After you guys chose Lovelle as the UK ambassador on the Pepsi-back Akon single “Oh Africa”, the time has finally come!

On Sunday (31st January), the single will be released, and we all hope it gets to number one!

The song, featuring Akon and Keri Hilson (pictured with Lovelle, right) is giving proceeds from the sales to helping underprivileged African youth. Akon’s Konfidence Foundation, (Konfidence.org), will be one of the main charities set to receive a portion of the proceeds.

Check out konfidence.org to download the track, and check back here next week for more information and videos!

Maxcast Team

Hi guys

Maxcast and Smivadee have teamed up to find a top upcoming singing talent, to go out to LA and record a Global charity single! There’s lots of acts from around the world going to be joining them, and they’ll be singing with the Soweto Gospel Choir.

There’s one other thing… they’ll be performing alongside none other than Akon! So not a bad prize then.

Check the call out video from Smiv on the right hand side, and then click HERE to vote for your favourite act! Voting closes at 11.59pm on Sunday 25th October, so you don’t have much time!

Pearl Harbor are sister duo Piper and Skyler Caplan.  Right off – that’s cool.  There are few sister duos in a band (was the last one Heart?).  What is even stranger is Skyler’s age – fourteen and an already a  massive guitar shredder on the Hollywood scene.  14!  How crazy?  What’s ever cooler is their ability to write pitch perfect pop songs.  What I have heard of their recorded out put is nothing less than a verification of Ariel Pink’s summer time rock’n'roll fantasies.  Ariel Pink is the infamous pop scenester whose influence is leaving a bizarre magical dust over the stoned citizens of the California musical scene.  Pink’s recording methods have left an option for any teenager who has a song in them, to go forth and put it out.

Pearl Harbor’s EP ‘Something About The Chaparrals’ is coming out on Mexican Summer, but their future hit single ‘LUV Goon’ has already been on the internets for free download.  It is a pure jingle jangle sun drenched song straight outta of the Hollywood Babylon. Their sisterly harmonies are reminiscent of Wendy and Bonnie and Mamas and the Papas.  Their songwriting skills are pure sci-fi.  I can’t stop listening to the weirded out confection of LUV Goon.  Pearl Harbor are taking their fractal pop, twisting and manipulating it until it becomes something very odd, and yet, captivating.  Media tagged as ‘hauntology’, Pearl Harbor aren’t haunting anyone, yet.  They are making demo-as-aesthetic choice, and in their lo-fi comforts, they are bathing their songs in echo and feedback.  Their methods maybe budget, but the songwriting?  Anything but.  You should get on it.

Well, we thought we’d put the first two parts of our chat with Alan McGee up. Why not!

In this video, Alan tells us all about Svengali, including how Jonathan Owen gets him to “act”, and the possibility of Svengali becoming a BBC show!

Sometimes Anton Newcombe summons up nothing less than rock’n'roll magic.    In between writing future classics with his band Brian Jonestown Massacre, he has joined Dead Skeletons:  a collective trio including himself, Henrik Baldvin Bjornsson (Singapore Sling) and Icelandic artist, Nonni.   For Anton,  Dead Skeletons isn’t apart from the Brian Jonestown Massacre world, it is part of it and a pure exercise in musical spirituality.

So far, their song ‘Dead Mantra’ has been released only on youtube and myspace.  The video is absolutely addictive with flash cuts of a spinning skull on a vintage record player, dancing Tibetans and the Dalai Lama.   Dead Mantra is built around the chant:  ”He who fears death cannot enjoy life”. The chant comes from the Buddhist belief of ‘maransati’ or ‘death awareness’, bringing you to recognise, that, in Anton’s words –  ’death is the only dance there is’.  By combining the vivid imagery with the hypnotic mantra, and insistent,  ritualistic beats – Dead Skeletons have made it impossible to resist their call.   The chant urges you to accept life and death, and do so with out fear and transcend into a state of musical nirvana.   Musically, it presents itself as an almost demonic hallucination of rolling death drones, freedom-in-repetition electronic blurs and a Morricone-like noise to keep you aware and remind you that yes, this is really happening.  It’s utterly fantastic.  ’Dead Mantra’ is an exercise in what you can achieve in eight minutes of music.  They make the time stretch, swirl and elongate around you.    It’s time to get down on your knees and pray.  It’s track of the year for me.   Fact.  Get it on itunes from the 2nd of November, and 12″ later on this year.