Music
Spoek Mathambo: Solo-Album “Mshini Wam” Is Out Now
Spoek Mathambo is part of two awesome electro-rap-duos from Johannesburg called Sweat X and Playdoe and has just released his solo-record “Mshini Wam”. Below I posted a little portrait of Mathambo filmed by photographer Shawn Mortensen as part of Nike’s AM90 Sound project and his latest videos “War On Words” and “Mshini Wam”. You can also download a pretty cool mixtape by Mathambo recorded as part of Nike and The Fader’s “Pitch Perfect” – collaboration. He also has a nice blog.
Music Ticker: Barbara Panther, Matthew Herbert, Fever Ray, Young Cream, Toro Y Moi, Antony And The Johnsons
+++ Barbara Panther is going to release her “Empire E.P.” on September 10th. The record was produced by Matthew Herbert. You can stream it here, it’s pretty exciting stuff I think +++ +++ This is Fever Ray’s cover of Peter Gabriel’s “Mercy Street” (unfortunately no longer downloadable). Click here if the Soundcloud doesn’t appear in the post on your blog reader. +++ I’ve recently fallen in love with “Congo Cut Cut”, a completely crazy track produced by Young Cream (picture on top), a side project of Salem’s Jeff. Here it is: +++ Check out Toro Y Moi’s funny and creepy new video for his song “Low Shoulder” +++ +++ Here’s the heart-melting video for Antony’s “Thank You For Your Love”. You can download the song here.
PICK 5 Feat. Hard Ton
Hard Ton are Max and Mauro, a duo from Venice that manages to melt together three decades of dance music: While in their tracks they mix disco and italo disco with nineties house and chicago house, singer Max’ outfits and his stage appearance make you instantly think of queer icons such as Divine, Leigh Bovery and even Rob Halford (Judas Priest). The guys have recently gotten a lot of attention for the cover of their “Selfish”-E.P. – a remake of Grace Jones’ “Island Life” album cover (remember?). For PICK 5 they have put together a nice collection of their favourite webclips. But see yourself… 1. Phyllis Nelson – I Like You “It’s the perfext party track… since 1985″ 2. Stefano e Bene Feat. Hard Ton – “Why Your Love” “This is our lastest collaboration. Stefano & Bene are not Italians but they love italo disco. You probably know them by another nickname… but we should keep it a secret.”
Joel Gibb: That’s Us / Wild Combination
“Four Songs By Arthur Russell” was released in August 2007.
Original version here.
The Whale Watching Tour / Sam Amidon
The video below shows footage of Bedroom Community’s “Whale Watching Tour”, a show in which Nico Muhly (who produced Jonsi’s album), Sam Amidon, Ben Frost and Valgeir Sigurðsson perform each others songs together. I went to see the concert in Berlin yesterday and I can recommend it, although I must admit that it’s got it’s pretty exhausting moments (I’ve honestly never really been a huge fan of Ben Frost’s compositions), three tour dates are still left. I also again really want to recommend Sam Amidon’s current record “I See The Sign“, which was released in April and features not only Nice Muhly and Ben Frost as guest musicians, but also Beth Orton. Amidon’s voice and his attitude really made the evening for me, the video below may give you a first impression of what I’m talking about. He is currently touring through the US and Canada.
Chris Pell Vs. Joe Howe x 2
Chris Pell is an awesome illustrator from Brighton, UK. The animation videos posted below are comissioned works for Jow Howe from Gay Against You and his projects Germlin and Ben Butler & Mousepad. Check out Pell’s website for more illustrations and his beautiful photographic works. Thanks for the tip, Pascualino!
M.I.A.: XXXO
This time I really like it, especially as a huge Blingee fan. Germans can watch the video on Vimeo. There’s also a second new video for the song “Illy Girl”, you can watch it here. If you speak German you are also kindly invited to read my article about M.I.A. in the current issue of Intro. The text is based on an interview I did with here in London in May.
Music Ticker: Antony And The Johnsons, Jens Lekman, Hook And Line Magazine, Joey Hansom, Former Ghosts, Washed Out, Hot Chip, The Gwladys End, Autre Ne Veut
+++ Antony and the Johnsons are releasing a new album called “Swanlight” in October (cover on top of this post). It will contain the new single “Thank You For Your Live”, a song that starts like a sweet ballad and turns into a real anthem. It will soon be released on a 5-track-E.P and can currently be downloaded on Stereogum +++ +++ Jens Lekman has released a beautiful new song with the depressing title “The End Of The World Is Bigger Than Love”. You can download it on Lekman’s website by leaving your Email adress. I also really love this gorgeous mix he has released at the beginning of July (tracklist here): Jens Lekman: Summer In 3/4 Time +++ Check out the new issue of Hook And Line, a free web zine focused on music I discovered a while ago. The current issue features Allister Izenberg (who’s “Lonesome”-E.P. can still be downloaded here), Diane Cluck and Sleep ∞ Over +++
Ab Soto: Get Up
New clip by Mr. Dirty Butt. The complete collection of his clips here.
Prizes: Rumours
Via Schmooze Blog. More about Prizes (Ex-Treasure) here.
Mixtape Special: GRUM, Kingdom, Visual AIDS
As someone who excessively ueses the skip-button of his MP3-player I guess I may not the kind of person internet mixtapes are actually made for, but nevertheless I like that they have become such a poular tool for artists to promote themselves. Here are three good examples of mixtapes even an unstable person like me enthusiastically listen to all the way through and which are definetaly worth downloading. GRUM DJ MIX In autumn last year Graeme Shepherd alias Grum got a lot of attention for his pretty subtle electro-version of Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance” and since then has established himself as a demanded remixer and producer. His album “Heartbeats” has been officially released in May and will now be released a second time (I have no idea why) on WePlay/SONY. The mixtape Grum has released for this occasion brings together a bunch of his remix songs and is a pretty lush and catchy mix of house, disco and eighties electro sounds. Ezra Rubin aka Kingom is a DJ and producer from New York who got my attention a while ago when he stated that it was his aim to “make club tracks that danceably and abstractly express the nostalgic teen longing of a Mariah Carey song”. His mixtape recorded for FACT magazin combines dark hip hop, house two step and grime beats in a very elegant way and at the same time is full of melodic elements and quotes from other music styles which give it a very poppy, sometimes even campy twist. Kingdom’s “That Mystic”-E.P. has been released a few days ago on Night Slugs.
Download link
FACT Mix 121 feat. KINGDOM
Download link (available for another two weeks)
Visual AIDS – Hearing Aids
Visual AIDS is an arts organization based in New York which describes itself as the only organisation “committed to HIV prevention and AIDS awareness through producing and presenting visual art projects, while assisting artists living with HIV/AIDS.” For DIS magazine the guys of Visual AIDS have put together a mixtape called “Hearing Aids”, which blurrs the borders between mainstream and underground in a pretty exciting way. The tapes comes with along with a photo essay and I also recommend having a look at the brilliant Visual AIDS tumblr while listening to it. (Trading Card on the left designed by Slava Mogutin).
Download link
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