The Hip-Hop Vs Bjork Mixtape

As if further proof were needed of Bjork's genre defying influence and adaptability, or the ingenuity and resourcefulness of a good producer, here is a brilliant hip-hop mixtape by Boston MC Moe Pope and producer Headnodic.
They've taken a huge range of Bjork's beats and sounds from across her albums and mashed them up, cut them into bits and pasted them together again. The results makes for some wicked hip-hop tracks. These two have done an awesome job.

Highlight for me is the last track, which is a sizzling hot big band jazz version of Venus as a Boy which turns into a proper stealthy stomper hip-hop tune before melting back into a swinging jazz hands finale!

DOWNLOAD HERE (64 mb)





Source: onthedownload (Thankyou)

My Daughter The Terrorist

MY DAUGHTER THE TERRORIST
(58 minutes) Sri Lanka/Norway/USA
Director: Beate Arnestad
Producer: Morten Daae

This fascinating documentary is an exceedingly rare, inside look at an organization that most of the world has blacklisted as a terrorist group. Made by the first foreign film crew to be given access to the Tamil Tigers (LTTE) of Sri Lanka, the film offers insights into the recently re-ignited conflict in Sri Lanka. Twenty-four-year-olds Dharsika and Puhalchudar have been living and fighting side-by-side for seven years as part of LTTE's elite force, the Black Tigers. Their story is told through cinema verité footage, newsreel footage, and interviews with the women and Dharsika's mother.



The women describe heartbreaking traumas they both experienced at the hands of the Sri Lankan army, which led them to join the guerrilla forces. As they discuss their readiness to become suicide bombers and their abiding loyalty to the unnamed "Leader"-who they are sure would never harm civilians-grisly images of past LTTE suicide bombings provide somber counterpoints. Their curiously flat affects raise the possibility that they have been brainwashed. This even-handed documentary sheds light on the reasons that the Tamil Tigers continue their bloody struggle for independence while questioning their tactics.

Watch the whole film on this Youtube playlist http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=6116C06833C109A8

OPAQUE - BREAK THE CIRCLE

Opaque's new album is almost here! Check out the tracklist below and download new song Ball Of Fire!

Opaque - Break The Circle

1. Building Burning Bridges
2. Ball Of Fire
3. They Chose To Lead Us
4. Anything You Want
5. Karma
6. Billy The Circus Freak
7. The Lady Is A Tramp
8. Butterflies
9. Taken By Surprise
10. The Way It Seemed
11. Rise & Fall Of God
12. Unity
13. It's All About The Music

Press Release

“Psychedelic indie folktronica? The band that refuses to be pigeonholed is back with a new album of beautifully crafted songs ”

Break The Circle, the new album from Opaque, out May 2009 on
Drip Dry Productions

Renowned as the most original band to hail from the city of Peterborough, the members of Opaque have garnered attention from across the UK since their formation in 2002 – taking to the stage to support the likes of Kasabian, The Kooks, Biffy Clyro and more. The festival fields of England soon became their regular haunt and they’ve been invited to play everywhere from Secret Garden Party to Bestival and Small World. Opaque’s debut album, The Last Moustache, won over a new legion of fans and the band’s philanthropic nature saw them get busy organising their own festival, GrassRoots, and setting up the Muddy Promotions arts collective (www.muddy.org.uk) while touring the album throughout 2006.

This fruitful time saw Opaque win plenty of recognition for their artistic endeavours – they were nominated at the 2008 Indy Awards for best alternative act, sold almost 1000 hard copies of The Last Moustache and started a community record label, Drip Dry Productions, cementing their DIY approach to merry music making. Such a creative burst of industry can be a hard act to follow but the ‘difficult second album’ syndrome was avoided by this bunch of troubadours… who even brought in a collection of new musicians and instruments for Break The Circle, with cello, saxophone and piano all adding a layer of melody to the songs. Recorded over 12 months at The Glass Onion, home to the Muddy collective, the album was engineered and produced by band members Benny and Moony. The year-long production mirrors the cyclical themes behind the album nicely and, when not recording, Opaque were busy signing a management deal with Peter Jones (of Dragon’s Den fame) and touring with Dragon’s Den winners, Hamfatter.

The album’s title, Break The Circle, was taken from the chorus line of the opening track – Building Burning Bridges, a lament about harmful relationships that you entrench yourself in, despite the knowledge that change is necessary. However, the album title has a myriad of meanings and references for the band.

Opaque’s lead singer, Moony, said, “For me it’s a general ethos about breaking bad habits or any destructive cycles in your life, from bad relationships to drub habits. It’s more than just that though, it’s also in recognition of the many cycles and circles that surround us all the time – from the planets to the seasons – and the effects of breaking these circles. And it’s a call, a call for anarchy and change. So it’s many things in one.”

Break The Circle marks a departure from catchy pop and takes the fork in the road that leads to a little extra meat on their symphonic bones. It’s a welcome and natural development for Opaque’s sound, a sound that is still unmistakably Opaquian but signals a more introspective, multi-layered approach to song crafting that still features an eclectic mix of jaunty rock and electro sprinklings. A wonderful addition to the album is a demonstration of all that the Opaque boys hold dear in the mould of an 11-minute version of My Favourite Things, which features a plethora of friends and fellow musicians adding extra verses. The album has seen the band flex their creative muscles, bringing on board talented illustrator Lee Mason to create the karmic themed artwork, and it is being sold in three guises: -

• Break the circle (standard) – £8

• Break The Circle (deluxe) – double CD including remix CD all housed in a gatefold vinyl pack with lyrics and poster £12

The first single from the album is entitled Karma and also includes the politically antagonising They Chose To Lead Us. Opaque will be touring extensively throughout the summer so head to www.myspace.com/bandopaque for details

Email: opaque_moony@hotmal.com

Website: www.bandopaque.com

Myspace: www.myspace.com/bandopaque

Management: www.JamieTurnerNewMusic.co.uk

Patrick explains it all

Randomly found this on the internet, it's well old but I'd never seen it before



Donwload an acoustic version of Hard Times (The next single from forthcoming album The Bachelor) recorded live on XFM sessions last night HERE
It's nice and has violins and doomsday lyrics
Get b-side 'Tinderbox' HERE

Björk ~ Voltaic

The long awaited 4-disc live boxset from Iceland's finest export chronicling her amazing 2 year Volta world tour has been delayed AGAIN!
The suspense is killing me, but now I must wait until June for two full DVD concerts in 5.1 surround sound, 11 music videos, a documentary, a live session album and a remix compilation to fall into my grubby mits.

One track from the Paris DVD has leaked on the internet and can be viewed here.



Preorders made on the One Little Indian website will be sent out from mid May apparently.

Here are some still from the DVDs (click for full size)

Now that's a drum kit!


the WonderBrass girls in full swing!

L'Olympia in rainbows

Låt den rätte komma in

Let The Right One In is a new Swedish film about a 12 year old boy, bullied at school and lonely, who falls in love with a quiet girl who moves into his block of flats. Pretty everday situation right? Wrong. She just happens to be a vampire.


Currently receiving rave reviews all over the shop, this brilliantly crafted film, which combines a subtle atmospheric horror with a touching coming-of-age tale, is the sort of thing which will easily become cult viewing. And I should imagine Hollywood is currently falling over itself to make an English language version, in the wake of Twilight's success even more so.
There are some superbly gruesome and macabre moments in this, but it's all done so artistically and elegantly, that it never becomes gross-out. Clever technique and a less-is-more attitude to gore proving far scarier and creepier than mainstream shock tactics.
Sadly its not available in the cinema in my town, due to the fact it's all in foreign and obviously no one wants to go to the cinema to read, so thank heavens for piracy!
Watch the film here!

Bat For Lashes - Sleep Alone & Glass (live)

The amazing Bat For Lashes performs Sleep Alone from her new album Two Suns (which is at no.5 in the uk album chart woop woop!) for Zane Lowe, and it is an awesome performance.

Click here to watch "Sleep Alone" live in session from Zane Lowe

Also, you can download the audio of Glass recorded live at Nimes Arena in France when she opened for Radiohead. Click HERE

Bat for Lashes will be performing tracks from ‘Two Suns’ on Later with Jools Holland on BBC2 on April 21st

The first episode of ‘Later’ will start at 10pm on the 21st and will be broadcast live, with a more extended version of the show being shown on the 24th of April.

For more information visit the BBC ‘Later…’ website

Bat for Lashes is Awesome. Listen to her now. Here endeth the lesson.

Lovely music time!

"This is around the time we first started calling it acid. I remember lying flat on our backs for hours. We'd listen to Ravi Shankar and Missa Louba, from Zaire, which is the mass, partly in Latin, done entirely with drums and African chanting. That was one of our favorites, along with the late quartets of Beethoven." ~ Timothy Leary

So if that's not recommendation enough for you I can't think what else to say, other than, regardless of whether this is great on acid or not, it's incredibly beautiful music that should be listened to at all costs.
Comprising of an African children's folk choir, who sound more angelic and heavenly than anything you'd hear in a western cathedral, and poly-rhythmic drumming that hypnotises your mind, it's a great record for relaxation, contemplation, soul searching, and especially (as I have found myself) getting menial housework out of the way...
The most arduous annoying task seems effortless with this weightlessly uplifting music playing in the background

Download it HERE (74MB)
Big thanks to What's In My iPod (one of my favourite blogs) for turning me onto this.

Time of the Gypsies & the Gypsy Punk Opera!

Дом за вешање

Time of the Gypsies is a great film from the awesome director Emir Kusturica, the man responsible for such glorious movies at Black Cat White Cat and Underground.
This film is incredibly hard to find and cannot be bought on dvd anywhere it would seem, unless you live in Eastern Europe (in which case it won't have subtitles). So imagine my joy when I discovered that some very kind person had uploaded the whole thing onto youtube with English subs! Hurray!
It's split into 15 ten minute sections which is a bit annoying, so I have added them together into a playlist for your convenince
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=0C7E61D91BE35737

The film itself is a bit like the Romany gypsy answer to The Godfather. It follows the hilarious and tragic adventures of young boy called Perhan, who leaves his village behind to take his sister to a hospital in Ljubljana only to fall into a life of crime in which his gypsy magic comes in very handy.
Epic, farcical, moving, melodramatic, beautiful, mind blowing, visionary, a bit like a Greek tragedy. Everything you'd to expect from Kusturica. It won him best director at Cannes.

You can also download the whole thing in high quality here if you fancy it, but you'll need a whopping 1.37GB of space.

Emir Kusturica's gypsy punk band 'The No Smoking Orchestra' are touring this summer, click the name for lots of info. They're playing London's Barbican on May 9th.
And what's more, the film has been adapted into a spectacular stage opera!
There's a website all about it here


Gypsy Punk Opera? Now that's a fusion of styles!

Fever Ray

Better known as Karin Dreijer Andersson from Swedish electronica duo The Knife.
Everyone is talking about her at the moment and it's not very hard to see why. Her album is sublime.
http://feverray.com/

Children of Heaven

Another film recommendation now. I'm a big fan of Iranian cinema, and this is a great example of cinema's power to captivate you with the simplest of premises. Something that Iranian directors seem to excell at.
Directed by Majid Majidi, this beautifully realised film tells the story of a young boy who loses his little sister's shoes in the market after he went to get them prepared and how he and his sister try and keep their parents from finding out.
If you've seen The White Balloon by Jafar Panahi (a similar yet more famous film) then you'll know what sort of film to expect.


You'll be surprised at the lengths they go to simply to stay out of trouble, but then this film will also make you remember what it was like being a child and being in similar situations. The littlest things become so very much more important to kids and the grown ups just don't understand...
IMDB profile

Watch it now on google video!
Part One here
Part Two here

Day-Glow-Radio's Vintage Compendium

From me to you, a selection of crackly vintage toe-tappers to get you into the swing of things...

1. History of Bop ~ Jack Kerouac
2. Salt Peanuts ~ Dizzy Gillespie
3. In The Mood ~ Glenn Miller Orchestra
4. King Porter Stomp ~ Benny Goodman Orchestra
5. The Honeydripper ~ Cab Calloway
6. My Baby Just Cares For Me ~ Nina Simone
7. On The Sunny Side of the Street ~ Billie Holiday
8. Coochi-Coochi-Coo ~ Ella Fitzgerald
9. Ain't Misbehavin' ~ Louis Armstrong
10. Bei Mir Bist Du Shoen ~ The Andrews Sisters
11. Alley Boogie ~ Georgia White
12. Gin House Blues ~ Bessie Smith
13. Who Put the Benzedrine in Mrs. Murphy's Ovaltine? ~ Harry "The Hipster" Gibson
14. Hatti Malatti ~ Lee Diamond & The Upsetters
15. Midnight Ska ~ Reggie Msomi's Hollywood Jazz Band
16. 'Mufridite ~ Count Lasher & Williams with Lyn Taitt & The Baba Brooks Band
17. Jump In The Line ~ Harry Belafonte
18. Ska Jerk ~ Bob Marley and The Wailers
19. Pata Pata ~ Miriam Makeba
20. Something New In Africa ~ Solven Whistlers
21. Rags ~ Doc Starkes & His Nite Riders
22. Easy Rockin' ~ Freddie Kohlman
23. Big Chief ~ Professor Longhair & Earl King
24. I Can't Give You Anything But Love ~ Billie Holiday
25. What A Wonderful World ~ Louis Armstrong

DOWNLOAD HERE (98 MB)

Pangolins

Just thought I'd share a picture of my new favourite animal; The Pangolin.

I want one.

Get closer to Pangolins with David Attenborough

Breaking the Circle

Opaque Tour not long now!



Seeing as my former occupation of working at the Glass Onion is now out the window, I am very glad to have something exciting to look forward to, and this is it!
I am pleased to be going on tour with local band Opaque, not just because it's going to a be a great laugh with mates but also it will be a wicked experience, not to mention the tourist factor of going to loads of cities I've never been to before.

Whan an awesome way to start the summer!

Patrick Wolf is back!

New album 'The Bachelor' on it's way...





















1) Kriegsspiel (Wargames)
2) Hard Times
3) Oblivion
4) The Bachelor
5) Damaris
6) Thickets
7) Count Of Casualty
8) Who Will?
9) Vulture
10) Blackdown
11) The Sun Is Often Out
12) Theseus
13) Battle
14) The Messenger

I am getting very excited about this record, despite being thoroughly underwhelmed by the first single/video Vulture. Amazon has posted some 30 second samples of the whole thing and now my faith is restored.
Hoping to catch him live in June.

Watch and download The Libertine video for free here (googlevideo)

LILJA 4-EVER

Just watched this amazing film recently, has really affected me.
It's one of the most devastatingly sad films you'll ever see. That really bleak hopeless kind of realist cinema where you just know there can be no happy ending, yet at the same time, is filled with so many moments of beauty in amongst the darkness and despair, that the over all effect of the film is ultimately uplifting and cathartic.
Beautiful.

Watch the full movie for free with english subtitles here (googlevideo)

See it if you liked Dancer in the Dark, Breaking the Waves, La Strada

Allow me to introduce...

... Myself.

My name is Joe, I guess I am a DJ/events promoter of sorts, mainly a dosser though, and this is my first blog. I don't know how regularly I am going to use or update this but I intend it to be a place to share music and thoughts, or thoughts on said music. Film reviews perhaps. Or maybe just ramble and rant on any subject that takes my fancy.
The more personal journally sort of stuff I'll keep reserved for livejournal. It's better that way.