Woodpigeon to play Academy 2, 22nd May 2009

The Canadian neo-folk rockers Woodpigeon play Dublins Academy 2 on Friday May 22nd. Their sound fits the indie-folk template adorned by the likes of Fleet Foxes and the Dodos.

The group boast sweet flowing melodys in complement to soaring strings, which result in mellow and breezingly transient songs that give the listener that warm fuzzy feeling inside. Lead singer Mark Hamiltons vocals are suitably rich and elongated reminding me of Sufjan Stevens.

Thanks to Stephen for the heads up on this

Check out this delightful tune:

Bat for Lashes - Two Suns

Natasha Khan a.k.a Bat for Lashes is back with the follow up to her spectacular debut album Fur and Gold of 2006. "Two Suns" follows from the debut with another picnic basket serving wonderful instrumentation with other worldly sounds and provocative lyrics.

She does seem to pick up where she left the last album whilst picking up a few electronic goodies along the way to give an added flavour to the ingredients in her basket. “Glass” is a confident opener seeing Khan place greater emphasis on higher notes than she would have in the past giving an early indication of the added dexterity affixed to her voice.

The natural element of the music that was essential to "Fur and Gold" fades as the album goes on with a new electronic weighting given to the material. Thankfully this is not an overbearing inclusion ,unlike a lot of electro pop records at present. Credible synths will give fans something fresh to relate to. The first single “Daniel” does dwell upon slightly dated 80s flavour, but her unique voice alleviates it from falling over itself.

The album throbs with dense progressive moments over a foundation of sweet ambience but the final two tracks do dampen the flow of the album ever so slightly. All in all another wonderful mystical journey.

Sol Seppy - Enter One

I was watching the last episode in the fourth series of BBCs brilliant show Ideal the other night and this song came on at the end. I felt utterly compelled to hunt for the name of the song and artist.

"Enter One" by Sol Seppy is a powerful, powerful tune. Delicate yet sublime piano notes ascend into a space with the airy vocals to deliver a truly moving piece of music. It demonstrates the ability of an artist capable of calibrating simple sounds and gentle touches to emit music charged with an intimacy similar to some works of Sigur Ros and Ulrich Schnauss.

Listen, then listen again-you might shed a tear!

Jape wins Choice Music Prize 2009

As I predicted Jape wins the Irish "Mercury" prize with his smashing album "Ritual". Great to see the award go to a Richie Egan who seems to persevere through the industry hurdles and constantly deliver quality music that allows innovation and utter charm to stand side by side.

I caught him live at this years Life Festival and god dammit I enjoyed myself

Tenori-on

Flashback from Saturday night!...Four Tet plucked an alien device from behind his effects board that looked like that Lights Out game on speed. The device in play was a Tenori-on. And what a trippy little toy it is. Apparently pressing and holding the switches/lights maps beats and sequences. Something tells me Radiohead will incorporate this onto a live stage, but the whole band absail down a massive board of lights to play "Ideotheque".

I heard about this device before but seeing it in action live was fascinating to say the least.

La Roux - Quicksand

This little nugget of tunage from Englands latest electro-pop hopeful has grown on me over last couple of days. Its so breezy and gives a nice splash of electro-pop to my ears. Its packed with punchy beats and and synths meshed sweetly with Elly Jacksons vocals. The rest of their material isnt bad, check them out here

Seminar on the works of Morrissey, UL, April 23rd

The University of Limerick will play host to a seminar on the writings and works of Morrissey on Friday April 23rd and Saturday 24th. The event intends to divulge into the provocative writings of Morrissey and shed a somewhat academic light on them. The seminar is curated by Dr Eoin Devereux from UL's Department of Sociology.

Following on from this renowned Smiths tribute act "These Charming Men" play Dolans Warehouse on the Saturday (24th)

Tickets and more info can be found here

Four Tet, Saturday 28th Feb, Andrews Lane

I finally got to witness the live sounds of Four Tet on Saturday night and I was quite satisfied. I did notice early on in the night while the support acts were on that there was a scant presence of drums or any other applicable live instruments. As complex as Keiran Hebdens sounds are I thought he would dare to incorporate a live set of drums into the performance.

Tim Exile was on before Hebden and his own electro brand of Jamie Liddell style beat making was damn tasty. A nice dose of tricky loops and crunching beats set up for the main act nicely. During this time though I realised that Andrews Lane Theatre carries sound awfully. The walls at either side of the dancefloor area extend out past the line of the ends of the stage and seem to steal the sound from saturating the room. The venue mad up for it by having some of the friendliest crowds I have come across at a gig. As a friend said to me "I could have happliy left my bag on the ground for the night and no-one would have harmed it"

Hebden graced the stage to applause and lured the crowd into "Ringer" which set the tone for a set flowing with his best tunes that made the "folktronica" tag of which he has attained (reluctantly or not) so popular amongst those in the dance world. I found myself closing my eyes for most of the gig and letting the music fill my ears with absolute delight. The Four Tet sound has that power which can put you in a really positive place. Many of the sets material ("And Then Patterns" and "Sun, Drums and Soil some of the highlights for me) came from the "Everything Ecstatic" album of 2005 which epitomizes the notion that music can act as food for the soul.


Here is the opening of the set: