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"

What's New(s)?

James Blake and Chance the Rapper have more in store

As previously reported on Tuesday's edition of "What's New(s)?" James Blake and Chicago spitballer Chance the Rapper teamed up for a dizzying remix of Blake's "Life Round Here", but the remix wasn't a one-off release. In an interview with XXL, Chance admits "the two kept in touch and started working together on a couple of tracks, including some original material." According to Chance, there's also a second version of "Life Round Here" we've yet to hear. Chance continued, "I love his records...So to do another version of one of his songs that I felt was already completed was… you know… you don’t wanna f**k somebody’s s**t up. I jumped on it and people seem to like it a lot. But I’m really excited for our other s**t too." After the chilled out/hyper-kinetic blend they brought on Tuesday, Chance can't be the only one excited.





Stream Mazzy Star's new album

This coming Tuesday, California dream-pop royalty Mazzy Star will release Seasons of Your Day, their first album of all new material in 17 years. The follow-up to 1996's Among My Swan, is streaming now on the Guardian and the orotund duo doesn't appear to have lost a step. Despite the near two decade delay, guitarist Dave Roback informed the U.K. publication "we were always recording and writing. We just didn't release any of it publicly." In a companion interview, vocalist Hope Sandoval the silence saying, "I don't think it's unusual at all. I don't think we were really in the mood to release music." 

"California"

Danny Brown debuts new video

The "adderall admiral" has debuted a new video "Dip" in the run-up to his soon to be released OLD LP. The video for the chattering synth track (directed by Rollo Jackson) features the Detroit rapper rattling through steamy back-stage scenes and raucous live performances. Brown pays tribute to Mac Dre and warns against being let into his zone. There's also cartoon animated pill popping, teeth gnashing, and eye bulging. In other words, it's exactly what you'd expect from a Danny Brown drug track.

 OLD is out September 30 via Fool's Gold.

Check back in tomorrow for more of the newest in new(s).

What's New(s)?

Queens of the Stone Age throw shots at Jigga

Though it's hard to imagine them inspiring a "Takeover" like response, Queens of the Stone Age had some less than kind things to say about "the God MC" in light of their recent performance at the Jay curated Made in America Festival. In an interview with the CBC 2's "Strombo Show" frontman Josh Homme referred to Jay Z as a "kook", saying "He has his security frisking the bands on the way in." When the festival security asked to look through his own bag, Homme threatened not to play, intonating "no one's ever done that." Apparently the band was also given a bottle of Jay Z's champagne, which they later broke tagging it as nothing more than "a marketing tool". Listen at around the 1:56:00 and 2:16:00 marks for QOTSA's commentary on the incident, where Homme also wonders aloud "people never say anything bad about Jay Z do they?", not unless your Lil Wayne or Nas.


  




Beck debuts "Gimme"

Rounding out this summer's trilogy of stand-alone singles, Beck has released "Gimme" to follow-up previous entries "Defriended" and "I Won't Be Long". According to NPR affiliate WXPN, none of the songs will feature on his forthcoming full length LP or his rumored acoustic album. "Gimme" tows the line between the two, feature an organic gamelan like sound before rapidly mutating into mechanical pitch-shifting vocals. The song is now available as a 12'' on Beck's website backed by a 30 minute extended mix B-side.

James Blake teams up with Chance the Rapper

James Blake's original "Life Round Here" distinctively recalled the "rainy days" he detailed in the overcast number; a dour keyboard providing the cloud coverage and Blake's cascading digital voice supplying the downpour. The song appeared before the RZA feature "Take A Fall For Me" on the excellent sophomore release Overgrown. Since then, Blake has logged studio time with Drake, Kanye West, and now Chicago upstart Chance the Rapper. Before debuting the remix on BBC 1 Radio, Blake fittingly called from Trent, England standing in the rain shooting a video with Chance for the new version. When asked by DJ Zane Lowe how the collabo came about, Blake spotlighted Chance's SXSW performance and said "I never really felt the track was finished, even when it went on the album, I just felt there was this space". Chance fills in that space with a dizzying verse that scurries through "roundabouts" and chips in for another round. The exuberant touchdown Blake dejectedly referenced is reinvigorated by Chance's own take on the Ickey Shuffle. 

Look for the video to appear in a future edition of "What's New(s)?" which is said to feature everything from "Somalia Pirates to Chevy Impalas." 

"Retrograde"- James Blake

It's almost too perfect that James Blake affectedly croons "we're alone now," on "Retrograde," the first single from his forthcoming sophomore effort Overgrown.  In its most hushed moments, the small ember of Blake's music can make any place seem desolate. The wordless vocals that waft in come like a call from another room and soon Blake is singing of love and loss, and world's where "you're on your own." In true R&B fashion, Blake crafts the following chorus into a loverman ode, asking the apple of his eye to "show me why you're strong, ignore everybody else, we're alone now." The first time Blake sings the line his pitch-shifting voice plummets into a wallow. Not long after valley comes Blake's ascent to the mountain, when the synths, keyboards, and clattering drum machines reach a musical zeitgeist as Blake is hit by the "starkness of the dawn." The bravado of "nostalgic" tracks like "CMYK" soon dissipates and all that's left is a machine-like whisper. When you're alone for so long, it's hard to keep company around. 

"Retrograde"

Overgrown is out April 8 on the Republic record label.