Friendly Fires

Another great video (and song) that Logo’s New Now Next turned me on to is the latest single “Kiss of Life” by the UK’s Friendly Fires. Their debut album (of the same name) was released in September 1 of 2008 and will be released again almost a year later on the 31st of this month. I suspect that this re-release has something to do with the fact that Friendly Fires has been nominated for a coveted Mercury Prize for their 2008 work. Friendly Fires are an English band from St. Albans, Hertfordshire and can loosely be classified as synth pop.

I remember seeing a video for one of their previous singles and not being overly excited about it but “Kiss of Life” is great. It’s the sort of song, much like the Amadou and Marium albums, that conjures up feelings of joy. At the same time, it’s sonically complex with a lot going rhythmically. There is something oddly attractive and unattractive at the same time about lead singer Ed Macfarlane in this video. I love the dancing, which has a camp/cool quality that makes me think of the way I danced in the 80′s to New Wave.

Boney M

My partner Adi and I both loved this song and video but he’s the one who recognized a song from his childhood that is very similar to Friendly Fires “Kiss of Life”. It’s the German group called Boney M who were Euro favorites mostly in the 80′s but seemed to still be (re)releasing some new music, including Felicidad America (Obama Obama) to celebrate the fact that Obama won the presidency in the U.S.

The Boney M song that Adi recognized as having a similar beat and background vocals to Friendly Fires’ “Kiss of Life” is “Gotta Go Home“, which is a Double A-side single that reached No. 12 on the UK charts and was their final No. 1 single in Germany.

Listen to both of these and see what you think. Similar enough to be a sample or just a vague similarity? I didn’t see anything else in the blogosphere written out this. Could I (or Adi) be the first to discover it?

Friendly Fires “Kiss of Life”

Boney M “Gotta Go Home”

Leave a comment and let me know what you think!

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School of Seven Bells

Okay, so I just have to quickly post about this. I got School of Seven Bells LP Alpinisms a few weeks ago after having read an intriguing article about them in Spin magazine. I really hadn’t listened to the LP after I first got it but then I happened upon the video for Half Asleep – their lead single – and I was mesmerized and remembered the article and that I needed to listen to the album. I guess this is multimedia working at its best to culminate in this post, which of course, will be read by millions.

I loved the image of School of Seven Bells – former Secret Machines guitarist Ben Curtis + two gorgeous identical twins (Claudia and Alejandra Dehaza) of Columbian ancestry combine to create dreamy, Cocteau-”twins”esque, shoegazing pop music. On first listening to Alpinisms, I wasn’t awestruck by every track but Half Asleep is fantastic.

The lyrics really work with the music. And the twins harmonies are extraordinary. This might not make any sense when reading it but when hearing it with the music as a backdrop, it’s really addictive:

What begins as an unguarded
train of thoughts slowly can become
an addiction to the slumber
of disconnection and the resonance
of memory that no longer has a shape
but keeps you numb through
the hours tills gone is another day

Here are the full lyrics. School of Seven Bells were recently spotlighted on NPR. Not sure how long this video link will stay on YouTube but if it’s working, enjoy. I’ve also posted the .mp3 of Half Asleep.03-half-asleep

Let me know what you think.

See my review of School of Seven Bells’ Disconnect from Desire

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