Milk and Sugar - Canto de Pilon (Nora En Pure remix) - ★★★
This has been doing the rounds for a while now but has recently occupied the top of the Beatport charts so is worth a mention, if only for the fact it's an irresistible fusion of trad world-music and tight-ass house-funk, plus there's a welter of free download opportunities over at Soundcloud at the moment. Oh and Pete Tong's popped it on his latest Miami compilation. Whatever. Not quite as marvellous as other Latino trouser-arousers of the similar ilk, Milk and Sugar manage to turn in a nifty enough version nonetheless.
Jacques Greene - No Excuse - ★★★★½
Taken from his forthcoming EP Phantom Vibrate, I'm loath to simply label Montrealite Greene as another DJ/producer in the vein of Vondelpark, Burial, Jon Hopkins or Cloud Boat, but there are similarities. No Excuse is epic by the time it reaches its conclusion some five minutes later and showcases just how technically advanced this fella is these days. Mark my words, Jacques Greene's name will be gracing a few pages of our more reverential music blogs in months to come if he delivers more of the same - after several EPs, it must be time for an album. Nice work. Single of the Week.
TOY - It's Been So Long - ★★★½
Recent album Join The Dots was a bit of a mixed bag for me I'm afraid - their debut was exemplary, but the follow-up was half-beauty, half-beast and a cumbersome listen but not without fine moments. It's Been So Long isn't one of those highlights but its plucky and vivacious motorik beat is nonetheless ten thousand times more special than most other guitar widdle around this week. I bet this sounds frightening in concert. As a single, it's awash with drone rather than the big brave beautiful melody we know and love from TOY. A worthy Runner-Up of the Week all the same.
Favoured by a few radio DJs at the moment, including Radio 1's Jen Long (it says on their You Tube page), this jangling shambling hunk of indie-pop seems fairly orderly and predictable (in a good way) until mid-way through when we're faced with a rap. Now normally, mixing swee' Lunnun gum-runnin' has me stripping down my crossbow ready for rebuild, reload and reusing but Phantom Runners have the balance right and a generally agreeable cut on their hands. Rest easy peeps - the crossbow in my mind has been lowered, waiting for bigger fish to harpoon.
Coldplay - Magic - ★★½
The band indirectly responsible for thrusting an army of thigh-gazing grumpsniffs on us for the past decade return with new material from an album that promises to be, well, another Coldplay album. Magic isn't magic. In fact, it's rather bland until Chris Martin launches into RnB falsetto mode around halfway through and the whole thing turns into a bit of a belter. But isn't that what lots of Coldplay songs do - begin as a feeble excuse and end as a triumphant 'fuck-you' to critics? Magic isn't magic. It's just an illusion.
Utterly ridiculous but oddly compelling electro-stepper that tries to mix it with the Skrillex/Pendulum platform, adds in some nonsensical lyrics about monsters and blows our tiny feeble minds with a Banzai-style video and a bloke dressed as a gorilla playing keyboards. I don't know what to say about this, apart from the joke wears thin pretty quickly, so here's the video - make your own mind up.
Black Bananas - Physical Emotions - ★★½
This has been doing the rounds for a while now but has recently occupied the top of the Beatport charts so is worth a mention, if only for the fact it's an irresistible fusion of trad world-music and tight-ass house-funk, plus there's a welter of free download opportunities over at Soundcloud at the moment. Oh and Pete Tong's popped it on his latest Miami compilation. Whatever. Not quite as marvellous as other Latino trouser-arousers of the similar ilk, Milk and Sugar manage to turn in a nifty enough version nonetheless.
Jacques Greene - No Excuse - ★★★★½
Taken from his forthcoming EP Phantom Vibrate, I'm loath to simply label Montrealite Greene as another DJ/producer in the vein of Vondelpark, Burial, Jon Hopkins or Cloud Boat, but there are similarities. No Excuse is epic by the time it reaches its conclusion some five minutes later and showcases just how technically advanced this fella is these days. Mark my words, Jacques Greene's name will be gracing a few pages of our more reverential music blogs in months to come if he delivers more of the same - after several EPs, it must be time for an album. Nice work. Single of the Week.
TOY - It's Been So Long - ★★★½
Recent album Join The Dots was a bit of a mixed bag for me I'm afraid - their debut was exemplary, but the follow-up was half-beauty, half-beast and a cumbersome listen but not without fine moments. It's Been So Long isn't one of those highlights but its plucky and vivacious motorik beat is nonetheless ten thousand times more special than most other guitar widdle around this week. I bet this sounds frightening in concert. As a single, it's awash with drone rather than the big brave beautiful melody we know and love from TOY. A worthy Runner-Up of the Week all the same.
Phantom Runners - Chasing the Feeling - ★★★
Favoured by a few radio DJs at the moment, including Radio 1's Jen Long (it says on their You Tube page), this jangling shambling hunk of indie-pop seems fairly orderly and predictable (in a good way) until mid-way through when we're faced with a rap. Now normally, mixing swee' Lunnun gum-runnin' has me stripping down my crossbow ready for rebuild, reload and reusing but Phantom Runners have the balance right and a generally agreeable cut on their hands. Rest easy peeps - the crossbow in my mind has been lowered, waiting for bigger fish to harpoon.
Coldplay - Magic - ★★½
The band indirectly responsible for thrusting an army of thigh-gazing grumpsniffs on us for the past decade return with new material from an album that promises to be, well, another Coldplay album. Magic isn't magic. In fact, it's rather bland until Chris Martin launches into RnB falsetto mode around halfway through and the whole thing turns into a bit of a belter. But isn't that what lots of Coldplay songs do - begin as a feeble excuse and end as a triumphant 'fuck-you' to critics? Magic isn't magic. It's just an illusion.
Subgiant - Monsters Incorporated - ★★
Utterly ridiculous but oddly compelling electro-stepper that tries to mix it with the Skrillex/Pendulum platform, adds in some nonsensical lyrics about monsters and blows our tiny feeble minds with a Banzai-style video and a bloke dressed as a gorilla playing keyboards. I don't know what to say about this, apart from the joke wears thin pretty quickly, so here's the video - make your own mind up.
Black Bananas - Physical Emotions - ★★½
Is it me or is every hipster outfit trying to emulate Prince et al at the moment? I know, I know, I should get out more. Anyways, ex-Royal Trux behemoth Jennifer Herrema has been busy in the kitchen with her Black Bananas project and has cooked up a funk-storm with this short and bizarrely sweet little cocktail of earthy lo-fi electro-funk that paves the way for new album Electric Brick-Wall. Seemingly part-musical troubadour, part-artist, part-fashionista icon, Herrema doesn't strike me as a dabbler - she's gone balls-deep with this effort for a start and will probably have 2014's delicates in a vice-like grip sometime soon. And talking of Prince.....
Prince - Fallinlove2nite feat Zooey Deschanel - ★★★
In which micro soul cherubim necks his little purple lips off with glamourpuss Zooey and produces disco flimflammery that just, just, about passes muster. When compared to his earlier successful output (I Wanna Be Your Lover, Raspberry Beret, Kiss etc), it falls short of course - it's a bit catwalk kitsch for my liking - but when judged against most of what he's churned out in the past two decades, it's positively welcoming and funky. And it's almost bouncy enough to soundtrack an exercise DVD. Unless it's a 'Sexercize' DVD......
Kylie Minogue - Sexercize - ★
Oh god, it had to happen - Kylie's gone all fuckyfuckfuck and mucky with diggy-down-lo' dumbstep beats and vocodered warblings that confirm my believe that the diminutive pop-princess is going after Gaga and Cyrus' crown. Mercifully less than three minutes in length, this soul-less drivel is as pointless an exercise as collecting feathers in a tornado with a straw. There are better songs on the album but as this has the word 'sex' in it (one of three on her new opus Kiss Me Once), kiddies will flock to it like desperate flies round flob. Officially, the worst Kylie track I've ever heard and that includes Nu-Di-Ty from 2007's risible X project.
Trey Songz - Na Na - ★
Take the Fugees' Oh La La hook, slow it down a bit, strip everything else out, add in some tinny drum program, croon smoothly over the top for 'tha laydeez' and, voila, Na Na becomes a big no-no. Next.
Oh there isn't a 'next'. What a shame.
In which micro soul cherubim necks his little purple lips off with glamourpuss Zooey and produces disco flimflammery that just, just, about passes muster. When compared to his earlier successful output (I Wanna Be Your Lover, Raspberry Beret, Kiss etc), it falls short of course - it's a bit catwalk kitsch for my liking - but when judged against most of what he's churned out in the past two decades, it's positively welcoming and funky. And it's almost bouncy enough to soundtrack an exercise DVD. Unless it's a 'Sexercize' DVD......
Kylie Minogue - Sexercize - ★
Oh god, it had to happen - Kylie's gone all fuckyfuckfuck and mucky with diggy-down-lo' dumbstep beats and vocodered warblings that confirm my believe that the diminutive pop-princess is going after Gaga and Cyrus' crown. Mercifully less than three minutes in length, this soul-less drivel is as pointless an exercise as collecting feathers in a tornado with a straw. There are better songs on the album but as this has the word 'sex' in it (one of three on her new opus Kiss Me Once), kiddies will flock to it like desperate flies round flob. Officially, the worst Kylie track I've ever heard and that includes Nu-Di-Ty from 2007's risible X project.
Trey Songz - Na Na - ★
Take the Fugees' Oh La La hook, slow it down a bit, strip everything else out, add in some tinny drum program, croon smoothly over the top for 'tha laydeez' and, voila, Na Na becomes a big no-no. Next.
Oh there isn't a 'next'. What a shame.