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August 2, 2007

Echovolt y Fangoria

I knew it wouldn't be a normal local gig when I spoke to the Goth/Punk/Emo girls.

They had spent 8 hours on the bus from Madrid to see Fangoria. But then Goth/Punk/Emo girls are thin on the ground around here ...

ECHOVOLT

I have written about Echovolt before - they are a local band that show a lot of promise.

That night the promise was fulfilled - Echovolt have come of age.

Normally I like to see Echovolt in a "nice sweaty space with lots of noise and people dancing" - but on this night we were in open-air stage setting - almost like a festival.

Yet Echovolt kicked major ass in this setting - they played all of my fave tunes from the next album and dominated the crowd - in fact the crowd were going apesh*t ...

Someone with power and control should sign this band to a major label - because if they don't - another major label will have them instead ...

FANGORIA

What did I think Fangoria would be like? I thought - with a name like "Fangoria" they would be a heavy/metal/rock band.

How wrong was I?

The first third was a white-on-white experience that came over like a Spanish ElectroPop version of the "Pet Shop Boys" - but then they kicked into 20 minutes of "Bacalao" which twisted their version of ElectroPop into a techo version that made me think of ElectroClash.

Then they changed - into black - and the music changed too.

Suddenly the rock hit - but also their most popular tunes.

All around me people were dancing up and down waving their hands in the air and singing all the lyrics - I mean all the lyrics.

I never realised that Fangoria were so popular.

Later they changed again - and started on the 70's influenced Electropop that they are currently doing - and the crowd went mental again, and again.

I really enjoyed Fangoria - cheesy ElectroPop/Rock in Spanish - with a great crowd. I really can't remember when I was last in a crowd that enthusiastic.

What a great night out ...


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April 22, 2007

Retro Electronica

Funny how things go - the same day that I was mixing Jean Michell Jarre's "Oxygene" with Tangerine Dream's "Atem" this timely article about the early pioneers of electronic music appeared in the Guardian: Kings of The Cosmos

Everything you know about electronic pop is wrong. Years before Gary Numan and his electric friends, before the chart-popping porno-disco of 'I Feel Love by sexbot diva Donna Summer and pulsating producer Giorgio Moroder, before even Kraftwerk's serene electra-glide down the Autobahn, the trailblazers of synthesisers in pop were a bunch of long-haired hippies and slumming classical composers. Pioneered by Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze and Walter Carlos, then popularised by Tomita, Jean Michel Jarre, and Vangelis, this genre - space music, some call it, or analog-synth epics - has been almost completely written out of the history of electronica.
Of course nowadays we are spoilt for choice - all the more reason to listen to the pioneers now and again - which is why I was mixing the "old school" synth music to start with ...

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March 21, 2007

EchoVolt

At last - an entry in the music category - its been a long time ...

I've been listening to EchoVolt for a while now.

EchoVolt are a local band that have a have a lot of raw energy and play a blend of rock/industrial with spanish influences.

They play live best in a nice sweaty space with lots of noise and people dancing - but their studio stuff is also great.

Their "Infected" CD has the production edge you would expect from a studio offering while still capturing their raw energy - and now they are making a new one ...

I was lucky enough to blag a copy of an unmixed version of their (untitled) new album - but with no track listings.

A review will have to wait until I get more info - but at a first glance it is looking good.

No - at a first glance it is looking more than good - if you like this kind of thing of course - and I do ...


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February 3, 2006

Platform Control vs Content Control

It is my belief - after the SONY DRM disaster - that the long term business plan of "BigMedia" companies is not just an attempt at "content lockdown" - the prevention of unauthorised copying of copyrighted media.

It is also my belief, in disagreement with other pundits, that this is not an attempt at "platform lockdown" - where you have to buy multiple copies of your media to play on alternative devices.

I now believe that the long term aim of the BigMedia companies is nothing more than "Content Lock-In".

Continue reading "Platform Control vs Content Control" »

January 27, 2006

Joe Meek: Portrait of a Genius

I've already blogged - "Telstar" and why I like it - so I won't repeat myself.

However - I have just found out that there is a new compilation of the works of Joe Meek available.

When I read the list of stuff Joe Meek had worked on I was surprised - I knew about "Telstar" - I didn't know that he had worked on a lot of the stuff listed here.



Castle Music CMXBX783




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January 17, 2006

Best Album 2005: Two Lone Swordsmen

From the Double Gone Chapel – Two Lone Swordsmen

WARP 119

twoloneswordmen.jpg

I don’t live in London anymore – so I have no idea how this was received over there – but I can imagine that a lot of devoted TLS electro-dance fans were horrified at this album.

After all it uses guitars!!! It sounds like rock!!!

Whatever happened to the TLS of “Tiny Reminders”, “Further Reminders” and “Stay Down”? I can almost hear the howls of pain from here.

Just one problem – this album rocks – literally and figuratively

Continue reading "Best Album 2005: Two Lone Swordsmen" »

December 17, 2005

The Mexican Wave

I've been listening to the fusion music coming out of Mexico for some time now.

I think it was that Fussible track "Odyssea" that first alerted me to the fact that something was going on.



Fussible - Odyssea



After that I discovered the NorTec Collective and eventually managed to get my hands on of a copy of "The Tijuana Sessions" - now known as "The Tijuana Sessions: Volume One".

That was quite a while ago - these days the Nortec Collective have been going for long enough that I have just had ordered "Tijuana Sessions Volume 3".

I think the NorTec website sums up their approach nicely:


Sampling intstrumental parts from dusty tapes of tambora and norteno band rehearsals & combining the use of electronics and dance music aesthetics with the hard driving sounds and rhythms of traditional mexican street music

It didn't hurt that Craig Richards & Lee Burridge put a copy of Panoptica's "And-L" on their Tyrant triple pack either ....

Oh yeah, there's been a buzz going around about the NorTec sound ....

Now, just arrived, the latest manifestation of the "Mexican Wave" is an album from Instituto Mexicano de Sonido" called "Mejico Magico" which has just been handed to me by my friendly postman.

One thing I do know, the Spanish custom of sending items "contra reembolso" - against renumeration - or what used to be called C.O.D. in my childhood - is vital if you live in the sticks.

I ordered mine from Pop Madrid and it arrived promptly. I paid the postman on the door - so quick and convenient - I have to travel miles to find a decent CD shop and I haven't bought a record in Spain in all the time I've been here ...

Imagine a album somewhere between big beat and hip-hop - more Freddy Fresh than Fatboy Slim - with a distinctly Mexican feel to it.

This interesting album comes with a nice freebie promo CD featuring a tune that sounds like a cross between "Rock Around the Clock" and "Norwegian Wood" along with a house-style dance stomper "Cha-Cha-Cha" that I decided I wanted to play out when I DJ.

It's one of those tiny little CD's - and what happened next leads to my next entry ....

Continue reading "The Mexican Wave" »

October 22, 2005

R.I.P - "Records In Pieces"

Not long after I moved in I went and bought some shelves for my records. Not a bad idea, but the execution went horribly wrong. The shelves has little legs underneath, and the pressure of the records pushed the legs through the underside and the whole thing collapsed overnight.

It must have made a hell of a noise, but neither of us woke up.

Next day I saw this set of shelves laying, exactly as they fell, front down, but still full of records. I picked the whole lot up, strengthened the shelves and forgot about it.

Then one day I wanted to play some house music and to my utter HORROR I found that a large number of records have HUGE chips out of the edges and cracks that render them unplayable.

To say I am gutted would be an understatement.

I don't have many house records, so those I do have I select with care, and I have lost some of my favourites.

So, for posterity, and the hope that someone might offer me replacements for some of these records, here is a list of "those we have lost"

Continue reading "R.I.P - "Records In Pieces"" »

October 19, 2005

Save the Planet: Kill Yourself!

"Save the Planet: Kill Yourself" - Chris Korda - Gigolo 05 (1997)

I first heard this tune years ago at "Heart & Soul", sometime about 4 in the morning around 6 years ago.

I loved it then and I still love it now.

I know for a fact that people either love or hate this tune.

I've known people to run off the dancefloor screaming, leave the room, hold their head in their hands or just ask "wtf is THIS?"

I can't say I'm that surprised either.

Continue reading "Save the Planet: Kill Yourself!" »

September 6, 2005

Telstar

While setting up the scanner I found this scrap on the scan bed. That's a good enough reason to post it.

TelStar - The Tornadoes - 1962

Why "Telstar" of all things?

Continue reading "Telstar" »