Esau Mwamwaya - Yoshua Alikuti (video)

So, this week I came across Esau Mwamwaya via The Fader. He's currently working with Johan Hugo (one half of Radioclit, to most people) on some incredible music, under the guise, ' The Very Best' (which does sound a bit DJ Khaled, if you ask me). 'Yoshua Alikuti' is the first track I've heard from him, and it blew my mind. I heard Lauren Laverne playing our friends' Nadastrom's remix of it on 6 Music this week, and from there I did some digging, and came across the original, which is incredible! The vocal melody is so strong, and Johan's production is as tight as ever when it comes to him putting his skills to use on less conventional (or western) club sounds. 

I'm also loving the fact that they've taken the idea for the video from Lil Wayne's 'A Milli' too, nice touch!

Download the Nadastrom remix of 'Yoshua Alikuti' for free:

http://www.thefader.com/2012/05/10/the-very-best-yoshua-alikuti-nadastrom-remix-mp3/

Further music from Esau Mwamwaya can be found here:
http://www.thefader.com/2008/10/02/freeload-the-very-best-sampler/

Mike HF

Filed under  //   A Milli   BBC 6 Music   Esau Mwamwaya   Johan Hugo   Lauren Laverne   Lil Wayne   Radioclit   The Fader   Yoshua Alikuti  
Posted May 16, 2012 by HeavyFeet 
 

Some favourites of 2011:

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Blog-wise, and I don't tend to have much time to scout round the blogs these days, but my favourite urban music blog has to be Semtex's blog: http://DJSemtex.com. In terms of useful websites that I've come across this year, We Transfer has to take the prize here: http://WeTransfer.com. There've been many albums I've enjoyed this year, but 'Watch The Throne' from Jay-Z and Kanye West, 'Take Care' from Drake, SBTRKT's self-titled debut, 'Every Kingdom' from Ben Howard and Noel Gallgher's High Flying Birds self-titled album, are all firm favourites.

This year has seen some of the artists who I've bashed people over the head with on Twitter come to see huge success, in particular, Emeli Sande and Ed Sheeran, two amazingly talented British songwriters. I'd like to say I was championing Ben Howard also, but he appeared on my radar very late in the year, thanks to Lauren Laverne on BB 6 Music. Also through her show I was very pleased to be introduced to the work of Bon Iver, Lana Del Rey, M83 and some new Friendly Fires output that I'd have probably otherwise missed out on. 

In terms of the producers who I feel have excelled this year, it's certainly worth noting what the likes of 2 Bears, RackNRuin, Redlight and of course Noah Shebib (Drake's producer) have been doing. They've all produced some great music during 2011. Music people who have been an inspiration to watch and learn from this year most certainly include Eddy Temple-Morris (for his unique, all round manner, and great CMU columns I've previously blogged about), Nick Bright (a leading light at BBC 1Xtra, in terms of quality presenting talent) and Zed Bias (the mans work rate scares me... and we get told we're super-productive! Zed is on a whole new level of the term 'productive').

I could go on, but I want to keep this short, really. It's been a great year for British music, and a great year for us as HeavyFeet. Big up 2011!

Mike HF

Filed under  //   BBC 6 Music   BBC Radio 1Xtra   Ben Howard   Bon Iver   Dj Semtex   Drake   Ed Sheeran   Eddy Temple Morris   Emeli Sande   Friendly Fires   HeavyFeet   Jay-Z   Kanye West   Lana Del Rey   Lauren Laverne   M83   Nick Bright   Noah Shebib   Noel Gallagher   RackNRuin   Red Light   SBTRKT   The 2 Bears   We Transfer   Zed Bias  
Posted December 31, 2011 by HeavyFeet 
 

Walk (or drive) a mile in my shoes:

I'm listening to the 6 Mix on BBC 6 Music at present, and Death In Vegas is playing some of his favourite music on Andrew Weatherall's show. Some pretty cool stuff, if you ask me (although some of it's going over my head).

Anyway, Richard Fearless (D.I.V) just introduced a track that he said reminded him of a day when he was driving around New York with a friend, where they were listening to said record. After he said this I had a weird flashback to a similar experience of driving round West Hollywood in 2006 with a guy called Max, who I know out there, and he introduced me to this amazing Coldcut track (which some of you have just seen me tweet) as he was driving me from his studio back to the hotel I was staying in:

The picture of the car isn't that relevant to the track, although it sort of is. This is the car (a gold Ford Mustang) from the film The Convenant, which we happened to be driving around in that day, as Max had worked on the film, and had bought it once the film was shot (as the studio had no need to hold on to it). I remember driving down Hollywood Boulevard at one point as we were driving around, and there was the car, on a billboard outside the Kodak Theatre. 

A memorable day. Strange that I'd forgotten about it. Must take more time to reflect on things pre-2011! 

Anyway, enjoy the track. It's a Coldcut masterpiece as far as I'm concerned. 

Mike HF

Filed under  //   Andrew Weatherall   BBC 6 Music   Coldcut   Death In Vegas   Richard Fearless   The Convenant  
Posted November 13, 2011 by HeavyFeet 
 

New Noel Gallagher interview (audio)

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Been meaning to listen to this for a couple of weeks now, and just got around to it.

Steve Lamacq interviews Noel Gallagher for BBC 6 Music. Listen here.

Mike HF

Filed under  //   BBC 6 Music   Noel Gallagher   Steve Lamacq  
Posted October 31, 2011 by HeavyFeet