Bonobo, Love and Mr. Budman

Yesturday, I finally took advantage of the 50$ gift certificate from HMV that I had aquired for winning best costume for halloween at work (can read all about it in my old post). Like any eager person to get new music to listen to, I spent it all on 2 cds, both by the Bonobo, a Dj from Brighton, England. Naming himself after a slow laid back monkey, his just that, laid back, chilled out, electronic music. HMV labelled it as acid-jazz. He's got 2 full lentgh albums out and a b-sides and remixes disc as well. I splurged and bought his Live Sessions and Solid Steel Presents - It Came From The Sea

Bonobo - Live Sessions
Apart from just DJing, he also assembled a live band and was touring around the world playing his music live with real instruments. At first I was skeptical on purchasing this CD since it only contains 4 live songs and of which I have them all on the original albums. However, after listening to it, I was blown away by how different the music sounds when it's not electronic. LIstening to it really felt 'live' and like I was there. Plus, besides the live tracks, it includes a new song off his soon to be released album as well as a remix of another song. Definitely a good buy!

Solid Steel Presents - Bonobo: It Came From The Sea
The label Ninja Tune has been releasing albums from a series called Solid Steel, where they get an artist to compile a mix of songs that they enjoy and are inflenced by, and is usually conected to their style of music. The first half is a lot more upbeat then his actual stuff but still not too bad. I didn't get the same initial 'wow' feeling i got as I did from the Live Sessions CD but the more I listen to it the more I'm enjoying it. Out of the 20 songs, five are his which is a tad of a disappointment but they are slightly remixed which makes it sort of 'new' and it is fun to hear how they slide in nicely with the rest of the album. By track 15, the album starts to really slow down and starts to feel more like a regular Bonobo CD which is most enjoyable. Definitely a keeper if you like Bonobo and Solid Steel.

Also this week in music, I came accross and fell in love with this band from the 60's called Love. I first heard a cover of their biggest hit Alone Again Or by Calexico and before I can even figure out it was indeed a cover, I heard it a second time while watching the film Bottle Rockets, starring Luke and Owen Wilson. Upon watching the credits I discovered Love were the true owners to the song and quickly proceeded to download their album Forever Changes. They were apperently realy popular in the 60's in LA but due to a lot of problems (drugs, touring, racial status, etc.) they never made it big and that's why no one has ever heard of them. Crisitcs, however, rave that this album is amazing and have given it 5 out of 5 or 10 out of 10 ratings. I listened to it and enjoyed it right away. They are labelled as Psychadellic Folk Rock and I find they sound like The Doors meet Jimi Hendrix with some Rolling Stones in there. If you like classic rock, check out this album!

Finally, in other news, I have been playing around with Photoshop and have entered a few 'contests' on Fark.com. None of my entries have done well. Usually I get about 3 or 4 votes when the good ones get anywhere from 40 to 90. This last time, however, I got 26! Check it out HERE. My alias is Mr. Budman, original, I know.