This Music Moment- Belle and Sebastian (2007)

When I mentioned Belle and Sebastian in my post on Two Door Cinema Club, I recalled this particular Music Moment very vividly and instantaneously; I believe I compared Two Door to them because of the instant perking of ears that occurred in both cases when I heard a particular song of theirs.

Belle and Sebastian was a band name I was familiar with, but at the time I could not honestly put a sound to the impression I had of then from their name. Naturally, I thought they were a duo, playing who knows what kind of music. But in summer 2007, I was living in New Hampshire and commuting 70 minutes to Boston to paint the interiors of vacant apartments with my two roommates, Jacob and Claytor. It was a grueling, tough day for us, and I was exhausted for our long drive home. I put on some college radio station to add a little variation to the usual sounds of NPR we listened to most of the time, both driving or working; I just wanted to hear some tunes. After a few songs went by, this one track popped on and I instantly woke up, befuddled and excited, wondering who the hell was making this great, harmonic, classic sounding pop music. The broadcaster didn't mention the band after the song ended, so I had to go home, check the radio stations website and their playlist timeline, and after a long while I finally found what I was looking for. Wrapped Up In Books, track 8 off their 2003 release, Dear Catastrope Waitress:



Naturally, I picked up Dear Catastrophe Waitress, and I was not disappointed. Linkage: It starts off hilariously with a Zombies-style ode to sex with Step Into My Office; they follow that up with the superbly produced title track, a love song to people working dead end jobs with high hopes; their first single from the album, I'm A Cuckoo, is neat but, to me, Wrapped Up In Books is the lynch pin of the album. Further listening comes from their follow up studio album (after a singles and eps collection and a live album), 2006's The Life Pursuit: Act of the Apostle starts it off great; Funny Little Frog is just classic, wonderful, happy go lucky pop song about the idolization of romance. Enjoy, Slingers.



dear catastrophe waitress

the life pursuit

Zucchini Drive - Being Kurtwood (2006)

 Zucchini Drive is an electronic Hip hop duo from Brussels and Sweden. My taste in such fair is pretty selective so if your surprised don't be these guys are very excellent. Lyrically at times they can be easy to dismiss but this is more than made up for with emotional beats and an interesting lo-fi aesthetic.  I wasn't sold on first listen years ago it did take a couple passes but in the end it was worth it. Like i said those these beats are pretty creative often utilizing acoustic guitars and having a decidedly old school flavor. Its possible that this isn't for all parties but it's worth a shot if any of what I just said perked your ear.


Zucchini Drive - Being Kurtwood (2006)

Nicolay- City Lights Vol. 1.5; Here (2005-06)

Its easy to say that Phonte Coleman has really found his own voice and sound since leaving Little Brother. Although Phontes voice goes a long way, a big part of his sound comes from the connection he has with Dutch producer Nicolay. I love all the things these two make together, and recently realized I had dug deep into Phontes earlier work, but had neglected checking further Nicolay.

City Lights 1.5 is a 20 track album of mostly instrumental hiphop tracks; a few have guest rappers rhyming or giving Nicolay a shoutout, but for the most part it is tight, chill beats and nice instrumentation. Here came out a year later, and is an 11 track collaboration he produced and wrote, but it features vocals throughout, focusing on the vocal melodies, rhyming and harmony over the longer instrumentals on City Lights. Both are very nice; heres track 4 on City Lights, Light it Up:



vol. 1.5
here

Russian Circles- Enter (2006)

I met a new friend tonight, and once Don Cab was mentioned in our conversation we went math on each others asses. I showed him some Stage Kids and Mister Metaphor, and he in turn told me to check a bunch of bands.. handsome boy modeling school, pelican, isis, and above all Russian Circles. I know nothing of them, and though I have seen them referenced here at the Swords, I have never checked a review of any of their albums. I know they are a trio; that is it. Listening in a second; track one off their first album, Enter:



enter

Dosh-The Lost Take-2006

I went to a friends house tonight, and connected musically with a few people, two of which were Dre and Brian/ Eric/ Dan, out of Denver Colorado, and the bunch of us got to talking and sharing all kinds of music. They did not have music available, but looking through my iPod they knew a lot of stuff that i had on there, and we started listening together and i branched off a bit into things they hadnt heard. Along the way, the two of them said that their biggest recommendation to me was Dosh, specifically his album The Lost Take. I have just now downloaded it and heard the first few songs and it is hitting home; certainly something i will be digesting heavily soon. Melodic, sweet electro pop so far, with a multi-instrumentalist at front and center, alone, creating sonically great things, as far as production and quality is assumed. Cool stuff so far; heres the first track that comes up on youtube:


This is a track from his 2008 album, Wolves and Witches; its 2 musicians preforming a whole lot of amazing live looping together, just kicking so much ass. More to come; enjoy The Lost Take.

the lost take

Ill Movie Corner- Paprika

I wanted to do a little something different and post a movie i have dug since metaghost and i saw it in theaters, a truly great anime about dream combat, Satoshi Kons 2006 film Paprika. In it, a scientist working with therapists creates a device that enables the therapists to record a patients dreams as visual data on a computer, and in the case of one of the therapists, whose dream name is Paprika, lets her enter the patients dreams and guide them. The device is stolen by a mystery man who terrorizes the minds of the characters experimenting with the devices, and the villain begins making the scientists and therapists unable to distinguish reality from their dreams. It is a mystery from this point on, where Paprika dives into this dream chaos and burrows her way into the source of the evil. Epic stuff.

The opening credits are what i want to share with you; they come after an opening scene in which Paprika enters a detectives dreams to help him solve an emotional conflict dealing with a case he didnt solve. She guides him from dream scene to dream scene, trying to help him get deeper into his issues. They come out of the dream together in an apartment, and at that point you still do not know if what you are seeing is part of the dream, or reality. When the woman hands the detective a card, it says Paprika on it, and you know you are still witnessing a dream; then this happens:

Favorite opening credits of all time. Just in case you want something else to spur your interests, heres the theatrical trailer for this madness. The same song from the opening credits is used here, with another song from the soundtrack serving as the intro, but its such a damn good electropop track, it works wonderfully in both. Plus this shit is in 720 hd.

paprika (trailer)
paprika (film)