APRIL 2010 // SITE HIATUS FOR A MINUTE // WILL BE BACK A.B.B

APRIL 2010 // SITE HIATUS FOR A MINUTE // WILL BE BACK A.B.B

APRIL 2010 // SITE HIATUS FOR A MINUTE // WILL BE BACK A.B.B

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A full on family affair. Brainfeeder London at Fabric in Time Out. On a Wednesday. Just got the call Joe Ballers is down. I wrote the preview w/ Hemingway reference - see below, as the flyer. Rumour has it clusterfuck ahead.

Red Bull Music Academy presents Brainfeeder Sessions
As anyone who has seen Flying Lotus play live can attest, the cosmic battering of music that radiates from his laptop is a wonder to behold. Combining a sound so full; a massive wall of noise with an innate funk and melodious thunk (blame those Coltrane genes), Lotus has captured an exploding, inevitable energy that even the city of Los Angeles is finding hard to contain. And so London welcomes Brainfeeder, an epic showcase of his label, friends and family, undoubtedly one of the highlights of Red Bull Music Academy. By the way, his new record on Warp, “Cosmogramma” is out in May and the demented genius is sounding ever the more confident.

The line-up at Fabric is ridiculous for a Wednesday night. Beside Lotus stands Hyperdub kingpin Kode9 and “Fabric 50” mix star Martyn, making their returns to Clerkenwell. LA’s fresh faced TOKiMONSTA is doing it for the girls with her absurd, stuttering bass drops and “astro-vandalism.” Daedelus will be unveiling “The Righteous Fists of Harmony”. A conceptual record and journey into Victorian times, led by a secret society of martial artists who may or may not have magical powers. Amazing. The one and only Gaslamp Killer will be slaying rap, dubstep and tribal jazz drum solos dead, whilst two gifted, precocious savants, Nosaj Thing and Dorian Concept re-imagine hip hop for the next generation. Bookend the night with some Stones Throw magic from J.Rocc and Dimlite and you have yourself a movable, unmissable feast.

Following the previous review of the awesome new Ernest Gonzales album "Been Meaning To Tell You" on LA fam Leeor's equally awesome label Friends of Friends, here's the interview with the gifted beatsmith...

Read here.

I just reviewed the blinding new Ernest Gonzales album out on FoF Records up on URB.

"Where’s Devyn? She better be smitten that her husband has concocted a multimedia and multi-layered Russian doll of a present for her–all for the sake of bettering inter-couple communication. Ernest Gonzales, the sentimental electronic beats producer from San Antonio, has dedicated this sophomore album to his better half, quoting: “These songs are all the things I’ve been meaning to tell you… all the words, thoughts, and emotions that are so hard for me to express.” So don’t be expecting any Texas harsh, desert-crusted psychedelia–this is more fields and forest music, lush electronica crafted with some awesome, mutant pop songwriting.

“Dancing In The Snow” opens the album with a sense of familiarity, a beautiful, icy ditty that evokes tracks of the past. Part Postal Service, actually more Dntel, with Gonzales’ immaculate composition providing a delicate, instrumental patchwork which is neither lightweight Owl City indie electronica nor too arty, but instead some real bass drops bullying the twee harmonies. His marriage of shattered guitars and low end are reminiscent of edIT’s pre-Glitch Mob classic “Crying Over Pros For No Reason,” and there’s a gifted craftsmanship, like “Of Snowdonia”-era Daedelus, commanding the ability to create perfectly twisted hooks and stuttering drums from a mass of disparate elements.

By the way, this procession of musical floats gone-by doesn’t showcase the record’s full scope. Ernest Gonzales’ emotional sincerity is also channeled through the epic, post-rock rattlings of “Opening a Lost Sacred Door” and even some dubby, harpsichord techno with “Psychedlic Bellhop.” And then he goes and invites all his friends.

“Been Meaning To Tell You” is paired with a banging remix album 16-tracks-deep of earnest covers from beat dudes like Take, Yppah, matthewdavid, CYNE, and Daedelus. Gonzales himself wrestles his masked, heavyweight electro alias Mexicans With Guns. And then there are the 14 visual artists, asked to create their interpretations inspired by musical sentiment and bound in a hard back book–from Martin Allais to Alexis Ziritt and Archan Nair from New Delhi, India on the cover art. Gets you thinking, what have you done for your girl lately?"

We at Protein have been looking after the seeding and promo for the upcoming Spike Jonze x Absolut 30 minute short film, I'm Here. Synopsis below... trailer here.

"I'm Here is a 30-minute love story about the relationship between two robots living in LA. The film is written and directed by Spike Jonze. Andrew Garfield and Sienna Guillory are in the lead roles, and the soundtrack includes original music by Sam Spiegel and original songs by LA-Based art musician Aska Matsumiya and other emerging musicians."


After premiering at Sundance there are screenings in London, Manchester and Edinburgh.

All Dazed Digital features from the last few months can be read here.

MUSIC
BFlecha, Dame Dash, Carlos Nino, Transparent Records, Mike Slott, Shlohmo, Highpoint Lowlife, Birds & Batteries, Muhsinah, The Polyamorous Affair, Numbers, Guido, Bonjay, Ramadanman, Planeta Terra, Rizla Invisible Players, Robot Koch, Shafiq Husayn, Lazer Sword & Innovative Leisure, Tickley Feather, Hecuba, Mayer Hawthorne, The xx, Larytta, Drums of Death, Brodinski, Jogger, Illa J, Brackles, Ballers Social Club, Limonious: Master of Skweee, Dev Hynes, Tomb Crew

ART
Flying Eyeball, Sao Paulo's Inside Outside / Choque Cultural at MASP, Alex Lukas, Fuse, Shaun Bloodworth & Stuart Hammersley / N/S/E/W, Sumi Ink Club, David Lawrey and Jaki Middleton, Matthew Stone, Typographica

FASHION
Gourmet, Adidas Originals...

Celebrating the very best in Contemporary Chinese Creative music, art, photography and film, Dazed & Confused and Tiger beer collaborated on a recent Dazed cover mount magazine which I came on as the project editor. Writing features and interviews with Howie B, White and Sa DingDing, photographers Madi Ju, Li Wei and Kai Z Feng, artists Gayle Chong Kwan, Suki Chan and Gordon Cheung and filmmaker and novelist Xiaolu Guo. I also put together a restaurant guide and culture/history spots for London, Glasgow, Manchester, Newcastle, Brighton, Birmingham, Liverpool and Leeds's Chinatowns. Big thanks to the reviewers and photographers who got involved up and down the UK.

Download the full Dazed X Tiger magazine here.









On Thursday 11th February Dazed and Tiger are gearing up for their Chinese New Year's event in London's Chinatown as part of Tiger's Lucky 8 programme where I'll be moderating the screening and Q&A for Xiaolu Guo's award-winning debut feature film, She, A Chinese at the Prince Charles Cinema.

At the New World (1 Gerrard Place) we're throwing a party with White live and Howie B DJing, at New Loon Fung is the art exhibition (Gordon Cheung, Suki Chan, Gayle Chong Kwan) and at Chuen Cheung Ku, the photography exhibition (Kai Z Feng, Madi Ju, Li Wei).

New Dazed is out now, as part of the Hecuba threads feature (check my Dazed Digital interview here and Dazed video premiere here) I wrote a little piece about their Echo Park friends and Manimal fam We Are The World, probably the only experimental, political dance troupe writing banging extravagant pop songs in east Los Angeles. Their awesome debut record Clay Stones is an ambitious new world vision of performance art in electronic music...

Download feature.

Last night we opened Room 1 and it was fun. Dropped everything from BFlecha to Free The Robots, new Brother Reade / Widows to Shlohmo, New Boyz, pretty bummpy... Alex Patchwork rolled up with an power hour UK funky hour which totally smashed it, there was even some random kid crowd surfing. Epic jams.

Protein x Fact mag Xmas party at the Vinyl Factory in Soho. Thursday 10th December with drinks from Tuborg and Costcutter. Comanechi - who have just released their blazing new album Crime of Love will be playing live. DJs Patchwork Pirates, Hot City & FACT DJs play too.

rsvp@protein.co.uk

Go get yourself a copy of Remi/Rough's new book, Lost Colours & Alibis. Out now. 104 pages of original artworks, walls, trains and history plus a complete catalogue of the Lost Colours & Alibis works from his most recent exhibition. Also includes a 'Conversation With...' piece that I wrote taken from breakfast convos with Remdog.

You can order here... limited to an edition of 500.

From Agents Of Change:
"This book has been twenty five years in the making... Remi/Rough has travelled the world with his art and has compiled an extremely personal collection of images for this book - all in a very cool 210cm x 210cm square format, soft bound and full colour throughout.

With a foreword by New York legend Mare 139, this book is an absolute must have."

Price £30 + £6 UK + £10 international postage and packing.

Patchwork Pirates, Patchwork Pirates, Patchwork Pirates...

Some Patchwork Pirates action with Last FM... this Friday at the Barfly, mail for list. BTW anyone see the Modeselektor show? Download the INFAMOUS Pirates Heart MS mix HERE.

Writing on the road... new URB Next 25 Digital Magazine is out now, links below. Wrote a couple of short vignettes on The xx and Josh Ooah and Marty Party aka Pantyraid...




URB Digital Edition: 25: NOW!

Taking a long deserved break. Travel & food blog up at the TFC BOOTLEG.

Two different sides of the same, always inspiring music coin. Massive support for both these guys, these ideas, these ethics. New issue of Dazed is out now with the amazing Lily Cole on the cover and my music features with Joy Orbison


(download feature) and Manimal Vinyl (download feature).

Taking a break in Los Angeles at the moment. It's good.

-


The spanking new KDU global network site is up and running. It's a beast. Cheers to the worldwide fam esp. Lex and David.

New Dazed is out and it's a fashion MASSIVE. In and amongst that are fine words from myself about even finer characters. Click to DL features on... Dilla's bro Illa J. The amazing Sumi Ink Club LA drawing club. South London's massive Werk Disks. Sally Potter's new film with Rage. There's extensions online too. Like that good hair.

Things we learned from our Greece trip? That everywhere has great views of the Acropolis. And that Observer Food Monthly's recommendation suck. Athens is an amazing place. Protein seeded the launch of the Swatch MTV Playground Creative Community earlier this year and this event sees that global community go live with fashion shows, art-to-go prints, exhibitions, a light graffiti showcase and the like. We produced the art battle and brought over our friends from Secret Wars for an art showcase event on the roof terrace on Friday night overlooking the Acropolis - BIG VIEWS - and a UK X GREECE 1,000 Euro battle on the Saturday night with DiscoTeck and Gauky against Athens' Yellowish and Chris Ioannou. Big thanks to our event partners Marcia and Costas Yatzer and Unlike. And the venue BIOS which is one of Athens' premiere music and art spots. It's free and 85 degrees.



More on the Protein Flickr

This year was a particularly strong line-up in the programming at onedotzero. From Dazed's involvement to the Partisan Next Generation collective. Last year Protein came on as hospitality partners and this year we did done dun it again. Last year we programmed the music for the launch party with New Look and Lex Recs. This year we Djed and hooked up with my new favourite label Manimal Vinyl with a DJ showcase from Matthew Manimal of new tunes from the LA stable of amazing weirdos (go Warpaint! Hecuba! VoicesVoices!) as well as the badman Spencer from Numbers / Warp. Was a good, sweaty evening.