There’s something comforting about experimental folkster with soul Peter Broderick’s approach on this song, in an Art Garfunkel kind of way. ‘I’ve Tried’ is delicate and uplifting but done in a quiet, contemplative manner, with Broderick professing “I’ve tried to catch the eye of the spirit that’s always looking away”. Ambient pads ebb away beneath him and hope never gives away to total abandon. His new album These Walls of Mine is out on Erased Tapes to order here.
With Jessie advancing like crazy in the mid-week charts and pretty much putting the internet on smash right now, it was only right one of the key figures behind the Devotion project put his spin on olympic anthem ‘Wildest Moments’. Originally produced for max pop grandeur by Kid Harpoon, Dave Okumu’s version takes it a little more left and inward. If you haven’t heard Okumu’s group The Invisible‘s Rispah yet, do the damn thing, it’s one guitar-driven album that will mesmerize this year. His input in helping craft the sound of Devotion, another of the years best, is also worth a round of applause.
Premiered via Dazed Digital where you can read the rest of Ms. Ware’s accompanying interview. Her debut LP is out to buy now, here.
Katy B, another beloved #LondonGirl, dropped probably some of the biggest anthems of 2010 and soundtracked that Summer forever. Not just for us, but the British public in general. And whilst there’s been a wave of singers to follow in B’s bass princess footsteps, she was one of it’s first true pop stars. So, good on Mosca for pairing up with her for this vocal rework of last year’s monster club record ‘Bax’. It feels right. And she kills it. Should go down in a gargantuan way when dropped at Carnival on Monday if anyone has the 320kbps. Adore this woman and can’t wait for her to return – really interested in seeing which direction she’ll take her next album in.
At the end of June, buzzing Harlem native and former A$AP in-house designer Dominic Lord dropped a Hudson Mohawke produced heater titled ‘Pierce’. It marked an intriguing new arrival in what you could essentially view as Art-Rap. Whilst the view is nothing new in blogland, this cross-between oddball visual counter-culture, middle-class influences and far-out hip-hop has been strong in the last few years. The snowballing new school tradition itself continues. Rapping like he’s got a wired jaw over a punchy, punctured instrumental, Dominic’s aesthetic isn’t a dozen miles removed from the residue of Clams or Rocky’s Trillwave ideas of blunted amazonian beats and intellectual ig’nance, if maybe more on the introspective side.
Jumpy and bumpy offering from a forthcoming collaborative project between Chicago rapper The GTW and producer Bengfang. Slinky chords aboard piano a half-timer with stuttering hats, deep bass kicks and bars of lady-pining and loungey falsetto. There’s a really nice mix of styles on this infectious number. Satisfy your own craving for the week’s end and get some ass shooken to that punk smooth sh*t. Their 4814 EP will be coming right up.
Can we ever thank legendary Todd Edwards enough for the influence he’s had on Future Garage, Post Dubstep, Bass, or whatever sub-genre label purists prefer to avoid like the plague today? Ahead of his time in the 90s, the originally New Jersey born producer still knocks out the tunes. Striking up a relationship between trademark shuffly House with 2-Step syncopation and, well, even cheeky robotic Grime on this cut, he dedicates it all to the big smoke by dicing up Sweeney Todd/Johnny Depp’s “there is no place like London”. Truer vox hath not been skewered. Big love all day, every day to Todd the God and the melting pot capital of the world… Home.
This track finally get it’s official single release tomorrow on Sweat It Out!
Hats off to Tri Angle Records’ ethos: “Pop is religion. Overground is underground.” They’ve had some brilliant acts that coalesce with the both sides of the equilibrium – experimental music taking inspiration in Pop and vice-versa from Clammy Clams to AlunaGeorge. Another of theirs that’s had a grip on the headphones since last year’s stunning work With U, is Holy Other, returning last month with the teary eyed beauty of track ‘Love Some1′.
Having kept a cult fanbase engaged, the esoteric Other really delivers with this hyper-emotional second long player. It re-iterates his sound that takes a European sense of urbanity and melts it into one misty city. Aching, amplified layers of drone overpowering the spirit, as downtempo time signatures are thrown into turmoil making you want to, essentially, be ‘Held’. It’s 110% night bus. ‘Inpouring’, ‘U Now’ and ‘In Difference’ are corkers aswell. Get in the zone for 36 minutes and let it help you find your way out again #noseasonalaffectivedisorder. Out 27th of August.
A foolproof moniker – Purple Ferdinand is a 23 year old singer/songwriter that’s been capturing attention across our live circuit in the last few months. Set to perform at New York’s Afro-Punk festival this week (crazy line-up), on sight she intrigues: body-modified, beanied and blue ukele’d up. Yet in terms of musical tradition, the East Londoner is less coffee-shop Corinne Bailey Ray and more Folk-Soul for the ‘Cloud’ gen.
Her tone, is wrapped in a sort of velvety, cool, coarseness, and the above acoustic version of ‘Beautiful Anomaly’ feels like a poem pulled out of some naive diary exhumed from youth. It’s gentle, lullaby-like, and quite touching. Whilst expected to experiment with her sound in near future, you can also watch random videos of the artist tattooing herself to Lonyo on YouTube. How very ladylike.
“I lock it off, then I dun’ the dance”. ItsNate continues testing palettes with Jon Phonics on the industrially charged beat, siphoning a crazy combo of bravado and raps on raps on raps. The Piff Gang affiliate swerves between breathalyzed slang and double-time indicments as the track rolls hookless, and the Stayhungry directed video strips back to bare only the intense transmission. But it’s the kind of intensity that isn’t driven by angst, it’s driven by a ‘wavey’ nurtured aplomb; giving the rapper increasing prominence in the circle of new faces rising up during this needed revitalization period in Brit hip-hop. We’re looking forward to that NeverAverageTalkingExcellent tape on the way.
Heads up, new Summer party anthem. Pure BBQ circa ’93 vibrations in the place. Premiered for the first time on Annie Mac’s Radio 1 show a few days ago, this huge tune arrives in time for the last few weeks of a season it was destined to soundtrack. Feeling like young love blossoming around a red dusk, it’s lovingly crafted revivalist sentiments conjure up Soul II Soul and PM Dawn, set adrift on the same memory bliss.
Signed to PMR, the label who’s roster boasts Jessie Ware, Julio Bashmore, Javeon McCarthy, Two Inch Punch et al, this will be producer T.Williams‘ soulful House debut single for them. Less aggressive and more chilled than his work over the last few years, ‘Think of You’ features the sassy vox of his collaborator Tendai. Draw for something high-waisted and get your dance-to-dawn on. Out September 17th.
