UNKLE to release Remix Stories (Volume One)

On 8th September, UNKLE will release ‘Remix Stories (Volume One)’ - released as a 12″ and digitally, exclusively via Beatport for the first four weeks after the release.

The 12″ features four previously unreleased remixes of tracks taken from the last two albums (’War Stories’ and the recently released ‘End Titles… Stories for Film’).

The deliberate decision to make this release available on 12″ was made in a bid to go back to UNKLE’s roots (of dance music, pre-digital age) and to make ‘Remix Stories’ a collectible item for long standing fans.

Remixes come courtesy of legendary dance duo Layo and Bushwacka!, renowned house DJs and remixers Innervisions, and one of today’s most prolific producers Radio Slave.

The track listing is as follows:

Trouble in Paradise - Variation on a Theme (UNKLE Remix)
Hold My Hand (Innervisions Orchestra Remix)
Twilight (Layo and Bushwacka! Remix)
Chemistry (Radio Slave Remix)

For more information visit

www.unkle.com
www.myspace.com/unkle

Rather Sound Than Safe

Rather Sound Than Safe aka RSTS are making some big electronic waves.  RSTS is Sif and Rasmus Neo and hail from Denmark.  They met in Copenhagen in 1996 and are creating electronic based music from deep electro pop to housey trance.

Rather Sound Than Safe have just released their debut single, Fairytale.  It is a darky, brooding electronic track reminiscent of an industrial metallic version of Massive Attack, complete with Sif’s cool, soft sensual vocal.

Fairytale is taken from their forthcoming album, Rebirth, to be released in October.  The album has been appropriatelt titled Rebirth as it sees RSTS reworking earlier tracks.  The result promises to be more polished and better produced than their previous versions.

The three tracks on their MySpace page certainly gives a clear indication that their music takes on different shapes and sounds.  As well as Fairytale there is the funky house / minmal trance of Funkateer and then the dub mix of Rise and Fall which conjours up a late night/early morning warehouse party in full swing.

Great though Sif’s voice is, its obvious RSTS have more to offer than electronic pop songs.  I’m looking forward to hearing the album and seeing how their different sounds work together, or whether Rebirth will simply concentrate on one style.

For more information visit Rather Sound Than Safe’s MySpace page.

Feel The Dream

Come & join our worldwide freedom party!
Calling out to DJs and promoters everywhere to ‘Feel the Dream’

Feel The Dream is a new project attempting to organise celebration of the 45th Anniversary of Martin Luther King’s ‘I Have A Dream’ speech.

Here is a message from the Feel The Team group.

WHAT IS IT?
On August 28th, and throughout the weekend after that, we are throwing a worldwide freedom party to celebrate the 45th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s ‘I have a dream’ speech.

WHAT DO I DO?
It’s easy. Raise awareness of the event building the House classic, Larry Heard’s ‘Can You Feel It’ vs. Martin Luther King’s ‘I have a dream’ speech into your set. Anyone can play a part: spread the world, play the tune, and help clubbers and music lovers to celebrate their freedom. The track is available to download from iTunes. We will prime the audience about what is going on through our networks & get them to yell the final words’ Free At Last, Free At Last…..’ I think you know the rest. It is intended as a worldwide celebration of freedom (& House Music).

Join our network and invite your mates. Above all, join us on the weekend of the 28th August by celebrating, and joining us and Dr King in proclaiming and celebrating his dream.

WANT TO KNOW MORE?
We would like all the events to promote the work done by Amnesty International in standing up for those that can’t enjoy the freedom we’ll be celebrating. Sign up at www. feelthedream. org to listen to the song, the speech or the mix we’ve created to get the ball rolling. Find out more ways you can join the party. And bring Dr King’s dream one step closer to reality.

We know it’s short notice but its about the craftsmanship of Ace DJs & the spontaneity that kicked this thing of in the first place

WHAT DO YOU THINK?
Please tell us your thoughts on the freedom party. Do you love it, do you think it’s mad, do you want to add something to it?

Will will be more events to come… this is just the launch.

You can contact Feel The Dream via:

For more information visit the website: www. feelthedream. org
or Feel The Dream MySpace page: www. myspace. com/feelthedream08

Give Chance a Piece

Feel the Dream

Max Tundra to release third album

Max Tundra to release third album - Parallax Error Beheads You & support Hot Chip on their Autumn UK tour

Ben Jacobs aka Max Tundra will be releasing his third album on 13th October bizarrely entitled Parallax Error Beheads You.

Max Tundra’s two previous albums have been well received - Some Best Friend You Turned Out To Be (2000) and Mastered By Guy At The Exchange (2002).

Max Tundra likes to mix it up with micro-melodies, layers of samples and sound-bytes; and there is obvious record box from where Max Tundra reaps his samples. Anything from pop, rock, disco, funk, techno, rap, metal and soul may find its way into a Max Tundra musical arrangement.

His music is different, varied, sometimes catchy, sometimes uncompromising. One look at the influences listed on his MySpace page and you will realise this ain’t no straightforward electronic music artist: Frank Zappa, Gong, Supergrass, Prince, The Police, Mercury Rev, Art Of Noise, Thunderclap Newman and Tracey Ullman among others!!!

Speaking about his new album Tundra explains:

“There are micro-melodies on the album – generally, layers and layers of stuff. Hopefully, the more you listen to it, the more new stuff will reveal itself, stuff you didn’t notice the first few times you played it. It’s intricate but that should mean it’s more rewarding over the distance, so that people can go back to it and hear new things each time.”

He goes on to say how he composes the songs:

“Each song is approached in a different way, but I often use a Commodore Amiga 500 for sequencing work,” he explains. “I don’t use PCs or Macs; I use a MIDI device to control the various instruments and hardware, the keyboards, synthesizers and samplers. And it all gets recorded onto a hard-disk machine. Hopefully it’s a more pristine sound than before but with the warmth of my other records.”

But it’s not just a simple case of electronic equipment and computer technology.

“There are trumpets, violins, cellos, guitars, dulcimers, xylophones - whatever’s lying around,” he says. “That’s another reason the record took so long to make. I thought a cello would be good so I had to spend three weeks learning to play that part and then layering it with so much stuff that people wouldn’t notice that I’m not exactly an amazing cello player!”

In between recording his third album, Tundra has been continually remixing the work of other artists, both unofficially and officially for the likes of Lily Allen, Missy Elliot, The Strokes, Franz Ferdinand, Futureheads, Pet Shop Boys, Mogwai, Kid 606 and many more.

To promote the release of Parallax Error Beheads You, Max Tundra will be playing the following live dates:

05 Oct 2008 - LSO St Luke’s (with Juana Molina)

23 Oct 2008 - Southampton Guildhall (with Hot Chip)

24 Oct 2008 - Cardiff University (with Hot Chip)

25 Oct 2008 - Liverpool Academy (with Hot Chip)

26 Oct 2008 - Leeds Academy (with Hot Chip)

28 Oct 2008 - Sheffield Academy (with Hot Chip)

29 Oct 2008 - Birmingham Academy (with Hot Chip)

30 Oct 2008 - Cambridge Corn Exchange (with Hot Chip)

01 Nov 2008 - Manchester Apollo (with Hot Chip)

02 Nov 2008 - Glasgow Academy (with Hot Chip)

03 Nov 2008 - Leicester De Montford University (with Hot Chip)

05 Nov 2008 - Brighton Dome (with Hot Chip)

06 Nov 2008 - London Brixton Academy (with Hot Chip and Wiley)

07 Nov 2008 - London Brixton Academy (with Hot Chip and Wiley)

Max Tundra is fresh, exciting and innovative. For more information visit www.myspace.com/maxtundra

The Count & Sinden - new EP Hardcore Girls

The Count & Sinden are set to release Hardcore Girls, a brand new 3 track EP on13th October showcases their love of all sorts of club music, from garage to r n’b, from hip hop to grime.

‘Hardcore Girls’ is the sound of the much hyped Baltimore breaks scene, evolved, displaced and mutated as only The Count and Sinden know how. Fronted by the hottest thing out of Baltimore since The Wire, 17 year old wild child of the mike, Rye Rye.

She has been touring the states with MIA and, now signed to Interscope, she is set to do big things. Her unique and energetic vocal is treated to one of the duo’s best bumpy bass grooves and the combined effect is nothing short of devastating.

Another new school talent picked up on by The Count and Sinden is Ny. Bubbling on the UK underground, she fronts the hardcore, jungle inflected soul that is ‘Fool In Love’. This is pop music for the now and tomorrow, a classic love song set to a raucous jungle inspired backing track which has become a live favourite over the summer.

Feel The Dream

Feel The Dream is a great new project attempting to organise celebration of the 45th Anniversary of Martin Luther King’s ‘I Have A Dream‘ speech through three main points of focus.

Top DJ’s to play the remix of Martin Luther King’s famous speech
The idea is to involve top DJ’s to play Larry Heard’s fantastic remix of Martin Luther King’s speech in clubs around the world on the 28th of August 2008

The celebrations will also include the 20th Anniversary of House Music, and special events will be promoted on www.myspace.com/feelthedream08 & the other social network sites listed below.

A ‘Silent Disco’ on World Peace Day
On World Peace Day, September the 19th, people all over the world will be asked to tune into selected radio stations with their headphones on, and dance to a ‘Silent Disco’.

Remix album to be released
And finally, there will be a ‘Supermix’ album on Martin Luther King Day, January 2009, containing some of the best mixes taken from all the previous events.

Legendary house music DJ Danny Rambling is already on board and it looks likely that Fatboy Slim is going to get involved with the Brighton organisers.

All proceeds will go to Amnesty International.

To learn more go to the Feel The Dream MySpace page.

Alternatively, you can find out more and how you can get involved by visiting any of the following sites:

Official Feel The Dream Blog

Ning

Twitter

Facebook - fan page

SectretSundaze Hidden Depth Event

The San Miguel sponsored Hidden Depths series of events this summer returns to London next week, as DJ’s Giles Smith and James Priestley, the deadly duo best known for their London-based SecretSundaze parties, bring their trademark underground techno, house and disco sounds to the T-Bar Club in Shoreditch on Thursday 31st July.

As with the previous Hidden Depths events, the SecretSundaze superstar dj’s will be curating an evening of music which will include special guests.

Secretsundaze is an underground institution in London and is the brainchild of residents and promoters (and producers) Giles Smith and James Priestley. Since its inception, the music policy has always focussed on underground House, Techno and Disco.

They were one of the first clubs in the UK to book DJs such as Tiefschwarz and Ivan Smagghe and they continue this tradition of breaking new artists and being two steps ahead with bookings.

The duo was also amongst the first to book the likes of Steve Bug, Lucian and Ricardo Villalobos.

For more information on the Hidden Depth Events go to the San Miguel UK website.

Visit the official SecretSundaze website and SecretSundaze MySpace page.

Continuing what has already been a busy 2008 for James Lavelle and the UNKLE project, the forthcoming X-Files: I Want To Believe feature film will include a reworking of the X-Files theme recorded by UNKLE.

The main theme remix along with UNKLE’s song “Broken” from War Stories are the only works included in the movie not performed by Mark Snow, the creator of the world-famous title sequence and dark score for the TV show and film.

The UNKLE remix and “Broken” will be released worldwide on the movie’s soundtrack on 21 July.

Download the UNKLE - X-Files: I Want To Believe remix mp3 for FREE

For more information on UNKLE go to:

http://www.unkle.com/

http://www.myspace.com/unkle

The Glimmers, Grandmaster Flash & Unabombers

San Miguel’s Hidden Depth Event at Joshua Brooks Manchester, Thursday 10th July 2008

As we queued up to get into Manchester’s Joshua Brooks I knew we were in for a treat. The moment we arrived we were greeted by a very friendly hostess who ushered us through to the club.

As an ex Hacienda clubber I felt completely at home with the red brick walls and concrete floor. The flashing lights and cool crowd stomped to the electric beats/sounds of the Unabombers.

The place started to pack out and people were buzzing around, excited with anticipation waiting for The Glimmers to appear

I’ve never seen them before but was familiar with their music, especially as top remixers and DJ’s, so like everyone else, was really excited to see what kind of show they had in store for us.

They strolled past me, greeted by a sea of adoring women hugging them as they went to the decks, and to my sheer utter amazement opened the set with the CLASSIC Pump Up The Volume!

Well that was that for me! The coat and bag went over my shoulder as I trashed around the dance floor like it was the 90s! Then the pier résistance was in the middle of the set when they took the roof off with Lionel Richie’s All Night Long. The crowd went crazy, people were literally “dancing on the ceiling”.

Just when I thought it couldn’t get any better they threw their very sexy version of Olivia Newton John’s Let’s Get Physical.

The Glimmers set was a great lively affair, finishing with a very pleasurable version of Salt n Pepa’s classic Push It. I swear I thought I was going to have a heart attack!

Retiring to the main bar after The sweaty excitement of The Glimmers DJ set we went upstairs to the main bar which was delectable. Huge leather booths greeted us with a New York-type vibe that was cool but not pretentious.

Chatting to others in the bar there was a real big thumbs up for The Glimmers and the evening as a whole. I wasn’t the only one who was reminiscing about the Hacienda!

But the night wasn’t over yet! We still had the Master himself…. not any old master but the Grand one himself!

We got a place right in front of the decks, ready for the arrival of Grandmaster Flash. We waited….. and we waited. Then through a puff of smoke he appeared, opening his DJ set with the classic Doobie Brothers Without Love.

The wait was long and I was just wondering if it had been worth it but then it really kicked off

Spinning tune after tune It Takes Two to Young MC to the classic White Lines to King Bee’s wicked Back By Dope Demand. I couldn’t believe it!

I didn’t want the night to end, but sadly, it did. Joshua Brooks was the perfect venue to hold such an event. It was like I had been put on rewind. The only one thing bad I can say about the whole evening is the pain I felt in my feet from stomping around the dance floor!

Yo Majesty - Kryptonite Pussy 12″ US Import & Digital Release Only

The new five track EP from Yo Majesty, the Tampa Florida based hip hop girls with attitude is available on 12″ US Import.

Forget Salt n Pepa, this is Shunda K. and Jwl B. - bass in yer face.Two girls ready to punch down the male dominance of hardcore hip hop with a real punk arse attitude that Afrika Bambabaata would be impressed with. This is the most exciting hip hop I’ve heard for a long time.

The music of Yo Majesty is widely speaking a mash of hip hop, rap and electro beats. Hip Hop meets 80’s electro beats, hard and raw. Shunda K.and Jwl B. with their crude, sexploitative lyrics are given a real raw production by London-based electronica duo Hard Feelings UK (David Alexander and Richard Winstanley).

Yo Majesty pressed their first official release, the Yo EP, in 2006, and in 2007 they toured alongside CSS and The Gossip. Now in 2008 they have released a 12″ vinyl available on US import only - Kryptonite Pussy.

Break Bread & Hey There Girl are favourite tracks. But all 5 tracks are worth listening to. There’s no time for slacker tracks. All five tracks on the 12″ EP are available to listen to on the Yo Majesty MySpace site.

The 12″ precedes their debut album which is due for release in September.

Yo Majesty is hard as nails. But I bet in real life they are kittens.

For more information visit www.yomajesty.com