Head Like A Kite
My only uncle by blood recently passed away after a sudden and brief battle with cancer. Over the past few years I had been trying to get copies of his old home movies because I made frequent cameos in them as a young child. It’s very rare, early footage of me on film or video. Yes kids, I remember the days before everyone had video cameras in their cell phones! While he was living the last weeks of his life, my uncle, Erich, made me copies of those films. I was floored at his complete unselfishness and I was fortunate to be able to thank him on Christmas day, the last time I saw him. Each brief clip of our families is pure magic in today’s saturated world of moving images.
It was timely then for me to come across Head Like A Kite, the solo project from Dave Einmo. His debut album Random Portraits of the Home Movie was inspired by the economy of Super 8 movies. Combining samples from the movies, filtered through various guitar effects and gadgets, and a keen sense of well-honed pop songs, Einmo cut and pasted together a musical homage to the vintage format. It’s a rich reflection on how the past inevitably textures the present.
Doveman
Doing a little bit of cleaning up around here and I was gladdened to come across The Acrobat and immediately horrified upon realizing that I’ve had Doveman queued up on our back-end of Moveable Type for SIX months. Doveman is slowly orchestrated pop, not unlike Belle and Sebastian dropping it down a notch for ladies choice at the skating rink. (Wow. I have no idea why that rollerskating image popped in my head). If you liked Neil Halstead’s (Slowdive, Mojave 3) solo record, and you should, you should find Doveman aurally satisfying. A little blogosphere trivia, vocalist Thomas Bartlett keys the Audiofile column over at Salon.com — another fine, clean and quick MP3 fix.
Coldcut
I was raised on Coldcut, or at least raised after my rebirth as a Ninja Tune baby. Cold Krush Cuts, a two-CD set mixed by Coldcut, DJ Food and DJ Krush, pretty much changed my whole perspective on DJs: these guys could rock a block party ’til the break of dawn with a sound just as at home at the Whitney Biennial as on a dancefloor. They’re still doing it, and like true producer-minded DJs they’ve brought in a stellar cast of MCs and collaborators on their upcoming full-length of originals, so give this one with Roots Manuva a spin or two.
Fruit Bats
I’ve been meaning to post the Fruit Bats for a while now because, well, because they’re as reassuring as a warm cup of tea. The acoustic guitar has a lovely lilt to it. The slight, overdubbed vocals don’t demand attention but get it anyway. And the alternately peppy and melancholy rhythms float on and on and on. All in all, you get the sense that the Fruit Bats respect their mothers, and a little motherly love in our indie pop could do us all some good.
Two MP3s Added to Clorox Girls
Shotgun and Jaybird
Lo-fi music from “smalltown Canada.” That’s how Paul from Shotgun and Jaybird described Sackville, New Brunswick, in his e-mail pitch to 3hive (I added the lo-fi part). It seems like these guys are kind of into the small — small sound, small town, a new EP of (only) 6 songs. Even their wonderful crayon slideshow bio is too short, in the sense that it’s not long enough. What happens next? Do they still live in the Road King? Download “Secret” for a Pavement-inspired soundtrack of what’s going on in Sackville.