2014 Rewind #3 : My Top Three EPs Of The Year

If, like me, you are always thirsty for new music, you may want to read a bit further. 2014 has been crazy in terms of music, that it even made my top ten albums of the year really hard to chose. I found my perfect balance between my all-time favourite musicians releasing new material and upcoming artists.

3 - Fakear - Sauvage

Three EPs stood out for me this year. The young French genius Fakear made the whole electronic scene shiver when he released, last June, his new EP Sauvage.

Fakear is different. His attitude on stage, his samples, his sound, his influences. Everything he makes is very singular.

Bandcamp

2 - DYD - GOD

DYD, called DID until mid-2014, released two first albums in 2009 and 2011. I loved both of them and was very excited for the new music. GOD is a tribute to their producers, Gang Of Ducks.

The three-piece based is based in Turino, Italy and has very unique and bizarre exotic beats. An album is planned for 2015 and I can't contain my excitement. Keep an eye on them!

Website

1 - Weval - Easier

I just realised while writing this article that, for once, I have a very eclectic selection of artists. Yes, they all come from the electronic music scene but from three different countries, which I find pretty exciting.

Weval are a two-piece Dutch band and, before anything, a huge slap on the face. Their aesthetic is absolutely perfect, and the singer has this Thom Yorke-like voice that will take your breath away.

Soundcloud.

2014 Rewind #2: My Top Ten Albums Of The Year

My favourite thing to do when a year is coming to a close is to make a little list of what I reckon the ten best albums of the year are. To be fair, it looks like a list of the ten albums I listened to the most more than anything else. Unlike professionals of the music industry, I don't have a large variety of content to start with, so my opinion is absolutely biaised and stems from what made me cry or dance or smile.

2014 has been amazing in terms of music, a few of my favourite artists released new material but I also found out about excellent upcoming musicians. It's really hard to put them in order and, to be honest, my top ten has changed quite a lot before I decided to write this article but here's anyway the ten albums who made my year.

10 - Hylas - Thomas Azier

9 - Barragán - Blonde Redhead

8 - Best Friends - Pale Grey

7 - Lacuna - Childhood

6 - Tomorrow's Modern Boxes - Thom Yorke

5 - War Room Stories - Breton

4 - So Long, See You Tomorrow - Bombay Bicycle Club

3 - This Is All Yours - alt-J

2 - El Pintor - Interpol

1 - Total Strife Forever - East India Youth

My big winner is year is William Doyle, aka East India Youth. This man is an alien with the most incredible voice and a synth. It's hard to put words on his virtuosity, you should have a listen!

Heaven, How Long

I also have to mention of course the amazing albums of Warpaint, Blood Red Shoes, Caribou, Azealia Banks, Kid Cudi, The Notwist, Morrissey, Johnny Marr, Metronomy that I absolutely loved.

If you have any music recommendations you'd like to share, I'd love to hear them! What are your top ten albums this year? What albums are you most looking forward to in 2015? A bunch of pretty cool artists are working on new stuff like Only Real, Dutch Uncles, Everything Everything, Muse and many more. 2015 is going to be great! 

2014 Rewind #1 : My Four Highlights Of The Year

In less than two days, 2014 will come to a close, slowly dissipating behind fireworks and glittery outfits. That usual boring Thursday will this week mark the start of a brand-new year. Isn't it weird that we just can't help feeling nostalgic and vulnerable enough to come up with cheesy retrospectives. 

I still don't really know how to feel about 2014. Even though I always try my best to see the positive aspects in every obstacles I meet (because there always are), I find it hard to be optimistic about this year. It kicked off with a dull and long January, I quit university and found myself pretty isolated, to say the least. Luckily, I somehow managed to turn that negative energy into a fuel to outcome myself. Here's a few highlights of my year.

- I worked for two British festivals in Brighton, The Great Escape and DRILL festival. I had some experience in smaller French festivals, but this surely was a completely different world. Both experiences were amazing, I met such nice people, got to see some of my favourite musicians like Jon Hopkins and East India Youth (the latter in both festivals, lucky me!). Brighton is ace in terms of music and The Great Escape 2015 is already set on my calendar.

 - My all-time favourite band is Radiohead and has been for ten years. Another band has been sharing my heart for a few years now though, Interpol. I saw Radiohead in 2012 but never had the chance to see Interpol until last June, when they come to Paris for a very intimate show at L'Alhambra, four days before my birthday..! Do I need to tell you how mind-blowing they are on stage, how happy I felt that day, how proud I was to catch Sam Fogarino's drumstick at the end (yes, one day a fangirl, always a fangirl)!

I got to see so many musicians I love this year like actual freaking Johnny Marr in his hometown Manchester, Jonny Greenwood & the London Contemporary Orchestra, Bombay Bicycle Club for the very last show at Earls Court with no one else but David Gilmour as a guest (I know right!), Breton and the incredible DYD just to name a few. I'm so grateful and excited for the new year!

- Thursday, July 31st: the day me and my six-ton luggage decide to cross the Channel and settle down in Stockport, Greater Manchester. To be honest, I didn't really know what I was doing at the time. all I know is that I've wanted to move to the UK since I'm 10 and my dream finally came true last summer. A lot of good AND inevitable bad things came out of this, but I certainly regret nothing. I now live in Brighton but I loved discovering Manchester, this city has everything I've always dreamt about and go back there at some point. 

- In August, I spent two days in Edinburgh for the Fringe Festival with my dear friend Marina. It was my first time in Scotland and my first Fringe and oh wow, to say it was crazy is an euphemism. The city was over-crowded but so beautiful, the contrast between surreal landscapes and modernism is breath-taking. I had a delicious breakfast at the Elephant House - that café where JK Rowling used to go and write Harry Potter - but as a very picky vegetarian, I wasn't adventurous enough to try any local food I'm afraid. I went to see Yacine Belhousse, the very first French comedian to attend the Fringe Festival, he's such a funny and lovely guy; and the RH Experience, my favourite bunch of improv comedians. I found them through Youtube a few years ago and met them for the first time at the Fringe. I actually saw them twice, they are so funny! I also went to see Jessie Cave, she's completely mad, but like good mad :D

Here I am with Luke Spillane (left) and Tom Webster (right) from the RH Experience in Edinburgh.

My friend and I bumped into the lovely Hannah Witton (Youtuber) in Edinburgh. Here we are proudly showing off our Stuck! flyers :)

Yacine Belhousse and I after his show, in Edinburgh.

All in all, we never know how things will turn out so keep your head up and be passionate about what you do, I think that's the most important thing to remember. I would love to hear about the highlights of your year if you want to share them. Here's to hopefully many more gigs, music and comedy for the next year!

I Might Be Paranoid, But I'm Not An Android

I never thought about it before tonight but the title I chose for my blog (still unreal to me by the way...) may actually sound a tad passive aggressive. Ten points for the one who gets the reference though, and there's a million of hints just before your very eyes (see what I did there? no...? no).

I've been sticking with the whole when I am king theme for a bunch of years now. It's a reference to my favourite Radiohead song, Paranoid Android: 'When I am king, you will be first against the wall'. This line is amazing, and the song absolutely mind-blowing. Radiohead is a huge part of my life. I don't just love them, I'm passionate about them. I listened to them for the first time ten years ago and instantly fell in love. They have been my favourite band since then and nothing compares to how they make me feel.

Paranoid Android has a particular story. First thing first, this song appears on their 3rd album, Ok Computer, released in 1997. It's their most popular album to date but also one of the life-changing albums of the decade. Ok Computer completely changed the band members' lives and determined their following choices music wise. Thom Yorke said in interviews that the song was about the decline of the Roman Empire. I love how this doesn't make any sense, and that the song sounds more like an experiment, it's pretty long and divided in different parts with different atmospheres, colours and rythms. Jonny Greenwood has an amazing solo and Thom's voice is heart-wrecking.

In June 2006, I traveled with my school to England for the first time. This experience meant so much to me. I had dreamt about going to my promise land for so long and had a pretty bad health at that time so traveling that far was a huge challenge I was so proud and happy to achieve. The journey lasted aproximately six hours by bus, and for obscure reasons, I couldn't listen to anything else but Paranoid Android. After all these years, I still get chills listening to it as all the memories come back, that's why this song means a lot to me.

I am not a massive fan of the video though, I'm used to a certain aesthetic from Radiohead, but at least we can't say that they don't try different things!

A few other references hidden in my blog: Before Your Very Eyes is the opening track of AMOK, Thom Yorke's side band Atoms For Peace debut album; the background is a painting by Stanley Donwood, Radiohead's artwork designer and also my favourite artist ever.

More info down there!

Atoms For Peace - Before Your Very Eyes

Stanley Donwood Website

Hello, Goodbye

Here we are. It's that time of the year again where every day is another reminder that I need therapy. Hashtag deep, hashtag not really. You have no single clue of how many times I tried blogging in my twenty-three-year wobbly life. I'll give you a hint: as many times as I failed. Instead of admitting that I suck at blogging and join a dominoes club, I thought I'd give a desperate umpteenth try. Only this time, things will be slightly different.

Looking back, the reason why it didn't work out before is probably because I pressure myself way too much. I mean, I'm really not a perfectionist in real life, at least not about the 'important adulty' stuff, though I have legit panic attacks when deciding which tea I should go for after lunch or which pair of socks matches my outfit the best. I am a wreck, like a fair number of us out there. So why not writing about this every time my heart feels like doing so instead of scheduling rubbish I don't even like.

I thought this blog would be a twin to my tumblr but with actual words and not just 'drooling' captioning black and white Evan Peters pictures. I am a music nerd and my life levelled up the day I found out about parsnips. See, I have some bloody material to write about. I tried music blogs before but it really quickly turned into cheap music journalism and god knows that's my worst nightmare. I haven't tried a blog about parsnips yet, it's my next option when this one faces its inevitable faith. I'm in my (nearly) mid-twenties with unrealistic career dreams, come from a mixed cultural background and recently moved from my hometown in France to the beautiful Brighton, in the UK, to make my life sound more interesting.

So, let's sit down and grab a cup of green tea, I'm sure we can get a few bits and bobs from all this mess to talk about in my rough English. Or maybe Earl Grey.