Seabound: The soul in the machine...

Alright! Another review coming... first of all I must say I loved the comments a little person I have come to know left me here, it really does encourage me to keep posting reviews more regularly. Anyway, today's band is not new to me, I discovered it about 4 months ago when I was digging into electropop through the side-line magazine. This sort of music is VERY different from what I have reviewed recently. It's electropop for one thing, lots of synth pads and leads. It's not trance, house, goa or anything like that. Let me explain here after.

The first time I listened to Seabound it was BOOM, a revelation to me. Why? Because for a long time I have been looking for a band that can get under your skin with only electronic sounds. I'm not much into raving and stuff. This is quite different.

The first song I heard by Seabound was the one called "Watching Over You". It starts with a soft synthpad, slowly growing, inviting, and eternity of emotion in sound... it reminded me so much of the sensation of being in the sea at night, with no lights around, "From the ice, the blinding white. A schooner's gliding through the night" ......until the emotional and devastating melody shifter, as if space turned suddendly to reveal a new dimension of musica landscapes accompanied with the words "To the crag that braves the tide, To the beacon in the night...I trust in you, I'm watching over you". For a complete week these words delved into me. Very much the same way Maps by The Yeah Yeah Yeahs touched me at first, only this is a completely electro-bionical energy flow of sound (the music DOES sound like a mixture of bionic and electronic... as if there was the ghost of a machine was crying at you, so mechanical yet so human).

Anyway... next song heard was a lot faster "poisonous friend" which is now number 1 in Germany's alternative charts I believe. This one is a dance inducer in all aspects, but it speaks of so many other emotions, "Sometimes I watch her kill, Cold eyes and no restraint And I wonder how it feels To annihilate a friend". It was not as touching as "watching over you" but it was a good way to have a perception of how original this duo can be using sounds and rythms to create a completely different musical landscape.

Another song I was very interested in was simply named "torch". The same magical electrobionic sounds I so much appreciate about this band, the pace changed once again to bring yet another soundscape.

Up until now I don't think I have expressed what's what I like the most about this electro duo. Truth be said I love the way their sounds induce moods, they know very well how to drive the subconcious mixing electropop with ambient and when one listens to it your imagination just creates these extraterrestial landscapes, mixture of machinery and the deepest of the human self. I'm really interested in this sort of experimentation with ambient. Aphex Twin's Selected Ambient Works II is the breakground album in this topic, using sounds only (no rythm, no melody, no nothing... sound in its deepest meaning) SAWII could induce you into very real and palpable soundscapes (if not into a really bad nightmare... it has been said that you should never get aslept while listening to this music).

Anyway, I've gone off topic here. Seabound remains one of my best discoveries in recent times. And it's even more important to me because it opened my eyes to the whole electropop genre and some really amazing music I had never heard of (mostly from german bands). I'm surely looking forward their next releases (they released the Poisonous Friend EP just about a month ago and it's simpy amazing).

Seabound has got two full albums made; "No Sleep Demon" and "Beyond Flatline". The later being by far my favorite since I feel they have evolved their sounds into the ambient genre a lot more than what they did in their first album. Listen to them both if you will, I'm sure if you're interested in looking for something new you won't be disapointed.

Facts:

Official homepage: www.seabound.de
Fav. Songs: Poisonous Friend, Torch, Watching Over You, Souldiver, Torn (from No Sleep Demon album)
Similar artists: Melotron, Icon of Coil, Covenant, Wolfsheim
Interesting fact: Beyond Flatline's songs all have gloomy and obsessed lyrics. For instance Poisonous Friend talks about some sort of serial killer roommate; Torch has some sort of apocalyptical view of how the world can be destroyed by desire in the form of fire, etc.

Here's a preview of Watching over you in 192kbs mp3 ....buy the rest of the album, it's great!

And here's one for my friend Cait: Poisonous friend

Metric: Old world underground, where are you now?

I've taken myself a whole week to listen to a wonderful band I just discovered and came to love, Metric.
This was kind of unusual. I was awaken at 3 am on an insomnia night. Turned on the TV, channel 43, MTV (my... it really does show how capitalism works here eh? too underground for afterhours Justin Timberlake freakies? heh).
I've got no idea what the show was named but it had to do with videos of not-so mainstream bands. They played this very very unusually simple video which completely caught my attention (after a post-apocalyptic mini-film some artsy wannabe stupid band video). The video it seemed was filmed with an amateur cameraman, with poor lightning effects, cheesy dancing, etc. It was so reminiscent of the very first generation of music videos in the late 70s (think Blondie videos!) . By the end of the video I concluded two things:

1) It was an 80s band I hadn't ever heard of and,
2) They ought to be british

Well, none of them actually. The song name was IOU and it sounded so kitsch, so cardigans and pulp (the band, not porn), so... I don't know... so creative (in a sort of way). The song started Old world underground where are you now?" and it continued into a crescendo of guitar riffs and frenetic drumplaying, an heavy on bass and piano interlude followed (as if inhalating for a big explosion), hesitation lyrics, and then... "Every ten year-old enemy soldier thinks falling bombs are shooting stars sometimes, but she doesn’t make wishes on them..." with the initial guitars. This one has got to be one of the coolest songs I've heard recently.

Actually "Old world underground, where are you now?" is the name of their latest album (debut? I'm not sure myself. The album itself goes around the ideas of the first song I heard by them, "IOU". It's very varied in style but it retains the british/80's feeling in some way or another. the title of the album actually tells you a lot about the whole idea of the album in my opinion, as if calling for the styles and influences from the past (later part of the 70s, 80s) but using them in order to build something that sounds like a very stylish retro with an affection for the modernity of the years (90s) that left their legacy in the form of the heavy guitar riffs and melodic usage of heavy sound (think of all the influence bands like My Bloody Valentine and The Pixies left for music after the last decade).

As strange as this all might sound I find Metric a very interesting band to look into in coming times. This all mainly because of their originality to mix styles and rhythms (you'll understand this when you listen to it).

The front-woman of the band is EMILY HAINES who is in my personal opinion a great music and lyrics writer, most of them deal with sarcastic criticism to the system (yes, I know nowadays it sounds so cheesy... but that's why you do need to be creative in order to make it sound like really great words of energy and not toilet flush-able naiveness). As far as I know Emily has lived and made music in places around North America and the UK, which does somehow explain the variety of the styles she uses to achieve Metric's sound.

Anyway, this is a great band I have really come to like. I hope I can see them live someday (I don't live in North America). In the meantime check it out and tell me what do you think.

Facts:

Most interesting songs (IMHO): "IOU", "Combat Baby", "Succexy"
Similar artists: The Cardigans, Pulp, The Muffs, Letters to Cleo, The Brilliant Green (japanese, excellent band by the way)
Official site: www.ilovemetric.com (it has lots of mp3 samples and you can watch the videos as well... check out IOU, it's ferociously simple)

Lack of updates

I'm sorry I haven't posted anything this week but I have an important exam due for friday morning, so I'm centering all my attention into it for the time being.

Expect some new reviews on a great band called Metric sometime saturday or sunday. In the meanwhile you can check out their official site and get samples of their music and watch their videos.

So, again I'm sorry I haven't been updating. I'm looking forward writting more stuff by the end of the week.

In the meantime send me an email, or post a comment and tell me if you know any bands you would like to see reviewed here. Perhaps your own band even! Also send me any comments you might have.

Mahler_seele

About the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Karen O

So here's my first significant post.

Right now I'm listening to The Yeah Yeah Yeahs' Fever to Tell album for the 7th time tonight period.
This has got to be one of the most fascinating bands I've discovered in a long time. I just did yesterday almost by accident while sorting around various songs at the iTunes music store. I picked up the most popular song downloaded by them, which was a song called simply "maps". I really didn't appreciate it wholly until I heard the song completely.

The song starts with a intriguing drumbeat and a nailing guitar pointing... it almost seemed inviting. Then came Karen O's broken yet inviting voice... the rest was a mesmerizing experience. I am sure I've heard this song before on the radio, but I hadn't payed it any attention if I did hear it before.

Anyhow, as I said before this is one (if not THE one) of the most shock-experience bands I've heard this year. I had to listen to the whole album. It is quite different from what was introduced by Maps. Most of it has a lot taken from punk and trashy sounds. Yet, this is not a complete irreverent to the public album as I thought it would be.

I'm not going onto the whole album for now, but I must say some things about the Yeah Yeah Yeah's style. When I first listened to the first songs of the album one band name came running into my head: Sonic Youth. Yes, at least to me, they take a lot from Sonic Youth but it also seems to resemble Placebo somehow. Those poignant guitars work very well in setting a general vibe and mood to almost all their works. The same must be said about the drumming, which i have found to be one of the best in years of listening to grunge, trash, indie, punk and general rock (its rhythmic qualities are very well appreciated on "Y Control").

But this band has got to thank all their characteristic sound to one element alone: Karen O's singing. She reflects such a wide range of emotions it's completely mesmerizing. Her singing in maps it's almost desperate, as if calling out for someone just before breaking on a desperate yet silent cry. Yet she changes completely on the next song in the Fever to Tell's Y Control, in which we appreciate her as a full of energy and powerful yet controlled and clean voice that reminded me of some of the singing styles of the mid 80's full of up and lows.

Most people will agree that her voice in Bang (in the Yeah Yeah Yeahs EP) has her completely turned into a sexual element of playfulness that completely guides the song mood. The same happens for Art Star in that same EP, although here the playfulness of her doo-dee-doos around the song are combined with mad shrieks and screams. All in all, her voice is an incredible mood setter and guide to the band in itself.

One other thing to point in this band is their visual presentation. In a recent edition of Rolling Stone's magazine they were selected as the 8th best dressed and stylesetter musicians. Karen O also leads the way here. I read she's also a model and has appeared in the UK edition of Vogue. They've got an everlasting tastefulness to everything they wear onstage, which is really a surprise considering how anarchic and trashy Karen O sounds at her constant changes between shrieks, mad screams, aggressiveness, lusty moans, playfulness, cracking sorrowful sounds, etc.

This is THE most interesting band I have heard in a long time regarding their variety and easiness to create a mood and sonic escapes, at least in what garage sound has to do (I sincerely detest the White Stripes). I didn't really like garage music (at least its latest incarnation) until I heard some of The Strokes songs about a month ago. Now, this band was a complete eye opener for me. I'm going to keep listening for a while and hope I'll delve even further into them in times coming.

Sub-zero version tryout

Ok, so I just signed in and want to try out exactly how this thing works and what it will look like.

Do you people think I should keep this template? It looks way too simple. Is there anywhere I can get better templates around the net?

Well, if everything goes well I'll start posting tomorrow... I'd like to start by making a small impression on the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, which is a band I just discovered today by accident. Also some stuff a friend recommended to me called "Seabound" a german electropop band. very nice stuff.

Please, leave some recommendations... mainly what I want to do with this is making a diary of every new music I listen to everyday, new albums I discover (new and old ones... yesterday I listened to a Berlin album dating from 1982 and it was really awesome!) and some comments on some more music (not necessarily new, again).

Please feel free to post