Cheque's in the Post

As a little aside, we've been listening to a lot of old Björk albums lately and the one that we keep coming back to is Post. So, it seems fateful that the excellent Stereogum have assembled quite a cast to record a special tribute to it. Acts including Liars, Atlas Sound, Dirty Projectors and Xiu Xiu have all attempted a track each and you can download the whole thing for free form here.

Dave Longstreth has this to say about why his band, Dirty Projectors, picked the amazing 'Hyperballad':
“I think what I took from Björk when I was obsessed with her in high school was her way with deconstruction. She writes these classic melodies but breaks them apart so that it’s sort of up to you as the listener to put them back together. The song ends up meaning so much more because of the effort you have to give to it. Out of a perverse habit, I tried to do the opposite with this recording: present the song like the unbroken stone it might have been. But I think I probably just arrived at a new deconstruction: Björk’s essence remains elusive!”

Amen to that!

The BRITS; best bits, shit bits

So, in case you didn't already know (and if you're part of the very small group of international readers, why would you?) the BRIT awards are taking place in a giant shed in London tonight. We've always had a love/hate relationship with these awards and will of course be tuning in, even if it's just to see if the Susan Boyle cameo materialises (we're banking on her dropping from the ceiling caked in fake blood during Lady GaGa's set, but it will more than likely be a duet on Robbie's 'Angels').

To get us in the mood, let's look at some of the performances that have summed up the awards in one way or another.

THE GOOD



Great pop song, cheeky 'mash-up' with another great song and an entrance on a GIANT CD! Hello!



Usually the pairing of two 'superstars' results in things like The Ting Tings and Estelle attempting to muster some stage presence, but this was small scale, bruised and strangely hypnotizing.



These things are all about superstars and you don't get much bigger or better than Beyoncé. She can even make cars levitate!

THE BAD



Dog shit song, dog shit band.



Like being locked in a room with a playschool teacher and his slightly alternative reading assistant.



She emerges from a giant vagina...

THE UGLY



We weren't ready for the Second Coming Michael.

Musick's Top 20 albums: 9

Dirty Projectors – Bitte Orca



Not many albums avoid pigeon-holing as keenly as Bitte Orca. Like the album’s title, things seem to have been thrown together because frontman Dave Longstreth thought they might sound good together and it’s to his infinite credit that they nearly always do. So, we get modern-day R&B as performed by four white folk from Brooklyn in the shape of ‘Stillness Is The Move’, cinematic chamber pop (‘Two Doves’) and discordant guitar noise peppering an otherwise sombre harmony-lead ditty (‘Temecula Sunrise’). Unlike most albums that try everything but master nothing, Bitte Orca works because the ideas never swallow the songs. ‘Useful Chamber’ may have undulating keyboard riffs and strange, backward noises, but it also has a brilliant melody and somehow all the fragments are held together. Plus, they’re Bjork’s favourite band, so, you know, it stands to reason that they’re amazing.

Key track: ‘Stillness Is The Move’

Seriously amazing video alert!

We're all for expensive videos with oodles of graphics, some lasers and a lighting rig that inadvertently melts an ice cap or twelve, but sometimes it's best to keep things simple.

This video for 'Reunited' by Fan Death takes a very simple idea (that of using lookalikes of famous singers) and turns it into a ridiculously creepy, almost Twin Peaks-style journey that culminates in some pretty amazing dance routines. Watch it until the very end to hear a special message from 'Billy Corgan'.

Please look out for the Bjork lookalike, who we're fairly certain was in the Stoke Newington branch of Morrisons just the other day.



The song is pretty amazing too. It's taken from their forthcoming EP Coin For The Well, which is out 'soon' according to their myspace.

Marin(a) wildlife

Just a quickie to flag up this new video for Marina & The Diamonds excellent new single 'I Am Not A Robot'. We've mentioned it before somewhere (not to mention interviewed the lady in question - EXCLUSIVE), but this Rankin-directed video gives us a reason to mention it again, which is lucky because the song is a corker.



Simple yet effective. The slow-mo, wind-swept bits remind us of Bjork's 'Hidden Place' video and the black glitter reminds us of an unfortunate accident at Playschool that we'd rather not talk about.

Wanna get dirrty

We like to think we've constantly got our fingers on the musical pulse, but sometimes we need a helping hand. On this particular occasion our guiding light was none other than Bjork. Always one to pick the best collaborators, Bjork announced a few months back that she would perform at a charity gig with New York's Dirty Projectors.



Who are this motley crew we asked ourselves? Well, they're fronted by a man called Dave Longstreth and there are five other people in the band (although not in the photo), some of whom are women and some of whom are men. Fascinating so far. They also make music that is difficult to categorise, relies heavily on vocals and can sometimes sound on the brink of collapse but beautiful at the same time. Sound familiar?

They have a new album coming out next week entitled Bitte Orca and from said album, this is 'Stillness Is The Move':



Below is some slightly dodgy footage of Bjork performing with Dirty Projectors on a song Longstreth composed especially for the one-off gig. Fast forward through all the talking and tuning up and get to the part with those amazing backing vocals and Bjork's passionate rasp, blurting out lyrics about whales and love.