Brook D’Leau and the lovely Ms. Davey, also known as J*DaVeY, will release the Boudoir Synema: The Great Mistape EP on December 25th. Here you can already listen to a record off the project.
Click image for download and listening.

Info: 2DopeBoyz

Kelis just released her new single, “Acapella”.
The track, which is produced by dance producer superstar David Guetta, is the first singe from Kelis’ upcoming new album, slated to be released in 2010. Get your bounce on!!!

Click image for download and listening:

Info: ILLVIBES DMV

I will provide specific examples of various social and political commentaries from Hunter Thompson’s article “The Kentucky Derby is Decadent and Depraved.” I will examine Thompson’s place and importance within the culture he was critiquing as well as within the realm of journalism itself. Although he was most often under the influence of one or a variety of substances his words and insight have influenced many who knew or read him. He dedicated himself, compulsions and all, to the craft of journalism. He has personally been one of my favorite writers since I read Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas several summers ago. What drew me to Thompson was his ability to make the ordinary remarkable. I feel his style is reflective of the subjectivity that has seeped into our culture, beginning with the rise of New Journalism, a style that had many similarities to Gonzo Journalism.

Thompson’s article is immersive due to its exploration of the surroundings and the writer’s obsessive practice of the continual, unquestioned traditions and indulgences in question. Steadman calls this going “native,” which they do, becoming the “real beasts” they have come to see perform. Many of Thompson’s generation sought to expand their minds, they often achieved this by pushing their bodies to extremes while the upright citizens of the day deplored their degrading behaviors. Thompson was perhaps speaking out in opposition to some acts of depravity but lived his life according to his own moral code. I identify with his tactics and works because I too notice a trend of alienation, of increasing anti-social tendencies and isolation. Thompson spoke for his generation because while he felt his views were important he felt equally responsible to point out any biases he had as a journalist. Thompson achieved this with his over-the-top style.

Thompson’s judgments are meant to be humorous at first glance however; they contain relevant cultural critiques and provide readers insight of the times and of the widely different levels of experience that were available within a famous southern tradition. One of the most intriguing aspects of the article was the attempt of the journalist and illustrator to find a proper caricature, a representative face of the entire culture: “He had done a few good sketches, but so far we hadn’t seen that special kind of face that I felt we would need for a lead drawing. It was a face I’d seen a thousand times at every Derby I’d ever been to. I saw it, in my head, as the mask of whiskey gentry–a pretentious mix of booze, failed dreams and a terminal identity crisis; the inevitable result of too much inbreeding in a closed and ignorant culture” (Thompson 5). Thompson and Steadman were seeking more than just an illustration for the piece; Thompson wanted a symbol “of the whole doomed atavistic culture that makes the Kentucky Derby what it is” (Thompson 5). In the end, journalist and illustrator hit the bottom of the barrel but somehow make it out alive. Thompson wakes after consuming mass amounts of alcohol, admirable by even Derby standards and doesn’t even recognize himself in the mirror at first, he has transformed into the caricature he was seeking.

The piece is also littered with Nixon references. Nixon, a caricature of everything Thompson stood against, seemed to serve as the reason and bane of his existence simultaneously. Even if the piece isn’t about Nixon or war or any of the freedoms Thompson cherished those themes would creep in, serving as a backdrop for whatever scene Thompson felt like making. Everyone has a streak of rebellion within and Thompson let his run its full course. He was always against the power, fighting even when losing is inevitable.

Thompson was always able to fin something about any situation that held a special significance to him or to the culture at large. He focused on his own experience and interpretation of things, giving us not only a snap shot of the culture or the event itself but sharing himself as well. We get a whole new level with Thompson, a level that is intentionally missing from Capote and Hersey’s work, (each for different reasons) the element of psychology. Readers are fascinated with Thompson’s bizarre and demented psychology, especially when it starts making sense to them.

Critics of Thompson are quick to jump on this strong, subjective voice that seems harsh and judgmental at times as well as his lack of conventional research. Thompson does these things intentionally and I admire his sense of humor and honesty because in the end he is even willing to turn his words on himself: “For a confused instant I thought Ralph had brought somebody with him–a model for that one special face we’d been looking for. There he was, by God–a puffy, drink-ravaged, disease-ridden caricature…like an awful cartoon version of an old snapshot in come one-proud mother’s family photo album. It was the face we’d been looking for–and it was, of course, my own. Horrible, horrible…” (Thompson 9). Thompson writes highly stylized prose that is funny at times while still managing to be poetic. I am a poet myself and I enjoy fiction that borrows from the poetic tradition. Similarly, I have been able to connect with nonfiction that borrows these techniques. Gonzo Journalism is highly idealistic, like its creator but there is something beautiful in its mission to tear down the artifice of government, uncover the deceit of war and end the suppression of freedoms in favor of false securities in a society of increasing unrest.

If any Madonnaphiles say that she is not cashing in on something horrid, they must be institutionalized.

This song sticks out like a sour thumb on the album Echo. In a good way.

From Yahoo:

“Rihanna has admitted the leak of a series of naked photos of her was “the worst thing that could possibly ever happen to me”.

Following the infamous fight between the R&B superstar and former boyfriend Chris Brown in February, she again hit the headlines in May.

A series of explicit images, which followed the release of one of her injured face in the aftermath of the attack, were published online.

“I just felt like my whole privacy was taken before that and then, when that came out, I thought, ‘oh great, so now there’s nothing they don’t know about me and my private life’”, she told a US radio station.

“It was humiliating and it was embarrassing – especially my mum having to see that. It was two days before Mother’s Day, so I was nervous.

“I sent her flowers first before I called and then she texted me – when the world is against me she’s always there supporting”, said Rihanna.

The images, which she described as “hot”, were reportedly sent to an unnamed ex-boyfriend, not thought to be Brown.

“Rated R”, the singer’s new album, was released on Monday.”

The evil is out, apparently. Scherzinger has allegedly gone an done it. The rumor has it that the split is imminent and everyone is waiting for the official announcement of Pussycat Dolls splitting or breaking up or kicking a bunch of people out. Nicole just can’t handle the fact that some of the dolls are better and more talented than her. Now, none of the other Dolls speak to her. Team Melody!

She needs to start on other tracks like “More Than Just Friends” or “Standing O.”

Finland’s Le Corps Mince de Françoise return with a new Dave ‘Switch’ Taylor produced single Something Golden that will first appear on the upcoming Kitsune Maison 8 compilation and then be released on all formats on December 14th. Here’s a remix by Zebra And Snake and other remixes are from Oleo, Heartbreak and Renaissance Man.

mp3: le corps de mince françoise – something golden (zebra & snake remix).

New hot rap instrumentals added to the library go check them out

http://swanky-ent.com/music_categories/new_songs/player.html

So, this blog’s first post appears in light of a discussion I was having with a friend this week about our approaches to composition.  We both trained as classical/western notated composers, but it is a training that I have significantly moved away from, toward beatmaking and a more abstracted pop practice.  I have as many issues with the world of classical contemporary composition as I have with the world of contemporary improvisation and other allegedly radical practices that position themselves as counter to what they perceive as more traditionalist/conservative music-making.  Classic FM is a particularly turgid bastion of self-satisfied conservative bullshit, but then so is Radio 3, which relegates the most left-field of its output (which is generally the more accessible pickings of “experimental” (yuk) practice ) to extremely late slots at night – novelty freak shows – but at least they have those shows.  In fact, Radio 3 could probably convince you that Nitin Sawhney was the vanguard of “experimental music”, but the problem is, he probably is, and I have a feeling that the people who own Sawhney records are the people who own the Nu-Jazz wankfunk of 4hero and Quantic Soul Orchestra, or the soul-sucking-deadness of the Gotan Project.  Of course what I’m really doing here is exposing my qualms with a certain brand of Guardian-reading London-centric middle-classness, where a need to appear to embrace or try and identify with the multiculturalism of the city is met by Sawhney and his cohorts who provide the appropriate stonewashed cultural signifiers in the form of this particular monstrosity, where we follow (yet another) pretty girl in a big red dress as she smugly fannies around affluent London neighbourhoods, singing a song so bland that my face melts off every time I hear it.  It is so fucking safe that it makes me consider slipping some hideous airborne poison into the air conditioning system at Waitrose.  But no, I wouldn’t do that, I like Waitrose.

Anyhow, aside from this, something that has been frustrating me recently (but which might be remedied by my friend Helen’s decision to make me a certain mixtape) is why young composers (of my generation, aged 20s-30s) continue write pieces of music that seem to serve as nostalgic artifacts, or as homages to, a high modernist aesthetic.  The most radical compositions I tend to encounter (particularly in universities and festivals) are pieces that loudly declare an open-endedness in certain passages; the incorporation of improvisatory elements, which of course, is something as old as notated composition itself, but tends to feel a little bit like a token gesture.  But that’s not really what bothers me, what bothers me is a strange, and continuing aspiration to a musical aesthetic (in notated music) that was dominant thirty years before most of us were born.  In a highly mediated western society, whereby quickening technological developments have heavily influenced aesthetic ones, I am always surprised that young people produce works such as these, and perhaps this is particularly because I feel I have been unable to ignore the huge influence of club and dance culture upon my listening histories, the pervasiveness of a groove, if even an unstable groove, of rhythm and repetition, of loops, of beats.  (Sorry, this is impressively scrappy…)  I always feel that there is a tendency toward a rather heavy-handed abstraction that betrays a very specific academic repression of the body, and even of joy.

Finally, here it is! New Lupe Fiasco
Click the image to download the mixtape: “Enemy Of The State: A Love Story”

Info: NahRight

Ths is the first official single from B.O.B./Bobby Ray.
His upcoming album “B.o.B Presents The Great Adventures of Bobby Ray” will be a classic, I am sure!
Click image for download the single.

Info: WDIR

Pictures behind the scenes of the “On To The Next One” Video by Jay-Z Ft. Swizz Beats. More Pics After the Jump!

Video Coming Sooner Than You Think And We Cant Wait!

There’s no denying this year has been big for La Roux and the duo’s debut single Quicksand that originally came out on Kitsune has recently been re-released by their new label who are no doubt eager to cash in on the hype. Remixes are by Boy 8-Bit and Alex Metric and here’s a new one from Mad Decent that goes a little deeper than the one that was about earlier this year.

mp3: la roux – quicksand (mad decent remix 2).

vide0premiere

Breezine is the last installation of the 2009 compilations. It features some tracks we have saved throughout the year. In short, it is basically the music we listen to. There is no specific concept to the album but it ranges on the stratosphere of  mid-tempo and instrumentation that is less computerized and rawer. We hope you like this offering, it’s early so that you get it before the break and because we are going to be head to South Korea / Philippines in an hour or so. So, enjoy it and and give us some good tasty feedback. It’s a 14-hour flight so you better amuse us when we check.

:: Download ::