Beat Poetry

Vadim and you don't stop

2009-04-03T10:55:00.005+01:00

When James Brown sadly passed away, his title as the hardest working man in music was inherited by a one DJ Vadim - at least in hip-hop circles. This Anglo-Russian beatsmith simply must be an insomniac such is the volume of his output and the incessant touring he embarks on. This was underlined late last year when he was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer of the eye. Yet following an operation, here he is barely six months later with a new single - and a fricking excellent one at that - and yep he's still out there touring. Check out the fantastic video above. The release date is unclear for this but I'll add a link to buy it when it's available.

The National - New Songs

2009-04-01T20:07:00.004+01:00

The new National album isn't due until 2010 but if you're a fan, and i know i am, here's a couple of new songs that they played at the Carnegie Hall in NYC back in February. They're live recordings but the quality is alright. This band mix a beautiful melancholy with with some sort of uplifting energy so effortlessly it's staggering. It always makes me want to chain smoke cigarettes on an overnight train somewhere (see picture from Wong Kar-Wai's 2046 for better description). Bryan Devendorf is also the best drummer recording today: discuss.

The National - Karamazov

The National - Wake Up Your Saints

Buy The National albums here

Dylan - Beyond Here Lies Nothing

2009-03-30T14:40:00.006+01:00

It's a good time to be a Dylan fan. Well, maybe if you're a casual best-of-buying fan then you wouldn't agree, you're probably out there saying how Dylan's voice is awful and how you preferred him when he was a folk singer or when he was a wandering mistrel or some other such pre-prescribed notion of what you think he is. Personally, i gave up ideas of what i wanted him to be some time ago, and just enjoy watching the many different masks and personas come on and off, evolving all the time. Especially since his creative output remains at such an incredibly high level. So for me it's a good time; i got tickets to see him at the Roundhouse in London last week and today i get a brand new track from the upcoming album Together Through Life called 'Beyond Here Lies Nothing'. It's got a slight creole lilt to it, slightly garagey production (read about Dylan and the loudness war) and a wry, mystical vocal and suggests that the current golden period is not dark yet.

Read Dylan's interview about the new album here.

Download 'Beyond Here Lies Nothing' here.

Pre-order the album here.

Take time for Tom Brosseau

2009-03-23T12:18:00.004Z

The idea of the slow burner - an album or song that does not immediately knock you off your feet but takes weeks, months or years to infiltrate your nervous system - is a dying concept in an age where we're becoming increasingly accustomed to having every song ever recorded at our fingertips. It is hard to invest time in the awkward when you have Spotify's entire catalogue to get through and only an infinite amount of time before you die.

But we must fight the impatience that technology instills in us and return to those albums that we dismissed too quickly because sometimes (only sometimes, but isn't that enough?) the reward is extra special. For me, the perfect example is Tom Brosseau's Cavalier which took quite a few listens to finally reveal its full beauty to me, but now - a year and a half later - I still listen to it about once a week.

Ahead of the release of his new album, Posthumous Success in May, Mr Brosseau will be in the UK in April supporting PJ Harvey and John Parish (who produced Cavalier) on tour. He will also play a handful of smaller venues including London, Brighton and Glasgow (see here for details) and I strongly urge you to go along as he is a fantastic singer and storyteller.

Download: Favorite Color Blue - Tom Brosseau (from Posthumous Success, forthcoming on FatCat)

Damn, Doooom

2009-03-16T12:47:00.006Z

Jeez, there are some literal-minded motherfuckers in the world. Barely a week goes by that we don't we receive a message via one of the myriad forms of 21st century communication informing us that this blog doesn't contain enough beats or enough poetry or both. Well, we would argue that Beat Poetry in 2009 means a lot more than a well-thumbed Ginsberg paperback or some tedious chin-stroking backpack rap. This is a place where we bow down to drums and metaphors in all their forms, sometimes on their own, sometimes in combination. A perfect example of when they collide is BP hero Q-Tip, who was oustanding at the Roundhouse here in London on Saturday night.
All of this brings me to MF Doom - a rapper who has carried on the spirit and innovation of A Tribe Called Quest. His King Geedorah album is probably one of my top five rap LPs of all-time and his new effort on London's Lex Records - Born Like This, which is released on March 24th - promises to be one of the muscial highlights of the year. Kanye West posted this track Ballskin on his blog, and it sounds hottttt.

Download: Ballskin - DOOM

Heroes: Q-Tip

2009-03-13T12:26:00.004Z

'Q-Tip is my title, i don't think that is vital, for me to be your idol, but dig this recital...'

'Back in the days when i was a teenager, before i had status and before i had a pager...'

'I'm the cherry on the top of your ice-cream, i'm the piece of thought inside your dream...'

So, welcome to the first installment of our Heroes feature. First up is Q-Tip, aka The Abstract, aka Jonathan Davis, aka Kamaal Ibn John Fareed. He's a fitting person to start with as he was hugely influential in shaping how i think about music and in setting me off on the journey of exploring influences that never ends. As a teenager i spent hours staring out the side of minbuses after football games listening to Tribe albums on my walkman, pouring over the lyrics and wondering about places like Lyden Boulevard, Queens and El Segundo and how different they were from the pebbledash suburbia that i knew. He is a great rapper but more importantly for me, he a great lyricist. I loved Ali Shaheed's beats and jazz samples and Phife's energy but Q-Tip showed me that music could be about ideas and philosophy, about poetry and wordplay. As a huge Dylan fan, i can't help but think that it was the Tribe's influence that set me on that path. I love the 'Daisy Age' hip-hop-meets-hippy mentality and sheer positivity he's always had, a track like 'Go Ahead In The Rain' is a good example, a song about staying positive and ambitious despite the depressing aspects of life, a pretty useful influence if you live in grey, rainy England.

Tomorrow night i get to see Q-Tip live for the first time and i'm pretty excited. His new album, The Renaissance, is the best thing he's done since Beats, Rhymes & Life (although The Love Movement is massively underrated).

Q-Tip - Johnny Is Dead from The Renaissance
A Tribe Called Quest - Excursions from The Low End Theory
A Tribe Called Quest - Luck of Lucien from People's Instinctive Travels and Paths of Rhythm

Prodigy sample-spotting

2009-03-04T11:43:00.007Z

Everyone's favourite firestarters return with their new album this week and although in places the Justice/Pendulum rip-offs threaten to turn it into a cringe-fest, it is A LOT better than their last two records. I will not hear a bad word said about the Prodigy after witnessing the best gig of my life at the Brixton Academy two years ago. They redefined the expression "ripping the roof off" and there are at least three tracks on Invaders Must Die (buy it here) that would fit perfectly into their epic live-show. Go and download Warrior's Dance NOW.

Liam Howlett also samples one of my favourite ever songs on the album, Manfred Mann's One Way Glass. He doesn't do it justice really on Stand Up, although I always wondered what it would sound like with a thudding beat under it, so here is the original for your listening pleasure.

Download: One Way Glass - Manfred Mann Chapter Three

And while we're on the Prodigy samples tip, you should check out this awesome mix by London DJ Huskii made up entirely of beats and pieces used by Mr Howlett, including the Breeders, Nirvana, Ultramagnetic MCs and Lee Scratch Perry. A spotter's delight.

Photo of Keith Flint taken by Jae Donnelly, the Sevenoaks Chronicle's finest.

Dark Was The Night

2009-02-25T16:21:00.003Z

Charity compilation albums are always going to be patchy affairs, the limits of diary space mean that they're often rushed and lacking cohesion, but when i heard about Red Hot's Dark Was The Night i had high hopes. Not only is it the brainchild of Aaron and Bryce Dessner - The National being one of my favourite current bands - but it also features a real era-defining collection of artists: Arcade Fire, Beirut, Dave Sitek, etc, the list is like a Pitchfork afficionado's wet dream. Now, having had it on permanent repeat for the past week or so, i can say i'm not disappointed but neither am i blown away, the quality is very high and everyone should go out and buy it, if for nothing else than the trippy way that Antony covers Dylan. But it's still patchy. The highlights for me are the efforts by The National, Yo La Tengo, Arcade Fire (give it a few listens...) and The Dirty Projectors & David Byrne. It's not quite the stake-in-the-earth for independent music that i was hoping for but then again, why was i hoping for that in the first place?

Yo La Tengo - Gentle Hours

Arcade Fire - Lenin

Buy Dark Was The Night here.

Find out more abou the Red Hot Organisation here.

Bon again

2009-01-21T14:39:00.007Z

At the risk of this blog turning into one long love letter to Justin Vernon (AKA Bon Iver), the winner of BP's album of the year 2008 this week releases a new EP. It's a fantastic collection of four new songs which carries on exactly where his debut LP For Emma, Forever Ago left off. The title track, Blood Bank, is a beautiful soaring song which Vernon told emusic was inspired by cult nineties TV show Northern Exposure. The show was based in a fictional Alaskan town and dealt with isolation and the struggle to find your place in the world. So, Bon Iver's a fan, eh? Could have seen that one coming, I guess.

Download: Blood Bank - Bon Iver

Buy the EP at Rough Trade.
The above photo is from Muzzle of Bees.

Happy Obama day

2009-01-20T16:27:00.005Z

Today is a great day. I am very happy, like pretty much every right-minded member of the Western world, that Barack Obama is to be inaugurated as president of the United States. Woo. Progress etc. Anyway, another man for whom this represents a monumental day is Mr Saul Williams and to celebrate, he has released this track, Government. It comes on like TV on the Radio jamming with Fela Kuti's band. In other words, great.
Download: The Government - Saul Williams

The top 10 albums of 2008

2008-12-15T13:10:00.010Z

Oooh a list. On a blog? At the end of the year? With Bon Iver at No1? It's all unheard of, I know, but that's the reality, so deal with it. These are our 10 favourite albums of 2008. The list features Cambodian pop, 8-bit screamo, Balkan folk and electro hair metal but the album of the year is without a doubt, hands-down, number-one-with-a-bullet Bon Iver's For Emma, Forever Ago. It has topped quite a few best-of lists this year (including Rough Trade and Observer Music Monthly), but we've been going on about it all year - we named it best album of the year so far back in July. You can listen to tracks from most of these albums in the player on the right.

1. Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago
2. TV on the Radio – Dear Science
3. Late of the Pier - Fantasy Black Channel
4. MGMT - Oracular Spectacular
5. Beck - Modern Guilt
6. The Shortwave Set - Replica Sun Machine
7. Headless Heroes - The Silence of Love
8. Devotchka - A Mad and Faithful Telling
9. Crystal Castles - Crystal Castles
10. Dengue Fever - Venus On Earth

Winter Listening

2008-12-12T12:17:00.004Z

It's cold and dark. You've made your end-of-year lists and you find yourself in a musical vacuum, not one place or another. Alcohol and lack of sleep are making you fuzzy around the edges and you're not quite sure what you feel about anything. So, you need some new stuff to keep you going, to give you directions. Here's a couple of things i've been listening to over the past week that are going down well. The first is taken from Mumford & Sons' recent EP and shows why they're getting the hype they are. The second is Cat Power covering Creedence. Not a lot more you need to say about that. Listen and enjoy.

Mumford & Sons - Little Lion Man Download Buy

Cat Power - Fortunate Son Download

Forward Thinking

2008-11-20T11:55:00.012Z

Before we get into end of the year lists, i want to cast half an eye into the future and think a little bit about what's coming in 2009 and a couple of acts i'm pretty excited about hearing more from.
Up first is Empire of the Sun, one half Sleepy Jackson and one half PNAU this is sheer genius in an electro-Fleetwood Mac way. Combine that with great costumes (see below) and the promise of "theatrical extravaganza" live shows and it's pretty exciting. Bound to invite lots of MGMT comparisons but in our book that's a good thing.

Empire of the Sun - We Are The People

The next is Alessi's Ark, the newest addition to the London nu-folk scene. She plays psychadelic, rustic songs with an innocent, child-like wonder and with rich, expansive production from Bright Eyes producer and multi-instrumentalist Mike Mogis. Think, Alela Diane, Joanna Newsom and Conor Oberst but with a very English slant.

Alessi's Ark - Magic Weather

Alessi's Ark Myspace

The last is South East London band The Invisible. They play intricate songs that feel both raw and complex, somewhere between TV On The Radio, Battles and Plantlife. This is a band that has sprung out of the experimental jazz scene but brought to their skills a punk-funk sound that creates delights like 'London Girl' below. Watch this sub-genre-bending space.

The Invisible - London Girl

Oui oui

2008-11-12T10:29:00.003Z

Ah Paris. Don't get me started on Paris. Simply, the best place on the planet. But this isn't a travel blog so I'll stop before I launch into a nostalgia marathon about the best time of my life blah blah blah. What stirred my emotions about this amazing city was hearing this remix of Friendly Fires' song Paris by Belgian duo Aeroplane. Now, the original is good enough to send me into a full-on Gallic daydream but this version, which replaces the punk-funk jaggedness with cascading synths and a beautiful female vocal (from Au Revoir Simone), makes me feel like I'm knocking back Leffes with Emmanuelle Béart on the Eurostar - tearing through the French countryside. At night. In the snow. With the lights of the city slowly emerging on the horizon. And then the Sacré Coeur comes into view and... Christ, I think that's enough don't you?

Download: Paris (Aeroplane remix) - Friendly Fires

Buy Friendly Fires by Friendly Fires here.
Ally

Headless Heroes

2008-11-10T12:42:00.003Z

You might think that it being monday morning, combined with it being windy, grey and rainy and there being just too much hangover still left in my head would get a person down but actually it's set me up to be in the right mood to discover Headless Heroes. Jesus and the Mary Chain's 'Just Like Honey' (aka 'the one from the end of Lost In Translation') covered by Alela Diane with beautiful plaintive, dreamy production, all echoey and the-world-is-not-a-bad-place inducing. I'm picking up the album from Rough Trade on the way home; it's a covers album featuring reworkings of tracks by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Daniel Johnson and Vashti Bunyan among others.

Headless Heroes - Just Like Honey

Buy album from Rough Trade here

Rest In Peace Mr Smith

2008-10-21T15:40:00.003+01:00

Elliott Smith is five years gone today. Rest in peace Mr Smith. This is my favourite song of his.
And this is an awesome tribute...

Wrongtom in the disco

2008-09-23T09:54:00.003+01:00

We are getting very excited over here at BP about our next party at Gramaphone on Friday 3 October. It promises to be our best yet and the main reason for that is the headline performance by the one and only Wrongtom. Hard-Fi's tour DJ and the remixer of Roots Manuva's new album, Wrongtom is a fantastic DJ who we are proud to invite down to Beat Poetry. To give you a taste of the man's talents here's a disco/new wave mix he did earlier this year. It features the Clash, John Lydon's Public Image Ltd and Phil Daniels (!?) and shows that he is a DJ with not only top-notch mixing skills but also a phenomenal knowledge of music.

Download: Dumb Down The Disco - Wrongtom

Glaxo Babies/Dj Wrongtom - Wrongtom Meets The Disco Dinosaurs
The Clash - Radio Edit (Wrongtom’s Disco Dub)
Rip Rig And Panic - Take A Don Key To Mystery
Coco Beware - Tropical Depression
Fad Gadget - Make Room
Public Image Limited - Death Disco (Live In Tokyo)
Orange Juice - Lord John White And The Bottleneck Train
Pig Bag - Getting Up
Boots For Dancing - Hypnotize
Return Of The Panthers - Crown Of Thorns (Wrongtom’s Disco Dub)
Au Pairs - Shakedown
Blank Students - I Want To Be Happy
Phil Daniels + The Cross - Kill Another Night
The Beat - Too Nice To Talk To
Penetration - Movement (Wrongtom’s Disco Dub)

Photo courtesy of Mark Carnaby

Radiohead - good (BP approved)

2008-09-19T09:39:00.005+01:00

You know that band Radiohead? They're good them. Are you bowled over by my astounding insight yet? OK OK, a blog post singing Radiohead's praises is never going to be a beautiful and unique snowflake in the unending icestorm that is online music criticism, but I just wanted to draw your attention to three reasons why Radiohead are so great - and two of them are preformances by other bands.
In the days before the internet, Radiohead fanatics (and those of any other 80s/90s band) would have to trudge down to Camden market to pay 17 quid for hooky bootleg CDs of them doing stuff like Carly Simon's Nobody Does It Better. Now, there is such a wealth of stuff available online that it's hard to keep up. NB: This is also due to the fact that the band has embraced the internet wholeheartedly - apparently they gave their album away for free or something, but I don't know I must have missed that. Supposedly it was a big deal.
Anyway, if like me you crave any Radiohead-related sound snippets then your prayers have been answered. Here is an MP3 of Californian band Cold War Kids covering OK Computer track Electioneering and a clip of Beat Poetry favourites Gnarls Barkley doing Reckoner from In Rainbows. Radiohead covers have a tendency to be totally crap, derivative and vastly inferior to the original, but these two are fantastic. At the bottom I've also included Radiohead's version of The Rip, the stand-out track from Portishead's latest album. Enjoy.

Download Cold War Kids - Electioneering

Ally

Get sexual

2008-09-17T08:56:00.004+01:00

Download: Hot 8 Brass Band - Sexual Healing (Me & You re-edit)

Holla! Check this out. The Hot 8 Brass Band from New Orleans cover Marvin Gaye's signature tune and have so much fun with it. This re-edit from Brighton's Me&You extends it out into a nine-minute horn epic complete with a long breakdown perfect for boozy singalongs. This has got last-tune-of-the-night stamped all over it.
The original features on the Hot 8's album for Tru Thoughts. Buy it here.
Ally

Blowin' Up

2008-09-11T13:25:00.004+01:00

Things are pretty exciting at Beat Poetry at the moment as our next club night is beginning to take shape and looks like being quite a special night. We've got DJ Wrongtom doing a headline slot for us; made famous by his work with Hard-Fi, he's fresh from remixing Roots Manuva's new album and his DJ sets have impressed everyone from XFM's Eddy Temple-Morris to rap royalty Pharrell Williams.

This post is dedicated to two tracks i've been playing out for years and still can't get enough of. The first is US69's 'Yesterday's Folks' - big drums, big dirty vocals and a slightly psychadelic edge. This is a crate digger favourite and original pressings of the lp are worth a lot. The second is an understated Northern Soul gem that makes up for is slightly plodding instrumentation with a killer vocal from The Exciters' lead singer Brenda Reid. "Dynamiiiiite, and nitroglycerine..."

US69 - Yesterday's Folks Download Here
The Exciters - Blowin' Up My Mind Download Here

Hey kids

2008-08-20T10:13:00.004+01:00

Hi there, sorry for the lack of posts over the last few weeks, BP has been taking its summer holidays. Anyway, we'll be back up running at full speed soon enough and will have some exciting news about our next party at Gramaphone. Stay tuned and for now here are two summer dancefloor bombs to feast on...
Download: MGMT - Kids (Tronik Youth remix)
Download: Chemical Brothers - Hey Boy Hey Girl (Soulwax remix)

Thanks to Emma Cook for the summer encapsulated in Polaroid form. Ally

Top 10 albums of 2008 so far

2008-07-30T22:22:00.039+01:00

2008 has so far been the Year of the Mouse, the Danger Mouse that is. The American producer and Gnarls Barkley mastermind (who has previously worked with Gorillaz, MF Doom and The Good, The Bad And The Queen) has had a hand in creating four of our top 10 LPs of the year so far. Read on to find out which ones and discover what else has tickled our ears in 2K8.

10) Santogold - Santogold (Warner)
It is of little surprise that someone who used to work in A&R could produce an album that sounds so achingly now. Santogold's debut strikes a perfect note somewhere between New York punk, Jamaican dub and UK electronica – all overlayed with MIA-meets-Karen O vocals. Great stuff.
myspace.com/SANTOGOLD

9) The Black Keys - Attack & Release (V2)
The blues/rock duo from Ohio have been in danger of running out of creative juice for a while now so the introduction of producer Danger Mouse for their fifth album was inspired. Tracks like Psychotic Girl and Strange Times mean this is their best LP since 2003's Thick Freakness.
myspace.com/theblackkeys

8) Beck - Modern Guilt (XL)
This guy must sprinkle creativity on his Shreddies. Listening to a new Beck LP can be an anxious experience, you never quite know what you're going to get, but Modern Guilt delivers. From the Caribou-sounding, washed-out Chemtrails to the world-weary urbanity of Volcano, it demands your attention from start to finish. myspace.com/beck

7) Gnarls Barkley - The Odd Couple (Warner)
No one else does songs about mental illness and depression quite like this. No one else scores so high on sheer danceability. No one else takes retro influences and makes them seem so cutting edge. Drums, meaningful lyrics, a great soul voice and a bonus disc on the vinyl LP which plays the whole album backwards. What more do you want? myspace.com/gnarlsbarkley

6) DeVotchka - A Mad And Faithful Telling (Anti)
No matter what else you say, it does sound like Arcade Fire and Beirut went out into the desert and had a baby. And the baby's name was DeVotchka. But in our book that can only be a good thing. The "Denver Beatles" have made an album that fuses a lot of different styles but, more importantly, has a lot of genuine emotion and beautiful compositions. myspace.com/devotchkamusic

5) The Roots - Rising Down (Def Jam)
It's fair to say that 2008 has hardly been a vintage year for hip-hop albums, but you can always rely on Philadelphia's The Roots to turn in a quality performance. Rising Down is a tough, pissed-off-sounding album that features one of Beat Poetry's favourite tracks of the year: Get Busy.
myspace.com/theroots

4) The Shortwave Set - Replica Sun Machine (Wall of Sound)
The highest placed of the four Danger Mouse-produced albums to make our list and it is arguably the one where his input is least audible. Deptford's Shortwave Set have channeled the spirit of the Beta Band (RIP) and produced the catchiest most melodic alt-pop record of the year so far.
myspace.com/theshortwaveset

3) Crystal Castles - Crystal Castles (Different)
As the indie-disco boom continues, there's a lot of crap out there purporting to innovate while just delivering the same Daft Punk/Talking Heads rip-offs. But Crystal Castles is one of the few albums that delivers something both new and challenging. If you haven't seen them live yet do yourself a favour, just don't wear your brand new white trainers. myspace.com/crystalcastles

2) MGMT - Oracular Spectacular (Sony BMG)
Ostensibly a pop record and hyped to the hilt, Brooklyn's psychedelic duo took odd castaway/pirate stylings with Bowie vocals and bright, quirky production and made songs you couldn't get out of your head (in a good way). Time To Pretend and Kids already feel like classics; if anything sums up the sound of 2008, it's this. myspace.com/mgmt

1) Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago (4AD)
A funny choice for No1, perhaps, from a blog mainly about beat-based music, but Bon Iver's beguiling acoustica - powered by his heart-breaking voice - is far and away the best LP we've heard this year. How he managed to produce such a rich, powerful album while shacked up in a mountain hut is beyond us.
myspace.com/boniver

Download: The Black Keys - Psychotic Girl

NB: Notable mentions also go to The Raconteurs, Fleet Foxes, Hercules & Love Affair, Ida Maria, Vampire Weekend and Pete Molinari.

Dengue Fever - Venus On Earth

2008-07-30T11:00:00.006+01:00

Download: Dengue Fever - Sober Driver

You've got to wonder what 1960's Phnom Penh was like. Pretty cool by the sounds of it; if you listen to the album Venus On Earth by California-based band Dengue Fever anyway. Apparently, founding member Ethan Holtzman was so inspired by a trip to Cambodia in 2001 that he decided to start up a band that fused the fuzzed-out, dreamy sounds of Californian psychadelic rock with the jingle-jangle of 1960's Cambodian pop. Of course, why didn't i think of that? The crucial ingredient was singer Chhom Nimol, who he - of course - discovered singing in a bar in Long Beach. The only other things needed were a large collection of rare Cambodian 45s, a band name about a disease that makes your eyes bleed and you've got Dengue Fever.

I first came across this as one of Rough Trade's albums of the week and have been transfixed by the sheer oddness and beauty of it since. It shouldn't really work but it does. Great little pop songs with strange little eastern twists and tripped-out turns everywhere.

Buy now from Rough Trade here.

Diplo and Santogold clash

2008-07-22T10:02:00.004+01:00

Download Guns Of Brooklyn - Santogold and Diplo
The hottest female star of the year teams up with one of the hottest DJ/producers around to cover a Clash classic and flip it from London to New York. Santogold and Diplo take Guns Of Brixton (which was last year covered by Arcade Fire live in London) and dub it out to the max. It features on the pair's new mixtape, Top Ranking, which is available at your favourite independent record retailer from this week. The mix includes exclusive tracks by both artists as well classics from Aretha Franklin, Desmond Dekker and Devo.

Buy Top Ranking from Phonica or Rough Trade

Ally

Dr. Dog - Fate

2008-07-16T14:55:00.004+01:00

I have to admit i don't know that much about Dr. Dog, in fact, i only recently discovered them through their cover of Architecture In Helsinki's 'Heart It Races' but this week i've been listening to their new album Fate and am mightily impressed. Psychadelic pop songs with a country, bluesy instrumentation, almost like listening to Band of Horses playing The White Album...with Dan Auerbach singing...and just the slightest dash of Animal Collective. I've really got to stop these complicated, artist-hybrid descriptions.

The best track is Hang On but i'm posting this one as I prefer the title.

Dr Dog - The Rabbit, The Bat & The Reindeer

Pre-order the album from Amazon here.

Koushik

2008-07-14T14:35:00.006+01:00

Download Lying In The Sun by Koushik

Wow, this is my new favourite song in the world. Canadian beatsmith Koushik has distilled the summer into MP3 format. Lovely loud drums, horns, swirling electronics and a psychedelic vocal - someone hand me a beer quick.
Just to fill you in on the back story, Koushik is signed to Californian alt-hip-hop super-label Stones Throw and will release his second album Out My Window in September. He first came to my attention when he released a single on Beat Poetry hero Four Tet's record label Text.
Here's hoping the rest of the LP is as good as this track.

Ally

Drums and other instruments

2008-07-01T10:52:00.004+01:00

Hey I made you a tape. A muxtape to be precise. If you don't know what that is, a muxtape is an online compilation of songs that anyone can put together and send to all their friends. Remember in the old days how you would slavishly tape your new fave tunes off the top40 countdown on the radio and give it to your mate/girlfriend/some chick you didn't have a hope in hell with? Well, now you can do it all electronically. So instead of your target audience having to listen to it on a shoddy Aiwa walkman their nan got them for Christmas, they can now marvel at your superior music taste while they sit at their office computer mindlessly doing their skull-crushingly dull job. Ah progress. Technology is a beautiful thing.

Anyway, here is my effort: beatpoetics.muxtape.com

Tracklist:
Kid Koala - Slew Test 2
Incredible Bongo Band - Bongo Rock
The Roots - Meltin' Pot (live)
Sam And Dave - Hold On, I'm Coming
Turbulence - Notorious (Wabenzi Vocal Version)
Eek-A-Mouse - Ganja Smuggling
SeaSick Steve - Cut My Wings
The Black Keys - Same Old Thing
Ellen McIlwaine - Can't Find My Way Home
Cold War Kids - Electioneering
The Teenagers - Homecoming (Gentlemen Drivers Rave Mix)
Nine Inch Nails - Discipline

Ally

Bon Iver and La Blogotheque

2008-06-24T14:49:00.004+01:00

Hello there people, today I'd like to talk to you about two wonderful things. They are the fantastic album For Emma, Forever Ago by Bon Iver and the splendid website La Blogotheque.

Bon Iver's debut LP is a mesmerising, deep record which gets better with every listen and is essential for every Elliott Smith/Jeff Buckley fan. He recorded it in a mountain shack in the depth of the American winter, only pausing to chop up fire wood or hunt for deer to eat. It was put together on very simple equipment but the end result is stunning as Mr Iver (aka Justin Vernon) meticulously layered up vocal and guitar parts to create a very rich sound. It also helps that he is blessed with a voice that would reduce practically anyone on the planet into a quivering, sobbing wreck.

La Blogotheque, meanwhile, is a French website which posts up beautifully shot video clips of all your favourite bands playing impromptu street gigs on swish Parisian back roads. It is one of those sites that make you fall to your knees and exclaim: God bless the internet.

I've been meaning to write something about both these things for some time now so when La Blogotheque recently posted some Bon Iver clips I was spurred into action.

Here's Lump Sum:

Check out the full show at La Blogotheque

Download Bon Iver's Skinny Love

The above polaroid of Bon Iver was snapped by Alex at his London show at St Giles church recently.

Ally

Sonny J

2008-06-17T14:07:00.003+01:00

Thanks to everyone who came down to our club night last Friday. Everything went well except for some over zealous security staff who thought it was appropriate to call the police after someone had tested a pen on the side of a construction site.

One of the songs i was most looking forward to playing was Sonny J's edit of an old Donna Hightower song 'Handsfree (If You Hold My Hand)'. I haven't got a copy of the album yet but this guy seems set to tear up this summer. For some unknown reason, i didn't play the record in all the confusion so i'll just have to play it here instead.

Sonny J - Handsfree (If You Hold My Hand)

And while i'm at it, here's another one.

Sonny J - Enfant Terrible

Buy music from Sonny J at Rough Trade here.

Alex

Lost Classics - The UMC's

2008-06-06T11:39:00.005+01:00

The UMC's are a bit of an enigma. Not quite Native Tongues, not quite Daisy Age and, hailing from Staten Island, always playing second fiddle to their neighbourhood peers. Some heads out there will probably know 'One To Grow On' or maybe 'Blue Cheese' but if you should dig out a copy of their album 'Fruits of Nature' as i did from ebay recently, you'll find an album that plays like the hip-hop classic album you've never heard. Somewhere between 'Midnight Marauders' and Slick Rick's 'The Great Adventures Of...', why the hell didn't i find it 15 years ago?

Check out this track, definitely getting a spin at the next Beat Poetry night on the 13th June.

The UMC's - Never Never Land

Alex

The greatest rapper alive - Saul Williams

2008-05-28T15:00:00.003+01:00

Saul Williams is far and away my favourite rap artist and is one of the most electrifying live performers I've ever witnessed with my own eyes. There really is no one else like him around today. He is in equal part Gil Scott-Heron, Jimi Hendrix and Chuck D. In many ways, he is the nearest thing to an actual beat poet that I will probably ever write about here.

His new album Niggy Tardust is produced by Nine Inch Nails's Trent Reznor and as a result is an industrial affair, but here I have made available two tracks of Saul spitting over classic hip-hop beats - Damian Marley's Welcome To Jamrock and Nas's Made You Look. Enjoy.

Welcome To Jamrock - Saul Williams
Made You Look - Saul Williams

You can catch Saul Williams support Jay-Z at Hyde Park on 3 July. Tickets

Ally

Record Kicks

2008-05-20T17:01:00.006+01:00

There are some great labels out there that put out classic and new funk and soul on exclusive vinyl-only releases. I'm talking Daptone, Freestyle, Jazzman and the like. To people who collect this sort of stuff these names will be familiar but i'm sure to a lot of people they aren't. One label i'm really starting to like is Record Kicks. Their release of The New Mastersound's 'Drop It Down' made it on to our April Mix (see previous post) and here are two more great funk/soul slices that make a lot of the anodyne neo-soul sound like teenage karaoke.

The first is an uplifting, soulful number from Floyd Lawson and the Hearts of Stone. Their album 'Coming Out' is being reissued now after being something of a lost masterpiece for many years.

Download: Floyd Lawson and the Hearts of Stone - Air I Breathe

The second is a cover of the Arctics' 'I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor' from Baby Charles and, although on difficult cover territory, i think the moody funk makeover works quite nicely.

Download: Baby Charles - I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor

Buy Music on Record Kicks from Phonica here.

Alex

Brand New Second Hand

2008-05-15T12:58:00.007+01:00

If you are under 20 and your first port of call for new music is the Jo Wiley show, then you'd be forgiven for thinking that Radio 1 invented the cover version. FYI: This is not the case, and no it wasn't Mark Ronson either. The art of reinterpreting someone else's song is as old as popular music itself. From soul to reggae, punk to dance, there are thousands of cover version gems which faithfully copy, reimagine, twist or royally fuck up some of your favourite tracks. There is no formula for what makes a good cover and sometimes the worst ones end up being the best. We are planning to run a regular feature where we post some of our favourite covers, so to whet your appetite here are three stone cold classics.

St Etienne's proto-trip-hop take on Neil Young's Only Love Can Break Your Heart.

Buy it at Rough Trade

The Black Keys' version of Have Love Will Travel by 1960s cult heroes The Sonics.

Buy it at Rough Trade

And the KLF's What Time Is Love given a post-millennium refix by dance music misfit Max Tundra.

Download music by Max Tundra at Juno

Ha, only just noticed they all have love in the title. What a happy coincidence. Ally

Vinyl and Pilooski

2008-05-07T16:31:00.003+01:00

Have jack to jack cable, have Audacity programme, will convert vinyl nuggets into digital bleeps. I know i'm way behind the times but i'm pretty excited about being able to get some of the records that i love that i only own on vinyl (often only way they exist) into my ipod earphones and onto this page.

The reason is records like Pilooski's recent vinyl-only, one-sided 7" called WCTBL. It's more chopped up and bass heavy than his usual style but i have to admit that i like pretty much everything he and the Dirty Sound System people release (with the exception of their version of Prince's 1999).

Download: PSKI - WCTBL

Yep, i got tired of 'Beggin' after a while too but The Pointer Sisters edit and this one below show that he's no one-trick pony.

Download: The Human Beinz (Pilooski Re-edit) - Nobody But Me

Buy music from Pilooski Rough Trade here.

Alex

The first big weekend of the summer

2008-05-07T13:27:00.003+01:00

So, it's here. Summer. Or spring. Whatever. The sunshine is the important thing. And the beer. And the frisbee. And the T-Shirts. Woohoo.

One of my favourite songs about this time of the year is Arab Strap's The First Big Weekend, which came out 12 years ago and details a bank holiday binge in Glasgow in the wake of Scotland's crushing defeat to England in Euro 96.

When the band split in 2006, they got the best remixer in the entire world - Four Tet - to reimagine the song. He came up with a dark techno chugger, which makes it sound like a deleted scene from Trainspotting. Aidan Moffat's dead-pan delivery works perfectly with Four Tet's bleeps and thuds.

Buy music by Arab Strap and Four Tet at Rough Trade

Ally

PS The picture is by a one J Millard

Southern Soul

2008-05-02T14:24:00.005+01:00

I love the way with music that you occasionally just stumble upon something and wonder how you've lived your life so far without ever hearing it. Well i got that yesterday with Delaney & Bonnie. They were a husband and wife duo sounding something like the Ike and Tina Revue being backed by The Band. Apparently Bonnie was the first white "Ikette" at the age of 14. Their record Home, from which the below is taken, was released on Stax in 1969.

Also check out this footage of them with Eric Clapton in '69. I think i'm going to grow my hair and give up shaving.

On a similar angle, this is one of my favourite records to play at Beat Poetry nights, the drums, the drums... "I can remember, when your daddy used to be a preacher..."

Download here: US69 - Yesterday's Folks

Alex

Raggaclash

2008-05-02T11:13:00.003+01:00

I am getting quite excited by a few records at the moment that I believe are being placed under the umbrella term of raggaclash. It's basically Jamaican techno but is being made by producers from Chicago to Sheffield. Here's some bits for you to try...

Here's the Boy 8-Bit remix of South Rakkas Crew:

Download it here

Here's the video for Toodla T's Sound Tape Killin:

A mixtape by Chicago's DJ C and Zulu:

Please buy music by these artists: South Rakkas Crew / Toddla T / DJ C & Zulu

Ally

The Roots

2008-04-28T23:30:00.003+01:00

Philadelphia live hip-hop crew The Roots released their new album today. I haven't got it yet but if the rest is as good as the awesome single Get Busy then it's set to be another classic from ?uestlove (above) and the boys...

Buy the album here

Ally

DJ Food's 1000 Masks mix

2008-04-28T22:53:00.003+01:00

Ninja Tune is far and away my favourite record label of all time. If only every music company nowadays was run with so much passion and commitment to innovate. Ninja recently released a three-CD collection of its current output called You Don't Know featuring, among many others, Diplo, Spank Rock, Roots Manuva and The Heavy. It contained some fantastic stuff but, due to its size, was difficult to fully digest. Helpfully, Ninja's mixmaster in chief Strictly Kev (aka DJ Food) has stepped forward with a 50-minute 39-track mega-mix of the collection, which is a simply stunning demonstration of the man's considerable DJ skills. I wholeheartedly recommend you buy it now and check his MySpace to find out when he's next playing in your town.

To buy DJ Food's 1000 Masks mix for just £4.oo, click here
To buy Ninja's You Don't Know compilation, click here

Ally

Santogold

2008-04-28T12:52:00.011+01:00

According to Blogcatalog, we apparently don't yet have enough content to be registered with them so i thought i'd better get posting.

Heard L.E.S. Artistes about a year ago and have been excited about Santogold ever since then so it's pretty much made my monday morning to find these two uptempo gems:

Santogold: You'll Find A Way
Santogold: Say Aha

I'm sure everyone's got this by now but i'm looking forward to hearing this on the Gramaphone sound system in June:

Gnarls Barkley: Going On

Alex

Rockabilly Boom

2008-04-25T12:23:00.006+01:00

In the true spirit of Beat Poetry, we go from upfront electro banger to...er, the 1950's.

I've been listening to a lot of Rockabilly recently, mainly spurred on by Cut Chemist and Keb Darge's excellent compilation 'Lost and Found: Rockabilly'. This track is from Johnny Burnette, released just after the break up of The Rock and Roll Trio in 1957 and is a dark, screaming, hiccupy slice of magic.

Johnny Burnette: Rock Billy Boogie

Cut Chemist & Keb Darge Comp on Emusic

Enjoy, Alex

Watch out! I know kung fu

2008-04-25T04:19:00.005+01:00

Wow. Beat Poetry has its own blog! This is Ally just checking in to see how this shit works. So, I've been digging this remix of Shit Disco by Goose. It's a big old electro/punk tune a la LCD Soundsystem that I can't wait to play out. Enjoy.

I Know Kung-Fu (Goose rmx) - Shit Disco

Check out Shit Disco here: http://www.myspace.com/shitdisco

And Goose here: http://www.myspace.com/goosemusic

April Mixxx

2008-04-22T16:44:00.007+01:00

Well, hello and welcome to the Beat Poetry blog. This post is a bit out of date now as our April night at Gramaphone has now passed. However, better late than never as they say, so here's the little mix we put together for this month. It was recorded live down in Hither Green in Ally's flat whilst eating a whole packet of Cheddars. At the time, we only had 2 guinea pigs and Cat (Ally's cat) for an audience so we hope you enjoy it as much as they did.

April Mixxx

Tracklisting:

1. Intro - Jack Kerouac
2. Good Rockin Tonight (Rmx)- Elvis Presley
3. Psycho - The Sonics
4. The Lollipop - Delicious Allstars feat. Jocelyn Brown
5. Drop It Down (B rmx) - The New Mastersounds
6. Foxy Girls In Oakland - Rodger Collins
7. I Got Soul (Smalltown DJs rmx) - Eric B & Rakim
8. I Just Want To Celebrate - Rare Earth
9. Killing In The Name - The Apples
10. The Seed 2.0 - The Roots
11. Sergeant Peppers (reprise) - The Beatles
12. Looking Out My Window - Tom Jones
13. Get Ready For The Young Folks - Conroller 7