Album Review:With Leak, Blink and Breath by Annika Bentley

Album Name: Leak, Blink and Breath
Artist: Annika Bentley
Year/Label: 2001 / Billy Likes Records

[Buy at Billy Likes Records]

Review by Anna Maria Stjärnell

The talented young singer Annika Bentley has made a hauntingly beautiful new album. She rarely raises her voice, but the tension is still apparent in her songs.

Bentley covers a song by Songs:Ohia marvelously. Her lyrics are very odd and have a stronger resemblance to poetry than usual song lyrics. Her play with words is intriguing and suits the music fine.

All in all this is a wonderful album.

Posted on November 12, 2001

Track Listing

1. Supertronic
2. Lucid Lusitania
3. Fall is Coming
4. Starling
5. Hearts Newly Arrived
6. Gloria Wrist
7. Everything I Deserve is inside Static
8. What a Spell
9. Duty of Man at Wheel
10. Seaward
11. Pedicellaria

[Annika Bentley Official Site]

Spotlight on: Tina Malia


Tina Malia

Raised outside of Denver, Colorado, Tina began her musical training at a very young age as a classical pianist. Taught by her mother, a concert pianist and opera singer from Korea, she rigorously studied piano until the age of 12. At that time, her passion for music moved from piano to voice. At age 15, Tina began learning the guitar, and at 16, she graduated from high school and attended the University of Colorado at Boulder as a Voice Performance Major. After one year, driven by a strong inner quest, she moved to Hawaii where she began exploring and writing her own music.

In 1996, Tina worked as a recording artist and co-producer for Music for Little People and Earthbeat! Records in Redway, CA, where she performed on such albums as Circle of Women, All Spirits Sing w/ Joanne Shenendoah, Lullaby Favorites, and many others. In 1997 she attended The Recording Workshop, a sound engineering school, in order to learn the technical aspects of studio recording.

In 1998, Tina moved to the San Francisco bay area and started working on her solo recording, Shores of Avalon. During that time she also began working as a studio vocalist, a sound engineer, and performing in various groups as a back-up singer. She performs and records with such artists as Jai Uttal and the Pagan Love Orchestra, Ty Burhoe (Curandero), Bill Douglas (Hearts of Space), Steve Gorn, Lost at Last, Danny Heines and others. (Please refer to the artist links page for more information about these artists).

Inspired by many musical and spiritual traditions from around the world, Tina’s writing style is contemplative, devotional, and joyous in nature.

~Official Bio from Tina Malia’s Official Site

[Tina Malia Official Site]
[Tina Malia on MySpace]
[Song of the Soul]

Read reviews of:
[The Shores of Avalon]
[The Silent Awakening]


Discography

The Silent Awakening (2006)
Jaya Bhagavan ~ Tina Malia & Shimshai (2006)
Shores of Avalon (2001)
Lullaby Favorites: Music for Little People (1997)

[The Silent Awakening at CDBaby]
[The Shores of Avalon at CDBaby]

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Spotlight on: Regina Spektor

Regina Spektor

Born in Moscow, CCCP, (in the Year of the Monkey; so I’m guessing 1980).Regina came to the Bronx when she was 9 years old. She started studying classical piano at the age of six, and loved her teacher, but had to say goodbye, and her family had to sell the piano, right before their immigration. She badly wanted to continue her lessons when she got to America, and thanks to her piano teacher, Sonia Vargas, she was able to. Sonia was a Manhattan School of Music Professor, and her husband Samuel Marder, a NY Philharmonic violinist. They had invited Regina’s family for a lunch and a free concert before their tour to Spain. After playing with their four cats and two dogs, Regina approached Sonia and asked, “Will you be my teacher?” Her mother, a music historian and theorist, turned an embarrassed red, knowing the family had no piano or money for lessons. Sonia said “Of course!” and went on to teach Regina for years, her and her husband becoming like family.

In 1998, she left the Bronx for the conservatory of music at SUNY Purchase. There, she met lots of wonderful and talented people, and was inspired by the school’s art scene. Many of the kids she met there were associated with the Lower East Side Anti-Folk scene. Regina played her earliest NYC shows at Sidewalk Cafe, and made the Anti-Folk world her home.

Ever since graduating Purchase in 2001, Regina has played hundreds of shows around NY. She ran away to France for a summer, and Switzerland for a spring where she also performed to rapt audiences. In NYC she has played at The Living Room, Tonic, Knitting Factory, Joe’s Pub, Fez at Time Cafe, The Bowery Ballroom, CB’s Gallery, Makor, and of course Sidewalk Cafe. In the fall/winter of 2003 she had the opportunity to open for the Strokes for their U.S. tour playing in front of thousands of music fans a night.

[Regina Spektor Official Site]

Read reviews of:
[Soviet Kitsch]
[Mary Ann…]
[Songs]
[11:11]


Discography

Begin to Hope (2006)
Mary Ann Meets the Gravediggers and other Short Stories (2006)
Soviet Kitsch (2003)
Songs (2002)
11:11 (2001)

REGINA SPEKTOR: Songs
Songs (2002)
REGINA SPEKTOR: 11:11 eleven eleven
11:11 (2001)

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Spotlight on: Imogen Heap

Imogen Heap

Imogen (IMA-gin) Heap was born in Essex, England.

She is “A gifted musician, she also possessed the vocal range of an alto tenor, her unique voice lending her songs a maturity beyond their years.” Before she had played a full live show, she played a 20 minutes set at the Prince’s Trust Concert in Hyde Park performing between Eric Clapton and The Who. The then recorded her debut album ‘I Megaphone’ New York and London. “It is both an anagram of Imogen’s name and an illusion of her often uncompromising stance on life.” Her main influences are PJ Harvey, Rikki Lee Jones and the Beastie Boys. But has been compared to Kate Bush, Fiona Apple and Patti Smith.

[Imogen Heap Official Site]

Read reviews of:
[Speak for Yourself]


Speak for Yourself (2005)
Details (as Frou Frou) (2002)
I Megaphone (1998)

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Spotlight on: Dar Williams

Dar Williams

Dar Williams was born Dorothy Snowden Williams in Chappaqua, NY. In 1989 she graduated from Wesleyan University, in Middletown, CT where she studied religion and theater. She then moved to Boston where she attempted to get one of her plays produced, but that didn’t pan out. It was here that she got interested in folk music and started playing open mic nights. At this time she released 2 cassettes (now unavailable).

In 1993 she used her own money to record “The Honesty Room” which was released in 1994.

Later that year she played the Newport Music Festival to a very welcoming crowd and this seems to be her turning point as she was asked to open for Ani DiFranco and her career took off.

[Dar Williams Official Site]

I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to interview Dar, and I only stammered a little.
[read it here]

Read reviews of:
[My Better Self]
[Badlands] Dar has a song on this
[Monster in Law Soundtrack] Dar has a song on this


Discography

Promised Land (2008)
My Better Self (2005)
The Beauty of the Rain (2003)
Out there Live (2001)
The End of the Summer (1997)
Mortal City (1996)
The Honesty Room (1995)

Spotlight on: Tracy Chapman

Tracy Chapman

Tracy Chapman was born March 20, 1964, in Cleveland, Ohio.

In her childhood, Tracy learned to play the ukulele, the piano, and eventually the guitar and started writing her own songs.

She attended a private school in Connecticut after receiving a scholarship and then Tufts University in Boston after winning a minority placement scholarship.

While studying African culture and anthropology at Tufts, Tracy began performing her folk sound at local coffeehouses on the streets of Harvard Square.

She recorded some demos that eventually made their way to the right people, and Tracy singed with Elektra Records in 1987. An important musical artist had emerged from the ashes of the 80s.

In 80s, when the pop radio airwaves were filled with synthesizers and video-generated pop stars, Tracy emerged with her debut LP filled with a raw, calming folk sound that was welcomed by music fans. Her subtle lyrics and sound made her a hit with critics, and her landmark single “Fast Car” introduced her to a legion of fans.

Tracy has a knack for singing about a disenfranchised environment with an overtone of ultimate optimism for change.

–from Rock on the Net

Tracy Chapman is releasing a new album “Our Bright Future”.
It will be available November 10th (Europe) and November 11th (US).

[Tracy Chapman Official Site]

Read review of:
[let it Rain]


Discography

Tracy Chapman (1988)
Crossroads (1989)
Matters of the Heart (1992)
New Beginning (1995)
Telling Stories (2000)
Collection (2001)
Let it Rain (2002)
Where You Live (2005)
Our Bright Future (2008)

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