Belle &
SebastianFormed in Glasgow in
1996, Belle & Sebastian quickly made a name for themselves with their
distinctive, folk-tinged indie pop, even winning a Brit Award for best
newcomer. Belle & Sebastian's Richard Colburn
speaks exclusively with
Amazon.co.uk's Robert Burrow about fame, music and the dangers of live
television.
"I think that's all very silly. It was fun winning
the Brit Award, but that's just one award. There's a poll every week called the
charts, which Steps always beat us in."
Ben
KwellerAs the former
singer/songwriter for indie-rock prodigies
Radish, Ben Kweller showed a lot of promise as a
teenage musician. It's therefore apt that his solo debut
Sha
Sha is an excellent collection of catchy indie-pop. As an
Amazon.co.uk
guest editor, he picks
some of his favourite albums.
"Nirvana was my favourite childhood band. They are
the Beatles of my generation. And it still makes my stomach hurt when I think
about how everything went down. I am still so crushed."
Black Box
RecorderLuke Haines, as the
creative force behind the
Auteurs,
Baader
Meinhof and
Black
Box Recorder, has gained a reputation as the angry young man of
Britpop. In all his guises, his albums are characterised by his cynical wit,
sharp-tongued lyrics and well-crafted, tuneful pop. Amazon.co.uk contributor
Andrew Mueller
speaks with Luke Haines
after the release of the Auteur's
How I Learned To Love
The Bootboys.
"Things like '1967' and 'The Rubettes' were
conceived as totally anti-irony songs because I was, and still am, absolutely
and completely sick of irony in music."
Bloodhound
GangPerhaps the funniest
baggy-shorts-wearing Yanks to break into the UK charts, Bloodhound Gang apply
their formula of juvenile thrash-hop to all the tracks on
Hooray For
Boobies. Amazon.co.uk contributor Andrew Mueller
speaks exclusively with
the band who refuse to grow up.
"If you're making a record, you're talking about
five guys stuck with each other in a studio for six months, and so my goal is
to make them laugh. You forget that other people are going to hear
it."
Billy
BraggSinger/songwriter Billy
Bragg is no stranger to controversy. Outspoken and intelligent, Bragg has
earned a reputation as one of the UK's most vocal social critics. So it comes
as a bit of a surprise that on his 2002 album
England, Half
English, Bragg is also an ardent and proud Englishman. As
Amazon.co.uk
guest editor, he takes us
through some the albums that influenced him.
"People sometimes look at the charts and assume that
the singer/songwriting tradition is dead but this LP suggests otherwise. It's
full of beautiful songs by some bands I'd heard of but a lot I
hadn't."
BroadcastBroadcast's debut,
The Noise Made By
People is full of wonderful torch songs in modernist settings--a
welcome breeze of good old-fashioned electronic noir in the harsh glare of 21st
-century hyper beats. Amazon.co.uk's Louis Pattison
speaks exclusively with
Trish Keenan (vocals) during their recent UK tour.
"Ennio Morricone. He's someone who really deserves
an award because he's brought so much to music--not pop music, but to music in
a broader sense."
LTJ BukemAlongside former
labelmates, Photek and Peshay, LTJ Bukem is one of the finest creators of deep,
cinematic, drum & bass. In the past 10 years he has consolidated his
career and label Goodlooking by spreading the drum & bass gospel through
the fantastic Logical Progression series. Amazon.co.uk writer, Maxine Kabuubi
speaks to him on the eve of
the release of his debut album,
Journey
Inwards about his wayward youth, house music, Chick Corea and
his obsession with Lonnie Liston Smith and the Fender Rhodes.
"...I didn't want to have forced vocals in drum 'n'
bass because that kind of thing has to happen naturally."
Casey
ChambersProving once again that
the best country music isn't about where you're from but where you're at,
Australian singer-songwriter Kasey Chambers takes another step towards country
legend on her second album,
Barricades &
Brickwalls. As guest editor of Amazon.co.uk's Country Music
category, Chambers
picks some of the albums
which influenced her own music.
"
May
Day changed the way I looked at music and it will always hold a
special place in my heart"
Chaurasia &
ShamraSince the release of
Call of the
Valley in 1967, flautist Hariprasad Chaurasia and santoor player
Shivkumar Sharma, two of India's most respected classical musicians, have
entranced audiences the world over with the subtlety and sheer beauty of their
performances. Together again for the album
Rasdhara
, they
talk to Amazon.co.uk.
"The rag
system has got timings from morning
to afternoon, from evening to late night, so why not create a story where we
can bring out these things?"
Marshall
ChessMarshall Chess probably
knows more than anyone about the blues history celebrated in
The Chess Story
1947-1975. As the boss's son, he grew up beside such legends as
Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf and gathered a
wealth of stories about
the men who made the blues.
"Muddy once wrote a poem for me to give a girl. I
wish I still had it!"
The
ChieftainsLongevity is the name of
the game for Irish troubadours, the Chieftains. Their latest album,
Water From the
Well follows a much more traditional route than last year's
star-studded,
Tears of Stone
. During a career that stretches back 40 years
the band have settled into their role as both ambassadors for Irish traditonal
music and collaborators par excellence. Amazon.co.uk's Phil Udell dropped in on
front man, Paddy Moloney to
talk about the band's
latest musical journey.
"There were great fears in the 40s and 50s that it
was going to die away, because the young people were into pop and rock &
roll. It began to come back and of course it has gone right across the
world."
ColdplayThe understated genius of
Coldplay returns with the release of
A Rush of Blood to
the Head, the much-anticipated follow up to the band's
world-conquering debut,
Parachutes. Amazon.co.uk contributor
Paul Tierney
speaks with the band on
the eve of the album's release.
"...we still have the same priorities--to have
sincerity and emotion in our music, and tunes."
