David Emery Online

Lightness

22 February 2009

After the perennial January drought there seems to finally be some new music about that’s worth talking about. Pretty much the only things of note in said drought were the new Franz Ferdinand album which I would say was a massive disappointment had I been expecting something decent, and the Antony and the Johnsons album which is good but not as good as his previous.

I’ve talked about Dark Was The Night before but it is absolutely worth highlighting again in a little more depth. Dark Was The Night is a charity compilation (for the Red Hot AIDS charity) curated by the Dessner brothers from The National, and features a veritable who’s who of the North American indie scene including Bon Iver, Beirut, Arcade Fire, The National, Sufjan Stevens and many more.

If it was a single disk it would probably be the best compilation album ever released, as it is it’s still a must listen as I suspect that disk worth of amazing songs is going to vary from listener. For me the first disk is far stronger then the second, but it’s all good – here’s my favourite 3 tracks in handy widget form (including a mind blowing 9 minute long turn by Sufjan Stevens):

Moving closer to home up next is the album by the delightful Fanfarlo. As anyone who follows my Flickr stream will know I’m a fan and it’s great to see that they’ve managed to turn great live songs into a great album (a task sometimes people stumble on). It really is a confidant piece of work, sounding for all the world like a band that really know what they’re doing. You can only get the album on their tour but hopefully soon it will get a much wider release – for the time being, watch the lovely video for ‘Harold T. Wilkins’:

Micachu couldn’t be more different – not only from Fanfarlo but from pretty much everything else as well. It’s rare that something comes along that sounds genuinely different but the Micachu album – titled Jewellery – is indeed that rare thing, fusing a determinedly London sound with eclectic electronic and not-so-electronic beats and noises. Not indie, not electro, not any genre I could put my finger on – it just is what it is, which is great. Luckily enough there are some songs as well – often something forgotten in similarly experimental escapades – although there’s also space on the album for some not-songs as well, if that makes any sense. It’s out in a couple of weeks – here’s a taster of the single ‘Lips’:

That’s probably enough for now, although it’s probably worth mentioning that there’s great stuff coming soon from St. Vincent, a stunning 2nd single from The Big Pink and a pretty radical change of direction (although everyone always says that; this time it’s true) for The Horrors. Exciting times…