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Andrew Weatherall’s Heavenly Recordings remixes compiled for new album

Andrew Weatherall‘s remixes for Heavenly Recordings have been compiled on a new album, due to arrive later this month. READ MORE: From Primal Scream to New Order: the mighty Andrew Weatherall’s finest ever remixes The collection will be divided into two parts, ‘Heavenly Remixes 3 – Andrew Weatherall Volume 1’ and ‘Heavenly Remixes 4 – Andrew Weatherall Volume 2’, and is set to include the late Scottish DJ, producer, and artist’s mixes of original songs by Mark Lanegan, Saint Etienne, The Orielles, Doves, Gwenno, Sly & Lovechild, TOY, and Espiritu. Heavenly Recordings’ Robin Turner, author of the book Believe In Magic: 30 Years of Heavenly Recordings, said of the release: “Andrew fed more Heavenly bands through the mixing desk than those of any other label. Advertisement “Consistently, he returned visionary music to the office, often in person for (at least) one ceremonial playback – a ritual that would involve the volume cranked up high and Andrew rocking back on his heels, eyes closed, lost in the alchemy of it all.” Turner also spoke about Weatherall’s ability to “warp and twist originals into beautiful new shapes” that “might evoke Detroit techno one second and Throbbing Gristle the next, before wheel-spinning into… Read More →

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Tributes paid to hip-hop pioneer Jessie D, who has died aged 58

Jessie D, one of the founding members of Force MDs, died yesterday (February 4), the group has confirmed on its official Facebook page. The star, whose real name was Jessie Lee Daniels, was 58 years of age. No cause of death has been confirmed at present. “To one hell of a entertainer. ‘Jessie D’ of legendary Force MDs,” a post on Force MDs’ Facebook page read. “He ate, sleep and breathe music everyday. Please put a heart up for him. He was loved!!!!!!!!!! To the family, friends and fans today we lost a real talent. Our condolences goes out to his siblings, kids and the Force MDs….” TO ONE HELL OF A ENTERTAINER “JESSIE D” OF LEGENDARY FORCE MDS. HE ATE, SLEEP AND BREATHE MUSIC EVERYDAY. PLEASE PUT A… Posted by Force M.D.’s on Tuesday, January 4, 2022 Daniels co-founded Force MDs in Staten Island, New York in 1981, alongside his nephews Stevie D, Antoine “T.C.D.” Lundy and Rodney “Khalil” Lundy, with “Trisco” Pearson and Charles “Mercury” Nelson joining later. The group fused R&B, doo-wop, hip-hop and beatboxing in their sound and were considered to be pioneers of the new jack swing movement. Two of the group’s biggest hits were 1985’s… Read More →

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Widowspeak announce new album ‘The Jacket’, share lead single ‘Everything Is Simple’

Brooklyn indie-rock outfit Widowspeak have announced their sixth studio album, ‘The Jacket’, alongside the release of a buzzy new single titled ‘Everything Is Simple’. Described as “a propulsive, spirited song about shifting perspectives in increasingly complicated situations”, the band explained in a press release that ‘Everything Is Simple’ was initially written from the viewpoint of a fictional band – whose story, they noted, frames the concept behind ‘The Jacket’ – but in time, it came to represent Widowspeak as well. “I was thinking about how I’m an inherently unreliable narrator about my own life,” vocalist Molly Hamilton said. “And at the same time maybe there are no ‘true’ stories.” Advertisement The song arrives with a video directed by longtime collaborator OTIUM, who says the driving vision behind it was “centred around the idea of trying, knowing that even if things turn out differently than you intend, the very act itself is what you are striving to achieve”. Check out the video for ‘Everything Is Simple’ below: Touching on the storyline for ‘The Jacket’, the band said: “A chain-stitcher working in the satin district of an unnamed city, a neighbourhood of storefront tailors devoted to elaborate costumery for country-western, art rock,… Read More →

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Tom Morello says he doesn’t know how to use his home studio

Tom Morello has revealed that he doesn’t know how to use his home studio, and instead used his phone to record parts for his latest albums. READ MORE: Tom Morello – ‘The Atlas Underground Fire’ review: guitar hero pushes the boundaries of rock Speaking to Guitar World, Morello said: “I have a nice studio in my house but I don’t know how to work it. Like, I don’t know how to move any of the buttons around.” Which would usually be fine but with a coronavirus-enforced lockdown in place, Morello knew he was “not going to be able to play shows and I’m not going to be able to record music”. Advertisement “But then I was reading an interview where Kanye West said he recorded the vocals to a couple of his big hit records using the voice memo on his phone. So I did that,” he added. Morello has released two albums during lockdown. ‘The Atlas Underground Fire‘ came in September 2021 while “sister album” ‘The Atlas Underground Flood‘ was released at the start of December. Speaking to NME about recording during the pandemic, Morello said: “This record was less a creative endeavour; it was more an antidepressant,” he… Read More →

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Daft Punk celebrate 11 years of ‘Tron: Legacy’ soundtrack with vinyl reissue

Daft Punk have celebrated the 11th anniversary of their soundtrack for Tron: Legacy by releasing a limited-edition vinyl reissue. READ MORE: The enduring influence of Daft Punk: “They gave off this attitude of not giving a fuck” The 2-LP Target-exclusive release was made available in December and has since shifted enough copies to push the album to the top of Billboard’s Top Dance/Electronic Albums chart. Sales data shows that 94 per cent of the 10,000 units sold of the album between December 10 and December 16 were physical copies. According to Billboard, the album’s recent return to the top of the Top Dance/Electronic Albums chart was the soundtrack’s 11th total week in that spot, and its first since April 2011. Advertisement Daft Punk announced their split in early 2021, after 28 years together. Following the news, Tame Impala frontman Kevin Parker likened the breakup to the emotional impact of a death. “I mean, I guess I wasn’t expecting to be as emotional as I was. It was almost like when you hear about someone that’s died.“I know it’s obviously not nearly as tragic as when someone dies, but that kind of shock,” he said. Since the split, it’s been announced… Read More →

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Noddy Holder wants original Slade line-up to reunite for Glastonbury

Noddy Holder has expressed his hopes of Slade reuniting to take on Glastonbury‘s coveted Legends Slot. Guitarist Dave Hill is now the only remaining original member of the band, with drummer Don Powell announcing last year that he’d been fired over email after over 50 years with the group. READ MORE: Slade’s Noddy Holder – What rock ‘n’ roll has taught me Hill is joined in the current version of Slade by bassist John Berry (who joined in 2003), vocalist and keyboard player Russell Keefe (who joined in 2019) and drummer Alex Bines (who joined in 2020). Advertisement Speaking in a recent interview with The Sun, former lead singer Holder – who departed the band in 1992 – revealed that he hopes the original line-up can make amends and appear at Glastonbury Festival in the future. The newspaper claims that Holder wants to play once again with Jim Lea, Don Powell and Dave Hill for the Legends Slot, which is this year being filled by Diana Ross. Previous artists to have performed the must-see Sunday teatime set include Kylie Minogue, Lionel Richie and Dolly Parton. Glastonbury Festival 2019. CREDIT: Matt Cardy/Getty Images “It would be amazing if we could work… Read More →

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Eminem reportedly spent $450,000 on a Bored Ape NFT that looks like him

Eminem has taken an interest in non-fungible tokens (NFTs), reportedly spending thousands on a Bored Ape artwork that resembles him. The artwork – which is now the profile picture of Eminem’s official Twitter account – was apparently owned by Twitter user @Gee__Gazza, who tweeted over the weekend (January 1) that he had sold the NFT to Eminem himself. This was picked up by cryptocurrency news site Decrypt, who reported that Eminem bought the Ape for 123.45 Ethereum, which translates to around $450,000 (£334,000). The artwork depicts an ape with white fur, a low grey hat, a gold jacket and matching chains. Upon selling the NFT, @Gee_Gazza expressed his incredulity at the exchange. View the tweet below: I’m living in a simulation. Thank you @Eminem for buying my ape and joining the club! Madness. Let me write a lyric in your next single ? pic.twitter.com/myGNRmMLeD — GeeGazza  (@Gee__Gazza) December 31, 2021 Advertisement Decrypt claims that the artwork is one of 15 NFTs that Eminem has bought, with the site noting an OpenSea account with the handle @Shady_Holdings. Eminem is one of several celebrities to own an NFT distributed by the Bored Ape Yacht Club. Others include Jimmy Fallon, basketballer Steph Curry… Read More →

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Judas Priest’s Rob Halford on achieving 36 years of sobriety: “I live one day at a time”

Judas Priest’s Rob Halford is about to celebrate 36 years of sobriety, and he’s spoken in a new interview about how he’s managed to evade the urge to relapse. READ MORE: Judas Priest’s Rob Halford: “I tried to throw a TV out of a hotel window once. It was like Mr. Bean does Spinal Tap” “I think about it all the time,” the frontman told Spain’s Mariskal Rock. “It’s an addiction. When I’m watching the Phoenix Cardinals play on TV the other day, there’s constantly adverts for beer and for alcohol and stuff. And I know it’s there. And it’s a temptation. So you have to have all of the mental tools ready to get you through that instance. ‘Cause it’s all about instances.” “And I live one day at a time,” he continued. “I’ve lived one day at a time for 35 years now. And that’s all that matters. It’s the moment. You live in the moment – not yesterday, not tomorrow; it’s now. And you have to be ready for when that little beer devil comes on your shoulder and goes, ‘Come on, Rob. Have a little drink of beer.’ ‘Fuck off.’ [Laughs] Because I don’t wanna feel that way… Read More →

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Kanye West and Future held surprise New Year’s Eve party in Miami

Kanye West threw a surprise New Year’s Eve party on Friday (December 31) with performances from him and Future. READ MORE: Kanye West and Drake live in Los Angeles: titans unite for a near-religious experience The private ‘New Year’s Eve Black Party’ in Miami, Florida was announced on Ye’s Instagram just hours before it was due to take place. Justin LaBoy hosted the party. As Complex notes, Miami is where Pete Davidson, the boyfriend of Ye’s estranged wife Kim Kardashian, hosted his own NYE party alongside Miley Cyrus that same evening. The NBC special featured performances by Cyrus, Jack Harlow, Saweetie, 24kGoldn and others. Advertisement Meanwhile, earlier this week the Daily Mail reported that Ye purchased a new home on the same street as Kardashian. West is said to have bought the Hidden Hills estate for $4.5million, which is $421,000 over its original listing price. Kanye West. CREDIT: Brandon Magnus/Getty Images Elsewhere, footage of Kanye West performing in the studio has surfaced online. The clip, which you can view below, shows the rapper teaming up with Scarface with the former enthusiastically playing the piano while the latter nods his head to the beat. It is unclear whether the footage, which has no sound,… Read More →

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Girls On Top officially release first-ever single ‘Step Back’

GOT The Beat, the first sub-unit of SM Entertainment’s new supergroup Girls On Top, have released their debut track ‘Step Back’. READ MORE: aespa reflect on their “unreal” 2021: “It takes a little time for everything to start kicking in” Earlier today (January 3), SM Entertainment officially released the song ‘Step Back’ onto streaming services, both in South Korean and worldwide. Prior to the song’s official release, GOT The Beat had performed ‘Step Back’ at SM’s online concert SMTOWN LIVE 2022: SMCU EXPRESS@KWANGYA, which took place on January 1. The seven-member unit includes soloist BoA, Girls’ Generation’s Taeyeon and Hyoyeon, Red Velvet’s Seulgi and Wendy, and aespa’s Winter and Karina. Girls On Top is set to will feature SM Entertainment’s female artists in various different combinations and sub-units, as previously reported. GOT the beat [Step Back] ?Listen now on your favorite platformhttps://t.co/oY4WSBg5CX #GirlsOnTop #GOT #걸스온탑#GOT_the_beat #갓더비트#StepBack #GOT_StepBack — Girls On Top (@GirlsOnTop_SM) January 3, 2022 Advertisement GOT the beat [Step Back] ? Melon: https://t.co/KzhPlynSna ? FLO: https://t.co/9L2FC4au02 ? genie: https://t.co/s2Xowhgl4f ? NAVER VIBE: https://t.co/CVZwSXAVUf #GirlsOnTop #GOT #걸스온탑#GOT_the_beat #갓더비트#StepBack #GOT_StepBack — Girls On Top (@GirlsOnTop_SM) January 3, 2022 The “stage” video of the group’s January 1 performance was uploaded to the group’s official YouTube channel later on the same day. “Take your hands… Read More →

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Kep1er debut with lively music video for ‘Wa Da Da’

K-pop girl group Kep1er have unveiled the exciting music video of their highly anticipated debut track, ‘Wa Da Da’. READ MORE: aespa reflect on their “unreal” 2021: “It takes a little time for everything to start kicking in” In the vibrant visual, the nine-member act showcase their powerful choreography to the high-energy track. “Wa Da Da Da / Running vroom vroom vroom / Like a supersonic / Wa Da Da, Wa Da Da, Run,” they chant on the chorus, stomping to the beat. ‘Wa Da Da’ is the the lead single of their first mini-album ‘First Impact’, both of which were released today (December 3). The project also includes two other new songs, ‘See The Light’ and ‘MVSK’, as well as the group’s versions of Girls Planet 999 tracks like ‘Shine’, ‘Another Dream’ and ‘O.O.O’. Advertisement At the beginning of December, the girl group suspended all activities after a staff member who worked with them tested positive for COVID-19. WAKEONE and Swing Entertainment soon announced that Kep1er’s debut, which was originally slated for December 14, would be postponed to 2022. A week later, the agencies announced that members Xiao Ting and Mashiro had been diagnosed with COVID-19. They shared that the two cases… Read More →