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Anouk (The Netherlands)

I was introduced to Anouk, thanks to my involvement in The Countdown. She strikes me as an amazingly sultry, sexy lady with a gorgeously rich voice and an amazing line-up of songs. My judgement of her as not being as popular as I think she deserves is simply based on me not seeing her on our music channels here in New Zealand. I have no idea how popular she has managed to get in either the US or UK markets, or anywhere else. I gather that she does well within the Dutch market. However, I have included her here because I think she has a talent that could fairly take her worldwide.



My personal favourite is one of her older songs, the rock-out 'Today', but I also just watched her video for 'For Bitter Or Worse (De Gelukkige Huisvrouw version)'and it has left me really wanting to watch the movie! I assume it is available with English sub-titles for us linguistically-limited.

Marina & The Diamonds - "Mowgli's Road"

Now, I suspect that in a fairly short time period people are going to be saying "But she is really popular" and she quite possibly is in the UK already. However, as this is currently one of my most favoured songs and it isn't on the radio here, yet (and I will be surprised if it ever turns up), I wish to include it.

My first impression of this song was that it was somewhat odd, but extremely interesting. The title immediately had me thinking of Jungle Book, and the tone of the song took me to Alice's Wonderland. Marina's voice is amazing - she goes all over the scale perfectly in a melody that is not instantly predictable - my kind of music!

I invite you to view the video:



In my opinion, the video's minimalistic appearance let's the song down a wee bit, but the weirdness of the concept certainly fits with the tone. I still can't get the weird fairytale imagery out of my head, and would love to have seen a video that enhanced the thrill-of-the-chase feel of the song.



Still, I look forward to seeing/hearing a lot more from Marina.

Tiki Taane - "Tangaroa (God of the Sea)"

This song has the power to bring tears to my eyes.

This is a little bit of Kiwi self-indulgence for my second post. This song is actually a couple of years old now, but I doubt much of the rest of the world has paid any attention to it.

The main reason I put this song here is because when I first heard it I totally loved it - for it's own musical merits, but also because it showcases the Maori language - something we don't get enough of in mainstream Kiwi music. It has a bit of a dance rhythm to it, wonderful bass (esp. @ about 3mins 5secs) and a great modern, yet tribal sound. A few months after 'Tangaroa' came out, Tiki released a second single, 'Always on my mind' a low key acoustic number that took off in popularity and got played on a very regular basis. To me, this was almost devastating. 'Tangaroa' is a much more powerful and interesting song than 'Always..' but with 'Always..' being a love-song, it just had that much more commercial appeal. I actually developed a little bit of a loathing for it (until I heard 'Always on my dub mind' on Tiki's album "Past, Present & Future") just because of the appeal that it recieved over the awesome 'Tangaroa'.

Here is the video (via YouTube) for your enjoyment:



I managed to locate the Lyrics/Translation here:

Ko Papatuanuku me Ranginui nga matua o te ao
I puta mai nga tamariki nga Atua o te ao
He Atua o te moana
Ko Tangaroa he Atua o te moana
Tu mai te ihi
Tu mai te wehiwehi
Tu mai te wanawana e
Hi ha aue

From the divine heartbeat of Mother Earth and the ever-elusive constant of Sky Father
All descend and all ascend the natural world
The timeless current of tranquil stillness
The harmonic music of ones infinite ocean
Resilient are the vital influences of the universe
Stand liberated by the inner radiance
Be still be silent and all shall be revealed

Na Uekaha Taanetinorau nga kupu Maori, na Tamiaho Herangi-Searancke te whakapakehatia

Lyrics written by Uekaha, translation by Tamiaho

All music by Tiki Taane

Tiki's solo work is not available on Amazon at this time, but a few collaborations are, including the very awesome Inside the Dub Plates - highly recommended.

Eiffel - "A Tout Moment La Rue"

Hello and welcome to my first post!

I start with this French song, released fairly recently, I believe in mid-2009.

The song starts quietly and soon builds intensity as various instruments and the lead vocalist each come in in their own time. Due to my lack of French, I can't really sing along to this song, but my enjoyment comes mostly from the emotion that the song elicits. It builds intensity through verses and bridges only to suddenly ease back to light-hearted whistling. I truly love how the lead vocalist sings with such a passion that I think takes the listeners well passed any language barrier,

To form your own opinion, feel free to check out the video:



The song is also available on Amazon:

I would be very interested if a French listener could do a fairly comprehensive translation into English so that I, and others, might have a greater understanding of this awesome song - Google Translate can only really do so much.