watch the vid
track is "eastern jam" by chase and status - LONDON duo! :-D
fierce dubstep, paris b-girls and devdas - my fave dance bit is around 3:34 - check out the camera movement! I need to do something like that.
This other track is also doing my head in. I like this tune a lot more actually.
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Monday, October 11, 2010
Myspace files: Warpaint
First off, my apologies. There was supposed to be a Live Double Whammy! Part 2 but I never got around to it. I was going to write about seeing James a couple of weeks ago; I'll just summarise by saying it was a great show, full of hits I'd forgotten existed, and Tim Booth's dancing was amazing.So, on to Warpaint. As usual when it comes to the Myspace files, my knowledge of the band is minimal. I heard them on Jarvis Cocker's radio show this past weekend and liked what I heard enough to look them up. They're apparently based in LA. To me, their melodies are almost like a lo-fi Interpol, while the vocals remind me of Hope Sandoval (other than when they're being grunted out). Not bad really -- after listening to them a bit more on Myspace I'm not as taken with them as I was after one listen of a track on the radio, but I think they're still worth mentioning and checking out. Oh, and I think the track I heard on the Jarvis show was 'Undertow', which is also up on Myspace. Jarv said they reminded him of Fleetwood Mac; see what you think.
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Live Double Whammy! Part One: Virgin Freefest
Well, I've been off for a long time but hopefully this long-ish post will make up for my absence. Had a music filled couple of days which I think are worth sharing.
First up was the Virgin Mobile Free Fest this past Saturday in Columbia, MD. This has become somewhat of a mid-Atlantic institution and I think this was the second time they did it for free. A surprisingly indie-leaning line-up was spread out over three stages, with a good amount of dance acts thrown in too. Oh yeah, and Ludacris was there.
Merriweather Post Pavillion, which is where the fest took place, is a pretty good outdoor venue, close to lots of roads and even rail. Needless to say, the event was packed (did I mention it was free?), and nice sunny weather only helped. Age-wise, the crowd was a mix -- I'd say it leaned towards the younger, but there were people in their 30's (cos how many kids listen to Pavement?), some young parents, and even older folks with their teenage kids. Not sure how I feel about that -- I'd like to be a cool young parent, but do I want to expose my little 'uns to the smoke, sun, dust, and extremely loud noise? Probably not. And if my kids are teenagers they should really be making their own way to these things. Young people nowadays! More on that later.
So the place was packed, and it was very hot. That meant some shade action for me, so I went over to check out Neon Indian in the "dance forest" -- a shaded area near the edge of the grounds that was actually full of trees. The nice thing about being slightly older, and being me I suppose, is that I no longer feel the need to be up front where the action is. I spent a lot of the time watching acts from the comfort of a beach mat in the shade where the sound was good but not ear-damagingly loud. Had time for a chat here and there too. Neon Indian was decent, some good tracks, but not enough to really grab my attention. Next up was DC's own Thievery Corporation on one of the main stages. I listened to them mostly lying down and thoroughly enjoyed the experience -- a multicultural dance music band like Thievery, with influences from all over the shop, really defines the festival experience for me. I started feeling the vibe while listening to their global rhythms.
I then checked out the cheeky funky sounds of Chromeo back in the dance forest. I enjoyed their fun take on 80s' electro influenced dance music; they reminded of Daft Punk without the pretension. Pavement were up on the main stage next. I don't know their music very well but got quite into the indie guitar sounds and lo-fi aesthetic. I took a half an hour break to see Sleigh Bells (started off good, but felt overly pummeled half way through -- noise for the sake of it, toughness for the show of it?) and then went back for more. After that was a haphazard attempt at securing lawn space while everyone bar me and one other person went to check out MIA. I wasn't too bothered cos I'd seen her after Kala came out and I think she's annoying now, especially after that infamous NYT article. So, lawn space hopefully secured, I instead headed once again to the Dance Forest to see Modeselektor. Their furious techno was under-appreciated since they were on at the same time as MIA but I loved it and got down properly for the first time that night (mostly cos I was by myself). Half an hour of Ashraf shape-throwing ensued.
Last act of the night on any stage were LCD Soundsystem. An odd choice of headliner, one would think, since really how many people are into them? But they attracted a big crowd who seemed to know their stuff. I wasn't sure about them myself to be honest. Up until recently I had a low opinion of LCD: they were an over-rated indie version of dance; James Murphy was involved with DFA, the home of crappy punk-funk; he was also fat and annoying. I checked out 'Sound of Silver' and was thoroughly unimpressed by it, despite the glowing reviews. But then I read about their most recent album, and how it was their last, and started to rethink (and to stop being a hater). Plus, I've grown older and started asking myself the same questions as Murphy seems to have (am I a bit past it for all this? Am I relevant or cool? What's the point to any of this anyway??). Lastly, my brother said they were great live, and that definitely proved to be true. They were another highlight of an overall great day of music, and 'Losing my Edge' brought a big smile to my face as it closed the night out. I will definitely be giving LCD another go, as well as picking up some Pavement.
Now for the fest experience overall. I haven't been to too many big festivals, and not a single overnight one. The ones I have been to have generally been underwhelming, but I think there are multiple factors that go into that -- any music event held at RFK stadium is going to seem a bit crap no matter what happens, and HFStival half a decade ago was no exception. I enjoyed this one quite a lot but I can't imagine ever wanting to go a festival and stay there for more than a day -- the dirt and heat and discomfort are tolerable when we're talking hours, but extending that to days and adding tents, portaloos, and no showering to the mix sounds like a recipe for misery to me. So you can keep yer Glastonbury! Another festival downer is the sheer amount of drugs in the mix, whether it be alcohol, weed, or tobacco. I felt smokier after the freefest than I have in a long time; it was basically as bad as indoor concerts used to be when smoking was still allowed (if you live somewhere where indoor smoking is still allowed, sorry. Now go wash your clothes and take a shower, cos you stink). And then there's the kids. A festival like this being free is a pretty great thing, but I realised that it's only free because it presents corporations with a captive audience and a massive marketing opportunity. The middle section of the festival site was entirely devoted to corporations, their wares, and their crappy free giveaways. And people lined up for that junk! Not only that but they seemed happy to be getting even more for nothing, even if it was rubbish. Ok, some of the giveaways were actually useful, like the beachmats Virgin were handing out if you recycled something. But the bright green Toyota bandanas people got and then actually wore? The State Farm backpacks?? NO, NO, NO! C'mon, the kids! When I was younger "selling out" was still a real concept; now it seems that having your music in an advert is an aspiration -- that or on the soundtrack to some shitty mainstream teevee show. But that kind of selling out is really just one part of the larger commodification of what used to be youth culture by large multinational corporations and The Man. Yes, I sound like a bit of an old punk at this point, but it's true! Kids should be taking full of advantage of corporate stupidity by enjoying the music and ignoring the marketing but they don't seem to be clued-in enough, or to even care that they're really only seen as consumers. Rant, rant, rant; I could go on, but I don't see the point. I had a good time, the line-up was good, the setting was good, and I only got one piece of free crud -- the aforementioned Toyota bandana, soaked in ice water, and used to wipe the sweaty scuzz off the back of my neck before being discarded. Why can't young people think like me, eh?
First up was the Virgin Mobile Free Fest this past Saturday in Columbia, MD. This has become somewhat of a mid-Atlantic institution and I think this was the second time they did it for free. A surprisingly indie-leaning line-up was spread out over three stages, with a good amount of dance acts thrown in too. Oh yeah, and Ludacris was there.
Merriweather Post Pavillion, which is where the fest took place, is a pretty good outdoor venue, close to lots of roads and even rail. Needless to say, the event was packed (did I mention it was free?), and nice sunny weather only helped. Age-wise, the crowd was a mix -- I'd say it leaned towards the younger, but there were people in their 30's (cos how many kids listen to Pavement?), some young parents, and even older folks with their teenage kids. Not sure how I feel about that -- I'd like to be a cool young parent, but do I want to expose my little 'uns to the smoke, sun, dust, and extremely loud noise? Probably not. And if my kids are teenagers they should really be making their own way to these things. Young people nowadays! More on that later.
So the place was packed, and it was very hot. That meant some shade action for me, so I went over to check out Neon Indian in the "dance forest" -- a shaded area near the edge of the grounds that was actually full of trees. The nice thing about being slightly older, and being me I suppose, is that I no longer feel the need to be up front where the action is. I spent a lot of the time watching acts from the comfort of a beach mat in the shade where the sound was good but not ear-damagingly loud. Had time for a chat here and there too. Neon Indian was decent, some good tracks, but not enough to really grab my attention. Next up was DC's own Thievery Corporation on one of the main stages. I listened to them mostly lying down and thoroughly enjoyed the experience -- a multicultural dance music band like Thievery, with influences from all over the shop, really defines the festival experience for me. I started feeling the vibe while listening to their global rhythms.
I then checked out the cheeky funky sounds of Chromeo back in the dance forest. I enjoyed their fun take on 80s' electro influenced dance music; they reminded of Daft Punk without the pretension. Pavement were up on the main stage next. I don't know their music very well but got quite into the indie guitar sounds and lo-fi aesthetic. I took a half an hour break to see Sleigh Bells (started off good, but felt overly pummeled half way through -- noise for the sake of it, toughness for the show of it?) and then went back for more. After that was a haphazard attempt at securing lawn space while everyone bar me and one other person went to check out MIA. I wasn't too bothered cos I'd seen her after Kala came out and I think she's annoying now, especially after that infamous NYT article. So, lawn space hopefully secured, I instead headed once again to the Dance Forest to see Modeselektor. Their furious techno was under-appreciated since they were on at the same time as MIA but I loved it and got down properly for the first time that night (mostly cos I was by myself). Half an hour of Ashraf shape-throwing ensued.
Last act of the night on any stage were LCD Soundsystem. An odd choice of headliner, one would think, since really how many people are into them? But they attracted a big crowd who seemed to know their stuff. I wasn't sure about them myself to be honest. Up until recently I had a low opinion of LCD: they were an over-rated indie version of dance; James Murphy was involved with DFA, the home of crappy punk-funk; he was also fat and annoying. I checked out 'Sound of Silver' and was thoroughly unimpressed by it, despite the glowing reviews. But then I read about their most recent album, and how it was their last, and started to rethink (and to stop being a hater). Plus, I've grown older and started asking myself the same questions as Murphy seems to have (am I a bit past it for all this? Am I relevant or cool? What's the point to any of this anyway??). Lastly, my brother said they were great live, and that definitely proved to be true. They were another highlight of an overall great day of music, and 'Losing my Edge' brought a big smile to my face as it closed the night out. I will definitely be giving LCD another go, as well as picking up some Pavement.
Now for the fest experience overall. I haven't been to too many big festivals, and not a single overnight one. The ones I have been to have generally been underwhelming, but I think there are multiple factors that go into that -- any music event held at RFK stadium is going to seem a bit crap no matter what happens, and HFStival half a decade ago was no exception. I enjoyed this one quite a lot but I can't imagine ever wanting to go a festival and stay there for more than a day -- the dirt and heat and discomfort are tolerable when we're talking hours, but extending that to days and adding tents, portaloos, and no showering to the mix sounds like a recipe for misery to me. So you can keep yer Glastonbury! Another festival downer is the sheer amount of drugs in the mix, whether it be alcohol, weed, or tobacco. I felt smokier after the freefest than I have in a long time; it was basically as bad as indoor concerts used to be when smoking was still allowed (if you live somewhere where indoor smoking is still allowed, sorry. Now go wash your clothes and take a shower, cos you stink). And then there's the kids. A festival like this being free is a pretty great thing, but I realised that it's only free because it presents corporations with a captive audience and a massive marketing opportunity. The middle section of the festival site was entirely devoted to corporations, their wares, and their crappy free giveaways. And people lined up for that junk! Not only that but they seemed happy to be getting even more for nothing, even if it was rubbish. Ok, some of the giveaways were actually useful, like the beachmats Virgin were handing out if you recycled something. But the bright green Toyota bandanas people got and then actually wore? The State Farm backpacks?? NO, NO, NO! C'mon, the kids! When I was younger "selling out" was still a real concept; now it seems that having your music in an advert is an aspiration -- that or on the soundtrack to some shitty mainstream teevee show. But that kind of selling out is really just one part of the larger commodification of what used to be youth culture by large multinational corporations and The Man. Yes, I sound like a bit of an old punk at this point, but it's true! Kids should be taking full of advantage of corporate stupidity by enjoying the music and ignoring the marketing but they don't seem to be clued-in enough, or to even care that they're really only seen as consumers. Rant, rant, rant; I could go on, but I don't see the point. I had a good time, the line-up was good, the setting was good, and I only got one piece of free crud -- the aforementioned Toyota bandana, soaked in ice water, and used to wipe the sweaty scuzz off the back of my neck before being discarded. Why can't young people think like me, eh?
Sunday, September 26, 2010
El Iqaa
Let's see if we can get this music blog started up again. I hope so!
Over the last couple months or so I haven't really discovered any new artists to listen to. Well I might have found a new band just this past Friday, but they haven't released an album yet, so I'll put them on hold for now.
So I'm gonna go back to my collection. Allow me to introduce to you, if you haven't heard of him already, to El Iqaa, aka as Olivetones the visual artist, aka Joe Namy, a Lebanese-American who is an artist in many forms. He is part of Other: Arab Artists Collective.
I discovered his recordings, called "Detroit Beirut" around 2007/2008 and was re-listening to them yesterday. He has quite a few gems - many of which might be good for a film, hmm...
You can actually download the whole album right here, give it a listen. My faves are 'July War', 'While They Were Sleeping', 'Zeina', 'Al Arabiya', 'Olds 98', and 'Floating On a Nod' - there are about 28 tracks!
Joe also has a radio show called Electric Kahraba on WNYC, and I definitely need to go back to listening to it.
Sunday, July 11, 2010
Myspace files: Aeroplane
Randomly heard about this act recently so checked out their Myspace and am chalking them up as a great discovery! They're from Belgium and make some really great uplifting dance tunes. The Myspace tracks are all remixes but they've started putting out their own work now (I say they though I'm pretty sure it's a solo act now) and you can hear 'We Can't Fly' if you download the Essential Mix they've done (link's on Myspace and on their Facebook page). Any act that can make Robbie Williams sound good is definitely talented so check out Aeroplane and do a little boogie!
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Feel the bass
I have a feeling F&F are going to like this one.
I've been listening to this track for ages and only now just realized I should post it up. It's called 'Broken' by Martyn via the UK - you can tell because it totally has that London sound. Its from about 3 years ago.
This tune is amazing - it is enchanting and exhilarating. Let it take you in:
This song almost makes me want to put my speakers next to my windows and blast the tune, like this man right here in 'La Haine'.
I've been listening to this track for ages and only now just realized I should post it up. It's called 'Broken' by Martyn via the UK - you can tell because it totally has that London sound. Its from about 3 years ago.
This tune is amazing - it is enchanting and exhilarating. Let it take you in:
This song almost makes me want to put my speakers next to my windows and blast the tune, like this man right here in 'La Haine'.
Sunday, June 20, 2010
One Love Festival 2010
One Love delivers yet again. Found out about this festival last year during my first summer in Istanbul. It was alright back then with M83, Starsailor, and best of all, Tricky. This year we almost didn't go. We were being lazy yesterday and got to the venue very late. No matter though, we got there just in time for who we actually wanted to see - Fischerspooner and Groove Armada.
Mannn this was tight! As soon as Fischerspooner came on you knew it was gonna be wicked. They're so extravagant with costume changes, dancers, and visuals. I know that's gay, and they're DEFINITELY gay, but I'm telling you, it worked. The atmosphere was brilliant, you couldn't help but be caught up in it and dance your ass off. Their sound is electroclash/electropop, basically good-sounding 80's music with hard beats. Their look is Lady GaGa turned up to 10 with originality and comedy. The singer was bloody hilarious! At the end of their set he tried to surf the crowd all the way to the back and then the front again but the Istanbul crowd didn't know what he was on about and it took three attempts for him to get it done.
It would be very difficult for Groove Armada to top that but they came close with the first few numbers of their headline slot. Live, Groove Armada were basically a rock band which also managed to combine electronic music. The best thing about them were their singers though. SaintSaviour in particular was a revelation. She was so into what she was doing. Every beat was choreographed with a dance move. The band weren't bad either. At one point one of them brought out a trumpet for Groove Armada's first hit, "At the River" which was pretty cool. Overall, One Love Istanbul is so good I'm considering coming back for it next year from America. And check out some Fischerspooner. If they manage to recreate their live sound on record their albums must be awesome.
Rating: 11/10
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