Jonny Kates - Groombridge

It's been in the public domain for a few weeks now, so I thought I had better share my latest album here on Skies Are Rare - particularly as it was featured on the extremely popular blog The Sirens Sound last month.

'Groombridge' is a collection of some ambient tracks that I have been working on since about March. It's quite concise - it comes in at just under half an hour. So I suppose calling it an 'album' is a bit presumptuous. Nonetheless, I'm quite pleased with how it sounds and feel like the half hour length is a good fit for something that probably isn't suitable for all listeners.

 You can stream or download Groombridge for free (or pay what you want) over on Bandcamp. You'll also be able to find it in plenty of other places, such as iTunes; Spotify; Soundcloud (embedded below); Deezer; YouTube... I'll leave the searching to you if you feel so inclined.

 I've always been a fan of ambient music and have always fancied trying my hand at it. Most of my previous music that I have produced on my lonesome has been in a fairly IDM electronic vein, so this was a departure from that which was interesting to explore. I will continue to write new and better material under this guise and am looking to perform some live ambient sets; which presents a new challenge in itself. Enjoy! Would love to hear your comments.

New Tame Impala song - Apocalypse Dreams

Hype has been building for some time around the second album of one of my favourite bands, Tame Impala. About a month ago, the band posted on their Facebook account that new material would be available to listen to before too long. That was followed by a YouTube video which featured a short sample of the first single from the album and then earlier today, the band posted a link to stream the full track.

So here it is! Sounds excellent upon first listen and clocks in at nearly six minutes - one that was worth waiting for. Can't wait to hear the full deal.

The Tallest Man On Earth - There's No Leaving Now

The rather misnomered The Tallest Man On Earth - a.k.a. 29 year old Swedish shorty Kristian Matsson - returns this week with his third album, There's No Leaving Now. It's out on tomorrow (11th June) in the UK and you can purchase it here.

So what can you expect? Well there's no real shocks as you can imagine. Kristian gives us another collection of memorable, Dylan-esque songs just in time to make your Summer playlist. The album does make use of some more diverse instrumentation rather than just shouty man and acoustic guitar. There's some nice slide guitar in there and the self-titled track is a beautiful piano ditty that splits up the record wonderfully. However in the main, it does exactly what it says on the tin (except for the tall bit).

Why re-invent the wheel? Tallest Man has spent the last five years patiently building up a strong fan base who are now waiting in expectation. Matsson has a specific style for which he has a proven track record and I for one am delighted to hear something that matches the strength and sound of his previous albums.

Alamo Race Track - Birds at Home (2003)

I love it when an old abandoned favourite comes to the fore. The other day I had a sudden urge to listen to Birds at Home, the 2003 album from Dutch band Alamo Race Track. Considering today is the Holland House Dutch Festival; I figured it was appropriate to share.

At its core it's an indie rock album. But don't get lost in ideas of jangly guitars and moppy hair cuts. Alamo Race Track play highly organised yet frenetic songs that meander through a host of movements. They most certainly are not your average verse-chorus-verse indie band. At times they remind me of Wilco, whilst tracks like 'We Like To Go On' sound like they could have appeared on The Stroke's 2001 classic Is This It.

Anywho, little point digressing. Give it a listen and have yourself a Grolsch.

Alamo Race Track – Birds At Home

LITE - Past, Present, Future

For my first post in a while, I'd like to draw your attention to the new record from one of my favourite Japanese bands, LITE. The group appear to be calling it a 'mini album' - it comes in at just under twenty minutes and is made up of five tracks. The first three of which will be familiar to old faithful's of the band; combining fast, punch math-rock guitar with clever song arrangement and tessellating layers. The last two tracks on the album include vocals and head down a more experimental and, dare I say it, poppy theme.

I am not dismayed by Past, Present, Future but I am certainly not bowled over by the apparent new direction that the group are taking. At the risk of sounding selfish; I'm also a little underwhelmed by the two year wait for a 20 minute release. LITE have set the bar of expectation fairly high with their previous albums - particularly Phantasia which was released in 2008 - and upon early reflections it looks like the latest attempt falls short of the mark.

link

Spencer Tweedy: Rushmore

Jeff Tweedy's son has just uploaded a demo of one of his tracks Rushmore to Soundcloud. With big boots to fill, it sounds like Spencer Tweedy has done a pretty good job of echoing his father's acoustic Americana sound; albeit with a perhaps more positive spin on life. Rushmore is a chirpy and bright track with guitars, keys and organs all jostling for position over lo-fi vocals. I generally prefer Wilco's more up-beat work, so I'm really digging this track.

I've no idea what's on the agenda for the teenager but this first snippet sounds promising, particularly from someone so young.

Q&A with The Widest Smiling Faces

Aviv Cohn - aka The Widest Smiling Faces - is an incredibly talented singer songwriter from Brooklyn and has recently released his new album Me And My Ribcage, which is available as a free download over on his Bandcamp page. The album is a crushingly beautiful collection of melancholy and subdued acoustic tracks that perfectly showcase Aviv's enormous aptitude as a composer and musician. I was lucky enough to catch up with Aviv and had the chance to ask him a few questions about the new record.

A Place To Bury Strangers - Onwards To The Wall EP

One of my favourite (and loudest) bands ever A Place To Bury Strangers have a new EP out next week and are very generously giving punters a free pre-sale stream. If you're not familiar with APTBS I suggest you line up their first record, strap yourself to your chair and bite down hard on your tongue.

Django Django - Default

There have been a number of notable recent releases that I've been meaning to write about but haven't got round to it. Let's kick off with the hugely anticipated debut record from indie British outfit Django Django.

Stream Gonjasufi’s new album MU.ZZ.LE

The rather fantastic Sumach Ecks - aka Gonjasufi - has a new album out Tuesday on Warp. You can now stream MU.ZZ.LE in its entirety over on Warp's Soundcloud page. Unfortunately embedding is disabled, so you really are going to have to head over to this page for the stream. The album retains Gonjasufi's self-produced unique sound; a style which I've been remarkably impressed with. If you're not familiar with his work, MU.ZZ.LE is as good a place as any to start with and as it's only really a "mini album", may in fact be easier to get stuck into than his 2010 record A Sufi and a Killer.

You can preorder the album on CD or double 10″ vinyl now here.

The Flaming Lips - The Soft Bulletin Documentary

Pitchfork TV have uploaded a series of videos that fantastically document The Flaming Lips's seminal record, The Soft Bulletin. The series has been produced in association with Vans and provides a really great insight in to the band's history and recording antics, with interviews with band members, producers and record label execs. Pitchfork describe the videos as an "oral history of The Soft Bulletin", which is a pretty apt description.
I've embedded all of the videos in this post for your browsing pleasure. Enjoy!

Andrew Bird reveals information on forthcoming album

I'm hear to tell you that today's most exciting music news may not be the reformation of At The Drive In. Although I suppose it may be. The website Beats Per Minute posted this afternoon a sneaky sneak-peak in to the new Andrew Bird record, Break It Yourself, which is due out on March 6th.

Saito Koji - Guide

Hello residents of Blogland and welcome to another year on planet Earth! (The last year in fact according to most well respected scientists I've chatted to). I take it everyone had a fabulous Festivus and if your recent consumption habits have been anything like mine, you'll be foregoing lunch for the next eleven months in an attempt to shed the Christmas stuffing. And I've been royally stuffed; I don't think I've done potty properly for about a fortnight.

Anyway that's enough of my ablutions - let's crack on with the hard-backed-two-thousand-and-twelve music annual (collector's edition) that is Skies Are Rare. And what better way to set us off than with some stunningly beautiful ambient music, which helpfully comes in a double-dip recession whacking finance and guilt free package.

Lilacs & Champagne

We recently proclaimed Grails's 2011 record Deep Politics as one of our favourite records of the year. I was therefore really excited to learn that Alex John Hall and Emil Amos from the band have been working diligently on a side project called Lilacs & Champagne, with an album apparently ready for distribution on Mexican Summer as early as next month. So; possible contender for album of the year 2012? Possibly getting ahead of myself.

Needless to say the one track they have previewed on Soundcloud sounds mightily impressive. It retains the dark, mysterious tones of Grails but is certainly something new. It's psychedelic western meets trip-hop. I dig!

Lilacs & Champagne - Everywhere, Everyone by Mexican Summer

Tim Hecker - Dropped Pianos

2011 has been a fantastic year for Montreal based electronic artist Tim Hecker, with acclaimed album Ravedeath, 1972 released in February and a follow up EP, Dropped Pianos following in October. In fact, to call the latter a follow up is slightly incorrect, as the series of 9 short “sketches” which comprise the record were actually recorded by Hecker back in 2010. These tracks all form the core of what became Ravedeath later in the year.

Skies Are Rare's top 25 albums of 2011

Here are our top 25 albums from a great year of music. Please do comment or vote on our Facebook poll for your favourite. I beg forgiveness for any glaring omissions - they may or may not be intentional.

We look forward to doing it all again next year!

Oval - Systemisch

Earlier this year BBC 6 Music’s Stuart Maconie featured Systemisch by German electronic group Oval during one of his Sunday Evening “Freak Zone” hours. I was so enamoured with it that I immediately got my e-hands on a copy and it became a popular accompaniment to revision for my finals in May. Oval’s other work is a mixture of styles. From the aggressive ambience of 1995’s 94 Diskont to the Haschuka-esqe, prepared piano inspired sounds of 2010’s O, they have remained pioneers of ambient/glitch. In an era of digital synth patches, sequencers and cheap home recording equipment, the ambient genre has been one which has flourished in the internet driven world as artists have found themselves with the tools available to make convincing, if not terribly inventive music at home.

TKOL RMX 1234567

I know that The King Of Limbs remix album has been out for some time now, but I only really got round to listening to it in the past couple of weeks. If you too have had a brief lapse in concentration and have not yet listened to TKOL RMX 1234567, then I highly suggest that you rectify this immediately.

65daysofstatic - Silent Running

I've been trying to force myself to read a bit more fiction recently. I generally have a dire attention span and despite the connotations with being somewhat dim witted, I'll readily admit that reading for pleasure has always been difficult for me. Yet the fruits of reading - particularly fiction - are not unknown to me, so when I do get going with something good, I find huge rewards. At this point you may be wondering where this post is going, but bear with me.

In Praise Of... This Heat

Morning one and all! Time we all laid down our worries and took a moment to appreciate a classic band that seemed to get somewhat lost in the annals of time. A band that sound incredibly unique, mainly because they were far too ahead of ther time back in the late 70's. A brilliant, bizarre whirlwind, bringing in raucous elements from punk, post-punk, dub, electro sounds reminiscent of Aphex Twin via Pink Floyd.