Calvin Harris

Right, first up, I LIKE CALVIN HARRIS.

It's taken me a while to be ok with this fact but I think the time is right to come out in the open with it and get on with the rest of my life...PHEW.

'Dance Wiv Me' was one of the big tunes of last summer for me, who'd have thought that the odd pairing of an urban east london rapper with a pasty scottish chancer would work so well?

So what next from Mr Harris? This....

It's called 'I'm Not Alone', has been described as 'eurphoric' and I absolutly can't get enough of it. It's full of deep trancey synths and has a distinct taste of the orient.

If this is the direction Calvin is heading in, then i'm following. Thoughts?

UPDATE - Sony keep taking the track off youtube, so if you want to here it CLICK HERE

Shontelle. Please sit down.

Oh my god. Where the hell did they dust Shontelle off from...1999? Or maybe the 1940's.

Horrible, sickly, sexist, terrible and bound to be huge... urgh. 'With nothing but your t-shirt on' - for gods sake. She is the anti Independent Women and might as well chain herself to the kitchen sink whilst hoovering and cooking dinner. What is she trying to say!?

I hate. You?

Master Shortie

Right so all the other blogs are banging on about Florence and the Machine, Little Boots, White Lies blahblahblah etc etc etc as being BIG IN 09....

Yeah, not bad acts apart from White Lies (which I really do not understand at all - to me, Editors from 1989), but where is the excitement, where is the different?

I would like to divert your attention to one Master Shortie.

He comes from London, is an ex-Brit School student and is presenting UK hip hop in a totally different style. Gone are tracks about the struggle of life in East London (snore) and lyrics about 'murking' each other and in are funky guitar licks and a girls 'hotness' being compared to that of a somosa.

I like, I think you will too. Check out 'Dead End'

More of the same please

This is not at attack on anyone or anything, and I really want to push this point across, it is mearly something I have noticed which I find slightly stunted and dissapointing.

This something is the music consuming habits of the Great British public. Now, yes, obviously this is a vast sweeping statement and doesn't cover everyone but I have noticed some worrying trends that have effected my life and I want to write about them. Indulge me please...

1. Commercial Radio
Commercial radio playlists are afraid to take any sort of risks. Day in, day out, it is the same songs over and over played one after the other with such little audience interaction that the DJ could well be classed as a Jukebox.

But why is this so? Well, commercial stations know their audiences. Listeners want the same things on repeat until they are so amazingly familier with the tracks, they have seen the video, know all the words, have it on their iPods and can even do the dance. Some stations are so terrified of upsetting their audiences that when they do eventually add new tracks to their playlists (gasp) they edit out slightly 'different' sounding sections to make the audience comfortable. Audio valium? Audio pipe and slippers?

2. Covers band
As you may know, I play in a covers band in the sussex area. We played a gig last weekend at a venue we have played a fair few times before. We've been working hard on some new tracks recently and were really excited about busting them out. You see, we have the understanding that audiences want to hear new things, that if we just turned up, played the same set time and time again, got paid and left then we wouldn't continue to get further bookings. Who would want to see a covers band play the same set every few weeks? ..... Apparently lots of people.

One of the regulars at this particular venue came up to us after the gig and asked why we didn't play 'Brown Eyed Girl' or 'That one we do where you talk a bit', (I think she meant rapping.) I asked what she thought of the new tracks and she just looked at me and repeated the above sentence again. Sigh

I can understand the comforting aspect of the familiar in everyones lives, there's nothing like getting into your own bed or sitting on your own sofa (and it's good to have a constant in your life), but when it comes to entertainment why is this so?

I relish listening to new music, discovering new trends and can lose days on Hype Machine and Spotify just exploring new sounds. What is wrong with musical progress and why are people scared of it?

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