno de bandas como My Bloody Valentine y Dinosaur Jr. hacen que el sonido característico de los noventas en pop y en rock vuelva a tener influencia. En esta tendencia se encuentra Mackenzie Scott, A.K.A. Torres. La artista de 22 años llena sus letras con contenidos sobre abyección, aislamiento, problemas de mujeres acompañando las letras con una guitarra eléctrica y pequeños arreglos de otros instrumentos. La música es sutil con arreglos de producción que conservan la grabación íntima. El proceso de grabación se realizó en sesiones directas y el resultado es canciones que evocan a una PJ Harvey en los noventas pero con un espíritu menos experimental, Cat Power también me viene a la mente para describir su sonido.

El disco cuenta con canciones de increíble poder lírico, la segunda canción, "Honey" habla de la decepción dentro de una relación que pareciera haber tomado tiempo donde el personaje creado por Scott toma confianza suficiente para hablar de la relación. La canción está llena de acordes poderosos y va ascendiendo su volumen y reverbaciones para acentuar los sentimientos. El título de la canción sugiere la dulzura con la cual se entregan malas noticias cuando se ha estado mucho tiempo en una relación.

"November Baby" es una canción de 7 minutos, calmada, vulnerable y anecdótica, pero la historia no es la que hace la canción, sino la guitarra y el bajo sosteniendo cada nota dulcemente cantada. Otra canción hermosa es "Moon & Back", sobre una madre que entregó a su hijo y le deja una carta para ser leída en el futuro. Más allá de narrar la historia es una carta centrada en el amor de una madre a su hijo y entregándolo por una mejor vida, la canción alcanza su realización con un mínimo acuerdo de cuerdas y percusión que no sobrecarga la simpleza mínima del sentimiento que quiere transmitir ni el protagonismo de la voz al frente.

Otros puntos altos del disco son canciones como "Chains", llena de misterio narrando la liberación de una relación donde las cadenas con las que mantenía atada la relación rompe su eslabón más débil y queda pidiendo al hombre que todavía no renuncie a la relación sin ningún plan de cómo hacer para mantenerla. La música en esta pieza es llena de una guitarra crujiente y nunca tiene un momento explosivo. "When Winter's Over" es la canción más instrumentada del disco y recuerda los arreglos del rock alternativo de principios de los noventas, ese que hizo tan popular a artistas como Joan Osborne o Lisa Loeb.

"Jealousy and I" es otra canción que incorpora la preocupación dentro de una relación que la lleva a sofocar una relación, habla de su relación con los celos y sus inseguridades; maneja la imagen de una relación que comenzó pero se va de control en el momento que ella comienza a sentirse cerca de la persona y se siente amenazada por lo desconocido del mundo exterior. Más que la relación de ella con una persona, la canción trata de su relación con los mismos celos y que es una carga que ella pone en sus relaciones y no le importa, sus relaciones no afectan su relación con los celos; todo cantado con una guitarra eléctrica. Una de las mejores canciones del álbum.

Sus letras están llenas d imágenes naturales, brisa, rocas, luz. El cierre "Waterfall" establece todas las imágenes y las lleva a un momento más contemplativo y quizá oscuro preguntándole a una cascada si en algún momento se detiene a mitad de camino a pesar que quizá nunca había querido saltar en absoluto, contemplando quizá un momento que juega con fantasías suicidas; ve la idea de la caída de la cascada como una liberación pero también la posibilidad de mantenerse andando sin que quizá el arrepentimiento le invada a mitad de caída, "Maybe it'll all be better in the morning", dice.

Sin duda Torres es un proyecto que no tiene ningún descubrimiento en términos de composición y letras. Es un disco hermosamente ejecutado, eso le da suficiente validación, especialmente por tratarse de un disco debut.

Tracklist:
1. Mother Earth, Father God
2. Honey
3. Jealousy And I
4. November Baby
5. When Winter's Over
6. Chains
7. Moon & Back
8. Don't Run Away, Emilie
9. Come To Terms
10. Waterfall

Rate: 8/10

Los Burritos Semidesnudos - Nos Vimos (2012)

Los Burritos Semidesnudos son una parte de la banda venezolana Captan-Obvio; el proyecto solista de Mario Anzola y Eduardo Pereira, dos músicos que en el disco anterior tenían una onda western buscando visa para seguir un camino. Con el pasar del tiempo ha sido mucho lo que ha pasado, Captan-Obvio se ha convertido en una banda desmembrada por la migración de sus miembros y cada cual por su lado ha recibido diferentes influencias musicales. El caso del proyecto de Los Burritos Semidesnudos siempre se ha caracterizado por dejar un poco el ska y el rock atrás y armarse de guitarras acústicas, trompeta y armónica para expresar sea lo que sea que se sienta.

Los Burritos han madurado en su forma de componer, se han olvidado un poco de los chistes de todos los días y de hacer un disco que sólo contenga ironías y buenos momentos; no con esto el trabajo se convierte en uno aburrido, siguen divirtiéndose y divirtiéndonos, pero esta vez vienen cargados de emociones que muestran una belleza y vulnerabilidad de composición que antes quedaba nublada en el entretenimiento. Si bien antes la música de los Burritos buscando visa era comedia con una música muy seria, la fórmula ahora es muy seria y haya la diversión en letras irónicas, el caso de "No Como S.O.P.A", donde dicen que "la sopa se sirve en mi plato y no en mi láptop señor congreso de los tormentos". Sin duda cómico, pero también con una intención a ser entendida por mercados mucho más amplios que los que dominan la gerga venezolana.

Las influencias siguen siendo westerns, no acercándose a The Good, The Bad & The Ugly, pero sí quizá a trabajos similares a los hechos por la banda de Zach Condon (Beirut), pero es mucho más diverso y universal, como en la canción "Viajando Al Sur Por Alcohol" que es una especie de canción ligeramente brasilera pero que en realidad suena bastante genérica y universal a pesar de sentirse folk. El LP a pesar de seguir contando con una producción DIY, cuenta con un sonido que es mucho más claro y una idea igual de definida que en el trabajo anterior pero mucho mejor traducida a sonido.

Pero son los momentos más vulnerables del LP los que me llegan, "Balada de Primavera", "Good To Be Back", "Nos Vamos" y "Quite A Comeback".

"Nos Vamos" es una canción de amor a los venezolanos que se van, a la banda de Captan-Obvio, a los amigos que se van y las otras dos son parte del mismo discurso pero sin letra.

Nos Vimos es la historia de dos amigos que se fueron y se vieron, lo maravilloso es que dejaron registro del encuentro y de forma literal, Nos Vimos no podía terminar sin "Nos Vamos". Captura sin palabras la alegría de amigos reuniéndose y la melancolía contemplativa de que será corto y nos iremos de nuevo.

Magnífico trabajo que, además, es gratis.

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Tracklist:

1. Quite a Comeback

2. Se Acabo el Ron

3. No Como S.O.P.A

4. Seeking What

5. Balada de Primavera

6. Viajo Al Sur Por Alcohol

7. Glad to be Back

8. Nos Vamos

Rate: 8.1/10

Bon Iver - Bon Iver (2011)

There's not much I can say about Bon Iver to people that already love them. But for the record: Bon Iver is a band, not a person (that because a lot of people mistake Justin Vernon with Bon Iver). These guys have been working a lot for the last years on separate projects or collaborating with other artists, like the song in the eclipse soundtrack with St. Vincent, the 2010 buzz worthy collaboration with Kanye West in not one but two songs, and also Justin’s electronic side project Vulcano Choir and S. Carey’s solo album; everything showing different faces of the Bon Iver talent.

Talking about Bon Iver self titled release will never be like talking about the previous releases just because the amount of fame and respect they’ve been getting since “For Emma, Forever Ago” make them a different caliber of artistry. That said, is normal that the buzz around this album overshadow everything that was good in “For Emma, Forever Ago” and over appreciate everything that good in “Bon Iver”.

For this album they play with every influence they’ve had in the past, it’s still Bon Iver being Bon Iver, but all the production tweaks inherited of Vulcano Choir adding a little electronic stuff and pumping up the variety in instrumentation. The opener “Perth” for example, it has the same song structure of old familiar Bon Iver songs starting slow, building up and then chilling down, the typical Bon Iver crescendo but this time around with a lot more of horns and instrumentation. And then you take the second song “Minnesota, WI” and do exactly the same but with electronic synths mixing with a banjo and some 80’s sounding sexy saxophone and electric guitars.

“Bon Iver” is bigger in terms of production and sound quality but in the same time some songs miss the intimacy that the acoustic simple songs tend to have in “For Emma, Forever Ago”. I can’t help to be a little bit on the fence in the case of taking the bigger Bon Iver as the better one, it is indeed a good album, I’d never say that is the best of the year (like Pitchfork pretends to be saying up to this point), but it is really a good album. I really loved how they included in every song a little bit of horns and sexy saxophones, this details make the LP more pop oriented and maybe that’s why it loses a little bit of intimacy.

None the less, I’m not resisting to the change and I’m sure it will grow on me, and even though is not the best album of the year it’s up there with the ones that stand out.

Tracklist:

1. Perth

2. Minnesota, WI

3. Holocene

4. Towers

5. Michicant

6. Hinnom, TX

7. Wash.

8. Calgary

9. Lisbon, OH

10. Beth / Rest

Rate: 8.5/10

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A Hawk and A Hacksaw - Cervantine (2011)

Heather Trost and Jeremy Barns are no strangers, Heather formerly of the band FOMA and Barnes the former drummer of critically acclaimed band Neutral Milk Hotel, no need to say how big Barnes is in the music world, they’re also responsible on discovering, collaborating and putting on the music map a kid named Zach Condon, also known as non other than Beirut.

With only these references, there’s no need to say how much I expected this LP and how badly I love this band, while a lot of bands of the same scene tend to change the sound, they stick to the Balkan, Turkish and Eastern European sounds and the not compromising sound to a certain ethnicity in particular, each song is rich in influences, experimental and not over the top.

The relevance of this LP is that is the first one they do out of Leaf Records, that was their record label since the beginning, and the reason is that they decided to embark in the adventure of starting their new label called L.M. Dupli-Cations.

In this LP most songs are instrumental, but the focus turns to Stephanie Hladowski voice in the song “Mana Thelo Enan Andra” beautifully executed with Greek musical inspiration remembering the richness of the mix of cultures of the area, and also the more intentional reference to Turkish music in the song “Üskudar”, that mixes earthy sounds with a busy percussion and the perfect mix of nimble strings that go along side with the vocals and a tuba setting the sentiment in the foundations of the song.

The production is impeccable, and some songs mix a cinematic playing with the distance of the instrumentation, in “Cervantine” the strings back out to allow a protagonist lead to the wind instruments and the Arabic Percussion. But nothing sets a romantic landscape like “Lazslo Lassú”, an instrumental piece with accordion and violin that steal the attention of the listener with a crying melody.

This LP is a class act of what A Hawk and A Hacksaw are all about; it has both, sorrow and a playful nature, and ad interesting changes on the production, managing and mixing the sound in familiar ways but with what seems a more oriented purpose, previous releases were a mix of experiences and collaborations that reflect the idea of travels and ethnicity growing together in a jam session, but this time around the spirit is still there but the demonstration is that there is now a path followed and the sound has rested in what becomes a distinctive sound of A Hawk and A Hacksaw.

Being a fan of Beirut for some years now, I loved how they contributed to the sound of “Gulag Orkestar”, and their own records shared a lot of these sounds, but this time around it seems like they’re really reaching for a produced identity that doesn’t show the parade of experience they’re having in their travels, but shows the path that has been already followed, this is by far the most mature album they’ve made, no longer showing their past influences and experimentations of playful and messy nature, but really accomplishing a sound of their own in a very beautiful way.

Miguel de Cervantes would've been proud.

Tracklist:

1. No Rest For the Wicked
2. Mana Thelo Enan Andra
3. Espanola Kolo
4. Cervantine
5. Üskudar
6. Lazslo Lassú
7. At the Vulturul Negru
8. The Loser (Xeftilis)

Rate: 8.3/10

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#FlashbackSunday Leonard Cohen - Songs Of Leonard Cohen (1968)

Of all the singer-songwritters around the music world probably one of the most iconic of all is Mr. Leonard Cohen. He was the first folk artist to make approach to the sound without being part of a political folk movement, such as Joan Baez or the king Bob Dylan, and though he has been an inspiration to everyone that takes a guitar in his hands and tries to become a singer-songwritter the real contribution of Leonard Cohen is the expansion of the genre of folk.

The nature of his songwriting is very lonely and with literal references due to his past as an author on both poetry and a novelist, he touches with complexity stuff like love, relationships and religion. Something that inherited from novels and poetry his songwriting is the expression, only a novelist is capable of creating characters that discover each other without saying who they are, sort of mirror characters that reflect realities of another, the way of composing his songs have this sort of story telling complexities, and everything started in 1968 with “Songs Of Leonard Cohen”, it was his first album at 33 years old and started with his version of “Suzzane”.

“Suzzane” is one of the most iconic songs of Cohen, first recorded by Judy Collins in 1966 then when he made his album he recorded his version, this songs is the one that has most covers of Cohen, covered by artists like Neil Diamond, Nina Simone, Halley Belafonte, Peter Gabriel, Tori Amos and many other influential artists, not to forget the Beck tribute to Cohen making the complete album along side with Devendra Banhart and MGMT in 2009, for one of his record club albums.

Also in the movement of creating a new kind of folk, Cohen was on the center of the movement that later reached maximum capacity with other singer songwriters like Joni Mitchell, Neil Diamond and Tim Buckley (father of another legendary artist Jeff Buckley, who someday I’ll flashback to him as well).

I’m just here to say that this album has is great or that it has historical importance, but in part is important to understand a lot of artist who admit and covered songs of Cohen due his amazing influence such as Nick Cave, Jeff Buckley with his famous cover of “Hallelujah”, Nirvana with the unplugged “Pennyroyal Tea” and the list goes on.

Part of the good music I cover in this blog has Leonard Cohen written in the veins, that’s why I thought it would be important to take some time and pay my respect.

Tracklist:

1. Suzanne
2. Master Song
3. Winter Lady
4. The Stranger Song
5. Sisters of Mercy
6. So Long, Marianne
7. Hey, That's No Way to Say Goodbye
8. Stories of the Street
9. Teachers
10. One of Us Cannot Be Wrong

Rate: 10/10

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DeVotchKa - 100 Lovers (2011)

DeVotchKa has had a lot of ups and downs in critiques opinions, some love them and some hate them, but the real deal is that nobody keeps far away from an opinion; the music they do is very complex due to a multi cultural influence and for sure this sort of experimentation can be very good or very bad, DeVotchKa has been guilty of staying in the gray area, not completely good like Beirut but not near bad either like say maybe Shakira. In terms of influence the new LP “100 Lovers” has every sound expected of one of their records; a little gypsy, a little cabaret, a little mariachi, a little merengue, a little tango, a little bolero and a lot of Eastern Europe folk music (Greece, Romania, Balkan), and the special blend of punk and rock music around this. This alone is a lot to chew, and they never seem to quite get a correct way of organized expression. None the less, the reasons mentioned are what make the albums less than mind-blowing, but they’re far from sucking completely.

“100 Lovers” have more Arcade Fire than I expected, and since the “Little Miss Sunshine” Soundtrack and a Grammy nomination they got to much more fame that even they could expect. Probably that fame is the one that leads to critiques to have two sides of the story they told and tend to judge harshly the fact that mixing all the sounds they do shoes very little commitment to genre and it’s hard to get a grip on what they’re all about, something that sounding more like Arcade Fire will not work. Still the music have a lot to offer, songs like “Sunshine” show a very sort of cinematic psychedelia as the blend with a merengue trumpet and tango violins give a sort of fresher look of the picture in “Contrabanda”, not to miss the centerpieces of the record, more classically DeVotchKa, being “100 Other Lovers” a very Arcade Fire kind of ballad, “The Man Of San Sebastian”, very tango and overly dramatic gypsy act, “Bad Luck Heels”, that mixes mariachi with a very Calexico (ish) sound.

But other songs like “All the Sand In All the Sea” are a display of what DeVotchKa can deliver with a more conceptual songs and transform their typical influences to a regular Indie Rock sound, I’m getting mixed feelings about this, the more I listen this songs the more I like them but the more they sound less a DeVotchKa song, and this talks good about the songs but bad about the band, because somehow I’m starting to doubt about the capacity to keep the sound together. For example, everyone has seen how Beirut pulled of one electronic EP and still sounded like Beirut, no matter if he’s playing with electronic music or with the typical world references of Balkan traditional music and Mexican style inspired songs, and on the same boat millions of artist can stand triumphant, from Calexico to Beck. The mixture turns good only in songs like “The Common Good”, which mixes Middle Eastern violins, with Spanish claps and then a guitar reverb sets noise and sound, but then this experiments of traditional sounds turn back again into indie rock formula.

If one thing they have credit on this album is that is their most accomplished record to date, the production of Craig Schumacher that produced Neko Case and Calexico, and also counts with collaborations of Thom Yorke’s band Atoms for Peace and (not to sound redundant (Calexico), and their rock edge is maybe what keeps them far of sounding as elegant as the rest of the excellent artists that pursue this kids of influences and get them misunderstood. Still is a great record, but not amazing.

Tracklist:

1. The Alley
2. All the Sand In All the Sea
3. 100 Other Lovers
4. The Common Good
5. Interlude 1
6. The Man From San Sebastian
7. Exhaustible
8. Interlude 2
9. Bad Luck Heels
10. Ruthless
11. Contrabanda
12. Sunshine

Rate: 6,5/10

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#FlashbackSunday #Oscars2011 (Ryan Gosling) Dead Man's Bones - Dead Man's Bones (2009)

For the last flashback I’m going to talk about one of my favourite actors and his music project that not a lot of people know, Ryan Gosling is the other half of the Zach Shields; they met when they were dating sisters and in time they started a music project. Now there’s a lot of reasons to be sceptic about this project, for starters, not all actors that make music do it good, and the band was getting inspiration from everything dead, zombies, corpses, heartbeats, and this sort of theme of making music is not very attractive and the last part is the featured voices of “The Conservatory of Music Children’s Choir”, some hipster kids contributing in every song.

The sound of all of this together seems awful, one that only talent could really put together, and the harmonies that they get in here are ones that could make Arcade Fire jealous, they march through a very dense lyrical contents of allegoric and poetic power and the instrumentation goes from interesting percussions to even one song of synths and electronic indie rock that can also remind some of the moments in Oracular Spectacular of MGMT, without making the influences of all the names I’ve said sounding out of place.

Putting kids to say inappropriate stuff like “My Body is a Zombie for You” can also be a treat of this record, and also the playful nature of the kids singing on the top of their lungs and not paying attention to the real intonation but just having fun with it gives it a naivety that’s refreshing. Poetry, sultry, innocence, heartache, zombies, death, wolfs and ghost make of the first album of Dead Man’s Bones a very underestimated album of really epic music delivery.

I really hope this two keep making music and have a better chance of promoting it than they had this time around, if you saw my 2010 best songs list you can find that even last year I was still in love with this Halloween record of 2009 that stickled around long gone Halloween.

In the movie Blue Valentine Ryan Gosling sings to Michelle Williams a version of “You Always Hurt The Once You Love”, which it was a part of the movie trailer and got a space in the Grizzly Bear amazing soundtrack, but this flashback was not about soundtracks but about actors that were not nominated tonight, just a film in which they act, hope you enjoy the awards that are already happening.

Tracklist:

1. Intro
2. Dead Hearts
3. In The Room Where You Sleep
4. Buried In Water
5. My Body's A Zombie For You
6. Pa Pa Power
7. Young & Tragic
8. Paper Ships
9. Lose Your Soul
10. Werewolf Heart
11. Dead Man's Bones
12. Flowers Grow Out Of My Grave

Rate: 9.4/10

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Julianna Barwick - The Magic Place (2011)

Make no mistake when comparing Julianna Barwick to other artists, some people say that she’s sort of the dream pop version of Björk’s Vespertine, and even though this may sound interesting I believe nothing can be further from reality. The works made by Björk when arranging voices is very northern, barbaric, and also a dream pop version of the playful nature of Vespertine is still a non explored territory, something that emerging Icelandic artists into Lo-Fi sounds maybe could explore, but the true nature of the composition in Björk is so sui generis that the only thing that has similar to Julianna’s work is the fact that voices are main part of the instrumentations, also on that note, people should really stop comparing Björk to anything that sounds “odd”.

That said, for a while now I’ve been following singer songwriter Annie Clark’s project under the name of St. Vincent, since a little bit before she hit the road with Sufjan Stevens (who I love even more); Annie does interesting incorporation of voices to decorate her songs, but Annie is not Lo-Fi and she mixes that little playful voices with heavy guitars and strong drums, then the name of Julianna Barwick came across in some work she did with St. Vincent and I knew I could expect great things from her, in 2009 there was one LP called “Florine”, and now Julianna is back with a wonderful second LP called “The Magic Place”. Immediately I wanted to know this place and wanted her to guide me there.

Julianna carefully puts layers of sound and echo siren like voices with deep mystery sounds, each song with a sentiment that grows layer by layer into almost unintelligible sounds that get closer until they finally break in this fantastic place. The LP is a concept that has life on its own, and the magic place is a dark sound running away until the break of dawn, when the sun shows what’s next to come, that moment on earth is captured with tribal African inspired singing and church like humming, an occasional piano give a severe look on details but in the end the light always come.

This LP is as beautiful and hypnotic as it can get, surely that’s why the music not only brings you to a place, but also lets you know in tiny details of sound that that place is magical, you can find peace, and rest. This time around there are no imperative intelligible words, still the music go from a simple proposition to a main argument, this is what Lo-Fi experimental folk is all about, some people say that dream-pop is somewhere hidden in this Magic Place, but I’ll let you be the judge of that while you enjoy this record.

Tracklist:

1. Envelop
2. Keep Up the Good Work
3. The Magic Place
4. Cloak
5. White Flag
6. Vow
7. Bob in Your Gait
8. Prizewinning
9. Flown

Rate: 8/10

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Micah P. Hinson - ... And The Pioneer Saboteurs

Micah P. is a moderate successful singer songwriter, and I say moderate because the quality of his music deserves to be more recognized than it already is.

This guy has opened up for Iron & Wine, Will Oldham and Calexico, and he's quality is equally great.

The music in this LP does not surprise, there are a lot of Gospel, Folk, Alternative Country and Blues influenced sounds that go so well with Micah's warm vocals.

What comes different in this LP is the level of the production, he's working here with strings and orchestral sounds still maintaining his intimate and closeness with the ones who hear, is just a sample of what a spectacle he can be without over doing it, he started this sound in the 2006 LP "...And the Opera Circuit" and this is a continuation of that sound a little bit bigger and better, if you liked that one you'll sure like this one because its indeed a fantastic LP. He says about it on his website that this LP "it's a mix of the baby, the gospel, and the opera, with a burst of violence right in the midst to confuse the confounded", I strongly recomend this highly underated artist and this exceptionally good LP.

Tracklist:

1. A Call To Arms
2. Take Off That Dress For Me
3. 2s And 3s
4. Seven Horses Seen
5. The Striking Before The Storm
6. The Cross That Stole This Heart Away
7. My God, My God
8. Dear Ashley
9. Watchman, Tell Us Of The Night
10. Stuck On The Job
11. She's Building Castles In Her Heart
12. The Returning

Rate: 8.4/10

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Damien Jurado - Saint Bartlett (2010)

Saint Bartlett is the nineth album of American singer/songwriter Damien Jurado, forth album with Secretly Canadian record label (one of the record labels responsable behind the music of a lot of musicians I admire, and that had good music this year such as jj, Antony and the Johnsons or Yeasayer).

This record has a 50/50 take between classic indie rock and folk music; Damien Jurado has made both genres in the past but this time around both form part of the same LP, also the sound of it is very different of what he has done in the past, this is something that from the first song becomes obvious, the singing gets very full of trembling moments, and the instrumentation works with the sentiment not distracting the attention, this gives a feeling that the work on this LP is more personal than before.

This work has really amazing songwritting with the tipical journey into desolation and despare that is usual in Damien Jurado's work, still this LP is kind of a new sound, with complex and simple moments together.

Tracklist:

1. Cloudy Shoes
2. Arkansas
3. Kansas City
4. Throwing Your Voice
5. Wallingford
6. Pear
7. Kansas City
8. Harborview
9. Kalama
10. The Falling Snow
11. Beacon Hill
12. With Lightning In Your Hands

Rate: 7.8/10

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Villagers - Becoming A Jackal (2010)

Villagers are an Irish Indie-Rock with bits of Folk, these new comers front man is a boy named Conor O'Brien that used to be in the band "The Immediate" that used to be very avant-garde, but the rock experimentation is very far from this new band and LP.

The lyrics of this LP are very dark and the music is not cheerful but tones town the content of the lyrics. And song writing for O'Brien looks being born as poetry and then turned into a song. And this first LP is like a complete work, all the songs are perfectly cohesive like making a discourse, but also each song is an individual piece, is not a concept album like one that Neutral Milk Hotel or The Decemberist could do, but non the less its cohesive and carefully put together.

The instrumentation here has strings, an occasional piano and the music reminds me a little bit of early stuff of Arcade Fire, not an unusual sound lately, but also not often repeated this album is not the most original out there but is worth taking a listen and waiting how it evolves.

Tracklist:

1. I Saw The Dead
2. Becoming A Jackal
3. Ship Of Promises
4. The Meaning Of The Ritual
5. Home
6. That Day
7. The Pact (I'll Be Your Fever)
8. Set The Tigers Free
9. Twenty Seven Strangers
10. Pieces
11. To Be Counted Among Men

Rate: 7.3/10

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