Having toured with the likes of The Walkmen, The Decemberists and Okkervil River, Dan Mangan has come a long stride from his hometown of Vancouver, Canada. Oh Fortune is a rather ambitious album offering up a rich, textured, indie-folk sound.
“The sound has been stretched in different directions by the players and how they’ve warped my mind over the last few years,” Dan admits, adding, “I always simply aimed to surround myself with people who were creatively inspiring.”
“There exists in Oh Fortune this chaos of juxtaposition. It could be taken as a sad or dark album, yet musically it kicks with more ferocity and tenacity than people may expect from Mangan. It debates melancholy while it anticipates incredible moments of glory and victory. It’s not sad, it’s simply honest. Life is just that.”
We’ve got this one on repeat repeat repeat like woah. Surface to Air are proud to announce you they are back with a new playlist from their studio. For this seventh playlist they’ve featured some classics tracks like The Kinks, Marvin Gaye, Etta James, The Emotion and r’n'b & hip hop talents such as the lovely Brandy & Monica or the outrageous Gucci Mane & more…
LISTEN ON THE SURFACE TO AIR BLOG OR ON SPOTIFY.
“With a name that means “new wave” in English and “bossa nova” in Portuguese, Nouvelle Vague’s moniker neatly sums up the group’s concept: remaking classic new wave singles with a Brazilian pop twist. Nouvelle Vague are the brainchild of French producers Marc Collin and Olivier Libaux…”
“…Prior to this collaboration, Collin played with the trip-hop outfit Ollano; composed film soundtracks such as The Kidnapper’s Theme; and released electronic music ranging from club-oriented material for Paper Recordings to more eclectic fare for Fcom and Output Records (under the aliases Avril and Volga Select, respectively). Libaux played with various French pop bands during the ’90s and began working with Collin in 1998. For Nouvelle Vague, Collin and Libaux recruited half a dozen French and Brazilian vocalists who were unfamiliar with the original versions of songs like Joy Division’s “Love Will Tear Us Apart” and XTC’s “Making Plans for Nigel” to ensure that their renditions had their own identity. Nouvelle Vague was released in Europe in 2004 and received U.S. distribution in spring 2005, which coincided with tour dates in locales as far-flung as Shanghai, New York, Los Angeles, and Rio de Janeiro.” – iTunes
Nouvelle Vague: Version Francaise £16.00. CD now available in store.
This limited edition box set celebrates ten years of the Late Night Tales compilations, including all 27 albums from the Late Night Tales compilations over the past 10 years. Only 200 copies have been made, so you just might want to pop in and get your hands on your own.
“If you are currently holding this amazing boxed set in your hands, you have not only got yourself a delightfully lavish collectors’ item, but also a minor history of music itself. We can’t think of a better way to enjoy the impending apocalypse than hunkering down in the nuclear bunker with only Late Night Tales for accompaniment.” – Late Night Tales
Whilst the collective Fashion weeks have been going on we’ve been tapping our feet to new releases, cranking up the sound system on the Shop floor (sssh don’t tell the boss) and getting an education in new music. Here’s just a few of the new albums gracing the speakers, we like, we think you will too. Hear them here.
Speech Debelle, Freedom of Speech. Big Dada Records.
I’m with it…listen to this.
Bonobo Black Sands, Ninja Tunes.
Bonobo, Black Sands
Listen to him here.
Field Music/ Plumb, Memphis Industries Records.
Listen up here
Damon and Naomi; with Ghost.
We love them. Hear them here.
Selected by label head-honcho Gildas Loaëc and Int party hopper/artist ‘André’ Saraiva, KITSUNÉ PARISIEN showcases the cream of the new Parisian music scene.
No surprise, these two know a thing or two about Paris and music. Loaëc was Daft Punk’s right hand man for fifteen years before founding Kitsuné. Whereas André, having long sprayed his ‘Monsieur A’ over the capital’s walls, always welcomes up & coming bands and djs in his various clubs, which in return have become essential platforms for local new talents to emerge.
KITSUNÉ PARISIEN officially digs the next breed of Parisian acts. The new French Touch has landed!
Catch the best of the Paris music scene here
Tribe’s ‘Baby’, out on the 16th January 2012, Island Records. Gotta be said, we rather like these guys…
Tribes are a British four-piece rock band from Camden, London. Formed in 2010, the band consists of Johnny Lloyd (formerly of Operahouse), Dan White, Miguel Demelo and Jim Cratchley.
Think Razorlight, the Pixies and throw in a bit of Libertines and you’ve got a rather cool Camden band heading for great heights with their debut album, and they’re pretty good live too!
TRACK LISTING:
* 1. Whenever
* 2. We Were Children
* 3. Corner Of An English Field
* 4. Halfway Home
* 5. Sappho
* 6. Himalaya
* 7. Nightdriving
* 8. When My Day Comes
* 9. Walking In The Street
* 10. Alone Or With Friends
* 11. Bad Apple
Our favourite track released last year is Sappho watch it HERE.
We’re feeling ever so slighty vintage in store this week and while we were putting our spotify music playlist together found these corkers. What’s not to love about unwrapping some original vinyl?
In store now:
Haynes CHRISTMAS – The Ultimate Guide To The Festive Season £8.00, Rosie Thomas A Very Rosie Christmas! £14.00, Phil Spector – A Christmas Gift for You £12.00, Sufjan Stevens – Songs for Christmas £18.00.
The OFFICERS debut album ‘On The Twelve Thrones’ is being released on 17th October via their own label ‘Original Wall of Death Recordings’ and will be available in store at The Shop at Bluebird.
Officers – On The Twelve Thrones – Artwork: Stuart Semple
We can’t wait as in their own words this album of anti anthems promises to expel unadulterated euphoria and glacial menace, add to that an epic coalition of colossal beats, soaring guitars and abyssal bass. What’s not to long for?
An instore Bluebird favourite is The Competition Winner…listen to it here.
Album Tracks run as follows
1. Counting My Guns
2. Disarm
3. The Competition Winner
4. Co-Education
5. Good Day (To Die)
6. All The Ghosts Away
7. Afraid Of Your Love
8. Say It Again
9. Mosquito
10. Soul Saviour (mutations)
11. Another Long Year
12. Ceilngspeelings (hidden album track and iTunes bonus track)
Says Eddy Temple-Morris of XFm “best new band by a f*cking country mile”.
We’re expecting big things of the band who’ve been locked away in hometown Leeds developing, producing and recording their debut album, over the last year. Finishing touches in the mix came from Dave Bascombe (Soulwax, Depeche Mode) and Tim Holmes, of the fabulous Death In Vegas. Throw in a collaboration with contemporary Pop-Artist Stuart Semple on all the art creative, including the logo, EP cover, photo’s and album promo’s to date and it’s an impressively stylish debut.
Music Week “A cataclysmic slice of sexual tension, driving electronic pulses and beautifully powered vocals.”
Amazing artwork, amazing tunes, amazing sounds. The magicness that is Bjork is back on September 27th in The Shop at Bluebird.
Biophilia is part of a multimedia project by the Icelandic star, which brings together the album with a range of apps and installations.
The tracklisting for Biophilia is as follows:
1. ‘Moon’
2. ‘Thunderbolt’
3. ‘Crystalline’
4. ‘Cosmogony’
5. ‘Dark Matter’
6. ‘Hollow’
7. ‘Virus’
8. ‘Sacrifice’
9. ‘Mutual Core’
10. ‘Solstice’
Digipak extra tracks:
11. ‘Hollow’ (Original 7 Minute Version)
12. ‘Dark Matter’ (With Choir & Organ)
13. ‘Nattura’
We’ve been listening to the brilliant Crystalline for months. Find out more here or call in store and reserve your copy.
So 2011 looks set to be one of the most interesting years for a long time in the music business.
This trend is led in the first 6 weeks of the year by two pioneers within English music. One has been around for a while now and at the age of 41, PJ Harvey shows no sign of easing back on her constant assault on conformity with the release of “Let England Shake”.
Strangely this is a dreamy concept album concerning itself primarily with World War 1 and how England has changed since the Victorian times of empire, discovery and invention, which World War 1 was fought and won to preserve.
Don’t let this put you off though- this record is strange and beautiful in the only way a PJ Harvey record can be and the core team of John Parrish, Mick Harvey and producer Flood of recent albums has remained.
Receiving rave reviews across the board this is a wonderful collection of songs sure to be one of the albums to own in 2011.
The other pioneer is 22-year-old James Blake.
His eponymously titled debut album belies his age and more or less destroys the boundaries between dub step and introspective emotive song-writing; standing him in line more with songwriters such as Justin Vernon of Bon Ivor, Laura Marling and The XX than musical peers associated with the dance floor.
This self produced record is heavily processed and complex in structure, at times minimalist, at times dense; creating a haunting atmosphere and tension which is sometimes hard to bear, but never anything less than outstanding. His cover of “The Limit to Your Love” is a brilliant but unsettling take on Leslie Feist’s soul tinged classic.
But the main point here is that the importance of this record probably won’t be recognised for some time to come. The excitement is the revolution in pop music that this represents and the fact that a major label is releasing the music.
James Blake has undoubtedly made a future classic for your record collection.
Two outstanding British albums released at the beginning of 2011 by major record labels. We can’t wait to see what the rest of the year brings!
Low’s ninth studio album is set to propel this already well respected and loved band to wider acclaim and hopefully mainstream appreciation.
Low are, at their core, a husband and wife partnership who have existed since 1993 when they started making music to deliberately go against the trend of the grunge scene coming out of Seattle. Purposefully playing quietly and with a minimal approach Low have had the pleasure of working with such maverick producers as Steve Albini and Dave Fridmann.to make some of the most critically acclaimed records of the last 15 years.
On “C’mon” they returned to the former church where they recorded 2002’s “Trust”, this time with predominantly pop producer Matt Beckley.
The result is an album already being hailed as the “quintessential” Low album, encapsulating everything which is great about a truly exceptional band.
Available in-store on CD and Vinyl, £12.
Tv On The Radio- “Nine types of Light”
In 2008 Tv On The Radio released “Dear Science”, one of our favourite records of the year and an album that propelled them to a level which meant 18 months of promotion and a series of six week tours taking them around the world several times. This schedule understandably took it’s toll on the members of the band and you would be forgiven for thinking the work they produced consequently would be devoid of any joy and probably even darker than previously.
This however, is not the case. “Nine Types Of Light” is crammed full of static free, restless, dance floor energy one minute and poignant love songs then next; this album refines what Tv On The Radio do still further and brings a sound which started in Brooklyn in 2001 to the masses. Tv On the Radio are one of the most respected bands out there right now and if you get a chance to see their unique brand of art rock at a live show, don’t turn it down.
Available on CD in store, £14.00
Villagers were the favourites for the Mercury Prize this year. The prize went to The XX in the end but it gave this very worthy act at least some of the exposure deserved. Villagers is essentially Dubliner Conor O’brien and this is his debut album. “Becoming a Jackal” is a gothic fantasy about growing up and becoming an adult, starting to understand the world and what it is going to mean on a personal level.
This is a great debut record and an act to follow closely over the next months.
Born out of a desire to make “dance music that sounds like it’s made out of water.” Caribou’s Dan Snaith drew on help from friends from the Junior boys, Four Tet and Born Ruffians to make the most accomplished dance album of the year- music precision designed to be listened to as intensely as it is danced to. It is all beautifully controlled and showcases a true talent at work.
This is the sixth studio album from the Black Keys and provided a large proportion of the Shop At Bluebird’s summer soundtrack. It is full to brimming with rootsy, bluesy rock stomps and Motown tinged soul. You’d be forgiven for thinking that after five previous albums the output would be more of the same; but this is the freshest and most exciting the Keys have sounded in years. If you didn’t get “Brothers” for summer 2010, get it for summer 2011!
Kieren Hebden has been around since 2003 under the guise of Four Tet. “There is Love in You” marks a return to the form of his earlier work, which was at the time labelled “Folktronica”. This latest album is a fine introduction to his beautifully organic-sounding melodies mixed with intricately manipulated beats and samples usually reserved for far more experimental electronica. For fans of Boards of Canada, and Aphex Twin.
The sophomore offering from the four Ivy leaguers that make up Vampire Weekend is without a doubt the alternative pop record of the year. Not as immediate as it’s predecessor, but far richer and now impeccably crafted, this album does what their debut did, but in a different and arguably better way. In fact “Contra” sounds more like Vampire Weekend than “Vampire Weekend” did. An album full of top drawer pop songs from start to finish.
