Tuesday, June 30, 2015
DISCLOSURE "Holding On" release
In a series of tweets, Disclosure explained that this futurstic six-minute video is the first in a series of four clips that will join together to form a continuous narrative. The thumping, soul-infused dance anthem provides the soundtrack for a threatening portrait of a dystopian future society inhabited by masked police riot cops and counterculture rebels. Still, as grim as the society seems to be, people still know how to party.
Caracal is due out on September 25 through PMR/Island. Stay tuned for further videos in the series.
SOULFLY "We Sold Our Souls To Metal" release
The track's called "We Sold Our Souls to Metal," which is a solid indication of its lyrical content. The song's all about going hard, rejecting society and living forever. Those lyrics are displayed across the screen along with live concert footage and shots of heavy metal CDs as the band blasts through some heavy riffage.
Archangel arrives on August 14 via Nuclear Blast. Check out the lyric video for "We Sold Our Souls to Metal" below.
Tour dates:
09/30 Los Angeles, CA - Fonda Theater *
10/01 San Francisco, CA - Regency Ballroom *
10/02 Portland, OR - Hawthorne Theater *
10/03 Seattle, WA - Studio Seven *
10/04 Vancouver, BC - Rickshaw Theatre *
10/06 Kelowna, BC - Level Nightclub *
10/07 Edmonton, AB - Starlite Room *
10/08 Saskatoon, SK - O'Brian's Event Centre *
10/09 Winnipeg, MB - Park Theatre *
10/10 Minneapolis, MN - Amsterdam *
10/11 Joliet, IL - Mojoes *
10/12 Des Moines, IA - Val Air Ballroom *
10/13 Cleveland, OH - Agora Theater *
10/14 Toronto, ON - Opera House *
10/15 Montreal, QC - Corona Theater *
10/18 Columbus, OH - Northland Performing Arts Center *
10/19 Pontiac, MI - Crofoot Ballroom *
10/20 New York, NY - Gramercy Theater *
10/21 Baltimore, MD - Ottobar *
10/22 Knoxville, TN - The International *
10/23 Atlanta, GA - Masquerade *
10/24 Ft Lauderdale, FL - Culture Room *
10/25 St Petersburg, FL - State Theater *
10/27 Houston, TX - Scout Bar *
10/28 Austin, TX - Empire Control Room *
10/29 Dallas, TX - Gas Monkey *
10/30 Albuquerque, NM - Sunshine Theater *
* with Soilwork, Decapitated, Shattered Sun
SAM ROBERTS BAND "Counting The Days"
In the clip, we see retro footage of happy street celebrations and outer space exploration. This is intercut with images of wars and bombs, with the whole thing overlaid with trippy, colourfully flickering effects. Roberts, meanwhile, sings along with the surging, eight-minute psych-rock track while wearing a hood and sunglasses.
"Counting the Days" is the title track of Roberts' recent Record Store Day EP. Check out the video below.
THE WONDER YEARS "Cardinals" release
As could be expected, it's another pop punk anthem that's wrought with emotion. Fitting with its epic sound, the video follows a man as he tries to save his friend after nearly drowning.
Watch the video for "Cardinals" below. No Closer to Heaven will arrive on September 4 via Hopeless Records.
MUMFORD & SONS "The Wolf" release
Dressed as Robin Hood, a fox, a chicken and a bride, the bandmates are captured on film, cavorting around the grounds at Bonnaroo. It was filmed by Marcus Haney during this year's festival in Manchester, TN, where Mumford and Sons served as headliners.
The band toss frisbees, ride the ferris wheel and pet each other's fur before taking the stage in front of thousands of adoring fans. Watch all the probably-shrooms-fuelled merriment go down in the player below.
BEN BROWNING "Friends Of Mine" release
In the video for this twinkling synth-pop track, we see Browning looking impassive as the camera spins around a cramped house in which some friends go about their daily routine. It's cinematically shot, and Browning takes some photos with a disposable camera (remember those?) before breaking the routine and leaving the house.
It was directed by Trouble Hands. Watch it below [via Pitchfork].
Turns is out on Yellow Year Records.
LAMB OF GOD "Overlord" release
Much of this six-minute track is relatively restrained, as it sports slow tempos, clean tones, and richly melodic signing from frontman Randy Blythe. The arrangement eventually picks up speed and Blythe unleashes his growling scream over ultra-heavy riffs.
Meanwhile, the accompanying video shows black and white footage of two people whose obsession with their mobile phones results in them becoming detached from their surroundings. The way the story plays out is rather disturbing and slightly gory. It was directed by Jorge Torres-Torres, and based on a concept by Blythe.
Read a statement from Blythe below, and watch the "Overlord" video below that.
For years I've wished that I could have a movie camera directly linked to my brain so that some of the ideas I see in my mind's eye could be translated into film for others to watch," Blythe begins. "Although that is obviously an impossibility (and probably a good thing- I find many things amusing that might not be so funny to everyone else), the video for "Overlord" is the next best thing for me. I came up with the idea and wrote the treatment for this video myself- to see Jorge (the director) take my concept, add his own touches, and use his technical know-how to translate my "mental script" into a suitably dark visual narrative is just an awesome, awesome experience for me.
I wrote the song about the dangers of self-obsession in our distressingly myopic and increasingly entitled "me-now/now-me" culture; just like the couple in the video, many people can't seem to look past their own relatively small problems to see the bigger picture: the world is in serious trouble. Having a bad day at work, or a fight with your significant other, or getting a crappy haircut or table service does not in any way shape or form constitute an emergency. Sometimes things just don't work out the way we want them to- deal with it. People who only see their own problems eventually wind up alone because no one wants to hear their crap anymore- we all know someone like that, always whining and complaining about some inconsequential setback as if it were the apocalypse. This song is for those people.
Oh yeah- if you're out and about, watching the video on your pocket hate machine (mobile phone), try not to wander into traffic. A little situational awareness goes a long way.
VII: Sturm Und Drang sees release July 24 via Nuclear Blast/Sony.
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MOSS "Boombastic" release
The Detroit rappers are the focus in the video, which finds them spitting lines from various street setups above a soulful boom bap. Though parts of the clip are filmed in a warehouse, you'll find Young RJ and T3 talking about drinking sake in the club, making a few choice Instagram posts, and straight bodying the competition via the player down below.
The "Boombastic" single is up for sale now over on iTunes and comes packaged with an instrumental version and a radio edit. MoSS's as-yet untitled LP, meanwhile, arrives September 18 through his own MoSS Appeal Music. It will feature appearances from Joell Ortiz, AZ, Ill Bill and more.
BIG BANG "Sober" release
Big Bang is back with the 'D' of their 'MADE' series! If they made a huge crash into June with their last two party tracks, they made a much smoother entrance into July with an interesting pop rock sound and ballad. Goodness, they sound amazing!
Their unique color still exists even in this different concept, Taeyang's emotional vocals reminiscent of his solo promotions, G-Dragon's less-screech-more-smooth vocals drawing out the feels, and more. T.O.P even sings!
Okay, enough talking! Check out MV for "Sober" up above and listen to "If You" down below. They will not be dropping an MV for the latter.
AYOO ANGIE "Superb" release
The clip, which was co-directed by Angie and Levente Kovacs of LK Visuals, sees Angie post up on some steps with a bevy of dancers (representing Calgary crews Pulse Studios, UVSoul and Empirical Freedom). She also delivers her rhymes in front of some dizzying patterned walls.
It's a simple video, but thanks to the quick cuts and the busy dance moves, it's an entertaining piece that compliments the throwback hip-hop anthem nicely.
Watch the video for "Superb" below.
JACK U "Where Are U Now" release
As you'll find down below, the video has the Beebs pouring his heart out over a girl that apparently up and ran out on him, laying out his confusion over the situation with lines like "where are you now that I need you?" Even more confusing? The Canadian pop singer's body has apparently also become the world's most malleable canvas, as the video splashes paint and scribbles lines atop the guy throughout the vid.
Here's Jack Ü's statement on the artistic proceedings:
We are being overwhelmed, in a good way, by the success of "Where Are Ü Now" with Justin Bieber, so with the video we wanted to just take it back to the beginning of the record & essentially create an ode to our fans. Doing what we do, it's entirely all about the fans. We walk a fine line by being "famous" and in the public eye but we are only here because of you, the fans. Justin wrote this record during a tough time in his life and it comes to us that sometimes, as artists, we are also just objects and we have to take that as much as we have to use that to create. We all do this for you, respect that you put us here and it's Ü that made the video.
SON LUX "You Don't Know Me" release
The short film was directed by Nathan Johnson, who notes in a statement that "we wanted to explore the song in terms of the empty rituals we often see in relationships and, to a larger degree, religion."
It stars Tatiana Maslany (Orphan Black), who splits her onscreen time sitting down to dinner with an oblivious romantic devotee ("You see my face in the stars / You don't know me"), and with a group of robed followers conducting various social experiments. Maslany is further described as "a powerful figure who is stuck in the vacancy of routines that have lost their meaning."
Scored by the off-kilter, slightly symphonic swerve of Son Lux's new tune, the video is unsettling with its portrayals of awkward cuddles on the couch, malaise-drenched "Duck, Duck, Goose" sessions, gooey-chewy sacraments, and the world's most literal game of broken telephone.
You'll find the dispiriting display down below.
AUGUST ALSINA "Hip Hop" release
The track has the vocalist tunefully talking about growing up on the block and how life is apparently better now. It also alludes to growing up in "the humblest beginnings," rising from the bottom, and keeping a level head about fame. "I pray for more better days," he croons, the hopeful voice cresting above harp sounds and a boom-bap beat.
The video, meanwhile, finds a family watching news reports on police brutality, and various people rallying together behind the "Black Lives Matter" campaign and trying to make a change.
FRENCH MONTANA "Off The Rip" release
Since it was recorded with Chinx before he passed, "Off the Rip" isn't a somber farewell tune. Instead, it's another turn-up anthem that arrives with an equally celebratory clip featuring models, fancy cars and bike tricks. As the rappers and their friends party up a storm, however, they still pay tribute to Chinx with some t-shirts.
Watch the clip for "Off the Rip" below.
TOMMY GENESIS "Execute" release
As you'll see down below, Tommy Genesis spits her way through the video from various locales, whether laying across railroad tracks or perched on rocks by the water. Lyrically, Genesis delivers the wisdom via a mix of bars that either play overblown with echo or with a quick-paced cadence. She executes her vision with lines about snitches and try-hards, and how to be a leader ("I'd rather be a snake than a ladder").
The cut follows her recent "Shepherd" single, though details on World Visionhave yet to be revealed in full.
JONESIN' and the HURT "Concerta" release
The folk-tinged project started as a collaborative two-man effort between Evan Chladny and Ralph Clarke, though they've since enlisted the help of Cameron Fraser on bass and Stanley White on drums to round out the lineup.
Clarke directed the new clip, which makes sense since it delves into his family history. It pieces together footage from family vacations and camping trips back in the '70s, which was all compiled by his father, Austin. The video itself was edited by Jack Yosub Choi.
Get to know the Clarke clan by watching the premiere of the charming vintage video clip for "Concerta" in the player below.
Monday, June 29, 2015
RIHANNA "Bitch Better Have My Money" release
The slow moving clip takes its time in establishing tone as we watch a blonde model carefully apply her makeup in a mansion. Rihanna casually lugs a giant piece of luggage into an elevator, where she eventually crosses paths with the blonde woman and things take a sinister tone.
It's not very often that a music video trailer can have the same effect as a real movie trailer, but this one has us dying to see the full clip.
Watch the trailer for the "Bitch Better Have My Money" video below. The full clip arrives on Thursday, July 2.
Friday, June 26, 2015
Grime List: FEKKY
Pitching one of grime's leading new lights against a vital component of the first wave, Fekky's 'Still Sittin' Here' made a huge dent on its release earlier this year.
Utilising a chunk of Dizzee Rascal's 'Boy In Da Corner' highlight 'Sittin' Here', the boy from Bow even stopped past to add some guest rhymes.
Brought together by SB:TV, a fresh remix of 'Still Sittin' Here' features all manner of grime kingpins. This is a seriously heavy line up, featuring some of the best MCs in the game.
Amongst those sitting in are Meridian Dan, Tempa T, Skepta, Jammer, D Double E, JME and more with even Tinchy Stryder re-visiting his roots.
Check it out below.
'Still Sittin' Here' is out now.
Grime List: JAMMER
Veiled from the din of a hectic East End A road by a scrubby petrol station and a brooding rough-wood sycamore is the Lord Of The Mics head office. Inside, a couple of neatly arranged desks and a time-worn leather couch ring themselves around an expansive whiteboard heaving with black ink.
It’s mid-May and the launch night for the sixth instalment of Lord Of The Mics is descending, meaning that for Jahmek Power, aka Jammer, and the rest of the four-man team, the past week has been arduous. Scrawled under the header ‘Promo’ is a catalogue of deadlined tasks that need concluding if the event is to enjoy the success of previous instalments. (By all accounts, it was a pretty memorable experience.)
Armed with two bulging black bin liners, Jammer – wearing jeans, a tilted hat and a black t-shirt – scuffs the faded redwood carpet, stooping by the entrance to mount the bags atop of an already swelling pile. After a moment’s consideration he decides: “We’ll do the interview round the back,” nodding to the doorway at the far end of the office. A member of the team grins from the sunken sofa. “Round the back? That’s wrong!” The rest of the room erupts into laughter.
“Round the back” is a moderate studio room that glows yellow – the consequence of a solitary dangling fuzzy bulb and an absence of natural sunlight. At the far end, two plastic chairs, buffered with cushions, have been folded out. Mounted on a sandy computer desk is an Alto keyboard; peering from above, a framed red and white ‘Jahmanji’ print, Jammer’s debut album released on Big Dada in 2010.
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Jammer, ‘Ten Man Roll’, from ‘Jahmanji’
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Both he and LOTM have journeyed a winding path from their original recordings, which included no more than Jahmek and a new flip camera. Though initially gifted to film “the family stuff”, Jammer would instead use it to record his friends, the first step to what would eventually become a prevailing platform for seasoned veterans and hungry newcomers.
Though he has origins in jungle, Jahmek spent his teenage years sculpting an alternate sound, grime, which was sweeping East London throughout the early moments of the 21st century. He wasn’t alone either; his friends Kano, D Double E and Skepta were at it, too. When not preoccupied with inadvertent trailblazing, they would all hang out in the basement of Jammers mum’s house.
‘The dungeon’, as it was known, unpredictably became a hub of the grime scene with genre frontrunners, N.A.S.T.Y. Crew (which included Jammer, Kano and D Double E) and Roll Deep spending hours together despite the competitive rivalry they were entwined in. “We were the two groups that were going against each other, but at the same time we were very together and very studio connected,” Jammer remembers, identifying his friendship with Wiley as one of the many bridges between the two groups.
Competitive sparring would see both crews frequently go head to head on radio stations, but these performances had yet to be translated into a purely battle format. That would soon be put to an end. One afternoon, after idling with Kano in ‘the dungeon’, Jammer suggested that he go head to head with Wiley, who was returning from a trip to the states.
“Wiley came straight from the airport and we just pulled out the camera.” Wiley, jetlagged as he may have been, accepted the challenge. “And then we went into the basement,” Jammer continues. “I remember it was me, Skepta and Kano, and a few others of us there, and they got it cracking.”
The swivel camera he filmed on has since been upgraded, but the original footage is intact. Most, if not all of it, has found a home on the internet, where intrigued observers, nostalgic 20-somethings and the artists themselves can relive 2003 to 2005 in pint-sized portions. Competitive, brazen, even humorous at times, the footage is the most accurate reflection of the emerging scene.
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If it wasn’t for radio, there wouldn’t have been no grime scene…
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Another fundamental tool in the evolving grime story was the pirate radio station. In a recurrent game of cat and mouse, illegitimate broadcasters would sprout in houses and tower blocks, before being shut down once officers from communications regulator, Ofcom, had caught wind.
“The radio, for me, it brings back everything,” says Jammer. “That is the beginning.” His path took him from Mission FM – a station local to the Hackney area – to a coveted slot on De Ja Vu FM. Lord Of The Mics and likeminded platforms propelled the garage offshoot into the visual age, putting names and lyrics to faces – but radio was the genesis.
“If it wasn’t for radio and for us being able to broadcast our stuff to people, there wouldn’t have been no [grime] scene,” he says. “There wouldn’t have been no dream. That is what people forget – without that you wouldn’t hear our music.”
With the exception of a handful, pirate radio stations rarely stretched from their local bases. But despite grime’s general focus on London, the fledging genre did find a way to prick the ears of Def Jam founder and cross-genre producer Rick Rubin, in the States.
“Rick was just into the stuff, and he just wanted to hear more,” Jammer recalls, though as a teenager he did not fully grasp Rubin’s reputation. “When I was told who this guy was I was like, ‘Okay cool,’ but I didn’t fully have an understanding of these things. I was just making music for me and my friends to go mad, but the energy travelled over to the masses.”
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Jammer, ‘Murkle Man’
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That method proved fruitful and, a little while after the release of the first Lord Of The Mics in 2004, Jammer scored a solo success with ‘Murkle Man’, produced by Wiley. The accompanying video, a tongue-in-cheek effort, saw Jammer draped in a cape and patrolling his local area, a large M emblazed on his custom outfit. It still sends crowd into frenzy whenever performed. “That was so magical,” he says, grinning. “It wasn’t a thought out procedure – it was just an energy kind of vibe.”
‘Murkle Man’ put a face to the flamboyant producer previously heard chattering over the opening scenes to N.A.S.T.Y. Crew’s cult tracks, and the brand he had envisioned was at last forged – with “the dreadlocks and everything”. Rolling his sleeves up, he reveals the ‘Jahmek The World’ logo – a self-caricature that balances the globe in an outstretched palm, printed on his old vinyl records.
With Lord Of The Mics now deep set in grime’s framework, there can be little denying what would remain if Jahmek’s fruitful career were to end tomorrow:
“It’s really exciting for me, because I know I’ve been involved in something while I’m on this planet. When they go back to talk about who created [grime], I’m definitely up for being spoken about. God forbid if anything happened to me before I reach my next achievements – I feel that what I’ve done is deeply embedded, and enough to last me.”
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