When we talk of house music we often think of Chicago, New York, Berlin, Amsterdam and London, but it is not only those cities that have an innovative and thriving house scene. Paris is a creative centre for many of the arts and its innovation for house music is no different. It’s the city where the ‘French Touch’ sound first developed and it became famous at the turn of the century by DJ’s such as Dimitri from Paris and Daft Punk who started playing around with disco filters. The Paris house sound has also been embraced and pioneered by other great DJ’s from the city notably Martin Solveig, DJ Gregory and Claude Monnet who all come together for a rare appearance on Oct 6th at The Ministry of Sound. I think they have something to prove - to show us exactly how the French do it better!
Continue reading ‘The French music revolution strikes back with an audio assault on MOS’
Slovo is the creation of writer, producer and Faithless guitarist Dave Randall. The band’s first album ‘Nommo’ won critical acclaim for its haunting acoustic melodies, trip-hop soundscapes, international voices and political narratives. Now, Slovo present their second album ‘Todo Cambia’ with unique contributions from UK hiphop MC Bobby Whiskers, singer Andrea Britton, writer Arundhati Roy, Bolivian activist Oscar Olivera, Palestinian MC Boikutt and US political prisoner George Jackson among others.
With a sound rooted in Slovo’s native London, this album continues to explore the questions presented by the wider world with an uncompromising but personal, honest and contemplative stance. The album’s title comes from a phrase Dave first heard used as a declaration of hope amongst the poor of Caracas. The idea that ‘everything changes’ has fired the imagination of people across Latin America who have started to challenge age-old systems of privilege in the workplace, wider community and at the ballot box.
Continue reading ‘Slovo- Todo Cambia’
Swedish producer Johan Ilves has been a lesser known face on the tech-house scene up until now. He made his Kinky Vinyl debut this June, with minimalist bomb ‘Disc Legion’ and its hectic Greg Kobe B-Side decimating speakers everywhere since its release.
While the techy trainspotting cliques have been nodding their heads and scratching their chins in collective approval, Johan has been picking up masses of DJ support from the likes of Hernan Cattaneo, Asle and Kamishake, as well as earning rave reviews for Disc Legion in magazines such as M8 (8/8), Update (5/5) and i-DJ (4/5). Early August sees him return to action with another Kinky Vinyl pressing, ‘Campfire Stories’.
We catch up with Johan to get the low-down on his impressive new release…
Continue reading ‘Ten Techy Minutes With Johan Ilves’
Physics made waves with their debut album ‘First Flight’ back in 2002, fusing soulful, jazzy vibes with bumpin’ house grooves to create an experience that straddled the ambient and danceable faces of the house sound. With their next full-length due for release later this year on Seamless Recordings, they are celebrating by teaming up with Bargrooves to release a series of singles from the album remixed by scene heavyweights such as Vincent Kwok, Matthias Heilbronn, G-Club, Audiowhores, Andreas Thiessen and Soularis, all adding their own unique twist to the sultry Physics sound.
With so many new Physics tracks to get our teeth into, we get together with the men behind it all, Mikael and Toby, to get the low down on the new tunes…
Continue reading ‘Droppin’ Science With Physics’
The Amsterdam Dance Event is the worlds biggest club festival with over 600 DJs and acts in 40 of Amsterdam’s finest venues, DJ cafés, record stores, lounges and art galleries. Now in its twelfth year, the ADE has grown into a business conference that attracts 1900 key professionals and a club festival audience of 65,000, we catch up with legend Ferry Corsten who will be in attendance.
Continue reading ‘Amsterdam Dance Event - An Interview With Ferry Corsten’
The legendary Betty Boo is back on a collaboration with hot producer duo Jack Rokka
As supported by Judge Jules, Pete Tong, David Guetta, Dave Pearce at Radio 1, as well as the Galaxy and Capital Networks
Remixes by Digital Dog and Smax & Gold
Jack Rokka Vs Betty Boo release the electro club smash ‘Take Off’ on October 1st / 8th on the mighty Gusto recordings.
Insistent bassline? Check. Bouncy synths? Check. Breathy-rappy vocal? Check. General air of rebellion? Definitely. All this can only mean one thing: she’s back again.
Continue reading ‘Jack Rokka Vs Betty Boo’
As the days get shorter and the Summer draws to a close the parties become nostalgic and crowds gather to welcome the cold. Now at ease within their new bi-monthly home of Cargo, Go!Zilla continue the quest to fuse the buzz of live, DJ and electronics in their best possible platform uniting musical styles to bring pioneering, quality music to the dancefloor.
Jay Shepheard is a new addition to the Munich-based Compost Black Label imprint with his debut ep. leaning toward warm, retro, vintage electronic sounds. He has already gathered support from the new across modern electronic music spectrum including Joris Voorn, Ben Watt, Prins Thomas, Timo Mass, Laurent Garnier and Tobi Neumann. This is one of the first samples of Shepheard’s live set promising to introduce his new material and establish him as a new force within the scene.
Continue reading ‘Go!Zilla @ Cargo with…’
Adam Sheridan’s Soundstage label releases it’s first compilation exclusively on iTunes.
‘Soundstage Live’ is a new series of digital only mix albums that aims to bring the best in new DJ talent combined with the freshest new dance tracks direct to your desktop or iPod.
The first in the series is helmed by Soundstage head honcho, Adam Sheridan himself and features some of the biggest tracks from Adam’s DJ sets and also some fresh tracks direct from Adam’s studio.
The track list is below and as with all things iTunes includes all 12 individual tracks with an album only mix by Adam of all the tracks.
Continue reading ‘Soundstage Live: Adam Sheridan’
If you love techno (and we know that you do) keep your eyes to the skies for the meteoric return of Hi-Tek Soul to celebrate their first birthday party on the 13th October . With a line-up that will have you literally quaking with excitement, get ready pilgrims to pay some serious homage to Detroit Techno’s founding fathers.
With his signature driving tech beats, abrasive tones, and resonating bass lines, King Derrick May will take to the decks in the main room to take us on a musical journey spanning 3 decades of Techno. Along with Kevin Saunderson, May was one of the ‘Belville Three’, a legendary collective of early Detroit producers, who tested the limits and spirit within electronic dance music and changed the integrity of the form forever, and the roll call of Techno Gods does not stop there!
Continue reading ‘Hi-Tek Soul First Birthday’
If 13 is unlucky for some then someone forgot to tell Gung-Ho! Now into its 13th stellar release Gung-Ho! hits us with a 4 track EP that exclusively showcases tracks from the recent Zoo Brazil long-player ‘It’s only a mix tape’
Aptly titled ‘It’s only a Sampler!’ this release has something for everyone. New signings Zoo Brazil are first up with their minimal tech-monster ‘Over the Hill’ before giving way to the perfectly warped and trippy melody of ‘Back to Back’.
Richard Murray and Paul Deighton follow with all the bouncy loveliness of ‘Step it up’ followed by Paul Deighton’s ‘Dirty Harry’ – unashamedly techy in its approach with rolling, satisfying bleeps and squeaks. It’s vocal goes something like this - ‘I see your eye’s take a picture’ – at 4am, we’ve all been there.
Continue reading ‘It’s only a Sampler! - Gung Ho!’
Passenger Records excellent new mix album ‘This Way Up’ is the debut breaks mix album from D’n’B legend DJ Friction featuring 14 brand new and exclusive tracks from some of the scenes hottest producers. The fourth sampler to drop contains Friction’s first breaks outing ‘Control Freek’ (alongside Passenger Records boss’ Aquasky and MC Spyda) whilst on the flip Lot 49 artist and Chew The Fat! Resident Kid Blue drops ‘Crunch’
At the age of 27 Friction has risen through the ranks of Drum N Bass to become one of the leading DJ and producers on the scene. With releases across seminal labels such as Valve, Tru Playaz, Renegade Hardware alongside his own Shogun Audio imprint, Friction has taken over the world with his unique DnB sound. ‘Control Freek’ sees his first breaks release showing he is more than able at delivering the goods to both floors alike and following a long line of DnB artists to ‘do’ breaks, Friction brings his passion for precision beats and bass and teams up with Passenger Records head honcho’s Aquasky and DnB MC Spyda to deliver one of the slickest breaks tracks around
Continue reading ‘This Way UP LP Sampler No.4: DJ Friction & Aquasky ‘Control Freek’ and Kid Blue ‘Crunch’’
It seems there is no stopping the pounding electronic dance machine that is the Swedish House Mafia. Steve Angello and Sebastian Ingrosso will be here rocking the mighty ‘boom boom’ box, showcasing the best of their production skills and bringing a sound which can only be described as now.
This is an extra special party from SIZE Records as Steve Angello launches his new album: ‘Steve Angello presents Sizism’. Following the huge success of his seminal 2006 ‘Sessions’ CD, this highly anticipated return looks set to follow in the same footsteps as his latest release. Featuring some of Angello’s own productions and tracks by Sebastian Ingrosso, Larry Heard, Claude von Stroke, Nathan Fake, Pryda and many more, prepare for serious exclusive behaviour as Ministry of Sound once again deliver the world’s most stunning and upfront house music.
The party continues in the bar as we welcome Deepgroove, rising star Hannah Holland and special guests Mikki Most and Queens of Noise. Meanwhile, it’s a Rhythm at Work takeover in the Baby Box with Davey Hampton, Baa Baa & Mark l’Hat, Nathan Cozzetto & Darren James, with Papa Nicol on Percussions.
And as if the night needed to be any more special, Ibizan Angels will be floating around delivering heavenly massages to a lucky few….
Bliss…..
A little less than two and a half years since its conception - and close to 30 singles, one compilation, one mix CD and one sub-label later - Berlin’s mobilee releases its first artist album. Naturally, who better to represent the milestone than Pan-Pot, who have so far delivered five essential singles to mobile, helping to anchor the ever-shifting sound of one of Europe’s most exciting labels.
Pan-Pot is the duo of Tassilo Ippenberger and Thomas Benedix; in just two short years, with 10 singles (for mobilee and Einmaleins Musik) and remixes for the likes of Misc., Tim Xavier, Dapayk Solo, Sweet ‘n Candy, Damián Schwartz, and Anja Schneider and Sebo K, they’ve become known far and wide for their distinctive, groovy, and above all ominous sound.
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Robyn follows her number one single ‘With Every Heartbeat’ with ‘Handle Me’. ‘Handle Me’ is as feisty as pop songs come; full of hip hop flavoured attitude and with a chorus that should be heard across schoolyards for months to come. ‘Handle Me’ is taken from her silver selling, eponymous album ‘Robyn’.
Since the demise of the Spice Girls, ‘girl power’ is perhaps a term that should be used sparingly, but Robyn is it personified. An ass-kicking blond woman, who blasted through the industry bullshit and made startling, profound, honest pop music all of her own. And new single ‘Handle Me’ is just this and more.
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Fresh from playing to over ½ million people at stadium ‘DJ’-led concerts over the last three months on his mammoth ‘Elements Of Life’ World Tour, The World’s biggest DJ Tiësto returns with the third single ‘Break My Fall’ to be taken from the UK Top 15-selling artist album ‘Elements Of Life’
Tiësto teams up with BT for vocal and co-production duties for ‘Break My Fall’, a track already approaching anthem status in the Elements Of Life world tour shows.
Continue reading ‘Tiësto Feat BT - Break My Fall’
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