The revival
Once upon a time, I compiled lists of songs and musicians that I had stumbled upon. The compilation of lists, links and music were often accompanied by rambling prose and an odd lament at the passing of Top of the Pops.
Now the days are officially shorter, the nights longer, the need for splendid sounds to accompany the changing of the seasons is more pertinent than ever.
So, I’ve decided to revive this pastime and inviting you to get involved. As often as I can muster the effort I’ll pick 1 – 3 tracks that I think you should listen to and share with your friends on facebook.
NAME
ALBUM
SONG
+ some blurb if you can be bothered
As per catablog convention just leave a comment with your suggestion for others to see. It really is that simple. I’ll put together a weekly Spotify playlist that you can add to as well. enjoy! If you don’t use spotify yet, I’ve got a couple of invites floating about, if not search the tracks on Youtube.
Shakira
She wolf
Spy Feat. Wyclef Jean
The combination electrified dancefloors for weeks months and now years. The columbian and the haitian combine again to produce a song with more swagger juice than Tim westwood. The album has been largely overshadowed by the phermone inducing lead single from the album which features shakira and little else, if you are able to get past the she wolf video you will find a great pop album by the biggest selling female artist of the decade.
Amanda Blank
I love You
DJ
This is a great club tune and if it does get into the hands of the right DJ’s I can see it doing some serious damage to numerous eardrums in the near future. Blank follows a growing line of female artists making waves in the electro/hip hop fusion space, her stock only continues to rise and backing from the infamous spank rock will only see her star rise further.
The Clipse
The the Casket Drops
Back by Popular demand (popeyes) Feat Cameron
Hip Hop’s favorite brothers; The Clipse continue to hover below the surface of potential hip hop greatness, their Neptune’s weaved sound wets the appetite of hip hop aficionados everywhere. Since they dropped their critically acclaimed debut the duo have suffered from label wrangling, stagnations and produced material sporadiacally (the re-up), this is criminally low productivity for such a talented pair.
Their new material promises much of what earned them such high praise in the first time around, the latest track to find its way out of the studio is Back by Popular Demand:Popeyes (Cottage Chicken,lol) featuring the equally work shy Cameron, who laces the beat with classic demeanor. The collaboration brings out the best in all three and pharrell drops in with a odd hook to sprinkle more star dust on this track.
Stay locked for next weeks Re-up and the start of our decade in music series
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What a weekend; friends, family, loved ones, drink, food, sun and then there was music. Rarely do all of these things align but when they do, boy do they fall into place!
What I really loved about this weekend apart from Jenny returning from her travels, was that everywhere I went there was a song that made me smile.
So for this edition of the catablog I present to you my weekend soundtrack of music.
Thursday -From Edinburgh to London
Cold War Kids – Hospital Beds – Florence and The Machine covered it but they do it better (only just). Probably one of the best examples of modern song writing I’ve come across in a long time. They are playing the Stag‡ Festival in May
Friday – Six Pints of ale later drunk on the Underground
QTip – Manwomanboogie – This song is finding its way onto every mixtape/tracklisting/catablog I do right now, its infectious. I defy you not to dance to this… I tried and failed. Yes drunk on the central line.
Saturday – Walking around East London
The Phenomenal Hand Clap Band – 15 to 20 – My trip into town has always been preceded by some radio music..Saturday’s hype music came courtesy of Mr Zane Lowe who uncovered this gem of a song.
Kenny Rankin – So peaceful here I loved the phenomenal hand clap band so much, I did some more research. On their blogspot my convictions were qualified; they listen to much of the same music as me! I found this kenny ranking track which is very folksy. My friend Steeno, who I was to see on Sunday, introduced me to this guy and much of the other stuff found on their blog page.
Desmond Deckker – Israelites – Last week my housemate Greg was putting his lunch into an old vitalite tub, which instantly reminded me of the late 80’s early 90’s Vitalite ad that lifts the hook from this song. Whilst mooching around east london Jen and I wandered into sniff.co.uk an awesome little shoe boutique and I heard DEsmond Deckker. Class and just a word of warning I saw those funky shoes before you, yes all of them, hands and feet off!!
United Vibrations – Out of the ether a sound fills the air; entrancing and enchanting, mesmerising in its duality, bodies inexplicably drawn to the source. Ahead of us a crowd drawn like micromys minutus hearing the call of the piper’s flute. Casting the spell was a 4 piece funk/jazz/ska/acoustic soul playing effortlessly outside the Truman brewery.. accompanied by their number one hobo/groupie was a drunkard swaying and skankin in time, proof that at least one drunk man was caught in their musical net and it wasn’t me.
John Coltrane – Greensleeves - Just eating in Leon in Spitafields market with the shoreditch short film festival in the background and good old Johnny playing Greensleves in the restaurant.
Sunday – Preparing for a trip back to Auld Reekie.
The black ghosts – the repetition kills you – In amongst some kills tunes I was listening to was an amazing piece by the pop-electro vocalist-dj duo The Black Ghost’s the electro funk mesh has been put together by former simian man Simon Lord and Wiseguys man Theo Keating..I would definitely recommend their album!
Once I got myself together I got back on the train, this time sober, I prepared myself for a chauffer driven train carriage ride with hours of music on my Ipod to listen to, only to discover it hadn’t charged! My weekend of music was prematurely put to an end, only slightly annoyed I carried on with my journey and headed to see an old friend Elena. Just when I thought it was over, she happened to inform me that she was heading to LA and will also be pursuing a career as a recording artist, which I have no doubt will be a successful one. As Well as that awesome news she taught me a bit of piano. Before she sang a version of Lady Gaga’s -Paparazzi.
After being deprived of music for another 6 hours, as soon as I got back to Scotland I streamed the the song that had been in my head since King’s Cross Station earlier that day. The new Black Eye Peas Song – Boom Boom Pow. Just for all you attentive people out there Will.i.am has chopped his locks and has a funky new hair cut, he has just re defined the afro-step.
Nice
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Have you ever been caught singing or dancing in public, unaware as to how ridiculous you look to everyone outside your musical bubble? Well, I was caught out several times this weekend as I top-rocked along the road, listening to new additions to my playlist.
.jpg "dancing")
As I walked, hopped, skipped and jumped, people peered, stared, glared and wondered; their visual enquiries were met with feet furious in defiance and isolated in their rhythm stalking. Music was meant to be danced to, so don’t hate me for the pep in my step.
Get a PEP in your step
Joi Starr (feat Kanye west) – Same time
CFCF – You hear colours
Q-Tip – ManWomanBoogie
Four Tet – Sun Drums and Soil
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Catablog of music V.25.1
I haven’t done this in a while, so forgive me if it’s a bit short. Blogging isn’t like riding a mountain bike..its more like riding a PennyFarthing;figure that one out.
I’ve been listening to a lot of music recently, just rediscovering why it makes me smile, why it makes me think and why it can be the perfect companion. Along the way I have gone back to moments past and picked up some of the sounds that occasionally re-emerge in my consciousness. In doing so I realised why some music has to be left to breathe; sometimes for months frequently for years.
I have found that the rediscovery is often more enjoyable, meaningful and memorable than the initial discovery itself. Rediscovery of music comes with a free prize, the memories of the moments you lived through when you first heard that song or listened to that album.
So let me cut to the chase. I picked up from a pile of scratched CD’s, the sophomore album of Nigerian cum British Rapper, Ty.
Upwards (2003) and in my opinion is the most underrated British Rap/Hip hop album of the decade. I first picked this up the summer before commencing university and for months on end it would jokey for position in my minidisc player with Amy Winehouse’s debut album Frank. As with most that expereince university, the first year comes with many memories and I will leave them as such for the fear of boring you with my expereince.
Upwards, comprised of beats varied, complex and simple. Complemented by poetry, cadence and rap that needn’t be labled “british” only “classic”. On listening to this album again I really feel Ty for whatever reason has let his moment pass, however I remain hopeful that the window of opportunity will come again and his ability to marry potent rhyme and rhythm will rise to the surface once more.
Ty- Upwards (2003)
Standout track: Rain
Unfortunately the track rain is nowhere to be seen on the interweb so a version of the lead single from that album will have to suffice.
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It’s true what they say, “Time waits for no man” and it certainly did not wait for me or music. Plenty of water has passed under the bridge since the last time I sat down, listened to or wrote about good music, bad music, any musac! The haitus is over, the cockles have been warmed and the ears battered with an album a day. Ladies and Gentlemen prepare yourselves the catablog of music is back. Welcome to 2009.
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Listening to music (Part 1)
Listening to music is something that many of us do from a very early age, possibly too early to discern what music actually is. At the point when the cacophony of sound called music first hits your ears. Do you know whether it’s music or is it the art of noise?
There really isn’t any way of knowing how we personally as babies reacted to the first song or piece of music we heard, but from the point of birth till death do us part, many of us may never really “listen” to music, instead merely observe, rarely investigating the soundtrack to our lives.
I realise these are broad sweeping statements; you may well interogate the music you listen to whilst you listen to it, however my observation of contemporary popular music, my own listening habits, the responses or lack thereof of those of around me when music is playing, makes me question the extent to which we really “listen” to music.
Aware of the passivity I displayed when hearing music I decided to take a step back and begin an exercise in listening to music. This was a simple task but an incredibily enjoyable and fulfilling one, which anyone can complete.
1. First of all select your favourite song at the moment.
2. Play it once from beginning to the very end.
3. Play it again and see if you can pick out an instrument (the voice is an instrumentoo t) that forms part of the composition.
4. Once you have picked your instrument, listen to it over isolating that instrument throughout the song.
5. Continue doing this until you have identified and isolated as many instruments as possible and then play the song again.
Philosopher Paul Tillich once said ” the first duty of love is to listen”. Think about it.
Here are some things im listening to at the moment …check it out after the jump.. Continue reading ‘Listening to music (Part 1)’
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2009 and the Catablog of Music
It’s true what they say, “Time waits for no man” and it certainly did not wait for me or music. Plenty of water has passed under the bridge since the last time I sat down, listened to or wrote about good music, bad music, any musac! The haitus is over, the cockles have been warmed and the ears battered with an album a day. Ladies and Gentlemen prepare yourselves the catablog of music is back. Welcome to 2009.
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Tags: 2009
Catablog of Music 24.2
Jose James – Park Bench People
Jose James is a US Jazz/Soul/Blues vocalist signed to Giles Peterson’s Brownswood records. James resurrects a style that reminds me of a gritty Mel Tormé, a male Billy Holiday and a super baritone jazz incarnation of Bilal. He is an intriguing artist, more so for the fact that he is an american jazz vocalist signed to a british label singing what I consider to be Revival Jazz. It definitely works but will it be appreciated?
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Catablog interlude
why don’t you listen to this -
Prelude by Brazilian guitarist, Baden Powell, whilst you read this:
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Catablog of Music 24.2
JayZ – Brookly (we go hard) ft. Santogold
Genre: hip hop
JayZ may have “retired” but we all know he has never really gone away. From guest features to full blow albums Mr Carter churns out record after record, however many argue that with every record he dilutes his legendary and self appointed status as the “greatest rapper alive” to the point where he no longer remains relevant to the evolution of the hip hop genere. Every now and again he does remind us that he does still have an ear for a hit sound and his latest leak “Brooklyn” definitely reminded me of his quality, but not as rapper but a shrewed artist.
Brooklyn isn’t his best track by any means and his recent preference for a flow so laid back its leaning does nothing to show his strengths and everything to contradict the title of the track. But that aside, what he has done is find Santogold; an artist that is on the cusp of mainstream breakthrough, very saleable and most importantly captures the zeitgeist in music culture. Her singing on the bed and the hook of the track…totally works and is pretty catchy, no doubt “Brooklyn we go hard” will be ringing in my ears for a while yet!
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