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Arctic Monkeys – Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not
— Yes, the hype for a certain part of the prospective audience was deafening, so what. The question is, does it communicate what it wants to? Answer: YES! In spades, I say. Basic rock ‘n roll is a lot more difficult than this makes it seem. Some whining on the West side of the pond about it being "too English".. so what.
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Various Artists – Mary Anne Hobbs Warrior Dubz —
Wherein a BBC Radio 1 DJ who is not John Peel makes the best comp of the year. Mary Anne Hobbs has an "experimental" show very late at night once a week called "Breezeblock". Over the last 18 months or so she has been playing really really tough underground stuff taken from the various scenes at the underground of Tech / Dub / Garage / D+B / Breaks / Electronic / Leftfield / Dubstep / Whatever. With this compilation she picks some of the best tracks and also gets some of the best producers to contribute exclusive tracks. Some parts of scene are in danger of devolving towards ambience, but as long as there are nasty words and nasty beats it’ll be OK.
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Scritti Politti — White Bread, Black Beer
Green Gartside’s latest. Does that make is 5 LPs in 25 years or something? Production is lusher than one might imagine from the publicity line "produced at home" and the songs are intensely personal. Flayingly so at times.
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Spank Rock – YoYoYoYoYo —
Imagine Lil Jon and UK Garage reduced to the essentials. Some of the rhymes are just a little sophomoric, but the beats are awesome. If I could afford a boomin’ trunk of funk in my ride, this would be on loop.
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New York Dolls – One Day It Will Please Us to Remember Even This
— More basic rock ‘n roll, and better that it has any right to be. The sheer delight with which Johanssen sings is just too infectious. (Also, don’t miss "New York Doll". A surprising and touching documentary about Arthur "Killer" Kane and his journey from the New York Dolls to Mormonism and back)
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The Coup – Pick A Bigger Weapon
— Favourite rhyme of the year: "I’m here to laugh, love, fuck, and drink liquor/And help the damn revolution come quicker."
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Lady Sovereign – Public Warning
— Build your own review: "Sassy", "fiesty", "short", "Jay-Z’s new project", "not the female Eminem", "catchy", "smart-ass", "english", "little girl, big mouth", "dis", "funny", "does not give a shit". But the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. Several tracks are re-recordings of superior older material, but if Jay-Z sticks with her past disappointing sales I’ll be back for more.
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Buy new or used through Amazon | Buy new or used through Amazon |
Skream – Skream
Burial – Burial
Kode 9 + The Spaceape – Memories of the Future
Booka Shade – Movements
Which just go to show that vocals/words/rhymes/flow can be overrated. Dark, dank, squiggly, sinister. I can’t think of the rest… These sounds and beats just envelope you and take you places that you don’t always mean to go but can’t help liking once you get there.
Belle & Sebastian – The Life Pursuit
Neko Case – Fox Confessor Brings the Flood
Gnarls Barkley – St. Elsewhere
Robyn Hitchcock + Venus 3 – Ole Tarantula
Basement Jaxx – Cazy Itch Radio (last chance to redeem yourself, guys)
Hot Chip – The Warning Toumani Diabate Symmetric Orchestra – Boulevard de l’Independance
Coldcut – Sound Mirrors
Reasons to have broadband:
— BBC Radio 1 Breezeblock Dubstep Special (3 hours of brutal special mixes)
— eMusic
— Live cricket coverage!