Javelin - Musical Omnivores

Javelin is a breath of fresh air in the music landscape. They are a pair of cousins from Providence (now based in Brooklyn, of course) well steeped in the mashed up musical styles of the best of modern music. On one track, they'll sound like Thievery Corporation, on another Daft Punk or The Go! Team, and then they'll just sound like a couple of guys with some Casios, a drum machine, and a Coke bottle. It's pretty damn awesome.

My favorites are On It On It, Intervales Theme, and Off My Mind.

The best thing about Javelin is that you can listen to the whole album here.

Bonobo - Not just a horny primate

Ninja Tune DJ Bonobo's latest album is a solid trip-hop effort. Two of the tracks are absolutely fantastic: All In Forms and Animals. Even if you don't think this is your type of music, give the songs a listen at least once all the way through. Bonobo builds a mood and uses dynamic beat changes and instrumentation to pack an emotional punch. In particular, these songs remind me of Cinematic Orchestra.

Check 'em out. If you like these two, his best all-time track is Between the Lines (featuring Bajka). Freakin' jazz flute man. Always a plus.

As always, if you like the songs, pay the man, Shirley.

More Fabulous Ladies - Quadron, tUnE-yArDs and V.V. Brown

Quadron is a Danish dance-pop duo that reminds me of Erykah Badu's first album. The songs are slinky, sly, and smooth. The beats are neo-soul/jazz lo-fi affairs. Average Fruit and
Horse are both lovely. Slippin is a catchy doo-wop affair. Jeans is a little funky masterpiece.



tUnE-yArDs is a one-woman sound machine from Northampton, MA named Merrill Garbus. She takes a Beck inspired any sound is a good sound ethic and creates undefinable music that's melodic and unique. I can hear tinges of world-music, twee, and folk influences as well. Although Garbus plays with sounds, by far her greatest instrument is her amazing, unbridled, and unpredictable voice which she often loops over itself even when performing live. There are several tracks I'd recommend: Hatari, Sunlight, News, Jumping Jack, Safety, Want Me To, and Hap-B.



Finally, V.V. Brown is a soul-pop singer from Britain. She's well (perhaps overly) produced and writes songs that are irresistibly easy to sing and dance along to. If you need something sweet and low-cal, then she's for you. Check out Shark in the Water, L.O.V.E, and Everybody.
Here's the official video for Shark in the Water

Feeling blue? Girl pop will make you feel better.

For the next few days, I'm going to post about my favorite female artists from the recent months. Today I'll start with Annie and Charlotte Gainsbourg.

Annie's music is pure pop. If she were in the States, she'd be Britney Spears, but since she's Norwegian, I can listen to her and still be moderately cool. I'd recommend My Love Is Better, The Breakfast Song and Loco.



Charlotte Gainsbourg has more of an indie sound. Her vocal style would be at home among the late 90s power pop of Liz Phair or Juliana Hatfield, but the songs are sparely arranged, with current folk rock elements (as might be expected from an album produced and largely written by Beck). I'd recommend Me and Jane Doe and Voyage.

Hudson Mohawke - Spacey DJ Guy

These two tracks by DJ Hudson Mohawke are happy, bouncy, high pitched anthems of electronic mayhem.

Enjoy if you like RJD2, Prefuse 73, Emerson Lake and Palmer, or Yes.

Fuse


Rising 5

Lala's Dead - but my blog lives on

Just a quick note to say that most of the links on this blog bring you to Lala which Apple bought and then killed. So as far as I know of, there's no other site where you can legally listen to an entire track. I guess from now on, I'll have to use links to YouTube because there's just no other choice. I would continue to encourage you to buy music you like or buy merchandise from the artist or something so that they get money from their art.

Long live Lala.com. Boo Apple.

http://www.lala.com/