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.
The observant among you may have noticed this year's Glastonbury Emerging Talent Competition logo appeared on the blog's sidebar a few weeks back, and yesterday Glastonbury Festival launched the competition.
The Emerging Talent Competition gives new acts based in the UK and Ireland the opportunity to compete for a slot on one of the main stages at the Festival and a £5,000 PRS for Music Foundation Talent Development prize in order to help fund further songwriting and performance development. Two runners-up will also be awarded a £2,500 PRS for Music Talent Development Prize.
Acts have one week to enter, from 9am on Monday 19 January until 5pm on Monday 26 January. The competition is open to all genres and entries can be submitted via the Glastonbury Festival website. Previous winners include Stornaway, The Subways and last year's winners, M+A.
Entries will go through an initial panel of 40 of UK music writers will compile a longlist of 120 acts, and once again I delighted to say that BlackPlastic.co.uk will be one of those writers judging initial entries. The longest is then shortlisted to 8 different acts by a judging panel that includes Michael and Emily Eavis, with the final winning act being decided at a live final at the Pilton Woking Men's Club in April.
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!