DigesTED – BY Alex Pardee x Kid Robot BLACK
From Kid Robot’s elite BLACK series…… the email update said it’s out now but the site says otherwise. Who can solve this Caramilk mystery?!
DigesTED BY Alex Pardee
$200
6-Inch Vinyl
Edition of 250
The gift that keeps on taking.
Lifelong friend or enemy? Every thing has a secret life. Behind the scenes, in the dark when no one’s watching, what do we know of even our best of friends? Waiting motives always reveal themselves, tearing through the mock exteriors that build trust and perfect traps.
This once cozy demon is having his day, powered by the horror of its prior owner and already onto its next victim. The veneer is stripped away to reveal the terrifying truth. Something wicked this way came – not through a hard knock on the door or from the corner of your eye, but freely accepted, as a gift, a trusted companion for cold nights and hot fears.
It’s not the dark that’s scary. It’s your friends in the dark you should be worried about.
A limited edition of 250 pieces. Each is hand numbered with the artist’s signature engrave on the base. Packaged in a display box and features high gloss details, blood red eyes, and an overwhelming sense of dread.
Congo Natty – UK Allstars – NEW TUNE
Junglists are you REAAAAADY?
Let’s all collectively shit our pants and exalt, YES, JAH!
The new “UK Allstars” track features Tenor Fly, Top Cat, General Levy, Tippa Irie, Sweetie Irie and Daddy Freddy, and it’s the first time all of these legends have been featured on the same tune. The full album is coming to your home soundsystems and telephonic devices on June 25th via Big Dada!
In case ya dun know (!) Congo Natty aka Rebel MC and his fam are responsible for pretty much single handedly keeping the grizzled old junglist soulja spirit alive through hundreds of old school jungle nights that persist across the globe every night of the week. The Congo Natty crew have not released a snippet since 2003 so I’m ecstatic that he’s finally coming back to bring something new to the conversation. Could jungle once again be the next big exciting thing on our musical radars? It’s rather unlikely to be yes, but it would be a phenomenal curveball if it were. I could go on for pages about what drum & bass and jungle mean to me, but this might not be the right place. Fuck, I’m seriously excited for this though, like no other album in years.
And from the label:
Jungle Revolution features the whole of the extended Congo Natty family and was mixed with Adrian Sherwood. Clearly showing this Rasta’s belief that Jungle is a re-boot of roots reggae for a new century, the record is full of blood and fire, the sternum-buzz of sub-bass, rapid fire drum breaks, sweet hooks, righteous anger and professions of religious fervour. It’s the kind of passionate, committed, raw and spiritual, beautiful record that doesn’t come along that often.
Austrian Filter House – Auf Babent (spoof)
WOW WOW WOW… Ihren Tuba macht sehr poomppoomp! Can’t wait to hear the latest!
This kind of reminds me of the time I interviewed Booka Shade for Spinner, not gonna lie. Ok, it reminds me a lot even.
Dalai Lama speaks at PTTOW
So this is a weird one. PTTOW, an innovative invite-only marketing conference a la TED TALKS invited the Dalai Lama to speak in 2011 and thought it would be “cool” to have Will.I.Am get up and ask a question. Eventually it didn’t work out and I couldn’t be happier. The idea of a clown like him having any audience with His Holiness blows me away. The fact that he was invited to speak at a marketing conference when buddhism preaches detachment from personal possessions is even stranger, but I do believe that marketing, at it’s core, is driven by a want to improve our lives, which does resonate with the four precepts. Quiksilver sonsored pro surfer Kelly Slater’s question and it’s subsequent answer is genuinely cute, although struggles to find relevancy with the wise one.
The New Model
Futurecop! – Atlantis 1997
FUTURECOP! – “ATLANTIS 1997 feat. Cavaliers of Fun” OFFICIAL VIDEO from Ariel Belziti
Futurecop! are an awesome newish group that summon the 80s with He-man’s power of Grayskull, Lion-O’s Sight Beyond Sight, the Care Bear Stare-down, and a shit load of LSD-25. I am particularly affected by this vid because it features the Aliens series capsule toys that I collected when I lived in Asia.
The group is made up of Manzur Iqbal and Pete Carrol, and their work has appeared on Souther Fried and IHEARTCOMIX labels, with support from Annie Mac, Noisey, Crystal Castles and Diplo. Not a bad circle of friends there. The new album ‘Hopes, Dreams and Alienation’ comes out soon.
They’ve only got 15,000 fans on Facebook, so why not give ’em some more love!
Debian Blak – Aaliyah remixes
Trap music and phuture r&b probably wouldn’t be as successful if it weren’t for pop icons like Aaliyah and Salt n Pepa for them to draw upon. Debian Blak mixes up some housey 2-step, and a light dusting of hungover sloths mating with sea lion vocals that are seem to be ripped off of the XX. Sarcasm doesn’t mean I don’t like it. Cuz I do. Really. The ‘Chemistry’ remix is one of the best I’ve heard and is a sure fire panty dismantler for the dance floor.
The press release below has more stimulation for your corneas.
“In an exciting era for British electronic music creativity, Debian Blak holds his own as one of the emerging artists to watch. His diverse portfolio of work to date influences his current output and results in a fresh sound.” – RESIDENT ADVISOR
AUDIO DOUGHNUTS’ latest signing, DEBIAN BLAK, readies his much anticipated ‘Six Months From Mars EP’ for them featuring four original tracks with vocal collaborations from NEO JOSHUA and MT. WOLF’S (one of CLASH MAGAZINE’S 2013 bands to watch) lead vocalist KATE WOLF. To celebrate his partnership with the label he is giving away his three track concept EP – ‘Debian Blak x Aaliyah’ which is now available to download and share.
The three songs are a bootleg rework project dedicated to one of his favorite 90’s musicians – the departed RnB superstar, AALIYAH. Re-interpreting her music, Debian set out to re-build her songs as if he had originally produced the material today, taking them in a new previously unheard direction.
Full details of Debian’s ‘Six Months From Mars EP’ out on Audio Doughnuts will become available in the coming weeks. To get a preview of what the EP has to offer, Debian will be performing a live set at The Albany, Great Portland Street Saturday 23rd March with limited guest list available.
Andy Stott gets dark and danceable at Foundry – BlogTO
If Andy Stott is the future, then the future is dark. Very dark. The celebrated producer of 2012’s sleeper hit album, Luxury Problems played at Mansion’s Foundry series in the Blk Box Theatre, beneath the Great Hall on Saturday night.
His set was a technical exploration of negative space in sounds found in the more recent ‘knackered house’ trend that seems to have skipped over to our shores. It’s a term Stott helped define, and that comprises first generation dubstep sounds (the dark and moody stuff that had no radio presence outside of UK pirate radio) that’s manipulated into techno, industrial, and a skeletal drum and bass.
Andy’s genius is that he’s managed to select stripped down tunes that keep everything but their basic rhythmic elements, yet still kept your body shaking with the repetitive metal clicks, clanks, and shuffley dungeon sounds.
Like most kinks and S&M perversions, there was an innate cerebral appeal to Stott’s music that had the full house spontaneoulsy roaring for more. What was so amazing was that he managed to make something so minimal and devoid of colour into something so incredibly addictive and danceable. In our true nature, we must all be nihilistic, recession-wallowing zombies to make us crave these primal rickety beats.
Photos by Alejandro Santiago
Jimmy’s Coffee Grinds New Life Into Kens. Market Location – BlogTO
Jimmy’s Coffee has emerged from the spent ashes of the Hot Box Café at 191 Baldwin St. in Kensington Market, joining the original and very popular location on Portland.
Walking in, you’re greeted with a portico type space with outside benches that will either be used by Jimmy’s patrons, market regulars, or pot-heads protesting the change in tenant… if their memories serve them well enough (Abbie Roach has since reopened the Hot Box Café just down the street on Augusta.) Reclaimed wood tables, baroque metal tiling, and a working gas fireplace decorate the new space, giving it a bit of a regal atmosphere. After a working trip to Seattle owner Phil Morrison decided to go with an industrial living room vibe. The back area has book cases filled with leather-bound tomes ranging from the Encyclopedia Britannica to Yves Naud’s quirky four part “UFOs and Extraterrestrials” series.
My double shot 12 oz. mocha ($4.00, available from 8-12 oz) was measured at an optimal sweetness with subtle salty undertones from the cocoa powder poured overtop, which blended with the steamed milk to create an opulent tapestry of brown flecks. They actually reminded me of local artist Mango Peeler’s murky coloured oil projections.
Warm, and creamy steamed ciders were just the right sensory experience for a chilly March day. I guess you can steam any drink with the right kind of espresso set-up and barista on hand. Jimmy’s will soon be stocking chemex pour over pots and French press plungers. The owners have a strict agenda not to alienate the drip coffee lovers. The dark brew was nutty and earthy with sweet undertones, while the medium was sweet nutty and winey — both equally distinctive ($2.25, minus .25c if you bring your own mug).
Treats from OMG Baked Goodness on Dundas W specialize in the innovative and surreal, like the stuffed breakfast hoagie ($3.50), a ciabatta bun filled with cheesy scrambled eggs, and the home made pop tart ($3.50), a strawberry turnover coated with white frosting and rainbow sprinkles, warmed up under the espresso machine hood, an old trade secret. Their moist vegan mini-cupcakes ($1.50) are also on-hand.
The infamous Hot Box Cafe back patio has been preserved and a skylight has been added, gloriously flooding the space with vitamin D-rich light on sunny days. Trellises have been installed and patio furniture will soon be brought in. If you ever visited the former location’s washrooms you’d probably remember how bad they were, but miracles have been worked and they’ve been restored to full functionality with a modern European home aesthetic.
Hanging out at the café at the time of my visit were a pair of young blonde German work-abroad travelers, one who had just landed via New Zealand. Carina was ecstatic that the Jimmy’s team had crafted a flag from her former home on her latte. So you can expect the same service and community involvement already on offer at their Portland location. Now with even more space, Jimmy’s could very well be an open concept venue for local artists and performers. Stay tuned.
Additional Photos
Photos by Jesse Milns
Birdman and Lil Wayne to Release Teen Novel from Daughters Bria and Reginae
FROM THE PRESS RELEASE (Yes, this is fucking real, and yes, it’s bound to be a page turner for “teens and young adults everywhere” LEAN INTO IT BIATCHES)
March 11, 2013 – New York, NY – Bria Williams and Reginae Carter will make their literary debut with the release of “Paparazzi Princesses” on June 4, 2013 .
The 14-year-old daughters of Cash Money Records co-founder Bryan “Birdman” Williams aka “Baby” and Grammy Award-winning rap superstar Dwayne “Lil Wayne” Carter, respectively, teamed up to pen this fictitious narrative of the adventures of two teen girls. The book is available through Cash Money Content books, the publishing arm of premier record label Cash Money Records.
These young women know the perks and disadvantages of being raised in the spotlight better than anybody, and they fashion their experiences into an engaging and heartfelt narrative. They may have seen what’s behind the curtain at every red carpet event and backstage, but they’re no different than any other girls their age.
Now, instead of relying on Instagram and Twitter as most of their peers do, their story is told in their new novel “Paparazzi Princess” through the characters of Kyla Jones and Promise Walker. On their journey to becoming their own women, the novel’s main characters face their parent’s high expectations, the pitfalls of being “unintentionally famous,” and, most crucially, the trials and tribulations of
high school, homework, crushes, and friendship that everyone goes through. A collaboration with author Karyn Langhorne Folan,
it’s bound to be a page-turner for teens and young adults everywhere.
About “Paparazzi Princesses,” Birdman proudly exclaims, “There’s no better feeling than watching Bria and Reginae make this dream come true. They took an idea, worked extremely hard, and brought it to life. It’s the kind of story that everybody can feel, and it’s only the start of much bigger things for these two wonderful young ladies.”
Lil Wayne echoes his excitement, “I’ve got to be honest. It’s inspiring to see what these girls have done. It wasn’t easy, and they did it all by themselves. ‘Proud’ doesn’t even begin to describe how me and the ‘Birdman’ feel. I can’t wait for everybody else to experience their story.”
Make way for the arrival of “Paparazzi Princesses.”
