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Archive: Air

Was Sébastien Tellier robbed?

27 July 2008 01:40

Categories: Entertainment, Internet, Music, Personal, Technology

One to file under “why on earth didn’t I think of that?”. Ewan Spence has analysed each of this year’s Eurovision Song Contest entries in Last.fm.

For those who don’t know, Last.fm is a smart website that tracks your music (or podcast) listening habits. It can generate recommendations for you, but I joined the site almost four years ago. Back in those days when it was called Audioscrobbler (before it merged with Last.fm which was a separate website with a slightly different purpose) so I’m just there for all the wonderful stats about my taste in music. (In case anyone’s interested, my profile is here.)

Ewan Spence took a look at the stats for each of the songs in this year’s ESC to see how they measured up. Regular readers may remember that I wrote a post a couple of months back debunking the theory that the ESC is dominated by political bloc voting. So I was pleased to see Ewan Spence’s analysis which suggests that broadly the most popular songs as measured by Last.fm are also the songs that tended to do well in this year’s ESC.

However, there is one mega outlier. And it’s a groovy French man who is way out in front on the Last.fm chart — Sébastien Tellier.

If you remember my post about bloc voting in the ESC, you might also remember that even though there is no political voting, I concluded that France woz robbed. I wasn’t the only one either — I saw that quite a few people liked Sébastien Tellier’s song in particular.

I still see people discussing him from time to time. In fact, I have one friend who likes to talk about Sébastien Tellier quite often. He refers to him as “the hairy Jarvis Cocker”. From what I can gather, Sébastien Tellier had built up quite a following prior to Eurovision. His latest is his third album and is produced by one of the guys from Daft Punk. And back in the day he toured with Air.

Ewan Spence suggests there might be some tricky goings-on with Tellier’s numbers such as a Last.fm player on his website or something. I think it might be down to the fact that Sébastien Tellier is quite popular, so actually merits the attention on Last.fm. In fact, I have contributed to Sébastien Tellier’s numbers on Last.fm as I bought the album Sexuality on the strength of his Eurovision song ‘Divine’.

So, was Sébastian Tellier robbed? Yes and no. Simple following alone can’t explain the discrepancy. While Tellier has some fans, the winner of the Eurovision Song Contest — Russia’s Dima Bilan — is a major pop star with several number ones across eastern Europe.

I think it might have a lot to do with the type of person who uses Last.fm though — i.e. people who really, really like music. A slightly odd French electronic artist is just the sort of thing that would probably appeal to your average Last.fm user more than the average person on the street for whom music is like wallpaper.

Take a look at the this week’s Last.fm chart. Like Ewan Spence’s chart, it bears a vague resemblance to actual popularity, but with a few oddities along the way.

Where, for instance, is the UK’s biggest selling artist of the year so far, Duffy? 166th — behind a lot of pretty obscure artists (by which I mean people I’ve never heard of). I bet if you did a televote Duffy would be near the top.

The point is that Sébastien Tellier is great. But it was a bit like the French equivalent of the UK entering Aphex Twin (213th in Last.fm, ahead of the likes of Christina Aguilera, Norah Jones and Lily Allen) — right down to having everyone on stage looking like him. It would be great, but most would be left scratching their heads.

So hurrah for Sébastien Tellier. Eurovision may have ignored him, but that is understandable. Those on Last.fm can handle its odd French electronic music. One more time!

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Music of 2007: #20–#11

13 January 2008 19:43

Categories: Entertainment, Music, Reviews

Music of 2007

A series of posts

  1. What I listened to in 2007
  2. Music of 2007: #40–#21
  3. Music of 2007: #20–#11
  4. Music not of 2007: three reissues
  5. Music of 2007: #10–#4
  6. Music of 2007: top three

Getting there slowly but surely. We might be two weeks into 2008, but that won’t stop me from looking back at 2007. By this rate it will be February before we get to the end of this list…

20. The Tuss — Rushup Edge

Whoever is responsible for this is at least a genius at generating hype. While the music is ostensibly by Brian and Karen Tregaskin, there are all sorts of clues that point towards this being the work of Richard D. James.

It’s difficult to imagine such an obscure record to make the pages of The Guardian under normal circumstances, but the whiff of Aphex made it happen. And the sight of IDM spods on the internet excitedly polishing off their magnifying glasses (after The Campfire Headphase failed to contain any codes to crack) carried the hype overboard.

Of course, I had to buy it to see what all the fuss was about. Turns out the music is okay, and it certainly sounds like Aphex. I’d be very surprised if something this accomplished really was the work of a hitherto unheard-of duo based in deepest Cornwall.

19. Field Music — Tones of Town

Field Music are the least well known, but easily the best, of the triumvirate of artsy indie-rock bands from the north east of England (the other two bands being The Futureheads and Maxïmo Park). I have to admit to being a bit disappointed with this album at first, but as with previous Field Music records its wonders were revealed with repeated listens.

Their first album was a little delight that combined contemporary indie sensibilities with a liberal dose of syncopation, Beatles-style strings, some quasi-Steve Reich-style minimalism and little snatches of oddness. Tones of Town (while a bit on the short side) expanded on the template beautifully.

However, my highlight is a song that deviates slightly from the template: the more melancholic ‘Place Yourself’, a pleasant, reflective song.

Since the release of Tones of Town, Field Music have gone on hiatus as a band as we know it. But a solo project on Thrill Jockey is in the offing. I’m looking forward to hearing more of School of Language.

Video: ‘In Context’ — highly recommended viewing!

18. Scott Walker — And Who Shall Go to the Ball? And What Shall Go to the Ball?

Definitely the strangest release I got my hands on this year. Scott Walker wrote this music to accompany a contemporary dance piece. So we know what territory we are in here.

The music took some time to get used to, even for a fan of Scott Walker’s recent work. ‘Part 1′ really just consists of some electronic hums and some strange scraping sounds that sound a little bit like that noise people make before they exaggeratedly spit. This lasts for over three minutes, when some largely atonal strings come in, abruptly starting and stopping seemingly arbitrarily.

‘Part 2′ is no less weird, with a foreboding, driving, deep drum beat and string and horn sections squealing like an elephant in a particularly rhythmic distress. But the biggest surprise of them all isn’t to do with the music. Scott Walker’s distinctive voice does not make a single appearance in this entire work.

As you might guess, And Who Shall Go to the Ball?… takes some getting used to. I was certainly left feeling disappointed when I first heard it. But now I think it is quite good.

It certainly seems as though Mr. Walker is entering a rather prolific phase. In past decades you were lucky if Scott Walker brought out a new album every ten years. But hot on the heels of The Drift, he has been appearing on compilations and all sorts. Not to mention the other projects between Tilt and The Drift such as the Pola X soundtrack or producing Pulp’s We Love Life. Every year he seems to be doing a bit more than in the previous year. Here’s hoping.

17. Jonny Greenwood — There Will Be Blood

I think Jonny Greenwood is one of the most important musicians around at the moment. He is most famous for whacking around with guitars in Radiohead, but his solo music reveals him to be a highly accomplished composer as well.

The soundtrack to the film There Will Be Blood further cements this. The film is set in the early twentieth century, so there is not quite the same space for electronic experimentation as Jonny Greenwood had with Bodysong. What you get instead is a beautiful, melancholic mixture of piano, strings and ondes Martenot. The ondes Martenot is such a magical instrument, and it is used to great effect here.

Maybe I am getting carried away because Jonny Greenwood is a rock star. But I really think that ‘Eat Him By His Own Light’ is within touching distance of some of Erik Satie’s work.

The soundtrack contains a lot of work that Jonny Greenwood has done in his role as the BBC’s ‘composer in residence’. Notably, it contains excerpts of ‘Popcorn Superhet Receiver’. It is such a shame that ‘Smear’ — probably my favourite Jonny Greenwood piece — does not make an appearance as originally promised.

Unfortunately, not all of the music is engaging. Also, this album is only half an hour long even though Jonny Greenwood recorded two hours worth of music for the film. I suppose we should be grateful for the scraps, but the album ends without you realising it was even close to the end. Oh well.

16. Battles — Tonto+

I have to say that ‘Tonto’ wouldn’t have been my first choice as a single. Nothing against the song — it’s just a bit long-winded for a single. Mind you, my brother disagrees with me strongly on this!

There are no new tracks on the EP, although it is still quite a treat. After a disappointing remix of ‘Tonto’ by The Field, the seemingly omnipresent remixer Four Tet comes up with the goods. A remix of ‘Leyendecker’ by DJ Emz featuring Joell Ortiz is good enough, although it completely jars with the rest of the EP and the general Battles vibe.

Perhaps the best part of the EP, though, is two live tracks — performances of ‘Tonto’ and ‘Leyendecker’. I go on and on about how great Battles are live, and this is further proof. But as ‘Leyendecker’ winds down on this EP you can hear drummer John Stainer beginning ‘Race: In’, which just makes me desperate for a full live album of some sort. Make it happen!

Video: ‘Tonto’

15. Sigur Rós — Hvarf / Heim

A fair couple of mini-albums. I was getting a bit sick of Sigur Rós, but Hvarf / Heim won me over again.

Hvarf is basically a collection of old songs that never got released before, so it was never going to be a five star album. But nevertheless it is a good listen.

Heim is a more engaging listen. It is made up of some rather lovely live acoustic recordings of some of Sigur Rós’s best songs. The highlight is one of my favourite Sigur Rós songs, ‘Ágætis Byrjun’.

My original review of Hvarf / Heim

14. Air — Pocket Symphony

A reasonably pleasant album from Air. Not their best, but a good listen nonetheless. My main criticism with this album is that it sounds so similar to Talkie Walkie. So if you don’t like previous Air albums, it’s probably best to give Pocket Symphony a miss.

Even a collaboration with Jarvis Cocker feels like a missed opportunity. Another collaboration, ‘Somewhere Between Waking and Sleeping’, with Neil Hannon, is more successful — although it plays up to the stereotypes of ‘chill-out’ music. Nice song though.

There are some good songs — ‘Left Bank’ and ‘Mer du Japon’ are particular highlights. However, there is nothing approaching some of the killer songs they have come up with on previous albums.

If you like Air though, you will not be disappointed with Pocket Symphony.

13. Gescom — A1–D1

The mysterious Gescom collective resurfaces for the first time since 2003′s immense Iss:Sa. This new EP, A1–D1, appears to be a collection of six remixes, glitched up to the max.

The only one I can recognise is ‘B1′, which is a remix of Brian Eno + David Byrne’s ‘Come With Us’. It really highlights the spookier elements of the original song, which hadn’t really grabbed me before. It’s quite creepy to listen to really. One of those tracks to ban myself from listening to at night.

I haven’t heard of any of the other stuff that has been remixed for A1–D1, although people with a much better knowledge of the history of electronic dance music will apparently recognise them. It’s really groovy though.

‘A2′ is a good blast of messed up acid. ‘C1′ has a tantalising melody and jumpy beat that never seems to sit still (despite the fact that it doesn’t change much, if at all), leaving you wanting more. ‘C2′ starts off with one of the most dizzying soundscapes I have ever heard.

It is also being claimed by Skam that this is the world’s first ‘left-handed’ CD case. Yes, it opens the wrong way.

All-in-all, a really good Gescom release. I don’t know if the Autechre lads had anything to do with it, but it is nonetheless a good CD to have while we wait for Quaristice to come out.

12. Burial — Untrue

What I know about the fledgling dubstep genre could be written on the back of a postage stamp. It would say ‘Burial’ on it. I kept on reading about Burial. Somehow he has captured the attention of the chatterati, as I read more and more about him in places like The Guardian. Having seen ‘Burial’ written in too many end-of-year lists and ‘hear this before you die’ articles, I took the plunge and bought Untrue.

I had no real preconceptions. All I knew was that Burial was a ‘dubstep’ artist (dubstep being a relatively new kind of electronic music popular with Shoreditch types), and that he was fiercely anonymous to the point that “only five people know I make tunes“.

On first impressions I was a little underwhelmed. It sounded good, but it wasn’t quite what I was expecting. It was like a more experimental, sparse garage music. A bit like what Pole would sound like if he came from London.

I have to say, now that I am used to the sound I think it is fabulous. It sounds like it is from a futuristic urban dystopia. “London 2030, you’re the last man alive” sort of thing. A good accompaniment to last-night walks around town.

I don’t know if it will make me investigate the dubstep genre much further. It will certainly make me buy Burial’s first album at some point. Good stuff.

11. Modeselektor — Happy Birthday!

The latest Modeselektor album contains nothing revelatory. It certainly doesn’t grab me in the same way as their first album, Hello Mom!. And in a lot of ways, Happy Birthday! feels a lot like they are recycling old Modeselektor tunes.

However, I have still found myself enjoying this album immensely. ’2000007 (feat. TTC)’ particularly gets stuck in my head a lot. It is an excellent mix of great music and good humour.

The collaborations with Thom Yorke and Maxïmo Park are missed opportunities for me. And if you’re looking for something different to their first album, you’ll have to look elsewhere. But it’s nonetheless a thoroughly enjoyable and engaging listen.

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What I listened to in 2007

4 January 2008 02:09

Categories: Entertainment, General, Internet, Music, Personal, Technology

Music of 2007

A series of posts

  1. What I listened to in 2007
  2. Music of 2007: #40–#21
  3. Music of 2007: #20–#11
  4. Music not of 2007: three reissues
  5. Music of 2007: #10–#4
  6. Music of 2007: top three

I am a bit late with my ranking of albums of 2007. I know it’s the new year and it’s not very fashionable to be looking back once the new year has begun. But unlike some people — who publish their lists in early December or sometimes even mid-November — I like to wait until the end of the year until posting my end-of-year list.

Unfortunately, it is taking a bit of time for me to finish off the post. You know how I like to witter on. Plus, ahem, I still haven’t received a rather important album from 2007 through the post.

In the meantime, some stats porn from my Last.fm account to give you an idea of what I listened to in 2007.

A few caveats here. I got an iPod sometime during autumn, which means that I now scrobble my out-and-about listening habits, which wasn’t possible when I used my iRiver. As such, my obsession with Battles early on in the year only registers a little bit, whereas the purchase of Radiohead’s In Rainbows in October is visible for all to see.

Okay, on to the graph. I have written before about the rather fun LastGraph service. I have decided to create a LastGraph of my 2007 listening. Of course, it isn’t restricted to music that was released in 2007, but it does give a flavour of my listening habits over the year.

I’m afraid it isn’t easy to see the detail in this image, but as you can see it is rather large enough as it is. If you click on the image, you will be able to see the full-blown PDF file, if you are really all that interested. (Warning: The PDF is a big file — 2.64MB.)

My listening habits over 2007

The first 2007 releases to register in the graph are Field Music’s Tones of Town and Shining’s Grindstone. Battles’s Mirrored makes a small appearance in March, but as I said it is much lower than you would expect if you knew how much I genuinely listened to the album.

Besides Ceephax and Air, nothing too much of interest happens until June. Then comes Björk’s Volta. Not soon afterwards comes the magical week which saw the release of albums by Justice and Simian Mobile Disco. Also registering here are album I bought by Cornelius and Stereolab, although these weren’t from 2007. (Incidentally, this period shows a sustained reduction in the amount of music I listened to, reflecting how unusually busy I was during the summer.)

In August you can see the biggest patch of the year — The Future Sound of London, from when I bought From the Archives volumes 1–3. After that comes another huge patch of Blur, a period where I bought a few albums of theirs and even wrote about them on this blog. A bit of an obsessive period.

Soon enough pretty much everything is crowded out by In Rainbows. If you look carefully towards the end of the year you can also see The Fiery Furnaces, Gescom and Burial.

In terms of charts, here is how my rolling year chart for artists looks like.

  1. Radiohead — 811 plays
  2. The Future Sound of London — 613
  3. Autechre — 602
  4. Pulp — 567
  5. The Fiery Furnaces — 549
  6. Boards of Canada — 538
  7. Blur — 530
  8. Aphex Twin — 453
  9. Squarepusher — 428
  10. Battles — 425

And for tracks, In Rainbows pretty much dominates. Not bad considering it’s only been out since October. Battles and Shining also get a look in here. Justice, Björk and The Fiery Furnaces also feature in the top 50.

I’ll post my thoughts on the music of 2007 over the next week or so.

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My ten favourite albums of 2007 so far

2 July 2007 01:49

Categories: Entertainment, Music, Reviews

I reckon 2007 has been a great year for music. Just half of the year has gone, and there are already lots of standouts for me. And some albums from big names are due out later on this year, so it is surely only going to get even better.

Here are my favourites of the year so far. I won’t list them in a strict numerical order for the time being. That can wait until the end of the year.

Air — Pocket Symphony

Air is a strange band, because — although I am certain that I like them — I never feel as though they are one of my very favourite bands. Yet, every time they release the album I am uncontrollably drawn to buy it.

At first I was just going to ignore Pocket Symphony until I saw it in a sale or something. But then I heard that it was produced by Nigel Godrich. And then I heard that there was a collaboration with Jarvis Cocker. And then I read all the good reviews.

It is a fine album, but it is exactly how we have come to expect an Air album to sound like. It’s not all that different in style and mood from Talkie Walkie.

In reality, the Jarvis collaboration is not all that great. But the Neil Hannon collaboration, ‘Somewhere Between Waking And Sleeping’ is quite something. It won’t do much to shake off all of the clichés about “chill out” music, but there is no doubt that it is a beauty.

Battles — Mirrored

I have already written about this album once, and I have also written about the time I saw them live. I don’t feel the need to say much more. But believe the hype. Battles are real innovators. This is exciting as much for the use of technology, and what it holds for the future, as anything else.

Björk — Volta

For some bizarre reason, Björk’s label tried to make out that this is her most accessible album for years. I’m not sure if that is the case. Those who did not like Björk before will probably not be swung by a couple of Timbaland collaborations (good though they are).

For me, this is a slight disappointment. It’s quite a good album, although not as good as some of Björk’s previous albums. It’s not helped by the collaborations with Antony Hegarty, who is not personally my cup of tea.

That’s not to say it’s a bad album, but I was expecting more. In a way, the best bit is the packaging. The CD comes in an elaborate fold-out box containing Russian doll-inspired cardboard wallets.

Ceephax — Volume One

[Insert comparison to Squarepusher here], but quite a good album. Just because I like that 8-bit 80s retro thing.

Hanne Hukkelberg — Rykestrasse 68

On Last.fm, a fair number of people appear to have tagged Hanne Hukkelberg as “jazz”. It is not one that I would have thought of, although if they mean jazz in that completely un-jazz Norah Jones sense, I can kind of see where they are coming from.

I do not mean to insult Hanne Hukkelberg’s music by comparing it to Norah Jones, but I can see how this album is a bit like that kind of music, but with all the blandness sucked out and replaced by eclectica.

Hanne Hukkelberg manages to do something that many people can’t — make music that is beautiful as well as experimental. Add a gorgeous Norwegian accent into the mix and you have a delightful album.

Justice — †

What a breath of fresh air! Why does not all dance music sound as good as this? There is seemingly lots of exciting electronic music coming out of Paris at the moment, and Justice spearhead it all. Besides Mirrored, this has to be my favourite album of the year so far.

Kieran Hebden and Steve Reid — Tongues

The awesome collaboration between a man at the forefront of modern electronic music and a jazz drumming legend continues with Tongues. As before, these tracks are performed with no overdubs or edits. That is the most impressive thing about it.

The music is not always great. Some of it is a bit rambling, and a lot of it does sound like second-hand Four Tet out takes. Nonetheless, Kieran Hebden and Steve Reid clearly connect very well, and it is a joy to hear them playing together.

Shining — Grindstone

I love this album! Shining keep the electronic / jazz elements of old, but crank up the prog metal à la Dream Theater to create an astounding, enjoyable album.

Moments of madcap, humorous lunacy like ‘In the Kingdom of Kitsch You Will Be a Monster’ and ‘Winterreise’ are countered by the more thoughtful and beautiful moments like ‘Psalm’ and the playful ‘Moonchild Mindgames’

If you have never heard of Shining, trust me on this one. If you want to hear something a bit different, I don’t think you can go far wrong with Grindstone. In a way, it has to be heard to be believed. Quite an album.

And chalk another one up for Norway!

Simian Mobile Disco — Attack Decay Sustain Release

From the burning wreckage of lamented electronic-indie band Simian (who must be in a right huff after Hot Chip stole their act and became infinitely more popular) emerges Simian Mobile Disco. Like Justice (remixers of Simian, so this is an obvious comparison), SMD go in for the unashamedly fun dance stuff. It’s like IDM that doesn’t feel the need to emphasise the ‘I’. (It’s The Beat that matters, of course.)

SMD answered a call I think. The world was screaming out for them to come along. I mean, who else is there to make this sort of music (by which I mean dance music that is actually danceable yet isn’t the aural equivalent of scraping your balls through a cheesegrater)? The Chemical Brothers? They’re a bit old hat now…

The Tuss — Rushup Edge

Oh dear. Read one forum and this is Aphex Twin collaborating with Squarepusher. Someone else says it’s Aphex Twin collaborating with Luke Vibert. Go somewhere else and all of a sudden it’s Aphex Twin on his own. Then somebody comes along and says it’s not Aphex at all, it’s just somebody taking the piss and pretending to be Aphex.

So of course I had to buy it.

I am undecided on it so far. Musically it reminds me a lot of the Analord series, which I thought was okay but nothing more. Whether it is good or not seems a bit by the by though. It’s going to be a talking point whatever.

EP of note

Boom Bip — Sacchrilege EP

I was prepared to give up on Boom Bip. His last album, Blue Eyed in the Red Room was so boring that I almost forgot how good his old stuff was. Then I heard some samples of this EP, and found out that he’s gone all electro.

Sadly, it’s still not all that interesting. Still, full marks for trying. And infinity marks for the presentation. The artwork is wonderful, and the pink vinyl is irresistible. Maybe it will grow on me — I have not had much chance to digest it yet.

Reissue of note

Seefeel — Quique (redux edition)

Seefeel can’t have spent much time in Scotland if they were prepared to call their album Quique (which, yes, sounds like ‘keech’). But the album is anything but keech.

This lost shoegaze classic was given a reissue earlier this year. I guess it must have been a bit unexpected. There doesn’t seem to be much reason why Quique in particular deserved this treatment, although I’m glad it got it.

It comes with a bonus disc of previously unreleased material, remixes and the like. A real standout is ‘Clique’, which is easily as good as anything on the album. Why it was not released at the time is probably one of those little mysteries that even the band does not understand (I hope so anyway).

Cheesy image, I know. But lying on the bed, half asleep, listening to this through headphones is a special experience.

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