Bonobo: Cirrus
Interview Magazine checks in with Simon Green, the British musician better known as Bonobo, to glean a little insight into his newly-released album, The North Borders. The NYC-based solo artist talks about the therapeutic aspects of recording, the globalization of music, working with Erykah Badu—who is featured on the album—and the intricacy of his work, saying “I often have an idea and it starts splintering off into a whole lot of directions; I’m interested in exploring every single one of them.” The kaleidoscopic video for “Cirrus” is a great visual summation of his multi-layered style.
Drake: 5AM In Toronto
Canadian rapper Drake does it “for the city this time around” dropping a new video for “5AM In Toronto.” The straightforward synopsis shows Drake and his crew hitting up a party complete with beautiful ladies playing beach volleyball, while he raps about how talented he is. While lyrics stating he is the only one in the game “still known for the music” are arguably just hyperbole, his finessed skills are definitely worth listening to.
Efterklang: The Ghost
For “The Ghost,” the sixth track on their album Piramida, Denmark’s Efterklang tapped Spanish filmmaker Victor Carrey to create a puzzling video filled with individual accounts of death but together makes a unified story about a magical ancient necklace. They met the director at a film festival in Spain a month before they camped out in the desolate Norwegian town of Spitsbergen, where they explored for nine days collecting over 1,000 sounds that would help comprise the outstanding album.
Fleetwood Mac: Second Hand News
The inimitable Fleetwood Mac kicked off their worldwide reunion tour Thursday in Columbus, Ohio, and we were lucky enough to be there. As we had hoped, they opened with “Second Hand News,” the first song off their chart-topping album Rumours, originally released in 1977 and remastered early this year. With a tour schedule that circles the globe over the next six months, keep an eye out for the legendary band in a city near you.
Nicolas Jaar: Noise
The Avant/Garde Diaries sat down with recent Brown University graduate Nicolas Jaar in an extensive interview that sheds light on his creative process and the themes he is exploring in his current work. One of such topics is broken technology, which Jaar captures through “Noise,” a short tune that channels his thoughts on what it means to be so connected. Of his look at the darker side of things, Jaar says, “The place I’m in now is a much more difficult place to make music in. What I’m interested in saying is more complex. I’m just not interested in showing you a picture of clouds anymore.”