The two titans of the Tru-Thoughts record label, Alice Russell & Quantic have finally bowed to pressure and hooked up for a full collaborative album. As appetisers go " Look Around The Corner " will have fans of both artists counting the days until the LP drops in April (Pre-Order: UK / US ). Just listen to that big string section, gorgeous production, and of course Alice's soulful vocals. Recorded at Quantic's Sonido del Valle studio in Cali, Colombia. Tru-Thoughts report that Chicago's Chess label was a big influence on the production aesthetic, [...]
As if I wasn't already full of festive cheer, it's heartening to see B.Dolan scoring something of an internet smash with his inspired reworking of the NWA's classic "F"@K The Police" . Clocking up 80k views on Youtube in a week, loved by Michael Moore and seemingly catching the wave of the Occupy movement, Buddy Peace rebuilds NWA from the ground up while Dolan addresses police brutality and how to combat it with those ever present camera phones. Download it for free from Soundcloud (below) and keep the buzz going by passing it on. [...]
More on this tomorrow but thought I'd dash off a quick post to highlight B.Dolan & Buddy Peace's inspired reworking of the NWA's classic "F:@K The Police". It's a FREE download from Soundcloud (below). Strange Famous Records: " Serving as a call to action for the digitized media movement while responding to the recent explosion of police brutality all across the world. With the Occupy Movement bringing various forms of injustice to the forefront of people's consciousness, "Film the Police" is a reminder that cops have been a continued and increasingly militarized presence [...]
Out of the hundreds of gigs I've been to over the years I can't think of an occasion where I've given the promoter or organiser of the night much thought, beyond perhaps.. which idiot chose this support band or an exasperated, the running order says stage time 9...Its 9.20! After "organising" (in the loosest sense of the word) Oxjam Walthamstow I'll forever have a respect for the hidden promoter and their secret language of backlines, di's, breakables & get-ins. In the months between committing to put an Oxfam gig and the night itself I've gone from angst to [...]
Update: The lovely people at Londonist have listed Oxjam Walthamstow as one of their " Music Choice's " of gigs in London this week . Indie Electro pop from The Melting Ice Caps, electronic folk soul from Barbarossa, and spoken word meets hiphop courtesy of PolarBear. Oxjam Walthamstow's already varied and pretty damn packed bill just got a little bit bigger with the news that Akira The Don who's closing out the evening will be joined by a " surprise " guest. At least it was a surprise until US Rapper, [...]
Manchester's NOCEREMONY/// emerged from nowhere with little fanfare and promptly blew the doors off the internet's arbitor of musical hypeness "The Hype Machine" . Like Wu Lyf, theyve mastered the 3 ingrediants of internet buzzery - 1). Keep 'em guessing - theyre from Manchester & thats all youre getting. 2). Get some iconic imagery going on (see Youtube). 3). Make sure all your titles and songs are in CAPS LOCK - LIKE YOUR MUM TEXTING YOU TO REMIND YOU ITS YOUR BROTHERS BIRTHDAY. Fortunatly they also seem to have the fourth element that [...]
On Wednesday October the 19th 2011 Music Like Dirt is organising a charity concert as part of Oxfam's month long " Oxjam Festival ". All proceeds from the night will go to help Oxfam's work and some of my favourite bands and musicians have kindly agreed to play. There are styles to suit all tastes, from indie to pop, to hip-hop to electronic soul...So great music, great cause... its a win win! Ahead of his 11 night run at Camden's Roundhouse , the highly acclaimed PolarBear will be bringing his beguiling mix of spoken word [...]
On Wednesday October the 19th Music Like Dirt will be joining forces with Oxfam for a charity gig featuring some of my favourite music of recent years. Its all part of the Oxjam festival which sees hundreds of gigs across the country to raise money for Oxfam's work. Check Oxjam's website to find a gig near you, or even better buy a ticket for my night from We Got Tickets for the very reasonable price of £6. I am both honoured and excited by the artists who've agreed to play but [...]
The freshly converted are always the worst. Born again Christians, ex smokers, and in my case, those who never showed much interest in going to Glastonbury but now - courtesy of a ticket from the very kind organisers of the Emerging Talent competition - stand transformed into a grade A #glasto bore. While theres clearly some truth in the charge that over 40 years the festival has become more commercial, less edgy and enevitably at £195 pounds a ticket overrun by the middle classes. I can only judge it through [...]
The blog has been a little quiet of late as a result of my bleedin' heart liberal Guardian reading tendencies getting me mixed up with an effort to setup a community centre in my local area. It's hoovering up all my spare time but on the plus side I'll have amassed enough self righteous worthiness points to spend the rest of my life reclining on a chaise lounge reading The Sun, being fed Israeli grapes while my trafficked servant holds up Primark clothing for my nodded approval. [...]
THE INDELICATES - DAVID KORESH SUPERSTAR Before the blog enters a period of silence - while I pop my Glastonbury cherry - a few tracks that really should've been shouted from the roof tops months ago. First up a concept album from The Indelicates, the band responsible for " Savages " a tune somewhat ridiculously awarded 2nd best track of 2010 by this here blogger - I say ridiculous because it clearly should've been No.1! Back in 2004 the Indelicates were busy rehearsing their hit fringe musical [...]
" We do what we do and how we do because of you " Chuck D (who'd just recorded a rap for Gil's next album) Words: The last conversation I had with Gil by Richard Russell of XL Records. New York Is Killing Me: The unlikely survival of Gil Scott-Heron poignant piece from New Yorker magazine. Don Lett's fabulous documentary for BBC 4 " The Revolution Will Not Be Televised " will hopefully be [...]
Long time MLD readers will remember my brother Ryan's regular " TEN4SEVEN " series. Each and every week for a year he hunted high and low to find the 10 finest songs, until finally bowing out a spent husk of a man back in April 2010. Now he's resurrecting his blog " Stop Me If You Think Youve Heard This One Before " with a broader focus on popular culture. So if you're going to return why not do it with a bang and declare the 50 best songs of all time? Why not? Because its a ridiculous [...]
For the first MLD Session we headed to the Pure Evil Gallery in deepest Hoxton. Down in its basement, surrounded by sculptures, spray paints and a buzzing tv set, we recorded three songs from one of our favourite artists, James Mathe. Introduced via The Daily Growl blog back in late 2006 when recording under the guise of "Barbarossa" ("Red Beard" in Italian), James's latest EP gave a taster of what to expect on his eagerly awaited LP " Care Cracks ". In the past Ive compared his vocals to Hot Chip's Alexis Taylor (a comparison [...]
Over the last month the new music well ran dry, or more accurately I forgot to drink from it. Going internet cold turkey in Cuba for two weeks along with generally taking a break means this batch of favourite things are more old gold than new music discoveries. HOW WILL I COPULATE? There was a time when mashups were ubiquitous and generally considered some kind of statement of post modern pop will eat itself daring but oh those days seem so long ago. [...]
It started out with several thousand, now only 123 acts remain as the Glastonbury Emerging Talent competition Longlist is announced. After much soul searching and epic indecision, The Last Dinosaur , Golden Glow & One Man Team Dance formed my Top 3. Now the guilt sets in over those half a dozen other acts that presented me with such agonising choices. Please take a moment to listen to the excellent AirRun, Gypsies On The Autobahn and Sons Of Mischief among others in a previous post featuring highlight from my own [...]
Back at the tail end of January, the organisers of " Glastonbury Emerging Talent 2011 " sent out an individual list of 160 bands to each of the 40 bloggers selected to judge the first round of this years competition. Since then each blogger has mulled over their selections and whittled them down to 3 choices. The final 3 from all of them will then make up a long list of 160 acts. This will be revealed shortly but in the meantime here are a few of the standouts from the entries I received. DISCLAIMER: These are [...]
To celebrate the London launch of his WE.ARE.LIZARDS club night , Scroobius Pip kindly furnished Music Like Dirt with a rather fabulous MP3 bootleg . Everyone loves MIA's " Paper Planes ", its both a modern day classic and a guaranteed floor filler but are enough people aware of its debt to The Clash? While the fact that its based on a loop from The Clash's 1982 track " Straight To Hell " is hardly a state secret, Scroobius and a DJ friend decided to shine a spotlight on Joe Strummer by mashing up The [...]
music like dirt
Miike Snow – Paddling Out (Jacques Lu Cont Remix)
