well i promised that i would be sharing more music on this here blog (still contemplating those music mixes…) so let me introduce you to London Grammar, if you haven’t heard of them already. they are a trio from London with the amazing Hannah on vocals. there are only have two tracks out so far, but you can pre-order their debut Metal & Dust which is actually releasing next week. based on these two songs that’s something you’re going to be wanting to do right away.
it seems fitting that my first music post of the year is about a newish South African band called Al Bairre. these guys are based in Cape Town too, so I suppose that makes it doubly awesome. Al Bairre is made up of 5 talented youngsters – Tom Kotze, Julia Johnson, Tessa Johnson, Nicholas Preen and Kyle Davis - who combine cello, violins, guitars, ukelele’s and drums to create what they call Symphonic Indie Rock.
Aggressively unfancy band from the mother city. We have nice hair and like ugly things. Drawing influence from bands such as Arcade Fire, Ra Ra Riot, Vampire Weekend and Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeroes, the goal was to take an indie band and turn it into an “ice cream of orchestral sounds”
you can listen to and download their debut EP When I Was Tall for free at their Soundcloud and band page.
listen to the rest of the EP at their Soundcloud page.
Rose Blake is a brilliant illustrator whose new portfolio website i was perusing when i noticed a link inviting you to buy her paintings, leading me to a little project she calls Playlist / Painting. basically Rose makes a painting and then also compiles a playlist to go along with it. unfortunately for me Spotify is not available in South Africa, but most of you will probably be able to go have a good listen to her cool playlists while looking at some rad paintings.
Rose also has another side project called Studio Music that ‘provides an insight into the creative process of visual practitioners, through the music that they listen to whilst working.’ each person contributes a playlist which you can listen to. what a GREAT idea.
if you’re a reader of design & decor blogs or blogs of any kind really (and i assume you are because, well, you’re here) then you’ll probably be familiar with Skinny Laminx. Heather’s wonderful textile & design work is one of our proudest south african exports – and she’s based right here in Cape Town which makes me doubly proud because our city is rad, huh?
so if you follow Skinny Laminx on twitter or facebook you might have seen that their shop on Bree Street is celebrating its first birthday this week. Heather mailed me a little while ago with a cool idea to make a special music mix for the shop in celebration of their birthday (and to spice up the shop’s playlist, which is currently made up of a lot of songs from my mixes – rad!) and i jumped at the chance because i can’t resist a great mix.
but that’s not all. in the spirit of celebration and giving, the Skinny laMix comes with a bonus GIVEAWAY! Heather is giving one lucky reader an Alexander Sack in Pollen Pebble Print (say that three times fast) as pictured above. all you have to do to enter is leave a comment telling me what your favourite song is at the moment. i’ll be closing the giveaway & drawing a winner at random on Monday 17 December, so get commenting!
as for what inspired the mix itself, Heather gave me a pretty great brief:
I’m a sucker for beardy, Byrdsy men on a harmony, lanky boys with hair in their eyes doing something jangly, and sunny girls singing about trees. You know the kind of thing.
Skinny laMix. download it here*. playlist:
if you’re after more Skinny Laminx: international readers can shop at etsy, and south africans can order at her local online shop or visit the shop on Bree Street. i have had my eyes on her rough diamond cushion for some time now… oh and i couldn’t end this post without showing you the cute video made to celebrate their birthday:
* click on free download. close the pop up window, if there is one, and wait a few seconds before entering a captcha code to start the download. here’s an alternative download link. same drill: click on free download, close the pop up window if there is one, click the download link again on the next page. you might have to wait a few seconds before it starts downloading.
a wonderful reader, Heather, put me onto to Brooklyn based songstress Sydney Wayser, whose new album Bell Choir Coast is, simply put, track after track of RAD. have a listen to Potions below (the video premiered on Time entertainment last week) and be sure to buy her entire album here.
