Hard News by Russell Brown

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Hard News: Friday Music: Original Beats

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  • Ian Dalziel, in reply to Simon Grigg,

    Two kilo mockingbird...

    GMF & TFF

    are riffing on PP&M ain't they?
    or was it Trad.?

    Hush little baby, don't say a word
    Pappa's gonna buy you a mockingbird

    If that mockingbird don't sing
    Pappa's gonna buy you a diamond ring

    If that diamond ring turns brass
    Pappa's gonna buy you a lookin' glass

    If that lookin' glass gets broke
    Pappa's gonna buy you billy goat

    If that billy goat don't pull
    Pappa's gonna buy you a cart and bull

    If that cart and bull turns over
    Pappa's gonna buy you a doggie named Rover

    If that dog named Rover don't bark
    Pappa's gonna buy you a horse and cart

    If that horse and cart fall down
    You'll still be the sweetest little baby in town

    Christchurch • Since Dec 2006 • 7953 posts Report

  • Robyn Gallagher,

    Hey, here's some modern hip hop. Chris Brown has a song called "Loyal". Sonically it's a quality tune, but the lyrics are a bit shit, with the refrain "these ho's ain't loyal". And, you know, general Chris Brown ickiness.

    But there's a cool remix with a lunch of female MCs subverting the lyrics, flipping around the notion of loyal, or lack thereof.

    Since Nov 2006 • 1946 posts Report

  • Yamis,

    Out jogging with a bit of KRS-ONE entering the brain this week. Boogie Down Productions come correct...

    and something cool from more recently...

    Since Nov 2006 • 903 posts Report

  • Russell Brown, in reply to Robyn Gallagher,

    But there’s a cool remix with a lunch of female MCs subverting the lyrics, flipping around the notion of loyal, or lack thereof.

    Still not liking it!

    I grew up with dense wordplay and provocative sentiment ...

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report

  • Rich Lock, in reply to Russell Brown,

    Many Americans don’t get the connection there. It’s as if EDM is seen as something that came out of a void, rather than being the nth echo of a dance music revolution that came out of New York and Chicago and found its form(s) in Europe.

    What I find wierdest is that (dubstep aside), the stuff being played in the US by the big house DJs sounds exactly the same as the stuff being played in the big UK clubs 20 years ago. If you listen to Chicago house from the mid-80's you can hear the difference between that and the homegrown house music being played in Manchester from '88 onwards in the UK, which then mutated again going into the 90's with the Criminal Justice Act and the Big Club boom. They're sonically distinct eras, but stuff being played today sounds indistinguishable from stuff 10-20 years ago. it's possible I might just be being an old fart, but I don't think so.

    It was also wierd back in the '90's when E was the big party drug watching US music and popular culture react to it. Or rather, not. The closest they got was D12's 'purple pills'. It's like they suddenly discovered 'molly' 20 years after the rest of the world.

    back in the mother countr… • Since Feb 2007 • 2728 posts Report

  • Sacha, in reply to Ian Dalziel,

    If that dog named Rover don't bark
    Pappa's gonna buy you a horse and cart

    Promises

    Ak • Since May 2008 • 19745 posts Report

  • WH,

    I've got a track for you, Brown, if you can handle my cool, cool freshness.

    Since Nov 2006 • 797 posts Report

  • Russell Brown, in reply to Yamis,

    and something cool from more recently…

    Yeah, that's cool.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report

  • Russell Brown,

    John Lee Hooker playing ‘Boom Boom’ on the BBC in 1964. Lean, mean, sexual, politically incorrect. It’s kind of amazing that this sort of thing got broadcast back then.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report

  • Russell Brown,

    Lorde opened her sold-out Brixton Academy show a few hours ago with 'Glory and Gore':

    I was worried about her voice, but it's definitely back in good shape.

    The Daily Telegraph's reviewer called her Shepherd's Bush Empire show the night before "mesmerising" and compared her to a young Kate Bush.

    The Independent went for "malignantly powerful".

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report

  • Ian Dalziel,

    MaDMAn across the water...
    I was gonna disinter one of the psychoactive threads, but here is as good a place as any to note (in case you missed it) that MDMA pioneer Alexander Shulgin died on June 3rd.

    see also: his Top 12 psychoactive creations.

    (one) ... makes all sounds appear to drop by an octave or so, and makes many instruments sound like a clanging bell. But it offers a fascinating insight into the way humans process sound...

    Might be an interesting overlay to map the musical connections of the disciples of each of them, creators and audience/ culture alike...
    (bound to have been done...)

    I bet those medieval nuns with the Ergot riddled bread went crazy on their vespers, too... putting the MAD in Madrigal was high renaissance ...

    Plato intimated that

    "For a change to a new type of music is something to beware of as a hazard of all our fortunes. For the modes of music are never disturbed without unsettling of the most fundamental political and social conventions."

    or similar, depending on which translation you read...

    Can rapping ukuleles, hiphopera, and maybe jewelled banjos, or something new, rise up , and change the State before the election... -
    Perhaps Lorde is it
    - the mode du jour
    a change artist!

    Perhaps the masses will
    rally round her banner
    and oust the rulers...

    a seconded coming

    Christchurch • Since Dec 2006 • 7953 posts Report

  • Joe Wylie, in reply to Ian Dalziel,

    Plato intimated that

    “For a change to a new type of music is something to beware of as a hazard of all our fortunes. For the modes of music are never disturbed without unsettling of the most fundamental political and social conventions.”

    There's a Fugs song about that. While it's not in the same league as their Ramses the Second is Dead, My Love, or their inspired raiding of Matthew Arnold, and perhaps serves to demonstrate why there aren't a lot of Plato-derived songs, it has curiosity value.

    flat earth • Since Jan 2007 • 4593 posts Report

  • Ian Dalziel, in reply to Joe Wylie,

    Nice serve, Joe!
    :- )

    There’s a Fugs song about...

    ... The CIA, too,
    that still has some legs, I reckon...

    Christchurch • Since Dec 2006 • 7953 posts Report

  • Brent Jackson, in reply to Russell Brown,

    ... and compared her to a young Kate Bush.

    Now that you mention it - that comparison ain't half bad.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 620 posts Report

  • Geoff Lealand,

    But who the hell is Iggy Azalea (with the most improbable name)?

    Screen & Media Studies, U… • Since Oct 2007 • 2562 posts Report

  • Craig Ranapia, in reply to Russell Brown,

    It’s kind of amazing that this sort of thing got broadcast back then.

    Not really amazing at all – it’s exactly the same way Joss Whedon managed to smuggle a not at all mild but archaic obscenity past the MPAA and the studio in The Avengers. If the squares don’t ask, a hep cat never tells. :)

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report

  • Ian Dalziel, in reply to Geoff Lealand,

    another underhand bowler...

    who the hell is Iggy Azalea

    an Aussie sledger!
    in a battle of the Billboards...

    Christchurch • Since Dec 2006 • 7953 posts Report

  • Russell Brown,

    An extended 'Team', with costume change, from the same Brixton Academy show. Extraordinary stuff.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report

  • Craig Ranapia, in reply to Russell Brown,

    I'm not a big live gig goer (to put it mildly), but I have mad respect for people who master the theatre of working a room -- it's not just about the music, because I've seen performers who are musically fine but they're still...dead.

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report

  • TracyMac, in reply to Russell Brown,

    Wow, werk that room, gurl.

    Simple but really effective stagecraft = WIN. Talk about pressing those emotional buttons.

    Speaking of Kate Bush analogues, I get it in terms of Lorde's image as a bit fey and very distinctive-looking (and an endearing hint of dorkiness). I'm so thankful for the lack of an ear-splitting upper register and interpretative dance.

    (Love what Kate achieved as a performer, and she is a wonderful person. Never bought any of her music after the Wuthering heights single.)

    Canberra, West Island • Since Nov 2006 • 701 posts Report

  • Gabor Toth, in reply to Russell Brown,

    I was worried about her voice, but it’s definitely back in good shape.

    The Daily Telegraph’s reviewer called her Shepherd’s Bush Empire show the night before “mesmerising” and compared her to a young Kate Bush.

    The Independent went for “malignantly powerful”

    Meanwhile, back in little old N'zild, Stuff seize upon a mildly negative review from the Guardian and use it to splash "**Board by Lorde**; 'A little monotonous'" as the main feature on the front page of their website. She is obviously getting far too big for her boots for New Zealand's biggest news website who feel it's time for them to get out the great Kiwi clobbering machine and cut that tall poppy down to size.

    Wellington • Since Dec 2006 • 137 posts Report

  • Mike O'Connell, in reply to Gabor Toth,

    And watch out too for the poppy cutter Lydia Ko. Forget about getting the All Blacks to Samoa - more importantly, a campaign is needed to get Lorde to play in the South Island for the first time - talk it up like yeah (yeah)!!

    Christchurch • Since Dec 2006 • 385 posts Report

  • Chris Waugh,

    For your, ummm, edification. Found this via a post on Weibo: Psy and Snoop Dogg?

    Wellington • Since Jan 2007 • 2401 posts Report

  • Russell Brown, in reply to Gabor Toth,

    Meanwhile, back in little old N’zild, Stuff seize upon a mildly negative review from the Guardian and use it to splash “**Board by Lorde**; ‘A little monotonous’” as the main feature on the front page of their website.

    Yeah. Every other review I've seen from her London shows has been a rave, but they pick the negative line out of that one.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report

  • Russell Brown,

    Relevant …

    Chuck D’s fight with rap radio – and the constant use of the n-word – has been bubbling on Twitter and now it’s broken loose.

    Chuck D says US urban radio disrespects its own audience

    Hot 97’s approach to rap “[is] just a sloppy presentation of the art form, the worst presentation known to man,” Chuck D went on. “Radio should lead not follow.” In addition to complaining about the foul language of performers like Nicki Minaj, 50 Cent and YG, Chuck D criticised Hot 97 and other urban stations’ approach to programming: “[’Urban music’] should be a representation of playing music by a lot of different artists – non-black artists, too.” Later, he tweeted an example: “Underground-UnderFound-Local-INTL-Women-Classic RAP.”

    According to Chuck D, radio stations, record labels and festival promoters can begin changing the culture by including ethics clauses in their contracts, prohibiting artists from being “derogatory to the community [they] come from”. The New Orleans jazz festival already does this, he said, and he wants to brainstorm more ideas with people in “London [and] maybe Sydney”, where hip-hop is apparently “treat[ed] … more dignified”.

    Failing that, Chuck D has also offered support for petitions like one calling for the United States’ federal communications commission to cancel Hot 97’s radio licence. The rapper said he wants to accomplish something tangible “by year’s end”.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report

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