So your looking to pick up a fresh pair of kicks, but your certainly not about to pitch tent and start queueing up ten days in advance to get that super exclusive s**t. Then again your no slouch when it comes to flexing your trainer muscle, so rocking the standard tat that these big high street chains seem to be continuously peddling just won't cut the mustard. So whats an innocent kicks fiend to do when they have an itch that needs to be scratched?.......well the answers pretty simple....hit the net and hit that s**t hard! Luckily for you though I have saved you all a lot of time by compiling a list of a few of my favourite sneaker spots from around the world. While most of these spots do already offer world wide shipping, if you do come across one that doesn't seem to be playing ball i'm sure a friendly e-mail in your finest chinook jargon will, with any luck, help you to snag yourself a pair of some of those fresh Nike Air 'Mother Theresas' you've had your eye on for so long. Happy shopping!
Ask any reggae connoisseur and they will tell you that with out these two monster record labels reggae and all it's associated musical forms would be shadows of their former selves.
1. Studio One: Started in 1954 by the legendary Clement 'Coxone' Dodd, Studio One has been described as 'Jamaica's Motown' and 'The Birthplace Of Reggae Music'. Involved with most of the major music movements in Jamaica during the 1960s and 1970s, including ska, rocksteady, reggae, dub & dancehall their catalogue of artists reads like a who's who of roots music legends. These include Bob Marley & The Wailers, Lee 'Scratch' Perry, Burning Spear, Ken Boothe, Toots & The Maytals and The Skatalites just to name a few. If you don't have time to digg through the crates to find the originals of some of this amazing material not to worry, Soul Jazz Records have refiled the vaults for you and put together a great selection of Studio One compilations that are all available on their web shop (linked below). Click 'Read The Rest' for a brief background and links for Trojan Records. Soul Jazz Records - Studio One Label
2. Trojan Records: Started in the UK in 1968 by Lee Gopthal, Trojan Records was one of a few labels that fed the craze for reggae, ska and rocksteady that swept Britain during this time. These musical styles became particularly popular amongst subcultures like the skin heads and the mods. Trojan's name comes from the Croydon-built Trojan truck that was used by Jamaican producer and DJ Duke Reid which had Duke Reid - The Trojan King of Sounds painted on the sides. Reid's sound system became known as the Trojan Sound, which became synonymous with the new and hip music. By 1970, Trojan artists were even making headway into the pop music charts, these included: Lee 'Scratch' PerrysUpsetters, Bob & Marcia & of course the legendary Desmond Dekker.
However, In 1972 after a decline in the popularity of reggae in the UK , Island Records (Trojan's sister label) pulled out of its partnership with Trojan Records. This lead to a steady decline eventually causing Trojan to become settled into inactivity by 1982.
After A 3 year hiatus, luckily the label was resurrected, and in 1985 and with the help of some new talent at the helm they began to research and compile new Trojan releases. By the late 1980s and early 1990s, Trojan was unearthing and compiling a lot of reggae recordings (including tunes originally recorded on studio one) and re-issuing them for the first time in 25 years. Today Trojan has an unbelievable amount of compilations, box sets and albums available and In June 2007, Universal Music added Trojan Records to its empire with the purchase of Trojan's parent company Sanctuary Records for £45 million. Check out the huge selection of Trojan releases available on amazon, I would definitelyrecommend the soulful reggae box set, which includes some great re-interpretations of classic soul tunes by reggae artists from the 1960's and 70's.
Deviant Art is an international community for artists. Launched in 2000 the site consists of over 8 million members, over 62 million submissions, and receives around 80,000 submissions per day. Deviant Art aims to provide a place for any artist to exhibit and discuss his or her works. As well as offering a shop for artists to sell their works, a staggering amount of user submitted artwork and a huge forum, my favourite parts of the site have to be the resources and customization sections. As well as having fonts, stock images, textures, wallpapers and a whole host of other sections they also have a ridiculous amount of themes and skins. These include ones to change the entire look of your operating system to specific application skins and even themes for your Ipod, media player or portable device. The site also has the biggest selection of Adobe Photoshop/Illustrator and Gimp patterns, shapes, brushes and addons I have ever seen. Any one interested in digital art working, graphics, customization or just anything art and design related in general should definitely check this site out it's amazing.
American singer songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Bobby Caldwell was Born in New York in 1951. Although he is perhaps best known for his 1978 hit single 'What You Won't Do For Love' (sampled on Tupac's 'Do For Love' amongst others) Caldwell has maintained a prolific musical output over his 25 year career. As well as achieving an almost cult following in Japan, the singers unique brand of blue eyed soul has also come to the attention of many a hip hop producer over the years. With a number of his tracks being sampled on tunes from artists such as B.I.G, Aaliyah, Jazzy-Jeff, Medaphoar, Tupac and Guru to name a few. This tune entitled 'Open your eyes' which featured on Caldwell's 1980 album 'Cat In The Hat' and was again used by the legendary J. Dilla (R.I.P) to create the backing track for the Common classic 'The Light'. 'The Light' was also remixed this year by well know hip hop producer 'Just Blaze'. I also came across this great remix by Kero One. Caldwell is in my honest opinion one of only a handful of white vocalists that can really be accredited with creating 'soul' music in the traditional sense of the word. Enjoy...
With the digital DJ revolution still going strong, the vinyl purists are certainly having a tough time holding their corner. As if the widespread popularity of vinyl emulation solutions such as 'Serato Scratch Live' wasn't enough, other power houses in the game are starting to put out some equally seductive digital DJ equipment. Vestax's latest offering is called the VCI-300 and is described as a dedicated DJ USB MIDI / Audio system and software solution. Unlike it's predecessor, (the VCI-100) the VCI-300 has a dedicated sound card built in, so all that is required to make full use of this dinky little number is a desktop or laptop computer loaded with all your digitally encoded music and then you are ready to wreak aural carnage on an unsuspecting public. The VCI-300 also comes bundled with Serato's latest dj software called 'Itch' and judging by the huge success of Serato's 'Scratch Live' software, Vestax could be on to a winner here. the VCI-300 will however also support any software package that supports midi. Click the link for More info... On top of that, as well as all the usual EQ's, looping functions, wide ranging pitch shift and key lock controls Vestax have also thrown in a couple of unique functions to keep those digital Djs salivating at the chops. Boasting what is said to be some of the best scratch emulation technology the industry has to offer, the jog dials/platters are also said to have resistance control and an adjustable JOG wheel torque mechanism meaning you can adjust their stiffness/looseness to your own personal preference. Also included in the package is an 'Emergency Thru Switch', which avoids the sound from stopping when the computer freezes, helping you to circumnavigate an onslaught of disgruntled revelers when your system locks up. Due for a UK release at the end of this month prices are said to to be around the £500 mark, very reasonable when you consider 1 PioneeerCDJ1000 will set up back around £800! Certainly beats lugging around 100's of vinyls and a load of CD's too!
Sighting a wide range of influences from Radiohead to The Roots, John Coltrane to David Bowie, Frank Bell hails form Atlanta, Georgia. Although he's been making tunes for a good while, over the last year he has gained a strong following after this track entitled 'The Penguin' clocked up over 745,000 YouTube hits. He has a number of other videos of covers and original material on YouTube as well and his Debut EP, 'On Passion and Reason', is now available on iTunes worldwide. Check him out on MySpace too. Definitely one to watch.
Pc running a bit slow? perhaps a little spring clean might help. CCleaner is an application that finds and removes junk from Internet Explorer, Windows Explorer and other areas of your system. It also targets installed applications such as FireFox, Microsoft Office, Google Earth, Spybot and Windows Media Player. You can choose exactly what you want it to focus on by ticking or unticking the various choices on offer. The program also has a built-in Registry checker, which can fix and find errors and delete old invalid registry entries. It also gives you the option to back up your registry to avoid any unfortunate mishaps. Impressively the Tools section also includes a handy uninstaller and a startup manager for configuring which programs and services start with Windows. This application is a strong performer and unlike many of these type of programs it actually works well and shows some good results. Hit the link to download for free.
Featuring regularly in top 10's of the greatest hip hop tunes of all time 'I Used To Love H.E.R' is without a doubt a true hip hop classic. However when notorious boom bap specialist and producer extraordinaire 9th Wonder got a hold of it last year and gave it an instrumental makeover the result was pretty impressive to say the least. I may even go as far to say that he may have even improved on the original. The 12" release also featured another tasty remix of Common's 'The 6th Sense' on the flip. If you aren't yet clued up about the North Carolina residents back catalogue be sure to take a butchers at Little Brother's 2005 album 'The Minstrel show', the production is top notch, definitely some of his best work to date.
When I initially got word from my man TB that Nike were intending to retro arguably one of the greatest runners ever produced I was pretty chuffed to say the least. About a week later official word hit the blogs that Nike would indeed be retroing the Air Pegasus '89 in the above white/black/pink/grey colourway along with the other original white/black/grey/blue colourway. Clean lines, slim profile and a classic silhouette makes these one of my favourite Nike models of all time. Scheduled for release in early 2009, 20 years after their original incarnation they are still looking as fresh today as they ever did, lets just hope Nike doesn't bodge the re-release.
Now here's a tidy little number. Gone are the days of electric bikes looking like something an old dear would rock to collect her pension, with this A2B Electric Bike from Ultra Motor you can still get all the benefits of electricly charged peddle power without looking like a geriatric. The cycle does have pedals that can be used if it runs out of battery power or to increase the cruise speed, but they are not actually needed for normal operation. It can travel for 20 miles on a single charge of its lithium-ion batteries at speeds of up to 20 mph. The battery is also swappable on the go, allowing you to double the distance the bike can travel. To charge the bike you simply plug it into an AC outlet at home. Mind you this little baby doesn't come cheap, when launched in sepetember prices are said to start at around £1,250! ($2500). Might have to stuff another cream cake and stick to the push bike.
Cedric Marszewski, aka Pilooski, must certainly have had to take responsibility for a few torched rooves last summer when his twisted re-edit of Frankie Valli’s ‘Beggin’ blazed a trial of destruction up music charts world wide. However the french magicians golden touch had already been well documented on the ongoing D*I*R*T*Y Edits and Dark & Lovely 12" series. While he doesn't align himself with any genre in particular, he has become somewhat famed for his re-edits of psychedelic disco and northern soul rarities. Often classed in the genre of 'electronica' the thing I like about Pilooski is that while he fuses electronic elements with organic sounds he manages to retain the integrity of the original tracks yet somehow gives them a whole new energy and lease of life, making them more accessible to a wider audience. One of my favourite tracks has to be this re-edit of a lesser known Pointer Sisters B-side entitled 'Send Him Back'...this one is venomous. Also look out for his remix of Nina Simones 'Take Care Of Business' which is featured on Volume 4 of the Verve Remixed compilation series. Head on over to the MySpace for more tunes & info.
Universally accredited with making some of the best sounding portable media players on the planet South Korean techno wizards 'Cowon' have been at it again. The P5 sports a 5 inch 800x480 16 million colour touch screen with haptic feedback and has a a custom Windows Ce 5.0 based user interface. As well as supporting a whole host of audio formats (MP3, WMA, ASF, OGG, WAV, FLAC, APE, MPC, WV) you also get a plethora of video formats too (AVI, ASF, WMV, MPG, OGM) that can be played back at full DVD resolution (720x480). They also include a nice selection of image format support as well (JPG, BMP, PNG, RAW). As if that wasn't enough the clever chaps at Cowon have also thrown in Bluetooth, Tv Out, Txt viewer, a 5 band EQ and a USB 2.0 host port for connecting additional storage or peripherals. Cowonhaven't scrimped on battery power either, you can expect to get 14hrs for audio and a hefty 9 hrs for video. It comes in 60GB/80GB capacities and while not currently available outside of Korea, rumour has it it will be hitting Europe and the US in the next few months. If you're in the game for a media player but can't wait that long be sure to check out some of Cowons' other offerings too such as it's A3 and D2 models.
Soul Legend Isaac hayes died on Sunday at the age of 65. Amazing producer, composer, song writer and singer. He will be sorely missed. Be sure to check out 2 of his best known works, 'Hot Buttered Soul' & 'Theme From Shaft' both of them are classics.
These days trying to navigate your way through the video compression format mine field can prove pretty difficult at the best of times. With a severe lack of any universal video compression standard you could end up spending hours searching for the appropriate application or plug in to play your obscure .TXZFN video file you have just downloaded from your favourite Ukrainian self tanning tutorial website. But never fear VLC player has the answer to all your problems. While you won't be getting the slick interface you find on the likes of windows media player or itunes, what you do get is support for just about every audio and video format under the sun. If VLC can't play it the likely hood is nothing can. They also include support for uncompressed DVD video files (.VOB) which is a nice touch and rumour has it some industrious hackers have also started porting the player to Apples 'Jesus Phone'. With over 96 million downloads under it's belt already, the masses appear to be pretty chuffed with this one. It's free to download too, so get clicking.
When Legendary production team Holland/Dozier/Holland left Motown in 1967 to establish their own Invictus/Hot Wax group of record labels , they teamed General Norman Johnson (previously lead vocalist in a group called ' The Showmen' during the 1960's) up with Eddie Custis, Danny Woods and Canadian born Harrison Kennedy as the new company's flagship act, under the appropriate name "Chairmen of the Board". As well as achieving mainstream success with a string of singles during the early 1970's, a cover of one of their songs entitled "Patches", would go on to win a Grammy Award when later covered with great success by Clarence Carter. The following tune entitled 'Hanging On (To) A Memory' is taken from the now out of print complilation entitled 'Salute the General'. It also featured on the live album 'In Session' and reached no.28 in the US R&B chart in 1971. Some of you may recognise the twisted electric guitar sample which was used on a tune off of rapper Lupe Fiasco's debut album 'Food & Liquor' entitled 'Real' which features vocals by Sarah Greene. Ripped straight from the vinyl for your listening pleasure.....this ones raw.
In recent years Nike has unfortunately had a bad tendency of butchering some of it's classic models by creating horrible mutant hybrids, using cheap looking materials and opting for highly questionable colour palettes. Fortunately every now and then they still manage to drop something that maintains some of the integrity of their original iconic designs. This Nike Air Classic BW comes in smooth leather and mesh in a Classic Charcoal/Dust-Swan-Black colourway. Evidently not the most adventurous of colourways, but finding this combination of materials on general release BW's has in recent years unfortunately become somewhat of a rarity. They failed to retain the embossed tongue found on the originals (they have opted for a simple stitch instead) but have still managed to capture some of the essence of the originals despite the smaller air units. More pictures and info after the jump.
Blind? Thinking about getting a guide dog? Trusty labrador perhaps? A word of advice chum, how about you ditch the pooch and rock the horse instead. Not only can you now sport a tidy 3ft steed with a stylish maroon bib and harness, these 'helping hooves' also come equipped with a tasty set of fresh sneaks to boot! The Mutts won't know what has hit them! Bound to be a hit with the ladies too.
Here's a tune that was doing the rounds on the blogs a while back, had to put it up here though as it's a banger. Partyshank is a British duo from London. So far 2008 has seen the band top the MySpace charts, reaching one million plays in the process as well as gaining widespread airplay on commercial radio. They describe themselves as being in the genre of grime, power-pop and jungle and are also the creators of the style known as ‘ToyStep’. Now while that may sound like pretentious bulls**t, and they may look like they've just escaped from the circus the bottom line is these boys definitely know how to make some noise. After getting hold of Yo! Majesty's electro rap crossover smash 'Club Action' and giving it the mash up treatment, the result is pretty filthy to say the least. Click to Listen.
Originally formed by 6 ex Samsungemployees Korean company Iriver have been cranking out tasty portable media playing devices since 1999, and the SPINN is certainly no exception. Constructed from what looks to be some kind of weapons grade metal alloy, the SPINN is certainly a looker, the question is has it got anything under the hood to match the racy exterior. The simple answer....yes. The designers of this player were said to have taken their inspiration from old analogue radios, which used the combination of a single vertical bar and an analogue scroll wheel to navigate the channel frequency. Not only have Iriver incorporated their own analogue scroll wheel (hence the 'SPINN') but they have also added a razor sharp 3.3 inch (480x272 resolution) AMOLED touch screen display with haptic feedback...
For those not in the know, haptic feedback, means that the screen gives a small rumble or buzzing feedback when you touch it which gives the illusion that the user is touching a real solid hard button. AMOLED stands for 'Active Matrix Light Emitting Diode'. The advantage of having an AMOLED display over a traditional LCD display (used in most portable media devices) is that they do not require a backlight to function. Thus they draw far less power and, when powered from a battery, can operate longer on the same charge. Because there is no need for a backlight, an OLED display can be much thinner than an LCD panel too.
In terms of file format support you get MP3,WMA, OGG, APE, FLAC & ASF for Audio & AVI (MPEG4 SF) & WMV(9 SP) for video. Photos are covered by JPEG. As well as the usual EQ's, sound enhancements (SRS WOW), album art support and ID3 tag browsing and crisp smooth minimalist user interface Iriver have thrown in a few extras too. DAB digital radio will come as standard on the UK version (DMB-T for Korean version) and all versions will support Adobe Flash Lite 2.1, which means you can download flash games on the device and play them using the touchscreen. A nice touch for sure. Unfortunately River have failed to include any expandable storage which would have been nice but you do get the options of 4/8 & 16GB capacities. Said to be releasing in the UK sometime in August, prices have yet to be announced but expect the damage to be significant. Here's a video of the player in action...
Making a blog is jokes but at the same time also inenvertantly leads you into an enchanted world of 'html coding'. What a magical place, one stupid f**king ^ out of place and the whole thing is screwed. Anyway...after sweating blood for about 4 hours I have finally figured out how to add a 'Read Full Post >>>' link to my posts. If you look down the page you will notice this link appears under every post. When you click it, it will lead you to another page which will show you the post in full, which allows the poster to write more about the topic without taking up to much space on the main page.
If you click the link for all my past posts the full post page will be just the same as I hadn't added this feature before. But from now on you can use this link to read the entire post in full and I will only give a short intro to longer posts. I still have not figured out how to remove the link for short posts that don't need it...but i'm working on it. Now you can hear about even more junk I come across on the net. Happy times. Click below to try it out. The wonders of modern technology eh?
Singer songwriter Liam Bailey first came to my attention at a live music night run by a friend (shouts to Liesl). Originally hailing from Nottingham, he now resides in Stoke Newington and has been performing shows around London and the rest of the UK for quite a while now. Very unique voice coupled with thought provoking lyrics, strong stage prescence and soulful melodies. Definitely destined for big things. The video above is a live performance of a track entitled 'Hush The Many & Heed The Few'. Be sure to check his other youtube videos and you can catch him on MySpace too...
For the opening post of 'The Crates', i've pulled out a little jewel. Sampled to devastating effect by legendary hiphop producer J.Dilla (R.I.P) on The Pharcyde's 'Runnin' this track is taken from the 1962 album 'Jazz Samba Encore!', a collaboration between master jazz saxophonist Stan Getz and one of the originators of bossa nova, Brazilian guitarist LuizBonfa. This whole album is ridiculously smooth and incredibly crafted, definitely ranks up there amongst the greatest samba jazz albums of all time. Click to preview the track.
With a name like 'The Power Of Now', a place on the New York Times best seller list and an endorsement from Oprah you could easily be forgiven for thinking the Power Of Now was some standard fare self help Junk. However if you were to think that then you would be mistaken. With a focus on spirituality and many principles taken from the teachings of Zen Buddhism, The Power Of Now begins with Tolle recalling his initial transformational experience in 1980 that lead him to what he believes to be spiritual enlightenment.
Written in a question and answer format the main theme of the book is that while our use of time has a practical aspect, most people are lost in time and are only peripherally aware of the present moment. In doing so, we make the present moment a means to an end for future fulfillment, and we become what Tolle calls unconscious. Tolleemphasises a need to connect with our inner self and move away from the constraints we place on ourselves by focusing on the past and the future and the ego centric endeavours of the mind. I have never read a self help book in my life or anything like this, but I have to say this was a real eye opener. Very difficult to apply to daily life but definitely worth reading. Be prepared to question everything about your existence....no really. Available at Amazon and most good book stores.
uTorrent Is a free Bit Torrent client for Windows written in c++ and localized for many different languages. I have tried a range of other Bit Torrent clients before including the popular Bit Comet and Azureus. In my opinionuTorrent is by far the most proficient with it's main advantage being that it uses minimal system resources in comparison to other similar clients. But please remember kids this is only for use with legal torrents, we wouldn't want to break the law now would we? uTorrent is available to download here...
As any good sneaker fan will know the infa Red colourway was one of the original colourways to first appear when Nike dropped the now iconic Air Max 90 surprisingly enough....in 1990. An exclusive European re-release followed 13 years late in 2003 which saw mainstream spots like JD Sports doing a roaring trade. It was retrod again 2 years later In 2005 as part of Nike's History of Air aka (HOA) Pack which also included a range of classic models in original colourways such as the Air Max 95, Air 180 and Air Max 1 (87) among others. You would think buy this time the fiends would have had enough infa red crack to keep the wolf from the door. But apparently not.
Nike has decided to release a limited quick strike run of the highly sought after colourway with rumours of as little as only 150 units hitting select Size stores in the UK. Other select independent European and American spots such as Overkill in Germany were believed to have been carrying a few hundred too, but alas they were said to have flown off the shelves in a matter of hours. It's lucky I put an HOA pack pair on ice back in '05...I guess you really can't touch a classic.
The original recording is in my mind one of the greatest songs ever written. Heres a special live performance of the Rev from 2007 for VH1 Classic. 62 years old and still untouchable. One of the greatest to ever do it.
With Apples domination of the mp3 player market it has sometimes been difficult for other companies to make their mark in the industry. Although pretty unknown in the west SmartQ, have managed to carve out a niche for themselves in the Chinese market, offering a product that far exceeds the quality of many other domestic m3/4 player manufacturers. While you may not get the flawless slim profile and drool worthy aesthetics of an Ipod the SmartQ T5 II still has a few tricks of it's own up it's sleeve. As well as offering the standard video, audio, photo, record and ebook functions the player also supports a list of file formats as long as your arm. MP3, OGG, WMA, FLAC, APE, AAC, WAV, CUE, AVI (XVID/DivX), RM/RMVB, MPEG, MP4, FLV, JPEG, GIF and TXT just to name a few. Note that FLV support also means that you can play downloaded Youtube videos without conversion.
Included in the package you also get a 320x240 resolution 3 inch LTPS screen, thumbnail photo viewing, full ID3 tag browsing and album art support, a range of customisable EQ's and presets, as well as TV-Out for viewing full screen video on your TV. The sound quality is also very good too and the battery life is listed at around 22hrs+ for audio and 7 hrs for video.The icing on the cake though is that the T5 II comes with support for Nes, Snes, Neo-Geo And Game Boy Advance emulators, which is bound to satisfy the appetite of any hungry gaming fiend. It has no internal memory but takes cheap as chips SD/SDHC cards up to 16GB and needs no software to transfer files either, just drag and drop. The best thing about it though.....the price, which clocks in at around £70 (The above picture actually shows the 'Le' version which will actually be even cheaper but will not have tv-out functionality). Check the Cnet Asia review for more info. Available to import from the below listed webstores too.
Here's a little douzy. Download Helper is an add-on for everyones favourite web browser, Firefox. After you install, clicking the Download Helper icon in your status bar will allow you to download content such as videos, music and picture galleries that has been embedded in a web page but is not necessarily directly downloadable. While it doesn't work with every single site it does work with YouTube, MySpace, Google Videos, Daily Motion and thousands of others. I find it useful for downloading remixes off music blogs. Get it here...
From it's humble beginnings as a small homegrown independent skate label Supra has certainly come a long way over the last couple of years. Although primarily skate orientated (with many of their models being designed by skaters themselves) celebrity endorsements from the likes of Jay-Z, Kanye West, SmanthaRonson, Chris Brown & Lil Wayne has helped propel the label into the realms of 'high fashion'. After Jay-Z'sappearance in a pair of Gold Supra Sky Tops (Skater Chad Muska's signature shoe) in Rhianna's Umbrella video it quickly became clear that the company had struck a chord amongst hip hop's fashion elite.
While i'm not a big fan of some of the more garish colourways and not all the models in their range hit the spot, the thing I like about Supra is the way they fuse elements of classic sneaker design with a slightly more grown up 'shoe' type feel, bridging the gap between sportswear and stylised casual wear. While in the past many street wear fashion brands have basically sought to plagiarise the classic silhouettes of late 80's and early 90's Nike and Adidas models ( BapeStas *cough*) it is refreshing to see a footwear company trying to do something a little bit different. Check the full range here...
Although Blu & Exiles Debut LP 'Below The Heavens' was released last year to critical acclaim, I felt I had to spread the word as it appears that many people here in the UK still have not heard about this little gem. I won't go into too much detail but to put it simply this was in my opinion without a doubt the best hip hop album of 2007 and one of the best hip hop albums I have heard in years. Hailing form the west coast and raised on a steady diet of classic hip hopBlu's early influences include N.W.A, Public Enemy, Common, Black Star & The Roots. Producer 'Exile' who forms the other half of the duo originally formed one half of Hip Hop duo Emanon and produces every track on the album.
It has almost become a cliche to talk about Exile's 'soul drenched' production and Blu's heartfelt and deeply personal lyrics, but the truth is that this describes exactly what you can expect from this album. While Blu is clearly an incredibly talented MC on every level, he also maintains a certain integrity as well as a soulful, humble and honest nature to his words which in my opinion is a very rare thing in rap these days. This is the defining element in Blu's lyrics...a normal person can actually relate to them. Exile's production is reminiscent of that true classic 90's sound that people so often whine about missing and frequently claim is 'non existent'. Think Pete Rock meets Hi-Tek meets 9th Wonder. Highlights for me include 'Dancing In The Rain' which features an infectious jazzy guitar loop executed to perfection and 'Blu Colla Workers' an ode to the struggles of the daily grind.
If you are looking for ego rap, big unsubstantiated talk or inflated characters who claim to be living the ultimate hedonistic criminal lifestyle, this album is not for you. If you have an unhealthy obsession with 'multis' and 'punches' again this won't hit the spot. If on the other hand you like your production soulful and you prefer rap from the heart instead of from the penis, this one will blow you away. 99% of reviews I have read agree. Available at amazon and most good independent hip hop stores. ooooo
London-based artist INSA started out as a graffiti artist but went on to receive more formal training at Goldsmiths Art College in London. His work explores the connection between branding and sexual desire with high heels and sneakers featuring prominently in many of his pieces. Working on official commissions for a host of famous brand names including Nike and Kangol, the style of INSA's trademark high heels pattern has also been copied by a number major high street fashion brands and designers. Recent exhibitions have included giant stiletto clad legs and sprayed canvases of half naked women dripping in paint.
Beautiful women, sneakers, dripping paint and crispy patterns.....definitely a winning combination. More info after the jump...
Portable gaming devices have certainly come a long way over the last few years. While you might be thinking that your PSP is still pretty state of the art business you may want to think again pal. Pandora is essentially an ultra portableopen source computer with gaming controls. In terms of raw CPU power and 3D graphics capability this thing to put it mildly, makes your PSP or Nintendo DS look like your little sister's 'speak and spell'. As well as packing a 4.3 inch, 800x480 resolution touch screen (almost twice the resolution of the PSP) it will also have wifi, bluetooth 2.0, A USB 2.0 host port (for plugging in external peripherals like a mouse or Harddrive), Dual SDHC memory card slots, around 10 hours of battery and a full qwerty keyboard to boot.
If that wasn't enough already, once the software developers get this thing into their geeky mits, the system will have the capability to emulate a whole host of older gaming platforms, including the original Sony PlayStation, Game boy Advance, Snes, Nes, Atari ST, Neo Geo & Sega Mega Drive to name a few. We can also expect a plethora of third party applications to deal with all your multi media needs and potentially a few favourites like Mozilla'sFireFox web browser.
Pandora is still in the development faze at the moment but will be releasing officially to the public with in the next couple of months with any luck. The first run will be limited to 3000 units and the damage is said to be around the £199 mark. Check the website for more info...
While some of our American and European conterparts have not always shared the British appreciation for slightly offensive, self depreciating and at times cringe worthy satirical comedy, we can always rely on our Australian brethren to show a bit of love. They did after all, provide a safe and secure home for some of our finest knifers, rapists and other dangerous criminals. Summer Heights High is a 'Mockumentary' based in an Australian High School. Writer Chris Lilley, plays three different roles. Effeminate and megalomaniacal "Director of Performing Arts" Mr. G, a self-absorbed, privileged teenager Ja'mie King and disobedient and vulgar Tongan student Jonah Takalua. Nothing is really out of bounds as Lilley goes about lampooning every aspect of Australian high school life from the 'special' kids to 'try hard asians'.
If you like series' like 'The Office' and 'Peep Show' you will love this. In my opinion this has to be one of the best comedy shows I have seen in a very long time, Lilley is an absolute genius. The whole series was available to watch on the BBC Iplayer, however they have unfortunately taken them down for the moment, it may be making a return however (technical issues?) so keep checking. It does often gets replayed on BBC three as well and is also available on DVD. For more information visit...
Ever looked at a Mac and wished you could have that clean and crispy row of bouncing magnifyable icons that Macs are famed for on your PC? Didn't think so...trust me on this one though. RocketDock is a smoothly animated, alpha blended application launcher. It provides a nice clean interface to drop shortcuts on for easy access and organization. With each item completely customizable there is no end to what you can add and launch from the dock. This small program does not take up many system resources and really enhances the look and feel of your system. You can also go to the RocketDock website and find hundreds of high resolution custom icons which you can use to launch all of your favourite applications. In addition you will find extras and addons you can add to the dock to further enhance it's useability. It's completely free to download, so be sure to check it out....it's more pleasing than you think.
At a time when a whole heap of jokers seem to be jumping on the soul revival band wagon and coming out with 'soul' (offensive toilet pop) albums (*cough* Duffy, Sharleen Spiterri *cough*) heres a man who seems to be making a proper attempt at actually recreating the pionnering soul sound of the 1960's. While Raphael Saadiq, (of 'Tone Tony Tone' fame) has been known to enter that 'R Kelly zone' on a few occassions, his latest effort is certainly no 'Bump & Grind' business. And just in case you had any doubts, guess who pops up on harmonica to stamp the golden seal of authenticity? None other than the man himself, Stevie (you're a bloody genius) Wonder. CJ Hilton also provides vocal support. If that wasn't enough Saadiq has also called in the son of legendary motown bass player James Jamerson (James Jamerson Jnr) to deal with the bottom end duties. The icing on the cake comes in the form of Paul Riser, legendary Motown string arranger who also turns his sparkling hand to the soon to be released new album, which will be enititled 'The Way I See It'. There might still be hope yet...Click to listen.
Easy peeps, My name is Nicky and welcome to my blog! Seeing as my 'freelance' status allows me to spend a pretty meaty portion of the day 'working' on the net, I thought I'd share some of the stuff that I like. Hope you enjoy.
01:25
So your looking to pick up a fresh pair of kicks, but your certainly not about to pitch tent and start queueing up ten days in advance to get that super exclusive s**t. Then again your no slouch when it comes to flexing your trainer muscle, so rocking the standard tat that these big high street chains seem to be continuously peddling just won't cut the mustard. So whats an innocent kicks fiend to do when they have an itch that needs to be scratched?.......well the answers pretty simple....hit the net and hit that s**t hard! Luckily for you though I have saved you all a lot of time by compiling a list of a few of my favourite sneaker spots from around the world. While most of these spots do already offer world wide shipping, if you do come across one that doesn't seem to be playing ball i'm sure a friendly e-mail in your finest chinook jargon will, with any luck, help you to snag yourself a pair of some of those fresh Nike Air 'Mother Theresas' you've had your eye on for so long. Happy shopping!
