So there he is 2 years ago – championed in the same breath as Lily Allen and Jamie T – making a quick buck out of that awful Torn On The Platform record, and getting mercilessly found out with his debut album. Then, he goes and records a genuinely mature, ambitious, worldly, etc etc etc follow-up that gets critically praised… and he sells no records. And i mean nothing. Not even out-and-out pop belter Pull My Heart Away – resplendent with handclaps and choir – shifts any units. And it’s really good. The rest of the album has some of the strangest latin/afrobeat flavoured production to ever make it on a pop record, and yet poor Jack finds himself in the uncomfortable position of being critically adored whilst nosediving out of public consciousness. Pity.

‘Pull My Heart Away’ – Jack Penate

Kinda odd you don’t see more Hendrix tracks getting mashed-up like this. A trip to Mr. Fiasco’s MySpace blog could give a clue to how this track came about – in the blurb for his Solar Midnight contribution to the Twilight soundtrack (i digress for a second, but PLEASE watch this!) he claims it “comes straight from my die hard fanhood of Red Hot Chili Peppers and Anthony Keidis, one of my FAVORITE RAPPERS.” RHCP, incidentally, did a rather wonderful cover of Fire themselves on their Mother’s Milk album. Awaiting Lasers with uber-fanboy excitement.

‘Fire’ – Lupe Fiasco

Back in early ’09 this was the 1st i’d heard of Papercuts or Jason Quever (who’s worked previously with Beach House, among others), and whilst this track felt like it had been around forever the freshness was something i’d not really heard since the Grizzly Bear and Cold War Kids debuts of recent years. Played a lot over summer, but too sky-gazing and melodic to really be effective in a depressing-as-shit English winter.

‘Future Primitive’ – Papercuts

In my defence, this is in part because i’ve been motivated by the deeply flawed efforts to grade this decade on the strength of it’s album content alone. Why this emphasis still on albums? Surely this era in music has been notable for the rise in influence of the ‘track’? I also can’t help but think that concentrating on the ‘best’ is to ignore the overbearing influx of utter shit that has really underpinned the decade. Whilst singles charts have been rendered unlistenable, the radiowaves operate solely on safe playlists of fewer artists and material. We move on…

(Before i rant further, it is necessary at this point to give my whole-hearted support to the #ratm4xmas campaign to get ‘Killing In The Name’ to Xmas Number 1 in the UK above any X-Factor bullshit. I don’t care if i’m putting more money in major labels pockets, I want Rage blasting out of radio stations ahead of any Cowell protege. That is all.)

If there is a wholly natural and healthy inclination to end an era on a positive spin, then we could do a lot worse than look on this year as a bit of a case study in musical promise. For me, the 20 tracks that have given me reason to make this list (that i’m going to profile one-by-one til 31st December) are evidence of a new way for people to explore and listen to new music.

Through internet blogs and the social networking buzz, a single track can launch an artist’s new material. Just look at what ‘Day n Nite’ did for Kid CuDi, or ‘My Girls’ for Animal Collective. There have been some pretty solid albums released this year – but in an age where you download an artists material on the strength of each individual track, this list seems like a relevant summing up of the musical year, at least as i see it.

Enjoy

And so CWK’s return with a 4-track EP (entitled ‘Behave Yourself’ – available 19/01/10) is – excusing my strong language – an absolute fucking relief. The band started out with their ‘Up In Rags’ & ‘Mulberry Street’ EPs getting a huge, web-spread buzz based on pure word-of-mouth, and subsequently had the majority of this material masqueraded into their debut ‘Robbers & Cowards’ album. Which was pretty brilliant.

They then seemed to rush-release the follow-up ‘Loyalty To Loyalty’ in a confusingly uninspired and badly promoted fashion, which seemed to have lost a lot of the band’s credibility and, worse, imagination. The album wasn’t exactly bad, but it was pretty heavy with B-Side material, and quickly got found out as such.

Which was all quite a pity. But on hearing ‘Audience Of One’ earlier today i’m convinced that reverting to EP format has re-surged their creativity. Even this late into the year, it’s one of the best things i’ve heard in a while – and the rest of the EP sounds promising too: 

1. ‘Audience Of One’
2. ‘Santa Ana Winds’
3. ‘Coffee Spoon’
4. ‘Sermons Vs. The Gospel’

If the last track sounds familiar it’s because it’s an ‘official’ version of the hidden track following ‘Rubidoux’ on ‘Robbers & Cowards’ (and also featured on one of the former EPs, can’t remember which…). Not sure if there’s a new album on the way, but i’ll settle for a few more EPs like this.

When you listen to his ridiculous, gravelly voice for the first time I’m sure that all radio-friendly accustomed ears will be naturally scared shitless; but that’s much the point of his appeal. I don’t care if this makes me sound like another swooning, patronizing hipster – but the guy’s quite obviously an acquired taste.

However; something has compelled me to put in writing a Top 10 selection of his material. This is no mean feat when you have to delve into the broad reaches of his back catalogue to find some of Waits most inspired offerings (as Scarlett Johansen did recently – pretty damn successfully I might add). But as it happens, most of the upper half of my list come from ‘Small Change’, which is about the best introduction anyone could have to his work. In equal parts romantic, offbeat, raw, and generally free from any other pointless description…

I really don’t know why I’m writing this – it’s probably because it’s nearing Christmas (the two go together incredibly well), I’m just back from New York, my ears are hurting from the banality of even the most interesting new music at the moment, and I’m generally in quite a contemplative mood. Here’s my Top 10 favorite tracks, as thought of half an hour ago…

1. ‘Tom Trauberts Blues’ – or the ‘Waltzing Mathilda’/Rod Stewart song as others will recognize it as. The lyrics are just incredible, and it’s one of the only Waits songs you can effectively sing along to without looking like a complete dick.
2. ‘Bad Liver And A Broken Heart’ – because of the pretty piano parts, that completely disguise the themes of desperation, loss and alcoholism. Familiar Tom Waits terrain, but never delivered better than this.
3. ‘Martha’ - the 1st song of his I heard (thanks Michelle) when looking for an anti-Valentines Day playlist.
4. ‘Train Song‘ – sounds like he’s bursting into tears as he sings. Acheives a desired like-reaction in the listener.
5. ‘The Piano Has Been Drinking’ - probably looks a bit silly that I’ve put in 3 songs from ‘Small Change’ already, this is the last one I promise…
6. ‘Make It Rain’ - grizzly, dark and damn funky.
7. ‘Anywhere I Lay My Head’ - my favorite delivery of a vocal ever. Barely comprehensible, and all the better for it.
8. ‘Innocent When You Dream’ – the title is reason enough.
9. ‘Rain Dogs’ - brilliantly odd, and weirdly anthemic. Probably deserves to be in a Tarantino soundtrack, or something. Actually, that would be terrible…
10. ‘Falling Down’ – I say without a hint if irony that the aforementioned Scarlett interpreted this with admirable gusto, but I’m torn between which version I prefer.

Left out so many, but I defy anyone to put together an effective compilation of ALL his work. Has this ever been attempted, I wonder…?

In theory we could have stayed here for at least another 2 weeks and still not got round to filming all the people we had in mind. Particular shame we didn’t manage to get the Harlem skate scene, Spike Lee’s new theatre protege, more of the NY fashion labels and a few more of the graffiti artists we met, but there’s always a next time. In this case, hopefully early next year

All in all it’s been a very successful trip, Boxfresh are going to be pretty damn pleased with all the stuff we’re giving them. Looks like the show will have a lot more programs featured in the 6 month run-time than we expected, which can only be considered a good thing unless you’re the one putting them all together…but it’s all fun!

First episode of ‘Street Talk’ should be online within the next month, for now visit Street Talk TV.

n.b. DISCLAIMER: This has been the first blog post I’ve written on my iPhone. I therefore have absolutely no idea how it looks…

Brooklyn

One thing that’s been pretty evident is how much the city in itself acts as a creative force. Specific neighbourhoods seem to nurture their own talent; we were filming a graffiti artist in Greenpoint, Brooklyn and he happened to be doing a photoshoot for a local hip-hop collective that night, whilst also getting recognised by every other person on the street (who also just so happened to be a graffiti artist, music producer, photographer, etc.).

This was pretty much the inspiration for us coming over here in the first place. We had the idea (and a certain amount of previous experience) that New York would be pretty similar to London in that specific areas create their own local culture, and are trying to explore that in the series. The fact that there’s always so much going on is a huge factor, but also the support and mutual respect that creative people have for one another here is truly inspiring.

Kevin & Craig

We’ve actually come at a damn busy time even by NY standards – with the 9/11 anniversary, New York Fashion Week, the VMAs (Kanye/Taylor – SETUP!!) and Jay-Z’s new album  – but it’s still good to experience the smaller scenes. For more updates follow the Boxfresh (tour sponsors) blog.

• ‘Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up)’ – Florence And The Machine: Best act at the Lovebox Festival in Victoria Park. Also nominated for the Mercury Music Prize, which would be a good fit.
• ‘Future Primitive’ – Papercuts: San Francisco band i’ve been hearing about a lot but never bothered to check out, until I heard this. Havn’t really stopped listening since.
• ‘Brooklyn (Go Hard)’ – Jay-Z feat. Santogold: Continually amused with Jay-Z’s output despite him being apparently ‘retired’ for a few years now. Looking forward to visiting Brooklyn for the 1st time with ‘Street Talk’ later this month…
• ‘Uprising’ – Muse: Undecided about Muse’s direction into electro-pop (where’s my Rage-influenced band of ‘New Born’/'Stockholm Syndrome’?), but seeing them in October so i’d better give a quick mention.
• ‘Summertime Clothes’ (Dam-Funk Remix) – Animal Collective: Still the best album of 2009 IMO, and this track benefits from a cool remix. Going to the Merriwether Post Pavillion (of album-name fame) to film at the Virgin Mobile Festival in Baltimore this weekend. They’re not playing
• ‘I Feel Cream’ – Peaches: Irritated that i missed out on filming her performance at the Royal Festival Hall earlier this year. That’s all, really…
• ‘The Prayer’ – KiD KuDi: Trying to blag a quick interview when we’re in NY for ‘Street Talk’, is the album still not out yet?
• ‘Knife’ (Girl Talk Remix) – Grizzly Bear: Worth a mention as I first heard this around Easter last year (via @the_beav) and Grizzly Bear have been catapulted to indie-fame since. Will be interviewing Girl Talk at the Virgin Mobile Festival.
• ‘Who Can Say’ – The Horrors: This from my fave British album of the year, which is also up for the Mercury Music Prize.
• ‘Knockouts’ – Ouch My Face: The most aggresive thing i’ve heard all year, which is a good thing. They’re from Melbourne, Australia and heard this whilst listening to Fee Bamford-Bracher’s show on Triple R – v happy when i got a shout-out

Also going to draw attention to 2 amazing free downloads by a couple of artists i know:

• Conelrad: Downtempo/’Boards Of Canada’-esque artist played a bit on BBC 6-Music a while back. Just released 2nd LP called ‘Sure Is The Risk Made’.
• Kase: East-london rapper who’s on Master Shortie’s new album and just released his own ‘The Reunion’ EP.

That’s all for now – getting on the plane to Baltimore in a couple of days and then off for 2 weeks in NY! Nice end to the summer…

But wtf?!

Where did this come from? ‘District 9′ – a smart, polemical science-fiction film based in South Africa – has been styled as a documentary-style allegory on the reactions of a community to foreign visitors in need of refuge. That these visitors are aliens looks to be beside the point; the film’s  Johannesburg setting a coming to terms with the country’s apartheid period – and the racial inequality that still exists. To explain (and to answer my original queston…), here’s the short film that’s been extended for the summer ’09 release:

For me, the return of sci-fi as an inventive, thrilling and thoughtful genre is a reason to cheer alone. Much has been said about the Kubrick/Tarkovsky-esque ‘Moon’ released earlier this year (or perhaps more about the fact that it was directed by David Bowie’s son), but the general consensus was that the film had overshot it’s ideas to plot ratio, and many viewers were left confused or bored. Same as it ever was for arthouse sci-fi, really. But ‘District 9′ looks a little different – slightly reminiscent of ‘Cloverfield’ and ‘United 93′ in it’s use of documentary-style coverage (although this apparently get’s phased-out as the film progresses), the film aims for realism and thrills as well as social commentary and ideas.

And it looks very well realised. Apparently shot on a £30 million budget (peanuts for a film like this, obviously), the mix of lo-fi settings and production design, gritty alien-attire, relatively sparse visual effects and an unknown cast make the budget work for the film. The way it deals with the supernatural in a successful costume/effects trade-off make it similar to ‘Pans Labyrinth’, I’d say. Anyway, for the indie purist the fact that you could make around seven ‘District 9′s for one ‘Transformers’ make the film’s conception all the more satisfying. It doesn’t look like it aims to save on big shoot-em-up sequences either.

This comes at a great time for the film industry, when over-long and over-budgeted B-movie blockbusters are still heading the cinema listings, and after the relatively successful (on every level) ‘Dark Knight’, ‘Iron Man’ and ‘Watchmen’, the comic-book franchise looks to be running out of ideas. Thank God. Althought it looks as if the UK has been forgotten about in the release schedule, ‘District 9′ is doing big things on it’s US release this week and has had some incredible reviews.

We wait in anticipation.