🐣 BIG HEATH — PLAN

⌾ LISTEN TO BIG HEATH, PLAN ⌾

---

---

Cambridge rapper Big Heath unveils his plan in the video for, well, 'Plan'. Set in a support group for something or the other, Heath jumps up and delivers bars in fast-paced triplet flow, packed with dynamic layering and laced with humour throughout. For example, from the moment he uses "porkie pie" (Cockney rhyming slang for "lie", FYI) and then busts out

"Yo, I rap the brothers that wake up early in the morning just to eat a Weetabix"

the level of humour is real.

Added to this is the intricate ticking and rolling of hi-hats of the trap-flavoured beat, and dusty music box instrumentation for a spooky backdrop, allowing for a juxtaposition in light of Big Heath's humour — something that pelts you throughout the track, and sometimes poignantly.

Speaking about rappers who "take a life then... rap about it," he sums up that it "doesn't make that stuff right." As always though, he jokes to get the point across:

"Yeah I could've been up in the street
Could've shot a coupe Gs
Could've served a couple fees
But that really weren't for me
I could not run from police"

Self-deprecating, funny, self-admittedly feeling "happy just to be alive" when he's rapping, and shot through with positive messages, 'Plan' shows Big Heath as a refreshing addition to the UK's rap scene.

---

• 🔔 Purchase or stream Big Heath 'Plan' via your fav service.

---

📠
☟ Internet Presence ☟
facebook ⚘ facebook ⚘ twitter ⚘ youtube ⚘ instagram ⚘

---

🐣 DRENS — BICYCLE RIDER

⌾ LISTEN TO DRENS, BICYCLE RIDER ⌾

A frantic wallsmash of an ode to riding bicycles, the theme of German band Drens' pogosticking 'Bicycle Rider' doesn't need to be guessed at. The drums are destroyed as the thud fuzz of the snare and splashing razor cymbals become a crashing cutlery drawer of mayhem, setting the rocky terrain where the rest of this track tumbles and divebombs.

We asked the band about the background to 'Bicycle Rider'.

"Our rehearsal room is in a rough area in Dortmund, so we park our bikes inside. [Drummer] Joël saw them and started to shout this "bicycle rider" thing," Drens co-founder Fabian Livrée (vocals, guitar) told us. "The special thing is that we didn't replace the lyrics, because we started to like it. It's our kind of humor and we really like riding bikes."

It's just over a minute of wiggling arpeggios, thrashing guitar and thick galloping bass – complete with stringbreaking guitar solo and vocals overflowing with breathless bite – for a punch-in-the-face parody of the surf sound: instead of hitting the waves, they're tearing up the streets by pedal power.

---

• 🔔 Get this brash and bouncy bike ballad via your fav streaming service.
• 🔔 'Bicycle Rider' is taken from Drens' recently released Nowhere Beach EP, which you can/should listen to on their SoundCloud.

---

---

📠
☟ Drens Internet Presence ☟
facebook ⚘ soundcloud ⚘ official site ⚘ youtube ⚘ instagram ⚘ spotify

---

---

MOSLEM PRIEST REAL SWIMMIN'

Take a little look outside of your own culture once in a while and you will find that, truly, people aren't that different in other cultures. People are, at the end of the day and when all has been said and done, people. Wherever you go. So, of course, people are creative right across the globe – there are no exceptions. Someone somewhere is always making something interesting, in all forms of art – and for the sake of this site, we'll say ESPECIALLY music. Especially. Music, believe it or not, exists outside of the UK, outside of the USA, outside of whatever country you're from. One good example is Moslem Priest.

Real name Farhan Yassin, Moslem Priest lives and makes music in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. His name – curious and awesome as it is – comes from an incident that occurred when he was in London once, when one of my fellow countrymen yelled "Muslim priest!" at him in the street; he liked it and it stuck. I stumbled across his music when I was having a look around KL-based magazine, Gumball, for whom I also write a weekly (mostly...) article. It was his latest track that interested me the most, so I'd really like to share it with you: here is 'Real Swimmin'' by Moslem Priest.

What you'll notice at first is the strong emphasis on samples of all kinds: a constant background noise of running water attacked by the sound of a phone ringing. Then, of course, the song's namesake, the rhythmic vocal sample of "Real, real, real real real" makes its appearance throughout the track. Wobbling soft synths wibble their way through, becoming more heavily layered and intense as the track progresses; clocks provide an unrelenting tick-tock; gunshots take the place of snare hits.

It's a Dadaist take on hip hop: the down-South beats with the extreme sub-bass thundering throughout and skiffling hi-hats combine with all these strange samples – there's even a dog barking at some points – to paint the kind of landscape you'd see in a dream of some surreal domestic situation. This is a bold collage of sounds that booms right into your brain, leaving delicate touches to those who believe experimentation should be subtle; Moslem Priest does it differently.

---

---

Listen to Moslem Priest on SoundCloud
Follow Moslem Priest on Twitter
Check Moslem Priest on Tumblr

---

---