Monthly Archives: December 2013

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Review – Burial “Rival Dealer”

Secretive producer Burial has released his first EP in nearly a year, and the results are typically intriguing. With a signature sound that gave birth to the phrase “sounds a bit like Burial”, Bevan’s latest offering “Rival Dealer” marks yet more experimentation with his style. Since his second album, “untrue” in 2008, Bevan has released longer and more experimental music, and Rival Dealer is no exception.

Burial

The enigmatic Burial, AKA William Bevan

The title track is his most up-tempo track to date, with a frantic drum beat that manages to sound both crisp and hissy at the same time. The second track “Hiders” harks back to oldschool Burial, with an 80’s twist.The final song “Come down to us” runs over thirteen minutes long, largely due to it’s crawling beat, and is punctuated with haunting vocal samples to create a very trippy atmosphere.

The secretive producer recently revealed in a text message, sent to Radio 1’s Mary Anne Hobbes.

“I put my heart into the new EP, I hope someone likes it. I wanted the tunes to be anti-bullying tunes that could maybe help someone to believe in themselves, to not be afraid, and to not give up, and to know that someone out there cares and is looking out for them. So it’s like an angel’s spell to protect them against the unkind people, the dark times, and the self-doubts“.

Of course no-one could make music as emotive as this without it being extremely personal, and as so little is known about Bevan’s personal life, this perspective certainly gives his music context.

Another excellent release from Burial, and arguably his best work, earning a solid 9/10 from me. Be sure to listen to it in here.

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Rehabilitating piracy?

Digital piracy has been pinpointed as the number one enemy of new music by the industry themselves, now a new report challenges that view.

A new study argues that the music industry’s death by piracy is highly exaggerated.

The report made by researchers at the London School of Economics Department of Media and Communications(LSE) found that the industry is innovating to adapt to the modern digital market. As a whole, the study found, the music industry has not lost revenue due to piracy.

The findings of the study also challenges the demands from big music production companies for more punitive measures against individual violation of copyright.

 

Screengrab from the short film "Piracy. It's a crime." From the campaign with the same name. The now iconic clip, featuring on millions of DVDs, tells the viewer that illegally downloading files is a crime, comparable to physical crimes like stealing a car. Photo: Elias Bizannes

“Piracy. It’s a crime” the famous campaign first launched in 2005. The camapign futured a video later added as a unskippable segment in the opening sequences of millions of DVDs world wide. Photo: Elias Bizannes

Sustainable?

Sales of physical CDs has declined rapidly since the early 2000s, forcing the industry to look for new ways of bring in cash. Sales to mobile phones and legal downloads have compensated for some of the loss, but concerts and live shows have been the key to continued profits.

The LSE report has caused some controversy in the music world. The campaigning website Artists For An Ethical and Sustainable Internet reported that Radiohead Producer Nigel Godrich responded with criticism of what he called the LSE short-sighted misunderstanding about artists revenue. Mr Godrich said that “T-shirts and Tickets are nothing to do with copyright and creation, which is the supposed subject of this document.”

He went on criticising the report, saying that he hoped government sees how ridiculous the document seems for people who make records.

Heritage acts

According to the Music Industry Blog, income from concerts are not saving the music industry. The blog argues that live revenues are over reported and that although the average ticket price has increased by 34% in the last 10 years, only a portion of that finds it’s way back to the artists and managers.

The blog also claims that the live scene is dominated by older stars, saying 60% of the 20 top grossing US live acts are aged 60 or over. It says emerging acts are left little oxygen by the massive focus on so called “heritage acts” like the Rolling Stones and Bon Jovi.

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New Music – Ambassadeurs “Make Me”

Ambassadeurs in smoke

Yet another talented artist from Brighton, Mark Dobson adds even more credibility to one of the best music scenes in the country.  His project Ambassadeurs, is one of my favourite discoveries of the last few years, and here’s why it should be one of yours too. Anyone who thinks that electronic music has no soul, listen up.

Ambassadeurs in smoke

Ambassadeurs – aka Mark Dobson

Dobson gained some attention after his track M.O.P.E exploded across the internet, and has since released a string of unique and fantastic EP’s. His style is somewhere between ambient, bass heavy hip-hop and energetic synth-laden trap.  If you’re not into a hyphenated mess of genres and adjectives, he uses pitched up vocals, heavy bass and unusual synths to produce a soulful signature sound. While I haven’t caught a live set of his (yet), I have it on good authority that it’s as weird and wonderful as his productions.

Absolutely love the new @AmbassadeursDJ EP, gorgeous. New @ModeratOfficial is very pretty too.

— Feed Me (@feedme) October 3, 2013

With recent support from electronic giant, Feed Me, Dobson is starting to turn heads, but nowhere near as much as he deserves. Ever the generous one, he’s got a treasure trove of free downloads available on his soundcloud, as well as three superb EP’s to his name. His latest track “Make Me” samples 90’s dance classic “U Sure Do” by Strike, and gives it a fresh, gritty feel. It debuted earlier this week on THUMP, and is available to download through his mailing list.

With his first official single being announced for release in February, the next year looks set to hold big things for the Brighton bass merchant.

Be sure to check out Ambassadeurs in our Spotify tab to the side, and cop some free downloads if you like what you hear.

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The Last Walk of Lou Reed

Musical peioneer Lou Reed, who became famous for his originality and diversity, recently passed away

Tributes to the late Lou Reed(1942 – 2013) have been paid by musicians from all over the world.

Lou Reed who died at the age of 71 is widely credited as one of the most influential rock musicians the past 50 years.

He started out in 1960s with his band Velvet Underground in New York.

 

Musical peioneer Lou Reed, who became famous for his originality and diversity, recently passed away

Musical pioneer Lou Red died recently

Their music was ahead of their time, but failed to achieve a major commercial breakthrough.

Reed and the Velvet Underground mixed American and British styles with art into their own avant garde performance.

The pioneering music created by Reed with his band and on his many solo ventures challenged both his own fans and the music industry establishment.

In 1970 he split from the Velvet and moved to Britain where he recorded his first solo album.

His next album Transformer, produced by David Bowie, propelled him from the cult scene into rock hall of fame with songs like “Walk on the wild side” and “Satellite of Love”.

One of his most quoted statements is: “One chord is fine. Two chords are pushing it. Three chords and you’re into jazz.”

Although their music failed to reach a mass audience it inspired many of their fans to start bands on their own.

Bands like REM and U2 list Velvet Underground as one of their most important sources of inspiration.

David Bowie has described Reed as his all-time hero.

Tributes from musicians quickly appeared on social media like Facebook and Twitter. David Bowie said “He was my master” and Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth wrote: “So sorry to hear of Lou Reed’s passing this is a huge shock!”

In 2007 Reed told the BBC that he had never been a businessman and therefore never cared much about the music industry.

 

Cover of the Transformer album, released in 1972. Lou Reed's second album.

Cover of the Transformer album, released in 1972.

He also said that he never cared for what critiques and pundits had to say about his music.

Nevertheless, his work was instrumental in shaping many of today’s top artists and bands. His legacy lives on, even if he doesn’t give damn.

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Beatles: Twist and shout these facts out

The four that became the greatest rock act to come out of Liverpool.
John
Paul
George
Ringo

Beatles Posing for the Fans

Four of the most recognisable names in the music world, they became the dreams of fan girls and musicians across the world instantly and incorporated all times of popular music of the time to become the focus of “Beatlemania”.

See what you didn’t know about the beatles:

1. The song “Michelle” was inspired by Paul’s favorite technique for picking up girls at parties. McCartney once shared in an interview that he and Harrison, self-described “working-class boys,” often felt at odds at the boho-chic parties they went to as teens with Lennon (who was older and attending art college). To hold his own, McCartney developed a habit of dressing in black, sitting in a corner with his guitar, and singing in made-up French to see if he could draw over any of the Juliette Greco-type women. It never worked, but one day Lennon suggested that McCartney make “that French thing” into a song. Il faut souffrir pour être belle, man.

2. Genius often comes out of nowhere, and the melody for the famous melancholy string setting that is Vladimir Putin’s favourite Beatles song apparently just popped into Paul McCartney’s head when he woke up one morning. Until he could find words for it, the McCartney walked around the house humming “scrambled eggs…baby, I love scrambled eggs” so that he wouldn’t forget the tune.

3. In the 1964 Bond thriller ‘Goldfinger’, Connery purrs, of drinking Dom Perignon at the wrong temperature, “It’s simply not done…like listening to the Beatles without earmuffs.” Young fans reportedly booed the line in theatres, but the actor himself has no real animosity toward the Beatles. Connery even collaborated with George Martin in 1988 for the Beatles producer’s In My Life album.

4. “Traffic wardens,” as they were called in London of the 1960s, were less common and less reviled in Britain than across the pond, and it took an American friend of McCartney’s commenting on the “meter maids” to inspire the immortal rhyme of the Sgt. Pepper’s track. The woman herself, however, never got her fine. Parking attendant Meta Davis claims to have written a ticket for a car outside of the Abbey Road Studios in 1967 when Paul sauntered out and pulled it off the windshield. “He looked at it and read my signature … He said ‘Oh, is your name really Meta? … That would be a good name for a song. Would you mind if I use it?’ And that was that. Off he went.”

5. Wikipedia talk pages were ablaze late last year over a small but persistent question: are they The Beatles or the Beatles? Lower-case faction members point to handwritten letters by Lennon which feature a small t in the band’s title, while proponents of the capital T cite grammatical rules over trademarks and the logo atop the Beatles’ official website. Squabbling on the online forum started in 2004, and recently resulted in several editors being banned from commenting. Lower-case advocate Gabriel Fadden complained of being “cyber-stalked” in the Wall Street Journal’s coverage of the rumpus. The two surviving musicians, McCartney and Starr, have refrained from throwing an oar or a drumstick in, but if you’re interested, the talk page is still open and ripe for grammatical speculation.

Give their Website a go.

Here are my Top Ten Tracks
1.Let it Be
2.A Day in the Life
3.Strawberry Fields Forever
4.Happiness of a Warm Gun
5.Eleanor Rigby
6.Baby You’re a Rich Man
7.Revolution
8.Hey Jude
9.Come Together
10.Day Tripper