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Phantasmelodia: The Orphic Music Book among the pages of which lies a collection of sublime songs that titillate the soul, ignite the dreams, trigger the imagination and embrace the emotions.

Trip Hop - Phantasmelodia

Virgin State of Mind - K's Choice

May 29th 2008 13:49
Buffy the Vampire Slayer - The Album - Various Artists
Buffy the Vampire Slayer - The Album by Various Artists

Moony flutes merge into children laughter that reverberate in the distance as perplexed lyrics play with the listener... Virgin State of Mind, Belgian alternative rock band K's Choice's contribution to Buffy the Vampire Slayer - The Album, creates a relaxed ambiance that contradicts with the lyrics yet perfectly suits the scene it was featured in the popular TV series.


K's Choice was founded by siblings Sarah and Gert Bettens when Sarah got a record contract. The band was formed to complement her husky yet powerful voice but soon became a group on their own and released their debut album, The Great Subconscious Club. Although the album was well received, global acclaim for the band did not come until 2 years later when the second album Paradise in Me and its opening song "Not an Addict" hit the spotlight. The song was an immediate international success which opened brand new dimensions for them, like being handpicked by Alanis Morissette as her support group on tour. Their fourth and last installment Almost Happy hit the stores in 2000 after which the siblings decided to go solo. Sarah and Gert have been releasing albums individually (Sarah as a solo artist and Gert with his band Woodface) ever since. In March, 2008, they reunited for 4 exclusive unplugged performances in the USA and it is announced that a brand new K's Choice album is scheduled for 2009. Updates can be followed through their official site that can be reached at the Ink Blots below.


The band is seen performing Virgin State of Mind in an actual scene that takes place in the fictional bar, Bronze, during the episode "Doppelgangland". While the band plays, Evil Willow, a vampire reflection of Willow from an alternative reality, roams the streets of Sunnydale in utmost bewilderment. This is Evil Willow's second appearance on screen, the first being during the episode "The Wish" where patron saint of scorned women, Anyanka grants a wish for Cordelia. She chooses to have a Sunnydale where Buffy has never existed and this leads to the drastic vampire domination upon Hellmouth. Willow, one of the leading vampires in this reality, is drawn to the Sunnydale that we all love and enjoy by a spell gone wrong in Doppelgangland. Her obvious puzzlement is augmented by the company of Virgin State of Mind.

The song makes her entree with children laughing and a wistful flute riff that glitters and dims through the track,

"There's a chair in my head on which I used to sit
Took a pencil and I wrote the following on it
Now there's a key where my wonderful mouth used to be"

The innocence of being locked up in one's mind is ephemeral once the door is unlocked. All those unearthed ideas, all those unspoken hopes towards the future, the excitement of being young, dreamy and unstained by life's shady realities are priceless as they last. Then comes a time when one breaks the cocoon and steps outside into the real world. So many possibilities await, so many things to experiment and choose from... but where would one go? What would they choose?

"Where can I run to, where can I hide?
Who will I turn to now I'm in a virgin state of mind?"

What is wrong, right, acceptable, unacceptable, good, bad...? They will all shape and reshape as their lives continue to unveil in front of them. As one gets older, they will slowly draw their limits and cast the borders of the person they are. But that initial moment of stepping outside overflows with uncertainties.

"Can I burn the mazes I grow?
Can I, I don't think so?"

All those uncertainties dissolve as one grows to find out that the seemingly limitless possibilities can be limited, the world is not as big, wide and waiting as they thought and hopes have the luxury to remain unfulfilled. However, the wisdom of growing up lies in the ability to be content with what one has. They might choose to have more but still be happy with what they currently possess in the process. That's the secret life has in store for all human beings -- Look at the horizon but don't forget to smile at your surroundings. Be open to new journeys as you travel merrily on your route.

Ironically, for the most part, that secret has the tendency to be revered and understood long after the mind looses its virginity, long after the colorful years of youth remain in the past and once the humility of being old and wise sinks in.

Then again, doesn't the joy of living lie in the lessons yet to be learned?


Ink Blots

Browse music online at IMEEM

Buy Buffy the Vampire Slayer - The Album online at Amazon

Meet the artist K's Choice at kschoice.com

Read the entire lyrics at azlyrics
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Posted By: Ayda - Category: Trip Hop, Soundtrack
   


All I Need - Radiohead

May 22nd 2008 16:27
In Rainbows - Radiohead
In Rainbows by Radiohead

Xylophone, with its immaculate and naive sound, has always been a favorite adornment for the British alternative rock band Radiohead. However, it has rarely ever sounded this dramatic, this heart-tugging as it does in All I Need. Elevating the listener to a neglected, barren universe in need of affection, the song in its entirety is a fiesta full of engulfing dreams. It is the next generation Creep with a better ambiance and a music video to ponder on.


Radiohead made their debut with Creep which opened the doors of international stardom for the band. Tom Yorke's desperation-filled falsettos merged into the song's inferiority complex perfectly. Bands such as Coldplay and Muse were soon to follow the same musical path which turned out to be quite fruitful. Ever since 1993, the year Creep became a worldwide hit, Radiohead has increased their fame and influence with many more breakthrough songs such as the guitary Paranoid Android, the sour No Surprises, the Clueless-featured Fake Plastic Trees and less mainstream tracks such as Subterranean Homesick Alien, How To Disappear Completely, Exit Music (for a Film) etc.

Male falsetto's superficial sound (it is the very same sound when a guy uses to comically impersonate the female sound) is easy to reflect disturbance. Unless trained for the opera, it does not sound easy on the ears. However, now and then comes a vocalist, such as Dolores O'Riordan of The Cranberries or Thom Yorke, who is inventive (genius?) enough to use falsetto in their vocals to a dramatic effect.

All I Need inherits an ambient start as if drifting out in the void, approaching to the unknown. This would be a very fitting dream sequence theme until the vocals in despair make themselves heard,

"I'm the next act
Waiting in the wings
I'm an animal
Trapped in your hot car"

Feeling like being suffocated during waiting times is suspense and time's worst trick on man. Eyes keep drifting to the clock or the phone, the emails are checked continuously, the lid of the mailbox is prone to abrasion and time seems to flow in the speed of tortoise which is its trademark dark humor. During those moments one wishes it went by slowly, time loves to fly away and when prayed it went faster, it ignores the plea entirely.

"I am all those days
You choose to ignore"

Unconditional love is the idealized form of love all human beings seek. To be loved by someone regardless instead of "on condition that" is what females openly and males implicitly look and hope for. Then again, seldom does one come across such form of heavenly love and it is usually in the form of a) first love or b) unilateral love, the former due to the innocence of the heart and the latter due to idolization.

"I am a moth
who just wants to share your light"

Sometimes one simply wishes to be with the other party. Simply be with them in the same room, in the same place is all they ask because love has its own eyes and those are the same beholder eyes that beauty is in. Even to be left out in the "ignored days" does not effect the vision the eyes of the beholder see. Those eyes only see one thing anyway.

"I only stick with you
Because there are no others"


When love is blind and operates on the heart instead of the brain, it feels as if there is only one sun to revolve around. The rest of the world fades back in the background and what was once a shadow suddenly shines through. People and nature slowly hush in a decrescendo until there's only one voice left in the air.

"Love has four seasons" says John Gray, writer of Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus. According to him, the summer of love is the period when both parties are head over heels in love and only have (beholder) eyes for each other. The partner seems fresh out of one's dreams. He/she bears no wrong, can do no harm and is the epitome of perfection.

"You're all I need
I'm in the middle of your picture
Lying in the reeds"


The helplessness and feeling so small across something so strong are pungently delineated throughout All I Need. With its gloom and solitary dedication, the song is all about a long, lonely summer.


Ink Blots

Browse videos online at Dailymotion

Browse IMEEM's Radiohead Channel

Buy In Rainbows from Amazon

Meet the artist Radiohead at Radiohead.com

Read the entire lyrics at metrolyrics
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Posted By: Ayda - Category: Trip Hop, Alternative
   


Sandpaper Kisses - Martina Topley-Bird

May 20th 2008 21:46
Quixotic - Martina Topley-Bird
Quixotic by Martina Topley-Bird

A tempting bass, a seductive beat and lyrics that frown upon the double dealer contribute to the sensual Sandpaper Kisses of Tricky veteran Martina Topley-Bird. Featured in her first solo album Quixotic which was released in US lacking three tracks and under the title Anything, Sandpaper Kisses is a soft-spoken song that lowers the lights wherever one might be. It was also featured in the successful video/PS2 game Fahrenheit (Indigo Prophecy) as it plays on the stereo while one of the main characters, Carla Valenti, hangs around in her apartment.

Martina is the featured singer in the renown Maxinquaye and her laid back, hazy vocals simply shine in downtempo songs such as this one. She is originally from England and was nominated for a Mercury Prize (given to the best album produced in United Kingdom or Ireland each year) with Quixotic back in 2003. The winner was Dizzee Rascal's Boy In Da Corner but Martina had already won the admiration of critics and the hearts of her devotees by then. Her second album The Blue God hit the stores last week and reached #88 in UK charts in the blink of an eye.

Enhanced with fairy back vocals, unexpected industrial vibrations and lazy strings, Sandpaper Kisses is a "featherweight" track that is heavy on the artistic side. It starts with effects resembling the sound of an oar piercing the water and takes you to a moist voyage toward the shores of the Siren. It is an all-knowing approach towards betrayal.

"...Papercut bliss
Don't know what this is, but it all leads to this:
You're gonna leave her"

Although there's no point in escaping the fact, human beings find ill-solace in denial. Men tend to excuse themselves with nature, women find self-justification in emotional need... One way or another, someone gets hurt and innocence of love dies when the first tear born out of separation/disappointment falls.

"You have deceived Her
Just a girl"

Currently, the world cherishes, and adores the beauty of a woman who carries a tattoo on her side that reads: "There once was a little girl who never knew love, until a boy broke her heart". Hence, the girl is a girl no more once the naiveness fades. Be it physical, emotional or mental (and be it a boy or a girl for that matter), deception causes one to grow overnight. The more a person is betrayed, the older he/she gets.

The song elevates as Martina uprises,

"I want the soul of something simple to
take home with me
The world as someplace simple it's my
home you see"

and wishes for the masks to be dropped, the facts to be revealed and the lies to subside. As the world progresses, the amount of masks that one wears grow in numbers. How difficult breathing from behind a mask might be, even the thought of not wearing one is getting scarier. The less we are ourselves, the more we ache to be ourselves. The more disappointed we are in ourselves, the more disappointed we are in others.

Hence, some escape into the shadows of deception. Physically, emotionally, mentally, they cheat, betray, lie... and keep leaving others behind.

Left behind, the pearl of innocence (white) rots into a pearl of odium (red).

"Just a girl,
a blood red pearl"


Ink Blots

Browse music online at IMEEM

Buy Quixotic online from Amazon

Buy Anyhing online from Amazon

Meet the artist Martina Topley-Bird at martinatopleybird.com

Read the entire lyrics at Lyrics Depot
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Posted By: Ayda - Category: Trip Hop, Soundtrack
   


Innervoice - Hooverphonic

May 16th 2008 13:27
A New Stereophonic Sound Spectacular
A New Stereophonic Sound Spectacular by Hooverphonic

Opening with an echoing, eccentric guitar chord that slowly approaches from afar, Innervoice is a song of sour happiness from the Belgian rock/pop band Hooverphonic. Originally from their debut album, A New Stereophonic Sound Spectacular, the melody and lulling vocals of Liesje Sadonius are quick to create a soothing aura. However, the lyrics of this captivating piece contradict ironically with the calm flow of the track.

[ Click here to read more ]
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Posted By: Ayda - Category: Trip Hop
   




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