sean.blog

I use iLike.com to discover new music, and show others what music I am listening to. Sometimes these two forces come together to provide me with new music without me even looking for it. This happened yesterday when the band Blood Ruby added me as a friend at iLike. I am not sure what criteria they used, but the band actually went through and added a bunch of people to their friends list. I have been listening to some of the tracks they have available for download on the their website, perhaps the criteria was people who already liked the Cocteau Twins, and I really like what I hear. Certainly the influence from the Cocteau Twins is there, although I can understand most of the words being sung. Perhaps that is due to the band including the lyrics in the MP3 files they offer for download, a nice bonus if you ask me.

Blood Ruby is a trio made up of vocalists Cynthia Conrad & Margaret Browning with Thomas Wall responsible for most of the sounds you will hear. I like the fact that a band like this whose influences seem to be heavily on the electronica side of things still includes guitar and bass playing on many of the tracks. I sent the band a quick e-mail saying thanks for adding me as a friend, and got a nice response back from Cynthia: “Thanks for checking us out! You just made the last several hours of work
worthwhile! :)” Reminds me that it is important to get involved in a dialog on the web.

The Blood Ruby website has the following to say about the band:

“Thomas and Cynthia met online in early 2001. For over a year, they collaborated long distance on fledgling demo tracks, getting together once every few months to record. To evoke the rich, deep, shimmering, shadowy, multifaceted sound to which they aspired, they named the project after the most rare and valuable gem in the world, the blood ruby.

By early 2002, Blood Ruby had released several demo songs on a handful of online music sites. Cynthia launched the band’s marketing campaign and began building the bloodruby.com website. Thomas moved to Connecticut to work more collaboratively on the music. In 2003, Cynthia’s former band mate, Margaret Browning, joined the band and the core creative lineup of Blood Ruby was finally complete. The band’s sound evolved as the three began writing and recording new, more ambitious material.”

The band does not have an official release yet, which benefits us since they have released 13 tracks for download on their website. Songs are available under a Creative Commons Music Sharing deed which allows for downloading, sharing and podcasting of the music. I suggest grabbing Centro, Remains of the Day, Underwater Place and Babel Babel to get started (or get them all). I am liking what I have heard so far though, and I can easily see purchasing a Blood Ruby album. I don’t think I have a favorite track yet, still really on my first listen through, but I am sure one or two will emerge. The tracks have been transfered to my portable music player of choice, and a playlist has been created. I will also be adding a couple of tracks to my Favorite Females playlists, which get the most portable play time for me.

Collected links for Blood Ruby are available on Ma.gnolia.