Jamie XX remixes ‘Fog’ for Nosaj Thing

It’s about time we were offered something substantial from Nosaj thing. Since his debut album ‘Drift‘ dropped well over a year ago, hungry ears have been feeding off a steady stream of assorted remixes ever since, and the wait, unfortunately, isn’t over yet, but to ease the burden until his next album is released early 2011, we have been blessed with ‘Drift remixed’ out on sale November 2nd on Alpha Pup.

The album features a serious dancefloor banger from Jamie xx, that could be seen as a return of favor, as those of you familiar with Nosaj things remix catalogue may remember his clubworthy remix of The xx’s ‘Islands‘, earlier this year.

The last minute of this track almost alludes to a stronger template that is more identifiable with the likes of Jamie xx, who in return takes ‘Fog’ and makes it clubworthy in his own sense, stripping away the original template and spaciousness of the track. What is left is equally haunting yet agitated and skittery. A reinterpretation that will certainly appeal to UK bass heads and yet another great example of the connections between the US beat aesthetic and its moodier brother in the UK.

 Nosaj Thing - Fog (Jamie xx Remix) by acid stag 

Rising Star, Jamie Woon

If you haven’t heard of Jamie Woon yet, it would be understandable. Without an album nor an ep out, but only a few singles to his name, this young British singer/producer has already created quite a stir over here, thats sure to grow over the next few months. Fusing silky smooth vocals over dusty atmospheric instrumentation, Woon has already gathered a strong following being backed by the likes of Ramadanman and Burial, both of which have remixed his tracks, you may remember ‘Wayfaring stranger’, a Burial remix back in 2007?

Woons latest single ‘Night air’, produced by that mysterious Willian Bevan, has already had major airplay on radio one and is being dropped left, right and centre in Londons alternative nightclubs. The single comes with a laidback B side remix  by Ramadanman that satisfies equally. Currently only available on Vinyl, the digital release date is 14th November. Keep your eyes and ears peeled on this very talented rising star, expect big things as his debut album drops early 2011.

 Jamie Woon - Night Air by Graysaint 

Another side to James Blake

Its certainly interesting that after little more than a year since his first official release on Hemlock, James Blake has gathered a die hard fan base in the UK and even further afield, nameless fans on the net drop him titles like ‘the future of dubstep’ , ‘pioneer in sound’, one such fan even suggested of his music that, ‘i can’t believe a human made this’. Perhaps…

All hype around the man is well deserved, his music is at times incomprehensible yet coherent, distorted yet sharp and to the point and so it comes as no surprise that such a talented soul is a Goldsmiths alumni, prestigious British university for the arts. From interviews we can read, it is clear he is an articulate individual, but could you be surprised any more?

It is not however Blakes distinctive new sound nor his intelligence that needs touching on any further in the blogosphere, thats granted.  But it is his vast array of unreleased and white label material as a remixer and performer that people should know more about. Real Blake heads need not read any further, for those who do, lets jump down the earhole on Blakes other side…

I believe we first encountered Blakes talents as a singer and piano performer through two rough improvisational recordings he chose to play on a live Gilles Peterson show back in May but since then various tracks have come out of the woodworks that shed light on Blakes traditional (kind of) work. This side of Blake can best be found in the two tracks (‘Limit to your love’ & ‘Measurements’) below.

Blake has also been making limited pressings of remixes under his ‘Harmonimix’ moniker, if you found it surprising to see Blake stripped bare of his usual complex electronic soundscapes in the last two tracks, you might equally be blown away that his output does not just lie in avante-garde dance music or traditional approaches but that he can also be upbeat and downright ‘poppy’, in his own sort of way, of course. ‘A Milli’ remix (see soundcloud below) offers the best example of this in which he layers pitchbent Lil wayne vocals on top of another to form an unorthodox harmony, subtle synth hooks then add to the gradual rise in the overall emotion of the track.

With his piano and vocal arrangements now shining through on the recentKlavierwerke Ep, particularly on the introspective beauty of ‘i only know (what i now know)’, can we expect to see Blakes many musical heads to fuse on his upcoming debut album? Lets hope so.

James Blake - Measurements by Freedom Or Death

Lil Wayne - A Milli (James Blake Harmonimix) by KaL!

 James Blake - Limit To Your Love by TheDropFather 

Flylib

Back last march Flying Lotus had hinted in an interview with juno plus that there may be some collaborations to come on future projects, he said;

'I’ve got one with Mad Lib and Jay Electronica, and I’m doing more work with Massive Attack. There are also a few others that I probably shouldn’t mention right now!'

Im personally excited to see what may happen if Flylo hooked up with Madlib, there has been a lot of hype around this matter in the blogosphere and rightly so as Flylo was keen to keep the hearsay going strong by posting on his twitter last month;

'Madlib called and said we should start getting to work on our album.. If he answers the phone next week, that's huge progress.'

Not much else has been said on the matter, lets keep our fingers crossed for flylib, or flying konducta, or mad lotus, anyone?

Raid the donut shop

Im not a fan of labels Posthumously releasing the work of an artist; i think its unreleased for a good reason and for someone other than the artist to decide what should see light is a controversial line to cross.  However i am a great fan of Stones Throw Records and think the legacy they engineered for Dilla was very sincere so i have no worries when i downloaded J Dilla: Donut Shop' for free from their monthly newsletter, if your not already a subscriber then stop sleeping: subscribe.

However, if you really just don't care and want to eat beats then go ahead

Miguel Atwood-Ferguson

Los Angeles collective 'The qualities of light' share with us this video which gives you a brief insight into the true foundations of the work of Mr Atwood-ferguson. You may have previously heard Atwood-Ferguson providing the string arrangements for Flying lotus' 'Cosmogramma' or perhaps his orchestral tribute to the late J Dilla, 'A suite for ma dukes'. Im a big fan and ive not seen anyone pull off a fusion of hiphop and beat orientated music with orchestrated or classical instruments since Paul Dateh.