words.with.pále

Although Pále is just 18, he has already built up this quite distinct aesthetic. Using his own sampled sounds, deep and heavy basses, and textured drums with live instruments, he creates a really deep and underground atmosphere with lots of sharp edges. The atmosphere that can make u feel, make u think, but also dance.

Being noticed from the “bigger” names like Benga, and having forthcoming releases across multiple labels, he is a guy to pay attention in the future. Visit his soundcloud for more sounds, and his facebook for more infos.

click here to read the interview and the featuring mixtape.

new website on

at last, my new website is up and running.
http://transparentcities.net/

transparent.cities

new site coming soon . .

feeling.free

electronic pop music from austra, a maximalist approach with strong, sinewy vocals and industrial and tremendous drums. a new era of goth?

surrender

surrender from the album innundir skinni, is a hushed acoustic song by the icelandik folk songtress Olof Arnalds and Bjork.

the.art.of.drowning

happy birthday to me,fuckers..

space.is.only.noise

nicolas jaar was born in nyc. he moved to chile, only to come back as a teenager. he started making music really young, at the age of 14. his first release, at 17, the student Ep on Wolf n Lamb Music. he continued with new eps and gigs at berlin, brooklyn and mexico city. and now he is studying at brown university in rhode island. but me, i discovered this guy just these days. the reason? his first album, space is only noise. a really tremendous album, and just at the age of 20. this guy has created his own soundscape (like burial has done). haunted by mulatu astatke, ricardo villalobos.. his music sounds like erik satie is composing urban dance music now. dance music with no labels. dance music for everyone. music to make u think. to make u crawl all these nights you walk alone surrounded by people in the nights, just drowning deep inside into ur thoughts. no matter what is happening around you. no rescue.

simplicity. deconstruction. motion. pauses. breaths. delight. memories. dolour. music

01. Caribou-Swim

caribou, formerly manitoba, is responsible for the best album of 2010. new album, and new directions. he is evolving his sound and trying to give his songs a sort of flexible flow not often seen in dance music. stressful and stripped vocals with less reverb and special effects, a result of the collaboration with junior boys' greenspan, leads the album in a more minimalistic, early techno and electronic way. picks of the album: oddesa, an adhesive track with tremendous rhythm and recognizable vocals and bassline, sun, almost ecstatic, hannibal, floor-killer song with powerful bassline and a melody reminding paul kaklbrenner songs, and for the end, jamelia, with luke lalonde chorus vocals, an emotive and atmospheric closer. moreover, one of the best live performances of the year, full of noise, energy, mood and colors.an evolutionary songwriter and a leading artist. the most distinctive release of this year.

02. Flying Lotus-Cosmogramma

to be updated..

03. National-High Violet

to be updated..

04. Angus & Julia Stone-Down The Way

to be updated..

05. Black Keys-Brothers

to be updated..

06. Deerhunter-Halcyon Digest

to be updated..

07. Efterklang-Magic Chairs

i haven't listened this album as i should have done. i haven't given to it the attention it deserves. all these changed after their live performance in athens. efterklang mark the start of a new chapter with their third album and first at 4AD. they are moving forward from their classical and post-rock sounds to a more pop soundscape. any narrative is fractured, the songs standalone, constructs shorn of company and context. beautifully orchestrated, with strings, guitars, bass, harp, violins, cellos, trombones, flutes,vocals and percussion, anything u can imagine, compose the new pop and more rhythmic sound. it couldn't be nothing more, after their tremendous previous album parades, an outstanding album meeting all the expectations. and if u are wondering about their live in athens: they succeeded, from a stage that couldn't fit them, to excite almost everyone. a concert that will remain in my mind for long time, for my big, awkward smile on my face and the whispering vocals on my way out. that is a musical bond, what music is all about at the end.

08. Arcade Fire-The Suburbs

there is no much to say about this band. u know the deal. they are fuckin awesome. i don't think there is even a point to write some words as everyone is talking about this album. just that in the beginning i didn't like it so much, but after some more and 'careful' plays in my list it won me. you can feel that it is just a step below their previous two releases, but it sounds like arcade fire, and fucking yeah, we do like it.. and by the way, don't even think to miss the chance to see them live. they are fantastic, one of the best bands playing live now.

09. Gonjasufi-A Sufi and A Killer

a sufi and a killer, the debut release of gonjasufi at warp records. a lot of mystery and rumors were spreading around his name on the first months of previous winter, while warp trying to promote him with an awkward way: sufi said / says / will say. production by flying lotus and gaslamp killer and expectations are rising to the highest level. eastern melodies, dub and aggressive sounds, unsound hip hop, a taste of psychedelic elements, and final his expressive and individual vocals compose his unique sound. this album has accompanied me many many times this year and if it wasn't for his shitty live at bios at athens, acting like a retarded, it would be much more higher. sufi said: in order to get the conviction behind the words, it took 30 years of a lot of frustration and despair...continual tests of faith. Day to day struggling. Bottled-up energy, then all o a sudden, the way it came out seemed perfect..it kept flowing. Continually flowing out of me." If anything I would pray that people find the ability to find themselves in the music."

10. Four Tet-There Is Love In You

after a lengthy absence of an album release, four tet is back with a great album. it is not at the same level as his previous classic albums like rounds, but it is still top class. this album works best taken whole, rather than broken into individual tracks. it's both head and physical, subtle but powerful music for thinking and moving or ideally doing both in the same time. u can come around everything in this album: metalic guitars, deep or dark melodies, bass and beats that are endlessly unfolding, kids' laughing and whatever else u can imagine as long as u are searching for it. before you notice it, this album will have come to its end, and u will need more. this is the moment you will understand that it has a lot to give you as a lot of hidden elements are waiting to unfold. it is like back then at coronet theater, when he was playing developing tracks in his set, waiting for our respond and reaction, and returned to us armed with his soundscapes and 'information'. four tet has understood the simple power of sound.

other.albums.of.2010

these two or three previous days, i've been totally ill, with really high fever, and that is why i couldn't update on time the top 20 list. having a break from this stuff, these are some other albums that i like for this year, but couldn't be in the list:

playground noise-playground noise/the boy-koustoumaki/these new puritans-hidden/wild nothing-gemini/tame impala-innerspeaker/matthew dear-black city/brian eno-smallon craft on a milk sea/zola jesus-stridulum II/wavves-king of the beach/no age-everything in between/belle & sebastian-write about love/keep shelly-in love with dusk/crocodiles-sleep forever/small black-new chain/girls-broken dreams club/james holden-dj kicks/apparat-dj kicks

11.Darkstar-North

the thing is that from here up to the top first, any ablum could have ended up in any ranking position . all of them are my favorite ones and i am emotionally connected with them. north is the debut album of darkstar and altough they are a group with a winning formula, they decided to break the mold in search of something more. and it succeeds, as all the expectations were met.. likely named on a rainier, darker day in northern england, focuses less on the rhythmic aspects of darkstar's sound, and more on the coarse synthesizers laid over its beats. distorted vocals and thick globs of synth make up the basis, with the contribution of dropout and glitches, pianos, strings, bass & guitar. and the most important element is the addition of vocalist James Buttery that adds another dimension to the group's dynamic, both sonically and lyrically. north may be gray, but it's an intense and gorgeous shade.

12. Warpaint-The Fool

i've come across the all-female quartet from LA one year ago, listening their exquisite corpse ep. their debut album, the fool, lacks the ep's melodic blows, but neither does it suffer for that. hypnotic rhythms, fragile lyrics by the dreamy voice of co-leader emily kokal and majestic guitars and basses which balance somewhere between psychedelia and shoegaze. the production, some times low-fi, other moment vast and shimmering, always is submerging listener beneath surface, dragging him deep down to their mood. their music is wandering through desert plains and darkened streets. it's by no mean instant. it isn't the easiest album to listen and love. but u have to give to it a couple of listens, and then it starts to unveil in front of you. like it did to me and it climbed to the to middle of the list.