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Sorry for vanishing for so long there... Life took over for a while, not that I didn't have time to post, but I just got really frustrated feeling like I wasn't really finding any good new stuff to listen to.



Well, now that's changed, thanks mainly to the guys over at Neon Gold. Their blog has been my go-to place for fresh cuts for a while now, ever since their blog Good Weather for Airstrikes ceased production, and with alumni including Passion Pit, Marina & the Diamonds and Yes Giantess, they are excellent at discovering bands/artists who produce interesting sounds with a strong pop sensibility.

Their latest protege, Gotye, is someone I've heard about for a while, a good couple of years, but I've been reluctant to jump on the band wagon, until I heard his latest, Learnalilgivinanlovin. Perfect late summer stuff, fun and poppy, sounding fresh yet familiar, I love it!

Also, thanks to their rave review of Florence & the Machine's album, I picked it up a couple of days ago, and am really getting into it. My initial misgivings about her songwriting talents have been well and truly put to rest, as she seems to no longer rely on that booming voice as a crutch. My particular faves from the album, the aptly titled Lungs, are Cosmic Love and her latest single, Drumming Song.

Here is the video for Drumming Song - I think I like it, although, strangely, she seems be taking inspiration from Beyonce's Single Ladies video...



Check out the Jackbeats and Boy 8-Bit remixes of this track too, they're both pretty sweet.

I'll be posting about some more stuff I'm loving hopefully later in the week, but for now, enjoy the rest of the bank holiday!

I Can't Imagine Anything Better

Mash ups are a bit of a strange bag – sometimes it’s almost magical how seamlessly two songs combine to form a whole, but a bad mash up can ruin them forever. The Hood Internet is fast blowing up all over hypem for his creative, if unashamedly populist (in an indie kind of way) mash ups.

One of my favourite of his has to be the Dirty Projectors vs Major Lazer, Hold the Stillness mash up. This track seamlessly integrates two major tracks of the past couple of months to create a catchy, perfectly natural sounding tune.

The Dirty Projectors have been catching a lot of press recently, with their new album, Bitte Orca, receiving rave reviews. So far the only track I’ve heard off it is Stillness is your Move, but if that’s anything to go by, the rest of the album should be amazing. Stillness is your Move combines a hip hop sensibility with indie girl vocals to produce something that’s eerie, soulful yet also quite moving.

Here's the video for Stillness is your Move, featuring Siberian huskies and a rare llama (obviously).


Major Lazer have also been blog stars of late, being the collaboration project between Diplo (the man behind M.I.A., Santogold, and other greatness) and producer Switch. Hold the Line, their first single off the album features Santogold’s vocals on top of dancehalls beats and jittery electronic sounds.

Download Hold the Line here (right hand side of the page)

Out of the two, the Dirty Projectors are probably more my cup of tea than Major Lazer, but both tracks are excellent, and, surprisingly enough, the mash up matches the quality of its parts.

The Two Weeks of Hip-Hop mash up is also well worth your time, combining the new Grizzly Bear single Two Weeks with an old Dead Prez song.

I Once Was a Kid

I love MGMT's Kids, but man is that shit overplayed. Here's a fresh (better?) take on it.

Chiddy Bang - Kids [hypem]

Summer Rain; Praying Someone Feels the Same

And so the Summer comes to an end… apparently.

Summer rain, for all it's frustrations and faults, still provides us with some classic music. There's something rather poetic about rain in Summer - the wistfulness that attends as thoughts of hazy sunny days fade away, replaced by drizzly grey reality. The first track here, Blind Melon's No Rain [youtube] captures this perfectly - so used do we get to rain in the Summer that it seems strange and bewildering when we are faced with bright sunshine. Indeed, after weeks of sweltering heat, the release of a Summer storm is often more than welcome, as in Pain Killer (Summer Rain) [last.fm], by Turin Brakes.

Image courtesy of pftburger on flickr.

The Come-back Kids pt. 3

Once again, an artist that I had somewhat written off a couple of year ago has come back with a great new single - this time it's Jamie T. His new single Sticks 'N' Stones covers similar ground to his earlier stuff like Sheila and If You Got The Money - i.e. boozing, girls and some more boozing - and while his sound remains distinctive, he is infectiously cheeky and warm-hearted. I defy anyone to listen to that rambunctious chorus without yelling along, 'Let's find some TROUBLE!'.

(It helps that I think he's really hot!)

On the glory afternoons in June I need you...

I know, I know, I haven't posted in aaages. Blame... me. I'm lazy.

Anyways, the epic Summer playlist-making continues as blissful June weather makes having a job a painful experience.

Basement Jaxx - Raindrops [7digital]

The brand-new single from dance geniuses Basement Jaxx echoes through my head all day at work until I can get in my car and blast it out. The lyrics are probably hopelessly prophetic for the wash-out that the British Summer often turns out to be, but this track is a top contender for THE song of Summer 2009 (helped by the fact that the Jaxx KILLED IT when performing at my graduation ball!). The track can be streamed from Basement Jaxx's website, and is out now for just 50p from 7digital.com.

Passion Pit - Sleepyhead [youtube]
Passion Pit continue to be the blog darlings of 2009, remaining all over hypem et al. This song is actually one of their older ones - the more observant of you will have noticed that it made my best of 2008 list. Yet the sunny weather has made me realise how utterly perfect it is. For the hungover mornings I prefer the Landau 'Wake Up' Mix (available as part of their Chunk of Change EP)- a bit less squeaky, but still as feel-good. Their debut album, Manners, is out now, and actually lives up to the hype, get it now from wherever you buy music from.

[Artwork courtesy of jspad on flickr.com]

Cover Me in Roses

So it's not the most original idea for a post, but I was listening to my iPod on shuffle the other day, and I realised just how many cover versions of songs I have. On my old radio show we used to do a feature where we would get the listeners to vote between two versions of the same song, and I always used to struggle to think of cover versions. However, now I'm not doing the radio show, I can, of course, think of many.

This may become a regular post on Tricks, but I'm reluctant to post cover versions unless they're something really special. A good cover can totally transform a song, taking it in a new direction, exposing something different about the song. It's pretty standard indie fare to cover a well known song in an acoustic fashion, highlighting the 'meaning' behind a pop song, singing it in a conciously detached, ironic sense. While the best of these can be great, others remind you that, actually, production can make a track.



One of my favourite covers of the moment is the Flaming Lips' version of Borderline, originally by Madonna. The zany Lips take what was a decent 80s pop tune and turn it into an indie epic, with fuzzy bass lines, organs, and a soaring, pulsing guitar solo. along with an underlying sense of dread. It was for the Covered: A Revolution in Sound compliation that Warner Bros have put together to celebrate 50 years in the business. I have a feeling that the Michelle Branch version of A Case of You, also on the record, won't be making this post, however, if the compliation proves to be as good as this Flaming Lips cover, then I shall eat my words. You can watch the psychedelic video here, and listen to the track on hypem here.

[Artwork courtesy of Papa Goiba on flickr.]