In Search Of Arcadia

Phew...

yesterday was fucking AWESOME. Seriously..

check it out.

First off I have a message in my inbox from Dot Allison "Hey, do you still want me to do a liner for your show?".

.. awesome right?

Then I think to myself, maybe I should ask a couple other people if they will do liners...

Later in the afternoon I check my inbox again...

and I have a message from the Klaxons management saying he'll try to get them to get a liner done for the show while they are on tour...

KLAXONS! THE MOTHER FUCKING KLAXONS?!

?!?

Can you believe that? They are like the Nirvana of the type of music I've loved since I was a little kid! Fucking bonkers.

..

THEN.

.. as if that wasn't enough.

.. I go over to Sam's house last night to practice (i.

e. bullshit and play around with computers) and he gives me a FM3 Buddah Box! How fucking rad is that?

Yesterday was fucking great...

so with renewed inspiration I bring you today's post! I've been wanting to do a Brithop/ Grime/ Dubstep post for a minute (I mean I already posted some Dubstep tracks a minute ago but..

. anyway) and I thought I'd treat you guys to that today..

.

First off is Akala with "Shakespeare" which is just a total fucking banger..

. when my girlfriend heard it she thought it was something I had written, and it is totally the type of song I'd like to..

the beat is rough and electro-y and surges with energy. The rap is pretty damn good too HOWEVER the 2nd half of the chorus sounds WAYYYYY too much like Eminem. But this is still a tight song.

..

YSI

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Then I thought we'd go back to the most popular name in British Hiphop.

.. Dizzee Rascal.

.. I can't wait for his new album.

.. I'm sure it will be fire.

Unlike some people I really dug the last album quite a bit. Here's one off RUN THE ROAD Vol 1

YSI

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You know what's almost as cool as rapping? Bouncing around like you've been smoking batteries and fighting!

Here's Dizzee vs Crazy Titch...

I like that part where Dizzee is like screaming "DON'T HOLD ME BACK DON'T HOLD ME BACK"...

AND since I'm giving you a Dizzee/D Double E track, I should probably give you an awesome Wiley track to make the experience complete!

YSI

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Then, getting back to the dubstep stuff, I thought I'd post this Justin Timberlake RUF remix...

I don't care about how you feel about Justin Timberlake (Sam) I love "My Love" and this remix is pretty nifty...

I've posted the shit out of all the big names in Dubstep so I figure I'd try something different!

YSI

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While we're getting random with Dubstep check out this little documentary from Bristol..

. the greatests musical city in England next to Manchester and London..

. my biggest idols are from Bristol (maybe the next post should be a Bristol post?).

..


Now I don't know how well acquainted you guys are with Sway but I TOTALLY ignored his album. It was one of those albums that got SO much hype that I couldn't even pay attention to it.

...

when that happens you can't even hear the music. You hear chatter and reviews not music! Now that we are far past the Mercury Prize and all that I'll post a track.

.. which I might add is brilliant.

YSI

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On a breakstep tip.. how about this Stanton Warriors track with Sway on it?

I used to really love Stanton Warriors...

this track is poppier than I remember their stuff being.. and the video is goofy but worth a watch.

I gotta say though, Sway's hoodie is fucking ugly...

I remember the first time I saw that hoodie thinking "who would wear that?" and now I know..

. (although if the Klaxons wore it I would probably think it was sweet lol)..

.



So that's what's up for now! As usual, I hope you guys dug this post..

. let me know what you thought in the comments! I'll be back by Thursday at the latest with a new one so brace yourselves!

I thought I'd mention, before I leave here, that I was talking to Larry Tee earlier and he said he liked my new version of "Lift"...

which isn't my primary concern because that's a solo song and I'm more concerned about what Sam and I are doing together...

but it is good news. Because hopefully a breakthrough is just around the corner..

. we're getting there..

. wish us luck..

.


So, I had to quit my new job. At the Soccer place.

I mean, it could have been straight, but how am I supposed to sell anything when our target market is 3-18 years...

and I'm getting households where Little Jimmy is now Big Jimmy who moved out and got married...

and has no kids of his own; but that doesn't even MATTER because I'm talking to Big Jimmy's 65 year old parents who can't figure out why I'm trying to get him signed up for soccer. You know? That's 3/4ths of what I was calling all night.

.. in the meantime other people were doing laps around me because they had better material.

.. all I say as I better get a tight paycheck for the week that I worked lol.

..

ANYWAY!

!! On to the music!

I just wanted to say, thank you to all you folks who sent me (or posted) nice comments over the last couple days. I'm glad you feel this blog is worth your time, and I'm glad you like my random format. The more and more I thought about it.

.. I'm not a 'journalist' kind of guy.

.. I could sit here and write a slightly different version of what a lot of other people write but.

.. I imagine that most of you are just here for the music and not my banter, so I'm going to assume you would want to read some long winded pretentious load of crap that basically amounts to what I'm already saying!

SOOOOO...

I promised you guys more Dance/Rock crossover...

and I will deliver
(p.s. sorry it took so long to post, crazy week obviously)!

First off is the live version of the CLASSIC Orbital song "Halcyon" WITH with the Bon Jovi and Belinda Carlisle samples mashed in. If you somehow haven't heard this you MUST hear it..

. fucking amazing..

. there were two different versions of their "In Sides" album that came out in the U.S.

and one had this on the bonus cd and the other didn't. If you can, I suggest picking up that album (with this on the bonus disk) because I think it's probably their best over all album.

YSI

I just found a live VIDEO version of this little Bon Jovi/Belinda trick.

.. too bad that totally fuck it up at the beginning lol.

..


Then I thought I'd give you the polar opposite of the Orbital track. I was initally going to post Orbital's "Satan".

.. so when I opted to post the other softer Orbital classic I had to come up with a more rough anthem to post.

I debated what hard ass song to put up...

and I finally settled on the Nine Inch Nails version of David Bowie's "I'm Afraid Of Americans (V1)"...

I had five versions to choose from because Astralwerks sent me the "I'm Afraid Of Americans E.P." quite a few years ago (which I never understood because they aren't the ones that put it out) but none of them were as compelling as the NIN one.

There is a version with Ice Cube and a Photek remix but neither one is this rad...

YSI

I doubt you haven't seen this...

but you probably haven't seen it for a while!


And last but not least...

to finish off the Dance/Rock post...

how about the best Dance/Rock band ever...

that's right, NEW ORDER! I watched 24 Hour Party People for the millionth time last night and just had to post a New Order song. I think "Crystal" is the most recent "classic" they've put out, so I thought "why not post it"!

Although, I have to say that "Here To Stay" song they did for 24 Hour Party People is damn close to being as good as "Crystal"...

maybe not quite, but close. That last album had some gems too, so if you haven't heard it I'd recommend it..

.

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Well I hope you folks enjoyed this post. As usual I will try to be back on the scene as soon as possible to bring you the best in British music via the wrong side of the pond! See you soon!

(I'm thinking maybe a Brithop post?)

BTW: The design I put up there is from a t-shirt @ . Go check it out!

I think it's a dope shirt!

Here at Arcadia, we LOVE Parlophone records. Solid release after solid release after solid release.

Between them, and their offshoot Regal, we've been able to bring you stuff from Babyshambles, Tiny Dancers, and The Good The Bad The Queen far before their release date. It's good for you guys because you get in on the new stuff early, it's good for me because it keeps you guys coming back lol!

Given the fact that they are so nice to us I suggest you guys actually pick up these albums.

.. the Babyshambles EP was so amazing I would be surprised if you guys HADN'T gotten it, Tiny Dancers have gotten a lot of hype since we posted em (Radar in NME, and a session with Steve Lamacq), and OBVIOUSLY this TGTB TQ album is going to be bonkers awesome.

So please, support the labels who are playing ball with us here and prove to the majors and bigger indies that file sharing, blogs, and the like are PART of the future of music and not just a hindrance that should be done away with!

So if you've been paying attention, I'm sure you picked up the last track we posted from Damon Albarn (member of Blur and Gorillaz) and Paul Siminon's (formerly of The Clash) new project The Good The Bad The Queen called "History Song". It was the amazing first track off their forthcoming album that hints at the same magic that we've seen in other Albarn efforts of the recent past.

NOW WE'VE GOT THE 2nd SONG! And it's just as cool as the last one! Make sure you leave comments because I really want to know what you guys think of it.

Here's an AWESOME little video that can give you a better overview of the project and the music...

just in case you didn't see the bio excerpt I posted last time...

As I mentioned last time, you can preorder the album from , and if you do before 15 January, you can listen to 5 tracks off the album before it is released on 22 January!

You can also pick it up at or . Make sure you also pop by their and their . Please pick up the album and show your support!

This song will be up for a week and then I gotta take it down so get it while the gettings good!


ON A QUICK POLITICAL NOTE: Since I mentioned something earlier about people wanting to do away with things on the internet..

. I don't know if you are aware but the Internet is AT RISK of being taken over by the super huge companies out there and turned into a mindless commercial wasteland. Can you imagine in Internet where AT T had control over all the content on it?

I assure you there would be no more pictures of young ladies birthing plastic dolls out of their hoo-hoos' (and other pervy things like that) but you undoubtedly would end up with lots of political things getting censored as well. It is not worth it to give up our privacy and our control for better internet browsers on our phones and cheaper cable modems. Please sign a petition, send a letter to your representatives, and keep an eye on this or we may end up with merely a 'ghost' of what the internet once was.

PROTECT NET NEUTRALITY!!!

Here's what Moby has to say about it...

whatever your feelings are about him it's a very informative video! When you're done with that head over to to make a difference!