When it comes to remixing a hit chart track, sometimes the boldest, most engaging treatment is to just go: All Out.
It's certainly the idea Junior Brat and Rednek seemed to have in mind here when they set about crafting this apocalyptically evil sounding rework of Wretch 32's Forgiveness. Plunging up and down like an untamed stallion let loose on a stormy-wracked night, the mix blends pile-driving dub-step synths with a far more malevolent backing.
Moody, introspective, but all the while shatteringly extrovert, the mix paints a brutal, distopian picture; one echoed by the video: terrifying white contact lenses, uncontrollable emotions barely held in check, and finally... death.
A follow-up single and mix-tape are due from Junior Brat in the new year.
Getting a mixtape right is a fine art - an exercise in selection and references. And it's a medium critical darling Marques Toliver takes to with aplomb - appropriately titled Studying For My Ph.D, the tape has a refined, educated feel to every track. At every moment it remains inherently a thing of pure class.
Opener Chaos is a fitting melange of assorted noise, washing across the senses in a seemingly random pattern. But somehow, amidst its eerie choral parts, it works. It feels aged, in the most beautiful sense - a kind of sepia toned bewonderment, the joy and rapture of gazing longingly at old photographs.
'I wanted to find beauty not in order and neatness' says Toliver of the piece - a bold statement, but one effortlessly proved true here. In its pic'n'mix appropriation of classic R&B and soul samples, the tape takes on the character not just of Toliver, but of a varying swathe of musical history. Its gloriously ambitious, but the real skill portrayed here is that it never feels strained or like an aching effort to be 'cool'.
For so much of the tape, Toliver is content just to let instrumentals play out - gorgeous string sections hum away in the background, or short stabs of brass and woodwind punctuate vocals - its a collage of artful delicacy.
Tracks like The Answer and Astrology sound like the de-tuned medium between two radio stations - not quite one thing or the other, but an impossible mid-state inbetween. The mixtape feeds from this lost space, flowering into something elusive and magical. And it's versatile too - half-way through it flicks from grainy classical influences and spoken-word bliss to minimalist electronica and beats.
If Toliver proves anything here, it's a true study in mixtape mastery.
Jay Sean always reminds me of summer. Everyone knows that classic sensation of certain songs bringing up memories of exactly where you were on a certain day, and what you were doing. And some of my lasting memories of a few years ago were walking down the beach on a blazing hot summer day, listening to Jay Sean on the radio.
When it comes to chilled out, classy R&B, Jay Sean is up there with the best of them. And on new single Where Do We Go, the first release from his acoustic The Mistress mixtape, he's there on the money again, chanelling that slick brand of summery bliss.
Guitar, finger clicks, strings - you can almost imagine lounging back in the shade, slowly sipping a cocktail. There's a touch of a classic MJ ballad here too.
Jay Sean's fourth album is out later this year and features his Nicki Minaj collab 2012.
When devising a future smash hit set to dominate the airwaves, it’s all about the hook. That key element to every song, that snatch of musical magic that will stick in someone’s head and get them parting with their hard-earned cash to download a piece of that pure delight. And in terms of brilliant hooks, you don’t get much better than the bassline from The Stone Roses’ 1989 classic Fools Gold.
Enter Wretch 32, AKA Jermaine Scott, the latest hyper-talented youngster to burst onto the UK rap scene. Taking up that irresistible Stone Roses hook, he’s crafted it onto a classy slice of urban lyricism. With Example helping out on vocal duties in the chorus, it’s a winning formula that would be just at home blaring out of the car speakers on a sunny day as it would pounding away in a club. The perfect follow up to previous single Traktor, which shot straight into the UK top ten.
Growing up in Tottenham, Wretch 32 honed his marketing skills early; selling over 15,000 copies of mixtapes. Clearly he’d make an ideal candidate on The Apprentice. Wretch 32’s credentials come with some hefty references too; man of the moment Tinie Tempah hails him as ‘one of the best lyricists in the game’. Strong praise, but with tracks as good as Unorthodox, Wretch 32 is definitely deserving of it.
Something getting a lot of rotation on my iPod this week is Rye Rye's fantastic new mixtape, rather awesome-ly titled 'RYEot powRR'. She's signed to M.I.A.'s N.E.E.T. Recordings label. Rye Rye is quirky, fun and feisty - for those hooked on Nicki Minaj at the moment, Rye Rye is a perfect second-course to move on to. The mixtape is full of energetic reworkings of contemporary hits like Whip My Hair and Party In The USA. Expect choppy beats and big, crunchy basslines. I'm feeling a bit of a Gorillaz vibe at times too.
