Anna Morley is a classically trained vibraphone player from Australia, now living in Barcelona, and she’s quietly making a stir with her unique compositions. Morley works with London-based produced Alex Foster who adds gentle rhythms and heart-beat sized beats to her instrumentation. Along with the vibraphone, Morley occasionally adds her own vocals to tracks and plays the violin, keyboard, and an array of percussive instruments.
Her EP Character (from where these downloads originate) is a chilled-out ambient work and her debut album Red Balance (out today—stream it below) is equally crisp and clean, while a bit more bubbly, a refreshing soda pop on a summer day. Space-age bachelorette pad music at its finest. Although I think anyone, regardless of their marital status, will enjoy lounging to such a soundtrack.
If you’re fortunate enough to find yourself in Spain in the next couple weeks, be sure to check out her shows.
Es Lo Que Hay from Character (2009)
Today the Heart from Character (2009)
Let’s face it, 2010 was less than stellar at this url. The principals and our reviewers all dropped out of ear-shot simultaneously and for months 3hive has been out of commission. No particular reason really. Life unplugged us, and once unplugged it’s hard to get back into gear, back into the groove.
Phantogram sets the bar high for new music in 2010. Obvious comparisons to Portishead aside, this young duo easily hold their own. It’s a fine distinction, but Phantogram is more space-hop than trip-hop and “When I’m Small” throws down a groove of heavily plucked bass that brightens up the bedroom vocals and scratchy record sample circling its way through the track. About a third of the way through everything drops out except soft synth pulses and echoing guitar to highlight Sarah Barthel’s voice. Diamonds spill from this woman’s mouth every time she opens it! My limited judgment is based on this and a couple other tracks, but I’m happily prejudiced and waiting to be fully abducted by Eyelid Movies on February 9th (vinyl via Ghostly). 
Tycho’s latest single evokes the tranquil mood that accompanied my recent sunset chase here in Huntington Beach. A few years back my father pointed out that late in the year, and from the vantage point of the H.B. pier, the sun settles into the isthmus of Catalina Island. My father is full of such miscellany. For some reason, this year I had a major itch to witness this minor phenomena. To my surprise, I found no information online, so beginning winter solstice I closely monitored the coast trying to determine the D-day. My efforts did not go unrewarded. The area experienced scattered showers in December, which smeared plenty of clouds across the skies, clouds that bled all the warm colors of the rainbow. Sensing that was the day, I crammed kids and cousins into the car on New Year’s Eve and sped off to catch some dying rays. “Coastal Brake” provides that same warm, shimmering 
We just included Pocket’s Top 9 of 2009 in our on-going Best of 2009 lists from friends of the ‘hive. 
Working with a smaller affiliate, Moodgadget Records, Ghostly recently introduced to the world 38 tracks from 33 new electronic artists on two discs. (Qualifier: Some artists are newer than others, and one, Daniel Johnson, not so new at all, but new perhaps to many a Ghostly consumer). More than introducing new talent, The Nocturnal Suite reminds music aficionados once again that the electronic genre, especially in the hands of Sam Valenti IV and company, is neither narrow nor nostalgic. The compilation also demonstrates that these gatekeepers and soapboxers of the genre don’t discriminate on the basis of the quantity of electronic instruments utilized. Moodgadget like Ghostly eschews genre for aesthetics. 
The title of this first UltraChorus track reminds me of my five-year-old. He started talking later than most children do and he often uses his own syntax and vocabulary (he named his stuffed puppy LLPP, pronounced “lil-lip”). When he gets tired of listening to me, or anyone for that matter, he’ll shake his hands and say, “Too many words, Dad.” We’ve quickly adapted, for better or for worse, his version of English and whenever we’re bored of anyone’s verbal tirades, anytime their words keep talking and we’ve stopped listening, we shake our hands and repeat our kid’s mantra. Their single artwork offers a keen 
Hopefully this 3some will become a regular feature here. That’s the plan. The idea is to share more music more often and to do so in fun party packs, organized and gathered around some similarity, theme, sound, or anything else our pea-brains might dream up. First up, three takes on flames, fire and heating up, which the weather in L.A. threatens to do again this week, just as the Station fire is about to be contained. Inevitably, and regrettably, such weather brings out murderous kooks and their matches.