Thus Owls in Echoes Podcast

The Canadian-Swedish Band Thus Owls Talk about Turning Rocks on Echoes Podcast.

 

Thus Owls Parker Shper, Simon Angell, Erika Angell live on Echoes

Thus Owls’ Erika Angell is a singer who isn’t afraid to cut loose.  Like Kate Bush and Tori Amos, she takes unexpected vocal flights, but unlike them, her voice is throatier, earthier giving her vocal turns a depth of knowing.  She can exude the declamatory sound of Siouxsie Sioux and the poignant refrains of Joni Mitchell. It’s the perfect voice for a band that brings a theatrical feel to Turning Rocks, their song-cycle of life on a Swedish island that is sometimes pastoral but often dark and haunted.  With husband Simon Angell on guitar, Thus Owls conjures dramatic musical structures that range from gentle autoharp refrains to screaming 60’s style rave-ups replete with Farfisa organ and Wurlitzer electric piano.    They played live on Echoes a few weeks ago.  Now hear the story of this band whose influences range from Japanese surf guitar to Alice Coltrane organ; from Abba to Meredith Monk.  You can hear them talk about it in the Echoes Podcast.

Hear Thus Owls Powerful Live Performance at Echoes On Line

You can stream it on-demand from Echoes On-line, our streaming subscription service.  You can sign up for a 1 week trial of unlimited streaming for $2.99 here.

John Diliberto (((echoes)))

Join the Echoes CD of the Month Club. and get Hans Christian’s Hidden Treasures, the May CD of the Month. You’ll get great CDs and help support Echoes at the same time. You can do it all right here.

OR
Pick Up  TRANSMISSIONS:
THE ECHOES LIVING ROOM CONCERTS VOLUME 19

Join us on Facebook where you’ll get all the Echoes news so you won’t be left behind when Dead Can Dance appear on the show, Tangerine Dream tours or Brian Eno drops a new iPad album. Or Follow us on Twitter@echoesradio.

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Thus Owls Interview on Echoes

The Canadian-Swedish Band Thus Owls Talk about Turning Rocks tonight on Echoes.

Thus Owl’s Erika Angel on Echoes

Thus Owls’ Erika Angell is a singer who isn’t afraid to cut loose.  Like Kate Bush and Tori Amos, she takes unexpected vocal flights, but unlike them, her voice is throatier, earthier giving her vocal turns a depth of knowing.  She can exude the declamatory sound of Siouxsie Sioux and the poignant refrains of Joni Mitchell. It’s the perfect voice for a band that brings a theatrical feel to Turning Rocks, their song-cycle of life on a Swedish island that is sometimes pastoral but often dark and haunted.  With husband Simon Angell on guitar, Thus Owls conjures dramatic musical structures that range from gentle autoharp refrains to screaming 60’s style rave-ups replete with Farfisa organ and Wurlitzer electric piano.    They played live on Echoes a few weeks ago.  Now hear the story of this band whose influences range from Japanese surf guitar to Alice Coltrane organ; from Abba to Meredith Monk.

WHERE & HOW TO LISTEN TO ECHOES

Echoes is on different stations, on different days and different times.
You can listen locally or stream-live from our many stations’ websites.
You can also stream it on-demand from Echoes On-line, our streaming subscription service.  You can sign up for a 1 week trial of unlimited streaming for $2.99 here.

John Diliberto (((echoes)))

Join the Echoes CD of the Month Club. and get Hans Christian’s Hidden Treasures, the May CD of the Month. You’ll get great CDs and help support Echoes at the same time. You can do it all right here.

OR
Pick Up  TRANSMISSIONS:
THE ECHOES LIVING ROOM CONCERTS VOLUME 19

Join us on Facebook where you’ll get all the Echoes news so you won’t be left behind when Dead Can Dance appear on the show, Tangerine Dream tours or Brian Eno drops a new iPad album. Or Follow us on Twitter@echoesradio.

Now you can go Mobile with Echoes On-Line. Find out how you can listen to Echoes 24/7 wherever you are on your iPhone, iPad or Droid.

 

 

Thus Owls Live on Echoes

THUS OWLS THEATER IN YOUR HEAD LIVE ON ECHOES

Thus Owls’ Erika Angell live on Echoes

I have been enchanted by Thus Owls.  This Canadian-Swedish band brings a theatrical feel to their songs of life on a Swedish island that is sometimes pastoral but often dark and haunted.  The band is fronted by singer Erika Angell who has a dramatic style that recalls Kate Bush, Tori Amos and a touch of Siouxsie Sioux’s arch darkness.  With husband Simon Angell on guitar, Thus Owls conjures dramatic musical structures that range from gentle autoharp refrains to screaming 60’s style rave-ups replete with Farfisa organ.  Their latest album is Turning Rocks.  You don’t want to disturb the neighbors with this one.  Wear headphones and turn it up when Thus Owls play live on Echoes.

John Diliberto (((echoes)))

Join the Echoes CD of the Month Club. and get  Lyla Foy’s Mirrors the Sky, the April CD of the Month.  You’ll get great CDs and help support Echoes at the same time.   You can do it all right here.

OR
Pick Up  TRANSMISSIONS:
THE ECHOES LIVING ROOM CONCERTS VOLUME 19

Join us on Facebook where you’ll get all the Echoes news so you won’t be left behind when Dead Can Dance appear on the show, Tangerine Dream tours or Brian Eno drops a new iPad album. Or Follow us on Twitter@echoesradio.

Now you can go Mobile with Echoes On-Line. Find out how you can listen to Echoes 24/7 wherever you are on your iPhone, iPad or Droid.

Women of Echoes

A Celebration of Women in Music from the Echoes Spectrum for International Women’s Day

Laurie Anderson in Echoes Interview

This Saturday, March 8 is International Women’s Day and as we do each year, we focus this show on the sounds of women musicians.  These days, that doesn’t seem as necessary as it did many years ago.  Even 20 years back, finding enough women musicians creating progressive, ambient and electronic music to fill this show wasn’t easy, but today, women are a big part of Echoes, if not in outright domination of the music you hear.  So this is more a show about celebrating how far we’ve come with women in music.  Today, we’ll hear women artists from pioneers like Laurie Anderson and Kate Bush  to a new generation like Norah Jones and London Grammar.

Frankie Rose Live on Echoes

Laurie Anderson is the Grand Dame of new music. She defined the independent women composer and artist for the late 20^th century with a personal vision that is unparalleled . She’s still creating great music and performance works today although she suffered a terrible loss this past year when her husband, Lou Reed, passed away.  You can hear Anderson’s influence on other contemporary composers like Julia Holter, a musician who probably wouldn’t have been possible without Laurie Anderson’s “O Superman.”

You can hear them all tonight on Women of Echoes.  Playlist here.

John Diliberto (((echoes)))

Join the Echoes CD of the Month Club.  Mark McGuire’s Along the Way is our March CD of the Month.  You’ll get great CDs and help support Echoes at the same time.   You can do it all right here.

OR
Pick Up  TRANSMISSIONS:
THE ECHOES LIVING ROOM CONCERTS VOLUME 19

Join us on Facebook where you’ll get all the Echoes news so you won’t be left behind when Dead Can Dance appear on the show, Tangerine Dream tours or Brian Eno drops a new iPad album. Or Follow us on Twitter@echoesradio.

Now you can go Mobile with Echoes On-Line. Find out how you can listen to Echoes 24/7 wherever you are on your iPhone, iPad or Droid.

The Merryness of Mree – Dreampop Folk

I love this song from Mree, real name Marie Hsiao.   I can hear elements of Kate Bush with Julia Holter and maybe even a touch of Enya.  She has a new album coming in August, but for now, here’s a song called “Into the Well.

~John Diliberto (((echoes)))

Sign up for Echoes CD of the Month Club.  With the Echoes CD of the Month Club, you get great CDs like Rhian Sheehan’s  Stories from Elsewhere Follow the link to the Echoes CD of the Month Club  and see what you’ve been missing.

Now you can go Mobile with Echoes On-Line.  Find out how you can listen to Echoes 24/7 wherever you are on your iPhone, iPad or Droid.

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Alu’s Psychosis Cabaret

Alu Singing on Echoes

The Echoes Podcast with Alu is now up on iTunes. Take a step inside the fascinating world of this gifted singer-songwriter who’s music embodies electronica, cabaret and goth in a joyful music with a chilling undertow.  Here she is talking about her song “In the Mausoleum” from her new CD, Madhouse Masquerade.

Alu’s Madhouse Masquerade

Alu: It’s actually a sequel to my song “Confessions to the Undertaker,” which was on my first album.  ….And Confessions to the Undertaker, I’m searching a graveyard for a soul like my own. And for me “In the Mausoleum,” it’s like I’ve finally found the place where the lost souls and the ghosts unite and celebrate.

Step into Alu’s Madhouse Masquerade when talks about her music on the Echoes Podcast.

~© 2012 John Diliberto ((( echoes )))

You get great CDs like Sebastian Plano’s The Arrhythmical Part of Hearts by becoming a member of the Echoes CD of the Month Club.  Follow the link and see what you’ve been missing.

Now you can go Mobile with Echoes On-Line.  Find out how you can listen to Echoes 24/7 wherever you are on your iPhone, iPad or Droid.

Join us on Facebook where you’ll get all the Echoes news so you won’t be left behind Dead Can Dance appear on the show, Tangerine Dream tours, or Brian Eno releases a new CD.

Johanna & The Dusty Floor Sweep In.

Tonight on Echoes (01/06/2012) I’ll be interviewing an exciting new singer-songwriter, Johanna Cranitch who records as Johanna & the Dusty Floor.  When I heard her new album,  Northern Lights, I was immediately enticed by this Australian born singer, who first reminded me of Kate Bush.  She even covers Bush’s “Cloudbusting.”  But the more I listen, the less I hear Bush and the more I hear an artist with a unique and personal voice, making music full of surprising melodic turns, with idiosyncratic instrumentation that includes zithers, xylophones and Omnichords, and deeply effecting voice.  Check out a couple of her videos.

This is a charming, kind of unplugged version of “Heavy Heart.”

Here’s a produced video of “Witch Shoes.”

And you might as well hear her understated take on Kate Bush’s Cloudbusting.”

John Diliberto ((( echoes )))

Kate Bush Discovers Autotune

New album, Director’s Cut revamps songs from two of Kate Bush’s Albums

Kate Bush joins the conga-line of musicians covering their own work, a new tradition that includes Peter Gabriel, Ray Davies and Suzanne Vega.  Bush is releasing an album called Director’s Cut which draws songs from her beautiful 1989 album, The Sensual World, and disappointing 1993 album, The Red Shoes.

The first release from the disc is “Deeper Understanding,” a poignant and pleading song about getting lost in the computer screen.  In 1989 it was a powerful, and subtle work, and despite its subject, was mostly devoid of gimics, computer voices and beeping noises except for one.  Well, they are all here on the 2011 version of  “Deeper Understanding .”   Bush completely revamps the song, creating electronic backings, lots of sound effects and autotuning her voice.  Sadly, not only is autotuning a “so yesterday” concept, even for that, it’s badly employed.  Kate takes a song of subtlety to create a dialog with a “computer” voice,  the kind of obvious ploy you wouldn’t expect from the singer.  And Cher did the autotuning thing better in 1998 with her hit single “Believe.” And although I do have Cher’s first solo album in my collection, you don’t know how much it pains me to say she does anything artistically better than Kate Bush.  Although the song goes into a pretty cool vamp in the second half, it still reminds me of Tangerine Dream’s Edgar Froese re-recording classic Dream tracks from the 70s, but using digital synthesizers.  Using modern instruments instead the original analog synths, he made his music sound dated. He just didn’t get what made that music so powerful back then, and so timeless now.

One good thing is there is a new version of “The Sensual World” that might be closer to Bush’s original intent.   She originally wrote the song with lyrics drawn from James Joyce’s Ulysses, but couldn’t get permission to use them on the actual recording. So instead, she cut her own, Joyce-inspired lyrics.  Now she’s gotten permission and a new version appears on Director’s Cut, retitled “Flower of The Mountain.”  Hopefully, the remainder of Director’s Cut won’t be music that should perhaps remain on the cutting room floor.

Director’s Cut Tracklist:
01. Flower of the Mountain
02. Song of Solomon
03. Deeper Understanding
04. Lily
05. Red Shoes
06. This Woman’s Work
07. Moments of Pleasure
08. Never be Mine
09. Top of the City
10. And so is Love
11. Rubberband Girl

John Diliberto ((( echoes )))

The Best Echoes Songs Ever? O Superman? Music for 18 Musicians?

Even though we play individual songs on Echoes, I don’t usually think of the music that way. Being from the pre-digital generation, I still organize music in terms of artists and albums. I thought of this recently as our local Echoes affiliate, WXPN in Philadelphia, has been pumping their latest poll,  The Top 885 Essential XPN Songs. (885 because their frequency is 88.5 FM) Listeners are being requested to submit their top ten lists on-line. 

My Top Ten Artists list has been stable for years, and my Top Ten Albums only changes occasionally. But Top Ten Songs?  I think that could change every 10 minutes. When you think about songs across genres, and open it up completely, how do you narrow it down to ten. Even limiting it to the current core XPN sound of singer-songwriter and alternative rock is pretty broad.  Hell, I don’t even think of Echoes music in terms of songs.  It’s more like sounds, moods, and at most compositions.  I tried to keep that in mind when I submitted my poll.   This is the Top Ten Essential XPN Songs list I submitted that tried to split the difference, but in the end didn’t succeed. There is no ranking to the list.
Miles Davis “In A Silent Way” In A Silent Way
Jimi Hendrix “Voodoo Chile (Slight Return)” Electric Ladyland
Klaus Schulze “Frank Herbert” X
Dead Can Dance “Cantara” Within the Realm of a Dying Sun
Kate Bush “The Dreaming” The Dreaming
Steve Tibbetts “10 Years” YR
Brian Eno “Sky Saw” Another Green World
Beth Orton “She Cries Your Name” Trailer Park
Laurie Anderson “O Superman” Big Science
Steve Reich “Music for 18 Musicians” Music for 18 Musicians

As I peruse this quickly tossed together list, I realize I kind of blew it.  Most of these are indeed, compositions, not songs and in the context of XPN, it’s a little like voting for the Green Party (no offense).    So here’s my amended Top Ten List:                                                                                               
Jimi Hendrix “Voodoo Chile (Slight Return)” Electric Ladyland
Dead Can Dance “Cantara” Within the Realm of a Dying Sun
Kate Bush “The Dreaming” The Dreaming
David Sylvian “Let the Happiness In” Secrets of the Beehive
Beth Orton “She Cries Your Name” Trailer Park
Laurie Anderson “O Superman” Big Science
The Beatles “Tomorrow Never Knows” Revolver
The Rolling Stones “Satisfaction” Out of Our Heads
Moby “Porcelian” Play
Jane Siberry “Calling All Angels” When I Was A Boy

It’s still a bit off base I suspect. 

If you’re a listener to WXPN, you can cast your vote on their website ballot. The deadline is September 7. Who knows what might show up on there amidst the inevitable selections of My Morning Jacket, R.E.M, the Cure, Tori Amos, Coldplay, U2, and Bob Dylan tunes. In fact, I should have put some of them on my Top Ten. Yep, that list took about 10 minutes to change, twice. 

John Diliberto ((( echoes )))

An Echo Location: Alu’s Cosmic Cabaret

The latest singer to carry the torch of Kate Bush into new terrain is named Alu

[You can also hear an Audio Version of this Blog, with Alu’s music]

Ziggy Stardust came from Mars, Sun Ra came from Saturn.  Alu isn’t from another planet, but sometimes she wants to be.

Alu: Ah, no, not really happy with earth, I sometimes not happy with the humans here, I think I’ve always felt like a bit of an outcast and you know, just, I think we all kind of want to go to that place where our family is, or the people who understand and support us are, and that’s kind of Mars to me.

You can hear Alu’s trip to Mars on a song called “Martian Rendezvous.” It’s one of the quirky, atmospheric and theatrical songs from her sophomore album, Lobotomy Sessions. 

That seems like it might be an ironic punk title or the follow-up to Spinal Tap’s Intravenous De Milo.  But although her song “Recluse” appears in the new Clive Barker film, The Midnight Meat Train, Alu isn’t a morose Goth or raving headbanger. For the Los Angeles-raised singer, Lobotomy Sessions is more like therapy.

Alu: It is very healing for me and every, every song is very healing for me. They help me a lot.

Lobotomy Sessions doesn’t remove part of Alu’s head, but it does let us see the world inside it on songs like “Buzzin’ in My Brain.” It’s a spiritual and musical descendent of Lambert, Hendricks and Ross’s “Twisted,” via Joni Mitchell.

Alu: Buzzin’ in My Brain is kind of about my relationship with music and creation and insanity, you know, because it’s the process is kind of maddening, so it’s not directly about therapy, but it is in a way because it’s, it’s about my form of therapy which is creating.

She’s a child of Hollywood animation artists and went to school at Cal Arts where she got the voice lessons that help set her apart. She’s been compared to Bjork and Tori Amos, cabaret and The Addams Family. But rarely have those elements come together with the haunting, and haunted charm you hear on the three ring pyschosis of her song, “Circus Cosmos.”

Alu is the latest in a string of idiosyncratic, introspective and provocative singers following in the tradition of Kate Bush. It’s a tradition that includes Happy Rhodes, Tori Amos, and Bjork. On her new CD is Lobotomy Sessions, Alu creates yet another new and inventive iteration of that muse.

You can hear an extended interview with her on Echoes Monday, July 21. You can also listen to an Audio Version of this Echo Location blog with music.

John Diliberto (((echoes)))