Single of the Week: Kanye West - "Black Skinhead" (Live on SNL)

You know, I was worried. Maybe I wasn't the only one. Maybe I still ought to be. The reputation of My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, the last Kanye West solo album is only for someone as brilliantly ambitious as the one who made it to be able to face. Far from shying from it, or introducing the new album with a relatively modest or "safe" sound (like those from the intermediary Watch the Throne and Cruel Summer projects), Kanye instead chose to debut two songs for his Saturday Night Live performance that demonstrated the next creative leap of his career.
"New Slaves" had already made it online, as shaky camera phone footage captured a projection of Kanye's head projected onto the side of buildings across the globe, but "Black Skinhead" was entirely new, and even more of a radical departure. Built on the industrial-glam shuffle that underpins Marilyn Manson's "The Beautiful People", it's surely going to be one of the most divisive stylistic changes in rap this year. But the SNL performance is nothing if thrilling: if MBDTF was Kanye facing and overcoming his demons, here he sounds indistinguishable from them, screaming and yelling in a way that overcomes ridicule by emulating the feeling of genuine menace.

"Black Skinhead" and "New Slaves" will feature on Kanye West's upcoming album Yeezus, out 18th June via G.O.O.D. Music / Def Jam.

In The News: Flying Lotus, Radiohead, Arcade Fire, David Byrne

Quite a few things to get through this time around. I only planned to do a couple but things kind of got out of hand. Oh well.


Flying Lotus

This is the cover of hip-hop spacemonger Flying Lotus' gargantuan new mix, Lovers Melt 2, the sequel to his Stones Throw Podcast #66: Lovers Melt he provided for the label a few months back. It's nigh-on two and a half hours long. You know my previous post, Summer Playlist For 2011? Yeah, forget about it, for it has been overshadowed. FlyLo says "Some of my favorite songs ever.. Some you know, some you might not..". Download it *here or pick it up from his Brainfeeder label's site.

Radiohead

Meanwhile FlyLo's buddy Thom Yorke's band Radiohead have been busy recording their special From the Basement episode, the show from longtime Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich. The episode shows the band playing their recent album The King Of Limbs in its entirety, and showcased two new songs: "Staircase" and "The Daily Mail". They were also joined by Portishead's drummer, Clive Deamer. As they say, two 'heads are better than one, (moan).

The band have also commissioned a series of 12" remix singles of the TKOL album tracks. The first features Caribou's take on "Little By Little", whilst Jacques Greene tackles "Lotus Flower", and is out now. The second is reported to feature a take on "Morning Mr. Magpie" from Nathan Fake, and two "Bloom" remixes from Mark Pritchard. SBTRKT is supposedly also working on a Radiohead remix, though we can't be entirely sure at this stage whether it'll be officially released as part of this series. Here's hoping.

The special From The Basement episode premiered on Spain's Canal+ last Friday, and is available below, thanks to the magic of Youtube. Check your TV schedules to see when it'll be broadcast in your country (via BBC Worldwide). Also below is the first remix single for the streaming.

Arcade Fire, David Byrne

Arcade Fire's Spike Jonze-directed short Scenes From the Suburbs has finally surfaced. A shortened snippet served as the music video for the title track from The Suburbs last year, but now the entire 30 minute film is available right about here. Scenes From the Suburbs will also soon be packaged with the deluxe edition of The Suburbs, alongside two new bonus tracks: "Culture War" and "Speaking in Tongues", the latter of which features contributed vocals from Talking Heads' David Byrne, appropriately enough. Now that's three Heads in one post!

Music video for "The Suburbs" is below, as well as a trailer for Byrne's documentary Ride, Rise, Roar, which has recently been released on Blu-Ray and DVD by Eagle Rock Entertainment. The film, directed by David Hillman Curtis, documents Byrne's 2009 tour behind the Everything That Happens Will Happen Today album, a collaboration with Brian Eno. Check Amazon, as I always say.

Lastly, Brian Eno's new album, Drums Between the Bells has just been released via Warp Records, and might just be the best thing since sliced bread, in this bloggers humble opinion. Just thought I'd throw it out there.