With Glastonbury I had intentions of blogging about the days performances at the end of every night or between sets. But lets face it, the place is massive, the heat this year was unbearable, and there’s a million things to see and do. So by now I’m sure you’ve all read some really negative reviews about the highly anticipated Gorillaz set, but allow me to tell you what I think…

Sure, the performances weren’t perfect. A couple of times Damon Albarn must have thought there was another measure before he had to start singing, On Melancholy Hill was poorly placed as the third song in the set, Snoop Dogg not performing his part on Welcome To The World Of The Plastic Beach when he was actually at the festival, and words like “Breaking the cardinal rule of headlining” with regards to them not playing a hit heavy set.

To those of you who think Gorillaz’ setlist was the wrong way to go, I say it’s all of you who need to open you’re eyes to what Glastonbury is really all about. Water Aid, Greenpeace, Plastic Beach… are you beginning to see a theme yet? If it isn’t blatantly obvious that Plastic Beach’s is one of environmental concern and had a necessary message for festival goers, then think about all the scattered plastic bottles and then think about Albarn’s futile attempt at trying to get the crowd to sing the single repeated stanza from Pirate Jet.

Regardless of the performance shortcomings like Mark E Smith having to read his lines on what didn’t sound anything like Glitter Freeze, at the very least Kano and Bashy on White Flag, and Little Dragon on Empire Ants and the beautifully dueted To Binge were enough to make it one to remember… but most seem to have missed the boat to Plastic Beach.

Sigh!

Flickr Set

Gorillaz are available to download now from Nokia/Ovi Music Store and if you’re a Comes With Music member, they’re all free!

Being at Nokia Music means I get to listen to loads of new music. Not just downloads from the store, but the occasional new release that I’m sometimes privileged to listen to before it hits the streets. And there’s a lot of it, so I thought I’d start rounding up some of the cool new stuff that comes my way. I’ll try and make this a regular weekly thing, but as this is the first one I’ve got a bunch of recently released stuff worth checking out.

My album of the week:

Neil Cowley Trio – Radio Silence
I couldn’t remember why Neil Cowley was a familiar name to me when this dropped on my desk. One swift Wikipedia later, I was reminded – he was one half of chilled-out beatmeisters Fragile State. An underappreciated downbeat electro combo, they put out a pair of great instrumental albums before record label trouble spelled the duos’ end in 2004. Cowley, a dab hand on the Joanna (he played keyboards for Zero 7’s live shows and released the album Soundcastles under the name Pretz) went jazz. As the Neil Cowley Trio (with Richard Sadler on bass and Evan Jenkins on drums), Cowley released Displaced in 2006, picking up a BBC Jazz Award for best album the following year. Radio Silence is the trio’s third long-player and it’s a stomper. In the best jazz trio tradition, it’s a tightly arranged masterclass in interplay, with all sorts of sounds, licks and melodies on offer. The thumping opener, Monoface, sets the tone – this isn’t the sort of album to stick on as quiet background music somewhere. Audio wallpaper it isn’t; just check out Gerald and you’ll see what I mean. Read the rest of this entry »

More research into the listening habits of Nokia Ovi Music Store users again, but this time of a more generic nature.

With availability in 36 countries, Ovi Music is in a unique position to observe global music trends. An interesting yet unsurprising result shows that pop powerhouse Lady Gaga’s first Fame Monster single Bad Romance is on course to becoming the most popular single of the year, with the track spending an average of 7 weeks at No.1 in 13 countries including Russia, Brazil and Italy.

With 2 songs making it into the Top 10 list for most downloads between the 1st January and the 15th May 2010, Lady G “has been widely recognized as a critical factor in the rise in digital music sales since 2009, and has helped push the recorded music market into growth for the first time in 6 years” according to music revenue figures from music industry body the British Phonographic Institute (BPI).

Global Top 10 Downloads In 2010 According to Ovi Music

1. Lady Gaga - Bad Romance
2. Ke$ha – TiK ToK
3. Rihanna – Rude Boy
4. The Black Eyed Peas – I Gotta Feeling
5. Iyaz – Replay
6. Owl City – Fireflies
7. The Black Eyed Peas - Meet Me Halfway
8. Lady Gaga – Telephone
9. Jay-Z – Empire State Of Mind (Jay-Z + Alicia Keys)
10. Rihanna – Russian Roulette

Just in case you missed that, Lady Gaga, Ke$ha, Rihanna, The Black Eyed Peas, Iyaz, Owl City, Jay-Z and Alicia Keys are all available to download from the Nokia Music Store/Ovi Music and if you have Comes With Music get them all free.

Christmas is a long and distant memory now, but the rebellious backlash towards The X Factor dominating the Christmas number 1 chart spot will live on in the hearts of those that got behind the campaign to take the power back.

After a month long public vote for support acts for the victory gig on 6th June, the line-up has finally been confirmed by Festival Republic… and takes those of us lucky enough to be drawn from the ticket lottery through a rather eclectic line-up… and here it is…

Gallows

Roots Manuva

Gogol Bordello

Rage Against The Machine

Oh, how sweet victory is!

Gallows, Roots Manuva, Gogol Bordello, and Rage Against The Machine are available to download from the Nokia Music Store or download them all for free if you have Comes With Music

ShazzaMJ wrote a wicked article the other day about ‘When Guilty Pleasures Turn Good’ which inspired me to find out more about my current guilty pleasure and share the tune with you.

Plan B is not everyone’s cup of tea and to be totally honest has not been mine until very recently. Reading up on the artist, real name ‘Benjamin Paul Ballance Drew’ I have been shocked and then amused by the comparisons that have been drawn ranging from Bret Easton Ellis (author of American Psycho) to Damien Rice meets Eminem. Listening to his back catalogue I don’t think any of the comparisons are wrong. His tunes are thought provoking, shocking, amusing and I have to give credit to a very astute narrator who can spin a perfectly horrible tale of the darkest side of life.

My guilty pleasure is ‘She Said’ from the album The Defamation of Strickland Banks. The song draws on all of Plan B’s widely publicised influences and has a strong soul and R&B core backing awesome British hip hop/rapid fire rap. It’s so catchy I have found myself whistling this sat on the bus on the way to work.

‘She Said’ is delivered in first person narrative and tells the story of a rejected fan who has accused the soul singer of god only knows what and he is in the courts pleading his case. The song is ‘Sesame Street’ compared to some of his other tunes that make you think of an unwritten Quentin Tarantino movie or a follow up to ‘Trainspotting’.

Anyway, give it a listen. Like the fruit pastille challenge I dare you not to chew.

‘The Defamation of Strickland Banks’ and Plan B’s debut ‘Who Needs Actions When You Got Words’  are available for download at Nokia Music Store or if you’ve got Comes With Music get them both for free!

The Godfather of British Punk, he was the manager of the Sex Pistols during the 70s when they made it to the big stage. Although known as the manager of the Sex Pistols, he also worked with fashion designer Vivienne Westwood. ‘Duck Rock’ was his 80s album that produced a number of hits like ‘Double Dutch’ and ‘Madam Butterfly’. As an album it helped to broadened the appeal of Hip Hop in the UK. Perhaps his legacy was being able to spot new trends and promote this to the wider audience.

As a sidenote he arranged the music that became the signature tune for the British Airways adverts of the 80s and 90s. The tune was also arranged in his song Madame Butterfly.

Last year he contracted a particularly vicious form of cancer, which he finally succumbed to on Thursday 8th April 2010.

So in tribute here are two songs which perhaps form a simple overview of his career..

The first is from his time as manager of the Sex Pistols. Perhaps one of the tracks that propelled them to fame and notoreity, Anarchy in the UK is quite a hard edged rebel song.

The second song is from his album ‘Duck Rock’ and is called ‘Double Dutch’. I remember it from my days in the 80s, watching the video on MTV or other music channels. Its tune is very catchy and brings back a few memories (as well as hard knocks) of trying to skip like they do in the video!

This guy is on fire – get to know. This New York based, New Orleans born MC is taking hip hop into the new decade with absolute flavour and new school flows (with a knowing nod to the old school). Now before you new school fools let that word put you off before even checking him out, then let me point out that this MC’s style contains all the best bits of Nas, Kanye and MF Doom all rolled into one headstrong, poetic delivery. Possibly the most talented MC to emerge over the last couple of years.  There… I said it. I could go on descibing whats great about this guy but I’ll let you figure it out by yourselves.

Click on the image above to get redirected to the free download link of his current mixtape – Victory. DJ Furious Styles and DJ Dub have put together this 26 track collection of  recorded tunes, live excerpts and exclusives that have been floating around on the blog scene for a while.  The beats, like Jay’s rhymes, are thick with head nod swagger - some of the best beats I’ve heard for a long time, in fact.

Damn, hip hop ain’t dead. It was certainly suffering but 2010 is sounding mighty healthy right now.

Anyone who heard the return of Raekwon on his Only Built for Cuban Links II sequel album will know that the WU are back and heavier than ever. To follow the original 1995 album (thats right, ‘95!) with something as dope is a rare and impressive feat indeed. A testimony to the Rae and crew’s talent and passion for the art.

So with that album still pretty much on weekly repeat, there’s some new WU to get your ears accustomed to.

First up is the new J-Love and Ghostface mixtape – Hidden Darts Pt 5 which can be found on the Nokia Store right now. Copy and paste this catelogue number into the Title search box to get taken straight to it: OD2DI6952366

I was going to spread this out over a few Blogs but I thought I’d better let you know about this free mixtape before the links die…

Avenging Eagles presented by DJ Mathematics features Meth, Ghost and Rae on absolute fire once again. I’ve been listening to it all week and I can honestly say that Meth has never sounded so good! This is a pre-release taster to the much hyped WU Massacre album from the 3 MC’s set for release on March 30th on Def Jam.

I personally, cannot wait that long!

Download the Avenging Eagles mixtape here or here.

F’ Whut!

You can download loads of Wu-Tang, Ghostface, Raekwon and all the other clan members stuff from Nokia Music Store - if you’ve got  ‘Comes With Music’, you can get it all completely free!

Everyone’s favourite cut’n'paste DJ’s back with a new mix that you can download for free from the Bestival blog. With typical DJ Yoda aplomb, expect the likes of Biggie, Fleetwood Mac, Prince and more nestling snugly together like penguins on an ice floe. Think I walked past some on the way into work this morning.

Rock it: http://besti-blog.blogspot.com/2010/02/besti-mix-6-dj-yoda.html

Coming on 9 years ago I left the country of my birth, completely disillusioned by the state of the music industry there. Something that would ultimately lead to my permanent immigration, and to me ostracising myself of any association of what I left behind.

Ironically, just weeks before my Citizenship Ceremony, something that’s so heavily accented I would usually hang my head in shame… has now instilled a sense of homesickness in me.

Maybe it’s the realisation that throughout the years I’ve been untrue to myself, that I’ve been in denial about my roots… or maybe this is the first time that someone has taken a chance on something and nurtured it in the necessary means to make a success of it. Okay, so enough of the narrative mind-setting already, let me get to the point…

By now, surely every man and his dog has seen the “interweb” phenomenon that is Zef Side, the video interview/introduction to the next-level beats and serious gangster skills of South Africa’s Die Antwoord. Read the rest of this entry »