26-08-2018 10:47 alter:MiX # 33 alter tracks in PRSNT_PRFCT_MiX [from the recent past]

Belle and Sebastian

26-08-2018 10:47 alter:MiX # 33 alter tracks in PRSNT_PRFCT_MiX [from the recent past] # Belle and Sebastian, Chicano Batman, PJ Harvey, Moon Duo, Samara Lubelski, ShadowParty, Prettiest Eyes, Thao & the Get Down Stay Down, Cigarettes After Sex, Halo Maud, Palm, La Luz

M U S I C

pres_perf_mix # The player always plays the latest playlist tracks. / A lejátszó mindig a legújabb playlist számait játssza. 

LISTEN THE PLAYLIST ON DEEZER.COM

A band that takes its name from a French children's television series about a boy and his dog would almost have to be precious, and to be sure, Belle and Sebastian are precious. But precious can be a damning word, and Belle and Sebastian don't have the negative qualities that the word connotes: they are private but not insular, pretty but not wimpy; they make gorgeous, delicate melodies sound full-bodied. Led by guitarist/vocalist Stuart Murdoch, the seven-piece band has an intimate, majestic sound that is equal parts folk-rock and '60s pop, but Murdoch's gift, not just for whimsy and surrealism but also for odd, unsettling lyrical detail, keeps the songs grounded in a tangible reality.
Belle and Sebastian
I'll Be Your Pilot (Belle and Sebastian) 4:15
Best Friend (Carla Easton / Belle and Sebastian) 3:41
from How To Solve Our Human Problems (Parts 1-3) 2018
On the eve of launching Belle and Sebastian's project How to Solve Our Human Problems, leader Stuart Murdoch explained his band's decision to release a series of three interlocked EPs instead of a long-player with this: "I think these days when an LP comes out, it's kind of disappointing. Nothing seems to happen, and I thought, 'We've got to do something different.'" Murdoch's way to combat the digital grind harks back to Belle and Sebastian's earliest days, when the group released a series of three EPs between 1996's If You're Feeling Sinister and 1998's The Boy with the Arab Strap, but those releases were spaced out over the course of 1997, where each of the installments of How to Solve Our Human Problems arrived in succession in the first months of 2018. Consequently, all three Human Problems EPs feel cut from the same cloth, all buzzing to a stylish good vibe pitched halfway between '60s modernism and '70s disco...

Alternative Latin band with a psychedelic hybrid sound who have opened for Alabama Shakes and Jack White.  Chicano Batman source their high-spirited alternative Latin synthesis from tropicália, West Coast psychedelia, and late-'60s/early-'70s soul, among other styles. Eduardo Arenas (bass, vocals), Bardo Martinez (lead vocals, organ, guitar), and Gabriel Villa (drums, percussion) made their recorded debut in 2009 with a self-released, self-titled album.
Chicano Batman
Passed You By (Chicano Batman / Bardo Martinez) 3:27
Freedom Is Free (Chicano Batman / Bardo Martinez) 4:03
The Taker Story (Chicano Batman / Bardo Martinez) 5:27
from Freedom Is Free 2017
Hitting the good groove may seem like a simple thing, but it's not. (If it were, anyone could have been James Brown, and a quick spin through his catalog confirms that's impossible.) And the ability to move the crowd can be used to say any number of things. Musical shape-shifters Chicano Batman have drawn from a rich variety of sources for their third album, 2017's Freedom Is Free -- Brazilian Tropicalia, Latin funk, vintage American soul, and R&B, shades of Afrobeat, and psychedelia of all sorts. But the way the band gracefully navigate the nexus between the passionate and the laid-back sides of their musical personality is what makes Freedom Is Free stand out. Just as Funkadelic's classic early albums indelibly merged rock guitars with funk grooves, Chicano Batman make music that makes your hips sway, but with a purposefully easy tempo. They give their music a vibe that's powerful and sensual all at once, merging their influences in a way that doesn't cancel out any of the elements...

The most challenging singer/songwriter to emerge in the '90s, her brutally honest lyrics match well to a progression of raw musical styles.  During the alternative rock explosion, several female singer/songwriters rose to prominence, but few have proved as distinctive or as widely praised as Polly Jean Harvey. Over the course of her career, Harvey established herself as one of the most individual and influential songwriters of her era, exploring themes of sex, love, and religion with unnerving honesty, dark humor, and a twisted theatricality.
PJ Harvey
The Community of Hope (PJ Harvey) 2:23
The Orange Monkey (PJ Harvey) 2:47
The Wheel (PJ Harvey) 5:38
from The Hope Six Demolition Project 2016
On 2011's Mercury Prize-winning Let England Shake, PJ Harvey connected World War I bloodbaths with the 21st century world in harrowing, moving ways. Its follow-up, The Hope Six Demolition Project, feels like a companion piece with a wider focus and more urgent mood. For this project -- which also includes the 2015 book of poetry The Hollow of the Hand and a film -- Harvey and her Shake collaborator, war photographer Seamus Murphy, emphasized documentation: The pair spent years researching in Kosovo, Afghanistan and Washington, D.C.; later, Harvey was literally transparent about the recording process, making Hope Six at a recording studio behind one-way glass for public audiences at London’s Somerset House. Befitting its origins, the album's sound is blunt and raw, mixing rock, blues, jazz, spirituals, and field recordings into the musical equivalent of photojournalism...

03-08-2018 11:37 alter:MiX # 33 alter tracks in PRSNT_PRFCT_MiX [from the recent past]

03-08-2018 11:37 alter:MiX # 33 alter tracks in PRSNT_PRFCT_MiX [from the recent past] # Walking Papers, Warmduscher, Walking Papers, Boss Hog, Esperanza Spalding, David Bowie, Baxter Dury, Belle and Sebastian, Harlan T. Bobo, Chicano Batman, PJ Harvey, Moon Duo, Samara Lubelski

M U S I C

pres_perf_mix # The player always plays the latest playlist tracks. / A lejátszó mindig a legújabb playlist számait játssza. 

LISTEN THE PLAYLIST ON DEEZER.COM

Seattle-based hard rockers featuring members of the Missionary Position and Duff McKagan. Seattle-based quartet Walking Papers make no-nonsense, guitar-heavy rock & roll. 
Walking Papers
My Luck Pushed Back (Jeff Angel / Walking Papers) 3:54
This Is How It Ends (Jeff Angel / Walking Papers) 6:29
from WP2 2018
Packed with enough dirty guitar riffs to fill a smoky roadside bar, Walking Papers' second album, WP2, is another dose of no-nonsense rock & roll from the Seattle-based group. Recorded in early 2015 -- shortly after wrapping up touring behind their self-titled debut -- WP2 arrived three years later in 2018, due to bassist Duff McKagan's obligations with his other band, Guns N' Roses. Improving upon their first with polished production and a livelier vigor, WP2 is blues-drenched rock that fans of Queens of the Stone Age and Screaming Trees should enjoy. Frontman Jeff Angell's voice carries the project, his gritty delivery reminiscent of Bono filtered through the murk of Mark Lanegan...

London-based rock & roll band featuring members of Fat White Family, Insecure Men, and Paranoid London. 
Warmduscher
Big Wilma (Saul Adamczewski / Jack Everett / Craig Higgins / Ben Romans-Hopcraft / Quinn Whalley) 2:05
The Sweet Smell of Florida (Saul Adamczewski / Jack Everett / Craig Higgins / Ben Romans-Hopcraft / Quinn Whalley) 4:15
from Whale City 2018
There's a lot about Warmduscher's music that qualifies it as good-time rock & roll (albeit of a distinctly deviant variety), but there's a whole lot more going on in Whale City. Their weirdly wild 2015 debut, Khaki Tears, set them apart from any standardized classification, and with the follow-up, they certainly continue to plow a furrow as outliers...

Raw and raucous blues-punk ensemble fronted by the husband-and-wife team of Jon Spencer and Cristina Martinez.  All-star N.Y.C. blues-punk combo Boss Hog was helmed by the husband-and-wife team of singer Cristina Martinez and singer/guitarist Jon Spencer, who'd previously teamed up in the legendary cult band Pussy Galore.
Boss Hog
Billy (Boss Hog) 3:47
Signal (Boss Hog) 2:54
Sunday Routine (Boss Hog) 3:49
from Brood X 2017
Boss Hog have always been a band content to work on a time-line that would puzzle most bands, perfectly willing to go five years between releases as they attended to their other projects. But 2017's Brood X arrives over 16 years after their last proper album, 2000's Whiteout, as Cristina Martinez sets aside her duties as a working mom and Jon Spencer takes some downtime from his Blues Explosion. If Boss Hog sound a bit different than they did at the dawn of the 21st century, that's to be expected, but Brood X (and the 2016 companion EP Brood Star) reveals that they've changed very little conceptually; their dirty mixture of punkified blues, raw funk, and stoned but committed show band swagger is a bit less swampy, but it will still make you feel good and greasy after a few spins...