Let Us Be Loving... Alice Russell just keeps getting better and better. Having just bestowed on us a new remixes LP, she's also blessed us with this great video of 'Let Us Be Loving'. Enjoy.
This EP of remixes of Mayer Hawthorne's 'Green Eyed Love' (from his debut LP 'A Strange Arrangement') is out now on download. You can get a free copy of the Classixx Remix here, but if you want to know what the Waajeed Remix sounds like before you order the luscious green vinyl version, just click on the button here.
Free soul covers EP from Zo!
If you haven't got this already, we recommend you head straight on over to the Moovmnt website (do not pass Go, do not collect £200) to download '...Just Visiting Too', an EP of soul covers from producer 'Zo!'. This is class music, but is being given away free as a taster for his forthcoming LP 'SunStorm' which will be released in the summer. Don't say we never told you...
The Bamboos - On The Sly And while we're talking about Kylie Auldist, you can also catch her here as she teams up with the funkiest band in the Southern Hemisphere.
Kylie Auldist - 'In A Week, In A Day' Remix
This is the second single off the excellent 'Made of Stone'
LP from one of our favourite soul divas. The EP includes remixes from Hint, Flevans and PTH Projects, and this one is the Ashley Beedle Streetsoul Remix of 'In A Week, In A Day'. The record will be released on Tru-Thoughts on 11th January 2010.
As an antidote (not that one was needed) to Kerogen's Witness (below) we now bring you 'Air Filter' from (also London-based) Special Benny. This is a charming affair that mixes influences of Belle & Sebastian and Belleruche to provide a layered, harmonic and ultimately enjoyable track.
This track is a really good balance between deep house and dubstep that avoids being too clichéd by loading in buckets of darkness. Deep bass rhythms that just want to make you drive along a rain-soaked motorway in the dead of night. A great single from this underground London producer.
The Better Life Remixes - George Levin
Twelve remixes of one song is quite a lot in anyone's books, so you may not want to download all of these versions of George Levins 'The Better Life ft. Clara Hill', but a few are worth your attention. This, the 'Restless Soul Vocal Mix' is our top banana of the bunch.
Down To The Bone - Future Boogie
Just came across this by chance, but wanted to share it with you. This is the British funk band's debut LP on Freestyle, having previously been published on Verve and Blue Note, so you can be assured it is top drawer. Contributions from Roy Ayers and Hil St Soul just add more credibility where it is due.
Tru-Thoughts 10th Anniversary 3CD Set
It can't have escaped you that the mighty Tru-Thoughts label is 10 years old this year. As a culmination of many celebrations, they are releasing this 3 CD set on the 19th October (available from the Etch Shop). As well as a limited edition numbered booklet, the third CD contains exclusive tracks commissioned just for this set, so this is definitely something worth having even if, like us, you have most of the tracks from CDs 1 and 2 already.
And, just to prove our point, here is an acoustic version of 'No Use' from Kylie Auldist.
Quantic & his Combo Barbaro live in Paris We still can't get enough of Will Holland's new band. Click here for a video of them live in Paris in September 2009.
Free Afro-Beat download from Jimi Tenor & Tony Allen
As part of Strut Records 'Inspiration Information' series (this is number 4), Jimi Tenor (Finnish experimentalist) and Tony Allen (drumming guru from Fela Kuti's Africa 70 band) have joined forces to produce a funky, reggae-tinged afro-beat record of pure class. The LP is out on November the 4th, but to give you a taster, and courtesy of Strut, we have one track to give away free to you, the listener. To download:
From Windows - right-click over the image above and select 'Save Target As...'
From a Mac - CTRL-click over the image above and select 'Download Linked File'
You can also listen to the track on
MemePlayer. Enjoy!
A New Band - 'Way Out West' In the spirit of introducing new talent to the world, please take some time and have a listen to 'Way Out West'.
A tasty dance groove with plenty of vintage synths. The new LP is called 'We Love Machine' and you can listen to the whole goddam lot on their website. You can also download one of their tracks free. Lem'me know what you think. Stonephace / Hexstatic Ticket Competition
If we weren't doing our own gig on the 7th November, we'd be entering the Tru-Thoughts competition
to win a pair of tickets to the Stonephace show at Koko where they will be supporting Hexstatic. Goddamit!
To enter, just head on over to this page on the Tru-Thoughts website.
And, whilst your on the hunt for free stuff, check out the new mix from Quantic which comes with a free T-shirt. All the details are here.
Soundcloud
You may have noticed some Soundcloud widgets appearing on the Mixes page. We're just getting into this, but we're loving it already. Essentially, Soundcloud is a website where you can store, send, recieve and hear music. Songs and mixes are posted up into a neat 'wave form' on the site (and, via widgets, on other sites) which can be commented on by the artist or the listener. This is particularly useful for mixes where the different track starts can be identified through timed comments.
If you want to send us your music for review, just click on the Drop Box button on the left here.
Impossible Ark: A Compilation
This is a bit different. Born out of a need to record, where there didn't really exist a recording culture, some great jazz/afro/folk musicians, Ben Lamdin (he of Nostalgia 77 fame)created his own label along with bassist Riaan Vosloo. This compilation is the result of that work: here you can listen to some extremely diverse styles of music including country/soul from Jeb Loy Nichols,afro-funk from Skeleton and experamentalism from Examples of Twelve, all of which are interesting but also, more importantly, enjoyable. But you don't have to believe us - listen for yourself to 3 tracks from the LP. Released 05.10.09.
Listen to 'African Mailman' by The Rhythmatic Orchestra (Impossible Ark)
Listen to 'Positive Force' by The Skeleton (Impossible Ark)
Listen to 'Solstice' by The Voices of Time (Impossible Ark) Naomi Shelton and the Gospel Queens
We've come to this a bit late (it was released way back in July) but definitely think it was worth a shout. On Daptone Records, home of soul queen Sharon Jones, Naomi Shelton takes a similar diva-ish role with her LP 'What Have You Done, My Brother?', but on a gospel tip. Some really beautiful songs with real soul and funk influences which make it stand out from the rest of the gospel pack. Great question-and-response singing between Naomi and the Gospel Queens, all with a strong moral message (Christian or not). Listen here or here, then, if you haven't already, give Naomi her dues and buy the goddam LP.
Mayer Hawthorne does Mr Blue Sky We have a secret love for 'Mr. Blue Sky' from ELO (just listen to MemeMix005 for proof) and so, it would seem, does Mayer Hawthorne. Here he is performing the song live on KCRW recently.
"And now we need a pound of fat back drums..." This is the second in an occasional series of classic soul videos we've come across (thanks to @mffonline) - this one from the mighty King Curtis & the Kingpins. Just sit back, click here, and enjoy. It's that simple. Happy Birthday to Tru-Thoughts The mighty Tru-Thoughts label has been pumping out brilliant music for 10 years now, and we should all be very grateful for that fact. Here's a video of their birthday party highlights over an Alice Russell sound-track. All together now..."Happy Birthday to you, happy birthday to you..."
The Killer Meters - Breakin' Out We're looking forward to reviewing 'Breakin Out' - the first Killer Meters LP to include their own material, following up from their cover album of The Meters. So you can guess this is a funky affair, but they have added some rock influences and the permanenet vocal talent of Karime Kendra. Head on over here to preview the sound.
DJ Vadim - That Lite
We're still well into the DJ Vadim re-remix of Mr Day's 'If I Can't Love You' which featured on our last mix. 'That Lite' is the second release from DJ Vadim's 'U Can't Lurn Imaginashun' LP - very soulful and very hip hop all at the same time, with a great hook. You can listen to the Astronote remix, which turns things up a notch or two, right here in the comfort of your own home. Listen and buy on download or vinyl only here.
Listen to 'That Lite ft. Juice Lee & Rjay (Astronote Remix)' - DJ Vadim. Released 30/09/09 on BBE.
It's Raining Disco!
How excited were we when a four volume disco CD series dropped through the letter-box? 'Disco Discharge', from Harmless Records and released later this month, has been compiled by disco guru MrPinks and includes full 12" versions of disco classics and rarities. The individual double CDs cover 'Classic Disco' (the first one to be released), 'Disco Ladies' (our favourite one so far), 'Euro Disco' and 'Gay Disco & Hi NRG'. Definitely worth looking out for. Available to pre-order from Amazon, Play and HMV.
It's not just Disco, it's Future Disco
I'm sure you've had the time to check out the Nu-Disco queen, Shena (see News item further down), so I expect you'll be all lathered up and wanting more (...more, more). The answer lies in a new compilation coming out in October titled 'Future Disco (A Guide to 21st Century Disco)' on NeedWant Records. Mixed by Sean Brosnan, it features the epic pianos of Juan MacLean's 'Happy House', the 90's house nod of Todd Terje's mix of Sh*t Robot and the unadulterated disco of Faze Action's 'I Wanna Dancer'. If you can't wait that long, get hold of the first in the series (iTunes or Amazon) to keep you going till then.
Natural Self LP Preview
If you've listened to the mini-mix from Natural Self of his forthcoming (19th October) LP, 'My Heart Beats Like A Drum', and you need more, then try this full-length track, featuring Elodie Rama, for size.
New Kinny Remixes
What happens if you combine the top soul credentials of Kinny with the progressive jazz vibe of Stonephace? This: the Stonephace remix of Kinny's 'Afro Love Forest'. Available (from 14th September) on a digital-only Tru-Thoughts EP that leads with remixes of 'Back Street Lust' from Azaxx and Deisler.
Mercy? At last! This is how Duffy's 'Mercy' should sound. The first single
on the new Tri-Sound label (founded by Hellman Chess, who's father founded Chess Records, and Eddie Piller) this is about as authentic a soul sound as you are going to get. Let's hope the next few releases carry this on.
I Want DISCO!
The absolutely latest thing is Disco (you can call it Nu-Disco if you want).
And leading the charge from right here in London Town is Shena. Having provided backing vocals for some of the greats (James Brown, Chaka Khan, Luther Vandross) she has stepped to the front to deliver some real corking disco tracks. You can see her on YouTube, listen on MySpace and buy on iTunes right now. A debut LP is to follow very shortly. (Thanks to SoulUK for the tip).
Dancehall version of Michael Jackson's 'Rockin' Robin'
Grant Phabao, he of ParisDJs, has created a reggae version of MJ's 1972 single 'Rockin' Robin' (which was, of course, originally released by Bobby Day in 1958, but you clearly already knew that). Very kindly, he has made it available for free download here. If you like this then also try our recently-revamped Michael Jackson mix.
Tru-Thoughts Covers
One of the things we like about TT LPs is the
great cover versions that frequently pop up on them. Now the chaps from Brighton have gathered them all together on one album for us to enjoy. The range of music is diverse, with some unexpected merging of songs and styles. We've put three of them on the
MemePlayer for you - the classic 'Seven Nation Army’ by Nostalgia 77 featuring Alice Russell, 'You're Not Alone' by Woon and 'Put Your Hands Up For Detroit' from TM Juke and the Jack Baker Trio.
Album is released 7th September on TT's sister label Unfold. Full review to follow soon.
MJ Mix Polished Up We did our Michael Jackson tribute mix before he died, but we've just gone and polished and refined it a bit. You can listen and downloadfrom the Mixes page.New Soul Music from Mayer Hawthorne Just a quick heads up to check out Mayer Hawthorne who provides authentic retro (if that's possible) soul music via Stones Throw Records. Also grab the Gilles Peterson podcast. Don't say I didn't tell you.Free Tracks from K7! Records Just as they did in 2008, K7! Records (home to Tosca, Boozoo Bajou and The Herbaliser) are giving away more free tracks if you sign up for their newsletter. Just go here to register. New Meme Mix available now Continuing our laid-back approach from MemeMix009, we've kept number 10 real simple by taking our favourite songs that we've recently bought on vinyl and compiling them together on one soulful summer mix for you.
Go to the Mix page to listen and grab, or subscribe to the podcast link for instant iPod gratification.
Glade Festival Mix For those of you who like your dance music heavy, you should really check out the Glade Festival ('Best Dance Music Festival 2008') and also the compilation CD that trackitdown.net have produced which showcases some of the artists that are appearing, including Underworld, Booka Shade, Krafty Kuts and the Beat Assassins. You can listen to tracks on the trackitdown player - the full download includes 20 tracks and a 70 minute continuous mix. Available here for a measly £5.99 right now.
Competition: Win new Tru-Thoughts 2CD Compilation! We've got a copy of the highly-desirable new Tru-Thoughts compilation CD to give away. The 'Shapes 09:01' double album features tracks from across the label's very impressive line up, including The Bamboos, Quantic, Nostalgia 77 and The Hot 8 Brass Band. Many of the tracks are remixes or alternative versions to those found on their home albums. (To 'try-before-you-win', download a free track, for a limited time only, by clicking here).
If you would like a chance to win this CD, just sign up to the Meme Magazine monthly newsletter here. If you are already a subscriber just email us here with the subject line 'Tru Thoughts Competition' and we'll enter you automatically. Closing date is July 5th. We'll then contact the winner by email to arrange delivery. What have you got to lose?
Preview of new Kylie Auldist LP We have a couple of tunes from the forthcoming (10th August) LP from Kylie Auldist. This is the Tru-Thoughts artist's second record, and she is again backed by the mighty Bamboos (with Lance Ferguson carrying out the production duties). This time there is a bit more diversity in the songs, with her funk staple joined by some moody soul numbers. Here's a couple of the songs on the
MemePlayer for you to have a listen to.
Ship Inside A Bottle
One Goodbye
Music from the dark side
Two of our favourite bands from the edges of the musical envelope are (jazz / electronica) FourTet and (dubstep) Burial, who have just collaborated on a couple of songs, called 'Wolf Cub' and 'Moth'. These are probably exactly how you would imagine a joint effort from these two guys but, importantly, they are tracks where the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.
Available only on 12" vinyl (from Phonica or Juno), even the label is completely black. We've put Moth on the
MemePlayer for you to have a listen to (just click the play button on the right).
Dimitri From Paris delivers new compilation We love Dimitri From Paris's cheeky electronica / disco sounds so were very interested to see he has compiled a CD of 'extended remix' versions of some of his favourite songs, called appropriately 'NightDubbin'. This may or may not work for you, but you can get a jolly good idea if it's for you by having a listen here. We think it's a bit of a grower.
Exclusive Jazzanova Interviewwith Meme Magazine We are very excited to bring you an exclusive Meme interview with Stefan Leisering from Jazzanova. You can read the full interview on our new Features page right now.
New 'Features' pageon Meme Magazine We've added a new page to the site to be able to accomodate bigger news items and features that we will be running. The first of these is an exclusive Meme interview with Jazzanova!
MemePlayer Refresh We've just refreshed the tracks on the
MemePlayer for you. We've put on some recent vinyl acquisitions and tracks that we've referenced in some of our reviews. In particular look out for the two versions of 'Tears of Joy', the new soul 7" from Mr Day. The B-side is a reggae re-working by the Dynamics. Which is best? You tell us.
New Tosca LP We've liked Tosca's very chilled electronica music for a long time, but when we heard they had a new LP out we were a bit concerned that they may have passed their sell-by date. Fortunately for us, and you, that's not the case: 'No Hassle' is over 2 hours and 26 tracks of gorgeous laid-back beats. Try and find some space in your life for it. Listen and/or buy here.
New place to buy music online We've just discovered Soul Seduction, an online music store that seems to sell a lot of music that we like. It's all download, and all pretty much soul, dance and electronica. There are some neat extras to the site, including reviews by themselves and customers, and a very good search function. You have to 'load up' with credit if you want to buy something, but you can do this in small amounts and the prices are pretty good anyway (in Euros). We'll be posting links to the site when we tell you about new music, so give it a go.
Pure Colombian We introduced you to Will Holland's new band 'Quantic and his Combo Barbaro' last week (see below) after we were rather taken by the pre-release track ('Linda Morena') his label very kindly sent us. (Remember, by employing the immense and unbounded resources of the Interweb, you too can listen to this track on our very own
MemePlayer).
Now we are happy to bring you some more details of this latest project from Will, who moved himself down to Cali in Colombia in order to put together the best band possible. The songs on the new LP ('Tradition In Transition', due 6th July) take Caribbean, African and Latin American roots and fuse them with the deep soul and funk sounds of Quantic's previous incarnations, to give a pretty unique flavour of contemporary South American music.
There will also be a film to accompany the LP, of which you can get a taster below. From what we can tell, this new LP is getting a lot of attention from the people who matter, so drop the name into the next conversation you have and sit back, smug in the knowledge that you know and understand everything.
Two Previews from Tru-Thoughts
Over a month before their release date, we've got you previews of two upcoming releases from those nice guys in Brighton. The first ('Deluge') is a track from Lizzy Park's second LP - this seems to be much more acoustic affair than her previous full-on record, so is more jazzy and folksy than you might expect. Probably a little too jazzy and folksy for the Meme ears, but you can make up your own mind by having a listen on the
MemePlayer . LP ('This And That') released 22nd May.
The second track ('Linda Morena') is much more our sort of thing. Will Holland, aka Quantic, recently moved himself down to Cali in Columbia and put together a new band (Quantic and his Combo Barbaro). This track (also available to hear on
MemePlayer ) is a tight, slow-burning piece of latin loveliness that means we can't wait for the full LP to come along. This single is released 8th June.
Amadou et Miriam Remix
We loved their debut LP 'Dimanche À Bamako', and Amadou et Miriam's latest ('Welcome to Mali') is pretty good too, but, if you like things a bit more electronic (err, that'd be us then), have a listen to this remix of 'Sabali' from Paul Epworth. And, as a bonus, here is another A&M remix, this time
by Bullion (with thanks to Soul Identity for the Twitter tip).
Peter, Bjorn & John Remix If you enjoyed 'Young Folks' last year, then you would have probably been disappointed by Peter, Bjorn and John's new LP 'Living Thing', just because it's rawer and darker. This, The Golden Filter's version of 'Lay It Down', is the best remix we have found from the record, but do watch out for filthy, filthy words.
Flaming Lips do 'Borderline' I know it's not the usual style of music we harp on about on this site, but we love the Flaming Lips and really, really love this cover version of Madonna's 'Borderline' that they have done with collaborators Stardeath and White Dwarfs. Click here to watch.
'One Woman Army' Remixes from Hint
Just a quick heads-up that Hint will be releasing some remixes of the best track from his recent 'Driven From Distraction' LP, 'One Woman Army' on the 26th May. These include a funked up, deep bass version of the song with a newly recorded vocal from soul diva Laura Vane. We've added this to the
MemePlayer so you can have a chance to listen well ahead of the release date.
Share The Love... We found this video of Barry White doing 'Love's Theme' on Mexican TV in 1976. The song is one of our favourites anyway (check out
MemePlayer for the original instrumental version), but the 70s visuals (especialy Mr. White's suit and the wavy dancers under the big air vents) make this even more special. Enjoy!
New Flevans Release
Flevans will be releasing a new single on the the 13th April, ahead of his next LP release '27 Devils' on 18th May. Flevan's funky pop sound is all home grown this time (no more sampling), with a superb vocal from Sarah Scott on 'Hold On'. Tight rhythms, a riding bass and a slowly building sound give this song a real energy. Also included in the digital release is 'Hold No Water', a driving, horny, semi-instrumental affair. We've put 'Hold On' on the
MemePlayer so you can hear for yourself.
Thank God It's East Sheen - the next Meme club night!
Three from Tru Thoughts
The Tru Thoughts release schedule for 2009 is finally getting underway (after the downfall of their previous distributor). The jolly nice guys there have been kind enough to send us some pre-release tracks for us to share with you.
First up is Stonephace, a colloboration of some great musicians including Larry Stabbins, Krysztof Oktalski, Jim Barr and Adrian Utley (of Portishead) . This is jazz fused with electronica, hip hop and afrobeat. Big, heavy sounds that we definitely can't get enough of. The two tracks we have are 'Wedghead Gets Lucky' and 'Five Miles High'.
Next is Nostalgia 77's collab with Julie and Keith Tippett. This is very much on a jazz tip and not exactly a Meme thing, but worth a listen if you like your jazz undiluted and unrestrained. (Listed as Track 05 and Track 10 in Meme Player).
Finally we have the new Kinny LP, 'Idle Forest of Chit Chat' (see below). This grows on us every time we listen to it and is well worth a punt for your hard earned record cash. As well as 'Desire', look especially for the Darondo backing to 'Water for Chocolate' (also look out for the explicit lyrics at the start if your kids are listening). We'll have a full review of this album (out 23rd March) soon.
A good start to the year for TT. Let us know what you think.
New Kinny video
The new Kinny single, 'Enough Said', can now be enjoyed with moving pictures as well. This is from her first solo LP ('Idle Forest of Chit Chat') which will be out on 23rd March. We definitely like the modern soul style and the quality of her voice, and will have more details on the album soon. Meanwhile, sit back, take a sip of coffee/tea/beer/wine (delete as appropriate), turn up the volume and press play.
We know you like it laid back, so we've put together a very cool mix of some of our favourite soul jazz tracks into one half hour mix. After the excitement of our inaugural party and the sheer noise of MemeMix008, we know you'll love to lie back and think of Meme...
Update: we've just re-uploaded this mix because some of the levels were a bit out. Feel free to download again.
If all you are hearing at the moment is Oasis and Lily Allen (only £5 at 7Digital!) then perhaps you need a few suggestions for some 'proper' music to listen to. Here's a list of a few songs that we have come across recently that have warmed the cockles of our heart.
4Turn The Whitehouse Black (TrusMe Remix) - Amp Fiddler
And, if you buy only one of these ('cos of the credit crunch and all that) make it the Cro-Magnon cover of the Moodyman classic 'Black Mahogani', available for download from ClickGroove.
Thank you to everyone who came to the Meme Party!
We had a great time putting on Meme's first party on Saturday night. We wanted to thank everyone who came and particularly all those who danced their socks off all night. We've put the track-listing from the last set on the Events page.
The general consensus seems to be that people want more, so we'll work on that as soon as we've got our breath back. If you want to come along again or you didn't manage to get tickets this time, then we recommend you sign up to our regular email so you can be the first to hear about the next one.
Sweet reggae remix (and free!)
Djouls from ParisDJs let us know about a reggae track Grant Phaboa has just put together based the classic soul / hiphop track, 'Honey' by Erykah Badu. We absolutely love it. It's being given away free on their website, so we suggest you head over their asap before they all run out.
DRM-free iTunes tracks
Apple recently announced that most of its songs will now be sold 'DRM-free'. That means they can be played on a lot of different MP3 players, and will now also work with most of the music streamers (which was a major bug-bear to anyone who had one of these in their house and couldn't access most of their library). So far on Meme Magazine, we've only pointed you at the minority of iTunes songs that didn't have DRM ('iTunes+') but now we're going to be able to give you lots more choice.
Bloody Good Song
We're going to do a full review of the cracking new Grace Jones LP anytime now, but in the meantime you should take a listen to the Aeroplane Remix of 'Williams Blood', the first single taken off the album. Not originally included on the EP, it is now available for download at eMusic. It's a slow-building song up to a classic anthemic finish - not bad for a 60 year old. Have a listen on the MemePlayer on the Home Page.
New MemeMix008: You Still Aren't Gonna Like This
Following on from our successful MemeMix004, we bring you another half hour selection of nu-rave, electro-punk music. With a couple of mighty Justice remixes, Hot Chip, Santogold, TEPR and the curious yet beguiling 'I Wish I Was A Polar Bear' from Ted & Francis, this is a mix that will keep you warm over the winter months. Cook for 33 minutes at Gas Mark 8.
Go to Downloads page to get it, or subscribe through Podcasts. Approximately 45Mb.
Another Label Sampler For You
Following the release of the Ubiquity sampler (see below) we bring you news of the latest 2CD sampler from our first-favourite record label, Tru-Thoughts. 'Shapes 08:02' contains an excellent selection of new Tru-Thoughts songs and remixes, including The Hot 8 Brass BAnd, 'The Bamboos', 'TM Juke' and 'Kylie Auldist'. Highlights for us are the Domu remix of Spanky Wilson and the TrusMe remix of Belleruche (both available to listen to on the MemePlayer). The second CD contains 'Dj orientated' tracks which are more dancey but still great. Available for only £4.99 at Etch.
Ubiquity White Label Release
Quick pointer to a digital-only release from our second-favourite record label, Ubiquity Records. Includes songs from forthcoming Ubiquity records, including a Shawn Lee / Nicole Willis collaboration, tracks from Sa-Ra Creative Partners andPlatinum Pied Pipers,as well as 3 unreleased Greyboy tracks and a dub mix from The Lions. An excellent taster for some upcoming LPs, but also maybe an introduction to some Ubiquity acts you may not have discovered yet. Available on iTunes+ and eMusic right now, with 'Sonic What!' by Blank Blue available to preview on the MemePlayer.
New MemeMix now available!
A bit of a departure this month with our MemeMix. We've given it a bit of a theme by collecting together our favourite Jackson 5 and Michael Jackson remixes and re-edits into one groovy half-hour package. There are plenty of surprises and some excellent tunes, even if you're not the world's biggest Michael Jackson fan. Go to our Downloads or Podcast page to get your own copy.
Chillax...
For anyone feeling the stresses and strains of the global banking crisis, or just depressed by the passing of summer (what summer?!), here is a selection of songs to help you both chill and relax.
The Cinematic Orchestra is a band with plenty of history, creating, as their name would suggest, luscious cinematic pieces. Jason Swinscoe brings us some gorgeous instrumental songs, whilst others use a range of vocal talents including Fontella Bass and Patrick Watson. Choose 'To Build A Home' from the latest LP 'Ma Fleur' or the classic 'All That You Give' from 'Everyday' as a starting point. The 'Live At The Royal Albert Hall' is also worth getting your hands on.
In a smilar vein, although a bit more left-field, is Four Tet, the brainchild of Keiren Hebden. He's recently teamed up with jazz drummer Steve Reid, but the early LPs are still firm favourites. 'Smile Around Your Face' (from 'Everything Ecstatic') and 'My Angel Rocks Back and Forth' (from 'Rounds') are good examples of this.
The Thievery Corporation keep going and going. We love their 'Richest Man in Babylon' and 'Mirror Conspiacy' LPs, and they've just released a new one called 'Radio Retaliation' (we'll let you know what it's like once we've got our hands on it).
We've put some of these tracks on the MemePlayer, so head to the Homepage or the Download page to lsiten right now. And...relax...
Pick of the Podcasts
Now that Meme Magazine has it's own podcast, we'd thought it would be a good idea to let you know what else is out there in podworld. These are all podcasts that we listen to on a regular basis, so all are worth a try - they're free and you can always unsubscribe if you find some are not for you. To make it as easy as possible for you, we've given you the link to the web-page and the subscription link (see our own podcast page on how to subscribe to podcasts).
We've just introduced the Meme GenreWeb for each of our LP reviews. Hardly any record nowadays fits into a single genre, so we've devised this unique way to show you the range of genres on each LP using a 'spider diagram'. Once you know what your own favourite genre shape looks like on the chart, you can quickly match that against the one shown in the review. Go to the Reviews page side bar to find out how it works.
Vodafone Live Music Awards
Meme Magazine was a VIP guest at the Vodafone Live Music Awards on Thursday night. The awards were at one our favourite venues, the Brixton Academy, which helped the event seem closer to the live gigs it was lauding, with some excellent set design and lighting courtesy of Channel 4. As is usually the case with these sorts of things, there were highlights and lowlights. On the down-side there was Will Young wearing particularly tight trousers and more than the regulatory 2 socks, and James Morrison who just seemed to go on for ever. We loved the Ting Tings who opened the show (although how they claimed to be 'live' with only a drum kit to play on is a mystery) and Primal Scream who closed it. Primal Scream won a couple of awards and it did seem that the crowd only really came alive once they came on. Our award for the biggest disappointment was for Glasvegas who seemed to sing a droning ballad rather than do their usual 'wall of sound with harmonies' thing. Lewis Hamilton was there to watch his new girlfriend perform as one fifth of the Pussy Cat Dolls, who were surprisingly good (for a pop act). A top night out which will hopefully get more people out to watch live music. The TV best-bits show will be shown on 4Music on Friday the 19th, T4 on Saturday morning and C4 during the evening.
Tru-Thoughts - our favourite record label
You may have noticed that quite a few of our reviews and purchases have been on the Tru-Thoughts record label. We love this label for lots of reasons and it is definitely one to keep an eye on. If you think of them as the UK version of Ubiquity Records then you will not be far off. Lots of electronica, dance, soul, jazz and funk music with some brilliant artists, including Alice Russell, The Bamboos, Hot 8 Brass Band, Quantic and Belleruche. Rob Louis, Tru-Thought's head and A&R man, has a weekly show on Brighton's Juice Radio which you can also hear on-demand for free on Totally Radio - always lots of good music from his own label but also other independent labels. Also on t'interweb there is the Etch Shop, a downlaod service for the label where you can buy all of their releases, the Tru-Thoughts podcast and a regular subscription email. Highly recommended.
Funk 'n' Veg
Always ones to pick up on a cheap trend, we couldn't help noticing the number of fruit and veg related band names around at the moment, particularly from the funky end of the spectrum. The good news is they are all mighty fine bands, so here's a selection from our own fruit bowl. We have 'The Apples' from Israel who have just released their debut LP ('Buzzin' About'), 'Lettuce', who's 3rd LP, 'Rage!', has managed to cover pretty much all styles of funk on one disc (including Move On Up featuring Dwele), and 'Cucumber', a very stylish French band on Cosmic Groove Records with a couple of brilliant 7"s, one of which is featured on MemeMix006. Have a listen to all of these - defintely the best way to keep up your 5-a-day.
MemeMix006: 'fnuk'
Funkier and punchier than any other mix around (probably), we have 30 minutes of pure concentrated funky music. No additives, no preservatives. Guaranteed to get your feet tapping, or your money back. Eat your heart out, Barry Scott.
As you may have guessed from the mixes we've put together, we quite like the Jacksons. Young Michael though has never been a favourite, until we heard a remix of Billie Jean by Ed Smith (no, we haven't heard of him either) which gives it a complete soul jazz makeover. It's only available on 7" (we got ours from HHV in Germany) but we will definitely put it in prime position on the next mix so that you can share in our joy. In the meantime go to the HHV website for a preview of this and the B-side ('Scream').
French Lesson
We've been picking up a lot of music from France lately so we'd thought we would give you a few quick pointers. Most of the artists (or is that artistes?) are on the same pitch as that started by Air and then Daft Punk - lots of synths and 80s vibes done in a contemporary way that make it sound thoroughly now.
We've mentioned Sébastien Tellier before but worth pointing you again to his 'Sexuality' CD and his sublime 'La Ritournelle'. And, of course, there is Justice who featured in MemeMix004, and who have an excellent remix of 'Stress' available at the moment.
Then we've just come across M83 who has just released 'Saturdays=Youth'. We first listened to it during one of those recent July days when it hadn't stopped raining and it fitted in very well to the melancholic feeling that this sort of thing brings out in you. And then on Meme fave label Buzzin' Fly there is Mlle Caro and Frank Garcia with their 'Pain Disappears' LP.
Lastly, there is Tepr who has done a very good remix of Santogold's 'Say Aha'. (He's also got a LP from last year called 'Cote Ouest' which, although pretty good, is a bit like listening to Manic Miner on acid). Also, you can hop, skip and jump over to ParisDJs and Excuse My French for even more ideas.
Enjoy! Au revoir mes petits oiseaux...
Sugarush Beat Company - L-O-V-E
This is now available for download from iTunes (although unfortunately not on iTunes+). One of favourite tracks of the year so far. More details on the band, with more links, if you scroll down this page.
We've come across a couple of tracks this week that we just can't get out of our heads, so, in the spirit of giving, we thought we would share them with you.
The first is a new single from Kidda on Skint Records called 'Smile'. It's based loosely around the Napoleon Dynamite film, starts off cheesy (nothing wrong in that), then goes big-time with a very clever drop of the Ski Sunday theme tune.
Secondly, we found an excellent remix of the Rolling Stones' 'You Can't Always Get What You Want' by Soulwax on ABKCO Records. Apparently it has been done for the soundtrack of a film called 21 and, at the moment, we can't find anywhere in the UK to buy it (although it is available on iTunes in the US).
We've put both of these songs on our Muxtape so head there now and have a listen. You can buy the Kidda on download from Juno.
MemeMix005 available now
Definitely a mix for Spring, with over an hour of sun-drenched tracks oozing soul, funk and some classic pop. Some Meme surprises in there for you as well. Get out the sun-lounger, put on the headphones and be happy.
Full track-listing appears here. To download right-click here (approx 85Mb)
The Sugarush Beat Company
We are a bit excited about this band. They haven't released much yet (and what they have released seems pretty hard to get hold of) but there is definitely something good brewing here. Apparently there is an LP due in August which we will, of course, review for you, but in the meantime have a look and listen at the following links for a flavour of what's to come.
There is a new download site that we think is quite good. At the moment they are celebrating the licensing of the Warner Bros catelogue by giving away some albums for £5, including the new Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds 'Dig, Lazurus, Dig!!!'. All are high quality mp3 and iPod compatible.
