Tuesday, December 31, 2013

My Personal Top 10 Albums of 2013

Welcome to my 5th annual end-of-the-year album-list.
As always this list is based on my own personal favorite albums, and contains albums, released in 2013, that I have played the most over the last year.

It was such a good year for new albums, that I couldn't keep it to 5 albums this time, and i couldn't leave out any of the albums below.
Here they are, in random order... (kinda)

Disclosure - Settle
I believe this has been everyone's favorite over the last year, and it was definitely my most played album of the year. And the best one... I guess.
I'm a big fan of their sound, the deep house basslines, their catchy tunes and it is all so well-produced.
Respect to these 2 guys who have gotten world-famous in only 18 months.

Disclosure - Album Launch Party at Boiler Room


Elvis Costello and the Roots
One of the strangest combinations of the year... Costello's recognizable 60s voice with The Roots' 70s backup behind it. It works for me. Weird but nice...
Interesting that The Roots are in my Albumlist again... It is the 3rd time that they appear in my annual Top-5 list, out of the 5 lists i have made so far. Earlier they scored with Betty Wright and Jon Legend, I wonder what they come up with in the next years...

Daft Punk - Random Access Memories
The most anticipated and most hyped album of the year did not disappoint me, although there are a few tracks on this album that i'd rather skip sometimes.
Nevertheless, the first single-releases were so great that they made up for the rest.
But what would you expect, with a line-up like that: Moroder, Todd Edwards, Nile Rodgers, Pharrell Williams and many more... It's true that the big budget helped to make this album as big as it got, but don't underestimate Daft Punk's excellent production-skillz on this one...

Robin Thicke - Blurred Lines
The first single (and video) were probably the biggest summer-hit of the year, but the full album was actually pretty nice too... Funky, soulful... just what i like.
It might be a bit too smooth for you all, but find that out for yourself.

David Bowie
Bowie's latest (24th) studio-album, long-awaited and brilliant as ever. Nuff said...

David Bowie - The Stars (Are Out Tonight)


Justin Timberlake - The 20/20 Experience (1)
We had to wait 6½ year for a new Justin Timberlake album and this year it was finally released.
Justin's voice is still in great shape, he still has an excellent timing, and sounds soulful and funky...
I love the long versions on the album, the producers probably had a lot of fun creating these masterpieces with some very weird and unconventional tempo-changes.

The Horrorist - Fire Funmania
...it's funny when you re-discover an artist that you danced to in the 90s at rave-parties, and then finding out 20 years later that he is still making music, plus that he shares the same interests as you.
He also blogs about synthesizers (even longer then me) and i believe he is even a 'fan' of my PatchPierre blog :-)
This album has really taught me something about producing albums just for the fun of it.
Too many albums i hear lately are 'overproduced' and this one definitely not.
I like the raw, dark, bold atmosphere in some tracks, and the pure energy in others...



Janelle Monae - The Electric Lady
Not as good as her debut  'The Archandroid', but after a couple of times listening this album really grows on you. I love how versatile her voice is, and the production behind it always keeps amazing me...

Greco-Roman - We Make Colourful Music Because We Dance In The Dark
One of my favorite British dance-labels have released their first official compilation album this year, and it features almost all the masterpieces that they released so far.
It's a very dance-able album, just like their first 'un-official' first compilation 'Gods against Men' that was on this list 2 years ago...
You can listen to the tracks at the ResidentAdvisor website

Knife Party - Haunted House EP
Whoohoo!
I love the sound of Knife Party on this EP... play this loud and enjoy!
EDM Death Machine is one of my favorite tracks of the year...



More...? :
Tamar Braxton - Love and War  ...Toni's youngest sister and former member of the Braxtons delivered an excellent album that is almost as good as Toni Braxton's early albums... Another great voice but now with a more up-to-date sound
Teena Marie - Beautiful  ...Teena Marie, mainly known for her work with funk-legend Rick James, passed away late 2012, right after she (almost) finished her last album. With  a little vocal and productional help of her daughter this album got released early this year and is still pretty amazing. A worthy tribute to a true legend.
LL Cool J - Authentic ...my favorite HipHop album of 2013. Maybe just because i like oldschool HipHop and this album just sounds 'authentic'.
Atoms for Peace - Amok  ...Thom Yorke's side-project released another exciting album this year. I've always been a fan of Radiohead and Thom's solo-project and this is again very experimental and exciting with Thom's unique way of singing.
Stromae - Racine  ...hmmm... I like French songs and a few of Stromae's #overhyped singles, but this is just not my cup of tea... but you may disagree.
Charlie Wilson - Love, Charlie  ...one of the most disappointing albums of the year; I like comeback albums from soul-legends, but not if they get the autotune treatment on almost every track #fail


Also check out: 

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

The Unimaginable - 1918VAPTU Project

Last month i cooperated in a film-project by Ferrie Differentieel (from http://dailym.net/) for an Italian internet-film festival.
The year 1918 was assigned to Ferrie to make an art film for the 100X100=900 project at 9hundred and the film premiered last weekend.

The Unimaginable is an international collaboration,
This short film tells a story about a long gone history.
That last year of World War 1 brought not only temporary peace, it also was a turning point on the social field, science and medical development but also the most horrible things happened in that year -things that contemporary man can’t imagine-

My role was only small, we recorded a few spoken words for the background voices, and I reviewed and made a small change in the French translation.
In a apparently untouched landscape.
You need to find the unimaginable there.
And then you come to the opposite, deeply sunk in snow and frozen surfaces. 
“This beauty, has a thin skin. Scratch the land, and imagine, if you can, what lies buried beneath today”.

idea, direction and sound | ferrie = differentieel audio.dailym.net
lyrics | Jimmy ThePeach (Aron) jimmythepeach.com/
camera, titles and editing | Jöran Maaswinkel dailym.net
composer | Jorge Franganillo franganillo.es/en/
voices | Jimmy ThePeach - Heribert Lindner - Hans Jansens - Pierre Serné - Marc Wielaert - Steve Harlow
translations | Anneke van de Kassteele - Christine Stefan
special thanks to | Marieke Elsenga - Marlies Ottenberg

2013 ferrie = differentieel Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 3.0
translated lyrics in French and German can be found at dailym.net/1918vaptu/

Find all other entries at 9hundred
Update March 31:
We are so proud to announce the 100X10=900 International Tour is going to start on the 16th and 17th of April.
See for all detail the Calendar Page at http://9hundred.org/calendar.php
Also memorable are the 1500 visitors that have been looking at the short film at vimeo so far.
Find the new the blogpost about it on DailyM at http://dailym.net/2013/03/1918vaptu-international-tour/
and an explanation about the used instruments on Audio Log at http://audio.dailym.net/2013/03/1918vaptu-ost/

The film is submitted to:
Streaming Festival (NL) ShortCutz (NL) Moscars Al-Hurria (Egypt)
CologneOFF (traveling - Europe) Festival Silhouette (France) IMPAKT (NL)
INTERFILM Int.SHort Film Fest Berlin (Germany) MANLEU (Spain)
Sapporro Int. Short Fest. (Japan) Theran Int. SHort Film Fest. (Iran) Uppsala Int. Comp. Film Fest. (Sweden)
SCHNITT Int. Short Film Fest. (Switzerland) Sao Paulo Int.Short Film (Brazil)
several others to come

If you have a suggestion for me where we can submit 1918VAPTU please be so kind to send a message with the URL or link where to go.
Spread the word if you can...

Monday, March 11, 2013

My Personal Top 5 Albums of 2012

Yay... Better late then never...
I know i am very late this year with my Top 5 Albums list, we're already in 2013.
The largest part of this post was ready around half December last year, but i kinda forgot to finish and post my annual list.

It wasn't as hard to pick five as last year, there were plenty of good albums this year.
These were the albums that i played the most over the last year;

Lambchop - Mr M.
This has gotta be my favorite of the year.
Not the most innovative album of the year, nor the most uplifting, but i do like the sound of Lambchop and the raspy voice of singer Kurt Wagner.
This album has partially helped me get through the most difficult part the year when my dad passed away in March this year...

Stream the whole album from HERE


The opening track of the Lambchop " Mr. M "  album

Breakbot - By Your Side
I was very happy when someone posted about the Breakbot debut-album last year.
This album is extremely well-produced by a French guy, and it may sound bit too retro for you but it is very refreshing.
Most tracks are very danceble, and the styles vary from funky electro-disco to 80s retro-pop.
Best new thing of the year!

Breakbot: Fantasy from Önaz on Vimeo.

Esperanza Spalding - Radio Music Society
Esperanza Spalding surprised me in 2011 with an album full with her chamber-music/jazz styled album, but this album is more suitable for radio.
Her brilliant voice and bass-playing fit together perfectly.
One of the nicest pop/jazz crossover albums of the last decade IMHO.

Video: Radio Music Society Trailer

Published by EsperanzaSpaldingTV

Parov Stelar - The Princess
Another fine surprise in 2012 was Parov Stelar's album.
This Austrian musician combines east-european folk-electronica with jazz, that gives him a unique sound. Very danceable, very happy-sounding, very good...

Gregory Porter - Be Good
I spotted Gregory Porter in the Dutch DWDD tv-show.
He impressed me with his dark, laidback and soulful voice and that triggered me to listen to his whole album.
His voice reminds me somewhat of Otis Redding and the orchestration of the whole album fits that same classic-soul-vibe.



plus:
Michael Kiwanuka - Home Again
Sin Cos Tan - Sin Cos Tan (a Finnish band, with very slick production by techno-producer Jori Hulkkonen)
Bobby Womack - The Bravest man in the Universe (the return of a soul-legend, produced by Gorillaz-frontman Damon Albarn)

List from 2009
List from 2010
List from 2011