Bombino has just released his solo album Agadez, to global acclaim, taking him up alongside Tinariwen as one of the definitive Saharan artists in the world right now. It an amazing album and can't be recommended highly enough. Here is a cut from his old band's offering on Sublime frequencies... Enjoy.
Thursday 28 July 2011
Wednesday 27 July 2011
Gondry and Bjork party with the Clangers...
Bjork and Michel Gondry have revealed their new video for the song Crystalline finally, and they've gone proper old skool on us. Harking back to Gondry's early short films the multi media animation combines stop motion and drawn images to create a neon world of lazers, crystals, lunar landscapes and Bjork rocking out in heels and massive orange wig to some awesome jungle courtesy of 16bit. It's adorable!
Reminds me of his short film Three Dead People...
It also reminds me of the Clangers as well... which is nice!
Friday 15 July 2011
I'm so judgemental...
In the absence of any real material to write about, I'm just gonna slag some stuff again intead... It's not all bad news of course. This is also my 100th post! Hurray!
TODDLA T ~ WATCH ME DANCE
The title track from Toddla's (formerly) forth coming album (now released a month early thanks to some bastard journalist leaking it earlier this week) this track has a bombastic swagger that brims with the kind of confident yet restrained quality that you would expect from anything that Roots Manuva lends his name to. Toddla's last album Skanky Skanky was a blinder and the new one is no different. However, I am of the opinion that this could've been a lot dirtier... I am still looking forward to his set at Secret Garden Party!
NERO ~ PROMISES
While nowhere near as good as their breakout hit 'Guilt', this new offering from the dubstep/D'n'B chart invaders is still a rousing piece of dance pop with an interestingly stylised and glossy video in which they use the ReacTable, a piece of musical hardware developed in Spain and pioneered in live music by Bjork and Damian Taylor in 2007. It's cool to see such an amazing instrument getting more exposure but it's only ever used decoratively here and as a result none of the youtube commentators seem to even notice it, instead preferring to talk about whether or not the singer should get her teeth straightened. Which brings us onto the dilemma of flirting with the mainstream. You could argue for hours about whether or not this is a crime against dubstep or not but at the end of the day, the more commercial club music that takes its inspirations from the underground the better, as it's miles less suicide-inducingly awful as the sort of shite we're usually subjected to and as a result, commercialisation of certain genres always pushes them deeper underground and forces artists on the fringes to push boundaries further. It's healthy people, relax!
RIZZLE KICKS ~ DOWN WITH THE TRUMPETS
No, I didn't know about them before they got big, so I can't comment on whether or not they've sold out but I do know that this is going to be one of those summer tunes that will be blasting out at festivals up and down the country (a bit like Yolanda Be Cool's hit We Speak No Americano last year) but that we may all be sick of by September. The bassy buzz of the house rhythm and the sampled brass section are undeniably infectious and uplifting. A wobbly pop surprise and a breath of fresh air...
THE SATURDAYS ~ NOTORIOUS
In the absence of Girls Aloud the Saturday's have often been considered the next best thing but rarely have they ever released anything deserving of the comparison. Here however they step up to the plate and deliver a floor filling belter of a pop tune with a sexy rolling bassline and beats that are sufficiently fidget inducing. It won't win any critical acclaim by any means but it has a fun vibe that is absent from so much of the faux-serious pop being made by the plethora of 'artistes' with messiah complexes we are constantly being bombarded with at the moment. Oh and they all look well fit.
JLS ~ SHE MAKES ME WANNA ft. DEV
If you're from Peterborough, like me, you'll know that JLS are heroes, mainly cos Aston Merrygold (seen here in contractually obligated shirtlessness) is a local lad. But much as I sound cynical, JLS are at least further proof that it's generally the people who DON'T win X Factor/Pop Idol etc that actually go on to have careers. (Joe McElderry anyone? Still no second single Matt Cardle?) So hats off to them.
That's not to say necessarily that this is good, cos it isn't really, fun and catchy as it may be. It's got those 90s euro trance synth chords that have been in roughly 1 in every 4 pop songs released in the last 12 months and features the currently fashionable practise of name dropping places, like LA, London, Ibiza, Miami, and ambitiously, the whole of Africa! (Still no love for anywhere in Asia in the pop charts though...)
It also features a middle eight 'rap' by what looks like a Ke$ha tribute act. Apparently she is called Dev, but judging from her disastrously delivered and totally dire lyrics I think div is probably a better name.
JOE JONAS ~ SEE NO MORE
The pretty one from the Jonas brothers steps out on his own! Shock! If you're like me you'll be gladly oblivious to the Jonas brothers and this information will mean nothing to you. Yes I've heard their music a few times while watching television, but thankfully, not a single note has ever wormed its way into my head, proving that they have failed to live up to the one basic tenet of pop scripture. Catchiness. Thusly even Rebecca Black shits all over these dullards and this solo offering is no different. It's so bland and inconsequential that I can't even remember how it goes and I've just listened to it. It sounds like Enrique Eglasias quietly farting in his sleep. See no more? I'd like to hear no more either thanks! Terrible.
ANTON LORIEN ~ WE ARE THE BRITS
Now, I've saved the worst for last. I genuinely feel brain damaged after seeing this.
A dire, hackneyed, mawkish and overwrought piece of sappy nationalist propaganda that 'proudly' celebrates the great British values of "freedom through strength of arms" among other dubious things, with images of war and the sound of churning helicopter blades accompanying images of the royals in all their finery. It also uses the plight of our young and brave yet misused service men and women fighting a pointless war as a way of making anyone who doesn't agree seem unpatriotic or a traitor. The uploader has even disabled all ratings and is deleting all negative or critical comments. Democracy indeed!
However, this is bringing a little too much politics into things and though i could go on, I won't, because regardless of the political slant, this is an absolutely terrible piece of 'music'. It almost seems like a parody it's so knuckle bitingly cheesy. The singer has a forced Butlin's charisma in the saccharine video that is uncomfortable to watch and it's so tacky and typical of the kind of dumbed down, watery, granny-pleasing shit-juice that occasionally spills into our mass media around a noble cause that I almost expected Mr Blobby to make a cameo appearance for the final chorus surrounded by singing children. Or perhaps Robson and Jerome.
Lyrically it sounds like someone has just sang some random phrases from Wikipedia and it amazingly manages to fit in the national anthem during the middle eight, sung in tear-inducing falsetto.
However, that said, the chorus, which reads " We're the Brits, you better get used to it ... We're the Brits and we're in your face.." is quite an amazing and incisive analogy of Britain's attitude to foreign policy throughout history. And while I'm not saying that British influence has been 100% negative, we've dominated most of the world, made our language the global default communication, enslaved more people and changed more societies than I could begin to list, so shouting about it in this smug boastful way seems a bit uncalled for, we get the message!
~*~*~*~*~
That's enough, my ears are bleeding...
Friday 1 July 2011
Single reviews...
The good, the bad, and the downright terrible. It's time to have a look of some of the new music floating around the airwaves and pass judgement... oh yes.
LAZY HABITS ~ STARTING FIRES
This London based 8 piece band are a force to be reckoned with on stage, quickly gaining recognition as one of the best underground (real) hip-hop outfits on the UK scene, having raised the roof off every tent at every festival they play. This is the first look at long awaited new material from their forthcoming debut full length album and promises that none of their energy has been lost. The vocal delivery is razorsharp and the instrumentation is slick as usual, with a darkly graceful slow motion video that serves to remind me why I don't really go out in the town that much anymore! The single is out to buy on July 30th and check out more of their stuff here.
Brilliant.
BJORK ~ CRYSTALLINE
Still no official video for this yet although it shouldn't be long before Michel Gondry's clip for the song is revealed. I've already mentioned this one on here before but had to give it another big up, it's just so good. It's got all the things you might expect for a Bjork song, yet at the same time, sounds like nothing else you've ever heard. Quite how Bjork manages to pull this stunt off each time she releases a new album is beyond me, and testament to her uniqueness, that she can have such an instantly distinctive sound despite never really doing the same thing twice. Here she emulates the hidden growth of crystals deep in the earth with some oblique and fractured musical extremes. From the sparkling chimes of the 'Gameleste' arrangements and hollow earthy throb of the basslines to her ecstatic vocals and even a glitched out explosive breakcore finale, it shouldn't work, but it does. Shiny!
BEASTIE BOYS ~ MAKE SOME NOISE
Featuring more celebrity cameos in five minutes than are seen in an entire year of Saturday Night Live, the beastie's new video is so cool it hurts. Thier new album, Hot Sauce Committee Part Two is a fabulous return to form and this track is an epic booming piece of old skool hip-hop rawk, with a squelching vintage synth bassline and those sort of vast echoey beats that sound like they were recorded under Brooklyn bridge. A bit of a corker really, and the sight of Elijah Wood aggressively rapping is genius.
SBTRKT FT. LITTLE DRAGON
After gaining fame as a prolific remixer for the likes of M.I.A. and Basement Jaxx, SBTRKT has finally gathered an army of respected guest vocalists to produce his first proper album and has managed to ride the wave of hype safely all the way to the beach. The album is a bit good really and this song displays why quite perfectly. Angular synth arrangements and skittering beats slide effortlessly around the beautiful vocal to create something which is edgy enough to retain underground grimey edge yet will probably make him a fair few bob without selling out to boot! Tying elements of UK sub culture to soulful pop vocals is definitely a la mode this year, and this can join the ranks along side Jamie Woon, James Blake, Katy B and others of a brilliant exercise in restrained and subtle crossover music, which has as much for a party playlist as it does for just chilling out.
JESON DERULO ~ DON'T WANNA GO HOME
Sadly it can't all be fun and games, there's always someone who has to spoil it for everyone else. Now I can't say I follow Jason Derulo closely, but it's hard to escape his music and it seems to me he has carved a career out of carving up other people's songs with all the subtlety of an epileptic butcher in a strobe exhibition. As if breaking into Imogen Heap's home in the night, kidnapping her signature song 'Hide and Seek' and then violently raping it in the soul wasn't bad enough, he's at it again here. Instead this time he's chosen the timeless classic calypso song "Banana Boat' by the now 84 year old legendary singer Harry Belafonte, and brutally grafted its still flailing mutilated corpse to the horrified and spasming body of Robin S's 90s house anthem "Show me Love", human centipede style. Now, perhaps a more gifted team of musicians and lyricists would be able to do something wonderful with such a combination, but seeing as Jason here evidently has nothing to say, he just starts things off by saying his own name a few times, before going into an autotuned nightmare of inconsequential banality about wanting to dance and get drunk. It's going to be absolutely massive isn't it? Dreadful.
MANN FT. SNOOP DOGG ~ THE MACK
Just when you thought things couldn't get any worse, along comes another bastardised cover version that genuinely begs belief. Quite how anyone anywhere stops and thinks that this is a good idea, let alone proceeds to then get lots and lots of money to make a painfully cliched video with which to promote it , is quite unbelievable. Here someone called Mann and someone called Iyaz say some stuff over the classic single 'Return of the Mack' by Mark Morrison, which itself was sampled from 'Genius of Love' by Tom Tom Club (watch the original here) and then Snoop comes on and says some stuff too. Then it's over and we can all go back to our lives and pretend it never happened.
Snoop Dogg joins the likes of Bjork, Damon Albarn and Marina Abramavicz this month at The Manchester International Festival where he will be performing his classic debut album Doggystyle in its entirety, now that's a show that would be worth seeing!
CHER LLOYD ~ SWAGGER JAGGER
The waif-like emotional brat from last year's X Factor has launched her solo career at long last. Oh goody. She brazenly 'raps' the verses and then 'sings' the chorus (which sounds a lot like Phoebe Bouffet's untouchable classic 'Smelly Cat' crossed with 'Oh My Darling Clementine) while dancing and throwing all her pint sized attitude in your face leaving you feeling like you've just been assaulted by a child in the street. She looks worryingly like Cheryl Cole's as yet under-developed clone and quite frankly one is enough. Then again, the track itself is is not quite as offensive as I expected it to be and has enough ballsy bleeps and squelches and 'banging' beats to make it highly enjoyable to dance to when you're smashed on Kopparbergs at the local meat market. However, the whole thing is just ultimately baffling.
(P.S. The screenshot on the video is amazing non?)
CHRIS BROWN AND JUSTIN BIEBER ~ NEXT TO YOU
Despite the brief lived redemption of the brilliant Benny Benassi produced club hit 'Beautiful People', Chris Brown is back to unloading the kind of over-wrought, faux-sincere, wishy washy wank that is enough to turn even the most pious individuals into mass murdering psychopaths, and this time he's enlisted the help of one of the few human beings on the planet capable of matching up to this level of emotionally bereft mediocrity. With more clenched fists and furrowed brows than a night of bare knuckle fighting, the pre-teen swoon factor is through the roof here, as Brown and Bieber perform some of the most ludicrously over the top and frankly ridiculous dance moves ever seen, while the city around them collapses and their pretty love interests wander around in a confused daze looking weak and crying. Big old shite.
BEYONCE ~ THE BEST THING I NEVER HAD
It sounds like the Baywatch theme tune. Take this as either positive or negative. Nuff said.
ZED BIAS FT. OMAR ~ DANCING
Now we can't leave on a sad note, so here's a happy ending!
Been hyping this for weeks and it's FINALLY been released on iTunes. A right summer anthem. African styled percussive tones cascade down a UK funky rhythm and the result is undeniably infectious. I challenge you not to shake your bums. Awesome.
~*~*~*~*~
I think that's enough for now...
LAZY HABITS ~ STARTING FIRES
This London based 8 piece band are a force to be reckoned with on stage, quickly gaining recognition as one of the best underground (real) hip-hop outfits on the UK scene, having raised the roof off every tent at every festival they play. This is the first look at long awaited new material from their forthcoming debut full length album and promises that none of their energy has been lost. The vocal delivery is razorsharp and the instrumentation is slick as usual, with a darkly graceful slow motion video that serves to remind me why I don't really go out in the town that much anymore! The single is out to buy on July 30th and check out more of their stuff here.
Brilliant.
BJORK ~ CRYSTALLINE
Still no official video for this yet although it shouldn't be long before Michel Gondry's clip for the song is revealed. I've already mentioned this one on here before but had to give it another big up, it's just so good. It's got all the things you might expect for a Bjork song, yet at the same time, sounds like nothing else you've ever heard. Quite how Bjork manages to pull this stunt off each time she releases a new album is beyond me, and testament to her uniqueness, that she can have such an instantly distinctive sound despite never really doing the same thing twice. Here she emulates the hidden growth of crystals deep in the earth with some oblique and fractured musical extremes. From the sparkling chimes of the 'Gameleste' arrangements and hollow earthy throb of the basslines to her ecstatic vocals and even a glitched out explosive breakcore finale, it shouldn't work, but it does. Shiny!
BEASTIE BOYS ~ MAKE SOME NOISE
Featuring more celebrity cameos in five minutes than are seen in an entire year of Saturday Night Live, the beastie's new video is so cool it hurts. Thier new album, Hot Sauce Committee Part Two is a fabulous return to form and this track is an epic booming piece of old skool hip-hop rawk, with a squelching vintage synth bassline and those sort of vast echoey beats that sound like they were recorded under Brooklyn bridge. A bit of a corker really, and the sight of Elijah Wood aggressively rapping is genius.
SBTRKT FT. LITTLE DRAGON
After gaining fame as a prolific remixer for the likes of M.I.A. and Basement Jaxx, SBTRKT has finally gathered an army of respected guest vocalists to produce his first proper album and has managed to ride the wave of hype safely all the way to the beach. The album is a bit good really and this song displays why quite perfectly. Angular synth arrangements and skittering beats slide effortlessly around the beautiful vocal to create something which is edgy enough to retain underground grimey edge yet will probably make him a fair few bob without selling out to boot! Tying elements of UK sub culture to soulful pop vocals is definitely a la mode this year, and this can join the ranks along side Jamie Woon, James Blake, Katy B and others of a brilliant exercise in restrained and subtle crossover music, which has as much for a party playlist as it does for just chilling out.
JESON DERULO ~ DON'T WANNA GO HOME
Sadly it can't all be fun and games, there's always someone who has to spoil it for everyone else. Now I can't say I follow Jason Derulo closely, but it's hard to escape his music and it seems to me he has carved a career out of carving up other people's songs with all the subtlety of an epileptic butcher in a strobe exhibition. As if breaking into Imogen Heap's home in the night, kidnapping her signature song 'Hide and Seek' and then violently raping it in the soul wasn't bad enough, he's at it again here. Instead this time he's chosen the timeless classic calypso song "Banana Boat' by the now 84 year old legendary singer Harry Belafonte, and brutally grafted its still flailing mutilated corpse to the horrified and spasming body of Robin S's 90s house anthem "Show me Love", human centipede style. Now, perhaps a more gifted team of musicians and lyricists would be able to do something wonderful with such a combination, but seeing as Jason here evidently has nothing to say, he just starts things off by saying his own name a few times, before going into an autotuned nightmare of inconsequential banality about wanting to dance and get drunk. It's going to be absolutely massive isn't it? Dreadful.
MANN FT. SNOOP DOGG ~ THE MACK
Just when you thought things couldn't get any worse, along comes another bastardised cover version that genuinely begs belief. Quite how anyone anywhere stops and thinks that this is a good idea, let alone proceeds to then get lots and lots of money to make a painfully cliched video with which to promote it , is quite unbelievable. Here someone called Mann and someone called Iyaz say some stuff over the classic single 'Return of the Mack' by Mark Morrison, which itself was sampled from 'Genius of Love' by Tom Tom Club (watch the original here) and then Snoop comes on and says some stuff too. Then it's over and we can all go back to our lives and pretend it never happened.
Snoop Dogg joins the likes of Bjork, Damon Albarn and Marina Abramavicz this month at The Manchester International Festival where he will be performing his classic debut album Doggystyle in its entirety, now that's a show that would be worth seeing!
CHER LLOYD ~ SWAGGER JAGGER
The waif-like emotional brat from last year's X Factor has launched her solo career at long last. Oh goody. She brazenly 'raps' the verses and then 'sings' the chorus (which sounds a lot like Phoebe Bouffet's untouchable classic 'Smelly Cat' crossed with 'Oh My Darling Clementine) while dancing and throwing all her pint sized attitude in your face leaving you feeling like you've just been assaulted by a child in the street. She looks worryingly like Cheryl Cole's as yet under-developed clone and quite frankly one is enough. Then again, the track itself is is not quite as offensive as I expected it to be and has enough ballsy bleeps and squelches and 'banging' beats to make it highly enjoyable to dance to when you're smashed on Kopparbergs at the local meat market. However, the whole thing is just ultimately baffling.
(P.S. The screenshot on the video is amazing non?)
CHRIS BROWN AND JUSTIN BIEBER ~ NEXT TO YOU
Despite the brief lived redemption of the brilliant Benny Benassi produced club hit 'Beautiful People', Chris Brown is back to unloading the kind of over-wrought, faux-sincere, wishy washy wank that is enough to turn even the most pious individuals into mass murdering psychopaths, and this time he's enlisted the help of one of the few human beings on the planet capable of matching up to this level of emotionally bereft mediocrity. With more clenched fists and furrowed brows than a night of bare knuckle fighting, the pre-teen swoon factor is through the roof here, as Brown and Bieber perform some of the most ludicrously over the top and frankly ridiculous dance moves ever seen, while the city around them collapses and their pretty love interests wander around in a confused daze looking weak and crying. Big old shite.
BEYONCE ~ THE BEST THING I NEVER HAD
It sounds like the Baywatch theme tune. Take this as either positive or negative. Nuff said.
ZED BIAS FT. OMAR ~ DANCING
Now we can't leave on a sad note, so here's a happy ending!
Been hyping this for weeks and it's FINALLY been released on iTunes. A right summer anthem. African styled percussive tones cascade down a UK funky rhythm and the result is undeniably infectious. I challenge you not to shake your bums. Awesome.
~*~*~*~*~
I think that's enough for now...
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