Blog: The 405

Last month we premiered a song from Londoner Freddie Dickson which we suggested could earn him the title of 'the male Lana Del Ray'. Now, a month later, we're proud to premiere his fantastic EP 'Shut Us Down'. The four track EP is a wonderful and bold continuation of the brilliant 'Shut Us Down'. The EP manages to perfectly showcase Dickson's spell-binding voice and the breathtaking fragility that pervades his music. Behind a mist of atmospheric, reverberant instrumentation, Freddie has made a remarkably confidence stride into heartfelt pop music, and beautiful it is too. [...]

• Freddie Dickson - Shut Us Down EP

Terrius Youngdell Nash, aka The-Dream , has recorded a track with Kelly Rowland called 'Where Have you Been?' which is released on May 28th but available to stream online now. The-Dream has recorded with and written tracks for artists such as Beyonce, Justin Beiber, Rihanna and Britney Spears as well as releasing three solo albums. This track, a somewhat forgettable ballad is going to be no one's favourite Kelly Rowland love song collaboration (Nelly and Kelly forever) but it's a sweet track with a catchy melody.

• The-Dream *Def Jam* - "Where Have You Been" ft. Kelly Rowland

Mary J. Blige is in trouble with the IRS, reportedly owing them in the range of $3.4 million after allegedly failing to file and pay her federal taxes in 2009, 2010 and 2011. This is less than a month after Lauryn Hill was sentenced to three months in prison on a similar charge . This figure doesn't include the estimated $900,000 that MJB owes New Jersey in back taxes or the $2.2 million that TMZ reports she owes in loan debt. Blige last released an album in [...]

A tweet from Q Tip to Kendrick Lamar suggests the artists have recorded a track together. Q Tip asks Lamar in the tweet if he "can let this record we did go?" because "people need to hear it." @ kendricklamar can I let this record we did go my brotha? People need to hear it — QTip (@QtipTheAbstract) May 20, 2013 Q Tip from Queens, New York has been working in Hip Hop for nearly 25 years and is currently working [...]

Nintendo is not usually known for zany pr viral campaigns, though I guess they're getting in the swing of it by parodying Kickstarter (or, depending on how you see it, slapping the face of independent developers who funded their games via the crowd funding service). The new trailer to promote Game & Wario , the upcoming mini-game bonanza for the Wii U , sees Wario come up with a new idea to bring a crowd funding service to fund his new game.Some of the stretch goals involved will be free wallpaper, ringtones [...]

The creators behind Hard Reset , Flying Wild Hog Studios , are working on a completely new Shadow Warrior game 16 years after the original games release. The game will be in development for PC and next-gen consoles with Devolver Digital handling publishing duties. The game will apparently have no multiplayer and will focus solely on a single-player experience, preserving the katana wielding, bloody, obtuse humoured experience that was the original Shadow Warrior , whilst avoiding re-treading over old ground and living off the prestige of the original (ike the [...]

Don't worry, you're not (completely) blind, it's just SONY has decided to release a tease-tastic new trailer for the PS4 that shows you snippets of an extremely blurry, zoomed out image of what is essentially a giant black box that will be their new console. More details will be released on June 10th at E3 . For now, you can watch the trailer over and over and marvel at the 2 seconds of black at the very end of the trailer (Maybe we're still looking at the console but REALLY close up?). [...]

Following its appearance in that Pepsi advert back in April, the full version of 'Grown Woman' by Beyoncé has finally surfaced, and as the lyrics suggest, she can do whatever she wants, right? The track was apparently co-written by The-Dream, and produced by Timbaland, which makes a lot of sense.

• Inside The Studio - Grown Woman - Beyoncé (FULL)

TEEN 's 2012 debut LP showed immense promise from the Brooklyn four-piece. Kristina 'Teeny' Lieberson, the lead vocalist and guitarist, splintered from Here We Go Magic to form the outfit, recruiting her sisters Katherine and Lizzie, and Jane Herships to assist in creating the. Their first record, In Limbo was an impressive concoction of post-punk bitterness, off-kilter pop and psychedelic riffs recorded in living rooms and barns – it was lo-fi, frayed-around-the-edges noise. They followed In Limbo with a single ('Ambient'), but the Carolina EP is their first proper release since their record. [...]

Today's Mix/Cover/Live includes The Civil Wars, Beck and Vacationer. What's your favourite? Let us know via the comments section below, or via Facebook and Twitter .

• Major Lazer - Get Free (Vacationer Remix)

One of the most hyped albums of the year is finally here, and one must wonder how Daft Punk have managed to cope with the expectation. More than ever before, the hype has been generated by the mystery surrounding their first studio album in eight years. They've always been a mysterious pair - we know them as only 'the robots': Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo and Thomas Bangalter. One can count the number of times they've appeared in public out of costume on one hand, and the theatrics and excellent PR campaign behind Random Access Memories has threatened [...]

A few weeks after the official release of James Blake's sophomore LP Overgrown , the London artist has announced a new string of North American tour dates. The tour dates will take place after Blake performs at the previously announce OVO Festival (curated by Drake ) and a few European tour dates in September. Check out the full list of tour stops below, starting October 22nd at the Wiltern in Los Angeles. James Blake North American tour dates: 22/10/13 Wiltern, Los Angeles, CA [...]

On 'Cockroach', the San Diego fuzz-rockers Crocodiles come together with endless lo-fi gush and high-note keys that would have made the late Ray Manzarek proud. Stream and download the new single over at Stereogum . The single comes from the band's upcoming LP Crimes Of Passion . The LP was recorded with the help of Raveonettes member Sune Rose Wagner, who previously worked with the wife of Crocodiles frontman Brandon Welchez, Dee Dee of the Dum Dum Girls . Crimes Of Passion will be released [...]

With the release of his new Yungen EP today, Glasgow producer Koreless revealed the elegant minimalist single 'Last Remnants' on the Young Turks YouTube page. It's a slow-building track, bridged with choppy percussion until the gradual rise of synths swarm in and build around it. What results is a dreamy, warm eye-opener that has already caught the attention of Thom Yorke and Four Tet . The tune that opens my head back up today: Koreless-Sun .....it's ace youtu.be/4gpyCsCpH2Q — Thom [...]

Last year, Beck released the beginning of one of his most ambitious projects: Beck Hansen's Song Reader . It was a 20-track “album” in the least conventional sense—it was released as sheet music. Beck allowed fans and musicians alike to try their hands at the material on the official Song Reader website . Until now, though, few had heard what the original material actually was intended to sound like. Beck performed several of the album's songs last night at the Rio Theater in Santa Cruz, including these versions of 'Sorry' [...]

After leaping to Diplo 's Mad Decent label, 23 year-old English producer Oliver Rodigan, AKA Cadenza , is ready to move into the realm of regular club bangers. His most recent output comes with some heavy lyrical help from New York rapper Deena Jonez on 'The Darkest Hype'. The initial track, however, was released two years back and was remixed by a few notable names, including Om Unit 's Phillip K. Dick side-project. The official 7” single will be released July 15th, featuring remixes from the aforementioned [...]

The route taken by Swimming Lessons is fairly atypical for an electronic-pop musician. Leeds native Ben Lewis, under his SL alias, cut his teeth on the live circuit being invited to support artists like Grimes, Of Montreal and Tune-Yards, and perform at festivals such as Live at Leeds and Liverpool Sound City. Pushing the boundaries of a 'bedroom musician', 'Double' is a world envisioned in dreamy instrumentation and lush reverb. Giving a nod to chillwave artists such as Washed Out and more experiential bands such Animal Collective, Swimming Lessons is driven by Lewis' powerful falsetto [...]

• SwimmingLessons - Double

For the low price of your email address, you can grab a free download of 'You Don't Fade', a new Daughn Gibson track. Included on his spohmore release, Me Moan , 'You Don't Fade' is a gritty rock track, all heavy guitars with chopped vocal samples careening in the background. Vaughn channels his inner Nick Cave through a Southern rock filter with great results. Me Moan will be available via Sub Pop on July 8.

Smith Westerns have debuted '3am Spiritual', the lead track from their forthcoming third album. '3am Spiritual' is an excellent piece of jangly pop, that begins with Cullen Omori crooning "It's easier to think you're dumb" over a strummed guitar and keys. The track builds and changes from here, adding harmonies and the tight rhythm section. It keeps growing dynamically to about the three minute mark, dropping everything and rebuilding the song from piano chords and guitar licks. '3am Spiritual' goes out sounding like it came off Abbey Road. Omori sings on the chorus [...]

• Smith Westerns - "3am Spiritual" (Official Audio)

Almost a year ago, French/Irish producer Lugh dropped dreamhouse a pretty slice of downbeat electronic music. 'Dreamhouse' is a soft and hopeful track, full of glitches and echoes. Now, lugh is back with a sweet new video for dreamhouse. Brought to us from not productions, the 'Dreamhouse' video doesn't have an official narrative, instead following a man dressed as an astronaut toting around a self made "spaceship". With what resembles boxes glued together and wrapped in foil, the spaceman carries his craft down streets filled with traffic and homes. It's up to us [...]