🐣 HARUKA SALT — PINCH 'N ITCH FEAT FAT TONY

⌾ LISTEN TO HARUKA SALT, PINCH 'N ITCH FEAT FAT TONY ⌾

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"Been a long week, had enough of this": Nigerian-American rapper Fat Tony's opening lines to Brooklyn producer and DJ Haruka Salt's smooth house odyssey 'Pinch 'N Itch' couldn't be more relatable. Fired along glossy plums of bass and a drum machine collage of beats, the feeling of the instrumental is one of elation, freedom — something Fat Tony didn't miss: "'Bout time that I scratch the itch / 'bout time that I left and I hit the road."

"I was feeling so free to express myself and exploring vintage synths at [indie disco & house record label from Brooklyn] Toucan Sounds’ YouTooCanWoo studio to find unique sounds to go with my mood," Haruka tells yes/no via email. "It was like hunting [for] treasure through all the vintage synths and being on the creative journey with those sounds/treasures I found on the way."

It's hard not pick up on that. Glassy keys craft a cool, lounge atmosphere; spiralling sounds soar upwards in a crescendo of energy; soft horn sounds swirl left and right; high strings cut a nocturnal flavour. There's an excitement to her music that Haruka can attribute, at least in part, to Brookyln itself. "I have never gotten tired of it," she says. "[It] definitely impacts my creative ideas and flows."

For Fat Tony, who counts the Houston scene as a huge influence on his style, his contribution was a chance to let off steam. "I was having a stressful ass week!" he tells yes/no. "The walk over to Toucan Sounds’ studio, was peaceful. It gave me time to cool off and reflect. The lyrics came naturally."

His vocal, laid-back but coiled with elastic energy, provides the perfect companion to Haruka's ever-changing beast of sound. 'Pinch 'N Itch' is a journey, an exploration of sound twinned with emotion expressed on reflection — a snappy, dynamic response to stress as much as to vintage synths.

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• 🔔 'Pinch 'N Itch' is taken from Haruka Salt's HarukaMart EP, released on Toucan Sounds. You can stream or download the whole thing on Bandcamp if you like.

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☟ Haruka Salt Internet Presence ☟
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GOURMET — STONE COLD STEVE AUSTIN

⌾ LISTEN TO GOURMET, STONE COLD STEVE AUSTIN ⌾

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Self-proclaimed maker of "spaghetti pop", the Cape Town-based Gourmet inducts us into a syrupy and psychedelic tribute to WWE star, Stone Cold Steve Austin. Well, tribute or not, much of the song — also named 'Stone Cold Steve Austin' — is spent with a vocal refrain that begins "Stone Cold Steve Austin..." It's wrestler-heavy, but it's not about wrestling.

It's just part of the idiosyncratic nature of Gourmet's music. A lyrical mosaic, stream of consciousness in style, the spoken word lines are unaffected, unpolished, and remain a refreshing strolling vernacular of a vocal.

Similarly, while decidedly modern in its undertaking, with its minimalist appeal and spacious production, 'Stone Cold Steve Austin' dips heavily into the hunny pot of the past, Gourmet also namechecking Michael Jackson as the track gloops onward in a groove, in a galaxy of its own.

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• 🔔 'Stone Cold Steve Austin' by (who calls it "intercontinental left-field pop music") is taken from his Peace Forever Seaside Senegal Castle EP, released by Baketown Records. You can get it on Apple Music among other places.
• 🔔 Update: There is also now a 'Stone Cold Steve Austin' video.

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🐣 MARQUIS HAWKES — DON'T U FEAT. URSULA RUCKER

Uplifting, yes, but not to the point of euphoria—uplifting from a low-level mood, bringing you out of the darkness, the feeling of looking up at the blinding sun after you've fallen over and grazed your knees or just woken up from a nap and remembered all the things that are making you anxious but then you rationalise. Far from the dancefloor, Marquis Hawkes' track feels more as though it both reflects and alleviates suburban misery. It is a track of small, important victories: dancing won't heal you, but it's fine for now.

Part of that almost solemn feeling of 'Don't U' comes from those skyward synth chords - in the style of a chapel organ, the continuous chords with occasional single note changes feels very organ-like; it suggests something redemptive about this track. The tone of those chords has us pointing ourselves similarly skyward: they're slightly decayed and warm, not too bright but also not dull; the synth – like the track itself – is elegant in its simplicity.

Simple acid synth bass squelches in sparse groove to give this sense of dynamic movement alongside the constant house kicks. Ursula Rucker's star-of-the-show vocals softly pad alongside the incidental gladdening synth chords feeling like a motivational speaker or a pastor telling you what you want to hear—or else they sing in gentle butterfly snippets. Combine that with simple dynamic subtractions and additions, tumbling toms, a handful of simple percussion, teetering on the edge of lo-fi house to deliver an atmospheric, modern-day sermon of a track in the church of dance with an overflowing heart.

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• 🔔 You may, if you choose to, stream this track via some sort of service or order the physical 12" copy of it – complete with three versions of 'Don't U' on top of this. It arrives courtesy of Fabric's label Houndstooth and precedes Marquis Hawkes' second full-length release sometime this summer.
• 🔔

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🐣 ISSERLEY — PRIVILEGE

The crunch of it, the frustrated clenched fists broil of it, the distorted decay of it all and veiled with a haunted corridor of wobbling ambient sounds to create this negative miasma clouding over the robust solidity of the mechanical swampsome sounds at the foundation, the emptiness that this track summons is vast and uncompromising. Sydney-based artist Isserley returns as the formidable force that we saw in 'Advent', her seemingly small childlike voice poised as it swoops disjointedly around the room, a glinting tone like a silvery flash in the dark, growling walls of synth bass fuzzing and pushing on your spirit, helping the musicmaker to illustrate the blocky angst at the heart of 'Privilege'.

"Sadness doesn't discriminate at all," Isserley writes in a message to yes/no, "and it always angers me when people assume that if you have money or a certain superficial quality, that life is inherently perfect."

Throughout the song she slurs in slow measured lines, monotone for the most part and sometimes dipping down to a low mutter, a drugged vacant quality as the languishing speaker attempts to tell themselves they have a secret weapon in privilege—the classic overcompensation of an unhappy soul. Isserley explains further: "The song is essentially a collage of miscellaneous misanthropy, nihilism and sarcasm directed towards the attitude that just because some people don't suffer the same problem as you, they're not suffering at all."

Indeed it begins, "I sit here waiting for the end of my suffering…" and the lyrics later ask, "But how can I be something, when I am surrounded by people who make me feel nothing?" — always the scuttled abrasive beat, the bruising calamitous synth, the soundtrack to dying inside.

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• 🔔 'Privilege' is part of a new cycle of songs by Isserley—will or won't there be a new release? Either way if you like this go check her 2016 album Messes on Bandcamp.

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☟ Isserley Internet Presence ☟
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🐣 TOYA DELAZY — KEKEKE

The swirling hypnotic synth, the gentle nature of it, makes you feel that you're in good hands, that you're in a safe, comfortable place; these cushions of sound, these soft fluttering filtered noises, fading into the negative space left lovingly at the heart of 'Kekeke', providing the perfect backdrop for the vocals of London-based South African musicmaker and singer, Toya Delazy. Sung in Zulu, her mother tongue, the artist channels her great-grandmother – actual Zulu royalty, Princess Constance Magogo KaDinuzulu, "one of the first indigenous female composers," she tells us – by infusing the praise singing traditions of her ancestor with contemporary surroundings that fizz contemporarily energetic. "I wanted to bring back the concept of praise singing in a modern setting, almost in a slam sort of way," Toya explains.

So we have this bright voice, a vocal that seems to shine as it calls into the mists of synth that curl as the track's backdrop, just a few portions of percussion to help solidify the frame surrounding the blissfully content yet far-flung and nostalgic singing. A sparse scattering of a beat thuds lo-fi four-to-the-floor whilst hi-hats scrape, in a section where the vocals turn to something more akin to rap: the lower pitch, the rapidity, the low-slung laid-back nature of it, the superb simplicity of it, the airy instrumental letting the words breathe. "The song is about the hypocrisy of people talking behind your back and the crooked smile they wear when they next see you," Toya explained the song's Zulu lyrics over email. "No matter how pearly white the smile, beware the crocodile."

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• 🔔 You can download the wonderful 'Kekeke' for free directly from Toya Delazy's official site.

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🐣 GOURMET — YELLOW

How so few elements can create such a luscious soundscape, yet here we are, a cradle of minimalism becomes this lavish tapestry of sound. The drums tumble thud and shimmy shuffle with kicks and clacking handclaps seesawing beneath sprinkling shakers, the whole roly-poly of it organic and breathy on the background of silence, a stark and basic binary where each percussive gambol is a 1 to absence-of-sound's 0. These are the wonderful foundations of 'Yellow' by Cape Town's very own Gourmet—atop these buttresses sit turrets and towers painted with wonky wah-wah synth chords that ring out with hollow iridality in patterns of innocence and playfulness.

In the midst of these half-triumphal quasi-brass hits, the vocals of Gourmet seem to spill out in a profound procession of detail and cryptic mentions that make this quite an abstracted stream of consciousness, the dry matter-of-fact tone in the voice adding to the humour and oddball hat-tips as they accrue collage-esque (much like the track artwork) throughout the track, snippets such as "you're blonde, that's unlikely" and specificities like "small hands, gluten-free spaghetti lad" as well as the hook that speaks of "cyan, magenta, yellow's such a boring word"—high on wordplay.

By the end it's a sudden sultry list of alliterative allusions to sex, "fingertips unzip clitoris lips and flickering anxiousness…" as synth bass pulses like a heavy heartbeat, disappears, gives way to more soft percussion as the vocals continue breathless, descending peals of synth like the jubilation of wedding bells, the scattered mutterings of nervous youth leading up to this crescendo of cloistered coupling that all awkwardness dreams of.

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• 🔔 'Yellow' by self-proclaimed "Spaghetti Boy" and musical entity Gourmet is out now courtesy of Cape Town record label, 1991.

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LANKS – RISES AND FALLS

I've seen a lot of this recently. A lot of what? A lot of SoundCloud pages that are hardly filled, or which have just the one track uploaded, and few followers, but which already shows such a definitive direction, such a polished sound. Maybe it's a kind of perfectionism, in that only a few songs will ever be "perfect" enough for the purposes of sharing with a general public; maybe it's that inspiration doesn't visit often enough; or perhaps it's all just an intricate PR strategy, and everything is ready already— I don't know! I have no idea! But what I do know is that I've seen a lot of them recently.

What does that mean? It could mean that more and more people are paddling their own canoes, making their own music and sharing it with the world – perhaps inspired by others who have done the same (i.e. getting internet famous) – and this is the meaning that I would like to believe, at least for now. People just wanna make music. And let them!

With this said, please allow me to introduce all the way from Melbourne, Australia, LANKS *tiny fanfare*. Who? Well, LANKS is the electronic project, the moniker, of Will Cuming, the creator of the only song currently uploaded to SC, 'Rises and Falls'. Having a little nose around on his Facebook page revealed that this is taken from an upcoming EP – and this, if this one song is anything to go by, is going to very good.

The track is a unique in that you don't often hear stuff in 6/8 timing which this at least appears to be. A slightly disorienting beat juggles toms and slapping kick, scratching hi-hat and dusty electronic snare, leading you effectively into a whirling dreamworld. This is the perfect foundation for the song itself, for the lyrics, which describe a tragic story (I won't ruin it, just listen) in balladesque form. A voiceless chorus underpins the spoken-word/singing's intimate style, guitar arpeggios join in halfway, synth chords gradually rise up out of the deep. The timing changes at around 1:50, with sub-bass kicks booming a 4/4 pattern, a heartbeat for the intense tragedy of this moment; accompanied by female vocals, LANKS and militaristic snares and cymbals builds the track to a crashing crescendo. Fin.

Really interesting stuff, indie-sound (essentially) with a touch of electropop and folk, reminiscent of Alt-J dare I say, but more substantial both in sound and wording. When is the EP out? Dunno.

• But you can download this song for free from LANKS's Bandcamp.
• Also there's a nicely drawn video for 'Rises and Falls' that you can watch now too

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SUNSET – AVA

Well, here's something exciting. Music can be fun, lighthearted, addictive, and it can also be exciting. And in this instance, I mean exciting in the way that something epic is exciting. Because this song right here just effuses "epic" – but before we get too much into it. Who or what the hell is SUNSET and why should you care? That's what you're thinking right? Right? Anyway, SUNSET is a duo from Paris, made up of artist Raphaël Siboni and Franck Rivoire (aka Danger). Not much is known about them, but it's that intrigue that keeps people guessing and, in a roundabout way, interested in the music. That's kind of beside the point though, because the music itself works just fine without any intrigue at all (check out their previous song 'Krystal'). Aren't I just contradicting myself… Sorry.

As for the song. It's called 'Ava' and it reaches you in the form of a lyric video; usually badly animated fan-created items, instead SUNSET have created it themselves and literally just provided the lyrics, in small writing, at the bottom of a black screen. And it's a good thing too because I don't speak very good French so understanding the lyrics is a little difficult (not that they matter 100%). Since they're given, it's interesting to note that the lyrics are wildly original, featuring the fictional account of someone's – this Ava perhaps – birthday at a club, where they were born to a techno song on the dancefloor. Bizarre? Yes, but totally captivating in a way. These, I believe, come from the artistic mind of Raphaël Siboni.

On the other hand, we have the music itself. The stoical nature of the spoken-word vocals, in its low register, is drowned by the track's hefty truckload of synth. We have it in lighter, more airy forms, where higher notes criss-cross like icicles in a glitter of reverb; then we have it in almost suffocating, heavy bass crunch form, a dark tooth-grinding saw-wave collapsing your mind and giving it away to the pulse of the song. The drums, booming along in a slow motion ache, almost cripple your ears – the kick in particular nearly escapes the speaker to scoop out your skull. It's a massive sound, wholly entrenched in the mystic, Crystal-Castles-esque side to trance music, yet with a sensibility towards live sound that comes with the high-end production, the distortion being paradoxically cut with precision. What will come next from these guys? It will be interesting to find out; pairing cryptic poem-like lyrics with such a sound is something that will turn a few heads, I'm sure, whilst also breaking some ears with their menacing sound.

Oh and if you're wondering about the "1789" at the end of the video: it's the start of the French Revolution and also the name of Franck Rivoire's label.

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TREE FT BEAT CULTURE AND LENA KUHN DEMONS

Yo yo yo yo. How are you? Good, me too. So I was sent some info that included a link to this song, 'Demons', a while ago and I was pretty surprised at the originality at work in the sounds. It's by Tree, real name Oliver Tree Nickell and features beats and noises from experimental pop music-maker, Beat Culture, as well as vocals from Lena Kuhn. I still haven't heard much about these guys, though I did just google Lena Kuhn and found that a lot of other music blogs wrote about this song already. Boo-hoo poor me I'm so lazy.

It's from Tree's debut EP also called Demons, released on Apollo Records late August. I listened to all of it and really liked it, but it turns out that I like this song the most out of all of them. It's a really good song that leaks an atmosphere of angst and anxiety all over the shop. There's such a glistening array of noises present here that it's kinda impossible to listen all the way through and not like at least one thing about the song. But the star of the show is Tree's voice, I'd say, but it's the mix of everything that gives the end result. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts. I guess? Lol?

Anyway, it begins with some languishingly strummed guitar that's augmented by this haunting whistling-wind kinda sound. Starting quiet and then in rumbles some hefty bass and the skeleton of a beat whose snare crashes like distant ships running aground in a pitch black night, whose hi-hat glitches like a neurotic clock. Emotion seeps in with grey flights of ever-falling strings, thickening later on in the song with something more cello-like. It's a sophisticated atmospheric composition where bright loses to dark in an emotive murk of sounds.

The vocals from Mr Tree himself are pretty spectacular as well. It's kinda like rapping, kinda like spoken word, kinda like singing. His words teem with emotion, not just in the near-twisted aggressive way he spits the lines as if them being in his mouth is leaving too sour a taste, like he's gotta get them out, but also in the words themselves. The lyrics are morbid and paranoid and are littered to references to demons and "the self". Some that stick in my head: "Sometimes I look at who I am in the mirror and forget / Sometimes I return home to demons on my doorstep / Just let me be / I want you to leave / Sometimes I get so suffocated I could barely breathe" and "I knew that it was time to go face to face with demons from my last life" and the chorus refrain "Sometimes it's easier pretending that you're somebody you're not". All conjure the sense of different parts of a person wrestling with themselves, the frustration of defining yourself to yourself. And the backing vocals from Lena Kuhn give everything a spooky, near-schizophrenic vibe - a quite beautiful effect if I may say so.

A real surprise. Dark, experimental, brimming with emotion... What will come next. I don't know. Watch & see.

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LAZY INTERVIEW #12: CORY JREAMZ

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← #11: YOSI HORIKAWA #13: THE ORWELLS →

Already making waves, having been featured on websites much more prestigious, desirable and professional than mine, and also played by UK rapper/poet/MC/DJ Scroobius Pip on his XFM (that's a UK radio station btw guys) show - Beatdown, every Sunday 12am to 1am - and also by Lily Mercer on her Rinse FM show (Mondays, 1am to 3am) - or at least, Cory Jreamz thinks she did.

Yes, his name is Cory Jreamz and he is a rapper from Houston, Texas. I've been following his progress since he released his EP, Vague Current Vivid Fated, last year - it was a pretty leftfield venture out into the world of rap, draped with all the frustrations of being 18, which Jreamz was at the time. Next, this year, we heard 'Howl', a distorted mass of noise tied up with a spoken word diatribe. It comes from his upcoming album, The Lonely Painter, scheduled for release later this year.

Anyway, as you can probably tell Cory Jreamz is the latest of the YES/NO Lazy Interview Q&A. If it's ok with you, you can read it below and find out a little bit more about this up-and-coming rapman.

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Who are you? Where are you from? What do you do?
　My name is Cory Jreamz, from Houston, Texas. I make music.

Why did you decide to start creating music?
　It came from me writing poetry. Needing a way to express myself. I'm a fairly quiet person so music gives me my voice. People always wonder why I'm quiet sometimes, it's because I'm writing the songs in my head haha. I have a lot to say.

How would you describe your sound? What makes you and your style stand out?
　I don't think I could describe my sound. Each song sounds really different. Charisma, aggression, teen Angst ha it's a lot of things. What makes me stand out is that you can't compare my sound to anyone's. It's just Cory Jreamz.

Is there a perfect time and place for listening to your music?
　At night while driving around it sounds amazing. Driving really fast on the freeway it sounds pretty cool. I wouldn't listen to it in the morning though. Morning is more fit for folk Joni Mitchell type of vibes. Rap would be hard on the mind in the morning.

What inspires you most when writing a song?
　Anything going on in my life. Anything someone said to me. People, places, many things. I'm inspired by everything I encounter in one way or another. Movies also. I got inspired to do the the first half of the intro to my album while watching the film The Tree Of Life. 'Swim' was also inspired by someone asking me did I know how to swim or ride a bike. I mean, you might even be inspiration for something. I pretty much get inspired by 100% of things I encounter.

What is your most memorable musical experience?
　Passing out my CD's at school my junior or senior year I think. I was passing it out to everyone in the class. I ended up handing one to a girl in my class, and she broke it in half right in front of my face. I'll never forget that moment, I still have the CD actually. I decided I will never quit making music at that point. Keeps me humble.

What are your favourite three songs at the moment?
　MGMT - Your Life Is A Lie
　M83 - Your Tears Are Becoming My Sea
　Waka Flocka Flame - 50K Remix

Who do you most admire in the music world?
　Pink Floyd. Greatest band ever in my opinion. From taking risks with their album covers to having flying pigs at their shows. Wow. I also admire David Bowie in certain ways. I really admired what he did with the Ziggy Stardust stages of his career. It was fresh. I think it's cool when artists come up with different personas, characters of their self. That's what made me fall in love with how Nicki Minaj or Eminem have the weird voices they do when they rap. I love it.

In your opinion, what is the future of music?
　I think everything will eventually be digital. CD's will stop being sold in stores etc. I feel like some new genre or sound will come and takeover also. Sort of like what Hip-Hop did. Just a prediction. Who really knows though?

What's the future of your music - what do you hope to do next?
　Release this album in October first of all haha. After that the focus will be on making my first show happen. Which will be in London of course. I'm aiming for December or January.

What, aside from music, is most important to you?
　Family, Friends, Film. I'm really into movies. I want to further enhance my screenwriting skills eventually. And then move to directing. So at least by 24 or 25 I could be directing and writing the scripts for all my videos.

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There you go. 11 questions asked, 11 questions answered. It's clear that there's a lot of ambition here - a mix of the charisma and teen angst he mentions above - and that's definitely not a bad thing. In fact, half of making music is having the guts to actually DO it in the first place and for Cory's particular style of music - alternative rap, I guess, but not like anything really - it's a really brave step.

With that in mind, I'm looking forward to see how The Lonely Painter will turn out. 'Howl' was wildly different to anything on Vague Current Vivid Fated, so the whole album has the potential to be a polarising experience - not just between the songs themselves, but for the audience. However, I'm pretty sure that Cory isn't afraid to create something that isn't just going to turn heads but also spark a very different reaction depending on who's listening.

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← #11: YOSI HORIKAWA #13: THE ORWELLS → - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
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FAUVE BLIZZARD [VIDEO]

Well, this song would actually mark the very first FAUVE EP, titled Blizzard - out 20th May. For the moment, however, the guys from FAUVE have released an eponymous song from the EP. Yes, that means it is also called 'Blizzard'. But they've only released it in video form. Not that that's a problem at all - it's a good video, and it seems to fit in with the whole theme of the song. In fact, if you wanted to get down into the real nitty-gritty of it, you could say that the song could not exist without the video - especially since the first time hearing this song is in conjunction with the video. It's almost as if FAUVE wanted that to be the case.

And if that were true, would that mean that FAUVE were more of a creative collective than a band? Well, yes. They profess themselves to be a 'project' and indeed count themselves a group of five musicians and one videographer. This means that they can present their music in a way that no other band can, really, without employing somebody else to film the video for them. It means total creative control and an ability to express whatever sentiments you want to in the video for your songs. You can, basically, make them fit. In any case, this video for 'Blizzard' is certainly an interesting way to offer up what is essentially the first single from their first EP. I wrote about their song 'Nuits Fauves' in December and instantly fell in love with their sound - what I didn't know is that they had no 'official' releases yet. So on, roll the months... and here we are.

Watch and enjoy. (it's in French btw).

There's an urgency in the vocals of the song, the mile-a-minute spoken-word/rap, frantically spitting out venom against what they call "le blizzard" - the blizzard, everything that's in the way of your desire to do the things you want to do; essentially, the blizzard is fear, obscuring a rational view of the future. But the song basically says to be not afraid of it. In so many words. It ends with 'nique sa mère le blizzard' - basically, 'fuck the blizzard' - and 'tout ça c'est fini!' - 'all this is over'. So, by turns and twists, the song gets from being afraid of the blizzard to being brazenly unafraid of it. It's all about dignity, standing up your own two feet, fighting boredom, doing what you want to do, determination, clench-your-teeth-and-do-it, take-a-leap kind of stuff. A nice message. Intense video to go with it.

As for the music itself, it's a gentle hip-hop beat with a set of strummed guitar chords - very effective for providing a base for the vocals which seem to be saying everything. It gets increasingly louder before the breaks, reflecting the torment in the lyrics, perhaps. In any case, it's an interesting sound and one that FAUVE initially caught my ear with - it's nice to hear that they're sticking with it, to be honest.

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YOUNG FATHERS I HEARD

It's amazing what you find sometimes. Here's a song called 'I Heard' by a Scottish trio called Young Fathers, made up of Kayus Bankole, Graham Hastings, Alloysious Massaquoi. They call themselves a "psychedelic hip hop boy band" apparently and it's not actually far off the resulting sound that these three think up together. So, it was a pleasant surprise to stumble upon these guys.

Combining exotic-sounding beats with a wash of deep, gurgling bass, the song is exemplified by its soulful vocals, whose echoing tones and faraway layering effects tower in the choruses with the somewhat touching (no pun intended) refrain of "Inside I'm feeling dirty", and croons near mournfully in the verses. Slow and sure of itself, 'I Heard' is a great, calm-yet-stormy track for sure.

Listen for yourself:

The whole thing is atmospheric, ambient synth organ sounds introducing the song alongside the clip-clop of plodding percussion as the voice comes in. Everything mixes together towards the end in a chilled yet intense climax that left me feeling glad to have heard the song and also curious as to what would come next. Luckily, there is more new stuff after this to come. Yes. This song apparently comes from a new release titled simply Tape Two, out 11th June on Anticon.

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KILO KISH NAVY

I first heard this song a few weeks ago on Zane Lowe's show on BBC Radio 1 (if you're not from the UK, you should check this out). There have been a number of breakthrough female I suppose rappers recently, from the quickly-diminishing Nicki Minaj ('Roman's Revenge' only good song soz NM fans) to the brash Angel Haze. Kilo Kish (real name Lakisha Kimberly Robinson), judging from this song, will be soon to join the others in the hearts and minds of millions of people. The Orlando-born Kish has already set the internet on fire with her awesomeness, so that's a good start. She's pretty damn good, pretty pretty pretty damn good, as is shown from the strangely titled 'Navy'.

The atonal guitars and bass in this song are what give it an unsettling quality, a slight jazz ring to it but overall it's something that doesn't quite gel with your ears - but it works y'know it works, and it keeps it's cool throughout the song like some old jazz cat asleep on a mat, or bouncing down the street; maybe that's more like an actual cat, like a cat kind of cat. All the same, it's an alluring sound.

That jazzy quality is supported by the skiffle flam paradiddle of the drums (drummers make these words up as they go along don't they?) emphasising the cool of the song as it goes along it's way. The beat turns hip hop with machine gun hi-hats in the chorus - where a star-glinting synth rains down too - which is where the vocal hook also shines with all its confidence and attitude. Speaking of those vocals, you could call it rap but I'd say it was more of a spoken word vibe going on hear y'know wha'mean? Have yo self a listen an' a watch (it's a selfie; she directed it).

The lyrics are clever and seem to be extracted directly from the heart of Kilo Kish herself, reflecting her feelings towards I guess a partner, for instance: "I respect / your intense / introspective defects" and "In deep space / I erase / all the memories of her face / our travels will replace / everything you once chased". Nice rhymes. And there's a lot of imagery here: solar systems, space travel, planets and all sorts of things - playing on the fact that we are all ourselves descended from the stars. How deep are her figurative bars on a deep subject matter - love (or at least some kind of affection get me).

Big things to come I'm sure, biiig things.

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FAUVE NUITS FAUVES

This might not exactly be the newest thing on the block at the moment, but it's certainly new for me. Well, new-ish. I've been meaning to post this song for ages - you know how it is: stuff gets in the way. Normal.

Anyway, this is FAUVE, self-confessedly more of a 'project' than a band. Although, according to the information on their website, they started out as just three musicians (friends with a desire to express the pathos in their lives), FAUVE now - after many people have joined the project in some capacity or another - count themselves as five musicians plus one videographer.

As for expressing themselves, emptying the overflowing mind, FAUVE seem to have no trouble with that at all. Of course, it's why they got together in the first place. This song, 'Nuits Fauves' (or 'Wild Nights' in English), illustrates perfectly what the band are all about: creating empathy within their listeners. The lyrics this particular song expound on the fear and desire that come hand in hand with the slightly vacuous nights out 'on the prowl' that certain generations of many countries and cultures experience. Luckily FAUVE display lyrics to all of their songs, so you can sing along.

But it's not singing. It's speaking - kind of. It's almost equivalent to the kind of rapping that Mike Skinner does in The Streets. But with this style it's much easier to get emotion across, in the way you speak, rather than with singing which of course always has to stick to a melody. The music fits the mood of the song perfectly, or makes the mood, with a cyclical guitar riff that meekly stretches like a cat in the background as a hip-hop rhythm beats along, in a kind of bleak pastiche of gangster rap. Wonderful atmosphere and dynamic here.

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Visit FAUVE's official site

RIP GIL SCOTT-HERON

April 1, 1949 – May 27, 2011

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Releasing his final studio album in 2010, the first in 16 years, Gil Scott-Heron will be remembered as one of the greatest influencers of hip-hop, exerting an avid, angry energy for poetry that he used against the racial and political turmoil of the early 1970s, he has become immortalised through his own poignant words through his years of activity in music. Most recently, he allowed - along with his producer Richard Russell - his last album, 'I'm New Here' to be remixed in its entirety (bar 2 songs) by Jamie xx as 'We're New Here'.

The decision to get it remixed by Jamie xx is telling of Gil Scott-Heron's character as one who likes to push things forward into new territories; it's generally unusual to get a whole album remixed by just one person, let alone a not-that-well-known, English producer. The original album itself marks a change, being more electronically-driven trip-hop or dubstepped-ambience than the soul/funk of his previous outings. Producer Russell even claimed some influence from The xx - hence the reason for Jamie's remix. But I'm digressing.

An absolute legend has passed away, and I'd like to remind you of or introduce you to 'The Revolution Will Not Be Televised' - a beautifully angry ancestor to modern hip-hop and the godfather of rap's most famous piece. The poem in full is below. Rest in Peace Gil Scott-Heron.

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You will not be able to stay home, brother.
You will not be able to plug in, turn on and cop out.
You will not be able to lose yourself on skag
and skip out for beer during commercials,
Because the revolution will not be televised.

The revolution will not be televised.

The revolution will not be brought to you by Xerox
in 4 parts without commercial interruptions.
The revolution will not show you pictures of Nixon
blowing a bugle and leading a charge by John
Mitchell, General Abrams and Spiro Agnew to eat
hog maws confiscated from a Harlem sanctuary.

The revolution will not be televised.

The revolution will not be brought to you by the
Schaefer Award Theatre and will not star Natalie
Woods and Steve McQueen or Bullwinkle and Julia.
The revolution will not give your mouth sex appeal.
The revolution will not get rid of the nubs.
The revolution will not make you look five pounds
thinner, the revolution will not be televised, brother.

There will be no pictures of you and Willie May
pushing that shopping cart down the block on the dead run,
or trying to slide that color television into a stolen ambulance.
NBC will not be able predict the winner at 8:32
or report from 29 districts.

The revolution will not be televised.

There will be no pictures of pigs shooting down
brothers on the instant replay.
There will be no pictures of Whitney Young being
run out of Harlem on a rail with a brand new process.
There will be no slow motion or still life of Roy
Wilkens strolling through Watts in a Red, Black and
Green liberation jumpsuit that he had been saving
For just the proper occasion.

Green Acres, The Beverly Hillbillies, and Hooterville
Junction will no longer be so God-damned relevant, and
women will not care if Dick finally screwed Jane
on Search for Tomorrow because Black people
will be in the street looking for a brighter day.

The revolution will not be televised.

There will be no highlights on the eleven o'clock
news and no pictures of hairy-armed women
liberationists and Jackie Onassis blowing her nose.
The theme song will not be written by Jim Webb, or
Francis Scott Key, nor sung by Glen Campbell, Tom
Jones, Johnny Cash, or Englebert Humperdink.
The revolution will not be televised.

The revolution will not be right back after a message
bbout a white tornado, white lightning, or white people.
You will not have to worry about a dove in your
bedroom, a tiger in your tank, or the giant in your toilet bowl.
The revolution will not go better with Coke.
The revolution will not fight the germs that may cause bad breath.
The revolution will put you in the driver's seat.

The revolution will not be televised, will not be televised,
will not be televised, not be televised.
The revolution will be no re-run brothers;
The revolution will be live.
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