Well, it’s finally that time. 18 months since I last had a holiday, I’m off to Thailand for a couple of weeks. Perhaps I’ll post when I’m out there – or not.
What I will be doing, though, is taking a stack of CDs that I’ve wanted more time with. Yes, CDs! I want my ears to consume as much of the frequencies that my Sony D-NF340 and Sennheiser HD 280s can pump out. Anything to be closer to the artist, engineer and producer’s actual sound instead of the compressed 192kbps MP3s my lifestyle forces me to hear.
It’s been difficult to get time to listen to what I want to listen to as the stuff I have to listen to usually takes priority.
I’m taking a mix of new and old:
The Specials – The Specials (remastered)
Blood – Franz Ferdinand
More Heart Than Brains – Bike for Three!
primary colours – The Horrors
Situation – Buck 65
Sticky Fingers – The Rolling Stones (remastered)
Goats Head Soup – The Rolling Stones (remastered)
It’s only rock n’ roll – The Rolling Stones (remastered)
Grey Britain – Gallows
Fun DMC – People under the stairs
Stepfather – People under the stairs
Blind Melon – Blind Melon
Dirt – Alice in Chains
Straight outta Compton – N.W.A. (remastered)
The Atlantic Ocean – Richard Swift
Dylan – Bob Dylan (remastered)
Liquid Swords – Genius / Gza
The Snake – Wildbirds and Peacedrums
Remembranza – Murcof
Martes – Murcof
Stratus Energy – Faze Action
Mother’s Milk – Red Hot Chili Peppers (remastered)
Desperate Youth, Bloodthirsty babes – TVOTR
Return to Cookie Mountain – TVOTR
Fever Ray – Fever Ray
The Omega Sanction – Akira the Don
Two Suns – Bat for Lashes
Powerage – AC/DC (remastered)
The Razor’s Edge – AC/DC (remastered)
For those about to rock – AC/DC (remastered)
Ready to die – The Notorious BIG (remastered)
Technicolour Wilderness – Candythief
So, yeah. That little lot and some heavy literature should just about see me through two weeks of predicted bliss.
Yes, it’s the goldie lookin, it’s the goldie lookin’ – it’s the Goldie Lookin Chain! Dropped from their major label (Warner / Atlantic) three years ago, things must have looked pretty grim for the Newport motherfunsters. Still, they released Under the counter in 2008 on Shellshock, and seeing as that failed to chart – this latest release arrives on their own label, Gold Dust Records.
So what of it? Parodying the title of N.W.A.‘s fourth and final album Efil4zaggin, you would be forgiven for thinking that this could similarly be GLC‘s final outing.Why? Because in the five years since GLC first arrived and made us chuckle at their daft raps and leisurewear, they sound tired and a little out of date.
Nevertheless, that doesn’t mean this is a bad album. If anything, it’s the most musically ambitious record the group have ever made, and they begin by incorporating guitars and melody alongside their signature slices of stupidity. Mister Fahrenheit heralds the new era of GLC, splashing around with its Arctic Monkey-esque riffage and QOTSA handclaps. Unfortunately the description is more exciting than the song itself.
Fortunately, Everybody is a DJ is classic GLC. Filled with spiky 303 lines, traditional hip-hop breaks and humourous observations “You don’t need skills no more to rock a parties, all you need’s are MP3s and a load of batteries. Every Tom, Dick and Harry has a go, but they mix like oil and water – they got no flow.”
Disguise continues the band’s obsession with weed and adds some acoustic guitars into the mix,while By any means necessary‘s breezy, catchy chorus rides the current wave of electronic indie sparked by the likes of Kasabian.
By any means necessary
Of course, no GLC album would be complete without a bit of nostalgia, and 3D does not disappoint. A paean to the days when tapes and boomboxes ruled the music world: “Back in the day put on 2Live Crew, turned up the volume and the EQ, using pause to mix my tapes, with my sister and her mates throwing some shapes.” It’s great when you’re old, yeah?
GLC continue their representation of working class life with the sentimental (yes, sentimental) Nothing ever happens and Unemployed and overdrawn which perhaps reflects more about the “igeneration” than Alex ‘man of the people’ Turner has managed to eloquently observe in quite some time.
Behind the jokes and stupidity, there is the danger that GLC are actually capable of something hinting at serious. Maybe it’s time to drop the gimmicks and the schtick, boys.
Regardless – Coldplay release their live album for free download at 9am tomorrow. I bet it’s boring. I got stuck in the crowds at Glastonbury’s Pyramid stage and suffered 15 minutes of the band before managing to escape to the Other stage to see Orbital. Who were equally as dull.
MnM has his 1995 Infinitealbum available for you to steal. It’s not very good. But it’s free. So what the heck? It’s some kind of PR exercise to source more sales of his ‘eagerly anticipated’ Relapse. Infinte sold 70 of the 1,000 pressed copies, so be honoured, brethren!
So why are artists giving their music away? Check out this timely article by Bhairavi Jhaveri.
Music seems so transient and unloved now. Yes, Radiohead asked us to ‘value’ their music before we downloaded it for £0.07, but with Coldplay and Eminem doling out the freebies, where does that leave smaller acts?
Struggling. Working harder than ever to make themselves heard among the noise. Nothing wrong with that, it just means that if and when they get recognised, it’s won’t be purely down to chance or who they know.
I hope it’ll be because they’ve created something that the true seekers of new music can believe in.
Yeah! One of my homebwoys from round the way has unleashed his latest 60 minute mix ‘pon us. Regular DJ down at the Big Chill up in King’s X and winner of some Radio 1 award – y’all need to be checking out his funky fresh mix of fly flavours for 2009.
As the man himself says: “Some proper shiny & new tracks & some hella hella old tracks. Soul, Reggae, Hip Hop, Ragga, R&B, Chilled Beats, Booty Breaks, House, Dubstep, D&B and.. um.. stuff.”
Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings – Inspiration Information Richie Spice – Earth A Run Red (Al Fingers Waiting In Vain Rub) Richie Spice- Youth’s Dem Cold Tweet ft Missy Elliot - Turn Da Lights Off The Deadbeats - Loafin’ Mr Vegas - Lean With It Major Lazer – Lazer Boom 1 Major Lazer ft Mr Lexx & Santigold – Hold The Line Keaver & Brause – Laastic De La Soul – Morning Rise Dr Dre & Snoop Dogg - Next Episode (Taggy Matcher Rub) The Isley Brothers – For The Love Of You Roots Manuva - Cold Romeo Kid Sister – Get Fresh Faith Evans vs Jones Girls – Can’t Complain (Aaron Jerome Re-edit) Melanie Fiona – Give It To Me Right Two Fingers ft Ms Jade – Better Get That King Cannibal ft Jahcoozi – Murder Us Toddla T ft Serocee – Inna Di Dancehall – Do You Know (Remix) Lykke Li - Dance Dance Dance (Buraka Som Sistema Remix) Breakage / David Rodigan - Together Skream - Trapped In A Dark Bubble Skream ft Cluekid - Sandsnake Skream - Movin’ Snares Benga - One Million Caspa - I Beat My Robot Jakes - Rock Tha Bells La Roux – In For The Kill (Skream Let’s Get Ravey Remix) Sigma - Paint It Black The Apples – Killing Trashmen - Surfin’ Bird (Bird Is The Word)
As the rockumentary winds down, we find a heavily sedated David St Hubbins chatting poolside to an animated Derek Smalls. As they discuss the myriad opportunities open to them, they hit upon reviving their lost classic ‘Saucy Jack‘. And here it is!
Spinal Tap’s new album Back from the Dead, will be released on June 15th and features an hour long DVD, alternate versions of ‘Sex Farm’ and ‘(Listen to the) Flower People’, as well as Derek Smalls’ previously unreleased exploration ‘Jazz Odyssey’ parts I, II and II.
So I got sent this CD by the rather ace Manish at Secret Canadian, and I gotta say – it is way awesome. If you, like me, are a fan of Paul McCartney‘s contribution to The Beatles or Harry Nilsson, then you’re going to dig Richard Swift. He manages to mix the traditional style of piano songwriting up with Wendy Carlos style synths, so check that shit out this minute!
If you want a full review with no curse words or slang, then check out this excellent piece by James Dalrymple at The Line of Best Fit. I’m sure James will be the first to admit that he scored it a touch too low.
On Sunday May 10th and across the internet, I had a chat about hip-hop, Vanilla Ice and Bill and Ted comics with a hungover, G.rap-fruit eating Adam Narkiewicz, where I discovered a soulful ambition driving this lucid, multi-faceted talent.
Born in West Brom, raised in Wales – on the playground is where he spent most of his days…
So you support West Brom, then?
ATD: My Dad does. Birmingham City Football Club, mayne.
You’re a bluenose?
ATD: Oui. Couldn’t tell you shit about what’s going on since ‘98 though. No time.
Script writing, rapping, writing, drawing – what don’t you do that you wish you could?
ATD: I wish I could play the piano like Billy Joel and I wish I could do astral projection. And I’d like to ride a horse.
Apart from Chris De Burgh, you appear to have excellent music taste – but what’s the beef with The Beatles?
ATD: Deaded! The beef is dead, I am happy to say. It was born out of rage and frustration and more the fault of their Britpop era copyists than themselves, la. That and Paul McCartney wound me up
Generally? Or with his music?
ATD: Oh, all of it. His stuff I found unbearably saccharine, and his face annoyed me. I was emotional as a youngster.
Emo?
ATD: Haha! Emo didn’t exist then. It was a different time
Aye – it were all METAL
ATD: HM Gear catalogue
Skid Row.
ATD: Youth gone wild. And Pornograffitti, mayne.
Extreme? You fancied Nuno.
ATD: My mum did.
Extreme III was shite.
ATD: It was a terrible shame. I bought it, all excited, on vinyl and it sucked balls. It was Queen’s fault. That Freddy Mercury gig went to their heads. That and Brian May saying they were the new Queen.
I reckon you’re the UK’s most political rapper. How say you?
ATD: Depends what you mean by politics I guess.
Everything, really. Not just Labour, Conservative etc. You have an opinion that’s not balls.
ATD: I do have an opinion, and I am not bothered about disguising it behind nonsense I suppose. Hunter S Thompson always used to say: “Politics is the art of controlling your environment.” He was onto more than he knew, I think.
Did you stay up to hear the results of the US elections?
ATD: I did! I drank a whole bottle of Jack Daniels that night. It was disgraceful.
That is very Guns n Roses.
ATD: I was at my girl’s friend’s house. They had an election party, and I was yelling “HE’LL STILL MURDER THE BABIES!” at her Dad. But I was pleased cos I like it when people get to be happy for a short while – even if it is a hollow kind of joy.
Which life are you currently trapped in amongst the Omega Sanction?
ATD: Good question. I think that since I figured it out, and completed The Life Equation, that I am out, but I might be in another one and not know.
What’s your favourite tune on the mixtape?
ATD:‘Steam‘, ‘The Omega Sanction‘; ’18‘ too and…well it is all pretty fresh!
You sound pretty loved up and happy on this record…
ATD: In places, yeah – prolly the newer stuff. Life is as kind as you let it be.
I know you lost a lot of data when recording it – you held it down though.
ATD: Man, I had to restart the mixtape AND the album twice. I lost what was going to be the second album in New York. 30 odd songs fell off a table. Bang! Start again, and it came out much better so I am glad.
Can you briefly sum up the writing process?
ATD: In general?
Please. Tis vague I know.
ATD: It is often different these days. A lot of times I’ll be cycling and a song will appear, pretty fully formed, in my head, and I have to sing it into my phone and try not to crash.
Or I wake up with one in my head; or I’m going to sleep and one appears and I have to get up and record it; or I do the Tom Waits thing and sit down at the keyboard and hit chords; or I make a beat, and something appears over the top; or I’ll hear a record, and a new song will appear on top, like a harmony, so I sample it. I bet there’s other ways I’m not thinking of.
Songs are everywhere. The air’s full of them, they’re like ghosts. I get what Stevie Wonder means when he says he doesn’t write them; he gets them from God these days. Cos it’s pretty much like that.
Are you religious at all?
ATD: Man is a religious animal, but I don’t subscribe to any, no. I suppose I have my own.
Akiraism?
ATD: Haha – that’s a good one. I am very interested in religion. I think the ancient wisdoms we have forgotten must all be hidden in the major texts, and I intend to study them all.
Could you have managed to fit any more songs on the CD?
ATD: No. I left off about 2 CDs worth. There are songs that didn’t make it that some might say are better, but I was trying to create something that flowed, had structure, and told a story, even if its not that obvious at first. It’ll make more sense when The Life Equation‘s out.
Are you a gearhead?
ATD: As in techie, or man wot does lots of drugs? I’m too poor to be a gearhead, but I love what I have, and I’m interested in what’s out there. I get excited when people show me new stuff like Ableton 8. And Trigger finger wot Joey2Tits (collaborator) showed me the other day, wot is fucking awesome and will change the way I make musics.
What instruments do you play?
ATD: I play rudimentary most stuff. Like, enough to paste together into a song. A bit of guitar, bass, keys, xylophone…that sort of thing. Nothing with any great level of skill.
Auto-tuning. Please explain the prevalence of this effect on the Omega Sanction.
ATD: Is there a prevalence?
Well – on a few tracks.
ATD: I hadn’t noticed. Oops. Ummm. its FUN!
Thought you’d be listening to Cher a fair bit, that’s all.
ATD: Haha! Philip Oakey and Giorgio Moroder. I swear they were using autotune. The backing vocals sound like robots. I love that shit, though it’s not for everyone. I wish Mef hadn’t bothered, but I am of the arrogant opinion that i can do whatever the fuck I like!
Any predictions for Hip-hop in 2009?
ATD:Drake‘s looking good; Eminem‘s looking bad; Wayne will be better than any of us I expect. Big Narstie‘s album is amazing and Max B will release a classic.
What’s the beef, chicken and lamb with TV?
ATD: Fuck a TV.
Could be tricky.
ATD: Just cut a hole in it, and line the thing with steak. EW, nah. TV though, really it’s like having a load of dickheads in your front room that won’t shut the fuck up, or talk about anything that isn’t poisonous bullshit.
But what about The Wire and stuff like that?
ATD: I download it. If something’s good, I’ll hear about it. And if I have time, I’ll download it, and enjoy it projected on my wall
RIP John Martyn. Good call on ‘I don’t wanna know…’ When did you first hear that tune?
ATD: Thanks! That was Joey2Tits actually. It was snow day when he sent it. I listened to it all day long and wrote it a fortnight later after it had settled into my unconscious. I must have heard the original tune when I was little: my Dad had it.
Who’s your favourite Streetfighter character and why.
ATD: Dhalsim for the same reason my favourite character in Soul Calibur is Voldo: they’re awesome, scary fuckers!
If bankers rhymes with wankers. MPs rhymes with…
ATD: MPs spent cheese…spent fleas. Poor bastards, its like a feedback loop.
Speaking of wankers – is the forthcoming Life Equation gonna make Interscope go for that?
ATD: -It’s gonna make them vomit in their mouths
You must still be sore from that. I know I would be.
ATD: Nah, not at all. Serious. I got so much out of that experience. It confirmed a lot of stuff I knew, I met amazing people, spent a year travelling America, got a studio. Lucky mud.
I see you still got love for Vanilla Ice.
ATD: Hells yeahs. I was really sad when I saw him dissing himself on that Virgin ad.
I thought ‘Roll ‘em up’ was really underrated.
ATD: What was that?
I can’t see it on youtube.
ATD: youtube has gone to shit lately. They took all the Wang Chung videos down!
ATD: Wow. This is gangster. Wow.
Yeah – his flow’s pretty good, right?
ATD: Always. He looks fucking terrifying. He just did a dope wiggideywizzack thing. Biggedy bone its oooown!
I love that triplet shit.
ATD: Yep. No-one does that shit anymore.
The Life Equation – so you believe existence is not futile?
ATD: How can it be?
How can it be futile?
ATD: Yeah.
I don’t know – I was inferring from the title. I thought you’d adapted the anti-life equation.
ATD: I did
Now I’m confused.
ATD: Haha. Well, I considered the opposite.
You considered that life was NOT futile?
ATD: I have always been of that opinion. I am the opposite of my father, in that respect. I see awesomeness wherever I look, and the potential for awesomeness; like the way some sculptors see the figure in the rock before they carve it.
That relates back to your approach to songwriting, really.
ATD: Yeah. It all links. Everything fits together perfectly, no matter how hard you analyse it.
Zen, baby.
ATD: Word.
Was Jack Kirby a big influence on your art?
ATD: Yeah, definitely. More so as I got older. I actually used to love that Rob Liefeld shit when I was 10. I have no idea why. You look at it now, it doesn’t even make sense. Just loads of ugly scratchy lines. Kirby’s work had such grace, it flows like poetry. Kirby was a true artist.
Why, in your opinion, are comics still so popular?
ATD: Comics as an artform or superhero stories?
As a medium and as something people continue to buy.
ATD: It’s a unique way of presenting something, of transferring an idea or an experience. It can do stuff no other medium can, so it has to exist because it has value. And the stories people tend to tell within its confines are the oldest stories know to man.
Unlike TV?
ATD: Well, TV has its place but its very limited. Comics have but one limit, which is the imagination of the reader.
Are you becoming Darkseid?
ATD: What’s the opposite of Darkseid?
I have no idea. Lightseid?
ATD: Haha! Well, it’d be nice to be becoming that. He had a dope helmet though…
What can we expect when the album drops?
ATD: You can expect humanity to evolve, all at once
I had someone else say that recently.
ATD: Who was that?
The guitarist from Blk Jks. He said he was searching for the ideal song to dissolve all matter.
ATD: Wow, I respect that.
It’s a bit Bill and Ted though.
ATD: I shall have to listen to them. I love Bill and Ted. They had a brilliant attitude. You ever read Evan Dorkin‘s Bill and Ted comics?
Nope. Bought the soundtracks tho.
ATD: GOD GAVE ROCK N ROLL TO YOU!
Would you be Bill or Ted, then?
ATD: Was it Bill with the hot Mom?
Yeah
ATD: Ted, then. Get the comic, it’s amazing.
Is it different to a graphic novel?
ATD: Yep.The guy who did Milk & Cheese did it. He’s a g.
Gangster or genius?
ATD: Both. Double G. You can get the comics collected in a graphic novel. I recommend highly.
What can we expect from an ATD live show?
ATD: Ooooh, sheeeeeeeeee-it. This one’s gonna be awesome. We’ve rethought the whole thing, stripped it all apart, and put it back together in optimal form for the night specifically. It’s gonna BANG!
What’s this I hear about Zombies?
ATD: We’re filming the I Am Not Dead (YEAH!) video cut scenes.That’s a zombie film. I wrote 6 months ago. It’s gonna be ace. Me and my band are le resistance fighting the zombie plague with super-soakers.
Sporting the worst name since Peter Kay‘s Phoenix Nights duo Les Alanos (Les and Alan), Los Albertos (yes, The Alberts) are here to dump their third tawdry exercise in ska on you from a great black-and-white height. I don’t mean to be rude (boy), but honestly, why do bands like this insist on producing lousy ska music and touting it around as great music to party to?
Whatever the reason, this nutty gang of horn-toting blunt smokers have got the energy to keep stomping their way across the UK playing to audiences who still believe the skank to be alive in them. Well, good. I can imagine how well much of this would work well live as there are some intricate horn arrangements and some interesting guitar parts. But, lyrically, this has to rank amongst the most embarrassing recordings…ever.
Examples include:
“My nose is sore, my pocket raw, my face is turning blue. I don’t think I can pay that fiver I owe you” (Carry on (Regardless))
“Then I said I can show you that alleyway where in that film where Leslie Ash had a shag with Phil Daniels…” (Leslie)
“Are these thoughts I think already thunk or is that another seven pints I’ve just seen you sunk? Pardon me for having too much front. Well, if I’m not too mistaken, your lifestyle lacks the habits of a monk” (Saint).
Well.They actually managed to make Lily Allen‘s lyrics read like Shakespeare. So, if your idea of a good ska album is listening to a wedding band playing substandard ska while chanting cheesy lyrics about festivals they’re lucky enough to have played while wearing porkpie hats, then by all means buy this.
Blood is billed as a ‘dub’ version of Franz Ferdinand‘s latest album, Tonight. Each original title takes on a new name and the album order is completely changed. But let’s get this straight: the first three tracks (‘What she came for’, ‘Can’t stop feeling’ and ‘Live alone’) are fairly straight remixes of the original cuts complete with vocals and a sense of structure. There’s very little that is ‘dub’ about them. Perhaps the dark LFO movement at the end of the extended ‘Can’t stop feeling’ could be classed as dub – but it’s not. No, not really. But herein ends the disappointment.
‘Turn it on’ arrives, bringing with it echoed guitars and fierce tape delays on vocal snippets which stacks space between speakers. Dan Carey is the man responsible for the remixing – his credentials include working alongside the legendary Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry and The Mad Professor. He also produced dub remixes of Athlete‘s Beyond the Neighbourhood album, so it’s fair to say he knows a thing about manipulating dub techniques to disorientate the listener. The extreme use of filters and panning may induce mild nausea on ‘Send him away’ which is the most authentic sounding slice of dub to be found here.
A heady brew of electronica and original dub techniques spliced together with some Glaswegian band’s soundbites, this is a record for fans and non-fans of the band alike; so credit to Franz Ferdinand for getting this together. It’s a shame that thirteen or so minutes are wasted with some non-dub remixes, but tracks 4 – 9 are easily worth the meagre £7 this will set you back.
Big Dada’s first female signing is a 26 year-old South Londoner who comes with 13 years of rapping experience and an emotional range to match. Speech Debelle, along with beat-maker Wayne Lo Tek (Lo Tek HiFi) and support from Roots Manuva has created an extraordinarily magnetic piece of work for 2009.
In 2007, Debelle flew out to join Lo Tek and a group of live musicians in Australia, where she put down most of what would become Speech Therapy. Kicking off with the jazzy, acoustic ‘Searching’, the seemingly ‘laid-back’ Australian vibe appears to have had some effect on the Londoner, whose life experiences till then include managing to get kicked out of college as well as home.
Immediately apparent that this is no straight-up, run-of-the-mill hip-hop album, calling Debelle an MC would seem a disservice. Confessional throughout, the lyrical poetry and interplay between music and verse seems far grander than simply ‘spittin’. After all, when was the last time you heard an oboe hook on a hip-hop track? Well, I never have. Anyway, ‘The Key’ sports considerable use of the instrument, and it must surely be part of any soundtrack to the summer.
Speech Debelle – The Key
Shunning the more traditional tools of MPC programming and turntabalism in exchange for live instrumentation and melodic vocal hooks, Speech Therapy crosses over nicely into potential pop territory. That, of course, means coming up against the likes of twee popsters Lily Allen and Lady Sovereign. But there’s no competition or comparison to be made here. Debelle’s debut single ‘Go then, bye’ carries far more emotional weight than the entire recorded output of either artist.
‘Daddy’s Little Girl’ addresses the very real problem of absent fathers and Debelle throws in premonitions of her father as an old man with little family to support him. Supported by lilting Rhodes piano licks and off-beat hits, the message lingers long after the song ends.
‘Live and learn’ sounds like it could feature on an advert for something shiny and electronic, comprised as it is of quirky, hummed vocals; softly strummed nylon strings and wind instruments. “Life is learned lived. That’s all it is – I’m tellin’ ya”, says Debelle before moving to tackle the trials of the average ‘Working Weak’. “So I went to the train station, and guess what I saw? People doing kung-fu just to get through the doors!” Just one of the few comedic lines to pepper the song – apropos to anyone who has ever worked in this shimmering capital.
Climaxing with the sentimental and softly delivered title track ‘Speech Therapy’, this fragile gem of an album never stops to dwell on whimsy. Contrite and conversational throughout, this has to be the UK hip-hop debut of 2009. Though Debelle says “This is my speech therapy, this ‘aint rap”, she will tick the horrific ‘urban’ box and be filed accordingly. This is a great album that brims with talent, love and maturity. You absolutely owe it to yourself to listen in.
