Category: Indie Pop

  • Merz – Postcard From a Dark Star

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    Great mellow track with minimal elecrtronic elements off set by a great vocal performance.

    taken from www.thesixtyone.com:

    “Merz aka Conrad Lambert has a life as unorthodox as his music. He began his travels at 18, after his schooling in West Yorkshire, and has made friends in 48 countries. His parents live in Mongolia, his grandmother was born in Babylon (Long Island that is). He’s currently settled in Bristol, where, distanced from the industry, he writes his curious music.” NME

    “A maverick with three decades of cultural exploring behind him, Conrad Lambert is a post-pop auteur with a distinctive croaky voice and oodles of left-field ideas.” UNCUT

    “In the airbrushed teen market, he might be deemed no oil painting, but to the trained eye he resembles Vincint Van Gogh. Lend him your ears.” EVENING STANDARD.

    1 “merz makes unique, untainted music that’s a hurricane of fresh air” cd of the week, The Independent.

    2 “a master of modern folk” i-D magazine.

    3 “merz sounds like nobody else in the world and the world would be alright if it listened to nobody else. We absolutely love him.” Coldplay

    4 “merz is passionate music with heart for a musically sophisticated audience” Pure Magazine

    5 “what makes merz great are his songs – earnest, poetic pleas that impact a sense of hope and well being” Flipside

    6 “merz’s debut should be cherished….it will leave you bewitched” cd of the week, The Guardian.

    7 “Already critically acclaimed as Britains answer to Beck, Merz is actually more tortured and less ironic… a breathless, confident vocal. Extraordinary and original…” (5/5) Heat

    8 “he’s living in cloud cuckoo land” The Sun

    Myspace dossing about can be found here: www.myspace.com/merzuk

    Merz – Postcard From a Dark Star

  • Electric President – Monsters

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    Twisted soundscapes,   electronic beats, and postal service-esque vocals fill up this track from Electric President.   “Electric President is a Jacksonville, Florida musical duo started in 2003 by Ben Cooper and Alex Kane.” (taken from their wiki article).

    Bio from last.fm

    Electric President is the second of Ben Cooper’s projects, this time with Alex Kane. The sound is a mix with folk, pop, electronic, with a sound that would be very much like if you threw The Postal Service, The Decemberists, The Flaming Lips, and George Orwell in a large blender.

    The songs are characterized by nasalized voices, acoustic riffs, MD-four tracks, SM58, and some computers.

    Once upon a time it was the jukebox that made pop music. Or vice versa. Indeed, the vinyl-seven inch is romantic, a sentimental medium. And if one of those two Electric-President-singles were put in a jukebox the girls (and the boys) would dance. The buttons would soon be wellworn. Is it because the songs are romantic? Partly. It’s because the songs touch the very foundations of pop music: the storm and stress, the inwardness and the nonchalance, and melodies, melodies, melodies.

    The universe of 24-year-old Ben Cooper from Jacksonville Beach/Florida is an echo-chamber with all kinds of doors that are open to small indie within big pop. All that can also be listened to on the self-titled debut (mm 062) that was published recently.

    ”You have the right to remain awesome, vol. 1” begins with the organic “good ol’ boys”, a carefully arranged juxtaposition of soundtracks and sound signals. A track that borrows its concentration on rhythm and its electronic oscillations from digital
    music. A track that matures to analogue vividness — at the latest with Ben Cooper’s repetitive singing.

    “Dotted lines” seems to be the exact opposite: almost a folksong, carried by an acoustic guitar and a likeable melody. Garnished with all interlocking and indulging that is so characteristic for Cooper’s arrangements. A soft but never sugary opulence.

     Electric President – Monsters

  • Jim Noir – Good Old Vinyl

    Love this track and how it starts off sounding like The Carpenters, but then starts to breakdown and fall apart at the seams. Then things get real interesting, so be sure to give this track a list until the 1:15 second mark. This is where it really starts to groove with a Beach Boys-esque “Pet Sounds” meets Disneyland Electrical Parade vibe. Fun stuff indeed! This is taken from his forth coming self titled release, Jim Noir which is Fab from beginning to end. A must buy IMHO.

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    Jim Noir – Good Old Vinyl

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    last.fm