Lately I've been really keen to meet someone, to share the various small things - gigs; sunsets I see; the amazing local greengrocers; weekend jaunts; market trips - with an accomplice. Something in Sivu 's sweet new song (a follow up to Better Man Than He ) accentuates that. It might be his Noah-esque animal message, or simply the single's fond, friendly alt-pop tone.
Sophie is a man (but not the man above). A man, and also a mysterious London producer of svelte, gently euphoric dance bangers like Nothing More To Say , a single destined for nightly plays in every self-respecting Ibiza club this summer. For (a bit) more info on Sophie, try Pitchfork ; for the B-side, EEHHH , hit up Trendland . Click here to view the embedded video.
We had a Live Lounge gem on Saturday as the normally-sincere Daughter showed her fun side by rehashing Daft Punk's Get Lucky ... She has previous here, does Daughter - see this past mash-up of Bon Iver and Hot Chip, for instance: Click here to view the embedded video.
Monday Music’s the one post where Some Of It Was True! drops its London-only rule. Sapphire Slows - When I See You Ketamin pop, all the way from Japan: a bedr00m project started in 2011, Sapphire Slows' digital buzz has grown to the extent that she's putting out a CD with of all of her previous releases and three additional unreleased tracks, including this ethereal demo of a track she later recorded with Magic Touch . (via Trendland ) [...]
The thing about MT is how they sound so... polished. So ready. So much the finished product. It's a little suspicious (and exactly what fellow London artist DOLLS admirably rails against in this interview , Q6) and a little intimidating. But the good news outweighs the bad here - for this is a euphoric rush of a soft-rock song, a festival moment waiting to happen, a song to forever invoke a summer, a soon-to-be permanent resident on Absolute Radio's playlist. It's also just mighty impressive, and oh so easy on the ears. Although I'm really not sure [...]
Friday Films returns, but without a video of the week - enjoyable as they all are, none of the quartet below seemed bold or bright enough to quite merit that heady accolade... Sohn - Bloodflow Despite all the lovely settings she finds herself in, Sohn (who I once called male ) doesn't move anything more than an eyebrow here. So it's a gently haunting song with a gently freaking video. (via Skeletory ) Click here to view the embedded video. [...]
After including Lana Del Rey's theme song from The Great Gatsby in this week's Monday Music , I briefly mentioned that musical director Jay Z had put together an all-star, best-of-the-current-crop soundtrack for the film. Well he sure did, and he sure included The xx – and here's their song. I particularly like it's time-ticking-by chime sound, and the sudden, lavish string finish: very Gatsby-esque indeed.
Here’s the latest Some Of It Was True! show on Shoreditch Radio . This is #23, and it includes Monument Valley covering Patsy Cline, an array of hazy and sunny sounds, Manchester's coolest new act and fresh stuff by Savages, Mt. Wolf and Findlay. Listen below, or download it as an MP3 for the commute. SOIWT #23 by Some Of It Was True! on Mixcloud
Disclosure seem to have embarked on on a tour of the hottest British female vocalists right now for their choppy, garage sounds. Next up is Eliza Doolittle - this is actually the lead single from debut album Settle :
The sun returns and with it also comes SOLO again; his new song drips with good-vibes guitars, first-thing-in-the-morning vocals, sleepy synths and a generally pleasing ambience. As with his previous material , this is dream-pop with guitars; or, in his own words, "it has moments of heartache but makes the listener want to play air-guitar or drum along!" Too right it does. If you like that, it's a safe bet you'll like this: a melancholy boy-girl Beach House cover with Ally Russell .
The sun returns and with it also comes SOLO again; his new song drips with good-vibes guitars, first-thing-in-the-morning vocals, sleepy synths and a generally pleasing ambience. As with his previous material , this is dream-pop with guitars; or, in his own words, "it has moments of heartache but makes the listener want to play air-guitar or drum along!" Too right it does. If you like that, it's a safe bet you'll like this: a melancholy boy-girl Beach House cover with Ally Russell .
On London Grammar 's previous songs, Hannah Reid's vocals were good, really good, very good. But here? Here they are absolutely fucking sensational. Here they have me gasping; here they have me phoning the miracle hotline and telling them I've got a live one, they'd better come quick. As fist-pumpingly powerful as songs ever get, Wasting My Young Years is a new single following the more electronic-based Metal & Dust EP .
Monday Music’s the one post where Some Of It Was True! drops its London-only rule. Lana Del Rey - Young & Beautiful I know. I know. I'm meant to hate LDR now due to her surgery / terrible live voice / [insert unfair reason here], or at least have abandoned her as she's far too famous for this blog. But I don't and I won't. Because, however they come together, those same vocals on record can still send genuine shivers down my spine. [...]
Last week I wrote about a Patsy Cline cover by Monument Valley that acted as a harbinger for his debut LP; now we have the first juice from said record. When I Go Clear is a typically solemn tune of determined but allegorical storytelling: a song envisioning happiness, but written from a place of despair. The plaintive sound and sentiments echo Deptford Goth's chillwave, but Ned Younger's voice is broader and altogether more audible than Daniel Woolhouse's ever becomes. It's also, in an inspired touch, accompanied here by Kerry Leatham's - she of Peter [...]
It's summer in a bottle. Or rather a song, a song by boy/girl duo INK . This is half of their long-anticipated debut single, out on ATG ; the other half's here .
Factory Floor take Vondelpark 's California Analog Dream and make the swirls swirlier, the anonymity more anonymous, the grog groggier, the denseness more dense. It's like going inside the song, into its very core.
Monday Music’s the one post where Some Of It Was True! drops its London-only rule. Helado Negro - Dance Ghost In London yesterday I remembered how good a hot day can feel: the lazy caress of heat on exposed arms; the way everything looks better in ochre; the unhurried pleasure of strolling around during a still-warm evening. This new song by Florida's Helado Negro (the son of Ecuadorean migrants) boasts the same easy goodness: it's as chill as a slowly-swaying palm tree. [...]
Monument Valley 's been away for ages, working on a full record. Just ahead of that, though, he's put out this earnest, down-in-the-dumps cover of Patsy Cline's She's Got You . Where the original is more dancehall in feel, MV's battle-scarred vocals provide a rewarding cover. Bring on those new tunes... Click here to view the embedded video.
Artist and singer Ashley Reaks describes himself thus: "born wrong, collage artist, promising ex-cricketer, adult child, dole-veteran, surprisingly decent wedding singer, therapy survivor, reality-avoider, church boat boy." From there, his music could hardly not turn out to be interesting, and so it proves. Egg To Worm To Fly feels very auteurish, but underpins its demonic, challenging intensity with an real catchiness, Miss Holy Holy makes a melodious, chanty din, while the excellent Karma Bonfire proves that glitchy electronica soul voices and some seriously sexy trumpet can all be combined with poet/spoken wordist [...]
When I last wrote about Paper Crows , I opined that they sounded unhurried. (I can't verify the accuracy of this comment, as the song in question has been deleted. From the whole internet. Helpful. We'll just have to assume I was right.) Fast-forward 25 months and there appears much more dynamism in the duo's current self-titled, three-song EP. Electronically-backed, the songs are fist-pumpingly fulsome: from Pieces Of Yourself 's spooked incantations to the slowbuilding, superb euphoria of Changing Colours . If you like what [...]
Some Of It Was True!
Holy Ghost! "Dumb Disco Ideas"
The Weeknd - Kiss Land
Daft Punk - Random Access Memories Unboxed
Kendrick Lamar - Bitch, Don't Kill My Vibe (Explicit)
MØ - Waste Of Time (Audio)
Weekly Mix Vol. I
Life Is Precious Survival Kit
MP3: The Weeknd – Kiss Land
