© Noga Erez (via YouTube)
© Noga Erez (via YouTube)
© Noga Erez (via YouTube)
Recently rediscovered Noga Erez through her relatively current single Nails (feat. Missy Elliott) and I can’t fathom how nonfamous she still seems to be despite her obvious talent.
Just listen to the new song and those amazing performances of ‘Views’ and ‘End Of The Road’ from her 2021 Album ‘Kids’ —which is still available as limited coloured vinyl:
© NPR / FKJ (via YouTube)
It’s about looking for a way out. Out of the adult mind. Well here I am, not being able to move much, with limited choices. Pretty much like when I was a kid, but where did my innocence go? Is it all in the head? Let’s pretend I know nothing then. Like when i first started. Let’s do it just for the play.
The recently released album ‘VINCENT’ by Vincent Fenton aka French Kiwi Juice –respectively the abbreviation FKJ– was the soundtrack of our trip to Italy lately. Last week the vinyl version of the wonderful album dropped, and the American nonprofit radio company NPR published an amazing tiny desk (home) concert with the french multi-instrumentalist and singer. I recommend everything; a trip to Italy, the album –especially in the form of the double LP– and of course the NPR concert.
© Bo Burnham
filmed from march 2020-may 2021. edited from april 2022-may 2022.
I’ve already expressed my admiration for the masterpiece that is last year’s ‘Inside’ by Bo Burnham, but yesterday the comedian, musician, actor, director, and filmmaker surprisingly released an accompanying new video on YouTube called The Inside Outtakes.
The title is a little misleading though since it does not only contains outtakes in the classical sense, but a lot of making-of and behind the scenes material as well as some unreleased –mostly pretty great– songs entirely cut from the finished program.
In fact, Burnham put together the additional video over the last two months in a similarly meticulous style and it even has a longer runtime than the main piece itself. Apparently, there’ll be a deluxe version of the music album –with just the songs from Inside– soon, too. Yes please! 🤍
Unfortunately, the video can’t be embedded, but only be watched on YouTube:
© Phoebe Bridgers / Dead Oceans (via Youtube)
Another beautiful piece of music by Phoebe Bridgers. She wrote Sidelines for the soundtrack of ‘Conversations With Friends’ where a lot of the great-looking footage for the music video was taken from. The melancholic song furthermore is featured in the Trailer of the Hulu series.
© Sigrid (via Youtube)
When the world is on your shoulders /
And the weight of your own heart is too much to bear /
Wеll, I know that you’re afraid things will always be this way /
It’s just a bad day, not a bad life
— from Bad Life by Sigrid feat. Bring Me The Horizon
Looking forward to the second album “How To Let Go” by Norwegian singer and songwriter Sigrid to be released on Friday, three years after her debut “Sucker Punch”.
© Love Hultén (via YouTube)
This beautiful wooden sound machine called TE-LAB by audiovisual artist Love Hultén is inspired by the Turntable Sequencer from Lomond Campbell and built around modules from Swedish electronics company and design studio Teenage Engineering —whose products and design language I admire a lot.
Read more about this unique instrument on the company’s blog.
© Polyphonic (via YouTube)
It’s absolutely mind-boggling to me that ‘Inside’ by Bo Burnham was released almost a year ago. But the dwindling of time asides;
After seeing the Special multiple times since its release and listening to the songs separately even more often, I still consider it to be one of the most notable pieces of art published in years. Not only is it an accurate reflection of the pandemic reality and the feelings probably most of us had or have to face as a consequence, but beyond that, I consider it to be one of the most spot-on dissections of (current) internet culture the entertainment industry has to offer.
As I have learned through the recently released video essay Bo Burnham, Arcade Fire, and the Infinite Dread of the Internet by Polyphonic, Arcade Fire –who have returned not long ago with a new single from their upcoming album WE, (tbr. in May)– have been criticizing the development plaguing the world wide web years ago, as well. Guess it’s time to give their albums ‘Reflector’ (2013) and ‘Everything Now’ (2017) a more considerate listening (again).
© Nina Simone (via YouTube)
After a wonderful, warm and sunny Sunday with the family, this is my current mood —or at least it was before turning on the news: My Baby Just Cares For Me by Nina Simone remixed by HONNE.
Loving the vibes of the video as well, I really can’t wait for summer to begin and travel again. It has been years since I’ve dipped my toes into the ocean.
Alles war schön und nichts tat weh
Die Musik von Casper begleitet mich bereits seit über einer Dekade und entweder ‘XOXO’ oder ‘Hinterland’ stände sicherlich auf der Liste meiner Alben für die einsame Insel. Auch, weil sich auf beiden Platten Titel finden, die ich extrem stark mit prägenden Phasen oder einschneidenden Situationen meines Lebens verbinde.
Die letzten beiden Alben ‘Lang Lebe der Tod’ und ‘1982’ (zusammen mit Marteria) haben mich dann emotional irgendwie nicht mehr ganz so ‘erwischt’, obwohl beide durchaus Lieder enthalten, die ich ebenfalls sehr gerne mag.
Fünf Jahre nach seinem letzten Soloalbum hat der Bielefelder vergangene Woche endlich sein neues Werk mit einem toll inszenierten Livestream veröffentlicht und mit jeder Rotation gefällt mir ‘Alles war schön und nichts tat weh‘ ein bisschen besser. Melancholie. Adrenalin. Euphorie. Gänsehaut. Schade lediglich, dass das insgesamt eher düstere Album für mich gedanklich zukünftig unweigerlich mit dem aktuellen Wahnsinn in der Ukraine verknüpft sein wird —nicht zuletzt auch Dank des dramatischen Song ‘Billie Jo‘, der von einem heimgekehrten Soldaten mit PTSD erzählt oder der fatalistisch anmutenden Hook von ‘Zwiebel & Mett (Die Vergessenen PT 3)’.
Andererseits liefert mir Casper –wie schon seinerzeit mit XOXO– nicht einfach nur den Soundtrack für meinen Alltag, sondern auch ein Refugium, eine kleine Rettungskapsel in die ich mich zurückziehen kann, wenn das Gewicht der Nachrichten und Bilder zu groß wird.
© Casper (via YouTube)
Ich hab’ heute wieder dran gedacht /
Dass ich mir zu viel Gedanken mach’ /
Dunkle Nächte, lange wach /
Wann hört es auf, wo fang’ ich an? /
Ging so schnell, da fühlt sich letztes Jahr wie gestern an /
So viel Schlechtes, dass ich ‘s Beste fast vergessen hab’ /
Hoff‘, mein letzter Satz, wenn ‘s Ende naht und ich dann geh /
Alles war schön und nichts tat weh
© Bendo / Macklemore / Jason Koenig & Ryan Lewis (via YouTube)
And I, know I gotta roll with it /
I’m well aware the universe doesn’t owe me shit /
I know that, all of this pain means the growth, I think /
That next year’s gonna be better than this (Let’s go)
— from the Lyrics of Next Year by Macklemore
© Ingrid Michaelson & Zooey Deschanel / Andrea Love & Phoebe Wahl / Hornet (via YouTube)
My goal was to make it the cutest, coziest, warmest video ever. It’s supposed to be a little over the top, but almost in a ‘I can’t stop watching this and I need more’ kind of way.
— Andrea Love about the stop-motion music video for Merry Christmas, Happy New Year by Ingrid Michaelson & Zooey Deschanel
hellohornet.com/andrea-love.html?project=merry-christmas-happy-new-year
© ANTI / Fleet Foxes (via YouTube)
me by myself on the longest night of the year… honoring the loneliness of 2020 with a nylon string and some songs new and old.
In December 2020 on the winter solstice —just a few days after New York declared a state of emergency because of COVID-19 and forced a wide lockdown, Robin Pecknold performed acoustic arrangements of “some songs new and old” from various albums of his band Fleet Foxes as well as a Nina Simone cover (‘In The Morning’) and a traditional tune (‘Silver Dagger’) at St. Ann & the Holy Trinity Church in Brooklyn. The recording of the live stream finally got a proper digital release –on Spotify for example– with physical formats to follow in Spring 2022.
A Very Lonely Solstice is a haunting depiction of the isolation a lot of us experienced in one way or another throughout the last two years and another beautiful cultural-historic document of our time. Furthermore, it’s the perfect score for dark winter days and a wonderful alternative to the more traditional –and often cheesy– Christmas time songs.
© The Howl & The Hum / Kobalt (via YouTube)
Hostages (Live Alternate Version) is probably one of my favourite songs this year, Human Contact is very likely one of my favourite albums this year –the studio version I missed in 2020 as well as the current live version– and The Howl & The Hum is most definitely my favourite band discovered this year. I might have a little crush on those lads.