28-08-2018 FAVTRAX:MiX ~ 33 FAVOURiTE tracks 2014-2010

Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds

28-08-2018 FAVTRAX:MiX ~ 33 FAVOURiTE tracks 2014-2010  >>Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, Queens Of The Stone Age, Grand General, Anna Calvi, David Byrne, St. Vincent, Focus, David Lynch, Black Devil Disco Club, Martina Topley-Bird, Zaz, Bushman's Revenge<<

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2014-2010

Eclectic and powerful post-punk band that's steadily evolved under the leadership of one of rock's most celebrated songwriters.  Formed after the breakup of the Birthday Party in 1983, Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds became one of the most original and celebrated bands of the post-punk and alternative rock eras in the '80s and onward. Playing music that meshed with the dark, multi-layered narratives of Cave's lyrics, the Bad Seeds created sounds that were physically and emotionally powerful, but with a sense of dynamics and drama that set them apart from their peers. While plenty of musicians would move in and out of the Bad Seeds' lineup over the years, throughout their history they were always a musical force as powerful as their leader.
Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds
From Her to Eternity (Nick Cave) 5:35
Tupelo (Nick Cave) 7:18
The Carny (Nick Cave) 8:00
The Mercy Seat (Nick Cave) 7:18
from Lovely Creatures: The Best of Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds (1984-2014) 2017
Nick Cave is a singular figure in contemporary rock music; he first emerged as punk rock was making its presence known in Australia, but though he's never surrendered his status as a provocateur and a musical outlaw, he quickly abandoned the simplicity of punk for something grander and more literate, though no less punishing in its outlook. Cave also had an approach to collaboration that made his backing band, the Bad Seeds, an integral part of his creative vision, even as their membership changed and their sound evolved over the space of three decades of fury and eloquence. In Kirk Lake's liner notes to Lovely Creatures: The Best of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, 1984-2014, he celebrates the band as much as their charismatic leader and songwriter, and the 45 songs collected on this three-disc set make the case that while Cave may be the frontman -- and a profoundly charismatic one with a powerful voice that can communicate from a whisper to a scream -- his musicians bring a color, shape, and texture to his songs that focus and amplify his gifts as a singer and lyricist...

Highly acclaimed hard rockers from the California desert who update old-school riff rock without overloading irony or slavish imitation. 
Queens Of The Stone Age
Keep Your Eyes Peeled (Queens of the Stone Age / Joshua Homme) 5:04
I Sat By the Ocean (Queens of the Stone Age / Joshua Homme) 3:55
The Vampyre of Time and Memory (Queens of the Stone Age / Joshua Homme) 3:34
...Like Clockwork (Joshua Homme / James Lavelle / Charlie May) 5:24
from …Like Clockwork 2013
All the surface evidence on ...Like Clockwork suggests Josh Homme is steering Queens of the Stone Age back to familiar territory. Once again, he's enlisted drummer Dave Grohl as his anchor and he's made amends with his erstwhile bassist Nick Oliveri, suggesting Homme is returning to either Rated R or Songs for the Deaf, the two turn-of-the-millennium masterpieces that thrust QOTSA out of their stoner rock cult, but ...Like Clockwork isn't so simple as a return to roots. Homme flirts with his history as a way to make sense of his present, reconnecting with his strengths as a way to reorient himself, consolidating his indulgences and fancies into a record that obliterates middle-age malaise without taking a moment to pander to the past...  This is forceful, purposeful, fueled by dense interwoven riffs and colored with hints of piano and analog synthesizers that quite consciously evoke '70s future dystopia. QOTSA always specialized in this eerie sexiness, but the precision on ...Like Clockwork -- quite different than the merciless propulsion of Era Vulgaris, the 2007 album that closed out their time at Interscope -- feels conceptually tight, Homme smartly sculpting guitar fuzz, elastic solos, haunted harmonies, and deceptively slinky rhythms into a cool, relentless collection of heavy rock. The force impresses but also the restraint: there are missed beats and open space, muscular music that seduces and pummels, even manages to soothe while it assaults. It's complex, harder, and catchier than anything QOTSA have done in a decade, and more song-oriented, too, but that's a sign of maturity: Homme has marshaled all of his strengths on ...Like Clockwork and has found a way forward, a way to deepen his music without compromising his identity.

This heavy Norwegian fusion quintet became Grand General after premiering as the Kenneth Kapstad Group at the Trondheim Jazzfest. 
Grand General
Antics (Trond Frønes) 12:20
Red Eye (Trond Frønes / Ola Kvernberg) 11:02
from Grand General 2013
This Norwegian fusion quintet features the same instrumental lineup as Mahavishnu Orchestra, so comparisons to John McLaughlin's legendary '70s band are probably inevitable. But on the basis of Grand General's eponymous 2013 Rune Grammofon debut, such comparisons would merely scratch the surface. The bandmembers have the chops to match any fusioneers past or present, but they're also fond of the relentless rock pummel, undergirding their pyrotechnics with a powerful rhythm section possessing deep reserves of energy. Motorpsycho fans will recognize the Norwegian psych/prog/metal institution's current drummer, Kenneth Kapstad, and Kapstad is indeed a driving rhythmic force here, but bassist Trond Frønes is at least an equal partner. Frønes adopts a thick, overdriven bass tone at times strikingly similar to that of Motorpsycho vocalist/bassist Bent Sæther (check out 2010's Heavy Metal Fruit). Kapstad and Frønes also play together in the metal band Goat the Head, so they are definitely on the same wavelength...

British singer/songwriter with influences ranging from Nick Cave's post-punk to Django Reinhardt's flamenco.  Hailed as "the best thing since Patti Smith" by Brian Eno, as well as being included in the BBC's Sound of 2011 list, the hype surrounding London-born Anna Calvi came to a crescendo in late 2010. Gaining critical acclaim among music journalists, Calvi drew comparisons with passionate and brooding musicians like Nick Cave and Polly Jean Harvey. The dense and rich musical influences that inhabit Calvi's world are broad and distinctive strokes of sultry flamenco, smoke-filled blues, and seductive goth pop/rock. Adding to this tapestry of influences, Calvi claims to have been inspired by the films of David Lynch, Gus Van Sant, and Wong Kar Wai; the cinematic element to her music contributes a mysterious and unyielding undercurrent to her work.
Anna Calvi
Suddenly (Anna Calvi) 3:34
Piece by Piece (Anna Calvi) 3:16
Carry Me Over (Anna Calvi) 5:27
from One Breath 2013
On her 2011 Mercury-nominated debut, bewitching, guitar-slinging Brit Anna Calvi delivered enough atmosphere to terraform her own planet...  One Breath, her intoxicating sophomore outing, picks right up where her eponymous first impression left off, offering up a pair of fevered, reverb-drenched, bordello-rock gems... Having eschewed much of the cavernous chamber pop of her debut for more challenging yet no less rewarding fare, Calvi's less adventurous fans may find themselves at a loss as to how to process it all, but there's something both immaculate and broken about One Breath that ultimately transcends its more difficult moments.

Although best-known for his groundbreaking tenure fronting the new wave group Talking Heads, David Byrne is also acclaimed for his adventurous solo career, encroaching upon such diverse arenas as world music, filmmaking, and performance art in the process.
David Byrne, St. Vincent
St. Vincent became one of the unexpected success stories of indie rock with the release of her second album, Actor, in 2009; the literate, emotionally intricate songs and rich, beautifully crafted pop melodies made her an immediate hit with critics, but few expected her music to cross over to mainstream acceptance.
Who (David Byrne / Annie Clark) 3:49
Weekend in the Dust (David Byrne / Annie Clark) 3:07
Dinner for Two (David Byrne / Annie Clark) 3:42
from Love This Giant 2012
It's not surprising that David Byrne and St. Vincent's Annie Clark were drawn to work together. While they're hardly sound-alikes, they are both keen but somewhat detached observers of the human condition who make music that's equally cerebral and passionate. However, it is somewhat surprising to learn that they created their collaboration Love This Giant largely online, meeting in the studio together with their team of musicians and producers a handful of times during the album's three-year gestation period, because they're on such a harmonious wavelength throughout it. Though the album's brass-driven sound suggests Byrne's post-Talking Heads work more than St. Vincent's guitar acrobatics (Clark fans may be disappointed that her playing is relegated to the sidelines here, albeit artfully so), it was actually Clark's idea to write these songs for a brass band when the project began as a handful of songs the duo was going to perform in a bookstore...

Best remembered for their bizarre chart smash "Hocus Pocus," Dutch progressive rock band Focus was formed in Amsterdam in 1969 by vocalist/keyboardist/flutist Thijs van Leer, bassist Martin Dresden, and drummer Hans Cleuver. With the subsequent addition of guitarist Jan Akkerman, the group issued its debut LP, In and Out of Focus, in 1970...
Focus
Father Bachus (Menno Gootjes) 4:03
Focus 10 (Thijs van Leer) 5:48
Birds Come Fly Over (Le Tango) (Thijs van Leer / Roselie Peters) 5:26
from Focus X 2012
Focus X (also known as X) is the tenth studio album by the Dutch progressive rock band Focus, released on 5 November 5 2012 by Eastworld Recordings.
Focus X is the group's first studio album in six years. The album features Menno Gootjes on guitar, replacing Niels van der Steenhoven, who played guitar on the ensemble's previous album Focus 9 / New Skin (2009).  The album generally received positive reviews.
Thijs van Leer – Hammond organ, flute, vocoder, spoken vocals (tracks 1, 7, 11)
Menno Gootjes – guitar, acoustic guitars (track 8)
Bobby Jacobs – bass guitar
Pierre van der Linden – drums, percussion

The visionary director has also had a healthy musical career, as a collaborator and on his own.  In addition to his prodigious careers as a director, writer, producer, sound designer, and carpenter (to name a few), David Lynch also stretched his artistic reach to music. He collaborated heavily with his go-to composer Angelo Badalamenti on the scores and soundtracks to his projects, including the music for Blue Velvet, 1990's iconic Twin Peaks soundtrack, and Mulholland Drive...
David Lynch
Pinky's Dream feat. Karen O (Dean Hurley / David Lynch / Karen O) 4:00
Good Day Today (Dean Hurley / David Lynch) 4:39
So Glad (Dean Hurley / David Lynch) 3:35
from Crazy Clown Time 2011
Crazy Clown Time may be David Lynch's first solo album, but he’s far from a newcomer to music-making. He worked so closely with Angelo Badalamenti on the soundtracks to his films and television shows that the term “Lynchian” can be applied to music as well as movies, and his work with acts such as Blue Bob, Sparklehorse's Mark Linkous, and Danger Mouse as a musician and sound designer underscored that he has clear, and creative, musical ideas of his own. He continues to explore these ideas -- plus a few new ones -- on Crazy Clown Time, handling all the instrumental and vocal duties, with one notable exception: opening track “Pinky’s Dream,” which features the Yeah Yeah Yeahs' Karen O. ..

Initially a one-off "collaboration" between French producer Bernard Fevre and alleged financier Jackie Giordano -- credited, respectively, as Joachim Sherylee and Junior Claristidge -- Black Devil released a six-track album of spooky electro-disco entitled Disco Club...
Black Devil Disco Club
Fuzzy Dream feat. Jon Spencer (Bernard Fevre) 3:24
To Ardent feat. Nancy Sinatra (Bernard Fevre) 3:19
from Circus 2011
When Bernard Fevre, the soi-disant Black Devil, released 2008's Eight Oh Eight, it was allegedly the capstone to an increasingly redundant trilogy of electro-disco albums he'd begun 30 years earlier. Some might have assumed he'd slink back into his accustomed obscurity, his diabolical mission accomplished. But little about the Frenchman's career trajectory to date has been straightforward, so it's not all that surprising that now, following 2009's cobbled-together The Strange New World of Bernard Fevre, we're presented with a fourth Black Devil Disco Club album. This time, though, he's learned a few new tricks: instead of six five-minute dance tracks, Circus consists of ten three-minute pop songs, each featuring a different vocalist. For an artist who's never before enlisted collaborators, Fevre's amassed an impressive roster of guests here...

Because of a printing error on Maxinquaye, Martina Topley-Bird has often been referred to as "Martine," an error the unpredictable, low-profile, and confusion-loving singer/songwriter didn't bother correcting. The woman Vibe referred to as "the black Dietrich of Soul" grew up in London and went to schools that were mostly white and middle class...
Martina Topley-Bird
Baby Blue (Martina Topley-Bird) 2:47
Phoenix (Martina Topley-Bird) 2:45
Lying (Martina Topley-Bird) 3:49
Da Da Da (Martina Topley-Bird) 1:20
from Some Place Simple 2010
Martina Topley-Bird's Some Place Simple follows the release of her dynamite 2008 Danger Mouse-produced Blue God full-length by two years. That said, this set wasn't planned. She was actually approached by Damon Albarn who suggested recording stripped-down versions of songs from both her albums (the other is her 2003 debut, Quixotic) for his Honest Jon's imprint. What's more interesting is that the production on both of those recordings -- which were wildly different from one another -- was far from excessive. Nonetheless, Topley-Bird took Albarn up on his offer, and stripped her songs to the bone, completely recontextualizing her melodies. Some Place Simple is driven by minimal instrumentation on each of its 15 tracks. Other than her melodies, her approach is unique, even riveting...

French pop singer with a Gypsy jazz style that brought her commercial success across Europe.  
Zaz
Les Passants (Isabelle Geffroy / Tryas) 3:33
Dans Ma Rue (Jacques Datin) 5:02
Je Veux (Kerredine Soltani / Tryas) 3:35
from Zaz 2010
The self-titled album debut of Zaz is one of the more exciting French revelations of 2010, boasting a refreshingly unique gypsy jazz style as well as plenty of contemporary pop appeal. Thirty years old at the time of her solo album debut, Zaz is a seasoned vocalist with years of experience as a performer, and her vocals are indeed a wonder to behold. She's a talented jazz vocalist, for sure, and her resemblance to Edith Piaf is striking. In addition to her singing, Zaz is a gifted songwriter credited with either writing or co-writing six of the 11 songs on her debut album...

This Norwegian power trio melds jazz improvisation with prog rock composition and heavy metal's dynamics. 
Bushman's Revenge
Always in Motion the Future Is (Even Helte Hermansen) 10:00
While My Guitar Gently Breaks (Even Helte Hermansen) 6:33
Waltz for My Good Man (Even Helte Hermansen) 4:49
from Jitterbug 2010
Rune Grammofon's contributions to the Norwegian jazz scene (and that of the world at large) continues with Bushman's Revenge's third album, finding the trio again exploring their own variety of garagey psych fusion. (Not for nothing does the band cover a kindred spirit from previous years -- no less a noteworthy trio than Mötorhead, with "Damage Case" being given a "happy go lucky karaoke version," as it's rather tongue-in-cheekily described.) Jitterbug is at once a product of its time -- namely a worship of a lot of things going down sonically at the dawn of the '70s -- and something that doesn't quite fit into any easy description of that; they're a power trio and a jazz trio without settling for being specifically one or the other...