Jack Penate

I never thought i'd get THIS excited about the return of Jack Penate.

His new track is called 'Today's Tonight'

To me it sounds very much like something off an Ibiza chillout album. It has a fantastic sing along hands in the air chorus and Hawaiian (ish) guitar riffs.

You can listen to it here.....

Get involved.

Frankmusik

Frankmusik is Vincent Frank from Croydon and is apparently one to watch in 2009...so me working in the media industry and being at the forefront of cool, (cough)... i'd obviously never heard of him.

So I decided to have a little listen to Mr Musiks output so I can claim to have been a fan from before he'd even written his first track.

He sways on the right side of Mika (without the crap bits), new rave, a bit bloc party, a touch Killers, a bit Buggles, a hint of Nintendo, a tad Hoxton and a little Goldfrapp with Top Gun highnotes.

All in all, yes, promising and pleasing sounds in abundance. Deff someone I'd like to see live.

Have a look at the video for his track '3 Little Words' with hints of 'Piano from Big'...loving that

Lily Allen

Now, i've always had a bit of a soft spot for Lily Allen. I like her slight obvious quirkiness and the fact that she knows she is a total chancer.

Her music too has this oddly endearing quality to it and I was really sucked into the buzz and freshness of 'Alright Still' upon its release in 2006.

So it was with trepidation when I heard that she had been working with Mark Ronson on her new material. How the hell would that work? Well...it does.

There are no trademark Ronson horns and live drums and instead a pleathora of synths and plinky piano bits. Check out the 'The Fear' below.

808's and Mr Hudson

Have you had a look through the inlay card of '808's and Heartbreaks'?

It looks like Mr West has a bit of a 'thing' for Birmingham artist Mr Hudson. Not only has he just signed him to his G.O.O.D.Music label but Mr Hudson has written, produced or provided backing vocals on no less than eight of the tracks on '808's and Heartbreaks'... this is surely the weirdest musical pairing since Calvin Harris and Dizzee Rascal.

Mr West said...
"He’s an incredible artist,” West revealed to MTV backstage at the recent EMAs. “I believe Mr. Hudson has the potential to be bigger than me, to be one of the most important artists of his generation. He’s playing these songs, he’s playing them back-to-back-to-back — ‘Dude, I’m telling you, your problems are not going to be getting hit records, blowing up and being a big star — your problems are going to be living real life, and dealing with real life, so just prep yourself.’ Everything I hear from him is a smash!”

Also click here to go to Mr Hudsons website. Its interesting in that it appears to be a huge advert for Kanye West rather than include any information on Mr Hudson....

Kanye is exec producing Mr Hudsons new album which is due out in March 09. Check out the first West/Hudson pairing 'There Will Be Tears' below.

Little Boots

I went to Annie Mac Presents at Digital in Brighton on Thursday (amazing) and Little Boots was one of the warm up acts. An interesting choice considering she was the only live act of the night, sandwiched between DJ's.

Now this isn't a review of said performance, as to be fair, I paid little attention to her overall show and was instead waving like a twat at Annie Mac who was filming outside the venue. However, during Little Boots' time on the stage there was one thing and one thing only that caught my attention and that my friends is the wonderous device in the picture to the left...

It's called a Tenori On and is made my Yamaha. I've been aware of it's exsistence for about a year and indeed of it's potential but have never seen it used in a band situation to full effect in the way that it was used by Little Boots.

The Tenori On is basically difficult to explain, and I certainly can't be arsed so watch this video instead. This is Little Boots using the instrument to re-create Hot Chips 'Ready For The Floor'.

Anyone got a spare £600 please?

Britney Leaks...

Horrible title...but true. After a little scout around the net today looking for new Britney news (yes, I'm that exciting) I stumbled across this little gem.

It is apparently a new track called 'Kill The Lights' from Britneys album 'Circus' and (luckily) it is very very good.

It sounds like it would belong comfortably on 'Blackout' which is in no means a bad thing and has a very different sound than that of 'Womanizer'. To me, the beat and production sound like 'Maneater' from the Furtado camp which makes me wonder if Jim Beanz or Danja have had something to do with this.

It is synthy, bassy, drummy and has a chorus consisting of the lyrics, 'I Kill The Lights' which has managed to embed itself in my head after approximately 2 listens.

The whole album has apparently leaked somewhere online. If this and Womanizer are representatives of the whole album then...
GIVE ME NOW!!!

New Timberlake

Justin keeps going from strength to strength with his solo material. 'Futuresex/Love Sounds' was such a fantastic example of exactly what a solo 'pop' male can achieve, so it was with trepidation and 'lets hope he hasn't done a Kanye' when his new track 'Magic' popped into my inbox the other day.....

And luckily, its ace! It sounds like a step forward from his last album's sound and still has that cheeky,sexy, soulful edge that makes Mr JT. Its rumoured that this might have been a demo left over from Britney's album (which makes me raise my eyebrows) but whatever, its a fucking tune!

I still don't know how to link to downloads so here is a youtube clip. If you want the full track, head to hypemachine

YES YES YES YES YES

Mr Rascal....on Obama. He won because of Hip Hop apparently.

Kanyeeeezy

Like a lot of people, i'm finding Kanye West's new sound hard to swallow. I've heard a big chunk of the album, '808s and Heartbreaks' and here are my thoughts thus far...

Love Lockdown - I was an instant fan, the drums, the lyrics, the sentiment, maybe even the vocoder. Perfect. But, unlike virtually all of Kanye's back catalogue, I now can hardly bare to let it invade my ears. If it pops up on my iPod I skip it. 'Jesus Walks' this ain't. Bad Kanye

Coldest Winter - This track chugs along like a steam train which really shouldn't be in service. It is boring, repetitive, whiny, and sounds a bit like a slowed down version of Love Lockdown mixed with a song from a budget west end musical. Badest Kanye.

Heartless - Vocoder turned up to 11! This is better, Kanye actually does some rapping on this track but the backing is shocking. It sounds like someone with no musical talent is playing an organ best suited to the fairground which conjures up images of Dougal, his friends and a magic roundabout. Bad Kanye

Anyway - This track is full of computery sci fi swooshing sound effects and blippy 80's noises which are always good. The vocoder is turned down to 1 and it has a lot more depth to it than the rest of the tracks. It's actually interesting to listen to and when turned up loud sounds pretty damn good. It's Crying out for a Soulwax remix too. Better Kanye

Robocop - Carrying on the 80's theme perhaps, but swapping the sci-fi computery moments for machine and robot-esq sound effects, clever. The chorus is terrible and consists of the repetition of the word 'ok' over and over and over. The track is also oddly full of Stephen King references and the inspired lyrics 'I don't want a Robocop, you're moving like a Robocop', whatever that is meant to mean... Horrific Kanye

So there you go. Verdict - Bad Kanye. I'm all for musical experimentation but please, leave the vocoder to T-Pain and learn how to rap again. A new Mr West album is usually an exciting time musically...fingers crossed I've heard the worst tracks.

Wiley - Cash In My Pocket

Did someone say 'Credit Crunch'?

Wiley doesn't think so. Check out this unofficial video viral to publicize his next single 'Cash In My Pocket'. The track's produced by Mark Ronson and features vocals by Daniel Merriweather.

Tune... Tune....Tune!

Props to MC Gordon Brown. BBBBRRRRAAAAAAAP! etc

What if Beyonce was one of us...?

I get a little bit over excited when big pop stars are on the come back. This excitement is usually short lived when said new music is heard...highly true in Beyonce's case.

She is peddling a new double A side at the moment, If I were a Boy/Single Ladies (banal ballad/booty shaking shouty mess).

The first time I heard 'If I were a Boy', I was certain i'd heard it before. The melody, the structure, the strummy guitar. What does it remind me of?

Beyonce - If I were A Boy (New)
by Le-Tour-2Lor

Hmm, strummy, inoffensive, middle of the road, Alanis Morrisete-esq, rhyming dictionary lyrics, mum friendly...WAIT A MINUTE! Cast your mind back to 1995 . . . . . .



Or is it just me? If my name was Joan Osbourne I wouldn't be best pleased.

The Brown Eyed curse

Now, this post isn't what some of you may be thinking...(disgusting)

I am of course talking about the ditty 'Brown Eyed Girl' by Van Morrison.

A fairly non-offensive song on the surface but this song is my own personal hell...

I play keyboards in a covers band, a highly successful covers band at that. We try to be a bit different so edge away from traditional cover band fare and instead try new stuff. A bit of Dizzee here, a Prodigy and 90's dance medley there, but obviously we touch on the traditional Beatles/Abba/Jackson 5 tripe.

One such tripe track in our repertoire is 'Brown Eyed Girl'. I have probably played this song 68,156 times (approx) in the past few years. I've got to the stage with it where i've played it so often that I've started to forget the chords, structure, and lyrics. I blag my way through it singing the odd word I remember and mumbling my way through the rest before the (sadly) unforgettable chorus kicks in. It's like my brain has had enough of it and is slowly deleting it bit by bit.

We have started to leave it out of our sets but to no avail.

You can guarantee that at every gig we play, someone will request this dire song. Usually an inebriated female screeching that it's, 'her favourite song because she too has brown eyes' (crazy). When we succumb to the mind bending torture and start playing it, the audience goes nuts. Literally everyone stands up, dances and sings along to the 'la la la la la' bits.

What the hell is it about this track that makes it so popular? Is Van Morrison some kind of musical hypnotist, packing this track with hidden messages in attempt to recruit some kind of hazel eyed female army? Or are people that love this song running on minimal brain cells?

Have a look at this video of Van performing the track and read the second comment down from 83smileyface.

I despair, and rest my case.

The Family - Channel 4

Channel 4's 'The Family' is now in its 4-5 episode and sadly, I love it.

But why? This is a question I really can't find an answer for, so am instead just going to raise a few things I find fascinating about this programme.

I like. . .

- The way the cameras are the same colours as the walls they are attached to. Nice work. Subtle.

- The way that whenever there is a huge drama in the house (and there are many), we are shown a picture of the families cat sitting and looking a little perplexed at the action unfolding infront of it. Poor bastard.

- The fact that none of the kids look like the father but they ALL look like mini clones of the mother in a weird 'Children of the Corn', manner.

- The way that the word 'bedtime' seems to be the catalyst for nearly every argument.

- The fact that the family are from Canterbury, which is where I went to university. The reason I enjoy this is down to the middle child Emily. She's the one who goes out clubbing till half 2 every night and from my knowledge of Canterbury she can only be going to one place. A place which I avoided beyond belief as its an utter shit hole. Hello Baa Bars... She looks like a regular.

- The way that the dad thinks that he is some kind of superhuman parent and amazing husband when infact he is a saxophone playing megalomaniac who is hell bent on making his kids lives horrific. How he managed to bag his hottie wife is a total mystery.

Russell Brand

Russell Brand is the kind of comedian/TV star/actor/presenter who i've obviously always known exists, but who i've always just sort of greeted with a 'meh', response.

I've tried listening to him on BBC Radio 2 (meh), watching him act in Forgetting Sarah Marshall (meh) and in presenter mode on the MTV:VMA's (meh). The word controversy seems to follow him around for no other reason than he is a bit metro sexual, likes sex and wears tight trousers.

Last night, in curious, 'but everyone else loves him', mode I went with some mates to see him test out some new stand up at The Pleasence in the highly depressing Caladonian Road.

After having our phones checked into the cloakroom for risk of any of Russell's new material appearing on youtube, we squeezed into the tiny theatre.

Russell bounded out looking as you'd expect: black T-shirt, black cardigan and black trousers that look like they'd be a total arse to take off. He had a stand next to him with notes on it clearly indicating that this is a work in progress.

...and, it was fantastic. The comedy was spot on and seemingly highly personal. He had no worries showing off his vulnerability, and he does come across as a vulnerable person (which I really didn't expect), but what really surprised me was his utterly fantastic knowledge and intelligence about a seemingly never ending range of subjects. His mind would wander off on a tangent about, for example, Mother Teresa, and he would quite happily and easily pull out quotes, facts and figures about the lady in question, seemingly plucking them from nowhere. Also his vocabulary - engaging, extensive and on the odd occasion bewildering. I've never heard someone use the word aplomb so often and so naturally.

If you get a chance, go and see him! It is easy to see why he was at one time the 7th most Googled thing.