Shazamers' Blog

The latest slab from dance-rock outfit Foals is a tasty up tempo track called My Number. The song is the second single to be released from their latest album ‘Holy Fire’, which was listed as one of SPIN’s 50 Albums You Gotta Hear in 2013. The video which you can view above delves into the heady world of what one presumes happens at Foals’ gigs: sweating, dancing, snogging, and then the loss of normal vision until everything seems to be melting into 3D.

For those who like their beats a little more up tempo, get excited – there’s a totally awesome Totally Extinct Enormous Dinosaurs remix.

The new album has been getting pretty rave reviews from all quarters. As well as the SPIN accolade above, NME gave the album 9/10. Drummer Jack Bevan talks about the raw immediacy of the LP: “We wanted it to be unashamedly what it is rather than covering it with foliage, essentially. There’s a lot of music out there which hints at being this big direct, massive riff or whatever but then there’s so much other stuff.. A lot of bands seem to be ashamed that, if they write a proper riff they can’t focus on it.”

Foals are playing a couple of dates over the next couple of months, including two shows at the Royal Albert Hall on 28 March 2013. To coincide with those shows, the band teaching a music workshop with music students from the London boroughs of Islington and Haringey. Students aged between 14-16 will be asking the band about their experiences in the industry. The workshop will also include a live jam session with Foals where students will play a brand new version of a track from the new album.

“The Royal Albert Hall suggested we get involved in their education programme to supplement our gigs there and we thought it sounded like a grand idea,” says Foals frontman Yannis Philippakis.

“I would have loved a similar opportunity when I was younger – I had a pretty weird taste in music but always looked to my favourite bands for inspiration. It will be a fun day and hopefully the kids will learn something of use”

Bonus joy: there’s also a fairly hilarious Foals / Village People video mashup of My Number, which you can view below…

Helia Tag Of The Day

Diplo is surely the man with the touch of gold. Back in May 2012, Mad Decent signing Baauer released the huge and stompy dancefloor bouncer, Harlem Shake. The track had some modest success at the time, but has just smashed into the top spot on the iTunes Chart – kicking the likes of Justin Timberlake and Bruno Mars into the wings!

Proof of its popularity comes in the vast variety of viral vids that have been posted in tribute to the track – which now counts in at 28,000 and rising. Some of the choicest cuts are listed for your viewing pleasure below.
Read more…

Helia Tag Of The Day

If wide-scope, epic synth pop is the kind of thing that floats your boat, then The Good Natured’s new cut ‘5-HT’ needs to be on your list of 2013’s big hitters.

Described mostly as pop noir / modern wave (although lead singer Sarah describes them as if “Robert Smith and Katy Perry had a love child!” while Hamish states they’re like “if Siouxsie Sioux joined The Killers”, The Good Natured bring a euphoric and trancey vibe to their latest single, named after an over-the-counter dietary anti-depressant commonly used by ravers the day after a big session. Allegedly.

The band started life as a solo project for vocalist Sarah McIntosh, but she roped in her brother Hamish on bass and synths, and then added George Hinton on drums to create a fully functional live act.

“We think our music is unique,” says Sarah about the band and their sound. “We like to call ourselves ‘modern wave’, a twist on the new wave movement which especially influenced our sound. Our music is a lot punkier than anything out right now. We sometimes call ourselves ‘pop noir’ too, because we turn dark emotions into pop songs.”

Previously, the band’s biggest hit was Skeleton, produced with one of Robyn’s main collaborators, Patrik Berger. It’s huge.

To whet appetities for their forthcoming new album, the band released a free download of ‘5-HT’, remixed by Loadstar. It’s a tasty slab of bass heavy, window shaking pop euphoria, designed to rattle even the most sturdy of cages.

The band have eclectic musical tastes that come from their divergent backgrounds. “My earliest musical memory was hearing my Gran play her Yamaha organ from the 1980s down in Scotland when I was about five years old,” recalls Sarah. “She was incredible. When I was 15 I rescued the old thing when she deemed it as a ‘piece of old junk’. I found it by the back door ready to go out to the trash! I took it home with me. I wrote my first songs on that organ, it’s very special to me even if some of the keys are broken.”

Drummer George remembers something quite different from his childhood. “My earliest musical memory would be when I was about five, my parents were really into surfing and so every weekend we’d always drive to the coast. Every trip down my Dad would put on his cassette of Nirvana’s ‘Nevermind’. I have memories of looking out the car window, desperately trying to be the first person to see the sea, with ‘Come As You Are’ playing in the background. Every time I hear that song I always remember those days. Good times!”

The Good Natured are on tour in April, supporting Imagine Dragons. Tour dates below:

Twitter – @thegoodnatured

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‘5-HT’ is released on March 8th in the UK, available to pre-order from iTunes now

Helia New Music

Having obviously had enough of sitting in the wings, Cornell Iral Haynes, Jr (or Nelly to you and me) has been busily preparing his seventh studio album M.O. – and from it, he’s just dropped this latest platter – “Hey Porsche”.

It marks a different sound for the St Louis rapper, picking up a poppy club beat no doubt designed to get booties wiggling on dance floors. It brings to mind some past work he’s done, like “Dilemma” which he performed with Kelly Rowland. It’s all set to be a radio smash. Are you ready to let Nelly back into your life? You better be…

Although there’s no release date set for new album M.O., his return to the studio has got Nelly out of the gossip columns for his recent break-up with soul singer Ashanti. They had been dating for nearly ten years although neither actually confirmed the relationship, even though they were photographed together all the time. In December, Nelly broke up with Ashanti after finding out that she had allegedly had an affair with producer Chink Santana in 2005.

Nelly’s come a long way from his humble beginnings as part of teenage rap outfit St Lunatics, and even from his first two albums, Country Grammar and Nellyville. So what advice would he give to himself back then? “I would tell myself to be patient and enjoy a lot more of it,” he says.

“Take in those moments at those times when it does happen. I believe in you gotta make your mistakes in order to grow. So to look back, I wouldn’t change anything. I’m not one of them people to be like, “I’mma change everything.”  You just gotta live with the choices that you make. People can’t fault you for that. But people fault you for making the same mistakes over.”

M.O. to be released later in 2013, no release date as yet

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2013 – it’s the year of huge megastar comebacks, from the underwhelming ones (Girls Aloud – ok, so that was more late 2012 but let’s not split hairs about that, shall we?) to the top secret, hush hush ones (aka Justin Timberlake and his “Suit and Tie”) to the the massively awaited ones.

You can add Destiny’s Child to the latter group, of course. The power trio of Knowles, Rowland and Williams formed the cornerstone of early 2000s pop and were one of the most successful girl groups in modern musical times. Want proof? Is selling over 50 million albums proof enough?? Well then.

When they announced their comeback with a new single, new album, and rather impressive reunion show at the Superbowl, the world sat up and listened. The girls sashayed back into our lives with “Nuclear” – a new jam produced by Pharrell and co-written by Michelle Williams – a suprising twist considering that it’s usually Beyonce or Kelly Rowlands who are recognised as the musical tours de force from the group…

NME recently reported the set list that the girls will be  for their big comeback show at the Superbowl, and as you’d expect, it contains a slew of their greatest hits. Beyonce will also perform her smash, “Crazy in Love” to start the show – she’ll then be joined by Kelly and Michelle to sing tracks including “Bills, Bills, Bills,” “Survivor,” and ending with “Nuclear.”

Although Princess B was in the news recently with the controversial story that she’d lip-synched the National Anthem at the President’s inauguration, few fans seemed particularly bothered by it. Michelle Williams

appeared on Good Morning America and said the so-called controversy was “disappointing and sad . . . that was such a big moment for her. I wish people would let it go.” Beyonce’s proved to have pretty powerful lungs in the past, and she’s sure to prove that at the Superbowl. Look out if you’re in the first three rows…

Love Songs is released on January 29 on Columbia

Helia New Music

The rap game is full of all manner of upstarts these days, but few are as deserving of the hype as Harlem’s A$AP Rocky.  His latest single is the teaser for album Long.Live.A$AP, which suffered more than a few delays in its release. The track itself is a slow burning leftfield urban cut, which has a black and white video which has Rocky wandering around a weird castle surrounded by knights, making you feel like he’s a pawn in some bigger game – the rap game, perhaps? Ok, so that’s a lot to read into it, but still.

A$AP Rocky’s new album features a whole bunch of industry friends, including Santigold, Drake, Florence Welch, 2 Chainz, Kendrick Lamar, Danger Mouse and Skrillex. Not a bad guestlist for a studio debut – just imagine what birthdays are like at his place, eh? For a rapper who’s obssessed with standing out from the crowd, getting those big names interested enough in featuring on a start out record was big news.

“It’s about breaking down barriers,” he says. “I feel like people worry about the wrong things sometimes. I’m not perfect. I strive for perfection, but I’m not perfect. But what I can say is my morals are totally different than any other 24-year-old rapper my age now. I look at life totally different. A whole other aspect. I have different views and morals on life in general. And opinions. I’m just here to express it and show people who I am as a person and as an individual.”

Rocky is pragmatic about the delays to the album, but happy that it’s finally been released. “It’s like a weight’s coming off my shoulders. I’m feeling really good about it. It feels like a prison inmate that just did 25 years finally being free. No parole. No probation. Just free. I know that’s a fucked-up reference to use, but that’s how it feels. It feels like the album was the key to people wondering what I’m capable of. They don’t know yet. They gonna see on this album how creative I really am. And how much of an artist I really am.”

Long.Live.A$AP is out now on RCA

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Hold on to your underwear boys and girls – the king of sexy has returned with the comeback single “Suit and Tie”. And luckily for everyone, it’s the same level of smoking hot as we’ve come to expect from the great man.

It’s got all the ingredients that add up to a tasty Timberlake-fest – the oh-so-smooth lead vocal, Jay-Z dropping a verse about dressing all fly in dope threads for your lady, all set over a big fat Timbaland beat.

“Suit and Tie” is a welcome neon bubble that’s burst onto the normally deathly grey and boring January music space. It also heralds a return to form for the man with a new album, called The 20/20 Experience.

“The inspiration for this really came out of the blue and to be honest, I didn’t expect anything out of it,” he says. “I just went into the studio and started playing around with some sounds and songs…What I came up with is something I couldn’t be more excited about!… hope you enjoy listening to it as much as I enjoyed making it.”

It’s been a while since Timberlake has had any material out, and in the interim he’s dabbled in acting and business entrepreneurship. But evidently he’s missed his time in the studio and his real calling – which is for rhymes and beats.

“I’m the one who sits and is obsessive about it before you even get to hear it,” said Timberlake in an interview with RollingStone. “As close as I get to it, I don’t know that I can physically torture myself year in and year out and expect it to fulfill me the way that it does, and the way that it is right now. I don’t want to put anything out that I think is something I don’t love. You just don’t get that everyday, you have to wait for it.”

With “Suit and Tie” set to be one of the biggest single debuts in terms of sales of all time, the Timber-machine is back, and 2013 looks set to be the year that pop got its sexy back. Look out!

Helia New Music

“Can You Hear Me” is the second single to be lifted from his forthcoming album The Ascent. Earlier this year, Wiley signed a deal with Warner which led to his first ever UK number one single. Going from the underground to the big time hasn’t been the easiest of rides, but Wiley has managed to keep his feet on the ground. “It’s been crazy,” he says. “I think persistence, the drive to not wanna give up and keep doing it has kept me going. There’s always other people who do it to keep you going as well but I do feel like its been such a long journey. It’s actually been longer than how it feels thinking about it.”

Despite having had a great track record and some great success that’s made the transition between underground and mainstream fairly seamless, Wiley is under no illusions about his future in the music business. “The future of grime doesn’t lie with me,” he said in an interview with Clash Magazine. “I’m 33 so it lies with the guys who are 19, 20 and whatever they want to do. I feel like it’s a bright future but I’m hoping to smash the ball out the park like Craig David and when that day comes, I want to stop. I want to get to that day where I have that big hit and can leave on a high. I watched Rocky Marciano do it and it worked for him, you know what I mean?”

It’s not all going to be about releasing club bangers either. Wiley’s going to be concentrating on his record label, A-List records. He’s signed J2K, Ice Kid, Scratchy, and A-Star, so he has the future careers of other bright stars to look after.

In the meantime, Wiley tweeted a tracklisting for The Ascent, which features some serious pop royalty in the shape of Emili Sandé, Tulisa, Far East Movement and Chip (previously Chipmunk). The big man is preparing to drop the album on the public in February 2013. That is, of course, if he doesn’t leak it to his fans himself in the meantime…

Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/OfficialWiley

Twitter – https://twitter.com/EskiDance

Helia New Music

Say what you will about Cher Lloyd – the diminutive popstrel that we’ve come to know and love as Cheryl Cole Mark II certainly knows how to churn out the hits. This time she’s teamed up with Becky G for her latest chart smash, “Oath”. Becky G – aka Becky Gomez – was touted earlier this year as the next big thing but not only Simon Cowell but also Dr Luke. Pretty big recommendations from some big industry players.

Cher shot to fame as Cheryl Cole’s protoge in X Factor – in no small part to her physical likeness to the Geordie pop goddess. But with a bigger voice and those crucial years younger than Chezza, it was only a matter of time before the pair fell out. Cher criticised Cheryl for never singing live, to which Cheryl responded: “Be Careful who you kick on your way up… They kick you twice as hard on your way back down”. But recently the pair seem to have made up their differences. Aw, bless.

Recently, Cher has had considerable success in the United States. Her rise to fame is being helped recently by an appearance on Sean Kingston’s track, “Rum and Raybans”. Kingston unleashed the song on his Soundcloud, and it’s been rumoured that it’s going to be an official single on his upcoming album, Back 2 Life. Cher is also gagging to duet with Nicki Minaj. ”I’ve always said from day one that the person I’d love to collaborate with would be Nicki Minaj. Just for the pure reason that I think she has so much guts and does what she wants and obviously says what she wants, and I love her,” she said.

Cher’s previous collaboration with Busta Rhymes was one she describes as weird’, she thinks that’s what made the song great. ”It’s such a weird collaboration, you definitely wouldn’t put me and Busta on the same song and that’s what I think is so great about it. I recorded ‘Grow Up’ and needed something else and I came to a decision that Busta would be great for it so I got my people to speak to his people and yeah, it was just a done deal.” The pair didn’t actually meet while they were recording the track, but Cher is keen for them to perform together. ”I’d love it if I bumped into him or maybe we could perform it. That would be so good. I’d love that.”

Cher Lloyd on Twitter: https://twitter.com/CherLloyd
Becky G on Twitter: https://twitter.com/itsBeckyGomez

Helia New Music

As the nights are drawing in and winter approaches, there’s nothing I’d rather hear than some sassy vocals over a garage-flavoured, minimal r’n'b beat with house overtones. Luckily, London brothers Guy and Howard Lawrence who are Disclosure, are on hand to provide just this kind of sonic soother in their track ‘Latch’ which features Sam Smith on vocals. The video for the track was produced by Bullion.

There is a lot of soul in Disclosure’s music, which comes from their love of Motown. But they also listen to a whole load of other kinds of music too, which you’d almost never guess from their sound. “We mainly listen to older dance music – the classic Detroit sound has been one of our biggest influences. As has the UK Garage scene. We’re not massively into categorizing music too much, we just like music with some intelligence behind it! It is weird because that’s what we’ve grown up on – band music. Our dad used to play us a lot of Genesis and prog-rock too, so this couldn’t be more different. We’ve had to listen to so much horrible stuff, but I still listen to prog every now and then. It’s got its place,” says Howard.

As some of the youngest talent within the UK scene, the brothers are positive about the way their kind of music is developing. “It feels really healthy at the moment. There are so many young producers making really good music, that it’s only going to get better. The fact that a lot of young people are making house music really excites us – it just shows that that style of music is going to keep connecting with future generations.”

Music has been in the brothers’ blood from a young age. Both their parents are musicians, and both boys have played in bands and made music individually since they were ten, but it’s only been within the last two years they decided to put a name on their efforts and join forces, whereupon Disclosure was born.

As well as working on tracks for a new album, Disclosure have started booking dates for a 2013 tour. Catch them in the following places…

01 March – Gorilla – Manchester

02 March – King Tuts – Glasgow

04 March – Hifi – Leeds

05 March – Rescue Rooms – Nottingham

06 March – The Exchange – Bristol

07 March – Heaven – London

disclosureofficial.com
facebook.com/disclosureuk

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