Stuffie?

I blipped this, but it's worth pushing again.

Uffie + Starkey = Massssssssssive tune.

Hot Or Lot

Recently, I've seen a bit of a fuss about Salem. At first listen, the Cocteau Twins Do Dubstep would seem the obvious comparison but certainly the chilling & ethereal electronica is an appropriately autumnal alternative to the big bright bangers of the summer. And some of their videos are, quite frankly, disturbing. Anyway, this is their latest offering, 'Frost':


Yes, I like it, but why do I feel the sudden urge to put a jumper on?

From The Flames

So, Phoenix then.

Fantastic group, formed out of the ashes (hence...) of Air's early backing band and one of the first incarnations of Daft Punk. That's not so much 'cool' in my book as '−459.67°F' and falling.

I remember loving their first LP (whose name eludes me without firing up some reference site or other) but which had the standout track/single 'If I Ever Feel Better') way back in 2000 and then the brilliant 'Alphabetical' in mid-2004. If you haven't heard 'Everything Is Everything' then you haven't lived. You haven't? OK, here you go:

Anyway, thanks to Spotify I recently discovered they have a new album out entitled 'Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix' (the title of which appealed to the uber music geek in me, obviously). Here's a sample, 'Lisztomania' which is the first track off the album, and another absolute winner IMHO:

So, y'know, get into Phoenix. Yes, I know they're French but it works for them.

NeRoux

You know I really like La Roux.

You know I bloody love dubstep.

You know I rather admire Nero.

Love the brooding quality he brings to the original, just by slinging it into the minor key and slapping a filthy bassline round its chops (thanks to Chris for the heads up).

You can also have a lot of fun by opening two copies of this page and playing the tracks slightly (3/8 works) out of sync...

...oh, just me then?

Jaguars Earlobes

In fact, no tasty Roman nibbles here but another excellent mix from the Ocelot boys (who did a really great reworking of Dragonette's 'Competition').

Ocelot July 2009 Mixtape

When you see Toxic Avenger back to back with Timo Maas & Felix Da Housecat you know it's worth checking out. So, er, check it out.

SuperStarkey

New hairs-on-back-of-neck dubstep tune for you. The VIP remix of Gutter Music by Philly-based producer Starkey has the most amazing chord sequence. Mad arpeggiated synths and a healthy dose of clattering electro drums probably mean it's not for the faint hearted but I can't get enough of it. Check it, buy it:

Trust The Remix

That nice Mr Skinner has decided to allow the great unwashed to remix his excellent track "Trust Me". I shall be having a go shortly, but for now here are the first attempts (quite liking the autotuned jungle one from Rumblejazz)

bln.kr | remix skinnermike

Listening To The Tweets (Lock Down Your Aerial)

I've always admired The Streets and Mike Skinner's DIY ethic and he's now decided to release tracks via Twitter. Last Monday he posted this:

And he did, the best of which is in my humble opinion the funk-tinged 'Trust Me' (anyone know the sample? - Spotter Ed) which should be belting out of every car stereo in South London this summer, if there is any justice. Check it:

The Streets - Trust Me

Just loving the lyrics ("I see Alice in Wonderland / I see malice in Sunderland") and look! Beards are the new black; I am so on message this season:

(excellent pic from stereogum.com which also has the other two tracks)

Kill (Slight Return)

OK, so I don't know what to do now; this Foamo* bootleg of the La Roux remix is even better!



La Roux - In For The Kill (Foamo Skream Remix Bootleg)
Atmospherics from Burial, beats from Underworld, bassline chopped out of the Skream mix and Elly's soaring voice floating above it all. That's like someone (Sylar?) lifted off the top of my head, peered in and wrote down all the things that do 'the neck hair thing'. A win of epic proportions.

* straight outta High Wycombe, he did that 'Everything Cool' thing that was all over the place last summer...

Tune.

I love dubstep.

It has to be the ultimate genre. Where else would you find half-time reggae marching drums, 808 techno kicks, massive 90s anthemic basslines, delicate twittering hi-hats, rave stabs, speeded-up jungle breaks and soaring atmospheric vocal stylings thrown together with ice-cold production, whilst retaining modern urban credibility. And that's just the middle eight...

Anyway, lately I've been listening to a lot of dubstep producers' mixes: Benga, Shackleton, Joker & my personal favourite, Croydon-based flag bearer for the modern dubstep scene, Skream. I previously posted his reworking of La Roux but his mix for "Mischka Presents..." (available here at Discobelle.net) is awesome, starting out quite sparse and 'beaty' but moving more into vocal remixes/bootlegs by the last quarter of an hour or so.

Which is where I found this:


It's an unreleased bootleg of "Blinded By The Lights" by The Streets, a classic clubbing anthem in its time but the bass drop on this just sent the hairs on the back of my neck into overdrive ('Dark Train' by Underworld has the same effect when the synths come in). The blogs/forums seem to think it is by Nero, as does Mary-Anne Hobbs (who should know) but nobody has confirmed this yet, as far as I know.

Enjoy. And hopefully it might make its way onto a flat, round, black bit of vinyl in the not-too-distant future.

Morning Has Broken

Today was the first day this year that I have awoken, showered, dressed and left the house to get my train all in some kind of actual morning daylight. Added to which, the first track that came on when I plugged in my headphones was this, which is beautiful (and given that I was about to get on a train in the light for the first time in months, somewhat apt).



Vector Lovers - 'Metrolux Forever'

Make It So(ny)

It. Is. Done.

A life-changing event has befallen us. Our inner sanctum will never be the same again. Let us breathe deeply, cast out thoughts of ancient times and reach out -- onwards, upwards to a new beginning. This is Day One, Ground Zero, Point Break, Face Off, Layer Cake, Don't Tell Mom The Babysitters Dead [stop now - Movie Ed.]. It's the launchpad to a better world. To infinity ... and beyond.

Yes, I've got a new phone.

But are you sitting down?

Because it's not a Nokia.

*pause for collective gasp of gathered crowd, smelling salts to be liberally applied, children removed to a safe haven and learnéd philosophers to be consulted as to whether the Earth is still on its axis*

Currently nestled in my slightly-clammy palm is a shiny new SonyEricsson C902. It's lovely. Sleek, understated graphite design. Crisp, clear screen & responsive keypad. Quad-band, 3G HSDPA and Bluetooth. MP3/AAC/FM radio and really impressive sound quality. Clever touchscreen 'hotspot' features for the camera options. Oh, did I mention the camera? 5.0 megapixel -- with a flash. A flash I tell you! On a phone!

But the best bit, the thing that makes me grin like a moron, is how you activate the lens cover. You slide the end of the phone out - like Bond' Minolta spy camera in OHMSS! Look, here in this somewhat OTT promo video:



Yes, yes, I'm sure there'll be a new one out in about, oooh, fifteen minutes that makes mine appear like this, but for the moment I simply don't care. Loyal readers (and anyone unlucky enough to get caught at the bar with me) will know that I have roundly derided Sony for its ongoing proprietary attitude to file formats, memory sticks and the like but I'll forgive them (for a bit, natch) on the back of this shiny little bit of gadgety goodness.

Sorry, Nokia, but just so you know where I am -- I'm out. It's been fun. But my head has been turned by the dark side, mwahahahahaha.

Right, who shall I call?

Dream Caused By The Flight Of A Bee Around A Lollipop?

I do love Danny Baker and catching up with his recent 606 podcast, hidden within a discussion about the wearing of an old Sheffield Wednesday shirt abroad, I was utterly astonished to find out that Salvador Dali designed the Chupa Chups logo:

Actually, so was Danny; he still wasn't buying it at the end of the show. Have a listen:


Excellent!

Girl Turk*

Remember the fuss about Girl Talk's "Feed The Animals" album? Andy Baio at Waxy.org decided to compile the metadata for the various (264!) samples included in all 14 tracks, using Amazon's Mechanical Turk (on-demand scalable workforce) service.

And then made some rather nice graphical charts. I like it a lot.

Mechanical Turk Feeds The Animals

* I cannot claim this one, for shame!

Ken Lee

OK, I give up, failblog wins:


Tulibu dibu douchoo? Gesundheit!

Nix Mux

That didn't last long:

"Muxtape will be unavailable for a brief period while we sort out a problem with the RIAA. "

Nicely underplayed...

Just A Blip?

Ian Tait over at crackunit thinks this might just be the best thing ever:

Blip.fm | Global Music Radar

As he says:

It’s like the best bits of last.fm, twitter, and muxtape all rolled into one. And it plays nicely with all the web stuff it ought to.

Agreed - get up and join blip.fm at once. Just do. See you over there...

Smelly Bears Seen Exiting Woods

Following on from this and this, come the (renegade) masters of the bleedin' obvious with this:

Girl Talk Flouts Copyright Law (NYTimes.com)

You. Don't. Say.

However, this line from the wonderfully titled Barry Slotnick (happy days at school, Barry?) I think tilts it inadvertently more towards Greg Gillis (but then again I never did finish that law degree):

“What you can’t do is substitute someone else’s creativity for your own.”

No, that would be stealing. But there is a long history of putting bits and pieces and sounds together and calling it musique concrete, no? So who decides how much is a substantial part and how much is just a relatively insignificant bit of a larger work - that has to be the courts. This could get interesting, if someone really wants to challenge him. It's not just one (highly recognisable) sample looped over and over whilst MC Thingummy does his schtick over the top - this is possibly a new genre.

Of course, if they have any brains left up their noses, they will simply do the sensible thing and clamour like mad to be part of his next compilation - think of the publicity, dudes...

Thoughts?

Diplo v Santogold FTW

Awesome - the blogs are all over this like a nasty nylon rash and the full mix is available here but you should really really REALLY just pre-order the CD on Amazon:

Top Ranking: A Diplo Dub

Tracklist:

1. Dub Selection Intro
2. 3-6 Mafia - Late Night (Unstoppable Mix)
3. Santogold - Shuv It (Disco D Blend)
4. Santogold - I’m A Lady (Diplo Mix Ft Amanda Blank)
5. Sir Mixalot - Posse On Broadway
6. Santogold - Lights Out (Diplo’s Panda Bear Mix)
7. Aretha Franklin - Save Me
8. Devo - Be Stiff
9. B52’s - Mesopotamia
10. Gerri And The Holograms - Gerri And The Holograms
11. Santogold - Anne (Switch Mix)
12. Santogold - LES Artistes (XXXchange Mix Ft Movado)
13. Cutty Ranks - Dutty Six Pack
14. Santogold - Find A Way (Graeme & Switch Mix Ft Kid Cudi)/ Lunar Camel
15. Richie Spice x Ratatat - Marijuana
16. Desmond Dekker - Shanty Town
17. Santogold - Guns Of Brooklyn
18. Dixie Cups - Iko Iko
19. Tony Matterhorn - Big Belly Guns
20. Santogold - Get It Up (Radioclit mix Ft MIA & Gorilla Zoe)
21. Mark Ronson In Studio
22. Trouble Andrew - Run - Hide
23. Sister Nancy - Pigeon Rock
24. Nora Dean - Barbwire
25. Shinehead - Know How Fe Chat
26. Clash - Ghetto Defendant
27. Warrior Queen - Check It
28. Santogold x Benga - Unstoppable / Night Dub
29. Shawty Lo x Skream - They Know / Stagger
30. Santogold - Creator (Mumdance Mix ft Jammer, Badness, Chronik Rage, Slikman & Tempz)
31. Xray / Turbulence Duplate (Starstruck Diplo Mix)
32. Barrington Levy - Send A Moses
33. Prince Jazzbo - Ital Corner
34. Santogold - Icarus
35. Santogold x Diplo - Right Brigade (hidden track)

Movies By Fax

Nice take on the MPAA et al and their pursuit of alleged copyright infringers:

Cory Doctorow: Getting tough on copyright enforcers

Dubstep Allstars In Their Eyes

I remember last year flagging up Fairtilizer after stumbling across it chasing some Klaxons shit or other. Anyway, they very kindly emailed me this dubstep playlist which is very much of the bomb, in my humblest of opinions:



The Rusko and Benga tracks are particularly, er, vibrant :)

Muxing It

Rampaging through your bandwidth like an RIAA spokesperson on crystal meth, it's Muxtape. Everyone loves making compilations, don't they? Here's what I had lying around at work on the top sekrit (shhhh!) Z: drive...

Enjoy it while it lasts :)

More Galvanised Marmite, Tintin?

No, I don't know what it stands for, but I like it:

MGMT: Time To Pretend

I'm thinking half a pound of Tears For Fears, with a couple of heaped tablespoons of Depeche Mode (on Mogadon) and a pinch of Talking Heads.

You?

Lurvecast

Heh, someone who snubs Valentine's Day nearly as much as me:

The Lurvecast @ Song, by Toad
Great track list:

01. Nirvana - Where Did You Sleep Last Night? (00.23)
02. The Velvet Underground - Femme Fatale (08.06)
03. The Raveonettes - Little Animal (10.57)
04. R.E.M. - The One I Love (13.57)
05. Half-Man Half-Biscuit - Paintball’s Coming Home (20.54)
06. The Pierces - Boring (25.43)
07. (The Real) Tuesday Weld - Terminally Ambivalent Over You (31.03)
08. Shane MacGowan & the Popes - Her Father Didn’t Like Me Anyway (34.41)
09. The Wave Pictures - When I Leave You For Somebody Else (38.30)
10. Pulp - Pink Glove (45.33)
11. The Raincoats - Don’t Be Mean (50.15)
12. Rufus Wainright - One Man Guy (59.34)
13. William Shatner - Ideal Woman (66.34)
14. The Sequins - Nobody Dreams About Me (71.45)
15. The Smiths - Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want (77.31)
16. The Walkmen - Don’t Forget Me (82.58)

Form An Orderly Queue(d Download)

As a sarcastic b*gger myself, I liked the tone of this:

All this online sharing has to stop

Quite.

Free At Last.fm

Many have tried, but this looks like the mould has finally been smashed on the floor:

Last.fm Blog : Free the Music

"As of today, you can play full-length tracks and entire albums for free on the Last.fm website ... free full-length tracks are obviously great news for listeners, but also great for artists and labels, who get paid every time someone streams a song. Music on Last.fm is perpetually monetized. This is good because artists get paid based on how popular a song is with their fans, instead of a fixed amount ... we already have licenses with the various royalty collection societies, but now unsigned artists can put their music on Last.fm and be paid directly for every song played. This helps to level the playing-field—now you can make music, upload it to Last.fm and earn money for each play ... the business model is simple enough: we are paying artists and labels a share of advertising revenue from the website. Today we’re redesigning the music economy. "

Welcome to the future?

Sony And Yet So Far

John Scalzi on the gaping voids inside the heads of Sony BMG MusicPass execs:

Why It Won’t Work

Gift cards. Genius. Not.

Very Burial

I have been boring everyone silly with how good the Burial albums are; I think I still prefer the eponymously-titled first one, despite the reviewers raving over 'Untrue', (which is still awesome).

Anyway, there is a fantastically-moody and yet still dancefloor-friendly remix by Boy 8-bit which I hope will whet the appetite for more of the same:


via Nialler9 and Mad Decent and do contact me via the comments if I should take this down or something...