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Lykke Li - I Follow Rivers (Director: Tarik Saleh)

Lykke Li - I Follow Rivers (Director: Tarik Saleh)

Lykke Li: Wounded Rhymes To date, Lykke Li's biggest exposure was her song "Possibility" appearing on the Twilight: New Moon soundtrack. From a producer's standpoint, her inclusion was a no-brainer: Not only was her debut titled Youth Novels, but it captured the intense yearning of youth, which is also an aim of the Twilight series. Few indie artists seemed as well poised as Li to vocalize Stephenie Meyer's heroine's point of view. As the singer herself told Pitchfork recently, "I like that age when you feel misunderstood and still believe in the pure idea that love conquers all"-- perhaps the most concise and astute explanation of that franchise's appeal. That is, however, only one aspect of Li's considerable appeal. Like Joss Whedon's show, Wounded Rhymes is an album of stark, scintillating contrasts: between fantasy and reality, between the powerful and the vulnerable, between the brash and the quiet, between the rhythmic and the melodic.

Mardi gras - Maquillage pour enfants : gare aux dangers masqués ! À l'occasion du Mardi gras, l'UFC-Que choisir s'est intéressée aux produits de grimage destinés aux enfants. L'association a fait tester la composition de dix kits de maquillage pour carnaval et de huit coffrets spécifiquement destinés aux petites filles, et les résultats détaillés dans le dernier numéro de la revue n'ont rien de rassurant. Au point que l'association demande instamment aux autorités européennes de renforcer la réglementation. Elle exige même des fabricants qu'ils retirent de leurs formulations les composés incriminés. En pratique, l'analyse des composants met en évidence la présence de perturbateurs endocriniens dans la moitié des produits testés : "Nous avons retrouvé des parabènes à longue chaîne utilisés comme conservateurs dans 9 produits sur 18", précise la revue. Elle regrette que les fabricants s'obstinent à les utiliser alors que ces composés sont fortement soupçonnés d'interférer, même à très faibles doses, avec la régulation hormonale.

Julianna Barwick: The Magic Place The interface between the voice and technology is central to Juliana Barwick's art. A Louisiana-born, Brooklyn-based singer who previously released the album Sanguine and the EP Florine, Barwick makes music whose raw material is almost exclusively her voice. But it's hard to know what she might sound like alone in a room. That's partly because her music feels homemade. We've grown used to following along with artists from their first demo to their first self-released EP to their debut album and then their breakthrough moment courtesy of a company that specializes in caffeinated sugar water. One of the secrets to The Magic Place's enduring appeal, the way it holds up to repeated listens, has to do with that aforementioned imperfection. She takes a similar approach on "Cloak", but the effect is less creepy and leans more in the direction of awe, a mini celebration of the idea of ethereality. Is something beautiful and ethereal that feels timeless and transcendent enough?

Anna Calvi - Anna Calvi (2011) - CD RIP - FLAC - Individual Tracks + Front & Back Covers - iP00D BBC Review Before even releasing her debut album, Anna Calvi has been lauded by Brian Eno, included in the BBC’s influential Sound of 2011 list and toured with Interpol and Nick Cave’s Grinderman. Dizzy heights indeed for a young woman with just one single to her name, but a string of intense, captivating live shows over the past year have generated a buzz of excitement about this London-based, half-Italian singer-songwriter. The first thing that strikes you about her eponymous album is what an immensely confident record it is. Opener Rider to the Sea begins with a series of stark, elegantly atmospheric guitar chords reminiscent of Mogwai, instantly showcasing Calvi’s virtuoso musical abilities. This juxtaposition of guitar and voice is central to proceedings, although there are also strong contributions from a tight backing band. The album’s at its best when Calvi’s songs abandon conventional structures and concentrate on delivering raw, primeval emotion.

Anna Calvi : la furie douce en interview Souvent, on a rêvé d’Anna Calvi. Comme, par exemple, quand on voyait sur scène PJ Harvey puis Jeff Buckley, en se disant que ça serait chouette qu’ils aient une fille. Anna Calvi, premier album de la frêle Anglaise, assouvit ce fantasme. Frêle ? Oui, dans la vie de tous les jours, où une timidité maladive n’empêche pourtant pas de pointer une personnalité majeure, au parcours et aux ambitions étonnants. Frêle, certainement pas sur scène où depuis un concert de début 2010, ce rock fugueur d’une beauté, d’une musicalité et d’une liberté terrassantes, nous a littéralement envoûtés. Des rockeurs de cette trempe, de cette audace, il n’en émerge que quelques-uns par décennie. On n’est donc pas étonné d’apprendre que la Londonienne possède déjà, avant même la sortie de son premier album, un fan-club des plus huppés. ENTRETIENQue représente la scène, pour toi ? Que ressens-tu sur scène ? Tu as l’air de prendre la musique très au sérieux. A quel moment as-tu commencé à chanter ?

Kurt Vile: Smoke Ring For My Halo "On tour, Lord of the Flies. Aw, hey, who cares? What's a guuuii-taaaaar?" So begins the sharply titled "On Tour", a spacious, diary-like explosion nestled just a few minutes into Smoke Ring for My Halo, Kurt Vile's fourth and finest full-length to date. Strings buzz, strummed patterns double back on themselves and from up above it all, the Philadelphia-native showers everything with cosmic, harp-like harmonics. But to listen to Kurt Vile is to hear him in conversation with himself: That can be said of his ultra-wry lyrical observations just as much as the elliptical, brick-by-brick architecture of his songwriting. What we learn is that Kurt Vile has a lot to say. Sonically and compositionally, Vile allows us the space to do that.

Queens of the Stone Age [Reissue] It was fitting that the final release from Kyuss featured a cover of Black Sabbath's "Into the Void", because throughout their seven-year existence, the Palm Desert quartet essentially existed in one-- the band's devastating stoner-rock earned the respect of various celebrity admirers (Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and Soundgarden among them) but they never successfully sold it to the masses. That Sabbath cover appeared on a post-break-up 1996 split EP, the flipside of which featured three songs by a new project formed by ex-Kyuss members Josh Homme and Alfredo Hernandez. True to the project's feminizing name, Queens of the Stone Age, the new material boasted a more melodic, loose-limbed variation on Kyuss' earthquaking crunch. Still, there was little indication that the Queens were going to have any more commercial impact than Nebula, the Wellwater Conspiracy, the Atomic Bitchwax, or any of the other many 70s-styled psych-rock acts orbiting around at the time.

The Dodos - No Color (2011)(ADVANCE)(MP3@320 NPR Stream Recording)(Indie Rock Psych Folk Baroque Pop)(High Quality MP3 The Dodos - No Color (2011) *** MP3@320 NPR Stream Recording *** *** Official Release Date: March 15, 2011 *** The Dodos are an American indie rock band consisting of Meric Long and Logan Kroeber. Originally formed in 2006 as Dodobird by multi-instrumentalist Meric Long, unpredictable San Francisco indie rock duo the Dodos acquired their new moniker with the arrival of Logan Kroeber, a fellow West Coast artist whose penchant for experimental drumming and progressive metal melded perfectly with Long's interest in West African Ewe drumming and country blues fingerpicking. The Dodos are known for using an alternate instrumental approach. No Color The Dodos' fourth album, No Color, will be released on March 15, 2011. Tracklist: More info:

The Weeknd: House of Balloons Less than two months ago, few of us had ever heard of the Weeknd. Then, as soon as the creepy R&B tracks from this free mixtape began to circulate, the hype engine revved up. There was the Drake cosign, the album art that looked like Spiritualized crossed with Tumblr art-porn, the missing vowel, the stylish samples, and the project's creators hiding in the shadows. You can't buy buzz like this, and the Weeknd's quick rise to Internet fame, both in indie circles and in parts of the mainstream, raised fascinating questions about the blurrier-than-ever lines between those two audiences and the underground's newfound embrace of R&B. (see also: Frank Ocean, Tri Angle Records, How to Dress Well.) These are very interesting topics that have already spawned some good thinkpieces around the web, but set all that aside for a moment and you're still left with an album, same as always.

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