The Very Best, “Warm Heart of Africa (Violens Remix) MP3

Because we always wondered what New Order would sound like had they been born in Malawi.



Download: The Very Best, “Warm Heart of Africa (Violens Remix)

The ABSOLUT FADER Visionary Podcast #6 — Exceptional

The sixth and final installment of the Visionary Podcast series, curated by The FADER and presented by ABSOLUT as part of our ongoing efforts to advance and advocate the art and music we love, is inspired by the word “exceptional,” which we hope you think this podcast series has been. We’ve got some of the Very Best, the totally Amazing, a Mega jam, an All-American and a claim of ultimate difficulty. Now that the six are done, download them all and listen in order for the full experience of our excellence or jumble them up to see if it makes any difference at all. It doesn’t really matter to us, as long as you enjoy the music. Thanks to all the artists and labels who helped us out along the way.



Download: The ABSOLUT FADER Visionary Podcast #6 — Exceptional

ENJOY WITH ABSOLUT RESPONSIBILITY® ABSOLUT® VODKA. Product of Sweden. 40% Alc./Vol. Distilled from Grain. ©2009 Imported by Absolut Spirits Co., New York, NY.

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Jeremy Scott’s Cartoon Savannah

Jeremy Scott’s first collection for Adidas, released earlier this year, was a glittery-gold selection of irresistibly cut (wearable) harem pants, sequins, sporty fringed tanks and coveted winged hightops. His next installment abandons his black-gold-and-silver, Studio 54 color palette for a hue explosion and elongation of the tribal streetwear trend pioneered by MIA and Cassette Playa. Leopard-spotted sweatshirts, global mapped bodycon dresses and “tribal mask”-printed, exposed-pocket track suits all make appearances in this eminently watchable video collaboration with the video director Nabil. Appropriately, The Very Best, Esau Mwamwaya, MIA and Santigold soundtrack the trampoliney splashing around his collection apparently demands.

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Premiere: The Very Best f. MIA, “Rain Dance” MP3

FADER #52 cover The Very Best, aka Esau Mwamwaya and Radioclit, join with FADER #27 cover and all-around FADER muse MIA for one of the more hectic deep cuts off The Warm Heart of Africa LP, finally available for purchase tomorrow. Samples identified so far: whistles, crickets, handclaps, toads, a rainstick, thunder, actual rain, heavy breathing and either a baby hiccuping or some kind of bird. We’ve been dancing along for about an hour and don’t see any clouds looming but we are sweating something crazy, so that has to count for something. Pre-order the album on iTunes today or go back tomorrow and buy it in real time. And if you want it on vinyl or CD, that will be available on October 6th. Advance copies come with a body sponge. Not true, but it is incredible.



Download: The Very Best f. MIA, “Rain Dance”

The Very Best, “Warm Heart of Africa” + “Yalira” MP3

The Very Best putting out “Warm Heart of Africa,” with guest vocals by Vampire Weekend’s Ezra Koenig, as the first single off their album is a great bait-and-switch: goofy, chunky radio pop where the rest of the album is majestic and humid electronic anthemics. The b-side of the single, “Yalira,” also from the album, is a lot more representative, so hopefully people like it as much as they seem to like the Koenig joint, because this album is the reason we put The Very Best on the cover 19 months ago, before they were even called The Very Best.

Buy the 7-inch from Green Owl with art from Côte d’Ivoirian artist BP Konan.



Download: The Very Best, “Warm Heart of Africa”



Download: The Very Best, “Yalira”

Video: The Jesus Lizard Brightens Up Pitchfork Music Festival

We made it to Union Park in Chicago this past weekend just in time to catch a sideshow of indie rock babies, an unwelcome whiff of global warming, and of course, the 4th annual Pitchfork Music Festival. We spent most of the cloudy, spring-like weekend watching known FADER favorites The Very Best, Beirut, Grizzly Bear, Wavves, Lindstrom, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart etc, but the real highlight of the entire thing was The Jesus Lizard.

We’re not usually big on reunion shows or scrotal showcases, but David Yow brought back his intense, zig-zaggy stage swagger minus the “Tight and Shiny”— doing push-ups on stage, giving the audience hula lessons, spitting everywhere and diving into the audience within the first three seconds of the show—with grand mastery. We caught a little bit of it on our Flipcam—watch closely for some ancient hula styles and Yow’s tiniest fan taking stage diving notes from the sidelines.

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FADER TV: The Very Best Come to NYC

The last time we saw The Very Best was through a chainlink fence in an alley in Austin, Texas. Despite putting Esau Mwamwaya on the cover of our magazine a year before, we could not part the sea of bouncers until a friend with veto power got us in. This time, when Mwamwaya and Radioclit played a more proper show at New York’s Le Poisson Rouge, we had much better access caught up with them for some talk on “The Warm Heart of Africa” (the song, the album, the sentiment) and snagged live video of their seriously ferocious set.

Freeload: The Very Best f. Ezra Koenig of Vampire Weekend, “Warm Heart of Africa (Theophilus London Remix)” MP3

Consider this the DJ Khaled-style remix for people who veer into weirder lanes than commercial rap. Our man Theophilus London gives himself the leadoff verse on The Very Best’s eponymous new song, with an assist from Ezra of Vampy Weeks, from their upcoming album Warm Heart of Africa. Make this official! Read our feature story on Theophilus from the David Byrne icon issue here.



Download: The Very Best f. Ezra Koenig of Vampire Weekend, “Warm Heart of Africa (Theophilus London Remix)”

Stream: The Very Best (Esau Mwamwaya & Radioclit), “Ntende Uli”

Since putting Esau Mwamwaya on the cover of FADER #52, we have made a point of hanging out with him whenever possible. He rolled through The Fort in Texas with Johan and Etienne of Radioclit and then stopped by The Let Out, our weekly show on East Village Radio, a couple months ago to sing some of his hits live and direct (video above). If we had some of that big money, we would just hire him to be the Happy Dude on staff, but we will take his new music as no short consolation. “Ntende Uli” is from The Very Best’s forthcoming fall album on Green Owl, Warm Heart of Africa, and it is a powerful jam. We’re pretty sure Esau will sing it when he plays a handful of tour dates this summer along with, hopefully, a good chunk of Warm Heart. Check the dates and the stream at the link below.

Stream: The Very Best (Esau Mwamwaya & Radioclit), “Ntende Uli”

Video: The Very Best (Esau Mwamwaya & Radioclit), “Kamphopo”

From Johan of Radioclit:

Esau Mwamwaya went back to Lelongwe, Malawi in October 2008 for the first time in 9 years. I came with him to play at the Lake Of Stars festival and to shoot this video and film his homecoming in general. We had a crazy respons from local press, radio and tv. we rehearsed at Lucius Banda’s famous ‘Summit’ venue for 3 days with local dancers. We went to see the live venue where Esau’s music career started ‘Village Lodge’, and we hung out with Esau’s family and their neighbours outside of Lelongwe. Most of the kids dancing in the video is Esau’s brothers and all their neighbours kids. They all new all the words by the time we got there, very cute! We played Lake Of Stars festival, which argubly might be the best festival in the world. Ive been meaning to edit all the material since then but havnt had time. Now ive finally manged to sit down and do it and hopefully you’ll like it and get a little bit of insight into what Esau Mwamwaya is up to in Malawi at the moment.

Download: The Very Best Mixtape (one of the very best albums of 2008)

Read: FADER Cover Story on Esau Mwamwaya

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