Here There & Everywhere

iTunes Free Single of the Week: The Cool Kids - What Up Man

“Did you know I made this beat with my mouth and a bell?” raps Mikey Rocks of The Cool Kids on the latest iTunes Free Single of the Week. Judging by just how annoying What Up Man is, we could have guessed, yeah.

Yes, here we go again. Another free iTunes single and, once again, it’s free for a reason - nobody would pay for it. The Cool Kids are noted by some as the next big thing to come from Chicago’s hip-hop scene, a fact about as likely as R.Kelly being named the next coach of the city’s under-18 netball team.

To date this is the first “commercial” release from the duo of Mikey Rocks and Chuck Inglish (his real name is Ingersoll but we doubt he could spell English anyway). The pair met on MySpace and have since collaborated and pumped out tracks through the social networking site - and there they should have stayed.
Repetitive, mindless, grating. Three words evoked by What Up Man. Sampled vocals, a cowbell and a couple more effects make up the “music” here and within seconds you’ve had enough.

What can’t be argued, is the latent talent in the delivery of the lyrics. There’s skill here, beneath all the crap, even the rhymes themselves are well coupled, if meandering and utterly pointless. Picture a drunk Del tha Funkee Homosapien on his worst possible day and you’re not quite at the depths of The Cool Kids but getting close.

We get the point. There’s a love of 80s hip-hop here, and it shows. The problem being that The Cool Kids have taken everything that was bad about it; the repetition and the lack of musicality and none of the fire, the passion or the rebellion. The result? Meaningless white noise that’s less innovation and more irritation and enervation.

iTunes Link

HT&E Review: Coldplay - Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends

What happens when you lose a trademark and gain a world music influence? You release your fourth album called Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends, if you're Coldplay.

The trademark is Chris Martin's falsetto which, while not non-existent, is toned down significantly with a far deeper range displayed by the front man. Tracks like Cemeteries of London and Yes are a true departure from previously pitched-up power ballads like Fix You, In My Place and Trouble. The introduction of a more international vibe is likely the result of touring locations as far flung as Chile and Argentina during early production of the album. What you're left with is the power of Coldplay's original trilogy of albums yet enhanced by arrangements that tower at their climax and whisper at their softest moments. The tampering with the original formula wont upset the Coldplay fan, however. The crowd-wowing, stadium-filling choruses are still here. The sense of grandeur in both lyrics and sonic style prevail. It's understood that the band have recorded parts in churches during the build-up to this album's release - an indicator of its political tone or a way to truly understand the magnitude required to enhance an arena sound? Possibly a mix of both.

"In a potentially calculated move, the band and singer have switched roles for this album, with Martin's lyrics fighting larger battles than his own psyche"

In a potentially calculated move, the band and singer have switched roles for this album, with Martin's lyrics fighting larger battles than his own psyche and Buckland, Berryman and Champion exploring themselves through the music they create. The influence of Brian Eno is, without doubt, a positive not only for the band's sound but for its development. Tracks like Lovers in Japan/Reign of Love could have easily been resurrected B-Sides from The Joshua Tree and Cemeteries of London could have sampled The Edge's guitar sections, but in no way could any song on Viva la Vida be deemed a U2 "tribute". Coldplay still know how to write their own songs, make their mark and keep them unique. Chris Martin is, however, being ushered in as the heir to Bono's throne, through activism and political subject matter. Alongside his extra-Coldplay Oxfam support, lingering suggestion of war, peace and uprising are scattered throughout this ten-track outing. Unfortunately, it's unclear just what all the shouting is about at the end of the record.

"War, peace and uprising are scattered throughout this ten-track outing. Unfortunately, it's unclear just what all the shouting is about at the end of the record"

Once again, the word "influence" rears its head as a selection of instrument and styles, most notably the middle-eastern origin of the santur making its way past traditional piano and organ parts on the opening track, Life In Technicolor. The cross, kings, priests and even locusts haunt the lyrics throughout Viva la Vida yet it's still a mystery by the conclusion of the closing track, The Escapist, an aural equivalent of a post-credit sequence that seduces the listener from their suspended disbelief and back into the real world, on which side the voice of the album stands. Essentially, Viva la Vida offers up the hallmarks of a blockbuster; conflict, peace, despair and love but as it fades to black you're left hoping that there will soon be a sequel to pick up where this album left off.

"Coldplay are stepping out of "this is our song, honey" territory and into the weighty world of rock history"

What isn't apparent here by comparison to previous albums is the immediate connection to the listener with every song. Viva la Vida, like the character in its title track, has its highs and its lows and the band isn't going to suck in the girlies or fringe members of the emo crowd with this offering - but that's not a bad thing. This is the experimentation stage, the broadening of what was already pretty broad and there's much to be taken away by members either side of the record label. Lost!, undoubtedly a coming single, also harks back to classic U2 and is the best of everything we (the listener) and they (the band) have learnt this time around. Everything you've come to expect from Coldplay at their best, just one louder. While right now it seems the band is a little too aware of what makes a concert track rock, Coldplay are stepping out of "this is our song, honey" territory and into the weighty world of rock history. How they deal with things from here, like with the critical savaging of X&Y, will shape their destiny. This is in no way a bad album but it's still just a proof of concept. It's a case of transitioning a humble London outfit into true hall of fame stardom material. Clarity, focus and yet more arena anthems are coming.

www.coldplay.com

iTunes US Link

iTunes UK Link

"New Forms was a sham" - HT&E Interviews Roni Size

Who hasn't heard of Roni Size? You'd face ridicule in most musical circles If you didn't pay homage to the man who defined an era of music and a whole new sound in drum & bass. Roni Size is passionately against the idea of pigeonholing his music into any particular time period, and is certainly not a man with a huge ego.

Tell him that his 1997 album New Forms was a groundbreaklng piece of work and he'll laugh and try and prove you wrong. To Roni, it's a work in progress - like his approach to album creation in general. The fact that New Forms bagged a Mercury Music Prize will make little difference to your argument in Roni's eyes, he feels he's still learning and, more importantly, still loving his work.

We caught up with the Bristolian to talk about the processes involved during the production of his album, Return to V, and find out just what it takes to write and produce an album worthy of his name.

HT&E: Talk us through the creative process you go through at the beginning of a new album.

RS: For me it works backwards. When I did New Forms, the first track on the album was the last track I did. I actually mastered a track called Railing from CD because I lost the DAT of it. It was the last thing I did, getting Dynamite in the studio to put a lyric on it. I started backwards, but most beginnings are never your beginnings - you always slot your beginning to the middle. On this album, tracks like Out of Breath have been floating about for a long time and they're the last tracks on the playlist, so how does that work?

HT&E: So it's more down to feel and what's right for the album at that point?

RS: Yeah, I'm lucky because I've always been able to translate what I've done on stage and bring it to the studio and vice versa. With Return to V, I wanted people to relate to the stage and the album as the same thing, so when they hear the energy on the album they feel the energy on the stage. With New Forms, it was more "lets just see what happens". Return to V was my fifth album. I'm an old dog now, man.

HT&E: At least you're still making music.

RS: Yeah, the next album is in the pipeline already. The next compilation we've got coming out, the boys are in the studio hitting out the beats and it's good; we feel quite comfortable at the moment. We've not had the opportunity of being able to bring all the four corners together to make a square, but we've managed to do it in all the elements of the last albums using all the vocals and the various techniques we use to mix and produce. It's been about multi-tasking the last few years, and we're looking forward to going into the studio with one solid goal - one solid concept where what you hear on the record is what you hear on stage.

"If you need a bit of inspiration, just keep hitting the buttons until something happens"

HT&E: How do you go about writing a track?

RS: Some days you'll just program beats, some days vocals, some days whatever's in front of you. We'll just set up the drum kit and see what happens - it's good roll kicks and snares and see what has a good groove and leave it naked. We work digitally now, so it can be good to work from scratch and make a track in a couple of days. Other times, it's about programming programming until the track builds up over the course of a year.

HT&E: Do you sometimes reach a point where you can't go on with a track and give up?

RS: No. I'm always programming. If you do need a bit of inspiration, just keep hitting the buttons until something happens. Make some deliberate mistakes - there's nothing wrong with a good old mistake. I've made some of my best tunes out of MIDI signals playing the wrong notes. You program a drum pattern and then you put it on a bass channel and it's playing something that sounds a bit weird, but then you straighten it out and you think "oh, that's alright". I have this theory where most of the time I talk to the computer, but sometimes the computer talks to me. It starts spitting things at you - things coming from the wrong channels and the wrong outputs - and you stumble on a style.

HT&E: Tell us about your studio set-up.

RS: Oh, mate. Fucking Pro Tools, bloody MPCs, bloody Emus, bloody 40 channels, Apogees, digital bloody ins and outs, Tannoys ... Loads of stuff.

HT&E: So you've got a decent balance between analog and digital then?

RS: Definitely. We have the best of both worlds. We can go totally analog or totally digital. For the bass you have to use analog because digital sounds too harsh, but there's technique - you know, like splitting bass lines and cutting frequencies and boosting frequencies. I'm not trying to make my mixes the loudest in the world, I'm not trying to make my production the best in the world - I'm just trying to make it amicable. I'm trying to give it a lifespan. One thing I don't enjoy is putting a period on my music. There's a danger of adding modern day techniques and people will say that it sounds like 1997. When time stretching first started, it was something that defined an era. I would like people to wonder whether my music was made in 1997 or 2007. I think that. once you put a vocal on the top, it doesn't matter what period of time a track comes from. A good song is a good song, ten years or twenty years later. I hope on this record there are a few good songs that will stand the test of time.

HT&E: On the topic of vocals, how was working with Beverly Knight on No More?

RS: She came to Bristol and we hung out for a couple of days. I've known Beverly for a little while now, from going to the MOBOs - she's a wonderful lady; a lady of elegance. The way she carries herself as a proud black woman to me is enormous. My mate put the track on today and, because it was half way through, I didn't realise what it was - there's something that makes it that little bit different, and that is her voice.

HT&E: When writing, many people try to avoid listening to other music to ensure their ideas are not altered in any way. Would you say this is true of your own writing style?

RS: Snap. I don't listen to music either. I cut myself off. You would start getting influenced and it's unintentional. If you hear something good in record, you'll always tap into that.

"What is it about New Forms? You tell me? You come to my house and sit down and we'll go through track by track and we'll analyse"

HT&E: Have you ever been disappointed by something you've written?

RS: I wouldn't say disappointed, but I think New Forms to me was a sham. I listened to it last night and I thought 'man, people are trippin". My music today is better than New Forms. People have said "oh, but New Forms is .. .' and I'm like "what is it about New Forms? You tell me? You come to my house and sit down and we'll go through track by track and we'll analyse."

My music has evolved. A couple of weeks ago I was talking to some people and I don't think they had even listened to my new stuff - they were just so hooked on the Mercury Music Prize and New Forms that they were still there. Because they're no longer a part of the influential scene or the media, they're a little bit confused. My music today is so much more complete; as a producer it's far more complete. I always learn from every record I make, whether it's arrangement, production, techniques, the amount of time I spent on the music, the musicianship ... I always learn something from each record and I take it to the next one. My song structure on this record is much better. I listen to tracks like Heroes and Digital on New Forms and I cringe, because I know they should sound as complete as Body and No More. The only tracks that I'm proud of on New Forms are New Forms itself and Brown Paper Bag.

HT&E: Do you feel they match what you're doing now?

RS: No, I've never been able to recreate those two songs because they stand alone. There's nothing out there that sounds like them. Brown Paper Bag is a record that you can still play against the top drum and bass records now and it still stands out. They're records that stand the test of time, and the rest are like" bloody hell, turn it down". To me, greatness comes in moments - it was a great moment for people to appreciate the individuality and the expression of the time, which to me is a compliment. But why try to recreate that compliment again? I'd hate to read press where they say things like 'the second coming of Brown Paper Bag', or 'Roni Size tries to recreate 1997 all over again and fails dramatically'. People try to recreate things but I'm happy to leave things on my shelf. Sometimes the art of remixing takes away the memory of the original.

"Hopefully one day I'll be like George Benson or fucking Quincy Jones"

HT&E: Are you aiming to reach a specific audience or a broad range of listeners?

RS: I'm sending mixed messages: Take what you can get from my music, and whatever it is that you get is from me to you. When I make music, I make it for myself and I have to enjoy it, but as soon as I put it on CD and give it a cover, it's no longer my music - it becomes ours. That's when you have to let things go. I'm making albums for the sake of being an artist. You should be able to go out and buy five of my albums plus two or three compilations and some remixes. Hopefully one day I'll be like George Benson or fucking Quincy Jones, where you look at the back of the record and see 'Produced and arranged by Roni Size', and you'll be like "oh wow, I didn't know that was Roni Size". That's me; I want you to be pleasantly surprised. I'm only a few albums deep, but look at Quincy Jones - he's still scoring now. I love that guy.

HT&E: From the future to the past. How did you get into the industry in the first place?

RS: Just by putting out a lot of music on some independent record labels and by having so much music on the street. I was approached by a major record company and from then on it was like having a machine behind me.

HT&E: Is that a route you would suggest to someone looking to become the next Roni Size?

RS: I think people definitely use a lot of the experiences that we've paved the way for. Back in the day, there were very few producer/DJ/label managers - we were the first people to do it, but I think now it's compulsory. That's the formula at the moment.

HT&E: Do you think the technology that people have these days, making music on a laptop and so on, is a good thing?

RS: Yeah, it's compulsory. Technology has given music a slightly shorter lifespan, but that becomes the test of an artist. Eventually you'll only make so many records that will last two to three months, and then they'll fall off the shelf. It's got to be an obvious challenge to stand the test of time.

HT&E: Do you think that the experience of getting recognized with material on the street can be shifted towards the Internet now?

RS: The Internet is a very important method of communication. There was a point in time when we used meet in a place called Music House, in Holloway road in London. It was a cornmunal area where people could, gather and exchange music and ideas, meet face to face and make a connection, and I think the Internet really does that now. Lots of people are online and on instant messengers exchanging music and ideas and communicating. It leaves out a bit of the personal touch, but then the personal touch sometimes creates friction. I've seen fights in the Music House, and I doubt there are many fights on the Internet. You're far less likely to get a bloody lip.

MySpace Link

iTunes Free Single of the Week: Little Jackie - LOL

From the sublime to the ridiculous. Last week's excellent iTunes freebie from The Script becomes even more valuable as fans of quality music are brought back to earth with a bump by Little Jackie's LOL.

When Luther Vandross and Janet Jackson told us "The best things in life are free" they certainly weren't talking about the latest iTunes Free Single of the Week from Little Jackie. In fact, iTunes would probably have to PAY customers to download this drivel.
Based around an initially appealing brass-driven beat the lyrics become tiresome too quickly and, by the track's two minute forty six second conclusion, the "plot" has well and truly been lost. How many times has your man accidentally text you when he was meant to be messaging his mistress only for you to have the last laugh on his cheating ass by pretending to be said woman and luring him to a secluded spot so you can break up with him? Happens all the time, right?

If the "text-speak" title LOL wasn't enough for you, the track is clumsily littered with other digital references including the hugely predictable appearance of "WTF", an acronym likely to run through your head for the duration of the song.

Sympathy must go to Adam Pallin, the "other half" of Little Jackie alongside Imani Coppola and, in this instance, the one providing any hope. As DJ and programmer the production of the beat and instrumental parts is, frankly, excellent only to be let down by lyrics that could have been scribbled in the pages of a teen magazine.

Take a trip back to 2007 and check out Imani Coppola's The Black and White Album and you'll realise that Little Jackie and LOL are, one hopes, a blip in an otherwise supremely talented artist's career. Speaking to Time Out about her new venture, Coppola recently said "I've been on the side a lot for the past couple of years, and you get kind of used to it. It’s going to be nice to get back to the center."

On the basis of this release she's best off hanging around the periphery.

iTunes Link

The Storm Before The Calm - Our Last Interview with Moloko

Roisin Murphy is sitting pretty on a solo career and Mark Brydon has his own side projects on the go but what of the pair's extreme, eclectic-electro collaboration - Moloko? The sun has not set on the project, at least not yet and, on the strength of our last chat with the Anglo-Irish tune-makers, it looks like there's still a future for one of the sexiest sonic outfits to come from Britain. HT&E spoke to Mark Brydon and Roisin Murphy after their last Moloko tour.

Mark Brydon sounds a little tired; a year's worth of touring and a "long weekend" of gigs is likely to have taken its toll. Roisin Murphy, on the other hand, sounds remarkably chirpy. This juxtaposition of characters - the melding of the laid back and the wildly charismatic - is what lies at the heart of Moloko's production technique, sound and stunning live performances. As Mark softly talks tech, Roisin enthuses on vocals and performance while relishing watching her boyfriend tuck into his first ever Irish fried breakfast, cooked by her mum. The 2004 DVD 11,000 Clicks sums up Moloko in more ways than one, while showcasing their enigmatic set and superb compositions, the backstage footage and bonus 'rockumentary', filmed by the band's Hammond genius Ed Stevens, offers fans an entertaining and insightful look into the world of a successful band on the road. Things are looking better and better for the band, and since the astounding success of dance-meets-pop-meets-funk hits like Sing it Back and The Time is Now, their sound is ever maturing and diversifying. HT&E quizzed the duo about their tour, the transfer from studio to stage and the way in which they put together their ideas and convert them to music.

HT&E: Were you happy with the way 11,000 Clicks turned out?

RM: Yeah. It's just one show, and in one show you can't capture the whole tour, but it's there and I was very proud of how the live show developed over a year. I'm just happy it was captured on such a lovely, big, fat film.

MB: It's not a bad effort. It's not a bad way of recording a show, but the problem is that you have good gigs and bad gigs. Ideally, you'd film them all and cherry pick the ones you like, but unfortunately we didn't have that kind of budget.

RM: Brixton is such a beautiful venue and it was nice to shoot it there. We watched a few of the modern concerts and we didn't want any of that jump-cutting and of the crowd. We wanted it more composed and beautiful. We wanted it to be like a film and less like a TV thing. The plan was to compose things as much as possible. They filmed God knows how many feet of film; it was all tightly planned, but we didn't have the luxury of planning each and every shot.

"People say 'do you get really high before you go on stage?', and I don't think I do - I'm more excitable in real life than I am on stage"

HT&E: Do you get nervous playing venues like Brixton?

RM: I'm not always nervous. I find the stage quite a natural place to be, without wanting to sound like Shirley Temple or anything. People say 'do you get really high before you go on stage?', and I don't think I do - I'm more excitable in real life than I am on stage because I have to be so focussed out there. There's so much to remember and it's not even about remembering, it's just all happening. I think I've learned over the years to be more focussed and calm. I feel calmer there than most places, to be honest. It's something I'm on top of, especially recently. I was a bit nervous at London, because all my mates were there, and people I know. It's much easier to walk out on stage in Rotterdam and just kill it.

HT&E: Obviously, a lot of your studio material is hard to translate into a live context so how did you go about getting around that?

MB: It's really, really different. The last album was mainly about recording instruments, but in a live show you need to somehow represent this. We had a lot of brass and strings on the last album and there's no way we could come up with a 36-piece orchestra, so we'll wait for the Royal Albert Hall with the London Symphony Orchestra another day. We have a lot of synths to substitute those instruments; it's a compromise, and its not the same as a record, but it is something different.

HT&E: The vocals must have to change a lot, too.

RM: I think there is a big difference compared to the studio. You project more and you can't use that soft voice that I used, for example, on The Time is Now - that would get lost live, I think. It's more projection and I'm dancing around, so what you lose in perfection you gain in performance.

HT&E: How do you manage to integrate computers into your stage show?

MB: We have little sub-mixing desks on stage, so it changes from one song to the next. The sounds change and provide a click for the drummer, so he can sync to the sequence stuff. It's evolved that way over the years and it also means that the tempo stays the same, as well as the delays. It's a compromise; sometimes you'd like to be free of the shackles of a computer, but on the other hand, what it offers outweighs its downsides.

"I'm dancing around, so what you lose in perfection you gain in performance"

HT&E: Does the computer come into play to affect the vocals at any point?

MB: There's a lot of vocal treatment, but not as much as we used to have. We used to add some gender bending to Roisin's voice to turn her into a man. We haven't done that lately.

RM: It depends on what you're trying to achieve. With Statues, we tried to achieve something more emotional, more personal and more intense in that sense, and say something definitive about ourselves.

HT&E: How do the pair of you work in the studio?

RM: I get involved in every aspect of it; it's the kind of artist I am. When I started singing with Mark, I really challenged him to do something different to what he'd done before, and he challenged me to learn to sing and write songs. That's always been the way and I've been there throughout every part of the process for every track that's ever been written for Moloko - to the point of going green while trying to mix Statues, which was hell. I was there and I made sure I was happy with everything. I'm making a different record at the moment with Matthew Herbert. I'm not saying that I produce the music, but it starts with me in a way. It's not an ego thing; it's the simple approach. I'm never going to be a wallpaper-like singer; I'm always going to be full of personality, so the music has to evolve around that. I don't touch the technology. I'm there with the enthusiasm of the ideas and trying to keep things as pure as possible. It's always handy for a music producer to have somebody around telling them not to do too much.

HT&E: Do you compose tracks separately when you have time out from the studio?

RM: I always start with music. I'll go in at the beginning of the week, we'll make some tunes and I'll take them away and then I'll work on melodies and lyrics on a really crappy four-track. Then I'll go back and we'll work through what I've got, put it down bit by bit. Another thing is the way I've been brought up with music - I wasn't a singer before I met Mark, and I don't see a boundary between instruments and the studio and production and song writing. It's all the same; things evolve quite naturally with the technology.

MB: Songs generally start on a computer. Even if it's a little guitar loop, it'll get chopped around and arranged in a song that way. That's the way a lot of people work - just taking a recorded sound and manipulating it like a sample.

"It's always handy for a music producer to have somebody around telling them not to do too much"

HT&E: Is there a genre of music you haven't played with yet, but would perhaps like to explore in future song and album releases?

RM: This new material doesn't sound like anything else at all - it just sounds really fucking modern. That's the ultimate for me, to make modern music, whatever the emotions behind it are. I would never sit down and say right now that I'm going to have a rock band, but that doesn't mean that I wouldn't later say: 'Lets sit down and get the Les Paul out.'"

www.moloko.co.uk
www.roisinmurphy.com

Moloko's Greatist Hits - Catalogue is available now
Amazon Link

The Real, Real Slim Shady - Tommy Coster Jr

Everybody please stand up for the creator of Eminem's most catchy hook...

In 2000 the airwaves were rife with a certain peroxide blonde and, for the first time in a while, it wasn't Britney.

Eminem's charismatic and star-moulding second album The Marshall Mathers LP was heading platinum and the single The Real Slim Shady was storming the charts. Besides the the humour and attitude, what carried the song was its riff. The simple harpsichord part practically became Eminem's signature tune and, according to many, was the ditty that launched him into true mega-stardom.

So where did this Elizabethan-sounding set of notes Come from? Tommy Coster Jr, the son of Santana keyboard-master Tom Coster. At the time, Coster Jr was cutting his teeth in the industry looking for a break to make a name in his own right.

"I started targeting people I wanted to work with and one of those people was Dr Dre. Dennis Chambers introduced me to Dre's right-hand man, Larry Chatman, who knew who I was and invited me to come by the studio. So I did. Dre liked me, he liked how I played and the rest is history. They needed a song, they called me and I came up with the opening line and chord progression for The Real Slim Shady. Em [Eminem] liked it and that was it. From then on, things spring-boarded for me and I got to work with other people and score movies."

"I started targeting people I wanted to work with and one of those people was Dr Dre"

However, the enormity of the single wasn't the first success Coster had achieved musically. In fact, the perks of having a celebrity father paid off at an early age: "When he got his break, my dad was touring the world, so he disappeared for a while. But I instinctively went in that direction and showed ability for it. I really didn't take my music too seriously until I was about 19, but I had something special happen to me when I was 11. Carlos Santana did a record called Moon Flower and they needed a song. I had written an idea for a song and my dad said 'maybe Carlos might want to get with you on this idea that you have'.

"So I wrote a song with Carlos when I was 11 and had a gold record by the time I was 12, and was making a residual income every three months. I didn't really buy the bullshit, I wasn't walking around thinking I was a superstar or anything. What it did do was show me the power of being a writer.

"I wasn't walking around thinking I was a superstar or anything"

"You can't make a lot of money in this business just playing an instrument, so if you do a few different things and you do them well, you have a better chance of being able to sustain yourself."

Dr Dre is now, arguably, better known as a producer than a rapper, pushing artists such as Eminem and 50cent onto the world stage. He's renowned for being a strict analog man, part of the old school production crew. HT&E was intrigued to discover whether Tommy has embraced digital, especially now he is running his own studio, Tommy Sound.

"You have to use digital," he says. "On some level, you have to use it. What I really dig about that stuff is that you have so much control over it. Secondly, I can work in different countries and not have to be there physically, because of DSL and T1 lines and digital recording."

So what of the Doc? "Dre still uses a pair of two-inch machines. In my ideal situation, it's a two inch machine and a monstrous digital rig."

With a love for both digital and analog, does Tommy believe the time will come when technology requires him to throw away the tapes? "No, I don't, but I think we'll think that it's better. I don't think it's possible for digital to replicate tape because I think at that point it's beyond music and becomes physics".

"Famous people in history became famous because they were unique"

And how does one emulate Tommy? "Listen to the music you're interested in, study the charts and figure out why it works and is popular. In most cases, it's because it's simple and has many hooks. Look at who was involved in making it and study what they've done before. Know where the music came from and study it. Then figure out how you would interpret it and follow your heart. Famous people in history became famous because they were unique."

www.tommysound.com

HT&E Review: Where The Light Is - John Mayer Live in Los Angeles

Why release a live album? To fill the gap between albums (in this case nearly two years) or promote an outstanding performance encompassing a fine body of work?

When a live album makes its way to the shelves it's usually an opportunity for those who bought the original release to enjoy new takes on tracks or re-live the live experience. Where The Light Is is a different type of live album, however. Acting as a greatest hits compendium it's split into three distinct chapters; acoustic, blues and band favourites. The result is a win/win for the Mayer camp, a collectors item for the diehards and an accomplished showcase for newcomers.

Essentially working as three EPs, Where The Light Is, was recorded at LA's Nokia Theater in December 2007 off the back of Mayer's Continuum tour. Like a John Mayer timeline, the album follows his musical evolution from solo acoustic through blues and into the mainstream and it's the middle section that truly stands out - at times jaw-droppingly so.

"It's the middle section that truly stands out - at times jaw-droppingly so"

Throw a random snippet a non-Mayerite's way and they'd be hard pressed to distinguish the 30 year old's blue notes from those of B.B. King or Buddy Guy at their best. Even the stage presence is there "...it's 2007, we just launched into slow blues and seven thousand people in LA went nuts. All is not lost". Throughout the album it's clear that Mayer is a guitarist, singer and songwriter at the height of his considerable powers, so much so that his previous Grammy winning efforts pale in comparison to this performance masterclass.

The great live albums from the likes of Zeppelin, Hendrix and other such luminaries were founded on perfect set weighting and this is something Mayer has clearly read up on and perfected, effortlessly swinging between crowd pleasers and covers with the aplomb of a trapeze artist in zero gravity. The aforementioned cover versions are also masterfully sprinkled across the thirds with Tom Petty's Free Fallin, Hendrix' Bold As Love and Ray Charles' I Don't Need No Doctor among others receiving the Mayer treatment and, subliminally, solidifying his position amongst such heavyweights.

"...effortlessly swinging between crowd pleasers and covers with the aplomb of a trapeze artist in zero gravity"

While the album appears to build to a climax during the John Mayer Trio blues set featuring original 2005 Trio members Steve Jordan and Pino Palladino, there are even higher heights to be found as the band finds yet another gear for the final section. Kicking into Mayer's "modern era" with the politically motivated sing-a-long Waiting On The World to Change, arguably the track that has lured the most new Mayer fans in the past two years, through to the highlight of the album - Gravity. The fact that the album is named after a line from the track suggests its significance and the execution doesn't disappoint. Soaring at times and evoking memories of Clapton's Wonderful Tonight, Gravity is the perfect live track for Mayer that builds until the audience is ready to burst with joy, so complete as it is with guitar and vocal complementing one another. It's hard to understand why the song doesn't close out the performance, leaving the listener on an unequivocal optimistic high. Instead Mayer, who also co-produced the album with Steve Jordan, opts for yet more politics with the conflict-inspired Belief before ending on the heartbreaking I'm Gonna Find Another You, another perfect blues number but not quite the send off you might expect.

"The perfect live track that builds until the audience is ready to burst with joy"

Released in DVD, Bluray, MP3 and CD formats it's worth appreciating Where The Light Is in optimum audio clarity, preferably alone with a glass of wine. That said, the raunchier elements could provide the backdrop to the best of social gatherings and will, like Floyd's Pulse and Neil Young's Live Rust, not only provide the repeat performance value but also that unshakeable feeling that this album will remain not only on iPods and CD players but within musical history for decades to come. Glowing from every pore of John Mayer at his live best, that's truly where the light is.

www.johnmayer.com
iTunes Link

iTunes Free Single of the Week: The Script - Before The Worst

Not since Paolo Nutini has there been such a good free track available on the UK iTunes Store. Before The Worst is an anthemic pop tune (if that's possible) that sidesteps the Coldplay niche nicely while smiling more than Keane and Turin Brakes. Is it because it's a truly pop track and not pretending to be alternative/adult rock? Does the quasi-Timberlake high speed vocal add something that your parents wouldn't get? What catches the ear is the traditional stylings that belong in an epic, all nicely produced into a sugary yet punchy hit that wont win awards but certainly wont offend within a sea of mediocrity.

Check out the track here

The full review of The Script's album, The Script will be available on HT&E soon.

Coming Soon: Coldplay, Mayer and more

As we continue to post some older material that was "lost in translation" while we switched blog providers, we want to make sure we're keeping up with the newer happenings too. At the moment we're lagging behind but, all going well, after this weekend we'll be on top of things. So, better late than never, we're narrowing down our opinion and trimming the word count on some album reviews that should have been up a while ago. They'll be here, in whole or in part, over the next week or so, mingled in with all the latest news and reviews. It's going to be a busy September.

In no particular order, the albums are:

John Mayer - Where The Light is

OneRepublic - Dreaming Out Loud

Coldplay - Viva La Vida

The Script - The Script

Death Cab for Cutie - Narrow Stairs

Tristan Prettyman - Hello

The Pigeon Detectives - Wait For Me

The HT&E Interview - Groove Armada

Whether in a movie, on a TV advert or across the airwaves, you'll have heard a Groove Armada track at some point and possibly not even have known it. Their music is effortlessly wide-reaching with a heavy dose of traditional styling yet at the same time, it also manages to carve out new niches in tired genres.

For many fans of the duo, each album release achieves new heights, and each time they manage to keep the critics guessing where they'll take their sound next. Over the years they've produced classics including I See You Baby, Superstylin', My Friend, At The River - the list goes on and on.

HT&E was keen to find out how Groove Armada, with their obvious talent for tech and love of traditional music production, go about creating such crucially catchy chart shakers. The band's Tom Findlay filled us in:

HT&E: How do you go about initially developing the rhythm and groove elements of your tracks?

TF: We tend to start with a source of inspiration, like a loop or a sample of a tune that we like, and even if you're ultimately going to take it out of the final piece of music, it will lend a certain feel. I remember that when we did Final Shakedown on the last album, we started with a loop from an Eddie Grant record; it was just a little 16-bar break where the band just goes for it. So we used that and, if nothing else, it gave the rhythm programming something that just wasn't working on quantize features, and that's always healthy.

Increasingly, I'm trying to use a kick or a snare from something like a Korg ElecTribeor something with a
big, fat sound and get live drummers to play around it. I think when you've got a guy ghosting on a snare, it's always going to be more interesting than any snare pattern you can program. I'm trying to get more live stuff onto the different audio tracks, because I think those subtle rhythmic differences are what make music interesting. Trying to resist that temptation to over-edit is one of the key things.

HT&E: Both you and Andy are musical in a traditional sense. Do you find yourselves just wanting to play?

TF: I'm increasingly using less and less MIDI these days, I'm using Logic (music studio software) like an old-style tape recorder. Gecko, the bass player in our band, uses 24 tracks of audio and I'm trying to do things more like that. He's got the bass and keyboards and it doesn't sound perfect - but when you put it all together it sounds like a band playing. If you stripped apart a good band and listened to individual performances there'd be little differences where you'd say: "Well, that's not exactly on the bar" - but that's what makes the whole thing interesting. I did some solo stuff with Tim Hutton and he's very much a musician, so he's playing guitar, horns, bass and drums. Programming is kept to a minimum.

"If dance music is going to reclaim its grandeur a little bit it's going to have to learn some new tricks."

HT&E: In terms of styles and influences, your music is very diverse. Is there a style you haven't tried yet that you'd like to have a go at?

TF: I think the live band stuff has been pushing us in a different way, and I think it's probably where we'd like to go. I think it's an area to be explored. The live thing has been a big part of the last few years and if anything we've put more effort into that than recording albums, so I think we'll do something that captures that.
If dance music is going to reclaim its grandeur a little bit it's going to have to learn some new tricks. What rock music did was go back to the basics again and the garage sound that's come back - like the White Stripes, who only use gear made before 1975 or whatever it is. In a way, dance music needs to do that and lose a bit of its pomposity and get back to the roots of what made it great, which is either stripping it back to the Chicago house sound, or bringing live elements into it and keeping it quite raw. I think dance music has a habit of over production and we need to step back from that a little bit.

HT&E: Now that digital tech is making it easier for people to get involved in music, do you think it's having a negative effect on the quality of music being released?

TF: Yeah, there's a lot of average music about, but that's for DJs and music lovers to discern. I'm all for it; I'm all for anarchy and people having a go and I think the internet will allow people to do that. There's probably a lot of good music out there that boys and girls are making in their bedrooms that isn't making it to record labels, and it's probably better and more interesting than some of the stuff that is. I'd like to see ways that some kid could make a tune in his bedroom in Brighton and have it up on the internet a couple of days later. There's a lot of crap around, but that's good - there has to be crap around. There's a lot of odd stuff made by people who wouldn't know a middle C if it slapped them in the face, but that's also really positive. I find it difficult as a DJ these days, because there's so much stuff you have to filter out, but that's what our job is all about.

"Hopefully we've reclaimed a bit of that music and people wont think of us as being played on a holiday program."

HT&E: You released a best of after moving to BMG and now you're moving on again. What's the deal there?

TF: Its been a really interesting experience. It's refreshing because things are being done properly and they're full of ideas. Stepping into the BMG offices is exciting, it's like how I felt when we first signed a record deal. With the Best of album, the thing about us is that a lot of people would have heard our music because its been so prevalent on TV, adverts and films, but they wouldn't be able to attach it to our artist names. Hopefully we've reclaimed a bit of that music and people wont think of us as being played on a holiday program.

www.groovearmada.com