Incubus ~ Light Grenades

Incubus. Surely one of THE most underrated American rock bands?

Sure, everyone always raves about the same old crowd but Incubus never seem to have been given the credit they deserve. They've been making music for 16 years now and in my eyes, have never made a poor album!

Now that's some going, don't you think? Their latest offering, 'Light Grenades' isn't one of their finest but still a damn good effort with some real stand-out tracks. 'Earth to Bella' & 'Light Grenades' are 2 of my favourite tunes but unfortunately the album seems to suffer from the same fate as many an album... starts off all guns blazing but slowly dies out towards the end, normally forcing me to choose something else before it's finished.

This may be just me being impatient but surely I'm not the only one that does this?

Anyways, it's still a good record but if you're new to Incubus then I suggest you check out S.C.I.E.N.C.E. & Morning View first

• Sounds like: nothing else really. Clever rock music I thinks. Catchy melodies, nice thrashy parts too.


• Stand out tracks: Light Grenades, Earth to Bella, A Kiss To Send Us Off


• Released: November 28th 2006


• MySpace: myspace.com/incubus


• Website: enjoyincubus.com/

Mark Ronson ~ Stop Me

Remember last weeks review of the new Mark Ronson single?

Well you can hear AND see it now, as Abjekt's hooked me up with the video link.

I like the video, I think it's a cool idea and it looks fresh ~ Nice work Mr Ronson!

That drum beat gets me everytime!

Enjoi.

Mark Ronson ~ 'Stop Me' single

It's been a while since I've written here but I'm ready and raring to go, come watch me now.

I've got a single to review today, courtesy of Mr Sam Hesketh from Division Promotions. It's the latest single from Producer/DJ supremo Mark Ronson called 'Stop Me'. It's a cover of The Smiths 'Stop me if you've heard this one before' featuring a young cat on the vocals by the name of Daniel Merriweather.

Now this is going to be a very un-biased review because I hate The Smiths and hadn't really heard of Mark Ronson until his 'toxic' single a while back, so I'm new to all of this.

I must admit I was a bit skeptical when I first heard about it, these big name stars normally tend to produce music for the masses, brain numbing tunes that require minimal effort for maximum cashflow but this, this is something different.

I popped said CD in the player and hit the button...

So it goes straight into it, nice atmospheric strings with Merriweathers vocals over the top. It continues to build, more elements coming in... strings change, builds even further and the tempo rises... then BUH BUH BUH BUH BUH, bass drum kicks in and we get an awesome breakbeat with these strings and horns going nuts.

I personally am a sucker for anything with an up-tempo break-beat. I'm also a sucker for anything with strings, so this really floated my boat.

Ronson's done a top job of taking popular music and making it cool, lord knows that aint easy. If this single and 'Toxic' are anything to go by, he's gonna turn these pop cats on their heads!

It get's the Gav seal of approval. Nice. Real nice.

• Sounds Like: How 'popular' music should be: fun, clever & original. After all, it should be 'popular' for a reason.


• Released: April 9th


• Hear it on: the single released on the 9th and on MySpace


• Album: 'Version' released April 16th


• MySpace: myspace.com/markronson


• Website: www.markronson.co.uk