A belated Goodbye to the Streets

Aah, yes, the Streets are no more. Other than a few remaining tour dates, Mike Skinner's musical project are all but done with. 'Computers & Blues' came and went, and it was a mixed affair, like most recent Streets albums. Having said that I think I prefer it to the last few albums; there are some thoughtful and melancholy tracks that are well put together, but perhaps it's the knowledge that that's it that is adding some poignancy for me. Still, I think Mike is one of the best at reproducing the garagey sound with the female vocals added for an extra touch of sweetness -- street music that's for more than dancing to. The last track on the album is 'Lock the Lock's and it's one of the standouts. Here's a video that uses various Streets video-art to make a video -- proving that not only is Mike a great musician, he's a pretty good visual artist too. There's talk of him doing video and soundtrack work in the future, I just hope I hear about it and get to check it out. Only one US tour date has been announced so far -- it's in New York, in August, which is also when my baby is due, so I don't think I'll be going to that...

mix by martyn

Martyn has become one of my favourites. I've written about him before. I love his album Great Lengths.

Listen to this mix by him, it's pretty good and fun. He also responded to my tweet which I thought was hilarious.

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matthew herbert

Fahad is annoyed I haven't done in a real post in a while. Before I used to bug him now he's bugging me.

So going back to the vault again. I discovered Matthew Herbert through listening to Gilles Peterson Worldwide back in college, which is how I also discovered Ame. I definitely need to go back to listening to online radio and playlists again at some point soon; it's a great way to discover music.

A lot of the music I like is genre-less - you can't fit it into one category. Though I definitely post up a lot of house and dubstep, I also put up stuff that isn't easily defined and that's probably my favourite kind of music. Matthew Herbert falls into that category. I really don't know how to describe his sound. But check it out, what do you think?

Here are my favourite songs of his:

This is "Moving Like A Train" from his 2006 album Scale. This is also one of my fave music videos, its extremely creative.



Here's "Movers and Shakers" from the same album:



You can check out more of Herbert's music and all sorts of stuff on his site.

Peace!

New solo Burial

Burial's got a new single out on Monday with three brand spanking new tracks on it: ‘Street Halo’, ‘NYC’ and ‘Stolen Dog’. Fact nicely provided the info and Soundcloud links to two of the tracks and I've been checking them out over the last two days. Neither are groundbreaking; they seem more like a continuation of the sound Burial developed over his first two albums. Definitely not a bad thing since I quite like that sound and there's something to be said for consistency. And even if they aren't radical departures they do show progression -- there's more depth to the tracks and 'Street Halo' in particular has a different mood than what I'm used to from Burial -- it's more aggressive and dancey. 'Stolen Dog' has more of "classic" Burial sound, with similar motifs (crackle, bass washes, bleeps, nonsensical lyrical snatches drenched in reverb) from his past work. Both tracks have a nice groove and good use of female vocals. Check 'em out for yourself:

Burial - Stolen Dog

Burial - Street Halo

You can check out a clip of the third track and order the 12 inch here.

couple of house tunes

I was gonna write about how I had to pass loads of annoying people wearing green today but then deleted what I wrote as I really don't wanna recall those unfortunate sights of sad white people acting like they're still in college.

Anyway here are some tunes I've been listening to, I know its been a long time since I posted anything. Enjoy.

burial + four tet + thom yorke

A triple collab on a two song 12 inch which is already sold out at Bleep.com. The tracks are up on youstube (see below) and I've only listened to each a couple of times so can't comment too forcefully. Overall nice and I'd be lying if I said I don't mind not nabbing that 12 inch. The Burial touch is clear in the beats and synth bass washes; Thom Yorke is easy enough to identify; and I think I hear Four Tet on the first track, "Ego", not sure where he comes in on the second, "Mirror", though. Not even sure how the tracks would be split between the two producers to be honest. Maybe they did one each? "Mirror" definitely has that melancholy Burial sound; "Ego" has a lot more going on, but retains that Burial space and mood between verses. I think I prefer soul-girl singing to Thom Yorke on dance tracks though.

"Ego"




"Mirror"