Tyler the Creator - French

To be fair, most of y'all won't like this. It's growly-voiced and foul-mouthed, from the new young contender: Tyler the Creator. He's kinda a big deal on the internet.

Best things about this? Unexpected rhymes, fluid flow, and an incredible vocal quality. Also I'm in a terrible mood, and this is some proper aggy music.

Juanes - Tengo La Camisa Negra

This is hardly fresh to anyone who's ever been to South America, but I'd never seen the video. And the video is good, in a sleazy, anorexic sort of way.

Juanes is a Colombian superstar - the male Shakira, basically. The lyrics to this jazzy slice of cheese are all about being ditched and going into mourning.

Trust Juanes to make even being dumped sound sexy. The melody and rhythm are incredible - he manages to make 4-4 sound sensual, when it has all the subtlety of a polka.

Broke - Coulda Said Goodbye (Not So Young)

Wow. This is the kind of instrumental that makes me excited about instrumentals.

It's got a sound like dusty velvet: the depth of the timbre on this is amazing, and it's gentle and careful and beautiful. That vintage feel is amped up by the inclusion of what I think is Madlib's movie-star-style vocal tag.

You're not going to warm to it right away. But when it finishes, you'll play it a couple of times over, and each time when it finishes, you'll miss it. Clever tricks from Mr Broke.

Coulda Said Goodbye (Not So Young) by Broke/

PNC - Murderer

Some of my most favourite reggae songs have hooks based on the word "murder". There's the instantly-recognisable Damian Marley track, Barrington Levy's classic, and Buju Banton's reinvention in song.

And to that illustrious list (I love my lists) I can now add PNC's track. It's boom-bap hip-hop with a piano playing what sounds like reggae. And the vocal sample is that old-school reggae hollering. The lyrics on this are really tight: he ends an eight-rhyme verse as - "the flow's noodles, nuts, fucking Pad Thai"

Tabi Bonney - Love Leaves

This is the most over-sexed video I've seen in a while. And you'll love it.

The single's off Tabi's album (downloadable for free), which is one of my favourites of 2011. He's got some unique production, and really effortless vocals. Check out his single Sudan Groove for some intricate politi-rap.

Destra - Cool It Down

When my friends go away, I don't want any souvenirs, just music. The lovely Tesha just spent some time in Trinidad for carnival, and we spent all of last night swapping soca tracks. I even got a little lesson in chipping.

I'm giving this one a shout out because it's Tesh's favourite - but check out Benjai, Machel Montano and Kes The Band, or just put "Soca 2011" into YouTube. This is perfect summer music, it practically moves your feet for you. All I need now is a costume.

Assassin - Nothing At All

When we were kids, if you were the first to get to the top of the climbing frame, you'd hang off it precariously and shout "I'm the king of the castle, and you're the dirty rascal".

I guess that never really grows old, because this song is a grown-up Caribbean version: it consists of Assassin telling everyone who'll listen how he's superior to the other personages in the vicinity. Play this in a car park near a tropical beach after dark.

Diego Bernal - Bring It On Home

Once again, I've been away. Since my home wasn't besieged by music-craving zombies, I'm guessing y'all got on fine without me.

But here's some tropical goodness to assuage your yen for bass. This little number is by Diego Bernal, a civil rights lawyer from San Antonio, who's written a very listenable homage to his culture, which you can download here for free.

In the meantime, take in this lounge-tastic groove, which also features a woman dancing on a hat. You heard it here first.

Bring It On Home - Diego Bernal from Exponential Records on Vimeo.

Cidinho e Doca - Rap Das Armas

A tropical take on the politics of violence: this is gorgeous. It's got Brazil's veteran MCs Cidinho e Doca going to work on a baile funk tune, with incredible results.

The song's about the Morro do Dende favela, which is dominated by drug trafficking and in which the only police presence is heavily-armed incursions to arrest dealers (often with significant civilian casualties). Their chorus is "Mais Morro Do Dendê também é terra de Deus" - "But Morro Do Dende is also God's earth"

Humanitarianism and babes in bikinis - what's not to like? Also, the tune is phenomenal. I am going to be playing this until my neighbours start joining in with the chorus



Incidentally, it was these guys who made funk carioca mainstream in 1994, with this

Biggie Smalls - Can I Get Witcha (Paul Simcoe Remix)

It's been a while since I heard sweeping strings in an intro and didn't want to vomit. But here the slush is cut with Biggie's best attempts at chat-up-lines, and a perky little boom-bap beat. And it actually has a phenomenal tune, and a nice swell to it (I recognise it, just wish I could name it. This is almost as embarrassing as my failure to recognize Hotel California).

This is so smooth, and available for free download. The original was solid, but I like the irony of the romantic strings, and Biggie's ode to the b-u-t-t.

The genius responsible makes a ton of mash-ups, most of which are downloadable. Check it out.

Can I Get Wit Ya (Remix) by psimcoe3

Nneka - Heartbeat

This sounded weirdly familiar, only because I knew it from the Chase and Status remix, which was everywhere a few years ago.

The remix is definitely catchier and cleaner-sounding, but I prefer the original hands down. The live drums are incredible: apparently* people program drum machines to try to make them sound more imperfect and human. They should just hire this guy.

Nneka's vocals are growing on me - it's not the sound that I usually go for, but she murks this track. And she's very cool: I have yet to see her get naked in a video, and she wrote this little stormer. Take that Rihanna.

*according to my friend Jon, who knows about things like this.

Ghostpoet - Survive It

I know I keep going on about the weather. Forgive me, I'm British. That's how we do.

It's sunny, glorious, cloudless. So I'm not spending so much time burrowed in an internest searching for new music. But this is the sort of beautifully-produced meditative little number that it's worth coming indoors for.

Ghostpoet's Brummie musings draw comparison with Birmingham-born Mike Skinner: they're two sides of the same coin. Ghostpoet's less maudlin, more sombre, less in-your-face.

This video is ace.

Mos Def - Can You See The Light

The other day, someone said to me that they only like hip-hop from the Golden Age. Sigh. Why should anything produced after 1997 be inherently inferior? I refuse to believe that we're living in some kind of hip-hop Dark Ages in which there is only rape (Horrorcore), pillage (Gangsta) and sanctimony (Backpack rap). There's more than that.

That said, a little throw-back to boom-bap does sound really good, especially on a sunny afternoon. That delicious instrumental is the work of DJ Krush - Japan's first hip-hop DJ, with a life story that would make gangsters squirm. Mos Def goes suitably old-school on the vocal - chanted, simple, rhythmic, shout-outs. This is one to bump in your car. Or in my case, on my bicycle. I really need to grow up.

Aventura & Hector Acosta - Me Voy

Possibly the funniest breakup song ever written, this is sung by a man who's leaving his wife. In typical bachata style, it's incredibly over-the-top - he says he's selling the wedding ring, and that death would be a relief, but that he'll be careful not to sin, for fear he'll meet her in Hell.

The best part of all this is that, being a bachata, it's meant to be danced pegao - with couples literally "glued" together on the dancefloor ("pegado", meaning "glued" or "stuck" is pronouced pegao in some parts of Central America). I think this little reggaeton ditty illustrates the meaning of pegao pretty graphically. So you have couples cozying up on the dancefloor to the strains of a singer explaining why all relationships are doomed. Oh yes.

Mos Def - No Hay Nada Mas

This is a free-verse composition in Spanish, by an English speaker, about metaphysics. Sounds pretentious and doomed to failure, right?

But it's got the magic touch of Mos Def, who has come up with two of my favourite couplets ever:

"familia, crianza, la luz en la distancia... mi vista, mi casa, mis suenos, mi alma"
"family, childhood, the light in the distance... my view, my home, my dreams, my soul"

Frank Ocean - Novacaine

Apologies for the absence - I was far away, living the high life. Now I have a headache.

In recompense, I'm going to give you what is doubtless my favourite RnB album of the year. I've got it on heavy rotation, and it just gets better and better: the harmonies are more complex than they seem, the lyrics are quietly clever, and it just sounds good.

Frank Ocean takes the brutal freshness of OFWGKTA, and packages it in honey. There's a nice little interview with him here, but all you really need is the album, which you can download here - I don't think the Pitchfork review does it justice.

This little number covers love and drugs and fame and music. In just over 5 minutes.
Without sounding trite. This is like nothing you've ever heard before. Move over Marvin.