The Chemistry is Dead

Oh My! – Dirty Dancer

thechemistryisdead — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 06:36:11 +0000

At first I thought “Hmm no I don’t think so Oh My! and no I don’t give a shit about parrots” because I found Run This Town annoying. THEN I liked Kicking and Screaming and now I like Dirty Dancer. I would prefer the rap wasn’t there but it’s not bad so I’m coping.

Sak Noel – Loca People

thechemistryisdead — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 19:52:09 +0000

When I heard Sak Noel’s Loca People I knew that it was one of those records that Scott Mills and freshers who remember it from their post-A Level holidays could make happen in September and now with it being Scott Mills’ record of the week I guess it will happen. I hope so because I love it and will be happy to still hear it in January (because DJs in British student unions/clubs only change their playlist once a year). When you’re around people who aren’t quite fluent in English it’s very infectious because after a bit it feels more fun to speak like that and just like us hearing ”I told to myself/What the fuck”, my “Johnny la gente esta muy loca” is an embarrassment. This has already been a hit in many European countries including Spain where Sak Noel is from so I hope that people, outside of the “BUT IT’S JUST NOISE AND A SWEAR WORD” clan, will like it.

VAMOS HEATHER!

thechemistryisdead — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 03:24:49 +0000

That last post was written in a bit of a rush because I was on holiday. I’ve got some general thoughts about writing about music to post here (mainly about how I used to want to be a music writer/’journalist’ as a job one day but I don’t any more). I think the freedom of blogging has played a big part in that which is great. I’ll try to keep that post interesting. I’ve also got lots of pictures of America to post (I’ve been here for a week and obviously my hair has turned blonde and my head is hollow. Deep stuffzzz u guyzzzzz).

Seeing your ideas on the cover of a magazine

thechemistryisdead — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 19:19:29 +0000

kinda fucking sucks if they’re not credited. So I knew I wouldn’t get paid for writing for the magazine with Nicola on the cover when I did my interview for them for the previous issue and I didn’t invent putting Nicola on the cover of magazines. On the other hand they’ve never come up with one Girls Aloud-related idea in their life and now they’re calling her a muse. They’d never worked with her PR before and I set up the whole interview for the previous issue. Now she’s on the cover of the magazine.

I’ve got my superior interview to put on here some time soon. The version in the magazine was much too short and I didn’t like the edits.

Tove Styrke – Call My Name

thechemistryisdead — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 00:13:34 +0000

Tove Styrke’s debut album is one of those albums I’ve been meaning to listen to after lots of people were very positive about it but I haven’t got around to it. She came third in Swedish Idol in 2009 and the songs I’ve heard from her are great, including Million Pieces, a song co-written by Lykke Li. This is a new song that premiered on NRJ Sweden and it has a bit of a Kelly Clarkson pop rock feel but it’s much more electronic in the chorus. It’s very catchy but I can’t quite understand the lyrics because I think she’s singing waiting (boring) but she might be singing waving (amazing) and “I’ll be two steps over the water” must be a Kate Bush reference.

LIPS – Everything to Me

thechemistryisdead — Sat, 13 Aug 2011 01:00:25 +0000

This is a mellow and minimalistic song about how it would be nice to go on holiday because people aren’t at their best when they’re stressed out from work. LIPS is completely unGoogleable at the moment so if you want to find out more about her while downloading the song for free why not ‘Like’ her on Facebook or you could buy it from Bandcamp.

Laidback Luke vs Example – Natural Disaster

thechemistryisdead — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 02:33:43 +0000

I saw Example three times in one week a few weeks ago, twice at Glastonbury and once at Wireless and it was after seeing Changed The Way You Kiss Me ‘go off’ the first time that it was so amazing I had to be there again. One of the new songs he performed was Natural Disaster, a collaboration with Laidback Luke and this went off basically because the build-up of “need some air, need some space” is easy to latch on to, the piano riff is striking and obviously it does make an effort to go off properly.

StooShe – Hotstepper

thechemistryisdead — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 01:37:37 +0000

While at Wireless a week ago I was waiting for someone while Parade were on which is why I was putting my ears through the trauma of a Chris Brown cover (Yeah 3x to go with Louder 3x and Ma Perfume 3x etc.) StooShe who had performed just before them were in the audience dancing and they looked so cool in comparison to the overwhelmingly bland band on stage. I sadly missed StooShe’s performance but came home to this cover of Ini Kamoze’s Here Comes The Hotstepper where they make their mark on it by chatting all over it, making random noises and have polished up the “na na na na nas”.

Glastonbury Pop Picks Playlist 2011

thechemistryisdead — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 22:09:01 +0000

As I mentioned earlier in the year I got a free ticket to Glastonbury in return for being a Blogger Judge for Glastonbury’s Emerging Talent Competition and tomorrow/Wednesday is finally the time for me to accidentally impale myself with a tent pole. Here are 10 of the many brilliant acts playing.

Icona Pop – Friday – Pussy Parlure

Ke$ha – Friday – East Dance

Morrissey – Friday – Pyramid Stage

Example – Friday – John Peel

Yasmin – Saturday – East Dance

Benny Blanco – Sunday – Wow!

CockNBullKid – Sunday – Oxylers in West

Hurts – Sunday – John Peel

Robyn – Sunday – John Peel

Beyonce – Sunday – Pyramid Stage

Youth Kills

thechemistryisdead — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 11:16:56 +0000

Xenomaniacs may remember a time when Xenomania seemed to work with a lot of unknown artists and a lot of it seemed to go nowhere. You may remember a band called DEKADE (previously known as NiteVisions and were in The Electric City) who were Andy and James, sons of Duran Duran’s Andy and Roger Taylor, and you may also remember Lite N Dark, a boy/girl duo that met at Xenomania and the boy was Tim Talbot who used to play keyboards in a Xenomania band that never happened. All three make up Youth Kills, remixers, producers, band etc. They’ve been working with ex-Mini Viver Britt Love on some songs. While Come With Me is a bit too Robyn-‘esque’ I really like Can’t Stop Loving You.

They’ve also done some remixes for other people. My favourite remix so far has been Ayah Marar’s Follow You. There is no original version (how Florrie) so it sounds like a straightforward noisy dance song.