Austrian Filter House – Auf Babent (spoof)
WOW WOW WOW… Ihren Tuba macht sehr poomppoomp! Can’t wait to hear the latest!
This kind of reminds me of the time I interviewed Booka Shade for Spinner, not gonna lie. Ok, it reminds me a lot even.
Dalai Lama speaks at PTTOW
So this is a weird one. PTTOW, an innovative invite-only marketing conference a la TED TALKS invited the Dalai Lama to speak in 2011 and thought it would be “cool” to have Will.I.Am get up and ask a question. Eventually it didn’t work out and I couldn’t be happier. The idea of a clown like him having any audience with His Holiness blows me away. The fact that he was invited to speak at a marketing conference when buddhism preaches detachment from personal possessions is even stranger, but I do believe that marketing, at it’s core, is driven by a want to improve our lives, which does resonate with the four precepts. Quiksilver sonsored pro surfer Kelly Slater’s question and it’s subsequent answer is genuinely cute, although struggles to find relevancy with the wise one.
The New Model
Futurecop! – Atlantis 1997
FUTURECOP! – “ATLANTIS 1997 feat. Cavaliers of Fun” OFFICIAL VIDEO from Ariel Belziti
Futurecop! are an awesome newish group that summon the 80s with He-man’s power of Grayskull, Lion-O’s Sight Beyond Sight, the Care Bear Stare-down, and a shit load of LSD-25. I am particularly affected by this vid because it features the Aliens series capsule toys that I collected when I lived in Asia.
The group is made up of Manzur Iqbal and Pete Carrol, and their work has appeared on Souther Fried and IHEARTCOMIX labels, with support from Annie Mac, Noisey, Crystal Castles and Diplo. Not a bad circle of friends there. The new album ‘Hopes, Dreams and Alienation’ comes out soon.
They’ve only got 15,000 fans on Facebook, so why not give ’em some more love!
Debian Blak – Aaliyah remixes
Trap music and phuture r&b probably wouldn’t be as successful if it weren’t for pop icons like Aaliyah and Salt n Pepa for them to draw upon. Debian Blak mixes up some housey 2-step, and a light dusting of hungover sloths mating with sea lion vocals that are seem to be ripped off of the XX. Sarcasm doesn’t mean I don’t like it. Cuz I do. Really. The ‘Chemistry’ remix is one of the best I’ve heard and is a sure fire panty dismantler for the dance floor.
The press release below has more stimulation for your corneas.
“In an exciting era for British electronic music creativity, Debian Blak holds his own as one of the emerging artists to watch. His diverse portfolio of work to date influences his current output and results in a fresh sound.” – RESIDENT ADVISOR
AUDIO DOUGHNUTS’ latest signing, DEBIAN BLAK, readies his much anticipated ‘Six Months From Mars EP’ for them featuring four original tracks with vocal collaborations from NEO JOSHUA and MT. WOLF’S (one of CLASH MAGAZINE’S 2013 bands to watch) lead vocalist KATE WOLF. To celebrate his partnership with the label he is giving away his three track concept EP – ‘Debian Blak x Aaliyah’ which is now available to download and share.
The three songs are a bootleg rework project dedicated to one of his favorite 90’s musicians – the departed RnB superstar, AALIYAH. Re-interpreting her music, Debian set out to re-build her songs as if he had originally produced the material today, taking them in a new previously unheard direction.
Full details of Debian’s ‘Six Months From Mars EP’ out on Audio Doughnuts will become available in the coming weeks. To get a preview of what the EP has to offer, Debian will be performing a live set at The Albany, Great Portland Street Saturday 23rd March with limited guest list available.
Andy Stott gets dark and danceable at Foundry – BlogTO
If Andy Stott is the future, then the future is dark. Very dark. The celebrated producer of 2012’s sleeper hit album, Luxury Problems played at Mansion’s Foundry series in the Blk Box Theatre, beneath the Great Hall on Saturday night.
His set was a technical exploration of negative space in sounds found in the more recent ‘knackered house’ trend that seems to have skipped over to our shores. It’s a term Stott helped define, and that comprises first generation dubstep sounds (the dark and moody stuff that had no radio presence outside of UK pirate radio) that’s manipulated into techno, industrial, and a skeletal drum and bass.
Andy’s genius is that he’s managed to select stripped down tunes that keep everything but their basic rhythmic elements, yet still kept your body shaking with the repetitive metal clicks, clanks, and shuffley dungeon sounds.
Like most kinks and S&M perversions, there was an innate cerebral appeal to Stott’s music that had the full house spontaneoulsy roaring for more. What was so amazing was that he managed to make something so minimal and devoid of colour into something so incredibly addictive and danceable. In our true nature, we must all be nihilistic, recession-wallowing zombies to make us crave these primal rickety beats.
Photos by Alejandro Santiago
Jimmy’s Coffee Grinds New Life Into Kens. Market Location – BlogTO
Jimmy’s Coffee has emerged from the spent ashes of the Hot Box Café at 191 Baldwin St. in Kensington Market, joining the original and very popular location on Portland.
Walking in, you’re greeted with a portico type space with outside benches that will either be used by Jimmy’s patrons, market regulars, or pot-heads protesting the change in tenant… if their memories serve them well enough (Abbie Roach has since reopened the Hot Box Café just down the street on Augusta.) Reclaimed wood tables, baroque metal tiling, and a working gas fireplace decorate the new space, giving it a bit of a regal atmosphere. After a working trip to Seattle owner Phil Morrison decided to go with an industrial living room vibe. The back area has book cases filled with leather-bound tomes ranging from the Encyclopedia Britannica to Yves Naud’s quirky four part “UFOs and Extraterrestrials” series.
My double shot 12 oz. mocha ($4.00, available from 8-12 oz) was measured at an optimal sweetness with subtle salty undertones from the cocoa powder poured overtop, which blended with the steamed milk to create an opulent tapestry of brown flecks. They actually reminded me of local artist Mango Peeler’s murky coloured oil projections.
Warm, and creamy steamed ciders were just the right sensory experience for a chilly March day. I guess you can steam any drink with the right kind of espresso set-up and barista on hand. Jimmy’s will soon be stocking chemex pour over pots and French press plungers. The owners have a strict agenda not to alienate the drip coffee lovers. The dark brew was nutty and earthy with sweet undertones, while the medium was sweet nutty and winey — both equally distinctive ($2.25, minus .25c if you bring your own mug).
Treats from OMG Baked Goodness on Dundas W specialize in the innovative and surreal, like the stuffed breakfast hoagie ($3.50), a ciabatta bun filled with cheesy scrambled eggs, and the home made pop tart ($3.50), a strawberry turnover coated with white frosting and rainbow sprinkles, warmed up under the espresso machine hood, an old trade secret. Their moist vegan mini-cupcakes ($1.50) are also on-hand.
The infamous Hot Box Cafe back patio has been preserved and a skylight has been added, gloriously flooding the space with vitamin D-rich light on sunny days. Trellises have been installed and patio furniture will soon be brought in. If you ever visited the former location’s washrooms you’d probably remember how bad they were, but miracles have been worked and they’ve been restored to full functionality with a modern European home aesthetic.
Hanging out at the café at the time of my visit were a pair of young blonde German work-abroad travelers, one who had just landed via New Zealand. Carina was ecstatic that the Jimmy’s team had crafted a flag from her former home on her latte. So you can expect the same service and community involvement already on offer at their Portland location. Now with even more space, Jimmy’s could very well be an open concept venue for local artists and performers. Stay tuned.
Additional Photos
Photos by Jesse Milns
Birdman and Lil Wayne to Release Teen Novel from Daughters Bria and Reginae
FROM THE PRESS RELEASE (Yes, this is fucking real, and yes, it’s bound to be a page turner for “teens and young adults everywhere” LEAN INTO IT BIATCHES)
March 11, 2013 – New York, NY – Bria Williams and Reginae Carter will make their literary debut with the release of “Paparazzi Princesses” on June 4, 2013 .
The 14-year-old daughters of Cash Money Records co-founder Bryan “Birdman” Williams aka “Baby” and Grammy Award-winning rap superstar Dwayne “Lil Wayne” Carter, respectively, teamed up to pen this fictitious narrative of the adventures of two teen girls. The book is available through Cash Money Content books, the publishing arm of premier record label Cash Money Records.
These young women know the perks and disadvantages of being raised in the spotlight better than anybody, and they fashion their experiences into an engaging and heartfelt narrative. They may have seen what’s behind the curtain at every red carpet event and backstage, but they’re no different than any other girls their age.
Now, instead of relying on Instagram and Twitter as most of their peers do, their story is told in their new novel “Paparazzi Princess” through the characters of Kyla Jones and Promise Walker. On their journey to becoming their own women, the novel’s main characters face their parent’s high expectations, the pitfalls of being “unintentionally famous,” and, most crucially, the trials and tribulations of
high school, homework, crushes, and friendship that everyone goes through. A collaboration with author Karyn Langhorne Folan,
it’s bound to be a page-turner for teens and young adults everywhere.
About “Paparazzi Princesses,” Birdman proudly exclaims, “There’s no better feeling than watching Bria and Reginae make this dream come true. They took an idea, worked extremely hard, and brought it to life. It’s the kind of story that everybody can feel, and it’s only the start of much bigger things for these two wonderful young ladies.”
Lil Wayne echoes his excitement, “I’ve got to be honest. It’s inspiring to see what these girls have done. It wasn’t easy, and they did it all by themselves. ‘Proud’ doesn’t even begin to describe how me and the ‘Birdman’ feel. I can’t wait for everybody else to experience their story.”
Make way for the arrival of “Paparazzi Princesses.”
Maetta Vibrations – DJ Flim
Don’t touch that dial, it’s got FLIM on it! Toronto via Thailand, with a skip in Montreal, now living it up in Nice on the Côte D’Azure, Flim is a friendly dreadlocked face from the land of smiles.
Flim’s so excited about his Belladonna – Scan X remix release in May (along with another by Thai screen and techno star Montonn Jira and HDRX), that he’s channeled all that nervous energy (and some previews) into this bangin and uplifting techno set. He calls it “a mix of cross over styles in techno and tech house that starts off with a soft intro followed by some funky electro beats that builds up to some tribal tech house and melodic techno.”
www.flimsound.com
www.facebook.com/flimsound
Track Listing
1. Alexander Metzger – Luna Intro (Armstrong Mix) – Butcher Music
2. Victor Ruiz, Alex Stein – Generation (Original Mix) – Sprout
3. Julian Jeweil – Cube (Original Mix) – Gastspiel Records
4. Claude VonStrok – Turbosteppa (Original Mix) – dirtybird
5. Joey Beltram, Joseph Capriati – Slice 2010 (Joseph Capriati Remix) – Bush Records
6. Matt Minimal – Le Tunnel (Original Mix) – binary404.com
7. Phunk Investigation – Tribal Zone (Original Mix) – Miniaturesrecords
8. James Harcourt, Popof – Unpleasant Surprise (Popof Remix) – Recovery Tech
9. Laurent Garnier – Jacques In The Box (feat. The L.B.S. Crew) (Original Mix) – Ed Banger Records
10. Dema, Axel (IT), Hollen – Voxal (Hollen Remix) – Alleanza
11. FLIM, Scan X – Belladonna (Scan X Remix) – Maetta (Release May9th 2013)
12. Christian Cambas, Spektre, Uto Karem – Rebel Without A Cause (Uto Karem Groove Mix) – Incorrect Music
13. Dema, Axel (IT), Maverickz – Boxer (Maverickz Remix) – BluFin
14. Spektre – Lexicon Lost (Original Mix) – 1605
15. FLIM – Hanuman (Original Mix) – Xetechno
16. FLEX, Spiros Kaloumenos – Cardiobase (Spiros Kaloumenos Remix) – Focus Records
17. Christopher Kah,The Hacker – Revolution 909 (Remix By The Hacker) – The RedHotHell
18. FLIM, Montonn Jira – Belladonna ( Montonn Jira Remix ) – MaettaRelease (May9th 2013)
19. Martin Landsky, Laurent Garnier – 1000 miles (Laurent Garnier Remix) – Poker Flat Recordings
20. Modeselektor,Trentemoller – The White Flash feat. Thom Yorke (Trentemoller Remix) – In My Room
The Toronto Symphony Orchestra dabbles in trip-hop w/ Mason Bates @ New Creations Fest. – BlogTO
The Toronto Symphony Orchestra dabbles in trip-hop
Posted by Jesse Ship / MARCH 6, 2013
Along with cultural institutions like the ROM and the AGO, the TSO (Toronto Symphony Orchestra) is seeing a bit of a renaissance in the under 35 demographic with their TSOundcheck discounted ticketsfor as low as $7, but also with the New Creations Festival, a celebration of contemporary classical and new music. Their programming, for instance, will have a violin concerto composed by Owen Pallett of Final Fantasy. While it’s too bad that he won’t be part of the orchestra himself, soloist Pekka Kuusisto will be performing, and Owen will be DJing the after party in the Roy Thomson Hall Lobby on Thursday March 7.
Saturday saw resident Chicago Symphony composer and trip-hop DJ, Mason Bates/DJ Masonic perform his electronic infused energy symphony “Alternative Energy” where he assisted from within the orchestra pit with an M-Audio pad and laptop. It was incredibly refreshing speaking with someone whose passion for Debussy’s arrangements matched his love for beats produced by Portishead or Squarepusher. I chatted with him about the festival and
So how does it feel to be part of the TSO’s New Creations Festival?
This is my second time actually. I did a piece called “Liquid Interface” at the New Creations Festival a few years ago, which was a water symphony. I find this festival to be incredible. They bring huge symphonic pieces to Toronto, that on their own would be a big deal just by virtue of being played but they’re doing three or four new pieces per concert. I think it’s phenomenal, and the orchestra is incredible; the first rehearsal was dead on.
This is the kind of festival that I wish American orchestras would look to. You certainly have orchestras that play a great deal of New music like in San Francisco, but doing a festival of all new music is pretty incredible. It will not only benefit the field but the orchestra too.
Toronto has been experiencing a trend where cultural hot spots like the ROM or AGO with their First Thursdays are trying to bring in a younger audience; do you feel this is a North American trend?
I think we’re trying to do it, more at museums than at symphonies, but it is happening. I do a lot with the Chicago Symphony and we do Monday night series called Music Now where about 800 people show up to see contemporary classical music. I think one of the reasons it’s become such a go-to event for people who are traditionally seen as an outside of symphonic audience is because the presentation and format is more imaginative. The program notes are all video, and we have trippy lighting with pre and post party DJing. I think it’s happening a little bit, bit by bit. I’m of the belief that it can happen more but it has to be done the right way because you can’t just throw a desperate party together and assume that people are going to come.
When did you start integrating electronic music into your symphonic music?
It was like parallel lives for a while where I’d be writing a piece for the Phoenix Symphony and then going out to San Francisco to spin a set of downtempo and abstract beats. I remember being at some of those dj gigs when youre there playing for three to four hours and you have time to think like, ‘Why cant I have more symphonic sounds with this set, or vice versa, more electronica?’ So I wrote a piece for the Los Angeles Philharmonic called “Omnivorous Furniture” which was my first electro-acoustic piece and since then I’ve written half acoustic, half electronic pieces.
What kind of gear do you use when you perform?
I keep the amount of gear I use when I perform pretty simple. When im actually making the sounds and designing the whole thing there’s a lot more in the studio. But live, the main goal is to keep everything working together. At its simplest, I’ll have the sounds locked into my M-Audio padded like percussion but when it gets more complex, there are some passages where I trigger stuff that rolls with the orchestra, and there’s tempo warping, and stuff like that. But you have to be careful with that sort of thing because the orchestra is like an ocean liner. It doesn’t really turn very quickly, so things like locking in beats is more complex than you’d think.
Your piece “Alternative Energy” is broken into four movements. Can you talk about them?
Debussy’s “La Mer” was a water symphony from the 19th century, or Berlioz’s “Symphonie Fantastique” was an opium-infused love story. I’ve always loved symphonic pieces that work on a narrative level because it takes you to a different space, psychologically in the concert hall.
“Alternative Energy” is an ‘energy’ symphony that travels through a huge variety of propulsive and mechanistic story elements from a down home blues level like a junk yard through to the present day with samples of actual energy facilities. And then an imaginative, almost indigenous space is created for the future. Each movement moves 100 years into the future.
The first movement has actual junkyard field recordings, and I actually got to go to the Fermilab to record. The next two movements take us to a near future China, and a post-apocalyptic Iceland that has become a hot island with just a few indigenous people running around. The idea is to tell the story symphonically, so you want to have awesome sounds and imaginative textures. I love to graft that to a narrative because ti allows for a wider emotional exploration.
You mentioned that you were at the Fermilab particle accelerator outside of Chicago. Can you tell me more about what it was like there?
It’s a massive facility. It’s so big that you can’t ever see all of it. I went to record sounds of the accelerator that runs atoms in a four-mile loop.They drove me around and let me record parts of the machine, which became the sound source for that movement of the piece.
Was it hard to get clearance?
Yes, but when I told them I was from the Chicago Symphony, I got a reaction similar to a few years ago when I went to record at NASA. Scientists are generally partial to the arts. They are creative and imaginative types who love the arts and love to have their field included in it. So they said absolutely. It was borderline bizarre because they drove me around in these cars and everyone there had been briefed on the importance of helping me find these sounds, and they were all very helpful, but I figured they probably had more important things to do that day.
Was everyone wearing the white Hazmat suits?
There was a radioactive area, but they were like, “oh don’t worry, it’s on the other side of this wall” haha. It’s wild because it kind of looks like 80s technology, all these old panels with patch cords. It achieves by brute force what it needs to do, compared to CERN in Switzerland which is much tighter and more compact. I think it was built in the 80s too, so it still has that retro vibe.
The next installment of the New Creations Festival takes place Thursday, March 7th and features Owen Pallett’s Violin Concerto as inspired by the solo violin music of Bach.
Photos from the TSO’s Flickr page and Josh Clavir
