mixtape maestro (2.0)

On “Marlene”, the first single off of Devonte Hynes aka Lightspeed Champion’s forthcoming sophomore LP Life Is Sweet! Nice To Meet You, the Texas-born/ England-raised singer-songwriter is heard lunging all kinds of cold jabs at the object of his frustrated affection: “Stick a spoon into your heart/ And eat away all your deutsche marks/ You’re money don’t mean a damn thing/ I’m wearing everything I own”; “Stop being cool”; “You’re in my room and still won’t leave”.

Yeah…we won’t even try to figure out if this is really some kind of weird ode to Marlene Dietrich or not, but we will admit to completely digging LC’s latest wacky stab at romance woe, it’s kitchen sink production recipe of a crunchy rock groove, masterful guitar solo and a grand, strings-enhanced chorus making for quite the excellent musical frame to his heartache-fueled lyrical stings.

Single drops January 25th (pre-order here); Life Is Sweet! Nice To Meet You arrives February 1st.

Bonus DL: Lightspeed Champion “Back To Black (Amy Winehouse Cover)” (alt)

A melancholy folk ballad about a romance’s failing underlined with a pounding dancefloor throb and squelchy electro accents? That’s hardly a brow-raiser in the “anything goes” music days of 2009, but that doesn’t stop Basement Jaxx and featured guest Lightspeed Champion‘s Scars collaboration “My Turn” from oozing delightful quirk at every corner.

Opening with a few seconds of wistfully lain acoustic guitar before being rocked to life with a gigantic-sized club pounce, “My Turn”‘s first-days-of-spring joviality would sound perfect backing one’s giddiment to a new romance’s beginnings, but somewhat oddly, it’s instead used to prop up Champion’s woeful narrative about a relationship that, despite his best efforts, seems unable to be saved.

“Broken down forever now/ We are losing what we found/ My heart is left alone in pieces,” he mews amidst the track’s shimmery electro tinkerings and ecstactic thump, an effective juxtoposition that presents him as the lone sad sap in a musical frame that signifies the rest of the world tauntingly celebrating the highs of being in love around him.

Scars arrives September 22nd.

DL: “My Turn” (alt)

A lengthy touring spell. Handful of one-off concert events. The release of a couple bootlegs. A comic book. A short story. Throat surgery. A brand new blog.

In the year-and-a-half since dropping his 2008 solo debut Falling Off The Lavender Bridge, UK-born dance-punk-turned-Americana-esque-indie singer/songwriter Lightspeed Champion seems to have done everything but bless the public with a proper follow-up to that near-brilliant collection. Apparently this set is already completed and awaiting the proper pieces to fall in place for it to get an official release date (Industry politics *sigh*), but never the lazy one (as figured by all his aforementioned activities), the man born Dev Hynes has already delved deep into his next next project, a psychedelic rock & funk-based side gig going under the moniker Blood Orange that he’s been teasing for a while now via posted demo tracks.

The latest, and best, cut heard so far from this forthcoming era is “S’Cooled”, a circuitous hypnotizer built on heavy bass chugs, persistent hi-hat hits and flittering guitar, that feels like it was inspired after one of LC’s darkest days (“Losing all my friends for sure/ We were left inside this hole…”, he emotes in his best Prince pout) and has definitely got us anxious for not only it’s final polish, but what else Blood Orange have cooked up.

Keep checking BO’s MySpace and Lightspeed Champion’s (quite fascinating) blog for future postings of this increasingly intriguing project.

DL: “S’Cooled” (alt)