Da Camera

I hadn’t been to Magnatune for a while ( along while as it turns out. But I was looking something baroque-ish (don’t ask) and found Da Camera: Celtic Renaissance/Baroque Ensemble, who as it turns out , were just what I was looking for.

Da Camera is a versatile ensemble, crossing the line between ‘early’, ‘folk’ and ‘contemporary’ music. Their programmes range in repertoire from the passamezzi of the 15th century, via traditional Celtic and English music, through the baroque, to newly-commissioned works. Three new works have been commissioned by them to date. All members of the recorder family feature alongside many different sizes of viol with harpsichord or organ accompaniment.

They have just recorded their first CD on their own Da Camera label of Scottish and Irish Baroque and Traditional music, entitled A Celtic Celebration. The first track of the album is Carolan’s Concerto and it just wonderful, light bright and infectious. I have always loved it since the first time I heard it played ( it was a band I was mixing for, just whistle and guitar)

But the track that really hooked me was The Fairy Queen (it’s track two), it shows the depth of talent that this band has, and this is the track I ended up using on the MP3 player.

The album is a gem and Magnatune have this spiffy little player that will let you hear it all.

A Celtic Celebration by Da Camera

Highly recommended (as is Magnatune – they have a whole bunch of new material to check out)

Website at magnatune.com/artists/da_camera

I have been listening to “Lullaby” by _Ghost for a few weeks now and find my self coming back to it. It really only has the one idea but it’s not bad one. Everything in this piece revolves around the voice and it’s ethereal treatment. The chime tones are pretty and the washes in the background are captivating.

_ghost has a slim biography, read non existent.  OK, he’s from Poland and “Lullaby” was used for the game Crayon Physics Deluxe. His songs can be found and downloaded at ccMixter or his MySpace profile. Not really a lot , is it.

What’s ccmixter, I hear you ask? Here’s a bit about them…

ccMixter is a community music site featuring remixes licensed under Creative Commons where you can listen to, sample, mash-up, or interact with music in whatever way you want. Remixers If you’re into sampling, remixing and mash-ups grab the sample packs and a cappellas for download and you can upload your version back into ccMixter, for others to enjoy and re-sample. All legal.

Head over and have a listen, despite “Lullaby’s” title, it’s a chaotic piece, rough in places, way to busy in other and you know what? I don’t care, nor it seems do a lot of other people.

Recommended

Websites at www.myspace.com/ghostrust and ccmixter.org/media/files/_ghost/3631

This is certainly trippy, quite a road trip through a disparate sonic landscape.  A wonderful combination of synths, electronic drums and some yummy industrial metal textures, and then there is the torrent of guitar sounds that just dump on you near the end, absolutely glorious.

The rest of the album is just as interesting and varied. There are psuedo soundtrack bits that remind me of some of the things that “The Morrighan” are doing.

But the really good bit is that Ant Neely has released “Not Fit For Human Consumption” (the aforementioned new album) as a Creative Commons download. It’s full of very cool, genre bending electronic music that merges sounds from the 1940s and ’50s with more 21st Century timbres and textures.

Because the album has been released under a creative commons license, Neely actively encourages people to remix or rebuild upon Neely’s work, as long as it’s for non-commercial purposes.

Musician and composer Ant Neely is an advocate of literally spreading his music around the world. A member of the electronic band Subthunk, Neely has turned the release of his first solo album, Not Fit For Human Consumption, into a global experiment by leaving copies of the CD in public locations for people to find, copy, and then leave someplace else. With the help of those who find the CDs, Neely is tracking the movement of his album on his Web site. One disc made its way from England to Brazil while another hopped around the U.K. before landing in Africa.

Head over to www.antneely.com/, download the album and then if you like it slip him some bucks if you think it’s worth it. He covers such a wide musical landscape you are sure to find something you like.

Highly Recommended

Website at www.antneely.com/

Jamison Young hails from Australian and is currently touring around Europe playing his music, it sounds like a he’s a modern day troubadour travelling with a guitar and a harmonica But rhythmically he is plugged into a more fundamental feel.

“How Far” is a truly wonderful piece of modern pop. It has busy production, really wonderful playing, understated vocals and like Leslie Feist’s “1234″ sticks in your brain like glue. And then there’s Top of the Hill (it has done the rounds of JJJ and some of the community stations here in Australia… which I managed to miss). A very produced piece with layers of vocals, precision drums that remind me of Kraftwerk (but that’s probably me), mile a minute lyric and then lush Europop strings to round it off, it’s a hoot. For me though How Far is the better song but there is something about the rest of the tracks that is worth a look.

Both of these songs come from his 2005 album “shifting sands of a blue car”. His songs are mainly about his travels, the places and the people he meets. A modern day Sal Paradise or Dean Moriarty with a guitar instead of a pen.

You can check out the rest of his album at www.jamisonyoung.com/.
His MySpace site is at www.myspace.com/jamyoung

Highly recommended.

Foley is one of those odd abberations that you find every so often. This trio are producing some very interesting music. “Doppelganger Desire” is one of those tracks that has been on my MP3 player since September last year and I am still trying to make my mind up about it. I know I like it, because it’s still getting listened to, I just can’t figure out why.

Head over to their MySpace site at www.myspace.com/teamfoley and fire up “Doppelganger Desire“. It starts out and I find myself immediately hooked by the vocals, all sampled repeats and backed by some lovely textures and a very analog bass sound.

Here is some stuff from their site…

Foley emerged in Gravesend, Kent during the early 2000′s when Richard Lock, Mark Thompson and David Collins came together with the idea of self producing a multi-styled musical album in their very own bed rooms! The Foley three, who have been friends since high school, created everything from scratch with no outside influences and only using local music talents to add vocals and other instruments to the mix.

Now I have to admit that this appeals to me as an approach. Homemade / handmade music, a variety of voices, really high production values, good ideas and it all just works. Hmm I may have just answered why I am still listening to it. Have a listen and see what you think.

Recommended

The band also have a presence at www.beatpick.com/Foley where you can hear some more of their 18 track EP

Today we will have a look at Greg Baumont and his remix using Tukan’s acapella of “Light a Rainbow”. A slick and sophisticated arrangement that oozes craft. The backings are so understated and yet so musically intriguing especially with the contrasts between the acoustic and electric guitars.

His 2004 piece “The New Day” is an attempt at a worldfusion/rock ballad with vocals from the middle-east via a vocoder. The sounds and textures that he offers are symphonic but the song works (well it does for me).

Greg Baumont has a deft touch, a great imagination and it should be noted that he is an ardent supporter of Creative Commons licenses. There is a lot more music on offer at both his site and teh Jamendo site, it will take you a while to get through it but it is worth having a look and sampling a few of the tracks on offer. Another one that has been on the MP3 player for a while is “Why“.

Highly Recommended.

I hadn’t been to the ever fascinating Magnatune for awhile and popped into their front page to see if there was anything of interest (there always is… it’s the choosing that is hard) and there was “Eternal Jazz Project” just sitting there. I had to have a listen.

Well a quick listen to “Hagagatan 14″ and I was hooked. Great sax, great keys, a really yummy guitarist and nice arrangements, just about all you need really. This isn’t really going to challenge your listening, but it interesting and a cut above a lot of the stuff I hear in the laneways falling out of the club doorways on my way home from work.

Eternal Jazz Project are out of Stockholm, Sweden, their debut album “GratisJazz” is chock full of of tasty original jazz, that seems to rely on melody to create their relaxed yet polished sound. This line up features sax, piano, guitar, double bass, and drums. Pianist Lars Lundell is the main dude behind it all.

Stream the album from here or head over to Magnatune and use the flash player there.

Well worth a listen.

James Shuttle wrote on his opsound page…

I describe most of what I do as “music to walk by”. I love the way having certain pieces of music playing as I walk around changes my perception of my surroundings, and my work is mostly an effort to consciously pick the flavour of experience. City centres can seem peaceful; a dark underpass can feel comforting; fields and trees can be disturbing.

Now I am a big fan of racing around plugged into my MP3 player (or is it plugged into me… no I don’t think this is the time or the place for philosophical musing of this nature) and I have to admit I don’t have a lot of downtempo on it, it’s way too slow for crowd surfing, but I have made an exception for a couple of James pieces.

“All The Trips” is another slower piece laid back piano and synth on shuffling drums. “Kinky-noir somewhere between Portishead and Death in Vegas”. This should be a soundtrack to a Philip Marlowe movie, there are some great “scary music” bits lurking on the fringes of this one.

He is a lecturer at Coventry University in the UK and has been making noises with his computer for over a decade, although it’s only been in the last couple of years that he has started posting to the net. You can find a lot more of his work at dis-dot-dat.net/ and they encompass a wide variety of styles.

Give him a listen.

The Devil’s Toxin comes from the album of the same name and is the latest creation of Ambient Teknology. This album drives at 100 miles an hour, and when it slow’s down it’s an exploration of the dark and mysterious places at the back of your mind.

I am seriously taken with the Devils Toxin title track and the wonderfully titled. “But Satan Rules The Universe” but the standout slow track has to be the textures and sounds of the downtempo track, “Atek 1st Movement”.

The band have a very slick but really really annoying Flash site that you cant link to (see Marks comment below). Fortunately they are on the ever reliable Magnatune site, magnatune.com/artists/atek

Ambient Teknology aka Mark P. has been recording uptempo underground electronic music for over six years and is influenced by such artists as Kraftwerk, Orbital, Gary Numan, and Sven Vath. Ambient Teknology fuses early synth from the 1970′s and 80′s with the dance driven drum and bass riffs of the late 90′s, resulting in a driving, upbeat sound full of ecclectic beats and the deliciously dark undertones of early new wave.

Born in Cornwall, England in 1966, Mark P. lived and grew through the UK punk and electronic scene and developed a sense of the true depth of sound synthesisers were meant to bring to music. Much of Ambient Teknology’s music, in fact, is based on ideas involving a departure from the old, and a dawn into the new, and Mark continually incorporates new ideas, techologies, and sounds into his music as electronica and techno continue to evolve.

Now their site is annoying but it has an offer you can’t really refuse. If you sign up there they will send you a CD for free. So listen to their latest album first at Magnatune and if it takes your fancy head over to the bands site and order yourself a free copy of one of their previous albums.