Birdy (age 15!!) has had previous Youtube explosions over her cover versions of "Shelter" by The xx and Ed Sheeran's '"A-team", the second of which I think gives the original a good run for it's money.
This one is a cover of Cherry Ghost's 'People Help The People', which I think is an excellent choice. Being a fan of the original I was a bit skeptical that she wouldn't do it justice, but it's real chilled!
Atlantic picked this one up and have decided to give it a release, complete with a remix package.
When i saw the greco-roman camp's producer of the minute, Hackman (the man behind the massive 'Close'), I thought it'd be a no brainer but T.I.P's incredibly chilled out interpretation absolutely kills it. T.I.P (or Two Inch Punch) is definitely one to watch, and files this one under the genre "LoveStep". Sweet.
The original has been, by far, the best remix I've heard this year and I was ecstatic to see this little VIP mix pop up. This track has THE most epic build up and brutal drop, my speakers get blown each time I listen to this.
Taken from the 15 years of Hospital Records compilation released at the end of november.
'Bringing together a superb collection of VIPs, remixes and original material, the "15 Years Of Hospital Records" album provides a comprehensive overview of the label's past, present and future.'
I got to talk with Louis Serrano, a director of Launchpad Management & Records and spoke about working with Wiley, being given 7 days for their first release, working with Tre Mission, up-and-comer Blizzard and some future predictions for the grime scene in 2012.
dpm: For those that don't know, can you give us a quick background to yourself and how the Launchpad label came about?
Louis Serrano: I'm 18 Years old and I've listened to Grime since the age of 11. I started designing video graphics for SB.TV and Roll Deep when I was 16 and last year after getting in touch with another Grime fan, George Quann-Barnett AKA QuannGrime, we decided to try and start our own label for grime music. George had Wiley's number after meeting him at a videoshoot and then Wiley then called me after DMing me on Twitter. I explained what I was trying to set up and a couple of months later he gave me our debut release 'The Radio Kid'.
dpm: I read somewhere that when Wiley handed over 'The Radio Kid' you were given something like a week to release it! That must have been an intense time?
LS: Yeah it was crazy. I woke up one Sunday morning, Wiley rang me and said that by the same night he'd have a song finished for us to release and then he just casually added "yeah, let's bring it out next Sunday". So it was crazy.
We'd never done a release before and we had less than 7 days to promote it. Our Twitter account had like 5 followers, yet the very next day we managed to get it on Logan's show on Kiss and all through the week it had airplay on Radio 1, 1xtra and Rinse. We were very lucky with the support we got from DJ's particularly Mistajam, all the DJ's played a massive part in getting 'The Radio Kid' in to the Top 200 Charts.
dpm: What's the mission statement behind Launchpad? What was it that you set out to achieve with the label?
LS: The mission and aim for Launchpad is to take Urban artists and their music and treat it how a major label would treat a mainstream release, just on an independent scale. Trying to add a more professional vibe to the way the Grime scene is run.
dpm: That's a really good thing to bring to the scene because there's been an explosion of talent and to get yourself above the norm you have keep your content to a professional standard. I'm a massive fan of Wiley's. How has working with an artist so established in the scene, especially with your first release, helped you as a label?
LS: Being able to work with the Godfather of a scene, you've only just started to get involved in has been mad. It's definitely been a blessing for us, he's helped so much with giving us 2 singles, advice and also inviting us to his studio for meetings to introduce us to other artists and producers.
Having him on board has made people take us more seriously and obviously given us some attention we wouldn't of got on our own.
dpm: How do you look for artists? and what do they have to do in order to grab your attention?
LS: Well so far, most of our releases have been from established and legendary artists in their field. Tre Mission was the first person who we released a debut from. With the help from JME, Wiley and support from Mistajam and Logan Sama, he is now certified in the scene. We saw potential in him, a Canadian Grime artist is just too much of an interesting thing to ignore so we made sure to approach him before any other label did.
In terms of looking for artists, Blizzard who is signed and managed by Launchpad, struck our attention cause of his diverse musical ability which involves his lyrics, producing and performance. We just try to look for artists that are capable of multiple things.
dpm: We're nearly coming to an end for this year. Do you have any predicitions for the grime scene for 2012? Any particular artists, producers, DJs, etc.
LS: This year has been a really great time for new sounds and for the Grime sound to evolve.
So many artists have shown the levels this year, I like Marger a lot, cause I can see him taking the sound into the charts without changing it too much to cater for a mainstream audience.
Tre Mission will definatley be one to watch next year and Blizzard, who you will hear and see a lot more of! In terms of producers, I think Preditah is clearly the one right now and I'm sure he's gunna move on to some huge projects next year! I do think though that the original legendary MC's Skepta, Wiley, JME, Ghetts, Kano, Scorcher, Dot Rotten, Jammer, Roll Deep etc will be doing massive things, in terms of monster singles, tours, albums... there's a lot to look forward to!
dpm: I've seen a few things from YouTube on Blizzard and the guy is most defiantly one to watch. What has it been like to work with artists not from the hub of London, with Blizzard from Manchester and Tre in Canada? Does it cause problems or not, with all the digital tools that we have?
LS: Blizzard is a very talented spitter. Working with him has been a really interesting project, he's been involved in the scene since he was 11 so he's had a few years to find himself musically, I think now that we've got involved he's ready to take it to the next step, you're starting to see that now with his videos on SB.TV and also a few collaborations and co-signs from JME, Wiley and others. Him being in Manchester hasn't been too much of a problem so far, right now in this stage of his career he's writing a lot and so we let him do his thing that way... further down the line we'll come in when it's time for his work to be heard and therefore he'll be in London a lot more.
Despite Tre being on the other side of the world, things so far have gone quite well, through the internet we were able to work alongside him and secure a Top 20 in the Hip Hop charts for his debut release. I think with him being here there would be a lot more possibilities, I'm sure he'll be back here a lot next year though so it's all good.
dpm: What are launchpad working on at the moment and looking to do in 2012?
LS: Right now we're working closely with Blizzard on developing him as an artist. As well as this we're talking to a few big names about new releases. As a label and a company... just today me and George have been discussing a very interesting addition to the way we work, which fingers crossed will make us grow as a label!
Two great offerings here from Submerse. I've been playing 'Kowai' from Submerse's soundcloud continually since it's upload and instantly loved 'Always, Like This'.
'Always, Like This' has a dark, broody underbelly, brought to life with the garage drum patterns, echoing vocals and heavy bottom end subs. The second drop is the where the whole track comes together.
'Kowai' takes the lead with the vocal, with an industry sounding backdrop, then drops a massive garage beat on top. Love the vocal chops on this and it works so well when the fat bass drop kicks in at the second drop.
Love the way that the garage sound from the 90's is creeping into dance music. So many artists are coming through with the sound and vibe. I read somewhere that all this kind of garage influenced dance music is a modern take on that scene, which is a nice summing up.
It seems like everyday now that a remix for 'video games' is popping out.
The original didn't really do much for me if I'm honest, to the shock horror of some people I've told, but this along with the Jamie Woom remix of a couple of weeks ago really sits well with me. I suppose that's what remixes are there for and these two have served this internet darling well. (Lana, not me).
Joy Orbison is one of my favourite producers, who makes music that is a mixture of dubstep and bass music. His progressive style of music works well at putting you into a trance like dream whilst listening.
I got the opportunity to have a great chat with Tracey from 14th last week and we got to discuss the reaction to their single 'Hide Yourself, the bands influences, their creative process and what's in store for them in the future.
dpm: I really enjoyed 'Hide Yourself'. Your getting a lot of really good positive reactions to it. How does that feel to get that kind of reaction?
14th: Yeah defiantly, it's been really nice actually how people have said nice things.
dpm:A lot of the blogs seem to be tying you into a lot of different genre’s, trying to categorising your sound. Does that amuse you?
14th: Does it amuse me?
dpm:Yeah, I mean, I found it funny because I was going through each blog post and everyone mentioned a different genre.
14th: Yeah, yeah, yeah, completely. Personally, I find it interesting because I think one of the hardest questions sometimes is when your asked 'what you do and what you make?' We just concentrate on making something that we love and something we like the sound of. Obviously there’s some really clear influences, like late 90’s early 2000’s dance and the UK garage sound that’s in there.
It’s so interesting that we're on soul websites and people are really saying that this is a soul song. I’ve never thought that our song was like soul music. It’s so funny. In the beginning I was so dubious about the word soul because I never thought that I had a ‘soul’ vocal.
Acually, I do agree with you that’s it’s been quite funny. It’s really cool that people want to like it and just want to put it somewhere where they can understand it.
dpm:I actually think that I’m guilty of saying that it was soulful.
14th: I actually don’t mind. I’m thinking of giving it that title myself.
dpm:Looking at 4 or 5 different blog entries, it went from being described as Funky House to Garage to, I think someone even said it was, Drum and Bass.
14th: Yeah, I’ve heard Drum and Bass, Dubstep, all sorts.
dpm: Do you and Tom share the same influences?
14th: We have a lot of cross influences, a lot of overlap and at the same time we do draw from slightly different places. So we’ve got different things that we are feeding into it. Even our roles in the band at time are slightly different. I do most of the singing and the people that have inspired me as vocalists are people like Erykah Badu and Lauryn Hill. Growing up in a time when it seemed every girl said she could sing and everyone was doing these R&B vocals and I had a more scratchy sound to my voice and I wasn’t sure where I fitted in.
Having a vocalist like Erykah Badu, who is the most amazing person to me. I have those types of influences and obviously Tom’s got some influences that are into how he wants to make the production sound. There’s defiantly an overlap with the dance, garage and 90’s R&B, which is where both of us are really coming from.
dpm:How do you work together? Do you work separately or together?
14th: We work a bit of both, so we do some jam sessions where Tom will be tinkering with something and we will sit together to get a vibe. Another way that will work really well for us is if Tom starts half way through a track and sends it to me. Then I’ll sit with it and start writing, then come together after I’ve written some verses or a chorus. Then we kinda make up the understanding of where this song is going together. That’s how we work the best.
With Hide Yourself, when Tom first had the basic idea of the chords it came so quickly to us. It started off as a song that just had a melody and it just came. It just a really cool thing from an afternoon in Tom’s bedroom / little studio.
dpm: I got sent over your EP, which is a very enjoyable listen. There’s a lot of variety on there, was that the aim of the EP?
14th: Well we were a band for just over two years, but were living in like a vacuum. We had 'hide yourself' and wanted to make songs that complimented each other. We wanted to take you a little somewhere and with a 4-track EP you haven’t got too far to go.
The most different song is probably the 'millionaire remix', that is a remix of a song that we had written quite a long time ago. Tom had this idea to do a remix and we both loved it so much, even though I’d say it was in one direction more than a lot of the other stuff on the EP. There’s something about that remix we both really loved and wanted to have on the EP. The other songs aren’t going to sound like one song and I think the more people hear of us, the more they will get the 14th sound.
dpm: It’ll keep people guessing.
14th: Yeah, that’s the good thing.
dpm: Will the EP be getting a traditional release?
14th: Yeah, that’s up for release on the 14th November, up on iTunes and all your other stores where you can get your digital music.
dpm: Clever time to release it on the 14th.
14th: Yes, it’s so funny that name. Sometimes we get emails where people get really confused. We thought we’d put it out on the 14th so no one gets confused.
dpm:Obviously you both are concentrating on the EP at the moment , but what is in the pipline for 14th for next year?
14th: Well, the thing about the EP with us is that it's done and dusted in terms of the creative process. So we haven’t quite drawn a line under it, but we are working on what we want to be a really strong solid body of work hopefully for next year. Working on what we want for the next single and how we are going to make that journey. We really want to put something out that makes sence. I’d hate to put something out just because we had 12 songs.
You've really got to make a record and I think especially now that if you get a great album, then that’s a big deal. For us that’s a big goal. We want to get out there a lot, we love performing live and want people to see us, to hear us. The next big push for us to getting that body of work together and getting out there even more, we have done a lot of gigs in London and we want to broadening it out.
dpm: Well, thank you very much for talking to me. Good luck with the EP and everything in the future.
14th: Ah, thank you so much for posting up our stuff because we’ve literally been silent to the rest of the world for quite a while.
dpm: It’s been a pleasure.
14th: Super.
Below is the stream for their debut EP titled 'Hide Yourself'.
Big release here from Skream and an excellent remix from Netsky, who never really seems to disappoint.
Netsky produced, most probably, my favourite remix of the year with Rusko's 'Everyday'. This remix surfaced around March and it's still on in all my playlists and car CDs.
This Gosling remix is a bit special thanks to the always excelling P Money.
He really is one of the top guys at the moment and this is evidence to this, along with his song stealing verse on D Double/Snoop's 'Be Like Me' remix. Hopefully 2012 will see an album from P.
Below is Ed playing an acoustic version of the original 'Lego House and look, he's only on a canal boat...
The production is dark and murky, but Jessie brings it to life with her vocals.
Turned into a fan of Jessie Ware's after hearing her track with Joker and then looking into others that she has featured on. A wonderful voice, which really shines through when you look at some of her live performances at Boiler room.
She is one of the singers around at the moment that I excited about listening to.
To anyone that may be new to Jessie, here are some previous gems...
Jessie Ware & SBTRKT - Nervous [Live at the Boiler Room]
This girl has been getting a tremendous amount of hype over the internet in the last couple of weeks. I was sent promos about her track, but they didn't really register with me.
I stumbled over this on Jamie Woon's soundcloud and it was a really enjoyable listen. Gives a completely fresh take on the original, taking a lot of influences from different genres.
