cornelius - point

.:: Point is the long-awaited (it’s true) new release from Japan’s most innovative and respected musician, Cornelius a.k.a. Keigo Oyamada. It is a heartbreaking work of staggering genius which forges a very different path from his 1998 US debut ‘Fantasma.’ Where ‘Fantasma’ was an exaggerated media collage which deconstructed the history of pop and reassembled it into a breathtaking tangle of sound, ‘Point’ is altogether more atmospheric, involving mood-driven soundscapes.

Rather than cramming all his influences onto one record, ‘Point’ shows Keigo taking a more organic, personal approach to his art; he tells us he approached Fantasma like a 5th grader—all cut & paste—but approached this one like a grandpa, where everything has to have meaning and relate to each other. Cornelius takes his inspiration from the world around him (not always musical), creating a dizzying environmental sound. The same musical influences are still there, but toned down and mutated into a more cohesive and mature album.

‘Point’ was a year in the making, recorded solely in a small private studio above the Cornelius office. As well as providing all of the music, Keigo also self-produced the record, joined only in the studio by sound engineer Mishima, who also helped with the programming. There are some spectacular songs such as the danceable “Drop,” the retro-Hawaiian “Brazil” (by Barosso) and the pseudo-metal of “I Hate Hate.” This is Japanese pop at its most eclectic, invigorating, and sexy.

Cornelius, while being hailed as a genius and as the future of rock and roll by many, is also just as interested in design, fashion, video, conceptual and pop art, and live extravaganzas (there will be no less than five music videos for Point).

download: cornelius - point

pass: indie-ground.blogspot.com

pamela z - a delay is better

.:: This is the first CD devoted exclusively to works by the "funny, inventive, and talented" (Village Voice) composer/performer Pamela Z. The CD, which offers some of her most widely enjoyed signature pieces, is "an impressive survey of Z's imaginative compositions," states Pauline Oliveros.

The San Francisco Chronicle enthusiastically notes that "Z creates lustrous sonic landscapes." The essence of Z's mesmerizing music is a skillful blending of her lovely voice with refined electronic manipulations. Oliveros finds that "this CD beguiles us with a rich introduction to a fine vocalist/composer who adeptly embraces technology" and who "invigoratingly explores" a wide variety of materials.

Some of the CD's dozen pieces draw on everyday sounds. For example, the percussion loops in Bone Music are built up from the performer pounding an empty five-gallon water bottle, while the pieces The MUNI Section and NEMIZ use sampled San Francisco street sounds. The witty Geekspeak manipulates recordings of computer engineers providing us with the definitive word on the differences between nerds and geeks.

Other pieces use found text, such as Pop Titles 'You' (based on titles of popular songs), while some pieces use only Z's voice, such as Badagada and Number 3.

Z has toured extensively around the world, and she has composed commissioned works for such new music ensembles as the Bang on a Can All Stars, the California E.A.R. Unit, and St. Luke's Chamber Orchestra.


download: pamela z - a delay is better

pass: indie-ground.blogspot.com

gigasize sucks !!!

hey guys !!!

in the past weeks gigasize had deleted almost 60% of the uploaded files dedicated for this blog.now, i realized that the rest of those files have been deleted by gigasize.

i'm working very hard trying to fix this situation. reposting ALL the albums deleted by these bitches.

so please, be patient. i'll try to post new material at once i'm reuploading old material.

owen - at home with owen

||| RESPOTED BY REQUEST |||
||| AWESOME !!! |||

.:: On At Home With Owen, Chicago's Mike Kinsella (Cap'n Jazz, Joan of Arc, American Football, Owls), the sole creative output behind Owen, figuratively leaves the at-home bedroom that has characterized so much of Owen's past musical output. Along the way, he finds true love, gains (and then loses) some weight, subscribes to cable television and endures the death of a parent. And then he writes a new record about the process, detailing the many transformations in his life.

From an artist whom has, in the past, recorded entire albums in his childhood bedroom berating lost love and personal missteps, it's a new chapter. The end result is At Home With Owen, a new extension in the lineage of Owen’s music. And being at home with one's self never sounded so freeing.


.:: In the past decade, Chicago's Mike Kinsella has played a variety of instruments in a handful of bands including Cap'n Jazz, Joan of Arc, The One Up Downstairs, American Football, Owls, Maritime, and Aloha. Owen is his solo project.

The impetus for Owen was a direct result of the demise of American Football. Up to that point, having been associated with a number of bands, Mike sought a project where he could have complete creative control over all aspects including songwriting, recording, album artwork, and overall artistic direction.

When it came time to record his solo album, Mike approached Polyvinyl with the idea to take the money that normally would be spent on a recording studio and instead spend it on software so he could record the album on his own. He ended up heading to his mother's house in Chicago and turned his old bedroom into a recording studio. Wishing to avoid the connotations associated with solo singer-songwriters, Mike began recording under the pseudonym, 'Owen.'


download: owen - at home with owen

pass: indie-ground.blogspot.com

efterklang - parades

.:: Parades is the highly anticipated second album by Denmark’s Efterklang, the follow up to their underground hit of 2004, Tripper.

Comprising 11 majestic, otherworldly pop songs, Parades manages to be both magnificently ambitious and engagingly intimate; a breathtaking panorama of sound with few clear antecedents. Music with no boundaries. In a parallel universe, songs like ‘Mirador’ and ‘Caravan’ would be number one forever…

Though the music that became Parades was recorded concurrently with the critically acclaimed (and already collectible) Under Giant Trees mini-album that preceded it in April, the latter was essentially a summation of songs the band had pieced together on tour in 2005.

Parades is cut from a different cloth: this is all new material spun from raw ingredients, carefully stitched and lovingly embroidered with fine detail. If you let yourself be enveloped, this living tapestry could take years to unpick.

Unlike previous recordings, the band relied less on digital techniques and went for a palatial sound by recording in large rooms. A boys’ choir and a church organ were recorded in a church, while other instruments were recorded in their studio bathroom and hallway; others in an echo chamber.

Darren Allison (who worked on My Bloody Valentine’s Loveless, and Ladies and Gentlemen… by Spiritualized – records that surely need no introduction) mixed the album on analogue equipment with Efterklang’s Mads Brauer, distinguishing the minutiae of sound while keeping the bigger picture of each song firmly in focus.

Parades features similarly lavish artwork to Under Giant Trees, by Danish artists Hvass&Hannibal and UFEX. Like a day-glo Hieronymus Bosch, the design carries through the musical idea of minuscule detail on an epic scale.

Efterklang will take their stunning eight-person live show on a World tour this autumn that will continue until late next year, with numerous festival appearances planned for summer 2008.

Like a gigantic piece of musical theatre, Parades is a remarkable achievement, dense and diverse, and clearly a lot of fun to put together. You’ve never heard anything like it.

download: efterklang - parades

symbiosis - v.a.

.:: Following selection for the Qwartz Label Award, our foremost intention was to create something special, in order to celebrate an acknowledgment of the utmost importance.
This is how Symbiosis (a compilation of exclusive unreleased Zymogen tracks) was conceived.

It is a reunion of the artistic voices that have collaborated with us in the past, those that are collaborating with us now, and an invitation to those that might collaborate with us in future.

It is yet another example of our dedication to providing creative excellence for more than a year and a half to date, and it is also an occasion for us to show that which constitutes our aesthetic values, as well as that which represents the probable direction of our evolution. It is what a project such as Zymogen cannot, and could not, ever ignore or take for granted.

Symbiosis is all this: the past, present, and future...but most importantly, it is the Zymogen sound. It is music that changes in the course of the twelve tracks constituting the album, in the same way that the twelve Zymogen releases, to date, are different and evolve with respect to each other.

Despite this, there is always a fine red thread that binds and holds closely together the diverse and sometimes distant styles, all of which exude a distinct artistic personality.

The concept is always the same, but the language changes depending on whom it is expressed to.

Symbiosis represents all that Zymogen is, and all that Zymogen could be or might become. Zymogen

download: symbiosis - v.a.