Guest appearance on Morceaux Choisis
Dec 21, 2011 Blogging Bee, Music, What to listen to
My friend Faskil was kind enough to invite me over his weekly podcast called “Morceaux Choisis”. It’s a weekly 30min podcast where he presents some of his favorite tracks (all possible genres your head can ever think of) taken out of his personal music collection.
This week on MC77, I had the chance to present one of my favorite trip hop bands, Pretty Lights. I apologize for my voice on the record, it was pretty bad (flu + too much party; am still laughing at it), sorry ’bout that 
(besides my French accent doesn’t help, and don’t ask me why I said Pretty Lights’ Derek name with the French/English accent).
Anyways without further due go here and enjoy.
PS: The third track of the show rushed old band memories from 2003. I hope the friends who listen remember that special day we played this song in Beirut.
Cheers
Tags: Faskil, Guest Appearance, Morceaux Choisis, podcast, Pretty Lights
Desolate – The invisible insurrection (Album review)
Feb 27, 2011 Blogging Bee, What to listen to
I must admit Chillout is a Sunday’s thing, not just because friskyRadio plays it all Sunday long, though it contributes. I haven’t listened to much ambient music since a while now, mainly because I work on Sundays on my personal music projects, yep the sets that you hear on the radio, those ones. So there isn’t much room for anything else, as compiling tracks and sets is a time consuming activity.
So now that I have a day off from compilations and house tracks, I decided to peak at an album that has been lying around my music library for a while, “The invisible insurrection” by Desolate released on Fauxpa’s vinyl-only record label.
Desolate is a German based producer with lots of, huge talents.
This album is a subtle blend between ambient and rhythmic patterns ranging from dub to more atmospheric sophisticated parts. The album transports you in great dimension, and projects you in a world of dreams and unconscious depth of your inner soul. The pads and delayed pianos give the tracks a certain finesse, it’s like seeing water drops in slow motion. In fact, it slows down time around you. The soft rhythm lays in the background as a secondary non intrusive instrument, giving way to a spacial and wide stereo experience. The dub influence gives every tune a contemporary personality leading to a successful marriage of genres.
The opening track “Imagination” starts the journey off with a complex trip hop rhythmic pattern, leading the way to a journey on a hip hill. “Follow suit” blends in and slows down the whole experience and definitely hooks you on board. What follows is a series of dub and ambient droplets, sounds meets lights. “Farewell #2″ is an amazing track bringing you a cinematic experience full of emotions and sensitivity. “Escape” is a breathing like track, with an out of this world bass drop, guaranteed to make your heart beat go as low as ever before! As the journey continues, “Endurance” re-awakes you into a dub rhythmic world with a soft delayed piano.
You would have guessed by now, this album isn’t just a mere Ambient/Chillout album, it is a rich experience of sounds and lights. It is best savored with a very good stereo setup or very good earphones to maximize the “immersive” experience. It’s a lot of feelings and hot/cold sensations. If you like ambient and dub melts, this is your album.
I will surely be listening to it for a long while!
Have a good Sunday.
Tags: Album Review, ambient, Chillout, Desolate, the invisible insurrection
Giovanni Mirabassi – Live at blue note Tokyo (recommended)
Feb 24, 2011 Blogging Bee, What to listen to
With winter days still leading the way around Europe and with all the tensions the world is witnessing, I decided to go hunt for a soothing and comforting sound for this week’s highlight. And what better than to go back to the roots of music, and that is Jazz. The one, the only, the pure and complex, Jazz.
Traffic jams can have many downsides but surely a great positive one, listening to music and flipping from one station to another. As I was running through my presets, I came across the one station that never fails to grab my attention “TSF Jazz”. The tune that was playing was “World Changes“, brought to you by “Giovanni Mirabassi“, a French based Italian pianist.
This tune is taken from his latest live album named “Live at Blue Note Tokyo”, a collection of amazing piano jazz with amazing melodies and grooves. “World Changes” is very interesting in its progression and melodies. It has such an intense groove as a theme, that you won’t be able not to stop anything and just focus on the beauty of the melody. The arrangement is absolute perfection and it’s quite a bliss to listen to it.
The album revolves around the piano, eventually, and the many wonders and constructions that can be built around such a majestic instrument. Groove and percussion are surely of the party, you won’t be disappointed. Giovanni has a very soothing and melodic approach to the tunes, surely you’ll need to be in the mood for jazz, but it won’t bore you a second.
So if you’re looking for a calm jazzy album to entertain your evenings, help your focus on work or bring some calm to your “heck-of-a-day” day, make sure to check this guy out.
It doesn’t hurt to listen to some jazz sometimes
Grab your copy of the album from Amazon here
