Blog: The 405

Today's Mix/Cover/Live includes Peaking Lights, Grouplove and Lockah. What's your favourite? Let us know via the comments section below, or via Facebook and Twitter .

• LFTF - Lockah LFTF Mix

There's a point about halfway through 'On Sight', the opening track of Kanye West 's new album Yeezus , where the hyper-distorted electro rave pulse cuts out and a children's gospel choir sings a line before the song flips back to a futuristic stomp. "Oh, He will give us what we need / It may not be what we want" goes the hymn, taken from a performance by the Holy Name of Mary Choral Family. It's somewhat of a mission statement, not just for Yeezus the album, but Yeezus the person. The gospel-soul sample is a [...]

It's harder for a an electronic musician to make an album about touring than it is for a band, but that's exactly what Derwin Panda has gone and done. He's captured the three years since Lucky Shiner within an expertly crafted album; all that touring has influenced the new material in unexpected ways, and it's executed in a manner which becomes even more impressive when it's considered that Half of Where You Live lacks any kind of traditional vocal presence. There are no feature slots, no guest appearances, and while his second album does feature some [...]

You liked ' 3AM Spiritual ', right? You're probably fond of ' Idol ' too, huh? How about ' Varisty '? Did that do anything for you? If the answer to those questions were "hell yeah" - 1. Nice use of "hell yeah" 2. NPR are now streaming Smith Westerns ' new album, Soft Will , which features all of those songs! If the answer to those questions were "no way, dude" - 1. Nice use of "No way, dude" 2. You should be able [...]

Jay-Z was never gonna allow Kanye West to steal all the limelight, right? Sticking with the religious/historial theme set out by Yeezus , Hova announced, via a three-minute advert which aired during game five of the NBA Finals, that his new album would be titled Magna Carta Holy Grail and that it would be released on July 4th. Not only that, but the commercial suggests that Pharrell Williams, Swizz Beatz, Timbaland, and Rick Rubin all worked on the album. It's also been announced that he's teamed up with [...]

Azizi Gibson 's latest mixtape Ghost In The Shell is finally here and thanks to Gibson and the great folks over at DatPiff , not only can we stream the tape, but we can download it for free too. So with that being said, why don't you download Ghost In The Shell, below? It's definitely worth your time, and plus, he's a Brainfeeder artist. Need we say more?

Thom Yorke and the gang from Atoms For Peace released their debut LP Amok earlier this year to much critical acclaim, and in anticipation of their upcoming world tour, the group played a secret show in Los Angeles. Below you'll find a few of the performances that took place at California's Café-Club Fais Do-Do, along with the group's upcoming tour dates. [...]

Last summer The 405 headed to Serbia for EXIT Festival and had such a blast, we thought we'd give you the chance to go this year. The festival takes place in Novi Sad on 10th -14th July, in the Petrovaradin Fortress, with acts including Snoop Lion , Atoms For Peace , Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds and Bloc Party . Head to their site for more info. To enter our competition to win a pair of tickets, just answer the following question: [...]

Mancunian-based duo Ghosting Season have recently finished a UK tour, and if you did miss it then you're very silly - but at least you can watch this brief Tour Diary created by the chaps themselves especially for The 405. The techno-indebted types last year released their superb debut album The Very Last of the Saints as reviewed by us here , and this week sees the unveiling of a new single titled 'Apophenia'. It's stated for a release of London label Fields on June 24th - watch these pages for news [...]

Plastic Platform is half a century old, and to celebrate we got Machweo to create a mix for us that features many of our favourite acts sweeping across a wide-range of genres. The Italian-based producer is a prolific character - check out his Soundcloud as evidence of this - but for now download this lovely melange of sounds below. "This mixtape consists of all those songs that influenced me and my music the most in a year or so. There are no bounds of generes, sometimes i listened [...]

After my previous article defending Kanye West in spite of all his tactless nonsense, it's going to sound a lot like I've got a throbbing hard-on for the guy... well, hell, I guess I might. He's pretty bloody awesome in such a myriad of ways I couldn't even list them on all my digits (including toes). Kanye's musical prowess – ignore everything else for a minute – is unparalleled. As a rapper, he basically turned the genre of hip-hop on it's head almost single-handedly; his back catalogue is diamond encrusted, it's a golden lecture on how to dominate [...]

Thurston Moore's first band formation since the breakup of Sonic Youth has resulted in Chelsea Light Moving - and he's wasted no time in releasing their eponymous debut LP that we reviewed here . Photographer Eleonora Collini was on hand to photograph their show at Village Underground in London as part of their European-wide tour. Moore and co are to play the Yoko Ono curated Meltdown Festival this week on June 19th in a special improv performance.

Just returned from Porto after a great trip to the second Optimus Primavera Sound and thought get together this review while it's all fresh in my mind! With the massive success of the Barcelona Primavera the organisers have taken the risky move of booking a sister festival in neighbouring Portugal a week later. But how was it I hear you shout? Well… I arrived on Wednesday to weather that pretty much resembled England, but after a meat, cheese and octopus fondue, things were definitely [...]

Like any decent label, R&S Records continues to evolve with the times judging by the signings of the past two years - and this includes London-based duo Cloud Boat . Debut LP Book of Hours is one of our favourite releases of the year to date, a haunting, minimal and truly immersive experience that takes some of the elements of James Blake's sound but runs off to the darkened woods to create a soundscape of its own world. We had a chat with Sam Ricketts and Tom Clarke of Cloud [...]

Stone Island have released a glimpse of their upcoming Fall/Winter 2013 collection, with casual but smart streetwear and sportswear, as you'd expect from the Italian label. Military-inspired jackets and coats cover t-shirts and jumpers, and the collection boasts earthy tones of browns and deep reds, with a couple of jackets taking a unique spin on deep, subtle patterns. Matching footwear rounds off the styles in the lookbook. So get ready to wrap up in style, with the entirety of the collection available in stores and online soon. Head here [...]

Can you sit still for three minutes? Probably not, which is how the Misunderstanding Focus series of photographs came about. The photographs, by Ryuta Iida and Yoshihisa Tanaka (also known as Nerhol), are taken while subjects try to sit as still as possible for three minutes. Photographs are then stacked and cut out, which gives the final product the distorted, paintstroke effect you can see. Pretty cool, right?

Who fancies a game of lucky dip? Once again, we've made a handy playlist of the best stuff that gets sent in each month. If we took actual, physical submissions, and not just links, we would need an absolutely huge malbox. Go on, guess how many songs we picked for this one. You probably guessed incorrectly - it's a whopping 36 submissions this month (and let's not even begin to talk about the stuff we left out). Less of an 'in case you missed it' round-up, and more of an 'in case you've been living under a rock for the [...]

• The 405 - 405 Submission Playlist: Best of May 2013

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Welcome to the 405 UK Gig Guide. We've selected the five best shows happening this week in the UK that we think you should check out. If you have any events you think we should cover next week, let us know by dropping us an email at events@thefourohfive.com . This week's gig guide features the likes of Slow Club, Austra and Lanterns on the Lake. Gig 1 Gig 2 [...]

• Austra - Painful Like

This week's top videos come from AlunaGeorge, These New Puritans, Fyfe, A-Trak and a 405 Exclusive by Spring Offensive. Expect swimming pools, basketballs and beauty. We've tried to make it easier for you to enjoy our weekly roundup by putting all the videos into one handy playlist. You can still pick and choose which video to watch, but if you fancy watching our favourite videos back-to-back, this is the best way to do it! We recommend selecting the HD option, making it fullscreen and relaxing in a comfy chair.