Focus Music Notes. "Out of the Blues". Popular music through the decades

Kid Cudi, Grammy Award winner, producer, song writer, acclaimed actor and one of hip hop’s most challenging and consistently innovative artists returned, with his highly anticipated third studio album, “Indicud” on April 15th. ‘Girls’, the forthcoming single featuring Too $hort is released on May 6th. “Indicud”, the follow up to 2010’s “Man on the Moon II: The Legend of Mr. Rager” comes loaded with features from the cream of today’s hottest artists, including A$AP Rocky and Haim. On ‘Solo Dollo Part II’ Cudi enlists the skills of hip hop heavyweight Kendrick Lamar, giving a new twist to part one, ‘Solo Dolo’, from his 2009 debut album “Man on the Moon: The End of Day”. Over the course of the album, Cudi expands his hip hop galaxy through mystical production, colourful soundscapes, and airtight rhyming. In less than 24 hours of going live, “Indicud” stormed up the US iTunes album charts, showing as the highest charting pre order on both the main album & hip hop album charts

Canadian trio Half Moon Run are pleased to announce details of their debut single. ‘Full Circle’ which was released through Communion on the 8th April 2013. Fronted by Devon Portielje, Half Moon Run arrive from their Montreal rehearsal rooms with a debut album, local adoration, and endless links of hefty blog praise across the globe. Full Circle is a teasing example of why this acclaim has already become an tangible response. It’s the sound of hazy 60’s folk, imbued with three-part harmonies and warm, psychedelic undertones. Canadians rely on their finest musical exports to deliver the complex, the dynamic, and the interesting (Broken Social Scene, Arcade Fire, The Band, Metric), and Half Moon Run infuse their music with some of the finer points of all four. Percussive, rhythmic, and mightily impressive, Half Moon Run are a beguiling listen from their opening notes, but with a hugely impressive album due imminently, ‘Full Circle’ barely scratches the surface of what to expect.

Willy Moon  released his debut album ‘Here’s Willy Moon’ through Island Records on 8th April 2013. ‘Here’s Willy Moon’ was written, recorded and produced all on his own (with a few tracks being produced by Pulp's Steve Mackey) and he doesn’t blend different sounds; he smashes them together. There’s no middle ground. It’s as if rock’n’roll had been deep-frozen in 1965, just before the Beatles discovered acid, and abruptly reanimated 45 years later by a laptop hip hop producer. Willy Moon doesn’t like to waste time. His debut album, ‘ Here’s Willy Moon ’, is less than 29 minutes long. Only one of its 12 songs lasts more than three minutes and not a single note is squandered. No bets were hedged during the making of this record. "My album is short like my songs. I always loved the relentlessness and excitement of that first Ramones album and there's something of that spirit in there. I think it will surprise people who've only heard Yeah Yeah, there's some slower,