Hailing from Ireland, Black Soul Strangers are a four piece melodic pop rock outfit currently making serious noise on the London live scene. Drawing inspiration from artists such as Joy Division, Queens of the Stone Age and Damon Albarn, they release their brand new single ‘THE HAUNTING’ on March 14th through Squeek Records.
This track has rarely been off the stereo at UK Music Jobs towers since it landed on our desk a few weeks ago. Expertly produced it’s a powerful and evocative slice of soul searching that marks the band out as serious contenders for next big thing status.
Mixcloud is a website dedicated to streaming music. The main difference is that they focus on radio content as opposed to individual singles. Put simply, in their words, Mixcloud “helps connect radio content to listeners more effectively”. By hosting radio shows, podcasts and DJ mixes in the ‘cloud’ (without software or storage), the audio is available to listen to on-demand and instantly, whereas podcasts require downloading to a hard drive. Uploaded audio is therefore referred to as ‘Cloudcasts’, and saves the owner or listener using slow and restrictive file hosting websites.
Having an efficient and clean uploading process and a strong search function, Mixcloud has the two pronged attack of helping content creators promote and helping listeners discover the audio that they want to hear. I have been using the site myself for nearly a year now, and have found that broadcasting is easy (and free!), and listening and discovering is an enjoyable experience. For more info, check the ‘What is Mixcloud?’ video after the jump…
I’m a bit of a purist me. I don’t like adverts on the radio. Not mad keen on the TV either but at least it’s a good time to pop to the loo or make a brew. But when I’m listening to an album, I don’t want to have the album I’m listening to interrupted but over excitable pseudo funny people telling me how I can’t live without their car/bank/snack. Which mostly I can.
It’s why I’m a big fan of BBC radio. I know I’m only going to get one song at a time. And there will be talking in between. But I know when it’s coming and mostly the DJ’s banter fits in with the time of day and style of music. Radio 6 being my station of choice for daytime and hallelujah for the arrival of Lauren Laverne who was on top form in today’s show (her arrival made all the better by bumping off George “Stratospheric Ego” Lamb). And Radio 3 or Radio 4 to kick the day off or bring it to a close. Anyway, advert free stations with ego-less DJ’s – that’s what makes BBC Radio so good.
January saw a “highly productive and optimistic” MIDEM 2010 conference take place in Cannes. The event had kicked off with the “New Models At Work” panel session, with Amanda Palmer speaking about her 2009 self-funded solo album, and her online community of fans. Hal Ritson from The Young Punx added that artists need to “get some emotional contact with [the people listening to their music]” and that music bloggers giving away free downloads should be viewed as the modern equivalent of radio promo. Starting with an inspirational DIY discussion is great, but I’m sure people were looking for other ways to get involved, as each artist’s strategy will be completely different.
Luckily, there was a diverse set of panelists and topics; with video games and mobile device apps being two major industries in the future of music, as well as possible revenue streams for artists, I am glad to see that those topics were of great importance, and even had specific discussion panels (see below). One of the quotes from the ‘Apps’ panel became the most retweeted live posts of the conference… the news that “Shazam #App is selling 300,000 songs a DAY via iTunes”.
UK Music Jobs office radio regulars, We Have Band, have announced the release of their debut album ‘WHB’ on April 5th 2010 through Naive. Before the album they’ll be releasing a new single ‘Divisive’ on March 22nd, which just got its first exclusive play on BBC Radio 1 last week.
Check out the video of their recent single ‘HoneyTrap’ after the jump…
The 2010 BRIT Awards are just around the corner (16th February), and we thought we would hold a little poll to see who our Music Jobs members and blog readers deem worthy of titles in some of the main categories.
What is reactive music? Well, it is music that responds to it’s surrounding environment and manipulates the sound accordingly. A simple example, is whilst playing music through your iPhone, you can effect the sound with different swinging and shaking movements. Essentially, it enables you to remix songs live and create a different recording every time.
RjDj is an iPhone app and web platform operated by the team at Reality Jockey Ltd. They hope to create a buzz around reactive music and turn it into a consumer format. The startup launched its own free app last year that offers an ever-changing variety of tracks and effects. Below is a video explaining some of the options.
Here we go with a run down of what was hot this year in music…
10 – Patrick Wolf – Hard Times
Patrick Wolf was not on my radar before I caught his performance at this year’s Great Escape Festival. Hard Times was the 2nd single release from his album ‘The Bachelor’ and makes a statement with lyrics like “mediocrity [is] applauded” and “ignorance is still adored” against a backdrop of rock guitars, celtic strings and electro beats. Wolf is creative, original, musically accomplished and always has something interesting to say.
9 – Frankmusik – Better off as Two
Better off as Two is one of many excellent tunes on Vincent Frank’s debut album ‘Complete Me’. Showcasing his falsetto vocals this also benefits from quirky production and a rousing chorus. He’s also brilliant live and was arguably one of the highlights of Bestival 2009.
8 – Hockey – Song Away
Hailing from Portland Oregon Hockey have been making waves on the festival circuit in Europe throughout the summer and this track is the 3rd release from their debut album ‘’Mind Chaos’’. It might be blatantly commercial but it’s neatly peppered with references to the 80’s and a real toe tapper. I love this band and this track never gets dull.
Christmas songs. Some people love them, and some hate them. There are certainly differences of opinion in the Music Jobs offices as to whether Cliff Richard, Noddy Holder, The Pogues & co. are part of that warm seasonal feeling, or more likely to invoke a baul-baul assault on the purveyor of such torturous material.
We decided to make a Spotify playlist of some of the best / worst / most discussed / most amusing / most disturbing Christmas songs, and, assuming there’s no riot in the offices today, we’d love to hear your views!
Tracklist:
Band Aid’s Do They Know It’s Christmas – Stu: Best
Let It Snow – Tara: Best (I’ve included the fantastic Ella Fitzgerald version ~Lee)
Slade’s Merry Christmas Everybody – Matt: Worst; Stu: Best
The Darkness’ Christmas Time – Lee: Best
Clay Aiken’s Merry Christmas With Love – Tammy: Best
The Pogues’ & Kirsty MacColl’s Fairytale of New York – Matt: Best
John Lennon’s Happy Xmas (War is Over) – Matt: Best
John Denver’s Please, Daddy (Don’t Get Drunk This Christmas) – Tammy: Best
Cliff Richard’s Mistletoe and Wine – Stu: Worst
Rockin Around the Christmas Tree – Tara: Best (the Brenda Lee version, which will forever remind me of a young Macaulay Culkin in Home Alone ~Lee)
Special mention for Duke Ellington’s Nutcracker Suite, which I stumbled across via a twitter link this week. Although unavailable on Spotify, you can check it out here.
Happy (or Harrying?) Holidays,
Lee “I can only bear to hear Christmas songs for one day, and so I do all my shopping on Christmas Eve” Jarvis
Oh the beloved Grammys. Where did it all go wrong? For a start, you have a “Best Alternative Music Album”, which, although it actually has some great and well-deserved nominees in there this year, the title alone makes it sound like it’s something that only sells 200 copies for EMO kids to listen to in their basement. Next… Lady Gaga. Have you actually listened to any of her music? Distictly average, and I’m being kind there. “Ooh, but it’s her style and character too” I hear her fans pout. Well, Roisin Murphy has been doing that for the last decade (including a great performance at Sonar 2008). “Best Electronic / Dance Album”? Let’s not even go there!
