New Telepathics
If you are in London, check this out. I've heard some of the album, it's wicked. Dunno when it's out here, but I'm sure it will appear at some point round these parts.
"To celebrate the launch of both the spacific.net website and the debut album by New Telepathics, Spacific returns to where it all began back in august 2001 with a live performance by the 8 piece New Telepathics, and beats from Miss Mill (Soma), Bill Scott and special guest DJs, it will certainly not feel like a normal Monday night!
New Telepathics is the brainchild of Darryn Harkness, brought into being with the assistance of Sandy Mill and Tom Fielding. Together they have created a melting pot of afro-beat, soul, jazz, funk and house - similar in vibe to the west London broken beat sound or that of the Tru Thoughts /Quantic output. Their live set is never the same, with improvisation and rythmic complexity the key. The band includes 2 drum kits, 2 bass players, keyboards, horns, vocals, and a theramin!
Darryn's other project is the rock band Serafin, who are signed to Pias/Sony and have spent the summer touring with Frank Black of the Pixies. Sandy Mill has worked with a host of musical stars, from Gary Numan and Placebo to Basement Jaxx and Dick Johnson and Lofty and Bob Jones's East West Connection.
Spacific is a multimedia collective dedicated to promoting creative culture, especially music, from Aotearoa / New Zealand. Although they only adopted the name in 2003, Spacific has been operating since 2001. Since then they have promoted events at Cargo and Fabric in London, La Sal in Barcelona, Taboo in Madrid and the Batofar in Paris."
LIVE: NEW TELEPATHICS
DJS: MISS MILL + BILL SCOTT + THE SPACIFIC ALL STARS
8pm to 1am, £5 / £3 NUS
on 18/10/2004 at Cargo.
Wednesday, September 29, 2004
Who got the flavours?
On Tuesday night on the Holla Hour on C4, DJ Sirvere played videos from several artists on his latest mix cd/mixtape compilation Major Flavours 5, which came out Monday and shipped platinum, he told us, so congrats to him.
The second half of the show was the exclusive premiere of the documentary on the Making of Major Flavours 5, which focuses on Sirvere making a trip to New York, to hook up licensing tunes and do a bit of record shopping, as you do.
He managed to hook up with DJ Premier to go record shopping, which is pretty damn cool. Seeing them flip thru every De La Soul 12" you could ever want at The Sound Library was pretty impressive. Premier took him to see his new recording studio, the former D & D Studio, legendary for many famous hiphop recordings.
It's a very cool little doco, and if you missed it, if you grab a copy of Major Flavours 5 quick, the DVD of the Making Of... comes as a special bonus disk, along with More Aotearoa Flavours, a cd of brand new local hiphop styles.
The launch party is this saturday night at The Studio, 340 K Rd, as part of the weekend events for the Aotearoa Hiphop Summit, happening on in Aotea Square for free on Friday and Saturday (programme here). Get along and check some fresh Aotearoa hiphop styles - MCs, breakers, graffiti artists, DJs, the works!
Official mix cds are easily overshadowed by the unofficial mix cd scene, which Sivere noted in the doco is absolutely massive in NY - there's people selling you mix cds on the street corners, etc. Ex-pat Kirk Harding (now working in NY for SRC as exec vice-president alongside former Loud records boss Steve Rifkin - go Kirk!) described the mix cd scene as one of the most important ways for promotion of new artists, alongside radio. 50 Cent and Eminem both used the mix cd scene as a way of gaining valuable exposure on their rise to the top.
So, if mix cds are widely used by the mainstream record companies, why has the music industry started prosecuting those involved with them? These two stories, one from the US and one from Australia, suggest that the mix cd scene is coming under attack. It doesn't spell the end of mix cds, but as one of these articles suggests, mix cds will now be sold under the counter, and if you phone up and ask a shop if they have them , they will say no, even if they do.
from Nuvo...
Alan and Andy Berry, owners of Berry’s Music stores, saw their nine-month legal nightmare end June 22 in a plea bargain. What was initially 13 felony counts of copyright infringement, leveled by the Recording Industry Association of America, was finally reduced to a single misdemeanor (and a hefty fine). But the real punishment was meted out months ago: Alan Berry lost his livelihood, lost the business he loved and nurtured for 13 years, may yet lose his house. And the crime for which he’s paid this price? Selling DJ mix-CDs...
For an idea of how completely the majors have taken mix-CDs to heart, consider one of Indianapolis’ top DJs, Paul Bunyon. In recent years, he’s received numerous awards from the record industry, including gold and platinum records, for the part his mixtapes play in selling mega-numbers of CDs by artists like Ludacris and Lil Jon. For the industry to acknowledge the value of mixtapes to this extent, then turn around and bring charges against stores for selling them, seems disingenuous at best. “It’s mind numbing,” Alan says, “because it seems so blatantly dipping out of both sides. If the record companies really have a problem with mix-CDs, why wouldn’t they go after the source? They have signed artists, DJs that put out both regular albums and monthly street mixes. Why wouldn’t they contact them and say, ‘Hey why are you guys putting that stuff out?’”
from Downhill Battle...
This crackdown on mixtapes is devastating small hip hop record stores. Just this past week we were contacted by Alan Berry, whose Indianapolis record store was raided by the RIAA last fall.
"We have since lost both of our stores... I can't get a job with 13 felonies hanging on my resume. My court date is less than a month away. So please anyone that knows someone that can help me, pass this info to them. I BEG for myself and my family. I don't think anyone should go to jail for selling mix cds. To my brothers in the industry, please help get the word out. My time is short. Thanks. " Read more here.
Pirates face the music
By PETER HOLMES entertainment writer
Sunday Telegraph Australia August 8, 2004
"RECORD labels will continue hunting down nightclub DJs responsible for CD piracy, despite racking up hundreds of thousands of dollars in unrecoupable legal bills.
In a recent Federal Court case, five local DJs – Moto, Chocolate Boy Wonder, Peter Gunz, Demo and Tickelz – and Joe Sitoa, a director of Anthem Records, were found to have infringed record label copyright by producing six pirated compilation CDs.
The CDs featured the DJs' personal remixes of songs by famous acts including Ja Rule and Jennifer Lopez, and were sold and given away to fans and friends.
The DJs and Sitoa were fined a total of $48,000, and ordered to contribute $90,000 towards the record labels' $224,000 legal bill..."
UPDATE: Local music label head honcho Simon Grigg has an interesting response to this issue on his blog here.
Tuesday, September 28, 2004
Coolfer's Tips for Music Consumers
So it's coming from a US perspective, but there's some good basic advice in here, worth pondering. Have a lookee.
"Consumers often make themselves out to be victims who forced into paying outrageous prices for music that costs nothing to make. If this were a political cartoon, one of the "victim's" arms would be held behind his/her back by the music industry as the free arm pays a cashier for a stack of CDs. There's too much exaggerating going on--or ignorance.
Most music--the more mainstream music, generally--doesn't come cheap, and if you paid for it, then it wasn't too expensive, was it? (After all, we're not talking about a staples like bread, milk or flour. You don't have to buy music.) If you truly want to take steps to find better deals, it's not that difficult. I'm amazed that people will drive ten miles out of the way to save a nickel on a gallon of gas but they don't pursue ways to buy music for less money...
For every dispute over royalties and claims that a label is not acting out of good faith, there's a Courtney Love who sabotages the chances for her album's success--which is far from acting out of good faith toward her record label..."
Read it here.
So it's coming from a US perspective, but there's some good basic advice in here, worth pondering. Have a lookee.
"Consumers often make themselves out to be victims who forced into paying outrageous prices for music that costs nothing to make. If this were a political cartoon, one of the "victim's" arms would be held behind his/her back by the music industry as the free arm pays a cashier for a stack of CDs. There's too much exaggerating going on--or ignorance.
Most music--the more mainstream music, generally--doesn't come cheap, and if you paid for it, then it wasn't too expensive, was it? (After all, we're not talking about a staples like bread, milk or flour. You don't have to buy music.) If you truly want to take steps to find better deals, it's not that difficult. I'm amazed that people will drive ten miles out of the way to save a nickel on a gallon of gas but they don't pursue ways to buy music for less money...
For every dispute over royalties and claims that a label is not acting out of good faith, there's a Courtney Love who sabotages the chances for her album's success--which is far from acting out of good faith toward her record label..."
Read it here.
Tuesday, August 24, 2004
Friday, August 13, 2004
Too much weed.
BBC reports: "Hip-hop band the Black Eyed Peas have lost about $US500,000 worth of instruments and other items in a fire at a recording studio in California.
The act were recording their new album, Monkey Business, at the Glenwood Place Studios in Burbank, California.
Band members lit candles during the recording session but forgot to blow them out, Burbank Fire Captain Ron Bell told reporters.
Band member Will I Am told KABC-TV: "Guitars, drums, drum kits, keyboards, microphones, classic instruments that we've collected with our worldly travels are now destroyed."
You aint so worldly if you got so toasted you forgot to blow out the candles. Hippies.
BBC reports: "Hip-hop band the Black Eyed Peas have lost about $US500,000 worth of instruments and other items in a fire at a recording studio in California.
The act were recording their new album, Monkey Business, at the Glenwood Place Studios in Burbank, California.
Band members lit candles during the recording session but forgot to blow them out, Burbank Fire Captain Ron Bell told reporters.
Band member Will I Am told KABC-TV: "Guitars, drums, drum kits, keyboards, microphones, classic instruments that we've collected with our worldly travels are now destroyed."
You aint so worldly if you got so toasted you forgot to blow out the candles. Hippies.
Thursday, August 12, 2004
Get loose
The D4 are making a racket at the Rising Sun tonight before they tear off to the US to play at Little Steven's International Underground Garage Festival. What? Read this...
"[The Festival] will feature Iggy and the Stooges, the Strokes, the New York Dolls, Bo Diddley, Big Star, the Pretty Things, the Raveonettes, the Dictators, the Electric Prunes, the Mooney Suzuki, the Woggles, the Lyres, the Star Spangles, the Gore Gore Girls, Nancy Sinatra, the Creation and many others. The headliners will play full sets, but most bands will play just a few songs.
For Mr. Van Zandt, who at 53 still wears the loose, brightly colored garb that earned him the nickname Miami Steve, the radio show and the festival - which he hopes to make an annual event - represent a revival of rough, honest, beautiful garage rock as a musical form and a redemption from restrictive radio formats that rely on familiarity and market testing."
The article originally appears on the New York Times site, but its archived over here for your reading pleasure, cos they are stingy at the Times with their archives.
Meanwhile, upstairs at 4:20, i'll be playing in support of my man MC Word Perfect, who is launching his album tonight.
Friday night I will be off to check out Champion Sound with Ruffian, Earl E and Cian at Rakinos, some nice reggae styles, Saturday I'll be playing in Hamilton at Catalyst (Dub Asylum, Bassteppa, the Midnights and more), and Sunday at 2.30pm I'll be playing a short set at the Music Expo at Sky City Convention Centre. Have a good one, yeah?
The D4 are making a racket at the Rising Sun tonight before they tear off to the US to play at Little Steven's International Underground Garage Festival. What? Read this...
"[The Festival] will feature Iggy and the Stooges, the Strokes, the New York Dolls, Bo Diddley, Big Star, the Pretty Things, the Raveonettes, the Dictators, the Electric Prunes, the Mooney Suzuki, the Woggles, the Lyres, the Star Spangles, the Gore Gore Girls, Nancy Sinatra, the Creation and many others. The headliners will play full sets, but most bands will play just a few songs.
For Mr. Van Zandt, who at 53 still wears the loose, brightly colored garb that earned him the nickname Miami Steve, the radio show and the festival - which he hopes to make an annual event - represent a revival of rough, honest, beautiful garage rock as a musical form and a redemption from restrictive radio formats that rely on familiarity and market testing."
The article originally appears on the New York Times site, but its archived over here for your reading pleasure, cos they are stingy at the Times with their archives.
Meanwhile, upstairs at 4:20, i'll be playing in support of my man MC Word Perfect, who is launching his album tonight.
Friday night I will be off to check out Champion Sound with Ruffian, Earl E and Cian at Rakinos, some nice reggae styles, Saturday I'll be playing in Hamilton at Catalyst (Dub Asylum, Bassteppa, the Midnights and more), and Sunday at 2.30pm I'll be playing a short set at the Music Expo at Sky City Convention Centre. Have a good one, yeah?
Wednesday, August 11, 2004
Dancing barefoot
O-Dub is part of a round-table discussion on MP3 blogging over at Morning News...
"TMN: If all music goes digital—digital format, bought, sold, and spread online—what will you miss most about going to the record store?
MB: The great American pastime: flirting with the cute record-store girl! Also running into famous people and musicians and finding out what they’re buying and selling and whatnot. Years ago I was in [unnamed record store] in New York City and got to watch a clerk being an absolute sneering bastard to a nondescript middle-aged woman (who he seemed to think couldn’t possibly be cool enough to deserve to shop in his store) until his friend politely informed him that he might want to be a little more friendly to Patti Smith. You don’t get that kind of experience online!"
Read it over here.
Read the last Rick James interview yet? The dude's outlook was awesome. What a loss. He was planning to do his own reality show (not as wack as it sounds). Did you know he was a Muslim?
O-Dub is part of a round-table discussion on MP3 blogging over at Morning News...
"TMN: If all music goes digital—digital format, bought, sold, and spread online—what will you miss most about going to the record store?
MB: The great American pastime: flirting with the cute record-store girl! Also running into famous people and musicians and finding out what they’re buying and selling and whatnot. Years ago I was in [unnamed record store] in New York City and got to watch a clerk being an absolute sneering bastard to a nondescript middle-aged woman (who he seemed to think couldn’t possibly be cool enough to deserve to shop in his store) until his friend politely informed him that he might want to be a little more friendly to Patti Smith. You don’t get that kind of experience online!"
Read it over here.
Read the last Rick James interview yet? The dude's outlook was awesome. What a loss. He was planning to do his own reality show (not as wack as it sounds). Did you know he was a Muslim?
Monday, August 09, 2004
Rick James, RIP
Read his final interview here.
Scrubs
Zach Braff from Scrubs has a blog about his first film (as writer and director, plus acting in it) Garden State... "Today was the second day of Scrubs. I shot my first scene with Heather Graham. Without giving anything away, it involved me being sopping wet and close to naked. Sort of an odd way to meet someone and get to know them. But that's what makes Scrubs fun, everyday I show up I have no idea what kind of bizarre thing is gonna happen. Tomorrow we're blowing up a car. Now that's a good day job..."
Methodman is in it (Garden State), check his interview on the site under Making Garden State. And watch the one called Ice. Some quality canine acting. Heh heh.
There's an entertainingly trite slice of video over on TVNZ's site, a report from Breakfast by Jay Harkness on the 'new phenomenon of blogging', looking at the impact and asking will it last. Look for a clip called 'The rantings and ravings of bloggers'. Amazingly, they got throught the entire piece without mentioning Salaam Pax. Or famous bloggers like Michael Moore or major media blogs like on the NY Times, The Listener (NZ), or Russell Brown's various blog activities...
Wednesday, August 04, 2004
The Jurassic age (originally posted on Public Address)
Jurassic 5 are tagged as being hiphop revivalists, recalling the party era of rap. They ditched that notion midway thru their show at the St James with a song introduced as "this is about the war in Iraq", followed by the groups four MCs raising their middle finger in the air while rapping the lyric "Well, I’m not hesitant in saying truck the President", cept they used another word that sounds like like truck, but starts with F. You get the picture.
The J 5 took their sweet time getting here - originally schedule to play here last October, they opted for more Australian dates instead. Now they made it, and the appreciative crowd is very happy to see them.
According to the NZ Herald's Rebecca Barry, the gig started with warmup sets from Scribe and "a duo who strapped their turntables and keyboards to their bodies and played them as though they were a rock band." Um, no.
What really happened was this. DJ Manuel Bundy played a few tunes, local MC Tha Feelstyle delivered a brief set (I didn’t make it in time to catch this, but have heard a few tunes on the radio - watch out for his album, due out in a few months, it will knock heads and blow minds) and then Scribe did a subdued set. His voice was a little lacking in power, looked like he might’ve been a bit crook. He was followed by Manuel Bundy, then Jurassic 5 strolled onstage.
They ripped thru half a dozen songs, then the 4 MCs (Chali 2na, Akil, Zaakir, Marc 7) left the stage and had a breather, while DJ’s Nu-Mark and Cut Chemist had some fun. Cut Chemist scratched away on the turntables, while Nu-Mark jumped on a drumkit and banged out a beat. Then Nu-Mark banged out a tune on a bunch of kid's music blocks, which was pretty twisted. For their final trick, Cut strapped on a portable turntable while Nu-Mark had a drum machine round his neck, and they grooved away down front (I think this is 'the duo' that Barry was referring to). If she arrived at this point, she would’ve also missed Nu-Mark sitting at a school desk, banging away at sample pads stuck to its surface, triggering a funky rhythm. J5 must be the only touring act in the world that include a beaten up old school desk in their road kit.
The crowd response was dynamite. The energy from the stage was well matched by the enthusiastic audience, and J5 namechecked Scribe, telling us that we should go out and buy his album, if we didn’t have it already – "support your own". Scribe joined the group later for a freestyle. Chali 2na pointed at his throat while Scribe was rapping, suggesting the dude had a sore throat. He’s a trooper tho.
The J5 live experience is one tight machine, well-practised stage moves, but not too many hiphop cliches, and it delivers the goods. If you didn’t smile at least once during this show, you had a face made of stone. When the show finished, they invited the crowd down to the official afterparty at Fu Bar with DJ Nu-Mark playing, then casually strolled offstage, put down their mics, and the MCs walked to the front, shaking hands and signing autographs. Nu-Mark and Cut Chemist packed up their record bags and left the stage, but came back out to meet and greet their fans, Chali 2na signing someone’s shoe! A charmingly low key end to a warm, genuine show.
I headed off to the Fu Bar, and partied with Nu-Mark til the break of dawn – well, they did invite us, and it would’ve been rude not to go - and then walked home, showered, and went to work. Had a nap under my desk, woke up, wrote this, and went back to sleep. Wake me at 5. Later. (written on Monday)
Jurassic 5 are tagged as being hiphop revivalists, recalling the party era of rap. They ditched that notion midway thru their show at the St James with a song introduced as "this is about the war in Iraq", followed by the groups four MCs raising their middle finger in the air while rapping the lyric "Well, I’m not hesitant in saying truck the President", cept they used another word that sounds like like truck, but starts with F. You get the picture.
The J 5 took their sweet time getting here - originally schedule to play here last October, they opted for more Australian dates instead. Now they made it, and the appreciative crowd is very happy to see them.
According to the NZ Herald's Rebecca Barry, the gig started with warmup sets from Scribe and "a duo who strapped their turntables and keyboards to their bodies and played them as though they were a rock band." Um, no.
What really happened was this. DJ Manuel Bundy played a few tunes, local MC Tha Feelstyle delivered a brief set (I didn’t make it in time to catch this, but have heard a few tunes on the radio - watch out for his album, due out in a few months, it will knock heads and blow minds) and then Scribe did a subdued set. His voice was a little lacking in power, looked like he might’ve been a bit crook. He was followed by Manuel Bundy, then Jurassic 5 strolled onstage.
They ripped thru half a dozen songs, then the 4 MCs (Chali 2na, Akil, Zaakir, Marc 7) left the stage and had a breather, while DJ’s Nu-Mark and Cut Chemist had some fun. Cut Chemist scratched away on the turntables, while Nu-Mark jumped on a drumkit and banged out a beat. Then Nu-Mark banged out a tune on a bunch of kid's music blocks, which was pretty twisted. For their final trick, Cut strapped on a portable turntable while Nu-Mark had a drum machine round his neck, and they grooved away down front (I think this is 'the duo' that Barry was referring to). If she arrived at this point, she would’ve also missed Nu-Mark sitting at a school desk, banging away at sample pads stuck to its surface, triggering a funky rhythm. J5 must be the only touring act in the world that include a beaten up old school desk in their road kit.
The crowd response was dynamite. The energy from the stage was well matched by the enthusiastic audience, and J5 namechecked Scribe, telling us that we should go out and buy his album, if we didn’t have it already – "support your own". Scribe joined the group later for a freestyle. Chali 2na pointed at his throat while Scribe was rapping, suggesting the dude had a sore throat. He’s a trooper tho.
The J5 live experience is one tight machine, well-practised stage moves, but not too many hiphop cliches, and it delivers the goods. If you didn’t smile at least once during this show, you had a face made of stone. When the show finished, they invited the crowd down to the official afterparty at Fu Bar with DJ Nu-Mark playing, then casually strolled offstage, put down their mics, and the MCs walked to the front, shaking hands and signing autographs. Nu-Mark and Cut Chemist packed up their record bags and left the stage, but came back out to meet and greet their fans, Chali 2na signing someone’s shoe! A charmingly low key end to a warm, genuine show.
I headed off to the Fu Bar, and partied with Nu-Mark til the break of dawn – well, they did invite us, and it would’ve been rude not to go - and then walked home, showered, and went to work. Had a nap under my desk, woke up, wrote this, and went back to sleep. Wake me at 5. Later. (written on Monday)
Tuesday, August 03, 2004
Rock the Casbah
Yesterdays big news story was the attacks on Christian churches in Iraq, a startling development by insurgents there. Previously they have attacked Christian businesses selling alcohol, but this was the first time they have gone after churches. So where did this major story rate on our evening news bulletins?
TV3 put it on as their 4th story - their lead was about the uncovering of the identity of donor for Jonah Lomu's kidney. That's a womens magazine cover, not a lead news story. TVone put the Iraq story even later in their bulletin, playing it at 6.24pm. Their lead was a cheapshot about Vincent Ward's new film (funded in part by taxpayers) being canned. The film's producer Don Reynolds told the Herald that was not correct. "I don't know where they got that from. I spoke to them and said it definitely wasn't canned." They failed to mention that Ward nearly went and shot it in Oz, as he had such a hard time rasing funding to begin with. A NZ story shot in Oz, great stuff. Where's the news, people?
Yesterdays big news story was the attacks on Christian churches in Iraq, a startling development by insurgents there. Previously they have attacked Christian businesses selling alcohol, but this was the first time they have gone after churches. So where did this major story rate on our evening news bulletins?
TV3 put it on as their 4th story - their lead was about the uncovering of the identity of donor for Jonah Lomu's kidney. That's a womens magazine cover, not a lead news story. TVone put the Iraq story even later in their bulletin, playing it at 6.24pm. Their lead was a cheapshot about Vincent Ward's new film (funded in part by taxpayers) being canned. The film's producer Don Reynolds told the Herald that was not correct. "I don't know where they got that from. I spoke to them and said it definitely wasn't canned." They failed to mention that Ward nearly went and shot it in Oz, as he had such a hard time rasing funding to begin with. A NZ story shot in Oz, great stuff. Where's the news, people?
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