it seems like the frog’s ears had been frozen lately. well, even quite a long time ago, as a matter of fact. so today, there’s nothing really new we’d like to show. instead, just feeling like sending an SOS to one of our favourite bands.
published in august 2021 in collaboration with SoundCloud to contribute to the UK mental health charity Mind, this cover of ABBA’s own SOS shows clearly the reverse of Portishead toward minimalism. entertainers, go back to sleep for god’s sake!
it’s been a few days that strong patterns of a newest spring renaissance have been flourishing again, in blatant disregard of the general worldwide hysteria and as pestilence takes maliciously place in its golden nest. however, you will agree that spring is an undisputed invitation to a renewed pas de deux that may be best served by spacey sceneries, in which you can both pirouette and wave from side to side, and which provide you also with a certain mordant touchstone.
this is precisely what Maserati intend with Enter The Mirror, a new tour de force in twenty years of existence, oh yes twenty years of irresistible magnetism, and not the least. this new album expected by the 3rd of april on Temporary Residence shows once again that the years have no hold on the band, whose sound seems always so invigorating and deliciously pleasurable both within and outside the outer space. on this occasion, the 4-headed band unveiled the participation of Bill Berry (R.E.M.), Owen Lange and Alfredo Lapuz Jr., and together, they appear to have operated a resolute throwback to the eighties, as the very catchy closing Wallwalker suggests. Enter The Mirror promises indeed a “compelling mélange of triumphant guitar hooks, abstract synth-pop, and Wax Trax-inspired noise anthems”, inspired by the “gated drums of Phil Collins and chorus-drenched guitars of INXS”. oh my, what a program!
luckily, Der Honig (“honey” in german) demonstrates more the distinctive haste and frenzy specific to the band than a sweetish ballade with flamingo unicorns, mostly due to the obsessive bass which, as usual, pairs majestically with the formidable razor-blade guitar. against boredom, Killing Time develops, in turn, a perfect dystopian scenario for a four-wheel maserati at full tilt heading to an unknown galaxy. the vocoded voice leads us slightly to Carpenter’s Thing but, remarkably, the song moves towards a roughly joyous trajectory, as if our comet had loss control. much to our relief, no thing is to be expected on the way, but a simple wondrous new record by Maserati.
even if it might not be the ideal time to purchase jewels, nobody could refuse some good vibes while chanting ooh la las. so, let’s face it, Run The Jewels manage once again to support us to keep the grapes of the rage and move gently our bums towards positivity. in a video message released yesterday, El-P and Killer Mike introduced, with both seriousness and humour, their fourth jewel logically entitled RTJ4, which has been slightly postponed but is expected by the end of spring. of course, it is needless to say that at the pond we are already quite excited, for all RTJ’s previous albums were of paramount importance in our personal hip-hop wall of fame.
without further delay, pamper yourself with the both new songs taken from RTJ4. The Yankee and the Brave (ep. 4) published on march 25th opens with a calm radio narrative before Killer Mike and El-P enter their usual racing through verses on a groovy bass line.
released yesterday, Ooh La La samples Gang Starr’s 1994 “DWYCK,” which features Greg Nice from rap duo predecessor Nice & Smooth and gets its title from Nice’s line, “Ooohh la la, ah oui oui, I say Muhammad Ali.”
Run The Jewels talked lately to Zane Lowe (who by the way put an end to his flagship show on BBC 1 Radio) to explain the genesis of Ooh La La, pointing out that “this is the first time that Run The Jewels had a real budget to clear samples”. listen to the interview if you need to blow off steam, for the jewels are genuine artists who will provide you with reviving biting vibes.
El-P also posted on Twitter that once the album is finally released, it will be available free of charge, as usual. “Like every album we’ve done #RTJ4 will be available in all the normal places but also as a free download,” he wrote. “This is for anyone who doesn’t feel like they have a budget for music right now or for anyone who isn’t sure they fuck with us yet.”
as the summer knocks once again at the door – in an elusive manner however – and the lily sparkles with new flowering pitch-black bulbs, time has come to pick up the pen again and train a brand new series of movements concurrently. just for the pleasure of regenerating the leaping machinery of our hips. but you should make no mistake about it, for, today, you will be taught astute and very accomplished movements. your teacher is a professional hoofer that participates in street and club dance culture, and also contemporary dance and performance, no less.
the dancer and choregrapher is Amy O’Neal, a physically multi-lingual movement artist.
the video was made by Rick Farin, a director whose website should be visited urgently if you care for space-related contents.
the music is Dancers, a dreamy wrap-around tune taken from Plaid’s latest album, Polymer, released on Warp at the beginning of the month.
speaking of pollutants, the band specifies that the visual, made using motion capture and in a games engine, is inspired by the ‘strength, endurance, and troubling persistence’ of plastics.
needless to say that you do not have to collect as many as plastic containers, bottles or whatever piece of synthetic polyethylene compound to execute a convincing ballet. just let the movements flow and evolve in an aloft manner, making sure to land on your feet again. note that the pond shall not be responsible for any accidents that may arise while practising. would you decide instead to use the plastic parts you collected on the beach, you may somehow relieve the oceans of a suffocating burden. well done, this is a non-zero-sum game.
surprisingly, some fresh air aroused today from london city, offering a pounding noisy flavour to the brexit’s current bustle. conveyed by a young 4-head band named Black Midi, one of new British music’s hottest properties according to NME, this may be the opportunity to raise the tone of the debate. Black Midi evidently made quite an impression at 2018’s Great Escape Festival in Brighton, one of the best scouting festivals for batrachians who are hungry for fresh musical blood. bmbmbm demonstrates a certain level of rage and explosive temper. an obsessive guitar line sets the tone, supported by drums that quickly distort the linearity of the rising melody. the musical bed is dessicated, a voice appears, spoken words backed up by a woman’s screams taken probably from a film sequence. passions flare quite quickly and evolve in a noisy tornado of tempers, where the four gentlemen lose their nerves with a certain elegance.
no one seems to know yet much about Black Midi, with the exception maybe of the lads’ names, i.e. Greep, Picton, Kelvin and Simpson, that’s already something. the band starts precisely today a short British tour, among which six gigs are already sold out, so we assume we should hear very soon again from them. no dates outside the UK are announced yet but luckily enough, KEXP offers us a full session of the band’s performance, recorded in late november at Kex Hostel in Reykjavik during Iceland Airwaves 2018. this might be needless to say that your speakers should be at the maximum, of course.
the tireless and amazing Mogwai announce today the forthcoming release of KIN: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, which is due for release on 31st august via their Rock Action Records label. the band invites us to discover already two very appealing new songs, on one hand, the very shoe-gazing We’re Not Done, a new contagious, and cheerful, singalong melody,
and also the dreamlike, but very intense, Donuts that sees Mogwai carrying on their beguiling journey to the outer space.
the original score was made for Jonathan and Josh Baker‘s debut film, which release is also expected on 31st august. available on CD, digital and heavyweight black vinyl, this new soundtrack is available to pre order now at mogwai.co.uk.
last evening we were rummaging about in one of our record shops, when the recommendation section appealed to us through an alluring cover. a black and white beauty showing punctilious geometrical sketches of buildings, strongly inspired by the darkest hours of humanity. a sticker displayed on the plastic packaging revealing the participation of german artist Andrea Schroeder convinced us that the discovery of Sällskapet would be the most remarkable finding of the day. and, as a matter of fact, it was.
founded in 2003 but kept secret until 2007, the brainchild of Joakim Thåström, Pelle Ossler and Niklas Hellberg, seem to have received almost an immediate critical acclaim, at least in their homeland, in sweden. Sällskapet (which may be translated by “a small group of people” or a “small society”) released the very same year a debut single Nordlicht, named after a bar in hamburg, and two ambient-industrial albums respectively entitled Sällskapet (2007) and Nowy Port (2013). it must be said that both of them evinced already a strong appetite for highly-enjoyable dystopian flavours and murky shadows. with 2018’s Disparition published a few days ago via BMG, the band that no longer consists of Thåström who appears however as guest singer, further widens the furrow of desperation and propounds a disquieting suburban wander in an oppressive, uninviting wasteland – served also by Andrea Schroeder’s eerie voice. Hellberg resides currently in berlin and this explains logically the relevant presence of Schroeder on this third album, and the singular hopelessness instilled through the nine meaningful pieces offered by Disparition.
the heart-rending (german) lyrics of this breathtaking songwriter and musician, whose discovery a few years ago had hooked us on for months, pair superbly with Sällskapet’s haunted airspace. together, they collide with the disruptive disappearance of both people and time, the fugacity of our lives that fly away like impatient birds, and the needfulness to enjoy each moment, as they arise.
all this might sound quite distressing and tragic, but the warmth of Andrea Schroeder’s undaunted voice suggests to withstand, even if time remains elusive eventually. in Die Zeit vergeht (time is flying by), the piano and violin notes, and Schroeder’s mellow lalalas magnified by Thåström’s upper voice, make every effort to soothe the palpable tension but are quickly rejoin by sultry and threatening humming. the end of the song sets clearly the tone anyway, since “es ist zu spät” (it’s too late). an obvious magnificence emanates from this inescapable despair through Ossler’s roaring guitar, which howl acts as a cry wolf in a puzzling winsomeness.
Westerplatte and Tiefenrausch, the both unspoken songs, confirms the inevitability of the verdict in a very beguiling spectral way. this might be the very end, but this is a very beautiful one. with Walzer, Schroeder breathes nerve, shows that all this is bearable, provided that you/she hold tight to someone – “an Dich” (to you), this very you that may be a lover, a friend, a compass, a lifeline, indeed something, someone of upper importance. in Wandler, Andrea Schroeder tells about her stroll in ghostly streets. she dreams about life, about death, she states that this is only a dream, yet it conveys a bitter aftertaste that this is an inescapable loophole.
in the end, it makes no difference whether you understand Goethe’s language or not, because Sällskapet’s music and surroundings, together with Shroeder’s cogent interpretation, speak for themselves and deliver the message intended quite plainly. unquestionably, Disparition is the ideal spacey companion till doomsday and has already entered the competition for the best album of the year. because never before had the quietus been so inviting.
Disparition can be purchased here.
in 2016, Monument Builders, Loscil‘s 11th album to date, had shaken the pond with a boundless, high-spiritual beauty. Scott Morgan, who acts behind the moniker of Loscil and was also the drummer of the amazing indie band Destroyer, has been writing experimental, ambient music from his homeland in vacouver, canada, since 1998. unsurprisingly, his contemplative music is housed at Kranky, one of best labels, if not the greatest, dedicated to this very kind of music that scorns confined boundaries and wanders towards puzzling, yet appealing, unlimited landscapes.
Loscil has just released a graceful composition entitled Boreal. this beautiful piece of reverie and escapement was created using samples from Glenn Gould’s former Steinway Piano – CD318, which is currently housed at the National Arts Centre in ottawa. Boreal is an excerpt from a set created for Ryuichi Sakamoto’s Glenn Gould gathering held in tokyo in december of 2017 and we sincerely hope it may spark off a new captivating album.
bosom friends of melancholy, heady bum-swinging melodies and musical experiments, they will for sure greatly rejoice to discover Pale Grey‘s music. the pond got hooked today by the band’s most recent song entitled Late Night featuring the terrific voice (and phrasing) of Serengeti, one of the pond’s favourite rappers.
the four-headed belgian band published last year a very elegant EP entitled Ghost via Jaune Orange and has just released Waves, a very inspired second album on which indie pop, electronica and groove pair admirably with hip hop, but also abstract notes and evident spleen. the band’s new album is a logical follow-up of their 2013’s Best Friends that contained already very valuable and peerless melodies. Pale Grey’s post-rock stimulus has been evidently eclipsed by more incisive shining indie tunes and thoughtful compositions.
Waves is a sparkling wonder, the perfect nonesuch to wait for the spring. you can listen to it entirely and purchase it here.
to commemorate Jóhann Jóhannsson’s early death, we invite you to read Richard Allen’s tribute on A Closer Listen. as you may know, the pond and A Closer Listen share more or less the same taste for music, especially when it goes to ambient and post rock music. and especially when Richard Allen takes up his pen to sublime the music we also enjoy.
One of our favorite composers, Jóhann Jóhannsson, passed away on Friday in Berlin at the age of 48, and we already miss him. In addition to producing some of the finest music of our time, he was also a wonderful conductor and humble performer. His notes speak directly to the heart, which is why our hearts […]
the pond was devastated as we heard about the death that the wonderful, unique, magnificent Jóhann Jóhannsson. we had the great chance to meet him personally in 2004 in Reykjavik after the release of his very first, already brilliant, album, Engläborn, which had kept us company on our road tour in iceland.
the loss of this incomparable composer is pretty disheartening, but his music will keep our soul and body together, possibly until the end of time.
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