free music 'Recommends Vol:1'

Celebrate and dance for free..... The end has 'launched' a free music series that it will release every month. It's called 'Recommends'. They have already done the first volume and all you need to do is sign up and download and enjoy.

Each volume aims to introduce new acts that are 'kicking musical ass' at the moment alongside tracks from artists already at the top of their game.

Vol: 1.
1 - Pepe Deluxe: Mischief of Cloud 6 (Catskills)
2 - Cadence Weapon: In Search of the Youth Crew (Big Dada)
3 - The Black Ghosts: Something New [Galactic Version] (Southern Fried)
4 - Simian Mobile Disco: Hustler [Skatebard Remix] (Wichita)
5 - Alex Metric: What She Wants (Marine Parade)
6 - Marlow: Convoy (Blackacre)
7 - Cloud: Diamondtrack (Exceptional Records)
8 - Break 3000: Bleed Like Me (Dirt Crew)
9 - Let’s Go Outside: I Can’t Sleep (Soma)
10 - Hipp-E: Dance Wit Me (Slip n Slide)
11 - Jose James: Black Eyed Susan [IG Culture’s 4 Beat Refit] (Brownswood)
12 - Late of the Pier: The Bears Are Coming [Partyshank Remix] (Parlophone)
13 - Carl Craig: Brain Freeze (!K7)

The second issue will be out on 24th April, featuring music from Olmeto, Border Community, Buzzin' Fly, Cocoon, Mobilee, Poker Flat and more.

BOXCUTTER - Glyphic

Boxcutter (Barry to his mates) is someone who isn't afraid to think outside the box when it comes to lapping up his listening material, and with a genuine passion for electronica, dub, jazz and, well, pretty much everything in-between I suppose we were always going to end up with quite an odd album. The fact that we kick off with something quite so unusual as the title track 'Glyphic' - an eight minute exploration into free jazz sax and deep, deep bass - only puts paid to these suggestions. Elsewhere we get the purist dubstep of 'Bug Octet', the breaks-heavy 'Rusty Break' and the crackling roots of 'J Dub', but for me the surprise highlight comes on the second half of the album which sees Boxcutter tackling squelchy analogue electronica. On 'Bloscid' we see the producer taking influence from Aphex Twin and Luke Vibert as he lets the drum machine cycle and the synthesizers blurt out hooky basslines and detuned lead, a style that pops back on 'Lunal' and for my money he's taking on the big producers and coming out on top. 'Glyphic' is a great dubstep album that manages to kick the spotty arse off a genre and shows the world that there's more to life than a rave sample and a comedy bass line. Listen to this! www.boomkat.com

CD tracklist:
01/"Glyphic"
02/"Windfall"
03/"Bug Octet"
04/"Rusty Break"
05/"J Dub"
06/"Chiral"
07/"Kaleid"
08/"Bloscid"
09/"Foxy"
10/"Lunal"
11/"Fieldtrip"

The LP version contains an extra track, "Nanobot".
Out on Planet Mu

TAYO - Cool & Deadly Mix Feb 28/2008

Download HERE !!!

DZ & Bowser - Pull Up
DZ - Slums Dub
TRG - Every Thing West And For
Tayo Meets Baobinga - Choppa Riddim
Tayo - March Of The Soundbwoyz
Dubstitutes - 2 faced Rasta (Reso Remix)
Various Productions - Chief
Caspa - Cockney Thug (Buraka Som Systema remix)
South Rakkas -Mad Again (Fake Blood Remix)
Buraka Som Systema - Ya (The Count & Sinden Remix)
Tayo - Move Your Bomboclaat
Rico Tubbs - Gangsters
David E Sugar - Oi New York This Is London (Hot Chip v Ragga Twins Remix)

images / photos

Back To Mine: Krafty Kuts

The Back To Mine series has always proved to be a bit of a mixed bag; after all, seeing as it’s subtitled “Personal collections for after hours grooving” there’s always going to be something of the laid-back about it and, indeed, however hectic Krafty Kuts aka Martin Reeves’ personal collection gets (tripping over its funky basslines into a short interlude of hip-hop) it never quite lets itself go in one particular direction. While the electro-tinged tracks prove to be something of an oddity it becomes abundantly clear that Reeves is not only most comfortable when dealing with the breaksier side of chill-out, but he’s far more spot-on when it comes to his selections.

First, the good news. And, thankfully, there’s much to praise on this rather expansive compilation. The soulful, languid beats of the Sharpshooters’ ‘Pork Pie Stride’ are the perfect opener, mixing a gliding trumpet with a deep bassline that, while pretty standard as far as commercial soul goes, nonetheless functions as a warm bed from which the compilation can launch itself. As it feeds into Massive Attack’s ‘Any Love’ the beats get louder as the vocals get even more soulful, but it feels slightly too under-paced. The crisp drums sound like they’re just waiting for the opportunity to get even bigger and with the arrival of the Pete Rock & CL Smooth’s ‘TROY’ and the Incredible Bongo Band’s ‘In A Gadda Da Vada’ the beats start breaking exactly as they’d been threatening to. ‘In A Gadda Da Vada’ makes an appearance on its own rather as the backing to Nas’ ‘Hip-Hop Is Dead’ and, seeing as how prevalent it’s become in the last year only hints that slightly more upbeat hip-hop would have ushered the compilation up a couple of notches.

As it is, it only serves to signal the move into a bit of electro, which leads into another tiny taste of hip-hop (an actual Nas track this time, the underwhelming but still-pretty-good ‘Nas Is Like’) before we’re back into some slightly more straightforward funk. And that’s the main problem with this particular Back To Mine – by trying to flit between so many genres it only ends up feeling somewhat insubstantial; jack of trades but master of none, if you will. While Guillemots’ collection delighted precisely because it was so scattered and all over the place (Sonic Youth, Buffalo Springfield and Kenickie on one CD? Winner) and, say, Mercury Rev’s effort sounded like a mainline directly into Jonathon Donahue’s swirling brain (and had no difficulty in recreating the feeling that he was playing you some tunes during 3am sofa session after a hefty night out), by attempting to squash so many styles onto one compilation Reeves isn’t doing himself justice.

You get the feeling that, had he concentrated on the casual breaks at the beginning of the album, this Back To Mine could have been a deliciously chilled addition to the canon. As it is, it feels more like a mini-set but is handicapped by its length so can’t really create enough of a mood. It’s almost like a sampler of a Krafty Kuts set and, although there are certainly worse ways to spend an hour, it’s not the hazy Back To Mine chillfest it could have been.

Ben Patashnik

The Lure of the Local Lark

The Lure of the Local Lark' is essentially a work of sound art developed around ideas that interpret concepts of space and absurdity. The chair is a prop for a sequence of events that occur within the confines of absurd practical, logical and physical space, whilst the constructions that divide physical space (e.g. fences, gates, walls and hedges) were sources used to help generate the different sounds that are combined to create the main thrust of the work. The sound space.