Kiev welcomes the mighty LCD Soundsystem

Well not quite. James Murphy of LCD Soundsytem is doing a DJ set at Kiev's 'Qievdance' event this Saturday. I'm so excited. Their own music and remixes have restructured dance music. And if their Fabriclive album is anything to go by, Mahoney will absolutely smash up Kiev's left bank with big beat disco house. Can't wait :)

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The new Oasis album...

...'Dig Out Your Soul', is not that good. In my humble opinion. I think Radiohead are much better but people say that's like comparing chalk and cheese. See what you think.

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Radiohead rarities and bootlegs

Can't get enough of Radiohead? Try this collection of B-Sides, studio outtakes and live recordings of classics. Towering Above The Rest is an unofficial 10 CD album - yes ten!. Here is Disc 1, more to follow. Enjoy :)

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TRACK LISTING

Disc 1 - 76:40
1. Prove Yourself
2. Stupid Car
3. You
4. Thinking About You
5. Inside My Head
6. Million Dollar Question
7. Faithless The Wonder Boy
8. Coke Babies
9. Pop Is Dead
10. Yes I Am
11. The Trickster
12. Punchdrunk Lovesick Singalong
13. Lozenge Of Love
14. Lewis [Mistreated]
15. Permanent Daylight
16. You Never Wash Up After Yourself
17. Maquiladora
18. Killer Cars
19. India Rubber
20. How Can You Be Sure
21. Talk Show Host
22. Bishop’s Robes
23. Banana Co.
24. Molasses

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The Tropicalia Movement - Brazil 1968

The rise of the musical style known as Tropicalia began in the early 1960s as young Brazillian artists and musicians, tired of the classic bossa nova, began experimenting with new sounds that reflected the cultural changes they saw everywhere around them (psychedelic drugs, free love, anti-war)

The rise of a military dictatorship in 1964 served as a clarion call for Brazilian artists to band together and subvert the government's powers, using culture as their weapon. Pioneered by Gilberto Gil and Caetano Veloso, Tropicalismo emerged as an attempt to assimilate musical styles and achieve a compromise between national and international influences.To that end, Gil and Veloso combined strains of blues, rock, psychedelia, folk and jazz with Latin American genres bossa nova and samba, and dubbed the hybrid a "universal sound," which they debuted at a 1967 televised music festival. The music moved Brazil into the forefront of pop avant-garde.

Key Tropicalia Artists:

Gilberto Gil - once imprisoned and exiled by the Brazilian government for his music, Gil is now Brazil's Minister of Culture! Made a great 1968 album with Os Mutantes, a Brazilian psychedelic rock band. This album also features Caetano Veloso and is considered to be a manifesto of the Tropicalia movement.

GIL AND OS MUTANTES STREAM DOWNLOAD

Caetano Veloso - author of the original Tropicalia album is known as the Brazillian Bob Dylan. Still making music 40 years after the seminal Tropicalia.

TROPICALIA STREAM DOWNLOAD

Also the Soul Jazz Records Tropicalia compilation album is a good place to start. STREAM DOWNLOAD

LTJ Bukem comes to Ukraine!

LTJ Bukem, no less. A true pioneer and original. His brand of drum 'n' bass is atmospheric, mind-expanding like the best jazz, and absolutely addictive. And when he teams up with MC Conrad, he smashes it up :)

Journey Inwards - violins, jazz sounds, drums and bass.

Zen Connection - remarkable collaboration with Gotan Project

Logical Progression (feat. MC Conrad) - jump up and dance. Unbelievable.

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Mercury Prize 2008: Adele, a sober Amy WInehouse

Adele's album 19 - coz she's only 19 - was shortlisted for the Mercury Prize. She could have one - her album is a lovely collection of real songs. Cross between Amy Winehouse and Beth Orton, this is brilliant British acoustic soul...

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Mercury Prize 2008 - listen to the winner!

This year's winner was Elbow, with their album The Seldom Seen Kid. It's Britpop, dreampop...somewhere between Radiohead and Coldplay. Check it out.

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Cold Fact by Sixto Rodriguez (1970)

I'm a big David Holmes fan. And my favourite song of his is a track called 'Sugarman'. I used to play it all the time and it became a bedroom siren call when my then girlfriend would sing it to me coz I loved it so much ("Sugarman, won't you hurry, coz I'm tired of these things"). We even made our own recording of it ( in the style of Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin's 'Je t'aime, moi non plus').

Then I found out that David Holmes' had re-recorded Sugarman, and that it was originally penned and performed by an obscure folk rocker called Sixto Rodriguez in 1970. It's from his only album - Cold Fact. Turns out that Cold Fact is bloody brilliant.

Sixto disappeared after the album was released and the record company went bankrupt. Yet somehow the album found it's way to South Africa and became a symbol of optimism and freedom-fighting. He was a star in South Africa throughtout the 1970s and 80s yet nobody knew where he was.

Sixto was eventually tracked down in 1997 through an internet campaign, "The Great Rodriguez Hunt". He was working quietly as a labourer in his home town of Detroit, with no idea that he was a star in South Africa.

He has since started touring and recorded live albums, bringing Cold Fact to a new generation. You have to hear this album - the lyrics are poetry, the music is as beautiful as the best of Bob Dylan. And it is for the most part a really sunny album.

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Nina Simone meets Felix Da Housecat downtown

The Verve Remixed collection an amazing collection of music. If you are an electronic enthusiast looking to get a little culture injected into your daily listening, then this collection is most certainly for you. Who knew that modern day electronica artists and jazz legends would prove to be so perfectly matched? Billie Holiday, Nina Simone, Sarah Vaughan, Astrud Gilberto, Ella Fitzgerald, Dizzy Gillespie meet Postal Service, Bent, Brazilian Girls, Miguel Migs, Koop, Jaffa, Felix Da Housecat, Thievery Corporation, De-Phazz, Tricky and Carl Craig. The result? Some of the most amazing impress-your-friends dinner and house party music ever created.



Listen now - 3 Volumes!

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Hardcore Lounge Music

The Mood Mosaic series of CD's released by Stone Records which, in their own words, they describe as "Lava Lamps… Mirror Balls… Mood Rings… and Funky, Funky Jamz!" is just about spot on. Spanning twelve (yes, that's 12) CD's this series brings you rare grooves of the 70's from a whole range of places from independent films all the way through to your finest Hollywood Porno grooves... Second volume in the great Mood Mosaic series, and by far the funkiest! The focus here is on stuff with a soundtracky feel, and the list includes some remakes -- like Henry Mancini's "Streets of San Francisco" and Bobby Forrester's "Sanford & Son" -- plus some groovy originals like Quincy Jones' "Call Me Mr. Tibbs". Also features Jimmy Smith's hard to find "Root Down", plus "Super Strut" by Port Authority, "Desert is a Circle" by Jodorowsky, and "Mission Impossible" by the 45 Sound Orchestra. Mood Mosaic, Vol. 2: Barnie's Grooves is one of the best volumes in this series and a treat for lounge fans who like their lounge music funky.

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A Brief History of Dub...

"Blunted in the Bomb Shelter" is 1) a fantastic introduction to dub and roots reggae, 2) perfect headphones music if you want to walk the streets feeling like an invincible badman, and 3) goes great with a bag of weed and poking around on Facebook...


Legendary underground rapper Madlib put this mix together at Trojan Records request - and he sure has good taste. Also, it's nice how he uses short clips of songs (1 or 2 minutes) - it sounds like you're in his living room ('Bomb Shelter') getting stoned (Blunted) and he's saying, 'Listen to this one, and this one....!

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Best albums of 2008....SO FAR!

Ok, so The Dream was released last Autumn but it's such a great comeback for The Orb it shows that genius transcends time. 15 years after inventing the ambient house genre, Alex Paterson has made a new album that shows the new pretenders on the block how it should be done.

The trademark dubby base and understated rolling beats sound just as good as before, the production is topnotch, but for me what makes this album stand out are the sonic experiments and choice of samples. The Dream is a psychedelic dub trip without the fear. Perfect.

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Best albums of 2008......SO FAR!

For Portishead to disappear for 10 years and come back with this is totally amazing. Third is not an album to be sampled in 30-second bites or to be heard on shuffle; unless you sit down and listen to it, you'll miss it. This music is so original, it's scary.

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Best albums of 2008....SO FAR!

Australian indie electronic trio Cut Copy hit the groove in a similar style to Air, Daft Punk, and LCD Soundsystem, but they do it in pop fashion - back when pop was good (60s, 70s some 80s...) Their new album, In Ghost Colours, is a glorious mix of hazy voices, carnival keyboards, acoustic guitar licks, indie pop vocals, dance-rock groove, electro-disco synths and swirling Caribou-style psychedelics. And they manage to squeeze that all into one song! "Feel the Love" and half the album are destined to be global summer anthems.

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The Original Song

Ever wondered where Happy Mondays, got the groove for 'Step On'? Where 2pac got the riff for California? Sampled (Vol 4) collects the original source of great songs by Moby, Beck, Fatboy Slim, Jay-Z, Paul Oakenfold, Black Eyed Peas, Prince, Chemical Brothers and a whole lot more. If you want to look really cool at parties, or just need some fresh tunes for your iPod - look no further.

DOWNLOAD Sampled Vol 4

Top 100 songs of all time!

This is a selection from what Rolling Stones magazine deemed 'The Best Songs Ever Made'. There are a lot of 60s and 70s soul and rock classics (Motown, Hendrix, Dylan, Kinks, Beach Boys, Dusty Springfield, Al Green, James Brown,Sly Stone, Funkadelic). But the 80s are also well represented (punk, disco, Prince, Michael Jackson). The 90s and OOs are represented mainly by hip-hop / rap masters (Public Enemy, Tupac, Eminem, Dr. Dre, Outkast) as well as modern legends such as Radiohead, Beck and SInead O'Connor. 100 tracks here - a real treat :)

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