MNEK, where on Earth do we start, well actually the best place is the fact his debut album was the feature all this week on Flashing off the Record. You can stream it, see the videos behind the songs and more...
But MNEK, arrived on the scene around 2012, lending his vocals to Rudimental's Spoons. This lead to a long term collaboration between the two with MNEK appearing on a number of Rudimental tracks.
Around 2014-2015 I feel in love with MNEK's Rady for Your Love with Gorgon City and Every Little Word his debut solo single from the Small Talk EP.
The EP spawned three great singles and I was hungry for more. So when his debut album landed on Friday I was super excited. MNEK also had a hand in songwriting Beyonce's anthem Hold Up.
MNEK has worked with Jax Jones, Stormzy, Zara Larsson, The Knocks, Bastille and so many more. Keep an ear out for MNEK as this is just the beginning!
So this past week we got two blockbuster spin off shows, one a spin off of an acclaimed hit TV series, one of a cult movie series, it's time to look at Mayans MC & The Purge.
Sons of Anarchy finished just eight episodes shy of the big 100 episodes in 2014. Since then we have been missing our favourite motorcycle gang, now ally on the original series, the Mayan MC group have their own show.
With a ten episode first season, the show started relatively strong with 2.53 million fans tuning in to see the pilot. No doubt with DVR viewers the viewership will go up. Not to mention worldwide fans.
I love a ten episode season, down with the long, drawn out 22 episode runs, give us short and sharp. The first episode however was a little long, overly violent in parts, but showed us into the new world of the Mayans. With a bit of homage to the old guard, the show is building it's own following other than original Sons of Anarchy fans.
Speaking of violent, the Purge launched it's TV series over on the USA network. From the violent films to a more story based series, the Purge like Mayans will also see a first season run of ten episodes.
The Purge started strong and I honestly out of the two new shows enjoyed this more. A look at future America, one without crime (except on Purge night), low unemployment and a strange way of controlling the population.
The Purge had a few less viewers than Mayans MC reaching 1.39 million live viewers however this could be another strong DVR title.
The first reviews are not promising for the series, however fans of the movie will probally lap this up, also the underlying mysteries and secrets will have me coming back for episode two next week.
As the main TV season launches this month in the USA for the 2018-2019 season, look forward to more reviews, comments and weird blog posts from me. In HBO news, Insecure and Ballers will thankfully be back in 2019, both getting renewed during the week, yay.
Led by Jason Statham, the latest shark, thriller is all killer almost no filler.
Joining Statham is Aussie Ruby Rose, Li Bingbing and a cast of hundreds being chased/hunted by the largest shark known to human kind. Problem is they were believe to have been extinct for like millions of years.
The plot goes out the window, the action ramps up, Statham as a 51 year old man is in top shape and does some amazing moves to save the day across multiple near death situations.
Unfortunately for the film, it feels like it takes a while before the beast really steals the show. I know you need to build suspense and don't do the big reveal too early, but the reveal does take a while in this shark tale.
All in all it is what it is, a giant popcorn film, filling cinemas for the last few weeks.
The Meg will win no awards, it's a total 100% guilty pleasure but man it was a much better shark film than some others that have come before it. Well done. 3.5 Stars, a fun night out at the cinema.
I have been a huge fan, but with a number of high profile characters the show is sliding. This season we realised the Freak was actually dead, Franky found happiness and Boomer is on the edge of release. We have already lost Dor, Sonia Stevens, Maxine and Liz also looks like she is on the way out.
So it was with great sadness Season Six sort of ended with less of a bang than previous seasons, season four Bea Smith was killed off by The Freak, season five The Freak was buried alive, can you get the drift, The Freak, The Freak....
Bea Smith of course was a huge loss to the show to, but The Freak or Joan Ferguson just added that unpredictability which made the show so addictive.
Vera's stalker reveal was honestly one of the most, oooohhhhhhhhh, is that it moments of the season. Admittedly unearthing the dead corpse of The Freak was pretty epic, but the Stalker Murphy, was lame. Until she was shot dead on Vera's door stop.
Jake and Will seem to be completely off the hook, as is Vera and will Vera keep the baby? Will mat leave bring a new more interesting Governor? And will Marie and Rita fight to the death now Rita is stuck in prison with her sister Ruby?
Ruby, Rita, Marie and Kaz have never (for me) replaced The Freak, Bea Smith or Franky. Kaz is a lame top dog, Marie started out promising but the weird Allie/Will/anyone who would look at her love/sex triangle.... weird.
Anyway at least locally Bite Club is semi entertaining as we now wait till 2019 for the seventh (and most likely last) season. The show's future was meant to be announced this week, however radio silence over at Foxtel. Who knows, with Secret City coming back soon, A Place to Call Home wrapping, will they give Wentworth another season? Maybe get them to the lucky 100 episodes? It's only 30 episodes away or 18 if you count the 12 filmed and in the can for season seven!
Wentworth it sort of went out with way less of a bang this year, shame cause it really is some of this countries best TV.
I wanted to like this show, Todd Lasance, Damian Walshe-Howling & Deborah Mailman, well it does promise a lot.
Channel Nine has an issue with Australian dramas right now, Doctor Doctor is woeful and they have milked the Underbelly franchise all out of full cream milk.
But the good news is, by episode two things pick up. I am now up to date and episode three things really pick up.
The shark attack in the first episode, the whole set up is not done well and is it just me or does Todd Lasance look older than 33? I also see links between this and 2016's Hyde & Seek which had promise but did not receive a second season.
It is nice however seeing Manly exposed on the small screen and it makes a good setting for a series, but is it really the crime capital of Sydney?
As we approach a new USA season of our favourite shows, new series, reboots and The Conners, this is good filler (unless you are backlogged with Netflix series like me) it's not perfect, it's not the next big Australian thing, but it's decent.
Bite Club is back tomorrow night after Australian drama farewells the sixth season of Wentworth tonight. Where is the Freak?
Honestly I am breaking rules with this review, this film has had the BEST PR in the lead up to it's release, it's had so much hype, it's advertising works and honestly believe the Rotten Tomatoes score, believe the glowing reviews, go out and see it, it's honestly bloody brilliant.
The cast is vast and amazing, Constance Wu was divine as the romantic lead, Awkwafina stole the show a lot of the time, Jimmy O. Yang and as my favourite character in Silicon Valley, it was no doubt Jimmy brought the fun to Singapore.
Singapore was front and centre in this film, it was maybe the best thing to happen to Singapore tourism since Kim and Donald shared a high tea recently.
Singapore is a truly remarkable city, why this film took so long and why we had to wait for beautiful Asian female leads and sizzling male leads (and co stars hello Remy Hii (Aussie), Chris Pang (Aussie) and Ronny Chieng (sort of Aussie).
Harry Shum Jr had a very small role but here is hoping a sequel/spin off whatever includes him more.
I said I was breaking the rules with this rule, that's because I loved every minute, it's unique, it's beautiful (the wedding scene is remarkable) and I laughed out loud. A true masterpiece, this is event cinema, this is what 2018 in film should look like. 6 out of 5, yes an extra star, after a number of dull event films, Avengers latest outing, the 50 Shades finale, this is now, this is relative, this is Crazy, Rich and spectacular!
Troye Sivan, born in South Africa, grew up in Perth, Australia, now calling LA home, Sivan has finally released his second full length album.
Sivan will soon commence a Bloom tour kicking off in Texas, USA and we will see where his album lands next week on the ARIA Charts. Unfortunately Eminem had a surprise new album still Troye's thunder yesterday.
My My My! has been easily one of the best pop songs of 2018 and I love the original and the accompanying remixes. Ariana Grande and Troye continue their friendship on the track Dance to This, with a super cute video (below) to boot.
Troye is out, proud and a star, it's a great pleasure to feature Troye the weekend of Father's Day, the weekend of his album landing. Take a listen to the brilliant youngster below and if you want to see the biggest tunes of the last three months, HERE you go, your welcome.
