Repost: Matthew Harding - "Let Us Dance!"

"Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, 'Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.' " (Rev 21.1-4)

Let Us Dance!
by Matt Harding

2008





2012

"This is now an older video but it works still, for me, as a powerful visual metaphor for the 'new heavens and new earth,' the biblical notion that this whole earth will be restored and renewed under God’s eschatological loving care.

To be fair, it wasn’t the original intention of the video, which is pretty cool all on its own (apart from the analogical connection to eschatology), but set it alongside the vision of Rev. 21 and you have a picture of: Dancing. Joy. Happiness. Reunion. Health. Solid, beautiful earth. Reconciliation and Peace. The 'coming of God.' The New Jerusalem joining the present world. The coming Kingdom. Of Christ who is all in all. Maranatha! "

by Kyle Roberts, Bethel College

http://kylearoberts.com/wordpress/?p=446

When I first saw this video I didn't know what to expect and the longer I watched it the more my heart was moved by its incredible vision. It brought tears of joy to my eyes, and my heart just wanted to burst with its beauty, as I thought of God's love for us and this wonderful life made so beautiful when we all join in. Come, let us Dance! Let us Celebrate t-o-g-e-t-h-e-r in this thing called Life!

R.E. Slater

May 15, 2011

Devising a Meaning for David Guetta's, "Titanium ft. Sia"

[If you have not already done so, please first listen to the music video

link below before proceeding to the commentary... Thanks.]

David Guetta - Titanium ft. Sia (Official Video)

David Guetta has produced a phenomenally mesmerizing, haunted song, and when sung by the Australian songstress Sia we find here a full range of psychological and sociological meanings  that overwhelms our soul with empathic pain beyond the societal conventions of decorum. It leaves one disturbed on a number of levels adding to a slight touch of addictiveness because of its back beat of incessant tonal vibrations as we keep waiting for some kind of interpretation to tell us what we are seeing and hearing. And yet, this is the beauty of the song because as we wait for an interpretation we become caught-up in the inner turmoil of a young boy trying to make sense of his devastated world. There is no help to be found. Significant people in his life have left him totally and fully on his own. There are no friends to turn to. Teachers are fearful of him. Joggers are indifferent to him. His parents have left him with a house emptied from their usual presence of nurturing love and care. Even authority figures that are normally protective are actively seeking his harm and destruction. This boy has nowhere to turn for help. He is totally alone in a world that has blown up. That holds no answers for his soul as he implodes from within to the external forces bearing down upon him like a great weight that he cannot shake off causing him fear, pain and confusion.

We are left with an ache of emptiness for this young man so lost within himself. So alone at a time when all the barriers and constraints have been removed from his small life. He literally does not know where to go or how to act in this brave new world of reconfiguration and self-perception. All the signposts have been removed. There is no ground of reality. His very foundations have slipped their moorings. It is ultimately left up to himself to figure out what is happening as he runs from all the past consolidating forces held within his life into a dense netherlands of thickets and brier growing darker and more wild with every racing footstep until finally forced to deal with a world that he does not comprehend and collapses to the ground folding himself into a fetal ball of helplessness marked with overwhelming hurt and disillusionment. All that he has known has been shattered and removed from his sense of being and purpose, feeling and touch, into an unfamiliar world of fear and unknowing.

How often have we survivors come to these very same places within our own frail lives and literally found no help from anywhere, or anyone, to whom we have turned? As if we had been laid bare upon our own crosses of pain and death just as Jesus was when forsaken by his heavenly Father to resolve the ruin and wreck of our lives held in sin's dark hand of daily destruction? Broken, dispirited, withdrawn, we cry for mercy and hear only the echoing silences of death carrying away what's left of our broken, hollow spirits. But can the mystery of life be anything other than this? As it births a reconciliation of resolve within our trembling hearts that would cause us to let go of all that once was important and familiar? Moving us to a braver determination of allowing our completed death at the imaginary illusions of life's rhyme of jokers and comedians taunting us to follow their minstrel paths of farce and humor?

I think yes. The state of death is a most necessary experience to our own personal understanding of existence and spiritual resurrection. And until we have come to a place of personal devastation that leaves us lying utterly alone with nothing-and-no-one to relieve our pain and misery, then must we still continue down our minstrel lanes of deception, lies, and deceit. Nowhere does God promise to us that this world should hold any final satisfactions or enjoyments until He is allowed into our lives to reconfigure its divine solemnity with the healing balms of reconciliation to His own spirit of rebirth, fullness, meaning, and love. What we would use to avoid facing these ultimate issues, God must strip away from our hands, until all our successes, failures and miseries come crashing down upon our souls to find us fully alone without any final choices that would prevent us from  admitting defeat and devastation gained from our crumbling worlds of personal turmoil and valiant spirits. This is conveniently pictured by the spinning bears held up in the air of what was left to the twin childhood illusions of undefeated love and dark hopelessness each forcing open a locked door that refuses admittance to the larger world of undiluted pain requiring renewal and inner sanctum from spiritual brokenness, emptiness, and meaning if one were to enter its brave new world.

For it is at this very moment when we have been magnificently imploded by God's truth and beauty that would shatter all our remaining worlds and sustaining illusions, can we bade entry into a newer world we knew little existed, nor knew we needed, until death had finally come and absolved us of ourselves and our imagined necessities and false assurances found at world's end. Absolved into the eternal, limitless, selfless, redemptive fellowship of a faithful Creator God. Come to rescue us at death's very door. So then, be at peace and know that you were never alone during this time of torn blackness and deep desperation. That the eternal hound of heaven ever betrayed your lost paths that wended beyond the streams of humanity to the very doors of hell itself and there found you when beyond all hope or help. When at that moment, when facing a final death, a death that can never come to the child of God, even while you thought you had been utterly cast off and forsaken by all around you. Yet was God there patiently waiting.

Therefore, be at peace. For God is love and love must see the end of ourselves before we can see the beginning of creation's beauty. For Eternal love will never forsake you - even as God Himself never forsook His Son held in hell's vile grip - regardless of the crosses that you have bourne in this hard life. Your pain and failures. Your miseries and hardships. Your sufferings and the agonies that have burned away upon your broken spirit. Even as God was there in His Son's healing death so He will ever be with you in yours having once gone ahead of you bearing this same pain. This same death. This same destruction. And like Jesus you will know the power of God's resurrection unlike any you have ever experienced before when once separated from God's truth and beauty. Real life, true life has come. It is a resurrection that is  meant to be lived out and known this side of heaven's door. For God has done you a great mercy by giving you clear sight in the midst of death's greedy hand. Your scales of blindness have fallen off and divine healing by God's Spirit has come to you. Come then and find eternal peace. Unending. Unbroken. Sublime. Infinite. Eternal.

For Love can be as disturbing as death's burden but as boundless as divine hope's freedom that death could never promise except through Love Incarnate. Found in the person of Jesus, God's son, become our Saviour. Become our Messiah, sent to redeem a people for His name. Become our Immanuel, the sent One from God to our divine need. Become our Priest, absolving our sin. Become as God's Lamb, bearing our sin away in His own body and spirit. Become as the divine Spirit of Love, bringing healing balm and salve to the mortal wounds of our lost hearts and soul. For Incarnate Love had once lain patiently at death's door waiting to grasp whosoever came to death's foreboding entrance and chaining darkness. Now Love lies within you - and is ever yours - even when you knew it not. Your salvation has come, and truth is, you were never titanium except in God's love that would protect you from the lies and harms and deceits of this world. Be ye therefore at peace.... Be still.... Rest, rest.... World's end has come. True life becomes.

R.E. Slater

February 3, 2012


Fog - http://reslater.blogspot.com/2011/10/re-slater-fog.html


"... It’s like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger, they were. And sometimes you didn’t want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened?

"But in the end, it’s only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something, even if you were too small to understand why.”

– Sam Gamgee, the Wise

The Two Towers, by J.R.R. Tolkien

David Guetta - Titanium ft. Sia (Official Video)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRfuAukYTKg

David Guetta Ft. SIA – Titanium Lyrics

Send “Titanium” Ringtone to your Cell

[Sia]

you shout it loud

but i can’t hear a word you say

i’m talking loud not saying much

i’m criticized but all your bullets is brick of shame

you shoot me down, but i get up

[Chorus]

i’m bulletproof nothing to lose

fire away, fire away

brick of shame, take your rain

fire away, fire away

you shoot me down but i won’t fall

i am titanium

you shoot me down but i won’t fall

i am titanium

i am titanium…

[Sia]

cut me down

but is you who had offered there to fall

ghost town, haunted love

raise your voice, sticks and stones may break my bones

i’m talking loud not saying much

[Chorus]

i’m bulletproof nothing to lose

fire away, fire away

brick of shame, take your rain

fire away, fire away

you shoot me down but i won’t fall

i am titanium

you shoot me down but i won’t fall

i am titanium

i am titanium…

[Sia]

stone-hard, machine gun

firing at the ones who rise

stone-hard, thus bulletproof

[chorus]

you shoot me down but i won’t fall

i am titanium

you shoot me down but i won’t fall

i am titanium

you shoot me down but i won’t fall

i am titanium

you shoot me down but i won’t fall

i am titanium

Wikipedia Music Review - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titanium_(song)

Single Review: David Guetta ft. Sia - 'Titanium'

http://unrealityshout.com/blogs/single-review-david-guetta-ft-sia-titanium

“‘Titanium’ fruits from arguably fresher soils than the

bargain-basement thrills and of his previous commercial work” 3 STARS

Digital Release: December 9, 2011

Physical Release: January 22, 2012

Never the first thought in anyone’s head when it comes to songs about finding inner strength to triumph over adversary, David Guetta prefers a far more formulaic route to selling single after single. But since working with the disparagingly predictable Who’s Who of practically everyone in US music world, it was only a matter of time before pressure from DJ competition expanded from it’s caged roots of two-person audiences in council flats and stumbled into full-on wide-screen confrontation. Suffice to say with the temporary demise of the now idea-void Timbaland, the crown of best commercial DJ was up for grabs, and for a number of years since exploding back into public presence with ‘When Love Takes Over’, Guetta’s been it’s proud owner and the go-to guy for success, swatting away the momentary surges of popularity between then and now that magnetised anyone in need of a quick hit towards RedOne, Dr. Luke, J. R. Rotem or, if you were looking for arguably more prestige, Stuart Price (we’ll ignore Scissor Sisters’ viciously subcultural ‘Night Work’ in this instance).

And that in itself is one of the most startling contrasts to Guetta’s norm here on ’Titanium’. With Australian songstress Sia long overdue some commercial attention, she’s penned a song which fruits from arguably fresher and mineral-rich soils than the bargain-basement thrills and half-promises of their own appeal his previous commercial work is infested with. There’s a welcome alteration of musical direction and a vast improvement in lyrical sense. Sia isn’t moaning about the fickleness of love as some kind of misandrous woman scorned, nor is she gloating of the audacity of her adventures with love, or even her own sheer awesomeness when it comes to love. Listeners will actually have to comprehend the lyrics on a level far more profound than what is simply sung with her mighty vocals. Sia creates room for the listeners to adapt each phrase that cements the virtue of resilience to their own lives, which is something the narrow-minded, repetitive bravado of Guetta’s 2009-2011 work lacked on almost every instance.

Sia also overcomes the main worry for an artist approached by Guetta; it’s not that she’s skilfully evaded the possibility of tarnishing her own chances of succeeding commercially, but more the fact that she, much like the song’s lyrics, has stood strong against the powerhouse assembly of synthesisers by upping her own game, with her distinctive vocals ringing clear and commanding her presence with a mighty chorus. And for the very same reason, ‘Titanium’ isn’t the kind of song that’ll bring a tear to your eye with it’s rampaging pathos and sky-high vocals, but it’s just the right amount of dramatic angst to nestle comfortably on a fence between the realm of generic radio pap for the masses and a song with a real message.

Continue to -

Coming Home to Phillip Phillip's "Home"



http://relevancy22.blogspot.com/2012/06/coming-home-to-phillip-phillips-home.html



For Further Challenge -

Despair and Disillusionment: "It's All Rubbish"

An Aussie Children's Christmas Story

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Christmas Story (2010 version)

told by the children of St Paul's Church.

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=kWq60oyrHVQ#!

 

 

Luke 2 (ESV)

 

The Birth of Jesus Christ

 

¹In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. ²This was the first registration when^[a] Quirinius was governor of Syria. ³And all went to be registered, each to his own town. ⁴And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, ⁵to be registered with Mary, his betrothed,^[b] who was with child. ⁶And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. ⁷And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.

The Shepherds and the Angels

⁸And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. ⁹And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with fear. ¹⁰And the angel said to them, "Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. ¹¹For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. ¹²And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger." ¹³And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,

¹⁴"Glory to God in the highest,

and on earth peace, good will toward men.

¹⁵When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us." ¹⁶And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger. ¹⁷And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. ¹⁸And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. ¹⁹But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart. ²⁰And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.

 

²¹And at the end of eight days, when he was circumcised, he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.

 

 

 

You are Beautiful

(You are) Beautiful by Mercy Me

God Is Love (1 John 4.7-21)

⁷Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. ⁸ Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. ⁹In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. ¹⁰In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. ¹¹Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. ¹² No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.

¹³ By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. ¹⁴And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. ¹⁵ Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. ¹⁶So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. ¹⁷By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. ¹⁸There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. ¹⁹ We love because he first loved us. ²⁰ If anyone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot^[a] love God whom he has not seen. ²¹And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.

Song Lyrics

Days will come when you don't have the strength
When all you hear is you're not worth anything
Wondering if you ever could be loved
And if they truly saw your heart
They'd see too much

You're beautiful, You're beautiful
You are made for so much more than all of this
You're beautiful, You're beautiful
You are treasured, you are sacred, you are His
You're beautiful

and Praying that you have the heart to fight
Cuz you are more than what is hurting you tonight
For all the lies you've held inside so long
and they are nothing in the shadow of the cross

You're beautiful, You're beautiful
You are made for so much more than all of this
You're beautiful, You're beautiful
You are treasured, you are sacred, you are His
You're beautiful

Before you ever took a breath
Long before the world began
Of all the wonders He possessed
There was one more precious
Of all the earth and skies above
You're the one He madly loves
Enough to die

You're beautiful, You're beautiful
In His eyes

You're beautiful
You were meant for so much more than all of this
You're beautiful
You are treasured, you are sacred, you are His
You're beautiful, You're beautiful
You were meant for so much more than all of this
You're beautiful, You're beautiful
You are treasured
You are sacred
You are His

"Spoken For" by Mercy Me

 

 

Thanksgiving To God For the Generations of Our Being

Thanksgiving to God for the promise of a lifetime of
friendships, family, ministries, and joys.



Death Cab for Cutie - Stay Young, Go Dancing [Official Video]



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFW2ZlyVXEw&feature=player_embedded





What Does It Mean to Love and to Stay in Love?

Devising a Meaning for Architecture in Helsinki's "Escapee"

Music Video for Architecture in Helsinki's 'Escapee'

Directed by Marcus Soderlund

Produced by Jules de Chateleux
Taken from the 2011 album 'Moment Bends'

 * * * * * * * * * * *

My First Impressions

by R.E.Slater

When first watching the music video Escapee by Architecture in Helsinki I only heard light-hearted beats and saw a young boy in the joys of peddling a bright red bicycle with bouncing blue balloons tied to its frame flying behind him in the jet streams of his joyous ride. Right then I new I was in for a metaphorical ride as the video cut and panned between two different adult figures intermixed with the band itself as our tour guide. Was I listening to the heartbeats of first love by a young man rethinking his first experiences (adult 1) or to an older adult (adult 2) weighed down with the inner turmoil of lost dreams unrealized and undiscovered much later in life? Or perhaps watching the first really awakening dreams of childhood's youthful promise that could fill the constellations of heaven above with its own weightless joys and spirited gladness? Or even a deposed life succumbed to the ravages of earth-bound realities believing age and maturity to have shredded childhood's distant hopes and beliefs? Someone who was destined no longer to ride the brighter boyhood dreams of youth but the lonely mechanistic backstreets and forgotten alleyways of unhappy griefs and dooms forever lost and forlorn in the decorum of societal norms?

I then wondered, "Is it so simple a thing to escape from this world's dark clutches of unbelief that would bind us forever in its darker beliefs of uncertainty?" Or can music, love, faith and a reconstitution that comes from God re-capture, and re-vitalize, our darkened lives with magical bikes and flying balloons. Nifty blue parkas and boyish haircuts. Or even the indescribable joys of riding the old, familiar passageways with a newer outlook on life? That refuses to sit in the metaphysical chairs of dismay and disappointment but would rise up to discover again the bright red bicycles of our childhood fantasies... yet this time bound within the surer bonds of God's love and embrace. Not the delusions of our own strength, or life's bleakness, nor even a darker world's many vaunted vanities and overwhelming temptations! A space where we might learn again to ride the fair streets of childhood as we once had been created to ride by our Creator God - especially with gay blue balloons flying behind our boundless imaginations! And with gladdened hearts released to the realities of promise in faith's majesty found only in a Creator's heart and soul as He had once made us to be and experience!

Here then is the inescapable reality of life's enigmas and mysteries that God loves us and in that love we will find our creative being and purpose as we become escapees from this life's heartbreaks and disillusionments. So then, break off the chains and locks of unbelief, and release that metaphorically-redemptive bike onto the back streets where we first discovered to ride from beneath heaven's home and across life's steely skies to vividly burn with faith's living hopes of unhesitating belief in personal renewal grounded in the God of our boundless reality!

R.E. Slater

August 7, 2011

Architecture in Helsinki - Escapee

Escapee Lyrics

This escapee was never gonna stay

On the unfamiliar building on the rooftop

Where we laid right off

Constellation shined and paved the way

Temptation's not a word

Until we've let it go astray

And I want to lead it

He want to lead it

Whoa, ho, ho

Like old tower over you all day

All darkness can be difficult like needles in the hay

I need to flick the switch and show you how to hide

And love is not the answer if you're takin' me for a ride

For a ride

This escapee was never gonna stay

On the night it'd be too typical to be stuck in a day

And while the competition's overcome what may

Temptation's not a word until we've let it go astray

I want to leave it

He want to lead it

Whoa, ho, ho

Unescaping, you're escaping

Unescaping

You're takin' me for a ride

For a ride

Unescaping, you're escaping

For a ride

Unescaping, you're escaping

For a ride

Unescaping, you're escaping

Unescaping, you're escaping



Send "Escapee" Ringtone to your Cell

More About the Band

 

Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Architecture_in_Helsinki

Musica Reviews

REVIEW 1

http://www.thevine.com.au/music/clip-reviews/architecture-in-helsinki's-'escapee'-and-'moment-bends'-track-by-track-_-watch20110612.aspx
by Marcus, on Jun 12 2011

Architecture in Helsinki's second single from their most recent pop slab Moment Bends, comes in the form of album track No. 2 'Escapee'. Filmed in Belgium, the clip was directed by Marcus Soderlund (The xx, Mike Snow) and features the band performing in damp suburbia, as a backdrop to a father/son tale involving forbidden bicycle riding, blue balloons and sweet parkas.

MILANO ACOUSTICS: Architecture in Helsinki - Escapee 

The band have also just released a mini-EPK type thing for Moment Bends. It consists of three band members—Cameron Bird, Kellie Sutherland and Gus Franklin—staring down the barrel and riffing on various word games connected to each track from their new album. Non sequiturs such as "it's as if I'm asleep on a raft floating across a river towards a glowing power station" and "a non space where magic and perfect moments can happen" litter proceedings, along with small visual hiccups and quirks. Meaning, it's good—if you're a fan. Or just really like sky blue.

REVIEW 2

http://www.eatingthebeats.com/2011/06/drinking-tunes-summer-beer-music/

On their recent LP Moment Bends, Architecture in Helsinki shed some of their super-twee roots in favor of pure dance-pop — and it’s a great fit. “Escapee” is perfect for a summer party, with lyrics about looking at constellations on a rooftop, getting out the dark, and escaping.

REVIEW 3 

http://www.inanabsolutworld.pedestrian.tv/pop-culture/news/watch-architecture-in-helsinki-escapee/44381.htm

Architecture In Helsinki's insightful track-by-track breakdown of Moment Bends calls this "the Nescafe Blend 43 moment on the record. We just added water and there was an instant buzz.". Tasty. Frontman Cameron Bird also associates this track with dolphins. Sadly no water mammals appear in the song's Marcus Soderlund directed video but we'll always settle for hazy bike rides with popular culture's most romanticized escapee not named Andy Dufresne, the adolescent runaway. Pedal til you legs fall off little man.

REVIEW 4 

tv/music/news/architecture-in-helsinkis-track-by-track-breakdown/43305.htm

ESCAPEE This was the Nescafe Blend 43 moment on the record. We just added water and there was an instant buzz. Sometimes songs happen in 10 minutes like some sort of crazy chemical reaction, 'Escapee' was as instantaneous and un-complicated as songs happen in our our world. Probably why it still makes me feel so good when I hear it! For some reason, every time I hear this it makes me think of dolphins.

REVIEW 5

http://www.serialoptimist.com/music/so-approved-architecture-in-helsinki-escapee-4981.html

Melbourne natives Architecture In Helsinki released their fourth album Moment Bends in April, and is already being talked about as one of the best modern pop albums of the year. Recorded over a two year period, Moment Bends is in large part “A dialogue with the dance floor, without being a slave to any particular rhythm.” The just released video for their song “Escapee” (directed by Marcus Soderlund, who has recently been creating great videos for The xx, Miike Snow, and jj) is a toe-tapping, fun track that the band says “was as instantaneous and un-complicated as songs happen in our world. Probably while it makes us feel so good when we hear it!” It’s makes us feel pretty good too. Enjoy!

REVIEW 6

http://blogs.seattleweekly.com/reverb/2011/06/tell_me_about_that_song_archit.php

A lot went into writing your favorite song--but how much do you really know about it? This week Cameron Bird and Kellie Sutherland of Architecture in Helsinki delve into hidden vocals, pesky guitar solos, and first-time key changes in their new song, "Contact High." (Check out Eric Grandy's take on the song here ).

Song: Contact High
From album: Moment Bends
Release date: May 2011
When it was written: January 2010
Where it was written: In our studio, Buckingham Palace
Why it was written: Is this a trick question?
Favorite line in the song: There is a hidden backing vocal that rips off Mutt Lange/Shania Twain in the last chorus.
Which part was the hardest to come up with? Getting the right flow in guitar solos are always difficult!
If you could go back and change anything, what would it be? Nothing. We spent a month on it in the studio so we wouldn't have any regrets.
Odd fact about song: It's the first-ever key change in an AIH song
What inspired the song: The magic of the natural universe
The overall meaning of the song: The chemistry between two brand-new lovers

REVIEW 7

http://www.ticketmaster.com/Architecture-In-Helsinki-tickets/artist/970586

Short Biography

Currently in the midst of a massive tour encompassing the USA, Russia, Europe and the UK, modernist pop quintet Architecture in Helsinki are thrilled to announce their most extensive Australian tour in years. After stunning crowds on the Groovin' The Moo tour and a brief run of headline dates in May, including a dazzling show at the Opera House as part of Vivid, AIH will be trekking across Australia over August and September.

The band's second single Escapee has just been released from their pop opus ‘Moment Bends', accompanied by a beautiful video directed by Marcus Soderlund (The XX, Miike Snow) in Belgium. As effortless and infectious as a pop song can be, Escapee was the last track written and recorded during the albums' two year gestation. Frontman Cameron Bird says, "Sometimes songs happen in 10 minutes like some sort of crazy chemical reaction, 'Escapee' was as instantaneous and un-complicated as songs happen in our world. Probably why it still makes me feel so good when I hear it!".

Supported by triple j and Channel [V], the tour will see the band hitting up most capital cities, along with rare performancesin Cairns, Wollongong, and Newcastle. Don't miss this chance to see why the world's falling in love with ‘Moment Bends' and Architecture in Helsinki's transcendently joyous live shows.

In-depth Biography

The Australian indie pop ensemble Architecture in Helsinki hail from Fitzroy, Melbourne, and have counted multi-instrumentalists Cameron Bird, James Cecil, Gus Franklin, Isobel Knowles, Jamie Mildren, Sam Perry, Tara Shackell, and Kellie Sutherland among their ranks. The band's musical arsenal is even bigger than its roster, featuring instruments as diverse as analog synths and samplers, glockenspiel, tuba, clarinet, and recorder along with the more predictable drums, bass, and guitar. Architecture in Helsinki began playing in 2000, crafting a mix of indie, electronic, and pop that they recorded and occasionally performed live. The collective began recording its debut album, Fingers Crossed, in 2002 in a variety of places ranging from beach houses to proper studios; Bar/None released the album in spring 2004. Following a hectic year of touring and recording, the group turned around another album, In Case We Die, in 2005. The release drew glowing reviews, fixing Architecture in Helsinki as one of that year's most promising and idiosyncratic indie acts. Frontman and primary songwriter Bird relocated to Brooklyn a year later, where he and producer James Cecil put the finishing touches on the group's third effort, Places Like This. The album was released on Polyvinyl in 2007. Bird returned to Australia and the group, now a quintet including Perry, Mildren, Sutherland, and Franklin, released the That Beep single in 2008. They recorded their fourth album in their studio, Buckingham Palace, over the course of two years. The result was Moment Bends, which was released in early 2011. ~ Heather Phares, Rovi

REVIEW 8

http://lamusicblog.com/2011/06/video/architecture-in-helsinki-release-video-for-escapee/

by Kristin Houser, on June 2nd, 2011
Category: Video

Architecture in Helsinki’s music perfectly suits my dancing style (I flatter myself to think there is any “style” to my dancing, but that’s beside the point). Not too fast, not too fancy, just perfectly infectious melodies over beats that keep my feet moving without knocking me off them. “Escapee,” the third single from the band’s 2011 release Moment Bends, is perfectly in keeping with this trend, and the video for the track, which features a red bike, blue balloons, and some understated ’80s-influenced outfits and hairstyles, is pretty awesome too.