Following the news of Vampire Weekend’s sophomore record “Contra” hitting the Billboard Number 1 in the States -the first album released by a British independent label to hit the top spot in two decades; plenty of exciting music was launched or previewed this week. Among the flow of new releases, the album that has earned the best reviews is Baltimore duo’s Beach House third opus “Teen Dream”. It was streamed in its entirety by NPR radio and every track has a promo video. All of them collected on a bonus DVD as part of the original release. The album is being hailed as a dream-pop masterpiece and will establish the duo as one of today’s most interesting artists.
Other interesting new records, also available for streaming are Four Tet’s “There Is Love In You”, received as Kieran Hebden’s return to form. Also acclaimed as a return to their usual gloomy form was Eels new opus “End Times”, whereas Los Campesinos! rock their indie anthems up a notch or two in “Romance is boring”.
Big surprises were delivered by “Astro Coat”,the debut of Florida’s lo-fi surfers Surfer Blood. The band already has one of our favorite songs of the moment with “Swim (To Reach The End)”. In the other side of the coin, venturing into the dark side of self-indulgence, The Flaming Lips have released their version of Pink Floyd’s classic “Dark Side Of The Moon” in full, next to up-and-coming rock bands Stardeath and White Dwarf and featuring Peaches and Henry Rollins as guests vocalists. It can be checked on spotify. For the very curious only!
Rising LA band Girls launched “Laura” as the fourth single taken out of their first album; Grizzly Bear leaked their version of Hot Chip’s recent favorite “Boy From School”; but the most talked about tracks of the week were Gorillaz’s return “Stylo” featuring Bobby Womack and Mos Def, as the headliners of an impressive cast of guests collaborating in the cartoon idols third effort “Plastic Beach”. Goldfrapp left the pastoral electro-folk of their former album for an uplifting take on AOR synth-packed 80’s sound in “Rocket”, the first taster of “Head First”.
But perhaps the biggest surprise of the week was Marion Cotillard’s singing a Franz Ferdinand penned song for a Dior campaign. The actress who won an Oscar impersonating Edith Piaf proves that she’s in touch with the times in which could become the beginning of a proper pop career.
Also a good week for returns, 70’s soul legend Giles Scott-Heron announced a new album, “I’m New Here”, through the independent XL label, getting a sonic makeover in the first taster “Me & The Devil”. Peter Gabriel announced a covers album that will include versions of Bon Iver, Magnetic Fields; Radiohead and, Arcade Fire’s “My Body Is A Cage”.
However, the week’s greatest “folie” was the new collaboration between David Byrne and Fatboy Slim. The pair gather another impressive guest list in a concept album about former Philippines first lady and shoe fetishist extraordinaire Imelda Marcos. The doubts about the project’s viable results are a step closer to be cleared with the first download, “Please Don’t”, in which Santigold adds her vocals to Byrne’s strange historic-political lyrics. It all sadly sounds like a disaster waiting to happen.
Among fresh talent, new shoegazers Grouper are back in a double front. The band has a new track “Vessel” and one of their songs, “Sputnik” is the base for a disturbing new video work by director Weston Currie
There’s a sudden explosion of “Post-Pavilion” soundalikes among the current crop of new artists. Animal Collective’s masterpiece has quickly established itself as a classic, with even the Brit awards nominating them in two categories, and its influence is quickly expanding as it can be heard in many of the weeks new tracks: from The Ruby Suns new single “Cranberry”, to newcomers Keepaway’s “Baby Style EP” or Phillip Oskar Augustine’s “Internal Combustion”.
Other couple of new bands beginning to generate a considerable buzz are the publicity shy, no-wave Welsh band Islet, whom on the strength of their unique live shows are getting a growing fanbase; with just a BBC session and a couple of fanmade videos to be found online. Also gaining lots of attention is the NY husband and wife atmospheric acid-folk duo The Family Band. Their album “Miller Path” is worth checking.
The concert of the week was the London live presentation of Memory Tapes. It was the second show ever for the mysterious remixer turned artist. Helped by just a drummer, he lost a bit of the characteristic gloss of his recordings, in favour of a more organic, New Order-like, live sound. The Social bar was packed for the occasion.
The awards season keep on monopolize all the film headlines. This week we saw the battle for the Oscars curiously reduced to a David vs. Goliath type of scenario. The Golden Globes and the worldwide box office –It has been confirmed as the top grossing film ever- pushed James Cameron 3D fantasy “Avatar” towards Oscar glory. However, the Producers Guild of America, normally a good indicator to anticipate the best film winner, surprisingly preferred Cameron’s former wife’s Kathryn Bigelow indie effort about the life of a bomb deactivator in Iraq, “The Hurt Locker”, one of the best movies of the year.
A couple of indie greats were our movies of the week. Korean author Bong Joon-Ho’s, as acclaimed as peculiar, crime romp “Mother” tells the story of a woman that will have to resort to extreme measures in order to prove the innocence of her mentally disabled son; wrongly accused of a young girl’s murder. Another notable effort was Lynn Shelton’s study of male eternally adolescent behavior in “Humpday”, in which two friends, reunited after a long time, tease each other to record a gay sex session between the two. The film is not as funny as its premise may lead to believe, but it is an accomplished view on machismo and the stupidity of gregarious male arrogance.
Among the disappointments of the week we found Michael Moore’s new documentary “Capitalism, A Love Story”. The subject of the recent financial crisis seemed ripe for the famous author to get across his “socialist” political views. However it turns out to be a not too inspired repetition of his typical stunts; failing to reach previous heights and not being at the level of denounce recent events deserved.
Other A-list director that disappoints is Peter Jackson, leaving the worlds of fantasy to adapt Alice Sebold’s much loved novel “The Lovely Bones”. However, the premise of a recently killed young girl telling her story from the afterworld, and trying to help her family in the aftermath of such crime, fails to be believable. Despite two good performances by Saoirse Ronan as the victim and Stanley Tucci as the criminal -the later a favorite for the best supporting actor Oscar- the rest of the cast (Mark Wahlberg; Rachel Weiszt; Susan Sarandon) struggles to give some depth to their characters), and the whole relationship between real life and afterlife doesn’t quite gel well.
Anyway, the most impressive piece of news was the confirmation of Martin Scorsese directing the forthcoming American version of Michael Haneke’s classic “Hidden (Caché)”, recently saluted as the best film of the decade by several critics polls.
Plenty of free stuff to be found this week. New tracks by new US songwriter Basia Bulat; nineties alt-combo Quasi and a whole EP “El Bebé Ambiente” by new dance artist Nguzunguze all hit the net.
Legendary alternative label Sub Pop was giving away a free taster of its forthcoming releases called “Return of the cybersex“. Diplo made a whole mixtape collecting Gucci Mane remixes and the NME compiled the best of dubstep current artistic crop, offering 20 selected dubstep tracks free to download.
The world of Television was also reaching its annual climax with the new seasons of many series beginning all at once: 24; Damages; Big Love, and soon Lost, join the already started Desperate Housewives, 30 Rock, the new version of “V”; Flashforward and Mad Men; next to new favorites such as Glee and Modern Family, to guarantee people don’t have to leave their houses during wintertime.
The imminent broadcast of Sci-Fi cult classic “Battlestar Galactica’s” prequel “Caprica” was heralded with “Music for the future“, a free compilation download of music inspired on the series by the likes of Atlas Sound and other current greats. David Simon and the team behind “The Wire” also unveiled their new project, “Treme”, based on the events occurred after hurricane Katrina: likely to carry the torch of what’s already being considered as the golden age of television.