Merry Christmas!
I’ve got a couple of days off work to celebrate Christmas so I’m going to officially sign off from Mahogany until Boxing Day or the day after.
I’m currently preparing a special New Years Eve post which I’m excited about but until then I thought I’d leave you all with an indistinguishable classic by The Fugees. Most, if not all of you will already be familiar with this track but that’s not important because you might not have listened to it in ages!
This particular track is a bonus version of Fu-Gee-La and features Wyclef, Lauryn and Pras demonstrating their worldly wisedom by doing almost the entire song in a range of different languages. There’s French, Japanese, Creole and a whole lot more than I can’t pinpoint.
It’s a fitting song for the year we’ve had where we’ve seen visitors from all over the world come to enjoy the music we love. From Afghanistan to Russia to China and even Papua New Guinea! So, if your language is featured or even if it’s not, consider this track a thank-you for reading.
Merry Christmas Everyone and we thank you from the bottom of our hearts for the support!
Fugees – Fu-gee-la (Refugee Camp Global Mix) – 
We never usually do this but it’s something the Fugee’s prided themselves on and that was highlighted the blight of the poverty. I’ve attached a link to Oxfam so if anything feels like donated a fiver or a tenner then it’s easy. We’ve just done it.
Check the link for more information…Oxfam International.
Magistrates Decide To Call It A Day
I really liked the few tracks that Magistrates put out over the past 18 months – Make This Work and Heartbreak were modern day beauties and after signing to XL Recordings, you would have thought that things couldn’t have gotten any better.
Well that’s not the case unfortunately as it seems Christmas shopping, mince pies and the thought of mainstream success has gotten all but too much for the five piece from essex.
Their MySpace message read…
The End
Magistrates is over, thanks for everything, we will all be working on other musical projects, we’ll let you know more news in the new year. I’m sure we will meet again.
xxx
Too bad eh.
Magistrates – Make This Work
Magistrates – Heartbreak
The Remix Saviour
I absolutely loved Frou Frou and her critically acclaimed album Speak For Yourself but her latest effort (Ellipse) was utterly disappointing and sounded like every track had been created for One Tree Hill or Gossip Girl.
I saw Imogen Heap live a couple of times in London a few years ago and she was mind-blowing. She was on her own for most of the performance using all kinds of mad instruments. She’s a proper producer who knows the equipment she uses like the back of her hand and that’s why I was so gutted with the latest album.
Anyway certain remixes can save the day in some sense and this one by UK producer Murdok has done a great job in revitalising one of the tracks.
This requires good speakers or decent headphones – no point with shitty internal laptop speakers!
Imogen Heap – 2-1 (Murdok Dubstep Remix) – download
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Now if you enjoyed that, you’ll love to Enigma and High Contrast remixes posted a while back.
Imogen Heap – Headlock –
Get the incredible album Speak For Yourself from
Stay Too Long
It’s been a great year for Plan B.
He acted alongside the legendary Michael Caine in the film Harry Brown and featured in the Chase & Status produced track End Credits.
His latest single, Stay Too Long, has been given the remix treatment by Pendulum and it seems they like it so much that they’ve specially edited the music video to make way for it.
This track definitely packs a punch and the video’s great.
Plan B – Stay Too Long (Pendulum Remix) – download
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Polizei And The Anonymous Email
Polizei’s email message to Mahogany read;
Check out this track, lemme know what you think.
P
That’s all I got so I had to turn detective to try and find out more info on the elusive boy/girl/woman/man person whose Burial-esque track made my ears prick up to attention.
Unfortunately no luck with the dozen or so Google searches but I do like mysterious musicians so it’s not all bad.
I like this track – it’s got an ‘inner-city at night’ feel to it.
Polizei – Turn The Lights Down – download
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£3.50 reward for more information!
Broken Bells
Danger Mouse is one of the most flawless artists and producers around…
The Shins are one of the best American ‘indie’ bands around…
So when Brian ‘Danger Mouse’ Burton and Shins’ lead singer James Mercer decided to make an album together there was little that could go wrong.
We’ve just been given a taster of their upcoming album (expected to drop in 2010) and it’s really really good.
Broken Bells – The High Road – download
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Danger Mouse – Encore from The Grey Album
Cosmic Love (P.E.S.T Remix)
Just before the year is up, the P.E.S.T boys have sent me their latest remix and it’s another stormer.
There’s definitely a pattern emerging with reworking Florence and her stupendously strong vocals welcome hard electro productions such as these.
Their last remix of Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up) was one of Mahogany’s favourite remixes of the year and this is right up there with it, if not slightly ahead purely because we love the original so much.
To look back on the past year, Florence has climbed miles above the initial maelstrom of musical femme fatales…Little Boots, La Roux and Flo all came to our attention at about the same time and whilst the other two have done well – there’s one clear champion.
As we said in a post back in July…
- Little Boots, Lady Gaga and La Roux are a cup of PG Tips with three sugars, two sweeteners and far too much milk.
- Florence on the other hand is a clear cup of Darjeeling with a wedge of lemon.
Now in our opinion, many of the La Roux and Little Boots remixes have been a godsend which made their shite songs listenable (thanks to the likes of Skream and A1 Bassline to name a couple). Florence’s originals, Cosmic Love for example, are still stronger than any remix – P.E.S.T’s fantastic work however is the big golden cherry on the delicious cake.
Fancy a slice?
Florence & The Machine – Cosmic Love (P.E.S.T Remix)
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For more on P.E.S.T check out their YouTube page.
Here’s the video for the latest Florence single – great cover although Candi Staton’s version will always be our favourite.
Florence & The Machine – You’ve Got The Love –
Love Lost (Live for BBC Introducing)
This video was filmed almost exactly a year ago and just shows how hard the band have worked to make it in 2009.
Their 2010 tour has sold out in loads of venues and their album is great.
Job well done plus this is of my favourite song off the album.
The Temper Trap – Love Lost (Live for BBC Introducing)
