This guy, José González, was namedropped by a former colleague from the office, Camoi. I remember she sent a link for a video of one of González' live performances and mentioned something like "him being her new love." And hearing his "Veneer" album and raving about his brand of folk-acoustic music, now I know the reason why.
My interest to rediscover this guy's music was really piqued when a work batchmate, Edsol, recently posted on his Multiply videos for some of González' songs--a cover of Massive Attack's "Teardrop" (astig!), "Hand On Your Heart," and two others I forgot. When I began streaming "Veneer," his voice sounded familiar to me, and I soon learned why when I found this little bit of info while researching for his profile on the net: He was one of the voices behind Zero 7's "Futures," a song from one of the chillout/downtempo bands I listen to.
I'm yet to find a CD of his debut album, but as of now I'm content with just audiostreaming his music online (here). Great stuff, the reason why I blogged about his music here. I only decide, by the way, to feature or rave about albums when most, if not all, of the songs on the tracklist give me that auricular pleasure that only a handful get to ever do, and "Veneer" is one of them. I have never heard of anybody else producing this kind of music, and this is enough reason for us to support Indie more. I know I'm not alone with this. Down with commercial music!
"Heartbeats" is a standout.