Video Games

Quite a few remixes of Lana Del Ray's Video Games out there it seems, but these three are the best ones in my view:



  To Kill A King - "Video Games" (Lana Del Rey cover) by To Kill A King

  Lana Del Rey - Video Games (Lockah Remix) by Lockah

Constant Gardening

Allo allo me ol' chinas.

Recently I have been enjoying some tunes that have been found through varioius adverts/soundtracks.

First up, Dicholo by Ayub Ogada, as featured in The Constant Gardener. I love the the chorus to this song, its pretty cheesey, but a nice start to any day.



Secondly, On My Radio by The Selecter, as featured in the recent John Lewis advert. Get your skank on. Nice little organ solo as well.



Finally, I thought I'd already posted this (apologies if I have), but here is the DFA remix of Paper Planes from the Slumdog Millionaire Soundtrack. Slightly unnecessary in length, but the bass is fun times...

Triangles

Check this act from Leeds (woop!), Alt - J or ∆:

  ∆ by alt-j

Haven't heard something as fresh and unique as this for a while.

The single launch for Bloodflood/Tessellate will be at The Victoria in Dalston on 6th October. A date for the diary.

T

Rising Sun

Have been listening to this on holiday in Greece.



And hanging out with fat cats...

Alberto Balsam

Just a quick one - check out a beautiful acoustic version of Aphex Twin's Albert Balsam by Robert Mitchell here

T

Phantogram

I like these two a lot-alot! In a weird kind of XX/Cardigans crossover awesomeness.

Bloody Hell The New Hud Mo EP is Nice

And you can stream the whole thing here:

Diss ting

Right, its been a wee while, and as i'm trying to write a 15,000 juicy beast of an essay i've been spending quality time listening to music... so a couple of beauts for ya.

(This first one is utterly tremendous and will need a little pumping).
Araab Muzik - AT2 2011


How we walk on the Moon -Young Edits
FAM007 A1 How We Walk on the Moon by Young Edits // Youth

The Weeknd - The Morning (ESTAW fix)

Owiny Sigoma Band

I have been enjoying this band for a while now. A group of musicians from London went to Nairobi to collaborate with some local Kenyan musicians. This is what became of it. Enjoy!

Pick and Mix

So here's a few tracks that have been doing the rounds on my ipod of late. Here goes.....

An indie track with a psychedelic edge - Black Hills by Gardens and Villa - 



A dark and brooding folk/indie track - Dustbowl III by Other Lives -

  Other Lives - Dustbowl III by tbdrecords

A quality stripped down remix of Radiohead's Little by Little -

  Little By Little Caribou RMX by Radiohead

Just in case this blog post was getting a bit too serious, an uplifting and catchy (if not particularly sophisticated) hiphop tune from Brooklyn based Blue Belt that has a Nina Simone sample that will stick in your head for days-

    Anymore (Mastered) by Blue Belt

There's a few remixes of Metronomy's The Bay out there, but this one is worth a listen -

  Metronomy - The Bay (The 2 Bears Remix) by The 2 Bears

And finally one from Parov Stelar's latest EP of dance-floor-jazz-swing-bangers -

  Parov Stelar - Paris Swing Box by etagenoir

T

Jai Paul

Just a quick one - whilst flicking over radio stations I stumbled across this tune which was being played, perhaps surprisingly, on Radio 1 and I immediately had to go and download it. I hope you feel the same

  Jai Paul - BTSTU (Edit) by Jai Paul 

Also worthy of note - Jai Paul's provisional driving license photo -

Moonbahton & Jack Penate

Just came across this courtesy of Mad Decent's Soundcloud round-up (No. 32)

Diggin' it lots:

Jack Penate - Tonight's Today (Ophex 'Julianna Barwick' Remix) by Ophex

Slow Motion

Greetings bloggites, my dissertation is done and dusted and I have many free times to share with you some tunes that got me through the last few months.

First up, I was introduced to this track by Panda Bear by my girlfriend, and I'm moderately obsessed by it. Its a lovely, spacey sort of track that suits the sunset period of any barbeque perfectly, aptly fitting that half hour in which food is being digested and alcohol and music are becoming the focal point of the evening.

Panda Bear: 'Slow Motion'

Next up, another tune courtesy of my girlfriend. I'm guessing the world is familiar with Friendly Fires, but they're news to me. This tune reminds me of old school, Parliament funk mixed with Chromeo and a dash of Metronomy near the end. If that sentence is not an perfect example of music blog name dropping I don't know what is.

Friendly Fires: 'On Board'

Finally, while I'm certain that most readers of this blog are familiar with To Kill a King, being somewhat affiliated with them in various ways, for those of you who are not, their recent cover of Maps is a rare example of a reworking that, in my opinion, improves and betters the original. I particularly like the harmonies in the backing vocals, and the piano part is reminiscent of Cinematic Orchestra's Ma Fleur. A class record, and a cute video shot by frontman Ralph Pelleymounter, of who Zane Lowe recently exclaimed "We've got ourselves a reader!". Take of that what you will.

To Kill a King: 'Maps'

Rolling in the deep remix...

Yo yo yo-

Has been far too long, but this remix by Jamie XX of Adele's tune, with a tasty little verse by Childish Gambino in the middle is super nice. I do love a good glockenspiel type thing..

Commoners and Kings

Here's a vid from an entertaining series of spoken word pieces I stumbled upon called Commoners and Kings. This guy, Jason O'Neil, is particularly good:

Getting there...

Okey Cokey Pig in a Pokey, I hear what Mr Tea is saying, time for some good old fashioned wordage to justify me tunes.

First up, Mos Def's The Ecstatic has been doing the rounds on my ipod for ages. It's not a groundbreaking album, but its got some interesting production and there are a couple of jumpy tunes that get the blood circulating even on the coldest of March mornings. I particularly like the guest appearance on this track by Slick Rick

Auditorium: Mos Def ft. Slick Rick

Second up, an old school classic that I first found on a bootlegged CD from Camden when I was but a fair bright eyed lad of 18. I'm a big fan of his similes, particularly the line "cold like a blizzard, on the mic I am a wizard, with the funky fresh rhymes coming out of my gizzard". Anyone who rhymes blizzard, wizard and gizzard in a tune has got my attention. If that wasn't enough, the sample is from Shaft. You may assume therefore that the tune also has a certain amount of rhythm that helps at stupid o-clock in the morning. You damn right...

Finally, this is from Youngblood Brass Band. The sousaphone player on this is phenomenal. His solo is just ridiculous, and for the technically minded among you contains some awesome multi-phonics that take more than just a little practice. For the slightly less technical minded, the sousaphone is a big, snake like brass instrument that is playing the bass in this track. Enjoy.

Resurgence

Sooooo my feeling is that the blog has somewhat maneuvered away from its primary purpose of spreading the word on tunes which give you that momentum on the trek to the tube/train/bus, that adrenaline before leaving the house for a night out or that deep sense of contentment when kicking back to enjoy a cold beer. Articles, videos and thoughts that spark the imagination are welcome supplements of course. 

To really make this blog a resource again I think we should endeavor to put a bit of meat on the bones for future links, bring out the reasons why you feel it worthy of mentioning, express to the forum, and to the world, your happiness/love/interest/confusion about a tune/link.

Here is my attempt to take it bring the blog back from the brink...

I picked up Burial's "Untrue" recently, which I first stuck on the ipod a couple weeks ago. I first went through the tunes whilst getting the tube back from work, having started to come down with a full on flu/cold thing which ended up taking me out for the subsequent 4-5 days.

Anyway, I was at that weird turning point - just before really being ill but with that growing sense of what was to come - and whilst standing up in a packed tube carriage, I stuck Untrue on, and the concoction of sensations almost made me feel high. Not necessarily good high, or bad even, just disconnected from reality. The music seemed to strangely reflect and build upon the hazy drifting sense of fatigue which comes with the onset of illness, and the frankly surreal sensation of being on a packed tube train at rush hour.

Or maybe it was just that the chap on the cover art looks like he's in need of the Lemsip sitting in front of him.



He makes all his tunes using just Sony's Sound Forge wav editor, which I think helps to give it that choppy, rough round the edges, almost not quite syncopated, sound.

Next up, a techno tune that manages to keep me entertained throughout the track, I like listening out for the subtleties as the tune evolves - decent pair of headphones permitting. It manages to be both catchy and energetic, whilst at the same time hypnotic



Lastly, a tune that has been sitting on my ipod that has grown on me of late, again, I like the way it unfolds slowly. Up your street it you like Fourtet



T

My favourite Beatles album is probably...the best of the Beatles..

He's back. That is all.

New Year, New (old) Tunes

Thought I'd share some of the stuff santa brought me.

From Four Tet's remixes album:

From an album I should have owned for at least 15 years longer than I have:

I also got a ukulele. This will be me by the end of the year....

Frozen notes

Happy new year!

I listened to this tune during the late afternoon train journey back from Norfolk, post Christmas hols. As I watched the frozen, bare flat fields pass by, and the winter scene slowly succumb to the creeping darkness of night, this tune's cold, ethereal quality seemed to match perfectly with the scene outside my window. The mood and the tone of the vocals reminded me very much of the choral music that can be heard on the radio (Radio 3 generally...) played over the festive period. Anyway, enjoy:



Talking of the radio, I very much enjoyed discovering Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata which caught my ear on Christmas eve. A very famous piece of course, and I'm sure for the classical bods amongst you this tune comes as no great revelation, but whilst I had heard snippits here and there (TV, film etc), it was only over Christmas that I listened to it properly, and in its entirety.

Again a fitting piece for the time of year I feel. I recommend listening to it from start to finish without doing anything else; don't read, don't cook, don't text, in fact, don't think, and afterwards, I promise you, you will feel calmed and revived.