Hermigervill [er*muh*Gair*vill] is a one man electronic act from Reykjavík, Iceland that does it all from playing every instrument on his albums to deftly handling a variety of genres including House, Hip-Hop, and Trip-Hop. He currently has two self-released full-length records, entitled Sleepwork and Lausnina, available for free through his website, with several more apparently in the works. To date, he’s worked with a number of Icelandic musicians and tours as frequently as possible.
Hermigervill’s music is nothing if not diverse. From song to song, styles switch with such ease that the uninformed might assume that they’re listening to a homemade mixtape from a friend. Songs like “Army Of Them (Remix)” sound like a smoked-out Kanye B-Side while others like “Sveitin Milli Sanda” and “Blame It On Gray” are perfect specimens of Trip-Hop and hard-rocking House, respectively. The surprising thing is that it doesn’t seem overly intentional or labored. He’s simply an artist that likes to experiment and does it rather well.
Magnus Eliassen is an independent acoustic-pop artist from Norway with soul to spare. Aside from being a model for DIY done right, his new album, Second Grace, is equal parts contemplative, charming, and sensuous. Considering just how good it sounds, it’s also quite surprising that he recorded the whole thing at his grandparents’ house. After performing around 100 shows around Europe, many of them sold out, and some press adding up, it seems that Magnus might be fast on his to way to becoming a force in indie music. That is, if he’s worried about that kind of thing.
One of Magnus’ strong suits is certainly the consistency in his music. Each song is an instantly enjoyable journey into earnest and soulful-coffee house territory with a irresistibly deep clap-along back-beat and lyrics that laud the joys of love. It should also be noted that all of the lyrics are sung in English, which is no small feat considering that Norwegian is the national language. There is also a subtle undercurrent of a Latin influence as well which is brought out by the use of castanets, staccato guitar, and the occasional odd time signature. Although currently promoting himself as a solo artist by name, he is also joined by three other musicians who masterfully help see his vision to fruition.
Today for the the Global Music Project we’re going to be taking a look at a great four piece rock group from Novosibirsk, Russia called Yago-E-Aboo. (Although they claim to be from Moscow on their Myspace page.)They are currently signed to an independent label called Mimonot and have just released their debut album through said label for free. For a band that’s still in the somewhat formative stages, they’ve managed to make a stellar record on par with most anything being churned out the major labels. Sonically, Yago-E-Aboo is equal parts futuristic vocals and forward thinking song structure.
According to an earlier interview done with the group’s vocalist, Vasily Bogdanov, “It’s as if the words have melted into the sound,” and I couldn’t agree more. In fact, the vocals are what really drew me to listen to more of their music after finding them on Myspace, and apparently I’m not the only one. After laying in the depths of Myspace’s nether regions for quite some time, they have been been picking up some steam lately on the site and are close to 20,000 page views, up from only about 200 views a few months prior.
As is par for the course when doing most of the Global Music Project articles, I can’t understand the lyrics as they are in Russian. However, where I previously had to glean emotional meaning from the tone of the vocals, with Yago-E-Aboo there is another level all together to be found. It’s almost as if the vocals are another instrument unto themselves, not unlike Sigur Ros singing in a made up language. Furthermore, whether through natural or effected means, there is an ethereal and otherworldly quality to Bogdanov’s voice that really completes the music.
Yago-E-Aboo’s sound does not stop at the vocals however. Instrumentally speaking, everything I’ve heard from the group is a very honest and well thought out blend of spacey and atmospheric guitar tones mixed with subtle pop-rock songwriting structure. Drummer Egor Lemanovski also keeps things moving with a skilled mix of hyper dance influenced beats and minimalist snare or kick drum only sections as needed. The result is something very contemporary yet not the least bit plagiarized.
After finding ten incredibly unique artists from ten different countries for the Global Music Project, I think that a pattern is really starting to emerge. That pattern being that the more third-world the country, the better the music and the less time it takes to find a group worth writing about. For instance, yesterday I spent all of about two hours scouring artists of damn near every genre in Australia and although I came across some interesting music, I didn’t find anything that I felt comfortable recommending. Today it only took about 10 minutes before I found a great group from Mali called Tinariwen.
The overarching theme of their music is mostly the “World music” vibe that you would expect from a group from the deserts of Africa. Their songs range from chugging African rhythms as found on “Cler Achel ” to quiet and contemplative as found on their song entitled “Izarharh Tenere.” However, a closer listen reveals a diverse set of influences and artistic direction. In between traditional African instruments and vocal stylings, one can also find Santana-like guitar tones and spaced-out Hendrix-style lead lines as exemplified on “Assouf.”
It can sometimes be difficult to distinguish between actual good House music and some dink cranking out random 4-on-the-floor trash from his bedroom. Sure, good music is good music, but I feel like House in particular has a wider breadth of what is acceptable, even when it comes to Internet radio airplay. In most cases it seems as though artists will just throw some randoms keys in and mix it with a semi-sultry female vocal and bam. There’s your new song. However, one surefire way to be sure that you’ve found a truly special House artist is if you can’t help but dance in your office chair while writing a blog post…which I’m doing.
Welcome to the world of Felguk, a Brazilian Electro-House group that I absolutely can not stop listening to. The group tours frequently and consists of Gustavo Rozenthal and Felipe Lozinsky. They are current signed to the indie labels Plasmapool & BugEyed Records and have released a ton of albums and EPs which are available for purchase here.
Golden Disko Ship is an ambient/glitch solo artist named Theresa from Berlin, Germany. In the six songs currently available on her Myspace page you can expect to find a wide range of instruments including guitar, toys, viola, and glockenspiel. She appears to tour around Europe quite frequently so if you’re in the area you might be able to catch her. She isn’t currently signed to a label, but you can order CDs directly from her.
One of the most unique traits of Golden Disko Ship lies in their use of subtle surprises. Many of the songs feature short instrumental sections followed by a sudden burst of unintelligable lyrics in makeshift melodies and then an abrupt return to the instrumental. One of the stand-out tracks that demonstrates this is the digitally-chopped and acoustically haunting “you blurry dream,” which utilizes meditative repeating lyrics that remind me of “Forever Away” by John Frusciante.
As I’m sure you’re well aware, one of largest forms of currency in the rap world is street cred. Well let’s get it out of the way first and foremost, MC Kapa, a rapper from Luanda, Angola, has it in spades. While other rappers like Eminem, 50 Cent, and whoever else may be on the charts this week are getting their CDs taken away by angry parents for offensive lyrics, Kapa has had his lyrics censored by an oppressive government. For more on how he feels about 50 Cent, listen close for the drop in his song “Ponto de Situacao.”
From what I’ve recently learned about Angola and MC Kapa I’m going to assume that all of his lyrics are in Portuguese. Taking that into consideration, it’s obvious that he has a great cadence and vocal intonation despite my inability to understand the lyrics. In finding new artists for The Global Music Project, I’ve come across countless foriegn rappers that I of course didn’t understand, but hearing MC Kapa for the first time was vastly different. His music has a fire and soul to it that I haven’t heard in ages, regardless of genre or language.
Rotofobia is a three piece electronic-garage-rock group from Warsaw, Poland. They have a dark and dirty sound that is effortlessly hip, and yet is still enjoyable without seeming like you’re trying to impress everyone by having an exotic taste in music. The group is currently unsigned, tours extensively around Poland, and appears to have self-released one album so far. They also seem to have garnered quite a bit of press for themselves.
As far as the make up of their sound goes, the guitars lean heavily toward a droning and drugged out sound with high lead lines coated with delay. Arkus, the drummer, keeps the beats a little dancy which lightens the mood quite a bit from what would otherwise be an overly depressing sound. However, one of the things that really completes the Rotofobia sound is that most of the bass lines are played on a gnarling synthesizer. This, more than any other aspect of their instrumentation, fills out any empty space in their sound and makes them simultaneously contemporary and incredibly unique.
After finding about four or so incredible artists that I will listen to for probably the next few years, I’m really starting to enjoy the Global Music Project, despite the many frustrating hours I’ve been spending on Myspace to find them. When I do finally find an artist that is worth writing about, it’s always very refreshing and inspiring but Switzerland’s Reverend Beat-Man damn near knocked me out when I hit play. To put it bluntly, he makes Tom Waits sound like an optimistic silver-spoon-fed little bitch.
Reverend Beat-Man’s music sounds like WWII-era jazz mixed with trashy rockabilly and the unbridled anger and passion of early grunge and punk bands. The end result is a strange and beautiful mixture that could easily fit right into any scene from a Quintin Tarentino movie. To date, he’s released seven albums through indie label Voodoo Rhythms. It also looks like he tours quite frequently and will be demolishing the United States until mid-July of 2009 so check his Myspace page if you want to see him live.
Fine Filter 