Got it covered

Nothing new here, just new to me; both tracks actually date back to 2014.  Well, really they're one track, the original song by East India Youth, and the cover by Hannah Peel, which I heard on the radio today.  I've got a lot going on right now and found the Hannah Peel version very soothing, which made me want to hear the original and do a post on both.  I've been meaning to check out East India Youth so coming across this has been a nice reminder.  To confuse matters a little Hannah Peel herself has two versions of this song, one a slightly simpler live rendition.  I'll post all below and you decide for yourself what you like!  I think I like Peel's delicate live version best.





I like this version; don't let the video put you off, even though it looks like she's playing in an East London shed on a home-made music box -- trust me, my hipster radar went beserk too.

Sounds of the Arabz - part 1 - DAM and Narcy

So I'm coming across a lot of contemporary Arabic music. I've been a fan of Arabic music for a while, probably because of my days in Michigan. As some know I am a HUGE fan of Yasmin Hamdan. But I've been discovering other stuff too, so here's part 1 showcasing other Arab artists, this one with some Arab hip hop:

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DAM is Palestine's first hip-hop group. I first heard of them about 10 years ago in college, when they were featured in the Sundance documentary Slingshot Hip Hop (the director is a friend). A few years later I saw them perform twice in NY and they were terrific.

Here's my favourite track from their first album Ihdaa' (Dedication), "Mali Huriye" (I Don't Have Freedom):



DAM now have a female member and released a new single a few months ago, a feminist anthem, yeah! "Who You Are", has a quite inventive video directed by Palestinian director Scandar Copti. Here's a brief article about the band and video:
http://972mag.com/watch-palestinian-hip-hop-group-tackles-patriarchy-in-new-video/104898/





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Narcy is an Iraqi rapper by way of UAE and Montreal. He's got a new album out called World War Free. Its in English. Here's a short film called "Rise" to help promote, directed by Gulf director Ali F. Mostafa - to me its mostly flashy visuals but I like the part with the kids, that was cute and unexpected:




The other thing I liked about the video was the song "Epiphany". I'm not really a fan of Narcy's sound but I like this track:



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Lots more coming soon featuring other artists of Arab origin. But seriously though - where are my desi artists at?!

odd past

Not as impressive as I first thought

I'm in the midst of listening to a profound mix by Squarepusher.  I'm about halfway through and a distinct theme has emerged, a theme so specific that it's given me new appreciation for the art of DJing and the selector in particular.  The sheer musical research and knowledge that Squarepusher must have is quite amazing.  What's the big deal? you're probably wondering.  Well this mix focuses on a very specific genre of music.  You could call it early rap, but that wouldn't be specific enough.  You could call it early UK rap, but that still wouldn't be specific enough.  You'd have to go with early UK rap with a positive message and then you'd pretty much get there.  Every record so far is an amalgam of sampled beats, housey sounds, and strangely positive rapping!  Topics range from racial unity to standing up to the police to putting down drugs.  It's just so... strange!  Who on earth knew there were so many early UK rap songs that focused on these topics?  And who has access to them all, now, 25 or so years later?!  Squarepusher, that's who, and I must salute him.  Oh balls.  I just looked at the FACT mag page where this mix is hosted and realised that all the tracks are either by Shut Up and Dance or the Ragga Twins.  So basically he could have a couple of best ofs and that'd be that.  Oh well.  

Oh FFS!

I heard this track on this radio a few days ago and I wasn't sure if I'd like it on a second or third listen, but I do!  In fact it's grown on me every time I've heard it again.  At first I thought FFS were just some new band, but now I know that FFS is a collaboration between Franz Ferdinand and Sparks (you can read more about that here).  So, below is the new single Johnny Delusional, as well as some Franz Ferdinand tracks because, well, why not?

You can't go back

It seems like a host of 90's music acts are making a comeback this year . First there was Blur, then Ride, now the Chemical Brothers and Leftfield are getting in on the act.  To be fair, the latter two aren't reunions like the first two, but it's still been a while.  See what you think of their latest efforts below.  I wonder if these acts take a look at their popularity on social media sites and decide to have another go?  It would make a lot of sense for Ride to say something like "Oi, we've got 125,000 fans on our unofficial facebook page!  Time to get back together!"

Jamie XX and EBTG

As we've mentioned on the blog before, Jamie XX of The xx has been doing his own work outside of the band. He's remixed the likes of Adele, Gil Scott-Heron, and more, and has become a very good and popular DJ. He's released some of his own solo tracks before and now he's putting out his debut solo album next month, called 'In Colour'.

The first single is 'Loud Places'. I LOVE this tune. Its been on repeat all week. I also quite like the video, especially the cinematography towards the end. Here's what Jamie and Romy had to say about the video via The xx facebook page:
"Romy and I grew up skateboarding together, when I was thinking of what the video for Loud Places should be, I kept coming back to the idea of Romy and I skating in London, visiting the places we used to go to. It’s a part of our friendship not many people really know about and it’s something I wanted to share.” Jamie
"When Jamie asked me If I was up for skateboarding in the video, I wont lie I did hesitate, it’s been a few years since I was properly into it, but skateboarding was such a big part of Jamie and I’s friendship when we were growing up. We would literally spend every weekend from early in the morning till late at night, skating and exploring the streets of London. I guess it gave us an escape and a sense of freedom, which we later found from making music." Romy 

Here's the tune and video, oh do enjoy!

'Loud Places' has a terrific sample from 'Tracey In My Room' by Everything But the Girl, a group I fell in love with a couple years ago. Tracey Thorn responded to my tweet about the sample, have a look! https://twitter.com/tracey_thorn/status/596206757782953987
She corrected me and reminded me that 'Tracey In My Room' was actually a mash-up of EBTG's 'Wrong' with Soul Vision. Here's the wonderful mash-up :-D

AND here's the original version of 'Wrong' - its definitely more of a melancholy tune, but still quite good of course. Todd Terry also did a version. Here's the original though:

Ok now back to Jamie. There's a nice interview with him in Fader about his new album, and gasp, in one photo he's not wearing black, which is what The xx are known for. Here's a nice quote, and it expresses how I also feel about dance music:
"I don't think dance music is important in the big scheme of things to a lot of people. But it's important to me because it just makes me happy. There's not that many things that make me happy. I mean, that's why it's important to a lot of people. It can be something that you listen to on your own if you want, but really it's something designed to make people happy, even if it's a sad song. The act of dancing is a happy thing to do."

I'm not sure how I got word about his new album, maybe it was through browsing The xx facebook page. I also found out about his tour, and of course his NY gig was already sold out. But guess who got tickets today!! Hell yeah! I am so excited!! Here's a set from Jamie that's quite nice, I wanna download this set, unfortunately not allowed to embed the video but make sure to have a listen! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9YNkAUtwMB4


Yay. And happy birthday to my nephew Yusuf, who turned one year old today mashAllah :-D

Getty Funk

I heard a song today that caught my attention.  It's by the Belgian band Balthazar, who I don't know a whole lot about except that they're not particularly new, just new to me.  I like the laid-back but funky sound on the two tracks I'm posting.  I thought I was on to a good thing, but not all their stuff is as great.
New:

Old:


I also like the new Ghostpoet single, which showcases his "rock" sound a bit more.  I'm not really qualified to judge musicianship, but his band sound just OK to me;  I wonder what he'd sound like if backed up by a really great band, like Radiohead say.  They could really up the sonic experimentation behind his lyrics and increase the weirdness level.  As it is this song sounds good but the backing doesn't provide any surprises.


Have to keep it brief now, as I've go to go pick my kid up from daycare.  I came across this via Vice and then heard it on the radio on the same day.  William Onyeabor is a Nigerian musician from the 70's who I must hear more of!


A Dauwd mix at XLR8R led me to this remix of his, which is, as usual, great, though quite subtle (so's the mix by the way.  Great I mine, not necessarily subtle... I can't remember if it's subtle or not, but it is great.  Probably.  I heard it a few weeks ago!):


And finally, thanks to the wonders of Soundcloud's algorithm, that Dauwd track led me to this John Talabot one; I remember checking Talabot's album out a couple of years ago, cos it was topping some end-of-year lists, but I wasn't that into it.  I like this though:


Phew!  Hope that's enough funkiness for ya!