M83 - Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts

A letter and a number make up the name of M83, a band that touch upon all genres, from electronica to pop to ambient. M83's distinct sound emerged after just one album: both modern and melancholic..

In early 2001, their first album, bearing the same name as their group, was released by the cutting-edgeFrench Gooom label. Critics emphasised the album's graceful and nuanced melodies and the cinematographic quality of the dialogues, as well as the band's ability to make synthesizers sound like guitars.

This, their second album, is more ambitious than its predecessor, complex yet accessible thanks to its melodic effectiveness, as heard in the super-powerful 'America' and the dreamlike 'Beauties Can Die', with its virtual chorale sounding an endless final note.

The last track, "Beauties Can Die", contains an untitled hidden track, that starts at 11:25, after a period of silence.
Track 8, "Be Wild", was used as a concert introduction by the band Deftones in 2007.
Track 2, "Unrecorded", was used in theatrical trailer of The Nightwatch (Nochnoy Dozor) movie.

'Epic' doesn't do justice to the terrifying noise of twentysomething French duo M83, whose attempts to merge My Bloody Valentine's Loveless and John Carpenter's soundtracks cometo stunning fruition here' - ***** Bang

'Melding the glacial grace of Tangerine Dream to the post-rock iciness of Mogwai, M83 have created a cold and fragile epic of brittle, symphonic beauty' - XXXX X-Ray

'It's like if Air were still good meets My Bloody Valentine meets total sex. It's simply totally amazing' - NME

Tracklisting:
01. Birds
02. Unrecorded
03. Run Into Flowers
04. In Church
05. America
06. On A White Lake, Near A Green Mountain
07. Noise
08. Be Wild
09. Cyborg
10. 0078h
11. Gone
12. Beauties Can Die

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1. Birds 2. Unrecorded 3. In Church (Cyann & Ben Version) 4. Gone (Live) 5. Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts


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Surf Guitar Villains – Cadillac Smile

Surf Guitar Villains are a Portland Oregon based recording and performing collective. The Villain sound is 60's and demented, with some rough edges left in to escape the cold exactness of the digital new frontier. The Villains are not local guitar heroes, nor masters of grunge or rap, instead the Villains make original post-modern music, as they do not have the patience to learn and play anyone else's. The name, is a play on words, 'Surf' refers to the more Strat laden bright Ventures sound that pops out from tune to tune.

This is not surf at all in the traditional sense. With Dire Straits low key vocals and easy, laid back loping song structures – this is more for a lazy afternoon than riding the tube. Nice diversion for something a little different.

1 The Road Back 2 Life on a Napkin 3 Laura's Song 4 Sultans of Surf 5 Barcelona6 Is it Really Us? 7 200 Miles From Nowhere 8 Cadillac Smile 9 Garage Jam #2

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Birdsongs of the Mezoic - Pyroclastics

Birdsongs of the Mesozoic began as a side project by Roger Miller and Martin Swope who were members of the Boston band Mission of Burma. They were joined by Rick Scot and Erik Lindgren for their debut recording, a self-titled EP, in 1983. With Mission of Burma dissolving at about this time, Birdsongs of the Mesozoic became a full-time band.

With Pyroclastics, Birdsongs of the Mesozoic returned somewhat to its roots. The music is hard to categorize being all instrumental with guitar, keys and alot of atonal sax, owing more to fusion jazz than straight rock. It is improvisational sounding with lots of strange sounds that can almost distract from the main themes. The songs tend to be rather short and range from some fairly hard stuff with funky grooves to the theme from the Simpsons.

Its signature sound -- pulsing keyboards, jagged harmonies, weird time signatures, slash-and-burn guitar -- is back stronger than ever; "Shortwave Longride" and "Pleasure Island" would both have sounded more or less at home on Magnetic Flip (except for the presence of Ken Field’s saxophone). And the band's hilarious rendition of the theme from The Simpsons is a wry look backwards as well, a reminder of the arrangement of the Rocky and Bullwinkle theme on their first album. Field has managed to insinuate himself so seamlessly into the Birdsongs sound by this point that while his saxophone lines do alter it noticeably, they do so subtly and from the inside -- note, in particular, the subtle jazz flavoring he gives to "Tyronglaea II" (otherwise an archetypal piece of old-fashioned Mesozoicism). The band also takes another run at Brian Eno’s "Sombre Reptiles" (a piece they had tackled in an unreleased recording from 1983) and comes up with a surprisingly gentle rendition of Brian Wilson's hymn-like "Our Prayer." Pyroclastics definitely marks a step forward for this band, but it remains rooted in its old strengths. Recommended for the musically daring.

1. Shortwave Longride 2. Pleasure Island 3. I'm A Pterodactyl 4. Why Not Circulate
5. Sled 6. The Simpsons 7. Tyronglaea II 8. Papercutstone 9. Sombre Reptiles
10. Nothing But Trouble 11. Tomorrow Never Came 12. Our Prayer

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