Spring Step

  This is what it would sound like if some alien's were forced to recreate a seaside scene for a group of homesick, abducted humans, based on some early 1970's home videos. Everything's there, the steal drums, the brass bands, other humans loitering around pointlessly and the sounds of waves lapping the shore. 



And another song about the seaside, a bit more earth like this one though.



This is so soulful, I particularly like the way his voice warbles at the same frequency as the the reed on the sax, not an easy achievement and it creates a whole new type of harmony. This is the Whisky Cats meets The Black Keys; their multitalented love child. 



Don't particularly like the vocal but I do adore that wah wah sub bass sound, it's ridiculously full in my haedphones. 



This is a really cracking remix from producer whose remixed out of my hometown Kingston, a tune from my adopted city of Leeds. This is so well made really, have to tip my hat to him, keeps the rhythm of the originally but spices it up with a myriad of fantastic samples.  



Nought massively original but personallyI  don't see that as problem, good flow, decent rhymes and a slick beat, three components that are consistent with UK hip-hop and why I think it stands as some of the best in the world. Liking Caxton Press a lot, debut album out now. 



Some classic Opiou chop up business on what was already a guilty please for me.



Full of typical Beach House atmosphere, like a church in a biblical flood, which floats temporally unharmed on the oceans of atrocity whilst God decides how true to his 'destroying everything,' principles he's going to stick. 



This isn't as bad as all the nerds on YouTube would have you think (the arguments in the comments is still the best thing about The Tube), I think mummy might have overheated their normally luke warm boiled egg that morning. The 100th  release from Metalheadz is nothing to be scoffed at, perhaps the most important label in the history of drum and bass.





Mmmmmmmmm new Calyx and Teebee, full of the usual array of fascinating sounds that makes this collaboration one of the best and most unique. They've just signed exclusively to Ram.



If your thinking the voices sound a bit child like then you'd be right, there four 16 years olds who despite the youth in their voice have the most incredible sounding harmonies, a well written song that if I were patronising and jealous because I was a complete waste of space when I was sixteen and they've achieved something that I've sat on my arse and dreamt about since I first discovered music, i'd say it shows a lot of promise, when really, deep down, I know it already sounds pretty dam polished and amazingly slick.



This is MIA production meets Katy B vocals and it's absolutely sick for it, can't get enough of this, single out now.



So I was quite liking this till that reverberating bass line came in that sounds like Rolf Harris is sticking his wobble board into the blades of a giant fan for the shear childish fun of it and I started to consider what it might sound like in a club. Would it sound amazing or would it make you consider sticking your own face into the blades of that giant fan.



There's something pretty spooky about this single, like someone in an all but empty dungeon with just the dripping nose of the Chinese water torture being carried out on their head.



Just can't believe how good this young duo are, each release gets stronger and stronger, lovely use of vocal as well, a massive talent. 


Clams production style suits female vocals to a T, once again his expansive sound becoming the massive cave in which the voice is allowed to echo.



Out on Sub Pop, no surprise it's good really, love the vocal, nipping at itself, it's unashamed pop, it even has a Westlife like key change but it's still wonderfully captivating. 



First heard this when being forced to listen to Radio One and was horrified that Hue Stephens was about to introduce me to something new that wasn't 1) dub step or 2) complete shit, thankfully it was a band we featured here before, with their excellent pop record I'm His Girl. This is Friends, who's debut album Manifest is out in June.



If you want to see the word 'dope,' written a hundred times scroll your cursor along the comments on the waveform, they'll be between the squabbling outbursts form hip-hop geeks calling each other 'haters,' and claiming that that the unheard bootleg Aesop track that only they seem to have is the dopiest because, well, they're the only one who has it. 


I prefer it when he raps slower and more concisely so you can hear what he's saying, for he is without doubt, my favourite rapper for his poetic lyrics and the rhythm of his flow, accentuated by that distinctive voice. Very excited that this is taken from his first album in over five years out in July. The live, dustbin lid like percussion in the beat are my favourite part, dope.



So basically this is the Ebeneezer Goode of our generation, the same energy and shameless drug promotion that really makes you consider heading down to a English Heritage home this weekend, dressing up in plus fours and doing a few tabs in the sun shine, shouting at some well meaning children who've come to poke with a stick, the grown man lying face down in a pool of his own drool and irreversible psychosis.



This track really works when the Joan Jet, slacker vocal goes all harmony and woos and blends angelically with the screeching organ. 

The fantastic voice of Channy Cassell is the real source of beauty in the debut album from Polica, perhaps even more poignant considering this album Give You The Ghost was written in response to her divorce. Her voice is ever so gently distorted, auto tuned maybe but I don’t think it detracts from it, rather it allows it to blend with the other elements of the sound to make one magnificent string of somber joy. This is Lay Your Cards Out feat Mike Noyce, him from Bon Iver, note the band also features two drums kits, always a bonus, this is my album of the month, possibly the year so far.

I'm normally a hater of pitch-shifted vocal, frankly I think it sounds ridiculous, lazy and falsely trendy but for once they seem to work with the wonderful atmosphere of this track, like a ghost watching his widowed wife in the shower, melancholically knowing that he will never be able to 'make a move,' on her again, instead condemned to haunt the house forever, stuck in a vicious cycle of unquenchable lust.