"Third swan"

Kenny Anderson: "..."Third swan" is a comment on how euphoria and despair sit side by side, with a few St. Andrews place names thrown in for good measure. To exist as the ugly duckling between two paragons of swan-like virtue is, no doubt, the metaphor that ties all of this together. In short, there was a lot swirling around my head in the dark weeks leading up to the end of 2011, and it had to end up on this, the penultimate page, of the 'Diamond mine' travelogue."


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"Passage"

Το εξαιρετικό, ομότιτλο τραγούδι της νέας κυκλοφορίας, 'Passage' των Exitmusic πρόκειται για ακόμα μία ονειρική, ηχητικά μεταβαλλόμενη ακολουθία που καθοδηγείται σταδιακά, χάρη στην όμορφη μελωδία στο πιάνο, στις άψογα ενορχηστρωμένες ιδέες τους και στη γοητευτικά φλογερή ερμηνεία της Aleksa Palladino στη συναισθηματική κορύφωση.

"Opener and title track "Passage" is like watching a great shifting of tides through rapid time-lapse photography, introducing new dynamics in one magnificent breath. It is a statement of intent that tears down the Victorian boudoir gauze found on previous efforts. The ghosts are still piercing the veil, but now they’re throwing chairs. The song begins gently, with candlelight piano plucks, distant explosions on the horizon, aching breaths and moans. But in moments, the oceans swell and lurch as it detonates into a shower of brilliant shrapnel."

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"I will show you fear in a handful of dust"

Κλειστοφοβικες, υποβλητικές και ατμοσφαιρικές ηχητικές αναμορφώσεις τραγουδιών των Rudimentary Peni με τους στίχους να είναι το μόνο στοιχείο που παραμπέμπει στα πρωτότυπα.


Chelsea Wolfe: "...I used their lyrics without having listened to some of the songs. I just did my own interpretations of them rather than covering their actual music. I did a one off recording of that and then we actually went into a studio in London a few days ago and did a proper recording that will be released on vinyl this year, so that’s pretty exciting."

Chelsea Wolfe - A tribute to Rudimentary Peni
01. A handful of dust
02. Echo
03. Black on gold + Sickening for something
04. Dissolution + Rehearsal for mortality
05. Prayer for the unborn

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Music Alliance Pact - February 2012

Ακόμα μία συλλογή με 36 μουσικές προτάσεις από κυκλοφορίες που ξεχώρισαν bloggers που διαμένουν σε διαφορετικές χώρες, οι οποίοι μέσα από το σύντομο κείμενο με τις χρηστικές πληροφορίες και τα ηχητικά δείγματα μας προτρέπουν να αφιερώσουμε το χρόνο μας στην ακρόασή της. Αποκτήστε την στο σύνολό της ή μεμονωμένα πατώντας στον τίτλο του κάθε τραγουδιού.

GREECE: Mouxlaloulouda
Bokomolech - Talk About Fires
Nine years is a long time to wait, but new album Mass Vulture finds Bokomolech embracing and sifting through the finer moments of their past over the course of 10 outstanding songs. The record is once again exceptionally crafted and gorgeously composed, richly textured and potently rhythmic, instilled with instrumental mastery and consistent music ideas, powerfully expressive vocals, remarkable melodic turns, lovely harmonic noises, sleek and slippery riffs. They have created a sparse and thrilling work of strikingly expansive ambition with the arresting delicacy of the quieter, dreamier tunes capable of ripping up your emotions.

ARGENTINA: Zonaindie
Cosmo - Cazador
Cosmo is an indie-pop band which features members or former members of other groups that are well-known to the Buenos Aires independent music scene (Pablo de Caro from Mataplantas, Ayar Sava from Interama, Pablo Font from Les Mentettes and Andrés Ravioli from Mompox and Brian Storming, among others). A couple of months ago they released their self-titled first album, with songs that combine vintage synthesized sounds and beats with acoustic instruments and fine arrangements. You can download the whole album for free.

AUSTRIA: Walzerkönig
Squalloscope - Domino
Anna Kohlweis has released three albums as Paper Bird, however these days she prefers her new alias Squalloscope. Goodbyes in bus terminals, long train rides, sitting on planes and bottles of wine have influenced her upcoming album Soft Invasions. Domino is a singer-songwriter take on R'n'B combined with postmodern lyrics: "I'm a copy of a copy of a copy of a woman, you're the copy of a copy of a copy of a guy."

BRAZIL: Meio Desligado
Graveola e o Lixo Polifônico - Insensatez: A Mulher Que Fez
Graveola e o Lixo Polifônico is a creative band that experiments with MPB (mainstream Brazilian pop music) and makes organic mashups, appropriating themes of bands from various genres to create new works. Their new record is available for download from their website.

CANADA: I(Heart)Music
Amity Beach - Jake's Version Of Paradise
Seeing as Amity Beach a) only have a three-song EP to their name and b) look like they're probably still in high school, I might be jumping the gun on praising them. Still, listening to this track (along with the other two), it's hard not to be excited. They've got a great ear for catchy pop and I'd be surprised - not to mention a little disappointed - if this doesn't lead to some great things.

CHILE: Super 45
Survey Team - Valdivia De Viña
A couple of years ago, Survey Team was just a frail bedroom duo with singer Carla Bolgeri adding colorful and sweet melodies to folk-guitar patterns created by her bandmate, Francisco Marín. They've certainly changed. Today, they are a powerful quintet with sounds that shock and hit with electric sensuality. Valdivia De Viña is a summer première, soon to be included in their debut album Suriname, which validates Survey Team as a pop delicacy from the current Chilean pop wave and a highly versatile band by successfully flirting with reggae.

CHINA: Wooozy
Mr. Graceless - Mr. Li
Mr. Graceless is a Beijing-based indie-rock trio. They try to keep a low profile, moving forward step by step. They are tepid and unassuming, and have a clear-cut stand on what to love and what to hate. The love, pain, fantasy and fervor of youth are the best tags for their music. They prefer beautiful melodies and independent attitude. Mr. Graceless is touring around China with their debut release The Tree Ever Green.

COLOMBIA: El Parlante Amarillo
Julián Mayorga - ¿Cómo Llorar Al Revés o Regresar Al Asfalto o...?
¿Cómo Llorar Al Revés o Regresar Al Asfalto o Espantar Mi Propio Cuerpo Inerte o Desaparecer y Volver a Aparecer? - this is the complete title of this piece by singer-songwriter Julián Mayorga, born in Ibagué. It's an interesting, poetic union between pop and folk that hides, in what he calls La Pequeña Orquesta Sintética (synths and computers), the deep and very personal landscapes that his soft voice creates.

DENMARK: All Scandinavian
Spleen United - Bright Cities Keep Me Awake
"We are still wild animals," Spleen United proclaim on Bright Cities Keep Me Awake, from their long-awaited and impressive third full-length, School Of Euphoria. It's a sentiment carrying truth and one somewhat defining for principal songwriter and frontman Bjarke Niemann's lyrical appendage to the dark, synthesized rock reminiscing 90s electro, house and (euro)dance. It makes School Of Euphoria a rather despondent, while immensely awesome, listen.

ENGLAND: The Guardian Music Blog
Wild Combination - Great Expectations
Wild Combination's sound itches and twists in an effort to etch itself across indie's sonic history. It shouldn't worry so much. The Essex trio responsible know how to channel the best of recent backbeat melancholia (Foals, The Postal Service) and that's more than enough. This demo version of Great Expectations - mixed specially for MAP - clips along, the addition of a swarth of dreamy synths tying it just to the right side of funky.

FINLAND: Glue
Black Twig - Lake Song
Noise, pop, fuzz, sound experiments. Black Twig is one of the hottest bands in the Finnish indie scene at the moment with their just-released debut album, Paper Trees. In their own words, Black Twig's sound has echoes of modern fuzzed-out pop experiments as well as of 60s garage-rock gems, sometimes developing a sensibility for hypnotic, repetitive drones.

FRANCE: Yet You're Fired
Cracbooms - @soleil
Cracbooms are more than a band. They are a group of friends who sing about how sweet and simple life is when surrounded by your loved ones, when there are pretty girls around and the sun shines above your head. Their lyrics are filled with humor and casualness, and are written with an unsettling easiness. As for their sound, it's a mix between the guitars of Two Door Cinema Club and pop à la Young Michelin. I think they've found the perfect combination.

GERMANY: Blogpartei
Wooden Peak - Pills Start Work
The two guys behind Wooden Peak are getting famous for their gigs where they occupy a whole stage while just sitting on their stools, carefully watching each other. Although their set-up with guitar and drums seems quite like a garage band, their singing and acoustic play triggers very different emotions - calm and dizziness, homeliness and wanderlust. Pills Start Work is a great MAP exclusive which slightly resembles early Whitest Boy Alive. The album Lumen has just been released on the lovely label Analogsoul.

ICELAND: Rjóminn
Vigri - Animals
Animals is from Vigri's debut album Pink Boats. The band decided to travel around many of the small churches in Iceland's countryside to record the song, but the end result is from what they recorded in the Flatey island church.

INDONESIA: Deathrockstar
Spring/Summer - Tonight
Spring/Summer come from Bandung and are the freshest breed of (what we Indonesians call) Britpop revivalism. With a twist of The Smiths, Joy Division and Blueboy and a bit of attitude, they make tasty, raw music. They probably won't be the next big thing, but their music provides enjoyable reminiscing of teenage years spent looking for second-hand Smiths CDs at the local thrift store.

IRELAND: Nialler9
Redahan - Ru In Daejeon
If I could, I would pick the entire Loud Mouth collective as Ireland's MAP representatives this month. They are a coterie of producers, rappers, musicians and DJs who have released three volumes of freely downloadable new music taking in electronica, rap and post-dubstep. Redahan is one producer at the heart of the collective and his evocative and expansive Ru In Daejeon is indicative of the collective's scope and vision.

ITALY: Polaroid
Heike Has The Giggles - Breakfast
On their sophomore album, Crowd Surfing, the young Heike Has The Giggles pin down even more precisely the range of their influences - from the lighter Nineties pop-punk full of fun to the stronger Noughties punk funk à la Gossip. And damn, they are very good at mixing these. Breakfast is the new album's first single.

JAPAN: Make Believe Melodies
Cloudy Busey - Up To You (If You Love Me)
Cloudy Busey takes many cues from house music on Up To You (If You Love Me), yet this long-burning song never feels exuberant. Rather, the Osaka-based Busey inverts the sounds of a club into something apt for a shadowy alleyway. The beat pounds on relentlessly, but the spacey synths and singing evoke the loneliness of long, solitary walks home early in the morning set against neon lights. If nights out tend to bring you down, here is the jam for you.

MALTA: Stagedive Malta
Danjeli - Midnight Carpet Ride
Besides being a maverick club DJ and an accomplished musician in his own right, Danjeli is also a member of the renegade Maltese folk band Brikkuni. This year he released another solo album, KontroNatura, available for free download from Complex Sound Sagacity.

MEXICO: Red Bull Panamérika
Uvilov - De Tantos Universos Paralelos
"Playing dreampop since 2005," is the slogan of this pioneering band. De Tantos Universos Paralelos is the gigantic overture to their new album El Desprendimiento, which promises to be an overload of feedback and chaos restrained under a structure. Uvilov might be intending to picture a party where the mankind of tomorrow is invited only if its conscience allows it to.

NETHERLANDS: Unfold Amsterdam
Wooden Constructions - Full Brother
There's been a buzz brewing for Amsterdam's Wooden Constructions for a year or two already, their edgy live performances stealing the limelight from a host of international indie wannabes along the way. Well, it's all set to reach boiling point when they finally unleash their debut album People Now People in spring. A barrage of taut dance grooves, minimalistic riffage and unsettling narratives, they provide a contemporary glimpse of post-punk at its maniacal best. Check out first single Full Brother for a taster of their danceable gloom, making the bold promise that the intensity of their live shows will carry over onto tape.

NEW ZEALAND: Einstein Music Journal
Grass Cannons - Wendy's
If hissing noise and warm melodies are your buzz then Auckland four-piece Grass Cannons should be on your radar. They've just released their debut EP Vet Dream, containing five darting guitar songs that each take a different path but ultimately lead to the same satisfactory conclusion. While a noisy mess rides heavy throughout their music and kidnaps a bit of their style, within each song there are several minutes of genius song structure that highlights their ability to write amazing pop-influenced punk music. Deerhunter, The Clean and Grooms come to mind when describing their sound, but Grass Cannons seem good enough to leave those influences out of the equation.

NORWAY: Birds Sometimes Dance
Storm The Bastille - Circle Robotics
You never know quite what to expect when listening to a song by Storm The Bastille. Their schizophrenic and mildly cacophonic music is unpredictable, strange and full of surprising twists. The only constant is the great energy the band possess. It's fast, energetic, melodic and a bit dark with a sense of impending doom that creeps up close.

PERU: SoTB
Los Zapping - Cine Mudo
Los Zapping began toying with music when they were still in school, but their garage-rock soon won a place in Lima nights and an authentic touch of freshness was about to be born. Their first EP, released in 2007, was considered the best of that year. Teoría De La Televisión y La Radio was released in 2011, an album that reaffirms the strength and talent of this band.

PORTUGAL: Posso Ouvir Um Disco?
Sun Glitters - They Don't Want To Let You Know (Sumsun Remix)
Victor Ferreira aka Sun Glitters, born to Portuguese parents in Luxembourg, has been praised by The Guardian, FADER and Pitchfork. For this reason, his newest release, High EP, which came out on January 30, was highly anticipated. On it, Victor continues his voyage through a dreamy electronic world. This track is a remix of one of the songs on the EP.

ROMANIA: Babylon Noise
Methadone Skies - Vs. Evil
Methadone Skies are a bunch of young guys from Timisoara playing the music they themselves like to listen to - psychedelic, progressive, stoner, post-rock, ambient or just noise - most of the time jamming in the studio with excellent results. Keep your ears opened for them as they're about to release their new album, Enter The Void.

RUSSIA: Big Echo
Brodsky - Death Note
Brodsky plays beautifully-orchestrated romantic folk with flowery melodies, youthful vocals and sad eyes that might remind you of Beirut or Jens Lekman. Nowadays, it's truly a blessing to find such an artist in Russia.

SCOTLAND: The Pop Cop
Craig_FS - Grass Stain (feat. Rachel Tesfaye)
Grass Stain is a musical head-turner - an 8.5-minute electro/house fusion with an outstanding soulful female guest vocal that takes you on a trip of a lifetime labelled bliss-euphoria-bliss. Craig_FS has been been making and uploading songs to Soundcloud for the past year, and the potential is certainly there for him to follow in the mainstream footsteps of compatriot Calvin Harris.

SINGAPORE: I'm Waking Up To...
Obedient Wives Club - Fragments
The first release by 60s indie-pop distributors Happy Teardrop Music is the debut self-titled EP by Obedient Wives Club, and what a hit it's been with all physical copies selling out within a month. The band, cheekily named after a controversial Muslim organisation of the same name, plays a delightful blend of girly noise-pop - or what they helpfully term "Spectorgaze". Fragments indulges its Jesus And Mary Chain obsession with generous doses of saccharine melodies and interstellar fuzz.

SOUTH KOREA: Korean Indie
MDS - Insomnia
DJ duo MDS released their first album in July last year, full of remixes of songs from some of the best artists in Seoul's indie scene. In January, they released a digital single with a couple of songs of their own, showing that they're also capable of crafting great pieces of music themselves. Insomnia is a smooth electronica track that lends itself very well as a soundtrack to a walk just about anywhere.

SPAIN: Musikorner
Novedades Carminha - Pesetas
Novedades Carminha are a garage-rock three-piece from Santiago de Compostela, and they're starting to be the talk of the town. Their songs are energy-packed and irreverent, making fun of everyday topics but vindicating them at the same time. Their lyrics hold true punk spirit. Pesetas, taken from their first album Jódete y Baila, released in early 2011, is a true jewel of dirty Spanish rock.

SWEDEN: Swedesplease
Kids - My Sincerest Apologies
Electronic pop duo Kids are shockingly good. Sure there a few cheesy moments in the single My Sincerest Apologies but it gives the song a bit of fun and doesn't take itself too seriously.

SWITZERLAND: 78s
John Caroline - Robine
John Caroline is a young six-piece from Baden who make playful, jittery and dreamy indie rock. Their debut EP is released as a free download on February 18.

TURKEY: WEARTBEAT
The Ringo Jets - Collar
The Ringo Jets, consisting of two guitarists and a drummer, is a rock 'n' roll band inspired by 60s garage music and blues rock. They made a big splash in Istanbul indie circles with their Limited Lunchpack EP, which you can download for free from Bandcamp. After signing with Aisha Records, they're planning to release their debut album by the end of the year.

UNITED STATES: I Guess I'm Floating
That Ghost - Morning Now
Californian lo-fi bedroom artist That Ghost has been making music since before he could drive a car. His sound has grown and changed as much as he has from tween state to young adulthood. OK, he was never a tween but a pure artist whose latest EP Rosalind is a gem. Check out the slow-burning Morning Now, like, right now.

VENEZUELA: Música y Más
Mcklopedia - Guardián
Mcklopedia is a young man who, back in 2001, identified with a genre and took it as his philosophy and way of life. He explicitly shows the reality of the world's great cities, the everyday stories that come to a close in households every night. Superlirical, his debut album, seeks to represent a new concept in urban music, combining soul, reggae, funk and hip hop.

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"You make the whole world disappear..."

Photo by Kristin Cofer

Chelsea Wolfe: "I usually start with an idea and build layers upon it. The songs have a lot of strange vocal layers. A lot of screeching and singing in the background. I wanted it to feel kind of like a film soundtrack."

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"It’s not the absence of the other but the absence of anyone else that will drown us in the end"

Ένα χρόνο μετά το θαυμάσιο 'Organ music not vibraphone like I'd hoped', ο Spencer Krug ετοιμάζεται ως Moonface να μας εκπλήξει και πάλι με την αστείρευτη δημιουργικότητά του και να μας χαρίσει πρωτόγνωρες μουσικές συγκινήσεις, αυτή τη φορά με την πολύτιμη βοήθεια των Siinai, όπως πιστοποιεί η νέα ηχητική κατεύθυνση που ακολουθείται στο εξαίσιο "Teary eyes and bloody lips". To 'Heartbreaking bravery' αναμένεται στα μέσα του Απρίλη!


"If there is a place that is beautiful only because it's too dark to see whether or not ugliness exists, that's where you'll find these songs and their characters. A place where the cry for unrequited love is rich and silky..."

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"The lost buoys"

Photo by Lauren Keogh
Οι Clock Opera συλλέγουν επαναλαμβανόμενους ήχους με έντονες αντιθέσεις, synths, κιθάρες και drum beats και τους συναρμολογούν με ασυνήθιστους τρόπους, μετατρέποντάς τους σε μελωδίες που άλλοτε προκαλούν ψυχική ανάταση και άλλοτε αποπνέουν ρομαντισμό και ζεστασιά. Δύο μήνες πριν οι δημιουργικές προκλήσεις με τις οποίες ήρθαν αντιμέτωποι στο μουσικό τους εργαστήριο βρεθούν στα δισκοπωλεία μας αποκαλύπτουν νέα δείγματα.

Ο Guy Conelly των Clock Opera αναλάμβάνει μία διαφορετική ανάγνωση του "Once and for all" με το τελικό αποτέλεσμα να συγκλονίζει!

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An explosive experience!

Four live session tracks recorded in November 2011 at Coach Road Studios in Kent.

01. Dance dance dance / Piano fights
02. Debutante
03. Burial scene

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"I'm not your heartbreaker..."

Το έκτο αριστούργημα των The Walkmen, όπως τουλάχιστον προαγγέλουν τα πανέμορφα τραγούδια που έχουν παρουσιάσει ζωντανά έχει σχεδόν ηχογραφηθεί και ο τρόπος για να κατευνάσουμε τον ενθουσιασμό μας μέχρι να ολοκληρωθούν όλες οι απαραίτητες διαδικασίες μοιάζει ανέφικτος. Ένα οπτικό απόσπασμα από την πρόσφατη εμφάνισή τους στο Σικάγο.


The Walkmen's Peter Bauer: "I think it is a lot better than the last record, and probably than all the other ones. It’s 13 songs long, and there’s a lot of rock ‘n’ roll music on it... The production is a lot different, and a big step in the right direction for us, ...everything’s in tune, nothing’s as needlessly harsh as it usually is, we’re all playing on rhythm..."

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"A forced way of being that stops you from telling a lie"

Οι νέοι συναρπαστικοί lo-fi πειραματισμοί της Stacey Wilson ως Rites Wild με τα απόκοσμα φωνητικά της να ακούγονται στο βάθος κάτω από τις διαρκείς ηχητικές ανακλάσεις και παραμορφώσεις και οι θεσπέσιες μελωδίες της που παράγονται μέσα από αναλογικά πλήκτρα και επαναλαμβανόμενα loops της drum machine έχουν προγραμματιστεί να κυκλοφορήσουν σύντομα από την Not Not Fun Records, ενώ παράλληλα θα συγκεντρωθούν σε μία συλλογή όλα τα τραγούδια που συνέθεσε και διέθεσε είτε ψηφιακά είτε με μορφή κασέτας και cd (σε περιορισμένα πάντα αντίτυπα) κατά τις περιοδείες της.




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Eagerly awaited

Squid - Cowards

Follow their traces

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