It’s the weekend again, with a nice little story from Mr. Mo Dee.
mobb deep - shorty wopp.
dj shadow - building steam with a grain of sand.
dj erb - slip into my coma.
thunderball - scorpio rising.
kool mo dee - go see the doctor (jp mix).
Mike D has recently revealed in NME that The Beastie Boys follow up to 2004’s ‘To The 5 Boroughs’ will be called ‘The Mix Up’ and is set for a June release. As posted previously, expect a “radically different” sound.
Mike D: “We play instruments on the whole album, as opposed to sampling. There’s more rock on there. If you know us you can trace the influences and they’re not completely surprising. Someone who listens to us casually might think ‘What the hell are these guys doing?’”It might make you flip your wig right off, or your hairpiece, if you’re a casual listener.”
Nailler 9 has a great post about the forthcoming album, including a track from it ‘The Rat Cage’.
In reference to the apparent lack of sampling on the new record, here’s ‘Check It Out’ remixed by Chromium 05 with 68 classic hip hop samples running through it’s four minutes.
Bjorks great new long player ‘Volta’ is pretty reflective and dark in places, she’s at her beautiful best on the tender ‘Pneumonia‘ and ‘I See Who You Are’. The accompaniment from Min Xiao-Fen, Toumani Diabaté and Konono No1 works well, and there’s plenty of horn too. She’s been away too long and it’s good to have her back.
Set to be the next single, the Timbaland produced ‘Innocence’ has been on Bjorks myspace page for while and it’s one of the more instant/punchier tracks. ‘Vertabrea by Vertabrae’ is an atmospheric, horn heavy track with scattered beats.
mp3: bjork - innocence. (zshare).
mp3: bjork - vertabrae by vertabrae. (zshare).
Another piece, ‘Balloon Girl’ sold for £37,200, while ‘Bomb Hugger’ fetched £31,200, although rare signed artwork ‘Precision Bomber’ failed to sell. Last year a piece commissioned by Blur for their ‘Think Tank’ album fetched £62,400.
April 30th see’s this release of remixes and b-sides from London duo Rupert Lyddon and Lawrence ‘La’ Rudd aka Grand National.
Long Player ‘Kicking The National Habit’ was released some time ago now and saw them mix elements of eighties pop, nineties dance, indie, electro, and ska into fresh left-field pop songs.
Prog House hero Sasha got his hands on debut single ‘Talk Amongst Yourselves’ and expanded it into a nine minute plus 111 b.p.m hypnotic chiller, which appeared on his own ‘Involver‘ project. It’s pretty great and it improves if you up the b.p.m.
mp3: grand national - talk amongst yourselves (sasha remix). [zshare].
‘New’ single Exit was released on April 23 on !K7 records, but first appeared on the Bloodstream EP a couple of years back, it’s really just a primer for the Jim Abbiss(Placebo, Ladytron, Arctic Monkeys) produced debut long player set for a June 18 release, which is apparently very good.
Festival favourites Faithless are playing the first of a handful of dates at Coachella on friday night, before taking in Wireless in London, Rock Werchter in Belgium and Bestival in Bucharest.
Last years release ‘To All New Arrivals’ signalled a maturing and toning down of their sound. Although lyrically it suffers from an overly sentimental new parent theme (but then i’m just cynical), you can’t fault the production.
The video for lead single ‘Bombs‘ was banned by MTV for it’s powerful anti-war/pro-humanity message, providing more confirmation of who that corporation are in bed with.
Uplifting new single ‘Music Matters’ with Cass Fox (Rui De Silva/Touch Me), who’s now doing live shows with the band, has an undeniably positive message and here it gets a nice push by Swedish dj/remixer Axwell. Awesome. The video is worth checking too, if you haven’t seen it.
mp3: faithless - music matters (axwell mix). (zshare).
It’s a bit more theatre/choreographed/dance troupe orientated than plain street breaking, but it should provide a diversion. The tour will feature the legends Electric Boogaloos from Los Angeles, Brazilian innovator Frank Ejara and French freakers Franck II Louise. DJ support comes in the shape of DMC winners the En4cers.
These two sprawling 9 minute long, laid back vocal remixes came out last year.
Chicken Lips have been around for a long time and the quality of their output is beyond question. They draw a multitude of influences into their sound and their production skills are in big demand as remixers. Andy Meecham and Dean Meredith have solo projects on the go with Emperor Machine and White Light Circus respectively and are well worth checking out. Here, their cut ‘White Dwarf’, a release on Adrift that also featured remixes by 20:20 Soundsystem and The Juan Maclean, gets a typically acidic going over by US dance legend Josh Wink.
While in the studio producing the forthcoming UNKLE album, which by all accounts is an absolute blinder, James Lavelle and Co have been releasing the limited edition ‘Surrender Sound Session’ remixes. Out on Olmeto the Layo & Bushwacka! track ‘Life2Live’ (featuring Green Velvet on vocals) from long player ‘Feels Closer’ is remixed by James and Aidan Lavelle - with similar wibbly results to Wink’s remix. Their latest features remixes of Autolux and Black Mountain.
mp3: chicken lips -white dwarf (winx vocal reinterpretation). [zshare].
mp3: layo & bushwacka! - life2live (unkle surrender sound session). [zshare].
UK dance pioneers X Press 2 are due to release the next cut ‘Witchi Tai To’ from last years ‘Make Shift Feel Good’ album on Skint. The original, a cover of a 50’s classic by native american Jim Pepper, is a pleasant enough tune with vocals from Polyphonic Spree frontman Tim DeLaughter, mixes come courtesy of Spencer Parker, Two Lone Swordsman and M Factor.
Also on there is the remix X Press 2 did of The Specials ‘Message To You Rudy’ for the Audi TT Remastered ad campaign.
The M Factor remix appears on Global Undergrounds forthcoming outstanding 50 plus track release GU Mixed.
mp3: x-press 2 - witchi tai to (m factor vocal mix). [zshare].
You may never be the same again after watching this Polysics video.
Steve Austin/The Six Million Dollar Man and Colt Seavers/The Fall Guy is 67 today.
Released nearly two years ago on Wall of Sound, this decent Simian Mobile Disco remix of Danish leftfield-rockers Diefenbach’s ‘Favourite Friend’ might have gone under your radar.
It’s pretty laid back from SMD, but they completely deconstructed the song into a twisted electro groover. The original isn’t too shabby either, in a middle of the road kind of way.
mp3: diefenbach - favourite friend (simian mobile disco mix). [zshare].
