Tyler, the Creator is stepping shit up – he’s only gone and got Erykah Badu on a soulful new track of his. Taken off his upcoming album Wolf, ‘Treehome95′ also employs the vocal talents of Coco O., who along with Badu takes over the track entirely. Tyler himself isn’t featured on the twinkling record, a poignant move on his behalf in my opinion. This certainly embraces a much more mature direction for Odd Future’s leading man, interested to hear how the rest of the songs shape up.
P.s Hey @FatBellyBella – when’s that new album coming? #wemissyou
You’ll remember rising singer/songwriter/producer and PB favourite MNEK covering Disclosure’s ‘White Noise’ a few weeks back. Well, so impressed were Dutch producers Full Crate & FS Green both felt compelled to lay their own re-imagined soulful house vibe to it. This remixed refix (keep up) begs for that summer heat – certainly one for the dance.
Inc’sNo World album has literally been on constant rotation since we got our mitts on it – top to bottom it’s one of the best albums you’ll hear this year, certainly one of the best R&B albums you’ll hear (this and that new JT set, obvs). Promise. Their spectacular Prince-tinged single ‘Black Wings’ has just been given the video treatment – watch their post-apocalyptic, Mad Max style video up top. And make sure you get that album.
The boys will be playing in London on April 11th at Concrete – tickets and other European dates can be found here.
Winter may have shit all over Spring this week but there’s no shortage of sunshine on Toro Y Moi’s new single ‘Never Matter’. The song is one of the many, many highlights across Toro’s recently released Anything in Return album. The 80′s flavoured uptempo has warm funk synths with fuzzy blemishes and is accompanied by a fetching flea-market based video that should hopefully help brighten up your day.
Electronic giants Mount Kimbie graciously played us some of their new album late last year – we had to contain our excitement because what we heard was f*cking mind melting. Having shifted the landscape with their debut album Crooks & Lovers in 2010, Dominic Maker and Kai Campos finally return with their follow up Cold Spring Fault Less Youth on May 27th via Warp Records. The albums first single ‘Made To Stray’ is a dizzying number with relentless percussions and spacey synths and has been offered up as a free download. Listen below, download here.
P.s By the way, just wait ’til you hear those King Krule tracks that they’ve also just announced. Gah.
It’s been 16 years since Shola Ama released ‘You Might Need Somebody’ from her debut album Much Love. A lot has happened since then and a lot has changed, a comeback after all this time (Ama did release a couple albums after her debut but none ignited much commercial success – although her second album did give us ‘Imagine’ or more importantly it’s garage remix) would always be risky and would no doubt raise a few sceptical eyebrows (mine included). But to Ama’s credit she’s avoided the usual cheap faux-garage, dance-floor-filler routine and hit back with a rather voluminous slow-jam. ‘Boyfriend’ is a sensual number that sees the singer battling temptations which she subsequently fights off by reminding herself “Sho don’t f*ck this up, I got a boyfriend”…
‘Boyfriend’ won’t change your life but it is reassuring to know that unlike many of her former contemporaries Shola Ama seems to have an ear to the ground and is conscious enough to create new tracks that sound relevant and feel contextually right. Plus, I’ve been in love with this lady since year 7 times, so just have a listen…
At this stage it’s very clear James Blake is out to keep you guessing as to what his forthcoming Overgrown album will sound like in full. After the LP’s first single ‘Retrograde’ blew us away with it’s post-Dilla mindset, he dropped ‘Digital Lion’ and ‘Voyeur’ – all very contrasting songs that offer little insight into any one direction. But then that’s the beauty of what Blake does, he did it with ‘Limit To Your Love’ back in 2011- the first single off his self-titled debut album led many to believe his LP would offer one thing when in fact it offered something very different.
In anycase ‘Our Love Comes Back’ is a live-recorded track offered for free via Amazon – the soft, gospel-like ballad demonstrates a more familiar side of Blake’s artistry and will appear on the singer/producer’s new album due out April 8th.
Justin Timberlake has scored his third UK #1 album with The 20/20 Experience after selling over 109,000 copies in it’s first week – a feat that subsequently knocked pop icon David Bowie off the top spot. The singers third album, his first in over 6 years, had already spawned a number 1 selling single in the UK with ‘Mirrors’ and looks set to sell even more copies on these shores in the coming weeks.
Furthermore JT is set to debut with massive first week numbers in America too. While initial reports suggested the album could sell between 500-700,000 copies, reports today suggest they could exceed those and possibly sell between 900-950,000, maybe even a million. This would easily make The 20/20 Experience one of this years biggest releases and one of the fastest selling of the decade. It’ll also mark Justin’s biggest first week solo sales to date.
… And lets not forget the biggest first week sales of all time came from Timberlake’s former band who sold over 2 million copies of their No Strings Attached album in it’s debut week.
After a massively successful year in the UK and across Europe with her critically acclaimed debut album Devotion, Jessie Ware is now preparing it’s U.S release (April 16th). To launch the album stateside the LP will feature two additional bonus tracks – one is an upcoming remix of ‘Wildest Dreams’ featuring A$AP Rocky and the other is ‘Imagine It Was Us’ produced by frequent collaborator Julio Bashmore. By far the most uptempo record on the album ‘Imagine It Was Us’ is a fabulous disco number with an infectious bassline and seductive vocals from Miss Ware and plays as a great addition to an already excellent album.
Julio Bashmore teams up with newcomer Kowton to ensure your Friday runs as smoothly as possibly by unearthing this made-for-the-dance new number ‘Mirror Song’. Premiered on Jackmaster’s Radio One show last night, the tune is powered by bellowing four to the floor rhythms, crashing effects and an undeniable sensibility that we should all be completely f*cked while playing this. Play loudly in the office today, it’ll help.
