Micachu - Golden Phone (live at Cargo, London, 21/08/08)

In which our pal Tom captures Mica and the Shapes at full throttle.

Posted by: Scott 22/09/08


ON : André 3000



As London Fashion Week draws to a close we have retired [slumped] to our quarters [the sofa] to take repose [be sick on ourselves]. But on Wednesday we were hanging out in Harrods' Laduree Tea Room, surrounded by lurid macaroons and toasting André Benjamin's exceedingly dapper new Benjamin Bixby menswear line. We managed to catch up with Mr 3000 AKA Ice Cold AKA Possum Aloysius Jenkins, who was looking fresh in a brown fedora, X-emblazoned polo shirt, tweed sports jacket and turn-up jeans. Does this man ever stop smiling? After the jump he tells us about Philip Glass, rugby and his amazing aliases. [Continues...]

John Legend (ft. André 3000) - Green Light (Diplo Dade County 1988 mix) [mp3]

Philip Glass - String Quartet No. 5 - V [mp3]

Posted by: Alice 19/09/08


321 : Stricken City



If it hadn't been for pizza in a cone, Stricken City would be our favourite discovery of the year. They're so effortlessly charming and endearingly indie that we want to go to a sixth form common room and spend all afternoon scrawling their name on our bags. Their new single Lost Art is a thing of galloping beauty and you can hear it her for the first time. We spoke to Rebekah Raa and Iain Pettifer from the band for 321, our new Ted Rogers-inspired interviewette feature, and after the jump they talk about Julie Andrews, ducks and the trouble with gayrony. [Continues...]

Stricken City - Lost Art [mp3]

Posted by: Scott 17/09/08


Any Old Iron



Ezra Bang is the Tetsuo of hip-hop. We don't mean he has bits of metal growing out his face or a penis that turns into a power drill, but that he is a monster made from the shreds and scraps of old rap. He is the hyper-sexual, campy menace of Schoolly D and the booming rhetoric of Public Enemy welded together and mounted on a stack of thrashed and trashed synthesizers. After the jump Ezra tells about his fearsome new song, What U Can't Kill U Must Envy, which you can listen to here. [Continues...]

Ezra Bang & Hot Machine - What U Can't Kill U Must Envy [mp3]

Posted by: Scott 16/09/08


Daddy's Little Girl



Gang Gang Dance's Saint Dymphna is one of our favourite albums of the year and their startling avant-grime collab with Tinchy Stryder has already been lauded up and down the information superhighway. We just found out that Dymphna was the daughter of an Irish cheftian called Damon who fell in love with her after his wife/Dymphna's mother died. Damon chased Dymphna to Belgium then chopped her head off when she spurned his advances. Wow. History is almost as good as Gossip Girl.

Gang Gang Dance - Princes (ft. Tinchy Stryder) [mp3] [Buy]

Gang Gang Dance - House Jam [mp3]

Posted by: Scott 14/09/08


Freebie: FADER/SoCo 7"



Free stuff! Our pals at FADER have been churning out awesome tiny records for a while now. The latest super limited FADER/SoCo 7" features 'Bama's Hood Headlinaz and Bmore's Get Em Mamis. We have a few copies to give away so email us if you'd like one. Winners will be notified tomorrow.

Posted by: Scott 11/09/08


Sex And Death


Salem - Dirt

In which NSFW nakedness and suicide collide, just like our more feverish daydreams. Salem made this eerie clip themselves and you can still buy their Yes, I Smoke Crack EP here, here and here.

Posted by: Scott 11/09/08


Lock Up



Kanye's Beijing-inspired VMA appearance was 25% weird, 25% brave, 25% awesome and 25% boring. This song is the same.

Kanye West - Love Lockdown [mp3] [Source]

Posted by: Scott 10/09/08


Uncovered



Burial, the formerly enigmatic dubstep producer, may soon join the illustrious ranks of M People, Gomez and Miss Dynamite, by winning the Mercury Music Prize. But even if tonight does not secure him their spoiled spoils, today brings its own reward in this sublime Banjo Or Freakout cover of Archangel. We'll be speaking to Mr Banjo AKA Alessio Natalizia later this week, but for now revel in this haunted paean to metropolitan pain, first unearthed at the wonderful NPIP.

Banjo Or Freakout - Archangel (Burial cover) [mp3]

Posted by: Scott 09/09/08


Font Family



Times New Viking - Call And Respond [mp3] [More]

Times Neue Roman - To Die [mp3] [More]

Posted by: Scott 08/09/08


ON: Ponytail



Tonight, Ponytail play their first London gig at Barden's Boudoir. We are expecting a psychedelic spazz-out of epic proportions. Drummer Jeremy Hyman recently told us about the band's plans to follow this year's wonderful Ice Cream Spiritual LP.

JH: “Me and Molly [Siegel, the band's vocalist] listen to a lot of techno and dance music and that's starting to poke through a little more with the newer stuff. We also love Craig Leon. He was a producer for Blondie and Suicide, but also made his own solo electronic records which Ken [Seeno, one of the band's awesome axemen] found recently. We were all blown away. It's so minimal but, you know, not at all. So we've been influenced by that. And we like a lot of pop too. Fleetwood Mac is one of our favourite ever bands. Just the colour of the sound, it's never really harsh, which is something we like. There's also going to be some really weird industrial sounding guitars. And it's a bit new wavier. Oh, and we've just finished a song that sounds exactly like The Grateful Dead.”

So the new Ponytail record will sound like minimal 80s techno with Fleetwood Mac's lightness of touch, industrial guitars and a new wave take on The Grateful Dead. Fuck.

Ponytail - Celebrate the Body Electric (It Came From an Angel) [mp3] [Buy]

Craig Leon - Donkeys Bearing Cups [mp3] [Taken from the 1981 LP, Nommos]

Posted by: Scott 04/09/08


Critical Beatdown



How To Make New Wave Newer, Part 52. Starring Talking Heads and Dobie.

Talking Heads - Born Under Punches (Dobie's Tab 2 Transient Re-edit) [mp3] [Source]

Posted by: Scott 03/09/08


Creature Feature


Fiasco - Oh You Horny Monster

In which we learn that panning and scanning across photos is pretty cool if those photos contain superheroes and dead people.

Posted by: Scott 02/09/08


Summer Sun



Avalon are from Tokyo, but make the kind of whimsical sunstruck disco-pop we're more used to hearing from the Frenchies and the Scandies. Some of our favourite bloggies tipped them earlier this year and now their debut full length, Labyrinth, has dropped eastside. Our pals at the awesome Escalator Records told us we would love it and they were right. This album has extended our summer by at least two months.

Avalon - Andromeda Saint Chime [mp3] [Buy]

Avalon - Get Out Of The Labyrinth [mp3] [Buy]

Posted by: Scott 01/09/08