Toluu

Allan's World Music

A Toronto-based mp3 blog. I really suck with slogans and titles. As you can see the title of this blog sucks but I hope you'll ignore it and just enjoy the music we like

Misha - Teardrop Sweetheart ReviewYesterday

Misha is an Electronica group from New York comprised of model Ashley Yao and John Chao. They sound like an electronic based version of the Cocteau Twins, very soft, very airy, very dreamy. The interesting part of this boy/girl group is that John is the vocalist and apparently, Ash the producer. Interesting. Particularly since, I’m used to hearing lullaby vocals from Asian female singers, but not quite the males. And this man sounds like he’s constantly singing a love lullaby for children. For non-Asian music listeners, this is somewhat unusual I guess. But for anybody who listens to enough Asian music - with the exception of Korean music, who for some odd reason love the gospel choir style - a lullaby slow jam is a regular thing.

Like last week’s Kraak & Smaak review, Misha’s 2007 Teardrop Sweetheart makes for good background music. I would say more specifically, study music. It’s the type of music, you play and next thing you know it’s done (40 minutes short only). You wonder, where did the songs go? The lyrics are not particularly interesting. In fact, half the time, it’s so drowsy sounding I d

October Sky at The Annex WreckroomYesterday

I have a confession: one of my friends works for the band. So I’m sure SaraMarie Harding would appreciate a glowing revue so here goes:

The band was terrific (actually quite accurate, they were terrific), the audience loved them (which is again true) and everyone had a great time (can’t speak for everyone but I certainly did). All that was said without any money or graft changing hands.

I have seen October Sky maybe 3 times now and each time they just keep getting better. Coming off a 20 date tour in which they opened for Mobile, they sound much tighter and self-assured than the first time I saw them at the ElMo back in August. They have often been compared to a cross between Muse and Radiohead and certainly there is that element to their music but I don’t like to make comparisons, I like to judge each band on their own merits.

October Sky can certainly hold their own with some of the best Canadian bands touring right now. Their songs are sonically filling with lots of atmospherics and driving rhythms. And, to be honest it is really great to hear a band with a rhythm section that actually knows what it’s there for. The drumming dares you to ignore them and drives the songs along giving the vocals and guitar the support they need.

The band is LOUD! and that’s a good thing. The so

Wixel Plays Sonic Youth ReviewYesterday

Sonic Youth is one of the few bands I have consistently enjoyed for many years, and frankly, though they have been covered to hell and back, I always welcome another group eager to represent its old material in new forms . . . albeit with slight suspicion. For example, I didn’t mind Ruby Isle’s rather campy cover of “Teenage Riot,” though I found the singer’s voice as annoying as Kevin Barnes‘, while not nearly as proficient or interesting. Their replacement of guitars with synths was an intuitive contemporary choice, but not executed the best way, in my opinion. (They eschewed the drone-effect which is peculiar, crucial to the song.)

Belgian band Wixel (who list “acousmatic” and “shoegaze” as genre labels) have redesigned seven classic Sonic Youth tracks in ambient style. Those of us used to Thurston Moore’s cool vocal delivery or Kim Gordon’s strained effects on the microphone, not to mention

One Day As A Lion EP reviewNovember 29

For those who don’t know, One Day As A Lion is Zack de la Rocha of Rage Against The Machine, and Jon Theodore (formerly of The Mars Volta). Zack handles not only vocals here, but keyboards as well, and Jon is the drummer.

I think that it’s worth trying to explain what kind of music they make, although it’s surely more than the sum of its parts. For starters, Zack’s rapping is less forceful than it is in RATM. It fits the music well, seeing as how the music is as much electronica as it is hip hop, in my opinion. There are few obvious instrumental hooks, but the songs are interesting enough backdrops for the vocals.

While the flow is less aggressive than you might expect, it is soulful, and the rhythm and timing are great. This makes the songs pretty accessible, as do the lyrics. They’re very confrontational, needless to say, but I find an ever present sense of optimism even when Zack is describing negative situations. I get a sense of “This is messed up, but at least we recognize that,” sort of point of view. I always liked the phrase that the band took their name from, and

Crystal Stilts - Alight of Night ReviewNovember 28

The Crystal Stilts are from Brooklyn and one of their members, Frankie Rose was a former member of the Vivian Girls. Other then that, I know very little about this band but I was given the chance to check out their album, “Alight Of Night” and I’ve gotten the chance to listen to it for the last few weeks.

Being the type to mention some type of general classification, Crystal Stilts make some sort of shoegaze-pop and the leadsinger sounds a lot like Stephen Merritt of the Magnetic Fields.

I am not sure if I’m a fan of shoegaze personally, however I do enjoy a lot of the blending on guitar effects and the vocal melodies of the lead singer. There’s an emphasis on the artistry of the musicians, which in this case is top notch.

While it’s not too difficult to see that some of these songs are quite simple in nature (aside from the guitar work/effects), a lot of the songs have a catchy nature to them right off the bat. The first song I really enjoyed was the self-titled track name, Crystal Stilts with a simple guitar riff and some keyboarding that kicks in half way make this