The Brits 2012

while much can be said for the annual flag-waving and chest-puffing of the Brit Awards, it just doesn't do it for me anymore.

quite why i felt any excitement, pre-awards, this year, i'm not entirely certain.


i think part of it may have been down to the guessing game, invented last year, of 'match wHe0wfo9wartist to the award they will win'

Coldplay's opening set was traded in for a Best Band Award, with similar accolades going to Bruno Mars, Rihanna, and of course Ed Sheeran and Adele.



but sadly, the reality of the Brit Awards was that it just wasn't as exciting as the pancakes being flipped in my kitchen, and that is a damn shame, considering this should be our chance to fly the flag for the UK and revel in the momentous spectacle of it.

instead we got a handful of 'shocking' moments to be blown out of proportion by twitter and the media.

'OMG! James Corden interupted Adele'

'OMG! Adele flipped the bird'

'OMG! Blur sound rubbish'



and yet no-one is calling out the largest embarresment in this years Brit awards.

no, not One Direction laying claim to having the Best British Single, but the Brit Award itself!

while last years statuette, designed by Viviene Westwood, was a very understated and graceful redesign, seeming to drape the figure in patriotic red, white and blue, for the 2012 ceremony, Sir Peter Blake, yes, he of Sergeant Pepper cover fame, decided to produce a far brighter overhaul, daubing the primary colours boldly as he went, which may have worked fine, if only he had held back and not felt the need to spell out the word BRIT in large descending block-capital letters, presumably just incase anyone was unaccustomed to the   long established and recognisable trophy.

so while Ed Sheeran may be immensely proud of his first Brits win, scooping Best British Male and best British Newcomer, i dare say that they will both be pushed to the very back of his trophy cabinet.

Ed Sheeran

seriously, who is Ed Sheeran?

the mainstream may recognise him as as the rusty haired troubadour that has made significant inroads with his radio friendly hits, catapulted into the spotlight with the gentle lulls of The A-Team (a surprisingly un-radio friendly song about prostitution, drug abuse and death, that hit big regardless) and is likely to be the only possible contender to be putting paid to an all out Adele whitewash at next weeks Brit Awards.

but the truth is, this is only just scratching the surface, as well as hanging around with the likes of Rizzle Kicks and reportedly writing for One Direction, Sheeran's street credentials are boosted somewhat when his no.5 collaborations project EP, released early last year, is taken into consideration, featuring a handful of grime artists and rappers including Devlin, Wiley, JME, Dot Rotten and Wretch 32.



Ed was rejoined by a handful of his collaboraters for a special live session for BBC 1xtra last December, and since then it seems that he is showing no signs of slowing down or allowing himself to be pigeonholed easily, as various sources throughout December and January confirmed that Ed Sheeran had been recording with American rapper Yellawolf, and has also recorded duets with both Example and Jessie J.

and this week saw Sheeran leak the aforementioned 4 track collaboration with Yellawolf, from the comfort of his twitter feed, racking up more than 100,000 downloads in under 24 hours and throwing another curveball to those that expect him to follow pop formulas since his debut album hit the UK top spot upon its release last September.



so while music snobbery may tell you to hate on those that become popular, Ed Sheeran still maintains his integrity and remains an anomaly.

Tinnitus Awareness Week 2012

i don't buy the red tops on matter of principle

but many people that i know do, and i will still find myself flicking through the pages of absurd, lowest common denominator news and celebrity tittle tattle

so it is with some surprise that i occasionally find The Sun actually broaching a serious subject that more people need to be aware of, it is just such a shame that the real story they should be covering is always so brief

and as we near the end of another Tinnitus Awareness week, i thought i should do my duty to highlight the problem again, after my initial piece published in 2010

it was also in 2010 that i read a short article regarding Black Eyed Peas head honcho, producer and solo artist, Will.i.am, admitting that he was suffering from tinnitus, a high pitched ringing in the ears that is caused by prolonged exposure to loud music, and is common among musicians, DJs, clubbers and gig-goers

sadly the article swiftly shifted the focus onto his much-rumoured relationship with Cheryl Cole and his staunch support of that years X-Factor contestant, Cher Lloyd (an expanded article, including more name dropping, but also an opinion from The Sun doctor can be found here)



and then, just last week, almost perfectly timed to coincide with the annual campaign to highlight the causes and prevention of Tinnitus, N-Dubz lead and now solo-artist, Dappy revealed that due to his severe tinnitus he has now had small speakers installed around his bed to play soothing background noises, so that he is less aware of the constant ringing that is most obvious, and often frustrating, when you realise that you can no longer hear 'silence'.

of course, the newspaper was more interested in getting there jolleys by mocking his band's music and thinking up a shockingly bad rhyming headline rather than providing any real support or advice for anyone that may find themselves in a similar situation to Will.i.am and Dappy.

suffering since 2004 myself, i was relieved when i was first handed a leaflet about earplugs while at Glastonbury, not feeling quite so alone and happy to be pointed in the right direction for where to find advice and suitable hearing protection

and i believe that as a duty to fans and gig goers, more should be said about the causes and effects of Tinnitus so that people can hopefully spot the signs early enough to spare themselves the fate shared by not only Dappy and Will.i.am, but also Bono, Trent Reznor, Pete Townsend and Moby, among many others





more information about Tinnitus and Tinnitus Awareness Week can be found in this article by the great Eddy TM and on the British Tinnitus Association website

Rusko

with an upcoming collaboration EP with Cypress Hill on the horizon (the lead track of which can be yours, in exchange for your email address) i thought that now would be a perfect time to take a closer look at the musical output of Rusko.

fans of throbbing basslines will already be well aware of the impact Rusko has had on the musical landscape of dance over the last few years, yet even i was surprised quite how far reaching his influence had been.

firing up raves and hype-raising blogs with the harder edged dubstep that superseded the sparse atmospherics pioneered by the likes of Burial, Rusko was part of the charge that forged the fledgling niche genre into wider territories and onto wider recognition.

with a full length album released on Diplo's Mad Decent label in 2010, which was bolstered by the likes of the squelching, bass-heavy Woo Boost and 2-step flavoured Hold On and a follow up album, Songs, being preceded by current single Somebody To Love, Rusko has proved himself to be an in demand producer and remixer, as evidenced on a 16 track remix collection that is available to download guilt free.

having tackled and retooled heavyweight dance acts like Basement Jaxx and The Prodigy, releasing a single that splices old skool jungle with the current incarnation of dubstep, and with the first taste of the Cypress Hill team-up already upon us, i was slightly bemused to find that there was one other collaboration that had slipped under my radar.

little did i know that Rusko had taken himself completely out of his comfort zone to give girl-next-door turned sex-kitten Pixie Lott a top ten hit in November of last year, shrugging off all expectations with a far funkier affair than we are used to that proves that he is certainly an adaptable beast that can even handle pop in his stride.

the unlikely return of Nu-Metal

these are strange, uncertain and occasionally exciting times for the music industry.

the market growth and profits of major labels is not the issue at hand as far as i am concerned right now.

more so, it is the cross pollination of genres that sparks my interest.


although the liberal borrowing from a thriving genre is certainly not a new idea, it is certainly churning out some polarising efforts and unlikely collaborations from those striving to remain relevant.

riding on the coattails of the inescapable wave of dubstep that swallowed whole continents in 2011, we now see bloggers' favourites turning their hands to production duties for returning icons from a bygone musical age.

writing this specifically with Korn's most recent effort in mind, their tenth studio album most prominently featured collaborations with flavour of the month Skrillex, as well as a number of other electronic producers in an attempt to re-tool a tried and tested formula for a new generation.

and now it is the turn of Cypress Hill to foray into the realms of pulsating bass as they team up with Mad Decent alumni Rusko for a dubstep EP due out in April, having found their way from Hip Hop and through the other side of Nu-Metal, an incredible 21 years since their breakthrough single 'How Could I Just Kill A Man' was released in 1991.

i am still yet to cast aspersions on the whole of the new Korn album and whether all this band wagon jumping is manipulated by shady puppetmasters wanting to sink their teeth into new trends, or whether this is genuine re-invention spurned on by a passion for dabbling in exciting genres that are now growing out of their infancy.

but with the rap-metal fusion that both influenced and was influenced by Nu-Metal some ten years behind us, and given the cyclical nature of music trends that keep coming back around, will these collaborations inspire another attempt at returning to the mainstream by the floundering Limp Bizkit, this time on an album helmed by Caspa, or perhaps even Papa Roach teaming up with the filthy warped bass monster Borgore.

while at first the very idea of it sounded unlikely and a rather desperate attempt to be 'down with the kids', personally, i feel that Korn's  Narcissistic Cannibal is something of a revelation for me from a band that has been drifting slowly out of favour and has also created something new that is infused with the ever-more integrated dubstep sound, creating a hybrid Nu-Step which is just as abrasive as the first parent-upsetting and face-shredding riffs of Nu-Metal that hit our shores over a decade ago.

The Twisted Hearts

as a fine purveyor of Enfield's local music scene, i was proud to have a physical copy of The Twisted Hearts' debut EP hand-delivered to my door by their drummer.  i had seen the band a few days prior at a charity fundraiser in Palmers Green, where the band had breezed through a blistering set that was short and sweet and all for a good cause, and had been promised a copy of the release would be heading my way very soon.

we stood there on the doorstep, making small talk, when it was noted that the cover of the CD was cracked, i was asked not to mention it in the review, i made no promises, but insisted that it would not reflect badly on my opinion of the music contained there-in (sorry Tom)

so let us concentrate on the music then!

the EP kicks off with a short 'Introduction' scheduled sensibly at the beginning, as if to whet our appetites, teasing lovers of the genre known as 'Rock' with an acoustic strumming that gives way to an electric guitar that swirls and soars before careering into the start proper of The Last Breath, that pulls no punches with its upfront riffs, pounding drums and grandstanding guitar solo.

© Annelie Rosencrantz 2011  http://www.anuli.co.uk/   

and as their debut progresses, we are shown a young band that are almost a step out of time with current trends, keeping with a traditional Rock n Roll sound that carries with it a bluesy garage stomp that features more than just a tip of the hat to the reverred sound of Jimi Hendrix and a mild case of psychedelia as evidenced on Paint Me Red.

with the exception of the down-tempo laid back funk of Chemistry, every track present seems to be more expansive than the small backroom venues that the band have been playing recently, equipping their garage-rock with an arena sized scope, especially with the revival of 80s hair metal guitar solos and power ballads in Walk To The Light that seems firmly aimed at Wembley and the lighters aloft tenderness of A Thousand Steps.

This isn't to say that there isn't room for improvement, with the recordings occasionally sounding a little rough around the edges, but The Twisted Hearts have clearly found their own niche and are revelling in it right now, with more gigs upcoming and a convincing statement of intent in the form of their debut EP, they have marked themselves out as a local act to keep an eye on.


stream: Walk To The Light by The Twisted Hearts
from the EP, The Twisted Hearts EP



credit where it's due:
photograph © Annelie Rosencrantz 2011  http://www.anuli.co.uk/  

BBC Sound of 2012

in an exercise of self-fulfilling prophecies, BBC's sound of 2012 has just announced London soul singer Michael Kiwanuku as being at the pinacle of acts that they are tipping for the top this year

UK based 'tastemakers' are polled for their favourite acts that look ready to break though in the upcoming 12 months, yet it hardly seems surprising that most years have seen these people plump for those that are already riding on a considerable amount of hype

the voting system that it is founded on is basically a glorified popularity contest, with those topping the pile being the acts that are increasingly harder to avoid come November as record label's PR's must have become increasingly savvy to the elevated profile that the poll has garnered in recent years, and the timing of their client's game-plan will no doubt be scheduled with this in mind.

perhaps it is cynicism or the fact that the record industry is becoming more transparent with it's business activities, but in many cases it only serves to heap more hype on an already hyped act and sealing their fate of chart supremacy with that little extra nod.

with that said, perhaps we are looking at the most leftfield choices yet that seem to skirt some of the more obvious radio fodder

with genres bouncing around from the cool electro-pop of Swedish trio, Nikki and The Dove to the smack-in-the-face screeching dubstep of Skrillex landing at fifth and fourth place respectively, and the lurid rhymes of the already much-hyped Azealia Banks in third, we seem to have quite a mixed melting pot ready to be served to us this year.

 stream: Avicci - Levels (Skrillex remix)

second placed Frank Ocean is personally my favourite of the listed acts announced, the best thing about Odd Future, who were themselves heaped with unfathomable hype last summer, Ocean has been operating under the rader writing for Beyonce and John Legend, and made a transitional shift with his productions on Jay-Z and Kanye West's Watch The Throne following on from his own unique nostalgia,ULTA mixtape that i have not been able to get enough of and have had on repeat in the months when the sun still shone, after delving deep and finding it languishing unheard on my generic mp3 player.

which brings us to the 'winner', Michael Kiwanuku, who i must admit to being rather ignorant of until december just past, and although he may not be as abrassive as Azealia Banks and Skrillex, nor as innovative as Frank Ocean, i can't help but like him.

perhaps i am mellowing as time passes ever faster, but Kiwanuku's music that i have heard so far is soothing and evocative, and a welcome change of pace from dance-hip-hop hybrids that clog the airwaves and a real 180 degrees about face from last years winner, Jessie J's upbeat urban-pop



musically, Michael Kiwanuku sits somewhere between Jack Johnson and Damian Rice in terms of style and may signal a revitalised male singer-songwriter presence in the mainstream, following on from the success of Ed Sheeran and wrestling attention away from the dominating female forces of previous winners Adele and Elle Goulding and 2009 runner-up Florence and the Machine.

releasing his music via the Communion label that was set up by Mumford and Sons' Ben Lovett (who were inescapable in 2010) and having supported Adele on tour in 2011, Kiwanuku will surely be on the right track for replicating the track records of both of these acts in 2012.