New year, new music. You know I'm happy!

This year's shaping up to be quite a hot year on the music scene, guess who's making a return:
Jaheim, Massive Attack, Redman, Usher, Erykah Badu, Christina Aguilera, Toni Braxton, Raheem DeVaughn, Jamie Foxx, Luda, The Roots,Drowning Pool, Sia, even Sade's back!!!
....and thats just some of the hotness we can look forward to in the first half of the year!
- In case you can't tell, I'm a little excited.

Anywho, thought I'd tell you want I'm enjoying so far and share my thoughts on a couple of pre-release music I've had the privilege of listening to.

Omarion's Ollusion, it's as simple as this:
Free from his controversial departure from Young Money last year which slowed Ollusion's release, Omarion has come back with a hot and undeniably grown and sexy R&B sound. Par example:

Omarion Ft. Tank-On My Grind (Prod. By 253) by canonjon
Hot right? Ofcourse there are the dance driven club tracks that are a dream come true for youtube-based dance crews from Cali to Tokyo, but with some hard hitting production from Tank and 253, O's packing some serious heat throughout Ollusion. There's only a couple of skippable tracks, and tbh, they're not terrible, just a bit "meh". Anyway, Ollusion was released on the 12 of January, its hot and definitely worth a cop.

Next up

Cassie's obviously been through it, like BEEN through it, head shaved, album shelved, pics exposed. But regardless, the unduly heavily criticized R&B/Pop songstress is looking and sounding more fierce this year ahead of her TBA release of her 2nd studio album, currently titled "Electro Love" (Bet R-Les picked the title).
I've listened to most of the songs that might make the final cut and some of it is very promising, most notably 'Janet-esque' track "Stamina" produced of course by Darkchild.
Have a listen:
Cassie - Stamina by canonjon
What do you think?
I like it, even though its not original, what is these days? It's good to hear Cassie shake her "twee" image and grow some lady-nuts. Sadly, more than half of what I've heard, whithers into weak, generic R&B mediocrity. Hopefully some sensible last minute executive decisions are made before this is put out. "Electro Love" is coming out through Bad Boy Records, with a release date TBC.

More to come....:)

- Mr. Devo

New Era Takes on Alice and Wonderland in one of its hottest collabs yet!

Came across these this morning:





pictures via NewEra cap talk
To mark the release of Lewis Carrol's epic tale, a la Tim Burton, New Era are set to drop these Alice in Wonderland inspired designs in February. Not every one of them are to my taste, but for the sheer attention to detail alone, a couple of these are DEFINITE cops!

These unique designs will no doubt appeal to collectors and are sure to break necks. Alice in Wonderland (2010) is scheduled for a March 5th release. If you havent seen the trailer yet, do:

Happy Sunday!
- Mr. Devo

Still in hibernation and looking forward to the spring

It's been a long time (long time)

I shouldnt have left you (left you)

Without a dope beat to step to (step to)

Step to -S-Step to, step to, step to

(friki friki oh aoaoh)

Ok, got that out of my system.

I don't function very well in winter, due to my bear like nature, so I apologise (to myself mostly for my blogging absence) although I've been active elsewhere: twitter.com/canonjon and WeAreHQ.com in particular. Anyway, I return baring the gift of song via an old friend and a new one.

Eric Lau's mixtape "Warm it up for BTS Radio is a sultry mix of Hip-Hop and soul fusion, featuring Dilla, The Roots, D'Angelo and more....Mr. Lau is a good friend of mine and without doubt one of the most promising Beat Makers on European soil.

Via supreme music blog Putmeonit.com:

Eric Lau has cemented his place as one of the leaders of the contemporary UK soul movement following his debut release "New Territories" on Ubiquity Records. Sitting on a pile of beats in his London flat, Lau is not to be underestimated as a hip-hop producer, having already made the classic anthem, "For The D" with Guilty Simpson. Lau is currently setting his pieces for a full length hip-hop release, the final results of which will make him a force to be reckoned with.

Warm it up Track list:

BIll Evans - Solar
J Dilla - Untitled
Eric Lau - Bendy
Georgia Anne Muldrow - E.S.P. (Instrumental)
Karriem Riggins - Soul on Top
Madlib - Untitled
Jay Electronica - My World (Nas Salute)
Baatin - Girl
Slum Village - World Full of Sadness
Madlib - Untitled
D.Rose - Track #003 (Produced by Chris ‘Daddy’ Dave)
D’Angelo - Jonez In My Bones (Rehearsal)
The Roots - The Suits
The Robert Glasper Experiment - For You
Georgia Anne Muldrow - Child of The Sun
Herbie Hancock - Butterfly (Live)
Tarika Blue - Truth is The Key
Curtis Mayfield - We’ve Only Just Begun (Live)
Sapo - Nina
Ju-Par Universal Orchestra - Is Anyone Listening?
The Kinks - End of a Season

DOWNLOAD LINK: http://btsradio.com/audio/EricLau_WarmItUp_BTSMix.mp3

Give it a listen, I'll be shocked if you have anything but love.

Also be sure to head over to putmeonit.com to keep up to speed with the latest on the hottest musical talent out there, they put me on about this.

For more on Eric Lau, visit:
www.twitter.com/ericlaumusic
www.myspace.com/ericlaumusic

For more info on Andrew Meza & BTS Radio, visit:

http://btsradio.com/

http://www.myspace.com/btsradio

- Mr. Devo

Timbaland and the Clipse are back, while John Mayer's smashing the charts- Hot this week and next

Heavyweight producer Timbaland returns to the game with his new album; Shock Value II.
This time round Timbaland's annual feature frenzy typically includes vocals from a myriad of music superstars; including Drake, JoJo, Chad Kroeger, Justin Timberlake (surprise surprise), Keri Hilson, Miley Cyrus and others.


Although he's sounding more Pop than ever on this latest outing, Timbaland's beats still bang as hard as a left hook from David Haye. The chrous melodies are infectiously catchy and there's enough variance in flavour to appeal to most people at the party.

If I were you, I wouldn't mind finding this in my stocking. Look forward to plenty of home alone dance routine moments when you put this on.

Seems for now, Timothy's "legacy won't arpeggiate" #yeahhesaidit lol.

Also hot this week:


John Mayer's fifth studio album, Battle Studies. Mayer's at his candid and melodic best on this open account of love and life which he describes as a "heartbreak handbook". He particularly shines on the rebellious "Who says?" which was the first single from this album, he's also brutally honest but beautiful on the ballad "Friends, Lovers or Nothing".


If you're a fan of his previous work, you will be impressed by his continuing growth as a musician, Battle Studies is chart smashing(topping the Billboard 200 in its debut week), radio friendly, stadium worthy and a great album to take on a long drive or keep you company on a lazy sunday.

I was lucky enough to get a free pre-release download but I still bought the CD when it came out; its most definitely worth the purchase.

Hot next week:


It's third time lucky for The Clipse as their fortunes pick up after a couple of false starts due to record label politics.

Free from the shelf, the Clipse are set to drop their new album "Til' the Casket Drops" on December the 8th via ILLIONAIRE Records. I've had an early listen and I can assure you, it's a banger. Expect production from the Neptunes, Scott Storch, DJ Khalid and others, as well as features from Rick Ross, Pharrell and Keri Hilson to name a few.
It's a hot album from start to finish, so don't miss out!

- Mr. Devo

JEDWARD get classy!!The X-Factor twins we all hate to love turn it out for Grazia

I'm not alone in thinking X-Factor this year has been a bit of sham of a mockery and a mockery of a sham, but this year has pulled record viewing figures so Cowell must be getting something right.

"Worst" of the bunch, John and Edward Grimes caught my eye today with a couple of shots from their Grazia magazine shoot. The quiffs are squished and I'm not ashamed to admit; they look sharp!






Can anyone say "Burberry campaign"?

I reckon with some smart choices these boys could go very far indeed, lets just hope they go as far away from music as possible.

Go UK!!

- Mr Devo

Storm in a tea cup Reflection on The Sun's persecution of Gordon Brown

The Sun has a right, to run with any story that may be of public interest, however, looking back on the aftermath of what in effect was a storm in a tiny tea cup; The Sun is guilty of three things

• Poorly gauging public opinion and embarrassingly, the opinion of its readership after only 25% of respondents on its website showed support for the coverage.

• Shameful levels of hypocrisy, by misspelling the family name of Jacqui Janes as “Jones”, days after ridiculing Brown for the same thing.
  

• Smoke screening serious issues at play, with a machine gun attempt at politically assassinating Gordon Brown i.e. the downfall of the Labour government, alleged military equipment shortages and the true costs of a dirty “unwinnable” war.

Jacqui Janes was understandably heartbroken at the loss of her son, who joined the toll of 233 soldiers killed in action in Afghanistan since 2001; Jamie Janes’ death is a sad and tragic cost of our conflict in the Middle East. What’s unique about this story is despite the facts The Sun exploited this woman’s grief to attack Labour and Brown by placing disproportionate focus on Brown’s handwriting.

Hundreds of soldiers put their lives at risk daily, hundreds of families are affected by the conflict; the absolute last thing worth talking about is handwriting quality.

Gordon Brown’s handwriting
a cause for concern?
Photo: PA/DANNY LAWSON

The fact remains we have a Prime Minister who, for better or for worse, cares enough to respond personally to tragedy.
Surely that’s a positive thing?

- Mr. Devo

Hot this week! Chris Brown comeback Disney brings back a Classic

I'm having a crazy time at the moment, much is happening, some things good, few things bad things. I'm beginning to accept that the board we're given in life is the board we'll die with, but that got me thinking: That doesn't mean I can't change the pieces. So that's exactly what I intend to do, keeping things moving; I refuse to play victim. Of course, it helps to have good friends and newness to assist my developing perspective so here goes:

New and hot this week!

First up, I know this isn't exactly new anymore but a lot of people still haven't seen Chris Brown's new music video which was released last week. The video is for his comeback single, "I can transform Ya" featuring producer Swizz Beatz and Cash Money superstar Lil Wayne, who simply steals the show with his scorching hot verses.

Check it: "I can transform ya" video

By now I'm sure most people are aware of Chris Brown's incident with former flame Rihanna back in February and I don't condone or support what he did, but he has apologised and is remorseful so I can still appreciate his art at least.

Next up, on Sunday a friend of mine at Disney invited me down to the Empire cinema in Leicester square to catch a preview of Disney's seasonal feature "A Christmas Carol" in 3D, starring legendary physical comedy actor, Jim Carrey.

Some might criticise Disney for playing it safe with this age old classic, but they have done a simply outstanding job capturing the magic of the tale and telling it in ground breaking, sumptuous digital 3D.

The script and language is largely true to Charles Dickens' original, keeping the heart and beauty of this masterpiece. Very children may find it a little scary, but adults and children (over 9) alike should enjoy this modern version. I laughed and felt the tug of my heart strings at all the right moments.
If you have young ones to entertain in the run up to Christmas, Orange Wednesdays or a quiet Sunday, you should check this out. Heading Central London's extravagant Christmas light display, AChristmas Carol will be on general release in cinemas from Friday November 6th.

Happy Tuesday!

- Mr. Devo