A few of my favourite things 9

It started out with several thousand, now only 123 acts remain as the Glastonbury Emerging Talent competition Longlist is announced.

After much soul searching and epic indecision, The Last Dinosaur, Golden Glow & One Man Team Dance formed my Top 3. Now the guilt sets in over those half a dozen other acts that presented me with such agonising choices.  Please take a moment to listen to the excellent AirRun, Gypsies On The Autobahn and Sons Of Mischief among others in a previous post featuring highlight from my own longlist.

My three, along with MLD favourites Run Toto Run & Kwes – who also made it through – now have a week to wait while a panel of wise musical types pick a final eight. Thats a decision I’m glad Im not making!

Visit the Glastonbury site to read and listen to the 123 acts who made the longlist

ATD 25 – THE SILVER ANNIVERSARY MIXTAPE

Back in May 2004 the first ever Akira The Don mixtape burst out…well actually uploaded very very slowly..onto an unprepared internet.  YouTube didnt exist, Tom from Myspace still had friends, and Justin Timberlake was busy ripping Janet Jacksons bra off on national TV, unaware of anything called Facebook.

Seven years on and there are many many more free mixtapes out there, but only one series made by Akira The Don.  Every few months he casts aside sleep and food, ropes in the finest talent, and delivers what most artists would release as a full paid for album for nowt.

ATD25 is no exception. Envy guests on the Marina & The Diamonds sampling pop of “I Am Not A Robot“, Chilly Gonzales meets Bob Dylan, and the 1959 gunfighting ballad “Big Iron” is morphed into a Hip-Hop anthem!

Other highlights include another of his odes to computer games “Red Dead Redemption” and possibly the most charming track he’s ever done “Interesting Times” which somehow manages to weave the Egyptian uprising into the story of a nervous Akira proposing to his girlfriend.

As always visit Akira The Don .com to nab it.

DOWNLOAD: Akira The Don – ATD25 (320 kbps MP3 bundle)
DOWNLOAD: Akira The Don – ATD25 (one-track 320 kbps MP3)
BUY:  Akira The Don – ATD25 (320 kbps MP3 bundle) if you don’t wanna have to mess with Hulkshare/you wanna help pay for the mastering!
BUY:  Akira The Don – ATD25 (FLAC bundle) if you want that gorilla sized superior quality audio!

Interesting Times by Akira The Don

Big Iron ft Pixel, Mr Lacey, Littles, Marvin The Martian & Big Narstie by Akira The Don

I Am Not A Robot ft Envy by Akira The Don

THE MELTING ICE CAPS

Long time readers of this blog will be well aware of MLD’s frankly sycophantic love for David Shah’s Melting Ice Caps. Well last month the unthinkable happened, they released the latest in their series of online singles and I completely forgot to rave about it!

So belatedly please listen, buy and enjoy “The Strike EP” especially “Pavlovian Boy” and “Strike In The Dark”. The EP is available to download from Corporate Records on a pay what you like basis, including nothing if you so wish.  80% of money on the Corporate Records site goes direct to the artist so if you feel like funding some more of Mr Shah’s wonderful music please do so.  Melting Ice Caps on Facebook.

[audio:https://www.musiclikedirt.com/wp-content/MP3/PavlovianBoy.mp3] [audio:https://www.musiclikedirt.com/wp-content/MP3/strikeinthedark.mp3]

JON HOPKINS & KING CREOSOTE

I was lucky enough to see King Creosote as part of Fife’s finest, The Fence Collective as they bid farewell to one of London’s best music venues “The Luminaire” recently. The loss of such a jewel in the capitals crown was tragic but hearing the voice of Kenny Anderson (KC) can never be anything but a pleasure.

Over the last few years he’s been working on and off on “Diamond Mine” an album with Jon Hopkins – due at the end of March on Domino Records. It consists of newly interpreted obscure delights picked out from 20 years of King Creosote’s treasure chest of a back catalogue.  Kenny himself has described it as a ‘soundtrack to a romanticised version of a life lived in a scottish coastal village’.

Download the teaser “Bubble” below.

King Creosote & Jon Hopkins – Bubble (Diamond Mine Teaser) by DominoRecordCo

WU-TANG MEETS HENDRIX

The Youtube clips is from last year but its new to me and its not often you see Jimi Hendrix getting down with the Wu-Tang Clan live on the streets of London. As a slightly melodramatic poster on Youtube says:
“Gotta love a world where someone with this kind of talent performs on the street and people like Kesha are making millions”