I’m on the road till this thing drops. The truth is, no one raps about slinging coke like Clipse, and this has to be one of the most hotly and highly anticipated Hip Hop albums of the year. In a time when you can never be too sure what genre your favourite rapper’s new album is going to be (see: Wayne does Axl-meets-Alien or Kanye does Andre 3k meets Thom Yorke meets WTF), you can always count on the Clipse to continue rapping about cocaine, and street stuffs …

The new record will feature production by Kanye West, Swizz Beatz, The Hitmen, J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League, Dame Grease, DJ Khalil, long time collaborators The Neptunes, and the legen (wait for it) dary, Rick Rubin.

This morning, the first cut from the album, called “Kinda Like a Big Deal” was released on their blog. It’s a very big deal. Featuring Kanye West, getting his College Dropout on (and by that I mean rapping very well), the beat is harder, and more filled-out than anything you would’ve heard the twins rap on in recent history – and while it’s not a gritty throwback to “Trill” or “Keys Open Doors”, it’s a banger which will definitely resonate in the places it’s meant to – bbq cookouts in Philly and basement parties at your baby mamazeses.

Clipse – Kinda Like a Big Deal (feat. Kanye West)

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

For all you recessionistas out there (people who manage to stay fashionable during the recession), here are some pumpin’ jams to put a smile on your face while you sit on your couch at home at 2:00 on a Thursday afternoon getting CNN’s advice on job-hunting.

Thunderheist will be playing Kingston tomorrow night at the Grad Club for anyone in that neck of the woods.

Read more…

Exciting news everybody, theoretical physicists from Cambridge have recently discovered the formula for the perfect song and published it in the journal Science. The following is an excerpt from an interview with the papers author, “…it was simple really, we isolated the components and ran them through our supercomputer and it ended up with a beautiful correlation… really quite fascinating”. The equation was one part infectious beat, two parts jangley guitar and one part wailing vocals. Ok, so since this is my first post and I want to start off on a good foot I’m going to level with you, there was no paper from Cambridge, there was no interview, there are no theoretical physicists, I made the whole thing up. The important thing is that if there was a formula for a perfect song it would be that, and one song that would fit this formula perfectly is 1901 by Phoenix off their upcoming album Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix. I have to admit I am fairly new to Phoenix’s work, however, from what I’ve heard so far I like ‘em and so will you. This French four-piece started out in the mid 90’s on the mean streets of Versailles. The band itself has some very strong ties with other high profile artists having initially worked on a remix of French band Airs song “Kelly Watch the Stars” and Laurent Brancowitz having been in the band Darlin’ before joining Phoenix with Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homen-Christo who later went on to form a little group by the name of Daft Punk. This isn’t Phoenix’s first rodeo either; WAP is their fourth studio album and has the potential to be excellent so keep your eyes peeled for this one, out May 25 if all goes to plan.

Phoenix – 1901

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Updates after the jump.

Read more…

Illinoize: a remixtape imagining a hip hop world where Sufjan Stevens is the sought-out producer. Where he has the magic formula to let Brother Ali talk his shit funkier and make the dress look nice on Gift of Gab. Yet Montreal-based producer Tor is the true Socrates behind Illinoize, marrying Sufjan with the kings of hip hop to create a rich and surprisingly natural mix, and available for free download at Illinoize, we’re all richer for it.

1. Star of Wonder/None Shall Pass (ft. Aesop Rock)
2. Dumb I Sound/ATLiens (ft. Outkast)
3. John Wayne Gacy Jr./Specialize (ft. Pete Rock & C L Smooth)
4. The Tallest Man/I Like It (ft. Grand Puba)
5. Kill/Any Type of Way (ft. Big Daddy Kane & DJ Premier) 
6. Night Zombies/Talking My Shit (ft. Brother Ali)
7. The Dress Looks Nice On You/Make You Feel That Way (ft. Gift of Gab)

RiP: A Remix Manifesto is a fairly illegal documentary about copyright and remix culture whose filmmaker is and isn’t, Brett Gaylor. Essentially, hundreds upon hundreds of copyrighted sound and picture bits have been mashed up to support and sometimes indulge the fancies of Gaylor’s thesis: Remix culture should be embraced, not restricted.

As an open source film, it has undergone (and continues to undergo) more than just revisions, but remixes of itself. These mashups are made possible and encouraged by Gaylor’s posting of the source files online. The film was first dropped in Montreal at the Festival du Nouveau Cinéma last October. Since then, I was lucky enough to snag a seat at the sneak preview (although it was a slightly different version than the official one to be released) in Vancouver this past Sunday, which ended in a half hour discussion with the filmmaker. For Torontonians, RiP will be gracing Royal Cinema on March 13th. Read more…

There was a time before Animal Collective and associated Merriweather Post Pavillion album art was a meme. A time where even the more adventurous indie-leaning alt-rock listener would have felt like they had got lost and ended up in the wrong part of town if they had happened upon one of their albums inadvertently while looking for the new Arcade Fire Album. Admittedly, even I was a little frightened by the sudden interruption of shouts and screams into otherwise peaceful numbers, and I listened to The Get Up Kids in high school. This music was for lack of a less offensive term, tribalistic and I was the outsider, and this tribe was no Akron/Family who just wanted to teach me that love is simple, instead they told me frightening tales of Reverend Green.

Animal Collective – For Reverend Green

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

It’s hard to say exactly what’s changed since then. Was it just really good album art? Is there something about Merriweather’s songs that are inherently more accessible and universally appealing? I don’t think so. I think it’s us who have changed; Animal Collective has stayed the same. We live in a world where the alternative, as it gains momentum, eventually gets picked up by the mainstream and repackaged for mass-consumption. We are forced to venture beyond our original level of comfort to find something new, something, I cringe to say, authentic. In that light, I predict Xiu Xiu’s next album will sweep the blogosphere in a way that make Merriweather more like the exploding mentos meme.

But does that mean that you’re going to hear My Girls on the floor of your local disco anytime soon? Yes and No. If you live in Kingston, you are likely to hear it only by request in the basement of your local co-operative housing unit. In a larger metropolis you may chance to hear it at some alternative venue, but the original lacks some features that would lend it to both mixing and dancing, namely a consistent drum-line. Luckily, some others out there in the tubes have already taken care of this for us. So I leave you with as many as I could find.

Happy Valentines!

Animal Collective – My Girls (Straight Up! Remix)

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Animal Collective – My Girls (Dave Wrangler Remix)

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Animal Collective – My Girls (Mexicans with Guns Remix)

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

I thought as a tribute/explanation of my moniker (ironically yesterday’s word of the day on my igoogle), I would devote my inaugural post to our favorite almost-failed state, Belgium. Bloodstainsoverbelgium comes from a series of punk mixtapes, starting in 1992 with BloodstainsacrossTexas, and which includes among others, BloodstainsacrossYugoslavia (a little too soon for that one). I should probably also mention I haven’t actually listened to any of these mixtapes.

Anyway, here are a couple tunes from Riots in Belgium, along with a remix they did of Headman’s On & On.

Headman – On & On (Riot in Belgium Remix)

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

La Musique – Riot in Beligum

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.