De La Soul once declared that three was the magic number – and in the case of Steve Angello, Sebastian Ingrosso and DJ/producer Axwell, that couldn’t be closer to the truth. Collectively known as the Swedish House Mafia, the trio are that rare breed: friends who act like brothers who work together, play together and genuinely love each other to bits. “We all go and do our own thing, but without each other we wouldn’t be the same,” says Seb sweetly. Continue reading ‘Swedish House Mafia @ Pure Pacha’
He is set to play London’s O2 Arena, having received rave reviews for shows in Manchester, Edinburgh and Glastonbury - but the spectacular setting of the Big Chill festival will be the last chance to see the legendary Leonard Cohen on his first concert tour in 15 years.
Headlining the main stage on Sunday 3rd August, the singer will provide a fitting finale to the Big Chill weekend, held in the beautiful surroundings of Eastnor Castle Deer Park, Herefordshire. Tickets for Sunday 3rd August have been released as a limited number of special ‘Leonard Cohen’ day tickets - priced at £65 and available through www.bigchill.net.
Leonard Cohen is one of the greatest poets and songwriters in musical history, revered for classic songs such as Famous Blue Raincoat, Chelsea Hotel, Suzanne and Bird on the Wire. He is author of numerous poetry and fiction works, writing his first poetry book in 1956 and recently publishing Book of Longing in 2006. His songwriting continues to influence modern culture, evidenced in March this year with Jeff Buckley’s version of Cohen’s “Hallelujah”, going to number 1 on the iTunes chart.
The Big Chill Festival will celebrate multi-media music, entertainment, literature, arts and comedy at a magical summer weekend in one of the most idyllic settings in the UK. The festival sees a unique combination of The Mighty Boosh, Leonard Cohen, Thievery Corporation, Lykke Li, Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry, Camille, Bill Bailey, Cornelius, Roisin Murphy, The Orb, Natty and Trentemøller Live among the many performers at the beautiful Eastnor Castle site.
Mike Skinner has posted snippets of four new songs on his MySpace site.
The Brummie via South London MC has uploaded samples of four tunes, each roughly a minute long, for fans to hear.
Each track will appear on Mike’s fourth studio album, currently expected to be titled Everything Is Borrowed.
Having heard the quartet of tunes, Orange can report that Skinner fans should expect a variety of interesting sounds and genres.
The Escapist has an uplifting RnB and gospel feel reminiscent of Never Went To Church, the song Skinner wrote about his recently deceased Dad for third album The Hardest Way To Make An Easy Living.
Ecologically-themed tune, The Way Of The Dodo, includes bizzare percussion and chanting, while The Sherry End has a funky, almost disco feel to it.
Finally, On The Flip Of A Coin is another different direction, more akin to an East European folk ballad.
Hard2Beat, the label with 3 top 5 hits under its belt already this year announce the next installment in the massive Put Your Hands Up series.
Raise your hands in the air and get ready to party as the album filled with most pumping dance tunes ever returns for the next instalment! Hard2Beat, the label with 3 top 5 hits under their belt this year bring you Put Your Hands Up 4.
Living up to it’s usual high standards, full of guaranteed floorfillers we lead with the # 1 from Dizzee Rascal & Calvin Harris ‘Dance Wiv Me’. Basshunter’s latest smash hit ‘All I Ever Wanted’ kicks of the album that includes other massive tunes of the moment from Freemason’s & Bob Sinclar plus hot new remixes of Utah Saints & September. We’ve dived deep in to the archive of classic dance anthems to complete the album of bangers with the likes of Ian Van Dahl, Faithless, Prodigy, Sash! and Alice Deejay to name but a few.
An album full of massive tunes & future classics that all cause major dancefloor damage.
Put Your Hands Up 4 contains the MASSIVE tracks; Basshunter “All I Ever Wanted” / Dizzee Rascal Ft. Calvin Harris & Chrome “Dance Wiv Me” (No 1 for 2 weeks) / Freemasons Ft. Catherine Ellis “When You Touch Me” (Radio 1 A List!) /September “Cry For You” (12 weeks in the top 20!) / Utah Saints “Something Good” (12 weeks in the top 40!) / H ‘two’ O Ft Platnum “What’s It Gonna Be” (12 weeks in the top 40!)/ Alex Gaudino Ft Shena “Watch Out” (2nd most played record on Radio 1 two weeks in a row!)
Basshunter has revealed he’d love to colloborate with Madonna.
Swedish pop-dance man Basshunter, real-name Jonas Altberg, is a big fan of Madge and is angling to team up with her.
He said recently ” If I could do a feature with someone, that would probably be Madonna.”
and adding : ” [She is] the absolute coolest and most respected female artist I like in this time. All her hits, if you listen to them, have been adapted to the mainstream. She’s a legend I’d say.”
The UK festival market has weathered heavy rain, negative publicity, high-profile cancellations and economic woe so far this year, but promoters are warning the market is still far from out of the woods.
In a sharp contrast of fortunes, festivals including Wild In The Country, Redfest and the Isle Of Skye Festival have all been cancelled, while T In The Park, Leeds and Reading, Bestival and Latitude have all sold out in record time.
Glastonbury, Britain’s biggest festival, struggled to sell out, only shifting its final tickets on the day the festival opened, while the recent Zoo8 festival in Kent was heavily criticised by festival goers after a number of scheduled acts failed to appear.
Festival Republic managing director Melvin Benn, promoter of Reading/Leeds and Latitude, says that at the half-way stage of the season results overall have been varied.
“It feels pretty much as though the festival season has had more mixed results this season than last,” says Benn. “There was a perception last year that everything sold out, although that wasn’t the case. This year there have been a number of festivals that have cancelled or done badly.”
Take one wayward bootlegger, a damn fine Hammond organ-driven blues rock track and a perky Jack Russell and you have the (unusual) ingredients for one of the most loved tracks of this summer – ‘I’m a Man’.
Originally performed by The Spencer Davies Group and Steve Winwood and recently reintroduced to the public via a singing Jack Russell dog with a confidence crisis in the latest television VW adverts, ‘I’m a Man’ is the kind of track that demands you get funky.
Since the adverts release in early 2008, and its subsequent ban following accusations by concerned dog-hugging Crufts fans that the Jack Russell ‘hero’ may have been in someway mistreated to look nervous, the advert has received unprecedented public interest with over 970,500 hits on Youtube alone!
The VFX Supervisor on the ad shoot, Stephane Allender, was keen to strenuously set the dodgy doggy rumour mill right:”All of the interior shots of him trembling and cowering - those were all reactions he could do on command. Not only were no animals harmed during the making of this film - they weren’t even disconcerted!”
Representing the sound of Pure Pacha 2008 are the combined talents of 6th year resident Sarah Main and brand new additions to the Pure Pacha family Gold Fish. The most famous Friday night in Ibiza is now in it’s 6th year and, after turning over a new leaf this season, continues to go from strength to strength with this year’s parties shaping up to be the most diverse and hedonistic yet.
Sarah’s mix is a 16 track ride through this season’s musical must-haves that will be tearing through the Pacha soundsystem this summer. Gold Fish meanwhile take a fresh approach to their disc, cramming it full of their own productions and remixes for a rich flavour of what the band are all about.
Sarah Main has been at the very heart of the Pacha Empire over recent years through her long-standing residency at the Ibiza venue and touring extensively all over the globe, spreading the sexy house sound for which the club is so famous. If one individual epitomised the Pacha ethos it would be Sarah with her forward-thinking approach to house music and wonderfully glamorous demeanour.
Max Graham makes a welcome and long-overdue return to the mix album arena with ‘Cycles’, his first double-disc album for over 6 years. Since his break-out smash ‘Airtight’ back in 2001 Max has steadily been building a reputation as an exceptional DJ and producer, with the musical prowess and technical ability to rival anyone you care to mention!
As always with Max at the helm, the journey across the two discs is as diverse as it is energetic… From moments of house and techno brilliance right through to the melodic numbers Max is famed for. The mix twists and turns in a way that propels you to listen throughout, keeping you in suspense.
Max’s own ‘Intro’ sets the wheels in motion on CD1 with it beat-less atmospheric textures that sounds reminiscent of classic mix albums of days gone by. Analog People in a Digital World follow with ‘The Envelope of Life’ which pierces through the pads of the intro and sets the tone of the disc with its driving bass and fleeting sparkles of melody. By the time track 3, Oliver Moldam & Patric La Funk’s ‘Good Fellas’ swerves into the picture, you can sense that Max is already delivering a no-nonsense mix simply by eschewing the meandering tendencies warm-up sets usually descend into. The track is stuffed with weighty Detroit chords, giving a house vibe to an already varied sound palette.
Recognising the special kind of chemistry that takes a good track and makes it a fantastic one, independent House Music label, Lugano records, have signed up-and-coming production talent, TWM, and coupled them with leading Gospel vocalist, Carrie Harrington (Sound of Blackness). The result is first-class summer scorcher ‘Rock Da House’ - a slice of pure uplifting heaven.
This chunky house rocker fuses big hands-in-the-air vocals with a well-placed nod to the finest of old skool breakbeat, effortlessly capturing the current retrospective climate by revisiting the sounds of yesteryear whilst keeping the overall direction fresh and upfront. In a similar vein to Axwell’s 2007 smash ‘I Found U’ and James Doman’s recent reintroduction of Ce Ce Rogers’ ‘Someday’, ‘Rock Da House’ is reminiscent of Inner City’s 1988 track ‘Good Life’, striking the perfect balance between old and new. Renowned producer, Phil Faversham made comparisons with ‘Rock Da House’ to Landlord ‘I Like It’.
James Doman is Canada’s next hottest export. As a DJ and producer his star is firmly in the ascendant, and his new bomb, ‘Everything’s Gonna Be Alright’, released on Positiva in August, is set to make him a mainstay of the UK dance scene.
Renowned for his melodic, uplifting house, James’ various productions are currently being hammered by anyone ranging from Pete Tong, Dubfire, Axwell, Steve Angello, and Tiesto, to Judge Jules (on Radio 1), Andi Durrant and Sarah Main. ‘Everything’s Gonna Be Alright’ has also picked up radio support from Radio 1’s Essential Selection, Steve Smart and Simon Dale on Kiss, Andi Durrant on Galaxy, and more.
A major name on the Canadian scene, he’s forged a successful main room residency at Toronto’s world famous club, Circa (owned by North American club legend, Peter Gatien, and which immediately picked up several awards after opening), playing alongside international jocks, such as David Guetta, Morillo, and more. This summer, at Circa and beyond, he’ll be joining Tiesto, Danny Tenaglia, and Sebastian Leger, to name but a few.
As would befit someone with world-class production skills, his approach to DJing somewhat mirrors that of James Zabiela. Doman uses the DJ booth like his studio, mixing live with Ableton and Serrato, while over 50% of his set is made up of re-edits and live bootlegs. The result is a unique performance that each week attracts 3500 clubbers onto Circa’s dancefloor.
‘Everything’s Gonna Be Alright’ is his take on Red Carpet’s classic underground anthem, ‘Alright’. James has reworked the original and dropped in the piano hook from Ce Ce Rogers ‘Someday’. A guaranteed floorfiller, it’s been Tiesto’s biggest record of the past 12 months - the Dutch superstar had the only copy - and is currently one of the most sought after tracks of the year. Expect to hear this at every major dance festival, club, and Ibiza night during summer ‘08.
Remixes come from: Carl RydEn, J Majik & Wickaman, Nicole Moudaber, TS7, Soul Avengerz, Mat Bradshaw, and Franklin Reeves.
James Doman ‘Everything’s Gonna Be Alright’ (Positiva Records)
Released 25th August (digitally) 1st September (physical)
TRNSSTR return with the hotly anticipated ‘As you like it’ on Viva Music! The reactions on this track have been immense!
‘As You Like It’ is a monster of a track. Its rubbery opening and undulating effects give way to a modern tribal’esq bassline that drives the track along. With a number of jet streams building the tension throughout! The track is a peak time killer! The ‘Panorama’ Dub Edit is a more stripped back affair; losing the jets and locking a tight groove with its darker, butcher bassline. It loses the drama of the original but more than makes up for with that wonderful groove.
Label boss Steve Lawler has drafted in two of the most exciting young talents to lend their touch to the remixes. TG takes the release down into the warped depths for a delicious funky techno workout. Bounding, dubby bassline and trip-tastic efx make for a feet-achingly great remix.
AKA, The End’s rebellious little sister, reaches its 10th birthday on 31st July this year, and celebrates a decade in the business with an extravagantly themed party. This year, you’ll step off the hot July streets and into the cool, surreal and magical word of Narnia, with a ‘The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe’ themed bash. Sip cocktails beneath the snow covered pine trees, take a dalliance with the dark side in the White Witch’s castle, before retreating to the safety of Aslan’s camp, complete with life sized lion!
This year, as it’s the tenth, we’ve pulled out all the stops, inviting back three of the acts who played the opening night a decade ago – Basement Jaxx (DJ set), Gilles Peterson and Fabio (playing an old school set). They will be joined by The Shapeshifters, Jimpster, Luke Solomon, Johnno (playing a Guilty Pleasures set), Luke Solomon, Chris Woodward, Rap Saunders & Dennis Christensen, Rob Summerhayes & Ali Tillett, Jim Wood, Johnny Sedin, Georgia Girl and Simon Lindley.
The Shapeshifters are London DJ and production duo Simon Marlin and Max Reich, famously known for their debut 2004 single, ‘Lola’s Theme’ which reached number one in the UK charts and their 2006 Top 10 ‘Back to Basics’.
They have recently found a new home for themselves with a debut on Defected Records. There is no arguing that this duo’s contribution to Dance music has been very healthy and this 1st single has definitely got the dance floor hyped.
‘Chime’, Orbital’s seminal rave classic from 89 gets a complete rework ShapeShifters style - a serious record made respectfully and paying great homage to the original. This is the record that truly united the dance floors back at the inception of dance music’s mighty climb and as we clock up 20 years of that rise of music and culture, this revisit is a monumental moment.
Bringing this gem squarely in to the naughties is a killer remix from Martijn Ten Velden that has already started to stake its claim as summer No.1 on Ibiza’s big floors (Pacha, Space etc), a potent peak time weapon and 2nd time future classic – this sleeping giant is firmly back for heavy rotation.
The mix has come with a hair raisingly good documentary video about rave culture in 1989 - it contains rare footage of dance floors at the time and evokes a sensation of how it really used to be.
Advance specialist support comes from Xpress 2, Laurent Garnier and Pete Tong.
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