It’s been a busy few weeks. I know I often say that but on this occasion it’s more true than usual. As well as holding down the day job I’ve been out and about as well as staying home purely to watch a TV mini-series.
I’m way, way behind in keeping you up to date with some new music that’s been released over the last few weeks actually make that months because it’s almost March and yet again I’m sitting here wondering where January and February have gone!
So where should I start? Some will no doubt say start at the beginning but that’s just too predictable so I’ll start with what I stayed home at the weekend to watch which was the US adaptation of House of Cards which has, as far as I can gather, broken all sorts of conventions.
For a start it’s only available on Netflix, a subscription based (£5.99pm) streaming service that offers unlimited viewing, there’s no contract either so you can cancel and re-start as often as you like, which is handy if you’re not a massive TV watcher I suppose. The other rule that Netflix broke is they released all 13 episodes at once. A stroke of genius if you ask me.
Now, I have to be honest and say I was more than a little sceptical when I first heard about this adaptation as I am a huge fan of the BBC version which was done in the ’90s and I wasn’t sure I could see anyone, let alone Kevin Spacey, fill Ian Richardson’s shoes. As it transpires the Netflix version leaves the BBC as a quality piece of work in it’s own right. It doesn’t attempt to copy it scene for scene which I appreciated. Spacey is terrific as Francis Underwood and manages to bring a much more sinister edge to the character than Richardson’s more genteel Francis Urquhart. I would strongly recommend watching both, the BBC version can be picked up as part of The House of Cards Trilogy from Amazon for under a tenner. Great value.
Now, there’s an allusion to music in the title of this post and the truth is I had written around 500 words on a music quiz I was invited to by StubHub but it really deserves a post of its own so I’ll edit it tomorrow and try and get it up by Thursday My post on StubHub UK is here. In the meantime, in a slight departure from banging on about drum n bass I thought I’d fill you in on a cracking little techno track that dropped earlier this month that I almost missed because my inbox is organised chaos.
UK born producer and now resident of San Diego ASC, aka James Clements, released an AA side single, Proton/Electron, on 12″ vinyl and digital on 11 February that has kicks, thumping basslines, blips, bleeps and some real smooth melodies. This is some seriously deep techno that will invigorate your soul. If you thought techno was all jacked up hardcore you’re in for a treat. You can have a listen to the tracks over on SoundCloud and if you like what you hear you can pick up the digital version from Traxsource for a mere $3.18
Moving swiftly on from deep techno to deep house I want to also mention a few tracks that have dropped over the last week or two by one of my favourite music makers, Kelly Sylvia. Way back in around 2002 or 2003 I knew Kelly by her Unknown FM moniker Kellilicious; I used to sneak earbuds into the office to listen to her Friday afternoon set, happy days!
Those days of pirate radio have gone and Kelly is making some seriously sexy music as a producer/artist on her S*mplified Recordings label, that’s when she’s not busy with SheJay.net, which she founded in 2001. This lady is a dynamo of talent and energy and also happens to be one of the nicest people I’ve met.
However I digress, it’s obvious I am a fan and if you’ve encountered her DJing or already listened to her catalogue you probably are too. If my memory serves me correctly The Rain was first released in 2007, well that’s when Traxsource tells me I bought it! Regardless it sounds as good today as it did in 2007. What do you think?
Sticking with 2013 and in the space of a few weeks this month Kelly has released Musea and White Lies which are both excellent EPs. All of Kelly’s tracks can be purchased online, I personally prefer Traxsource because they tend to work out a few pennies cheaper but only amongst those sites I know of, there may be cheaper outlets nowadays so if you know of one, that’s legal, please leave a comment!
One interesting thing about Traxsource, they’ve put White Lies down as a techno track. Kelly thinks it’s more deep house and well, you know my opinion of genres … I tend to have 2; music I like and music I’m not that keen on!
Finally, if you’ve got this far and are wondering what Less Than Three means, it’s my verbal version of that TXT speak emoticon <3!
