I received the first two from Germany, and since we rarely receive anything from overseas, they ended up on my priority list. Both are of the weird electronic genre that are best reviewed by Derek, but since they were just officially released a few days ago - I have decided to review these myself.
The theme to this post is creepy duos.
The theme to this post is creepy duos.
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myspace.com/patronandpatron ♥ nonine.com The first thing you'll notice about Patron & Patron's Gen is that it's the type of music you'll find on a horror movie or some science fiction movie. A little bit dark and a little bit creepy. Like many of these electronic artist, the music is usually composed by one man or a duo, in this case, the later is true: Sakuran (Frederik Van de Moortel) and Me Raabenstein makes up Patron & Patron. There's a lot of usage of bass in these songs, which is kind of unusual for electronic artists. But you'll quickly find yourself at home when you run into random noises and quirks throughout the album. There are no lyrics (although there are random movie lines or something, like "We Are Not Alone"), so you're left to interpret each song. This actually makes it really hard for me to describe to you what each song is about. There seems to be an industrial influence on this album, songs like "Magenta Verve" uses natural sounds like doors opening or chains (?), mixed with artificial energy... but warped somehow. Of all the songs, I thought "Either Or" is perhaps the best one. There's a skeleton structure to it, and there's also a funky jazz feel to it. I'm calling it space jazz. I suggest you really experience this album with headphones to catch all the quirkiness and sound effects. The full album can be purchased on nonine.com, but via paypal and digitally. |
myspace.com/meraabenstein ♥ nonine.com Nonine is also releasing Bedtime Stories from Taub. Between Patron & Patron and Taub, I thought Taub had a more cohesive feel to it. Think of it as a soundtrack to a children book. Once again, Me Raabenstein is co-writing. This time with David Hillary (aka Harold Nono). If Nono sounds familiar to you, that's because we've previously mentioned him twice over. What makes this collaboration interesting is that Nono is Scottish, and with the internet, this teamup is possible. I liked the piano and weird noises on "Chamber Pot" (there's definitely a lot of pianos and keys throughout the album, I'll have to add). Towards the end of this song, you'll notice some sort of singing that sounds like children dying (!) As soon as I heard lyric-type singing (it's not actually someone singing, it's more like distorted vocal samplings) they made the songs more memorable. At least to me. Like "Rouge Absolu" feels like a French film, especially with the dialogue at the beginning. I'm not even sure it was French, come to think about it. Speaking of French, my favorite song on here is "Backyard Maud the Fraudian Fairy", it sounds like scary circus music. The "La Ronde at the Top" song seems to be two songs in one. The first part has a Middle Eastern feel to it, but the second half sounds chaotic. Again, this is available digitally. The cost is 10,90 Euros, which is about $15 at current exchange (keep in mind that a portion of this amount actually goes to paypal), but like Gen they do come with a full size 800x800 cover artwork and PDF file (I am assuming that's the lyric book) and each song is encoded at 320kbps. |
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antenne.suite.dk ♥ nonine.com Speaking of creepy, check out this #3 album by Antenne. As the name suggest, this is the third full length album from a duo (Kim G. Hansen and Marie-Louise Munck) based out of Denmark. The majority of the album features the vocals of Marie-Louise Munck, and despite being Danish, she actually sings in English. Sometime her voice, although sweet and clear, it makes me sad for some reason.... kind of like a haunting ghost. I do actually enjoy feeling sad and depress and songs like "Long to Kiss" and "Blue Light" takes me to an isolated place, surrounded by empty space ("Days into Nights") or unnatural electric field ("Ttreaa#7"). Let me be clear on some things, these are not pop songs... but easily the poppiest, and the most accessible, song on this album is the beautiful "Gloves On". If you like experimental music with haunting vocals, definitely check out Antenne. Don't let the eight tracks fool you, this is by no means an EP. The album clocks in about 50 minutes, perfect for an LP. The album was released earlier in July 2008, and you can purchase it on the record label Helmet Room Records. |
myspace.com/battleoflandandsea In keeping with the creepy duos theme, here's The Battle of Land and Sea. I actually don't know much about this Portland-based band, but they seem to be good friends with a Mr Jacob Golden (if you remember, Ryan went to see him in Newcastle, UK). Their music, based on this (debut?) self-titled EP from Mis Ojos Discos (My Eyes Disc), they seem very acoustically folky. As a cover lover, my favorite song on here is "Harden My Heart". It totally made me dig out my Quarterflash single. Battle's version is so stripped down and haunting that they can be considered two different songs. Special notes: I used to think this song goes, "I'm going to pardon my heart". |
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