The exclamation mark is deliberate. It sets them apart from another band, named simply 'Citizens'. Can you imagine how pissed off that other band are, especially when they discover that this new band are immeasurably better? What has us really perplexed is why they simply stuck an exclamation mark on the end to differentiate themselves, when selecting an entirely new name would have been so much better. After all, it's actually a rather shitty moniker for a band, exclamation mark or no exclamation mark. Sure we are all citizens, but by speaking to all of us they in fact to [...]
We simply cannot consider what Foals , or Bloc Party , or The Libertines would have sounded like if they weren't from the UK. It's just impossible to imagine isn't it? Totally impossible. There's something especially British about them. You can say the same thing for lots of bands through history. The Smiths simply couldn't come from San Francisco could they? What about The Specials , or Metronomy , or Roni Size , or Radiohead ? No chance, they're all very, very British. However, they also sound very different from [...]
The city of Brighton is a great hub for the culture of music in the UK. Not only is it the home of The Recommender, but in an urban space where everything and everyone is within walking distance, we find ourselves surrounded by promoters, labels, writers, venues, musicians and of course other music bloggers. One of those music blogs is closely associated with us here at Recommender Towers, the excellent Blah Blah Blah . They've been delivering top-drawer dance and electronic music from the edges of those genres for many years now. We recently met up with its founder, [...]
James Blake is perhaps the most established artist in the genre of post-step. Although he himself is of Caucasian descent, his music filters music of Black origins, with dub, dubstep and the tinkering snares of drum and bass which can all be found woven into his late night music. It's a style that feels born from the Internet generation, transcending genres and particularly race, blurring the lines between groups and influences. Today's recommendation is an exciting Black solo artist, but when we completed a short phone interview with her this week we asked her who her influences were. Her answer? [...]
People often remark about The Recommender's editorial content. Some love the lengthier pieces, as it gives them more information and they hit the play buttons before reading the article so it acts as a soundtrack to the words. Others moan about how it's too wordy and lengthy, stating that we write too much - although we suggest that in reality it's probably them that perhaps doesn't read enough. Either way, we're sticking to our prose. We feel it gives the reader a richer experience and more information than simply listing mp3s. We believe it allows us to share an opinion [...]
If we drew up a 'Recommender Charter', the first thing on the list would be 'The Right To Be Very Picky'. We're known for being a selective bunch, who deliberately stand as a filter between all the new emerging music and the wider public. Our main aim is to deliver quality cutting edge music that we believe has true potential and that should have a broad appeal. It's our modus operandi . It's part of our service. This leads to us covering a lot of the obvious genres, but away from the mass market appeal there's still some extraordinary [...]
It's a well known fact that music bloggers read music blogs. It's a large chunk of the traffic on the busy blog highways. We're a chatty, well-networked bunch you see. So last year we decided to canvass the opinions of those music bloggers by asking them to nominate their favourite blogs in a peers-only vote to see who they thought was the Best Music Blog of the year. They responded in their hundreds. This year we're doing it again. There are millions of blogs out there, as varied as the waves on the ocean [...]
On this ongoing weekly series, in which we dive into the backstages of music blogs, we find ourselves at Chicago's Cream Team and reach out for the thoughts of it's editor/creator, Veronica, (or V to those that know her). We believe that The Recommender relates to her blog in more ways than one; we not only started our blogs in exactly the same month all those years ago, but we were also recruited as one of the blogs on the Strangers In Stereo blog collective - a project she helped to organise. It's with this collective [...]
We adore bands that push the boundaries and we regularly punt artists that are trying to create something new and interesting at the cutting edges of music. Really we do. However, today's recommendation have no such intention. Some designs are so perfect to start with that there's no point searching for unnecessary changes - that's just change for change's sake. New York's hot new disco collective, Escort , are making the musical equivalent of the wheel, so perfect and well-crafted are their disco hits that there's absolutely zero need for any re-invention of the genre. This is pimped-up, stacked-heels-disco [...]
If you have an iPad you probably have Flipboard , right? It's basically an essential App that is an absolute must-have for all iPad owners. Described to us by a good friend as the " App I use to show off how amazing an iPad is ", it was declared as Apple's number 1 App for iPads in 2010. If you don't own an iPad, this App will make you want one. It's that good. You need not question The Recommender's integrity with writing this post, as we've never been one of those blogs who agree to [...]
Music blogs, as much as anyone, are well known for trying to shelve artists into specific genres. Music journalists and critics as a whole have a genuine need for placing artists and bands into certain groups, so they can explain their subject to the reading audience through the medium of words and descriptions. It's a tawdry affair, which earns writers little credit, as they put pen to paper (or should that be fingers to keys) with an entire armoury of pigeon holes. NME and some other corners of the traditional music press push it a little further by trying to [...]
The Recommender has been asked to DJ along some very tidy bands at the issue launch party of the next Vice Magazine. Whether you read the magazine like a bible, or you're one of those people who consider it an outrageous piece of sensationalist journalism, all we ask is that you bring your fun buttons firmly switched on to what should be one hell of a showcase. We'd love to suggest that you get to the Green Door Store early in order to catch our (two) DJ sets, but in fairness they had a queue stretching [...]
Today's edition of our ongoing weekly series looks at a biggie from the UK's music blog scene. We went back stage with the editor, Bill Cummings, from the one of the largest and most established music sites we know, God Is In The TV . They've been going online for so long that they pretty much pre-dated the word blog, calling themselves an online 'zine', or 'web zine', but the word blog that's become common parlance is now firmly attached to them. One thing is certain, they share all the right genetics - to serve up an independent, critical [...]
Like bolts of electricity from the fingertips of The (evil) Emperor we are busy typing up every discovery we locate. You see, the love of music coarses through us. We can't help it. That's why we blog. Part of this process of immersion is gifted to us via lots of live music. We like nothing more than to venture out to a good lineup to watch a new band hand out some fresh cuts. In the coming weeks we have plenty of shows lined up on the Recommender's calendar, like stocking up on fuel for the winter, but [...]
It's quite hard for us to get our heads around the fact that there are still people out there that don't quite 'get' online social networks. We pour scorn upon these poor people. Well, OK, we're not that snobbish and wicked, but online social media is something we are very proud to endorse. We can hold up lesson after lesson and example after example of how social networks can make your life better. Don't believe us? We'd suggest that you're not doing it right. Whether it's Gchats , or G+ Hang Outs , or Facebook , and [...]
The Recommender is lucky enough to get invited onto a range of radio stations to commentate on new music. The Tony Marks Show at Juice FM – the largest local station in our home city of Brighton – allows us a regular monthly visit into the studio to have a natter about what's happening on our horizon. Below we list the last two shows from September and October. We always take in a couple of tracks for Tony and September had us delivering two bands from our home city of Brighton, Curxes [...]
In a crowded world of music blogs what are they key things that make the reader return for a second vieiwng? Well, there's a whole list of key attributes - many of which we've discussed in this ongoing weekly series that looks at the editors behind the blogs - but one of the major boosts is the musical knowledge of the blog's creator. If a blog is a commentary on music, then knowing your subject is absolutely essential if you want to be respected. Andy, from The Von Pip Musical Express , can be held up as great example [...]
If the geographical location that the band call home and the music that they generate is a perfect fit, does it enhance your experience when listening to them? Perhaps it's just our stereotyping of people from cities and countries that clouds our view, but would The Beatles have been the same if they'd come from Southampton, instead of that well-known northern city of chipper, fast and loose Scousers? Would Radiohead seem the same if they were associated with Birmingham, instead of the quaint and intellectual city of Oxford? Does the home of the band influence the music? With today's new [...]
There's a lot of music that circles within the blog world, filling inboxes and clogging up Twitter feeds, as mercenary bloggers get caught up in the latest buzz band or bedroom-made genre. Lots of it fits into the post-modern genre of glo-fi, or as Hipster Runoff delightfully parodied it, chillwave. Ambient pop music that was so over-saturated with processed samples that it's virtually drowning, has been thrown lifeline after lifeline by hipsters and it's dulled us into a musical coma. In fairness it's given us the odd bright peak through the mist, in Washed Out , or [...]
We like to reserve the pages of The Recommender for the future of music's Royalty and today's selection fits that bill perfectly. Throughout 2011 we've been watching the Queen Of Hearts slowly begin to position herself as the next Queen Of Pop . Traditional media, such as The Guardian , The Times and Q Magazine, alongside the online coverage by the likes of Pop Justice and The Line Of Best Fit , have all been waving their approval over her as if they were fanning her with palm leaves, so it seems like 2012 could [...]
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