Where to begin? Lordy, lord. I´m rarely into postrock/shoegaze-stuff but this record blew me away to another dimension.
It´s an arresting moment of clarity. A dangerous retrospective sense of lost memories. Tears to my eyes. I feel sorry for the earth, I feel weaker and stronger than ever. Double vibes of eternity.
This is post-everything. Mono don´t use their rock n roll guitars the way you would imagine. It´s texture. It´s fantasy. It´s above the clouds and underground.
This is shoegaze without the arrogance. It´s – first and foremost – feelings. Big, strong, everlasting feelings. A soundtrack to a Haruki Murakami book.
My lungs struggles for air, my heart pounds hard. This could knock you down and out. Mono makes the strongest blend there is.
Mono is from Tokyo, Japan. This is their sixth album. They started out in 1999 and keep coming back for more. The four members Takaakira Goto (sologuitar), Yoda (rhytmguitar), Tamaki Kunishi (electric bass) and Yasunori Takada (drums) tours the US right now and heads for Europe later on.
‘For My Parents’, with a great and emotional front picture, was released on September 4th. An all instrumental, epic piece of bewildering art. They have a full-scale orchestra in the studio and it´s dedicated to their parents. They´ve made an effort well worthy a Kentucky Seven!
PS: You know the world is a fucked up place when Mono´s venue in Gothenburg, Sweden is Truckstop Alaska. But hey. I´ll be there. Forever and ever.
I´ve always been hooked on Calexico. Their dusty stuff mixed with a bottle of caramba. A lonely guitar in love with the mariachi, a folk-country band who never holds their corner. Desert noir.
Algiers, the sixth album from Joey Burns´ and John Convertino´s band, is recorded in New Orleans. The town made the album, a rebirth for these mavericks. I like the way Calexico makes an effort, stretches out and write pretty spectacular songs.
Calexico is a true Kentuckysevenband. Based in Tucson, AZ, the band mix their Southwest-sound with everything good in the world. It´s always for real and never easy.
During the past 14 years the band have self-released eight tour CDs. They will now hit the public eye, and on top of it all the band have picked out 16 songs on this ”greatest”-compilation. Makes me wanna stay indoors, next to the stereo, all winter long.
We got country, americana, indierock, and jazz – sometimes all in one song. It´s instrumental cowboysongs, the band saddle up and head onto the prarie. It´s a perfect introduction to Calexico, or a daring distraction to the studioalbums. Either way – this is drugs to my ears.
The sextet from Newcastle. With such an introduction, you kinda wonder what you are in for. Thinkin of Newcastle, brings, at least for me up pictures of dirty workers, hard life, and pretty rough music style.
Lanterns On The Lake sounds nothing like Newcastle. The dreamy sound of Hazel Wilde’s voice and the almost creepy closeness of the rest of the band. It is intimate, it is an exciting mix of dreampop-americana-shoegaze-greatness.
The album, the eleven songs stick together, though not conformed. This is an album that will evolve with every listen. I am still mesmerized by how large it is. The feeling of complete and utter understanding of sound. Sound that you carry with you for a long long time.
Once again a debut album makes me really really excited. Music at its very best.
5 out of 7 for Lanterns On The Lake. I am sure that they will be on a lot of EOY-lists when we sum up 2011. I am sure.
¤ This is nothing new under the sun. This is full proof, one hundred per cent, bootstompin, regular fit, no bullshit, highwayadoring music. Old-Stove-Rock-n-Roll.
Black Francis’ collaboration with Reid Paley was recorded in two days in Nashville, Tennessee. All first takes. The pals wrote the music in Paley´s apartment in Brooklyn over three afternoons when Francis was in New York. They cut out all nonsense.
It all comes together in the song ‘Seal’. Just a beautiful, swaggering tale with an irresistible backbone of guitars, a bonafied small song that grows up to a 10-storey-building. The way it sneaks up on you makes me wanna go sky-diving or head straight into the next bar. I could have ‘Seal’ on repeat all year around – still smiling.
Black Francis is best known as the frontman if The Pixies and solo-ing as Frank Black. Reid Paley is a NYC singer-songwriter who had different band constellations since the 80’s. Together they sound great. It´s not a masterpiece, but it´s a sweet companion. Fair enough.
Sweden has a way of breeding extraordinary musicmakers, that is a fact. And has been so for quite some time. Bella Union has made it clear that they are signing the absolute best there is today. This is no exception.
I Break Horses, Maria Lindén and Fredrik Balck has taken this fine tradition and taken it to the next level. With their album Hearts they have created a buzz all over the musicbusiness, and no wonder.
The album is shoegazing-pop-dreamy-electronica in a way that it is meant to be. It’s like listening to an art exhibition in some ways. The songs just makes you want to frame them, and show them to all your friends.
I would like to say that this album consists of pure magic, and love for the music. It is apparent to the listener that these folks, they know what they have done.
I Break Horses – Hearts 6 out of 7. Just like that.
Trevor Moss and his lawfully wedded wife Hannah Lou bring us a folky piece of record that is pretty much up our devoted Kentuckyseven-alley.
These Londoners made a choice and left the city, moved to the southeast of England and into a 14th century pub where they live and recorded this sweet piece of music.
My personal fav is the awesome Charlie Parr-cover Cheap Wine. Trevor Moss does this in an uptempo-feetstompin-beautiful-version that makes me wanna embrace this world we wander.
QFL&F is an old-fashioned album. Something to ponder, something that will sink in. It is also a sweet summer-record to enjoy with family and friends. Life doesn´t have to be harder than this. We dig.
This is – without any doubt in my mind – one of the best records of 2011. The voice of Dallas Green keeps knockin down my door, begging for another listen. Well, I wont let the man down. He is a genius.
City And Colour´s third full-lenght album is simply beautiful. This Canadian fella just needed to sing his first words and the hook hit my heart. It´s a multifaceted tool, it´s a six-way street, it´s all of the above.
The songs were recorded at Catherine North Studios in Hamilton, Ontario – a converted church with wideopen architecture – with producer Alex Newport (Death Cab For Cutie) at the helm. They´ve made a masterpiece.
Take the Dylanesque twist of ‘The Grand Optimist’, where Dallas Green sings of his dad who always sees things on the bright side. Then, the chorus with the fateful chord and the everlasting line: ”I guess I take after my mother.” Brilliant.
Or the haunting ‘O´Sister’ who describes the struggles faced by the singer’s own sister through some really tough times. Moving, strong stuff that will make a difference to people. It´s nervy and anxious. It´s hard to get by.
Release date: 2011-06-06 Label: Transgressive Records
Lauren Doss, a 25-year-old songwriter, self taught, super talented is really something else. When I stumbled upon the record I did not know what to expect. At all.
Admitting that I do have a soft spot for great female voices, this made me very surprised and excited. The record makes the listener unpatient. What will next song sound like. I need this kind of music in my life. We all do sometimes.
Living With Ants is not just another record. This is great, in all ways thinkable. There are some great connections in the lyrics, to the sound. Like great conversations, inside of the, what I imagine, great writers-mind of Lauren Doss and her friends in Mechanical Bride.
I picture the band in an intimate setting, playing all-acoustic with a completely silent audience baffled in front of them. Wish I could be one in that crowd.
Five 7′s is a bit cheap, but I know that Mechanical Bride is going to greater stuff further down the road.
¤¤¤ Circuital is My Morning Jackets 6th studioalbum. The titlesong, and the album as a whole, is all about coming home.
The band with singer Jim James as the leader of the pack, got back to the homestate of Kentucky and made this one. Good move, it´s their best record so far.
Circuital was recorded in the gymnasium of a Louisville church under the aegis of producer Tucker Martine (Spoon, Decemberists). Converting the gymnasium into a recording studio must have been a pain, but it paid off. The album is recorded live, with James vocals recorded at the same time as the band´s performance.
First and foremost, this is an album. A unit of songs that belong together and need each other, a solidarity, a scarce item in the world of music today. I kneel to the power of these 10 songs. Together they break down walls.
In my mind My Morning Jacket is one of the world’s greatest rock n roll bands. They got their own thing going. You can only compare them to themselves. It´s like listening to a good friend, someone you don´t ever want to shut up. It´s like having drinks without the hangover.
Kentuckyseven (of course) loves Kentucky. My Morning Jacket is a great ambassador of the Kentuckian gospel. Long live the bluegrass state.
On #9 Slow Slow Tune I get a feeling of a high-school-prom. Standing next to a beautiful girl, or just a girl, hands sweating, guts disappearing, life pumping thru the veins. Feelings.
This is a classic record, don´t miss it.
¤¤¤ 6/7 Kentuckyseven´s
¤¤¤ Drink while listen: Bourbon
¤¤¤ Best songs: Circuital, Wonderful (The Way I Feel), Holdin’ On To Black Metal.
