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.