Human mannerism is the subject of most (if not all) music and art. Panic Ensemble provide a new take on this theme. When they approached their music and lyrics, they actually wrote a psychology book. Panic Ensemble’s debut album is a brilliant survey of the human psyche with special focus on the wonderful behaviors of fear, obsession and panic. With lyrics based partly on professional literature, their work has a solid base in reality. On the other hand, with their amazing musical arrangements, they posses a celestial aura. To bring this down to earth and give a bit of a clue about what kind of music they do, I will just have to throw in Rock, Jazz, Klezmer, Electronica and most of all Cabaret as categorizing genres. Panic Ensemble’s debut was recently released on Earsay Records. Links: MySpace Profile
Seahorse [MP3] Most musical genres come to life as en experimental evolution of previous genres. This was also the case with Freak Folk. It was born as a new psychedelic take on the good ol’ traditional folk music. Although it’s innovation and a pioneering spirit that drives artists to give birth to new genres, often they decide to settle down and continue create inside their newly born kingdom. This is not the case with Devendra Banhart. In this new album, title Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon, he proves that he still has plenty to say and it’s going to come in a whole bunch languages. Smokey Rolls Down is a record that shares aesthetic and freakish values with his previous work, but speaks in totally different language. Banhart takes on a progressive approach with songs developing and swinging across genres from one minute to another. This album speaks many tongues and does so with amazing proficiency. This is, without a doubt, his best work to date. Links: Official website Myspace profile
Panic Ensemble is a project that was founded with a goal - to explore the intrinsic ways of panic. Like its subject, the band itself and its music are both schizophrenic creatures. The music “suffers” from mood swings and periods of hyper activity that are replaced by swallowing sensuality. The band reminds of an octopus, its eight members, each one mastering his (or hers) instrument with superb skill, create a single split personality. Panic Ensemble also celebrate Darwin’s theory of evolution: The band started with a great potential, which blooms ever stronger as time passes. The band of today is by no mean what you saw half a year ago, they have evolved and changed, just like a real life being. Links: More wonderful videos (Hebrew website, so just click the thumbs to get the videos) Panic Ensemble @ MySpace Some photos from their gigs (by dirkhaim)
“Bella ciao” is an Italian partisan song of World War II. The origins of the song are uncertain. The music seems to come from a predating folk song and the author of the lyrics is unknown. The song has been recorded by various artists in many different languages including Italian, Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian, Hungarian, English, Spanish, German, Turkish, Japanese, Chinese, and Kurdish.
I Woke Myself Up [MP3] No More [MP3] I woke myself up. On a gloomy morning, the sounds of rain drops mixed with sweet minimalist pop and raw folk melodies are natural soundtrack. At times with a little dose of rock, and the delightful energy spreading all over the place, Julie Doiron flashes a perfect skill for unpretentiously crafted songs. It has a sense of drama, a feeling of melancholy, certain amount of charm and witty humor. It’s like rain and hot chocolate.
Completing her music is Julie’s photography, a collection of mostly intimate self-portraits from her life. Links: Official website Myspace profile Wikipedia article
Missed the Boat [MP3] Dashboard [MP3] March into the Sea [MP3] Dashboard [YouTube] A rock is a hard object. Made out of condensed minerals, hardened over millions of years, it can withstand quite a lot. Us humans can do nothing to it unaided. Aided, we can, as it seems, crash almost anything. But a big enough rock, will overcome us with not much of a difficulty. Actually, for our entire life we actually spend on one giant rock. So, you see, it’s no wonder we created a musical genre called Rock. It’s hard, it’s rough, rugged, and we can’t seem to break it. We enjoy having something to push against that just won’t move. We mixed it with electronic music, with Folk, with Country (hey, it came from Country and then remixed with it), with Blues (another ancestor), with Classical music and with just about everything we could find. Hell, we even mixed it with bad hairdos (see the 80s). But it always stayed Rock, and we thank it for being that way. Modest Mouse does Rock, and in the latest album - Dashboard, they do good Rock. It’s fun to come back and lean against this Rock for support, it feels just like home, like my precious Earth. Links: Official website Another official website (?)
This is an extended version of the Mirah special. It’s a special edit made for the radio, adding an extra 20 minutes to the original set, and revealing more of the wonderful Mirah.
Same as the original version, this too is mainly concerned with interleaving the new mixes from Joyride with the originals. Unlike the first one, this adds a few more insights, including live covers and a few more of the wonderful takes Mirah has on life and music. This version was prepared for 106FM and was featured there in a Mirah special a short while ago.
01 - Mirah - Birthday Present (Kcrw Show Opening)
02 - Mirah - The Light (Dj Beyonda Remix Vs. Album Version Vs. Black Cat Orchestra Version - Tinyways Demix)
03 - Mirah - Exactly Where We’re From
04 - Mirah - Make It Hot (Album Version Vs. Yacht All Over Remix - Tinyways Demix)
05 - Mirah - Monument (Album Version Vs. Anna Oxygen Remix - Tinyways Demix)
06 - Mirah - Apples In The Trees (Balvanera House Party Mix By Bryce Panic)
07 - Mirah With The Black Cat Orchestra - Bella Ciao
08 - Mirah - The Dogs Of B.A. (Krts Remix Vs. Album Version - Tinyways Demix)
09 - Mirah With The Black Cat Orchestra - Si Se Calla El Cantor
10 - Mirah - La Familia (Guy Sigworth Remix Vs. Album Version Vs. Chris Baker Handsom Mix - Tinyways Demix)
11 - Mirah - Advisory Committee (Advised By Shok Remix Vs. Earl St. Ives Remix - Tinyways Demix)
12 - Mirah - Cold Cold Water (Album Version Vs. Electrosexual & Abberline Remix - Tinyways Demix)
13 - Mirah - Mt. St. Helens (Nervous Redux By Shawn Parks Remix)
14 - Mirah Yom Tov Zeitlyn & Ginger Brooks Takahashi - Oh! September
15 - Mirah - Recommendation
16 - Mirah - Untitled (Advisory Committee Track #14)
17 - William S. Borroughs vs. Mirah and the Black Cat Orchestra vs. Crich Schellow and Johanna von Kuczion - What Keeps Mankind Alive (Ballade Uber die Frage: Woven Lebt der Mensch?) (tinyways needlework)
20 - Mirah - Water and Sleep
21 - Mirah - Dancing in the Dark (cover)
Les Reines Prochaines is from Switzerland. It’s an all women multilingual feminist band. A small fact about feminism over at the Swiss Alpes: Women were granted the right to vote only in 1971. Another small fact: women were allowed to participate in the local elections of the canton Appenzell Inner Rhoden, only in 1991. That’s not that long ago. A small detail about Les Reines Prochaines: they are crazy. And a last detail: they do wonderful covers. Links: More about Les Reines Prochaines (including high quality MP3s) Women’s voting in Switzerland The local elections of the canton Appenzell Inner Rhoden
This is the first version, a final extended version is available here. In this Indie party you won’t be jumping up and down, screaming along the guitars. In this Indie party, you won’t chew on the same songs over and over again, turning them into a horrible lolly pop. In this Indie party you will House music, and it’s will be more Indie then any guitar you ever heard. This party will be broken, it will be shattered by styles, fractured by beats and it will hammer deep into you. However, this Indie party will be united by one, it will be united by Mirah. This entire party, that will shot you to the dance floor, is all about Mirah and her music. Indie never sounded more kicking, and Mirah never made dance so much, although she did made me feel oh so much already.
This set is a mix of Mirah’s work, but it revolves mainly around the brilliant remixes album she just released titled Joyride. Unlike other remixes albums this one proved to be a masterpiece not only by reflecting other masterpieces, but on its own right, a brilliant and surprising collection of ways for you to get carried away by, to hear Mirah in ways you never dreamed about.
01 - Mirah - Birthday Present (Kcrw Show Opening - tinyways break)
02 - Mirah - The Light (Dj Beyonda Remix Vs. Album Version Vs. Black Cat Orchestra Version - tinyways Demix)
03 - Mirah - Exactly Where We’re From
04 - Mirah - Make It Hot (Album Version Vs. Yacht All Over Remix - tinyways Demix)
05 - Mirah - Monument (Album Version Vs. Anna Oxygen Remix - tinyways Demix)
06 - Mirah - Apples In The Trees (Balvanera House Party Mix By Bryce Panic)
07 - Mirah With The Black Cat Orchestra - Bella Ciao
08 - Mirah - The Dogs Of B.A. (Krts Remix Vs. Album Version - tinyways Demix)
09 - Mirah With The Black Cat Orchestra - Si Se Calla El Cantor
10 - Mirah - La Familia (Guy Sigworth Remix Vs. Album Version Vs. Chris Baker Handsom Mix - tinyways Demix)
11 - Mirah - Advisory Committee (Advised By Shok Remix Vs. Earl St. Ives Remix - tinyways Demix)
12 - Mirah - Cold Cold Water (Album Version Vs. Electrosexual & Abberline Remix - tinyways Demix)
13 - Mirah - Mt. St. Helens (Nervous Redux By Shawn Parks Remix)
The Light [MP3] What Keeps Mankind Alive [MP3] Bella Ciao [MP3] Will you, if taken in the middle of the night, kidnapped from your bed, and go through metamorphosis, will you stay the same? Will you, waking up in the morning, something different, will you be the same? Will you be you or will you be a new friend? A foe? A new darling to caress? What will you be?
Some things, you take them, you turn them, you change them, and they stay the same, but different, refreshing, new and old. Smoked salmon will always be salmon, but it will also be smoked, and that’s different. Mirah will always be Mirah, but you give her a small orchestra, and she will be new. A new darling to yearn to, a wonderful creation, different and powerful, her voice filling the gaps between the instruments, and riding forward, preaching, to us all, and caressing. Links: The Black Cat Orchestra Buy the CD on CD Baby Mirah on K Records
Most musical genres come to life as en experimental evolution of previous genres. This was also the case with Freak Folk. It was born as a new psychedelic take on the good ol’ traditional folk music. Although it’s innovation and a pioneering spirit that drives artists to give birth to new genres, often they decide to settle down and continue create inside their newly born kingdom. This is not the case with Devendra Banhart. In this new album, title Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon, he proves that he still has plenty to say and it’s going to come in a whole bunch languages. Smokey Rolls Down is a record that shares aesthetic and freakish values with his previous work, but speaks in totally different language. Banhart takes on a progressive approach with songs developing and swinging across genres from one minute to another. This album speaks many tongues and does so with amazing proficiency. This is, without a doubt, his best work to date.
From Wikipedia:
I woke myself up. On a gloomy morning, the sounds of rain drops mixed with sweet minimalist pop and raw folk melodies are natural soundtrack. At times with a little dose of rock, and the delightful energy spreading all over the place, Julie Doiron flashes a perfect skill for unpretentiously crafted songs. It has a sense of drama, a feeling of melancholy, certain amount of charm and witty humor. It’s like rain and hot chocolate.
A rock is a hard object. Made out of condensed minerals, hardened over millions of years, it can withstand quite a lot. Us humans can do nothing to it unaided. Aided, we can, as it seems, crash almost anything. But a big enough rock, will overcome us with not much of a difficulty. Actually, for our entire life we actually spend on one giant rock. So, you see, it’s no wonder we created a musical genre called Rock. It’s hard, it’s rough, rugged, and we can’t seem to break it. We enjoy having something to push against that just won’t move. We mixed it with electronic music, with Folk, with Country (hey, it came from Country and then remixed with it), with Blues (another ancestor), with Classical music and with just about everything we could find. Hell, we even mixed it with bad hairdos (see the 80s). But it always stayed Rock, and we thank it for being that way. Modest Mouse does Rock, and in the latest album - Dashboard, they do good Rock. It’s fun to come back and lean against this Rock for support, it feels just like home, like my precious Earth.
This is an extended version of the 
In this Indie party you won’t be jumping up and down, screaming along the guitars. In this Indie party, you won’t chew on the same songs over and over again, turning them into a horrible lolly pop. In this Indie party you will House music, and it’s will be more Indie then any guitar you ever heard. This party will be broken, it will be shattered by styles, fractured by beats and it will hammer deep into you. However, this Indie party will be united by one, it will be united by Mirah. This entire party, that will shot you to the dance floor, is all about Mirah and her music. Indie never sounded more kicking, and Mirah never made dance so much, although she did made me feel oh so much already.
Will you, if taken in the middle of the night, kidnapped from your bed, and go through metamorphosis, will you stay the same? Will you, waking up in the morning, something different, will you be the same? Will you be you or will you be a new friend? A foe? A new darling to caress? What will you be?
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