🐣 WORLD AIR — YARD MAN

Stringing us along with a slowed-down salsa rhythm or something similar, this track exudes an otherworldly appeal, both in this rhythm which because of its downtempo feeling feels alien and unlike the rapidity of a Latin rhythm, as well as in its sounds that flutter between wilted by heat distortion and the first few levels on a platformer—you know, when it's all grass and blue skies and the enemy AI is pretty low and the gaps to jump aren't all that. This is all tied together with a glorious minimalism, spaces between the very real analogue sounds served with a sheen of dusty record player fuzz, the only thing jumping out being a dub-flavoured sample soaked with reverb almost making it indiscernible, but it mentions the song's title: 'Yard Man'.

There are many things that London musicmaker World Air's track calls to mind. We can look at the cutesy vibe of Yoshi's Island, for instance, whose soundtrack is similar in atmosphere, and we can also namecheck Super Mario 64 for its use of garbled synth vox, the same sort of sound that punctuates 'Yard Man' with syncopation and childlike officiousness—even the hotel theme from Earthbound feels not-too-distant. Nothing is too sharp here: the sounds are rounded, gently bevelled, the percussion that punctuates throughout bounces with retro drum machine pliability, a zany half-acid bass squelches with SNES slacker vibe. Warm warped organ keyboard chords twinkle and chime with muted sparkle, small melodies spring upwards decayed and wobbling. World Air crafts your very own soundtrack to your life as World 1-1, a simplistic dream of sound that feels warm from fingers to toes, familiar, almost archetypal yet undeniably fresh and bursting modestly with vital carefree beauty.

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• 🔔 This marvellous track is taken from World Air's Lo Recordings-released album Air's World, Vol. 1, which comes packed with five tracks, including 'Yard Man', that are sound different yet follow the same immediately loveable organic timeless fun aesthetic. Listening is highly recommended.
• The abstract artwork for the track, a swirl of pastel breeziness and not wholly bold, fluid yet constructivist lines, was created by Liam Richardson.

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☟ World Air Internet Presence ☟
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MARK REDITO – 3AM APOLOGIES

Never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee… and more specifically, it tolls for Spazzkid. Hear the clanging knell kneading the air like vast clouds rolling through valleys, the ding dang dong of another musicmaking moniker moored at the banks of the ever-flowing river, never to plough through waves again.

But don't worry, Mark Redito is still around. After much consideration, the man himself decided to shed his Spazzkid moniker and just stick with his irl birth name. Specifically, aside from artistic growth, new directions and feeling as if what he's making now is quite different to what he's making now, it's to do with the offensiveness of the very name "Spazzkid", and "undergoing scrutiny" because of it – even if he was originally just named after a band.

"After careful research into the various uses of the word “spaz” as a derogatory term," he writes via email. "I no longer feel comfortable representing my music and art with a term that has the power to hurt a large group of people. While it was never my intention to offend anyone, I owe every person aggrieved by my old moniker a heartfelt apology, and this is just that. I’m sorry."

To mark (haha) this change we have a new track, heralding the turning of a page to a new chapter in the story that is the music of Mark Redito. It surfaced on Ryan Hemsworth-run, friends-only, not-a-label-but-a-SoundCloud-platform Secret Songs and it's called '3am Apologies'.

The first thing that sprang to mind whilst listening to this was festival music. Not any old festival music, but traditional music from the Japanese festival of Obon (or just Bon), held in summertime across Japan to honour the dead. What took me there? The swaying feel and dizzyily offbeat melodies of '3am Apologies' match those of the music that goes with bon odori i.e. "bon dance" – I say the music, but there are as many different variations of this dance as there are major regions and cities in Japan; perhaps it's akin to the awa odori of Tokushima on Shikoku, or maybe it's closer to Kagoshima's ohara bushi. Either way, there's a fair spot of considered delirium at work in '3am Apologies', which made me think of Bon.

Added to this inebriated festival atmosphere is a heavily swaggering dub-flavoured rhythm, further highlighting a decidedly beat-themed foray for the first venture as Mark Redito, and ornamented with countless drum ad-libs that roll and rollick with virtuosic energy, yet that feel blissfully restrained by the slow, oozingly oscillating rhythm. Swathes of fizzing synth cushion piercing lines of melody, all of it rising together in a richly layered crescendo that takes previous elements and arranges them in a model of harmony, each part slotting where it should having been individually introduced earlier on. Mark sings on the track, too, his voice sprinkled with emotion and far-off, as if a dream or previous introspection being reflected upon.

We dream with him, in the giddy ambience and half-crazed steadiness of '3am Apologies', swept along by sheets of synth – sometimes airy and ethereal, sometimes buzzing and intense – bouncing onward with the skillfully-crafted elastic organic beats as if being jostled through a crowd.

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• Check out the YES/NO Lazy Interview with Mark Redito, back when he was Spazzkid.

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☟ Mark Redito Social Media Presence ☟
Facebook • SoundCloud • Bandcamp • Twitter • Instagram • YouTube • Wikipedia

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Y/N GUEST MIX 021 :: CLAS TUUTH

One day I will get better at creating the cover art for these guest mixes. For now, I will stick with making stuff on Paintbrush, a buggy port of Paint for Mac. If anybody has any suggestions, or can make art for free (some of the artists have done this themselves) please contact me. Thank you.

For now though, allow me to introduce Clas Tuuth. Well not so much introduce as meet him once more, as I did write about one of the tracks from his recent-ish 003 EP the other month. He's from London and he makes lovely organic-sounding electronic music, as if these electronics were plant matter or animal matter, and lived their own lives, living and breathing within the compositions with naturalistic ease. At the same time, they're filled with urban grit and a decidedly cold sense of loneliness – an almost melancholic feeling, yet content with itself, the soundtracks to solitary journeys and pensive moods.

But as for this mix itself. From the introspective ambience of Clas Tuuth's own intro in the form of his track 'Legion', it is a predominantly '90s-flavoured affair, a voyage through rave-inspired beats and heavenly dub. There's the cascade of beats in 'Hooligan 69' by Ragga Twins, containing within it a sample of Prince's 'Let's Go Crazy', the twisted synth fantasia in the Alley Cat remix of 'Charly' by The Prodigy, the dance-rap of Rebel MC's 'The Wickedest Sound' (featuring, I have discovered, the origin of the eponymous sample in DJ Fresh's 'Dibby Dibby Sound'), ending as it began with the beautiful life-of-its-own vinyl crackle.

It's real nice to hear some music that I didn't really grow up with, but that has inspired a whole generation of musicmakers with its unrelenting beats and simplistic approach to music. I hope you enjoy or at least appreciate :~)

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• T R A C K L I S T •

• 01. Clas Tuuth – Legion Intro
• 02. Manix – Stupid Dope Mix
• 03. Intelligent Hoodlum – Arrest The President
• 04. Clas Tuuth – Glass feat. Catriona Irving
• 05. Tek9 – Space 91
• 06. Shut Up and Dance – Derek Went Mad
• 07. Ragga Twins – 18" Speaker
• 08. Ragga Twins – Hooligan 69
• 09. SL2 – The Noise (Remix)
• 10. Eric B. & Rakim – I Know You Got Soul
• 11. 2 Bad Mice – Bombscare
• 12. The Prodigy – Charly (Alley Cat Mix)
• 13. Bug Khan & Plastic Jamm – Made In 2 Minutes
• 14. Rebel MC – The Wickedest Sound
• 15. 2 Bad Mice – Hold It Down
• 16. Clas Tuuth – Legion (version)

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☟ Clas Tuuth Social Media Presence ☟
Facebook • Twitter • Tumblr • YouTube

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GLADYS KNIGHT – I HEARD IT THROUGH THE GRAPEVINE (EONE'S BASEMENT RE-WORK)

This is a remix. But it's a remix with a difference cause it's officially titled the 'Basement Re-Work' and, when you listen to it, you can really get where the basement part comes from. Cause this is all basement. This is all dusty and half-uncovered and dimly lit and unseen for years and subterranean. And it should be so, because the guy who made this – the Brighton-based Eone – usually makes undegroundy darkly cold/cool tracks but this one is my favourite so far.

With samples from the Gladys Knight version creeping in scratchy and distorted as if they've travelled all the way from 1967 to infiltrate your ears, it's a song that basically expounds a quintessential UK sound and that's an eerie, hard and almost dub-flavoured minimalism. Laden with a dusky soundscape of floating soft synths, it is a song of two halves with this wah-wah synth aching with chorused wobble as its liquid riff: a slo-house rhythm with dub clacks for snares that goes uptempo, double-time, for its ending.

It's thick with this almost stifling darkness, a deep quality that feels as if the sounds are viscously orbiting you, cushioning you, all along. The uptempo part feels fresh, there's a groovesome vibe to it, and with the sample chiming in amidst the boom of the beat there's a reliclike air to it, an authenticity, a stamp of the past on something that – with its style – could only be new. Tbh I don't think I've ever heard a Motown sample framed in a sound like this one, and for that, well, this is pioneering. Or it might be the case that my experience or knowledge doesn't extend as far as yours or the next person's, but whateverrr.

• Go listen to Eone's Brighton Representing Mixtape made specially for Y/N

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COOL TRIPS – GIVE ME THE LIGHT

I heard this a while ago, it got sent to me, I dug/dig'd it, I still dig it, but I never got around to writing about it. Why? I dunno. Literals don't know. Just one of those things that just escapes the mind. Sievelike stuff, I know. But the important thing is that I'm here rn writing this. To tell you the truth, I've actually been getting this song, or at least parts of it, stuck in my head in a kind of occasional earworm that lasts for as long as it lasts for (it would be really difficult to measure how long a song is stuck in your head for – somebody needs to do some more research on this). Anyway, that's a good sign isn't it? So, getting it in my head just a few minutes ago, I finally relented and just thought to damn well sit down and do some damn writing about it.

So what is this and who is it by? It's by Cool Trips who is from Portland and who is actually called Matthew (maybe Matt) Scott and he's uploaded just one song to SoundCloud called 'Give Me The Light' but it's a very good song. Like I said, it's been in and out of my head since I first heard it a couple of weeks ago. Let's listen.

It's a total mix: funky with wah-wah guitar twiddlings, yet there's a dub reggae feel thanks to its slow offbeat rhythm and the syncopated piano chords, and an overriding feel of what is basically post-chillwave with a smooth fluidity that is wholly conducive to a laid-back vibe. Cutesy blips appear as ornamentations throughout as the vocals do their thing, their very catchy thing (yeah that's where all the hooks are at), singing soulfully in a faraway manner, almost lamenting at times – especially when the near-shiver-inducing chorus kicks in with the elastically pleading "I don't want it to be over / Is there nothing I can do?", and the fatalistic "It's not me… It's not you" simultaneously full of feeling and style.

So that was that. How do you feel about it? I really like it. He's doing something new with pop, with indie, putting hooks in amongst thickets of styles and sounds and letting you go in yourself and have a look for them without being obvious at all – exciting! And for a first song (ever?) it is even more impressive. Hopefully there will be more to come from Cool Trips – keep yer ears open!!

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Listen to Cool Trips on SoundCloud
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EN2AK WOODWORK MISFITS (JOLLY MARE REMIX)

It's Jolly Mare! Hooray! I probably could've written about this guy a hundred times between now and the time that I last wrote about him, but I haven't, so— anyway, here he is again with a remix of Wrocław-based Polish musicmaker En2ak's bristling track 'Woodwork Misfits'.

Before I go any further, some of you may be thinking, "who the literal hell is Jolly Mare?" – well, that's kind of easy to answer. From Italy, his real name is Fabrizio Faberismi, and I've written about a couple of his songs before – namely 'Nobody Cares', a vaporwavey number, and 'Castlemare', sounding like the hardest videogame boss fight ever; he was also a participant in the Red Bull Music Academy. So too was En2ak – and that is how the two met. And so Jolly Mare ended up as one of the artists featured on 3 Remixed – a set of remixes of the songs from En2ak's 3, set for release on Christmas day (25th December lol) of all days, via Warsaw-based label U Know Me Records.

But what about the actual remix? En2ak's original – from his third album, simply titled 3 – is a bustling tin-pan assortment of percussion mixed with bubbling bass and phasing synths polka-dotted with tuned vocal samples, turning in its second half into a more menacing rumbler of a track, all with a distinct ghetto house feel to it.

Jolly Mare's version is nothing short of brilliant. Taking on the mind-bending dub sounds of reggae, this remix is a warm and synth-laden foray into a stress-melting atmosphere; bass bulges lazily alongside the raw drums and the glitchy lead synth sounds. Occasional samples from the original cut through the chilled blanket of noises in thin reverbing stabs. By the end of the track, you're so far engrossed in its bliss that it's almost as if you could be on holiday – soaking up the sun and feeling a single beat of sweat drip from your forehead. It also positively aches with an 80s sensuality, perhaps in the raw, almost primordial synth sounds that Jolly Mare chose to use in the track.

His remix, though different to original (which ain't a bad thing yo), is a sultry, head-bopping number that whisks us away from the cold gusts of wind that winter is currently throwing our way – at least in the UK anyway – and takes us to a fantasy island, where the beach is endless, and all the amenities you could ever desire are sitting right behind you, nestled under rows tall palm trees. It's the soundtrack to a sexy dub holiday, that's what.

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Like En2ak on Facebook
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ALMIGHTY PLANETS WILDFIRE [SBTRKT COVER + FREE DOWNLOAD]

I talked about covers recently and said something to the extent of they can be good or bad. The good ones tend to be clever in their approach, the band ones - not so. This cover of SBTRKT's 'Wildfire' from Brighton-based band Almighty Planets is quite easily in the former category. It doesn't just fall into this category, it has firmly placed itself there with confident steps, that's for sure.

The main change is that there is a dub rhythm, even style, in place now and it suits the song wonderfully. The drums are explosive and echoing, adding darting dub fills in between its stamping beat. The horn section really does it for me, and adds even more of that laid back jazzy dub midnight on a bustling veranda feel to the song - as does the bass, subby and grooving with attitude, arranged perfectly for the cover, giving it such a different vibe it's unreal.

Saxophone solo? Yeah, it's there and it's like a luxurious drive down a street lit with neon signs to a beach hotel. Something like that. In other words, it makes ye feel good dunnit - sounds damn good too. The vocals are rich and layered, a veritable cake of voice that provides a more chilled vibe to this part than was in the original with vocals from Little Dragon, which almost overpowered it - these vocals mesh with everything else and cooperate to bring you the best in songs-that-work-really-well. Whet your appetite enough? Then listen up.

Tasty tasty stuff. And what's more you can down-bloody-load it, what a lovely bonus! This'll be on the summer playlist fo sho. As for the band, by the sounds of things they should be on the up-and-up-and-up in no time.

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Visit Almighty Planets' official site
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TOYS NOISE [NATURAL PLASTIC EP]

It's amazing what you can miss out on when you simply just don't know what you're missing out on - if that makes any sense. Being recommended a song here and there is a good way to keep up with not just new music, but music that people themselves have taken a liking to in recent months, serving a dual purpose. In that way, I have been very quickly and effectively been won over by the sounds of Paris-based TOYS.

Their debut EP, Natural Plastic came out 10th September this year, and featured two original songs, 'Noise' and 'T-O-M', and two remixes of 'Noise'. It's a massively threadbare introduction to some new talent that sounds like it could get very big indeed. Therefore I am waiting with anticipation for something new from TOYS, whenever that may be.

For now, even just 'Noise' will suffice. It's a song with a unique sound that could be listened to any number of times without growing any less fond of it at all. The video for the song is below, and was filmed around the Barbès-Rochechouart Mètro station in Paris - an area that's notoriously rough and that clearly holds some kind of nostalgic meaning for the duo who make up TOYS: Paul Prier and Bastien Doremus. Have a listen.

With a bassline that could have been lifted right out of a dub song, and a beat that naturally locks in with that offbeat bass to create a head-nodding sensation of a track with an unreal groove, 'Noise' is an instant hit from its very beginnings. Add to this the frenetic analogue synth that dips in and out like a bizarre, scratchy, modular fanfare, and you have a very different-sounding song. The vocals, too, like an announcement hold up against these competing sounds wonderfully with a chunky degree of feeling. I can't tire of listening to it, honestly.

The second original of the EP, 'T-O-M', is a much more laid-back affair. It bursts open like an 80s slow-jam, with a get-on-down bassline that gradually gives way to effortless, near-whispering vocals, before a sensual synth solos over the top, making everything sound like the after-disco vibe outside a disco from Streets Of Rage 2 that may never have existed at all. It's all palm trees and neon signs and you can listen to it here.

As for the remixes of 'Noise', you can listen to those below. The first, by Fausto Garraud, turns the original into a galloping deep house number, adding in some extra funk with a constant, rumbling bass. The second, by Sayem, keeps closer to original but speeds it up a little, features a crunchy interlude, makes use of spaces in between sound, before launching into a full-on electro mash in the second half that puts extra meat on the original.

As I said earlier, I am eagerly anticipating more from TOYS after their teasingly short Natural Plastic EP and I hope, after listening to them, so will you be too.

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TOYS on Facebook
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TOYS on YouTube

MARCONI UNION BROKEN COLOURS

Marconi Union have an album coming out June 18th this year. Judging by this song, 'Broken Colours', it's going to be a collective anthem of beautiful sounds and such utter chill that you won't even know which way to lean or recline, a completely legitimate anthology of ambient prettiness.

The song is slow and has at its core a never ending wash of sound, warm and fuzzy, like a teddy bear, but like a teddy bear which is actually a vast ghost that is nowhere and is intangible. It's a study in dynamics and build-up, going from understated, almost tidal sounds, to a busy, bustling highway filled with delicate synth sounds. A busy afterlife, the plane beyond: an ever-shining limbo of electronica.

Underneath it all there's this muffled, metronomic dub-like beat, carrying with it the gentlest bass sounds and a snare that comes only every so often, but reverberates as if it would go on echoing forever.

It's the perfect kind of music for the weather we are currently experiencing in London. A fluid sound to wash over us like an ethereal sprinkler as we melt in the glory of the sun, languidly going about our lives in the oneness of the heat. What an illustration of the friendly sun! 'Broken Colors' is a wonderful effort from the Manchester-based Marconi Union, and I am anticipating their album very gladly. More than that, I hope that the weather will continue to match these skyward, totemic and all-encompassing sounds of vast comfort.

Listen for yourself below.



They are a very relaxing group. In fact, a little Google threw up this article on the Telegraph's site. Have a read. But for the moment, enjoy this quote:

Boffins say the eight minute track, called Weightless, is so effective at inducing sleep it should not be listened to while driving.

Manchester trio Marconi Union worked with sound therapists to create the soothing tune, which also slows breathing and reduces brain activity.

Scientists played the song to 40 women and found it to be more effective at helping them relax than songs by Enya, Mozart and Coldplay.

The study - commissioned by bubble bath and shower gel firm Radox Spa - found the song was even more relaxing than a massage, walk or cup of tea.

Nuff said.

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• Marconi Union's OFFICIAL SITE
• Follow Marconi Union on Twitter
• Find out more about them on Wikipedia
• ... And they're still on Myspace.
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LUTAN FYAH PON MI HEAD

Mid-June saw a new release from rootsy reggae lord Lutan Fyah, the wonderfully bitesized Pon Mi Head EP. He's been around for a while, active musically from 1999 onwards with 9 albums under his belt. Born in Spanish Town, Jamaica, and a follower of the Rastafarian Bobo Shanti movement, his music embraces the dub side of reggae, and has worked not only on his own music but also on covering songs by the likes Dr. Dre and The Fugees. A bio describes his journey: "After years of toil in the dancehall where he built an underground following, the diminutive vocalist is on the brink of a major breakthrough."

Indeed, there's somewhat of a resurgence in dub reggae at the moment - the obvious reason being the huge popularity of now globally recognised and much loved dubstep genre. That half-time drum and bass rhythm has become the metronome by which a lot of pop music lives and breathes by, utilised by a host of people from Britney Spears to the Sugababes, and done to death in all sorts of remixes (the most notable still being Skream's remix of La Roux's 'In For The Kill').

So you can understand that Lutan Fyah's services are rendered quite useful given the current climate - that breakthrough coming ever closer. He features on Rusko's 2009 Babylon: Volume 2 with energy-laden dubstep reggae ska choon 'Sound Guy Is My Target'. You can listen to that below if you're not au fait with it (amazing little breakdown just after 3:10 btw).

'Sound Guy Is My Target'


As you can hear, Lutan Fyah (real name Anthony Martin) puts his all into the vocals, mixing smooth talk-singing with scratchy impassioned yells. But what does he sound like minus the glossy production afforded and endorsed by Rusko? Like the below. This is Lutan Fyah's new single, 'Pon Mi Head' - referencing the dreadlocks and headscarves (or turbans) worn by Bobo Shanti Rastafarians, a constant theme and refrain throughout the song that adds not only authenticity but heart to its dub flavour.

'Pon Mi Head'


Brimming with classic roots reggae elements, lyrically this song encompasses beliefs of the Rastafari Bobo Shanti, namely wearing long hair in dreadlocks - "yes me grew de locks pon mi head, de wool pon mi head" - and wrapped in a headscarf/turban: "Yes man a real Bobo Shanti be no Taliban, come check my turban" - contemporary comment on perhaps mistaken identity. The groove of the drums locks with the laidback bass rhythm, presided over by the offbeat guitar rhythm, dub horns and delay chord every so often - a reggae set-up if ever there was one.

The descent into sparse synth at the end of the song, combined with Lutan's faraaway vocals, sound somehow alone - as if maybe the subject matter of the song is something that is understandably esoteric and unknown by the rest of the world. Filled with references of who he is, where he comes from, and what he believes in, this feels like quite a personal song and one lit with the 'fyah' of his voice.

The Pon Mi Head EP is then graced with a wordless instrumental version of the single, 'Pon Mi Dub' - lacks Lutan's vocal passion, but the fluid rhythms remain. This comes before the third and final song of the EP - a dubstep remix of the song by Illoom (aka James Loomis). Here it is for your aural entertainment:



It's a minimalistic dubstep rendition, founded on a solid beat complete with slap-in-the-face snare and stompy bass, making use of space instead of filling it all up with typical dubstep wobble - intelligently respecting the quiet between sounds. Cutting up the dub horns, he throws them in with lashings of delay, adding to the mix a low-attack buzz-saw synth that creeps subtly into your ears. It's a simple remix, respecting the original but adding just enough difference to ensure it sounds fresh and personalised by Illoom.

If you like reggae, this EP is something for you, definitely. And, if so, why not raid Lutan Fyah's prolific previous discography?

• Visit Lutan Fyah on Myspace
• This was released by King Dubbist Records (Facebook page)
• Check out Illoom on SoundCloud

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