The Bliss of Life is the follow up to the Auralgasms compilation CD, The Beat Of Dis-content. Like its predecessor, The Bliss of Life features tracks from some of our favorite up and coming artists featured on Auralgasms. You may recognize some of the names on this disc including Paco (ft Dominique Durand and Andy Chase of Ivy), Lunascape (featuring ex-Hooverphonic vocalist, Kyoko), Monster Movie (featuring Christian Savill of Slowdive), Nicola Hitchcock (of Mandalay) and Jody Quine (vocalist with Balligomingo). We are also pleased to have some bands poised to make a big splash this year. The Autumns, Blue States and Astaire are receiving rave reviews for their latest efforts.
The Bliss of Life is 17 tracks of Ethereal Pop Bliss - a perfect compilation of artists from around the world, making beautiful music and just waiting to be discovered. Each track was chosen by Auralgasms as a standout gem we have found over the past year. Although the temptation is great to keep them to ourselves, we have decided to share them you.
01. Blue States - Across The Wire
Across the Wire, telling tales of wingless angels on desk duty, is the stand out track from Blue States' third album - The Soundings. Blue States are Andy Dragazis, Chris Carr and Jon Chandler.
02. Lunascape - Praise Me
The Lunascape sound mixes catching rhythms, sampling and loops with acoustic and electric guitars reinforced by strong melodies and Kyoko's (ex-Hooverphonic) enchanting voice. The music of Lunascape can best be described as ethereal ambient trip-pop music.
03. Paco - My Love
Paco is the creative alchemy between Dominique Durand & Andy Chase of the esteemed NY indie-pop band Ivy and their friends Michael Hampton and Gary Maurer. The band's full-length debut, "This Is Where We Live", creates evocative songs that seduce the listener. It's sultry & melancholy but with unmistakable attitude.
04. Astaire - L-L-Love
Astaire is the NYC-based duo of Brazilian / American siblings, Erica and Bruce Driscoll. The band released their self-produced debut EP on their own Wax Divine label in Fall 2004. Mixed with Andy Chase (Ivy, Paco, Tahiti 80), the EP has been well received in publications such as CMJ, Entertainment Weekly, America and Z!nk. "L-L-Love" is the lead track on the EP and will also appear on the band's first full-length, due in late 2005.
05. Hector Zazou (w/ Nicola Hitchcock) - Surrender
The French-Algerian composer has a surprise waiting with each new composition. Whether it be for string quartet, wind instruments, classical voices or synthesizers, all illustrate his passion for the most unexpected inventions. He has collaborated with such luminaries of Ryuichi Sakamoto, John Cale, Dead Can Dance, Suzanne Vega, Björk, Siouxsie and Jane Siberry. His most recent projects include a series of new solo albums, Strong Currents - released in 2003 and L'Absence, an electronic twin of the former. L'Absence features the beautiful collaboration with Nicola Hitchcock (of Mandalay). Nicola's golden voice with the ambience of a Zazou composition is pure ethereal bliss.
06. Sleepthief (w/ Jody Quine) - Eurydice
Sleepthief is Justin Elswick in collaboration with some of the most recognized vocalists in electronic, folk and world music; including Harland and Jody Quine. Their music is a unique and arresting synthesis of sounds both ancient and modern, reminiscent of Delerium.
07. Hungry Lucy - To Kill A King
Intoxicating trip-pop music with enchanting female vocals. Hungry Lucy sounds similar to Lamb, Olive, Portishead, Halou, Dido, Madonna, Emiliana Torrini, Hooverphonic, Goldfrapp, Depeche Mode, Claire Voyant, etc
08. The Autumns - Cattleya
A small sampling of reviews of the new album:
"This album has such majestic chutzpah that the epic gene in you will simply surrender."
THE TIMES OF LONDON -- 4 Stars ****
"The Autumns are masters of structure and dynamics. This is one glorious album from a band which can produce music that is unutterably beautiful but also hugely powerful."
MOJO -- 4 Stars ****
"It's impressive stuff... a lavish phalanx of guitars... a swooning juggernaut... intense..."
Q
09. In-flight Safety - Lucky Boy
"... a solid batch of smartly written pop songs and lush live show. Evoking the spirits of classic Pink Floyd and modern Britpopsters Coldplay, In-Flight Safety knows how to write a song that captures the ear and the imagination"
The Coast, Halifax, NS
"... Bright, ringing little percussive notes punctuate some of the downbeats, paired with more expansive, deeper notes from, say, a guitar or a piano, in the way The Beach Boys did so well... you'll be mesermerized by Mullane's effortless vocal delivery"
The Daily News, Halifax, NS
10. Her Space Holiday - Something To Do With My Hands
Recording under the Her Space Holiday moniker since 1996, Marc Bianchi conjures sugarcoated dreamscapes that float alongside sweet and bitter narratives of life. Always intent on challenging himself, the Her Space Holiday sound has morphed from release to release as Marc has added more intricate sampling and drum programming to an already rich palette of sounds and matured as a songwriter.
11. Highspire - Skies You Climb
A small group of musicians, living in and around the Philadelphia area who are notoriously elusive, opting for the pursuit of writing and recording good music. Usually labeled as "shoegaze" or "dreampop", Highspire has always been more interested in expanding these sounds and/or crossbreeding with other musical ideas to help create their own style of symphonic-rock/pop.
12. Asobi Seksu - Walk On The Moon
Asobi Seksu, like Sonic Youth and My Bloody Valentine before them, are evolving and redefining what noise means within the model of pop songwriting. The band melds lush yet wonderfully crushing waves of white noise in variation with synth-driven pop delicacies and tight lounge progressions ala Stereolab. The quartet's melting-pot aesthetics also include narratives sung in combinations of English and Japanese.
13. Monster Movie - Beautiful Arctic Star
A pleasant stroll down strummy, wistful pop lane. Warm, brittle, slightly dreamy & melancholic acoustic here, Radio Dept fuzzy there, toytown MBV shapes, Mercury Rev pie, Joy Zipper kebabs & Sarah records without the knee socks & hairslides
14. Au Revoir Borealis - Blissfield
Cinematic Ambient Rock band from Detroit with electronic and acoustic influences. Expansive sound, intimate atmosphere.
15. Jody Quine - Hollywood
Her presence is captivating and electric, and with a voice that beds down with the shivers under your skin, she's fantastic to catch live. Her new material, the results of a songwriter maturing and tasting life, is bound to touch people and make them think, and then... keep them coming back for more. Jody has also recorded with Balligomingo and Sleepthief.
16. Harland - Little White Lies
Harland encompasses grace, beauty, style and talent beyond measure. In the last two years, she has been signed to a publishing deal, collaborated as a highly sought after guest vocalist with seminal electronic artists, toured as a lead vocalist for Delerium, and has played her first solo live shows in New York . Her music tells the story of a creative soul finally breaking herself free of the everyday and finding a new lease on life in New York, in love and in music.
17. Eskobar - You Got Me
Eskobar began life under another name in a Stockholm suburb during the mid nineties. Like most young bands, their first musical efforts owed a lot to their influences (at that time mainly British acts). Since then they have forged their own path. They have up to date released three albums that contain fused melancholy, intimate melodies with big guitars, reminiscent in a way of the best 80s arena bands yet at the same time sounding totally fresh and individual.
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