Been a fan of Sincere's since the free 'Written in the Stars' mixtapes.
This is a nice tune, the sample works very well with the instrumental. Sincere normally comes on the hip hop tip, but he's switched for a dubstep production on this. Not entirely convinced on the Skrillex styled glitch breakdown at the end of the track, but it doesn't ruin the song.
'Roots Manuva's 'Get the Get', taken from his forthcoming album '4everevolution'. 'Get the Get' will be released 26 Sept as a digital download, featuring remixes from Breakage and Slugabed.'
Been slow on the posts this week. Flu has taken over my life and listening to music has been giving me headaches. Fear not, because Roots Manuva is back with another banger.
Following on from 'Watch Me Dance' with Toddla T, Roots Manuva brings us 'Get The Get' from his new album '4everevolution'.
The beat bounces from start to finish with Roots layering it with a ridiculously smooth flow, along with a Lily Allen sounding female vocal.
Have to be honest, I wasn't completely sure about this one on the first play.
Like most things I listen to I need to play it multiple time in order to gain a actual opinion on it. Sometimes is isn't the case, but a lot of time stuff escapes me because I don't give it enough time.
This was nearly the case with Echo Park, after around four or five plays I'm now hooked. The fact that it's only a clip is actually really annoying me now, as I want to hear the whole damn song. The fade out at the end of the clip is killing me!
The vocoder vocals get me on this and whole overall feel to the track has such a massive vibe to this tune as well. You can't help but get sucked into the funk. You can't resist it.
Also, it's worth reading the press release that was sent over to me, as it's quite a read. There's a deep background into Echo Park.
I was going to cut and paste a few lines, but thought I'd include the whole thing...
'“The violence of the 8.8 earthquake in Feb. shook my family and I out of our home and basically made us hit 'reset' on all of our life plans. We had been saving enough to finally pay for visas for my wife and her son, in order to fulfill our dream of moving back to my native LA. That money was spent on relocating the family and replacing things lost in the quake... I was basically 31, broke, with 2 small kids and no gigs of which to speak. I had contact with labels but was just getting sick of fighting when people just wanted me to sound like I did years ago. The frustration of going through the quake, the setbacks and lack of interest in the more musical side of my work began to eat at me and I almost hung it up and got a construction job. My wife has been amazing and we have been very fortunate that the project landed in the right hands. After all is said and done the musical contributions and help we received from musicians in the US and UK has been amazing. This record is the sound of our struggle as a family, to do our thing and be ourselves even in the face of catastrophe and tragedy.”
Echo Park is the brain child of Brian Gibbs. Los Angeles born and now living in Santiago, Chile, Brian is a true adventurer - musically and in life.
He cut his musical teeth in LA alongside the kind of artists who would later form the Brainfeeder / Low End Theory axis - but in 1999 got itchy feet and left for Tokyo, where he founded the notorious techno labels Deafmosaic and Gunjack Series. Another relocation to Madrid, Spain saw him reconnecting with hip hop and funk roots but also, via Jaxx Records, experimenting the sort of dark sub-bass mutations that inadvertently prefigured dubstep. Moving again to Mexico City, he met his wife, a Chilean national from Santiago, and returned home with her - only to discover a fascinating and intricate experimental hip hop scene thriving underground despite much adversity in the Chilean capital.
“2010 was a hard year, in January the beloved Chilean beatmaker Geoslide passed away, the earthquake happened in February, and then I got sick around the end of summertime.”
Brian was hospitalized in August 2010 after an undiagnosed digestive condition caused ruptured internal organs and blood poisoning. After a month long battle in a grimy public hospital, Brian returned home and began recording like a man possessed.
“Lying up in that (hospital) bed I just remember thinking: ‘Fuck me I should have just made real songs.’ I got back and I just didn’t care about hard music so much anymore. After fearing for my life, my kids, somehow the brooding, ominous music people had come to expect from me just made me uncomfortable. So I started making music I personally would want to listen to, eventually writing little songs about lost love or some such distraction.”
These “little songs” were passed to music journalist Joe Muggs who in turn played them to Disfigured Dubz boss Skream, who says: "This is Fucking Amazing". Since hooking up with Disfigured Dubz Brian’s “little songs” have turned into a double album’s worth of sheer delight where, dare we say it, every song is a winner. Packed with musical characters - including Ro Spit and Moe Dirdee of Detroit, Chilean MC Khain74 and 19 year old Cali wonder kid Brian Cade - they take us through Nintendo noir bleeps, peyote-munching George Clinton psyche-funk, and above all pure, sunshine-infused soul melody that you just can’t shake. Echo Park truly is the sound of joy emerging from hardship.'
'Fibre Obtic' will be released in September by Disfigured Dubz.
Lovely piece of smooth vocals laid over chilled out garage beats. Nothing better than nice vocal tones together with garage rhythms, subs and melodics.
The video completely compliments the tune, summer vibes all over this one. If only it wasn't raining out my window.
'Numbers present to you two slices of freewheeling 4x4 Mosca. Opening track ‘Done Me Wrong unfurls perfectly, with all the hallmarks of classic garage production; rough, ominous low end and a jacking, infectious best. The B-side, ‘Bax,’ builds on this formula although it focuses more on the punishing, physical side of the bassline. With both these tracks, Mosca’s aim is to make your feet work overtime.'
Slowly falling in love with everything that is released by Numbers. Great label.
Instantly loved these tunes on my first listen. The subs on both these tracks are overpoweringly good, irresistible baselines.
It's becoming standard that True Tiger remix Ed's singles now and for this one they have also recruited two up-and-comers in the shape of Dot Rotten and Scrufizzer.
Scrufizzer is increasingly becoming my favourite MC in the UK right now. His flow is immense.
Below is the whole set from the 'You Need Me, I Don't Need You' EP featuring the original sb.tv version, the Gemini, Culprate & Loadstar remixes and the remix with Wretch 32 and Devlin...
This is the first track from Game I've actually listened to in a long time, after seeing recent Jay-Z disses surfacing. He needs to leave Hova alone seriously, it's beyond boring.
The main reason I listened to this? Wayne and Tyler. Game went down the Chris Brown route of getting everyone else's' favourite artists on a track together, forcing you to listen to him. Little bit of an unfair comment, but it worked. I listened and I liked.
'Nero are the London dubstep/drum'n' bass duo of Daniel Stephens and Joe Ray whose debut mixes the pop and the ponderous, occupying a halfway point between Burial and N-Dubz.'via The Independent.
'L-Vis 1990 is probably best known for his forward thinking bass sounds and innovative Night Slugs label which he runs with label mate Bok Bok. Since Night Slugs was launched in 2008 L-Vis 1990 and crew have been hailed as significant contributors to the rapidly emerging bass sound' via blahblahblah.
Great piece of dance music here.
Extremely addictive is all I can say. I think I'm going to have this on repeat until it's released.
Been steadily getting into L-Vis and the Night Slugs gang in recent months and the sound of this is very encouraging moving towards the debut LP from L-Vis 1990.
The vocal does sound in the same style of Chromeo.
'During a time when the UK is in uproar with rioting from London to Liverpool, the Street Commentator Bashy steps away from his acting spell to give his voice to the people.
Inspired by the talented Ed Sheeran, Bashy uses True Tiger's dubstep mix as the gritty back drop to express the ever so present frustrations of today's young people.'
Packed with quirky and humorous narratives and innovative and poetic metaphors, ‘Black and White’ confirms Wretch’s status as the MC’S MC, positioning him as potentially the most interesting lyricist this country has produced since Mike Skinner.'
Looking forward to this album, Wretch is one of the best out here and I hope this does well. I'm pretty confident it will.
Can't wait to get my hands on the mp3 of 'Anniversary', been playing that from YouTube for months now.
I'm not going to lie, this is the first hip hop album that I've brought in a little while. The production, features and writing credits are a impressive list of talented guys, Frank Ocean, 88 Keys, Swizz Beats, Pharrell and The Netpunes, Bruno Mars, Rza, Beyonce, The-Dream and Mr Hudson.
With a list like that it's hard not to get excited about this album.
Instant Stand outs: Ni**as in Paris, New Day, Who Gon Stop Me, Made in America & Why I Love You.
'This is the first teaser track from my upcoming solo record "Distraction Pieces". Produced by Danny Lohner. Backing vocals by Mila Jovovich & Cameron Slade. Shot for £100. Directed by Aaron Shrimpton & Scroobius Pip. Shot by Tom Coles. Lighting by Oliver Quintrell & Emily Brown.'
Always been a fan of Scroobius Pip ever since I saw him live, supporting Lethal Bizzle of all people. Had the pleasure of seeing him and Dan Le Sac live on multiple occasions and they are immense.
I first heard of Pip going alone on an album a little while ago and I guess it makes sense, especially now we have a little piece of material here with 'Introdiction'.
The track and video work ever so well together. Mostly quite odd viewing, but it gets your attention and keeps it. This has gotten me very hyped for the album release.
'This is the brand new album from Example, featuring his #1 smash hit 'Changed The Way You Kiss Me' and forthcoming single 'Stay Awake' and including production from Michael Woods, Nero, Skream, Chase and Status, Faithless and more.'
Initial thoughts... 'Midnight Run' instantly hit me, 'Microphone' just sounds terrible, 'Under the Influence' is an absolute banger and 'Natural Disaster' is going to destroy a few clubs from here to everywhere.
This album is defiantly trying to satisfy a lot of people. Big dance floor rave numbers to start, slowing it down to get serious for a few, then getting some filthy wobbles involved before reaching a sobering finish. Whatever your thoughts on Example, this album is going to be huge and yet another massive success for Ministry.
'Playing In The Shadows' is released on 4th September 2011 on Ministry of Sound Recordings.
Going to try and post up a slection of random tunes that I've been stumbling on, but have for some reason not written about them on here. Most of these tunes have either been sent to me via Soundcloud or I've some how come across them and have been playing relentlessly.
Hopefully I'll keep up with this and try to have a monthly selection of random goodness. The emphasis will be on unsigned acts, but I'm going to throw in a few decent cuts from well known artists also.
