Tired and Ill :-(

I'm feeling tired and ill today. So no 'proper' blog entry for today, I'm afraid. You can blame the World Cup, if you like. Being here in Australia has meant that the games have been live around midnight, 2am, and 5am. And now I have a bloody cold too. I'm never ill, but it must be cos of the sleep loss. How privileged must you feel? You finish checking 300 other more important sites, then think "ah, I'll see what that div-kid is talking bout … [read more]

The Phantom Bits & Pieces

News, news, news, just for you, you ,you. Oh, and probably some cynical commentary from yours truly, as well. As ever, if you have any music related news to share, don't be shy. I don't bite that hard.

Top Of The Pops axed! After 42 years, the BBC's weekly popular music show; Top Of The Pops, has been axed. I probably watched this show quite regularly till I was about 12 years old, but then it was aimed at the youngsters really. I'm not gonna … [read more]

Badly Drawn Boy

Time for another showcase of an artist I've listed to tonnes, according to last.fm. Today it is Badly Drawn Boy – last.fm states that I've listened to him 477 times since 8th February 2005. But what can I tell you bout this English singer/songwriter? I can tell you this…

Badly Drawn Boy is the alter-ego of Damon Gough, a 36 year old singer/songwriter from Manchester. Essentially his music is indie rock, and somewhere along the line I became to really like it. I'm a … [read more]

Cadence – Creative Commerce

Happy Monday to you all. Thought I'd start the week by reviewing a new hip-hop album. It's by Cadence, one half of the group Raw Produce. Cadence is a producer/DJ/emcee from Massachusetts, he's been doing his thing since 1995 and released the album The Feeling of Now, by Raw Produce, in 2003. Now he is back, on his own, and has just recently released Creative Commerce on Domination Recordings.

For any hip-hop fans that have never heard of Raw Produce, … [read more]

Unearthing MySpace Gems

By now I'm sure you all know the score; I give to you five MySpace pages that are nothing but quality, you check them out, then you become so grateful that you give me all your money… probably. Anyway, for those of you that aren't familiar; all of the artists and groups I feature have one thing (at least) in common; all 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 … [read more]

UK Hip-Hop – Uncovered

I thought today I'd open some eyes to the brighter side of something viewed as being slightly… shit. Yup, UK hip-hop. By anyone that doesn't take an active interest in the UK game, it is dismissed as a pretty poor British slant on a more global (or American) genre. Granted if you listen to commercial radio or watch Channel U, then you'll be witnessing quite a lot of grime, esky-beat, and generally midi-produced beats with substandard vocals. However, there is some good stuff, you … [read more]

Track of the Week

I've come to the conclusion that the reason I haven't been giving you 'new' tracks as my Track of the Week is because when I discover a new track or artist, I tend to make a separate blog entry about them – then it doesn't feel right making the track of the week a track by an artist I only mentioned a few days previously. God, I'm so damn considerate. Anyway, another classic track for you this week…

Aim – Cold Water Music
>> download… [read more]

The Cinematic Orchestra

Previously I have showcased artists that are (or have been) in my top ten most played artists, as recorded by last.fm, those were; The Herbaliser and Roots Manuva. Well, today I present to you The Cinematic Orchestra. Since February 2005 I have listened to them over 300 times on my laptop – so I'd say they're definitely worth a paragpraph or two.

The Cinematic Orchestra are made up of six members; Jason Swinscoe, Patrick Carpenter, Tom Chant, Luke Flowers, John Ellis, and … [read more]

Return of The Bits & Pieces

Just some midweek bits and pieces for you to digest. If you have any interesting, or amusing, stories with regards to music that you would like to share – let me know and I’ll add them with the ones below. But, here’s what I’ve got…

Stones Throw: Ten Years – The legendary underground hip-hop label have announced the imminent release of a CD/2LP that will contain a compilation of some of their best releases over the past ten years, and will also include some never … [read more]