ALBUM PICK : KISHI BASHI - "151a"

One of the most endearing, graceful and uplifting albums of the year so far comes from multi-instrumentalist and songwriter K Ishibashi aka Kishi Bashi, whose lush new album "151a" is pure sky-lifting bliss from the heavens.

Striving from the same vein as Owen Pallett and Andrew Bird, K Ishibashi is the touring member of Regina Spektor and of Montreal.

Even with the comparisons, on "151a" Kishi Bashi is it's own animal, packing a much more energetic, fun and groovy way of expression and delicious pop-crafting skills with big dynamics within the songs and the album as a whole.

"151a" is simply a fun and heart-touching piece of heaven to listen and uplift the day.

Intro / Pathos Pathos with it's spine tingling orchestral arrangements and choirs touch the heavens, Bright Whites has that almost distracting quality of poisonously catchy, It All Began With a Burst makes the body move with it's deliciously inventive groove and I Am the Antricrist to You is, along Oh Lord by Winhill/Losehill one of the most emotive, heart-wrenching songs of the year.

You can listen and get the album from Bandcamp below and watch a beautiful looper-orientated rendition of Manchester below along with the music video for Bright Whites. The album can also be listened with Spotify and can be found on the "Stereotype Helsinki // 2012 Q2 Albums + EPs + Singles" playlist.


MANCHESTER LIVE:


BRIGHT WHITES MUSIC VIDEO:

ALBUM PICK : WINHILL / LOSEHILL - "SWING OF SORROW"

One of the most heart touching songs of the year is by far Oh Lord by Swedish 6-piece called Winhill/Losehill.

The group's name took it's form by two mountains called Win Hill and Lose Hill located in Hope Village, England where the band leader Jonas Svennem Lundberg took part in a folk music camp as a youngster.

The group's double album "Swing of Sorrow" is dedicated Lundberg's mother Karin, who died of cancer a few years earlier. Thus the songs were born from a grieving process and deals with the painful loss of a parent, about love and breakups, but also of reconciliation, hope and joy.

The two albums of vibrant, timelessly yearning and beautiful Americana styled folk-pop packed with lush string and horn arrangements are a lot to take in as a whole, but after a few listens the soulful emotion that carries the vast collection through takes over and highlights get clearer.

The lush string orchestra based intro dedicated to Lundberg's mother Karin's Hymn, leads straight to the big piece. Oh Lord instantly catches attention and can easily make a grown man weep. I Will Never Get Enough continues the album with that spine tingling fragility that the group is partly all about. The House Is Black as a contrast makes a nice feel good piece while the first album closes to the mellow serenity of Those Same Damned Days.

The second album starts off slowly with Winnhill/Losehill Part II picking up the pieces of the first album, but quickly makes it clear this time we're on clearer water, carrying on with the more feel-goody soulfulness that the first album only hints about. Don't Let the Inside Shine Out is packed with bittersweet head-bop that makes you smile and "aww" at the same time. I Leave You 'Cause I Don't Care continues with the recipe but adds a poisonously memorable, punchy chorus hook making it a clear second album highlight.

Hope Village is another highlight in it's serene feel good lushness and makes you think Lundberg must've been having the time of his life on the camp.

In all it's soulful emotiveness, "Swing of Sorrow" is still a very easy, approachable album to listen to. But being easy doesn't mean the lack of depth here, as the album is still a clear grower rewarding the persistent listener with something new to catch the attention on every listen.

Listen to "Swing of Sorrow" by Winhill/Losehill through Spotify and watch a graceful live performance of Oh Lord below. The album can also be found on the "Stereotype Helsinki // 2012 Q1 Albums + EPs + Singles" playlist.

ALBUM PICK : ALVIN BAND - "RAINBOW ROAD"

SMiLE-era Beach Boys come magically to life in a modern Animal Collective -esque psyche in "Rainbow Road" by one man project Alvin Band aka Rick Alvin Schaier.

With endless imagination and grandiosely memorable, suprising hooks, the album as a whole feels like a greatest hits collection of a bastard child of the the mentioned references, if only they got wasted at a cabin session in Bali with Koji Kondo while endlessly playing Minecraft and Super Mario World.

Recommended for every psych-pop lover out there, this might be one of the albums of the year for you.

ALBUM PICK : SENTRIDOH - "WEED FORESTIN'"

In 1986, Lou Barlow made 4-track recordings in his parents' basement while tracking "You're Living All Over Me" with Dinosaur Jr. 

Made of tape hiss, beautifully untuned instruments and all the crackly nostalgia and slacker phantasie of the 80s lofi-waves and college dramas, the album of the day is "Weed Forestin'", Barlow's very first collection of solo home recordings, released under the name Sentridoh in 1987.

Even in these lofi-revivalistic times we're living now, "Weed Forestin'" actually feels extremely fresh in it's sincerity, it's pureness and it's pure analogue tape collage of college slacker poetry.

Listen to the album with Spotify or right below through Bandcamp: