Kingdom ft. Shyvonne - Mind Reader

there aren't too many threads about individual tracks on ilm any more, but this is quite simply the best club track i've heard over the past year, from the first astounding drop to the amazing todd edwards-esque cut-up vox to that twisting worm of a bassline to shyvonne's incredible diva performance, both pleading and denouncing. this is what the urban/dance fusion should've sounded like!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQVbyYdaPBs

dude's also done a ton of great mixes that i've linked to passim - lower end spasm, discobelle, [Removed Illegal Link].

appropriately enough there's also an ACTUAL todd the god remix of "mind reader" -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQqox8cK1Ac

also, this remix of kid sister's "right hand hi" last year was banging.

uh i meant this one

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOClfXLD6Wo

Is Kingdom = KKingdom?

maybe? his myspace is http://www.myspace.com/kkingdomm and he's @kkingdomm on twitter

not sure if there's another kkingdom out there but this kingdom used to go by kkingdomm on occassions before it got too confusing.

also, i still dig this but i think before the official release it was less... busy? near the end? or maybe i'd just been jumping around in the track and never noticed it.

lol glad i opened this thread

Here's a mix by him; http://soundcloud.com/fabric/kingdom-fabriclive-fools-gold-promo-mix

At least I think it's (a) him. Lovely mix, starts with Acid Eiffel which is neat.

yup that's him - tried to link in my first post but it came out as [illegal link] for some reason.

yeah, he just got on fool's gold a few months back.

damn this joint is d-_-b

yeah feels like the platonic ideal of the urban dance stuff that i kind of vaguely remember when i was like 12

like i know what the stuff im talking abt sounds like, i just couldnt tell u any of the acts or anything

Great great track.

Yeah it's fantastic - the sort of song I once hoped that bassline would regularly throw in the direction of the charts. Obviously this won't chart but it's enormously enjoyable nonetheless.

i like the song, but the production seems so self-aware in squirelling around all its grime/2step/bassline/junglebreaks references that it kind of detracts from the total force of feeling. boy i'm not an rss readerrrr, readerrr.

I think the real genius of this is the mammoth amount of space opened up by those trance/proghouse synths - space in both a practical, aural sense but also in a semiotic sense. Like, where the fuck am I? What club plays this stuff??

The trance synths are kind of what I don't like about it. Actually it's this huge grab bag of various stylistic quirks, and rather than coming across as a synthesis that leads to something new, it just seems like they threw in everything but the kitchen sink (unless I'm wrong and one of those percussive sounds is a sample of a kitchen sink) and came up with a camel.

Monster bassline, though.

Aw man I'm tellin you the trance synths make it. Otherwise it wouldn't be quite cheap enough!

i like the song, but the production seems so self-aware in squirelling around all its grime/2step/bassline/junglebreaks references that it kind of detracts from the total force of feeling. boy i'm not an rss readerrrr, readerrr.

Yeah it's total blog house and I agree the production could probably do with a bit of space. Not heard the Todd Edwards mix yet though.

Weird, I feel like it's got acres of space.

mebbe i dont get the refs enough but this sounds more like radio house than blog house 2 me

dunno what radio you're hearing bruv.

i dunno, it's not so much actual nuum nerd refererences (altho - what is the ponderous empty wiley riddim at the intro - lol could it even be that 9/11 one!!) it's more stuff like the bassline verses having garage tss-tss-tss throughout AND dnb breaks clutter at the end of every bar.

tbh i'm just wishing it was full-on punishing transgender trance all the way thru rather than merely the bookends.

although it could just as easily be better off sticking to any one (or two) of whatever's going on.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6RRmwiH6QI

this is the todd mix btw. it is great, classic, super todd but like... what do you even do with that any more. prefer to chew over different, possibly flawed versions instead tbh.

a happy hardcore mix would be sublime

DJ PANACEA

i'm with tracer on hearing the acres of space in this, i've never really felt it's too cluttered - i think he's quite judicious with how much he lets in of any particular sound - like how there are elements of bassline, inc the 4x4 beat, but the 4x4 beat also ties it into big-room techno. and shyvonne's such a huge presence that she dominates proceedings quite effectively anyway.

ridic to call it blog house - i can see the fidget aspects leaning it in that direction but it doesn't quite make it there, still feels more or less just old rave and garage. he's actually decried the ubiquity of blog house in an article or two.

...and trance synths are so needed to counter that shit in this day and age, i can even admit that as an adamant "blah blah blah trance sucks" househead. i'm actually excited about him getting exposure now as i want to see what if anything he'll do around those in respect to reggaeton - it hasn't really come up much as the typical audience for his music doesn't care much he's also big into old 90's/early 2k mixtapes from the likes of djs blass, playero, nelson, etc, i.e. before reggaeton became known for being melodramatic autotuned pop this and that. hoping he gets to it soon actually considering time's dwindling down before the bloggy types take that up, if they don't get to mambo or traditional merengue first.

late last year jd twitch (stirmonster of this bailiwick) did an entire set of CUMBIA for tim sweeney's radio show!! it was awesome! but failed to ignite a worldwide blog-driven cumbia craze afaik

cumbia / "digital" cumbia or whatever is _absolutely_ what everyone is doing now, which is why i say there's not much time left for the rest of the larger latin genres viable to dance music to be hit

haha seriously?? man

into the cfcf remix which pulls it back a bit

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ND64f2XYQrw

Yeah maybe it's more Basement Jaxx than blog house - something about the unnecessary flourishes on each beat. That said, its not a criticism at all, I really like peak era Basement Jaxx and I really like this.

(I didn't mean blog house as pejorative either really - thinking of this more as a possible route back for the sort of kitchen sink maximalism I've mostly associated with terrible dance music over the past few years)

But yeah this is all about Shyvonne's vocal. Are there any UK funky diva tracks, In The Morning aside, with this sort of snap to the vocals?

less jaxx more something like this 4 me but ymmv

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YynWeLqTFAE&feature=related

interview today in vman

interview in fact is really great, also this quote has me excited: "I guess “Mind Reader” and “You” have this intense, emotional side, whereas the new stuff almost sounds more spiritual, shamanistic club music."

ha just realised its by the lex

pitchfork last wednesday

ok, apparently the interviews aren't stopping. in fact mag friday.

AND DUMMY this is getting kind of funny.

"Are these the symbols I see you wearing in pictures? Do they have any specific meaning?

Yeah, people always asked me to defend that at school, because there always was this occult, spiritual element to my visual work, but the whole point is that it’s inspired by sounds but there’s no spiritual thing it’s referencing. It’s my own spiritual language."

I bet being in this guys class was hell!

It seems perfect to me that the R&B names mentioned in his pitchfork interview are Teedra Moses, Jazmine Sullivan and (yes!) Yummy Bingham - perfect not only in the sense of "awesome taste" but it's not coincidental I think that the first two are the R&B divas from the perspective of uk funky. I like the sensibility it implies.

Also Ciara and Memoirs of a Perfect angel in the Fact/Dummy ones

They're great too obv but it's not quite the same thing IMO. Teedra/Jazmine/Yummy says something very specific I think.

No disrespect intended toward Ciara or Mariah (tho).

i thought we already learned from kode9 that the replicants were getting smarter.

makes me wonder if with those trancey synths, he could be trying to do to tricky/terius something similar to what speed garage did to todd edwards if that makes sense

Excited about seeing Kingdom, Girl Unit, Bok Bok, & some other dude (Monolithium???) next week.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__TJzz0LJ4o

:D

Cute, but kind of awkward?

Yeah, I am kinda surprised by how simple that beat is. Seems like was trying to stay out of the way.

there was legal beef re: rights over mind reader, i'm surprised they got back together again at all but he's a nice guy - probably a factor.

hey wait, fauxmarc- didn't i dance with you last night? dj rashad?

lol no i wish i'd gone but i did the pothead pass out and wake up at 1:30 thing.

oops ok lol

love me like it's the end of the world
and i'm the very. last. girl.
your good love's got me floatin around
we can (???) to the kingdom sound
sail away on the breeze together
in the trees forever we can do whatever
i'm a boss chick, babygirl, bad mutha
talkin slick, mouth quick, baby you could own this

"deep in love we drown to the kingdom sound"

loves it

the prince william fade to mind mix is bangin', cannot wait for tomorrow

http://fadetomind.net/audio/ftm_mix_001.mp3

sooo jealous

Anyone else going tonight in Seattle?

That party was sick. And I even left before NGUZUNGUZU came on!

T Williams ft Terri Walker - Heartbeat (Paul Woolford Rewurq)

This is an absolute jam, I love the way she makes my heart go BOOM BOOM BOOM.

Yeah that's a great track. Paul Woolford, at his best, is unfuckable-with as a producer. Weird that he's coming up in sets of this sort of stuff and even in straight funky sets, almost seems the wrong kind of ravey but his stretchy MDMA noises always sound great.

that remix has never really overtaken the original (or the mosca remix) enough for me

xp

co-sign on that, I've always thought The Truth was a really under-rated album. His sounds are so brutal and earthy but in the best ways.

Woolford >>>>> Mosca even when Woolford is being lazy.

The original is vv good though.

Yeah the Mosca is kind of underwhelming? It doesn't have "make it go BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM" either obv.

it's not as good as the original obv but i find the vocal treatment lovely and tactile. can't really hear anything notable about the woolford one at all

"make it go BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM"

ok the mosca remix has those amazing echoing birdsong noises and the STRINGS! and those awesome tactile bass pads in place of the booms. the woolford one just sits there and doesn't add anything except slightly tuffer beats

I know let's drop this and instead talk about this awesome and overlooked prior Terri Walker number from 10 years ago:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9t7WhQ2ZN_8

or her awesome new track with donae'o

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TpJeu9Ua7ew

(donae'o's new album is out, or soon to be out, and is really good btw - i haven't had time to really big it up anywhere)

Yeah love "When Angels Sing". The Donaeo album is actually up for free download from the dude himself weirdly. First listen seemed good.

the woolford one just sits there and doesn't add anything except slightly tuffer beats

He doesn't add much to the first half but the second half is completely different! I'd say what Woolford brings is, if not an acid house sensibility then certainly a bleepier, techier vibe, that big ascending hook in the second half is what makes the track for me. Sensibly he doesn't mess with the original's bassline as well - the bass pads are what put me off the Mosca version (although I like the strings and the bird noises).

If we're talking Woolford then maybe his acidy sensibility comes out more on tunes like the second half of this absolute banger:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnmsZaaSJrg

This is also marvellous:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-_pSv9Qh3U

rizzla (on kingdom's f2m label)'s free collab ep with blk.adonis is pretty on-point

http://soundcloud.com/rizzladj/bekiki-blk-adonis-rizzla-pnp

http://db.tt/yfTZIBgx (ep dl)

lol why is Talib Kweli on the Donaeo album

also lol: Donaeo's James Brown impression

Is Kweli the first US rapper to appear on an (I'm assuming) UK funky track? As a guest in his own right rather than remix form, I mean.

He strikes me as the worst possible rapper to put over funky but that's neither here nor there.

ha i didn't realise that was talib kweli, the promo version came without guest vocalist info (SO ANNOYING WHY CAN'T PEOPLE FIX UP)

new EP in a couple weeks with "stalker ha"/"let you no"/other stuff

http://soundcloud.com/blogtracks/kingdom-dreama-ep

mndr - cut me out (kingdom rmx)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAGICuVXwBk

New mix
http://www.thefader.com/2012/01/06/download-fade-to-minds-fader-mix/

lol he did the soundtrack to darkness ii!

http://agenda.complex.com/thedarknessii

haven't had a chance to listen to this yet but

http://soundcloud.com/fadetomind/fadefm-july27-2012-kingdom

http://soundcloud.com/fadetomind/fadefm-11-2-12

^^^^2.5 hour mix with mikeq, nguzus, total freedom. yeaaaaaaaaaaaah

(deej if he is reading this will prob be interested to hear it has "mirror dance" v near the beginning)

http://www.xlr8r.com/news/2012/12/kingdom-announces-compilation-fa

http://25.media.tumblr.com/bac7fd448c2c1cf1db6c7b8d9cd61538/tumblr_mkdvzr45XX1qa7dyho1_1280.jpg

https://soundcloud.com/kkingdomm/bank-head-feat-kelela

I guess this is maybe not the best existing thread for it, but here's an excellent interview with Rizzla about appropriation in dance music:

http://www.factmag.com/2013/04/08/get-to-know-it-and-you-wont-want-to-rip-it-off-fade-to-minds-rizzla-on-confronting-appropriation-and-humanizing-the-exotic/

love "bank head". the part where the vocals keep jumping up to those high notes kept reminding me of something, finally figured out that it's 'stillness is the move'.

(rizzla article is great too)

"Bank Head" is totally on slow burner status

it hasn't burned for me yet, felt a bit like a lesser "take me"

though this whole axis has been disappointing me for a year or more now so *shrug*

f2m/ns/qb camp's been hyping kelela for a bit, i haven't listened to other stuff she's done yet. she was opening on the solange tour, dunno if still.

but yeah this rules, he's been dropping it in his mixes for a while now and it's always stood out.