Wednesday 11 November 2009

"And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Avant Pop"



People in The Sky, a label started in the back of an East London rcord shop in 2006, release the compilation "And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Avant Pop" on the 16th of Nov.

Featuring label mainstays Friendly Fires and Plugs, People In The Sky describe this as an 'Audio Manifesto'.

They explain:

"From Dada to Disco, the commodification and recuperation of all popular culture has been accelerated via ever faster means of communication until we reached this point, the edge of no return.

The musical avant garde, armed with cheap electronics and half forgotten dreams, fights on sporadically. Fresh battlelines are drawn in the subcultural sand, but from 20 jazz funk greats to Reg n’ Fearn in a fortnight, things move fast . Fires are quickly doused , and it’s back to Saturday repeats of Come Dine with me as the hacienda crumbles around us."

1) Wax Stag - Folk Rock (Bibio Remix)
2) Colouring In - Intergalactic Romantic (Radio Edit)
3) Telepathe - Chromes On It
4) Plugs - That Number (Video Edit)
5) Architeq - Sleeping Bear Lament (James Pants Remix)
6) Oko - Can't You See
7) Nightwaves - She's Electric (Vega Italo Dub)
8) Ghostape - Many Stars (Ste Mix)
9) The Time and Space Machine - Children of the Sun
10) Friendly Fires - On Board (Nightmoves Remix)
11) Ghostape - In Your Eyes (Remin Remix)
12) Ecce - Control (Pharao Black Magic Mix)
13) Plugs - Downtown
14) Foto & The Bolton Tadcaster - Love Will Break Her
15) Nuuro - Avila



To promote the compilation they are hosting a launch party, featuring the excellent ColouringIN and Matt Waites (Nightmoves). ALL ARE INVITED ;;;;;;;;;:

People In The Sky presents "And You Will Know Us by TH Trail of Avant Pop" Launch Party @ T Bar
Thursday 19th November | 9pm - 3am
Free Entry + Free Promo CD Giveaways
T Bar, 18 — 22 Houndsditch, Aldgate, London EC3A 7LP
Line-up:
These New Puritans (Domino/Angular) DJ Set
Ipso Facto DJ Set
Matt Waites AKA Nightmoves (Future Flash/This Is Not An Exit)
ColouringIN Live
Damon Martin (Disco Bloodbath)
Bi-Bop
Slutty Fringe DJs
J Saintil (Nurtrend)



Tuesday 10 November 2009

EuroSonic Noorderslag - The SXSW of Europe?


Lucy Love
, pic thanks to http://allscandinavian.com

EuroSonic Noorderslag is Europe's biggest music industry conference and showcase. Every year a selection of Europe's new musical talent get a chance to strut their stuff in front of industry pros, including promoters from Europe's biggest festivals, as well as hoards of music lovers. All will be eagerly scouring 100+ gigs to discover the next big thing.

This year the particular focus is on Norway. So expect a strong presence of indie-dance, death metal and great facial hair. (Ok so this was the best cultural stereotype I could muster. Blame Lordi.)

Past success stories include Blood Red Shoes, Goose, Lykke Li, Yelle and, last year, White Lies, who clocked up an impressive 15 European festival bookings after appearing.

Blood Red Shoes had this to say:

""EuroSonic Noorderslag is one of those weird showcase things you do but feel uncomfortable about because it's crawling with music industry types and not many real people, a bit like SXSW. But much like SXSW, if you do a good job of it, you get some way cool stuff out of it."

...which makes it all sound a bit cynical, but adds some weight to the SXSW comparison. Although the guy from White Lies had this to say:

"At the end of the day, it doesn't matter what job title each member of the audience has, they are still potential fans and still have the ability to be moved and excited by your music".

...and get you way cool stuff....

Sliimy

The line-up is all new to me - but after a preliminary listen my ones to watch are, in 3 categories:

I Think I Might Like You: Bands With Promise

Joensuu 1685 - Psychadelic, lofi rock.
Lucy Love - Electro, dancehall and dubstep beats with assertive female MCing. Loads of potentially good tracks and catchy riffs. Still lands a little short of brilliant, yet. Though check out the OK Formula rmx of No VIP on her Myspace.
Sliimy - Synthy indie-pop-soul, with impressive voice and and one eye on radio play. Plus a few good covers.
So I Watch You From Afar - Intelligent and progressive heavy-ish instrumental rock. Swapping from emotional (small e) Post-Hardcore riffs to fantastic african rhythms and a sense of the Epic. Bits of ATDI, Mogwai and QOTSA (I'm not using all these acronyms just to take the piss, I promise). BIG sound, stirring, yet never outlandish.
rockettothesky - can't tell if I like this, but I might do in time, so have included it. Very strange sounds, lots of synths and some guitar, lots of reverb on the minimal drums. Twinkly and gentle music with floaty female vocals. Makes me think of snow.

Will Probably Be Big, But Shouldn't Be

Lee Everton - Singer songwriter plays rootsy reggae meets rhythm and blues, easy on the ear. Average, unimaginative, coffee table.


I'm Already Loving It , Get Your Orders In.

Svjata Vatra - Bagpipes, accordian, trumpet, djembe and amongst other instruments something called a duduki make up this weird-and-wonderful-sounding band. Primarily a Ukranian and Estonian folk band, but embracing elements of "Tango, Polka, Punk, Rock, Funk, Soul, Ska, Jazz and Reggae." Adventurous and exciting music, never losing its sense of fun. My only criticism being I wish it would kick off a little more often. Personal taste perhaps.

www.eurosonic-noorderslag.nl
____


On a different note the Evening Standard published their list of 1000 most influential people in London. Apparently I'm not on there. I can only assume I came in at 1001. Bastards. Don't they know who I am?

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/the-one-thousand.do

Monday 2 November 2009

...and now for Something Completely Filthy.




Been a while since I've posted any straight-up, dancefloor-dominating, siren-blaring, hectic electro.

The excellent Scatterblog is now a fully flegded blog/label hybrid, giving away a load of top quality music for absolutely FREE.

Upcoming releases include: Edu K (out december 5th), Dubbel Dutch, Dirtybeats, Slap & Dash ft Spoek, Cumbia Cosmonauts, Lewis CanCut and Tranterco

Check out the following offering. FILTHYyyyy.

Matt Cant, Scattermish - Hornbo (Sticky K Remix)

Then head to www.scatterblog.com for the original track plus a load more remixes, PLUS a load more free music.

Or go here to buy the record.



Also, new Don Diablo track remixed by Mason was sent over my way.

Check it out:

Don Diablo - Never Too Late (Mason Remix)

Plus this cheeky number:

DON DIABLO - TOO COOL FOR AMSTERDAM BITCH (HUGO VAN DYCK BOOTLEG)

According to the press-release, "
'Too Cool For Amsterdam Bitch' is a cheeky bootleg by Hugo van Dyck based on Don Diablo's 'Too Cool For School', which proved to be quite the DJ weapon during the recent Amsterdam Dance Event, where it spread like wildfire among many of the world's biggest DJs and became one of the festival's biggest tunes. As a result, Don Diablo has now asked Hugo van Dyck to do an official remix of his forthcoming dancefloor smash 'I am not from France'."