Comment: mflow enables you to monetize good taste

in

So BlackPlastic love to recommend music. Aside from covering music here we are also kinda playlist whores on Spotify and like to bend the ear of anyone that will listen in real life due to the compulsion that comes from trying to find someone the favourite song they've never yet heard. We can get quite competitive. Which makes mflow as a concept a little bit perfect.

If you haven't check it out it enables you to connect with friends and other users and 'flow' (i.e. recommend) tracks to people. Your followers then get to listen to the track and, even better, if they buy it then you as the 'flow-er' get a kick back to spend on more music on the mflow store. It's actually relatively easy to get credit - BlackPlastic sold a couple of songs before we'd even bought any music - and so if you got lots of followers you could almost certainly fund you habit. Pretty much all the music you can buy is DRM-free and thus iTunes friendly.

The downsides? Sadly to flow a whole track (rather than a sample) then you gotta buy the full track on mflow. It's understandable yet still inevitably a frustration if you have tens of thousands of MP3s already that you can't flow to your followers. Also you can only listen to a track someone flows once. It is early days but the catalogue is noticeably smaller than other MP3 stores and even Spotify, though we expect this will get better.

Still - if you enjoy sharing music as much as BlackPlastic does it's definitely worth checking out. If you give it a go add BlackPlastic - we will be trying to flow as much music as possible based on what we blog about so it will be an easy way to check out samples.

BP x

Video: Don't Be Late - Heretics

in

Heretics are a new synth pop band from bath with hints of post-punk, shoegaze and electro. They are currently working on their debut album but in the meantime you should check out their video to 'Don't Be Late' above. Think Frankie Goes To Hollywood getting into a fight with Gary Numan.

BP x

Album Review: Movement In A Storm - James Yuill

in ,

Okay, BlackPlastic admits it. There are times when we would much rather a hug with the right person, a sweater and a cup of tea than a night out on the sauce raving past dawn. Maybe we are getting old. Maybe it is just all about maintaining a balanced lifestyle.

Either way, some of BlackPlastic's favourite music is the stuff that sounds like it has been made for listening to whilst wearing sweaters and hugging cute girls on dance floors. And that is exactly the type of music that James Yuill makes.

Stuck midway between Hot Chip and Metronomy, Movement In A Storm is a needy thinking man's electronic soundtrack bliss. Last year's popular Prins Thomas mix of 'This Sweet Love' is as good an introduction to Yuill's work as any. It doesn't feature here but the same considered melodies run throughout 'Foreign Shore' and beyond.

What makes Movement In A Storm so great is the combination of musical flourishes - check the the twinkling bells and crunchy thick bass lines that open 'On Your Own' - and gut wrenching lyrics. These really are songs to well-up to: 'Ray Gun' is without doubt the sweetest song BlackPlastic has heard that is named after fictional weaponry and it is Yuill's lyrics that betray his innocence as he croons "Never was my ray gun on you". Geeky, sure - but that is kind of the point.

Movement In A Storm lacks the utterly irresistible immediacy of it's predecessor Turning Down Water For Air insofar as there being nothing quite as thrillingly head-over-heals-in-love as 'Left Handed Girl'. Yet what you do get is, in essence, more of the same with a bit less instant accessibility but a bit more consideration. And when it is this good BlackPlastic won't complain - we'll be on the dancefloor in a cardigan.

On that note, if you haven't checked out 'Left Handed Girl' then you really should - it is on Spotify.

BP x

Single Review: Stay Wild - KNIIFE PRRTY

in ,

Following up on last year's eponymous debut album KNIIFE PRRTY are back with new single 'Stay Wild' and, to be honest, BlackPlastic is of the opinion this blows everything else they have done away.

Filled with interesting time signatures and whispered vocals this really delivers a level of subtlety that their previous material was screaming for. 'Stay Wild' is the sound of the world enveloping you in chaos at the point where you realise that to fight it would just be futile, and we think it's kind of lush - the IDM feel has been really ramped up on this one.

The artwork, designed by Kevin Nelson for Constructiv Art and Design, is kind of ace too and fits the track perfectly.

You can listen to the full track over at KNIIFE PRRTY's Bandcamp - remember to pay for it if you like it.

BP x

MP3: Water's Edge - Greg Paulus

in

Hopefully wherever you are this weekend the weather is as good as it is for BlackPlastic this weekend. Whilst soaking up the sun few things are better than a soundtrack of dubby house and as such we're extra stoked to be able to share this track from Greg Paules' What's Mine Is Yours EP.

Paulus originally got into jazz music via samples in hip-hop, listening to records by A Tribe Called Quest and J Dilla, and his listening habits manifest themselves in the playful rhythms and warmth of this record. James studied music and culture in Havana, Cuba, before moving to New York to continue studying jazz and classical where he has spent time studying and working with James Brown drummer Jabo Starks and Lauren Hill.

Following a period on tour with band Beirut Paulus has now settled in Brooklyn and is focusing on electronic music. He also records as Just One Night with Gadi Mizrahi of Wolf + Lamb, founder of Double Standard Records, on which this EP is released.

'Water's Edge' isn't a full on club track - take this one and keep it with you for poolside lounging and days on the beach... It's perfect for soaking up the summer sun to.

Download Greg Paulus' 'Water's Edge' on MP3 [right click, save as]. 

BP x

The What's Mine Is Yours EP is out now on Double Standard Records.