Tayalarz vol.2 - The Rime of Tabala (october 2013)

you join us for the second instalment of our brand-new mixtape scavenger hunt series just as the clocks have turned back and journeys home from work have descended into darkness

once again, i have scoured hype machine for the finest crop of songs available to download for free and compiled them into a cohesive musical journey made to reflect the darker days of October as 2013 now draws to a close

fill your ears with the sound of autumnal sunshine that still casts a magnificent glow across fallen leaves, the sound of evenings winding down and daylight hours shortening

october's mixtape eases us in with a more folky approach, readying us for the cosy winter days with a down tempo selection before giving way to some lazy beats featuring a number of more familiar names that take the journey full circle as electronic bleeps fall away and the folk element creeps in again like a cold draught creeping in through the crack under the door.

You may recognise an Aaliyah sample within the selection, and Rihanna goes back to back with herself alongside Theophilus London, a new guise for Flying Lotus is accompanied by MF Doom and Earl Sweatshirt and singer/songwriter Ciaran Lavery makes an early appearance in the mix as well as closing proceedings with a couple of cover versions from his recent 'Other People Wrote These'

once again, links to the wonderful blogs that have provided me with this great new music have been provided in the tracklisting below, along with links to the respective artists websites, and Ian Byford has designed the second of three accompanying pieces of cover art

1. Kill Emil - Autumn Sun (available via Serial GK)
2. Ciaran Lavery - Psycho Killer (available via Metaphorical Boat)
3. Cold Country - Missing The Muse (available via Indie Rock Cafe)
4. Abrigo  De Pelos - Julio (available via acid ted)
5. Skeng - Cold Sweat (available via Jack Plug)
6. Bamf - Hold Me Close (available via unholy rhythms)
7. Rihanna + Evil Needle - Pour It Up (Duncan Gerow mash-up) (available via The Music Ninja)
8. Rihanna - Jump (Club Cheval rap Remix feat. Theophilus London) (available via Frenchy Symphony)
9. Captain Murphy feat Viktor Vaughn, Earl Sweatshirt and Thundercat -
     Between Villains (available via Faronheit)
10. Chronic City ft Florian Horwath - The Man Who (available via The Sound Of Confusion)
11. Autumn Owls - All The Lights In New York (available via The Sound Of Confusion)
12. Ciaran Lavery - I Drove All Night (available via Metaphorical Boat)

In the tracklisting above are links to the artist's bandcamp/soundcloud/website if you click on their name, and clicking on the track name or blog link will direct you to where I originally encountered their music, good luck hunting it all down...

Odd Future

it seems to be getting quite cramped here in this music industry with all this hype surrounding Odd Future taking up so much room.

things have been bubbling up for quite a while now, and it must have been the middle of last year as they were dropping their second mixtape that the words Odd Future first connected with me.

but in the past month or two everything seems to have come to a head for the hip-hop collective as talk of their name and of their members appears to be absolutely everywhere, everyone wants a piece of them, and in the last two weeks alone Odd Future seem to have cemented their current reputation with an NME cover piece and a riotously recieved showcasing slot at Camden Crawl.

and as a person in tune with current trends and eager to latch onto the newest and most exciting music before it is embraced by the wider world, it may surprise you to know (as it sure surprised me) that i have never even heard any music by Odd Future.

i'm pretty sure i should like them, purely the fact that the groups full given name is Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All and that among their members are the fascinating and ridiculous monikers Tyler the Creator, Hodgy Beats and Earl Sweatshirt is enough to light the blue touch paper for me.

Yes, i've read the reviews, they've been hard to avoid, and i'm even aware of the bizarre little news story that Earl Sweatshirt had gone missing from the line-up for months, only to be traced to a 'therepeutic centre' on a Samoan island.

i even decided to scroll through my generic mp3 player, and it turns out that i do have Odd Future's Radical mixtape downloaded from last year, as well as tracks from Tyler the Creator, Earl Sweatshirt and the whole mixtape 'Nostalgia, Ultra' by Frank Ocean that dropped in February this year, yet i have still never knowingly listened to any of these tracks.

but it isn't just the hype-mongering NME that are flying the flag for Odd Future, an innordinate amount of hipster blogs and even America's Late Night with Jimmy Fallon are more up on things than i am.

so, with the possible exception of my girlfriend, who listens to Geoff Lloyd on Absolute, am i really one of the last people on the planet to tune into Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All?

i think it's about time that i popped in my headphones to rectify this glaring oversight and see if i believe the hype.

Tyler The Creator (Odd Future) - Splatter