NME is currently reminding us that The Libertine's Up The Bracket was released a distant ten years ago, and in doing so has recruited a handful of acts to cover the debut album in full.

While it was hardly a heavy hitting album at the time that was dominating the charts, the resulting impact on the changing music scene was what truly made it a seminal release, with exciting new bands (and a bundle of lower regarded copycats) following in their wake as London became exciting again, as the usual barriers between artist and fan were being demolished, thanks in part to Internet forums, but mainly down to ramshackle guerrilla gigs and secret parties anywhere from back room bars to bedrooms.

So it is surprising that there are few higher profile artists involved in NME's covermount, what we have instead are presumably a smattering of hot new acts that the magazine are currently touting as the next big thing, but having outgrown NME's trendsetting attempts and penchant for lists I haven't actually heard of that many of them.

Sadly, what should have been a unique homage to a defining moment of British music history is rather more miss than hit, with most acts paying extended lip service to the lovingly held memory of the Libs and sounding like just another bad cover version lifted straight from soundcloud, kicking off with Peace surgically attaching baggy vibes in an awkward manner and progressively getting worse.

Spector and The Milk add something new to proceedings by transplanting the spirit of Albion into far more diverse host bodies, but the female truncating of Boys In The Band by Stealing Sheep, although brave, just doesn't work well for me, and as for Mystery Jets and The Charlatan's Tim Burgess, well, they frankly didn't try very hard and should have known better, delivering rather uninspiring knock-offs each.

thankfully, they did stay true to the albums brevity, and after 37 minutes that could have been better spent listening to the original or scouring the internet for rare Babyshambles demos, it is all over, phew.

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Am I destroying the music industry?

within a matter of hours I have sourced around two and a half hours worth of music from blogs and then set about creating a cohesive playlist for burning onto CD (if only my girlfriend's car still had a CD player instead of the current tape deck and slim choice of Phil Collins, Chris De Burgh and Disney cassettes).

It is an 80 minute masterpiece that runs the gauntlet of folktronica, unexpected cover versions, codeine hip-hop, bootlegs and a smattering of other down-tempo hybrid genres.

and I did not pay a penny for any of it.

this is the strength of the music blog, with it's ability to expose multitudes of people to brand new talent through tidbits and tasters offered up free of charge.

and in this strange no-mans-land that the music industry has found itself in, it is becoming increasingly difficult to tell if this is the right thing to do or not

for all of the success of iTunes, it seems to me that we are still living in the shadow of napster, and the uncertain value of music to many people

ham-fistedly stealing whole albums and back catalogues via torrents still seems wrong to me, and in my old fashioned way, I would much rather pay for a physical product if I feel the music is worth it, yet releases and remixes by smaller artists seem to be worthless

there seems to be a number of reasons for this, firstly may be my placing in the music business as an occasional critic and journalist, unwilling to offer up my opinion on music unless it has been provided to me gratis, and as an unpaid journalist, so should it be... if they want the exposure provided by me, then the music should be my pay-off and my reward.

secondly is the uncertainty of the musical landscape, where some artists and labels have seen the changing tides and decided to swim with the current, providing music for free if it means that artists and songs reach the right blogs and the right people, before crossing over into the paying mainstream, yet how can we be certain which free mp3s have been co-erced and given the blessing by the sanctioned provider, and how many blogs are just towing the line that music is free and effectively stealing from the creator.

and so it is that I seem willing to exchange currency for the upcoming Muse album, a major label release from an already established band, and yet paying for the wares of far smaller artists seems to be somewhat unjustified, as if their art is worth less.

the music business is still clearly in a state of flux, as almighty majors now suffer and new ways and mean of reaching an audience and turning a profit are still being tried and tested in the wake of file-sharing.

so am I getting my own personal views on paying for music the wrong way round?

am I destroying the music industry?

Noel Gallagher, and the decline of the b-side

for the first time in a very very long time, I bought a CD single.

in fact I bought five of them.

all housed within a rather splendid little case, as part of the Noel Gallagher and his Flying Birds boxset.

Having laid my hands on practically everything Oasis have graced the world with since those glorious brit-pop years, I am keen to hear the b-sides that Gallagher senior has delivered with each of his releases to date.

I listen to The Death of You and Me and The Good Rebel, and then take the CD out, and then listen to AKA What a Life and Let The Lord Shine a Light on Me, and then take the CD out... and the process is repeated again and again.

With just the a-side and one sole b-side to each CD single, it is a far cry from the glory days when Oasis singles carried 3 additional tracks, usually of startlingly good quality, making every release an event in itself when such bounteous goods were handed down to us mere fans that were eagerly awaiting a new fix.

even when the media hyperbole died down after the critically derided Be Here Now, Oasis were still churning out tracks on the flipside that would give most band's singles a run for their money.

but as time marched ever forward, this tradition slowly sank into decline, as singles from 2000's Standing on the Shoulder of Giants had its accompanying tracks whittled down to 2 per single, and the unthinkable happened when tracks released from 2008's Dig Out Your Soul were packaged with remixes, an act that was unheard of in the band's long and rich history, save for a small number of hard to find rarities.

and there it is, the sad truth that as the digital age has fully flourished, less value is being placed on the now disposable pop single, and crafting extra material for releases or culling the best of the left-over album sessions is being left far behind us, consigned to the past along with the memory of physical singles stocked in actual record shops and being sought after by collectors and completists.

Even Noel doesn't escape unscathed from the remix syndrome, with two of the five b-sides in fact taking the form of psychedelic reinterpretations by the Gallagher approved Amorphous Androgynous.

Those that have followed Noel's post Oasis career will remember talk of an album made in collaboration with Amorphous Androgynous, an album that now seems destined for the scrap heap after Noel admitted that his touring schedule had kept him too busy to complete the reportedly 'far out' long player that was originally announced in July 2011 and was due to follow his own solo release.

and a pity it is too, since the reworkings of If I Had A Gun and AKA What a Life, following on from the 22 minute remix of Oasis's Falling Down, show a side of The Chief that is far removed from the usual Dad-rock misgivings that he has earned over the past decade and a half.

Yet, despite the pitfalls of these modern times derided earlier, the presence of iTunes playlists in most of our lives means we can neatly collate the three Amorphous Androgynous reproductions into 46 minutes worth of aural bliss that can be played without keep changing CDs, as we wonder just what might have been.

Back to Back to Black (Amy Winehouse tribute album)

Last year Q magazine compiled a track by track cover version of U2's Achtung Baby to coincide with the album's 20th anniversary, and to be honest, I found that particular issue rather hard to track down, scouring a number of local newsagents before finding a solitary copy in WH Smiths.

And understandably so, since I was impressed by the calibre of contributing artists taking part to pay homage to the classic album.

Having fallen for this trick a number of times before from the predictable Mojo magazine and their re-covered Beatles albums featuring a whole host of people that I hadn't heard of and hadn't done a great job either, I was dubious of the magazine's ploy.

In this case tho, Snow Patrol, The Killers, Jack White and Depeche Mode, had all been drafted in, and the result was a startling reinterpretation of one of rock's well respected artefacts.

And so, to mark a year since the sad and untimely passing of Amy Winehouse, Q's latest cover mount is a song by song reconstruction of the modern classic, Back To Black, originally released in 2006.

The Cribs and The Manic Street Preachers head up the talent this time around, alongside The Temper Trap, The View, St Ettiene and up and comers Dry The River and Hollie Cook.

It is my sad duty to report that even with these artists on board, the album fails to impress, the over all feeling of it is far too muddied, cluttered and lacking focus, bleakly paralleling Amy's final years in the media spotlight.

Not to say that there are not good tracks on there, just that they are few and far between, Hollie Cook's reggae light take on You Know I'm No Good stands out as a highlight on the first half of the album, and at the half way mark The Temper Trap seem to mimic Spandeu Ballet balladry on Love Is A Losing Game (my opinion of which, the verdict is still out on), from here on in tho, the quality somewhat improves.

Karima Francis tackles Tears Dry On Their Own and buoys it with enough emotional weight to make it work and claim it for her own, Swindle and Zed Bias both inject a controlled dose of dub step into each of their more zion-skewed cover versions, and both sound all the more refreshing for their challenging takes, meanwhile The View's attempt at Addicted doesn't stretch itself too much, but satisfyingly adds a cheeky twist to Amy's ode to cannabis.

yet even with these positive points going for it, it does still leave half the tracks to be filed under forgettable, or even worse, skippable.

perhaps the reinterpretations were just handled incorrectly, or perhaps it is just too soon, perhaps it is because the memory of Amy Winehouse and her unique contribution to the music world still resonates with us too much, and no matter how fondly we look back on it, we are not yet far enough removed for this project to feel right.

Back To Black's impact on the musical landscape was phenomenal, inspiring a renaissance in self-empowered female artists, as well as bringing a flavour of Motown and soul back into the charts ahead of the inevitable imitations that would follow.

But very few would ever get close to Winehouse's troubled talent and her noir fuelled delivery, so closely intertwined with her turbulent life, indeed, with the lead single Rehab, she laid her problems bare for all FM radio listeners to hear.

so I must conclude that while Q and the artists involved made an admirable effort, it falls some way short of living up to the already considerable legacy that Amy Winehouse left with us in such a tragically short career.

Barbarossa - Butterfly Plague E.P

evocative synths and scattered drum machines breath life into the beautifully delicate Butterfly Plague E.P, creating a perfect example of how to tug on the heart strings with just a few simple concepts, a fragile voice and a little technology.

since catching Barbarossa live at a charity gig late last year and gorging myself on whatever sounds of his the Internet could offer me, I have been eagerly anticipating the release of new material.

a folky nuance on display in previous offerings is hard to shrug off, by no means a bad thing, as it lends the tracks a genuine warmth and earthiness, a certain campfire feeling that draws you in and engages with you on a personal level.

indeed, Temporary and the Stones are both shot through with heartfelt emotion and completed with vocal turns that are so entrancing so as to mark out Barbarossa as a leading light in post-break up anthems, destined to be played on repeat in the bedrooms of the lonely across this land.

and it pains me to say anything against it, but I certainly wish that this release offered up just a little more...

those, like me, that have been waiting for the return of Barbarossa are dreadfully teased with just two brand new tracks, supplemented by a re-recording of 2006's sublime Stones (and an additional remix of the hypnotic title track exclusively for those that still consume their music on vinyl).

so it is that the Butterfly Plague E.P serves as a timely taster of a unique talent, a talent that I would plead effervescently with others to witness live at all costs, and I plead with Barbarossa to grace us with more material pretty sharpish (please).

Misha B

As the years keep progressing, I must admit that with each passing series I am subjected to more and more x-factor than I'd care to admit to.

And even when my viewing is kept to an absolute minimum, the contestants of 2011 are the ones that I had a greater awareness of and as a consequence, actually formed opinions on.

for all my kicking and screaming, there was one episode (and one performance in particular) that silenced my moaning and had me having to pick my jaw backup from off the floor.

Misha B was an absolute revelation to me, and her unique rendition of the already ubiquitous Rolling In The Deep was a thoroughly brave choice, refixing it with her own larger than life interpretation that was far too good to simply stand as just another entry in the UK's largest karaoke competition.



It would have made me happy to have seen her win the whole thing, but to be honest, she was far better than that, she didn't belong there, but it gave her a welcome exposure that it would have been hard to find elsewhere.

Now the time has come for her to throw off the shackles of Simon Cowells talent show albatross and make a name for herself independent of the normal reality tv expectations of drab cover versions.

more recent efforts by ex-X-contestants seem to have wizened up to the fickle music business and far more time and thought are put into post-TV careers.

But Misha B should be the star that outshines the rest of her peers, if she is willing to flaunt her obvious talent and exploit her previous TV notoriety to reach the maximum audience possible, she should live up to my high expectations.
 

Akira The Don - Unkillable Thunderchrist

Starting a mixtape with an accapella rap is certainly making a statement.

And what a statement, the beat drops and inside of 60 seconds we have already witnessed a dozen or more pop-culture references, including Salvador Dali, the Farrelley Brothers, Charlie Sheen and the 2012 olympic stadium, and chances are there may have even been a fair number that I haven't even picked up on.

It is this richness of reference points, combined with an honesty and wit that has seen welsh rapper Akira The Don blazing his own unique trail with every release.

Unkillable Thunderchrist is a ridiculously over-inflated title for the rappers 27th mixtape, which comes a year after the release of the second album proper, yet with suitable scope and a magnificent pomp, it hardly seems inappropriate given Akira's larger than life character and tendency to put the world to rights through the power of song. 

In terms of content (though not quality) it certainly is a mixed bag, from the self-explanatory Wu Tang riffing D.R.E.A.M (debt rules everything around me), onto Lemmings, sampling the classic computer game of the same name while broaching recent issues such as the mis-handling of the possible fuel crisis and the sinister Kony 2012 propaganda, right through to more personal experiences like watching Terminator underage, school's sex education and the exuberance of time mis-spent after a move to London.

Fans of rap prefixed with the term 'gangsta' may turn up their nose at a droll cover version of Justin Beiber's Baby, delivered over an elevator style Muzak track, but with an array of guest raps provided by collaborators old and new, there should be plenty more besides for those that are still immune to rampant Bieber Fever.

Indeed, it is the 7 minute opus, Give Me Something (11:11), at the heart of the mixtape that features Akira The Don solely on production duties and is instead headed up by Manchester MC, Envy, that is the absolute highlight of this release. A moving tribute to her late mother, recounting both the hardships and the happy memories that flood back as a simple drum beat kicks over a delicate guitar sample.

Although this is followed by the aforementioned Baby cover.

You have been warned.