Advent With David’s Lyre 2011
We featured the first Advent special presented by David’s Lyre last year which saw the artist embark on a festive mission to release a new song every day in the run up to Christmas.
It’s a mammoth task but he did it marvellously (you can listen to some of the covers here) and the new Advent started yesterday however this time he’s teamed up with students at Central Saint Martin’s to create high quality short films alongside more great covers and originals.
First in the covering chair is Lana Del Rey with a video not too unlike the Kick-Ass movie theme but with a very British feel.
Advent Day 1: David’s Lyre – Video Games w/ Knight Warrior
Check out the session with did with him during the Great Escape festival in Brighton!
David’s Lyre – Heartbeat // Mahogany Session
Alpines
South London’s Alpines are releasing a series of covers – serving up classic pop and rock tracks in their signature dark electro pop style. The latest of these is an ambitious cover of Carly Simon’s ‘Why’ produced by Maya Jane Coles – a perfect deep counter point to the ghostly vocals of Catherine Pockson. Although its a tricky track to cover, the talented combination of Alpines and Coles have managed to make this track their own.
The Alpines rework of Nirvana’s ‘Something In The Way’ takes this grungey track into haunting sombre territory. This release is part of an EP project in collaboration with some of the best UK up and coming production talents – including Dark Sky and Craze + Hoax.
Alpines – Why (produced by Maya Jane Coles)
Alpines – Something In The Way.
Enna Does Covers
Forget about Birdy and let’s focus our attention on some sweet, honest and homemade songs from Germany’s Enna.
Her personal SoundCloud page is what appears to be a hobby of sorts which is slowly turning into something more serious. Enna focuses mainly on covering songs from some of her favourite artists and below we’ve featured a few. There’s a really endearing and lovely feel to these covers, and yes, there are tons of Bon Iver covers online but that’s not a bad thing.
Using an array of tools including a guitar, omnichord, percussion, xylophone, organ and flute – she’s gradually beginning to upload original works to the web and you can hear the latest one here.
As for the tracks below, it’s not all Justin Vernon as Little Dragon are also covered and they’re all well worth a listen (plus they’re all free to download!).
Bon Iver – Michicant (Enna cover)
Bon Iver – Flume (Enna cover)
Little Dragon – Twice (Enna cover)
Le Coq Sportif x Future Classic
Our favourite Australian record label Future Classic have collaborated with sports brand Le Coq Sportif (is every brand on the planet investing in music??) to bring us a series of Aussie artists covering French acts and all will be available to download via their Facebook page for a limited time.
Scenic is the first act to the step up to the plate and they’ve chosen an Air classic from Moon Safari.
Scenic – Kelly Watch The Stars (Original by Air) – download via this link
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Air – Kelly Watch The Stars
Alex Clare on Etta James
No it’s not something that I want you to visualise, but instead Alex Clare has concentrated his powers on covering an Etta James classic.
Well done that boy.
Alex Clare – Damn Your Eyes (Etta James cover)
David’s Lyre – Advent
We’re back from our holiday break and David’s Lyre is first up for your ears.
David’s Lyre came to our attention via his collection of stripped back covers posted on his YouTube channel and since then loads of exciting things have happened for the young man.
Before the New Year however he promised fans that he’d release a new song everyday leading up to Christmas and he fulfilled that promise.
From renditions of Katy B to Elbow, to Cyndi Lauper and Tinie Tempah – the range is huge and some of them are rather tasty with two goodies below.
David’s Lyre – Pass Out (Tinie Tempah cover) – download
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David’s Lyre – Islands (The xx cover) - download
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The entire 20-track ‘album’ featuring covers, remixes and poem is available to download for free for a limited time so head over to the link and get your copy!
The Mahogany Sessions // David’s Lyre – English Roses
The Mahogany Sessions // Benjamin Francis Leftwich
It was only a couple of weeks ago when we first heard Ben’s upcoming single, Atlas Hands, and we thought it would be lovely to get together for a session before the year was over.
We joined him before his gig at the Electric Ballroom in Camden and the two acoustic performances he did for us are really something special.
One man and a guitar without any amps can make five men on stage seem completely inadequate.
To top it off we’ve also got his latest cover of Arcade Fire’s Rebellion which is the cherry on top.
Watch and download to your hearts content below!
Benjamin Francis Leftwich – Rebellion (Arcade Fire cover) - download
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Both these videos are exclusive previews for you lovely Mahogany readers, the general public will get to see these next week.
The Mahogany Sessions // Benjamin Francis Leftwich – Pictures
The Mahogany Sessions // Benjamin Francis Leftwich – Maps
