I have just packed our boy James Holden off to the airport for his weekend ride on the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Wuppertal express: first stop is Pixel at Amsterdam's Trouw club tonight (4th February), which occupies the former newspaper printing warehouse of the Dutch national newspaper Trouw until the end of 2010 as one of those multi-functional restaurant / club / art spaces that the Dutch do so well. The last 300 tickets are still available to buy on the door, so I would get yourself down there early to avoid disappointment:
And in a coincidence that I can only describe as blogworthy, an installation by LA-based artist Richard Wearn (titled simply Trouw) that recently opened at Crisp London has a little more to illuminate about this special party location to the unwitting foreigner (me!). Focusing on the building's sign as the sun sets and the sign is turned on, his 30 minute long dual screen rear projection video (video art - how very Dutch!) is concerned with the traces of utopian mythologies that exist within our urban environment: the word "trouw" means "fidelity", and the newspaper was initially extablished during WWII to counter the Nazi occupation and extermination of Holland's Jewish population.
And just as Wearn is occupied with seeking and highlighting the clues and submerged meanings that exist within the buildings around us, the techno scene too traditionally loves a venue with a bit of history whenever it can get its hands on one, even if the signifigance of that location ends up being lost on a large proportion of their footfall. But thanks to the Wearn installation, James at least has been made aware of the Trouw story in advance of his appearance, lending that little extra spark to proceedings later on tonight...
Just waking up from the Trouw Club party in Amsterdam, I can only say I had the perfect night. I was 1 hour early to get at least one of the 300 doorsale tickets, assuming there would be some queue allready. On the contrary, I got in as the first guest and even for free, met James himself for a brief chat'n hug! If it wasn't perfect enough allready, I got more and more into the dancing mood because of Jom Liefdeshuis' great intro performance, whereafter I could really burst into the feeling when James started to mash up and finally explode the audience for over 2 hours (4 hours of pure joy). Dancing on top of the speakers @ the DJ booth was definitely a highlight, but it wouldn't be so much without the "unanimously happy and enthausiastic" audience. Once again thank you all so much for this evening, it's been a highlight in my dancing career (hobby).
Yrs, Sjors "Yellowsleeve'd dancer"
p.s. If you wrote that XX on my hand, I'm still looking for you (find me: Sjors Doedens on facebk)!!
James at the Catwalk in Rotterdam was also brilliant. Thanks for giving me and my girlfriend an amazing night. I was standing right infront of the dj-booth most of the time enjoying the music and your skills. We will definatly be there when you are in our country again!
Homecoming king Nathan Fake went back to his roots this weekend, with his first proper hometown gig in Norwich's distinctive Arts Centre last Friday. James and I had a prior engagement in Paris so couldn't be there to witness this momentous occasion, but fortunately my glamorous assistant Rosana did make it along, with camera in tow, to bring us a taste of what we all missed (below).
Extremely able support on the night came from fellow Norfucker and Border Community brother Luke Abbott, whilst adopted son Dan Tombs pitched in on visual duties. Luke even spotted someone in the crowd who had plumped for a pair of wellies for their gig-going attire: only in Norfolk, one might think, but I'm guessing it probably had something to do with the recent return of the snows...
Norwich Arts Centre: from the outside it may look like a church, but if you chose to venture inside last Friday night you would have been greeted with this:
Luke making lot of amazing noise while Dan plays with his colours. I wonder if all Friday nights are like this in Norwich?
The tireless Upset The Rhythm certainly know how to bring a smile to my face: just spotted amongst their latest listings is the return of the inimitable Lucky Dragons to London on March 13th. I've been lucky enough to catch them on each of their recent UTR visits, but just incase anyone was worried that more of the same might start to seem less exciting, this time the Dragons will be bringing their funtastic Sumi Ink Club drawing club concept with them, for a special afternoon session starting at 3pm in the Auto-Italia art space in Peckham. From what I can gather, the frankly unmissable Sumi Ink Club session involves placing a large sheet of paper in the middle of the group for participants to fill in with a collage melange of intricate doodles that come out looking something like this:
Or, as they put it themselves:
"Sumi Ink Club is a Los Angeles-based drawing collective founded in 2005 by Sarah Anderson and Luke Fischbeck. The group holds regular open meetings to execute topsy-turvy, detailed, collaborative drawings using ink on paper. In each of its permutations, Sumi Ink Club uses group drawings as a means to open and fortify social interactions that bleed into everyday life. Sumi Ink Club is non-hierarchical: all ages, all humans, all styles."
So you see, you simply must join us by getting your £5 tickets here.
In other Upset The Rhythm news, the sighting of Holden favourites Xeno & Oaklander's names amongst their listings yesterday sent quite a flurry of excitement through the ranks of our local Wierd-os. Our tickets for their appearance alongside labelmates Led Er Est at Barden's Boudoir on 13th April are now secured, and I expect that you will be wanting to do the same here. Excited is not the word. And the Wierd through and through might also be interested to know that sometime Wierdite Carlos Giffoni's excellently-named No Fun Acid project is also set to make an Upset The Rhythm appearance on 18th March at The Grosvenor (which means yet more tickets for you, here).
Everyone loves a bit of free music, especially when it is a free remix by Mr Nathan Fake. New Ninja Tune signing Grasscut's new single Muppet is officially out on March 1st, but the good news is that Nathan's accompanying rework is already available for free download from the Ninja Tunes site. Grasscut's take on computer rock lends itself well to a Fake remake, as faint echoes of Drowning In A Sea Of Love's swoony guitars shimmer through the latest post-Hard Islands incarnation of Nathan's unstoppable updated loud and warm dancefloor beatdown.
Brighton's Grasscut have a full album coming on Ninja Tunes later in the year, but in the meantime you can watch the video for their more fiddly, skittery, dressed-up original version of 'Muppet' here:
This is something I have been meaning to do for a while: a list of some of our favourite podcasts to fill a rainy day downloading, as I do my bit to spread the word by way of thanks for all the fantastic music they have deposited on our server. I just hope your bandwidth can take it!
Marvin Suicide Marvin Suicide's half hour weekly show for London's wonderful Resonance FM is also available as a collectible take-home podcast; but what is most amazing about each top-notch tune-packed dispatch is that all of the music featured has been found for free and legal download on the internet (from netlabels and the like), without ever having to compromise on quality. Marvin has a funny farmer-voice too, although I suspect that he might be putting that on for the radio...
One of my favorites is Tycho's http://blog.iso50.com/ Not so much a pod casting blog but the Scott & crew posts some really great music along with its daily design posts.
Bleep's weekly mailout informs me that we only have seven more days to take advantage of their handy 100-tracks-for-£30 Best of 2009 promotion, an offer which anyone passionate about new music would be foolish to pass up. That works out at just 30p a track, maths fans, which just about matches Amazon's 29p mp3 bargain bin, and even if you already have a few of the tracks (Mr Fake's 'Basic Mountain', for example) it still works out at pretty good value.
Thankfully thin on the minimal front, may I therefore present this hand-selected Bleep guide to the year gone by as supporting evidence to my thesis that (contrary to popular belief) music is just getting exciting again. And as witnesses, I would like to call upon the following upstanding members of the musical community: Agoria, Animal Collective, Bernard Fevre, Bibio, Born Ruffians, Broadcast, Bullion, Clark, Debruit, Dirty Projectors, Falty DL, Floating Points, Flying Lotus, Fuck Buttons, Gang Gang Dance, Glass Candy, Grizzly Bear, Gui Boratto, Harmonic 313, Hudson Mowhawke, John Tejada, Jon Hopkins, Klaxons, Lone, Luke Vibert, Lusine, Matias Aguayo, Moderat, Mordant Music, Mum, Nathan Fake, Nosaj Thing, Plaid, Robert Hood, Rustie, The Black Dog, Tim Hecker, Wildbirds & Peacedrums, Krazy Baldhead, Four Tet, TV on the Radio and Autechre. Any objections?
Nothing like a bit of self-congratulation to kick off the week: Nathan Fake's We Fear Silence podcast that he delivered up in celebration of our last Corsica Studios do has romped home at number 3 on the lovely Mixcloud's Top 50 of 2009 (compiled using Mixcloud stats and the results of their Best of 2009 poll). Not bad for a boy who once proclaimed he "is not a DJ, and probably never will be!".
Our Border Community channel also featured in the Top 50 Cloudcasters chart, but since we have only uploaded two mixes so far it wouldn't be particularly becoming get too excited about that accolade. But I am currently working on getting some new contributions from a couple of our crew, so hopefully that will change soon (subscribe to our Border Community profile for the heads-up).
To keep you going until that fateful day, you might be interested to know that obliging mystic Wesley Matsell has created his own Mixcloud account, where over the Christmas break he uploaded a brace of DJ mixes dressed up in a suitably psychedelic fashion as "a small, but sincere token of appreciation for everyone who is vaguely interested in my music". And if you would include yourself in that description, please find the Fiber-optic Pteranodon and Ancient and Flailing flavoured goodness repeated below:
The still-in-beta Mixcloud hub itself only launched last year, so it is still relatively early days for the site, but to my eye it is shaping up rather nicely as a convenient repository for any and all future DJ mixes that come my way. The take-up on a certain other music hosting site seems to have been more pronounced, but with its nifty compulsory tracklist function and sleek, clean design Mixcloud is definitely my mix hoster of choice. Fellow converts whose podcasting activities might convince you to commit to the Mixcloud meritocracy include our homies Allez-Allez, BPitch Control, Skull Juice (and solo-juicer Alex Egan), One-Handed Music (don't let that Bullion mix pass you by!), Tigersushi, Phil Kieran, Dazed and Confused, Diesel U Music Radio, Chris Coco, Micromattic, Justin Robertson, Caged Baby and Erol Alkan, who it seems is possibly even more enthusiastic about Mixcloud than me!
A further incentive to sign up this week would be to add your own half hour DJ set entry to the BLOC / Man Make Music competition to win an hour long set (and of course, your ticket!) at the legendary BLOC festival on the weekend of March 12th - 14th: upload your contribution by 22nd January to enter, although since community comments and votes also count towards the voting I know that doesn't give you much time to mobilise your campaign of self-promotion! And if you can get together a band of 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 or 7 electronically-minded buddies, get your Butlins Minehad apartment for the weekend locked down now well in advance via the website, and as well as our own Nathan Fake you will be rewarded with performances from the likes of Ellen Allien, Lindstrom, Autechre, Alden Tyrell, Joker, Joy Orbison, Kelpe, DMX Krew, Lukid, Luke Slater, Luke Vibert, Surgeon, Kode9 & Martyn, Skream & Benga, Flying Lotus, Billy Nasty, Radioactive Man, Derrick May, Rob Hall, Adam Beyer and Appleblim & Peverelist. So who is in?
James and Kittin first played together a few years back in the unlikely setting of Ibiza's Amnesia for Cocoon, and he has been keen to play with her again ever since, for the pair share a common love of weaving as much cold wave electro and Warp-ed electronica into their DJ sets as is humanly possible. At a Republic of Kittin event DJ duties are shared equally with her specially selected guest to create something truly one-off, and a spot of back-to-back interplay isn't out of the question: the impressively-moustached Andrew Weatherall did the honours back in October.
I am certainly looking forward to it, but personally, I think I am probably just as excited about meeting her new dalmatian (pictured below in a snap nicked from her blog), having also learnt on that Barcelona beach that she is a dog person too!
Another ticket alert as part of my self-imposed public service remit: Four Tet's show at the Dome in Tuffnell Park (where flavour of the New Year Joy Orbison is lending his support) on 12th February has completely sold out now, so if you snoozed, you losed. Almost, anyway: for he has now added another date at Shoreditch's Village Underground on 10th April for the dawdlers; support has yet to be confirmed, but I'd get your tickets now anyway to be sure!
I will keep this brief and to the point, because time is clearly of the essence here: the godlike Panda Bear is playing a long-awaited London show for ATP at Heaven on 11th March. And tickets are selling fast, so don't hesitate: a couple of sites are already sold out, but I did just manage to secure tickets for us from Ticketweb so it looks like they might be your best bet!
Best understood as a companion piece to the original video for Whitebox Stereo, Mikey is up to his old quirky tricks with his Off-Whitebox contribution, coming up with a unique audio-visual reinterpretation where a largely new cinematic creation is synced with what began life as a remix of Luke's Whitebox Stereo club banger. Those mischevious animal head people that rushed the stage during Luke's set at our last Corsica Studios night make another starring appearance, stealing the show once more with their headonistic antics, and leaving us more than a little confused in the process!
Clearly it is no longer enough to simply have a remix, or a music video; an audio-visual reinterpretation that succinctly ticks both of the boxes in one go is the truly post-modern response! And this isn't the first time that the multi-talented Mr Michael Page has pulled off this impressive media-splicing feat: you may also remember his neat little micro-edit cut-up that complemented his original video for Luke Abbott's 'Melody120' so perfectly. Consider that creative gauntlet thrown defiantly down...
Nathan Fake may have missed Christmas this year in favour of a quick tour of Japan, but his parents will be pleased to know that he will be visiting home soon for a catch-up, thanks to a timely gig in Norwich on January 29th. Norfolk's electronic prince makes a welcome return to the Shire to kick off the Norwich Art Centre's new regular electronica night Spectro in a fittingly homegrown fashion: support comes from Border Community's other Norfolk rare breed Luke Abbott, whilst adopted son Dan Tombs pops up on visual duties in a showcase that the locals can be truly proud of. Tickets are available now for £8 via the Norwich Arts Centre website.
Spectro's contribution to Norfolk's buzzy arts scene continues apace on March 26th, when DC Recordings' own ambassador for the burgeoning British electronic underground Kelpe is in town, and bi-monthly thereafter with artists yet to be revealed. All sounds right up our street so far!
High up on my list of first-day-back-in-the-office duties has to be extending a big thankyou to the Die Registratur crew for organising last Thursday's Happy New Border Community shindig in Munich: we really couldn't have hoped for a better location in which to see in the New Year. An optimistic gem from the fifties recently restored in an equally forward-looking, sensitive fashion, the Alte Kongresshalle is truly an awesome building, and the prospect of doing more parties in such an amazing location does I suppose just about make up for the unfortunate loss of the near-perfect former Die Registratur cosy club nest.
Come the midnight hour, we took ourselves outside to the open area infront of the building for the obligatory fireworks free-for-all, where much to our surprise it emerged that us Brits are considerably more uptight around these miniature charges of gunpowder than our German cousins. A far cry from our eminently sensible roped-off public Bonfire night displays, the whole thing seemed rather haphazard to our eyes, as rockets were shoved into an upturned beer crate at a jaunty angle and set off just metres from the free-roaming crowd (as the photo below is intended to show). The British contingent slowly realised that we were collectively edging backwards away from the explosions, a lifetime worth of government public service fireworks advice echoing in our ears. As VJ Dan put it, "Where is the metal box to hold the unlit fireworks?!".
But our hosts certainly weren't alone in their laidback approach to fireworks, as this was a scene we could see and hear being repeated all over Munich, not least on the Oktoberfest site across the road - and indeed all over Germany. By the morning the streets are quite literally littered with the incriminating debris. And here was me thinking that if anything the Germans might be even more Health and Safety conscious than our good selves!!
James' impending DJ set provided a welcome excuse to retreat back to the safety of indoors, where he delivered up his first selection of the evening. And then, with a quick blast of My Girls, all too soon it was over, as James handed over the baton to the jovial Phil Kieran and his quirky TV screen glasses, and we had to say our goodbyes and head out onto the cold dark road to Berlin. Avus and Luke Abbott were yet to deliver their musical resolutions, and it really was a shame to have to leave; a couple of photos borrowed from Kat provide my only clue as to what they all got up to once we had left:
(The giant 'K' emblazoned on the wall might initially appear to be tantamount to writing the letter 'E' everywhere during the early 90s, so I do feel at this juncture it is important to point out that it is not intended as a drugs reference: K stands for Kongresshalle, replacing the R of the old Registratur logo in a subtle rebrand to go with the relocation. Honest!)
The cold snap that has engulfed Europe this year might have been well-timed for White Christmas fans, but it hasn't worked at all in our favour, as we faced fog, blizzards, snow, slush and ice, and added an hour to our already tight journey time. Thank goodness for sturdy German auto-engineering and Oliver's confident handling, piloting James to his second appointment as swiftly as was humanly possible whilst the precious DJ cargo slept like a baby in the back seat. He woke up just in time to spot the Avus Motel on the outskirts of Berlin, before readying himself to relieve Akufen from trawling the depths of his record bag as he gamely tried to hold onto the thinning Weekend crowd.
That beloved tower-block-top location might be great for gazing out over the ever-changing Berlin cityscape, but it must be said that it is slightly less so in the cold light of the after-hours break of day, and only the most far-gone of rave zombies could ignore the winter sun's massive glaring hint to head home. But as long as people are still dancing, James is more than happy to play his favourite records at them, and so he obliged with an indulgent alternative gentle selection that he just doesn't get to play out often enough, until the curfew was finally enforced just in time for the first luncheon of 2010.
What's with the records James doesn't play out regularly? Has this something to do with the crowd? In my opinion he throws himself in front of the lions as the Dutch saying goes.. ;) James got to do what he got to do, play tunes whenever/wherever/whatever he wants and feels! Greetings from Holland! Really looking forward to the 2 days off in Rotterdam & Amsterdam in february!
greetings from holland indeed. bring that shit on back to the bog of the eternal blunt stench that'll have you living in a Gilliam film soon after you hit it one to many times in the basement of the grasshopper. berlin is one thing, but amsterdam has the ghost of Descartes whispering in your ear while you stroll through the fear and loathing. still berlin makes me want to sing Down in the park where the chant is "Death, death, death" Until the sun cries morning. Down in the park with friends of mine
Christmas might be for kids, but the holiday break has at least allowed us to turn nicely nocturnal in preparation for tomorrow's New Years Eve German marathon: first stop is Munich, to usher in a new decade by proclaiming Happy New Border Community to the assembled crowd at the Alte Kongresshalle:
James Holden will be starting the New Year as we mean to go on, namely with some of that excellent music of his from the relatively early hour of 12.30am (straight after the firework extravaganza, and what better way could there be to kick off your 2010?). And then we will have to love and leave the crowd in the extremely capable hands of special guest and Border Booking buddy Phil Kieran, as well as comrades Luke Abbott and Avus proudly flying the BC flag with a taster of things to come and the rest of the old crew from the sorely-missed Die Registratur club, to party on together well into the first day of the new decade without us.
For James must then set off on a mad dash along the wintery autobahn to arrive in Berlin just in time for his 8am appearance at the Weekend club, where the party will of course still be in full swing from the night before:
And as you can see from the flyer above, the line-up for Weekend's whole !!! 4 Days Off !!! blowout does look pretty tasty, beginning this very evening with Digitalism, with Paul Kalkbrenner, Carl Craig, Akufen, Richie Hawtin, Steve Bug and John Aquaviva all popping by to lend a hand over the following days. So if a spot of Berlin club-hopping is on your agenda to kick off your 2010, do be sure to look in and say hello!
by the way, helvetica doesn't mean you know what you are doing as a professional poster maker. it just means you don't care to think about what you are doing.
well you can't really expect an industry that uses helvetica to know anything about anything. i think holden was at the top but moved too fast for the industry to pin him there. he flew right over the top like red bull gives you wings and is currently flying over some shit the industry will take till 2020 to figure out.
He is a busy little bunny at the moment, our Nathan Fake. As I write this he is hopefully catching some much-needed sleep after a jetlagged introduction to his Australian tour, and with a bit of luck he will have fully adjusted to Oz-time by the time this weekend's gigs in Perth, Sydney and Brisbane come around. After that, it is off to Japan, where he will spend an unusual Christmas Day giving Tokyo's Womb club a rather un-festive thrashing, before repeating the process on Boxing Day in Osaka's Triangle.
And the jetsetting continues into the New Year, when Nathan will be heading off on his first ever proper US tour in February under the wing of Mr Four Tet Kieran Hebden, who has signed Nathan up as the US support act on the tour to promote his forthcoming There Is Love In You album (out January 25th on Domino). Nathan couldn't be in better company for his two week Stateside jaunt: a full list of dates follows, whilst Domino's US website ought to be able to point you in the right direction for your all-essential ticket purchases.
Four Tet / Nathan Fake North American tour dates 17th February : LPR, New York, USA 18th February : Sala Rossa, Montreal, Canada 19th February : Empty Bottle, Chicago, USA 20th February : Mohawk, Austin, USA 23rd February : Chop Suey, Seattle, USA 24th February : Biltmore, Vancouver, Canada 25th February : Doug Fir, Portland, USA 26th February : Independent, San Francisco, USA 27th February : Echoplex, LA, USA
The observant among you may notice that those are by and large band venues rather than the clubs where Nathan is normally booked to play, so it will be extremely interesting to see what a gig-crowd makes of this. A little hamster informs me that Kieran's new Four Tet album is also of a decidedly danceable bent, so I do hope that the audience is obliging in that respect!
UK readers based in Brighton, Sheffield, Birmingham and Bristol will be pleased to learn that Nathan Fake is also the added extra when the Four Tet tour swings round their way in March, and since tickets are already on sale, here is a full list of those dates:
Four Tet UK tour dates (with support from Nathan Fake) 17th March : Concorde 2, Brighton 18th March : Plug, Sheffield 19th March : Custard Factory, Birmingham 20th March : Fiddlers, Bristol
The Four Tet UK tour also takes in London, Manchester, Leeds and Edinburgh, and although Nathan won't be with him, you might be treated to support shows from Rocketnumbernine, Joy Orbison or Pantha Du Prince instead, depending on how well you can decode the slightly confusing graphic below. So I'm guessing you will probably want to buy a ticket anyway:
apparat on jan 1st (he played his remix of charlie's house!), fairmont in mid january in california, fake/four tet in february! great start to the new year in san francisco :-)
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Yrs, Sjors "Yellowsleeve'd dancer"
p.s. If you wrote that XX on my hand, I'm still looking for you (find me: Sjors Doedens on facebk)!!