i once spent an evening sitting on my kitchen work surface when i washed the floor of my old flat in bethnal green and didn’t plan it out very well. ghostpoet goes one better than that and manages to paint himself into a corner for the video of ‘liiines’. he also falls asleep on the floor and shows that he’s damn good at throwing bits of paper into the bin at various other times in the video.

it should come as no surprise that this month’s playlist is a bit of an amy winehouse special. i wasn’t blogging very regularly last weekend so didn’t really mention her on here. enough has been said anyway, so it isn’t really worth saying much apart from how much she’ll be missed. especially her music. as it happens, i’m in the camp addiction is a disease and it doesn’t matter how what the situation around her life was, she was a young girl who lost her life. and that’s bad. just in case you haven’t read it by the way, russell brand wrote an amazing piece about her.

these playlists aren’t just about what i’ve written about on here, but also what i’ve been listening to in the background. as most new bits of music i like get included on the blog, the extras are often older stuff. this month i’ve broken out crazysexycool for a bit of tlc love. i had to include them on here. also on an rnb feel you’ll find some cassie. a few days ago i had her playing on youtube (she’s hot, so it’s always video rather than mp3 with her) and accidentally started ‘rudie can’t fail’ by the clash on itunes. suffice to say that the two mixed together brilliantly and i now rate myself as the next carl cox.

enjoy the playlist, which can be found here and any feedback (especially tlc love) is always appreciated. also a quick thank you to emma who chose the amy winehouse connected songs to close the set.

it is 3am in the morning and i can’t sleep. fuck knows why but for whatever reason i can’t. therefore i’ve decided to write something about the mercury music prize nominations. as i’m still a week away from having internet access at home you will notice that the little time at the bottom of this post probably says about half eight or something. glad we’ve got that cleared up.

i can’t be bothered to list them all as every other site on the web has already done that so if you’d like the list please click here. i’ll wait a moment while you read it. done? good. what did you think? i know what you’re thinking. where are wild beasts? where is tom vek? where are yuck? all three of those (especially wild beasts) will have to go down as 2011′s gorillaz for their glaring omission.

let’s talk about who is in then. ghostpoet. happy day. the quite wonderful ghostpoet is there. i’ve written about him so many times i’ve lost count. not only does he hold the distinction of being the first ever post on the relaunched sockformation, but i also confirmed that i didn’t lick him during a very drunken gig and he was my only tip for 2011 in amongst all of josh’s (none of which are in. take that short stuff). i hope he wins. i really do.

strangely i didn’t review the ghostpoet album. i can’t remember why. in fact, i only reviewed two. or to be more exact, i reviewed pj harvey and helen parton reviewed metronomy for me. both were very positive and i predict that it will be pj harvey who walks off with the prize. she may well be more established than a lot of winners tend to be, but let england shake is a brave and unusual album. mercury love that shit.

others to keep an eye on would be king creosote & jon hopkins or katy b. i’m not the biggest fan of the latter but i think she’s probably come out at the right sort of time for the awards. anna calvi was another hotly tipped artist for this year and her nomination confirms that her self-titled album lived up to expectations. adele has done alright for herself this year and you’ll have trouble discounting her from the running. i’m unsure whether she’s a label mate of last year’s winners, the xx, will affect her negatively though. shame because out of all the nominees i’m sure she could probably do with the £20k prize money the most after selling more records worldwide than there are people.

i’ve put together a playlist on spotify of all the nominees. there are a couple of tracks from each album. you can find it here.

finally. who the fuck is gwilym simcock?

sheeeeit. i mentioned the fun and little bit awesome new metronomy track the other day. well, ghostpoet has only gone and bloody remixed it hasn’t. as we already know ghostpoet is all sorts of brilliant. a quick bit of maths here. i make fun + little bit of awesome + all sorts of brilliant = this has made my day so much i’m almost tempted to use a capital letter. almost.

that’s not all though. oh no. it is here for you to download and play to your heart’s (or hearts’ if i decide to address all readers rather than just you) content. if i had to stick this in a box, i suppose it is a dubstep ish remix. i’ll stick to that for now.

metronomy. the look (ghostpoet remix) (mp3)

you want more? how about a remix from the genius that is tv on the radio’s dave sitek of the brilliant (and past ghostpoet collaborator) dels? good enough? it better be, because it is another great track that makes me want to do maths.

dels. gob (featuring jack davey) (dave sitek remix) (rcrd lbl mp3)

live review: ghostpoet. the macbeth. 7 january 2011.

this is why i shouldn’t be allowed to review gigs, and one of the many reasons i’ll never be paid to write this thing.

i’ve been wanting to see ghostpoet live ever since i first heard his electro hip hop voice and the ease at which he rhymes about everyday life in london. so what did i do? got fucking wasted in the pub opposite work beforehand. just believe me when i say it wasn’t my fault.

i managed to make it to the macbeth in time to catch the entire set though. true this had to involve a taxi speeding up to old street and the obligatory “erm, can you pull over at this cash machine please or you won’t get paid”, but i got there in time. i couldn’t tell you the set list, but who actually remembers set lists? you see, what this review gives you is a true insight into what your night would be like. are you ever sober at a gig? exactly.

what i do remember is that my rum & coke tainted senses enjoyed themselves. my blurry vision saw ghostpoet on the left of the stage, hunched over and rolling his shoulders to his own poetic vocals that pleased my muffled hearing. my smell, taste & touch were preoccupied by the rum and glass it was in, but i wouldn’t have thought mr poet would have been that pleased if i’d given him a quick lick anyway. i know i had a good night, and i know you will if you ever catch him.

you should catch him, in fact you need to catch him. he is one of the most exciting london artists around at the moment, and that is why he has the privilege of two consecutive posts. i’m sure he’ll be delighted.

there are so many reasons i love ghostpoet. not just the fact that a fellow tim brown directed the video for ‘cash & carry me home’ either. i’ve talked of his excellence many times on this blog before, and now i am finally going to see him perform live. tomorrow he plays the macbeth as part of a stellar line up and i can’t fucking wait. there are some details about it here and i’ll be giving you a full review on monday. can’t wait.

his debut album is out early february and to whet your appetite, enjoy his latest mixtape below.

i’m not a massive fan of tips for 2011 lists. actually that’s wrong. i am a fan of reading them. i’m not a fan of writing them. i just know i’ll end up writing about somebody that either i fucking love but in all seriousness is never going to make it; or somebody that right this moment i’m loving but come mid january i will hate and then have to live with the fact that i tipped them for glory as jamie theakston plays them constantly on heart and i wonder what the hell i was doing for the next eleven and a half months. instead, i’m going to burden josh with the pressure.

that’s right, my six year old son is going to tell you who will be the real breakthrough acts this year. now josh doesn’t know the names or output of a lot of the new pretenders to the blogosphere throne, so instead i’m playing him examples of the music from other places tip lists, plus a few of my own. so, with nods to the 405, the pigeon post and the bbc, here goes.

first off are the tracks that i put in front of him. you’ll know by now that i’m a massive summer camp fan. josh was already aware of them from an earlier post where he liked their video for ’round the moon’. he picked them out once again and i don’t think it’ll be long until he actually remembers who they are without the aid of a nudge when i mention them. also from the moshi moshi stable comes spectrals. another act i rave about a bit on here and another of josh’s tips for 2011. he didn’t say much about the music, but let’s assume he fell in love with the 60s infused guitar strums. sunday girl took more than one listen as i was sure he’d like her, and after three or four plays of ‘four floors’, including the diplo remix, i was correct. he may just have said he liked her to shut me up, but what are kids for if they aren’t for forcing your own tastes onto?

two other bands got the thumbs up. the first of which, cults, surprised me a little. cults sound very female. although this is only a positive thing for me, josh is at that age when he doesn’t like anything with girls taking a big role in because he still thinks girls are yucky. that leads onto his final pick from my selection perfectly. the band are yuck. as it happened i was wearing my cajun dance party t-shirt while we were doing this, although i doubt very much it swayed josh’s choice. mainly because i am certain he knows nothing of the link. whatever the reason i am delighted that he picked them because i also think they’re ace.

onto the 405 list. before i forget, you can download their tips for 2011 mixtape here by the way. there were a few acts he’d already been played (including cults & spectrals) so i missed them out, but as it transpired he only cared about the early tracks as it was. it needed less than 20 seconds of grouplove to get a definite “yes”. personally they remind me of somebody that i can’t quite put my finger on. if i remember by the end of the post i’ll tell you. whoever they are, i agree with josh. in time honoured x-factor tradition, the good ones kept coming. both treefight for sunlight and jonquil garnered eager head nods from josh, and make his list of tips.

that was it though. maybe it was because a lot of the rest had slightly slower build ups and josh doesn’t like to be left waiting. maybe it was just because he was getting bored and wanted to get on with building the lego @emsalts bought him for christmas. whatever the reason, he just didn’t take to the rest of the mixtape.

after a brief break we soldiered on with a thorough examination of pigeon posts sound of 2011 (available here). he spread his love out a little more here, again starting from the off though. i enjoy walsh, especially the daft punk torn sounding ‘days of thunder’ and josh agreed. i’ve been bombarding him with the tron score for the past few days so this surprised nobody. the other artist he picked out was somebody i know very little about, botany. what a pick though! they must have passed me by when i first sailed through the tracks, but i’m so pleased josh didn’t miss them. i am impressed to such an extent that expect a post about them sometime early january.

the final list we looked at was the bbc sound of 2011. by now we were both getting hungry and keen to get a list finalised. we sped through the bbc site, and as it turns out the only josh pick was the one artist that isn’t available to listen to on the bbc page. jai paul is a bit micachu if you want a lazy description. it is better than josh’s though which pretty much came down to the fact that he liked the video to btstu and the collage type picture of jai paul.

as for me, i’ve decided that i will mention one act. the time is right for ghostpoet. he’s my tip, and apologies in advance if i’ve just given you the kiss of death.

there you have it. i hope josh is right with his tips. if he isn’t i’ll make sure he puts more time into his 2012 choices and there will be no wii mario kart next christmas.

i’ve been waiting for the youtube of ghostpoet‘s new video for the amazing ‘cash & carry me home’ so that i could embed it in here and shit. it’s only myspace at the moment though so to see it you’ll have to click this bit of text right here. enough about all that though. look who directed it! even more amazing.

for those that don’t know. my full name is tim brown.

alright, so i figured i should probably get on with it and post something. to get us started here is the man i have been listening to as a relief from those vuvuzelas that there is no getting away from at the moment. ghostpoet is probably one of the most chilled out rappers i’ve heard in a long time. he basically talks about drinking, girls and life. his songs include humour and tell a story. a real life story at that. i can just imagine him waking up and writing down exactly what he’s doing, then rapping about it. in fact, i say rapping but i’m not convinced that’s the right word. i’ve seen it described as closer to a lullaby elsewhere so i’m just going to steal that. he hasn’t got poet in his name for no reason either… this is not your everyday rapper. micachu produces for him and you’ll see her feature on the superb ‘morning’ too.

ghostpoet / morning (featuring micachu)
youtube