What's New(s)?

Chance the Rapper and James Blake unveil new video

James Blake and Chance the Rapper's dizzying remix of Overgrown stand-out "Life Round Here" has rapidly become one of my favorite collaborative efforts of the year, and now the pairing has produced a video. The black-and-white clip maintains the dour nature of the Blake original, featuring Blake and Chance rolling around an overcast Hertfordshire, England in a low-rider. Along the way the two encounter: a misplaced priest and nun, a dissolving horse, pirates, and quarreling old men; but mostly it's about the unlikely duo just "wondering" and "wandering" looking for no place in particular. 

 "Life Round Here" (Remix)

Flying Lotus teaming with Kendrick Lamar

Kendrick Lamar's supporting spot on the Yeezus tour doesn't begin for a few more days, and already he's receiving some assistance. Earlier today LA-based Flying Lotus took to Twitter announcing: "Been helpin out w the new @kendricklamar show for the yeezus tour. It's gonna b so amazing." 

FlyLo has yet to reveal if he'll be DJ'ing on-stage for Lamar or if he'll be playing in an auxiliary role, but the possibility of a Kendrick Lamar/Captain Murphy collabo is more likely than ever before. Check out the nocturnal video for FlyLo's "Tiny Tortures" below, which stars floating iPhones, an unplugging Dreamcast, and a severely confused Elijah Wood.

 "Tiny Tortures"

Swans crowdfund new album

 

Swans are currently prepping their follow-up to 2012's mammoth The Seer, and as part of that preparation the band is selling a new live-album entitled Not Here/Not Now to fund the recording process. Recorded live during 2012/2013 tour dates, the release will be made in a limited run of 2000 with hand-drawn designs by frontman Michael Gira and feature previously unrecorded live tracks and acoustic demos from the forthcoming studio album.

If that weren't enough, the Young God website mentions a variety of rewards for purchasing the album, including the $500 option to have Gira "record and send to customer a video of a simple, short, original song, acoustic guitar and voice, with customers’ name in the song,  praising the customer, his or her ancestors, thoughts, dreams, and future or past lives, forever." 

As for their next record (out some time in Spring 2014), Gira is promising it will be "OVERLY AMBITIOUS" and soberly realizing "THESE DAYS, EACH RECORD FEELS LIKE IT COULD BE THE LAST. OUR HOPE IS THAT IF THAT TURNS OUT TO BE THE CASE, IT WILL BE JUSTIFIED. 

The tracklist for the Not Here/Not Now can be found below, and the apocryphal blast of "No Words, No Thoughts" after the jump.

Disc 1:
1. "To Be Kind"
2. "Just a Little Boy"
3. "Coward"
4. "She Loves Us!"
5. "Oxygen…"

Disc 2:
1. "The Seer"/ "Bring the Sun"/"Toussaint L’ouverture"
2. "Nathalie Neal"
3. "Kirsten Supine" (demo)
4. "Screen Shot" (demo)

"No Words, No Thoughts"