Kingfisherg is from Liege, Belgium, and is on Carte Postal Records. Now you know as much as I do about Kingfisherg. But with electronic music this enchanting, that’s really all you need to know. You see, at my new job, I’m on the other side of a raspberry-colored cubicle wall from a woman who listens to easy listening that frankly BLASTS from the radio on her desk. No, it’s not actually that loud, but I cannot think while being forced to listen to this music. Fortunately for me, I can put on my headphones and listen to Kingfisherg’s brand of easy listening.
Build Buildings
Sometimes I can only explain my bias for a certain artist at a certain moment by blaming the weather. Build Buildings to me is autumnesque in its flickering warmth. Tape glitches and synth chirps swirl around you like cool fog on a country road, with moments of bright melody and humanity bursting through the periphery like orange, red, and yellow leaves. Whether or not you buy the meteorological analogy, you have to admit Ben Tweel’s open-structured compositions are mature beyond the age of his laptop.
My Enemy
The band claims to know all your secrets. Their label says My Enemy will kill you with poison. A wolf in sheep’s clothing? Harmless? Find out for yourself. Recommended if you’re a fan of imagining Múm up all night smoking crack…well, okay, maybe Múm after a couple Diet Cokes.
Nnnj
Lately, while certain technological gadgets of mine randomly play my music collection for me, I’ve heard unfamiliar, electronic, yet warm compositions capable of producing pleasant states of relaxation and reverie. It’s occured several times. Each time, as I’ve awakened from from this other world in which I’ve found myself, I glance down at the guilty party, and it’s been Nnnj. Nnnj (pronounced “inch”) relies on many sounds: global rhythms, glitchy programming, and trip-hop, but is beholden to none. Neither his name, album title (Monkey Straddle) nor its cover art is pretty, but the music itself is gorgeous.
Les Georges Leningrad
Petrochemical Rock. That’s how Les Georges Leningrad describe their music. These crazy Montreal post-punks are concussive, explosive, and just plain loopy. Imagine Atari Teenage Riot raised as Quebequois on The Fall and performance art.
Popkan
This oughta keep your holiday weekend percolatin’. Hey, if anyone can, Popkan! (What do you expect? I’m on vacation here…)
Tom Vek
In one of our 2004 Year-End Lists we each named the artists we wished would make MP3s available so we could rave about them on 3hive. Well, dreams do come true, people, as I can finally cross one Tom Vek off that list — just in time for his debut album to drop Stateside. The unassuming Londoner records deliciously tense, warm, and infectious songs from his parents’ garage. Feel free to listen in your garage, or wherever else you see fit.
Kettel
These examples of Kettel’s finer moments, wherein cut-up jazz breaks and organic field sounds stroll hand-in-hand, make me wonder why he hasn’t received as much notoriety as, say, Four Tet. He, by the way, is Reimer Eising. To browse/buy from his catalog, check the newly madeover kracfive site. (Overdue props to Disquiet for opening my ears to Kettel a while back.)
Kiss Me Deadly
Regular readers of 3hive will recall Sam mentioning on Monday that he should be tested for OCD (although I would replace “tested” with “treated”). You will also recall my many posts that taken together demonstrate my own obsessive compulsive behavior. It’s music; how could we react any other way? The focus of this week’s OCD-ness is another Montreal band on the Alien8 label, Kiss Me Deadly. Formerly emo/math rock, KMD have moved towards a dancier sound that’s still deeply EMOtional, full of earnest energy and rather dependent on the ’80s. If only KMD had been around in the ’80s, I might have actually enjoyed years of school and church dances. These songs from KMD’s tour-only EP Amoureux Cosmiques provide a glimpse into their full-length due out this fall.
Ezekiel Honig
Who’d have thought the “hook” stuck in my head for the past few days would be the sweet rhythm of what sounds like a printer feed tray being lifted and dropped? I know, I know, I should get checked for OCD. But Ezekiel Honig does have an ear for the latent musicality in such found sounds, which he uses to infuse his minimalist headphone techno with a real warm-blooded feel.