Griff says; For the love of days!

I'm going quite mainstream tonight, I hope you'll forgive me. I know that Streetlamp's Ray certainly will, as tonight's music is right up his street; that particular alley being a gentle stretch of dreamy, almost psychedelic, indie-pop with a hushed and intimate female vocal. Think previous Streetlamp favourites of Ray's such as The Innocence Mission, Julia Stone and Syd Lane and you're in the right territory. Tonight's band is Amor de Días, an indie-pop supergroup of sorts, formed by Alasdair MacLean of The Clientele and Lupe Núñez-Fernández of Pipas.



Over the course of the last three years, the duo have pieced together their debut record, Street of the Love of Days, during spare time at evenings and weekends. To get the layered chamber-pop sound they required they have called on the talents of other friendly musicians such as Damon and Naomi (formerly of Galaxie 500) for sessions, and have carefully built up the songs’ clever arrangements with harps, bouzoukis, strings, recorders, and brass. These instruments have been carefully constructed around the core of dual Spanish guitars, rich vocal harmonies, and the dream imagery of their bilingual lyrics. The album was released on Merge Records in the US on 17 May 2011 (13 June for the CD outside the Americas).

Merge Records website describes Street of the Love of Days as:

"a focused, cohesive jewel of chamber pop that reflects a little of Gal Costa and haunting night music, and a large dose of spooky psychedelic folk. But the beautiful harmony that sings throughout the record makes it all their own. At times spare and empty, at times rich with instrumental texture, and at times jazz-tinged and hypnotic, Street of the Love of Days rivals anything either Alasdair or Lupe has recorded before."

Here's the beautiful and dreamy Bunhill Fields, track 3 on the album, and available as a free download:

Amor de Dias - Bunhill Fields by One Thirty BPM




Amor de Días are currently on tour in the US with the aforementioned Damon and Naomi, who themselves have a new album out this month called False Beats and True Hearts, released on their own 20/20/20 imprint. Here's the track Helsinki from that album:




Hope you enjoyed that. If so, it'a worth making a visit to Damon and Naomi's official website where you can pick up several free MP3s from their extensive back catalogue.

Griff
xx