George Lamb versus music (Mystery Jets)

In between reading 18 books on Charles Darwin's life between 1842 and 1844, I popped down to 93 Feet East the other night. To see some bands? Don't be ridiculous. I went to the launch of Liberal Youth, the new Liberal Democrat scheme to indoctrinate the future leaders of society. I must admit Nick Clegg gave quite a rousing speech but I spent most of the night calling it the Hitler Youth because I'm hilarious. Free food and wine though, can't complain! But I actually find it quite amusing that there is a Hungarian hardcore band also called Liberal Youth. Although they really don't appear to be liberal or youthful.

And now onto the real issue. George Lamb. The daytime BBC 6Music radio presenter, former manager of one Lily Allen and occasional TV presenter. Not to be confused with the 19th century politician, who presumably doesn't have several petitions demanding his expulsion from the radio waves. Yes, people really hate George Lamb. So I am introducing a sporadic (and possibly short lived) feature called George Lamb versus music. Not because I hate him - simply because it gives me an excuse to post some nice session tracks bands play on his show. I genuinely don't mind George Lamb. Although he is undoubtedly better suited to Radio 1. Alan Carr is filling his slot this week (geddit?), which has been quite bizarre.



Anyways, on with the show. Mystery Jets are the first band to appear in this series. Their second album, 'Twenty One' is about to drop, and is in fact available now digitally for only a fiver from 7digital. They played 'Young Love' and 'Two Doors Down' from the album in the 6Music Session.

You might be familiar with 'Young Love', the first single from this album, featuring Laura Marling, who we'll briefly return to soon. And 'Two Doors Down' is an exceedingly poppy ballad. The album version is layered with synths (possibly the hand of producer Erol Alkan here) but this acoustic version exposes it for what is, wonderfully harmonious pop. The follow up to the Jets' debut record 'Making Dens' follows a very poppy theme, dropping the prog that marked the first. Initial reports suggest that 'Twenty One' is even better than album number one, which is quite something.

Mystery Jets - Young Love (BBC 6Music Session) [Yourfilehost download]//[Sendspace mirror]
Mystery Jets - Two Doors Down (BBC 6Music Session) [Yourfilehost]//[Sendspace]

And from the recent iTunes festival, here's a collab with rising star Natty. It's a Vampire Weekend cover so you're almost obligated to have an interest.

Natty and Mystery Jets - One (Blake's Got A Brand New Face) [Yourfilehost]//[zShare]

Finally, we meet Ms Laura Marling. As I mentioned before, she appeared on the recent Mystery Jets single, has appeared on The Rakes album and often operates with Noah And The Whale (see the fabulous vid of '5 Years Time' below). I put her in my tips for 2007 [link] and although it's taken a bit longer than I'd hoped, she's really emerged as a credible solo artist, with the release of her debut album 'Alas, I Cannot Swim'. I particularly love one of the singles from that album, 'Ghosts' and here is a version she did for New York radio station WNYC.

Laura Marling - Ghosts (Live On WNYC) [Yourfilehost]//[Sendspace]

The Urban Hour Part Two

So after Good Friday's mainstream "urban" music post featuring GTA, Estelle and...ahem...The Feeling (Kelly Rowland really), we have a post concentrating a bit more on upcoming urban artists.

Like in the last post, I will kick off with an act that has added me (quite surprisingly!) on MySpace. D-Lo is apparently #2 on the MySpace unsigned rap charts. Not bad going for this gangsta rapper from Halifax, Yorkshire. I'm not a big fan of that kind of abrasive rap but D-Lo clearly takes after Tupac and 50 Cent while offering his perspective as a young British Asian. Anyways, 'Falling Tears' features a sample from 80s band Cinderella (or at least a cover of a chorus) so it's not all bad.

D-Lo - Falling Tears [Yourfilehost download]

Riz MC is almost at the polar opposite of the scale. A politically charged MC, an acclaimed actor and a writer, who has featured in the New Statesman. Rizwan Ahmed is breaking into the mainstream, whether they like it or not. First gaining notoriety for his song 'Post 9/11 Blues' (Watch the vid below. I even remember watching a Channel 4 news report on it in 2005!), he is now getting appropriate recognition of his talent as a musical artist. Often mixing electro with his engaging, witty lyrics, he was invited to play SXSW this year and has had significant airplay on Radio 1.

I don't agree with everything he says but he is a compelling character. Here's a poignant version of 'Sour Times' from the BBC Electric Proms many months ago, complete with an orchestral accompaniment.

Riz MC with orchestra - Sour Times (BBC Electric Proms Live) [Yourfilehost]//[Sendspace mirror]

Another act who performed at that very same BBC Electric Proms gig were The Riff Raff. Or as they were formerly known, Riff Raff, a bloke called Alex who rose to fame for some indie "remixes" which I mentioned back in August 2006 [link]. Since then, the act has expanded and now covers 'Classical/Electroacoustic/Hip Hip', according to their MySpace. It's difficult to tell which direction they're really heading in, which is quite exciting. I've uploaded a track from the Electric Proms which was written in a day (as part of a competition with the other performing artists) and a Phones collaboration from the band MySpace. You all still remember Paul Epworth, right?

The Riff Raff - Chaos Is Hard (BBC Electric Proms Live) [Yourfilehost]//[Sendspace mirror]
The Riff Raff - 80s Babies [Yourfilehost]

On a final, more novel note, we have Canada's Cadence Weapon. Not that he's a novelty rapper, I'm just focusing on the aspects I find unusual and hence extra cool. Firstly, his debut album's called 'Breaking Kayfabe', a nod to pro wrestling. Secondly, he does a Weezer cover as part of his live set. Check out which song it is below:

So that brings a close to my brief urban feature but I'd love to repeat it again in the future, perhaps with a bit more knowledge behind me! If you could recommend me any good rappers etc or are one yourself, feel free to get in touch via email or my MySpace (see top right of the page). And while you're here if you want some more conventional Keep Hope Inside coverage, listen to my first podcast [link] which is being taken down from its server on the 31st of this month. Enjoy!

The Urban Hour Part One

It's Good (arguably!) Friday and hence I have a bit of an easter egg special type thing going on here. I've rarely featured "urban music" (to me that encompasses hip hop, rap, r'n'b, drum and bass etc but obviously it shouldn't really be used to pigeonhole artists doing very different things) so I've decided to pretty much dedicate a couple of posts to urban music. Today's one is a bit mainstream orientated but the next one has some exciting, new "urban" acts.

But for a brief venture into the underground, a few urban artists have been adding my blog MySpace [link] as a friend. Which is cool. Unfortunately, they don't have their tracks up for download so I'll just do a quick shout out to a couple of them. Firstly, French hip hop collective P.o.s.Style who use orchestral samples, which already makes them better than 99% of their peers in my eyes. Then we've got Its Jus David, or Its Jus David...I'm In Lov Wiv Her, or Dem Kingshold Boiz. I honestly can't tell. I'm hearing a bit of Kano in the tracks, although it's predominantly an r'n'b vibe.

Now onto GTA, a couple of rappers from the Oxford area. Neill's (aka Ineffable) an accountant and Chima's a doctor. Middle class hip hop! They rather amusingly opened their email with the words, "Your site discusses the kind of thing we do....", which is pretty much the biggest lie ever but nonetheless, better late than never. 'Wanna Be Myself' is a poppy track, sounding a bit like a mash-up between Akon and Estelle and is out digitally (iTunes etc) on 14/04/08, before their debut album 'The Way' drops.

GTA - Wanna Be Myself [Yourfilehost download]

Speaking of Estelle, apparently she's on her way to the UK number one single this week, which is quite unexpected. Although 'American Boy' does feature an appearance by Kanye West so perhaps not so surprising. And one of her earlier singles, '1980' (which I still thoroughly enjoy) did well in the charts. I've got a BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge cover, which will probably horrify most people reading this post but I do actually enjoy the original. Estelle even called it "dope". I think that means good. It's the unashamedly pop, 'She's So Lovely' by Scouting For Girls.

Estelle - 1980 [Yourfilehost]
Estelle - American Boy (BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge) [Yourfilehost]//[Sendspace mirror]
Estelle - She's So Lovely (BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge Cover) [Yourfilehost]//[Sendspace]

We'll finish with another potentially massive faux-pas, a cover by The Feeling. Another guilty pleasure of mine (and hideously out of place in a post about urban music), they did a cover of Kelly Rowland's 'Work (Put It In)' recently. 'Work' is probably my favourite r'n'b track this year, although the Freemasons remix trumps the original mix and is utterly, utterly brilliant. And she is looking pretty sexy these days too (see vid below). Anyways, The Feeling did a good job and even made it extra sordid. Give it a chance.

The Feeling - Work (BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge Cover) [Yourfilehost]//[Sendspace]

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The next post will feature more credible acts, like The Riff Raff and Riz MC. And maybe some other people if you're lucky.

Reflux

Guess who's back? Not Eminem. Or Tracy Emin. So yeah, me. Following the amazingly random appearance of Girls Aloud at my uni yesterday (filming a new Kit Kat ad apparently), I shall also quite randomly provide you with a remix and a mash-up. Both of which put popular music into a headlock, wrestle it to the ground then bring it back in a familiar, yet ruffled manner.

The first track is a remix by my friend Glen, under his Hunchbakk moniker. And the band he's remixed is one of the least likely bands to ever appear on this blog....yes, it's everybody's favourite The Jam tribute band, The Enemy! They're not that bad really but they've released seven (SEVEN) songs from their album. I suppose it's possible that all these tracks are single worthy but, less is more? In lieu of their single release this week of 'This Song', Glen was nice enough to send me his remix of the track.

It deconstructs the song entirely, rebuilding it in a Missy Elliot meets Massive Attack manner, complete with a political slant. Well worth a listen. If you enjoy Glen's "dubstep influenced electronic indie" (as he calls it!) then you could do yourself a favour by popping along to the Hunchbakk myspace [link] and listening to his other stuff.

The Enemy - This Song (Hunchbakk's Youth Of Today Remix) [Yourfilehost download]//[Sendspace mirror]


Now for a track that I've been listening to LOADS over the last few days. Firstly, thanks to Panda Toes [link] for putting it on their blog. Secondly, because they had put the track up recently, I was in two minds about featuring it here. I try to feature predominantly new stuff here so I wasn't sure whether I should bother putting the track up after it's already had such an impact. But what the hoo-hah, it's hardly going to turn into the Vampire Weekend clusterfuck that ruined the Hype Machine for a couple of weeks. Although some smart arse will probably point I helped contribute to that, which is true. But at least I posted a radio session which was unavailable anywhere but my blog!

Anyways, so it's a mash-up by DJ Sunderland, who I didn't realise was behind 'Supermassive Mandy', the Spinto Band vs Muse mash up of yesteryear. In fact, DJ Sunderland's done quite a few good things and check his MySpace for dozens of mash ups. But none of them are quite as good as the one I'm about to post. This is a Bloc Party vs The Ting Tings. Now I said earlier in the year that I wasn't much of a fan of The Ting Tings; and I'm not but the lyrics are quite catchy and I can certainly relate to them! You'd be surprised how many people get my amazingly difficult (it must be, it has FOUR letters in it) name wrong. And well, I just love the electro vibe of Flux so it's a nice mix.

DJ Sunderland - That's Not My Name (Bloc Party vs The Ting Tings mash-up) [Yourfilehost]//[Sendspace mirror]

Fleet Foxes

Okay, so with a miserable week ahead both weather-wise (see below) and in terms of a ludicrous number of essays that must be done, I'm unfortunately going to have to leave you with this solitary post for the time being. On the upside, Fleet Foxes, the subject of this post are looking rather promising. AND I'm watching Demolition Man: "You're gonna regret this for the rest of your life...both seconds of it". Awesome. Pity about the weather (rain, rain, rain, rain and more rain) though:



America has produced some big buzz bands lately - MGMT, Yeasayer, Black Kids and Vampire Weekend being the most prominent - Fleet Foxes seem to be the new hyped act from across the pond. Not that I'd even realised until Bella Union sent out news about a free download the band had offered up. Then after a little investigation, I discovered I was a bit behind the times. But I presume many of you are in a similar position so no matter.

With comparisons ranging from Band Of Horses and My Morning Jacket to Animal Collective and Beach Boys, Yeasayer seem to be the most immediate confluence of all these influences in my mind. There's an eerie, cosmic nature to Fleet Foxes much like Yeasayer and they share a similarly psychedelic folk sound. I could maybe even go as far as tentatively suggesting that they are the sound of a thousand sunsets.


Admittedly, in three months time, we will have moved on to yet another buzz band. Hence I was in two minds about whether to post anything on Fleet Foxes. The band themselves have even expressed distaste with the recent media exposure. But while the hype remains in its embryonic stages, I thought Fleet Foxes deserve a window on my blog to some British readers who may not have had the pleasure of hearing them, as was my situation until very recently. Expect them to be the flavour of the month, bearing in mind their approaching SXSW appearances.

Having signed to Sub Pop (Bella Union here in the UK), at least the band has appropriate outlets for their luxuriant tracks. Their 'Sun Giant' EP is out now, garnering an impressive 8.7 from Pitchfork, while the long player hits American shores on June 3rd. From that recently released EP, we have 'Drops In The River'.

Fleet Foxes - Drops In The River [Yourfilehost d/l link]//Also available at the Fleet Foxes' rather bizarre [MySpace]

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In consideration of my brief enforced absence, you may wish to turn back the clock and listen to my first ever podcast. It's being taken down on March 31st, a year after it was originally uploaded, [listen here]. And then you can engage in some healthy (or perhaps not so healthy) debate regarding the new Feeder material [here]. Essay length comments are optional. See you soon!

FEEDER

Pretty much out of the blue comes the new Feeder track, 'Miss You'. The title didn't feel me with much confidence, some of their schmaltzy material has been painful. Rather surprisingly though, this represents a return to the harder, rockier roots of yesteryear. But is it a return to form?

Even after repeated listens, I haven't quite made up my mind. At first, I thought it was bog standard rock, then I began to suspect that 'Miss You' was the new Boy Kill Boy single. While it has grown on me, I don't think they've quite struck the balance between pop and rock that they have so successfully done in the past. Tracks like 'Just A Day' and 'Buck Rogers' exhibited such craft but in the last few years, things haven't been quite the same.



Perhaps I'm being overly critical and it is nice to hear new material, considering the band's dormant state over the last year and a half. However, I can only imagine what one of my favourite bands (and one of the first bands I ever saw live) would be like had drummer Jon Lee not committed suicide in 2002, when Feeder were really progressing significantly.

Let me know what you think of the new track anyway, which is a preview to the new album, due out later this year. Feeder are also making some festival appearances, including Isle Of Wight and T In The Park. Consult their [MySpace] for dates and to hear some of their older tracks, like the ones mentioned above.

Feeder - Miss You [Yourfilehost d/l link]//Also available at feederweb.com

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Just a reminder to everyone that my new podcast is out and can be listened to/downloaded here [#6], while my first ever one will be removed from its server on March 31st so download that too [#1]. Bands on that one included Johnny Foreigner, goFASTER>>, Help She Can't Swim etc and even two bands that are now sadly no longer with us. Snap it up while you still can!