SBTRKT - UP & DOWN (ft. SAMPHA) (LIVE)

Not content with releasing one of the albums of the year, SBTRKT has dropped a fantastic new song, featuring Sampha who contributed most of the vocals for the aforementioned album. Never mind James Blake, SBTRKT deserves to be the crossover star of this whole post-dub thing going on. Sampha is a brilliant vocalist; soulful but tying his voice into the feel of the track, whilst SBTRKT employs simple, upbeat synths to great effect. Long live the SBTRKT/Sampha partnership.

“The King Of Limbs” may have been one hell of a divisive album (I’m not a fan myself), but Radiohead have announced a two CD set compiling the remixes of the nine tracks on the LP. Entitled “TKOL RMX 1234567” the album is scheduled for release on the 11th of October. The tracklisting is:

Disc One

1. Caribou - Little by Little Rmx
2. Jacques Greene – Lotus Flower Rmx
3. Nathan Fake – Morning Mr. Magpie Rmx
4. Harmonic 313 – Bloom Rmx
5. Mark Pritchard – Bloom Rmx
6. Lone – Feral Rmx
7. Pearson Sound – Morning Mr. Magpie Scavenger Rmx
8. Four Tet - Separator Rmx

Disc Two

1. Thriller – Give Up the Ghost Houseghost Rmx
2. Illum Sphere – Codex Rmx
3. Shed – Little by Little Rmx
4. Brokenchord – Give Up the Ghost Rmx
5. Altrice – TKOL Rmx
6. Blawan – Bloom Rmx
7. Modeselektor – Good Evening Mrs. Magpie Rmx
8. Objekt – Bloom Rmx
9. Jamie XX – Bloom Rework
10. Anstam – Separator Rmx
11. SBTRKT – Lotus Flower Rmx

It looks like an eclectic and mostly obscure selection of artists chosen to remix the album, but the most mouth-watering choices are Jamie XX, SBTRKT, Caribou and Four Tet.

WATCH /// SBTRKT - PHAROAHS (FT. ROSE GABOR)

Any excuse to post something involving SBTRKT. “Pharaohs” is taken from the masked man’s self-titled debut, which is fast becoming one of my albums of the years, and is superb like everything else he does.

The remix album drops next Monday, but thanks to The Hype Machine, you Radiohead-heads can stream all 19 tracks of TKOL RMX 1234567 right now. Aren’t we good to you? And if Soundcloud embedding is being temperamental, then click here to stream the whole thing on The Hype Machine itself. 

So here we are. November already. Time flies etc. This is the first of our end of year lists, but not the definitive one, mind you (you can still vote for them here or here). No, this is just the top ten of your humble editor. Feel free to submit your top ten lists to us if you want to see them posted up here. Well, without further ado…

Just when I thought he couldn’t better the flawless untitled EP from earlier this year, Donald Glover serves up the hip-hop album of the year and, hell, the overall album of the year. Ambitious, moving, hilarious and brilliant in equal parts, Camp is a rare deeply personal rap album in a similar standing to Kanye’s “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy” and even manages to match it in quality. Gambino can do no wrong.

It’s always a good thing to see a band given time to grow, develop and change at their own pace. LC! have been afforded that chance, evolving from their chirpy indie-pop roots to become one of the best loved and consistently brilliant bands in the country. Hello Sadness far outstrips their past records and solidifies their position and something special.

A superb return to form for the unlikely BRIT Award winner. Injecting some heart and soul into her mature folk ways after the drab I Speak Because I Can, Marling created a beautiful, heart-wrenching affair that demands repeat listens and can be considered her first classic album of what’s sure to be many.

Once in a while, an artist comes out of nowhere startlingly fully formed, with a perfect debut album. Trevor Powers is that artist. The Year Of Hibernation is an astonishing achievement, especially when you consider Powers’ age and the fact that this is his first album. Tender and sweet, the lo-fi ballads of Youth Lagoon are sure to worm their way into the heart of many a teenager.

Pretty sure Alex Turner has the Midas touch. The man just keeps churning out the successes. Expectations were low for the Monkeys’ fourth LP after the lukewarm reception towards Humbug (an underrated classic). Doubters were silenced with a record that flitted between lovelorn crooning, the jangly genius of The Smiths and The Stone Roses and the heavy rock power that the band have always had hiding in them. It also provides us with their best song yet, in the title track.

The country’s in the shitter and we’re stuck with James Blake for a soundtrack. ”Where are all the pissed-off, angry young bands?” you may ask. Well judging on this evidence, Stockton-On-Tees. The Chapman Family took their time with this debut LP, waiting a few years to get it just right, instead of cashing in on their 2009 hype. The result is a seething, barely-contained gem of a record. It should rightly become a future classic, documenting the current climate. But for now, it’s the best British debut in a long, long time.

Not happy with going all on “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy” last year, Kanye teamed with fellow hip-hop monolith Jay-Z to concoct the most extravagant rap album probably ever. From its glistening artwork to the star studded guests, Watch The Throne screams THIS IS A BIG ALBUM. With so much hype and money thrown at it, the album could well have been a massive flop. Instead we get two heavyweights sparring with each other for fun, crafting a landmark for the genre.

AKA, the first post-fame Elbow album. 2008’s The Seldom Seen Kid propelled the Bury band into the spotlight like never before in their decades long career, and Build A Rocket Boys! is just as good as its predecessor. Yes, it may follow an eerily similar formula (big long opener, rocky first single, penultimate singalong anthem, tender restrained closer) but the genius of Guy Garvey is enough to see it through. Seriously, someone give the man a knighthood.

AKA the album responsible for me no longer buying the NME. Probably the biggest cult band in the country right now (tying with Los Campesinos!) Birmingham’s JoFo prove that there is indie music still worth getting passionate about. …Vs Everything sees an expansion of the usual palette, adding sythns, prominent acoustic guitars and subtle horns into the mix, leaving us with a career-best record from the threesome.

Dubstep is a dirty word around these parts, but somehow SBTRKT makes it immensely listenable. The exact definition of what the dubstep sound is will rage on long after the genre has died a death, but in a world where Skrillex and James Blake are the faces of the scene, I’d take whatever SBTRKT is selling every day. Sparse, soulful and at times haunting, the London producer’s debut is also really quite wonderful and hopefully a sign of good things to come for UK dance.

LISTEN /// SBTRKT REMIXES FRANK OCEAN

Two of the big hype artists of 2011 collide. SBTRKT has taken a stab at reworking OFWGKTA’s resident R&B crooner Frank Ocean, putting his own stamp on the latter’s slow jam “Thinking About You”. Stating on his Soundcloud page the London producer said he “did this whilst on tour…not mixed or official”; for something not official, you’ve gotta agree it’s damn good.

As astonishing a debut as anything that’s come along in the last five years, SBTRKT’s first LP is the high watermark of this post-dubstep music world we inhabit. Rarely has electronic music sound so warm and soulful whilst remaining forward-thinking and innovative. SBTRKT has established himself as an alternative to both the braindead bro-step of Skrillex et al and the paper thin dub of James Blake. Without any massive buildup of hype from the press, SBTRKT has risen to become most switched-on people’s producer of choice, as proven by his position as your NUmber Seven album of 2011. Most, if not all of the tracks on SBTRKT are equally at home on dancefloors as they are on iPod headphones. The production and beats are superlative, without getting too technical or intricate. Of course, a lot of the album’s success hs to do with the guest vocalists. Yukumi Nagano and Rose Gabor lend their talents to a handfuk of tracks, but the majority of vocal duty is handled by the fantstic Sampha, who provides the album with enough heart and hooks to make it a true classic.

Well, the end of the year is upon us, and what better way to close 2011 than with a long-overdue Hitsville Mixtape! One hour and fifteen minutes of non-stop musical brilliance. Literally non-stop, we’ve finally found the way of turning our mixtapes into one continuous track, so no skipping the songs you’ve never heard.

PS. Those record skips are meant to be on there, alas iTunes made them six seconds long for some reason, so the effect is sort of lost now. Damned technology.

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