Eyemaylisten Music Blog

Sorry, this is a slight deviation from the norm for me and the dance/electro scene but I feel like I should mention it. For anyone that knows me well enough, I am and have been a big fan of Alkaline Trio for about 8/9 years now. I have to admit to preferring their older releases but recommend it all! This was my 3rd time seeing them, which is rather apt – and they were as good as always! They came on stage at 21.40 (after a couple of stereotypical American, slightly annoying punk-rock bands), and from the start blew me away yet again! They started playing some of their new songs, but then (for anyone who is a big fan like me) started to play some real classics like; Goodbye Forever, Private Eye, Stupid Kid and I Lied My Face Off.

I think this tour is to help promote their newest album, Agony and Irony, and if you can get to it then I would!

- Stuart

It’s been a long, anticipated wait for me, and when I heard that Yuksek‘s first LP was being released in February I was straight online with my payment details at the ready! It was released on the 9th in the UK ad of course I received my copy on that day! Influences apparent in his numerous EP releases such as; Tonight, It Comes or The Wax, all come together to create an amazing collection of tracks – a lot of which are released/heard for the first time.

The track listing is as follows:

1. Break Ya
2. Tonight
3. A Certain Life
4. Extraball
5. Take A Ride
6. I Could Never Be A Dancer
7. So Far Away From The Sea
8. Little Dirty Trip
9. This Is Not Today
10. I Like To Play
11. So Down
12. Freak O Rocker
13. Eat My Bear / Tonight (Cover)

The album is more varied that expected actually, and include collaborations with Shitdisco, Chromeo and The Shoes. It starts well with the new track, “Break Ya”, and leads well into the familiar releases of “Tonight”, and “A Certain Life”. “Extraball” is the other single and I am very impressed with it – this is the start of the unknown for me, since nearly the rest of the album is, to my knowledge, unreleased before now. An extremely good album sure to be on my list for the year already. For any Yuksek or electro fan it is a must-have, and to be honest – anyone could buy and listen to this album! If anyone has any doubts then there’s a nice taster mix on his Myspace Profile at the moment.

- Stuart

I do have to apologise about the lack of electro input over the last month –
my lovely 6 month old iMac decided to fail on me, thus meaning I am now writing this on a dreaded PC. Anyway to business…

Jean-Baptiste de Laubier – to me, one of the biggest influences on my music tastes over the last couple of years. Known to the music world as Para One. I have to admit to first coming across Para One due to a MSTRKRFT remix of his most well known song Dudun-Dun. Although, after a bit more research I started to really get into his releases and I still think his 2006 album Epiphanie has got to be one of my favourite, proper electro albums. I have yet to find an album which really sums up the French electro scene better, and I highly recommend it to anyone that loves this sort of music.

The likes of Daft Punk, Bloc Party, MSTRKRFT and Boys Noize are among the artists he has remixed, and he is part of the Institubes entourage, of which I am a huge fan. I think if there is anyone who is a fan of the electro scene and hasn’t listened to Para One yet then they need to go and check his music out now!

- Stuart

This is going to be a nice little packet of juicy musical jumble for you to pick apart and process… So much has been going on my only option was to shove it all neatly into one post. Enjoy..


If you haven’t already, check out Dan Black’s website. It’s pretty swish. You can also get a limited time only free download of his demo track ‘I Love Life’.


Something good we stumbled upon was this amazing site called Black Cab Sessions whereby they basically shove artists in the back of a black cab in London and film them doing acoustic sets. There are SO many good artists on there.. get over.


Do you love Marina And The Diamonds like we do? Then check this out:
MP3: Marina And The Diamonds ‘Obsessions’ remix by Pink Stallone

Bloc Party in the BBC Radio1 Live Lounge on Thursday just gone..
Listen to it here – It’s effing awesome.

Chris Naish And The Wasted Nights, an independent punk hip hop band hailing from Alberta, Canada, have just released a single on iTunes worldwide. The song is called “Sleep When You’re Dead”. The tune is pretty catchy, but whats better is fifty percent of all profit will go to depression and suicide prevention charities, so give it a listen.

YouTube Video With More Info

Buy “Sleep When You’re Dead” from itunes

To celebrate their artwork, their album being finished and the proximity of their trip to SXSW and tour with Snow Patrol, Fanfarlo have put ‘I’m a Pilot’ on their site for you to listen to… but I’ve made it a little easier for you… Check it out below:

MP3: Fanfarlo – I Am Pilot

Keep the emails coming
- Luu

The Rakes are set to release their new album; ‘Klang’ on 23rd March, but we have a sneaky preview…

I have for your listening pleasure, the eighth track off the album. I love the track name, kill all the PCs!! Mac all the way! Raaa! Anyway, let me know what you think;

MP3: The Rakes – The Light From Your Mac

- Luu

Two Door Cinema Club are the beautiful trio from Bangor/Donaghadee, Northern Ireland, who have been raping my itunes of late with a mere few tracks… With their electro pop sound, influences such as Bloc Party, Arcade Fire and Wolf Parade and a cute boy-faced image; its easy to see why.

I am a sucker for anything catchy and these guys have me in a net. If you don’t believe me, check them out for yourselves. Their new single ‘Something Good Can Work Out’ is out on 2nd March and they’re doing a mini-tour to coincide with the release. They’ve just confirmed a few NME Award shows supporting The Wombats, so check out their myspace for details! I am hoping to get over to their Southampton show ^_- Looks to be well worth it.

MP3: Two Door Cinema Club – Eat That Up, It’s Good For You

MP3: Two Door Cinema Club – Something Good Can Work

Keep emailing, let me know who you guys think!

- Luu

And I offer you Marina And The Diamonds, a beautiful girl with a beautiful sound.

Ever since hearing this girl she has been on the mind. She’s nothing less than awesome. I haven’t had a pet favorite for a while and she’s certainly filling the void. There isn’t much available out there in the way of information but I can confirm she is set to release her double A-side 7″ single Obsessions/Mowgli’s Road on Neon Gold Records for Valentines day (the location is hush hush) but it’s going to be something spesh. Take a look at her video for the single here on youtube. You wont be disappointed. Listen to the track below…

MP3: Marina And The Diamonds – Obsessions

Hope everyone is having a good week!
Keep the emails rolling, I am reading them!

- Luu

Sorry about the blog being down for a couple of hours today.
Hope it wasn’t too disruptive.

I can now unveil why my posts are a little few and far between at the moment; Eyemaylisten is going visual! That’s right kids.. we are going to be on tv! Well.. our local university’s tv. But you will soon be able to catch up with all the episodes online! We are just in the process of editing the first episode, so hopefully I will be able to give you a little bit more information once the whole thing has gone live… but keep your eyes peeled as they say!

Stuart has been doing a spiffing job in my absence, so a hats off and little round of applause is in order… ^_^

- Luu

Well I feel that as I am posting this on the first day of the grand year that is Two Thousand and Nine I should put up some of my preferred music released in the last 12 months. Firstly, I’m afraid to say that I will be doing it in the clichéd way of naming releases (that’s including EP’s and LP’s) – which is always hard work so I may just have to do a similar idea to this soon but merely using single tracks. Secondly, I wish to point out that these are not necessarily what I feel to be the best albums of ’08 because that would take me forever and then I would probably still be no closer to a conclusion. I think I will end naming the albums that I have listened to most in this list.

I chose the seemingly random number of 6 because I couldn’t limit it to the normal 5:

6 . Kitsune Maison Compilation 6 – Various Artists
A great collection of electronic tracks from such artists as Digitalism, La Roux, AutoKratz and many more. Definately worth a buy.

5. Oracular Spectacular – MGMT
MGMT seem to have taken the world by storm, and their major label debut is anything but a disappointment – a great album worthy of the soundtrack to ’08 in my opinion.

4. Music For An Accelerated Culture – Hadouken!
From USB sticks to pure digital releases – Hadoukens numerous collective releases were finally released in their debut full-length album, and anyone who even remotely likes them must have this album.

3. Nights Out – Metronomy
Metronomy’s second album carries on from the first very well. Sticking to the original but catchy style this is a truly great release that makes it into my top three.

2. Fantasy Black Channel – Late of the Pier
A fan of the band for a few years now, I have been eagerly awaiting the full release of this debut album after listening to numerous demo’s and remix’s. An amazing first LP, worthy of the second spot.

1. Tonight (EP) – Yuksek
Throughout making this short list I have to admit the few tracks released on Yuksek’s 6th EP, “Tonight” have always stuck in my head as the ones I have constantly been listening to in the last year. Only released in September I really do admit that this does come in at number one for me – the songs are just masterpieces in my opinion. A MUST have.

To sum up, I feel that there is a huge amount of potential there – since half of those releases are debuts, and all of the artists have a lot more to give I am sure. It’s been a good year for music, but obviously everyones list will be different so just add any comments if you want to put forward yours.

Happy New Year,

- Stuart

Currently based in Aberdeen, Sabrepulse is a 22 year-old Yorkshire born laptop/chip musician. He was influenced by the 8/16bit videogame era and this is very apparent in his music – and indeed in the recently coined ‘chipbreak’ genre. He started producing music at the beginning of the decade after deciding to rewrite the soundtracks to Amiga 500 classics.

He has recently finished touring the UK as part of the Chiptune Alliance, with Anamanaguchi and Firebrand Boy, and has also toured in Europe this year. I have been listening to his albums and EP’s quite a lot recently and am really enjoying it. Even though the ‘chip’ genre is the main focus for Sabrepulse I hear elements of jungle/drum and bass/breakcore in his work, and I guess thats where the new ‘chipbreak’ comes in.

Something that may only have a limited appeal for the wider community but I am really enjoying listening to it. It is refreshingly different from the mainstream and I think there’s a big amount of potential on top of what has already been achieved.

Merry Christmas to all,

- Stuart