My 50 Favorite Rap Songs of 2012

50) El-P – The Full Retard I didn’t hear this song until a couple weeks ago, but the beat alone merits it a spot on this list. El-P had a monster year. El-P – The Full Retard – YouTube. 49) Kanye West – White Dress This is Kanye West rapping over a soulful sample based beat. What else is there to say? Kanye West – White Dress – YouTube. 48) DeLaZoo – Mine Today This…

Read More...

Nordic Music Prize jury unveils nominees for 2012

  Introduced in 2010, the Nordic Music Prize is presented annually to the artist who has come out with the best album of the last calendar year. Having been created in order to raise awareness of and unify the Nordic music scene, the award is presented only to artists from Nordic countries, and is decided upon by a panel of both Nordic  and international music moguls. Presented by WiMP (the Norwegian music player, not the…

Read More...

Metric: Synthetica

Seeing as winter is close at hand here in the Northern Hemisphere, I feel it is high time to talk about an album that was dropped at the beginning of summer. After a nearly three and a half year break from the studio, punchy Canadian foursome Metric has returned with Synthetica, an 11-track step towards what seems like the slow but sure collision of new-wave psychedelia and haunting indie eloquence. When I first tuned in to Synthetica, it…

Read More...

Trouble – Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs

Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs (TEED) is a name created by the cleverly imaginative Orlando Higginbottom. Even his name oozes originality and creativity. You may have heard his song “Garden” which is featured on this album, backing the recent Nokia Lumia advert. He is definitely a new artist that wades in the mainstream and strides in the underground. Listening to this album for the first time after only hearing his song “Garden” made me realise his…

Read More...

Tegan and Sara spread hopes for new album

The headline says it all, folks. Canadian indie/alternative twin-duo Tegan and Sara have officially come back from their year and a half off, and are expected to enter the studio in the middle of this month. Having not toured since a year before the release of their three-part short film series Get Along in November of 2011, this installation can be expected to deviate slightly from the latest Sainthood and even more (most likely) from…

Read More...

A deeper look at Blunderbuss: Jack White, completely solo

A year ago today (and, believe me, this is still terribly hard to type), monumental Detroit garage rock duo the White Stripes  officially decided to break apart. The raw, bluesy two piece cut the chord on February 2, 2011,  ending the more than 10 years of life their only child had so voraciously acquired. In all honesty, this was to be expected; it would have been selfish to force the electric pair to continue, especially once…

Read More...

The Black Keys and the Arctic Monkeys pair up for winter-to-spring tour

The Black Keys performing in an iTunes Session, mid October, 2010.

Dangerously addictive and musically clever British garage rock group the Arctic Monkeys have decided to join the Black Keys (who have just dropped their seventh album, El Camino, co-produced by Danger Mouse) in some of their next dates, spanning from now to the 23 of March next year. The Arctics will be joining the Keys for the last half of the tour, from…

Read More...