A word of advice to rappers trying to make it to the next level of hype on the net: don’t use a roman numeral for a name. Seriously, how am I supposed to Google you and pretend to have known all about your freestyles for months before the mixtape dropped? Can’t do it. Won’t do it.

Luckily, XV (call him ‘X tot the Vizzy’ of you’re not down with numerals unless it’s at the end of a ‘Saw’ title…) has the talent to make him float to the top.

He wasn’t on the XL ‘freshmen’ list. He hasn’t been hanging out with Lil’ Wayne all that much. He’s just been releasing good tracks and people are starting to stumble over the towering amount of fans and admirers he’s been able to gather so far.

Listen to Vizzy introduce himself:

His new Mixtape is called ‘30 Minute Layover’. Watch this kid.

Download link after the jump.

DOWNLOAD ‘30 MINUTES LAYOVER’ BY XV

01 Intro
02 Warmup Freestyle
03 Top Of The World
04 Championship
05 Nothing On You
06 X.plosi.V.e
07 Lift The Game
08 I’m V!zZy
09 One Thing
10 This Plane
11 Friendly Skies (Outro)

(via 2DopeBoyz)

How good is THIS?

No, seriously. If you download only one thing this week: let this be it.

Gonzales, now (officially) called Chilly Gonzales, has released a mixtape with piano interpretations of Fifty Cent, Lil’ Wayne, Beyonce, etc… mixed with interview snippets and even a Rocky monologue.

Quote:

“You know those rap beats and electro songs – the ones with almost nothing in them? Tipsy, Grindin’, A Millie, Rollin’ and Scratchin’, Single Ladies? Well, I go all Liberace on these beats with my piano and my orchestra. Claude Von Stroke, 50 Cent, Kelly Clarkson, Rocky Balboa and Gonzo himself all make cameos.”

Press play.

It’s hard to explain why I love this man so much, but I’ll give it a go.

(Download link after the jump.)

Download at arts-crafts.

The first time I saw Gonzales, I mainly went to see him because I heard some white Canadian was doing a rap-act with a white girl named Peaches, both dressed as superheroes with a strap-on for the girl (and sometimes for the dude, too…). It was a gig at 1 in the afternoon at a small festival. There were about fifty people there. A cow was peacefully grazing about ten feet away from the stage. The headliner that night was (no kidding) a Led Zeppelin tribute band. The gig lasted about half an hour with Gonzales rapping over a taperecorder and attempting to start a fight with Alec Empire (see Aatari 3000), who he apparently had a tiff with backstage. I laughed a lot and, strangely, actually thought he was good. Not just funny. But really good.

The second time I saw Gonzales, he was performing at about 3 in the afternoon at a bigger festival. It was scorching hot. The tent was packed because some popular crap hipster electronica band who I won’t mention here was playing right after. (It’s better they stay forgotten.) Gonzales came on dressed in a tropical outfit, helmet and all. Killed it. Everybody laughed. Peaches was getting famous by then and people recognised her voice on the tape in the back. And then the man in the tropical outfit rolled out a piano and said ‘Listen! No. Listen! I made this! I’m not kidding. This is really me!’ And then he started playing an impromptu (Yeah, I know classical terms. Bite me.). I was baffled. This wasn’t just some fiddling about. This was gooooooood. Like music to melt your spine and make everything, the heat, the crowd, the tent, the stale beer smell, the burn on my shoulders.. just fade away into a blur that could not reach you inside your cocoon.

The piece he played was from the yet to be released ‘Solo Piano’ record, which was just re-released in a deluxe edition.

Get it.

(Mixtape via the ever watchful Asian Dan)

Gareth Pugh’s vision of summer looks like the kind of garbs a friendly, advanced society would wear in an RPG game. He literally went from seeing everything in black and white to going for soft shades of grey.

Matthew Stone is (again) responsible for the soundtrack, which kind of sounds like the Spring Summer soundtrack from last year with a bit of the dark romance of Requiem for a Dream mixed in.

Press play.

Download link after the jump.

DOWNLOAD HERE

Image culled from Fashionising and Some/Things.

You might not know this, but when I’m not kicking ass in the morning and taking names in the evening, I like to stare out the window at noon. Preferably to the soundtrack of Magnetic Fields’  69 Love Songs.

This classic double-hitter was released in 1999 and I have no idea how I found it. There was no promo, no hype. I just happened to listen to it and love it. For those of you who haven’t heard it: it’s sweet, sad, arty and poppy and a purrrrfect soundtrack to staring into the distance and wondering when your future is going to start. (I did a lot of that in 1999.)

Quote from the Magnetic Fields website:

“The story has it that Stephin Merritt came up with the idea for “69 Love Songs” while sitting in an elegant midtown Manhattan gay piano bar. He originally planned for it to be a live musical revue, performed with a rotating cast of singers in the plush hotel bars and cabarets of New York City.”

69 Love Songs is loved by most of your favourite artists. If you listen to it, you’ll love it, too.

It will now be re-released as 6 x 10″ vinyl collectables and a booklet of new liner notes.

(via Pitchfork)

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If you thought the internet was feeling a bit cramped today, you were right. Right now, millions of hipsters, bloggers and twitterati are spewing their opinion about the surprise drop of January 2010: new fake Justice.

UPDATE: Boy, did we get punked. It’s a fake. A good fake, but a fake. Woops.

Press play to listen to the track that fooled ‘em all.

Download link after the jump.

There will be no new Justice material this year, people are saying. Other people are saying this was new material, but it got yanked because everyone thought it sucked. The official Ed Banger blogs are sitting this one out for now… Moving on.

DOWNLOAD FAKE JUSTICE – THE BEGINNING OF THE END (right click, save as)

Ding Dong. Christmas is here. DJ Sega ups the tempo for a new version of the Jingle Bells classic and Prince Zimboo threatens to chop any man that comes through his chimney.

DJ Sega – Carols of the Bells (Philly Club Remix)

A Mad Merry Christmas from Mad Decent.

Prince Zimboo & where to go for both downloads after the jump.

Prince Zimboo – Santa Flaws

DOWNLOAD BOTH TRACKS AT THE MAD DECENT BLOG

(NOTE to Zimboo fans: Google the new ‘Goosfraba’ track: “Zimboo likes girls who are beautifull or booty full/ me no care if you shaped like orange.”)

Attention marketing people. Your trend forecast for today includes: dancing in your underwear with a shower cap on, wearing gold beer cans as rollers, Dominicans and Latin America in general.

Vamonos, papi.

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Watagatapitusberry. By Black Point. It’s the new ’supercalafragilisticexplialigocious’. But dirtier. Be Happy. Don’t worry. What does it mean? It means: “Baby, you es Spaghetti’. But not really.

Black Point – Toy Selectah remix (Mad Decent)

(via 8106)

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Maluca – El Tigeraso. Beats by Diplo.

Confused? Lean back, take a sip from your Mad Decent cup and look like you get it. It’s a start.

BUY ‘EM HERE

I kind of might have maybe forgotten to include the Flairs – Trucker’s Delight video in my previous ‘Eyecandy’ post. That won’t do. Oh no. Not this time.

Why? Because it’s 8-bit ultraviolence with strippers, money shots, blood guts and a whole lot of poo. Like a car crash with a truck full of porn stars. On a Sega Megadrive. You get the idea. Can’t watch. Have to watch.

The ‘Trucker’s Delight’ track itself is from 2008. You might remember it popping up in the Soulwax Essential Mix on BBC last year. What’s that? Don’t have the Soulwax Essential Mix yet?

Press play.

SOULWAX – PETE TONG ESSENTIAL HOT MIX

And/or download it after the jump., where you’ll also find the Flairs’ video and the Soulwax tracklist.

Enjoy!

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Soulwax- –Part of the Weekend Never Dies
Kissing The Pin – Big Man Restless
Sonic Youth 100%
Wire – Three Girl Rhumba
ZZT – The Worm (Erol Edit)
Esser – Headlock
In Flagranti – Business Accumen
Lele -Disco Vraiment
MGMT- Kids (Soulwax Remix)
Simian Mobile Disco – “Nike Run Edit”
Todd Terry – Can You Party…
Simple Minds – I Travel
Action Man – Zombie Dance
Flairs – Truckers Delight
Chemical Brothers – ‘Hey Boy Hey Girl (Soulwax Remix)
Beathoven – Soulwax Edit
Zombie Nation – Forza
Sheila E – Glamorous Life

DOWNLOAD SOULWAX @ PETE TONG ESSENTIAL HOT MIX

I’ve been working on a new project. Can’t talk too much about it right now. What I can do is share some of the stuff that’s inspiring me along the way.

Ever since the new Raf Simons site launched about two weeks ago, I found myself stopping by almost on a daily basis to get my fix of art direction brilliance (courtesy of Pierre Debusschere) and good tunes, too. Clicking around, you’ll find more good music than you’ll hear on most runways these days. As a treat, I’ve dug up the ‘I’m the only Dominator’ intro the site uses for its opening page and uploaded it for your pleasure.

You can use it to start your next mixtape or podcast and pretend to be like Raf.

Download link after the jump, as well as the two fitting films Pierre Debusschere made for Raf Simons’ “diary”.

MP3 DOWNLOAD:

DOMINATOR INTRO

Here’s the orginal:

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Answering the age old question: “So what you done good?”, Buraka Som Sistema  goes back to Buraka -their original neighbourhood in Portugal- to throw their peeps a bona fide block party. Vodafone supported the whole thing and made a film about it as part of their rather excellent ‘Heroes’ series (more of about its line-up incl. Santigold & The Horrors later on).

Above: the trailer (via Vice)

Watch the rest of the clips and pictures and explore the entire ‘HEROES’ series HERE.

Note: KNOTORYUS is not responsible for any dubious messages on T-shirts worn in this film.

After the jump: Listen to the Buraka Som Sistema – IC19 Deathface remix.

Buraka Som Sistema – IC19 (Deathface remix)