If you’re expecting the same kind of deal that came with Moby’s last album Play you’re in for a little bit of a rude awakening. It seems as though the multi-faceted artist has taken a stand for himself with his new release Wait For Me. There’s nothing on this album that appears to be money hungry or attention seeking.

Moby has been stated as saying: “I started working on the album about a year ago, and the creative impetus behind the record was hearing David Lynch Speak at Bafta, in the UK. David was talking about creativity, and to paraphrase, about how creativity in and of itself, and without market pressures, is fine. It seems as if too often an artist’s or musician’s or writer’s creative output is judged by how well it accommodates the marketplace, and how much market share it commands and how much money it generates.”

Wait For Me, the 9th album released by the musician is more of a personal journey, one that has been a long time coming. It’s a complete turn around from what we have been used to with Moby, there are no features of up and coming musicians he feels need the exposure and there are no fast dance beats. Wait For Me appears to be more of an emotional journey, the tone is dark, the songs are heavy and the melodies are dramatic.

The approach with production this time was a complete turn around from the major label recording studios and sound engineers. Wait For Me, was basically recorded in Moby’s apartment, mixed and produced by a friend, with touches of female vocals here and there.It is also the first album to be released on Moby’s record label Little Idiots.

It’s all really nostalgic and if you don’t miss the Moby of the 90s then you probably shouldn’t venture out and get this.

I love advertising. Is North American advertising becoming too boring? This is an advert for a telephone company Vodafone in South Africa, while the rest of the world is trying to claim the fastest network and most accesible with Facebook and Youtube applications, other countries highlight on how things have been since before the time of 3G technology. So I guess it’s okay that I haven’t upgraded my iPhone because at the end of the day, I’ve been having it!

It’s taking some time for the news to digest, my hero, my idol, the first musical love of my life passed away yesterday.

Due to not having a TV the news was slow to reach us. In a twisted act of fate, a friend and I had been discussing the life of Michael and what the future held for him. Morbidly, we joked about the next step of Michael’s being death.

I regret this conversation.

I can’t help but feel like we killed him, but that is just nonsense. It has been a long time coming, of course no one stays alive forever and i’ll be honest, I had been bracing myself for this about a year ago, but you’re never really prepared I guess for such news.

Michael Jackson has always been a fixture in my life. I remember days when my sister and I would spend hours watching and recording Jackson Marathons on TV, teaching ourselves how to moonwalk or beat boxing to the intro of Stranger in Moscow or trying to be Smooth Criminals in our pajamas, hyped from watching performances of Mr Jackson.

Michael Jackson taught us about the rhythm of the beat, the passion that flows when music moves you and not only what it means to be passionate but also what it means to be strong in the face of adversity.

My mother would hunt down every magazine store for special Michael Jackson magazines that were only available at select times. I won’t gush and say I was his biggest fan but you see Michael Jackson was a phenomenon that in many ways brought friends and my family together multiple times. Michael is a common interest among over 10 million people. There is no other and there will be no other moonwalker, beatboxing, black or white musician who can do what Jackson did as a musician, producer and performer.

My heart goes out to all the fans, my sister who’s hurting and the Jackson family.

Play a little Michael today if you can.

Links

Stranger In Moscow Video

Every morning I wake up to…crows. Yeah, not a rooster or a melody from my alarm clock, not even from the neighbours going down the stairs in the early morning. However, it turns out, there’s more to these birds than meets my headache every morning. I’m not sure if I’m intrigued by this video or slightly disturbed.

According to The Global Language Monitor, on June 10th, 2009 at 10:22 am, the English language saw its one millionth word officially added. But this wasn’t just some random word like “N00b” or “Slumdog” (both of which were considered). This word is causing some whispers. People like myself were quite surprised when they found out what the happy new was. Are you ready for this? The 1,000,000th word added into the English language is… Web 2.0

Web 2.0 is a technical term meaning the next generation of World Wide Web products and services. It has crossed from technical jargon into far wider circulation in the last six months

You have got to be kidding me. Come on now, Web 2.0? For real?

For real.

By the way. The Global Language Monitor states that a new word is created about every 98 minutes (14.7 per day). Word number 1,000,001… “Financial Tsunami”.

It’s been 7 years since Maxwell made so much as a peep. There’s something about musicians who take their time with their process. It’s been pretty hectic in the entertainment world, everyone has been trying to make their comeback. Britney, Christina Aguilera, Kanye, Rihanna, Chris Brown and to be honest it’s been a little exhausting keeping track of less than perfect songs. On July 7th, things are going to take a turn and R&B soul crooner Maxwell will hit the scene in full force releasing his latest album Black Summer Nights.

If soulful music is your thing then Maxwell is your guy. Ladies, I dare you not to fall in love with this man. Guys trust me… you will be playing this on a late summer evening.

Check out the new video for his first single off Black Summer Nights, “Pretty Wings.”

Links

Maxwell – This Woman’s Work

Maxwell – Get To Know Ya

Typewriter is a sentimental album and in the end the honest lyrics and melodious guitar riffs will lead the way to the answers of what it really means to love and let love.

Typewriter is available as a free download on the Francis Cheer website.

Links

Francis Cheer Official Website

Francis Cheer Typewriter

Hey guys, I’m Kim.

The newest R4NT intern! While interning for R4NT I will be blogging mostly about music and fashion. I run Calgary Fashion in my spare time and dancing is my hobby!

Summer time is probably one of my favourite seasons and this summer I plan to check out as many shows as possible.

This weekend a friend and I made an impromptu road trip up to Edmonton to see South Rakkas, Ghislain Poirier and Baltimore rap star Rye Rye play the Starlite Room. The show was a night of heavy bass lines, neo-soca beats and a mix of dancehall rhythms and electronic music. MIA’s newest protege Rye Rye has been given rave reviews, Rolling Stones just recently did an article on the fast rapping, booty popping, show stopping performer. Overall, the performance from Rye Rye was decent, the audience shook to ground and chanted in time as the rapper worked the stage during her single “Wassup Wassup.”

Stand outs for the night however were between South Rakkas and Montreal based DJ as well as producer Ghislain Poirier who both opened for the show.

Nothing could prepare us for the the dance revolution that would be unleashed when Dennis ‘Dow Jones’ Shaw (South Rakkas) stepped up to his turn tables. The single “Get Mad Again” by South Rakkas has been a popular track for the crew with remixes popping up all over the Internet. South Rakkas experiments with hip-hop, reggae and dancehall. The movement of the crowd could not be contained, bodies grooving everywhere and the night had only begun.

Ghislain Poirier is in the middle of one heck of a touring schedule and is also known as a pioneer of what is being labeled “lazerbass.” Which according to an article on XLR8R, consists of “fusing hip-hop’s and dancehall’s lyrical fire and insistent boom-bap with techno’s heavy kicks, glitchy noise, and 8-bit synths.”

Poirier played live with a drummer and was accompanied by his vocalist Face-T who can be heard on the tracks “Wha La La Leng” and “Blazin.”

We danced…and danced…and now I remember why I have to keep up my Yoga appointments.

Links

South Rakkas

Ghislain Poirier

XLR8R Lazer Bass Crunk Feature