Villagers pleasing Villagers


     Villagers are an Irish band fronted by Conor J. O'Brien. I decided to do my belated new blog on them as I think they deserve more praise. Their first an only album at present is called Becoming a Jackal and for me it was one of the most amazing albums I've ever heard. The twist and array of cultured sounds bring together eleven different and individual tracks on this album , all of which have different meanings and don't consist of the stereotypical 'samey' sound in each one. The band hit fame in Ireland quite quickly as the Irish Times named them to be in the top 10 bands Ireland has ever created, from then on they did a few festivals  here and there and then appeared on Later With Jools Holland.  Their quirky sound has not yet hit the whole of the UK with a storm, but I only give it a matter of time before they appear all over the show. Not to say they aren't popular already or it takes them being popular to succeed but they deserved credit to say the least.  The performances given by O'Brien and his fellow band members always seem to be intimate and automatically draw the listener in. I believe any negative criticism would not exist when it comes to them and I'm not just saying this because i like them myself. I even tested this on people who wouldn't usually listen to this genre or style of music and even those who didn't could not fault the beautiful voice and music of this band.  I agree with The Irish Times ,they are certainly one of Ireland's best creations to this day.

    Although this music probably doesn't appeal to some of you reading this, I still believe that they are something special. Their new album will be released by the end of this year and I would recommend it already.  Even if you're not a fan, I would listen more closely to them. Their sounds are hypnotic and beautiful.  I hope this short but sweet blog didn't just sound like me ranting and raving and i hope it makes you listen just that little bit more. Listen on. 


Beau x

 Stereo-moods that mirror

Music is all around everyone everyday and night. It is an inescapable part of our culture. In the car people listen to the radio, cds or their iPods. In almost every shop and restaurant music surrounds us. For most people music plays from their mobiles or even when people are exercising they are found engaged or attached to their iPods.  In clubs, bars, music is a vital key to the perfect atmosphere. For me it can enhance or shift any mood i am in or want to be in or find myself in and for others it can be the cause of their moods or trigger a specific moods. Stereo-moods are and have been a common factor in determining what we like within music and they are what we feel or  begin to feel when specific music is played.  But why does it happen? Research has shown and proven through music therapy experiments that music has the ability to affect both the left and right side of the brain which as a result of this music affects our moods wholly rather then most other stimuli.
 Music firstly affects our brain waves and the beat or tempo listened to has the ability to regulate upwards or downwards which has an affect on our bodily functions. The higher the tempo, the more heightened our senses become and vice versa. 


   Secondly music seems to get our breathing and heart rate beating. We all have that music that gets our hearts pumping and our blood racing.  Its no coincidence as it is a scientific fact that songs and music do have these affects on us. Alternatively you find that while listening to more mellow music and slow music you yourself start to mirror the music by mellowing and calming down. All these are the music psychology effects that songs and music have in altering and affecting out moods. Our bodies are wired in such a way that they respond and react to whatever our minds say. If the mind is happy and feeling good, the body follows suddenly, alternatively when your mood goes to the dumps and the mind is depressed our body and bodily functions will follow. We rely on music to help up with our moods. An example being when i'm happy I find myself listening to reggae Sean Paul (a guilty pleasure) to keep me and my mind in this mood. However some people find that their mood can be altered when they are feeling sad for example and their favourite song comes on the radio therefore being able to shift a persons mood and make you feel so much better.


You find yourself feeling miserable and you turn to your ipod to help you through it music can either make you feel better or mirror and comfort the mood you are already in. In affect music performs many roles in our emotions whether it being your saviour of feeling sad or your complimenting of feeling happy. In the words of  Berthold Auerbach 'music washes away from the soul and dust of everyday life'. Without music our moods would be inescapable , a Stereo-mood is ultimately a pleasure we are known to enjoy and even if you didn't know it yourself there are reasons behind them. Stereo-moods mirror. 


And on that note, lets hope you're feeling happy! If not , here's something to help.  Beau x

 

A Jubileever In British Music?

Throughout the decades , Britain has be driven by an unwavering passion for music. In the spirit of the recent jubilee it might be as well to celebrate the British music we have experienced  throughout them. From 1930's jazz to modern day dub step, music to say the least has seen its fair share of genres and styles. We've had the likes of The Beatles , The Rolling Stones, Belle and Sebastian and Queen as inspirational British bands and bands that have still dominated a lot of peoples music taste in the recent years. These bands are proof that Britain has had and has a lot of influential musicians and proof that they need celebrating! 

Vera Lynn - 1940's

Britain is notably more known for its pop music rather than its classical composers and  jazz genre but in years such as the 1930's pop was not introduced so the likes of American Jazz and swing music became increasingly popular and composers such as Benny Goodman, the 'King of the swing' were top musicians to listen to. This showed a weaker time in British music but by the time it came to the 1940's class  British acts such as Vera Lynn took over the music scene with hits such as 'We'll meet again' and 'The White Cliffs of Dover', however the  frantic American jazz music was still dominating the dance halls and war time events.  
     By the 1950's it was the beginning era of Rock and Roll , British artists like Tommy Steele and Wee Willie Harris brought  Rock 'n' Roll  to Britain and from then on in the 1960's The Beatles hit Britain like a storm, dominating the charts and peoples lives as they have produced 5 top albums and are one of the only bands in Britain ever to do so. The Beatles after over 50 years are still one of the most memorable bands in history, they produced hits such as 'Let is be' , 'Love me do' and 'Hey Jude' , just to name a few.  To say The Beatles were good in my opinion(ofcourse) would be an utter understatement , where in the world would you find a band with this success and history? I believe true British music started here, and over these last 50 or so years, other musicians have had that urge to compete with the success of The Beatles and have found it a struggle to do so.

Moving on swiftly to the 1970's , and these years brought with them the 'Glam Rock' sound with artists such as David Bowie, Elton John and George Michael as you most probably know already but their songs and music are evidence and are proof as such that British artists need celebrating. Elton John for example has written songs for musicals, composed songs, had top albums in the charts and is one of the most influential musicians I've ever known and George Michael , well you've just got to love a bit of Wham.  The evidence of their success is clear as most 1970s going on 80's music is still played now , even by the younger generation, such as myself for example,what is an Ipod without  a bit of 'Club Tropicana' on?

Frankie Goes To Hollywood

    The 1980's brought with them new strands of music. This being New Romantics, Pop, Synth Pop and Heavy Metal, this gave the 80's more of a cultured music taste with bands ranging from Iron Maiden to Frankie Goes To Hollywood and made this era specifically  more memorable and introduced the new 'Britpop' into Britain. In the 1990's , along came Oasis, a top hit British band that stormed through the 90s creating hits such as 'Shakermaker' , 'Slide Away' and 'Supersonic'. The band had a noticible presence with them and this helped with their success as people in the 90's looked for the more alternative style. Another greatly admired band of the 90's were the Spice Girls. The Spice Girls, were a phenomenally popular girl band. Every girl (or boy)now probably knows all the lyrics to at least one Spice Girls song whether they liked them or not. Their songs that arguably had no real intelligent slant were still number ones, this shows that music has changed from previous eras and that now the songs that are getting higher chart status are those people prefer to hear rather then the ones that are more of a similar genre, but that is my own opinion.
      In the recent era of British music it is hard to point out specific bands that are most influential as we see new bands derive from everywhere as it is now much easier to get noticed and famous rather then in the past where they had to go out there and play gigs all the time, now there are opportunities all over the media platforms for bands to get known so it is hard to pin point most famous British artists now. Which I think is a shame, in the future when we are going to be looking back at this current era it is going to be hard to pick out specific musicians to say 'they were the best' , however this also means that British music is progressing and we now see bands going international , spreading our music and there are so many different types of music that people have a preferential choice on. Music in Britain has been staggering and its time to celebrate the achievements of British musicians as through this long timeline of music history we have seen it develop in to something magical and something that in years to come will still be remembered. British music is by far one of the best things about Britain as a whole and I hope it is remembered in years to come. And in a true British manner I'm going to have to say the music we as a nation create and have created is definitely 'the bee's knees'


Beau x

Engelbert Humperdinck said he was going to 'channel the spirit of Elvis within his performance on Eurovision in a bid to win the contest'. In this instance i think its a case of 'return to sender'

The Eurovision song contest, an annual chance for countries to put their own individual quirky spin to European music. We've had the likes of Bucks Fizz, ABBA, and Celion Dion as winners in the past , who have been most notable in Eurovision history.
                               

     

Humperdinck and Elvis

     This year, representing us was the one and only Engelbert Humperdinck singing  'Love Will Set You Free' which for the UK was slightly left field rather than sticking to the predictable Euro-trash we have been used to with the likes of Javine and Sonia. Humperdinck  had been wearing a pendant throughout the contest, that the late 1950's star Elvis Presley had given him , reckoned to be worth up to £2million that was supposed to have brought  him luck.  Unfortunately the luck was not in Humperdinck's favour when he came second to last defeating just Norway by a few points. 

Sweden at Eurovision

Although the song was 'out going' for Eurovision it was not for us and Humperdinck to win, instead Sweden were quite the 'hoo har' for countries to vote for suggesting that the traditional political voting system of Eurovision had been put to side while voting. On the other hand Finland did have their handful of points at Swedens side.
Sweden's Loreen gave an unusual performance that was choreographed to perfection and pretty pitch perfect. The song was said to become a 'top hit in Sweden and hopefully throughout Europe'. Ha. We shall see with that one. Me, personally thought it was a shame Humperdinck didn't do better then he did, the song was well written but maybe Eurovision just isn't the place for it. In the future I think we should stick to the cheesy, over the top, quirky structure for our performances and bring back the fizz  that we once had. Lets look forward to next years! 




Beau x

Bee Gees star Robin Gibb 'requested How Deep Is Your Love for his funeral'

         
 The Bee Gees, a 1970's hit band that produced groovy number one hits 'How Deep Is Your Love' and 'Night Fever',probably two of the most well known songs in the history of 1970's music. The band consisted of twin brothers Maurice and Robin Gibb and older brother Barry. On the 12th January 2003 the band were sad to lose their first member of the band Maurice aged just 53. After his death Robin and Barry were reluctant to carry on without 'Mo' as a group and only rarely did a few concerts without him as they felt incomplete without him being there.

          

 On the 27th October 2011, Robin Gibb cancelled an appearance only minutes before hie was due to perform at the Poppy Appeal Concert in London. Later the same week however , he was seen in London and quoted as saying he felt "absolutely great". on the 20th November 2011, it was revealed that Gibb had been diagnosed with liver cancer several months earlier and on the 20th May 2012 he lost this tremendous battle, leaving just Barry Gibb as the last remaining Bee Gee. Robin Gibb was a extremely sad loss, not only did he write and perform spectacular songs along side his brothers in the 1970s he is also an inspiration to song writers all over the world as he and his brothers wrote hits for spectacular artists such as Diana Ross, Destiny's Child ,Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers, the list goes on and on.  Many people took to micro blogging to pay their respects , a statement put by Song Music was ' Rest in peace.Thank you for the music'. The Bee Gees were second to Lennon and McCartney as the most successful song writers in Britain and their accomplishments have been monumental. On Robin Gibb's death bed he pulled over his son,40, and requested 'How Deep Is Your Love' to be played at his funeral as he always noted how beautiful that song was. His music will never be forgotten. 


Beau x

  

A fan of Ben Howard?

Ben Howard has smashed the music world like a storm with his brand spanking new album 'Every Kingdom' featuring songs like 'Old Pine' and 'Keep Your Head Up'. His music is clearly influenced by those of the likes of Bob Dylan, Frightened Rabbit and Damien Rice as the meaning behind his songs mirror those of most folk singers. Howard represents the folk genre within his warming ,tracks ranging from the mellow guitar and subtle violin to the twang of drums which enhance the folk vibe during the tracks. 

      But why has Howard suddenly become this huge sensation? Is it the audiences need for constant fresh faces within the music industry? Is it because he is yet another heartthrob to gaze at and people are just jumping on the Howard band wagon or is it genuinely because of the soft wonderful  music he produces? Its definitely a tough one in this case.

   In my opinion although he is a greatly talented man and produces songs according to my own personal music taste, he still lacks the unique edge to his songs and this has happened before with newcomers  like Ed Sheeran for example who become famous because of his heart warming songs but then fade out when another similar act appears. We are still welcoming Ben Howard to the charts and we shall see if he stays there and stays successful. Is there room in the music industry for Howard? Please comment your thoughts below . :) 

Beau x