This is what August 24th, afternoon, warm with overly-appreciated sunshine, in Seattle, sounds like. There is an abundance of good music from New Zealand.
Big up the Star Wars Imperial-Kuduro-Darthstep (new genre alert!) from Bulgarian-born etnoteck, glitch-folk and post-national bass DJ and promoter Joro-Boro and Brilla. I now know what type of music must reverberate around the… Continue reading
This new vid from Katy B sees her going a bit Gaga, a bit 80s wind-in-your-hair soft-focus pop, and a bit storm-in-a-derelict-office dream sequence. A natural progression. The slow-rollin’ Amen break on the… Continue reading
Dubsteppy pop (but definitely, definitely not popstep because that is not becoming a thing, okay?) from Germany’s Emika. Almost-frozen, brittle, mumble-sung vocals with gentle but bass-forward beats and a video that can only… Continue reading
Up for hearing some thrashy, don’t-care, garage rock from two guys living in Shanghai that sounds like it was recorded with a plastic microphone that came free in a box of cereal in… Continue reading
Iceland’s most famous voice returns in all its glacial, harmonic glory with a xylophone-led, stumbling snare-driven track that’s given the Gondry video treatment of child-like stop-motion animation that shows moons and lazers and… Continue reading
The one song from the rock-meets-hip-hop Judgment Night soundtrack that it’s okay to like. Funny how De La and t’Fanclub sound like they just don’t care one bit how this one turns out,… Continue reading
Love Nguzunguzu! Just when you thought the L.A.-based, M.I.A.-matey, Mad Decent-sanctioned, Chicago footwork/UK bass/general beat insanity duo couldn’t get any cooler, you then find out that their name is inspired by a canoe… Continue reading
More bran’ nu from the Tru Thoughts camp with Lanu; the New Zealand-born, Melbourne, Australia-based lead guitarist and brains behind funk outfit the Bamboos. Rain? Evergreen trees? Mountains and lakes? Girls with glasses?… Continue reading
Bran’ nu from the Stepkids! Love the Umi Says drums, sketched soul harmonies, and 60s throwback sonic psychedelia. ‘Wonderfox’ is taken from their debut, self-titled album available September 27 on Stones Throw. I… Continue reading
Quite, quite brilliant. If you’re a Korean lounge act and you want to cover the Friendlies’ ‘Paris’, then you clearly need a bow-tie with your polo shirt, a keyboard riff that would sit… Continue reading
Been a while since we’ve heard anything from the Stereo MCs, and most of us are just getting this song of theirs out of our heads for the first time in 19 years.… Continue reading
Not going to Glastonbury Festival this weekend, partly because I don’t have a ticket and partly because I live over 4,550 miles away. But if I was going and I was driving down… Continue reading
Africa Hitech aka Mark Pritchard and Steve Spacek recently delivered 93 Million Miles – a ‘2Future4U’ album from the duo that’s yet again chock-full of production that’s a few light years ahead of… Continue reading
I’ve only lived in Seattle for a year, I’ve only seen two baseball games in my life, I’d probably need directions to Safeco Field, and I’d probably need to check what an RBI… Continue reading
My favorite 4hero song. And there are many. Chunky upfront drums, plucked double bass textures, swirling strings, and lyrics that I’ve yet to completely understand. Beautiful. Did not expect Dego to be a… Continue reading
From Copenhagen, Denmark. Boom Clap Bachelors are a collective of musicians that include producer Ronni Vindahl, singer Coco Maja Hastrup Karshøj and producer Robin Hannibal (the last two also do their own thing… Continue reading
Loving some Malian folk hop for a Thursday night! Cool fact! SMOD’s frontman Sam (guy with the guitar) is none other than the son of Mali’s premier musical couple Amadou and Mariam! Another… Continue reading
As if it wasn’t enough to get all sweaty shouty and rock out with your mates while trapped in a glitter maelstrom (vocab), the Glasgow band then went and called themselves Dananananaykroyd (gets… Continue reading
Cornershop come back strong with a lo-wave Frenchified simple disco edit as part of frontman Tjinder’s Singhles Club (genius) that boasts a video of stop-motion bat flurries, sting rays that look like burger… Continue reading
One of my all-time favorite remixes and remixers. Reprazent’s drum ‘n’ bass track ‘Watching Windows’ gets a spacey and echoey Latin update from Lil Louis and Kenny Dope aka Nuyorican Soul. The real… Continue reading
Fresh from tearing SXSW to shreds (and then shredding the shreds) back in March, the Korean garage rockers Galaxy Express mean business with their riotous and hyper-energetic track ‘Jungle the Black’. On hearing… Continue reading
The FFs have come back strong. Check out their brilliant new track ‘Live Those Days Tonight’ below – the cover art for which features a raving parakeet reaching for the lasers. See Friendly… Continue reading
I’ve never had to concentrate so much on getting the lyrics right for a song before. 3 x 9? Really? You want the answer before the next chord change? Good job I’ve got… Continue reading
Rather pleased with that title. Dear The Milk, if you ever want to use that as a name for a future album, single, or racehorse, you’re quite welcome. The Essex, UK band bring… Continue reading
If you haven’t heard of Japanese jazz act Soil & “Pimp” Sessions, you need to shut down your computer right now and go and buy all of their albums and book flights,… Continue reading
UK grime godfather Wiley proves he does more than just ruminate on who’s wearing his Rolex in this brand new vid for brand new cut ‘Numbers In Action’ – giving bedroom producers everywhere… Continue reading
Still one of my favorite songs. Still one of my favorite music videos.
The future of U.K. hip hop is here. Enter Ghostpoet. A confident yet chilled cadence like no other and rhymes so laid-back you’d think they were recorded while sat in a deckchair. Truly… Continue reading
With a beat and flow that sounds much more Bow than Tokyo, Japanese grime is well and truly gaining some great sinister stringed, heavily bassed-out, walloping beat momentum right now from artists like… Continue reading
New Malden, London, UK soulstepper Jamie Woon records an acapella version of ‘Lady Luck’ live from a boat in the middle of a mangrove swamp in Cambodia. Not a bad way to… Continue reading
Listening to Benji B‘s recent show – where he interviewed the legendary Photek (and played wall-to-wall Photek productions from back in the day to the present day) – got me seriously inspired to… Continue reading
Meet Nisa Rodriguez, a 19-year-old boxer and single mother from the Bronx, New York. This video follows her as she works for a spot on the U.S. 2012 Olympic Boxing Team. So much… Continue reading
Fully experience what it’s like to be a wayward and errant paper plane (or rogue origami cathedral) by watching the official video to the fantastic ‘So Alive’ by Blueprint below. You can check… Continue reading
While everyone and their chihuahua sets the internet ablaze with chitter-chatter about the new Radiohead album ‘The King of Limbs’, nobody seems to have noticed that Thom Yorke completely wholesale-ripped-off Beyonce’s moves for… Continue reading
Meet Dean Bentley aka Hourglass Sea: Bradford, England’s chief exporter of the finest fast-forward-to-the-future beat wizardry and synth melodies so polished you’d think he’d finished them off with an industrial buffer. Have a… Continue reading
Who knew that 1970s Indonesia was a hotbed of raw psychedelic funk and prog rock? And how awesome is the band name ‘Shark Move’? Read all about it at the Stones Throw website,… Continue reading
I don’t think I’ll ever tire of listening to this amazing, amazing, amazing song. What makes it even better is that it’s accompanied by a video shot by a SPbGATI (St Petersburg Academy… Continue reading
This track is twelve years old yet still bends and blurs the boundaries of UK garage. Criminally underrated tune. Simple and effective.
Brazil’s got talent. Bacana! [If you haven’t checked out Aloe Blacc’s stripped-down lounge soul cover of ‘Billie Jean’ yet, you need to do so right now]
My new favorite band. A flawless performance in every way. Extra points for ‘BlingBling Shop’ in the background. To be honest I wasn’t expecting Korea’s answer to Ja Rule’s gravelly baritone rap voice… Continue reading
This is about as raw as jungle gets. No slick studio polishing of the drums and rounding off the edges of the bass here, instead it’s all about using beats and loops that… Continue reading
If I had to list my favorite genres of music, rockabilly probably wouldn’t be the first, second, or even twenty-seventh style that springs to mind, but anytime Jack White is involved with anything… Continue reading
Can’t decide which one of these remixes I like better. First up, Mike Delinquent takes us back to 2000 with some strickly slick UK garridge bidnis that has me reaching for the MJ… Continue reading
I’ve had this hook from Phil Asher and his friends Mark de Clive Lowe and Shea Soul trottin’, runnin’, and gallopin’ through my mind all day. Pretty much bang-on-perfect singalong uplifting soulful disco… Continue reading
Temporarily forgot just how great Portishead are. Especially with this relentless derk-derk-derk hook that sounds like a busy signal on Jupiter. Dude busting moves at 1:37 is how I will dance to everything… Continue reading
Subtle and sublime Saturday afternoon winter sunshine vibes from LA’s Michelle Shaprow, whose ‘If I Lost You’ gets a snappy rolling kick and warm Rhodes rework from soulful house stalwart King Britt underneath… Continue reading
A fine return to form for Mr T as he teams up with producer Ski Beatz to revisit the piano-led kick-snare, kick-snare hi-hat and female gospel chorus formula that made his Kanye-produced single… Continue reading
