2010: looking forward

Nice start to the new decade...



Grime takeover on the cover of The Guardian's Film&Music supplement.

Last time I interviewed Tinchy Stryder's Ruff Sqwad crew, we met on a gusty flyover in the east London district of Bow, and talked in the flat MC Fuda Guy grew up in, sitting on the bunk beds he shared with his brother, grime producer XTC. This time around, Tinchy is being ribbed for requesting orange juice "with bits in". "You're such a diva now!" his manager chides, "you've changed!".



Foreign Beggars on the cover of The National's 'M' Magazine.

Beneath the gusty 4pm dusk of a London winter lies Mindloop Studios, a subterranean, soundproof haven from the noisy streets above. It’s a plush set-up, with fancy espresso machines, comfy sofas and framed platinum discs belonging to Whitney Houston and forgotten Irish megastars The Corrs. It’s not the most likely environment for hip-hop, but then neither, arguably, is Dubai: rap music has come a long way in its three decades to become the international lingua franca of a globalised popular culture.

2009: looking back

Some tidbits from the long-tail-end of 2009 I never blogged:



Only a teenage genius with nothing to lose would start their debut with ‘Sittin’ Here’, one of the harshest musical and lyrical descriptions of modern Britain imaginable, like a grime version of La Haine.

A write-up of Dizzee's Boy In Da Corner for FACT's 100 Albums of the Decade list. BIDC was number 3 in their list, which immediately qualifies it as a bit less idiotic than all the other decade lists. I also wrote a blurb about the (cough) unimpeachable DJ-led rollage of Slimzee's 2002 Sidewinder bonus tape, which was number 50 in the list.

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The Foley sounds reveal one of the most important science fiction themes: transformation. In this case, the sound design deals with transformation of forms, specifically, human and machine.

A Darkstar interview for FACT. This is the obscure Human League b-side they've covered on their debut (as yet still unnamed) album, 'You Remind Me of Gold':



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And finally my 20 records of 2009, also for FACT. The-Dream's 'Love Vs Money' album was at number 1, everything after that is in the random order it came to my head. Apparently The-Dream is making a video for 'Fancy', which is very exciting news indeed; how insouciantly brilliant do you have to be to have the drums crash in SIX MINUTES AND SEVENTEEN SECONDS into a song only six minutes and thirty seconds long? This brilliant.