ECHO eCHO eCHo eCho echo...
In my defence, I've been kinda busy. Impending overseas travel does that. Been on the radio a few times too. And there's this work deadline, a bit like those moving rock walls in Temple of Doom. Which makes me Han Solo...
Um, yeah, but Nick's got a point when he complains of lack of posting. Dead air is verboten, after all. So here's what I've been enjoying:
+/- are very savoury in a more-interesting-Death-Cab kinda indie way - especially Let's Build a Fire. I think the Sunset Rubdown and Beirut albums might be as good as the hype, at least from the samples I've heard. At the other end of the indie spectrum in every way, Marquee Moon by Television is a spectacular album. Yeah, I know everyone else already knew that but I had to eventually work it out myself. Still fresh at only 29 years old!
World Cup fever is about to hit the rest of Australia (it already hit me). In a less prominent code, St Kilda might have remembered how to win again, and I'm glad Leigh Fisher can still play despite two years on the sidelines with chronic hamstrings.
And here's a couple of tracks. The first combines two of my favourite artists, the endearingly awkward New Buffalo (Sally Seltmann) and Canadian juggernaught Broken Social Scene. Sally supported BSS in the Australian tour and is signed to their label, Arts and Crafts, so I suppose that's the genesis of this mix. Many seem to dislike Seltmann, but I'm forever in her debt, as her touching yet optimistic tunes helped me through a hard time. And her uncomfortable stage presence opens my heart to her - I'll forever remember her guesting with BSS on Anthems for a Seventeen Year Old Girl, and looking distinctly out-of-place next to the rock gods.
This remix gets the Newfeld basket-of-sound treatment and works really well, not losing the poignant feel of the original. It's from the US version of the New Buffalo EP - us Aussies missed out on it. But the other remix is possibly even better, and that's on both version of the EP.
[MP3 - 4.0MB] New Buffalo - I've Got You and You've Got Me (Broken Social Scene remix)
Then one from the band of the moment, Augie March. I love their new album, Moo, You Bloody Choir, and one of my favourite tracks on it is the late-Radiohead shoe-gazer undergrowth of Clockwork. On the album, it's a great track, but you kinda lose the song amidst the subterranean guitar riff and haunted house strings. This version, from the One Crowded Hour single, is about as far from that as it gets - and reveals the serene bleached bones of the song. Whispered harmonies over sparse acoustic guitar and piano make the epic into a gorgeous ballad.
[MP3 - 4.7MB] Augie March - Clockwork (acoustic version)
Um, yeah, but Nick's got a point when he complains of lack of posting. Dead air is verboten, after all. So here's what I've been enjoying:
+/- are very savoury in a more-interesting-Death-Cab kinda indie way - especially Let's Build a Fire. I think the Sunset Rubdown and Beirut albums might be as good as the hype, at least from the samples I've heard. At the other end of the indie spectrum in every way, Marquee Moon by Television is a spectacular album. Yeah, I know everyone else already knew that but I had to eventually work it out myself. Still fresh at only 29 years old!
World Cup fever is about to hit the rest of Australia (it already hit me). In a less prominent code, St Kilda might have remembered how to win again, and I'm glad Leigh Fisher can still play despite two years on the sidelines with chronic hamstrings.
And here's a couple of tracks. The first combines two of my favourite artists, the endearingly awkward New Buffalo (Sally Seltmann) and Canadian juggernaught Broken Social Scene. Sally supported BSS in the Australian tour and is signed to their label, Arts and Crafts, so I suppose that's the genesis of this mix. Many seem to dislike Seltmann, but I'm forever in her debt, as her touching yet optimistic tunes helped me through a hard time. And her uncomfortable stage presence opens my heart to her - I'll forever remember her guesting with BSS on Anthems for a Seventeen Year Old Girl, and looking distinctly out-of-place next to the rock gods.
This remix gets the Newfeld basket-of-sound treatment and works really well, not losing the poignant feel of the original. It's from the US version of the New Buffalo EP - us Aussies missed out on it. But the other remix is possibly even better, and that's on both version of the EP.
[MP3 - 4.0MB] New Buffalo - I've Got You and You've Got Me (Broken Social Scene remix)
Then one from the band of the moment, Augie March. I love their new album, Moo, You Bloody Choir, and one of my favourite tracks on it is the late-Radiohead shoe-gazer undergrowth of Clockwork. On the album, it's a great track, but you kinda lose the song amidst the subterranean guitar riff and haunted house strings. This version, from the One Crowded Hour single, is about as far from that as it gets - and reveals the serene bleached bones of the song. Whispered harmonies over sparse acoustic guitar and piano make the epic into a gorgeous ballad.
[MP3 - 4.7MB] Augie March - Clockwork (acoustic version)
