Music: Morcheeba, Brisa Roché and Moi Caprice

Published on February 7, 2008

Story by

sandra wickert

Translation by:

kate hollinshead

Culture

The Aim of Design is to Define Space: Aimthusiasm

(Photo: ©Andreas Mühe)

If a German band describes their own sound as ‘angry-pop’, then one could at first assume it’s not good. In fact, the music of ‘The Aim of Design is to Define Space’ is in no way alarming. They quite simply describe only that which occurs in the working week in the areas which the band members come from: poverty and alcoholism for example.

The combination, which consists of four people from Berlin, or Brandenburg to be exact, does this in a particularly cunning way: melodies which use a different style of rock, and text which has a very simple effect even on the first listen. The second listen is full of intellectual jokes and double entendre. The pathos of the working week, passion and humour, classic song writing and early U2 guitar sounds go hand-in-hand with a stylistically appropriate appearance. Power-rock is not only for design fans

'Born in Winter'

Haute Areal

Released: 22 February 2008

Morcheeba: Dive Deep

(Photo: ©morcheeba.co.uk)

No other formation has defined the term ‘down tempo’ so clearly and even with this, has still rejected musical categorisation over and over again like Morcheeba have.

Up to now, the band from London have created, without reservation, five albums of a contemporary form of dance music, built from songs which have created a sensation in ‘trip-Hop’ or ‘chill-out.’ And everything as an eclectic, broad-minded collective which has put out the feelers time and again for the most diverse singers and musicians. Dive Deep, the new album from Morcheeba, now demonstrates these ideas more forcefully than never before. With a guest list that ranges from soul singers to rappers, ’Dive Deep’ could become the best album in 2008

PIAS Germany

Released 8 February 2008

Brisa Roché: Takes

(Photo: ©Ami Barwell)

A European album from an American artist? That is quite probable if the musician is called Brisa Roché, who is an overt Francophile and has lived in Paris for years. Brisa Roché attributes the fact that the album Takes nevertheless still sounds ‘very Californian’ to the French with its dreamy and harmonious sounds. The 15 songs, recorded in conjunction with Yeah Yeah Yeahs guitarrist Nick Zinner, have undoubtedly damaged a good portion of the ‘San Francisco feeling’ which has wonderfully united the album's British staginess.

If you still own a record player, get the vinyl version of the album. The self portraits on the record sleeve show that Brisa Roché is an all-round artist who, incidentally, exhibited pictures at the beginning of the year for the first time in the Paris Gallery Art All AccessArt All Access. Emilie Simon or Charlotte Gainsbourg fans who have nothing against a hint of faint craziness will adore Brisa Roché

Brisa Roché: Takes

AL!VE

Release date: 29 February 2008

Moi Caprice: The Art of Kissing Properly

(Photo: ©myspace.com/moicaprice)

The Danish 4-piece band with the French name 'Moi Caprice' is still relatively unknown in Europe, although they have already written pop history at home. With their song The Sun & The Silence, they were the first unsigned band ever to go to the top of the Alternative Charts. This still didn’t stop them and instead catapulted them into the upper league of Danish indie music at the end of the nineties. Their third album, The Art of Kissing Properly, distinguishes itself through intelligent text and wonderful, melancholy pop melodies. Singer and writer Michael Moller packs so much passion, pain and suffering into his voice that it sometimes almost pains you. Sweet, dulcet melodies for the days on which you simply want to stay in bed and pull the covers over your head

Divine Records

Released January 2008

Beni Snassen: Spleen et Idéal

Rapper, author and poet Abd al Malik brought the collective Kollektiv Beni Snassen into life in 2007. The name of the crew eludes on the one hand to a French freedom movement which fought against Hilter in the second world war, and on the other hand to an area in the east of Morocco, from which many of the members stem.

Their first album Spleen et Ideal is now available in record shops. Top critics have already included Beni Snassen in front of institutions like the high-class, French music magazine Les Inrockuptibles, who compare the musicians to Jean-Paul Sartre: 'they have both shown that one can press ahead with things in a collective'. Remixed and arranged by Renaud Letang, who is known through his work with high-class musicians like Feist or Philippe Katerine, Spleen et Ideal is by far more than a typical rap album

Beni Snassen: Spleen et Idéal

Gibraltar

Released January 2008

Homepage photo: Brisa Roché's 'Takes' (©Ami Barwell)

Story by

sandra wickert

Translated from Café Label im Februar