Yes, it's 2013. Yes, we're behind schedule. But allow us to present the final part of our best of 2012 album rundown in all it's glory... 5. Bat For Lashes - The Haunted Man It’s pleasing to see an artist who grows steadily throughout their career – Bat For Lashes is a prime example, and we feel that on third album ‘The Haunted Man’ (ably assisted by respected producer Dan Carey ) Natasha Khan has finally reached her full potential. Having found previous [...]
Slightly behind schedule, the countdown continues. We'll fit it all in before the year is through... (hopefully). 10. Flume - Flume Another latecomer to the album of the year stakes here, with Flume ’s self-titled debut seeing a release at the end of November. Although we’ve only been enjoying it for slightly under a month, we feel confident in declaring this one of the year’s best. Known to his parents as Harley Streten , Flume is one of those frustratingly talented wunderkinds who despite [...]
December has cometh and thus, so does the annual round up. We're beginning with albums, and opting for a top fifteen only. Whittling down this list has been tough, but we're finally happy with our choices, so, let us commence. 15. Solange - True Solange ’s ‘True’ is latecomer to the album of the year stakes, having only been released a couple of weeks back, and in actuality, is an EP rather than a full album. However, it’s very much worthy of a nod owing to its [...]
6. Mikky Ekko - Pull Me Down We’d be very surprised if Mikky Ekko ’s popularity doesn’t skyrocket in the coming months. Hailing from Nashville, his previous work meanders through alt-country, scuzzy electronica and choral pop, but he’s currently establishing himself as a forward thinking crooner and has recently caught the ear of Two Inch Punch and more notably, Rihanna . New single ‘Pull Me Down’ is a dreamy piece of soul with a hip-hop backbone courtesy [...]
1. Chairlift - I Belong In Your Arms ( John Talabot & Pional 6.15 AMix) John Talabot is an artist whose momentum has been building steadily since early last year - firstly due to a slew of exemplary remixes for the likes of Teengirl Fantasy, Mario & Vidis and The Golden Filter – and more recently owing to his debut album ‘ƒIN’ gathering rave reviews amongst tastemakers and electronic music fans alike. Now, alongside regular collaborator Pional , he’s put his mark on Brooklyn alt-popsters [...]
Disco Bloodbath should be a readily recognisable name for anyone reading this blog who also happens to reside in London – club night, DJ duo and now a record label, Disco Bloodbath Recordings, which welcomes Hand Plant 's 'Gone Ghost' EP as its second release (following on from Damon Martin 's 'That Ain't Right' a couple of months back). Hand Plant comprises one half of Disco Bloodbath itself, Ben Pistor , and Sam Watts , more commonly known as the similarly musically minded Maxxi Soundsystem . [...]
1. Aaliyah - Enough Said (Feat. Drake ) Naysayers can get as preachy and apoplectic as they like, but we'd suggest that the emergence of a new Aaliyah song is a cause solely for celebration. Whilst there are valid concerns that this posthumously released material could easily enter trainwreck territory (if say Guetta or RedOne is allowed anywhere near it), it seems pretty clear that Drake 's lefthand man Noah "403 Shebib is one of a very small handful of producers whose musical nous can be confidently trusted to do the project justice. Indeed, it's in [...]
We're starting to think that there's a direct link between cold climates and an ability to produce perfectly formed electronica - such is the caliber of music that Sweden, Iceland and Canada seem to throw out in droves. Perhaps the icy deserted landscapes that characterise those countries are in fact teeming with subterranean recording studios, where unhinged music researchers pump young tykes like Edmonton's Purity Ring full of drugs - inducing unabashed genre blending and sonic brilliance as a result. Whilst Purity Ring may sound the METAL ALERT klaxon, fear not, for Corin Roddick and Megan James are [...]
Michael Tucker is a man who seems to be doing everything exactly right, at exactly the right time, amongst exactly the right people. More widely known as Blood Diamonds and hailing from either Vancouver, Kansas, LA or Brooklyn depending on whose information you read, Tucker is delivering consistently excellent material both with his original productions and rapidly expanding portfolio of remixes. Blood Diamonds' sound is hard to characterise definitively, but we'd say that innovative, futuristic pop is probably a good shout to sum up an output that draws as much influence from summery, beachy chillwave as it does R&B and [...]
We can't seem to locate very much information about Stockholm band Sailor & I , which is rather odd as they appear to be responsible for one of the best indie records of the year so far in the form of the heartbreaking 'Tough Love'. Put together with real craftmanship, the song details the point in a relationship where everything's gone to shit and you're wallowing in the emotions of what was once great and is no longer. Not easy sentiments to convey musically, but Sailor & I manage to muster a palpable sense of despair through the use of beautiful, [...]
Tel Aviv isn't exactly renound for it's status as an electronic music hub, but prolific nu-disco wizard Virgin Magnetic Material is one resident of the city who could well put it on the map. We stumbled upon Shai Vardi's work on Soundcloud by chance, and were quite frankly astounded at the sheer amount of remixes he's produced so far. Centering mostly on seventies and eighties with a few more recent hits thrown in for good measure, Vardi's work is impressively varied. We've been particularly drawn to his Fleetwood Mac reworks. 'Dreams' has only been very slightly adjusted [...]
It's been some time since a new mix of our very own appeared on Beats And Pieces 2.0 (Check last year's 'URBAN ACID' here ), but having been feeling very happy owing to a birthday, new job and the upcoming festival season I decided it was high time that one did. 'DANCEFLOOR SMILES' is here and its aims are conveyed in its title - this is music to dance to and music to smack a massive grin on your face. Predominantly composed of house and disco, the mix features plenty of melody, a good smattering of [...]
As alternative popsters go, you'd struggle to find someone more creative and unrestricted by genre than Santigold . Duke Dumont has a similar outlook on things, having started his career as an exponent of bass-laden booty house and since forging paths into techno, dark brooding electro and joyous disco. Such broad scope in The Duke's previous work means we never know quite what to expect from a new remix and this latest, a reimagining of Santigold's forthcoming single 'The Keepers', takes him in yet another new direction. On first listen, you'd be forgiven for thinking this [...]
Following on from our previous post, let part two of the run down commence. 6. Finnebassen - If You Only Knew The appearance of Aaliyah in any form is usually a reasonable cause for celebration, something that Norwegian producer Finnebassen was evidently aware of when sampling her on the stellar 'If You Only Knew'. Lifting a vocal hook from the chorus of 19962s sublimely sexy 'If Your Girl Only Knew' (Jesus was that really 16 years ago), Finn [...]
We've had so much music invade our iTunes library recently that absorbing it alone has been a considerable challenge. Whilst you can expect some more detailed posts in the coming week on our choice picks from the influx, we thought we'd do a quick(ish) run down on a handful of tracks we've had on repeat. We'd suggest you press play on the following: 1. Bullion - It's All In Sound Having established himself via the 'Pet Sounds: In The Key Of Dee' mixtape which put The Beach Boys ' seminal LP head to [...]
Ruby Goe 's been making ripples for quite some time now, in fact we first remember reading about her in late 2010 when The Guardian featured her debut single 'Beat Breaking Boy' . This was perhaps the inception of a genre we're going to call 'moombahpop' - all honking sirens, stacatto percussion and wobbly bass with a distinctive R&B vocal holding everything together. In terms of marking a place on the musical landscape, it asserted Goe as an exciting, forward-thinking pop troubador, unafraid to embrace unconventional ideas. Since then momentum has been building gradually, but steadily. We've [...]
We never need much of an excuse to post about Björk but we're delighted that we can finally showcase a song we first heard seven months ago at Hudson Mohawke 's headline show at XOYO. When he opened his set with what was obviously his own remix of 'Virus', by far our favourite track from Björk's latest and named as our third favourite song of 2011 , we nearly exploded. What made it even more exciting was that it had seemingly been unheard anywhere else and subsequent Google searches around that time suggested that even its mere existence was unknown apart from [...]
Groove Armada have always been a pretty good cultural barometer regarding dance music trends, par exemple: chillout tunes perfect for compilations with a Buddha figurine on the front circa cover 1997 / dancehall-infused party bangers ideal for drowning in mud to at Glastonbury circa 2001 / face-scratching- Sugababe -featuring crossover electropop circa 2007 / Bryan Ferry- reviving retro synth disco circa 2010. So accordingly, their most recent output has been firmly rooted in the house revival of which we've spoken about at length in previous posts. Hypercolour , a label that recently has been releasing the [...]
Just under a month ago we were lucky enough to attend Feist 's show at the grand ol' Albert Hall, a majestic venue to host such beautiful concert. Being nearly a month later, we won't be doing a full review but felt that we had to share this stunning live rendition of 'Intuition'. Feist achieved quite a feat making such an imposing venue seem so intimate and at no point during the set was this more apparent than during the solo version of the track that served as the show's finale. [...]
Ready for the biggest dosage of SWAG you've experienced at the very least during the month of April? Look no further than everyone's favourite pretty motherfucker A$AP Rocky , who yesterday unleashed onto the interwebs his first official single 'Goldie'. Rocky's 'LiveLoveA$AP' was widely cited as last year's best mixtape and this latest cut keeps the quality control tightly in check. Production is handled by 'Niggas In Paris' beatsmith Hit-Boy and whilst calmer in tone than the Jay-Z / Kanye joint, it's still constructed of similarly mechanical sounding components that tip their hat strongly [...]
Beats And Pieces 2.0
Listen to an unreleased version of Talking Heads’ “Psycho Killer” with Arthur Russell on cello
CDCmixtape: ¡Lo Mejor de Abril y lo que va de Mayo 2013!
