Mflow - Music is better shared

I could talk about music for hours. Getting together with trusted music advisors and asking them what are you listening to can be an illuminating insight that will leave me armed with names of albums and artists to discover, treasure and enjoy. In the past that meant scribbling a name on a napkin, shuffling to a record shop and buying perhaps one or two cds. Not any more.

This is the 21st century and this is web 2.0.

Now you can head over to Mflow, the music equivalent of twitter and discover all the music you like.

Still in beta Mflow opens up to the world on 15 April. Basically it works like this. Download the free software and you're presented with a generic iTunes like page. Here's the twist - follow other mflow users and they can follow you. If someone reccomends a track it will turn up in your inbox. There you can listen to it in full. Follow more people and the more you can listen to for free. Of course you can buy a track, and if someone buys a track you flowed to them, then you get credited with 20% of the cost of a new purchase.

Tim Lovejoy, NME and other tastemakers are already flowing, but I'm looking for a Paste Magazine style flower to point me in the right direction.

If you want in early try using these invite codes:

ZANE444 or CLASH0403

The Cave by Mumford and Sons is currently the most flowed track. My username is andrewwilliamson, follow me!

One to watch - Joe Pug

Listen to "Nation of Heat" EP on Spotify.

And through spotify web link.

If, like us, you like Josh Ritter, Bob Dylan, Tom Waits, Ryan Adams or others who have a way with a voice and an acoustic guitar then you might like to check out Joe Pug.

He studied playwriting at the University of North Carolina and has just released his debut full length album, "the Messenger".

He sings with heart, empathy and emotion. His EP is on Spotify, check it out.

Good night Sparklehorse

Good night Sparklehorse

This weekend, we learned the sad news that Sparklehorse frontman Mark Linkous had taken his own life. The New York Times reports that Linkous shot himself in the heart in Knoxville, Tennessee. He was 47. His hushed beautiful music grew out of his habit of playing the piano at night and trying not to wake his wife. He enjoys an album with one of the longest titles in music history - Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot .

It was was "It's a Wonderful Life" that really drew me to Sparklehorse. A wonderful album packed full of interesting collaborations that abounded with optimism. Unfortunately for Mark Linkous it was not to be. We'll miss him.

Listen on Spotify

Fiction Fight - Jacob

Fiction Fight are an up and coming Coventry, UK-based band delivering a mixture of alternative and electronic music with strong lyrics and melodies.

Fiction Fight's latest EP, Jacob, is described by the band as a mixture of early TV on the Radio with the strings from Bjork. There are definitive hints of TV On The Radio but it sounds to me to be much more like the dark, brooding guitar of Mogwai or Boards of Canada with an electronic alter-ego.

The EP opens with "Broken Drum" and the sound of a looped, (broken?) drum beat and atmospheric guitar chords. The three members are Josiah Gillespie, a homegrown, heart-on-sleeve folkster from America and Cornwall, Chris Donald, post-hardcore kid fresh from the Yorkshire scene and Rachel Challis, drummer turned guitarist turned singer. Most tracks on the EP feature layered male and female vocals over electronic drums similar to Radiohead's Amnesiac era, especially (think Pulk/Pull Revolving Doors or Idioteque)

Clouds, the third and significantly strongest track, brightens things up with a pretty, Air- Moon Safari -like melody, a rising chorus and a wonderful grooving bass line ending wonderfully with reverb drenched vocals and horns.

To fill the expansive sound out live, the tour band includes Tim Pitt on drums, Matt Donald on bass and Nathan Leigh on keys. Luke Richardson (keys/trumpet) and Anna Brigham (violin/cello). They will shortly be touring the UK so keep your eyes peeled for some fresh new alternative electronica

Fiction Fight on MySpace

BUY FROM iTUNES

BUY CD

BUY FROM BANDCAMP

The Canon Logic release "Avenue Of Criminals" soon and you can stream the album above. They have now relocated to New York but the new album retains their their idiosyncratic indie sound from fantastical piano-driven pop songs like “Nights At Armor Mansion” to the bouncy, infectious “Avenue Of Criminals” (which brings to mind a more upbeat version of fellow New York transplants the National) and the stripped-down, lo-fi interlude “Last Day Of Man,” FM Arcade is literally the sound of this band discovering—and challenging—themselves.

Jamie Cullum - The Pursuit - album review

Jamie Cullum – The Pursuit
(Verve/UMe)


Jamie Cullum is smart. He's an exceptionally talented jazz vocalist and pianist but he knows that jazz doesn't sell big these days, pop does. But he also doesn't want to sell out. Sure he has to write tunes that will please the masses but to satisfy his own musical needs he can throw in an adapted Monk lick over Cole Porter's “Just One of Those Things” or deconstruct the Harry Secombe/Tony Bennett classic, “If I Ruled The World”.

But let's cut to the chase, The Pursuit has converted me. There is something to Cullum. I wish he was a bit more jazz and a bit less pop but I realise that the bank manager says he has to be. Instead he can take the best of pop and make it jazz. Here Cullum reimagines songs from Not While I’m Around, that sentimental ballad from Sweeney Todd, to Rihanna's pop favourite “Don't Stop The Music”. This is the the highlight of the album, he manages to retain the infectious hook of the chorus yet stripping down the song to the bare essentials, simple chords and brushed snare drums, until the verse builds to the familiar chorus. Cullum breaks off for some exceptional piano fills before returning to where he started.

The album features a variety of beats, production techniques and styles. He is clearly branching his wings and for the most part it works. He is clearly a talent and this is his most experimental album to date. It will be very interesting to see the direction he takes from here, but for now lets sit back and enjoy the music.

Rating: 4/5

Review - Josh Rouse - El Turista

Josh Rouse – El Turista
(Bedroom Classics) 22 February 2010

Five years ago Josh Rouse moved to Valencia, Spain with his new (Spanish) wife, Paz Suay. In 2005 he had just come off the back of the highlight of his musical career, a trilogy beginning with Under Cold Blue Stars, followed by '1972' (2003) and finally Nashville (2005). He met his new wife, left his longstanding relationship with Rykodisc and relocated to Spain, to release new recordings under his own label, Bedroom Classics.

The albums which have followed – Subtitulo (2007), Country House City Mouse, and She's Spanish I'm American EP (2008) are in truth, inferior to his previous output. While they are undoubtedly infused with Spanish sun and mediterranean rhythm, the melodies and hooks just aren't as good.

So by 2010 and the release of “El Turista” Josh has taken a different route. This time he is deliberately trying to be different. El Turista is a midwestern guy doing Brazilian songs in Spanish. Does it work? Well, a little.

El Turista is not going to please masses and gain five star reviews the way 1972 and Nashville did. It feels rather like an indulgence. We shouldn't expect an artist to stay still, especially not when they are surrounded by a new set of influences but nor should an artist expect to succeed at every style he turns his hand to. Josh showed that he can write a concept album (Under Cold Blue Stars), recreate the 70's (1972) and turn his hand to a great varieties of styles on Nashville so it is only natural to expect him to continue.

Taking a leaf from Paul Simon on Graceland he opens with the instrumental “Bienvenido”, before moving onto “Lemon Tree” and “I Will Live On Islands” with percolating Afro-Cuban grooves. The songs alternate between english and spanish.

The stand out track is probably “Sweet Elaine”, rather like an outtake from Nashville (think My Love Has Gone but with a double-time Latin beat and billowing strings. The record was inspired by a Bola de Nieve record which features Cubans signing in Spanish. If Cubans can do it, why not a Nebraskan?

Josh says “I've made records in the past and thought 'A lot of people might like this' but that never really happened during this record. I mean I want people to hear it but I really made it for myself'.

It sounds that way, fun, and I'm sure an artistic challenge, but I don't think a lot of people will really like this.

Rating: 3/5

Listen to Josh Rouse on Spotify

Elliot Smith

Ever since Elliot Smith tragically died on 21 October 2003 I have had this fear that people will forget about him. I'm currently listening to, rediscovering and enjoying his last proper studio album: Figure 8.

Check out this for a great Elliott Smith song

My friend Matt gave me a copy Figure 8 in the summer of 2000 when I was recording an album. He waxed lyrical as a producer does about how the vocals are double tracked and panned left/right. and how he put delay on a whole drum kit on "Everything Means Nothing To Me".

Not only did he play all the instruments but he constantly innovated with alternate tunings and effects to create multi-layerd sonic textures while always leaving a strong melody in place.

My iTunes classifies him as lo-fi alt. singer-songwriter but he turned to many styles throughout his brief career. To anyone out there who has missed Smith, do yourself a favour, give it a listen.

Essential Elliott Smith

Jamie Cullum - Valentines Day Ep titled Love Ain't Gonna Let You Down

VALENTINE'S DAY
EP AVAILABLE EXCLUSIVELY ON ITUNES NEW ALBUM, THE PURSUIT OUT MARCH 2
U.S. TOUR TO FOLLOW

Celebrate Valentine's Day with Jamie Cullum's Love Ain't Gonna Let You Down EP (Verve/UMe) released exclusively through iTunes on February 2, 2010. Featuring three songs of love from his upcoming album The Pursuit, out March 2, 2010, the EP highlights two Cullum originals "Love Ain't Gonna Let You Down" & "I Think, I Love," and his heartfelt take on the Stephen Sondheim standard "Not While I'm Around" from "Sweeney Todd."

U.S. tour with Verve labelmate Imelda May on March 4th in New York.

Tour Dates:
Mar 4 2010 The Town Hall, New York, NY
Mar 5 2010 The Keswick Theatre, Philadelphia, PA
Mar 6 2010 House Of Blues, Boston, MA
Mar 7 2010 9:30 Club, Washington. D.C.
Mar 9 2010 Massey Hall, Toronto, CANADA
Mar 12 2010 Cobb Energy Center, Atlanta, GA
Mar 13 2010 James K. Polk Theater, Nashville, TN
Mar 14 2010 Roberts Orpheum Theater, St. Louis, MO
Mar 16 2010 Park West, Chicago, IL
Mar 20 2010 Commodore Ballroom, Vancouver, CANADA
Mar 21 2010 The Moore Theatre, Seattle, CA
Mar 22 2010 Crystal Ballroom, Portland, OR
Mar 23 2010 The Fillmore, San Francisco, CA
Mar 25 2010 Avalon, Los Angeles, CA

I know that feeling.. what's her name?

Hilarious

I love this video



Zero Gravity Dog

New Josh Rouse album - El Turista

I was dissappointed not to see any Josh Rouse records in the best of decade lists as I would rate "Under Cold Blue Stars" and/or "1972" as worthy inclusions in any top 25 albums of the decade.

Anyway, his next album, ‘El Turista’ (Bedroom Classics) will be released on Josh’s own label Bedroom Classics via a new distribution deal with ADA Global.

His PR says it is unexpected and utterly sublime, and El Turista’s sultry song cycle will shuffle seamlessly in tandem with Getz/Gilberto and Graceland, albums as boldly surprising in their eras as El Turista is in this one. The record marks a new direction for the critically acclaimed cult artist, while offering the musical sophistication and emotional depth Rouse’s devoted constituents have come to expect from him thanks to a consistently enthralling body of work highlighted by the modern-day landmarks1972 (2003) and Nashville (2005), both of which are generously sampled on the marvelous 2008 Rhino retrospective The Best of the Rykodisc years.

The new CD bears the distinct influence of Spain, as did the dissappointing Subtitulo, so here's hoping this one is better.

Brrr it's cold

An amazing photo of the icy britain.