In the past, I’ve always felt that Blu-ray would win the high-def format war. After that, I wasn’t necessarily sure what the future would hold for the format. Would it be the success DVD was? Would it flop worse than LaserDisc? Would it cater to a slightly more advanced crowd but never reach the mainstream? Would it be a downright loser?

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http://www.myspace.com/susannamagical
http://susannamagical.com

My favorite love song, performed by Susanna and The Magical Orchestra~Originally performed by Joy Division (Ian Curtis), later known as New Order. ~Peilo

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Susanna And The Magical Orchestra…….
is in fact a duo with keyboardplayer Morten Qvenild and singer Susanna Karolina Wallumrød. (Morten is a former member of Jaga Jazzist and Shining, he quitted to concentrate on this duo and his own trio called In The Country.

Their debut-album was released in Norway in February 2004, and some time later in Europe and in Japan, and received very good critics around the world. List of lights and buoys contains highly personal interpretations of Dolly Parton´s Jolene and Leonard Bernstein´s Who Am I as well as nine originals that show a suprising degree of maturity, especially considering the writers young age and the fact that they operate in a landscape that requires a good deal of songwriting skills to hold your attention. Susanna And The Magical Orchestra combines the availability of the traditional popmusic, the strictness of the electronica and the improvisation in the jazzmusic.

Melody Mountain is out in the stores now!

Singer Susanna Wallumrød has a unique way of making a song her own, and to fill the lyrics and melodies with the emotional content they require. This was made very clear with her stunning interpretation of Dolly Parton´s classic Jolene, recorded for the duo´s debut album List Of Lights and Buoys (2004). A song covered by many artists, but seldom with such heartfelt sincerity. With Melody Mountain they have chosen to do an album of only interpretations, some quite radical, of mostly well-known songs, all personal and moving performances with Morten Qvenild´s naked and to the bone playing an important part in the overall soundscape. Full track list includes Hallelujah (Leonard Cohen), It´s A Long Way To The Top (AC/DC), These Days (Matt Burt) “Condition Of The Heart” (Prince), “Love Will Tear Us Apart” (Joy Division), “Crazy, Crazy Nights” (Kiss), “Don´t Think Twice, It´s All Right” (Bob Dylan), “It´s Raining Today” (Scott Walker), “Enjoy The Silence” (Depeche Mode) and “Fotheringay” (Fairport Convention).

Dictionary definition of the word magical…
Boomcat US

Their astonishing, heartbreaking deconstruction of “Love Will Tear Us Apart” could keep you awake for days
Leeds Guide UK

For one thing, its fucking gorgeous.
Dustedmagazine.com US

It’s an album of cover songs, and it’s not the kind that coyly avoids well-known songs. On the contrary, “Melody Mountain” begins with Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah,” which has been sung by Jeff Buckley and many others. Ms. Wallumrod starts out quietly but not at all timidly, and her partner, Morten Qvenild, does almost nothing: his occasional chords could almost be reverberations of his partner’s voice.
NY times US

If you thought the best had already come and gone, try this.
Independent UK





Renfro – ” Pops, Fizzes and Clicks.”
Electronica / Experimental / Down-tempo

RENFRO – TERRAIN.mp3

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“A new MySpace friend request, worth accepting.”

Renfro, a refreshing sound that breaks the mold from the norm, with their “Pop, Click, Fizz” style, they bring an eclectic elctronic sound together with an experimental  folk indie, influence. Check them out for yourself. ~Peilo

  http://www.myspace.com/renfromusicspace  

WHAT OTHERS ARE SAYING~

“A collection of discoveries and manipulations that create a collage of sounds that delicately encases the listener. Renfro meld eclectic elements that produce dreamy, serene down-tempo with a multitude of components to absorb. The result is seemingly complex and layered sounds that also have simplicity. One spin of the album offers an airy, atmospheric vibe but subsequent listens have you deconstructing each individual noise, glitch and blip….comparable to the more subtle elements used on Thom Yorke’s solo release, “The Eraser”. Combine that with the gentle vocals of Branney and you have distinctive, innovative, serene electronic music that explores the poetic.” (Ashley Hampson in Exclaim! Magazine)

“Delicately bruised sensitive signatures coaxed to life by twinklesome snow-globe affected electronics and softly sighed deliveries… sweetly beguiling yet hurting and distant. Arrestingly fragile….is going to break a fair few hearts once it escapes on to the more clued up hi-fi’s of the record buying community” (Losing Today – The Indie Music Magazine)

 POPS, CLICKS & MELTED CIRCUITSRenfro are Atom and Tim. Tim sings the songs and Atom finds sounds. Together they manipulate brightly coloured samplers and also write words. This seems to work well.Renfro like the avant-garde, but often find themselves wanting to sing along too.They enjoy Low and Phoenix as much as they do Tod Dockstader and Christian Fennesz, so their idea is to meld experimental musical techniques with dream-pop songwriting.Renfro are based in East London, UK.They make music from electronic fragments. They formed in late 2005, born from a mutual love of the electronic music – Lali Puna, Oval, Matmos, Jan Jelinek, Paul Wirkus – as well as the voices of Robert Wyatt, Green Gartside, Solveig Slettehjell and Nina Persson.Very soon afterwards, whilst poking microphones at elephant seals in Santa Cruz, Ca., they wondered why pop music couldn’t be made using a soundtrack of field recordings and electro-acoustic manipulations.Those same elephant seals ended up joining a sonic cast that includes malfunctioning leads, rustling trees, tapped teeth, satellite signals, distortion bursts, and burning plastic (a credit card sacrifice).The end results see lushly layered vocals residing amongst twinkling tunes that float on a sea of pops, clicks and melted circuits. A kind of electronic-alternative-gospel-folk for the 21st Century.Sometimes it’s melancholy, and sometimes it chuckles quietly in the corner.Words are important to renfro, and they try to remain optimistic in the face of the political and social realities of modern life.Modernity is a tough gig, after all. Renfro like to explore the poetics of isolation, difference and collapse. For guidance they binge on film, literature and assorted junk culture.Renfro want to make music that embraces the future, rather than bathing in nostalgia for a retro-electro past. They believe you can, and should, make pop songs from the sound of technology breaking down.

Influences

Susanna and The Magical Orchestra – Midlake – Paul Wirkus – Elizabeth Fraser – Jan Jelinek – Low – Juana Molina – Iron and Wine – Colleen – Joan As Policewoman – Fennesz – Laura Nyro – Jon Hassell – Robert Wyatt – Joanna Newsom – Oval – Phoenix – Barbara Morgenstern – St. Vincent – Kate Bush – Eliane Radigue – Thom Yorke – Henryk Mikolaj Górecki – Smokey Robinson – Arvo Pärt – Kraftwerk

http://www.myspace.com/matthewsantos 
Michigan Daily News

A native of Minneapolis, Minnesota, Matthew is currently based in Chicago where he is becoming known as one of the Windy City’s most promising musical talents.

In 2006, Matthew recorded the six-song EP, “As a Crow Flies.”
The EP was released as a limited edition CD and is available on itunes.

2007 proved to be a busy year for Matthew. Highlights include performances at SXSW, Coachella, Lollapalooza, Summerfest, Vegoose and Chicago’s Around the Coyote Arts Festival.

Matthew’s most recent project, “Matters of the Bittersweet,” was released in November 2007 by Candy Rat Records. Then, in the fall of 2007, Matthew signed to Lupe Fiasco’s record label, 1st and 15th/Atlantic.

In 2008, Santos started off the New Year by performing on David Letterman (Letterman’s first live show since the writer’s strike), Jimmy Kimmel Live and The Craig Ferguson Show. He is currently on a world tour with Fiasco, but also has solo shows scheduled in addition to performances with his full band.

Beyond touring, Matthew has been developing material for his forthcoming album, slated for release in the summer of 2008. Matthew looks forward to collaborating with one of his favorite musicians – the iconic, Indian violinist, Dr. L. Subramaniam.

Whatsmore, Matthew is currently recording with Taboo of the Black Eyed Peas. The collaboration will be available on Taboo’s upcoming solo album, slated for release in 2008.

I just got done watching the movie Martian Child for the second time in just 2 days. My son just loves this movie. And why not. Great actors such as John Cusack, Amanda Peet, and Joan Cusack. Also staring as Dennis aka the Martian Child (Bobby Coleman). They all make this a remarkable film, and even more so a great family film, I highly advise checking this movie out as well as some of the cool new music from GUSTER which couldn’t have been missed, it plays through the most unforgettable moment when David and the Martian Child Dennis begin to bond. ~Peilo

  G U S T E R

  http://www.myspace.com/guster

 

Questions often asked of Them:

Q: Do you guys have any pre-show rituals?

A: Yes.

Q: How do you guys write your songs?

A: We write about what we know. We’re stenographers…we transcribe life and put a little melody under it.*

Q: Are you guys a Christian band?

A:Rather than answer this one with a simple yes/no, we suggest you check the following sources for clues: 1) Brian’s last name — “Rosenworcel.” 2) Any photo of Ryan where you can see his profile. 3) The Guster Backstage Contract Rider, where we stipify that “the dressing room must be furnished with plenty of borscht, noodle kugels, potato latkes, gefilte fish and homemade rugulah for dessert.”

Q: do you guys name your instruments?

A: yes

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Absinthe: The American Remix – New York Times

My Review~ Well I tried Absente over the New Years, and well I’m not the biggest connoisseur of liquors, I can tell you this. It was pretty good stuff. It had this very unique color and had this strange lingering aftertaste that was quite pleasant. It was a fairly refined drink with a smooth draw, tastes like candy when mixed with just sugar water

Like black licorice, and then it had this weired sensation like you were drinking the devils brew. You could actually feel it on your tongue. It was probably just psychological, and based on me knowing it’s long and colorful history, so I don’t doubt it.

Priced at around $40 for a 1/5 it isn’t the cheapest stuff on the shelf, nor the most expensive. “But it is good stuff” ~Peilo

 I had worked mass amounts of hours over the holidays, and went from being on days to working midnights. I worked 84 hours X-mas week, which I had never worked that many hours in a single week before (it sucked) I couldn’t get back to a normal schedule for the life of me.  I was already out of my element when I started drinking the stuff for sure but still.     :-)

I would love to tell you it produced real hallucinations, but it didn’t. It did however exponentially enhance the music I zoned out to before bed ~ My Last Mix of 07′. Speaking of mix,  I mixed my absinthe with Redbull and sugar water. ~ But anyways back to the real story, not my review—>

In praise of the opaque green liqueur beloved by his creative contemporaries, Oscar Wilde once posed the rhetorical question, “What difference is there between a glass of absinthe and a sunset?”

The prosaic answer, at least for Americans, has long been one of legality: sunsets can be freely enjoyed, but absinthe was forbidden because it contained thujone, a potentially toxic compound.

Intrepid drinkers have worked around the ban by ordering imported bottles off the Internet or smuggling them back from Eastern Europe. Now they have a third, less dodgy option: Lucid, which is being marketed as the first legal, genuine American absinthe in nearly a century.

Lucid Absinthe Supérieure: Genuine absinthe available in US~

Absinthe, What is Absinthe? About its Science, Chemistry and Structure
Prohibition is finally over!

Introducing lucid, Absinthe Supérieure. lucid represents a breakthrough product for the U.S. market, as it is the first true, Grande Wormwood-based Absinthe of its type since before prohibition. Unlike imitators in the U.S. and many of the so-called “Absinthe” products that litter the international markets, lucid is crafted directly from select whole herbs, including Grande Wormwood, and never from cheaper assemblages, macerations, extracts or oils. ABSINTHE INFO
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