music

Decibel Festival ten years on…

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It’s been ten years since the Decibel Festival (read here other news) first hit the airwaves. In the last decade, what was intended to be a festival to help Sean Horton’s city club scene has become a globally recognised electronic music event.

Decibel is staged in Seattle, Washington during the last week of September with more than 100 of the top artists in the business show up to entertain an eager audience.

Pezzner, Lusine, Kid Smpl… those are the acts that grace the stage in Seattle. Sean Horton started the festival in 2004 after exuberant reaction to the Dreaming In Stereo parties.

“There wasn’t much really going on at all in the way of electronic music events”,  he told Electronic Beats. “ The people that were coming out were basically thanking me and saying there was no other way for them to experience this music live. Those people are still what I’d consider to be our core audience today”.

Decibel moved from being called the Northwest Electronic Music Festival to its current moniker and according to Horton that title helped the festival grow leaps and bounds.

Decibel is a big attraction for club goers. What a way to enjoy a great afternoon with the family!

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Big city life is tough says Factory Floor

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Big city life can be tough the English band Factory Floor (write here something about Factory Floor) says. Speaking in this month’s edition of Electronic Beats Magazine, the band, which released its third album, recently said that living in East London or any other big city is a very difficult environment.

The release of the band has made Nik Void, Dominic Butler, and Gabe Gurnsey, the members of Factory Floor the leaders of contemporary electronic post-punk.

Dominic lives in Dorset while Nik Void, who now lives in Norfolk, says he loves the big city life. “I moved out of it and I miss it a lot. I’ve moved to the country now but at the time of doing the record in the first year, I think I had two jobs, as well. Going to work on the tube during rush hour and then coming back here and then it was like (scats).”

The band works out of a warehouse which Nik says was fortunate as spaces like that are hard to come by these days.

“There’s always been someone in here using it as an art space. I’m really conscious, knowing there’s hardly any space like this, that if someone was into the same things I was doing, I would start to get a bit like, ‘don’t start looking around because you’re not having this place’ [laughs]. You get really territorial”.

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Penny Penny launches album

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South African house musician Penny Penny is coming out with an album. The musician, who hails from the Rainbow Nation, is a product of the Awesome Tapes From Africa.

The album entitled Shaka Bandu is a full-length production. Penny Penny was the youngest of 68 children and after the end of apartheid, while still in his 30’s released an album which is now one of South Africa’s most celebrated house music albums.

Penny Penny is now a politician with the African National Congress (ANC). Shaka Bandu was released in Xitsgona language and sold over quarter million copies in his homeland.

The album also has a 100bpm and was put together with Atari, Korg M1 synthesiser, and reel-to-reel tape over a 1 week period.

Awesome Tapes From Africa started the year with a bang with the release of Hailu Mergia’s “Hailu Mergia And His Classical Instrument” which is being described as one of the “best reissues of the year”. The next edition edition will be released on November 12 across all formats. The album’s standout is ‘Shichangani’.

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Delroy Edwards launches new label

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Los Angeles-based producer Delroy Edwards is planning to launch his own music label – L.A. Club Resource.

The label will be launched with a solo two-track EP that Edwards himself produced. LACR001 is a 12” due to be released on October 1. Edwards will follow this up with an EP by DJ Harlow with three variations of “Waxwork”.

According to Resident Advisor, possible future work for the label could come from the likes of Parisian producer Low Jacks and Gene Hunt of Chicago house music fame.

The DJ burned up the airwaves last year on the L.I.E.S. imprint of Ron Morelli after the two worked together at A-1 Records in New York City.

Edwards, who bears the name of a Jamaican drug dealer who was murdered in Brooklyn in 1985, has been making waves in Europe and toured with Morelli and Steve Summers on L.I.E.S’ Non-Stop Tour earlier this year.

He is among a group of producers who has gained notoriety for a sound that is more “nebulous and incongruous” than other dance music sounds around.

Among his other tracks are ‘Heart & Soul‘ and ‘4 Club Use Only‘.

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Sonic Grooves to release Scattered Thoughts

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Sonic Groove will release their next record this Wednesday, September 18 with a reissue of the twenty-year old “Scattered Thoughts” track from the group Separate Minds.

The track was originally produced by Lou Robinson and Vernell Shelton from Scan 7. They produced the track under the alias when it first appeared on Troubled World – an EP first released in 1993.

Troubled World, a very rare EP was released on Direct Hit, a Separate Minds imprint. The track is a blend of techno and atmosphere electronic and is expected to meld well with Sonic Groove which is said to “breathe new life into this masterpiece of a song.”

The newly remasters track will also feature a remix from Traversable Wormhole also known as Sonic Groove’s head honcho Adam X.

The album will be on vinyl and digital. Digital will follow in another 3 weeks.

Other records being produced by Sonic Groove now include a collaboration with Perc. The records tracklist includes on the A side Scattered Thoughts Detroit Version and the B side the Traversable Wormhole 2013 Revisit.

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Morrisey cancels autobiography

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Singer Morrissey (read here more info) is said to be searching for a new publisher after he cancelled plans to produce an autobiography with publishers Penguin. The plans were scrapped at the last minute after a content disagreement between the singer and Penguin Books.

The book entitled “Autobiography” was to be available in the United Kingdom on Monday, September 16 but it seems there were issues for a while as no review copies were printed.

Morrissey, who made his name with Smiths wrote the book in 2011 and has been searching for a publisher and eventually stated that he wished the book to be printed as a Penguin Classic.

“I’d like it to go to Penguin, but only if they published it as a Classic. When you consider what really hits print these days and when you look at the autobiographies and how they are sold, most of it is appalling. It’s a publishing event, not a literary event”, he said in an interview with BBC Radio 4previously.

Meanwhile, Penguin has neither confirmed nor denied that the book was due to be published. Morrissey has not had a very good year in 2013. He had to cancel his entire tour of South America after suffering case of food poisoning while his doctor has told to retire in the interest of his health.

Singer Morrissey is said to be searching for a new publisher after he cancelled plans to produce an autobiography with publishers Penguin. The plans were scrapped at the last minute after a content disagreement between the singer andPenguin Books.

The book entitled “Autobiography” was to be available in the United Kingdom on Monday, September 16 but it seems there were issues for a while as no review copies were printed.

Morrissey, who made his name with Smiths wrote the book in 2011 and has been searching for a publisher and eventually stated that he wished the book to be printed as a Penguin Classic.

“I’d like it to go to Penguin, but only if they published it as a Classic. When you consider what really hits print these days and when you look at the autobiographies and how they are sold, most of it is appalling. It’s a publishing event, not a literary event”, he said in an interview with BBC Radio 4previously. Meanwhile, Penguin has neither confirmed nor denied that the book was due to be published.

Morrissey has not had a very good year in 2013. He had to cancel his entire tour of South America after suffering case of food poisoning while his doctor has told to retire in the interest of his health.

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Podgorica Festival a hit

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The Electronic Beats Fall Festival got off with a bang with the first festival in Podgorica in Montenegro (read here more news about Podgorica). Some of the acts in the lineup were Disclosure, Mount Kimbie, and Retro Stefson.

The event was staged in a small sports stadium with not so great weather as there were a few rain showers.

Retro Stefson opened the concert with high energy from the eight-piece synth-pop group presenting music from their latest self-titled album which was released earlier this year.

Mount Kimbie, who also released their second album earlier this year, and are currently on tour in Europe and the USA, contributed to an already party atmosphere with soundtrack from the musical duo of Dominic Maker and Kai Campos out of London.

The sibling pair of Guy and Howard Lawrence, otherwise known as Disclosure, had a good-sized crowd by the time they took to the stage. Still only a few months after they released their debut album, the pair were eagerly awaited by the soaking-wet Podgorica crowd.

The Electronic Beats Fall series will continue with concerts in Zagreb, Croatia and Dresden, Germany later this year.

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Clara Moto prepares for double release

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After spending three years away touring and working in the studio, Clara Moto (read here other things about Clara Moto) is preparing to return with the release of the five-track EP “Joy Departed” this month.

A second album “Blue Distance” will be released in November. The DJ spent the summer in the Canary Islands and travelled around Europe playing gigs and just exploring before returning to Berlin this month for the release of her first album.

Among the titles on the album are “Joy Departed”, “Disposable Darling”, and “For The Love WeLost” and in an interview with I Voice ClaraMoto said that many of the tracks reference literature or songs.

‘“Joy Departed” is from Edgar Allan Poe… and “Disposable Darling” is a line from Roxy Music’s “Every Dreamhome A Heartache”. That’s where I find my inspiration,’ she said.

ClaraMoto’s debut was “Polyamour” and she says the new material was all natural.

“That’s how I’ve been working over the last two years. I tried to make a lot of dance tracks but it ended up this way”, she said. ‘“Blue Distance” isn’t a dance album at all, really. It’s very satisfying having the freedom to do that.

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It’s been 25 years for DJT

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DJT is celebrating 25 years in the business in 2013 and according to the DJ it does feel like a long time.

 

The DJ sat down for an interview with Electronic Beats and said that because life and clubculture had gone through so many changes in the last two and half decades he feels like he has lived several lives since then.

 

DJT, who is releasing two albums to celebrate the milestone, went into the business after discovering his passion for music, dancing, and collecting vinyl records.

 

“I can remember when I did my first mix as if it was yesterday. We prepared the birthday-party of a friend and I had two pitchable turntables in my hands for the first time. There was one hour to go till the start of the party and I had nothing to do, so I instinctively started to play around with two records of Kool & The Gang”.

 

The albums, AGES, will feature one track from each of the 25 years in business. The first has already been released and a second is being worked on.

 

“The main aspect of the concept was to mainly get tracks that were never available digitally before and are timeless enough to be played in contemporary sets,” he said.

 

“When I started digging deep in my vinyl collection to select the tracklist, there were too many great tracks coming my way. I simply couldn’t resist making a second volume with the same concept”.

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Sister Bliss goes “Faithless” again

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Sister Bliss has released her first solo album in a decade, more than two years after her former band Faithless retired. The album’s first single is Ain’t There and features vocals by rapper Fem El.

Faithless said adieu in 2011 with a farewell performance at London‘s Brixton Academy in April in a show that was beamed live around the world. The band was one of the biggest selling dance-music bands of all time.

Classically-trained musician Sister Bliss in the time since the band retired has relaunched the Junkdog label and hosts a syndicated radio show on Ministry of Sound Radio.

The DJ admits that moving away from the band has helped her find more time for things such as running her record label and collaborating with other artists.

And Sister Bliss says she uses the programme to showcase deeper underground house music including Psychemagik, Disclosure, and Visionquest as well as EDM music from Eric Prydz, EDX, and Jakwob.

Bliss and the Faithless crew reunited for a live set at Electric Brixton nightclub in London in May. The gig was in aid of Crystal Palace‘s youth club.

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