Tuesday 30 September 2008

THE DEVIL & WESLEY WILLIS

If you’re into describing people by the colour of their skin (which I’m not), or just plain lazy (which I am), you could describe Wesley Willis as ‘the black Daniel Johnston’. Although there are undoubtedly similarities between the two artists, (Wesley Willis was also an overweight schizophrenic writing alarmingly honest and rudimentary music throughout the 1990’s), Wesley's catalogue has as much in common with Biz Markie and Ol’ Dirty Bastard than it does with Daniel Johnston. His songs are more concerned with topics such as smoking crack (though he never did), beating up superheroes, his favourite bands and eating at McDonalds than wide-eyed, love ballads. Although it’s not intended as a compliment, you can hear the schizophrenia more vividly in Wesley’s music than you can in Daniel Johnstons’.

Towards the middle of his twenties, Wesley was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, his personal demons were named "Heartbreaker," "Nervewrecker," and "Meansucker” and he saw rock & roll music as a means to keep these demons at bay. From busking on the streets of Chicago, he developed a cult following amongst the city’s underground community and soon came to the attention of Rick Rubin’s American Recordings label with whom he released two albums (which sold next to no copies). He continued making music for the rest of his life which unfortunately ended in August 2003 when he died from complications relating to leukemia from which he was suffering.

I urge you to seek out his music which although at times maddeningly simple and repetitive (many of his tracks are insane diatribes set over the demo presets from his keyboard), also shines bright with invention and passion. Below is a five minute look into Wesley’s life which will probably say more about this artist than I can.

Monday 29 September 2008

'LOVE LOCKDOWN' - KANYE WEST (YES SIR IDOL REMIX)

Photobucket

When I heard that Kanye West had put the parts to his single 'Love Lockdown' on his blog, I knew it would be only a matter of time before my buddy Yes Sir Idol would send me his remix. Idol has had something of a love/hate relationship with the first drop from Kanye's '808's & Heartbreak' LP. Straight after he had seen the live performance at the VMAs , he sent me a text saying something along the lines of "Oh my fucking God the new Kanye West single is amazing. How has your day been btw shall I come over on Thursday and cook for you and Ben?". A couple of days later when he was hanging out at my house making us all some amazing peri, peri chicken we listened to the studio version and I could see his mood visbaly darken - he kind of went a bit quiet and I knew that he was harbouring some serious 'disappointed in Kanye' vibes. Shoot forward a few more and he was once again talking about 'Love Lockdown' on some 'Kanye is the Stevie Wonder' of the 2000's tip.

Anyway, click the link below to download to hear this full spectrum of emotions evident in his vision for 'Love Lockdown':

'Love Lockdown' (Yes Sir Idol Remix)

Thursday 25 September 2008

'MR UNSTOPPBALE' - MARVELLOUS MACC MELLO (SANTOGOLD REMIX)



It’s been a little while since we’ve heard something new from our boy Marvellous Macc Mello, but word has it, he’s locked himself away in his bedroom and pretty much won’t emerge until he’s recorded all of his debut album. From the few beat snippets I have heard I’m expecting some futuristic fusion of ’Lord Willin’, ’Stankonia’, ’Trap Muzik’ and ’The College Dropout’, but set in North West London via Outer Space.

Anyway, yesterday he sent me this remix of Santogold’s ‘Unstoppable’ yesterday which apparently he did as a favour for Diplo. Thanks for distracting him Diplo, we’re waiting for that album you know dude.

’Mr Unstoppable’ – Marvellous Macc Mello (Santogold Remix)

Wednesday 24 September 2008

A GRAVE WITH NO NAME/BANJO OR FREAKOUT/ATLAS SOUND













Photos taken by my good friends Nick and Tom. Thank you both.

//NO PAIN IN POP\\

Photobucket
No Pain in Pop are pretty much our favourite dudes right now, as well as throwing parties and releasing records by the likes of Health and Telepathe, their blog is essentially a directory of awesomeness and as a bonus is written in such esoteric prose, that you feel pretty clever reading it.

Selfishly I wish that they didn’t throw all their parties in New Cross because it’s kind of long for me to get to and their line-ups are too good to miss. They’re curating a festival this Saturday called Nail the Cross which traverses the outer dimension of greatness with ease.

Check out the website for stage times and more info.




Buy tickets here

Tuesday 9 September 2008

BANJO OR FREAKOUT

Banjo Or Freakout is the brainchild of 28-year-old Alessio Natalizia from Turin, although now he resides in London. My friend told me that he used to be in a post-punk band called Disco Drive who are ridiculously popular in Italy, but he jacked it all in when he discovered how to play around with found sound on his girlfriend’s laptop one night and decided it was much more fulfilling sounding like the natural midpoint between Arthur Russell, Animal Collective and High Places and supporting bands like No Age and Atlas Sound - a no brainer really when you look at like that.

Click the link below to hear his cover of Burial’s ‘Archangel’.

BANJO OR FREAKOUT - ARCHANGEL (Burial cover)

There's also loads of other cool tracks on his blog so go figure.

Monday 8 September 2008

'COMMUNICATION' - LILLICA LIBERTINE

Jeez – what a day. More new Meal Deal music for you. In preparation for his forthcoming Australian tour, Lillica Libertine has offered up a new track ‘Communication’ for download. If his tracks keep on getting this complex, I’m pretty sure that he’s going to crack God’s DNA code to the universe or something like that.

’Communication’ – Lillica Libertine

NEW A1 BASSLINE MIXTAPE

The new A1 Bassline mixtape has arrived

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD

Tracklisting
01 - Intro-splice girls vs dizzee vs herve vs bloc party
02 - A1 Bassline - Bad Man Horror Theme
03 - Heavy Feet - Killa
04 - Foamo - Rokerman (Lee Mortimer rmx)
05 - Herve vs Kissy Sell Out - Rikkalicious
06 - Basment jaxx - Nifty
07 - Alphabeat - Boyfriend (Bloody Beetroots rmx)
08 - Nadastrom - Soul Pussy rmx
09 - Ac Slater - Kuku (Urchins Bring The Pain rmx)
10 - The quemists Ft. Wiley - Dem Na Like (A1 Baseline rmx)
11 - Foamo - Everything Cool
12 - Jackinori -Bad Boi J'Taime
13 - A1 Bassline Vs Dean Tynan - We Love Pussy
14 - Machines Dont Care - SoundBoy Massive
15 - A1 Bassline Vs Christian Shank - We are Everywhere
16 - Little Boots - Stuck On Repeat (Fake Blood rmx)
17 - Does It Offend You Yeah - Epic Last Song (Jack Beats rmx)
18 - Bloody Beetroots - Ill To Destroy
19 - A1 Bassline Vs Girl And A Gun - Whomp Dat Suka
A1 Bassline's 'Girl Thing' E.P. drops on Meal Deal on 27th October.

'THE RIVER PATH TO MT. JADE' - A GRAVE WITH NO NAME

I recorded this track over the weekend whilst I was staying at my parents’ house. I had got up super-early for some reason, so made myself a pot of coffee and just played the first chords that came to mind and tracked them along with the vocals and percussion and then added the reverb. It was pretty much done by the end of the pot of coffee. I hope you like it.

'The River Path to Mt. Jade' - A Grave With No Name

Also, I am supporting Atlas Sound next week on Wednesday 17th September at the Sazerac on Pentonville Road. This is a real honour for me, and I hope to see some of you there.

Tuesday 2 September 2008

Burritos rule. I’m not even sure that I’d ever eaten one of these little Mexican pillows of grease until a couple of months ago when Seb suggested we visited this place called Mucho Más near him that was so good that he had recently been there twice in one day (chicken burrito for lunch, pork burrito for dinner). The second I stepped in there and saw the delicious processed meat, salads and sauces on the counter, I knew that I basically in the Mexican version of Subway and therefore in the diameterically opposite place to that part in 'Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey' when they each experience their own personal version of Hell.

I know that a lot of people have jumped on the burrito bandwagon of late and have been saying that Mucho Más isn’t all that it’s main rival Tortilla which is right round the corner in the king of burrito joints in Angel. I say fuck you. Sure Tortilla is ‘nicer’, sure the ingredients are ‘fresher’, but it’s also ‘gayer’ and the burritos are ‘not as big’. Now, I’m by no means hating on Tortilla, I went there with my friend and had one hell of a nice time, it’s just unfortunate for them that Mucho Más and Whole Foods exist, otherwise they’d be my favourite place to burrito in London.

Visit:

Mucho Más
27 Upper Street,Angel/Islington,London,N1 0PN

Tortilla
13 Islington High Street,Islington,London,N1 9LQ

Whole Foods
The Barkers Building,63-97 Kensington High Street,Kensington,London,W8 5SE