Archive for January, 2010

ANGIE STONE - I Ain’t Hearing You

January 31st, 2010

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A singer, MC, self-taught keyboardist, and prolific songwriter, Angie Stone’s first claim to fame was her membership in The Sequence, an all-female trio who recorded for pioneering hip-hop label Sugar Hill. Several years later she re-emerged as the lead vocalist for Vertical Hold, where she scored with the smooth Top 40 urban dance track “Seems You’re Much Too Busy” in ‘93. With the release of her 1999 solo debut, Angie became one of neo-soul’s leading lights, providing sharp insight into romantic relationships with her smoky voice. On her second album for Concord’s Stax imprint (and fourth overall), “Unexpected”, Stone delves deeper into funk, “I Ain’t Hearin’ U” especially drenched in a retro groove.

by Mark Emge and Marijke van Niekerk

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RAFFERTIE - 7th Dimension

January 31st, 2010

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Based in Birmingham, Raffertie is the 21-year-old DJ and producer whose innovative and down right filthy style has been smashing up the UK’s underground dance music scene for the last couple of years. Playing high-energy, bass-laden tunes Raffertie has quickly become a party favourite across the UK with sets that include everything from uplifting pop classics and ’90s rave anthems to the filthiest house, grime, and dubstep. Alongside his DJing exploits, Raffertie’s productions have received loads of acclaim. With Starkey championing the twisted monster “Antisocial”, Radio 1’s own Mary Anne Hobbs picked up the distorted, devastating beats of “Stomping Grounds VIP”. “7th Dimension” is Raffertie’s latest sick clubber.

by Mark Emge and Marijke van Niekerk

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DIANE BIRCH - Nothing But A Miracle

January 31st, 2010

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Daughter of a travelling Adventist preacher, singer-songwriter Diane Birch took half her lifetime and trekked across the entire globe to get to America, where she found the voice of her remarkable debut, “Bible Belt”. Though only 27, Birch likes to think of herself as an “old soul”, and there’s a startling maturity in her singing and a veteran’s self-assurance in her writing. Birch mixes piano-playing virtuosity with easy-going soul, and she can strike an uplifting groove on even the most melancholy tune. Birch’s work bears hints of Laura Nyro (when she was hanging out with LaBelle) and early ’70s Karen Carpenter. “Nothing But A Miracle” is her latest.

by Mark Emge and Marijke van Niekerk

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ORIANTHI - According To You

January 31st, 2010

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Deemed “seriously ass-whoopin’” by Carlos Santana, Australia’s Orianthi Panagaris was only six when she fell in love with the guitar. Names like Clapton, Hendrix and Santana motivated her to take lessons she then used to master Def Leppard, Van Halen and Whitesnake. Orianthi has played for everybody from Carrie Underwood to Steve Vai, and Michael Jackson made her his guitarist for the “This Is It” tour. Add Orianthi’s ability to sell a lyric and while throwing down devastating slabs of riffage, and she starts to looking suspiciously like the fantasy love child of Prince and Lita Ford. “According To You” is off her second solo album, “Believe”.

by Mark Emge and Marijke van Niekerk

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MUMFORD & SONS - The Cave

January 30th, 2010

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Ever since masters of the form were plucked from under Appalachian rocks and corralled into chic NYC café venues for the edification of right-on students in the early ’60s, “folk” has signaled something desirable yet tantalisingly out-of-reach. Mumford & Sons might sound like the name of a defunct timber yard you were sworn off playing around by your mum as a nipper, but it’s actually the ongoing concern of four young fellows from London, a name that fixes the band in a long tradition of ramblin’, gamblin’ truth-tellers. Of course, they’re no more authentic than my dog is a communist triple agent, but “The Cave” sounds like it should be played through a veil of freshers week tears after a drunken grope failed to make the earth move.

by Mark Emge and Marijke van Niekerk

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VYBZ KARTEL - Slow Motion

January 30th, 2010

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Ever watched two completed stoned guys try to fight? Starting as a ghost-writer for Bounty Killer, Elephant Man, and other members of the Scare Dem Crew, dancehaller Vybz Kartel (b. Adidja Azim Palmer) progressed from collaborations with Bounty to his own early hits, which led to Kartel being crowned Deejay Of The Year at Stone Love’s 30th Anniversary in 2002. In ‘06 Vybz had a falling out with his longtime collaborator after Kartel performed the song “Yuh Know Yuh Baby Father” with his cousin D’Angel, who happened to be the Killer’s former girl. Since then, however, Kartel has focused his wrath on a feud with Mavado, which has resulted in dozens of traded diss tracks between the two the past three years. Geez, with all the cannabis these toasters smoke, you think they’d chill and take things in “Slow Motion”.

by Mark Emge and Marijke van Niekerk

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YUKSEK - Tonight

January 30th, 2010

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French Producer/DJ Yuksek (b. Pierre-Alexandre Busson) has been the toast of the blogosphere for the last year or so thanks to his frantic DJ sets and brain-melting remixes. Retouching acts as varied as Ghostface Killah, Mika and Kaiser Chiefs has made the ears of many a dance fan curious to hear his full-length debut, “Away From The Sea”. A mass of musical contradictions, Yuksek inherited a taste for chanson and pop from his parents, before studying classical piano at the “conservatoire” from 6 to 16. “I’ve never been into repetitive tracks that go on for 12 minutes,” he says. “I don’t come from a club culture. I started out buying LPs, then vintage keyboards, but I’ve never been a proper DJ.” Which is why “Tonight” may make the move from the club to the living room quite easily.

by Mark Emge and Marijke van Niekerk

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GLEE CAST - Gold Digger

January 30th, 2010

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Translating a “Pop Idol” to CD depends on the “X Factor” of good original material. “Glee”, television’s testosterone-resistant mix of “The Breakfast Club” and “High School Musical”, solves that by recycling classic hits. In “Glee”-land, rock, tween pop and Tin Pan Alley aren’t at odds–Journey, Jordin Sparks, and Kanye all become karaoke fodder. Amber “Mercedes” Riley crushes Jazmine Sullivan’s “Bust Your Windows”, and “Don’t Stop Believin’” is a triumphal moment against which resistance is again futile. West’s “Goldigger” gives star Gleek Matthew Morrison another ill-advised opportunity to rap, representin’ the Broadway-musical posse.

by Mark Emge and Marijke van Niekerk

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MASSIVE ATTACK FEAT. DAMON ALBARN - Saturday Come Slow

January 29th, 2010

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A full 7 years after their last, “Heligoland” is the upcoming fifth studio album by Bristol music production pioneers Massive Attack. The record features perennial guest-singer Horace Andy and a new troupe of invited vocalists: TV On The Radio’s Tunde Adebimpe, Damon Albarn, Hope Sandoval, Elbow’s Guy Garvey, and Martina Topley-Bird, as well as guitar and keys from Portishead. All four tracks from 3D and Daddy G’s recent “Splitting The Atom” are included among the album’s 10 tracks, but rendered utterly unrecognizable by the studio masters save a line or two. “Saturday Come Slow” is fronted by Albarn, who also plays keys and bass on the project.

by Mark Emge

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LEONA LEWIS - I See You

January 29th, 2010

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The score for director James Cameron’s epic, 3D sci-fi adventure “Avatar”–which recently passed the $1 billion box-office mark, making it the fourth-biggest movie of all time–was composed by longtime collaborator James Horner, who won an Oscar for his work on the director’s 1997 blockbuster “Titanic”. Never one to shy away from familiar motifs, Horner’s vaguely wistful main theme weaves its way unapologetically throughout the film on the back of his “Titanic” love theme. And hoping to recreate their success with Dion, Cameron and Horner recruited English post-reality show singer Leona Lewis for the torch ballad “I See You”, a lovely yet somewhat strange song for a film about 10-foot tall blue aliens.