mixtape #1

It's time to kick in with a new section for microlips. We have a downloadable mixtape for the first time (let's hope there will be more to come). The keywords for the first one are synthesizers, punky attitude of new wave and electropop. And for the second half of it - probably home recording, pseudopop and low-fidelity obscurities.

Briefly about the artists - John Maus (not to mix with 60's loungecore artist Scott Walker's bandmate, one of the Walker Brothers with same name) is a keyboard player in Ariel Pink's liveact (and one of the most intriguing discoveries for me lately). It seems like he stands very well on his own. I won't stop on Ariel himself, the guy is well-known for now, and i'm still fascinated (considering him as the greatest living composer). R. Stevie Moore is the great influence of Ariel's and sometimes said a pioneer home-recorder. Moore has self-produced over 250 (!!) albums. Absolute Body Control were a Belgian electropop band formed in '80. Solid Space's "10th planet" is ripped from their '82 cassette called "Space Museum". These guys were fully focused on the outer space. Super Vision & Tech-lo are projects that i have no information about, though without them the mixtape won't be complete. You won't whine about poor mixing as long as the tracks are superb, right? Enjoy!



microlips - mixtape #1 [mp3]

01 john maus - maniac
02 ariel pink's haunted graffiti - loverboy
03 solid space - 10th planet
04 absolute body control - is there an exit?
05 super vision - gastronome
06 tech-lo - cadillac thrills
07 john maus - cowgirl
08 r. stevie moore - goodbye piano
09 ariel pink's haunted graffiti - don't talk to strangers
10 r. stevie moore - get the point

lenght: 27 min
size: 24 MB

bonus:
ariel pink's haunted graffiti - for kate i wait [mov]
ariel pink's haunted graffiti - jules lost his jewels [mp3]

i promised myself, i wont do it, but then i saw you and i told to myself-whatta heck, i´ll do it

i will start the series of postings about recent estonian rock underground, bands which in my opinion have the style, attitude, sweaty power, needed in rock`n`roll vertigo, some even the statement about -"whatta`bout?"
you might think, they just some local, but believe me in ideal world, with right conditions they could breakthrough into your sound systems.
as exeption i start posting with legends, dont like the word (legend(ndary)) much, but i do like the word ÖÄK, as a name for the musical collective. its expression of anything nasty, disgusting, but not through the nihilist punk perspective, it stands also for a sound of vomiting, more precisely, (smirk now) the reflex act of ejecting the contents of the stomach through the mouth. :-(¤)~:;;*:
dozen years ago ÖÄK was ruling in territories of fuzzed up rockenroll armed with psychedelic noisescapes, cosmic stardust shining allover, visible in preMötorhead times in Lemmy´s eyes and audible on Hawkwind´s* albums
of course previous doesnt say anything to you, unless you are Lemmy, the others take a journey there:
Oak-Run.mp3
Oak-Salvo.mp3

*comparisions with Lemmy and Hawkwind are arbitrary and literary

Friday Bridge [Sweden]

i have dreamed about posting friday bridge' music here for a long time. few days ago bedroom records made available her new song. so it's time for me to rush to blogger and make that post at last. friday bridge is swedish girl with ethereal voice and she makes such a cute pop music. her new track is more rhythmical. that means i'm even more waiting for her new record by bedroom records.

it girl (mp3)

Pale Jesús [Sweden]

I'm sure it will come as a big shock to you that we are dealing with a swedish singer/songwriter this time, but try to handle this, because Pale Jesús is just the guy that microlips have always missed. Enigmatic, sentimental and catchy as we like it.

mu the cow [mp3]
i opened a window [mp3]

Oh, and we are not the only ones enjoying swedish music, here is another great mp3-blog called swedesplease. Did i spell it correctly, because they mentioned us as microclips which is of course funny in it's own way, but not righteous at all cuz our so called clips are huge!

Kago [Estonia]

folk music must be cool. mainly estonian folk means wine drinking and not at all good music. thankfully there's some expectations musically. some of them have released records under õunaviks, which is sister label of estonian electronic record label kohvirecords. kago is lauri sommer. lauri sommer is mainly known as poet. in september will be released his second record "köngerjönks" by õunaviks. first record had some punky and some native folk, but best bits were songs which were manipulated electronically (my own copy is still travelling somewhere). before release of second record õunaviks has made available two new tracks. "kui.. ole..." is his typically fantastic track, you can hear those interesting electronic manipulations. "tii ilo" is song in seto, language from arhaic and very special region of estonia.

kui... ole... (mp3)
tii ilo (mp3)

Le Sport [Sweden]

le sport

they have been microlips' favorites for a while. though they used to have another name before. what i want to say is that eurosport had to change their name due to gangsters of infamous sport channel. now they must call themselves le sport. songs i wish i had written will re-release their first ep under new name and with two new remixes. what else is new? there's one new track downloadable from their website. sensational electropop!

shaking a lot (mp3)

in other news i wanted to tell that montt mardié has two new tracks on his website. i'm quite surprised. first i thought he was good, but new tracks are just fantastic. really great soulpop.

last two posts here have been wonderful. i am proud of microlips.

My Darling YOU! [Sweden]

My Darling YOU! is Christoffer and Klas from Goteborg, just another pearl from Swedish indiepop scene. I had an opportunity to see them live last friday at Patsy Soundsystem (incidentally, it happens to be the place where lots of our swedish favourites have performed including Compute, Eurosport & Montt Mardie). They were playing alongside with Sambassadeur, actually MDY were their warm-up band. (Should've been vice versa to be honest).

This place had an intimate atmosphere, before gigs there was a musical-quiz where a dj played snippets from songs for audience to identify. Yes! It was for real, the crowd took out their pencils for competition. (I had miserable results because of my ignorance in swedish popmusic, though it was entertaining after all).

My darling YOU! sounded just like a couple of lovesick crooners with guitars should sound. And everybody were enjoying the bittersweet and melancholic vibes that the band spread and singing along the lala-lala parts with them. It was ace!!
Later on, i had a word with them, bought both of their own-burnt records (20 SEK each) and asked ordinary questions about their music. And of course i had to take a picture with upcoming popstars :)

Klas told me he was more interested in techno music and not so much into pop at all. However, the songwriting for My darling YOU! he said, is a result of some crazy and obscure nights from the past. Enough words, let the music speak.

Taxidriver [mp3]
Prince John Silver & Gold [mp3]