Burning Ears

Posted on March 28, 2009 by Bill Shakes

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It’s about time I put fingers to keyboard and shared some musical love on the Bill Shakes Blog and the “Burning Ears” posts will feature whatever is firing my lobes up. No rules, no pigeon holing, just a taste of what I’m listening week to week and some blurb.

In the interests of not wanting to rattle the cages of artists or labels and to avoid copyright infringement I have purposely added artist website links should you wish to purchase any of these tracks.

If need be I will of course cease and desist but prefer to view these posts as a promotional tool. Anyway it appears actual ownership of music seems to be gradually disappearing with the advent of LastFM, Spotify et al. A brave new world with perhaps more artist power awaits..

The Dodos – Red and Purple

From the brilliant album Visiter this track is percussively quirky and therefore not to everyones liking but I’m often found jigging about in my flat singing “I am yours and you will be mine”.

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Click here to buy from their website

Here’s another from the same album called “Winter”

Todd Terje – New Morning (reworked)

I have collected around 40 of his reworks/mixes now and they are almost all worth your time. He is so respectful to the original tracks but manages to lift them into a more sequenced modern sounding special vibe.

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Click here to buy from Junodownload

Love The Chris Rea “Josephine” remix too..

Divine Comedy – Lucy

My lovely soon to be wed sister is called Lucy and this song automatically links me to her and The Divine Comedy and their Canterbury Tales esque sound are bloody fabulous, nuff said.

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Live version at Plymouth below

Cinematic Orchestra – To Build a Home

This track gets to the very core of me and draws a tear more often than not, so simple, so beautiful, so emotive. Just listen to it.

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Orchestral live video below

Tom Tom Club – Wordy Rappinghood

Spawned from the spouses and cohorts of Talking Heads the Tom Tom Club’s fusion of 80′s styles does it every time for moi.

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Click here to buy form their website

“Genius of Love” video below, another belter!

I know that musical taste varies radically and is very subjective but I do hope you’ve found something you like.

More from Burning Ears next week.x

Listen Up!

Posted on March 22, 2009 by Bill Shakes

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Sunday Stroll

Posted on March 22, 2009 by Bill Shakes

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A couple of weeks back I decided to go for an evening stroll and take in some fresh air after being couped up at home with a recurring dose of that sick bug racing around Europe this winter. I do love meandering aimlessly around the Gótico in Barcelona and this was the perfect medicine for my bed bored body.

Most of the metal shutters were down and more tourists than locals were milling among the alleys, churches and open cafés making the atmosphere feel strangely transitional between weekend and the working week. In contrast to the historic surroundings I was happily listening to the Guardians Tech Weekly podcast on my IPod Shuffle which although slightly smug in delivery (Aleks Krotoski excluded) is definitely worth a listen if you enjoy keeping on your tech toes.

After circling a few blocks I found myself at the back Barcelona’s Cathedral (see below) in a lowly lit square where an eccentric English busker had set up his wheely piano and was jerkily tickling the ivories. I switched the IPod to pause, seated myself on some stony steps and wallowed in the classical and abstract tinkling which sounded acoustically amazing drifting through the air and bouncing between the ancient walls.

Barcelona Cathedral

It was definitely one of those “moments” where everything clicks and your lot in life feels very lucky indeed. That was until Mozart morphed into some tourist pleasing nonsense and the “moment” suddenly became taxable. So up I got taking the IPod off pause and throwing a few coins into the hat before walking home for some dinner.

I recorded the embedded clip above using the night setting on my Nokia E51 and was pleasantly surprised by the quality. I’m trying out various Video Hosts on this blog and this time I’ve used Viddler which has some good time-tagging features.

Shoreditched

Posted on March 18, 2009 by Bill Shakes

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Just a couple of photos wall street art / graffiti pictures that turned my head in East London at the weekend and so were quickly snapped whilst on another short stop, whirlwind, home visit where time accelerates and I always seem to spread myself too thinly..