Video: Débruit - "Cuivrée"

Perhaps seeing the film Beasts of The Southern Wild last week has left me particularly sensitive to talented young ladies who appear to walk bravely alone through their own worlds, but I've watched this video at least five times now and each time it leaves me grinning. Another collaboration between the brilliantly original visual artist Rainbowmonkey and equally  talented producer Débruit, this short film brings out the magic in one of my favourite songs "Cuivrée", taken from his debut album 'From the Horizon'.

Buy "From The Horizon" here

Buy "From The Horizon Remixed" here

Video: Sonnymoon 'Kali'

Three things.

1. Sonnymoon's self titled debut album has easily been my most listened to this year, for various reasons; primarily the length of time it's taking to get my head around its layers, but also because its ambiguities lend themselves to so many different moods. Especially the kind of moods you can't define or pinpoint, you just know they need a soundtrack.

2. If you haven't yet listened to "Kali" either in the dark or with your eyes closed, you haven't heard it yet.

3. I'm aware I am pointing out the obvious here, but Anna Wise is as stunning as her voice.

Buy Sonnymoon's debut album on iTunes

Anna Meredith "Black Prince Fury EP"

Anna Meredith is a force of nature. In person she's a lovely, hilarious and self-deprecating joy of a woman. On stage she is also all of those things, until the music starts, whereupon she becomes an absolute beast.

A rising experimental star in the contemporary classical music world (she did a 'Prom' this year), Anna also makes genuinely exceptional electronic music, and her new EP Black Prince Fury is one of the most exciting I've stumbled across in years. The single Nautilus is such an epic piece of music, it's utterly overwhelming live. Watching it being performed at the Royal Festival Hall last week was a challenge - no photos or dancing allowed. Her show involves several formidable musicians, an assortment of children's toys through the ages, space-cats, an alligator wearing a NASA vest, live drawing, and the best Celine Dion remix you are likely to ever hear.

I took a step back from electronic music in general a couple of years ago. Often I didn't have the patience to sift through and find artists who were making genuinely unique and original music that wasn't something I could only listen to in a club, something that resonated somewhere a bit deeper. When I first saw Anna live I felt much the same way I did when I first saw Flying Lotus, and promptly invited her to play on our line up at Soundwave Festival in Croatia - possibly before introducing myself. She may not be striving for carefully cultivated anonymity, have too many vowels in her name, and has only a vague awareness of who J.Dilla is, but I would hope her talent would somewhat balance those apparent shortcomings out...

Anna Meredith "Black Prince Fury" EP is out now on iTunes // Limited Edition 12" Vinyl

Video: Eska 'Gate Keeper' - In The Woods 2012

In The Woods, in my humble opinion, is currently the best music festival in the UK. I certainly haven't been to them all, but their line up is so carefully curated (The entire Laurel Collective has to watch every artist perform and vote on them), the site so beautifully decorated (covered in beautiful lights and art installations) and the atmosphere is truly magical (actual, real magic). My only grumble was missing the lighting of the giant bonfire and Alt J's headline performance in order to catch the last train to London, but it's hardly their fault I wasn't up for camping.

One of the many, many searingly beautiful moments was Eska's set. I couldn't see her since the band sat down in solidarity with Dave Okumu of The Invisible who was recovering from a nasty accident in Nigeria. Her voice carried over the tree tops, around the coloured streamers and through the smoke to reach us all however, and it was very special moment. I'm so pleased that you can catch a glimpse of how special both the festival and Eska are in this barn session.

Video: Benin City "Accelerate"

Benin City are making awesome singles a habit - Accelerate makes two out of two. I would say I love this, but I love it in a horror film-flash back to university halls days. Not me personally obviously, but Kev and Dave the Scousers I had to share a kitchen with (Dave bit half of his own tongue off during a drunken fight in our first term). They made the guy in this video look like a paragon of virtue and refinement.

'Accelerate' is available on iTunes now, unfortunately the press release didn't give a release date for the album, perhaps they got a bit hazy and forgot to include it after a debauched night in a wheelie bin.

Sufjan Stevens Gives Us A Lego Movie For Christmas

Obviously it's far too early for a Christmas movie. In my book it's far too early for a Christmas anything until mid-December and even then I really only mean overeating. I'll make an exception for two things however - lego, and *mince pies, which I'll happily eat on a rainy day in July.

Sufjan apparently couldn't even wait for it to get cold to share this random and bizarre Christmas video - probably because it's made of lego, and what could be more exciting than a video made of lego?? Unless he actually is Santa's helper and this is a behind the scenes video. Which I would believe of Sufjan - have you seen his website?

*For the non-English people who may read this, we don't actually eat pies made of mince as a dessert at Christmas. 

Video: Alt-J "Tessellate"

I may be over-thinking here, but the new Alt-J video for "Tessellate" leaves me full of questions. It's based upon Raphael's fresco "The School of Athens" which depicts the likes of Plato, Aristotle and their philosophical friends having a big think-off in the clouds.

I find the video very beautiful and love the music, but I worry that we are possibly looking at a portrait depicting how far modern day thinking has fallen, with images of black urban youth culture at its most shallow and caricatured (the dice games, currency, rims and grills of America portrayed by European actors) providing the example. The enlightened finger pointing at the cultural by-product of our wider societal ills always strikes me as a lazy and convenient prism through which to look, and it doesn't seem very 'Alt'.

Perhaps we're just looking at a straight forward flip-it-on-it's head modern day version of a famous painting. Perhaps we're looking at a new under water world where sharks force humans to do sit ups and wear pvc jeggings. Either way, what does it mean that the characters are throwing up Alt-J gang signs and sporting triangle tattoos? Is this the ultimate display of loyalty to the Mac Book and its command keys? Is the Alt-J album supposed to be what gang members and video girls bump in their cars? Is Alt-J a secretive new symbol for alternative modern day philosophical enlightenment?

I'm pretty sure I'm over-thinking it.

Video: Tawiah "Every Step" Live, PMOI @ The C.A.M.P.

I first came across Tawiah back in 2008, when hardly anyone was self-releasing EPs or making the kind of music she made. Her "In Jodi's Bedroom" EP felt like it was part of the start of something so exciting in our music scene, at the time I could name the artists I knew of who sang in a London accent on one hand. I must have gone to see her live more than ten times, and hoped that one day I would book her.

Four years on, in a period of relative quiet to the outside world (writing a really good album takes time!), my partner in crime and resident DJ Eric Lau and I asked Tawiah to come and perform at the C.A.M.P., hoping we could do her justice. My favourite part of running a night is always soundcheck. The band might be a little stressed trying to tweak and perfect everything at the last minute, but I get a private gig where I don't have to worry about the guest list or whether it will start raining and no one will come. My lasting thought as I watched Tawiah soundcheck, was that I was watching a future star, an incredibly gifted artist who couldn't fail to go on and perform for the rest of her life to thousands of people.

I hope the video shows you even a tiny fraction of the atmosphere Tawiah and her band generated that night.