Ping. Pong.

Apple’s annual music-focused event on September 1st saw a refreshed line of iPods (including a multitouch iPod Nano) and a major update of iTunes (version 10), which now includes Ping – probably the biggest announcement at the event, and another player in the Social Network game.  So let’s break this down into opportunities vs opportunities missed. (more…)

Still existing on another plane.

Over 1 year after the intial Hurricane album release, Grace Jones releases the 3rd single: “Love You To Life” (live performance below).  The video – apparently influenced by her live performance of the song during the tour – has been co-directed by Why Not Associates and light artist Chris Levine, and is another outstanding piece of visual art which follows on nicely from the disturbingly warped Corporate Cannibal.

The collaboration between Grace Jones and Chris Levine went further with an exhibition titled “Stillness at the Speed of Light”, held at The Vinyl Factory in London.  A hallucinating collection of footage from the Love You To Life video has also been created (view here),  and for the first time, the Hurricane album has been pressed onto vinyl in a limited edition package available for £300.  I’m open to receiving this as a gift.

Also see: Guardian UK interviews Grace Jones, April 2010.
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Weekly Wrap: Where to from here?

Another chapter in the Massive Attack Heligoland video series is released: John Downer directs “Psyche” with Martina Topley-Bird on vocals (watch below / youtube / Massive Attack site) ¶ Manuel Tur is the latest to guest on the Bodytonic podcast featuring Pepe Bradock, a Matthew Herbert remix of Bjork and the Motorbass remix of Daft Punk’s “Around the world”.  ¶ Grace Jones‘ Hurricane album lives on with the release of single “Love you to life”, delivered by label Wall Of Sound with various remixes, but it’s the Dub Version that wins, taking the original and spacing it out with reverberations in true dub-style. ¶ Josh Wink is currently on tour to celebrate 15 years of Ovum Records – quite an accomplishment considering the current state of the music industry.  A new 60-minute DJ Times set from Josh is available here and is yet another fine example of what a house set should be.  Meanwhile, his first remix in well over a 12 months (possibly longer) is rumored to be for Gorillaz… this should be an interesting combination.  The animated band’s new video due for release on June 15, so hope to see the remix soon after.   (more…)

Weekly Wrap: Fire & Smoke.

Short and sweet (unlike the actual week)… new photos added to various galleries, available for viewing here. ¶ Long live vinyl! Record store day took place on April 17th; see the official site. ¶ The world’s first street art disaster movie: Banksy’s movie starts screening over the next few weeks in a small number of theatres in the USA, hopefully a wider (worldwide?) release soon. ¶ Is anyone else worried about the increased number of natural disasters lately? Numerous earthquakes, Iceland’s volcanic eruptions cripple air travel across the UK (currently in it’s 4th consecutive day), and massive fireballs in the sky. Is the end near?

Musically: re-visiting Sven Weisemann’s Xine project.  Xine Rising is modern classical / ambient / house music to zone out to. ¶ Hollie Smith at Sale Street on Wednesday was an interesting event; read more here ¶ Looking forward to The Black Dog album “Music For Real Airports”.  Interactive artist Human have created the following teaser: (more…)

Artistic Contrasts.

Hollie Smith, back on the road, showcasing “Humour and the Misfortune of others” at Sales St on Wednesday 14th April.  If I had to pick one word to describe it: contrast.

It’s well known by now that Humour is a massive departure from her debut in terms of mood and style.  Both are philisophical and show extraordinary depth and talent for someone of her age, but the cathartic and intense nature of Humour is a million miles away from the laid back Long Player. Contrast. (more…)

Malcolm McLaren (1946-2010). RIP.

Where do you start with someone like Malcolm McLaren? Former manager of The Sex Pistols, Adam Ant, Bow Wow Wow; once married to Vivienne Westwood (the designer responsible for the shoes that floored Naomi Campbell); and musically he was involved in a wide range of styles, including punk, hip-hop, new wave, funk, electronic, disco and opera. (more…)

Crash Test.

We live in a world of information flashes and snippets. Twitter wants you to deliver your momentary story in under 140 characters. 30 second advertisements lose your attention. MP3’s are the standard music delivery format. Give me that song, download quickly, smallest file possible, fit more on my music device.
For those who aren’t aware of how MP3’s work: the music is compressed by essentially “removing” sound that you don’t (think) you hear.  Much in the same way that that was a thorough, accurate and complete explanation of the MP3 format, MP3’s deliver a thorough, accurate and complete representation of a properly produced piece of music.   If listening to a brand new vinyl record on a high-quality sound system is your peripheral vision, MP3’s are you stuck in a strangers low-light basement with blinders on.  You can still see, you just can’t see everything.

This is my long-winded way of telling you that Martin Buttrich’s debut album, “Crash Test”, is your aural peripheral vision… (more…)

Weekly Wrap: Brought to you by the letter B.

What a musical month March was… The Miami Winter Music Conference once again saw DJ’s & Producers from around the world come together to party and showcase, well, something.  So far, lots of interviews – including Seth Troxler on drugs and umm, bats (“bats! fucking bats!”) - but as of yet it has failed to deliver “this year’s hottest track” – unless I’ve completely missed the announcements, which is possible considering I’ve been swept away with a fantastic Massive Attack concert [review] plus new albums from Hollie Smith [my review @ Amplifier] and Erykah Badu [review] … My hits, misses and other moments from the past week or so: (more…)