Happy Canada Day, Canada. Here's to fine contemporary Canadian music - to (in no order whatsoever) Julie Doiron, Kid Koala, Destroyer, the Tragically Hip, the Arcade Fire, Les Mouches, The Stills, Cian Ethrie, the Parka 3, the Diskettes, Broken Social Scene, the Weakerthans, the Unicorns, P:ano, the New Pornographers, the Dears, Sarah Harmer, Kardinal Offishall, Veda Hille, Sloan, Oh Susanna, Jim Bryson, Aaron Booth, Akufen, Greg Macpherson, Boy, the Hidden Cameras, Royal City, Ron Sexsmith, Manitoba, Leslie Feist, Danny Michel, Nathan Lawr, Avril Lavigne, Amon Tobin, Buck 65, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Kepler, the Constantines, Hayden, the Deadly Snakes, Frog Eyes, Be Good Tanyas, the Sadies, the Weekend, Do Make Say Think, Wolf Parade, Barenaked Ladies, and, well, the countless artists I'm forgetting.
Furthermore, in honour of Canada Day, here are two new tracks with American rapper MF Doom.
Viktor Vaughn ft. Kool Keith - "Doper Skiller". From the upcoming Viktor Vaughn album, VV2: Venomous Villain. It's a great track, a light press of synths and skyscraper rhythms - drums and electronic elevator groans. Kool Keith cameos with a surprising single-mindedness, wrapping things up in time for some fine scratching. It's a more curlecued production than we've seen from MF Doom in a little bit. It covers more territory, a sort of chorus-verse-verse-chorus, rather than just circling the same patch of asphalt. I love Doom's grim, rich flow, the solid way with which he releases rhymes. Keith's a fine, cocky contrast.
Zero 7 ft. MF Doom - "Somersault (Danger Mouse remix)". "Sommy- summer- somersault." Doom doses the whispery Zero 7 track with a different sort of thoughtfulness. The words of the rap flow out like carved, wooden figures - each has been handled, considered, perfected. While Zero 7 is content for summer to be vanilla and pink with sighs, MF Doom tells a more detailed, ink-sketch tale. "Ah, the stench of first love / the quench of the thirst made it worse / to need a burst of upper-thrust motion / trust / devotion / lust is like the sand where the beach meets the ocean." Danger Mouse's production isn't far from the song's original aesthetic - acoustic guitar, rhodes, handclaps. But that's fine because it's a sound for July, for drops of sweat and cool air on hot skin.
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Please keep droploading me great songs; the Gramophone-bank is running a lil' low. Thanks to all those who have zapped me things so far!