Tag: music review

Cloud Nine – A Review

The long awaited album by Kygo is here! After an original release date of 12th February 2016, Kygo has made us wait for 3 months to finalise something that was apparently 99% done. Technically, it was the longest February on record by Kygo standards. That being said, I was excited to see what he could offer.

After the initial excitement provided by his remix of I See Fire by Ed Sheeran, and the success of his original song, called Firestone, I was eager to see what he could offer. He’s been drip feeding us his songs for a long time now and his tracks make another appearance in the album.

 

Cloud Nine Tracklist (Requires Spotify):

1. Intro
2. Stole The Show feat. Parson James
3. Fiction feat. Tom Odell
4. Raging feat. Kodaline
5. Firestone feat. Conrad Sewell
6. Happy Birthday feat. John Legend
7. I’m In Love feat. James Vincent McMorrow
8. Oasis feat. Foxes
9. Not Alone feat. Rhodes
10. Serious feat. Matt Corby
11. Stay feat. Maty Noyes
12. Nothing Left feat. Will Heard
13. Fragile feat. Labrinth
14. Carry Me feat. Julia Michaels
15. For What It’s Worth feat. Angus & Julia Stone

Other notable tracks that aren’t on the album are:

Firestone (Live Acoustic Version)
Firestone (Fireworks Version)
Stole the Show (Acoustic Version)

Listen/Buy it here

iTunes: https://goo.gl/6WGv6E
Amazon MP3: https://goo.gl/b5mfL9
Spotify: https://goo.gl/yosHPi

The first impressions that I got from this album is that there are some tracks that seemed a bit half baked. Overall the album was very good. He is consistent in the type of vibe that he wants to produce. The introduction to the album is very chilled and opens beautifully into one of my personal favourites, Stole the Show. It’s not to say that all the songs were pleasing to the ear. Some tracks I personally thought sounded a bit out of place. In an area where Kygo seems to want to establish himself as a Tropical House music producer, some songs just seemed to be there for the sake of being there. But then again, this album (within Insanity, at any rate) has had overall critical acclaim despite the few bugbears that exist within its track listing. Songs like ‘I’m in Love’ (Track 7), is a personal pet hate of mine. It’s just annoying and very whiney.

That being said, the tracks are overall very very good! The combination of interesting mixes and artists, he has produced an album which has risen to the top of my most played on Spotify. Notable mentions include the collaboration that Kygo did with Foxes to produce Oasis (Track 8). It is a fantastic song which utilises all aspects of Foxes’ vocal talents. Carry Me has a lot of similarities with Avicii’s Broken Arrows, but he’s using a winning formula to produce something that was pleasing on the ear and (dare I say it), better than the original. Give them a listen and you will see the similarities.

In the end, this is just my personal thoughts, but overall I feel this is a very strong debut album by Kygo.

GIG REVIEW – KraftKlub

It would be wrong of me to say that I was excited to see them. Truth be told, I didn’t know that much about KraftKlub apart from the fact that they were German. What else is there to say really?

So who are KraftKlub?

KraftKlub are a German Rock/Indie band that also integrates some aspects of rap into their music! They are very popular in Germany, but despite this, are unknown unless you play FIFA 13.

My housemate seemed to think that I would enjoy it. I wasn’t so sure. I was clearly the sceptic among the party of three that were representing Egham. My housemate joked that it would be hilarious if they had tried to speak English, and to be fair to them, they gave it a good go. They played to their audience and it worked. Really well.

I first heard some of KraftKlub’s music when I played FIFA 13. Whilst listening to them, it gave me a bit of a tast of what to expect. However, versions that I had heard seemed a bit tepid. Kinda like a German kid’s apple strudel (geddit? because it’s a joke…no..?). What needs to be understood is that I didn’t think that I would like them. Not one iota. I would give them a chance, but I predicted that I wouldn’t like them.

How wrong I was.

I LOVED THEM. I really enjoyed the atmosphere inside the o2 Academy during KraftKlub’s set. True to the stereotypes of German efficiency, they started on the dot of 9pm. People always say that hearing a band live is infinitely better than hearing them on a CD or MP3 file. I finally understand why that is. Their energy and their enthusiasm was addictive and it filtered through to the audience. What started out at the beginning as being a ‘ohh I know that song’ turned into a ‘I don’t know this song and I don’t understand this song…but I love it!’ This is what made KraftKlub so great though. Most of the audience were German so they were really into it but it didn’t mean that others could be into or get into that sort of music. It was accessible. It reminded me of how the UK welcomed the likes of Psy, Rammstein, Robin Schulz and Alligatoah as ‘mainstream’ musicians. Sure all of the examples I’ve mentioned are quire niche, but in a way, so is KraftKlub in how they presented themselves.

From what I could tell (my German isn’t really that good), they played two songs which I recognised. One of them Was Eure Madchen and Schusse in die Luft. Not sure what they mean, but I know that they’re really good. After that, I lose them a bit. The odd translation came about but apparently KraftKlub are my new favourite band [Lieblingsband] (they played that one). Also, apparently I don’t want to go to Berlin [Ich will nicht nach Berlin].

I initially thought that I wouldn’t get into KraftKlub and it would be a bit of a miserable night for me. But I was wrong, very wrong. Despite having deadlines which I needed to meet, I couldn’t help but get into the spirit of it all. They were full of energy and they were awesome value for the money that I paid to see them.

7.5/10

KraftKlub