Watch: Damon Albarn – ‘Lonely Press Play’ video

Fresh from picking up the Award for Innovation at last night’s NME Awards, Damon Albarn has released the studio version of new Everyday Robots track ‘Lonely Press Play’.

So far all we’ve had is live and acoustic versions after Albarn debuted the track earlier this month at the Sundance Film Festival and then performed it on Radio 2 – listen to the album version below, which is accompanied with a travelogue-type video filmed by Albarn himself:

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Listen: Gruff Rhys – ‘American Interior’

Last month Super Furry Animals, Neon Neon and sometime solo man Gruff Rhys announced his next project is an ambitious album, film, book and interactive app bundle called American Interior.

As is the Welsh rocker’s way these days, American Interior is a concept album – this time about one of his ancestors who trekked across America in the late-1700’s to find a lost tribe of Welsh-speaking Native Americans.

Today he has revealed the title track from the album which, if nothing else, is proof that Gruff is still one of the best at spinning a complex narrative into something stunningly simple and accessible. Listen to ‘American Interior’:

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Listen: The Horrors – ‘I See You’

When I was at Glastonbury last year, the choice between Friday night headliners fell between Arctic Monkeys, Nile Rodgers & Chic and The Horrors. While the vast majority of the Glastonbury crowd opted to either witness Alex Turner’s emergence as a bona fide rock star on the Pyramid Stage, or Nile Rodgers’ canonization as the saint of ‘good times’, me and about 100 other hardy souls decided to watch The Horrors on the very outskirts of the festival (The Park Stage).

My reasoning for this was pretty simple: The Horrors are the best UK band currently at work. I went as far as making their third album Skying my album of 2011. So anticipation for what they’ve cooked up for their fourth album is pretty high. Read more about Listen: The Horrors – ‘I See You’

This Week’s New Single Releases (23rd February 2014)

My A-Z round up of the new singles available for digital download this week.

Single Of The Week

Foxes – ‘Let Go For Tonight’
The second single from their debut album and this is a much more accomplished listen than their first cut. With a bombastic backing tune and a hugely danceable vibe, with Louisa Rose Allen’s vocals belting out, this is a great slice of bouncy pop with some well-placed lyrics, musical breaks and a fun, closing section. Hopefully this will do well for the young singer in the charts. (7.5/10)

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Listen: Jungle reveal new single ‘Busy Earnin’

London-based collective Jungle are an exciting prospect. We know this because they made the BBC Sound of 2014 longlist and have just signed for XL – so they must be good.

So far though, most of the talk about Jungle has been just that – talk. Or what these days people like to call ‘hype’ or ‘buzz’. Today though Jungle have made their first move of 2014with awesome new single ‘Busy Earnin’ – a distinctive mover that’s hard to put down.

Listen to ‘Busy Earnin’:

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Listen: Yuck release aptly titled new track ‘Another One’

London-based indie-fuzz revivalists Yuck returned with their second album Glow & Behold last year, following the departure of their frontman. Instead of resting on their laurels, they were straight back in the studio at the end of 2013 and have a new EP ready called ‘Southern Skies’.

Today they’ve revealed the second track from the EP, with the straight-to-the-point title ‘Another One’. As usual it’s a dreamy and fuzzy peach of a record that just swallows you up.

Listen to it below:


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Listen: Jagwar Ma release ridiculously good MssingNo remix of ‘Uncertainty’

If I gave out some kind of award for remix of the week, then this would probably win it for the next month at least.

I don’t normally feature remixes per se, as there’s so many of them flying about it would be a full-time job in itself trying to collate them all. I usually share/repost them on Soundcloud, so make sure you follow me there 🙂

The remix that bucks the trend and deserves a bit more coverage is the below piece of brilliance from elusive grime producer MssingNo – who has given Jagwar Ma’s ‘Uncertainty’ a spectral, emotive and majestic reworking.

Check it out:

Read more about Listen: Jagwar Ma release ridiculously good MssingNo remix of ‘Uncertainty’

Listen: Schoolboy Q – ‘Blind Threats’ ft Raekwon

Black Hippy member Schoolboy Q releases his new album Oxymoron next week (preorder: Oxymoron), which is promising to be an early 2014 hip hop highlight.

To further excite you ahead of the album’s release the West Coast rapper has revealed ‘Blind Threats’, which features Raekwon.

Listen to the moody ‘Blind Threats’ below:

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Listen: Damon Albarn – ‘Lonely Press Play’

With his solo album Everyday Robots due out in April, Damon Albarn has been steadily dripping new material out into the public domain.

There’s been a live version of ‘Lonely Press Play’ doing the rounds, after the Blur/Gorillaz/lots-of-other-projects frontman debuted it at the Sundance Film Festival, and now there’s a stripped-back acoustic version of the track available for your listening pleasure.

Albarn performed ‘Lonely Press Play’ during his appearance on Radio 2 this weekend – check it out below:

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