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ARIA'S 2009

NL2T — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 12:13:42 +0000

The 2009 Australian Recodring Industry Awards or ARIA’s took place this evening, giving cred to the best artists of the year.

The Temper Trap had the performance of the night, with Ladyhawke also getting the crowd applauding.

The Winners are as follows:

Album of the Year: Empire Of The Sun – Walking On A Dream

Single of the Year: Empire Of The Sun – Walking On A Dream

Highest Selling Album: ACDC – Black Ice

Highest Selling Single: Jessica Mauboy – Running Back

Best Group: Empire Of The Sun

Best Female Artist: Sarah Blasko – As Day Follows Night

Best Male Artist: Daniel Merriweather

Breakthrough Artist – Album: Ladyhawke – Ladyhawke

Breakthrough Artist – Single: Ladyhawke – My Delirium

Best Pop Release: Empire Of The Sun – Walking On A Dream

Best Rock Album: ACDC – Black Ice

Best Dance Release: The Presets – Talk Like That

Best Children’s Album: The Wiggles – Go Bananas!

Best Country Album: Troy Cassar-Daley - I Love This Place

Best Independent Release: Bertie Blackman – Secrets and Lies

Best Urban Album: Hilltop Hoods – State Of The Art

Best Blues and Roots Album: C.W. Stoneking – Jungle Blues

Best Adult Contemporary Album: Josh Pyke – Chimney’s Afire

Best Comedy Release: Hamish And Andy – Unessential Listening

Best Music DVD: Sia – TV Is My Parent

Some Pics of the night-


Photo Credit - asupOp

Congrats to all the winners!

Aria Awards Update

jedanseexterieur — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 11:24:39 +0000

So far, some of the more interesting winners are:

Best Music DVD – Sia – TV Is My Parent

Sia – Breathe Me (Mylo Remix) **Highly Reccommended

She beat Jimmy Barnes and Kasey Chambers….eew thank god! Adelaide represent!

Best Dance Release: The Presets – Talk Like That

The Presets – Talk Like That

Well they weren’t up against much; Hook n Sling, Tommy Trash, Sneaky Sound System and Zoe Badwi), but we all know they deserve it!

Best Pop Release: Empire Of The Sun - Walking On A Dream

Empire Of The Sun – Walking On A Dream

Personally I think Ladyhawke should have won it, but a much better choice than when Gabriella Cilmi won it (shudder)

Breakthrough Artist Single: Ladyhawke – My Delirium

Ladyhawke – My Delirium **Highly Reccommended

I love Art vs Science, but this was definitely Ladyhawke’s, even though technically she broke through last year.

Breakthrough Artist Album: Ladyhawke – Ladyhawke

Ladyhawke – Paris Is Burning (Alex Metric Remix)

Clearly Sia should not have been in the breakthrough category, she released Drink To Get Drunk like six years ago. Aria is just so up to date!

Oh, and Bindi Irwin didn’t win best children’s relese so apparently she stormed off, gracious in defeat, childhood stardom hasn’t ruined her at all.

Still hoping for Ladyhawke to win Best Female Artist, and Single of the Year!

But don’t forget children, this is the Aria Awards, so who really cares? (No one!)

Presets win best Dance

meandallmyfriends — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 10:14:11 +0000

The Presets are fuckin awesome. They are even better live. And…they have just won the ARIA Award for best Dance Release for their killer track Talk Like That!! The ARIA Awards are going into partnership with iTunes to make available all the performances on the iTunes store from December 1 also, so watch out for that!!

Now, I love these boys. They are both bloody talented. They have had the say in some of the biggest Aussie songs out there from Justin co-writing Straight Lines by Silverchair to Kim doing his own stellar DJ work as well as helping out on Daniel Johns’s other band The Dissociatives.

Live, wow. Saw them at Nevereverland last year and was so impressed. Easily the best of the day/night.

Anyway, this is a live version of their winning track Talk Like That.

The Presets – Talk Like That (Live)

(iTunes)

The Top 10 Music Videos Of '09

NL2T — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 04:01:25 +0000

Video: 5/5 (The first 5/5 we have ever given)

What is you favourite video of the year? let us know in the comments section bellow!

Triple J Unearthed: Aussie Prodigies

deadbeatz — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 09:00:27 +0000

We at DeadBeatz embrace music from all corners of the globe, but recently the music that is being produced from this island deserves special recognition. Yes, if you haven’t already guessed its ‘The Land Down Under’! For many generations Australia has been producing world class acts like ACDC, INSX, Powderfinger, Midnight Oil, (the list goes on…) to today’s contemporary bands like Hilltop Hoods, Pnau, The Presets, Empire of the Sun, Wolfmother, (ok I’m getting sick of typing bands, you get the picture!). If you haven’t been living under a rock for the last 60 years you would have heard at least one of these bands (if not all!). Though it’s not just the big names that this continent is known for in the international industry, it’s the local talent that drives the countries musical ambition.

There is one national radio station that has made it their business for discovering new music, and has continued to do so for over 30 years. So far they have revealed over 100 artists from all over the country and launched the careers of artists like Missy Higgins, Killing Heidi and Grinspoon. Due to their new website called Triple J Unearthed, this ‘unearthing’ has accelerated, with bands featuring their songs and profiles for the public to enjoy. Below are a few of our favourite songs that we have chosen.

Stay tuned for further posts, as the supply of talent is endless!

Come Around – Tim & Jean 10/10

Colour Between the Lines – Sleep Decade 9/10

Addicted – ButterBOX 10/10

Hangin’ On a Wire – Ikarii 10/10

Spread the Beatz!

___________________________________________________________________________________

I GO HARD I GO HOME - THE PRESETS

amerone — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 02:34:35 +0000

My Space music studio: awesome venues in Sydney

thespotlightreport — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 01:55:34 +0000

Couple of weeks ago MySpace hosted and epic event “The release of Myspace Music studio” a home for new bands born on Myspace. Lot of people from all the ages enjoyed mini concerts in Sydney and Melbourne from KIM (The Presets), Short Stack, Bob Evans, Lost Valentinos, Leader Cheetah, The Middle East, The Sundance Kids, Whitley, Wes Carr, Bluejuice, Cassette Kids, Renee Cassar, Andy Bull, Bang Gang, Kid Sam, Philadelphia Grand Jury, Ernest Ellis, Lions at Your Door, Purple Sneaker DJs.

The main comments about this events were almost the same: We need more free events like this…My space rocks.

The first day Short Stack was the cause of the screams of all the teenagers waiting for them, with an incredible acoustic performance and then meeting the fans for around 30 min, which was a dream for all of them. The last day a big bbq was waiting to all the fans finishing the venue with DJ Kim from the Presets, making all the public dance with his unique electronic style.

We really appreciate this initiative that myspace made for the former musicians and for the people who loves music…GOOD ONE MYSPACE!

More Myspace events in general just visit and join to Myspace.com

Amazing Horse

MeatWhistle — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 04:51:31 +0000

I’m undecided about this one. I enjoy the song, yet kinda hate the video(except the lemonade part, rofl). I do believe that if Marc M and The Presets were to ever collaborate, this would be the brain child. Tell me what you think!

hf gl

-MW

http://www.myspace.com/thepresets

Influencer Interview #7: The world of brands and music according to Emily

danpankraz — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 03:56:53 +0000

Got a chance to interview a real music expert and pop culture maven in Emily Copeland – we met the other week and she gave me some great insight into the world of music and some great examples of what brands are doing right to connect with young people (and how they’re fucking up too) in the brand saturated space that is music. Em works at MCN and also hosts a music program on FBI radio. Check out her blog here. She’s got amazingly deep insight into youth culture and how brands and ‘playing’ in the music space.

Em Copeland from OMGwithemily.com youth music guru

Here’s here perspective on brands and music, music tribes and what’s coming up this Summer.

Which brands are doing well to leverage music? Maybe a few different examples

I love seeing brands do something a bit different in music. The ideas of giving away tickets to have an ‘ultimate festival experience’, running an unsigned band competition, and setting up your own branded music event have been done to death. More importantly, there are brands that now ‘own’ these spaces (Festivals – Smirnoff; Unsigned Bands – Tooheys Extra Dry; Branded Music Events – Bacardi) , so it is incredibly difficult for anyone new to try to play in these areas, or to do it better than those existing brands.

Ted Baker leveraged music well this year, with the creation of the ‘Gig Race’ to promote a new clothing range. Entrants had two weeks to attend as many gigs as humanly possible, whilst blogging and twittering about their experience as they went. Ted Baker used something their consumers were already doing (going to gigs, blogging and twittering) to promote their brand. And more importantly, they found a way to credibly link their brand with music – by having consumers do it for them! Every tweet and blog post that went out in relation to the competition mentioned music and Ted Baker – and came direct from the target demographic. (FYI – the winner was a 29 year old guy from Kent, who went to 27 gigs in 14 days. He now holds the Guinness World Record for most concerts attended!)

Are there any ‘must do’s’ when considering using a music marketing strategy to engage youth?

There are two major ‘must do’s’ that I would recommend every brand look at before trying to engage youth through music:

MAKE SENSE

You need to do something that makes sense to your audience, in relation to your brand. Just simply deciding that you want to be ‘aligned with music’ isn’t enough. Nike are a great example of a brand that does this well. Nike are all about sport – so rather than trying to put on a gig, or use a band in their advertising, in mid-2008 they teamed up with A-Trak to create a mix to help people “Keep on Running’ – which adds a music element to their sporting brand. A few months back they also helped De La Soul to release their first new album in five years – which was designed to play as a workout soundtrack, and was produced by Flosstradamus. Nike found sneaker wearing musicians, who had massive credibility, and helped them to do their thing (release music), while still retaining their core brand focus (helping people to exercise).

BE DIFFERENT

Don’t just look for trends within your target demographic and try to copy them (like Taco Bell did in the US, when they tried to take an ironic look at white boy hip hop with their ‘Roosevelts’ campaign . Look to do something unique, or look to support an artist or sound that is emerging (like BMW have done with The Presets and Empire of the Sun http://www.omgwithemily.com/2009/05/bmw-parters-with-empire-of-sun.html). The support of an emerging artist will almost always be looked upon favourably, as everyone knows that these independent artists can’t pay the rent with just hipster cred!

Youth music tribes.. what tribes are popular at the moment?

Back in 2004, the British Council compiled a document that identified 9 youth ‘tribes’ – Townies, Goths, Nu-metallers, Soulstrels, Indie Kids, Pop Princesses, Clubbers, Grungers and Skaters. The interesting thing about this study was that every tribe was partly identified by a particular musical artist, or a genre of music they were all into.

Music is incredibly important to young people, primarily because it is something they all use to create their own identity. Music also helps define their other choices in life – from who they hang out with, to the clothing they wear, the bars they go to, the media they consume, and even the alcohol they drink.

In Australia, we have seen a rise in the popularity of Indie Kids over the past few years – and the music at festivals has reflected this. There has been a move away from techno and hard house, toward more indie electro sounds at major festivals. Even more traditional ‘rock’ festivals have seen an increased number of indie bands and indie electro acts in the lineup.

You will also find multiple sub-tribes within each tribe. The 9 youth tribes defined in the UK are massive generalisations. If you are looking at identifying youth by the music they listen to, then everyone who listens to electronic music would be a ‘Clubber’. However, when you drill down into the electronic music genres, you get everything from Disco, to House, Jungle, Trance, Nu Rave, and Garage. Then, if you look into sub-genres, you find styles such as Baltimore Club, Industrial Rock, Fidget House, Glitch and 8 bit. It will probably be hard for you to find huge similarities in lifestyle, fashion and speech between someone who passionate about Juke (similar to Booty House – think Kid Sister), compared to someone who is crazy about Psytrance (think something from Infected Mushroom) – even though both styles are in essence ‘electronic’.

What do you feel will be the bands/artists which will gain traction with Aussie youth this summer?

There is a huge amount of female electro-pop currently hitting the mainstream. From the horrible (Lady Gaga) to the more interesting acts including La Roux, Little Boots, (both of whom we just saw performing around the country as part of Parklife) Ladyhawke and Bat for Lashes. I’m sure these sounds will continue across summer, particularly with Ladyhawke having just received five nominations in the 2009 ARIAs.

There are a few tools that I use to look at current trends in sounds and artists. One is Shazam (see Shazam’s picks for 2009 here: http://www.omgwithemily.com/2009/01/whats-that-remix.html), another is Hype Machine’s ‘popular’ feed. I also RSS feeds from around 150 different music blogs, of all different genres, and from right around the world – and keep an eye on these for hot tracks, and musical trends. Young Aussies are also getting better at supporting local talent, and we are seeing huge support for local artists in both the commercial and indie scenes.

Is Australian, is good.

kish07 — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 12:48:33 +0000

The Temper Trap are fucking great. Man, Australians are on fire at the moment. I just downloaded the

the presetes - if i know you

Ficadika — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 08:40:35 +0000

Gostei do video indicado pelo Julio…como dança a criança!!!

Fiago's, My TV

discomachine — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 20:43:35 +0000

If you still haven’t heard Fiago’s single Stay, then you are missing out. I recommend picking it up. Also, make sure to check out their other single called, My TV.

So, who exactly is this dynamic duo. Well tell the truth I only knew a little about them, but I do know their music is electronic-tastic.

The duo hails from Austria, comprising of members, Markus (Dj and producer), and Max (song writer). The two first met at a campaign against sweatshops. I love it already, people who are passionate about making a difference. Not just through their campaigning, but through the use of their music. After their meeting they decided to join together and write music using slogans for their lyrics. They define their sound as Risco–Rock Disco.

Check out the rest of their bio…FIAGO, and while you are there do the retweet and receive their single Stay.

Oh and don’t compare them to that other affair…The Presets. Whom, I am sure people will bring up. Both are equally great, I love The Presets. But I think I would love to see Fiago do this accoustic thing their site claims. Can’t wait to see more!

Jonas & François

byothername — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 02:21:41 +0000

Estos dos creativos franceses, estudiaron en la Facultad de Bellas Artes de la ciudad de Poitiers y son unos grandes de la industria videoclipera actual, y es que desde hace algunos años han venido realizando videos dignos de admirarse, renovando la concepción de la imagen y el diseño gráfico, que a la par de los magníficos intérpretes para los que han trabajado, o marcas, como Nike y Converse, terminan por entregar materiales no sólo creativos, sino inteligentes, que incluso la agencia Saatchi & Saatchi les ha reconocido.

Basados en una estética de ilustración, los dibujos que realizan cobran vida con cada beat, entre colores y tiros de cámara perfectamente planeados, que lo mismo van de los planos detalle a los planos generales con cameos espectaculares, en el caso del video Testarossa Autodrive, por ejemplo; o geniales ensambles entre dibujos animados, gráficos, colores y secuencias grabadas, siempre dejando algo al espectador, en un fuera de campo, algo que él mismo descifre al compás de la música, con camisetas animadas como instrumento, tal y como sucede con D.A.N.C.E., otro de sus materiales.

Jonas & François se sirven de momentos cotidianos para refrescar su imaginación y lograr las construcciones gráficas en atmósferas diversas, además de escuchar mucha música que los hace crear cosas pares, imaginar cada imagen con un sonido.

Estos directores suelen trabajar con los artistas como The Presets, firmados por la Ed Banger Records, que dicho sea de paso, es una de las productoras con muchas promesas musicales y bien valdría dar una pasada por su cartera musical; aunque también han realizado materiales para Madonna, Kanye West o Justin Timberlake, entre otros.

Aquí les dejamos dos grandes muestras de su talento, de proyectos interesantes, inteligentes y divertidos; el primer material realizado para Kavinsky y su track Testarossa Autodrive , y el segundo video hecho para Justice y su canción D.A.N.C.E.

othername®

FASHION and MUSIC: "Yippyo-Ay" by The Presets

csltm — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 08:45:35 +0000

MODEL: Mikey Batriani
PHOTOGRAPHER: Mikey Batriani
SONG: “Yippiyo-Ay”
ARTIST: The Presets
ALBUM: Apocalypso

LISTEN:

Ooooo Skat!!

Am I pleased to meet ya
picture from the people
somethin’ I got to teach ya

Ooooooo crack!
You’re quite the creature
girl from the creature feature
tasty like to eat ya
thinkin’ so naaaaaaaaaaasty

just got me feelin
so nasty

Ooooooo pop!
take you from the 80’s
bimbos rock the latex
dingos catch the babies

Ooooooo stop!
Look we’re ready to rumble
girlfriend can you show me
the way that the cookie crumbles
thinkin so naaaaasty
The Presets www.lyrics-celebrities.anekatips.com

Just got me feelin
so nasty

Keep it rockin baby
don’t try to hide it no
give me somethin and I won’t try to fight it no
all the troubles in my mind they don’t feel so bad
when you got me in your palm slidin in your hands

Ooooooo snap!
Girls got to eat ya
cookin I gots to t-bone
hungry I need to feed her

ooooooo chunk!
Touched quite a female
checked all the styles she show
chick don’t reply to email
thinkin soo naaaaaaaaaaaaasty

just got me feelin
so nasty

Keep it rockin baby don’t try to hide it no
give me somethin and i won’t try to fight it no
all the troubles in my mind they don’t feel so bad
when you got me in your palm slidin in your hands

keep it pumpin baby don’t try to hide it no
give me somethin and I won’t try to fight it girl
all the problem in the world I don’t understand
when you got me in your arms slidin in your hands

Yippiyo-Ay
When you wear a smile
Yippiyo-Ay
When you rock a frown
Yippiyo-Ay
When you throw one off
Yippiyo-Ay
When you comin round
Yippiyo-Ay
When I’m feelin bad
Yippiyo-Ay
When I’m feelin sad
Yippiyo-Ay
Oh it ain’t so bad
Yippiyo-Ay
When I’m in your hands

Keep it rockin baby don’t try to hide it no
give me somethin and I won’t try to fight it no
all the troubles in my mind they don’t feel so bad
when you got me in your palm slidin in your hands

keep it pumpin baby don’t try to hide it no
give me somethin and i won’t try to fight it girl
all the problem in the world I don’t understand
when you got me in your arms slidin in your hands

(Yippiyo-Ay)
keep it rockin baby don’t try to hide it no
(Yippiyo-Ay)
give me somethin and i won’t try to fight it no
(Yippiyo-Ay)
all the troubles in my mind they don’t feel so bad
(Yippiyo-Ay)
when you got me in your palm slidin in your hands

Party In The Pance

jedanseexterieur — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 09:07:54 +0000

I am loving San Francisco producer trio, Pance Party, more and more…since releasing the EP “Four Million Puppies”, they’ve turned more to remixing, with versions of Chester French’s “She Loves Everybody” and, number one on Hype Machine’s popular chart, The Presets “Kicking and Screaming”.

But, there is more than meets the eye to this “dome scorching” group. Andy, originally from Philidelphia, used to work as a Neuroscientist before he made the changed to music, and now also makes custom multi-touchscreen music controllers. Eric started life in the Bay Area and found his muse in the Berlin Electro scene, and even one the Price Is Once, kudos to him! Ben (or Swardy if you like) once rode his bicycle across America and is a big fan of Subway.

Together, these boys make Pance Party, a fun, “hyper-absurd and preposterous” electro group that experience the ultimate delight in creating innovative sounds, “face-melting bass – enough raw sonic energy to turn even the most negative Nancy into a raving lunatic on the dance floor.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0Qz87FLZFU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_Fzy9tUPwo

Breaking the News #19: single Preset

may — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 04:24:11 +0000

This week it was announced that Kim Moyers, one half of Sydney sensation The Presets, will be launch

Off to Ozzie land soon...

maisquared — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 05:23:42 +0000

I’m really hoping I survive! I’ve stuck to a budget but I’m still behind on the amount of money I was hoping I’d have saved for this trip. That just means I’m going to have to be even MORE careful on what I spend while I’m away.

I’ll be camping in Melbourne and possibly camping in Sydney. Real camping, like in a tent!!! I’ve never camped before! Not to mention, camping in AUSTRALIA! where there are 1500 species of spiders (I don’t want to be eating no spiders in my sleep!) and the last time I was in Oz, there was a huge hairy spider the size of my fist chillaxin’ in a boutique as the boutique’s pet!

I feel a lot of pressure because I was given the task to plan everything and secure places for us to stay (which, has sort of failed as a lot of our hosts have had to bail out last minute) and so I wanted to share with you some of the resources I’ve used:

6 Tips to Beat Jet Lag
7 Tips for Enjoying a Small Town Stopover (we are going to be stopping for some overnight trips outside of our hubs of Sydney & Melbourne)
How to Keep your Backpack Safe (I’m not actually backpacking but close..)
How to have a frugal vacation but still treat yourself (I follow a lot of the same rules even when I’m at home)..you don’t think I’m going to try to find FREE events in Sydney/Melbourne on this trip??! haha Gonna crash from partaysss
5 Ways to stay healthy on a Backpackers Road
6 Tips to Beat Jet Lag
7 Tips for Enjoying a Small Town Stopover (we are going to be stopping for some overnight trips outside of our hubs of Sydney & Melbourne)

I have a lot of work to do while I’m in Oz, but I’ve decided to keep my laptop at home because I don’t want it to get damaged, or stolen or broken in any way (especially now that we’re camping). I’ll bring an external harddrive instead and use my PDA (gonna check to see if it’ll work overseas). I only have 3 days left to finish ALL my friggin’ work..really nervewrecking.. I have a lot of work left to do! I have a tour RIGHT after this ya know so it is kind of hectic.

Off to bed, early wake up call tomorrow & fun with my gals!

oh oh.

sümmeetria — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 16:26:16 +0000

Eriti mõnus või jaa.

pocket

otrosonido — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 03:02:45 +0000

Sam Sparro, Pocket (The Presets Remix)

myspace.com

Jam Hot Mixtape Vol. Zwei

muzzablcc — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 23:11:00 +0000

Many apologies for the sudden disappearance, university preparations have taken full priority, and as a result I haven’t been in a position to post for a while. However, I return with my second mixtape, sort of a best of the last 12 months, and there’s some belters in there. Opening and closing tunes come from David Guetta’s new album, One Love, and is pushing Ready For The Weekend for my best album of ‘09. Hope this makes up for the horrific void that was the last couple of weeks.

Jam Hot Mixtape Vol. Zwei Tracklist:

Sexy Bitch (Ft. Akon) (Abel Ramos Atlanta With Love Remix) – David Guetta

Take Me To The Hospital (Hostage Remix) – The Prodigy

Like To Freak (DJ Bam Bam Remix) – Kelevra

Bleep (Saint Pauli Remix) – Dirty Disco Youth

Moar Ghosts And Whatever – Deadmau5

Ready For The Floor (L.A. Riots vs. Villains Remix) – Hot Chip

Whatchadoin? (Villains Remix) – N.A.S.A

Baby I’m Bored – Billion Dollar DJs

Day ‘N’ Nite (Crookers Remix) – Kid Cudi

Work Is Play (DJ Barletta Boom Blast Fix) – LAZRtag

Throw It Away (Designer Drugs Remix) – Messinan

One More Drink (Loud Party Remix) – Ludacris

Kicking And Screaming (Pance Party’s Never Grow Up Remix) – The Presets

Bonkers (Ft. Armand Van Helden) (Club Mix) – Dizzee Rascal

Warp (Blaze Tripp Remix) – The Bloody Beetroots

Love Lockdown (My Dear Disco Remix) – Kanye West

I Want Your Soul (Fake Blood Remix) – Armand Van Helden

Let There Be Light (Pristine Blusters Big Bang! Remix) – Justice

Love Me, Hate Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me – FUKKK OFFF

Plastyk – Krink

Epic Last Song ( Jack Beats Remix) – Does It Offend You Yeah?

Supernova (Ft. Kanye West) ( Doorly Dubstep Remix) – Mr. Hudson

What Happens Next – Filthy Dukes

Ready For The Weekend (Fake Blood Remix) – Calvin Harris

Wearing My Rolex – Wiley

Audacity Of Huge (Naum Gabo Remix) – Simian Mobile Disco

Show Me Love (Ft. Robin S) (Afrojack Remix) – Steve Angello

Moments (Ft. Kid Cudi) – David Guetta

"Friendly Fires" - 'Friendly Fires' [Joint Review]

enantiomorphicgod — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 00:18:49 +0000

So, we’ve been sure for the past week and a half that we’ve been wanting to do ‘Friendly Fires’, so it’s given us both ample time to sit back and absorb all its musical wonders. It’s probably only happened a few times where we’ve had two albums competing for a Sunday Joint Review time slot, either because we’ve totally disagreed on an album – which is yet to come, I’m fully open to anything these days – or they’ve both been so good, we just couldn’t resist. So, if you were wondering, last week’s ‘Dappled Cities’ – “Zounds” review won out over “Friendly Fires”, which we then decided still deserved a mention today, instead. Where “Zounds” had a more laid-back, somewhat intimate and depressing attitude, “Friendly Fires” is anything but. It’s cheeky, cleverly-composed, and totally in-your-face.

With ‘Edd Gibson’ on the guitar, ‘Jack Savidge’ on drums, and the masterfully-talented ‘Ed MacFarlane’ on vocals, this dancepunk album is sure to have you grooving in the streets left, right, centre and above:

"Friendly Fires" - 'Friendly Fires'

I might receive some backlash for this comment, but ‘Friendly Fires’ are like the anti, the optimistic, the funk-infused brother of our faithful friends, ‘The Presets’. They sound nothing alike, but it’s a good opposite-comparison [wow, an oxymoron or what?] A healthy mix of synth and dumbed-down acoustic make for full-bodied tracks, and if you must have a positive-comparison, ‘Friendly Fires’ are not too dissimilar from our friend ‘Dappled Cities’ – hence my confusion for a while when I listened to their albums together. With an in-depth study, they start to lose this commonality, however. My head was spinning for a while, but I muddled my way through and picked up the pieces.

Genre, to begin with, and when I say funk-infused, I’m emphasising it – it’s not the funk we might have seen a few years ago, it’s new-age, it’s re-invigorated, and makes for upbeat listening packed full of vitamins and anti-depressants. I don’t know how else to put it, tags suggest indietronica, which is a combination of indie and electronica, which isn’t too far off the mark because it takes elements from both – but when I think of bands like that, ‘Midnight Juggernaughts” springs to mind. Dance? I guess you could dance to it, I’m not much of a dancer myself, but dance nowadays is somewhat limited to the rave-ambient-scene, this is concert-material. Overall, “Friendly Fires” is playing with three basic elements – electronica, indie and funk.

Yes, funk-infused. Mixed with – did I say healthy, if yes, I’ll say it again – a “healthy” dose of synthesised beats and samples, together with some deliciously-strung bass and tantalising vocals. When we concern the lyrics, I don’t personally find too much to rave about, they work harmoniously with track-titles, so everything’s appropriately named, unlike some albums: you know who you are, peoples. Some might find these funk-infused lyrics a little tiresome at some stages, and mildly-repetitive; example = “Lovesick”. In other places, it’s just what a song needs. If you’re the kind of person that likes an album the nudges in all emotional-directions, i.e. happiness, sadness, cheeky, soul-filled, epic+ and legend-status, then you might be a little bit weird…

… Like myself. “Friendly Fires” is like looking through a time hole, back into the past. It’s constant upbeat-nature mightn’t please some listeners/readers, but it’s just how ‘Friendly Fires’ have decided to do things this time round.

Now to individual tracks, I’ll skip track-contextualisation, because I don’t think there’s much to explain – songs just usually follow the same routine. “Jump In The Pool” opens with some synthesised vocals, an explosion of percussion: cowbells, drums, etc, and the lyrics:

“In a city sky rise hotel…” [my bad, sorry]

Phrases aren’t particularly memorable, unlike ‘Ramona Falls’, it’s the music that really makes it for ‘Friendly Fires’. When we get to the 00:35 second mark, there’s just this mass of instrument and voice, pushing the word crescendo to its limitations. It’s just building on those classic layers that make up a good song, instrumental-backing, leading-lyrics, airy-vocals. It’s probably what drew the comparison to indietronica, because it’s lacking that funk that so prominently appears throughout the rest of the album. It’s a fantastic opener for a song, it’s nudging on the epic mark, with some wonderful solos, some great riffs, and it’s just generally well-rounded.

“In The Hospital” is where we first start to see that funk creep through, and it’s here that we get this cheeky-riff. It’s the only way to describe the way the bass/guitar tickles in the background. The way “Uhh…” is eccentuated on part of ‘Ed MacFarlane’, the twisted sound of the guitar itself. Yup, very reminiscent music happening here. Again, the lyrics “in the hospital” feature appropriately, so that’s another tick in my book. When the song builds to its crescendo, we’ve got everything just powering through to the end. It’s a simple, effective musical equation, it’s successful and memorable, and in this case, ‘Friendly Fires’ pull it off for me.

“Paris” sees a return of the indietronica that we saw in “Jump In The Pool”, and so ‘Friendly Fires’ are continuously shakin’-it-up for us-guys by switching between the funk and the ‘tronica. It has the wavy-synth, the juxtaposing vocals and instrumentation, simplistic-lyrics. I won’t go into any more detail, because I’d just be repeating myself even more.

I will say that the switch between styles is probably the sole driving force behind this album, and it’s why I like it. It doesn’t give you enough time to get stuck into a specific disposition on the album for too long. I mean, if you just look at one song, you can’t justify your opinion on the rest of the album – they’re all unique, and the only thing they have in common are composition; even then, it’s limited to funk and ‘tronica. It’s something I tend to do with a few albums, pick a song, it’s the worst one they have to offer, and my opinion is made up then and there. It’s a bad habit I’ve tried to break, but you know: what’s the point of putting it on the album if it’s not up to standard. I’d rather be left wanting more from an epic+ five-piece album than a sub-standard 12-piece that’s just cobbled together with the good and the bad. I suppose the record-companies are to blame from one perspective, and the artists for obeying their almighty whim on the other.

Another argument for another day, onto the rating and I’m going to give it a funky-four, I don’t mind a bit of change every now and again, and it’s warmly welcomed in my opinion. Artists don’t have to keep looking forward for musical-change, sometimes you can take an old brass penny and make it shine again, and here we have it: “Friendly Fires”. An album well worth the review, the wait, hope you guys like it, I know I did.

Until when,

The Enantiomorphic God

'Picnic Social' Warehouse Party : Sunday Sep 6th 2009 + Kolombo Mixtape

wassimg — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 23:10:12 +0000

Details: Warehouse Party, Sunday 6th Sep 2009, 4pm – 12 Midnight

Music: Nu-Disco, Deep House & Detroit Techno

DJ’s: Mugwump/Kolobo, Simon Caldwell, Spruce Lee, Vinyl Ritchie, Kali & Disco Not Disco

Tickets: $25+ BF @ Resident Advisor

Info & Venue Details: soulofsydney@gmail.com

Mixtapes: Kolombo @ Rts FM MOSCOW Here + 5 More Kolombo Mixes Here

Description:

PICNIC is back with the latest installment of our WAREHOUSE WONDERLAND, from the crew who flew out ‘The Revenge’ & ‘Horse Meat Disco’ comes Belgian producer & deep-house wunderkind ‘MUGWUMP’ aka KOLOMBO (Gigolo/Turbo/Kompakt/Cocoon).

Also DJ’s: Simon Caldwell, Spruce Lee, Vinyl Ritchie, Kali & Disco Not Disco from 4pm til Midnight in our super-disco-phonic-sound equipped warehouse.

Mugwump hails from the city of Namur (Belgium) where’s he’s been honing his DJ and production skills and is one of few producers who’s successfully straddled big room party sounds AND caught the attention of underground music heads.

His music is equally at home on huge labels such as King Kong records (Sharam Jey’s label) with his partner Djerom under the name Loulou Players as it is on Marc Romboy’s almighty Systematic label – where he’s released under is real name.

And no-one could forget the Kolombo stuff. Yep, that’s Olivier too. From remixing The Presets “Anywhere” to originals on Turbo, Jackmoves, Kompakt, Giant Wheel and (unbelievably) even more labels to make you blush…

And then we have the Mugwump project! Under this deeper pseudonym he has released music on a dream list of labels, all dedicated to good music, still squarely aimed at the dancing floor!

Ewan Pearsons’s Misericord label? check. Hi-Phen? check. Suicide? Check. Sasse’s killer Mood Music? Check. Rob Mello’s excellent Disco 45 label? Check. What about the label to end all labels, Kompakt? Der, haven’t you heard the tech house track of year – “Fears”? Looks like we’ve got a double check there.

And our man’s not letting up… he has tracks and remixes in the pipe-line for Cocoon, R&S, Gigolo, Eskimo and is popping up again on Kompakt.

Mugwump remains always faithful to one big and simple idea: fusion. More specifically, these days Mugwump fuses disco aesthetics with modern techno leanings in what’s starting to be the sound giving guts to the “nu-disco” movement.

Dj’s support comes thick and fast for the Mugwump sound! Sven Vath, DJ Naughty, Ivan Smagghe, Pete Herbert, Ewan Pearson, Sasha, Rob Mello, The Glimmers, Mike Monday, Jef K, Chris Duckenfield, Steve Kotey, Damian Lazarus, MANDY, Kiki, Serge (Clone) or more recently Andy Weatherall, Peter Kruder, Michaël Mayer, Dubfire, Mr Scruff, Aeroplane & Mark E, to name but a few.

Tickets: Resident Advisor

Info: gimme@picnicsocial.com.au (mention soul of sydney if possible)

XX Team PICNIC

The Presets - Apocalypso

soundrevolutionhome — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 12:30:02 +0000

Apocalypso

The Presets

Apocalypso

Released: Apr 12 2008

Label: Modular

Genre: Electronic

Rating: 3.8/5

Australian dance music is as big as ever at the moment, with bands like Cut Copy, Midnight Juggernauts and Pnau getting international recognition and success. The Presets; formed of Julian Hamilton and Kim Moyes have sold out shows across the globe, including some of the world’s biggest festivals.

In 2005 The Presets debut album ‘Beams’ was released, including songs such as ‘This Boy’s In Love’ and ‘Are You The One?’, with their electro-gothic undertones, bringing a taste of something truly unique to the table. The release of ‘Apocalypso’ in 2008 didn’t fail to impress, nor bring something new to the Australian electronic scene for the second time. The album has no ‘filler’ tracks; every track produced impeccably with a unique twist. The album opens with the gothic electro style somewhat familiar to ‘Beams’ with ‘Kicking and Screaming’, however, the album concludes with the euphoric trance track ‘Anywhere’, a classic that would get anybody moving towards the dance floor.

The lyrics are catchy and powerful; Hamilton’s voice is projected effectively in every song, cleanly, a sound familiar to that of Tom Smith’s strong vocals. Every song is crafted beautifully, whether it’s through the clean sound of Hamilton’s vocals or through choppy, fast paced samples. This album is highly entertaining and refreshing – certainly worth a lot of attention; hopefully The Presets will continue to create great music and gain the identity and attention they deserve.

~ Article by James Murray

"Zounds" - 'Dappled Cities' [Joint Review]

enantiomorphicgod — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 01:17:09 +0000

I said in my Friday review that things were starting to hit the fan, and although we did finally manage to pick something in the end:

“…. Hey, hey, what about this?”

“No… too cliche. This looks interesting, what about it?”

“Uh huh, looks like shit-on-a-stick to me.”

“Yeah uh, but it could sound good.”

“Nuh uh…”

“Yeah uh…”

“Nuh uh…”

“Yeah uh…”

And so the argument sprung forth, and God was happy. And on the eighth, ill-conceived day, he brought forth “Zounds” by ‘Dappled Cities’, and his disciples looked upon it with a greedy gaze, for they were happy too. Together, they danced around the raging bonfire called “Zounds”, and all was seen to be good:

"Zounds" - 'Dappled Cities'

I’ve had about a day to really get into “Zounds”, and people, there is so much here to begin with, that it’s really going to be hard to get out of the niche that ‘Dappled Cities’ have constructed for us-guys. There’s a healthy mix of everything going on, it’s not just indie, it’s electronica, its ambience, post-rock, pop-and-all-his-friends; anything but ordinary. It’s like listening to ‘The Killers’, ‘The Presets’, ‘Franz Ferdinand’ with some ‘Engineers’ for good luck and a touch of the ‘Midnight Juggernaughts‘ for emphasis. It’s official, those are some of the most prominent bands at the moment, made famous by their signature-styles; key-and-tempo shifts, spastic-synth, layers-layers-layers, and lyrics-lyrics-lyrics, with exquisite-vocals, with epic+ track after epic+ track. More importantly, there most of my favourite artists, so ‘Dappled Cities’ – cheers to you guys, you’ve struck many-a-chord with my musical-tastes.

… And now I’ve seen it, boys and girls, ladies and gentlemen, an album that oozes so much epic that it’s just too much epic. Negative-epic, never – it is totally inconceivable for such albums to exist. I’ve never thought it possible. So, here’s the info you guys have been craving:

‘Dappled Cities’ apparently formed on the East Coast, guys – Sydney, Australia. And I think I can safely say that this tops any of the stuff that I’ve seen come from Sydney in the meanwhile. It’s got the indie-style that’s been missing, quite frankly I’ll say, from the Perth scene in the better part of this year. And you thought “Humbug” was good, in my personal opinion, ‘Arctic Monkeys’ pale in comparison to ‘Dappled Cities’. Look, I’ve given ‘Arctic Monkeys’ many a chance to prove me wrong, but they’ve always come short, and I’m at the end of my tether. Look, ‘Dappled Cities’ even bought me chocolates – in a heart-shaped box.

Come on, ‘Arctic Monkeys’, keep up with that!

Now onto the style of the album, and when I say it’s got a mix of everything, I do mean it. Tracks are so successful because I think that ‘Dappled Cities’ have neglected album-context and gone for epic-context. I don’t think I could safely apply epic-context with any other album I’ve reviewed this past year, because there’s always been a track that I’ve thought could stand a little more work, or was just casually added for some album-length. Suffice to say, even then I gave it a five, or a four, so it’s not to say that they failed miserably. What constitutes epic-context, you ask?

Tracks are so dissimilar from one-and-other, that you’ll find the album works like the acts of a play, or the chapters of a book, complete with cliff-hangers and all, deaths, tragedies, and many-a-birth – you name it: resurrections+. When I mean ‘The Killers’, I mean the lyrical-genius that they abound in, when I mean ‘The Presets’, I mean the synth that is so characteristically them, ‘Franz Ferdinand’ and their key-and-tempo shifting art-form, ‘Engineers’ and their multi-facet-layering and ‘Midnight Juggernaughts’ and their spicy-synth-indie combinations. All of them together make up the whole of “Zounds”.

And onto songs themselves, we’ll start right from the beginning: “Hold Your Back” opens with some off-key synth, some reminiscent acou. percussion and the crazy bleed of Preset-like-ambience. This combines to form the basis for the entire track, and when the lyrics:

“Hold your back… ” appear, it’s like listening to the lead of ‘Coldplay’ – and their stolen off-key vocals. It slowly powers through this lengthy repetition of lyrics/solo, slowly building to a chorus here, a chorus there, with multiple key-changes which are characteristic of post-rock and some indie music forms. By the end, we’ve got our guitar, our synth, our ambient-synth, or lyrics/vocals, and some crazy instrumental-vocals sounding off in the background that are uncannily like the pitch of ‘The Temper Trap‘.

“Uhh… Uh… Uhhhhh… Uhhh…” they whine.

By the time we reach the second track, we’re fully immersed in the five-minute-intro. “Answer Is Zero” follows the first, and again, it begins with the base-layer of percussion-like-vocals, acou. percussion, with the explosion of guitar and then the icing called the lyrics. If you must see fault with anything ‘Dappled Cities’ has to offer, it’s this cleverly composed musical-equation that they follow throughout the album, and this is perhaps the only consistency you’ll find.

“The Price” follows, and begins with the scratch of guitar, an emphatic-entrance of synth and the lyrics:

“If eyes were bone and toes were gold, we’d have somebody new…”

Here, we see the flaunt of their guitar as it reaches these startling highs and quiet lows. There’s still that same musical-equation which sees them build to a chorus, or power through to the end. But it works so well, that you’ll ignore these minutia. So, I’ll move onto my personal favourite, and it’s smack-bang in the middle of the album: well, fourth, that was an excited-overstatement…

“Wooden Ships”, opens with this solemn, synthetic brass, and you’ll see some more ‘TTT’ qualities, because the vocals start off softly on the girlish-highs. It’s in a really different light compared to the trio-openers, and instead of this upbeat-glee that was present before, it’s replaced with this new-found intimacy, somewhat-sadness, and it’s typical of post-rock. The lyrics here, are exemplary – key-shifts make up the urgency on the chorus, and shake the song up a bit so it doesn’t follow through with the same consistency it had to begin with. At 3:34, we have a soon to be infamous, stop and start routine, but I’ll leave that up to your imagination.

And I’ll leave it there, the rest are for your pleasure. Now, the rating. I find that the album is full-bodied, generous, tracks length at around the five-minute mark, and it easily goes for an hour. It lacks speed, so it won’t feel like “Conditions”, conversely, it can sometimes drag its feet a little, so you might get lost a bit along the way. But, to make up for it, ‘Dappled Cities’ epitomise the word ‘thief’. They’ve taken little bits from other bands and made it their own, and it’s a characteristic I’ve seen fail a few times – you’ve got to be bloody good to pull it off. I saw ‘Jet’ do it, and they fell off radar completely. Somehow, ‘Dappled Cities’ have taken the best of everything and made it even better. Then again, epic-context has been given a definition – but with so many epic+ tracks, I need at least one at legend-status to fully give it a five; at the moment, it’s somewhere around 4.9888888. Definitely a buy, definitely a listen – go on out and treat yourself!

Until when,

The Enantiomorphic God