It's the Supersound

I get the feeling that many artists are honing their holiday “givings”, and frankly, we’re ok with that! See, it really “tis the season” to be generous, and while we like laying a ton of love on you, it’s only because we’re reciprocating all the joy we’ve been thrown. For instance…

The Chicagoan electro duo, Moneypenny, are warming our yuletide logs with three gifts, neatly wrapped and full of cheer.

First up, is the 2-sided single, which features Moneypenny’s reworking of the classic Peanuts’ song, Christmas Time Is Here, into an ultra funky jam. A cover of the Joy Division song, Love Will Tear Us Apart, serves as the B-Side. Additionally, the gals put together a special holiday mixtape, which is the final installment of their Spandexxx monthly series.

And yep, you’re getting all three…for free.

mp3: Moneypenny – Christmas Time Is Here
mp3: Moneypenny – Love Will Tear Us Apart (Joy Division Cover)
mp3: Moneypenny – Spandexxxmas Mixtape ’09

Between numerous television appearances, promotional performances in support of latest album Rated R, and filming the video for her next single, Rihanna found time to announce a string of dates in various UK arenas beginning in May 2010.

The mini tour, as promoted by Live-Nation, will hit eight venues across the UK, with tickets going on sale this Friday, December 11. Dates below.

May 07 – Birmingham LG Arena
May 08 – Liverpool Echo Arena
May 10 – London O2 Arena
May 13 – Sheffield Arena
May 14 – Nottingam Arena
May 16 – Manchester Evening News Arena
May 17 – Newcastle Arena
May 19 – Glasgow SECC

Rihanna recently made mention of a “daring” and “somewhat of a spectacle” world tour, while on the set of the video for her next single, Hard. The tour is slated to begin in spring 2010, although no dates have thus been confirmed.

mp3: Rihanna (featuring Evan Roberts and Jeezy) – Hard (Starkiller Remix)

Building upon its acclaimed reputation as a premier presenter of noteworthy emerging and established independent music, New York City’s summer-oriented Seaport Music Festival debuts its latest venture: Seaport Music Records.

First up for SMR is the release of This Christmas, a retro-styled, alternative holiday single by The Elves of Heaven, featuring Martin Clancy. And in the spirit of the holiday season, the single is being offered up as a free stocking stuffer!

In conjunction with the release of This Christmas, Clancy will become the first Seaport Music Records Artist in Residence. He is commissioned to “create, collaborate, and produce” a series of releases for the label over the course of the next two years.

mp3: The Elves of Heaven (featuring Martin Clancy) – This Christmas

Please excuse me while I completely nerd out for a few minutes. One thing you might not know about my beastly nature is that I do get a little excited by sweeping theatrical releases. And never has been more the case than with the impending viewing of the Rob Marshall directed, Nine. (fine, go ahead and judge me.)

Yep, I’m all sorts of psyched to catch this film, and what’s even better, is that with a star studded cast including Daniel Day-Lewis, Judi Dench, Nicole Kidman, Marion Cotillard and Penelope Cruz, among others, comes the release of the soundtrack. Tracks featured in the film will include voicework by Griffith Frank, Fergie and The Noisettes.

Watch the trailer for this sultry stageshow via the silver screen now.

mp3: Kate Hudson – Cinema Italiano (The Ron Fair Remix)

Back in September, you might have heard a loud “thud” as this beast was felled by a pretty killer mix of The XX’s Night Time, as done up by the Toronto duo, What Kind Of Breeze Do You Blow? The kids have caused a wave of excitement with their quality fixes of blog favorite tracks from Kings of Convenience, Phoenix and El Perro Del Mar.

A little pre-Christmas bit of news though, as the boys are shying away from the remix game and focusing their efforts on the release of their Love of Luxury EP, which offers the first taste of original WKBDYB material.

Tracks verge on the edges of tribal and quirky, to heavy techy, through ambient cosmos. Remixes come from Tronik Youth and Lake Heartbeat, both providing their signature takes on WKBDYB’s efforts. Check the track list, and all the way at the bottom, they’re giving away one of the EP cuts.

1. Love of Luxury
2. The Probe
3. Your Analog #2
4. Love of Luxury (Tronik Youth Penthouse Mix)
5. Love of Luxury (Lake Heartbeat’s Lake Luxury Remix)

What Kind Of Breeze Do You Blow?’s Love of Luxury EP is out December 14. Preorder here.

mp3: What Kind Of Breeze Do You Blow – The Probe
mp3: Yuksek – Extraball (What Kind Of Breeze Do You Blow Remix)

Diplo was everywhere in 2009, whether it was standing beside Switch as Major Lazer or destroying dancefloors with his DJing and solo productions. It’s only fitting that world’s biggest dance music magazine, Mixmag, should enlist him to put together their end of year cover CD: 2009 Rewind.

And what a magnificent rewind it is. Diplo cuts, scratches and mixes his way through last year’s anthems from noted notables like Prodigy (Invaders Must Die), Chase and Status (Eastern Jam) and Major Lazer (Pon De Floor). It’s an absolute classic which begs the question…how the hell can we top 2009?

We’ve got a three-track sampler to get the love fest flowing. Tracks are as follows.

1. Major Lazer (featuring VYBZ Kartel & Afrojack) – Pon De Floor
2. Amanda Blank – Something Bigger, Something Better
3. L-VIS 1990 – United Groove (MJ Cole mix)

Is it just me, or did Diplo create the mix solely for this beast? Three of my favorite tracks…and I can’t wait to hear the rest of the album!

mp3: Diplo – Mixmag 2009 Rewind (Three Track Sampler)

Thunderous Olympian, he of 22 years old and hailing from the ruralest of Kansas, now brings a powerful hammer swing to his current digs in Chicago. The young lad has quite the handle on the techno house scene, as evidenced by his recent release, the adequately titled, Turbo Charged EP.

Turbo Charged is TO’s first vinyl release (after a string of mp3s, remixes, and crazy hyper-illegal bootleg remixes). It’s 4 tracks of INTENSELY dancefloor-friendly party bangers touching on elements of techno, deep house, jack trax, and classic rave. It’s all shimmery, unforgettably catchy melodies flittering over novel rhythm arrangements and mad bassline pressure.

Dudeman’s songs make my pulse race and my sweat flow in extreme fashion. It’s basically the best heart attack you could ever hope for!

Below, the track list, and after that, you know we’ve got a freebie for you.

A1 Hard Mode
A2 Jack (The Movie)
B1 The Sermon
B2 Cars

Thunderous Olympian’s Turbo Charged EP will be out later this month. Stay tuned here.

mp3: Thunderous Olympian – Jack (The Movie)

Ever since word broke that a new Sade album was due out in 2010, there have been many a wanting ear yearning to know what the decade long wait since Lovers Rock would hold. The soulfully funky English outfit’s 6th studio album, Soldier of Love, will be out February 8, worldwide.

Three months to the date prior to the album release, the first official single, of the same name as the offering, is officially released. Solider of Love begins with a whoosh, a horn, and a heavy drum beat…all within the first 10 seconds of play.

From the official release:
“Sade co-produced the single Soldier of Love with Mike Pela and it was written by Sade along with longtime collaborators Andrew Hale, Stuart Matthewman and Paul Spencer Denman. The track, featuring a pulsating and anthemic drum beat along with the haunting vocals that Sade is known for, is set to hit airwaves on December 8th.”

Hauntingly anthemic and pulsating indeed! My favorite part rings in when Sade begins a pleading chant at the 1:39 mark…

Easily, I’ve got my track to obsess over for the day. Get in on it!

mp3: Sade – Soldier of Love

Can you fall in love in one minute? No? Well, you might just do so after giving an ear to this snippet of a cut from Trina‘s upcoming album, Amazin’, due out out March 30, 2010. (thanks to popbytes for reminding me to check in on the Miami mami today!)

Slip-N-Slide Records’ first lady comes back with a vengeance in the first quarter of the upcoming year with her 5th studio album. Late in August, she released the first single, That’s My Attitude, and now, she’s gearing up for the second offering from the disc.

Admission: I had heard a leaked snip of the song, Let Them Hoes Fight, which features Lady Gaga on chorus vocals, back in early September. I was fairly adamant that it wasn’t the glampop extraordinare’s pipes providing the punch, however, it was just revealed that yes, in fact, it is legit. In a recent interview with XXL, Trina talks about her feelings on the early leak…

“That’s a record that came out, but we didn’t actually clear it to come out. I just hate the fact that stuff like that happens. I have a lot of respect for Lady Gaga and being able to work with her meant so much to me and to have it come out like that was just disappointing to me. Jim Jonsin actually reached out to me about being on the record and when I heard the record I went nuts. I love her music. I love how creatively over the top she is. I didn’t get to work with her in the studio personally, but to get to do the record was an honor.”

You can listen to a minute-long clip below, and the full single will be out later this month. I’ve had this snippet on repeat for the past hour…“watch me swing my weave!”

mp3: Trina (featuring Lady Gaga) – Let Them Hoes Fight

By no means do I consider myself a Weezy aficianado, but what I do know, is a hot slice of “I’mm’a slap you in the face with my 80s movie soundtrack base” hip-hop when I hear it. Hey Lil Wayne, what have you got cooking for us today?

Wayne’s On Fire hit my inbox a few minutes ago, and it literally has set everything ablaze, for lack of any better terminology. Nestled over an iconic beat/sample, Lil dudeman drips his gritty and syrupy vocals down with a staccatoed consistency…if that makes sense to you.

Plus when you hear Weezy decry:

…you’d be hard pressed not to love this jam, which will appear on Lil Wayne’s upcoming rock album, Rebirth, due out December 21.

I’m inclined to say (although I know I’m wrong, since it’s this) that the sample comes from what is, basically, the best, and obviously raddest titled, movie to ever be made. It’s Rad, duh. Only cause I will always look for an excuse to reference that fine piece of filmmaking.

mp3: Lil Wayne – On Fire