Caught in the Net - A little bit of give and take

With news emerging on MTV.com last week that art-rockers TV on the Radio, left, plan to have some time off, hipsters everywhere fell into long periods of pained self-reflection and grief. But while they take with one hand, they give with another. Massive Attack's new digital EP 'Splitting the Atom', is due on 5 October. The first song to emerge from it is "Pray for Rain", with vocals provided by Tunde Adebimpe, frontman of TV on the Radio. Clocking in at about seven minutes, it's a typically epic affair from Massive Attack with usual helpings of broodiness and a nicely understated vocal from Adebimpe. It perhaps doesn't scale the heights of the Bristol band's best work, but it's worth a listen. Hear it at tinyurl.com/nsjeqd. Rain Machine, meanwhile, is the side project of Kyp Malone, also of the aforementioned art-rock band. An album comes out from him on 22 September but in the meantime there is a new song called "Smiling Black Faces". It's in a similar vein to Malone's main band and it's rather good. Listen to it at tinyurl.com/n8cs9b. So, there are reasons to be cheerful amid the loss...

The golden touch

Gold Panda is an acerbic UK-based producer with a penchant for Japan, video games and lovely slabs of techno glitches and electro-pop. He's got attention doing remixes for the likes of Bloc Party, Telepathe and Little Boots – listen to eight of these at iamgoldpanda.com/remixes. He's also branched out and made three EPs of his own tunes, all of which are available to download on iTunes, with six tracks also streaming at iamgoldpanda.com/music. There's also a video for his standout track "Back Home" at vimeo.com/ 5667822. While on my blog, independent.co.uk/lryan, you can find some of his recent tracks and an interview with him.

Destined for greatness

Several blogs have been drawing attention to a wonderful live rap performance video. It's by a young American, pictured, who goes by the name Lyric or Lyrical God and it's what you could call "accoustic rap", perhaps. There's scant information about the guy but, by the looks of his surroundings, he's still in school. The YouTube channel TheRapUpTV calls it "The Greatest Amateur Rap Ever", which is probably a little grand, but regardless, it's pretty damn good: tinyurl.com/kqa2a7.

Ahead of the game

I can't say that I've ever been too excited by the Scratch Perverts, but this video of them scratching and making beats with disembodied heads is pretty great – it makes more sense when you see it – vimeo.com/6223439. The video, which was directed by Chris Cairns, seems to be a viral promotion for Neurosonics Audiomedical Labs Inc. There are more details and great production stills from the shoot on their website, neurosonicsaudiomedical.com.

Mind over music

Last week, Beck started a "record of the month" series on his website, celebrating "lesser known, found records you may or may not have heard of". Delightfully, he's kicked it off with Uri Geller's bizarre self-titled album from the 1970s. With lyrics referencing mysticism and a how-to guide on bending forks (obviously), Uri mixes spoken word and singing over lush strings and piano. In discussing the album, which he discovered in the early 1990s, Beck mentions that it was on heavy rotation while he recorded 'Odelay'. To me that makes some sort of strange, backwards sense. Go to Beck.com to find out more about it and sample some tracks. Despite the sense of unease you may feel washing over you, it's worth it.