Welcome to the October 2008 version of Dig This! Every month, Rhapsody’s editorial staff will introduce you to some artists you may not know, give you a chance to check out their music, and present them in their own words -- watch this space for upcoming features on the individual artists. Oh, and we’ll throw you some free downloads from them, too.
This month in Dig This!:
The Dutchess & the Duke, a couple of kids from Seattle, Washington, who play acoustic guitars and harmonize on tunes that evoke classic mid-‘60s folk-rock, even as they sound utterly modern.
Lykke Li, a young woman from Stockholm, Sweden, whose modern indie-pop is by turns futuristic (dig those electronics), retro (listen to those girl-group song-structures) and quirky as all get-out.
The Mole, an electronic-music producer who came to prominence on Canada’s west coast, but whose melodic yet minimal dance music now fits in perfectly with his adopted hometown of Berlin.
The Dutchess & the Duke are Jezze Lortz and Kimberly Morrison, a pair of perennials on Seattle’s never-ending music scene. After years of doing blitzkrieg-style garage-rock madness, the two lifelong friends decided to turn down the volume, while songwriter Lortz decided to tone down the party vibe and get a little more serious. Their resulting debut, She’s the Dutchess, He’s the Duke (Hardly Art), features some astonishingly emotional and adult songs, without turning into a songwriter’s twelve-step program.
For the better part of 2008, Lykke Li (born: Li Lykke Timotej Zachrisson) and her debut album, Youth Novels (Atlantic), have been spoken about in reverent terms in blog and insider circles. And it’s easy to hear why. Working with producer Bjorn Yttling (of Peter Bjorn and John fame), the 22-year-old Swede has created a piece of work that is as catchy as it is stimulatingly new, full of songs that sound completely original and as though they’ve been around forever.
The myth of the Mole (born: Colin de la Plante) has been around since at least 2004, when he made his live debut at Montreal’s Mutek Festival as a buzzed-about Vancouver techno wunderkind. The Mole may have subsequently relocated to Berlin and continued, but he's continued his association with the British Columbia-based Wagon Repair label and his music has grown wider as well. Check his full-length debut, As High as the Sky, for an unstoppable mix of disco, house and techno.
- Portions of Album Content Provided by All Music Guide © 2008 All Media Guide, LLC.
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