Stereogum picked out five songs that stand out this week. It's songs by hard-core band Fury, from Hit-Boy’s new surprise album with SOB X RBE, new song by Barcelona producer NOIA, Texan rapper Kevin Abstract, and Beyonce's remake of Frankie Beverly and Maze’s original 'Baby Boy'.
"An intelligent approach to their blend of mellow pop and upbeat hip-hop", PopMatters reviews new album by Patagonian vocal trio Fémina, 'Perlas & Conchas'. Judging by the album cover and video for their song 'Resist' (here), they're into (their own) nudity, for now, at least. And in the future "for Fémina, creative possibilities may be […]
An all-star environmental video by comedian and rapper Lil Dicky has gone viral on YouTube. This animated video featuring the voices of Justin Bieber, Ed Sheeran, Ariana Grande, Snoop Dogg and Miley Cyrus was published on YouTube on April 18 and by saturday it had more than 13 million views (watch it here). Dicky - […]
"We glimpse the artist at work during her peak—in voice, physicality, and confidence—reimagining and remixing her own catalog, decentering herself to shine a light on her influences and foundations" - Pitchfork reviews Beyoncé's new live album taken last year at Coachella. She has a documentary film, also called 'Homecoming', released simultaneously, Guardian says it shows […]
South Korean boyband BTS have landed their first ever UK number one album with 'Map of the Soul: Persona', becoming the first Korean act to score a chart-topping album in the UK. Billie Eilish's 'When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?' dropped to number two, while Chemical Brothers' ninth studio album 'No Geography' […]
PopMatters has an excellent article about post-punk, here's an excerpt: "Like 76 punk, post-punk was reactive in nature, and thus was inevitable and necessary for punk's survival. Without it, punk would have eaten itself; with it punk was able to develop and diversify beyond its initial confines. As such, post-punk not only tells the story […]
Spin has combed through USA government documents and compiled a list of popular musicians who have donated this quarter to Democrats. Individual contributions are limited to 2,800 dollars to a candidate. Here's some donators: Norah Jones donated 2,500 dollars to "socialist" candidate Bernie Sanders, Foo Fighters guitarist Chris Shiflett gave him 1,000 dollars, Jackson Browne […]
During a recent show in Vienna, Austria, Bob Dylan paused when a fan broke his “no photos” rule, and said: “Take pictures or don’t take pictures. We can either play or we can pose. Okay”. He wasn't over - Dylan then bailed, and his band wrapped things up with an instrumental version of 'Just Like […]
'Fire is Coming' is quite unusual, not really much music there, but still it's interesting; directed by Flying Lotus himself, which says a lot. It features David Lynch, his face distorting as he tells a story to a group of wolf-children. It comes out on album 'Flamagra' slated for May 24, which features Lynch, Solange, […]
Bandcamp is starting new vinyl pressing service, available to artists and labels later this year. Artisti will first create a vinyl campaign and begin taking orders with no up-front investment. Once they reach their minimum goal of orders, Bandcamp will press the records, print the packaging and ship to fans. Artists decide on the design […]
BBC started a new segment, Songs that Made History, and the first one is Billie Holiday's version of 'Strange Fruit' recorded on 20 April 1939. Eighty years on, BBC explores how a poem about lynching became a timeless call to action. Listen to the powerful piano-jazz ballad here.
"Oracle is a project that draws together strings from the past: the best fusion, the coolest modern jazz playing, influences from hip-hop and groove music, and a lyricism that shot through all the great American music... Kendrick Scott is a wonderful consolidator... His music is among the finest of its new kind: a new generation […]
"Their days as supreme psychedelic blasters on 'In The Red' are long gone, and they don’t seem to be coming back. They to now serve as the bedrock for an adventurous, rewarding discography that extends well beyond the band’s original constraints. Wand are in the zone, working as quickly as ever and seemingly discovering new […]
Rolling Stone has an awesome article about "choircore", a cultural platform from the 1960s in USA that "offered a bizarro alternative to sex, drugs and rock & roll, replacing it with chasteness, soda pop and show tunes". "With choircore, adults were able to pretend that the rock & roll revolution wasn’t really happening — or, […]
Actor C.J. Wallace, the son of rap legend Notorious B.I.G. and singer Faith Evans, is launching a marijuana brand Think BIG with bosses at Lowell Herb Co., with whom he will produce a variety of cannabis products, including pre-rolled joints, vapes, and gummies, as well as branded apparel and stationery. Wallace, 22, explains he was […]
This year's BBC Proms will be, partly at least, in the dark so people "can get away from the world by immersing themselves in meditative, mindful music". The London summer festival runs from 19 July to 14 September, it's mostly classical, but it will also feature hip-hop, the Clangers, and Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood playing - […]
Montreal’s city council unanimously adopted a declaration which states that Montreal is a “city of excellence” for heavy metal, Montreal Gazette reports. The declaration was proposed by councillor Craig Sauvé, who referenced Quebec-based metal bands including Kataklysm, Cryptopsy, Despised Icon, the Agonist, Necrotic Mutation, and Slaves on Dope in a presentation to city council. Unlike […]
Nipsey Hussle was remembered as a savvy businessman during his life - he owned all of his master recordings, his Marathon Clothing store, and he also set up multiple trust funds to make sure his kids - Emani and Kross Asghedom - would never have to rely on other people for money, TMZ reports.
Danny Boyle, the director of 'Trainspotting', will executive-produce a new movie 'Creation Stories' about the influential British label Creation, the home to My Bloody Valentine, Oasis, the Jesus & Mary Chain, Slowdive, Primal Scream, and dozens more artists. Irvine Welsh, the author of 'Trainspotting' book, and Dean Cavanagh are the screenwriters. Nick Moran, who has […]
Atlanta rap star 21 Savage is on Bank Account literacy Tour where he teaches students financial literacy, and how important it is to understand how to manage money properly. He offered a great incentive to get the kids interested in opening up a savings account - by offering up $100 to every college student who […]
Another Sky's song 'The Cracks is an "ode to our generation, one that is more self-aware and being forced to have the difficult conversations that lead to progress and evolution”, singer Catrin Vincent says in an interview with the NME. The new single is from new EP 'Life Was Coming In Through The Blinds’ coming […]
Guardian talked to three Berlin bouncers who are subject of a new documentary that "pulls back the curtain to reveal the personal histories and artistic ambitions of these figures, and the realities of living and ageing in a city once again undergoing rapid change". While some people could view door policies in Berlin – which […]
"Funkier, spikier, more percussive and more doof than ever before" - the Quietus reviews the new Chemical Brothers album 'No Geography'. The album is "up there with the controlled chaos and warped psychedelia of their earlier work... With its unifying themes of freedom, unity and attack, channelled via the medium of boom and sirens, it […]
Detroit techno pioneers Cybotron held their first ever concert last weekend in London's Barbican producing a show that was "as much about the eternal verities of the dancefloor as about high conceptualism or museum-piece reverence". Next to band's original member from the 1980s Juan Atkins, there were Laurens von Oswald, nephew of long-time collaborator the […]
American rapper and comedian Open Mike Eagle is teaming with comedian Baron Vaughn for a new Comedy Central variety show The New Negroes (it airs Friday, April 19th at 11:00 p.m. ET). The weekly series will feature multiple stand-up sets and close with a new original song and music video by OME in collaboration with […]
“Contemporary rock music no longer seems to have the fortitude to contend with enemies of the imagination, enemies of art – and in this present form perhaps rock music isn’t worth saving. The permafrost of puritanism could be the antidote for the weariness and nostalgia that grips it” - Nick Cave wrote in an answer […]
Rapper Jamal Knox was arrested by a pair of Pittsburgh police officers seven years ago on gun and drug charges. Knox, who goes by the stage name Mayhem Mal, later wrote a song called 'F*ck the Police', which mentioned those same two officers by name and featured lines “Let’s kill these cops cuz they don’t […]
American soul singer Aretha Franklin has been awarded a posthumous Pulitzer prize for her "her indelible contribution to American music and culture for more than five decades". She becomes the 12th musician, and first female performer, to be given the special citation - joining the likes of Bob Dylan, Scott Joplin and John Coltrane. CNN...
Guardian picked out Bruce Hornsby of an example how to age well, especially coming from pop milieu. Hornsby started out as the "guy who wrote 'The Way It Is'", and now he's somewhere in between experimental and easy. “I’m in search of the chills. That leads me very far afield, ranging from old-time traditional music, […]
The European Commission approved the new copyright legislation, passed by the European Parliament last month, that will make online platforms liable for copyright infringement on their sites and force Google, Facebook to pay publishers for news snippets they post online. Nineteen countries representing a majority of the European Union population, including France and Germany, endorsed […]
"Twitter shaman Jack Dorsey’s recent acquisition of Jay-Z’s streaming service, Tidal, by his company, Square points to something that is bubbling up in the business right now that is still early, but ultimately will build into a huge, new movement of massively monetizing direct artist-fan connection and engagement" - Peter Csathy writes in his CoS editorial, adding - "Just think of the virtual/tangible 'combo package' possibilities – where passionate superfans happily pay premium prices to support and get ever-closer to the artists they love in all modes of engagement".
Fast Company chooses 10 companies that are changing the face of the music industry. They are: Neon16 - a talent incubator and music label for Latin music, BeatStars - an online marketplace for producers to sell their beats to artists, Royalty Exchange - a marketplace allowing artists who are earning royalties to sell them to investors during online auctions, Audiomack - a music streaming and discovering platform aiming at Africa, Stem - a music distribution platform making it easier to artists, as well as Verzuz, Parkwood Entertainment, Harmonix, Bandcamp, and Dolby.
"A gentle, reflective album that includes songs about education, poverty and righteous conduct, providing indirect commentary on Mali’s parlous political situation" - Guardian writes in praise of Anansy Cissé's new album 'Anoura'. Written after a run-in with an armed thug, Mali guitarist's album offers a positive message in these songs of love, respect and hope for better times ahead. Roots World appreciates how "in keeping with much Malian music the percussion is minimal and understated, allowing the melodic rhythmic patterns to work across each other uncluttered and for all its tonal variety there is a fine sense of space pervading this album".
In Frankfurt, people can order a classical concert to their door with the musicians from the Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra cycling to the audience's doors. The concerts last up to 10 minutes and are free, but donations are welcome.
NASA released "the first acoustic recording of laser impacts on a rock target on Mars". The short audio sequence features the sound of 30 impacts, recorded by a microphone on the rover, CNet reports. The Quietus explains how Mars, like the few other outer space events audible within our limited hearing range, is mostly silent, and how actually do the sounds we hear come to be heard by us.
Belgium inventor Lou Ottens, who led the project of developing a cassette tape, has died at the age of 94, NPR reports. He was the head of product development at Philips’s electronics factory in Hasselt, Belgium in early 1960s when he told his team to develop an audio device that was smaller, cheaper and easier to use than the reel-to-reel tape recorder because that one was to much of a hassle. As a result, they invented the cassette tape, which went on to be sold in billions. Ottens spearheaded another advance in electronics, working on a Philips team that jointly introduced the compact disc with Sony in 1982.
Radio has become an increasingly vital source of community and comfort for its listeners - DJ Mag argues in an interesting article about the old medium. The audience has grown substantially - much-loved independent station NTS' listener numbers have grown from 1.5 million monthly listeners in 2019 to 2.5 million a year later. A similar trend is seen in other stations, which also proves that the radio is being listened to not only in the car.
An interesting if somewhat controversial thought by music manager Lucas Keller in Out Magazine: “I think we’re seeing the death of the artist. Songs are fully alive. I think we’re hitting a point in time where it’s going to be more and more difficult to have follow-up hits for an artist. I see it happening. There’s so much music. There are so many songs. People listen to playlists and just because they fall in love with the song doesn’t mean [they fall in love with the artist]". Keller represents some of the most successful artists, songwriters, and DJs in the world.
A great read in the Music Journalism Insider about rock fanzines from the late period of the Soviet Union, from 1977 to 1991, written by Russian academic Kat Ganskaya. Roxy from Leningrad (St Petersburg today) was the first big fanzine, Zerkalo (The Mirror) from Moscow followed, founded by Artemiy Troitsky, the first DJ in the USSR and one of the founding fathers of music journalism in the Russian language. One of the bigger fanzines was Kontrkultura (Counterculture), which can also be read as "counter the cult of UR".
American media are looking into clues about future performances after watching Patti Smith perform at the Brooklyn Museum Beaux-Arts. Rolling Stone was there with other 50-ish people: "We’ve forgotten how to have a good time with each other. It’s going to take time to figure out what makes sense for each individual, how to enjoy being alive together again. But this was a start". Smith's show was a part of NY PopsUp, a series of over 300 performances spread across the state and five boroughs over 100 days. Pitchfork saw it as a move forward: "If NY PopsUp is meant to initiate the baby steps needed to inch our way back to a normal and robust music scene, it seemed like a productive rehearsal for both audience and performer".
