Besides being singer/songwriter of the band Final Fantasy, Owen Pallett is string composer of the successful band Arcade Fire. Owen used to play in Hidden Cameras, and recently composed the string arrangement for Beirut’s latest album. Final Fantasy is essentially a one-man-solo project, creating gems of baroque pop music with a host of guest musicians. Owen’s is a measured croon caught somewhere between Scott Walker and Louis Philippe, with a soft Donovan-esque vibrato. Alternately dissonant and willfully melodic, his songs evoke crushing sighs of defeat or violent outbursts of passion, contained masterfully within luscious strings and complex instrumentation. Ever busy, at the moment Owen is working on a collaboration with Arctic Monkey’s Alex Turner as well as material for his next studio album.
www.myspace.com/ffinalffantasy
By turns cuddly and chaotic, San Francisco's Deerhoof mixes noise, sugary melodies, and an experimental spirit into sweetly challenging and utterly distinctive music. A serious deconstruction of rhythm itself and easy listening sound with means of guitar distortions and peeping keyboard sounds. The almost shrieking vocals of singer Satomi Matsuki and occasional exorbitantly noisy guitar outbursts are characteristic of their sound involving additional pop-infected elements. However, Deerhoof are also into tempting ballads and hypnotic pop songs.
http://deerhoof.killrockstars.com
Dirty Projectors are the project of Dave Longstreth, a former Yale student who left college to become one of the most prolific and unique indie singer/songwriters of the early 2000s. Longstreth's distinctive, crooning voice and equally unique approach to arrangements and both lo-fi and hi-fi production characterize the Dirty Projectors’ sound. The breadth of his talents as a songwriter, arranger, bandleader and singer call to mind Prince, Joni Mitchell. A maverick: a loner and a rebel. Dirty Projectors' new offering, Rise Above, is a reimagining of Black's Flag seminal 1981 record Damaged, attempting to rewrite Longstreth’s favorite album from adolescence word for word, from memory.
http://westernvinyl.com/dirty_projectors.htm
Six Organs of Admittance is basically just one man, Ben Chasny, along with whomever he ropes in for recordings or for shows. Since 1997, Six Organs of Admittance has had many releases on a variety of labels, most notably Holy Mountain and Drag City. 2006 saw the release of their last studi album,The Sun Awakens, which features some of the most feedback-drenched, dark, cult-chanting, completely beautiful music put to record. Chasny has also played in the touring band of Bonnie 'Prince' Billy and plays guitar in the bands Current 93, Badgerlore, and Comets on Fire.
www.dragcity.com/bands/sixorgans.html
Frog Eyes ethereal music is as much fueled by lyrical themes from early Russian and Irish literature as it is by the intuitive connection between frontman Mercer and his wife, drummer Melanie. Michael, Spencer and Mccloud contribute an electronic cornucopia of equal melody and groan. Mercer’s voice is frightening,and perhaps a little frightened, adding defiant soul to his bleak revelations.
www.absolutelykosher.com/frogeyes.htm
In an exclusive live collaboration, nomadic Sunn O))) guitarist and avant-metal icon Stephen O'Malley will team up with London psychedelic folk artist Alexander Tucker. The duo have previously worked together as part of Stephen's side project 'Ginnungagap', however this will be the first time they have shared a stage. Expect transcendental instrumentation, sonic euphoria and VOLUME.
www.myspace.com/stephenomalley
www.myspace.com/alexandertucker
After his first 7" "Children At Play" on Warp Records, the debut album "Some Best Friend You Turned Out To Be", and three subsequent singles for Domino Recordings have given the world a set of dense, multi-textured, emotionally-charged tunes, each of which has a different story to tell. Max Tundra's records have variously featured himself playing drums, trumpet, banjo, cello, piano, guitars, violin, recorders, synthesizers, melodica, Fender Rhodes, xylophone, bass guitar, oven door, egg-slicer and even a recording of an ancient clock in the British Museum in London. Max Tundra's second album, Mastered by Guy at The Exchange, is his most recent long-player (also on Domino Recordings). He recently recorded one of the last ever Peel Sessions with a special eight-piece band. For the last few years, Max Tundra has been working on his third album for Domino. The work continues to this day, with a possible release date of spring 2008. As well as this he is busy with various side-projects and remixes, and continues to play concerts in a wide variety of venues around the world.
