IM // UR | Blood Diamond Mixtape

This is probably the most exciting album we've heard in a while. Can you imagine a metal band not made by (and for) teenagers who worship Iron Maiden like their sisters worship Miley Cyrus? Invasion's The Master Alchemist is a compilation of 12 songs created with noisy guitars and fearless female vocals that will teach future generations about the emerging punk attitude; all with a metal sound and new rave style that might actually be the future of hairy metal. And we all thought heavy metal had no future...

WE // R \\ WEARING

No matter what part of the world you live in, you really can't ever have enough tees. Specially white ones. And black ones. With cool graphic prints on them. Meanwhile, in hipster-dom, crystals are still an ever popular theme, but in this case, we prefer this one in particular from Canadian based operation Handsome Clothing, christened the 'Lunar Crystal' (//Christel) tee. 'Handsome', despite being a kind of old school, highly civilised type of word, does describe this tastefully hip label justly. They also have a darn good-looking blog too, so go check that out while you're at it.

WE // R \\ WATCHING

Burn Notice is a USA Network series about a spy who got burned - which they remind you of in every scene. Although following the
basic style of American television, the series will catch all you dudes out there (sorry, girls won't like this) who like watching things explode in the most diverse ways. And like any good spy show, it teaches you how to make homemade bombs with boring things (a modern version of MacGyver). Plus Bruce Campbell is a lead character. And he's looking all Morrissey like.

WE // R \\ GOING

Imagine a youth house transformed into a club. Now charge 4 reais for a (long neck) beer and from 10 to 15 reais to get in. If you did it all right this would be called Neu (read in German) and actually already exists in São Paulo. My favorite night there is Friday, when they host Explode, a party where they basically play third world inspired songs (from Vampire Weekend to the whole club rap scene from Baltimore). Some great underrated DJs play there from time to time, and when you least expect it, you might find yourself laying on the dancefloor busting out some drunky town moves.

WE // R \\ READING

So yes, we've been wayyyy slack in updating the We//R\\Stuffs, which is why I'm going to say now that we began and finished Oscar Wilde's A Picture of Dorian Gray well before we knew it was a film. This is a classic novel about art, vanity, beauty and the consequences of such. 'A Picture of Dorian Gray' is brilliant; exploring and exploiting the potentially corrosive characters of beauty and what beauty can do to a character. Navigating through the deeply dark and light sides of human nature, Wilde's novel is a wickedly good study of society, and echoes with a cackling delight (and despair) at humanity's foibles.

Blood Diamond Mixtape

Monday // July 13, 2009 at 07:00 // filed under Music

Buraka Som Sistema's Blood Diamond Mixtape

So more Buraka Som Sistema news - they've dropped their latest mixtape entitled the Blood Diamond Mixtape, conceived, mixed and produced by J-Wow aka Lil John.

This mixtape ain't just a diamond, it's a GOLDMINE (HA feeble I know, I know. Look, its 7am. 'Nuff said). It's also a perfect example of the further cross culturality (is that a real word?) in music and new contexts that the current wave of '3rd world beaters' are putting various 'ethnic' influences into.

Like, when the guitar riff sample kicked in on the Radioclit vs Guns 'n' Roses track, my eyes widened in mild disbelief - I mean, I realise that 'Sweet Child 'O Mine' is as much of a party choon as the next total cheese ball, but after having heard it twice in as many days in this kind of context I can't help but feel I'm missing something...when did the Gunz actually get cool? I didn't realise that they'd gone so far into being good that they were bad, that they had come back to good again.

Another moment was Toy Selecta's remix of Buraka's latest single 'IC-19'; reminded me of DFA's remix of Paper Planes - enjoyable.

The whole thing was handled with mad skillz; this mixtape is super nimble. For some reason I generally associate a heavy weight feel with kuduro and Buraka Som Sistema in general, and this was as light footed as their previous work on Lykke Li's track. Some wiiiicked beats are dropped, and I was utterly sold by the time I hit 'Aqui Para Voces (Favela Funk Samba BSS Mix)' as it contains one of my favourite funk samples EVER (vamos começa essa brincadeira gostosa?).

All the tracks are super short, the shortest clocking in at 42 seconds and the longest by far being the Buraka remix of Lykke Li's 'Dance Dance Dance' coming in at 3mins 42. The brevity of the tracks was a great move, offsetting the wit of the mixtape brilliantly, showing off Buraka's nicely exercised musical muscle on this one without at all being strained.

HAWWWT.

Go get the mixtape HERE. RUN. NOW.

Tracklist after the jump >>

Tracklist:

01. Diamonds are Forever Intro
02. Dj Znobia feat Jaime Foxx- Africa
03. Buraka SOm Sistema - Kalemba (wegue wegue) Afrikan Boy remix
04. Os Lambas - Sapo (BSS Edit)
05. Radioclit vs Guns'n'roses - Sweet Secousse of Mine (Bss edit)
06. The Kiss - Black Diamond
07. Tunes for Baby That Won't Drive You Crazy - Black Diamond
08. Buraka Som Sistema - IC19 (Toy Selecta remix)
09. Buraka Som Sistema - Aqui Para Voces (FAVELA FUNK SAMBA edit)
10. Buraka Som Sistema - Wawaba (James Braun Copyflex remix)
11. Lykke Li - Dance Dance Dance (BSS Remix)
12. Dirty Tricks - Black Diamond
13. Rusko vs Puto Prata - Let's Go (BSS Edit)
14. Buraka Som Sistema - R.I.A.D.
15. J-WOW feat Aloe Blacc - Off with ya head
16. Buraka Som Sistema - Gang Bang feat Blaya
17. David Zé - O Guerrilheiro
18. Johnny Clarke - Come Back To Me
19. Buraka Som Sistema - Sound of Kuduro (D1 remix)
20. Zomby feat Pongolove - Kuduro Rumours (BSS Edit)
21. Rusko - Cockney Thug (BSS Remix)
22. Paul Simon - Diamonds on the soles of her shoes