Dark Was The Night

Charity compilation albums are always going to be patchy affairs, the limits of diary space mean that they're often rushed and lacking cohesion, but when i heard about Red Hot's Dark Was The Night i had high hopes. Not only is it the brainchild of Aaron and Bryce Dessner - The National being one of my favourite current bands - but it also features a real era-defining collection of artists: Arcade Fire, Beirut, Dave Sitek, etc, the list is like a Pitchfork afficionado's wet dream. Now, having had it on permanent repeat for the past week or so, i can say i'm not disappointed but neither am i blown away, the quality is very high and everyone should go out and buy it, if for nothing else than the trippy way that Antony covers Dylan. But it's still patchy. The highlights for me are the efforts by The National, Yo La Tengo, Arcade Fire (give it a few listens...) and The Dirty Projectors & David Byrne. It's not quite the stake-in-the-earth for independent music that i was hoping for but then again, why was i hoping for that in the first place?

Yo La Tengo - Gentle Hours

Arcade Fire - Lenin

Buy Dark Was The Night here.

Find out more abou the Red Hot Organisation here.

Bon again

At the risk of this blog turning into one long love letter to Justin Vernon (AKA Bon Iver), the winner of BP's album of the year 2008 this week releases a new EP. It's a fantastic collection of four new songs which carries on exactly where his debut LP For Emma, Forever Ago left off. The title track, Blood Bank, is a beautiful soaring song which Vernon told emusic was inspired by cult nineties TV show Northern Exposure. The show was based in a fictional Alaskan town and dealt with isolation and the struggle to find your place in the world. So, Bon Iver's a fan, eh? Could have seen that one coming, I guess.

Download: Blood Bank - Bon Iver

Buy the EP at Rough Trade.
The above photo is from Muzzle of Bees.

Happy Obama day

Today is a great day. I am very happy, like pretty much every right-minded member of the Western world, that Barack Obama is to be inaugurated as president of the United States. Woo. Progress etc. Anyway, another man for whom this represents a monumental day is Mr Saul Williams and to celebrate, he has released this track, Government. It comes on like TV on the Radio jamming with Fela Kuti's band. In other words, great.
Download: The Government - Saul Williams

The top 10 albums of 2008

Oooh a list. On a blog? At the end of the year? With Bon Iver at No1? It's all unheard of, I know, but that's the reality, so deal with it. These are our 10 favourite albums of 2008. The list features Cambodian pop, 8-bit screamo, Balkan folk and electro hair metal but the album of the year is without a doubt, hands-down, number-one-with-a-bullet Bon Iver's For Emma, Forever Ago. It has topped quite a few best-of lists this year (including Rough Trade and Observer Music Monthly), but we've been going on about it all year - we named it best album of the year so far back in July. You can listen to tracks from most of these albums in the player on the right.

1. Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago
2. TV on the Radio – Dear Science
3. Late of the Pier - Fantasy Black Channel
4. MGMT - Oracular Spectacular
5. Beck - Modern Guilt
6. The Shortwave Set - Replica Sun Machine
7. Headless Heroes - The Silence of Love
8. Devotchka - A Mad and Faithful Telling
9. Crystal Castles - Crystal Castles
10. Dengue Fever - Venus On Earth

Winter Listening

It's cold and dark. You've made your end-of-year lists and you find yourself in a musical vacuum, not one place or another. Alcohol and lack of sleep are making you fuzzy around the edges and you're not quite sure what you feel about anything. So, you need some new stuff to keep you going, to give you directions. Here's a couple of things i've been listening to over the past week that are going down well. The first is taken from Mumford & Sons' recent EP and shows why they're getting the hype they are. The second is Cat Power covering Creedence. Not a lot more you need to say about that. Listen and enjoy.

Mumford & Sons - Little Lion Man Download Buy

Cat Power - Fortunate Son Download

Forward Thinking

Before we get into end of the year lists, i want to cast half an eye into the future and think a little bit about what's coming in 2009 and a couple of acts i'm pretty excited about hearing more from.
Up first is Empire of the Sun, one half Sleepy Jackson and one half PNAU this is sheer genius in an electro-Fleetwood Mac way. Combine that with great costumes (see below) and the promise of "theatrical extravaganza" live shows and it's pretty exciting. Bound to invite lots of MGMT comparisons but in our book that's a good thing.

Empire of the Sun - We Are The People

The next is Alessi's Ark, the newest addition to the London nu-folk scene. She plays psychadelic, rustic songs with an innocent, child-like wonder and with rich, expansive production from Bright Eyes producer and multi-instrumentalist Mike Mogis. Think, Alela Diane, Joanna Newsom and Conor Oberst but with a very English slant.

Alessi's Ark - Magic Weather

Alessi's Ark Myspace

The last is South East London band The Invisible. They play intricate songs that feel both raw and complex, somewhere between TV On The Radio, Battles and Plantlife. This is a band that has sprung out of the experimental jazz scene but brought to their skills a punk-funk sound that creates delights like 'London Girl' below. Watch this sub-genre-bending space.

The Invisible - London Girl

Oui oui

Ah Paris. Don't get me started on Paris. Simply, the best place on the planet. But this isn't a travel blog so I'll stop before I launch into a nostalgia marathon about the best time of my life blah blah blah. What stirred my emotions about this amazing city was hearing this remix of Friendly Fires' song Paris by Belgian duo Aeroplane. Now, the original is good enough to send me into a full-on Gallic daydream but this version, which replaces the punk-funk jaggedness with cascading synths and a beautiful female vocal (from Au Revoir Simone), makes me feel like I'm knocking back Leffes with Emmanuelle Béart on the Eurostar - tearing through the French countryside. At night. In the snow. With the lights of the city slowly emerging on the horizon. And then the Sacré Coeur comes into view and... Christ, I think that's enough don't you?

Download: Paris (Aeroplane remix) - Friendly Fires

Buy Friendly Fires by Friendly Fires here.
Ally