LUCY ROSE - LIKE I USED TO [ALBUM STREAM]

Potentially a review to come. Out tomorrow on Columbia Records. Lucy is playing in-stores in London this week before embarking on a UK tour.

JAI PAUL - JASMINE (DEMO)

In the background of Jai Paul’s website for‘Jasmine’ is a repeated and unexplained picture of a Mercedes Benz and a random dude smiling. Arranged in the headache-inducing style of Microsoft’s tile background option, it brings to mind a very bad graphics student’s attempt at a collage, or a teenager’s quickly thrown together Myspace page.

According to XL, Jai has a DIY ethic. Like the band website that seems deliberately shit and brings to mind nostalgia for the internet’s blocky early design era, Jai’s taste in an unwavering self-effacing public image chimes with the fact that offsetting music against an incongruous and shambolic aesthetic is distinguishing. This is especially when most around you are trying to do crisp, clear and easy to comprehend.

Jai Paul is far from that though. He is an iconoclast. ‘Taking a break’ or so it would seem after self-produced ‘BTSTU(Edit)’, he reclaimed the critical limelight with ease after five years out with only track, and formerly only one track to his name. Now ladies and gents, we have ‘Jasmine’. The song was on Pitchfork and other leading music blogs almost immediately after it was posted to Soundcloud and was invariably lavished with praise.

Despite being released by XL (Adele, The XX, Willis Earl Beal), ‘Jasmine’ has the interesting qualification ‘(demo)’. To me this is interesting because a demo that’s brill, as opposed to a single that’s brill, makes you think the ‘real thing’ will be even better. Except because the ‘demo’ is actually the ‘real thing’ / the version that’s being released in stores near you, this is clearly not a demo at all! ‘Demo’ both excuses ‘Jasmine’s vague crackly production and smartly suggests that this clearly brilliant record is not Jai in full flow, but half-formed, casual demo…ism. This might be the thinking anyway.

Also, when you hear ‘Jasmine’s cassette-like muffling, you’ll swear you’ve ‘discovered’ Jai, even if you do notice it’s already clocked 700,000 odd plays on Soundcloud. It has that demo quality; that personal touch that ‘BTSTU (Edit)’ had. Where the latter went "Don’t fuck with me, don’t fuck with me" in its disturbingly gentle opening, this pulses with a skittery funk beat whose distant production sounds like it was recorded in a church confessions booth.  

Jai is enigmatic. At only 21 odd when XL signed him, ‘BTSTU (Edit)’ was I believe his only available track online, which makes you wonder what XL knew about him that we didn’t (or don’t), particularly given that he seems to be a songwriter/producer first of all. Yet Stereogum have called him ‘possibly visionary’; in an interview with XL owner Richard Russell about XL's success, Russell said ‘Jai is a wizard.’ The BBC even cast him in their Sound of 2011 poll for 2011's most promising artist or band, such was the furore surrounding Jai’s exceptionally good but small output. That year, RockFeedback’s feature on Jai (complete with his provisional driving licence photo) just concluded “There’s not much we can do with Jai Paul nowapart from to carrying on listening to the pop genius of ‘BTSTU.” That’s then.

The story of Jai Paul is certainly intriguing so far. Whatever happens next though, ‘Jasmine’, I’m sure you’ll agree, is indeed superb, worthy of the praise lavished upon it. If ‘BTSTU (Edit)’ struck music’s beating heart once, ‘Jasmine’ can do so again.


Pre-order 'Jasmine' on limited vinyl here.

RIPPLE - I DON'T KNOW WHAT IT IS, BUT IT SURE IS FUNKY

Trying to pick a compilation to buy on vinyl is a bit of a minefield because there are so damn many. There are old ones, new ones, re-issued ones, Readers’ Digest ones- that I bought once for 10p and never will again- and obscure ones.

I will usually flick through a few, before making a value judgment based on the tracks, the cover (sorry, you rational bastards) and the blurb on the sleeve (again). With compilations of stuff I don’t know, the last point in particular can be very persuasive. If the blurb says something really imaginative such as, for instance, suggesting the album will put me on the streets of 1970s Harlem or Chicago, or in a dizzying disco club, or bring back memories of the days of old (none of which I actually experienced) I’m usually there.

So it was with great enthusiasm that I purchased Living in The Streets, a compilation with the tagline ‘wah wah jazz, funky soul, and other dirty grooves’ in Sister Ray in London last week, and more or less whacked it on minutes after coming back home. The blurb on the back had waxed lyrical – very successfully might I add – about what one might be imagining listening to this compilation….

“ ‘Living in The Streets’ taps into that era [when jazz clubs were on every corner], and lets you know what it felt like musically to walk from street corner to bar with the hot air billowing up from the subway grills…”

Nice.

“The radios in the cars adjacent to you are blaring out the urban station WE-KOOL and the heavy sensual voice of Isaac Hayes forcefully pleading his woman to ‘Use Me’ has all the right shivers running down your spine.”

Ah, sweet.

“Entering the bar you rapidly order a beer, greedily gulping down the first few mouthfuls of the frothy potion as you head to the jukebox, add some money and make your choices- they flow out one by one- the sweet soul of Tammi Lynn and uplifting funk of Spanky Wilson- leaving you feeling elated and along with the beer refreshed and ready once more to face the day.”  

    

‘I Don’t Know What It Is But It Sure Is Funky’ epitomises this album, and as you can imagine it sure is funky: Wall-to-wall stomping beats, the most bad-ass, awesome feel-good call and response chant I’ve ever heard and this lovely funky vibe that only a bright sunny day can throw up. And there’s very few of them in England. The description for this section read as follows:

“Heading out of Jimmy’s, it’s across the street to a basement that hasn’t even got a name, but where you know that the DJ will be laying down some seriously good tunes – Ripple, Preston Epps or Idris Mohammad – guys that know where to find the groove.”

Strutting into Music and Video Exchange in Notting Hill yesterday, mojo in full flow and The Fatback Band soundtracking my head, I asked the perhaps 40 year old attendant: “Hey boy, you got that new Ripple seven, 'That sure is Funky’?” After throwing me off by wrongly correcting the song title (he didn’t know what it was but it sure was funky, he could have said), he looked at me, faintly disgusted (maybe because I’m white and so was he….and he’s about 40, and I’m 23…and this is not the 1970s, unfortunately) by whipping off my pimp hat and telling me I wouldn’t find it and that Ripple come in sometimes, but only on compilations. 

I could “catch a cab across town to see your girl” at this point, but instead I just skulked off.  

Friends- I'm His Girl

Friends- I'm His Girl

(2011, Lucky Number Music)

I noticed on twitter this morning that Friends will be releasing a new 7" single and thought it was worthy of a new blog post. Great song, very catchy and full of effervescent positivity. It is certainly getting better with every listen. The band are sounding like a cleaned up Best Coast; something that could have been on the three-piece's Crazy For You if not for the clearer production and neater presentation of their songs. Indeed if it was, it would have probably been one of its strongest tracks!

The song is a dictated lesson in the nature of a good relationship, which gives 'I'm His Girl' a sense of self-confidence and empowerment as clear and unapologetic as Beyonce's Single Ladies (albeit the message to young women is completely different and is about giving one other space, not marriage!) Samantha Urbani takes cues from her own satisfaction in the one line chorus: "When you see me walking around with him, I'm not just another chick, I'm.....his.....girl." It is masterful in reeling you in, and her cool self-confidence is sexy and finger-tingling. Then, when there's a bridge 2/3 of the way through and all you hear apart from Urbani is a cowbell/wooden block, she takes centre stage to deliver a blunt message in full, off-hand, and almost a little disinterested:

"If you love someone, let them be free. I know I don't want no one suffocating me. Don't settle for ownership, make a team. If you love someone, it should feel good to let them breathe."

It is corny, but in Urbani's deft delivery, 'I'm His Girl' manages to be deadly serious and flirtatious at the same time: a confusing, poker-faced flirt. It's out 31 October via Lucky Number Music (limited to 500 copies). Ooo you filthy dogs- keep your relationship safe.

Check it out above!

Even New-er James Blake!

Well I'm acutely aware this is being focused on disproportionately but as an example of an album not being everything in this digital world, three unreleased songs from James Blake have surfaced recently.

'Love What Happened Here' featured on a mix by the suitably named Fantastic Mr Fox last year (just to demonstrated the link between these two young UK producers a little more). You can listen to it below, courtesy of The Up Turn. (For more on Fantastic Mr Fox, check out my other posts).

And in other JB news, Some Kind of Awesome have posted 'You Know Your Youth'. This is a scatty b-side that features as a bonus track on the vinyl version of the album, as if hearing the rest of it on the warmth of record wasn't enough. LISTEN BELOW! Post-Dubstep have posted another (!_) vinyl-only bonus track, 'Tep And The Logic', which iiiiiiiss, HERE. What a lovely bunch!