New music from Little Boots

This won't be a long post as I'm at death's door today, coughing and spluttering like a dying duck.

So here, without further ado, is a new mixtape from Little Boots (remember her?) Amongst the goodies on offer are a fantastic remix of Metronomy's The Bay, Oh Land's Son Of A Gun, Madonna's Into The Groove, Desire by Eli Escobar and Classix's Into The Valley. One of the best Saturday night, electro-disco, pre-party mixes I've heard in a while.

Best of all, if you stick around to the end you get a new Little Boots track - Shake Until Your Heart Breaks. Victoria's breathy, waifish vocals make me think of St Etienne's Sarah Cracknell - albeit a rather bedraggled Sarah Cracknell staggering across a muddy festival campsite with a vintage drum machine clutched to her busom, as dusk slowly turns to dawn.

The fun kicks off at around 38'40" and the whole thing is downloadable for your listening / running / dancing pleasure.

SHAKE UNTIL YOUR HEART BREAKS MIXTAPE by LittleBoots


On her blog, Little Boots promises more new material soon. Hooray!

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Beyonce has made another video - and here it is

The speed with which Beyoncé has been churning out videos is enough to make your head spin -- and she shows no signs of slowing down. The latest is for the mid-tempo R&B jam Party - a song which Bobby Brown would no doubt have called "wicked fly" if we were in 1990.

The single has been almost imperceptibly retwizzled to allow a guest spot for rapper-of-the-moment J Cole (as featured on these very pages just 24 hours ago). The video also features Solange Knowles and Kelly Rowland, just for shits and giggles.

Beyonce ft J Cole - Party


Now, I'd put the indecent haste of Beyoncé's release schedule down to her impending motherhood (it seems there won't be any Buffalo Stance moments from Queen Bee, sadly). But it turns out there's another reason for the music video production line - they're all being compiled onto a DVD in time for the Christmas market. They'll come packaged with footage from one of Beyoncé's intimate concerts at the Roseland Ballroom earlier this year, where she played the 4 album in its entirety - as well as running through just about every hit single she's had from Destiny's Child, to her Jay-Z guest spots, right up to the present day (here's a setlist).

According to this article in the LA Times. there will be seven videos in the anthology - which means there's one we still haven't seen. I've got my fingers crossed for the Diane Warren enormo-ballad I Was Here. How about you?

Beyonce - Live at the Roseland Ballroom trailer

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"What a mess I made upon your innocence"

One Direction - Gotta Be You

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Who are the BIGkids?

Just stumbled across this video on Vimeo (its YouTube for nerds) and I'm intrigued... The music sounds like a cross between Fatboy Slim and The Go Team - stuffed silly with samples and party noises, married to a big dumb chorus that I'm 99% positive will be stuck in my head til Tuesday.

BIGkids - Drum In Your Chest


But Who are BIGKids?

Their Facebook page explains: "BIGkids are a boy and girl from camden. Big singalong duets to grin your face off to, over DIY beats with lots of saxophones and samples. This is music to trash your bedroom to. Watch this space for more cheap videos and sweaty gigs."

Their Soundcloud uploads reveal that Drum In Your Chest isn't a fluke (and that someone in the band does an amazing Etta James impression).

Their tumblr blog displays an obsession with 80s pop culture, pumpkins, breasts, and pumpkins that look like breasts.

But THAT is IT. Which is quite a feat in this era of sharing your every stumble and belch with the world in 140 characters or less.

I've pressed that "follow" button on Vimeo... Watch this space for more.

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J Cole - not just a pair of hairy eyebrows

J Cole... J Cole... J Cole... I know I've heard that name somewhere. Born in Germany, raised in North Carolina, he's been hanging around the outskirts of the music industry since 2007, flashing those freakishly hairy eyebrows at any passing R&B track with 16 bars to spare for a guest rap.

So far, he's turned up on tracks by Jay-Z, Rihanna, Trey Songz, WALE and Beyonce, but his solo career has burned slower than a candle in a vacuum. Until, that is, his debut album (actually his fourth album, but his record company isn't going to be swayed by something as insignificant as facts) went straight to number one in the US - selling 217,000 copies in a week. That's a lot, apparently.

SOME FACTS ABOUT J COLE'S FIRST (BUT ACTUALLY HIS FOURTH) ALBUM

:: It is called Cole World: The Sideline Story

:: Rejected titles included Cole Of Duty: Modern Warfare, At The Cole Face, Baby It's Cole Outside

:: Jermaine says, confusingly, that the 15 tracks on the CD "represent all the songs that aren't even on this album".

:: The single Work Out samples Paula Abdul's Straight Up.

:: He describes the sensitive lyrics as "from-the-heart shit", which is an evocative turn of phrase, don't you think?

One of the stand-out tracks on Cole World is called Lost Ones. It's a mini melodrama, about a young couple in their early 20s who accidentally fall pregnant, and their arguments over abortion.

Cole describes it as follows: "This explores pregnancy from all sides. The male perspective on the first verse, diving into the female perspective on the second, and on the third verse I'm kind of writing in the third person, telling the story from both sides. It's one of my favourites. I've been holding onto that song for four years, waiting for this album to come out."

Indeed, Cole even made a video for the song, long before he got signed to Jay-Z's Roc Nation label. Starring the young rapper, his eyebrows and actress Antoinette Lenae, he posted it on YouTube last night. Have a look - it's moving stuff.

J Cole - Lost Ones

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Pop promos: White background update

Last Wednesday, I complained about bands having their photograph taken against a plain white background. You can only get away with it if you are (a) in an asylum for the criminally insane or (b) in the Pet Shop Boys.

One of the bands I fingered as being guilty of this crime was Oh My! Within minutes of the blog post going live, the all-new girl band got in touch via Twitter to send me this exclusive, multi-coloured kaleidoscope of pop photography.

Incredible. Oh My! are hereby awarded a certificate of pop merit and a free 12-month subscription to the Paint Colour Journal.

In other news, here is the new video for the band's new single, Dirty Dancer. Extra points for avoiding the temptation to do "the lift".

Oh My! - Dirty Dancer

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