Monday is immediately made better with the release of Dub Kweli, a new mashed masterpiece from the mind behind Jadiohead and Mos Dub, Max Tannone. Brilliantly layering Talib’s rhymes over ’60’s reggae and dub plates straight from the Trojan record vault, this creation will make your ears smile. Hit the jump for immediate aural pleasure, and be sure to catch Talib Kweli this Friday when he DJs at Webster Hall with Questlove and Nina Sky. Continue Reading
Fresh off the “All Hearts” tour with Robyn and Kelis, Dan Black is stepping out on his own with a headlining engagement at Bowery Ballroom on September 9. The British singer-songwriter has been on a bit of a hot streak lately – his new single, “Alone”, will be released this week with a remix by MJ Cole, and his video for “Symphonies” has been nominated for two MTV Video Music Awards.
CLICK HERE to buy tickets for his show on September 9th, and in preparation for what is sure to be a fantastic show, check out his Weird Science mixtape HERE and his VMA-nominated video for “Symphonies” after the jump.
Just in time for his appearance at Electric Zoo this Labor Day weekend, pioneer beat master Flying Lotus has announced a September 21 release date for his new EP, Pattern+Grid World, through Warp Records. Still riding the wave of epic success that was Cosmogramma as well as touring all over the globe, it’s astounding to think the man had time to produce a new EP so soon – not that we’re complaining. Flying Lotus’ abstract and jazz-tinted style of electronic music pushes boundaries and challenges listeners in the best possible way, creating an aural journey that is thought provoking, inspirational, and often downright extraordinary. Judging by the evolution of his talent for production and his artistic vision, this new EP promises to be just as incredible and forward looking as his other releases, if not more so.
Make sure to catch FlyLo’s set Saturday September 4th at the Red Bull Music Academy Riverside Stage during Electric Zoo. You can also pre-order the EP in either CD or 12″ vinyl form here, as well as other material from the innovative artist.
Just in case you’re not excited enough about the prospect of this, FlyLo has released his first track “Camera Day” off the new EP, which you can stream below. Feel free to dance around the room, we know we are.
Check out the over art by Theo Ellsworth pictured above, and the EP’s full tracklist after the jump…
The latest smash-up from the LA based trio, edIT, OOAH, and Boreta, aka The Glitch Mob, is an infusion of party-starting music. The mixtape is a diffusion of tracks and vocals that are taken apart, chopped and screwed, then put back together with a touch of hip-hop driven beats laced with jagged electro and bass. Presented in partnership with Mishka, the infusions and cuts on these tracks are no small feat. From start to finish, the trio does a great job of driving and steering the half-hour mix. The overall consensus: glitches don’t sound this good. Check out the mix below. Click through for the tracklist and download.
The group will take the stage at Electric Zoo in NYC on September 5th.
We have taken notice as major vocal artists flirt with dubstep. From Snoop Dogg, Britney Spears, Rihanna, to Wu-Tang, it seems everyone interacts with the genre differently. “Love Never Dies,” from Mr Hudson is one of the best infusions we have heard to date. We didn’t expect any less after learning that British dubstep impresario Caspa was behind the production.
The song is derived from an original Caspa track, “Back For The First Time“. While the song receives raves — already named by BBC Radio 1 as the ”Hottest Record in the World Today,” we wonder how it will take hold in the States, and whether there is a future collaboration in the works for the two artists. With the success of Skream’s remix of La Roux’s ”In for the Kill,” we expect a lot more mainstream artists to test the elements of this up-and-coming genre. Love Never Dies is available via iTunes today. Check out the video for the track after the jump.
In June we reported on Mark Ronson’s upcoming whopper of an album, Record Collection. While it isn’t due till September 28th, you can get a taste of what is to come. The latest single to come off the forthcoming album features Ghostface Killah. If this were facebook, we’d be hitting the like button all over this one. Check out the track below and enjoy.
Mark Ronson Feat. Ghostface Killah – Lose It (In The End)
While this young woman from South East London may not appear to be much more than a pretty face, Andreya Triana’s debut album Lost Where I Belong is an exquisite 9 track journey through heartfelt melancholy and sage contemplation of her place in this world. The British self-taught singer and songwriter grew up submerged in a multicultural atmosphere, and the impact of this has clearly influenced the formation of her music to create aural art that exists outside of traditional boundaries. Andreya began singing when she was only 7 years old, using the sights and sounds of inner city London as her inspiration and the foundation to her inception as an artist. Her natural affinity for communication through music encouraged her to dedicate huge amounts of time to writing poetry, making homemade mix tapes, and recording her own original tracks on battered cassette decks.
Lost Where I Belong is a beautifully crafted album, pairing Andreya’s profound and smokey vocals with masterful production by jazzy beat master Bonobo. Andreya’s haunting and soulful voice manages to rest on that perfect balance that so many R&B singers strive to attain – the delicate tipping point where beautiful melancholy and near sorrow maintains an underlying resilient strain of light and hope. Her voice imparts a certain sense of belief – a steadfast faith that through the darkness of heartache and loneliness, the future is bright with possibility, and every day is alive with chances for new beginnings.
The album opens with the appropriately entitled”Draw the Stars”, a tune who’s wistful melody speaks volumes of dreams and night skies. A simple deep bassline in the background is sprinkled with ethereal sounding chimes, truly transporting the listener to the realm of imagination, as if the notes are raining down from the twinkling stars themselves.
The title track and single “Lost Where I Belong” is next, opening with sultry and scratchy brass notes before introducing her overlaying vocals. The essence of this album, this core feeling of confusion and loneliness underlined by hope, truly flows in earnest from this one central track. This aura of melancholy and faith is underlined by the string section at the end of the song, which seems to carry the listener into the future, as if to say that the journey is only just beginning. It also serves to transition into the second single off the album, “A Town Called Obsolete”. This mournful psalm is a heartfelt plea for patience and faith in the face of indifference, and once again reflects Andreya’s frustration and inner turmoil through the emotional weight of the production and melody.
Another deeply beautiful song is “Daydreamers”, an incredibly sexy and penetratingly blue tune, with Andreya’s open and raw voice gracefully smoothed across a simple melody, impossibly heavy with heart. Listening to this song feels like floating on still water and staring at the sky, or gazing deep into a fire, in many ways creating an actual manifestation of the content of the lyrics themselves, namely floating away on daydreams.
The concluding track “X”, provides the perfect end to this beautifully emotional album. A feeling of drama and sorrow is carried on the strings of the harp and cello, like saying a painful goodbye to a lover or dear friend. The painful goodbye of this nostalgic and relatively simple song ensures that even after the last note sounds, the remnants of a twinge of heartache is left resounding in your chest.
Ultimately, while the album’s funkier and more upbeat tracks may be more danceable and fun, Andreya Triana truly creates something meaningful and profound through the works of art that are her quieter, simpler, and weightier songs. The heart heavy and dreamy quality that pervades through both her voice and the message of her lyrics shines most brightly when the melody and production is reflective of this quality. It is during these tracks that the material world melts away, and the listener is transported into this emotional journey, where the path may we winding and the road lonely, but there always remains light at the end of the tunnel.
Lost Where I Belong drops September 7th, 2010 from Ninja Tune. Until then, visit Andreya Triana’s WEBSITE to watch the music video for “A Town Called Obsolete”, listen to the Mount Kimbie remix of the same track, download the Flying Lotus edit of “Lost Where I Belong”, and place advance orders for the CD or LP.
Andreya Triana – “Lost Where I Belong” (Flying Lotus Remix)
Mount Kimbie – Crooks & Lovers (Hotflush Recordings 2010) [Vinyl | Digital]
The U.K. society of bass stretches far beyond the bounds of audible range; one can rummage through countless tunes, sub-genres and genres until the brain just shuts down from low-frequency exhaustion. It’s a fruitful time for sure, as we have artists like Mount Kimbie providing a sound that’s so natural and so organic to their musical climate that people get drawn in and never come out thinking about music the same way. The duo of Dom Maker and Kai Campos have been releasing tunes since 2008, forging a relationship with the bass community and beyond. Their most well-known tune, “Maybes”, stunned people from every continent and proved that Mount Kimbie was a sound that wasn’t particularly stuck to one genre. Dark, inviting and enticing all at once, they continued to make tunes, unassuming of the hype that would build up towards their first album release. Enter July 2010, and Hotflush Recordings have graced us with one of the best albums of the year so far, Crooks & Lovers, an enduring journey that’s more than what one would expect from up-and-coming electronic producers.
The album starts off with a tone that’s similar to a train leaving the station in a hurry but then is taken over by a guitar and a child-like vocal sample. “Tunnelvision” is the starter that pretty much sets the table for the journey one takes in listening, as chopped and filtered percussion go between synth notes, guitar notes and vocals (presumably from Kimbie collaborator James Blake). The next tune takes the familiar tonality of previous Kimbie records and spins it into a grainy, dissipating struggle between ambience and notation. Cut-up samples, plopped bass tones and a rhythm that stays in your head for ages, “Would Know” is a perfect trip between positive and negative energies that lead to an ultimately satisfactory purgatory of cloudiness. The next few tracks, “Before I Move Off” and “Blind Night Errand” find a light in the cloudiness, providing contrasting ideas within their audible context but ultimately leading to the gorgeousness of the guitar chords of “Adriatic”. A simplistic tunes of minimal electronics, guitar, handclaps and somewhat-satisfying scat vocals, the short and sweet tune provides a look beyond bass for the duo and more towards the aspect that the Kimbie boys are songwriters and not just producers.
The next track is undeniably a bumpin’ one; “Carbonated” is similar to what you would hear on the intelligent and welcoming dancefloors of London town, expecting invigorating rhythms and cut-up RnB vocal samples. The chords, lush and lamenting, sound like the doing of James Blake, who we don’t know had officially worked on this album. No matter, because it’s a great tune that finds ways to tug at the heartstrings and provide a beat amongst its doing. Again, the next two tracks are complete contrasts of one another; “Ruby” being a dark and dusty walk amongst town drones and “Ode to Bear” being a tale of a long night, being a bit chipper in the beginning and going closer to the grain of bass-filled blues by the end of tune. The following tune might be the most intriguing on the record, as “Field” is a journey that must’ve taken place during an acid trip gone wrong, waiting for it to disperse and longing for a clear-headed viewpoint. Once the madness disperses, the guitar comes out to hopefully shake off the chemically-induced cobwebs and look towards the sun and start the day fresh once again. The final two tracks, “Mayor” and “Between Time” follow the formula of the record, be drastically different. The former, is a bouncy affair between keyboard jumpiness and high-pitched vocal cuts and bumping bass, with the occasional strike of a modular synth in the mix. “Between Time” is the excellent closer of the record, depicting the long journey back from a night on the town, whether it be the moody vocals or bass tones that will make you want to revisit Unknown Pleasures, it’s the perfect way to close out a record that’s full of everything one could expect.
While Crooks & Lovers isn’t close to a perfect record, it’s nothing short of a brilliant debut for Mount Kimbie. Alluding to their love of indie bands, hip-hop and current U.K. bass music, the duo invites us to the world of London from the eyes and ears of people, places and things they hold dear. Honest, humbling and heart-warming at times, Crooks & Lovers is an essential record to pick up in 2010.
Stream “Mayor” below and make sure you check them out October 1st at The Bunker in Brooklyn.
Mount Kimbie – Mayor
The video for “I Am Europe”, the lead single from Chilly Gonzales’ highly-anticipated upcoming album, Ivory Tower, hit the interwebs yesterday, giving us an exciting glimpse of Gonzales’ collaboration with DJ/producer Boys Noize. The seemingly unlikely partnership has spawned a truly unique sound, blending Gonzales’ piano playing and trademark spoken word with a stripped-down version of Boys Noize’s electro beats.
Click through to watch the video, which not only has a fantastic concept, but also features a hilarious appearance by Tiga.
With vocals by M.I.A. and Collie Buddz, and remixes from Thom Yorke, Buraka Som Sistema, Kicks Like a Mule (KLAM) and others, the latest EP from Major Lazer, Lazers Never Die, highlights the great dynamics between DJs/producers Switch and Diplo. Five tracks in all, these songs are busy and unlike the riddim vibes of their 2009 release, Guns Don’t Kill People, Lazers Do. For $4.95 we’d say Lazers Never Die is a pretty good deal, but nothing beats a free sample - click here to stream the EP on Myspace.
Click through for the track list and a video-teaser for the album.
