Rural Alberta Advantage New Song!

Yay!

Aww shucks. One of my absolute favourites ever The Rural Alberta Advantage are releasing album #2 in March 2011 and to celebrate that fact they've released a new song called Stamp.

It's a free download right about here



Welcome back guys and gal! Not much seems to have changed from back in day (all of a year ago) but then again that IS just the way I've always loved you (Especially you Amy).



Take a bow, I've missed you.

Season's Greetings

Hello. Hope you had as good a Christmas as me and hopefully even better.

I got loads of underpants. Underpants and socks. So when you catch me walking the mean, lean streets of Turku, Finland in flashy new undergarments you'll now know why. Showing off your underwear in -fuckoff°C might not be seen as cool but, damn it, with all my new clobber I'm gonna make it cool.

For the time being I'm still in England and we've got something (hopefully) special lined up for me for new years eve. As somewhat of a tourist in London and even here in Brighton I mostly rely on other people to tell me what to do. Kind of like a cultural sheep. But obviously a really, really good-looking one.

So this year what we're (planning on) doing is going up to this. Should be a party. Should probably try not to pass out before most people have even realised it's new years eve.
Should have a great time dancing/nodding to Pariah. Especially in the wake of all this James Blake/Mount Kimbie megahype.



And as if that wasn't enough to get my (brand new, possibly primark) pants wet then we'll also get some Girl Unit in our ears to get potential bragging right back in Finland. Who according to Mira gave us THE best dubstep anthem of the year. I've agreed to disagree but, whatever, it's still good.

T-Bone's Top Picks of 2010

It's time again. Time to do the annual listing of what's tickled everyone's fancy and what hasn't. What's made me slaver and what's made me go "OMG WTF ROFL". What's hot and what's not, as they say.

But as I'm sat here writing this thinking that everyone's already done this already, I think I'll just keep it easy and list a few albums that aren't on EVERBODY'S list. If you are however looking for some kind of "definitive" list then try this one.

Starting off with Baths' Cerulean.



Baths kind of hit me out of nowhere with the unbelievably good track Hall. So I went on and preordered the LP without even listening to any other tunes from it. Hell, I didn't even care if Baths was a "one-hit wonder" kind of in the mould of a certain DOM, because Halls was so good.
Cerulean didn't disappoint. It is a special album. Special as in it's my #1 of the year.
If you haven't yet heard Baths then please do so now.




Forest Swords' Dagger Paths is taking it down a notch from Baths but this (touted as an EP but who cares as its running time's probably longer than say Male Bondings LP) album is one atmospheric son of bitch. Dabbling in similar soundscapes as Burial, Forest Swords made the perfect dark, brooding soundtrack to what it looks like out my window right now.




Actress came as a last fm recommendation. Thankfully as his album Splazsh is some of the best what-you-ma-call-it "post-dubstep" you'll get. The hype and acclaim for Mount Kimbie is there for a reason, but people tend to forget this little gem.





Games are part Oneohtrix Point Never and even though Dan Lopatin's work under OPN was a highlight of the year, it's still his work with Joel Ford as Games which tops it. That We Play is such a nostalgia-fest that it's hard not to get worked up over this. Any tune that starts with the Playstation 1's opening theme has a place in my heart. Easily.


My apologies for not doing a proper list with numbers and shit, but this is the way it's going to be. Maybe I'll do one next year or something. Oh and also my apologies for everything on here being all electronic and shit. Maybe next year people will stop making electro-mumbo-jumbo that I'm fond of.

I'm feeling quite bad now for not making a real list, so I'll do a quick sped-up version before I go. In no particular order these have been good:

Beach House - Teen Dream, Forest Swords - Dagger Paths, Caribou - Swim, Four Tet - There Is Love In You, Tunng - And Then We Saw Land, Micah P. Hinson - The Pioneer Saboteurs, Gayngs - Related, Eels - Tomorrow Morning, Black Keys - Brothers, Mount Kimbie - Crook & Lovers, Baths - Cerulean, Besnard Lakes - Are The Roaring Night, Laura Veirs - July Flame, Ariel Pinks Haunted Graffitti - Before Today, Pantha Du Prince - Black Noise, Everything Everything - Man Alive, Broken Bells - S/t, White Denim - Last Days of Summer, Flying Lotus - Cosmogramma, Darkstar - North, School of Seven Bells - Disconnect From Desire, Warpaint - The Fool, Effi Briest - Rhizomes, Emeralds - Does It Look Like I'm Here, Glasser - Ring, Gold Panda - Lucky Shiner, Owen Pallett - Heartlands, Delphic - Acolyte, Toro Y Moi - Causers of This, Harlem - Hippies, Sleigh Bells - Treats, Anna von Hausswolff - Singing from the Grave, Gil Scott-Heron - I'm New Here, Zola Jesus - Stridulum, The Album Leaf - A Chorus Of Storytellers, Male Bonding - Nothing Hurts, Dum Dum Girls - I Will Be, Tobacco - Maniac Meat, Star Slinger - Volume 1, 65daysofstatic - We Were Exploding Anyway, Vampire Weekend - Contra, How To Dress Well - Love Remains, Javelin - No Mas, Holy Fuck - Latin, Delorean - Subiza, Gorillaz - Plastic Beach, Liars - Sisterworld, Alberta Cross - Broken Side of Time, These New Puritans - Hidden, Holly Miranda - The Magicians Private Libarary.

Ha now get your head around that.

Peace out. I'm going to England. I might have time to blog from there, but if not then Merry Christmas everyone and a happy new year!

xoxoxoxo

Food Pyramid

Say hello to my new little friend. My new little friend's called Food Pyramid and Food Pyramid make THE MOST hypnotic and wonderfully repetetive progelectro (or maybe krautrock, who knows with all these genre names flying around).



Their debut album I starts off with the epic 18 minute long Sundance kid which maintains the same pulasting arp all throughout and brings in more and more until a vocal sample is brought into the midst (rare in Food Pyramid's case). The sample being Robert Wilson and Christopher Knowles' Sundance Kid is Beautiful.

In addition to the sometimes even lifeless pounding, Food Pyramid have found a striking balance by adding live elements such as saxophone, like on Speedboat Exit Miami Sunset. I was such a warm, thoroughly enjoyable affair that I can't wait to get my ears on their new record II, both released on Moon Glyph records

Speedboat Exit Miami Sunset from Allen Killian-Moore on Vimeo.

Here's another song called Southside Blacktop Beat:

Keep Shelly In Athens

Keep Shelly In Athens is a band/artist I've purposefully not learned anything about. I've wanted to keep it pure. Just me, Shelly and the music.

The first song of theirs I listened to was Running Out of You and it hit my ears like a chillwave version of Portishead made by Chase & Status. A Wierd kind of hybrid yes, but an interesting one.



Cremona Memories wouldn't have surprised me if someone had told me it was something by Mylo. (good thing)
Keep Shelly in Athens have blatantly got a penchance towards the "great" sounds of the 90's, and Cremona Memories' vocal snippets have got M-People written all over them.



The In Love With Dusk is a smashing little EP for those who want to revere the the days when everything was better ie. The Spice Girls were still alive. Its out on Forest Fire Records. (Well it was. Now it's sold out)

ANR

ANR (short for Awesome New Republic) are this like totally awesome hot new music group from Miami. Maybe the hottest thing from Miami since its weather. Maybe.

Awash in fancy new-retro soundscapes and simultaneously theatrical and just plain chill. ANR are a hotpot of ideas just bubbling under the lid.

Bubble bubble. Bubble bubble. Bubble bubble

The band have got a new record out called Stay Kids and it's got a crazy acid-horse on the cover. That people, is how you can tell a good album.
They say never judge a book by its cover, but if it's got a motherfucking crazy acid-horse on it then you're allowed to. Nay you MUST.
Besides, it's not even a book.


You can listen to the single Endless Fields of Mercury via the video below and if you "dig" then head off to their website to download said track.



Luckily for us well-off people with spotify, the whole album's already on it.
ANR - Stay Kids on Spotify

Sinéad O'Connor

I grew up in a world where the name Sinéad O'Connor was automatically associated with Nothing Compares 2 U. As I've gotten older that same association has always stuck and I've never felt any interest or compulsion to find out if there is more to the Irish songstress.
No matter how beautiful a song Nothing Compares is, there is always the cringe-factor whenever you or someone else plays that song.
In fact I'm having a really hard time trying to think of a moment where it might be socially acceptable to play Nothing Compares. Definitely not a wedding.

What happened to Sinéad to give her this kind of "cult" status? Or has she even got this kind of status and that I'm just generalising my own thoughts?

Through a random series of events I've broken down the lifelong boundaries separating me and Sinéad. Starting with her debut album Lion and the Cobra.
Parts of Lion and the Cobra sound as though, if made today, would automatically sign to Matador Records and get called Glasser's Ring.
The same ethereal, haunting textures are there but only 23 years earlier. Obviously it has dated slightly and sounds irreparably 80's but if I've learned something from this year in music is that the 80's has come back to haunt us.



I should have some final, grand, concluding paragraph, but all I have is one destroyed prejudice and this video:

OMG I've been pigeonholed

Today I have mainly been listening to Kanye West, Lady Gaga, various remixes of said artists and a lot of dubstep.

The Duke Spirit

So The Duke Spirit are back with their new Kusama EP joining the (not so long yet) list of female vocal bands I'm glad to see make a return
-See earlier Those Dancing Days post-



They've been steadily giving away free mp3 tasters of their new release. A while back it was Everybody's Under Your Spell's turn to get shamelessly thrown into the midst of the internet wilderness but now if you head over to http://www.thedukespirit.com you'll get a free download of Villains which is so effing new that it hasn't even got a video yet.
Head on over and join the party. Tis a good one!



Oh yeah and The Duke Spirit are NOT to be mixed with The Delta Spirit. I know it's an easy mistake as both bands are proper good and all that.

I just off the top of my head made up a little rule to differentiate the bands and remember which one is which:

Duke Spirit: Dukes are usually dudes. Posh stuck-up dudes. Obviously The Duke Spirit has a bird (female) singing. They've done the old switch-a-rooney

Delta Spirit: Δ Delta's like a triangle right? Something witch-housers love using. Something that if turned upside down becomes ▽. Right? Now correct me if I'm wrong but I once saw Tom Hanks show me what the mother of Jesus' child looks like and she looked a bit like ▽.
Obviously The Delta Spirit aren't the mothers of Jesus' babies so they've done the whole switch-a-rooney too.

Easy.

Chrome Sparks

Sorry to keep anyone waiting for a new post, but I was on a boat. Enough said.

Today is independence day in Finland and pretty much the whole country'll be busy watching the president shake hands with a lot of Finns that I've never even heard of/seen before. And after 4 hours of hand-shaking they'll indulge in some rather un-cheeky dancing shenanigans.

I won't be watching that as:

A) I haven't got a TV
B) I don't really give a fuck

What I'll be doing instead is letting you know about Chrome Sparks and his single Wait For Hearbeats. Mainly what I'll let you know is that it is bloomin' "off the hook"



The two tracks on Wait For Hearbeats are two genuine electro heartthrobs that are really making my studying for exams hard.

The track called Our Love is Heartbeats, Our Love is Hot Beats already tells us what to expect from its title. And hot beats it duly delivers. Unfortunately there isn't a video to embed for hot beats so you're gonna get the chilled beauty of I'll Be Wait For Sadness Comes Along instead (I'm still trying to understand how that song title makes any sense)



It's available for "name your own price" on his (Jeremy Malvin) Bandcamp:
http://chromesparks.bandcamp.com/

Minks

Minks are dangerous animals. Here in Finland they're very brutally killed by mink hunters who live for no other reason then to bathe in mink-blood. Usually they're hung-drawn and quartered, I think because Braveheart had just come out on VHS when the mink epidemy started. Not even girls who dress as foxes can/want to save the minks. Because if the minks are saved, then who knows what kind of disgusting acts of violence they would cause to our ecosystem. And our babies. Mostly our babies.

No don't be a mink activist. That is if you want your babies to live in a safe environment. Safe from the colossal and razor-sharp gnashers of evil mink bastards.
Fuck.
Minks terrify me. Fuck.

Why anyone would want to name their band 'Minks' is completely beyond me.
Unless it's a kind of subversive "fuck you" to governments (Australia) who won't act upon animals eating babies. Dingo to mink is only a short step in the grand scheme of what Darwin calls "his theory" and God calls "bullshit".

Minks the band however aren't really that dangerous at all. Unless you count listening to them a little too much dangerous (ha ha ha)
They released their first single Ophelia earlier this year and it proved to be pretty much awesome.



Now they've got a new single out called Cemetery Rain before they release the full length By The Hedge some time come January.

MINKS - Cemetary Rain by forcefieldpr

realised how easy it is to write a horribly prejudiced text and it scares me. I do apologise to all the minks whom this text offended.

KXP tonight

Your boy's off to Dynamo tonight to catch a glimpse of the almighty KXP who released one of my favourite "home-grown" albums of the year.

T-Bone prepare to get hypnotized.



It's like having our very own Holy Fuck.
So excited, but first I've got a pub quiz to win.

Laterz

Those Dancing Days are back! Yay!

The Swedish fluffy, feisty, adorable princesses of cool Those Dancing Days are indeed back with the provocatively titled thunderous rollicking track Fuckarias.

They're set to follow up In Our Space hero Suits with a new album Daydreams & Nightmares
some time in the new year and here's the first glimpse of what to come.



If you fancy it, you can download the song from their website
http://www.thosedancingdays.com

Here's an older song to get you in the mood a bit more.



lovelovelove

Teenage Reverb

If you can get past the name (which seems like it was plucked straight from the random chillwave/witch house name generator), and I hope you can, you'll find some lovely soundscapes lurking behind the moniker Teenage Reverb



Take his song Dust for example. Fair enough the vocal delivery might not always be spot on but with such a captivating refrain (ie. the end bit) it just adds to the personality of it all.

Dust is on Isolation Tape Night which can be downloaded from here



But then it's a totally different story on Where Did The Summer Go (666) as he lets his arpeggiator fly wildly at your face like a cockerel in heat making you wonder where the hell did that come from? Where Did The Summer Go (666) is on the Summit Demos which can be downloaded from here.



Ps. I'm gonna call my new band something cool with an effect's name + something random.

Maybe Delay Trees (edit. taken already)
Social Distortion? (guess that one's taken too)
What about THE motherfucking Golden Filter. Now that's a good one.
Or me and my mates could call ourselves Echo and the Bunnymen. Haha. Hilarious.
NO really, where do bands these days get their names from?

Delay Trees - Casette 2012 (Video)

So now the golden boys of finnish music Delay Trees (who featured on my last mixtape AGDTC Megamix #3) have got an nifty new official music video to go with their apocalytic harbinger of a pop song Casette 2012.

It's got some really beautiful shots from Japan which only goes to confirm by beliefs that 2012's apocalypse will be caused by some kind of Godzilla/Gamera type fictional Japanese character/monster. Either them or this:


(from Cardoons)



If you haven't yet got it then I suggest you pick up their debut s/t album or if you can't handle the pressure of walking into a record shop then just download a couple of their songs from here:

Delaytrees.com/media

Sun Airway

Sun Airway are a bit special. Special in the sense that they could be the "modern day" Animal Collective. Seeing as AC are on some kind of soloing hiatus, we need some new and believable contenders for the throne of psych-pop.



Their debut full length album Nocturne of Exploded Crystal Chandelier is as good an album as I've heard recently.
Waiting For You being the standout track with its perfectly naive-sounding whooee-oo doo-be-doo chorus. (this isn't the first time I've described something in total gibberish. Apparently it's not very informative. Whatever)


Inform yourself with this then



Nocturne of Exploded Crystal Chandelier on Spotify

Guys Just Wanna Have Sun

This recent blizzard has covered the hard, cold ground in soft, cold motherfucking snow and there has also been no sight of the sun in aeons.

Napoleon IIIrd's track name Guys Just Wanna Have Sun from his new album Christiania sums up pretty much everything I'm feeling weather-terms at the moment.

And the lyrics to it sum up pretty much everything I feel in the summertime:

I'm not the type of guy to take his shirt off in the summertime
unless the mood is right or there's swimming to be done

This and the rest of Christiania are a quirky kaleidoscope of pop, experimental electronica and singer-songwriterisms. Napoleon IIIrd deserves your attention just as much as I deserve a hard earned cup of tea right about now.

Napoleon IIIrd - Rough Music from Brainlove on Vimeo.

Links:
Myspace
Twitter
Facebook
Spotify

Gorillaz - Doncamatic + some other stuff

So you could perhaps forgive Gorillaz for resting on their laurels after this years Plastic Beach album, you know because it is pretty tidy.

Obviously resting isn't something Damon Albarn and co have a habit of doing. Either on laurels or off them as yesterday saw the physical release of their new single Doncamatic featuring the silky smooth vocals of a certain fella who goes by the name Daley.

This here is a sure-fire chart-rapist and megaton dancefloor killer.



and carrying on from yesterdays topic, the ever-present Joker has somehow already had time to pump out a heavy remix of the track.



Gorillaz' Doncamatic single feat. Daley is on Spotify here

and just to fill yr boots with more Gorillaz related blahblahblah, they've also gone and covered The XX's Crystalised on BBC Radio 1's Live Lounge. Rather well I might add.

The Big Pink make a Big Mixtape

So that band The Big Pink that everyone was talking about back in the near past seem to have moved on from creating music and have concentrated on creating mixtapes. A bit like me the other day, but obviously not quite as well.



They've released their mix called Tapes on K7 Records and it's quite the eclectic piece. Ranging from new (Actress) to old(ish) (Gang Gang Dance), scandinavian pop (JJ) to floor stomping dubstep (Joker), witch house (GR†LLGR†LL) to well, The Big Pink (of course they've included themselves, the attention seekers).
Well that's mainly all the eclectism on offer here. The rest is a sweet combo of dark electronica and dub. Perfect

IT'S ON SPOTIFY SO LISTEN TO IT

If you have beef with Spotify and would rather not, then here are a few of the highlights:


Joker's Snake Eater is sounding like a sweet dubsteppy Dilla


Balam Acab keeping shit dark (and real)


Active Child with a tune not on the Curtis Lane EP but equally deserving a place in your audial recognition chamber.

AndygoesdowntoChinatown Megamix #3

Howdy peeps.

Compiled a little summitsummit for your ears to feast on.

Ear feasts sound dirty and a bit Texas-chainsaw-murderer-dinner-party-esque but anyway prepare to let your auditory systems go crazy to this popping/pumping/all-a-round thumping m*#/£Qf%&#~r of a playlist. These are tunes that I've either posted on here earlier or haven't posted on here at all. Listen till your ears weep sweet sweet waxy tears and then listen some more. When your done listening you can just thank me with either a subtle handshake or a double high five. Something we in the business call a high-ten.

DOWNLOAD THE ANDYGOESDOWNTOCHINATOWN MEGAMIX #3

DOWNLOAD THE ANDYGOESDOWNTOCHINATOWN MEGAMIX #3

DOWNLOAD THE ANDYGOESDOWNTOCHINATOWN MEGAMIX #3

Full track listing:

CYMBALS - Good Luck
Delay Trees - Casette 2012
Dunian - Mind Body Mind
Star Slinger- Minted
Tv Girl - If You Want It
Kinnie The Explorer - Fazell's Garden
Mon Khmer - Anniversary (Karuna remix)
Guards - Crystal Truth
A.P Witomski - Geometry
Paperfangs - Books
Total Warr - I Don't Need Your Friendship
Grass House - Lazy Bones
Seeing Suge - Breaking
Pregnant - Uphill Divination
Big Wave Riders - Republic Of The Average
Young Circles - Sharp Teeth
Wintercoats - The Overture
The Good Natured - Be My Animal (Zebra & Snake remix)
Heavy Hawaii - TEEN ANGEL
Persona La Ave - Beach 2 (GOBBLE GOBBLE's R. Kelly Magic Carpet)

Kinnie The Explorer

A friend of mine is spending an exchange year in Bournemouth. Apparently it's alright down there but then again some might say it's just a second-rate Brighton. (Could also be Worthing, I can't remember)


However there's nothing second-rate about Bournemouth boys Kinnie The Explorer and their incredibly mature sounding post-punk gems. I don't think my friend has heard of Kinnie The Explorer, but I have and that's all your interested in really, innit?

I reckon these fellas are still well young (this coming from me seeing a few pics of theirs) but they already have the distinct sense of purpose to their sounds and the interplaying between band members is just wonderful. And um.., er...

Sorry for the above paragraph. I was trying to write something that sounded meaningful and important, like other writers (real writers) do but not a lot really ever comes out. I'll just stick to writing either "I love this music" or "I hate this shit" from now on.

Kinnie The Explorer: I love this music.

EASY

They've got a bunch of songs available for download here



I gotta shoot off to work, but you (all) have a good weekend

My Bee's Garden

Even though the French beat us at football last night, I can't hate them forever. It's just not possible. Not when I have the Paris based band My Bee's Garden's Melody Prochet whispering sensuously in my ears.



Recently supporting the Australian Psych-wizards Tame Impala, My Bee's Garden are a lot less psychedelic/Sgt. Peppery and they fill that void with their own dreamy, spaced out, low burning melodies.

They've got a new album out called Hunt The Sleeper out now on Kitchen Music

It probably wouldn't charm the England football squad, but it did me.
To each his own. Joleon Lescott gets mesmerised by Florent Malouda's legs (trickery not sex appeal) and I get mesmerised by a woman who sings nicely.

Tv Girl

I've been listening to TV Girl's s/t EP for a while now and only just realised that I haven't actually posted anything on here about them yet. That's about to change because If You Want It is one hell of a catchy tune. Think Blackbird Blackbird meets The Radio Dept's Heaven's on Fire and you're pretty close.



Not only is the EP a free download, it's also a good free download. Not like all the other shit on this blog I keep stuffing in your faces.

(I am just kidding, I love all my babies equally)

Download Tv Girl's s/t EP

Persona La Ave

I think it's only fair that I profess my love for Persona La Ave seeing as I've already done it for Kiss Kiss Fantastic and Optimist Park (half of Kiss Kiss Fantastic).

Persona La Ave is the other half of KKF ie. Rachel Levy + Dylan Dawkins and whilst the same lo-fi fuzziness as per KKF is still there, PLA are distinctly more meditatory and introspective.

Check out these vibes by downloading Brothers Was Taken

I Blame Coco

Got an e-mail from I Blame Coco "introducing" me to I Blame Coco.



I Blame Coco told me that her (Eliot Pauline Styler Sumner) debut album The Constant is out now and that it sounds "ethereal" and "sophisticated". She also told me that she has a "new" video for In Spirit Golden.



I almost saw I Blame Coco at The Great Escape, but ultimately saw The Rural Alberta Advantage playing I Blame Coco's drums, which isn't, however it may sound, a sexual innuendo.

Anyhow's now that The Constant is out I had a wee listen to it on Spotify and have deemed it fun, completely radio-friendly pop. Not that this is a great deal of news

I Blame Coco is now officially here to complete the holy trinity of Cocos:

-I Blame Coco
-CocoRosie
-Coco Jambo

Even if you haven't yet listened to I Blame Coco, the one thing "everyone" knows about her is that she's Sting's daughter. Yes, that Sting.
Can't be easy being the daughter of a musician who has sold millions maybe even billions of CDs and indulges in tantric sex.

As it can't also be easy being the son of a "musician" who has shared roughly 300 weeks at the top of the Irish charts with 20-or-so other sweaty men and whose tantric sex experiences I don't want to know anything about.

Grass House

Just gotten into the these fellas and their three track EP Plough More Sky.


(haha, sorry about the pathetic size of the pic, but if you squint hard enough you'll see the EP's cover art)

Hailing from London, Grass House sound dark. Grass House sound ominous. Grass House sound like they need a murder ballad or two just to wake up every morning.







listen to Plough More Sky on Spotify

AND

news has reached me saying that their new single Lazy Bones is a slowed down track that sounds like it could be heard at a rather depressing and eerie circus. But I do mean "depressing" and "eerie" in the best possible kind of way. A bit like Tom Waits' Black Rider, this has a certain unnatural carnival vibe to it. something like this:



Download Grass House's Lazy Bones single from here

How To Dress Well - Love Remains

My long time fave How To Dress Well, or HTDW if you're lazy, has released his full length debut album Love Remains.



Featuring a bunch of songs from his free downloadable EPs as well as a handful of new actual studio recorded songs, Tom Krell seems like he's bearing his soul to us lucky listeners. You'll be drawn in and captivated by a kind of lo-fi blizzard, haunted by the soaring vocals and cries which form the most compelling atmosphere. These songs have the feel of tremendous yearning. It's possible that they aren't even sad or wanting or even romantic (they are), but personally I can't help falling for these songs and feeling for Mr. Krell and whatever kind of heartache/pain he's been going through.
I kind of also feel like patting him on the back and saying: "There, there. Everything's gonna be alright." But that would probably cause some kind of change in his musical style, which could result in something horrible, jolly and stupid. A bit like Oh No Ono, and no-one wants that do they?

If you were to purhase the vinyl LP, say via Lefse Records, you'd even get a bonus track Kidnap City to show off with. As if the album itself wasn't enough.

James Blake

Whoever said dubstep is dying has obviously not told James Blake.



Not only does he perform live vocals for the awesome Mount Kimbie but he's released four of his own EPs and I guess they were all from this year. So he's a bit of a busy bastard, but one who posesses such a talent to produce such infectious tunes that when appropriately applied would have your entire body reverberating.

"Boom-boom-dance-dance" isn't what these songs are. Especially on the new Klavierwerke EP, which features a more stripped down sound. Oftentimes delayed piano playing a large part, whereas the sub-bass and rythmics only build up later on.





OH and his cover of Feist's Limit To Your Love is quite possibly THE best cover song I've heard in ages/ever. Holy moly, hold on to your hats people!

Blank & Kytt

Are these guys the new torchbearers of UK hip-hop? Hell if I know, but they're definitely competing with Starslinger for the title of "dopest beats T-bone has heard all year".

They could also compete in the "most godawful artwork this year/ever" category, but you know as they say in the business: "It's all about the music, baby"
And oh baby, if you were the type to cream your pants to musical stimulants then these slick instumentals could potentially do just that.

Download the whole 3010 album from here

MOPP

Got something for you if you're tired of hearing the same Hurts/Ellie Goulding songs on t'radio.

Depending on who Barry Mopp aka. MOPP has been making tunes with, these songs could be your new favourite male vocal/female vocal electropop songs.

I'm not saying you necessarily need new favourite electropop songs. You could need some new dark and shouty nu-metal favourites or some amazing aboriginal ska reccommendations. If that's the case then I'm sorry to disappoint you and you google searches of "dark and shouty nu-metal" or "amazing aboriginal ska" because you won't get those here. But if electropop's your game, then be sure to check out this Scottish songsmith tunes.



and it wasn't long ago that he released his latest single Dream About You via Euphonios



Oh and if you can be arsed, check out his remix of Phoenix's 1901 on his Myspace. It is seriously heavy

Little Britannia

Popped in the new English foodstuffs shop Little Britannia that opened up in the food market also known to some as Turun kauppahalli. Got some nice wicked stuff in there that I've really really missed.

I'm now fully stocked up on minstrels, sticky toffee pudding and fig rolls (actually just ate all of them).


bye bye fig rolls!!


Now if I could only get my hand on some crumpets.


Hello crumpets!!

Cool idea to open up an English shop and I hope there's some kind of market niche for it. So mosey on down there if you need to fill up your lucozade fridge. Top up your marmite shelf or you just insist on Walkers crisps.


Gary Lineker for England!

Cymbals EP

Been listening to humploads of the new Cymbals EP. I feel like it's taken over me by some primeval force making me shake my hips totally out of sync with the rest of my body, whilst the cymbal-boys serenade me with their funky, ridiculously "hip" tunes. It's not even that danceable but I'm still going for it. They've even covered a Pavement song Kennel District, but as I've never consciously listened to Pavement [mainly because everyone tells me they're awesome (I will be the judge of that, thank you very much)] I'm going to go straight ahead and say that "yeah, this version is like sooo much better than the Pavement one.

Who knows, it might actually be. Doesn't matter.
Their own songs exude the kind of shit-hottery that I'd only expect to find at some kind of absurd excrement-heating plant. Make sense? This shit is hot.



found this "video" of the DRUGS remix of Good Luck. Drugs may or may not have been in Finland some time last year. Can't remember.

Battle of the Bands @ The Castle

This past weekend saw the start of The Castle Irish Bar's very own "battle of the bands competition". This weekends bands ranged from lairy punk to incomprehensible metal. But as of yet there hasn't been any dubstep.

Seeing as I'm behind the bar all the time concentrating on "pouring the perfect Guinness" I haven't had that good a chance to listen to the acts we've had so far. But next weekend it's all happening again with bands like Despair Academy who are known to be good at winning this sort of contest and Tank who are so fresh and new that they might not even have any songs yet.

It's 2€ to get in Friday and Saturday and I'll be waiting to fulfill all of your alcoholic/non-alcoholic fantasies. This is one you probably could miss, but you know some of these acts are the type that you might never see otherwise. Either through them being absolute shit or just that you'd never hit upon them out in the cold bleakness of Turku

Right. That was the prep. Now I'll either see you there or I won't. Either way, I still get paid.

Having a serious Esben & The Witch moment

I think I'm a bit obsessed. Obsession often ends up with stalking and then someone getting horrificly mutilated/killed if we're to be believe what the likes of bolly/hollywood keeps telling us. I'm pretty adamant on not getting mutilated. At least not outside the bedroom. Eh Eh.

Er anyway.

Esben & The Witch signed to Matador Records some time this year, making them the first UK band signed to Matador in about a million years. Using their new-fandangle record label the Brightonians have released the Marching Song single also featuring a couple of new tracks.





So that's on its way in the post. But as if that wasn't enough I also found myself pre-ordering their up 'n' coming debut LP Violet Cries. That should hit my postbox sometime in January.





You can download the new track Warpath from here

I guess I really do like this band.

Warpaint finally on spotify

Post title sums it all up. The brilliant Warpaint album The Fool is finally on spotify. It's been up for streaming for a while now on various sites. That's how I know it is brilliant. But now it's on the BIG S you do whatevers with it. Play it offline. Play it inbetween endless Justin Beiber adverts. Scrobble that shit. Whatever you want baby. Let's do it.

I think it's also available to be purchased instead of spotify/illegal torrents, but I can't be sure.

Warpaint - The Fool on Spotify



Seriously gutted I missed these at TGE. Everyone's saying these were the epitome of greatness. Of course they'd say that though.

There ain't no vampires here

I promise I'll get back to "reporting"/blog-loving some of the almost-newest shit-hot music acts out there pretty soon. But tonight I'm celebrating. Exam-week's over already. F**k knows if I've passed, but that's hardly the point. It's gone. It's over.

Bought a painting today. Not sure if it's anything to do with celebrating. In fact I can't even remember what it looks like. I left it in the shop.

Just wanted to chill tonight and celebrate like an adult. Drink some gran sangre, look at some art. Maybe read something by Nabokov.

Well. I've got the wine. And I've also got a handful (well maybe more than a handful) of Four Tet tunes and remixes to keep me occupied.

Here y'are. You too can pretend to be me after exam week. It's simple. All you have to do is follow this extremely easy to follow playlist and you too can be me!

two of this years Flow's finest getting down together to make something a bit ooh!


this track is just a 9 minute streched-out virtual orgasm




two more of this years Flow's finest get down together for ever more Ooh!

New Lykke Li

Hey man!

Go get yourself the new Lykke Li track Get Some right here from her website. You'll also get the b-side of her new single, Paris Blue. Or alternatively you can just watch these videos of them.





Or if you'd rather do neither you could just oggle at this amazing picture of her by Patricia Reyes.

Monday funday

I always used to laugh at Linkin Park because all their songs followed pretty much the same pattern and sounded pretty much exactly the same. I used to laugh at people comparing all their albums and bitching about which one's the the shit and which one's plain shit, when they're all in fact exactly the same. I used to laugh at people who said 'LP' were torchbearers for creating this insane style combining rap and guitars and singing/shouting. I used to laugh at people who forced me to listen to LP in order to "see the big picture".

Just a bit a go, I was in the presence of a tv. Quite the rare commodity where I live. I turned on MTV. You know, hoping to catch a glimpse of some super sweet 16 year olds getting MADE whilst having their rooms raided back at Jersey Shore.

MADE. I love MADE. Ugly people who want to be made pretty is a genius concept. Something Mr. Walt Disney already knew back in the middle ages.

MADE wasn't on. MTV were showing random music videos for some reason. I was well gutted. I wanted to watch some jackass Paris Hilton's new BFF get punk'd in the Hills.

Linkin Park's "amazing" video for their "amazing" new song Waiting for the End came on and I was taken aback. Shit, I was breathless. Have LP done this to stop me laughing at them?

According to Wikipedia, LP once released an album called Hybrid Theory. Seems they've developed a new "hybrid theory". Some kind of Turin Brakes/Fun Lovin' Criminals cross-breed.

The Turin Brakes song I wanted to 'embed' on here had disabled its embed function. Probably don't want to be associated with LP.
It was Painkiller.

It is better than this: (but hats of to LP for doing something a bit different)



That's enough from me now.