Big fan of this song in it’s original form (personally one of my favourite Boykins’ cuts for a while), now Odd Future’s Syd the Kyd works her magic and interprets it into her impressive composition.
This young lady is becoming quite the force – her remixes are stellar, not to mention her Nu-Neo-Soul (?) outfit The Internet which has me quite excited as well.
Apple founder Steve Jobs has passed away, aged 56.
Paying tribute to their commander in chief who lost his battle with pancreatic cancer on October 6th 2011, Apple placed a dignified tribute on their company homepage (image above).
It’s very easy to underestimate just how much of an impact this man has had on this world. In a relatively short number of years he single handedly transformed the way we live and interact. What vinyl was to the 70′s, the walkman was the 80′s and what CD’s where to the 90′s, the iPod will be for this generation and most likely the next. Not forgetting the absolute & significant impact of iTunes and the way it literally rejuvenated and reconstructed the music industry – which was still foolishly suffering from the effects of Napster and all those that followed.
Fast forward to today and we have Macbooks, iMacs, iPhones and iPads – every day objects we see and use – now as common as any other day-to-day item we’ve become attached to. We talk, we play, we create – we do everything using products dreamed up by one man and the multi-billion dollar team he assembled. The art form of music production itself was revolutionised by Jobs and his brave dream to bring powerful technology to the everyday consumer – your favourite artist and producer uses Logic and/or Garage band, as do millions of bedroom dreamers – a mind boggling feat. Not to mention all the ‘other’ major influences he has had on corporate branding, marketing, communication and business.
As I stare belovedly into the glaze of my macbook, I can proudly say – I’m glad I lived in the era of Steve Jobs.
We’re now able to stream Björk’s new multimedia album Biophilia ahead of it’s October 10th release date. The LP which sees the Icelandic singer experimenting with custom instruments and interactive apps for the iPhone & iPad – has already earned critical acclaim through her incredible live show during this summers International Festival in Manchester.
On October 10th Glaswegian born electronic producer Rustie (co-signed by HudMo) will release his debut album Glass Swords. As one of the more promising homebred upcomers, this young man is offering up a lot and doing so on a very eclectic, very energetic platter.
Skimming through a seemingly endless pool of influences Glass Swords is a bustling world of imagination, colours and shapes – all channeled by Rustie’s aptitude behind the desk. Admittedly, a few of the tracks are a little too “fist pump-centric” for my liking, but jams like ‘Cry Flames’ & ‘All Nite’ are a little much – expositions of sounds with a definite HudMo influence attached (especially on ‘Cry Flames’).
It’s a little loud, somewhat robust – but listen closely and you’ll hear some absorbing things.
Odd Future’s rising star will be heading over to London for the first time for a gig at XOYO on November 11th 2011.
Good news right? Not if you’re also a fan of J. Cole who will be hitting our city on the same night (different venue, obviously). Difficult choice, not sure which one I’ll be at but best believe – we’ll be representing at both.
Tickets to see Ocean are £15. And are on sale now.
Sung by the ever-so-adorable (ok, downright beautiful) Elle Varner and featuring man of the moment J. Cole – ‘Only Wanna Give it to You’ is a fun, uptempo summer jam boasting a rather delicious bassline & gorgeous lead vocal. Not sure there’s much to dislike here, play this in your office – brighten up your day / piss your boss off.
Here’s a small selection of photographs from our first ever live event – #THESUITE at Red Bull Studios London.
Total house party vibes with a diverse, sexy array of music, industry and readership heads alike. We were overwhelmed by the feedback – that shit went down big, drank and cupcake massacre – expect Part II soon.
Shout outs to Full Crate & Mar who headlined with their chill PA, along with the meanest set-list equivalent of PinBoardBlog sounds (everything from Frank Ocean’s ‘Novacane’ to Julio Bashmore’s ‘Battle Middle for You’ got dropped) via resident DJ @Def_Danny and Crate himself.
Those who know, know.
Check the pictures after the jump. Visuals coming soon.
Here goes the second single off Common’s forthcoming album The Dreamer, The Beliver (November 22nd) entitled ‘Blue Sky’ and like the rest of the LP was produced by No I.D. Unfortunately this is a shoddy (albeit good quality) radio rip, lets hope the full CDQ drops soon. Update: Now in shiny CDQ.
Here is the latest visual offering from Evidence and the last before the album hits UK shores next week. ‘It Wasn’t Me’ from his album ‘Cats & Dogs’ is a hard hitting banger. Dope beats, great visuals…..make sure you catch him showcase tracks from the album when the Rhymesayers European Tour sponsored by Carhartt hits London’s Electric Ballroom on November 7th.
Last week this little gem dropped courtesy of the Pictures Music camp. There is a distinct pop character running through all four tracksa; all the while Zygadlo fights it with unexpected twists, turns, general musical filigree and good humour, that lends itself to the narrative based musicality of the compositions.
Title track, “Achtung!” is a pastiche dig at electro, with self-remonstrative lyrics exploring youth and materialism. The song culminates with heavy organ chords stretched over a straight four-to-the-floor beat (influences equally attributable to Justice or Chromeo).
“The Deaf School” is possibly the track most in keeping with his previous work. It opens with an incredible wash of darkly brooding synths which explosively modulate into the opening verse, where Zygadlo displays matured coherency in describing a composer’s neuroses concerning personal relationships and the loss of hearing. Dance-friendly stuff.
The highlight however is the opener, Catherine; a lost belov’ed, a futile war and a motherless son. It’s sung with an introspective sincerity, backed by decorative guitar and a fitting, nostalgic trumpet line. Have a listen to the title track ‘Achtung!’ below and pick up the plastic over at Juno, Rough Trade or digitally via iTunes.
A kaleidoscopic visual accompaniment to Mo Kolours’ auricular odyssey ‘Biddies’. I do love this track – it’s taken off Kolours new EP1: Drum Talking project – out now.
Hailing from Louisiana, The Givers are finally ready to release their debut LP InLight. I heard this on the radio whilst driving to France and it fit perfectly with the summer vibes.”Meantime,” the album’s second track, gets remixed by British indie-folk group Bombay Bicycle Club. It’s an eclectic merging of summer aesthetics as swaying instruments lightly touch on tropical rhythms, dub undertones and a series of rotating beats that go skittish, club-worthy and reggae-tinged without sounding unnatural or too far from a beach. In Light shines on October 10 via Glassnote. I really dig this. Shouts to RCRDLBL for this one.
Thundercat’s debut album The Golden Age of Apocalypse is one of my favourite releases of this year – I’m yet to see him perform live though. This video filmed at the Echo in Los Angeles during his album release party has made the urgency of attending one of his shows even greater. Watch as he, his band and attendees Erykah Badu & Shafiq Husayn descend into a 7 minute Funk-infested improvisation. [via SB]
B. Bravo joins forces with Zackery Force Funk and together they have conjured up ‘Kiss ‘n’ Tell’ – a colourful broken beat composition armed with killer chord progressions and synth organs. This is more than a little fresh…
From what I see, a tagged version of this song has been out for a little while – I personally just heard it. Regardless of how ‘new’ it is – it needed a post.
As self-proclaimed Timberlake cling-ons (Justified & FutureSex/LoveSounds are two of the most important R&B-Pop albums of the past decade – don’t let anyone fool you) we have been desperate to see his return to music (‘llow acting bruv) and at present this unreleased ballad is as close to that as we’re going to get.
‘Words I Say’ is a piffed-out slow jam, with backwards strings and a strong lead vocal from the blue eyed G. Not sure from which period this song was recorded (the Purp guitar at the end makes me feel like it’s from his sophomore sessions, but can’t be sure) however a mastered version wouldn’t have sounded out of place on either of his records.
Now, Justin – return at once and show these ‘OMG’ singers how it do. Safe.
