Eager readers of this blog might remember that I mentioned the interesting warm up band at the ESG concert Fabula Beat (They have some new songs on their Myspace btw). The lead singer Josephine Philip is also part of another cool Danish act, worth taking notice of - Along with Ane Trolle (Famed for the vocals on Trentemøllers Moan) she forms the duo Jaconfetti. They've released one single here in Denmark which has received massive airplay - A modern reggaeish dancy piece of prime pop.
Their story (and face it, every band should have stories like this) is something like this according to their Myspace: They bring a universe of confetti and joy, spread out in a colorful variation of many different genres going from heavy beats to sweet balkan. Some might describe it as LSD-pop. On their powerful Rain Dears they travel around in the JaConfetti world, meeting good and bad, fun and dull, and through their songs they tell stories about what they experience.
Indeed... Hard to argue against powerful Rain Dears, but the story fits the generel theme so I'm convinced. An album should hopefully be out soon, title The Rainbow Express - I believe thats what poker players would call: "All in!"
Electronic king of every disco and outhouse in Denmark Trentemöller has done a rather playable remix of Hold nu Kay, which hopefully will be released soon. Nothing like the click pop / massive breakdowns we have come to cheerish, it instead sounds like what Diplo would do next - or something like that. You've gotta hand it to the Trent', he's not afraid to drive down a new road! JaConfetti ends up sounding like a new version of Avenue D. Thus, here is a very shitty myspace rip, get this bomb when it is released:
Forecast: Rain... Crap. Actually I haven't seen so much rain in late June, as I have today - Hopefully that means that it's going to be all rained out next week. The forecasts aren't good - They have changed for the better though. It actually looked even worse yesterday. Reports from on-the-ground-reporter Duddi, part of the event group at Roskilde, tells grim stories of mudd, the depth of which can only be imagined. Be afraid, be very afraid. Wearing rubber boots just isn't rock and roll. Anyways the music:
Maybe a year to late, but there none the less, will be Erlend Oye's other band, besides Kings of Convenience, namely The Whitest Boy Alive - an apt title for the Norwegan ladykiller. The Whitest Boy Alive is mainly a nice indie-dancy band backing Erlend, but it is actually quite catchy and will probably fit well with the 21.00 p.m. timeslot on Saturday after a nice round of Flaming Lips.
Last thing I'll see on this years festival is probably French house legend Laurent Garnier playing 20:15 on saturday (If I haven't drowned by then). Apparently so old in the game that he inspired both the Happy Mondays and the Stone Roses. He has been DJ'ing since I was very wee - hopefully he still has some tricks up his sleeve.
Going to third base! Apparenly the Danish meteorological service is predicting insane amounts of rain of Copenhagen the next week. Hopefully it's going to be all rained out when we reach the 1. of July. Rain is the deal breaker when we're talking Roskilde and festivals in general. Enough crappy warm up talk, here's the music:
It's wamp wamp time - Clipse is the major hip hop name to grace the festival this year (besides the Beastie Boys). I'm normally not that into the word smith type of music, although Jay-Z of course is an all time favorite, but for once I'm going to put some rap on my must see list. The duo, formed in the Bronx, are curretly based in Louisiana. They made a big name of themselves with the classic 2002 Neptunes produced single grindin', which was a mainstay on the dancefloor just about everywhere. Anyways, Pistol Pete has done a great remix of most recent single Wamp Wamp. Enjoy:
The great Get Physical label is a major presence on this years festival! Besides M.A.N.D.Y. and Booka Shade, they also have the interesting Djuma Soundsystem from Denmark. The sound is described is described as following on the Get Physical website: "Mix Arabic percussion and strings with electronic beats and you end up with the explosive sound of Djuma Soundsystem, a sound that has swept them from the underground scene in Copenhagen into the front ranks of a new signing with the award-winning and respected German label Get Physical." - Up until now, they've only released one single, the rather ethnic dancefloor bomb Les Djinns - one of the best singles of last year in my book - Hopefully they will debut some new stuff on Roskilde on the Get Physical night, which will no doubt take place.
. . .Continuing our preview series. This year the smart heads behind Roskilde Festival have done away with the 'Metropol' tent - The electronic tent - and also the world music hippie tent (The name eludes me right now). Instead they've established a new urban scene - Cosmopol - "The stage is a brand new hot spot for underground urban genres and will sparkle with hip hop, R’n’B, global beats and rhythms, neo-soul and music from the more organic electronic scene" - I'm sceptical. I want my techno stage dammit, where the following ideally should play saturday night:
Bmore king / Baile Funk to the mainstream bringer Diplo (Wiki) is already a Roskilde Veteran having closed the festival on a previous occasion. The Dipster has impecable musical credentials, at least partly responsible for the world knowing of M.I.A. (If you haven't heard it, track down one the best mixtape projects ever Diplo & M.I.A.: Piracy Funds Terrorism), Bondo Do Role, and also Spank Rock. Thus you already know this guy has a good musical ear and if that wasn't enough, he is also partly responsible for the huge mashup/bootleg wave a couple of years ago! He is the musical equivalent of a Tomahawk missile with a nuclear device as a warhead - There is something for everyone! Expect big beats and music all over the spectrum. Hopefully, we won't have to wait until late sunday night to join the Diplo party.
Here is a small mix I made of some of his great remixes:
Hot Chip-Over and Over (Diplo's Shake it Over and Over Remix)
Kanye West - Gold Digger (Diplo Remix)
CSS - Let's Make Love and Listen to Death From Above (Diplo Remix)
Kanye West - Stronger (Diplo's Work is Never Over Remix)
Diplo Vs The Beatles - Sshake it up
'Vorsprung durch Technik' could be the motto of Berlin based Jeans Team. It's hard to describe Jeans Team - at least when you're not German - without mentioning Kraftwerk. Actually I'd bet that this is what Kraft' would sound like if they'd found guitars instead of keyboards. It's destinctly German and it is destinctly rocking!
Now join me: "Ich singe keine Melodien - Ich singe 1 - 2 - 3 - 4!"
The weather has been pretty fantastic this last week here in Copenhagen - Sun and no wind! It really puts you in the mood for Roskilde. It's the same thing each year, and you always end up dreading to look at the weather forecast. For some reason it is either sweltering hot or pouring down, you never get the middle ground. What that means is of course planing for the worst and hopping for the best. My camp and me have already started planing how best to bash our way through the hordes of hippies to get that all important high ground! Because of the ever looming danger of the all eating gravel pit you can also end up lying a gazillion miles away from the actual music - Picture a nice half hour walk to get to the actual festival ground. Despite what some people might argue, I'm still mainly there for music and not 'atmosphere'. Thus here is the music:
In what is far from the best line-up at Roskilde there are some exceptions. First one is post-punk / 'Neo Rave' (Still lame genre name in my book) / Latest wave New York group New Young Pony Club. They've been mentioned here a couple of times in the past, but since then they've made an album. They sport the above mentioned genres with a twist of pop - To their credit, they are probably the closest thing you will come to legendary Tom Tom Club. The Roskilde program puts them in the same genre as The Klaxons, which seems a bit far fetched. Rather this is what the Bangles would've sounded like if they had been formed in the year 2007. I highly recommend you go check them out - They are probably the closest thing to a secret on this years festival.
hear the bang, see the spark - duck down, lay down just (get on down) - Just for that I'm looking forward to see Dizzee Rascal (Wiki). He is old news on the grime-scene, probably compareable to the status of Jay-Z in Hip-Hop, captain Rascal is the elder statesman of England. New album Maths + English has just been released. The title aptly describes what Dizzee is all about. Perfectly timed beats with excellent lyrics, he has probably done more to chance mainstream British than any one else. The show at Roskilde is probably going to be an inferno of bass and jumping - you don't wanna miss it: You better send your best soldiers, cos this is Captain Rosco! More destructive and troublesome than ever!
Went to see Art Brut on Friday, having missed them last time they played Copenhagen. Their funny Blur-esque lyrics have taken many of last years end-of-year charts by storm and live they have gained a good reputation as well.
Before the 'Brut though, Black Wire were nice enough to a stint as warm-up - This is apparently the band about which ,at one certain gig, the song I Predict a Riot was written. Against what could have been a toe cringingly small crowd (Come on 130 kroners for Art Brut is cheap by any standards) Black Wire managed to put on a great show. They looked great (All black is always cool), had great tunes and were more energetic than a pound dog in heat. The sound was something of a gothic/Joy division take on Franz Ferdinand - I think they would do great with a polished remix Alan Braxe for some reason.
The Black Wire show was good enough for me to go buy their single - Supporting quality is an imperative. Funny enough, the guy in the merchandice stall didn't know what any of the things he was selling, cost, so I jokingly asked wether this was his first job as a merchandice croonie. Yes, he said, normally he was the guitarist in Art Brut... So instead of selling my anything he told me about the new album which apparently will feature 'a new bigger sound - with trumpets!'. The album should be out about now-ish, next week-ish, or early next month-ish. Furthermore they'd just been to Berlin to shot the video for their next single Direct Hit - someone is going to be dressed up as Caeser in the video - You heard it here first! (Is this really what the mighty blogosphere has come to? Selling cheap info on new videos?)
The concert was excellent, definetly one of the best rock concerts in a year or so for me. Humor is for some reason the answer to the looking smugly up your own arse attitude which sadly is a part of a lot of rock. Amazingly it seemed that most of humor wasn't wasted on the crowd, laughter and cheering was abundant.
Highlights were Moving to L.A., Direct Hit, Nag Nag Nag and of course the best social commentary in a zillion years Formed a Band - "Look at us, we formed a band!"
Finally, the arch-dukes of silent cool are back. Interpol are releasing a new album titled Our Love to Admire (On the 7th of July If I'm not mistaken)!
A new album means tasty new single - In this case The Heinrich Maneuver. Not very much can be said to this track - 'how are things on the west coast?' - hinting at a cross country breakup, typical ferocious stabbing guitars, brooding bass and the ever present sense of demise. If this is anything to judge by the new album is not going to change the way we look at Interpol - and thank good for that! Nobody does Joy Division anno Y2K better!
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