As much as I am really looking forward to listen to Matthew Herbert‘s new album One Pig, I am also quite terrified. The album is made of sounds made by one anonymous pig – from birth to plate. I am a bit relieved that the death part is actually not on the album as Herbert was not allowed to record that – I do not think I could handle listening to it. I am vegetarian, but I think it would be a pretty intense experice for meat-eaters as well.

The album caused quite some controversy in the process of recording, as organisations such as PETA accused Herbert of animal cruelty, etc. To be honest, I find this argument ridiculous – thanks to him the pig actually lived longer than other farm pigs, and it would be killed anyway. In fact, I believe that the record may cause some thinking amongst listeners and maybe a few of them will turn vegetarian themselves.

Herbert makes a good point in the film you can watch below about not being allowed to record sounds of death of the pig:

“My motivation for wanting to do that [recording sounds of death of the pig] was to acknowledge the reality of what it is to eat meat. For me, part of the problem we have in our society is a huge disconnect between what we do and the consequences of our actions. (…) Also it tells a great deal that in this country we don’t have any rights to see our food, we are kept in great distances from it. In Britain it’s kept behind us in a veil of corporate secrecy.”

Herbert is one of the most interesting experimental artists I have come across, I love his meticulous craftsmanship and original concepts behind his albums. As well as his versatileness: he made albums ranging from minimal house, to cinematic orchestrated electronica (my Herbert’s favourite – Scale), to sampling bizzare noises from the kitchen (or pig’s life), to a big-band record, to a de-construction and re-conceptualisation of club music on his brilliant One Club album.

One Pig is a last album from One trilogy (One One, One Club, One Pig) and it will be released on 10th October.

Below, you can watch a mini-documentary about the making of the album and Herbert talking about each of the songs on the album. The ending presents quite a vivid imagery I should warn you.

It’s been 10 years now that Aaliyah is gone.

She was the first artist I loved. You know, I was a FAN. I can’t really remember if I started listening to her before or after she died, it was definitely after the album was out though. It may sound strange – how can I not remember that?! Well, in 2001 I had no permanent Internet access, it’s not exactly like it was a massive news in Poland, and basically I was 13 years old, so I was not following news anyway. I think I started listening to her in summer 2001 and then in autumn I found out that she died in a plane crash. It was horrible, to discover such a gem only to lose it so soon.

Over few following months I spend so much time listening to her, reading about her, catching up with all her music videos (and it was quite a challenge as I had no Internet – I was lucky to have a friend who somehow was downloading her music videos for me and burning them on CD), and missing her more and more. I started cutting out and collecting her pictures etc. from newspapers, magazines, etc. I was a FAN.

Even though these days different music is close to my heart, I still love Aaliyah’s work. She combined old school r’n'b and soul with then up-and-coming urban sound of new millenium. She worked with Missy Elliott and Timbaland at their best, they were such a brilliant team. She had an amazing voice. She was a terrific dancer. She had class, something that you can hardly find in music industry now (yes, I just went there).

I wonder where would she be today if she was alive. At the age of 22 she was already so successful, and her career was blooming.

Today, a special tribute programme will air on BET, I’ve read somewhere that there will be some tribute performances from some fo her friends (and it seems that she was everyone’s favourite in the industry, so the list of potential performers is really long), I am really looking forward to catch it somewhere on the web soon.

What can I say, I miss Baby Girl.

Here’s one of my favourite songs of her; the vibe is incredible, always gives me chills…

WARNING: this video contains some pretty serious summertime imagery. You’d better have some holidays planned, may get slightly depressed otherwise.

This is not an official music video for ‘Bombay’ by El Guincho, it’s a video made by an Argentinian director Javi Devitt having some awesome time on the holiday in Brazil. He managed to capture a fantastic summer vibe just perfectly. El Guincho’s song helps big time though! Really good tune.

Alternatively, if you feel like seeing some breasts you can watch the original music video for that song here.

Last weekend I went to a Vimeo event that was a part of Edinburgh International Film Festival and I got to see some great shorts and music videos, including this one.

‘Flames’ by Karl X Johan is a really catchy song, but the music video!… I love how the story is told with macro cose-ups entirely, it’s fantastic! Pure pleasure to watch.

Directed by Gustav Johansson.

These two ladies above form a project called CREEP.

Lauren Flax, the one the right, is apparently a house DJ veteran – she toured with Fisherspooner and Madonna, and you may also know her from her remixes, for example ‘You’ve Changed‘ by Sia (it’s hard not to this one, isn’t it?) or ‘So Fine‘ by Telepathe. The other lady is Lauren Dillard and, erm, and she’s the other half of the project.

Some time ago, CREEP have released a new song featuring Nina Sky (who you may remember thanks to their 2004 hit ‘Move Ya Body‘). The track is rather eerie (let alone the emo/goth music video), hopefully it won’t get you down once you’re stuck on repeat. I have to say CREEP got me quite intrigued and I am looking forward to their album, and I am curious who the guest vocalists may be…

Help yourself to a creepy Planningtorock remix of the song via Abeano blog where you will find a download.

Also, it won’t hurt to have a look at their previous single ‘Days’ featuring the girl from The xx:

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This evening has just become more exciting! We can listen to Björk‘s new single ‘Crystalline’ right now via disco naïveté. I don’t really know if one can ever get used to Björk’s genius, it amazes me every time. The song has a cool airy vibe to it and is subtle and smashing at the same time. I’ve just realised how much I missed her and now I really can’t wait for Biophilia…

Finally, some exciting news! It shouldn’t be long until we hear Björk‘s new song ‘Crystalline’ from her upcoming album Biophilia. The album is apparently inspired by nature and technology, which seems to me like a consistent continuation of her work, especially since Volta and ‘Nattura’.

Björk has launched a new version of her website with some graphic teaserers of the Biophilia concept, including the logo that you can see at the top of this post.

Oh her Twitter, Björk posted a photo of a clapper with ‘Crystalline’ and Michael Gondry written on it. That’s rather great news, as Björk and Gondry are a pretty good creative team. We should be in for an audiovisual treat. The video should appear near the end of June.

I have to say I begin to enjoy my hate-love relationship with Lady Gaga. Whenever I think she’s up to something interesting (like ‘Scheiße’ at Mugler’s fashion show – see at the end of this post!), she releases some poor quality Madonna rip-off (‘Born This Way’), and then it gets even worse with the follow-up (‘Judas’).

So when I eventually think she’s burnt out and has nothing exciting up in her sleeve, she drops a bomb in a form of ‘The Edge of Glory’. Somewhere on the line between a powerful a powerful ballad and a dance song she gives her best performance to date – finally I don’t have an impression that she’s trying too hard. Once she drops meaningless controversies and reaches out to her influences while not copying them, she can be a brilliant pop artist. I absolutely love ‘The Edge of Glory,’ can’t resist dancing around and singing along. I hope it will become a summer anthem.

So for now the ratio of bad and good songs is 2:2. Unless we judge the album by its cover, well, it’s one big unknown! I have just realised I never posted ‘Anatomy of Change’ – a TERRIFIC audiovisual feast, a video from Mugler’s fashion show and a remix of Gaga’s ‘Scheiße’ so here it is:

Such a nice discovery! Strange Talk sounds a little bit like their fellow Australian band Cut Copy, but this is more of a hint really. Very lively, very summery. Personally, I find it perfect for the first day of my summer holiday (yaaaay!).

By the way, isn’t it a great cover? I love it. Again, very summery.

Have a look at Strange Talk new video and listen to the full self-titled EP below.