Albums you've been listening to lately

[zuludelta]

Various Artists - Ryu Ga Gotoku 1 & 2 OST: A somewhat rare CD released by J-pop publisher Wave-Master. Wave-Master has done a good job releasing soundtracks for Sega's latest games, but they're all but impossible to find outside of Japan or amazon.co.jp. The 2-disc set contains most of the tracks from the Ryu Ga Gotoku games (the first game was released as "Yakuza" in North America and Europe, while the sequel is yet to be released internationally) although there are some notable omissions (the excellent piano piece from the "Go To Shangri-La" mission of the first game, for one). The compositions are credited to Hidenori Shoji, Hideki Sakamoto, Norihiko Hibino, and a number of Sega's sound guys. Two vocal tracks ("Amazing Grace" and "Silent Night") are credited to pop singer Eri Kawai and two other tracks are credited to MAKOTCH (not sure if it's a band or an individual). Overall, a nice soundtrack, with a lot of Tekken-esque big beat/nu skool breaks appropriate to the games' brawling premise, with jazzier, moodier pieces to break up the monotony. 

Media Links:

Ryu Ga Gotoku 2 Intro pt.1
Ryu Ga Gotoku 2 gameplay video
Ryu Ga Gotoku 1 final cutscenes edit (English)

[Kommando]

Lately its been WAT and NATO by Laibach.  The title song of NATO is basically Holst's Mars: God of War with an ambient techno to it.   They have a great cover of War.  Unlike the original by Edwin Starr, they list lots of things war is good for.

[zuludelta]

Raul Midón - A World Within A World: Midón's second album builds on his impressive 2005 debut (which I reviewed earlier in this thread). Musically, it seems he hasn't really stepped out of the R&B/jazz/latin music crossover of his previous record. It's in his lyrics that a change is most apparent... he's become stridently more political, jaded, and cynical in his lyrics... a far cry from the somewhat typical romantic themes of his first album. The lyrical change is so abrupt that I can imagine some of his fans might be taken aback by the darker turn in his songwriting (although he still has the odd Babyface-flavoured love song or two), but I personally like the greater depth he brings on his sophomore effort. As always, his vocals and guitar-playing are consistently impressive.

Media links:
Pick Somebody Up
Peace On Earth (a horribly depressing song, but my favourite track on his album)

[zuludelta]

Lately its been WAT and NATO by Laibach.  The title song of NATO is basically Holst's Mars: God of War with an ambient techno to it.   They have a great cover of War.  Unlike the original by Edwin Starr, they list lots of things war is good for.

Great find Komm... hilariously tongue-in-cheek stuff. Loved the 8-bit sounding drum breaks on the War cover.

[Verfall]

One of my all time favorite songs, by one of my all time favorite groups. And probably nowhere near what you'd expect  :D

http://www.youtube.com/v/ELBG_PUeT0w

[zuludelta]

continuing with my current Yoko Kanno jag...

Yoko Kanno - Tenkuu no Escaflowne (A Girl in Gaea) OST: An excellent collection of classical-influenced music. The music on the Escaflowne series (and subsequent animated feature based on the series) was my primary introduction to Kanno's compositions, and is still my favourite of her OSTs (granted, I've only listened extensively to her Ghost In The Shell and Cowboy Bebop work). While many of the songs hew closely to the orchestral/classical score tradition, there are also some more pop music/electronica-oriented pieces that have become something of a hallmark with Kanno's later work. Excellent, excellent stuff.

Media Links:

Sora (featuring Shanti Snyder on vocals); as a bit of trivia, the song's lyrics are in ancient Romanian
Medley featuring "First Vision," "Black Escaflowne," and "Tree of Hearts" (co-written by Kanno's ex-husband Hajime Mizoguchi)
Ring (featuring Maaya Sakamoto on vocals)
Watcha Gonna Do? (a fun, lighthearted piece)
Sora's Folktale (a trip-hop/downtempo mix of "Sora")

[zuludelta]

ASIN - Pag-ibig, Pagbabago, Pagpapatuloy: the group ASIN are legends in the Philippine folk/indigenous rock scene, acclaimed for their socially-conscious lyrics and their virtuoso musicality. The group was assembled in the late 1970s and their political and environmentally themed songs immediately gained them fans in a Filipino population growing quickly disenfranchised with Ferdinand Marcos' government. The group officially disbanded in 1993 when lead guitarist/vocalist Cesar "Saro" Bañares was shot and killed by a drunken lawyer. In 2000, the surviving members of the band decided to release one more album, entitled Pag-ibig, Pagbabago, Pagpapatuloy (Love, Change, Constancy) collecting previously unreleased material, including songs that Bañares was developing on his own prior to his murder. Highlights of the album include "Dalawang Dekada ng ASIN" ("Two Decades of ASIN"), a medley of their greatest hits arranged for orchestra, "Monumento" (a song on the plight of the urban poor who live on the landfills of Manila), and "Sa Malayong Silangan ("In The Far East"), Bañares' final song.

Excellent stuff, highly recommended for world music fans.

Media links:

- Balita (News)
- ASIN playing in Winnipeg (I actually caught them live playing in New Westminster, BC during their recent tour of Canada)
- ASIN vocalist Lolita Carbon live in the Netherlands
- American hip-hop group The Black-Eyed Peas' The Apl Song, which takes its Tagalog lyrics from the ASIN song "Balita" (News), and some of the English lyrics are also a rough translation of the ASIN song's lyrics (MC Allan Pineda, a.k.a. "apl.de.ap" is of mixed African-American/Filipino ancestry).

[Midnight]

Glen Hansard & Marketa Irglova - The Swell Season: Glen Hansard is front man for the Frames, Marketa Irglova is a classical pianist, and the music is the stuff they produced for the critically acclaimed film Once. It's sappy acoustic crap and I love it.

Counting Crows - Films About Ghosts: The entire Counting Crows discography is too big to fit on my MP3 player, so this has to do. Again; sappy crap, but I like it.

Alkaline Trio - Crimson: I suppose the appeal here is the harmonized vocals. "Mercy Me" is one of my favorite songs of a long while.

William S. Burroughs - Dead City Radio: Spoken word, kinda sorta. Burroughs is a great reader and the accompanying music is spot on. He also does a haunting renditon of "Ich bin von Kopf bis Fuß auf Liebe eingestellt" better known as "Falling In Love Again."

[Mr. Hamrick]

One of my all time favorite songs, by one of my all time favorite groups. And probably nowhere near what you'd expect  :D

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELBG_PUeT0w

i really liked that song.  Looks like I am going to be digging up some of their old stuff.

[Jakew]

Icky Thump by The White Stripes and The Cool by Lupe Fiasco are on repeated play at the mo. I'm the process of downloading that Devendra Banhart album that has the song "Insect Eyes" .... it's a very eerie song I'm addicted to. Need to play it to death to get it out of my system.

[zuludelta]

Lamb - The Best Kept Secrets (The Best of Lamb, 1996-2004): Trip-hop group Lamb is one of those bands whose music you've probably heard at some point, maybe in a TV show, or a movie soundtrack, or in a club, but whose name isn't really immediately recognizable (which I guess is a sort of compliment, considering how much exposure their music gets despite the group's relative anonymity). At least that was the case for me. I was certainly aware of their work back in the late 1990s, but it didn't really register in my head how much their music had infiltrated the popular sound of the time until I heard Nicole Kidman singing a snippet of Gorecki in the film musical Moulin Rouge. Along with groups like Massive Attack, Portishead, and Morcheeba, Lamb's combination of atmospheric instrumentation, laidback beats, and sultry vocals helped bring trip-hop to the mainstream of popular music. This greatest hits collection provides a nice retrospective of their music, and paints a nice progression of Lamb's sound (although it seems they could never replicate their commercial success they had with the singles Gorecki and Wonder).

Media Links:
Gorecki
B-Line
Gabriel
Wonder

[zuludelta]

We ♥ Katamari OST: As much as I liked the Katamari games, I never seemed to enjoy them as much as most other people. Just not my particular cup of tea, I guess. The game's music, on the other hand, is just awesome (IIRC, the first game won an industry award for its music production). You've got your standard MIDI-sounding tracks, but you've also got some great catchy music gems that straddle genres such as pop, shibuya-kei, and jazz. I dare you to get "Everlasting Love" and "Baby Universe" out of your head once you hear them.

Media Links
Everlasting Love (feat. Arisa)
Baby Universe (feat. Pizzicato Five's Maki Nomiya)
Angel Rain (feat. YOU)
Bluffing Damacy (feat. Kirinji) 

[Verfall]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lF4wqWDpVu4

Surprising song and very different from this bands usual work. My sister saw them live and said they put on a pretty good show.

[lugaru]

Aesop Rock (awesome abstract hip-hop)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrsj653088E
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1u43KDiWD0

R. L. Burnside (awesome bluesman remixed with good beats)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbLYVnP3sjY&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgsC1WlAzWE&feature=related

[Sword]

Right now, it's a tossup between
Dark Passion Play by Nightwish and Climax Jump Den-liner Form from Kamen Rider Den-o. I also have the Pan's Labyrinth OST, Gekiranger Complete Best and Gurren Lagann Best SOund collections in rotation.

[zuludelta]

Rotating in my mp3 player:

Zero 7 - Simple Things: Zero 7 came during the tail-end of the big trip-hop/downtempo/chillout trend of the late 1990s/early 2000s. Not nearly the downtempo essential that Portishead, Lamb, and Morcheeba are, but their debut album from 2001 has a lot of lush and eminently listenable grooves nonetheless.
Media Links:
Distractions
Destiny
In The Waiting Line

Hans Zimmer and Lisa Gerrard - Gladiator (Music From the Motion Picture): Excellent stuff... there's definitely a baroque influence to the film's music. A stirring military march feel ties everything together, but I find it oddly relaxing.
Media Links:
fan-made Gladiator film score medley

Michael Stevens and Kyle Eastwood - Letters From Iwo Jima (Music From the Motion Picture): There's a very spare, minimalist quality to this film's score, which mostly features solo piano with the occasional orchestral accompaniment. I think the composers (one of whom is Clint Eastwood's son Kyle) did a good job of crafting a soundscape that is accessible as a western film score while featuring a slight Japanese sensibility. Also, an excellent, excellent film, IMHO, the best big studio film of the past two years (from a directing and screenwriting standpoint), if you haven't seen it, do yourself a favour and rent the DVD.
Media Links:
Amazon page with listenable samples of all the album's tracks
Letters From Iwo Jima main theme

John Tavener - Children Of Men (Original Motion Picture Score): This isn't the "soundtrack" that has the rock hits from the film (also released as a separate CD), this album has the classical music film score. John Tavener is a highly-regarded contemporary classical music composer, and his work here does not disappoint. Along with Tavener's stuff (highlighted by his opus, "Fragments Of A Prayer"), there are also some interpretations of a couple of works by Handel and Mahler, as well as Penderecki's chilling "Threnody For The Victims of Hiroshima."   
Media Links:
Amazon page with listenable samples of all the album's tracks
Krzysztof Penderecki's "Threnody For The Victims of Hiroshima" (Warning: accompanying video contains some disturbing images) one of the most powerful pieces of music I've ever heard, Penderecki's use of dissonance and counterpoint is revolutionary (the song was written in 1960), and has influenced everybody from film score composers to Sonic Youth and Japanese noise group the Boredoms.

[Kommando]

Some Boys Wander By Mistake - Sisters of Mercy (Not to be confused with Some Girls Wander by Mistake)
Rare Singles and B sides - though in thise case B sides must refer to nonexistent CDs since non of the appear on any of their other works and I have them all.

[style]

Lupe Fiasco - The Cool (Nuff Said!)

[Protomorph]

Lamb - The Best Kept Secrets (The Best of Lamb, 1996-2004): Trip-hop group Lamb is one of those bands whose music you've probably heard at some point, maybe in a TV show, or a movie soundtrack, or in a club, but whose name isn't really immediately recognizable (which I guess is a sort of compliment, considering how much exposure their music gets despite the group's relative anonymity). At least that was the case for me. I was certainly aware of their work back in the late 1990s, but it didn't really register in my head how much their music had infiltrated the popular sound of the time until I heard Nicole Kidman singing a snippet of Gorecki in the film musical Moulin Rouge. Along with groups like Massive Attack, Portishead, and Morcheeba, Lamb's combination of atmospheric instrumentation, laidback beats, and sultry vocals helped bring trip-hop to the mainstream of popular music. This greatest hits collection provides a nice retrospective of their music, and paints a nice progression of Lamb's sound (although it seems they could never replicate their commercial success they had with the singles Gorecki and Wonder).

Media Links:
Gorecki
B-Line
Gabriel
Wonder

I've been listening to Lamb for several years now, and had a similar moment of "Woah...waitaminit!" during Moulin Rouge. So subtle...

the last few days, I have been listening to the soundtrack to "Across The Universe" and They Might Be Giants' "Then and Now" (in the car)

[Kommando]

Lamb - The Best Kept Secrets (The Best of Lamb, 1996-2004): Trip-hop group Lamb is one of those bands whose music you've probably heard at some point, maybe in a TV show, or a movie soundtrack, or in a club, but whose name isn't really immediately recognizable (which I guess is a sort of compliment, considering how much exposure their music gets despite the group's relative anonymity). At least that was the case for me. I was certainly aware of their work back in the late 1990s, but it didn't really register in my head how much their music had infiltrated the popular sound of the time until I heard Nicole Kidman singing a snippet of Gorecki in the film musical Moulin Rouge. Along with groups like Massive Attack, Portishead, and Morcheeba, Lamb's combination of atmospheric instrumentation, laidback beats, and sultry vocals helped bring trip-hop to the mainstream of popular music. This greatest hits collection provides a nice retrospective of their music, and paints a nice progression of Lamb's sound (although it seems they could never replicate their commercial success they had with the singles Gorecki and Wonder).

Media Links:
Gorecki
B-Line
Gabriel
Wonder

I've been listening to Lamb for several years now, and had a similar moment of "Woah...waitaminit!" during Moulin Rouge. So subtle...

the last few days, I have been listening to the soundtrack to "Across The Universe" and They Might Be Giants' "Then and Now" (in the car)

Ok yeah, I recall hearing some of it on Torchwood.  It kind of reminds me of Portishead on acid, and I didn't think that was possible.   :ph34r:

[Dr. Kraken]

Stone Temple Pilots- Core
I know it's old school but ya' gotta love it.

Sevendust- Alpha
Alot harder than Animosity and Season(and I love those CDs btw), great disk.

Killswitch Engage- As Daylight Dies and End of Heartache
Just the kinda music I like, metal and harmony.

Atreyu- Lead sails, paper boat
Saw them at a Coheed and Cambria concert and they fricken rock. Not as hard as the old stuff, but it still rocks.

Gym Class Heroes- Cruel as School Children
Rockin with rappers, very shweet.

[zuludelta]

I've been listening to Lamb for several years now, and had a similar moment of "Woah...waitaminit!" during Moulin Rouge. So subtle...

I remember going through all my mixtapes and club-mix CDs after seeing Moulin Rouge in the theatres just to find the song (I knew I'd heard it before, but I couldn't remember where). I think it was a week or so later that I heard Gorecki on a local radio station and everything finally clicked into place.

Ok yeah, I recall hearing some of it on Torchwood.  It kind of reminds me of Portishead on acid, and I didn't think that was possible.   :ph34r:

I make it a point not to listen to Portishead on acid. The creepy plush animals that rise out of my carpet whenever I do so always freak me out  :lol:

[JeyNyce]

Right now:

Bitter:Sweet - The mating Game - This CD was so hard to find, but now that I got it, it's all I listen to.

Red Hot Chili Peppers - Stadium Arcadium - It's a 2 CD set but I'm stuck on the first CD.  I have to listen to the 2nd one soon.

[zuludelta]

Various Artists - Katamari Fortissimo Damacy: The soundtrack to the first Katamari Damacy game is still the best in the series (although We ♥ Katamari was pretty awesome too). It's hard to pigeonhole the music into any particular genre... there's definitely some electronica, jazz, bossa nova, and pop in there, but it all feels so... folk-y in terms of its accessibility. Yu Miyake's theme is a recurring motif in many of the tracks, but most of the songs stand alone surprisingly well. Even if you've never played the game, this album is well worth seeking out if you're looking for something that's fun and soothing at the same time.

Media Links:

Katamaritaino (Roll Me In)
Lonely Rolling Star
A Crimson Rose & A Gin Tonic
Cherry Blossom Colored Season (While the song sounds upbeat, it has some pretty sad lyrics about growing up and getting jaded... I felt a lump rise up in my throat when I heard it):

[spoiler]Sakurairo no Kisetsu (Cherry Blossom Colored Season)

[La la la chorus]

Katamari dekitara dekakemashou (If the Katamari comes, shall we go out)
Rojiura o burabura sanpo shimasen ka? (To the back alleys and walk with it, swaying, swinging, strolling?)
Hora mado no soto mite goran (Hey! Look outside the window!)
Sora ni wa hikoukigumo (In the sky, where a plane is leaving clouds behind it)
Sore wa sukimakazefuku koharubiyori no koro deshita (Remember we could feel the coming of the pleasant autumn air in the bright orange moon?)

Hirusagari machi o tansakuchuu (We were exploring the city as the afternoon descended)
Kimi no te o tori sukoshitereru (I remember being shy, blushing to the touch of your hand)
Chiisana koto de shiawase o kanjiru koro deshita a (Those were the days when small things made us feel content)

Oooooooooh-ooooooo-ooooo-woooooh
momoiro no nigiyaka na kisetsu deshit (That was a merry, peach-colored season)

[La la la chorus]

Kimi to boku wa ima kangaeru (Now you and I think)
Sukoshi bakari seichou shita kara (Because we've grown, if even just a little)
Chiisana koto de shiawase o kanjitai toki nan desu (We want that time when we feel joy from small things)

Oooooooh-oooooo-oooo-woooooh[/i]
sakurairo no nigiyaka na kisetsu deshita (That wild and lively season colored like cherry blossoms)

[La la la chorus] x 2[/spoiler]   

Various Artists (DigiGroove) - Tekken 3 Battle Trax: This album contains remixes of the original nu-skool breaks/big beat flavoured soundtrack of the Playstation fighting game. All of the tracks are solid, and if you're looking for something to spice up your club mixes, this CD is a good place to start, the grooves are infectious and energetic.

Media Links:

Jin Kazama's theme
Hidden Character's theme

There are a bunch of other Tekken 3 videos on YouTube, but apart from the 2 above, I couldn't find any videos that had the specific (and superior) remixes found on the Battle Trax album.

[thanoson]

Fusion by The Parallel Project- It's a collaboration of synth pop and darkwave bands. It's really good stuff if you like trance/dancelike tones. Couple of the girls on the tracks have really beautiful voices.

Hmmm..... think I'll have to check out that Sisters of Mercy collection. Big fan of theirs and never heard of that before.

[Midnight]

James Blackshaw - The Cloud of Unknowing: This was on Pitchfork's end of the year top 50, so I picked it up. Beautiful, beautiful stuff. It's one guy on a 12-String guitar, but at times it sounds like two and three people each playing different parts of the harmony. You can check it out on his MySpace.

[Ajax]

Bishop Allen - Charm School: Two guys making music in their apartment with well written lyrics and a drum machine in the background. It is a great example of DIY even though they aren't punk.

Bishop Allen - EP Project: After Charm School they attempted to release a EP every month for a year. They released 56 songs during this project and there are quite a few gems. Once again it's a very scaled back sort of music, low production, but high quality if that makes sense.

Bishop Allen - Broken String: (Do you see a theme?) There latest album which had them revisiting ten of their better songs from the EP project along with a few songs written just for the album. Good stuff though it's a departure from their previous efforts.

Baskervilles - Twilight 14: After their record deal went south for whatever reason the band put the entire album free to download on their site. I suggest you check out all 14 songs. Best way I can describe their music is narrative lounge rock. Anywho, the songs are free so check it out for yourself.

[edit] Revisited Regina Spektor's 11:11 album. Some songs I can get behind others are meh. Still debating on whether to get some of her other albums or not.

[zuludelta]

[edit] Revisited Regina Spektor's 11:11 album. Some songs I can get behind others are meh. Still debating on whether to get some of her other albums or not.

11:11 is probably her weakest record in terms of her finding her own voice... she still had to outgrow her Tori Amos fascination at that point. My personal favourites are Songs (although it's probably the least accessible of her albums from a pop music perspective) and Soviet Kitsch.

[Kommando]

Interesting Mishmash of David Bowie (Scary Monster, Station to Station) as well as the theme to Moulin Rouge.  That's not counting my gaming musing which is either the Star Wars collection (including the music I pulled from KOTOR and Republic Commando - yes it seems I bought the later for the music) as well as the first two season CDs of the new Doctor Who.

[zuludelta]

A bunch of records I picked up during my lounge/trip-hop/chillout DJing phase in the late 1990s/early 2000s:

Various Artists - Alight presents Chill Out - The Album : 01: A reasonable compilation CD, has some great remixes of the more popular chillout tracks from the late 1990s (I especially like the Mark Moon remix of Gouryella's "Tenshi" and the Intergalactic Harbour Mix of The Gentle People's "Groovin' With You").

Media Links:
System F - Cry (acoustic version) (I never liked the vocal trance original, but the album has the superior acoustic version)
Wamdue Project - Instrumentation (30 second sample only)
Nitin Sawhney (feat. Reena Bhardwaj)- Nadia
Fantastic Plastic Machine - Whistle Song (a remake of the Frankie Knuckles house classic, this is a different mix from the one on the album, though)

Various Artists (mixed by Claude Challe) - Buddha Bar Vol.I: The first Buddha Bar compilation album has two distinct influences to it. The first CD has an East Indian/Middle Eastern flavour while the second disc has a more cosmopolitan theme with a lot of Latin influences, although the influences crossover on both CDs. Great music to chill out to after a night out in the clubs, or just something relaxing to listen to while working.

Media Links:
Tulku - Anni Rose
Willy DeVille - Demasiado Corazon
Kevin Yost - Two Wrongs Making It Right (30 second sample only)
Anima Sound System - Shalom (30 second sample only)

Various Artists (mixed by Ravin) - Buddha Bar Vol.III: A better chillout compilation record than its predecessor, this album has a lot more continuity to it, with superior mixing by Ravin. There's a vague "East Asian" feel to many of the tracks, but similar to Vol.I, this album has its fair share of Arabic/East Indian/Middle Eastern influences. 

Media Links:
Nicos - Secret Love
Oliver Shanti & Friends - Sacral Nirvana
Deepak Ram - A Night in Lenasia
Adrian Enescu - Invisible Movies part 1