If you think your rock and roll lifestyle is badass in any way, maybe think again.
Because no matter how punk rock you are, you probably didn’t drive a jury-rigged mobile stage around Afghanistan to play impromptu rock concerts along the way, spreading a message of self-expression and liberation. In case you haven’t noticed, there is a WAR still happening in Afghanistan, with people getting blown up extremely frequently. And the Taliban doesn’t like music very much.
All said, the MTN-Mazar Mobile Music Tour (nickname: Truck Fest) was a very risky undertaking. It was a travelling offshoot of the Sound Central festival, post-invasion Afghanistan’s premier music festival. The festival as started by Travis Beard, an Australian photojournalist who started playing in local bands while working in Kabul, and it’s been a big success so far with young Afghans hungry for art and excitement.
Putting together Sound Central was a challenge, but The Truck Fest was a whole other level. “Kabul is like a bubble in regards to security and cultural tolerance. Outside of Kabul is another thing!” wrote Travis Beard, the organizer. He says the tour was inspired by a mobile truck tour that AC/DC put on in Australia in 1976.
Check out a video of this crazy thing these people did below. This year’s Sound Central festival will take place from April 30 – May 2.
Hot Natured, aka Jamie Jones, Lee Foss, Luca C and Ali Love, continue to build a strong house. If it’s not their own productions tearing up dancefloors, then it’s Jones and Foss’ Hot Creations label housing some of the scene’s biggest anthems. The crew’s follow-up to the uplifting “Benediction” is a track called “Reverse Skydiving,” a melodic, vocal-led number featuring Anabel Englund. Somehow, it found its way into the hands of Switzerland’s Deetron, who added high-pitched keys and an unruly bassline – taking it deeper underground. Listen below.
Don’t act like you don’t know it’s Friday! Yes, it’s the start of your weekend! And here at MTV Iggy we’re giving you another reason to look forward to it. You get the chance to decide who will take home the prestigious title of “Artist of the Week!”
One of the five rising global artists listed below will be voted onto #teamartistoftheweek by you Iggyites across the nation! You have until next Friday morning at 11 am EST to vote for your favorite artist using the poll below. Ready, set, go vote!
TECLA
TECLA is a Hatian-Italian New Yorker, songwriter, sometimes rapper, and futuristic music creator. For the last several years, she’s been hopping on stages with some of the more notable talents to emerge in Brooklyn’s experimental pop scene, holding down keyboards for Gordon Voidwell and touring Asia as an opener for the crew formerly known as Das Racist. Her second album We Are The Lucky Ones grafts the gloss of bubblegum pop onto Caribbean drum patterns held together in a joyful orgy of synthesizers.
Sonido Gallo Negro
Vintage psychedelic cumbia Mexican band Sonido Gallo Negro knows how to turn it up with a tumble of percussion, and are generously slathered with whooping theremin, tremelo fuzz guitars, and that feeling of insta-nostalgia that only a Farfisa organ can provide. The live, 9-piece instrumental cumbia orchestra sound draws heavily from the psychedelic ’70s Peruvian chicha sound. The recordings from their 2011 album Cumbia Salvaje (Wild Cumbia) are great, but it’s the band’s live performances where they really shine.
Ásgeir Trausti
A winsome falsetto that bears more than a passing resemblance to Justin Vernon’s emotive croon, Ásgeir Trausti’s vocal harmonies filter through the ten tracks of Dýrð í dauðaþögn (Glory in Dead Silence) like dappled sunlight through the trees. What the Icelander saying may be a bit more difficult to discern. Penned by his 72-year-old father, his all-Icelandic lyrics reveal little to foreign ears but the power of his emotive phrasing in any context shines through.
Niagara
The cut-and-paste electro kings trio hail from Torino, Italy and can’t really be pinned into a single genre. Their debut full-length OTTO lives up to the band’s cinematic roots. Niagara creates a dazzling, Jackson Pollock-style sonic pallet, a soundtrack to a film yet to be shot. But dive into the band’s aquatic-themed video for “Seal.”
Tre Mission
Not every rhymer from Drake’s hometown of Toronto wishes to follow in his hip-hop footsteps. Down in the deep, dark streets of the Canadian city lies a small congregation of MCs and producers, who have purposely disassociated themselves with the country’s burgeoning rap movement to form their own cult-like version of the UK’s grime scene. Tre Mission, a 21-year-old MC made an instant connection with the ten-year-old British genre after hearing Dizzee Rascal’s “I Luv U.” Grime music’s popularity may have decreased in recent times, with everyone cutting shapes to deep house and all, but this man is on a mission (pun intended) to fly the flag for the genre until the very end.
Hats off to the Danish and South African duo OOFJ on their victory for Artist of the Week! After a tight race with New York’s Colossal Mantis, OOFJ’s fans managed to pull together enough votes to reach the finish line.
Now living in Los Angeles, the pair’s debut full-length does their adopted hometown proud. A cinematic, after-hours ride through some of the more sinister aspects of the human psyche, Disco to Die is one of the most darkly appealing albums of the year to date.
Check out our exclusive premiere of the nightmare-worthy murder ballad “No More Blood” below. Disco to Die hits streets April 29.
MTV K is looking for the ultimate K-pop fan to help celebrate its big debut! This online destination for all things K-pop is going to fly one super fan with a friend to Korea to meet their favorite K-pop star. To enter, like the MTV K Facebook page and follow the instructions to make a video about why you should get to meet your idols. Remember to get your friends to vote for you! The contest ends April 12 at 5:00 p.m. EST, so get started.
What’s more MTV K will be teasing their launch with a Top 10 countdown show to be released on Monday, April 8th, where fans can vote for their favorite music video. The festivities officially kick off this summer with a live concert in New York City’s Times Square, featuring the hottest stars in K-pop.
MTV K is your one-stop source for never before seen artist exclusives, music videos and easy K-pop music discovery. Coming this summer!
We are so amped to debut “In the Line” from Pennsylvania singer-songwriter Koji’s forthcoming debut album Crooked in My Mind. Koji’s punk-bred acoustic jams have always been intensely personal and disarmingly armored in passion and sincerity. But this one is a hot burning coal of a song. He says, “‘In the Line‘ is about the troubling things we try to forget.” After you hear it, you may indeed come away with restless conscience.
The rest of the album promises to be just as intense. “Honesty was paramount in the making of Crooked In My Mind. This idea of making something real guided every step of the process from the songwriting to capturing sounds to the final mix,” he says of the project, which follows a long string of split albums and EPs. It was recorded with members of La Dispute, Balance and Composure, Title Fight, Gypsy and Lauryn Hill’s band. Check out the trailer:
Seriously, Run For Cover records had to deliver this song to us in a special fireproof carrying case. They’ll be delivering the rest of Koji’s album April 30th. The man himself is heading out on tour now with Slingshot Dakota.
And, finally, listen to, but don’t touch “In the Line”:
For his DJ Kicks mix, Maceo Plex excavated unknown crates for arcane and wondrous house cuts you won’t find anywhere else. That’s right, he’s constructed this mix of strikingly fresh sounding beats from tracks that are only on vinyl and won’t be available digitally any time soon. Monsters from Id? TV Baby, anyone? Hey, if you want to sound this deep you have to dig deep.
Listen here for some nice edits and one exclusive Maceo Plex track, “Galactic Cinema.”
Track Listing
1. Monsters From ID – Spatial Lobe
2. Voice Stealer – Evaluation
3. Stingray313 - Defect
4. Mathias Schaffhäuser - Nice To Meet You (Maceo Plex Edit)
5. TV Baby - New York Is Alright (Blak Spun Mix)
6. Maceo Plex & Mark O’Sullivan - When It All Comes To This
Before grime was known as grime, east London’s Wiley created a sound called Eski – inspired by his cold feelings towards the world at the time. And classic productions such as “Eskimo”, “Ice Rink” and “Snowman” helped shape the genre that was to be. Although Richard Cowie’s off getting that pop/mainstream money now, he will forever remain an inspiration to aspiring grime MCs and producers the world over (yes, even in Poland). For the first edition of Royal-T‘s new RTMIX series, he chose to pay homage to Wiley Kat’s icy-cold Eski beats by putting together a special, 20-track compilation. Listen and download below.
Tracklisting:
1) Wiley – Wot Do U Call It?
2) Wiley Kat – Snowman
3) Once Was Nice – What Could I Do (Wiley Kat & Danny Weed Vocal Mix)
4) Outlaw Breaks – Dutty (feat. Gemma Fox & Sweetie Irie) (Wiley Remix)
5) Wiley Kat – Shanghai
6) Wiley Kat – Ice Rink (Tinchy Stryder Vocal)
7) Wiley Kat – Ice Rink (Kano Vocal)
8) Wiley Kat – Ice Rink (Dizzee Rascal Vocal)
9) Wiley Kat – Snowball
10) Ludacris – Roll Out (Wiley Kat Remix)
11) Plasticman – Gotcha (Dr. Venom Refix)
12) Wiley Kat – Eskimo
13) Starfox – Blink
14) Geeneus – Genie
15) Wiley Kat – Frostbite (Devils Mix)
16) Wiley Kat – Bang Bang (Scratchy Vocal)
17) Wiley – 20 Minutes
18) Danny Weed – Creeper
19) Royal-T – Glacier
20) Wiley Kat – Eskimo 3 (New Brand Flex Refix) (Live Recording from ‘Climax vs Loveshy’ (2002))
