konstantinos’ blog

Κομμάτι παρακινητής στις δύσκολες εποχές του ωδείου… ευτυχώς!

Είναι από εκείνες τις φορές που μου αρέσει αρκετά ένα κομμάτι, και μετά από λίγο καιρό τυγχάνει να ακούσω και την πρωτότυπη εκδοχή του η οποία μου αρέσει ακόμα περισσότερο. Δε λέω, καλός και ο Tiesto με το (σχετικά απλοϊκό) remix του αλλά το συγκεκριμένο κομμάτι δε θέλει πολλά bpm…

Cary Brothers και Ride λοιπόν. Και αν και ολίγον ψωνίστικο (για όσους τρέξουν να με κατηγορήσουν) θα το πω: άκουγα συχνά το κομμάτι αυτό οδηγώντας βράδυ στον 101 South με προορισμό το Cupertino. Τώρα μόλις διαπιστώνω ότι ο Cary Brothers είναι Καλιφορνέζος! Έτσι εξηγείται… μουσική που την ακούς στο μέρος όπου εμπνεύστηκε. Και κάτι άλλο ενδιαφέρον ίσως, ο κιθαρίστας που χρησιμοποιεί ο Cary είναι Έλληνας, ο Jason Kanakis (α ρε Κανάκη! σου βρήκαμε και συγγενείς εκεί δίπλα στον ειρηνικό! χεχε)

Διαλέξτε και πάρτε ποιο video προτιμάτε:

You are everything I wanted
The scars of all I’ll ever knowIf I told you you were right
Would you take my hand tonight?
If I told you the reasons why
Would you leave your life and ride?
And ride

You saw all my pieces broken
This darkness that I could never show

If I told you you were right
Would you take my hand tonight?
If I told you the reasons why
Would you leave your life and ride?
And ride

Τελικά το να ταξιδεύεις 11 ώρες σε ένα αεροπλάνο δεν είναι και τόσο βαρετό όσο φαντάζει όταν σου δίνεται η ευκαιρία να απολαύσεις καμμιά δεκαριά επεισόδια του “Flight of the Conchords“. Δεν ξέρω κατά πόσο καινούρια είναι η σειρά αυτή του HBO αλλά ήδη θεωρείται cult μεταξύ των αγγλόφωνων φίλων και συναδέλφων μου. Φυσικά πρώτη η νεοζηλανδή Pam αποτέλεσε την ‘χορηγό επικοινωνίας’ της σειράς με πρωταγωνιστές τους δύο ομογενείς της Bret και Jemaine. Το σίγουρο είναι ότι λίγα πράγματα θα με έκαναν να γελάσω δυνατά (και να νοιώσω άβολα σε ένα αεροπλάνο που σχεδόν όλοι κοιμούνται!). Σας παραθέτω λοιπόν το καλύτερο απόσπασμα από όσα θυμάμαι… και αν σας αρέσουν και εσάς τα αναπάντεχα μουσικά διαλείμματα εν μέσω του sitcom που παρακολουθείτε μη διστάσετε να αφιερώσετε χρόνο για να δείτε τη σειρά!

Δε νοιώθω ακριβώς έτσι τώρα, άλλα όταν αγαπημένα πρόσωπα με αποκαλούν έτσι(!) είναι μια πολύ καλή ευκαιρία να θυμάμαι ένα πολύ αγαπημένο μου κομμάτι… Και μετά από τόση συζήτηση για τους Metallica σήμερα στη δουλειά, οι Air είναι ότι πρέπει!

Sexy boy, sexy boy …

Où sont tes héros aux corps d’athlètes

Où sont tes idoles mal rasées, bien habillées

Sexy boy, sexy boy …

Dans leurs yeux des dollars

Dans leurs sourires des diamants

Moi aussi un jour je serai beau comme un Dieu

Sexy boy, sexy boy …

Apollon deux mille zéro défaut vingt et un an

C’est l’homme ideal charme au masculin

Sexy boy, sexy boy …

Τελευταία υπάρχει μια έντονη κινητικότητα (ίσον προώθηση) σχετικά με μουσικά group και παραγωγούς από την Αυστραλία. Είτε είναι ιδέα μου είτε όχι, το σίγουρο είναι ότι μου αρέσει πολύ αυτό που ακούω. Ποπ ρυθμοί, μουσικές που εϊτίζουν (80s, you know) επικίνδυνα και έξυπνες παρουσίες που μάλλον θεωρείς απόλυτα δικαιολογημένο να προβάλλονται τόσο έντονα στα διάφορα μουσικά blogs και όχι μόνο.

Ο λόγος για τους Pnau και τους ήδη εμφανισμένους σε αυτό το blog The Presets και Cut Copy. Από το Σύδνευ τα δύο πρώτα group, από τη Μελβούρνη το τελευταίο.

Με ίσως το πιο ‘χαρούμενο’ κομμάτι που έχω ακούσει τελευταία, οι Pnau αν μη τι άλλο διαθέτουν πρωτότυπη σκηνική παρουσία (που αλλού θα δεις φράουλες και ήλιους να χορεύουν on stage?) και στο επίσημο site τους θα διαπιστώσεις επίσης τι κάνει ένας καλός γραφίστας. Πρόσφατα κυκλοφόρησαν το 3ο τους album και τους ανακάλυψε υπερενθουσιασμένος ο Elton John. Εδώ ίσως προλάβεις το διάσημο remix των επίσης Αυστραλών Miami Horror στο Embrace, αλλά επειδή ξέρω ότι ανυπομονείς για τη φράουλα, ιδού και η live version του κομματιού.

Οι The Presets έχουν ντύσει μουσικά διαφημιστικά σποτ τόσο της Hyundai όσο και της BMW, ενώ πριν λίγους μήνες εμφανίστηκαν σε μουσικό φεστιβάλ της χώρας του παρέα με τους Daft Punk! Με ήχο σαφώς πιο επιθετικό (κυρίως λόγω των φωνητικών του Julian Hamilton) μόλις κυκλοφόρησαν το τελευταίο τους video αλλά εγώ δεν μπορώ παρά να μην παραθέσω άλλη μια live εκδοχή του υπεραγαπημένου μου This Boy’s In Love.

Οι Cut Copy ανήκουν στην ίδια δισκογραφική με τους The Presets (βλέπε Modular Recordings που επίσης περιλαμβάνει τους Chromeo, The Avalanches και τη Robyn!) και τους ανακάλυψα τη μέρα που τυχαία τρία διαφορετικά άτομα με ρώτησαν αν τους ξέρω…χμμμ. Μια γρήγορη ματιά στον last.fm και διαβάζω ότι ‘Their sound, perhaps best labeled as retro/electropop, is much in the vein of contemporaries such as Daft Punk, drawing considerable influence from older bands such as New Order and Kraftwerk‘. Τελικά δεν ήταν και τόσο τυχαίο. Το τελευταίο τους gapless album ακούγεται ομολογουμένως πολύ ευχάριστα. Εδώ μία μικρή γεύση. Lights & Music on my mind. Be my baby one more time.

Pop, Beat, Vibes, Saturday, Party, Sparkles, Summer, Hype, Dancefloor, London, Electro, DJ, Discoball, Sexy… some of the things that immediately come up to my mind and want to share with you right now! Listen and share with others:

3 little words… enjoy the summer

When mind cannot think of anything else (but one thing) and the mood for writing something interesting simply doesn’t exist, I decide to post a music video. Such a shame.

Such a shame to believe in escape
‘A life on every face’
And that’s a change
Till I’m finally left with an eight
Tell me to relax, I just stare
Maybe I don’t know if I should change
A feeling that we share
It’s a shameSuch a shame
Number me with rage
It’s a shame
Such a shame
Number me in haste
Such a shame
This eagerness to change
It’s a shame

The dice decide my fate
And that’s a shame
In these trembling hands my faith
Tells me to react, ‘I don’t care’
Maybe it’s unkind that I should change
A feeling that we share
It’s a shame

Such a shame
Number me with rage
It’s a shame
Such a shame
Number me in haste
Such a shame
This eagerness to change
Such a shame

Tell me to relax, I just stare
Maybe I don’t know if I should change
A feeling that we share
It’s a shame

Such a shame
Number me with rage
It’s a shame
Such a shame
Number me in haste
It’s a shame
Such a shame
Write it across my name
It’s a shame
Such a shame
Number me in haste
Such a shame
This eagerness to change

Such a shame

A beautiful night at Islington Academy in Angel, London watching Delerium on stage… and taking advantage of my brand new camera in difficult shooting conditions! The canadian “band” was great and especially the singer with her theatrical performance and the strong voice. Nice touch, the video projection of images and video related to the (mainly) ambient songs. And not to forget, Christos and Christos… whose company I really enjoy lately.

In general, a nice gig that cannot be compared though to the last one I went (back in October if I remember correct, lol). Then it was LCD Soundsystem, an unknown to me group by that time. Of course, I always enjoy gigs and since I haven’t been to many in the past years, it’s among my first priorities from now and on.

So have a small taste of Delerium live by looking at the following photos. I’ll let you choose on your own the soundtrack…

the opening supporting group… or should I say solo artist!

when the supporting solo is turning to a group! (…nice track by the way)

and still “supporting” with male vocals this time

the intermediate (really good) dj set before Delerium come on stage

and the essential (shitty) artistic photo! hehe

Delerium have just started playing

Delerium’s singer; a voice not as ethereal as Sarah’s McLahan or Leigh’s Nash but still great!

emotional performance combined with inspiring video projection

(almost) the whole group on stage…

…and here’s the soul behind Delerium; Bill Leeb

And a memo photo to remember this night out (hope you don’t mind Christos on the right!)…

P.S. Did I mention how impressed I’m with my new camera? Believe me, it’s hard to get these photos with an inexpensive compact digital camera… Hail Ricoh!

Time to update my blog with something that my readers will find interesting, exciting and catchy… What can that be? What should I write for? Maybe about how busy these last days have been at the office or maybe about the (welcoming) surprises I had since Monday and on? I guess this news won’t satisfy my idea. Therefore, and since listening to music has not been part of my everyday life in the last 10 days, I’ll just post the videos that caught my attention (along with my ear’s attention, eeerr… my two ears’ attention please). So let’s start…

Brand new and great! “This Boy’s in Love” by “The Presets“. They are Australians. Remember the name in a few weeks. I’ll test you… (meaning that in my opinion this is a nice happy dance tune that will probably be a big hit in the following months). I like a lot the darkness of the video too. Maybe the song sounds a bit 90s but the video doesn’t look 90s at all.

You know “Justice“, or you should… No? Shame on you! (don’t bite DJart!) Anyway, I’ll excuse you for now but this is the second (correct me if I’m wrong) official video from their first album with the cross. One of my favourite albums for 2007. “Justice” are considered a really important group of the best electro scene worldwide at this moment (…Eiffel Tower, Bordeaux, Le Louvre, Carla Bruni… congratulations for saying French!) . You may not know why but you can take a small taste of their “art” by pressing the play button 68pixels below. In any case, the video is just awesome! Kudos to whoever made it.

And let’s continue with the two (personally) most anticipated albums of the last months; in no random order: Moby’s new “Last Night” and Portishead’s new (after 10 years please!!!) “3″. I got really excited when I first listened to “Last Night”. Now, after approximately 20 times of listening to it I can be less subjective and say that it’s a very nice album and in my opinion similar to “Play” (although not as good) and superior to the average “18″ and “Hotel”. In other words, TGI Fridays and Moby created an album based on his great old style (of “Play” and before). My favourite track is number seven (.07) called “Hyenas” but since no video is available for that right now, I’ll let you enjoy the again brand new video of “Alice” which is the second released single from “Last Night”. P.S. Visually, one of the most “explosive” videos I’ve ever seen! Just live the weed in the drawer…lol

And for the end the amazing “Machine Gun” from Portishead. I always had believed that you need to be patient and listen to the whole track before judging it. This is the absolutely best example for me to confirm that. I could never imagine how an industrial iterative beat coming out of a drum machine and Beth’s depressive and tired vocals can create such a great tune! I shouldn’t think the opposite though… we are talking about Portishead! Judge for your own but please have in mind that the recorded studio version of the album sounds much better.

Have a nice weekend…

It was one of these Friday nights with (dr.) Mario and (future dr.) Antonio (hehe) at Trash Palace when I first heard this song for the first time. At first I couldn’t understand why a wave of euphoria started spreading across the dance floor. After a minute though I started realising the reason. I hadn’t heard such a catchy tune for a long time now. And then there was this voice! Familiar voice; but nooo it can’t be him …his repertoire doesn’t include this kind of music. But I can’t be wrong. Antony has such a characteristic voice. So characteristic that it’s impossible to forget or at least not pay attention to!

And then the next song started playing and I was left with the question. But I was at Trash Palace. The following tune can easily make you forget the previous ones. And this was the case once more. So days passed and I randomly heard this haunting song on (best) radio in the rush half hour between deciding what to wear for the office and eating my (always) minimalistic breakfast. The important here is that I also heard the name of the song, and realised how correct I was about Antony. It was him. Lending his magnificent voice to the first grand hit of the “fanciest groove of the moment” according to an early description at last.fm; Andrew Butler’s Hercules & Love Affair project.

This wiki has now been changed to something more modest, but still the acceptance of this musical project is impressive and that’s fair in my opinion. “Hercules is the brainchild of NY resident, producer and DJ Andrew Butler & The Love Affair is one of the most inventive and original collaborative studio projects in many years, where beautiful, bruising harmonies and tensile rhythms collide in resurgent soundscapes and emotive dancefloor workouts.“… as less modest this info can be!

SO… all this intro for “Blind”? Maybe I’m exaggerating (and to tell you the truth …that’s the truth! I’m exaggerating) but you cannot easily bypass a dance track with vocals from Antony Hegarty (yeap! the one from “Antony and the Johnsons“) and this unique Balkan-style melody. Of course “Blind” is not big news for all the early music adopters out there. But as for every decent pop/dance track, remixes are part of the game. And one of them is probably this summer’s hit. If I liked the original version a lot, I should admit I like the “Frankie Knuckles Dub” version 4.3 times more (hehe…. someone please close my laptop’s lid now before I write more crap things… !).

Anyway, back to reality. Just listen to the track and sing the lyrics. That’s all a legal (lol) blog can offer to its non-existent readers. The play button is just a few pixels away.

As a child, I knew
That the stars could only get brighter
And we would get closer
Get closer
Oooooh

As a child, I knew
That the stars could only get brighter
That we would get closer
Get closer
Leaving this darkness
Behind

Mmmm-mmmm
Oooooooh

Now that I'm older
The stars should lie upon my face
When I find myself alone
Find myself alone
Oooooh

Now that I'm older
The stars should lie upon my face
And when I find myself alone
I feel like I
I am blind

Feel it
Feel it
Feel it
Feel it
Like I am blind
I am blind

I wish the stars could shine now
For they are closer
They are near
But they will not present my present
They will not present my present

I wish the light could shine now
For it is closer
It is near
But it will not present my present
It makes my past and future painfully clear

To hear you now
To see you now
I can look outside myself
And I must examine my breath and look inside
Ooooooh

To see you now
To hear you now
I can look outside myself
And I must examine my breath and look inside
Because I feel blind
Because I feel blind

I feel it
I feel it
I feel it
Like I
Like I'm blind
Ooooooh
The movie will
Mmmm, and feel it
Oooooh, I feel it
Feel it