mp3: Diva Cup "Ramona Ali"

"I Lost More Than My Knee"
Mystery alias Diva Cup dropped off a copy of X Minus One yesterday. Digital head funk boiling over field recordings and Reason beats, while methodically tripped out post-modern primal meanderings simmer in a separate pot. It's cooking. The sort of post-YouTube video-splicing avant-audio you'd expect to hear from an acquaintance of Run DMT. Which makes a helluva lotta sense since Diva Cup mashes Run DMT's "Ramona", one of the highlights from Bong Voyage, with bits and pieces of Muhammad Ali sound bites in, you guessed it, "Ramona Ali." It's not entirely original, but hey, no one said it wasn't fun. Diva Cup also chops & screws on some Vashti Bunyan, which I'm sure obscure folk enthusiasts will, um, conflict with. Make it through most of the album (linked below) and you'll enjoy some synth glyph'd Mighty Ducks samples.

Diva Cup- Ramona Ali

Download Diva Cup's X Minus One album

cover: Headless Heroes do Vashti, Johnston

"Wilder than Moonlight"

(photo by damusic)
While reading P4k's review of To Be Still, I came across a mention of a set of covers Alela Diane did for a project dubbed Headless Heroes. Apparently, the super group, consisting of Hugo Nicolson, Josh Klinghoffer, Woodrow Jackson III, Gus Seyffert, Alela Diane, Leo Abrahams, Joey Waronker, Dirty Pretty Strings, Pocketknife, Mike G., Irana Douer, Sarah Lynn Graves, & Eddie Bezalel, released an album of covers in November. The disc, The Silence of Love, which features Diane's timeless voice on every track, includes songs by Vashti Bunyan, the Jesus & Mary Chain, Daniel Johnston, and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, just to name a few.

Hearing one of my favorite vocalists cover two of my all time favorite songs (Johnston's "True Love Will Find You In The End" and Bunyan's "Here Before") is quite the Thursday morning revelation. Excitement level for Alela's show at Music Hall just went through the roof.

Headless Heroes (feat. Alela Diane)- Here Before (Vashti Bunyan)
Headless Heroes (feat. Alela Diane)- True Love Will Find You In The End (Daniel Johnston)

Headless Heroes - Just Like Honey (Dir. Nina Spiering, Mirka Duijn)


The North Wind Blew South

covers: Vashti Bunyan "Martha My Dear"

"Hold Your Head Up You Silly Girl"

Bill posted this incredible cover of the "typecasted eternal hippie" Vashti Bunyan re-imagining the Beatles White Album classic "Martha My Dear." Bunyan's hushed vocal, coupled with the songs lo-fi production and the majestic harp, really lend this cover a woolly, winter mornings feel. Sort of the musical equivalent of taking a really hot shower after riding your bike home through the chilly Autumn air. To be greatly enjoyed while cocooned in a blanket, starring at the looming dawn and drinking hot tea. 

Vashti Bunyan & Max Richter- Martha My Dear (courtesy of SoundBites)