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OUO: "Eye 2 Eye" (live promo clip)
OUO rocks their underground banger "Eye 2 Eye" Live on stage. Witty rhymes, rugged beats, its all here. This is hip-hop.
Radio 4: "Packing Things Up On The Scene"
It only takes a few seconds of Enemies Like This, the title track to Radio 4?s new album, to realize that the Brooklyn-based band has returned with all cylinders fired up and with a rejuvenated sense of purpose. Radio 4 have never been ones to shy away from making a loud noise or issuing a firm statement, but on Enemies Like This, they?ve both streamlined and stretched their sound, they?ve cut the fat, trimmed the filler, and focused on the meat that makes the music, not the spices that can bury it. Enemies Like This is the album long awaited by all those who know that, up to now, Radio 4?s strongest impression has been made from the stage. To this end, Radio 4 stayed out of big studios for Enemies Like This. They recorded the backing tracks in December 2005 in an industrial section of Williamsburg (Headgear Studios), and added overdubs in the basement of a converted factory in Park Slope (the sarcastically named Seaside Lounge). For production, they brought over from London Jagz Kooner, a founding member of The Aloof and Sabres of Paradise known also for his radical mixes for Primal Scream, Kasabian, Soulwax and others. Radio 4 had struck up a friendship with Kooner on their travels, noting his innate understanding of how rock music can groove without getting all cerebral or convoluted about it. Enemies Like This came in ten songs and 43 minutes long like albums used to be back when they were spread over two sides of vinyl and there was no space to bury your mistakes. As much as these ten songs are devoid of filler, they?re also thrillingly diverse. Try and spot the influences ? Anthony Roman is about to openly cop to some of them but dont presume to peg this band. Radio 4 are proud of the scene from which they emerged, but with Enemies Like This, they?ve become very much their own entity.
Juggernaut Phorces of Soul: "One-Eyed Man"
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British Sea Power: "No Lucifer"
Do You Like Rock Music? was made in Montreal, the Czech Republic and Fort Tregantle - a 19th Century fortification in Cornwall, on England’s south-west coast. It was recorded by a band unafraid to embrace the far poles of arts and entertainment. BSP have toured with and been praised by David Bowie, The Flaming Lips, Lou Reed, Radiohead and Jarvis Cocker. But they’ve also been invited to play in celebration of the life and times of Sir John Betjeman, the late UK Poet Laureate, born in 1906. And they’ve played shows with The Copper Family, a clan of Sussex folk singers who’ve been going for two hundred years.
Wellington Valenzuela: "Soul Station TV"
The hip-hop movement in the Dominican Republic had a little to say about Soul Station TV. Extreme Internet Reality TV. Check out the Local Talent.
The Postal Service: "Such Great Heights"
Despite many industry insiders' prediction that Death Cab For Cutie's incendiary "Why You'd Want to Live Here" would create a Pacific Northwest vs. Southern California indie-rock rivalry reminiscent of hip-hop's East Coast/West Coast conflict, no blood was shed over such lines as "Is this the City of Angels or demons?" In fact, you might say most people in Los Angeles couldn't care less that Seattleite Ben Gibbard was giving their city a good old-fashioned tongue-lashing. Silverlake denizen and Dntel mastermind Jimmy Tamborello certainly wasn't bothered - instead of hiring someone to lay Gibbard down for the dirt nap, he asked DCFC's leader to lay down vocals on a track for his upcoming album. A week later the electronipop masterpiece "(This Is) The Dream of Evan and Chan" (included on Dntel's 2001 full-length Life Is Full of Possibilities) was completed and the seeds for The Postal Service were planted. "It seemed kind of effortless," says Tamborello, who had never met Gibbard before the recording of "Evan and Chan." "He came down and sang it once and we were just really happy with it." "We did the song in an hour one afternoon," explains Gibbard, who was in L.A. visiting Tamborello's roommate, The Jealous Sound's Pedro Benito. "It was such an easy, fun way to work. The idea was spawned: Maybe we could do an EP of this kind of stuff. Then [Sub Pop A&R rep] Tony Kiewel brought '(This Is) The Dream of Evan and Chan' to the label and said, 'They're going to do a record of this kind of stuff - do you guys want to do it?' We just went from there." In December 2001, Gibbard started receiving CD-Rs from Tamborello filled with beatsy electronic music, which he manipulated in his computer before writing melodies and lyrics and recording vocals. He also added some guitar, drums and keyboards - much of which was recorded by Death Cab guitarist Chris Walla at his Hall of Justice studio - and then sent the demo back to L.A. Gibbard had to run his changes past Tamborello, but he more or less had the freedom to alter the songs to his liking. "It was really great to get a little package every month or two - 'Two new songs!'" says Gibbard. "Sometimes I'd say, 'I want to move that part and this part,' and it was really fun to have such autonomy in the writing; I could pretty much do whatever I wanted." Though Tamborello (also known for his work in Strictly Ballroom and Figurine) is no stranger to collaboration - everyone from Beachwood Sparks' Chris Gunst to That Dog's Rachel Haden to Slint/The For Carnation's Brian McMahan appeared on Life Is Full of Possibilities - this was the first time he had attempted a project with a relative stranger. "It was like having to work on the album and make friends at the same time," admits Tamborello. "In the beginning I was probably a little nervous about not wanting to say I didn't like something 'cause I didn't know him. But in the end it didn't end up ever being an issue. It seemed like I was always excited with what he did." Ten months, two trips to L.A. (to record vocals and finish mixing) and one big postage invoice later, Give Up was completed. And just like that, Gibbard & Tamborello find themselves standing alongside such giants as Morrissey & Marr, Lennon & McCartney and Anderson & Butler. All ten tracks are exercises in smooth beauty, with Gibbard's inviting voice perfectly complementing Tamborello's unique and charming programming and guest vocals from Jen Wood and Rilo Kiley's Jenny Lewis adding a gentle layer of sweetness to many of the songs. Though it's tempting to call it an "'80s-sounding" record because of its keyboard-driven pop sensibilities, there's nothing retro about Give Up, save for a few sounds here and there and "nothing better," a duet with Wood inspired by The Human League's "Don't You Want Me." On the other hand, fans of Death Cab will hear faint echoes of Gibbard's main band in The Postal Service, but overall it's a completely different experience. "Some of the songs are very much of a Death Cab mode, but people have been commenting, 'Wow, the lyrics are really different,'" explains Gibbard. "When somebody is just handing you music and you're supposed to sing over the top of it, it feels different than when you're sitting at home with a guitar trying to write a song." "'the district sleeps alone tonight,' 'brand new colony' and 'this place is a prison' are pretty much the only songs that border on autobiographical," he continues. "But everything else is just kind of daydreaming and coming up with ideas for songs that aren't necessarily based in reality, and I think that was a lot more fun for me to do because I'd never really done that before. It didn't feel right for all the songs to be break-up-type songs - they just felt more like the kind of songs that you would want to dance to and you wouldn't want to have a lyric that's super heavy, especially on 'such great heights.' I think 'such great heights' is the first time I've ever written a positive love song, where it's a song about being in love and how it's rad, rather than having your heart broken." Though Gibbard is still committed to Death Cab and Tamborello is already hard at work on another Dntel album, the duo has penciled in a late-spring tour and plans to record again in the future. "I told Jimmy, 'Whenever you start sending me stuff is when we'll start working on the next Postal Service record,'" says Gibbard. "I don't see any reason why it couldn't continue to be a project as long as Jimmy wants to do it." "It seems so easy to do them and it doesn't take any time," says Tamborello. "And at this point I think we could do it where he just records everything up there and we could do even more through the mail." - Marc Hawthorne, November 2002
The Postal Service: "The District Sleeps Alone Tonight"
Despite many industry insiders' prediction that Death Cab For Cutie's incendiary "Why You'd Want to Live Here" would create a Pacific Northwest vs. Southern California indie-rock rivalry reminiscent of hip-hop's East Coast/West Coast conflict, no blood was shed over such lines as "Is this the City of Angels or demons?" In fact, you might say most people in Los Angeles couldn't care less that Seattleite Ben Gibbard was giving their city a good old-fashioned tongue-lashing. Silverlake denizen and Dntel mastermind Jimmy Tamborello certainly wasn't bothered - instead of hiring someone to lay Gibbard down for the dirt nap, he asked DCFC's leader to lay down vocals on a track for his upcoming album. A week later the electronipop masterpiece "(This Is) The Dream of Evan and Chan" (included on Dntel's 2001 full-length Life Is Full of Possibilities) was completed and the seeds for The Postal Service were planted. "It seemed kind of effortless," says Tamborello, who had never met Gibbard before the recording of "Evan and Chan." "He came down and sang it once and we were just really happy with it." "We did the song in an hour one afternoon," explains Gibbard, who was in L.A. visiting Tamborello's roommate, The Jealous Sound's Pedro Benito. "It was such an easy, fun way to work. The idea was spawned: Maybe we could do an EP of this kind of stuff. Then [Sub Pop A&R rep] Tony Kiewel brought '(This Is) The Dream of Evan and Chan' to the label and said, 'They're going to do a record of this kind of stuff - do you guys want to do it?' We just went from there." In December 2001, Gibbard started receiving CD-Rs from Tamborello filled with beatsy electronic music, which he manipulated in his computer before writing melodies and lyrics and recording vocals. He also added some guitar, drums and keyboards - much of which was recorded by Death Cab guitarist Chris Walla at his Hall of Justice studio - and then sent the demo back to L.A. Gibbard had to run his changes past Tamborello, but he more or less had the freedom to alter the songs to his liking. "It was really great to get a little package every month or two - 'Two new songs!'" says Gibbard. "Sometimes I'd say, 'I want to move that part and this part,' and it was really fun to have such autonomy in the writing; I could pretty much do whatever I wanted." Though Tamborello (also known for his work in Strictly Ballroom and Figurine) is no stranger to collaboration - everyone from Beachwood Sparks' Chris Gunst to That Dog's Rachel Haden to Slint/The For Carnation's Brian McMahan appeared on Life Is Full of Possibilities - this was the first time he had attempted a project with a relative stranger. "It was like having to work on the album and make friends at the same time," admits Tamborello. "In the beginning I was probably a little nervous about not wanting to say I didn't like something 'cause I didn't know him. But in the end it didn't end up ever being an issue. It seemed like I was always excited with what he did." Ten months, two trips to L.A. (to record vocals and finish mixing) and one big postage invoice later, Give Up was completed. And just like that, Gibbard & Tamborello find themselves standing alongside such giants as Morrissey & Marr, Lennon & McCartney and Anderson & Butler. All ten tracks are exercises in smooth beauty, with Gibbard's inviting voice perfectly complementing Tamborello's unique and charming programming and guest vocals from Jen Wood and Rilo Kiley's Jenny Lewis adding a gentle layer of sweetness to many of the songs. Though it's tempting to call it an "'80s-sounding" record because of its keyboard-driven pop sensibilities, there's nothing retro about Give Up, save for a few sounds here and there and "nothing better," a duet with Wood inspired by The Human League's "Don't You Want Me." On the other hand, fans of Death Cab will hear faint echoes of Gibbard's main band in The Postal Service, but overall it's a completely different experience. "Some of the songs are very much of a Death Cab mode, but people have been commenting, 'Wow, the lyrics are really different,'" explains Gibbard. "When somebody is just handing you music and you're supposed to sing over the top of it, it feels different than when you're sitting at home with a guitar trying to write a song." "'the district sleeps alone tonight,' 'brand new colony' and 'this place is a prison' are pretty much the only songs that border on autobiographical," he continues. "But everything else is just kind of daydreaming and coming up with ideas for songs that aren't necessarily based in reality, and I think that was a lot more fun for me to do because I'd never really done that before. It didn't feel right for all the songs to be break-up-type songs - they just felt more like the kind of songs that you would want to dance to and you wouldn't want to have a lyric that's super heavy, especially on 'such great heights.' I think 'such great heights' is the first time I've ever written a positive love song, where it's a song about being in love and how it's rad, rather than having your heart broken." Though Gibbard is still committed to Death Cab and Tamborello is already hard at work on another Dntel album, the duo has penciled in a late-spring tour and plans to record again in the future. "I told Jimmy, 'Whenever you start sending me stuff is when we'll start working on the next Postal Service record,'" says Gibbard. "I don't see any reason why it couldn't continue to be a project as long as Jimmy wants to do it." "It seems so easy to do them and it doesn't take any time," says Tamborello. "And at this point I think we could do it where he just records everything up there and we could do even more through the mail." - Marc Hawthorne, November 2002
Facebook has experienced meteoric success worthy of a Hollywood movie, but they've had plenty of failures along the way.
For many, this is a dream collaboration between two of the most cherished artists in hip-hop, pitting the dusty, wig-twisting originality of Madlib's smoked out sounds capes against DOOM's nostalgic, visual rhyme style. Brothers from another mother, DOOM and Madlib have long admired each others work, first meeting face-to-face in Southern California in summer 2002, and since then they've shared a whole bunch of Cali-green, run through countless bottles of Grey Goose vodka and Heineken (well, that would be DOOM) and assembled over twenty tracks into a superb psychedelic romp of the highest caliber. The closest one can come to describing this beautiful chaos is a sublime companion piece to Madlib's previous evil adventure, Quasimoto's "The Unseen." But, as DOOM himself would ask anyone asking for a description: "He's the villain, so what about it?" In recent years the metal-faced maniac has released albums under the aliases of Viktor Vaughn, King Gheedora and Monster Island Czars. But rewind to 1993: DOOM (then Zev Love X) made his debut with the groundbreaking album 'Mr. Hood' as part of the group KMD, which has since achieved critical acclaim and cited as a key record in hip-hop's "Golden Age." Zev Love X, Subroc, and Onyx had just finished work on the follow up, "Bl_ck B_st_rds", a politicized commentary on the portrayal of race by the media, when their label Elektra decide to shelve the album over the controversial cover art which depicts a 'blackface sambo' character hanging from a gallows. Shortly after KMD were dropped and Zev Love X's brother Subroc was killed in a car crash. Like true-life story from the pages of a comic book, Zev Love X disappeared completely from public view, going back to the lab and fashioning new beats and lyrics, only to reemerge as the masked MF DOOM with the now classic "Operation Doomsday" in 1999. "Zev Luv X still exists, DOOM is a character, neither one of them is really me, they're a fa?ade I use to voice a certain view," Explains the MC behind the mask, Daniel Dumile. "Zev was like you're average nerd cat, might drop a jewel here and there, might tell you something you don't now, humble and modest. Whereas the DOOM character is more aggressive, on some real take over shit, but still trying to play likes he's a good guy. It's not so much I changed; I just took on another character." A string of creatively inspired singles on the influential Fondle 'Em label in the late 90's heralded DOOM's return. "Being from the underground, there's not so much bureaucracy, you can come out how you wanna come out. It's music straight up and down, if you're good you're good." DOOM sees himself as a conduit for his music. "I try not to tamper with it too much, I'm like the narrator or the spokesman. My music is raw, yet at the same time it can be easy listening." The spontaneity in DOOM's working process whether writing lyrics or building beats, calls to mind the spontaneous prose of Kerouac or the 'cut up' techniques of William Burroughs, in its praise of the purity of the original thought. Nostalgia is a central theme for DOOM: "I love cartoons, I still watch them to this day. I have an 8 year old son, he comes home and we just watch them together," smiles DOOM. "Dexter Laboratory, and of course all the Japanese shit, Dragonball Z, all them ill." DOOM's music harnesses the instinctive, inherent power of childlike thought; "There's no in-between with kids, they're so pure they can feel something if it's fat. As you get older you lose that innocence and purity of the original thought, so called 'growing up'," DOOM ponders. "I mean - you gotta keep that, that's the essence right there." Using his music to test the limits of his mind, DOOM finds creative inspiration in everything he does: "Any artistic genre feeds what I do as a musician, I do paintings, but music inspires my painting, and paintings or art inspires my music. Creativity and imagination is the key to what everybody's trying to figure out on Earth, it's the one thing that bridges everything together. It can solve a lot of problems with all this war and retarded shit that's going on." From the mellow keys of 'Accordion' with Madlib's deft tinkling to the bumping bass groove of 'America's Most Blunted' and the soulful beats of 'Fancy Clown' under his Viktor Vaughan guise, Madvillain sees Madlib on top form providing the freshest, most blunted foils for DOOM's ill flows. "Music is a universal language and I'm trying to show that all of us laugh at the same things, I'm trying to bring us all to more of an understanding. We need to bring this whole thing together," explains DOOM. With their Madvillain double-team, MF DOOM and Madlib have made a sure-fire classic sure to take the world by storm - will anyone dare step try and stop them?
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