The Stepkids in the UK

[youtube width=”640″ height=”380″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwbR8ubfHtY&feature=youtu.be[/youtube]

The ever reliable Stones Throw label have their new signing – The Stepkids – coming to the UK this week for the first time. Lots of people including Gilles Peterson and The Guardian have been raving about them and they live up to the hype. If you like Rotary Connection, Charles Stepney productions and psychedelic soul then this band is for you. They play Cargo in Shoreditch, London on Wednesday the 3rd August, tickets are £5 in advance and £8 on the door and they play around 8.30pm. They’re also playing the Big Chill Festival Friday 5th but I’m not sure the exact stage and time yet.

 

The song everyone is raving about is ‘La La’, available on the B-side of this gorgeous splatter vinyl 12″, but everything I’ve heard so far has been great (check the ‘Wonderfox’ video I posted earlier)
The Stepkids – La La by stonesthrow

Posted in Gigs, Music. | No Comments |

Food & DK in Bastille, Grenoble, France

Sometimes all the elements just fall into place with a gig and last night was one of those times. The perfect balance of great weather, people and food in a stunning location – Bastille, on top of the mountain in Grenoble, France. The quickest way to the top was by cable car and the five bubble cars that descended from the sky were like something out of a 60’s World Expo fair. Once on top of the mountain, our stage was perched on the edge of a courtyard with a stunning view of the city and surrounding countryside below, including Europe’s longest street which you can see carved into the landscape in a couple of shots here.

The gig was to be three hours long between DK and myself but we loved it so much we decided to play the warm up hour whilst people arrived by cable car as well. By midnight the place was packed with more people than expected but at 1.30am the promoters got a call from the city mayor. The music was too loud and the bass could be heard across the city so the sound had to be turned down, much to the annoyance of the crowd. 40 minutes later we ramped things up with some drum n bass and people started surging forward and pushing over barriers, a fight broke out after much moshing and we had to stop the music a couple of times. We decided to curtail the harshness of the music after requests from the promoters as there wasn’t enough security and it all ended well at 3am. It’s unlikely there will be another gig up there again after this and there was talk of us being banned from playing again :). Gig of the year so far for both of us though, thanks to everyone who came and made it so great and thanks to Alban, the promoter who put us up for it.

Posted in DJ Food, Gigs. | 7 Comments |

64 Bar Music 6 selection

I’ll be mixing the last selection of tracks submitted for the 64 Bar Music project early next month. Here are some previews of some of the 30 odd tracks submitted, mainly via the Ninja Tune forum. The standard is very high for the sixth installment, the brief being to write 64 bars at the tempo of 110 beats per minute in any style although the prevailing style seems to be very electronic.
64:6 promo tracks by 64barmusic

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Red Skull Incarnate by David Aja

Love this Red Skull cover, don’t know who it’s by it’s by David Aja (thanks JB) – check his blog here for more.  Here are a few more things from him in a similar vein. Nice to see comics quietly catching up on the graphic design side of things. I just found it whilst looking for something else, hmmm, 3 skulls in the last five posts.

Posted in Comics, Design. | 4 Comments |

Funki Porcini – 6 Minutes In Manchester

Funki Porcini aka James Braddell (disclosure: very good friend of mine, I’ve designed several of his record sleeves over the years) is putting out some sublime music right now through his own channels. His Bandcamp page is seeing regular updates of new tracks and there are some real gems emerging, the latest being his ‘Six Minutes In Manchester’ single, complete with 9 Lazy 9 remix. Also check out another recent track ‘The Devil Drives’ below

[youtube width=”640″ height=”480″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3zoRYoNw1M[/youtube]

 

Posted in Film, Music. | 3 Comments |