November 9, 2017Take a bow Paul Ackroyd and co, as Dead Albatross season comes to an end with a winner announced (two weeks back…yes we’re incredibly late in posting, we’ve been busy) on what can only be described as some epic live radio. The Dead Albatross Music Prize 2017 topped all previous efforts with a crazy haul of dedicated artist mixes, album features…
September 30, 2017Kieron aka Charity Queen has been missing from radio – and our general radar (with the exception of the occasional 3rd party ‘Hello’ delivered via Paul) – for the last six years. In fact, I daresay Charity Queen presents A Chronology of Electroacoustic and Electronic Music was one of the last recordings he threw up before the self-imposed hibernation. It’s…
September 28, 2017I don’t really know why things like this excite me as much as they do. Hip-hop’s big business and in the digital age where data is power I shouldn’t really be surprised or overly impressed when someone applies a formulaic model to it. But I am, and as such have dedicated countless hours to over analysis of moments in music…
September 17, 2017Having moved about 4000 records to a third house in three years I’m getting ready to concede that there is a possibility that my wife and parents are right, I’m never going to listen to them all again. And that’s sad, because although I’d consider myself equal parts collector and selector, records are meant to be played. Like a lot…
September 8, 2017Hazar! The Dead Albatross Music Prize has officially rolled around for 2017! The season for the award show launched on Wednesday night with Paul Ackroyd aka Kamikaze announcing this year’s shortlist inside a three-hour special on Reel Rebels Radio. For the uninitiated the Dead Albatross Music Prize was kicked off by Paul in 2013 to recognise the best records to…
July 3, 2017While we’re in LA I thought it’d be worth putting up these portraits of some of the city’s top producers and DJs that first appeared in our inbox in 2009. Los Angeles was getting it’s proper hype at last, Daddy Kev’s Low End Theory was in full flight and Gaslamp Killer was known as an out there DJ, though yet to…
June 23, 2017DJ Shadow continues to kill it with a new monthly residency on Los Angeles mainstay KCRW 89.9 FM. Giving us two-hours the first Saturday of each month, the Bay Area record digger, DJ and beat maker manages to not only live up to his legendary status but surpass any expectation even the hardest fan of Entroducing might’ve had. We’re three shows…
June 13, 2017Sad news here. Purveyors of the much-touted ‘Sir White’, ‘Bomukun’ and ‘AstroSugar’ constructions of late – Pocket Designs – are closing their doors after a decade of business. Pocket Designs has held it down as the local go-to place for t-shirts for some time now based on quality, and added to it by keeping their costs reasonable where other boutiques didn’t. Not…
June 5, 2017Dope live streaming project here with involvement from Massie aka Daojia of AWK005 ‘Riego Street’ fame. Last seen reviewing tunes while rolling around Glasgow, Truth-HZ is now hooking up with producers to stream and record a makeshift studio session with samples sent in from the viewing community live and before the show. Studio Session 1 went out just over a month ago with…
June 1, 2017Came across this shot of A Tribe Called Quest, which is ripe for over analysing. Every time I see images of Phife Dawg and Q-Tip together on stage I can’t help but clock the clashes in personal style that seem to resonate from their unique makeups and, most importantly, in parallel with their differing lyrical deliveries. You could talk for hours on…