As well as a new EP (All the Delighted People) dropping, Sufjan reports this week that his first album in five years will be out this October. From Stereogum: Despite the strong narrative and biography mentioned in the press release, Asthmatic Kitty also says that the new album will have fewer biographies, historical bits, place [...]

Quazedelic is one of those producers we’ve all been listening to over the past couple of years, but didn’t realise it. Signed to Snoop’s DoggyStyle Records in the early 2000′s Quazedelic has been laying the funk under a number of tracks for artists such as Angie Stone, G-Unit and of course, Snoop. Here he stands [...]

Smooth music has had a rebirth in my house. The comedic genius of Yacht Rock had me searching for anything smooth I could lay my hands on…but is anything smoother than LA Funk? Dam Funk thinks not, and on this mighty mix he compiled for the BBC, you’d be stupid to second guess him. I [...]

What do teenagers in Long Beach listen to? With the little that I know about ‘the LBC’ (thanks Snoop), I know I had opinions about what ‘the kids’ there listened to – but even in my most adventurous thoughts, would I have considered ‘Belle and Sebastian’, ‘Bright Eye’s’ or ‘Wilco’? I didn’t think ‘kids’ anywhere [...]

Maybe it’s something about the weather, or the reduction of sleep in the past 3 or so months (thanks to child number 2, who, while being unbelievably lovable during the day, goes Gremlin like at night), but at work I’m struggling to remain focused and enthusiastic about my job. Day’s like today however, really make [...]

I’m increasingly becoming a fan of Mash Ups. The Wu Tang/Beatles mash up done by Tom Curuana was a triumph, and this one from Max Tannone features Mos Def hitting a bunch of dub inspired classics. I haven’t heard Tannone’s other efforts (Jaydiohead, and Doublecheck Your Head), but going from this release, they’d be worth [...]

Spoon has always been somewhat of a media darling and this seems like it will continue with the release of Transference. NPR has some amazingly glowing things to say about the Austin, TX band, Britt Daniel, Spoon’s gifted frontman, crafts brilliantly understated pop gems that follow a strict protocol: Keep the mix clean, the orchestration [...]

Flying Lotus, to me, is probably the coolest producer of the last decade. I hold his work above Dilla, Madlib, Danger Mouse et al…I know for some this would be considered to be blasphemy, but that’s my opinion and I’m sticking to it. His work has been so varied and mixed, it seems crazy to [...]