Serious and ponderous

Last one of the day today...

Teef is back! A long time ago, before I started this blog, I stumbled up a video for a song of his called Take 'Em Out which appears on this excellent little mini-album here. After that it was pretty quiet for a long time with the exception of a video for the track Out To Lunch.

Until today.

So this new track "Allyson Grey" - A reference to wife of artist Alex Grey (Buy a Tool album, jees.) with more nasty electronic beats and his trademark cool, deep, almost spoken-word rap.
Actually, this one's a change of direction for Teef in that it's quite serious and ponderous in subject matter especially compared to the feel-good happy party tracks in his untitled release. There's a mental dubsteppy breakdown in the middle, which actually works really well with the vocals which contain such gems as my personal favourite "Sayonara, pussy-face. Come see me in my casket."

This track'll be included on his upcoming release entitled "Tranny"so I'll keep you updated about when that's going to drop.

Soundtrack to: A mental breakdown in a mosh pit.

It's always a dame...

Thanks to a friend of mine, I heard this awesome track last night and decided to share some things with you!

This is Ivy Levan. This video is a month old, I've never heard of her before this so I'm not sure how much attention she's getting, but she does have a 4 track E.P you can check out, which includes this saucy number. A very jazz/swing influenced pop sound with some belting vocals from this foxy dame!

This comes just a little while after I heard Caro Emerald, who, unbeknownst to me had a number one album here in the U.K!

I'm surprised this got the number one spot, so it seems like jazz and swing influenced pop with female vocals is coming in a little bit. I dig this a lot, so I hope it continues to be a trend!

Exultant

Oh, hello!
It's been a while, hasn't it? Again, they're like busses because this is update one of three for the day!

First up it's Basement Jaxx with their new single "What A Difference Your Love Makes."

I was lucky enough to hear this track a few days before it came out at a sold out gig at Somerset house in London. I'd been wanting to see Basement Jaxx live for a few years and hot damn was it worth the wait. Bright costumes, amusing antics from the singers, a ballet dancer and a giant robot and a non-stop 90 minutes of feel good tunes came together to make one of the most fun live shows I've ever seen. The show was live streamed around the globe and one of the members of Basement Jaxx made numerous shout outs to various countries before a song about unity and power - It was pure FUN but felt like it had a really great underlying message, which I think might feature quite a bit in their upcoming album. I really hope I can bag a ticket for their next tour in England which is in December this year.

Basement Jaxx have appeared on TISFWO! before and like I said then, this track is totally different from Back 2 The Wild and features a new singer but you can still just tell it's a Jaxx track. 

The song starts with some vocals and piano stabs and quickly starts building with some claps into the "OOOOH WOOOOOAHHHHH!" that makes this song feel so energetic and happy! It's not particularly complex sounding but it's just so exuberant that it makes you feel great!  The synth/piano stabs and light vocals, combined with that recurring, exultant shout make this track feel perfect for a summer track. 

Soundtrack to: Running holding hands.

Track hunter: London

It's been a long time since Track hunter: Volume 1 but here's a small guide to finding cheap music in London!

First off, I have to admit that I'm not a vinyl fan. Some people argue that vinyl and FLAC audio are the best ways to listen to music but either my headphones aren't very good or these people have some ridiculous 5.1 systems to listen to stuff with because honestly, I really don't hear a difference. It's probably lucky for me though, since vinyl is often expensive and comes in limited numbers, so it save me trying to hunt down rare and pricy pressings. Additionally, lots of music I like doesn't even get a vinyl release and as I said before, if it does it's usually in tiny numbers. Lastly, there are SO many cool vinyl record stores in London, it's kind of a blessing in disguise that I don't have to walk between them all, emptying my bank account. So this little guide will be helpful if you'd rather have a CD like me and probably isn't so helpful if you want yourself an LP.

My go-to place in London has to be Fopp on Tottenham court road. This place has tons of new CDs for £3 or less. It stocks new stuff too but that goes for closer to what you'd normally pay for a new CD. It's not super-huge but still has enough stuff to make me easily waste an hour or more rummaging around. They sell vinyl, DVDs, blu rays, books, posters, t-shirts...The usual stuff too, a lot of it for dirt cheap considering that it's right there in central London.

Another place you might not have thought to check is CEX. My local CEX used to have a music section but lamentably it's been ousted. CEX just off Oxford Street on Rathbone Place (Next to the post office.) still has one downstairs which always surprises me with £1 gems (I got Ken Ishii's Jelly Tones and Bic Runga's The Beautiful Collision from here - Both things I'd never have expected!) Again CEX is an entertainment place, so you can find cheap pre-owned DVDs, games and blu-rays there too.

London has it's share of Poundland shops and charity shops which are always a good place to look for used and cheap music!

Sadly, that's all for Track hunter: London! There was an AWEOME little place right next to Camden tube station with a rack of £1 CDs but after my last visit a year ago, it seems to have either gone out of business or just happened to be closed when I passed by. (Wishful thinking...)

If you know of any other places for CDs in London though, comment away! I'd love to see what I can turn up!

Man of the hour

It seems like you can't do anything this summer without catching a little bit of Pharrell Williams. He's got his fingers in a bit of everything these last few months; Contributing to two tracks on Daft Punk's Random Access Memories, the score of Man Of Steel, Robin Thicke's Blurred Lines and contributing four songs to Despicable Me 2's soundtrack. Seems like he's the man of the hour!

I saw Despicable Me 2 with some friends. Being a bit of a nay-sayer when it comes to CG kid's movies, (Give me traditional animation and an engaging story any day...) I'd never seen the first one and didn't really expect to enjoy the movie. It did have a few laugh-out-loud moments for me, but music nerd that I am, I found myself really enjoying the soundtrack. Somewhere near the start the above song "Fun, fun, fun." plays and you can recognise Pharrell's voice right away.

Three of the songs he wrote for the movie have that bouncy, breezy feel that some of his work with N*E*R*D has and they're all really uplifting songs that are perfect for blasting out in summer. The other is a more generic sounding song which is the end credit theme to the movie. The soundtrack has some other really nice surprises too including some tracks from Cee-lo Green, Mungo Jerry and even a sneaky (Lyricless...) snippet from Bob Marley's "Jammin'."

Pharrell's all over the place right now and what's killing me is there's no news of a new solo, or, even better, N*E*R*D album anywhere! I guess it's not going to happen any time soon, but now would have been absolutely killer timing for him to drop something of is own. Aw well.

Purpose built to get you onto your feet and dancing!

Hello hello!

A small deluge of updates today before I get busy with events and festivals in London.

So Janelle Monae has (A while ago, I admit...My fingers aren't quite on the pulse lately, busy, busy, busy!) released the next song and a video from her upcoming album The Electric Lady. She's changed style for this one, moving on from the tux and perfect quiff she sported in the past. (Or has she? The Archandroid told the story of Cindi Mayweather, the android on the lam for falling in love with a human...Maybe SHE'S the star of the video?) She still looks pretty classy though, kind of a modified 20/30/40s look going on with some long hair and serious rings.

The song is an upbeat, fast paced uke, drum and clap driven number with an old school feel to it. Right from the start it has your toes tapping. (If you can stay sitting down.) The lyrics come fast and have some catchy repetitive chants "Smash, smash, bang, bang, don't stop, chalangalangalang!" The majority of them are a mystery to me though - I'd guess it's an anarchic, rebellious song with an indirect way of saying so. Don't try too hard to find a deep meaning though, the song seems purpose built to get you onto your feet and dancing!

Soundtrack to: Carefree mischief.

Radio silence

Just a little post to break the radio silence and let you know what's been going on and what's to come!

So, coming up two weeks ago, I walked out of my job. Literally waited until my lunch break, took my stuff, walked out of the door and didn't go back. Bad decision, professionally? Yes. Personally no. I'd been on the brink of it for three or four months and the final straw finally broke the donkey's back.

So you're thinking "WTF? All that new found free time and you haven't updated?" (Maybe you're thinking that. Probably not. But anyway.) Actually, quitting made me pretty busy! I've had two interviews already, and it hasn't even been two weeks since I quit yet. I have a second interview for one place tomorrow. I also had to register for help paying my bills and rent which also required an interview. My bestest friend ever is also visiting England from over seas, so I spent an awesome four days with him and then spent literally all of today up until now trying to get home from London on a coach, giving up and getting a train, having to buy multiple train tickets, losing bags, finding out the ticket I bought was invalid and retrieving those bags and getting home. In between reading Adventure time comics and Saga. (Which...You should check out, if you like comics. Damn that's good stuff.)

So what's to come? Expect Track hunter: London, some Janelle Monae and some further silences. It's festival season and my best friend and I have an event or two EVERY weekend this month. It's gonna be big!

Six minute jam session

Oww! A double dose of Prince today!

It's no secret that I really dig Prince, but it is surprising that a new track - "Ain't Gonna Miss U When U're Gone" dropped on the 3rd Eye Girl site last week and I only just learned of it today!

Again, because it's Prince you'll have to pay to hear it, but it's less than a dollar for our American friends and less than 60 British pence.

This one feels like a six minute jam session, with a repeating core drum beat which has different bits and pieces put on top of it. Claps, a strange electronic version of a steel drum, scratches, brass stabs, slap bass, some pitch shifted vocals... It's a relaxed, funky track. Not my favourite from his recent 3rd Eye Girl stuff, but it's by no means bad - I'm just still reeling from the super sick Plectrum Electrum guitar work from this video.

Soundtrack to: Getting over it before it's over.

As for your second piece of Prince news, the awesome android Janelle Monae has announced that her next album, The Electric Lady will include a collaboration with Prince. I'm all kinds of excited!

Wonky

Oh!

XXYYXX has a new one!

This is a week old today and just hit one million plays. It's a "Pay what you want" download too.

This is a little fast paced and less sparse than XXYYXX's usual style, but as a 17 year old producer, he's probably still learning more and more about how to create the sounds he wants but also about what sounds he wants to be making. I'm pretty jealous of him though, he seems to have been touched by a muse to have this much talent and following before he's even done with puberty. But this is a time when you can make serious music at home with your laptop, and XXYYXX isn't the first pre-18 whiz kid I've come across. (And wish I could have been, back then.)

I digress!

His other usual elements are still there, wonky, pitch shifting sounds, echoy clicks and claps but this feels more like electronic stuff - The hip-hop edge is gone. It's a really chilled track which reminds me a lot of Lapalux, Sorrow et al, a strange, warping kind of beauty. Not a bad thing by any means.

Soundtrack to: A twilight stroll through a forest glistening with dew. 

Phrased so wonderfully

Oh goodness, I'm in love.

My little sister is currently on the trip of a life time to experience life in France with her long (long.) time boyfriend. She links me to amusing things she sees sometimes but today she linked me this wonderful little song:

This is Zaz. I've never heard of her, but she's got a triple platinum album so..Other people have.

I dug this song originally because of her lightly husky voice and the fun, bouncy vibe of it. It's a feel good tune, even if you don't speak a word of French.
Looking up a translation of it is what made me adore this song. It's message is one that I can totally connect with and it's phrased so wonderfully that I have to share the translation here:

We will go and listen to Harlem at the corner of Manhattan
We will go and redden the tea in the souks in Amman
We will go swimming in the bed of the Senegal River
And we will see Mumbai burn beneath Bengal Fire (A type of firework.)

We will go and scratch the sky below Kyoto
We will go and feel Rio beat at the heart of Janeiro
We will raise our eyes to the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel
And we will raise our glasses in the Cafe Pushkin (That's a French reference.)

Oh, how good our luck is
With the thousand colours of the human being
Mixed by our differences
At the crossroad of destinies

You are the stars, we are the universe
You are a grain of sand, we are the desert
You are a thousand pages and me, I am the pen
You are the horizon and we are the sea
You are the seasons and we are the earth
You are the shore and me, I am the foam

We will say that poets do not have flags
We will have as many days of celebration as we have heroes
We will know that children are the guardians of the soul
And that there are as many queens as there are women
We will say that meetings make the best voyages
We will see that we deserve only that which is shared
We will hear sung music from other places
And we will know how to give the best we have

I really, really love this.

Diverse, cool electronic-tinged instrumental hip-hop

They're like busses, aren't they? Nothing for a while then three at once...
Anyway stop your public transport analogies and have some freshly crafted instrumental hip-hop!

Javis Faux seems to be who I'd like to be. A bookish, gamer nerd with a penchant for synthesisers who also travels and makes amazing music. Pretty jealous over here, just sayin'.

There's something bothering me about his newest release "Deal With It Vol. 3" which dropped today. I feel like some of the sounds or samples are ones I recognise and I'm just...not sure where from. The very first sound of No Big Deal, the strange flutelike riff in Mint Julip...I just can't place them...

Anyway! The album is packed full of diverse, cool electronic-tinged instrumental hip-hop and it's name your price so what are you waiting for!? Go get it here!

Apex of funkiness

Ready for some chilled out funk!? 

Hm. How DOES one prepare for that?

Facebook has done it again and managed to recommend me something awesome!
I've never heard of Spiral System before today, but I'm so glad I did. Their second album, "Be" is out later on this month and the above track "N'other" is taken from it.
The track begins with garbled electronics and tribal drums, joined by a keyboard stab and guitar twang. Suddenly some big fat ol' drums break in and the song starts to flow and your head starts to nod along. It's chill, mellow but also sounds big and groovy. Then that jazz/funk keyboard joins in and the song reaches an apex of funkiness. It's not something to dance around to, more like something to sit and listen to and go "Oh, hell yeah!"

Soundtrack to: If Toejam and Earl were made today.

Soft, breathy, relaxed

Ehem...

...Is this thing on?

Goldfrapp have released a trailer for their upcoming album "Tales Of Us."
Goldfrapp and I have had an on again off again relationship for a while. I wasn't into Felt Mountain, loved Black Cherry and Supernature, Seventh Tree had one or two tracks I liked and Head First I like, but not enough to buy it for more than thruppence. I love what they do - It's great to totally change direction and do something totally new and for some bands or artists it goes really well and I love all their stuff. Some, not so much.
So, "Tales Of Us." I really like where it seems to be going, lots of very soft, breathy, relaxed stuff with a hint of electronics or acoustic guitar. Sounds relaxing!

Floaty and spacey

It's Ruby Tuesday!

Multi-instrumentalist and experimentalist Beck is back with a new track uploaded just today!

"Defriended" begins with an electronic whine, a backwards keyboard-like sound and big, oddly timed snares interrupted with a sudden crash, like a cello player falling over. Echoy and only partly comprehensible vocals join in with some gently strummed guitar and not so gentle bass. The whole thing feels floaty and spacey and we end with a final crash.

It's a great track that somehow feels light and airy but also quite meaty thanks to those drums and bass stabs. 

Beck is apparently planning two new albums, so keep your eyes open for news as it comes!

Soundtrack to: Floating gently into space only to collide with a satellite. 

Soft, silky vocals

And for dessert...

I think Py's gone without a mention here at TISFWO! so far so it pleases me to fix that today. I originally found her through Breton, who collaborated with her on the track Withdraw The Ambassador. She's also worked with the wonderful Lapalux on the tracks Moments and Flower. (This new track from her also contains the lyric "Fresh cut flowers" but sung differently - I wonder which came first?) She's a busy lady having released an E.P with Throwing Snow and tracks with Damu and Kadabrah plus her own mixtape Tripping on wisdom. Her rendition of Christmas Baby Please Come Home was used on an advertisement for the Christmas special of historical T.V drama Downton Abbey - She's been working hard.

This new track, Polyethers is available now on iTunes but Soundcloud says that it's coming June 30 so either there's been a mistake or this might be a single from a forthcoming E.P or maybe even an album? (I hope?) Who knows. Anyway, on to the track itself.

Py's soft, silky vocals drape over deep, slow electronic beats, click and claps. She shows off her range in this track more than other releases, coming back to a slightly husky, sexy voice for the main lyrical flow of the song with scattered high pitched notes. building to a lovely crescendo which feels fulfilling and exciting, even though it's quite subtle - There's no sudden break or drop, just this wonderful huge feeling as all the elements of the song come together. Wonderful stuff!

Soundtrack to: An innocent love story.

Ecstatic and full of joie de vivre

Well, this excites me rather.

Empire Of The Sun released a new single last month titled Alive. I had no idea about it until today so it managed to stay under my radar for quite a while! A second single called Discovery is coming up shortly followed by a new album early next month, Ice on the dune.

The new single's sound is a little more modern than the last album but is none the less lovely. Heavy, dancey drum beats, lofty, echoing, vocals and that wonderful just-so-slightly-pouty sounding voice in the recurring phrase "Loving every moment cause you make me feel so alive...alive." The whole song feels ecstatic and full of joie de vivre. A summer anthem, for sure!
As a side note, I friggin love the costumes these guys wear. That head piece is nuts!

Soundtrack to: Running hand in hand, laughing like children.

Chilled, funky, guitar infused rap

It's been a little quiet on the new release front, (Well, other than the massive and critically polarising release of Random Access Memories and the deliciously 80s Hearts And Knives.) and actually they'd been keeping me so busy that I'd been just posting them with the odd new discovery!
Well, that changes today because I'm going to dig into the crate and post something I love from the archive.

This is Gideon Conn. He's a strange chap for sure. I discovered him when he was an opening act for Dan Le Sac and Scroobius Pip. He plays (mostly) chilled, funky, guitar infused rap and pop. Most of his songs are goofy (In a good way.) and great fun with lyrics about a man who drives around selling fish, having a lovely date or just being eccentric.

This one, Yes, No, Maybe, is catchy as all get out. There's a lovely blaring trumpet riff, energetic guitar, some fast paced lyrics about the confusing nature of the opposite sex and it has one of those catchy-but-complicatd vocal sections which I'm a sucker for - Something about being able to sing along to it is particularly satisfying. The lyrics are pretty bitter which contrasts nicely with the happy sound of the song.

Mr. Conn has two albums available here and here. Show some love!

Soundtrack to: A montage of your failed relationships.

Shrill electronic air raid

It's Free Willy Wednesday again!

Willy Joy has teamed up with someone named Tittsworth to bring us a new track!

BAWSE is about as trap as it gets. Skittery, jumping, chopped vocals, a pounding beat made of 808 drums and claps and a break into a shrill electronic air raid. Shut-off-your-brain-and-dance fun!
Soundtrack to: The entrance of an evil dictator, presiding over his sexy army of scantily clad female super assassins. Yeah.

Wobbly electronics and fat drums

Alas, alack! The weekend is almost over again.

Better give you something to spice up your Monday morning then, eh?

Falcon Funk is a side project from F.O.O.L and their debut E.P "Bust" was due out by now. For whatever reason, there's been some problems and it has been delayed so as an apology they released a free E.P titled Punch today, and here it is.

It's a nice funky, electro/dubstep E.P that reminds me a lot of Koan Sound's Funk Blaster in places. Wobbly electronics and fat drums all round, then!

Random Access Memories leaked!

Just breaking news, this time! This has all happened in the last few hours!

Daft Punk's upcoming album, Random Access Memories has been leaked! It's all OVER the place. In the smartest move possible at this point, the album appears to have been given an immediate release on iTunes (I can't confirm that, though. Daft Punk's official page has a link to the iTunes store, but the iTunes UK store lists it as a pre-order for May 20.)

It's kind of a shame that this happened, but on the other hand an album as eagerly anticipated as this should probably have a release date as close to the time it's completed as possible - This kind of stuff is common these days. 

Bouncy and upbeat

So! Here's a scene I was completely ignorant about!

There are quite a few really, really great brass bands around. The Hackney Colliery Band are, as the name suggests, from Hackney in London and their album came out recently. Looking at their site, they're busy touring around. I'm hoping to get the chance to see them play this summer. Their album includes quite a few (Great) covers, but I wanted to post an original of theirs. I can't really describe the track too well, other than to state the obvious - that it's brass band music. The song is an instrumental. It's quite jolly and bouncy and upbeat. OH JUST CLICK THE VIDEO.
Soundtrack to: Summer in the 20s.

Sprawling nine minute suite

I'm really happy to be making this update!

This news is actually a little old, but Juno Reactor has a new album coming! 

The key element to Juno Reactor for me above other trance artists is his use of real instruments. They give his tracks that extra edge and make them more exiting, at least for me. This one uses traditional Indian instruments and vocals on top of a pounding electronic backdrop. The result is a sprawling nine minute suite with great, sweeping strings, galloping tabla, sitar riffs and a repeating section that ties the entire thing together. It has the traditional sound of asia (At least, to western ears.) mixed perfectly with modern beats. I am throughly impressed. I'll be picking this album up for sure.
Soundtrack to: A big budget Bollywood sci-fi.

Sensuous and sinister

I've heard a lot of good stuff this weekend, so there's gonna be a few big updates. I don't have time to fit it all in tonight before bed! Also, TISFWO inexplicably had 50 views in one day yesterday without my posting an update. Very encouraging, but a  mite confusing. It's great, but where are you people coming from!?
Curiouser and curiouser...

Silq uploaded this other song, The Way It Was to youtube late on Friday, and also provided a link to this place where you can buy both tracks. Who is this person!? They don't appear to have any of the usual accounts or even a soundcloud or website to contact them. Very peculiar...

Anyway, this song sounds a mite darker than the other one with some really nice staticy drums, a groaning, buzzing bassline and some pitch shifted moaning for vocals. It manages to sound at once sensuous and sinister.
Soundtrack to: Making out with a demon.

Gentle, airy and deep.

Since our first update today was a mysterious one, I'll continue with a second mystery.

This is Antihoney. Who are/were they? Why did they vanish? Who knows? I found them on a jaunt around youtube and fell in love with their incredible sound. A lot of poking around online later and pretty much all I can tell you is that this track, Stars On My Window is the only song ever released in full on a compilation album named Interregnum - Which is apparently hard to find. Luckily, some wonderful person has uploaded the full track and made it available to download here. 

The Antihoney website over here has free MP3s of some tracks that seem not-quite-finished and a contact email address. I have contacted the owner who is Japanese and didn't speak much English, but was able to tell me that pretty much it all fell to bits and what's there is what's left.

Every song is similar to this one in that everything just feels so gentle, airy and deep. There's something in this music that feels so light but at the same time so heavy. It's slow paced and filled with echo, but those super-high vocals lend it an eerie, dreamlike quality. It's lovely, lovely stuff. 

If you look around in youtube comments, people LOVED this stuff. It's a real, real shame that it was just someone's project that died out. I think with an album and the right promotion, they could have been huge in some circles. Sometimes these things happen...

Thick wall of foam

'Allo chicken!

Something very suspicious for you tonight!

A mystery youtube account with the name "Silq" uploaded this today. They haven't uploaded anything else. I can't find anything about a musician called Silq online. But who posted the link up on facebook today, when it only had 25 views? Mr Lapalux! Hmmmm...I suspect...something.
Making Up For Lost Time sounds like a Lapalux track name and the track certainly FEELS like a Lapalux track, in that it fits into that genre I love but have no name for, (Let's call it Claps for now. It always has those awesome claps.) only it's a little too same-y to be Lapalux himself.
It features a distant-warbling guitar like sound, as if it were being played through a thick wall of foam and some really nice drum and clap percussion sounds. Interesting. I wonder what's going to come of this?
Soundtrack to: Laying in half-light thinking back.

Very scruffy update this morning because I have to go to work!
Ta-ku dropped his new track, I Love Beyonce 5 hours ago (While I was asleep.)

https://soundcloud.com/takugotbeats/i-love-beyonce

It has some chimey sound that sounds classy to me for some reason and some big echoy claps and synth stabs. Awesome. Download coming with Re-Twerk vol. 2. Very nice track, though I'm not a Beyonce fan.

Out of tune chip

A second update!? SURELY NOT, NO!
Oh yes.

Kyary's done it again!

Kyary's new song about laser eyes and ear missiles - Invader Invader - had it's music video release today! As always it's cute, catchy the video has it's oddities and it has a cool dance to go along with it. I really like the wonky out of tune chip sounds and the catchy chorus but I'm not too sure about the unnecessary "Drop" in the middle. It doesn't ruin the song particularly but it seems like a kind of desperate thing to do since Dubstep seems to be the flavour of the year. (Tied with Trap? Hm.) If I recall correctly a recent song of Perfume's did this too and both have the same (Genius.) producer. Maybe he just wanted to play around with it a bit? Who knows.

Anyway, Invader Invader is another ohrwurm from my favourite guilty pleasure. I'm already chanting "Da da dada in va da" in my head over and over. Enjoy!

Soundtrack to: MECHA BEAMU!

Fires on trains

A bank holiday! How unspeakably lovely. One of my first ever when I haven't been working but have been getting paid! (I think? I better check on that.)
Anyway! I haven't tried uploading video to this blog before, mostly because it's easy to link and that way, I don't get in trouble (Well, if someone was really going to get mad about me giving them free promotion for no profit...But anyway...) Today's an exception, because this new song came as such a surprise for me, and once again I wasn't able to link to youtube. So, if somehow, for some reason, Mr. Kevin McMahon is reading this and wants it removed...let me know, sir!

Kevin MacMahon is a hard guy to follow. After an amazing debut as Prick, he released a second album, The Wreckard (Nice pun.) on his own website which, after a time (Before I managed to get a copy...) vanished. I'd also read about his releases as Lucky Pierre, but was never able to find them around. A few years ago I found that the people at www.luckyprick.net/, as well as being the most AVID of fans, to a level that's damn impressive, were producing re-issues of The Wreckard, Lucky Pierre's albums AND two side projects I'd never even heard of, Fear of Blue and (Sic.) So in exchange for some shiny pennies I was able to get hold of some obscure treasure. Try contacting them from their contact section if you're trying to hunt this stuff down - It might still be available. So it's all been quiet since 2008-ish, when Lucky Pierre's last album came out.
This was uploaded to youtube four months ago, and luckypierre's official site contains only this. I wonder what's in the works?

Anyway, the song's a short little guitar driven tune about fires on trains. I really like Kevin's odd voice, it seems to always be right in the mid section between high and low, always a bit unsure and wobbly. Noice. I hope something comes of this! I'll keep an ear to the...well not ground. To...The internet, essentially.
Soundtrack to: Taking a tube journey.

Old school sound

Hellohello!

I hope you're having a wonderful weekend!

Week old news, so it's lukewarm off the presses. Kelis has signed to a new record label and is apparently going to release two albums this year. Along with this news comes a new single! 

You can grab a free download of Jerk Ribs here.
Kelis is always changing direction and trying out new sounds. From the modern sounds of her last album, Fleshtone, she's gone back to a really old school sound with this one. A fat drum kit with bongos, the odd twanging guitar and some gutsy brass back her ever-so-slightly husky vocals with some cool lyrics, though I couldn't say for sure what the song is about exactly. (But since when has that mattered, huh Beck?) Noice!

Soundtrack to: End credits of a bad ass female heist movie.

Bass-heavy, always-happy

A second one today! Lucky devil.

Polysics are one of my favourite bands of all time for their wild, energetic, always-happy, bass-heavy brand of new-wave-rock. After touring here in the U.K for years and having a few albums released here (Which is a big deal for fans of Japanese music. When a C.D is only released in Japan importing will cost you a great deal more than any single C.D ought to cost you.) what seemed to be building and gaining momentum just...stopped...New albums kept coming, but not to the U.K. Then Kayo left the band, causing a brief hiatus. They resurfaced to continue without her, but nothing came to the U.K.

And then...

Japan Underground records announced that they had signed Polysics. That was all they said, for a while, but I had my ear to the ground for news. And it came today! Polysics' latest album, the typically silly titled "Weeeeeeeeee!!!" is due to be released here in June for the paltry sum of £8.89 (Bare in mind that a copy of the last album before this, 15th P will cost at least £30 - Prohibitively expensive for an addict like me on minimum wage.) Above is catchy single Everybody Say No and below, Lucky Star.

For damn sure as fun and off-center as ever. Very exciting news for me! I'm hoping that they come back and play here again. I have seen a lot of live music and I can say that Polysics easily put on the most fun show by FAR. Suffice it to say, I once danced so much at one Polysics show that I fell down and coughed out blood. That was not hyperbole. I actually did.

Chart

Good even, traveler!
No tracks for you in this one, just some really cool news!

Daft Punk's Get Lucky is number one in the top 40 singles here in the U.K. That's just awesome! AlunaGeorge are also in the top 40 TWICE, one for their own Attracting Flies and once as the feat. for Disclosure's White Noise. Macklemore and Ryan Lewis are also in there twice. I don't usually follow the charts, but this is probably the best state I've ever seen it in.

So that's nice, isn't it?

The purple patriarch

It's been quiet again, hasn't it!? Sorry...Haha! I say that every time, don't I?
You know, I've enjoyed posting up new stuff so much and it's surprised me with how often I've been able to. Because of that I haven't been "Crate digging" to post old stuff like I had thought I would when I started this. Maybe I'll have to start doing that - I'd like to post more than once or twice a week if I can.
Anyway, prattling aside, I have some stuff I just found out about for you. It's not "Hot off the press" but it surfaced this month so I wouldn't call it old news either.

The funky man in purple is back again! I posted up here a while ago about Prince and 3rd Eye Girl. Well, they've been busy and some stuff has appeared which this time, I am able to share with you!

First up, "Plectrum Electrum" which also happens to be the rumoured title for the rumoured upcoming Prince album. Let's face it, tour appearances, new tracks online and videos leaking out? I'd be very surprised if there WASN'T one in the works. Prince just...absolutely kills it on guitar. This entire video is pretty much just an amazing solo. The kind that just grips you and has so much feeling and energy to it.

Next up, a re-worked version of Let's Go Crazy from the classic Prince album Purple Rain. They've slowed it down and funked it up with more awesome guitar work and an awesome nod to a classic rock track I've always loved, Edger Winter Group's Frankenstein.

Lastly, a new single, Fixurlifeup aired on Canadian radio this month. So far there's no sign of it for download, though it's been said it was due to appear on iTunes at some point.

While we're on a Prince trip, I was recently lucky enough to find Crystal Ball, an album which contained 5 cds if you pre-ordered it online...In 1997...(Who was buying shit online in 1997!?) on Ebay. The 3 CDs comprising Crystal Ball are packed full of funk and are just...awesome. As always with Prince, I can't really share anything with you. The bonus CDs The Truth and Kamasutra are interesting too, but the funk is what really grabbed me. Still I'm happy to get to own one of the harder to find albums from Prince. Did you know his debut, For You, recently turned 35? Crazy. And Prince is till working! Now Prince is back harder and funkier than he's been for a long, long while. It's killing me that there's no (Easy) way to get hold of these in MP3 form, most especially Plectrum Electrum, which grabbed me by the balls. Awesome stuff from the purple patriarch! 

Pure and simple funk

A morning update today! (Cause I fell asleep before this dropped last night...Ehem.)

Archandroid Janelle Monae has collaborated with Erykah Badu (Who's name pops up allllll over the place. I really need to check out her solo work, she features with a lot of artists I like.) to put out this female empowerment "I don't give a damn" funk track!

Janelle's vocals sound as amazing as always and the bass is kickin! The initial tune is simple, but the guitars and keyboards all start to riff on the theme and the entire thing sounds just awesome. Pure and simple funk with some string and choir backed rapping from Ms. Badu at the very end. NOICE.
Soundtrack to: Getting ready to go out dancing.

Bloody gorgeous horns!

A second ear parcel for you this morning!

Brazilian band CSS's fourth album, Planta, is coming in June and Hangover is the first single.
This song has a great bouncy, summery feel and some bloody gorgeous horns! I hesitate to say it has a reggae like vibe, but if I do you'll see what I mean. (Or is it 2-step? Dancehall? Ragga? These things are so difficult.) Throw in some machine drums and a wobbly, stretchy, morphing bass and Love Foxx's never-quite-perfect English lyrics and that's the recipe for Hangover.
It's not getting much love from CSS fans since it strays a long way from their more punk roots (but they've been changing direction since the album Donkey...) but I really like this song! It'll be on my summer playlist for sure.
Soundtrack to: Drinking on the grass.

Icy lyrics

First things first!
TISFWO has reached over 1000 views! Thank you everyone!
Secondly, I discovered something I never would have expected today!

Download Shameless Fashion here for free!
Visage are releasing a new album on the twentieth of May, Hearts and Knives, their fourth album and the first since 1984. That's some gap! I would never have expected this not only because it's been 29 years but because, some years ago, I saw Steve Strange on T.V. He didn't seem to be in a fit state to be there at the time. I'm quite surprised he came back to music!
What's difficult about posting this up here is that I want to say "It reminds me of..." but all the bands I want to list are going to be post '84 so really...It should be the other way around, shouldn't it?
Sultry, dead-pan vocals, icy lyrics, wavering guitar, some nice punchy drums and of course, keyboards all come together to make a track that really sounds like it came out of the 80s. It's a lot more up-beat and certainly has more guitar than their biggest hit, Fade to Grey. I dig this a lot! Check it out!
That cover is great too, but I have a thing for masks.
Soundtrack to: The reopening of the Blitz club.

Get Lucky single drops!

Oh poppet, I have been a terrible father/mother/lover haven't I?
I'll be honest, I feel like utter death right now. You know that feeling that all your hairs are on end and you feel absolutely freezing, but your body is hot? That, right now.

But this is a little note to say watch this space because Daft Punk's lead single from Random Access Memories, Get Lucky, will drop at midnight zero one eastern standard time. So, when I wake up tomorrow, I'll be able to hear the official, complete, legit, 100% genuine song.
This, lovlette, excites me.

So, good night for now, I'll see you in some hours!

EDIT: Oh. It was released in America. That's nice! You can't buy it from iTunes or Amazon UK yet (Which is where I live.) though the release dates there say today. I couldn't find the official version on youtube to share with you either, but that's not surprising. It's over run with the leaked version and fan edits! You'll have to search it out for yourself for now, little one.

Bizarre of the sake of it

Oh goodness. Sporadic updates abound, don't they!?

My time's being taken up by work an awful lot of late and it doesn't show any sign of letting up. It's driving me crazy!

Luckily this video seems to be pretty crazy itself, so it knows how I feel.

Basement Jaxx are a band I can never figure out. They change sound and style a lot, use different singers for every track but still, whenever you hear a new Jaxx track you can tell it's them. I noticed this a few albums back and it's still true. I can't put my finger on why it is, but it is.

This is a quirky one for sure! The video is full of bright colours, strange costumes and video effects. It seems to be bizarre for the sake of it but damn it, it's fun! The song is built on a lot of different layers and throws together machine drums with tribal sounding vocals and instruments. Under everything else is a simple bassline that drives the whole thing and on top we have some nature-based lyrics like "I wanna go back to the wild!" and "Take me to the jungle!" The track is pretty short but after a few listens, I want to put it on repeat and dance in my monkey pyjamas!
I can't wait to see Basement Jaxx this summer at Sommerset house. I hope they bust this one out!
Ya le! Ya le! Ya le lelele lelele!
Soundtrack to: Meeting monkeys.

Indian Beatles

There, the other updates have been prettied up and here's Sunday's update!

Nothing new to report today, so here's a song I've dug for quite some years and thought I'd share!

I'm not going to pretend I know this song from it's original source, a Bollywood picture by the name of "Gumnaam." I do know it from the movie version of sarcastic, coming of age comic book Ghost World.
Source aside, it's a great, catchy track with twangy guitars and lyrics you can sing along to even without knowing what on earth they mean. It feels like an Indian Beatles track with a really fun, sunny feeling to it, though as I said I haven't a clue what they're actually singing about.
The scene from the movie it's taken from is really cool looking too. I'm impressed by the female dancer's ability to shake her head like that without falling over, much less dancing while doing it. Seriously. Try doing that with your head while standing still.
Soundtrack to: Bein' on the lam in India.

We're up all night to get lucky!

Oh my goodness.

A new trailer has been released for Daft Punk's upcoming Random Access Memories. The clips we've been teased with before are both from this song which, as you see in the video, features Pharell Williams. I'm a huge N.E.R.D fan, so I'm pretty darn excited to hear the rest of the track. And the album. Eeeeeee! Every day, it's a-gettin' closer, goin' faster than a roller coaster...

Blazing guitar

Well now, I wouldn't have guess this would happen!

Heavyloud noise rap duo Death Gripz have remixed The Prodigy's Firestarter. It's a random choice and seems to have come out of nowhere, but that makes for a great surprise! The original's lyrics and blazing guitars are mashed with skitzo drums to create a cool new sound for the classic song.
Soundtrack to: Pyromania.

Deep, dirty bass buzzes

What's the craik Jack?
Apologies for intermittent silences of late! Things seem to keep popping up to take my time up. I'll always update when I find something new and exciting but I also want to make the effort to go back and post older things I love when nothing new appears.
That said, a wild track DID appear today, so get your pokeballs ready, why don't you?

Mr. Willy Joy who's been featured here in the past has collaborated with Team Bayside High to make this lil' anklebiter. It's a really nice remix of Where's Your Head At? By Basement Jaxx.
The track blurs a line between trap and dubstep, using deep, dirty bass buzzes, 808 snares and build ups to a "Drop." behind the original vocals from the song. It's pretty cool and has a hazardous, haywire vibe!
Soundtrack to: Gang violence.

Maniacal marriage

Last one for today, chicken. 

This is Cousin Marnie.

I don't have much information about Cousin Marnie yet. She's released a few songs and videos up on youtube ahead of her upcoming Carter Family E.P which will drop later this month. I noticed this song and liked it in particular, so I thought I'd share.
It's a creepy, wonky song about maniacal marriage. It's pretty simple but effective with some piano, drums and just ever so slightly distorted vocals. It has kind of a dizzy feel about it. I find it catchy but I'm not sure everyone will. I'll make sure to post about Marnie again once the E.P is here.
Soundtrack to: A victorian carnival side show.

Fun and personal

Something a little sentimental now from the awesome Ta-ku who's cropped up here before.

Ta-ku heard from Trey, a fan who was dying of cancer. He wanted to collaborate with Ta-ku before his time was up. Sadly, Trey didn't live to see the track come together, so Ta-ku went ahead and made it anyway, dedicating it to him and making it a free download over here.
It's a nice track with drums, claps, chopped vocals and little twinkly bits. At the very end we get to hear Ta-ku's voice for the very first time and it's actually my favourite thing about the track - he's singing "lalalas" and laughing and it adds something fun and personal to the song.
My one gripe is that Ta-ku's record label, Soulection, is plastered all over this thing. It's named twice during the song yet Trey's name is never mentioned aloud. It's a little graceless to spread the story of how the track was made around so that people will get a free download and hear your company name. In fact to even download the song you have to "like" Soulection on Facebook. That's why I liked them, grabbed the link and went back to "unlike." Hm. I don't like to end a post on a sour note, but in this case, I guess I have to,
Soundtrack to: Trey.

Something cold, hard and mechanical.

Five days without an update! Shame on me!
Sorry duck, it was a hell of a week and it was only four days long! We've got a lot to get through today though, so it's like all the updates at once.
Let's press on with the marvellous, shall we?

First up it's genre-blurring industrial-dubstep-digital-hardcore from husband and wife duo Rabbit Junk.

They're busy bunnies and release something new every now and then. Their latest track is a driving, throbbing, angry slab of something cold, hard and mechanical.

The song opens with a quick build up before slamming everything down - Guitar, distorted, yelled lyrics, synths and a little hint of "Wub wub" in the background. Everything carries on with a pounding drum and guitar chugs that reminds me a bit of Fear Factory. We get brief rest periods with just the drum, but my favourite part of this track comes right at the end of those when everything comes crashing back in with "OHHH! DESTROY!!!"
Soundtrack to: Breaking shins.

Shaking The Habitual pre-view stream!

That's a surprise!
You can now stream the entire of The Knife's upcoming Shaking The Habitual ahead of it's release on the 8th!
I've taking a listen myself!

Oh my goodness. We already knew the first two tracks. I wasn't very keen on track three (It's mostly a soundscape with a small song a the end.) BUT I instantly fell in love with "Without You My Life Would Be Boring." It's like a feudal Japanese orchestra turned it's sheet music upside down and played it that way instead. It just continues to build into Wrap Your Arms Around me. This album is pretty incredible. Traditional instruments blending with techno and distorted vocals... Wow, I'm getting blown away!
Oh dear, "Old Dreams Waiting To Be Realised" is completely wasted on me, I'm afraid. When I saw a nineteen minute track I was expecting either a tour de force or something totally the opposite. And that's what this track is. A nineteen minute, ambient wall of sound. Not my bag at all, sadly, especially after the huge swell and build up of the previous tracks.
And then we're right back into percussive, bendy-vocal action with the next track! I'm glad it didn't dissolve into soundscapes.

Haphazard style

Sorry it's been so long, lovely!
I've been away attending weddings and messing up my sleep pattern with five days away from work! Fear not, though, books were finished and video games were played, monster was consumed and sleep took the back burner.

So! Back to work today and so back to working out and posting ditties for you! We've got a dilly for you today, yessir!

Meet Deep Cotton and their epidemic inducingly infections "We're Far Enough From Heaven Now We Can Freak Out."

There's scant information on Deep Cotton available besides the fact that they are part of the Wonderland Arts Society fronted by the gorgeous Janelle Monae and that this song was used in a Sonos advertisement staring them all together.

The song itself is just pure fun. Starting off with some echo-y choir vocals and strummy guitar, we quickly break into the meat of the song which is a chipper guitar and tambourine creature. The vocals are right out of a cartoon. They cheerfully and recklessly sing the enigmatic (Or pure nonsense?) lyrics in a style similar to Andre 3000 when he's at his most unhinged. (Like this shining example.) With a guitar solo we're flung into outer-space for the echo-y "La la la" bridge. Switch back and forth with chants of "We're far enough from heaven now we can freak out" and "La la la lalala la la la la lala la la la lala la la laaaaa" until we drift away with more echos until we float so far that we can't hear the song anyway.
Off-kilter, off-center, off-the-wall and a laugh riot. Check it!
Soundtrack to: Doling out chores in preparation for a kick ass party!

This song's been around a while with no new output from Deep Cotton. I sincerely hope they break the silence soon, though something with this much energy and haphazard style is going to be a hell of a tough one to top.

Don't expect de rigueur

Two updates today! You lucky toad!

There's a long story (Which would involve me namedropping like an ass.) behind how I heard about and became semi-demi-quasai-aquatinted (Read: Occasionally interact on Facebook) with Gentle Jones. Regardless, the gentle man, gentleman rapper released his latest album - "Slack Jaw" today over here for FREE!

I think my favourite thing about this album is how eclectic it is - Each song is a different style from the last and Mr. Jones flows (or sings in a gravely voice.) perfectly on top of every beat. Electronica? Check. Rock'n'roll? Check. Jazz? Conga? Well you see where I'm going here. Don't expect gangsta rap 808 beats and defiantly don't expect de rigueur, stereotypical rap subject matter. It's not only the sound of the record that's all over the place - This album covers all kinds of important subjects such as planetary invasion, hair, the adventures of Doctor Indiana Jones, Scientology and Karma.

Wether you're usually a fan of rap or not, check it out! I mean free's free, right?

Off-center sensuality

This is my Monday face.
But! It's a happy face! Because today Lapalux's debut album - "Nostalchic" became available for download/began to be shipped! Luckily my physical pre-order came with a free download, so I was able to listen to it today. Won't you join me?

As you might have read before, I adore Lapalux's sound. His use of slow pace, complex, layered beats and synthesised sounds and vocals comes together to create some seductive, chilled songs, perfect listening for rolling around on something soft. (Possibly with someone else - Track 4.) 

After four stunning E.Ps released over the last five years comes his first full length album. Nostalchic feels both new and familiar - IAMSYS (Tape intro) and O E A (Tape outro) feature wonky, distorted cassette tape warblings that are reminiscent of parts of Lapalux's debut Forest E.P. but they also break into much bigger, grander sounds than we've heard from Lapalux before. Maybe it's me, but I don't recall hearing a Lapalux track with real sounding drums before now, everything felt as if it was produced electronically or form vocal samples. Now, in the very first track, we can hear very real sounding snare hits and four tracks feature guest vocalists. I could be totally wrong here, I've never professed to being a musical expert. Much as an avid lover of art might never truly understand how to paint, I love music in it's myriad guises but have learned all I know about it from listening, not study or creation. I digress. The entire album feels and sounds like the Lapalux we know, just bigger and a touch more lavish in some areas. 

If you were previously a fan you're going to dig the album and if you've never heard of Lapalux before, prepare to feel the off-center sensuality. 

Random Access Memories

Jubilant Sunday to you, my lady!

The internet is abuzz with this, today. If you've somehow missed it...

The french robots have done it again! Another ridiculously tantalising and short clip from the forthcoming album! As I mentioned before, Discovery is my favourite album of all time and this clip most defiantly hints at a return to a more vocal element in this new album.

We now have a title - "Random Access Memories." (A play on computing term RAM meaning Random Access Memory.) But that's not all! The album has been put up for pre-order at iTunes with a release date of May 21, less than two months away and is already at the top spot in France's chart - Despite not even being released. I can't WAIT to hear this record and it looks like it's going to be the soundtrack to many people's summers.

And in case you can't wait either, here's a live set from Daft Punk, secretly recorded directly from the mixer in the 90s!

Real live musicians

Good day to you, Sir! I SAID GOOD DAY!
Well, this is a nice surprise. I had no idea this was in the works at all and then BAMF! It's out!

Parov Stelar's name has been mentioned in passing here at TISFWO! before but today he's got his own post with the debut album from The Parov Stelar Trio! Parov has released many (Excellent.) albums under his own name but the Parov Stelar Trio includes musicians who perform with him when he plays live shows. The result is a pretty different sound from Parov's solo work which relies on sampling from old records. Now, Parov's club beats and chopped vocal samples are a backdrop for some awesome saxophone, double bass, piano and drums who all play their own compositions - Rather than samples we have real live musicians and it transforms the Parov Stelar "Sound" into something more lively, energetic and diverse. This feels a lot more like a swing record than an electro record, so I imagine that a few Parov Stelar fans will be disappointed by the new sound - but being a fan of both club music and swing I really dig this one!

Parov also announced a tour a few days prior to this release and last time he played in London his show sold out. This time, of course, I bought my ticket as soon as I could so I'm hoping this is the kind of stuff I'll get to hear at a live show of his. Roll on May 31!

Modern and fresh

The weekend is almost here again. I can taste it!

Today I've got some awesome Turntablism for you from C2C!

I just heard of C2C this very morning when a friend of mine invited me to see their show in London, HMV forum June 20. I checked them out and then bought my ticket.

C2C use various styles and some bitchin' turntable skills to create some really interesting tracks. I picked the two above because they incorporate things I love - Blues harmonica and old Japanese instruments, and spin them into something modern and fresh. Awesome stuff! Take a gander and if you'll be at the show, come say hi why don't you?