petronia

Okay, I take pity on you. Markus Acher is German, and the vocalist/lyricist for the Notwist. He's also one of the founding members of Lali Puna (though only Valerie sings AFAIK). Erlend Øye is Norwegian, and one half of Kings of Convenience. He does electronica on a solo basis, collaborating with other producers - guest vocals on the Röyksopp album, et cetera. "Poor Leno", "Remind Me", that's him. ...At this point Ced smiled at me cheerfully and said, "I have no idea who and what you're talking about," and I knew I was in trouble, as Ced actually provides me with most of my music. But, uh, bear with me. I mean, it took me an insanely long time to put all this together myself. You'd think it would've clicked earlier - how many guys named Erlend Øye could the international music scene contain? - but genre ghettoization is, plainly speaking, a curse, and the idea of KoC even knowing who Morgan Geist is let alone... yeah. といっても、悟った。It's like what Cis said a while back about alt.folk and IDM being related really (although I don't even remember if I have that right - Cis, if you didn't say it, I apologize. XD;;;): everything Erlend Øye sings on is actually the same genre. It's one thing, one intended effect, done over for different groups of people.

Kings of Convenience - Little Kids
Kings of Convenience - Little Kids (Ladytron Remix)

So comes the question, are you more down with Simon and Garfunkel or Kraftwerk? Dog person or cat person? I'm with the synths, me; I appreciate the stuff even when the beats are lacking, but I construe it as a lack.

Kings of Convenience - Cayman Island

Beautiful song, that one, off the most recent album. Yet I'm just as emotionally affected if not more by this one:

Erlend Øye with Morgan Geist - Ghost Trains

Which is, like, microhouse. And by the going mythos of muzakcrit you're just not supposed to get emowibbly over microhouse the same way as over a track with acoustic guitars in. Well... well. Bugger that for a lark. Listen to the lyrics. Why couldn't this be Leonard Cohen?

Three days in April
Three years ago
One black-eyed stranger
I learnt to know
Made all my plans stop
Shook me off track
Ten days of longing
I followed her back

For that matter, listen to the lyrics in this one: The Presets - Girl and the Sea. (They're Australian, and don't have a full-length out yet. I got this track off Robot Blair three days ago, and since then it's shot up in Winamp5's play count list like it's got booster rockets attached.)

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Sage Francis tracks, which have absolutely nothing to do with anything (it's rap), but I'm trying to post some of the music I listen to all the time and never talk about:

Sage Francis - Broken Wings
The Non-Prophets - Damage

The lyrics of the second one are... eminently quotable. XD

And a last one for the road:

Hawksley Workman - First Snow of the Year

Because it did snow, a couple of days ago. Hawksley totally nails this one, to the point where I feel like throttling him for being so damned chipper.