Jens Lekman: The Village May 25th

Pic By Loreana Rushe

The last time Foggy Notions had Jens play here, it was a stripped down affair in Whelans. Just him, backed up by his guitar, a bongo drum and a very special appearance by one Owen Pallett playing violin on a few songs. It was a remarkable gig. It was intimate, heartfelt and touched with more than a tiny bit of Christmas magic, no doubt helped by the fact that Whelans was newly redecorated and smelled of fresh pine-wood. He entertained, he charmed, and he pretty much had a capacity crowd hanging off his every utterance. Tonight, Jens returns to Dublin to what is perhaps an unfair weight of expectation.

Certainly, memories of the previous performance are fresh for many of the audience here, and I’m sure friends have been dragged along in tow with effusive tales of ‘that night’. However, as any seasoned gig-goer knows, the conditions that conspire for gigs that special are mercurial and lightning sadly rarely strikes twice. This, despite the presence of Jens’ full band (dressed up in varying monochrome colours like female versions of those disturbing Aussie TV children’s characters The Wiggles) and a sampler. Thats not to say its a bad gig. It isn’t. It just feels a little flat, rehearsed, and at times the band’s twee capers make me want to watch through my fingers in embarrassment. For example, at one point they all down their instruments, stretch out their arms and run circles around the stage pretending to be airplanes. Its like watching a community drama group getting in touch with their inner children. Its just a little too much for me, a cutesy contrivance too far, and I’m an avowed Belle and Sebastian fan.

However, there are plenty of highlights. ‘Maple Leaves’ and ‘You are the Light’ are delivered in a particularly rousing fashion by Jens, benefiting from the big band treatment. The full on version of ‘Black Cab’ makes an interesting counterpoint to the hushed version we were treated to last Christmas and thanks to the sampler ‘It was a Strange Time in my Life’ comes complete with the deeply peculiar duck-child warble that spooks the shit out of me. I guess tonight is ultimately about the type of music Jens trades in and how honest he can be to that. He trades in sincerity wrapped up in showmanship. His songs demand his and our full attention. Tonight he’s possibly tired, at the end of a long tour, and perhaps going through the motions. Because of this, what felt so real at Christmas now feels a little vaudeville. The original spirit is slightly lacking, making us more aware of the shiny, showy shell.

Port O’Brien. Tripod. Tonight. Be there.

Port O’Brien tonight! They’re playing support to Sons & Daughters and Tapes n’ Tapes at Tripod, wahey can’t wait. On stage early so be there for 8pm. This is possibly the most uplifting song I’ve heard all year…

Rarely Seen Always Heard

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=786SmuuD8WY]

It may have said Jimmy Edgar plus very special guests on the tickets, but it was the ‘very special guests’ who really left the impression of the night, in Spy last Thursday.

Initiating the night of electronic revelations was Ciaran Byrne, who unfortunately got the shorter of the straws and played to the scant number of early birds at the gig. Though this did not stop him from playing through his more up-tempo tracks, it is definitely a shame that he was not given more time to play through his more ambient selection as this is where he shows particular prowess. Having already released his debut ‘Galtrim’ on the Psychonavigation label, he is set to release his follow-up ‘Nine Lives Causeway’ on the 30th of May and if the tracks on his myspace are anything to go by it promises to be awash with plenty of tidal synth lines and atmospheric nostalgia akin to Boards of Canada.
Definitely a release to look out for.

The constraints of time having left us all slightly parched for more of Byrne’s set, it is just as well that his performance was followed up by Byrne’s label-mate ‘Rarely Seen Above Ground’, a one man compendium of sound on the more aggressive side of the tracks. From behind his fort of percussion, Jeremy Hickey fronted his band whose presence was displayed exclusively in the visuals projected up behind him, featuring himself in all his various other instrumental guises. Drumming tenaciously through to the end of the set, interrupted only by his abrasive vocals his persistence definitely paid off, leaving the crowd impressively stunned at his performance.
Finally after these two artists having paved a nice standard, Detroit’s Jimmy Edgar stepped up to the platform to perform his set, providing a more dance-heavy pulse to play out the night.

Rarely Seen Above Ground will be performing in Kilkenny at Murphy’s Whit Festival on June 1st and Ciaran Byrne can be seen performing at Techfest in Offaly on May 31st but until then you’ll have to be contented with this…

Sell Out Ok!

My favourite twee-sters,The Boy Least Likely To, have joined forces to make the most splendid ad about saving that I have seen yet. I know that some artists have issues with their music being used in ads, but really, when it’s as charming as the below, how could anyone be annoyed? That said, I don’t think putting money in a bank ever made anyone feel as happy as that young girl splashing about. I doubt she even has a bank account.

[youtube:http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=cDHZzjdMtWY]

If that wasn’t enough, here’re The Boy Least Likely To again, this time, covering ‘Faith’, complete with banjo and, yes, handclaps.

[youtube:http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=EZIug6yKCr4]

Animal Collective Explain Cancelled Tripod gig

A number of people were quite disappointed last night when the Animal Collective’s show at Tripod was cancelled last night. Fortunately another gig was hastily arranged in Whelans and for the people who made it, it was a great gig. For those who travelled miles and still missed out, Animal collective offer the apology and explanation below (via their myspace).

sorry about all the confusing events of last night. we broke down 3 times on the way from atp to dublin. the first time was around midnight the night before. our fan belt broke so the engine kept overheating. it being the middle of the night and us being in the middle of nowhere, we had to wait until morning before some repair dudes could meet us with the right belt. this made us miss the ferry to dublin that would have gotten us there in time for the original show. we got off the new ferry at 6pm and called the tripod saying if they were willing to push the show back we could get there by 9 or 10, and would set up with no sound check and still play. it was really important to us not to fuck up another dublin gig. but they would not do it. they said the club had a curfew of 10:30 and they couldn’t move it back. they also thought people would have to leave to catch the last train home or something and wouldn’t stay much later than that. so they called the show at tripod- not us. not calling them out or anything, it was beyond anyone’s control and they did what they had to do based on the information they had at the time. they are good people at the tripod, so no hating on them. luckily our merch guy is from ireland so we called around to his friends and asked if they could set up a show for us in under 3 hours and try and get the word out. the band scheduled to play at whelan’s had canceled that morning leaving it open so our friends busted their asses (even sending a van 100km south of the city to pick us up with our gear on the side of the road after the bus broke down for the 3rd time in 24 hours!), and as some of you know, the show happened on the later side and we had a great time. hope those of you that were there did too. we apologize to anyone that didn’t get the new info in time. we tried our best. as of last night tripod said they would refund the tickets. we have heard rumors they are not because they are expecting a make up show soon, but as much as we’d like to, we cannot do another dublin show at the end of this tour. we said we would like to do a make up show for them when we could, but we have no idea when this can happen. so hopefully the refunds will be available. we’re sorry again, but thanks to everyone who made an amazing show happen so quickly and saved us from having to cancel the show altogether. hopefully this will be the end of our bad luck in ireland. we love it there. take care - ac

Also Darragh has been singing the praise of Foggy for giving out free chips to those waiting patiently in line before the rescheduled show.

Eurovisiontime

As highly credible independent music journalists May is always a high point for us here at Analogue Towers. There are many exciting new bands that make there way across the Atlantic Ocean for the first time, drawn by Ireland’s suddenly balmy climate and credulousness. As coldblooded creatures we move quicker and more effectively in the sun, darting around Dublin talking to exclusive Canadians and hip youngs. It is also the month in which the European Union celebrates hip young indie bands in their amazing televised music festival, The Eurovison Song Contest. As highly credible young hips there isn’t a chance in hell any single one of us here would miss it. What do you mean I’m talking shit? Oh.

Anyway, there is a reason to tune in on Saturday (by which time, hopefully, Ireland woeful turkey based entry will be eliminated from the competition, and fingers-crossed, reality) and that is the utterly brilliant French entry. I’ve waxed lyrical about my love of French music before on these virtual pages, and therefore won’t labour the point. They are, however, the saviors of Europe. Whilst I can’t bring myself to vote for the Lisbon Treaty, it is only because it doesn’t give Ireland’s sovereignty to France alone. Anyway, here’s the track.

[youtube:http://youtube.com/watch?v=Vz58Hw9hldw]

Deerhunter

Photo, Loreana Rushe

Sometimes great music is cerebral, engaging the brain and gently stroking the synapses. Other times its visceral, punching you hard in the gut and grabbing you by the sex bits. Sometimes, like in the case of Deerhunter’s second album cryptograms, it can be both. In cryptograms, the American noise-rock outfit drew on difficult personal circumstances to record a record that charted a feedback driven course between suffocating freak-outs and blissful psychedelia by way of ambiguous instrumental interludes. It was wayward, challenging and one of the best albums of recent times. After touring the shit out of cryptograms the band returned home late last year feeling knackered and leaving fans worrying that Deerhunter were no more. They went into hibernation and frontman Bradford Cox focused his energy on his sample driven solo work released under the Atlas Sound moniker. One super Atlas Sound album later and it seems the Deerhunter juggernaut is roaring back into life, this time with a bunch of songs that (while still noisy) trade some of the more wigged out elements of cryptograms for a tighter, poppier sound. At the start of their first spate of gigs showcasing material from the forthcoming album microcastle, Analogue interviews the band before a Foggy Notions show in Whelans. Bradford in particular is in ebullient form. With his legs sprawled across the table and his hair falling across his forehead in a boyish bowl-cut, he seems energised, animated and full of opinions.

Analogue: I was a bit presumptuous and thought I was only interviewing Bradford so some of the questions will be directed just to you Bradford. But there are a good few questions that I’d like to direct at the band too?

Bradford Cox (lead singer): That’s totally okay, that’s totally okay.

Analogue: I saw earlier today on your blog you put up some nice photos of you all arriving in Ireland. Was that just this morning or have you been here longer?

Cox: Just this morning. I’ve gotten really quick on Flicker. Really the reason I did that is for my family but I’m also putting it on the blog just to keep the blog active. I was really disappointed with myself when I went on the Atlas sound tour, I just let the blog go dead. The blog is really important for the band, especially now that its straightened up into something that’s really music focused. Rather than just focused on silly things because I really feel like music is changing. The way its made and produced and the rules are kind of becoming more and more useless. For over a year now I’ve been giving away free music as me. It seems like now that’s becoming a more reasonable thing to do. Music doesn’t have to be made and you’ve to wait for months to hear it. I don’t really give a shit about the music press.

Analogue:: Woops

Cox: No I mean there are people in the music press I like but I do resent the way they have come to control the way music is manufactured and produced. They create this 4 month time lag between the creation of art and then it goes through these elitist filters and gets criticized before it reaches the audience. That’s bullshit. What do you think Josh?

Josh Fauver (bass guitar): I think that there’s a lot of industry loopholes you’ve to go through to make music anymore and I think its obnoxious and it hinders the process a lot.

Cox: Specifically the press though. I’m all up for music. I didn’t have much money growing up. But as soon as I heard of stuff like soulseek and napster, I was right on it. Exploring weird stuff like free jazz. Its just a great way to cross reference weird stuff you know.

Analogue: When you talk about the music press then, who are you referring to? Is it the big music websites?

Cox: Not necessarily. I mean the last Breeders album was leaked by a Spanish journalist and suddenly its all over the world.

Analogue: OK but I think even over here, many music fans’ first point of reference for music is the website pitchforkmedia.

Cox: Pitchfork isn’t bad . They won’t leak a record. They won’t compromise your property. As far as I know pitchfork has never done anything like that. Let me tell you something I resent. I resent someone else deciding when to leak your music for you. Like I’m not going to put our new album microcastle on the blog for free. Its an album we worked pretty hard on so its going to be more traditional. I’d like in the future with our albums to do something more unconventional.

Analogue: Like what?

Cox: Maybe give them away for free and sell them on vinyl only. I think CDs are dying. Vinyl, there was an article in a US magazine recently, like business week, and there is a huge surge in vinyl sales. Everyone talks about the failure of the record industry, but I say give the music away and if people like it and you produce something quality then people will want to own it on vinyl. Its an aesthetically interesting format. The music industry has gotten away with some shit over the years. Especially the 50s and 60s, records were like one or two great songs and a bunch of filler. But now people can fucking stream the whole album on myspace and you can hear the single in context with all the filler. So if the album is shit you know in advance and don’t waste your time.

Analogue: There’s a sense of that on your blog. Another band that seems to be happy to let the fans hear new stuff early or work in progress is Animal Collective. There are a lot of high quality recordings of exciting new stuff they are playing live that they seem happy to have out there.

Cox: Yeah their new stuff is really trancey. I’m really excited for them.

Analogue: Yeah I read on your blog that you went to see Animal Collective and it was one of the best gigs you saw. Now that you are touring with them, it got me thinking that one of my dream musical collaborations would be Animal Collective and Atlas Sound (Bradford’s side project).

Cox: You see the thing about these things is, I wouldn’t know where to start. I don’t like to ask people to just do stuff with me. Plus we work with tapes and loops and stuff so it wouldn’t be that easy. But I have a very similar set up live, and I’m sure on this tour people are going to think I’m ripping them off. I think we come from a very similar place in terms of our spirit and what we do, using old sounds, mixing them with new sounds, looping, trance oriented stuff. But the problem a lot of the time, for me working with Animal Collective would mean we all have to load our samplers with new stuff. A lot of what we do is like tape music. So its not like a guitar where you just come up with a new chord. But yeah, I guess, I’ve thought about how cool that would be.

Analogue: Their new stuff is incredible though.

Cox: That’s had some influence on my end of Deerhunter. In an odd way, I’m so into what they are doing right now that its made me want to take Deerhunter in a new direction. They are so good at what they are doing I don’t want to see another band doing that type of music right now because they are pretty much dead on.

Analogue: I don’t think anyone could copy them if they tried.

Cox: Right. But ambience, electronic samples and stuff, and loops, this is the direction I want to go with my writing and this is gonna sound silly but I want Deerhunter to just be a pop band. Art pop, a band that makes records that have odd elements.

Photo, Loreana Rushe

Analogue:: This question is for Whitney. The last time Deerhunter played they had a different guitarist but now you’ve joined so the band remains a five piece. I believe this is your first live show with the band, how do you feel about going out live for the first time with Deerhunter?

Whitney Petty (guitarist): I puked up outside [laughter].

Cox: Did you?

Petty: Naww just kidding.

Analogue: I want to ask questions about the new record Microcastle. How far along is it? Are you just trying it out live or is it done?

Cox: Its finished. Its totally mixed and done.

Analogue: Are you happy with the finished results?

Cox: Yeah sure.

Analogue: Are you not going to tell me any more than that?

Cox: I was thinking internally, just about mastering tics. Just thinking about that sort of stuff.

Analogue: So what is it? Are you not far away enough from the record to talk about it yet?

Cox: All I know is I think its amazing. I think it’s a classic record.

W: All I know as an outsider, just coming in for the first time and hearing it is that it’s a really, really exciting album to hear. Its awesome.

Cox: I really feel like it’s a lot more put together. Its straightforward and direct. Not as ambiguous.

Analogue: So different to the usual Deerhunter sound then? I read somewhere that it was going to be more poppy?

Cox: Yeah sure. I’m sure its going to piss off some fans. Like some of the small army we’ve had from the start are probably going to be a bit confused and bewildered by why we are not going to go the way they expect. Like I’ve already had messages. Someone already sent me a bizarre message, an analogy that I did not understand. It was “just remember Bradford for every two people that liked crooked rain, crooked rain, there were 10 that hated it”. Like saying Pavement’s early stuff was weird and hard to listen to, but Crooked rain is more accessible but we lost our original fanbase. I don’t know what they were saying. I mean we don’t fucking sound like Pavement.
[Large discussion on the merits of which is the best pavement album ever follows for 2 minutes, then Bradford starts talking about Stephen Malkmus]

Cox: He’s such a snooty…

Analogue: Who is?

Cox: Malkmus.

Analogue: Really? You interviewed him once right?

Cox: I like him though. I don’t like throwing insults around

Analogue: Right what did you say? I wouldn’t know what to say to him. He’s one of those people.

Cox: I got really drunk beforehand so that I wouldn’t be really afraid and make a total ass of myself.

Analogue: well I had a few drinks tonight, just because I didn’t want to make a total arsehole of myself in front of you.

Cox: Oh yeah?

Analogue: I just had this feeling with you that I might say one thing, and you’d eat me for breakfast.

Cox: Well I don’t know why people think that about me, like what could you say?

Analogue: Well I could say something like…ah no.

Cox: What? What? Do it! Do it!

Analogue: Well just from other interviews I’ve read, I could say something like “you sound like a genre of music we call shoegaze. Have you heard of shoegaze?” and then you’d go on the attack.

Cox: I’d just be like, I hate Ride.

Fauver: He would leap across the table and throttle you.

Analogue: Oh yeah I read that somewhere, you hate Ride. Whats that about?

Cox: I hate Ride. They are fucking bad. I think they are one of the cheapest, like in the States you find Ride tapes in all the bins in the 2nd hand shops.

Analogue: At the end of the last tour, at the end you went on hiatus. Or how do you say that in a way that’s not an Irish accent?

Cox: Hi-ay-tus, that’s right.

Analogue: Well it seemed you were finding the cryptograms material wearying to play?

Moses Archuleta (drummer): We had been playing that stuff long before it even came out.

Analogue: But here in Dublin, it didn’t come across. You seemed to play a phenomenal gig from our perspective.

Cox: But that was exceptional. Sometimes things are exceptional.

Archuleta: I mean it was just us sort of going through the motions and we felt that the whole tour. But Dublin was the exception.

Analogue: Irish people, we love hearing bands tell us we’re the best fuckin crowd ever.

Cox: You guys got the one good show of that tour. That was so interpreted. Like a lot of people thought we were going to split up. But it was more of a case of I wanted to be home with my parents.

Analogue: Everyone thought it was the end of Deerhunter. Do you still feel the same way about the cryptograms stuff or now that you are back touring again has your relationship with the material improved?

Cox: I’m so excited to play all our stuff live. Especially now that Whitney’s joined because I had a lot of problems with Colin [the former guitarist] because he wasn’t exactly a team player. I mean I’m not gonna shit talk somebody but his work ethic was really bad. He wasn’t in it for the right reasons. He’s just not compatible with me psychologically. We’ve never had any chemistry. I’m already having a better time with Whitney in the practice sessions. If she doesn’t get a part, I don’t care. She can just make shit up. I’m not super-protective about how I make songs. Some days I am, but its like Colin wasn’t reliable if he was wasted, which was a lot.

Analogue: We met him after the last gig and he was sitting with us.

Cox: He’s such a douche

Analogue: He had drunk a bottle of cough syrup I think.

Cox: Yeah he’s rubbish at holding alcohol.

Analogue: He was pretty drooly, but we were getting on well with him. He didn’t rubbish the band or anything he was just really sort of… on the old cough syrup, the jaw was hanging down wide open.

Cox: Yeah [laughs].

Analogue: To change subject, Bradford you’ve expressed in one or two interviews that there isn’t enough noise or psychosis in indie rock?

Cox: I’ve pretty much given up on indie rock. I hate indie rock. I never listen to it anymore. Because indie rock to me is safe. Like college rock in the 80s. It has a lot to do with like economic oppression. It has a lot to do with rich kids. When I think of indie rock recently I think of sort of bands whose names I won’t mention appropriating African music.

Analogue: Will I say it? Vampire Weekend?

Cox: Yeah. New York, upper West side people.

Analogue: But in relation to what you think about noise. Do you not think that’s changing a bit now with bands like Fuck Buttons?

Cox: I always like a bit of noise, like I like a lot of a little bit of noise I like. That make sense? I mean I don’t like a small level of noise in a song. I mean I like a fucking noisy level of erotic… in my brain noise is what sexuality is in a lot of other people’s brains. I mean I get aroused by noise. I don’t mean physical, I’m being figurative here. But where most people might get lonely or horny or get the urge to give it to somebody or hook up, I get this urge to fucking like hear an exploding guitar sound. Hiss and feedback. Noise to me is like sexuality.

Analogue: Okay like visceral. And you don’t hear that anywhere in indie?

Cox: No not at all. Wait, the Raveonettes. They do a pretty good job. I mean I like Fuck Buttons. What I’m waiting for is a band that can take pop music and do that, not traditional noise pop.

Analogue: I read you say something about Patti Smith.

Cox: Yeah dangerous like Patti Smith. Exactly. And like sexually attractive. That’s what I’m waiting for. That would be my satisfaction.

Analogue: Your jerk-off record of the century?

Cox: Yeah [laughing]

Bradford will be back in Dublin with Atlas Sound supporting Animal Collective in Tripod on Monday May 19th. The entire Deerhunter gang return on June 14th to play Vicar Street with a bunch of other cool bands as part of the Foggy Notions Future Days festival.

Andy’s Muxtape

Ciao fools,

Yes I’ve been in the library most of the day and weeping the rest, and am now sufficiently confident of my own impending doom to share the sound track to it with you, the lucky public. Much like the yokel in the Fast Show, this week I have been mostly listening to the Blues and Dubstep, collections of which I recently inherited from brother internet. Make any sense?

Good, I thought not.

Anyway, here’s the track list for the fail, which can be found here.

1: Ali Farka Touré, Timbarma

Superb mix of traditional Malian music with the delta blues, taken from Ali Farka’s eponymous album. Farka, by the by, means Donkey.

2: iTAL tEK, White Mark

With all the dark brooding bass and ethereal synthesisers that hall mark Dubstep, this perfectly captures my growing paranoia and terror, as exams approach.

3: Björk, Isobel (Deodata Mix)

Because pop remixes of classic Björk songs are fun, finding the little dot-dot to go over the ‘O’ on Björk’s name is not and Deodata is a Brazilian.

4: Sketch Show, Ohotzck

Ohotzck starts off sounding like a mobile phone advert, but quickly reveals itself to be one of Sketch Show’s most playful and fulfilling tracks.

5: King Tut, Lukes Hymn

King Tut, interviewed back in issue two of Analogue and therefore, old friends, in magazine speak,are still hawking their great album Chopping Wood and Carrying Water and this is one of the strongest tracks on there.

6: Panda Bear, Good Girl (Mixed)

Panda Bear’s are all owned by the People’s Republic of China and, if summoned, must be returned to their homeland. This includes Panda Bears born outside of China and members of the Animal Collective, like Noah Lennox.

7: Professor Longhair, In the Night

New Orleans legend Longhair plays easily one of funkiest, upbeat songs about girls with “Sex appeal”. Fair play to him.

8: Derek and the Dominos, Have You Ever Loved a Woman?

A lovingly crafted song about doing the nasty with your bestfriend’s ladyfriend. It includes the lament, “When something deep inside won’t let you rape your bestfriend’s wife…” Genius.

9: Cotti & Cluekid, Sensi Dub

A great vocal lift this deep, danceable dubstep track above the hoard, taken from Cotti & Cluekid’s Sensi Dub EP.

10: Virgo, The Clack Riddim (Instrumental Mix)

Totally brilliant track to listen to whilst walking through town, within minutes you’ll have escaped into a dark half world, where you’re a tough but fair cop, shooting out the bad guys and leaving it up to the sarge to deal with the paper work… Oh yeah, sorry.

And that’s a wrap, have fun.

Andrew

ps, There are two spare slots available for this muxtape. Nominate appropriate tracks.

pps, This muxtape will be up for about a week, until I do another one. One track from this one will be saved to carry on over.

Trinity Ball ‘08. Party Hardy etc etc etc

Right. This is not going to be a typical anaphotoblog. There will be no photos of the analogue crew cavorting happily together. There will be no hilarious anecdotes about our collective escapades. Not because we all heartily dislike each other (don’t worry, we’re not splitting up) but because, Trinity Ball doesn’t roll like that. Gareth compared Trinity Ball to a wedding. That’s too civilized a comparison. Trinity Ball is a battlefield. You enter at midnight, armed with the gig timetable and many friends. You leave, having seen – at best- The Mighty Stef, and certain that, once upon a time, you wouldn’t have been caught dead making out with Gerard who studies Science.

Even still, I have done some tireless research, and managed to piece together a vaguely coherent narrative. Some bits I may have made up.

Before The Ball:
Gareth and Bren hung out and drank with grown-ups.

Olwyn had a party. I don’t think anyone else showed up.

I went to a party where people had hair like this:

At The Ball

There was the Main Stage. It had bands like The Coronas –whose entire songwriting oeuvre is based on their J1. No thanks. Though, during my research, I did see that someone was, and I quote ‘gutted about missing the Coronas’. Each to their own.

Lightspeed Champion was playing as well. Conor’s boyfriend even got his photo taken with Dev. How Exciting.

Truth be told, the dance tent was where everyone could be found. Here I am dancing..

Though I think that Olwyn’s probably a better dancer than I am.

I can smile nicely though.

Kavinsky’s set was DIRE. Vitalic pulled out, so his set was extended by another hour or so. He couldn’t hack it. The tent emptied.

The Boyze Noize came on. Oh it was joy. The tent looked like this.

It felt like this.

After The Ball

Suddenly 5am rolled around. The sun was already up. Where to next?
Bren, Gareth, Conor, Andrew and Olwyn all went to Australia.
I went to a party full of dreadful people. So I cut my losses, and went elsewhere. Elsewhere being a gathering of lovely people, providing jumpers, cups of tea and exactly what we wanted to listen to.

Namely this..

[youtube:http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=8ePfIkGqHCQ]

A-Trak

Canadian DJ A-Trak first came to the world’s attention when he won the prestigious DMC World Championships at the tender age of 15. From such auspicious beginnings, he went on to win the International Turntable Federation World Championships in both 1999 and 2000, the 1999 Vestax World Extravaganza and, with Miami based DJ Craze, the DMC Team Championships in 2000. While these early days saw him cement his reputation as an expert beat-juggler, recent years have seen him move away from the world of turntablism: over the past four years he’s travelled the world as Kanye West’s on-stage DJ; in the last year he’s remixed artists as diverse as Architecture in Helsinki and Digitalism as well as setting up Fool’s Gold Records with Nick Catchdubs. A quick look at his friends on Myspace will show the direction his career has taken of late: tours with the likes of MSTRKRFT, Boys Noize and the Ed Banger DJs have shown he’s much more interested in rocking the party than anything else. All that said, his early achievements were so momentous that they continue to follow him through his career. So, talking to him before his recent set in Crawdaddy, I decided to ask the man where he stood in relation to the scratch world in which he has his roots. “Pretty far,” was his initial response, “because the scene itself became really stale and stagnant in the last couple of years. What I always wanted to do was to keep my foundation in terms of that stuff, the turntablism and everything I come from, and bring it forward.” His sets might be more dancefloor orientated nowadays, but he’ll still use the methods he knows best to keep it all interesting. “The main point of my set is to get people to dance, and it’s definitely something I have to deal with, this phenomenon where every show I do there’s always going to be a few guys who are going to stand in the front row and look at me and wait for me to do something crazy, when I want the technical stuff to be woven into my set.” This is not a DJ who is eager to rest on his laurels, but rather one who is constantly trying to challenge himself and those around him.

A-Trak is also keen to see others do the same. When I asked him about MSTRKRFT’s decision to feature rapper NORE on their recent single Bounce, he was very enthusiastic. “I think it’s cool that they’re not doing what people expect them to do.” With his background in turntablism, as well as his more recent forays into the world of straight up blends and bootlegs, this is hardly surprising. “I love party records, I love dance records that sample hip hop vocals. One of my references for my identity as a producer today is early Armand van Helden stuff. You can tell he’s a hip hop guy with the drum sounds and the way he programs everything.” Another recent producer who’s impressing A-Trak is London’s Sinden. “It’s the fact that there’s a new sound to it, in terms of the basslines, and the whole fidget pattern and everything but there’s all these rap samples that give it an edge you know. I love doing that with my tracks, so I think it was a great idea for MSTRKRFT to do that. That’s why I wanted to remix it, cause I just thought “wow here’s a NORE acappella that’s just waiting for me to do something with it.” As for that remix, unfortunately it’s still sitting, unfinished, on his laptop.

In recent times there’s been a tendency on message boards on both sides of the Atlantic to slate and deride the work of LA-based DJ Steve Aoki. He refers to himself as Kid Millionaire, and his style of DJing isn’t as universally popular as that of someone like A-Trak. At the same time, he’s managed to surrounded himself with extremely talented and respected people, like the Fool’s Gold and Ed Banger crews. “I think the reason why you’ll see guys like myself and Busy P associate ourselves with him, first of all, Steve is a super nice guy, lovely guy, and he really loves music. As a DJ he can get the crowd going crazy – I don’t want to play after him. I play before him, because I play stuff that’s a little bit more funky. He’ll come on and play One More Time, and the crowd is… you can’t compete with that. I understand that as a music fan, or as a DJ, you can think what you think of someone playing One More Time for example, and you can have an opinion on that. I wouldn’t play that record. But Steve is a great showman, he’s got great energy, when you see him on stage he’s got this magnetic presence.” One thing that must be said is that Aoki is one of the hardest working DJs out there, with a schedule that sees him playing gigs almost every night. This work ethic has, according to A-Trak, created a scene in LA where DJs like himself and MSTRKRFT, who are neither über-mainstream nor completely underground, can play the music they make to a mainstream crowd with open ears. “People in Europe might not realise that, but Steve really helped create a scene in Los Angeles where nowadays guys like us can go and play there. LA is a really tacky city, and for a long time it would be hard for me to go and do a good show in LA, because it would either be the super slick, VIP, tacky Top 40 spots, or the ultra caricature underground scene in LA, and I’ve always between those two. Even when I was doing hip-hop I wasn’t all the way on the backpack side, but I wasn’t playing Puff Daddy songs all night either. Not only did Steve create this middleground audience in LA, but he also plays for the Top 40 audience, he plays for the high class Paris Hilton crowd, but he goes there and he plays Justice records or whatever, or Diplo records, or Fool’s Gold records. And then as a consequence of that these upscale crowds hear our stuff, and I can go there and get paid shitloads of money to play a Hollywood party but not have to change what I play all of a sudden.” The ultimate manifestation of this partnership was Screaming Bloody Murder, a joint Fool’s Gold and Dim Mak tour taking in eight cities across North America last month.

And it’s not just the Americans who are showing an interest. “Yesterday I was at Steve Angello’s studio. I don’t expect a guy like Steve Angello to know who I am. But he reached out. I know Angello’s records, Sega knows Angello’s records [Sega recently remixed Angello and Laidback Luke’s Be], but we don’t expect him to know us. We go and we get stuff from different scenes and we put into DJ sets and we make it make sense. That’s the way that we all DJ. Angello’s a big house guy, he’s at Ibiza every week. I don’t expect him to know who A-Trak is. So for him to be like ‘hey come to my studio, let me give you some new songs’ and stuff, I’m still tripping off that. It completely baffles my mind. I don’t expect those guys to know me.” That said, he tries to keep his feet on the ground. “I think it’s really cool that I can see Little Brother one day and Steve Angello the next day. The reason why that’s possible I think is that I really try to stay thorough with what I do, and keep my roots in hip-hop but make it interesting I hope, with the newer stuff I do and Fool’s Gold and everything. The electro guys find my hip-hop stuff interesting, and the hip-hop guys hear my Kid Sister beats and think “oh yeah he’s doing some new shit, that’s cool.” So I don’t wanna lose sight of that, I gotta stay grounded with that.”

His most important venture of late was undoubtedly his work on Jay-Z’s recent Heart of the City tour. Even for someone as talented and successful as A-Trak, recognition and understanding is always the ultimate goal. “Jay came to a lot of Kanye shows over the years, but I really remember the one show in Manchester where he came and he really kind of took me aside after the show and was like ‘yo, that was crazy.’ As much as he’s a huge star and stuff, Jay is so hip hop. I mean he comes from that era, working with Clark Kent and guys like that, and he’s just got such a thorough background in hip-hop. For him to have gone from that to where he is, and see something I do and understand the reference, and be like ‘oh yeah he’s taking the hip-hop shit, that’s where I’m from, but playing it in the Kanye crowd in front of 20,000 people, that’s cool,’ like to have him pay attention and to have that reaction, is already an incredible feeling.” A-Trak was initially asked to be Jay-Z’s tour DJ, but for several reasons he turned down the job. Undeterred, Jay’s people asked him at the very least to be one of the musical directors, and to tie in the work of the DJ with the band. “For him to reach out is crazy, and to work with him, and see him be there everyday at rehearsals. I mean Kanye doesn’t even go to rehearsals. So to work with him, and with ?uestlove being there as the musical director, just to be in that room and to have that dialogue, it’s incredible. And to go from that to playing dance parties in Europe, to Coachella, I love the way everything’s coming together and I really just want to stay thorough with what I do.” It was this determination to stay thorough that led to his initial refusal of Jay-Z. “I already had a Fool’s Gold tour booked, I had some records coming out, and I had just told Kanye I wasn’t doing his tour. Beyond simply being his DJ on stage, over the years I’ve managed to build a really good dialogue with him where we can really consult each other, it’s really a two way conversation, and that’s something I want to preserve, and for me to be like you know ‘hey Kanye, you know what, I need time to do me. I can’t do this tour, I have this Fool’s Gold thing I gotta do,’ and then if I turned around and did the Jay-Z thing…”

Another of his recent successes was the mind-bending mixtape Dirty South Dance, where he took some of the most popular tracks from the world of fuzzy electro and layered over them the sounds of mainstream hip-hop. Lil’ Jon over Etienne De Crecy; Clipse over Alex Gopher; Twista over New Young Pony Club. This venture was a way in which to open doors and introduce himself to people in worlds outside of his own. “The first time I talked to Erol Alkan, I had just finished Dirty South Dance, and I talked to him on iChat and I sent him that track that I did where I took his Klaxons remix and put a Pimp C vocal on it. That was a way for me to break the ice, like ‘hey you know what, maybe you haven’t heard of me or whatever, I’m this DJ, I work with Kanye, but listen to this thing I did with your track’. And he was like ‘Yo, that’s so cool’. And right away you can have a conversation.” In terms of how he arrived at a track selection, there’s no great mystery behind his approach. “I just tried a bunch of stuff and whatever sounded good I kept. There’s just as many that I scrapped.” Many of the tracks move beyond simple layering, and have a definitive A-Trak stamp all over them. “It was me wanting to make these tracks more like bootlegs and not just blends. Sometimes you’ll have a blend that you can play live. And sometimes you’ll get tired of having to keep the acapella and beat together so you’ll put it in Ableton and just recreate it. There’s always stuff that can be moved around to make it sound better, and you produce it a little bit. On the Erol one I added some drum sounds and re-sequenced the whole thing.”

Since he mentioned it first, I decided to bring up the contentious issue of Ableton DJing (Ableton automatically beat-matches tracks for DJs, thus bypassing a building block of any DJ’s set). “Surkin kills it. I love Surkin with Ableton. He’s so fucking good on Ableton it’s scary. He’s kind of the only one I like. Surkin’s the only guy that I’ve seen on Ableton that’s made me think, ok he’s on Ableton because what he’s doing there, no one can do on a CD or on Serato, unless they make edits of everything. I mean it sounds like a 2manydjs mixtape or something, live.” Where other advances in technology are concerned, his approach was definitively analogue up until very recently. “There’s always been this contradiction with me where I was always the youngest guy in my crew, but I was always the most traditional guy.” When his erstwhile partner Craze started working with Final Scratch, A-Trak was not impressed. “It’s only recently that I’ve kinda let go of that stuff and adopted the newer train of thought that’s just like yo, whatever works for you, if it’s good it’s good. There’s still part of me that sees people mix in Ableton and sees everything line itself up for you and it’s kinda like, that’s not DJing. But if you do it really well, and you’re gonna wow me like Surkin wows me then do it, I don’t care.”

With the summer approaching, the one thing that’s on the mind of every music lover is which festival(s) to attend. As a DJ A-Trak gets the chance to perform all over the globe. Does he have a “festival set,” or will he playing new stuff every time? “A little bit of both. Coachella I started. Well, no. [For] Good Vibrations in Australia in February, I built a rough set, but I can still move stuff around, but I knew what I was starting with, I knew certain mixes I wanted to do but I could just move stuff around between, and Coachella I kinda updated it.” The Upper Crust tour is both a preparation for the Summer ahead of him, as well as a chance for him to prove his mettle on his own two feet. “For American DJs to play in Europe is a different reference point, and for me I’m kinda looking at it like boot camp. I’m here DJing by myself most of these parties. I mean tonight I’m with Floss[tradamus], the other night I was with Diplo, but last night in Stockholm, it’s an 800 person venue and it’s just A-Trak on the bill.” For someone who started his career on his own and then move into team battling and tag team parties, this represents a full revolution. “At this point in my career, I don’t care that I’m a world champion, I don’t care that I’m Kanye West’s DJ, all that shit, I just don’t take it for granted. I treat myself like I’m a new guy. Every night I think ‘ok, what worked tonight and what didn’t work,’ and fine tuning it, and hopefully I’ll be able to continue to come up with stuff that works for different crowds and mixes that are really unique to me. I don’t wanna play like the next guy. So every night when I play I’m like ok, cool the crowd is dancing, but did I bring something that’s different. And like did they look and they say ‘hey this is different from this guy last week/this guy next week,’ it’s always gonna be like that.” Given the lazy antics of certain turntablists recently, A-Trak’s attitude is refreshing, one which I wish more DJs would adopt.

With his constant touring, finding new music to keep his sets constantly fresh and interesting is undoubtedly a challenge. “Sometimes it’s hard to find the time to go online for an hour every day. I’m always on iChat of course, exchanging songs stuff with people. Every couple of days I’ll try to block off an hour or two and just hit the blogs and download stuff. If I do a gig with a guy after the show maybe exchange a few songs. It’s mostly when I’m home between tours that I get to really re up on stuff. ‘Cause not only do you have to get the songs you have to sit and listen to them. I might still be on iChat for half an hour and have enough time for a guy to send me a song, but am I gona have enough time to listen to it and figure out what I’m gona mix it with, that’s the part that’s not always there.” Like many DJs out there, he sees the importance of blogs in terms of disseminating new music, but as for the more thorny issue of downloading music, where does he stand? “You can’t fight it. It’s there. That’s the reality. I have a label, but I know you can’t fight it.” When most of your releases are in 12” format it’s not so much of an issue, but Fool’s Gold bravely stepped into the world of CDs with the release of the Super High Shine Edition of Kid Sister’s Pro Nails. “She’s signed to Downtown now. So Downtown wanted to do a new release. Fools Gold is the creative team behind the whole record, so, Downtown has the muscle, they have the machine, the staff and everything, but they consult us every step of the way.” Downtown were keen to find ways of infiltrating the public consciousness, to really push Kid Sister, so Fool’s Gold threw some remixes in their direction. “I got this Bag Raiders remix that never came out officially, I got this Gant-Man jackin’ house remix that everybody’s gonna love, sounds like 90s house.” An iTunes bundle also came from the Fool’s Gold side. “They’re preparing a bundle on iTunes with the video and the original version of the song with these remixes, and they made a CD, just to have that retail presence for her. So that’s the first concrete result of Fools Gold and Downtown working together for Kid Sister.” The results of these efforts have yet to be seen, but with this set of releases, and Kid Sister’s appearance on The Count & Sinden’s anthemic Beeper, her pending superstardom seems academic.

While A-Trak is ultimately very serious and thorough about what he does, that’s not to say he can’t enjoy himself on stage. “I talk on the mic a lot. Me talking on the mic, and kind of dancing on stage and acting a fool, is me saying ‘you know what, this is me this is who you came to see, this is who I am, this is who I came to see, I’m gonna say stuff on the mic that’s probably really silly and doesn’t make much sense, but it’s my personality, so you know, I’ll give you all of me, If you like it you do, if you don’t then don’t come to my show.’” A short while later Crawdaddy witnessed a rocking set featuring tracks from current favourites such as Switch and Para One as well as perennial classics from the likes of Eric B & Rakim and novelty acts such as Kriss Kross, all mixed to perfection. More important than the mixing, was the fact that everyone was dancing. “I’m a DJ, I’m here to entertain.”

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