The Boston Boys - Keep You Satisfied EP Review
music, review Jason England music, review Jason England

The Boston Boys - Keep You Satisfied EP Review

The Boston Boys are an up and coming mix of classic folk rock with an electric feel, shown in their recent release Keep You Satisfied. Forming as a quartet while attending Berklee in Boston, Massachusetts in 2009, the electric bluegrass style of music is a great fit for any fans of Mumford & Sons.

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#NRMPresents 'TouchKeys.' Multi-Touch Gestures For Your Piano
NRM Presents, music, Technology Jason England NRM Presents, music, Technology Jason England

#NRMPresents 'TouchKeys.' Multi-Touch Gestures For Your Piano

For the past few centuries, the piano has been commonplace in music.  During this same period of time, the instrument hasn't really evolved either.  Well that is until now, as the 'Touch Keys' DIY sensor kit brings touch sensitivity to the surface of piano keys, similar to the screen of a smartphone or tablet.

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music, news, social media Jason England music, news, social media Jason England

Twitter Unveils New #Music App For iPhone And Web

Twitter has officially the launched the much anticipated 'Twitter #Music,' its new music discovery and streaming app.  This new service pulls trending data from both your followers and the wider community to make tailored music recommendations to you.  Currently available on iOS or through the browser at music.twitter.com, it is currently not available for Android.

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Music Review, music, review Jason England Music Review, music, review Jason England

Bonobo - The North Borders Review

 

As per usual for UK electronic artist Bonobo, The North Borders starts off extremely well. 'First Fires' punctuates a beautifully understated vocal performance from Grey Reverend with submerged synth droplets and fleeting, glacial, ASMR inducing pads -- all enhanced by a confident and generous allowance for negative space that seems to only come with experience. In terms of perfect intros, it almost stacks up to the double barrelled future classic of Prelude/Kiara from 2010's Black Sands. Unfortunately, in this case there isn't a whole lot of interest that follows.

 

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music, news, tech Jason England music, news, tech Jason England

Man Plays Music By Electrocuting Vegetables

 

Musician-cum-electrician Jonathan Dagan, aka j.viewz, has turned fruits and vegetables into a range of musical instruments, electronically connecting them to a circuit board and playing the most nutritious version of Massive Attack's 'Teardrop' you've ever heard.

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music, review Jason England music, review Jason England

Iceage - You're Nothing Review

Danish four-piece Iceage combine Wire-esque post-punk with the looseness of noise rock and the detached angst of hardcore, managing to avoid the banality of the latter genre with a kind of implied futility in their ferocity and a total lack of macho posturing.

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Music Review, music Jason England Music Review, music Jason England

The Bronx - The Bronx IV Review

The Bronx’s sound has always been as close to the Platonic form of the rock n’ roll spirit as you can get; the perfect accompaniment to drinking, driving off ramps, gambling, mainlining coke, filibustering, tattooing yourself, shooting the most phallic of guns, fist-fighting and fucking, all at the same time (but maybe not with the same person for those last two).

With their fourth eponymous LP and first release in five years, the L.A punks have made a push towards more melodic territory, without compromising on their totally unique character.

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music, review Jason England music, review Jason England

Yo La Tengo - Fade Review

 

Yo La Tengo's thirteenth LP is permeated with startling confidence and clarity, unpretentious in its accessibility and masterful in the art of understatement.

Opening track 'Ohm' is a bright, dreamlike anthem that gradually layers simple, subtly evolving elements which amount to a psychedelic crescendo in slow-motion. 'Cornelia and Jane', another standout, sees Georgia Hubley's gentle falsetto vocals drift over guitar melodies reminiscent of Death Cab For Cutie's Translantacism. It's all very soothing, like a day at Centre Parcs without the extortion. 

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music, news, tech Jason England music, news, tech Jason England

'Beatoven.' Make And Mix Music With A Cooking Pot

Korean artist Viktor Jan has combined music and cooking in a way you've never known before with Beatoven.  We understand that their rather similar in their craft of blending certain ingredients for the perfect sound; but this is a more literal transition of that idea, adding a music interface to a cooking pot.

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Christmas Gift Guide, Feature, music Jason England Christmas Gift Guide, Feature, music Jason England

New Rising Media Christmas Gift Guide: Music

The standard music recommended in Christmas gift guides across the globe can get rather dire. A selection of albums from the most commercialised of "talent," which quickly loses all musical value in a storm of stereotypical song structure and torrenting.  With that in mind, we've counted down the Top 25 albums of this year, all of which will make a great present in both physical or downloaded form.

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music, news Jason England music, news Jason England

Guns Transformed Into Musical Instruments

 

Artist Pedro Reyes has used a large cache of weapons to build a selection of musical instruments. Called Imagine, this project was made using confiscated guns, which were publicly destroyed by the Mexican Government as an anti-violence statement.  To further communicate this message, Reyes has turned to the world of musical instruments and Rage Against The Machine.

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Damson Twist Bluetooth Speaker Hands On At Gadget Show Live Christmas

We've seen many speakers that utilise the concept of resonating through a surface to emit sound over this last year.  So much so, that we fear it may become nothing more than a party trick: the one 'sexy' moment of a gadget, which seen and used once when received as a gift.  The one fear, after seeing this influx, is this technology going the way of the 'iPod' into 'Christmas stocking-filler' territory.  As it's quite an innovative space.
With the Damson Twist, I'm not worrying anymore.
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Crystal Castles: (III) Review
music, review Jason England music, review Jason England

Crystal Castles: (III) Review

With (III), Crystal Castles entirely abandon the quirky, screechy, bleepy approach that characterized their debut, instead opting to push the darker, softer sound introduced on the second half of their sophomore album. 

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