The 2 Bears absolutely smashed it last year with their whimsical hit ‘Bear Hug’ lodging itself in the brains of many bear/electronic music lovers like a funky splinter. This year is set to be even more of a grizzly ride with their debut album Be Strong due for a January 29th release which will no doubt send us folks residing here in the ‘blogosphere’ (as people who write newspapers like to call it) bloody mental. First, however, we have been gifted — or at least, gifted the opportunity to purchase — a cracking remixes EP featuring some ball-busting edits of the Bears’ recent single ‘Work’ alongside the full version of the track itself. Employing the galactic talents of Toddla T, Oliver $, Supabeatz and Franky Rizardo, it’s a heavyweight line-up and the resultant tunes are more radical than your cousin when he wears that sun visor backwards AND upside down. Now that’s flippin’ cool.
Below is Toddla’s offering which features vocals from former Roll Deep member Trim as well as Scrufizzer and Trigganom and I guarantee that if you like it, you’ll like it. Have a listen and I’ll give you a bear hug…although I’m not particularly bear-like. It would probably be more of a bear skeleton hug. It would still comfort you though, you cold-hearted zombie you.
As prolific as a slutty frog, Dark Sky are always putting out ridiculous tunes. ‘High Rise’, for example, was definitely one of my favourite tracks of 2011 and I have spent many a night bouncing around like a sentient pogo stick to its rubbery bassline. Today I acted in a similarly mental yet happy fashion as, much to my delight, the trio decided to gift us mere mortals with a free track, entitled ‘Standoff’, as a slightly late but very much appreciated Christmas gift.
Of course, free track doesn’t always mean quality track and as one astute YouTube commenter observes, “usually free tunes are shit… not this one tho.” Although I do not agree with his use of “tho”, I am very much of the same opinion. With an offbeat, pretty chilled out vibe, this is big/massive/huge/awesome/[a positive adjective of your choice]. Download it.
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‘Light Years Popsicle’ is a fitting title for a collaboration between Joker and Rustie, two producers whose musical personalities would perfectly assimilate into the retrofitted future of Blade Runner and/or other similar sci-fi scenarios. If Chris Tucker was here dressed as Ruby Rhod, he’d catapult this tune into the stratosphere. Or beyond into, you know, space.
Played by Plastician on his Rinse FM show a week ago, trance chords mingle with electric guitaresque synth in an epic lunar concoction evocative of hallucinatory images featuring an ’80s rockstar floating through the infinite galactic night. Or maybe that’s just me…listen below.
While most of us are trying to inform supermarkets that we know organic vegetables are organic because of the labels and therefore do not need them to be dirtier than regular vegetables, Japanese producer Yosi Horikawa is concentrating on the more poignant field of organic sound and this beautiful tune, entitled ‘Wandering’, is fundamentally a melange of live recordings of that nature thing (I don’t know, it’s outside or something). Initially evocative of a dewy forest scene circa 5am, it evolves into a percussive frenzy verging on the tribal and is, quite simply, wicked [insert youthful hand gesture here]. Have a listen below.
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While half the world is out there doing important stuff like having a job, raising children or helping the homeless — big deal, right? — the rest of us are waiting in huddled groups for a new Burial release. Well, the time to rejoice is now because news surfaced earlier this week via Kode9 on Twitter that a release dubbed Kindred EP is imminent and set for both a vinyl and digital outing. Additionally, and more relevant to those of us with shallow pockets, it will also “def be less than 25 quid”, a comment referring to the inflated price of the recent Massive Attack remixes.
Anyway, my initial reading of the news was more exhilarating than the time Tommy Tucker told me Brucey Wammond had broken his arm playing hockey and therefore wasn’t able to beat me up after school, but it was nothing compared to this morning when I woke up to receive a clip of a tune from the EP titled ‘Ashtray Wasp’. Played last night on Hyperdub’s Rinse FM show, it’s only a snippet of what Scratcha DVA assures us is an 8 minute track, but it’s still exciting to hear. I’m sure there will be people telling me not to wet my pants just because it’s something by Burial, but seriously, have a listen and get back to me.
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Yesterday saw the release of a single from 4AD featuring two utopian remixes of Joker’s ‘On My Mind’ from his recent album The Vision. The first of the duo is an orchestral and break-heavy rework by none other than Goldie and the second track, from Glasgow producer Rustie, is literally da bomb. And I don’t use that term lightly…or at least, I haven’t since the ’90s. Seriously though, it’s an absolute cracker. Which is kind of a fitting description considering it’s almost Christmas. If you bought the track, put it on a USB stick and placed it inside a cracker which you rigged in favour of your opponent’s victory, they would be on-their-knees-grateful when they found out what they’d won. Trust me, I’m a pro.
I was actually going to sit down and craft a lengthy and inspiring description of the Rustie tune, but instead I ended up watching an episode of Sharpe and completely losing myself (which tends to happen quite a lot). You should probably just listen to it below and directly immerse yourself in the kaleidoscopic goodness like an eccentric Alice in Wonderland extra with a penchant for bass.
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