Welcome to NEOLOOP


Step in to the Neoloop, have a look and listen!

You'll find a cornucopia of tasty tunes to bounce off your eardrums. I update with new tunes, art and photography every week, depending on what I'm doing and listening to at the time, old and new. I'm based in London UK but I love to travel and discover new music along the way and share my musical journey on neoloop.

Please support the artists and buy their music. If you are or represent an artist being featured on here and want me to remove something, email me.

Happy listening!

Neo

Email: neo@neoloop.com
  Heavy Rotation
  Category Cloud
  Albums of the year
Oct 31st, 2012 22:57pm

Happy Halloween

Nice mix from diplo on the BBC 1xtra

Oct 31st, 2012 22:48pm

I'd rather be your enemy than your friend

New track from The Weeknd (aka Abel Tesfaye) taking it's chorus from The Smiths' Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want, originally released as the B-side to William, It Was Really Nothin in 1984'. The track will not appear on The Weeknd's Trilogy album when it is released in November.

Categories: R'n'B
Oct 30th, 2012 23:19pm

R.I.P Terry Callier

I’ve seen a sparrow get high and waste his time in the sky - He thinks it’s easy to fly, he’s a little bit freer than I

Sadly Terry Callier was reportedly found dead in his home on Sunday. He was 67.

I've been a big fan of Callier ever since hearing Ordinary Joe, a track that first appeared on his 1972 album Occasional Rain. His started his music career at the age of 17 when he signed to Chess Records in 1962. His influential blend of jazz, soul and folk was seen in his early works of three famous albums—1972’s Occasional Rain, 1973’s What Color Is Love and 1974’s I Just Can’t Help Myself. Despite praise from critics, his work never truly broke into the commercial spotlight.

Later in his career he resurfaced after a long break away from music following the Acid Jazz label re-releasing his 1983 single I Don’t Want To See Myself (Without You). He also collaborated with Beth Orton and Massive Attack.

Music has lost an inspirational artist. RIP Tel.


 

Oct 29th, 2012 10:49am

Slow chilled out beats for a cold dark Monday morning. The new Jamie xx remix of Four Tets Lion from the Pink album.

Categories: Chill, Electronic, Remix
Oct 28th, 2012 23:22pm

Temptation

Time for an soul old track, this tune from Eddie Kendricks wasn't a big on it's release back in 1973, he had success with better know tunes like Keep On Trucking, Boogie Down and the expansive, eight minute Girl, You Need A Change Of Mind. Darling Come Back Home has everything I love about good old soul music, great orchestral arrangements, rumbling bass, soaring violins and steel pans. Kendricks voice is sounding as good as his Temptations days. Taken from his self-titled third album. Eddie Kendricks was an American singer and songwriter, noted for his distinctive falsetto singing style and being a co-founder of The Temptations, and was one of their lead singers from 1960 until 1971. He made 13 solo albums and also one with fellow Temptation David Ruffin. He died in 1992 from lung cancer. A true soul legend.

Like this? Try: The Temptations, Gil Scott-Heron, Al Green, Shuggie Otis

Categories: Neo's top choices, Soul
Oct 28th, 2012 22:42pm

Kaleidoscope of sound

Also out this month is the Australian psychedelic hypno-groove rockers Tame Impala's 2nd album called Lonerism. The first single Elephant is an obvious launch pad for the LP, but currently this tune is a favourite, I love the accordion hum in the background, the layers of psychedelic guitars cascading through a kaleidoscope of sound. Like a lost Beatles track it's a big highlight on a great album.

Official Site, Buy it on iTunes

Categories: Psychedelic, Rock
Oct 28th, 2012 22:22pm

Sun-drenched Bliss

Brooklyn band Woods latest album Bend Beyond (Their seventh) is an easy folk-pop jam which I've been enjoying lately. Released last month it's a much more polished sound than previous efforts, it's all Beach Boys harmonies, Simon & Garfunkel melodies and psychedelic wig-outs with sun-dappled guitars.

This LP sounds like it could have been released by a band from California in the seventies, that's definitely not a bad thing. Singer and band leader Jeremy Earl conjures up melting pot influences from that era. Fleeting from the Beach Boys to The Doors via The Byrds with shades of Neil Young it's a pastoral delight.

Like this? Try: Teenage Fanclub, The Doors, The Byrds

Buy it on iTunes

Oct 27th, 2012 17:15pm

Stellar cast produces a classic

One of the best hip hop albums to materialise this year is Compton's Kendrick Lamar's major label debut good kid, m.A.A.d city the follow-up to his highly acclaimed debut independent album Section.80 from last year. Star turns from Dr. Dre, Drake, Mary J. Blige, Jay Rock help make this LP a varied affair but it's the young Kendrick that shines the brightest on this Dr. Dre executively produced LP that sees a different producer for every track. But kendrick's style and talent cohesively holds it all together. 

Money Trees featuring fellow Black Hippy member Jay Rock makes great use of sampling Beach House's Silver Soul. The whole record has a well polished mixtape feel to it. With equally good samples from Janet Jackson's Anytime, Anyplace on Poetic Justice which features Drake. Dr. Dre's presence is felt on the massive album closer Compton, sounding like it was meant for Dre's last album 2001 sampling Formula IV's What's This World Coming To and a bit of Kool and the Gang's Summer Madness.

Bonus track version adds 3 great tracks including the single from earlier in the year The Recipe featuring Dre. The tracks that Lamar executes on his own hold the quality of a rapper far beyond his years, Backseat Freestyle is sure to be one of the tracks of the year, this track good kid co-written with Pharrell Williams is a slow nu-soulful head-nodder with Lamars effective raps gliding over Pharrell's jazz funk beats. A true classic album that is Highly Recommended.

Buy on iTunes

Categories: Hip Hop
Oct 15th, 2012 22:12pm

Iron Fists

RZA unleashes the opening track for his upcoming The Man With The Iron Fists soundtrack. 

The Baddest Man Alive is a collaboration between RZA and The Black Keys, and it's a badass slab of rock, up there with the best tracks from the Blakroc album, The Black Keys previous venture into Rock/Hip-Hop crossover.

Aside from The Black Keys, The Man With the Iron Fists soundtrack also features new compositions by Kanye West, Ghostface Killah, Pusha T, Raekwon, Wu-Tang Clan and Talib Kweli, as well as RZA collaboration Flatbush Zombies. The soundtrack hits officially on October 23rd, while the film lands in theaters at the start of November. 

The film stars Russell Crowe, Cung Le, Lucy Liu, Byron Mann, RZA, Rick Yune, David Bautista, and Jamie Chung. RZA‘s takes on his directorial debut.

Oct 14th, 2012 23:20pm

Giant Steps

New LP from LA's Flying Lotus, Until the Quiet Comes has been widely reviewed as his best yet. I have to agree that it certainly lives up there with the best he has produced but I still have a lot of time for most of FlyLo's previous work.

Until the Quiet Comes is different and has certainly moved further away from his hip-hop beginnings and stuttered into experimental jazzy flourishes and snapping rhythms, a nephew to Alice and John Coltrane and a cousin to Ravi Coltrane perhaps the magisterial jazz influence is inevitable. 

Lead track See Thru to U featuring Erykah Badu bursts with jungle drums and jazzy high-hats. Stephen Ellison's obsession with computer games still bears ongoing influence on certain tracks specially Putty Boy Strut. Electric Candyman featuring a subdued Thom Yorke singing a haunting lament over skippy disjointed beats and weird sawing noises in a long forgotten bird sanctuary. Hunger Featuring Niki Randa has an old seventies film soundtrack vibe and Phantasm featuring Laura Darlington is a beautiful lullaby with a sinister undercurrent of clockwork toys and moody strings. The soundtrack to long winter nights is here. Highly Recommended.

Buy it on iTunes click Here.

I love the cover photo too…

 

Categories: Electronic
Oct 14th, 2012 22:29pm

Cuban Bass Drop

London dubstep producer Mala travelled to Havana to collaborate with traditional Cuban musicians under the guidance of world renowned music mastermind Gilles Peterson. Buena Vista Social Club goes dubstep you may think, but this album climbs new heights to deliver a truly original piece of music. This is far removed from the early trappings of dubstep, this is cuban music with earth-moving low frequency basslines. An organic feel throughout never sounds forced, instead shifting and moulding into a free flowing rhythm of epic soundscapes and alt-jazz nuances. 

Noches Sueños, the closing track really taps into the spirit of Cuban music, but it's like nothing else on the album. Guest vocalist Danay Suarez sings a Spanish lament over a powerful slow reggae bass, you can feel the melancholy longing at the core of both much traditional Cuban music and early dubstep. Stunning. Recommended.

Buy it on iTunes


Categories: Dubstep, Reggae, World
Oct 14th, 2012 21:09pm

Step into Something Good

Following Alt-J being shortlisted for The Mercury Music Awards with debut album An Awesome Wave, released in May this year, it's well deserved nomination. Something Good is released as a single (at the end of last month), I loved the original album version and this remix by Fort Romeau retains what is so good about it but pumps up the jam for the dance floor. Previous remixes have caned it to much for my liking and not retained enough of the looping melodies and piano flourishes that give the song it's charm.

Written by Joe Newman, Gus Unger-Hamilton, Gwilym Sainsbury, Thom Green and produced by Charlie Andrew.

Official Site Click Here, Buy it on iTunes Click Here

 

Categories: Alternative, Remix
Oct 8th, 2012 23:43pm

Fly me to the Moon People

Feeling this track from Brooklyn-based DJ/producer Nickodemus' third long player Moon People. Best known for his collaboration with Quantic, the iTunes ad endorsed Mi Swing Es Tropical back in 2006. His 2005 debut album Endangered Species is still a favourite classic LP. This track Mirage features the velvet vocals of Swedish singer Kissey Asplund, a beautiful soulful groove for an easy going evening.

Buy on iTunes click here

 

Categories: Chill, Electronic, Hip Hop, Soul, World
Oct 8th, 2012 23:19pm

Mellow Gold

Earlier this summer (4th July) Donald Glover, aka Childish Gambino released a free mixtape called Royalty, featuring various collaborations. It was a well received piece of work by bloggers and critics alike. I singled out this track recently for a mixtape, produced and featuring Beck it reminds me of Mellow Gold era Beck when his singing/rapping style still had a very raw edge. The marching beats and piano loops sounding both retro and fresh and the fuzzy synths take over when the later half of the track relinquishes the vocals and transcends into an instrumental chill.

The 18-track album includes appearances of Bun B, RZA, Ghostface Killah and Danny Brown, among many others.

Essential Tracks: We Ain’t Them, R.I.P.

Categories: Hip Hop
Oct 3rd, 2012 23:37pm

What were the skies like when you were young?

Late night chill-out with Golden Clouds, The Orb's re-tooling of their seminal work Little Fluffy Clouds with Lee Scratch Perry on board to ad-lib his usual ramshackled rapping style. 

From their latest LP - The Orb Presents the Orbserver in the Star House (feat. Lee Scratch Perry) 

Buy here on iTunes

Categories: Dub, Electronic
Oct 2nd, 2012 23:15pm

A robot on the dance floor

This is nuts, but it's why I love the Mercurial Bay Area art-pop veterans Deerhoof.

Taken from brand new LP Breakup Song.

Available now on iTunes

Oct 2nd, 2012 22:51pm

A walk on the psychedelic side

Following Dr.John's new LP Locked Down I've been listening to some of his earlier recordings. This track is taken from his debut album - Gris-Gris by Dr. John the night tripper (aka Mac Rebennack) released on Atco Records in 1968.

Dr. John was always fascinated with New Orleans voodoo and Gris-Gris is an interesting hybrid of New Orleans rhythm and blues and psychedelic rock, but failed to chart on it's original release. The LP, which includes the Doc's classic tune Mama Roux has since received the plaudits it deserves. I Walk On Guilded Splinters was also covered in the 1970s by Humble Pie on their album Performance Rockin' the Fillmore, and by Paul Weller on his 1995 album Stanley Road.

Buy it on iTunes here

Categories: Blues, Leftfield, Psychedelic