Tom Cora shreds that cello

Today: punk cello.

Tom Cora was an absolutely brilliant cellist who, sadly, died young. In today's song of the day, you get to hear him shredding every bit as well as any lead guitarist in his collaboration with The Ex:

Tom Cora and the Ex: State of Shock mp3 (right click and choose 'save as' to download) 

Notice how expertly he manipulates the tone of the instrument, within a single note going from buzzy, frictiony attack to harmonic – like a singer going from throaty chest voice to falsetto.

Modal melodies, trills and quarter-tone tuning one moment, chordal backing the next. Yes, that's a cello accompanying the verses. Anything a guitar can do, y'know ...

And keep with it for the closing solo, in which he goes mental. I like mental cello solos.

Thanks to Ricki (of Not Squares), who introduced me to the marvellous Mr Cora.

... And an aside: is that not a damn cool promo shot, up there?

If the Beach Boys had sung about rape and abortion ... Amanda Palmer

Well, this is a curious one. As you may indeed already have gathered.

Amanda Palmer, Oasis mp3 (yousendit)

It starts off normal enough: brittle, percussive piano. But pay attention to the lyrics and you'll soon observe – shall we say? – a certain disjunction between musical style and subject-matter.

Listen for yourself, Heavy Soil readers. What think'st? Beautifully-poised wit or a controversy too far? Comment away, my pretties.

Whatever you may think of the lyrics, though, you must surely applaud the fine pop production of Mr Ben Folds. He has compressed the ass off this one – and all to the good. Full of nice details.

Anyhow, Amanda Palmer released her album – Who Killed Amanda Palmer? – today. I shall be reviewing it not too long hence. Here's the official site – though, be warned: international delivery P&P is exorbitant.

... Oh, and, yes: it's that Oasis.

As ever, may I disclaim: the mp3 hereabovelinked is for, as they say, evaluative purposes only. You like it, you buy it. Um. Please.

From Brutal Assaults to Bathetic Handclaps: Ally Craig

I am an enormous admirer of contrasts in music. Often, my favourite songs are those that splice together wildly disparate sections or musical features.

Ally Craig understands contrast. From brutal guitar assault to sudden, precipitous silence; from all-out drum battery to bathetic handclaps. He understands contrast well enough to be witty with it.

Pilot Inspektor is the first half of Ally Craig's recently released double-A-side. You can listen to it on last.fm, or download the mp3 free from his MySpace page. If there is one song of the day you download this week, make it Mr Craig's.

Things to listen out for

• Teeter-inducing silences
  
• Phrases that go on one beat longer than you expect
  
• Them witty handclaps
  
• A very clever mimickry of Beck-like production techniques in the guitars
  
• The contrast between the extreme rhythmicism of the verses and the Greenwoodian guitar squalling and wailing of the tremolo-picked solo section
  
• The lyrics
  

This post marks the start of Ally Craig season here on Heavy Soil … For we'll be reviewing the single as a whole (on sale here) very soon.

How triangulation ought to be: Dresden Dolls

With Amanda Palmer's solo album (produced, intriguingly, by Ben Folds) due out on 16 September (fear not, Heavy Soiler: it will be reviewed), it seems apt to turn our ears in the direction of her band, the splendid Dresden Dolls – "Brechtian Punk Cabaret", in their own words.

Girl Anachronism is the band's best song:

Breakneck and untidy as (um) an untidy broken neck, Palmer's piano and vocals are offset by Brian Viglione's tight, tight drumming. This is how triangulation ought to be.

Nice video. Palmer and Viglione carry through their contrasting musical styles in the personae they adopt in the band's press/PR: he, inscrutable, almost inhumanly shorn of fallibility; she wildly oscillating between emotional extremes, by turns aggressive and vulnerable.

Oh, and, for the benefit of Ida Maria and her PR agents: here is a band that have got the sexual ambiguity angle pretty much bang-on (no pun intended).

Dresden Dolls website

Dresden Dolls on last.fm