Joey Bada$$

This kid is 18 and came out of Flatbush, New York. I'm 19 coming from the outskirts of London and can't come up with a single line capable of nearing Joey's talent. But can he write a blog reaching 500 views in its first week? Probably, yeah.

Joey first came to my attention at the end of 2012 and he had a huge year 2013, remaining unsigned following in the same footsteps as the don Mac Miller and Wiz Khalifa remaining unsigned and staying paid. His 1999 mixtape reached double platinum on Datpiff and remains to constantly be releasing fire. He's been seen all over hip hop and rap, appearing on Long Live A$AP arguably killing Rocky on his own track, no mean feat.

Other than all of that, Joey is your average 18 year old who stayed in school whilst managing an emerging rapping career. You've probably heard a Joey track as he's recently been rinsed on UK Radio but if you haven't check out My Yout, where he headed back to his families home island of St Lucia to shoot this serious music video.

Enjoy.

Friday Fire

Friday Fire is as short and hot as a burning match.

Courtesy of the dons' Major Lazer teaming up with the king Pharrell comes Aerosol Can, coming soon on Major Lazer's Apocolypse Soon dropping 25th February.

Killer track.

King Henry

King Henry 

It's hard to write about King Henry when all you can find is history of the British Monarchy, but who needs details when King Henry has just pushed out his new album XI on bandcamp. I just copped it for an ashamedly low price and its a penny well spent.

King Henry first appeared on my radar around the same time as Djemba Djemba and Mr Carmack, linking up to produce some absolute fire. The way I can describe XI is like Santa's stocking, what's inside is out of your control, its merely how much you appreciate whats under the wrapping that counts, and that is so true with XI. 

It's as if you threw all your parents records, CD's and tapes together in a simmering pot, then broke into your neighbours house, found their stash of mushrooms and cheekily, but of course purposely put them in that simmering pot. 

One of the standout tracks from the ironically labelled XI is Koomba, which I can only describe as a song that invited me to a black tie event but last minute decided to invite one of the waviest baselines on road and invited its beautifully sounding vocal amigo.

King, Henry..

Djemba Djemba's musics so hard they named him twice

Djemba Djemba

LA based Andrew Swanson aka Djemba Djemba is in the same boat as Mr Carmack and Kaytranada, a boat that is so much better than your boat right now its painful. I first clocked Djemba Djemba on this heavy remix of Banks - Fall Over, which lulled me into a piano fueled melodic drift that reminded me of early Drum and Bass. 

That sweet thought ended when that off beat baseline tore up the track and turned Fall Over into one of the biggest riddims I heard last year. The same can be said with Stahp, which is just plain silly, Djemba creates a sound that sits so well with my senses, only similar to finding £20 in the back of your jeans, you ask no questions and just enjoy that luxury. 

But Swanson doesn't just create heavy riddims, oh no. Like Carmack and Kaytranada, he straight up shows his two's up and flips over tracks like When Its Hot, when he teamed up with Penthouse Penthouse and Carmack. Similar can be said with his idyllic remix of Every Single Night by Fiona Apple. Djemba showed off his ability to switch up tempo, switch up style and absolutely switch up a tune. 

Mad Decent clocked onto Djemba Djemba pretty soon after these releases and is now not only an esteemed member of the ever growing and incredibly talented Mad Decent roster, whilst releasing under his own label Rabbit Records, but also one of the best performers at Mad Decent's famous block parties all over America and now South Africa.

What must be said to Djemba Djemba is; fairs.

The Master Jaar

The Master Jaar

Nicolas Jaar is to music as Nigella Lawson is to cooking and casual cocaine use, attractive and questionably pioneering. By no means is Jaar a cocaine using celebrity chef, but he is a pioneer in sound. Half American, half Chilean, you can't really get too many things wrong with that mix of character, but what Jaar brings to the table is ingenuity through unbelievable talent.

Imagine if musical genre's were holidays. Jaar would greet you with a smile, hand you one of the finest cocktails known to man, that he made entirely out of his own liquors, then invites you onto a private jet, takes you on a journey not to a destination, but through noise. He then serenades you with some of the sweetest essences of sound known to man. What I mean by this obscure metaphor is that when you play one of Nicolas's tracks, you may as well be in a bar in Panama, blinking, and waking up in a field of plush rhododendron's. A genre for Jaar? Forget about it.

Critically acclaimed album releases, and the well deserved BBC Essential Mix of the Year 2012 award has led to Jaar being a curveball in the music scene. Show me any two Jaar tracks that sound the same and I will personally build you a yacht capable of sailing the Atlantic ocean.

I've picked these three tracks because frankly I don't even know, I can't explain, they are the definition of riddims. My personal favourite is The Ego, a song i've searched long and hard to match in terms of the emotions it evokes, but i'll let you decide.

Shouts to Jaar, keep on doing what your doing.

That Kaytranada Sound

That Kaytranada Sound

If you haven't already heard of Kaytranada then where you been man? North Korea or some shit? Coming from Montreal this musical entity has more riddim's than I can even begin to explain. What's more is that this is only the beginning for Kaytranada.

He came onto the scene whilst simultaneously taking your sister for dinner and making your mother cheat on your father around 2 years ago, and I only use that perhaps over exaggerated example to emphasise the impact Kevin has had on whatever music scene he has decided to grace.

Recently jumping on that Disclosure remix of their beat January, he has remixed tracks for the likes of Janet Jackson, Flume, TLC, Cyril Hahn and the unfortunate Robin Thicke. His sound has its own bounce and his live shows are ones to be marvelled at, his LA Boiler Room as case in point.

With Kaytranada you get those beautiful melodic intro's which drop into the unexpected, like taking a bungee jump into a sea of MDMA, you just don't know when the fun will end.

For all you Londoners out there, he's gracing the turntables at XOYO on the 7th of February, and if like me you've been lucky enough to cop a ticket to the sold out show, then make sure your bungee cord is legitimately tied on because you, and I, will be in for new levels of waves coming from the kid they call Kaytranada.

Big up's yourself Kaytra

MANSIONAIR

MANSIONAIR

The whole reason I began this blog was to share music I find both emotionally and intellectually stimulating whilst at the same time pleasurable and melodic, with no genre bias. Music, as by definition, is an art form consisting of sound and silence. It's how that silence and sound is intertwined to form what we call a track, record, single or in my own term, riddim.

Thats why Mansionair have come to my attention. A genre-less duo named Alex and Lachlan coming from Sydney released a tune called Hold Me Down featuring Revier just over a month a go, and by no means should it be ignored from the massive influx of Australian music talent that has emerged in the past year.

Flume, What So Not, Chet Faker and Wave Racer to name a few have exploded onto the electronic music scene with no questions asked, their talent is there too see. Mansionair in my mind will be a fundamental member of that rising scene thats made Australia one of the most exciting musical prospects of this year.

Give Hold Me Down a listen, the only way I can describe this tune without sounding like every other music blogger is if Cara Delevingne and you just had a blossoming sexual relationship borne from a purely random encounter down a boulevard in Paris, and all at once she had to leave, with no notice, but what you're left with is a free download courtesy of Alex and Lachlan and the memories of that boulevard exchange.

Enjoy

Introducing Elderbrook

Introducing Elderbrook

We've all seen a shift in music, away from record label manufactured artists and bands who lack passion and arguably the skills that make them deservedly acclaimed artists, towards musicians and artists who start from the very basic of musical skill.

I've been lucky enough to view the rise of one of my closest and most talented friends, Alex Kotz, who goes under the name Elderbrook. Throughout the various blogposts I've seen regarding Elderbrook they've highlighted how he is a hybrid, James Blake/Alt-J-esq sound that hasn't been found anywhere else on the planet.

Elderbrook has been making music for longer than my iTunes library dates back to, but what I can't get enough of is his incredible musical talent and ear for a good sound. We all have different tastes in music and what stimulates to what we equate as a good sound, but what Elderbrook does is stimulate that good sound feel to anyone who listens to his tracks. Show me someone who doesn't like his songs and I will personally take their mother for a 5 course seafood dinner and never call her back.

Rewinding, arguably Elderbrook's biggest tune is close to hitting 150,000 Soundcloud plays. Big, on any scale. I've been blessed with Alex sending me exclusive samples of new tunes he plans to bring out on an EP soon and I can tell you all, big things will be coming from this kid.

Respect and love to my friend Elderbrook, and check out his Soundcloud...

Kickstarting with Carmack

Kickstarting with Carmack

Aaron Carmack, better known as Mr Carmack creates some of the vibiest beats out there. So vibey I even had to create a new word to describe them. He first caught my attention with his and Djemba Djemba's killer Diplo and Friends mix they did a while back which absolutely killed all previous mix's respectively.

What I love about Carmack is his ability to diversify in his productions. He's created some absolute bangers like Pay For What and my personal favourite Birth Control. Picked up by Diplo's label Mad Decent pretty quickly after appearing onto the evolving electronic music scene, I think we can all agree his tracks would all absolutely kill a dance floor but what Carmack brings to the table is a constant new stream of tunes that flip electronic music on its head and lets you sit back, relax and enjoy musical production at its finest.

My case in point is a tune he dropped merely yesterday named Fish Stew. I don't even wanna begin to explain the vibes I get from this track, so i'm just going to have to go one step further and congratulate Carmack's parents for bringing up a kid with the talent he has.

Big up Mr Carmack, the second he touches down on the island we call Britain I will be hitting up his shows.