Hype: Let Us Keep Laughing In The Dark

You know when you wake up at 3:00am, and you don't know which weighs the more; the dark of the night or the dark of your mind? And your only hope for peace is dawn? And then the feeling when that first crack of light appears through the blind, and suddenly you're calmness incarnate?

That's {Psychologist}: a London-based art graduate who just happens to be producing some of the finest Hour of The Wolf music around right now. Channelling Massive Attack and early Portishead through Burial, {Psychologist} - a.k.a. Iain Woods - sings of "heartbreak and loss, but always with a strand of hope..." in a voice so fragile you almost fear for his life.

When Particles Collide is one young man's lament about death and the philosophical idea of eternal return, and is just about one of the best things I've heard in a long while. Initially skeletal and bare, the sparse beat and melancholy keys eventually crack, giving way to a chorus so warm and soothing it drags you up by the lapels and let's you soar - it's the sound of something breaking, and of healing. All underpinned with a gloriously wobbly bass line... "The soundtrack to the soul leaving the body once and for all" is how Iain himself describes it - I guess soul music is perhaps the only fitting description; spilling over from one, soaked up by another.

I hear the live show is like a rave cabaret, with original tracks remixed with loads of 'old and weird vinyl'. Add to that a scratch DJ and two violinists, and you have a show I'd say you'd do well to get involved with...

You can peep {Psychologist} on the 14th of January at Brixton Windmill, and at Barden's Boudoir on the 11th of February, with more shows to be announced soon.

{Psychologist} - When Particles Collide (YSI)

Competition: You're One Of Me, I'm One Of You Winners!

So it's been just about over a week since I said I'd post the winners of the Young & Lost Club vinyl bundle competition, for that I apologise.

So the winners are...

Jules Gilchrist, Surrey
Laura Seaman, Nottingham
Liam Bryan, Birmingham

Who all answered...

Q: What is the name of the band on the release YALC0008?

with...

A: Fear Of Flying

Congratulations and your prizes will be posted shortly!

Hype: I Think They Call It Chemistry

I honestly never thought that I'd post anything directly involving Kissy Sell Out (he's just not my bag, sorry), but that went straight out of the window when I heard he'd been working with Zimbabwe-born and Hackney-raised Tinashé.

Signed to Island, Tinashé effortlessly juggles left-field arrangements with huge pop-hooks and manages to do so without even a hint of contrivance. Adding Kissy's hyperactive production and enthusiasm to the mix and it all seems to come together quite nicely.

It's a bit of shame that this didn't see the light of day in the summer really, but I guess we'll have to make do with dancing around in our thermals and jumpers, hot chocolate in hand.

Kissy Sell Out & Tinashé - Come on Over (YSI)

Catch Tinashé performing tomorrow night at Cobden Club (London), or next month as part of Y&L Club's pre-Christmas acoustic night at The Lock Tavern (London) on 3rd Dec and Hideaway Acoustic (London) on 19th Dec.

Competition: You're One Of Me, I'm One Of You

One of the most prolific and consistent independent labels that we have in the UK, the ever-generous Young & Lost Club have kindly donated not one but THREE bundles to for me give away.

Each bundle consists of:

1 x Everything Everything - My Keys, Your Boyfriend (7" Vinyl)
1 x Swanton Bombs - Doom (7" Vinyl)
1 x Magic Wands - Magic, Love and Dreams EP (12" Vinyl)
+ Badges

To be in with a chance of winning, please answer the following question:

Q: What is the name of the band on the Y&L Club release YALC0008?

To enter, please email illegaltendermagazine@gmail.com with the subject line YLC Competition, and include the correct answer as well as your full name and address.

The competition closes on Wednesday 24th November and the winners will be announced the following day. Good luck!

In Motion: Turquoise And Twisted

It's soon to be a busy time for pop maestro Joe Cross and the various musical outlets in which he is involved...

Kiss In Cities are set to release the previously blogged U R My Girl as a limited 7' and digital download through new label Seven Sevens on 14th December.

The spellbindingly fantastic Lauper-esque slice of pop will be backed up with brand new track Satellites as the b-side. You can pre-order the limited 7' from Pure Groove here.

Almost simultaneaously, Performance announce their return with this new video and free download via mailing list sign-up.

They've just put the finishing touches to the follow-up to (We Are) Peformance, and I'll let you know as and when I get the details on the release.

Exclusive: Briefcase Bomb

I recently caught up with Guy Connelly, the creative genius behind one of my favourite discoveries of 2009; Clock Opera.

You seem to have captured everyone's attention in the past couple of months since you first hit the internet, does it feel like everything is falling in to place nicely?
Yeah, since that fateful day, it's been mental. So busy that I've given up ambitions of joining the circus. The trapeze will have to wait and it's all your fault. A lot of people have come knocking, so that's been really nice. Still early days though, eh.

Your recording process and composition are a little on the unorthodox side, what inspired "Chop-Pop"?
I've always loved sampling and rearranging stuff. Dropping everything on the floor and having to put it together again.

Always loved Brion Gysin & William Burroughs chopping their words up & wanted to try it with music. I love looking for different ways of making things, I'm inspired by making mistakes & I like encouraging computers to make them too.

What's the thought process behind your brilliantly titled Clock Operations?
Rather than answering questions about who or what I'm into, I thought it would be fun to see what happened when my music came into contact with singers I love. Scott Walker's pretty much my favourite ever, so he was a natural first choice. Definitely gonna do more.

I'm constantly hearing good things about the live show, how's that coming together?
We're still not in double figures of shows yet, but it's getting better all the time. I don't lose my voice at every gig now. Got some amazing shows coming up too!

You're releasing your debut single soon right?
Yeah! White Noise 7" comes out on Pure Groove on Nov 16th. Alouette is the b-side, which we play at most gigs too.

So what's next for Clock Opera?
Huge amounts of excitement and drama are pretty much guaranteed. A couple of remixes, just done music for an amazing experimental short film which I'll chuck up sometime soon.

Lots of talks about the next single, probably February time. Ideas are tumbling out at the moment, so not sure what it's going to be yet, but I'll sure as hell let you know!

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If you're in or around London this week then you've no excuse not to see Clock Opera doing their thing.

Kicking off proceedings with an in-store at Pure Groove tomorrow night, they're also playing Levi's One to Watch supporting fellow IT favourites Marina & The Diamonds and Wolf Gang (if you're going to this, come say hi!) on Wednesday as well as Kill Em All on 20th Nov and Scandalism on 22nd.

For now, here's the exclusive download of White Noise.

Clock Opera - White Noise (YSI) EXCLUSIVE

Purchase the White Noise/Alouette 7' exclusively at Pure Groove here.

Interview: Baby Monster

Having been raving about them for a fair few months now, I managed to grab Oregon-based Baby Monster for a few words upon their return home from playing a handful of gigs in London. Here's how it went down.

Hey guys, you well?
Actually pretty sure we've got the H1N1, recovering from a week in London and the 22 hour trip home.

I first blogged you way back in May, what have you been up to since then?
Signed a sponsorship deal with Sprite... No we didn't, but we would if they offered... Lots of recording and trying to finish our album. Also, we've got the live band together with drums and lights etc.

You recently performed at CMJ for some label or other too?
It was one of our first shows actually, all the bands were awesome. Local Natives and Theophilus London really killed it...

What did you enjoy most about the UK?
Riding the tube and meeting nice English birds, and Halloween!

You’re about to release your debut single on 50 Bones, have you had much of a chance to check out the rest of their output?
Definitely. Its really impressive that they've released those artists so early on. Dennis is a bad man.

A lot of people have been comparing you guys to MGMT and even M83, compliment or curse?
Probably a bit of both. We love both those bands but most of our stuff doesn't sound much like either of them. Once people hear more songs their opinions should change.

Danny, I heard you turned down the chance to work on what would have been MJ's new album, what's the story there?
I got the offer right around the same time we had just finished 'Ultra Violence and Beethoven' and it woulda been too much time away from Baby Monster so I decided not to do it.

You've also put out a few remixes in the past couple of months, are there any more in the pipeline?
Yes, Ellie Goulding and Housse De Racket!

Marty, you've played in a couple of bands before BM, what's the Oregon scene like?
So many awesome Oregon groups! The best album from Oregon is 'Yes.No.Shut It.' by experimental noise rock group The Hunches. But also the song 'I Was Drinking In A Trash Can' by The Blimp

It's been a pretty crazy year for you guys so far, what's the plan for 2010?
Move to England, tour, put out a record and record another record... become big stars in Japan, eat sushi foreverrrrr.

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Debut single Ultra Violence & Beethoven is out on Monday (9th November 2009) along with a pretty sweet remix from Irish duo Arvene & Misk (that I'm sure you've already downloaded by now!) through 50 Bones.

You can pre-order/purchase exclusively from Pure Groove here.

Gig: I'm Stuck In My Own Dimension

Wow, it's almost a year to the day since I first blogged about the industrious and already somewhat illustrious Theophilus London, just after his first mixtape JAM! dropped.

Since then he's worked with an array of producers and artists, released a second mixtape - the creatively titled This Charming Mixtape - and even found the time to form Chauffeur with Mark Ronson and Sam Sparro.

I'll finally get the chance to see the live show this Thursday at YOYO, so to celebrate here's probably my favourite track of his thus far, though admittedly that's 50% down to UK's secretive duo Letherette on production.

Theophilus London - All The Ooh's And Aah's (feat. Jesse Boykins) (YSI)

Letherette are soon to release their debut LP through machinedrum's label NORMREX which is also home to THRØWY, New Look and Jimmy Edgar amongst others.

Coincidentally, I was fortunate enough to catch a seriously impressive improv set by machinedrum prior to him DJ'ing for XL's freshly signed Azealia Banks at YOYO only a couple of weeks back. Now where's that endorsement money guys...

Exclusive: Never Holding Back

He's back.

I tipped him for big things back in January and The Aspirins For My Children has slowly been building the momentum to fulfill the hype.

After a great start to the year with remixes for Marina & The Diamonds, Frankmusik and Lost Valentinos, love from every corner of the blogsphere and working with some of the UK's freshest talent, he's back in the game and bringing the Grace Jones classic My Jamaican Guy in to the 21st century.

His rework of the 1983 single, taken from her third album Living My Life, features Manchester rapper Envy spitting a verse about her take on what's required from the modern UK man.

Ridiculously huge.

Grace Jones - My Jamaican Guy (The Aspirins For My Children Redux 2009 feat. Envy) (YSI) (EXCLUSIVE)

In Motion: Won't You Take Me To The Queen Of Hearts?

The fantastic new video for the second limited single from Wolf Gang.

The King & All of His Men is released through fellow bloggers and BFFs Hit Club in what will be their debut release.

With remixes to come from Hot Chip, Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs and Egyptian Hip Hop (who'll be releasing their debut single through Hit Club in the near future), it will be available both digitally and on limited 7".

The latter will be available exclusively from Puregroove on November 16th, you can get your pre-order in here, but don't hesitate as I've no doubt that these will sell out fast.

Max et al are hitting the live shows hard in November with performances for NME, MTV and Levi's as well as dates at the Hit Club night at The Corner in Manchester, Stealth in Nottingham and The Cooler in Bristol (for full info check out their Myspace).