Highlight Track : "Violent Love"
Artist: Aiko Shimada
Album: Blue Marble
The Scoop: Shimada shows an insatiable hunger for exploration on Blue Marble. The prodigiously talented Seattleite veers most often toward a electronic jazz sound that is a hybrid of both traditional and experimental influences. Producer Eyvind Kang keeps the studio world surrounding Shimada shrouded in the unpredictable. Even as the environment changes, Shimada's voice is always allowed its proper position at center stage-with spotlights bright-giving the album an oft-chilling intimacy. Shimada sings in Japanese throughout-which, for non-speakers, takes the album even farther out of the realm of the literal and places it an alluring, ethereal plain. Instead of merely lulling the listener to sleep or wandering off to an overindulgent netherworld-the common pratfalls of the minimalist and the experimentalist, respectively-Shimada keeps the listener on track through her commanding vocals, some unexpected turns in the musical paths, and a steady air of tension-taut strings and brittle horns just when you expect the melodies to float. .Highlight Track: "Wakare"
For More Info: Visit http://www.aikoshimada.com or visit http://www.cdbaby.com for other Aiko Shimada releases.
Artist: The Long Winters
Album: The Worst You Can Do Is Harm
The Scoop: So much to talk about in such little time. So John Roderick led a bunch of almost famous merry musicmakers called The Western State Hurricanes. In certain circles, their flame-out is somewhat legendary, on par with other not-quites like Jonathan Fire*Eater. Now, kinda like that band's risen phoenix (The Walkmen), Roderick returns with a collection of familiar friends. I've seen "super-group" used in a few reviews, but let's take it a little easy. Harvey Danger's Sean Nelson, Sunday Day Real Estate's Joe Bass, Built To Spill's Jim Roth, et. al. ain't exactly Dylan, Orbison and Harrison. But they can make a helluva album together; an album that often seems like a big ball of catharsis for singer/songwriter Roderick (who at times recalls both Bob Mould and Adam Duritz), who was so disgruntled with the biz after the demise of his old band that he walked across Europe for awhile and returned, eventually, with a beard and renewed sense of purpose. The weary traveler returns here to the solid ground of Americana, in both rockers and ballads. His songwriting is consistently smarter than the norm; each song feels wrenched from an especially well-written journal.Highlight Track: "Car Parts" ("I'm leaving you all my car parts / I didn't have the money or I would have gotten roses")
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