LISTEN: Pascal Pinon - "New Beginning"

By Ellen

MP3: Pascal Pinon - "New Beginning"

Intimate, delicate, and utterly endearing -- it doesn't get much closer than this.

Iceland's Pascal Pinon is twin sister duo Jófrídur and Ásthildur with bandmates Halla and Kristín. The shy adolescent spirit of "New Beginning" isn't all that strange when you learn that Pascal Pinon consists of 16-years-olds (!). But the innocent spirit that lies within their music is rather fitting for a sound that reawakens old feelings and helps to recall fond memories. It possesses a nostalgic quality without being heavy-handed -- it is rather light-hearted in a way. Their songs are short, to the point, and have a direct honesty. It's calming music that's both comforting and personal.

REVIEW: The Go Find-Everybody Knows It's Gonna Happen, Only Not Tonight

The Go Find - Everybody Knows It's Gonna Happen, Only Not Tonight
MMM

There's always a risk in projects that are "the brainchild" of one artist. Dieter Sermeus heads up the vocals and rounds up a lot of the credit for the music that comes out of Berlin-based The Go Find. It's not that every genius behind every music project (or anywhere in the collaborative/performance art world) is egotistical and controlling -although many good ones are- it's just that one thing I love about bands making music is how much of the process can be influenced from different minds.

Maybe that's where I struggle with the first half of the group's third album Everybody Knows It's Gonna Happen, Only Not Tonight. Until we work our way deep into the 7th track "Cherry Pie", Sermeus subjects us to his formula of easy, harmonic, atmospheric organs and guitars that wistfully glide onwards with a rather monotonous tempos. Don't get me wrong, he's got a good thing going here, but my impression is that sometimes when an artist has a sound or idea in mind and they're picking up credit for the project, their direction can be a little suffocating.

What "Cherry Pie" has, that the first half of the album doesn't, is it's own feel, allowing the band to build up, and rock a good pop-tune out of this sound. The acoustic and clean electric guitars get a solid nod here instead of being hidden under the twirling keyboards that harmonize in all sorts of ways on the albums first and title track, as well as on "It's on Automatic".

This album also struggles a little bit getting away from a sound that the California-based act Grandaddy popularized a few years back (check out "Now It's On" to see what I mean). This is why I end up being such a big fan of the end of the album. Sermeus' backing harmonies and fistful-o-keyboards are almost too much in the beginning of this record since we don't catch a break. "Running Mates" and "Heart of Gold" let those keys harmonize with each other, but give them some room spatially. In this day and age where music can just be constantly layered with all sorts of octaves, 5ths and 3rds, groups of this caliber sometimes get carried away with the harmonic possibilities.

So, call me old-fashioned (or boring because I've noted this before when I review records), but seasoned bands succeed when they don't just pay attention to harmonies and spatial arrangements. I'll start drooling and gushing out credit when a band can reflect on it's own sound and make some risky steps away from comfortable 4/4 rhythms and overwhelming harmonies that often hide some of the most idiosyncratic (and best) parts of a song. This is why "Just a Common Love", the second to last track on Everybody, is a real triumph, and why the almost U2ish guitar lines and loose snare on the closer "Heart of Gold" impress me the most.

Buy: Everybody Knows It's Gonna Happen, Only Not Tonight is out now on Morr Music.

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Lali Puna: What Will I Remember, What Will I Forget

MP3: Lali Puna - "Remember"

Thumping synth bass line? Check.

Dance-inducing drums? Check.

Acoustic guitar? Check.

Electric guitar? Check.

Beautiful harmony? Check.

A song that sounds like a road trip through the contemplative section of your mind, starting out with a skipping, warped loop of some indistinguishable voice. I have just started my last semester of college and yet, listening to this song, I feel like it's the eve of my graduation. There's so much going on, so much reoccurring, but it's just a symptom of that warm feeling of accomplishment -- an eclectic mash-up of emotions marking all sorts of moments throughout the past four years of my life. There's a pop hook with "Will you remember..." but this song is twofold: there's the accessibility of its pop sensibilities but deeper down there's also a careful organization of loops and patches of sound. It casually skirts a line between melancholy and bliss.

Munich, Germany's Lali Puna was born from the four-track of Valerie Trebeljahr (vocals, keyboards) in early 1998. Markus Acher of The Notwist and Tied & Tickled Trio joined not long after along with Christoph Brandner (Tied & Tickled Trio, Console), and Florian Zimmer (ISO 68, Fred Is Dead). Zimmer left the band in 2003 to focus on ISO 68 and was replaced by Christian Heiß.

"Remember" is from Lali Puna's new album, Our Inventions, which is scheduled for release on April 6th through Morr Music. Our Inventions marks Lali Puna's first release in over five years.

Our Inventions Tracklisting:

1) Rest Your Head
2) Remember
3) Everything Is Always
4) Our Inventions
5) Move On
6) Safe Tomorrow
7) Future Tense
8) Hostile To Me
9) That Day
10) Out There (Feat. Yukihiro Takahashi)

The Go Find Announce Release of New Album

MP3: The Go Find - "Everybody Knows It's Gonna Happen Only Not Tonight"

What is change but an occasional desire

Rejected now, but then admired

When is it too late to change a fate

It's not something one can eliminate

A contemplative state of mind for you

Set in the past, the present, and the future, too

What is negative and oppositional initially

Will slowly become your reality

So learn to understand this pace of yours

Life is a lesson that exists outside of days and hours

Listen now as you reach the conclusion

What you thought was consistent was just an illusion

Hear the beat, see the melody

Emanating from everyone's bodies

It's not something that is predictable

For this is the rhythm of the world

You can guess, but you might not be right

Everyone knows it's gonna happen, only not tonight

Most electro pop can certainly be saccharine to an extent. There's a careful balance to maintain in this regard or else it just becomes grating. The Go Find are purveyors of a fine balance between the sweet and the pensive. Their melodies are beautiful and attractive, but lyrically they are reflective and thoughtful. By not being terribly brooding and downbeat, the band is a comforting listen. It also helps that they incorporate live instruments into the mix, allowing them to step out of the classification of simply being "electro pop."

When I was in high school, I started really getting into indie music. I was listening to anything I could find and learning new ways to not only approach music, but to appreciate it, as well. It wasn't all immediately accessible or catchy. This was of course, unsurprisingly, a result of my diet of commercial rock radio growing up (but hey, the station I had growing up was no where near as bad as what exists today). So, my knowledge in the field of electro indie pop (rock) is limited. I'd have to say that The Go Find remind me of Austin's American Analog Set.

The Go Find is the moniker of Berlin-based electronic artist Dieter Sermeus. While Sermeus might be the mastermind, The Go Find is a full-fledged band. Everyone Knows It's Gonna Happen Only Not Tonight is the band's third full-length and was recorded over a six-month period in Brussels and Antwerp. The songs were built around a base of acoustic guitars and drums and are polished with that warm indie pop production and instrumentation.

Everybody Knows It's Gonna Happen Only Not Tonight is out February 2010 on Morr Music.

Everybody Knows It's Gonna Happen Only Not Tonight tracklisting:

1) Everybody Knows It's Gonna Happen Only Not Tonight
2) Love Will Break Us Up
3) It's Automatic
4) Neighbourhood
5) One Hundred Percent
6) Stay
7) Lottery Man
8) Cherry Pie
9) Running Mates
10) Just A Common Love
11) Heart Of Gold

The Go Find Official Site

The Go Find @ MySpace

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