Saturday 9 March 2013

3x3

A little while ago I put some serious thinking in and came up with a 3x3 for my music taste. For anyone that doesn't know what that is, it's basically a 3x3 grid generally composed of 9 of one's favourite works in one medium. e.g film, anime, music etc. Obviously mine is of my top 9 albums (in no particular) order. These are some of the albums I hold in the highest regard, and would recommend to anyone no matter of their taste in music. In this post I'll briefly review each album, and also a few that just barely didn't make the cut. More after the break. Be warned, there's a hell of a lot to this post.
Final update: I...Think it's done. All the extra albums have been added, mp3 links for everything. I'm pretty sure we're good. Let me know if there's something I missed or if the links are broke.
Trust me, it wasn't easy to pick out just 9 albums from a gigantic selection of music I hold really dear, so to narrow it down I imposed upon myself the following restrictions:
  1. No two albums of the same artist.
  2. No two albums too similar in content/genre.
  3. With a leeway of 1 or 2 songs, every song must be very good.
  4. Not mood dependent. i.e highly enjoyable no matter my circumstance and feeling.
With those criteria, I was able to narrow it down to a few over 9, where I was able to make a few more in depth decisions and finally get it down to 9. The added bonus of using those criteria is that this 3x3 is much more representative of my tastes, as opposed to being flooded with all my favourite jazz records.

Now to some substance: these 9 albums are, from left to right, top to bottom:


Beirut - The Rip Tide

Melody Gardot - My One And Only Thrill

Hanggai - He Who Travels Far

Parov Stelar - Coco

Charles Mingus - Mingus Ah Um

Yann Tiersen - Amélie OST

Neutral Milk Hotel - In The Aeroplane Over The Sea

Kashiwa Daisuke - Program Music I

Siobhan Owen - Storybook Journey



    First and foremost, the album you'll never stop hearing about from me: The Rip Tide by Beirut. A 2011 release, it's Beirut's latest and greatest. I adore every song on the album, and couldn't count the amount of times I've listened to it start to finish - easily in the vicinity of several hundred by now. Moving on from the purely Balkan folk sound in previous albums, Beirut refined their sound and brought to light a style that had only been hinted at in The Lon Gisland EP. That is, a Balkan influenced indie-folk style that tastefully channels pop music of a past era. It's a fusion work that perfectly balances its eastern and western influences. From start to finish, it flows smoothly and stays generally upbeat, with a few mellow songs dotted in there to give it that little extra flavour. At 33 minutes playtime the album is rather short, but I think it's a good length: short and sweet, I know I said this 3x3 isn't in any particular order - and it isn't - but The Rip Tide was certainly the first to spring to mind when I decided to make it.


    Next up, Melody Gardot's My One And Only Thrill. I think I recall playing the entirety of the album in the later hours of one of my streams last year, interspersed with some orchestral pieces. This is some seriously fancy stuff. Very mellow, slow-moving and soulful. Gardot's incredibly smooth voice blends in the background very nicely; it's a good album to play if you're having some guests over for a quiet dinner. The kind of music you'd expect to hear at a dimly lit,  classy bar. Now that I think about it, it wouldn't be too out of place in one of the more sombre episodes of Bartender. The kind of album you can sit down with when you're feeling blue and reach for the scotch.


    Hanggai were a fantastic find at the Woodford folk festival. I'd never really heard Mongolian folk music before them, but I soon realised what I'd been missing out on. I don't really know what they're singing about, but nonetheless the album is great fun to listen to. It practically radiates their seemingly boundless energy - something that I was fortunate enough to witness first-hand. However, after listening to more music from the region I quickly came to realise that what Hanggai are an interpretation of Mongolian folk. What Hanggai play is a sort of Mongolian folk-pop/rock that doesn't stray all too far from its roots, but the difference is certainly tangible. So it may not be strictly speaking 'proper' Mongolian folk, but it is extremely accessible and fun to listen to. I recently moved a stereo system into my bathroom so that I can rock out in the shower to this album (and Coco). Not even kidding. And to be honest, if you're that much of a stickler for the properness of your regional folk music that you can't enjoy such a natural interpretation, then maybe you ought to pull your head out because, fuck man, there's a whole world outside your ass that you really should explore. Oh, and the album is He Who Travels Far, what I believe to be their second release. Their debut Introducing Hanggai is also good, but this one's just plain better.



    Parov Stelar's Coco is some of the wilder electroswing I've listened to. Compared to say, Caravan Palace or Stelar's earlier albums which are much slower, more chill and atmospheric - Coco is a real dance number. Even I like to get up and get moving, and golly does this album reach into your body and make those muscles to moving. I can hardly sit still when I listen to this, honestly. The latter quarter of part 2 (CD2) is just straight up electro with jazz influence, but (most of) the other songs sample some classic swing and do some really neat things with it. Be aware though, this album is why I made that exception on the third criterion - there's two songs that I always remove on my playlist because I think the quasi-rap vocals in 'Let's Roll' and 'Sunny Bunny Blues' really don't fit, but to each their own. Maybe other people will like them, I don't know.



    Now for some real meat. Charles Mingus is the man. And Mingus Ah Um is one absolute ripper of an album. It's even got my favourite recording of my favourite standard - Goodbye Pork Pie Hat. The album is some real classic feeling jazz. It's a '59 album, so it's got all that 'cool' of the post-swing era, when free jazz and all that good stuff was blooming, and before it all started to get a little bit weird. I could rant and rave, but I don't think that's necessary. It's just one of those must-listens in the jazz world.



    The Amélie soundtrack is a real piece of work from Yann Tiersen. It's all accordions and fun and really, really good on its own merits. The movie too, is also brilliant, however this is a music blog not a snobby film review site, and nor am I the kind of wanker that wears striped shirts and a beret. Moving on, the instrumentation for this is pretty odd, implementing very strongly the accordion and piano, but also banjo, vibraphone, harpsichord and a fucking bicycle wheel. It's all rather chipper and makes for a damn fine listen if you've got nothing better to but sit around and be happy for an hour . It even features a '30s song, which gives the album another layer of texture.


    Why is her head a potato? What's wrong with his voice, and for that matter what in the sweet fuck is he going on about? Where did these trombones come from? All of these questions and more left completely unanswered by Neutral Milk Hotel's sophomore masterpiece. In The Aeroplane Over The Sea is lo-fi hipster garbage at its absolute best. It's most definitely not for everyone, but those that do like it will really like it - though it may take a few listens to get used to Magnum's voice. I don't even know why I like it so much. I don't think anyone else does, either.



    I think the best way to describe Kashiwa Daisuke's Program Music I would be 'schizophrenic'. This neo-classical electroacoustic glitch album is unlike anything you've heard before. It's jarring, it's beautiful, it's electric, it's epic orchestration. It's got two songs on it, and they run for 36 and 26 minutes. The first, Stella, is easily the best part of the album. It's 11/10. It's short glimpses of a million little stories that flash in and out of your mind before you properly grasp what it was. Close your eyes and listen to it and just absorb it. It's really quite something. So if Stella is schizophrenic, then 'Run Once Write Melos' is probably something like this. The song has its moments for sure, but it's got nothing on Stella and to be honest, at some points it's little more than noise. All in all, the album is a very solid listen. If an hour is a bit too long for two songs, then just listen to Stella - it pulls much more than its weight, and at 36 minutes it certainly weighs a lot too.



    Last but not least, another Woodford find of mine, the latest album of 19 year old Siobhan Owen. It's mostly covers of traditional European folk songs, but she puts her spin on all of them and it works brilliantly. She picked up the harp after meeting Cécile Corbel, famous for her work on The Borrower Arrietty. Even if you're not big on traditional folk music, I think this is still a very easy album to enjoy thoroughly.







    Worthy Mentions

    Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago (Folk, Indie)
    Frank Turner - Love, Ire and Song (Folk, punk)
    Benn Jordan - Lousiana Mourning (Acoustic)
    Hypnotic Brass Ensemble - Hypnotic Brass Ensemble (Massive Brass)
    jizue - jizue (Prog-rock/jazz)
    Radiohead - OK Computer  (tour de force)
    bôa - Get There (Alt rock)
    Simon and Garfunkel - Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme (Folk)
    In Flames - Colony (Melodic Death Metal)


    I'm posting this a bit early, the files aren't quite ready on the seedbox yet.
    Wait patiently, I'm uploading it overnight and I'll fix it all up when I wake up in 7 or 8 hours.
    I've got them all in FLAC for you, but if that's no good then let me know in the comments and I'll MF some mp3 v0 if there's demand.

    FLAC: http://www.mediafire.com/?xlnw4h7f7mp20 (3x3 includes everything except Storybook Journey. There's a separate Siobhan Owen torrent that has it and more.) I think this is broken at the moment, not sure when I'll be able to fix this.

    MP3: http://www.mediafire.com/?ge59b2aui0e9z (Password for each is 'Eggmun', take note of the capital letter!)

    Update 10/4/2013: Added worthy mentions, mp3 links for everything to come.
    Update 15/4/2013: Added mp3 links for the 3x3, will upload the other albums in due time.

    5 comments:

    1. I prefer mp3 due to my brutal space constraints, but I can certainly make space for flac, considering I'm the only one asking.

      ReplyDelete
    2. I'd like some mp3 if possible. Cheers!

      ReplyDelete
    3. mp3 if possible please and thankyou my good man

      ReplyDelete
    4. Thanks for the mp3's!

      ReplyDelete