David Holmes - The Holy Pictures

David Holmes returns with an album about his life in Belfast. (For our American friends, that’s in Northern Ireland) Since the release of ’Lets get Killed’ in 1997, Holmes has concentrated mostly on scoring movies. He’s probably most famous for the Oceans series. Not surprisingly then that ‘The Holy Pictures’ has a distinct soundtrack feel. 

Lush atmospherics swirl around heavily distorted guitars. Standard Holmes affair apart from the fact that Holmes also contributes lead vocals. Album opener, and first single ‘I heard wonders’ could be a Primal Scream track, and that’s not a bad innings for this first time vocalist.

David Holmes has always had a special place in my heart. The cool-as-fuck Irishman penned one of my favourite albums of all time in ‘Lets get killed’ so I had big hopes for ‘The Holy Pictures’. While it hasn’t made it on to the ‘must have’ page, ‘The Holy Pictures’ is a solid album, bespite being a touch inconsistant at times. You could blame that on the 10 years plus gestation period Holmes cites in interviews, or maybe driving basslines and cinematic scores are uncomfortable bedfellows. 

THINK: OST to a Soderbergh movie about Belfast
READ: Holmes Myspace
WATCH: I heard Wonders
BUY: The Holy Pictures at Amazon

Friday Friday Friday

They really should have named it three times, it’s at least 50% more important to me than New York. (Which, incidentally, isn’t twice as important to me as Bobbin Head.) Friday rolls around and you can forget your woes. Trying to work in a rhyme here….lemme see…hoes? (Nup, too shtreet) Toes? (Too pedestrian.)

Anywho , while I labour with a witty rejoinder, why not check out this weeks booty? 
(Booty in the Pirates Booty sense, rather than the poppin’ sense. Don’t get me wrong, do yo’ thang girls! )

Tango. Friday. Spanish elders rockin’ phat beats. Little help with a thread here anyone?
(FORGET IT _ I”LL DO IT LIVE!) 

Forget your woes with Bajo Fondo’s Tango Club. 
Enjoy kids,

G 

31_Borrowed_Beats_September_08_Edition - Super Cool

Welcome to the Triplejaysus ‘School of Cool’. In this seminar we will cover the history of Cool, moving through different genres to further your understanding. There will be case studies, further listening suggestions and plenty of super cool examples for your entertainment and edification. Let triplejaysus turn you from Geek to Chic.
Because here at Triplejaysus, we’re cooler than you, and we know it!

30_Borrowed_Beats_August_08_Edition - Stress Free Edition

Is everyone witnessing (or suffering from) the inordinate amount of stress involved in our daily lives recently? It seems everywhere I look a friend is out with a stress induced illness, or taking a few ‘mental health’ days.

No one seems to take the time to immerse themselves in anything anymore. People just buy the track they like, not the album - the death toll for music as a body of work. And that track they bought had better grab them in the first 15 seconds…

If all that rings true, then you will either love the opportunity of the August Edition or hate its lack of immediacy, because this month we’re not in a rush. So take some deep breaths and press play for a 68 minute aural massage.

People Press Play - People Press Play

So you arrive at a party late, really late…as your eyes adjust to the dim light you hear smooth dub beats with swirling chords and the angelic voice of an unknown nonchalant lady singing….music that is the perfect wind down from what must have been a massive party. Except you arrived late. Me too. I arrived late to this 2007 release, almost a year late.

People Press Play are a Copenhagen foursome and ‘People Press Play’is their surprisingly accomplished debut album. Equal parts the Postal Service, Brian Eno and Death Cab for Cutie, they are a band in the traditional sense that they also play analogue instruments. Sara Savery’s lush vocals are equally at home over the dub infused athmospherics of opener ‘Girl’ as they are over the‘New Order-esque bassline’ of ‘Hanging on’. People Press Play is a down tempo album by a band rather than an ambient album by producers, and that’s an important distinction. The songs are carefully crafted, where melodies and electronic sounds progressively entwine around the vocals, or leave it hanging in mid air, unaccompanied. For silence is a rhythm too.

People Press Playwill suffer from some classifications imposed upon them. If I read ‘trip hop’ I’d think 1997, and move on. Down tempo can translate as ‘lacks excitement’, so I’ll settle in electronica ( despite the ‘band’ diatribe above) when I say that ‘People Press Play’is one of the best electonica albums that I have heard in a while. Check it out.

THINK: Plej meet The Postal Service in a jazz lounge.
READ: People Press Play’s myspace
WATCH:The vid for ‘These days’
BUY: People press play at inertia