Editors who kick like a sleep twitch

Editors returns with their latest album In This Light and On This Evening with a much approved synths that are rawer and more gripping compared to their previous albums. That, to me, adds depths to their often repetitive beats I was quick enough to brushed aside when I heard their music in The Back Room.

Editors were formally known as Snowfield, and I did prefer the latter’s version of Distance with a piano-driven melody and a broken vocal, to the former’s techno synth pop and a deeper robotic vocal one.

They fell out of my map until Papillion caught my attention, and eventually, I came upon their album. In This Light and On This Evening opens with the title track that hangs you by a thread as Tom Smith’s hypnotism keeps you in suspense and promises a climb to an explosive climax that you won’t regret.

Other tracks to look out for are their first single, Papillion and Eat Raw Meat = Blood Drool with these addictive synths that is said to be quite similar to the ending era of Depeche Mode. Also, an attention seeker is the slow and minor-infused The Boxer, that pretty much stands out from the rest as a ballad.

I can’t say that the album is something I could fancy as a whole, but I think the song deserves a little room here.

Download Editors’ The Boxer HERE.

Finding Solace in the Nile

“You know it’s Christmas when the advert begins”

I hate December. I hate the shortage of staff in the office. I hate the jingle music at Cold Storage. I hate Last Christmas on repeat. I hate NYE parties. I hate artificial snow from spray cans. I hate family gathering dinners. I hate the end of the year. And I especially hate that there’s nothing to look forward to.

Fucking December.

I could use some hope.

A New Moon is rising

Well, what can I say? Shining – oh I’m sorry, SPARKLING – vampires aside, New Moon has a pretty good ensemble when it comes to the soundtrack. It’s OK, you aren’t the only one who moan in discomfort and guilt when they announce the tracklist for the soundtrack a few months back. I am sure the entire indie-hood went on an uniamous “Whhhyyyy…???!!!” that day.

Unlike the Twilight soundtrack, this one is more mellow and minus the emo punk music from Linkin Park and Paramore. The resonating and slow Satellite Heart by Anya Marina (who reminds me of Boomkat’s Taryn Manning and MoZella), and the hauntingly quiet and distant Rosyln by Bon Iver and St Vincent, and Editors‘ No Sound but the Wind with Tom Smith’s chilling bass vocals together with the steady strums of the keys that is worth a tear or two.

Other outstanding lyrical tracks include Death Cab for Cutie with their signature Gibbardish track Meet Me On the Equinox, Sea Wolf’s perky and poetic The Violet Hour - “Your lips are nettles / Your tongue is wine / Your laughter’s liquid / But your body’s pine”, and OK Go’s waltz-like Shooting the Moon.

So, let’s just pretend the movie doesn’t exist, or just agree without seeing it that it sucks balls. (But if you still need proof, read here and here and here). And go straight to enjoying the only thing that is good in the package – the music.

Download Editors’ No Sound But The Wind HERE.

Jonsi gives me a hard-on (and i’m not even gay)

I don’t know about you but there are 3 things in life that I simply cannot resist.

1) A Mild Seven fag after 1 week of abstainance, accompanied by cold winds in a foreign land with hot, strong coffee in hand

2) Watching Good Will Hunting and not smile at the part where Robin Williams say, “damn he stole my line” in reference to Matt Damon having to go “see about a girl”

3) Sigur Ros.

If like me, you’re subscribed to Jonsi’s mailing list (fanboy-la), you’d know that Jonsi’s solo album Go is almost in completion. I will republish excerpts of what John Best, Jonsi’s manager has to say about the record.

For years – I mean literally since I’ve known him (10 years now) -
Jonsi has been beavering away in his kitchen, bedroom or living room
making music extra-curricular to Sigur Ros. To be honest we’d kind of
gotten used to these being drawing board propositions only – the
ambient album, the electronic album, the pop album, the acoustic
album, etc. It’s not that we didn’t doubt his work ethic; these things
certainly existed, it’s just that they seemed more conceptual than
real; creation to sate Jonsi’s enormous energy rather than anything
we’d ever have to put on a release schedule. But then last year he
went and finished ‘Riceboy Sleeps’, an album that had existed as a
soundtrack to his and Alex Somer’s artwork far in advance of being an
actual record. And then he started on about the *acoustic* album and
bounced straight off the back of ‘Med sud i eyrum…’ into the studio
(alright, apartment) with Icelander-by-proxy Nico Muhly.

It seemed apparent to us that it would be missing a trick to limit a
bona fide Jonsi solo album to being a small scale acoustic project, so
some subtle cajoling and encouragement to reach beyond his comfort
zone was the order of the day. we shot the breeze about producers and
Peter Katis’s name came up off the back of his work with Fanfarlo and
The National. Jonsi weighed in with drummer Samuli from Mum, who he’d
heard playing with Alex in Nordic art supergroup Kira Kira. Suddenly
the *acoustic* record wasn’t looking so acoustic after all. From then
on it’s been a slow and ineluctable slide towards the full-on, barely
contained, glorious mayhem soon to be available on ‘Go’.

Everything about this record has a seat of the pants feel about it,
its wildly shifted focus, the way nothing (including the album itself)
had a title til about an hour before the news hit the blogs; the fact
that as I type I still have no idea what is going to be on the cover;
or that, even though Jonsi is currently on a plane to New York to
master the record we’ve no clear idea of what order the songs are
going to appear in, or even, in some cases, which versions of songs
are going to be used. It’s edge of the seat, it’s exciting, it’s
infectious. I think we are beginning to sense that maybe Jonsi has
created something super special here. More than that in fact, I think
he has created something really special here. I’m not sure I’ve felt
this excited about a project since the time I first heard Agaetis
Byrjun, right back in 1999. Holy fuck. Are you ready?

You can download Boy Lilkoi, the first single (i think) off the record here. I’ve heard it and damn, mother fucker it is good. Call me biased whatever but the ears do not lie. When I hear good music, the heart and crotch feels it, right through the veins.

Fuck it’s so good i’m getting a hard-on.

I’m finally back guys. Deal with it.

See you in December

It’s that time of the year when I go away for reflection, epiphany, inspiration and whatever emo shit you can think of. I’ll be tackling the golden triangle of IndoChina this time around. I’m trying to sneak past the Junta and see if I can bring Aung Yang Suu Kyi home with me. Oh not in that sexual way you may think.

I’ll see you guys in December, everyone’s favourite time of year. Wish me luck. I’ll leave you with my new found obsession. Jay Farrar and Ben Gibbard’s personal soundtrack to Kerouc’s Big Sur.

If you need to contact me for whatever gossip, rumours, bitchfits, find me at vernadium@gmail.com.

Till then, be well always.

NME, not a music enemy

This radio station has been playing static for a while now. So, I’m going to turn your dial to a station that is worthy of tuning in to, while we try to get something nice to play on this channel.

I have been listening to this Internet radio by a weekly British magazine called NME Magazine. Known as ‘New Music Express’, it has been a popular music magazine in the United Kingdom by IPC Media since early 1952. And just recently, they have elected their first ever female editor to run the magazine. And in their last issue, they featured rock stars from the past, including essays by current rock musicians talking about their favourite legends, which I thought could be a pretty good read if I can just get my hands on a copy.

The magazine went online in 1996 at NME.com, and more than a decade later in 2008, they launched NME Radio, playing their first ever tune – Knights of Cydonia by Muse.

I guess I like this station because I have always enjoyed British music. Face it, Malaysian radio stations suck balls, and although many may find salvation with BFM Radio, but they can only go so far because they put business first and music not so much. And I do admit that often I find the music a little too mellow; I do like the occasional rock out in my headphones.

With NME Radio, imagine listening to Hitz FM or Fly FM playing again and again mainstream music from Akon, Beyonce, Taylor Swift and the likes, but only with brilliant musicians like Brand New, Kings of Leon, The Smiths and the likes.

I wake up 6ish in the morning and, being 7 hours behind us, NME Radio would just have launched into their overnight indie alternatives slot. I cannot say it keeps me from getting drowsy every morning (Air does not really scream wake up!), but it has its days, and I would say it is a good thing when they play more often than once Jeff Buckley’s Grace and The Verve’s Sonnet, and the occasional Sigur Ros too.

After lunchtime is when a new day begins on the other side of the world, and DJs Sarah Kerr and Jon Hillcock play quite upbeat music to keep you energetic for the rest of the working day. Playlists include U2, Brand New, The Cribs, Oasis, Kasabian, The XX, Radiohead, The Temper Trap and many more.

Also, the DJs don’t hog the airwaves, and talk more than playing music, or have the ads going on and on. That’s definitely a plus point for me.

There are also occasional general news and gig guides hitting the UK. Not that it has anything to do with us over here, but I guess it beats listening to ridiculous politics going on here.

So, if you would like something edgier than Love Story or Single Ladies, log online and click for NME Radio for something new like Underdog, At the Bottom and Islands, or something old but familiar like The Street Has No Name, Roll with it and Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll.

Tune in to NME Radio on their website HERE, or follow their tweet (@NMEMagazine) for up to date music news, or if you are in the UK, just grab a weekly copy. And you know, share with us what is the latest song that caught your attention there.

Here comes a regular

Nothing sucks more than being inarticulate and uninspired with words. Fortunately, there is still good music to fill in the silence, right?

Here is what it feels like to be on an ordinary day. A regular. At least to me.

Download The Temper Trap’s Soldier On HERE.

Timeless tunes

I was in Carls Jr the other day at about closing time. It was quiet so the crew put on a CD. GnR’s Appetite for Destruction was playing and it wouldn’t be complete to put on that record without blasting the legendary Sweet Child O’ Mine.

So I was thinking, 22 years old, and that record still speaks to souls. If I could ever make a record like that, I’d die a million happy deaths.

So in the spirit of Axl Rose, here’s my favourite cover of the song that we have all grown to love/hate. The blue-eyed vocals of Taken by Trees, does well to delicately channel the emotions that Axl wanted to tell but could never find the voice to do so.

Remember to say the magic word

Since we are all being inarticulate with words lately, I am not going to bore you with my excessive writing. God knows it is just a waste of time and space anyway. You don’t need it.

HERE. Listen to this for a change. It is She & Him’s version of The Smiths’ cover, Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want.

May you get what you want out, like Zooey Deschanel here. Just remember to say the magic word.

If I wasted your beauty, I’ll ignite it somehow

Sometimes words are not necessary. Click. Listen. Dream.