Team Ghost - Dead Film Star -- Rituals (2013)

Now I'll be having it about a band created by Nicolas Fromaguea. Who was a co founder and member of M83 (until 2004). The music the band plays is a mix of a lot of things, it's electronic combined with indie rock as well as a mix with post rock influences at times. Which apparently is the Cold-Gaze genre according to NME (New Musical Express). Therefore I'm very intrigued by this french quintet. 

They tell on their site that their first album is out now, and obviously they mean Rituals. But a little research learns that We All Shine was released in 2011 already with 14 tracks on it. So I think you can speak of a follow up album in this case. Anyways for the great masses and for me as well it's the first thing you'll hear about Team Ghost so we can indeed speak of a debut album in many ways. And it's good, not all songs convince me after three listens, but the album in general is entertaining. Personally I love the post rock elements in them, it's a cool refreshing aspect in music like this for me. The vocals are decent, nothing too great but decent, and the sound of his voice grows on you with every listen. It's a pretty atmospheric record in few songs as well has it quite some tempo with the more faster paced electronic and post rockish tracks. The record actually starts off with everything I just mentioned. It has a very atmospheric/electronic intro. Which actually builds up to guitar work & drums that continues to build up to an eargasm. So you can immediately hear the post rock influences this album has. And all this in one song! Honestly it's an awesome opening track for me. Further in the record you get a mix of actual rock songs, actual electronic and very atmospheric songs. As well do you often get a mix of all the previous elements in one song which was the case in the intro. I would be posting the away (intro) song because it illustrates the mix between the electronic and the post rock music pretty well. But the song has no official video so I had to pick another one. 

And the video I picked for you guys is the hit song on the album and the most famous one. So of course it has an official video coming along with it. But honestly my favorite track is Away, Dead Film Star is good just less, simple as that haha. In general I'd stongely advice you to check this entry out, I'm enjoying quite a lot! Soooo enjoy!

Official site
last.fm artist page

CHVRCHES - Recover -- Recover ep (2013)

Up next on the blog is maybe the next big thing in the electro rock scene. CHVRCHES (pronounced Churches) are a pretty alternative trio from Glasgow, Scotland. The band produces some catchy tunes combined with very fragile vocals from lead vocalist Lauren Mayberry. 

Right here I'll be talking briefly about the Recover ep which came out in the past week I think, the title song of this ep Recover didn't convince me at first listen but it's growing on me. I seem to need time to adapt to the very high vocals in the song but they definitely are growing on me. The second song ZVVL (no idea how to pronounce this one, haha) is less catchy but the combined vocals of Lauren and one of the lads (I have no clue which one) are very well done. The third song, Now Is Not The Time, is a bit of a mix of the previous two. It combines the catchy sounds of Recover and the nice sounding combined vocals of ZVVL and for this reason I'm actually really fond of the last song. As a bonus to these three tracks you get two remixes of the Recover song by Cid Rim and Curxes. Both are well done but like usual I'm the type of guy that prefers to the original. But especially the Cid Rim remix is very entertaining and worth checking out.

The song I'm picking will be the Recover song, simply because it has an official video. I'm not sure if it's my favorite song of the three but let us call it a tie between Now Is Not The Time and Recover. In general it's a good ep and the previous released singles such as The Mother We Share were good as well. So I'd say it's a trio we could be hearing a lot of in the near future. Enjoy!

Official facebook (I think)
last.fm artist page

Polarsets - Morning (2010)

Right now I'll be having it about a pretty new band. Well they are busy from 2009 or 2010 I think but they still are unknown to most people and they don't even have a complete record out yet. Polarsets is a trio based around Newcastle and are making music that is a mix of indie and electronic music. They are(or at least were) signed to Kitsuné records and they released their first ep, the exotica ep, around last summer. While this ep is pretty good with Tropics as my favorite track on it I'm not going to talk about it right now. 

This for the simple reason that all the releases, singles, before the ep were at least as good and in my eyes even a bit better. I love Leave Argentina and the Bside of that one Just Don't Open Your Eyes Yet is even better. The song I'm going to post here is Morning, not as good as the first two songs they brought out but it has an official video and it's still pretty awesome. 

So why talk or even post about this band when they didn't yet release that much in the past? Well their sound seems very promising and although it seems to take like forever to release the debut record I have faith in this trio. I don't even have 10 songs of this group and it's definitely one of my favorite bands at the moment. If you would doubt my opinion they supported Two Door Cinema Club and Ellie Goulding in the past, not bad for starters I'd say. Enjoy Morning!

Official site

last.fm artist page

Germany Germany - Take Me Home -- Adventures (2011)

Today I'll be talking about a very active Canadian music project. Germany Germany is an independent music project by Drew Harris and this guy is making a lot of records last few years. Stick with me. 2010: Radiowave & Last Summer, 2011: Radiowave II & Adventures 2012: Blank Mind Empty Heart and last but not least 2013: Last Summer II. I'm only familiar with the two 2011 albums which are both pretty good. My favorite of the two is Adventures and will be the album I'll be talking about a little today. 

The record contains 17 tracks and manages to keep me personally entertained for the total duration of the record, which is more and less an hour. The genre of the album is something between electronic/indietronica & Chillwave. Because of this the tracks contain a high amount of repetition of music and lyrics, if there are any lyrics at all. As well do the songs sound a bit simplistic at times, not that I could manage to produce them myself. But yes some songs are characterized by a sample on repeat with sounds mixed trough (and some vocals at times). Which doesn't mean it isn't a great record, at all times he manages to produce good tracks using this method, and I absolutely love the record. I don't often listen to music like this, so maybe my views on the album are wrong. Best thing to do is to check the artist/album out for yourself and form your own opinion about him/it.

The song I took from the album is Take Me home, because it has an official video, which is like always a big plus. Not only is it official it's actually pretty good, nothing extraordinary but yes good. Last but not least it's my favorite track on the record (like usual) and I think it was the first track by Germany Germany I came across, not 100% sure though. Anyways enjoy!

Bandcamp page
last.fm artist page

M83 - We Own The Sky -- Saturdays = Youth (2008)

Next up on my blog is M83, for the simple reason that I'll be seeing them live tomorrow. Not to sure what to expect since I only know half of the albums. I do am some sort of fan of them, in a way that I really like to listen to it, but I do not know how it will sound live and what the atmosphere will be like. Especially in Belgium where most people don't know any good music and a lot of folks just are there to try something new, which makes the crowd often very boring. 

Maybe tomorrow will be better though, since M83 is the project of the French artist Anthony Gonzalez. Our countries are neighbors and i'm going to a venue that is in Brussels and has mostly french speaking visitors, so maybe just maybe they actually know this artist for once. Not that I know them that well, but probably I will know more than the majority of the crowd, oh well. If you wouldn't believe the Belgian crowds actually are bad... Then I can tell you out of my own experience that we are somewhat neighbors of the United Kingdom as well if you ignore the sea in between us. But the average Belgian person doesn't seem to know anything of the music coming from there, so I probably shouldn't get my hopes up too high for tomorrow. Anyways the most important is the band, if the gig itself is good I will be a happy man. For now i'd say enjoy the song, it's We Own The Sky of the Saturdays = Youth album, which is my favorite of the three albums that I know.  

Official Site
last.fm artist page