This week saw the sad news that soul legend Teddy Pendergrass passed away. After first rising to fame with Howard Melvin and The Blue Notes, Teddy went on to score seminal solo hits on the soul and disco scene and became one of the leading exponents of the Philadelphia soul sound. Boasting one of the most emotive and passionate voices of his generation, tracks such as ‘Love TKO’, ‘If You Don’t Know Me By Now’ and ‘You Can’t Hide From Yourself’ remain amongst the finest soul tracks ever recorded. Despite being badly injured in a car crash in the early ’80’s, Teddy continued to be heavily involved in charity work raising money for those who had experienced spinal injuries. Here’s saluting a genuine musical icon and a true gentleman.
The pairing of DJ Hell, one of the pioneers of Berlin’s electronic scene and a genuine dance music icon, and ex Roxy Music frontman Bryan Ferry may well be an unlikely pairing, but it appears to have produced a pretty spectacular musical offering in the shape of ‘U Can Dance’. An interpretation of an unreleased Bryan Ferrysong, ‘U Can Dance’ reflects a perfect melding of two distinct musical personalities.
Hell has been riding high on the success of ‘Teufelswer’, his highly rated double album that’s delivered some fruitful sonic experiments, club bombs and even some moments of controversy after allegations of plagiarism followed a recent collaboration with P Diddy. Ferry, meanwhile, has been as busy as ever—recording a new album, performing in places as far afield as Siberia, opening up the Cannes Film Festival…basically just being Bryan Ferry.
Ferry may seem like an unexpected fan of dance, but he’s been going to clubs since he was a teenager, and in his lengthy career he’s worked with legends such as Nile Rodgers of Chic and David Williams from Michael Jackson’s band. As he said in a recent interview, “It’s always a pleasure to work with people from that genre, who follow a singular groove.”
Added to the spectacular original, remixes come from the irrepressible Detroit legend Carl Craig, London electro boffins Simian Mobile Disco and left of centre New Yorker Tim Goldsworthy. Already causing a great deal of interest from both fans of electronic music and cerebral pop music, ‘U Can Dance’ is sure to be frequently popping up in playlists of those in the know over the next coming months.
‘Little Freak’ is the third taster to surface from Usher’s forthcoming album, ‘Raymond Vs. Raymond’. Recent singles ‘Papers’ and ‘Hey Daddy’ both had a more risqué flavour than any of Usher’s previous work, signalling a slight change of direction for the R&B singer on his latest work. Carrying on with this trend Usher has recruited Nicki Minaj to co-star on his latest single – probably the most outrageous female rapper of the moment.
Produced by über beat-smith Polow Da Don; ‘Little Freak’ has a distinct Atlanta flavour thanks to a heavy half step, cheeky Stevie Wonder sample and a speaker rattling bottom end. The highlight of the track comes in the shape of Minaj’s rapid fire verse which perfectly displays why UK Hip Hop legend Tim Westwood has been bombarding Twitter with messages such as, “Minaj has got the buzz right now!”
There’s no doubt that Sub Focus has been running the Drum & Bass game for the past few years. Tracks such as ‘X Ray’ and ‘Timewarp’ were met with almost equal enthusiasm from underground D&B fans as they were by fans of Zane Lowe’s indie-tastic new music show on Radio 1. Added to that, his DJ sets for the critically acclaimed Ram night at London’s Matter night club have been some of the most talked about events in the club’s history; while his debut artist album has been held up as one of last year’s best examples of bass music from tastemakers the world over. While Sub Focus’ previous singles have always been underpinned with a least a smattering of 174bpm break beat, his latest track ‘Could This Be Real’ is the artist’s first dalliance into pop/dance territory – and the results are surprisingly good. Pitching up like a more credible version of an electro house record, ‘Could This Be Real’ combines the gritty sub bass heavy bassline of a Dubstep track and combines it with a twinkling Italo-House piano line. The record has been a constant feature in Shazam’s Pre-Release chart for some weeks and is likely to do well when the single is release next week in the UK Charts.
Fans of Sub Focus should click here to download his track ‘Smooth’ for absolutely nothing!
For good or ill, reality TV has dominated our screens for the past decade. Whether you were hooked on Big Brother, American Idol, The Apprentice or even Who Wants To Marry My Dad?; chances are you would have been sucked into at least one reality TV show during the past 10 years.
With X Factor’s latest single failing to go straight to number one this year and Celebrity Big Brother entering its final series in the UK, it could easily be argued that the best days of reality TV are in the past. However, reality TV shows are still probably the quickest way to give a shot in the arm to the career of an ailing celebrity- the latest of which appears to be R&B crooner Sisqó who entered the Celebrity Big Brother house this week. His 1999 hit ‘Thong Song’ is currently the 88th most downloaded track in the UK iTunes – and that’s only after five days in the house!
Who knows, if Sisqó can deliver anything to compare to Peter Andre’s post reality TV opus, ‘Insania’, Sisqo could be heading back up the charts quicker than you can say “I’ve come on here to show people the real me.”
Understandably after the onslaught of Christmas and New Year, things are moving slightly slower in Shazam HQ. One thing that has helped shake off the winter blues is Aeroplane’s glorious remix of Lindstrøm & Christabelle’s ‘Baby Can’t Stop’. The Belgian duo offers a typically stripped back cosmic rework of the song. Its spectral opening takes Christabelle’s vocal and pairs it with an irresistible bass line. The track has been a key feature of the pair’s recent DJ sets and is certain to remain in their rotation for the rest of the year.
Its end of the year review time and Memory Tapes is one of the newcomers likely to be among those featured in the most influential blogs and websites best-ofs.
The uber-indie project of New Jersey musician and producer Dayve Hawk, who’s been playing with his name -Weird Tapes and Memory Cassette are also monikers he’s released material under – and building up the myth around his mysterious persona through a series of limited edition singles; finally unveiled his first full-length ‘Seek Magic’ to critical acclaim.
His blend of lush, atmospheric shoegaze; hazy psychedelia and DIY electronica, shaped into lovely dream-pop pills, has also turned him into an on-demand remixer (putting a bit of magic in recent works by a wide range of up and coming bands –Yeasayer, Fool’s Gold, Midnight Juggernauts, Major Lazer- and more mainstream stars such as Britney Spears, Phoenix and Gucci Mane. He was even approached to contribute in a future Michael Jackson remix album; followed by rumours of the actual work been rejected.
To coincide with his UK live debut, Memory Tapes is releasing a new single, ‘Graphics’, through Something In Construction on January 18th. You can listen to the track at his MySpace page.
UK Tour dates (more to be confirmed):
Jan 16: The Corner, Manchester
Jan 20: Luminaire, London (Support from Pantha Du Prince and Fitness Club Fiasco)
To get us in the mood for their forthcoming debut album ‘Tons Of Friends’, Italian duo Crookers are giving away a download of the album’s opening track. ‘We Love Animals’ sees the pair collaborate with Brazilian producer Mixhell and the kings of ear bleeding electro, Soulwax. As to be expected, the track is an absolute stormer and one that’s sure to set the tone for the rest of ‘Tons Of Friends’. The album’s title is no exaggeration as it boasts a stellar list of collaborators including Róisín Murphy, Kelis and Major Lazer to name just a few.
To download the track and enjoy a taste of what is sure to be one of the rowdiest dance albums of 2010 simply head to the Crookers website.
Hot Chip’s quirky brand of synth pop has seen them develop into one of Britain’s most in demand acts in the last 5 years. Their latest single ‘One Life Stand’ is the first to be taken from Hot Chip’s new album and is one of their most accomplished singles ever – no mean feat when you consider that the group’s previous hits ‘Over And Over’ and ‘Ready For The Floor’ have been cropping up in many ‘Track Of The Decade’ lists in the past few weeks.
Taking its cues from oddball DFA style disco, ‘One Life Stand’ mixes a throbbing techno bassline with distorted falsetto vocals and a smattering of calypso steel drums and is probably the group’s most ambitious work. This introduction of some new musical flavours to the Hot Chip mixing pot probably has a little to do with the group’s extracurricular activities: namely the burgeoning DJ careers of several of Hot Chip’s members and the solo electronic work of Hot Chip’s keyboardist Joe Goddard.
And if ‘One Life Stand’ wasn’t enough to get you in the Hot Chip mood, the group have also released the track listings for their new album which is due for release Feb 8th on Parlophone.
One Life Stand Tracklisting
01 Thieves in the Night
02 Hand Me Down Your Love
03 I Feel Better
04 One Life Stand
05 Brothers
06 Slush
07 Alley Cats
08 We Have Love
09 Keep Quiet
10 Take It In
