Author: bolachas

Categories
Uncategorized

Holobody, “Riverhood” (Mush Records, 2012)

I’ve first heard of Sea Oleena when my mates from Lizard Kisses told me she was going to participate on their latest EP, Tiny Island Teeth, which I released on Cakes and Tapes late last year. Since I heard that one song, I instantly went and downloaded her latest album, Sleeplessness, which got me hooked for weeks. Her name caught my eye again when reading the press release relative to this album, and I knew I had to take a listen to it.

Holobody is a duo comprised of Oleena and her brother (which goes by the moniker of Felix Green). One can read the words “gospel, "hip-hop”, “electronica” and “folk” in the first sentence of the album description. Beware. Such a melting pot of genres may put off anyone who isn’t exactly looking for the future of music in the non-form of a batch of mp3s AND got tired of 96% of all music tagged “experimental” on the internets. That would be me, but strangely enough I found Riverhood’s opening track, “Unfold”, to be quite entertaining – sounds like something Why? could have done – and decided not to close the tab on which I was streaming it right away.

After listening to her solo stuff, it may seem a bit strange to hear Sea Oleena rapping – but then again, she never sounded conventional at all. On “Hurricane Season” she shares singing/rapping duties with her bro Green above a sea (pun not intended) of bleeps, bloops and samples; “Riverbed” is the highlight in the first half of the record, with Oleena’s whispered vocals providing a warm atmosphere. One of my few personal complaints about Riverhood as a whole is how the constant shift from quiet and ethereal to beat-infested schizophrenia puts me off from listening to it from start to finish without skipping a track or changing the tracklist around; fortunately enough, “Down to the River to Pray” kicked in near the end of the album – here’s the gospel! And it makes me want to praise the Lord or something. That’s what I wrote on a review of Spiritualized’s Sweet Heart, Sweet Light that I never finished and that’s what I’m going to say everytime I hear the words “Lord”, “Jesus” or “God” on a good song. But this time I think I saw the light somewhere during this jam’s coda.

<a href=“http://holobody.bandcamp.com/album/riverhood” data-mce-href=“http://holobody.bandcamp.com/album/riverhood”>Riverhood by Holobody</a>

DSS

Categories
Uncategorized

Is there a better reason to post about longtime favorite Benji Cossa than the release of a perfect Bee Gees cover song? Don’t think so.

DSS

Categories
Uncategorized

Swedish underage pop darling Amanda Mair has just released her long awaited debut LP on local label Labrador, which is also my two dogs’ breed. I’m glad I’ve discovered this song at the same time summer seems to be finally showing up on this weather-wrecked Iberian peninsula. You can also download the mp3 here and please ignore that person who says the song reminds him of ABBA. It’s as spot-on as comparing her to IKEA.

DSS

(Source: https://www.youtube.com/)
Categories
Uncategorized

Baroness confirmed to play at Milhões de Festa next July 20. Mssng Barcelos.

(Source: https://www.youtube.com/)
Categories
live

Will Stratton + Paleo @ Paris (07.05.2012)

Starting to listen to Will Stratton takes us to that awkward moment when we know that someone is really huge but only a small part of the world had already realized the same. Luckily for me, I could attend a house show by this wonderful North-American songwriter, this week in Paris. The event, kindly promoted by the team GoodMorninCaptn, took place in a pretty apartment at Montmartre, in a very quiet and intimate atmosphere.

Will Stratton, a young Californian musician now based in New York, traveled Europe for two months promoting his fourth album, Post-Empire. On this adventure, Will has been accompanied by Paleo, another great artist with a very characteristic voice and a large repertory of songs and concerts, who also came from U.S. to present his own work.

Paleo, with his shoes off, was the responsible for the first musical act of the night. After him, on a very subtle way, Will Stratton just sat on a chair with his guitar and silenced the discrete audience with the amazing “When You Let Your Hair Down to Your Shoulders”. The first song is one of the most important moments of a gig (right?) and Will Stratton did it SO well.

It was really pleasant being sat on a comfy sofa, with nice people by my side and with two cats walking around while a very talent artist was in front of me, singing and explaining some songs, as the one about his great-grandfather (“El Capitan”) or another about his first love (“Loose but Not Broke”). At some moments, Will looked like a kid, fingerpicking his guitar with deep pleasure and making little experiences with his voice, which turned the songs a bit different from the album. My favorite part of this acoustic show was “The Relatively Fair”, a lovely song that made my heart flickered a little when Will closed his eyes while he sang that “I’ve never known you and chances are I never will, but if you hear this, know that I love you still” (yeah, deep and sad songs are always the best ones for me).

The guitar arrangements are genius, the lyrics are very beautiful and well written and besides his musical skills, Will has an amazing beard – hey, you gotta love him!

Here is the setlist of this night:

  1. When You Let Your Hair Down to Your Shoulders
  2. El Capitan
  3. Do You Remember the Morning?
  4. Loose but not Broke
  5. No Wonder
  6. Mercury Id Blues
  7. All the Table of the Styx
  8. The Relatively Fair
  9. If You Wait Long Enough

—

  1. (instrumental song)
  2. (un-finished and un-released song)

On the next day both artists played again a showcase in one of my favorite places in Paris: the lovely Fabrique Balades Sonores. On this show, Will played more songs of Post-Empire, as the theme that gave the title to the album and the very beautiful “Tell Me, Where do I Begin?”.

 RBC