Cannot Contain This - Gus Gus Remix

If you're warming up for the weekend here's a funky blast from the past in the shape of the Gus Gus remix of Moloko's Cannot Contain This. I still prefer the original, but this rare remix is certainly worth checking out!

Don't You Agree? - listen now!

Click here to listen to a radio rip of Don't You Agree?, Roisin's song on the Imelda Marcos tribute album Here Lies Love.

Lyrically the song praises Imelda's husband, former President Ferdinand Marcos, "who stood up to the Japanese, who cares about the Philippines".

Funky Marcos

A small bit of news about the song Don't You Agree?, which will features on the Imelda Marcos tribute album Here Lies Love.

Hot Press had a sneak preview of the song, which is produced by David Byrne and Fatboy Slim, and describes it as 'extremely funky'.

The album is out on March 12.

Nicky Digital interview

An interview with Roisin from nickydigital.com:

Prior to December, it was more likely to find Irish chanteuse Roisin Murphy writing and recording in a London studio or on a stage somewhere performing something from her oeuvre of delicate electro-house music (Murphy first made it big in the late '90s as one-half of anthemic house duo Moloko before establishing herself as a solo artist).

But since the birth of her daughter Clodagh last month with artist Simon Henwood, she's been hunkered down in her homeland with motherhood -- rather than music -- on the mind. "It’s exciting and very different,” Murphy says when asked how parenting has been going. “She’s very unpredictable. She sleeps a lot in the night, not during the day. But my family is here so it’s been a lot easier.”

Still, in the months leading up to Clodagh’s arrival, Murphy was doing more than laying on the couch, folding onesies. She released two singles, ”Momma’s Place“ and ”Orally Fixated,” online through her Website.

Naturally, both songs are soaked with references to her pregnancy. The lyrics of  “Momma’s Place” are a light-hearted warning to her daughter that Momma has been there and done that—so don’t try and even think to pull something:

So you think you know it all / But that’s just the arrogance of youth

I’ve been there and I’ve done it, baby / I’m tellin’ you the truth

Your Momma was a tear away / I used to think I knew it all.

“I was trying to have a little bit of a sense of humor about being a mum,” Murphy says. “I wrote it with Sage, who didn’t even know I was pregnant at the time—it was like a few weeks after I got pregnant—so I had this secret feeling. I was writing to my child but nobody knew I was pregnant.’

‘And it’s got a vintage-y house feel to it,” she continues, “which also made me think of it lyrically in terms of, ‘I’ve been there, done that.’ Which of course I have. I’m old enough to have been dancing to house music for a long time!” she says with a laugh.

The other tune, “Orally Fixated,” was lyrically influenced by the pregnancy, as well. “I gave up smoking and didn’t want to have to be stuffing my face with all kinds of other things to make up for it,” she says, “so I was obsessed with my own oral fixation.”

For now and the rest of this month, Murphy’s life is completely ‘baby-fied.’ She hasn’t thought about whether the two tracks will evolve into a full-on album. It’s all about, she says, just getting the music out.

She will think more about her own trajectory when she’s done working in a London studio with friends Crookers, for whom she has written several tracks for their next album.

“I’ve got quite a lot of feel for them,” she says about the DJ duo. “I’ve used them when I’m DJ’ing. It’s very hard to play a Crookers track next to another track when you DJ, it kind of blasts out of the speakers.”

Murphy notes the role that DJing has played in determining what works for her own music. “You know what beats work when you DJ—it’s an eye opener. When I played ‘Momma’s Place’ (at a DJ gig), I knew it worked and decided to release it. It definitely informs you—there’s nothing like testing a piece of music on a big sound system.”

She says she’ll pop into the studio with Crookers in February; until then—it’s all about baby Clodagh.

“She likes me singing to her,” Murphy says. “When I sing to her she goes to sleep. I think she’s used to it because I was in the studio an awful lot and DJ’ing when she was in my womb. She was always very quiet when I was being the loudest. When things get quiet, she starts kicking around and waking up. Music definitely has an effect on her.”

Like mother, like daughter.

Momma's Place enters Indie charts

Momma's Place entered the UK Indie singles chart at number 27 this week. Let's hope this leads to some airplay, which the song certainly deserves.

See the full chart here.

Momma's Place remix poll

Three official remixes of Momma's Place have been released. In addition, there are two unofficial remixes out there. Which one is your favourite?

Let Me Know (Ian Green Remix)

Roisin told Out.com that she has been working on new music with dance producer Ian Green, who previously remixed Let Me Know. Now I have to admit I had never heard or heard of this remix before. I just checked it out and must admit it's rather good.

Listen for yourself...

Roisin speaks to Out.com

An interview with Roisin from Out.com:

Upon the release of her latest dance track, “Momma’s Place,” the gay fave (and new mum) talks about maternal warnings, the fashion that moves her, and the beats banging down her door.

The bad news from Roísín Murphy? We won’t be hearing the follow-up to her glorious last album, Overpowered, for a while. The good news? Though the dancing queen only recently gave birth to her first child, Clodagh Henwood (congrats!), she has released a pair of funky singles, including the brand spankin’ new, house-infused “Momma’s Place.” (It sorta sounds like Culture Beat’s 1993 hit, “Mr. Vain,” which in this case is a compliment.) We phoned up Murphy, currently tucked away in her home in the Irish countryside, to see how she’s faring without all the couture, paparazzi, and nightclubbing that make her world go round.

Out.com: The Geisha-style artwork for your new single, “Momma’s Place,” is pretty fantastic. It brings to mind that iconic Vanity Fair cover with a pregnant Demi Moore and the album cover for Bjork’s Homogenic. What was the inspiration for it?
Roísín: Well, it comes from a shoot I did for Zoo Magazine. I saw the Comme des Garçons fashion show a couple of seasons ago, and the hair was like that, the makeup was like that, and the clothes were amazing. It was actually kind of an emotional fashion show. You don’t get many fashion shows where you feel something, but I really did. It left a massive imprint on me, and as soon as I got the chance to do a shoot, I wanted to do something very similar. I was very inspired by it.

You’ve always been moved by fashion. Why do you think this particular show was so emotional for you?
It was in a circular room. It was very quiet and the clothes were really exquisite. It was very much the antithesis to fashion shows, which are usually big, brash, blaring -- because it’s just advertising in most cases. This had an intellectual depth to it. It was right in the beginning of the economic storm, and I think there were some elements in there in terms of all the cocooning. It was very conceptual and very beautiful.

You’re doing some cocooning of your own now, detached from your usual antics in the media and the fashion world. So what are the best and worst parts of being in the Irish countryside right now?
Well, I was taken out of my home the other day in four-wheel drive with the baby and my mother. We had to be taken into town to my mother’s house because the weather got so bad here. It’s very easy to become isolated, obviously -- a little bit of bad weather and I was completely cut off. So that’s the worst. The best is it’s giving me space to concentrate on the job at hand. I’m very far away from having to worry about anything else other than [my new daughter] Clodagh. That’s really why I’m here. I have my own place here in the countryside. My mum stays with me a lot and my boyfriend is coming back and forth to London because he has to work. I have a lot of support here.

Is songwriting on hold for now?
Until I get back to London. I’m scheduled to work with the Crookers pretty much as soon as I get back. I’ll be back in the studio very soon, I’m sure.

The Crookers have done some great mixes of Kid Cudi and Fever Ray.
They asked me to write with them for their record. I did two tracks and they’ve used both of them. One of the tracks, “Royal T,” is going to be a single. I performed it at the Viktor & Rolf show in Paris last fall. The sound of their music just has great resonance with me -- I just really, really like it.

They’re very much into the heavy bass. Are you heading in that direction on the next record? Could this be your most danceable album yet?
It could be. I haven’t planned an album, honestly. Right now I’m just putting tracks out. I’m sure there will be an album at some point, but these tracks might not even appear on an album. I’ve been so prolific. I’ve got at least 25 tracks I’m pretty proud of in various states of being finished that I wrote during my pregnancy. I just want to put them out and let people enjoy them for what they are -- as pieces of music -- and give myself the time to figure out how I’m going to go forward. Now I’ve got a baby and that’s the main thing. But also, the industry is changing so fast. I know people really want me to make imagery, to make videos. They really want to have something physical of mine as well as having beautifully produced pieces -- and they will have that. I’m very flattered that people want that from me, but right now I’m in no position to do that what with having a baby. But what I can do is give people music.

You say you’ve become quite prolific. Why is that?
I think Overpowered taught me an awful lot of lessons and gave me a great deal of confidence in terms of just going into the studio with people I’ve never met before and singing and showing them my lyrics and creating something. I can pretty much now safely say I could go into the studio with I someone I respect and come out with something by the end of the day. I’ve proven that to myself over and over again. Whether or not it’s good is a whole other kettle of fish, but I can do it and it doesn’t frighten me. I’ve got the whole world to choose from in terms of collaborations and there’s nothing to stop me from just doing it.

Who else are you collaborating with this next year?
I have worked with [Dutch production duo] Mason and with Ian Green, who did a remix of “Let Me Know.” But I haven’t got any specific plans.

You’ve said a new British urban sound is really coming together.
I’m not on the scene, but it’s totally got its own identity now. It’s not reliant on American music at all. In fact, maybe the opposite will start to happen. You’ll see that American acts will start coming out with stuff from British urban artists and get that sound. I think that’s what’s going to happen.

“Momma’s Place” -- tender title, confrontational song. What’s it about?
It represents a kind of light-hearted attitude toward my pregnancy, really. I was thinking about when I had a kid and maybe when my daughter grows up she may start trying to be naughty. I was saying, “I’ve been about as naughty as you can be, so you’re not gonna pull the wool over my eyes.” It’s a light-hearted look at what it might be like to be a mom coming from where I’ve come from, the things I’ve done with my life in the past. Having said that, now I’ve got the baby. She’s completely unpredictable and “Momma’s Place” will only be a tiny fraction of the story.

What’s the funniest thing Clodagh has done so far?
Well, she farts a lot [laughs].

You were DJing a lot during your pregnancy. What does a Roísín Murphy DJ set consist of usually?
Well, it has really evolved. In the beginning I was complete rubbish. I mean I’m still pretty rubbish, but I’m getting there now. I’m beginning to have an identity. I’m trying to keep it as modern as I can, as fresh as I can. I’m using a lot of tracks producers give me, things people haven’t heard, whereas in the beginning I playing a lot of vintage house or old disco.

You’ve said you can’t really get into Twitter.
I have Twittered! I’m just saying I couldn’t Twitter my every thought. I couldn’t create a whole campaign based around Twittering and blogging. I’m a bit more of a private person. Maybe a bit too lazy, actually.

Can we expect more fashion collaborations in the next year?
I don’t know. We’ll see, yeah. My figure’s not looking too bad, actually, considering I just had a baby. I can’t believe my look. Looking after the baby and running around has made me get back into shape. I haven’t been doing any exercising or anything.

Your two new singles, “Orally Fixated” and “Momma’s Place,” have centered on your pregnancy. How much do you think the baby is going to factor into your songwriting in the next few months?
I don’t know. People ask me how this is going to change me, but I keep saying I’m in the middle of nowhere now. It’s all about Clodagh. I’m looking after my baby, bonding with my baby. When I get back to London and start to write songs and start to go to fashion shows I’ll be able to tell people if it’s made me like deeper or whatever people say after they have babies. I may not change at all. Who knows?

Roisin in Alexandre Vauthier

A rare picture of Roisin backstage at the Alexandre Vauthier show in Paris, January last year. She modelled the same dress on the catwalk.

Momma's Place on the charts

Momma's Place is making an impression on the iTunes electronic album charts in the US and many European countries.

The song is currently at #7 in the States and #1 in Finland, Ireland, Italy and the Netherlands. It has entered the top 10 in nine other countries and the Overpowered album has also re-entered some of the charts.

If you haven't downloaded the EP yet, please do it now from your local iTunes store!

Momma's Place free download

The site Mashable is offering a completely legal free download of Momma's Place as part of their Free Music Monday.

Right-click here to download.

Momma's Place out today!

Roisin's long awaited new single Momma's Place is released in Europe today.

Click here to visit iTunes to download the EP, which features 3 remixes of the song. US fans will have to wait till tomorrow for the single release.

*Update*: the single is now available in the US too!

Dancian on working with Roisin

Roisin has a nack for working with new talent to get her musical and stylistic ideas across. A recent example of this is her photo shoot with Dancian, who photographed Roisin while heavily pregnant. The outcome of this unique collaboration was used in Zoo Magazine and for the artwork of Momma's Place.

I got to ask Dancian what it was like to work with Roisin. Here's what he told me:

First of all she's amazing. Probably the best and the most enthusiastic person I ever worked with. She had a strong vision on the way she wanted to look in the shoot and that was basically the reason why those pictures look so strong. She has a great sense of style and loves very cool, edgy designers. To name a few: Commes des Garçons, Westwood, Margiela and Givenchy by Riccardo Tisci. As a very pregnant woman, on the day of the shoot, her idea was to emphasize the proudness of a woman carrying a baby. And I think we definitely managed that.

Visit dancian.net
Pictures courtesy of Dancian/Zoo Magazine

Entertainment Weekly Q&A

Roisin has spoken to Entertainment Weekly about her current and upcoming projects. It seems we may have to wait a while before Roisin releases a complete album of new material:

These are busy times for Irish electro-pop chanteuse Roisin Murphy. She gave birth to her first child, Clodagh Henwood, not even a month ago, and on January 18th she will release a new single called “Momma’s Place,” which you can hear on her myspace (Geisha-styled artwork and proof of her pregnancy is to the left). Murphy describes the song as an “old school house track,” and it provides just as much moody joy as its recent predecessor, “Orally Fixated.”

Murphy took some time to talk to us while taking a break in the Irish countryside and told us the ways pregnancy has affected her music, how her new single is a bit of a tell-off to her newborn daughter, and the reasons why we might not actually get a new Roisin album this year, as fans have been expecting.

EW: Congratulations on the addition to your family. How is motherhood treating you?

RM: Thank you. Fine. If I could get any sleep in the nighttime or daytime, it would be perfect. But everything in life that’s worth doing throws a challenge at you. It’s hard to say because I’m kind of in a non-real place at the moment: I’m in Ireland, I’m surrounded by my family and it’s not my real everyday life in London. So to know how it’s completely changed me, I guess I’ll have to be settled back in London for a little while. I’m still doing the nightshift, I’m still being the mom, but I’m not in the world of the media, not working, not doing fashion shows and gigs, I’m in the country, in Ireland, so I’m away from all of that. So I’m not in my real, everyday existence. I’m in a transitional stage.

EW: How did the idea of motherhood and being pregnant influence album?

RM: First of all, I haven’t recorded a new album as such. I’ve recorded a lot of songs, but I haven’t planned beyond just putting the songs out there and letting them have their own life, and see how the music lives on its own, without videos, without a big promotion. It’s more just about getting songs out there and letting them have their own life. I don’t know, I guess I felt very inspired because I was writing an awful lot during my pregnancy. I think half of that is hormonal: being pregnant and being high on being pregnant. I had a great pregnancy actually. I was very well during my pregnancy—I wasn’t sick all the time so I was able to work. And I think also it had to do with the fact that when writing Overpowered I worked with so many different artists, producers and writers that it really broke down a lot of barriers for me and allowed me to be prolific in a way that I never was before. It’s allowed me to not be shy when I go into the studio with somebody I don’t know, and that’s very liberating.

EW: Your last single, “Orally Fixated,” begins with you saying, “Eat me,” which is slightly more sexually explicit than your previous material. What inspired that?

RM: Well, I was orally fixated during my pregnancy. I had to give up smoking and I was just fixated on what I could put into my mouth instead. So the oral fixation was certainly in my mind, though not for sexual reasons. So that’s it really. And of course it’s a pop song so you more or less always find a slightly sexual slant on the ideas that are in your brain, because you’re writing a pop song. They’re kind of sexy. I didn’t have the sexual double entendre in my mind. I didn’t expect it to be perceived quite as sexually as it has been. I’m actually a bit shy about all that. It surprises me that I wrote a song like that, you know?

EW: In an online video you say “Momma’s Place” is written as if you’re speaking to your daughter. Can you elaborate?

RM: That was the first song I wrote when I knew I was pregnant. The song is really just me saying don’t think you can get one over on me, I’ve been there, I’ve done that: I’ve been as naughty as you can be. There’s other ways you can take it. I guess because it’s an old school house track as well you can kind of take it that musically I’ve been there done that as well, it’s not just about my daughter. In fact you could say now I’ve got my daughter it isn’t about her, because she completely surprised me, and now I know that I won’t know it all.

EW: The new music you’re working on, what can we expect stylistically?

RM: The next track I’ve done that will come out is called “Demon Lover” and it’s got kind of British urban sound to it. I have some British emcees on there, Wiley is on there. And I’ve done quite a few tracks with the Crookers, who I love and I really respond to their music. I was deejaying a lot during my pregnancy and I used a lot of their tracks. It’s very hard to deejay anyone’s music next to theirs because it’s so full-on and modern sounding. So I’m going to do a bit more with them. The first two songs you’ve heard involve Seiji but also a guy called FunkinEven, a young guy, we’ve been working together and that’s been really interesting. I’ve done a track with Mason—a production team from Holland—who were great, so I’ve worked with quite a few people.

EW: Do you think an album will come together this year?

RM: I have no idea when an album will come together. I do feel like with an album it deserves amazing artwork and videos and that sort of thing, so once I’ve got all that together. I definitely have enough material to make an album but I haven’t got the setup right now and I haven’t got the time either do to all that. In the meantime it will be more intimate, downloaded stuff. I can just release singles, well, I wouldn’t even call them singles—it’s more like I can just put songs into the world and let them find their own level. I’m gonna do that until the time is right in terms of me having enough time and me having enough backup financially. Time actually is much more important to sort of put all that shit together that goes with an album, to make the album more thrilling to be honest. I need time, I need my daughter to sleep all night, and I could maybe use some kind of sugar daddy or sugar queen to come along and help me out with paying for everything.

EW: I’ll see if I can rustle anyone up.

RM: I’m sure somebody will come out of the shadows very soon, a lot of people have already expressed interest in doing that for me, it’s just doing it in the right way because I no longer wish to argue with anyone about what should be the first, second, third single, all that shit it just doesn’t mean anything anymore. I want it to be… I’ve said in the past I love spending money, I love spending big money on making great imagery. And I do. It doesn’t have to cost a huge amount of money but it’s definitely going to cost some money, but it’s what all goes with that. It’s the arguing about if this is the right single or this is the right way for this or that. And there have been so many times that I’ve listened to people and its been wrong, and I just can’t do that anymore, I have to figure it out my own way. I’ve got a baby—I can’t be spending my time arguing with stupid people about things. That probably looks harsh in print but in real life I’m not being that harsh, I just need to figure it out. And in the meantime I’m not depriving fans of the music, I’m allowing the music to live out there. You know, it’s not even harsh: it’s just the way the industry has been, it’s changing and it’s changing at a massive pace and I’m trying to give myself the space to change within it without becoming the kind of artist where I have to get up in the morning and switch on a webcam. That bores me. It’s gotta be about the music. I can’t get up in Twitter, I just can’t do that. It’s got to be about the music, so I’m trying to figure space where it’s just about the music for a while and then I will take it to next level and do it right.

EW: I understand the release of “Momma’s Place” was ramped up because it was leaked. Did that annoy you?

RM: It didn’t surprise me. If I found the person who did it, they would annoy me, but this in itself hasn’t annoyed me. The thing that annoys me only is that the rip itself is not as good of quality as it will be. Obviously I’m a perfectionist and the only thing I’m giving people is music, so if the music they hear at first is of a degraded quality, it’s slightly annoying. You pay people to master things and you really worry about sound quality and then somebody comes along with a second, third, tenth generation copy of something and it’s slightly irritating. But it’s the nature of the beast these days.

EW: How do you think being a mother will affect you for the next year or two?

RM: It’s very hard to say, I’m completely absorbed in my daughter right now. Obviously when she becomes a bit more predictable, then I might be able to do some things, but right now she’s awfully unpredictable: when she’s gonna sleep, when she’s gonna feed, what she’s gonna do next, so ask me in a year. I’m hands-on as well, I haven’t got some kind of great royal nanny picking up and mothering, it’s all about her at the moment. How it will be in six months to a year I don’t know.

Roisin on Momma's Place

Here's a short video of Roisin explaining the meaning of Momma's Place, written as a letter to her (then) unborn child. If you've got something to say why wait?

Roisin also reveals that the song has been produced by Seji. It will be released in the UK on 18 January and a day later in the US.

Crookers ♥ Roisin

The Crookers have declared their love for Roisin after working with her on their debut album. Crookers member Phra has confessed: "I’d like to have her in my studio for 3 months and produce 7 albums with her...".

Source: the official Crookers blog

Official stream of Momma's Place

Following the unauthorised leak a few days ago, a high quality version of Roisin's single Momma's Place has now been uploaded unto MySpace and Facebook. Go check it out!

I have been impressed with this song ever since I heard Roisin perform it at London's SeOne club in September (in spite of my drunken state at the time) and I am even more so hearing it in its full glory.

Musically and lyrically Momma's Place ticks all the boxes and judging by the online response to the song I am not the only one to feel that way! On YouTube the song has received a rating of 4.89 out of 5.

Roisin speaks about the leak

Roisin has put the following statement on Facebook, commenting on the leak of her new single Momma's Place:

Hi all, I hear there has been a leak of Momma’s Place. Oh dear, I am all for the freedom of the internet, it’d just that the quality control is sometimes a little amiss… and I’m funny about stuff like that.  The rip that is available is not up to scratch.  So, please wait for the real thing, it’ll sound way better! Coming soon…

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Let's all ignore the leaked file and wait for the real thing to come along. The official stream of Momma's Place will be available very soon!

Listen to Mamma's Place

The studio version of Roisin's upcoming single Mamma's Place has now surfaced and I can tell you it's a banger tune.

What's there to say? Somehow Roisin has managed to restyle early 90s commercial house music into into a sound for the early 10s.

The beats of Mamma's Place are Euro trash minus the trash and is very unlike any music that is out there at the moment. Anyone who has heard Culture Beat's Mr Vain will know I am talking about. Can't wait to hear how the remixers will have interpreted this tune.

Enough said, listen for yourself...



So you think you know it all, but that's just the arrogance of youth. I used to think I knew it all. Could play the game but not get played, but then the fall.

Picture by Dancian

New single released on 18.01.10

Happy New Year to all of you!

I can start the year by announcing that Roisin's new single Mamma's Place (or Momma's Place?) will be released two weeks from today via AWAL (under the label name Mickey Murphy's Daughter). Here are the digital tracklisting and artwork, appropriately showing Roisin while pregnant:

1 Mamma's Place
2 Mamma's Place (Bongo Boys Remix)
3 Mamma's Place (Kanji Kinetic Remix)
4 Mamma's Place (Shake Aletti Remix)
5 Mamma's Place (Heavy Feet's Heavy What Remix)

Some more music news:  click here to listen to a short preview of the Riva Starr remix of the Crookers' song Royal T, which features Roisin.