Three cheers for midweek drinking

Can I hear three cheers for midweek drinking?! One of the few good things about being self-employed is that I can go out on school nights (when I plan it properly of course..). And the most exciting artists always happen to been in town during the week, probably to cater for the enormous student population here in Cardiff. So in order to see some of my favorite bands and DJs in the flesh I have to endure hours of feeling old! It almost puts me off going, but I really want to go see the following men, who are in my opinion some of the more innovating men in the genre of subtle electronic music today...

Tomorrow (that's a Wednesday) i'm going to see a duo called Mount Kimbie at the Cardiff Arts Institute. Luckily my friend was wise enough to buy us tickets, because it sold out pretty quickly. I really like their hypnotic, organic sound and I'm curious how things will come across live. Hopefully the beanbags are still around at CAI..


Mount Kimbie - Tunnelvision. Get it here (YSI).

I'm happy to see a fellow Dutchie coming to Cardiff this Thursday when Martyn plays Buffalo Bar. He's a genre bending composer and producer, and he has done remixes for some big names on the scene. He describes his music as "music for a warm but rainy day", which is a perfect description. Apparently he used to live very close to me in Rotterdam, as he named his label after the zip code: 3024. And apparently he's buddies with my former art teacher Erosie, who designed the cover for his album.


Kode 9 - You Don't Wash (Martyn's Scrub Vocal). Get it here (YSI).

Third cheer is for James Blake who will grace us Cardiffians with his presence on Thursday November 25th. I'm severly addicted to his track CMYK but his latest single Limit To Your Love (a Feist cover) is 'not bad' either. As is the video.

Hear the sub go boom

I must confess I wasn't too impressed with Katy B when I saw her singing along with DJ Zinc, last year at the Warehouse Project in Manchester. Maybe it was too R&B, too garage-y (?) for my taste. But her debut solo single, produced by Lord of Dubstep Benga... Oof, what a banger. And what a thrill it was to play this track and hear the sub at Rotown go BOOM last Friday!


Katy B - Katy on a Mission. Get it here (YSI).

the foxy golden girl

Blanche, she's here!! Not shaped like an old lady, but like a mobile soundsystem.


We took a very boring grey walker, spray-painted it pink and kitted it out with alot of gear and now we can make alot of noise, everywhere! We stroll behind the walker in style while playing a happy mix of boogaloo, reggae, soul, dancehall, dub and all the other things that make you feel sooo good!!

It's all in our coconutsmix. Have a listen here.

To celebrate the birth of Blanche we will be going for a loong walk in Berlin this summer. We will hit every spot we can and keep you posted on everything that is going on. So if you're in Berlin this summer.. Come boogie with us!

hark!

I realized it has been TWO MONTHS since I last posted some music here! Not good. But I've got loads of good tunes I want to force upon you after my recent session of what we call "harken" (= Dutch for raking) on the Hype Machine. On this website you'll find all the MP3s that are posted on music blogs, it's a goldmine!! Now HARK!

I start off with this sweet indie tune coming from musicwise-the-hottest-place-on-earth: Brooklyn NY.

The Drums - Let's Go Surfing. Get it here (YSI).
I came across loads of tunes with this fuzzy shoegazy late 80's/early 90's sound. If you like it have a listen to Liechtenstein, Dum Dum Girls, The Mayfair Set, Pomegranates and of course Vivian Girls and The Pains of Being Pure At Heart. Is this going to be the sound of 2010?? Hmmm...

Now a cross-over project that actually works! Blues rockers The Black Keys do it with some of the best rappers around, among which Raekwon, Mos Def, Pharoahe Monch and Ludacris. They even brought Ol'Dirty Bastard back from the dead!

Blakroc - Coochie Coo (feat. Mos Def and Jim Jones).
Get it here (YSI).

More great hip hop from Kidz in the Hall. This a track from their new album, which will be released in March. Via Squeegie.

Kidz In The Hall - Jukebox. Get it here (YSI).



South Rakkas Crew feat. Serocee - So It Go.
There is more where this came from! The nice fellows at Mad Decent are giving away South Rakkas Crew's new album The Stimulus Package for FREE! Get it here!

My dearest Schlachthofbronx teaming up with Playdoe's Spoek... this must be good. And it is. Love that drum band sound! May be not everybody's cup of tea, but definitely mine!!

Schlachthofbronx - Ayoba (feat. Spoek and Gnucci Banana).

Get it here (YSI).

The one and only Uffie's back, now f*ck off Ke$ha!!!!
Via Rutger, thanks!

Uffie - MCs Can Kiss (Original). Get it here (YSI).

Usually dubstep is a serious matter, dark and grim. But this spoof of Caspa's remix of TC's Where's My Money? is a good laugh. Via You Can Call Me Pelski.

Parker - Where's my monkey? Get it here (YSI).

Kuduro Riddims

Woohoooo, tomorrow morning I'll be off to Manchester for what might well be THE best party of the year. Annie Mac invited the creme de la creme of DJs and artists around to play at the Warehouse project, a temporary club under Piccadilly Station. It's going to be an exhausting night with live performances by Major Lazer and Buraka Som Sistema, and Toddla T, Fakeblood, Skream, Boy 8-Bit and DJ Zinc behind the decks!!!!! More exclamation marks: !!!!!!!!!

I think this is a very exciting time for dance music, with rhythms and musical elements from all over the world seeping into mainstream club music, entering the dance floor and making us shake our booties. Take tomorrow's artists for example. Diplo, the guy who played an important role in bringing baile funk out of the favelas of Rio de Janeiro, has now turned to dancehall with his latest project Major Lazer, in collaboration with Switch. With great success. Also Toddla T has a taste for Jamaican riddims (as well as for club house and garage). Buraka Som Sistema brings us kuduro, a genre which originated in Angola and was later transported to Portugal (its colonizer). And apparently kuduro is now huge in France, thanks to the substantial Cape Verde community. I stumbled on a selection of some excellent kuduro tracks at the Masala blog (a great blog BTW, even though I can only read half of it - they're from Montreal, so most is written in French). I pass two of those tracks on over here, both by Angolian artists. It's raw. Very raw. But that's how I like it!

Dog Murras - Midexa. Get it here (YSI).

Noite E Dia - Tiramakossa. Get it here (YSI).

Taken off the compilation Akwaaba Sem Transporte.

a hymn to Cymru

In my last blog post I was whining about how much I missed Holland. Here we are, a week later and the homesick feelings have vanished. It must have been my hiking trip along the Pembrokeshire coast. Absolutely STUNNING. Not exactly rock 'n roll, but it is wild and rugged, hell yeah. And such friendly people. The bus driver, our neighbour at the campsite, the farmer… Oh so sweet I wanted to take them home with me!

Another plus about Wales is that the Welsh love singing. The singing during a rugby game is deafening! Wales has spawned some very famous singers: Tom Jones, Shirley Bassey and let's not forget the notorious Charlotte Church. Wales is also pretty well represented when it comes to the female singers who have been dominating the (indie)charts lately. Duffy, Adele (okay okay, she’s only half Welsh) and more recently Marina & the Diamonds and Ellie Goulding. I really dig the latter one. She is a folky singer songwriter, who fiddles with electronics. And like every other self-respecting female singer using electronics, there just has to be a dubstep remix. Her's is done by Jakwob. It isn't as massive as "the other one", but still very good.

Ellie Goulding feat. Frankmusic – Wish I Stayed. Get it here (YSI).

Ellie Goulding - Starry Eyed (Jakwob Remix). Get it here (YSI).

our latest flame

Dutch Dolls on both sides of The Channel are digging LA ROUX, with her flaming hairdo and a voice that makes the windows crack. As described on her Last.fm page she really is a 'siren'... If you haven't already heard it, have a listen and you'll hear what we mean. But it works sooo well with her electropoppy tunes! We're especially digging the godfather-of-dubstep-Skream remix of In For The Kill!

La Roux - In For The Kill (Skreams Let's Get Ravey Remix)
Download it here (YSI).

On her website you can sign up for her mailinglist and you'll get two MP3s for FREE, weehoo!