Hear a new Cat Power song, ‘Ruin’

Cat Power - Sun

Cat Power is back. Six years after her last album of original material, The Greatest, and four years after Jukebox, her second album of covers, Chan Marshall will release Sun, her much anticipated new album, on Matador on 3rd September.

As a taster for the new record, she’s made ‘Ruin’, a track from the album, available to download – you can do so here. After an initial few listens, ‘Ruin’ brings to mind some of the more lively songs on 2003′s You Are Free, with Chan’s vocals double-tracked, zipping with the kind of energy and personality we’ve been missing. You can take a look at Chan introducing the new song below. … Continue Reading

Listen to a new track from Julio Bashmore, ‘Troglodytes’

Julio Bashmore

Just over a month ago, UK producer Julio Bashmore announced that he’d formed his own label, Broadwalk Records. To commemorate the occasion, he presented us with a new track, ‘Au Seve’. Over the weekend, Bashmore gave us more new material with the free-to-download single ‘Troglodytes’. ‘Troglodytes’ is built around a tongue-in-cheek sample about ‘going back’ to the prehistoric era, and unfurls gradually, patiently, continuing Bashmore’s brilliantly skewed take on house that’s brought him so many admirers. You can stream and download ‘Troglodytes’ below, alongside ‘Au Seve’. … Continue Reading

The Invisible – Rispah

The Invisible - Rispah

By Greg Salter

Rispah, the second album by The Invisible, has been billed by the band’s lead singer Dave Okumu as “a love letter to grief” – it was written and recorded following the death of his mother, and she gives the album its title. Okumu has recalled how he struggled to engage with music in the time after his bereavement until his grandmother and a group of women sang traditional spirituals over his mother’s body: “They were celebrating life and death, grief and hope, all things… It served as the most potent reminder of everything I believe about music. It’s there for everybody, it’s inclusive and transformative”. These voices are woven into the music on Rispah, like hopeful spectres hovering within Okumu’s own meditations on grief. … Continue Reading

Hear Brenmar’s remix of Javeon McCarthy’s ‘Precious’

Javeon McCarthy by Elle Sheriff

Bristol’s Javeon McCarthy recently released a new single – ‘Precious’ – a track that combined the still-very-much-in-vogue elements of ’90s R&B with an attention to dance textures on the production that places him firmly in the lineage of his current hometown. On a new remix of the track, Chicago producer Brenmar drags McCarthy into the club, daubing lurid shades of 2-step and rave across the original – it sounds a bit like what Usher’s new album probably sounds like in Usher’s head, and it’s very good. Have a listen below. … Continue Reading

Disclosure – The Face EP

Disclosure - The Face EP

By Greg Salter

Disclosure are brothers Guy and Howard Lawrence from Croydon who have been steadily building a reputation for themselves over the last year or two – early single ‘Offline Desterity’/‘Street Light Chronicle’ brought them immediate attention, while last year’s free Carnival EP found them exploring a glossy and undeniably pop-oriented strain of 2-step that, particularly on standout ‘My Intention Is War’, proved to be incredibly addictive. A further single (‘Tenderly’/‘Flow’) and a number of remixes – such as their ecstatic reworking of Jessie Ware’s already excellent ‘Running’ – have only gained them more fans. With several other UK producers exploring techno’s more barren landscapes of late, and with the bass, rhythms and production of dubstep and 2-step featuring in the engaging but dour crossover records by SBTRKT and James Blake, Disclosure’s rich, vibrant tracks stand out. … Continue Reading

The Walkmen – Heaven

The Walkmen - Heaven

By Greg Salter

It can be strange to hear a band you’ve followed for years begin to grow up and grow happier – particularly when that band have made a career out of providing you and countless others with bittersweet, desperate sing-alongs like ‘Thinking Of A Dream I Had’, ‘In The New Year’ or ‘The Rat’. Potentially, this can be as unnerving as meeting up with someone you knew five or ten years ago to find they’ve somehow acquired a house, a partner, maybe children – it can be difficult to reconcile an uncertain past with a more settled future. … Continue Reading

The XX announce their new album, Coexist

The XX bu Jamie-James Medina

The XX have announced the first details of their second album – it’s called Coexist and will be released on Young Turks on 10th September in the UK and a day later in the US. It’s the follow-up to their Mercury Prize-winning self-titled debut album. … Continue Reading

Saint Etienne – Words And Music By Saint Etienne

St Etienne - Words And Music By St Etienne

By Greg Salter

Saint Etienne understand pop music. They know that all the clichés about pop music are essentially true – that it soundtracks the most important, pivotal moments in your life, that hearing a particular song or melody can immediately take you back in time to those moments so that they never really leave you, and even become a part of who you are. In a way, Sarah Cracknell, Bob Stanley and Pete Wiggs didn’t need to make an album like Words And Music By Saint Etienne for us to know this – the band began (even before Cracknell joined full-time) by fusing post-acid house dance elements with ‘60s and ‘70s pop and ‘80s synths and have, over 20 years, created albums that sound like patchwork, subversive, unrelentingly melodic histories of popular music. … Continue Reading

Lone – Galaxy Garden

Lone - Galaxy Garden

By Greg Salter

Lone – real name Matt Cutler – has spoken about Galaxy Garden as feeling a little like his first proper album and, if you explore his back catalogue, you can see what he means. Early albums like Everything Is Changing Colour and Lemurian were clearly indebted to hiphop, while later material like the critically acclaimed Emerald Fantasy Tracks from 2010 and last year’s Echolocations EP brought in elements of rave and Chicago house, just as several other UK producers were embracing similar influences. Though this was all strong, consistent material, you felt like this was music that paid tribute to particular eras and genres, like faithful exercises in nostalgia. … Continue Reading

Video: Little Boots – ‘Every Night I Say A Prayer’

Little Boots - Every Night I Say A Prayer

Earlier this week, a few of our writers gave their views on the new Little Boots single and the result was mixed – to our (editorial – ha) ears, ‘Every Night I Say A Prayer’ sounds like one of the year’s better singles – we This Is My Jam’d it yesterday, if that means anything to  you.

‘Every Night I Say A Prayer’ now has a video and, well, if you heard a fair amount of late ’80s/early ’90s Madonna in the song, prepare to see a lot more of Madge’s influence in the video. And to be honest, if Madonna’s going to insist on being so shit at the moment, then Victoria might as well step in and show her how it’s really done. Belly tops, voguing and lyrca below: … Continue Reading