After more than 10 years since their last studio album, The Cranberries, who have reunited a couple of years ago, are expected to release Roses in end of February 2012. I was never quite a big fan but it will be interesting to see if/how their sound changed since the ’90s.

Below you can hear Tomorrow – one of the first singles out from this album.

After more than 10 years since their last studio album, The Cranberries, who have reunited a couple of years ago, are expected to release Roses in end of February 2012. I was never quite a big fan but it will be interesting to see if/how their sound changed since the ’90s.

Below you can hear Tomorrow – one of the first singles out from this album.

Do you remember Nada Surf, the US band who released the Popular single back in 1996? It was all over the radios back then. In the meantime, Nada Surf had some more albums and this year they reached their 7th. It’s called The Stars Are Indifferent To Astronomy and has been released two days ago in Europe and UK.

Below you can listen to one of the songs from this album, Waiting for Something. And you can also download it too :). Additionally, you can listen online to the entire album here (requires Spotify).

It’s not new, but I think I’ve never mentioned Tricky on this blog. Tricky is an English guy, producing a mix of Trip hop who, previously his solo career, worked together with Massive Attack. Although the music he makes is usually released under the name of Tricky, he works with various musicians on each album (instrumentalists, vocalists and so on).

His first album, Maxinquaye, was relesead in ’95 and received very positive reviews. One of the tracks I like most from this album is Black Steel. The song is actually a remake of Public Enemy’s single, keeping the same lyrics but with different instrumentals. The voice on this track belongs to Martina Topley-Bird, one of the constant colaborators on Tricky’s albums.

I’m not generally a fan of dubsteb, but I’ve heard this song some days ago and I liked it. Nero are a UK duo, they also had a concert in Romania (Bestfest). You can find out more about them here.

In the last couple of years I’ve found some really good jazz / blues singers and few of them come from France. I’ve always had a weekness for French “chansons” despite my lack of French language knowledge :).

One of the singers I really like is Zaz, who started her career about two years ago and became one of the most aknowledged new voices in France. Her style, “gypsy jazz” as she described it, falls somewhere between jazz and pop, usually having a good rhythm, with simple instrumentals and a most remarkable voice. It’s the kind of music you expect to hear in a French cafe, while sipping a latte :)

Probably one of her best known songs is Le Long De La Route, from her first album, released in 2010. You can buy the album on Amazon and below you can listen to Le Long de la Route. Looking forward to your views on Zaz!

During the last years I noticed a lot of good mash-ups were released and the habit of mixing songs together became quite popular. I’ve heard some very good mash-ups being made live, in clubs in Bucharest, like B52.

However, one of the more recent one which caught my attention is Lose south of riverside, by Nerd Kinski. Nerd Kinski is a German mash-up artist with many good mixes. This one though is not so well known – in fact, I believe it doesn’t even apear in youtube searches. It’s embedded here and we are looking forward to your comments on the track.

I’ve recently learned that Adrian Despot is writing (again) on music, on the Mixtopia site. He is one of the most knowledgeable people on rock music, so his blog should make a good refference on this topic.

Looking through his posts, I came across Gotye – Somebody That I Used To Know. Gotye is a Belgian artist who has already released three albums. Somebody That I Used To Know is from his third album, called Making Mirrors. Enjoy!

I’ve recently learned that Adrian Despot is writing (again) on music, on the Mixtopia site. He is one of the most knowledgeable people on rock music, so his blog should make a good refference on this topic.

Looking through his posts, I came across Gotye – Somebody That I Used To Know. Gotye is a Belgian artist who has already released three albums. Somebody That I Used To Know is from his third album, called Making Mirrors. Enjoy!

UK’s Graffiti6 are expected to release their Colours album in one week. It can already preordered on Amazon at 9.99$.

Most people know Graffiti6 from their Stair into the Sun track. This was one of the first tracks they released and it was also featured on the soundtrack for a The Sun newspaper ad, in UK.

Since everybody knows Stare Into The Sun, let’s also hear Free, another track to be featured on Colours.