Welcome back ya’ll. I’ve plucked out a handful of vibrant artists for your pallet’s pleasure. Don’t forget there’s always the comments section to leave your opinions. We’ll always check them out and try and respond accordingly. Don’t be shy now…
MASTER SHORTIE
If Hip Hop twists with rapid-fire lyrical shots are your thing then this fella’s gonna be all you could need for 2009. Here at The Recommender we will freely admit that we’re no experts on the Hip Hop scenes, generally focusing on the Indie and Dance genres, but on occasion Hip Hop throws up something that’s impossible to ignore. This is one of those moments. Packed with classic beats and breaks, the talented wordy assault plays over shiny synths. With lyrics being so key to any rap track it’s vital to have something interesting and fresh. Master Shortie, at just 19 years old, shows an outstanding ability to do just that. He reminds me of the brilliant Kano, with that same London accent and accelerated fast pace. On the odd occasion you can recognize a handful of words that will guarantee to make you smile, just a couple of seconds before your bootie starts to involuntarily move. These great lyrics, his smooth beats, not to mention his dazzlingly bright style and trimmed hairdo, make him a refreshing sound from the Grime scene which has dominated for some time in the UK Hip Hop circles.
Find him here: Myspace
Hear him here: MASTER SHORTIE - DEAD END (ysi)
TOMMY SPARKS
As is to be expected after being thrown around a tour with Bloc Party this fella’s been rightfully getting noticed all over the place. He blasts out tasty, wonky pop music. It’s superb electro riffing melted over some smart lyrics. His album isn’t out until April, but we’re sure to come across more and more in the run up. The tune we’ve listed below for him was pointed out to me by Bisouk on the excellent Trash Menagerie blog many moons ago. The track listed below is a remix completed by the excellent French DJ, Yuksek (see The Recommender 24), and it adds a wicked pitch shift over the vocals. It’s definitely the sort of pounding club floor-filler that if dropped at the right moment in the evening will surely be the lasting memory you recall in the hangover’s haze the following morning. A peak to any good night for sure. The original is also totally awesome though, so Tommy definitely deserves his own Recommender posting.
Find him here: Myspace
Hear him here: TOMMY SPARKS - I’M A ROPE (Yuksek Remix) (ysi)
ANNIE GOLIATH
Thanks for the heads up on this artist must go to the music impresario Spider, from Colossus, (blogged about in The Recommender 13). He turned us in her direction and although we weren’t sure straight away we’ve now grown to love her. If The Recommender is a proverbial weatherman for all your new music needs then you will appreciate we occasionally get it wrong and this is one of those artists that hovers over the delete button, but thankfully she hangs in the mind long enough for us to slide into appreciation. Will she make it to a wider round of applause? That’s a big question here, but let me know in your usual obliging manor. She’s got a sweet soulful voice that’s part Roisin Murphy, part Charlene Spiterri, but instead of a crappy backing band in the name of Texas behind her, she sings over an echo of swirling broken beats and broody robotic delay. It’s mesmerising stuff and it’s definitely got enough melody to hold it’s own in a punch out.
Find her here: Myspace
Hear her here ANNIE GOLIATH - DAMAGED VALENTINE (ysi)
You couldn’t get a wider selection of sounds on one blog post now could you? It just goes to show that so long as the music is good it will warrant it’s posting on The Recommender. Blogs without a strict quality control button are plentiful around the blogosphere, and although we know that you can’t please all of the people all of the time, we positively try to make sure that you punters get something from every visit.
As a footnote, The Recommnder has been nominated for a UK Bloggie award, so go and vote for us here – http://ukbloggies.info/
Hope to see you back here real soon for lots more lovely punts on the music scene.
Mike
