Hard-Fi - Stars of CCTV

1. Cash Machine
2. Middle Eastern Holiday
3. Tied Up Too Tight
4. Gotta Reason
5. Hard to Beat
6. Unnecessary Trouble
7. Move on Now
8. Better Do Better
9. Feltham is Singing Out
10. Living For the Weekend
11. Stars of CCTV

I won't lie to you all here, I have no clue why I didn't put a review for this album up earlier. One of the best indie albums of the past summer (well, it definetly was for me, I think I must have spent 16 out of every 24 hours in the day listening to it). If any of you have checked the Bloc Party album or the Kooks albums I threw up a while back, this is the same sorta thing. What's amazing about this album is it's not one of those you throw on and have to keep the album case on hand just so you can switch to the 1 or 2 good tracks. With this, you throw it on and there is no doubt you'll probably fall in love with all of the tracks. Personal favourites (and their are plenty of those) are Cash Machine, Hard to Beat, Unnecessary Trouble, Move on Now, Better do Better, Feltham is Singing Out, and Living for the Weekend. I know a few of you have already checked 'em out and that's cool, but for the rest of you, if your into indie then this should definetly be a must-have. Enjoy.

(p.s - if anyone knows when they're planning on releasing another album let me know. cheers)

Torrents:
- Demonoid (registered only)
- Isohunt
- Torrentspy

Bloc Party in Vancouver

I completely forgot to mention before, Bloc Party are coming to Vancouver (Orpheum) on March 12th, chances are by now most of the good seats are gone so in reality this message is pretty much useless. But you can't say I didn't try.

Ticketmaster
(maybe it's not too late, who knows)

Indy

Bloc Party - A Weekend in the City

1. Song For Clay (Disappear Here)
2. Hunting for Witches
3. Waiting for the 7.18
4. The Prayer
5. Uniform
6. On
7. Where is Home?
8. Kreuzberg
9. I Still Remember
10. Sunday
11. SRXT
12. We Were Lovers
13. England

Finally, the official release of the 2nd installment from Bloc Party has arrived! So does it live up to its enormous hype or has it fallen miserably short of what people expected? Well, for me, it's somewhere in between. Lately I've been practically playing this CD on continuous loop (note that the track listings I've thrown above are from the Japanese edition which got 2 bonus tracks). I must admit, the more I play this CD the more it grows on me. I'm reluctant to say it's anywhere near as good as the first album, Silent Alarm, though. That's not to say that this album isn't good, if this wasn't from Bloc Party I'd have to say this album is beyond amazing, but I think we expect a bit more from this particular band. On that note, I have to say that when I heard Silent Alarm the album just blew me away, and I didn't get the same thing from A Weekend in the City. On the other hand, the content on the new album is better as it deals with more social issues in England (especially regarding minorities and the younger generation, which was quite appealing to me at least). Personal favourites on this album are The Prayer, Uniform, and England. Speaking of which, if any of you got the pre-release version that I had posted earlier than make sure you look out for the version that has the 2 extra bonus tracks. The track "England" was especially good and is worth getting just for that. If you do have trouble I'll just post that track up on the site later. For any indie-lover's out there though, this album is still great. Enjoy.

Torrents:
- Demonoid (registered only)
- Isohunt

- Bonus Tracks ("We Were Lovers" & "England")

Pendulum Live Performance

If any of you needed more of a reason to see Pendulum live, hopefully seeing this video will do it for you. Enjoy.

Indy

MP3 File: Blade - Summer Reminiscing

Again, another track by Blade. This is definetly more chilled out than Rescue Me was and is a perfect song to throw on in the summer. Unfortunately, it's winter now as many of you can probably tell but it's definetly worth a listen to. The quality is unrivalled in the local scene. From the artist himself:

This was something I did in August 2006. It's a very laid back and smooth song, I suppose it would be a bit reminiscent of the G-Funk era. I tried to go for simplicity along with a very consistent and smooth flow and this is how it turned out.

CLICK HERE FOR TRACK!!!

CLICK HERE FOR LYRICS!!!

I hope you all manage to check these two out and I highly urge all of you to check out the lyrics at the same time, it'd be almost insulting not too seeing how most of the brilliance is in that (this applies to both Summer Reminiscing and Rescue Me). As soon as Blade releases anymore songs he wants out I'll be sure to throw them here on enlightenment musik. Enjoy.

Indy

MP3 File: Blade - Rescue Me

A hip hop track by local kid Blade. No point in me doing the talking on how brilliant it is, I'll just quote him on the track:

I recorded this in November 2004, my first real single. It's sort of passive-aggressive, and I touch on a wide multitude of subjects using intricate metaphors and wordplay. This has a very underground feel to it and features some guitar play by a cat from Edmonton called Nexus.

CLICK HERE FOR TRACK!!!

CLICK HERE FOR LYRICS!!!

I'm not sure what else to say. After listening to some absolutely terrible local "talent" recently display what they call hip hop I just felt morally obliged to counter it with some real rap. This is definetly something all hip hop heads need to check out. Enjoy.

Indy

MP3 File: The Verve - Bittersweet Symphony

It's amazing sometimes that people may actually not have this song somewhere already. Quite possibly the best song ever made and even if you don't recognize the song title I'm sure when you give it a listen to you'll remember hearing it at some point in your life. Enjoy.

On a random note, I'd like to wish everyone a Happy New Year and I wish you all the best in achieving your dreams in the next year.

CLICK HERE FOR TRACK!!!

Indy

K-Os - Atlantis

1. The Seekwill
2. The Rain
3. Flypaper
4. Equalizer
5. Sunday Morning
6. Mirror in the Sky
7. Born to Run
8. Valhalla
9. CatDiesel
10. Black Ice (Hymn for Disco)
11. Aquacityboy
12. Highway 7
13. Ballad of Noah

Atlantis is the newest installment from the Toronto-based rapper K-Os (apparently that stands for Knowledge Of Self - pronounced chaos). Anyway, semantics aside, his hip hop is like a breath of fresh air. Along with Kardinal Offishal and the Rascalz, K-Os is leading the way for Canadian hip-hop. But even outside of a national perspective, he is quite honestly one of the best rappers I've heard. The beats are constantly different (we can give him credit for that too seeing how he produces the bulk of them) and the lyrics themselves are about as good as they get for conscious hip hop (almost every song he does will be justification for this but just check out his verse in the Rascalz - Top of the World and you'll know what I mean). Atlantis, for me, was a brilliant album and I'd have to put it roughly on par with his previous album, Joyful Rebellion. Favourites on this album are Flypaper, Sunday Morning, Born to Run and Ballad of Noah. However, don't be biased towards the songs I've chosen, the album itself is so refreshing that almost every song will appeal to different people with different tastes. Check it out, and if you like, get Joyful Rebellion as well. Enjoy.

Torrents:
- Demonoid (registered only)
- Isohunt

MP3 File: Jedi Mind Tricks - Uncommon Valour

This was off the newest album Servants in Heaven, Kings in Hell (I posted a review for it a while back). It has arguably the best rap verse I've ever heard (courtesy of RA the Rugged Man). I highly suggest any of you who love hip hop check it out; if you can appreciate good flow when you hear it, you definetly won't be disappointed.


CLICK HERE FOR TRACK!!!

Enjoy.

Indy

Mos Def - Black On Both Sides

1. Fear Not of Man
2. Hip Hop
3. Love
4. Ms. Fat Booty
5. Speed Law
6. Do It Now
7. Got
8. Umi Says
9. New World Water
10. Rock 'n' Roll
11. Know That
12. Climb
13. Brooklyn
14. Habitat
15. Mr. Nigga
16. Mathematics
17. May-December

Some of you might be really familiar with Mos Def. He's a rapper based out of Brooklyn, New York and if you don't know of him his rap is pretty much on par with the likes of Common and Talib Kweli (about the same in terms of content too). Personally, this album was his best. Not to put the other ones down by any means, they're all top quality; but for me, this one is the cream of the crop. Personal favourites on the album are Speed Law, Umi Says (this was performed in the movie Dave Chapelle's Block Party), New World Water, Mr. Nigga, and Mathematics. The work is a nice deviation away from the gangster-thug rap that has homogenized the mainstream these days. If you enjoyed Talib Kweli, Common, or maybe even Kanye West, chances are you'll love this and other Mos Def albums as well. Enjoy.

Torrents:
- Isohunt