Five Flowers: Music Rotation

After doing a lot of thinking - okay, maybe five minutes of thinking - I've decided that I really don't have the resources for this journal. Until I have enough money to buy albums, I really can't introduce you to anything new.

I'll just be posting music in my personal journal when the mood strikes until I've got me me a job that pays enough that I can buy music.

Alas and all that.

You guys don't comment much, but I'd really appreciate it if you respond this time. I don't want to do something you hate.

I've been using YouSendIt for hosting files because for most people (including me), it's faster and less of a hassle than the other file hosting services out there. Of course the trade-off is that songs are only available for a week.

I'd like to make the files available for a longer amount of time, so I've been thinking of switching to MegaUpload or something similar.

So, does MegaUpload totally not work for you? Are there other file hosting services that make files available for longer than YouSendIt that work better for you than MegaUpload?

Molvania's heart-throb Zladko Vladcik had a brand new hit in 2005 -- a dark, powerful ode to Beelzebub. Fans of "Elektronic -- Supersonik" (the techno smash he released in 2004) will perhaps be leery of his new style, but I simply can't not be amazed at his incredibly flexible songwriting skills.

Never heard of Zlad? Blame Eurovision's contest officials, who disqualified him from participating both in the 2004 and 2005 contests. Because of them, few people outside of Molvania have heard Zlad's amazing songs.

» Click here for information, videos, and downloadable mp3

If you missed "Elektronik -- Supersonik", visit this page.

So look for truth, quit seeking forgiveness
You need to cut the noose, but you don't believe in scissors
You support the troops by wearing yellow ribbons?
Just bring home my motherfuckin' brothers and sisters

"Slow Down Gandhi" is mad at everyone, including you. We're all complicit in the crime; if he yells loud enough will we listen?

» Sage Francis - Slow Down Gandhi

At first, you think it will some kid's smart-aleck take on country or bluegrass - is that a banjo? But then start the electronic bleeps and bloops and the German spoken-word lyrics, and suddenly it's something a lot weirder. And sexier. For all I know, Sylvie Marks can be saying "I am a toad, a big fat warty toad", but the song remains very lickable.

This song has stayed on my favorites list since I downloaded it way back in 2004. It's about time that I put the album on my wishlist.

» Sylvie Marks & Hal9000 - Blütenspass

Found through Fluxblog.

Because guitars are more sinful than synthesizers any day.

Unexpected covers by Johnny Cash aren't that unexpected. This song was just waiting to happen - but more so than "Hurt" or the bajillion other covers that he did. It was destined. Just the idea - Johnny Cash covering "Personal Jesus" - seems perfect.

» Johnny Cash - Personal Jesus

In a futuristic France, a cyborg from Asia stalks the streets, seducing men and killing them when she gets bored. Beware, phallo-oppressors! Your brie can't save you now!

Okay, I have no idea what this song is actually about as it's in French (and probably Québecois just to spite me), but I can pretend that's what it's about if I want to.

» Sir Alice - L'amour Made in Taiwan

Found through Fluxblog.

Garmarna is probably known best for their modern take on Swedish folk traditions, but they've also released an album based on the works of Hildegard von Bingen - called Hildegard von Bingen, predictably enough.

The album was only a partial success, musically speaking. Garmarna ditched their traditional Scandinavian tools and relied heavily on synth and drumbeats, which don't quite seem to meld with the medieval compositions.

This song, however, is beautiful. The impression of bells and strings and Emma Härdelin's powerful voice work well together here, and aren't overpowered by the tricks that ruin some of the other songs on the album.

» Garmarna - O Vis Aeternitatis

This weird, sinister piece of electronic always makes me picture a war in some Southeast Asian country and a reporter in desperate search of a pianist with a story to tell. It will probably make you picture something entirely different.

I end up returning to this song once a month or so; it seems like one of those songs that I'll never be able to get away from.

» Bangkok Impact - The Pianist and the Reporter

Last night:

erythros: HEY YOU.
erythros: LYUBE IS HORRIBLE. GIVE ME MORE.

Lyube is indeed horrible - however, their early songs are horrible in an utterly charming way. When listening to them, not being able to decide between cringing, dancing, and laughing, I often end up doing all three. Lyube is cheesy, Lyube is fun, Lyube is confusing.

Their first album was released not long before the fall of the Soviet Union. Later, Lyube mellowed out, became an easy-listening band for patriotic over-forties, but no one can describe their early songs like "Bat'ka Makhno" ("Father Makhno"), "Dusya-Agregat" ("Dusya the Machine") and "Ne Valyai Duraka, Amerika" ("Don't Fool Around, America") as easy listening.

In "Ne Valyai Duraka, Amerika" , Lyube longs for the days when it seemed like the Soviet Empire ruled the world, but in such a humorous, stupid way that you wonder how much of the song is self-parody. They're asking for Alaska back, of all things.

» Lyube - Ne valyai duraka, Amerika

( transliterated Russian lyrics for those who would like to make absolute fools of themselves by singing along )

My sincerest apologies to anyone who actually LIKES the song.

Because it's beautiful.

» Alison Krauss & Sting - You Are My Ain True Love

When I listen to Seksu Roba, I always imagine flourescent spaceships and women walking around in malls retro plastic dresses, sipping their bubble tea from brightly branded cups. This song is my favorite - the funky electronics and the spoken-word lyrics are interrupted by interludes that sound just like the perfect background track for a futuristic documentary about consumerism making everything better.

» Seksu Roba - Telephone

This post is for anonymous_bosh, an utterly deprived child (raised by wolves) who may have never heard this song:

» Radiohead - Exit Music (for a Film) [192kpbs]

So, Irk, now you know what the original sounds like. For everyone else, this is the cover I sent her:

»Scala Choir - Exit Music (for a Film) [192kbps]

Haunting. The crescendo lacks the punch of the original, but it's still a great cover. Scala is a Belgian girls' choir that made a splash in the music blogosphere after Fluxblog posted their cover of the Divinyls' "I Touch Myself". Pretty girls' voices with piano accompaniment.

No explanations or excuses - BECAUSE THERE ARE NONE. Oh, brain, sometimes I think I would be better off if I traded you in for an Apple IIe. ¬_¬

» Marilyn Manson & The Sneaker Pimps - Long Hard Road Out Of Hell

It's late at night and you're in an dimly-lit, smoky club. There's a woman in a sweet pink dress on stage, wearing a fingerwave hairdo and heels covered in rhinestones, demurely holding the microphone and singing lyrics about sex, fantasy, and control.

Or something like that.

» AK-Momo - Women to Control

Tolkien once said that cellar door, when disassociated from its sense and spelling, is a beautiful phrase--certainly more beautiful than beautiful. He had a good point, for non-rhotic dialects of English.

But what's the sexiest word in the English language? In my opinion, it's the monosyllabic but wonderfully complex strict. Go ahead. Say it.

» Goldfrapp - Strict Machine

Lily Chou-Chou is a fictional Japanese pop artist invented for the movie All About Lily Chou-Chou*. There have been several related CD releases: singles, the movie soundtrack, and Kokyu.

Kokyu is a collection of original vocal tracks from the movie, as opposed to the soundtrack, which is apparently instrumental music with non-original tracks mixed in. The song that's found itself on repeat is the dramatic, soaring "Kyoumei--Kuukyo na Ishi". It sounds like it could belong in a hundred movies, but still manages to be interesting.

» Lily Chou-Chou - Kyoumei--Kuukyo na Ishi

* Actually, it seems there was a television show that came before the movie, but I'm too lazy to Google any more.

Saith Fluxblog:

With its moody beats and bombastic fanfare, "Wild Beasts" sounds as though it is skulking about in the same mystical forest as Bjork's "Human Behaviour" and "Isobel." The storyline in the lyrics is a bit lacking in narrative depth, but it makes up for that by including a lot of ass kicking.

Ignore him. He's confused. "Wild Beasts" may be skulking about in a forest, but it's not the solitary, sensual wood of "Isobel". Instead, this song is a bizarre mix of creepy and zany--there's some sort of disconnect, which makes it more disturbing. Like a clown carrying a hatchet.

» The Similou - Wild Beasts

Found through Fluxblog.

A love poem set to song. It's dreamy and sweetly flowing, like a languorous river or a soft summer wind.

Najma - Apne Hathon [192kbps]

I don't know how to describe this music, so I'll wing it.

Cold Fairyland's Bride in Legend tells a story in music - of a girl named Yilang-Yilang who sets out on a journey to meet the man she's to marry, crosses strange lands, learns dark secrets, and finds her own destiny. The sounds of this journey are a blend of synth and traditional Western and Chinese instruments.

In "Song of the Highlands", Yilang-Yilang comes to a village where the women are singing as they harvest rice, but she can't stop - and listens to their song as she passes. As the song continues, the folk tune is joined by high, fairy-like female vocals, and low and strange male whisperings. One can imagine that Yilang-Yilang has passed the village and entered into a forest of spirits.

» Cold Fairyland - Mountain Song of the Highlands