Pascal Pinon - Twosomeness

Icelandic sisters Jófrídur and Ásthildur -- who go by the moniker Pascal Pinon -- are not to be confused with Pasqual Pinon, the early 1900's circus performer known as The Two Headed Mexican. That being said, there's is something of a eerie sororal wavelength being tapped throughout the duo's new, smartly-titled album Twosomeness (DIG: January 18, CD: February 5, Morr Music). Fittingly, they even sing "it's easy to become attached" on "The Clarinet Song". Produced by Sigur Rós & Jónsi studio wizard Alex Somers and exquisitely sung in English and Icelandic, Twosomeness delivers lovely folk hymns that have a near celestial quality, drifting dreamy songs of twinkling art/pop. Sounding at times like a indie bedroom version of Enya, songs like "When I Can't Sleep" and "Bloom" alternately emit chilly electronics and the soothing warmth of angels singing in perfect harmony.

Pascal Pinon - "When I Can't Sleep" (from Twosomeness)

Pascal Pinon - "Perney (One Thing)" (from Twosomeness)

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Listen: Two Hour Traffic - "Last Star"

In the mid-to-late 70's, power pop and new wave harnessed the energy of punk with melody, harmony and shiny guitar riffs. Canada's Two Hour Traffic have been tapping into those conjoined genres for a decade, primarily dishing out crisp three-minute songs that sound like they've been found on some stray cassette under the front seat of your best friend's car. Forthcoming February 19 album Foolish Blood finds the band with a slightly altered lineup, a new producer -- Darryl Neudorf (Neko Case, the Sadies, the New Pornographers) -- and a greater focus on a sound that's unfettered by trendy indie rock hipness. Or what the band's bio calls "upbeat pop bangers" -- much like "Last Star".

Two Hour Traffic - "Last Star" (from Foolish Blood)

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Villagers - {Awayland}

"I sure as hell don't want to lose any intimacy in the music," says Conor J. O'Brian, the pensive visionary and creative force behind Ireland's Villagers, "but I need to take this intimacy into a more vibrant place." That place is {Awayland} (January 14 U.K., April 9 U.S.), an adventurous and striking follow up to 2010's tour-de-force, Mercury-prize-nominated debut Becoming A Jackyl. It's also a rediscovery of the power of electronics, a disciplined but interactive band effort and an instructive primer on raising the bar for the definitive and daunting "second album" mindset. Crossing that creative abyss can challenge the best writers and performers but O'Brien's attitude was less about extension than reinvention: "I felt like I needed to flip on its head the idea of what music is for myself," he says. The cerebral folk poetry explored on Jackyl still dominates the Villagers playbook with tracks like the bare bones opener "My Lighthouse" and tropical-flavored "The Bell". But O'Brien's rekindled affinity for beats and electronic soundscapes takes on a new role on "The Waves", "Earthly Pleasure" and many of {Awayland}'s brightest moments flirt confidently with a more rhythmic core, from the anthemic "Nothing Arrived" to the hot pulse of "Grateful Song". Bottom line: a brash, brilliant triumph we'll be talking about again at the end of 2013.

Villagers - "Nothing Arrived" (from Awayland)

Villagers - "Passing A Message" (from Awayland)

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RADAR: Anna Bergendahl

Producer, instrumentalist and songwriter Larry Klein clearly has a way with the ladies. Specifically,  female singer songwriters who straddle adult-minded folk, pop and jazz: Madeleine Peyroux, Julia Fordham, Joni Mitchell, Melody Gardot, to name a few. So when Swedish songstress Anna Bergendahl flew to L.A. to work on her second full-length Klein became the sympatico "go-to" option. Released in Sweden last year, Something to Believe In (March 12, Decca) broadens Bergendahl's sonic and stylistic range with Klein's characteristically tasteful approach, lending a seasoned co-writer's skill and an A-list of session players. While the playful "I Don't Know" defines the album's nimble folk/pop feel, the sumptuous title track is one of the project's best -- and most Klein-influenced -- efforts, a lovely, late night slow dance that stays just this side of ultra mellow opulence, Bergendahl's breathy, fluttering vocals the ideal instrument of subdued sensuality. Watch the "in-the-studio" EPK here.

Anna Bergendahl - "Something to Believe In" (from Something To Believe In)

Anna Bergendahl - "I Don't Know" (from Something To Believe In)

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REPLAY: Ben Taylor - "Burning Bridges"

As 2012 winds down, each day we're revisiting one of our favorite songs (and videos):

"These songs are little windows into the last four years of my life," says Ben Taylor of the eleven tacks that make up Listening (August 14), his first studio project since '08's The Legend of Kung Folk (Part 1). The distinctive vocals, so reminiscent of his father James, remain intact as does Taylor's wonderful way with an exquisitely turned out folk melody as demonstrated on Listening's opening title track (video below) and closing coda "Next Time Around." But it's everything in between that gets really interesting and make Listening Taylor's best and most visionary album yet. The exquisite "Burning Bridges" serves as the album's centerpiece for us, a song that deftly melds a killer melody, jangling guitar riffs, hook-heavy chorus and an ever-shifting rhythmic core (check the Taylor's inspired vocal phrasing) into a seamless pop/soul wonder.

Ben Taylor - "Burning Bridges" (from Listening)

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REDUX '12: Matthew Ryan

We're reviewing some of our favorite (and mostly undiscovered) releases of 2012:

With In the Dusk of Everything (October 23), Matthew Ryan completes his masterful trilogy of personal introspection and renewal that began with 2010's Dear Lover. The electro-beat ambient atmosphere of last year's quite brilliant I Recall Standing As If Nothing Could Fall has been replaced with a far more vivid acoustic template, stripping back studio production ornaments to leave only the skeletal structure of Ryan's own rubbed-raw rasp of a voice, a sparse if elegantly organic instrumental backing and the stark relief of some of the most awe inspiring poetic lyricism you're likely to hear this or any year. The stories are meditations on what Ryan calls "what happens between men and women in their wrestling with mortality, the mortality of dreams, intimacy, despair and trust", imposing concepts that retain their own graceful humility and humanity in the hands of someone who has lived through the dark passages to find comforting rays of light and hope. Dig deep below the surface of "And It's Such A Drag" and you'll find a song that chills you to the bone even as it moves you to tears. Stream the full album (and buy) at Bandcamp.

Matthew Ryan - "She's A Sparrow" (from In the Dusk of Everything)

Matthew Ryan - "And It's Such A Drag" (from In the Dusk of Everything)

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REPLAY: Snowblink - "Unsurfed Waves"

As 2012 winds down, each day we're revisiting one of our favorite songs (and videos):

In many respects the longawaited second album from Toronto-based indie alt-pop duo Snowblink -- Daniela Gesundheit (best name ever) and Dan Goldman -- isn't a quantum leap from their 2008 debut Long Live. But the differences in both tone and production are striking. The airy and ethereal folk-driven dreamscapes that are the gently beating heart of the Snowblink sound are still on full display and better than ever. This time, however, an amped up Feist-ian sound is full and ripe, the debut's spare acoustic sound (with just a hint of electronic padding) giving way to a meat-on-the-bones density that gives the already gorgeous melodies -- and Gesundheit's delicious singing -- a significant studio heft. Even at Snowblink's most serene and somber, Inner Classics pulses with a confident charge and when things take off, as they do on "Unsurfed Waves" and "Black and White Mountains", the heart doesn't just beat, it races.

Snowblink - "Unsurfed Waves" (from Inner Classics)

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REDUX '12: Tristan Prettyman

We're reviewing some of our favorite (and mostly undiscovered) releases of 2012:

With songs like "I Was Gonna Marry You", "Second Chance" and "The Rebound", Cedar + Gold (October 2, Capitol), the long overdue and emotionally charged third album from SoCal singer/songwriter Tristan Prettyman, plays out as something of a heartfelt -- and heartbreaking -- diary. “I started writing songs from a place that was so deep and honest, where I didn’t hold anything back,” she says. “It felt so good. I was like, ‘This is what music is about — being able to release what is trapped inside of you'." The catharsis at the center of her new songs comes on the heels of some dispiriting events that challenged both her personal life -- the "wreckage" of her relationship with fellow songwriter Jason Mraz -- and musical career with surgery to remove polyps from her vocal chords. Inspiration for great songs often comes from life's setbacks and despair but Cedar + Gold's ultimate message makes, says Prettyman, for "actually a very hopeful album." Lyrical story aside, the album, produced by Greg Wells (Adele, Jessie Baylin), also boasts swooning folk/pop melodies and Prettyman's signature warm and sandy vocals, elements that make songs like "Say Anything", "My Oh My" (video below) and "When You Come Down" as musically appealing as they are personally revealing.

Tristan Prettyman - "Say Anything" (from Cedar and Gold)

Tristan Prettyman - "When You Come Down" (from Cedar and Gold)

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REPLAY: Communist Daughter - "Ghosts"

As 2012 winds down, each day we're revisiting one of our favorite songs (and videos):

If there's any justice in this cruel world, Jonny Solomon's Communist Daughter and their outstanding July EP Lions and Lambs will be figuring into a more than a few year end "best of" lists in December. "Ghosts", recently premiering in video form, tells us why. This is three short euphoric minutes of song heaven all told in a rather strange tale of bandmembers bloody and bruised in the aftermath of a van accident. All very odd but you can't help but be pulled in and then transported on the dense rush of sound. Take the lesson from the video: buckle that seatbelt. More ComDot (as their facebook puts it) and Lions and Lambs via DC here.

Communist Daughter - "Ghosts" (from Lions and Lambs)

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REDUX '12: Here We Go Magic

We're reviewing some of our favorite (and mostly undiscovered) releases of 2012:

Here We Go Magic - Radiohead producer (and heralded "sixth member") Nigel Godrich is the guiding hand behind the eagerly-awaited third full length from the gifted rhythm-centric Brooklyn alt-pop band...headed up by frontman/songwriter and founder Luke Temple, HWGM manages to sound both densely layered and celestially spacious as ambient minimalism meets twisted, spiralling and spasmatic indie rock // Release: A Different Ship (May 8, Secretly Canadian) // Sounds like: the signature ricocheting beat patterns and odd time signatures remain intact but Godrich both expands the band's sound while contracting just a bit of their meticulous, multi-tracked studio clutter -- or as Magic-ian Michael Bloch puts it, "knowing where to stop us, knowing the limits of the sound palette and how to let the space breathe"...the result is a rush of exhilarating sonic proportions, melodies that skitter amidst a torrent of charged, sleekly arranged and eternally shifting rhythms...

Here We Go Magic - "How Do I Know" (from A Different Ship)

Here We Go Magic - "Make Up Your Mind (from A Different Ship)

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REPLAY: Selah Sue - "This World"

As 2012 winds down, each day we're revisiting one of our favorite songs (and videos):

Belgian songwriter Selah Sue has become something of a sensation in Europe where her soulful beat-driven reggae/pop songs -- mostly written on acoustic guitar -- have taken her self-titled 2011 debut to sales of almost 500,000 copies (more than half of those in France). With a name that rolls of the tongue a bit more gracefully than her given Sanne Putseys, Selah Sue will be introduced to the American market this spring and summer with her album dropping in August via a major label push by Columbia. Lead single "Raggamuffin" has a special warm/cool toastin' vibe (see video below) but for us "This World" is the killer cut, a dark dub track and slinky video with menacing minor chord tension and some sharp brass highlights. The striking 22-year-old singer says she wanted wanted her album to be "an intimate, dark, melodious record, with light and lively beats" -- and with "This World", she's succeeded and then some.

Selah Sue - "This World" (from Selah Sue)

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REDUX '12: The Tallest Man On Earth

We're reviewing some of our favorite (and mostly undiscovered) releases of 2012:

You might think someone who calls himself The Tallest Man On Earth might have enormous, umm, visibility, so to speak, but alas Swedish singer/songwriter Kristian Mattson remains revered by a relatively small if devoted base of admirers. That, of course, may change with the release of his third and most excellent long player There's No Leaving Now (June 12, Dead Oceans). On the echoing heels of two exquisite 2010 releases -- the full length The Wild Hunt and EP Sometimes the Blues Is Just A Passing Bird -- Leaving again confirms Matsson as an extraordinary songwriter, the rare acoustician who manages to sound both timelessly classic and utterly contemporary. Ironically, a big part of Leaving's disarming charm comes from Matsson's spartan approach to production -- this is an album that's simply about a distinctive, let-it-all-out voice, some low-keyed but dazzling guitar work and a sheaf of outstanding songs. For starters, check out the stunning piano-driven title track, a stripped ballad that still packs a knockout right hook. Then head on to the magical "1904." Standing tall indeed.

The Tallest Man On Earth - "There's No Leaving Now"

The Tallest Man On Earth - "1904" (from There's No Leaving Now)

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Birdie Busch and the Greatest Night

Philly performing songwriter Birdie Busch makes her long-awaited return to the studio with Birdie Busch and The Greatest Night (January 8), her first full-length since 2009's Pattern of Saturn and the follow up to her 2010 EP Everyone Will Take You In. Intact is Busch's freewheeling folk-centric, roots rockin' songs with a shot of ethereal dream popped Americana but The Greatest Night reveals a heartier, slightly heavier dynamic thanks to some touring with local faves Dr. Dog, encouragement from the band's Scott McMicken and finally a full studio band -- The Greatest Night -- and production from Nathan Sabatino and longtime collaborator Devin Greenwood. "This was the first project that allowed us to block off a week and cut it all mostly live," says Birdie. "Everything was happening at once, the feeding off of each others energies, the guitar licks calling and responding, the eye contact, the instantaneous reactionary arrangements.” For starters we recommend the album opener "Supermoon" and "Far From the Tree", each track exposing a sharp combination of rhythmic acousticism and languid atmospheres. Stream the full album here.

Birdie Busch and the Greatest Night - "Supermoon"

Birdie Busch and the Greatest Night - "Far From the Tree"

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REPLAY: Jim Moray - "If It's True"

As 2012 winds down, each day we're revisiting one of our favorite songs (and videos):

Jim Moray wants you to jettison whatever preconceptions you may have about British folk music. While much of the current nu-folk movement in the U.K. tends to be modern songwriting dressed up (or, rather, stripped down) to an intimate and acoustic nexus, Moray reverses that strategy by reimagining primarily traditional folk songs into works of elaborate and dramatic art/pop. Any strict genre borders -- pop, rock, soul and folk -- are meaningless inhibitions in Moray's world. Taking its name from the word for a collection of foxes, the self-produced fifth album Skulk (April 10, U.K.) offers up potpourri of eclectic tracks, moving seamlessly from reworked traditional songs like the stunning seven-minute centerpiece "Lord Douglas" -- with the occasional new twist on melody or lyric -- as well as new interpretations of Fleetwood Mac's "Big Love" and Anais Mitchell's "If It's True" (from her folk "opera" Hadestown). Stream the full Skulk at Moray's Bandcamp page. "If It's True" video below...

Jim Moray - "If It's True" (from Skulk)

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REDUX '12: Bowerbirds

We're reviewing some of our favorite (and mostly undiscovered) releases of 2012:

Bowerbirds  - Beth Tacular and Phil Moore are the creative epicenter of this North Carolina band melding ambitious art/pop edge with audacious strains of modern folk...Beth's mysterious debilitating illness and the pair's on-off-on relationship stress behind them, they retreated newly inspired to their hand-built cabin in the woods for reflection and writing songs for their third album // Release: The Clearing (March 6, Dead Oceans) // Sounds like: the stakes are raised but the expanded production scope and more intricately twisting melodic lines never sound overworked or pretentious -- the odd time signatures and harmonies that zig and zag are half elegant artful display and half disarming, charming freak-folk fest...ahh, if only Prada made bib overalls...watch the fine EPK below...

Bowerbirds "Tuck the Darkness In" (from The Clearing)

Bowerbirds "In the Yard" (from The Clearing)

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RADAR: Chlöe Howl

British 17-year-old Chlöe Howl isn't the first and certainly won't be the last in what's certain to be the major labels' hunt for "someone that sounds like Adele". The label in question in Columbia U.K. and the delightfully named Howl (here's hoping that's her real name) fits the bill perfectly in tone and phrasing. But what's dramatically different -- and better or worse, depending on your taste -- is the switch to a synthy, Lily-Allen-meets- Human League electronics base and Howl's fesity "fuck your no strings" and screw-your-expectations niceties. Seems like this relationship isn't meant to get off the ground.

Chloe Howl - "No Strings"

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REPLAY: Olympic Swimmers - "Father Said"

As 2012 winds down, each day we're revisiting one of our favorite songs (and videos):

Chances are Glasgow's Olympic Swimmers won't knock you out, over or for the proverbial loop. But that's OK. Led by unassuming frontwoman Susie Smillie, their particular brand of tuneful, jangling indie (sm)art/pop has been done countless times before as fellow Scots Delgados, Admiral Fallow and Zoey Van Goey can attest. Despite the crowded field - even in their own backyard - No Flags Will Fly, the  Swimmer's recent debut album, manages to not only stand on its own but hit a decent number of sweet spots as well. Propulsive single "Knots" has been garnering some well deserved attention from the likes of The Guardian's Paul Lester but we think there are some equally fine moments to be found in the powerful album opener "Father Said", a lovely jumble of glistening guitar lines and Smillie's vulnerable vocals.

Olympic Swimmers - "Father Said" (from No Flags Will Fly)

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REDUX: Rocky Votolato

We're reviewing some of our favorite (and mostly undiscovered) releases of 2012:

Six years after breaking through with his acclaimed '06 debut Makers, Seattle's Rocky Votolato returns with his fourth album of unpretentious, tuneful folk/pop on the fan-funded, self-released Television of Saints (April 3). Votolato called upon long time friend and producer Casey Foubert (Sufjan Stevens) and some accomplished player support -- including his brothers Sonny (Slender Means) and Cody (The Blood Brothers, Telekinesis) -- for an assured celebration of harmonied songcraft. Acoustic troubadours are a dime a dozen but Television of Saints' lean, memorable melodies and superb musicianship separates the men, so to speak, from the boys. Lead track "Little Spring" has a timeless quality, entwined vocals and an effortlessly hook-filled chorus, the chord progressions appearing to know exactly the right turns to take.

Rocky Votolato - "Little Spring" (from Television of Saints)

Rocky Votolato - "Ghost Writer" (from Television of Saints)

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REDUX '12: Simone White

We're reviewing some of our favorite (and mostly undiscovered) releases of 2012:

Simone White's intimate and ethereal chamber/folk acousticism gets a major makeover on her third full length Silver Silver (May 8, Honest Jon's), her wispy, whispered vocals intact but now augmented with an equally delicate, occasionally intense array of cool electronic textures, tapping beats and an atmosphere lifted from some shadowy dreamscape. From the opening seconds you realize that there's a subtle whiff of dark, arty theatricality wafting thoughout her elegant songs, the strains of sweet melody tempered with a seriousness of purpose that, once you sign on and let go, opens one intriguing door after another. Notes, beats and White's airy voice seem to be suspended in air, a closeness that defies the spaciousness and spareness of the production. Every word is right at your ear, each sound handpicked (or plucked) with the backing percussive sounds adding both subtle punctuation and rhythmic flow. The lyrical themes are immense, the poetic approach oblique but thoughtful, as on the the drifting, layered ode to the Japanese tsunami "In the Water Where the City Ends" (video below) or the mesmerizing seven-minute title track, a duet with Andrew Bird that builds from violin-accented folk to a flurry of dense, weaving patterns of minimalist clatter.

 

Simone White - "In the Water Where the City Ends" (from Silver Silver)

Simone White - "Silver Silver" (from Silver Silver)

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REPLAY: Mark Knopfler - "Go, Love"

As 2012 winds down, each day we're revisiting one of our favorite songs (and videos):

There was much to like about Mark Knopfler's latest Privateering album, a two-disc (can we call it that?) collection that pretty much nailed everything we've loved about this guy since the glory days of Dire Straits. As we noted, "the hallmark sinewy guitar lines and increasingly gruff vocal style remain intact on the Privateering's 20 tracks and it would be an easy and apt assertion that nearly all of the various songs could have been right at home on any number of prior releases. But the sheer expansive stage of the new album allows Knopfler to go even further, narratively and instrumentally, down his favorite stylistic paths: penny-whistle U.K. folk, J.J. Cale-styled Americana and country roots, balladry that borders on the softly hymnal and, somewhat surprisingly, a slew of swinging, rough-edged blues". To wit: "Go, Love", one of our favorite tracks off an album that sadly got mired in dometic label bullshit negotiations.

Mark Knopfler - "Go, Love" (from Privateering)

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