Dizzee Rascal - Boy In Da Corner
No disrespect to the Streets - I liked "Original Pirate Material" a lot - but in all honesty, this, along with More Fire Crew's album, sounds more organic and less tailormade to appeal to the white college-boy dilletantes that seem to comprise about half of the Streets' audience. Although some of the soundscapes here are deceptively pleasant-souinding on first listen, a palpable undercurrent of paranoia runs throughout almost every track. No prizes for guessing he probably smokes way too much weed.
Yoshimi & Yuka - Flower With No Colour
Ambient offshoot project featuring Boredoms drummer Yoshimi, which sounds like the comedown after the insane, headrushing trip that is "Vision Creation Newsun". Not quite sure where this fits in genre-wise, but it's a testament to it's quality that I find myself not caring either. Can function as a very atmospheric chill-out soundtrack if played very quietly late at night, but the weird chittering insect noises and environmental sounds that flow throughout almost every track make it sound slightly too unsettling to fall asleep to if played at a higher volume. Quite wonderful nonetheless.
Various Artists - Yes New York
Compilation of the current cream of NYC indie bands which is mostly fairly traditional and familiar-sounding (at least to anyone who's old enough to remember the Brit post-punk scene), but pleasingly energetic and high on songwriting prowess nonetheless. Best tracks - to my ears - are by Interpol, Radio 4 and The Rapture, whilst the track by the best known band on here, The Strokes, I have so far found to be nothing particularly special. Worth buying anyhows.
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