Marissa Nadler - Song 3: Birds On The Water (2007)

Here lies an absolutely stunning collection of songs performed with such delicacy and beauty. Marissa's style of touching melancholy and sirenesc performance has been evident from the start with her first release - "Ballads of Living and Dying (2004)". With her 3rd release - "Songs III: Bird on the Water (2007)" she quite simply continues the theme with five extremely empathic musicians in the form of mandolin, cello, harp, keyboards & percussion.

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Serena Maneesh - Fixxations EP (Honeymilk Records, 2002)

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Serena Maneesh - "ST"

This album is like the collision of heaven and hell in aural form, beautiful melodies and angelic vocals melded flawlessly with crushing walls of guitar and drums.

This is the record that welcomes with open arms both hardcore riffage and the more tuneful sensibilities that most fans of music in or around the rock genre forgo as if loud music is incapable of being beautiful.

If you like My Bloody Valentine, Serena-Maneesh will interest you, clearly influenced by MBV but with lush production values that don't detract from the raw edge.

Superb. -Ben Mccann (Amazon)

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Mus - La Vida - 2007

If you want something to dream a summer's evening away to, this is your record, without a doubt. The music is quietly affirmative, and at times very syrupy, despite the (seeming) interest in death (check the monologue on La Vida). Right from the opening track Per Tierres Baxes you get a chocolate-y voice high up in the mix, quietly strummed guitars and a church-y organ sound. In some ways it's very Velvets-y, classic Pale Blue Eyes stuff. Now and again you get slightly fey pop, (Cantares de Eiegu) but never too fey to get annoying. Oh and you really must listen to the beautiful chord progression on Dulce Amor, which could go on ad infinitum. Its wonderful stuff all round, and despite the short nature of this review, (really, I've said it all), you must give this LP a listen.

Mus is the sort of band that validates an indie geek's existence. Twee-loving zine printers, hopelessly snobby record store clerks, mumbling and stuttering college radio jocks—none of them would be able to resist the gorgeous ethereal siren song of Mónica Vacas and her instrumentalist partner, Fran Gayo. With an album released on a Spanish label, lyrics sung in Asturian, a dying Spanish dialect, and a sound that's simultaneously twee and Velvet Underground inspired, Mus combines the logistical absurdity with the melodic brilliance that keep us nerds salivating. With La Vida, the duo's latest album, that hopeless obsession can only intensify, as it's their best yet.

My own fascination with the Spanish duo began when I, myself, was a college radio DJ and discovered their self-titled release, in particular a catchy, electronic, almost Stereolab-like track titled "El Que Na La Puerta." A year later, I came across their sophomore set, El Naval, which I found all the more enchanting, particularly for its more fleshed-out pop arrangements. And though it had been some time since I heard from this unassuming group, I was thrilled, and a bit surprised to be greeted with a new release by this special group. I found it no great surprise, however, to discover that La Vida is absolutely gorgeous.

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