Album Review: Boy In Da Corner

Anytime an album like Boy In Da Corner arrives it seems to cause no end of consternation amongst the music press. Always happy to pigeonhole artists for the sake of marketing, hacks seem to struggle when credible UK ‘urban’ music arrives. It happened with The Streets and now Dizzee Rascal looks set to suffer the same Garage tag.

Make no mistake; this is no garage album (whatever that means anyway). Like Mike Skinner before him, 18-year-old Dylan Mills has taken the basics of a genre that is currently laying face down in the water and transformed it into something far, far more intriguing. Where Skinner took games of darts and the midnight munchies as his inspiration so Mills takes estate violence and teenage pregnancies as his.

This is a far darker proposition than Original Pirate Material though. Dizzee sees himself as an outsider; the opening track makes this abundantly clear. On the opening line of the opening track, Sittin Here Dizzee tells us, “I’m sitting here, I ain’t saying much, I just think / and my eyes don’t move left or right, they just blink.” For 18 years, Mills sounds remarkably mature, and sounds almost like an elder statesman of the streets when he whispers memories of playing football in the streets, before he yields to the feeling that there will be, “no positive change.” This feeling of hopelessness rears its ugly head again on Brand New Day. Over a dizzying wind chime sample, Dizzee reminisces, “We used to fight with kids from other estates / now eight millimetres settle debates.”

Though just shy of an hour in length, Dizzee manages to cram in a huge assortment of topics. Besides the tales of catching and delivering beatings, the inflammatory single I Luv U is a breathtaking synopsis of a young couples and teenage pregnancies (“Fifteen? She's underage!"). This theme is revisited on Round We Go – a tale of an endless cycle of loveless sex told by a narrator who has learned his lesson.

Elsewhere Fix Up, Look Sharp with its pounding drum, Billy Squier sample and eardrum-destroying bassline is an immense proposition. Dizzee sounds almost demented as he spits the lyrics. It isn’t the only track that defies sonic definition. Jus A Rascal has the most bizarre operatic chorus ever heard, which is totally at odds with the light speed rhymes Dizzee spits on the verses.

Original Pirate Material and Boy In Da Corner share the fact that they are the two best albums to come out of the UK in a long, long time. With Boy In Da Corner, Dizzee Rascal has joint the likes of The Streets and Roots Manuva as urban British artists with something interesting to say, besides American hip hop cliché.

So what is it? Garage? Hip Hop? Whatever genre you choose to pigeonhole this album in, I’ll choose to call it one of the best albums of the year.

Fonts from videogames

Here's a website that offers downloadable versions of the fonts used in some classic videogames.

That's SNES classic, Secret Of Mana over there, lest you ain't know.

Link

iTrip banned

Uh-oh! I'm a criminal.

"There are no restrictions on its use in the US, where people can use it to listen to songs stored on the iPod on a home or car stereo.

But in Britain, using it is akin to setting up your own pirate radio station.

After discussions with the Radio Agency, A M Micro concluded that using the gadget would mean breaking the law."

Link

Album Review: Holding His Breath

Another year, another label for Damien Jurado. That's five labels in four years now, for the Seattle-born songsmith. This time he has elected to move away from North America and has relocated to Spanish label, Acuarela, taking with him his stylish tales of the macabre.

I Am the Greatest of All Liars delivers a first-person list of iniquities such as, "I'm the blood upon your sheets / I'm the air you cannot breathe," over a primitive piano and simple drum for less than two minutes. Jurado's manner is off-the-cuff, proving again that he's right at home with such morbid subject matter. Dark as it is, at just under two-minutes, it is quick and painless.

Now You're Swimming ("Now you're swimming / it don't even feel right"), employs the same haunting balance of sparse, lo-fi acoustic architecture to frame a quick, bleak, personal narrative that we've come to expect from Jurado. It's this kind of song that Jurado has built a career around, so it should come as no surprise that this is the standout track. While Jurado didn't write it (it's a cover of 764-Hero), he quite easily could have meaning that his murmured vocal sounds right at home.

Oh Death Art With Me and 'Big Let Down' sound like Waters Ave S.-era Jurado. Oh Death... has Jurado in typically depressed mood, as he mutters, "The Devil just wants your soul / he's had his eyes on you since the day you stepped in this world." Jurado excels at the macabre, and this track is terrifically gloomy. Long time collaborator Rosie Thomas performs backing vocals on Big Let Down, a track highly reminiscent of Parking Lot from Jurado's seminal Ghost Of David LP. The track is a whispered tale of a relationship in disrepair. The final track, Butcher's Boy is a cover of a Peggy Seeger song. Here, Jurado further cements his standing as one of the finest singers around as he captures the heartbreak of the song with his trademark unaffected style.

While the five tracks mesh fairly well together, it isn't as cohesive as any of Jurado's albums; but few EPs are. And while the harshest critics may accuse him of treading all-too-familiar territory, the rest of us will continue to enjoy Jurado's uniquely bleak and isolated tales.

Mini-Kiss

Mini-Kiss are a Kiss tribute band.

Oh, and they're all dwarves.

Link

Marc-Vivien Foé dies during match

This is some properly sad shit.

Cameroon international, Marc-Vivien Foé, who spent last season on loan at Manchester City has died during a football match.

"The 28-year-old fell to the ground unchallenged in the 72nd minute of a Confederations Cup semi-final against Colombia in Lyon.

He was treated on the pitch before being stretchered off and receiving further treatment, including mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and extra oxygen."

The cause of death has not yet been determined but this has really shocked me.

Foé came to my attention when he was on the verge of a transfer to Man United in 1998. A broken leg scuppered that move and now this.... the poor, unlucky bastard.

Link

Classy Freddie Blassie dies aged 85

WWF Hall of Fame inductee Freddie Blassie has died of heart and kidney failure at the age of 85.

He's probably best known for being name-checked in REM's Man On The Moon ("Mr Fred Blassie in a breakfast mess") but Blassie was an absolute master at antagonising wrestling audiences and is regarded as one of the most successful and influential heels ever.

He wrestled his last match in 1985, he was 67.

Link to the Independent's obituary