Sónar Headline Act Announced.

Orbital are the first act to be added to the bill for Sónar 09.

Considered as one of the most important and influential electronic acts of the 1990s, Orbital will take to the stage at Sónar as part of an international tour that will showcase no new music but rather will be packed full of all their greatest hits, some new audiovisuals and of course, their patented torch specs.

Sónar celebrates its 16th birthday this year and if you fancy heading along, you might want to snap up an Early Bird ticket before the 15th of February. A General Pass, granting you access to Sónar by Day on all 3 days and Sónar by Night on the19th and 20th, is on sale at the special advance price of €125 up until this date and will cost €140 thereafter.

For more info check out www.sonar.es

Music to my ears…

The latest in news in collaboration land is that New York disco legend Armand Van Helden has joined forces with London grime superstar Dizzee Rascal. Brap brap!! The duo have made a track entitled Bonkers, the release date of which is as yet unknown but which is eagerly awaited by many.

Dizzee, speaking to mixmag spoke of his duty as a musician in alleviating recession blues for his fans; “Even though it’s a bit of a f***ed up climate right now, I feel it’s my duty to make people be able to enjoy themselves through it.”

Via mixmag.net

What the f**k?!

Swearing is neither big nor cool. Am I right? Well I mean that’s what I’ve always been told. Copious use of profanities in songs is, usually, little more than a display of bravado and adds nothing to the song itself. Despite this, swear words in trashy dance songs seem to push my buttons.

See this trashy little number by STFU for example. I remember hearing it at Backlash one night and revelling in it’s utter bombasity. It stood out for me, perhaps because it was one of the few tracks with vocals played that night but more likely because it’s no shit composition was pretty catchy.

This video you’re about to see, however, takes the proverbial biscuit. I was turned onto Diva Avari by a friend, and quite frankly, felt both awestruck and visually violated by this video. Note the contrast between the vocalist herself, her dancers and of course, her gimp. Lovely stuff.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKck5BJpe_M]

I bizarrely enjoy the song. I’m not sure if it’s a case of my inner child giggling at the Diva’s copious swearing or just that I enjoy a house beat on occasion. Either way, this is a song that will be stuck in my mind for quite some time, not least because of it’s hilarious/disturbing video. Enjoy and if you care to share any more rude, lewd or crude videos with our readers, feel free!

Creation of Ambience

Chill out music is kind of like the prawn cocktail of the music world; having once been extremely popular at dinner parties, back in the early 90s it was considered sophisticated and on trend, yet is now more often thought of as being dated, tacky and all in all a bit sad. I am not a fan of prawn cocktail. I am, however, a fan of ambient house or chill out as it is more widely known.

This fact was brought home to me last week at around 3am in the Body and Soul area at Electric Picnic. Standing beneath a tree in the pouring rain, I was entranced by the Orb’s closing performance at the festival. Playing a mix of Dub and Deep House with a live MC the boys’ performance was without contest the highlight of my weekend. Hell, I even went out this week and purchased not one but two of their albums. In CD form! *GASP*

For me their music is not generic nor boring but rather makes a welcome change from the samey Baltimore drum loops and screechy electro synths that seem to appear on every second dance release these days. For those of you who are yet unacquainted, I’d highly recommend checking them out. For starters, here’s a snippet of one of their live performances…

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOLwJiXGdxc&feature=related]

Dodgy Sample Friday

There are certain songs that are just so awful that they remain engrained in one’s mind for eternity. Years have passed since the release of Alice Deejay’s Better Off Alone but even still I can’t help but shudder when I hear the Eurodance stylings of the group’s hit single.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dBu5X3TvNw]

I thought they’d disapppeared. I thought I’d never have to be subjected to that song again. Hell wikipedia even tells me their lead vocalist now makes a living as a freelance make-up artist. Never did I suspect that said song would be sampled, nine years on by some unknown American rapper. No siree. However, while perusing an old issue of mixmag earlier this week, I stumbled across something, something so terrifying I had to share it.

For those of you who are up to it, this dear readers is Wiz Khalifa, Say Yeah

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

*shudders*

S Party Numero Dos

The second ever S party takes place this Friday night in a “mysterious” *cough* city centre location. Tickets cost €10 and are only available in advance by e-mailing conor@bodytonicmusic.com. This charming chap will also answer any questions you may have regarding the event so get onto him now. No ticket, no admission. End of story.

The party kicks off at around 3am and keeps on going til around 8 the next morning with guest DJs spinning tunes of the usual Stereotonic house-y variety.

Location of said mystery party shall be revealed at Friday’s Stereotonic, which shall be the official warm-up for the event. If stories from the last one are anything to go by, it should be rockin’!

Give Us the Night

In response to the announcement by the government last week of plans to pass the Liquor Licensing Bill 2008 within the next three weeks, bar staff, DJs, music promoters and other industry folk gathered outside the Dail today to stage a demonstration urging politicians to save our nightlife. For those of you who are as yet unacquainted with the above mentioned bill, here’s a quick run down;

If the bill is passed this will mean the closure of ALL late night venues at 2.30am Monday to Friday and at 1am on Sundays. At present, while nightclubs must stop serving alcohol at 2.30am, they are allowed to remain open for another half hour with music playing to allow people to finish their drinks, listen to some tunes and filter out gradually. If the government get their way, everybody will be turfed out at 2.30 on the dot. Furthermore, venues such as theatres, which used to have the right to stay open til 4am will now be forced to close up with the rest of them, an hour and a half earlier than before.

The aim of this bill is apparently to target Ireland’s alcohol problem and to reduce public order offences on weekends. However, does it not seem likely that tightening what are already widely considered to be outdated and ill thought-out licensing laws will only make matters worse? Such a move seems ridiculous when you consider that people will now be more likely to horse drinks into themselves before closing time, following which they’ll all be turfed out on the streets together, tanked up and let’s face it, more likely to get into fights than had they been able to space their drinking out over a more prolonged period of time.

Furthermore, enforcing such a strict Sunday night curfew ignores the needs of shift workers for whom Sunday is their main going out night. The government in this case have failed to acknowledge that not everybody fits the 9-5 worker mould. The attitude that people should be resting up for the working week ahead seems to have affected this decision, demonstrating the government’s “Nanny State” attitudes towards its population. Moreover, how many clubs are even going to bother opening for 2 hours on a Sunday now? Such a move could result in job losses for people who work as bar staff, bouncers, cloakroom assistants and so on.

Asides from job losses and public order though, we must look at this move in terms of its potential effects on the Irish clubbing industry. At present, Ireland lags behind other European cities in terms of nightlife. This is not for want of promoters. Indeed in Dublin we see excellent promoters such as Bodytonic, Shock, Choice Cuts and countless others bringing big name acts to our fair city every weekend. However, despite their best efforts, nights here will never live up to those in Barcelona, London or Berlin quite simply because the relative shortness of the night places restrictions on the number of acts you can have playing back to back. Dublin is a city that could have huge potential as a clubbing destination, given its population includes a great number of regular gig goers and people who are genuinely passionate about music. However, its licensing laws hold it back and with the bill scheduled to be passed, it seems increasingly unlikely that Dublin will ever benefit from the degrees of youth tourism that one sees in other cities on the continent. Of course, we’ll still have the stag and hen parties puking on the streets in Temple Bar at noon but I somehow doubt that’s the kind of people the government are trying to attract, what with trying to eradicate the Irish “cuture of drinking” and all.

Tourism aside, the new stricter laws will effect promoters in that the earlier closing time could potentially discourage acts from coming to play here. Venues such as the Tivoli, which holds a theatre license, are perfect for playing host to big name DJs. In the past few months alone it has seen Villalobos, Kenny Dope and Erol Alkan amongst others rock the house to mega crowds. Forcing it to close an hour and a half early will no doubt change the type of gigs it plays host to and result in loss of money for venues and promoters alike.

What’s funny about the whole thing is that the government seems to consider that everybody who enjoys going out is an irresponsible yob, who needs to be nannied. The bill ignores the hundreds of thousands of people for whom going out is about the music, about dancing, meeting people and simply unwinding a bit not just about getting pissed. Why should we pay €30 or so on going to see a DJ we rate, if we’re going to have to go home within 2 hours of entering in the venue? Maybe I’m just being optimistic but I do believe that if people didn’t feel they have to get as many drinks in as possible before 2.30, then maybe they’d pace themselves out a bit more and we could do something to improve Irish nightlife as opposed to restrict it even more.

The people who showed up to the peaceful protest today were not pilled up ravers, nor were they drunks as the government might have us believe. They were nightclub industry professionals, promoters, DJs, publicans and so on concerned about job losses and indignant at what appears to many to be a very shortsighted move. The protest was organised by Give Us the Night whose page you can check out here. Speeches were given highlighting the gaping holes in the bill’s plans and DJ Tukai (Sp?!) entertained those in attendance with a mix of hip-hop, dub, soul and reggae. These folks were not the kind of people you see beating the brains out of one another on George’s St of a Friday, nor were they the kind of people you’d see puking on shop fronts. We are not louts, or hooligans or whatever the people in the Dail care to label us. We simply want to save our night and expand our night lives in terms of creativity and originality.

If you feel strongly about this, or even just mildly miffed at the prospect of an earlier bedtime, PLEASE follow this link and sign the petition. It’ll only take a minute and may help stop the backwards thinking of our current government.

Part of the Weekend Never Dies

Bank holiday weekends are always good for gigs and this one was no exception; in fact, dance music fans in particular were spoiled for choice over the past few days with Villalobos, Dr. Lecktroluv, Cassius, MSTRKRFT and Soulwax all bringing their shows to town, not to mention the Dubstep/D’n’B/techno extravaganza that was Sibin taking place in Balbriggan on Saturday. While I realize it’s physically impossible to be in two places at the one time, I did make a good effort, getting to four gigs over the space of four days. Read all about it here…

Repping for club nights is a pretty sweet gig. Not so much the forcing flyers on people bit but rather the free gigs in exchange for sticking up posters part of the deal. My friend (whose identity I shall veil thinly by using the pseudonym Grain) and I, having been reps for a popular Wednesday night for quite a while now and tiring of being ill-treated by the bouncers in its host venue decided not to change allegiances entirely but to “expand” our promotion whorieness to bigging up Mr. Jones as well, tempted by the promise of free Electric Picnic tickets at the end of the summer.

Our first gig involved looking after Junior Boys when they played the Pod last Thursday. Upon arrival at around midnight, we wondered if the venue was open yet, as things looked deathly quiet. The turn out was underwhelming to say the least. In fact, there couldn’t have been more than 60 people there… Promotion for this gig was not the best, and it is exam season after all.

At least that’s the excuse we used when trying to explain to Matt and Jeremy why there were so few people on the floor in front of them… The boys were nay impressed. Having said that, they spun a great mix with Matt starting things off with a techno set before Jeremy moved onto a bit more house and disco. Having played a live set to what they described as an “awesome” crowd in Whelan’s last year, Thursday night was not exactly what they were expecting. Despite this, some friends of mine did earn the title of “Dance Nazis” from the boys in their attempts to fill the floor with their moves!

So what to do when there are no crazy after-parties to go to?, Well, if you’re Grain you bring the Junior Boys back to a grimy student house in Ranelagh for a few smokes and some wine picked up in a dodgy Indian restaurant… Crazy times… cough. Needless to say, the boys who rent the house and the few other stragglers at the party were slightly bemused when Matt decided to play some Booka Shade on youtube while broadcasting the fact that these boys are his “homies” and that Richie (Hawtin) and he are “tight”. The name-dropping did not go down well alas but Grain is quite sure the “guests” enjoyed themselves, even if chilling with students is not the usual thing for big names DJs to do of a Thursday!

Variety being the spice of life, I ended up at Jamie Lidell on Saturday. This was a complete spur of the moment gig, but what a gig it was. Having been offered a ticket at the last minute, I moseyed on over to the Academy not really knowing what to expect. Lidell appeared on stage shortly after nine, bounding on to play a live set with his band. Soulful and danceworthy with a heavy dose of funk, Lidell’s songs warmed the crowd up nicely for the DJ set/beat-boxing/crazy dancing performance that was to follow. As a performer Lidell is charismatic and full of energy with a superb singing voice to boot. While his sound is most certainly commercial, he (and his band) spice up the live show enough that he appeals to fans of a whole range of genres. He delivered an extremely impressive and varied performance that had us dancing from start to finish. A definite recommendation.

Sunday night was back to back fun. The evening kicked off with Radio Soulwax/2manydjs at Dublin Castle. The combination of beautiful weather, excellent surroundings and an act that never fail to impress made for a wonderful kick off to an evening of dancing. This was my third time seeing 2manydjs in the past year, but as always they were great, and equally so playing their nite versions live. Here’s a peek at them playing their remix of LCD Soundsytem’s ‘Get Innocuous” [youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUzEVFdI_q8&feature=related]

Unfortunately licensing laws cut the show off at 10.30 much to the dismay of many wanting to continue the festivities but having taken this into account in advance we made our way onwards to Spy where MSTRKRFT and Gui Boratto were both spinning the tunes.

MSTRKRFT played the Black Room upstairs while Gui pumped minimal in the darker depths of Wax. I spent most of night upstairs in the sweaty surroundings of Spy. Hotter than ever, entering the upstairs room was literally like walking into a steam room. Sounds unpleasant but the heat really was unbearable, even more so than usual. So much so in fact that by the end of the night a lot of people had left. Silly, silly folk… Having persevered, despite the heat we were glad to hear that 2manydjs (presumably having enjoyed themselves at Dublin Castle) decided to roll on up to Spy where they played another set to a group of contented customers. I do get the impression that very few people actually realized that the boys who’d just stepped in to DJ were in fact the Belgians themselves but you can’t really complain when you’ve got that many quality acts under the one roof on the one night.

The music in Spy on Sunday was really top notch, an excellent mix of quality electro, cheesy pop and random 90s dance hits to cater to everyone’s tastes, with minimal just a staircase away if that’s what you were looking for. This song has been on constant repeat in my head ever since in fact, thanks to MSTRKRFT.

All in all, it was a pretty hectic weekend but worth it all the same. Roll on post exam craziness over the June Bank Holiday weekend. See y’all out and about!

Shameless Promotions R’ Us Part 2

Do you ever spend your Saturdays lounging aimlessly, doing nothing with your day?

Do you ever wish you could be spending this time doing something productive, creative even? You know, maybe see a few bands, partake in the creation of spontaneous art?

Well if the answer to any of the above questions is yes, then read on ‘cos Trinity D.A.S., a bunch of other people and the boys at the Bernard Shaw have just the thing for you…

A Bunch of People Present “A Happening” at Toejam at The Bernard Shaw 5th April starting at 4pm. Free entry.

Wikipedia says “A happening is a performance, event or situation meant to be considered as art. Happenings take place anywhere, are often multi-disciplinary, often lack a narrative and frequently seek to involve the audience in some way. Key elements of happenings are planned, but artists sometimes retain room for improvisation.”

What we are doing is a 21st Century version of what these spontaneous Happenings of the 1960s and bringing back the spirit of collectively creating an event based on the content of those attending.

This means, to begin with everyone receives a postcard on entry which they can draw on, modify etc in any way they like and then add this to the wall together with everyone else’s to form a unique piece of work formed by all present.

Following on from that, there will instillations of computer paper art, and new music videos by a selection of talented young directors. Then there will be interactive music and visuals which everyone can have a go with.

Then throughout the day while you lounge on bean bags, surrounded by lava lamps there will be live visuals, Fluxus art instillations and Live Music from….

Lomelindi (Live)

P.Dog (Live)

Roberto Pugliese (Live and Interactive Music and Visuals)

Attencton Bebe (acoustic covers of 90s dance hits)

The Sam Kavanagh Ensemble (Gypsy music 3 piece)

Plus many more

Followed by the A$$QUAKE boys ’til late

Technologique

There are certain things you tend to associate with the French. Cutting edge music is not one of them. Or at least it wasn’t up until quite recently. Things look set to change, however, as France continues to dish up the newest and most exciting acts in the field of electronic music today. Looking at the lists of breakthrough dance acts of 2007, it’s difficult to ignore the predominantly gallic theme that’s overtaken clubland in the past 12 months. Tunes such as DJ Mehdi’s I am Somebody and SebastiAn’s Walkman have gained considerable play in clubs across the world while Justice’s D.A.N.C.E. not only enjoyed huge commercial success but was also remixed by dance maestros MSTRKRFT. If that doesn’t spell success, then I don’t know what does.

This is not an entirely new thing. France is, after all, home to Daft Punk, arguably of the biggest and most influential dance acts in the world and a group who are responsible at least in part for the huge rock/electronic crossover phenomenon of today. We must not forget Cassius or Alan Braxe either who have been producing funky house since the mid 1990s. Asides from them however, most people would have been hard pressed to come up with many other groundbreaking French artists had you asked them a year or two ago. Oh how things have changed!

Walk into any club tonight and you will more than likely hear the sounds of one of the Ed Banger crew pumping from the sound system. Frenzied yet melodic, funky but with a healthy dose of grit, today’s french electro is noisy, brazen and in your face. Characterised by ear splitting treble, tight edits and 80s glitz, the dance music of today is unmistakably gallic and undeniably cool.

Sick of big name DJs spinning shit tunes to crowds of people too mashed off their faces to even notice, the French have taken matters into their own hands and the result has changed the sound of dancefloors worldwide. A far cry from the four-on-the-floor house and techno of yore, today’s electro is considerably more innovative, drawing influences from rock, metal, hip hop and funk. The result? A sound that is uniquely french and extremely cool. The difference between the Ed Banger crew and superstar dance acts of the nineties is that this lot really don’t give a fuck. The label is their own and thus the artists have little by way of creative restrictions. In fact, they have none. Pedro Winters, AKA Busy P, founded the label in 2003 with the aim of creating the type of music that he himself wanted to hear when he went out. Long time manager of Daft Punk, Winters felt that electronic music had lost the plot a bit somewhere along the way and wanted to reinstate the fun, the noise and the colour in dance culture. He has been successful in doing so. Boasting acts such as Justice, Mr.Oizo, SebastiAn, Uffie and Feadz, Ed Banger is home to some of the biggest rising stars of today. And it’s not just the ravers who are taking notice. Indie kids, perhaps bored by the increasingly homogenised rock scene have started turning to electronic music, kicking off their converse in favour of high top fluoro trainers and finally learning to dance. This movement, dubbed “Rock ‘n’ Rave” by mixmag, is lead by DJs such as Erol Alkan, a fan of the Ed Banger lot since the very beginning. Alkan himself readily admits that his roots lie in the world of indie, and notes that today’s generation can’t relate to the rave culture of the nineties, as they simply weren’t there. This is where Busy P et al come in. Having grown up around trash metal themselves, they are now producing a bizarrely danceable type of cacophony, never heard before in clubs or indeed anywhere else.

The Ed Banger crew are innovative in that they are fusing genres which have traditionally been considered at opposite ends of the musical spectrum, and therefore creating a sound that is utterly unique. Fancy a bit of disco metal? Try Rainbow Man by Busy P. Feel like a little electro-hop? Check out Uffie and her mates TTC. Their music is recklessly fun, sticking two fingers up at the corporatisation of dance music and as such giving a voice to youth culture. Clubbers are tired of hearing the same thing over and over again. So are DJs. The music coming from France is now remedying this fatigue as dance music is returning to what it was originally supposed to be; music you can shake your thang to.

The strange thing about this gallic movement is that the French themselves are taking very little notice of it. Despite the fact that the Ed Banger and Kitsuné collectives are getting people dancing again on this side of Europe and indeed across the pond in the US, the French themselves are remaining unusually blasé about the whole thing. The reaction of both the French press and public towards their new wave of superstar DJs has been surprisingly lukewarm and the majority of Ed Banger’s parties are held outside of their homeland. Not that they’ve much to worry about though, having received extremely positive feedback from fans and critics alike in the press and in internet forums in recent times. These guys seem are on to a good thing and show no signs of packing up soon. With most of their artists due to release something in 2008 and their live shows gaining quite a reputation amongst today’s generation of clubbers, it seems these these guys have cracked the code and brought dance music back to its roots. They are making noise funky again, making sweat drip from the ceilings of clubs all over the world and amazingly, not taking themselves to seriously while doing so. Having already made their mark on the club scene in 2007, the French show no signs of retreating and luckily so. Clubs would be a hell of a lot duller without them.

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