Casablanca’s debut solo album, named as a reference to Oscar Wilde’s book and featuring his dog on the album sleeve, is definitely not The Strokes material. However, it is likely to be different from anything you’ve heard before.

“Out of Blue” sets an uplifting tone and propels you into some kind of futuristic vision of our world. The flowing, relaxed tempo continues all the way till “11th Dimension” – thanks to its catchy electro melody definitely a highlight of the album. With “4 Chords of the Apocalypse” the singer gets more serious and the atmosphere wildly changes in “River of Brakelights” where ‘Jules’ reveals his inner demons by mumbling and repeating “getting the hang of it, timing is everything”. “Tourist” conveys the feeling that he is really just a ‘tourist’ from some remote planet.

The electronic noise and the use of synthetizers might upset some of the die-hard Strokes fans but Phrazes for the Young is still a fairly impressive creation.

After the previous not very successful and criticised album Conviction (2007), Aiden promised us to come back to their earliest days. In fact, Knives is so much more than just the return to the band’s roots.

The Seattle-based rock quartet took their name from the main character of the famous horror movie ‘The Ring’. The album itself lasts nearly 33 minutes and consists of only 10 songs – with titles such as ‘Scavengers of the Damned’, ‘Killing Machine’ or ‘Black Market Hell’ – oh yes, the horror theme is an important element in understanding their music.

The record was produced and recorded at wiL Francis’s own studio, Sleepy Hollow in Seattle. “It’s raw, it’s fast, it’s pissed,” says the charismatic frontman. “When I was writing this album, what I really wanted to do was create an album you’re able to sing along to. That’s always been the deal for me. I’m a fan of NOFX and the Beatles and the Black Album by Metallica — you can sing along to all that stuff.”

“Fuck me? Fuck you. Fuck you and this whole city and everyone in it.” The opening line (quote from a movie ‘25th Hour’) tells it like it is and the following song ‘Killing Machine’ is a dirty, fast-paced anthem with aggressive guitar and relentless drum beat. The first single, ‘Scavengers of the Damned’, is fresh and energetic, making you feeling almost viciously frisky and in the most controversial ‘Crusifiction’, Aiden attack Christianity claiming that “there’s no God”.

The most interesting moment of the album comes when a woman stranger tells us her story (quite possibly about rape) in a creepy spoken-word ‘Portrait’, followed by ‘Excommunicate’ with its haunting melody. William Francis’s final words “I suffocate” are accompanied by deep-felt screams and wailing guitar in ‘Black Market Hell’, but there is a bonus in the form of a hidden track – acoustic cover of NOFX’s ‘Lori Meyers’.

Although Knives is lyrically more succinct than previous albums, instead of singing about his own experiences, wiL is now looking at things from a storyteller’s point of view. ‘Elizabeth’ is an ode to the Hungarian “Blood Countess” Bathory born in the 16th century, while ‘King on Holiday’ describes the death of Elvis Presley.

Knives might not be for everyone, but to be honest, that’s what Aiden never were. They have always been from the “you either love them, or hate them” pack. So if you enjoy dynamic sing-along songs with angry lyrics, this is a brilliant choice.

Perhaps no one will be surprised that Ville Valo’s relationships once again became an inspiration for an album. “It is also about both the theoretical and practical aspects of relationships which are an impossible problem to resolve,” explains the frontman.

The starter ‘In Venere Veritas’ straightforwardly invites us to come ‘fall apart’ with the band and at the end we can even hear Valo trying to scream his over-smoked lungs out. That’s a first. It is obvious that the singer grew up not just musically, but also lyrically. The whole album is interlaced with references to historical and mythical characters or events. A great surprise comes with ‘Scared to Death’ thanks to its positive towards love attitude (“I’m not afraid to say I love you”). The first single ‘Heartkiller’ is a typical HIM anthem, with some outstanding guitar riffs, fittingly accompanied by keyboard and percussion.

After ‘Heartkiller’, the songs suddenly become to sound more or less the same and you are honestly finding yourself waiting for something to come and keep you from falling asleep. Sadly, it never comes, but the final, mesmerizing ‘The Forebonding Sense of Impending Happiness’ at least sends you to calm, peaceful sleep.

After the successful Decemberunderground (2006), it took AFI two years to release their 8th studio album (September 29, 2009). Crash Love was recorded in Los Angeles, California and produced by Joe McGrath (Morrissey, Blink-182) and Jacknife Lee (R.E.M., U2). “I really believe it’s the best AFI record,” says the frontman Davey Havok. “We created the album by which we’ll be remembered.”

Songs are incredibly diverse, all easily digestible. From emotionally moving extremeness of ‘Torch Song’, through absolutely catching rhythm of ‘Too Shy To Scream’, to lyrically wise and energetic single ‘Medicate’, or ‘Darling, I Want To Destroy You’ with uplifting tunes you would never expect from these rockers.

Crash Love is not an album you would fall in love with at first sight. It lacks the lyrical depth of Sing the Sorrow and inventiveness of Decemberunderground. The trick is, with every repeated listen, there is a new treasure revealed.

Fresher than HIM, more genuine than The 69 Eyes, these dark romantics are a masculine version of early Evanescence meeting just a little bit of Depeche Mode.

Hailing from Los Angeles, the goth-inspired rockers claim to be “the voice of the broken hearted”. Lyrics are simple but the mysticism of Kristofer Dommin’s voice makes them authentic and appealing. Six of the fifteen tracks appeared on their first album and have been re-recorded, including the highly acclaimed ‘My Heart, Your Hands’. Spectacular ‘Tonight’ or ‘Love is Gone’ are heartache classics whereas cabaret-style ‘Dark Holiday’ is a completely different kind of a jewel.

The face of a person sitting opposite me reveals a roguish smile as I ask my question. Still with the smile on his face, he says: “Probably the funniest thing at an event is looking up and seeing lots of girls topless and lots of guys naked.” Now, encouraged by memories, the smile becomes even wider and an interesting story begins to unfold. “I was looking down ‘cause I mixed quite a lot and I remember looking up and seeing that people just started getting naked at some point. It was really surreal. That was the strangest DJ set.”

Christian Baker’s alias DJ TTB’s Australia beach party adventure is only one of many he experienced on his DJ path through the years. It all started in a little place - Glastonbury in Somerset, with a boy around 13 interested in dance music. As many others, he used to buy all the vinyl with the tracks he liked and even today, aged 27, he remembers what his first vinyl was - Ed Rush & Optical’s Trace. Together with a friend, he learnt how to mix and had his first DJ set at the age of 15.

The seemingly mysterious TTB pseudonym makes me wonder what it might stand for and he replies “It was from a nickname. I used to be call Yadda for ages, but then the company which employed me got someone else called Yadda and I lost that DJ name. My friends call me ‘testtubebaker’ so that became TTB. But it also stands for ‘testing the beats’.”

Now then, DJ TTB is, in his own words, “someone who’s dropping a new different liquid cross old school style of drum and bass.” Raised on Bristol dance music, mainly first jungle and drum & bass and influenced by old school funk, he appreciates especially the high energy, dance side of electronic music and considers his own production a mixture of drum & bass, break-beat and dubstep. He can pride himself on having played, let’s say, London Matter O2 Arena with the Urban Nerds, Glastonbury or Ibiza.

What’s more, Europe obviously isn’t enough for this young ambitious man since he also set his foot in Far East or India. “They spent literally weeks to decorate the jungle for the party and weren’t charging any money, they just wanted people to go there and have fun. It was amazing, so much effort,” he remembers what he finds his best event – one of Thailand full moon parties he played at and adds he wants to visit some really remote places in the future, especially Egypt and India.

His local interest, though, currently lies in the heart of Southampton. “Two years ago when I got to Southampton the local scene was terrible. You could hear a DJ play house, drum & bass, dubstep, all in one mix in one hour and play four drum & bass tracks,” he says. “That’s why I started doing what I did because I could see a hole in the market.” And he’s doing it very well. TTB now has his own night at Rhino – a nightclub giving Southampton Solent University Digital Music students an opportunity to get more familiar with the DJ environment by means of its ‘Good Gig’ event.

Chris reveals: “At Rhino’s, we try to unpromote the drinking because everyone is going down to get drunk. I got drunk a lot my first year because I didn’t like the music so I just wanted to get drunk to dance. Too many people do it nowadays! Just ‘cause they might not like the music they’re listening to.” There is an outstanding passion in the way he talks about music and if someone wouldn’t notice that as yet, this was the moment they definitely would.

And what does he think about his course? “I chose it ‘cause it’s the only course in the country that does Digital Music. Every else does Audio Production, they don’t really focus on just using the computer. I’m enjoying it very much, it’s good in teaching us how to build our own studios at home. It saves me a lot of money and digital will be the future.” Speaking of future, Chris is pretty determined about his own. After graduation, he’s looking forward to release two albums and about five compilation albums. “Just flat the market with my music, flat advertising, get more headlining DJ sets as well, just push myself forwards.” Let’s see how far he can get.

DJ TTB’s official website

Singer, dancer and performer in 1970s chart-topping disco group Boney M.

Bobby Farrell, who has died of heart disease aged 61, was the sole male member of widely recognized 1970s disco group Boney M. Although they never achieved much success in the US, the German-based quartet has sold over 100 million records around the world, topped UK charts in 1978 with ‘Rivers of Babylon’ and scored a Christmas number one with their version of ‘Mary’s Boy Child’ the same year. Known more for his extravagant outfits and dance routines, Farrell only sang on stage while vocals on Boney M’s records were recorded by the producer Frank Farian. After they disbanded in 1986, he continued with his own version of the group recently under the name ‘Bobby Farrell’s Boney M’ performing a blend of disco and Calypso music.

Born Roberto Alfonso Farrell in 1949 on the island of Aruba, one of the Lesser Antillesin the Caribbean, Bobby Farrell left home at fifteen to work as a sailor. He travelled to Norway and the Netherlands before moving to Germany to pursue a career as a DJ, occasionally working also as a dancer and male model.

Here in 1974 Farrell caught the attention of a German singer, songwriter and producer Frank Farian who has at the time just recorded a song ‘Baby Do You Wanna Bump’ and was scouting for artists to perform it as Boney M. Put together by a man later known as the one behind the infamously fabricated duo Milli Vanilli, Boney M were no exception from the tradition of ‘manufactured’ pop groups of the 1970s. Nevertheless, their mix of European, Caribbean, Afro-American and Eastern influences gained them a worldwide recognition.

They first broke into the charts in 1976 with the hit ‘Daddy Cool’ off their debut album Take The Heat Off Me. Two years later, another hit ‘The Rivers of Babylon’ became and stayed number one for five weeks and has sold nearly two million records in Britain alone. The band also scored a Christmas number one in the UK with their cover of ‘Mary’s Boy Child’ the same year. In 1978, a Soviet military plane flew Boney M from London to Moscow where they sang for an audience of 2,700 Russians in Red Square becoming the first Western group invited to perform in the Soviet Union.

Farian later admitted Farrell made almost no contribution on the band’s records and that most of the vocals were recorded by the producer himself. Farian found Farrell’s voice not good enough to be used in the studio, but he saw him an excellent dancer and performer and let him sing on stage, although often he was just lip-syncing. The king of disco, as he has been repeatedly crowned, was known as an outstanding entertainer, known for his huge afro, bare torso and tight-fitting bell bottom trousers.”I want my music to make people feel good and to create sweet memories. The energy in my music has no limit; I want people to feel entertained and to hear the love that I have for creating music, translated into my songs,” he replied when asked what he wants his music to convey.

Besides Farrell, the group consisted of Liz Mitchell, Maizie Williams and Marcia Barrett. With their fancy costumes, crazy hairdos and dance numbers, Boney M were as much performance act as a pop group. Mitchell later admitted it was only her and Barrett who did the actual singing in the studio although they didn’t get any credit. Reputedly the whole band received only 9% percent of the profits. After a three month break from the spotlight in 1986, each member wanted to do their own thing and they split.

After they disbanded, Farrell went solo performing with a variety of a female back up singers over the years. In 2010, he was still touring the world under the name Bobby Farrell of Boney M with three female backing singersgiving performances in the Netherlands, Turkey, New York, Colombia, Finland and Slovakia. He is also starring in a video ‘Turn on the Music’ by Roger Sanchez (2005). He has influenced and inspired many artists, most recognizably Lady Gaga in her mega hit Poker Face which samples the famous vocal ‘Ma-Ma-Ma’ from Boney M’s ‘Ma Baker’. More recently, their ‘Gotta Go Home’ - itself a rewrite of ‘Hallo Bimmelbahn’ by Nighttrain formed the sample of one of the biggest dance hits of 2010 Duck Sauce’s ‘Barbra Streisand’.

Farrel was divorced from Yasmina Ayad-Saban and lived in Amsterdam for many years. He was found dead by staff in a hotel room in St Petersburg, Russia next morning after his performance in the city after failing to respond to a wake-up call. Before and after the show on 29 Dec he had complained of breathing problems. He died unexpectedly of heart disease. According to his agent John Seine, he suffered from heart problems, shortage of breath and problems with his stomach’ over the last decade. Seine described him as ‘a fantastic person’ but also ‘quite bizarre’. ‘He had a big heart but he was explosive,’ he said .

To a strange coincidence, Farrell died on 30 Dec in St Petersburg, Russia, just one day after and in the same city as the subject of one of Boney M’s biggest hits, Rasputin. He was due to fly to Rome for a TV Show on Friday 31 Dec and had a untitled new album planned for a 2011 release.

He is survived by his daughter, Zanillya. 

A twenty-two year old singer, classically trained pianist and pioneer of the emerging post-dubstep sub-genre from London.

Just as the xx changed the picture of sparse electronica in 2010, 2011 has James Blake with his soulful tenor, minimalist beats and R ‘n’ B samples compressed beyond recognition, bringing crisp otherness to the table of current ever so bland dubstep scene.

As a son of a musician, James Blake spent his childhood and teenage years listening to his parents’ classical and jazz collections, as well as US Soul and R ‘n’ B including the likes of Stevie Wonder, Sly and The Family Stone and D’Angelo.

Although he’s been singing and playing piano since the age of six Blake only started producing at nineteen when he went to Goldsmiths, University of London to study Popular Music. A few months prior to the Goldsmiths enrolment, Blake got dazzled of discovering the dubstep duo Digital Mystikz. “Dubstep was really the first electronic genre I got into, and it had a lot to do with the space; the space in the music and the space you had on the dancefloor, actually. I got a bit swept up in it initially, and for a few months strains of it were all I listened to, but I can’t stay in one place for too long,” he explains how the love for electronic music was born and admits to the influence of rumbling bass of dubstep that can be heard especially in his earlier songs and remixes.He’s a classically trained pianist but, as he says, was always an improviser at heart.

As a DJ, he started in London clubs like FWD & Mass. Determined to create the buzz, he was sending out tracks to small dubstep labels when finally producer Distance played him on the unsigned artists section on Rinse FM. Appearance on the legendary radio station got him signed to Hemlock by the influential producer and label boss Untold.

In July 2009, the first release came out through the label - a twelve inch titled Air & Lack Thereof. The record gained significant radio and club play from tastemakers like BBC Radio One’s Gilles Peterson. At this time, Blake also did remixes of Snoop Dogg, Lil Wayne and Destiny’s Child under an alias Harmonimix. He became a third member of electronic duo’s Mount Kimbie live show after they came down to see him play at one of the nights he was putting down at Goldsmiths Uni. The following EP The Bells Sketch was released through Hessle Audio in March 2010.

“I wanna make something I’ve never heard before,” James Blake was thinking when later, influenced by Joni Mitchell’s Blue and Bon Iver’s For Emma, Forever Ago, he started to experiment and put own voice in his music, simply because it felt like the most natural thing to do. “I could always write melodies and I could always improvise piano, but I never felt happy with the whole package. So producing was a way to do those things I was good at and, slowly, while I was doing that, I found my own voice.” In the tracks, the vocals are in the foreground in an attempt to encapture the way he hears himself through the headphones when recording. Blake admits it was the American hip hop duo Outkast who inspired him to allow the voice to dictate in which direction the music goes. He shifts the pitch of the samples to add a haunted timbre reminding of his favourites Burial and Mount Kimbie, often making them sound almost unrecognisable.

Signing to a legendary Belgian record label R&S and the following releases CMYK EP in May 2010 and Klawieverke EP in September brought James Blake mainstream recognition. CMYK was selected by Nick Grimshaw as his ‘Record of the Week’. On 29 September, BBC’s Zane Lowe selected Blake’s cover of Feist Limit To Your Love as his ‘Hottest Record in the World’. In the end of November, Blake released the song as a single.

The occasional absence of sound, his characteristic feature, caused a lot of curiosity and seems slightly surreal when played between other songs on the radio, those constantly crying out for your attention. “The silence isn’t meant to be an insult. I want people to react in a positive way, to have thoughts they wouldn’t otherwise have when the music is going on.” Utterly unreal he founds playing songs like Limit To Your Love to live audience. I was playing a song called Lindisfarne,” he recalls of a gig in December. “It starts with a vocoder on its own, unaccompanied, and there were times when I extended the silence slightly, because I was enjoying it so much. Just to hear a whole room of people not talking, with just the thud of the music downstairs bleeding through, is incredible. There was a moment when a man took his jacket off and it was like nails on a chalkboard. To have that control, just through music, of people’s emotions, was great. Really good.”

Thanks to three successful releases 2010 was a breakthrough year for Blake. In Decmeber 2010 he was announced to have placed in BBC’s Sound of 2011, an annual poll, where he scored a second place on 6 January, 2011. He was first played on BBC Radio One by the DJ Mary Anne Hobbs. It was ‘Measurements’ off his upcoming album. James Blake has also become a runner-up in the BRIT Awards Critic’s Choice 2010.

“All the vocals are from me,” he says about the upcoming album. “There are times when it might seem there’s a sample being used, but I’ve just sampled myself. That’s what makes this record special compared to everything else I’ve done.” The debut album is due 7th of February. There are 11 tracks, including the successful single ‘Limit To Your Love’, the rest of the songs are new.

Old something I’ve found in drafts. My first online rave memories. Aww, sweet…

Insomnia’s a bitch. It was 1:14 am and I was aimlessly abusing twitter when something caught my attention. “woohooo!!! check this crap out!” the tweet contained a link to deadmau5’s account on ustream (America’s video streaming site).

After a few minutes of watching the Canadian DJ and producer desperately trying to do something with his Mac software - I have no idea what on Earth he was doing - I understood he was planning to stream his set live straight from the booth at one of the most expensive nightclubs in New York City - The Provocateur. 

The set was planned to start at 1am EST, that meant 7am in my time zone. Joel was almost constantly online (despite an hour break prior to the show). Me and about 3000 other people saw him smoke (way too many times), talk to random people and eat a brownie besides many other things, haha. Every now and then he answered a question from the chat and even showed us his iPads. More importantly (and interestingly), we were able to watch deadmau5’s soundcheck.

People on the chat were totally nuts. I deeply regret not taking a note of some of the quotes of the night but my brother could tell you I was laughing so hard I actually woke him up. 

Some thoughts from the last days, I don’t know… Still recovering from Ibiza. Might not make any sense but you know what? I don’t feel like things need to make sense anymore. They just need to be expressed.

‘It took me so long to actually go, but once I did I felt like I’d arrived at a place to fulfill my wildest fantasies and beyond.’ Damian Lazarus

sliced bones

DC10 closing party: people already came too fucked OR got F-ed too early

-> but at least make it to the venue

MOVEMENT = LIFE. Let’s think we’re all moving forward :P

You’ve got to sound like what you are.

Drunken zombie’s heartache.

Well, if he got high instead, wouldn’t be in such a pain.

The bass in Franco Civelli’s remix of Cassius is tasty but disturbing. I would cut it out and eat it.

‘Carnival is a licensed release from everyday life.’

Build castles.

Holding onto reality by a thread.

& they’re like: THIS IS WHY WE ALL LOVE IT.

OK GUYS. GO HOME. I CAN’T LEAVE BECAUSE SETH TROXLER’S PLAYING. (when friends don’t share your excitement)

Ibiza as a case study.

you’re listening to the sounds of the terrace :)

Dan Ghenacia , Live at Amnesia Ibiza , Cocoon Heroes 27-06-2011 by nightclubber.ro

this set is too amazing. i won’t forgive myself that i wasn’t there that soon.