Here are two videos we made for two of the album tracks, so you know about 2/11ths of what you’re getting into.

The xx – Crystalised

The xx – Basic Space

Today the video for Basic Space by The xx is premiered over at pitchfork.

You can buy the 7 inch here or the 12 inch here.

Also check out the Basic Space remix by Jamie xx (Jamie is in The xx):

Jamie xx – Bass Space

Bass Space is available on white label 12” (limited to 100) here or on the 12” Basic Space single here.

We’re heading back to the Lock Tavern for a 2nd time on the 22nd of August. This month our line up consists of 5 of London/the UKs most exciting young producers. If you don’t believe me, cop these 5 bits of music and prepare to clear your diary on that night:

Joy Orbison – HYPH MNGO

Mount Kimbie – Sketch on Glass”:

Pariah – Basic Space (remix of The xx)”:

Jamie xx

Bass Space

Sampha – Rainstars

Hello All.

We’ve taken down The xx’s ‘Crystalised’ and Kid Harpoon’s ‘Stealing Cars’ videos from www.vimeo.com. We didn’t want to have to do this but Vimeo’s terms state that any video uploaded to the site become’s their property. We probably should have read this before uploading, but now that we know we can’t justify giving away the rights to one of our artist’s videos, so we’re just going to have to stick to youtube.

Enjoy:

The xx – Crystalised

Kid Harpoon – Stealing Cars

Last Thursday, as you might well know from reading down a bit, was Stag and Dagger. We put on a night and had a ball.

Alongside the publicised line up of The xx, Girls, Arch M and Phantom were some surprise performances by Lightspeed Champion, Florence and the Machine, Kid Harpoon and an inspired Jack Penate.

The following photos tell part of the story:

Phantom

Kid Harpoon performing with Jack Penate

Florence and Lightspeed Champion

Gwill of The Golden Silvers, Florence, Lightspeed Champion, Tic of Phantom/Jack Penate

Jack Penate with The xx and Florence (of the Machine fame) on BVs

Some old guys

There are plenty more here

I don’t really believe in regrets, but if I was to start, it would be to regret not having the balls to lose a lot of money/blood/sweat/tears working with King Charles.

When Paul in Corinthians said: ‘without love I am nothing’ he might as well have been reading straight from King Charles’ manifesto. As honest and true a romantic as there’ll ever be, Charles’ lyrics are full of a bittersweet yearning for a love that he knows exists, yet always narrowly evades him. His music, on the other-hand, is a ferocious battle cry for it. To me, it seems impossible not to be moved by it.

The following video is for his new single ‘Time of Eternity’ and contains Charles in his full blooded pomp and glory.

King Charles – Time of Eternity

We are excited to be hosting Cafe 1001 at Stag and Dagger festival in London on May 21st, with some of our favourite acts around playing for us, including…

Arch M

Phantom

Girls

The xx

The Big Pink and The xx have just completed a short jaunt across the UK and Europe.

I accompanied them for part of the way and took some photographs whilst there. It’s fair to say that I think these are two of the best two news bands going. Sweeping statements like that tend to be loaded – and I’m heavily biased – so I’ll just leave you with two photos, a link to a whole load more and a couple of tracks, so you can try to see for yourself why it was such a privilege for me to have bared witness to the aforementioned dates.

Robbie Furze of The Big Pink

The xx

The rest of the tour photos can be found here.

Enjoy:
The xx – Crystalised
The Big Pink – Velvet

The xx have a video for their new single ‘Crystalised’ – out today. It’s directed by Alex Flick and Masato Riesser.

The xx – Crystalised from Young Turks on Vimeo.

MF DOOM is back, as DOOM. I haven’t heard the album, so I won’t judge, yet. Its release and the subsequent press it got, reminded me of how good KMD were.

In short: KMD were a 90’s Hip Hop group made up of Zev Love X, (MF DOOM before the mask went on,) DJ Subroc, (Zev Love X’s brother,) and part timers: Onyx/Rodan. Their career, although brilliant, was cut short by the untimely death of Subroc and commercially stunted by their tendency to have record covers depicting strung up black dolls.

It’s often said that Zev Love X created the illusion of anonymity/gained the mask/became MF DOOM, because of the deep grieving he went into after his brothers death and the distrust of the industry he gained through KMD’s label’s attempts at censorship.

The following two tracks give you a little sample of quite how great KMD were. If you’ve never seen DOOM’s (rather good looking) face, then this is also a good chance to peep it. The nose ring is/was a great look, as were the glasses. RIP DJ Subroc:

KMD – Peach Fuzz

Unfortunately this doesn’t have a video, but its my favourite KMD song:

KMD – What A Nigga Know?

Tic: Kwes and I are on tour at the moment. Touring can suck if you don’t know how to use the time and as a novice in the live field, I never knew about the boredom, the post-gig comedown and the urge to get wasted!! As Kwes says: “it’s just something to do”.

So we found something better to do. Everyday, Kwes and I have set time aside to make tunes inspired by the city we’re in. There’s only one constraint: work quickly. Battery life requires that we use our time on the tour bus efficiently. We alternate production responsibilities, working in 10 min slots. In turn, the process has inspired a name for our collaboation.

Kwes: The name that Tic speaks of, we initially felt it was quite cheesy, but really it’s the most fitting way of describing this project. Although, we all know, names with reference for a particular music/project are not neccessities. Anyway, We called it…..

KWIC.

(Time constraints, Kwes+Tic = KWIC)

SEE!!!!!!

At first you can smell the cheese melting from the screen, but then it freezes into something quite cool.

KWIC – Brighton

I’m incredibly tired; I didn’t really sleep last night. However, I was just sent this and its made me reaffirm everything. Life is good:

Thanks to Harley for this

The xx have just finished their debut single ‘Crystalised’. It’s out on the 27th of April. You can buy it here and listen here:

The xx – Crystalised

Enjoy

The xx are four 19 year olds, (Baria, Jamie, Oliver and Romy,) from South West London.

The latest signing to Young Turks, they’re currently in the process of finishing their debut album. Produced by the band and engineered by Cocadisco’s Rodaidh McDonald, the album was recorded in a one room studio inside the XL offices. The following photos chronicle some of the process.

(Romy – Vocals/Guitars Jamie – Beats/Producer)

(Oliver – Vocals/Bass)

(Baria – Guitar/Keys)

(Rodaidh – Engineer)

Whilst waiting for the album (September) you can go check out their myspace or just download the following:

The xx – Stars (demo)

The xx – VCR (demo)

1 Year, 4 Months and 4,228,108 plays late (I put it down to the time difference) but this still kills me:

Gucci Mane – My Kitchen

How were we meant to make anything of 7 months? I’ll miss you Felipe.

I know I’m supposed to hate the Grammys.

“Its so corporate, it’s just an industry tool sell more records, there are too many awards, the winners are always the same and they’re so arrogant…”

Unfortunately I’ve been suckered in by the man. These will probably be two of my favourite tv clips of the year:

M.I.A. Jay-Z, T.I. Lil Wayne and Kanye West – Swagger Like Us

Radiohead (with massive marching band) – 15 Steps

If you know anything about the English/this blogs psyche, then you’ll recognise our pretty sad obsession with the weather. If it’s sunny for an hour or so the city tends to stop and flock to the nearest patch of a grass and one of the biggest bets of the year is whether it will snow on Christmas Day. So you can imagine the pandemonium that was the heaviest snow in 20 years or so. No public transport, (tubes and buses both not working,) all airports shut, along with all the bridges to Wales and 6,000,000 people took the day off work. All it took was 6 inches of snow for the country to come to a standstill and all of us inhabitants to have the best day of our lives. Luckily, two people kept it very real, and spent the day – like all others – on their grind:

JME and Tempz on Tim and Barry TV
I stole this video from Prancehall

I’ll try my best – on the few times I update it – to not make this into an obituaries blog. Having said that, it’s been a pretty sad few days for music. First it was John Martyn and then it was Lux Interior’s turn to go.

Lux died this week of his long standing heart condition. As the joint (with his wife Ivy) leader of The Cramps, Lux pretty much defined (if not invented) Psychobilly, as well as providing rock’n‘roll with some of its most entertaining music, outfits and visuals.

I’m no authority on The Cramps – I only own a couple of their many albums – but from the quality and flamboyance of what I know, I can honestly say that the world will be a more boring place for the loss of Lux. The following footage is a strong testimonial to that:

The Cramps – Playing live at Napa State Mental Hospital in 1978

The Cramps – Bikini Girls with Machine Guns

and my (and probably quite a few other peoples’) favourite Cramps song:

The Cramps – Human Fly

If you find yourself in a posthumous desire to reconnect with Lux, then I highly suggest you go and download ‘Lux and Ivy’s Favourites’ compilations: Part 1 and Part 2 – which were kindly put up by the ever wonderful Jiro Bevis.

I just heard the news that John Martyn died.

Wow.

If you own/have heard any of his wonderful albums then you’ll know what a great loss this is.

If you don’t then ‘Over The Hill’ will make you understand pretty quickly.

Last night I got a bit worked up about Jack Penate’s return.

I’ve uploaded the track, and the excellent extended version, so that you can try to ignore my hyperbole and judge for yourself:

Jack Penate – Tonight’s Today

Jack Penate – Tonight’s Today Extended Mix

(Seems one of the links was faulty, so I’ve uploaded both again.)