Sunday CD Project

As you may have noticed, Sunday CD Project is sort of on holiday at the moment, due to my also being on holiday, and a few other more important things I feel I should be investing it. However, this week has provided a review for itself, so here it is!

† † † – †

Thanks to the lovely people at Pitchfork, the new EP from Deftones frontman Chino Moreno's new down-tempo industrial side-project † † † (or Crosses, as it is apparently pronounced) fell into my lap (and anyone else's, in fact) for free.

Some good points: seriously good songwriting. Moody, dark soundscapes, but not so much that it makes you feel depressed. Obvious Deftones and Team Sleep influences.
One bad point: the † is used WAY too much! Here's the tracklisting, just so you can see my point:

1. †his Is A †rick; 2. Op†ion; 3. Bermuda Locke†; 4. †hholyghs†; 5. †

This makes searching for them within your media player library very difficult, unless you're a bit of a wizard with the 'Sorting' tab like me.

But apart from that minor aesthetic irritation (and actually, I like what they've done; it's just a bit awkward), well worth getting. Especially as it's free! I've even put the widget down below:

j.r.

The Sexual Revolution

I was at camp last week. During the week, two of the guests (aged 12 or 13, I forget) are rumoured to have shared a tender moment in the form of a kiss.

When I was a guest at camp, there were of course similar budding relationships among my fellow guests, but there was a key difference (in my mind), and that is this: the most any two people would do was prolonged hugging or sitting very close on the sofas in the games room, or occasionally hold hands (but that was a rarity).

There was an occasion when I was 14, when two guests my age had kissed, and all of us were appalled. I have no idea what the team thought – I assume they knew (considering I know about this year's little romance.

Twelve-year-olds kissing. Concerns me a little, I must say.

Thoughts?

j.r.

[[Edit: This is unrelated, but still worth mentioning, that it's not only the guests who get together at camp. Later this month I am going to the wedding of two long-standing members of team. Splendid!]]

Sunday CD Project

Delays – Star Tiger Star Ariel

An indie 'dream-pop' band that hail, I recently discovered, from Southampton. One member is actually cousins with a guy at my church. Small world, considering I discovered this band through a friend who is Irish and lives in London. Anyway, onto music!

The opening is rather lovely, centring over a slightly haunting keyboard part, and to me seemed like a bit of a trip away from their earlier indie rock ventures (listen to 2006's You See Colours), but the following tracks move back to more familiar territory for Delays fans.

Some of the songs are a little samey on this album, but that's not to say they aren't good. The music is obscure, but not so intense or dissonant that you couldn't put it on in a public setting with people who don't listen to indie music. A good word to describe it, I think, would be 'friendly'. Yes. I'm going to stick to that.

As always, give it a listen, make your own judgements!

j.r.

Sunday CD Project

I swear I have no memory at the moment: it's Sunday! I should be reviewing! Fool!

Fink – Sort Of Revolution

This was one of those occasional impulse-buys at the record shop in Guildford. I first heard of Fink through artist radio on Spotify, with his song 'Blueberry Pancakes', a sort of dark, lo-fi, acoustic-guitar driven glitch number that I immediately liked. I didn't give much of his other stuff a listen, but remembered the name.

And so I stumbled upon this CD and picked it up. The sound is very similar to what I described above. More towards the folk end of the spectrum, but with little delay loops and things that wave a salute in the direction of Massive Attack and the like. Very enjoyable.

Songs to check out: the title track, 'Sort Of Revolution', which sets the melancholy benchmark for the album, 'Q & A', a partially-a'capella doo-wop tune, and 'Blueberry Pancakes' (not on this album, but very good, as I said above).

Sorry it's so late; someone remind me next week!

j.r.

Stolen

One of the regular topics on this blog used to be human trafficking, something I feel very strongly about. But of late, I haven't felt that burning, passionate anger about it that I did a few months ago. However, that hasn't stopped me from keeping in the loop as regards anti-trafficking news (usually via the fantastic people at Stop The Traffik).

One of the latest developments in raising awareness of human trafficking was the one-off BBC One drama Stolen, which aired on Sunday night. It's extremely encouraging to see mainstream companies putting substantial funding into a production such as this one, and I think it has paid off. Twitter was buzzing during (and just after) the broadcast, and I was spammed by three charities off the back of using the #Stolen hashtag. Slightly irritating, but a good strategy nonetheless.

If you didn't see it on Sunday, and are in the UK, it is still available on BBC iPlayer until this coming Sunday, so you've still got a few more days to go and watch it. What are you waiting for?

Edit: Here's a teaser trailer that the BBC kindly allow you to embed [spoiler alert!]:

j.r.

Sunday CD Project

Not being at uni (and therefore being totally out of routine) caused me to forget all about the fact that it is in fact Sunday today. Actually it ended 19 minutes ago. But hush.

The Unicorns – Who Will Cut Our Hair When We're Gone?

They pose a good question. Actually, no, they pose an utterly ridiculous question. But an amusing one nonetheless. This was an impulse-bought album, so I had neutral hopes for it, and as it happens, it is a good record. It's not all that new now (I believe it came out in 2004), so I can't give it a rating in terms of recent albums. But perhaps that's a good thing, what with Bon Iver, Battles and Thomas Tantrum's latest efforts.

Not a wholly accessible band, The Unicorns are of the Pavement school of indie rock (although not as intense). There's a peculiar recorder solo and some quirky sound check-type intros, and the lyrical content ranges from mundanity to utter lunacy. However/Therefore (depending on your viewpoint), it's a fun album. I'd give it a listen if you get the chance.

j.r.

"Working" in the "studio"

What's this? A blog not related to the Sunday CD Project? Stand in awe!

So, today, I almost-spontaneously spent a few hours sitting on the floor of a living room in a random apartment in Southampton, surrounded by the largest vinyl collection I've ever seen, recording some demos for an old friend of mine, Campbell Austin (of Moneytree fame). And what a splendid day it was.

Here are some photos with artsy lens filter effects applied to them:

The side-view-of-faders-that-comes-out-of-every-recording-session shot

Less than a third of the vinyl (no kidding, there was so much!)

Some shots of Campbell doing his thing.

Arty shot. Yay!

All images ©Copyright Julez Redding 2011. I'm happy for you to use them (why you'd want to I don't know), but please tell me if you do. Ta!

j.r.