Cinnamon Chasers

This summer at the sunset hour we've been enjoying some great sunsets, but haven't been finding great music to go with them. Until we heard Cinnamon Chasers 'Luv Deluxe', which was made for summer sunsets. Taken from his EP, 'Sunset Drive' it will feature on his forthcoming album, 'A million miles from home', which is sure to be a winner. As an extra bonus, the video, directed by Saman Keshavarz is excellent and even won the much sought after prize for best video at this years SXSW festival.

I Blame Coco

I Blame Coco is Coco Sumner, daughter of Sting, and is set to be big. Her first single, Caesar, featured Robyn and had remixes from the likes of Miike Snow and Diplo (which is particularly good). About a month ago I heard the La Roux remix of her next single, Self Machine, and loved it immediately. Since then I have been eagerly waiting the release of the single which recently found out is due to be released on the 11th July. The more I hear of I Blame Coco the more I like it, and i recommend checking out her myspace.

Pendulum

Pendulum have always been a band that I have know about, but no really known their music. I really liked a couple of songs like Propane Nightmares and Slam, but I never delved deeper into their music, until my flatmate got me tickets to their tour this year. It was an incredible gig, one of my best ever, and I thought some of their new songs were amazing. I think they will release this song as a single and it will do really well, its a proper summer anthem. Pendulum are supporting Tiesto this summer in Victoria Park, East London at the end of July. If you have the time/money I highly recommend going. I think it will be amazing show all round.

Broadcast 2000

Here's an awesome song. and then someone timelapsed tokyo and put it together with the song. cool.

Get up and go from Stefan Werc on Vimeo.

2 heads

How good were the 90's? The TV shows were awesome (saved by the bell, sister sister, round the twist), your tamagotchi controlled your day and pagers were pretty much the most technologically advanced thing you could own apart from a calculator. And then of course there was there was the music. Pop music was popular. and excellent. Underground music was underground, and not creeping into clubs, charts and radio 1. And the dance music had the distinctive cheesy hopeful 90s sound which just wouldn't fly if it was released today.
2 heads' song Out of the City encapsulates this mood perfectly. Its cheating a bit, it was released 2002, but to me it definately belongs pre-millenium.
The music video is wonderfully 90s as well. And features an excellent sunrise.

Sleigh Bells

The Sleigh Bells keep popping up on Hype machine, but I don't really understand why people think that they are so amazing. Most of their stuff seems too disjointed, or heavy on guitars. Its just not they type of music I would want to be listening to over the summer. However, they did a more relaxed version of one of their songs called 'Ring Ring'. This new version is called 'Rill Rill', and has been on repeat for the last couple of days:

White Rabbit

I had never heard of white rabbit until I saw them perform on live with Jools Holland. I have never seen such a nervous lead guitarist, it literally looked like he had never performed before, but it didn't matter. The drumming in this song is awesome, and it gets better with each listen. I don't normally watch the Jools Holland show, but I'm glad I did this time.

Also just went to see Pendulum at the Edinburgh Corn Exchange. They are absolutely insane! Probably the best gig I have EVER been too. Check out their new song, 'The Island', it was absolutely amazing.

Discovery

The side project of any musician is always an interesting thing to delve in to. There's usually a reason its a side project (ie experimental nonsense) and not their flagship. However, sometimes you find winning combinations between unlikely artists that share a deep burning passion for a slightly more alternative type of music. A good example of this was when the whiney dude from Death Cab for Cutie made an excellent album with an electro producer under the name The Postal Service. Good on him. Discovery is the lovechild of the keyboardist from Vampire Weekend and the vocalist from Ra Ra Riot. Interesting. Their album was released around 2005 to mixed reviews, but what strikes me is the complete lack of publicity or promotion around the entire outfit. Maybe they were busy or they maybe just didn't care. Either way, I like the thought that they were sick of the music they were playing in their band and just had a jam session and turned it into an album. Thats a bit what the album sounds like anyway. I like it.

Fyfe Dangerfield

So I recently found out that Fyfe Dangerfield (use to be part of the Guillemots) has suddenly become famous because his song, 'She's Always a Woman' was recently featured on a John Lewis advert. Although it is a good cover of Billy Joel's song, I personally prefer some of Fyfe's original material. While his album is not all that great, two songs really stand out for me: She Needs Me, and When You Walk in the Room. I first got When You Walk in the Room about 6 months ago, and got totally addicted to it.

Star Guitar

The Chemical Brothers were one of the first electronic producers/bands I ever got into, and while most of their stuff is quite heavy, Star Guitar is not. This is a song that you may not like first time you hear it, I didn't, but it definitely grows on you. It starts off with some simple clapping samples, and over the first minute and a half slowly builds up until the vocals kick in. This is the sort of song that is perfect for travelling, when you're stuck resting against a window, watching the world go by. The chemical brothers obviously knew this, and have made one of the best/cleverest videos I've ever seen. Here is is: