In the early days of grime, say around 2002 or 2003, it was easy for Americans (many of us still using dial-up to snag single MP3 transmissions from the London underground) to feel like we’d never be able to keep up. Almost a decade later, it still feels impossible, but for entirely different reasons: Whether we’re talking about freestyles caught on cell phones in clubs or fully thought-out mixtapes, the brand-newest shit from grime’s young turks and old hands is now instantly accessible. Much like the current state of U.S. rap, grime unleashes an avalanche of semi-underground material every month, and you can catch a headache just thinking about trying to process everything.
No one represents the promise and perils of this state of affairs better than Wiley, still one of the genre’s most distinct voices and crucial producers. Up until 2006, you could listen to the entire recorded output of this grime godfather, from bedroom beat experiments to charting singles that reshaped UK urban music, in just a couple of hours. Now it’s arguable that even Wiley can’t remember every track he’s released in the past half-decade. In 2007, he put out no less than six “best-of” mixtapes, and he hasn’t slowed down since. If anything, since his brief brush with the UK mainstream in 2008 thanks to the pop-dance undeniablility of “Wearing My Rolex”, he’s sped up, as if his thwarted dalliance with a major label allowed him to see the futility of releasing one “official” album every few years in a cloud-based world. But Evolve, available through the auspices of real-deal label Big Dada, is clearly being marketed as one of the Wiley releases you should pay closer attention to….- CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE REVIEW on Pitchfork
“Be true to yourself, face your demons.” Nneka sang the words to “Camouflage” after momentarily forgetting the lyrics and fessing up with a smile. A front-row occupier at an intimate acoustic event in New York’s Meatpacking District helped her out with his smart phone, and the show went on. Nneka faced her demons, this time her own words, and delivered a show some in the crowd knew to expect. Soul is Heavy hit stores Feb 28th and the Nigerian-born songstress starts a U.S. tour in March. A small group of local fans and industry types were treated to the preview session last night and early opinion looks like this album is a solid follow-up to her debut. Check her tour dates below!-World Up
NNEKA ON TOUR…
3/6/12 – The Biltmore Cabaret – Vancouver
3/7/12 – The Crocodile – Seattle, WA
3/8/12 – Doug Fir Lounge – Portland, OR
3/10/12 – Red Devil Lounge – San Francisco, CA
3/11/12 – Troubadour – West Hollywood, CA
(3/13/12 – 3/17/12 – SXSW – Austin, TX)
3/18/12 – House Of Blues Bronze Peacock – Houston, TX
3/21/12 – Double Door – Chicago, IL
3/23 – Virgin Mobile Mod Club – Toronto
3/24/12 – Cabaret du Mile End – Montreal
3/26/12 – T.T. The Bear’s – Cambridge, MA
3/27/12 – Gramercy Theatre, New York, NY
3/28/12 – Johnny Brenda’s – Philadelphia, PA
3/29/12 – Jammin Java Music Club & Cafe – Vienna, VA
3/31/12 – Vinyl – Atlanta, GA
From the forthcoming Bill Ortiz Winter In America EP Release, this concept video features the new version of Gil Scot Heron’s Winter In America song recreated by Bill Ortiz and featuring Tony Lindsay and The Grouch. Although the EP will not be available on I-Tunes or physically until January 31st, 2012, the video coincides with the release of the Winter In America EP, which was released direct to fans on Martin Luther King Day, 2012. This video features the inspired and amazing photography of Ari Berger, who also directed the video.
Daytime’s synth voices and painterly visuals spin a dreamy tale. The Sun cannot pierce through a cloud-wrapped planet and thus wages war with sunbeams. The Clouds fight back with vapors; in the end, life wins. Daytime’s sinuous imagery was hand-crafted with the Rutt/Etra Video Synthesizer, an analog video instrument built in the early 70s. Like a TV from another dimension, the Rutt/Etra gives artists total control of the screen with knobs, oscillators and sound-responsive circuitry. It is a modular analog computer, programmed with patch chords.
The artists dedicate Daytime to the memory of Steve Rutt, co-inventor of the Rutt/Etra. Steve’s pioneering work as an engineer and entrepreneur helped create the media culture we now live in.
Music by Steve Nalepa. Video co-created by Benton-C Bainbridge, V Owen Bush and Steve Nalepa.
Video produced at dvlabs in New York.
Self-taught musician and film editor, Adrian Younge has a cinematic soul. In Panavision.
A couple of years back, Younge edited the Blaxploitation homage/parody “Black Dynamite.” He additionally wrote the score for the film and assembled the Black Dynamite Orchestra to record the score which was released on the always reliable Wax Poetics label.
One listen to a Younge DJ set and his connection to/with Wax Poetics comes into focus. A crate digger, particularly of film scores of the brooding 70′s variety, Younge mixtapes weave together particularly emotive moments in scores by Barbieri & Morricone to dizzying effect.
Interestingly, long before Younge scored an actual film, he’d released a score to an imaginary film back in 2000 titled, “Venice Dawn.” Late last year, Younge released a kind of follow-up or continuation of the Venice Dawn project titled, “Something About April.” Here’s a track KCRW’s own Garth Trinidad has been spinning from the collection:
“It’s Me” by Adrian Younge Presents Venice Dawn by Wax Poetics! As a teaser, Wax Poetics and Younge have also offered up the Venice Dawn project as a download via Soundcloud.
More kids should be into ‘50s rock. They’ve already appropriated the decade’s corrective eyewear, so it’d be a quick leap into loving the rest: the party-above-all attitude, the massively talented vocal chops, the 1-2-3 easiness of pop tunes that always sound right. A leap made even easier today by this revision of Buddy Holly’s sceney-bopper lullaby “Slippin’ and Slidin’.” Brooklyn selector Jacques Renault pulls laser punches, longform echoes and digi-snares before letting Buddy’s velvet voice in. But once he does, that’s what dominates, even over birding howls and loping samples. This great, conscientious mix will turn a whole new group on to the generation that started it all. Find it with the original, on Verve Forecast now.- RCRDLBL
CREEP hones in on an eerie, spectral pulse in their video for “Animals,” where the music of duo Lauren Flax and Lauren Dillard teems with a violent, dark vibe. Holly Miranda gives us, um, a new look as Creep employs another prominent guest vocalist for “Animals.” Greko Sklavounos directs. Check it out below. The “Animals” single is out 1/17 on CREEP INTL.
