Song of the Day

Posts Tagged ‘Electronic’

More on this band coming soon. Haven’t had as much time as I wanted to this weekend to post a Song of the Day, but this indie band Tigers That Talked is amazing, and so I’ll come back and do a write-up soon.

Singer Songwriter Jo Hamilton’s music is light, playful, intimate, captivating, and fully featured. Her songs are anything but standard, each one introduces a variety of styles, intros, creative harmonies, instruments, and melodies. Her voice is reminiscent of Annie Lennox and Feist but with the creativity and playfulness of Bjork. One can only appreciate the artfulness of her music video and use of non-traditional instruments.

Jo Hamilton’s debut album “Gown” features this song along with several other journeys in sound and harmony that are sure to pleasantly surprise. Perhaps Jo’s eclectic style can be attributed to her multi-cultural and always traveling up-bringing which took her around the world to places that most people would never imagine could be combined together into one lifetime.

Take a look at this short film which covers the making of her album Gown to get a better feel for who Jo is and get a deeper glimpse into her enchanting world.

Jo’s album was released under the creative audiophile record label Poseidon Records out Birminham UK.

Also find Jo on Facebook, MySpace, and YouTube.

I just noticed Tania Zygar on a friend’s Facebook page and decided to investigate. I was very impressed. Part of the credit goes to “tyDi”, AKA – Tyson Illingworth, the #1 DJ in Australia who’s hit it big on Armin Van Buuren’s Armada record label. The combination of talent and experience with both of these young musical heavy-weights is all you need. It really doesn’t get any better than this. If you think it does, please share the love in the comments below or on the Song of the Day Facebook or Twitter page. We all love great music and there’s no reason to keep it all to yourself.

Get tour dates, watch more music videos, photos, discography and more on the official websites here for Tania Zygar and tyDi.

Driving down a psychedelic road through time and space in that place where monks are while deep in meditation Himalaya releases you into their world of sound, passively enveloping you in with a warm welcome and understanding, guiding us through the realm of our minds where all things are known free and at peace.

Himalaya is the name of the musical group out of Brooklyn New York, self classified as psychedelic / rock / shoegaze, which hits the mark. Other bands share the moniker but thankfully this one has the full social media package. Here’s Himalaya on Facebook and Himalaya on Twitter. And the Himalaya MySpace page has a good playlist of their songs waiting.

1) Houses is an anonymous lo-fi electronic duo out of Chicago, Illinois. They are signed to Lefse Records.

That’s all Last.fm has to say about this band. But you can find out a lot about them on official Houses website, like that they recorded a lot of the original material for the album while living in a tiny tree cabin in a remote part of the jungle near Hilo Hawaii without any running water or electricity. That they moved back to Chicago when they ran out of money and now have the album out and were blessed to have a great director duo for their music video Nik Harper, Lamar High, and Nicholas Owen aka Lamar+Nik. The male and female pair that makes up the indie music group Houses is apparently anonymous as they blurred out the face of the girl in the video. I would venture so say this means that the two value their own privacy, and also understand quite well the dangers of fame in the world of entertainment. So I’ll further conclude that the couple is also very intelligent as they are not doing something that is common among music artists, which is to reject the idea of self branding of your own music, although this can be argued. But at the bottom line they at least didn’t jump into the “look at me, I’m cool” wagon that a lot of music artists choose to take as a way to promote their own music through “I want to be like that cool person” associative thought which fans tend to have (idolatry). So good for them! I hope they make more music.

You can buy their CD or LP, Houses “All Night” which is for sale on Lefse Records.

James Delay ‘Howl’ on Vimeo.

James Delay is an emerging electronic music artist out of London England whose debut on Russell Club Records is most likely making steady electronic pulses through the digital ether as we speak. His music is calm calculated and powerful like an unconscious force moving the energy of the world across the grid lines of our cities. The music builds and creeps, like a slow rising tide or stream of clouds rolling by, influencing your perception whether you realize it or not. It’s like a new emergent property, slowly assembling itself out of the bits and pieces of our electronic world, coming together, forming something new and powerful. And deep inside the heart of the machine there’s something very smart and very aware that knows exactly what it’s doing.

Check out the full description of this music video on Vimeo.

Read the RUSSEL CLUB RECORDS bio on James Delay too.

James is also working with Jamie Blanco in a project/group called Figures, listen to & watch the music video to their new song Velo, hot off the press!

And don’t let the music stop with you, pay if forward to your friends. Just click the social links below or in the upper right corner of this webpage.

Upside Down by dreamthieves

Dream Thieves is a 4 piece indie electro group out of Iowa City, Iowa that just released their debut album Ocean Spell this year. Their own unique blend of gradually progressing new wave synth pop dance beats and misty whispering lo-fi vocals bring back a dream-like reflections of the past.

Their music would be the perfect soundtrack to Cyndi-Lauper era films about teenage romance, adventure, and exploration. If you could take the Goonies, 16 candles, and a steamy romantic horror film about vampires and turned them into a music video with Ocean Spell as the audio you’d have one killer experience! Although their sound is equally fitting today with new wave electro bands like M83, Phantogram, and Sono.

Listen to their entire album “Ocean Spell” on Sound Cloud. Be sure to check out their song “Capsized” which is another one of my favorites off their album.

Dream Thieves has been doing live shows in and around the Iowa City area and are only just getting started. It was with luck that I met the group while flying into Moline about a month ago, so here they are, fresh out of their garage recording studio for your listening pleasure.

The new wave group, Kids of 88, was formed in 2004. Group members Jordan Arts and Sam McCarthy, grew up listening to styles of music different from that of your average teenager. In time, they developed a new wave sound, by taking past ideas from pop music and putting a new twist on them. Their music can be described as a combination of “sleazy basslines”, “mind-numbingly catchy hooks” and “suggestive innuendos.” Their intertwining of quirky lyrics and musical elements, make them a force to be reckoned with in pop music. Based out of New Zealand, Kids of 88 built off their local success and soon began to spread throughout the United States. It was in the U.S. that Kids of 88 landed a remix for superstar Ke$ha’s single “Tik Tok.” Soon after, pop group Cobra Starship also requested Kids of 88 remix their song, “Hot Mess.”

This single “Just A Little Bit”, debuted at #13 on the New Zealand chart, when their album “Sugarpills” was released on August 16, 2010. In addition to their success with “Just A Little Bit”, Kids Of 88 were chosen to support Ke$ha on her December 2010 European tour which hit the following markets: Zurich, Paris, Brussels, Barcelona and Madrid. A Kids of 88 tour in the U.S. is also in the works for 2011.

I wasn’t sure if I should feature this song or their track Sugarpills but this one has just the right kind of provocative beat that gets my feet moving. I also am a fan of GoldFrapp and this song undulates with the titillating sex pump that’s in songs like Strict Machine and Train but with more punch and violence. Their music video doesn’t fail to convey the message either. Also check out Sugarpills with a Sinead O’Connor sample mixed in with good effect.

Also check out the official Kids of 88 website.

Here’s a band from Norway, Donkeyboy, with their song Ambitions off their one album Caught in a Life which released in 2009. The band is all male but they feature Linnea Dale who is one of the top performers from the Norwegian Idol and X-Factor shows akin to American Idol. She’s the first person who I’ve seen with that name besides my sister, and coincidentally they were born in the same year. Must have been a popular name that year.

For some reason fashion styles from the 80′s are being pushed by designers and stylists in Europe and the US. Although I have no idea why. But I speculate it’s because there’s a lot more clothing left over from the 80′s that’s still wearable than there is clothing from older eras, and stylists just love recycling things that are cheap and just laying around. But that’s just a wild guess.

Anyway, good song, the more you listen the more you’ll like it. There’s also another video for this song online, but I liked this one better. Here’s the other music video for Donkeyboy – Ambitions featuring Linnea Dale, enjoy.

I wonder if the historical slate of band names was whipped clean would indie bands like this one out of Brooklyn still choose the names that they do? I guess every band has a different reason for picking their name aside from trying to sound cool, but it just makes me wonder. After watching this music video for some reason I feel like I’ve could toss my brain into one of those side loading laundry machines for a few cycles and I wouldn’t know anything strange happened. There’s something emotionally strong about this song but like most of the objects in the music video, all the sounds seem to be slowly destroyed like dragging something behind a car while it slowly grinds away.

The masks remind me of a bunch of other music videos. Is there some kind of psychological trend or message here that I’m missing here? Anyone, anyone, … …. Bueler, Bueler?