On-Line Finds: Eldad Lidor, Renfro, Bryan El

We discover new music on-line with Eldad Lidor, Renfro and Bryan El
You can also hear an audio version of this blog with music in an Echo Location

There was a time, just a couple of years ago, when most of the music that was released came from
conventional record labels on CDs. But that’s completely changed in the last few years as more artists find themselves self-producing and releasing their music on-line. More and more, I’ve been discovering a lot of new materiel there, from artists all over the world, whose music is all over the map stylistically. Acoustic guitarists, electronic glitch artists and minimalist composers, you can find them all on-line somewhere. Many of these musicians are coming to us via myspace. If you can cut through the gross commercialism and gutter aesthetic that dominates myspace, you can find some inventive artists creating their own sonic worlds. One of them is Eldad Lidor.

Eldad Lidor is an Israeli composer, apparently of some note in the film and TV world there. I couldn’t glean much from his website because it’s all in Hebrew. He’s got a conventional CD, but without the web, it’s unlikely anyone outside of Israel would run across it. It’s called Closer and on the cover he’s got a retro-surreal carnival scape and the music is a lot like that, an updating of the Penguin Café Orchestra with arrangements that are quaint and urbane, hip and evocative. He’s got a lot of Middle Eastern elements in his music, but also touches of Frank Zappa and minimalism. Eldad Lidor Myspace Page

Another Myspace find has been an English group called Renfro. The band is Tim Branney who sings in a breathy, fragile whisper, and Atom James Draper who provides found sounds and electronics. They fall in with moody rock bands like Low and Midlake and sound a bit like Nick Drake, if he had plugged in a computer instead of plucking a guitar, or like the Beach Boys in a dream state.
Renfro Myspace Page

Finally, I’ve got Bryan El. He’s from Flanders, in Belgium and spends most of his time as a graphic artist. But when he’s not designing websites he turns to his computer for music and he’s made a download recording called Secrets of the Deep that looks back to the music of Jean-Michel Jarre, but with a modern, laptop aesthetic. There’s a certain naivete to his music that reminds me of the late American space musician, Michael Garrison.
Bryan El’s Myspace Page

These are just a handful of artists who are circulating in the online world, spinning through the net waiting for someone to pluck them out. You’ll be hearing more of them, on Echoes.

For an audio version of this blog with music listen to an Echo Location

John Diliberto
(((echoes)))

Comment posted by
at 5/21/2008 3:44:43 PM
Good suggestions both, James. Thanks for the pointer. Those URLS didn’t work however. I used www.myspace.com/Crisopa and myspace.com/planetboelox to check them out

Comment posted by
at 5/21/2008 3:18:35 PM
I’m really digging Eldad Lidor. A very good find – quite intricate, melodic compositions. My two favorite discoveries so far on myspace are Planet Boelox (http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=44216409) and Crisopa (http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=53292513)

Comment posted by
at 5/21/2008 2:18:35 PM
I’m really digging Eldad Lidor. A very good find – quite intricate, melodic compositions. My two favorite discoveries so far on myspace are Planet Boelox (http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=44216409) and Crisopa (http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=53292513)

Comment posted by
at 5/21/2008 2:44:43 PM
Good suggestions both, James. Thanks for the pointer. Those URLS didn’t work however. I used www.myspace.com/Crisopa and myspace.com/planetboelox to check them out

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