If you can't be original, be an accomplished synthesist. The Calgary band introduces itself to Toronto on Nov. Produced, impeccably, by Florence + The Machine drummer Christopher Lloyd Hayden - a relationship that ensued, so the story goes, after a chance encounter in Mexico between Reuben Bullock and the manager of The Machine - this memorable debut has both the brooding sophistication of a Bon Iver album cut and the immediate gratification of a Coldplay single. The Gabriel hit, on the other hand, feels newly sanctified by the pairing, though that impression withers in the face of an accompanying video, which, among other things, opens with the nun-whacking-Jake-and-Elwood-with-a-ruler scene from The Blues Brothers. When paired with Gabriel's decidedly secular “Sledgehammer,” it holds its ground as what is, at heart, a gospel number. The former scored an unlikely, joyous 1985 dance hit with “Stand on the Word,” which has been remixed and covered repeatedly in the intervening quarter of a century, including in France, from where the creator of this mash-up, DJ Le Clown, hails. This irresistibly titled single from the Charlatans frontman sounds like a cross between “ Is a Woman” by noir-ish Nashville minimalists Lambchop and George Harrison's “ Isn't It a Pity.” Though the music's hypnotic quality makes it hard to focus on the lyrics - which appear to be about a dying relationship - if you get this couplet, you'll get the rest: “See those records stacked up in the corner/ In the order of when they were played. Like Papillon, Olenka is more than capable of conjuring up the feel of autumn in 30 seconds flat. This highlight from a seven-song EP - one of two new releases, the other being a three-track seven-inch - is characterized by some of the same unfussy melancholy that graces the work of Halifax/Montreal denizen Gabrielle Papillon. The calculus for the latest music by this London, Ont., band could go something like this: Olenka Krakus's Polish roots + a predilection for minor keys + elegantly compact lyrics that seem one step away from haiku = instant October.
You could imagine listening to Khan's version, furtively, at the back of a church.
Recorded last week for BBC Radio 1, this sounds fragile and poignant where Rihanna sounded frantic and edgy. “We found love in a hopeless place.” That core lyric, familiar to anyone who's helped the Rihanna original ring up 212 million views on YouTube, practically begs to be taken seriously, and Natasha Khan has thoughtfully obliged. Which shouldn't stop anyone from getting in on this before you read about someone being dubbed “the new MØ.” Beyond those superficial similarities, however, Copenhagen's Karen Marie Ørsted is no more the new Grimes than you are. Each traffics in airy, synth-driven pop, each evinces a sort of thrift-store kookiness, and each appears utterly unselfconscious in front of a camera. The brutally abbreviated collective attention span normalized by the Web renders such a comparison both ludicrous and easily parsed. “The new Grimes”? But we've barely gotten to know the old one. Check out “Tom the Drum” or the version of “Fourteen” captured this month in Leeds, and root for Palma Violets to survive the crushing weight of overenthusiasm.Īn unadulterated blast of prime British synth-pop, this mash-up by Australia's DJ Copycat pits The Pet Shop Boys/Dusty Springfield hit “What Have I Done to Deserve This?” against The Human League's “ Don't You Want Me.” The dual source material proves so compatible, the final result sounds like it was made by a pair of side projects. More intriguing are the scattered live clips on YouTube. This studio introduction is a good-enough amalgam of Echo and the Bunnymen and The Clash. NME is calling this London four-piece “the best new band in Britain,” a pronouncement that pretty much doom them to oblivion after their third single. They sound like they're trying to calm a hyperactive child. So, when Miller and Dorsey sing “settle down,” they don't sound like they're trying to whip an audience into a frenzy.
Unlike the relentlessly upbeat original, this version is more fixated on matching its tone to the lyrics. YouTube fame tends to evaporate once it attempts to cross the border into the real world, but one listen to this improbable alt-country take on No Doubt's comeback single makes you think this duo has a decent shot at making the transition.
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