The hype machine is rattling as more Sky Ferreira material is popping up on the internet. This L.A.-girl is 17, ambitious, backed up by some hot European producers (Who happen to be part of Miike Snow) and her skills are being compared to those of Mariah Carey (and probably Gaga, Madonna, Hannah Montana and so on for miles of corny equasions.)

Enough already. This one production actually sounds good, kinda sounds like Aeroplane which is a big plus. Stevie Nicks fans might not necessarily like this cover, but it’s a stable production. Gotta thank Skeet Skeet for this as he posted it first. He also made a nice Beatles vs. Dr. Dre Mashup together with young Ferreira, which appeared simultaneously on the internet with this Stevie Nicks cover:
Sky Ferreira – Stand Back (Stevie Nicks Cover) by Jackplug
Sky Ferreira promises her upcoming album to be a ‘Revolutionary pop album’. ‘Revolutionary’ and ‘pop(ular)’, contradiction? No judgements just yet. She’s off on a good start, so let’s hear the album first.

After an epic night in Carlow a few weeks ago, the Heineken Green Spheres strike gold again, with not one but TWO dates.

This is a first – next week there will be two Heineken Green Spheres gigs taking place, one in Dublin at The Academy (9th Dec) and a second in Cork at the Cork Opera house (10th Dec). And we’ve got tickets to give away for both! Up for grabs are on pair of tickets for the Dublin gig, and two pairs for Cork. Sweet.

To be in with a chance to win tickets, just leave a comment below – stating wether you’d like to go to the Dublin or Cork gig.

The line up for both the dates is as follows:
Dublin, Academy 9th December:
White Lies
The Kissaway Trail
Neon Indian
Aeroplane

Cork, The Opera House, 10th December:
White Lies
The Kissaway Trail
Neon Indian
Rob da Bank

As already mentioned above, to be in with a chance to win tickets, just leave a comment below – stating wether you’d like to go to the Dublin or Cork gig.

Easy Peasy! We’ll then choose the winners at random next week.

To get you in the mood check out Aeroplane’s remix of this Au Revoir Simone track “Another Likely Story”:

This gig is gonna be gooood.

Maybe it’s the fact that they have both male and female vocals that have the ability to send shivers down your spine, or maybe it’s their catchy riffs, or maybe the fact that even they’re capable of not only producing beautiful indie/alternative music, but they can even turn out some delicious remixes. It was love at very first listen with The xx, and it seems like it may be the kind of love that lasts. Their whole album is awesome, there is something seriously wrong with you if you don’t head to Le National this Thursday December 3rd, to catch not only The xx, but Friendly Fires as well for Nylon’s Winter Tour. Friendly Fires are in fact headlining, buuut, I’ll be purchasing my ticket thanks to The xx.

Friendly Fires: Nylon Winter Tour Featuring The xx – facebook event


Basic Space – The xx

Crystalised – The xx

Shelter (Them Jeans Drum Edit) – The xx
________________________________________

Paris (Aeroplane Remix) – Friendly Fires

Friendly Fires – Skeleton Boy (Air France Remix)

Friendly Fires – Skeleton Boy (GRUM Remix)

Skeleton Boy – Friendly Fires

BONUS!

You\’ve Got the Love (xx remix) – Florence & The Machine

You Got The Love (Feat. Candi Station) – The Source – The Original that Florence & The Machine covered

rather than a post about an artist in particular, i’ll be writing about a genre that many attribute to starting the rise of electronic music. dating to the late 70s, italo disco was really only popular in europe and was the first genre to produce music using only electronic means. synthesizers, drum machines, apreggiators… the future! even the human voice (see moskow diskow) was vocoded and given that spacey robot sound.

as my favourite italo disco blog puts it: “the future is 25 years old” or, from wikipedia: “…the genre featured love-song lyrics sung in English with heavy foreign accents. English was more often than not the artists’ second language, creating lyrics that were often considered to be almost nonsensical. Along with love, italo disco themes deal with robots and space, sometimes combining all three.”

so… robots + space + love = italo disco… sounds like my favourite musical!

anyway, all of these funky robotic foreign accents have definitely influenced modern music (aeroplane comes to mind.. and eiffel 65, that italian one hit wonder whose blue permeated your young minds in the late 90s)

ok, so maybe those are not the best examples… little boots? rod stewart? M83? alan braxe? new order?

it’s simple. all electronic music was influenced, directly or indirectly, by the mind warping arped synths of italo disco, because italo disco was the first! have a listen to the tracks below and think about it the next time you’ve got something else playing… you’ll be surprised.

utter nostalgia!

telex – moskow diskow (1979)

charlie – spacer woman (1983)

casco – cybernetic love (1983)

international music system – dancing therapy (1984)

Wednesday 25th November 2009 at 4pm Adelaide South Australia time I left a Calvary of family and friends who bid me farewell at the airport for this 2 and half month journey across the other side of the world to follow my aspirations in the career of an actor.

Leaving a small populated city of 1.2 milion where acting jobs are few and far between to arrive in a state where there are more acting jobs then Starbucks cafe’s though with 9 times as many people, what are my chances…as much as anyone else.

It was my first international flight since the age of 5, and how was it? Not too bad at all! Before the flight began I was stretching out the legs as there was no one in the seat beside me, ahhh the space was beautiful I starting playing with the TV and it was… “Excuse me, do you mind if my friend and I switch with you as we got split up, only if it’s ok?” Ohhh the joys hehehe, why not, I wasn’t about to say no and get bad karma on a thirteen hour flight lol. I switched and sat next to these two guys roughly the same age as me, no dramas, until…BA BOOM, the TV froze, I look around, everyone else’s seemed to work…oh crap! After about 1/2 hour, 3 resets later, an offer for a bottle of champagne from the ladies whom I swapped with  and an awkward introduction to the guys beside me the TV was back on and the plane was in the air. Only 12 hours to go.

The flight was good, little to no turbulence, three movies, endless stages of space invaders, quite good plane food and about 2 hours sleep (no longer for fear of talking in my sleep…How embarrassing) ”Ladies and gentlemen we would like to welcome to you Los Angeles, where the temperature outside is a lovely 22 degrees which is 71 farenheit. WOW, it’s actually true, my trip to Los Angeles which I have dreamt about since I was 12 has really happened, arriving Wednesday 25th  3:30pm! Travelled back in time 1/2 hour, how exciting!

Exiting the plane and 900km walk later through LAX to a 1/2 hour nervous wait at customs after all those scary stories that there are no smiles only stern looks, not true in my experience, I had a lovely guy PangPang who welcomed me and passed me through, time to get to that carousel and grab my bags, wait, wait, wait, I look to my right…wow that hair certainly looks familiar, let me see, could an Aussie Sunsilk ad songstress have been on my plane? Well indeed Ms. Delta Goodrem, lovely to see you (I thought, how embarrassing if I were to approach lol, but still managed to grab a photo of the back of here head outside LAX where she was greeted by a paparazzi….ahhh the stereotypical LA persona lived up immediately!

Into the cab and LA had come alive “Ahhh You got one of the accents, you from England?” I replied “Australian” he replied “Oh same, same, I knew it was one of those fucked up accents” ahhh welcome to LA. My cab driver was actually great, showed me through some of the hot spots, Staple Centre, Convention Centre, Hollywood Sign, the rest “Oh don’t go their little lady, not safe for yourself.” $80 USD fare, with free conversation, tour guide and mention of the tipping protocol later it was check in time and transfer to the next vehicle GOLF BUGGIE and escort to my room.

Speed humps and views of hills passed by, up the lift, key in door, Helloooo bed! Unpack, Skype mum and Dad, friends, miss you, miss you, out on the balcony, Hellloooo Warner Brothers Studio! Fabulous.

Pyjama’s, Pillow, Good night Los Angeles, Good afternoon Adelaide

Miss D

Today we’ve continued on our air travel theme – with yesterday’s Luton airport and aeroplane classroom stories leading the way – with a piece on CEM’s IP access equipment in use at Heathrow’s much-loved Terminal 5. Jet-setting!

We’ve also got an article on Mercury Security Management, a company gearing up for SIA-licensing in Northern Ireland by obtaining Approved Contractor Status. Keeping it regulated.

Apparently vehicle ID thefts are on the rise. Is someone impersonating your car? That sounds completely insane to me.

Also today, we’ve got a new Mirasys UK MD; some sporting access from Salto; and a new mid-priced anti-vandal dome from Samsung Techwin.

Well, that’s all absolutely splendid.

www.info4security.com, www.ifsec.co.uk

Valve, you’ve surpassed yourselves this time, rushing out a sequel to a game, and doing a pretty good job of it if I’m completely honest. But why, for the love of all that is holy, would you make a game where all your advanced features make the game a wobbly mess of doody. DOODY TO YOU SIR!! Multicore rendering, if you cant make it work, then DON’T INCLUDE IT. Anyway, other people are probably wondering what I’m going on about, so I’ll put it in simpler terms; if you bought a game, you’d expect it to work right? You wouldn’t expect it to freeze after you’ve been playing it for 30 minutes and force your face into contorted asian rage such as this?

NYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Didn’t think so. Well that’s what this game is doing to me. All you smug console players are all “Oh there’s no problem for me na na na” but you can’t search google for inappropriate things on your little gamebox, whereas I can!! HA!

Oh yeah, the game is Left 4 Dead 2; I just realised I hadn’t actually mentioned the game’s name.

In other not so geeky news I had my first ever bad turbulence experience on an aeroplane last night. I was convinced I was going to die and even started to severely panic! I had to tell the old (and perfectly calm I might add) couple in the seats beside me that it was my first time fly (which you bet your ass it ISN’T) because I was so embarrassed of how badly I panicked! I feel that this adorable cat’s face best resembles my expression from the plane last night:

FUCKING FUCK OF ALL FUCKS!!!

Peace out bro’s and ho’s, I’m gona make me some Pasta n Sauce!

He tenido que buscar a Doves en la wikipedia porqué había oído su nombre, pero les había hecho cero caso, y ni me acordaba de ellos; normal si tenemos en cuenta que han tardado cuatro años en sacar disco. Incluso pensaba que les había visto en algún festival, pero no, mi contacto con ellos ha sido nulo. Ahora Aeroplane les ha mezclado una cara b del single “Winter Hill” incluido en su último álbum, corto y pego, “Kingdom Of Rust”, y una vez comparados los resultados, prefiero la mezcla pero de lejos.

Doves – Brazil (Aeroplane Remix)

Doves, Brazil (Aeroplane Remix)

myspace.com

I took a wee ‘break’ to chch two days before my show opened, probably not the brightest idea because I just ended up worrying the whole time…had fun taking some photies though.

Roses

Dads Strewberries

Bridie

Dad reading about me in the paper

home

I never used to have a problem on planes untill I stayed up one night with Dad and watched Air Crash Investigation…

What an amazing revision of one of the year’s greatest new songsFriendly Fires – “Paris” (Aeroplane remix)

Everyone secretly loves flight simulation. Soaring above (or below) the clouds is a great experience, however it is generated. The iPhone and iPod touch devices, despite their small screens, are great for this sort of activity. The computing and graphics power is quite great and the accelerometer makes it quite hard to crash.

Here are my top flight sims in no particular order… unfortunately none are free, although Lite or Trainer versions might exist or become available…

X-Plane is a simulator that is absolutely physically realistic to the extent that a mobile phone can be. It presents serious options to practise or try out “proper” manoeuvres, including using excellently developed navigation on beautiful aircraft. There are terrain options, other aircraft (occasionally) and challenging runways. It uses the accelerometer to great effect. Multiplayer or not.

F.A.S.T. is an aerial combat game that is, again, very realistic, although less so. There is a social club, a multiplayer mode and an option to fight against enemies in planes with blackout-causing g-force. The satisfaction of this one can be immense – after all, it is designed to be challenging, with a name like “Fleet Air Superiority Training”. If you like missions, this is one for you.

Flight Control is about moving aircraft of various sizes and speeds to their correct helipads and runways. It’s a 2D setup but don’t be fooled – co-ordinating movements of planes of different speeds and requirements is tricky. There are several terrain modes, and the game itself is easy to use. A good value item that interacts with others over Bluetooth, WiFi or even Facebook (although that’s not live). Enjoy dragging aircraft around with your finger, then…

I would like to particularly thank the developers of these apps for their great work. Keep it up, guys!

The “resurrection” of Doves seems to be doing Heavenly Recordings a world of good through carefully handpicked remixers, who are able to drive the bands back catalogue to new audiences and onto the wooden boards again.

The last package of remixes of “Jetstream/Compulsion” was pretty spot on with contributions from Sasha, Weatherall, Padded Cell and Time & Space Machine, and the release of the new single – “Winter Hill” – remix duties on the flip side on the Doves Balearic classic – “Brazil” – is handed to the heavenly hyped – Aeroplane.

As mentioned in my post around their “November Mix Chart” (see further down!) I was slowly starting to go off Aeroplane a bit due to the fact it was all getting a tad bit too cheesy for my liking. The Robbie Williams remix, the dead-cheesy Italo mix and a sub-standard October Mix Chart.

BUT – the “November Mix Chart” kicks in glorious fashion, and so does their remix of Doves – “Brazil”.

The tempo is up, driving hi-hats, fierce arpeggios, sprinkles of Fairy Dust, deep piano chords and a great song to boot at anthemic level – this is the kind of stuff which makes you drive three hours just to pick up the milk.

The weekend is upon us!

Mp3: Doves – Brazil (Aeroplane Remix)

Aeroplane – November Mix (SoundCloud-Link)

Tracklist:

Music Go Music : “Warm in The Shadow” (Villa Remix)
Gossip : “Heavy Cross” (Siriusmo Dub)
Emjae : “Discoplex”
Two Door Cinema Club : “I Can Talk” (Golden Bug remix)
Palermo Disko Machine : “Vesuvia”
Joakim : “Spiders” (Extended Dance Mix)
Detachments : “Circles” (Mighty Mouse remix)
Don Diablo : “I am Not From France” (Cagedbaby’s Rollerdisco Lcross Campaign Mix)
The XX : “Crystalised” (Rory Phillips Remix)
Bot’ox : “Bearded lady Motorcycle Show”

Those wonderful Belgium disco merchants are back. Yes, everyone’s favourite aviation-related DJs, Aeroplane, have returned with a remix of New York’s Au Revoir Simone’s Another Likely Story. I first heard this on one of Mixmag’s podcasts not so long ago and it is exactly what the doctor ordered for the coming winter months: fun disco, full of ranging synths and feel-good lyrics which feel just as at home in your bedroom as on the dancefloor. I’ve yet to hear Aeroplane make a remixing mistake and long may this continue.

Au Revoir Simone – Another Likely Story (Aeroplane remix) (BN)
Au Revoir Simone – Another Likely Story (Aeroplane remix) (MF)

Here’s another awesome remix they’re done:
Friendly Fires – Paris (Aeroplane remix) (BN)
Friendly Fires – Paris (Aeroplane remix) (MF)

It’s time to board your monthly flight with Aeroplane!

Admittedly – the last couple of mixes didn’t really set me on fire. It seemed they were flung together for the sake of doing it, and the content were to say the least kind of patchy.

With the release of the dire Robbie Williams remix my feelings around Aeroplane were starting to fade considerably.

BUT – it ain’t over ’til the long haired dude struts his guitar, and with the forthcoming excellent remix of The Doves – “Brazil” – and this November Mix Chart it seems the boys are definitely putting on their stealth gloves, and gearing up for their forthcoming Soulwaxmas Tour and Killer NYE in Australia.

If you expect the usual mid-tempo, Balearic, sun drenched Aeroplane affair you’ll be massively surprised over the fact that this mix comes drenched in sweat, spit and beer stains, and kicks like an angry mule barred from heading out for a night on the tiles. There’s even some nice distorted guitar mayhem going on here!

There’s enough action in here to keep you entertained for – well – at least its 47′53″ mins. course – and it’s a right Silly Season knees-up, which rocks from start to finish!

Get on it!

Here’s the tracklist:

01. Music Go Music : “Warm in The Shadow” (Villa Remix)
02. Gossip : “Heavy Cross” (Siriusmo Dub)
03. Emjae : “Discoplex”
04. Two Door Cinema Club : “I Can Talk” (Golden Bug remix)
05. Palermo Disko Machine : “Vesuvia”
06. Joakim : “Spiders” (Extended Dance Mix)
07. Don Diablo : “I am Not From France” (Cagedbaby’s Rollerdisco Lcross Campaign Mix)
08. Detachments : “Circles” (Mighty Mouse remix
09. The XX : “Crystalised” (Rory Phillips Remix)
10. Bot’ox : “Bearded lady Motorcycle Show”

Mp3: Aeroplane – November Mix Chart (LINK UPDATED)

Tenía un post de Faithless preparado, pero los de Aeroplane me han avisado a través de su mailing que ya tenían terminada la sesión mensual que vienen colgando desde hace unos cuantos meses y esto es un chollo para los blogs como este, porqué te solucionan la tarde. En este mes nos presentan a grupos como Two Door Cinema Club, Music Go Music con un temazo (porqué me perdí esta mezcla!!!!), The Gossip, The XX, Don Diablo o Bot’ox, siempre mezclado con una elegancia que actualmente tienen pocos. Lo único que va faltando ya, son fotos promocionales decentes, que de eso si que hay escasez…. Aeroplane están el próximo 5 de diciembre en el The Loft del Razzmatazz.

Aeroplane – November Mix Chart

Aeroplane “Chart Mix” November 2009

01. Music Go Music : “Warm in The Shadow” (Villa Remix)
02. Gossip : “Heavy Cross” (Siriusmo Dub)
03. Emjae : “Discoplex”
04. Two Door Cinema Club : “I Can Talk” (Golden Bug remix)
05. Palermo Disko Machine : “Vesuvia”
06. Joakim : “Spiders” (Extended Dance Mix)
07. Detachments : “Circles” (Mighty Mouse remix)
08. Don Diablo : “I am Not From France” (Cagedbaby’s Rollerdisco Lcross Campaign Mix)
09. The XX : “Crystalised” (Rory Phillips Remix)
10. Bot’ox : “Bearded lady Motorcycle Show”

I remember when my partner and I did the Scandinavian Radio Soulwax Tour with Soulwax & 2MANYDJSs Stephen saying to me – tearfully – after years of touring their albums, and upon start of the Scandinavian leg: “I really can’t take this anymore – I SO wanted to stay at home…!”.

I guess touring Hell can get to the best of us, but it seems like the tireless Belgiums haven’t stopped touring since, and are heading out yet again for another round of Soulwaxmas dates around Europe leading up to the silly season.

Which is probably why this Mixhell edit of Soulwax’s alter ego – Samantha Fu – and the rocking “Theme From Discotheque” is currently being seeded by Mixhell since they will appear on the tour alongside the usual suspects like Soulwax themselves, 2MANYDJs, Erol Alkan, Aeroplane and string of other bright lights.

There will be carnage in Christmas grotto – for sure!

No point in explaining “Theme From Discotheque” – it does exactly what you’ve come to expect from Soulwax and Mixhell, and in combined strength it does exactly what it says on the tin:

“Pounding Techno Music…….”!

Strap yourselves down – the silly season is upon us – soon!

Mp3: Samantha Fu (Soulwax) – Theme From Discotheque (Mixhell Edit)