Monday, April 26, 2010

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.


I'm pretty behind with blogging, oh loyal followers. I just officially finished first year of college so now I should have abundant amounts of free time to splatter my opinions all over the place. First up, the remarkable musician (and more importantly, a person I actually know!), Laura Sheeran.

Two Oh Ten is going to be Laura Sheeran's year. Having had the pleasure of being in her company at last year's Electric Picnic, and witnessed first hand the extraordinary artistic influence she has had on our mutual friend, SWALL, I am entirely certain of her prowess as a creative powerhouse.

April 23rd saw Laura release her "official" debut EP, although she has released some recordings previously. Music For The Deep Woods is a voyage through what Laura herself calls "the darker stuff rolling around my head-space" and can be best described as a "unity between the music I was making and ideas, imagery I was presenting in my blog" (of the same name, which can be found here). The EP features collaborations with a hoard of musical guests, including Choice Prize winner Adrian Crowley, Emily Aoibheann of Cixous Ghost, Marc Aubele of pig, and the aforementioned SWALL.

Deep Woods offers up dark beauty in the form of traditional instrumentation eternally coupled with eerie soundscapes, "treated thunder", and even "sounds of hysteria" on the incredible "Under The Ice."

Laura's voice falls effortlessly amongst the balance of order and chaos, hitting its deepest registers on the terrifying Lupine Rot (a duet with Crowley), and aching with sincerity on the SWALL-penned "Ag Cuimhniú" - a track which I've had on repeat since I downloaded the album. It is startlingly beautiful (and I ain't just sayin' that cos SWALL's my mate!).

The record ends on the haunting "Rain Song", a perfect representation of its title. For this one, I recommend you turn off all the lights, and turn up the volume. Seriously.

Music is so rarely such an all-encompassing sensual experience as this, and with Laura planning to release her debut album later this year, I am so glad that there's more of the same or better to come.

You can download the EP here. It's free, so you don't have an excuse not to, right?


Ag Chuimhniú by laurasheeran

Sister.

I found some lights.
My bedroom at home is (mostly) white.
I combined the two and a makeshift photographic studio was born.
Results:






There are some more on my Flickr, and they seem to be in higher quality/more vibrant looking than here on Blogger. Weird.

Let me know what you think. :)

Friday, April 2, 2010

Musique Pour Vous #2



Blowin' up my stereo this week, are:

The Knife - Heartbeats (Rex The Dog Remix)



Boys Noize & Erol Alkan - Lemonade




Bitches With Wolves - Broken Hearts



Major Lazer + Kelis - MilkShake Da Floor (Brand-X Boot)



Goldfrapp - Rocket (Wutam and J-Break Remix)