Philadelphia’s most notorious hip-hop collective, The Roots, have their ninth studio album ready. Titled ‘How I Got Over’, the long awaited follow-up of ‘Rising Down’ has endured several delays but will finally see the light of day on June 22nd.
As it is custom with Black Thought, ?uestlove and co, the album’s lyrics are expected to be politically charged, heavily focused on the developments of both Bush and Obama’s presidencies; but it’s the music department what brings some unexpected surprises as the band gets closer to current blog rock musicians, featuring members of Dirty Projectors and Monsters Of Rock. One of the tracks even contains a sample taken from new folk star Joanna Newsom’s first album; all of which adds further diversity to their original palette of jazz and soul influences.
We already listened to the melancholy-tinged first single ‘Dear God 2.0.’ and now The Roots are giving away another track as a free download, ‘Doin’ it Again’.
Get the freebie as well as one minute sampler preview of every track in the record through the widget below.
There are few Scottish bands currently active who can claim to have been a major influence in the music of a rock icon of the stature of the late Kurt Cobain, who often chose ‘Molly’s Lips’ and ‘Son Of A Gun’ as a regular inclusion of Nirvana’s live sets.
When they first appeared in the early eighties, The Vaselines never enjoyed a huge popularity. But the boost that Cobain’s predilection for their songs gave them a decade after has kept their flame alive long after they disbanded.
In 2008 they reunited for a tour and shortly afterwards Sub Pop reissued a deluxe edition of their anthology record, ‘Enter The Vaselines’, which let a new generation discover their sound. And now the band announces the release of their second studio album ‘Sex with An X’next September, a twenty year hiatus from their first one, ‘Dum-Dum’. Read more…
Our look at the music that’s popular in different corners of the globe makes a brief stopover in China, where the Top 10 has a distinctive rap flavour. The highest entry of the week is ‘Rap Along Song’ by Hong Kong duo Fama, taken from their new and also very successful album ‘O’Fama’. The track deceitfully begins as an acoustic ballad, but shortly changes into the rap that’s mention in its title, to finally morph again into a powerful guitar anthem. All in less than four minutes!
‘O’Fama’ contains vocal collaborations from other popular Asian artists such as Andy Hui, Edison, DJ Tommy; etc. and it has been produced by Eason Chan - currently considered the king of Cantonese-Pop who’s also topping the charts with a ballad taken from his more recent opus ‘Time Flies’. (Below)
In another example of showbiz weirdness that could rival any entry on each of their respective CVs, rapper Daniel Dumile -aka MF Doom- and comedian Sacha Baron Cohen –the man behind Kazakhstan’s finest fictional export; Borat- have recorded an EP together.
The pair became friends after meeting in 2006 during the promotional tour for Baron Cohen’s movie and ended up recording a few tracks. With Doom adding his always intriguing verses to Borat’s beats, sampling classics by Aretha Franklin and Diana Ross amongst others.
Their unusual collaboration has been named MF Borat and shaped into a five track EP, ‘The Mask And the Moustache’ available to download for free here.
The full tracklist is:
1. Bing Bong Bing.
2. Dedicated To Love (Feat. Samantha Alexes).
3. Rescue Khazakstan (Feat. Aretha Franklin).
4. So Good To Me.
5. Tower Of Ears (Feat. Diana Ross).
Further info and the ‘legend’ behind the tracks can be found at their website.
Last year, the debut album by New Yorkers The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart earned a well-deserved place in the record collection of many indie followers, thanks to their impeccable sonic revision of the C-86 UK bands from the eighties. The four-piece band has kept busy. Earlier this year they gave us ‘Higher Than The Stars’, an EP worth of new material that included a much talked about remix of the title track made by St. Etienne. The video for the original has just been released –click the link above to watch now.
As a taste of things to come, The Pains Of Being Pure at Heart have readied a new single with ‘Say No To Love’ in the A-side,backed by ‘Lost Saint’. Both tracks keep that anglophile vibe that has made them popular. The single will be released on July the 29th, but for those who can’t wait both tracks are available for free download below:
A new track by the ever controversial KanYe West has leaked online. It’s called ‘Power’ and features a vocal collaboration with soul man Dwele, who previously teamed up with the rap superstar on ‘Flashing Lights’, one of the singles from the album ‘Graduation’.
Despite the lack of official confirmation, ‘Power’ is believed to be the first track from KanYe’s fifth record ‘Good Ass Job’, scheduled for a September release. It’s closer to the dark mood of former opus ‘808’s & Heartbreak’ than to his more radio-friendly moments and contains the unlikely sample of ’21st Century Schizoid Man’ by British prog-rock classics King Crimson; alongside a choral hook in a similar vein to his groundbreaking first hit ‘Jesus Walks’.
‘Power’ is a slow-burner that gains with every listen. It may not go straight to top the charts, but it’s powerful enough as to prove KanYe’s talent is not running out of steam any time soon - building up our expectations for ‘Good Ass Job’ to become one of the key albums of the year.
Arcade Fire are back. The Canadian band’s debut, ’Funeral’, was included in every best of noughties list worth its salt and their follow-up, ‘Neon Bible’, successfully broke them into rock’s major league. Now Arcade Fire are about to unveil their third work, ‘The Suburbs’, scheduled for the release on August 2nd.
In the meantime, a double A-side 12” single ‘The Suburbs/Month Of May’ is about to hit the stores worldwide. The highly anticipated tracks showcase two different sides of Arcade Fire: ‘The Suburbs’ is a pleasant indie pop fare lushly arranged in the tradition of their first opus –many have noticed a similarity in style and subject with their classic ‘Neighborhood’. Whereas ‘Month Of May’ explores the rockier, more epic side of the collective.
More details about the 12” and a pre-order offer for the album can be found here. Arcade Fire will also be one of the headliners at this year’s Reading & Leeds Festivals to be held on August 27-29th.
Major Lazer, the Caribbean project of über producers Diplo and Switch, has teamed up with last year’s British synth pop revelation La Roux to create ‘Lazerproof’, a free mixtape available through Mad Decent website.
Celebrating the young Brit stars’ break into the US market with their UK Number 1 hit ‘Bulletproof’ – which is on its way to become one of the biggest hits of the summer season stateside – Major Lazer has reworked some of the tracks on La Roux’s debut album and thrown in some high profile collaborations from the likes of Gucci Mane, Gyptian and Drake, shaping up an interesting clash of two very different musical worlds.
US cartoon network Adult Swim, in a joint effort with carmaker KIA, has put together a series of new tracks by eight highly rated artists. For eight consecutive weeks, a new single will be offered as a free download.
The first one is now available and comes from Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, teaming up once again with Matt Sweeney; with whom he released the 2005 collaboration album ‘Superwolf’. The pair covers a seventies country hit by Gene Watson, ‘Love In The Hot Afternoon’, for the occasion.
Madvillain, acclaimed new rapper Freddie Gibbs and Holy Ghost – with their remix of LCD Soundsystem’s ‘Drunk Girls’ – are also among the acts to appear in the series.
Check the complete schedule below:
17/5: Superwolf (Will Oldham and Matt Sweeney).
24/5: Madvillain.
31/5: Killer Mike.
07/6: Washed Out (with Chairlift’s Caroline Polachek).
14/6: High On Fire.
21/6: Black Lips.
28/6: LCD Soundsystem (‘Drunk Girls’ Holy Ghost! Remix).
05/7: Cults.
12/7: Freddie Gibbs
Before he established himself as one of the trendiest singer-songwriters of the planet, thanks to his acoustic blend of folk and electronica; José González was also a member of the rock trio Junip. The success of Gonzaléz’s solo career - after his cover of The Knife’s ‘Heartbeats’ was used in the famous Sony Bravia commercial - turned the project into an intermittent affair with just an EP and a few songs for different compilations released to date. But now the Swedish troubadour returns to front them.
A new EP ‘Rope And Summit’ has been prepared, anticipating the arrival of their first proper full length, ‘Fields’, on September. The EP is available as a free download through their official website. Junip will shortly begin an international tour on May 28th, as part of the bill of this year’s San Miguel Primavera Sound Festival in Barcelona. From there they will go across the Atlantic for a few dates in the States, returning later to play in other European capitals.
