Finally the video for The Bug’s ‘Skeng’ is done and out in the internet wilderness. This tune is special to me, not just because it’s absolutely devastating in the earphones or in the club, but because it was a focal point of the time I spent with Kode 9 and The Bug in Japan last summer when they toured, which was when the track was still getting battered on dubplate, as we spent the best part of our time in Kyoto pulling pranks and stupid jokes based around the track’s lyrics. It’s definitely one of those ‘you had to be there’ thing I guess, but fuck me it was funny.

I saw Kevin Bug in London last month on my way back from Japan and he mentioned this video, saying that ‘Poison Dart’, his first video, was a disapointment and so he was looking forward to doing something dead simple for this, focusing on Flowdan and Killa P and putting the tune forward. I’d say it’s pretty much accomplished, complete with gunfinger from Kevin himself at the end.

By the way if you still haven’t heard The Bug’s recent ‘London Zoo’ album, out on Ninja Tune, then I seriously recommend you stop what you’re doing right now and get on it. Also look out for his forthcoming King Midas Sound project on Hyperdub, it should be just as tasty especially if the long awaited first single is anything to go by (that single is out this month on Hyperdub).

And to rebalance from the ‘gritty reality’ of ‘Skeng’, here’s a video for Flying Lotus’ ‘Parisian Goldfish’ which earns the wtf award for the month. Also is it just me or is 2008 fast turning into the year of the Lotus? Crazy, and nice to see but seriously I can’t quite believe how much it’s all blown up for him in the last 6 months. If anything further proof that good music spreads itself. Anyways check the vid below, by the way it is totally NSFW! You’ve been warned.

This video contains some explicit cartoon scenes, flashing lights and is FOR OVER 18’s ONLY.

Directed by Eric Wareheim (Tim & Eric) in association with Warp Records and Warp Films. Music by Flying Lotus. Co Directed/ Animation by Devin Flynn. Co Directed/ Edited by Eric Fensler. More info at dancefloordale.com

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written by Laurent \\ tags: dubstep, Flying Lotus, hip hop, Music, Parisian Goldfish, Skeng, The Bug, video, wtf

update: I was really tired when I first put this up yesterday and it was full of mistakes and I’d also forgot to thank everyone who hooked it up. All rectified now and also added something important about the idea of the city lacking history.

My short trip across the border from Seattle to Vancouver only served to reinforce my feeling about the omnipresence of nature I got when I arrived in Washington state. The landscape and sights as the bus rolled down the highway were hypnotic at times, and mundane at others, and with the sun setting it only made those hypnotic moments feel all the more relaxing. The US-Canada land border proved to be the first real testing bordercross since my return to the west. We all had to exit the bus, get our bags scanned and queue (or should that be line?) for border control. And that’s when I got my first taste of totally straight-faced, unbending border officers who seem to lack any sense of humour, or at least common sense. Border control is serious business get me, especially in these terrorist times. Not only was I asked absolutely ridiculous questions about where I was staying, how long and why (I still don’t get how explaining that you’re travelling the world on holiday can cause such concerns) but I was then made to go and get a stamp only to be met with more straight faced non sense, forms and general pissing about. So much for visa waivers. The irony of the whole thing being that everyone had told me to expect this and worse from the American customs, and they turned out to be pretty painless on the way in. Though I got an indirect taste of it on the way out of Canada, but we’ll get to that later.

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written by Laurent \\ tags: British Columbia, Canada, city, drinking, green, history, nature, travelling, Vancouver, writing

It’s been a long time coming but the homies over at Serie B magazine have finally gone online! Considering the amount of magazines choosing to make their printed material available as a pdf it’s obvious to me, and anyone working in publishing or the internet with a grain of common sense, that a combined online and physical presence is now essential for any magazine which wants to survive. I remember being surprised at seeing XLR8R go that route last year and make their mags available as pdfs as soon as they are in the shops (or pretty much as soon as I think). Think about it for two minutes though and it makes total sense. Most people don’t read magazines these days, and everyone wants everything at this very minute, which the online version of a magazine provides. For mags like XLR8R though, giving the content for free doesn’t necessarily damage their physical readership, because who wants to read 50+ pages in pdf format, who wants it printed in b/w rather than nice glossy, and those who want to read the mag because they enjoy it and have a relationship with it as a physical product (much like a lot of people do with vinyl) will continue to buy and read it.

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written by Laurent \\ tags: evolution, fuck the spammers, internet, magazines, newspapers, print publishing, Serie B, writing

I should be finishing my travelling updates and sorting out the ridiculous backlog of pictures and ideas I want to write about, but I’ve started work again and am back in the old ‘I need 48h in a day’ routine. Still I’m somehow managing to find time to fit in a fair amount of web 2.0-y (I’m copyrighting that adjective btw) stuff strangely enough. After having spent the best part of my 18 months in Japan retreating from the information overload that the internet can be, I’ve jumped back in with no restraint. Not only have I discovered the pleasures of Netvibes (which to be fair is actually a time saver), I’ve also joined the Twitter madness, as an ‘experiment’ - see Twitter widget on the site. Feel free to holla (or should that be twitta?) at me, @laurent_fintoni.

Anyways onto the point, which is that before I get back to work on the pile of ‘to do’ stuff, I’ve got some more to say, well actually more point out and link, on the subject of the new generation of beat makers, producers and body movers I’ve been discussing recently (and wrote about too, but I promise I won’t plug the article again, just scroll down a bit or check the portfolio on the left… ah shit did it again).

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written by Laurent \\ tags: Flying Lotus, hip hop, Hyperdub, kode 9, L.A, Music, Samiyam, Shook magazine, writing

I stumbled upon the Audio Culture blog thanks to my recent taking up of Google Alerts (which by the way is totally dope and heavily recommended for keeping track of just about anything online). Turns out I’d heard of the guys behind it as they’re also involved in some excellent dubstep and hip hop/beat parties in Amsterdam. Goth Trad played with them last year, and Jay Scarlett and Cinnaman are responsible for the excellent Beat Dimension compilation, among other things.

Anyways, went back on there today and Juha had posted this, asking if recent movements in hip hop and electronic music and the producers behind them are making the music of the future. His short post refers to a bunch of the same guys I’ve mentioned in my recent Return of the Boom Bap feature and who I’ve been banging on about for a while.

His question gave me a fair bit to think about so I decided to put this up as a reply of sorts. My first reaction would be to say that these guys aren’t so much making the music of the future as that they are making music that for me is a logical progression of the last 10 or so years. It’s cheesy but the future is now, and the music we’re hearing makes that case I reckon.

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written by Laurent \\ tags: dubstep, Flying Lotus, hip hop, kode 9, Music, speed tribes, writing

When was the last time you heard a pop crossover song that made you go ‘damn!?’. Actually, when was the last time you heard a mainstream rap song crossover into pop that made you go ‘damn!?’. In my case, and for both, it’s been a while, and just to show how long it’s probably a song from Jay-Z’s ‘Black Album’, or actually thinking of it more probably one of Timbaland’s beats for JT (but that’s a standard, and it’s not so much ‘damn!?’ as just ‘f*ck me that’s a heavy beat’). I don’t particularly follow mainstream rap anymore, apart from the odd track here and there, and one person I haven’t really followed is Lil’ Wayne. But in the last week, I’ve been obsessed by the song ‘A Milli’ taken from his latest album, ‘Tha Carter III’.

It all started with a post on Pampelmoose’s blog, which in turn linked to a post on Sasha Frere-Jones’ blog. The subject of both was Wayne’s ‘A Milli’ song, an apparent surprise pop crossover that has something going for it which most mainstream rap crossovers don’t: it sounds unlike any pop song you’ve heard ever, and it’s incredibly raw, figuratively and realistically.

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written by Laurent \\ tags: Flying Lotus, hip hop, Lil Wayne, Megasoid, Music, remix, writing

Words aren’t everything, so as usual there’s a bunch of pictures to accompany the recent thoughts on SF and Seattle. There should have been more, especially food related shots, but I have a bad habit of losing my camera when out, so I ended up leaving it in when it would have provided some of the better shots. Ah well.

For now enjoy the scenic shots and snaps of American life. Up next is Canada and then mighty New York.

San Francisco Flickr Set

Seattle Flickr Set

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written by Laurent \\ tags: America, buildings, California, food, people, pictures, San Francisco, scenic, Seattle, streets, travelling, Washington State

I left the cold of summer in San Francisco for Seattle, further up the coast and my last stop in the U.S before heading into Canada and crossing the continent. I was only stopping in town for a couple of days, but regardless I was looking forward to some relaxing and taking in the sights and sounds of the city.

Seattle is a strange one. I know that I’ve wanted to visit for a long time, but when I try and think of why I always end up feeling a little unsure. Fact is the most likely reason is probably T.V and movies, which is hardly surprising considering the realisation I came to shortly after arriving in America about how conditioned my image of the country and expectations were.

I was also a massive Seattle Supersonics fan growing up, back when I still enjoyed playing sports and before I discovered smoking! Between that and an infatuation with certain movies and T.V series, I realised when I planned this trip that I really wanted to visit Seattle, even if I couldn’t quite put my finger exactly on why. Tipping me over, I knew someone here who offered to put me up and show me around, which is always a bonus. Massive shout out to Alex for the hospitality and all round generosity, Seattle would just not have been the same without you bro!

There was one thing I noticed as soon as I landed in America and which I forgot to mention in my last post about San Fran: Spanish. Shortly after landing in San Fran I started hearing people speaking Spanish, and taking the BART into town I saw that all the signs were written in English and Spanish. I know Spanish is the second language in America, and that the Hispanic population the biggest, and I guess in a way most important, ‘minority’ but I didn’t realise to what extent this went until I got there.

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written by Laurent \\ tags: America, big, cycling, green, nature, Seattle, travelling, Washington State, writing

I’ve mentioned this feature I was writing on the return of the boom bap for a while now. The feature, along with a series of interviews with LuckyMe, edIT and the Glitch Mob, is finally out in the current issue of Serie B magazine, available now in Spain and in selected spots around the world.

And so I’m finally publishing the English versions on here as well as on Spannered where they’ll be appearing in the coming week. Much thanks go to all the artists, labels and Serie B for making this possible.

I first got the idea for writing this in the summer of 2007 while living in Japan. Being in Tokyo I was separated geographically from a lot of music and artists, and so I found myself listening to and hunting for new music a lot more than I ever did.

I started listening to many of the producers mentioned here before moving to Tokyo in Jan. 07, some for a few years, and I also discovered a lot of them while living in Japan, mainly through recommendations and just looking around.

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written by Laurent \\ tags: edIT, Flying Lotus, Glitch Mob, hip hop, LuckyMe, Music, portfolio, Serie B, The Return of the Boom Bap, writing

The Glitch Mob feature - Published in Serie B Magazine, 2008

This feature is accompanied by a mix, which is available here.

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Mobbin’ the future… West Coast rocks

As a musical tag, glitch-hop has a lot to answer for. Like trip-hop before it, it was nothing more than lazy journalism used to separate new styles of production from their hip hop origin. But if it wasn’t for glitch-hop, and the almost comical ring to it, the Glitch Mob wouldn’t have had such an easy time finding a name. A collective of four producers and DJs based on the U.S west coast, they were originally named as a joke. Like most good jokes though, it stuck.

Composed of edIT, based in L.A, Ooah, Kraddy, originally based in San Francisco and now in L.A, and Boreta, still based in San Fran, the Mob grew from the connections between the four, their collective gigs and their musical affinities. “It turned out to be a lot of fun playing with 4 people as it adds a dynamic that’s not present from a one person show,” Boreta explains while talking about their first shows together.

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written by Laurent \\ tags: Alpha Pup, edIT, Glitch Mob, hip hop, L.A, Music, portfolio, San Francisco, The Return of the Boom Bap, writing

LuckyMe feature - Published in Serie B Magazine, 2008

This feature is accompanied by a mix, which is available here.

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LuckyMe, Lucky Them, Lucky Us

A storm has been brewing for a while up in Scotland, centered on the city of Glasgow. Thing is, thanks to a collective of artists based around town, it’s a storm that has to do with music rather than weather. The name of the collective is LuckyMe, and while it may fool you, luck really has nothing to do it.

Heading the LuckyMe family are Dominic aka Dom Sum and Martyn aka FineArt. The collective’s naming was, as Martyn explains, “pretty spontaneous. I like things to be named positively and I guess it’s meant to be a joke about people thinking you’re lucky even though you put the work in.” Truth is, Hard Working Them would be a more appropriate description for a collective who have gone from putting on their own parties in a small Glasgow pub to international recognition in just a few years.

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written by Laurent \\ tags: Dom Sum, FineArt, Glasgow, hip hop, Hudson Mohawke, LuckyMe, Mike Slott, Music, portfolio, Rustie, Serie B, The Return of the Boom Bap, writing

edIT feature - Published in Serie B Magazine, 2008

This feature is accompanied by a mix, which is available here.

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The Game is far from over

Los Angeles. The name evokes all sorts of T.V and Hollywood induced images and fantasies. For music lovers L.A is also a powerful name, home to innovators and a breeding ground for new ideas, past, present and future. And it’s the future that concerns the work of Edward Ma, known to most as edIT. The future of hip hop to be precise and it doesn’t sound like anything you’ve heard before.

After discovering DJing and production while studying at U.S.C, where he became friends with other artists to be like Aloe Blacc and Daedelus, Ma built his name on the L.A underground. As the Con Artist, he recorded, engineered and produced for a range of people, including some of his U.S.C friends like Aloe Blacc. He also became a resident at Konkrete Jungle, the L.A chapter of the legendary US drum n bass night, which was co-run by Daddy Kev, someone who Ma would work with again in the future, and Hive.

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written by Laurent \\ tags: Alpha Pup, edIT, hip hop, L.A, Music, portfolio, Serie B, The Return of the Boom Bap, writing

The Return of the Boom Bap feature - Published in Serie B Magazine, 2008

This feature is accompanied by a mix, which is available here.

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The return of the boom bap

In 1993 KRS announced the return of the boom bap. It has returned 15 years later, but not quite as the Blastmaster would have expected it. As hip hop changed so did the boom bap, and today it’s found in the beats of a new generation of producers who’ve taken hip hop firmly into the 21st century without forgetting where it all came from.

Boom bap never died

Trace the roots of this new generation and two people generally always show up: Jay Dee and Madlib. These two producers, knowingly or not, laid foundations for a whole new era of hip hop. Not only did their approach to production help usher in a return of the boom bap, that unexplainable feeling that makes you want to bop your head to the beat, it also showed new, untapped possibilities for how hip hop could be.

The new boom bap took hip hop as its foundation and build on it, the manifestation of an often forgotten element that was part of hip hop from day one: progress. Taking hip hop and making it your own. At the turn of the century, a new generation came through and did just that, transforming the beats we thought we knew in the process.

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written by Laurent \\ tags: edIT, Flying Lotus, hip hop, LuckyMe, portfolio, Serie B, The Return of the Boom Bap, writing

For the very simple, and totally biaised, reason that it’s presented by me and features an hour of spanking new and recent music from some of the finest producers out there. If I may say so myself.

The selection is quite heavily influenced by my recent trip, with quite a lot of the music aired given to me when I was travelling, including the awesome ‘Mr Malase’ from Mochipet’s new album, some unreleased heat from Uncle Lew and new bits from Various Productions, who are the subject of the show’s mini-feature.

I ended up leaving quite a lot of stuff out, so expect another one from me at some point in the near future. Enough talking though, get yo asses over to the R-I site and get downloading. Unless you’re a subscriber in which case the show is on its way to your HD/iPod/whatever right about now.

And if you ain’t a subscriber what the hell is you waiting for? I mean not only is every podcast in glorious 320kbps mp3 quality, since the relaunch in June we’ve aired some absolutely killer mixes and we’ve got Joey Beats and Dday One as regular guest presenters, so seriously, what is you waiting for?

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written by Laurent \\ tags: Music, podcast, rhythm-incursions