It May Never End

I've just discovered this album by It May Never End called Such is Life and I'm really, really enjoying it. Have a listen and if you like it head on over here where you'll find links to download the album. Terrific stuff- I hope there's a follow up soon. This track is called To Fall Without Landing.

Daft Punk - Derezzed (from TRON: Legacy)

So...Embrace The Minimum

The new King Cannibal single So...Embrace The Minimum is out today. Just downloaded my copy from Amazon. It's DJ Magazine's Dubstep single of the month.

The title track has, IMHO, a bit of a house vibe to it- in parts it brings to mind Slam from their Headstates days. For Cannibal this is a pretty light, smooth tune with a very rich sound to it. It also makes me want to hop in the car and go cruise along the motorway at 2:00 am. No one does dark and scary quite like King Cannibal but So... coming on the heels of Virgo proves that there are more strings to his bow than just that.

Check out King Cannibal's MySpace page to have a listen to his tunes.

King Cannibal Strikes Again

First music I've bought in absolutely ages- King Cannibal's Virgo and Call Me Mr Cold Blooded.

On the Virgo single the title track is, by Cannibal's standards pretty light and, dare I say it, bouncy. Murder Us, the B-side, is darker and more menacing by contrast. I actually like the lighter tone of Virgo, not what I was expecting but it works well.

Call Me Mr Cold Blooded (and brilliant B-side A Hundred Eyes Closed) is in a similar vein to the classic Arigami Style- like a horror movie for your ears. I don't know what specific genre of drum and bass you'd file this stuff under but the best way I can think of describing it is as the electronic equivalent of really dark heavy metal, Ministry or Nine Inch Nails gone jungle.

Looking forward to the coming release- S0...Embrace The Minimum out on August 16th.

Check out King Cannibal's MySpace page to have a listen to his tunes.

One last thing- someone should really hire this guy to score the soundtrack to a really scary horror movie, and make it twice as frightening.

Camille - Money Note

Another of my "albums of the moment" is French singer Camille's Music Hole. Here's the video to the song "Money Note". Quite frankly she seems a little bonkers.

School of Seven Bells

Another album discovered through Amazon's wonderful "Recommended For You" list. School of Seven Bell's album Alpinisms is an absolute delight with great music backing up the beautiful voices of the twin sister vocalists. This tune, Conjurr, is one of my favourites on the album. I'm eagerly looking forward to further releases from the group. Buy the album here.

Hexstatic

A super awesome tune and video from Ninja Tune's Hexstatic. Complete with some of the most, uh, striking looking ninjas you'll ever see.

Carnies

Here's the video for the Martina Topley Bird single Carnies. It's taken from the album Blue God. Currently one of my "most listened to". Her first album Quixotic is another must have- it features David Holmes (you know him from the soundtracks to the Oceans movies), David Arnold (who now does the soundtracks to the Bond movies) and, of course, Tricky. She provided the female vocal on his first, and best, album Maxinquaye.

The Joy of New Music

For me the height of musical invention occurred around the mid-nineties. The period had everything- Mudhoney, Nirvana, Primal Scream, a bit of Ministry and NIN, Leftfield, Orbital, Aphex Twin, Massive Attack, the entire output of the Ninja Tune label at the time, Tom Waits, My Bloody Valentine, Tricky. I could go on and on. I started out with stuff like The Stone Roses, moved into the whole grunge and alternative thing, then developed a taste for electronic music. Apart from the occasional need to listen to the likes of Leftfield's remix of Renegade Soundwave really loud I tend to stick to the more chilled out side of the musical world. I really do like my ambient tunes.

Anyway, since then my musical tastes haven't really changed- but I still hunger for new music, indeed, I go through short bursts of an insatiable craving for new sounds to listen to. I'm about halfway through one right now. My latest acquisitions include Stars of the Lid (Avec Laudanum is particularly blissful), the awesomely fantastic Sigur Ros (með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust is a perfect album), Susumu Yokota's Sakura, Snow Patrol's A Hundred Million Miles (not quite as good as the last album but it's growing on me), Red Snapper's Pale Blue Dot, Martina Topley-Bird's latest The Blue God (she really should be more famous), Helios and the brilliant Caesura, Blockhead's Music by Cavelight, Mogwai's The Hawk Is Howling and the trance album Are You Shpongled?

By and large, pretty chilled out stuff- and I can't believe how lucky I am to have discovered so much lately that I really, really like. Thank heavens for Amazon's recommended lists. They are a fantastic way to find new artists. Anyway, drum and bass was a music style that I only partially got into- Goldie's Timeless was pretty popular among my crowd back in the day- and I really liked T-Power's Self Evident Truth of an Intuitive Mind and Photek's Form and Function. Apart from that though, it sort of passed me by. Until now- checking out the much changed Ninja Tune I happened upon King Cannibal and the staggering Aragami Style single. It's brutal, the muscial version of a horror movie. Even if you're into something like heavy metal or hard rock and have no interest in electronic music, I suggest you check it out. Tracks like this don't come along too often. Now all I have to do is negotiate an unknown genre and see if there's more like this out there.

Here's another of King Cannibal's tunes- Badman After Dark. It doesn't have the visceral impact of Aragami Style- it's the aural equivalent of being hit in the face by a sledgehammer- but the dense, dark sound and ominous tones seem to be part of this guy's style. Here's hoping he brings out an album of tunes like these.

UPDATE - Check out King Cannibal's MySpace page- along with a few other tracks to listen to.

Radiohead

The new Radiohead music video- House of Cards- is something of a first: it's been "filmed" without cameras but instead with a 3D laser mapping technique. You can see a "making of" video here. Interesting technique and the result suits the song.

Obama Pushes Scarlett

Obama really has stolen the mantle of Flip-flopper from John Kerry. NAFTA, Iran, FISA, Public Financing, Rev. Wright, his church, Jim Johnson, Jerusalem- the list goes on. Whenever the political winds blow in the opposite direction, Obama throws previously held positions under the bus.

Now, to add to it all, there's Scarlett Johansson. Once upon a time the pair shared emails but now Barack's cruelly thrown her under the bus too- claiming that the pair didn't correspond at all but that she was only in contact with one of his staff. Yeah, right, Michelle might buy that, but we know better. I wondered why after all this time Ms. Johansson deserved the bus-treatment and I think I've discovered the reason- Barack's heard her single and realised that he has to put as much distance between himself and her as possible. Fast.

I hesitate to inflict this on you but here is the evidence in question- her "song" (I use the term loosely) Falling Down.

Friday Music

This is off an album called Illinois by a chap called Sufjan Stevens. It was in my Amazon recommended list and I took a chance and got it. I'm glad I did because it's a superb album. This track is called Decatur.

Monday Music

From a French band called Dionysos is this great song Tais Toi Mon Coeur along with a wonderful Tim Burton-esque video. Big hat tip to Steampunk blog Brass Goggles.

Amiina

The very wonderful amiina perform their song Seoul. The album Kurr is exceptionally good too.

Snow Patrol

Here's the music video for Snow Patrol - Set Fire To The Third Bar featuring Martha Wainwright. In my opinion Snow Patrol are by far the best of the current crop of British bands.

Rap Is Over

At last-

after 30 years of growing popularity, rap music is now struggling with an alarming sales decline and growing criticism from within about the culture's negative effect on society.

Rap insider Chuck Creekmur, who runs the leading Web site Allhiphop.com, says he got a message from a friend recently "asking me to hook her up with some Red Hot Chili Peppers because she said she's through with rap. A lot of people are sick of rap ... the negativity is just over the top now."

The rapper Nas, considered one of the greats, challenged the condition of the art form when he titled his latest album "Hip-Hop is Dead." It's at least ailing, according to recent statistics: Though music sales are down overall, rap sales slid a whopping 21 percent from 2005 to 2006, and for the first time in 12 years no rap album was among the top 10 sellers of the year.

Rap's day is long past- it's time for something new. I've never been a huge fan of rap, preferring trip hop over hip hop, but enough is enough- everyone's ready for a new sound to come along. I'm not convinced that it has anything to do with rap's violent, misogynist lyrics- it's just time for a new music form to come along. Just look at the current crop of British music acts- retro rock music. Even the techno I hear today isn't significantly different from the tunes I was listening to back in the mid-nineties. How exciting would it be for an entirely new sound to come along now to replace the tired old rock/rap/techno songs that fill the airwaves today?

And note to the obligatory America-bashing at the end of the article-

Yet Banner says there's a reason why acts like KRS-One and Public Enemy don't sell anymore. He recalled that even his own fans rebuffed positive songs he made -- like "Cadillac on 22s," about staying away from street life -- in favor of songs like "Like a Pimp."

"The American public had an opportunity to pick what they wanted from David Banner," he says. "I wish America would just be honest. America is sick. ... America loves violence and sex."

Yeah, America's to blame for your music output.

Andy McKee - Drifting

This guy- Andy McKee- is just incredible- beautiful music. Be sure to check him out.

Best Song of the Past Two Decades

Another list. Well, this one is actually not too bad- my main complaint is the inclusion of songs from 2006. They might seem good and catchy now but is that going to hold in a year or even five? And to be perfectly honest, I've never even heard the Arctic Monkey's I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor (update- I checked it out on YouTube and I'm completely underwhelmed- not a good selection). I can't even begin to think of individual tracks from the past two decades so there's not a whole lot to argue with right now. Good to see Unfinished Sympathy up there though. Of the whole lost there are only a few songs I don't like at all- Oasis and Eminem. And Bittersweet Symphony isn't even close to Verve's best work- they did that before being forced to add "The" to their name in my opinion. And Brimful of Asha is an odd one- catchy, yes, but only because of Norman Cook's remix- and it's not close to his best work either. I'd swap that one for Praise You, Weapon of Choice or I See You Baby.

And where's Radiohead? They routinely pop up on best album lists- and yet not a single track is listed here. Creep or No Surprises could easily slot into, say, the number six slot.

Here it is-

1. "Smells Like Teen Spirit" Nirvana, 1991

2. "Hey Ya!" OutKast, 2003

3. "Sweet Child O' Mine" Guns N' Roses, 1987

4. "Unfinished Symphony" Massive Attack, 1991

5. "One" U2, 1991

6. "Live Forever" Oasis, 1994

7. "Bitter Sweet Symphony" The Verve, 1997

8. "Common People" Pulp, 1995

9. "There She Goes" The LA's, 1990

10. "7 Nation Army" The White Stripes, 2003

11. "Song 2" Blur, 1997

12. "Crazy" Gnarls Barkley, 2006

13. "Angels" Robbie Williams, 1997

14. " … Baby One More Time" Britney Spears, 1999

15. "Personal Jesus" Depeche Mode, 1990

16. "Like A Prayer" Madonna, 1989

17. "Firestarter" The Prodigy, 1997

18. "Brimful of Asha" Cornershop, 1997

19. "Stan" Eminem, 2000

20. "I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor" Arctic Monkeys, 2006

What's That Noise?

I always wondered as I got older what it would be like to lose touch with what's happening in the music scene. I was prepared to not be a John Peel, who promoted some cutting edge music until his untimely death; frankly, even when I listened to his show as a teenager I could tell that I was several steps back from truly cutting edge. To my young ears Napalm Death was just noise, although now and then I could see the appeal. Anyway, over the past couple of years, since I hit thirty I think, I've noticed myself going back to the music I liked in my early twenties and late teens- a lot of material from the Ninja Tune label for example or ambient music by the likes of Biosphere. I still get a big kick out of discovering a band or artist I've never heard before. I guess the most recent example of that would be Smog.

Anyway, I was browsing late last night and it hit me square in the face like a punch from Ivan Drago- I'm old and new music fads are beyond me. Way, far beyond me. So far gone that they've got red shift. And, surprisingly, it doesn't bother me. I'm quite happy to live in a world where 15-stone lesbian activists who shout punk rock are not considered to be "rock goddesses" or the "coolest person in rock".

Have times really changed so much?

Anyway, in honour of my getting to the "what's that terrible noise?" stage here's a soothing little tune by Smog, I Feel Like The Mother Of The World.

Dance Moves

Looking for a quirky dance? A new aerobics workout? Then check this out- but the lyrics to the song (by a band called Le Tigre) are NSFW . Found here- goodness knows how I found it though, it's been sitting in my Bookmarks for a while now.