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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Listen: Beyonce’s ‘Drunk In Love’ gets the remix treatment from Kanye, The Weeknd and Diplo

This weekend we’ve had not one, not two but three awesome new remixes of Beyonce’s new album highlight ‘Drunk In Love’.

First up, Kanye West revealed his reworking of the track on Valentine’s night – his first official new music since Yeezus. Kanye’s remix is allegedly getting its own video as well, which is expected to drop pretty soon. For now though you’ll just have to make do with the stream:

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This Week’s New Single Releases (16th February 2014)

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

A Great Big World and Christina Aguilera – ‘Say Something’
Here’s a slow-paced piano-led ballad that is programmed to pull at your heart-strings and certainly feels like the post-Valentines come down. ‘Say Something’ is a song that you really want to go somewhere but it doesn’t quite build on its initial concept; a huge chorus never really appears. The verse is touching and well balanced between the vocals of the main singer and guest artist Aguilera over some swelling strings and it finally brings a bit more power in the final third. It’ll fit nicely over the touching end of a television drama but not sure how strong it is on its own, but it’s a well meaning tear-jerker if you’re in the right frame of mind. (6.5/10)
Watch the video

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CHVRCHES, London Grammar and MO do battle with awesome new cover versions

For some reason today has seen three brilliant cover versions emerge from three of the most exciting new acts around.

Scottish electro-pop trio CHVRCHES came out firing with a great cover of Arctic Monkeys’ AM track ‘Do I Wanna Know?‘ during an appearance on Australian radio.

Check it out:

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Listen: Klaxons – ‘Children Of The Sun’

Klaxons raised a few eyebrows last week with the big reveal of their pop-tastic ‘comeback’ single ‘There Is No Other Time‘.

As revealed last week, Klaxons have been working with a range of different producers for their upcoming third album. ‘There Is No Other Time’ was produced by Radio 1 favourites Gorgon City, and other collaborators include James Murphy, Erol Alkan and The Chemical Brothers’ Tom Rowlands, who worked on ‘Children Of The Sun’. Read more about Listen: Klaxons – ‘Children Of The Sun’

This Week’s New Single Releases (9th February 2014)

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

Single Of The Week

Gary Barlow and Elton John – ‘Face to Face’
Gary Barlow and Elton John
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Buy it: Face To Face
For whatever reason this song has had very little publicity, so little that Amazon and iTunes aren’t listing it as a single even though it’s charted and was released. ‘Face to Face’ is Barlow’s best solo track yet. He’s crafted a bouncy, up-tempo singable number and his vocals – which are rather ‘Manic Street Preachers’ at times – work very well with the ever reliable deep sounds of Elton John. With some spot-on production, a truly memorable vibe and a powerful breakdown, this deserves to be much more successful. Poppy, perky and very catchy. Pop perfection!

Read more about This Week’s New Single Releases (9th February 2014)