These days, just releasing records isn't enough. All the cool kids are doing mixtapes as well, and not just the hip-hop ones. Here white-hot electropopstrel Little Boots (aka Victoria, formerly of Dead Disco) presents her latest mixtape as part of her ongoing quest for world domination. mp3: Little Boots - Computer Fairyland Mixtape You can buy Little Boots' new 7 inch single Meddle from Pure Groove . Debut 12 inch out in America in November.
"...as an angel I can do a lot of things" The other day, I was pointed to this interview with the mighty Sun Ra , which is brilliant. The interviewer is clearly out of his depth, but still does a decent job keeping a lid on things, because let's face it, interviewing Sun Ra is never going to be an easy task. On a similar note, I'd also highly recommend tracking down a copy of the 1974 film Space is the Place , for some more wigged-out Sun Ra Egyptological [...]
Some bands have such a recognisable sound that they always manage to sound like themselves no matter how much they experiment and play around with their core components. A good example is Low, who followed up the big, expansive, almost mainstream sound of The Great Destroyer with the stripped back minimalism of Drums and Guns . Yet all the time they remained quintessentially Low, sounding like no-one else. Stereolab are another good example of a band who are always instantly recognisable, mainly through the combination of their particular synth sound and Laetitia Sadier's vocals. [...]
Time I got back again to raking through my old CD singles. It's been a while. Next CD I come across is The Flaming Lips. And this is value for money. Now kids, please don't ever buy music on the primary basis that it offers value for money - that really isn't a good criteria. But it's sometimes a nice bonus. In this case, it's because back in 2003 Oklahoma's finest released an EP thingy that not only boasts seven tracks, but seemed to be genuinely trying to offer something new. The title track [...]
...except he doesn't. Since last October, how many bands have been described as 'doing a Radiohead'? Artists from Cliff Richard to Nine Inch Nails have been said to have followed Thom & Co's footsteps into this brave new digital world. Yet, although some albums have been given away free online, as far as I'm aware, no-one has done the whole pay-what-you-want thing. Bloc Party releasing their album online first is hardly something that's not been done way before even In Rainbows came along. As it turns out, what Minotaur Shock , aka David Edwards is [...]
It can be hard to follow up a killer single with an album - expectations are usually very high, and if the album doesn't contain more stuff like said killer single, it will likely disappoint. Lykke Li was always going to have a tough task following up the brilliant Little Bit , and I'm not sure she's been talking to the right people about it either. According to the press release, her mentor is Bjorn 'Peter, Bjorn and John' Yttling, who has also produced her debut album Youth Novels . Although I'm not going to fault [...]
Contrary to the song, the best things in life usually aren't free. Though often the best things come in the smallest packages - whether's it's your local independent cafe or bookshop, magazine or record label. Speaking of which, they don't come much smaller and more perfectly formed than Brainlove Records . They've already released one of the singles of the year in the shape of the Friends of the Bride / Modernaire split seven , and now they've come up with a low-key monster in the recent compilation Two Thousand and Ace . It might not be [...]
Funny things are happening in the world of Noah and the Whale . For starters - a top 10 single and top 5 album? What happened there? Sure, they've got major label money behind them, but that doesn't work for everyone. I guess it's down to one big all-singing, all-whistling single which has caught the mood of the nation at exactly the right time. Although I've been well-documented on these pages as a NatW fan, lately I've been casting the occasional wary look at the band these days. No doubt I've been influenced by the detractors who are busy [...]
End of the Road Festival is only three years old in September, but already it seems to be the place for me to discover great new artists, even if I didn't actually see them there. The first two years have seen performances by artists that I have gone on to love, then regret I had failed to see them the previous September, mainly because I had never heard (of) them at the time. So the inaugural 2006 festival saw me missing sets by the then-unknown-to-me Barbarossa, Frightened Rabbit and Pink Mountaintops. Last year's bash saw me missing Zombie Zombie, Dawn [...]
Here's a rag-bag collection of various remixes and stuff that's been rattling around in my inbox lately. I don't normally go for the whole remix thing, but there are a few I've been listening to which are worth sticking up here because I think they're good. Note: this is not just some vain attempt at getting myself top hits on The Hype Machine, but kids, if you really do want to get your blog into HM's top 50 , you have to post a remix. Anyway, first [...]
Just when you thought that there were too many young men with beards playing folky music, another one comes along and claims his place in the room labelled 'high quality folky music played by young men with beards'. This one goes by the name of Hollowbody , and I first came across him when his alias, Dan Weltman leapt from his Bristol home and into my inbox. A quick visit to his myspace confirmed that Dan's tunes were worth more than a cursory listen, and the arrival of his new album Inside the Wolves only [...]
A Q&A about Monday's Upset! The Rhythm gig. Q: What's so great about HEALTH? A: Unsure. I could use the well-known 'music to be admired but not loved' cliche, but I'm not sure I even admire HEALTH's much feted debut album that much. It sounds to me like a collection of good ideas not very well put together. I consistently fail to understand the adulation heaped upon them. The remix album HEALTH//DISCO was so much more up my street and made the disparate parts hang together [...]
I'm not down with the whole Guilty Pleasures thing. Why should you feel guilty about liking music you love? Is there a need to hide stuff in case you're exposed as not cool enough? I like The Final Countdown by Europe and Careless Whisper by George Michael (there - said it!) and I can't see what there is to be embarrassed about there. I mention this, because the new album by Swedish duo pacific! mines a rich seem of what might be called guilty pleasures. It's a proper Balearic record, but not [...]
Some more good new stuff now. Despite the oddly grand name, The Voluntary Butler Scheme is really just only bloke - Rob Jones - from the unfashionable part of the West Midlands known as Stourbridge, which back in the early 90s was famous for Pop Will Eat Itself, The Wonder Stuff and Neds Atomic Dustbin. But don't worry if you've lost your old German army jacket and DMs with purple laces, because Jones ain't no grebo . VBS trade in an altogether sunnier pop music, made all the more impressive from the fact that Rob does it [...]
I almost burnt my leg with the iron when I heard this news on the radio this morning. Tributes have poured in. Obituaries have been published. I'm not sure what I can add to the weight of these apart from to say RIP and point you to some footage of the legend that was, and still is, Isaac Hayes. mp3: Isaac Hayes - Soulsville
The problem with creating an amazing debut album is that your subsequent work is always going to be held up against that first masterwork. Many artists have been in this position, and Micah P. Hinson is one of them. Mind you, his 'debut' album wasn't technically his first, though it was the first to get released. Micah P. Hinson and the Gospel of Progress was a gutsy, rocking soulful triumph, which set a very high standard for all its successors. Though his next album The Opera Circuit was good, it may have [...]
In this crazy internet age, brand new music coming to me from a source other than the screen in front of me is a strange thing indeed. So last week, when I heard a guy playing a Merle Haggard cover with plenty of reverence on John Kennedy's Xfm radio show, I was actually being introduced to an artist that I had never heard of before. On the radio! How old school is that? It was a good cover. Even better were his own songs, all soulful twang and gutsy yearning vocals. On a show which is usually dominated [...]
Here's another cracker from Manchester's excellent Red Deer Club Records . I've already written on these pages about the label's other artists Sara Lowes and Sophie's Pigeons , whose records have been good, but this album is surely Red Deer's best yet. The artist in question in Benjamin Wetherill , who hails from Leeds and has created in his debut album Laura a thing of delicate and exquisite beauty. The term 'folk' is liberally applied these days and can used to describe anything from acoustic pop to proper old beardy man's [...]
I'm a bit all over the place today, so here's a quick post with a couple of good new things that have come my way lately. New favourite: Esser The new single from Ben Esser comes to you courtesy of a t-shirt. Yes, you read that right. If you want to get your hands of a copy of his latest single Headlock , you'll need to get your body into a nifty Esser t-shirt. Buying said item of clothing from one [...]
It was about time. My love for The Wave Pictures has been well-documented on the pages of this blog, but somehow I've never quite got round to seeing them live. It's not like Wave Pictures gigs are a rare thing either - they've always got a packed live calendar, and have probably played every small venue in London. But I've been absent from all of these until last week. And in a way, it was worth the wait. Before I got to see Bethnal Green's finest, there was another band in the way - one that [...]
The Daily Growl
Azealia Banks - '1991' [Listen]
Metric Debuts Album via Synthetica Hide+Seek, Tickets On Sale Now For Fall Tour
THE MASTERSONS — BIRDS FLY SOUTH
