More winter music. And Silent Rider actually is a bit of a phenomenon. He totally sounds like a group of people, but it’s actually the solo project of Reed Kackley from Brooklyn. Just stumbled upon his debut album going through my download folder – and it turns out Reed has been emailing Poule d’Or for over a year. Shame on La Poule!
Silent Rider actually did start out as a duo and with a cover a TV On The Radio song in summer 2011. It was only earlier this month though that Silent Rider – now on his own – released a debut album. Twelve tracks of really great sort of downtempo electronic pop. Super good. And totally free to download from his website here. Below is one of his first solo songs Beggar. The album also features earlier works co-produced by his then-band-mate Michael Santiago.
The adorable sugar babes of Luscious Coconut Milky Double Fudge (formerly known now as LCMDF) have spent the year working on a trilogy of EPs. The first release in line, Mental Health, will be out on Monday through their own label FAN Recordings. Which means for you Berliners to pack your dancing shoes and move yourself to Prince Charles on Tuesday night to celebrate the occasion, coincidentally presented by Nothing but Hope And Passion, Zitty and Poule d’Or (that’s us!! Hallo.).
Doors open at 20h, LCMDF (obviously) and Iberia will be playing. The lily pads Steffi and Nina from Nordic by Nature will DJ the whole event. So really, there is little reason not to go, so get your tickets now.
So, the Poule is not a big expert on movies, like at all. Name a popular movie and I probably haven’t seen it. However, a movie I have seen (and enjoyed) is The Big Blue (or Le Grand Bleu for you French folks) by Luc Besson from 1988 starring Jean Reno and Jean-Marc Barre as apnoe divers. It’s a beautiful movie, great pictures. The soundtrack to that movie is absolutely wonderful too, composed by Eric Serra.
Before this gets off-topic, enter Cæcilie Trier from Copenhagen. Going by CTM, she started her solo career – with that video above – after playing in a couple of bands all nicely listed in the press release, Choir of Young Believers anyone? So and Jewel, the brilliant song above, totally sounds like it’s from that Luc Besson movie. Hit play and imagine a young Jean Reno in speedos holding his breath for a very long time. Hah! Now, before you lose yourself, her debut EP Variations will be out November 5th January 28th. Put that in your calendar.
Definitely feels like fall is slowly crawling over Europe, which is both good and bad. Few things in life are as good as riding your bike through dry leaves. Perfect timing then for Let Me Play Your Guitar from Copenhagen: their new EP Shoebill Garden is a rather good soundtrack to engage in all sort of fall’ish activities.. see for instance Desert Song, below.
And as luck would have it, the quartet is playing a couple dates across Europe too these days. Vienna, October 29th, Berlin October 28th and November 2nd and Hamburg October 31st, among others. Find all their dates here, the EP is available through Bandcamp.
The good thing about those evenings when you get dragged by a friend to an arty place which you have never heard of before and have no clue what it’s all about is that you don’t expect anything. It is even better when you get surprised and what you are seeing (or hearing) is actually quite good! To be honest the art was crap, but luckily Heartbeast was playing at that place, too: in a cellar room with dimmed light, suspended ceiling, and a penetrating, clear voice of Heartbeast’s songstress, the atmosphere was intense.
Having written so far about music from the UK, I want to dedicate this weeks New Frontier as a blog from Hamburg to a band from Hamburg. The duo’s new EP is out now on iTunes, so get it and support local music.
Absolutely loving Karl X Johan, so underrated. Maybe because the Stockholm duo is releasing like one song a year. Anyway, quality goes over quantity! First stumbled upon their monumental pop track Flames in Spring 2010 when they shared that track for the fourth Poule d’Or compilation and last year their as beautiful track Fantasies was on the seventh compilation. Today they premiered a new song: Get It All and the promise to release a new EP next week (with ANOTHER song on it!) – which is rather exciting! Get It All is right in their epic trademark synth-laden vein, on repeat here. Keep an eye out, Karl X Johan are a sleeping giant.
More winter music. And Silent Rider actually is a bit of a phenomenon. He totally sounds like a group of people, but it’s actually the solo project of Reed Kackley from Brooklyn. Just stumbled upon his debut album going through my download folder – and it turns out Reed has been emailing Poule d’Or for over a year. Shame on La Poule!
Definitely feels like fall is slowly crawling over Europe, which is both good and bad. Few things in life are as good as riding your bike through dry leaves. Perfect timing then for 
The good thing about those evenings when you get dragged by a friend to an arty place which you have never heard of before and have no clue what it’s all about is that you don’t expect anything. It is even better when you get surprised and what you are seeing (or hearing) is actually quite good! To be honest the art was crap, but luckily 
Absolutely loving 
