Category: music

Acoustic a-ha

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Just when you thought it was all over…

a-ha will make a live acoustic album and concert film from a series of intimate performances to take place between June 26 – June 30, 2017.
The album, DVD and broadcast are scheduled for release in November 2017.
In early 2018, a-ha will take this special acoustic set on the road, giving the fans a new way to experience the music they love.

So… where are we going to see them this time, I wonder? After all, there’s still time to slip a couple of tickets into my Xmas stocking, darling…

The a-ha.com page is currently oversubcribed, suggesting that there is significant interest in this endeavour. The venues for the “series of intimate performances” haven’t yet been announced, but the first confirmed dates are in January 2018 and are in Germany, Switzerland and Austria.

Presumably, the Cape Town leg of the tour will be in February or March.

I guess we’ll find out soon enough.

I don’t love anyone

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…(but you’re not just anyone).

Here’s the latest offering from ex-Babyshambles lead singer Pete(r) Doherty, with the clever subtitle.

It’s actually a very gentle, very honest, deeply intimate love song, simply crafted and openly delivered. Maybe there are some people out there who need their declarations of love accompanied by fireworks and flamboyantly-dressed exotic animals. Each to their own.
Pete(r) Doherty sees no need for that sort of decoration, which is why this song is as beautiful as it is.

Dead Alive

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Blimey. It’s been a hectic day. Only enough time, then, for this jaunty little number from American indie rockers The Shins out of Albuquerque, New Mexico (48.3% Clinton, 5 Electoral College votes).

Spooky, weird, quirky video. I like.

Unrelated: I just got a meeting request for 4pm on Friday. In Cape Town.
In an office. Not on a beach or in a pub or anything.

Shurely shome mistake?

Musical offerings

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‘Diverse, eclectic and actually rather good’ was one review of my recent musical purchases. They included (but were not limited to), DJ Shadow, Chemical Brothers, Grandaddy, The Duke Spirit, Haley Bonar, Primal Scream and Kate Tempest.

And they’re all good, but those last two have been taking most of my attention. And there’s a chaotic link, with the Primal Scream album being Chaosmosis and Kate Tempest’s Let Them Eat Chaos. Some message for us all there, perhaps? Two different sounds though, with a real old skool 80’s electronic feel to the Primal Scream offering. There’s Depeche Mode, some OMD and there’s even Zebra & Giraffe (I know, right?), all mixed with a hefty does of Britpop. It is, brilliant. Standout tracks include Private Wars, the gorgeous Autumn in Paradise and the wonderfully quirky Where the Light Gets In:

It’s unapologetic electronic fun. Positive, bouncy pop for the most part, but then those moments which take you back to the late 90s and wonder if you’re listening to James or Dodgy. It’s a really good, easy to listen to album. Try it.

Oh – and if you’re wondering about Kate Tempest, that’s amazing too, but deeper, harder to formulate opinions: it’s taking a whole lot more time to digest. So watch this space for more on that one.

Petricor

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Right.
Before you dive down my throat, that’s the way it’s spelled in the title of this Ludovico Einaudi offering.

You and I would spell it Petrichor, wiv an aitch.

Petrichor is the earthy scent produced when rain falls on dry soil. The word is constructed from Greek petra, meaning “stone”, and ichor, the fluid that flows in the veins of the gods in Greek mythology.

Yeah, like that.
But either way, you can hear the rain and smell that scent in this energetic yet beautifully relaxing song:

Petrichor happens (exists?) as the result of a two separate chemical processes triggered by the rain.

Firstly, oils – palmitic acid and stearic acid – secreted by during dry periods, and when it rains, these oils are released into the air. The second reaction that creates petrichor occurs when a chemical called geosmin (you may remember it from such post as Safe To Drink) produced by soil-dwelling bacteria called Actinomycetes is released. Geosmin and these plant oils combine to create the pleasant petrichor scent when rain hits the ground.

Actinos – great to look at under a microscope, absolute bastards to grow in the lab.

Add to those two the “pre-rain” ozone smell you get ahead of storms and you’ve got the most evocative odour outside of cut grass and freshly baked bread.

Gorgeous.