You can find anything out on the internet these days. Anything. And when one is investigating an act one is unfamilar with it’s good practice to check out Wikipedia, wait 11 minutes for the artist’s MySpace page to load, and so on.

For once, with Bertie Blackman, I’m not going to do that. I’m going to wait and see if the information comes to me. I’ll pretend this is a fun “experiment” rather than a symptom of my laziness. Do you know anything about Bertie Blackman? Leave information in the comments.

All I know, thanks to YouTube’s geographical info, is that she’s considerably more popular in one country than any other:

Her - yes HER, OMG WEIRD, RIGHT? - song “Thump” is an urgent, immediate, quiet-loud, um, thump in the synapses. I loves it, I do.

There are a couple of remixes here, too. Not as good as the original though, which seems a novel happening these days.

Bertie Blackman - Thump (Duosseudo Mix)

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Bertie Blackman “Thump” (Wild Turkeys Remix)

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Posted by Stuart Waterman on Saturday October 3rd, 2009 at 3:00 pm

Amerie’s new one “Heard ‘Em All” is a frantic, tribal-beats-y kind of thing, with lots of great “uh-huh”s and “hey hey”s. I liked it after two listens, which makes it about an 8/10 on the immediacy scale. Clearly “One Thing” was an 11, but let’s give the poor girl a break because very few people ever produce a song that perfect and then have the misfortune to find themselves judged against it forever.

The video has a built-in guarantee of quality in that Amerie appears in it, but some people might deem it a bit of a “Disturbia” rip-off. Which isn’t that surprising since it’s by the same director, who clearly has Se7en, Fight Club and Mad Max on rotate on his DVD player.

Whatever, Universal Music don’t want too many people to see it - or any other visual representation of their artists’ work - because they are wrongheaded killjoy cunts who disable embedding on so many of the fucking videos they upload to YouTube.

So instead, here’s a version of the tune with a phoned-in Lil Wayne verse tacked onto the beginning so that men are allowed to listen to the song without feeling like a sissy.

Buy Amerie “Heard ‘Em All” MP3 at Amazon.com

Posted by Stuart Waterman on Tuesday September 29th, 2009 at 8:30 am

Riton & Primary 1’s original dose of acid-para bounciness soundtracked, at a guess, 34,10413412.3 clammy-palmed comedowns in ‘Beefa this summer, and now it’s been given a (limited) new lease of life thanks to a verse from Wiley.

He does give it a nice splurge of urgency, a la “Rolex”, but why is his contribution - and indeed the song as a whole - so short?

Oh well, I’m sure a krillian more remixes will emerge to give us a proper go at those acid house synfs. Until then:

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I asked the shady personage who sent me this when it’s due out, but it seems they’re just going to “see how it goes”.

Feckless.

Posted by Stuart Waterman on Thursday September 24th, 2009 at 9:00 am

If you were hoping Massive Attack might take a thrash metal detour for their new material you’ll be disappointed, but if you like their brand of vague menace ”Splitting The Atom” should satisfy.

It reminds me of The Specials, if The Specials ever whispered rapey threats in your ear down a dark alley at night. It has a simple, nagging hook you kind of don’t want to end, and which will probably be used to soundtrack someone OD’ing on ketamine on a cop drama near you soon. Hurrayzies!

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[via Nialler9]

Posted by Stuart Waterman on Wednesday September 2nd, 2009 at 8:30 am

This site’s esteemed illustrator, Mr Phil Martin, has been touting Mayer Hawthorne for many months now. While I thought “Just Ain’t Gonna Work Out”, the first track to emerge from his forthcoming album A Strange Arrangement, had pleasingly meaty, vintage soul-inspired production, the track didn’t do a whole lot for me.

I think the video adds a certain something though, partly due to the shock that the guy producing the sounds - and apparently he’s a one-man operation - is a geeky white guy. A geeky white guy you’re going to be hearing a lot about in the next month or so.

Mewonders whether a certain Mr West pilfered that heart-badge motif, too…

Continue reading »

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Posted by Stuart Waterman on Tuesday August 11th, 2009 at 10:00 am

I think we can agree that the 80s revival is getting just a wee bit old now, and while the early 90s is being represesented by various rave-influenced types, it’s only a matter of time before the decade as a whole comes into vogue.

That time could well be now, a mere ten years after it ended, if DJ Spinbad has anything to do with it. His new 90s megamix is preposterously good fun, mixing up music from the time with TV and film clips to create 80-odd minutes which are pretty much guaranteed to stick a grin on your mug.

I’m not even going to go into what the highlights are, because it’s pretty much all gold.

OK, the OJ / Chris Rock / Smack My Bitch Up / Thong Song bit deserves a special mention.

Download DJ Spinbad’s 90s Megamix here

[via Tru Spinna's via word of Phil Martin's mouth]

Posted by Stuart Waterman on Monday June 22nd, 2009 at 8:30 am

Can you imagine how great it would be if Ladyhawke hooked up wih Girls Aloud producers Xenomania? If your brain isn’t up to such popmath, fear not - there’s a song on Cicada’s new album Roulette which shows exactly how great such a pairing would sound.

It is called “Psycho Thrills”, and if whoever makes such decisions for Cicada doesn’t ensure it is released as a single toot bloody sweet, they ought to find themselves languishing in a dole queue for the rest of the summer.

Slap my wrist for such harshness, but if you give “Psycho Thrills” a listen below you will surely come to the same conclusion - this, amongst an album of splendid electro-pop, is surely a numero one single (despite something in the synths reminding me of Eric Clapton’s “Behind The Mask (?!)).

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Buy “Psycho Thrills” and other tracks from Cicada’s Roulette at 7Digital

Posted by Stuart Waterman on Wednesday June 17th, 2009 at 8:30 am

Modern music is a confusing place for the elderly, and the CD single I received for DaVinChe’s “Rider” nearly gave me an aneurism. The facts as far as I can discern are these:

1. “Rider” is grime producer DaVinChe’s new single, out on June 8th.

2. It comes as a kind-of mixtape, with lots of different versions of “Rider” on it. Guests include people called Wiley, Skepta, Tinie Tempah, Tinchy Stryder, Clea & Bashy, Keedo and Wretch 32 (??).

3. The track featuring Clea & Bashy is actually called “Riding For Love”, despite being a kind-of remix of “Rider”.

4. “Riding For Love” is clearly the most chart-friendly version and has been picking up exposure on MTV Base accordingly. At the risk of being labelled a h8r I find Bashy’s contribution is a tad lacklustre, but you can’t argue with the hook:

5. I also quite like Tinie Tempah’s version, which you can hear here:

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6. You might not be surprised to learn you can also buy “Rider” as a ringtone, but I’ll be fucked if I’m going to encourage that kind of behaviour.

Buy all eleven (!) tracks on CD single from 8th June

Buy individual tracks on MP3 from 7th June

Posted by Stuart Waterman on Friday June 5th, 2009 at 10:41 am

The sun has been shining in smelly London town recently, which might not mean jack if you’re reading this from Miami or summink but to us Brits it feels like a birrova miracle.

It also makes songs like The Shoes/Primary 1’s springy “Ho Lord” sound like they were beamed down by Jebus himself to soundtrack our barbecues:

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Don’t you love that weird bit where the guy goes “… Elton John”?

You can buy “Ho Lord” on 7″ from Pure Groove at the moment, or download it at NME.com. The vinyl release includes some rosary beads, which might come in handy when you’re begging forgiveness from your bank manager for spunking £6 on a piece of plastic.

Posted by Stuart Waterman on Thursday April 23rd, 2009 at 9:00 am

Remix monumentalist Alex Metric releases the Head Straight EP on 18th May 15th June, and it’s triff. The lead track is also one of those earworms which is doubly nagworthy because you can’t work out what the heck he’s singing (although this tweet seems to clear that up).

Also amazamundo is the second track on the EP, “What Now”. Imagine one of the Daft Punk robotheads taking a big old hammer to your ears, and that being a pleasant rather than life-threatening sensation. That gives you some idea of the bangerific nature of “What Now”. I don’t know why I’m even bothering to describe it mind you, since you can just listen to it - and “Head Straight” - below.

“Head Straight”:

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“What Now”:

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Buy the Head Straight EP from June 15th at Amazon

Posted by Stuart Waterman on Tuesday April 21st, 2009 at 9:00 am