Well Planned Randomness

Hello. Software eh? I cant 100% be certain that my current state of anguish is the fault of one last.fm, but all I know is that my iTunes was fine, then I had to upgrade the last.fm software. I re-opened iTunes afterwards and my library was empty, all playlists gone, all podcasts gone, it basically looked like a fresh install of iTunes. Don’t worry, the actual mp3s were still on my computer, but still a major pain in the arse having your library wiped. On a similar note I’d heard bout lots of problems with the new iTunes (version 7, until this point I was still using 6) - tales of lagging, skipping, and general failing. I was planning to hold off installing it, but I figured things couldn’t get much worse after my library incident. Anyway, I installed v7 and honest to god, it has been fine. Maybe they fixed the issues?

So this new iTunes, if you hate lots of big graphics and unnecessary menu frameworks, don’t bother with it - use foobar2000. If the aforementioned qualities leave you drooling over your keyboard, go for it! They have this new cover browser feature, the idea being that it feels like you are actually flicking through your own CD collection… well it doesn’t, it’s a totally useless feature, but it does look good and we live in a world built around attractive aesthetics, so indulge. Only thing I had to do to get this new feature to work was go through my library and replace all the tiny artwork with versions around 400 x 400px, this was so they didn’t appear pixelated in the cover browser view. Essentially this new version of iTunes was created to support the new feature of downloading tv shows and films from the iTunes store. Aside from that it leans more towards the user that has nothing but full albums on their pc, so if you are one of those people with thousands of single tracks, you might find the new features frustrating.

It’s amazing how quickly ‘we’ become attached to mod cons, I mentioned a couple of months ago that when MySpace went down for a whole day the worlds population of teenagers were having synchronised anxiety attacks, well to be honest, and maybe just for a minute, I felt practically numb when I saw my iTunes library had been wiped. Imagine how I’d feel if I lost 10,000 tracks?! Even just the thought of how much time it would take to rip a lot of music from CD all over again makes me feel ill. Still, and I failed to mention this before, the new iTunes has an option to backup your whole music collection to CD or DVD, and if your collection is bigger than one DVD iTunes will create a series of discs for you. I will be using this feature!

In other news, a compilation CD of John Peel’s favourite tracks between 1977 to 1987 is being released. The compilation will be called John Peel - Right Time, Wrong Speed: 1977 - 1987 and it is due out on 9th October. It will be a double CD featuring such artists as; Buzzcocks, The Cure, The Jam, Joy Division, Cocteau Twins, The Smiths, Grandmaster Flash, and The Fall.

More news on the Mercury Prize, nothing to do with Arctic Monkeys this time! Apparently a Mercury Prize for kids is being launched to coincide with National Music Week. School pupils will get to decide between ten British acts from varying genres, then the winner will be announced on 31st October after the National Music Week (16th to 20th October). The incentive, organised in tandem by the Government and the music industry, is to encourage better music education in schools.

This week expect a review of Ty’s soon to drop album Closer, I think it will be a good read, so don’t miss it. Thanks to all the people that have read my recent reviews and left comments on them, I appreciate it. I’m still on the job hunt - if anyone out their wants to employ me, please give me a shout! But once things calm down a bit I’ll try and get some more interviews arranged. Plus it’s only two weeks till the Parklife festival, so I’ll do a write-up of that, let you all know just how good Coldcut, Cut Chemist, and Mix Master Mike were! For now I will leave you with something interesting, and please bear in mind that I’m not a fan of country music, but sometimes you cant ignore certain angles on genres…

Lambchop - Cracker
>> download <<
This download is a sample of the music only and must be deleted from your computer within 24 hours of downloading. This download link will expire on 30th September.

Useful links:

• last.fm website
• Download - iTunes 7
• Foobar2000 website
• Ty MySpace page
• Lambchop MySpace page
• Download - Lambchop - Cracker

Monday, Monday

So, in some sort of ironic twist it turns out my rant the other day was rather popular. Cant entirely tell if that was cos of the mp3 I put on there, or if word did genuinely spread bout some cracker having a moan! But either way, people were clicking buttons out there.

You may have heard of the stencil graff artist Banksy, well Mark B sent me a link to a story on Banksy’s latest stunt - although I’m not sure why it took the BBC nearly three months to write about this… “Paris Hilton targeted in CD prank”. Basically Banksy altered the artwork for the new Paris Hilton CD and put his ‘doctored’ copies (500 of) in about 40 stores nationwide in England. Here’s the front cover (take note of the sticker)…

You may notice that Paris’ breasticles are on show, but more interestingly the sticker has been altered with some pretty amusing fake song titles. The inner parts of the sleeve have been totally altered too, you can see the pics at The Gossip Rag. Some people really slag off Banksy, but the way I look at it is that he is extremely creative and has a great sense of humour - no-one ever died as the result of a Banksy stunt - I’m glad for his contributions, makes life a little less boring. Plus Paris Hilton is a dickhead and her music sucks! God, and you thought I was gonna be adult about things!

In what has been labelled by some *cough*NME*cough* as “breaking news”, Pete Doherty (of continuous tabloid drug exposé fame… oh and some singing) has avoided a jail term. The judge has deferred sentencing till December as Pete has been a very good boy at rehab - watch this space… or not.

Whilst we’re on the subject of NME, they’ve launched a campaign to find out who threw the bottle at the lead singer of Panic! At The Disco. They want to hear from anyone that threw crap at My Chemical Romance too. Supposedly it is for an upcoming feature as throwing bottles at people is a serious issue. Oh, also if you’re an emo kid that’s ever got a slap for your poor taste in music or dress sense, then they want to speak to you too. Oh the humanity.

Mos Def got arrested at the MTV VMA awards the other night. Something to do with being disorderly whilst performing his track about Katrina, that slags off Bush and co. They were asked to wrap it up, then when they didn’t the police started arresting members of his entourage, and then him. He was released shortly afterwards, but I wish they’d have arrested the organisers of those awards instead - I watched bits of the show, it was crap. Highlight was that band OK Go prancing about on treadmills. Still, I’m sure everyone was eager to see who would win the Best Ringtone award, hmmm.

Enough of this trivial drivel (don’t try to say that when you’re drunk), allow me to share a track I think you should might like…

Damien Rice - Creep
>> download << TRACK RE-UPLOADED!
This download is a sample of the music only and must be deleted from your computer within 24 hours of downloading. This download link will expire on 11th September.

Now, unlike the other day, I do actually know for sure that this Radiohead cover is by Damien Rice! I wonder how many more covers of Creep I could possibly find?

Before I forget, RIP Steve Irwin - a tragic loss.

Useful links:

• Banksy website
• Mark B MySpace page
• Download - Damien Rice - Creep

3 and a Half

Three and a half months of blogging, and what have I learnt? Funny you should ask, this is something I was thinking about yesterday. I’ve gone from nothing to something in quite a short space of time. I started this blog as something to do, particularly whilst FIZIKZ was still down (and it still is) - but as with most new hobbies I pick up, I just went along with the flow and enjoyed the journey it took me on. If you don’t run a blog, there are a few things you should know; bloggers can check detailed stats on who visits them and why, bloggers can see who is linking to their own blog, and bloggers can also register their blog with directories and aggregators to help gain traffic.

When I first started, like I say, it was merely a hobby, and generally somewhere I could share the details of my discoveries with the bigger world. But curiosity and progression are just part of the human condition, so naturally I was eager to see what my stats were doing. At first I was just pleased to see 30 hits a day, but quickly that number grew. To cut a long story short, I saw my stats peak recently during the hype of the new DJ Shadow album, where my review was the number one returned link on Google for the search “DJ Shadow The Outsider Review” - I was getting about 1000 hits a day. However, that did indeed die down… right down. But I was glad to see this peak and crash (for want of a better word), it enabled me to rationalise and remember why I write this blog.

Essentially there are a few things you can do to ensure you have a popular music blog; register with as many directories as possible, swap links with as many other music blogs as possible (preferably very popular ones), check (and register with) aggregators like elbows and Hype Machine to see what people are searching for and what people are talking about. That last point is a particular point I’d like to focus on. If you go to Hype Machine now and check the popular tracks link you will see that Justin Timberlake and The Rapture are popular with the readers, but I use the term ‘readers’ very loosely. Essentially people use Hype Machine to find free mp3s, the chances of anyone actually reading what the blogger writes is probably slim - alas of course I am wondering if anyone is reading this right now?!

To make your music blog popular just regularly post up free mp3s of the latest big thing, or unreleased tracks from an album that isn’t out, but is highly anticipated - this isn’t a free tips column, it’s very much tongue in cheek observations. I’ve seen how the stats react on my own blog when I’ve posted up tracks from The Knife or Outkast - but post up some obscure Eastern European nu-jazz and the stats stay low. There is a simple answer really; people search for popular stuff, if your blog has it, they’ll come and get it. But this goes back to what I was originally saying about rationalising. I’m at the point now where I don’t care about the stats anymore, I just remind myself why I started the blog - it was to share with people the music I like, not to give people the exact stuff they’re looking for. Maybe that sounds selfish, but hey, it’s my blog and if just a few people a day actually read what I write, rather than just steam on in, grab the latest Justin Timberlake mp3 and go, then I’m a happy chap.

I read an article by a music critic/journalist the other day, he was stating that the regular music critic is now a rare breed, what with all the music bloggers etc… He summarised by saying there was still a place in the world for the old skool journos, but where he said that the blogger now has control and can command huge traffic on the net to reach a large readership, I’m not so sure I agree in whole. Essentially these bloggers can harness traffic, which in turn could earn them revenue - so from a marketing perspective it is a very viable situation that could easily prosper, however from a quality stand-point I think it is poor.

We shape our own communities and trends - where all people want is free mp3s and they don’t care what you’re writing, the writers often end up following suit. They chase stats and hits, so why bother typing a bucket load of opinions and info, when all you need to do is post up that Justin Timberlake mp3? No extra effort required. I’m not here for a witch hunt, but one of the Hype Machine’s current most popular tracks (AKA: been commanding lots of traffic) is a JT track that is accompanied on the blog entry by three sentences. Three sentences, an mp3, and a bucket load of traffic. It’s not essentially the bloggers fault per sé, he (or she) probably never promised to be comparable to Dickens, but through posting up something that a lot of people are looking for, they’ve gained hits galore. But essentially nor is it Hype Machine’s fault either, they provide a good service and cant control what people search for - such is life.

This whole conundrum answers itself, people search for popular things (enter vicious circle theory here), so traffic is generated in that manner by the masses. But, I’m not particularly bothered by the stats… remember?! So, in all sincerity, I’m sorry if I sound at all bitter, I genuinely don’t mean to - I’m just explaining and rationalising (mainly to myself) how this ol’ music blogging business works. Anyway, if anything, I should be commanding a nice little niché in the market, seeing as 95% of music blogs are about indie rock and I prefer some hip-hop and electronica! How bout I finish up this ultra-rant with some irony and post a track from an artist a lot of people will be searching for?!

Radiohead - Creep (Acapella)
>> download <<
This download is a sample of the music only and must be deleted from your computer within 24 hours of downloading. This download link will expire on 9th September.

Useful links:

• elbows aggregator
• Hype Machine aggregator
• Download - Radiohead - Creep (Acapella)

Tributehead: The Boredom Sessions

Uh oh, prepare for my cynicism! Radiohead, arguably the biggest band in the world. Every man and their dog has heard of them, and at least half the people that have heard of them, have actually heard their songs. So on one hand it is pretty cool that people would cover their stuff, approach it from a different angle. But on the other hand, it’s getting a bit silly now.

Don’t get me wrong, my memory isn’t that short I’ve forgotten I recently mentioned the new Radiodread album that is essentially reggae covers of Radiohead, but now I’ve learnt of a further two more; Rockabye Baby! Lullaby Renditions of Radiohead and Skeet Spirit, A Crunk Tribute to Radiohead. The former is covers of Radiohead as played on instruments such as the glockenspiel, designed to get young children into Radiohead, and the latter is quite obviously a crunk tribute.

Last year as part of the SA NEScover album we got an 8-bit cover of Karma Police, which I guess was… interesting, and there was also the Me & this Army: Radiohead Remixed album, featuring real left-field Radiohead covers.

hoses - Radiohead - Karma Police
>> download <<
This download is a sample of the music only and must be deleted from your computer within 24 hours of downloading. This download link will expire on 22nd August.

Radiohead - Everything in Its Wrong Place (Remixed)
>> download <<
This download is a sample of the music only and must be deleted from your computer within 24 hours of downloading. This download link will expire on 22nd August.

As much as shit music is shit music, regardless of situ; good music is good music too. So it’s hard to knock some of these tributes and covers in that respect. However, my gripe mainly spawns from the fact that it’s getting tiresome. Man, make some totally original stuff, or at least find someone else to cover! Radiohead are like a consumable brand now! Coke and Diet Coke = Radiohead and Radiohead Jnr with glockenspiels. Is it all really necessary? Like I said though, it’s a confusing complaint, cos if the music is good, then fair enough to a certain extent - just seems a bit old hat now.

Anyway, if anyone is interested you can download the crunk stuff for free here… http://zoomzip.kil.la/skeetspirit/ - and the Radiohead for babies album is out on 29th August through Baby Rock records.

Feel free to wish me a happy birthday!

Useful links:

• Download - hoses - Radiohead - Karma Police
• Download - Radiohead - Everything in Its Wrong Place (Remixed)
• Radiohead Crunk Tribute

Welcome To Monday…

…it’s been expecting you. First of all, allow me to get nerdy for a minute or two. Now, RSS news feeds, in the past I’ve found them to be plain frustrating, but that’s mainly due to the RSS feed readers that I’ve tried. I hate the layout and concept of retrieving the feeds and reading them. It just feels like one way email. So I’d sort of given up on the idea, until… Google came to the rescue. You can always rely on those bods at Google Labs. They’ve devised the Google Reader, and I think it is great! To be honest it’s just horses for courses, but I already love Google Reader - it’s so simple. But, I also wanted to mention (in conjunction with Google Reader) that if you subscribe to any of the Hype Machine music feeds, you can play the tracks within Google Reader. So I subscribed to the Popular Tracks feed and now when I get a new track pop up in Google Reader, I can listen to it there and then without having to even browse to a different page. See…

It also means you can subscribe to the feed for all the tracks I upload on this blog… http://hype.non-standard.net/playlist/blog/1093/rss/1/feed.xml - you lucky buggers! If anything I’ve said about RSS feeds, Google Reader, or Hype Machine, doesn’t make sense to you, or you have some questions, fire away and I’ll try my best to help.

That nerdy info was about as much direction as today’s blog entry gets I’m afraid, so I’ll ramble. Been checking my blog stats, sooo many people continually searching for tracks from and reviews of The Outsider by DJ Shadow. Do you like hyphy Bay Area hip-hop and also Coldplay? If so, you’ll love The Outsider. If you don’t like those two things, but you say you do love The Outsider… then you’re lying - get over yourselves and listen to something decent. Apparently the Australian tour that DJ Shadow and Mos Def have been doing together has been really good - few incidents of bewilderment when the hyphy tracks have been dropped, but naturally loads of appreciation when the classics have been played. Will the teasing anticipation of the live Organ Donor drop ever get boring? Probably not.

Elsewhere, Dan The Automator is gonna be producing the new album for the band Little Barrie, I don’t know who they are, but I know Dan The Automator is a shit-hot producer. Makes me laugh though how other news sites have to introduce Dan as the producer for Gorillaz - guess they need some frame of reference for the ignorants that know only what NME throws at them. Whilst we’re on the subject of Gorillaz though, Damon Albarn has formed a new band. Together with Danger Mouse he is making an album called The Good The Bad And The Queen. They have a debut single out in October.

Not much else happening on this slow Monday. Should be getting a write-up from Splendour In The Grass sometime this week. That was the two day musical festival last weekend in Byron Bay, Australia. If you’ve been to a musical festival recently and fancy doing a write-up for this blog, just give me a shout. Naturally you’ll get full accreditation, just give me around 1000 words (no more than 1500), and some photos if you’ve got some (no problem if you don’t), and I’ll get it sorted.

Anyway, I’ll end this entry with a song…

Razorlight - America
>> download <<
This download is a sample of the music only and must be deleted fromyour computer within 24 hours of downloading. This download link will expire on 7th August.

Useful links:

• Google Reader
• Hype Machine website
• Splendour In The Grass website
• Download - Razorlight - America

DJ Shadow - The Outsider

Panic on the internet! Panic over, MySpace is back in full effect. What a bunch of dependent bastards we are! Anyway, and more importantly, it means I’ve been able to go back and fix Sunday’s Unearthing MySpace Gems article. So, please, please, please, go and check it out and give those artists the time they deserve. Now, on to the serious issue at hand, my review of The Outsider, the new album by DJ Shadow…

I’ve read, spoken, listened, and moaned - but I’ve now decided to review the album without the reference of my prior DJ Shadow knowledge, AKA: I’m not gonna compare this new album to his old work. Instead I shall review it with a clean slate, as I should really, I guess it’s ordinarily too easy to use the older stuff as a yard stick, which is also quite natural (or at least human!). Once I’ve directly reviewed the content, I’ll then summarise and make reference and comparison to the older material.

The album starts with an intro over two minutes long, it’s a piece of dramatic music with an English gentleman speaking about the story of The Outsider. The man speaks about humanity and blah blah blah, it’s pretty pretentious by all accounts. Supposedly the idea of The Outsider is that DJ Shadow feels like one. On to the first proper track of the album This Time (I’m Gonna Try It My Way), this is fantastic. Sounds like an old funk track with kicking drums, guitar samples, strings samples, and catchy vocals. I read that Shadow found the vocal sample at an old recording studio, it was a chap singing along as he tuned his guitar. Anyway, a good start to the album.

Uh oh, time to crunk it up a little, or should I say ‘hyphy’ it up? Being my review, I can only possibly give my own personal thoughts, and as such I can most definitely tell you that this hyphy sound isn’t for me. I like to think I’m a pretty open minded fella, but this appeals to me even less than crunk and UK grime. The emcees Keak Da Sneak and Turf Talk are hardly Mos Def and Chali2na. The track 3 Freaks is just repetitive and annoying - I’m desperately trying to think of some positives, but I just cant. Sadly the track Turf Dancing is even worse, like Shadow smoked some crack before he produced it. I don’t have a problem with aggressive sounds as such, just look at punk rock and dnb, but this stuff totally lacks depth and soul.

Keep Em Close Feat. Nump isn’t on the same hyphy tip, but it’s still that whole ghetto rap feel. Don’t get me wrong, this will appeal to some people, probably people that are 14 years old and have Lil Jon and 50 Cent posters on their walls, but personally I find there to genuinely be nothing appealing from this music. This track even samples gun shots, fighting, and police sirens - g-to-the-hetto y’all. The track with David Banner, Seein Thangs, is some proper cheesy crunk. Those drums are awful. The rolling kick drum and snares, ah man, tonight I’ll shed a tear. To put it in black and white; if you like crunk or hyphy rap music, you’ll like this - if you don’t, you simply wont.

Broken Levee Blues is a two minute break from the aforementioned madness. Funky guitar riff to calm those nerves right back down. No doubt designed more as a bridging track on the album, but thus far (and This Time aside) it’s easily one of the best tracks on the album. The track immediately after is Artifact - it starts in a sort of punk vein, thumping beats with slight distortion, Strokes’esque guitar samples, then half way in it calms a little and then breaks into a sort of alternative upbeat psychedelic track. I wouldn’t say the track was anything special, but in comparison to the hyphy tracks it is amazing.

Backstage Girl brings the album on to another different sound. This track features Phonte Coleman and is probably best described as a rock hip-hop track. A cross genre I’ve never had a problem with, but never been totally over-awed with either. Phonte Coleman seems to possess far better skills as an emcee than Shadow’s hyphy friends, so that’s something. There’s a pretty interesting instrumental breakdown towards the end, but the track seems too long and once again is nothing special.

The next track, Triplicate / Something Happened That Day, is probably one of the better tracks on the album. It uses eerie strings and piano samples, all bridged together, creating that atmospheric build up. Then the drums come in, at first some kick, then a hi-hat, all the while just teasing, building up, half way through we’re treated to an acoustic solo of sorts. Sounds very latin and cinematic, like it was written for a Mexican film. The drums never fully come in, but the rest of the ensemble fully makes up for that, this was clearly meant to be a cinematic piece, and it’s pretty nice. The Tiger also starts in a cinematic vein, very tribal sounding samples and drums, but accompanied by guitar. Ah, hang on, this singer, it’s the guy out of Kasabian. Hmmm… it’s very Radiohead. My comparison is drawn mainly by the way in which Shadow has used a wide array of instruments and samples to create an alternative rock song. It’s an ok track, for all its depth (something the earlier tracks lacked) it still seems to be pretty uninspiring. Perhaps the track will be a grower, or perhaps I’m not totally feeling the alternative rock sound, either way it’s average in my books.

Erase You has wicked drums. But this singer, Chris James, he’s making this all sound even more like a Radiohead track than the Kasabian dude did with the last track. Imagine a Radiohead track with really kicking funk drums, might sound like this. Having said that, I like this track more than I like The Tiger - probably cos of the drums, although Chris James has a good voice. Perhaps not a track I’d stick on repeat, but listening to the album I probably wouldn’t skip it either, it’s not too bad at all. After that we hear the first female vocalist (and only!) on the album, Christina Carter on the track What Have I Done. Another track with latin sounding acoustic guitars, it’s all quite interesting, but it doesn’t really get going till half way through, and even then it sounds like a sort of opera/musical reject track. Nice enough music, but boring as hell. Then it’s back to Chris James on the next track You Made It. This could be a Coldplay track, and at this point I have to remind myself that I did indeed hear a load of hyphy tracks just twenty minutes or so ago. Is this the same album still?! Apparently so. An ok track if you like that sort of Coldplay sound. I can see my play statistics being totally skewed with this album though, about half of the tracks will never get played again. Chris James has a good voice, but I’m bored of it by now. Q-Tip and Lateef make an appearance too, and that’s pretty funky, a hip-hop track with latin guitar samples and a catchy chorus - but if I rationalise and compare it to other hip-hop tracks by other artists that have come out recently, it’s average at best.

One thing from this album really stands out; the totally different sounds on show here. Sometimes that can be a good thing, but this seems to be a mess. It really doesn’t feel like an album at all, more like a compilation. In fact, it’s like when you listen to a movie soundtrack that has a really diverse list of artists. Nothing on this album flows, it’s just a collection of songs, not an album.

On to what everyone is thinking… what the hell has the legendary DJ Shadow done?! Anyone remember that album Entroducing? Maybe it was done by a different DJ Shadow? Sadly not. The thing is, people willing to defend The Outsider seem to be doing so on a track by track basis and also through appreciation of him trying something different. Seriously, there are some alright tracks on the album, nothing mind blowing, and of course there are some real stinkers. But what I’m reviewing here is an album, not a series of tracks per sé, and as such the album is pretty poor. Why should I, the consumer, care about how courageous an artist has been by creating something different to what they normally do? At the end of the day it is a poor album, end of story.

DJ Shadow - Erase You Feat. Chris James
>> download <<
This download is a sample of the music only and must be deleted from your computer within 24 hours of downloading. This download link will expire on 1st August.

Useful links:

• Unearthing MySpace Gems
• DJ Shadow website
• Download - DJ Shadow - Erase You Feat. Chris James

News / Reviews / DJ Shadow / Discoveries

Happy Monday to you all. MySpace is still screwed. Turns out it’s to do with a powercut they’ve had in LA, screwed the servers or something. So, still feel bad bout yesterday’s totally bodged Unearthing MySpace Gems article. Once MySpace is back, I’m gonna edit that entry and get it done proper, then order you all to go back and check out those pages, and you will comply, oh yes, you will comply. Anyway, news…

Badly Drawn Boy is back! This is big news to me, being a huge BDB fan (that doesn’t mean I’m really fat). He is set to release his fifth album Born In The UK on 23rd October. This will be his first release under new label EMI, after he split with XL shortly after the 2004 release One Plus One Is One. I cannae wait man!

Kings Of Leon are to release a “download only” EP entitled Day Old Belgian Blues. It will be a collection of live tracks taken from their previous two albums. As the title suggests, all the tracks were recorded in Belgium. You can download it now at their official website. A third KOL album is due out some time next year.

The reggae label Easy Star are to record a dub version of Radiohead’s OK Computer. This follows their previous cover of Pink Floyd’s Dark Side Of The Moon, of which their version was called Dub Side Of The Moon. This project is known as Radiodread. This is due out on 21st August.

Not exactly breaking news, but interesting never-the-less, the shortlist for this years Mecury Prize has been revealed. The nominees are; Arctic Monkeys, Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan, Editors, Guillemots, Richard Hawley, Hot Chip, Muse, Zoe Rahman, Lou Rhodes, Scritti Politti, Sway, and Thom Yorke. There’s a few there I’ve never heard, but from what I have heard, I’d quite like to see Lou Rhodes win. Just really hope Sway doesn’t win, still cant work out why all the fuss over that chap.

Now then, DJ Shadow. Hmmm… seems that our fears may have been well founded. I’ve only heard three tracks from the new album so far, two of which were terrible beyond belief. I’ve read plenty of interviews and reviews recently, and basically the things I picked up on in particular were; he claims that everyone tried to copy the style of Entroducing, so he wanted to make an album nobody would be able to copy - yeah, or perhaps they just wouldn’t want to! Plus, he’s brown nosing this whole hyphy movement, and from what I can gather it’s literally just because it’s a bay area movement and that’s where he’s from - wouldn’t be an issue if hyphy wasn’t so damn shit. Anyway, I read a review and the summary was that it seemed very incoherent; 50% hyphy, 50% not so hyphy. The reviewer said that the record seemed like 3 separate EPs, and that anyone buying it cos they like the hyphy sound would be disappointed cos some of it is most definitely not hyphy. What makes it all the worse is that a separate hyphy album is coming out that will feature these Shadow tracks, why couldn’t he just have this hyphy stuff as a side project?! Oh well, it’s his life, just hope he doesn’t cry too much when the thing doesn’t sell. On top of all of this I still need to hear it for myself. I’m gonna do a big old review then!

Some people are naturally more open minded or just have a wider variety of tastes than others, but I believe all of us have to - on occasion - open our minds a bit wider than usual. I was recently sent an email that offered me the opportunity to check out a group called Cagey House. I guess you’d say they are an alternative electronica group. Their album Elephant Orange is now out and actually available for free download at the website of the netlabel Umor Rex. Anyway, this will mainly appeal to the proper electronica heads, but basically Cagey House have created a unique sound where by they use electronic samples of the classic variety to make compositions. Don’t let this put you off, but think along the lines of 8bit synths, but with a lot more class and depth. There’s quite a nostalgic sci-fi sound to the music, it really is almost as if they’ve deliberately gone for a style that classically sounded quite cheesy, but they’ve deliberately put the effort in to make it classy. It might not necessarily be an album I come back to time and again, but it is a genuinely interesting and insightful listening experience, and full credit to the guys for even attempting something so original in it’s own little way. Check out this track, if you wanna a taster before downloading…

Cagey House - Bebe Ebullient
>> download <<
This download is a sample of the music only and must be deleted from your computer within 24 hours of downloading. This download link will expire on 31st July.

Lastly I just wanna mention a few names that I’ve recently listened to; Asamov (now known as The AB’s) with their album And Now - if you like your indie hip-hop, get these guys checked! Same goes for The Procussions with their latest album 5 Sparrows For 2 Cents, some seriously good stuff. I also checked Aloe Blacc’s new release on Stones Throw; Shine Through - some indie R&B style vocals over nice hip-hop beats, even finishes up the album with some Spanish tracks, including a cover of John Legend’s Ordinary People. Other than that, I also peeped the 2006 edition of Ninja Tune’s Zentertainment compilation. Basically a preview of stuff out this year on Ninja Tune, Big Dada, and Counter Records. There’s a good mixture on there and it also includes a new Bonobo track…

Bonobo feat. Bajka - Nightlite
>> download <<
This download is a sample of the music only and must be deleted from your computer within 24 hours of downloading. This download link will expire on 31st July.

Anyway, till next time suckas. Although I’m the one that feels like a sucka at the moment - I never would have thought the day would come when I’d be upset bout MySpace going down!

Useful links:

• Kings Of Leon website
• Umor Rex website
• Download - Cagey House - Beb Ebullient
• Download - Bonobo feat. Bajka - Nighlite

Electronic Music and The Mainstream

You may, or may not, remember way back when this blog first started, I mentioned that perhaps from time to time I would have guest articles from other people. Well, today is the first of those. This piece was written by my good friend Weeks - he’s a connoisseur of electronic music, and a rabid Aphex Twin fan, but don’t hate him for that, give the article a read…

Electronic Music and The Mainstream - by Weeks.

I’m not so much referring to electronic music that appears in the mainstream, because as far as I’m concerned there isn’t any proper electronic music in the mainstream. Nor am I referring to dance music, as that is concerned with, well, dancing, more than the electronic medium with which it’s created.

So, I’m referring to the likes of; Boards of Canada, Aphex Twin, Squarepusher, Orbital, Autechre, DJ Shadow, Luke Vibert, DJ Food, etc and why these bands and artists are never in the mainstream. I started thinking about this when reading a post in FIZIKZ’s last.fm group about how electronic music is, on the whole, conspicuously missing from rateyourmusic.com’s top 1000.

Obviously, being a huge electronica fan, I am a little biased. But I cannot for the life of me work out how anyone couldn’t appreciate works such as In Sides by Orbital or Endtroducting by DJ Shadow. I’m thankfully aware I’m not a complete freak; I’ve met countless people, on the internet and the “other place”, who also appreciate the same artists as I do. But in no way do these people make up the mainstream. They need to be sought out. They are the sort of people who are normally found plugged into their portable music players with a dreamy and content look on their faces, and sometimes they come together in various drum’n'bass or turntabalism nights that appear about once a month in local nightclubs (sometimes less if you live in the arse-end of nowhere, which I do).

A while back, I read a 2006 predictions article on kuro5hin which predicted electronic music will “come back to fill the void.” That statement asks two questions: Firstly, was it ever here? We had Depeche Mode, but that seems a world away from the complex electronic arrangements of the aforementioned artists. Secondly, will it ever reach a mainstream audience? BBC News once had an article pertaining how a large proportion of the population have difficulty following complex pieces of music - something I experienced when I started to listen to classical music, which ceased after prolonged exposure. If that is true, it begs the question will the populous as a whole ever give electronic music enough of a chance? Will it remain a niche market, along side classical music and jazz, or will it, as the kuro5hin article states, break on through to the other side? Thoughts?

-

Interesting thoughts there from Señor Weeks. I personally think there are many factors as to why we never see much electronic music in the mainstream. Firstly there are strict rules on releasing a single in the charts, like; the track cannot be any longer than about 3m20s. Don’t find many BOC, Aphex Twin, or Orbital tracks that are bang on that length, it’s either far shorter or much, much, longer. But mainly, the charts are all about making money and making it quickly. The big-wigs have found tried and tested methods to maximise profits - get a catchy beat/bassline (usually ripped off from a classic song), then get a good looking person to sing some catchy lyrics over the top and have them dance half naked in the video. After that, they just have to make sure it gets played on the tv and radio at least 30 times a day, and hey presto! There’s never much in the charts with artistic integrity. Just my thoughts anyway.

In other news, Tru Thoughts have tickled my fancy. Apparently they have some new releases; The Broken Keys - Gravity, Quantic - An Announcement To Answer, and Alice Russell - Under The Munka Moon II. The Broken Keys is the name for the collaborative project between Nostalgia 77 and Natural Self, this promises to be hella jazzy and is out now. The new LP from Quantic took over 18 months to make and was recorded mostly via a laptop at various locations around the globe, this is meant to demonstrate the next step in the Quantic sound, deeper, and mature like a fine wine. Lastly, Alice Russell is back with Under The Munka Moon II - this is 13 tracks worth of wicked covers, collaborations, and remixes with artists such as; DJ Vadim, Bonobo, Nostalgia 77, Natural Self, and TM Juke. I believe this one is due out shortly. Cant wait to get my grubby little hands on all three. Anyway, I’ll leave you with a track…

Boards of Canada - Happy Cycling
>> download <<
This download is a sample of the music only and must be deleted from your computer within 24 hours of downloading. This download link will expire on 29th July.

Don’t forget to leave some comments with regards to Weeks’ article, I know he’ll be very interested to hear other peoples’ views on the topic. If ever you have something you’d like to share, or you’ve recently been to a festival and fancy doing a write-up, give me a shout as I would like to put that sort of stuff up on the blog. Bye for now!

Useful links:

• Rate Your Music website
• Weeks’ last.fm page
• Tru Thoughts website
• Download - Boards of Canada - Happy Cycling

last.fm, Changes and Rivals

Okey dokey, pig ‘n a pokey. So, last.fm has been around for a while now and is widely seen as the original music recommendation and listening statistics website (regardless of name changes and mergers). But I’ve noticed recently a few potential rivals pop up on the scene - so not being one to miss out on a new internet fad or two, I’ve checked some out. In the past we’ve seen sites like Pandora come into existence, but at least with Pandora it was a totally different method and practice to last.fm, but now we’re graced with sites such as MusicStrands and MOG, two sites that are very similar to last.fm.

First off, I must admit that these new sites are purely BETA, so I’ll try not to be too tough on them. MusicStrands, or as it is now known MyStrands, is crap. My biggest gripes would be the bulky software that runs on your computer and the fact that they seem to guess artists’ names from song titles. A good thing about last.fm is you just need to download a plugin for what ever music playing software you use and that is the end of it, you need not ever hear of it again - it just quietly feeds info back to the site in the background. MyStrands has this annoying box hanging about in the bottom right-hand corner of the screen, you can hide it, but it’s still bloody annoying. The artist names issue is totally ridiculous - clearly reading the tags of an mp3 is far too difficult for MyStrands, so unless you are listening to something as mainstream as a Britney Spears track, it just guesses the artist names. See my profile for examples; I’ve never heard of Cosmonauti or Barney Kessel!

Now on to MOG. Fickle as I am, the first thing that appeased my little eye was the design; it’s very funky. A week or so ago I tried to register and it said they weren’t taking registrations and to enter my email address to be noti…blah blah, so I did. By chance I took a look yesterday and anyone could now register, so much for the reminder email. MOG is like a more chunky and bright last.fm - two traits I’m still not entirely sure that I like. I mean I’m all for ‘funky’, afterall that is what caught my eye in the first place, but history tells us that in the long-run simplicity and convenience rules all. As you will see on my profile, there are several sections to a MOG page - a good point here is that the user is able to manoeuvre these ‘widgets’ into what ever order they desire. I took a look around at other peoples’ pages and saw that it did indeed make the most sense to put the blog element in the centre and down the middle. Like MyStrands, you do have to download some software, but the MOG software is far more inconspicuous, plus it actually reports back to the site EXACTLY what you have been listening to.

Like I said initially, both are very much in BETA at the moment, but sadly I cant help but feel like ditching MyStrands already, it’s just so shitty with its clinical design, numerous errors, and most of all it offers me nothing as good as last.fm, let alone any improvements or extras. MOG on the other hand does show promise. MOG strikes me as more of a community based site, than simply a statistics based recommendation site. MOG doesn’t actually publish any figures - it will list the tracks you have recently played, plus your most listened to artists over the last week and month, but nothing further. Instead MOG hopes that you will find like-minded people on the site and recommend music personally. I like that, it’s more like a cross between having a MySpace page, last.fm profile, and a blog. The only down points for MOG are that many people will decide to use just one website of this ilk and wont see the benefits of dropping last.fm for this one - which I can understand. However, if like me, you have bags of time on your hands, then you wont mind running a few different profiles.

I do feel like I’ve given MyStrands a bit of an unjust battering, I can see looking at my page there are features I haven’t even bothered with yet, but the whole getting my artists wrong thing was enough to piss me right off. I hope they can iron that out very shortly, then perhaps I’ll return - but I would like to hear from anyone that has been using MyStrands, maybe you can tell a more positive story? Likewise I’d like to hear from MOG users, see what their thoughts are. Feel free to add me to your friends list on any of those three as well. Oh, also, let me know if you’ve found other websites that offer the same sort of services as these sites, I’ll tear them a new arsehole too… if they’re crap.

Back to last.fm though. So there’s been some changes! Just when I thought that it looked very clean and crisp, they go and ‘chunk’ it all up and get the crayons out. No doubt they’ll be thousands of cries of “it’s shit, I liked it better before”, but that’s what they all said after the last revamp. Give it a month and most of us will hardly remember what it used to look like. Anyway, I think it’s good. Nice touch with the new last.fm player, makes it easier to tag and recommend stuff from your own desktop. The first thing I did was click that little button near the top right-hand corner of my profile screen - it turned it all from red to black, and I think the black looks a bit better. From a “ooh…ahhh” point of view, the album cover and photo displays near tracks recently played, and what-not, look pretty nice, although not entirely necessary, think you should be able to turn that off. Generally speaking though it all looks pretty neat, what do you think?

Let’s end this rant with a song…

Thom Yorke - Skip Divided
>> download <<
This download is a sample of the music only and must be deleted from your computer within 24 hours of downloading. This download link will expire on 22nd July.

Useful links:

• last.fm
• MyStrands
• MOG
• Pandora
• Download - Thom Yorke - Skip Divided

Tired and Ill :-(

I'm feeling tired and ill today. So no 'proper' blog entry for today, I'm afraid. You can blame the World Cup, if you like. Being here in Australia has meant that the games have been live around midnight, 2am, and 5am. And now I have a bloody cold too. I'm never ill, but it must be cos of the sleep loss. How privileged must you feel? You finish checking 300 other more important sites, then think "ah, I'll see what that div-kid is talking bout today", only to find that instead it is me moaning bout being ill and tired! So I'll ramble a bit before falling into bed…

I probably already know a fair share of the people reading this blog (some how or some way), but I doubt I know you all, so feel free to add me to your MySpace (if you have it)… http://www.myspace.com/ghilla - same goes for last.fm really, feel free to add me to your friends list… http://www.last.fm/user/jeej/.

Oh, just a quick note to say 'thanks'… after this blogs' first month of existence it had received over 2000 unique visitors, which I was pretty pleased about - and to think I was thinking no-one would read it - so, thank you very much for that.

On a similar note, I do try to mix it up a bit on the blog, seeing as it is updated daily. I try to feature new artists, share news, feature my favourite artists, and also feature some MySpace pages - but if you have any ideas or suggestions for what I should write about, or you have a specific request, just give me a shout.

Anyone at this point still twiddling their thumbs, ummm, I sometimes take photos, check out my gallery here… http://jeej83.deviantart.com/ - here's one of my latest…

And here is one of my most popular shots…

Anyway, enough of my rambling now, time for some kip! Don't worry, I'll get the train back on track tomorrow.

Useful links:

• MySpace
• last.fm
• deviantART

Matisyahu - Youth

Last year when a friend of mine, Afshin, told me to check out this Jewish fella in full hasidic gear blasting out reggae music, I thought… he was having a laugh. It wasn't that I didn't think someone of that heritage or appearance should be on a stage singing reggae and rapping, it's more that I just wasn't used to seeing it. Shamefully, for someone usually so open minded, I didn't bother to check him out at first, but Afshin insisted that it had to be seen and heard - so I did.

The last Matisyahu album was Live At Stubbs, but earlier this year a new studio album was created; Youth. Live At Stubbs had a real energy about it, the band were fantastic and Matisyahu's vocals were top-notch - so, what about the studio album Youth?

Well, essentially it is reggae - but the uniqueness within the Matisyahu sound is the way in which the emphasis can change at any point during a track; from the vocals, to then perhaps a more rock sounding guitar or drum solo. It's this blend of Matisyahu's reggae vocals and the ferocious instruments that can be heard particularly on the live recording of Live At Stubbs and also on the first two tracks of Youth; Fire Of Heaven/Altar Of Earth and Youth.

Matisyahu - Youth
>> download <<
This download is a sample of the music only and must be deleted from your computer within 24 hours of downloading. This download link will expire on 14th June.

The third track is Time Of Your Song, this track has a more artificial sounding drum loop and synth melody, more reminiscent of an rnb track. It's a catchy track with a strong beat, but nothing special - immediately I was missing the organic and raw sound of the live album.

Dispatch The Troops is track four, a song more in the same vein of the live stuff - utilising acoustic riffs and organ samples. One of the most reggae sounding tracks of the album, in a typical reggae sense anyway. Bit of an easy-listening kind of affair, but interesting enough never-the-less.

The fifth track is Indestructible. One of the weakest tracks on the album, not necessarily a bad track, just really nothing special - yet still catchy. Sounds like a cross between Wyclef Jean and Sean Paul, quite poppy in a certain sense. Like I say, not bad, just nothing special.

What I'm Fighting For is track six, a rather more acoustic affair - simply Matisyahu's reggae singing, an acoustic guitar and a few other minor samples. Imagine a reggae version of Jeff Buckley or someone, that might be close. A nice little track I guess, just over two minutes long.

On then to track number seven; Jerusalem. Another real heavy classic reggae feel to this track - this track is funky too. It definitely got my head nodding with it's processed beats, clap samples, and melodic chorus. Not really 'single' material, but a good album track.

WP is track eight. Much more of a rap emphasis on this track with a guest appearance by MC Stan Ipcus. It's an ok track, but by this point in the album I'm left feeling that there hasn't been much direction through the tracks. Like Matisyahu is trying to achieve too much, yet so far it's all been quite average.

Track nine is Shalom/Saalam and it features some of Matisyahu's famous beatboxing over (or under) some very airy strings samples. More of an interlude track than anything at just over a minute long.

Late Night In Zion is track ten. This one is quite steady and chilled in comparison to most Matisyahu tracks. It's enjoyable, nicely structured, and also good to hear Matisyahu sing in a different manner to usual. Still not quite enough to really impress me - whether that's just cos I'm a bitter old cynic or not is beside the point!

Track eleven is Unique Is My Dove. A plodding reggae ditty with some mean drums - cool guitar riff too. Another one to get my head nodding. Nice enough, but unlike the song's title, it isn't particularly unique, not entirely sure what it's lacking, but it just doesn't quite cut my mustard.

Ancient Lullaby is track twelve. Got a bit of a Paul Simon twang to this one - sounds like it could be playing as the credits go up on a feel-good movie. Maybe it's cos I'm not a huge reggae fan, or maybe cos the album is a bit bland, but by this point I'm suffering from Matisyahu-fatigue.

The thirteenth and final track is King Without A Crown. This was on Live At Stubbs, but obviously in a live format. Maybe Matisyahu included this to give his fans a studio version of their fav to cherish, or maybe he felt his bland album needed a bit of beefing up. God, I don't think I've been so vicious towards an album! Either way, this is a nice version of King Without A Crown, yet not a patch on the live version.

I know I've given this album a bit of a kicking, but I have some thoughts as to why; the live Matisyahu tracks (as heard on Live At Stubbs) were far more organic and raw, they had a real punch to them. But perhaps this is a similar feeling as to why I thought Bonobo's Live Sessions were sooo much better than Dial M For Monkey - it just sounds better live! As far as this album showing no real direction and sounding bland, well; I can imagine Matisyahu wants to try different things and doesn't want to be pigeon-holed as a one-trick-pony, but this can (and has) back-fired.

Usually this is the point where I'd say "if you like this, this, and this… then you'll like this", but (regrettably) I don't feel much like recommending this to anyone. On the other hand, if you don't have Live At Stubbs, you should definitely get it, it's a fantastic live album.

Useful links:

• Website
• MySpace
• last.fm
• Download

Double albums/Double trouble?

Much has been said over the years with regards to artists releasing double albums, but the recent release of Red Hot Chili Peppers' double album Stadium Arcadium got me wondering bout this subject once more. Double albums; double the value or double the trouble?

Firstly let me clarify what a double albums is; a record released on two discs as the content will not fit on to one disc. Historically vinyl LPs were often released as double albums as vinyl discs could not hold as much music as modern CDs. Most vinyl LPs were between 30 and 45 minutes long, where as CDs can generally hold up to 80 minutes of music. So, it could be viewed that in this day and age (the compact disc era) that there really shouldn't be much need for a double album. And yet, some are still released.

Aside from greatest hits albums and the more instrumental non-mainstream artists like; Aphex Twin, The Future Sound of London, The Orb and BT, and perhaps even releases of live performances, why would an artist release a double album? An obvious answer would be because they've recorded so much great material and they want to repay the fans kindness, god that sounded cynical! Some people would say that an established (already popular) group or artist may self-indulgently believe that releasing a double album will be a sure way to strike gold once more. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure that there have been some great double albums, in-fact it would be great if you would reply to this post detailing any double albums that you have particularly enjoyed - but I'm gonna talk about a few that have left a slightly tainted view for myself…

• Eels - Blinking Lights and Other Revelations
  I'm a big fan of Eels (the band, not the animal), so naturally I was looking forward to this. Then I discover it is a double album, although I didn't really have an opinion on that at the time. The albums is two discs; first disc contains 17 tracks and the second disc contains 16 - total content length; 93m28s. You'd be forgiven for thinking that on paper it sounds like a good return for your dollars. The trouble I had with this album, and have with most double albums, is that I was so flooded with material it was difficult to really gauge one track from the next and form a balanced opinion on the listening experience. Off the top of my head I cant name one track from the album, let alone tell you which ones I liked best. I've listened a few times too, it just doesn't get any better. Which is not to say there aren't any good tracks on the album, just too many tracks.

• Foo Fighters - In Your Honor
  Never been a massive follower of Foo Fighters, although on occasion I think they are pretty good. I liked the sound of the tracks I had heard on the radio, so bought this double album. So, two discs; first disc has eleven tracks and the second has ten - total content length; 83m17s. Once again it was a hazy listening experience, although not quite as punishing as Eels' 33 track marathon. One redeeming quality was the fact that the first disc was more lively and the second more mellow, that was a nice touch - plus I could spot the tracks I liked, such as; Best Of You, The Last Song and Cold Day In The Sun. But, still, felt like I was being swamped with too much material.

• Red Hot Chili Peppers - Stadium Arcadium
  And so on to the latest (and 9th) Chili Peppers album. I only really got in to these guys when Californication came out, and I really like that album and also By The Way. I'm not a big rock fan at the best of times, so although tracks like Under The Bridge I find good, their earlier work really doesn't do much for me. But, here we are at present day with a new double album. Two discs; first disc offers 14 tracks and the second offers 14 also - total content length; 122m41s. A monstrous amount of music, anyone would agree. Firstly I just want to say that there are some great tracks on this album, my favs include; Dani California, Charlie, Wet Sand, and Animal Bar. Yet, once more there was just too much on offer to really gain a proper judgement overall as an album.

As I'm sure you can tell, the common theme amongst those three is the apparent volume of content (hence the need for a double album in the first place!). To rationalise, take your average normal size album of good quality - on occassion there will be an album released that has eleven absolutely amazing tracks, but generally (and more realistically) speaking, even a good album has perhaps just four or five amazing tracks, a few good tracks, and then a couple of take-it-or-leave-it type tracks. In my opinion, when you increase the volume of tracks on an album, you are more than likely increasing the amount of average tracks on offer - hence devaluing the whole listening experience. I would rather listen to just eight good tracks than listen to ten good tracks but then 16 pretty average ones.

Artists; save these double albums for your greatest hits release or live anthology - releasing such a quantity of material in one hit just weakens your stock. It's quality not quantity! Least that's what I keep telling myself! Once more I realise I'm just scraping the tip of the iceberg on this discussion, but maybe that's just cos I'm cleverly enticing you (the valued reader) in to voicing your thoughts via the comments feature?! Go on, let yourself go, leave me a comment bout double albums!

Useful links:

• Wikipedia

Hip-Hop/Hip-Pop

I think the title of this entry pretty much suggests what I'm gonna rant about, but… first off, I just want to say that from a commercial stand-point, I realise that there is a place for hip-pop and that plenty of people seem to really enjoy it. I don't want for there to be any presumption that I'm going to just rip some music to shreds and praise some other (I make no promises, what can I say? I'm passionate!) - I'll attempt to show a bit more depth into the discussion and raise some valid points. So, let's get to it…

In-case some readers aren't quite aware of what my crass label hip-pop means, I will explain; hip-pop is the casual term given to mass produced commercial hip-hop that is released solely for quick sale chart consumption. Bear in mind that this is only an opinion (although plenty share it) and not everybody will agree with my assessment. Many feel that these hip-pop artists are just selling out; using the hip-hop genre to make artistically-limited music that is marketed towards kids, purely in an attempt to make as much money as quickly as possible, without much thought to the actual music itself. I'm sure these artists would (publicly) disagree, but public perception rules all and on this occasion I don't believe that our eyes deceive.

To give you an idea, I'll list a few names that could be considered as hip-pop artists; 50 Cent, basically all of G-Unit, modern day Jay-Z, Ja Rule, modern day Black Eyed Peas, P Diddy, Ludacris, Lil Jon, Nelly, Obie Trice, Akon, Bubba Sparxxx, modern day Busta Rhymes, the list really does go on, but I think you get the idea. It is difficult to know what these artists are thinking, whether they actually care about the music, or do they just want loads of money - to be honest, we'll probably never know, and that is where our perception comes into play. Personally I can only conclude that the aforementioned artists are essentially pop artists after lots of cash, using a watered down version of hip-hop.

Some of these hip-pop artists were once highly respected hip-hop acts, like Jay-Z, Black Eyed Peas, and Busta Rhymes, for example. Maybe they just lost their desire for the music, maybe they just want to drive nicer cars, who knows? All I do know is that I'm sick of hearing this watered down hip-hop. I don't really listen to commercial radio anymore or watch much TV, so I don't get exposed to this music very often, but what hurts me most is how much people sing the praises of this music. There's no soul to this music - it's just a catchy jingle over a heavy beat and some guy rapping bout shooting someone in the face and f*cking some hoe. I remember a friend of mine saying they don't like hip-hop music cos they don't like the way the songs are all about violence, money, and hoes - I was ready to list of a hundred hip-hop artists that never mention that crap, but this persons mind was already made up. I've even tried to counter suggest artists to people that have been consumed by the devil (listeners of hip-pop), if someone tells me they like 50 Cent, I suggest they try listening to Nas, MF DOOM, or Ghostface, for example. But the devil has them so tightly that they feel if it isn't being rammed down their throats via tv and the radio, then it isn't cool to listen to it.

Regardless, the underground hip-hop scene is still strong. I mean, there are tonnes of fantastic acts still struggling to get record deals, but it is encouraging to see people still putting the effort in to make decent art. I just find it incredibly sad that people rely on the mainstream media to such an extent. Either they cant see that it is ruling their lives, or they just don't care. If these people could just take the time out to discover new things for themselves, with an open mind, maybe they would take their musical enjoyment to the next level.

All said and done, this is a rant coming from someone that does appreciate real hip-hop and does despise hip-pop - I know many will agree with my sentiment, but there are tonnes of fans of hip-pop music and they don't really care what I think, but perhaps this is just the state of things in this day and age. I also realise I have only briefly touched on what is actually quite a heavy debate, but I figured that it wouldn't be wise to send you to sleep with a massive rant, so it's just some food for thought. What would be cool is if anyone reading this would take 30 seconds out to leave a comment that includes the name of a real hip-hop artist, just some recognition and appreciation for the guys striving to keep the scene alive.

Useful links:

• Urban Dictionary
• Wikipedia
• Underground Hip Hop