Dreamy female vocals woven among electronica and various instruments. Definitely not my type of music, but after buying it on a whim for a couple dollars from the best record store ever, I felt, as usual with my random purchases, compelled to at least try to like it. Luckily, I didn’t have to go much further than the first track, Black Cat Bone, before I pretty much fell to the charm. It’s a song good enough to get a dude who’s not a fan of the genre at all to like it anyway.

There are a few points where things seemed stretched out a bit (a few songs over seven minutes, and while I don’t mind long songs, sometimes it felt repetitive), but the rest of the album is solid and enjoyable. Apparently they’ve got a bunch other albums and they might even be well known but what do I know? I buy cds because of historical allusions in their names.

Also, these two songs are supposed to be available through their site, but the links don’t work so here ya go!

From Good Looking Blues
Black Cat Bone – (MP3, 6.2 MB)
Uneasy – (MP3, 7.0 MB)

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This landed in my inbox ages ago, and has fermented there long enough! The Cyanide Valentine, who are certainly less emo than they sound as they are not emo at all, are rather an electronic group of some sort. As you can tell, my knowledge of electronic music is truly astounding.

Regardless of my inability to write in the manner befitting of a proper review, these are some good songs, and I’ve posted my favorite tracks from their album, The Three Sides Of The Cyanide Valentine. Neanderthals is a great song in that its mellowness is matched by its ease to get into, I love Ghosts Of Boston because at 1:15, it has a part that brings to mind my favorite moments of Greg Weeks, and Neon Skyhustler is a pretty straightforward, but altogether pleasant, electronic instrumental.

If you want better quality versions of all these songs, and indeed the entirety of the album these songs are from, you can download that for free at their webpage.

From The Three Sides Of The Cyanide Valentine
Neanderthals – (MP3, 4.2 MB)
Ghosts Of Boston – (MP3, 2.9 MB)
Neon Skyhustler – (MP3, 2.8 MB)

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Just because it’s ideal to cause you aneurysms by having zero transition between the genres we write about, here is some music that can be loosely classified as electro-pop, though it’s got more beats than that. 320 starts off reminding me of Toxic (yes, the Britney Spears song), and 40 seconds into it, it reminds me more of Eminem. It’s not as abrupt as I probably made it sound, though. Train Track reminds me of the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air theme song, which amuses me to no end. That is all I care to say, so have a nice Wednesday!

From XOXOXOXOXO
320 – (MP3, 4.4 MB)
Train Track – (MP3, 3.9 MB)

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For no other reason than I am bored, here are some songs by The Mathletes. The songs are usually intensely nerdy electro-pop songs, and while Joe Mathlete claims that making music requires only “a rudimentary grasp of the English language,” his songs go far beyond that. Otherwise, the songs wouldn’t be so nerdy and awesome. As he sings on I Hate Math, “You’re a functions graph and I’m an asymptote / We will never touch, but we’ll come awful close.” That is both the most hilarious AND the most heartbreaking lyric in the history of existence. Perhaps to balance this out, his song Pinocchiobot is about his desire to become a toaster oven. He has good reasons for it, as well, but I will leave their discovery up to you! In addition, he explains Marmaduke in his aptly-named blog Joe Mathlete Explains Today’s Marmaduke. It is hands down the most hilarious webpage I’ve ever read, so don’t read it in a library or you just might get kicked out for laughing too much.

From Fort Awesome
Pinnocchiobot – (MP3, 5 MB)
Your Wings Are Made Of Gold (I Remain Unimpressed) – (MP3, 2.7 MB)
Joe Mathlete Reflects Upon Raisins And Mortality (Mostly Raisins) – (MP3, 3.8 MB)

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Piney Gir is another band I stole from blogs, though their name is strange enough that I would have downloaded it from Doug eventually (for he has this album as well). Anyhow, this is a band that truly sounds different with every song. From the electro-pop of Boston to the country twang of Greetings, Salutations, Goodbye to the violins on K-I-S-S-I-N-G, you really don’t know what to expect from the next song. That isn’t necessarily a good thing, but at least it keeps you on your toes.

From Peakahokahoo
K-I-S-S-I-N-G – (MP3, 2.9 MB)
Greetings, Salutations, Goodbye – (MP3, 3.9 MB)

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I have never been a fan of Valentine’s Day, which can mean only one thing – I’m a guy. To celebrate this, the most dubious of all holidays, here’s some Cansei De Ser Sexy (translated to Tired Of Being Sexy). They are Brazilian, but really do not sound like it, accent or otherwise. Playing them in my friend’s car last night, he assumed they were American or British. That is just the way the electro-rock cookie crumbles, I suppose. Either way, their lyrics in This Month, Day 10 suits my cynical treatment of romantic holidays quite nicely. For instance, “If someday we get to meet again in a car crash, plane wreck, or terrorist attack, or maybe next Thursday night, don’t bother saying hi!” Ouch. Happy Valentine’s Day!

From Cansei De Ser Sexy
This Month, Day 10 – (MP3. 4 MB)
Fuck Off Is Not The Only Thing You Have To Show – (MP3, 2.5 MB)
Meeting Paris Hilton – (MP3, 2.9 MB)

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Michele Wylen is one of those singers you listen to and think “wow, she must be really popular.” Then you Google her not-very-common name and she manages to be #4, which is something of a travesty, considering how lovely and smooth her voice is (think Mirah). Throw in some keyboards, synths, and the occasional percussion (Sweet Subtlety has a handclap beat throughout most of it), and you’ve got some goddamn songs, man. It’s true that vocals will make or break songs for me, but if her voice on Loopy doesn’t do it for you, nothing will, ever. The rest of this EP is on her webpage, too.

From Demo EP 2006
Loopy – (MP3, 3.2 MB)
Diamonds – (MP3, 3.3 MB)
Room For Two – (MP3, 3.8 MB)
Sweet Subtlety – (MP3, 3.3 MB)

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Despite the recent (well, not so recent anymore) rash of French bands we’ve mentioned, here is one that has a French name, but hails from Seattle. Also unlike the previous bands, while Mon Frere rocks, they do so with a touch of electronic playfulness, while at the same time not being too playful. If you were to mix Dover’s latest album (which most of their fans hate, but not me!) with The Gossip, you would end up somewhere in the delightful realm of Mon Frere. I haven’t heard anything off of Real Vampires besides the track listed below, but I can certifiably state that Blood, Sweat and Swords is consistently outstanding. I don’t think I’ve used that adjective to describe music yet, so there it is.

From Blood, Sweat and Swords
Drain – (MP3, 3.8 MB)

From Real Vampires
Real Vampires Don’t Get Shitfaced (Fighting Mad) – (MP3, 1.8 MB)

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Yet another French artist, but perhaps a little less known than Camille: Emilie is (seemingly) known in France (having received awards for her music and whatnot), but hasn’t had a great deal of worldwide exposure. Anyhoo, I found Emilie Simon through last.fm’s artist recommendations for Camille. Strictly speaking, the two artists have very little in common (apart from the fact that they’re both ladies and they both sing in French) as Simon’s music is a pleasing blend of rock, electronic and downtempo, all in the one bag.

Emilie Simon is the name of her debut record and it is quite the corker. She even sings a couple of tunes in English, so you can go ahead and sing along (if you know English and you don’t know French of course). Highly enjoyable tunes include Secret, Lise, Il Pleut and To the Dancers in the Rain. However, as is tradition for my posts, go ahead and check out the rest of her lovely debut album, as there is plenty of goodness under her pretty back (don’t take that the wrong way).

Unfortunately, her website seems to be rather borked at the moment, so I have no idea if she has media or not!

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OK, I admit it: I’m a Radiohead fan. So, when I heard that Thom Yorke was doing a solo album I become pretty danged elated! A few months later here, it is: The Eraser.

Despite the fact that Mr. Yorke is the frontman of Radiohead, The Eraser has a very distinct sound. Think of it, if you’re a Radiohead fan, as a more electronic Kid A. If you’re not a Radiohead fan, you may simply think of it as an electronic album. I shall take the persona of the non-Radiohead fan, as I probably don’t need to coerce the fans into getting this.

If you’re not a big listener of electronic music, then I suggest you steer clear. If you are, then you’re in luck: The Eraser is filled with the whimsicals delights of looped samples as well as the ever-pleasurable sound of Yorke’s voice. While many electronic tunes simply tack on vocal work at the end (which is, for the most part, drowned out by the music), The Eraser positions Yorke’s vocals right at the forefront, and with good reason: there are some extremely fantastic lyrics amongst the tracks, including:

- “A self-fulfilling prophecy of endless possibilty, you roll in reams across the street” (from Analyse)
- “You cannot kickstart a dead horse, you just crush yourself and walk away, I don’t care what the future holds” (from Black Swan) and
- “But you just move the hands upon the clock, you throw coins in the wishing well” (from The Clock).

While I do enjoy the occasional bit of computer produced music, I have my limits. The Eraser, however, demonstrated that not all electronic music needs to be trashy.

Accomplished, elegant and listenable. Need I say more?

From The Eraser
The Clock [Acoustic] – (Live music video, SWF, 13.7mb)

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