November 14th ÜDIO

We are really looking forward to this now.. Jamie Woon (whose live skills you can see in the post below) will keep things interesting during the early stages of the night and Bill Brewster will undoubtedly live up to his name later on. Support comes from friendly yank Sativo who somehow had the normally chilled upstairs bar jumping back at our April gig. This time around we welcome his charisma and flair to the basement for a block-party beatdown of crunkdiscofunk satisfaction. Sign up here

Jamie Woon - Spirits

Fantastic talent from London. You can read more about him here and also be sure to check out Burial's remix of Wayfaring Stranger. Can't wait to see him live.

Let The Spirit

Today I have that restless feeling that you get in the few hours before you see you're favourite artist perform live. It's all about Roots Manuva tonight who headlines at the Warehouse Project here in my hometown of Manchester. His current tour is, of course, in support of his latest (and possibly greatest?) album; Slime and Reason which has birthed his latest single and video; 'Let The Spirit'.

After the jump I've also included the only copy of Blak Twang's mid '90s tune; 'Queen's Head' that I could find online. It features a skinny Roots, in his pre-Manuva days as 'Baron Smith', outshining a rough-around-the edges Tony Rotton.

P.S.- Look out for Ty at the start of the video too.

Black twang ft roots manuva - the queen's head
Uploaded by dougpark17

Mahavishnu Orchestra

Finally got my hands on the Mahavishnu Orchestra LP The Inner Mounting Flame the other day and thought I would post up a live version of the standout track "You Know You Know". Watch Billy Cobham the drummer go mental around the 7 minute mark.

Üdio updates to follow soon..

Love Lockdown

LOVE LOCKDOWN from kwest on Vimeo.

Just as I was starting to wish unkind things upon T-Pain and the spread of his autotune influence, Mr. West went and released the video for 'Love Lockdown'. Whilst I couldn't get onside with the change in direction at first, the video, I think helps make sense of Kanye's new, refined sound. 'Love Lockdown' is the first single off 808s & Heartbreak out November 25th.

Universal Mind Control

It's a good thing he's no longer with the self-proclaimed Analogue Girl aka Erykah Badu, as she surely would not approve of this video. It's digital as a mofo!

The eagerly anticipated video for Common's 'Universal Mind Control'; the title track of his upcoming album, has finally dropped and it's looking sharp. Look out for Pharrell the robot.

Road To Where - Free Download

The 39 Steps are here to introduce you to what they call 'Dark Soul'. Leeds-based producer Kato has created a place where jazz, hip hop, psychedelia and filmscores collide. Built to a blueprint of bottom-heavy beats and guest singer Laura Fowles' spine-tingling vocals, their debut album Coming Clean showcases his manifesto of thoughtful and emotive music. Despite a low-key arrival onto the electronic music scene with no live output as yet, their studio project has been steadily acquiring interest on digital domains such as MySpace, where enthusiasts from all over the world variously described their music as 'awesome', 'melancholic' and 'beautiful'. Coming Clean is currently being prepared for release. Expect an album of hazy pianos, scratchy horns, confusion and clarity.

Massive congratulations to The 39 Steps on being signed by up and coming Leeds-based label, Bad Sneakers records. Surely a contender for best label name ever?

Before the album is released early next year there will be several goodies made available for you to enjoy such as videos and behind-the-scenes insights. To get the ball rolling, the label have very kindly released an excellent preview of the album in the form of "Road To Where". Download for free here!