Major Lazer - Hold The Line

Major Lazer is producers Switch and Diplo from England. These guys cut their teeth splitting duties for now classic albums for M.I.A. and Santogold. What do you get when they team up, a whole lot of bad-ass in the form of Major Lazer, a bad dude with a laser for an arm. Let me tell you, what I wouldn't do for that. To get the album started off right, they invite Santogold along and come up with a big winner. I just wish all the songs on the album were as bangin' as this one.

AtOm

Busdriver - Imaginary Places

The Busdriver is a crazy fast MC. Following his stream of conscious is no easy feat for the average person. At first listen, I really didn't understand what this guy was all about. Upon further review in the form of several live shows, it's become clear the the Busdriver is all about fun. Too many of these rappers just take it all a little too serious. His verbal mechanics are unrivaled, just try to sing along if you dare. This track features some great production from Paris and scratches compliments of D-Styles. It's catchy and funny, capturing the Busdriver at his best.

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Blackstar (Mos Def & Talib Kweli) - Definition

Man this one takes me back. Two of my favorite MC's of all-time teamed up to make an album that changed the rules in hip hop. It was an all-star line up that brought old school sensibility over new school grime and did it better than anyone before.
What was easily the album of the year that year and still a classic, blew up the mainstream and exposed the big names for being the slackers most of them were. On this track Mos and Kweli flip a catchy Fugee melody and truly make it their own. It also let the world know that "underground" rap had arrived. There was no longer a large divide in production quality or skill sets between the guys who you would see on MTV and the ones they wouldn't show because let's face it, most people would just prefer not to think at all. Unfortunately the quality of this effort has rarely been attained by these guys or any of the other thousands of underground artists who try to accomplish this precipice on the day to day. It was truly a perfect moment in time and it still gives me chills to this day. I'm dying for these guys to tour together some day. Revisiting this album on occasion is a must for all music fans.

AtOm

MGMT - Kids

I've really been enjoying MGMT lately and apparently I'm not the only one. I heard on my favorite independent radio station recently that they are surprised at the overwhelming success of their initial effort and are adjusting the best that they can. This heavy synth jam is exactly the level of creativity they bring to the table and is hard to compare to many artists. This video is a psychedelic array of colors and tribal imagery. It's almost like a vision quest that so many ancient cultures rely on. Let's just say that I don't think those were traditional communion wafers they were placing on each other's tongues. Judging by the sea that dude was surfing on, they are on another plane, at least temporarily. Sometimes that helps you "show yourself" and I hope they "take only what they need from it." Get tubular!? :)

AtOm

Ebony Bones - The Muzik

This is a great party track with a video composition that does a great job embodying it's spirit. This was apparently made up of various videos by different directors. The sound quality could be better, but there is a lot of excitement to this dance rock track that is sure to make many people shake their groove thang.

AtOm

Nosaj Thing - Lords

Nosaj Thing is quickly becoming one of my favorite producers. He's one of these new school guys that tends to defy classification. Some might call this hip hop, and certainly the primary elements of that genre are present, however it certainly breaks the mold of expectations that come from being a hip hop producer. I don't think this video was made for this song, it's like Winnie the Pooh stuck in Fantasia on a little bit of LSD. Enjoy!

AtOm

The Maccabees - Love You Better

This is the first track I've heard from The Maccabees and it really impressed me. They make a rhythm heavy noise track that can be described as pretty at the same time. The vocals remind me of a mature David Byrne and I'm excited to hear more of what these guys have to offer.

AtOm

Drums of Death - Got Yr Thing

The official video for Drums of Death's ma-hoo-sive new single 'Got Yr Thing', out October 12th through Europe's premier independent label Greco-Roman. Directed by JMD.

I really like this video and song. After years of listening to punk rock, I reached a point where I felt very little of it was new or exciting. It seemed like the teenage movement was content to rehash the same trends that had been set 30 years before, losing the edge that had made it originally so refreshing. The electronic music scene came around as the new punk to my ears. Drums Of Death embodies that punk rock attitude and applies it to the dancing bleeps of techno with a winning combination.

AtOm

Faithless - I Want More Part 2

This video from Faithless looks like it may include some of the preparation from the last Olympic games in China. Faithless has been doing great electronic music for years.

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Grizzly Bear Has Hair

So it's been a minute since my last post on this site, sorry guys...I've been a bit neglectful of such a wonderful blog. And it has everything to do with laziness, and nothing to do with buziness. I stopped creating playlists via myspace, and directing all my attention to this blog. Try to raise the roof from 100 visits (You will notice my best crack at SEC practices). So Let's talk about Grizzly Bear, one of the many talented artists on Warp Records. It took me a minute to start liking the latest album Veckatimest, but somehow within about 3 listens I was digging on it in that Beach Boy Pet Sounds Way. Grizzly Bear produces a lot of layers to a somewhat layerless music scene. Alternating voice melodies are found throughout the entire album, as do all the Grizzly Bear releases giving it that old surf music feel but with a newer,harder edge. Find this album at your nearest music retail store, and have yourself a listen, or be bold and beautiful, and buy it on this recommendation alone. Here is a very large graphic of the album to burn a visual image in the short term memory loss brain of yours. Burn Baby Burn. Also, Below that...check out two videos from the latest album!


Enjoy Suckas!
E.L.

New Order - True Faith

This is a classic video from New Order. It's an MTV classic that I hadn't seen in years. I can remember it making me and my brother laugh every time it came on long before I recognized New Order as music pioneers.

AtOm

Paul van Dyk - For An Angel

Paul Van Dyke has been on top of this game for a very long time. Put him in the electronic music hall of fame, if there was one that is.

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Serge Devant - Addicted

This is a video made up of touring footage for the album "Wanderer". This is a nice chilled trance track that sounds as good in your car as it would on the dance floor.

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OceanLab - Satellite

Oceanlab has crafted a future trance classic here with lovely female vocals that make sure the dancefloor rings full of artistic vision. This great video compliments this track perfectly.

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Cosmic Gate - Exploration of Space

I'm not a big fan of trance music, but I suppose if I listened to one group, why not a superduo comprised of two of trance's flagship heroes. Armin Van Buuren and Tiesto form Cosmic Gate. The video's a pretty cool eerie science fiction bomb shelter party somewhere in the eastern block of Europe, where else.

AtOm

Nerd - Rock Star (Jason Nevins_FFVII-AC remix)

This is a pretty interesting remix and video for Jason Nevins' remake of one of my favorite N.E.R.D. songs. I'm not sure if the animation is made specifically for this but it looks like it may have been taken from a video game.

AtOm