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News

News: Counter Culture

London’s 4-month multi-arts festival Counter Culture finally opened its doors for launch night on Friday to a capacity crowd and a guest appearance by the one-and-only Suggs.

Held in a pop-up venue (formely Jacks but now happily Counter Culture for the next 4 months) under London Bridge, the project held a first class night featuring performances from A.Human, Viva City and Man Like Me (joined by the aforementioned Suggs) and The Subs. In the second room were DJ sets from Sunday Girl, Anti Chris, Hatesy, The Invisible, Rotating Leslie and RightClickSaveAs, the place was busy until the early hours of the morning and the organisers can be immensely pleased that the project kicked off with such success. I’ll include some photos from launch night once they’ve been published.

The party continued on Saturday with the Counter Culture house DJs, and on Sunday was the first weekly film night, with a free showing of Withnail & I (whilst supping White Russians and eating the free nibbles). Sundays will, from next week, by hosted by Short & Sweet, showing short films, music videos and animations from a range of known and unknown directors.

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News

News: Abe Vigoda

Bella Union, one of the most accessible record labels around at the moment in my opinion, have very kindly uploaded Abe Vigoda‘s new album, Crush, to their SoundCloud page for our aural pleasure. It’s a delightful listen and you should certainly check it out.

We’ve embedded the stream below. Let us know what you think in the comments, and check out this Friday’s Gig Rig for info on when they’ll be touring near you.

The album is out on the 20th of this month.

Abe Vigoda – Crush by Bella Union

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News Reviews

Review: Everything Everything – Man Alive

Following our news post last week, informing you that Everything Everything were streaming their new album Man Alive (Geffen 2010) on Myspace, I requested that it make an appearance on Spotify soon. Seems like they were listening to me, because I’m pleased to inform you all that it is now on Spotify too!

Everything Everything don’t need me to wax lyrical for them. In December last year, they were shortlisted for the BBC’s Sound of 2010. MY KZ, UR BF was featured on Zane Lowe’s Hottest Records blog, and they can count Take That amongst their biggest fans. In other words, they’ve got previous.

Its reach is understandable.  From the synth stabs of the Lowe-endorsed MY KZ, UR BF, you could be forgiven for thinking you were listening to 1986’s Please.  The falsetto melodies could be from the Beegees (though there’s a distinctly Futureheads vibe about Jonathan Higgs’ vocal when he’s not grabbing his balls).  The rhythm section bounces along like something straight out of disco-era funk.  It’s distinctly accessible.  And yet, not…  The chops are severe, the amalgamation of styles so abruptly put together – they want you to dance, but they don’t want you to draw breath.  Everything Everything are an enigma.

Continue reading “Review: Everything Everything – Man Alive”

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Features News

News: Counter Culture Pre-Launch

The end of summer sucks.  Fact.  The weather fades, it gets dark, and festival season grinds to a saddening hault pretty much after Bestival (next week!).  Fear not, though, for help is on the way.

Counter Culture, a new 4 month multi-arts ‘festival’ taking place under London Bridge Station, launches on 24 September and their site launched this morning with extensive listings (but far from fully announced – expect some great announcements as time goes on) of what to expect to see going on there until 1 January 2011.

Get your name on their mailing list, because the first 100 names will be added to the guestlist and get free admission for their launch party on Friday 24 September.  Special Guests are still to be confirmed, but with Man Like Me, the Streets-esque London-techno three-piece, and Rumours, ‘the worlds smallest 80s disco’ – which has been converting Isle Of Wight, Camp Bestival and V Festival into 80s time-warps in recent summers – already in place, it’s going to be one hell of a party.

Continue reading “News: Counter Culture Pre-Launch”
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News

News: Everything Everything

Awesome news!  The debut album from Everything Everything, entitled Man Alive (Geffen 2010), is now streaming via Myspace!  Here’s hoping it’s on our very own Spotify soon, but in the mean time, wrap your ears around this promo.  We can confirm the album is literally fantastic.

The album will be released for general sale on 30 August 2010.

    1. MY KZ, UR BF
    2. QWERTY Finger
    3. Schoolin’
    4. Leave The Engine Room
    5. Final Form
    6. Photoshop Handsome
    7. Two For Nero
    8. Suffragette Suffragette
    9. Come Alive Diana
    10. NASA Is On Your Side
    11. Tin (The Manhole)
    12. Weights

Update! Man Alive is now on Spotify too!! Listen now!

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News

News: Website Relaunch

Morning all! It’s my mahoosive pleasure to inform you that our new website is now online! The new site should offer a cleaner, more easily navigated experience, and I really hope you all enjoy using it. We have big plans for future development, and we’re keen to take your ideas on board so please do get in touch with any suggestions or comments.

Massive heartfelt thanks to everyone involved in the redesign – a lot of hard work has gone into the migration, and it’s hugely appreciated.

Some info for you:

  • Our RSS feeds have changed – the new link is http://feeds.feedburner.com/Spotisfaction;
  • Check out our Submission Guide here for details on how to continue submitting your playlists, reviews and features;
  • We’ve created a new Facebook ‘fan’ page to offer us more control over the updates we post there, so please like us and suggest us to your friends!

Major thanks from myself and the whole team for your continued support. We created this website and continue to update it because we really love what we do, but there’d be no point in doing it if none of you guys visited.

Love, etc.
Dave and The Spotisfaction Team.

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News

News: Stressechoes

Spotisfaction writer Ben Hawling is not one to blow his own trumpet (and believe me he has tried) but he does have other talents. When not spewing forth intriguing and in-depth prose that stimulates intellectual debate, our Ben creates culinary masterpieces such as chocolate pizza and has also been known to occasionally hit things with sticks.

Luckily the things he hits are drums, and in a random set of circumstances that I am led to believe involved baked beans, a deer, some sellotape, the complete written works of Enid Blyton and a Commonwealth Games silver medal, Ben has recently ended up as the drummer for Cheltenham-based band Stressechoes.

After a successful appearance at Cheltenham Underground”™s Decent Days and Nights weekender, Stressechoes, complete with new drummer, have gone on to play at other events in Cheltenham to such crowd approval that they decided to record a few tracks for a demo.

And so it was that last week the four Stressechoes found themselves in a recording studio for a day and out of this session a four track demo was created. Visitors to the band”™s MySpace site can now check out the tracks and I would highly recommend that you do so now so that in future you can claim to all your friends that you knew about them before they became popular.

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News

News: Celebration of Curation


31 days, 31 curators, 31 exclusive Cloudcasts.

As they approach their first birthday, our friends over at Mixcloud will be showcasing some of the biggest editorial voices around, who they have been proud and honoured to have worked alongside in the last 12 months.

Everyday throughout August an exclusive Cloudcast from their pick of the best curators will be available to listen to exclusively on Mixcloud.  The line up has been announced and includes the likes of Vice, Mixmag, BBC 1Xtra, RedBull Music Academy, Fabric, Don”™t Stay In and many more.

Highlights so far include Day 2”™s cloudcast from the mighty Knowledge Magazine which features some big tunes from the likes of Alix Perez, Noisia and The Upbeats, and yesterday”™s hip hop history lesson from WhoSampled.com. Check it!

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News

News: Richard Russell of XL Recordings

Photo courtesy of the Telegraph.co.uk

We thoroughly encourage you to read the interview with Richard Russell of XL Recordings in today”™s Telegraph. The article provides a revealing insight into the history and ethos of Britain”™s most influential label.

XL Recordings have gone from strength to strength since the label”™s inception in the late 80s to release dance and rave music. Now they are home to Dizzee Rascal, Thom Yorke and Gil Scott-Heron, and in the wake of The xx”™s recent Mercury Prize nomination, the Telegraph have featured an interview with the XL founder.

Read the interview here.

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News

News: Cage Against The Machine

Last year, a Facebook group got Rage Against The Machine to Christmas UK number 1. It even got Rage themselves to put on a free gig for us all.

This year, it’s Cage Against The Machine. A new Facebook campaign has been started to get John Cage’s famous avant-garde work 4’33” – notable for it’s 4-and-a-half minutes of pure silence – to Christmas number one this year.

Feel free to make as many ”˜Silent Night” puns as you see fit, and make sure you sign up for your email reminder to buy the single in 6 months time!

We like this one; lets hear silence at the top spot this Christmas.

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News Reviews

News: Foals


Image courtesy of Amazon.co.uk
Following their Mercury Prize Nomination, Foals”™ Total Life Forever is now available to listen to on Spotify.

The Spotify release includes a 23 minute interview with Yannis, speaking about the new album, his childhood, his growing interest in subversive culture and music, and a revealing commentary on the growth of the band since the first album. Listen to this, now!

Taken from my Foals Glastonbury review:

“The new album, Total Life Forever (Transgressive, 2010), was a realisation of the growing maturity in the band. The songs are louder, deeper (take a bow, Mr Sitek), more balanced, more energetic. It”™s still definitely downtempo, but you sense, when you see Foals live, that they”™ve got their craft exactly right now – explore songs and dynamics on record, but see them live to truly understand the band.”

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Playlists

Playlist: Tramlines Festival

Here’s Rhys (in his own, unapologetically unique style) with his take on this weekend’s free Tramlines Festival in Sheffield. If you’re going, let him know in the comments below – he’ll be the crazy person, you won’t miss him.

*Dons Ringmaster Costume*

Ladies and Gentlemen, Boys and Girls. Roll up. Roll up for a free festival in the fine Yorkshire city of Sheffield. You heard me right, Madam. Free. For You. In Sheffield. This Weekend. That’s right, this weekend of the 24th to the 26th of July. What’s that Sir? The Queues? You have heard correctly, Sir, that last year Queues were a problem but worry no more! We have rectified this problem and the result is less waiting and more entertaining!

We have a cavalcade of artistes and troubadours for your delectation and delight. Take a look at this e-flyer for details, and as a sneak peek take a listen to this Electronic Concert I have complied for you of our Biggest Names. All you need do is click here.

More details of the concert performers and some of their songs after the jump!

Tramlines 2010 Playlist:

  1. Echo And The Bunnymen – The Killing Moon
  2. Mystery Jets – Lorna Doone
  3. Simian Mobile Disco – Tits & Acid
  4. 65daysofstatic – The Major Cities Of The World Are Being Destroyed One By One By The Monsters
  5. Toddla T featuring Mr Versatile – Rice And Peas
  6. Blood Red Shoes – Don’t Ask
  7. Rolo Tomassi – I love Turbulence
  8. Dum Dum Girls – Longhair
  9. Craig David – What’s Your Flava? – Radio Edit
  10. Darwin Deez – The Suicide Song
  11. Oris Jay – Trippin (Original Mix)
  12. The Hoosiers – Worried About Ray
  13. Focus – Harem Scarem
  14. The King Blues – Save The World, Get The Girl
  15. Pulled Apart By Horses – I Punched A Lion In The Throat
  16. Three Trapped Tigers – 6
  17. Macka B – I Don’t Like Reggae
  18. The Twilight Sad – That Summer, At Home I Had Become The Invisible Boy
  19. Dinosaur Pile-Up – Opposites Attract

So just click here to hear them. And remember the big performance is this weekend. Come one, Come all.

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News

Photo courtesy of The Ocelot Big up The Prodigy, who have been voted the most influential dance act of all time in a recent poll by GlobalGathering. With 29% of the votes they stormed ahead of Daft Punk (13%) and the likes of Faithless (11%), Kraftwerk (5%) and the Chemical Brothers (3%). It seems only befitting of a band that created a truly unique sound, morphing drum & bass, techno and rock into a menacing beast that would draw a new generation into electronic music, sell more than 20 million records over 20 years and pave the way for the live dance acts of today. The Top 10: 1. Prodigy (29%) 2. Daft Punk (13%) 3. Faithless (11%) 4. New Order (9%) 5. Orbital (7%) 6. Kraftwerk (5%) 7. Paul Oakenfold (4%) 8. Carl Cox (4%) 9. Fatboy Slim (3%) 10. Chemical Brothers (2%)

Photo courtesy of The Ocelot

Big up The Prodigy, who have been voted the most influential dance act of all time in a recent poll by GlobalGathering. With 29% of the votes they stormed ahead of Daft Punk (13%) and the likes of Faithless (11%), Kraftwerk (5%) and the Chemical Brothers (3%).

It seems only befitting of a band that created a truly unique sound, morphing drum & bass, techno and rock into a menacing beast that would draw a new generation into electronic music, sell more than 20 million records over 20 years and pave the way for the live dance acts of today.

The Top 10:

1. Prodigy (29%)
2. Daft Punk (13%)
3. Faithless (11%)
4. New Order (9%)
5. Orbital (7%)
6. Kraftwerk (5%)
7. Paul Oakenfold (4%)
8. Carl Cox (4%)
9. Fatboy Slim (3%)
10. Chemical Brothers (2%)

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News

Last week, Thom and I spoke to Amazing Radio about Spotisfaction, our thoughts about Spotify, new music and life in general. Today, we”™ve been featured on their blog and will be on the Afternoon Show before 4pm! http://amazingradio.co.uk/uncategorized/the-afternoon-show-its-blog-of-the-week-day You can listen here: http://amazingradio.co.uk/ [David]

Last week, Thom and I spoke to Amazing Radio about Spotisfaction, our thoughts about Spotify, new music and life in general. Today, we”™ve been featured on their blog and will be on the Afternoon Show before 4pm!

http://amazingradio.co.uk/uncategorized/the-afternoon-show-its-blog-of-the-week-day

You can listen here: http://amazingradio.co.uk/

[David]

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News

It would appear that Caribou, Owen Pallet and Broken Social Scene are all shortlisted for the Polaris Music Prize. The Polaris Music Prize is similar to similar to the UK”™s Mercury Music Prize. It is given each year by Canadian music business insiders, including of journalists, bloggers and broadcasters, to the Canadian album they believe has the highest artistic merit regardless of the style of music or the number of records sold.

Criteria for consideration requires the artist to be Canadian and for the album to be at least 30 minutes/8 tracks long and truth be told the Canadians are currently producing a large amount of very good music as can be seen from this years long list of nominees which included The New Pornographers, Basia Bulat and Young Galaxy. Those that have made it into the shortlist announced today include previous winners Caribou and Owen Pallett, as well as the mighty Broken Social Scene and The Besnard Lakes. Check out the albums up for the award below, and click the links to hear them on Spotify.

The award ceremony takes place on September 20th when the winner will be able to walk off with head held high and $20,000 in their pocket. We pity the judges, as it”™s going to be a very close call this year”¦

It would appear that Caribou, Owen Pallet and Broken Social Scene are all shortlisted for the Polaris Music Prize.

The Polaris Music Prize is similar to similar to the UK”™s Mercury Music Prize. It is given each year by Canadian music business insiders, including of journalists, bloggers and broadcasters, to the Canadian album they believe has the highest artistic merit regardless of the style of music or the number of records sold.

Criteria for consideration requires the artist to be Canadian and for the album to be at least 30 minutes/8 tracks long and truth be told the Canadians are currently producing a large amount of very good music as can be seen from this years long list of nominees which included The New Pornographers, Basia Bulat and Young Galaxy.

Those that have made it into the shortlist announced today include previous winners Caribou and Owen Pallett, as well as the mighty Broken Social Scene and The Besnard Lakes. Check out the albums up for the award below, and click the links to hear them on Spotify.

The award ceremony takes place on September 20th when the winner will be able to walk off with head held high and $20,000 in their pocket. We pity the judges, as it”™s going to be a very close call this year”¦