Morning guys and dolls. I trust your weekends were great? My wife spent the weekend at her sister’s, so I spent a large amount of my weekend sat on the sofa in my pants, grinding out levels in Black Ops’ multiplayer. Good times! A wasted weekend, you say? How very dare you. This week should be pretty good – James T and I have a few live reviews for you, along with our regular mix of content and playlists.
As always, if there’s something you’d like to see us cover, or even if you’d like to cover said thing yourself, please do get in touch – we’d love to hear from you.
Anyway, to business! I shall hand you over to Moggy for todays playlist, and his passionate defence of Nu-Metal. Readers of a nervous disposition are probably best advised to stop here; readers with a sense of humour are encouraged to read on.
Afternoon folks! Tomorrow is the LCD Soundsystem and Hot Chip gig up in Sheffield, which I’ll be going to and am getting insanely excited about. It should make for a cracking night!
There’s really not a huge amount of new live music that I’ve found to report about this week. The most notable bit of info is that tickets for the NME Awards Tour 2011 go on sale today, and I must say that the line-up is looking pretty special: Crystal Castles, Magnetic Man, Everything Everything and The Vaccines all on one stage at various locations across the UK in February next year, and I imagine tickets for these gigs will sell out quite quickly.
Esoterica are a relatively unheard of and underrated band hailing from Surrey, whose vocals and prog metal tendencies draw instant comparisons to the likes of Maynard James Keenan of Tool and A Perfect Circle fame. They’ve recently added a new London date to the end of their UK tour in December.
As always, hit the link for the full up-and-coming gig listings. Enjoy your weekends!
Friday, we’ve made it to the weekend. Let us know what your plans are for the next couple of days – where are the places to be this weekend? It’s been a busy few days for Spotisfaction – they took a dislike to Davey P at the 3 Daft Monkey’s gig last night and nearly didn’t let him through the door, but he convinced them in the end. The Mystery Jets and Fenech-Soler were on top form for me over the last two nights; Dave and I will be preping our reviews this weekend.
Now, following my Last.FM playlist on Wednesday, Kev Atkinson has taken up the idea and done his own. This might be a good idea for everyone to pick up on, so lets see an influx of Last.FM based playlists in our inbox soon! It’s a simple idea, so if you’re struggling for playlist inspiration, give this a try! Anyway, here’s Kev’s contribution, so I’ll hand you over to him.
For an artist with so many hit records and singles, Cee Lo Green is a name that has only recently become ingrained in the public’s consciousness. Known to some for his work as a founding member of hip hop group Goodie Mob, to others for his collaboration with DJ Danger Mouse in Gnarls Barkley, and to everyone else for the ridiculously popular ‘Fuck You’ (aka ‘Forget You’, it’s neutered brother), CeeLo’s voice has been gracing our clubs, radios and YouTubes for a good long while now. We’re now 8 albums into Green’s expansive, 20-year career, and so it comes as no surprise that with all of this experience his new album The Lady Killer is a mature, intelligent and highly polished record.
However, could the high production values and lack of grit take something away from the album? You see, Cee Lo has always been someone who works best when allowed to experiment and push the boundaries. His last two solo albums, 2002’s Cee Lo Green and His Perfect Imperfections and 2004’s Cee Lo Green… Is the Soul Machine might not have had the sheer polish and production of his latest, but they were genre-mashing, adventurous and downright exciting listens. They were warts-and-all insights into a thoroughly creative man who is a self-described freak, and his personality made these records worth listening to.
The Lady Killer is an album that has been crafted specifically to propel Green into the spotlight. He has mentioned that he wanted to create a more accessible album so that he would no longer be the “underground underdog”, and he has reigned in his eccentricities in order to avoid his creative output becoming a “kamikaze mission”. So, how has this affected his sound?
It was announced today (10 November) that Welsh Ragga Metal 4-piece Skindred are releasing their fourth studio album next year, titled Union Black. It’ll be released 2 May 2011 and is currently being recorded at Britannia Row Studios in London. On the bands official website front man Benji Webbe had this to say about his new album,
“This is the first album we have written and recorded in the UK, it”™s a big departure from our usual sunny California or Florida surroundings, its bloody freezing! The album will be darker and heavier than any of our previous recordings and I”™ve not been this excited whilst writing since I was a kid! “Union Black” is bringing the darker side of the Dred out for sure!!!!!”
Having previously toured with Gogol Bordello, Flogging Molly, Korn and Disturbed they are set to bring their high energy live show to Rob Zombie‘s sold out UK tour next February. Skindred have been fighting their way into popularity ever since the success of their first album Babylon and the inclusion of a number of their songs on various video games.
I am personally greatly looking forward to this album. I really enjoy the combination of Benji’s screeching Ragga vocals, the Drum n Bass beats and Heavy Metal guitars from the first two albums (I haven’t yet had a chance to hear the third). Shame it’s half a year away. Lets hope they release some teasers soon.
It’s Wednesday, the hump of the week. You look like you need another playlist – if you’re like me, your entire life is spent listening to music, and each day is a joy because of it. We’ve got some great live reviews coming up: yours truly will be going to see Fenech-Soler at London’s Heaven this evening, and the Mystery Jets at Camden’s Roundhouse tomorrow evening. Spotisveteran Dave Prowse will be seeing 3 Daft Monkeys at Gloucester’s Guildhall tomorrow evening too, following my review of them a fortnight ago. Keep your eyes peeled over the next week or so for these.
Now, today I have done a playlist generated exclusively by my Last.FM page, taking the top 20 artists and making a playlist from them. I’m going to start doing this more regularly, and perhaps every few weeks will submit a playlist of my ‘most listened to’ of the proceeding week. For now, this is the top of everything I’ve listened to, so read on for the blurb.
Omar Rodriguez-Lopez, of the Mars Volta, said of progressive rock: “We are really tired of those labels and questions. Concept album? How can any huge project that takes up most of your life for a year not have a concept?” and it’s fair to say that Unwritten Pages, too, is lifted straight out of the bedrock of conceptual progressive rock.
The conception of Frederic Epe, a vocalist and instrumentalist of seemingly boundless imagination, who has been able to group together some of the finest musicians working in Europe’s progressive rock scene to create debut album Noah, he has been living and breathing this project for the last 5 years, and true to progressive form, the album is dense, challenging and carries a tense conceptual sci-fi narrative.
Hi everyone, and welcome to another edition of Classics Collected, where we at Spotisfaction grab our musical scuba gear and go skin diving through the deeps of the Spotify oceans searching for hidden treasure. This weeks hefty booty that we’ve managed to haul to the surface is below, and we hope you enjoy each shining, jewel encrusted example…. can I get a “yarrrrrrr?”
Portishead ”“ Dummy ”“ At the time trip-hop was at it’s peak, this album was an absolute blockbuster. A fantastic mix of trip hop beats, haunting vocals and musical craftsmanship. It was an album that was almost too great for its own good, and it caused the group tremendous strain trying to follow it up and produce something as successful, or that would be received in the same vein. Whilst follow up albums have also been fantastic, Dummy has never quite been beaten. Its sufficiently accessible that even if you weren’t the biggest fan of the genre you could still appreciate it.
The Specials ”“ The Specials ”“ Unknown to some, revered by others The Specials managed to produce some of the most innovative music of their age. Deftly weaving punk sensibilities with ska beats and twotone styles, they single handled restarted a ska revival in the late 70’s which kept going into the 80’s. This album is a shining example of what started the movement and what made them such a powerful force of their age.
Placebo ”“ Without You I’m Nothing – Not their first album (which is also excellent), but certainly I think the album with the most impact which they have released to date. It certainly moved them as a band with a certain hype to serious contenders in terms of mainstream appeal. A little dark and melancholy in places, but musically a fantastic collection of songs.
Morning all. Hope you had a good weekend? I had a weekend of mixed fortunes – my computer died on Friday and shows no signs of recovery; I went to Craven Cottage to watch my team (Villa, the best team the word has ever seen, the chant confirms) decimate Fulham and then concede deep in injury time for a draw; then had a killer night listening to Jackmode at Counter Culture – still going strong and still plenty more to go, get yourself down to London Bridge asap.
Today’s playlist is one designed to be off the cuff, totally random and the essence of putting your MP3 players full library on shuffle. In an effort to tidy up the look of the post, I’ve split the tracklisting in two, hopefully it makes sense and looks a little tidier. Now, I’ll hand you over to Kev.
Morning everyone. I trust your weeks have been lovely? Mine’s been, to be honest, incredibly busy – so, my apologies for the slight slow-down on content this week. On that note, though, if you ever fancied having your writing published, then we’re always looking for news, reviews, features, opinion-pieces and other such stuff, as well as our usual tri-weekly playlists. Get in touch if you are interested.
Today’s playlist is by staff-member Simon Mogg, and is entitled “I’m 27” – appropriate, since we went to Alton Towers to celebrate his birthday last weekend, and he turns 27 tomorrow bless him. Happy birthday, old bean.
See you next week guys and dolls. Dave
Moggy Says:
Tomorrow I am 27 years old. Congratulations to me another year, and I’m not dead yet. To celebrate such an unimpressive landmark I decided to make a playlist to see how musical taste in Britain has changed over the years I’ve been alive. So I’ve been perusing the UK number 1 single lists and picked one number 1 for every year I’ve been alive and here they are:
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So, the new My Chemical Romance single is out, and has their most ridiculous title to date, the brilliantly non-sensical ‘Na Na Na (Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na)’. And following on from the epic, sprawling and, arguably, darkly misguided The Black Parade, the only thing I could think when I first saw the trailer to the new album was, “Where is this going?”
At this point I guess I should make it clear that I’m a big My Chem fan and have been following the band since just before the release of Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge, their second album (first for a major label). Saying that kind of feels like an admission, like revealing “I’m an alcoholic”, and I still don’t know why, but thats a conversation for another time.
Back to ‘Na Na Na’. It’s the lead single from the band’s fourth full length effort, the fairly absurdly titled Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys, and judging by the trailer and promo stuff released, it’s another concept album, albeit a slightly more upbeat one (depending on your point of view).
Upbeat is how I’d go about describing ‘Na Na Na’ as well. Starting where The Black Parade‘s ‘Teenagers’ left off, the track has a glam rock feel to it mixed with the slightly more punk sound that was promised by their take on Dylan’s ‘Desolation Row’ used on the Watchmen movie soundtrack.
Morning all. Running a wee bit late today, so I won’t bore you with much blurb – let’s just rip back the blurby wrapper and get to the juicy, gooey playlist centre yeah?
Today’s playlist is from Tomorrow’s Sounds Today / Classics Collected czar, James Battin and is entitled “Around the World In 18 Tunes”. Ta, fella.
Take care, Dave
James Says:
So, today I don my top hat and Phileas Battinski invites you to come around the world in 18 tunes. The concept behind this playlist was to really try and demonstrate that there is a huge wealth of music out there in the world, and often in places you might not expect to look. Most of the general public, I worry, are out there being drip fed their X Factor pop pound spinners and they often don’t have a look around them.
I’ve chosen 18 tracks from 18 different locations to highlight that you really can find some great music out there in that world of ours. In this first run I’ve not even gone that far off spectrum and tried to include more established acts – so as not to go all out on the first trip.
Grab your passports and get ready as we visit the UK, Ireland, France, Germany, Sweden, Iceland, Japan, China, Brazil and more.
Everybody has an album that reminds them of their youth; an album which, when played, never fails to bring them back to another point in their life.
For me, Daft Punk‘s 2001 release, Discovery, is the album of my youth. To this day, opening dance masterpiece ‘One More Time’ remains one of my favourite all time tracks, due entirely to it’s energy and the power screaming out from it’s anthemic refrain. Even when I re-visit the album now I still feel as moved as I did the first time I heard it. I suppose that’s the sign of a truly great album; it continues to educate and surprise.
Two years after the release of their hugely influential debut Homework, Daft Punk set to work on a new album which they hoped would sonically encapsulate the idea of discovering and exploring life as a child. The resulting 14 track collection has a playful and more gentle feel to it than some of the more raw moments on Homework. Although trademark Daft Punk traits can be clearly heard throughout, such as the crisp 4/4 rhythm on tracks like ‘Face To Face’ and ‘Verdis Quo’, a more synth-heavy approach allows the album to gracefully flow through a number of themes and styles.
Hello and welcome to another edition of Tomorrow’s Sounds Today, where, as always, our crack team at Spotisfaction have crossed palms with silver, tossed runes, followed black cats and polished crystal balls till our fingers were mere nubs to bring you the latest and greatest releases on the Spotify shelves.
Also I’m afraid I’d also like to have a little moan but best to get it out of the way before the good music! I’m not sure if this is a function of Spotify or their wrangling with the evils that are record executives (I have my suspicions but at the moment they are unproven), but a number of the newer releases I’ve been listening to recently are starting to have that growing trend of only including part of the full release. It can’t be my account as I’m currently running the full premium (mostly so I can listen on my iPad) so I can only assume its deliberate. My concern is that some bright spark at (x) records has decided that if we cant hear the full album on Spotify, we’ll rush to the nearest MP3 vendor or better still, the killer margin of a high street record store to buy their wares. Can I just say, if any of you are listening, no this won’t! It will make me more likely to look online for the rest of the album. Once I have made the decision to spend my hard earned on streaming services I am not buying your overpriced plastic discs! Recent articles have shown in some territories, Spotify makes more for the artist than regular sales, stop robbing us of half the album!
”¦. and breathe…
Onto the good stuff! This week we have a nice mix of genres for you. In the lead up to Christmas I’m sure we’ll start to see the compilations and seasonal albums ramp up, but for the moment we’re still getting normal releases thankfully!
UNKLE ”“ Where Did The Night Fall – Opinion appears to be divided as to whether the current releases by UNKLE are as good as their early work, personally I’m a fan of all their albums but I’m sure the debate could rage in the comments section :) This album was an easy choice for me following my slightly unhealthy repeated plays of one of its tracks, Follow Me Down which reminds me of early Sneaker Pimps. This record contains some great guess artists and a good range of subtle blending of styles which for me just create a really complete sound and a really solid record. To those new to the artist, there is nothing about this record that will disappoint, but to those fans of the old, I’ll leave you to make your own minds up!
Rumer ”“ Seasons Of My Soul ”“ Considering the amount of coverage and hype Rumer has had, its hard not to remember this is still her debut album. Countless comparisons to the likes of Karen Carpenter are easy enough to hear in both her voice and the tunes, but at the same time these comparisons feel a little lazy. One of two of the tracks certainly seem to have been written to show that style of vocal of which she’s more than capable of, but she also has enough range to be strong on her own and not just be seen as a clone of a former favourite of the collected consciousness. This album might feel safe to some but I see it as a great example of someone playing to their strengths. It’s a perfect sunny morning, coffee and danish, feel good about yourself record and I think there are days we all need that.
Morning kids. I hope your weekend was as awesome as mine – spent my Saturday screaming like a little girl at Alton Towers, and then spent an extra hour in bend on Sunday. Bliss. Now though, I’m hoarse as hell and work today is a bit of a shock to the system, I’ll be honest. No matter, though, we have another playlist to get us through the Monday blues!
Today’s playlist is by staff-member Woody Whyte, and is curiously entitled “In Bed With Grace Jones”. Incredibly camp playlist today, sir. I approve.
See you folks on Wednesday, Dave
Woody Says:
So, I’m not entirely sure what I was thinking when I came up with the title of this playlist. Obviously, I was thinking of Grace Jones, but this playlist isn’t a list of songs I would play her if we did happen to end up in bed together, which lets face it, is probably unlikely. But anyway, this playlist is more a collection of songs which, after listening to ‘Slave to the Rhythm’, got my brain all excited about the prospect of a playlist of new wave/electronic/pop and everything inbetween music from the 80s and early 90s.
I would recommend you only play this to other people if they already expect you to play socially awkward music at the complete wrong time. Otherwise, listen in your room and freak out like you’re Kate Bush on acid for an hour. It will do your soul wonders…
It was announced today (10 November) that Welsh Ragga Metal 4-piece 
