Amazing what an entire day and 1/2 of no server can do!! Sorry we disappeared for as long as we did, but we’ve had a rebirth so now it’s back to catching up with all that is swarming!
To celebrate all things Ladyhawke, we’ve got her latest track, “Paris is Burning“, remixed by Alex Gopher. Another gorgeous track to come from the lovely 80’s influenced electro-pop New Zealander!
A music-obsessed child, Pip Brown, aka Ladyhawke, was inspired by women of the 1980’s – Stevie Nicks, Pat Benatar, Annie Lennox, Chrissie Amphlett et al. Prior to Ladyhawke, Pip played lead guitar in a rock band called, ‘Two Lane Blacktop’. She spent loads of time touring New Zealand and Australia, in the back of a clapped out van. They even made it to NYC and played CBGB’s. So it was only fitting that, “Back of the Van”, came about.
The first single, “Paris Is Burning“, will be released on Modular, 30th June, available on CD, 7″and download, accompanied by remixes from Alex Gopher, Kid Gloves and Peaches. The forthcoming debut album follows close behind, due late summer. Ladyhawke is playing heaps of shows across the U.K. with her touring band and set to play two shows at Glastonbury! Catch her along the way!
Tidbit on Alex Gopher – Besides having once played in a band called, ‘Orange’, with the likes of Etienne de Crécy and both members of the band, Air, Alex Gopher was once asked to create three tracks for the designer Yves St. Laurent’s catwalk show!! tré cool.
I first caught light of Londoner, Hugh Frost aka, Sportsday Megaphone, off his friend Nic Nell’s page as well as past features on Big Stereo and BiBaBiDi. His remix of Envelopes, “Party”, was a pleasant surprise. Who doesn’t like a good party?! This one was full of his trademark bleeps and blips!
His latest tune, “LA“, showcases his talent for creating a song heavy in lyrics, yet maintains a catchy, pop feel. Love the intro. “LA is about the inhuman philosophy toward people with mental illness advocated by the church of Scientology. It was written about the time I spent working in LA for American Apparel at their factory downtown”, says SM. Not your typical first thoughts whilst thinking of the city of sun and dazzle.
As for “Young Lust“, SM says, “It’s about not seeing someone for ages and meeting somewhere, (in this case a borrowed house) and making a mess and not caring – that kind of thing!” You don’t have to convince us, we’re cool with making a mess and forgetting our manners, especially if it’s due to lustful affairs…
Look out for the seven inch single “LA”/”Young Lust”, out 16th June, off Sunday Best, as well as Sportsday Megaphone’s debut LP, ‘So many Colours / So Little Time’, due out in August, loaded with a long list of remixes! For more Sportsday Megaphone, check his remix page, Sportsday Megamix.
UK Live dates + June dates with I WAS A CUB SCOUT coming soon!
MAY 13 / Edinburgh / The Ark / w Envelopes
16 / Brighton / The Great Escape Festival / w Alphabeat
When the iheartcomix/Scion mixtape hit the streets, it was passed around like a fat, freshly rolled spliff. Everyone was smokin’ it and word on the street was that iheartcomix had the goods! With a plethora of sounds to be heard – TheDeathSet, Radioclit, Gameboy/Gamegirl, LA Riots, Flosstradamus, Designer Drugs, Miami Horror, Heartsrevolution, Lies In Disguise, Acid Girls and more, we pretty much felt at one with iheartcomix for delivering. Everyone shared and it was a beautiful thing.
iheartcomix is like the perfect dealer, they keep spreadin’ the love, feedin’ us the bombs, gettin’ us hooked. Just when we think they’re about to let up, they send over, Radioclit’s remix of Matt & Kim’s, “No More Long Years”. The smiley Matt & Kim and the ever so tropical Radioclit. What a combination of love!
For those in the E.U. Matt & Kim are finishing up their U.K. tour, so catch them at a pub/club near you and grab a copy of their record which is out in Europe on Telle Records!
MAY 13 / Beat Club, GLASGOW, SCOTLAND
14 / University of Sheffield Fuzz Club, SHEFFIELD, UK
15 / Great Escape Venue, BRIGHTON, UK
16 / The Luminaire, LONDON, UK
France just doesn’t let up. And if it’s up to the BE TRASH crew, they plan to keep you dancing into the wee hours, wrecking havoc with their energized parties!! There’s no slowing down in this environment – when one of them tires, there’s always another member or guest Dj to bring the speed! Proper electro with a slew of other genres and a bit of scratching is how they like to bang it out!
“Before all things, the BE TRASH collective consisting of Nouch, BootyBen and Mario K, is a group of friends that are extremely passionate about electronic music. With varied styles, we have a common goal: Energy!!
The BE TRASH parties were conceived in Bordeaux, France, in October 2004, in order to fill a gap in the party scene. We came together and assembled a talented pool of Dj’s, graphic and fashion designers, creating a different environment through sound and visuals.
The varying music styles consist of electro, electro-punk, tech-rock, ghetto-drum, happy hard-tech jungle, drum n’ bass, old school dance floor and pretty much anything that gets the floor rockin!! The visuals consist of animations, graffiti, vj’ing, dancers and performers. We are here to make you bounce to death!!!!” – Be Trash crew
Along with keeping the party poppin’, the individual Be Trash members have their hands in producing and remixing as well. Nouch and Booty Ben teamed up to remix NYC artist, Almamy, “Like You Do”, sometime last year, as well as our Swiss friends, Love Motel (feat. Detroit Grand Pubahs), on “Dial God USA”.
If you’re in or around Cognac, France, 29th August, Be Trash will be playing with Data, Teenage Bad Girl, Leonard de Leonard and many more at Cognac Electro Festival. Check their MySpace for details!
KMD likes her sweet treats, and this one is no different my friends. This Chewy Chocolate Cookies Remix of Digitalism’s Idealistic has made my mouth water…yum yum yum…
This remix is so fabulous I urge you to stop what you are doing right now, turn this bangin’ remix up loud and join me in dancing like no-one’s watching.
Who doesn’t need a little added sweetness to their lives? If it’s up to Norway’s Annie, she plans to fill your desires with her sugary sweet pop, then pass her latest, “I Know Ur Girlfriend Hates Me“, off to the Get Shakes boys to turn it into something more than just a sweet, summer tune.
“I Know Ur Girlfriend Hates Me”, is taken from Annie’s forthcoming album “Don’t Stop“, due out this summer. The LP will feature Datarock and Alex Kapranos from Franz Ferdinand and will contain remixes by Feadz and Section. Her debut album, “Anniemal”, (679 Recordings), out in 2004, gave us a taste of what she is made of. Her two hit singles, “Chewing Gum” and a collaboration with Norwegian mates Röyksopp, on “Heartbeat”, keep us at ease.
If you long for a summer drenched in saccharine sounds, Annie will be playing a bunch of festivals, including Glastonbury! Check Annie’s MySpace for details!!
Anything with ’shark’ and ‘zombie’ combined is going to cause my ears to perk. So it was only natural that upon hearing the Vancouver, BC band, I became an instant lover of all that is Fake Shark - Real Zombie! They are just oozing colorful loudness and enough thrash and punk to get anyone into an uproar. The fact that they site Bad Brains as an influence and Henry Rollins is a fan of theirs, instantly makes them my perfect cup of tea!!!!
Fake Shark - Real Zombie’s debut album, “Zebra Zebra”, came out in March and on it, a track called ‘Designer Drugs’. How fitting that it has been remixed by the duo that leaves us with an insatiable thirst for more… Designer Drugs!!!! Have one listen of this and you’re sure to exclaim YESSSSSSS!!
Look out for new remixes from Designer Drugs for Jupiter One, Hearts Revolution and Mission Control, as well an EP or LP sometime in the fall. If you happen to be in MEXICO, the guys are headed down there any day now, playing a few gigs, including one on the 9th May with our lovely blog friends Synthetic Rocks!!!!!! Check their Mi Espacio for full details!!
MARAL SALMASSI is one striking femme. She exudes talent and beauty, combined with a hint of masculinity, giving her a distinct edge in the music she creates and the way she styles herself. Founder of notable techno label, Konsequent Records in ‘97 and new media label, Art of Perception in ‘99, Maral’s past explorations in music have paved the way for what is her most exciting and diverse label to date, Television Rocks.
Born to Maral Salmassi and partner Fabian Stall, Television Rocks, is a platform for both artists solo projects. Maral has created a sound that she describes as, “funky, playful glamour tech which is more a combination of New York wave disco, old school hip hop and electro and french cut-up hop than Cologne Post-Minimal sounds and styles”.
The momentum for Maral’s sound has been building. Highlighted on notable blogs, Missingtoof, Discodust, iheartcomix, la decadanse and a slew of others, she is giving us a whole lotta reason to be intrigued. Read on as Maral gives us a peek into her collaborations, thoughts on music, inspirations, fashion, Cologne and my absolute favorite place to be, Spain. Keep your eyes and ears peeled for what’s ahead!! Cheers Maral! x
“I’m a DJ, musician and singer currently running the label Television Rocks together with Fabian Stall aka Zero Cash. We started our label in the beginning of 2007 as a result of our lives crossing their paths in many intense ways thinkable. Zero Cash and I live together and have our studios in the same building. We produced a lot together and are currently working on my album. Zero Cash has a long history as a producer for many different bands and projects. He started doing club music as we started with Television Rocks. His style is a blend of techno and electro, more straight and instrumental, but with a rock attitude. My style is more a mash up of all the music I love to dance to, mostly inspired by rocking electro and hip-hop.
I like anything, which has power and attitude: Music like old-school hip-hop and Electro, rock, metal, classic, good pop music, old blues, pompous new US hip-hop productions or traditional music like Magrebian, Gipsy, or Indian music, Also fashion, art, TV and internet are my inspirations. I don’t want to transfer any message with my lyrics, it’s all about fun, my actual mood with a touch of sarcasm in good fun.
I live in Cologne but except the Dom and the Carnival there is nothing spectacular going on in this city. The nightlife in Cologne can be described as a monoculture. Since ages they play the same old boring minimal bullshit in the clubs. Everybody is complaining but they all keep going to these parties, moving like sloths on the dancefloor. The DJ’s keep playing their lullaby and the German press keeps reviewing this stuff as the hottest shit. It’s hopeless! Well but there is one good thing about living in such a boring city: It’s the best place to work!
My favorite places to play are the clubs Stardust and Goa in Madrid at the moment. The Spanish crowd is the craziest and very stylish! Fashion is very important to me. It’s like music, a tool to express yourself individually. A club full of stylish people is a nice place to play, to look at and to hang around…”
This filthy banger remixed by Fukkk Offf swept the blogosphere and left us yearning for more from this collaboration.
Maral Salmassi Official Biography
Maral Salmassi, born on 24th July 1975 in Teheran, first grew up in Persia and later in Jordan. With the fall of the Shah’s regime in 1979, the family was forced to return to Persia and after seven years under the Islamic regime, they managed to escape from a country subverted by the war between Iran and Iraq and settled in Germany in 1986.
Among the many characteristically uncharacteristic Techno protagonists in Cologne, Maral Salmassi is the most uncharacteristic one: nothing in her work refers to the specific Cologne style or can be defined as “made-in-Cologne”. On her early label Konsequent Records for example, there were mainly straight Tool Techno releases in style of Berlin-based Tresor label sounds. Today, Maral produces funky, (more…)
