Cool new video by Edouard Salier from Massive Attack‘s new album, Heligoland. A nice write-up about the video is over at motionographer.

A live music shoot that I was asked to do the other week for my friend Angela Little for her new show, Celtic Fire. The full set can be viewed here on flickr.

The new album from Kings of Convenience is very much like previous albums, but this is by no means a bad thing. Declaration of Dependence is in my mind a slightly more dour album for the Norway duo, although there are lighter moments such as the track “Boat Behind”. For an example of the more mellow tracks on the album, have a listen to the sample below from the track “Riot on and Empty Street”.

It’s not often you get albums that you can just put on and sit down and listen to, not worrying about doing anything else, but simply just appreciating the music.

Love this video to launch the new Rockband; The Beatles video game.

The Sight Below is a Seattle-based electronica artist whose debut album, Glider, sits very comfortably next to the GAS album I mentioned a few months back. Glider, however, is much more succinct album and keeps things evolving much more quickly, while still retaining that deep, pulsing, shoegazer aesthetic.

Glider is available through the Ghostly International store.

Really enjoying Josh Pyke’s new album, Chimney’s Afire at the moment which very much continues similar themes of his previous album. I loved Memories & Dust when my sister introduced me to it last year as it was one of those albums that really stays with you long after you’ve heard it. Chimney’s Afire has some superb tracks, especially ‘The Summer’ and ‘The Lighthouse Song’ and well worth a listen.

Listen to ‘The Summer’

Pictures from the live show by Ophelia of the Spirits the other night at The Basement in Sydney.

My music tastes seem to be dictated heavily by the seasons. When spring and summer come around I tend to listen to the down-tempo electronica. When the weather gets colder, I tend to more radiohead, NIN and so-on. I bought the epic (4.5 hours long) Nah Und Fern by GAS few months ago after seeing it being recommended on the iso50 blog, but being a very chilled ambient electronica album, it was out of my seasonal music sync. I tried listening to it, but just couldn’t get into it. It was too cold, too relaxed, to enjoy in the middle of winter. Then today, as winter starts winding down and we see some sun here in Australia, I give the album another listen, and it suddenly works. It’s actually a collection of four albums, with long, slow-moving tracks that gently ebb and flow, with deep, repetitive beats, each track bleeding into the other. Certainly, if I was introducing someone to electronica, this would not be the album; it’s inaccessible unless you know the language and the forms that it uses (some would say boring). But if you do understand this form, you are in for a very relaxing and enjoyable album. Highy recommended.