Blog entries

Kid Suda launch @ Strongroom

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 16:26:34 +0100

We once witnessed a sober man drop and smash two trayfulls of drinks, 5 minutes apart, outside Strongroom. Maybe the same can happen to you if you head down to Kid Suda's EP launch tomorrow.

"Emotive lovesteps, raw basslines and pure dancefloor killers" is how label Raw Format describes Lovest (listen on Soundcloud), the comeback release of the UK jungler recently returned from four years of Barcelona warehouse parties and touring with Neneh Cherry.

Support from EVM128 plus special guests. Strongroom Bar, Friday 10 Feb, 9pm-late, free entry.

G-side

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 15:47:54 +0100

Stephen "ST 2 Lettaz" Harris and David "Yung Clova" Williams met at the Boys & Girls Club in Athens, Alabama and in 1999 became rap duo G-Side.

A jewel in the crown of their latest album, Gettin’ It - featuring vocalist Joi Tiffany, rapper Stalley and production team Block Beattaz - has gone and got hisself some visuals; somewhere to settle your eyeballs while appreciating the rhyming talents.

As Vice once said, "Oh shit, a classic rap record". Quite.

Island is available to download here.

Make Up Your Mind

secretdj — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 12:44:02 +0100

The cool thing about Make Up Your Mind - the new single from Luke Temple's Brooklyn five-piece Here We Go Magic - is that it never even pauses for breath.

It's like a souped-up T.Rex Jeepster crossed with Joe Cocker's Steppin' Out on the stereo. From the moment it revs up 'til just over the 4-minute mark it tears through its stream-of-consciousness lyrics with the two-chord confidence of a true 70s supergroup. Starting to wonder why you haven't been listening more? Us too.

Their third LP A Different Ship is due on Secretly Canadian (though we don't think they are) on May 8. For a bit of background, check out 2011's The January EP here.

Shlohmo - New EP!

secretdj — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 11:49:58 +0100

FACT and FADER mix aficionado Shlohmo (Henry Laufer) reaches the sounds other producers can't reach.

New EP Vacation boasts three beauties: lead track The Way U Do dons shivering vocals, riffing D'Angelo-style with a guitar-voice blend; the painstakingly bleepy When Uuu visits James Blake; and Rained The Whole Time (our no.1) is country and western electronica so dark you can almost hear Nancy being shot down.

Available now on iTunes, or on 12" pre-order here for lots of remix goodness.

Everyone's talking about

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 15:11:39 +0100

So Will Be Now... - the closing tune of Barcelona producer John Talabot's long-form debut - is what you might call sensual house (if noone was looking).

With vocal enhancement from Madrid's Pional - a sculpted sound akin to Antony Hegarty - the track's vague title starts life as a morsel chopped up and played with garage style, and unfolds into an utterly addictive mellow-disco groove.

Fin is out now on iTunes via Permanent Vacation, download here.

Beaty Heart @ The Roundhouse

secretdj — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 12:12:26 +0100

We spent some time last week mesmerized by Beaty Heart's Slush Puppy video - oh the churning icy red and blue of it all! (Click picture to view)

Joined by French artist Sarah Leo, the Roundhouse Choir, experimentalists Clout! and laptop band Waylayers, Beaty Heart - "London's answer to Animal Collective" - bring their psychedelic drum pop (percussion obsession) to the "Sonic" series this weekend.

Friday 10 Feb, 7:30pm, tickets £6. More info and book here.

The first time I ran away

secretdj — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 11:18:47 +0100

Him from She & Him, M Ward, hails the release of his forthcoming album with this circle-of-life tale of homes from home.

Its heartwarming animation (complete with a top-class fluffy llama) comes courtesy of artist and director Joel Trussel.

You can pre-order A Wasteland Companion now on Bella Union.

Uner - Pallene

secretdj — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 19:00:00 +0100

The sheer drought of original ideas in Madonna's new single has left us thirsty for some good music tonight.

Catalonia's Uner has de-constructed traditional Flamenco and remade it here in synth language, building up this minimal house number with utmost patience - just how good Balearic should be done.

From the EP Palua available now on iTunes.

Ray-Bans and headdresses

secretdj — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 16:31:57 +0100

"My chain hits my chest when I'm bangin' on the dashboard". Exactly the sort of thing you'd expect to happen to M.I.A..

Beat-wise, Bad Girls is actually reaching back to Santogold's Creator - nothing wrong with that of course, great hook. Maybe someone can cobble together a little mash-up?

So it's all jewellery, car stunts and desert fires (directed in Morocco by Romain Gavras) to go with her Middle Eastern hip-hop, and when the chorus kicks in you relax into the experienced hands of Britney hitmaker Danja, making sure proceedings are a little more chart-friendly this time around.

Download from iTunes.

The Youtube video's being a bit sulky, so try here, and if no luck check it out on Soundcloud.

NTS.. seriously good radio

secretdj — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 21:22:16 +0100

On air from April '11, Hackney-based NTS is the second incarnation of beloved music blog Nuts To Soup. It's DIY radio packed full of original, in-depth shows like Kiss My Arts (their own weekly culture fix), i-D mag's monthly playlist, and Future Times, broadcasting classic dance live from Washington with the duo behind the FT label.

Stream live from the site, iTunes or pretty much any media player; also their archived shows are on Soundcloud. You can even get in touch about that radio show you've been planning all your life.

Zammuto - Idiom Wind

secretdj — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 14:08:09 +0100

One half of experimental NY duo The Books and D.I.Y. architect Nick Zammuto draws sparse but beautiful patterns in raw percussion, twisting cello and Strawberry Fields mellotron for his first single as Zammuto.

Their self-titled LP is out on Temporary Residence, April 3. Download the single here.

Portico Quartet continue the brilliance

secretdj — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 17:35:00 +0100

(Almost) in the words of Sting, "everything little thing they does is magic". The East-London based jazz quartet have been mixing things up of late, with soundscapes akin to Burial, Flying Lotus and Trent Reznor. We can't speak highly enough of this. We tried climbing the Gherkin and saying it, but it still wasn't highly enough.

LP available now on iTunes.

Zoo Festival (not the lads' mag)

secretdj — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 15:40:18 +0100

Early tropical-bird tickets are now on sale for the UK's first ever festival in an abandoned zoo - the brainchild of events team The Zoo Project which began life in the Ibizan hills of Benimussa.

You can party in the puffin enclosure, shimmy in the seal pit and.. get away with not shaving? Can't help thinking it'd be even better with the residents, though unfortunately the effects of underground electronica on non-primates is, as yet, untested.

14-17 September, secret location nr London (bah), early bird tickets £49.99 + BF, standard price £94.99. Info here.

A good kind of active child

secretdj — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 13:23:56 +0100

We've been a little spellbound this afternoon by the soaring strings, fly fishing and all-round loveliness of Hanging On by Pat Grossi's Active Child. Probably should've saved it for hump day encouragement, but hey ho.

From the album You Are All I See, available on iTunes.

Dustin Wong

secretdj — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 12:44:07 +0100

What you probably won't get from this is that Dustin Wong - armed with a carpet of pedals - can dream up this kind of guitar wonderland in one take, as demonstrated in his live Skype session for Supersweet TV.

Focusing more on solo work since the split of art-rock group Ponytail last year, his new album Dreams Say, View, Create, Shadow Leads is out on Thrill Jockey in February and sees him take up residency as a kind of Steve Reich for our time.

Pre-order here on iTunes.

Timpani Behaving Badly

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 14:56:41 +0100

New on Black Butter, Edinburgh bass monster (and self-confessed "very hairy man") Hostage shows a couple of timpani some career alternatives by surrounding them with dub shouts, wobbly synth lines and 2 Unlimited chord stabs.

There's plenty more where this came from too, on the Listen EP, available on iTunes.

Outlaw-indie-country tonight @ Wilmington

secretdj — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 11:35:38 +0100

They tried to make us go to New Country Rehab and we said, "Sure, what time?"

Country at its finest tonight in our favourite Clerkenwell emporium as Communion present their outlaw-indie-country sounds at the Wilmington Arms.

This fiddle, percussion, guitar and bass quartet cite Hank Williams and Arcade Fire among their influences, though our favourite biog nugget must be this comment from CBC Radio, "The guys everyone wants in their band, in a band".

Mon 30 Jan, 7.30pm, free. More info here.

Black White & Blue

secretdj — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 15:05:03 +0100

It's been a while, Ladyhawke.

Our first taste of the new album (Anxiety, out March 19 on Modular) has all the swaggering guitar worship of her debut, with vocals that appear more front and centre, more multi-dimensional, than ever. See if you can spot the chorus's passing resemblance to Tragedy by Steps; it's only a vague resemblance though, don't fret.

You can pre-order Black White & Blue, with remixes from Punks Jump Up, The Big Pink and Nile Delta (recommended), now on iTunes.

Can I do anything to make you stay?

secretdj — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 18:20:42 +0100

Church organ, Florence and a bass without limits equals goosebumps aplenty from Breakage's rework of No Light, No Light. Got to love that James Boyle.

Download from iTunes.

Sunday Best, Vol. 5

secretdj — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 16:42:54 +0100

From humble beginnings as Rob Da Bank's leftfield Sunday club night, to Bestival, to releasing the debut album of Sir The Twin Peaks Lynch, Sunday Best have a solid gold reputation for fine tunes and top-notch curation.

A smorgasbord for their ever-eclectic roster, the latest in the Increase The Peace series features tracks by Beardyman, David Lynch and Kitty Daisy & Lewis, plus remixes by Underworld, Jamie Woon and Drums of Death.

And at £4.99 it has to be one of the most bargainous comps around. Get it from iTunes here.