DOWNLOADS OF THE WEEK: Lupe Fiasco, Roy Irwin, Mike Posner

Lupe Fiasco - Friend of the People

Thanksgiving in New Zealand is just another day in November sometime. In the USA it has a bit more meaning – to them it carefully breaks up the time between Halloween and Christmas and marks the start of Christmas shopping. Well, to Lupe it is a real day of thanks…and to say thanks he has given away a full ten tracks.

Best thing about this mixtape is Lupe is back on lyrics that actually mean something – war, occupy Wall street, humanity. And the beats he has carefully selected are perfect backing to this heartfelt rant at all the things that are wrong in the world. A borrowed tune from Dubsteppers Nero, 4 to the floorers Justice and squeaky synthers M83 to name just 3.

Lupe kind of picked up were Kanye left off with saying shit he is thinking and not giving a shit about the consequences, including hating on Obama. He is obviously intelligent even if he is a tad outspoken and his flow on this mixtape is getting back to the ‘realness’. A socialism mixtape with good beats and Lupe getting back to the glory old school days = yes.

This is what Lasers really should have sounded like.

DOWNLOAD HERE

Roy Irwin - Backyard (Review and Interview)

You wake up. You scratch your nose and get a sickening wiff of too many cigarettes smoked from the night before. You’re still in jeans that are pulling and pinching at you and you got a persistent dull ache in your head. You smack your lips together trying to get rid of your dry mouth and then start to get a mini grin as you see the summer sun beaming on through the window. That is what this song is like.

Being content with the hopelessness of a hungover day of doing nothing. In fact this is what a lot of Roy’s stuff is like. It’s either pining for a different reality or running away from responsibility. And it’s beautiful in its scratchy pop-ness.

I caught up with him to talk about pouring beers on guitars on stage, what Beavis and Butthead think of him and why he keeps on going on about serial killers. Have a little look and listen…


Interview with Roy Irwin

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Mike Posner - The Layover

He seems like he could just be a cheesy pop star but he somehow manages to hang on the cool side of things. It is probably due to the fact that he really messes with the right people and gets shitloads of credibility from the fact he writes his own songs – kind of rare these days.

He has already proven that ‘Cooler than me’ and ‘Please Don’t Go’ were not flukes. He shits hooks daily. Some of the production on this is so big. Fat walls of sound and ear popping drums combined with his smooth little vocal lines. The best thing about this kind of hip-pop is its ok to like it without being embarrassed. We all loved Justin Timberlake but you kind of had to hide it from your jock mates, well here is your saviour. He is stupidly poppy but if you listen to this you won’t get bullied.

When you think Mike Posner you think catchy synth arpeggios and this massive 21 tracks will feed you this in a big way. He managed to rope in slabs of quality helpers for this too – Big KRIT, Twista, Casey Veggies and even Michael Franti. There are a couple of wicked spins on covers of Oasis – 'Wonderwall' and the biggest party version of Beirut’s ‘Nantes’ that you really should give a chance.

DOWNLOAD HERE


If you are greedy and want a bigger slice of the free music download pie then take a peep over at www.electricsockpuppet.com


By Oli Holmes