Category Archives: On the Web

Music suggestions, On the Web

Must-see: Synth Britannia

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Documentary following a generation of post-punk musicians who took the synthesiser from the experimental fringes to the centre of the pop stage.

In the late 1970s, small pockets of electronic artists including the Human League, Daniel Miller and Cabaret Volatire were inspired by Kraftwerk and JG Ballard and dreamt of the sound of the future against the backdrop of bleak, high-rise Britain.

The crossover moment came in 1979 when Gary Numan’s appearance on Top of the Pops with Tubeway Army’s Are Friends Electric heralded the arrival of synthpop. Four lads from Basildon known as Depeche Mode would come to own the new sound whilst post-punk bands like Ultravox, Soft Cell, OMD and Yazoo took the synth out of the pages of the NME and onto the front page of Smash Hits.

By 1983, acts like Pet Shop Boys and New Order were showing that the future of electronic music would lie in dance music.

Contributors include Philip Oakey, Vince Clarke, Martin Gore, Bernard Sumner, Gary Numan and Neil Tennant.

Music suggestions, News, On the Web

Spaceful of Astronauts… The lost album from Handful of Snowdrops’ alter ego is out!

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SoA_full

In 1993, after the demise of Handful of Snowdrops Jean-Pierre Mercier, writer and composer of the band, began a new journey into instrumental electronic music under the new moniker Spaceful of Astronauts. After a couple of performances in rave events at the beginning of the 90s, he redirected his focus toward a more open and ambient sound that would culminate a few years later.

Nanomusique is the title of the long forgotten Spaceful of Astonauts’ album. Originally recorder in 1995, but never release for lack of resources, it has been completely remastered for the occasion of its official release as well as extended with two bonus tracks from the same era, namely Orion and Big Black Bubble.

You can now stream excerpts of every track of this mesmerizing electronic and instrumental work from the new SoA Mypace profile.

The 1 hour, 19 minutes and 11 seconds ambient epic is ONLY available as a DOWNLOADABLE DIGITAL ALBUM directly from the Handful of Snowdrops website shop and the Spaceful of Astronauts official Myspace profile.

BUY Nanomusique NOW ›››

Music suggestions, On the Web

The archives are online

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Hey y’all.

I’ve archives all the tracks I’ve produced, co-produced or remixed so far, since 2000.

I’ve included a few details on each track, and I’m presenting them in alphabetical order because, for most of them, I’ve lost the actual date of creation in a hard drive crash.

Indeed, a lot of those tracks only exist in audio format because the Reason master file (.rns) was lost.

In alphabetical order also beacuse I don’t want to put any of them forward, even though I should, but like I said, it’s an archive, not a sales pitch.

To wit, the fact that for the vast majority of them, the title is a working title, and and real title is important to me once a track is finished. I’ll let you guess which ones I think are completed tracks.

They are only available to stream, but I’ll gladly send you a copy should you request one.

The archive is HERE

Music suggestions, On the Web

Monsieur Seb’s Daily Music Suggestion: Let’s Save the World with Music

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PREFAB_SPROUT_238757s

Yeah, the Beatles also had that goal, at some point, but while today everyone’s mind is on the excellent reissue of the Fab 4’s catalog (more on that later), another release came out yesterday, unbeknownst to most.

Heck, even I only heard about it yesterday thanks to the fact I am a fan on their Facebook page!

I’m talking about the “new”-ish album by Prefab Sprout, one of my favoritest bands (they never knew much success on this side of the Big Pond, but look here to know more about them).

“Newish”, because this is more or less a new album in the sense that it’s actually demos of an unreleased album dating back to 1992, songs that were composed and recorded as a follow-up to their masterpiece Jordan: The Comeback, but never released.

As such, then, I’d say that this release is intended for hardcore fans, because the production quality, although excellent sonically, lacks in instrumentation. It obviously sounds as if Paddy recorded the whole thing on his own with a keyboard and sampler, and one can only dream of what it would sound like with a full string orchestra, brass, section and Thomas Dolby’s Midas touch…

But it’s pure delight, nonetheless, to have new Prefab songs to listen to, especially this one which I immediately fell in love with after my first listen of the album.

Prefab Sprout – I Love Music
I Love Music

Here, you’ll find a radio interview of Paddy on BBC2, last Thursday (Sept. 3rd)
Paddy on BBC

Music suggestions, News, On the Web

Monsieur Seb’s Daily Music Suggestion: As the Phoenix…

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LotD_Full

Legendary 80’s band Handful of Snowdrops make a surprise comeback!

It’s true! It’s confirmed! To mark its 20th anniversary, Handful of Snowdrops have launched the expanded and remastered reissue of their legendary first album Land of the Damned, just over 16 years after their eloquent final release, Mort en Direct.

In addition to its superior sound quality, the album has been expanded with the track Gabrielle MMIX, a totally new version of their seminal smash hit, Gabrielle.

This reissue will be available in a deluxe package that will see the CD arrive to your door accompanied by a T-Shirt and 11″x17″ poster.

But furthermore, each CD copy — deluxe or regular — of this very limited reissue will allow collectors to download a compilation of 12 early demos titled Groundwork for Fundamentals Vol. 1, literally a sonic history of the band’s formative years, from 1984 to 1986.

“For years, I thought that Land of the Damned went practically unheard of, especially outside Canada and the U.S.

“And then, along came the Internet: I began getting tons of emails from people around the world — especially Mexico and South America — telling me how much they loved that record.

“Still, it took me many, many years to be able to accept such praise and to finally come to terms with the fact that a 20th anniversary re-edition would not be such a bad idea, after all.”

That’s how Jean-Pierre Mercier, founder and leader of the band, recalls the genesis of this project — which most fans had given up on.

Yet, the band’s MySpace player has garnered over 26 000 plays in just over a year, digits that have no doubt helped convinced Jean-Pierre that this project was well worthwhile!

Land of the Damned (Expanded & Remastered) will only available online from HOS’ website (handfulofsnowdrops.com) and on their MySpace profile (myspace.com/handfulofsnowdrops) but exceptionally and for a very limited time, it will be availble from these two retailers:

Platine
155, chemin Ste-Foy
Québec, QC, Canada
G1R 1T1
Tél.: 418.529.4222

and

Mecanica
Av. Insurgentes Sur # 277 – 2
Col. Roma, Mexico DF
Tel. 91499967
mecanica.com.mx

Click here for the complete press kit (French and English press release and album cover art)

On the Web

Download Radiohead’s new song

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tamtw

Jonny Greenwood wrote on the band’s blog, “We’ve been recording for a while, and this was one of the first [songs] we finished. We’re pretty proud of it. There’s other stuff in various states of completion, but this is one we’ve been practicing, and which we’ll probably play at this summer’s concerts. Hope you like it.”

via FACT magazine: music & art news, upfront videos, free downloads, classic vinyl, competitions, gigs, clubs, festivals & exhibitions – Download: Radiohead’s new song.

Music suggestions, On the Web

Monsieur Seb’s Daily Music Suggestion: Stix’em Up!

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First, thanks to my friend Steve for making me discover this.

“This” being all at once this version of Bring the Noise and the label it’s been released on.

This version of Public Enemy’s Bring the Noise is reinterpreted/remixed/mashed up by Mato.

The flipside of that release, the Beastie Boys’ Intergalactic ground through the same grinder, is just as good!

The label it’s been released on is French label Stix, seemingly quite elusive with barely any information on Discogs and apparently no website.

Plus they release everything they output on 7″ vinyl!