If you follow me on social media, you may have seen I made a small announcement recently regarding my 2013 'Morality' and 'Immorality' EPs. I've decided to remove the original releases from my bandcamp discography and replace it with a singular "streamlined" Morality EP, which features a small selection of tracks from each of the original releases compiled as one EP.
In this blog post, I want to talk about what this EP means to me six years down the line and explain why I've decided to do this...
I thought it would be cool just to share with you some music that I'm really enjoying right now, maybe I'll make this a regular thing? Who knows? Anyway... here's what I've been listening to and loving lately...
Chance The Rapper - Coloring Book (aka. Chance3)
Coloring Book is fire! (need I say more?)
For those who aren't familiar with Chance, his latest mixtape (titled Coloring Book), has been getting talked about a lot among people in the music industry and music fans because it is the first record to make the Billboard 200 charts solely based off of streaming. Not to mention the release of this tape was highly anticipated and hyped up by rap music fans. This mixtape, like all of Chance's previous records, is officially available to stream free of charge.
Coloring Book is an incredibly creative and uplifting fusion of hip-hop, gospel and soul, with an array of features from artists such as Kanye West, Lil' Wayne and Justin Bieber.
Check out the lead single, Angels...
Favourite tracks:
No Problem
Angels
All Night
All We Got
Anohni - Hopelessness
Hopelessness is the debut release of the new project started by Anohni (previously known from Antony & The Johnsons). Hopelessness musically is very much a departure from her work with Antony & The Johnsons, as this record features heavy amounts of electronic instrumentation. The album was produced with Hudson Mohawke and Oneothrix Point Never.
Hopelessness is a very intense and powerful record, with politically charged lyrical themes mostly covering issues such as climate change and terrorism. This record can be very dark at times but it certainly doesn't fail to make a bold statement. I personally applaud Anohni for not being afraid to tackle such important issues in her music. In a time where a lot of popular music (especially lyrically) can be quite bland, homogeneous and uninspired, artists like Anohni and records like Hopelessness are very much needed.
Here's the lead single, Drone Bomb Me...
If you can find it, I highly recommend checking out the music video for this song starring Naomi Cambell. It also features art direction from Ricardo Tisci.
Favourite tracks
Drone Bomb Me
4 Degrees
Violent Men
Why Did You Separate Me From The Earth?
Kamasi Washington - The Epic
Kamasi Washington is a an incredible jazz saxophonist, who notably played sax on Kendrick Lamar's To Pimp A Butterfly (my favourite album of 2015). Washington's own album, The Epic, received a substantial amount of critical acclaim too and topped the "Best Of 2015" lists curated by numerous music publications.
The Epic is a three hour long album of very beautiful jazz compositions (mostly instrumental, but some pieces do feature vocals) that never seems to stop losing momentum. It's a very rewarding listen, which entirely down to Washington's impeccable skills as a musician and composer the talent of the musicians that accompany him. I must admit, I was a little intimated and turned off at first when I found out the length of this project but, once I heard it, I find myself continuously going back to play it again and again.
Please note, the physical release of this album is separated across three discs. Don't feel compelled to listen to all three discs in one sitting, if you do not wish to.
Aside from his work on To Pimp A Butterfly, this was my introduction to Kamasi Washing and I'm very excited to hear else he has to offer.
Check out Re Run Home...
Favourite Tracks
Changing Of The Guard
Clair De Lune (originally composed by Claude Debussy)
Re Run Home
Miss Understanding
Thank you so much for reading this blog! I hope you enjoy my music recommendations and hopefully I will write more posts like this in the future!
I've had this idea in my head for a while now, but I've been debating whether or not to write it as it would involve revealing quite a lot about me. Anyway, I've finally decided that I think it would make a fun/interesting blog post. so here are two albums that define me.
Please note, both of these albums are undoubtedly amongst my favourite albums, this isn't a "favourite albums" list. These are albums that I feel some form of strong personal connection with, albums that provided a soundtrack to moments of my life story, or a soundtrack to a part of my personality.
So, here goes....
1.
Poses by Rufus Wainwright
What an interesting album to start off with! I'll start by saying that I have yet to come across an album I relate to more than Poses. For those familiar with Rufus and this album, I'm well aware that one of the core themes of this album is Rufus' struggle with drug addiction that he was experiencing at the time. Please don't worry! I'm not, nor have I ever, had any experience with addiction of that sort. I'm saying that I relate to many of the other themes that Rufus addresses throughout this album.
I started listening to Rufus when I was about 18, but I had a very difficult connecting to Poses at that time. Now that I'm 22 (about five or six years younger than Rufus when he wrote this album) I feel like I relate to it more than ever. I can only imagine that, over time, my connection with this album will grow even stronger.
I won't say too much about how I relate to it exactly, as that would mean delving into the depths of my personal life, but the character Rufus centred this album around, a young, non-heterosexual male with a passion for city life and filled with ambition, is very easy to identify with, and I'm sure I'm not alone in this. I think the part of this album that I identify with the most is the way Rufus writes about the idea of love and lust, not necessarily the romantic encounters he writes about in this record, but his relationship with romance as a concept.
I feel that, while I find this album relatable, it's also helped me to understand a lot about myself that I perhaps hadn't made the effort to understand before.
2.
Speak For Yourself by Imogen Heap
This album was life-changing for me. I soon learnt that there are a number of artists who have recorded in home studios and produced their own records before Imogen, but this was the first time I had heard a record created by a "D-I-Y" artist. Imogen released this album on her own record label, recorded the album in her home studio, wrote/produced every song by herself and performed most of the instruments. It might sound silly, but before hearing this record and learning about how it was created, I had no idea it was possible for people to do that!
It was around 2007 when I bought this album, so I was 14. This album proved to be so inspirational to me, because it encouraged me to learn how to write songs and produce my own music. Now, that's exactly what I do! Without hearing this album at the time that I did, who knows what I would be doing now?!
Thank you so much for reading this, I'm planning to share the stories behind even more albums that define me in the future!
I know it's a cliché to start off a blog post this way, but it's been quite a while since I updated this blog! I'm really sorry for that!
Just to let you know, there is a reason why I haven't updated this blog in a while (and it's not that I'm lazy!)
Last month, I finally finished my university course! (woo!!!!)
All my classes are done, and my coursework has been submitted, now I've just got to wait for my grades.
If you follow me on other social media, you may have seen that I released a brand new EP last month too!
The EP is called 'Elements' and it was composed as part of my 'Independent Research Project' (more commonly known as a dissertation) and explores the themes of music as symbolism.
The EP is an ambient, instrumental music project, and it's the second ambient music project that I've released.
Here's the beautiful artwork for the EP, shot by my father
I'm currently working on lots of new music that I plan to release very soon!
In regards to this blog, now that I'm done with university, I plan to start writing and updating this blog much more frequently. I've currently got a few ideas for new music-themed posts, as I feel like I haven't done enough talking about music on here yet.
I read a lot of blogs, and watch a lot of vloggers, but I'm still feel like I'm fairly new to the concept of blogging. Some of you may know I've been writing a blog over at http://joshstarmer.tumblr.com/ for a few years now, but I just write that to document the creation of my own music.
I've got a few ideas of things I want to write about on here in the future, but I'm open to suggestions. Are there any things you'd like to see me discuss on here? Let me know!
Keep checking back for more updates,
Josh :-)
And if you'd like to follow me on other social media, click here for links to everything I'm on!
Strength: Eau De Toilette Gender Label: Gentleman's Perfumer: Mathilde Laurent
'Roadster' by Cartier is a fragrance that I (somewhat) impulse bought over a year ago and it's taken me this long to be able to form an honest opinion on it...
PLEASE NOTE: This is a review for the original La Fumée, not any of the fragrances that are part of the La Fumée collection.
La Fumée is beautiful fragrance centered around one of my favourite notes in perfumery, incense. La Fumée, translated into english, means "smoke", and that's precisely what you get with this scent.
Hi everyone! (long time, no speak) I hope 2015 is treating you well. I know it's customary to post your "favourites of the month" blog at the start of the next month, but here's mine anyway! This is my first "monthly favourites" post, and my lists will consist of literally anything I have enjoyed in the previous month. Here is a list of some of my favourite things from December 2014!
Hi everyone! I hope you have all had an excellent Christmas, holiday season and New Year!
I'll be updating this blog with some new posts very soon, but right now I want to share my sister's new blog with you.
You can find her at http://poppysconstellations.wordpress.com/ She's published some really great beauty blogs and fragrance reviews on there. So if you're interested in that sort of thing, you should definitely check her out! Josh :-)
This is the first part of a series of blogs that I will post sporadically.
This new series is called 'Song Stories' where I will be sharing stories behind many of my favourite songs, telling you all about exactly what that song means to me.
If you've been following my music career for a while, you may remember I had something similar to this on my music blog were I would share the story behind songs that I had written.
However, I decided to stop doing that because I felt it can distract people from having their own stories and connection to songs that I've written.
Anyway, as you may know, I love everything about music. Music is something that's very personal to me, and it's something I'm very passionate about. I often develop strong connections to songs that I hear and love, so I thought it would be cool to share those connections with you!
My first song story is about 'The Morning Fog' by Kate Bush!
Hi everyone! Here are my Top 10 favourite albums of 2014! If you've seen my lists from previous years on joshstarmer.tumblr.com, you'll know that I don't like to comment on the albums. I just like to say that you need these albums in your life right now!!! Please see the list after the jump...
Comme Des Garçons 8 88 is undoubtedly one of the most unusual perfumes I've ever gotten my nose on. I use the word "unusual" in the most positive way possible. I knew that, when I first encountered this, I had to own it and make it my signature scent.
Like anybody who is thinking about buying a new fragrance should, I tested this out multiple times before finally making my purchase. These tests only made me want it more. I've had my 100ml bottle for almost a year now and I still love it just as much as I did upon first sniff.
I think you can probably guess where this review is going, but here's my take on this fragrance.
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