Hundreds ‘pon hundreds of songs, albums and PinBoard posts later, our end of season tape. A gift compiled together by all of us here, to say thanks to everyone who’s been with us year on year, readers, peers, old friends, new ones. We’re hopin’ you had a chance to share these with us in 2011. These are SOME (emphasis on some, or all we could fit) of our favourite records popped up in the last 365 days. Oh & if you’re new here… hang tight, peruse, we gotchu’.
Large respect to all the bloggers and independent platforms out there dedicating their hours to documenting the sounds of a post-mod civilization. Larger respects to the culture of music fans who comprise it. But I guess, largest respects to the artists and creators who nourish our little spiritual obsession. We’d be fucked without all of us…
Below isn’t in award order by the way, more a flight path from 1 to 15 taking you through sexy, bumpin’, shifting musical territory, both up tempo and down. So hit play, do your thing wherever you’re at with the laptops out and the cable jacks shinin’.
Happy new-new. Be safe!
Tracklist:
1. Adele – Rolling In The Deep (Jamie XX Shuffle Remix)
2. Sbtrkt Feat. Sampha – Living Like I Do
3. Full Crate – Joy
4. Azelia Banks – 212
5. 14th – Hide Yourself
6. J. Cole Feat. Missy Elliot – Nobody’s Perfect
7. A$AP Rocky – Peso
8. Fatima and Floating Points – Mind
9. CREEP Feat. Nina Sky – You
10. Jessie Ware – Strangest Feeling
11. Gary Clarke Jnr. – Bright Lights
12. The Weeknd – Trust Issues
13. Ifan Dafydd – Treehouse
14. Switch Feat. Andrea Martin – I Still Love You
15. Hudson Mohawke – Pleasure Principle
This comes as relief for those looking less for the disco, disco, party, party and more a reflective entry into the new year. Parisian based Cascade Records have kindly given away this beat tape from those Repeat Pattern junkies. Taking you on a jazzy journey through switching time signatures whilst maintaining a solid hip-hop backbone; low-fi soundscapes coupled with nice keys and layered goodness. Music to write resolutions to….’11 into ’12 how would you define yourself…
“breath taker oyaji beatmaker slow mover soul aggregator child educator manga reader non-breeder apple piebaker truth forsaker life long freeter hard drive crasher shoe gazer dream heater people watcher light sleeper simon and garfunkel listener bandcamp panhandler poetry writer wing melter love crusher red light runner empty bottle greeter old beat keeper music stealer mushroom eater rule bender letter sender badminton player heart pounder massive noise sounder youtube sampler thriftstore shopper amateur bunny hopper knob tweaker umeboshi connoisseur waste hater possibility lover newcomer space echo holder echoplex owner loudspeaker speaker pattern repeater“
As everyone’s getting mentally beefed up to disco, disco, party, party soonish…
Bump some newly dropped Bobby Tank – a London funk cosmonaut creating mucky, low fidelity Boogie. Let it simmer loud till that the vocal chops kicks in and done – booty meat and Babycham.
It is interesting where you can hear influences on beat culture stemming from Hud-Mo and Onra‘s work in the last couple years, as Butter gloop and Long Distance jeep jams meet dotingly somewhere off the coast of, errr, Harrow (Tank’s sides). Check out his Soundcloud, there’s some other tastiness on there, re: Sexy Thang and re: Good Girl Bad Girl.
Shouts to les connoisseur Yera Africanu for sending over and all the DJs out there trawlin’ the digital hemispheres for fresh goods in the early hours. Mad prep for tomorrow night? Holla at the PinBoard archives.
An under-radar act we’re wagering to rocket in 2012? Probably drop a couple stacks on these two comely Londoners – Tracey Duodu and Tom Barber. PinBoard frequenters, you’ll already know them as 14th, ergo heads hooked on Hide Yourself (realest talk – opening always breaks my alpha, bearded composure into a Kleenex-drench namby pamby). Emosh on a hundred, thousand…
They’re bringing grown-up, weathered-heart UK Garage and 90s Brit-R&B vibes amongst other ‘Post’ toyings nested inside an Alt-Pop fairytale cosmos – naturally broadsheets have been abuzz. They’re also kinda’ like a sensual, clubbier, more soulful, comparative to The Bird & The Bee I suppose. All of which leaves very little not to coo over…
Since UKG has begun re-emerging in the milked Brostep-lite commersh sphere this year with an increase in requested UKG remixes for major label acts, the contagious Capital FM friendly 2-Step sound that invaded Brit charts in the late 90s will likely be run through the re-modelling process by it’s upshot generation and proliferate radio again. Underground electronic producer Ital Tek said three succint words in an interview earlier this month that I’m sure sum up all our theories as observers/gobs on musical landscape: “it’s all cyclical.” When applied to danceable British Pop, perhaps in the near future it’ll be getting it’s gunfinger skank back. Hurrah!
Hear this live session with 14th at legendary Maida Vale studios for Radio 1 a few weeks back. It’ll restore hope. Duodu’s vocal is something quite affective and producer Barber knows how to scaffold it’s emotive fractures with mecha-melodies. Plus I reckon ‘Take Me There‘ is an even bigger record than ‘Hide Yourself’. Says alot. Worth coppage Feb 6th 2012.
Berlin based DNTE gives ‘Rain A Fall’ from Colonel Red’s new longplayer Keep Walkin the refix treatment. Colonel Red has come full circle, early in his career as a singer with the likes of heavyweights Earth Wind & Fire, Teddy Pendergrass, Anita Baker, Lenny White, Tony Allen and The Last Poets. He moved into the realm of electronic music and lent his voice to some of my favourite broken beat tracks of years gone by working with the likes of Bugz In The Attic and 4Hero. Now returning to his soul, funk and fusion roots with his new project. This remix and the new album are available via Tokyo Dawn Records now.
Label Push & Run are going to be signing some fertile acts over the next few years, you can sense it. Ifan Dafydd’s poised to rise from the ranks of bedroom-studio geniuses with his upcoming ‘Treehouse’ release, as is another wiz in their wings, Pedestrian. He too, has been creating the kind of ambrosial Electronic stuff that transports you back to the safety of your childhood pram; all curious and riddled with delight at the sounds flying around in the world’s air above your supple scalp. His use of field recordings is tight.
Pedestrian’s EP Hei Poa is out now. And if all that ain’t enough, peep also labelmate Dafydd’s lush ‘Daddy’ remix from October here. Keep sh*t rollin’!
In other news, shouts to the Ms. Sandé by the way, who was recently voted the Brit’s Critics Choice Award for 2012. Her performance on the PinBoard x Red Bull Rehearsal Rooms episode was really nicely received by audiences this year. Charting number, ‘Daddy’, is a deft piece of songwriting. Hear it taken on a trip to faraway tropics with an underground hope at the wheel below.
As we crown SBTRKT’s debut our #2 Album of the Year, the masked wanderer unveils the b-side to his new single ‘Hold On’. Dropping soon on Young Turks the glitch heavy production, with it’s warm 80′s synths and equatorial beat, detonates into phonic chaos.
Someone really ought to check the water supply in Toronto, something very strange has been happening over there. It would appear that T.Dot is in the midst of an artistic uprising – at least when concerned with developments in R&B.
The Weeknd / XO affiliated DropxLife (co-producer of ‘Initiation’ from Echoes of Silence) is a seemingly mysterious creative whose existence is primarily felt through the songs he chooses to upload online (a familiar XO model). Very little is known or can be found on him – a mixtape ALLXLEGENDS and albumPawncho have flown about before this new 3-tracker which dropped today.
While we acclimatise ourselves to the seemingly endless inventory of faceless producers, our ears are forced to balance the precipice – a task made much easier when such expansive experimentalism is done so vividly. DropxLife’s productions are lasciviously dark, merging the beauty of obscure R&B with 2-step idiosyncrasies and empyreal mysticism. Lo-fi thick basslines, dank drum patterns and enough rotundness to wet the most sapless of minds.
This is deep. ‘NuerxOld’ is on repeat especially.
Update: DropxLife updated the tape with 6 additional new tracks, listen below & download up top.
The original 2004 Mos Def version would be up there as probably one of the more arousing jams of the past decade. But, this brand new reworking makes quite a spectacle of itself.
A melting between the beautiful Californian songstress and respected Brooklyn producer/emcee MeLo-X that pairs her seductive tones and his psychedelic, interstellar-club quirks behind the boards; his production’s progressed leaps and bounds in the last three years, and she’s been getting fair amount of notice in the Alt-Soul scene these last twelve months.
MeLo will be releasing his first full length instrumental album titled “Fewture” on 1/31/12.
Meanwhile, free download of ‘The Panties’ track here. Your underwear’s – lost in the nebula.
Some tremendous artists including Julio Bashmore, Blawan and Joy-O have been killing the 4×4 tip for us this year when we’ve felt peckish for it. Now some nice Chicago House soulfulness with techy undertones from a next highly skilled nostalgist, Citizen. Signed to Templar Sound, the London producer leans in darker on this bomb reflip of the ’88 classic by Adeva. Screwing her down a notch whilst waving a lightsabre synth and not losing any of the chic? That’s a tribute well done.
Tuck into his Soundcloud, there’s alot of grimy, quality 4×4 creations on there. Plus the stomping Remix EP where this track’s housed, also available for free download like the joint below. Grab it direct from the down-arrow on the player.
The series continues. Time to peep episodes 6 & 7 of The Throne’s online documentary – a set of short films offering exclusive insight into Jay-Z & Kanye West’s historic joint tour. Shouts to James Blake who cameos too.
The R&B rebirth continues. Up now is Phlo Finister, a Cali-based singer currently making a name for herself with her brand of contemporary-throwback R&B.
Finister’s recently released FreEP entitled Crown Gold is a 6 track project featuring known productions from the likes of Dr. Dre, Tupac & The Doors, plus two original compositions from Jay Curry. Clearly affected by the traditions of 90′s R&B and the trademarks of artists like Aaliyah, Brandy and Ashanti – she aims to produce “classic R&B” with a “avant garde” edge. Phlo does possess a clear patent voice well suited to the style of R&B she’s producing and despite some of it’s languor, the EP does offer some promising insight – most discernibly on songs like ‘Shades’ & ‘No More’.
Critical to any artists’ success though is their ability to embody the influences of their formative years whilst amalgamating them with the modern. Fail to do so and you run the risk of boring your audience, or worse – pissing them off entirely. Pretty confident her video for ‘Shades’ for instance will raise a few eyebrows – Finisher’s “I fuck with Tommy Hilfiger, simple as that” approach may not go down too well with the die-hard traditionalists. But with a pinch more distinction, tighter productions and stronger focus on “avante garde” methods – Phlo Finister should be an interesting one to watch.
New, hyper audio-exotica from superstar producer and one-half of Major Lazer, the duke Diplo. As a treat the man’s uploaded this snippet-by-snippet preview of the free EP he’ll be giving away in a few days, set to feature a host of dancehall & club toasters including Elephant Man. With his take on Moohmbaton, Baile Funk, Electro-Bashment – there’s very few territories the diverse World-Electronic aficionado won’t venture into it. Booty and crotch demolition ahoy.
Karmaloop have just dropped the visuals to emcee Phil Ade and former Odd Future member Casey Veggies swish hustler music: a charming abbreviation for “paper over p*ssy”. It’s got an addictive, fluttery, Soulful sax break and shiny Roland cymbals wheezing like a steam-roller. This’ll definitely transport a little LA vapour to morbidly nippy London right now. Shouts to the red plastic cup gang.
Phil’s upcoming #PhilAdeFriday2 Mixtape, dropping Friday, December 30th.
British electronic musician Synkro recently moved us with his refix of The XX’s ‘Night Time’ – that 2-Step revision was a refreshing approach to an already compelling record. A couple days ago he took to his soundcloud to unleash “one of [his] tunes from a few years back that never saw a release” entitled ‘Last Night’. It’s an ambient, nocturnally suited production armed with dreamy synths and a hypnotic pulse. Recognise that sample? Available for free download below.
