Music nowadays!

GRIMES ~ OBLIVION

When it comes to new(ish) pop stars to get excited about, it doesn't get much better than Grimes and her freshly dropped third album, VISIONS.

Having been around releasing ethereal, detached, bedroom productions for a while now, Grimes, real name Emily Bucher, from Canada, has exploded colourfully into a wider audience's visibility with a giant stomping piece of dance pop, which also somehow manages to maintain that low-fi DIY atmosphere that made her earlier work so charming, despite the lavishly shot HD video.

Understandable comparisons with the Knife may be made but this is in no way derivative or unoriginal. Perhaps the similarity is that Grimes has taken retro 80s/90s sounds and stark atmospherics and made them into something intimate and dreamlike while still making a song that makes you want to dance. Harmony and dissonance mix to make something brilliantly wonky and unique.

It's incredibly hard not to be whisked away by this song, or beguiled by Grimes and her faded rainbow hair...

TOTALLY ENORMOUS EXTINCT DINOSAURS ~ TAPES & MONEY

Another emerging electropop artist who has been hovering around on the border between left field and mainstreamland is 27 year old Oxford born producer cumbersomely titled Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs. A name which hardly rolls off the tongue (although it is definitely hard to forget) which would explain why he's shorted it to T.E.E.D., not that that's much better to be honest but with a name like Orlando Higginbottom it's clear this is a man comfortable with large amounts of syllables. Anyway enough about the brilliantly odd name, the music is really good! This is a light-as-a-feather club hit that pushes all the right buttons of the genre (upbeat, catchy, pumping) without falling into the pitfalls of the majority of other contemporary club songs (banality, mindlessness, migraine-inducing cacophony) so get's a big thumbs up from me. There's something of the Tough Alliance to it, or a general Swedishness that makes it hard not to love.

AFRIQUOI ~ KUDAUSHE

The boys from Wormfood London, Andre Marmot and Nico Bentley, are stepping out with a new project which successfully combines some of the sounds of UK bass and the London club scene with the instrumentation of West Africa, on this track featuring the skills of Zimbabwean musician Kudaushe Matimba. Here is their first video that shows some live footage from the awesome and award winning Brixton venue Hootenanny's. The track is a wonderfully uplifting dance anthem that deftly melds the basslines of soukous with the beats of an electro DJ, making this a true piece of 'world' music. Expect much more from them very soon soundcloud.com/africquoi

UNITED VIBRATIONS ft. CONRAD THE SCOUNDREL ~ LONDON BRIDGE

Quite a fair few acts have attempted to sum up the post-riot sense of detachment and political exasperation that so many people in Britain are feeling, but few have done so as eloquently and prophetically as United Vibrations. Filmed in and around the Occupy St Paul's protest camp and featuring some Chomsky-esque lyrics of socially awakening brevity, this is a visceral multi-genre torch song for 2012. The lines between hip-hop, funk, reggae, soul, afrobeat and ethio-jazz are blurred seamlessly here, and the lyrics make you want to punch the air in agreement. Righteous grooves!

ALAA WARDI ft MOHAB ~ WAHASHTENY

Everyone's favourite middle eastern multi-tracked one man band is back with another vibrant video that separates all the different ingredients it takes to make a densely layered song and lays them all out for you to stare at in awe. This isn't quite as kinetic or infectious as some of his previous efforts but it's still further proof that he is an amazingly talented individual not only musically but also at video editing. Make sure to download his stuff over at iTunes where you can now legally get hold of his tracks.

WARNING

I'm afraid the mood is about to change...

CONOR MAYNARD - CAN'T SAY NO

Proof that people will literally listen to anything if you get someone young enough and pretty enough to sing it, dress them in current fashions and film them posing inanely in a glossy enough video. Which by the way looks like Justin Bieber meets Skins (yes it IS as bad as that sounds). Don't even get me started on his incessantly 'cool' finger wagging and hip-hop posturing, gurning away like an 80 year old man who's just quadruple dropped the strongest ecstasy tablets known to man. And why is he trying so hard to sound, and act, like an American? Desperate to conquer the other side of the Atlantic much? I don't know, the actual song isn't as sonically offensive as a lot of the stuff in the charts is at the moment (watching music TV these days induces a feeling that must be close to the pain of water boarding) but that said it's still pretty much dreadful. The verse and bridge have a feeling of crescendo towards what must be a really catchy chorus right? Wrong! The chorus is so gapingly devoid of melody that it's any wonder a sentient being could be able to sing it without experiencing profound shame.

Hordes of morons who are too young to know who Lady Gaga is are saying he is the new Justin Timberlake, a claim so ridiculous it begs belief. For whatever you think about JT, he is a performer who has etched out his niche over an entire lifetime in the business, can sing, dance, write, produce, play instruments and act to a level that has made him one of the most famous people in the world over the course of many years. A 17 year old kid releases a couple of (frankly terrible) songs and people are acting like it's the next big thing. Is it really the next big thing? Or have some publicists just told heat magazine to say it's the next big thing? Does anyone care?

LMFAO ~ SORRY FOR PARTY ROCKING

While I am obviously aware that LMFAO's tongues are firmly within their cheeks, I can't help but find them astoundingly cynical. Since when did it become acceptable to have not one, not two, but THREE different product placements in your video? And not only that, but these brand names are even worked into the lyrics of the song, the most heinous name dropping ever surely? People laugh at them and their crazy outfits and mad antics, while grooving to their infectious electropop-on-steroids music, all the while unaware that their brain is subconsciously being told to go out and buy stuff. We have to put up with enough invasive adverts plastered all over youtube as it is, we really don't need them hidden within the music as well. Fuck this.

MADONNA ~ GIRL GONE WILD

What's that you hear? Oh, it's the sound of a barrel being scraped...

Madonna's questionably titled album MDNA is forthcoming (Madonna disapproves of her collaborator M.I.A. raising her middle finger on stage, but advocating drug use when you know you are popular with young children? Oh, that's totally acceptable.) and let's hope it has something better to offer than this awkwardly staunch attempt at a dance anthem.

Of course, the gays will love it and so will her many fans who have patiently ignored the fact she's been making less than impressive albums for a good decade now, but there's no escaping that this is clammy, unimaginative, secondary fare. It has all the ingredients of what should make a truly epic club banger, but when you assemble such a piece of music as systematically as this must've been, the end result is wooden and boring, despite the recruitment of the Benassi brothers. The likes of Roisin Murphy, Robyn or Katy B have been making this kind of music to much more encouraging effect over the past few years, and it just seems like a failed attempt to emulate the hands-in-the-air euphoria of something like Rihanna's Only Girl in the World, yet as has been the case for a while now, Madonna seems to be desperately chasing trends rather than setting them...

The constant M.I.A. controversy rages on...

...but who does it say more about?

If you've been connected to the internet recently you have no doubt heard about M.I.A. for one of, or probably all of, three big reasons; Firstly, on the 2nd of February she unveiled her new video, directed by renowned (and equally controversial) French director Romain Gavras, via the new Vice youtube channel, Noisey. It depicts a remote Gulf desert location of stunt driving women in leopard print burkas and gun toting breakdancing Arab males in Kaffiyeh head dress, while burning oil wells fume in the background and cars drift on two wheels, screeching rubber across tarmac. Since is release the video has been garnering around a million hits a day and the mirror upload on her Vevo channel is doing similarly well, and like her last outing with Gavras, the uber violent, allegorical Born Free, people can't stop reacting to the video in many different ways. Some people find the video comical, others find it offensive, it has been accused of exoticism, using Arabs for cultural decoration. However, given M.I.A.'s own background this is unlikely. Very few people in the west had previously been aware of the phenomenon of Arab stunt driving, after all, they are all terrorists right? That's all you see of the arab world in the news, endless war or massive street uprisings, always backed by bloodshed, gunshots and military violence. M.I.A. has shown a different side to Arab culture, and stunt driving is a real past time enjoyed by many males in Gulf countries, known as Tagwalah or Tafheet, with the two wheel stunt specifically called Shaal. Search on youtube and you will find dozens of amateur videos of said stunts, proof that M.I.A.'s video is no fictional creation, as many commenters have accused. It can also be seen as a very clear statement about US ally Saudi Arabia's discriminatory driving laws that forbid women from sitting behind the wheel. Plus it remains that if this video had been set in America for example, no one would be saying, or thinking, very much about it at all, yet the very fact that her choosing to set it in the Arab world and cast it with middle eastern people has got the public and media so worked up, says so much more about our perceptions and cultural prejudice than it ever could about her.

And that brings us nicely onto the second point. The other reason you've probably heard about M.I.A. is because of her 'stunt' at the Super Bowl on saturday night. While onstage with Madonna to perform her role alongside Nicki Minaj on their collaborative track Gimme All Your Luvin', M.I.A raised her middle finger in place of saying "shit" as the song lyrics suggest. This has sent the internet and media alight with 'controversy' despite the fact that the offending gesture was filmed in a wide shot and barely noticeable (even in HD) due to it lasting a fraction of a second. And it is indeed true that if the media hadn't created such a shit storm about it, most of the 110 million people watching probably didn't even notice it. Yet controversy it has caused, with those bizarre parental family values TV lobbyist groups you always hear about up in arms in particular. It seems odd that these people have no problem with the fact that at the very moment M.I.A.'s middle finger was held aloft, a veritable army of faceless, hyper sexualised women were thrusting their barely concealed vaginas into the air like a sea of automated sex, yet the millisecond's image of a woman's finger has them all wetting themselves with outrage. It's a sad state of affairs if this sort of thing is considered offensive in the world of television, which is usually saturated with images of sex, violence, consumerism and obscenity. Children are constantly exposed to warping images in everything from the news to adverts yet the parent groups choose this to rally against. There are rumours she may have to pay a fine, which echoes the past super bowl controversy in which Justin Timberlake ripped open Janet Jackson's top, briefly exposing her breast. Jackson was slapped with nearly half a million dollars worth of fines despite it not actually being her fault, yet these were eventually dropped. Hopefully M.I.A. won't be fined for the same reason, there is a delay from the recording to the live broadcast and the millisecond of finger should have been cut. Apparently Madonna is furious about the gesture and is rumoured to have said she will never work with M.I.A. again, which if true, makes Madonna look very petty. She should stand by M.I.A., after all, it was Madonna's idea to get her up on stage to say the line "I don't give a shit" in front of millions of apparently very sensitive viewers. Remember when it was Madonna who used to cause controversy? Now, in the words of Jimmy Kimmel recently, "she's outsourcing it to foreigners".

Over ten years ago you would be hard pressed to find a single photo of Eminem (for example) in which he didn't have both of his middle fingers up, and he was a hugely succesful pop artist with children, much more so than M.I.A., who is more popular with teenagers, students and 20/30somethings. Yet while Eminem caused his fair share of controversy too, he is white and male and M.I.A. is female and from some weird country most of these people probably haven't even heard of. Just looking at the video and comment responses on youtube and news sites shows a genuinely shocking array of racist and sexist slurs. Which again, says a lot more about our society than it does about her. And this is what M.I.A. has always been really good at. Her unconventional approach to pop music and video, using political or ethnic images and radical groundbreaking ghetto sounds, has always succeeded in letting people's reactions do all the hard work. The fact her father was a Tamil rebel fighter when the Western backed Sinhalese government were wiping out Tamil people, resulting in her being banned from entering America, says more about America than it does about her. Just like the way the reaction to her finger waving says more about our superficial media and public blindness than it does about, er, middle fingers...

Tens of millions of Americans are struggling beneath the poverty line in what is supposed to be the most propserous nation in the land, where student protesters are being shot at, pepper sprayed and scattered with tear gas, while the government is readying itself to waste yet more millions on another war, and people care more about the Super Bowl, whining on about abortion rights or banning gay marriage? Well that definitely deserves a middle finger.

The third reason you may have heard about her is that she is rumoured to be breaking up with her fiancée, and this is a story the press have pounced on in the wake of her Super Bowl controversy in a desperate attempt to stir up hatred, which again, paints a pretty dire picture of our culture, in which we would rather discuss an artist's private life or make her a pariah because of a split second hand gesture, than discuss the social issues highlighted by her art.

A Separation

This morning I received this dvd in the post, much to my excitement. Few things entrance me as much as Iranian New Wave cinema, and this particular title has won so many awards that scrolling through the list on wikipedia will make you go cross eyed, so I was even more anxious to see this film than most. And it did not disappoint.

A separation is the sort of film that can keep you riveted to the screen throughout the most ordinary or domestic setting. This is common of many Iranian films, such as the White Balloon for example, where the viewer is simply watching a little girl trying to buy a goldfish for 90 minutes, or Ten, which is filmed entirely from the dashboard of one woman's car as she drives ten passengers around Tehran. Yet this simplicity never once seems boring, in fact it's the amazing realism that makes it so compelling. Like all good neorealism the film excels at making gripping drama out of the very ordinariness of life, because that's what we all know. This film has no chase scenes or special effects, there isn't even an ominous soundtrack, yet there are scenes in this film that are as enthralling as in any thriller.

For starters the acting is so totally real that it almost feels like a documentary, and in fact one of the film's two main settings (an Iranian divorce court) makes it very similar to the award winning and startling documentary Divorce, Iranian Style by Kim Longinotto and Ziba Mir-Hosseini. It's this total honesty and realism that makes many of these scenes so intense.

The story focuses on a couple filing for divorce, the reason? Because the wife Simin, does not want her 11 year old daughter to grow up under the current Iranian regime yet the husband, Nader, refuses to leave the country in order to look after his elderly father who has Alzheimer's. If this isn't a ripe enough bed for drama to develop, things take a major turn for the complicated when an accident in the home involving the father's young nurse leads to all manner of sticky situations, slowly unravelling both families, exposing the many tensions of a fractured Iranian society in the process. In this way it can be seen as a searing critique of the arbitrary judicial system and the inhuman laws of the country without ever mentioning politics. It shows the difficulties Iranians must face through their situations. No character ever even mentions the government. And it's precisely what this film doesn't say that has enabled it to be such a massive hit in its homeland, unlike the vocally anti-government Persepolis for example, which was banned.

And it's also this lack of politics that enables the story to transcend it's unique setting and become something more resonant in all cultures. Maybe this also helped it swoop the Golden Globe for best film not in the english language. Not to say it couldn't win simply on its merits as a film, because it truly is an exquisite drama, but given the current climate of hostility between Iran and the USA, it certainly was encouraging to see such a major award go to an Iranian film, which have usually been overlooked by American mainstream award panels.

Not only this, but visually this film also excels, using the framing and colour of images in a truly poetic way that is at times oddly calming and plaintive. Look out for the many symbolic ways in which the two main characters are positioned.

Consequently I would say this, along with The Artist, is definitely the finest film of 2011 that I've seen. A truly impeccable and refined drama that vividly depicts the pain and sadness of a family going through hard times, yet also the strength and humanity that hold them all together, making a lasting impression on the viewer. Unmissable.

The Hit List

Here's some new(ish) music. Some of it's good, some it's shit. Yay.

Sleigh Bells ~ Comeback Kid

Well well well! This has had me excited for a while. The prospect of a new Sleigh Bells album is the sort of news that makes me use gratuitous amounts of exclamation marks. I shall try to restrain myself as I listen to this song for the third time in fifteen minutes. Hmm, I like it, I really do, but I think my expectations and excitement are far too high right now to form my thoughts into words. Needless to say, it has some awesome noises and riffs and it's starting to take hold. I can imagine myself jumping around my house and endangering my neck to it. That's what Sleigh Bells is made for. I am literally pissing myself with excitement for the album now. REIGN OF TERROR. VALENTINE'S DAY!

Niki & The Dove ~ DJ Ease My Mind

Coming ahead of their imminent debut album, Niki & The Dove release a new song that further establishes them unavoidably as a sort of common ground between The Knife and Florence & The Machine. That's not to say they lack originality, their track Mother Protect is one of the most beautiful electronic pop songs Ive heard in a long time, but it is an arguable comparison. Their music isn't quite as angular and stark as that of Karin and Olaf Dreijer, but it also lacks the hystrionic shrieking of Florence Welch, making them a lovely combination of the two. Basically, this is the sort of music Fever Ray would make if she was ever in a good mood. Very much looking forward to their album.

Michael Kiwanuka ~ Home Again

Winner of the coveted Sound of 2012 prize, this refreshingly talented London born Ugandan singer songwriter is tipped for big things this year. This is a delightful song from a no doubt delightful album. It doesn't thrill me exactly, but music isn't always about being cutting edge or inventive, sometimes it's just about writing really good songs and being able to perform them really well, in this age of smoke and mirrors, it's easy to forget that sometimes. Also, he plays sitar, which is awesome, and brings us nicely onto...

Anoushka Shankar ~ Dancing in Madness

Acclaimed sitarist and fusionist, Anoushka Shankar has released another sublime album, entitled 'The Traveller' in which she masterfully blends classical Indian music with raw Flamenco rhythms and Spanish guitar. It's an amazing and hypnotic album, as this track shows, and not to missed by anyone who considers them a fan of 'world' music.

DJ Fresh ft Rita Ora ~ Hot Right Now

Someone should probably tell DJ Fresh that it's not summer for bloody ages yet! He's only gone and released a massive summer anthem in January! His last two big hits Gold Dust and Louder were on festival overkill in 2010 and 2011 respectively and it looks like he's probably gonna be everywhere again this year. It's about as mainstream as drum and bass can get without becoming too exploitative, but it's undeniably infectious and movement-inducing all the same. Big!

The Ting Tings ~ Hang It Up

The Ting Tings, after the riotous success of their monotonal hit 'That's Not My Name' back in 2008, obviously didn't feel like changing the formula too much. But listening to this, I can't help but think that they should maybe have thought about exploring the possibilities of using more than three notes... This song's complete lack of melody genuinely becomes painful after about 30 seconds. Avoid.

[update] Ok, i was a bit harsh, this song is kind of a grower...

Pitbull featuring Chris Brown ~ International Love

Sounding like they're rapping over an instrumental of a rejected Estonian Eurovision entry from 1995, Chris Brown and Armando Christian Perez (aka 'pit bull') unload a whole mess of tacky misogynistic lyrics about women all around the world wanting to have sex with them (as well as constantly reminding us of how much money they make in doing so) which is a bit weird given that Chris Brown has been arrested for beating a woman and that Pitbull has the sleazy presence of a man who traffics 13 year old girls out of Chechnya. Unpleasant.

Cher Lloyd ft. Astro ~ Want U Back

Cher Lloyd continues her meteoric rise to, er, something with this bouncy piece of urban bubblegum. She keeps shouting "UURRRRGH!" and then does an impression of a helicopter. It's annoying and has a child from the american x factor rapping in it (clever cross promotion there!) but unlike her jealous mentor Cheryl Cole's boring soulless music, this is actually a lot of fun as well, which would explain why she's doing so much better in the US than Cheryl did... It's still shit mind you, but it's a piece of shit that smiles at you and knows it's shit, rather than a piece of shit that pouts it's lips at you and tries to be sexy, not realising that it's a piece of shit. Ahem.

will.i.am ft. J.Lo & Mick Jagger ~ T.H.E. (The Hardest Ever)

I can't quite believe what I'm seeing or hearing. This is dreadful. A car crash from start to finish. And it's called 'THE'...?!

Does will.i.am actually believe all that stuff he says about himself? The fact that he's been employed by Pentium Intel as creative director suggest lots of people do, which is worrying when he's dropping lyrical nuggets of wisdom such as; "I woke up in the morning/hard like morning wood/in the morning" (insightful) and "I get stacks of cash/you get cashews" (hurtful will, really hurtful).

Although, maybe he's not as stupid as he sounds, the lyric "imma go hard like a mother fuckin boner/imma make a beat to put the people in a coma" suggests a level of self deprecation as yet unheard in his work; to finally admit that listening to his music repeatedly will leave the listener in need of a life support machine!

Anyway, Jennifer Lopez comes on and says some stuff but it's a bit boring really and she may as well not have bothered, pretty uninteresting video you might think but then, it gets weird. Mick Jagger appears, seemingly beamed in by will.i.am's patented intel htc sponsored blackberry lazerbeams that he invented with his super mind, and totally upstages them all, but only in that the words coming out of his mouth are mildly less idiotic than those that have preceded him. Well, apart from the bit about trigonometry.

"You can go hard, or you can go home" they all repeatedly chant. I know which I'll be choosing.

Alaa Wardi is awesome!

This is my new favourite musician! His videos are so well made; kinetic and exciting multi tracked awesomeness! Some people may say he is just an Arab version of Michael Tompkins, and don't get me wrong, Michael Tompkins is a very talented young man, but at least Alaa Wardi doesn't process and auto tune his voice to the point where he sounds like an army of evil Glee clones...

This is fresh, uplifting new music coming out of a generation of young Arab musicians, who have suddenly found themselves getting a lot more attention overseas after a year of uprising and global solidarity.

Check out his youtube channel and like his Facebook page for more cool videos, songs and remixes!

on the air!

I have recently returned to the wonderful world of amateur community radio, if you missed my show you can download it here!

It's one hour of some blissed out sounds from around the planet and also features my often fabulously awkward voice and one fantastic cock up... Enjoy!

Big up to all the folks at http://www.peterborough.fm for letting me into their studio!

AFRIQUOI?

AFRIQUOI!

Get to know!

Awesome new live dance act based in London, fusing african music and uk bass culture and founded by Andre Marmot and Nico Bentley of Wormfood London...

Featuring legendary exiled musicians Kudaushe Matimba (Zimbabwe: formerly of the Bhundu Boys) and Fiston Lusambo (Congo: Zong Zing All Stars), Afriquoi fuse live marimba, African guitar, djembe, African vocals, dancehall MCing and crisp, heavy beats, blending dancehall, soca, chimurenga, soukous , house, dubstep and electro in a powerful, uplifting, dance-friendly blend. http://soundcloud.com/afriquoi

Abida Parveen

This beautiful sufi ghazal, split over two videos, features one of the most amazing openings I have ever heard, from one of Pakistan's biggest stars... Enjoy.

NEW MUSIC (Judged)

Yes it's that time again, in absence of any real motivation to write or produce something good, I'm just gonna slate some shit music, amongst other things...

LABRINTH ft. TINIE TEMPAH - EARTHQUAKE

Well it's not all negative, this new one from Labrinth is pretty amazing and further proof that he is the one good thing to come of Simon Cowell's SyCo company. The production is suitably big and club filling with delicious curved basslines and thuddering beats. We could discuss for hours about the commercialisation of dubstep, and while I do agree with James Blake's recent comments that popular dubstep is becoming nothing more than a pissing competition, sometimes it's alright to enjoy pop music's flirtations with the underground.

However, a couple of things let this down somewhat. First off, Lanrinth shouts out Mr. Cowell and his empire at one point. Just not cool. And secondly, Tinie Tempah's rap is some of the most shockingly arbitrary nonsense to come from someone who is actually talented and can do much better lyrically. Boasting about one night stands... really?

CHER LLOYD - WITH UR LOVE ft. MIKE POSNER

Gaining dozens of extra brownie points for merely being less offensive than the truly awful Swagger Jagger this is actually an enjoyable pop jaunt from the divisive young pop sprog. But this is faint praise. And then, as above, and with most current chart outings, the whole thing is ruined by some dire middle eight guest appearance by some smug and chinny douchebag.

WILL YOUNG - COME ON

Will Young continues excelling at producing understated pop music with slick glossy videos. It's nothing hugely special but there's something about Will Young that deserves respect, not least the fact that he's one of the very few people who had survived the nightmare of reality talent shows and carved out a decent career.

JLS - TAKE A CHANCE ON ME

When they start their video miming piano chords in a lift you know there's something horribly wrong. JLS decide to go a bit soppier and ballady, after all, it's getting cold isn't it? They also perform on a rooftop to show how much they care. (Boyband cliches No.553 and No.551)

JUSTIN BIEBER - MISTLETOE

What makes you think of christmas? Is it the holy Christian saviour Jesus Christ? the giving and receiving of gifts from loved ones? Peace on earth and good will towards men? A few days off work and great telly?

Or is it the scarily androgynous visage of an ever more pubescent Justin Bieber, sappily harkening unto you through fake snow over a backing track that is basically an instrumental of acoustic backpacker anthem I'm Yours by Jason Mraz? If the latter is the answer then perhaps it's time to convert to Islam.

LOWKEY - HAND ON YOUR GUN

It's not all bad news though folks, some people are still making good music! Hurray!

Here we see the enigmatic rapper Lowkey unload a tirade of vitriol against some of the most corrupt and evil corporations in our society. The message is loud and clear, our hard earnt and easily spent money, as well as much of our taxes, are being spent on weapons and murder throughout the world. The video even features the devastating image of one of the many Iraqi children born with hideous deformaties as a result of depleted uranium bombing.

This sort of thing is usually very underground, restricted to activists circles and rarely heard in the charts. But at a time when being politically minded and aware of the injustice in the world is, globally, becoming very popular amongst youth, this song, and the album it was taken from, Soundtrack to the Struggle, was propelled into the top ten, outselling the likes of Rihanna and David Guetta on downloads only. The people have spoken! He's the Malcolm X of UK Hiphop.

Virus

The third song to be revealed from Bjork's fascinating and ever expanding Biophilia project has appeared over the weekend and has been getting quite a lot of love. Whereas Crystalline divided a lot of fans at first, Virus seems to be receiving almost unanimous approval, and it's not hard to tell why. The song is gorgeous. A twisted love story, from the perspective of a parasitic virus that loves the cell of its host tissue so much even though it knows its love can only end in destruction. The song features the bespoke Gameleste, with arrangements based on natural self replicating algorithms to reflect the spread of a virus, slowly taking over the song and over powering Manu Delago's gentle hang drum playing and Bjork's voice. Biophilia is shaping up to possibly be one of her best albums. The song and accompanying app, with interactive game, essay, animated lyrics and score, is released tomorrow.

Bombino

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.

گوگوش ، بمون تا بمونم

The incredible Googoosh, get to know!

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!

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...

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...

Björk ~ Crystalline ~ Biophilia debuts at M.I.F.

Crystalline cover artwork by M/M Paris

After weeks of mystery and build-up in the form of obscure teaser videos of bizarre bespoke instruments and Omar Souleyman's Syrian remixing, the first single from Bjork's new project Biophilia has been released on the iTunes store.

The track features some typically Bjorkish lyrics in which vivid scientific metaphors liken blossoming human emotional awakening to the growth of crystals deep in the darkness of the Earth, undiscovered and unfulfilled until they strive for the lights. She sings these in a series of soaring and plummeting flourishes over some deep subterranean basslines and fracturing crystalline beat patterns, before dovetailing into an exhilarating and totally unexpected glitched out drum and bass finale. I was breathless the first time I heard it. Yet another total curve ball from one of pop's few genuine innovators.

There is limited information about the track's production as of yet, but we know it was mixed by renowned Romanian pop engineer Serban Ghenea. A music video has been made by the one and only Michel Gondry and will be released shortly.

Edited to add: 16Bit have confirmed via their Facebook that they produced the track

Even more exciting is the debut of the Biophilia live installation, a seven date residency at the Manchester International Festival held at the Museum of Science and Industry. The show had it's special preview last night and reactions were ecstatic, with Twitter trenders running out of superlatives...

I am one of the lucky few people to have tickets for one of the shows, July 10th, which is apparently the only non-festival Bjork gigs in Europe this year. According to the previews there were dozens of custom made instruments, a choir of beautiful Icelandic girls in space age outfits, and stunning interactive visuals which even featured thundering Tesla coils!

Here are some photos from the rehearsals.

Zed Bias & Omar are Dancing!

From producer Zed Bias, aka Maddslinky, this track has been floating around the interwebs since last august as a radio rip but finally sees an official release on Tru Thoughts records. It's UK soul singer Omar's first release in 12 years I believe and it looks set to be a seriously prominent dance floor feature this summer after a huge amount of blog buzz and popularity in the clubs.

Finding Googoosh (and keeping her too)

Exciting news if you are a fan of vintage Persian pop sounds and funky middle eastern psychedelia; The incredible Finders Keepers Records are releasing a new album soon of some classic and rare cuts by famous exiled Iranian star of pre-revolution 60s and 70s music, Googoosh. After their frankly mind blowing Pomegranates compilation last year, (which i cannot recommend highly enough!), this is very exciting indeed...

Check out the tracklisting and information here

Jamie Woon ~ TMRW

I have been looking forward to the debut album from the extremely talented Jamie Woon for quite some time now, having been a follower of his music since 2007. It was released this week to extremely favourable reviews and wave of truly deserved hype, and following is possibly my favourite track so far. I couldn't find this one online anywhere so uploaded it myself. Enjoy!

I highly recommend that you purchase the album, entitled 'Mirrorwriting' at your earliest convenience if you want your life to be filled with sweet and swooping vocals, dark ethereal waves of misty synths and scattering glitchy beats par excellence!

Oh and yes, you are not hallucinating, this is an actual blog post, finally! Hopefully there will be many more of these...

ceo ~ illuminata

Brand new video for the second single from ceo's acclaimed album White Magic. It's my favourite album of the year by far!