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Spring Step by Cloudboy on Mixcloud

My latest mix as usual compiled from some free downloads and forthcoming releases. Track listing below or go over to mixcloud for exact entry points. For those who want to download for iPod etc then http://soundcloud.com/cloudtoy/spring-step 

Mellow High (Doms, Hodgy) – Go

Ramona Falls – Brevony

AlunaGeorge - Just A Touch

Purity Ring – Obedear

State Of Joy – Flow feat Jay Wilcox

State Of Joy - Flow

Mason – Runaway (Refurb)

Death Grips – I’ve Seen Footage

Mason - Runaway (Hiatus remix)

JTRP - Apparition

Stay+ - Hush Money

Nite Jewel – One Second Of Love (Peaking Light One Love Mix)

Machines Don’t Care – Take Me Away feat Meleka

Santigold – Desperate Youth

Space Ladies – Medusa (Sarantis Remix)

Terminal State – In The Evening

Side 1 – Kissing You

Terminal State – Morphing Shadows

Sinistarr – Bare The Mark

A snarier remix of the amazing Diplo and Usher collaboration. I read an article at the weekend which suggested anyone expecting this all the way through Usher forthcoming new album will be bitterly disappointed. 


Another remix from a recent album is this amazing one off Chromatics new album and specifically Birds Of Paradise by Amtrac. 




This is the Solo project of Vampire Weekends Chris Baio and with it's tech house drum beat is possibly the last thing you'd expect someone from that band to make, until you hear the steal drums and the track's carefree and upbeat attitude and you realise, it's actually pretty consistent. Taken from the Sunburn EP out on on 21st May.



Worth waiting for the dirty bass and drums that take far too long to kick in because the rest of the song, well mainly her vocal, are nauseatingly dull, or as user stevealianarbone on Youtube (who is obviously high or foreign and therefore I'm a racist) claims "I like this song and the way you clutch the covers like Poe my cat does. You make some peculiar videos. Some folks like the surrealism. Yours is combination of ancient and modern myths and legends that are often strange and mystical. Like a story that is being told but what is it about? Maybe that is the mystery. We tend to live at slower and quiet pace here." Eh? 



The second Submotion remix in as many weeks but this forthcoming Hospital release from S.P.Y. with it's rolling bass line and snappy breakbeat is far too good to ignore, it has sound of the summer written all over it and is likely to be a massive revenue generator for the label, pleasing both ardent drum and bass fans and those partial to the label's normal staple of radio friendly releases.


On that note, anyone looking for a sample for Hospital's next, vocal hooking cross over mega hit, should look no further than asking Wrenne for the vocal stems off her track Come Alive. 
You can see all the ecstasy addled estate agents now, out at, what they call with no sense of irony, a 'rave,' (even though they paid twenty quid entry and are drinking the ten pound drinks of commercialism that couldn't be further away from the ideals of rave culture), really 'feeling,' the lyrics of this one as they hug their bosses and tell them just how much they love them and how they really are, the best boss they've ever had, setting up a bleak and awkward situation come Monday morning.



What a charming voice, with her referencing a lighthouse it's hard not to image the singer sitting alone in one singing this tune, whilst a violent sea bashes against the rocks adjacent. 





Beautiful, reverberating Spanish guitar complimenting that gorgeous voice, ignore the shit video.




This is awesome, goes into some dark crunching business later one.




This is basically updated, more optimistic grunge, Cobain without the depression, as Peace claim, "we're going to live forever baby," which if you believe the frankly crazy ramblings of my dad, is something that'll happen in my lifetime; have you bumped into my Dad at B&Q Peace? Because you really shouldn't write songs based on the opinions of a man sniffing tins of varnish down the deck care isle. 




This is a song presumably about wet, robot sex and it sounds like it too, which is squelchy and disgusting and stupid but does pose quite an interesting question; if robots became as clever as us, would they too learn to seek pleasure from sex? 


And someone being less subtle about his desire to shag something that ain't human by singing it from the bloody rafters is VNDMG who, according to wikipedia, wants to make sweet, cross breeding love to a humanoid extraterrestrial creature from Star Trek native to the planet of Bajor.








Her voice harmonises so wonderfully with the the deep synth textures, big on atmosphere this.



This is a bloddy riot, that bass line being like your mate who always calls you up on that Friday night when you've sworn to stay in and begs you to come out, teasing you with offers of free drinks and loads of women he couldn't possibly influence into shagging you. In your rush to get there before your other mates snap them up, you forget to eat, drinking too many tequila shots when you do finally reach the empty, sausage infested club and in the resulting blur find yourself in one too many man huddles and end up getting into a fight to save face.



So I was still feeling delicate from the weekend when I first heard Julia Stone's, Caris Mathews slash Joahanna Newsom vocal, with all them piano keys, droning guitars notes and sad lyrics, managing to sound all melancholic and nostalgic despite narrating the future and seriously, it nearly made me cry, it's almost making me cry now talking about it; it was a tough morning. Hash tag, needtomanup.



A few weeks back I was banging on about people with voices equal, if not better, to Florence Welch's and who don't consistently exploit the BIG, LOUD, DESIGNED FOR THE CONTEMPORARY SECTION OF THE PROMOS AT THE ROYAL ALBERT HALL, chorus. Here is an example. 





Best yet from Cloud Toy favourite, Fabina Palladino, stripping it down to really accentuate the beautiful range of her voice and content of the lyrics; i'm getting toats emoash again!



Those long synth stabs provide much of the atmosphere for this track before that bass comes flying in from where it begins to build and build to sound like Richard Branson's passing round a bag of pills on the first commercial flight into space. 




Imagine a chair swing under a blossom tree looking back at a farm house with a sun dappled porch, the early evening, South Carolinan breeze gently swaying the wind chimes that hang there.



This sounds a like the Beach Boys got on the Costa Concordia and after losing out on a space in the life raft to Captain Schettino, they remained on board to play a few final songs, in a moral boosting, crew of the Titanic style move of self sacrifice and where they remain, un-rescused to this day. 



One of my favourite new bands, Ramona Falls, have their album available to stream over on Sterogum. 




Well this is pleasant. 

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. 

Apologies

First up, sorry for lack of content last week and next week, it's been a busy time, I've started on a few new projects that are taking up lots of my time, it will settle once I learn to manage my time better but give me a few weeks. So sadly, another short one today but I hope it's sweet enough.


Also, check out this new radio station www.strongroom.fm, they've only being going a month but have already secured radio shows from the Ninja Tune boys (featuring Coldcut, DK and DJ Food), Moshi Moshi, BBE, Wichita, Ross Allen, Dazed & Confused, Vice Magazine, Clash Magazine, Raf Daddy from The 2 Bears and Data Transmission to name but a few. 




Wankers who go to Oceana making music for wankers that go to Oceana. Don't get me wrong, I used to love going to Oceana on a student night where a pint of Stella was two quid and if you didn't get off with an equally inebriated girl you could fight on the extra aggression the Stella gave you; win win. 


This is music made for people who actually believe that the tunes in Oceana are alright, for people who think that The Script are the most emotionally important, socially relevant band of all time. Look at these tossers, they're basically tuneful Frankie Cacosa's without the cocaine and the tats.


They tick every box in the manufactured for tossers check list. 


Shit, "straight-out-of-bed," hair that makes them look like a bloody lego character? Check. 


Delicately styled, bum fluff beards? Check. 


Nonsense, pseudo-poetic lyrics? Check. 


Feined, cracking voice to try and kid you into think he actually gives a toss about anything else but where his next Bacardi Breezer is coming from? Check


Those horrible, skin tight, v neck t-shirts that are cut down to the wanker-who's-wearing-them's belly button, leaving plenty of room to see his oiled pecks and his TopShop brought cross, the cross of a man who's never been to church and if he really, really listened to the music he buys off iTunes for his one gig iPod shuffle, would realise that logically, there can't be a God? Check

I read a recent article in perhaps my favorite supplement out of all the amazing supplements on the market, the Guardian guide, which spoke of the rise of new funk, quoting Nite Jewel, championed here before, as being one of the innovators of this. 


The article complained about bedroom producers making largely sexless, electronic music, ironic considering the environment in which it was made. I found myself agreeing, it has become fashionable to make minimal, space-less, syncopated bore music, like some Hurst-esq conceptual art or Mr and Mrs George Osborne reading quarterly budget reports in a sexless bed before lights out. 


What happened to the soul or the rhythm? I suspect many don’t have it but have been able to thrive thanks to this chastity belt currently frigiding music. Thankfully Jai Paul is here with the key, unlocking those rusty hips and making music the sexy slag it should be with this track, Jasmine. 

Can't remember what this was, as I added it a while back and editor won't let me preview it, I hope it's as good as I don't remember. 

The vocal echoes across itself, it's a simple panning technique in which it's only a millisecond behind in one ear but it's so effective and the repetitive nature is lullaby like and surprisingly tuneful.




Such a cool beat on this track, pretty hard to pigeon-hole it apart from being banging so I won't.



My SoundCloud pen-pall with yet another incredible mash-up, the beat is the instrumental version of The Recipe by Kendrick Lemar feat Dr Dre and the vocal coming from Pitbull featuring Trina and Young Boss in a track called Go Girl.



God dam it I broke my own rule and I've posted something by Ed Sheeran but this remix is something else, it chops the lyrics up enough so you don't have a chance to truly learn to hate the crass content of his lyrics, instead it replaces that processing space with fantastic strings, soothing bass lines and those chopped up beats. Thanks to Fred for pointing this one out, fuck you Ed Sheeran and all you stand for, Koan Sound has temporally saved you.



This builds in to something really magnificent, like waiting for a lift and watching the numbers on the screen slowly ascend until the door opens to reveal a group of synchronised peacocks doing a ritual dance whilst looking you straight in the eye and miming along in perfect lip sync.




I am always banging on about how important weird and interesting sounds are to me in making a song good and in this one it's the sound of echoes like those produced by a submarine, It reminds me of that final scene in The Hunt For Red October, when Sean Conory and what ever member of the Sheen family was good back then, are smoking a cigar up on the deck of the Submarine. They're coming into dock, Conory having defected himself, his crew and the submarine to the American side and he's looking forward to the prospect of settling in America.


Soon that green screen, sunset dream is to be shattered by the reality of Mitt Romely genuinely trying to claim, in the 21st century, that contraception is a bad thing. Even Putin and his brash nationalism is a better bet to that wanted, murderous stupidity.



If you haven't brought The School of Seven Bells album Ghostory yet, this expansively beautiful tune should be the reason why you should.




We've all been there, the end of some night where you've had a few too many pints, you get back and there is nothing on TV accept for the 10th re-run of series five of Family Guy on BBC three, all other channels are either off air or frankly boring, so you end up flicking to Babestation to see what the mostly unsexy girls are up to, it's nothing perverse, more like checking in on the live Big Brother stream to see what the gang are up to, these contestants are just willing to do more above the covers with the lights on and are upfront about wanting the camera to see them.


The auto-tune part of this song made me think of Cher, at which point any sexyness that can possibly be salvaged from Babestation was lost to the thought of her gyrating in squeaky leather on a red sofa, gargling "do you believe in love after love," whilst she beacons you with a long, witch like finger and you start to believe that love has never existed and never will. 


http://soundcloud.com/cosmojarvis/gay-pirates


The best song about two pirates being gay for each other I have ever heard.





When I first heard this it reminded me of Baker Man Soul Clap remix, from a DJ point of view they'd go to well together. This is from Manchester's xxxy who's EP Everything is out on 16 April on Well Rounded.