Blog: Fone Culture

Daniel Johnson "Don't Fence Me In (feat. Brie Stoner)"Click here to download it

I'm over here: danielmusica.com

This guy's voice is many things. Thunder. Fairy dust. Stuff in between. Wild Beasts - "Two Dancers 1" Wild Beasts "Hooting and Howling"

I really didn't get this band last record out. I really get them now.Beach House - "Take Care"

This song drives me wild. It's like Lauryn Hill backed by Tony Allen. The video is worse.Nneka - "Heartbeat"Nneka - Heartbeat from BooGieMan on Vimeo.

This is so glorious. This is the music I've always dreamed Jamie Lidell would eventually make.Jamie Lidell "Compass"

White people are making the best music again. That's been the theme of the past half-year for me. Not like it's a competition, but there were some dark, dark days there for the white man.Yeasayer - "Madder Red"Yeasayer - "Grizelda"

This new album Heartland by Owen Pallett is really beautiful. It's a mix of small ensemble orchestral instruments and a bit of Nintendo soft synths. Usually stuff this gentle is a bit more twee than I can take but the material and the vision is really strong.Owen Pallett - "What Do You Think Will Happen Now?"Owen Pallett - "Red Sun No. 5"Pallett reminds me of Patrick Watson, whose album Wooden

From Ben Stewart of Greenpeace, addressing the failed climate talks in Copenhagen this month:"The most progressive U.S. President in a generation comes to the most important international meeting since the Second World War and delivers a speech so devoid of substance that he might as well have made it on speakerphone from a beach in Hawaii. His aides argue in private that he had no choice, such

I would have difficulty coming up with a top ten list of best albums for this year and I've been posting the individual tracks that I got excited about throughout 2009, so instead I'm just going to post a list of 10 television shows that I loved.It's kind of shocking how much TV I've consumed this year. My job as a composer requires a lot of waiting - for files to bounce down - as well as breaks

Something about these new Midlake tracks seems appropriate for the season. It's the cold end of the year, the ground is hard, the leaves have dropped dead and we too can let the past drop from our memories - and then we can start again.There's a "Greensleeves" quality to Acts of Man with its fireplace warmth, gentle acoustic guitars, flutes and soiled mix that seems out of time, haunted and

I can't help but hear the tracks on Rihanna's new record in the context of her publicly getting the shit beat out of her, and then taking another beating in the press and on the blogs (oddly, in most of the black blogs I read I see more support for Chris Brown and a weirdly emotional hatred for Rihanna). Her response is to release a record cover where she's covering her eye up (so you don't see

Daniel "Damn I Wish I Was Your Lover"Get it at iTunes.

There is nobody else doing what Ryan Leslie is doing right now. He's found some sweet middle ground between Dilla-ugly concepts of what a beat can be, futuristic synth pop production, moody D'Angelo-isms and black top 40 r'n'b writing. The complaint about Leslie is that he never goes far enough out down either road - experimental or pop accessibility - but I like the balance and minimalism. So

• Ryan Leslie - Something That I Like (Live at the Penthouse)

I can't answer why State of Grace (1990) is not held in higher, more revered esteem. It's an Irish gangster movie set in Hell's Kitchen featuring Sean Penn, Robin Wright Penn, Gary Oldman and Ed Harris. Beyond being a near flawless movie I'll always remember it for having the only love scene I can think of in cinema that actually approaches reality.I also can't answer why Ennio Morricone's

• Ennio Morricone - state of grace opening titles

Spike Jonze / We Were Once A Fairytale from background on Vimeo.Spike Jonze is killing me these days. I find it an encouraging testament to the elasticity of human potential to watch a skater kid turn into one of the preeminent philosophers of our time. Where The Wild Things Are was part Camus, part Cassavettes and completely without filters. I felt something every second of that film. At the end

Daniel "Damn I Wish I Was Your Lover" Buy it at iTunes.

This album makes up for the lack of new Sade and Kate Bush albums in the world. El Perro Del Mar - "Change of Heart" El Perro Del Mar - "Heavenly Arms"

Followers of the Hebrew g-d believe that h-s name is so holy it can't be spoken, only referred to. Muslims believe it's a sin to make an image of their prophet, and aboriginal Australians won't let you take their photograph lest you capture their soul. I'm a shitty mystic, but there is something about the music of Christian Fennesz that makes me want to avert my descriptive gaze - to shuffle in

"Black Swan""And It Rained All Night"This band is just killing it. I have to imagine that playing The Eraser live would be any drummer's dream and Joey Waronker has brought the deep hip hop kick drums and busy stick clatter to nasty life.Choosing Flea was an inspired move. He has such a cartoonish persona that people forget what a sensitive and versatile musician he is. But this material is