It feels like I am always the last to know these things. Our Swedish meatball Petter is stopping by London this weekend for the first time in a good while, but of course, slippery and elusive creature that he is, he didn't think to tell us that. It was left to Amit of the Man Make Music crew to alert me to this most exciting of happenings, when he requested a plug for their new winter residency at yet-another-new-Shoreditch-club - the aptly named The Last Days Of Decadance - which Petter has been given the honour of launching this Saturday (8th November):


Actually, I am not sure if Petter has notified anyone at all of his scheduled presence this weekend, for there has been talk amongst the troops of a rival outing to see Hopen on the same night, which I gather has something to do with Nathan Hrdvision (aka brother of Mathew Jonson), although what exactly that is I am not sure. For me of course there is no contest: normally when we get to see Petter play it is in a supporting role at one of our Border Community specials, so the chance to see him deliver up his special sound blend in a starring role is a rare opportunity which I intend to seize with both hands.

I urge you to do the same of course, although past experience has taught me to remain cautious in my endorsement of these kind of untested new Shoreditch venues that are springing up all over the area like a rash. But I think we can trust the Man Make Music boys to have chosen their spot wisely before trading in their nomadic warehouse party lifestyle in favour of residency security. Back in March our bunny boy Nathan Fake guested for them at the sike warehouse party they organised together with our good friend Matt (aka barrow-jam merchant and resident situationist An'Unexpectacle), from which evidence I can confirm that they most certainly know their rave onions. So who is coming with me?

Labels: Nathan Fake, Petter

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Peter from the Laptoprockers website just sent me this rather amusing photo of our Border Community boys "doing" Barcelona, which he found during a (rather belated) rummage through his colleague Reinier's photos from this years Sonar extravaganza:


Left to right you can see: Ricardo Tobar, Nathan Fake, Petter Nordkvist, James Holden, and some mystery texter who has sneaked into the edge of the shot. They were papped hiding in the corner at the Beatport rooftop pool party which they all went along to the day after our Loft party. James tells me that the photo captures the precise moment that they were all contemplating jumping off the side of the building just to escape the minimal onslaught, with Petter seemingly volunteering to go first...

Labels: Holden, Nathan Fake, Petter, Ricardo Tobar

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Julie from Parisian promoters We Love Art just sent me a selection of photos from the special We Love Border Community soiree they organised for us in Paris a couple of weekends ago. The combination of the perfect location, an electric atmosphere and an all-Border Community line-up made for a wonderful evening for everyone involved: James Holden reckoned it was the highlight of his current mini-tour with Ricardo Tobar, and I reckon it was also coincidentally the gig where little Ricky got the most wasted, so it was probably one of his highlights too...

Anyway, on to those photos: the venue was a monumental seventies wooden building set in the Bois de Vincennes park right on the edge of Paris. Inside was your normal sweaty dancefloor with some hardcore lazer action:




Outside was a chance to cool off without missing any of the music in the wooded garden decorated with our ubiquitous clouds hanging from the trees:


A photo of Petter, who managed to open proceedings with a DJ set, in spite of Air France's best efforts to lose his record bag "somewhere in Charles De Gaulle":


When a particularly wasted stage invader took to grinding behind our little Chilean cutie Ricardo Tobar during his set, James' paternal instinct immediately kicked in and we began to make our way back towards the stage to relieve poor Ricky. But when said stage invader took to swinging James' DJ bag around by the handle before falling over into the lighting rig at the back of the stage, James' walk soon turned into a run, and the fuck-up was forcibly manhandled from the stage by our little stick-like and confrontation-shy James himself: I have never seen anything like it! But if you ask me, it was his desire to protect the precious record bag that motivated him, rather than his concerns for poor Ricky as the much more charitable Rosana (my only corroborative witness that this actually happened!) was inclined to believe. Ricardo meanwhile carried on regardless, and didn't seem phased at all:



Lapin lunatique Nathan Fake meanwhile was as unstoppable as ever:


A Nathan Fake live show really is a bit of an extreme sport, and the bizarre shapes that the techno contortionist throws during the course of a set always brings a smile to my face. I think these two photos rather ably illustrate my point - someone should turn them into one of those animated gif things, enabling a Nathan Fake live show simulation in the comfort of your own home:



Finally, James Holden handled the graveyard shift to round things off while the others got wasted, as is usual at these type of events:


Only for some reason tonight he decided to take his shoes and socks off to DJ, much to the entertainment of Petter and myself (and seemingly also the other photographer in this shot):


So there we have it: thanks to the We Love Art crew for everything, and thanks also to everyone who came along and embraced the full head-to-toe Border Community experience. We Love Paris too!

Labels: Holden, Nathan Fake, Petter, Ricardo Tobar

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Not content with wowing crowds across Europe with his shit-hot new live show, our Chilean recruit Ricardo Tobar (or Richie Tobarlobos as Nathan and Petter took to calling him during this year's Sonar-week antics) has also found time to turn in one of those lovely influence-showcasing podcast mixes for our bum chums Allez-Allez. I have been a little slow on the uptake this time as Ricardo's mix has actually been up on their site for download since last week, but because Sam and Steve are currently operating on summer slack-time there will be no new mixes for another full week anyway, so I think I just about got away with it...

That mix tracklist in full, then (download link is here):
1) Prodigy - Medusas Path
2) Chemical Brothers - Three Little Birdies Down Beats
3) Leftfield - Afro-Left
4) Aphex Twin - 0008900569
5) Miwon - Hush
6) Slowdive - Good Day Sunshine
7) Jess M - Coitus
8) Umek - Voices Of Africa
9) Unknown Track
10) Atlas Sound - Winter Vacation
11) Duo505 - Nochwas
12) Kero - 6.18 Multi Just
13) Arovane - Tascel 7

Despite being the proud possessor of one of those killer laptop-live shows that we are so fond of, Ricardo does also do a spot of DJing: indeed, it seems to be the preferred mode of performance for promoters in his Chilean homeland (next date August 2nd at Club Declive in Santiago). Thankfully, those arbitrary souls at UK customs decided not to deport him after all "for not having enough cash on him" last weekend as he tried to return to his between-gig base at his cousin Andrea's house in Brighton, so Ricardo is free to continue to showcase his live stylings around Europe for the rest of this month: do yourself a favour and catch one of his remaining shows in Amsterdam (tonight), Paris (5th), Aix En Provence in France (11th), Lake Balaton in Hungary (12th), Athens (13th) or Gent in Belgium (18th). For full details check Ricardo's Myspace...

And probably you have already realised this, but I think it bears repeating, if only to foil anyone trawling for free music blog downloads (Google Analytics is watching you!): Ricardo Tobar's wonderful new Boy Love Girl EP is always available to download here on mp3 for the eminently reasonable sum of just three of your English pounds.

Labels: Nathan Fake, Petter, Ricardo Tobar

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Here is a photo of friendly Swede Tomas Andersson with a Pikachu, for no other reason than that Petter just sent it to me, because he knows we are Poke-maniacs after we dragged him and Nathan to Tokyo's Pokemon Center during the recent Border Community Japanese tour:


And here is a video of a circuit bent Pikachu, mainly for James and Luke's benefit:

Labels: Holden, Luke Abbott, Nathan Fake, Petter

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Details of the location for the We Love Border Community blowout in Paris this Saturday 5th July (featuring James Holden, Nathan Fake, Petter and Ricardo Tobar) have just been revealed: the We Love Art team have secured the La Chesnaie du Roy salon in the Bois de Vincennes park right on the edge of Paris as the site for this special one-off. This info comes hot from an email from press agency Phunk, whose rather poetic French language description of the place actually came out in pretty decent English when I shoved it through Google Translate:

"Dans un lieu digne des contes de fees, une pagode en verre avec vue sur le parc floral et le grand jardin, une nuit exceptionnelle entre reveries electronica et dancefloor minimal sous les arbres."

"In a place worthy of tales of fairies, a glass pagoda overlooking the park and the large floral garden, an outstanding night between reveries dancefloor electronica and minimal under the trees."

The Bois de Vincennes park in the 12th arrondissement is the largest green space in Paris, and We Love Art have held a couple of parties in La Chesnaie du Roy in the past, taking full advantage of its indoor dancefloor with a view to the garden and accompanying outdoor magical woodland space for dancing in. They kindly sent me a few sneak preview photos, taken at their We Love Fantasy and We Love Get Physical events:





So as you might expect, we are all pretty excited as we prepare to descend on Paris tomorrow for a weekend of fun! The weather on Saturday evening is supposed to be warm and rain-free, if perhaps a little on the cloudy side, so all the signs are good!

Labels: Holden, Nathan Fake, Petter, Ricardo Tobar

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I have just been sent the finished flyer for the upcoming special We Love Border Community party in Paris, for which the We Love Art crew seem to have constructed some kind of amusing imaginary midi-controlled handcrafted windmill:


Full marks for doing their research, as the particular midi-controller featured is the preferred model of party guests Nathan Fake (when playing live) and James Holden (in the studio, although his is currently serving as a handy surface on which to rest his Monome and voltmeter): the trusty Evolution UC-33. But that is not really such a strange coincidence, since the fact that it offers lots of knobs at a reasonable price meant that the Evolution UC-33 became pretty ubiquitous: the company were eventually bought out by M-Audio, who still sell the rebranded UC-33e should you have the urge to add one to your own music gear collection. James Holden has kindly provided me with his own mini-review: "It was great with Buzz, is OK for Ableton / Traktor, and shit for Cubase". (But if anyone has managed to find something useful to do with it in Cubase, James would dearly love to hear from you in the comments...)

Putting the nerd talk back to one side again where it belongs, the We Love Border Community party takes place on Saturday 5th July in Paris, featuring live sets from Nathan Fake and Ricardo Tobar, and James Holden and Petter on DJ duty. We Love Art have found a fabulous indoor-outdoor woodland location to host the party, exact details of which will only be revealed closer to the time: for tickets and more information, keep your eye on their website and Myspace. Should be a good one!

Labels: Holden, Nathan Fake, Petter, Ricardo Tobar

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