One of the hot tips for 2011, Rayners Lane lad Jai Paul produces a feral garage with an chiffon-soft centre: his tingly vocals the eye of a distorted, pounding storm. Throw in Mike Skinner-esque "oi"s and unexpected brass sequences and you've got a twisted, trippy dubstep mess - but one that dazzles and sticks in the subconscious. [There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.] Jai Paul - BTSTU ( mp3 )
Intros. So over-rated. Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues ( mp3 ) The title track from the FF's just-announced sophomore album (out 2 May ), this does what all the best Foxes songs do: it gets me screaming along intently - eyes closed, forehead creased, fist clenched, foot tapping - to lyrics about heaven knows what. On this evidence, the Seattlers' sound is just as sprawling, single-minded and gorgeous as before. Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues by subpop [...]
Holistronic. A new term that SOIWT has derived for the elevator music of 18-year-old Londoner Felix Lee, aka Tqqundo Frrrrr . Not content with being a composer, Felix is an 'aromatherapy artist' (making captivating, soundless videos ) and that reflects in his slow-wave sounds: slight and soothing digital melodies with a self-help-book feel. Joven is electronica with cow bells on, while Goriska Han Tel Eiade's existentialism from a far-rarefied realm. Is it awful? Freaky? Or just plain brilliant? I'm not sure - and that's probably the intention. [There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see [...]
I walk along a long subway, one distantly bookended by great explosions of light like cosmic supernova happening somewhere distant, somewhere else. On the cracked ground are paltry pools of water, flattened fag butts, glass, discarded travelcards. It's never summer down here, never winter, never anything. I like it; it feels neutral, a test tube chamber where we're all equal, where we all don't want to be. [There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.] And in this underworld I listen to the murky digi-pop of [...]
Wake up. Get up. Throw up. Fuck up. But never give up. James Vincent McMorrow - If I Had A Boat ( mp3 ) This extraordinarily vivid slowie comes from Dublin's James Vincent McMorrow, a man who has a superb and long beard to go with his superb and long name. The reverie in question features drums like death knells, Wild West guitar twangs and vocals as intense and raw as a gunshot wound doused in vinegar. Slowly the noise amplifies and increases, before retreating meekly. [There is a video that cannot be [...]
I've had a fabulous weekend, and find myself in an absurdly good, light-headed mood. But this is Some Of It Was True, and I'll never a little happiness distract me from a morose and maudlin song. In this case it's a pain-dazed effort from Oxford's Richard Walters , released last summer: recalling then dismissing a romantic moment, the fragile number utilises agonised string plucks, pauses and eye-closing oohs. It's majestic, but oh so lonely - like a perfect beach deserted on an ice-cold day. [There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.] Richard [...]
Building gradually to freneticism, this has a nice chant-along feel and foot-tapping beat. I especially like the slightly impatient way that Sparkadia , aka East London artist Alex Burnett, shrills out 'Mary', liked a tired parent. The song will be the first available via Gold Dust Records (on 14 February), a company better known for popular club nights at Hoxton Bar & Kitchen. Sparkadia - Mary ( mp3 )
Here's this week's favourite five tracks, temporarily abandoning this blog's London focus. Foster The People - Helena Beat ( mp3 ) Offering pulsating pop so perfect you suspect chemicals and cloning are involved, here's another track from LA trio FTP's self-titled debut EP. It's got a tub-thumping, drum-thrash intro, a delighted woo-ooh-ooh ending and just about everything else in between, including a chorus so irresistible I'd probably give up my credit card details if it asked. [There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry [...]
Right. There are so many good songs, plus good deeds, going on that I feel Monday Music just won't be able to cope. So in a unique, one-off, worryingly energetic coo, here's a Sunday version of tomorrow's weekly post... Dean & Ravo - Walkin' Around ( mp3 ) Perfect for a Sunday with its cheery, 80s-style rap beat, this 'hip-pop' reminds me of chats at university with one Liam Evans. He and I would set on the steps of the main Leeds building, the Parkinson, and spend hours discussing nothing but the [...]
Listening to Paper Crows ' gentle pop is the aural equivalent of sending a paper aeroplane off a high balcony on a perfect summer's day, and watching it spiral and zigzag its way down to Earth. It's in no hurry, happy to be guided by the whim of the wind; meanwhile the sun beats down, seagulls squawk somewhere in a distance and time takes a breather as the day stands preciously still. The band consists of 19-year-old Emma Panas and Duncan McDougall, five years her senior, and hail from the mean streets of Kilburn. This song comes ahead of the release of second single 'Follow the [...]
Formed in a SE London warehouse, Breton is a multi-instrumental fivepiece making music and film that burns with experimentica: aggressive vocals, shadowy chants, ragged guitars and diffuse electronics - sometimes loud, sometimes normal, as if coming from everywhere around you. They're also dead into video wackiness, as this film forDecember shows: [There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.] December is from new EP, Counter Balance, while there's also another new song, RCI, available for download below. Breton - RCI [...]
After two weeks on the seasonal sidelines, Monday Music's back, and already so 2012 it hurts. Or something like that... Angus & Julia Stone - And The Boys ( mp3 ) I went on a date with a lovely girl a while back, but it didn't work out. She did, however, tip me off about this Australian beaut - a dreamy daisy-cutter of a song, with syrupy vocals over a fond, lilting lullaby - so all was not completely lost. [There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the [...]
[ http://www.drawcomics.net/how- to-draw-hands.html ] It's late on a Sunday and the weekend stretches behind me like a litter-strewn alley, a mess of lost phone numbers, sunsets, canals and impromptu house parties. The memories are golden but my head is heavy, woozy. I badly need the choppy chill-out of Two Inch Punch , aka Ben Ash, a mesh of soul, drum'n'bass and dub, doubling up as soothing syrup for the mind. This is good stuff, minimal and pretty as a flickering candle, and oozing with exciting talent. Ben describes himself as "a frustrated Soul [...]
More digital goodness is being offered by Jam City , the stage name of South Londoner Jack Latham. His tunes are myriad things, full of crazed samples, diaspora voices and phonetic beats and bangs, but then also mournful and phlegmatic, with an air of introspection and pissed-on dreams, and a peculiarly industrial feel. Jam City was named as a one-to-watch by The Guardian recently, and they said: "Like Burial and Joy Orbison before him, Latham finds poignancy in the neon haze of south London subways that drew him to the city from suburban Redhill. Yet Jack's tunes are thicker, bouncier: [...]
A new name to me from Auntie's Sound of 2011 longlist, Nero is two Londoners mixing drum'n'bass and dubstep in a cauldron already filled with agony, ecstasy and lasers. Main song You & Me is quite frenetic and thrilling with a sweetly chilled-out middle - but beyond that Nero' sound is fairly generic to my ears: euphoric sure, nicely spooky quiet at times, yes, and, okay, generally very listenable - but never especially unlike any other dance music I've heard recently. [There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the [...]
Picking next year's bands can be a tricky thing. You've two options - 1: Do what the BBC does, and go for already quite well-established names, a safe bet, or 2: Do what I did last year , and pick wildly unheralded acts, and risk (as has turned out) looking like a total know-nothing-at-all. This year I'm just going to pick a few London acts that I think will be hot property over the coming 12 months, and then examine the trends among other main stream lists. This will be a sort of aggregation, evaluating who [...]
How better to start 2011 than waxing about one of its possible stars? Hackney-hailing Jagga has already written for and supported Magnetic Man ; now comes his solo stuff - guttural, mottled electro-pop with reggae-style vocals, Damian Marley meets Pariah, Barnsley via Barbados. Fitting into the current vogue of distortion and minimalism, Jagga is particularly refreshing for the lack of throw-the-kitchen-sink choruses; instead, his understated peaks are only a few tenors louder than the preceding verses. Modern Day Romance by Jaggamusic [There is a video that cannot be displayed [...]
I have a theory. It goes like this: if you see a relatively well-supported or well-tipped band/singer and their frontperson doesn't look like a model, then they must be good. Shallow, yes, callous, probably, but true? Regularly. It means - girl and boy bands aside - that said singer is there on talent alone. My stupid little theory is given more credibility by emerging London/Ipswich band Ideals ; while handsomer than me, gap-toothed singer Andrew Major isn't exactly Johnny Depp - but gee, he sure can sing well enough. Be it teeth-brushingly fresh falsettos or bruising baritones, his vocals put the perfect polish on some soaring, perfectly-executed indie rock. [...]
(photo by Chloe Hayward) DELS , aka Kieren Dickins, is someone you're likely to hear a lot more about; discovered aged 16 by one John Peel and a refined re-mixer, his own two-step garage/hip-hop bangers are now being produced by Hot Chip's Joe Goddard. This makes for, as CAMP's recent PR neatly put it, a "mishmash of squelchy basslines, tinkering keys, syncopated drum patterns and the occasional steel pan". Quite right. But does it work? On Trumpalump, I'm not so sure: DELS' meaty riffs seem a bit too chalk when paired with the cheese [...]
So 2010's creaking to a freezing, food-filled conclusion and, as ever at this time of year, there's lots to reflect upon. My own year started majestically and ended in a slightly-depressed funk, but I still feel elated when looking back at some of the highlights: a wonderful woman, a wedding in Edinburgh, the stag night with a dwarf, visits from an uncle... And I think that's the trick - bathe in the warm memory of highlights, and just put any shit moments out with the trash. Musically, the year saw the 2009 synth pop charge slowed, at least [...]
Some Of It Was True!
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