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    © 2012 Ghost FM

    Ghost FM’s Favorite Music of 2011

    This is the part of end year lists people usually don’t read! They just want you to cut to the chase and…buzz off! There you go. So, what’s this urge for me to write nonsense here? Well, it may sound as an introductory page to the people who’ve either never come across this blog or simply deny it. Like the majority of my friends. So, without further bollocks, Hey every one! It’s Pedram and I’ve been blogging since 2007. It’s not my occupation and I’ve never taken myself seriously, neither have I ever earned a dime out of it. But I happen to have listened to a lot of music and I always wanted to have a joint somewhere to share them. In 2010, I suddenly went berserk and shut down my previous blog. So Ghost FM is the aftermath of a big cyclic redundancy check that dragged me into a neat new blogging platform in which you could follow or be followed by nice people. As of this very day I have some 1049 followers who were kind enough to let me in. I’m currently studying my Masters in Stockholm and I don’t think I’ll ever regret it. 

    At the end of each year, I make a list of (only) 10 albums and 10 songs I loved the most. It’s actually not a very nice thing to do, knowing you’re missing quite plenty of work and I hate to hold that banner up as a pointless manifest of “Yeah! That’s it!” The songs and albums here are not the harvest of any specific statistics. The numbers does not necessarily signify my play counts. They are merely…how I feel, you know? But I suppose if you want to see what sounded pleasant to my ears, it’s better you browse back in the archive.

    These two lists, of course, lack dozens of fascinating albums and songs this year: I think Dan Bejar recorded his best Destroyer album with Kaputt’s superb freelance poetry. James Blake’s delicate fragility made dubstep sound pop balladry, Mazzy Star returned, Brad Cox brought his latest Deerhunter tenderness into Atlas Sound, Grouper got even ghostlier and distant, R.E.M. broke up with an album handpicked out of their whole three-decade career, Smith Westerns played adorable noisy guitar pop, Nicolas Jaar made brilliant spacey vibes out of breath and snaps, Steve Malkmus played at his most rock ‘n roll, Oneohtrix Point Never reached its pinnacle, Tom Waits returned with favorable material after seven years of no studio albums, etc. See? It was not a bad year for music unlike some heavy ears think.

    Anyhow here are our favorite albums in 2011:

    And song-wise, the following ten glitter and shine! Not that Battles “Futura” was not instrumentally astounding. And how can you not love Ty Segall’s beloved garage hit “Goodbye Bread”? Does this stop just there? Feist’s “How Come You Never Go There” for instance, or the gentle quality soft rock of Bodies of Water on “Open Rhythms”. That addictive bass line on Peaking Lights’ “Tiger Eyes (Laid Back)”, or the window-shattering industrial of Zola Jesus’ “Vessel”. How to float with anything better than Bill Callahan’s “Riding For the Feeling”. But for now, let’s put an end to all that blatherings of regret. These are my top ten favorite songs of the year:

    And just like last year, here’s a little streamer of our favorite songs. If you want to listen to the albums as well. I think you already know what to do, right? Good.

    Alright townies! That’s all for 2011 on Ghost FM. Hope you all have a wonderful vacation. Don’t forget to come back in January. Love, hug, peace, candies, cocktails, comic books, caviar, sunny-side ups, iPods, horns, birds, whiskey, bargains, hopscotch, Scarlett Johansson, Blade Runner, hammer, bees, fruits and headphones. Hej då!

    P.S. Thanks for all the precious souls taking part on the blog’s polling. I scrutinized the ones I hadn’t already tried. You’re sweet.

    23 notes
    posted 5 months ago
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    Kate Bush ft. Elton John - “Snowed In At Wheeler Street”

    Strange I don’t even see it in production phase. But I remember Abbas Kiarostami (the Iranian filmmaker) was about to make a film on the story of a couple in a day. But a day that spanned across different eras of their life time. It’s anti-matter now. (See how I like using this word?) But if it existed, I wanted it to be the prelude to this post. [Sighs]

    Maybe it’s not a correct analogy, but Madonna has a song called “Skin” from her 1998’s lovable Ray of Light that starts with “Do I know you from somewhere? Why do you leave me wanting more?” and together with the weather of doubt she had provided, it lit a candle of light when this dark beautiful duet of Kate Bush and Elton John started; A lost love that’s remotely remembered and is left without a trace in the end; A romance that’s lasted for centuries, from Civil War Rome to New York, but with no referable memory. One could definitely not tell, Bush could surprise us all with such a spectral cold concept album at the end of the year. Her gift of songwriting at the age of 53 lets her stretch her fantasies in thorough leisure and come up with a charming piano-driven ode to the snowman.

    I don’t know why 50 Words For Snow reminds me of Joanna Newsom’s Ys. Maybe it’s both artists’ heedlessness and bravery in facing the audience. Maybe it’s because they both dared to let their songs follow their gut feeling and fear no limits. I think they inhabit completely different cities and epochs, but still. 50 Words is the kind of album you may return to every winter and sooth your sorrow beside the fireplace with its frozen anecdotes. 

    90 plays / 1 note
    posted 5 months ago
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    Kate Bush - “Deeper Understanding”

    The idiosyncrasies and influential shadow of Kate Bush’s interpretation of pop are nothing new. From the moment she hugged Peter Gabriel for a full song on “Don’t Give Up” to her falsetto on “Wuthering Heights” to how Chris Martin admitted they stole her music on “Running Up That Hill” wisely for Coldplay’s “Speed of Sound”. Despite the dust of time that tickles her ragged voice, she must feel content on songwriting after a 6-year hiatus. Or must she? Director’s Cut is going to be a new modern touch on Bush’s two previous albums 1989’s The Sensual World and 1993’s The Red Shoes. I’m not quite sure how will that revitalization work out but as for this new version of “Deeper Understating” I can see a rather pointless struggle of two versions of Bush. One abounds with zestful British sort of creativity that is already two and a half decades old and another an experimental stretched out vocal sampling on a song that had already settled well as it once was. Not that there was anything wrong with the original, but it all sounds so discrete for today as if Stevie Nicks lends her samples to Madlib to scatter them across his own mantra farms.

    The sort of pop running in Bush’s vain rises this unsettled incompatibility between what she is trying to say and what it has turned out. Kate Bush has never been futile when she vibrantly decided to run into the depth of her own canyon of feminine madness. The kind of futility Yoko Ono sounds like, or the one Tori Amos is unluckily becoming. But Director’s Cut is not going to add any new phrase to her vocabulary, just like an album of covers did not change anything for Peter Gabriel last year.

    NB: The song link above points to the original version of the song from The Sensual World. I still haven’t found a link to the single.

    50 plays / 5 notes
    posted 1 year ago