Cheers Darlin’

September 24th, 2006

Mr. Damien Rice, the Irish acoustic folk extraordinaire, is finally about to deliver the new material we’ve been waiting so long to hear. 9 Crimes is the first single from his upcoming album 9. The single is officially out on 20th November, and the album is out beforehand on 6th November. This is the much anticipated follow up to his 2003 album O - the track listing looks like this…

1. 9 Crimes
2. The Animals Were Gone
3. Elephant
4. Rootless Tree
5. Dogs
6. Coconut Skins
7. Me, My Yoke And I
8. Grey Room
9. Accidental Babies
10. Sleep Don’t Weep

9 Crimes is a beautiful piano ballad, crammed with all the powerfully emotive goodness we’ve come to expect from Damien Rice, check it for yourself…

Damien Rice - 9 Crimes
>> download <<
This download is a sample of the music only and must be deleted from your computer within 24 hours of downloading. This download link will expire on 8th October.

His 2003 album O was truly immense and I really cannot wait to hear 9. I’ve been calling James Blunt the “poor man’s Damien Rice” for a long time now, and I think Damien Rice is about to prove that once more. This talented gentleman has gone from European busker to acoustic folk superstar, and if by chance you’ve never heard of him or his music… you need your head checked. O was easily one of the albums of 2003, so if you don’t own it already, get it bought. Similarly the 2004 album B-Sides was also very good, and I’ll share a track from it now…

Damien Rice - The Professor and la Fille Danse (live at Cornucopia)
>> download <<
This download is a sample of the music only and must be deleted from your computer within 24 hours of downloading. This download link will expire on 8th October.

I’ll bring you more news on the new album, as and when I hear it.

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Track of the Week

September 22nd, 2006

Been another quiet week, and for that I am sorry, so I’ll try and give you plenty of value for your money(!) today. Just really want to start by reiterating an urgent plea from the mother of a very poorly little fella in the UK…

7 year old Keiton Knight was initially diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia, but very recently that has sadly turned into Acute Myeloidblastic Leukaemia and now he must have a Bone marrow Transplant. Time is running out for Keiton and the only way to save his life is to go give blood directly to one of the clinics in London. As Keiton is mixed race (one black and one white parent), his tissue type is very unusual, and as such the donor must also be of mixed race. Specifically the donor must have one black and one white parent, and be between the ages of 18 and 40.

If you believe you can help, please phone the National Blood Service on 0845 7711711. The next drive/clinics, working with the Anthony Nolan Trust, will be held in London during the first two weeks of October - please see the Keiton Knight website for more details. Don’t be scared to put yourself forward as a donor through fear of a painful procedure, for one you could be saving the life of a small child, so the pain should be irrelevant in my book, but actually, one of the procedures for removing the bone marrow stem cells is very simple and near on painless. A small needle will be placed in each arm and the blood is removed from your left arm and is passed through a machine which removes the Stem Cells and the blood is then passed back into your right arm. The procedure takes a few hours tops, and this little boy is desperate for your help - so if you can help, at least by spreading the word of this cause, please do so.

So, still on the job hunt, hence the quiet week on Just Like Music, but I’ve got two tracks for you today. Often I like to share stuff that I’ve had for quite some time, but is still quite obscure - just because something isn’t overly popular, doesn’t mean it isn’t amazing. So first up is a track by Backini, from his/their 2005 album Re:Creation…

Backini - Little Big Horn
>> download <<
This download is a sample of the music only and must be deleted from your computer within 24 hours of downloading. This download link will expire on 6th October.

Fantastic downtempo electronica with a totally experimental sound, and that analysis is based more on the listening experience gained from hearing the full album. So many different sounds involved, and at some points during the album it is almost like a more laid back version of Aphex Twin. If you even remotely like the track above, then you should definitely check out the album Re:Creation. Backini is signed to Lumenessence Recordings in Brighton, England.

The other track I have for you is by Finnish jazz duo SlowHill. These fellas combine the talents of a DJ/Producer and a jazz musician to make funky fresh jazz-hop style creations. The track I have for you today is from their 2003 album Finndisc, that was put out on legendary jazz label BlueNote…

SlowHill - Valo
>> download <<
This download is a sample of the music only and must be deleted from your computer within 24 hours of downloading. This download link will expire on 6th October.

Two tracks right there that you’ll never be likely to hear on the Billboard top 100 - I hope you enjoy them, and if you do, make sure you follow up that interest by visiting some links I’ll put below, and go buy this stuff!

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This is a journey into sound…

September 20th, 2006

I read something the other day and my first thought was “oh no, he’s doing a Shadow”, but I read on a bit further, and somehow I came out at the other end thinking that actually, this could be really good. I’m talking about RJD2’s decision to dump hip-hop (and Def Jux) to join the label XL for his new electro-rock album. “Wha?!” might be your response, but you did read right.

This new album, so far un-named and not due out till early next year, will have a minimal amount of samples and will see RJD2 playing all the instruments. Apparently he learnt to play a lot of instruments when he was at high school, but the idea for the new album was born out of frustration during the making of 2004’s Since We Last Spoke. RJD2 said that he would spend so much time digging for records, then listening to those records, just to find a particular sounding sample and he thought it would be so much easier if he just created the sound via an actual instrument.

RJD2’s split with Def Jux is supposedly amicable, yet this deal with XL is not a one off, he has signed for a considerable amount of time. Still, XL have played host to some great acts over the years; The Prodigy, Badly Drawn Boy, The Avalanches, and Ratatat, to name some - so with their emphasis as a label on electronica and rock, RJD2 cant go wrong in that department. Although the new record is yet to be mixed, 39 songs have been recorded for it, RJD2 and his team now just need to chop that down to the 13 or 14 strongest tracks, and they are done. As I mentioned before, they are aiming for around spring 2007 for release.

A return to hip-hop sometime in the future hasn’t been ruled out, but for now RJD2 would like to just follow the path he can see unfolding before him. He did cheekily slag off his old work though, claiming that from an engineering stand point they were “jokes” - he felt they were perhaps too artificial. He also claimed that between 1998 and 2003 the only two decent records to be made were D’Angelo’s Voodoo and the Poets of Rhythm’s Discern/Define - that is to say from a production point of view. So if there’s anything we can expect from this new RJD2 material, it’s that it will be well produced.

Have something old…

RJD2 - June (Remix)
>> download <<
This download is a sample of the music only and must be deleted from your computer within 24 hours of downloading. This download link will expire on 4th October.

You seen Microsoft’s new mp3 player Zune? I’ve read all the hype, studied the specs, watched the videos, I am a bit of a gadget freak - but I’m one of those people that reads up to the max, then comes to a conclusion (and apologies to any MS employees that might read this), but frankly I feel that buying one of these first generation Zune’s will be money wasted. For less money you can buy an iPod with a larger capacity, the Zune has the wireless sharing thing going on, but the chances of knowing many other “early adopters” that you can share with, is gonna be unlikely. I think the Zune could potentially be fantastic, but I for one will hold out till it is slimmer, has a larger hard disk, and more functions.

Apparently Britney will be rapping on her new album, I can literally hear her scraping the bottom of a barrel from here.

My super dope friend in Hollywood wants to let you hear Beck’s new single Nausea, so here you go, stream it away kids… Beck - Nausea.

Remember I said I would try to find the Danger Mouse remix(es) of Paris Hilton’s stuff? I found one. It’s just that track off the video, and it was originally 40 minutes long! The edit I have is bout 15 minutes long, I wont upload it, trust me it isn’t worth it, you aren’t missing out. Just a few samples of Paris saying “that’s hot” over the same tune for 15 minutes.

I’ve heard Bonobo’s new album Days To Come and I have to say it is amazing. Like a cross between Dial ‘M’ For Monkey and the Live Sessions, but with lots of female singing. It’s due out next month on Ninja Tune and I demand that you purchase it.

Right, leave me alone now, I better get back to my job hunt.

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Unearthing MySpace Gems

September 17th, 2006

Time to see what good has come of MySpace recently. I have five pages (as ever) to share with you this week. A quick reminder on how this weekly feature works; all pages featured have had less than 10,000 page-views. If you know of any artists on MySpace, with less than that many page-views, that you think I should feature, please let me know. You can either email me to the address at the left, or send me a message and/or friends request (if you are an artist or band) at my personal MySpace page or the >>just like music MySpace page.

Nathan Melsted - http://www.myspace.com/nathanmelsted

I first heard Nathan Melsted’s music as it played whilst I was watching the Ahree Lee video “Me” on YouTube. I decided to delve a bit deeper and I found Nathan’s MySpace page… I’m glad I did. The track used on that video is listed as Soundtrack for Me on Nathan’s page, it’s an eerie and beautiful electronic piece, full of ambiance. You should check out the other two tracks on Nathan’s MySpace page too, each bursting with ethereal creativity.

UNDER - http://www.myspace.com/underthemusic

UNDER are an indie electronica trio playing out of San Francisco. Their acoustic angle on downtempo indie electronica is a breath of fresh air. As can be heard on Cars Below, Jen Triano’s soothing vocals compliment the drums of Ricky Carter and keys of Eamonn Flynn beautifully. As we speak there are just two tracks on their MySpace page, but a four track EP was released just last month, so if you want to hear more, there’s how.

Ihokas - http://www.myspace.com/ihokasmp3

Some strange sounds coming from Finland. Ihokas is an experimental electronica artist and he’s been doing his thing since the 90s. The Ihokas sound wont be for everybody, but within this finely crafted electronic niché I’m sure many fans will appear out of the woodwork - think of a subdued combination of Kraftwerk and Aphex Twin, but with plenty more sounds and samples. The track Slow Freak might be a nice starting point.

Ribside - http://www.myspace.com/ribside

Clive Booth is Ribside, an experimental electronica dude from the UK. Just check out that John Nettles track, I think it really speaks for itself and explains what Ribside is all about. Crazy electronic samples, vintage vocal samples, killer beats - all wrapped up beautifully in a bizarre, yet perfect, harmony. Clive Booth is creating original sounding electronica tracks that ooze atmospherics and scream at you in a cinematic tone. Listen to all the tracks, I urge you, specially Daring Wife In London.

Chinatown - http://www.myspace.com/chinatownuk

Chinatown is a soul funk jazz band playing out of London, and they actually feature the vocals of previously featured MySpace Gem Inga-Lill. These guys have a nice energy about their music, not so much from an explosive point of view, but more from the appreciation of how the sounds come together. Check Optional Extras and Lemonade to see if you get what I mean - the tracks are laid back, but sound raw and very complete. There’s not enough soul funk being made these days, but Chinatown are certainly carrying the flag well.

Lots of different sounds for you to explore this week, so open that mind nice and wide, and jump right in. Be sure to add these fine artists to your MySpace friends list and leave them all lots of nice comments.

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Well Planned Randomness

September 17th, 2006

Hello. Software eh? I cant 100% be certain that my current state of anguish is the fault of one last.fm, but all I know is that my iTunes was fine, then I had to upgrade the last.fm software. I re-opened iTunes afterwards and my library was empty, all playlists gone, all podcasts gone, it basically looked like a fresh install of iTunes. Don’t worry, the actual mp3s were still on my computer, but still a major pain in the arse having your library wiped. On a similar note I’d heard bout lots of problems with the new iTunes (version 7, until this point I was still using 6) - tales of lagging, skipping, and general failing. I was planning to hold off installing it, but I figured things couldn’t get much worse after my library incident. Anyway, I installed v7 and honest to god, it has been fine. Maybe they fixed the issues?

So this new iTunes, if you hate lots of big graphics and unnecessary menu frameworks, don’t bother with it - use foobar2000. If the aforementioned qualities leave you drooling over your keyboard, go for it! They have this new cover browser feature, the idea being that it feels like you are actually flicking through your own CD collection… well it doesn’t, it’s a totally useless feature, but it does look good and we live in a world built around attractive aesthetics, so indulge. Only thing I had to do to get this new feature to work was go through my library and replace all the tiny artwork with versions around 400 x 400px, this was so they didn’t appear pixelated in the cover browser view. Essentially this new version of iTunes was created to support the new feature of downloading tv shows and films from the iTunes store. Aside from that it leans more towards the user that has nothing but full albums on their pc, so if you are one of those people with thousands of single tracks, you might find the new features frustrating.

It’s amazing how quickly ‘we’ become attached to mod cons, I mentioned a couple of months ago that when MySpace went down for a whole day the worlds population of teenagers were having synchronised anxiety attacks, well to be honest, and maybe just for a minute, I felt practically numb when I saw my iTunes library had been wiped. Imagine how I’d feel if I lost 10,000 tracks?! Even just the thought of how much time it would take to rip a lot of music from CD all over again makes me feel ill. Still, and I failed to mention this before, the new iTunes has an option to backup your whole music collection to CD or DVD, and if your collection is bigger than one DVD iTunes will create a series of discs for you. I will be using this feature!

In other news, a compilation CD of John Peel’s favourite tracks between 1977 to 1987 is being released. The compilation will be called John Peel - Right Time, Wrong Speed: 1977 - 1987 and it is due out on 9th October. It will be a double CD featuring such artists as; Buzzcocks, The Cure, The Jam, Joy Division, Cocteau Twins, The Smiths, Grandmaster Flash, and The Fall.

More news on the Mercury Prize, nothing to do with Arctic Monkeys this time! Apparently a Mercury Prize for kids is being launched to coincide with National Music Week. School pupils will get to decide between ten British acts from varying genres, then the winner will be announced on 31st October after the National Music Week (16th to 20th October). The incentive, organised in tandem by the Government and the music industry, is to encourage better music education in schools.

This week expect a review of Ty’s soon to drop album Closer, I think it will be a good read, so don’t miss it. Thanks to all the people that have read my recent reviews and left comments on them, I appreciate it. I’m still on the job hunt - if anyone out their wants to employ me, please give me a shout! But once things calm down a bit I’ll try and get some more interviews arranged. Plus it’s only two weeks till the Parklife festival, so I’ll do a write-up of that, let you all know just how good Coldcut, Cut Chemist, and Mix Master Mike were! For now I will leave you with something interesting, and please bear in mind that I’m not a fan of country music, but sometimes you cant ignore certain angles on genres…

Lambchop - Cracker
>> download <<
This download is a sample of the music only and must be deleted from your computer within 24 hours of downloading. This download link will expire on 30th September.

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