Koop

Koop is Oscar Simonsson & Magnus Zingmark. When you listen to this band it sounds like a mini orchestra but what these two do is collect hundreds of small samples from different records and put them together to make the base track. I guess its an extremely tedious way to make music but its what gives them their sound! The vocals however are all real. They bring on guest singers like Ane Brun, Yukimi Nagano, Hilde Louise Asbjornsen, Rob Gallagher and Mikael Sundin.Ane Brun, Yukimi Nagano, Hilde Louise Asbjornsen, Rob Gallagher and Mikael Sundin. (all on the koop island blues album)

I first discovered Koop when i saw the new coke ad. I didn't know who the band was until I heard them in Uzair's car. Its so great when you have these revelations! I love the surreal and slightly ironic character of the music. Its one of those bands you listen to when you want an emotional boost, it also goes perfectly when you want one of those super mushy evenings with your significant other.

Strange love is one of their most popular songs and one of my favourite but koop island blues is more interesting. so much longing, so much pain, so beautiful!

Shitty Day

Stéphanie Sokolinski, a.k.a. SoKo is plain fun to listen to! I know everyone knows "I'll Kill Her" but when
Myrthe introduced me to her we both agree that Shitty day is much nicer.
She's french, she's obnoxious and she has a sense of humour. perfect!

Portishead

I don't listen to Portishead much but when Rijul forced me to start listening to their new album Third i started to actually 'listen'. Their industrial trip hop sound and Beth Gibbons haunting voice really gets to me. 

Machine Gun is one of my favourites. It's a little literal when it comes to how they interpret the track but it works. Its one of those songs that really affects the way I feel. Chuck D of public enemy joined them at the Primavera sound festival in Barcelona and did some freestyle rap over this song. I haven't heard it yet but It sounds interesting.

Khmer rock

I was browsing through the BBC website and came across this article on Khmer rock by Sarah Cuddon. Its this strange sort of fusion between garage rock and traditional cambodian vocals.

I thought the article was interesting but the radio documentary is more informational and exciting.

After looking into it a little further I came across this singer called Ros Serey Sothear. She sang a variety of genres but romantic ballads were her most successful works. In her rather short career she managed to produce hundreds of songs and even star in a few movies!The style of music early in her career is characterized by traditional Cambodian ballads and duets. She would eventually shift to a more comtemporary style by combining romantic ballads drenched in loss, betrayal, and death with Western instruments. This change of style is most likely be attributed to her traumatic marriage with fellow singer, Sos Mat.

By the 1970s, Sothear began experimenting in other genres. Her piercing and rather haunting voice, coupled with the rock backing bands featuring prominent, distortion-laden lead guitars, pumping organ and loud, driving drums, made for an intense, sometimes weird sound that we could call garage rock or psychedelic. Sometimes she would take popular western tunes and fashion her own khmer lyrics.

Her career would continue until the Khmer rouge captured the capital, Phnom Penh in April 1975. Pol Pot flattened anything of 'foreign influence'. Almost all musicians were sent to the killing fields to die or went to hard labour camps where nearly everyone died. Sothear's death is a mystery but no one doubts that she was killed during this time.