Hospital special

Hi all!


Just had to tell you about this best of cd by Danny Byrd. Medical History is absolutely another stunning album out on Hospital records, which logo means quality. The album is just gorgeous drum & bass! Beautiful melodies, vocals and tight production. Absolutely essential! I honestly had to write the review right away because I fell in love with this album. I´ve always been fan of Hospital and this is one of their best releases so far. If you like your drum & bass rolling with strong melodies and intelligent, look no further.

Junction 18

Soul Function

Dog Hill
Another killer from Hospital records. This is another one with strong melodies and beautiful vocals. Tony Colman is co-founder of Hospital records and has really good ear for harmonies and melodies and it shows on this album. Here´s another slice of intelligent d&b which works at home and at club. Jazz infulenced trip with ethereal vocals makes this album also essential!

Just One Second

Point Of No Return

USKA

Some reviews

Hi all!

It´s review time again. It´way too hot outside, so all I can do is relax at home with a book and listen to music:)


And woman starts off again:) I do listen to more female artists than men. They have that sensuality in their music and it´s not as tough as male music mainly is. She´s got nice voice and got the looks but the album itself was disappointment. It is your typical radio pop with a good singer. Opening tracks first half a minute reminded me of Regina Spektor and after that Bluebird moved on to be your typical pop song. Same goes for rest of the album too. It´s excatly radio friendly as is Sheryl Crow, Aimee Man et al. No winner here then. Jar Of Hearts was b est one from the album.

Jar Of Hearts

Arms


Another female artist coming right up! Billie Ray Martin is a legend, especially in dance music. I still remember when I first hear Your Loving Arms (Junior Vasquez Soundfactory mix). That song blew me away. Here we have one of her albums. And this is far from house. This time we have soul, hint of country, northern soul and drum´n´bass in the mix. Blended with Billie Ray´s vocals which you either like or hate. I gotta say this album was suprise for me, I never expected anything like this from her and it´s a positive thing! Fools Rush In is absolutely fantastic northern soul stomper. And slow ones are ok also. I still love above all house versions of Billie Ray Martin´s songs. They are killers:) This is a good album gotta admit. Different from what I expected but recommended. This second album is lotta better than the first one, which was moe euro dance than anything else. I only found this one live clip from the album, sorry:(

I´ve never been to Memphis

Concert Update

Hi all!

This time it´s time to check what´s going on in Finland. Here are my picks of concerts and upcoming raves:

Club B52, Ähtäri
Friday 15.07.2011 Eläkeläiset

Guitar Wolf from Japan plays 2 gigs. One in Helsinki 19.7. and other in Tampere 20.7.

As for festivals, there are some in Helsinki: Tuska metal festival, next month sees Summer Sound System rave take over Suvilahti and Flow is at same place later on.

1.10. Ane Brun will play at Tavastia, Helsinki

On a same day legendary Goblin plays also in Helsinki. They are best known for their work with director Dario Argento

18.10. on offer is Sondre Lerche at Tavastia, Helsinki

10.12. Within Temptation plays at Helsinki

Patrick Wolf

Hi All!

I am more than pleased to write good review of latest Patrick Wolf album Lupercalia!

This is album I was waiting for and was scared itwould be another disappointment as was R.E.M.s latest. Luckily I can announce that this cd hits the bullseye:)

This has to be most mature cd Patrick has ever made. Gorgeous string arrangements and piano played together make beautiful harmonies. Most of the album is slow and raises only few times to midtempo and that suits album as whole very well and it has been a good choice to make it so. Patrcik knows how to use his strong voice and it shows here as it always has. This one has less violin than previous cds and main instrument is piano. That was bit unexpected move. I kinda miss the violin, eventhough the record is absolutely beautiful. It brings enough new sides to be interesting and enough old stuff to be recognisable. Absolutely must for fans of melodic pop. And say, do you hear traces of Abba here and there... Hmm...

The City

Time Of My life

And even better news is that Patrick will play a gig in Helsinki at Tavastia! Last time it was sold out, so get tickets in time! The date is 6.12. and tickets are 30€. Age limit is 18.

Jamie Lewis, Florence & The Machine

Hi all!

Since summer is here and it´s sunny outside, let´s trat off with sumemry house music by a legendary Jamie Lewis!


Here we have triple cd of unmixed tracks eihter mixed by or performed by the man himself, Jamie Lewis. Before I say anything else, I gotta admit I just love that Purple Music sound. I´ve been into house music since mid 90´s and lately got totally bored with it, since it became so formulaic and everything was just that Benny Benassi/electrosound. Then I came across with this cd and it reminded me, why I love house music so much. There isn´t a single filler on the album whihch has 30 tracks! All full-length, unmixed and cd has even separate tracklisting sheets for cdj use. Very dj-friendly package indeed, since no dj would carry a digipack with them, they just put cds in a cd wallet. Main focus on this album is that glorious discofied garage aka vocal house. I prefer term garage. Some tracks even have gospel vibe in them and hint to that direction and they make you wanna shake it. If you like summery, discohouse/garage/vocalhouse, this is one of the absolute must haves! And it doesn´t even cost much at Purple Music shop 12,99€ is ridiculously cheap price for this kind of gem. Absolutely one of the best house cds ever! If you like your house music more soulful, try Blaze or Joe Claussell/Ibadan camp. Ibadan goes in jazz direction and isn´t danceable, but absolutely beautiful.

Samples:

Jamie Lewis ft. Kim Cooper - Mo´ Butter (Jamie Lewis Darkroom mix)

Cerrone ft. Jocelyn Brown - Hooked On You (Jamie Lewis main mix)

Jamie Lewis feat. Chance - Streetlife (Classic Vocal mix)


I acutally borrowed from library the Between Two Loungs edition of this cd, but coudln´t find a correct cover, so that´ll do. According to media I should bype this cd to be one of the best ones in ages. Eventhough the album is very good, I wouldn´t go as far hyping it as media has. don´t think it´s that good. The album has some songs I would have left out, since they don´t fit album at all. But good things first. Florence has a strong voice and she knows how to use it. Melodies are nice and instruments are played well. Rhythm sections do sometimes remind me bit of Adam And The Ants somehow. There´s something similar in the drum sound. Strong rhythm, good vocals and nice melodies. And now for the bad parts. Kiss With A Fist doesn´t suit the album at all and should´ve been either outtake or b-side. Girl With One Eye is so-so track. It´s a good bluesy track, but it doesn´t suit rest of the album and those two break the album. Made me feel like who the hell switched the cd. And after those two we go back to where we started from. Rest of the album is in similar vein and is solid. Just those 2 songs are too different from the album and just split it up. They´d be better as two last tracks than than being number 5 and 6, right in the middle of the album. So, overall good album, good songs but not lifechanging.

between two lungs has bonus cd of acoustic versions from Itunes festival, 2 remixes,2 other tracks and 2 other live tracks.

The XX Album

Hi all!

This time only one review, but more on the way, when I have time to listen to latest cds I got (Patrick Wolf Luprecalia 2cd set and Florence & The Machine). So this time it´s XX.


This one is another mid-tempo album of minimalistic electronics and nice vocals. The male vocalist sounds like Damien Rice and that voice suits the album well. It is good package and all the songs play well together. So the album is good as whole. Not too long and luckily it has no fillers thrown in. You couuld argue that the albums songs are too similar, bu that didn´t bother me. As I said before the it is rather minimal and leans heavily on vocals to bring soulness to the record. Somehow it reminds me of Knife´s Silent Shout partly, especially slower tunes from that record. It has bit similar feeling. Album has 11 tracks and that is very good amount of them. Sleeve is stylish as is the pictured cover. So the cover art is also simplistic as the cd, so they go hand in hand also well. This album is definetly worth checking out, if you like Fever Ray, Knife or Damien Rice´s voice.

Crystalised

VCR

Stars

Night Time