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!

----------

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.

----------

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).

Hype: A Halo Radiating Through Time

image by Josef Kraska

Laurel Halo is a Brooklyn based songwriter / producer who just blows my mind.

Originating from Ann Arbor in Michigan and ending up in New York via Thailand, she takes influence from free jazz to Detroit techno and definitely caters to the experimental / avant-garde side of my tastes.

I think this is the bit where I'm meant to describe her track Future Fruit using puns and metaphors based around its name but instead I'll just say that it was written for her best friend's birthday and it's just over six minutes of bliss, enjoy.

Laurel Halo - Future Fruit (YSI)

I was actually introduced to her music by another IT favourite Radiant Dragon, who has just finished a remix of the above track, dragging it by the ankles into some sort of an angsty paranoid parallel universe.

Laurel Halo - Future Fruit (Radiant Dragon Remix) (YSI)

He also sent me some amazing remixes of the tracks on his Island EP, including this haunting kraut effort from Allez-Allez.

Radiant Dragon - Cloud Seeding (Allez-Allez Remix) (YSI)

If you're in London over the next couple of months, check out the live show at Dirty Bingo (@ The Vicoria), AITBF (@ Cargo) and Barden's Boudoir.

Hype: Secret Army

Erol and Tiga? Gary Barlow and MNEK? Derek Davies and Starsmith?

Truth is, nobody knows anything about the identity of Monarchy or any other information that's not given up on their Myspace.

What I do know however, is that this track is completely addictive and can be played on repeat for hours until it turns in to some sort of subliminal hypnosis.

In the immortal words of Neil Buchanan "Try it yerself?!".

Monarchy - Gold In The Fire (Demo) (YSI)

Plug: All For One And...

Apologies are in order once again. I've been neglecting you all for far too long and it's time to get back in to the blogging groove.

I thought I'd start by recapping on a few things that have apparated in to my inbox in recent weeks concerning IT favourites.

French five-piece Turzi have just released their Buenos Aires / Bombay EP (which you can purchase at Rough Trade here) through Record Makers.

Featuring remixes from label-mate Sebastien Tellier and relative newcomers to the remix game Django Django adding some Pharaoh flava.

I'm starting to love DD as much for their choice of mix/remix names as I am their music. This time referencing the unquestionable TV classic staring Hulk Hogan and a speedboat named Thunder.

Turzi - Bombay (Django Django's Thunder In Paradise Remix) (YSI)



Next up is a new track from So Say So who recently supported Gaggle and the much loved Clock Opera (whom I'll soon be interviewing) at Hoxton Bar & Kitchen as well as having several live dates at Catch, The Fly and The Flowerpot in the coming months.

So Say So - Nowhere Near The Heart (YSI)



by Riaz Phillips

Kwes is also up to his usual tricks, finding time between nurturing the next generation of London's musical prodigies and cultivating his own solo material to rework Screaming Lights new single 21st Century.

The original may not be to my taste but this is fantastic.

Screaming Lights - 21st Century (Kwes./[o=o]. Rework) (YSI)




Finally, after my previous interview with the mysterious Kid Adrift, he decided that he liked the title of the post that much that he decided to name his EP after it (no joke).

L.E.D. Illusions EP will be released through Euphonios on 19th October and you can pre-order it from their online store here.