Aurgasm

Annika Line Trost is a charming and charismatic creature. You probably know her from the Berlin duo Cobra Killer, who began as a part of digital hardcore movement. You hear her voice, her sound, and her gorgeous style as you click on play her album Trust Me (2006) lead you into the world of the urban rhythms and the most elegant darkness. Trost tells you her stories of cheap lipstick and love in three languages, English, German and French.

It’s quite rare an artist is both amazingly creative, productive and has good management skills. Julie Feeney does it all: she composes, writes, sings and promotes all her songs, and it’s needless to say she is truly passionate about music. The critics immediately appraised Julie for her sparse, clean vocals. In Julie’s “Autopilot”, the xylophone sounds and the clever lyrics, frame a melody so immersing that it’s impossible not to listen to it over and over again. “You Bring Me Down” is melodic and never boring with its sweet eclecticism.

Running in a similar vein to the cartoony electronic duo Toy, Podington Bear delights ears in crafting accessible and dynamic dream pop. Podington is a bear from Portland, Oregon. A bear who makes a new song for every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Typically, such prolificacy would indicate the songs must be subpar, but Bear surprised my expectations. The samples and synths aren’t anything innovative, but the songwriting reminds me of producers like William Orbit and Kaskade.

The keytar is our first tip-off. The way its plaintive, dull-yet-sunny sound meshes with Juliette Commagere’s vocals, the electronic overlays, the rich bounce of bass, is a recipe for some very catchy pop. It’s a new-new-wave sound, shiny and nostalgic; it siphons something of Blondie and Berlin, of Latin pop and Irish ditties, and swirls the whole thing into a dance party. Hailing from Silverlake CA, Hello Stranger, formerly Vagenius, are effortlessly attuned to and enamored of LA’s decadent, chintzy, eclectic culture of Hip. Their lyrics admit as much with nonchalant honesty – that is, when they are not being all tongue-in-cheek.

Master Rios was born in Puerto Rico but left at eighteen for Belgium in a search to find his passion. In his travels he ran into Jo Bogaert, whom you might know as Technotronic, renowned for the dance hit, Pump Up The Jam. The two collaborated and developed Gabe’s first solo album Ghostboy. I found his single “Broad Daylight” on the Nova Tunes 1.4 compilation (The whole Nova Tunes series is primo). In the track, Rios mixes clean vocals against clever production, creating a surprising presentation of the melody.

Mansfield.TYA is a duo of musicians Julia Lanoë (voice, guitar, piano) and Carla Pallone (violin, piano, harmonium, voice) from Nantes, France. The duo was seen and noticed for its intimate, beautifully tensed music at the openings of such artists as Cat Power, Erik Truffaz, Camille, Elysian Fields, Cocorosie and others. Their album June (2005) is a magnificent combination of dark and sombre yet beautiful ballads with folk elements enveloped in a romantic and melancholic atmosphere. The raw and sincere vocals and instrumentation are comparable to the fine collaboration of Shannon Wright and Amélie composer Yann Tiersen. Or to quote one of the reviews it is une possible réponse française aux Cocorosie.

Cerys, an intrepid Welsh musician has a lot in her favor: a quirky name, a past bout with fame as lead in the 90’s Welsh pop group Catatonia, and a cute renown-to-rehab-to-folk backstory. And the music? To be honest, I wasn’t really touched by her album, with the striking exception of the song below. Though it feels like it just jumped out of Pro-Tools, Cerys used a good amount of odd instrumentation and clever polyrhythms to complement your more traditional guitar and drums.

I don’t want to be too self-congratulatory, but I have heard that David Byrne reads Aurgasm and Nic Harcourt (of KCRW) frequents mp3 blogs. But it’s really unknown what use mp3 blogs have been, or will be, to the music industry at large. Let’s assume for a moment that producers follow mp3 blogs as much as they crate dig in their search of the next great sample. Follow me down this path, will you…

uk pop ← new orleans jazz
If you didn’t already hear, Lily Allen is ‘the next big thing’. Music geeks have been pushing her, wanting her songs will blow up in the US mainstream for a while. She’s definitely got the appeal potential: crisp and fun production underneath her own gritty urban storytelling. Her track “Knock ‘Em Out” was released as a B-side, but is now getting as much attention as her released singles.
Lily Allen – Knock ‘Em Out from Alright, Still (2006)
If you’ve been with Aurgasm for a while, that opening that forms the basis for the track might sound a little familiar. In December 2004 I shared a track by New Orleans pianist Professor Longhair. Take a listen:
Professor Longhair – Big Chief (1964)

cuban mambo → chicago hip hop
Around the same time, a little more south, a Cuban vocalist by the name of La Lupe was gaining notoriety for her energetic live show and, quite franky, her near-insanity. Before joining Tito Puente’s tour, her fan-base included Pablo Picasso, Jean-Paul Sartre and novelist Ernest Hemingway, who called her act, “the art of frenzy.” Last October, I dubbed her song “Fever” as an mp3 gem in The Link List.
La Lupe – Fever (1961)
Chicago’s Rhymefest is best known for penning Kanye’s Grammy-winning single “Jesus Walks”, but you’ll hear that La Lupe track repurposed in this new single off his LP.
Rhymefest – Fever from Blue Collar (2006)

Helena Noguerra is a Belgian born successful model, acctress, singer-songwriter, singing and writing her own lyrics in French, Portuguese and English. She has worked as a radio DJ, published two novels, covered Kylie’s “I just can’t get you out of my head” in a very sensual version. While still modelling, she was meeting up with musicians, doing collaborations and also met Philippe Katerine who did most of the composing and producing of their two rather different projects. Azul (2003) is mostly bossa nova influenced with subtle electronic touches while Née dans la nature (2004) follows French chanteuse tradition.

A month before my Italian tipster, my gal in Lithuania led me to the talented and innovative French vocalist Camille. You probably know her from her vocals on the Nouvelle Vague album, but her solo talent is impressive. She recently released Le Fil (trans: the wire, the yarn, the string) an album done mostly a capella. This effort learned from Björk’s botched attempt and delivers songs that let you enjoy the levels of voices only if you desire to. Taking on the wire metaphor, throughout the album is a sustained vocal note, like line noise, but on top are created catchy rhythms with adorable melodies.
Filling the spectrum with sounds and voices.