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The 10 Best Songs We Heard This Week: Kelis, Janelle Monáe

By Tom Hawking on

It’s Friday, which means we are contemplating the weekend ahead and also, as ever, rounding up the best songs we’ve heard this week. This week we heard not one but two great new pop songs in the space of seven days — from Kelis and Janelle Monáe (with some help from Erykah Badu) — something that happens once every decade or so! We also celebrated the returns of Carter Tutti and Kode9, got even more excited about upcoming records from The National and Pure X, listened to Owen Ashworth (he who was once known as Casiotone for the Painfully Alone) doing gospel music, and more. Click on through and get a-listening, dear readers! … Read More

Music

10 of Music’s Weirdest Sources for Samples

By Tom Hawking on

This week sees the release of The Marriage of True Minds, the new album by Matmos, and as much as anything, this means that we’re excited to spend hours on end picking over where on earth all the sounds on the record in question come from. The Baltimore-based duo have long been some of the music world’s foremost exponents of sampling all sorts of weird and wonderful sources for the sounds they use, and in celebration of the arrival of their new record, we thought we’d look at their weirdest moments, along with some other artists who’ve specialized in finding samples in strange places. … Read More

Music

Bjӧrk’s “Mutual Core” Video Is a Beautiful Natural Disaster

By Judy Berman on

“Mutual Core” starts out peacefully enough — as does its new music video, which finds Bjӧrk up to her waist in sand, and soon accompanied by a few friendly tectonic plates that resemble coral reefs. But a natural disaster is brewing as the reef pieces give way to volcanic rocks. Suddenly, explosions are happening everywhere — which is exactly what’s going on, both lyrically and sonically, in the song. Directed by Andrew Thomas Huang, the video is a precise yet still poetic evocation of the track.

Happily, the “Mutual Core” clip isn’t even the only exciting new thing Bjӧrk has thrust into the universe today. The Guardian has an exclusive stream of bastards, an album of Biophilia remixes that’s out next week and features collaborations with the likes of Death Grips, Matthew Herbert, and These New Puritans. We haven’t gotten a chance to dig deep into bastards yet, but so far we’re especially enjoying Omar Souleyman’s expansive remixes. … Read More

Music

A Selection of Musicians Who Reliably Defy Expectations

By Tom Hawking on

Music lovers, rejoice — the new Liars album is out! If you’ve missed our earlier raves about it, suffice it to say that WIXIW (it’s pronounced “wish you,” incidentally) is one of the best things we’ve heard all year, and we’re very, very excited about it. It’s also the latest creative left turn for a band whose history has been full of them — if Liars’ career has been characterized by anything, it’s unpredictability. This is, of course, one of the reason we like them so much — bands whose sound varies radically from record to record are few and far between, but there are some great such groups operating today. Here’s a selection of our favorites. … Read More

Music

5 Albums to Stream for Free This Week: Coldplay, Matthew Herbert

By Tom Hawking on

Every Monday, we sit ourselves down and hunt down the most notable new album streaming action on the web. This week, the biggest news is undoubtedly the arrival of the new Coldplay album, although we’re not 100 percent sure whether anyone apart from Gwynnie is supposed to have heard it yet. Elsewhere, there’s also Matthew Herbert’s porcine opus One Pig, some conceptually heavy pop music from Class Actress, and scuzzy Southern psychedelia from Gringo Star. And there’s a pleasant surprise: the new Noel Gallagher album, which is the best thing he’s done since the halcyon days of Britpop. It all awaits after the jump, so click through and start listening! … Read More