Blog: Eclectic Eavesdroppings

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Party Supplies: Guy Friends An awesome yet disposable jam from the Fools Gold DJ [ mp3 ]

Various Cruelties: Great Unknown Having popped up on my radar over a year ago, I've been championing Various Cruelties to little avail so far. The Londoners play an eccentric brand of pop/rock that seems primed for bigger audiences. Having released a few singles last year (Neon Truth, Chemicals) they got invited to perform on Later With Jools Holland which was successful. Great Unknown , the lead single off the self-titled debut album (out April 2nd) now has a music video and hopefully 2012 will be the year when everything shapes together for the [...]

Having met as teenagers at the Institute for Young Blind in Mali, Amadou & Mariam got married and started playing music together. They've come a long way since then and popped up on the international music radar after Manu Chau produced some music of theirs in 2004. They recently announced that a new album called Folila is pencilled for release in March. It will continue their expansive take on west African music and will excitingly feature the likes of Santigold, TV on the Radio and Theophilus London. The lead single Dougou Badia is featured below and can [...]

The constantly innovative Theophilus London is up to his creative tricks again and has been working on his latest EP titled Lovers Holiday II: Rose Island . The lead single features a filthy beat with heavy synths produced by his friend Va$htie. As the beat speeds up, Theophilus drops some rapid-fire bars about last nights drinking and smoking. It may be an ode to inebriated nighttime antics but its far from your typical party jam, featuring the Brooklyn MC's trademark swagger. He's also been working with ASAP Rocky on a joint called [...]

""I done wrestled with an alligator, I done tussled with a whale; handcuffed lightning, thrown thunder in jail; only last week, I murdered a rock, injured a stone, hospitalised a brick; I'm so mean I make medicine sick"" - Muhammad Ali (1974)

Michael Kiwanuka: Tell Me A Tale (Live on Jools Holland) Fresh from winning the BBC Sound of 2012 gong, Michael Kiwanuka will be a busy man this year. The British soul singer of Ugandan origin has come a long way over the last year, having first popped up on my radar last May with I Need Your Company . His smooth retro-soul melodies sound effortless and unsurprisingly draw inspiration from Otis Reading, Bill Withers and other R&B icons. He released a string of three EP's last [...]

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Rizzle Kicks: Call It What You Want A very fresh cover of Foster The People's smash [ mp3 ]

Swiss Lips: Grow Let yourself go to some energetic synth pop from some stars of tomorrow [ mp3 ]

The white-soul boys called The Milk were something of a one-hit wonder last year with their splendid single (All I Wanted Was) Danger . Thankfully there's more where that came from, and the English lads have just let loose B-Roads [ music video ] which is another excellent retro ska/soul jam. The debut album will be out in May and in the meantime they're touring all over the UK. Get involved folks. B-Roads by The Milk

Daft Punk Christmas Commercial (France) "Better late than never, but never late is better"

Woodkid: Iron Yoann Lemoine is an established music video director who's been in the game for a fair few years now. Being the multi-talented French fellow he is, he decided to dabble in music and goes by the name of Woodkid . Iron is the main single and comes accompanied with an epic backing beat and an even more spectacular music video. It's already accumulated over 8 million views so I'm clearly behind the trends but the brassy horns get me every time. Below is the song Brooklyn [...]

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Midi Matilda: Day Dreams Courtesy of the tastemakers over at Neon Gold , here is some indie pop/rock magic [ mp3 ]

• midi matilda - Day Dreams

The canadians by name of Teen Daze have kicked off the new year with a groovy disco banger. They chose to rework Earth, Wind & Fire 's track called Let's Groove from 1981 and did it justice in every way. Their electro-synth edit is full of warmth and really gets you going on cold winter days like this. Download a free copy at their BandCamp page [ mp3 ]. Teen Daze - Let's Groove

Clock Opera: Once And For All It always amazes me how some bands take almost no time to go from nobodies to somebodies in the music business whereas others gradually bide their time and patiently make the killer move when the time is right. Clock Opera definitely form part of the latter category. Having released Once And For All - their first proper piece of material - way back in 2009, they have just edited the song for its official 2012 release. Not only is the song an excellent tour-de-force in electro pop but the video [...]

Pogo - Upular (3D Audio Version) hamburglr : Go grab some headphones. No, not your iPod earbuds. The best headphones you've got. Take a break from whatever you're doing for two minutes, turn the volume up and press play. The result: surround sound awesomeness.

Jagwar Ma: Come Save Me Upcoming talent from the land down under [ mp3 ]

Following on (belatedly) from Eclectic Eavesdroppings Favourite Albums of the year, here are my Favourite Songs of 2011 . Compressing the musical year into a mere twenty-five songs is a tough task for a music junkie like myself. Listing the songs in order of preference is near impossible. But either way, I've done my best to get a list together and even though it's incredibly subjective, it sums up a very good year in music. Stream it as a playlist on YouTube over HERE or download a copy of the whole mix over HERE . [...]