On my return I threw my photo’s I’d taken with my point and shoot camera through Aperture and with a bit of work I think some of the results are excellent. I’ve always enjoyed taking snaps and after producing a set of photos I was really pleased with, with a point and shoot I decided it might be time to take up Photography more seriously! So yesterday I ordered a Cannon 550d DSLR. So here starts the steep learning curve of taking some ‘proper’ shots – but I am really looking forward to it. I will no doubt be posting some of the results in the coming months!

With that and work commitments music has had to take a bit of a back seat, that’s not to say I’ve not been keep track of what is happening musically…here are two cuts that dropped over the weekend that have stood out for me…

Also with the iminent release of Watch the Throne, Ed Sheeran +, Wretch 32 Black & White and later in the year J.Cole’s debut and Drake Sophomore album, the latter part of 2011 looks to be an exciting time musically, the start has been a bit quiet…

Order at http://www.richard-bell.co.uk/posters

Now I can understand that it’s currently popular and sells but why can’t some quality RnB get the air time it deserves? If you listen to the mainstream radio stations, I’m now including 1xtra in this – they seem to following the trend of everyone else and slowly dropping RnB for what is popular and putting everything in the RnB basket.

DJB used to hold down the RnB mix show and you got a nice selection of upfront RnB that actually felt like an RnB show. Now you get the likes of Gyptian – Hold Yuh, Wretch 32 – Traktor, Drake – Fancy …all big tracks in their own right – but RnB really?

At some point someone in the industry unleashed a euro-pop rnb track and the public lapped it because they think bass makes a good music and they love everything to sound the same. They like their comfort zone if you give them something different they don’t know what they are listening to – are the people buying records/MP3s young teenagers who know know no better?

How is our music ever going to progress from the current situation when this is all our younger generations know? Maybe they are too young to understand/appreciate “grown” RnB granted it’s subject matter is mainly relationship based. They can relate to the bubblegum lyrics they are force fed daily on TV and Radio. I’m just brain-storming, I realize we can’t all have the same musical opinions but you can’t seriously tell me that a Jazmine Sullivan album doesn’t deserve as much success as Cheryl Cole’s latest album which I’m sure somewhere will have been brushed with the “RnB” brush!

Interestingly I’ve just got to “Luv Back” on the Jazmine album it reminds me of the last Alexandra Burke single “Start Without You” which was the worst song of the year in my opinion – why can’t Burke release material like Luv Back its in a different league it hasn’t got a nobody feature rap feature – its just Jazmine’s vocals and it works. There is no doubting Alexandra Burke has a great voice but the material provided to her is so weak yet it is still packaged as RnB!

Maybe I’m just getting old and don’t understand the current situation. But I know I’m not the only one thinking this mainly music heads. People who listen to their new music via mainstream TV/Radio can never understand my beef with the current industry and the material that is forced upon us as a population. I’m sure if I wasn’t so big on music then I wouldn’t even be writing this because all I knew was what I was spoon fed?

I just wish more people would dig a little deeper for their music. It would help if the Radio/T.V. stations would stop pushing weak RnB and give strong rooted real RnB a chance to shine! It would help if more artists were stronger willed and released music that they are capable of making of instead of bowing to pressure to make what is “current” – but at they end of the day they want their £,$ and the people are buying it!

Maybe one day in the near future the trend for Europop RnB will fade and we can get back to the real deal…. Here’s to hoping anyway!!

Points of interest for me…

• Talking about Radio being Stale and stations chasing Big Record’s instead of mixing things up a little! …
• Talking about the Kanye/Jigga collab album (massivley looking forward to this even more so My Dark Twisted Fantasy)
• Him recognising Kano as one of the U.K top talents!

To listen again or to find out more information about Trevor Nelson’s Radio show.

Check the feature Album of the Week some classics in this list…

Hopefully more to come – however I have nothing to play this on and some other bits of Vinyl I found at the parents at Christmas – next purchase some form of Turntable – any suggestions apart from Technics 1200’s which would be a mad investment for 1 piece of vinyl.

Music hurts my wallet – but it makes me happy!

p.s. I might hit London in the Summer on a Vinyl hunt…

Maybe these are just a sign I am turning into something of an old man but yer these some things I dislike…

1. Couples who walk holding hands(slowly) or people talking in pairs that don’t make room for anyone else on the pavement that is walking in their path
2. Drivings who regard the pavement as part of the road – I’m the pedestrian its my right of way (well by my rules anyway)
3. There is an order to washing up set in stone (glasses,mugs,cutlery,plates,pans….anything greasy) – it makes sense no? Break this order and I will slap you…
4. Also while on the subject of washing up…grease in pan remove 90% before submerging in water…we don’t like blocked drains
5. Washing up Pt 3. You don’t need two table spoons of washing up liquid just a pea sized drop is usually enough. p.s. The water needs to burn your hands!
6. Why when people ring up for a piece of work….do they require it within 5 minutes?
7. People who are brain washed by Music channels & Radio 1 and don’t dig a little deeper for their music…
8. Electric Hobs – Give me gas each and every time…on that note the fridge in this flat is shit
9. Also oven grill combo’s poorly designed…Smokey grill as standard…

10. These sort of taps – especially when over hanging a sink they just get in the way
11. Perez Hilton, Paris Hilton, Katie Price, Jeremy Vine – obviously I don’t know them personally I’d just like to seem each of them slapped!
12. People who tweet famous people/artists stating their negative opinions – like they care (obviously contradicting myself here see point 11).
13. Not rating a persons opinion just because they are younger than you… or not taking in their advice because you think your wiser
14. Bedroom web developers/designers with no concept of how to do things properly! We need something similar to a Corgi Register there is some shit out there)
15. Claiming to be a fan of music….and owning more CD-R’s/Mp3’s from limewire than the real thing – support music 79p a track
16. Music in clubs obviously there a good clubs out there but 80% play shit…(Chicago Rock=bad)
17. “DJ’s” in above point’s establishments that think they are real DJ’s sorry but your using PC Software, its not even Serato/Traktor plus you play the same track list over and over.
18. Bouncers that think their Tyson…
19. People who think to “Freestyle” means to recycle their bars – to me its off the top of the head Talib Kweli (see previous post)
20. CD artwork without track numbers

Not sure what happens with HTML formatting but its good for posting brief thoughts and managing comments on the go…

That’s if this posts…