Day Job Records

Our Top Three Videos Of The Week #6

admin — Wed, 09 May 2012 14:04:49 +0000

Hello people!

For this post we have happy, exciting and sad feelings all mixed up in a big bowl with a lot of different music styles from great musicians. This week I’m calling it “The new, the old and the one who is gone”. Let’s remember together an incredible music video that deserves to be watched again, let’s be inspired and amazed by a new British band that is doing really well and let’s enjoy some outer space musical philosophy with one of the the best and loveliest musician.

3) Live at Nancy Jazz Pulsations – Sun Ra Arkestra (Mezzo)

To view full one hour concert, click here

Sun Ra was Herman Poole Blount who was a cosmic jazz composer and one of the most important player’s of the 60′s avant garde jazz, as much as John Coltrane! He was very unique creating lyrical poetry making himself the pioneer of Afrofuturism for preaching about peace above all. Sun Ra had an unorthodox lifestyle, his name comes from the Egyptian God of the Sun, he believed the birth name didn’t connect with his soul. His music was very peculiar also, a pioneer in electronic music and space music, with a mixture of bebop, free jazz, ragtime, swing music, jazz, hard bop and so much more… A big heart, smart brain and great hands leading The Arkestra from the mid 50′s to 1993 when he left earth. After him the saxophonist John Gilmore took the lead of The Arkestra but unfortunately died in 1995, and now the beloved Art Jenkins left us in April this year, the deeply valued man and vocalist of Sun Ra Arkestra, full of creativity and energy. Art Jenkins was a poet, vocalist, lyricist, composer and percussionist, one of the most amazing musicians from this beautiful collective, with a unique voice varying from avant-garde to the classic big bands with a touch of a space megaphone which was his “secret weapon” and identity. He devoted his whole life to jazz performing everywhere he could. An orchestra that deserves respect with so many amazing musicians and creativity, so many collaborations and musicians passing trough the band leaving their identity on it and sharing their love.

This video is a live performance as I think it’s much more exciting to see how these amazing musicians behave on stage and make the impossible come true. But if you would like to listen to their ideas a bit more, check the video here. There’s also a documentary from the BBC about Sun Ra which is very interesting to watch if you would like to see something amazing and understand the whole feeling behind the ideal of the band, watch here. Just from the beginning of this video you can feel they came from a different planet. You never know where things are going to and you’re surprised every minute. Just really amazing and impressive. I feel so sad I didn’t have the opportunity to see them live, they played at the last ATP here in England in Minehead and all the people who saw them just said that they would never forget such a performance!

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2) No Rest – Dry The River (Dir. Corin Hardy)

Exactly a week ago I saw the best performance I had seen of this emerging band in England, that since last year is really creating a buzz. The gig took place at the Electric Ballroom, a proper venue for their sound and the band were perfect, dominating the stage and delivering the best performance. (Just to make you jealous, we even had a unamplified acoustic opening to Weights & Measures!)

They formed in 2009, first signed to Transgressive Records in 2010 and released their first single in March 2011 “New Ceremony”. Since the first moment I heard them in late 2011, I just couldn’t stop listening to them, like really couldn’t stop playing them day after day, looking forward to listening to their debut album that finally came out in March this year carrying the name “Shallow Bed”, now with Sony. For me, the main thing of this band is their background. They come from a hardcore, heavy metal, post-punk background (the lead singer has also taken classes at the Roman Catholic Church and has a BA in Anthropology and Medicine studies – quite a thing!) but create a new folk gospel genre of music, resulting in a incredible mixture of sounds, feelings and a sound that honestly doesn’t sound like anyone else. You could say they have many references but no one creates such beautiful and emotional music with such a powerful, intense, loud and noisy sound. For me they found the perfect match.

The music video is for me the best of the four music videos they have right now (but if you want to watch something more up to date, watch the latest one released just recently here). As it’s their first music video, I love the way they introduced the band members to us, but not just that, the story is so simple but yet so good and well executed, flowing perfectly with the music, having stronger images as the music gets louder. You see, you don’t need to spend loads of money just because you need an amazing idea, you just need to turn your thinker-brain on and make it work! One location, only band members and a few jumping actors, no movement from band members, few lights, two dead birds as props, rocks, torches and lot of water, no special costumes and no special effects. And yet, a powerful music video, great shots and focus change, beautiful way of using shadows and dust. A music video that works and is really smart, introduces a new band, makes you feel their new sound and feelings they’re trying to say with their music/lyrics and gets you curious to see how they actually make their sound.

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1) Svefn-G-Englar – Sigur Rós (Dir. Agust Jacobsson)

From the good old ones, “Svefn-g-englar” which means “sleep angels” (that you might have already heard in the “Vanilla Sky” film amongst some other of their tracks) is one of my unforgettable music videos just because of the subtlety of the imagery and the perfect match with the music video. And specially also because I’m very keen on social projects and this one they had the Perlan special-needs theatre group acting. They did such a great job for this 09:10 minutes Iceland award-winning (from Sprout Touring Film Festival) music video, it is so sweet, the storyline surrounded by elements and the camera did such a great job with the flying cam. It’s very hard to chose one music video when talking about Sigur Rós as they have also one of my favourite music videos regarding storyline, this time they had only elderly people, watch it here. Also, if you would like to see something more recent, check out the new music video here for the single “Ekki Múkk” from the new album “Valtari” directed by Jónsi’s sister, Inga Birgisdóttir. Really, if you don’t have much to do at the moment (or any day you have some spare time), I would definitely recommend to watch everything Sigur Ros ever produced, all music videos, live performance and last but not least the amazing film “Heima” that is one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen. Sigur Rós is definitely such a special band, you’ll never see something like it.

So if you don’t know the most amazing Icelandic Reykjavík band yet, Sigur Rós has been doing great things since 1994, producing one amazing album after the another. They’re known for their post-rock minimalist music, the use of bowed guitar (yep, he uses a bow to play the guitar), and incredible falsetto vocals of Jónsi Birgisson, the frontman. The name of the band comes from Jonsí’s younger sister Sigurrós that roughly means “Victory Rose”. Another curiosity is that the only band member with musical training is the keyboards player Kjartan Sveinsson, so yes that means you can create beauty without much training. Their most important album was “Ágætis byrjun” which means “An All Right Start”. It was critically acclaimed and launched the band all over the world. Another incredible album was released six years after their first album, “Takk…” (“Thanks”) which comes with more structured sound and many songs that became very famous all over the world. After that they released “Heima” and “Inni” as incredible DVD’s and an album in between called “Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust” (“With a Buzz in Our Ears We Play Endlessly”) which is an amazing album too (I mean, everything they do is completely amazing). And now they just released their new album “Valtari” which you can pre-order on their website! By the way, yesterday they just announced they’re headlining the great “Iceland Airwaves 2012″ which is happening between the 31st of October and the 4th of November, but if you need something closer check them out at the French festival “Rock En Seine” from the 24th to 26th of August. Let’s go!

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Let us know what you think and send us some music videos you find amazing too!
Love, Lara.

If you’d like to see a bit more of Lara’s work for Day Job Records, click here and for her other projects click here

Our Top Three Videos Of The Week #5

admin — Wed, 02 May 2012 14:53:32 +0000

Hi there!

Today we are going to be violent, oh yeah! Maybe it’s all the anger coming from not having any sun in London for such a long time. Yes, that’s why for this week we have blood, bombs, guns, boxing, car crashes and more! Join us and feel some delight in fights, fear, tension and the unknown. Enjoy!

3) Dream On – Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds (Dir. Mike Bruce)

So Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds VS. Beady Eye, huh, they finally split up and they are now following their own desires and directions, yeah yeah… But apart from knowing that this guy has serious problems with his brother and was in one of the biggest bands to come out of the UK… who is Mr. Noel Gallagher? You should already know that he comes from Manchester and was the main songwriter for Oasis and his brother (Liam) is the lead singer. Well, what you might not know is that he has been playing the guitar since the age of thirteen and was doing a lot of construction jobs for many years until he and Liam decided to start a band known back then as “The Rain” which of course became the massive Oasis. Well after his split from the band in the very end of 2009, he spent two years developing his first solo album. What you might remember is that Noel is known for having quite a big outspoken rivalry with Blur and Damon Albarn, but what you might have not heard is that just yesterday NME posted on their website that “Blur and Gorillaz mainman Damon Albarn has invited Noel Gallagher to collaborate with him later this year.” Can you believe it? If not, read for yourself here

Mr. Noel Gallagher’s new music comes with a classy music video full of beauty and style. A great idea, one location and a woman beating up a man, what else do you need? It’s good fun! It’s a smart and smooth video, the mix between the fighting and the slow motion is so interesting that it gives you this sensation of enjoying a fight. All mixed with the beauty of black and white, an exciting storyline using different metaphors for the story and also by having the main actors playing two roles it creates the perfect combination with the song so as to bring out all the meanings the director wanted to put trough. Apart from all the beauty of the scenario, actors and story, the shots are incredible and the edition has great timing (and the fact that a lot of the actors sing just some small parts of the lyrics is so refined for me), the end word is simply that the director did a really great job!

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2) Rabbit In Your Headlights – UNKLE feat. Thom Yorke (Dir. John Glazer)

First time I watched this music video back in 1998 it really got me, now a long time after when I watch again I still have the same feelings. I felt despair, loneliness, anguish, incomprehension, seizure and sadness. I couldn’t take my eyes off of the screen even when the video is simply telling you the same thing over and over and over again, but I guess this is what makes it so strong and mind-blowing, the repetition of all the feelings, the misery and the sorrow. The music is quite melancholic (I believe the partnership with Thom Yorke creates this feeling beautifully and makes it even more powerful), the images are so strong and beautiful at the same time, just great shots of the main actor and the actors inside the cars, and just this body crashing against those cars, is quite poetic but quite disturbing at the same time. And the end is just fantastic, I really like the sequence of the story and the edition, the colors and the action. I’m sure you’re going to enjoy this, even if the music video gives you a feeling of misunderstanding, it strangely shifts back to the viewer who feels a disturbing misunderstanding about him/herself, this is all odd…

So UNKLE, who are you? U.N.K.L.E was founded by college friends James Lavelle and Tim Goldsworthy, but the formation doesn’t have Tim anymore, instead it has Pablo Clements of The Psyhonauts. Through the years (more precisely since 1996), U.N.K.L.E has had the most amazing musicians collaborating with their music from Radiohead’s Thom Yorke, the Verve’s Richard Ashcroft, Josh Homme from Queens of the Stone Age, Talk Talk’s Mike Hollis, the Cult’s Ian Astbury, Metallica’s Jason Newsted, Robert Del Naja from Massive Attack, Ian Brown and Mani from The Stone Roses, Mike D from Beastie Boys, The Duke Spirit, Gavin Clark and DJ Shadow… The idea behind their music seems to be about putting things together (crazy samples, new versions, different sounds etc…) that no one would think would work, and that’s exactly their aim. The music style of UNKLE has changed a lot, but Lavelle was always driven by music itself and the curiosity and willingness to take risks, which makes their band more a recording experience with anyone that is around than just a band itself. That’s the reason all the music videos are so strong, because he seems to see everything as a whole, having his music inspired by moving image, creating something much bigger. You can see an example of his concern of having a strong visual here, it’s an interview with the amazing Creator’s Project talking about his vision of music.

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1) Born Free – M.I.A (Dir. Romain Gavras)

This is a year old music video, if you’ve already seen it, well it’s always so god damn good to watch again and if you didn’t watch it yet, take a look at this truly insane video. I’ll already let you know that this music video is “crazy shit” – so you understand further it got banned from Youtube in the US and the UK… so don’t tell me I didn’t warn you! The music video is actually a political protest that looks like a proper real nine minutes short film about a genocide against the lovely red-haired people, which is connected with the situation of her father’s country, Sri Lanka. M.I.A is well known for her protest in her work and this time she really wanted people to pay attention. The intention of the video is to show the brutality, violence and portrayal of military forces towards a minority, which is very well done here as it transmits such a real feeling with this very strong and dark music video. It looks like a piece of feature film to be honest, everything is so intense and perfectly done, showing a lot of the reality; I see it as a full piece, really interesting and punching.

So M.I.A is Mathangi Arulpragasam, she is from Hindu and Sri Lankan Tamil descent, born in England and has lived a short but painful period in her life in Jaffna (a Tamil town in north Sri Lanka), and then moving back to London where she grew up. M.I.A is an artist and also painter and director. She actually started her career as a visual artist making films and also designs, starting to play music only in 2002, releasing her first album in 2005. Starting with more electronic pop music, through the years M.I.A has developed her style and sound having more instruments and unexpected sound samples. Besides that, lyrically she developed her music with more accurate songs about current affairs. M.I.A is a reference for music, social causes and fashion. I really consider her as a full artist that knows exactly what she wants, where she comes from and what she’s doing. Well, I just had some doubts when I watched the episode of her at the Super Bowl in America, but then thinking twice, god damn, it’s just a finger!!!

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Let us know what you think and send us some music videos you find amazing too!
Love, Lara.

If you’d like to see a bit more of Lara’s work for Day Job Records, click here and for her other projects click here