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M. Ward has been championed by Howe Gelb, who released Ward's 2000 debut disc Duet for Guitars #2 on his Ow Om label, and Conor Oberst, who brought Ward on the road with Bright Eyes. In 2001, Ward earned some small measure of acclaim for his sophomore effort, End of Amnesia, and if the Portland, Oregon-based songwriter keeps making records as inventive and thoroughly rewarding as this third album, he won't be unknown long. Full of snappy, loping pop tunes interwoven with mellow instrumental passages, Transfiguration of Vincent shows Ward to be a terrific folk and blues guitarist, a perceptive, witty storyteller, and--in tossing piano, percussion, harmonica, and various other instruments into mixes that never feel the least bit cluttered--an imaginative arranger. He's also an expressive vocalist, whether in a winsome upper register that recalls Ben Harper or his sandy-throated midrange. There's not a weak moment on this dark-horse gem of a disc.

Transistor Radio may be bookmarked by instrumentals, but M. Ward’s cracked, jazzy croon is the true star of all his work. The sixteen tunes here all sound like sketches that became songs on the spot, and we all know the well-crafted illusion of spontaneity is a very difficult thing to pull off repeatedly. His most consistently enjoyable album to date, Transistor offers breezy, smart, poppy music very much in the American folk tradition, from country blues to bleary-eyed bedroom strums. This is the soundtrack to a lazy Sunday when you sleep in, read the Times in bed, cuddle with a friend, then finally leave the house for cheese grits. "I’ll Be Yr Bird" sounds like the Fruit Bats collaborating with Vic Chesnutt, while Ward recalls Stew on "Hi Fi," the deadpan lyrics over lazy, lovely sounds: "Why burn your bridges when you can blow your bridges up?" The laudanum-like charms of Ward’s music are tough to resist.
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From a half-named troubadour with an otherworldly voice and an old time sensibility comes this fourth full-length, a collection of songs "about childhood memories of a utopian radio power", dedicated to "the last of the remaining independent radio stations." With songs normally associated with the front porches of Louisiana, back when families gathered around the radio instead of the TV, "Transistor Radio" fits somewhere between your great-grandfather's collection of 78 rpm records and current and timeless artists such as Iron & Wine, Gram Parsons, and Tom Waits. Guests include Jim James (My Morning Jacket), Jenny Lewis (Rilo Kiley), Howe Gelb (Giant Sand), and Jordan Hudson (The Thermals).

Ranked #2 in top 10 for April 2000. Lonely, minimal and slightly twangy contemplations, with acoustic guitar and delicately brushed drums sketching out a song. Ward, an associate of Giant Sand, posesses a slightly cracked but beautiful and delicate voice that pushes his work into the realm of brilliance.

Like the motionless surface of a river that somehow carries your raft a hundred miles on a windless day, the music of M Ward works in mysterious ways. Much of his output is just delicate, twangy acoustic guitar work and half-whispered, deeply introspective vocals, sketching out the barest bones of songs. The guitar work is fairly simple, and Ward's voice, though beautiful, often drifts in and out of a near-monotone. But somehow, these hints and shadows are enriched by their emptiness, as if they flow through you, accumulating just the right bits and pieces from your life and filling in the blanks better than a 12-piece orchestra ever could.

Some of Ward's songs are straightforward folk meditations, while others are instrumentals, including one of the most mellow hoedowns you're ever likely to hear. Though he might be best categorized as a folkie, no category encompasses M Ward's sound. He delves into a range of styles, and everything he touches bears his unique stamp of loneliness and sad nostalgia. The recordings themselves add to this, sometimes sounding lifted from one of Edison's decayed wax cylinders, as empty and evocative as a browned daguerreotype of a rundown gold-rusher. In other moments you're practically inside his head, listening to every quaver of his plaintive, cracked voice.

Evocative is the single word that best encompasses Ward's music, but he doesn't necessarily evoke anything in particular, anything concrete or quantifiable. During Beautiful Car you'll find yourself remembering a wonderful summer you may or may not have ever had, and a run-down but perfect automobile you probably never drove. Good News is a pure masterpiece, a drifting and sleepy love song that will surround you with the twin, warm hums of Ward's voice and a subtle slide guitar. Images of every girl you've ever loved will rise up — every girl you've lost to the winds of the world while you sat waiting for the current to push you.

Transatlanticism, Death Cab for Cutie's fourth album, presents a polished version of the heartstring-tugging formula that has earned the Washington state quartet its cultish following: melodic, melancholy songs about feeling both smart and confused, hopelessly romantic but wary of love. The eleven indie lullabies here -- ostensibly about a long-distance relationship -- are both tuneful and rough-edged, with singer Benjamin Gibbard's plaintive boy-next-door voice wafting delicately over crunchy guitars, piano and random percussion. The title track is an epic, fully formed tear-jerker, and more lighthearted fare such as "Expo '86" and the waltz-tempoed "Death of an Interior Decorator" get by on their childlike charm. Transatlanticism should be overwrought -- it's an album about young men enduring lost love in an ocean of memory; instead, it feels like a conversation with an old friend.

The success of the most popular Nu - Jazz collection continues, with a more modernized visual, the musical spectrum is expanding and has given the chance for new stars such as Jamie Callum, Madeleine Peyroux and William Gallison, Stacey Kent to shine. The selection as always is eclectic and will please the more demanding listener.

Zadig wrote:fala bosanskim piratima

victory wrote:

Zadig wrote:fala bosanskim piratima

nekako umjeso 'pirati' prikladnije bi bilo ovu aktivnost nazivati 'razmjena muzike'.

cini mi se da su pirati oni koji prave biznis od ilegalnog umnozavanja i prodaje muzike

Antony and the Johnsons present chamber cabaret in darkest blue, creating music that is highly dramatic, emotional, and lyrical. Compared to everyone from Nina Simone to Lotte Lenya, Antony's voice is hauntingly evocative. The Johnsons, an ensemble featuring a string trio, piano, bass and drums, lay a foundation of lush yet minimal orchestral arrangements. Antony & the Johnsons is a reissue of the group's debut album, which was originally released in 1998 on the London-based label Durtro, which is run by David Tibet of Current 93. It was followed by the EP I Fell in Love with a Dead Boy EP, which includes a cover of David Lynch and Angelo Badalamenti's "Mysteries of Love."

Having first presented his songs in after-hours cabarets at the Pyramid Club in NYC, Antony assembled the Johnsons and produced his first concerts at The Kitchen and Knitting Factory in NYC.The past few years have found Antony & the Johnsons making a name for themselves playing a series of concerts at Joe's Pub at the Public Theater and the Knitting Factory in New York City. In the past year, Antony and the Johnsons have also performed at The Bloomsbury theater in London with Current 93, at Central Park SummerStage with Bebel Gilberto, at the Nancy Jazz Festival in France with French composer Yann Tiersen, at Town Hall in NYC with Rufus Wainwright, at the Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, at the Wexner Center in Columbus OH, at Royce Hall, UCLA for producer Hal Willner, and in Milan and Naples with Tramontano Arts.

Reissue of the late British folk icon's 1969 debut album.
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There's not a single dud in the trilogy of albums that singer/songwriter Nick Drake released during his all-too-short career. And 1968's Five Leaves Left--his first album--is certainly no exception. Drake's sensitive guitar work and sensitive vocals are backed by the baroque sounds of a chamber string group, and the platter's lyrics show maturity well beyond the age of their 20-year-old creator. Sparser than its follow-up, the jazzy Bryter Layter, but less tortured than Drake's dark final chapter, Pink Moon, Five Leaves Left is a classic British folk disc. Songs like "River Man," "The Thoughts of Mary Jane," and "Day Is Done" are among Drake's finest moments. Newcomers be forewarned: this music is as infectious as it is bleak, and a purchase of Drake's boxed set Fruit Tree might be a wise investment.
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Whether you know it or not, you've heard Nick Drake before. Maybe it's from his other albums, maybe it's from that VW commercial, maybe it's just the sound of that quiet bleakness we all feel when sadness comes to the door and doesn't want to leave. This music lives with all of us. It exists in quiet lonely nights, chilly autumn evenings, and the muted grey of the world when it's been raining all day. During his too-short musical career, Nick used music to look at those little feelings we all have and give them an exquisitely beautiful voice.

Ok, fine, I'll start talking like a normal person now. I realize those comments seem a little silly. It's easy enough to describe how this music sounds, but it's not as easy to convey the emotional impact it might have. Everything about this 40-minute jewel is beautifully composed, elegantly performed and topped off with Nick's simple understated lyrics, which read as well as poetry. His voice and guitar (pretty tricky guitar work, too) are backed up by changing accompaniments: some electric guitar and bass at times, some flute, some quiet conga percussion at others, and most often a smooth string section providing just the right bittersweet background. It's quiet folk melancholy with an addicting quality that can't really be explained. Not everything here is quite as sad as "Way to Blue" or the eerily prophetic "Fruit Tree," either. "Saturday Sun" adds some relatively upbeat jazzy piano, although it remains low-key to the end. "Time Has Told Me" is uplifting in its timeless simplicity. "Man in a Shed" is a wistful boy-girl tune, but the theme is as un-cliched and downright humble as I've ever heard it.

Five Leaves Left was Nick's first album, and overall the most realized - he took over a year putting it together after all. If you don't like the sound of strings and flutes you'll probably want to hear the later Pink Moon instead, which is basically just Nick and his guitar. Either way, just make sure you check him out somehow. Any Drake offering is a treasure not to be missed.