you're fucking out. DELS fucking in.

DELS is a London hip hop mc and self-confessed comic nerd who i'm pretty excited about. With production from the likes of Micachu, Joe Hot Chip and Eli-T, coupled with a flow reminiscent of the early 90s heyday of hip hop, he seems to be a cut above the rest of the UK's otherwise hit and miss hip hop offerings. His eclectic range of influences, including Pharcyde's drop video, pirate radio, David Lynch and Where The Wild Things Are come through in his genre-defying sound.Apparently not content with groundbreaking crossover collaborations, he's determined to push the boundaries in other areas, and his live show is renowned for being that little bit more innovative. Speaking with RWD earlier this month he said:
"I want to inject this whole visual element onstage; I want DELS to be as much about visual as it is audio. I used to dilute my music all the time, but then I thought ‘Fuck it, I’m just going to do what’s in my head', Thankfully people seem to like it."
Look out for his upcoming release Shapeshift, featured on Kwesachu Mixtape Vol. 1, alongside Golden Silvers, The XX & Ghost Poet, which you can listen to here.

Behind the Scenes of... Dels & Joe (Hot Chip)- Shapeshift from us (design studio) on Vimeo.

DELS also currently contributes to A Tribe Called Next, a blog definitely worth taking a look at.

short attention span

Short Attention Span is a free lo-fi compilation put out by Methodist Leisure Inc, an organisation run almost entirely by one 19 yr old in his loughborough bedroom. The half hour, 48 track collection sounds something like the mind of a schizophrenic dropout who's just taken a fuckload of speed and stayed in watching low budget horror films i.e. REALLY FUCKING FUN.

Featuring a wide array of underground lo-fi artists such as Japanther, The Death Set, Vivian Girls, PENS, and Best Fwends, as well as many lesser known acts, this is possibly the definitive megamix of noise and 'spaz-anthems'.

Download it for free tomorrow (28th sept, world rabies day) from Methodist Leisure Inc.

what's big, pink and hard?

a pig with a flick-knife wheyyyyyyyyy.

i've never really got into the whole shoegaze thing, its not that i don't like what i've heard i've just never really set time aside to get into it. recent bands like the raveonettes and glasvegas have attempted to emulate the shoegaze sound with varying degrees of success, but none of these have managed to grab my attention and adulation quite like the big pink have.

the big pink are a duo from london who blend spellbinding white noise and reverb with epic electronic beats and lyrics about breaking hearts. they've already toured with tv on the radio and they're starting to get all the right kind of attention from blogs and the media alike.

you can download their upcoming single dominos from their website for free, which you should definitely do because its fucking fantastic and the chorus will be cemented in your brain for a good few days. also velvet, which featured on the mixtape i posted this week, is a must-listen. here's a few for you to download:

The Big Pink - Too Young To Love

The Big Pink – Velvet

The Big Pink – Velvet (Gang Gang Dance Remix)

Esser – Headlock (The Big Pink Remix)

school's out!

thursday meant the end of sparknotes cramming hell and the start of what's set to be a fantasssstic summer. i was lucky enough to have my celebratory night soundtracked by a collection of amazing bands at liverpool sound city festival's american showcase night. here's the highlights!

BLACK LIPS

i'd wanted to see black lips for a very long time and finally got the opportunity here. they did NOT disappoint as they charged through a raucous and overwhelmingly fun set, with stagedives and full-mouth gold grills thrown in for good measure. i would advise everyone to go see them if they get a chance. here's a video of the live show that got them thrown out of india, and their new album to download and BUY if you like what you hear.

black lips - 200 million thousand

CRYSTAL ANTLERS

this is a band i'd heard good things about but never actually given a proper listen. their live show blew me away, and i had their epic stoner-rock anthem 'a thousand eyes' in my head for a good 24 hours. see if it sticks with you.

Crystal Antlers - A Thousand Eyes (mp3)

TITUS ANDRONICUS

between the dazed ramblings of the quite clearly stoned and hairy guitarist, these boys blasted out epic (i use that word too much), shambolic shouty guitar rock. i couldn't help sing along the shameless theme tune to the epicepicepic second half of their fear and loathing in mahwah, nj.

the fact that they come from new jersey was a bonus for me too, as right now it seems i cream myself at anything remotely sopranos related.

here's fear and loathing in mahwah, nj. scattaaaaaaa!

cannot. fucking. wait.

Watch the full concert at baeblemusic.com

fuckin' hipsterz.

http://lookatthisfuckinghipster.tumblr.com



with my recent discovery and appreciation of noise rock i decided to mooch down to manchester last night with barely a penny to my name to the deaf institute, where l.a.'s HEALTH were putting on a show at the 'now wave' clubnight. they were pretty impressive. listening to them on their myspace i found it difficult to get into as a lot of it is, as the genre description suggests, noise. but seeing it live was a different story. they threwwww themselves around the stage along to mangled noises i have no idea how anybody would begin to create. it's difficult to describe their sound but think of about 2938479 guitar effects along to tribal sounding drums and your almost there. here's a track by them but like i say, its difficult to appreciate on a recording.





HEALTH - Die Slow (right click to download)


anyway steering away from noise rock and into more familiar territory for me, here's a remix of sebastien tellier's 'kilometer' by electro extraordinaires aeroplane. this isn't exactly new to the blog world but i recently realised how amazing the synth breakdown about two thirds in is. giveitalistennnn.


Sebastien Tellier - Kilometer (Aeroplane Italo '84 Remix) (mediafire)


and finally, a bit of classic hip hop from the fannnnntastic big l.







enjoy!

liPs 2 DA fLooR

back in liverpool now. its good to be back with ridiculous amounts of time to waste flicking ash in the wrong wine bottle.
i made a few rash purchases last night, finally bought my usb mixer i've had my eyes on for months which is good. but it now means i have fuck all money for the rest of the week so i can foresee a lot of time sat in my room losing my mind and downloading too much music.
the past few days i've been slowly getting into a lot of noisy american garage punk stuff. the one that stands out for me is wavves. it's the one man noise rock project of nathan williams. he's been compared to other californian garage bands like no age and HEALTH, all associated with the LA venue The Smell. his songs make me want to bask in the californian sun and take up skateboarding again. here's a track from his latest album, Wavvves. never before has noise been so fun.





Wavves - So Bored (MP3) - (right click to download)


x

day one.

photo by cinnamon,,,

so this is my first ever blog post. i think it'll be a while until i find my blogging feet or whatever but for starters i'll just say hello and try and work out what i'm gonna be using it for.

basically i'll be posting whatever i'm enjoying at the time in the hope that other people can enjoy good things as much as i enjoy good things. cause good things are the best kind of things at the end of the day.

i'm thinking it'll mostly be music but expect ramblings on films, books, fashion and pretty much anything else i have an opinion on.

i'm probably doing this more for myself than others. call me selfish but there you go.

suppose i might as well give people something whilst i'm here, so i'll start with a band i was introduced to yesterday.

since last summer i've sort of lost touch with the whole indie scene. i mean back in the day i was a huge indie kid, and i obviously still love a lot of the stuff i was into back then, but after broadening my horizons over the last couple of years to stuff like hip hop and more electronic music, i've swayed more towards that sort of stuff and i'm sure a lot of quality bands have passed me by.

so anyway my friend sally brought round this new album by the decemberists, and its like i've remembered how to enjoy bands who play their own instruments again. they make these epic songs swooping between jaunty old-fashioned accordians and apocalyptic breakdowns that verge on heavy metal but with more pianos and actual singing. having only heard their newest album i can't really comment on their back-catalogue, but i've been told this is quite a new direction for them musically and much different from their earlier more folky sounding

material.

but this new album, hazards of love is put together reallllly well,

with all the songs flowing together like one big epic song, and this ties in with the running story of the album, "the tale of a woman named Margaret who is ravaged by a shape-shifting animal; her lover, William; a forest queen; and a cold-blooded, lascivious rake" (yeah i used wikipedia to paraphrase.) i particularly love tracks 8 and 10, the wanting comes in waves/repaid and the rake's song, just so epic and darrrrk.

having only discovered this group yesterday, i can't really speak with much authority on them, so in the words of girls aloud i'll let the funky music do the talking:

download the album here

The Decemberists - The Hazards Of Love (2009)

1. Prelude

2. The Hazards of Love 1 (The Prettiest Whistles Won't Wrestle the Thistles Undone)

3. A Bower Scene

4. Won't Want for Love (Margaret in the Taiga)

5. The Hazards of Love 2 (Wager All)

6. The Queen's Approach

7. Isn't It a Lovely Night?

8. The Wanting Comes in Waves/Repaid

9. An Interlude

10. The Rake's Song

11. The Abduction of Margaret

12. The Queen's Rebuke/The Crossing

13. Annan Water

14. Margaret in Captivity

15. The Hazards of Love 3 (Revenge!)

16. The Wanting Comes in Waves (Reprise)

17. The Hazards of Love 4 (The Drowned)

(for a synopsis of the plot of the album go here)