#19: Domo Genesis

New Narcotic of the Day #19:

Domo Genesis

Hip-hop time? Yes, hip-hop time.

Das Racist are the most successful frontrunners of a movement that can be labeled, simply, as hipster-hop. This is rap music that avoids the traditional vibes and concepts associated with the genre, focusing on a range of matters that delve into introspection, nerd culture and sexual adventures (well, they had to keep a lil' something from the old school). The major component of this advancement is the musical style and beats, often derived from indie, alternative and psychadelic fields of music, with many acts having alternative artists guesting, sampling or playing around with their tracks.

Domo Genesis is one such proponent of this wondrous evolution of hip-hop, and a member of Odd Future (a hip-hop group who have been making tsunami waves on the West Coast of America), produced by the madcap maestro Tyler the Creator. Rather than try to sum him up with something witty and pithy, I will just throw this quote down from his own bio " I'm Better Than You At Life. Ill. This Isn't "Real Hip Hop" Or "Jerk" Or "Really Any Bull Shit You Heard Of". I'm Not Working With You Unless Your Almost As Good As I Am. Which Is One Notch Under Perfect. This Is Nino Brown In 89. This Is Rick James In His Prime. This Is Domo Genesis."

'Supermarket' is a fantastically realised thought-splatter on the inanities, machinations and oddities when it comes to shopping, via a word-slinging face-off set to a trumping tune courtesy of a 1940s musical, of course. 'Heart of Gold' utilises a trinkling bit of synth to underlie a rant on education and knowledge, dropping references to dinosaurs, puberty, morality and, of course, sex. This is a subtle sort of hip-hop that screams in your face.

Domo Genesis has a record out, titled 'Rolling Papers' and is another US artist that will probably not get to these shores. I am fed up of grime. We need some British hipster-hop.....

Domo Genesis' Myspace

#18: Escapists

New Narcotic of the Day #18:

Escapists

I have no idea where Escapists escaped from (blah-bad-punning-time) but wherever it is, I am damn sure they are missing the group of vivacious four young males who hail from London and craft a melodious mixture of indie rock and upbeat folk pop, stuck together with a confident sense and sensibility, barricading itself in the riffs and percussive elements of their tracks.

'Longest Day ' begins by moving into Arcade Fire territory with it's steadily expanding instrumentation, touching the memory synapses in just the right way, before moving into something slightly harsher, in the vein of We Were Promised Jetpacks. 'New York' is an ode to my future home (if I have anything to do with it, god damn it!), spinning out a catchy tale of Big Apple romance, whilst 'Ghosts' is a Warpaint-esque drift through ethereal , low-key plucking and harmoniously haunting vocal strains that end by floating ever upwards to the heavens.

Escapists have a bunch of demos to absorb and a host of gigs upcoming in the capital, including a show at the World's End on February 17th.

Escapists' Soundcloud

Escapist's Myspace

Longest Day (DEMO) by Escapistsmusic

#17: Melted Toys

New Narcotic of the Day #17:

Melted Toys

Music that is mired in the the indie muck, full of moping vocal stretches and lazy synths and guitar lines that dawdle and diddle in the most delicious manner, sometimes grasps the heart the hardest. That beautiful form of warped pop comes streaming from the hearts of Melted Toys, a three piece from San Francisco.

'Come On' is a soppy slice of distortion that treads the line between Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti and an indietronic Grizzly Bear. This is the sort of music that has deviated and distorted it's way over the last twenty-odd years ever since The Smiths started singing exquisitely forlorn pop songs. 'Wild Waves' sounds like something the likes of The Drums have been aiming for, thanks to it's pure lo-fi heart singed and tinged with surf rock sentiment.

Melted Toys have an EP, 'Washed & Dried', out on February 22nd via Underwater Peoples Records. AND check out the beauteous video recorded by Into The Woods below. And now, they have to be added to the list of bands I need to beg/bribe to come to London.....

Melted Toys' Myspace

#16: Colours

New Narcotic of the Day #16:

Colours

What is it with these wonderful little scuzzy rock bands and their ungooglebable names. The likes of Girls, Cymbals, Women and Suckers all bring up a million little web pages that deviate from anything musical or melodic. Now, we have Colours (the British spelling gosh darnit), a google search that brings up a dazzling array of imagery and spectrum based information but very little on the surf rock garage fuzz fusion that leaks from four London based musicians going under the same term.

Signed to Marshall Teller Records and with an EP on the horizon (according to the ever so informative medium of Twitter), it's time to get into the kaleidoscopic world of Colours and the variation of vivid hues that they pump forth. 'Head Germ' is a psychedelic glimpse of noise rock (accompanied by an equally disturbing/sci-fi-tastic video from Benjamin Yiend), with a repeated drone of the word 'over' closing out the track in a suitably catastrophic cauterwaul. 'Wise Woods' begins with a lo-fi drum staple alongside a lazily strummed slice of surf rock riff, reverberating with the atmosphere of the setting sun before the lamenting larynx of the lead vocalist puts a dawdling sheen across everything.

Colours are appearing at Old Blue Last on the 5th January FOR FREE and have an EP on the way which I shall class as a necessity for 2011.

Colours' Myspace

COLOURS - HEAD GERM from Benjamin Yiend on Vimeo.

#15: Francis Neve

New Narcotic of the Day #15:

Francis Neve

The realm of the singer-songwriter is a tricky field to navigate thanks to the glut of garbage that comes under such a banner, as various musicians roll through genre cliches without the flair or originality that allows them to break free of the musical weight of the past. Francis Neve, from Essex, manages to utilise an inventive mindset alongside a true heartfelt sentiment to craft his calm sense of indie gentility that nestles itself directly next to your pleasure points.

Francis has been writing songs since the age of 12, popped in and out of some indie bands and his debut record was released at the end of last year, garnering an understated collection of critical acclaim thanks to the understated style of storytelling that appears to innately inhabit his work. His debut album, 'The Second Time We First Met', has a slight concept in that it documents the life of a relationship, an idea close to my heart with the fiction I am attempting to complete in those moments when I am drunk and awake at 3am in the morning.

'Brian's Drying Up' is a melancholy trip that shows the songwriting prowess in the heart and head of Mr Neve, introducing ourself to the world of his records titular character. 'Come Near' utilises the general template of his work, a driving beat and a catchy riff accompanied by his alluringly, reassuring vocal tone that tells us a tale via an ear-pleasingly punch of a melody.

Francis Neve is appearing in London very soon so get along to The Strongrooms on 9th Feb, AAA on 19th Feb or Dublin Castle on 7th March.

Francis Neve's Myspace
Francis Neve's Website

#14: Ben Butler & Mousepad

New Narcotic of the Day #14:

Ben Butler & Mousepad

Joe Howe is one guy who manages to sound like a group of electronic whizzes, whirring away on a host of electronica that screeches and screams with an attention deficit disorder that breeds beats. Formerly, Joe has worked as part of Gay Against You and Germlin, now using the name Ben Butler & Mousepad to peddle his brand of static stutter, stapling a heartfelt host of grooves here and there to headbop the whole thing home.

"Infinite Capacity" retreats and restarts through glitch and glimmer, shedding a skin of electronica on its way to a 90s dance pop dazzle. 'Other Islands' careens along on a precipice of sci-fi sonics whilst "Electric Bamber-Boo" is a Nintendo-fuelled, madcap dash through laser blasts that fire themselves directly through your eadrum and into your nostalgic memories of platformers, power-up and Pokemon.

He has a free EP on his Tumblr for YOU RIGHT NOW, so don't hestitate and get your glitch on to beep and bloop away those blues....

Publish Post

#13: Dirty Beaches

New Narcotic of the Day #13:

Dirty Beaches

Dirty Beaches is the beautifully pun-tastic pseudonym of one musical man, concocting a low-key, off-kilter collection of ideas and moulding them in his mind until this subdued sort-of-dub leaked into the world. His music burns with an icy sunshine, which sounds implausible until you learn he lived for years basking in the heat of Hawaii before moving to his current haunt, the snowy, chilly Canadian city of Montreal.

'Lord Knows Best', the track that made me fall into sonic reverie, sways with a perfectly pitched piano pop flutter, whilst the voice of Dirty Beaches growls, almost menacingly, atop, fusing these two seperate worlds into a vat of melting wonder, dripping with a late-night, drunk swagger.

He turns The Stooges into something far more terrifying, which is something I never thought possible. But 'No Fun' becomes a warning track, blaring forth a drilling beat with dry, instructive vocals demanding and commanding atop the whole thing. His voice resonates like Ian Curtis on a comedown, mumbling in a half-intelligible saunter that enraptures as much as it creeps and crawls.

Listen to a bit of this Dirty Beaches fellow right now before his album creates another bloody genre craze. GO GO GO!

Dirty Beaches' Myspace