pintomusica-4AD (英國)

CHEMICAL CHORDS / stereolab

Sun, 17 Aug 2008 19:30:10 +0800

Being released by the iconic legendary label 4AD, Chemical Chords is a collection of purposefully short, dense, fast pop songs, according to Gane, brimming with Motown-like drums, O’Hagan’s finest baroque-pop brass and string arrangements and etched with some of Sadier’s most eloquent, mellifluous vocal performances to date, it is, nonetheless, classic Stereolab; like all their best work, a perfect equipoise between an implausibly cool past and a shamelessly exotic future.

The eleventh album in an illustrious career, Chemical Chords began life in early-2007 when Tim Gane started messing with a series of about seventy tiny drum loops on top of improvised chord sequences using piano and vibraphone. Building them up from there later slowing the tracks down or speeding them up a totally new way of doing songs for us With typical prolificacy, the band laboured over the summer at their studio, Instant Zero (in Bordeaux, France), helping transform these blueprints into 32 luminous new songs, with keyboardist/technician Joe Watson manning the mixing desk. Half the new repertoire was selected for this album, which, for all the breathless spontaneity of its invention, is arguably the band’s tautest, most highly focused work this century.

THREE WOMAN - Stereolab

MYSPACE

THE FLYING CLUB CUP / beirut

Thu, 01 Nov 2007 20:30:20 +0800

2006 年Beirut首張專輯【古拉格之旅】大獲成功，主唱Zach Condon的動人歌聲、流暢旋律，已得到英美獨立樂界普遍承認。今年他離開巴爾幹半島，來到巴黎的暗巷酒館，學習復古法國香頌樂聲，Zach Condon像在巴黎暫時歇下流浪的腳步，推出了眾人摒息以待的第二張專輯【The Flying Club Cup】。

Zach Condon談到新專輯名稱之所以取為The Flying Club Cup，都是因為一張泛黃的古老照片，他說：「我手上有這麼一張照片，一百多年前的巴黎舉辦熱氣球展覽時，熱氣球從巴黎街頭升起的畫面，這很有可能是世界上頭一批彩色照片之一，這也是我所看過最超現實的照片。」關於音樂方向的改變，他說：「這段時間，我聽了許多Jacques Brel和法國香頌音樂，這是一種包裹著糖衣，華麗非凡，戲劇張力的流行音樂，對我來說，如何將喇叭、法國號、手風琴和風琴這些原本熟悉的樂器，轉變成新的表現方式，以傳統樂器傳達出流行氛圍，一直是非常有趣的。」這一年來，樂隊參與Final Fantasy主腦Owen Pallet新專輯錄製，Owen Pallet也在這張新專輯擔任小提琴手，整個弦樂部份的升級，讓Beirut充滿異國風情的演奏更顯動人，牽引樂迷情緒的魔力發揮得更為酣暢淋漓，特別是 "Nantes"和"A Sunday Smile"這兩首曲子，多愁善感略帶滄桑，非常動聽，值得大力推薦，整張專輯樂器配置愈顯成熟，來到一個前所未見的完成度。(galeer)

23 / blonde redhead

Thu, 26 Apr 2007 19:20:58 +0800

成軍十四年的紐約Art-Rock樂隊Blonde Redhead，轉投英國傳奇廠牌4AD後的第二張專輯。繼上張《Misery Is A Butterfly》後，Blonde Redhead吸取了4AD一派夢幻唯美的噪音美學，展現出樂隊最為成熟的一面。

IBM 1401,A USER'S MANUAL / JOHANN JOHANNSSON

Fri, 03 Nov 2006 04:30:49 +0800

Jóhann Jóhannsson is an Icelandic musician, composer, producer and an active member of the country’s artistic community .Jóhann’s stately and hauntingly melodic music has been quietly bewitching listeners for some time and his new album, IBM 1401, A User’s Manual - his first album for 4AD. The album was recorded in Prague with a 60 piece string orchestra. It's a richly textured, elegantly coherent and achingly moving work - Uncut has described it as a "masterpiece".

Johan Jóhannsson interviewed by boomkat