This Mortal Coil - You And Your Sister

This Mortal Coil was a supergroup project founded by Ivo Watts-Russell, president of record company 4AD. It was active from 1983 to 1991. This song, "You And Your Sister", is from their last album, Blood. Originally released by Chris Bell in 1978, this cover features two familiar names from the 90s: Kim Deal, probably best known for her work with the Pixies, and Tanya Donelly, probably best known for her role in the Breeders.

Hammock - All Is Dream and Everything Is Real [post-rock]

I got Hammock's Departure Songs pretty much around the time it came out. It's a big album: 19 songs over 2 CDs. It's definitely a continuation of their ambient post-rock style. Don't have much to add though; sometimes, I just listen to the stuff without vapidly babbling, seriously.

This is "All Is Dream and Everything Is Real".

Sigur Rós - Starálfur

Lately, it seems I've been going back through my already bloated collection more than trying to find newer music. Sigur Rós's Ágætis byrjun has been playing a lot in my car. Not the whole album, mostly just "Starálfur", "Viðrar Vel Til Loftárasa", and "Ágætis byrjun". It's always surprising when I remember that this album was released back in 1999, though I didn't get a copy myself until probably 2007.

I was sprawled across the backseat of my car late last night. Just outside the window were the pale stars all in their familiar arrangements. Starálfur was playing and it was just so fitting. The first two lyrical lines are translated as "Blue night over the sky; Blue night over me". Whenever I hear those lyrics, I'm immediately reminded of the great wide sky that encapsulates all of us as well as the infinite cosmos that lay just beyond that. Always a welcome reminder since I'm so anxious all the time (says a friend that I hadn't seen for years; and here I was thinking my anxiety was only particularly noticeable in the past year or so).

Anyway, here's the album version of Starálfur. I swear I've written a long-winded post about this already. I guess it was probably for the other blog.

The Radio Dept. - What Will Give [indie pop]

Oh, hello there, old friend. How have you been? My life has been... well, I don't know. It's very much the same as it was in direction but I guess there've been a few notable events since the last time I've posted.

I've shared music by Swedish pop band The Radio Dept. before. It was probably "Heaven's On Fire", but I can't be bothered to take a few seconds to check my old entries. I listened to their 2006 album Pet Grief many moons ago (maybe a year ago). I guess it didn't leave much of an impression on me since I just promptly shelved it afterwards. Well, after giving it a relisten recently, that decision seems to make no sense at all; the album is great.

This is "What Will Give" from Pet Grief.

54-40 - Northern Soul [rock]

54-40 is a Canadian band active since 1981. Of the four original members, guitarist Phil Comparelli left in 2005 and was replaced by no other than former Matthew Good Band guitarist, Dave Genn. Actually, Genn is the reason I even happened across these guys. And, naturally, I digg the guitar-work by Genn, though I'm probably super biased.

This song is "Northern Soul", the titular track off the Northern Soul album from 2008. The sweet-sounding accompanying vocals are provided by front-man Neil Osborne's daughter, who now records under the moniker Kandle.

All-in-all, nice song, though I guess the antiwar sentiment's a little too blatant for me (not that I'm anti-antiwar).

きのこ帝国 (Kinoko teikoku) - WHIRLPOOL [shoegaze]

Compliments of /r/postrock. Strangely enough, the poster of the initial video promptly changed the video description to "No, deleigh, this is not post-rock.", deleigh being the thread starter from Reddit, talk about staying on top of things.

Bio doesn't say much except that they formed in 2007 in Japan. The song is off of their 2012 album 渦になる. And gosh-darnit, they were just in town a few weeks ago. WHY DOES THIS KEEP HAPPENING? OH, THE HUMANITY.

YUKARI (유카리) - Am I Dreaming? [dream pop]

The past few months have not been particularly kind to me. I feel fractured to my very core. But now that summer has come, I sit in my room with the cool breeze blowing in, hearing the birds chirp, finally able to breathe with some sense of tranquility. And this song plays in the background: "Am I Dreaming?" by Korean artist YUKARI (유카리). I'm thankful to have stumbled upon this.

Check out her bandcamp! This song is from her Echo album released last December.

Seu Jorge - Changes [acoustic]

Seu Jorge, musician/actor, had a role in one of my favourite movies: The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. In it, he performed a variety of acoustic David Bowie covers in Portuguese. That movie has definitely done much to influence my musical listenings. Most memorably, it introduced me to Sigur Rós and possibly the entire genre of post-rock.

Well, anyway, was taking a walk down memory lane and noticed that Seu Jorge released an entire album of those Bowie covers, The Life Aquatic Studio Sessions with Seu Jorge. How fantastic, even Bowie himself commented that the covers helped to remind him of the soul of his songs.

This is "Changes" from that album.

Exitmusic - White Noise [dream pop]

Another solid recommendation by Last.fm. This time a fantastic combination of dreamy, noisy instrumentals, a reverberating beat, and heartfelt vocals in "White Noise" by Brooklyn-group Exitmusic off their 2012 album Passage.

Mojave 3 - In Love With A View [alt-country]

Mojave 3 has been a regular on my playlists for the past bit. They are an alt-country group featuring 3 ex-members (Neil Halstead, Rachel Goswell, and Ian McCutcheon) from dream pop band Slowdive. Apparently, they decided on this transition after Slowdive was dropped by then label Creation. They've since picked up a few more members and are currently with label 4AD (with whom tUnE-yArDs is also signed).

This is "In Love With A View", the last song on their 1995 Ask Me Tomorrow album and the first song on their 2000 Excuses For Travelers album.

The Besnard Lakes - You Make Loving Fun [shoegaze]

The Besnard Lakes are a Montreal band. This is a cover by them of Fleetwood Mac's "You Make Loving Fun", which features a nice blend of some fuzzy guitar. This song is featured on the "Rumours Revisted", a Fleetwood Mac cover album by MOJO Magazine. Thanks for another great tune, /r/shoegaze.

2Pac vs. Thomas the Tank Engine - Chug 4 Life [mash-up]

That's not really the name of the song but this is just a fun (and well executed) mash-up between 2Pac's "Thug 4 Life" and the original theme of Thomas the Tank Engine by Mr Corr (Fasubook link here).

tUnE-yArDs - Powa [folk, R&B]

Tune-Yards (also tUnE-yArDs) is the musical moniker of Merrill Garbus. What a strong & beautiful voice... This is a live version of "Powa", which can be found on her 2011 album Whokill (also, w h o k i l l).

Dead Mellotron - Stranger [shoegaze]

Hadn't listened to any shoegaze that has caught my attention in the past while but that dry spell has certainly come to an end after listening to Dead Mellotron. I've had a bit on my mind recently so I'm definitely thankful to have found something to melt away into. "Stranger" is from their 2012 album Glitter, which can be streamed and purchased from their Bandcamp here.

Dorena - Till Våning Tretton [post-rock]

The Swedish post-rock band Dorena has recently released a new album, Nuet, before that they had released Holofon back in 2009. This is a song from that 2009 album: "Till Våning Tretton", which Google translates as "To Floor Thirteen". It's a bit of a slow build-up so, perhaps not the best thing to listen to in an impatient mood. When it does get going, it's slightly along the vein of The End of the Ocean (though, importantly, I guess, the stuff I've heard from The End of the Ocean was all released after Holofon).

Antwon - Helicopter [hip hop]

Really digging the sample off this track too. This is "Helicopter" by Antwon and can be found on his Fantasy Beds Mixtape album at his bandcamp. Is it just me or is that crew pretty racially diverse? It's almost as if I'm almost watching something by Macklemore & Ryan Lewis... ok, obvious hyperbole, I take it back.

MF Doom - Rapp Snitch Knishes [hip hop]

Yo, MF Doom, Mr. Fantastik ... I'm really digging the riff in the background. It's originally from a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity" by David Matthews (not the Dave Matthews Band one). This song's from MF Doom's 2004 album Mm... Food.

Tyler, The Creator - IFHY [hip hop]

I do listen to hip hop, though solely based on this blog, no one would ever be the wiser. Tyler's someone I've been following a lot recently. Apparently, he had shown Kanye his video for "IFHY" recently and Kanye responded with a vague head-nod. Fast-forward to today, kanyewest.com consists only of an embed for Tyler's video. Twitter reaction here, I'd be going "got damn" too... This song is off his Wolf album due to be released April 2nd.

Cold War Kids - Fear and Trembling [indie rock]

Cold War Kids are a four-piece group from Los Angeles, there's not any other particularly interesting information about this group on their Last.fm page. This is "Fear and Trembling" off their upcoming release, Dear Miss Lonelyhearts, slated for April 2nd (a fact that's mentioned suspiciously repeatedly on their Last.fm biography).

Daft Punk - Get Lucky (Obenhaus remix) [electronica]

I guess while we're on the topic of Daft Punk, they've been releasing some material from their upcoming album, Random Access Memories, out in late May. "All Night To Get Lucky" was released a few days ago on their recently created YouTube channel. Below is the freshly minted Obenhaus remix.