2010s 30 Items

Her second full-length album, Look Up Sharp , on her own Kallista records. Look Up Sharp is an evolutionary leap from the thick fog and pastoral stillness of her Blackest Ever Black missives, You Know What It's Like (2016) and The Garden EP (2017). Three years since her plain-speaking debut album, the Melbourne-via-Berlin artist finds herself absorbed in London's sprawling mess. The small-town dreams and inertia that preoccupied dal Forno's first album have dissolved into the chaotic city, its shifting identities, far-flung surroundings and blank faces. Look Up Sharp is the story of this life in flux, longing for intimacy, falling short and embracing the unfamiliar. Dal Forno connects with kindred spirits and finds refuge in darkened alleys, secret gardens and wherever else she dares to look. In her own territory between plaintive pop, folk and post-punk dal Forno conjures the ghosts of AC Marias, Virginia Astley and Broadcast through her brushwork of art-damaged fx and spectral atmospheres. The first half of the record is filled with dubbed-out humid bass lines, which tether stoned hazes of psychedelic synth work as on 'Took A Long Time' and 'No Trace.' These contrast with songs like 'I'm Conscious and 'So Much better' that channel the lilting power of YMG and are clear sequels-in-waiting to dead-eyed classics like 'Fast Moving Cars.' The B-side begins with the feverish bass and meandering melody of 'Don't Follow Me,' which takes The Cure's 'A Forest' as its conceptual springboard. It's the clearest lyrical example since 'The Garden' of dal Forno's unmatched ability to unpick the masculine void of post-punk and new wave nostalgia to reflect contemporary nuance. Look Up Sharp reaches its satisfying conclusion with 'Push On' - dal Forno's most explicit foray into an undiscovered trip hop universe between Massive Attack and Tracey Thorn. The album's last gasp finds personal validation in fragility: 'I push on / I'm the Place I'm Going,' a self discovery lifted by reverberant broken beats and glass-blown...

Kindness returns with their third full length album titled "Something Like A War" set for release on 6 September, 2019. The album is a culmination of years spent collaborating with the likes of Robyn, Jazmine Sullivan, Seinabo Sey and Cosima among many others. Produced entirely by Bainbridge, the record is a collection of works representing a period of reflection and transformation over the course of 4 years following their second record "Otherness." Now based in London, the album was recorded in several locations, while Kindness was primarily based in New York during the writing and recording of the album. Following a series of select shows in June, Kindness will embark on a world tour in late 2019 with a new live band. Guest vocal features include Robyn, Jazmine Sullivan, Seinabo Sey, Bahamadia, Cosima, Nadia Nair and Alexandria among others.

Midnight Embassy is a ping­pong project by songwriter Angela Aux and producer Sam Irl. During nightly sessions and on walks together, the two artists have created a palette of timeless tracks and futuristic sculptures from pop music flotsam. Like if two archive junkies had synchronized their sketch collections and notebooks so that the different genres and decades seem to effortlessly swirl through each other: Dub, Folk, Beatnik literature, Afrobeat & Electronica. Aux & Irl celebrate a gentle escapism, both cosmopolitan and aloof. This island mentality sparkles unobtrusively through all five tracks of the debut EP. No fireworks, no illuminated advertisements, no selfie thunderstorms: they come at dusk, set shimmering beacons and disappear on a reverberation trail behind the curtain of the night.

Grandbrothers are Erol Sarp and Lukas Vogel. After meeting at university in Dusseldorf, Erol and Lukas formed Grandbrothers to tie together their respective musical backgrounds and disciplines: Erol is a trained jazz pianist, while by day Lukas constructs synthesizers at Access Music. Together, they create a sound that combines classical composition with modern, experimental production and sound design.

They use use a self-built system of electromagnetic hammers to trigger a grand piano and use it as a kind-of drum machine. In their music there are no synthetic sound sources, all comes from the grand piano.

“Made Of Bricks” is the debut studio album by English singer-songwriter Kate Nash, released in the United Kingdom August 2007. The album was a commercial success, topping the UK Albums Chart and spawning a number-two single in the form of the lead single "Foundations". The album was later released in Europe in the United States in September 2007.

Kate Marie Nash (born 1987) is an English singer, songwriter, musician and actress. Nash rose to prominence in the UK with the sleeper hit "Foundations" (2007). Her debut album, “Made of Bricks”, peaked at number 1 in the UK and number 36 in the US. Nash won the award for Best British Female Artist at the 2008 Brit Awards.

Her second studio album, “My Best Friend Is You”, was released in 2010 and reached the top 10 in both the UK and Germany.
After being dropped by her record label, Nash self-released her third studio album, “Girl Talk”, March 2013. The album failed to match the commercial success of Nash's previous albums, though it charted inside the top 100 in the UK, Ireland, Germany and Austria.

In 2017, Nash also played "Rhonda Richardson," a.k.a. "Britannica," on the Netflix series “Glow”.

The follow-up to 2014’s Singles. The Far Field has string and horn arrangements by Patrick McMinn and is the first Future Islands record to feature live drums from member Michael Lowry. Blondie’s Debbie Harry makes a guest appearance on “Shadows.”

The band began writing the album last January, and later in the year, performed the songs at a series of secret shows under fake names. They recorded the album with producer John Congleton (Sleater-Kinney, David Byrne, St. Vincent, Cloud Nothings) in Los Angeles at Sunset Sound (where artists like the Beach Boys and Prince have recorded).

Highly anticipated follow-up to the debut album "Innerspeaker". Recommended!

Psych-tinged pop from the one-woman outfit Melody’s Echo Chamber!