Tag Archives: independent

Just blogging

More music

Today, I would like to talk about some more fantastic music which recently attracted my attention. It’s music written Michael Sanders or Mikey Maramag (you will find both names circulating in the internet, and both are related to the artist), an artist from California who is better known under the pseudonym Blackbird Blackbird.
By the way, it’s quite hard to find out much about his background. But still, here are a few pieces of information which can be figured from different websites:
Blackbird Blackbird’s first album Summer Heart was released in September 2010. Compared to his latest work, this album is much calmer and in my opinion it also sounds a little darker. Anyway, it’s very good electronic music, which can also be related to many other genres, from pop to chillwave. And that is what I especially like about Blackbird Blackbird’s music: it’s a mix of very different styles. Above all, it’s anything else but boring. Sometimes, it has a slight bitter sweet touch, which makes it  for me exactly the kind of music I want to listen to at the end of summer, when I’m looking back at all the events that took place and all the funny moments I’ve had. The two titles, which I definitely see as post summer music and which made me immediately fall in love, are It’s A War and All. They are both on the EP Boracay Planet which was released in October 2012.

And here are the video clips of the songs I like the most:



If you want to get some further information on Blackbird Blackbird, I recommend you to have a look at his official homepage or his Facebook Page, where you will also find many links to other websites. For more music you should definitely visit his profile on Soundcloud.

 

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Just blogging

Jonas Alaska

Since I metioned him in my article about Mikhael Paskalev, I somehow have the feeling that I should definitely also shortly present the equally talented Jonas Alaska, who has already had some great success in Norway. With the release of his debut self-titled album in 2011, Jonas Alaska was nominated in three different categories for the Norwegian Grammy and he finally won in the categorie of the « Best New Act ».
Recently, Jonas Alaska released his second album If Only As A Ghost in Norway. The album’s first single I Saw You Kid immediately became one of the top 5 hits in the radio charts. After having listened to this single, I can say that it’s perfectly understandable why it became such a hit in such short time. What I especially like about this song is the fact that there’s some sort of discrepancy between the melody and the lyrics, which are very intelligent by the way. All of his songs sound very light and relaxed, but then the lyrics are quite serious. And it’s this funny mix that makes his music so interesting.
To give you a small foretaste of his music, you can find a short list of song which are my favourites below (besides the two great songs that I mention above, of course).

​October
In the Backseat
Dark At Last

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Mikhael Paskalev

While you’re waiting for the latest streetstyle pictures (which will come up soon), I have some great music for you. The guy I will present is one of my favourite artists, if not even my favourite. His name is Mikhael Paskalev, and his career as a musician immediately took off when he released his first platinum winning single I Spy, for which Paskalev also won Norway’s national award for Best Unsigned Act in 2012. It’s been a while since I listened to the song for the very first time and since I watched the clip, but I’m still addicted to it. And it’s a perfect remedy against the bad mood a Parisian summer can cause (to be precise, Parisian summer is a synonym for pouring rain). Mikhael Paskalev’s second and already very popular single Jive Babe is not less addictive, and every time I listen to it, I want to go on a road trip really bad and drive a Red Ford Mustang Convertible. The clip to this song is inspired by Tarantino and Twin Peaks, and I have to admit that it’s a rather strange clip, but still, it has something. And the song is really great, anyway. And since I’m a big fan since I listened to his first track, I’m really happy that Mikhael Paskalev finally released his first album What’s Life Without Losers in February this year.

To give you a first impression of how great Paskalev’s music is, you can find a short list of songs that I personally like most right below:

Susie
I Spy
Jive Babe
What’s Life Without Losers
I Saw You Kid (here, Mikhael Paskalev performs together with another talented musician, Jonas Alaska)
Hidden Track (also with Jonas Alaska)

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Har Mar Superstar

It’s always nice when being disconnected from your gadgets for a couple of days, because even after a short time, being connected again opens a whole new world for you and so much interesting stuff is suddenly going on and there are plenty of things to discover.  This is how I felt when I lately logged in to my Deezer account. After just a couple of days where I hadn’t been logged in, so many new albums had been released. It was like Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory for nerds and music addicts. And I was Augustus Gloop in this huge music library filled with new tracks. And I discovered this charmingly weird album Bye bye 17 by Har Mar Superstar.
It’s not the kind of music you expect to be in the charts, nothing to be compared to synthetic sounding so-called music you can year on some dance music radio channels. And amongst all this purely commercial music which, thanks to all the audio editing that’s done after recording a track, always sounds the same, Har Mar Superstar’s music clearly stands out and is uncommonly refreshing. Listening to it, I felt transported to the groovy and colourful 70s where I met The Caterpillar and Austin Powers in his bright suit. And it somehow made me also think of Creedence Clearwater Revival and The Virgins.
But have a look on your own:

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