Friday, March 20, 2009

Fresh buds from LALAland

There has been much talk recently of something of a significant and sustained wave of culture and artsy goings-on hitting sunny California and in particular LA. Wether the West Coast of the United States has finally put their dukes up to face the East, and mainly New York, for more than a couple of bouts of culture bragging rights is yet to be seen. What is apparent and much to the joy of music-hungry enthusiasts the world over is the vast quantity and depth of beat-making talent flowing out from Arnie's backyard. These producers/musicians are not only putting exciting new sounds at the forefront of listener's minds but, they are doing so with an armada of illustrators, graphic designers, publications and record labels collectively and through frequent collaborations.

This movement or attitude is of course not exclusively an LA or San Francisco thing, as similar music and art hooks up can be seen from Glasgow to Vilnius , Tokyo to Amsterdam, Vigo in Spain and many more. The matter of fact though is that for something some have tagged as a 'post Dilla' sound, for want of calling it something, has found the greatest and richest source of output from Los Angeles, California. Over the coming weeks two highly anticipated albums straight outta this LA vortex of creativity are ready to drop. The producers are Matthew David and Teebs, and you can catch them live on Mary Anne Hobbs excellent Radio 1 Breezeblock show from the 7th April and 24th March respectively.

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Itch magazine article

Just got an article entitled 'No Time For Pie' published in ITCH magazine. It's an attempt to examine the significance of the current economic situation to the creative industries with some conclusions. Click on one of the links to check it out.