Post metal Chicagoan Russian Circles keep the fire burning - they still do it with passion and heart, so in their case, keeping up with the genre makes very much sence. Their new song 'Milano' in an example of sticking to the old with fresh energy (listen to it below). They have an album, 'Blood […]
White kids in orange jumpsuits jumping in cages, and drinking toilet water makes for the most political music video of the year, as Guardian puts it. It's the debut single from Vic Mensa’s politically charged new project dubbed 93PUNX (he's a rapper, but his favourite band is the Clash) - "I like music and art […]
"Dreams, nightmares, and sleepwalking haunt the songs of 'ANIMA', Yorke’s most ambitious and assured solo album yet. It is the darkest and tenderest music he has released outside of Radiohead, floating uneasily through the space between societal turmoil and internal monologue.... Meaty, full-blooded, often a little menacing" - Pitchfork is really into Radiohead frontman's third solo […]
Madonna released new explicit video for 'God Control' where she and a group of friends are killed by a gunman on the dancefloor, Music News reports. It's directed by Jonas Akerlund, and they have a message: "Gun violence disproportionately affects children, teenagers and the marginalized in our communities... Honor the victims and demand GUN CONTROL. […]
Sonically they're somewhere between shoegaze and post-rock, physically they're among the mighty Alps. Brooklyn Vegan says the Austrian's debut album, 'All That Ever Could Have Been', sounds "massive, majestic, imposing". The album is out tomorrow, June 28, listen to the band at Soundcloud.
With an endless sea of aftermarket components and apps, as well as extra space and faster processors, the tablet has truly become the modern musician’s multi-tool, Rolling Stone writes, and chooses five best tablets for music production.
Metallica members Kirk Hammett and Robert Trujillo, Ugly Kid Joe singer Whitfield Crane and former Queens of the Stone Age/Danzig drummer Joey Castillo are forming a one-off group called the Wedding Band. They will be playing classic rock covers of songs by Black Sabbath, Billy Idol... The group will be hosting a special event at […]
Asteroid's full name, just as the singer's, is "Brian Peter George St John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno”, but it's "Eno" for friends (of music and space), and much prettier than it's original name “81948 (2000 OM69)”. Apart from being honored by the Southwest Research Institute, the International Astronomical Union and the Minor Planet […]
Stormzy is on Friday night, at the Pyramid Stage, as a headliner, although he has only only released one album. He is seen as a representative of black Britain and working class Britain, so the expectations are high, as BBC reports. BBC also will be bringing over 100 performances from this year's Glasto.
Hundredth started at the beginning of this decade as a melodic hardcore band, on 2017’s 'RARE' they went in a more dreamlike, atmospheric direction, and this year they’re going in direction of atmospheric guitar heroism of early U2 or The Cure, as Brooklyn Vegan reports. Their newest single 'Cauterize' goes in that shoegazy direction (listen below), similar […]
Breakdancing now is one step closer to being included in the 2024 Olympics - it’s been provisionally approved, along with skateboarding, surfing, and sport climbing, to be included in Paris 2024, with skateboarding and surfing already set to debut at the 2020 Tokyo Games. “The four sports that Paris has proposed are all totally in […]
"This is two guys who know each other well, pushing each other and pushing themselves. It works the same as a great jazz session — these two vastly different artists figuring out how to get into each other’s groove" - Stereogum writes about 'Bandana', new album by avant-garde hip-hop producer Madlib and a big-mouthy rapper […]
Fact Magazine has an hour-and-a-half long mix by Bristol-born bass explorer Laksa, known for hypnotic, dancefloor-ready constructions. Laksa’s FACT mix is a cross-genre, tempo-hopping journey through dance music’s past, present and future, blending drum & bass classics, big room techno belters, bass experiments and cuts from Bristol’s next wave, as it explores the push and […]
"We were trying to make fun tunes in the studio. I wasn't even aware right away that I was channelling my divorce, either — I just kind of had this overwhelming sense of melancholy that seemed to seep into this music" - producer and songwriter Mark Ronson tells Exclaim in an interview about his latest […]
Hardware and software music production company Ableton launched Learning Synths, an interactive set of lessons that teach the principles of synthesis - lessons cover everything from amplitude to envelopes, filters and LFOs. The interactive site can be used in desktop and mobile browsers, and is easy enough for non-musicians and anyone without experience of synthesis […]
The Quietus went outside Moscow and St Petersburg looking for "weird" Russian music. What did they find? - Viking metal from Stavropol, goggle-eyed punks from satellite towns, delicate folk, psych post-punk, poetic electro-punk, righteous raving from Nizhniy Novgorod, a band with a controversial name etc. TQ has audios of those bands as well, maybe not […]
'Yesterday' is a Beatles movie without the Beatles, with Beatles songs that aren't theirs. It's directed by Danny Boyle ('Trainspotting', 'Slumdog Millionaire') and co-written by Richard Curtis ('Four Weddings and a Funeral', 'Love Actually', 'Notting Hill', and 'Bridget Jones’s Diary'), and the basic plot is about a struggling singer who finds fame singing Beatles songs […]
PM chose 14 new metal albums for this month's edition of MetalMatters, they vary from emo to grind-core. It's: Baroness with their most ambitious project; Cave In and Pelican who released works that were conceived and recorded under struggling times; The Austerity Program returned with one of its strongest works to date; Darkthrone unleashed record containing […]
Soundgarden, Hole and Steve Earle, as well as the estates of Tom Petty and 2Pac, have filed a class action lawsuit against Universal Music Group over a fire at Universal Studios Hollywood in 2008 that destroyed 500,000 irreplaceable master recordings. The suit accuses Universal Music of negligence when it came to preventing the fire, in […]
"'Welcome Home' is a portrait of an artist amidst transition. As Cohen grapples with physical location, she creates a musical space where an exploration of identity is conducted with intimacy and vulnerability" - PopMatters says in a review of third album by New York singer and model.
Tengger Cavalry frontman and multi-instrumentalist Nature Ganganbaigal has died - authorities informed the band that the musician’s body was found on June 13th. In leading Tengger Cavalry, Ganganbaigal pioneered a unique sound described as Mongolian folk metal (watch their latest video 'Lone wolf' below). The band had been based in New York City, but recently […]
The PRS Foundation announced an extension of its Keychange pledge, in which music festivals have committed to a 50/50 gender balance by 2022. More than 180 festivals across the world have signed up since last year, Guardian reports.
Michael Jackson's estate released a statement where they remember "a gifted artist and extraordinary humanitarian”, whereas BBC remembers the day of June 25, 2009 and the days after when all circumstances about Jackson's death, and troubles, came to light.
A shocking picture has emerged of Gangnam in recent months - the BBC has heard allegations that in its glitzy nightclubs, women have been drugged to order by powerful men and raped, and that underage girls are being sexually exploited for profit. Elite clients, known as VIPs - and the richest VVIPs - were prepared […]
The Raconteurs have a new album out, 'Help Us Stranger'; the critics seem to be inclined to like it, so it's overtly positive reviews: "The beauty is in the timeless joy of hearing two world-class songwriters, cut from two very different sides of a similar cloth, come together" - DIY Magazine "This album is timely […]
Folk-pop Californian singer-songwriter Boy Scouts has a new song, 'Get Well Soon' where "dreamlike melodies meet crisp, straight-shooting production to develop a classic vibe throughout" (watch the video below). Boy Scouts signed to ANTI-, and has a new album due on 30 August , 'Free Company', recorded and produced entirely by minimalist pop maestro Stephen Steinbrink, […]
English poet Kate Tempest has a new album out, her fourth spoken-word LP, produced by Rick Rubin, and the critics say it's quite something: "A natural empath, she wraps warm words around the shoulders of lives made wretched by those who breathe easiest" - the Skinny "Emotionally, there's a lot to unpack, but the need […]
Alice Cooper says that he and wife Sheryl Goddard have agreed that there is no way they can live without each other (married for 43 years). “I couldn’t live without her. We always said there will never be a time when one of us will be mourning the other. Whenever it does happen, we are […]
Last weekend NTS Radio and Warp Records celebrated three decades of great electro label, with some of the Warp's biggest names debuting new music - Autechre revealed two hours of unreleased material from ’89-93, Boards of Canada contributed a two-hour mix of new and unreleased material, Kelela sang over various retro Warp productions, Death Grips […]
Manchester Orchestra have covered Frightened Rabbit's song 'My Backward Walk', and it'll come out on a tribute album 'Tiny Changes: A Celebration of The Midnight Organ Fight', an album of covers of songs from the band's classic album (listen to Man-Orchestra version below). The album is coming out July 12, and it also includes covers […]
"Sometimes when I am a bit bummed, I don’t look for music to lift me up; I look for music that captures my mood. For some reason, I find solace in listening to songs from my sad bastard brethren" - Medium writes introducing its playlist of sad music. The songs are predominantly about heartaches and hearts breaking, mostly singer-songwriter stuff - Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Whiskeytown, Lucinda Williams, etc.
Rod Wave has reached the top of the Billboard 200 chart with his new album 'SoulFly', which opens with 130,000 equivalent album units earned in the U.S. in the week ending April 1, Billboard reports. It's his first No.1, while the album also notches the biggest week for an R&B/hip-hop album in 2021 in terms of units earned. SEA units of 'SoulFLy' comprise 126,000 (equaling 189 million on-demand streams), album sales comprise 4,000 and TEA units comprise less than 1,000.
"People are afraid of me because I'm different. But really, I'm just your typical gay black country rap sneaker entrepreneur. I put my pants on like everyone else: one ass-less chap at a time" - guest "Lil Nas X" told "Britney Spears" on Saturday Night Live. About his satan video, he said - "you know that wasn't the real satan, right? It was a dude in a Halloween devil costume, because the real satan doesn't do like music videos, so, maybe chill!". Then to even things out, he also gave god a lapdance.
Morris "B.B." Dickerson, War co-founder, bassist, and vocalist died on Friday (4/2) at a Long Beach, California hospital, "after a long, undisclosed illness", reports Billboard. Dickerson co-wrote War classics as 'Low Rider', 'Why Can't We Be Friends', 'The Cisco Kid', 'Summer', and he contributed lead vocals to their psychedelic soul masterpiece 'The World Is A Ghetto'.
Pianist Rebeca Omordia has spent years looking for classical music composed by African authors, uncovering finally more than 200 composers of African art music. The most attractive features of African art music is its extraordinary variety. Some composers from Ethiopia and South Africa, for example, wrote music in a western classical style while incorporating traditional melodies and rhythms with results that are unique and uplifting in equal measure, Guardian reports. The result of Omodria's research is African Concert Series, an online series of African music she discovered, which ended this week.
"The band’s debut album arrives fully formed, ready to evacuate the contents of your brain and replace them with the odd images, bizarre obsessions, vivid sense memories, and banal judgements that live rent-free in the mind of another" - Pitchfork writes in its review of Dry Cleaning's 'New Long Leg'. Guardian deems it a "work of a terrifically focused group... a debut to be excited about". Exclaim like the paradox of it - "record that absorbs and spits back the unending noise of the world and asks that you take a second look, every common thing somehow made brand new".
Author and critic Nelson George met Andre 3000 of Outkast and had asked him about new music, but Andre expressed no interest in putting out a collection of new songs. His reason is very simple: “You write about what happens to you. Last week I got glasses. That was the big that happened to me. I don’t think people want records about my new glasses”. George believes middle-aged rapper is an oxymoron: "The youthful concerns of hip hop in the ‘90s, like the youthful concerns of trap music now, are very much tied into hot cars, fly girls and guys, the drugs of the moment, and the most current slang. Hip Hop freezes the MC, and the audience, in time because it’s composed of very specific references tied to its moment of creation. Its contemporary nature is a great strength, but a weakness too".
"Over the last year or so, country's rappers and MCs have taken up grime and drill as idioms, reimagining and ushering them into electrifying new directions" - Pitchfork says presenting the new generation of Brazilian women in these genres. "Brazilian artists have redrawn grime and drill’s borders, threading in loops and kicks from different branches of baile funk and samba right alongside the speaker-knocking bass of 8-bar and the icy synths of eskibeat, all while they rap about life in the favelas". The ones that stand out now are: N.I.N.A. - a DJ-turned-rapper and forthright social critic; Thai Flow - the Rio de Janeiro-based raper with a great flow; Áurea Semiseria - influenced by samba and gospel rap; Peroli - bringing grime and funk closer.
Factory New is a "virtual" record label with a roster comprised exclusively of virtual artists. Their first ‘signing’ is AI-powered robot rapper, FN Meka, who has 9 million followers (and over a billion views) on TikTok, MBW reports. FN Meka is voiced by a human, but everything else about him – from his lyrics to the chords and tempo underpinning his music – is based on AI. Anthony Martini, co-founder of FN, asks himself quite sensibly - “what is an ‘artist’ today? Think about the biggest stars in the world. How many of them are just vessels for commercial endeavors?”.
Acts of all levels use Bandcamp, but it has particularly suited working- and middle-class artists with few resources simply looking to make a decent living off their work, filling a void that has become more pronounced as the music industry has gone digital - Billboard writes about the beloved streaming service. They proved this in the last year with Bandcamp Fridays, when Bandcamp waives its cut of sales - 15% of digital, 10% of physical - and passes along all revenue to artists. With this initiative, Bandcamp directed $48.3 million toward artists and labels from over 800,000 customers, and that’s on top of the $148 million it has paid out from normal sales during that time frame. To date - Bandcamp was started in 2007 - it has paid out over $702 million to hundreds of thousands of artists and more than 9,000 labels that can receive the money relatively quickly.
