Casually Versed

One of my favourite artists of all time, and an artist in every sense of the word. Comedian, Musician, Actor, etc. This guy is just super talented and always makes me laugh, even if it’s the 100th time I’ve watched a clip of him in action.

This was from back in the day, dealing with subject matter before my time but I still find it simultaneously hilarious and musically incredible. The jokes? so so funny. The voice? great. The piano playing? Wonderful.

Allen Stone / Love where you’re at (Acoustic)

Continuing with the Allen Stone campaign, comes an acoustic rendition of a single off the upcoming album. I’ve had this on repeat for the last few days. 

It’s easy to just admire the melody or that piano solo in this clip, but today I noticed the lyrics and they made me stop and wonder. We live in a world where we are totally immersed in social media, where it’s so easy to get caught up about the perception others have of you. I personally think it’s a big problem for todays young generation, potentially leading to all sorts of mental health issues, and god only knows how the progression of technology will affect future generations. Three years olds posting squash & digestive nursery #tbt pics?  Worrying. 

We don’t have enough of these types of songs; it’s always refreshing to hear great music reflecting important, often neglected, social subject matter. I like.

But yeah, don’t be so hard on yourself! In the words of Allen... 

Graham Candy / Worth it All

For me, one of the biggest travesties of the last few years in music is that we have not been presented with a follow up album to Daniel Merriweather’s debut album Red (I say ‘have not’, heres to still having hope 6 years later). It’s the ultimate tease, like ‘Hi guys, I’m a talented singer, and here’s a ridiculously good album I made. By the way it was produced by Mark Ronson and has features from some guys called Wale and Adele. You might have heard of them. But it’s the only material I’m going to release. Byeeee’. Of course you listen to it, of course you love it and of course you’re incredibly angry Daniel did not continue to fulfil your musical needs. The selfish fellow.   

Having been a fan of predominantly Pop, Rnb and Hip Hop since I was a youngen, Merriweather’s stuff was like a mature fusion of all of those genres with some country vibes chucked in for good measure. Red goes down as one of my favourite albums of all time, I think because of exactly that; there’s no song I would skip, each brilliant. That’s why it’s such a shame there was no follow up. 

So you could say there’s been a Merriweather-shaped hole in the musical region of my heart. Well, that’s where this gets interesting. In a funny way this annoying phenomenon sums up the beauty of music, because as it is always the case, someone brand new will always arrive and induce the same audio-based pleasure, albeit with a caveat. Crucially they’re not exactly the same feelings, as this would render Merriweather useless in my life - allow that. Just similar enough to stop the music ache from pining after that album/song. 

In short musicians never last forever. Some put out one album or many, with their degree of personal resonance varying from project to project. You just have to enjoy the present, because it’s inevitable that that artist will want to grow and change. This may result in a change of sound, or even with a departure from the industry. 

Enter Allen Stone. Now Allen has already had an album out, but it is his new project that has me super excited. Radius is expected to drop in the coming months and I will be copping it for sure. I first heard Stone’s music about 6-7 months ago and was instantly hooked. 

The guy looks like a cross between a hippy and a mathematics nerd, who can sang. 

Honestly one of the best voices I have ever heard. Period. I will book and go to a concert as soon as he announces his European tour. Hell, maybe I’ll just have to get over to the US. By the YouTube videos he most definitely puts on a show. I think that’s a great way to describe him - a showman. 

This video i think highlights that perfectly:

‘The bed I made’, is a song that makes you happy. pretty simple really. ‘Unaware’ touches upon relevant social issues gracefully and ‘Reality’ and ‘Figure it out’ are just gorgeous. Given these tracks, I set the benchmark for his upcoming project extremely high. Probably unfairly high. The snippets Stone has released of the tracks on his Facebook page certainly tempt a similar quality. 

Hopefully Radius will sit proudly alongside Red in the coming future. What’s that? A potential Daniel Merriweather and Allen Stone collaboration? 

John Mayer X Beyonce 'XO'

Saupers x Guiness

GUINNESS' new ad features the 'society of elegant persons of the Congo' otherwise known as the 'Sapeurs', a group of everyday heroes from Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo. In this ad, GUINNESS follows the Sapeurs whose way of life is a testament to the belief of putting more in, to get more out. Their life is not defined by occupation or wealth, but by respect, a moral code and an inspirational display of flair and creativity. This is demonstrated through their love of stylish dressing; but it is not the fabric or cost of the suit that counts, it is the worth of the man inside it.

Yes!

Kanye West x Charlie Wilson x Jools Holland - Bound 2

England Matters / Tom Cleverly x Daniel Welbeck

This is the 2nd instalment to Nike's 'England Matters' footy series. This brief clip follows Man Utd duo Tom Cleverly and Daniel Welbeck, as they describe how it feels to represent England at senior level, building up the world cup in Rio next year. 

Both are quality players, capable of becoming mainstays in the team, but have to elevate their game to the next level in order to do so. Here's to hoping that can be realised in the not so distant future. 

  Keeping with the mobile / technology theme, Samsung have unveiled their first foray into the wearable technology market at a Berlin convention. The predictably named ‘Smartwatch’ falls into their ‘Galaxy Gear’ range, and is basically digital watch that can run apps and sync with other devices from the Galaxy family.

 Priced at around $299, and with a rumoured release date of the 25th September, Samsung have made the first move in this niche market with Apple and Sony to also penciled in to present their interactive watches in the nearby future. Samsung became the world’s largest manufacturer of smart phones last year, however they have held an unwanted reputation of being followers rather than leaders, and I’m sure their presentation of the Smartwatch before anyone else was premeditated in an attempt to try and cull this tag.

 Reported features include, alerting you to new notifications, controlling music playback, acting as your pedometer, taking pictures, recording video, and responding to your hand gestures thanks to an internal gyroscope. Basically everything your phone can do. Oh and keeping the time, almost forgot that one.

 Computer giant Microsoft today announced a deal to acquire Nokia’s mobile phone business. It is thought the deal is to be worth in excess of $7 billion and includes both their mobile phone manufacturing unit and licensing on their patents.

Over the past few years the iconic Finnish company have experienced financial difficulty, in stark contrast to just over a decade ago where they were the monopoly in the handheld telephone industry.  To put their plummet into context their market share in 2007 was almost 50%, yet in the first half of this year it was a measly 3%. Many have cited different reasons for this decline varying from complacency, poor development of their operating system, to the incredible work and impact of Steve Jobs at Apple and the rapid emergence of Samsung.  It’s a pretty sad story for a firm that not so long ago produced a good that was found nestled in the trouser pockets / handbags of millions of people around the globe. It’s even worse for shareholders in the Finnish firm who have seen the share price drop 93% since its 2000 level, albeit seeing a 40% rise in recent days in response to this news.

Here are some finer details of the deal:

In total, the deal is rumoured to be worth around $7.2 billion, to be completed in early 2014

 It is said 32,000 Nokia employees will transfer to Microsoft

 Nokia chief executive Stephen Elop, who previously served as an executive at Microsoft, will once again join the software giant, heading up the phone-making division that Microsoft just bought.

Nokia will retain its patent portfolio, but will give Microsoft a 10-year license to its patents at the time of the deal closing.

I personally think this is good deal that will potentially, and hopefully, shake up the mobile phone market. Saying that, both Microsoft and Nokia have struggled to make an impact individually with Google, Apple and Samsung dictating the industry of late, and there are no guarantees this acquisition will change anything to challenge this stronghold.

Those at Nokia state that this deal will allow them to explore other tech ventures and to expand their presence in these fields. On the other hand, in acquiring Nokia, Microsoft can now gain valuable insight into mobile phone production as opposed to specialising in just operating software.  The deal will allow Microsoft to tap into Nokia’s specialist product managers, as well as providing them with the ownership of their patents for the distant future. Economies if scale produced by factors such as this should see more cost efficient and technologically advanced products being launched into the market. As a consumer, one can only hope this will lead to more competitive prices and better quality products across the board.

Bose absolutely got it right when choosing a song to accompany their latest Television ad.

Awesome song - wait for the drums to drop around the 2:48 mark.

Baauer x Just Blaze x Jay - Z - Higher (Official Video)

A week late (...apologies), but in case you haven't seen it, here is the official video for 'Higher'. 

A very captivating video, depicting what seems to be a South Indian version of David Vs Goliath. Watch as a slightly arrogant, drunk gangster gets taught a lesson by a bunch of curious and mischievous hoodlums. 

Pitchfork recently conducted a interview with both Baauer and Just Blaze, on the thought process behind the track. Have a listen...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8whm-dEwbWc

And a bit about the director - Nabil Elderkin is Australian videographer who is currently based in Chicago. Wikipedia tells a great story of how Nabil became friends with the ever popular Kanye West. I sincerely hope it's true given the source, but here it is -

His big break came when he befriended the then relatively unknown rap artist Kanye West. Elderkin had heard a Kanye West mixtape and had tried to contact the rapper by looking up www.kanyewest.com. The website came up as unregistered but available for registration, so he bought thedomain name on an impulse. Three weeks later an executive from Roc-A-Fella Records contacted Elderkin to tell him the label had just signed Kanye West to a multi-album deal and wanted to know how much he was asking for the domain name. Without a monetary transaction Elderkin agreed to transfer the domain name provided he could meet the new artist and do a photoshoot with him, these images went on to be the artist's first publicity photos.

Nabil has since gone on to have an evidently illustrious career and his work can be attributed to a number of fantastic music visuals by some of the world's top entertainers. These include:

Frank Ocean - Thinkin bout you, Novacane, Pyramids

Kanye West / GOOD MUSIC- Glow in the dark, Mercy

Bon Iver - Holocene, Towers

Foals - Bad Habit, Late night

As promised!

And we're back baby.

After a good couple of months away, its time to get back to business. Hip hop super producer Just Blaze, and the man that brought you the Harlem Shake, Baauer, have teamed up for this monster track. Oh and there's a guy called Jay Z on the track as well, you might have heard of him. 

The two producers sample Jay Z's 'You Don't Know' -http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlT_Jt-dQ00 - on the track, to help produce an upgraded banger. Just Blaze and Jay Z go back a long way, in fact Just Blaze can be attributed to some of Jay Z's greatest ever tracks ('Girls, girls, girls', 'Show me what you got', 'Song Cry') .

To put that in perspective, if we're talking about Jay Z's greatest ever tracks, that basically means some of hip hop's greatest ever tracks. Baauer, fresh of the success of Harlem Shake, brings a youthful, fresh perspective to a track. 

Congratulations to Gareth Bale for winning BOTH the 2013 PFA Player of the Year Award & the 2013 PFA Young Player of the Year Award. The last player to win both accolades was a certain Cristiano Ronaldo.

The 2013 PFA Team of the Year was also announced tonight :

Goalkeeper : De Gea

Defence : Baines, Ferdinand, Vertonghen, Zabaleta

Midfield : Bale, Carrick, Mata, Hazard

Strikers: Van Persie, Suarez

Bloomberg Data:

Projected GDP Growth 2013-2017 : 45.9%

Inflation Rate : 3.0%

Gov. debt as a % of GDP : 14.9

Ease of doing business : ranked 91

Total score : 77.5

Of course it had to be China! The powerhouse came top in Bloomberg's top 20 emerging markets list, surprising very few. The story of China's emergence over the last 10-20 years has been magnificent, and now it stands today as potentially the most significant country in the world. 

I am going to refrain from writing about China, in the same way I wrote a little about the other 19 countries. Why? Well, because I am going to be lucky enough to actually experience China and it's business world first hand - next week!!!

For two months I will have the privilege of working within a company's finance team, on a two month internship. Based in Shanghai, I hope to fully immerse myself in all that China has to offer - and I'm sure I'll have an incredible time.

When I get back I will write an entry about my experience working in China, as well as applying my first hand experience to uncovering just why it is the top emerging market in the world.