Tuesday Track - 'The XX Gon' Give It To Ya' (DMX vs The XX)

After mentioning on the blog last week that I thought it would be the perfect end to the mashup genre, I am clearly wrong. I am not a big XX fan, however when I heard this tune it made me love the track, well not the XX version but this insane one! DMX comes roaring like he did all those years ago barking into the track and gives it to us! Utter genius!!

'The XX Gon' Give It To Ya' (DMX vs The XX)

New Music Monday - Sunbirds

Sunbirds are a four piece from the UK, they have some amazing upbeat songs, the vocals are a mixture of Klaxon's meets Fleet Foxes, they harmonise through some chorus very well but with more of an edge and speed than Fleet Foxes but more talent than Klaxon's. The bass kicks through the songs which inevitably will lead to some ridiculous head bopping action as the guitar cranks over the top. Great songs, I look forward to checking them out at one of their forthcoming London dates.

Sunbirds Myspace

Remix Thursday - Ellie Goulding (Feat Theophilus London) Starry Eyed (Penguin Prison Remix)

Ellie Goulding will be a big star according to the BBC Sound of 2010 where she topped the billing. This last week she also won the Brits Critic's Choice, becoming the first artist to win both awards. Her album comes out in a couple of weeks time and this is a remix of her current single by Theophilus London (who was mentioned heavily in the Welcome to Brook-Hop article a few weeks back. Enjoy!

Ellie Goulding (Feat Theophilus London) - Starry Eyed (Penguin Prison Remix)

Beatles vs Hip Hop

A few years ago ‘Dangermouse’ broke onto the scene, the reason behind his sudden rise of fame was that he had taken samples from ‘The Beatles’ ‘White Album’ and mashed them up with an a capella ‘Jay-Z’ ‘Black Album’ to create the now infamous ‘Grey Album’. It was initially going to be released on a small run however what happened changed both the lives of ‘Dangermouse’ and the music scene. EMI intervened and tried to stop the music from getting out, but the cat was already out the bag. As a result they started to build a lawsuit against ‘Dangermouse’ should he release the album commercially (as ‘The Beatles’ hadn’t cleared any of the tracks on the album for use). This lead to Grey Tuesday in which a movement to try and restructure the music industry which lead to a large number of websites hosting the album on their page for free download, this along with the added coverage that the album had received through both EMI’s public outcry about using the Beatles music and the favorable reviews which they had started to receive from ‘The New Yorker’, ‘NME’, ‘Rolling Stone’ meant that it became one of the most celebrated releases of the year, it was named the best album of 2004 by ‘Entertainment Weekly’ and was hailed as the greatest success of the mashup as it mixed two very different genres together.

After that release the world started to see ‘The Beatles’ being mashed up with everyone from ‘Metallica’ through to ‘The Jonas Brothers’, most of these remixes are pretty horrific however it was clear that the mashup had been elevated to new lengths.



Cut to 2010; its been 6 years since we heard ‘Jay-Z’ vs ‘The Beatles’ ‘Grey Album’. It’s appeared on countless top 100 album’s of the decade lists and hasn’t been forgotten, however nobody has tried to take on the baton from ‘Dangermouse’s superb album. This was until I came across a new mashup album; at 26 tracks long it’s definitely a full length album which could took over 2 months to create as each track is superb. So, who did ‘Tom Caruana’ chose to remix against ‘The Beatles’? None other than the ‘Wu-Tang Clan’, in my opinion it actually works a lot better than the ‘Jay-Z’ mashup. He has taken tracks from all of the members of the Clan, not the huge anthems that you would have expected him to use, there is no ‘Gravel Pit’ seen on this album. Instead the 28 year old music teacher from Brighton has chosen to use tracks such as ‘Forget Me Not’ by ‘Inspectah Deck’ from his solo album that was released in 1999, this was the first track that I heard from the album and it completely blew me away, it uses ‘The Beatles’ track ‘You won’t see me’ the results are actually mind-blowing! What I love about ‘Tom Caruana’s mix is that he has audio samples of interviews within the tracks which breaks up the album and gives it an additional level which wasn’t found on ‘The Grey Album’.


Raekwon Tweeting about the album

I am not sure what will happen next, will ‘Tom Caruana’ become a household name over the next few years like ‘Dangermouse’ has? Maybe; who can really say? He has been interviewed by the New York Times and produced what would be a great end to the mashup genre; unfortunately I can’t see that being the case. However I would highly recommend you to download the album and give it a listen as ‘Enter the magical Mystery Chambers’ will blow you away! It is a true masterpiece.

Tuesday Track - MGMT Metanoia

MGMT have just announced that their second album 'Congratulations' will be released on April 13th, this isn't a taster of their forthcoming album but an EP that they released in the USA late last year, the track is a mere 13 minutes long, so put yourselves into a comfortable chair and get ready to be taken on a journey through the stranger trippier MGMT world than you experienced on 'Oracular Spectacular'. Enjoy and let me know what you think about it......

MGMT - 'Metanoia'

New Music Monday - Lonely Galaxy

Unfortunately I am unable to really tell you much about Lonely Galaxy. They have no pictures on their myspace or any information whatsoever a search on google only brought back bare minimum findings. However his/their? music is gorgeous. Their forthcoming single 'Have a Heart' is 7 minutes long, it begins with an organ playing something reminiscent of 'Interpol's 'Next Exit' opening to 'Antics' however it builds into the lyrics of "I've been feeling pretty low" the two songs on their myspace are signs that Lonely Galaxy should be kept an eye on!

Lovely Galaxy Myspace

Remix Thursday - Kid Cudi 'Dat New New' (Viking Remix)

This remix blew my mind when I first heard it, 'Kid Cudi' has been blogged about for the past year more than every other artist. He has several superb remixes of his work and has been collaborating with anyone who's happy to work with him. However it was the Viking remix of 'Dat New New' which blew me away, sounding like Daft Punk meets Justice with Cudi doing his thing its something that's just extraordinarily good!

Kid Cudi - 'Dat New New' (Viking Remix)

The most watched half-time in the world

I am of course talking about the small known American Football phenomenon that occurs at the start of February each year; the Superbowl. Since the superbowl began in 1967 we have seen a performance occur in the 30 minute half time of the game. During this period the pitch is cleared a stage is erected and a band performs a 15 minute set which is shown live to approximately 90 million people. Originally the show would allow a marching band to perform to entertain the crowd. However as we saw an increase in audience ratings, along with the cost to advertise we saw an improvement in the level of performers that were able to grace the centrefield.

For the first decade the performers were usually a university marching band who would sometimes be joined by a famous artist, Ella Fitzgerald performed in 1972 in a salute to Louis Armstrong, it would however be nearly 20 years until we would have another famous artist perform, as we then saw the era of a performance show, they would tend to be themed and offered a glimpse into the 1980s world of sports entertainment. The 90’s couldn’t roll around fast enough however with the movement into a new decade we also saw the start of artists performing at half time. We began with ‘New Kids on the Block’ and Disney characters, performing a remembrance of the first 25 years of the superbowl. Then in 1992 ‘Gloria Estefan’ sang as some gold medalists from the winter Olympics skated around mini ice-rinks, it was indeed quite an unbelievable show….that is I can’t believe someone thought that it would be a good idea!



The first global superstar to perform during the 30 minute gap was Michael Jackson, his performance in 1993 transformed the Superbowl, it was the first year in the sports history that viewing figures increased during the half time slot. He performed a medley of songs which would forever transform the allotted half time show.



The rest of the 90’s saw Diana Ross, the Blues Brothers, TLC, Aretha Franklin and lastly Chaka Khan, Gloria Estefan (who along with Justin Timberlake are only artists to have performed twice) and Stevie Wonder. We started to move into a younger pop audience at the turn of the millennium with Christina Aguilera, Enrique Inglesias, ‘N Sync, Britney Spears, May J Blige and Nelly. After U2 performed in 2002 a tribute to those who died on 11th September we returned back to pop music, with Shania Twain, No Doubt and Sting performing in 2003. It would however be in 2004 that the performance would cause the most controversy, at the end of Justin Timberlake and Janet Jackson’s show. The world was introduced to the term ‘wardrobe malfunction’ something used to describe seeing Miss Jacksons tit.



After the controversy surrounding the wardrobe malfunction the NFL started to move into safer territory, they elected to move into the geriatric rockers territory. The next two artists were British, a first in superbowl half time entertainment. We saw Paul McCartney perform some classic songs from his illustrious career, performing Beatles, Wings and solo material. The NFL was clearly pleased with the lack of controversy so booked The Rolling Stones to perform, with The Stones however came the largest stage ever to be mounted in Superbowl history, as you can see from below the 28 pieces that were needed to be assembled were completed and they performed a good show.





After the Rolling Stones however was one of my favorite performances, Prince returned with his own symbol and performed a superb medley of songs including a cover of the Foo Fighters ‘Best Of You’ unfortunately as much as I would have loved to put a clip below of the performance however Prince worked tirelessly to have them all removed, so unfortunately you will have to take my word for it. The NFL have clearly been feeling the pressure to keep these aged performers making spectacular half time shows, they clearly want to show the performances of artists who may not be there in a few years time, we saw Tom Petty perform a perfectly inoffensive show. It was then the Boss who took the show to another level, Springsteen and the E-Street band put everything into that performance and really made it something that everyone would be talking about after the game. I could only find videos from the audience which didn’t quite do as much credit as it deserves.

This year we saw The Who perform, I was very disappointed by both Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey’s voices as they seemed past it; however the light show was something that took away from their sub par performance. I can’t help but hope that in the forthcoming year they start to return to younger artists as we are definitely starting to run out of the geriatric generation!

Tuesday Track - Kasha 'Empire State of Mind' (England Mix)

Jay-Z has become the largest player in the game, 'The Blueprint 3' included some amazing collaborations none finer than with Alicia Key's on 'Empire State of Mind'. However I came across this mix last week and loved it, Kasha has taken the instrumental of the Jigga mans track and referenced everything about this city. Give it a listen and laugh at some of the finer points of our city! Anyone who wants another version of Empire State of Mind check out Snoop's version of the track!

Kasha - Empire State Of Mind (England Mix)


Kasha Myspace

New Music Monday - The Drums

I know its not exactly hot off the new music wagon, but they will still be an unknown band to a few people out there....The Drums are the US equivalent of Glasvegas, they sing melodic surfer rock songs which when you listen the the lyrics show a much deeper meaning; "Oh moma, I wanna to go surfing, oh moma, I don't care about nothing". They are definately a band who's album will do wonders when its released. They also have the amazing opening slot on the NME Tour which will inevitably open some doors into mainstream success.

The Drums Myspace

Remix Thursday - Owen Pallett 'Keep The Dog Quiet' Simon Bookish Remix

L-R Owen Pallett, Simon Bookish

What appears to be yet another big up of Owen Pallett (Final Fantasy)! This remix is done by Simon Bookish who is still to get the fame he deserves! It takes the track and adds many more layers including some great beats which the initial recording was lacking as well as really fooling around with the song itself! Not the regular heavy remixes that you have come to expect on this blog but a great one anyways!

Owen Pallett 'Keep The Dog Quiet' Simon Bookish Remix

Welcome to Brook-Hop

When Bob Dylan sang on ‘Ballad of a thin man’ the timeless lyrics “Something’s happening here, but you don’t know what it is”. Im sure that Bob wasn’t talking about the underground hip-hop movement that has been rejuvenated in Brooklyn. Hip-Hop first came out in the 1970s from the Bronx however it was in the 80s that it started finding mainstream succes, the golden age (late 80s-early 90s) saw some of what we now consider the finest ‘Old School’ Hip-Hop royalty break onto the scene. Suddenly it moved out of the subways and street corners and into mainstream media.

This scene however has been forever changing since those days, we have seen the rise in a handful of superstars. Once they have been hand picked we see millions each year spent on keeping them as the crème of the game, 50 Cent’s last album bombed if compared to his previous efforts, Lil Wayne’s new album this week is atrocious after his superb ‘Tha Carter III’, could this be the end of hip-hop as we know it? Artists like The Game, Flo Rida, Akon and Chris Brown have turned the genre into pop music trying to break bad. The clever lyrics and interesting beats have paved way for mainstream crap with awful rapping over the top. However, amongst all of this there is a new underground hip hop movement going on in Brooklyn!

The first artist to emerge out of the Brook-Hop scene (if Nu-rave stuck then I don’t see why Brook-Hop can’t!) was Theophilus London. I first heard about him thanks to one of my other favorite blogs Abeano (worth checking out if you haven’t already! Imran runs a superb ship over there!) I was fortunate enough to finally see him perform last night supporting Miike Snow, the guy looks straight out of the 80s! Sporting a flat retro cap and some cool shades as well as some debatable clothing that could have easily been left back then he brings a superb show, mixing some classic songs and giving it his smooth lyrics over the top. His remix of ‘Amadou et Mariam’ track ‘Sabali’ is exactly what I feel that African music deserves, he takes a superb song and turns it into his own. The reason I have used ‘Sabali’ as the main example is that I have a lot of love for African music and am disappointed in seeing a huge rise in African influenced bands but no more interest in the originators of the sound. The success that has started to fall to Theophilus London is largely in part to the release of his first mixtape ‘This Charming Mixtape’ which I highly recommend you to download! The rise of the free mixtape download is a central part to this movement, with more MCs becoming savvy to production techniques and teaming up with incredibly musically gifted DJ’s they are able to gain a following from the releases of these free mixes. I would say to open the door into this world download ‘This Charming Mixtape’ and just give one listen to ‘Hum Drum Town’, ‘Crazy Cousins’, ‘Sabali’ and ‘Day One Fans’ and you will be a Theophilus convert! His new mixtape will be available for download in a few weeks time he informed me yesterday.

Now whilst these artists haven’t gained the same buzz as Theophilus has, they are worth checking out, after all it’s not an artist that makes a scene but a plethora of them! I wrote about them a couple of weeks back in New Music Monday however I wanted to re-promote Rocky Business in this blog. They will be starting to create some ripples in the music scene when they release their mixtape shortly. Lyrically ‘SB’ seems more powerful than Theophilus, he annunciates his lyrics whilst going at a 100mph over self produced breakdance tracks as well as some rocking pop tunes, musically its all produced by ‘Johnny on the Rocks’ they will be ones to watch as they fine tune their songs before breaking further into the mainstream in months to come.

Have you heard of ‘Fresh Daily’ yet? No! Well go and change that! Coming out of AOK Collective (which is a consortium of musicians and artists, claiming they are NYC’s final answer to indie Hip-Hop, other artists to check out from this group are '8thW1', 'P.SO the Earth Tone King', '2 Hungry Bros.' and 'Homeboy Sandman'. I have only chosen two of the collective and if you want to check out any of the others click on their names to go to their myspace pages. ‘Fresh Daily’ has got some smooth rhymes and is able to roll through his lyrics keeping you hooked the whole way along. His album "Gorgeous Killer in crimes of Passion is definately worth listening to, you will get a real feel of Brook-Hop done well! The other artist that I am going to plug out of the AOK Collective is 'Nola Darling', this is not only because she’s got tunes but also because a female MC deserves love in this male dominated genre!

Lastly I’m going to throw a bunch of names that if you have enjoyed listening to some of the beats and rhymes from the Brook-Hop scene then they are also worth giving a listen to: 'Black Sheep'; 'Shinobi Ninja'; 'Ninjasonik'; 'Anton Glamb'; 'Memberz Only' and 'Johnny Nelson'. Something makes me feel we will be hearing a lot more out of Brooklyn in the next year!

If you managed to listen to all those artits you deserve a round of applause! If you checked one of them out I hope you enjoyed it!

Tuesday Track - Javelin 'STD Fury'

I heard this track and loved it! It reminded me of the Teenagers when I first heard it, lo-fi electro indie with some of the most shocking lyrics! I may have actually received a few strange looks from people in my office when I decided to put it on my speakers last week during work! However I definately think that it deserves the plays that I have been giving it....although now on my headphones instead of for the office's enjoyment!

Javelin - 'STD Fury'

New Music Monday - Gold Panda

Gold Panda is the brain child of producer/remixer Derwin, who has been ripping up VHS, old records and retro computer games to create a superbly delightful left-field sound. Clearly influenced by the far east and Japan in particular he will surely be looking forward to the Japanese tour he has planned. I will be down to see him play the Corsica Studio in London on the 20th April after his return from the East! If you're local I would advise you to check him out as well! Failing that have a listen to his superb songs on Myspace!

Gold Panda Myspace