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Caught in the Net: 'Dirty Money' pays dividends

 

Larry Ryan
Thursday 05 July 2012 14:54 BST
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Antibalas
Antibalas

The most infectious song I heard all week is the new track by long-running New York Afrobeat crew Antibalas.

The song called "Dirty Money" is the second to be taken from the Brooklyn 12 piece ensemble's forthcoming self-titled album due on 6 August. The track is streaming at snd.sc/MXikn0. It doesn't stray far from the aforementioned Afrobeat template – it could be right out of the Fela Kuti playbook – but it rightly bounces along full of swaggering horns and sweet guitar lines. The first track – "Sare Kon Kon (Redux)" can be found on SoundCloud, too, at snd.sc/ITA1nH.

Sundappled sounds of 'High Summer'

Swedish dream pop duo jj have a new EP out. The five-track digital EP High Summer is free and can be downloaded from the website of the band's Gothenburg record label at sincerelyyours.se. As the title suggests, it's a collection of tracks full of hazy, sun-dappled soundscapes, with some lovely poptones and vague/mournful vocals mingling in amongst them.

Practice makes for perfect radio

The website of America's National Public Radio remains, as ever, a treasure trove of interesting music. My latest discovery on its site is the In Practice series featuring videos of classical musicians practising. In the latest (goo.gl/NnN73), acclaimed pianist Jeremy Denk brings the cameras into his small Manhattan apartment/studio where he works on the etudes of Gyorgy Ligeti. Sort of like a highbrow Cribs.

A massive mixtape of freestyle hip-hop

Sometimes hip-hop albums are too long, with quality sacrificed to quantity. Californian rapper Lil B has taken things to absurd levels. Known for his prodigious output of mixtapes, he recently offered up a "best of" mixtape of previous tracks. Called the 848 Song Based Freestyle Mixtape – although it really only contains 855 songs – it can be downloaded for free at goo.gl/V9wRm. It will take up almost 5GB of memory on your computer. Helpfully, the No Highs Tumblr also went to the trouble of compiling a tracklist – goo.gl/vv7wt.

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