Djjdsports is one of the many recording names of Archy Marshall, most famous as King Krule . Just before Christmas he uploaded this simple-but-haunting track, explaining "found this accordian (sic) keyboard outside an estate in Bermondsey, turned it on and it started generating this beat. Mad shit. Mack (aka Black Mack ) tamed it with the melody." Ain't that a lovely story? God bless whoever left that accordion to scrap.
Official Records on Ribs press release: "Justin Colley, aka Blue Ducks , is a unique voice in the UK hip-hop scene. His first full-length release sees him deliver a combination of hazy party jams, experimental rap and warm, glitching hip-hop. Woozy synthesizers, harp and cut-and-paste combine with surrealist rhymes." Etc etc. SOIWT press release for laymen: "Justin Colley, aka Blue Ducks, is unusual and really FUN." Sorted.
Here's SOIWT's annual playlist of the year, with 30 of the best songs from 2012 All have been featured on this very blog at some point. Here is the Music Player. You need to installl flash player to show this cool thing! Nostalgia freaks: for the Best of 2011 playlist, go here .
Once the family awkwardness was surmounted and the presents opened, Christmas gradually descended into slumber; a two-day slumber of wine, books, brandy butter, new jumpers, jigsaws, jokes, sandwiches, sitcoms, snoozes, scarves, endless cups of tea, hugs and more wine. Somewhere in this sea of somnolence (I forget exactly when) I listened to Mato Ica 's new EP, And So We Drove On Towards Death Through The Cooling Twilight , and noted that the title track, in which the 17-year-old teams up with Bristol's equally prodigious /please/ for a ghost-folk road-trip, perfectly mirrored my mood, or at least the [...]
Imminent over the Christmas period are both a playlist of SOIWT's favourite tracks of the year, and a compilation of tips for 2013, including my own. But first, let's revisit the tips of 12 months ago , and see how accurate they turned out to be. I didn't have the guts to nominate Next Big Things, but plenty of others did... BBC Sound of 2012 Tips : Michael Kiwanuka (winner), Frank Ocean, Azealia Banks, Skrillex, Niki & The Dove, ASAP Rocky, Dot Rotten, Dry The River, Flux [...]
Happy Christmas everyone! Here's my favourite of the Xmas covers this year - Cloud Boat doing a haunting version of Silent Night:
Signed to Stranger (with a debut due in April), Filthy Boy earlier this year directed the superlative video for King Krule 's Rock Bottom . But, if that was good, they've now excelled themselves with this hell-raising album track all about wearing pyjamas. Slightly reminiscent of Nick Cave, Jimmy Jammies ( mp3 ) combines gothic guitars and hair-thrashing choruses with a pantomime-villain feel. All in all, perfect yuletide fare! Click here to view the embedded video.
Monday Music’s the one weekly post wherein Some Of It Was True! drops its London-only rule Here's the plan: nip into town for those pesky last presents (damn that fifth cousin, twice-removed), then, back home, commence the Great Wrapathon with these musical accompaniments... Solar Year - Magic Idea Quite simply, one of the most seductive songs I've ever heard. The Montreal duo linked up with Grimes over summer, but this is a down-tempo world away from those electro-pop [...]
Two giants of the London electronica scene, Burial and Disclosure , have been busy in recent weeks. Firstly, Burial released a two-track called Truant which can be purchased for a piffling amount over at Hyperdub . Both lengthy songs, they're as fragile and humbling as pretty butterflies. That diluted saxophone early on in the title track particularly thrills me. Anyway, here they both are: Click here to view the embedded video. Click here to view the embedded video. [...]
The Hypnotic Eye are apparently the purveyors of 'flower punk'. Nope, me either. But the term suits the South London lot well: their careering, breathless guitars come sequinned with Grace Lightman's sugary, '60s-style (ie flower power) vocals, a pop-tinged racket quite distinct from the groggy sounds today's (and indeed yesterday's) punk normally throws up. Latest single Satisfaction is like that, as well as over before you know it; Searching even more so, the cheeriness paired with Doors-style organs and haymaker revs before a brilliant freak-out ending. Readin' Your Will is equally-retro, more-straightforward anthem, while Marianne , my [...]
For the final time this year, here are (mostly) new videos by great London acts. Slim pickings this week: Mt. Wolf - Climax Dummy recently named Usher's Climax as their song of the year - and here's London Mt. Wolf pulling off a terrific cover of it in a room that looks unerringly like my parents' dining room. Back in a sec, I just need to make a phone call... Click here to view the embedded video. [...]
There's a certain feeling I get sometimes. It comes when someone says or does something unexpectedly kind, or demonstrates real goodness, and I thrill at it. I physically tremble, just a little. It sounds like giddiness, I know, but it isn't giddiness; it's more of a surprise - a happy, sudden light-headedness. My worries instantly retreat, and for once I have no desire to hide behind sarcasm. I get that feeling listening to London Grammar , listening to Hannah Reid's voice.
One too many at the office party and I'm home and a little drunk, a little swirly, a little slurry. Everything's soft-focused and simple tasks - unbuttoning a shirt, getting my phone charger in the hole - are twice as difficult, hilariously slow. I slump into my desk chair, only to miss it by a foot. But eventually I get there, and put on Swing Delux 's brand-new EP, three pretty pills of ambient electro-pop dreamscapes which are like a gentle, familiar hand dimming the mental lights still further. I load on my screen a picture of the gorgeous girl [...]
There's an appealingly old-fashioned element to Hackney trio H Grimace 's song Lands Of Gold & Green ; it feels like a sort of sundowner surf-pop, such are its chiming guitars and battle-scarred vocals. The outdoorsy video below, shot in Andalucia and Corsica according to Sexbeat , adds to that worldly vibe. Meanwhile, Strange Love , a broodier, older tune, plots a sort of downtrodden post-grunge path, before finally resembling an experimental Sunday jam. Click here to view the embedded video.
Monday Music’s the one weekly post wherein Some Of It Was True! drops its London-only rule American Royalty - Honey & Queen ( mp3 ) Sexy, grainy psych-pop for the tortured, tousled LA hipster, only with nerdy keyboard loops thrown in. Torkelsen - Travels ( mp3 ) 90 seconds into this, and I reckon I've got 22yo Norwegian producer Kristian Torkelsen pegged: he makes a fine, fleet [...]
Deptford Goth 's latest piece of baleful chillwave makes me think of a rare, fine wine; one so good that I sip it with extreme slowness, to prolong the wonder as much as possible. Or of an incredibly unique pair of shoes I mustn't wear too often for fear of scuffs; an ancient parchment or love letter that'll crumble if I hold it too often; or a special childhood scent that I've trapped in an air-tight box. Like exposing the scent to mundane air particles, I know that if I listen to the soft music of this song too often, [...]
Arlissa 's late-2012 rise has been positively meteoric: some online hype, a song with Nas , some festivals, a Sound of 2013 longlisting, the world... I don't feel wholly convinced, though: sure, she has a fabulous voice, but so do 5,000 other singers up and down the country. And tellingly, an acoustic version of Hard To Love Somebody - stripped of the production, urgency and Nas' typically serious-sounding rhymes - feels a bit plain; pretty but plain. It's just another soul ballad, and she's just another fine voice, right?... (continues below) Click here to view [...]
Here's my latest Shoreditch Radio show with the latest from Clean Bandit and Woman's Hour, plus the obligatory Cantonese spoken-word hip hop from New Cross. Obvs. It's about an hour long. SOIWT #16 by Some Of It Was True! on Mixcloud
If you still haven't sorted a Christmas present for that pesky new-music lover you know, here's some scope for inspiration: recent videos by a pair of exciting, brand-new London-based acts: Roxie LS - Go Over a medley of amazing feats and moments in the worlds of sport, society and nature comes the latest song by Roxie LS, an unsigned singer who, along with two acolytes, apparently controls over ten separate pieces of music technology kit when playing live, and whose series of self-released YouTube videos have already earned her a devoted following. [...]
I went to a Christmas church service earlier. Hearing and joining along with the simple carols was wonderful, and reminded me what a simple pleasure singing is; how good and pure a song can feel. There's much of that joy to be had in the music of new warbler Megan Wyler : her single Through The Noise - the title track from next year's debut album, produced by Four Tet collaborator Adem Ilhan - is a sincere, earnest ballad that positively bursts with vocal pleasure.
Some Of It Was True!
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