lefreeakblog

The first full uninterrupted year post pandemic saw us enjoy gigging and clubbing again and I was thankful to get to see a lot more live music than I had the previous few years with The Killers, Anne-Marie & Manic Street Preachers all providing memorable sets. The range of music released was perhaps wider than ever with the blurring of house and hip hop not letting up, indeed there was a reported revival of sorts with house identified as having a rebirth. Whilst this was largely spearhead by big name pop acts in the charts, for the primary product - the album, LP, Playlist - it was the hip hop that artistically made the most noise with great albums by Black Thought, Kendrick Lemar and Nas (again) whilst Pusha-T, Little Simz and Drake made vital contributions as well. This got me thinking back to Black Thoughts comments to Complex in 2017 about the crossroads that hip hop and its culture are at: are we now starting to see a subtle change in direction? With the huge social change see...

  IT was the year that a pandemic allowed geeks the chance to shine. Amidst a severe restriction on live performance,  super-fans were busy viewing, cutting and editing together film of their favourite artists and readying them for blockbuster release, funded  by an ever increasing demand and driven by competition from the streaming wars.       With time to kill, we were allowed to indulge ourselves in a number of gems, with Peter Jackson's "The Beatles: Get Back" , Questlove's  "Summer of Soul"  both on Disney+ and Todd Haynes'  "The Velvet Underground"  on Apple TV+ all released to great acclaim.       Each of these documentaries covered the late sixties, part of the analogue era when very little film was actually recorded, in sharp contrast to today where it is so ubiquitous. And it looks we will see more and more as super-fans endeavour to unearth rare footage and bring fans young and old upto date with classic ar...

New Releases Yousef & CamelPhat -   April label: Knee Deep In Sound   genre: Progressive House verdict: Two of Liverpool's most forward looking artists in dance today, trance house producer Yousef and well known duo CamelPhat team up for this samba tinged bit of progressive bliss which is suitably balearic and warmer than their recent efforts. The sound of an Indian summer. rating: ★★ ★★ ✩ Disclosure -   Seduction label: Disclosure  genre: Deep House verdict: After conquering the world by expanding their original garage house sound, Disclosure go back to their roots. This is their 3rd single in as many weeks and the pick of the bunch. A simple but effective piece and their own take on deep house. rating: ★★ ★★ ✩ Joel Corry & Jax Jones (feat. Charli XCX & Saweetie) -  OUT OUT label: Perfect Havoc Limited   genre: Dance Pop verdict: Another slice of contemporary dance pop built around a pulsating but predictable beat, the sought that was...