Featured Releases

Aeroplane, Signs of Life (4)

Unlikely combination of sweeping strings, beats, and…Heidi Berry? Start with just the single, the mixes frankly don’t add much, even with tantalizing titles like “Mellotronia Mix.”

Et Sans, L’Autre (1)

A member of the Yet-Another-Godspeed-You!-Black-Emperor-Side-Project club, this is a single 42-minute mood piece. Has a Hafler Trio ‘musique concrete’ sound to it, lots of bowing cello. Not bad for a single download; for four more, you can get their other release, Par noussss touss les trous de vos crânes! although a tolerance for some noise and, well, shouting helps there. But they do like their exclamation marks!

Frost, Love! Revolution! (12)

Confusingly-named, badly-sorted (their earlier album “Melodica” is filed under “Frost (Shadow Records)” whereas this one is mixed with a rap artist named Kid Frost) [ed. note: this has since been fixed by designating them as "Frost(3)"], but solid chill-hop. I picked up the first album because in the earlier days of eMusic, just finding something marked “trip-hop” was exciting enough. And: More! Exclamation! Marks!

Sadly, they were less inspired with the cover design - find random flash-saturated digicam snap, add plain white sticker which must have cost them about $1.37 to run off. Feh. The single for “One Hundred Years” features a slightly more interesting random picture (why are they all looking at a shelf full of bird figures?), minus sticker.

Anja Garbarek, Balloon Mood (10)

Daughter of Jan Gabarek, often compared to Stina Nordenstam. “Balloon Mood” is more fractured pop/Björkbeat, while her debut Velkommen Inn (11) is somewhat dated Norwegian synthpop. Watch for her on the “Angel A” soundtrack and “Smiling and Waving” (awesome creaky lo-fi jazz).

Lisa Gerrard, Best Of (13)

Culled from Dead Can Dance, solo albums, and recent soundtrack work (Whale Rider, Ali, and Gladiator).

Loreena McKennitt, An Ancient Muse (9)

Her most recent, and frankly disappointing album after the 9-year hiatus following her mainstream breakout “Book of Secrets.” Still one of those cases where it’s worth a download if not a CD purchase, as the music is still pleasant, just less striking than her finer compositions such as The Mask and Mirror.

Mine, s/t (10)

Source of the fave “Inside”, as originally discovered via the now-defunct Hyperium label’s “Heavenly Voices” series. I had to track these things down once, you know. Lucky people!

Lou Rhodes, Beloved One (13)

Singer for Lamb (and previously billed as Louise), now separated from both musical and romantic partners, with a gorgeous and critically-acclaimed folk album.

Tribute Corner

Vitamin String Quartet’s String Tribute to Everything Recorded In the Last Half-Century
Björk (Ice) (10)
Björk (Violently) (12)
Moby (10)
Restrung: The Matrix films (10)

I’m not yet entirely sold on the Vitamin String Quartet ‘tributes’ yet, even though we certainly have a lot to sift among (179 albums! at current count!). I have previously bought the Massive Attack and A Perfect Circle/Tool versions, since their music lends itself more to the translation. I’m curious about the possibilities with Björk, Moby, and “Restrung” (music from the “Matrix” series, mainly for the Rob Dougan pieces), since they each have their ’symphonic’ qualities in the original. I would be more interested if it wasn’t clear from the volume that they are just churning these out as soundalike arrangements, vs spending some serious time adapting the material to a chamber setting, a la Apocalyptica or Bang on a Can. And frankly, a string tribute to Jessica Simpson is always going to sound stupid, while Massive Attack’s “Angel” can survive the treatment, so a little selectivity wouldn’t hurt. But then I suspect quality was not the highest criterion in producing these. Even so, a little cherry-picking and judicious sampling can offer some worthwhile fare.

I also feel for the cover designer for this series - having to evoke an artist without recourse to any of their photography, logo, or other identity material on what I am sure is a negligible budget.