Something for Halloween...

Forget Michael Jackon's 'Thriller' or the 'Monster Mash' this is bearmusic's top 5 tracks you have to listen to on old hallow's eve, especially tailored for people who actually like music...

No#5: Scarecrow 

Narrowly ousting many brilliant tracks including British Sea Power's 'No Lucifer', the Dead Weather's 'Hang me from the heavens', ACDC 'Highway to Hell' and Jamie T 'Hocus Pocus'; its Beck's haunting harmonica that wins though. Taken from his classic 2005 album 'Guero' that includes one of the best guitar riffs of the millennium 'E-Pro' its the lesser known track 'Scarecrow' that gets the nod to start off the top 5

No#4: Poltergeist 

No Halloween chart would be complete without a track from the awesome Mars Volta; from there debut album following atthedrivein split when guitarist Omar Rodriguez-Lopez and vocalist Cedric Bixler-Zavala began there prog rock/ jazz fusion outfit they have become infamous for their ryhtmic math rock complexity. The debut album features RHCP's Flea on bass and was produced by the legendry Rick Rubin. 'De-Loused in the Comatorium' is a unified work of speculative fiction telling the 1st person story of a drug-induced coma, battling the evil side of the mind. Although lyrically obscure the debut single 'Inertiatic ESP' (and its intro track 'Son et Lumiere') the title mixes the physical state of inertia and a short Ectopic Shapeshfting Penance-propulsion...spooky stuff

No#3: Zombies

From the band that, in my eyes can literally do no wrong, number 3 on the countdown is the high tempo 'Bodysnatchers' taken from one of the greatest albums of the millennium, 'In Rainbows' (probably the best album since their own masterworks of 'the Bends' and 'OK Computer'...to read my thoughts on the band click here). Anyway Radiohead rimming aside, this track is beautifully haunting and was used as a promo for the album...

No#2: Satan

The penultimate track isn't just a Halloween song but the devil's own anthem, both epic and haunting in its lyrical depth and musical arrangement of the full orchestral strings over the raw Biffy Clyro energy with rising choir vocals this track is truly awesome and the intro is one of the best of this millennium. Taken from Biffy's commercial breakthrough album 'Puzzle' this is 'Living is a Problem (Because everything dies)'...

No#1: Vampires

Not only does this song qualify as the ultimate Halloween tune for the sheer brilliance of the track itself but the bands name as well conjures up all of what the day represents. I was lucky enough to see the Smashing Pumpkins at Reading festival a few years back and can confirm front man Billy Corgan's still got it, developing into somewhat of a comic book bad guy over the years which only adds to the bands live show appeal. 

Taken from their best known album 'Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness' that also features the huge '1979', 'Zero' and 'Tonight'; the chosen track is easily my favorite by the band - 'Bullet with Butterfly wings'. From the opening acapella line "The world is vampire, set to draiiiiiiiiiin" its grips you and the song takes flight...    

Something for the Dirty South...

A lot of brilliant music has originated from the south of the US over the years. From Blues thru Tamla Motown then in more recent years modern exports include massive acts who tap into this source such as awesome the Black Keys and the White Stripes. The later was the birth of the genius that is Jack White who went on to work on other projects such as the Raconteurs and the brilliant Dead Weather with Alison Mosshart from the Kills...


Something Old...

The Dirty South is these days a term given to describe the modern drudge of awefully bad hip hop from comes from that region of the world that has spawned one of the worst music to ever be made Crunk...somewere between EuroPop and Trance on the crap list.
However, it must be noted the reason the genre took off was on the back of one the last great hip hop acts. By the late 90s Atlanta had become a controlling city in the hip hop movement spawning the utterly brilliant OutKast. The duo of Big Boi and Andre 3000 became the first southerners to record album sales like the powerhouse rappers on the East and West Coasts winning six Grammies for their album 'Speakerboxx/Love Below' and they will forever be credited/ blamed with playing an enormous part in bringing Southern hip hop to the popularity level it has reached today.
The group's original musical style was a mixture of funk, soul, rock, blues and spoken word elements of the musical palette. For me their best work came in the form of the pair's fourth album, 2000's 'Stankonia'; spawning the brilliant tracks 'Ms. Jackson' that combined a pop hook with lyrics about divorce and relationship breakups, particularly André's breakup with singer Erykah Badu, the title "Ms. Jackson" character being a doppelganger for her mother. Their finest track has got to be track  'B.O.B (Bombs Over Baghdad)', a high-tempo jungle-influenced with brilliant anti-war undertones...

Something New...

As suggested by 'finger on the pulse' DJ mate of mine @yourlastrolo this weeks 'Something New' comes from P Money. Touted by many as the next Dizzee Rascal he is a grime MC from the 'Dirty South' London, well known on the dubstep scene for his style of MCing which is centered around reload bars. Anyway, I'm not really not that cool and I'd be lying if I said I understood this scene but I when I heard him in Rolo's car his fresh vocals over a raw industrial grime beat got me. This is 'Originator' and I'm assured "its gonna go off", whatever that means... 

Something Borrowed...

As suggested by regular contributor to the 'Something Borrowed' feature, my mate and resident remix DJ @N_C_R; this weeks brilliant cover is by The Civil Wars. The singer songwriter duo otherwise known as Joy Williams and John Paul White are not only beautiful to eyes but also to the ears. Hailing from Nashville, Tennessee their debut album 'Barton Hollow' is a fantastic listen, selling 25,000 copies in its first week. The album debuted at No. 1 on the US Billboard Digital Album Chart and No. 12 on the h'actual top 100 chart, definitely worth a purchase. Taken from Later this is a truely beautiful and raw version of Michael Jackson's 'Billie Jean'....

Something Blue...

Now the British weather has seemingly begun to take its evil grip on the nation its officially time to cuddle up with your loved one in front of a log fire (or in my case a radiator and a duvet) to enjoy a DVD or a boxset. With Halloween only a week away we see the return of the epic The Walking Dead. The graphic novel inspired drama’s second season aired last Sunday in the US.

Me and the other half have taken the most of the wait and finally got round to watching True Blood for the 1^st time. Originally we had it put off as it sounded like another terrible Twilight clone (not that I can even stand that anyway...real vampires should be more like Blade) but its actually brilliant; filled with sex, murder and adult content...yea I know this is a music blog not a DVD box set review but its cold outside ok and I’m rambling!

Tedious a link as ever; as heavily featured in the 1^st series of the brilliant True Blood southern rocks finest Lynyrd Skynyrd. Originating from Florida in 64 the band became prominent in the south US by 73 and rose to worldwide recognition with a back catalogue that now included ‘Sweet Home Alabama’ and ‘Free Bird’.

The track of choice, however, is ‘That Smell’ taken from the album ‘Street Survivors’. At the time the song was written, the band had been drinking and doing many different drugs. Front man, Van Zant had said that he started drinking heavily to relieve the pressure of performing in front of large audiences and he said, "I had a creepy feeling things were going against us, so I thought I'd write a morbid song (as a warning).” The lyrics cautioned that "tomorrow might not be here for you", and that "the smell of death surrounds you". Three days after the album was released, the band was devastated by a plane crash killing several members including Van Zant...

Something Else...

Something Old...

With the nights growing colder and darker all we are left with on the TV is X-Factor dominating prime time weekend viewing amongst the plethora of other terrible throw away reality shows on the box. Whilst the radio waves are brimming with awful disposable satanic pop (with added key change) from the reality offspring such as Matt Cardel, One Direction and other equally diabolic noise that makes you want to wrap yourself around a lamppost on the daily commute...Its time to remind the world of dan le sac Vs Scroobius Pip.

The hip-hop duo that combine electronic beats with spoken word and intelligent catchy sung chorus. With a name inspired by an intentional misspelling of the Edward Lear poem Scroob and Le Sac take a very wide spectrum of influence from Gil Scott Heron thru to Mogwai. The pair shot to fame in 2008 with their genius debut single ‘Thou Shalt Always Kill’ and the brilliant album ‘Angles’ before they followed up there debut album with their last single ‘Get Better’ and the album ‘The Logic of Chance’ in 2010.

The debut album includes many brilliant tracks other than ‘Thou Shalt...’, including the moving title track ‘Angles’, the catchy ‘The Beat that my heart skipped’, ‘Look for the woman’ and the track ‘Fixed’ which samples Dizee Rascal and takes a satirical view on the modern hip hop. The track that makes this weeks cut is another track from the debut album. In 2007, still unsigned, they used self promo and the duo created and posted a spoof video on YouTube auditioning for X Factor in front of Simon Cowell et al. The montage of clips of judges' comments are added to their profanity-laden performance of ‘It Ain't No Fun’ by Snoop Dogg. The duo then used this hype as springboard and released a free download of the genius ‘Letter From God To Man’ which includes a sample of Radiohead’s ‘Planet Telex’...

Something New…

“From the mystical, unGoogleable beyond comes a brand new collaboration in the form of Pyyramids”, the duo of OK Go’s Tim Nordwind and singer Drea Smith. “Living in the dark, atmospheric grotto midway between the dance floor and the mopey teenage bedroom of the mind”, their six-song debut ‘Human Beings’ will be available on October 31^st
The band is a reinvention for both players and steps into new, wild territory. For the guy with the bass, beard, and glasses in OK Go, the new expansive textures find him far from the bright indie pop and all-inclusive videos that have made them one of the most recognizable of the digital age. Whilst for Smith, formerly the saucy half of the electro-pop duo He Say She Say - and a stint with Lupe Fiasco - it brings her songwriting into a place of bold new maturity without sacrificing the force of her singular presence. For both, it is an unlikely partnership entirely befitting of the new age.

If you enjoy the alt-rock tension of ‘That Ain’t Right’ you will buy into the promise from the official website that their future is “an inviting one indeed, a long-promised map back to the buried valley of the dance-rock hook”, unfortunately they are so f f fresh their first gig isn't until next week and thus no YouTube vids are available yet so this will have to suffice...

http://soundcloud.com/pyyramids/that-aint-right 

 

Something Borrowed…

Bell X1 have in the last 3 years become one of favourite bands in the world after being introduced to them by better half @I_Blame_Kate. The Irish band from Kildare formed from the ashes of Damien Rice’s 90’s band Juniper have since gone on to release five critically acclaimed albums, including there latest work my album of the year ‘Bloodless Coup’ that includes the tracks the smash hit single ‘Velcro’ the moving ‘Nightwatchman’ and probably my favourite track by the band ‘4 Minute Mile’.

Paul Noonan, drummer turned front man is up there on my list of musical heroes and this week he posted a cover onto the bands facebook. ‘Manic Monday’ was originally written by Prince in 1984 and recorded by the Bangles in 1987, in dedication to my beautiful other half and her ear for brilliant ear for music....

Something Blue...

In homage to the sad news that former Weezer bassist Mikey Welsh was found dead this week after tweeting in September "dreamt i died in chicago next weekend...”, I take a quick look back through another one of the bands that shaped my youth and were pivotal in making geek chic cool again.

Led by the king of geeks Rivers Cuomo, who famously got one over on king of goths Marilyn Manson back in 90s by stealing his girlfriend, the band had a very humble beginning opening for Keanu Reeves’ band ‘Dogstar’...9 albums later they are one of the most influential and successful groups on the planet.

They are probably best known for their successful singles ‘Buddy Holly’, ‘Say It Ain’t So’ and ‘Undone (the sweater song)’ from the absolutely brilliant self titled debut ‘(the Blue)’ album that also carries the brilliant ‘My Name is Jonas’, ‘Holiday’, ‘No One else’ and the epic ‘Only in Dreams’.

Weezer's second album weighed heavy on their shoulders and ‘Pinkerton’ inevitably, buckled to the weight of critical and commercial pressure and became a cult success, spawning tracks such as ‘El Scorcho’ and ‘Pink Triangle’ before the band went on a hiatus that would take them to the next millenium.

It was following this hiatus in which the band would find Mikey Welsh and recruited him as their new bassist. In 2001 they were back to their best form again and produced their 3^rd yet again self titled ‘(the Green)’ album that includes the brilliant ‘Hash Pipe’ and ‘Island in the Sun’. Following the albums release, Welsh left the band and was checked into a psychiatric hospital before being replaced.

The band took an experimental approach for the recording process of their fourth album by listening to fans feedback, this process was something of a failure, as the fans did not supply them with coherent, constructive advice. Highlights from ‘Maladroit’ however do include ‘Dope Nose’ and the catchy ‘Keep Fishin’. The bands 5^th album ‘Make Believe’ was more of a push back to bands traditional sound and includes the smash hit ‘Beverley Hills’ and my favourite track by the band ‘We Are All on Drugs’.

The band then released there 6^th album in 2008, again self titled, ‘(the Red)’ album is, as far as I’m concerned their last album worth buying. Much more experimental sounding it includes the brilliant upbeat tracks ‘Pork and Beans’ and ‘Troublemaker’. Following this Weezer released 3 rather poor excuses for albums in ‘Raditude’, ‘Hurley’ (named after a character from Lost) and a compilation of rare and unreleased songs ‘Death to False Metal’.

Anyway in honour of the late Mikey Welsh this is ‘Hash Pipe’, “wooaoooooh”...

Something from the Heart...

Something Old...

This weeks ‘Something Blue’ was a last minute change of plan due to the sad death of a legendry musician Bert Jansch, thus the news that Bloc Party are auditioning for a new singer following (an alleged) fallout that pushes the band into the ‘Something Old’ category.

The 4 piece made up of genius lyricist and front man Kele Okereke, guitarist Russell Lissack, bassist Gordon Moakes and the phenomenal drummer Matt Tong draw influence from three of my favourite bands the Cure, the Smiths and Radiohead amongst others. Formed in 1999 after meeting at Reading festival it wasn’t until 2005 when they released the absolutely brilliant debut, platinum selling, critically acclaimed album ‘Silent Alarm’.

Kele supplied the vocals for the Chemical Brothers ‘Believe’ and the band released a follow up track ‘Two more years’ that bridged the gap before they built on this success in 2007 with the release of ‘A Weekend in the City’. The 2^nd album features the brilliant tracks ‘Song for clay’, ‘the Prayer’, ‘I Still Remember’, ‘Hunting for witches’ and a step into electronic with ‘Flux’.

Their 3^rd work ‘Intimicy’ followed the next year in which they worked with producer Jacknife Lee and the features the awesome ‘Mercury’, ‘Talons’ and ‘Ares’ the band have been on hiatus ever since 2009 to focus on side projects.

For me though the bands defining album is their debut, along with the Cribs and the Black Keys they filled my soul with the riffs I needed in the wake of the Libertines split. The album is and always will be one of favourite ever made, every track faultless and includes the quite frankly genius ‘Banquet’, ‘Helicopter’, ‘This modern love’, ‘Pioneers’, ‘Price of Gasoline’, ‘Shes Hearing Voices’ and my favourite track ‘Like Eating Glass’...

Something New...

This probably isn’t Something New to most of you but I don’t watch that much TV so it was for me until it they were pushed my way by @Bowerthe5thKing. The Heavy are a British neo soul/ indie outfit from Bath that you may not be aware of and are made up of two core members guitarist Dan Taylor and vocalist Kelvin Swaby.

They released their debut single ‘That Kind of Man’ in 2007 before signing to the Ninja Tune label and releasing there debut album ‘Great Vengeance and Furious Fire’. Not having much success in the UK they are quite the opposite in the US. Their 2^nd, last and best known album is 2009’s ‘the House that Dirt Built’ and features the tracks ‘No Time’ and ‘How You Like Me Now?’ which you’ll recognise from a TV advert, various series and movie soundtracks, US readers as it was 2010’s Superbowl theme. Despite this its another track from the album that I’m choosing this week, ‘Short Change Hero’ as used for various games, movies, promo ads and a credits for various US series, enjoy...

Something Borrowed...

The original is taken from the bands biggest album, known as the black album which has now sold over 22 million worldwide and is credited as the bands springboard for success. Also containg the tracks ‘The Unforgiven’, ‘Sad but True’ and ‘Nothing else Matters’

This probably isn’t what you expected when I said last week that I would get back to my metal roots but nerveless, as suggested by regular contributor @N_C_R a brilliant cover of Metallica’s ‘Enter Sandman’ by a load of 8 year olds...

Something Blue...

This weeks Something Blue is in memory of a true genius that passed away yesterday, the man who to one many “made put down my plectrum and use my fingers like a real man” R.I.P Bert Jansch, a true musical hero.
The Glasgow born, 68 year old was a legend on the folk circuit and is reknown as the leading figure in the folk revival, he may not be very well known to the main stream but his influence goes deep. He came to prominence in the 60’s as an innovative and accomplished acoustic guitarist, but also as a singer and songwriter. He recorded 25 studio albums and has toured extensively, even up until this year. His work influenced so many artists that I class as my heroes including Paul Simon, Johnny Marr, Bernard Butler, Jimmy Page, Nick Drake and Graham Coxon amongst many, many more

His best known work is his 3^rd album ‘Jack Orion’ which quickly followed his 1^st two albums and contains the 1^st recording of the track ‘Blackwaterside’, which would later be taken up by Jimmy Page and recorded as a Led Zepplin’s ‘Black Mountain Side’, Jansch was never credited but its clear for anyone with ears that its an identical arrangement...

 

Something Bizarre...

Something Old...

In homage to Britain’s bizarre weather that has had been blathering on about as “an Indian Summer”, which roughly translated means “it’s pretty hot for September” this weeks ‘Something Old’ comes from one of the bands that shaped my youth.

 

Kula Shaker are a British psychedelic rock band led by outspoken front man Crispian Mills. They came to prominence during the post Britpop era of the late 90’s and had great commercial success with the brilliant ‘Tattya’, ‘Hey Dude and an awesome indie-spin cover of Deep Purple’s ‘Hush’ all from their 1996 album ‘K’.

 

But, of course you already knew I would choose ‘Govinda’, drawing inspiration from traditional Indian music, culture and mysticism and even includes lyrics from the Hindu sacred language, Sanskrit. The band's interest in all things Indian was inspired by a pilgrimage to India born out of a love for the Indian influences present in the music of The Beatles...

 

 

Something New...

I know what your thinking, this isn’t exactly brand new but this weeks ‘Something New...’ comes as special request of my aspiring DJ mate @yourlastrolo. As a tribute to one of his heroes, the musical genius that is the bear-esque Joe Goddard best known for his alternative dance work but he is now making a name for himself on the mainstream dance club circuit as a solo artist.

His work with Indie-tronica outfit Hot Chip on the albums ‘Coming on Strong’, ‘The Warning’, ‘Made in the Dark’ and ‘One Life Stand’  including a string of massive tracks such as ’I was a boy at School, ‘One life Stand’  and the massive smashes ‘Ready for the Floor’ and ‘Over and Over’.

He then moved on to his collaborative project The 2 Bears with Raf Rundell and amalgamates aspects of 2 step, house, hip hop and soul, this was the debut single released from there album this year ‘Bearhug EP’, this is ‘Bear Hug’ as released in June, enjoy....

 

Something Borrowed...

Following the dance theme, the Essex dance outfit the Prodigy also known as Liam Howlett, Keith Flint and Maxim; Along with Fatboy Slim and the Chemical brothers shaped dance music for me and I fell in love with big beat and realised dance wasn’t just industrial noise with a women moaning repetitive vocals over the top that was enjoyed by gurning chavs. Drawing influence from the rave and techno scene they packaged it in an intelligent structured form.

 

As I’m sure you already know some of their best tracks include ‘Charly’, ‘Out of Space’ and ‘No Good’ from their earliest two albums ‘Experience’ and ‘Jilted Generation’. This was then followed by there biggest hits such as ‘Voodoo People’, ‘Poison’, ‘Firestarter’, ‘Breathe’, the controversial  ‘Smack my Bitch up’ from there best known album ‘Phat of the Land’.

I was lucky enough to see them in 98 at Reading that was the beginning of there reunion that produced ‘Baby’s got a temper’ and the album ‘Always outnumbered’ that includes the brilliant ‘Girls’, ‘Spitfire’ and my other halves favorite dance track ‘Hot ride’.

Which brings us full circle to their last album ‘Invader’s must die’ that includes the title track alongside the brilliant ‘Omen’, ‘Warrior’s Dance’ and a track ‘Run with the Wolves’ that features the Foo’s frontman Dave Grohl on drums and tediously links us into this. Prodigy’s brand spanking new, absolutely awesome remix of ‘White Limo’ taken from the Foo Fighters last album ‘Wasting Light’....

 

Something Blue...

I hear a lot of people whinging at me recently “why are banging on about hip hop and dance music over the last few weeks we all know your a metal head at heart”, praise be, your calls have been answered and normal service will be resumed from next week on, well actually...starting now!

Up there with my greatest albums of all time alongside Pink Floyd’s ‘Dark Side’ and Led Zepplin ‘IV’ is this masterpiece, Black Sabbath’s ‘Paranoid’ from 1970. The first side of which includes the brilliant title track and the legendry ‘Iron Man’ alongside the truely epic, 8 minute of genius that is ‘War Pigs’. Written as an anti-war song in protest to Vietnam, G’wan Ozzy, stick it to the man...

 

Something Strange...

Something Old...

This track narrowly missed out on last weeks hip hop special blog and as I promised a few of my best mates that it would feature it has pride of place this week.

Massive Attack are a trip hop duo from Bristol and over the years they have collaborated with many artists including Neheh Cherry, David Bowie, Sinead O'Connor and Everything but the Girl's Tracy Thorn. Best known for the brilliant tracks 'Unfinished Sympathy' from their 91 debut album 'Blue Lines', 'Protection' from the 2nd album of the same name and the moving 'Teardrop' taken from their best known album, the 3rd of their 5 albums, 98's 'Mezzanine'. 

For me, its the track when they collaborated with the genius Mos Def for the Blade II soundtrack that will always be up there as one of my favorite hip hop/dance crossovers, the uplifting, effortlessly cool, 'I Against I'...

Something New...

Alt J (aka Triangle, aka △, aka the band who used to be called Films), like to shy away from the light lime refusing to show us their faces were possible and prefer to let the music do the talking.

The Leeds four piece look freakishly young but have this busy, intricate sound to everything they do that makes you think they're either all Mensa members or about 45 years old. Every song seems to have as many layers as possible – mainly revolving around unusual rhythms, weird jabby bits of guitar and lots of loping dub bass with a brilliant vocal – but it all ends up sounding oddly world-weary and wise. Their debut single is called 'Tessellate' contains the line "Triangles are my favourite shape", genius...

Something Borrowed...

Better late than never, as requested by myself this is my electro DJ mate Stephen Davey's mix track sampling various Mercury Prize artists. Davey is better known as Neoclassic Champion Rockers (NCR) and if you like this you can check him out on soundcloud. A regular contributor to my blog he has been doing well for himself this year after being named as one of BBC Radio Shropshire Introducing and following this he has had extensive play on Radio 1 and 6 Music. 

This mix includes samples from tracks by Ghostpoet's 'Survive It', Everything Everything's brilliant 'Photoshop Handsome' and a sample from PJ Harvey's 'England' taken from her winning album all mashed up alongside James Blake, Katy B and Adele, this is, 'Come Back As Something Else'... 

Something Blue...

This weeks Something Blue reflects on the sad news following R E M announcing there split this week on there website after there career spanning over 30 years (1980-2011) which is tinted with good news that they will forever be remembered for the good music they produced and not outstay there welcome, churning out rubbish like *cough* U2.

Formed by singer Michael Stipe and guitarist Peter Buck they spent years as a underground success before finally achieving mainstream success in 87 with the single ‘The One I Love’. The single is taken from the album ‘Document’ that also features the tracks ‘Welcome to the Occupation’ and ‘Exhuming McCarthy’, which were reactions to the conservative political environment of the 80s under US President Regan. The group signed to Warner Bros. Records in 88 and began to espouse political and environmental concerns while playing large arenas worldwide.

By the early 90s, when alternative rock began to experience broad mainstream success, R.E.M. was viewed as a pioneer of the genre, influencing bands from Pavement to Nirvana. They released their two most commercially successful albums whilst working with legendry producer Scott Litt, namely ‘Out of Time’ in 91 that was followed by ‘Automatic for the People’ in 92. Both of which were inspired by the feeling of turning 30, veering from the band's established sound. R.E.M.'s 1994 release, ‘Monster’ was a return to a more rock-oriented sound. By this time the band had already built up an awesome legendry catalogue of tracks including ‘Orange Crush’ from the late 80s to ‘Losing My religion’ and ‘Shiny Happy people’ from ‘Out of Time’ and ‘Drive’, the moving, smash hit ‘Everybody Hurts’ and ‘Man on the Moon’ from ‘Automatic...’, and the legendry riff ‘What’s the frequency, Kenneth’. My pick for the track of choice has got be my all time favorite REM track has to be the fast paced 'It's the End of the World (and I feel fine)' taken from there breakthru album 'Document'...

Something for Hip Hop...

Something Old...

The Roots are one my favourite hip hop acts, hailing from the US as pioneers of alternative hip hop/ funk/ neo soul movement, the 8 piece band formed in 1987 by Tariq Trotter and Ahmir Thompson in Philadelphia, better known as front man Black Thought and drummer Questlove (who also has the best ‘fro in music). Over the years the line-up has included former world champion beat boxer Rahzel and Incubus’ basist Ben Kenney played guitar for them for 3 years. Originally known as ‘the square roots’ they brought their sound of intelligently structured, perfectly musically executed style of intellectual hip hop that stands the test of time against the mass of badly made ghettos, guns, bitches and bling RnB hip hop that fills the airwaves.

Having collaborated with a wide range of artists from Isaac Hayes to Mos Def; career highlights include ‘How I Got Over’ which reflects the relief the band felt at the end of the Bush administration and the beginning of the Obama presidency. Other notable tracks from their arsenal are the brilliant tracks ‘The next movement’, ‘You Got Me’ (featuring Erykah Badu) and ‘Here I Come’ the later featuring in the cult comedy Superbad and the utterly genius ‘The Seed 2.0’ featuring Cody Chesnutt which was featured in the movie Collateral taken and from the bands most critically acclaimed album, 2004’s ‘Phrenology’... 

Something New...

Ghostpoet aka Obaro Ejimiwe is an English singer and electronic producer with definite hip hop vibe with his vocals somewhere between Maxi from Faithless and a laid back Roots Maneuver. He is known for his remixes, including Cocknbullkid’s ‘Asthma Attack’ and Birdy’s ‘Skinny Love’ but it was following the release of his brilliant debut album this February this year that propelled him to the big time.

‘Peanut Butter Blues and Melancholy Jam’ features his genius debut single ‘Cash & Carry Me Home’ and the fantastic new single ‘Liiines’. This then lead to a much deserved Mercury nomination, of which he was my favorite nominee but expectedly lost out to the uba talented PJ Harvey as she became the first person to win the award twice (to read my Mercury Prize 2011 blog click here: mercury rising) and he has since gone on to perform at Glastonbury, Sonar, Latitude, Secret Garden Party and Bestival, definitely one to watch for the future...

Something Borrowed...

Roots Manuva, otherwise known as Rodney Smith is a British rapper from South London, he is described as the voice of urban Britain, encompassing dub, reggae, funk and hip hop as it sweeps from crumbling street corners to ganja-filled dancehalls, setting gritty narratives against all manner of warped beats. His warm and recognizable voice can be heard on many songs with other artists such as DJ Shadow, Herbaliser, Gorrilaz, Sainan Supa Crew and Leftfield’s ‘Dusted’. 

He was rewarded for his breakthrough with a MOBO as Best Hip Hop Act and 7 albums later he is still at the top of this game; this mash-up with indie kings Arctic Monkeys works brilliantly. The track used, ‘Witness (1 Hope)’ is probably his best known track taken from his most successful album, 2001’s ‘Run Come Save Me’ that also features the brilliant ‘Dreamy Days’.  The lyrics of both the bands’ work seamlessly as they both have a distinctly British edge in both their strong accents and in lyrical references such as eating cheese on toast and drinking bitter, enjoy... 

Something Blue...

Jurassic 5 were the 1^st group (along with the Beastie Boys) that made me see the other side to hip hop when I was a teenager and realize it wasn’t all guns, bitches and bling...alternative hip hop is much more up my street and delivers a much more intelligent message in both its content and lyrics.

Formed in 93 when rappers Chali 2na, Akil, Zaakir and Mark 7even teamed up with two of the world’s finest DJs; Nu-Mark and Cut Chemist to form J5 and it was their debut, self titled album in 98 and 2^nd brilliant album 2000’s ‘Quality control’ were I fell in love with their intellectual, fast paced style and they will always be one of my favourite albums in history; featuring the genius tracks ‘Concrete Schoolyard’, ‘The Influence’, ‘Jayou’, ‘Improvise’, ‘Action Satisfaction’ and my favourite J5 track ‘Quality Control’. ‘Power in Numbers’ was later released in 2002 featuring the awesome ‘High Fidelity’, ‘What’s Golden’ and ‘Freedom’, this was before Cut Chemist left to pursue a solo career before the 5 remaining members of J5 went on to work with DJ Format on the awesome track 'We know Something'. J5 then went on to release their 4^th album ‘Feedback’ in 2006, featuring a collaboration with Dave Matthews Band on ‘Work it out’ which would be there final single and album proceeding the groups split in 2007 after an argument, making them perfect for this week something blue.