Best Album of 2013

Greetings from home!

I only just got back from Sydney and I'm already blogging. One of my 2014 resolutions was to blog more (and when I say blog, I mean blog - if y'know what I mean) and I'm trying to make a habit out of it. Can I just say that I think the weather god/being/whatevarghhhhh.. really hates me.

In 2012, my Sydney/Melbourne trip was burdened by rain and 10 degree Celcius days.

(Also, that the temperature rose immediately to the high 20s the day I left.)

In 2013, I went to Korea during winter (as if that wasn't going to be cold enough already?!).. and it was the coldest winter they'd had in like a decade or something.

(I'm totally making that up, but it adds to the effect.)

(Can I also add that it has rained every single time I've been away from home?)

(And at home, too.)

So basically, everyone and everything hates me. This is what I have concluded, with my two-decade-old, full-of-wisdom-and-lack-of-naivety brain.

Hmph. I'm going to lock myself in a room.

Cynicism aside. I haven't written anything in a while, which is why this post seems like it deserves a spot in my 2010 archives and is overly angsty.

Now - where was I?

My favourite album of 2013: Pine Trails by Satellite Stories - hands down. An honourable mention must go to Acid Rap by Chance the Rapper.. but my heart lies with the former.

Actually, a month ago, I didn't even know who Satellite Stories were. I just happened to come across them during one of my MV trawling sessions and haven't looked back since. Satellite Stories is a Finnish band comprising four members. And they have fantastic music. If I had to compare them to some other sounds, I'd say.. Two Door Cinema Club, New Navy and Last Dinosaurs. Indie rock has definitely become my thing.

You know how most albums have their "make it" songs and then some "break it" songs? Well, Pine Trails is 100% make it. Absolutely no sign of break it, anywhere. About half of the songs have acoustic versions, and usually I end up loving those more than the originals, but I must say, the balance is absolutely remarkable. If I ever had to marry an album, this would be it. They're definitely among my favourite bands of all time and tickets will be purchased if they ever tour in Australia (hint, hint?).

These are my favourite songs from the album:



(The acoustic version of Lights Go Low is also fabulous)




Please, give them a listen. If any of you like music which is even remotely similar to my taste, you may end up loving them too.

Tracklist and album info available on: Itunes | SoundCloud | Facebook

In short, I am completely and absolutely in love.

In. Love.

(It was a close call between Pine Trails and An Awesome Wave - alt-J.. except the latter was released in 2012. Oops.)

And that's it for me! Lots of love x

New music is the best.

Reading through my Tumblr for the past week, I've noticed that my mood has really lifted. About time, too.

If you've been following me for a little while at least, you'll know that music is an inherent part of my life. It's been a huge part of my life since I was.. about.. 2 years old or so. It's funny how time flies. I remember when I lived in my old house. My brother was 11 at the time and had piano lessons. Every time he did, I'd recall the melodies of whatever pieces he practised and I played them by ear. The problem with me was the handspan. Well.. it's pretty hard for a 4 year old to reach an octave. It's still not a complete breeze for me to play runs with octaves. Not fun.

You never realise how much music means to you until you stop. I hated practising when I was preparing for my final piano exam. 4 hours a day of anything (besides being on the internet) becomes a real chore.

Anyway, back to the focus of this post. I've been listening to heaps of new music.

Firstly, I've become an avid follower of the US and UK versions of X Factor. Simply magnificent. I'll show you a video from each of my favourites. Some of them have been voted out already, which is a real shame. I almost actually cried when they got eliminated. Definitely did not deserve that.

R3hab in da HAUS

I love r3hab.

Listening to his music gives me goosebumps.

Judas (R3hab remix) - Lady Gaga

Give Me Everything (R3hab remix) - Pitbull ft. Ne-Yo, Nayer & Afrojack

Bounce (R3hab remix) - Calvin Harris & Kelis

Prutataaa (Original Mix) - Afrojack & R3hab

Ugh, there's a Dada Life remix of Prutataaa coming out but I've only managed to get the preview.

Yeah, fml.

Making the most of my time

I'm sitting in a chemistry lecture and I should probably be listening, but meh, I can just catch up later. I totally told myself that I would take my uni life seriously this semester but IT'S JUST SO HARD. I mean, my perfect 7.0 GPA is now diminished into a depressing 6.75 with the culprit being not science, but PSYCHOLOGY. Oh well. I never have to take another psychology subject in my life.

I thought I be more productive in blogging some new music I've found lately. I might restrict this post to indie/whatever since I can make a post about electro house later. Enjoy the sounds.

Why Even Try (RAC Remix) - Theophilus London

Midnight City - M83

Swell Window - Zee Avi

Opposite of Adults (Big Gigantic Remix) - Chiddy Bang

A Horse is not a Home - Miike Snow

:-)

Sweet Treats Vol. 1

Okay, so perhaps my new found university life has deprived me of the time to search for new music, but behold, the holidays have surely partially compensated for this lack. So, let's start with music I've missed out on and I'll catch up with that, rather than posting what I immediately find.

Skrillex's "Sweet Treats Vol. 1" - does that sound enticing enough? Well, technically it's a "vs" album but I'm too sleep deprived to click onto iTunes to see.

I'm sitting here listening in awe. Awe as in awesome. I've decided to succumb to SoundCloud in my posting methods rather than sticking awkward YouTube videos every now and then because they make my pages look annoying. I may invest some time in replacing all the videos with SoundCloud embeds. I just haven't been bothered signing up but.... I guess the time has come. Enjoy.

Tracklisting:

Needed Change - Skrillex ft. 12th Planet | CLICK TO DOWNLOAD

World on Fire - Flinch | CLICK TO DOWNLOAD


Changes - Zedd ft. Champions | CLICK TO DOWNLOAD

Enjoy, ma cherie.

Ultra EP

Okay, so well, I'm writing another post dedicated just to Cory Enemy & Dillon Francis because they are musical geniuses. I posted yesterday having only listened to Ultra, while downloading the EP and I've listened to everything now.

Holy shit.

So they have their Ultra EP consisting of 3 songs. I like Ultra the best but the other two are pretty good as fuck too. The three featured songs are Ultra, I Love You and Who the Fuck are you?

Tracklisting:

Ultra

I Love You

Who The Fuck Are You?

CLICK HERE to download Ultra EP

Mmm, sexy yes? I already know. It's been a while since I've listened to worthwhile dubstep worth jizzing over but I think Ultra comes close.

Thinking of what else to write but I think the music covers everything.

Enjoy.

Chill step

So I was on hypem the other day and fell in love with this. It's like dubstep but way less scrubby and more of a chill song. I really like it.




Enjoy my weird taste in music.

Sweet as dubstep

Theresa reblogged a song on Tumblr this afternoon and I had to ask her what it was because I'm kind of inept in the music department. Not really, but the song sounded really familiar. I remember hearing it on TV as an ad for one show but then again I don't reallyyyyyyy watch TV anyway.

I downloaded the original but she didn't know what the remix was so, me, being the curious person I am, decided to stop at nothing before I found it.

And, I did. It's Breathe Me (Butch Clancy Remix) - SIA

Enjoy! I love it and I'll give you the download link under the video.



CLICK TO DOWNLOAD

Also, a side note, I see a quite a lot of people lurking on my page but no one ever says hi. It's not creepy or anything but it is a bit unnerving at times. Particularly sometimes when there's 40+ people viewing, not even so much as a hello. D:

Hey, hello, not sure yet.

Dumbfoundead has a new song! Kind of catchy, yes? No? Oh well, you can waste 3 minutes of your life which you'll never get back listening to it.

I really like his music. It's pretty down to life. Life? I think I meant earth. Oh, the life of a sleep deprived university student. I downloaded the mp3 but I think it was a dodgy YouTube rip because the crappy intro was still there. Cannot wait until the HD version comes out. Like, the legit shit.

Kind of edging for his new LP to be released. There's another song leak from it - "Selfish" but I couldn't find a legit video to accompany the song. The closest I came to was a guy's personal edit while skateboarding. Hmmm...

So, enjoy!



In other news, I downloaded Digitalism's discography the other day and it just reminded me to post about it. Was looking at TheHypeMachine just this morning and it reminded me to post it up! It was released a couple of months ago. Here's their "2 Hearts" which is an incredibly catchy song.



From the album, "I Love You, Dude". I've always liked Digitalism, but my favourite song is still Pogo. Nevertheless, still chill as fuck.

CLICK TO DOWNLOAD "I Love You, Dude."

PEACE OUT, Y'ALL. Currently playing Team Fortress 2 gettin mah bitch shootin shit on yo.

Stubhouse the piano rack

I haven't posted music lately, have I? No, no. Indeed I haven't. Here, have some. I think this post calls for a diversifying mix of whatever.

Changed the Way You Kill Me - Example



Changed the Way You Kiss Me (Mensah Remix) - Example



I'm in the House (Gigi Barocco Remix) - Steve Aoki



What Beautiful Stars - Yiruma



Promises (Skrillex & Nero Remix) - Nero



So yeah, hope you like them. I'm not too chuffed on the Mensah remix but it's not too bad. I'm particularly loving the rest, though.

I started learning What Beautiful Stars this morning. Sounds a lot harder than it was to play! It's just really repetitive so I'll have a video/recording up in the next couple of days/week. Stay tuned for that. :3

I'm thinking that I get too excited when I post music so I'll probably post one or two new songs that I like every week. Might be the best thing.

Underground

I fucking love underground music. Other than the fact that it's not bloody overplayed, I love the feeling when people have never heard of whatever you're listening to.

Dubstep is becoming too mainstream. Not that it takes away from my enjoyment, but I've had a solid, you know, year or so of listening to straight dubstep and perhaps it's time to take a break. I used to dislike electro house because the bass wasn't as heavy and it seemed a little monotonous, but it's very acquired.

Anyway, the 49ers are old but I love their music so much. Here's a chill track to keep your nerves calm.

Endless Rhymes ft. Nieve - The 49ers



The harp part is to die for, but overall, an awesome song. The beat sort of reminds me of Nujabes, actually.

I'm glad my music is diversifying.

Great car music

I downloaded a mash up album last year called "Rematch" by The White Panda.

Not until just then did I realise how amazing they are. I've been listening to the album pretty much on repeat in my car, but it's 47 mash ups crammed into 14 tracks, so of course you can't really put the full length tracks in there. Ugh there's one track I really, REALLY like but I can't find the single anywhere. Oh well, just means I have to skip halfway through a song to get it.

Two tracks I love in the album are "I Wish I Broke Your Heart" and "Overnight Panda".

I Wish I Broke Your Heart (Taio Cruz//Skee-Lo Mash Up)

Love, love and love some more.

Overnight Panda (Twista//Crystal Castles Mash Up)

I recognised the Crystal Castles - Black Panther song immediately but yeah this is awesome.

Both tracks are from Rematch.

I'm currently downloading all the single, full-length tracks and you can find them all from their Official Website. It's going to take ages to download. Far out. It's estimating at 4 hours for 500mb um what.

All their mash ups are amazing! I've never, ever come across better mash ups in my life.

They're great. I know what I'll be playing in my car from now on. I've really deviated from dubstep but this is still far, FAR from mainstream.

Slow it down

I'm so tired and sleep deprived because of a certain person but today has been just bearable because I've been listening to music all day.

I'm the type of person who downloads a song, falls in love with it and then I'll put it on repeat until I get sick of it. If I can't be bothered changing it, I'll go look for another song and then the process is repeated.

Anyway, these are some pretty chill songs. I downloaded them a few days ago and I must say they're really growing on me.

Reminded - Tyga ft. Adele

Love it. Gives a new perspective to hip hop; mixing it with acoustic was a good choice. I adore Adele and this was a really nice mix.


Equinox - Skrillex

What else can I say about Skrillex? Have to say, I'm getting slightly annoyed that his dubstep is kind of assimilating into mainstream but hey, it's still good. Pretty sure this is an unreleased track.

Riverside - Agnes  Obel

I heard one of her other songs, 'Brother Sparrow', somewhere and fell in love with it so I downloaded her entire album called Philharmonic. I don't think I can walk away from this song.

Kids - Two Door Cinema Club

I was a bit surprised to hear this song, mainly because I have their entire discography but it turns out that it was an exclusive track from the Japanese version of Tourist History. Fair enough. Good song.

So yeah I have a psych test to study for by tomorrow. Actually, it's not even a test - it's called a "behavioural skills test". I get really stressed so I think I'm going to go study for it for an hour of so. Enjoy these chills tracks.