Right. So I admit I watched ESC last night. It’s part of my line of work and cross my heart, I giggled a lot and found some of the tunes quite funky. Then there was Dima Bilan who apparently won the whole thing. (I switched off right after the music ended, couldn’t stand the hosts.) I’m sure I wasn’t the only one feeling a bit confused by the fact that his performance was a huge pile of Too Muchness, so much that someone, somewhere was bound to say “Look Dima, we know you’re going for knock out but this is a tad Too Much. Figure skating is fine but the guy with the Stradivarius needs to kick the Hammerfall posing habit and you look a lot better standing up than lying on your back in some kind of supermodelesqueish pose.” How naive I was.
After seeing the video for the actual song (where, inexplicably, I still can’t interpret his english accent) I understand that all of this is part of a grand plan. World cheese domination. Remember friends – we need to save the cihldren!!!
There’s something fishy about the reasoning here. It’s not like the Dafts are unknown in R’n'B-land ever since the Kanye-thing. And The Klaxons should know better than to climb into this most sacred of dance music symbols of late. Still, cool show, wicked lasers.
This right here is thee reason why Michael Jackson is obsolete. I hope you all refrain from falling for the cheap reissue trick and give much deserved love to the likes of McKnight instead. Now if the man would actually record a new album that didn’t stink, that would be a whole other thing. But until that day, can we please forget about that bullet dodging court-pro?
Gear is sweet. Loop machines are cool. And talent of this magnitude makes me feel helplessly small. Anywhow… I need to get me one of those. (Loopers, I don’t think Thomann has talent…)
I’ve listened to Speak For Yourself (not to mention all that Frou Frou) until my ears bled on a few occasions and love Heap’s music to death. (And her name.) Even so, this next video was a pure struck-speachless-moment the first time I saw it.
(Yeah, they’re probably old to most gear nerds but I know for a fact that half of my readers are pretty sane people.)
So electro got huge and subsequently crashed, burned, tried to do the Phoenix trick but failed miserably. But those stubborn Japanese people would have none of it… I’m just scratching the surface but the scene “over there” seems to be very alive and kicking. The sound is “inspired” by all the big acts from 18 months ago but with a definitive Japanese jenesaisquois. I’ll keep you posted on what I find (which will be tons and tons most probably) until I get sick of the sound again.
First off is Shinichi Osawa. His cover of The Brothers’ “Star Guitar” is almost better than the original. I wonder if someone has tried to peg Michel Gondry’s video to it? The rest of the tracks are classic French electro rock, strangely enough. Well worth a listen.
We know at least two things; (1) you are currently reading this blog and thus (2) you have too much time on your hands. And idle hands kill kittens or whatever. And while we’re on the subject of 2, here are two hyperlinks that together form the Song Of The Day. Don’t ask me how.
I love Thieves Like Us, Japan scares me and japaneseJ.U.N.-80KIDZ-cinq-etoiles‘ remix of “Drugs In My Body” is lovely scary.
The Medalist have uploaded a couple of new tracks. It’s my birthday.
I just got fresh batch of lovely vinyl. When it comes to record shopping I like to gamble. I’m rarely seen at the decks of the local record store for 45 minutes trying to decide what piece of plastic to bring home with me. If the random fifteen seconds (wherever I lay my needle is home) I listen to sound good I usually part with cash with a smile on my gullible lips. When it comes to online shopping I’m even worse. If it sounded good on my laptop’s speakers, at work, in a noisy office, with a head about to a-splode of caffeine it’s good enough. Needless to say I’ve bought a couple of crappy 12″s. This time it seems I’ve struck mainly gold…
Glasgow Underground is one of those “I so badly wanna work with these guys I’ll cut off my left foot” kind of labels. I’m not saying that Carli and that other guy are now cripples, rather that this piece of funk deserves to be in that kind of company. There are edits of both tracks and for once these are really edits – not remixes. Discogs lists this as Italo but that can only be attributed to collective short memory. In my ears this is funk the way it always was and always will be. A couple of 80’s sounds won’t make Amin Peck out of it. If you haven’t already – stop by their myspace, then buy the funcker.
I honestly didn’t believe this one was still available brand spanking new but I guess anything Daft doesn’t really stop selling. Good for me. “Extra Dry” is extra awesome. And the other tracks are rough and rocking as well.
Since I didn’t have this little gem on vinyl I had to get it. “U&Me’s Unpacked Deck-Track Dub” is my track of choice.
The promo of Adam Tensta’s upcoming debut album “It’s A Tensta Thing” landed at the office last week and it has barely left my speakers since. This, ladies and gentlemen, is the best album to likely go by largely unnoticed by the general public of 2007. I’m not a hip hop afficionado (though I know a few) but I know Funk when I hear it. And Tensta is shock full of it. (And my hip hop afficionado friends share my feelings.)
The next single, aptly named “My Cool” will drop on the 6th of November but I assume people more in the know than me heard it on mixtapes three months-ish ago. I do, late as I may be, predict that this should fill dancefloors aplenty the coming spring. Addeboy vs. Cliff (who also produced Adam’s first single “They Wanna Know”) have provided a solid track as suited for Bagheera as for Glory Boat. (Yes, I’m having a Gothenburgian moment. Live with it.)
Adam, in case you ever succumb to the pleasures of ego Googling and end up reading this; let me know if you wanna make some music.
I’ve been alone (not counting colleagues and friends and Olov in particular who helped me pack my studio into tiny boxes, cheers for that) for less than 18 hours and I’m already doing romantic comedies. I am such a clichée.
