Blog

Po raz piąty-jubileuszowy odbędzie się w Warszawie Free Form Festival. Po raz pierwszy natomiast lokalizacją festiwalu nie będzie Fabryka Trzciny a zaaranżowana w tym celu większa przestrzeń znajdująca się w Centrum Kultury Koneser (wcześniej Fabryka Wódek Koneser). Czy to dobra zmiana przekonać będziemy się mogli w dniach 16-17 października.

Sami organizatorzy twierdzą, że „festiwal prezentuje nowoczesną i niezależną muzykę oraz sztukę w środowisku miejskim a jego celem jest wskazywanie nowych światowych trendów muzycznych i artystycznych”.

W program festiwalu wchodzić będą pokazy audiowizualne, filmowe, video art, live acty ale największą uwagę publiczności zwrócą zaplanowane koncerty. Organizatorzy festiwalu przyzwyczaili już swoich odbiorców do tego w jakim kręgu gatunków muzycznych będą się obracać. W dużej mierze jest to muzyka oparta na elektronicznych brzmieniach. Zazwyczaj były to zespoły wykonujące takie gatunki jak electro oraz electropop (zwłaszcza), synthpop, trip-hop, disco, indietronic a nawet, jak to było w przypadku ubiegłorocznej edycji, jazz. Ponieważ nie przepadam za zupełnie prostymi dźwiękami muzyki electro wraz z krzyczącymi ze sceny wokalistkami mimo to na kilku występach grup grający taki odłam muzyki już byłem. Stwierdzam, że występy te należały do przeciętnych lub bardzo słabych. Jedynym zespołem bawiącym się w electro, którego występ mnie przekonał był tylko niemiecki DAT Politics na zeszłorocznym Off Festivalu. Dlatego też w tym roku omijałbym wykonawców takich jak: Vive la Fête, WhoMadeWho oraz współkompozytora najsłynniejszych utworów grupy Kraftwerk Karla Bartosa. Do tej grupy dodałbym jeszcze takich artystów jak Tommy Sparks i Birdy Nam Nam lecz jeśli ktoś lubi zwiewną, lekką przesyconą elektroniką muzykę powinien stawić się na powyższych. Nie wiem zupełnie co w całym tym zestawieniu robi belgijski pop rockowy zespół Girls in Hawaii, który może pousypiać całe towarzystwo.
Osobiście poleciłbym występy dwóch grup z kultowej wytwórni Ninja Tune - DJ Food a zwłaszcza Herbaliser. Ci ostatni na festiwal zaproszeni są po raz drugi i z tej okazji zagrają wraz z powołanym na koncerty składem. Będą promować swój najnowszy krążek Session 2. Ciekawy jestem także występu zespołu Little Dragon, w którym występuje Yukimi Nagano śpiewająca wcześniej w grupie Koop będącej gościem zeszłorocznej edycji FFF. Little Dragon lada chwila wyda swoją drugą płytę a promuje ją ta piosenka:



Interesująco zapowiadają się również występy: The Orb, (oscylującego pomiędzy ambientem, chilloutem, dubem i wieloma innymi gatunkami, które podczas występu świetnie wymieszane mogą przynieść dużo przyjemności) oraz Luomo mogący swoimi housowymi numerami rozruszać w ciekawy sposób nie tylko ciało ale również zmysły czego brakuje właśnie w koncertach muzyki electro.
Biorąc pod uwagę to, że ponad połowa występujących to już starzy wyjadacze nie wydaje mi się by FFF wskazywał „nowe” trendy muzyczne skoro robi to od pięciu lat i obraca się ciągle w tych samych gatunkowych rejonach. Jednakże sama propozycja wydaje się ciekawa i skusi wielu miłośników elektronicznych brzmień.

So, I'm very happy to announce that the new Dr Rubberfunk album - 'Hot Stone' - is ready, and will be out on Jalapeno Records this Autumn. It'll be released on vinyl too - I just got the test pressing through and it's sounding great - thanks in no small part to the great mastering job done at Electric Mastering (where they have the old EMI Lagos transfer desk - analogue heaven!)

'Trouble Woman', featuring Roachford, will be the next single release and will come with a remix from the one and only Steinski. Two legends on one track - lucky me :) There's also a tremendous floor shaking mix from Featurecast to round out the package.

Other guests on the LP include the fabulous dutch soulstress Sitzka, and killer Geordie soul man John Turrell (of Smoove & Turrell fame). Todd Simon (Connie Price & The Keystones / The Lions / Stones Throw) provides the soul horns on a few tracks, alongside Ben Castle and a raft of other long time Rubberfunk collaborators.

Keep an eye on my soundcloud page for some album previews, alongside some remixes and works in progress:
http://soundcloud.com/rubberfunk


Earlier in the year I also got round to finally working with Strictly Kev on his new DJ Food project - recording some drums for the recently released 'One Man's Weird Is Another Man's World' EP - out now on Ninja Tune. We've been talking about doing it for years so it was great to get it hooked up. Hear from Kev all about the making of the EP here: http://soundcloud.com/strictly/a-weird-world-reader

So, that's all for now - more news on release dates nearer the time! In the meantime, keep an eye on the Twitter and Facebook pages for updates ..

R'Funk x

http://twitter.com/DrRubberfunk

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=8820321076

Alan Ranta sez:
Every year since I started writing reviews, I have heard at least one fellow critic say words to the effect of "this has been a slow year for [insert genre] or music in general." Well, from where I’m sitting, music looks like it’s doing pretty damn good for itself. Independent music is rife with exuberant brilliance waiting to be discovered and appreciated, regardless of its surrounding hype or lack thereof. If you think music’s offerings have been feeble lately, you need to branch out and listen to more of it. Take a chance on something you may know little or nothing about. Granted, it’s an often underwhelming process, but every so often, you will find one album that will unquestionably make it all worth the effort. These mixes are the result of my journey through sound, and I hope they inspire you to tread different paths of your own. This is the most exciting and dynamic time we could ever hope to be alive.

Track Listing:
01. Longwalkshortdock - "Born At Night" (Casual Tea)
02. The Lava children - "particles" (The Lava Children EP)
03. Battlehooch - "Take the L train" (Piecechow)
04. the Gaslamp Killer - "Anything Worse" (My Troubled Mind EP)
05. Damian Lazarus - "Come and Play" (Smoke The Monster Out)
06. DJ Food - "Tricky Little Ears (The Cheech Wizard Pays Respect To All Living Creatures Who Inhabit Dark Places)" (One Man's Weird Is Another Man's World EP)
07. Ochre - "Napolese" (Like Dust of the Balance)
08. Andromeda Mega Express Orchestra - "Radioactive People" (Take Off!)
09. Speech Debelle - "Bad Boy" (Speech Therapy)
10. Throw Me the Statue - "The Outer Folds" (Creaturesque)

*Download Or Stream Here*
------------------------------------

August may be quieter than other months for gigs but feel the quality. The month is book-ended by two recommended events: the one-day Hedgefest this weekend and then the two-day Rowf! Rowf! Rowf! noise-extravanganza from Golden Lab Records on the last weekend of the month.

And download HERE [40 mins/46MB] another compilation of music from other gigs in Manchester in between.

Bill Callahan Eid Ma Clack Shaw (24 Aug Deaf Institute BUY TICKETS)
Wooden Shjips Losin' Time (20 Aug Islington Mill BUY TICKETS)
Port O'Brien I Woke Up Today (17 Aug Night & Day BUY TICKETS)
William Fitzsimmons I Don't Feel It Anymore (19 Aug Night & Day BUY TICKETS)
The Strange Boys They're Building The Death Camps (15 Aug Deaf Institute BUY TICKETS)
DJ Food The Riff (6 Aug MoHo Live BUY TICKETS)
Crystal Stilts Love Is A Wave (17 Aug Deaf Institute BUY TICKETS)
Papercuts Future Primitive (17 Aug Night & Day w/Port O'Brien BUY TICKETS)
múm A River Don't Stop To Breathe (16 Aug Deaf Institute BUY TICKETS)
Victorian English Gentleman's Club Periscope Envy (3 Aug Ruby Lounge BUY TICKETS)
Final Fantasy This Lamb Sells Condos (3 Aug RNCM BUY TICKETS)

And not forgetting:
1 Aug Hedgefest St Margaret's Church Whalley Range / 1 Aug Young British Artists Islington Mill / 6 Aug We Be The Echo Cafe Saki / 6 Aug Haunts Ruby Lounge / 8 Aug The Ramonas Ruby Lounge / 13 Aug Kalbakken Nexus Art Cafe / 16 Aug Oneida Islington Mill / 18 Aug Gang Gang Dance Deaf Institute / 29 Aug Magazine Bridgewater Hall / 29 -30 Aug Rowf! Rowf! Rowf! Islington Mill

This week's show is inspired by the headphone commute blog. I've always liked that idea, the headphone commute. Take solipsistic NATION, for example. You might listen to this show at home, in your car, maybe even at work. But most likely you're listening to this show on the ubiquitous white Apple earbuds. That kind of listening experience is more insular and intimate than just listening to solipsistic NATION in your car or over your speakers. It's my job to make it a rewarding listening experience.

I decided to run with theme of the headphone experience by kicking off this week's solipsistic NATION with a mix of psychedelic tinged music.

We begin with "Intro" from the Strange Fruit Project's 2006 album, THE HEALING. The Healing is a great album and it was a shame to pick such a short track from the Strange Fruit Project but aside from really liking "Intro," it also fits the theme of this week's show and segued nicely into DJ Food's "Extract From Stolen Moments" from his album One Man's Weird Is Another Man's World. And that takes us to Ras G's "Return From the Great Unknown" from his album, Brotha From Anotha Planet. From there this week's show goes into all sorts of different directions.

We'll also hear a track from KiloWatts. That was a tough one to call because KiloWatts currently has two new album out (Undercurrent and Six Silicates) but I decided to play "Two Parts" from his Ground State album. KiloWatts we'll be back on solipsistic NATION next month with a special live set. If you can't wait until then you can listen to the February 15th, 2008 edition of solipsistic NATION featuring my interview with Evan Marc of Native State Records. We played select tracks from Native State Records and of course we had to play Kilowatts because he's so great!

Speaking of Evan, up next is Evan Bluetech with "Another Bridge Burning" from his new EP, Call Of The Wild. Again, another tough one because Evan has recently been releasing a bunch of awesome music. You also might want to hear my interview with Evan about his new label, Somnia.

There are, of course, more great tunes on this week's headphone experience. Again, I really like the idea of music heard over headphones as being very intimate. But it's also like a soundtrack to your life. I remember a day, years ago, when I was waiting for the subway in downtown Boston. It was night, the middle of the summer, and the air was still and the humidity stifling. Yet the music I was hearing over my headphones transformed my environment to a the set of a sultry French New Wave movie. Let me know if you've had similar experiences.

Oh, hey, I wanted to mention that I was the guest of Joseph Matheny's GSpot podcast. We talked about the early days of podcasting, electronic music and the state of the recording industry. You can download the interview here (http://www.alterati.com/gspot/Solipsistic_Nation_GSpot.mp3) but I suggest you check out previous episodes of GSpot and take a look around the Alterati blog (http://www.alterati.com/).

01. Strange Fruit Project "Intro"
02. DJ Food "Extract From Stolen Moments"
03. Ras G "Return From The Great Unknown"
04. Prefuse 73 "Track 13"
05. KiloWatts "Two Parts"
06. Evan Bluetech "Another Bridge Burning"
07. Nosaj Thing "Us"
08. Kingbastard "Data-Rape Function Creep"
09. Koen Park "I Am Not Aboard This Ship Anymore"
10. Mochipet "Roll credits"
11. Daedelus "Assembly Lines"
12. Moderat "Seamonkey"
13. SeventhSwami "Serpiente Cosmica"
14. Alka "Blueberry"
15. Gui Boratto "Besides"
16. General Fuzz "Eye Heart Knot"
17. Masmöd "Orbit Around A Sphere"

Download:
http://m.podshow.com/media/9683/episodes/167979/nation-167979-07-30-2009.mp3

Permalink:
http://solipsisticnation.com/?p=326

solipsistic NATION website:
http://solipsisticnation.com

Finally new stuff from DJ Food and it rocks - read and hear @ http://majah.wordpress.com/2009/07/07/new-dj-food/

DJ Food
Ninja Tune

TRUCK 12: LET IT IN!
After glastonbury being mildly disappointing i wasn't about to hype Truck Festival. TUrned out to be truely amazing: Small enough to seem very personal, sunny enough to give me a healthy glow, smelling of cows enough to be authentic and cheap enough to leave me with change.
It's meant to be about finding your new favourite band, but a stupid amount of my favourites favourites were already playing. Seeing as i loved pretty much every band i saw this post will be very boring and mostly for my benefit.


saturday

Tubelord
filling colour's (rip) giant shoes, tubelord didnt disappoint. Their hideously fun and upbeat set the tone for the whole weekend and although they only played 6 songs the atmosphere was lightning and the crowd all seemed to dig it. THe lighting for tubelord was really well done and gave the show another element along side Dave's "pig mask and jump around in the crowd" thing, (the mask didnt appear to be washed when i wore it in nottingham...xcore). As for songs the newer stuff sounded really immense and the old choons tighter than ever as they get more confident. Night of the pencils was so good it sent shivers down my spine and Azerrad was amazing as a sing along end.
The Scholars
Turned out to be some terribly stereotypical oxford "indie rock" band. Not Scholars (without the "The") who are brilliant rocking powerpop. Needless to say we left quickly.
Fanfarlo
Amazing band we were barrier for. This five piece was the perfect folk band; easy to listen to and beautifully crafter anthems with clap along beats and tear worthy lyrics. Jeremy Warmsley on guitar and bashing some percussion occasionally was pretty special too.
Data Select Party
DSP have some of the best pop music around right now and were as always immensely fun live. Playing a few new songs was probably a bad idea for a festival in my opinion (maybe just because i wanted the sing along anthems) I was pretty drunk for them and danced my socks off with sara and georgia. good times. Also dan has the best jumper and smile of any person i ve ever met.
Jeremy Warmsley
Jeremy is a very talented and funny guy. I'm not a huge fan of his indie/folk rock/pop/whatever but live he was really special and had a great energy for just one man. HE came across quite affable, asking the crowd to sit down and then taking cover requests. His 6th verse and one armed scissor cover were definately highlights of the festival.
Errors
plagued by some early technical errors (see what i did there) as cables were pulled out on the cramped beathive stage errors still pulled through to put on probably the best performance of the festival. On hindsight it wasnt the best time i've seen them but the set was amazing and they sounded great. They bring something different to the whole "math" thing with their electronica and acid elements. Beautifully worked layers of intelligent guitars and electronics building to dancable breakdowns. Incredible. Toes was great to end on aswell
Wild Beasts
Due to an arduous queue there was a long wait to get into wild beasts, meaning i missed some of the best of their new album. However the latter songs were just as brilliant, they sound much more erie and atmospheric live and the low lit barn set echoed this beautifully. THey were really beautifully deep and a pleasure to watch, the crowd seemed awe struck and the air still. Hooting and Howling blew me away and penultimate song We Still Got The Taste Dancing On Our Tongues slowed down and more atmospheric live was just incredible (the album version doesnt do it justice)... probably my favourite song of the festival.

After then becoming quite a bit more drunk at the tents we headed back to see some djs at the barn...
DJ Food
THis attempt at "visual turntabling" was pretty poor, the need to find videos that could be easily mixed seemed to diminish the quality of mixing for the music and although they played quite a fun set it seemed quite lazy and uninspired.
Lee Mortimer & Foamo
This was a huge contrast to the previous set in terms of originality and quality. They really produced some awesome mixes and i couldn't stop dancing. Perfect mix of electro, house, dubstep and huge bassline tunes with an odd dash of indie. Good stuff, recomend anyone who likes good dance music to seek foamo out and watch him.
Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs
managing to bypass alot of the queue by talking to tim from ttng these guys were playing fairly good indie and dance floor fillers with mixed success. Dwarfed by foamo they were a little underwhelming.

sunday

Talons
Recently signed to bsm i wasnt sure what to expect from this young 6 piece. I hardly ever fall in love with bands just from seeing them live. THe xcerts and errors are two that it has happened with before, and now Talons join their ranks as one of the most interesting and exciting bands to have come along in years. Their brilliant instrumental blend of post hardcore with mathcore and indie exploded on stage: Battered drums and awesome riffs intersperced by 2 violin parts which creates a big sound. They really gave the performance a lot, very energetic in contract to the static crowd, i dont think its possible to do more than drop your jaw at a band like this though. Like grammatics meets 65dos, but its a good thing trust me.
Calories
THe sound for calories wasn't great if i'm honest, and it was hard to distinguish some of their poppy guitar lines as they were overpowered by the drums and bass, but knowing the songs made it good to enjoy and new songs like even steven sounded awesome. Terrible crowd aswell, they didnt seem to get it. Not one of the best performances but still good.
And So I Watch You From Afar
Really good live, thought it lacked diversity and all the songs sounded very similar and with only 3 members perhaps lacking the big sound to make them special. Still very good tight post rock that was thoroughly enjoyable.
The Xcerts
The first time i saw the xcerts was roughly a year ago at dot to dot when i stumbled upon them. Since then they lost none of the energy in their performance. They prove theirs still life left in the indie rock 3 piece band format. The lyrics and sweet scottish vocals clashing with their edgy rock sound to form sing along alternate anthems. Good atmosphere and stage presence too.
The Joy Formidable
Although the barn was pretty packed for them as we turned up, i really was underwhelmed by the joy formidable. Porbably the most disapointing band of the festival, they seemed to be the same uninspired indie that metric was producing years ago. Dull droning guitars and wishy washy vocals at times trying to imitate shoe gaze. Really not my thing.
This Town Needs Guns
We waited a while for this town to come on, well worth it to see 26isdancier as an opener from the front. However the quality of sound and performance was really lacking from the home grown maths boys. The set wasn't helped by the countless 14 year olds dancing/moshing. I can't understand how you can go mental for what is essentially subtley beautiful twiddly guitar music. We stayed for about 4 songs including chinchilla and lemur and if i sit here. Good but we chose to rush off to see if PABH was any better.
Pulled Apart By Horses
Amazing live in any capacity, and although the barns crowd was too thinly spread to make for your average sweaty, jumpy pulled apart gig they put on a great performance. Sporting 2 rolo t shirts (interesting trivia?) their hardcore riffs and shouty/screamy vocals sounded great as we came in on HIGH FIVE (although the hipster crowd wasn't going mental as i would have liked to see), it was still really good to watch the performance. Universal talk box followed by Punched a lion was amazing to finish on.
The Ghost of a Thousand
Now i don't know a lot about hardcore music but my friend do, and they tell me to go see these guys for an awesome show. RIght they were, even the mic check was hardcore (CHEEEEECK!!!!). The crowd disappated very quickly as the band started thrashing out their punk guitars and dark screaming. THe crowd was really the best thing about this band though as those scene kids know how to party. Although the crowd was small and rather tame by the end, (the wall of death more like a wall of slight bruising) they were really fun. Closing on Black Art Number One it was an intense set.

The final musical instalment of the festival was Jack and Paul's dirty dub voiced over orange bioler suit guy's spits. Amazing.
Intervening time was spent annoying band members, abusing joey, finding the monster, dancing to shit dj's, GETTING BEVVED and eating pasta. Good times
Sadly i missed some bands due to laziness and overcrowding like We Were Promised Jet Packs, Sam Isaac avec band (gutted it was too packed), Yacht and Maybeshewill. But really the fact there were so many good bands that i couldnt be arsed with a 5 minute walk to others is a testiment to how brilliant the lineup was (and how drunk i got). CANT WAIT FOR NEXT YEAR

Today's show is a mix that would ideally be played on a sexy and sultry summer night with the object of your desire on one hand and a mojito in the other. With any luck you're doing just that even while today's show plays.

One group I'm excited to play on this week's solipsistic NATION is Sidestepper. Sidestepper is a Colombian band with English DJ/producer Richard Blair and Colombian producer/songwriter Ivan Benavides at the core. Sidestepper combines popular Afro-Colombian music styles like salsa and cumbia with electronica.

Another gem is Quantic Soul Orchestra's "Tropidelico." Will Holland (AKA Quantic), a DJ and musician, is the man behind the Quantic Soul Orchestra, which is a live band project with a changing lineup from album to album. Will has explored different genres of music in the past but the direction he's taken his album, Tropidelico , is very exciting.

We also have a track from Paul Malmstrom, the one-man band that is Monkeybacon. Monkeybacon is a favorite here at solipsistic NATION and you can download his music here.

Another sonic treat comes from Novalima, a musical collective by four Peruvian musicians several cities around the world: Lima, Barcelona, London and Hong Kong. "Malato" comes from their 2006 release, Afro.

I'm also excited to play a track from Ghostly International's Bodycode. I've been sitting on Bodycode's album Immune, for a couple of weeks, just waiting for the right show to play a track from the album. Today's show seemed like the perfect show to play "Arigato."

I'll play just about anything from Evan Bluetech but I'm particularly pleased that Evan has delivered a track that slots perfectly with today's show. You can download Evan's new EP, Call Of The Wild, here.

DJ Food has resurfaced with a brand spanking new album called One Man's Weird Is Another Man's World that I've been grooving to for the last few week's. I present the track "Tricky Little Ears (The Cheech Wizard Pays Respect To All Living Creatures Who Inhabit Dark Places)" to you as a gift.

Luxurious is another favorite and I'm pleased to play a track from their long awaited second album, Lost Vegas: Hip Hop Lounge Series Vol. 2.

Lokua makes another appearance on solipsistic NATION, this time with "Burning Money" from Lokua's Trails net album, which you can download here. Be sure to also listen to Lokua's live set on the April 3rd edition of solipsistic NATION.

Today's show is chock full of other great songs and musicians so enjoy!

Photo Credit: Felipe Smides
http://www.flickr.com/photos/felipesmides/

01. Club Ultimate "Carnival 93 (The Mardi Gras Mix)"
02. Sidestepper "Hoy Tenemos"
03. Quantic Soul Orchestra "Tropidelico"
04. Monkeybacon "Her Secret Masala"
05. Novalima "Malato"
06. Bodycode "Arigato"
07. Evan Bluetech "Mysteriosa Flambeau"
08. niteffect "never land"
09. DJ Food "Tricky Little Ears (The Cheech Wizard Pays Respect To All Living Creatures Who Inhabit Dark Places)"
10. Sixtoo "Duration, Pt. 15"
11. Luxurious "Dirty Royal"
12. suhov "Exx Fuck"
13. Lokua "Burning Money"
14. DJ Signify "Interlude 1"

Download:
http://m.podshow.com/media/9683/episodes/166781/nation-166781-07-23-2009.mp3

Permalink:
http://solipsisticnation.com/?p=323

solipsistic NATION website:
http://solipsisticnation.com