Sound Surroundings by The Q4

This is one of the very rare hip-hop album that I really like. Since, I’m not a big fan of hip-hop but this album is really awesome. Sound Surroundings by The Q4 or also known as The QuadraphoniQuartet is a result of the collaboration of three young Dutch producers,  Arts the Beatdoctor, Sense and STW. 



The thing with this album is that since it was a collaboration of 3 (used to be 4) men from different music background it actually consists of different music elements like hip-hop, nu-jazz, tri-hop, chillout and downbeat. If, I am not wrong this should be their 1st debut album which I ought to say it was really solid. This album is like a rare gem that waiting to be discover.

My favourite from this album is going to be Goin’ Down. A very groovy track. By the way, this album is heavy on instrumental. They are much more focus on instrumental so is all about the music rather than the song lyrics.

Anyway, there were so little information about this band so those who want to know more can hop over to last.fm to read more info about them. I can’t really wrote more about them since I don’t really familiar with this kind of genres as like I said in the beginning not a big fans of hip-hop but for this album I made an exceptional.

Their myspace is http://www.myspace.com/quadraphoniq. Download the album over here for a limited time only.(Link had been removed)

One of these Days, another solid track from this album

Sound Surroundings by The Q4

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All the Stars and Boulevard by Augustana

All the Stars and Boulevards is the debut album of Augustana, a Californian piano rock band. This album was released on September 6, 2005. Yeah I know that was ages ago but hey great music do not take time as a measurement for quality.
 

  
Anyway, this is a really good album. If not good then is above average. I guess if I have to label I would label it 3.5/4 out of 5 stars. This is a very very American band. If you like The Fray, Lifehouse or Jack’s Mannequin you probably will like this band too. The songs were really good. If you want some light listening then this is good enough for you to spend a couple bucks to own this cd.

Boston is a great track which is also my personal favourite. I do think most people will agree with me too that this is one of the best song in this album. I know my friends did. It never get old listening to this track. It is about starting over in a place that no one knew you. I can relate to this song very much indeed. I really wish that someday I can leave all things behind and just pack a bag and move to some where no one knew me at all. I guess I’m a escapist by heart.
  

Anyway, Boston start off with a few notes of piano which is very light and beautiful. And as the song goes by the track start to pick up, climaxing. I got to say this song has one hell of a lyric.

The essential yet appealed
Carry all your thoughts cross an open field
When flowers gaze at you
They’re not the only ones
Who cry when they see you

She said, you don’t know me
You don’t wear my chains

To leave this all behind
I think I need a sunrise
I’m tired of the sunset
Here it’s nice in the summer
Some snow would be nice

click play then mute the clip, continue reading after finish can listen to it w/o any lagging

Stars and Boulevards is a great song too. It started off with piano too which sounded really great. And this song is about a guy and a girl that broke up because of how others people told the girl that that guy is not good enough for her. Eventually she left him and went on her own…

The sunrise will come too soon
And you’ll disappear
To the haze of the city and yourself

Look out
They’re coming after us with big guns
They’re only gonna tell you all the bad things I’ve done
Even if the words they say aren’t true,
They’ve won
Now I’m left here dying in the sun

I like Wasteland too. It was sad yet comforting. It sings about life. How the persona life was empty and wasted. Partying and hook up…

And we're nothing more than fools and whores and sad highs
Through the summer sand, we're living in
We're living in a wasteland

Lonely People and Coffee and Cigarettes both were great songs too. Lonely People was raw with emotion. He sings about how he was getting involve with a relationship but actually he was still not over with his previous one. That’s the reason why he seems so distant and sad though he is with her current girlfriend, Holly.

Well Holly, she makes me sad
Forgive me if I look so lonely

Coffee and Cigarettes was a bit mellow and bittersweet. I think it was about the love of the persona was dying with sickness. And all he wanted to do was just spend time together with her.

And I'm sure you've lost that weight again
And I'm sure the pills keeps pouring in
Like smoke that falls, it's caving into you
So put me on a plane and fly me to anywhere
Put me on a plane and fly me to anywhere
Put me on a plane and fly me to anywhere with you
With you

The verdict, I believe this band actually can do much better though this is their debut album but it was pretty impressive. All the Stars and Boulevard is quite a good album and the album seems to pick up in the latter few songs. The lyrics was well written but music wise I was actually looking forward for more piano based tracks since they claim they are a piano rock band but there were like just 3 or 4 songs were piano based. Anyhow this is a great band though I  was a bit disappointed by their sophomore album, Can’t Love, Can’t Hurt. Well, that is another time another day then.

I’m not going to upload this album for download cause the home line is way too slow. Just google ‘all the stars and boulevard by augustana mediafire’ walah! there you go. Just don’t click on the 1st link that shows up cause is password protected.

All the Stars and Boulevard by Augustana

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I am Nothing but Emotion by Maximilian Hecker

note: this is going to be a very very long entry because the whole album just pulled a heartstring of mine and is really good. I tried to make it short and simple but still words just spilled out uncontrollably. this is THE short version. the draft is much longer.  

Actually, the full name for this album is I Am Nothing But Emotion, No Human Being, No Son, Never Again Son by Maximilian Hecker. A German singer-songwriter. This is his 7th album so far, released last month in German first then follow up by international released.

If you did listened to his previous works and you think that this album is going to be the same then you have to scrap that. I guess what happens was that his music matured over the years. His music used to be ‘popky’. But this album is raw, depth and real. Perhaps, this is the most ‘honest’ album he ever made. Close to his heart. Plus, I think he try to minimize the need to ‘smoothen’ the songs using the computer. Like how all the usual songs that being ‘processed’ to make the songs sound much better but it compromised the emotion of the songs. So I quote the starting track of this album, this album basically ‘pukes emotion’.

Piano played an important role in this album and when Maximilian Hecker sings boy that was good. Deliciously good. Peacefully melodious and melancholy. A beautiful kind of sorrow.

The beginning of the album starts off with Blue Soldier Night. It was not a song actually; it was a recording of a woman in a static voice. No emotion at all, speaking in a flat monotone. I can’t help but to think these 2.01mins of recording is actually a summarising of the album. The story that she told, you actually can find the resemblance in the lyrics of all the song in this album and also the way the tracks being numbered.

Holy Dungeon is the second track and it sounded so good that it almost sound like poetry to me. The lyric and the music are like ripples of emotion.

Your blackened lung, your weakened tongue, your weary eyes, your secret lies
Your one-way street, your whitened sheet, your gloomy thoughts, your cranky gods
Your angel sighs, your painful highs, your tortured heart, your backward art
Your twisted ways, your ancient face, your perfumed words, your crying birds

My favourite part ought to be from seventh track to track ten.  Start from Glaslight and end with Your Kingdom the tenth track. Actually both tracks are the same but in Your Kingdom he did changed the lyric and the beginning of the music into music-box like. You know those kind of ‘ding-ding-ding’ sounds. Like how those movies shows when one open the music box and the memories start to fall into place again.

Ok, basically the whole tracks in the album are some sort of inter-related. Is like a story, that’s why I said Blue Soldier Night is like a summary. So, to cut the story short in Glaslights the story actually continues from the previous few tracks telling us that he wants to be with her. He loves her. He asks her don’t deceive him in the previous track, Court My Eyes Alone…

But don’t you leave me
And don’t deceive me
I’m coming out to call and doubt my way
Don’t you leave me
Don’t deceive me
I’m coming out my way

In Glaslights he told her he will always be there for her…

I belong there in your Glaslights
I’ll be strong there in you

However, in the eighth track Messed-up Girl she cheated on him. He asked her what the other guy has that he doesn't. Why she will keep fall for others but not him? He still loves her but his love for her is fading…

Well, I can’t be your sun
But I’ll be your moon
Brightening your night but fading too soon
Brightening your path with my borrowed light, oh my love

And eventually in the ninth track No One’s Child they part away.  He wants to be free. To find his happiness, to find his sunshine so he told her is alright…

I believe to be free
I will go my way
Sunshine flows
And winter grows

 
But in Your Kingdom, like I said before perhaps he misses her and he ‘open up’ his memories, thus the ‘music-box’ likes sound. All his got was just memories…forever locked, frozen.

I belong there in your kingdom
Fallen long time ago
I’ll be strong there in your kingdom
Frozen under deep snow

As the story goes by track by track, he misses her still and believe that eventually she will come back to him. In the last track, Lonely in Gold the persona finally gets what he wishes for…

Lonely in gold
Cause I saw your soul

And I don’t need the way you touched my heart
And you’ll come home again
You’ll come home again
You’ll come home again underneath the stars

And now you’re here with me, eventually
And now the time has come

Overall there are 14-tracks in this album. The story ends on track 13th, the 14th track is a bonus track which is a piano version of Nana.

The verdict this album offered a helluva experience of listening to music. Try to find all the lyrics and paste it in the MS.Word one after another or if you got itunes just listen to the songs track by track while reading the lyrics. Don’t shuffle it. Then only you will realize the tracks were all connected. I’m giving it 5 out of 5.

You can stream the album at his myspace.

Nana by Maximilian Hecker

p/s: I think this is most probably the last post that I will upload the album for download. Since, you guys actually can easily google it. Or in future I probably will only upload those albums that I deem are really good or hard to find.

I am Nothing but Emotion by Maximilian Hecker

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Time Changed Everything by Nyctalgia

note: sorry for the lack update guys. i’m swarmed with my exam. this is just a quickie. all will be back to normal after next week.

Time Changed Everything by Nyctalgia is actually by Silvio Pfiffner. He is an independent musician that still struggle to find a label deal. I came across his music while surfing youtube video and bam…I’m amazed. How on earth can this guy still can’t get a deal with a record label is beyond me.

There are 5 songs in this record which he actually put on the internet for free download.  The only song that have human vocal in it is Mira. The rest are all instrumental.  The whole album can sum up as ambient, neoclassical and melancholy.

1-Nyctalgia                                                                                                                                     2-Time Changed Everything...                                                                                                    3-Remains of a Blue Rose
4-Mira...                                                                                                                                            5-Falling into nothingness

Here is the link he put his songs for download. Hop over the facebook fan page to know more.

 

Time Changed Everything by Nyctalgia

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Go by Jónsi

I can’t not express in words how happy was I when I saw this album, Go by Jónsi. For those who are in the dark, Jónsi is the guitarist and vocalist of the fantastic Icelandic post-rock band Sigur Rós. He full name is Jón “Jónsi” Þór Birgisson, an Icelandic name. He also create ambient music with visual art with his boyfriend under the name Jónsi & Alex. He is such a musical genius ain’t he. 

This is an album that will completely knock you off. Is phenomenal! Listening to this album is like having a burst of emotion, a burst of colourful fireworks that lit up the dark skies. It is musical,symphony, fast pace, soulful, fun and worldliness. It is a perfection of music in a magical way.  

The opening track ‘Go Do’ is a fantastic track. It instantly gave you a general idea of how this album would sound like. Is a amazing track like no other. His voice is just so captivating and unique. The music is like a jumbo of thousand kinds of musical notes. The flutes and the heavily pounding of the drum beats bring the whole track to life. It almost like you can see those music notes dancing around in wonderland. A magical place of it own with colorful, funky things. And it follow by the second track of this album, 'Animal Arithmetic ' which is also fast paced. The music sounded like gibberish of thousand musical instruments that didn’t made sense at all. Strange at it may sound like but it is fantastic. Absurd may it sound like but the whole song is so energetic and euphoric that it almost gave you a sense of ecstatic. It actually sounded good. Way outrageously good that it actually is one of my favourite from this album. 

 

'Tornado' the third track of this album has a kind of worldliness, emptiness. Sad yet beautiful. And the lyric goes like this You grow like tornado/ You grow from the inside/ Destroy everything through/ Destroy from the inside/ Erupt like volcano. Tell me how can you not love this. Boy Lilikoi is another great track. The pounding of the drums almost sound like heart beat which is exactly like the lyric “One day you're out/ You give up the fight/ You slow down heart-rate.” I really do like the lyric of this track. It is about life. Being ALIVE. Great song! It follow by the fifth track, 'Sinking Friendships' which the opening keep remind me of a pool of frogs that sings at a different range of vocal on top of a water-lily leaves.  

They said music does not care about language. This is greatly proven in ‘Kolnidur’ which Jónsi sang in Icelandic. Though, I don’t understand the whole song at all but boy the music is intriguing and enigmatic. Though, I have no idea why the opening of the track keep remind me of Grey’s Anatomy. I keep thinking that it will really suit some scenes in GA. “Around Us”, "Grow Till Tall” and “Hengilas” are all melodious tracks. Grow till tall really can show you how amazing is the vocal or voice range of Jónsi. Which is really really high pitched. Hengilas was sang in Icelandic so I don’t really know what it’s about. But music wise, is slow paced, mellow with a hint of melancholic. 

Do support original if you like it at here. 

Go by Jónsi

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