The Witzard

I think it's pretty safe to say that The Weeknd (Abel Tesfaye) comfortably teeters the fine line between glitched-out smooth New Age R&B and hard-hitting Hip-Hop ; while the same could arguably be said for 16-year-old New Zealand new-comer, Lorde . Her break-out single "Royals" 1/2 jokingly shouts out semi-common bravado-worthy shit like: diamonds, "gold teeth, Grey Goose ... Cadillacs, Cristal, Maybach ... jet planes, islands, [and] tigers on a gold leash." But now, the Lorde/Weeknd connection has been further solidified, as Tesfaye recently managed to conjure up and release his own "Royals" remix. My beautiful girlfriend said earlier, and I paraphrase, that it "makes her wanna dance lol and she could [likely] hear this remix in a future movie!" Following the wide-spread release of her first 2 EP's (Love Club & Tennis Court) , Universal Republic plans to unleash Lorde 's proper debut album, Pure Heroine between ...

"Seems @theweeknd have said there is no sample used or enough likeness to "Machine Gun" to warrant any infringement... or credit," head Quaker and Portishead mastermind Geoff Barrow angerly Tweeted early Wednesday morning. It sounds like Abel Tesfaye (The Weeknd) initially asked Barrow and Portishead for permission to use said sample and upon being denied clearance, loosely re-created "Machine Gun"'s ferocious, almost Tribal -sounding drum pattern. But honestly, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense... since The Weeknd and Portishead are both signed to Universal Records , plus Geoff Barrow and Beth Gibbons are self-admitted Hip-Hop supporters. "Belong to The World" is actually The Internet 's second taste of The Weeknd 's upcoming "sophomore" album, Kiss Land . In what seems like an effort to foster more of a prominent public image, Abel Tesfaye granted Complex his first full-fledged earlier in the we...

Intentional or not, Abel Tesfaye managed to make quite the [late night] ruckus by boldly opening Echoes of Silence with a spot-on Michael Jackson cover: "Dirty Diana" (Bad) . Tesfaye initially burst onto the scene in March 2011 under the musical guise "The Weeknd," along with fellow Canadian producers Illangelo & Doc McKinney . Their critically acclaimed inaugural mixtape, House of Balloons was released soon thereafter and Part 2 of "The Balloon Trilogy," Thursday was released that following August. The Weeknd 's unique brand of sample-based R&B draws heavily from a number of Indie Rock sources: Beach House , Siouxsie & The Banshees, Cocteau Twins, Thieves Like Us , and Marina Topley-Bird . Mild production work has since been outsourced to fellow up-and-comers, Clams Casino and DropxLife (XO) . Echoes of Silence was released @ roughly 12 midnight, Dec. 21-22; That is, during Fall 2011 (albeit the final minutes) as originally pr...