Musical Perspective From The Musically Talentless

Foals - Last Night

Brilliant track off the Oxford quint’s third album. The third album is generally considered the turning point in the life of a band as it has to breath new life into the project, while staying true to the success and sound of the previous two. Foals not only nailed it, but became even edgier, while appealing to a wider audience, slotting to headline several festivals this year.

Despite the graphic nature of the video, its worth noting that the translation of the sign above the hotel reads; “Hotel of Life”. Essentially, the visual representation of conception, birth, life and death.  With that being said, be warned that the director employes the use of shock value and disturbing images, in order to illustrate the intense subject matter being covered.

Clark - Ted

Found this while listening to Foals, Tapes, this morning. Some of the heavier and more experimental of the Indie Rock genre, its a cross between dance, rock and electronic with a pervasive beat that won’t quit. Ignoring the creepiness of the video, this is one of the best things I’ve heard in the last six months

La Roux / Jack Beats - I’m Not Your Toy

La Roux, who’s name alludes to and are widely believed to be a solo act, are in actuality an electronic duo hailing from Brixton. After winning the Grammy for best electronic / dance duo in 2011, La Roux went on to work with other prominent London based producers, most notably Skream, Major Lazer (Switch) and Jack Beats to remix their entire self titled debut album. From Skream’s subtle, yet explosive version of In For The Kill to Major Lazer’s remix of the album from front to back with Lazerproof, La Roux showcases their adaptability and ability to be innovative. Despite their collaborative nature on other projects, this track isn’t so much of a blended union of the two distinct sounds, it’s about 20% La Roux, 80% Jack Beats oddly addictive, overwhelming nonsense.

Goblin City - Jamie Jones / Holy Ghost!

Found this a few weeks back going thru one of Jamie Jones’s sets. Although relatively unknown to much of the public, he’s touted as the number one DJ on the planet according to Resident Advisor (subject matter expert on all things electronic and dance music if there was one).

Jamie Jones is an interesting producer. Born in Wales, but developed musical stylings in London and Ibiza. He generally does not play large shows favoring intimate club gigs. Following Jones only briefly via social medial, its apparent he has a knack for discovering music that has been overlooked or was created before its time, pulling heavily on disco and funk influences. Producing one of the most pure examples of house and techno around, Jones samples tracks from different genres and decades, transitioning seamlessly throughout via a steady pounding bass line.

Arctic Monkeys - R U Mine

Just over a year after the release of Suck It And See (aggressive name, passive feel), the Arctic Monkeys released a new single to kick off their domestic stadium tour supporting the Black Keys, which has the look and feel of the Arctic Monkeys circa 2008. Down, dirty, simple, “chip shop rock”. Suck It And See was a real departure from the Arctic Monkeys 3rd LP, Humbug, and unrecognizable from their first two albums which brought them so much critical acclaim. Not that the album was “bad” by any means, it was just bland in comparison to their earlier work as teenagers and some of their more mature work in the production of Humbug, partnered with Josh Homme.

The band described the new sound as “vintage”, a style they clearly jumped head first into with Alex Turner appearing to have been mugged by a doo wop / greaser gang. But with progress comes a level of trial and error. Some tracks on the album worked better than others, but nothing truly stood out. Thankfully though, R U Mine is a departure from this new style, and more along the lines of the Arctic Monkeys Circa 2008.

Stereophonics - Dakota 

Welsh britpop-indie rockers, Stereophonics, achieved wide mainstream in the UK throughout much of the early to mid 2000’s, but never recreated the same success stateside. Stereophonics are a four piece group whose, tenure at the top of UK rock has spanned more than a decade and have over seven albums to show for it. Like much of the britpop today, their sound is catchy, memorable, yet appeals to a wide audience. Although one of the most revered groups of the mid-2000’s, its hard to argue that Stereophonics have an entirely unique sound of their own. The Cardiff foursome have the nostalgic feel and sound of an Oasis or The Verve, but with a more modern, upbeat and pop sound.

Need For Mirrors

Need For Mirrors, otherwise known as Joe Moses & Emilio Dimitri, joined forces to create music which draws from all of their electronic music influences and reflects them back. An intriguing idea, but one that’s fraught with potential disaster; trying to mingle a million elements into one project can often sound messy. Instead, what you get is two producers with a wealth of experience stepping up and taking control of their sound. A majority of the work they do is dnb heavy, but they often dabble in other styles, most notably working with grime/hip-hop/reggae artists such as Drs.

Four Tet - Angel Echoes

Besides being incredibly musically talented, Ellie Goulding apparently also has impeccable taste in music. Somewhat surprisingly, this is posted via her Facebook account with the caption; “Ni Night”. Couldn’t have said it any better myself.

Blur - Brit Awards 

Despite the Brit Awards being overshadowed a clearly agitated Adele (cut off midway thru her acceptance speech, she responded with a well timed middle finger), the return of Blur was the big story of the night. Closing out the show and accepting the Outstanding Contribution to Music award, Damon and crew brought the rough around the edges grunge synonymous with 90s English Rock at London’s O2 Arena. The group played a five song set highlighting Blur thru the ages, opening with Girls & Boys, eventually closing with This Is A Low, but not without allowing with the staple opening drum beat of Song 2 to creep in and cap off the appearance.

Although a bit of a surprise to see Blur making an appearance, last week it was announced that Blur would be headlining the Best of British show in Hyde Park this summer for the olympics, so it was not terribly shocking. It seems that the full Gorillaz project will take a hiatus for at least the time being, as the Blur frontman has been busy in the past 12 months, writing and directing a musical and working on numerous collaborations. Most recently Albarn worked on a project with James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem and Andre 3000 of Outkast which releases tomorrow called DoYaThing.