30 Apr 2013

GWTF 15: Bookfiend


I reviewed Child Of Lov's album for Buzz last month on the strength that it had a DOOM verse on one song.

Thankfully a different track has been doing the rounds, a collaboration with A$AP Rocky's best beatmaker, Clams Casino...



Props for "Netflix to the head" line and extra props for Clams Casino's SoundCloud name.

24 Apr 2013

The 5 Second Rule


Many writers more erudite than me have explored the ways that technology and the internet have altered the consumption of music.

But I think we can all agree there is simply no way of keeping up with the tsunami of tunes. If a song doesn't hook a little after one play then it's lost at sea. That's if it gets played all the way through.

I heard the guy who made the Wonderbra advert talking on the radio a few weeks ago. Trevor Beattie was announcing the death of the 30 second TV advert, proselytising about the 5 second advert (coincidentally the amount of time before you can skip an advert on YouTube if you don't have the right plug-in).

I've been tossing this around in my head and I think it applies to music too. I've only just got around to listening to Mike G's Chanel. I've had the EP for yonks but the intro sounds like some shitty house track that I always skip before he starts rhyming. I'm sure I'm not the only trigger-happy listener.Will this skipping atmosphere, this "tapas experience" as Beattie puts it start affecting how producers compose their music?

One new track that definitely plays all its cards straight away is Computer Jay and Gaslamp Killer's womping Sundial Meltdown (hotlink via XLR8R). It makes its point, wibbles and wobbles a bit but tells you everything you need to know pretty quickly.



Fuck it, maybe prog'll make a comeback.

20 Apr 2013

Mike Tyson, De La Soul & A Huge Yellow Thing

After listening to Daft Punk's Get Lucky for the fifth time on the walk to Gôl, shuffle spat out De La Soul's Keepin' The Faith from 1991's De La Soul Is Dead.
It may have been the sun, it may have been Mike Tyson's Black Energy fizzing through me or it may have been that I was on my way to play 5-A-Side but Keepin' The Faith just felt perfect (despite being on Penarth Road) and that summer might actually exist.


[Right-click and "Download Document" for the mp3 of Keepin' The Faith by De La Soul]

19 Apr 2013

Missing Thunder


I'm ashamed to say that due to my hedonistic Wednesday night, I missed Thunder Soul at Open Cinema Cardiff on Thursday. Hangovers last for days now.

Pretty bummed as it looks like a fantastic documentary on the much sampled Kashmere Stage Band and they even had the director of it chatting on Skype afterwards.

One such record that uses a KSB sample is the fabulous Holy Calamity (Bear Witness II) by Handsome Boy Modelling School feat. DJ Shadow and DJ Quest.



Open Cinema is a free film club held in the Loudoun Square Culture & Media Centre on Bute Street and the rest of their season is as follows...
  • Thursday 25th April 2013 = Amreeka
  • Thursday 2nd May 2013 = The Artist
  • Thursday 9th May 2013 = The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
  • Thursday 16th May 2013 = Hope Springs
  • Thursday 23rd May 2013 = Life Of Pi

18 Apr 2013

Giddy Before Metronomy

I went down 10 Feet Tall last night to catch Anna from Metronomy's DJ set.
My memory is a little hazy (that'll be the £2 Kraken and cokes) but I remember Millionaire slamming into Try Again, the baffling sight of humanities students trying to bump to Do The Astral Plane, lots of Phoenix and a slight school disco vibe...
The highlight though was before the night really kicked off, tearing up the empty dancefloor to Giddy Stratospheres by The Long Blondes, a stone-cold indie disco classic that threw me straight back to my first year of university.


[Right-click and "Download Document" for the mp3 of Giddy Stratospheres]

I also have no voice from an overenthusiastic rendition of Thong Song. Good times.