Capo 2 for Mac: music learning software done even better Last year we wrote about a new product from SuperMegaUltraGroovy Software called Capo. The well-designed software was essentially a tool to help users learn to play music by ear, and it worked by slowing down songs without changing their pitch. Capo restored our confidence that not all competent developers were focusing on the iPhone, and that there could still be high quality software for the Mac. Now, Capo 2 has launched. While one developer can’t support an entire platform, Chris Liscio is still making really great software. At its root, Capo 2 still focuses on slowing down music without changing the pitch, enabling users to practice along with difficult passages of music. In the newest version of Capo, the waveform view has changed to spectrogram. The higher the pitch on the spectrogram, the higher it is represented; the longer the streak, the longer the duration of the note. Music with just a solo guitar can work well, and with an entire band, it works better than you'd think.
Bent By Elephants on MySpace Music - Free Streaming MP3s, Pictures & Music Videos Land of Talk: Free Track from Forthcoming New Album Here at Midnight Poutine, we've made no secret of our respect and admiration for Montreal-based rockers Land of Talk. Jangly guitars combine with Elizabeth Powell's saccharine but edgy voice to create a truly ambitious sound. Their critically acclaimed debut album, Some Are Lakes, was delicate yet destructive. It landed the band on the 2009 Polaris Prize Long List. Now, after a teasing EP released late last year, the band is set to launch their 2nd full-length album, Cloak and Cipher, later this month. Thanks to the band and the good folks in their entourage, you don't need to wait to hear it. Cloak and Cipher is definitely worth waiting for: it's full of brooding and aggressive tunes like 'Swift Coin', tender and honest ballads like 'Goaltime Exposure' and densely layered arrangements like the title track. Speaking of which, the band is currently traveling around North America, road-testing the new album. photo of elizabeth powell from land of talk's myspace page
Faire rêve: entrevue avec Elisapie Isaac Moi, Elsie Au delà du folklore, la gypsie magnifique Elisapie Isaac distille des ambiances métissées de clairs obscurs folks et de bulles enivrantes pop. Claude André Rendez-vous dans un resto soufi d’Outremont. «Si j’avais voulu tenir un tel discours, j’aurais choisi un autre métier. Cela dit, la quête identitaire est néanmoins toujours présente chez cette petite-fille d’un grand traditionnaliste inuk. Si on ne sait jamais vraiment qui nous sommes, Elisapie voit la chanson comme un mega trip qu’elle a toujours souhaité faire et ne veut surtout pas arborer l’étiquette de la «fille qui va nous montrer comment ça se passe là-bas». Chose que semble avoir très bien comprise Eloi Painchaud, réalisateur de There Will Be Stars. «La rencontre s’est faite comme ça, dans un café, via l’intermédiaire de mon gérant qui est l’un de ses amis. Rester soi-même certes, mais dans un écrin de luxe! Les mots Lexique qu’Elisapie a rédigé sur un bout de papier au terme de l’entretien en souriant .
Tuesday Tracks! Bishop Morocco, Land of Talk, Hawksley Workman : This Magazine Blog // Canadian progressive politics, environment, art, culture // Subscribe today Elizabeth Powell, lead singer for Land of Talk In this week’s edition of Tuesday Tracks we’ll take a look at a group of modern new wavers, one of the country’s best kept secrets and a wild video from a true eccentric. Sometimes sifting through the web for new music can be an arduous task. First up is Bishop Morocco, a neo-new wave group that pays it’s respects to Manchester, but in the most elegant of ways. Next is Land of Talk, a band that I think has remained under the radar for a lot of people, but I’m not totally sure why. Let’s be friends! Finally, we have Hawksley Workman.
Sam Shalabi: compositions across continents An Arabic version of this article was published in the Beirut-based Al Adab cultural journal. Weaving together diverse musical traditions that span oceans, Montreal-based composer and musician Sam Shalabi offers a distinctive sound, rooted in contemporary musical experimentation but also inspired by the popular orchestras that took a cultural center stage in Egypt in the late 1960s. Impressive in scope, Land of Kush, the latest music ensemble project orchestrated by Shalabi, explores new musical boundaries while combining artistic practice from the Middle East and North America. As headlines of war often shape mainstream media coverage on the Middle East in the West, Shalabi’s music presents an artistic front embodying a complex and interconnected relationship between cultures, rooted in creative ties that influence the identity of both societies. Rendering Cairo’s opera house Literary compositions Cairo and Benjamin’s state of emergency Composing across continents
Yip yippee - i(heart)music All afternoon I was trying to come up with some way of describing Jasper Sloan Yip that didn't include Dave Matthews, Jason Mraz, John Mayer and The Mellow Show . After all, as much mainstream popularity as those artists have (and, to be honest, as much as I enjoy three of those four things), it seemed to me that invoking any of them would guarantee a fair number of readers would just instantly skip over the rest of the review, regardless of how glowing it might be -- not exactly a desirable outcome since, as far as I'm concerned, his newest album, Every Day and All at Once , deserves to be heard by a wide audience. Around my fifth or sixth listen, though, I came to two realizations. First and foremost, I don't think it's possible to write about Yip and not mention Matthews/Mraz/Mayer. Just run through the list of things that define those artists, and every single one of them would apply to Yip. The second realization?
Shedding some light on Dark Mean - i(heart)music Dark Mean really need to let other people name things for them. I mean, their first EP was called Frankencottage . Their second EP, Music Box , may seem like an improvement, if a little generic...until you actually check the tracklisting, and discover that three of the four songs -- "Acoustic", "Piano & Beat" and "Dark Banjo" -- are named for the music featured within them. Thankfully the band's nomenclature-related flaws don't spill over into their music. While the titles may reduce the songs to their basic defining characteristics, once you start listening you'll quickly discover that the band can't be so easily pigeonholed. The aforementioned "Acoustic", for example, is an outstanding piece of folk-pop, while "Piano & Beat" shows that those two things can add up to make an impressively expansive song. Actually, that's not true.
iPhone Users Can Now Get Their Music in the Cloud With mSpot Finally, iPhone and iPod touch users can access their music from the cloud. The mSpot cloud music service goes live today, offering iPhone, iPad, iPod touch and Mac/PC users the ability to upload up to 2GB of their music collections for free, and listen to that music anywhere. The mSpot music service is almost identical to the Android version released in June, offering a smartphone app with a choice between live streaming and "airplane mode," in which selected songs are pre-downloaded to the user's player for playback when an Internet connection isn't available. As users add music to their Macs or PCs, mSpot's desktop application automatically syncs the songs with the mSpot service. Of course, most music collections are much larger than the 2GB allowed by mSpot's free account, so the company's offering 40GB of space for $3.99 per month. Finally, the inconvenience of moving music between devices is eliminated with this service.
The Barr Brothers win over the Dakota, Kevin Drew Packing The Dakota Tavern at well past two in the morning on a Thursday night is no easy feat, but The Barr Brothers, a relatively new band from Montreal, managed to do just that. Comprised of brothers Brad and Andrew Barr (on guitar and drums respectively), Sarah Page on harp and Andres Vial on pump organ and bass, this unique folk quartet set aside their quieter sounds for a more rocking, Dakota-friendly set. There is no denying that The Barr Brothers are an ambitious bunch. That much was obvious from the mere sight of watching Sarah push her massive harp on stage with the help of a mini trolley. That, and the fact that their set started with Brad looping sounds from a taper recorder through his guitar pickups, all the while delicately pulling super-fine thread through his guitar strings to create one of the most whimsical sounds you could ever imagine. Photos by Greg Abramowitz