Sigur Rós will be streaming their new album, Valtari, on Thursday the 17th of May (today!) at 7pm. That’s 7pm wherever you live!
It will be a worldwide listening party, moving across the globe with the time.
You can join in by heading to www.sigur-ros.co.uk/valtari/hour and by tagging your posts with #valtarihour
Absolute bomb dropped at 1:53. Free download from SoundCloud.
This week I’m recommending a YouTube channel for you to check out. It’s called Bedroom Live and it features musicians playing in a Cardiff bedroom to maybe a dozen people. It’s about as intimate an audience as you’ll find!
The videos are lit and shot beautifully and the sound recording is great too. The channel has been going for just five months, but already there is a good mix of artists on there and I’m looking forward to seeing more from them.
Here’s the first track uploaded, Holland House by Scriber.
The YouTube channel is here and they also have Facebook, Twitter and SoundCloud pages. You may even find a few videos of our very own Ed Stockham if you look hard enough!
Been waiting a few years to hear this one recorded with the band.
In other Oberst related news, Desaparecidos have reformed and are doing a small US tour in August! More info at conoroberst.com.
Once a month I’m planning to put together a playlist for you guys to check out. This month I’ve been doing a lot of traveling and that’s reflected in the songs I’ve chosen, so if you’ve got a long drive coming up, this one’s for you!
Feel free to suggest your own favourite driving songs by reblogging or tweeting us @STRecords.
You can also find the playlist on Spotify and iTunes.
Though a couple of tracks aren’t on those platforms so the mixcloud version is the only full one.
If you like it, follow us on tumblr, twitter or facebook to catch the next playlist!
Welcome to the first Scratch That Recommends post! Basically the concept here is I’ll be recommending something for you to listen to / watch / other verbs… Then you can go check it out and, if you like, let everyone know what you thought and add to the discussion in any way you see fit. We’ll also have some guest posts in the future so it’s not just me dictating my taste to the world (although I do quite like the sound of that).
One thing before I get to this weeks main feature; the recommendations in these posts may not always be new to you, if that’s the case then perhaps it would be a good opportunity to rediscover them - to give them your full attention instead of trying to listen to an album while tweeting and tidying and browsing reddit or whatever. That’s just a suggestion… It’s your life, you can do what you want!
Alright so this week’s recommendation is
*drumroll*
You already know because of the title…
The Tallest Man on Earth!
Aka Kristian Matsson, aka Sweden’s answer to Bob Dylan. I know everyone is compared to Dylan, and usually it just means ‘is a good song writer’ but there’s a real quality about the songs and especially Matsson’s vocals that brings Dylan’s early years to mind, though mercifully there isn’t a harmonica in sight.
The songs are generally just backed by guitar, but sound rich due to open tunings and a natural talent that makes the guitar sound like an extension of the player as it blends perfectly with the vocals. The result is a sound that takes you straight out into the Swedish wilderness, in much the same way as Sigur Rós manage to invoke the landscape of their native Iceland. For real, I really want to go travel around Sweden and I think this is the main reason.
I’m not gonna get into a full on review here, hopefully that’s enough to pique your curiosity! You can hear two albums and two E.P.s from The Tallest Man on Earth here: Spotify - itunes - myspace
Let us know what you think either on twitter or tumblr by using the tag #STRecs or by reblogging this post. Be sure to follow this blog for more recommendations in the future!
Enjoy!
Use the menu at the top of the page to get back to the rest of the website and the shop.
