Where’s the empty dance floor? We own those Tuesday nights. Raise my glass for a cheer; this time all the tears came out. I’m starting this one off casually with Brian Eno’s “The Big Ship,” which has been forever changed for me since the song was featured in the intro/build-up of Adam Curtis‘ The Power Of Nightmares BBC series. If you haven’t seen it and have never really understood what the hell is going on in the world, take some time and let him connect the dots for you. I still get goosebumps every time I listen to it. Evan Voytas sent me a few tracks last week and I can’t stop listening to “The Yellow World Of ‘83.” I have no idea what the idea behind the title is, but I do know what a healthy amount of 90s-style reverb is and this one serves it up a la Helium. Then there’s PWRFL POWER, a project by Kazutaka Nomura that Catbird released recently. His simple, but unexpected lyrics (”You are not that attractive / But something makes me feel that you are going to be my girl”) have a cute feel that might pique the interest of Moldy Peaches’ fans. I especially like his slight Japanese accent and inflection (note his pronunciation of “boobs”). A Mad & Faithful Telling’s “New World” is among the most epic DeVotchKa tracks to date, complete with a “How It Ends” feel, without really sounding formulaic. OK, maybe just a little bit. It is the album closer and probably would have made sense to close out this month’s mix, but I saved that spot for The Van Pelt this week. “We Intersect” was my favorite track off of the Souls Of Mischief’s self-released post-Jive album, Focus, and was the track that convinced me that A-Plus was at least the second best producer in the Hieroglyphics crew (for the record: I’ve since come to think that Opio has surpassed him). I like the new Magnetic Fields album, but I’m using an older track because Colleen reminded me about it recently on her show and it’s too good not to use it. Oh, and Meiko… She might be the realm of this new indie-adult contemporary genre that I harp on, but she’s good. Think Feist.
[banner photo by Gabriel Mendes]
April 2008 Mix
01 Brian Eno - The Big Ship
02 Evan Voytas - The Yellow World Of ‘83
03 Azure Ray - Rise
04 PWRFL POWER - Alma Song
05 DeVotchKa - New World
06 Souls Of Mischief - We Intersect
07 The Magnetic Fields - All The Umbrellas In London
08 Meiko - Reasons To Love You
09 Marmoset - Pass It Along
10 The Van Pelt - Do The Lovers Still Meet At The Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial?
