October Round-Up

I enjoyed the format of last month's round-up [insert 'oh my God it's the end of October already?!' here] so I've tried to duplicate that but improve it somewhat. BEHOLD THE OCTOBER ROUND-UP:

Release of the Month

Childish Gambino - STN MTN/Kauai
Most of us knew that mixtape STN MTN and accompanying EP Kauai were on their way but no one really knew how and when. STN MTN went live on Gambino's website two days before Kauai appeared on iTunes. Together both sides encompass everything that Donald Glover is about when in his musical guise. STN MTN is raw, taking us back to what life was like when ROYALTY dropped. At points there is so much going on it's hard to keep up with the guest features and quick changes in pace. Kauai is a stark contrast. The EP seems to be an extension or next chapter of recent concept album 'because the internet'. Gambino continues  his story about "the boy" who is this time voiced by none other than Jaden Smith. Kauai's treat, however, is hidden inside final track '3005 (Beach Picnic Version)'. What sounded like a mellow remix was actually just an instrumental. The vocal overlay was found by Reddit users and when put together transforms 3005 into a song barely reminiscent of the original apart from the chorus. Projects like these reassure us that leaving Community to focus on music was a great career move for Glover.

Other notable EP/Album releases this month:
Hozier - Hozier
Jamie T - Carry On the Grudge
Moose Blood - I'll Keep You in Mind, from Time to Time
State Champs - The Acoustic Things
Tom James - Blood To Gold
Tove Lo - Queen of the Clouds (This is a cheat, because I ordered it on import from the US because it's frustratingly not out in the UK yet *shakes fist* but it was definitely my best purchase of the month. I urge everybody to do the same.)

Gig of the Month

Moose Blood at Old Blue Last
We've all been to gigs where we don't know much about the headline band. You watch patiently but secretly can't wait for it all to be over. THIS MOOSE BLOOD GIG WAS NOTHING LIKE THAT. Before heading to Moose Blood's album release show for debut full-length 'I'll Keep You in Mind, from Time to Time' I'd heard the album once through so it's fair to say I didn't know what to expect.  With free entry granted to all, the tiny 150 capacity room was full to the brim barely half an hour after doors opened. Kicking off with instrumental 'My Own Boat', then straight into 'Bukowski' it was clear the next 45 minutes were set to impress. Despite the majority of the room only having heard the album a matter of days beforehand, the crowd sang back every word barely missing a note. Moose Blood rattled through new tracks including 'Swim Down' and 'I Hope You're Missing Me' as well as some older songs from their EP 'Moving Home'. The quartet rounded off their set with well known favourites 'Boston' and 'Cardis Bay'. As the band stumble off stage, there was not one soul in the room who regretted this Monday night venture to Shoreditch, myself firmly included.

Other notable shows this month:
Max Raptor and Attention Thieves at Camden Barfly
Charlie Simpson and Young Kato at Roundhouse
Feed The Rhino and Night Verses at Underworld
The Hell at Fighting Cocks, Kingston

Top 5 Tracks

Random October Favourites

Eatery: Homeslice

TV Show: Tattoos After Dark

Artist Website featuring a great game: Superfood

Book: The Strain
Video:

October playlists: 

YouTube / Spotify / Deezer

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ICYMI - This Week on WIIHAMB - 2014 Week #43

In case you missed it - You shouldn't have, but just in case you did.
Keep up to date with all of the daily goings-on over at WIIHAMB Daily.

Monday
Jakwob is back with another amazing pop/drum and bass crossover with the enlisted vocal help of brand new artist Rationale.


Tuesday
London based singer Charlie Barclay-Webb’s new track ‘We’ll Work It Out’ takes a much more typical R’n’B approach than previous off the wall single ‘Get To Know Me’.


THIS IS THE NEW SINGLE FROM BRING ME THE HORIZON. It's great. You've probably heard it by now, who cares, listen to it again.


Wednesday
Girls Are On Film
Why we need age certificates on online music videos















Throwback Thursday
If there's one insane music video I remember seeing when I was a teenager, it's this one.


Friday
Hailing from Essex, five-piece Nothing But Thieves don’t do things by halves. ‘Tempt You’ is stunning and atmospheric but it’s the insane diversity between their various songs that really makes them stand out.


Saturday
Huntar are back with new single ‘Bitter’ taken from their forthcoming EP of the same name. ‘Bitter’ is perfect for this period of change between Summer and Autumn/Winter, haunting and comforting at the same time.


Sunday
High Tyde's previous single 'Karibu' was full of summer and sun, now it's colder 'Feel it' puts you inside that Skins-esque house party. There's so much going on throughout 'Feel It' that it's almost overwhelming, an incredible effort from the Brighton four piece.


October playlists so far: YouTube / Spotify / Deezer

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Girls Are On Film

and your eight year old is probably watching them.

[Inspired by Music Week/Newsbeat and aided by good old Wikipedia]
Disclaimer: This post is safe for work but some of the videos mentioned may not be.

Let me set the scene:
This month saw the beginning of the trial period for the introduction of age ratings on online music videos. In the first phase of the age rating process the videos are submitted for review and are rated with classifications similar to films by the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC). At the moment this only applies to artists signed to UK labels but it is expected that 20% of videos submitted during this period will receive a rating. The second phase of the project will see videos go live on YouTube and Vevo with their ratings but a date has not been set for this yet. The music industry's already is disarray and children are already desensitised to what they see on TV, so do we really need these ratings? Yes. Yes we do.


Music vs Movies
Regardless of the artists involved, should people of a certain age have such easy accessibility to these unsuitable clips? If you've read my previous piece on windowing music releases (or even if you haven't), it's becoming ever clearer that there are lessons the music industry should be learning from the film industry. Age ratings on videos is a positive step towards this. The film 'Spring Breakers' starring Selena Gomez and Vanessa Hudgens is rated certificate 18 in the UK. Although Gomez and Hudgens are former Disney stars, there's no way one would consider allowing a child of the prime Disney Channel demographic to watch 'Spring Breakers'. The age certificate acts as a huge detterent for family and friends. Music videos lack that deterrent. Not only that, music videos are so much more accessible than films by being readily available on the internet for free and they are shown on music TV channels 24/7. How are you going to know that Nicki Minaj's 'Anaconda' video or Mastodon's video for 'The Motherload' are going to feature explicit content? You don't until after you've watched them. Without an age ratings or even a 'parental advisory' banner, it's impossible.

Asking for trouble
In an interview with BBC Newsbeat, Mercury Prize nominee FKA Twigs raises an interesting point that rather than to ban videos or stamp an age rating onto them, artists should be offering an alternative. So rather than the naked girls prancing around with an '18' rating stamped on the front, there could be a nice child friendly version shown on TV and available online. This is something that was obviously offered with Robin Thicke's 'Blurred Lines' [censored/uncensored] but even though the video is censored, to me, the themes in the song still warrant some sort of age rating. If artists do begin to go down the route of an alternatively "clean" video, are they going to begin pushing the boundaries even more with their explicit versions? Whilst researching this topic, my most interesting find was N.E.R.D.'s 'Lapdance' [censored/uncensored]. Although the censored version contains no expletive language, there are still some fairly provocative ladies writhing around in the video. Something to note however is that this video already carries an age restriction on YouTube due to the breach of the platform's community guidelines.

Can this be policed?

So here we are, we've got our YouTube age restrictions, the 'parental advisory' and 'explicit' banners, each video has been individually certified, but how do we even begin to police this? For a start, everybody needs to be on the same page. The government, video streaming platforms, internet service providers and the music industry as a whole need to come together and strategise about how this is really going to work. It's no secret that a thirteen year old would be able to set up a YouTube account, enter a fake date of birth listing themselves as over 18 and then be free to browse the platform's content at their heart's content. Stricter guidelines and provisions need to be put into place so that breaking the rules isn't so easy.

Are we taking this too seriously?
Sex and nudity (the focus of this post), let alone drugs, violence and gore have been present in music videos since the 1980s and although these videos were controversial at the time, no one really bats an eyelid now. A fun example is Blink 182's video for 'What's My Age Again' which was released in 1999. I was the ripe old age of seven when I first saw this video on daytime MTV and until I started this article, it hadn't even crossed my mind that this clip contained nudity that could potentially force it to be given an age certificate. What we need to bear in mind is that the internet allows anyone of any age such a wide spectrum of accessibility to all different types of media. By enforcing age cretificates and other restrictions now, there will inevitably be more protection in the future, and goodness only know what music videos will be like in another 30 years.

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ICYMI - This Week on WIIHAMB - 2014 Week #42

In case you missed it - You shouldn't have, but just in case you did.
Week 42 of 2014... there's only ten more weeks left to this entire year!
Keep up to date with all of the daily goings-on over at WIIHAMB Daily.

Monday
LA based Flor have released their debut single ‘Heart’ and it’s a banger. Flor are slap bang in the middle of indie rock band and and electro/synth laden outfit.


Tuesday
'Put you on' was uploaded to London based production duo Perplexus' Soundcloud page five whole months ago but it's finally receiving a full single release in November.


Whilst recording their 2013 album ‘Before It Caves’, A Loss For Words recorded their own version of Kings Of Leon’s mega-hit ‘Use Somebody’ and it sounds like this.


Wednesday
Leeds’ The Wilde are back with their new track ‘Until next time, it’s a one time thing’. The single is taken from their forthcoming debut EP, ‘The Libertine’, which is due for release next month.


Throwback Thursday
Hard-Fi's ‘Hard to beat’ is taken from their debut album ‘Stars of CCTV’ released way back in 2005 and God was it crammed full of bangers.


Friday
Fractures is the alias of Australian Mark Zito who uses the moniker to release slowburning leftfield RnB. Below is the video for new single ‘It’s alright’ which fits the eerie song perfectly.


Saturday
'Sleep talker' is the new single from Rival State taken from their new EP 'Youth Tax'. Not just classic rock, Rival State have a really contemporary and current feel setting them apart from their peers.


London based D/C has unveiled his new single ‘The Fall’. ‘The Fall’ is stipped back and D/C’s vocals really do run the show here, with his voice sounding so genuine, really setting him apart from other upcoming R’n’B acts.


Sunday
'Silly little things' is the brand new single from English singer-songwriter Shannon Saunders. It's weird and quirky with elements reminiscent of MIA, yet boils down to being a great pop song.


At first, Tom James is what you’d expect from a Cornish singer-songwriter, an air of Ben Howard about him, but actually he’s so much more. James’ unique percussive use of his guitar really sets him apart from his peers.


October playlists so far: YouTube / Spotify / Deezer

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ICYMI - This Week on WIIHAMB - 2014 Week #41

In case you missed it - You shouldn't have, but just in case you did.
Keep up to date with all of the daily goings-on over at WIIHAMB Daily.

Monday
Floridian JMR is back on again with brand new single ‘Shivers’. As we’ve come to expect from JMR, ‘Shivers’ is another laid-back sultry R’n’B masterpiece, with Joshua Robinson’s vocals sounding as stunning as ever.


Tuesday
Wonder Wonder are a London based male/female duo who seem to be releasing a new song every month for a year. ‘Shark’ is only the second of these tracks but Wonder Wonder already seem to be building up a nice bit of attention.


Catfish and the Bottlemen have released their video for new single ‘Pacifier’, taken from their UK Top 10 debut album ‘The Balcony’.


Wednesday
Does a week go by when we don’t post JMSN? Barely. But who can resist his flawless electro infused R’n’B which is on point every single time.

Throwback Thursday
Without a doubt one of the greatest videos of the 21st century, need I say more.


Friday
This week saw Moose Blood release their debut album ‘I’ll Keep You In Mind, From Time To Time’ and to coincide they’ve also released a video for their track ‘I hope you’re missing me’.


Saturday
Following up the incredible ‘Take Shelter’, Years & Years have returned with their new single ‘Desire’. This new track is absolutely everything you could ask for from the self-professed soulful electronic pop trio.


Dutch producer Oliver Heldens and WIIHAMB favourite K Stewart unleash their huge new single ‘Last All Night’ on the world.


Sunday
Tove Lo's songs are so blunt and honest but in the most creative and weird ways and 'Talking Body' is no exception.


Following the release of mixtape STN MTN and EP Kauai, Childish Gambino has dropped the video for ‘Telegraph Ave.’ taken from 2013’s ‘because the internet’. Nothing can prepare you for what happens in this video.


October playlists so far: YouTube / Spotify / Deezer

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ICYMI - This Week on WIIHAMB - 2014 Week #40

In case you missed it - You shouldn't have, but just in case you did.
There's a lot here this week so make sure you get stuck right in.

Keep up to date with all of the daily goings-on over at WIIHAMB Daily.

Monday
'Reminder' is the other end of the electronic spectrum to the usual trap we're used to from RL Grime and a lot of this is due to the addition of How To Dress Well's vocals. To those caught off guard this may seem like a pretty strange collaboration but it comes together astonishingly well.


Ben Howard’s version of Kiesza’s ‘Hideaway’ strips the song back completely and showcases how well he can do the whole pop thing should he ever want to go down that route.

Tuesday
September Round-Up
Have a look at all the important things that went on last month right here.

Wednesday
The influence of The 1975 on this Australian quintet The Never Ever is almost too apparent on their new single ‘Nightlife’ but that’s not at all a bad thing.

Indiana’s voice really shines through during this Live Lounge performance and sounds so pure. Rhodes is the perfect accompaniment and I would love to hear more collaborations by these two upcoming artists.

Throwback Thursday
I’d completely and utterly forgotten about this band which is pretty forgiveable considering Crossfade’s self titled debut album, from which this track is taken, was released ten years ago.


Friday
Halsey's back with new single ‘Hurricane’ sounds as though you can hear a storm brewing throughout the song and no doubt the tornado will well and truly hit when she drops her EP Room 93.


‘You’re the one for me’ is taken from Great Good Fine OK’s forthcoming EP and it’s definitely the most feel good song we’ve posted all week.


Saturday
Excellent house track and definitely tipping this duo for big things in 2015. Absolutely gutted that the vocalist on this track goes uncredited though.


Another month, another acoustic State Champs song. ‘If I’m lucky’ is the second of the two brand new tracks to be unveiled from the EP. We’ve got to admit State Champs are very good at the acoustic thing as well as the whole pop punk thing.


Sunday
Not for the faint hearted, Devil Sold His Soul are back and packing more of a punch than ever. ‘Unveiled’ is taken from the band’s forthcoming EP ‘BELONG ╪ BETRAY’ which is due for release in mid-November.


How do Eliza and the Bear make EVERY song that they write sound perfect for TV highlights compilations? ‘Talk’ features on the band’s ‘Light It Up’ EP which was released earlier this year.


October playlists so far: YouTube / Spotify / Deezer

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