Sunday, May 7th, 2006

Sunday Cleaning – Volume 32

Envelopes / Demons (Brille Records)

You’d be forgiven if you thought Envelopes came from Montreal. Though they hail from Sweden, one of their members if French (albeit Parisian) and their sing-songy, lightly demented and infectious pop is certainly reminiscent of some of that coming from La Belle Province of late (see: Lovely Feathers). But Envelopes have a sweet, naive quality that makes it hard to lob any accustations of idiot-savant pretensions at them. Thrift-store keyboard bump uglies with fuzzed-out lo-fi guitars and bouncy sort-of-in-tune, sugar sweet boy-girl vocals. It sounds like being on a trampoline.

MP3: Envelopes – “Sister In Love”
MP3: Envelopes – “Sister In Love (live)”
Envelopes @ MySpace

Darling Arms / All The Ghosts (Blue Skies Turn Black)

An artist that actually is from Montreal is Darling Arms, the nom de plume of Christina Frances Musacchio, formerly of One Candle Power. On this, her debut release as a solo artist, she turns in a sparse-sounding EP that centres around her acoustic guitar and strong, clear voice, occasionally bolstered by the drone of a cello or stately piano. The title of the record is appopriate as there’s a real sense of being haunted by the past in these songs, but also of exorcisms and new beginnings.

MP3: Darling Arms – “Beluga”
MP3: Darling Arms – “The Hero”

Man In Gray

Brooklyn’s Man In Gray sound like one of those indie compilation CDs you get with magazines like Magnet or Filter, all mashed up into one single track. There’s some dancable post-punk rhythms, piledriver guitars, agit-punk attitude and atop it all Tina DaCosta’s sugar and spikey vocals. Aggressive, occasionally abraisive but always melodic. They’re at work on their first full-length record, due out sometime this Spring. They’ve got music samples all over the place, some of which are linked below. If you want more, ask the band and I’m sure they’d be happy to provide an internet road map of sorts to it all.

MP3: Man In Gray – “Commodity 1 (demo)”
MP3: Man In Gray – “Incommunicado”
Video: Man In Gray – “Thirty Six” (MOV)
Man In Gray @ MySpace

np – Portastatic / Original Film Score For Who Loves The Sun

By : Frank Yang at 10:47 am
Category: Uncategorized
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