Aquila Online

What’s that song again?

// August 29th, 2009 // 2 Comments » // Music, Tech, Video, iPhone

Ever had a song stuck in your head and you don’t know the name? It happens to me all the time. Either I know a line from the song, or have some idea of the tune, but no idea who the artist or the song is.

To make matters worse, I always seem to miss the song intro on the radio and the DJ never seems to repeat the song title.

Imagine my delight when I stumbled upon the iPhone song identification application Midomi. Let me briefly interject.
A good friend, Leon Jacobs once said, “The greatest things about iPhone is the potential that every new app has to completely transform the device into a totally new experience.” I have to agree with Leon. Midomi has transformed the way I interact with music.

The premise is simple - open Midomi, press the big orange button, hold your iPhone up to a source of music and voila, it identifies the artist and song title. It even allows you to play back a short clip (from its own database) so that you can confirm if it’s the same song. Just watch out for loud ambient noise though - it makes song recognition a bit tricky.

Surprisingly enough it even recognised my tone-deaf humming of certain songs. Of course, if you don’t want to feel like a dork singing to your phone, you can also search for a song or band just by saying or typing the name.

The features don’t stop there though. You can bookmark and share your song results via Twitter and Facebook. Check out the lyrics, videos via YouTube and obtain detailed artist info. You can buy the song, but I haven’t been able to do so since the iTunes music store is still not available in South Africa.

All in all, this is a great application and at $4.99 (around R38) it’s worth every cent.

Download the Midomi application for your iPhone here.

Timothy Moloi - the YouTube sessions

// March 16th, 2009 // No Comments » // Music, Video

Recently I received an email from James Bassingthwaighte introducing himself as a musician that reads blogs. Well James, cool surname, although I still can’t pronounce it without getting my tongue twisted in at least three knots. Apparently he’s a music producer and his record label has just signed their first artist, a guy by the name of Timothy Moloi. Since I’m always interested in finding new South African music, I eagerly clicked on the relevant links and landed on a couple of cool cover songs.

Dubbed, the YouTube sessions, it is a collection of well known songs from artists such as Timbaland/One republic, Mika, Frank Sinatra and others. I was very impressed with Timothy’s voice and overall sound. For a brief moment I thought I was listening to Seal - a good thing in my books.

If these renditions are anything to go by, I’ll be the first to stand in line when his album hits the shelves. Hope I can get mine signed.

As a parting note, why not listen for yourself - Timothy singing a cover of Mika - Relax, take it easy.

Music review on the way

// March 28th, 2008 // 4 Comments » // Music, News

Heard some awesome tunes playing at Doppio Zero in Bellair mall earlier this week and was very surprised to find out that it was a local band. A further bonus to find out that they frequently perform live at this eatery.

Will be doing a review in the next couple of days, so stay tuned.

José González A Musical Genius

// March 18th, 2007 // 3 Comments » // Celebrities, Music

Some time ago a good friend of mine introduced me to the musical genius that is José González. 

It’s not that I haven’t heard his music before.  I previously heard his critically acclaimed rendition of ‘Heartbeats’ on the Sony Bravia Bouncy Balls advert, while ‘Crosses’ was featured in the final episode of The OC.

Heartbeats, by the way, is a remake of the original sung by Swedish band, The Knife on their album Deep Cuts.

Regardless, both songs are featured on the Swedish-born minstrel’s debut album Veneer, which has been rocking the European charts.  The single ‘Heartbeats’ has also been playlisted on the UK Top 10 charts . 

Not bad for a 27-year old, born into a family teeming with musical variety.  Apparently his father, also a singer, has a natural taste for Latin American music along with American and UK pop classics.

It’s also interesting to note that his minimalism in his music (his voice and acoustic guitar) is echoed through his production of the first album. As the write-up on his website quips:

It’s uplifting then, in an age of spin, hype and wall-to-wall hyperbole, to note that José’s music has required no lavish production (he records on basic equipment, at home) no exotic packaging or gimlet-eyed marketing strategies, to make it cherished by thousands. For once even the Sun got it right: ”In a world of musical clones, the Argentinean Swede is a thrillingly original new talent”.

B-Sides Completed, his exclusive South African mini-album, features José’s reinterpretations of Kylie Minogue’s ’Hand On Your Heart’ and Joy Division’s ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’.

Unfortunately though, we missed his exclusive one performance only show in Joburg earlier this year, but from what I read over at The Muso, the Cape Town one was brilliant.

If you like artists such as Damien Rice, Jack Johnson and Nick Drake then this will definitely not disappoint.

I’m definitely looking out for more from this artist in the future.

Your Life As A Movie Soundtrack

// January 14th, 2007 // 13 Comments » // Music

Don’t you sometimes wonder how the soundtrack would turn out if your life was made into a movie?

Found this meme on a number of blogs (agonnaldia and joburgboy) and decided to test this out for myself.

So, here’s how it works:

1. Open your music library
2. Put it on shuffle
3. Press play
4. For every question, type the song that’s playing
5. When you go to a new question, press the next button
6. Don’t lie and try to pretend you’re cool - I know you have Celine Dion in there somewhere…

01. Opening Credits: Hey Micky - Lolly
02. Waking Up: You’re in the army now - Status Quo
03. First Day at School: The young ones - Cliff Richard
04. Falling in Love: The sun always shines on TV - A-Ha
05. Fight Song: Papercut - Linkin Park
06. Breaking Up: Launch control sequence - Apollo 13 soundtrack
07. Prom/Matric Farewell: Believe - Cher
08. Life’s Okay: Never die - Jo Day
09. Mental Breakdown: Motor biking - Chris Speeding
10. Driving: Till the cops come knocking - Maxwell
11. Flashback: The sun is shining - Funkstar Deluxe feat Bob Marley
12. Getting Back Together: Lead me home - Gary B
13. Wedding: Feels like love - The Teamsters
14. Birth of a Child: One of us - Joan Osborne
15. Death Scene: Ashes to ashes - Hanz Zimmer (Black Hawk Down)
16. Funeral Song: Ghostbusters Theme
17. End Credits: Things can only get better - Jarrod

Okay, personally I think my playlist is cooked in the head, but this was very interesting - now tag yourself and let me know what is playlisted in your soundtrack.