• Send us Mail
  • Follow us on Twitter
  • Join our Facebook Group
  • Subscribe to our RSS Feed
  • Search Site

Polari Magazine

  • Home
  • Up Front
    • Editorial
    • Clementine: The Living Fashion Doll
    • Polari Safari
    • WTF? Friday
    • Bulletin Board
    • Polari Facts
  • Features
    • Interviews
    • Features
    • Gallery
    • Opinion
    • Heroes & Villains
  • Community
    • Oral Histories
    • Coming Out Stories
    • Relationships
    • IDAHO
    • LGBT History Month
    • Blogs
  • Reviews
    • Books
    • Film and Television
    • Music
    • Stage
    • Visual Arts
    • Classics: Books
    • Classics: Film and Television
    • Classics: Music
  • About
    • About Polari Magazine
    • Contributors
    • Contact

You are here: Polari Magazine / Polari HQ / Polari HQ • What are we listening to?

Polari HQ • What are we listening to?

01 Sep 2012 / Comments Off / in Polari HQ/by Designer

What music are we listening to at Polari HQ this week?

Eric Anderson – Coexist by XX

Since The XX won the Mercury Music Prize they’ve been endlessly covered and sampled. Every time I turn on the TV it’s like Romy Madley Croft’s hauntingly beautiful soft voice is being played over slowed down footage of some new reality-show star experiencing triumph or defeat. Now listening to their new album titled Coexist I’m once again swept away by the minimal beauty of a few electronic beats and sonorous guitar string plucks overlapping with mournful voices. The sounds are similar to the first album but there is a growing maturity in the words and rhythm focusing mainly on the pleasures and pangs of love. The sincere heartfelt sweetness of ‘Angels’ is so gorgeously expressed I’m hoping this song will completely overshadow that soporific Robbie Williams tune. In ‘Missing’ there is a pregnant pause so powerful that when Oliver Sim’s voice finally breaks it the song makes me literally shiver. It’s an impressively beautiful collection perfect for a contemplative mood. I’m savouring and enjoying it now before these new tunes are spun through our popular culture and flattened out simplifying the emotion that is so achingly present.

 

Little Bastard – Thee Physical by Pictureplanes

Imagine if you took Destroy Rock & Roll by Mylo, the debut album by Crystal Castles, a load of CDs you had in the ’90s and smashed them on the floor, (then) gluing all the pieces into one big CD, and listened to the result. Add in some tie-dye and some brothel creepers, and you’re some way to what Pictureplanes album Thee Physical sounds like. Released last year, it’s taken me a while to discover – I started boycotting anything East London in protest of East London “Hipster” fashion and music becoming “High Street”. But with the onset of Hipster popstars like Charli XCX and Grimes, my love of Crystal Castles and random electronic drug music soundscapes, it was going to catch up with me eventually. From its Paul Verhoven inspired artwork, through to the fuzzy trance like sounds and samples, and with track names like ‘Black Nails’ and ‘Trancegender’, this album is my summer chill out. When it’s late, and so hot I need to crack open the windows, with the lights off, and a cold cider in one hand, THIS is what I’m listening to!

 

Scott De Buitléir – Myrra Rós Þrastardóttir

Myrra Rós Þrastardóttir is an Icelandic singer/songwriter from Reykjavík who I came across by accident on YouTube, like most great musical discoveries these days. When singing with just guitar, there is a quality to her music that almost resembles American folk, but she has also experimented with more ambient/experimental styles (check out ‘Morse Codes’ for example). She sings in both English and Icelandic with a gentle but husky voice that could easily soothe you to sleep. Introduce yourself to her by listening to ‘The House The Home,’ but don’t be intimidated by her Icelandic songs – the melody alone is worth the listen: Myrra Rós Þrastardóttir on Soundcloud.

 

Walter Beck – Long Way From Home by Mississippi Fred McDowell

Mississippi Fred McDowell once declared famously “I do not play no rock n roll” and this 1966 LP is about as stripped down as it gets, a collection of nine acoustic blues numbers of just McDowell and his guitar. McDowell was a master at hypnotic, driving chords and this album showcases some of his best, cuts like ‘The Train I Ride’, ‘Millionaire’s Daughter Blues’ and my personal favorite on this record ‘Poor Boy Long Way from Home’.

After a long day of working at the gas station, dealing with griping customers and various technological apparatuses that don’t work (i.e. the credit card reader), it’s nice to come home and crank up some old delta-style blues. Sure, I could come home and let some heavy metal rip, release a bit of tension that way (Lord knows I’ve done it before), but there’s something about McDowell’s voice and hypnotic guitar that lets me relax without the side effect of being pissed off. And as a bonus, there’s nothing like writing some new poetry with the sounds of good, swinging delta blues in the background.

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Tumblr
  • Pinterest
Tags: coexist, long way from home, mississippi fred mcdowell, myrra rós prastardóttir, pictureplanes, polari listening, three physical, what we're listening to, xx

Related Posts

Did you like this entry?
Here are a few more posts that might be interesting for you.
Related Posts
What are we listening to? September 8, 2012, Polari Magazine, gay online magazine Polari HQ • What are we listening to?
Polari HQ • What are we listening to?
Polari HQ • What are we listening to?
Polari HQ • What Did We Listen To in 2012?
What Are We Listening To? Polari Magazine, a gay online magazine, regular feature. Polari HQ • What are we listening to?

Search Polari

Latest Posts

  • Polari Magazine 2008-2014December 3, 2014 - 6:16 pm
  • Tearing Up Their Map: An Interview with LambDecember 2, 2014 - 2:45 pm
  • Future Islands • GigDecember 2, 2014 - 1:41 pm
  • Puppets with Attitude (at Christmas)December 1, 2014 - 6:30 pm
  • The Aesthetic of Voyeurism: Interview with Antonio Da SilvaDecember 1, 2014 - 1:25 pm
  • Broke With Expensive Taste • Azealia BanksNovember 28, 2014 - 3:59 pm
  • Royalty Strutting on an American College Stage: Miss and Mr. Gay ISU 2014November 27, 2014 - 2:59 pm
  • Bright Light Bright Light: Everything I Ever WantedNovember 26, 2014 - 11:15 am
  • Jaime Nanci And The Blueboys: ‘Toy’ TalkNovember 25, 2014 - 4:09 pm

About Polari Magazine

Polari Magazine is an LGBT arts and culture magazine that explores the subculture by looking at what is important to the people who are in it. It’s about the lives we lead, not the lifestyles we’re supposed to lead.

Its content is informed & insightful, and features a diverse range of writers from every section of the community. Its intent is to help LGBT readers learn about their own heritage and to sustain a link between the present and the past.

Polari is designed to nurture the idea of community, whether that be social and political, or artistic and creative. It is your magazine, whether you want to read it, or whether you want to get involved in it, if you're gay, lesbian, bisexual, trans, or queer.

Polari Magazine is all these: it's a gay online magazine; it's a gay and lesbian online magazine; it's an LGBT arts and culture magazine. Ultimately, it is a queer magazine.

Latest Posts

  • Polari Magazine 2008-2014December 3, 2014 - 6:16 pm
  • Tearing Up Their Map: An Interview with LambDecember 2, 2014 - 2:45 pm
  • Future Islands • GigDecember 2, 2014 - 1:41 pm
  • Puppets with Attitude (at Christmas)December 1, 2014 - 6:30 pm
  • The Aesthetic of Voyeurism: Interview with Antonio Da SilvaDecember 1, 2014 - 1:25 pm
  • Broke With Expensive Taste • Azealia BanksNovember 28, 2014 - 3:59 pm
  • Royalty Strutting on an American College Stage: Miss and Mr. Gay ISU 2014November 27, 2014 - 2:59 pm
  • Bright Light Bright Light: Everything I Ever WantedNovember 26, 2014 - 11:15 am
  • Jaime Nanci And The Blueboys: ‘Toy’ TalkNovember 25, 2014 - 4:09 pm

Twitter

Tweets by @PolariMagazine

Archive

  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012
  • November 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • August 2012
  • July 2012
  • June 2012
  • May 2012
  • April 2012
  • March 2012
  • February 2012
  • January 2012
  • December 2011
  • November 2011
  • October 2011
  • September 2011
  • July 2011
  • April 2011
  • March 2011
  • February 2011
  • January 2011
  • December 2010
  • November 2010
  • October 2010
  • September 2010
  • August 2010
  • July 2010
  • May 2010
  • April 2010
  • March 2010
  • February 2010
  • January 2010
  • December 2009
  • November 2009
  • October 2009
  • September 2009
  • August 2009
  • July 2009
  • May 2009
  • March 2009
  • February 2009
  • January 2009
  • December 2008
© Copyright - Polari Magazine - Wordpress Theme by Kriesi.at
  • scroll to top
  • Send us Mail
  • Follow us on Twitter
  • Join our Facebook Group
  • Subscribe to our RSS Feed
Website Privacy & Cookies