I caught Bristol, England based Malachai on the final day of SXSW. Composed of a vocalist, Gee, and Scott on a laptop etc. They were intriguing. Really hard to classify, definitely a bit of the Bristol sound in there but they’re true magpies, grabbing shiny and dark stuff alike, to create, well the metaphor falls apart here cause there’s nothing nest-like about them.

Reading around, it’s comforting to learn that no one else seems to know how to describe them either. Their PR release quotes Kasabian’s Serge Pizzorno, “it reminds me of Revolver-era Beatles but there’s this kind of early DJ Shadow vibe going on.”

If you’re in NYC you can hear them tonight at Le Poisson Rouge, opening for Ben Frost. Everyone else can check them out here here. Headliner Ben Frost is also available on eMusic.

Today marks the 50th anniversary of Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue, aka every non-jazz listener‘s favorite jazz record. You’ll see a lot of excellent essays this week about the impact of Blue and what it has meant to jazz and culture at large since. What you won’t see are many attempts to place the record in a contemporary context or to understand what the album and our current music culture have to do with each other, if anything at all.

While it is a very specific take, I’d like to offer up Andy Baio’s Kind of Bloop 8-bit Miles Davis tribute album that was released today as, at the very least, a unique response to today’s anniversary. Using Kickstarter, Andy raised enough money to commission completely legal covers of Kind of Blue by five prominent 8-bit artists: Ast0r, Virt, Sergeeo, Shnabula and Disasterpeace. (I know that sounded like the most made-up list of words ever, but this is real, promise.)

The results are pretty magnificent, I must say. The album is currently available only to folks who supported the original project ($5 for the download, MP3 or FLAC, and $30 for a limited-edition CD)(vinyl may come later), but it will go on sale to the general public this Thursday at 3pm EST. At the album’s homepage, you can listen to extended samples of all five recordings — they are pretty spectacular.

The really interesting bits (ha!) come with the purposeful degradation and simplification of the original recordings, which are obviously quite ornate and intricate. It’s not that the 8-bit arrangements are simplified, it’s that the creators of these new versions had to find a balance between getting the basic note structures of the original correct and also finding the real essence of the original recordings. And on that front, the record is definitely a success.

As for Kind of Blue itself, it’s all a bit daunting, isn’t it? I’m reminded of a part in Don Delillo’s novel White Noise where the protagonist observes a group of people taking pictures of a barn with a huge sign next to it reading: “The Most Photographed Barn in America.” As one character remarks to the other, the people aren’t taking pictures of a barn, they’re taking pictures of taking pictures of a barn, an unknowing self-referencing act. In its status as an icon of icons and a classic for all ages, Kind of Blue has a bit of that status. Which is all the more reason to rejoice when someone deigns to approach it in a new light.

If you paid attention to the commercials during the Super Bowl yesterday (great game!) you may have noticed a familiar-sounding acoustic chant number in the background of a John Turturro-starring Heineken spot. Turns out to be none other than “Higher Than the End,” from 17 Dots fave Twi the Humble Feather! A shocking turn to say the least. I can’t recommend Music for Spaceships and Forests enough — I hope the guys made a sweet chunk from the ad. Something tells me “semi-spiritual avant-folk” might not quite pay New York City rent these days.

I don’t ask for much. All I wanted last night was for Goldie to win Maestro and for British Sea Power or Burial to win the Mercury. But the Mercury judges clearly don’t care for my views and gave the prize to Elbow for The Seldom Seen Kid. Curses. But my Mercury choices never win, so I’m used to that.

Maestro, for those of you outside the UK, was a celebrity reality show where a selection of newsreaders, comedians etc competed against one another to be the best conductor of the BBC Concert Orchestra. Normally the words ‘celebrity’ and ‘reality’ make me run a mile, but this one was really rather interesting. Not having had any formal musical training I had no real idea of what conductors do and, more importantly, how the greatly the conductor can change the sound and style of a piece of music. Maestro blew away some of the mystery and actually made the whole process look bloody difficult. Goldie, who did come second, was mesmeric. Not being able to read music he committed all of his pieces to memory. He had passion, he had power. The judges gushed over him. The phone vote went to comedian Sue Perkins. For those of you who can access BBC iPlayer click here to see Goldie conduct a wonderful Carmina Burana.

Huh prizes, who needs them anyway?

Music’s a religion for you, right? As of three weeks ago a Bournemouth club has been forced to take that statement more literally. Hard house night Frenzy (pictured above), has declared itself to be a religion to get around a by-law, imposed by Bournemouth Council, that bans flyering. Marketing material is allowed to be distributed in the streets, say the council, but only for political causes, charities and religious groups.

Frenzy spoke to their lawyers.

Now they describe themselves as “the 21st Century’s first rave cult.” Their first service took place last Friday. It went on until five with DJ Frisky leading the congregation in worship.

I love the Mercury Prize. I admit that the bands I want to win never do win (I’m so sorry British Sea Power, it’s all over for you now.) But the Mercury seems to be one of the very few awards that actually gets people talking about music, as opposed to sales figures or party planning or celebrity gossip. This year’s nominations were announced yesterday – so here they are:

Adele 19

British Sea Power Do You Like Rock Music?

Burial Untrue

Elbow The Seldom Seen Kid

Estelle Shine

Last Shadow Puppets The Age Of Understatement

Laura Marling Alas I Cannot Swim

Neon Neon Stainless

Portico Quartet Knee Deep In The North Sea

Radiohead In Rainbows

Rachel Unthank and The Winterset The Bairns

Robert Plant and Alison Kraus Raising Sand

For me it’s got to be British Sea Power. Do You Like Rock Music? is already my favourite album of this year – it’s clever without being condescending and has a sweeping, full sound without ever being pompous. That said, I think the majority of this list is pretty solid – what are your thoughts?

Earlier this week the musical talents of Agyness Deyn were unleashed upon the world and, outside of the fashion press, no one batted an eyelid. That’s what someone should have told Agyness collaborators the Five O’Clock Heroes: you can bring a model to the recording studio, but you can’t make them listen to her sing.

In actual fact Agyness’ voice isn’t bad. She’s never going to be the next Queen of Soul, but you wouldn’t kick her off the karaoke. The fault with this single ‘Who’ probably lies with the Five O’Clock Heroes and their workman-like indie. It’s not so awful-awful, but it’s not so special either (I always feel bad about damning things with faint praise – I’d rather leave them alone, but if you will court attention with ‘Britain’s latest supermodel’ and a sort-of-rubbish song then the faint praise is yours.)

‘My favourite food is sushi and I’ve always wanted to be in a band!’ – more models making music.

Carla Bruni: Actually very good this one, as I’ve mentioned on Dots before. Carla is proof that sometimes the prejudice against model-music is unfair. Prior to releasing her first album ‘Quelqu’un M’a Dit’ Carla couldn’t get the music press to talk about anything except her previous roles as arm candy to Mick Jagger and Eric Clapton. Then people heard the lovely evening-to-night sound she’d created and fell over themselves to interview her.

Twiggy: Oh dear. Neasdon’s finest isn’t much cop as a disco chanteuse. As eMusic’s own review says: “To borrow a phrase Twiggy used way too much during her stint judging America’s Next Top Model: the camera loves her. The microphone, however, is another story.”

Kate Moss: Tricky to rate Moss’ performance, as although she’s collaborated with Primal Scream and her ex-boyfriend Pete Doherty several times, it’s always hard to pick out exactly what she’s doing. See here for an edge-of-sound-whispering Moss and Bobby Gilespie draining ‘Some Velvet Morning’ of all beauty and here for her supposedly singing with (i.e. appearing on stage with) Babyshambles for ‘La Belle Et La Bete.’ She’s clearly not one to make a lot of noise Ms Moss.

As of today, I Was A Cub Scout are no more. The band, consisting of William Bowerman and Todd Marriott, announced the split via their MySpace saying: “We have had countless problems over the past year or so and with yet more occuring, we feel it best to end on what would seem like a decent note.”

I know the band were quite popular with eMu users in the UK, but we’ll still have the album and the record company assure us the band will be honouring all the live dates they have booked.

Hello Europe! Good evening ladies and gentlemen and welcome to Belgrade and the 53rd Eurovision Song Contest!

Bonjour l’europe! Bonsoir Mesdames et Messieurs et bienvenue à Belgrade et la 53e Concours Eurovision de la chanson!

Okay, I’l stop this now, cheesy presenter-ese is too much for me even in a text format, but Eurovision is on us again. Remarkably eMusic is carrying the British entry, Andy Abraham’s ‘Even If.’ And whilst I’m sure Mr Abraham is a lovely bloke, it’s not one to throw your downloads at – so few Eurovision entries ever are. But I have a suggestion – Alternative Song Contest – can we find one great track for each country competing in the Song Contest? Children of Bodem for Finland? Word of warning, there are 43 countries taking part – see below the fold for a list.

Good luck! Bonne chance!

Albania
Andora
Armenia
Azerbaijan
Belarus
Belgium
Bosnia and Herz.
Bulgaria
Croatia
Cyprus
Czek Republic
Denmark
Estonia
Finland
France
FYR Macedonia
Gorgia
Germany
Greece
Hungary
Iceland
Ireland
Israel
Latvia
Lithuiania
Malta
Moldova
Montenegro
Netherlands
Norway
Poland
Portugal
Romania
Russia
San Marino
Serbia
Slovienia
Spain
Sweden
Switzerland
Turkey
Ukraine
United Kingdom

And a gratuitous link to Roxy Music’s ‘Song for Europe’ just because I like it.

So after a number of false starts, we’re back. Again. Looks like WordPress is the culprit — something about feed caches or feed storage bins or I dunno what — and so I don’t know what that will mean in the future, but for now, we are here. And your RSS feeds should have awoken again, too. Hollaback, RSS!

What happened while we were away? Well, there’s My Morning Jacket of course, a whole bunch of albums, with their new one to come. Truth be told I can’t say I like them at all, but I recognize I am in the minority here. Other things of note: Titus Andronicus, who are from New Jersey and are apparently very good (I have yet to hear). That Quiet Village record, parts of which Todd thinks are really great, parts of which he detests. I haven’t spent much time with it, but I have enjoyed it when I have. But what about you? What have you been listening to? We need to catch up, us and you. We went first. Now it’s your turn.