#undeniable christmas banger

[howler-moon]

AI advertisement will never stick the landing tbh

Not to drop another essay out of nowhere again but I'm still very much ill and stuck with only my own thoughts to keep me entertained. To be completely honest this topic has actually been on my mind for a couple of weeks and is something I've made imaginary commentary videos about in my head but with the recent AI Coke ad causing a stir and my usual habit of spouting nonsense on Tumblr for shits and giggles I thought no better opportunity than now to put my own two cents on the table since I'll seemingly be stuck in bed for the rest of the week. As both an artist and someone who's doing Business for their Leaving Cert (god forbid) this topic is something that peaks my interest greatly and is something I had more to say about than I thought. If anything, Business has just taught me how soulless companies can be and if I have to learn the Marketing Mix just so I can get the points I need to get into college by god are you gonna hear about it.

A few weeks back I came across a funny Instagram reel with the basic premiss of "guy wakes up after a 10 year coma and only remembers 2010's British adverts" and it was an absolute banger because of how true it was. I don't know if the primary audience who will see this will be familiar with British adverts (I myself am Irish but we basically hog all their tv channels because ours suck lmao) but oh my god you have no idea how iconic they were. I understood every single reference in that reel from the opera singer from the Go Compare ads, to the meerkats from Compare the Market . com to the Jingle from the Lellie Kellie's shoe ad that was drilled into my head like a sleeper agent. 10 year old me may have had no interest in car insurance but by god could I tell you all about Direct Line and their insurance policies because of their funky little red telephone on wheels or perhaps even what Churchill that freaky little puppet bulldog could give you instead. Advertising was so absurd and out of pocket like I have no idea what singing poodles have to do with floor cleanser but you know for a fact I'll start singing along once the Flash ad comes on. There's a reason you often see essentially the same advert run for a company for years and even decades at a time, with just minor edits to keep it fresh. A) Because Marketing is probably one of the most expensive parts of selling a product but B) and my main point of interest being that a single, memorable ad will bring you much further than multiple unimaginative ones.

Moving onto the Coke ad specifically, for the sake of comparison I gave it a watch and holy shit guys was it bad. For those who have had the pleasure of not seeing it yet, this new AI ad is essentially a remake and apparently the replacement of the well known "The Holiday's are Coming" advert that has been running since 1995. Now the impact this ad has on pop culture is undeniable. For many people when this ad starts rolling out onto tvs its considered the start of the Christmas season. The image of the Coca Cola trucks driving through the snow, gathering crowds who watch in awe as all the bright and colourful lights pass by through the night is one of the most iconic things of all time, its the reason the ad has been running for 28 years. The link Coke and Christmas have with each other is genuinely crazy like people credit the company for Santa's red coat, whether it actually be true or not. Coca Cola is an example my business teacher brings up all the time because of how good they (were) with their campaigns. The thing about Coke's marketing is that they're not selling the drink, they're selling the emotion associated with it. They're selling the "happiness" that comes with drinking a Coke they've had campaigns that tell you to "taste the feeling", the whole gimmick behind the Coke bottles with the names on them is the feeling you get when you're gifted with one or find one. There is countless examples of this and that's what makes the new AI ad crash and burn so badly because it's absolutely soulless.

The content of this ad is so stiff and uncanny. The trucks slide around like pngs on seperate layers of a cheap editing program, everything is smooth and lifeless. Sure the people are smiling, but there's not really any joy behind those smiles. They stand there lifeless and unmoving, you could replace the crowd in this advert with cardboard cut outs waving gently in the wind and you would get the same outcome. They react less than the average SSSniperwolf reaction video, instead of her siting there smiling blankly and something interesting enough for her to steal its just a group of people blankly smiling at nothing. Watching paint dry would harbour an more interesting reaction. The movements are slow and unnatural, there's no ease in or out as Santa's food moves across the ground it just moves at a consistent pace like an actual robot. Hmmm I wonder why.. its genuinely actually so funny that Coke prides itself with selling an emotion rather than a product when they take away the very thing that gave their adverts emotion in the first place. They talk about selling nostalgia in a bottle and then tear away one of the most nostalgic things they have ever created. If anything all this new advert does is expose Coke for not holding onto their "core values" and I'm happy people are getting upset as more and more companies try and pass off cheap slop as quality. If the emotion Coke is trying to sell is disappointment then I guess they've won??

The thing about AI ads is that the only thing memorable about them is that they were made by AI. I've seen one AI ad on the TV before and I keep getting another one on Youtube all the time and I genuinely could not tell you what either one was selling for the life of me because all I could think was "oh gross". That youtube one plays in front of almost every video I watch and I STILL don't remember what its for. AI is never going to think of something unique by itself that will hook an audience in. Sure, hypothetically someone could give it a creative prompt, but that requires a creative person, and 9 times out of 10 a creative person isn't going to use an AI to execute their vision, because AI isn't creative enough to do so. Companies have no interest in being unique anymore, what's the use in standing out when you're all owned by the same conglomerate at the end of the day, right? Why spend money when there's a formula everyone uses? why take the risk when there's no competition? Companies genuinely do not care about what you think, only about what you buy and that's just great <333

uhm wow what the fish i like blacked out writing that im so ill rn i apologise if some of this didn't make sense i have the worst fever known to man rn (fire emoji) This is probably something i should come back to and clean up a little bit to make it more clear but i dont give a fuck my dinner is ready have this obscure advert someone sent me on discord a couple of years ago that i hold close to my heart even today to lighten the mood

[7grandmel]

Todays rip: 10/02/2024

Nostalgic Blood of the Gregg ~ Old Source

Season 5 Featured on: Bloodstained Bounties ~ The SiIvaGunner All​-​Star Summer Festival 2021 Collection [Event Side]

Ripped by minindo

Way early into the blog's life, on the 20th of July 2023, I covered the rip Everything Circus - a Season 2 rip featuring one of my all-time favorite channel memes, hhgregg. I didn't cover all too much on the guy back then beyond the basics: The source was sparingly used in Season 1, then gradually received an uptick in popularity until finally earning himself a full-on channel event in Season 5. Last, we covered a rip from before this uptick - now, I think its only fair we tackle one that shows the fruits of that initiative.

The hhgregg meme was one of many that I only discovered through SiIvaGunner, yet it was far from the first to actually popularize it: HydroDalek's "doin" YTPMV was uploaded a year prior to SiIvaGunner's premiere, and sits at a 1.5 million views as of writing, and is of course paired with the excellent remix "ReDoin" by JerryTerry, made two years later, sitting at 2.4 million. hhgregg's infamous attempt at creating a memorable mascot for their brand seemed to at first be met with nothing more than annoyance, only for a subset of internet users to slowly mutate feelings into feelings of...affection, I suppose. Either way, as someone entirely out of the loop on all things relating to American retailers, that affection definitely rubbed off on me - after just being exposed to a small handful of rips, and then later being led to the rabbithole of YTPMVs dating back to 2014, I was hooked on the guy.

And its not something I believe I can put quite so easily into words, either, beyond pointing you to a rip like Nostalgic Blood of the Gregg ~ Old Source for a direct demonstration. Wally Wingert is an excellent actor and performer in perhaps everything BUT his role as singing for hhgregg's Christmas sales of the summer season - yet YTPMVers throughout the last decade have been able to put those vocals, and vocals from the hhgregg mascot's entire television career, to incredible use. It's almost comparable to PSY in what I wrote about him in Korean Idiot - manipulation of hhgregg's distinctively nasally, yet self-assured voice has effectively become an instrument all of its own.

Pair that with the hyperactive yet constantly rhythmic and engaging flow of much of Touhou's music, Nostalgic Blood of the East ~ Old World not excluded, and you get something truly special. Yet the crazy thing is, Nostalgic Blood of the Gregg ~ Old Source was but one of several other incredible rips utilizing the source during Season 5. It was, after all, his long-overdue event - the long-awaited Christmas in July - and the amount of rips that went completely above and beyond just as Nostalgic Blood of the Gregg ~ Old Source did was absolutely remarkable. Speaking as someone who used to get hyped up back during the early days of seeing...what, the fourth or fifth ever hhgregg rip be uploaded? It did genuinely bring me so much excitement to finally see the most underrated SiIvaGunner source get the spotlight all to himself. hhgregg is, in all honesty, an oft-overlooked titan of recent YTPMV culture, a shining example of just how far some crazy cool people are able to take a series of voice clips that only initially spread online out of distaste.

Though I lack much knowledge on Touhou, and I wasn't really able to live through any prior attachment to the hhgregg character as a European myself - the sheer power of good ass YTPMV and minindo's undeniable talent in what he does carries Nostalgic Blood of the Gregg ~ Old Source through. It's an absolute banger using one of my all-time favorite SiIvaGunner sources, and I'm so happy it got to be part of the guy's big event. In a Season already defined by its various side events, hhgregg's long-awaited time in the spotlight is still one of the things I cherish most about Season 5, and the rips that came in tow with that day were absolutely worth the wait.

[daughterofscotland]

Once again my favorite band The Cruxshadows brought out a Christmas Song and I love it so much already!

"I made free use of that popular 16th century French banger “Noel Nouvelet” and mashed that up with a dash of the musical elements of everyone’s favorite 18th century Ukrainian public domain standard, Shchedryk (which was interestingly enough also incorporated into the non-public domain composition commonly known as “Carol of the Bells”). I then blended that together with my own songwriting expertise to yield a unique arrangement that is undeniably a thing that happened! The product of this unlikely matrimony bears a passing resemblance to the love child of nine inch nails and Manheim Steamroller…. Add electricity to this Yuletide Frankenstein’s monster and Voila— We have a Christmas song people!"

Listen to it (and the past 14 ones) here:

[sweet-s0rr0w]

My first Five Faves of the year. It's been A While, I know. I have drafts for others in the pipeline, and then @oknowkiss went and posted two bangers within a couple of weeks and it all went out the window because I just had to go all oknowrec, ya know? Look, whenever I read anything that I ADORE, the first people to hear about it are always my buddies @tackytigerfic and @sitp-recs - and you know I mean it when it's full on caps lock raving DMs - see also @wolfpants' The Hollow and @moonflower-rose's Pissing For England (reclists for both authors hopefully coming soon!) I swear I must have spent a full week going on about the first Elaine fic I read, any day now. I mean, truly, I went through all the emotions with that one: elation at finding such an amazing author, grief at my own inadequacy, anger that it was over - it was a rollercoaster, believe me.

Elaine's turn of phrase is always spot on, her inventiveness in world-building is second to none, and her fics somehow seem to retain this fabulous lightness of tone that keeps things just on the right side of heartbreakingly raw. She's undeniably hugely talented, and now has a fabulous AO3 back-catalogue for you to sink your teeth into, so please waste no more time in checking out her fics!

Read oknowkiss' work here on AO3!

💋 Historians (E, 30k, fake relationship, Gryffindors (and some hangers on), bad skiing, bunk beds, hot tubs, getting together)

Summary: It’s the Dumbledore’s Army Reunion Holiday, and Harry’s found himself in hot water with his friends once again, after telling them he has a boyfriend he definitely does not have. In an attempt to fix things, he’s made it his colleague on Level Nine, Draco Malfoy’s problem too. Featuring a ski chalet in Switzerland, a pair of bunk beds, and an agreement that should’ve been simple, were it not for all the bloody feelings getting in the way.

💋 in between two tall mountains (there's a place they call lonesome) (E, 8.3k, Relic Chaser Harry, researcher Draco, campervans, treasure hunting in Oregon, inappropriately timed wanks)

Summary: In the shadow of a mountain on the Oregon coast, there may or may not lie a shipwreck, on which there may or may not be a magical relic, lost hundreds of years ago. Harry's been tasked with finding it, and Draco is there to take notes, and they're stuck in a campervan pretending to be married, and it's all going to be just fine. That's what Draco's gotten rather good at telling himself, anyway.

💋 any day now (E, 17k, prisoner Draco, Auror trainee Harry, secret codes, a feelings puppet, morally grey everything and everyone)

Summary: Draco supposes he should be grateful. 

The rehabilitation centres were the Minister’s idea, or that’s what the Prophet said anyway. Their stated objective is simple: to provide a safe space for low-tier Death Eaters and high-tier sympathisers to reconsider the entirety of their life choices. All guests–because no one is a prisoner here, the literature brags–are to be provided with shelter, food, clothing, and the guided support of a Mind Healer via a programme they call “ideological restructuring,” which is, of course, mandatory. 

OR: Draco Malfoy considers the circle.

💋 draco malfoy's substitute murder service (E, 11k, curse breaker Harry, various incredible mythological monsters, Christmas)

Summary: When Harry joins the Curse Breakers shortly after his twenty-fifth birthday, he’s surprised to find himself assigned to the Department of Creatures, Cryptids, and Associated Calamities.

OR: the one where Draco goes goblin mode, and Harry has a thing for monsters.

💋The July Tree (E, 52k, Eighth Year, Greenhouse Four, Draco Malfoy does Muggle Scotland, The Who, First Times)

Summary: Neither rain, nor snow, nor sleet, nor hail… nor well-meaning friends, nor questionable communication skills, nor seven years of hating each other’s guts can keep Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy from falling in love.

OR: It’s Eighth Year, and Harry Potter has detention. What else is new? Well, since you asked: Greenhouse Four and the Tree of Life, for a start, and then there’s the new shared Eighth Year common room, and Harry’s sexuality, and these pesky dreams he keeps having about a blond man pushing him into things…

Previous Five Favourite Fic Posts: thestarryknight | vukovich | fwooshy | lq_traintracks (and 10 more) | tackytiger (and microfics) | m0stlyvoid | peachpety | magpie_fngrl | shiftylinguini | onbeinganangel | veelawings | shealwaysreads | loveglowsinthedark | birdsofshore | maesterchill | frayach | graymatters | bixgirl1 (part one/part two | skeptique)

[idontbeatgames]

Consider this post your reminder to listen to Save The City from Marvel's Hawkeye. Why? Well, since you asked, here's three separate reasons: 1. It's about to be it's one year anniversary since Marvel revealed this gem to us via Marvel's Hawkeye. 2. It's technically a Christmas song. 3. Well, because, the song slaps. It's an undeniable banger, duh. Now go listen to it again and save the city to help us win, y'all!

[2old4kpop]

15 Underrated Girly Kpop Songs That Make Me Go Absolutely Feral

When it comes to girl groups, more than anything I am a Blackjack and Blink. I like to listen to girl songs that make me want to murder men (and believe me, that blog post is in the works). But I’m also a ONCE, as TWICE are my sweet darling babies, but they’re about as girly as I can tolerate. I’m not one for the super girly concepts. I mean, did you guys ever see MINX? Occasionally I ironically jam to Shakey Love Shakey Shakey Shakey Shakey Love, but it was an absolute blessing from the K-pop gods to rebrand them as Dreamcatcher. It’s really only the A-list girly songs I tolerate, like GFriend or Oh My Girl. Everything else below them just seems really cringy.

Except for a few chosen few that are so good that they make me absolutely lose all of my shits. And I’m talking about songs that nobody seems to know like at all. Either these songs came out when the groups were still under the radar, before they had their big smash hits, or they just never seemed to rise to the top. But they are still valid and important. Videos are linked in the song names, since Tumblr won’t let me add more than five videos, but here we go.

15. April- Dream Candy

April is one of those rare groups that pull off the girly concept so well but don’t ever seem forced, like they are just truly naturally sweet and pure and precious. Honestly all of their songs are great, and it’s tragic that they haven’t had a comeback in 2019. But their debut, Dream Candy, is the one that really gets deep in my soul to that animal part of my brain that makes me scream this god damn chorus. But only really at the end. I never really listened to this song until it came on shuffle one day when I was walking home in the rain, and thought, why not listen to this awkward girly song, and then the last chorus hit and OH MY GOD. It’s a good one guys.

14. Momoland- Jjan! Koong! Kwang!

So this song comes out by some unknown group called uh, Momoland?, with a title that is just a bunch of sounds that don’t exist in English, and I felt like I was the only one on Earth that was like, “This is fine.” I was honestly in some I Am Legend universe where instead of me being the only living person on Earth, I was the only one that liked Momoland’s debut. As time went on Momoland started putting out what is pretty much some of the worst K-Pop that exists (I mean, have you SEEN the video for Wonderful Love? Try not to cringe challenge) and sadly enough this group just faded into obscurity and never had any huge, Earth shattering hits or anything. 

13. DIA- My Friend’s Boyfriend

On paper this song is awful. I mean it’s a song about being a petty bitch who has decided to steal their friend’s boyfriend, hence the title. Also the song ads cute little quirks like *squints eyes to read this metaphorical paper closer* coughing. Also the video has an unnecessarily long intro. But believe me when I tell you that this is an absolute slapper.

12. Gugudan- Wonderland

It’s a crime that Gugudan has never really hit it off, even with two I.O.I members. Their debut has this amazing Little Mermaid concept and believe me when I tell you that this chorus is best when screamed at the top of your lungs. After all the screaming I am basically in a manic state by the la la la’s.

11. LOONA 1/3- Love&Live

You’ll notice that the main theme of this list is that the choruses are absolute fire. But this one comes in and basically knocks the wind out of me with sweetness, like some kind of aegyo Kool-Aid man. It’s really the music that does it for me in this one, along with the melody, along with Heejin’s perfect high note. If this song doesn’t make you smile then you are a robot, like ViVi. 

10. Shannon Williams- Why Why

If Ant and/or Dec were here, they would hear this song and definitely say that Britain’s Got Talent. Shannon is the British IU,hands down, undeniably, I will not be taking questions at this time. But it’s very sad that her career was nonexistent after this came out. Was it the fact that this features a sixteen-year-old grinding against faceless boys? Or that this video widely revolves around her intensely stalking someone? It can’t be the song because that is perfect. 

9. AOA- Bingle Bangle

Okay so some history for those non-Elvises out there. AOA was THE HOTTEST girl group for a good minute, with so many timeless collaborations with the Brave Brothers that really changed the shape of female K-Pop for a while. And then ChoA left the group. And without the only member who could actually sing the face of the group, AOA kind of went quiet, save for a few Jimin solo songs. Then AOA came back with a new sound, and while everyone else thought it was terrible, I thought it was a bop! And I love the video and the concept! And the dance for this is so fun. Bingle Bangle is a real yes for me dawg. It’s only too bad that they lost yet another member and their concept was handed off to FNC’s new girl group. Speaking of which...

8. Cherry Bullet- Really Really

Yeah so they literally gave this entire “girls in a video game but it’s fun and cute” concept to Cherry Bullet, and they hit the ground running with it. This comeback in particular is my favorite of theirs because it hits one of my favorite pop music tropes: Having A Funky Instrumental Chorus, Only At The End To Put Words Over The Music. It ticks all my boxes.

7. Rainbow- Whoo

If you ever wanted to hear a song that made you scream “RAAAAIIINBOOW AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!” then this is it. At this point in this list we start to hear the songs that make me truly insane, and this song absolutely destroys me. It’s really sad, however, that this is basically Rainbow’s swan song, as it was their last song before disbandment. 

6. Matilda- Macarena

I bet you haven’t even HEARD of Matilda. I bet you didn’t even KNOW that MATILDA just DISBANDED a FEW MONTHS AGO because ALL THEIR SONGS WERE BAD except for THIS ONE which is just full of CHAOTIC GOOD ENERGY and if you don’t ENJOY THIS then GET OFF MY LAWN. 

5. Berry Good- Angel

Berry Good was destined to be one of those girl groups, like Matilda, that came from a tiny company and was just given bad songs and were set up to fail. So they crowdfunded, and somehow made two incredible comebacks, Don’t Believe (which is a whole other story that we won’t get into today, but it’s an amazing song that you should check out) and prior to that, Angel. I don’t even know where to begin with this song because it literally makes me forget who I am and why I exist. It’s a banger?? This song starts off so soft and pure and jumps right into a chorus that makes you bang your head and scream “I TAKE A CHANCE, YOU NEVER KNOW” as loud as possible. And right when you think you can’t take it anymore, that you are gasping for air because you are drowning in perfection, THEY GO EVEN HARDER. Like, girls, you did not need to go that hard. Holy shit. They go full IU in Good Day. I don’t know why we were blessed with this, especially since after this all their other songs have been garbage, and they’ve been so unsuccessful that they lost their strongest member and they’re heading for disbandment. But we have this gem, and I’m thankful for it.

4. 4Minute- Heart To Heart

Back when 4Minute was just another 2NE1 clone, trying to compete in the market of “Girls Who Look Tough But Are Actually Sweet” 4Minute, aka The HyunA Group, put out this. Third Geners, this is what Second Gen was all about. This is the meaning of Christmas, Charlie Brown. This song is everything. It’s perfect. And it’s too bad that 4Minute didn’t really stick with this sound, but also not, since with their more mature concept they wound up getting pretty famous once Park Bom... I mean, we’re not gonna talk about it. 

3. Hyolyn- Bae

Okay so I know that Hyolyn as an entity is not technically considered underrated, but her entire solo career is being slept on and I don’t understand. With Sistar gone, and now Red Velvet carrying the torch for summer anthems, Hyolyn doesn’t necessarily have to give us one of the best summer songs of all time but she did. Every second of this song to me is perfect. And yeah okay I’ll admit it, I am a Gay, I am attracted to women, and Hyolyn is a lot of. A lot of wow. She and HyunA are exactly my type, and this video is a lot. But the SONG you guys. It’s so much that I told even regular people who listen to English music to listen to this song. They didn’t, of course, because the world doesn’t appreciate Hyolyn like I would, I mean like I do as a fan and nothing else. This song was my summer anthem in 2018, Power Up wishes it was this good.

2. BESTie- Thank U Very Much

One of the things that really got me into K-Pop during the Second Gen was that it sounded so much like pop music from my youth. This is gonna sound weird, but I grew up in a Wiccan Neo-Pagan household where 90% of the music we listened to was traditional Celtic or New Age, and if it was ever anything else it was like The Beatles (my Mom and her sisters were one of those screaming and fainting Beatles fans, the trait that was clearly passed down to me, based on what happened when I saw G-Dragon live, but that’s another story) or ABBA, or any kind of British/European pop/rock from the 70s or 80s. So once I was old enough to really find out what kind of music I liked, I dived deep into cheesy pop songs like S Club 7, Britney Spears, and the like. But I always had a soft spot for ABBA. The melodies, the music, the strange lyrics that didn’t really make sense or weren’t quite grammatically correct but it worked. I feel like that love for obscure pop, along with the 90s and early 2000s bubblegum pop, pushed me right into the K-Pop scene. And this song is the best example of that kind of weird melody with oddly used English words, but it works in the best way. The chorus of this song sounds like it was written by ABBA. The ending of this song is transcendent. Tell me you can’t picture a Korean Meryl Streep in overalls singing the ending of this song while dancing on a beach. This song makes me lose all my shits. But I do have to say that this video is uh, Not Good, especially compared with how amazing the song is. But these underrated bottom of the barrel groups don’t have much to work with in the first place, so we can’t really fault them. This song holds up, and is going to hold up for a very long time. I stan.

1. Laboum- Shooting Love

So like I said before, I don’t typically like the super sugary, super tacky, super girly girl concepts. BUT I LOVE LABOUM. ALL their girly sweet songs are AMAZING. They somehow get everything right, in their own unique way. They’re not at all like “Oh, they’re like GFriend”, “Oh, that’s like Lovelyz” or anything, if you get what I’m saying. Laboum had their own cheesy yet perfect style of girly. Aalow Aalow: A CLASSIC. Journey To Atlantis: A CLASSIC. Hwi Hwi: A CLASSIC. Only U: YES YOU GUESS IT, CLASSIC. Sugar Sugar: DON’T MAKE ME SAY IT AGAIN. I could have made this whole list with just Laboum songs. So I made myself pick one by listening to as many old Laboum songs as I could before I would become an absolutely menace to society, as I am not responsible for my actions after listening to so much girly perfectlon at once. If I was arrested and went to court for I dunno, causing distress and mayhem to the citizens of my city, my lawyer would call it “the Laboum defense.” “You see, Your Honor, my client listened to a lot of Laboum songs, and lost control of themselves and became an entity, a ball of energy, a comet destroying everything in its path while screaming cheesy Korean lyrics.” And I would be set free, of course, because who wouldn’t lose themselves completely to the power of Laboum? But anyway I picked Shooting Love, as it puts me in a manic state from the very intro until the last second. And let me just say now that I deeply mourn this old Laboum, as they came back in 2018 with a new concept that makes them sound lobotomized compared to their old sound. Like slow R&B is fine, but compared to this it’s drab and slow and dull and I hate it. I Hate It. Bring back cute Laboum in 2020, or at least study Apink if you want to see how to properly change an aging cute group into a mature group. I could go on, but now I have the urge to listen to more Laboum. You’ll see me on the evening news tonight, I’m sure.

anyway 안녕

[louis-valentine-blog]

Playlist Breakdown - January 2020

The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus/Josie Moon/My Chemical Romance/Coldplay/+others

Welcome, one and all, to my first ever playlist breakdown. It’s tasty, it’s fresh, it’s hot off the presses for the emotional messes. Let’s get into it.

January has been a weird month for me, not gonna lie. Coming out of the holidays I have a tan, a renewed sense of self-identity and a fierce appreciation for the people in my life with whom I have close relationships. The music of this month represents a shift from a sun-drenched new years’ holiday into the grind of starting full-time work as a self-employed writer. It’s been a wild ride and the year’s not even started. Oh boy.

What’s that? Oh yeah, the songs…

1. False Pretense / The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus. This track is a favourite from way back, and it’s mainly just here as a check-in. Hey RJA. How ya doin’? Don’t You Fake It still a banger? You bet. This band taught me so many things about great sugar-punk songwriting when I was first starting out making my own music -  and when you think that this track comes off the same record that gave us such classics as Face Down and Your Guardian Angel, it’s no surprise.

2. Victor Hotel / Josie Moon. This track has been a mainstay in my monthly playlist ever since it dropped at the start of summer. Victor Hotel brings textural arrangements and mature pop songwriting together into this gorgeous collage of instrumental and vocal production that’s simultaneously old-school and lo-fi, but undeniably modern as fuck. The album art and title add a heavy pull of intrigue, too - I don’t know what or where Victor Hotel is, but listening to the music makes me feel like I’ve been there.

3. Summertime / My Chemical Romance. I was a latecomer to the MCR love train, dipping my toes into their discography during my high school career and only fully taking a deep dive during some dark times in 2017. Like so many others, MCR helped to pull me through the shit and into the light. Having been gifted The True Lives Of The Fabulous Killjoys in paperback by Taylor for Christmas, I waded into the world of Danger Days over the summer and haven’t come back since. You know those rare songs that walk into your life at precisely the right time, squeeze on your feels like a fucking trash compactor and just don’t let go? Summertime did that for me.

4. Orphans / Coldplay. Not much to say about this one. I’m definitely missing some sort of memo when it comes to Coldplay’s new record - it’s not bad by any stretch, it just has me yearning for the days of Mylo Xyloto which then begs the question as to why I’m not just listening to that. The hooks are there, the production’s there, the lyrics hold up, it’s just… tired. Someone get Coldplay a double shot espresso, stat.

5. Zero Percent / My Chemical Romance. This one’s a real interesting cut from MCR’s Danger Days era. Released as a B-side to the Kids From Yesterday single, it had me hooked from the start with a drum and bass (???) style opening that then progresses into more familiar MCR territory. It’s damn good all told - the vocal melodies fall a little flat if I’m honest, but Gerard’s delivery is just too huge to fail.

6. Rangers / Randa. I had the pleasure of meeting Randa at an out of town show with Holloway Holiday. We were both supporting Auckland act Openside for their New Zealand tour, and we got to watch each other’s performances and chat a bit backstage. He’s the most genuine, authentic and out-there human being, and that ethos absolutely saturates his music. Rangers is a standout for me because of the syncopated beat production and the absolutely infectious chorus - not to mention a fresh and wholesome flow in the verses that you just don’t see a lot in rap. Totally original and captivating.

7. Give ’Em Hell, Kid / My Chemical Romance. Another MCR classic that I discovered way too late in life. This thing is a fucking steam train of a punk rock song featuring the huge production and lyrical finesse we’ve come to expect from the boys. The thing that always gets me about this one is the vocal effect when the verse kicks in, ‘I took a train out of New Orleans...’ it’s infectious and angsty as hell. I’m absolutely in love.

8. Damn Regret / The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus. Another Don’t You Fake It throwback. A lot of what I said on False Pretense can be said for this track too - impeccable production and songwriting, an absolute anthem of my high school years. Ronnie’s vocals are a standout in this song - the sheer range and delivery this guy has is basically unheard of in pop-punk. He’s like a grungier Brendon Urie, with a voice to match.

9. Soaked / BENEE. Having only discovered BENEE very recently I can fairly say this track cemented my option that some of the world’s best pop music comes out of New Zealand. This song cleaned up at the VNZMAs, and to be honest it feels like BENEE is verging on international success too. This song rides the metaphor of water for misguidedly infatuated love - not groundbreaking by any means but it’s catchy as hell and the production carries it all the way through.

10. The Piss, The Perfume / Hayley Mary. I discovered this track (and this artist) about five minutes before writing this, and I just had to add it to the end of the playlist. This track has this gorgeous, romantic, over-saturated quality to it and I’m kinda loving it. Quite a classic rock groove with really modern sounding vocals and catchy melodies. The compression on every element of the song is really tightly packed and tidy, which is not for everyone but I love it. Great discovery. Go listen!

11. Some Kind Of Disaster/All Time Low. Some Kind Of Disaster dropped at the end of the month and HOPEFULLY means there’s a new ATL record on the way. And if this song is anything to go by, I’m excited for whatever follows. This track comes together to represent solidifying of the modern ATL sound (a la Last Young Renegade) but also a call back to the good old days, more in the vein of Nothing Personal. Perhaps telling that they just celebrated the tenth anniversary of that record. This track is catchy, upbeat and lyrically interesting (standard ATL fare) but I feel like they’re really leaning heavily on the songwriting this time, as opposed to drowning the song the production tricks that have been mainstays in their sound as of late. I’m excited for what’s to come.

So, that’s it for my FIRST EVER playlist breakdown. If you’ve read this far... THANK YOU! Shouldn’t you be doing something more important? Anyway... How’d I do? Do you agree with what I said? You’re the best, you’re the best, what should I review next... (kidding). Let’s see where February takes us - the year is young and there’s a world of music, new and old, to explore. I can’t wait. C u.

[phantasmagloria]

Hello my diamond dogs!

What could ever be said about the Thin White Duke that could ever be enough? Few have managed to explore music the way Bowie did, to bring to life such diverse characters and to remain artistically true to his own vision. Pushing the boundaries of his own creativity, he built up sonic worlds, whole universes even, and took us on a journey through his mind, heart and soul. By exposing his own humanity (however alien-like sometimes), he helped us explore our own internal worlds, creating music and lyrics with imaginative, playful and intelligent finesse – undoubtedly one of the most important sonic and lyrical masters of our time.

To discuss the diverse, finely tuned universe of sounds and experimentation found of every single one of his records could take up thousands of pages – from the inclusion of classical and jazz instruments (be it a single, sexy or sad sax, a booming orchestra or a quietly plucked koto) to the use of bird song, synthesizers and invented  language. His use of the English language is also spectacular, unparalleled even. Brilliantly subliminal, beautifully delicate and undeniably powerful, Bowie subtly weaves words of poetry, literature and philosophy into his verbal fascinations.

Whether it’s the existential lyrics on his anthem ‘All the Madmen,’ with its heavy guitars and loaded meaning juxtaposing the lighter sing-along ending complete which chorus claps (too good! If it doesn’t reach in a squeeze your heart maybe you don’t have one) or the obsessive yet prayer-like lyrics on his tribute to wandering cocaine hearts eager to connect with love ‘Station to Station,’ Bowie paints a picture like no other. Both these tracks, like ‘Moonage Daydream,’ with its sexy, futuristic lyrics and its inviting, daring attitude, are perfect examples of a Bowie universe in song form – and yet no two Bowie songs have ever been alike.

When I was about 12, I got two Bowie compilation CDs, and have played them on repeat ever since. At that time electric blue was my favourite colour, and I was cutting out anything blue I found in magazines, taping the pages all around my room, making a massive, ever-growing collage of ‘blue, blue, electric blue, that’s the colour of my room”… true story. I remember ‘John I’m Only Dancing’ (along with ‘Suffragette City’) sounding like one of the most ecstatic things I’d ever heard in my life. The howling vocals, the electrifying guitar, the claps and sexy sax, that screeching, raw ending – a total banger and still one of my favourite songs of all time! Velvet Goldmine hit the silver screen about the same time and of course I was hooked.

I was enchanted and excited by every one of his personas – some closer to the heart than others but all carrying their own sound and vision that in turn uncovered a different side of my own self. His ability to wear different creative masks, then shed his skin and reinvent himself, while simultaneously framing his existence within an infinite universe of stars and possibility, giving a perspective to the concept of existence that encouraged embracing life, was a game-changer for me. Why be one thing other people want, when you can be everything you want to be? Why be one colour, when you can be a beam of light and channel a whole fucking rainbow? The collective impact of songs like ‘Starman’ and ‘Life on Mars,’ ‘Rock’n’Roll Suicide’ and ‘Velvet Goldmine,’ ‘Rebel, Rebel’ and ‘Modern Love’ literally shaped who I am today, a testament to how Bowie affected his listeners, deeply altering their perception of…well, everything.

And yet, even when Bowie is singing in a language we can’t even understand (as he does on Low), or when he delves into avant-garde territory (as he does on ‘Neuköln’ for example), whether dripping with classical influences or brimming with electronic innovation, he still creates something totally unique and soul-shattering. When it comes to composition, his influences beautifully shine through, be it Scott Walker, John Lennon, Charles Mingus, John Coltrane, John Cage, Steve Reich or Tangerine Dream.

It’s hard to single out just one Bowie record as the best because it’s hard to even compare some of them, he’s so consistently diverse. To me, however, Low, written in Berlin in an almost destroyed state, stands at the centre of his creations. His records before and after are equally impressive and impressionable, total classics I love, but Low from The Berlin Trilogy to me sounds like the ultimate sonic evolution: the highest state of his creative self-actualization, borne of a phoenix-like incineration, never to be the same again after it. Along with Heroes, Low was reworked by Philip Glass, two sublime pieces of work to say the least. Glass’ signature repetition, cyclical progression and pizzicato playing (think Glassworks) come through wonderfully in his rendition of ‘Some Are (Part 2)’.

Also on this show we hear pieces from the soundtrack Bowie did with Syuichi Sakamoto from Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence, Aphex Twin remixing Glass reworking Bowie, a very dark collaboration Bowie did with Massive Attack covering ‘Nature Boy’ for the Moulin Rouge soundtrack, and (a match made in heaven) Bowie with the absolutely fabulous Pet Shop Boys on ‘Hallo Space Boy’ (I was obsessed when it came out). We basically skip everything else (because there simply wasn’t enough time!) and close it all off in the year 1997 (a good year for music), that finds Bowie pushing his electronic boundaries and delving into drum and bass (the opening to ‘Little Wonder’ could have easily fit into Prodigy’s The Fat of the Land that came out that same year).

Until next time, ‘don’t fake it baby, lay the real thing on me. The church of man, love, is such a holy place to be.’

With love from outer space,

—Stardust Rebel

Storm Stereo #33: Bowie Special Hello my diamond dogs! What could ever be said about the Thin White Duke that could ever be enough?

[midnightiscoming-kasabian]

*Noel [Gallagher Fielding]

DIY Magazine, August 2017

Kasabian: Forever having the last laugh

Much loved and misunderstood in equal measures, Kasabian are still the band your mother warned you about. 

Keep reading

Back in 1998, when Tom Meighan was 17 years old, he stepped out onto the stage of The Shed in Leicester in front of a group of friends and family and began Kasabian’s first ever gig as though he were headlining Glastonbury. “I remember hiding behind the stairs and then appearing like it was some fucking [arena]. That’s the level my head was at then,” he recalls. “It was all our mates in the crowd, so everyone’s gonna tell you you’re good. But we knew we were good anyway. We knew we had something special.” Fast forward 16 years and four Number One records later to 2014, and Kasabian were headlining Glastonbury for real. This month, now with yet another Number One (current LP ‘For Crying Out Loud’) to add to the tally, they’ll headline Reading & Leeds for the second time. Tonight, they’re headlining Glasgow’s TRNSMT to 50,000 people. Taking top billing alongside Radiohead and hometown heroes Biffy Clyro, theirs is the only day to sell out.

Undeniably, Kasabian are one of the biggest bands in the country, sitting in a top tier cohabited by the likes of Arctic Monkeys, Muse and very few else. It’s a mountain they’ve scaled while being hit with endless criticisms along the way – for their lyrics, their ethos, their entire ‘schtick’; surely no other band of their stature has received such a media mauling as Tom, co-conspirator Serge Pizzorno and bandmates Chris Edwards and Ian Matthews. But through it all, Kasabian have always had two indisputable weapons in their arsenal: a world class live show capable of silencing even the most po-faced of doubters, and a twinkle of the eye that suggests they’re forever having twenty times more fun than any grumbling muso slagging them off. “We’re a big band. We sell albums. People don’t like it, that’s the way it is,” intones Tom, plainly. “We’ve never been arse-licked; we’ve grafted, me and Serge, to where we’ve got. Everyone hated us when we came out and we’re still here. I don’t regret any of [our choices]. It’s all tongue in cheek, you know? That’s the whole point, isn’t it?”

Our whirlwind 36 hours within the Kasabian machine begins the night before at Glasgow’s O2 Academy. The band have hired out the venue for a final rehearsal and, despite their flights from Estonia being cancelled the night before, meaning a time-consuming re-routing and a police escort to get them on a train to the city, they’re trucking on regardless. Flight cases emblazoned with the group’s logo fill up the venue and two delivery drivers bearing stacks of pizza boxes higher than their heads arrive to fuel the touring party; when the band appear just before 9pm, Serge recalls how he was bottled the last time they played here, requiring six stitches and leaving bloodied hand prints down the dressing room corridor walls. It’s fair to say that almost everything in Kasabian’s orbit is bigger and madder and more quote-worthy than normal life.

Their reasons for tonight’s additional run through, however, are impressively un-starry. Kasabian don’t like to go into a gig cold - “We’re trying to get this collective mass of people and take them somewhere, but if we have three or four days off, I feel like it takes half a set to get there,” explains Serge. “Whereas now I think, well, we were here last night so we just carry on” - and so for two hours, on the eve of one of their summer’s biggest shows, they play some of this decade’s most hedonistic hits to a handful of non-plussed roadies in an empty room. There’s possibly none more fitting a picture of Kasabian’s strange dichotomy – excessive and purposefully ridiculous yet grounded and down to earth – than watching them blast through a live karaoke version of ultimate sesh anthem ‘Fire’ (Tom’s ducked out by this point) to precisely no-one.“The thing is though, we really care,” enthuses Serge the next day, red roses stitched onto his tracksuit as he lounges with a cup of tea back in the band’s country house hotel. “There’s a responsibility when you’re at the top of the bill to end the night on a massive fucking high, and we’ve built a reputation for that. Anyone who’s indifferent to us and doesn’t get it, misses the jokes and misses the point, they see it live and at the end of the gig they understand. It’s really important to us that people go away thinking…” He pauses. “Well, we try and change your life.”While Tom bats away any mention of the band’s detractors with the dismissive attitude of a man who genuinely doesn’t give a shit (“Nah. Done it. Can’t do anything else. Headlined Glastonbury; got six albums; probably do another 10 more. That’s how it is”), Serge is more frustrated by people’s frequent misconceptions of his band. It’s indicative of the yin-yang personality types at the heart of the duo.

In conversation, Tom is gregarious and hyperactive, with the attention span of a six-year-old on Christmas Day. He says exactly what he thinks and is already distracted by the next thing before you’ve even processed the answer. Serge, meanwhile, is a generous conversationalist, ruminating in depth on any topic he’s given. On stage, Tom, says his bandmate, has been “exactly the same from day one. He was quite a powerful character [even] at school; he’d walk into the year area and you could tell his presence.” Serge, however, has only more recently come to embrace the thrill of the stage. “I didn’t feel the need to be Freddie Mercury - that compulsion some people have to perform,” he explains. “But there was a moment when I realised I can just fuck about. I think about what I can get away with to make the other lads laugh in front of all these people. It’s ridiculous standing on stage, so you should embrace it.” But while Tom and Serge might come from different angles, both have always been united in the pursuit of fun and playfulness, of keeping things just that little bit silly. During the campaign for 2014 LP ‘48:13’, they performed backed by a series of flashing slogans including ‘Free Deirdre’ and ‘Maggot Munch’. When they headlined Glastonbury, their only ‘special guest’ was pal Noel Fielding dressed as a cartoon vampire. Joyously irreverent, theirs is a humour entrenched as much in a Young Ones-esque tradition of eccentric British comedy as one of boisterous British bands. That’s the bit that so many people seem to struggle with. “One of the most frustrating things is when people miss the humour. There’s so much piss taking in everything we do,” begins Serge. “We’re in on the joke, that’s the thing that people don’t seem to understand.” The oft-quoted stereotype, we suggest, is of Kasabian as a kind of real life Spinal Tap, dialling up the rock’n’roll cliché to 11… “It’s that middle class, apologetic, broadsheet opinion,” he replies, getting slightly rattled by the thought. “Kings of Leon: that’s Spinal Tap. Kanye getting stuck on a fucking digger truck at Glastonbury: that’s Spinal Tap. I mean, hearing Kanye singing Freddie Mercury out of tune at Glastonbury is as Spinal Tap as anything anyone else has ever done, so… it’s rich, is what I’m saying. The parody and the ridiculousness of being in a band is all nonsense. It doesn’t matter what kind of band you’re in; it’s all nonsense.”

Back in the early days, around 2004’s self-titled debut, Serge admits that Kasabian embraced all the “nonsense” rather a lot more. “We didn’t think it was gonna last longer than one album, so we decided that we were gonna experience everything we could,” he grins, with the look of a man who’s seen a few detention slips in his time. “We’d turn up to festivals and just fucking go through people. Run in dressing rooms, off our fucking heads – honestly, we were so fucked. No-one liked us. We were just fucking horrible little shits, which was perfect. I love The Stooges and those kinds of bands… We wanted everyone to fucking hate us. It was great. It’s all part of the show.” If social media had existed back then, he notes, “it would have been disgusting”. Now, both Tom and Serge are fathers and in their mid-30s. Five albums after releasing the debut they thought would be their only record, they’ve settled into a space surprisingly far down the other end of the rockstar bullshit spectrum. Say what you want about the on-stage swagger and lairy bangers, but underneath it all Kasabian have kept remarkably grounded. “That’s the thing, we’re just not fucking like that. We live in Leicester with all our families and all our pals and that’s because we saw through the fakeness from day one,” Serge shrugs. “You could reel off the people who’ve turned into dicks and that’s fucked them, but that’s just not us. We saw through it. How can I write music for the people that I relate to if I’m not around them? 50,000 people aren’t gonna relate if I stand around with a load of supermodels opening envelopes. No one gives a fuck about that guy.”

Cut to later that evening and 50,000 people are most certainly giving all the fucks. Having spent the hour before stage time blasting out Beatles songs and milling among a small and unanimously entertaining group of pals including Trainspotting legend Robert Carlyle and a perma-sunglasses wearing old friend only known as The Turtle, Kasabian take to the TRNSMT stage to a deafening roar. “It’s about anticipation, it’s like a boxing match,” notes Tom about the build up to stage time. “We’re like monkeys in a cage, and it’s my job to rattle the cage. I go from Clark Kent to Superman. BANG - like that.” The set, as always, is huge and cathartic and powerful; a 90-minute, all-consuming escape from reality that has the entire field uniformly losing their minds in unison. To paraphrase Serge’s own words previously, even if you don’t get it before, by the end of the gig you’ll understand.Off stage, enjoying a post-show beverage or two, we notice that Serge is wearing not one, but three identical gold Casio watches up his arm. The theory, he explains with that twinkle in his eye, is that casually observed on stage, they’ll look like a standard bit of bling. “But then when you look closer…” he chuckles, with a wink. It’s exactly the kind of weird and wonderful thought process that characterises the songwriter and his band of childhood pals. Some people will scoff and chalk it up as another example of the band’s rockstar buffoonery, but Kasabian have always known it’s far more fun, having a laugh down here with the people. “I genuinely just think life’s too short,” smiles Serge. “The odds of any of this happening. I mean, just to be born in this country alone, you’re already dreaming - then to have the life I’ve had. So I figure, I’ve been given this, and I can’t explain why, but man, I’m going out in a blaze of glory. And I figure if I worry and hide, then what a waste. I’m gonna have the fucking time of my life on that stage. I’m gonna have it so big. And maybe that’s what people see in us? Like, you know what? They’re living it.” 

[airadam]

Episode 127 : Stand Strong

"...so instead, you prefer to be lied to."

- Hutch

This feels very much like the stance needed at the end of a rough year on many fronts. Still, we're here on the cusp of a new decade, but we play out this one with a (mostly) wintry selection from both sides of the Atlantic which will take you into 2020 in fine style. Thanks for your continued support - I hope to continue bringing you quality material!

Twitter : @airadam13

Playlist/Notes

Bugzy Malone : December

Thought I'd take the opportunity to play this new track while it's still this month! Manchester's Bugzy Malone is primarily associated with the grime scene, but this single leans into contemporary straightforward Hip-Hop as much as anything else. When you hear his voice there's no mistaking where he's from, and this new release has him reflecting on how things have worked out for him after years of work as an independent artist. The heavy beat by Krunchie and Zdot sounds like the darkest timeline of a Xmas advert - good work!

[El-P] Run The Jewels : Twin Hype Back (Instrumental)

I only picked up the instrumental version of the first Run The Jewels LP this month, but it's worth having for the DJs, and would probably make a solid contribution to a gym playlist as well!

Dr. Yen Lo : Day 70

It's been well over 30 episodes since we last played anything this LP, so I thought it was due a revisit. Ka on the mic and Preservation on the low-key production is perfect for this time of year, cold and wintry. Take time to listen properly to Ka's lyrics - always an absolute treat.

DJ Jazzy Jeff : The Government's Dead

Jazzy Jeff's "M3" LP definitely seems to have passed most people by, but it's definitely worth checking - a very different vibe to his previous albums, but still very well done. The band recruited and produced by Jeff cook up a jazzy groove which starts off sparse and light and then builds into a crashing wave. Lyrics come from "The Trinity" - Rhymefest (an early writer for Kanye), Uhmeer (Jeff's son), and Dayne Jordan - in multiple forms, from spoken word to rhyme to song.

Phonte : Euphorium (Back To The Light)

Little Brother's return this year with "May The Lord Watch" is an essential, but so was the most recent Phonte solo, "No News Is Good News". This was a beautiful closing track to the album, with Phonte starting off displaying a little of his singing skill before switching up to spit some bars - very much a reflection of him feeling free to be his whole self, as he says. Abjo out of San Diego provides the production, which feels faster than the 70-ish BPM it is while also having a lighter feel than much of the 140 BPM stuff that we hear now.

Curren$y & Harry Fraud ft. Styles P : W.O.H.

This sample usage by Harry Fraud is an absolute gem. Kind of in keeping with the original track, it's the soundtrack to a mental image of someone who needs to get out of town in a hurry. Curren$y stunts on everyone in his trademark fashion, but also brings in Styles from The LOX for a little extra flavour on the closing verse. Definitely my favourite track from the "Cigarette Boats" EP, and 100% perfect nighttime driving music.

Jan Hammer : Airport Swap

This track and the previous one almost got saved for a future planned podcast, but hey...there are always more records! Taken from the "Miami Vice" TV series soundtrack (the episode "No Exit"), this is classic 80s Jan Hammer. Production trivia - those electric guitar sounds are all synthesized, no strings in sight.

Gang Starr ft. Q-Tip : Hit Man

I was making some mad faces the first time I heard this track - DJ Premier absolutely put his whole foot into this beat. Straight gangster (appropriate) material from the biggest surprise release of the decade, "One of the Best Yet". Guru's monotone is so clean on here, on something not a million miles away from "Sabotage" on "The Ownerz", and the hook is provided by none other than Q-Tip from Tribe, doing his best gun sounds!

Blak Twang : 19 Long Time

The title track of the first Blak Twang album to get a proper release (the long-lost "Dettwork SouthEast" didn't surface until 2014 for most of us), this 1998 cut is undeniable. Tony Rotton looks back at all the Hip-Hop experiences that brought him to that point, with references that UK heads of a certain age can relate to. The beat is quality, well-mixed with plenty of bump for your speakers. Random trivia : it's odd to think that since this was released, both of the veteran travel agents mentioned in the third verse have gone out of business...

Raekwon ft. Havoc : King of Kings

I guess the title makes it seasonal? Anyway, this is one of the gems on the somewhat patchy third album from Raekwon, "The Lex Diamond Story". I'd assumed that Havoc had done the production here, but on checking the credits I find it's actually Crummie Beats, who's worked with Illa Ghee and Sean P amongst others. Havoc and Rae are experts in delivering that dark NYC street vibe, so there's no surprises when it comes to the bars.

MED, Blu, and Madlib ft. Dâm-Funk and DJ Romes : Peroxide

I only got up on this one recently - a defining aspect of the past decade for me has been such a deluge of music releases that it's common for great records to pass you by for years at a time! 2015's "Bad Neighbor" LP is a collaboration with the widely-popular Madlib on production and MED and Blu on the mic, but this particular track features original Lootpack member DJ Romes on the cuts and the LA retro god Dâm-Funk giving the tune some electronic flavour. 

Ilajide : Breakin (Instrumental)

This one kind of crept up, a quiet banger from the "Five Week Heet IV" release. If you're a regular listener then you're probably well up on the brilliant producer from Clear Soul Forces, but if not - search out his stuff!

The Coup ft. Del Tha Funkee Homosapien : The Repo Man Sings For You

I feel like there's a replayed melody here during the verse and sung on the hook that I should recognise, but just can't put my finger on! It sounds like something that would be on the soundtrack for a Hip-Hop retelling of "A Christmas Carol", with the repo man (played by Del) heartlessly and gleefully confiscating goods from a debtor, and Boots (also the producer) playing the put-upon poor worker who is his victim. This is a highlight on the excellent "Steal This Album" which is also an appropriate track to play at a time when Black people are often omitted in the discussion of who is "working class".

Big Hutch : True Lies

Very apt in our seemingly post-truth world... This is a pick from the first solo album by Hutch (aka Cold 187um of Above The Law), 1999's "Executive Decisions". Self-produced as you'd expect from the man who arguably invented G-Funk, it's an ominous one which in my opinion would just have been elevated by slightly better mastering. 

Tobi Sunmola : Good Guys Don't Survive

Tobi is a Nigerian-born, Manchester-based MC I learned about from Dubbul O (who gives him a shout here). This man is getting a lot of respect from those in the know, so get yourself up to speed with the title track from his 2018 EP. The drum track that underpins the beat is perfection, and Tobi's voice slices through with ease, allowing us to appreciate his writing.

Frameworks ft. Rioghnach Connolly : Calm The Still Night

Rioghnach is an incredibly talented musician, and someone I came across early in my time on the Manchester music circuit, with both of us at the same open mic/jam sessions. She's gone from strength to strength since then, and she combines here with another star of the local scene, producer Frameworks. This is a lovely chilled-out song, deftly constructed, which was released both as a single from the "Tides" LP and also on one of the First Word Records compilations.

Mudstone : The Tourist

Another quality beat from the "Return of the Tec" beat tape, courtesy of The Beat Tape Project. I couldn't dig up much (no pun intended) in the way of background on Mudstone, but s/he does their thing here.

The Honey Drippers : Impeach The President

I couldn't not play this, with only the third ever impeachment of a US president underway! As you'd almost certainly twig from the sound, this funk classic was released during the Watergate scandal - when Nixon, of course, managed to avoid actual impeachment by resigning first. Roy C of "Shotgun Wedding" fame is the man on the lead vocal, with his lyrics being timeless enough to fit the current indictee perfectly. One of the most often sampled records in all of Hip-Hop, this track gives us some of the best drums ever to enter an SP or an MPC! Not bad work for a band of high school students from Queens :)

Please remember to support the artists you like! The purpose of putting the podcast out and providing the full tracklist is to try and give some light, so do use the songs on each episode as a starting point to search out more material. If you have Spotify in your country it's a great way to explore, but otherwise there's always Youtube and the like. Seeing your favourite artists live is the best way to put money in their pockets, and buy the vinyl/CDs/downloads of the stuff you like the most!

Check out this episode!

[hopdx1-blog]

Download Mp3: Hell's Carol - Hopsin

Download Mp3: Hell’s Carol – Hopsin

Hell’s Carol Hopsin MP3

While many people have come to develop a love-hate relationship with Holiday Music, there is something undeniably enduring about “Carol Of The Bells.” Some might even call it the “Dark Banger” of the Christmas canon, a lovely and haunting arrangement to be sure. It’s no wonder that Hopsin, no stranger to the ominous himself, found himself gravitating toward “Carol” in…

[realmotionxi-blog]

Hopsin Channels Krampus On Sinister “Hell’s Carol” While many people have come to develop a love-hate relationship with Holiday Music, there is something undeniably enduring about "Carol Of The Bells." Some might even call it the "Dark Banger" of the Christmas canon, a lovely and haunting arrangement to be sure.

[letsgetnutsclub-blog]

2017

Previously posted by LGN XYZ on Facebook

Hello there.

Proper writers and ‘bloggers’ and that will have done their 2017 write ups already. Fortunately, we’re crap, and so we’re doing it now. It’s not quite over, but it’s pretty much over. The year. And other things.

That was a terrible intro. Quick! Look to the past!

Chronology

We were going to just move through the year, like these things often do, but on second thoughts: balls to that. Our memory’s knackered and we’re tired, and some FUCKING CUNT IN ANOTHER FLAT is banging the floor like they do. So let’s just group things in vague themes and crack on.

Oh, this’ll be us talking about music, by the way. We should have said that at the beginning.

Making a bloody racket

We love a bloody racket in musical terms, and oh man do we miss going for a boogie to a bit of drum ‘n bass. It’s a great finisher. Back when dubstep was newish, it was fine and all, but a set had to finish with d’nb or it was a snore. Hip hop’s good and all, but in a club it’s a bit samey and mid-tempo unless you ramp up to a bit of d’nb.

Anyway, at the beginning of the year, Emeli Sandé – yes, Emeli Sandé – put out an absolute banger. Breathing Underwater (Matrix & Futurebound remix) is an absolutely euphoric belter. Love it.

And euphoric rackets brings us onto PC Music.

We were already grooving along to Charli XCX’s Vroom Vroom EP. It’s a massive smash of fairly aggressively old/new sounding rave-ups.

It was from there, we think, we learned of your SOPHIE. In what will become a bit of a theme in this ramble, late to the party we discovered the PRODUCT stuff SOPHIE put out in 2015. Most especially we fell deeply, deeply in love with JUST LIKE WE NEVER SAID GOODBYE, which is an absolute beauty of a track. A drumless banger. Listening to it daily. LOVE.

Back to Charlotte, 2017 was the year where she evidently was setting some self challenge of releasing a new track every week or so. Of her fifty-seven collaboration, the Mura Masa one is our fave. Whilst that steel pipe (drum? glockenspiel?) sound is so very now it’ll sound so very old in a year or two, 1 Night is an undeniable tune.

But Number 1 Angel – Charli’s album-in-all-but-artist-description ‘mixtape’ – was a bit of a revelation. In 2016, the people’s queen of x Carly Rae Jepsen won everything with her album-not-an-album Emotion Side B, and in 2017 Charles did the same. This prompted us to launch our catastrophic opening hour gambit for LGNXYZ02, but more of that later.

Number 1 Angel is so great, we’ve conspicuously not listened to her SECOND bloody album-not-an-album Pop 2 – that she casually threw onto the stack at the end of the year, forming a pair of “I call them mixtapes” 2017 bookends – because we’re a bit scared and want to have time to appreciate it / holy fuck it’s got a standard to live up to.

Soz.

Anyway, the first of the two had a very snazzy website put together showing off the producers. A bunch of your PC Music sorts – SOPHIE, A. G. Cook, Danny L Harle...

Huge Danny is another we’d sort of let slip by. He did a song with Jeppo a while back, and we thought it was okay, but we’re NOT INTERESTED in anything Emotion-era that falls outside the Emotion and Side B+ sets (what Lil Yachty advert song? Huh?) and so we paid little more attention.

Anyway, he produced one of the best on N1A, called ILY2, and with a penchant for initialisms this year he released an EP called 1UL. We gave it a listen, and moved on.

But then later in the year, we moved back. And gave it many more listens. The title track (another with that bloody plonky percussion sound) is a great wee thumper.

It takes us a while to catch on sometimes. Soz 2.

Taking a while to catch on

Two big ones we got to late in similar fashion were songs by Tinashe and Dua Lipa.

Again, we listened to the albums when people were wanging on about them, and didn’t give them enough time. That’s one of the drawbacks of streaming. When we were kids, if we took a punt on an album, that fucker was getting listened to. It took us a good while to learn to love Breakbeat Era, but we put the effort in and got there. Now, we’re flighty and don’t give things the time.

But we love a good music video. And these two have absolute belters of music videos.

Company, by your Tinashe, is an incredibly impressive performance video. A single room, a few people, some cheaty edits to cover the joins in a sweatily energetic and near-relentless routine, it’s fucking great. She looks amazing. And the song, it turns out, is absolutely magic. A smooth-as-anything r’n’b thumper, with a very enjoyable bleepy noise thrown in there. From 2016, but for us it’s a 2017 jam.

And your Dua snuck in an all-conquering number 1 hit and vaulted from alt-pop to pop-pop on the back of an all-time great music video for New Rules.

The minor flaws of the slightly wonky head-nod bit and the girl getting accidentally whipped in the face by someone’s hair only make this gem shine brighter. It feels like a home-grown triumph – don’t spoil it for us by telling us it cost $1mil and was directed by someone super-established. The choreography is tremendous, the look is great, but more than anything the core concept is so strong, it’s hard to think of a narrative vid and a song that go together so beautifully. It’s so good. We rewatched it a zillion times.

And from love of the song and video came a love of the song. And going back to a few of her previous singles too. Well done, all involved.

Music videos are important

Maybe in 2018 we’ll get back into making them.

Dua became a big hitter thanks to that incredible music video. And some existing big hitters released some big videos too.

Katy Perry launched what is apparently now trad to call an ‘era’ with an astonishing music video for Chained To The Rhythm. A proper megabudget job, but really, really darkly bleak and upsetting. What with political things as they were and are, it is still genuinely affecting to watch. A big shiny pop video has never been so harrowing. It was a real “oh fuck, she means business” moment, and did the job in creating a massive wave of publicity for her doing ‘woke pop’.

She then followed it with a song making a blunt non-metaphor about fucking. Didn’t do so well.

We quite like Bon Appetit, though, and Swish Swish did a Sound Of The Underground whereby it grew on us a thousand percent thanks to hearing it sounding massive at a disco (Unskinny Bop, natch). Astonishingly bad video, though, providing a peculiar seesaw end to the ‘era’.

And unfortunately clashing with Taylor Swift bringing out her own megabudget megavideo.

Look What You Made Me Do is pleasing if only for the fact that it was another underline that big pop stars are still in the business of spunking big money on big videos. High score for spectacle, with odd grade slipping due to the fact the rush to get it finished evidently left the first half slightly out of sync.

The song’s alright, but Ready For It...? is the real banger. We dig it. Haven’t given the album more than one listen, though. Maybe we’ll come back to it.

Selena Gomez’s Bad Liar was a leftfield anti-pop pop smash that we liked and grew to like more. We’ve not given this video many rewatches because we find it faintly unsettiling in its own way (is she digitally de-aged in it? What’s going on?)

And switching musical directions in the reverse, Lorde came back with a surprise disco banger in Green Light. Again we weren’t sure at first, again it grew on us, again we played it at LGN. Our initial judgement is often pretty shaky.

What isn’t shaky however is our enduring love for Ariana Grande. LGN was in part built on a night round one of our houses, singing along to Spotify, accidentally playing Problem on loop and loving it. Confident outspoken feminist queen of casually shutting down douchebags whilst releasing banger after banger.

This year, the hundredth single off of Dangerous Woman, again an awesome video grew our love for a song. Everyday is a song that more or less passed us by on the album. But seeing her grooving around in her big puffer jacket whilst diverse snogging kicks off around her in the really fun video made it move up onto our faves list. She’s the best.

We’re not going to be able to say anything in this superficial and pointless ramble to do justice to the fucking awful nightmare of what happened in Manchester, so we shan’t try. It’s heartbreaking, and the One Love response had us in tears.

Memory

George Michael died last Christmas, and as with David Bowie and Prince, it shamefully took his death for us to dig back into his music. And in George’s case, fuck we remembered some belters. Freedom ‘90 is an incredible tune, and one we played to triumphantly finished LGN04. His cover of As with Mary J Blige is ace. Multiple Wham! megasmashes which should have been on our playlist all along, apologetically we remembered them.

We also reminded ourselves what an incredible album Music Box is. Can’t remember what inspired us to have a bit of a Mariah Carey dig – perhaps just closing with her as queen of Christmas in the last 2016 LGN, and then rehearsing the lyrics to Hero when we wanted to close with it this year. A very, very strong closer. So good we chose it twice.

And you know who else we rediscovered this year? All Saints, mate. We saw them live (supported by Melanie C and Sophie Ellis-Bextor, thankyouverymuch) and it was everything. They looked incredible, they sounded incredible, they played the old hits and the new hits, they looked like they were having a fun old time of it, it was brilliant. We never saw them way back when, but this was pretty unbeatable. They played Chick Fit, which made us happy as that is an underrated smash. And they made us check out the new album. AGAIN, something we slept on when we first heard it, but One Strike is a top tier groover. Hurrah.

The joy of being part of a pop crowd

The All Saints gig was at Kew Gardens, and we were wary of it being a yummy mummy sitdown picnic fest. Which it was, but with a dancing area right in front of the stage, which meant we could get right in a wee crowd of heroes to boogie around like it was an awesome club gig.

AND SPEAKING OF AWESOME CLUB GIGS. We saw Yelle. For the somethingth time, always great, and this time in Canada.

We were a bit wary early on as the support DJs were kicking out some ace danceable tunes and the crowd was extremely sparse, an the venue inside was very swish and new which can sometimes be a bit of an atmosphere cooler. But when they came on, the crowd packed the dancefloor and it went off. Banger after banger after banger. Yelle chucked out a bunch of singles in 2017, all ace, all massive live, adding to a set of just the best fun jumping around pop joy. Love love love.

We were in Canadia for a hol, but deliberately coincided it with Tegan & Sara doing a hometown Con X show. This wasn’t a rave-up, was in a big modern concert hall, stripped down and partially acoustic-y. But was the joy of being a part of another sort of crowd. A crowd that love Tegan & Sara. T&S spent two albums doing the big pop thing, and it seems like they’ve had enough of it for now.

On stage and in interviews, they’ve spoken of how they wanted to be prominent queer voices in the mainstream, but now want to retreat a bit because the mainstream is gross. They spoke of playing big festival and support slots with the audience not really giving a shit. So here they were, playing a big small show for an audience who really gave a shit. It was wonderful.

Two days later, and well over a day without sleep, we were back in London, in another big modern concert hall, seeing Camille at the Barbican. Camille is someone you really should see live. Her albums are often beautiful, and floaty, and dreamily lovely. Live, she turns it into a big thumping dance performance. We can’t describe it without making it sound several times more shit than it is; it isn’t shit at all. It’s clatteringly, physically brilliant.

New love

In a not dissimilar fashion, Chela’s Bad Habit video is worth a look. It came out this year, and has the handclaps and odd clothing and weird dance moves that aren’t a million miles from Camille’s show. We’d never heard of Chela before, but liked this song and video. And it prompted us to look into what else she’d done.

And holy fuck, she’s incredible. No album, a bunch of scattered singles over a few years, but such tunes. And so captivating to watch. It helps that she’s beautiful, but it extra helps that she’s got fully awesome seemlingly-DIY dance moves. We watched the video to Romanticise a million times. More than New Rules. It’s just her grooving around in a single shot, a few digital paint splashes here and there, but it’s fucking great, and the song is an absolute bop. A megabop.

We were hyper obsessed with Romanticise for weeks, playing it pretty much daily. It’s SO GOOD. And in the past week or so, we’ve gone the same for Handful Of Gold. Go and watch it, again and again. We can only hope Chela decides to pop over to London this year, because we will be there with our shapes ready to be thrown. She’s fucking great.

Four discos

Oh aye. We put on some discos.

In 2016, there were three LGNs. In 2017, there were four.

For LGN04, Saturday 4th February, we moved to sunny Dalston and the Moustache Bar Dalston and had a good old time. The now trad quiet beginning, and hopeless flyering of the empty streets, gave way to a busy crowd by the end. Someone requested Martha and went nuts for it when we played it, which was ace.

LGN05 was just one month later, on Satuday 11th March. We felt bad for the few people who came early doors, and we made a real mistake running out to futilely flyer again rather than start a dancefloor amongst ourselves. But again it came good, chums arrived, and the crowd again filled in at the end and was so happy singing along we did a double finish (there’s little better than having a crowd belting out Hero AND It’s All Coming Back To Me Now one after the other).

And then the Let's Get Nuts crew had a bit of a crisis meeting. It’d become very stressful, three of us organising a disco together, and we were getting a bit narked with each other. We had all sorts of extra-disco things to worry about, and rather than break up as chums, we decided to break up as a disco. Or at least go on hiatus, like your One Directions or your Sleater-Kinneys.

But here at LGN XYZ, we really needed the continuing distraction, and so spun off to do basically the same thing, just with fewer people prepping it and poking at the iPad. Our LGN chums still chums, they thankfully came along to provide incredible and invaluable dancing support.

We approached The Victoria and they gave us a post-gig slot on Friday 19th May. Like absolute idiots, we figured we’d inherit something of a built-in audience – the venue being home to G R R L S and PINK GLOVE, and us following a Two Piece Records gig. We kind of didn’t, and had another harrowingly quiet beginning as people were spread out within the actually-pretty-big pub.

But again – AGAIN – it came good.

Our chums kept us going early doors. A heroic solo-discoer was there throughout and encouraged our riot grrly tendancies. And a trio of Charlotte and Jeppo lovers cheered our alt-pop hearts. By the end, we had people strutting to Shamir and raving it up to N-Trance.

You can read about LGNXYZ01 in a separate post where we blethered on about that, and about LGNXYZ02, which on Friday 10th November brought us back to The Star of Kings, in our follow-up jibber.

And so that was that

2017, in bits of music there.

Run The Jewels probably deserve a mention too, as they keep our ear into a bit of hip-hop, whilst we’ve drifted away from paying much attention otherwise. Kanye’s still on heavy rotation. Lizzo popped out a couple of new bops. And Fiona Apple’s 2012(!) album The Idler Wheel... remains our go-to when we’re not feeling big and poppy and want to feel some feels and sing along with something sadder.

And in fact, let’s finish with something really emotional.

Annie Hardy, from your Giant Drags, put out an album called Rules at the beginning of the year. It packs a fucking whallop. Her partner and baby died the years before, and some of the songs are about that. It’s a record that can really kick the shit out your heart.

Start 2018 as you mean to go on.

This was an odd way to end this long and rambling post, wasn’t it? Ah well, it’s happened now.

Happy new year. x

[onestowatch]

5 Of Our Favorite Unexpected Musical Holiday Gifts

Christmas has officially come and past, and we here at Ones To Watch certainly hope that you received everything of your wildest dreams this holiday season. However, while we still recover from feasts of holiday ham and Chinese food, we present you with one final gift. The holiday season brought along with it some unexpected gifts from some of our favorite artists in the form of holiday-themed renditions of timeless classics and a newly invented holiday banger to play on repeat throughout the new year. So, without further ado, here are a few of our favorite unexpected holiday-themed songs that came about this holiday season.

Rag’N’Bone Man - “It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas”

The first unexpected gift of the season came courtesy of neo-blues and soul singer Rag’N’Bone Man who stopped by the BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge. With powerful minimalistic artistic delivery and his trademark baritone vocal styling, Rag’N’Bone Man delivered an exceptional version of the 1951 hit popularized by Perry Como and The Fontaine Sisters, as well as Bing Crosby, “It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas.” For an added bonus, enjoy the commitment paid to the Santa Claus aesthetic.

Mark Johns & BLAISE – “Joy”

Don’t be fooled by its name, this is not an interpretation of any Christmas carol or classic. “Joy” is a new holiday song perfectly designed for this season’s generation. With mentions of clout googles, Yeezys, Fendi, and Prada, is it possible that Mark Johns and BLAISE’s “Joy” is a thinly veiled commentary on music and its culture’s obsession with heightened forms of capitalistic, materialistic shows of wealth and status? To be honest, your guess on the matter is as good as mine, but the free-flowing nature of it all makes an undeniable holiday-themed banger.

Kristin Kontrol – “Last Xmas”

Arguably the best Christmas song ever is the often covered but rarely done justice – “Last Christmas.”  Recorded by English pop duo Wham! in 1984, the band brought new life into the Christmas music tradition with the band’s liberal use of synthesizers and George Michael’s genius for writing genuine pop hits. Cut to the present day, where Kirstin Kontrol, an artist clearly fond of and influenced by the ‘80s hallmark synthesized style, authentically recreates that original ‘80s Christmas magic with her rendition – “Last Xmas.”

Jungook (JK) of BTS – “Oh Holy Night”

Korean boyband BTS has a devout and massive following overseas, which is nothing new for Korean boybands, but what is new is that this is one of the first and only Korean boybands to bridge the gap between k-pop and traditional top 40s. And in traditional top 40s fashion, the younger member of BTS, JK, released a stirring rendition of the well-known Christmas carol “O Holy Night” as a Christmas present of sorts for his adoring fans and many more soon to be. 

James Blake – “Vincent”

Originally written and performed by Don McLean in 1971, “Vincent,” was originally intended as a tribute to the late artist Vincent Van Gogh and his painting “The Starry Night,” as opposed to a traditional holiday song. However, much in proper James Blake manner, Blake repurposed the classic, performing an innately intimate interpretation of the Don McLean classic and forever adorning “Vincent” in the storied history of holiday songs.

For more on James Blake, check out our 6 Ones To Know If You’re a Fan of James Blake. And from all of us here at Ones To Watch, wishing you an amazing time in the New Year!

[thecrashjaxon]

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