Rukhsana Merrise - Money

Having held out on it for several years, just after Christmas I finally bit the bullet and subscribed to Spotify premium. For ages I'd barely even used Spotify, even at the cost of 0 per month, preferring iTunes/Apple for listening to music on the go and in the house, and YouTube as my go-to for tracks that I didn't own.

However, after several computer issues that left my iTunes virtually unable to be updated, I took the plunge and subscribed to the system, and I've barely looked back since. Being able to download playlists to listen to offline is brilliant (especially when on long walks far away from any access to the internet), and the playlists on offer to download are wonderfully diverse (although admittedly our first port of call is usually the 6music Playlist - it's barely let me down yet). As a consequence of moving over to Spotify, the amount of music that I've downloaded from iTunes has decreased exponentially, although that's a discussion for another time.

Perhaps my favourite feature of Spotify since I've started using it more often has been the Discover Weekly playlist. It looks at the music that you've listening to on Spotify and picks a playlist of 30 new tracks that it thinks you will like, in theory becoming more attuned to your musical taste the more you listen to. From personal experience, it's definitely got much more intuitive over time (in the first week I used it, 29 of the 30 tracks consisted of gospel music, which is a little bit too much for my liking), and I have discovered some genuinely fantastic songs that I would not have come across otherwise.

Which leads me, after three paragraphs of long and winding foreplay, into "Money", the latest single from London based artist Rukhsana Merrise. She isn't an artist who I would have heard about had her music not ended up on my Discover... playlist (her music appears to be very popular in Holland, if her Spotify stats are anything to go by), and I'm not entirely sure what songs I listened to that gained it admission to my list, but I'm very glad that it did. "Money" is a song that mixes elements, of pop, soul, trip-hop and Indian music into one brilliant, cosmopolitan package.

"Money" is out now.

Fold - Be Water My Friend

"Be Water My Friend" is the new single from Leeds based live trip-hop group Fold, their first release since their E.P collaboration with Mr Gee, "Salvation", back in October. In some ways, the song sees the band returning to how they operated in the past - using speech samples as a springboard for musical expression. However, the way they have done this on "Be Water My Friend" is quite different to how they've done so before.

In the past, Fold have tended to sample speeches with a political perspective, like on "Mr President, We're In Trouble". However, "Be Water My Friend" is instead more philosophical in nature, as a result of sampling a speech from the kung-fu king himself, Bruce Lee. In terms of the sound, the band have added a 3-piece brass section as well as vibraphone to their downtempo sound, and as a result, the instrumental sounds like it would not sound out of place on a 60s American spy TV show.

"Be Water My Friend" is an interesting new song from Fold - at once instantly recognisable as one of their songs, whilst still adding new ideas to the mix.

"Be Water My Friend" will be released at a 7" single on June 23rd.

Fold ft. Mr Gee - Salvation E.P

The last time this blog covered live trip-hop group Fold, we commented that the band had taken a similar approach to the sound that brought Public Service Broadcasting so many admirers, by taking vocal samples from old recordings and using them as a springboard for their own compositions. Over a year on, it seems as if that comparison was well founded, as since then the group have recorded a well-regarded remix of "Theme From PSB", as well as supporting them in their hometown of Leeds.

For their latest release, the "Salvation" E.P,  Fold have eschewed the use of vocals samples in their music, instead relying on a collaborator to add a common voice to the proceedings, performance poet Mr Gee. Across the E.Ps four tracks, meaty topics such as the behavior of politicians and the treatment of immigrants are covered, backed exquisitely by the group's wonderfully constructed tunes. The highlights of the E.P are the title track, which has echoes of the harsher sounds of Lemon Jelly, and closing track "Passing Strangers", which would not sound out of place on DJ Shadow's "Endtroducing" album.

The problem that can arise with releases with a distinctive political message is that it can detract from the universal appeal that music can, and should have. It is a credit to both Fold and Mr Gee that they have managed to create an E.P that sticks firmly to their principles, yet still should appeal to a wide audience, all while sounding incredibly brilliant.

"Salvation" will be released on October 28th.

Gibson Bull - Skin and Bones

It's a real pleasure to hear an artist taking a genre/genres so familiar and doing something rather different with it. London based singer/songwriter Gibson Bull has taken the folksy sound that has proved so popular over the past few years and mixed it up by sampling old jazz and classic records to create trip-hop inspired soundscapes. "Skin & Bones" is the most recent song of his in this style, and with its jazzy bass and beats and sincere delivery calls to mind the turn of the millenium material of 4hero, as well as bearing a striking similarity to Noah & The Whale circa "Last Night on Earth".

"Skin & Bones" is available as a free download.

The Meek Odyssey - Risky Business

I'm not too sure about you guys, but the most disappointing album that I have bought in the past few years has been "Third" by Portishead. I know that when a band disappears for 12 years you shouldn't expect them to sound exactly the same when they return, but when I heard it, I couldn't believe this was the same band responsible for one of the 90s greatest albums, "Dummy."

Where was the humanity behind the heavily processed beats that made the band so famous? "Machine Gun" still gives me an ear-ache trying to listen to it, and the only song worth listening to is "Deep Water", a 90 second ukulele ballad. For a while I've tried to imagine what I would've liked the album to sound like.

But as of today, I no longer need to imagine, as I've discovered Canadian duo The Meek Odyssey. On their track "Risky Business", they have taken the trip-hop formula that Portishead concocted all those years ago, and have updated them for the 21st century, with heavily compressed sampled drums, atmospheric synth washes, hearty string samples, and of course the honeyed vocals of Megan Keetly, which both echoes that of Beth Gibbons, with a little bit of Bjork thrown in for good measure. Sometimes, a little disappointment can lead to greater things.

"Risky Business" will feature on the band's debut album "Florid New Hymns", which is out on 25th September.