Ice Queens - Electronica

Bianca & Sierra Casady

marta014@yahoo.com (Marta) — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 11:14:05 -0400

ICE QUEENS: Bianca Casady & Sierra Casady
BAND: CocoRosie
ORIGIN: Hawaii and Iowa, USA
GENRE: Freak Folk, New Folk
ACCOMPLICES:
DISCOGRAPHY: "La Maison De Mon Rêve" (2004), "Noah's Ark" (2005), "The Adventures of Ghosthorse and Stillborn" (2007).
INFLUENCES: Klaus Nomi, The Cockettes, Nina Simone

IMHO: Bianca and Sierra Casady have done with CocoRosie something very unique these days of cliche and formulaic music: these sisters have created their own universe and their music has developed and grown along their 3 albums. Bianca sort of raps and talks over the music, and Sierra brings the operatic power, which is probably why I listened to them in the first place. Together, and in the company of hip hop beats and quirky toy sounds, they captivate your eardrums song after song, telling you macabre fairytales. One would think that after "La maison de mon rève" it was all said and done and that there wouldn't be much more to explore, but they just keep getting better and better. Their new single "God Has A Voice, She Speaks Thru Me" is friggin delicious.

FAVORITE SONGS: "Not For Sale", "Werewolf", "By Your Side", "Madonna", "Good Friday", "Rainbowarriors", "Promise."
FAVORITE ALBUM: "La Maison De Mon Rève", "The Adventures of Ghosthorse and Stillborn"

WHAT OTHERS SAY: Don't miss this extended article published recently (by recently I mean July 2008) on The New York Times.

Skye Edwards

marta014@yahoo.com (Marta) — Sat, 17 May 2008 21:59:47 -0400

ICE QUEEN: Skye Edwards (born Shirley Klarisse Yonavive Edwards)
BAND: Morcheeba
ORIGIN: London, England
ACCOMPLICES: Paul and Ross Godfrey (in Morcheeba)
DISCOGRAPHY: M: "Who Can You Trust?" (1996), "Big Calm" (1998), "Fragments of Freedom" (2000), "Charango" (2002); Solo: "Mind How You Go" (2006).
INFLUENCES:

IMHO: Skye must be the best lullabyist in the world, if there is such a word. Her voice is so comforting, so serene, so ethereal... She is up there in the Louise Rhodes league. I really liked Morcheeba when they started, but "Fragments of Freedom" made me lose interest in them; their sound became more generic, mainstream, uninteresting. "Big Calm" is a perfect album though.

FAVORITE SONGS: "Blindfold", "Shoulder Holster", "Part of the Process", "Let me see"... etc
FAVORITE ALBUM: "Big Calm"

SEEN THEM LIVE: At the Sala Apolo, in Barcelona, but I don't remember when. Probably around 98, 99...

WHAT OTHERS SAY:

Soffy O

marta014@yahoo.com (Marta) — Sat, 17 May 2008 20:55:27 -0400

ICE QUEEN: Soffy O (a.k.a Sofia Larsson Ocklind)
BAND: TokTok Vs. Soffy O, Solo Artist
ORIGIN: Stockholm, Sweden
GENRE: Electro
ACCOMPLICES: Benjamin Weiss & Fabian Feyerabendt (TokTok)
DISCOGRAPHY: "TokTok Vs Soffy O" (2002); Solo: "The Beauty of it" (2008).
INFLUENCES:

IMHO: Although I'm not a big electro fan, I really liked TTVSO from the very first time I heard them because of Soffy's low pitched voice. Their two singles were really catchy and fun. I haven't heard her solo album yet, but I hope she makes the most of her gift.

FAVORITE SONGS: "Day of mine", "Missy Queen's Gonna Die"
FAVORITE ALBUM: "TokTok Vs Soffy O"

WHAT OTHERS SAY:

Maya Arulpragasam (a.k.a. M.I.A.)

marta014@yahoo.com (Marta) — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 17:34:42 -0400

ICE QUEEN: Mathangi "Maya" Arulpragasam
BAND: M.I.A.
ORIGIN: London, UK
GENRE: Hip Hop, Dancehall, Electronica
ACCOMPLICES: Justine Frischmann (who got her started on creating music), Diplo
DISCOGRAPHY: "Arular" (2005), "Kala" (2007).
INFLUENCES:

IMHO: When everything has been invented, reinvented and refried, the world really needed an artist like M.I.A. She is doing nothing new, she's just taking the elements that are already out there and mixing them up in an explosive dish. A little bit of hip hop, a little bit of electro, a little bit of Bollywood, a couple of spoonfuls of rap and a sprinke of alternative rock and voilà! I specially love her beats and the use of explosive sounds and gunshots as bass line. I love both albums and am looking forward to what she will put out next.

FAVORITE SONGS: "10 Dollar", "Amazon", "Bingo", "Bamboo Banga", "Paper Planes", and this bootleg mash up this guy posted on youtube.
FAVORITE ALBUMS: Both. Do yourself a solid. Listen.

WHAT OTHERS SAY:

Gudrun Gut

marta014@yahoo.com (Marta) — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 09:44:40 -0500

ICE QUEEN: Gudrun Gut
BAND: Solo Artist, Malaria!, Matador, Miasma
ORIGIN: Berlin, Germany
GENRE: Electronica
ACCOMPLICES: Malaria!: Bettina Koester; Matador: Manon P.Duursma and Beate Bartel; Miasma: Myra Davies.
DISCOGRAPHY: Malaria!: "Emotion" (1982), "Revisited" (1991); Matador: "A Touch Beyond Canned Love" (1987), "Sun" (1989); Miasma: "Miasma" (1994), "Miasma 2" (1997); Gudrun Gut: "Members Of The Ocean Club" (1996), "I Put A Record On" (2007). She has also published a ton of EPs and MAXIS but the list is too long.
INFLUENCES:

IMHO: GG's music is so relaxing... Minimalistic electronica with a deep female voice that lures you into the stage between being asleep and being awake (what's that called?). It is really pleasant.

FAVORITE SONGS: "Move Me", "Yaddi Yaddi", "Pearl", "Drip"
FAVORITE ALBUM: "Members Of The Ocean Club", "I Put A Record On".

WHAT OTHERS SAY: Following this link you can find an interesting article published in TimeOut Berlin about Gudrun Gut's influence in the Berlin scene for the last 20 years.

Els Pynoo

marta014@yahoo.com (Marta) — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 20:23:00 -0500

ICE QUEEN: Els Pynoo
BAND: Vive La Fête
ORIGIN: Ghent, Belgium
GENRE: Electropop
ACCOMPLICES: Danny Mommens
DISCOGRAPHY: "Attaque Surprise" (2000), "Republique Populaire" (2001), "Nuit Blanche" (2003), "Grand Prix" (2005), "Jour De Fête" (2007).
INFLUENCES: Billie Holliday, Ella Fitzgerald, Maria Callas

IMHO: VLF reminds me a lot of Stereo Total, but this Belgian duo are not so much experimental but poppier, noisier and more electric. I enjoy it in small doses.

FAVORITE SONG: "Hot Shot", "Banana Split".
FAVORITE ALBUM:

WHAT OTHERS SAY:

Kristy Hawkshaw

marta014@yahoo.com (Marta) — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 19:49:27 -0500

ICE QUEEN: Kristy Hawkshaw
BAND: Opus III, Solo artist
ORIGIN: London, England
GENRE: Techno, house
ACCOMPLICES: Ian Munro, Kevin Dobbs, Nigel Walton
DISCOGRAPHY: OPUS III: "Mind Fruit" (1992), "Guru Mother" (1994); SOLO: "O U T" (1998), "Meta-Message" (2005).
INFLUENCES: Something I didn't know, "It's a Fine" is a cover of a 1983 song by Jane & Barton (how can we have survived all this time without wikipedia?)

IMHO: I wanted to add Kristy in this blog in case one day you wonder: "Who was the girl that sang that techno song that went 'La Da Da Deeee Da Dee Da...' that was on the radio in the early nineties? And what was the name of that song?" The song was called "It's a Fine Day", and the band behind it was Opus III, with Kristy Hawkshaw on vocals. Orbital sampled it later on their song "Halcyon".

FAVORITE SONG:
FAVORITE ALBUM:

WHAT OTHERS SAY: Besides her work with Opus III and her solo albums, Kristy is very well-known in the techno/house/trance/electronica world for her collaborations. Find ahead a couple of paragraphs from her own website where she talks about these collaborations:
"After being sampled by Orbital for their original 1992 track 'Halcyon', Kirsty would contribute to the tracks 'Halcyon & On & On' and 'Lush', both taken from their much vaunted 'Orbital 2', or the 'Brown' album as it is more commonly known, widely regarded as the best work of their career by their fans and music lovers alike."

"Following the release of her album, Kirsty's career blossomed as she would lend her infectious melodies, hooks and lyrics to numerous tracks that have since gone on to become defining classics of their respective time periods. Having contributed four tracks to Tiesto's first two albums, with 'Urban Train' and 'Battleship Grey' gracing his debut album 'In My Memory' and 'Walking On Clouds' and the title track 'Just Be' on the follow up second album, she has also worked with such names as BT, Swayzak, Way Out West and Swansea's Hybrid, a partnership that has seen her contribute to their albums 'Morning Sci Fi' and 'I Choose Noise'. Hybrid have returned the favour by assisting Kirsty as she develops an expansive body of solo work, some of which has already been included in material for TV and radio, further showcasing the wide range of her musical appeal."

Sandra Jill Alikas

marta014@yahoo.com (Marta) — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 19:32:59 -0500

ICE QUEEN: Sandra Jill Alikas-St.Thomas
BAND: Waterlillies
ORIGIN: New York, USA
GENRE: Electronica
ACCOMPLICES: Ray Carroll
DISCOGRAPHY: "Envoluptuosity" (1992), "Tempted" (1994)
INFLUENCES: Pat Benetar, Debbie Harry, Kate Bush, Elizabeth Frazer

IMHO: This band is in my blog because of a beautiful song called "Never Get Enough". I have listened to it so many times, and it never gets boring. Sandra has a beautiful soprano voice, very Elizabeth Fraser like. In fact, there are other good songs on the album "Tempted". If you like ethereal club music, you will enjoy it.

FAVORITE SONGS: "Never Get Enough", "Free", "Tempted", "How Does It Feel?"
FAVORITE ALBUM: "Tempted"

WHAT OTHERS SAY:

Martina Topley-Bird

marta014@yahoo.com (Marta) — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 11:46:56 -0500

ICE QUEEN: Martina Topley-Bird
BAND: Tricky, Solo artist
ORIGIN: Bristol, England
GENRE: Trip Hop
ACCOMPLICES: Tricky
DISCOGRAPHY: Tricky: "Maxinquaye" (1994), "Nearly God" (1996), "Pre-Millenium Tension" (1996); Solo: "Quixotic" (2003).
INFLUENCES:

IMHO: "What's the point of being alive if you are not sensual?" I read these words coming from Martina's mouth in this interview and I think they totally define her style and her sound. Martina and Tricky have made the sexiest music I have ever heard to date. The combination of their voices and the smoothness of the music make it so sensual it's dangerous if you're alone in a room with someone else (and there's some kind of attraction, of course). If you know any other band that is sexier than them please let me know, because I can't think of it. "Maxinquaye" is such a jewel, not only for the reason I was just mentioning but also because it is one of the first albums from the trip hop genre which imploded from Bristol in the mid-nineties thanks to DJ Shadow, Tricky and Massive Attack and then spread like a disease (a good one, if there is such a thing) and made possible historic bands like Portishead, Lamb and Moloko amongst others. You are welcome to find out about these bands in this same category by checking out the different queens.

Martina's first album "Quixotic" was released in the US in a different format under the name of "Anything". If any employee of the record industry is reading this, can you tell me why things like this happen? Why can't they just release the album in its original format? Is it because it is too hard to spell? Thanks in advance for your explanation.

FAVOURITE SONGS: "Black Steel", "Ponderosa", "Hell is Round The Corner", "Slowly"
FAVOURITE ALBUM: "Maxinquaye"

WHAT OTHERS SAY: "Anyone familiar with Tricky's ground-breaking early work, most notably the still mesmerising debut album Maxinquaye, from 1994, will know all about the singular qualities of Martina Topley Bird's singing voice. It is an instrument of rare and offbeat beauty, achingly tender and oddly broken, exotic and yet emphatically, endearingly English. The perfect cracked vessel, in fact, for carrying Tricky's dark odes to urban disaffection." taken from the article "Girl Interrupted" from The Guardian (sorry, my English isn't good enough to describe as well as this journalist her voice)

Lady Miss Kier

marta014@yahoo.com (Marta) — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 12:20:31 -0500

ICE QUEEN: Lady Miss Kier (born Kierin Magenta Kirby)
BAND: Deee-Lite
ORIGIN: Youngston, Ohio (USA)
GENRE: Psychedelic dance music, house
ACCOMPLICES: DJ Dimitri, Towa Tei
DISCOGRAPHY: "World Clique" (1990), "Infinity Within" (1992), "Dewdrops in the Garden" (1994).
INFLUENCES:

IMHO: Who hasn't danced to Groove is in the Heart? Who wouldn't dance to it? It's one of those songs that when they come on in the club or neighborhood dance space everyone draws a smile and starts shaking their arms like tree branches... Such a feel good song, such a feel good band. And it was made in 1990! The platforms, the flowers, the colors, the groove... I love this band for being so unique and innovative in their time, and I don't believe their music will ever sound dated, at least as much as other contemporaneous bands to them such as Technotronic.

FAVOURITE SONGS: "What is love?", "Good Beat", "Who Was That?", "Groove is in the heart"...
FAVOURITE ALBUM: "World Clique"

WHAT OTHERS SAY:

Françoise Cactus

marta014@yahoo.com (Marta) — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 15:51:40 -0500

ICE QUEEN: Françoise Cactus (born Françoise Van Hove)
BAND: Stereo Total
ORIGIN: Burgundy, France
GENRE: Electropop, Experimental, New Wave, Synth-pop
ACCOMPLICES: Brezel Göring
DISCOGRAPHY: "Oh Ah!" (1995), "Monokini" (1997), "Juke-Box Alarm" (1998), "My Melody" (1999), "Musique Automatique" (2001), "Do the Bambi!" (2005), "Discothèque" (2006), "Paris-Berlin" (2007).
INFLUENCES: Sèrge Gainsbourg, German underground-new wave from the 80s

IMHO: Stereo Total is so much fun. I could listen to their stuff for hours and not get bored. Their surrealist lyrics and poppy creative sounds drag you in for a surpising joyride. "I am naked, so what?" After listening to so many bands with existentialist problems, it's refreshing to listen to these guys who take life on the light side. They are based in Berlin but sing in German, French, Spanish, English and even Japanese.

FAVOURITE SONG: "I am naked", "Liebe Zu Dritt", "I love you, Ono", "Musique Automatique", etc.
FAVOURITE ALBUM: "Musique Automatique", "My melody"

WHAT OTHERS SAY: "Stereo Total is like an evergreen lab experiment, with Cactus and her boyfriend Brezel Göring as mad scientists. The two have been employing their clever pastiche of musical genres, electronic trickery, multilingual gags, social commentary, and perhaps, with Bambi, a subliminal message suggesting bestiality, for more than ten years now. In the oft-quoted view of the eye patch-wearing Scottish troubadour Momus, the couple who met at a Berlin bakery has become 'the best pop group in the world'." from this interview published in the Miami New Times

Katerina Winterova

marta014@yahoo.com (Marta) — Sat, 27 Jan 2007 14:23:09 -0500

ICE QUEEN: Katerina Winterova
BAND: The Ecstasy of Saint Theresa
ORIGIN: Czech Republic
GENRE: Experimental avantgarde electronica
ACCOMPLICES: Jan Muchow
DISCOGRAPHY: "Pigment" EP (1991), "Susurrate" (1992), "...fluidtrance centauri..." EP (1993), "Free D" OST (1994), "Astralavista" EP (1994), "In Dust 3" (1999), "Dub at rmx's" (2000), "4B4" (2001), "I'm Not (Really) Optimistic" (2002), "Slowthinking" (2002), "Local Distortion" (2003), "Happy R" (2003), "Thirteen Years In Noises" (2004), "It" EP (2005), "Watching Black" (2006).
INFLUENCES:

IMHO: Honestly, I can't remember how I heard about this band/duet from Czech Republic for the first time... Does it matter? Not really... I just want to make sure YOU hear about them now, because they're fantastic! And this general YOU applies to you if you like new things, experimenting, if you are tired of a typical guitar/base/drums/vocalist set, if you like electronica, avantgarde, noise in general. EOST is pure breeze, a smooth female voice (Katerina's) flying above a distant world of noise, peace, distortion, textures... Close your eyes and let yourself go. Sorry I'm not a better poetess. "Watching Black White Looking" is such a unique song. The sounds on it are so captivating; I feel like I can almost touch them.

FAVOURITE SONG: "What's", "Watching Black White Looking", "Vacuum Blow", etc.
FAVOURITE ALBUM: "Thirteen Years in Noises"

WHAT OTHERS SAY: "Formed in the aftermath of the Velvet Revolution, The Ecstasy Of St. Theresa released the first ever Czech indie records, quickly getting the attention of John Peel and recording what became a legendary session for his Radio 1 show. Released commercially as an EP, it topped the CMJ chart, and got to number 6 in the UK indie charts when this meant something! The group quickly moved beyond this essentially shoe-gazing style to explore many soundscapes; film soundtracks, remixes, the whole thing! " from cduniverse

Karin Dreijer Andersson

marta014@yahoo.com (Marta) — Sat, 27 Jan 2007 12:57:27 -0500

ICE QUEEN: Karin Dreijer Andersson
BAND: The Knife
ORIGIN: Sweden
GENRE: Electronic razorblade
ACCOMPLICES: Olof Dreijer
DISCOGRAPHY: "The Knife" (2001), "Deep Cuts" (2003), "Hannah med H" Soundtrack (2003), "Silent Shout" (2006).
INFLUENCES: Kraftwerk, David Lynch

IMHO: In a time where musical creativity is a prehistoric concept and new bands dedicate more time to their looks than to actually make good music, The Knife is like a breath of fresh air to me. How intriguing and exciting is their music! I discovered them by chance on myspace by listening to "We Share Your Mother's Health" and my jaw dropped never to be shut again. This is what innovation should be all about, now that we approach the year 2010. Everything has been invented before, but sometimes you can still pull a new rabbit out of the hat. Congratulations, The Knife, for helping me hope that there is still room for music to grow, that there are musical lands still undiscovered.
"We Share Your Mother's Health" sounds like nothing you've heard before. It is a rhythmic combination of bleeps, and beats, and bloops and then Karin sings on top of it with a voice modulator... Even if you don't like the music for a while it transports you somewhere where you feel you've lost control. Nice! And then there are other songs like "Marble House", "Heartbeats" that proof that Karin and Olof can make music in a more conventional style... Mind is a razorblade... enjoy it!

(Warning: I might have had one too many glasses of wine when I wrote the paragraphs above.)

FAVOURITE SONG: "We Share Our Mother's Health", "The Captain", "Heartbeats", "You Take My Breath Away", "Marble House" and keep them coming.
FAVOURITE ALBUM: "Silent Shout"

SEEN THEM LIVE: Webster Hall, NY, Nov 1st 2006

WHAT OTHERS SAY: From Pitchfork Media, where their album "Silent Shout" was considered the Best Album of 2006: "The Knife have only just begun to break their ground: Ditching the springy Europop of 2004's Deep Cuts, the duo now pits super-dark, ghostly electro backdrops against Andersson's elastic vocals, which they then mash through a wringer of grotesque digital manipulation. A far cry from their friendly first singles, Silent Shout gorily births the Knife's mutant twin. The result is creepy enough to warrant its own genre: haunted house."

Louise Rhodes

marta014@yahoo.com (Marta) — Thu, 11 Aug 2005 16:26:03 -0400

ICE QUEEN: Louise Rhodes
BAND: Lamb
ORIGIN: Manchester, England
GENRE: Trip hop, Electronica
ACCOMPLICES: Andy Barlow.
DISCOGRAPHY: "Lamb" (1997), "Fear of Fours" (1999), "What Sound" (2001), "Between Darkness & Wonder" (2004).
INFLUENCES: Bjork, Goldie, Massive Attack, Portishead.

IMHO: "Gorecki" is one of the most beautiful songs I've heard in my life. Ms. Rhodes has one of those voices that one can't forget. She pierces through your senses and affects your most intimate secrets. The way she sings is so affected that makes you want to plainly cry. That's how I feel every time I listen to "Gorecki" (titled after the Polish composer). I guess the term would be something like emotionally naked or vulnerable. As a piece of trivia, Nicole Kidman sang the first verses of the song on the film "Moulin Rouge." End of the piece of trivia.

Lamb's first and self-titled album is a very risky and successful mix of her velvety emotional voice with wacky jungle-based electronic beats and sounds; totally innovative and refreshing. I think they hit the spot again with "What Sound", which has beautiful songs, but I don't care so much for the other two albums. This is totally off-topic, but I just saw the biggest centipede crawl up my wall, and it's nasty.

FAVOURITE SONGS: "Lusty", "Gorecki", "Gabriel", "Small", "Sugar 5."
FAVOURITE ALBUM: "Lamb", "What Sound."

WHAT OTHERS SAY: If you're in love, please read these lyrics and feel vulnerable. If you're not in love, read them and feel distressed. And if you're in between relationships, please come to my house and help me get rid of this gigantic centipede.

"If I should die this very moment
I wouldnt fear
For Ive never known completeness
Like being here
Wrapped in the warmth of you
Loving every breath of you
Steal my heart this moment
Or it might burst
Could we stay right here
Until the end of time until the earth stops turning
Wanna love you until the seas run dry
Ive found the one Ive waited for..."
Part of "Gorecki"

Lesley Rankine

marta014@yahoo.com (Marta) — Fri, 20 May 2005 14:26:06 -0400

ICE QUEEN: Lesley Rankine
BAND: Ruby
ORIGIN: UK
GENRE: Industrial trip hop
ACCOMPLICES: Mark Walk
DISCOGRAPHY: "Salt Peter" (1995), "Short Staffed At The Gene Pool" (2001).
INFLUENCES: Who knows.

IMHO: Ex-Silverfish's vocalist Rankine teamed up with Mark Walk around 1995 and made one of the most fucking amazing debut albums ever, "Salt Peter". Called by critics "an eerie fusion of trip hop and industrial", SP sounded at that time like nothing before, and it was only a year after Portishead's "Dummy." God, those were the days! Not to forget their piercing lyrics. I will never get tired of a song like "Tiny Meat" and the energy that transmits, taking you to a sort of macabre mini-trip where you find yourself singing along a song about a fleshy bleeding heart. Yummy. "Short Staffed at the Gene Pool", Ruby's second album released in 2001, was not as groundbreaking as SP but it's a great continuation, in similar waves but less risky. And then they dissappeared. Oh well.

FAVOURITE SONGS: "Tiny Meat", "Salt Water Fish", "Carondelet", "Lilypad."
FAVOURITE ALBUMS: "Salt Peter."

WHAT OTHERS SAY: