Surfing on sine waves... or floating on soundclouds

Been hearing a lot of good stuff via Soundcloud recently so what better than to share it via this blog.  I'll keep 'em brief.

I came across Aurora Halal via a random visit to Resident Advisor.  I thought she was more of a party organiser and video artist, but then I came across her SC page and found myself getting into the techno tracks she's got up:



Lee Bannon I came across via the Vice journalist Clive Martin on Twitter -- I'm always intrigued when someone mentions jungle so I followed through from his link to Vogue (!) and liked what I heard -- good jungle sounds without much of a retro twist.  The track below is his latest effort and has shades of Aphex to it, at least before the main beat kicks in:

I'm liking his spooky Neneh Cherry remix too:


The Guardian has a preview of Cooly G's new album up, and I've managed to hack it and post it below!  No idea how long it'll work though.  I wasn't prepared to like this cos I heard a mix by Cooly G recently that I didn't like very much, but I'm liking this album.  I like the genre I'm starting to think of as digital-soul -- like Aaliyah but made by a wide range of artists today; I'd put the Neneh Cherry remix above into this category too.  The Guardian compares the new Cooly G stuff to FKA Twigs; I have to say I prefer Cooly G:


Lastly, Gorgon City, who I heard on Later with Jools Holland yesterday.  Poppy-dancey-housey music that seems to be well respected from what I can glean from their SC page (sets from Rinse FM and NTS radio are up there).  I heard them and thought "GTI music".  What's GTI music?  GTI music is music that'll sound good coming out of the speakers in my imaginary new VW Golf GTI.  All of these artists could probably go into that category, but these guys the most.  Quite like the chunky bassline they're putting in their tracks, but could it get too gimmicky after a while?  There's an album sampler up below; check out 'Ready for Your Love' and 'Real':

Electric Dreams while handbrake skidding

I was listening to a Mike Skinner podcast the other day and suddenly had a mid-80's flashback. Was it? Could it be? Yes! He'd put on an extended version of "Together in Electric Dreams" by Phil Oakey and Giorgio Moroder! The last time I heard that song was in my cousin's car in Harlow, probably shortly before/after getting a hard slap on the thigh while in the passenger seat on the way to Muslim sunday school. For a few weeks there we'd hear it every time he gave us a lift, and something about the sadness of the song stood out even back then when I was but a wee fat lad dreading the mullana's cane. The cousin (actually cousin's cousin, an angry and terrifying teenager when I was under ten) had it on cassette and we probably heard it in his mum's VW polo with a cool cassette case carrier thing sliding around on the passenger floor (I always wanted one of those). I'm sticking in a link to the song as I only ever heard it, never saw the video until earlier today. You can see a vid of the extended version here -- check out Phil Oakey's hair! He didn't look like that in the Human League. It was nice to hear this song again and be reminded of those Epping-Harlow trips; in my mind Feraz is in the back seat, the weather is nice, and it's after sunday school, so there's no caning to be afraid of. Good times!

[Just a note: I'm pretty sure this was the first Human League-related song I ever heard, and I never did get round to seeing 'Electric Dreams' the film.]

[Note two: Imeem was being weird so I changed to a Youtube link:]