Posted by Matt | Posted in Music | Posted on 01-10-2010
In preparation of the release of his solo debut album, Jamie of The xx, the guy behind all the beats, has release the first sneak peek of Far Nearer, with the title track of the album. As expected, the song sounds a little bit like something out of Burial, but with a lighter touch to it.
It’s a tune I made on one of our short breaks from touring and I was eager to make some new music…I got a steel pan and made this track and it is coming out on Numbers Records in about a month or so.
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Posted by Matt | Posted in Music | Posted on 29-09-2010
I don’t know if you’Ve noticed this trend in the recent years, but the hip-hop world has been paying more and more attention to the indie music for collaborations, remixes and samples. One of the most recent example I could give you is the Kanye West song that was just released this morning sampling Justin Vernon very own Bon Iver song Woods.
Well if you’ve been following Theophilus London for a little while now, you would know that he has always been walking the thin line between the two musical realms. He proves it once again by taking The xx remix of Florence + The Machine, You’ve Got The Love for a spin and releasing footage of the 1996 Olympics as the official music video for it.
Posted by Matt | Posted in Music | Posted on 21-04-2010
The departure of keyboardist & second guitarist Baria Qureshi didn’t stop London-based, now trio The xx, to release the visuals for their latest single, Islands, which can be found on their self-titled debut album. While I still find it strange to watch The XX do anything without Qureshi, I really wonder what their future material will sound like without her.
Posted by Matt | Posted in Music | Posted on 21-01-2010
London IT band of the moment The xx released the official video for their latest single, VCR. Good video, but while not taking anything away from the current video, I personally find the previous ones better as they were more atmospheric, maybe it was the film grain or the filming… I guess they were just reeling me in more easily… this one is well shot none the less though.
Posted by Matt | Posted in Music | Posted on 06-01-2010
While I thought the original video for the opening track of Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, was fairly decent, I litterally fell in love with Sarah Newhouse’s take of the song. She basically mashed up several scenes of some 80s movies (The Breakfast Club, Footloose, Pretty In Pink, Mannequin) making it almost seems like the scenes were made with Lisztomania in mind and just waited for Phoenix to just release it …
Nyle is an emerging emcee hailing from Brooklyn, New York and he really made his name with this video. It started as a school project that he had to do which he picked to perform his take of Lil Wayne track, Let The Beat Build, with live instruments and in one take. Which became the big selling point of the video when it surfaced on the internet. He was even invited on Alexa Chung as an aftermath of his new found popularity.
Minimalist aesthetic was definitely the name of the game for the video of CuDi’s lead single off his debut album. I think that it really set the vibe of what we had to expect from KiD CuDi album as the visuals are far from what we normally expect from rappers. No chains, no rims, no half-naked bitches, just great cinematography. It felt alot like an indie film vs a summer blockbuster. While I’m not saying that I’m not into ‘summer blockbusters’ as they definitely hold their appeal with explosions and shiny stuff, it’s good to have something different once in a while.
While this was the first single off Passion Pit debut album, it was really the second video that I had seen of them… The first one was actually To Kingdom Come where it visuals really impressed me. So I decided to backtrack through their library of very … few videos and stumbled on the one for The Reeling. An incredible video where the gritty quality and rip/tear style almost made me feel like I was watching the intro video of a gang in The Warriors.
Visually stunning and always challenging me to find all the reference movies every single time that I watch it, Dan Black really did the right decision to hire up Paris studio Chic & Artistic for the making of his video as I don’t see how it could have been anything better.
Natasha Khan videos always gave me the creeps, not as being afraid per se, but there’s always something odd and unsettling in each of her videos. It was no different for Daniel, where she replace bicycle riding bunnies by some odd looking touchy dancers that she has to fight off as the whole video is a big ode to the Karate Kid movie.
This video was possibly the most daring video I’ve seen in 2009, as Matt & Kim are allegedly really naked (and really got into troubles with the police). No matter how many times I watch it, I’m always as stunned when they start taking their clothes off in a cold February weather as surprised at the fact that they made it alive stealing the whole naked stunt in the Naked Cowboy territory… I mean that guy is a cowboy for godsake.
Ross Ching was a regular unemployed guy and as unemployement go, well let’s say that he had alot of time on his hands. Free time that he put to good use by creating a fan video for Death Cab For Cutie song, Little Bribes. Not only amazing, but the video was actually picked up by DCFC to become the official video of the song. I’m pretty sure he’s not unemployed anymore.
Here’s another fan video to hit up the list with Gabe Askew view on Grizzly Bear’s song Two Weeks. While the original version of the video was pretty good, Askew visuals and storytelling were really what made his video stand out for me.
Jack White newest side project, The Dead Weather, lead single was pretty good, but it’s really the video that nailed it for me. I wasn’t sure where the whole thing was going at first, as the only thing they do at the beginning is walking in an unbuilt suburbia housing lot, but my patience was rewarded as they start shooting each other in the face for the rest of the video, making it the baddest motherfracker video of the year.
worth mentioning : Chairlift – Evident Utensil, Coldplay – Life In Technicolor II, The xx – Crystalised, Handsome Furs – I’m Confused, Lady GaGa – Bad Romance, Charlotte Gainsbourg & Beck – Heaven Can Wait.
worth mentionning : The xx – Islands, Metric – Help I’m Alive, Empire of the Sun – Standing On The Shore, Japandroids – Young Hearts Spark Fire, Camera Obscura – French Navy, La Roux – Bulletproof, Florence + The Machine – You’ve Got The Love
Posted by Matt | Posted in Music | Posted on 04-01-2010
If last year retrospective was called ‘Laisse Moi Tranquille 2008‘ since it was quite fitting considering the fact that I wanted nothing else from it, 2009 on the other hand was quite different, like I said in my previous post, it shared it’s own of ups and downs but the pace was more stable than 2008… leaving me time to breathe, which was a very good thing.
Anyway, I’ve always found that making lists was a bit egotastic as everyone has different tastes and rarely you will find an universal list for anything, at least a list that is ranked. Which is why, my lists are not actually ranked as I also find it very hard to put music in order, especially when so many good albums came out in 2009.
I highly suggest to check out the albums that I listed down below if you never did or heard of them before. They’re also accompagnied by reviews, a thing that I never (or rarely) did before, something I’ll probably look up to in twenty ten.
worth mentioning: Jay-Z – Blueprint 3, Handsome Furs – Face Control, Metric – Fantasies, Japandroids – Post-Nothing, Patrick Watson – Wooden Arms, Fever Ray – Fever Ray, Yeah Yeah Yeahs – It’s Blitz, La Roux – La Roux, Bat For Lashes – Daniel, The xx – xx
ps. I had to make them as images, because I couldn’t format my post in ‘advanced html’ with the use of <div> nor <table> … somehow Tumblr does not allow that.
Posted by Matt | Posted in Music | Posted on 15-12-2009
So The xx did their US nation tv debut on Carson Daly last friday. If you don’t know who The xx are, well wake up mang, as Carson says in the video, they are probably the UK’s most buzzed new act as of now, but I’ll let MTV alumni Carson Daly say more as he’s been on point with his wikipedia business to describe who they are in prologue of their performance in the video.
Posted by Matt | Posted in Music | Posted on 28-10-2009
I’d say that while most of the remixes you hear on the internet don’t usually get a video, most of the remixes you hear on the internet are not equally as good as this one. So here’s the official video for The XX’s remix of Florence Welch song, You’ve Got The Love.
download : 
