Today I read a nice wrap up of this year’s Decibel Festival on xlr8r.com. Didn’t make it to the festival this year so I was kind of keen on seeing what I missed. While I knew numerous names at the show this year like Zomby, Quantic, Bonobo, Amon Tobin, there are always so many musicians with whom I’m unfamiliar. So even reading reviews after the show bears fruit.

One of the sets that sounded great was by a young Detroit musician named, Kyle Hall. Clicking on the article link brought me to Hall’s website, Wild Kyle Oats on which I found this gem of a movie (short film – 19mins) about Detroit and it’s electronic music scene.

The highlight for me comes at roughly 5 minutes in, when “The New Dance Show” with host, R.J. Watkins, is being discussed. Mind-blowing moves. Totally rad. I mean my sister and I had “Soul Train” when we were growing up, but this show takes the cake and eat it!

Real Scenes: Detroit from Resident Advisor on Vimeo.

Wanted to hear this cool jam today, so I’m putting up hear so I can find it again easily. This is the rhythm sending me onto my bike and home and the weekend which will be a full one at Bumbershoot. Getting all psyched up this week…so many musicians and bands I look forward to seeing and hearing. Koga and I are taking the full tour. So with that spirit, hear is Wanlov The Kubolor with a track off of his “Green Card” album.

Lila explores uncharted territory on waves of music and rhythm in her own impossibly cute way. Of course, I am completely smitten, but she’s hard to resist, this one, and there’s something magical about children exploring music and the movement of their own bodies.

Camera: Jill

Rainbow Arabia from L.A. plays the music.

The uncut version is on Jill’s Dylan & Lila blog.

I’ve been meaning to post up some of the cool new sources I’ve found to hear and read about and see (vid) new music. Finally getting around to it now…plus I’ll put up two of the coolest music vids I’ve seen this month. Loving both of these (see below).

aurgasm.us

Got to this from an odd direction…from using Paul Irish’s wonderful HTML5 Boilerplate to build ZoltanFarkasConstruction.com

Planned Obsolescence

Can’t remember where I read about this, but did and checked it out. A bunch of Soundcloud mixes by Beck. Some great stuff!

Root Strata Blog & Mississippi Records Tape Series

I met a work colleague’s husband at a holiday cocktail party this winter and he was telling me about this wild mixtape series his daughter turned him onto. It was this, Mississippi Records Tape Series, which is indeed wild and wonderful. Some of the most eclectic, genre-spanning, wide ranging, time traveling mixes I’ve heard in a long long time. Thank you Taylors!

Last Night’s Mixtape

A Seattle-based music blog which gets new additions frequently (daily?). Pretty wide-ranging as far as genre is concerned, but I’d call it beat focused if that means anything. Quality can be expected.

Mixtape Riot

Last, but by no means least, Mixtape Riot. This is the home of the incredible Haysobay!, Blast Off, and From 9:00 Until. Check em out.

First vid: Stevie Wonder on Sesame Street circa 1972. Waaaayy ahead of his time here with the machine-voice thing…

Next one, an Irish duo displaying the best deadpan synchronicity I’ve ever seen. Like some sort of weird collage set to movement and music…

Came back to this song again today, and this video, and two different New York Times articles about Joanna Newsom today. “Good Intentions Paving Company” — has to be one of my favorite song titles of the last year, and today I listened to it twice finding that it was just as, if not more compelling, than the first time I heard it.

Some might say her voice is strange. And I would likely agree, although unusual puts it in kinder light, and compelling, intriguing, provocative puts it in the light in which I hear. If I had to compare, it’s something akin to Kate Bush, but I connect with this and the way it works with her lyrics and timing and the complex shifts of the song structure itself really make it beautiful and powerful.

I recommend seeing some vids of her playing the harp and singing too, because then you get a real sense of the breadth and depth of her virtuosity. Time to go get some of her work! Enjoy.