Let's start the week and this Monday with something a little downtempo to ease us all in...
Tycho (Scott Hansen) is a California-based ambient musician and Awake is his fourth full-length album. He is also involved in photography and design work, which he uses the moniker ISO50 for. His music is instrumental guitar and electronic-based, and is soothing yet punchy at times; a hard combo to make work, but he does.
I was introduced to his music via Awake, which was released earlier this month, but have also really liked his 2011 album Dive, which is in a similar vein.
Good music for mornings, cleaning house, or out-of-body, transcendental experiences.
Happy Friday! Here is the perfect track to add to your permanent end-of-the-week playlist, one that I can't believe I'd never heard. Thanks again to friend and reader Nick for introducing this one to me.
Michael Gray is best known as one half of the DJ/Remix production duo Full Intention who have officially remixed songs for the likes of George Michael, Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey, Jennifer Lopez, and Sophie Ellis-Bextor to name a few.
Gray started releasing tracks under his own name in 2004 starting with "The Weekend," which became a worldwide hit later that year. In 2005 it became a top 10 hit on Billboard's Hot Dance Airplay chart and was featured in commercials and television programs. How have I missed this track?
The subsequent album, Analog is On was released in Japan only in 2007 with other singles "Borderline" and "Somewhere Beyond" failing to reach the success of "The Weekend." I've been listening to Analog is On and it's a great little Pop/House record that covers a lot of ground from summery, poolside jams to harder club cuts. I recommend.
I thought Karmin held some promise when they came out a couple years ago, getting notice doing covers of pop songs uploaded to YouTube which lead to a record deal. I really liked their single "Brokenhearted" but was ultimately disappointed with what I thought was their debut album Hello. Turns out that was just an EP and the band have released their true full length album after some reported delays and conflict with their record label.
Pulses comes out next week preceded by singles "Acapella," "I Want it All," and the title track. "Acapella" didn't really grab me but I've been enjoying "I Want it All," which thankfully does not include any of Amy Renee Heidemann's grating rapping, which is allover Pulses. It's a straight-up sunny pop song that's infectious and hummable.
I took a listen to Pulses and don't really recommend; it's a bit juvenile sounding and all over the place, maybe I need some more time with it. Check out "I Want it All" though, great pop song.
It's been a long Winter. And here's our first taste of Summer...
Calvin Harris returns after his impossibly successful third album, the ultimate collection of singles called 18 Monthsthat sent the man's career on fire. (He had nine UK top 10 hits from the record, surpassing Michael Jackson's record. And Forbes names him the most successful DJ of 2013 with total revenue around $46 million.)
Even with his last single, "Thinking About You" still gaining momentum after it's release last August, Harris has a new single on the ready, a pretty Calvin-by-numbers track called "Summer" that none-the-less is catchy and well... sunny. Harris returns to vocal duties on "Summer," last heard from his oddly huge "Feel So Close." Is this man unstoppable?
Unsure if he's going to go for hit after hit using guest vocalists for album four, it would be nice for him to make another album in the vein of Ready for the Weekend. We'll see.
There's something about singer Nancy Whang's voice that works so well with epic, indie-tinged house tracks, it's a bit deadpan... which is odd, because the songs become such an emotional listening experience. I can't get enough.
I've been loving two separate new tracks Nancy has featured on as of late, the first with her most frequent collaborator The Juan Maclean with their most recent single "Get Down (With My Love)," as well as the new single "Do That Dance" from DJ/Writer/Producer Shit Robot (AKA Marcus Lambkin.) It's the first single off his sophomore album under the moniker called We Got a Love that was just released.
I'd wager that Nancy's best known moment is the epic closer from The Juan Maclean's sophomore album The Future Will Come, the twelve-plus minute space and time traveling odyssey "Happy House," still one of my favorite dance tracks ever. They've collaborated since, with "Feel So Good" and now "Get Down." And they're all amazing.
I'd heard of Shit Robot before but never took a listen... maybe it was the awful name, but it's unfortunate because I've been missing out. Lambkin met James Murphey of LCD Soundsystem in NYC and started a DJ partnership with him in the early 00s and released a bunch of material on their DFA Records afterward, including Shit Robot's debut album From the Cradle to the Rave in 2010. Shit Robot's work falls in line with the indie-house/punk/disco vibe of both LCD and The Juan Maclean while also maintaining a distinctive personal sound. Vocals can be sparse or at least not the forefront, unlike "Do That Dance" which has Nancy smartly at the front of the mix. This is some killer groovy hipster house that's good from start to finish.
I recommend checking out We Got a Love as well as From the Cradle to the Rave, but also Nancy Whang in general. It's obviously The Juan Maclean heavy, but I've put together some of the Nancy moments I know in a playlist which you can listen to below. Leave a comment below if you know of one I've missed so I can add.
A lot has happened since Sia's last album, 2010's We Are Born.
The Australian singer-songwriter has had a slow-build career that started in her teens in the early 90s. From her trip-hop-flavoured early albums to her track "Breath Me" being used as a culminative emotional moment in the finale of Six Feet Under, it wasn't until 2011, a year after becoming co-writer on Christina Aguilera's ultimately disastrous Bionic album and gaining more acclaim from We Are Born, did Sia feature and co-write two tracks that changed everything; "Wild Ones" by Flo Rida and "Titanium" by David Guetta.
Since she's had a fairly good-sized hit with a follow-up with Guetta called "She-Wolf," some soundtrack songs, and then writing Rihanna's smash hit "Diamonds" in 2012. She spent last year writing for herself and others, including Aguilera, Katy Perry, Jessie J, Britney Spears, Eminem, and Beyoncé to name a few.
"Chandelier" is the first single off Sia's as-yet-untitled sixth album. Producer Greg Kurstin returns, after having become quite successful post-We Are Born as well. It's a rousing, hip-hop flavoured, pop track with a commanding drum beat and Sia's BIG vocals, that are only sometimes intelligible. It sounds a bit Rihanna, and I could hear her singing it... but Sia owns it. Could be huge.
War, the American Funk/Rock/Latin/Reggae/Jazz/Rhythm & Blues band from California is best known to me from some of their classic songs that have been used excellently in films like Dazed and Confused to Boogie Nights. The several-member band started in 1969 and are still performing today and have been sampled by a wide range of artists given their anything goes sound.
Friend and reader Nick recently introduced me to the killer, uplifting, funk explosion of "You Got the Power," the first track off their 1982 album Outlaw. It's got SUCH a groove... impossible to not move to this one.
Inspired by the track I finally got a much needed compilation for the band I'm just getting into. Not the typical thing I'm listening to lately but this music is really undeniable.
Friend and reader Luis introduces us to (yet another, wink-wink) Swedish band, this time Jönköping's four-piece The Mary Onettes, who come inspired by 80s/90s bands like Echo & the Bunnyman, The Cure and The Stone Roses. Formed in 2000, the band label-hopped a bit before settling onto Sweden's Labrador where they released their self-titled album in 2007. Just before the release of their second album disaster struck when singer/guitarist Philip Ekström had every song they had recorded stolen off a hard drive he had in his car, and the back-up he had on his home computer also died from a power surge the same day. After regrouping, they released an EP in early '09 and then their sophomore set Islands later that year.
Hit the Waves, their third long player was released early last year and they've already followed it up with a new mini-album/EP Portico this year. Luis played us the very Cure-like sexy title track, but I took a listen to the whole record and really liked it. It reminded me slightly of the honestly 80s-nostalgic The Chain Gang of 1974, whom I love.
Really digging this and plan to research more of their material. Thank you Luis!
Here's something you should have in your collection... my friend Robb just introduced me to this insane soul classic from the 80s that... I mean you should really just listen to it, look at that title!
Clarence Carter is an American blues and soul singer that played, wrote, and produced music starting in the mid 60s through the late 80s. His straight up soul sound was hit in the 70s as disco grew in popularity, which affected his. He continued on though, and in '85 saw "Strokin'" become a word-of-mouth hit. Deemed too risque for radio at the time, his label placed "Strokin'" into bar jukeboxes and grew from there. The song apparently was used in Eddie Murphey's The Nutty Professor.
Carter's music appealed to a working class African-American audience and he continued to release music and tour the southern states through the 90s. It's notable that his '68 track "Backdoor Santa" was sampled by Run D.M.C. for their own holiday classic "Christmas in Hollis."
This track has a touch of novelty in it, but Robb notes that this is the track that would get everyone up towards the end of any wedding or BBQ.
The sixth season of RuPaul's Drag Race started two weeks ago just a few after HBO's new high-profile gays in San Francisco dramedy Looking, and while the public reception (if you count my Facebook feed as anything) was certainly different for both, regardless... it feels like Gay, Inc. is really having a moment. Drag Race has turned into a behemoth, at least relatively so...
For most of us, RuPaul is a singer first, best known for "Supermodel (You Better Work)" from '92, this Ru 2.0 that started with Race doesn't lose that, and if anything has shown that Mr. Charles is a very smart opportunist, making his music part of his show. Again, these things are relative in size to other music but RuPaul makes everything seem B I G somehow.
Born Naked is now RuPaul's sixth album, and it's important to note that it took eleven years for the first three, and just five for the last three. This bitch is currently on fire. And if I let the jargon of my friends tell me anything, Rupaul's mix of shade, camp, and absurd one-liners has been embraced into the homo lexicon in a truly unprecedented way.
Born Naked in some ways is more of the same but feels a bit of a culmination of everything that's occurred before it. Drag Race seems bigger this year, and RuPaul knows it. There's the tracks made for the show like "Sissy That Walk," tracks that speak to the Ru-philosphy like "Can I Get an Amen," "Let the Music Play," and the title track, and then just some bangers, like "Geronimo" and "Adrenaline" with Britney demo singer-turned back-up-turned co-songwriter (?!?!) Myah Marie. It's all pretty fun.
I recommend reading the recent New York Times article about RuPaul and her rise to fame.
Alex Adair is an up and coming remixer/producer out of Sussex, UK. He was born in 1993, which means he's twenty-one. (gulp)
His remixes lean most toward progressive house, and you can hear and sometimes download many of them on his Soundcloud page. He's done a lot of pop stuff, from Katy Perry to Tegan & Sara, but his latest original tune, "Make Me Feel Better," which was uploaded twelve days ago, is proper amazing and beautiful. (and also a free download at the very top of that page.)
Can't really find much more info on the man, not sure who is singing on the track... but there's really something here. You're big inhale/exhale out of the workweek into the weekend.
It's been over four years since the release of Music Go Music's excellent debut album Expressions, which I initially heard towards the end of 2009. By the end of that year, I was ready to claim it one of the years best, and then Fred Falke did a remix the following year and I was a full blown fan. And then that was it.
Early last year I hit another binge on Expressions, had the ABBA-dipped, 70s-soaked, "Explorers of the Heart" on repeat, and wondered to myself... where is this band? Nothing new was on the internet and I worried that they would end up an overlooked, indie-rock footnote. I happened to be listening to my Fred Falke Playlist early this week and his epic take on the bands already epic "Warm in the Shadows," and I once again paused to lament on no new Music Go Music music... until Wikipedia quietly, and surprisingly, hit me with new info... the band had released a new track last September, and their sophomore album Impressions would be out sometime this year. Yaaaaasssss!
But I also learned some info about the band that has escaped me their entire debut as well as the years since... that two of the three main members of Music Go Music are actually husband and wife team David and Meredith Metcalf playing in M.G.M. under aliases, and who have another band Bodies of Water who released their third album Twist Again in 2011. Oh.
But... but... new Music Go Music music? So yes, the band apparently released a track called "Love is All I Can Hear" in September and then another last December called "People All Over the World." And like a surprise visit from a dear old friend, the songs dive right back into the semi-cheesy, sun-soaked 70s disco-rock vibe of their early work. "Love is All I Can Hear" adds some surprising electro-synths, while "People" has a let's-join-hands-and-sway-to-this-organ ELO-ish moment. I wasn't sure if this held up to their earlier material but I am now floored. Excellent.
I took a listen to Bodies of Water's two albums on Spotify yesterday and while I hear the essence of M.G.M., they have a more Arcade Fire, quiet, standard indie vibe. I'm still listening, but I'm just such a sucker for M.G.M.'s goofy hooks and kitsch-embracement. Very very excited to hear Impressions, which currently doesn't seem to have a release date.
Artist: Hercules & Love Affair
Album: The Feast of the Broken Heart
Andy Butler brings his ever-changing band of singers and musicians he calls Hercules & Love Affair back for their third album of indie-house dance music. The Feast of the Broken Heart will be released May 26th by Moshi Moshi, who also released 2011's excellent Blue Songs.
First morsel from the album is "Do You Feel the Same?" with vocals from singer Gustaph. It's a groovy throwback that's quite sublime. It's very Hercules. The song is being released in mid-April with a couple non-album b-sides. The big exciting news is that singer-songwriter John Grant, who released his own excellent sophomore album last year, will also guest vocal on two tracks on the record along with Rouge Mary and Krystle Warren.
Greenwich, New York's Phantogram return with their sophomore album Voices, retaining a bit of their trip-hop-ish moodscape while expanding their sound to a more pop and guitar, song-focused record.
Since their debut and breakthrough Eyelid Movies, Phantogram (Sarah Barthel & Josh Carter) have toured with the likes of Yeasayer, Brazilian Girls, Metric, Future Islands, Zero 7, School of Seven Bells, and The XX to name a few. They collaborated with The Flaming Lips on their last album The Terror as well as Big Boi of Outkast on his solo album Vicious Lies and Terrible Rumors. They were credited with producing the track "Objectum Sexuality" and the partnership was fruitful enough to garner a whole EP with Big Boi they will release in the future.
Voices is a nice evolution for the duo and proof-positive that the band has a long future ahead in mind. Check them out.
Coldplay return in 2014 after an extensive and very lucrative worldwide tour supporting their most popular album to date, 2011's Mylo Xyloto. That record was intended to be a return to their stripped back, acoustic sound, but ended up being their most pop and colorful to date. Going into recording their sixth album, they once again plan to return the more acoustic sound.
The band have recently released two tracks from the upcoming sixth album, entitled Ghost Stories and while they are less bombastic than previous singles, they are far from acoustic. "Midnight," released last week, is a quietly hypnotic electronic-based track with lots of robotic-sounding vocoder-effected vocals. It's the centerpiece of the nine-track album and builds into an ethereal, trancy state. It didn't do much for me initially, but that build up towards the end recently grabbed me... it's pretty transcendental.
Today the official first single "Magic" debuts, a dubby track with a minimalist beat that retains singer Chris Martin's vocals effect-less. It's a pretty track, and certainly an antidote to the "big" sound they've been recently known for. "Magic" also builds like "Midnight," culminating in a rather joyous acoustic-guitar assisted climax.
Not exactly what we've come to expect out of Coldplay, but I'm intrigued.
Pharrell puts a huge exclamation point at the end of a killer twelve month period by releasing a surprise sophomore album G I R L right after the semi-surprise slow-burn hit "Happy," initially released on the soundtrack to Despicable Me 2 back in June.
After being heavily involved with arguably the two biggest tracks of last year, summer staples "Get Lucky" with Daft Punk and "Blurred Lines" with Robin Thicke, Pharrell released "Happy" on his own back in November with a very cool 24-Hour music video. The song has built in popularity over the past few months with it's irresistible charm and has now topped the Billboard charts in fifteen countries.
Just last week, as "Happy" rocked the charts and gets closer to a possible OSCAR win, (up for best song at this Sunday's show) the album was announced for release on March 3rd. G I R L includes collaborations with Justin Timberlake, Miley Cyrus, Daft Punk, and Alicia Keys amongst others and is currently streaming in full on iTunes.
G I R L sounds pretty great and very very Pharrell. It dips into Timberlake-esque balladry at times, but mostly it's falsetto-drenched pop-funk bops. His bread and butter.
The man also has a, honestly they've-done-better collab with Azealia Banks called "ATM Jam," a hit-in-the-making called "Get it Right" on the Miley Cyrus album, and another infectious collaboration with Major Lazer called "Aerosol Can." He's unstoppable.
Thinking back on some of the many amazing things this man has been involved in it seems only fitting that a playlist be made with some of his best moments, solo, collabs, and production work with the Neptunes and his band N.E.R.D. Mind-blowing.
Los Angeles-based band Berlin formed in 1978 inspired by European electronic bands like Kraftwerk and Devo. Because of their very new sound they had a hard time initially getting noticed until their breakthrough controversial single "Sex (I'm A...)" and then the Giorgio Moroder-produced single "No More Words." The band split in 1986 just before the release of their biggest hit yet, the also Morodor-produced "Take My Breath Away" from the hit film Top Gun.
Singer Terri Nunn was an original part of the band but left before they took off to start an acting career (she auditioned for Princess Leia.) She returned, saw them to success, and then legally retained rights to their name when touring with the Go-Go's in the late 90s. The original lineup re-formed in '04 for the VH1 show Bands Reunited and did a string of live shows and a live album.
Nunn has since released a couple albums in the 00s under the Berlin moniker and just last year released another album Animal inspired by her new love of current EDM showcased from her radio show on Northridge, Los Angeles CA's KCSN.
Reader Sean clues WeCast into the title-track, a super-catchy and current sounding dance-pop banger that I am in love with. The album was lead with unfortunately drippy ballad "It's the Way," but the majority follows "Animal's" dance-pop-with-guitars blueprint, and it's worth the listen. This is no 80s nostalgia trip... Nunn, who sounds amazing, brings a contemporary flair to her brand of pop. Check out "Nice to Meet You" and "Secrets." Good stuff.
Artist: Kid Cudi
Album: Satellite Flight: The Journey to Mother Moon
Cleveland-born, Brooklyn-based recording artist/actor Kid Cudi surprises with an out-of-nowhere 4th album; Satellite Flight: The Journey to Mother Moon released yesterday to digital retailers. Initially intended as an E.P. and bridge from his third album Indicud and the third chapter in his Man on the Moon series, Satellite shifted into a full-length record after a burst of creative inspiration. So much so that he's stated the physical release will expand on the currently ten-track album and contain bonus/extra tracks that he'll consider a "director's cut" of sorts.
After really loving his first two albums, Man on the Moon I & II, I just couldn't connect with Indicud. Satellite seems to be cut from an even more experimental, stoner-friendly, spacey cloth. Sonically it's pretty wild, with production mainly by Cudi himself along with Indicud collaborator Dot Da Genius. (Together as WZRD.) He seems to be abandoning the more pop elements of his sound, which is a bit disappointing for me, yet I still find his flow and music to be rather fascinating.
Artist: The Chain Gang of 1974
Album: Daydream Forever
I really do love Spotify. Not only do I discover new music daily through friends' feed, but listening to old playlists reminds me of artist and bands I'd kind of forgot about, or haven't followed up with in a while. So such a situation occurred this past weekend when I heard the cinematic 80s-biting track "Don't Walk Away" by The Chain Gang of 1974. Damn I loved that debut... and surprise! A quick search on Spotify reveals... a sophomore album has JUST dropped earlier this month. Marketing fail, but here we are.
The Chain Gang of 1974 is the moniker used by American musician and DJ Kamtin Mohager who resides in Los Angeles and makes epic pop that acts like the entirety of relevant culture exists solely in the filmography of John Hughes. He's a bit tragically ignored (from what I hear on the other coast) but readers of this here blog know I've been going on about him since 2010.
So it comes with much excitement that the wait I didn't know I was in is over, and the sophomore follow up to 2011's excellent debut Wayward Fire, Daydream Forever is here! The formula remains the same, electronic-tinged guitar-based pop music with some dark synths that nods consistently to Tears for Fears. I've been listening to the record quite a bit and while it's not instantly grabbing me the same way the debut did, the new music is solid. I'm just excited to let you know it's here.
"Sleepwalking" seems to be the promo single and it's the one that's jumping out to me the most. Great stuff.
Neneh Cherry has never been that prolific, and while she's been working in past years on projects like band/collaboration cirKus, as well as 2012's The Cherry Thing, an experimental jazz record with group The Thing, it's been eighteen years since the release of her last solo album Man in 1996.
Blank Project, her fourth album, is surprising not only for the wide gap since her last but also the rushed, experimental nature of the record itself. Blank Project was produced solely by Four Tet and was recorded and mixed in five days. Each Neneh Cherry release has been different from the one before and Blank Project is no different, though this time has completely separated itself from the hip-hop flavour she was initially known for from 89's Raw Like Sushi.
I couldn't get into The Cherry Thing at all, and while Blank Project is as oddly experimental and sparse as that record, it's got shades of Cherry's excellent sophomore album Homebrew, where mood took precedence over hooks... though Project goes further and more sparse than that trip & hip-hop touchstone.
You can look no further than the collaboration "Out of the Black" with fellow Swede Robyn which sounds like nothing you'd expect from either. Dub-by and lush with minimal electronics, it's an odd track that's also strangely hypnotic, buch like the rest of Blank Project.
This album might disappoint old fans of her early work but this is a record worth listening to. I hope it leads to a resurgence for the singer-songwriter... it's create to simply hear her voice again.
First heard of British DJ/Music Producer Duke Dumont through his killer remix of HAIM's "Forever." He's since been releasing a couple singles including last year's "Need U (100%)" and now "I Got U" featuring the very Whitney-esque vocals of Jax Jones. Also, he loves that 'U' eh?
I'm really digging this track quite a bit. Good one for the weekend.
The always quality-consistant, but unpredictable Kelis is returning with her sixth studio album Food in late April. The album has been completely produced by Dave Sitek of TV on the Radio who co-wrote every track on the album (save for one) with Kelis and Todd Simon. First single "Jerk Ribs" is a funky, soulful, groovy little track that shows quite the departure from her last effort, 2010's dance-heavy Flesh Tone... which I loved.
The album is apparently a throwback to vintage soul and gospel-like organs paired with modern electronic flourishes for "a sound that's rootsy without ever being self-consciously retro," says producer Sitek. Upcoming second single "Rumble" best highlights this sound with jazzy horns and Kelis' powerful delivery.
While I would have been plenty happy with a Flesh Tone pt. 2, that's not the type of artist Kelis is. She's arguably never made the same record twice, setting her apart from many of her contemporaries.
The Knocks have been umm... knocking around for quite some time and yet we still don't have a debut album yet. Maybe it's time to stop waiting and enjoy the pretty consistent wave of E.P.'s and singles the duo does chuck out. And do that they do do...
Comfortable is the latest four-track E.P. from the group containing the title track as well as "The One," a groovy little number done with Sneaky Sound System. "Comfortable" is a catchy, sexy track that I've been going pretty wild for over the past couple weeks. They just keep on keepin' on.
The Comfortable E.P. is already on Spotify, and while we don't have an album to listen to, we have more than an album's worth of material. So below is a WeCastPlaylist of The Knocks output which is really pretty stellar.
Kiesza is a London & NYC-based Canadian singer-songwriter who has recently dropped her debut dance single "Hideaway" late last month. Just five days ago, the NYC-set single-shot music video came out which seems to be getting some additional traction for the song and singer.
A trained ballerina in her teens, Kiesza apparently joined the Canadian Navy after school and was being trained as a sniper until she decided to save the world with electro-pop instead. It appears she released a folk album back in 2008 but having trouble finding confirmation that it's the same Kiesza.
"Hideaway" is a killer Deep House-meets-pop hybrid, radio catchy but club ready. There's also a hint of 90s nostalgia that's also helped by the simple but effective music video. (Acid wash jeans!) Which had its difficulties...
"Shooting the video seemed impossible," Kiesza tells Rolling Stone. "I had less than three days to learn five completely new dance styles. Almost everyone told me that we couldn't do it. Then to top things off, on the day of the shoot, I broke a rib. I did the video in two takes and couldn't move for an entire month afterward, but I pulled it off."
The "Hideaway" EP comes out at the end of March. One to watch in 2014.
I don't know how a man can "look like a spaghetti." But then again I've never been to South America.
Can't really find much info about this Tom Sawyer, and only found the song on a handful of compilations, the one I got was called CD Pool Underground-Alternative December, which incidentally is a pretty good Psychedelic-Trance Deep House mix.
It's a mildly dangerous-seeming kind of sexy... the pulsating beat comes as a feeling, even though you're also thinking about it. "Never get high on your own supply." I've seen it written out as one word, unlike the country... so I can't really be sure.
Artist: Elk Road
Album: Waiting for Your Waves to Pass
Here's an exciting discovery...
Elk Road is a musical project by 22 year-old Australian law student Rory Garton Smith. His debut three-track EP Waiting for Your Waves to Pass was put out just over two weeks ago, and it's really quite amazing.
Waiting for Your Waves to Pass is a mix of soulful Electro and House, each track with a different yet unifying sound. All three are pretty excellent and hard to pick one to highlight so I'm going with "Get Me Through" feat. Tasha Baxter, the last track which will remind you of recent popular vocal dance tracks like Zedd's "Clarity" etc. But you should listen to all three and can download them for free from Elk Road's official Soundcloud page. (You'll also find a rather nice remix of Rudimental's "Free" feat. Emeli Sandé, which is also free to download.)
This kid is just starting out but shows quite a lot of potential with this EP.
I was in Ft. Lauderdale, FL last month and mid-evening was getting drinks at a popular local video bar with a large group of friends when sometime in the middle of round three a music video came on with a sort of abrasive song that demanded attention... it was "Big Banana" by Havana Brown and it pretty much stopped conversation for the whole group. Who and what the Hell was this?!?
Havana Brown is an Australian DJ, Writer, Dancer, Singer who got her start as a DJ for Island Records Australia which lead to opening slots on some high-profile tours including Enrique Iglesias, Britney Spears, Pussycat Dolls, Rihanna, and Chris Brown. Her debut as a recording artist came in 2011 with "We Run the Night," which was subsequently remixed with Pitbull, getting the Melbourne native increased exposure.
She has since released an EP which contained "Night," and her debut album Flashing Lights was released in October of last year. It's a Pop-Club record with production from such remix kings as Afrojack, R3hab, Darkchild, and RedOne. Funny enough, when listening to "Big Banana" I was reminded of the RedOne production "Starships," not that they sound similar, but are just big, loud, abrasive, and kind of dumb... yet fill a very specific need. Incidentally, "Big Banana" isn't a RedOne production (though he did two other tracks on the album) it's R3hab, best known for production work with Infected Mushroom and remixes for Lady Gaga, LMFAO, & Calvin Harris amongst others.
There's a good chance you won't really like this... it's pretty abrasive, but silly/ridiculous and doesn't take itself too seriously. Probably best to watch the head-scratcher of a music video with your first listen/view. You might also want to be drunk.
New single from L.A.-based by-way-of Portland indie dance quartet YACHT. "Plastic Soul" follows 2012 single "Second Summer" as one-off's post their 5th album Shangri-La from 2011.
"Plastic Soul" is an odd little track but I quite like it. It builds and builds to a throbby, ethereal, trance-y state with indie deadpan vocals and a killer final minute.
There was something about the new U2 track, maybe it's the guitar line right in the beginning, but I instantly thought of The Bangles' 1988 track "In Your Room" from their third album Everything, the follow up to their breakthrough, 1986's Different Light. And subsequently, I can't stop playing it.
I remember having Different Light on cassette, utterly obsessed with "Walk Like an Egyption" as well as "Manic Monday" but remember I didn't get the follow up... my Mother did after the Adult Contemporary cross-over smash "Eternal Flame," the band's biggest hit.
"In Your Room" was co-written by Billy Steinberg, who also co-wrote "Eternal Flame" with lead singer Susanna Hoffs and Tom Kelly. Steinberg is responsible for a slew of huge 80s hits including "Like a Virgin," "True Colors," "I Drove All Night," "So Emotional," "I Touch Myself" and "Alone" by Heart. It's a punchy, propulsive track, that does sound a bit dated but still quite rockin'.
The band split after a Greatest Hits record in 1990 only to reform a decade later for their fourth album Doll Revolution in 2003.
The Winter Olympics in Sochi Russia officially start today... you may have heard.
The P.R. certainly hasn't been very good, and is just getting worse. Athletes and journalists that have arrived have found the Olympic village to be a little less than ready. But of course the big news leading up to the games has been President Vladimir Putin's war on homosexuals with the governments "Propaganda" laws, which have lead to an upswing of anti-gay violence.
In response, Norwegian singer-songwriter Annie and Richard X, fresh off a winning E.P. collaboration released last year, have teamed up with visual artist Bjarne Melgaard for a protest track and short film (see below) to raise money for gay rights non-profit All Out. More information can be found on Annie's website.
The track itself isn't too far off from their A&R E.P., a 90s-tinged deep house track that even includes some male moans of ecstasy toward the end.
After quite the hiatus Annie has been hitting it out of the park with one-off singles, the E.P., and now this hypnotic track that highlights a nasty violation of human rights.
U2 debuted this brand-new track in a commercial during the Super Bowl, tied to Bono's RED organization that fights AIDS globally. It is said to be a "preview" track from their upcoming, as-yet-untitled 13th studio album which is being produced by Broken Bells/Gnarls Barkley co-founder Danger Mouse. The bands been working on the album since 2011.
"Invisible" sounds like classic U2 with some slight electronic flourishes. There's that Edge guitar, soaring Bono vocals... and a reminder that new U2 is always like going home a bit. I haven't been totally enamoured with a U2 record since 2000's All That You Can't Leave Behind, but "Invisible" certainly gives me that vibe... I look forward to hearing the new record.
There is a Mark Romanek-directed video on the way for the track.
