- The Chemical Brothers – ‘C-h-e-m-i-c-a-l’
My suggestion for this week’s mixtape is the latest track by The Chemical Brothers ‘C-h-e-m-i-c-a-l‘. The track is the first new material from duo Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons since their last year’s ‘Born In The Echoes’.
An elusive work, mixed with an enjoyable intense electro beat and rolling keyboards, that leads to a magic way of making machines sing. Listen to it below.
Dimitra Christaki
- Dead Can Dance – ‘Eleusis‘
The legendary seminal duo of Brendan Perry and Lisa Gerrard always fed their magical and mysterious compositions with the arcane and spiritual sounds from ancient civilizations, Gaelic and Celtic folk, Gregorian chant, African polyrhythm, Medieval dirges and Middle Eastern spices.
Lisa Gerrard herself grew up in a Middle Eastern, Turkish, Greek community of immigrants around Melbourne and for this reason the Mediterranean music, the ancient Greek and Byzantine ones, are a strong influence, regarding both the lyrics, the music and the vocals.
The 2012’s album ‘Anastasis‘ (Greek word for ‘resurrection’) clearly showed those creative germs born to the fascination of Brendan Perry for the “immutable” elements of Greek culture.
Best chance could’t have been the bid by the town of Eleusis to become the 2021 European city of culture, to support the project giving the theme song ‘Eleusis‘, a musical composition inspired by the city and its history (the Eleusinian Mysteries).
The amazing voice of Brendan supported by the melancholic and mystical orchestral instruments sounds accompanies us through the shots of everyday life around the streets of the city.
“’Eleusis cultivates the seed of the transition to a new era of prosperity, the era of Euphoria!’’
Good to see there’s still some hints of optimism and love in this dark abused world.
Fabrizio Lusso
- Commis Voyageur – ‘Submissive’
French name (maybe taken from the Arthur Miller drama?) , English lyrics, but just another young promising Russian post punk four-piece band from Moscow, two guys and two girls, a pretty emotional and melancholic take on the post punk genre.
Few months after their excellent debut EP ‘16.1‘, here’s their sophomore two-track single ‘Youth‘. I could have easily chosen the charming janglish The Smiths-flavoured ‘Moonlight‘, but instead I go for the equally impressive ‘Submissive’, a song about too serious youngsters, introduced by a pulsating bass-line, immediately followed by the brilliant delay-laden guitar harmonics that carry the melody, amazingly supported by infectious synth-lines and Marie’s hopeless voice,‘why you so young / why you so dead?’; the best bits of 80’s cult groups as Opposition, Lowlife and For Against elaborated with an unaware refreshing personal feel.
The new wave of Russian post punk strikes again!!!
Fabrizio Lusso
- Krzyzis – ‘Thalassa‘
On their new album ‘Proto Amnesia‘, Krzyzis display(s) an impressive range of sounds, instruments, and emotions. ‘Thalassa‘ starts this story of epic proportions which travels to the depths of the underworld and back. A set of headphones and an hour will be all you need to prepare for the full adventure through this experimental ambient/ drone/ dark ambient experience.
Michael Barnett
- I Tpame I Tvrame – ‘Today (Slowmotion)’
Not very often do we come across a band from Tirana, Albania, like I Tpame I Tvrame. While the majority of bands from their hometown try to immitate safe rock/indie forms, these ones go much further, especially with the slow-burner minimalwave, darkwave, electro ‘Today (Slowmotion)‘ which is part of the ‘E01P‘ (Tangula Records), that was released just a few days ago. The enigmatic duo Franc Kurti & Dina Hajrullahu are surely not to be missed by music enthusiasts. And here at lastdaydeaf.com we’ll keep our ears open…
Christos Doukakis
Compiled by Dimitra Christaki, Fabrizio Lusso, Michael Barnett & Christos Doukakis