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Nice remix of one of the tracks from Hugh's latest EP, One Of These Days. Love the loose feel of this - it's totally in keeping with the bands overall aesthetic but with an added twist.
In a word, this is fucking ace. As yet pretty much unknown Young Guv is actually Ben Cook, guitarist with legendary Toronto hardcore band Fucked Up. As Young Guv he is doing something completely different, more accessible - forthcoming album Ripe 4 Luv is a selection of pop songs.
Whilst the album is allegedly full of 'three-minute wonders' Wrong Crowd is actually a seven-minute long epic pop song. In Cook's own words: "Wrong Crowd' was written on a day off in Australia in a random person's bedroom I found off Facebook to work on music that day. The song is about a man wrongly accused of robbery, writing his wife from prison."
Imagine Blood Orange meets Ariel Pink on a good day. In fact, don't imagine... Just hit play above.
The latest DJ-Kicks album is a somewhat trippy affair. Russian techno DJ Nina Kraviz has taken the reigns on this latest instalment, and she has actively strayed a little from her standard DJing style.
Expect less jacking and more dreamy soundscapes and spoken vocals, suspended in a way that creates an unnerving sense of immovable inertia. The feel of this mix is defined by the disorientating acapella by Egotrip that opens it ("Here your horizons have no limitations, for this... Is you dream world"). At times tracks are cycled through quickly, just to create a momentary mood - the submarine-like sonar from Prototype 909's Atma, for example - before being layered into the tracks that surround them. These are blended in to create a remarkably cohesive sense of progression despite some variety in the styles taken in throughout the mix.
The David Bowie featuring Truth, by Goldie, marks an early surprise, Bowie's vocals seeming to loom out of the fog of techno that proceeds it. The beat-less track is woven into the track that follows, and it is a trick the album repeats. Acapellas are dropped over tracks to build on the disembodied feel of the album - trippy and, in Kraviz's own words, "going nowhere"... A mood inspired by late nights listening to pirate radio, or the sense of sounds being broadcast from space. Tracks like Icelandic producer Exos' Nuclear Red Guard feel alien enough to make the mood stick, full of harsh radio-like bleeps like a 70s take on the future .
Kraviz's mix is a deep, immersive experience, full of obscure favourites she has selected from the past and a number of exclusives from her label (including three she created her self). It is not going to be for everyone, but for fans of her music, and this style of music, it is an experience worth hearing.
Lovely debut track from 22 year old Tamworth singer Silk Cinema. I am a bit head-over-heels with the soft electronic production on this one - sets off the soulful vocals to beautiful effect. Can't wait for more!
101 Reasons is a love letter to 80s funk and groove - an impressively infectious slab of synths melodies and reverb soaked drums.
Marking his debut release for Tru Thoughts, Brighton based J-Felix wastes no time demonstrating his musical affection. This title track sounds like pure 80s joy - smooth vocals sets against synthetic drum pads and rough electro bass lines conjur up memories of some of the decade's best sounds. It's derivative, but effective.
Lady T is a little looser, more hip-hop influenced in its swinging beat, p-funk sounds and vocodered vocals. It is a limbered-up but laid back moment of smooth funk.
Finally the EP is closed out in the form of So Nice (It's Got To Be). Big crescendo orchestral synth kicks, rim shots and filtered vocals are played up to the max - equally retro, but sadly ever so slightly less joyous than those two other offerings. Where Lady T and 101 Reasons feel insistent and urgent, So Nice feels just that... Nice. Still, based on two of the three tracks here, J-Felix has delivered an impressive debut and looks like one to watch!
101 Reasons is released through Tru Thoughts on Monday, but you can grab it now from them directly here. Listen to the title track below.