Various Artists - 'This Is UK Rap Vol 1'
The problem with UK hip-hop is the ‘UK’ bit. I’ve never seen the logic in trying to compete with a genre that’s so characteristically American. Not least because surely grime is our hip-hop, and grime is where we’re still progressive. In...
This Week's Single Reviews (19/05/12)
NME's Tom Howard reviews the latest single releases Alt-J - 'Breezeblocks' When Joe Newman’s “ Please don’t go/I love you so ” starts, it seems harmless. But with the promise to “ hold her down with soggy clothes and breezeblocks...
Live At Leeds
Leeds: home of Everything Brilliant since 2006. Hence the sixth incarnation of Live At Leeds – crammed with talent, way drunk. It went like this: The on-way-too-early band Surefire chart-chargers Citizens! are expounding their...
Simple Things Festival
The arteries of the festival season have slowly started pumping party blood around the UK. Who’ll be giving us life this summer? Well, there were seven acts at Bristol’s multi-venue Simple Things Festival who laid down a marker for special...
Camden Crawl
Saturday Camden used to be a Mecca for the wonderfully weird, the Crawl the place to discover them, but today’s sparse line-up and crappy crowd hints at a loss of mojo. Veronica Falls pack the Barfly with a load of people who, it seems,...
10 Tracks You Have To Hear This Week (26/05/12)
Azealia Banks - 'Jumanji' Updating the ‘difficult second album’ prospect for the blog generation, Harlem rapper Azealia Banks has found herself facing the problems of the difficult second single. With breakout track ‘212’ becoming...
Nipsey Hussle feat. Rick Ross - 'Proud Of That'
Producer Jiggy Hendrix’s whirring, sleazy grime hook fits Nipsey’s earnest flow perfectly while Rick Ross’ one-verse cameo is scene-stealing. The fact that you can imagine listening to this while driving with the top down and the bass on...
Lianne La Havas - 'Is Your Love Big Enough?'
Ploughing the Radio 2, Corinne Bailey Rae-esque niche of acoustic singer/songwriter-ing, this may be the sweetest-sounding romantic demand around. All handclaps, delicately plucked guitars and honeyed tones, the title track from La Havas’ debut...
10 Tracks You Have To Hear This Week (19/05/12)
Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs - 'American Dream Pt II' Ahh, the American Dream. You never hear anyone banging on about French Fancy or the Romanian Rumination. Thankfully, TEED’s effort dodges Razorlight-style chest-thumping or...
![Bang On! – '[sic]'](http://static.nme.com/images/album/BandOnSic600Gb090512.jpg)
Bang On! – '[sic]'
The beats: dubstep-in-the-old-days, mixed with big drums on the ‘Fix Up, Look Sharp’-alike ‘Got IT’, old-school metal riffs on ‘Your Gay’ and d’n’b on ‘MUNNYS’ and ‘Punk-Donk’. The good raps: witty, real-life experiences...
