Like Minded People iMix #2

My second iMix is up on the iTunes store for your downloading pleasure. It features tracks and artists that I've been blogging about lately (well, since the last iMix) and is typically all over the place style wise.

Check it out here, and as always comments, ratings and feedback are always welcome.

If you don't use iTunes you can get it from the Apple website.

Tina Dico

I was lucky enough to get tickets to a secret Tina Dico gig last night, held at the Electroacoustic Club at The Slaughtered Lamb in Clerkenwell.

This is the third time I've seen Tina play live, and every time she's blown me away. The secret gig was essentially a testing ground for new material from her forthcoming album "Count To Ten", but there were some Tina classics thrown in there for good measure too. She played for the best part of an hour, totally acoustically apart from one track which she had some backing on. She also did some looping on a couple of songs which sounded great hearing her stack up her own vocals.

The new material is sounding amazing, especially the title track from the new album. I was disappointed not to hear "Break Of Day" (my favourite Tina song by a long way), but we were treated to "Warm Sand", "Back Where We Started", two songs from the "A Beginning" tour EP, and a gorgeous version of "In The Red".

I for one can't wait to hear the new album, which this week entered the charts in her native Denmark at number one. Unfortunately the rest of us have to wait until next February for the UK release.

Tina also mentioned that next March she'll be playing a gig at Union Chapel so keep an eye out for that. That's one not to be missed!

"Losing" video


For more information:

Website: www.tinadico.com
Myspace: www.myspace.com/tinadico

Buy Tina's music from iTunes by clicking here.

Hexstatic - When Robots Go Bad

So no updates for three months eh? I've been a little pre-occupied with other areas of life for a while, but now I'm back with loads of new stuff to rant and rave about.

First off, it's Hexstatic's brand new album for the Ninja tune label - When Robots Go Bad.

I've loved Hexstatic's work since their collaborations with Coldcut on the classic "Timber". Their brand new album takes them one step closer towards that crossover from underground electronica to mainstream acceptance.

Special highlights for me are Roll Over (video below), Red Laser Beam, Freak Me, and A Different Place.

Roll Over (feat Sabirajade)


Colcdut & Hexstatic - Timber


Freak Me


A Different Place

Modest Mouse

Saw Modest Mouse at the Royal Albert Hall last Wednesday. Excellent gig! I love the Royal Albert Hall, although I think one of their sound crew must have been fired afterwards cos there was way too much feedback for a professional concert like that.

Loved the band, they're amazing musicians, and had two drummers which was quite impressive. Was great to see Mr Marr on stage too! Isaac fell over his monitor speaker towards the end of the gig whilst going a bit crazy. I was somewhere between annoyed and impressed that they managed to get the crowd to applaud for at least 10 minutes before they came back on for the encore.

One of my favourite songs on the album is the new single "Dashboard".



I'm also loving "Missed The Boat".



More info on Modest Mouse:

Website: www.modestmousemusic.com
Myspace: www.myspace.com/modestmouse

Buy the album "We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank" from Amazon here, or from the iTunes download store here.

Hawksley Workman

I've just been getting into the music of Hawksley Workman, and although I've got a long way to go I thought I'd just do a little Like Minded People introduction for those that aren't yet aware.

Up until this year Hawksley has been a huge star in his native Canada, but sources tell me that the next step is to try and break into the UK market. And why not I say.

Here's my current favourite song:

"We Still Need A Song"


To my ears, the guy has a great voice with touches of Bono in there, but definitely with a unique stamp. From what I've heard so far, the songwriting talent is fantastic, and definitely makes me want to hear more. I managed to miss his live dates in the UK a few months ago, but from what I hear he's a born entertainer.

Also loving the video for his song "Jealous Of Your Cigarette"


More information on Hawksley Workman:

Website: www.hawksleyworkman.com
Myspace: www.myspace.com/hawksleyworkman

Buy Hawksley Workman tracks from iTunes here.

Willy Mason - We Can Be Strong (feat KT Tunstall)

Little behind on this one, but am loving it! Great, simple video too.



More info on Willy Mason:

Website: www.willymason.com (there's a free download here too)
Myspace: www.myspace.com/willymason

Buy Willy Mason's music from iTunes here.

Second Person - Gone Fishing

Check out the video for Second Person's "Gone Fishing", taken from their forthcoming third album.



The video was created by Katy Davis of Goblynne Animation. Check out her other work at www.myspace.com/gobblynne.

More information on Second Person:

Website: www.secondperson.net/
Myspace: www.myspace.com/secondperson

Buy Second Person music from iTunes here.

Feist - One Two Three Four

I've been a little out of the loop for a couple of weeks, so am now playing catchup. Thanks to Julian over at the newly launched 110bpm for pointing this one out to me. I love the song, taken from the new Feist album "The Reminder", and the video is pure class!



More information:

Website: www.listentofeist.com
Myspace: www.myspace.com/feist

Buy "The Reminder":

iTunes
Amazon.co.uk
Amazon.com

Cherry Ghost - People Help The People

I first heard this song on a particularly great show on Radio 2 by Stuart Maconie (fast becoming my favourite radio DJ). Far greater, in my humble opinion, than the single "Mathematics", this is "People Help The People". Get it now before it becomes horribly overplayed!

This is the only youtube vid of this I could find, and it's well worth checking out - a performance on Later With Jools Holland.



More info on Cherry Ghost:

Website: www.cherryghost.co.uk
Myspace: www.myspace.com/cherryghostband

Quickies.....

No youtube vids for these yet, but here's a couple of links of some tunes to check out:

Nerina Pallot's new single will be a cover of Steely Dan's "Peg" (which the eagle-eared among you will notice formed most of the backing for De La Soul's "Eye Know"). The bonus being it's produced by Richard X, one of my favourite producers.

Listen to it on Nerina's Myspace Player here.

Heard this one on Annie Mac's Mashup on Radio 1 last night and loved it as soon as it came on. It's LAOS, with "Panda Style". Check it out on their myspace player here.

Buy "Panda Style" from iTunes here.

Late entry, and this one IS a youtube vid. Currently loving the new Manic Street Preachers single "You Love Alone Is Not Enough", which also features a vocal performance from Nina Persson from The Cardigans.



Buy "Your Love Alone Is Not Enough" from iTunes here.

Zoot Woman - Grey Day

I'm a huge fan of Les Rhythmes Digitales, and Stuart Price's work in general, but his "Zoot Woman" project seemed to pass me by somewhat.

As part of a class I'm taking at the moment we were asked to suggest a track for everyone else to check out, and one suggestion this week was Zoot Woman's "Grey Day". After listening to it I instantly went out and got the album.



Recommended tracks: Half Full Of Happiness, Hope In the Mirror, Maybe Say.

More information on Zoot Woman:
Website: www.zootwoman.com
Myspace: www.myspace.com/zootwoman

Buy Zoot Woman:
iTunes
Amazon

PS22 Chorus Of Staten Island

I was flabberghasted when I saw this video on YouTube, only to go on to find that this isn't an isolated case. There's loads more where this came from!

The PS22 Chorus of Staten Island, USA, are a choir of 70 school children who effectively do renditions of the sorts of songs you'd least expect them to. Case in point is shown in the video below:

The PS22 Chorus sing "Carbon" by Tori Amos


You can see clips of them on their blog doing performing songs by U2, Culture Club, Cyndi Lauper, and a LOAD more Tori Amos songs (I think their teacher is a huge fan). Wish I had a music teacher that thought outside the box when I was in school!

Website: www.ps22chorus.blogspot.com/

Dan Le Sac Vs Scroobius Pip

One of the most bizarre names in music at the moment, but that don't mean a thing. Producer Dan Le Sac and poet Scroobius Pip are taking over the airwaves at the moment with all manner of radio DJ's getting behind "Thou Shalt Always Kill". Sounds odd, but give it a go.

It's a great tune and if you haven't heard it by now check the video below.



I agree with 99% of what this man says.

Myspace: www.myspace.com/lesacvspip
Website: Dan le Sac's Website
Buy the track from iTunes and Beatport.

Like Minded People iMix #1

I like, totally did an iMix!

It's available from the iTunes store by clicking here.

It contains a load of stuff I'm into, some stuff I've blogged about, and generally good music (in my humble opinion). Check it out, buy stuff if you like it, or grab the whole thing. I did try to put it in a good listening order from start to finish to ensure maximum listening pleasure.

Comments and feedback always welcome! Keep an eye out for more iMixes in the future, maybe some freebie downloads, and all being well a big announcement coming soon!

Tori Amos - Big Wheel Video

The video for Tori's new single "Big Wheel" is out and about. Loving the song. Video's a nice cheap one, but does the job. Someone saved a few bob on that one!

Another great song from the album has been leaked as well - "Bouncing Off Clouds". You can check that out on the Hype Machine player by clicking here.



Not sure I really get the MILF bit, but think the song's ace, and am even more looking forward to the "American Doll Posse" album now.

More Tori info:

Website: www.toriamos.com
Myspace: www.myspace.com/toriamos

Motor - Bleep # 1

Stunning video, and great bleepy (does what it says on the tin) electro-influenced tune from Motor.



This is the first track to be taken from their new album "Unhuman". If you like things bleepy, acidic and slightly random, be sure to check them out.

Myspace: www.myspace.com/motor66
Website: www.din9.com
Buy the "Unhuman" album from iTunes here.
Buy the "Unhuman" album from Amazon here.

Bassnectar - Bomb Tha Blocks

Awesome new video and single from Bassnectar, "Bomb Tha Blocks".

All you need to do is check this out to know how good the forthcoming album "Underground Comunication" is going to be.



More information on the Bassnectar website: http://www.bassnectar.net.
Buy Bassnectar stuff here.

Quick Future Funk Squad Blog

At long last, Future Funk Squad rightfully get one of their tracks used in a TV show!

Taken from the debut album "Audio Damage", the excellent song "Deep Inside" featured in a scene in last night's CSI episode Big Shots. The song features the vocal talents of Gemma Ticehurst, sometime collaborator with Bizarre Groove.

Check out the clip here, at least until it has to be taken down ;)

Deep Inside featured on CSI


I'm really pleased to finally see FFS' music used on a TV show as I've always felt that it was perfect soundtrack music. About time too, and here's to more of it!

Check out the latest on Future Funk Squad on their myspace page: www.myspace.com/futurefunksquad.
Buy the album from HMV here.
Buy the album online at iTunes here.

Merka

At last the long-awaited debut album from Merka is in stores! The fruits of lots of hours of being locked away in the studio can now be enjoyed by us all!

Merka, aka Mark Ford, first came to my attention on an outing on Re:Connect Records - a two track single "Holding On" and "Flabbo", the former featuring on the Freestylers' FabricLive compilation.

Since then his output has crossed the "club breaks" and almost "trip hop" stylings with pure precision, showing just how versatile and talented a producer he is.

On "Beserka" Merka takes us back to the heady days of big beat but from a very contemporary standpoint, with the ability to hit you when you're not expecting it with a deep driving bassline or thundering breakbeat. That said it's still a very accessible album for those not into dance music or in particular breakbeat, with some jazzier laid back moments thrown in there for good measure, but not purposely. The man clearly has a diverse range of musical taste and influence which shines through from start to finish, making the album almost beyond "pigeonholing".

Highlights for me are "The Steam Room", "Our Secret", and current single "What Now", although that said I can't fault the album at all.

Find out more information on Merka and hear audio clips at his website www.merka.co.uk, and don't forget to visit his myspace page too for gig details (an extensive list), more audio, and the usual myspace shenanigans.

Buy the CD at Play.com.
Buy the vinyl from Know How Records.
Buy the download from DJ Download.

A quick techy blog...

Hey all!

I'm really trying to keep tabs on how this blog is being received, read, subscribed etc, and have burned the feed with Feedburner.

With that done, I've got a new feed, but to monitor things I'll need anyone that's already subscribed to any RSS feed from this blog to delete it and re-subscribe with the new Feedburner feed. It would mean a lot if you'd take a minute to do that.

The new feed is http://feeds.feedburner.com/LikeMindedPeople.

Thanks!

Neil
like-minded-people