HEEMS from Das Racist spits on new chill-wave track from Small Black. I’m really diggin the track. I only wish it was longer…

Top 10 Best Girl-Guy Duos:

Here’s my list of some of today’s best Girl-Guy duos in todays modern music. If you feel really passionate about a duo not mentioned here, please feel free to comment below. You can listen to songs from all of the artists featured in this article by scrolling to the bottom and hitting play on my very convenient PLAYLIST.

THE KNIFE Just as is the case with BoC, strong friendships are forged when people find a fellow fan of The Knife. Sibling bands are always sweet. And there’s none better than Sweeden’s Karin and Olof Dreijer.

PHANTOGRAM It’s always great when you see a girl and a guy create such a full sound on stage just the two of em. Phantogram is great at delivering electronic music that tastes good on such a wide range of pallets. Their debut album, Eyelid Movies is a must have. They are headlining right now with Com Truise opening for them, and will hopefully be coming out with their sophomore release soon.

BUKE AND GASS Sometime last year Aron Sanchez and Arone Dyer came out with and incredible album called Riposte. This duo is awesome in that all of their instrumentation is homemade, they have a wonderfully full sound and their music is full of compound time signatures, poly-rhythms and class A lyrics.

THE BIRD AND THE BEE A splendid joining of Greg Kurstin (Jazz) and Inara George (Bossa Nova) gives us one of the best girl/guy duos in the business. A mixture of bossa, jazz and electronic riding on Inara’s honey voice is consummated in the amazing Bird and the Bee.

MOLOKO Ok so this is going back in time a little, but not that far back. Although Róisín Murphy and Mark Brydon and broken up, we can always still love their music and Brydon’s brilliant discovery of Róisín Murphy. Moloko was one of the few electronic duo’s that actually made good pop music in the 90’s.

Y▲CHT Portland’s Jona Bechtolt and Claire L. Evans are capable of making some very good electro/synth-pop tunes, those which have the capacity to stand the test of time. And that says a lot for an electronic band.

J*DAVEY Sexy. One word I would use to describe J*Davey (Jack Davey and Brook D’Leau). Their music has a little bit of electro, funk, hip-hop, sex and R&B. Here’s a good girl/guy collaboration for sure.

SLEIGH BELLS Their debut album, Treats was very well received in 2010. Many like Sleigh Bells for their raw, heavy hard hitting, distortion driven music.


CRYSTAL CASTLES These young Canadians are great. They bring a pretty unique sound to the table, and deserve a spot on this list.


THE WHITE STRIPES Well, it’s the White Stripes. And before the White Stripes the modern mainstream listeners had forgotten how powerful (and appealing) the simple but beautiful combination of just girl and guy could be to music.


Hit play and listen to songs from all of the artists featured in this article.

A new DAS RACIST record for me is like Christmas come early. Just about 1 week ago, DR released their first commercial aka. you-have-to-buy-it album, Relax. I don’t even know where to begin with describing this phenomenal rap group. About 8 months back I downloaded the Shut up Dude and Sit Down Man mix tapes (which i believe are still available for free dl), and felt compelled to write a review but found the task was incredibly difficult if not impossible. So i’ve decided for the sake of Relax, i’m gonna take a different route to an album review and give you instead a band review.

I love DR. I think these guys are cool. There’s Heems (Himanshu Suri), an American born diaspora Indian, Kool A.D. (Victor Vazquez) and Dap (Ashok Kondabolu). I always found it funny that Victor was Heem’s RA in Wesleyan University. I’m not surprised though that these guys clicked. They are both intelligent, and seem to share the same sense of humor. I can’t imagine how anyone meeting these guys would not want to instantly be friends and hang out with them at every available opportunity. Combining these two with Hype man, Dap you get Das Racist: whose chemistry gives way to the most senseless combination of lyrics that somehow make perfect sense in the greater context which the lyrics are placed. Relax is an appropriate album name for DR, because the word does sum up the band quite nicely. Both Heems and Kool A.D. are masters of word play. They weave serious matters around humor whilst maintaining a seemingly nonchalant attitude, where you get the impression that these guys sound awesome without even trying hard. They don’t need to try hard and it’s precisely that impression which magnetizes most to Das Racist.

I listened to their last release, Sit Down Man for months. It was on my tune cycle for longer than what most albums last me, and even today any of those tracks get me smiling and bouncing my head. I’m going to avoid naming particular tracks because I just don’t know how to split one track from the next. If I play DR on my ipod the first track is typically picked at random.

Anyways, stop wasting your time reading this and go download Relax. Your ipod will thank you for it.

Although I am writing from the Arabian Gulf and it is a perpetual summer all year round, some part of the michigan in me indicates that we are approaching the fall season. That means two things. a) it’s gonna get colder for my northern hemisphere friends, and b) the Raizuli blog is off summer hiatus and the blog writing shall recommence. To start things off; a brief update on what the Raizuli has been upto: This summer has gone by a whole lot faster than he thought it would. Work on his debut album, GUILTBITCH has been making slow but certain progress. Below you can sample one of the tracks appropriately named, Unfinished Business. More snippets and previews to come soon. He continues his education in the world of finance, and saves money so he can travel, and yes he wrote this in the third person. LOTS of music to look forward to this fall. There’s goon be new St. Vincent, Björk, Das Racist, Spank Rock, Justice, Tom Waits, Common (cough* Coldplay) and plenty more. Check in at least once a week for new articles and tunes. And if you’re reading, shoot me a message, it makes me happy to know you stopped by. Unfinished Business (Sample) by The Raizuli

a taster tune from New Villager, out now….

St. Vincent’s awesome new song from her upcoming album Strange Mercy

RIP Gil Scott-Heron…

NEW LITTLE DRAGON ALBUM OUT THIS SPRING!

You may be familiar with their collaborations on The Gorrillaz’, Plastic Beach on the awesome tracks Empire Ants and To Binge, where I’m sure you would agree that the very soul of the song rests on Yukimi Nagano’s amazing voice.

The Swedish neo-soul/electronic band has been one of my faves for a while now, and they are releasing a new album, RITUAL UNION on the 12th of July. You may have caught them performing the album title song, Ritual Union on Fallon this past week (as seen above). It is a dope tune which makes us all very excited for the upcoming album I’m sure. And for all you people dealing with the snow, and for all of you familiar with their previous two albums, I say there’s no better way to welcome the spring than with a brand new album from a band as good as this.

To side track a little, you might also want to check out the cutest elementary school chorus, PS22 sing Little Dragon’s, Twice, with Little Dragon, which was pointed out to me via the Gorilla VS. Bear blog earlier today. The PS22 Chorus is from Public School 22 in Graniteville, Staten Island. These kiddies have been knows to sing some awesome renditions of some very cool tunes, bound to leave you with goose bumps. Another one of my favorite PS22 covers would have to be Ariel Pink’s Round and Round which you pretty much have to check out if you liked the previous tune.

Ganta is Working on some New Tunes…
I have not enjoyed the fact that this blog wall has stayed drier than the Atacama for the last 3 weeks. The drought is due to my recent energies being focused on grad school and being smart and all. But it’s funny how even doing something as positive as learning can leave a person depressed if he/she doesn’t expend energy in more creative ways. See it’s either the blog, or working on a track which is all the time I have for when not doing school…..Speaking of which, I would like to alert you all to some music I’ve been working on. I’m strongly debating on weather I should post a new track up on here, but I think it might be better not to be so hasty. For those of you who have heard my tunes in New York, I’d say that I’m finally finding a more definite sound, a little tamer than the eclectic mish-mash you would have heard at the time. The new stuff I think would best be defined in the ways of Hip-hop/Electro/Punk. I really don’t know how I want to release the new stuff, whether as an EP, or as an album mixed with some of my older New York tunes such as CONSIDER IT, above. If you haven’t heard this one from me yet, it is a chillwave track I think y’all might dig. I suppose this is officially my first track posted on the interwebs… I suppose Consider it could be used as a comparative tool in contrast to the new tracks I hope to put out soon…oh boy. Aaaaaand questions and comments would be much appreciated!

I should have reviewed the Curtis Lane EP from ACTIVE CHILD months ago. But I didn’t have the blog then. I do now, SO here’s what i’ve done for you. You can watch the video for I’m in your Church at Night up above. And listen to the entire EP, on my very convenient playlist below :) Sadly the only version of Wilderness which I could embed is a remix version. But the original is great, and you must give it a listen.
Active Child is Pat Grossi, who’s ethereal falsetto can be attributed to his days as a choir boy, a vocal style which forms the spine of his style of work. Not all songs are sung in falsetto though. Check out, “Weight of the World” and you may find the vocals playing a striking homage to the late Ian Curtis. Synth pop of a very simple form has been perfectly blended with choralic elements and harp plinks (yes Pat Grossi is a harpist as well), but it doesn’t end there. The songs are bigger than you might consider on first listen. They grow on you like a gentle monster with a disco heartpulse and in private moments you take refuge in its cool shadow, to find a huge smile on your face half way through each song.

Somewhere Else by Colorado man, Mesita

This was suggested by my wonderful sister… And it is dedicated it to all our migratory readers and friends.

living life in three-month-long stories
moving on from one to the next
when you think you finally know me
i have become somebody else

need to leave behind this worry
just can’t seem to rest my head
when i think i’m finally settled
i am headed out somewhere else

living life in three month-long stories
wanderlust has taken hold
still young, i see a world wide open
still need to find somebody else

need to leave behind this worry
just can’t seem to rest my head
when i think i’m finally settled
i am headed out somewhere else

abandon when abandoned
so you leave before you are left
i’ve never really known who i am

hope these days will have some meaning someday
but for now i’m just a stray with a suitcase

Track available for free download on mesitamusic.com

J*DaVeY is one of my favorite girl/guy duo’s, and they have just released a new EP which you can download for free (for a limited time) HERE! If you are new to J*DaVeY fear not, The Raizuli is here to show you the way. The duo has a strong following in the underground scene, and consists of singer/songwriter Briana Cartwright (known as Jack Davey) and producer Brook D’Leau. Whether your preferred cup of tea is electro, R&B, hip/hop, jazz, funk, soul, punk or or just a plain sick beat, J*DaVeY has it all. They have fans of all shapes and sizes. Some of noteworthy remark would be his royal badness, aka. Prince and ma’ man ?uestlove, who collaborated with D’Leau in what we hear as the theme song for Late Night with Jimmy Fallon

The Nirvana cover song for Smells Like Teen Spirit featured above is from their new EP released yesterday, Evil Christian Cop. Personally I think it’s a dope cover, and I’m sure you will think so too. 40 seconds into the 2nd track Quicksand we get a sort of vocal-melodic tribute to Suzanne Vega’s, Tom’s Diner as we continue to travel along this bounce worthy hip-hop beat. Raincheck is also a good track, and reminds me of one of my favorite songs, Get Together from their Boudoir Synema EP. The song has a great video, and I can’t see anyone not really liking it. So check it out, and while you’re onto some video’s, check out the video for the song Slooow—also good, and bound to get stuck in your head for the rest of the day. Also, their second studio album called New Designer Drug will hopefully be released sometime this summer so look out for that!

I saw them perform a couple times last year. The last one I saw of them was at my favorite venue in the West Village, S.O.B, where they will be playing on the 5th of April. This is a show I would go see if I wasn’t currently living all the way out in Dubai. So for you guys out in New York, go see J*DaVeY next month and let me know how the show goes. You could write a guest review and I’ll be sure to post it on here. Bam!

Your First "Raizulist"

Everyone is busy, and reading these blog posts for musical meat that might add substance to you day is time consuming. So by popular demand, here is the FIRST WEEKLY PLAYLIST from The Raizuli :)

Don’t forget you can always ask me anything or just send me your thoughts as they are always welcome.

Happy Sunday. Press play and go about your day…

Computers and Blues

Blues is right. Because that’s what I felt when I first heard THE STREETS’ final album released February 7 earlier this month. I try and stay away from playing the role of a critic, and prefer writing my articles from the perspective of a fan, which is why I had no desire to review Computers and Blues. I would have preferred Mike Skinner to quit while he was ahead instead of trying to venture into territory he was not too strong in, namely funk and soul. You can preview the entire album on the Guardian here. Overall, fan reviews show disappointment. And NME must have been smoking crack when they gave the album an 8/10. The album is no Original Pirate Material, or A Grand Don’t Come for Free, and it’s not that I’m only comparing this album to their first two albums, but even in a general sense it’s a dissapointment. 2004’s Fit But You Know it, might be The Streets biggest single. It’s the kind of witty/funny track that most folk would love The Streets for. There is also Dry Your Eyes Mate from the same year, the somber but poignant track about a break up, that resonates with anyone who’s experienced heartbreak. Computers and Blues is neither here nor there. Musically it lacks in heaviness. The soulful choruses just don’t work. And the “new to Skinner, funky elements” would be better replaced by some hard dub or hip-hop. Nonetheless, I write this article because there is yet hope for Mike Skinner, who has just announced his plans to create a remix Computers and Blues album under the alias, The Death of Marat. He has released one remix track so far for the track OMG, and it’s not half bad. Check it out below. In fact it’s better than the original! With that in mind, The Death of Marat remix album could be Skinner’s saving grace. Mr. Skinner, I really like you. You take yourself far too seriously in your latest album, but I suppose you have earned such an indulgence. Whatever. I’m just glad you are doing this remix album. Perhaps what the album needed all along was some darker, heavier elements; some hard hitting dub step to match the nature of the albums’ lyrical tone. We know it will be good. Your fans are rooting for you. And I would just like something worth writing about. The Streets - OMG (Remix By Death Of Marat) by The Raizuli

A new RADIOHEAD album is an event for many a fan. Some of us had heard about the release of The King of Limbs to be this Saturday, the 19th. As I was driving to the Global Village in Dubai last night, I noticed we had a big bloody full moon low in the sky, and I thought to my self, “Radiohead’s new album is to be released in a matter of hours. Tomorrow is going to be a good day.” Go figure that Radiohead would then as if on a whim decide to release the album a day early, with a post on their website saying, “It’s Friday… It’s almost the weekend…It’s a full moon….You can download ‘The King of Limbs’ now if you so wish!” OMG is literally all that went through my head when I read that, and headed straight to the download link to get my self the £9.00 WAV copy of the album.

I noticed that Rolling Stone in their hasty race to review already gave a track by track breakdown of the album. But those assholes can keep their premature review, because having personally listened to the album 5 times through so far, I can honestly say that the album keeps unfolding, and a proper track by track breakdown can only take place after listening and re-listening over a period of time.

The King of Limbs makes it a nice even 8, as their 8th studio album for you to add to your collection, also consisting of 8 tracks on the album itself. You can buy it here. Also check out the only video from the album so far, which is track 5’s, Lotus Flower here, which features a solo Thom Yorke in an epileptic dance fit. The song I have featured above is the album’s opening track, Bloom.

THE GO! TEAM
Have a look at the video for track 7, Super Triangle from The Go! Team’s newly released album. For the Boards of Canada fans familiar to a similar aesthetic, the song pays a wonderful homage to the late 70’s/early 80’s classroom science videos made by the ITV and the BBC. It was hard for me to find these old educational videos online, but I feel the program Look Around You, the BBC spoof, recreates this aesthetic quite well. Do check it out if you haven’t already. Nostalgic elements of the such linger throughout the album along with a mish-mash of Motown melodies meets surf pop, meets 70’s car chase horns, meets playground double dutch chants ideas.

Two weeks ago, the UK band released their third studio album, Rolling Blackouts. The brain behind the Go! Team sound is Ian Parton, who before even forming the rest of the band, produced the debut album Thunder, Lightning, Strike in his moms kitchen. It is an album which jump started his career, as well as that of the rest of the band when pitchfork put it on their list of best albums of 2004, coming #8 on the list.

I love Rolling Blackouts. Listen to track 9, Yosemite Theme and it’s bound to put a smile on your face. There are some not so surprising guest artists on the record, with Satomi Matsuzaki of Deerhoof singing on track 2, Secretary Song, and Best Coast’s, Bethany Cosentino’s surf pop contribution, singing on track 6, Buy Nothing Day. There are other great videos accompanying the album. You will enjoy watching T.O.R.N.A.D.O which is also the opening track and a head banger at that, and another one of my favorites, Rolling Blackouts which is a homage to the 1961 french si-fi picture film, La jetée.

This is an excellent album which is bound to cheer you up and is perfect for those winter blues. Give it a listen, and do let me know what you think of it.

Introducing PEEPHOLE
No one becomes famous overnight. And for a musician who would like to be known for their creative abilities, the road is even tougher. For one, every homeboy and his cousin wants to be a famous something and this dilutes the integrity of the truly talented folk who are swimming in the same public pool. The public pool belongs to everyone trying to make it on their own, and for those who want to swim in some private pool in the Hamptons, cash-money seems to be the only ticket out. But cash can only get you so far. Ultimately, the truly successful are a result of sheer hard work and determination. Take Marina and the Diamonds for instance. The Welsh born starlet decided in her late teens that she wanted to be a pop god. She learned how to play the piano, and after 5 years of 100 percent commitment, she finally got her break and is now on the super fast track to fame. Kent Odessa of Peephole is another such hardworking individual who doesn’t just have an edgy band name, but also the music to match. Like many aspiring musicians he has made Brooklyn, NY his home base, and has for the last 3 years or so self released 3 EP’s of his own. In a few months he will release his full length debut, Silverdome, and there are very good reasons to be excited about this.
It was late February, spring of 2010 when my very cool, very cute German friend Corina came to visit me in NY for a few days. It was around that time when the underbelly of Webster Hall (The Studio) in Manhattan was featuring bands such as Boy Crisis, Bear Hands, and of course the somewhat scandalously named, Peephole. I had heard some of Peephole’s music via their myspace prior to that just out of sheer curiosity. I immediately dug Kents simple but head-bouncable guitar riffs, falsetto vocals and catchy chorus lines. Cori had a damn good sense of legit music and so I had no qualms in taking her to the Studio that Tuesday night despite the fact that I’d not seen Peephole perform live up until that point. It was a good show. People dug what they heard and bobbed their heads and bounced their bums song after song. If there ever was a more down to earth guy, it’s Kent. After the show, we bought the man some blue drink and spent sometime discussing tunes. At the end of the night we swapped cards and went our own ways. It wasn’t until a few months later that my interest in the band was rekindled. It was one of the worst days I had had at work, and as routine would have it, I was on my commute home, riding the subway, headphones plugged in with my ipod on shuffle. I had downloaded all of Peepholes EP’s via the website, and today the shuffle decided to play one of Peephole’s songs from his Crime Drama EP. The song was Hysteria, which you can hear above, and it instantly changed my mood for the better. I spent the first few minutes of the song trying to guess who was the artist that was playing in my ears. I suck at playing games on my own, and so I cheated and looked before I was sufficiently challenged, and found out it was Peephole. Since then I have been closely following the band, waiting eagerly for their big break. Now unlike the previously released EP’s, Silverdome is going to be mixed by Hays Holladay of The Ephochs (now known as Bluebrain), and made all nice and shiny by Joe Lambert the mastering engineer for Animal Collective, Deerhunter and The Dirty Projectors. There is a lot to look forward to in Silverdome, with 10 new tracks from Peephole. According to Odessa, it is his best work yet and coming from me, if the winds blow in his favor we will probably read and hear a whole lot more about Peephole in this coming year. At the moment Peephole is featured on the music site Mavaru, where you can download the Crime Drama EP at whatever cost you choose.