The Ancient Astronauts - We Are To Answer

Artist: The Ancient Astronauts
Album: We Are To Answer
Released: June 9, 2009
Label: ESL Records
Stars: 4.0
Skippable Tracks: 0
Must-listen/purchase Track: Rising high



Miguel listens to hip-hop?????? Well, sometimes. What really inspired me to write this blog post was that I saw a young gentleman sporting a shirt that said I miss hip-hop Which immediately made me make a weird face at him. He probably thought he was being very clever and hip, but he failed. Why? Because hip-hop is not dead! Dude is simply not looking hard enough. And THAT is the bottom line. If you love music, you don't wait for it to come to you, you seek it. Because you love it.

As promised on episode 15 of My Portable device, I’m posting the name of that one song that I never announced. I really could not think of the name of it at the time.

The Ancient Astronauts consists of a couple of German producers named Tom Strauch and Ingo Moll who recently teamed up with ESL Records, founded by Thievery Corporation. So with that said, the album does have some of the same elements as a Thievery album, without making it a duplicate. Of course the band was allowed to work creatively with their own ideas, and claim that they did not feel pressure to create something that they did not feel comfortable with.

This album is a lot more varied than a Thievery album, including some downtempo type of electronic music, but also reggae, soul, dub, and hip-hop. It’s definitely some good background music, but also contains a few punches. For this reason, it earns a solid 4 stars. I know I haven’t given out too many low scores, but I’m sure I will very soon.

Check out the single below, it’s free, and legal thanks to the folks at AOL. So without further ado, here it is! Thanks for listening to My Portable Device, and thanks for checking my blog.

This album also features other MCs such as:

Bootie Brown and Imani from The Pharcyde, Azeem, Tippa Irie, Bajka, Phat Old Mamas, Ulf Stricker, Raashan Ahmad and Entropik, and a few more.

Ancient Astronauts - Rising High

Ancient Astronauts MySpace

Jack Peñate - Everything Is New

Artist: Jack Peñate
Album: Everything Is New
Released: June 22, 2009
Label: XL Recordings
Stars: 4.0
Skippable Tracks: 0
Must-listen/purchase Track: Pull My Heart Away




Has Jack Peñate given up on plaid? From what I can tell…no. He’s still wearing the same-old plaid shirts buttoned all the way up to the collar. The only thing that has changed is his music style.

Jack Peñate is a U.K. Pop-rocker who just released his second full-length album. The Brit rock-star with a Spanish name released his first album in 2006. Most the songs on Matinée are heavy on the upstrokes and have a Pop-rock style to them. He received great feedback and it reached the number one spot on the U.K.’s independent album charts.

Peñate’s second album is certainly very different from its predecessor, and to me, that’s a good thing. I’m glad to see that he’s decided to explore another side of his creative mind. According to an interview done at Absolute Radio, he never felt the need to re-visit the same sound, and for that, I commend him. An artist should be able to express themselves however they want, and not have to cater to a specific audience. Go independent labels!

After hearing his first single, I expected the album to be a dancing-good-time. And it is, but there is also a couple of very creative Indie-rock kind of tracks on it. The album begins with my favorite song, Pull My Heart Away, one of those Indie songs I’m talking about. The second song switches the mood to a Pop sound which continues until the last couple of tracks where he throws in another two rock songs.

Peñate uses a lot of sound layering and continues to sing about his favorite subjects: Death and love.

Must listen/purchase track


First sigle


Old track

Andrew Bird - Noble Beast

Artist: Andrew Bird
Album: Noble Beast
Released: January 20, 2009
Label: Fat Possum, Bella Union Records
Stars: 4.0
Skippable Tracks: 1
Must-listen/purchase Track: Tenuousness

Alright, time to step it up a notch! I'm going to have to start using proper grammar and spelling. This blog might actually get read now. We'll see how that goes.


Andrew Bird is a singer-songwriter from Chicago, who has just released his sixth studio album - Noble Beast. The whole feel of the album is very Folk Rock, and at times Indie Rock. Since he purposefully tries to keep listeners on their feet, some tracks don't find their direction until a minute or two into it. Think of a folk song, a pinch of Thom Yorke, some violin, a hint of glockenspiel, a tune that you might hear in a Western film, mix, and you have a song from Noble Beast.

The album is full of great ballads,rock tunes, and songs with many twists and turns. Over-all sound would be mellow, and something you should not listen to while operating some kind of heavy machinery.

I only found one track that I would choose not to listen to as a stand-alone track (Nomenclature), but if you are listening to the album from start to finish, the track just blends in. It simply had too many twists and no climax. This is followed by Ouo a 20 second track of nothingness, but thankfully he picks it up with the next track.

Overall, this album has its brilliant moments, and deserves a high rating. Check out his MySpace, or preview and purchase the album at eMusic.

Must-listen/purchase track: