The Bristol sound

Chungking, The Mona Lisa…

Fero Xprt — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 07:45:31 +0000

Tonight I’m really excited to talk about the band with the song I consider the ultimate masterpiece, I’m talking about Chungking, a band that if you don’t listen carefully may go through as an average band, but if you listen carefully enough you may find that your ears were cheating on you and discover a true Gioconda on Jessie Banks, Chungking’s music can be compared with Da Vinci’s enigmatic masterpiece, think about the smile of the Gioconda translated into music and you’ll get Chungking’s music, all of the sudden you will find yourself strugling to determine if Chungking’s music is of joy or bitterness, some examples of that are; “Making Music” a delicious track that has some optimism on it’s rythm but when you listen carefully can notice some bitterness about how hard it could be to do what you love to do, in her case it’s “Making music” but could be as well “Making Love” but sometimes the complexities of life turns such kind of things harder than they should be (I’ll make a separate post about “Making Music” later), we have also “Following” a song that you’ll only understand if you really identify your self with it, a true anthem to the hard side of love and resignation, that resignation you have to accept when you love someone but don’t want to interfere with his/her personal life, this is a song for the silent lover, an anthem for silent lovers to be more accurate, we have “Come With me” Come with me may be considered as the silent hope of such silent lovers, what keeps them standing on and keeping some hope in the adverse situations “Come with me, Just believe you’re free” such quote says it all, how many times we have wished to be free and follow that special person, or be followed, but it’s not always possible for better or worse, and so on, you’ll discover on every song mixed feelings of joy, bitterness, hope and overall a lot of true love, not that love that you see on TV or movies or read in books, but true love which is far more complex and beautiful.

Then we have a song that really haunts me “Voodoo” with Jessie Banks’ angelical voice, beautifully written, with lovely music and so human, just describing those things without explanation but not trying to explain them, like describing a lovely illness but not wanting to cure it, I can only say this is a masterpiece I’m unable to describe, it’s haunting, balanced, joyful, unique, so human I just cannot describe, it’s simply amazing! you really have to listen that band if you are in love and your concept of love is mature enough as to understand it does not always have a happy ending but you have to enjoy it while you can, that becase you’ll hardly get a second chance.

So Enjoy.

Sit down and listen to… Hooverphonic

Fero Xprt — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 00:52:51 +0000

Ladies and Gentleman, sit down and listen to Hooverphonic!

Today’s post is really special, today’s Hooverphonic’s turn and it will not be an easy post so please excuse me if I sound reiterative but I’m in love of this band and that love just don’t allow me to be rational.

The first Hooverphonic song I listened was “Mad about you” and all of the sudden I got mad about Hooverphonic, this song is so perfect, so sweet and so human I just loved it so lets go step by step, first of all the music, classic instruments open the song in such a dramatic way and it’s not only the opening then everything develops into a 3:43 minutes of drama, passion, love and even hate, it’s not all classic instruments, we can listen drums, some synthesized keyboard and other contemporary instruments but everything comes together in such perfect way from the beginning to the end, there’s no highs and lows in this song every single part of this song is on a high, the we have the voice, the voice here is of an Angel singing evil things, you can really appreciate the passion on Liesje Sadonius’ voice and just admire how well voice and music come together, then the lyrics, we have here a true poem transformed into a song, and not the silly poem where everything is pink and sweet, but a poem where even though things can turn out badly, it’s worth to live and enjoy the experience while it lasts, those 3 items combined create a master piece that can only be described as sublime!

Then we have Jackie Cane, here we do not have Classic instruments and it’s not even necessary, Guitars take it’s place instead while still making a warm and deep atmosphere, also here you can understand that Liesje’s voice does not have any boundaries and so her songwriting talent, Jackie Cane is once again a piece of art with deep and powerful lyrics, brilliant music and an Angel’s voice.

And if it weren’t enough we have Vinegar and Salt, another impressive well orchestrated song where Liesje steals protagonism with her beautiful and powerful voice but the music is still extraordinary and Lyrics are once again not about the typical silly romance but about a mature person who knows her/his deffects and knows that those will turn such romance into inminent failure, but as the song states… “But sometimes, it’s better to lie” even if it’s to your self.

Those three songs I mentioned are within a single album believe it or not, and what is more impressive is that all other songs in that album are just fantastic but those three are true master pieces, those are in a cathegory appart, yet more impresive is that every single album released by this Belgian band is as good as this one, all Hooverphonic’s albums are quite different and quite interesting, music is always amazing, lyrics deep and powerful and the voice is always something unique and a true experience to listen to.

Other jewels are “2Wicky”, “This strange Effect”, “One”, “Other’s delight”, “Opium” and truly, a lot other songs, I don’t describe each one here because it’s really hard to describe the indescriptible, so I highly recomend you listen this band, any disk, any song I’m sure will be a unique experience.

So enjoy because …Music is opium for free…

Goldfrapp, The lovely synth…

Fero Xprt — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 21:58:54 +0000

So Today I’ll talk about a band that with it’s first album captured all of my curiosity; Goldfrapp.

This band commanded by Alison Goldfrapp was a true revelation for me when I listened “Lovely Head” it was such an experience!, Lovely Head is (At least for me) Goldfrapp’s master piece, a synthesizer was heavily used to create this song yet it’s still so dramatic, melancholic and so warm you can actually feel Alison’s feeling through the speakers/headphones, the experience is so Magic and as the lyrics in that song mention; “It starts in my belly, then up to my heart…” and that’s exactly what happened to me with that combination of Alison’s angelical voice, the violins and the synth, it just made me shiver, it was so powerful that I had to get that album which did not disappointed me, “Felt mountain” is a beautiful and rich album, but “Lovely head” and “Pilots” are for sure the cherry in that cake, yet the whole album is fantastic and so unique that classic instruments such as violins and piano sound spectacular even combined with the Synthesizer, just magic.

Then there are the other albums, “Black Cherry”, “Supernature” and “Seventh Tree” Albums that deserve to be described appart given their Electro-Pop Nature, Yet I’ll include the Video for “Strict Machine” below.

Enjoy.

Morcheeba… Music for love!

Fero Xprt — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 01:10:05 +0000

Well, today I’ll talk about one of the sexiest Trip-Hop bands, Morcheeba, I really don’t know how to describe Morcheeba, so I hope I do it well.

First of all the music in all of the Morcheeba’s albums is really well done, clear and crisp, you can notice since the first moment that true Musicians are behind this band and the voice of in the albums before 2005 is just magnificent, sexy, deep and natural, My favorite Album for sure is ”Charango” this album seems to be dedicated to lovers, but a special kind of lovers, not those who listen Mariah Carey or Celine Dion but intelligent people and well overall Morcheeba music is for love, for love with your couple, for your self or even for the love of living.

Just to say how good Morcheeba is, I can say that this is one of the few bands I can tolerate and even enjoy during my nastiest migraines, during the worse moments in my life without feeling worse or in the happiest moments without feeling too euphoric, it’s just a balanced piece of awesomeness.

Below you can listen some sexy pieces of awesomeness, so enjoy.

Massive Attack, the Pioneers!

Fero Xprt — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 17:51:36 +0000

Well, I don’t think I have to introduce Massive Attack, they are the pioneers in the Trip-Hop genre and for sure one of the most (If not the most) important band in this movement, it’s hard to describe Massive attack because they seem to re-invent themselves on every album they release and it’s so impressive that they do it so well, I’ve never been dissapointed or bored while listening their different albums, each one is different, special and impressive for example 100th Window is really obscure with powerful lyrics to think about, in contrast Blue Lines is the opposite, is so sweet, so sexy and yet so mature and innovative, integrating some reggae-ish sounds while still being in the Trip-Hop cathegory, deffinitely a must in the Trip-Hop Genre.

Below 2 songs I love and show the contrast betwen 2 songs from Massive Attack, so enjoy.

Portishead… The first experience!

Fero Xprt — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 07:18:35 +0000

Well, this is the most important Trip-Hop band for my self, I know a lot of people may argue that Massive attack or tricky or some other bands are more important for the Trip-Hop movement but for me the most important is Portishead, and why is it? well back in 1998 I listened this band for the first time, my first reaction was; What genre is it? I kept on listening that album that somehow somebody borrowed me “Roseland NY Live” and I couldn’t find out what genre it was, I was 15 years old so I didn’t had much money to spend on music but I wanted to listen more about such intriguing band, such orchestrated electric guitars and mixers, it was a whole new experience to me, at the school nobody knew about that band, the person who borrowed me the Roseland album was in the same situation I was and Internet was not the same thing it is today some time later Napster was born and I could listen more Portishead music, some time later I could buy “Dummy” and then “Portishead” I still cannot find which album is better, both are fantastic from the first to the last song, The first experience and a fantastic experience,a lot of time passed before I could find any other band that could make me feel I was listening something different and special.

Here’s my favorite Portishead song, so enjoy.

Welcome to “The Bristol sound”

Fero Xprt — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 00:54:16 +0000

Hello and welcome to “The Bristol sound” this is site dedicated to all that intriguing and often “Uncathegorizable” music which is named “Trip-Hop”, I’m creating this site with my very personal point of view so I know that a lot of people will not agree with future posts, some purists of Trip-hop will claim that some of the music I place here is not even Trip-hop but this site is not purely for this, this is mainly Trip-Hop that’s true, but you’ll be able to find some other kind of music that is as good and creative and created by the most passionate people, also I’m not a musician, I’m just an audiophile, so if you find my posts not accurate feedback is welcome in the “Comments” section.

So once again welcome to my passion and enjoy.