09. Dreams and Gazes

Hello there. The 2010 Mega Project is ready for another round of forgotten music. Of course there was always going to be one episode of pure dream-pop and shoegaze. Today there will only be a quote from a review as my presentation. Enjoy!

Dorias Baracca. “Right from the off Dorias Baracca cement their sonic blueprint: a towering inferno of reverberating static falling and churning, screeching as the dreams and nightmares of the atmosphere morph into visible light and fly amidst the clouds, anchored by the serene voice which illuminates the stratosphere.” (review)

Dorias Baracca – Handsome Melting Point EP

Malory. “Overall though, Pearl Diver is a beautifully crafted collection of pieces that don’t so much swing between moods, but overtly glow with a radiance only the most infectious smile could replicate.” (review)

Malory – Pearl Diver

Team Ghost. “While no track really stands out on its own, this is not detrimental as Celebrate What You Can’t See works as a complete piece equalling to 16 minutes of slow-burning, golden layered ambience.” (review)

Team Ghost – Celebrate What You Can’t See EP

The Depreciation Guild. “The sonic palette here is immeasurably fuller and richer than that of In Her Gentle Jaws; the shoegazer-redux guitar layers are carefully woven into the fabric of the tracks, not just plopped down “as is” for better or worse, and the vocals — while still soaked in a tubful of reverb for maximum ambience — have their own place in the mix instead of being buried under the Super Mario bleeps and bloops and Jesus and Mary Chain-took-my-lunch-money guitars.” (review)

The Depreciation Guild – Spirit Youth

08. Beautiful Friendship

Howdy. Yes, I admit it. The title of this blog post is corny. But you must understand that these are five artists that I didn’t know before my project started and now they are my friends. Enjoy!

(Please keep subscribing to the 2010 Mega Project playlist.)

The warm folk-pop of Benni Hemm Hemm is another Icelandic treasure for you to discover.

Benni Hemm Hemm – Retaliate

Grimes, aka Claire Boucher, creates an experimental electronic dream-pop that is totally irresistible. I had planned to write about her fantastic second album of 2010, but since that one was pulled some days ago her impressive debut album will have to do just fine.

Grimes – Geidi Primes

Klaus & Kinski has a solid indie pop core, but they are never afraid to integrate other influences into their music. This is a wonderful album.

Klaus & Kinski – Tierra, Trágalos

Oh how I’ve wanted to write about Pomegranates since I found out about their psychedelic dream rock many weeks ago. If you haven’t yet discovered these guys, go give their latest album a listen. You won’t be disappointed.

Pomegranates – One Of Us

Y La Bamba is the band featuring the songwriting of the ultra talented Luz Elena Mendoza. This is surely one of the best folk albums of the year!

Y La Bamba – Lupon

The Mynabirds (Christmas Single)

Hey. From todays Spotify update comes this very cute Christmas pop single by The Mynabirds. Enjoy!

The Mynabirds – All I Want Is Truth (for Christmas)

07. The Veterans

Hi again. It’s time for another episode of the 2010 Mega Project. These artists have worked in music business for a combined total of more than 140 years. This year they have also released four very good new albums. They are The Veterans. Enjoy!

Giant Sand. Classic rock. Review here.

Giant Sand – Blurry Blue Mountain

Los Lobos. A return to form for this legendary rock band. Review here.

Los Lobos – Tin Can Trust

Robert Plant needs no introduction. The critics, for the most part, loved this album. One review here.

Robert Plant – Band of Joy

Southside Johnny & The Ashbury Jukes. Blues rock. Review here.

Southside Johnny & The Ashbury Jukes – Pills And Ammo

06. Pop Music A

Hello. The 2010 Mega Project continues with some pop music. There will be a part B later on. Enjoy!

Aias is a Catalan(!) band with a sound that is very 2010. Very 2010 = noise/retro/twee pop with catchy melodies and nice harmonies.

Aias – A La Piscina

The promising debut album by American singer-songwriter Blair was released in January. One music blog described it as “a pop album for this generation”.

Blair – Die Young

Fabienne Delsol continues her exploration of 1960s pop. A very solid effort.

Fabienne Delsol – On My Mind

Girls Names, Northern Ireland, short songs, cool voice, noise pop, good stuff.

Girls Names – You Should Know By Now

I Am Kloot is a rock band according to most sources, but to my ears this is mostly a pop album, a sad yet pleasant pop album.

I Am Kloot – Sky At Night

Daft Punk – TRON: Legacy

Hello. This new soundtrack by Daft Punk was added to Spotify today. It should be available in at least five countries. Enjoy!

Daft Punk – TRON: Legacy

05. Write A Song For Me

Hey there. Four singer-songwriters, four albums I haven’t written about before. And as of today one fourth of the 2010 Mega Project has been presented. Thanks for all the comments so far. Enjoy!

Anni Rossi is highly gifted and constantly evolving. This, her sophomore effort, travels into pop territory which suits her voice well.

Anni Rossi – Heavy Meadow

If you play a Darren Hanlon song to 100 people, most of the listeners will immediately recognize him as a singer-songwriter due to his traditional style of folk-pop songwriting. However, there are lots of perfect details waiting to be discovered beneath the surface and having a traditional style is not a bad thing!

Darren Hanlon – I Will Love You At All

This rock album by Edwyn Collins has been a grower. At first I recognized many qualities but the music just didn’t connect to me. A couple of months later I gave it another shot and liked it enough to include it here.

Edwyn Collins – Losing Sleep

It’s easy to dismiss Hindi Zahra’s debut album since it’s almost too perfect, too polished. The blend of soul, pop, rock, jazz, French chanson and traditional Moroccan music would have benefited from a looser production. However, in the end it’s still a mighty fine album with a bunch of great songs and that’s what really counts. (Note: Handmade was first released in 2009, but a wider European release came in 2010.)

Hindi Zahra – Handmade

The Be Good Tanyas – Blue Horse

Hey. I’m pretty sure the splendid debut album by Canadian alt-country group The Be Good Tanyas is a new addition to the Spotify library. However, should I be mistaken, it’s still a very good listen. Read this review and enjoy!

The Be Good Tanyas – Blue Horse

04. Various Degrees Of Rock

Hi there. If you have been reading the Spotinews blog for a while you should have noticed that over time more and more blog posts have been about albums from the broad rock genre. Can you stand five more rock albums? I hope so. The 2010 Mega Project continues. Enjoy!

A Swarm of the Sun is a Swedish duo creating a heavy brand of post-rock on the verge of being metal.

A Swarm of the Sun – Zenith

Dorena has a sound that is closer to what most of us would consider traditional epic post-rock. Oh, and they are Swedish too.

Dorena – About Everything And More

If you are in the mood for some British shoegaze it would be a good idea to check out Engineers.

Engineers – In Praise Of More

MF/MB/ has generated a a fair amount of publicity in Sweden. And, to partly quote Afront: Krautrock is alive and well!

MF/MB/ – Folded

Moonhearts is an American lo-fi garage rock band. High energy, raw power. You know what to expect here.

Moonhearts – Moonhearts

03. Will Make You Smile

Howdy folks. It’s time for day three of the 2010 Mega Project. Will these releases make you smile? Maybe some of them, or possible all of them. Since I finished the project two weeks ago I’ve been worried that my first impressions would be wrong. But with this theme I think I was correct from the start. Enjoy!

(Note: Don’t forget to subscribe to the 2010 Mega Project Playlist!)

(Edit Dec 6: The Silly Kissers album was removed today. Not much that I can do about that. Hopefully it will be back at some later time…)

Grasscut is an experimental electronic duo mixing ancient samples with delicate melodies and powerful beats. This is unexpected music that will make you smile.

Grasscut – 1 Inch / 1/2 Mile

Pop Winds create epic electronic music in a kind of parallel universe to Animal Collective and that can never be a bad thing. The combination of guitar, saxophone and synths will make you smile for sure.

Pop Winds – The Turquoise

Silly Kissers is all about the hooks and the lyrics and the pulse. First released back in 2009, this is smart retro-pop with chillwave qualities and it will make you smile.

Silly Kissers – Precious Necklace

Spaghetti Anywhere is British indie pop with lots of heart. Just listening to the first track of this EP will make you smile.

Spaghetti Anywhere – Spaghetti Anywhere

Tiger Tape – Agnes, Emilia, Kristina and Wågis – is a great new Swedish pop band. The combination of youthful energy, excellent songwriting and the distant echoes of Broder Daniel will make you smile.

Tiger Tape – I Woke Up In Hökarängen

The garage rock of The So So Glos has a certain danceable hit quality that will make you smile.

The So So Glos – Low Back Chain Shift

Javiera Mena – Mena

Hello. The latest album by Chilean singer-songwriter Javiera Mena was released three months ago and added to Spotify earlier today. Sub-genre: electropop. Pretty good stuff. Read this rave review and enjoy!

(Note: If you wonder what happened to popularity in Spotify. The official reply is: “Yes, this is a mistake that occurred with our latest update. We should have it fixed next week.”)

Javiera Mena – Mena

Summer Fiction

Evening. The self-titled debut album by Summer Fiction was added to Spotify two days ago. Genre: chamber pop. Enjoy!

(Thanks to Eardrums Music for the recommendation last week.)

Summer Fiction – Summer Fiction

02. High Profile Number One

Hey. Part two of the 2010 Mega Project is here and just to warn you: this part does not include as much passion as the first one. I consider the releases below to be “High Profile” since they were all talked about quite a bit when released. These five albums are basically albums that I really should have written about before, but for different reasons the posts never materialized. My individual reasons will be included in each album presentation. Enjoy!

Adam Green: singer-songwriter. For several months I thought he was a guy from American Idol. When I finally realized my bizarre error I thought it was too late to give him a blog post.

Adam Green – Minor Love

Elf Power: indie rock. A victim of September overload. There were simply too many good new releases in September, meaning this little gem was forgotten.

Elf Power – Elf Power

Erland and the Carnival: folk-rock. There was a lot of hype around these guys early in 2010 and first I thought they were overrated. Then the album was released again in October. I gave it a second shot and it suddenly just ‘worked’.

Erland and the Carnival – Erland and the Carnival

Ólöf Arnalds: singer-songwriter. When the album was added it originally had the wrong artist name in Spotify. That made me look for other albums instead. (I may be wrong about this though.)

Ólöf Arnalds – Innundir skinni

PVT: electronic/rock. This album was released on a label not supposed to be adding new albums to Spotify. I was absolutely certain it was going to be removed quickly and ignored it despite several people recommending it to me. Let’s hope it stays around.

PVT – Church With No Magic

Sarah Jaffe – Suburban Nature

Hi. The vivid debut album by talented American singer-songwriter Sarah Jaffe was first released back in April and finally added to Spotify in yesterdays update. Enjoy!

Sarah Jaffe – Suburban Nature

01. The Voices

Hey again. Here we go: the first part of the 2010 Mega Project. These five artists all have lovely voices and they all happen to be working within the singer-songwriter genre. Enjoy!

Young Lithuanian star Alina Orlova has perhaps the most edgy voice of the five below. Her wonderfully quirky debut album was first released in 2008, but got a wider European release this year and is thus included here.

Alina Orlova – Laukinis Suo Dingo

Carla Morrison is a rising star from Mexico with a warm voice and a bunch of strong songs. This album may take a while to get into, but it’s worth the effort.

Carla Morrison – Mientras tú dormías

Hoquiam is none other than Damien Jurado teaming up with younger brother Drake to create a familiar yet cozy folk sound. The album cover is dull, but that’s the way it is with St. Ives releases.

Hoquiam – Hoquiam

Sean Hayes reminds me a lot of Amos Lee. It’s hard not to fall in love with his soulful voice. With a couple of songs featured in big TV-series he is close to breaking big.

Sean Hayes – Run Wolves Run

Sharron Kraus creates a gloomy brand of folk music that quite possibly will haunt your mind.

Sharron Kraus – The Woody Nightshade