NOTE: This list will be updated with songs and music and pictures galore until the end of December! Please keep checking back!
Sorry I haven't been around. I've been trying to figure out what to do. In my opinion if I can't give you guys my all then... there is no point in even trying...
Normally that would lead to me saying I'm packing it in... BUT that's not what I want to do. I want to pull my extraordinarily depressed head out of my arse and get back to work.
All the experiences I've had with this blog have been brilliant! I mean whether it was bowling with Klaxons, or FreQ Nasty interviewing me lol, I can't imagine anything cooler. It would be insane to give up now. Plus I still have archived stuff you guys want to hear/see for sure and how could I possibly deprive you of that?
Enough blather... this is why you came here... BEST OF 2010 Remember this is (mostly) based on U.S. release dates (unless the album didn't come out here *cough* TMB)!
Best Albums:
It would be hard to beat the epic scope of Plastic Beach and the inclusion of "Cloud Of Unknowing" sort of seals the deal on it being my "record of the year". I will say that Surfing The Void was a very very very close second.
Gorillaz - "Plastic Beach" Klaxons - "Surfing The Void" To My Boy - "The Habitable Zone" The xx - S/T Editors - "In This Light And On This Evening" Ellie Goulding - "Lights" Foals - "Total Life Forever" Hot Chip - "One Life Stand" M.I.A. - "Maya" The Chemical Brothers - "Further"
Best Singles:
This time Klaxons win as they rightly should! If I could I'd give 'em like every award for best everything (which I almost am) so we'll save some time here and say that the narco-dreamscape vibe of "Twin Flames" wins both best single and best video of the year!
Klaxons - "Twin Flames" (Best song also best video!) La Roux - "Bulletproof" To My Boy - "Hello Horizon" Gorillaz - "On Melancholy Hill" Ellie Goulding - "The Writer" Foals - "This Orient" Kele - "Everything You Wanted" Frankmusik - "Fear Inside Of Me"
Best Non-Brit Dance Album: Matthew Dear - "Black City"
Best Non-Brit Album: Kanye West - "My Beautiful Dark Fantasy"
Best Remix Of The Year: Lady Gaga - "Bad Romance (Starsmith Remix)"
Best Concert Of The Year: Klaxons This is fun because there's a nice story with it.
Well let's start at the end and work our way back to the beginning. Right as we parted company, on our second night with the Klaxons, Jamie Reynolds said "Never has something so negative, in my mind, brought about something so positive"...
What is this negativity you ask? It's around 1:12... it probably worth you knowing that my radio show is called "The Spirit Of Albion" :)
And what was the positivity? The fact I ended up making friends with my favourite band after that mess.
I went to the Klaxons show at the Magic Stick with the expectation that I would have some time to talk to them. I'd already talked to their manager so it was a sure thing (but I kind of expected it to be like 5 minutes, and a hand shake, and off we go). Instead it turned into hanging out with the whole band til 2am and going bowling. Then getting an invitation extended to join them in Chicago the next day blew the lid off of awesome and we entered some new realm of awesome lol...
Highlights: Bowling with Jamie and creating our own new technique; surprisingly I won which made no sense... Bursting into song with James singing Kajagoogoo's "Too Shy" (as he could not remember the city of Kalamazoo) Simon inviting us to Chicago where the list read "Guy from Detroit" Exposing the band to Bell's beer one of Kalamazoo's greatest exports Hearing loads of awesome stories that I'd never read in a magazine, or write about here Jamie bought a fucking CROSSBOW because that's how truck stops in America work Making friends with one of my favourite bands of all time
Lowlights: (or "The stupid shit I say to this band every time I see Klaxons") James: "So I guess the original version of the album sounded more like 'Echoes'"... Me: "(Me thinking of the sound) You mean like Ride? Like shoegazey music?!?" James: "Umm, no, like the song 'Echoes'" Me: "Oh, yeah... *awkward pause*"
Me: "Anthony, I'm really glad I didn't realize who you were last night. I think I would have geeked out" Note: For those of you who don't know Anthony Rossmondo was Pete Doherty's replacement in The Libertines which is this blog's other favourite band Anthony: "I'm really glad that you didn't do that" Me: "Yeah me too, me too" (if you picture me acting like Scott Pilgrim that scene just comes alive with how retarded I was acting)
As far as a review of the live show: The shows both nights were great but the Chicago show had more energy than the Detroit one (largely due to crowd size). They really killed nearly every song they did but one of the biggest tunes was "Flashover"... they do a great job with their poppier songs? But the intensity of their harder songs sort of transforms the crowd and everyone is sort of in tandem (like the "Twin Flames" vid without the nudity lol)... further proof of this was "Atlantis To Interzone" which literally was an amazing bolt of sonic energy bouncing around the room. I've seen them perform 4 times and this tour has been their best so far. They seem more centered, more grounded, and generally happier dudes... or maybe I just caught them on a couple great days and had a wonderful time? Perhaps I can confirm that next time they roll through the Midwest...
I could continue to blather about fun times but let's just say Klaxons are as nice in real life as they are in your heads.
Ok I've got some work to do... but there are literally pages and pages of written material for this I simply have to go back and proof read. I figured if I was going to disappear for months I'd come back with something big lol. Love you guys... thanks for the on going support!
Unless you've been in a coma, or are Osama Bin Laden's cavemate, you've probably heard of Ellie Goulding. She's been hailed as the most important musical artist (especially female) since The Beatles and is the future of everything and you should buy her album so you support the future of everything... right?
Well... hype is an AWFUL AWFUL thing... it's such a bad thing in fact that it put Miss Goulding in the hospital last year when she was opening for Florence & The Machine and had a wicked panic attack! And I think it's unfair to pin all the hopes and dreams of electro-pop-dance-futurism on one person all across the board... for example it's one thing for me to say "FRANKMUSIK IS THE GREATEST THING EVER IN THE HISTORY OF EVER" and it's another for every paper, blog, podcast etc to say the same. It makes the artists insane, and it kills credibility (unless you're like Lady Gaga or something and transcend all boundaries), and it creates expectations SO HIGH that they can't be meet...
So how is her album "Lights", the recently released debut from electro-pop's most talked about person since La Roux, when all the hype dust clears?
It's pretty damn good. I'd love to say I thought it was a 10/10 but I feel like maybe there was a "too many cooks spoil the broth" thing going on here with "Lights"... not like Ellie's primary collaborator, the brilliant Starsmith, doesn't know what he's doing... but I sometimes feel like maybe the label said "it's great but I think we need a little more of this" or something because some of the spark that came across in her demos and original versions of these songs is missing (something that often seems to be the byproduct of label tampering).
The album starts off with "Guns and Horses" which has transformed into a more dancefloor ready song compared to it's original version (provided by John Fortis' production). It's much more urgent and I think that's a great addition to the song. Not as hot about the "I'd do it all for you"s at the end of the song but... perhaps that because I'm used to a very different version of this song. "Guns and Horses" does however set a nice thematic tone for the album ("when I'm standing here in the dark I see your face in every star") when paired with "Starry Eyed".
I don't need to tell you anything about "Starry Eyed". It's a brilliant single (produced by Jonny Lattimer). The first time I saw the video I was breathless. My sister cried and couldn't explain why. The song is really that good... and it's this type of perfection that feeds that damn hype monster... but that doesn't take away from it's unbroken heart vulnerability/enthusiasm that makes the track nothing short of precious.
We move on to "This Love (Will Be Your Downfall)" which could easily be a single (but more likely a b-side remix bonanza for the dance kids) it's so catchy. It's lyrics have the quality of a song by The Smiths... in that they're not too upbeat but the song sounds (mostly) like rays of sunshine. This is her genius (again something that is highlighted by Monsieur Starsmith).
"Under The Sheets" is like super sick. The lyrics are really vivid and the production it's subtle without being too slick. I got my 7" copy in the mail the other day and was elated. If you don't know this song I'd be surprised so I don't have a lot to say about it.
Ok, now here is one of the songs that got a substantial overhaul, "The Writer". The last one was completely acoustic guitar, I think, so this version feel very different. This truly has "single" written all over it. It's nothing short of cinematic and I think that actually fits well... it's hard to listen to this version and not see some major love affair of a video, or some climatic problem where a couple gets separated (see see Jacob at the end 'Eclipse' lol)...
"Every Time You Go" is inventive and fun and thankfully doesn't sound like a single... because when an album is nothing but singles you don't ever feel connected to it because it feels far too universal (in my humble opinion). The lyrics on this one keep going with the 'star motif' and are some of the most tear worthy lyrics on the album. I give this one a big thumbs up.
Ok, now here's the tricky one. "Wish I Stayed" is produced by ISoA friend Frankmusik and I'm a tad confused why the album version of this song is so so so different from the original. I like the dubby vocal, the almost Chemical Brother sized beats, and I appreciate Vince's desire to constantly evolve (and change the songs he works on)... so I'm going to guess he just wasn't satisfied going with the version he and Ellie put together quite some time ago? But I still prefer the original to this (however the more I listen to it the more progressive and interesting it sounds). Going back and listening to the original it feels like it's dwarfed by these new changes... but the vocal stuttering, the backwards section after "freefall", the audible background vocals, and the bouncy synth groove of the chorus were what endeared this song to me. BUT the version I'm speaking out would be REALLY out of place on this album soooooooo... ultimately I'd give this one a high grade but would recommend for you the listener to hear the original, and for Vince to do a remix version for an upcoming single. That would be amazing. Ohhhhhh or re-record it as a duet... yeah do that lol :) Here's the album version, and then a download of the original...
"Your Biggest Mistake" is audibly produced by someone other than Starsmith. It's a good tune but the previous one was so huge that this song was one I had to listen to on it's own and not in the context of the album. It sounds very radio ready? And while very catchy it just doesn't have the impact of some of the other songs for me.
"I'll Hold My Breath" has Ellie and Starsmith back together and you can tell that they are both at their best together. This song isn't all fireworks like their other collaborations on the album but is a brilliant 2nd to last song. It keeps with the 'star motif' again and just sounds right... it just sounds right. There is no other way to explain it.
"Salt Skin" is the perfect album ender, and like watching a supernova or something. It's very experimental, shimmery perfect album closer. I recommend this to all the skeptics because this song touches on something that other albums in this sort of genre haven't.
Add all that together and I'd say it's somewhere between a 8.7/10 to a 9.5/10 lol. It just depends on how the tracks hit you and what you already know about Ellie. Hype aside it's a wonderful debut and is frankly MUCH better than some of her contemporaries who have had very successful careers.
It's often mentioned (in almost every review) that Goulding is a "folkie" dressed up in Frankmusik/Starsmith's poptronica production sheen... which is kind of true? But I'm not exactly sure what it has to do with anything unless staying that is some derisive term to imply she doesn't know which direction she really wants to go in. I think that to focus on that too much is to negate her talent as an artist and is an attempt to corral her into some genre specific cage (which is goofy because I'll bet right now that her next album will sound nothing like this one). Since it doesn't really show up on the album though I thought I'd post some of her more acoustically inclined work :)
"Not Following You"'s lyrics on this are bit like 10cc's "I'm Not In Love" which makes it coy and adorable... Ellie Goulding - "Not Following You"
This one I listen to a LOT. "The End" stirs up a lot of memories and just sort of sounds like magic... even if the lyrics are a little sad in places... Ellie Goulding - "The End (Demo)"
I'd post more from Ellie but I think I'd get my ass handed to me by the illusive Polydor. Someone involved in her career said I could probably get away with this remix as well so enjoy, because it's probably the last you'll get from her for a while! This one is for the dubstep heads out there... I also suggest seeking out the Jakwob remix of "Starry Eyed" if you can manage.
I would say that I've probably listened to "The Killing Moon" as many times as I've brushed my teeth in my life (which is a high number, thank you, not a low number lol) so I was very excited when my friend Zoe shared with me that Echo & The Bunnymen have recorded a NEW VERSION, along with a bunch of other live tracks, for Daytrotter. I was initally a little put off by the 128 kbps download, but there are options to buy, and the interface is really cool and worked smoothly with my Mac... so for all the skeptics, go ahead and register and check it out, it's free!
Now, normally, you know I don't post things that aren't British... but frankly? I'm starting to see that this is going to be impossible. Why? Because frankly a lot of your favourite artists are on record labels that slap me with DMCA notifications for dumb shit like posting a WIDGET. So I'm willing to play ball with certain individuals/labels that are a step ahead of the average prerogative. So I guess let's intro the uber famous label Record Makers by saying Bobby Gillespie from Primal Scream is on Turzi's new record "B" which is awesome by the way!
Sebastian Tellier has been a pretty non-stop fixture in my car/iPod/phone recently (after wearing myself out on "Sexuality" when it first came out)... so I'm very relieved to see some new material here! The good people at Record Makers have a lot of cool stuff coming out starting with this...
And then there's all this! Have you ever played with the iDaft app? Because if you have then you know how baller this should be...
Launching twelve months of 10th anniversary celebrations in style, the Parisian label Record Makers are proud to announce the release of a free iPhone application along with a special digital compilation to commemorate a decade in existence.
The iPhone application was developed by Sam Vermette (iDaft) and conceived by French contemporary artists Mrzyk & Moriceau. The idea behind the application is to provide the user with a surrealistic visual game, an exquisite corpse in the vein of French surrealism. The introduction theme comes courtesy of label figurehead, Sébastien Tellier, with Mr. Oizo on hand to provide the noises for this eccentric game of mix and match. Unreal graphics appear on your screen, that you can send to your friends at the touch of a button.
Spectacular prizes are on offer to those who find the winning combinations and send in photographic proof to Record Makers HQ. The entire discography is up for grabs, whilst every entry will be entered into a prize draw to win a trip for two to Paris in October including a week’s stay at Hotel Amour and an invite to Record Makers’ anniversary celebrations on 10/10/10.*
- The first 100 to send in one combination will receive 2 CDs / vinyls from the Record Makers discography.
- The first 50 to send in two combinations will receive 10 CDs / vinyls from the Record Makers discography.
- The first 10 to send in three combinations will receive the entire Record Makers discography.
Players only permitted one entry.
You can find the app in the App Store on your iPhone!
Video Teaser - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZ2DrsaBl6A
Head over to www.recordmakers.com for more info and a free download of the video to Sebastien Tellier's 'Look' by Mzyrk and Moriceau.
AND IF THAT WEREN'T ENOUGH... here's a the new Kavinsky called "Nightcall" (which you may have read above is produced by none other than Guy from Daft Punk) and "Pacific Coast Highway": Nightcall by Kavinsky Pacific Coast Highway by Kavinsky
WHOO! That was one hell of a post... I've got a bunch from Ninja Tune to post for you guys but it didn't seem like it would fit in this post. Plus I've got the line up for this years Movement and other little tidbits so PLEASE come back... and as usual you comments are always appreciated :) Be back soon!
It's often pointed out that I don't post enough about women (or play them enough on the show)... I want to blame PR people and stuff... but it's my fault too.
While looking for some new female power I almost lost it when I read this on She Is Danger's YouTube page... these girls are bad as hell (and their portfolio is impressive):
"She is Danger are London based female producer/vocalists Lena Cullen and Maya Jane Coles. She is Danger write, produce, engineer and perform all their own music, to create a world of dubstep, electronica and beyond... 'Hurt You' will be released in 2nd February 2010. For more up to date info: www.myspace.com/sheisdangermusic"
Check out this awesome video and then peep the .zip file below for a BUNCH of hot remixes... Massive Attack, Delphic, Groove Armada, Crystal Fighters and Groove Armada... that's a lot of names kids!
This little give-away of remixes by She is to make you aware of the release of 'Hurt You', now on Beatport, out on 8th February 2010 on other download services.
Zip file of tracks below Here's what's in the Zip file of awesome: 'Paper Romance' (She is Danger Remix) - Groove Armada 'Doubt' (She is Danger Remix) - Delphic 'Girl I Love You' (Feat. Horace Andy) (She is Danger Remix) - Massive Attack 'I Love London' (She is Danger Remix) - Crystal Fighters 'Under The Sheets' (She is Danger Remix) - Ellie Goulding
If you wanna check more videos... 'Hurt You' (Radio Edit) - www.youtube.com/watch?v=ArihRgWIjV4 'Hurt You' (Subscape Remix) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhEqeKQkoi8 'Hurt You' (Kanji Kinetic Remix) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bo6KUyHFmPU
Love to hear what you think in the comments! Be back soon!
Oh and here's some more info:
She is Danger are London based female duo multi-instrumentalist/singer Lena Cullen and British-Japanese producer/dj/spoken-worder Maya Jane Coles.
She is Danger write, produce, engineer and perform all their own music, as well as their own stage visuals; and are fast creating ripples within the worlds of dubstep, electronica and beyond.
Their sound is a dark mixture of influences from dub through to electronica with nods to 2-step, tech-house, dubstep, techno, trip-hop, speed garage, ska, drum'n'bass, reggae, ambience, film scores, soul, indie and jazz along the way.
Their remixes of acts such as Ellie Goulding, Delphic and Crystal Fighters have already earned the dames of dub spins by the likes of Annie Mac, and a lot of blog love with their remix of Groove Armada's 'Paper Romance' featured exclusively as a 'Daily Download' on NME.com and their remix of Massive Attack's 'Girl, I Love You' guesting Horace Andy on vocals was RCRDLBL's 'Single of the Day' with the track included on the deluxe version of 'Heligoland' available on Itunes.
Recent gigs have included supporting acts such as Crystal Fighters, Heartless Crew, Doorly, DJ Lottie, Engine-Earz Experiment, Theopolis London and even the Orb at the Orb's latest album launch, as well as clubs nights as far ranging as Yo Yo, Dirty Boots, and the world largest fetish club Torture Garden ;)
She is Danger's darkest side is evident on their debut limited edition release 'Hurt You'. Boasting remixes by rising stars Subscape and Kanji Kinetic and has already enjoyed spins internationally and at home in the UK on stations like BBC Radio 1, Galaxy, Kiss and XFM whilst also making a 'Single of the Week' on NME Radio! Not too shabby for a debuting self-releasing act...
'Hurt You' will be released on She is Danger Music:
* Beatport - 2nd February 2010 * All Other Download Sites (exc Itunes) - 8th February 2010
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