Gabriel Rios
October 17th, 2006 by Paul Irishacoustic pop // turin brakes-ish
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.Atypical innovation in typical music.
Gabriel Rios – Broad Daylight
buy this cd
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
Inga Liljeström is Australian with Scandinavian roots and beautiful name (the ‘j’ is pronounced as a ‘y’ sound). And as the title of her recent album Elk (2005) indicates to the cold far north too, one could not expect icy landscapes surrounded by warm latin melodies. That’s how eclectic and rich the record is. It is captivating with its subtle beats, lush orchestrated music and cinematic atmosphere. The comparisons vary from Björk to Lamb and early Goldfrapp, but her own diverse experiences and knowledge of aesthetics in music industry distinguish her.
What the nascent polish jazz group Muzykoterapia has already mastered is bringing the fun and dynamicism of live music to the studio, while maintaining a modicum of post-production that keeps your brain as busy as your body. In “Haunting Love”, vocalist Iza Kowalewska dominates a vamping piano, slathering on a sultry flavor while each rimshot bitchslaps your pleasure center. Raising the energy level, the MZT remix of Roman Two sets a fire in the lounge hall and expects your sweat to extinguish the flames.
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 
Highly architected electronic pop where adroit melodies meet a barrage of synthesized subtlety. Each turn of the music is unexpected; each bar maintains a heavy dose of complexity that keeps your ears engaged all fifty times you listen. I’ve heard this type of music described as bleepy-bloopy, which I’ll admit is appropriate, albeit a bit classless. Trentemøller, a Dane who creates all his music in 
Mara Carlyle has good and talented friends: her husband Andy is in Plaid and they both are friends with Matthew Herbert. Mara has tried many genres, singing with Plaid (who helped with the final touches of her debut album) and the Matthew Herbert Big Band project, Jamie Lidell and Dani Siciliano. She plays the piano, the saw, made jazzy ukulele cover of Lidell’s “Game for Fools” and in one of the interviews talks about her first DJing experiences. The Lovely (2004) is a mixture of jazz elements, classical styles, folk and electronica.
I can’t say that you Aurgasm readers often tell me what music I should be hearing (lord knows I get an earful from promoters), but one name that’s been thrown my way many times is Fat Freddy’s Drop. And if the popularity of the last multi-reader suggestion,