Monday Music’s the one weekly post wherein Some Of It Was True! drops its London-only rule Low - Plastic Cup When I first listened to this tune properly, in a still room, I found myself shivering at it; at the sheer poignancy of Alan Sparhawk's voice, at the philosophical-and-slightly-cyn ical lyrics about mortality and legacy. Part of the song's majesty comes, I think, from its brevity - like Simon & Garfunkel's America, like a bee, like Pocahuntas dying young: [...]
Sometimes, I eat a really delectable croissant - mostly at Planet Organic on Essex Road - and become suddenly aware of how all the other recent croissants I've wolfed down have been merely average, okay, unexceptional, passé. And now, after listening to Black Dog , the new song by Lexy & The Kill , I'm thinking similar thoughts about female vocalists. Because, you see, Lexy's voice, particularly in the song's chorus, is equally delectable: luxurious and rich and superior and soaring. In short, it's the Planet Organic croissant of female vocals: To explain, Lexy [...]
Friday Films, the first of February, alliterative heaven. Great new videos from great new London acts follow... King Krule - Octopus Archy Marshall's last video saw him dwell in strange bars and cop a beating. Things are hardly cheerier this time round: chuffing on a rollie, he paces fretfully around a dank bathroom pulsing with red laser light. Something;'s troubling him... hang on, what's that in the tub? ( Original blog on the song ) Click here to view the embedded video. [...]
I've always rated Glyphs ' low-key, flickering electrogaze sound, and my opinion isn't changing with the Brixton duo's soulful new song Locks & Keys . Blessed with a more wholesome chorus than they normally offer, it's out on 4 February via their Soundcloud page . The below video was shot in New York, London and, that third great hub of global culture and ethnicity, Walton-on-the-Naze. Click here to view the embedded video.
Don't you just hate sentences that read "if you like X, you'll like Y"? Noooo... maybe not, maybe I won't like Y. Maybe I'll hate Y. I'm not some robot that Google or Big Brother or Putin can easily, pathetically predict; I'm effervescent, surprising, individual, random. I'm me, dammit. Yeah! That all said, if you like Bowie, you'll sure like new London act Night Engine .
I remember seeing Cloud Boat at Madame JoJo's and writing that, despite their slightly shuffling and shy look, the duo had presence; that their songs had presence. The first half of a new AA-side, Wanderlust definitely has presence: bleak and barren, it plods along like the solemnest funeral march, like someone you cross the street to avoid, while using agonised vocals and desolate guitar twangs up to tell of a boy going it alone in the dangerous world. The track feels thrillingly bereft of hope, its mind muddied by life's easy cruelty.
Feeding People - Island Universe With its escapist lines and simple, singalong feel, there's something very childlike about Island Universe , the languorous title track from an album due in February on Innovative Leisure . The group, pictured above, is led by 19-year-old Jessie Jones, who seems to share not just initials with Janis Joplin, but also a similarly-characterful vocal delivery. Emily Wells - Becomes The Color SOIWT's absolute favourite solo female artist, Emily Wells returns with a more electronic song than is her norm, if [...]
Roxie LS is back with one of the lushest pop songs you'll ever hear. It's her voice - just a bit deeper and more sincere than the norm - which stands this out for me. The vocal's also been used, originally without Roxie's permission, by Toronto rapper Honey Cocaine inside a bootleggy, hip-hop a tribute to her late boyfriend, rapper Freddie E. Freddie, who took his own life in early January. See below. Click here to view the embedded video.
I wrote before Christmas about how I'd assumed Arlissa would be all bland, generic R'n'B-ness before some Guardian.co.uk revelation and Bestival concert videos put me right. The arrival of her debut single, Sticks & Stones , confirms my initial error once and for all. The song does have a nice R'n'B vibe, yes, sure, but the whole thing is also pleasingly understated, while the chorus even has a faint Kate Bush thing going on. That I really wasn't expecting. Click here to view the embedded video.
After skiving off for a week, Friday Films is back and positively drowning in new videos from loved London acts. We'd best get started, and quickly... Thumpers - Dancing's Done The London duo's debut single is as hearty and fulsome as a Sunday roast: a stirring, solid brooder that's out on 4 February 4 on both 7” vinyl ( paradYse ) and cassette ( Kissability ), each with an exclusive B-side. The video's a sort of road-trip, but don't start envisaging sun-kissed Highway 1 stretches with the top down; instead we have [...]
If you ever give into the goldfish interpretation of London life - we're all just trapped in a bowl, stuck in cycles, owned by Big Brother, etc - then Yukka 's music could be for you. The electronica on the Londoner's debut two-track has an ethereal, put-your-troubles-aside quality ( A Long Way ), but also anonymity and constancy (the excellent Icicle ) which chime with strung-out city moments. Using house samples, field recordings and percussive textures, this is music for late-night moments of clarity in flatshare bedrooms, for when you look up on the tube one day and immediately fall [...]
Second song from the still-mysterious The Child Of Lov , and just listen to that honky guitar... Click here to view the embedded video.
In Jennifer Egan's wondrous novel, A Visit From The Goon Squad , one section includes a young autistic boy called Lincoln who is obsessed with pauses in songs; the longer and gutsier they are, the better he likes them. Lincoln sure would love Lost Souls by Klak Tik , a London-based band formed by Denmark's Soren Bonke, then, for it boasts two stops of around five seconds. Those pauses typify this abstract and fabulously unhurried tune: it fritters along with little care for genre or structure, just sounding effortlessly handsome in an autumnal kinda way. All in [...]
Monday Music’s the one weekly post wherein Some Of It Was True! drops its London-only rule Foxygen - San Francisco It's both musical candy floss - innocent, light, fluffy, delectable, sickly sweet - and a circa-'60s summery lullaby, one set in lands a million miles from our currently-polar capital city. San Francisco hails from LA duo Foxygen's debut full-length, We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace & Magic , out tomorrow on Jagjaguwar , and comes backed by a [...]
Teleman 's dainty new song gets - as the old musical saw goes - better with every listen. And it's pretty good with the first listen. Hear the previous song, Cristina , here , and (sort of) find out about the band's links to Pete & The Pirates.
Here’s my latest Shoreditch Radio show with the latest from Django Django and AlunaGeorge, plus various tips for 2013 and one of 20122s best. As usual, it’s about an hour long. Download it in full here (38MB). SOIWT #17 by Some Of It Was True! on Mixcloud
When I'm sick, as now, I become a nicer person. Shivering and spluttering, I can't be bothered with bullshit, or sarcasm, or politics. Sincerity and sweetness'll do me just fine. So will warm, wonderful songs like this by Sivu . I could lo-lo-lo to it all night. (via Skeletory )
Evelyn Burke sang on Kankouran's River s , that ubiquitous Skins-advert song of almost exactly 12 months ago. She normally does solo stuff, however, and possesses one of those silky chanteuse voices that instantly soothe troubled heads. But don't think Evelyn's all goodwill and daytime TV sobriety: in fact, she still happily swears in her songs, and evidently stays up all night on occasion - both things which thoroughly impress SOIWT.
Miracle will be the first single from Hurts ' second album Exile , out on 11 March through Major Label. It throbs with big, bold and glorious synthy swathes, and offers exactly the kind of energetic optimism needed at this gloomy time of year. Click here to view the embedded video.
"It's just some track I made the other day using a loop from her record... no remix going on or anything." That's how Kieran Hebden, aka Four Tet , describes this version of Grimes ' Skin . He's either modest or incredibly talented - or, most likely, both. Click here to view the embedded video.
Some Of It Was True!
Listen to Daft Punk’s “Horizon”, the Japanese bonus track for Random Access Memories
On The Cover Of A Magazine
Diplo Clarifies His Thoughts On Daft Punk’s ‘Random Access Memories’ Via Lengthy Facebook Letter
Lil Bibby – IDGNF
