de-minimis

15 May 2011

smith and who?

Smith and Royal are a band that I keep reading lots about on the web. If they don't make it big then it's not for want of support from some heavyweights in the music industry. They've been championed on the radio by the likes of Rob Da Bank and behind the scenes have worked with an illustrous list of UK production talent: Jason Cox, Cameron McVey, Jony Rockstar to name but a few. The female front for S&R is Kelly-Marie Smith who was a precocious child talent and later worked with the Shapeshifters. I've looked and looked but can find no details on the enigmatic Royal.

The sound is fresh and pop-py that is bound to go down a storm in the Summer months. Amazingly they are currently unsigned to a record company but I would think that must be down to careful management rather than record company oversight. S&R certainly have enough mass appeal to be snapped up immediately. The reviews I've read all compare with Kelis but I'm going to throw another ridiculously talented lady in there too, Janelle Monae. Let's hope Smith and Royal enjoy the same success. If you go to their MySpace page you'll find some more tracks including a wonderfully retro 'Let it Out' that sounds a bit like an early 70s Ike and Tina cover version. It's an incredible song, really.

Smith & Royal - Jordan Stomp by Sainted PR

Inevitably this has got me thinking of that other Smith based duo. They were a prototype for the Bristol trip-hop sound of the late 80s and early 90s. They are of course Smith and Mighty. Along with the Wild Bunch and Monk & Cantella they helped shape British dance music for a generation.

They formed in the late 80s with two downtempo covers of soul classics 'Anyone Who Had a Heart' and 'Walk On By'. I still remember hearing the latter for the first time on a very early Pete Tong show. This was before the phrase trip-hop had come into being and I was blown away with how good the tune was. Rob Smith and Ray Mighty didn't release much stuff after that - a few EPs in the 90s, notably a DJ Kicks album and then a few albums on the !K7 record label (who also boast another down-tempo legend, Bomb the Bass on their alumni) - but their influence can still be heard today. I've always got time for trip-hop so let's dig out that DJ Kicks album and give it a blast. It's perfect music for a sunny Sunday.

and of course.....

14 May 2011

the italian job

I've just spent a very enjoyable evening watching the Italian Job (the original film) with my 11 year old son and a very good friend. It's a brilliant piece of cinema and is undoubtedly one of the iconic lad's films. There's so much to enjoy about the film not least the score by Quincy Jones. Everyone of voting age will know of 'Get a Blooming Move On' (often referred to as 'the Self-Preservation Society') which is of course the soundscape to the great chase sequence and cliffhanger (quite literally) at the end but I'd not appreciated before the quality of the opening song by Matt Monro 'On Days Like These'. The best crooners know the trick is to make it seem effortless, as if the singer's attention is elsewhere. Monro applies this formula with great aplomb and the full genius of the cinematography comes into play at the end with the juxtaposition of the carefree lyrics of the tune and delivery with the fatal car crash in the tunnel.

brazil - where the nuts come from

Apologies if this post doesn't come out right. I'm playing around with various things at the moment - adding a player for online MP3s, linking to my newly created Twitter account - that sort of thing so we might have a few teething problems. Please bear with me.

I've come across a superb website with lots of mixtapes and downloads of South American music. The website is called Sounds and Colours. This comes just in time for the summer and will get us all into the party spirit. Hopefully you'll notice a little player at the bottom of your internet page. Click on that and enjoy the sounds of Waxist Selecta's fresh new mix. Please do explore the website further as there's lots and lots of really good stuff on there. I'll hopefully be returning to this site via my blog in the near future. Aye Carumba!

james mathe

James Mathe is certainly one to watch in the near future. He's been around a few years now under the moniker 'Barabrossa' but recently he's broken free from that to record under his own name. I first came across him on the limited edition Bedrume Cassettes ep that he released at the end of last year. They were rough and ready demos in the main and act as a marker for where he intends to pitch his band musically. He's been busy recently touring with and supporting Johnny Flynn and working with another name to watch, Saint Saviour.

I'm a bit embarrassed to say that I haven't gone back to listen to Barbarossa but the Bedrume ep in its handmade cover has become something of a permanent fixture on the top of my cd player. It's a down-tempo sound without being maudlin and suits Mathe's voice very well. He's certainly an accomplished enough songwriter to be bold enough to call one of the tunes a poem. There's an unexpected bonus too in a rather lovely cover of Terence Trent D'arby's 'Wishing Well'. Even though it's primarily a keyboard affair it has a home-made lo-fi feel to it with what sounds like a Casiotone. Bearing that in mind the compositions are surprisingly detailed and it's easy to forget that these are demos with (presumably) little post-production.

The load (demo) by JamesMathe

He has alluded to an album in the near future and I'm really looking forward to that as and when it arrives. In the meantime he's posted online a few days ago a new ep: 'Memory Laps'.

Memory Laps EP by JamesMathe

11 May 2011

true love will find you in the end

Daniel Johnston is possibly (probably?) the nearest thing I'll ever come to a person who can be described as a man-child. I mean that in a positive way. I had the pleasure of seeing him a few years back and his presence on stage was that of an awkward/shy/insert suitable adjective here 9-year old boy. Even though the lithium and God knows what that he's taken for years to battle his mental problems has meant that his weight has ballooned he still came across as gangly. It made him genuinely endearing without being twee and it made the gig all that more intimate.

I digress, I've been listening a lot to Daniel tonight. My favourites are his classic "Casper the Friendly Ghost" and an early-ish one of his: "Despair Came Knocking". His songs are of course lo-fi to the extreme but also are so deeply personal and self-confessional, I can't recall any other artist who approaches songwriting with such an honest approach. Johnston lays bear his soul with every song and shows a courage that I can only admire. The world is a better place with people like Daniel in it.

I'm adding this live version of 'Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Your Grievance' as you might be able to get an idea of what I mean (the quality is also a lot better than most of Johnston's music on the web).

Night, night.

10 May 2011

the singles bar

Here are a few singles out at the moment that have caught my eye...well ear if we're being pedantic.

Cat's Eyes - Face in the Crowd.

It's a bit Marc Almond-like but with plenty of Spector-ish over-production.

The Fixers - Here Comes 2001, Let's All Head For The Sun ep

Yet another Oxford-based band but surprisingly not folky, this is definitely pop that seems to me to draw influences as far afield as the Big Country/Glasvegas big guitar sounds to Brian Wilson solo album. I'm expecting big things from this band.

Hurts - Illuminated

This is the obligatory slower power ballad from the Manchester duo. I'm not sure about this although I bet it gets lots of airplay. I'm imagining airgrabs and wistful looks into the distance.

Barry Brown - Cool Pon Your Corner

This is a re-release of a superb song. For years I thought this was Horace Andy singing this. Their voices are so similar.

I've saved the best until last. I'll admit that I'm biased towards this band anyway seeing as they're from Brighton but this has some great Pixies-style riffs, a fresh image, great chemistry, a strong yet subtle lead vocal and a funny video to boot. Foxes - the Panda Bear Song.

magda speaks

One of my favourite DJ/musicians, Magda, has given a radio interview about her life, her music and what she's up to right now in an internet radio show. I've added the interview to my blog below but you can also read more about the show directly from the Red Bull Academy website here.

I find that interviews with dance music artists are as rare as rockinghorse poo at times so it's doubly pleasing that the subject of this particular show is one of the dance industry big hitters. She speaks about moving from her native Poland to Detroit as a child and how she got into DJing and her early influences. She also reveals why she moved to Berlin and her relationship with Minus Records. On the website there's also a tracklisting of the tunes featured between interviews. Overall, it's been a lovely way of spending my lunchtime. Hearing her speak is a bit like meeting someone for the first time when you've only ever corresponded by mail and makes the music more personal for me.

This Red Bull website has been a bit of a goldmine and I'll be exploring further when time allows.

09 May 2011

let's get fidgital

Now for something completely different.....Fidgital are 2 Brighton lads who have invented their own genre of music: turntable scratching/classical violin playing crossover. They've been going for about 3 years now and have played across Europe to stunned crowds at festivals who, let's face it, didn't expect to get low down, funky and dirty to a violin. I bought their album, Fidgital, at the weekend and have had it on loop all afternoon.

First off it's not just the violin that is classical. The DJing is classic old skool mixing with all the breaks, riffs and samples that we grew up on as kids. Nick Buckwilde, the turntablist, knows his stuff both in terms of music and the art of scratching. He seems to be accomplished in the kind of fidget house that edIT and the like are renowned for but I was really pleased to hear an out and out drum and bass track near the end. There's room, too, for giggles aplenty on here together with out and out breaks and beats.

Finished Sympathy (Fidgital) by dj buckwilde

I'm pleased to see as well that the violin isn't a mere novelty amidst the serious stuff of dance music but they've incorporated well-known classic tunes. There's a very clever play on Greig's 'In the Hall of the Mountain King' in there that melds superbly into a rap 'Monkey on my Back'. Mike DFace, the violinist has all the craft to switch styles from pure classical to gypsy violin to a kind of sub-country/folk type.

This album's definitely one for the summer and is going to be a definite player for getting me in the party mood on holiday. Here they are live at the Concorde 2.

what a lovely start to the week

I'm feeling quite chipper this morning. The sun is shining, I had a lovely weekend chilling out with my children, we went to see the Brighton and Hove Albion champion's parade and there's a new Richard Villalobos Cafe Del Mar Remix out. The snippets I've heard sound really good, judge for yourself.

I've been listening to Damien Lazarus's Fabric album this morning after chatting to a friend. I haven't really given this the attention it deserves and am slightly ashamed that I didn't realise I had it on my iPod. Here's a few tracks from it for your listening pleasure.

Kenny Largin - Glob (Claude VonStroke remix)

Guti & Dubshape - Every Cow Has A Bird

08 May 2011

blesk my soul

Apologies for the bad pun, it's Sunday night and I'm devoid of witty inspiration for a title for this entry. I added Sea of Bees as one of my favourite bands on Facebook and they mentioned that they were listening to a band called Blesk on their MySpace site. I've not found out a lot about them except that they come from the US and have been around for about 7 years. They have a really lovely guitar based pop sound with the lead singer sounding at times like Jonsi. I'll try to unearth more about them but you've probably had enough entries from me for one day so, on this guitar-heavy evening, I'll wish you all a good night and hope you enjoy Blesk.

Click here for Blesk MySpace page

no joy - ghost blonde

I bought a few CDs today and one that caught my eye particularly was the debut album from Montreal band No Joy. I've just finished listening to it and impressed with the all-girl duo. I think, if you read any review, they'll mention shoe-gazing and My Bloody Valentine, Ride and Hole. It's all true and I won't deny that the influences are all there but there's also the Pixies, Nirvana and more recently the new American guitar sound that the likes of Warpaint, Best Coast and others are creating.

The album starts off in classical shoe-gazer fashion with plenty of reverb, echo and distortion to make the most cynical Sonic Youth emo-type give a little smile and although it lays a marker in the ground of where the band have pitched themselves it certainly doesn't define or constrain them. 'Indigo Child' has a dream-pop like feel to it whilst Hawaii is a droning surf-rock homage (no surprise, given the title). There's not really a stand-out hit on the album but for my money track 8 'Still' is the money shot. The guitars are a bit more jangly, the tune is a bit more of a classic indie guitar hit reminding me in part of the Wedding Present if Debbie Harry was fronting them. My reserve would be the following track 'Untitled' with a really powerful riff running throughout that really is good enough for them to earn the comparisons to their shoegazer forebearers. I'd go so far as to say reminiscent of Jesu or Holy Fuck.

Overall I'd mark the album as 7 out of 10. It's definitely going to take a few listens before I can finally make up my mind but it's certainly refreshing to hear music like this being made that takes you outside your comfort zone and forces you to really concentrate on the music.

sunday morning chill out

Just a few tunes for you.

Moby - Sunday (The Day Before My Birthday)

Laura Palmer's theme (Rashid Oppier Mix)

Everything But the Girl - The Night I Heard Caruso Sing

Parov Stelar - My Inner Me (feat. Phoebe Hall)

Janis Ian - At Seventeen

a shadow of his former self

I can't seem to sleep so am scouring the web for music to listen to and I've come across this little gem. As the blurb on the website says: "This CD was only available with purchase of DJ Shadow's "Private Press" album from HipHopSite.com. This 30 minute mix is a comprehensive overview of DJ Shadow's career featuring exclusive tracks and remixes."

I do own the Private Press album but not this mix CD but thankfully D-Styles has uploaded it to the Mixcrate website for us all to enjoy. It's every bit as tasty as it sounds. Click on the link below to listen:

D-Styles VS DJ Shadow (hiphopsite.com promo) by D-Styles

I'm slightly surprised at the lack of mixing at times, it seems that they are happy to let each record play out for as long as it wants but let's face it, frenetic turntablism has never been his bag. This is downtempo hip hop at its very best and will be blasting out my living room tomorrow morning when I am having Sunday breakfast with my two children. If you don't mind, I'm gonna clock off from the blog tonight, dim the laptop screen and drift off to the rest of this mix. Night night, sleep tight.

06 May 2011

too damn cool

Okey dokey. I posted last night some surprisingly good tunes from unlikely sources. Tonight is devoted to good tunes from reliable sources, the musicians that never fail to deliver great music.

Gaslamp Killer is known for his sometimes difficult, complex constructions. Often these are instrumentals but he also collaborates a lot with Gonjasufi. This will give you an idea of where his talent lies. This particular track 'Turk Mex' is a bit of an oldie but is amazing nonetheless.

Aereas Negrot is a Venezuelan living in Germany. She's known as a bit of a hothead. Let's call it Diva attitude in the tradition of Adeva or Grace Jones. I have picked those 2 women deliberately as Aereas reminds me of those. Here she is with 'Deutsche Werden'.

Mercury Rev need no real introduction so I won't! ' Dark Is Rising'

Tom McRae is an English songwriter that seems to have gone quiet in the last few years. I first heard him about 8 years ago and could see straight away that the bloke has talent by the bucketload. He's drawn comparisons with Nick Drake or John Martyn in his lighter days but there's also Suede or Radiohead too. This track 'You Cut Her Hair' is arguably his biggest hit to date.

Lastly is band of the moment, Ducktails with 'Razor's Edge'. I won't give too much away here as I plan a full review of their album sometime soon. I hope that's okay with you chaps.

background music

I've been working from home today as I have a hacking cough and a cold. I'm listening to this mix from Marco Carola v Loco Dice. It's just what the doctor ordered.

Marco Carola vs. Loco Dice Live @ Goaultrabeat, Atlantico, Rome, Italy - 31-12-2010 by FlavioAg

techno is good for the soul

A friend has prompted me to post this beauty. It's Filtertypen's reworking of the Stax soul hit 'After Laughter' by Wendy Rene.

Sod it, let's put the original up too and compare them.

05 May 2011

surprisingly cool

The Kenny Rogers song 'Just Dropped In' popped up randomly on my iPod tonight. Damn, it's such a great tune. It got me thinking of cheesy musicians that have had great tunes. It's a tad unfair to describe Kenny as such because he's had a few good 'uns but this one has real soul. I love the video I discovered to it too, the poor quality adds to the atmosphere, I think. I could listen to this on loop all night.

Here's another. Ordinarily, I can't stand Lulu. A dreadful woman with one or two hits, an awful speaking voice and a career based on kitsch that really is 30 years too long at least. She does however have this in her back catalogue to redeem all those terrible parties I went to where they played "Shout". This is a cover of "Th Man Who Sold The World". In it's own way, as good as the Nirvana cover.

Now this last one is a bit contentious. It could just be filed under 'guilty pleasures' and we could leave it there but I want to prove to you that it's a bit more than that.

So...Sarah Brightman.....Yeah, I know but please hear me out. She sang lead vocals on the 80s Rah Band classic 'Clouds Across the Moon'. I don't think it's too far-fetched to suggest it is a bit of a disco classic but it is cheesy. Well...the Great Stuff team decided to give it the full remix treatment last year. I think there's about 6 knocking about. The links below have 3 of the bigger ones. I prefer the first one best. There's a vulnerability to her voice that is quite lovely. I'll understand if we agree to disagree but I think the fact that there's some pretty decent remixes of this out there kind of backs up my belief that this is a great record.

What shall I leave you with? Well, I seem to be on a retro vibe so how about Roy Budd's finest moment. Roy was a Jazz musician and also wrote film scores. Mostly active between the mid 60s to early 80s he wrote some quite forgettable stuff - Steptoe and Son Ride Again, Wild Geese (you get the picture) but in 1970 he penned the score to Michael Caine's Get Carter. This is a legendary soundtrack to a wonderful film. It evokes all the madness and brittle normality of the film quite brilliantly.

04 May 2011

slap on the old warpaint

Apologies but my laptop is being repaired by those nice people at Apple so my posts are a little infrequent until then. This morning though, I read a great interview with one of the most exciting bands around at the moment, Warpaint. It's posted on the Spinner UK website which is, I think an AOL-owned site. It's a little cheesy with the usual questions being asked but they seem to be in a good place at the moment which is really great to hear. The full interview is here:

http://www.spinnermusic.co.uk/2011/05/03/warpaint-the-fool/

They also performed an exclusive recording of 'Bees' which you can watch here:

I intend to do a fuller feature on Warpaint soon so watch this space.

On a completely different note, I've also been listening to the Go! Team's new album - 'Rolling Blackouts'. I can see why my 9 year old likes them so much. They are a lot of fun with some lovely old skool 80s hip hop touches to their pop tunes. Here's one of my favourites from the album - 'Secretary Song'. (It reminds me of one of the Pipettes songs from their first album too.)

01 May 2011

sunday bloody sunday

I'm feeling a bit tender this morning after a heavy night last night so I need aural succour to ease my hangover. How about a few chilled tunes for us?

Solid Groove and Sinden with this rather cheeky little number

I really fancy a lovely Sunday Roast so this is completely inappropriate.

Ticklah v Axelrod - Pork Eater

Let's go right back to one of my favourite mix albums, The K&D Sessions. This is, if I recall correctly, the last track on it. Lamb - Trans Fatty Acid

This album is a masterpiece in understatement. It's been described as the first post-rock album. Laughing Stock by Talk Talk is genuinely a classic and every home should have one. This is "After The Flood".

This is the Nina Simone standard "Please Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood". This version is a ten and a half minute super-long player given the Central American treatment. It's fantastic.

Not a lot of people know this but Milla Jovovich has made a couple of really great albums. They're kind of electronic folk and draw heavily from her East European heritage. This is 'Every Leaf'. It's a lovely trippy tune that just builds and builds. I love it.

Lastly, one of my favourite protest songs. Nearly 40 years on and still no-one's listening. Buffalo Springfield - "For What It's Worth"