As part of the Sound of 2010 – the selection of up and coming artists the BBC launches at the beginning of the year- we have already witnessed the rise of Ellie Goulding, The Drums and Marina & The Diamonds, to name a few, into the premier league of today’s popular music.Also included in the much-coveted list and one of the last ones to release his output is the Londoner remixer and electronica producer Gold Panda. He specializes in dreamy sound landscapes, crowned with chopped vocal samples and minimal beats that have earned him comparisons with Animal Collective and The Field.Since his firsts tracks ‘You’ and ‘Quitter’s Ragga’ caught the attention of the most influential bloggers around the world his profile has gone from strength to strength. After spending most of the year carefully preparing his debut full-length, ‘Lucky Shiner’is ready to be released internationally on October the 12th via Ghostly International and in the UK through his own label ‘NoTown Recordings’.
The album’s ethereal new single ‘Snow & Taxis’ is now being offered for free download –see the widget below.
Katy B’s ‘On A Mission’ is the latest in a recent glut of songs to put a pop twist on the bass driven grunt of dubstep. Produced by Benga, who is currently enjoying huge success as part of the pop/dubstep super group Magnetic Man, ‘On A Mission’ blends a sweet sing-a-long R&B topline with a guttural synthesiser and steppy beats. It’s a combination that’s seen the song gain plenty of plays from daytime radio and helped the track rise to number 2 in the Shazam Pre-release Tag Chart UK.
Benga’s recent flirtations with more commercial sounds will probably stick in the throat of some dubstep purists – many of which still hold works such as ‘Bingo’ and ‘Crunked Up’ as some of the best underground examples of the genre. But in all honestly ‘On A Mission’ shouldn’t be judged as a dubstep track; it should be treated as what it is and that’s a pretty damned catchy pop tune.
‘On A Mission’ will be released by Rinse – the expanding urban music empire that now includes a record label, club night in the shape of FWD, and a newly legit radio station after years of transmitting illegally on the pirate airwaves.
For more info and to listen live to Rinse radio click here.
KanYe West recently posted another new track, ‘See Me Now’ from his forthcoming album on his blog. The song features his favourite video makin’ homie, Beyoncé along with Charlie Wilson. There is an obvious calm in his performance, you can almost feel the smile in his voice. His lyrical humour is spot on, see the line – “If you fall on the concrete, it’s your asphalt.” So true.
Get over to Weezy’s blog before he changes his mind and deletes the link (he has it up for download, for now). And for good measure, the rapper has recently signed up to the micro-blogging phenomena that is Twitter. Follow here for his crucial tweets and no doubt more information on tracks from his new album.
Chilly Gonzales is one of the most intriguing characters in music today. A (self proclaimed) musical genius from Canada, he relocated to Berlin in the nineties after his previous band disbanded. Since then Chilly Gonzales has delivered a clutch of albums which veer between rap, electro and instrumental piano. He has also collaborated, as a producer and writer, for a number of artists including Feist, Peaches and Tiga. If this wasn’t enough, Chilly also holds the Guinness World Record for the longest solo artist performance. In 2009 he entertained crowds in Paris for over 27 hours, with only a piano for company.
His current project, however, may be even more outlandish than anything he’s done before. His new album ‘Ivory Tower’ will also be accompanied by a film. About chess. In the film Gonzales and Tiga play brothers who battle each other on the chess table and also for the affections of a woman. The trailer, seen below, promises something between Dodgeball, Rocky and Purple Rain. It looks nothing short of amazing.
If that wasn’t enough, the album itself sees Gonzales working with electro producer du jour Boys Noize. The video for first single ‘I Am Europe’ (currently available to pre order on iTunes) also couples as a great teaser trailer for the film.
We were lucky to have a few minutes with the prolific musician to talk about the project and also how he managed to recover after that hand crippling world record.
The new single and title track of Wavves’ latest album ‘King Of The Beach’ is currently taking root on the office stereo in Shazam HQ - it’s a fantastic return to form from a band that some had naively written off. While some were familiar with the first two albums, Wavves gained an almost instant widespread infamy after lead singer Nathan Williams brawled with his band on stage at Spain’s Primavera festival after a drink and drug fuelled melt down. Subsequently Williams was forced to change the line up of the band, hooking up with Stephen Pope and Billy Hayes formerly part of the late Jay Reatard’s backing band.
The altered line up seems to have given the singer a new lease of life, as this single shows. ‘King Of The Beach’ is a great taster for the album, showcasing Williams’ knack for a catchy melody drenched in feedback soaked guitars. Wavves are currently embarking on a mammoth tour across the U.S. For more info and dates, head to their MySpace.
With their third album ‘The Suburbs’ collecting rave reviews and tipped to top both the US and UK charts next week, Arcade Fire have cemented their position as one of the most important bands in the world today.
‘The Suburbs’ is packed with reflections on the effects that passing time has on our lives and is another impressive collection of songs. Different singles have been chosen for different territories. The comforting and mellow title track –also the record’s centrepiece- was released as a limited edition 7’ weeks ago and has been heavily played in Europe since; whereas ‘Ready To Start’ - one of the album’s most epic moments – is ready to hit the airwaves in the States.
The Canadians have been taking the media by storm, embarking on a huge promotional effort that included a live show at New York’s Madison Square Garden that was broadcast in full last Thursday via youtube with Terry Gilliam on direction duties. The videos shown are taken from that gig.
Caribou’s ‘Sun’ has undoubtedly been the one track that every hipster can agree on this summer. It’s warm and fuzzy vibe has been radiating from festivals, cool clubs and tastemaker radio stations almost constantly since April – yet the record refuses to diminish in popularity. Pitched somewhere between a minimal techno record and a synth pop ditty, the record’s ever surging swells of synthy goodness carry the listener off to a higher a higher emotional plane. Or at least that’s what it feels like after a few beers on a hot day!
The video for the track is a pretty odd one. A middle aged female interpretive dance troupe sway in what looks like a large English house while Caribou happily chugs away in the background. It doesn’t make much sense, but it looks pretty cool.
Caribou are currently in the middle of a European. For more info and dates head to their MySpace.
For those not in the know Cerebral Ballzy are the hottest new punk/hardcore act straight outta New York! Fresh from the Warped Tour Stateside the boys from NYC are currently tearing up things on the UK side of the ocean with a string of dates including a couple of London Shows.
The free mixtape named ‘Cerebral Ballzy – The GripTape’ sees the band hook up with Mad Decent’s Mumdance and contains two exclusive remixes of CB’s songs as well as a plethora of other Cerebral Ballzy tracks and hardcore classics from the likes of Bad Brains & Minor Threat.
Tracklist:
01. – Cerebral Ballzy – SK8 All Day (Mumdance Remix)
02. – Jay Reatard – Death Is Forming
03. – Circle Jerks – Wild In The Streets
04. – Cerebral Ballzy – Insufficient Fare
05. – Minor Threat – Seeing Red
06. – Bad Brains – Sailin’ On
07. – Cerebral Ballzy – Don’t Tell Me What To Do
08. – Dead Boys – Sonic Reducer
09. – Black Flag – Nervous Breakdown
10. – Cerebral Ballzy – Anthem (Mumdance Guarachero Remix)
Cerebral Ballzy will play the following UK dates later this month, check their MySpace for details:
4 Aug – Nation Of Shopkeepers – Leeds
6 Aug – Boardmasters Festival – Newquay
7 Aug – Heavy Music Festival – Folkestone
8 Aug – Sexbeat Radfest – London
9 Aug – Hoxton Bar & Grill – London
Last weekend we headed down to Shoreditch Park for this year’s 1,2,3,4 Festival. As always the one day event attracted the cream of underground music, assembling a lineup that pulled in the fashion conscious masses of East London. Headlining this year’s event were Canadian hardcore punks F**ked Up who gave the day a suitably riotous finish. Lead singer Pink Eyes tore in to the crowd, delivering songs from within the mosh pit. It’s not everyday you can claim to see a band who are led by a large, semi naked man with blood dripping from his forehead. However it wasn’t only F**ked Up who stole the show, the day was full of standout performances spread across five arenas.
Highlights of ’1,2,3,4′ included a lively show from Sharks, who filled their small tent with many forced to peer in through gaps in the tent. Comanechi gave one of the strongest performances of the day, drawing a huge crowd to the Rough Trade tent. Dum Dum Girls provided the perfect soundtrack to a sun kissed afternoon, after S.C.U.M. showed that they still haven’t quite justified the hype the received earlier in their development.
Wavves held their own on the Main Stage after a car crash performance from Peter Hook who embarrassingly fist pumped his way through Joy Division’s ‘Unknown Pleasures’. After the much documented meltdown at Primavera, many thought Wavves’ Nathan Williams would give a repeat performance today. However, despite issues with the sound levels onstage, the band delivered a solid set of material largely taken from their latest album ‘King Of The Beach’.
The dance tent attracted it’s fair share of attention throughout the day with A1 Bassline, Drop The Lime and Toddla T all playing out to a packed tent. For more pictures of the event, click the link below.
Corey Taylor is the charming and tattooed all American front man of hard rock band Stone Sour. The band have their third studio album ‘Audio Secrecy’ scheduled for release later this year on September the 6th. Shazam caught up with lead singer Corey Taylor at London’s Hard Rock Cafe to chat about the new album, playing live and presenting the Kerrang Awards.
Your new album is called ‘Audio Secrecy’ are you really excited about its upcoming release?
I am really excited, I’m really proud of it so I’m excited for people to hear it. The people I’ve played it to so far have been blown away so I feed off of that – there is a part of you that records for yourself and also there is the entertainer in you that wants people to enjoy what you do.
I always start making records for me and if I’m happy with it then that’s all that matters; but eventually you get to the stage where you are like “does anyone want to be my friend and like my music?”
This is your 3rd studio album. How does this one differ or in what ways is it an extension of your previous work?
Well, I think the really cool thing is it’s a little bit of everything. The first Stone Sour album we made it for us, we didn’t know if anyone would dig it so we just put it out there. We discovered then that we had a really good fan base and so we pushed it further on ‘Come What(ever) May’ and we expanded on the first album – then it kinda blew up and we were like ‘holy s**t!’. So this time round we said screw it, lets just do everything we ever wanted to do; so we put together the best songs we could and really worked on them, hammered them down.
So listening back to the new album I think we have achieved a cohesive and layered sound and yet it has a good live feel to it. The performances are great, the music is great….the singer is s**t but hey, he is good looking so you gonna have to let him off!
Having said that, this feels like our time and it’s really exciting. We have been working a long time on this. Stone Sour is the first real band I was ever in. It was the band I left to join Slipknot and it just made sense to reform when it was time to do something else and we have never been afraid of hard work.
