Sia

I never blogged about the fact I went to see Sia at Roundhouse in May. She was absolutely out of this world - I love her so so much. And I got the best news EVER last week - because I get to interview her!! WAHHH.

Ministry of Sound

I have started writing for the Ministry of Sound Blog - my first post was a review of Example's album. READ IT.

The Creators Project: Mark Ronson

Intel and Vice have joined forces to bring you The Creators Project - a "new network dedicated to the celebration of creativity and culture across media, and around the world."

I'm going to show you their piece on the audio God that is Mark Ronson. We all know how innovative and totally mind-blowingly sick Mark Ronson's music is. His arrangements shake up conventions and implement the vast archive of genres (especially hip hop) Ronson has fallen in love with in his career, bringing something totally fresh and energised, bursting with complex technical musical genius. He is a trend setter from every angle. The video below gives you a bit of insight into his creative history, his collaborations with talents such as Lily Allen and Amy Winehouse and his new album. He is also chatting about how he's done a viral video to promote Circuit Breaker - which is a totally off the chain - pacman-equse sitch. He's also talking philosophically about the Twitter epidemic.. he's a seriously cool and interesting guy. You can also click HERE to read his interview for the project site.

krystle warren.

I came across Krystle Warren when I was watching the amazingness that is BBC4 - it was a show of various artists singing songs from The Great American Song Book - it was seriously supreme. Krystle Warren has the kind of shocking vocal tone that Tracy Chapman has. It is mind blowingly luscious - I got very very excited about it. Rich velvet and soulful - and the way Warren performs is out of this world - I could watch every song a thousand times, the pure enjoyment and pleasure from singing is totally evident. The video above is Krystle singing Eleanor Rigby - IT'S AMAZING. Check it out.

Jamie Scott.

Next up in my search for hidden singers with the first name 'Jamie' - where is Jamie Scott? I love his music. And his face. I didn't love it when he was a cheating sleaze in 'Step Up' but I can't really hold that against him. I remember when this song came out about 6 years ago - I'd just past my driving test and I went out for my first drive on my own. Obviously, to try and be cool, I had my music quite loud (including this song and Estelle 1980... another brilliant song!) Anyway, I saw a good looking guy and nearly crashed into a lorry because I lost concentration. You'll be assured in the knowledge that now, at 23 years of age, I am much better at multi tasking.

Age Ain't Nothing But a Number.

I was reading The Guardian this morning and came across this brilliant article about a 70 year old DJ - Mamy Rock (a.k.a. Ruth Flowers) - who is becoming a Euro sensation on the decks. She's apparently hoping to take her DJ-ing back to the UK - as at the moment she's relatively unknown here. So watch out for her rocking out at Ministry of Sound! I'm blogging about this to show that if you have talent and passion for something - nothing can restrict you. I think what she's doing is inspirational to older people who've lost their confidence to follow their dreams. Read the article - I've hyperlinked it above (image from The Guardian).

where has jamie lidell gone?

I love Jamie Lidell. I know it hasn't been that long since he last released - but even his last record was quite under the radar for someone who I think is brilliance personified (although he did win the best pop/rock album in the Independent Music Awards for his last album, JIM). His voice is like rapturous husky velvet - entwining through his soulful melodies and funk inspired pop sounds. He's just amazing. I can't handle it. I haven't heard this Lenny Kravitz/Otis Redding/ridiculously good style anywhere else in current music. So come on Jamie - release something immediately, if not sooner. and stop dancing like you do in Little Bit of Feel Good x

Jen's Spotify Playlist of Amazingness

Yesterday I thought it would be a lovely idea to share an incredibly Spotify playlist with the readers of Hit The Floor. It consists of horrendously amazing 80s music - lightly punctuated with a few 70s beasts and some borderline 1990 tracks. As I said in my article - Where I come from, there used to be a late night radio show on the local radio station, called 'The Wind Down Zone' - that's right people - The Wind Down Zone. So - as I articulated - I used to frequently 'wind down' to the soothing tones of 80s power ballads. -- During the day they didn't disappoint either, with a vast plethora of 80s classics. It really was quite something - and has shaped my adult music taste. Or at least one section of it. So link on the hyperlink up above - and you can access the play list and have some fun with arguably the most amazing songs on earth. You can also have a look at Hit The Floor - watch out for some cool interviews I'm doing in the near future. Peace Out.

HIT THE FLOOR MAGAZINE

Sadly, Vexed has now closed - but Chris, Kiff and I are starting a new site called Hit The Floor which will be launching very soon! We'll be getting some great features and interviews up from the offset - so stay tuned!!

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Fat Freddy's Drop.

I'm on an interviewing beast at the moment for a new site called Hit The Floor (coming soon...) and I have just done an email interview with the sax player (Chopper Reedz) from the incredible Fat Freddy's Drop... they use that wah wah pedal like it's a porno. I seriously love their amalgamation of reggae, soul, jazz, sex and general amazingness. I first got into FFD about 2 years ago through a boy I liked. I find that I learn a lot about music and new bands through boys - sometimes it's all they're good for! When I publish the interview I'll put up the link. Get excited. I know I am.

Toro Y Moi.

This guy has been deemed 'one to watch' for 2010 and I completely agree. He's amazing. Toro Y Moi A.K.A. Chaz Bundick is lead singer of 'The Heist and The Accomplice' but is currently doing this solo project - which consists of two records that will be released this year, the first being released in February. His style is symptomatic of Daft Punk, with obvious influences of mellow 70s tunes. I love it. I've been asked to do something on him so I shall inform when it is published.

Glee.

I just had to do a post about how much I enjoyed Glee last night. I watched the pilot ep when it was on - and enjoyed it even more last night. It's the type of thing I could watch all day every day - it's absolutely hilarious with great songs. Me and my bff are obsessed and there's enough eye candy to go round too!

happy 2010!

Happy New Year!!

I hope you are all (...if anyone reads this?) suitably rotund after all of the festivities. I know I am.

I recently had two articles published with Se7en Magazine - one about the past year in music and one about acts to look out for in 2010

I purposefully picked acts that hadn't really been covered by the more established publications. I'm very excited about Jessica Cornish (Jessie J) and Julian Perretta for 2010, especially.

Looking at what the big guns have said - I am excited too. Daisy Dares You is absolutely brilliant and I urge you to have a listen:

Arturo Sandoval.

Since I've had a bit of a gap from playing my sax, I haven't listened to a lot of jazz. On a youtube sesh I searched for Arturo Sandoval - my band leader was a trumpet player so he always used to tell us about Sandoval. He is an amazing trumpeter - smooth and amazing tone, fast and brilliant improvisation. Love the rhythm in this song - we used to play it in my uni jazz band. WATCH IT.

Rob Brandon.

I am writing this post because my friend Rob is about to move to Austria for 6 months to work with Red Bull. He is a music-video-maker, a short-film-creater and an extremely talented person (with good dancing skills thrown in). You HAVE to look at his website -- you can see his brilliant videos here and read his blog. I wish all music videos could look like his - so intricate and creative and thoughtful and clever!

He blogged about this video below yesterday. It's some "unofficial visuals i whipped up for the track 'Hot chick' by Uffie on Ed Banger." I LOVE IT. The way he's used shapes, pulsing, colour, text and the placement of all of these elements on the screen is so completely brilliant. I have a big interest on how you can merge your senses - similar to when I posted about Non Fortmat doing a visual representation of a Nas rap -- this is the same. He's captured what he's heard and turned it into the most vibrant and compelling aesthetic version.

Good luck in Austria, Rob!!! Have a brilliant time and let me know when I'm visiting xxx.

Uffie- Hot Chick (Glitch Remix) from Rob Brandon on Vimeo.

Jessie J.

Jessie J is absolutely A.M.A.Z.I.N.G. She has supported the likes of Jools Holland and Macy Gray and now she is signed to Universal. Shes outstanding, I can't stress this enough. Her voice is one of my top. Her songs are fantastic and what I love most is that she brings something totally different to the table. Her soulful influences come through to give her such a powerful vibe - she could be jazz, she could be soul, she could be r&b - to be fair she could be anything she wanted. She's worked so hard at getting to where she is - which is commendable but also a little frustrating to see when there's so many people with zero talent waltzing through and getting signed. Jessie J has enough star quality to light up London - keep an eye out for her.

Frankmusik @ G-A-Y 8th August

I was extremely excited to go and hear Frankmusik play at G-A-Y a few Saturdays ago. Everybody loved him, and he had great stage presence. It's always nice when you hear an artist live and it's hard to decipher differences between their live and recorded performance. It seems quite a rarity that singers can actually sing. His vocal range is out of this world and he has a real energy when performing that infects everyone watching him. I remember watching a t4 music show last year with Frankmusik and La Roux, and the presenter awarded La Roux the accolade of 'one to watch' - and although I love what La Roux does, I was very much attracted to Frankmusik. I think his songs are the perfect combination of past present and future. There's obvious synth influences and he gets inspiration from past bands (take, for example, the melodic resemblance to The Stranglers' Golden Brown on his track When You're Around -- my favourite track of the album). With this overt 80s inspiration, Frankmusik catapults his sound to the cutting edge, he's a truly innovative and exciting artist.

I'm very passionate about the talent and potential of this artist - which is why I have to say these next four words: Tim Chester you're vile.

I am all for everyone having their own opinion - but this little sub-human idiot is just unnecessary. Even if you despised a record, there is no way that enough venom could be sparked up in you to create a review of such hatred, so I have to come to the conclusion that this person has a large chip on his shoulder and a tiny penis. I'm not entirely sure why nme allowed this review to be published, but all I can say is that it takes great talent to acknowledge the greatness of retrospective melodies and turn it into something completely original and current. Unfortunately that review was nothing more than the outbreak of an extremely inadequate failed musician.

In conclusion - Frankmusik - keep doing what you're doing - everybody loved you that night and I hope to see you again in the future. ALSO - the album illustration for Frankmusiks' stuff is out of this world - I shall do a blog on the person who did it.

Vexed Magazine.

I have just had my first two music reviews published at Vexed Magazine - it's such a cool digital publication that focuses mainly on music, please read it - it's a really cool mag. My first two reviews were for the new singles by Temposhark and French Horn Rebellion. Already I'm learning so many new bands and styles - it's really cool. If you keep looking you may see pics of me on it too.. as I was physically forced to take pics of myself with a sign saying I Love Vexed.. x

Prim. Aug/Sep.

prim. Magazine just keeps getting better and better - and I am so lucky to be able to write for them. This issue seriously excels itself - the layouts alone are out of this world. The shoots are so artistically driven and so compelling to look at - it helps you to think of fashion in different realms. There are some really brilliant features this issue. I wrote about Ventury's new couture furniture line, named Divine. It was so interesting to write. If you don't read prim. -- then start. It's brilliant.

Those Dancing Days.

Beacuse I've just started this blog, and have recently given up facebook for lent (thus freeing up a considerable amount of time), I am going to post a thousand things in one night. How exciting.

In November, I went to a gig in Leeds by this brilliant band from Stockholm - Those Dancing Days. I went because Sky Larkin were supporting them, and their singer/guitarist is a friend of my bez. I didn't actually know what the headlining act was, but I absolutely loved these girls. Their style (dress-wise and music-wise) is brilliantly original, and they have such an energy when they perform. I LOVE their music and Linnea (vocals) has a brilliant voice. Very glad I went. (Fav song - Discho').