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.comWhere We Come From was probably the best dancehall album of last year, Everything Nice was the lead track, a mellow slow groover that oozes effortless style.
Executive produced by Dre Skull and featuring productions from Dre Skull, Dubbel Dutch, Jamie Roberts, Anju Blaxx and Adde Instrumentals, Popcaan’s first full length offering sees his signature melodies and uplifting tones on thirteen original tracks.
With the release his debut full length - Popcaan, aka Andre Jay Sutherland has made his grandest artistic statement to date and confirmed his place as an important voice in the tradition of Jamaican music.
Guts and Mambo are back with the second insulation of Beach Diggin’ - Vol.2 carries on where Vol.1 left off with an eclectic array of hard-to-find rarities and guilty pleasures. This track kicks off the proceedings with a funky pop loop and Mavis John’s sultry voice. Try stopping your foot tapping to this one!
Dancehall vibes on Hey Mister by Althea Forrest & Togetherness, Folky bossa soul on Amor a Tres by Celeste, funk and disco continues from Lee Alfred and the Hamilton Brothers respectively. Soulful jazz in the shape of Fou De Toi by Bajy & Electrical Haitian Orchestra. Sonya Spence brings it back to a laid back disco vibe before we go off in a reggae tangent with East of Handsworth by Linton Haugton. Moody Leftfield-pop from Letta Mbulu then slides into tropical percussionists The Lain Langley Group on Amazon Trail, this flows nicely into Osmar Milito’s organ led calypso sound, we then mellow right out with Kalalou, a jazz instrumental by Mushi & Lakansyel. Finishing off with Marsha Wilson’s Love Is Gonna Get You.
I’ve not heard any of these tracks before, so it’s a credit to Guts for digging’ deep and unearthing this great collections of gems. See you at the beach.
From M.I.A's brand new LP Matangi, this big slab of banging dancehall is a current favourite. An unlikely source of inspiration from Shampoo’s throw-away hit Trouble, it explodes from dub beats to jackhammer thumper, produced by The Partysquad. The majority of the album is produced by long-time collaborator Switch of course and hints back at the first Major Lazer LP when Switch was still on board with Diplo. Probably Maya Arulpragasam's most accessible and accomplished LP to date, named Matangi, her birth name, and the name of Hindu goddess of music.
Major Lazer's latest offering Free the Universe is a bit of mixed bag and distinctly average compared with the ground-breaking rip-roaring debut. A tough LP to follow then, it was looking good when they leaked the Get Free single as a free download, that track is and will be one the best tracks they will ever put out.
Free the Universe is a tad patchy but there are a few gems on it nether the less. There's no Pon de Floors on this follow-up but opening track You're No Good is a good start, featuring: Danielle Haim, Santigold, Vybz Kartel & Yasmin Produced By: Ariel Rechtshaid & Major Lazer, impressive line up that delivers a marching groover with a superb chorus from the lovely Santigold. Watch Out For This (Bumaye) [feat. Busy Signal, The Flexican & FS Green] is another highlight, an earth storming dancehall banger that you'd expect from Diplo and his crew. Sadly there's to many poorer efforts to make it another classic, Bubble Butt and Mashup the Dance sound like Jive Bunny dance hall - just terrible. Maybe Diplo should've waited longer as this all feel a bit to much to soon, more quality less quantity next time please Major.
Snoop Dogg has been renamed Snoop Lion for his debut reggae album. This is first tune to materialise today from forthcoming LP Reincarnation. La La La produced by Major Lazer and features guest vocals by Jovi Rockwell. Snoop and Diplo borrow heavily from old school rock steady tune Artie Bella, from Ken Boothe and Stranger Cole’s circa 1960′s version. Last heard on Major Lazer's Lazerproof the mash-up of La Roux's debut LP. Snoop's no Ken booth, but with Diplo's dancehall posse Major Lazer behind him it's defo a winner.
A Major Force
Major Lazer played Live at O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire this week, it was a mental gig, Toddla T got the crowd nicely warmed-up with a few special guest including the delightful Shola Ama who stole the set. You might need somebody, Taboo and Take it back all sounding good with Toddla's beats. Major Lazor take the stage and dancehall mayhem erupts for the next hour and half. Hold the Line was a special moment, Diplo mixed up the unique Major Lazer sound with classic reggae and calypso, the highlight for me was Harry Belafonte's Day-O mashed with the epic Pon de Floor, the whole of the empire went absolutely mental.
Also out this week is a new tune from Major Lazers forthcoming album due in 2 months time. Given away as a free download in exchange for your email here. Get Free features the lush vocals of Amber Coffman of the Dirty Projectors and sounds amazing, I've been playing it on repeat for the last few days. LOVE IT!
Look out for Major Lazer's forthcoming Dancehall album with Snoop Dogg too!