Gosto mesmo é de coincidências –- isso eu notei não é de hoje. E quando muitas coincidências me levam a determinada música, ou a determinado artista (ou a qualquer outra coisa), e eu gosto, então sinto aquele gosto de determinação cósmica. É, ainda nem terminei o primeiro parágrafo e já falei a palavra "cósmica" -- é nesse momento que você pensa "ele vai começar a viajar nesse post". Mas não tem como falar de Koop e não devanear deliciosamente. Conheci a banda quando baixei um cd de coletânea (buddha bar vol. 9) para um primo. A segunda música me seduziu completamente. "Koop Island Blues" é daqueles sons grudentos, mas que não incomodam nunca. Uma mistura saborosa e jazzística (eles são definidos como jazz eletrônico ou chillout), e um vocal feminino daqueles que eu coleciono. Procurei a banda e descobri Koop Island, de 2006 -- terceiro álbum do duo sueco Magnus Zingmark e Oscar Simonsso.
E é agora que vem a surpresa. Pesquisando, descobri que Koop não tem uma orquestra, como é inevitável imaginar ao escutar as músicas, "a música de Koop é inteiramente feita de samples. São milhares de apontamentos de discos, misturados em novas músicas. A percussão, as cordas, os sopros e os coros são samplados" (retirado daqui do last.fm mesmo). Uma produção minimalista que beira a megalomania. Realmente é difícil escutar faixas como "I See A Different You" ou "Let's Elope" e não pensar em uma orquestra tocando, entrosada, seus intrumentos. E não estou citando exemplos isolados -- todos os álbuns são assim. Não por acaso eles ganharam um Grammy e um disco de ouro com Koop Island, o álbum, e que traz minha preciosa "Koop Island Blues". Um trabalho econômico (são apenas nove faixas) com preciosidades como as divertidas "Forces... Darling", "I See A Different You", a melancólica "Whenever There Is You" e minha preferida e já citada "Koop Island Blues" (que traz no vocal a participação de Ane Brun, minha nova diva, mas isto é assunto para um outro post). Não posso deixar de elogiar também o clipe dessa música, que trás uma mistura inesperada de melancolia e erotismo (e tem a sósia da minha amiga Vanessa, é claro). Fica apenas uma pequena crítica. Achei o álbum curto demais. Quando você começa a se divertir... ele já termina.
Po raz piąty-jubileuszowy odbędzie się w Warszawie Free Form Festival. Po raz pierwszy natomiast lokalizacją festiwalu nie będzie Fabryka Trzciny a zaaranżowana w tym celu większa przestrzeń znajdująca się w Centrum Kultury Koneser (wcześniej Fabryka Wódek Koneser). Czy to dobra zmiana przekonać będziemy się mogli w dniach 16-17 października.
Sami organizatorzy twierdzą, że „festiwal prezentuje nowoczesną i niezależną muzykę oraz sztukę w środowisku miejskim a jego celem jest wskazywanie nowych światowych trendów muzycznych i artystycznych”.
W program festiwalu wchodzić będą pokazy audiowizualne, filmowe, video art, live acty ale największą uwagę publiczności zwrócą zaplanowane koncerty. Organizatorzy festiwalu przyzwyczaili już swoich odbiorców do tego w jakim kręgu gatunków muzycznych będą się obracać. W dużej mierze jest to muzyka oparta na elektronicznych brzmieniach. Zazwyczaj były to zespoły wykonujące takie gatunki jak electro oraz electropop (zwłaszcza), synthpop, trip-hop, disco, indietronic a nawet, jak to było w przypadku ubiegłorocznej edycji, jazz. Ponieważ nie przepadam za zupełnie prostymi dźwiękami muzyki electro wraz z krzyczącymi ze sceny wokalistkami mimo to na kilku występach grup grający taki odłam muzyki już byłem. Stwierdzam, że występy te należały do przeciętnych lub bardzo słabych. Jedynym zespołem bawiącym się w electro, którego występ mnie przekonał był tylko niemiecki DAT Politics na zeszłorocznym Off Festivalu. Dlatego też w tym roku omijałbym wykonawców takich jak: Vive la Fête, WhoMadeWho oraz współkompozytora najsłynniejszych utworów grupy Kraftwerk Karla Bartosa. Do tej grupy dodałbym jeszcze takich artystów jak Tommy Sparks i Birdy Nam Nam lecz jeśli ktoś lubi zwiewną, lekką przesyconą elektroniką muzykę powinien stawić się na powyższych. Nie wiem zupełnie co w całym tym zestawieniu robi belgijski pop rockowy zespół Girls in Hawaii, który może pousypiać całe towarzystwo.
Osobiście poleciłbym występy dwóch grup z kultowej wytwórni Ninja Tune - DJ Food a zwłaszcza Herbaliser. Ci ostatni na festiwal zaproszeni są po raz drugi i z tej okazji zagrają wraz z powołanym na koncerty składem. Będą promować swój najnowszy krążek Session 2. Ciekawy jestem także występu zespołu Little Dragon, w którym występuje Yukimi Nagano śpiewająca wcześniej w grupie Koop będącej gościem zeszłorocznej edycji FFF. Little Dragon lada chwila wyda swoją drugą płytę a promuje ją ta piosenka:
Interesująco zapowiadają się również występy: The Orb, (oscylującego pomiędzy ambientem, chilloutem, dubem i wieloma innymi gatunkami, które podczas występu świetnie wymieszane mogą przynieść dużo przyjemności) oraz Luomo mogący swoimi housowymi numerami rozruszać w ciekawy sposób nie tylko ciało ale również zmysły czego brakuje właśnie w koncertach muzyki electro.
Biorąc pod uwagę to, że ponad połowa występujących to już starzy wyjadacze nie wydaje mi się by FFF wskazywał „nowe” trendy muzyczne skoro robi to od pięciu lat i obraca się ciągle w tych samych gatunkowych rejonach. Jednakże sama propozycja wydaje się ciekawa i skusi wielu miłośników elektronicznych brzmień.
И тут, и там наиболее популярным исполнителем является Amy Winehouse (и, да, по личным соображениям я убрал из статистики Тома Уэйтса). Дальше начинается вполне классический джаз - Norah Jones, Frank Sinatra, Louis Armstrong и так далее.
In both cases the most popular artist is Amy Winehouse (and, yes, I supposed it would be correct to exclude Tom Waits from jazz stats). Then the things go more classical: Norah Jones, Frank Sinatra, Louis Armstrong and so on.
Pic. 3
А вот так выглядит общая зависимость количества прослушиваний джазовых исполнителей от числа слушателей. Заметно, что чем правее, тем сильнее эта зависимость идет вверх. Таким образом, получается, что лидеры находятся на каком-то особенном положении у слушателей.
And that's the way, general dependence of playcount to number of listeners looks like. You can notice, it's bending upwards with growing number of listeners. So, that means, the leaders of our statistics are treated by listeners in a different way, than other artists.
Это также подтверждается графиком удельного числа прослушиваний (число прослушиваний делить на число слушателей для каждого исполнителя). Вообще, у джаза этот показатель оказался рекордно низким - в среднем 11 прослушиваний. Наибольший показатель у вездесущей Эми Уайнхаус - 32.
The graph of specific number of scrobbles (a playcount divided by number of listeners for each artist) confirms that notation. Surprisingly, jazz artists have very low specific scrobble number - 11 in average. Amy Winehouse has the highest one - 32.
Pic. 5
Гистограмма лишь подтверждает печальный факт концентрации удельного числа прослушиваний вблизи рекордно низких значений, в целом по форме повторяя распределение для других жанров. Джаз умер?
The histogram just supports concentrating of specific number of scrobbles near very low values, repeating the histogram for other genres in general. Sad, but true. Is jazz dead?
Pic. 6
Немного статистики по активности слушателей в рупорах исполнителей. Как видно из графика, какой-либо строгой зависимости числа сообщений в рупоре от числа слушателей не наблюдается. То, что более популярным исполнителям больше пишут, понятно и так. Кстати, Эми Уайнхаус я сюда не включил - взглянув на следующий график, вы поймете, почему.
Some stats about the user activity in shoutboxes. As one can see, there's no strict dependence of number of shouts to number of listeners. It's obvious, that more popular artists should get more shouts. By the way, Amy Winehouse isn't included here - see the next plot to understand why.
Pic.7
А вот зависимость числа сообщений в рупоре от удельного числа прослушиваний. Эми Уайнхаус и здесь лидирует, причем с шестикратным отрывом. Короче говоря, для джаза она - исполнитель, аномальный по всем параметрам) А вот если убрать Эми, то будет видно обнаруженое ранее явление: среднее удельное число прослушиваний является чем-то вроде барьера, разделяющего исполнителей с малым и с большим числом сообщений в рупоре. Посмотрим, что покажут другие жанры)
And here's the dependence of number of shouts in the shoutbox to specific number of scrobbles. Amy Winehouse takes the lead again, having six times more shouts than others. So, she's really anomalous for the jazz. And without Amy, the graph exhibits the property, found in previous research: average specific number of scrobbles behaves like a barrier, separating artists with few shouts from artists with lots of them. Let us see, what another genres would show us the next time)
P.S. Суммарное число прослушиваний в top-100 джаза - 348 миллионов.
The total playcount in jazz's top-100 is 348 millions.
P.P.S. Спасибо Hzlqgmnzhh за полезный скрипт.
Thanks to Hzlqgmnzhh for his script.
Since I'm from Sweden, I've heard a lot of swedish music, of course. Probably a lot more than people from other countries have. And while far from everything is brilliant, I've discovered that Sweden has a few bands that are really, really good. Bands that can be compared to any band in the USA or UK in the same kind of music. There are especially four bands that comes to my mind when I think of good swedish music, all in different genres. And with this blog post, I'm going to tell something about theese four bands, and post some youtube clips with them. Enjoy!
Jens Lekman (Pop)
For fans och Belle & Sebastian and The Magnetic Fields, I'd recommend this man. Jens Lekman, who by the way just got the swine flu, is one of very few artists that can make something really unique with just simple pop songs. I don't know if it is his voice, the melodies or the lyrics, but even if you feel like you've heard it a thousand times before, it still feels new and fresh. Combined with a great sense of humour he is really worth listening too. Jens Lekman's latest album, Night Falls Over Kortedala, is full of great pop songs and if you like what you hear now, then go buy it, or download it, or, well, I don't care, really, just listen to it.
Esbjörn Svensson Trio (Jazz)
Esbjörn Svensson Trio was that kind of band that mixed the best between pop and jazz music. The melodies and structure in pop combined with the talent in jazz. Totally wonderful. Personally, I like their latest albums mostly, especially Seven days of Falling and Tuesday Wonderland.There's something about their songs that just makes me want to listen to them over and over again. I like a lot of jazz, but this is the only jazz group I listen to when I want something more than just relaxing music. It's a great group to start with if you haven't listened to much jazz, too. The frontman Esbjörn Svensson died when diving at the age of 44 last year.
The Tallest Man On Earth
I believe I'll have too admit one thing. One thing that's quite embarrising. I like The Tallest man On Earth more than Bob Dylan. The Tallest Man On Earth has just released one album and I already like him more than Bob Dylan. So. I've said it now. He have supported Bon Iver but if earth was just a little better place, it would be vice versa. You just have to hear this. And, one day, he will perhaps have Bon Iver as his support band. And perhaps Bob Dylan too. His lyrics are great, his voice is brilliant and his guitar playing even better. The Tallest Man On Earth is wonderful and I just can't wait for his next album.
The Knife (Electronic)
The Knife is a duo containing Olof Dreijer and Karin Dreijer. They are one of my absolute favourite bands. Known for not showing their faces and being very unpublic in general, they have gained some controversy when they won six swedish grammies and didn't show up. Still, they are so much more than just image. Their haunting melodies and unique sound, combined with their awesome live shows is what makes them so good. Though, I've never seen them live myself, but when looking at the live videos below, I think you'll understand what I mean.
If you'd like to hear more Swedish music, I'd recommend just mentioned Karin Dreijer of The Knife's solo project called Fever Ray, which is just as good as the The Knife, the singer-songwriter José Gonzalez (who have done a great cover of The Knife's song Heartbeats) and Hello Saferide, a great pop artist with good lyrics too. Lykke Li, Peter Bjorn and John and Robyn are three pop bands that are quite popular right now (you should especially take a listen to Peter Bjorn and John, they're so much more than their hit Young Folks...). The Hives is a recommendation for everyone who likes great, simple rock music. And for fans of The Cure around their middle 80's period, Shout Out Louds is something they may like. If you like The Clash's first album, it may be a good idea to listen to The (International) Noise Conspiracy. Koop is a very talanted electronic jazz duo. Oh, and, of course, ABBA. But you already listen to them, right? If you're interested in bands singing in Swedish, I'd recommend Kent, bob hund, Ebba Grön/Imperiet and, of course, Jakob Hellman. And at last, I want to recommend two young bands who are both quite unkown, so far, which is a shame. One is the Radiohead/Sonic Youthish Sonjagon, who released their debut album Arches earlier this year. The other one sounds more like alternative new american bands, perhaps with some folk influences. Think Okkervil River. Or The National. Their name is Bored Man Overboard.
Here's the myspace's for the last mentioned bands:
While I'm in sunny south Florida for the summer, I like to take rides on my bicycle. It's hot most of the time, but I like riding under the blue sky with the palm trees rustling in the wind.
8. Compilations like Late Night Tales by Nouvelle Vague and Back to Mine by Morcheeba include classic and new songs by lots of artists that all seem to work perfectly.
Just got back from my ride a few minutes ago, and I'll probably be getting a bike for Gainesville, when I go back to school. I'll probably discover some new tracks to add to my rides.
Koop
Four Three 
