The incredible new video for Swedish House MafiaOne (Your Name) featuring Pharrell has been unleashed. Directed by Christian Larson, the “unofficial 4th member of the group”, the video takes us through vivid scenes of a dark and twisted party filled with a number of sinister looking masked characters. Make sure you stay tuned all the way to the end – it’s kinda gruesome.
Set to be the biggest dance act of the next year, Swedish House Mafia is a (yes, Swedish!) DJ collective made up of superstars Axwell, Steve Angello and Sebastian Ingrosso. Each have enjoyed individual success with their own acclaimed independent record labels.
Axwell’s Axtone is known for hits including I Found You and Watch The Sunrise as well as remixes for Madonna, Pharrell, Roger Sanchez and The Temper Trap. Steve Angello scored a global hit with Show Me Love (with Laidback Luke) and has collaborated with N*E*R*D and Kid Sister. He’s also released his own album The Yearbook on his label Size Records. Sebastian Ingrosso produced the track Cupid Boy on Kylie’s new album whilst his notorious bootleg mix of MGMT’s Kids was an underground sensation which he followed by co-producing How Soon Is Now with David Guetta. He also recently delivered club hit Silvia for Miike Snow (with Dirty South) on his label Refune Records.
We’re on a bit of a John Lennon binge here at In Sound HQ.
So here’s a special ditty we dug up from the archives… The unique vocal stylings of our main man Luke Steele (The Sleepy Jackson, Empire of the Sun) and his version of John Lennon’s (Just Like) Starting Over.
(Just Like) Starting Over was Lennon’s first single from his final album and 1980’s Grammy Album of the Year, Double Fantasy. It eventually becoming his biggest US solo single, staying at #1 for 5 weeks.
In celebration of his 70th birthday on October 9 this year, Double Fantasy is being re-presented in a newly remixed stripped down version remixed and produced by Yoko Ono and Jack Douglas, co-producers of the original mix with John Lennon. As Lennon’s 70th approaches, we’ll be seeing a whole festival of commemorative events and releases around the world. Stay tuned.
Hello from the UK! A largely sunny July has seen iTunes take over the Roundhouse venue in Camden for a month of free gigs, with the likes of Laura Marling, Goldfrapp, Tinie Tempah, Mumford & Sons and The National – to name but a few.
Friday’s show featured Laura Marling and Mumford & Sons presenting a collaboration between themselves and a group of Indian folk musicians called Dharohar Project. First up was Dharohar Project, followed by Laura Marling and then Mumford & Sons – before all three groups returned to the stage to perform the EP they recorded at the end of 2009 in India.
Overall a heartfelt evening without a hint of self-indulgence or pretentions. Check out the EP (iTunes UK) now or hang on for the live version (also iTunes UK) as heard by my very ears.
Next up was The National on Saturday night, playing a mix of tracks from their three superlative albums. An energetic set was topped off when singer Matt Berninger walked into the crowd blazing through Mr November, with a seemingly endless cable following him to the back of the auditorium. I thought about taking a picture of him as he rocked past me but then I decided to spare you a dark blurry image in favour of me enjoying the moment. Hope you don’t mind! You can take a look at the official images here.
It’s back to the grind for me, I’ll be back sometime next week with a report from the sterling Latitude Festival.
Back in 2001 when Brit Pop ruled, and I was still mildly obsessed with Oasis, I got my hands on an incredible bio of the label who signed my favourite band.
The Creation Records Story: My Magpie Eyes Are Hungry For The Prize was 795 pages of very detailed history of Creation Records, one of the greatest indie music labels of all time. Founded in 1983, Creation proudly became the home of the UK music anti-establishment. I scored my copy just before Christmas, and between Christmas and New Year I plowed through the book, nearly breaking my hand holding it up, and reminiscing with my own Creation Records soundtrack as I read the highs and the horrors of this much loved label. Oasis, Ride, Primal Scream, The Jesus & Mary Chain, Teenage Fanclub, Boo Radleys all came to life through the book and my stereo simultaneously.
Now comes the Creation Records documentary. So, as I watch the trailer and search for the release date, I find myself thinking about the playlist I’ll create to accompany this treat.
Richard Ashcroft presents his second video with his latest project RPA & United Nations Of Sound for his single Born Again.
(Disclaimer: this vid is not remotely attempting to be in synch… we had to check our stereo a few times to ensure we weren’t playing another track simultaneously!)
RPA’s self titled album has a bit of a different flavour to the pensive Richard Ashcroft we’ve come to know and love… it was produced by Chicago hip-hop producer No I.D. and includes a helluva lot of hand-clapping, rousing choruses, and heady beats. Read our in-depth review here. The album is out July 16 but you can pre-order it now from JB Hi- Fi and Sanity.
Tickets to see what will be an outstanding show (from all the UK reviews) are available at Frontier Touring. This is the first time we in Australia will witness one of the world’s best performers and voices belt out songs from RPA & United Nations of Sound as well as special treats from The Verve like Bitter Sweet Symphony and Sonnet!
I’m penciling in this gig as a potential #1 show for 2010!
As a fan of female vocals mixed with electronic and dance music, every now and then a genius is born and discovered.
In my near 30 years on Planet Earth I can remember several life changing events. Every event revolves around music as music is my life (like most who work within the industry); it is a passion you are born with. It takes over your life and you live and breathe only it.
The first for me was at the age of 8 when I took my sisters walk-man from her room, put the earphones on, and hit the play button. Bursting out was the True Blue Madonna album.
I cried to the beauty of the lyrics to Live to Tell and danced around the bedroom to Open Your Heart. As you can tell my sexuality is not the “norm” like my born music passion and tastes. That moment in 1986 started a Madonna obsession for me that is still alive today. The Madonna for the new generation for all the Open Your Heart bedroom dances out there is no doubt Lady GaGa and I welcome that.
Going through my awkward teen years another artist spoke to me louder and with more influence than my parents and even the Leonardo DiCaprio poster that I had hidden in my diary. It was Tori Amos and her Little Earthquakes and Under The Pink albums. I was told by elders that she was the Kate Bush for a new generation – and I welcomed that (whoever this Kate Bush was), I’ve since learned that Kate indeed was an original. Tori’s albums were all about keeping secrets and admitting the truth in order to be free. So around that same time the Leonardo posters were taken out of my secret diary and stuck proudly on my bedroom walls.
Growing into my twenties (God I feel old) I discovered the electro genius of Swedish Brother & Sister duo called The Knife. Some people I’ve met cannot get anything out of dance and electro music and brush it off as mindless and class it as beneath them. I say to those people take the same emotion you get from hearing a soaring guitar riff or the beat of a drum kit and apply it to how I feel when I hear electro. I get the same intense emotions, a change in pace of a synth has me lapse into feeling on top of the world or has me in tears as I get the raw depressing emotion the production and vocals are telling.
The latest life changing moment has come recently and it is also attached to one of the most amazing viral marketing campaigns ever to be seen in this new age of the internet and YouTube. It is the “iamamiwhoami” project. Have you heard or read about it? The Times Online stated that the project “offers clues as to how the changing music industry might save itself”. Here are the facts:
iamamiwhoami is an electronic music project featuring an unknown singer and unknown producers. It was promoted through only a viral campaign on YouTube starting on 4 December 2009, a surreal video clip less than a minute long appeared on YouTube submitted by iamamiwhoami. The clip was forwarded to several known bloggers as well as music journalists. A second video clip soon appeared and then a third, etc. Each clip was more intense and disturbing all with the most amazing visuals and experimental electro and vocals ever heard.
Now 7 months later there are now 12 video clips revealed which have had over 2.5 Million views on the iamamiwhoami channel. The mystery has fans like me going nuts over who can it be and what is it all about. The latest video titled simply “T” reveals visually the female vocalist clearly for the first time and it is a relatively unknown Swedish folk singer called Jonna Lee.
The question is still who is behind it all? Yes Jonna is the vocalist but the budget put into each video and the production clearly points to a major electro outfit and my money is on The Knife or Royksopp. Even though it has dragged out for 7 months it is better than any TV series or book I’ve ever read. Each video expands on the story and reveals more about the woman in the clips and the music only gets better. Hopefully by the end of the year all will be revealed and an album will be dropped.
I urge you to jump onto the iamamiwhoami You Tube channel at youtube.com/iamamiwhoami and start at the first clip titled Prelude699130082.451322 and work your way through all 12 videos in order of posting. I believe this is history in the making and is a life changing moment for me.
If anything, from watching these videos you will find out what type of music rocks my boat. What does it for you?
The Cat Empire have been hard at work promoting their 4th studio album Cinema (still streaming in full over on thecatempirecinema.com)… They appeared on ABC Arts Nation over the weekend, performing one of my faves from the album called On My Way. It will no doubt be a hit when the guys head off to North America to tour this week before returning to Australia for 15 dates. Seems like The Cat Empire boys have a crazy way of measuring time on tour.
Watch the Arts Nation performance here – don’t be fooled, it’s a builder!
Cinema is out now on iTunes & our sister store The In Song.
Tickets for their Aug/Sept Australian tour are available here on thecatempire.com.
Iron Maiden’s mascot Eddie The Head has seriously evolved since appearing as a teen street-punk zombie on their self-titled debut album 30 years ago. Today’s Eddy – illustrated by long-time Eddie artist Melvyn Grant – is a bulked-up extra-terrestrial killing machine on the artwork for The Final Frontier.
Check him out below: he’s cuddly as ever though!
So HELL YES… there’s a new Maiden album coming! The Final Frontier arrives on Friday August 13. I’ve definitely noticed an increase in Iron Maiden tees (including my own) being proudly worn out on the streets since the album announcement.
For a taster, Iron Maiden are giving away the album track El Dorado from www.ironmaiden.com.
The Final Frontier sounds like it will be a return to peak 80s form: it was mostly recorded earlier this year at Compass Point Studios with long-time Maiden producer Kevin “Caveman” Shirley. So Bruce Dickinson and The Boys were in the same head (and physical) space, as it was where they previously recorded Piece Of Mind (’83), Powerslave (’84) and Somewhere In Time (’86).
Bruce said: “The studio had the same vibe and it was EXACTLY as it had been in 1983, NOTHING had changed! Even down to the broken shutter in the corner… same carpet… everything… It was really quite spooky. But we felt very relaxed in such a familiar and well-trodden environment and I think this shows in the playing and the atmosphere of the album.”
Here’s the full tracklisting for The Final Frontier:
1. Satellite 15… The Final Frontier 2. El Dorado 3. Mother Of Mercy 4. Coming Home 5. The Alchemist 6. Isle Of Avalon 7. Starblind 8. The Talisman 9. The Man Who Would Be King 10. When The Wild Wind Blows
It’s very appropriate that the follow-up to Grinderman’s self-titled debut already has a cinematic trailer, whilst its title is suggestive of a film sequel: Grinderman 2. Thankfully it’s not Grindermen.
Nick Cave and Warren Ellis of The Bad Seeds and self-described “disciplined orgy of ideas and action” (there had to be a sexual reference somewhere) Grinderman are recently responsible for scoring director John Hillcoat’s disturbing and oneiric masterpieces The Road and The Proposition. Now Hillcoat has returned the favour by creating the clip for the first single Heathen Child, plus this spellbinding trailer for Grinderman 2. Apparently this is only one of several, but hell… I’m already deliriously excited thanks.
Thankfully, there’s only about 2 months to wait… Grinderman 2 will be released in Australia on September 10. As for Heathen Child, that will be released on August 27. It’s a seductive, distortion-fuelled, and flat-out abusive number, as we’ve come to know & love from the lascivious bastards of Grinderman.
Love a bit of Cave-flavoured grit in my red-stained teeth.
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