Shazamers' Blog

Every year, DJ Fresh seems to smash out a track that distills the essence of the freedom of youth during a carefree summer, and then unleash it on an unsuspecting public who then have no choice but to tap toes and nod heads (or give in to temptation and spin around like whirling dervishes). Remember Louder? And Gold Dust? Well then.

The video for “The Feeling” was directed by Ian Ogilvie, and features a gorgeous group of twenty somethings generally hanging out, looking fabulous, and riding around Tokyo on tasty customised scooters known as Space Invaders. “I really wanted to go out to Tokyo and explore this subculture as it was something I’d heard about through a friend, Dan, at Bathing Ape, and it’s yet to be documented much outside of Japan,” Ogilvie said in an interview with Digital Spy. “‘The Feeling’ is about being out there doing what you enjoy with your friends, so I wanted to capture real people on these amazing, futuristic bikes cruising Tokyo’s neon streets. The video follows on from other works I’ve done looking into graffiti and other youth cultures in the UK.”

DJ Fresh first got into dance music in the early 1990s. “There were these kids in the top year of my school, and one guy who was always in trouble – the naughtiest dude in school – but for some reason we kind of got on,” he said in an interview with I Like Music. “He used to come and tell me about these raves that they used to sneak out of school and go to. He gave me a tape, which I listened to on this school music trip (we used to go on these trips just to get out of the school and buy cigarettes!), and I just listened to it on repeat over and over again for the whole night. I was totally blown away by it and I just wanted to make that myself.”

Fresh – who was awarded Best Producer at the Drum & Bass Awards this year and Best Dance Act at the Urban Awards – is currently prepping new album Nextlevelism, which is due out in October this year. The album features sizzling acts like Dizzee Rascal, Rita Ora, Professor Green, The Fray, Rizzle Kicks, and Ms Dynamite. Although some of Fresh’s old skool fans aren’t fans of his new direction, for him, there’s no end in sight for the popularity of drum and bass. “It feels like a well-kept secret,” he went on. “I’ve always wanted to change that in the sense of letting more and more people enjoy it without destroying what it is about it that makes it special. But it’s also rebellious. There’s something about being involved in drum and bass that makes you feel like you’re involved in some kind of revolution.”

The Feeling is out on Ministry of Sound recordings on 23 September 2012; new album Nextlevelism is out 1 October 2012.

Helia Tag Of The Day

Practise your power grabs and get signing into that hairbrush – it’s power ballad alert time. As if we didn’t know that Emeli Sande could warble with the best of them, she unleashes her enormous lungs on us with the piano-driven weepy number, ‘Read All About It Part 3′.

But Emeli needs to dry those tears – her recent performance at the Olympics opening and closing ceremonies has seen ‘Read All About It Part 3′ tip over one million views on Youtube. It’s also boosted sales of her debut album Our Version Of Events – and she’s currently the best selling artist of 2012, having skipped past Adele and her album 21. Our Version of Events has now sold nearly three quarters of a million copies since its release at the end of February.

Emeli’s performance at the opening ceremony was watched by over 20 million people in the UK alone, and her increased chart success post-Olympics was celebrated with a headline show at London’s Roundhouse in early September as part of this year’s iTunes Festival.

Scottish soul singer Emeli – whose real first name is Adele – grew up as part of a mixed-race family in a small village. ”People knew you in the village. But any surrounding place you’d go to, you became a spectacle. People would stare, and it felt like a big thing,” she told The Sunday Times. “We didn’t experience racism or bullying, or anything like that, but I was aware of my difference and it took me a long time to work out where I fitted in. I think I found a lot of my identity in music.”

Emeli started on the musical track after encouragement from her father, who ran the school choir. She had a promising career as a doctor, but gave it up for music – four years into a five year degree! But music was always her main calling. “I just love singing,” she said in an interview with allhiphop. “I love melody. That was really my first way of expressing myself. I was a really shy kid, so I think having a voice and having a loud voice when I was singing—the first thing I just loved about music was having that expression. After that, I guess it was writing. I loved poetry, and I loved creating something from nothing. I think that gives you a real power that kids don’t usually have. ”

“So, creating was another thing after singing,” she went on. “Then after that came the instruments. When I was about nine or ten, I began playing piano, clarinet, and cello. It came from there. I think as soon as I started learning an instrument, it gave me that backing so that you could sit and write the song, and you didn’t need to fill every gap. It allowed me to relax a bit more with the songwriting and really find a strong voice there.”

Catch Emeli Sande on tour:

Glasgow Clyde Auditorium – 6 November

Birmingham Symphony Hall – 8

London Royal Albert Hall – 11

Manchester Bridgewater Hall – 12

Helia Tag Of The Day

After years at the top of the dance music tree, it looks like this is it for Swedish House Mafia. The trio, comprising Axwell, Steve Angello and Sebastian Ingrosso, have recently announced that their forthcoming tour will be their last. It’s been quite a ride. After a career that has seen them become one of the biggest house acts on the planet, collaborating with artists like Usher, Tinie Tempah and Pharrell Williams and playing to massive crowds across the world, they’ve taken the unusual decision to call it a day.

“We just decided that we reached a point where we don’t know what the next move would be,” Angello recently told Rolling Stone. “We always like the challenge. And we don’t like to repeat ourselves. We just felt like it was time. We’re like brothers. We’re still here. It’s not like anybody has died. We’ve had beyond our dreams and we’ve come very, very far. We just felt like, ‘let’s stop touring.’”

If ‘Don’t You Worry Child’ is to be Swedish House Mafia’s swansong, at least they’re going out on a high. It’s the kind of wooshy, piano-led house tune that has seen them slaying enormodomes everywhere for the last few years. A series of big euphoric build up’s, an uplifting vocal from John Martin and the requisite four to the floor beats combine to impressive effect. Many glow sticks (the kids still use glow sticks right?) will be waved in the air to this tune on the band’s final tour.

On the strength of this track, there’s no reason Swedish House Mafia couldn’t stay on the road indefinitely, racking up some serious cash money in the process. It’s therefore pretty refreshing that they’ve taken the option to go out on top and quit the game while it all still means something.

“You’ve got to shake things up a bit and then do things differently for people to respect what you actually do,” said Angello. ‘I just don’t wanna see music become fast food.”

Huw Thomas Tag Of The Day

It’s often said that in the event of an all out nuclear war, the only living things left on the Earth would be cockroaches. To that short list, it’s probably fair to add Linkin Park. Despite rap-rock being about as fashionable in the current music scene as Austro-French accordion jazz, the Park (as almost no one calls them) are still topping charts and shifting tons of records. In our as yet undefined Mad Max future, they would almost certainly be playing to huge crowds of roaches, most of whom would buy a six-armed t-shirt before skittering off to their subterranean homes.

This longevity surely has to be attributed to Linkin Park’s willingness to embrace new ideas. While they’re still operating on the ‘rap a bit, sing a bit’ template that has served them so well over the years, their sonic palette has broadened to take in more varied range of electronic sounds. MC Mike Shinoda even wrote an excellent score for bruising Malaysian martial arts film ‘The Raid’, which is clearly echoed in what he comes up with in his day job. Sure, there’s still a lot of angst, but at least it’s 21st century angst.

This forward thinking approach is even demonstrated in the band’s videos. The promo for ‘Lost in the Echo’ comes in an interactive Facebook version, which takes photos from users’ libraries and incorporates them into the action. Depending on your perspective, this is either wonderfully immersive or absolutely terrifying.

“The idea of the song and the video at its core, really, has to do with finding the issues or the baggage that is weighing you down and letting go of it,” the Shinoda told the O Music Awards. “So in the context of just that storyline — even if it wasn’t an interactive video — that would be really what it’s all about. The addition of the Facebook Connect part of it — I thought that really took things to another level. It really becomes personalized in that respect — when somebody connects their images and their own personal stories into the story of the song or the video.”

It’s an interesting idea and exactly the kind of thing that’s likely to keep Linkin Park relevant long after our new Cockroach Overlords take control of the blasted husk of Earth. You may as well get involved now.

Huw Thomas Tag Of The Day

Even if you haven’t heard of Miguel before, you’ve almost certainly heard some of his songs. As a songwriter, he’s worked with artists like Usher, Asher Roth and Musiq Soulchild, but he’s also found time to release his own stuff. Debut album ‘All I Want Is You’ caught the attention but never quite developed into a bona fide smash. He’s hoping new record ‘Kaleidoscope Dream’ will push him over the edge and ‘Adorn’ suggests that those hopes may well become a reality.

With hissing vinyl and gently skittering beats, the track is a smokily minimal beast. Sounding not unlike a 21st century update of Marvin Gaye’s ‘Sexual Healing’, it’s clearly destined to be the soundtrack to many a bedroom escapade. Miguel is clearly content to play the loverman, deploying his honeyed vocal chords with impressive restraint

Speaking about the forthcoming ‘Kaleidoscope Dream’ album, Miguel told Complex: “The first album was, ‘Hey, I’m talented’. This one is like, “Hey, this is me. Let’s sit down and have a conversation? You want a drink? I’m going to have a Jack and Coke. You’ll get the idea and what the f**k I’m really into. It’s the sound of my life. I’m glad you think that I’m a cool guy and a nice guy, but I want you to feel like you have a more rounded perspective of me as a person. I’m in a very comfortable place as a man. And as an artist I have a responsibility to myself and my fans to become more personal with them, so they know who they’re really f**king with and why. This album is more of a feeling album. The last one was a relationship album.”

You’ll be able to get in touch with Miguel’s feelings when the record drops in October, but ‘Adorn’ should tide you over in the meantime. Head here to download the track on iTunes.

Huw Thomas Tag Of The Day

The Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs track ’Household Goods’ is making a welcome return to the airwaves this month with huge new remixes from Zinc, Lil’ Silva, Enei and Mano Le Tough.

Orlando Higginbottom’s (yes, really) debut album as Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs was released in June this year, and was a glittering blend of house, minimal and banging yet quirky electro with some glorious vocals.
The music is made even bigger and better by Orlando’s spectacular live show, which featured him playing live while dressed in everything from dinosaur tails, huge head dresses and feathered wigs surrounded by girls dancing on stage. “It’s just something that I wanted to do,” he says about his live shows.

“I wanted to make it a fun electronic music show as a lot of electronic music can be presented in quite boring ways or particularly in ways that don’t really involve the audience very much. I just wanted to try it; it wasn’t really something with a big thought process behind it.” There’s also a very tasty Zed’s Dead remix swinging around the internet which you can catch here.

Although the album ‘Trouble’ may seem a bit on the underground side, that wasn’t completely the intention. “I can admit with a kind of mixture of shame and pride that with this album I often had radio at the back of my mind. Naturally because I’d been shown some interest it was something I pursued. It’s a funny place to put yourself because you start affecting the music,” says Orlando.

As for what’s coming up for Orlando? There are about a zillion tour dates which are taking him all around the world. Make sure to catch Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs, rump shaking on a stage near you!
TEED Fact: if you thought Orlando’s voice was verging on the angelic, then you’d be right – his father Professor Edward Higginbottom, conductor of the choir of New College at the University of Oxford.

Helia Tag Of The Day

The singer-songwriter oeuvre has become one of the most innovative spaces for new music in recent years. Gone are the days of whiny ballads sang from behind the safety of an acoustic guitar. The ballads are still around, but they’re given grittier lyrics and placed over pounding beats and bass, as in the case of British artist Alex Clare and his new single ‘Treading Water’.

Of course, having his debut album produced by Mike Spencer and Major Lazer was always bound to give him more of an edge over other artists in the same genre. Given the popularity of this kind of vocal driven post-dubstep, you’d have thought Alex Clare had been riding high on this wave.

In fact, his debut album entered the UK charts at number 156 and only sold 1,000 copies when it was released last year. He was dropped from his label, put his pop star dreams on hold and carried on his day job, working as an estate agent. When earlier this year, he received a call from Island Records, telling him that Microsoft wanted to use one of his songs in an advert.

If the penny hasn’t dropped yet, then yes, Alex Clare is the voice that sings over that huge drop and its ‘wub wubs’ on the Internet Explorer advert – one of the most tagged tunes of the year. If you’re interested, the song is called ‘Too Close’, produced by Diplo and Switch – it now has its very own video featuring two medieval knights duelling each other in modern urban surroundings. Of course.

Although Alex might not seem like a natural fit for the dance music genre, but he’s always been a party animal. “Oh man, I used to party hard, loved raves and warehouse parties, waking up in strange places and doing the walk of shame home, but I’m a lot more chilled these days,” he says in an interview with The Couch Sessions. “I think “Up All Night” really was written in hindsight, mashing together a load situations I’d been in. Being in New Orleans, it definitely brought out parts of me I’d forgotten about. Every now and then I’ll have a big old blow out, but to be honest, I love just chilling with my friends, going fishing and writing. That’ll do it.”

As for his plans for the future, Alex doesn’t want to pigeonhole himself. “I love making dance music, but to be honest, I make music for music’s sake, there’s no great plan to it,” he says. “I just find an impulse and run with it. Regardless of boundaries or genres, I’m just gonna keep making whatever gives me goose bumps, and hopefully people will keep feeling it.”

Helia Tag Of The Day

Even if you’ve never heard a note of Frank Ocean’s music, you’ve almost certainly heard his name. The Odd Future-affiliated singer caused internet uproar recently when, on the verge of releasing his hotly anticipated debut album ‘Channel Orange’, he went public that his first true love had been a man. While such a revelation might not be all that shocking in many sections of the pop firmament (remember the collective shrug that met Ricky Martin’s coming out?), for an artist in the sometimes less than enlightened world of hip hop, it was a pretty ballsy move.

“I won’t touch on risky, because that’s subjective,” he told The Guardian. “People are just afraid of things too much. Afraid of things that don’t necessarily merit fear. Me putting ‘Nostalgia’ out … what’s physically going to happen? Me saying what I said on my Tumblr last week? Sure, evil exists, extremism exists. Somebody could commit a hate crime and hurt me. But they could do the same just because I’m black. They could do the same just because I’m American. Do you just not go outside your house? Do you not drive your car because of the statistics? How else are you limiting your life for fear?”

All this makes Ocean potentially one of the most important R&B acts in recent memory, even before you press play on your stereo. Thankfully, he seems to have the talent to justify his already iconic status. ‘Pyramids’ is an audacious nine-minute R&B epic that flits restlessly through the stylistic playbook, shifting seamlessly from smoky slow jam to synth fuelled club bounce and back again.

It’s fair to say that there aren’t many other names in the game even trying to reach the heights Ocean seems to hit so effortlessly. The closest comparisons you could make are Prince and Stevie Wonder in their collective heydays, not because ‘Pyramids’ really sounds like either of them, but because it is so clearly trying to do something big, ambitious and truly different. Gay, straight, bi, whatever; the music is what truly matters and ‘Pyramids’ delivers in spades.

Huw Thomas Tag Of The Day

It seems like No Doubt have been away for a pretty long time. Their last album ‘Rock Steady’ came out way back in 2001, since when singer Gwen Stefani has created her own clothing line, two solo albums and two children. But despite all her extra-curricular activities, the band never really went away. While they haven’t produced any new music apart from a cover of a Talk Talk’s ‘It’s My Life’ for their 2002 singles collection, the band kept on playing live, holding on to plans to make a new record when the time was right.

It looks like that time is now, with ‘Settle Down’ forming the first act in what they’re hoping will be a successful comeback with album ‘Push and Shove. According to the band, the records long genesis was a result of not wanting to rush things and only come back when the time was right.

“In 2008, Gwen was pregnant with Zuma, and we tried really hard to write,” guitarist Tom Dumont told Oyster. “We thought we were gonna write an album that year, and it just kinda wasn’t coming out. We weren’t coming up with stuff that was great, and so rather than keep trying, we turned around and decided to play. Playing live was always the thing that came most naturally to us, what we were naturally best at, and it really worked, so by the end of 2009, we had written the first song for this album, which was ‘Undercover’, and then, throughout the next year wrote the rest of the album and recorded it in 2011. So I mean, really, most of our albums have taken about that long. Not a ten year gap — as far as the actual writing and recording, it took about two years, which is pretty much on track for us.”

The release of ‘Settle Down’ is well timed to coincide with the belated arrival of summer. It’s a sparky party tune with a bouncy electro-calypso shuffle and some exotic Eastern flourishes that shows the band’s long absence hasn’t diminished their knack for a memorable hook. It’ll do nicely to tide fans over until the September release of ‘Push and Shove’.

Huw Thomas Tag Of The Day

Mumford and his sons may be having some down time, but as if to prove we’re far from done with that new-folk revival sound, Icelandic six-piece Of Monsters And Men have provided one of the biggest songs of the year so far with single ‘Little Talks’. It’s more on the romping edge of new-folk, with a glorious brass-driven chorus that will surely be getting heels lifting and skirts flinging around at barn dances across the globe.

The song is accompanied by a visually rich and pretty awesome video directed by Mihai Wilson of We Were Monkeys. It’s a swashbuckling fantasy, sprinkled with snowflakes, sorcery, and CGI.

There are, as well, the obligatory remixes to accompany and support the single. Ones to note are Passion Pit’s version (which gives the original a seriously minimal, electronic dancefloor edge with synth stabs and heavily arpeggiated rhythms. It’s a version that’s endorsed by Monsters and Men, as singer Nanna Bryndís Hilmarsdóttir told Rolling Stone: “We love it. It’s more clubby and it’s very cool. It’s a hard song to remix, too, because it has a certain structure. So I think they did a very good job.”

The band will be spending the rest of 2012 on the road, and are nothing but surprised by their fame. “When we were making this album we weren’t thinking about even going out of Iceland to tour or anything like that,” Hilmarsdóttir says. “It seemed like a very, very distant idea, and it is a distant idea for a young Icelandic band. We made this album with just little money and plans to raise money where we could. It wasn’t planned at all, but it happened and it’s very weird. But it’s wonderful.”

Although the band will be touring, they’ve already started working on their second album, says Hilmarsdóttir, will be influenced by their current success and spending time on the road. “I think traveling as much as we’ve been doing lately has been very good for us, because there are a lot of ideas coming. It’s a combination of all of it – going around and meeting different people and seeing buildings and landscapes and all this stuff. It does something to you and makes you think in a different way.”

Helia Tag Of The Day