Quarterlifeparty

Two of my favorite albums of the year are officially out today:  Sally Shapiro’s My Guilty Pleasure and Mew’s No More Stories…

On first listen to Guilty Pleasure i was kind of skeptical, while it was certainly catchy and still had very much of a Sally Shapiro “sound” to it, the themes were almost opposite from Disco Romance.  Where her debut touched on the awesome, almost ignorance-is-bliss, aspects of the beginning stages of a relationship, Guilty Pleasure finds her on the other end…the end where things didn’t quite work out as planned in those early stages and all almost seems lost…and feels especially lonely.

After listening to the album more though, it’s those more serious/somber themes  that make me enjoy it even more than Disco Romance.  I guess it’s a more heavy album from an emotional standpoint, which took a bit to grow on me, but now i appreciate even more for it.  The beauty of Shapiro is that she can take these almost heartbreaking tracks and make them sound beautifully full of hope.

Sally Shapiro – Miracle (MP3)

Also out today is Mew’s No More Stories, which goes the opposite route of the poppy Shapiro, and heads deep into psychedelic prog territory.  I’ve talked about how much we like this album, so all i can say now is we highly recommend it.  1st half = catchy rock songs with great licks, 2nd half = deeper down the rabbit hole into more experimental areas of sonic adventure (with even some slower songs thrown in there).  That’s the quick review.

Mew – Repeaterbeater (MP3)

BONUS: Sally Shapiro’s producer/beat master Johan Agebjörn just come out with a sweet italo-disco mix for FACT Magazine that you can download for FREE here.  I listened to it on my drive home yesterday and it’s really really good.

UPDATE:  Turns out Sally Shapiro is also giving away another track off the album, “Dying in Africa”, which is a cover of Nicolas Makelberge’s 2006 version.

Sally Shapiro – Dying in Africa (MP3)

Tags: Uncategorized, johan agebjorn , Mew , sally shapiro

Here’s the new video for “Love in July”, the latest single off of Sally Shapiro’s upcoming album My Guilty Pleasure.  I think Pixar might have a copyright infringement case on their hands here…only in this case the special effects are really cheesy…but cheesy in a way that only the swedes can make it work.  You crazy swedes you.  As Sally describes: ” In this music video a whale and a fish fall in love, get surrounded by ice, but the sun of July melts the ice and makes love possible.”

Like i said, you lovable, crazy swedes you.

I’ve been listening to an early copy of My Guilty Pleasure and I have to say that i think Shapiro fans will dig it; maybe not as good as Disco Romance, as it’s less of a dancy affair, but still really good for late summer nights.  Not sure what that means, but it makes sense to me.  Think less Annie and more Chromatics style on this one.

Sally Shapiro – Love In July (MP3)

Love In July

Tags: Uncategorized, sally shapiro

Sally Shapiro just released her first single, “Miracle”, last week and is now offering up a remix by Bogdan Irkük. Yah umlauts.  It’s more good space-disco jams.  If you like Sally’s previous stuff, or lindtrom you will probably love this.  It goes through various keys as well as what almost seems like various acts, and sometimes gets a bit redundant, but i’m s sucker for this stuff.  Did we mention she’s coming out with a new album?

Sally Shapiro – Miracle (Bogdan Irkük remix)

Tags: Uncategorized, bogdan irkuk , sally shapiro

Via Sally Shapiro’s myspace blog:

Hello everyone

The second Sally Shapiro album “My Guilty Pleasure” will be released on August 25th and is currently at the pressing plant! It features collaborations with Cloetta Paris and Tensnake and a lot of songwriting assistance from Roger Gunnarsson. On the whole it’s a romantic pop disco album just like “Disco Romance” but maybe a bit more varied in style. We’re very happy with it.

Tags: Uncategorized, sally shapiro

I wonder if Johan Agebjörn is always gonna have to put Sally Shapiro in parenthesis after his name. He really shouldn’t as he’s a great “producer” in his own right, but i guess Agebjörn isn’t the easiest name to remember (ok, maybe i just keep using his name to show off my umlaut typing skills). This is a remix he did for Swedish band Friday Bridge that is a nice down-tempo, yet still dancey, disco-house number (shocker) that sounds like the spaced out stuff I have come to expect from Agebjörn. Apparently Friday Bridge are pretty big over in that neck of the woods.

Friday Bridge – This Case Is Closed (Johan Agebjörn remix)

btw – there were 5 umlaut’s used in this post…a new Quarterlieparty record!

Tags: Uncategorized, johan agebjorn , sally shapiro

Short and sweet. good stuff.

Akron/Family – River (MP3)

Off their  album Set ‘Em Wild, Set ‘Em Free, out this week.

Peaches – Talk To Me (MP3)

Off her album I Feel Cream, also out this week.

Sally Shapiro – Miracle (MP3)

Off her 12″ of the same name, out June 16th

Tags: Uncategorized, akron/family , peaches , sally shapiro

I got pretty big into nu-disco and italo-disco last year, mainly due to the Milky Disco compilation. Thanks to Sally Shapiro’s sidekick Johan Agebjörn, i have been informed Lo Recordings will be coming out with it’s sequel, Milky Disco II: Let’s Go Freak Out, on May 18th, and it will feature a remix of Glass Candy’s “The Chameleon” from Johan himself.   Sweet.

Johan says:

Hi
I’ve made a remix of Glass Candy’s “The Chameleon”.
The remix will be out on May 18th on the double CD Milky Disco II on Lo Recordings.

It’s very close to the original the first few minutes but then it evolves to a dubby ambient-disco remix. Hope you like it.

Cheers,
Johan.

Dubby indeed.  Did i just hear space layzzers?   nice.

Glass Candy – The Chameleon (johan agebjorn remix)

Full double disk (!) tracklist after the jump:

Tags: Uncategorized, sally shapiro

According to Sally and Johan (via Johan’s myspace blog):

We have rediscovered the joy in making music! Most of the new album is finished and it will be released some time this year and probably a single befo

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It makes perfect sense that eventually my musical journey would lead me to Italo Disco, specifically space disco. I mean i love dance music, specifically dance music that is heavy on synthesizers. My recent interest in italo disco started when i first heard Sally Shapiro, Glass Candy, and Chromatics’ take on the genre. Earlier this summer i was stuck in a dub phase, so it makes perfect sense that the transition from spaced out reggae to spaced out disco would be next.

Tags: Uncategorized, chromatics , lindstrom , morgan geist , sally shapiro