Songs you may have missed: Easter edition

Happy Easter, everyone! The sun is out and spring has sprung - and we all need new songs to sung. Hark a listen at this week's round-up of newbies.

1) Jamie xx - Loud Places
Taken from Jamie's first solo album, Loud Places begins with the downbeat cool of an xx track (not least because it features his bandmate Romy on voals). But the majestic, gospel-inspired chorus takes you to unexpected places. Lovely stuff.





2) Madeon - You're On (ft Kyan) - live session
Madeon makes the process of hitting buttons on a samplepad seem like the most exciting form of live performance ever invented, even though it's just... well, pressing some buttons on a samplepad. How does he do that?





3) Girlpool - Chinatown
Girlpool are Harmony Tividad and Cleo Tucker, two musicians from Philadelphia whose main selling point is that they make punk music without feeling the need for drums.

Their new single is a bit of a departure, though: A bluesy, meandering ballad that borrows the riff from Sheryl Crow's Leaving Las Vegas, it's shot through with a hesitant vulnerability most punks would sniff (glue) at.





4) Beyonce - Die With You
Sitting behind a piano, her hair braided and tucked into a baseball cap, here's pop megastar Beyonce singing a ballad for her husband on their seventh wedding anniversary.

I don't know about you - but if my wife had done this for me, I'd have taken her straight to the bedroom for a jolly big smooch. Jay Z just filmed it and put it on his new streaming site for some reason (money).






5) Rihanna - American Oxygen
A surprisingly mournful hymn to the American dream, Rihanna's latest song is a soulful antidote to the obnoxious (and obnoxiously catchy) Bitch Better Have My Money.

You have to sign up to Tidal to hear it properly - but here's a live version, performed at the March Madness concert over the weekend.






6) Janelle Monáe, Jidenna - Yoga
Ever wondered what Janelle Monae would sound like if she stopped pretending to be an anti-establishment robot from the future? Well, you're in luck.

The R&B star cuts loose on Yoga, a new track with rising MC Jidenna that will appear on The Eephus, a compilation EP starring the artists she's signed to her Wondaland label.

And it's pure filth... as Janelle Monae repeatedly instructs her lover: "Baby bend over, let me see you do that yoga."

The track also contains the best / weirdest lyric of the year: "You cannot police me, so get off my areola." Crikey.






7) Alesso - Cool (ft Roy English)
Perfectly acceptable Radio 1 daytime fodder, this is only notable for the video, in which Alesso plays a nerdy schoolkid who seduces his teacher. Wish fulfilment much?






8) George The Poet - Wotless
Another thought-provoking rap-poem from George The Poet, who charts his evolution from prodigal schoolboy to successful musician. It's an unflinching sketch of how black kids (especially those in a predominantly white, middle class environment) can feel pressured into becoming stereotypes.

Compelling stuff.






9) Mirror Talk - 1/M/T
Posted by the ever-reliable Nicola Roberts on her Tumblr page, this is shimmering, 80s-inspired synth pop from LA quartet Mirror Talk.

Produced by Tony Hoffer (M83, Beck), the title stands for One More Time.






10) Wax Tailor - Que Sera
I fell in love this sampladelic cut-up as soon as I heard it yesterday. Then I discovered it's a decade old... But what the hell. This post isn't called "songs you may have missed" for nothing.






11) Brandon Flowers - Can't Deny My Love
The only video you'll see this week that's based on the Puritan short story Young Goodman Brown, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne in 1835. And that's a guarantee.

So there you go. Hope you haven't overdosed on chocolate during the course of this blog post.

Oh, and I'm taking the rest of the week off. See you on April 13th.

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What's Madeon up to today?

Why, he's shamelessly promoting his new album, Adventure, which "drops" in a fortnight. And with good reason, because it's shaping up to be one of the more exciting electronic albums of the year.

The latest teaser for the record is a song called Home - and, for once, he's put his own vocals on it. The French DJ (Hugo Pierre Leclercq to his mum) explained why in a series of tweets last night.

In january of last year, I stopped touring completely to focus on writing music for Adventure.

— Madeon (@madeon) March 9, 2015

I have this thing I do about once a year. I lock myself in the studio for 24 hours and make two or three new songs from start to finish

— Madeon (@madeon) March 9, 2015

By the 18th hour, the combination of sleep deprivation, creative frustration and isolation put me in this weird vulnerable state.

— Madeon (@madeon) March 9, 2015

I kind of felt like giving up on music to be honest, so I made a song about that.

— Madeon (@madeon) March 9, 2015

Because I was alone in the studio and had a microphone, I ended up recording it myself and finished producing it in the few hours remaining.

— Madeon (@madeon) March 9, 2015

I dont see myself as a singer but I thought it would be weird to have anyone else do the song so I kept it the same as the demo on the album

— Madeon (@madeon) March 9, 2015

Premiered by Annie Mac on Tuesday's Evening Session, it's a stunning track - happy and sad and uplifting and moving all at once. Here's the official audio.

Madeon - Home

You should also check out Madeon's current single, Pay No Mind, featuring Passion Pit, which is awesome.

Madeon - Pay No Mind

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Madeon has made an album, and here is the first single being released in order to promote that album

In "about bloody time" news, French prodigy Madeon has just unveiled the first track from his debut album - just three short years after his Pop Culture video (a lightning-fingered live megamix) went viral.

It's called You're On and it's a lush, forward-thinking slice of futurepop. Radio 1 has already made it "song of the day" which is apt because it's a properly structured composition with verses, bridges, choruses and all the other musical furniture you'd expect. Clearly, the time he spent hunkered down with Coldplay has rubbed off on him. And I mean that as a compliment, even though it sounds disgusting.

The production is exquisite, as you might expect, given the obsessive level of detail he describes in this interview. Hugo Leclerc (for that is his real name) is the living embodiment of the apocryphal story about The Human League spending two weeks on the sound of a snare drum.

All of which is sickening, given that he's just 20 years old and, judging by the picture above, was created in a laboratory by someone who really wanted their own Harry Potter.

Madeon - You're On


You're On is out on iTunes now. Yes, even in the UK.

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New Two Door Cinema Club: Changing Of The Seasons

Above-average indie band and sandwich enthusiasts Two Door Cinema Club have just announced their biggest ever concert at the O2 Arena in London. And, to celebrate, they're releasing an EP with boy genius dance wizard Madeon. According to the BBC, they bribed him to do it with a hot dog (Produce the EP, that is. Less of your filth).

The title track is called Changing of the Seasons and it was Huw Stephen's Hottest Record In The World last night. Apparently, the song is so fresh the record label don't have a copy, so they've had to put a radio rip on the band's official Soundcloud page.

If you can endure Alex's tremulous falsetto in the first verse, the song really takes off around the 45 second mark.

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"Lost" Ellie Goulding track surfaces

I don't understand the craze for Supermarket exclusives on entertainment products.

Does anyone who casually picks up The Avengers DVD in Sainsbury's really think: "Hey, I just got an exclusive 90-minute documentary I'll never watch. In your face, Asda!"

I'm sure there's some sort of financial kickback for the distributors, or that Sainsbury's have calculated they can sell an extra 2,050 bags of Doritos to sweaty Joss Whedon fanboys. But, to me, it takes the sheen off a triple-A mega-budget movie when it's languishing in a battered cardboard stand next to a display of "value" sausages.

But it's not just films that suffer - it's happening with music, too. Did you know Ellie Goulding's recent album, Halcyon, contained an extra track if you bought it in Tesco? No. Why would you? And who in their right mind would go out of their way to find a Tesco that stocked the album in order to obtain a solitary song that, let's face it, was going to be on BitTorrent the day it was released, anyway?

The sad thing is, Stay Awake is one of the best songs on the record. Produced by French dance genius Madeon, it's a roaring blast of late-night euphoria, with Ellie doing what Ellie does best - injecting genuine warmth into the frigid digitalism of Dubstep.

Thankfully, Stay Awake has finally been given a "proper" release on Beatport - so you can download it from the comfort of your internet, without being seduced into buying a cabbage.

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This is not a new track by Daft Punk

Today's blog post is about 17-year-old French dance producer Madeon who burst into our consciousness last year with a breathtaking, 39 song mash-up performed live on a sampler. The appropriately-named Pop Culture incorporated bits of tracks by Buggles, Kylie, Girls Aloud, The Killers and ELO - comme ça:

Madeon - Pop Culture


An astonishing display - and one that has rightly seen him booked for a ton of DJ sets around the continent.

He's also been working hard on his debut album, and the first single - Icarus - got a preview on Pete Tong's radio show a couple of weeks back. Clearly, Madeon has had to borrow all of his equipment from Justice, who bought it second-hand from Cassius, who had it on loan from Daft Punk after they won it in a bet from Stardust.

Seriously, all French house music sounds like this, doesn't it? Not that I'm complaining.

Icarus - Madeon

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