Taken By Trees

This band is one that I continue to play over and over again. I got the album two weeks ago and really didn't know what to think of it. Middle Eastern, meets folk, meets beautiful female vocals. It sounds strange but it works. This is a band that is way out of the realm of stuff I post up here but after going to their website I had to post them. I know that my blog is read by few (I watch the numbers on a weekly basis) but I do reach a few people.

Their latest post is so sad. She compares herself to a beached whale stuck at home. They have a new album and a band ready to go but the record company has no money for them to tour. That is a damn shame because Taken By Trees is one band that I would go see. Their music is so interesting and unique, it would be a hell of a live show. So here is my part in all this, anyone reading this that has an idea to help, contact them. Taken by Trees, I wish you all the luck and hope to see you in Atlanta soon.

Moderat : The Perfect Marriage

Moderat is the love child between Sascha Ring (aka Apparat) and Gernot Bronsert and Sabastian Szary (aka Modeselektor). I discovered Apparat a few years ago and last year was exposed to Modeselektor when hearing their track with Radiohead front man Thom Yorke. That one track alone got me on a Modeselektor binge that force me to buy every album and EP I could get my hands on. You can only guess how excited I was when finding this gem of a album.
Back to the history: after recording their first EP for BPitch Control records in 2002, they broke up and went their separate ways. In the next 6 six years both groups would release multiple albums and countless EPs. In 2008 they back together to start recording their first full length album, “Moderat”, which released on April 20, 2009. A lot had changed but their fondness of dark, dirty, grimy electronic music had not changed.
I was not disappointed by what I heard. I know it sounds corny that the album would sound like a mix between the two artists but that is exactly what “Moderat” is. If you take the auditory sound-scapes of Apparat and mix in the brutally rough and chopped beats of Modeselektor, you have the mixings of great new band. Sprinkle in guest Vocalist and MC’s on selected tracks and now you have a true cross-over album marketable to the great unwashed. Don’t be surprised if you start hearing them in the media around you.