Little bit late this week, due to events coming up at school, like essays and mid-terms. Fun stuff! As such, no comments for now. Those'll be added in later, and probably, finally, an upload of that Extra Life album. Put it off because we also had new Four Tet and Wu Tang vs. The Beatles to listen to!

8. Extra Life - Made Flesh - 17/01/10
9. Dessa - A Badly Broken Code - 17/01/10
10. Spoon - Transference - 17/01/10
11. Alexander Tucker and Decomposed Orchestra - Grey Onion 18/01/10
12. The Besnard Lakes - Are the Roaring Night 18/01/10
13. Four Tet - There is Love in You 19/01/10
14. Wu Tang vs. The Beatles - Enter the Magical Mystery Chambers 20/01/10
15. Max Roach - We Insist! Max Roach’s Freedom Now Suite 20/01/10
16. Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy - Master and Everyone 21/01/10
17. Gillian Welch - Revival 22/01/10

A massive ten new listens last week. Thanks, waffles free leech! The only album that stands out here is Spoon's Transference, and that's because it's a bit of a bore to listen to. It's almost as if they forgot that they can, occasionally, write interesting hooks, and not just atonal indie rock. Everything else is class: those Dessa and Extra Life albums will, most likely, be among my favourite of the year; Max Roach's album was brilliant as always; Alexander Tucker continues to impress in short, EP form; and Will Oldham and Gillaim Welch provided some nice country sounds. Good week!

Listens incoming this week: new Liars, Jaga Jazzist, and a bunch of what I picked up for free leech, which was a lot of jazz.

Okay, I'm really just posting this for Giggs. I'm still kind of speechless.

You can listen and download it for free here.

Artist: Four Tet
Album: There Is Love In You
Genre: Dance/Electro/Techno

Four Tet is currently streaming his new album here http://soundcloud.com/four-tet/there-is-love-in-you which is a big enough deal for me to blog about! Enjoy

Artist: Dessa

Album: A Badly Broken Code

Genre: Hip-Hop

Heard of Dessa? No? That's a shame, but an understandable one; she's only released one official EP, and been featured on various Doomtree promos/experiments/etc, as well as appeared on a few of Doomtree acts' records -- like P.O.S.'s excellent album from last year. But she's finally getting an LP out there, and it's good. Female emcees are a rare breed, and even rarer are intelligent ones, but that's exactly what Dessa is. A Badly Broken Code is a solid album, an excellent showcase of her talents, and one of the better recent releases.

I'll say more on this album in my weekend summary next Sunday, once I get a better grasp of it, but I'm at loving this. I've had if for a little over two hours and I've already heard it three times. If you want to hear a sample, I've posted the first song, "Children's Work," over at Brave New Waves.

Enjoy!

Another light week for me, with only 3 new listens. This trend stops this week, most likely, as I've heard two new 2010 albums today, one of which will be upped this tonight, the other later in the week.

5. Massive Attack - Heligoland 10/01/10

I want to love this album; I really do. And maybe I will, when a proper rip comes out. It's the first Massive Attack album in years, more attention needs to be paid to it! If you heard the four song preview of this album that came out late last year, you'll know what to expect. In fact, all four of those songs appear on this album, possibly untouched (I haven't done an AB comparison). Portishead-esque drums and typical Massive Attack production, but it feels a little... flat. The last two tracks, "Saturday Come Slow" and "Atlas Air," may be my favourite tracks.

6. Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra & Pierre Boulez - Igor Stravinsky’s Le Sacre du Printemp (The Rite of Spring) 14/01/10

Not my first listen of this piece, but my first listen of this performance. The Rite of Spring was the first piece of classical music that I ever really loved, and this rendition is just as powerful and beautiful as any I've heard. Highly recommended.

7. Nine Horses - Snow Borne Sorrow 14/01/10

Not sure how to describe this one. A mix of jazz and electronic, but not in a trip-hop kinda way. I get Boy Eats Drum Machine vibes from this one, without the chaotic production associated with that act. Listen and decide for yourself.

So, three good-to-great albums. Not bad, eh? But this coming week already promises to be the strongest of the year so far.

It was a fairly light week on my end of new listenings this week; this is, most likely, due to the start of school, as well as a couple other interests getting in my way (finished Batman: Arkham Asylum, watching Dexter/Mad Men/Doctor Who). These four albums happen to be, more or less, the only music I listened to this week.

1. Red House Painters – Red House Painters 1st LP (Rollercoaster) 01/01/10

My first listen of the new year. One thing I'd like to do this year is expose myself to artists that I've had an interest in for some time but never really looked at their back catalogue much. Mark Kozelek is one such name. I think I'll try to work through his career chronologically; my only experience with him has been his Sun Kil Moon records which are, for the most part, quite good. This was, unsurprisingly, quite good.


2. Martin Siewert & Martin Brandlmayr – Too Beautiful to Burn 05/01/10

One more thing I'd like to do this year is expand my musical palette. I've always had an interest in ambient/experimental stuff, but only recently have I been trying out new things. Kreng's 2009 album, L'Autopsie Phénoménale De Dieu, was one of my favourites last year. Yes, I know that has nothing to do with Too Beautiful To Burn. I only gave it one listen, but I was impressed. Tense strings, tape hiss and other such noise on display here.

3. A Silver Mt. Zion – Kollaps Tradixionales 08/01/10

"There Is Light" was excellent. I'll save my judgement for later on this record. It may grow on me, but for now I was left unsatisfied.

4. Basia Bulat – Heart of My Own 09/01/10

The most impressive album of my week, I thought. I'll probably blog about it mid-week. This is such a drastic improvement on her first album. The introduction of string sections to more of the songs give this sweeping folk album more momentum than Oh, My Darling and Bulat seems to be more in control of her already powerful voice.

This week I will (probably) include a few of the more impressive songs from these albums over at Brave New Waves, and will most likely listen to the new Massive Attack album which I just didn't have time for yesterday. As for other stuff, who knows!