The Roots' Questlove will direct 'Black Woodstock', a documentary about 1969’s Harlem Cultural Festival, held for one month in the summer of '69, featuring performances from Nina Simone, Stevie Wonder, Sly and the Family Stone, BB King and others, Variety reports. The film will feature previously unreleased footage shot by the late Hal Tulchin. The documentary […]
Dutch artist Lyzza's new EP 'Defiance' is "a call to arms for anyone who has been made to feel shit for being themselves", as the Quietus says. Sonically, she "has taken a step away from the club and embraced the wonkier end of pop, but somehow managed to remain firmly on the dancefloor". DEFIANCE by […]
"There is nothing about any of these songs that screams: dashed off or afterthought. This is the real deal and far superior to any rock music I can think of right now that was slaved over in a $$$$ studio over the course of weeks" - the Quietus says in a great article about the […]
Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross have shared their instrumental cover of the David Bowie classic 'Life on Mars'. The cover appeared in the seventh episode of HBO's 'Watchmen'. Coldplay refuse to tour so this is a chance to see them - recently they played an extended set at the BBC’s historic Maida […]
Mix Magazine made a list of the best DJ mixes from the 2010s, a survey of key moments, movements and trends of the last 10 years. The mixes range from one minute to six hours, 30 hours all in all. There are world famous names like Avicii, Four Tet, and Skrillex, to lesser known like […]
Robert F.X. Sillerman was the owner of a range of television and radio stations during the 1970s and 1980s, built SFX Entertainment - a concert and stage performance promoter that was sold to Clear Channel in 2000 for $4.4 billion, he was once on the Forbes 300 list, but last month he died in bankruptcy. Billboard […]
Singer Tom Araya looked out across the crowd with misty eyes, guitarist Kerry King dropped his giant metal chain belt on stage, while the arena’s screen showed close-ups of fans openly sobbing at he final Slayer show on Saturday night at the Los Angeles Forum. The members of Slayer warmly embraced each other and their […]
"'Labyrinth' is a site for self discovery: a place to get lost in and emerge with a new understanding of yourself" - Exclaim writes about debut album Doom Kanda, a visual artist who's worked with Björk, Arca and FKA twigs. Wire likes it even more - "gorgeous melodies and electroacoustic layers that skip and skitter between […]
Amazon has unveiled a musical keyboard AWS DeepComposer, a two-octave, 32-key keyboard with a built-in artificial intelligence (AI) which allows users to play a short tune, or use a pre-recorded one, ask the keyboard to embellish it in one of four styles - jazz, classical, rock or pop - and then publish it on Soundcloud. […]
The Quietus has a very interesting review of 'The Outside In', about No Bra’s "queer blurring of intentionally artless delivery and (quote-unquote) ‘arty’ style. No Bra’s music appears artless; and it appears so precisely inasmuch as it’s arty. No Bra sounds roundly, soundly, flagrantly artless, and roundly, soundly, flagrantly arty. This paradox – it’s arty inasmuch as […]
Rapper Trippi Redd comes to the top of Billboard 200 chart with his newest release 'A Love Letter to You 4' sold in 104,000 equivalent album units. 'A Love Letter...' marks the prolific artist’s fourth top 10 album on Billboard 200 in a little over a year. 'A Love Letter to You 4' total units […]
"They stole from hip hop, glam, Motown, rock’n’roll, R&B and even doo-wop with equal ease and evident delight. They picked Phil Spector’s pockets and mugged John Lennon... Somebody should have called the police" - NME says about their choice for the album of the decade.
Coldplay sold 81,000 sold copies of their new album 'Everyday Life', making it the biggest selling album of the week and the third fastest-selling album of the year, behind Ed Sheeran‘No.6 Collaborations Project’ (125,000) and Lewis Capaldi's ‘Divinely Uninspired To A Hellish Extent’ (90,000). Coldplay also continue their unbroken streak of eight Number 1 studio albums […]
The Quietus is in ecstasy over new album 'Girl' by the North London girl gang - "ride-or-die friendships with other women are the most violently joyful relationships I have experienced in my life. To have this celebrated in music - girl friendship as comradeship; all-hours availability for advice; binning men who try to fuck with the […]
“The ideal of technology and automation should allow us to be more human and more expressive together, not replace us all together” - Holly Herndon shared her thoughts about the effects of artificial intelligence on music (urged by that silly Grimes-Zola Jesus feud). Herndon proposes that AI might be used to move towards an “interdependent” […]
There's better music than Christmas music, but if we have to listen to some of it, it should be good. Rolling Stone combed through it and found - Sufjan Stevens, Weezer, Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley, Motown, Cee Lo etc.
Jung Joon-young and Choi Jong-hoon, both 30 years old, were sentenced to six- and five-year prison terms, respectively, after a South Korean court found them guilty on charges that they sexually assaulted women too drunk to give consent and then shared secretly filmed videos of those rapes with friends in a private online chat, the Yonhap […]
NME's Mark Beaumont doesn't agree one bit with Coldplay who decided to stop touring until they find an environment-friendly way to do so. Not touring would make more harm than good: "If musicians are dedicated to working towards carbon neutrality, it’s vital that that message gets shouted from the biggest, most amplified and most eye-catching […]
Grimes has shared another single from her upcoming album, a guitar-heavy dark and ambient song 'My Name Is Dark'. Grimes' YouTube channel says the song was written, produced, performed, and engineered by her. The album 'Miss Anthropocene' is due February 21. Listen to the song below.
Faith No More announced a return to the road, starting with three European tour dates at Ireland's Sunstroke Festival, France's Hellfest and Norway's Tons of Rock, their first European performances in five years. These festival dates are a solid sign that there will be more activity from the group in 2020. Faith No More released […]
Acclaimed director Martin Scorsese is working on a documentary about 1970s New York City music scene, Variety reports. Upcoming film is one of over a dozen projects Imagine Entertainment’s new documentary wing is currently spearheading. Scorsese is author of documentaries about The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, George Harrison, The Band, and others.
“Sometimes I don’t think that I’m the most relatable female artist. I’m not into make-up or dresses or typically girly things. But to me, those things don’t really define what it is to be a female artist in this industry anymore... Thank you for Australia letting me know that I’m OK just the way I […]
Snoop Dogg today released s vinyl-only lullaby renditions of his songs, XXL Magazine reports. 'Lullaby Renditions of Snoop Dogg' features good-night versions of 'Drop It Like It's Hot', 'Doggy Dogg World', 'Gin & Juice' (watch snippet of this one below), and other hits. It will be released digitally a week later.
"'Silent Scream' was written shortly after I'd woke up in a hotel room not knowing what city I was in or why I was there... By the time I had finished the song, the sun had come up and the hangover I had that morning, I still have to this day" - Andrew Deadman says […]
Post-punk band Adwaith have won the ninth Welsh Music Prize for their album 'Melyn' - a "sharp, groovy and confident" record, the judges said. The Welsh language album saw off competition from 11 other artists, BBC reports. Previous winners have included Gwenno, Gruff Rhys and last year Boy Azooga.
Massive Attack have approached scientists from the University of Manchester to create a blueprint to help bands and pop stars to perform live and tour the world without contributing to climate change. The findings will be shared with musicians from across the industry and, it's hoped, will inspire millions of fans to live more sustainably. Researchers will […]
Moroccan rapper Gnawi was handed a one-year prison sentence Monday by a judge for insulting the police and the king in an unusually outspoken video exposing their country's problems with migration and drugs, Reuters reports. Moroccan authorities have said Gnawi's arrest was prompted by an earlier video in which he insulted the police, a crime […]
"A brilliant thematic record with exhilarating compositions" - Consequence of Sound writes in a review of the new album 'Death Atlas' by Cattle Decapitation (gave it a straight "A"). "The level of technicality displayed throughout 'Death Atlas' is incredible; with plenty of balance between annihilating beat downs and atmospheric sequences, the record is an excellent representation of […]
Robert Hood began his career with Underground Resistance, a Detroit collective known for its bold, anti-corporate vision of techno. Today, he lives in Alabama and works as an ordained minister. On his second Floorplan album with his daughter Lyric, Pitchfork says, they sharpen their focus on the fusion of house music and gospel - "'Supernatural' […]
Three solo female artists - Celeste, Beabadoobee and Joy Crookes - are nominated for the Brits rising star award for the year 2020 (it was formerly critics’ choice award). In the past, the award was given to Adele, Ellie Goulding, Sam Smith, Rag’n’Bone Man, Jorja Smith, and Sam Fender, Independent reports. Celeste has received critical […]
"It may have been only 10 minutes, but I'll be thinking about my One-to-One Concert with Mario Gotoh for a long time to come" - NPR's Jeff Lunden wrote after attending a concert where there was a musician - and himself. These concerts are the brainchild of German flutist Stephanie Winker and a couple of colleagues, who wanted to create an unusually intimate musical experience. Launched two years ago in Stuttgart, they've been done in Australia, Japan, India, across Europe, and the US, and have proven quite suitable in corona-times
"Apparently, this Eurovision-backed project called American Song Contest will air on NBC in 2022 and feature one 'incredible solo artist, duo, DJ or a band' to perform an original song from each of the 50 states, five U.S. territories, and D.C." - Emily Alford writes in the Jezebel, begging America not to do it! Because - "what concerns me is that America, as is its wont, will take this missive humorlessly, and every armpit of the country will try and send the closest it has to an Ariana Grande or Kacey Musgraves, when they should be giving us Yank versions of Jedward and A.B.B.A. It does make one wonder if the whole of Europe isn’t doing this on purpose for their own mean little amusement".
"Far from impenetrable, the record carries listeners along on sandstorms of driving, infectious rock and roll" - RIFF Magazine reviews the new album by the Touareg guitarist (gave it 9 of 10 stars). Pitchfork branded it Best new music (grade 8.4), arguing it "captures the group’s easy chemistry and explosive energy". Rolling Stone goes idealistic in its review: "This is how free rock & roll should sound". Uncut is equally enthusiastic: "An exhilarating band set that mixes electric and acoustic instrumentation, it’s at once fiercely modern and as ancient as the Niger river". DJ Mag chose it as their Album of the month.
Sarah Neufeld released an intense and dancy 'Tumble Down the Undecided' on her latest album; Florence + The Machine releases a silly little song 'Call Me Cruella' from the Disney live-action film 'Cruella'; black midi share jazz/rock 'Chondromalacia Patella'; Dark Lo & Harry Fraud go lo-fi psychedelic hip-hop on 'Missing Summers'; Wristmeetrazor join together melody and metalcore on 'This Summer's Sorrow Ⅱ: Growing Old In The Waiting Place'; David Bazan is deeply melancholic on 'Your Bearings'.
"That an African American man played a massive and pivotal role in three seminal musical forms seemingly dominated by Caucasian artists – folk rock, prog rock, and proto-punk – is one of the most tragically untold stories in popular music’s history" - Tape Op writes introducing Tom Wilson, the man who produced albums, among many others, by Bob Dylan, Simon & Garfunkel, Velvet Underground, Sun Ra, Frank Zappa, The Animals, Gil Scott-Herron...
"Eurovision Song Contest 2019 in Tel Aviv, Israel — the last time the event took place — was broadcast live in 41 countries and watched by an audience of 182 million, making it the world’s biggest live music event" - Billboard explains big labels' new-found interest in the European yearly pop song contest. By comparison, this year’s Grammy Awards drew 9.2 million viewers, whereas February’s Super Bowl, the biggest U.S. television event annually, drew 96.4 million TV and online viewers.
“Access to water is an ongoing problem in Niger, so at the moment I’m travelling around villages and trying to assist that for people" - Touareg guitarist says in the Dazed interview about his latest album, which he wanted to sound "clean but raw". Live concerts, however, are the thing he loves - "I’ve come to understand through the years that the crowd really is my energy source. The audience gives me courage to go places and hit notes I usually can’t. What happens live is unreproducible”. When not building wells, making music, or playing shows, you can hire him to serenade your wedding or rent his car for a small fee, if you like.
"There’s the producer, songwriter, the entrepreneur, the manager, the composer, and I’m the mom. I’m also just a human being trying to figure out how to best be of service in this world" - Linda Perry, the everything she stated above, tells in the Tape Op interview. She also says that when starting to work with a new artist "the only thing I ask for is for them to be open, honest, and prepared to abandon ego and whatever bullshit they carry", and she worked with P!nk, Christina Aguilera, Alicia Keys, Adele, and Dolly Parton.
MC Abdul is a twelve-year-old rapper from Gaza who came into the spotlight with his short rap from war zone over Eminem beat. "All we want is #peace" - the boy said, adding - "music is what keeps me going".
"Hope too resides in a gesture of kindness from one broken individual to another or, indeed, we can find it in a work of art that comes from the hand of a wrongdoer. These expressions of transcendence, of betterment, remind us that there is good in most things, rarely only evil. Once we awaken to this fact, we begin to see goodness everywhere, and this can go some way in setting right the current narrative that humans are shit and the world is fucked" - Nick Cave wrote deeply humanistic on his The Red Hand Files blog.
