In the wake of Flying Lotus’ seminal Cosmogramma, it must be an especially difficult year for beat makers. Comparatively speaking, very little is going to live up to the transcendental light-footedness of that album, particularly when its ethic is so distinctly away from the attic-consigned lo-fi approach that has typified instrumental hip-hop in recent years. A split 10-inch between long time Brainfeeder associate Daedelus and relative young gun Teebs, LA Series 6 is perhaps the biggest indicator of just how far Flying Lotus’ contemporaries have to go in terms of catching up, lacking as it does anything that resembles Cosmogramma’s expansive approach to song structure.
Check out the dope new video for Fatima’sWarm Eyes with production by Dam Funk. We’ve interviewed the first lady of Eglo for the forthcoming issue of Bonafide magazine, a UK special, coming very soon…
Palladium Boots have hooked up with number one Jackass Johnny Knoxville to make this excellent documentary. Detroit Lives, investigates how different groups are striving to re-generate the crumbling the home of American automobile industry and Mowtown. Checkit.
Unless you’ve been living under a fairly huge ninja shaped rock for the last 20 years, it would be difficult to deny the influence of one of the UK’s most seminal labels in modern music history – Ninja Tune. Started in 1990 by Coldcut, two pioneering DJs of the then emergent bleeps and bass scene, the label has since gone on to provide discerning punters with a plethora of instrumental hip-hop goodness, more leftfield acts than you can shake a stick at (with your left hand), as well as introducing us to splinter labels such as Big Dada and Mr.Scruff’s Ninja Tuna. With the UK positively running through its veins, Ninja Tune is a cornerstone of British independent music, well seasoned with some exotic foreign flavours. The roll call across the board runs from Amon Tobin to Zero dB, via Bonobo, DJ Vadim, Juice Aleem, and Roots Manuva. Wow. …Read More.
Street portrait painter (literally) Matt Small is currently exhibiting at Black Rat Projects. Entitled That I May See the exhibition features work influenced by Small’s experiences at the Robert Shitima School, Kabwe village, Zambia, with portraits of of the young people he met hanging alongside work produced by students at the school.
Check the video for an introduction into Small’s innovative way of producing work and how he demonstrates that the brush, palette knife and pencil can more than hold their own in the street art game.
Makeshift Patriot was a track recorded by Sage Francis in the aftermath of 9/11. With the ongoing furore surrounding the anniversary, Sage intelligently deconstructs the media (mis)construction of the event and the mark it left on a nation. An essential listen.
UNKLE and primarily brand manager James Lavelle have always had a love affair with the term ‘epic’. Relentless, then, seem suitable bedfellows and a natural fit for Lavelle’s amorphous outfit.
The two have joined forces for the new Relentless documentary Lives of Artists – Follow Me Down, a piece that explores life’s ups and downs. The doc has been given a fittingly atmospheric and soulful soundtrack courtesy of messers Lavelle and Clements. The resulting free download includes a live version of the brilliant Heaven.
News that Leftfield (well Neil Barnes sans Paul Daley) will be touring again this winter had me rooting around for my copy of Rhythm and Stealth. After drooling over the cover artwork – sick is not a word I would bandy around recklessly – I glanced over the tracklisting. Obviously Phat Planet (forever associated with that Guinness advert) is the one you zoom in on. But then I got thinking that I’m not sure I’ve ever listened to the 5.24 minutes of relentless beats without switching off. Swords on the other hand remains a belter.
Last Thursday our fashion editor Jade headed down to the Red Lion Pub, Hoxton, to do some investigative reports on New Balance’s latest release the Pub Pack.
It’s all going off in South Yorks. Off the back of Kid Acne’s and DJ Slick Dixxx’sSouth Yorks Vol 1, a release bathed in true steel city heritage and aiming to highlight the ‘missing link between Tupac and Sheffield’, fellow Sheffield-ite Toddla T boils it right down to a powerful molten mixture with his own version. Head over to Lex to grab the aural goodness.
While on the subject, take a peak at Kid Acne’s artistic documentation on violent girl gangs in South America with his new publication Stabby Women.
Finally and shamelessly for more Kid Acne and Toddla T action why not check out our interviews with them in issue 02 and issue 03 respectively.
Daedelus/ Teebs
