anika in london

of Montreal’s new album Paralytic Stalks is out Feb 6th

I love of Montreal. I have done for years, since I was a teenager. They are definitely one of my favourite bands around today. There is a nice Q&A with Kevin up now on Q’s website. On the new album: The record is kind of cinematic, actually – kind of like a Stanley Kubrick meets David Lynch meets Dario Argento horror movie.

Uhm, say what? SAY WHAT? He just gone and did a description of precisely what I want to hear. Here is a photo I took the last time I saw oM:

More praying to saints that nobody has heard of, soon, please.

In 2011, for some reason, I only really watched horror films. I’ve always loved the genre, not least because of all the creepy music. Sometimes the soundtrack outshines the film… here are some of my favourites:

Valerie and Her Week Of Wonders
by Lubos Fiser

Listen to the whole thing here.

This surreal 1970 Czech horror owes a lot to its infinitely eerie soundtrack. Innocent chimes and sweet lullabies are made approx 80000% creepier by the disorienting narrative of the film, and vice versa. This soundtrack is fantastic and worth listening to as a stand alone piece of music in itself.

Candyman
by Philip Glass

Honestly, I enjoyed the idea of this movie more than I enjoyed the movie. The soundtrack however, I absolutely adore. I had been listening to it before I even saw the film, so by the time I finally saw the film I was so well versed in the soundtrack that the visuals of the movie let it down for me (I don’t think it’s aged too well). The score is magnificent – the choral pieces sound suitably End-Of-Days, but perhaps my favourite part is the melody Glass uses for the main character’s theme. On the OST are various versions of it, on different instruments, here is the music box version.

Phenomena
by Goblin

Dario Argento collaborators Goblin composed the soundtrack for his bizarro 1985 bug-centric horror Phenomena, and it is a delight. In more than a few ways Phenomena can be compared to cult favourite (and far superior film) Suspiria, but what I love so much about the soundtrack for this lesser known film is how 80s it is. It just works. So well. Listen to the eponymous soundtrack jam here. Good cycling music, this.

Cannibal Holocaust
by Riz Ortolani

Another soundtrack I enjoy more than the film. I love a deceptively soothing melody in a horror, and the wistful main theme is nothing short of beautiful. The dirty 80s synths and casual funk contrast nicely to the melancholic violins and more gentle moments within the soundtrack. This is great.

The Fearless Vampire Killers
by Krzysztof Komeda

I LOVE this soundtrack to Polanski’s comedic Transylvanian adventure, The Fearless Vampire Killers. Komeda also soundtracked everyone’s favourite  70s coven of witches horror, Rosemary’s Baby. The music for that film is also fantastic and of a similar nature, a mix of beauty and deep dark creepiness (see: The Coven or What Have You Done To Its Eyes?). Fearless Vampire… isn’t as dark as Rosemary’s Baby; it’s whimsical and silly, and charming. The film stars the director and his then wife, Sharon Tate (who would be tragically murdered a couple of years later by the Manson family). Tate is captured by the local vampire and Polanski must save her. The score suits the Transylvanian setting just perfectly.

More….

Those are just a few. I recently bumped into a friend at the Independent Label Market and he mentioned he was organising a SXSW panel that would be discussing the music of British Pagan-horror classic The Wicker Man. I had watched the movie a few years ago and not particularly enjoyed it, but I revisited the soundtrack and its folky-trad rhymes make a lot of sense for that picture. Wendy Carlos does a stunner for The Shining, with the main theme based on Hector Berlioz’s Dies Irae. Lady Carlos is pretty splendid in general – I have an album of electronic J S Bach performances (ingeniously titled ‘Switched On Bach’) which is BRILLIANT. And of course it goes without saying, Jaws and Psycho have excellent iconic soundtracks. And The Exorcist’s use of Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells. Classic.

Here is a nice article my friend showed me about Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker ballet.

This is my favourite piece of music from it -

This just absolutely kills me. Heartachingly good. Lovely.

You fly all night to sleep on stone, to return to the tree with too many birds.

Just remembering how much I love Sometimes I Wish I Were An Eagle.

This is the prettiest song.

2012! Here we are. This feels like a year that we always knew would happen. I mean, we always know every year will happen (or will it?), but this one was wrapped in a golden bow of anticipation and hype, because it will be the London 2012 Olympics. I think I must have been fourteen or fifteen when they announced London won the opportunity to host the games. I remember it clearly because I was at school and they used the PA to announce all through the school that we’d be hosting in 2012. At that time I thought ‘pfffft who cares? That is ages away! Why are they making such a big deal?’.

And we now have reached ‘ages away’. Like whoaaaa.

I have lots of personal things I hope to do and make happen in the following year, and lots of non music related things but some musical things I am excited for include:

- Many great releases from Bella Union artists, not to mention Bella will be fifteen years old this year and so we shall be celebrating. This will include a takeover of a day of End of the Road festival. Beach House will be playing. Hooray!

- New records from Dirty Projectors and of Montreal. I am excited for the Trust record. I hope The Knife do a new record in the next year. Lindstrom, Lower Dens, Heartless Bastards and Islands are all set to release. Oh and Cat Power! That one could be interesting…

- I hope I get to see of Montreal live again – their live show is so fantastic.

- I am going to learn more about classical music this year.

- I am excited about the artists I work with. I’m excited to see Tasseomancy’s next steps and Princess Century’s album release, and Heidi Mortensen’s EP release.

- Bandstand Busking 2012 will hopefully be even bigger and better than this year!

- And the return of The See Hear Club will certainly be met with a lot of joy from me.

I spent new year’s eve at a friend’s house. The last album we put on in 2011 was Teen Dream and the first album we put on was Elton John’s Greatest Hits. We couldn’t find The Kick Inside otherwise that would have been the winner.

First pophit that graced my ears this side of the year:

This boy’s too young to be singin’ the bLUEUUEUEUEUEUUES AHHHA AHHAHAHH

Here we are at the end of the year – prime time for lists. I think I have seen approx 23798241983 end of year lists pop up onto my screen since December 1st. A lot of websites take their lists very seriously and overly politicise their choices; I’m not really interested in those lists.

Here is a very loose list of things I’ve enjoyed in 2011 -

ALBUMS
I don’t suppose it’s a good idea to include albums I worked on this year, as showing favoritism is sometimes not very classy. But obviously the Bella releases and Tasseomancy’s Ulalume are some albums I’d heartily recommend……..

Here are some more albums I particularly enjoyed, in no order:

St Vincent – Strange Mercy
Austra – Feel It Break
Celebration – Hello Paradise
Girls – Father, Son, Holy Ghost
Kurt Vile – Smoke Ring For My Halo
Timber Timbre – Creep On Creepin’ On
Peggy Sue – Acrobats
Cass McCombs – Wit’s End
Julianna Barwick – Magic Place
Tune Yards – w h o k i l l
Bill Callahan – Apocalypse
John Maus – We Must Become Pitiless Censors Of Ourselves
Atlas Sound – Parallax

LIVE
1. Beach House at Listasafn Reykjavíkur, Reykjavik
2. Celebration at Subterranean A, Washington DC
3. Congotronics Vs Rockers at The Barbican
4. Sufjan Stevens at Royal Festival Hall
5. The Zombies at Shepherd’s Bush Empire
6. St Vincent at Queen Elizabeth Hall
7. Peggy Sue at Folly For A Flyover, Hackney Wick
8. Tune Yards at The French Legation Museum, Austin, TX
9. Sea of Bees at Everywhere
10. Austra at SXSW

Best Baltimore albums of 2011.

2012 = Beach House Beach House Beach House Beach House Beach House

Ah! Rules to see Cole doing his own thing! This is great:

Man, I love this so much. This song absolutely kills me. Here is the making of:

In a band full of pophit masters, to have the standout voice is no mean feat. Orby kills it. So good.

Whole song here.