[caption id=”attachment_3109” align=”aligncenter” width=”565” caption=”André Obin performs at the Middle East Upstairs”][/caption]

A few months ago, I did a concert review of Stars and Track of Field when they played at Middle East Upstairs in Cambridge, MA. I really dug the opening act, who I referred to as “mystery noise man.” Well, good news, we tracked him down to see what he’s all about.

His real name is André Obin, and after a somewhat lengthy conversation, it’s altogether too ironic that a true-to-life enigma was already a mystery from the start.

It’s hard to pin down a person like Obin, an out-and-out music genius hailing from Cambridge, MA whose year abroad at Oxford birthed a passion for electronic music. Obin describes his experiences in London during the lat 90s:

On the weekends I was basically going to London and checking out DJs and live bands, and I just realized electronic music does something different for me because of the way it’s gridded, how sequencing can be attractive. I like robot sounds, is what I’m trying to say.

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After what seems to have been a year’s long hiatus, English producer/singer/rapper/artist M.I.A. came out of the woodwork on Tuesday and posted a new song from her hotly anticipated third album on her Twitter account. Entitled “Theres (sic) Space for Ol Dat I See,” the song is definitely a throwback to the era of “Galang” and “Sunshowers.”

Up until as recently as a few weeks ago, there had been much speculation as to whether or not M.I.A. was even going to make a third album. In Monday’s interview with NME, Maya told reporters that she had indeed completed work on her follow-up to 2007’s smash hit Kala.

“I wanted it to be like, no gimmicks,” she declared. “It’s my third album and I have to kind of confront whether I am a musician or not… I wanted to make something that you could play that isn’t like trendy just for three months, or the length of a DJ’s attention span.”

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Now I’m not too crazy about the weird effects on Ezra’s mic (when I first heard it, I thought there was a technical problem) but it’s still a good performance nonetheless. Conan seems to get a kick out of it.

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Tony Quan has been stricken with Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, for the past 7 years. ALS is a devastating neurological disease that slowly causes paralysis; those who have ALS essentially become prisoners within their own bodies. Tony is no different - the only parts of his body that he can move are his eyes.

That hasn’t stopped Tony from doing what he loves to do though - you see, Tony’s a graffiti artist who goes by the nickname Tempt One. When the people over at Graffiti Research Lab heard about Tony’s plight, they knew they had to do something. And they did. What they came up with was an ingenious solution - eye-tracking hardware and software that allowed Tony to draw with his eyes.

Watch the incredible video and see him tag an entire building.

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Swedish brother and sister duo The Knife has just released an epic 11-minute long track from their upcoming album Tomorrow, In A Year. Not due to be released until March 1st, Tomorrow, In A Year is the studio recorded version of an opera that brother Olof and sister Karin created based on Charles Darwin. The opera premiered back in September 2009 at Copenhagen’s Royal Danish Theatre to mainly positive reviews. They continue to perform shows all across Europe.

The Knife gained legions of fans back in 2006 while going on tour to promote their album Silent Shout. Pitchfork went on to proclaim Silent Shout as the best album of 2006 and the song “Silent Shout” as the #2 best song of the year.

This new song “Colouring of Pigeons” is a major departure from the classic Knife that we’ve come to know and adore. For one thing, there aren’t electronic instruments of any kind; just what sounds like to be drums, bongos, cymbals, violins and/or cellos, and vocals. After a few listens though it starts to become quite catchy. Take a listen.

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