On Saturday I managed to reach the Chemical Brothers concert in Bucharest. I arrived there at about 12 PM, the location was not very crowded – even though there were quite a lot of people, there was enough space to breath.

At about 1AM the guys started their show, which lasted for about 2 hours. As there was an album promotion concert, I wasn’t expected too many “hits” to be played. Still, I must say I was quite dissapointed with the quality of what I heard. Mostly there was instrumental music and even though there were some nice sounds, not anything that will move you from your seat.

The only highlists were the all-known hits – Hey Boy, Hey Girl, Galvanize and such.

All in all, probably a good show for the very-dedicated fans of Chemical Brothers but not so much for me.

And if you want to see how it was, here it is – video of Hey Boy, Hey Girl, from the Bucharest concert.

Matchbox Twenty recently release a new album – Exile on Mainstream. And I am quite happy about it :)

The album features mostly old tracks combined in this sort of Greatest Hits collection, but also 5 new tracks, out of which most known is probably “How Far We’ve Come”. A very good song, alltogether.

One thing which is also clear on this album is a clear evolution, as the guys are always becoming better, always their style enriches and is consistent. The fans will surely not be dissapointed.

For download, here it is – How Far We’ve Come. Enjoy !

By some sort of accident – mainly the will to escape to the Danube Delta combined with not knowing too much about the type of music to be there – I somehow got to attend the Delta Music Fest. On the way there I found out it was sort of an electronic music festival, which news I embraced with some sort of moderate enthusiasm :).

But in the end, it was not so bad afterall. I thought I would only like one band – Shukar Collective – but it seemed that in the end they had a rather poor performance and I loved some other bands.

First day debuted without much interest from my side but with some nice mixes from DJ Godjira. The guy mixed some Rage Against the Machine, Nirvana and others alike on some “electronic” rhythms which did not sound that bad after all, even for a non-initiated like myself. Then followed Shukar Collective which did not seem to enjoy being there at all – therefore all the people were rather still, therefore their performance was quite poor and finally therefore a poor show afterall.

But it all ended up quite well with the Austrians from Sofa Surfers which played some great rockish music, with some electronic sounds in it.

Day two started with Bumbapa – which were absolutelly horible. Just plain bad, sorry to say that guys. Finally, the show improved somehow with The Pixels, which sounded ok and with Unkle – quite a refined sound, showing professionalism, but still quite chaotic and not finalized. Things were anyway not looking too good, so I did not stay for any Pagal or any of the kind.

Day three was probably one of the best, with Cold Cut which really great – the band I liked most out of the entire festival. Very nice mixes, very well worked out and an awsome vocalist. Too bad he spent 50% of the time off-stage :). Bango de Gaia was really not my kind and that was it in the end.

Overall, a nice impression despite a lot of people with the sole purpose to show off and some really poor shows from some of the bands. Ah, and nice organizing of the event also.

As a recap, here is what I liked:

Sofa Surfers – Good Day to Die – they played this in the concert, a little faster and with a more developed sound
Cold Cut – True Skool – this is the kind of plays they had in the show

I was just looking back at some of the posts of this summer thse days. Yes, I know, there hasn’t been much posting going on and I am sorry for this. Maybe not enough new things, not enough time to write or a combination of both.

Still, I noticed some of the best songs of this summer – not necesarelly new – are missing and I am going to dedicate this post to them.

Citizen Cope – Brother Lee – Inspired and suggested by A., this song goes down to being nice, fun and quite refreshing. Good for mood-lifting :)

Hara & Tamango – Muro Shavo – Get’s me thinking of Vama Veche always and some of the old days at concerts there. Now this ain’t like that too much, no more concerts or too crowded usually. Still, definetely an inspirational song.

Manu Chao – Raining in Paradise – As I am looking forward to the new album to be released in September, this track makes the waiting easier. Missed them at Sziget, hope to catch them somewhere else. A great track !

Have a great summer !

Tommorow is the big event – Rolling Stones concert in Bucharest.

We are going, together with the entire PMO team :) Should be some good fun !

More details about the event here. Congrats to the Events team for the nice effort !

More about R.S. and some tracks I like in this previous post.

As usual, I began this summer spending most of the weekends at the seaside, in Vama Veche. Last year I have been there about 15 times, I guess and this year it seems to go pretty much in the same direction – just that I found myself no longer satisfied (at all) with the place and everything related to it.

Too much dirt, too many low-quality people and poor music in most places. Stuf is becoming crowded with all sorts of people comming just to get drunk and show-off, B-52 is gone and is replaced by an obscure place, Bavaria is thankfully gone but another similar “thing” emerged close to the former B-52 location and so on. The only places where you can enjoy lately are Expirat (not always nice) and a nice terrace with some skater guys. And Point, recently opened by a friend :)

Even worse is that you can hardly find other to enjoy that much and to resemble the old Vama Veche – there are some but I think I better not mention, I don’t want them to transform like Vama Veche did…

Still, some good thinks discovered lately in Vama Veche – Gulag now sells milkshakes and a nice track I found some weekends ago: Gogol Bordello – Start Wearing Purple.

P.S. Anyway, even so I would never go to Eforie or such :)  

One of the best songs recently came via 89.0 FM. I believe this is one of the best radio stations in Bucharest – great music, no commercials and no talking. Guerilla also started this way but now it just seems that way too many people think they have something to say out there and it became 70% talking and too less music.

Comming back, the track which really impressed me comes from Dar Williams, an American girl playing somethink called folk-pop. She has a great voice and I believe it’s enough to say she toured several times together with Joan Baez to say it all.

Therefore, here you go, Dar Williams – Are You Out There.

Dream Theater came back few weeks ago with a new album, the tenth in their career. Like most of the previous albums, Systematic Chaos features the same Dream Theater instrumental rich sound, but still leaves space for great compositions and vocals.

Tracks like Foresaken or The Dark Eternal Night sustain the album and can become singles at any time. Still, the value comes, like Dream Theater always did, from the overall sound of the album, where each track is carefully crafted for the best.

A great album overall, not spectacular for the band as a whole but consistent in their path.

Full album download available (still) here.

This is one of the best news recently – Rage Against the Machine reunites !

The entire story is here.

Sinner.com published recenly the top most exquisitelly sad songs in the world – quite a nice selection, I would say.You have to be patient and start from number 25 and browse through the entire list, but it is worth it.

And Sinnead O’Connor with Nothing Compares to You comes only at 24 ! :)