Dancing Children

Yup.

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Yours Is Just a Dirty Version…

The dirty version of Kanye West’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy leaked yesterday.  I’ve heard a lot of the songs before, as a lot of them were in that 35 minute video for “Runaway”, but as a whole it sounds good.  I’m only about halfway through, but I can see this sitting pretty high on my list of favorite Kanye albums.  I’d say it’s about what I expected, though that probably comes from hearing a lot of the songs before.  It’s certainly a departure from 808’s and Heartbreaks (and I liked that a lot more than most people).  Favorites so far are “All of the Lights”, “So Appalled”, and “Devil in a New Dress.”  There’s sure to be some eventual Kanye classics on here.

Download My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

Also of note is that there are 5 alternate covers for the album, including this:

Kanye doing a bird lady.

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It’s Cold Outside

Not really though, right now it’s unseasonably warm.  But this rules:

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I Gon’ Find You, Voxtrot Take-Away Show

For whatever reason, La Blogothèqe doesn’t have their videos of Voxtrot on their youtube page.  Fortunately I stumbled upon them this morning somehow.

I’ve never tried to embed something that isn’t a youtube video or mp3 before, so let’s hope that works.  Another video of Ramesh and one other of another member of Voxtrot here.  It really is too bad that they broke up.  After seeing a ton of videos and reading all his blog posts, I have come to the conclusion that Ramesh is a totally rad dude.  I sure hope he gets back into music.

Someday I will give Voxtrot the full write-up that they deserve.  For now, you get this:

Voxtrot – Wrecking Force

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This is a Loop, A Feedback Loop

Andrew Bird is good at stuff.

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Not New Junk

This isn’t New Junk.  I haven’t really found anything super new that I am overwhelmed by and must write about, though Kanye’s new album may change that in a couple of weeks.  Instead, today I have some older things, newness ranging from 8 months to 9 years.

Over the last couple of years I’ve been listening to more and more electronic music, a lot of which comes in the form of remixes of songs by other artists.  I often fall in love with a remix of a song, only to check out the original song and artist and find that I hate it.  Thankfully, sometimes it works the other way around.  Two Door Cinema Club had been popping up in various places around the music world, having been remixed by The Twelves and remixing Phoenix to name a couple of places.

An audience enjoying Tudor Cinema

The band’s strange name comes from one of the band member’s misconception of their local (in Northern Ireland) Tudor Cinema.  That picture is not actually of people at the Tudor Cinema, but I couldn’t find one that actually was, and I thought these people looked really rad in their glasses.  Their debut album Tourist History is deliciously poppy and a very easy listen.  It’s always been strange to me how English and Irish people can speak so differently from Americans, but both sound the same when singing.  Ellie Goulding being the cutest exception of course.  Here’s “Something Good Can Work”:

Whenever I put this album on, I end up putting this song on repeat a few times before letting the rest of the album play.  It’s hard not to feel happy after giving it all a good listen.

Download Tourist History

File these next two releases under Artists I Wished Released More Than One Album.  See: Philippians, Mumm-Ra.

 

One member of the band

The Avalalanches’ Since I Left You was apparently crafted from more thank 3,500 vinyl samples.  If you weren’t aware, that’s a lot.  This certainly lends itself to an interesting album that’s full of lyrical non-sequiturs.  Despite taking thousands of things and making them into one, the album flows remarkably from one song to the next.  The Avalanches’ sadly solitary album spans enough genres that I don’t know what to call it, though wikipedia tells me that it’s “Electronic Dance Music.”  It’s certainly worth a listen, if only to see how well 3,500 different samples can create one piece of work.  This is “Since I Left You”:

Download Since I Left You

 

One of the most terrifying pictures I have ever seen.

Seeing certain musicians for the first time can be really strange.  After listening to their music for a while, you kind of get an idea of how they should look and act, but sometimes that perception couldn’t be further from reality.  I have been listening to A Lily’s Wake:Sleep for probably about 4 years now, and today is the first time I have gotten a look at the man behind the music.  I am terrified.  This is a beautiful, slow, ambient record.  I imagined some plain looking kid with a computer in his bedroom.  Instead I got an insane grinning half-bearded man with a cigar.  Whatever works I guess.

Wake:Sleep is my favorite electronic/ambient album.  It’s perfect for doing homework or working on things, but also stands up well to a critical listen through.  Chock full of my favorite beeps and boops, it’s one of my go-to albums when I actually need to get things done.  Listen to “I Am To You”:

It was a close call between “I Am To You” and “Leanna Is A Quiet Meow”.  I’m surprised who won out with a song title like that.  The album closes with the 34-minute droning “Shipwreck”.  It really doesn’t seem that long though.  At least not when you’re working.

Download Wake:Sleep

No matter how long I’m away from P&P+S, procrastination always brings me back.  If I find myself not wanting to study in the next couple weeks, I’ll probably be here with Kanye’s newest and hopefully greatest.  I really want to put together a new mix either here or for someone, but I haven’t found the time.  Oh well, hopefully someday.

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