Rising Music:

Review - Unity Day @ Hyde Park, Leeds (01/08/09)

On Saturday 1st August the infamous Unity Day took over Hyde Park in Leeds. An 11 hour day of various celebrations including multiple music stages was created to celebrate the people, culture and community of LS6 following the riots in 1995. The event is paid for through grants and team fundraising, which this year included car boots sales, gypsy and folk music nights, jumble sales, dub sound clashes, sponsored leg waxing and various band nights. Rising Digital's Beth went to discover the community love for a third year running and here's what she thought of Unity Day 2009... 

"And the Lord said let there be rain on every day I decide to go to a festival. And it did rain, relentlessly, turning Leeds’s Hyde Park into a large muddy puddle with the properties of a banana skin. 

Despite the precipitation based problems there were however some redeeming factors. The spirits of the numbers were lifted high by the lung bouncing bass of the Iration Steppas. The crowds were skanking and smiling giving the music the full respect it deserved and most came prepared with the correct water proof attire enabling them to fully enjoy the day. 

 Realising you can’t please everyone all of the time and it was better to please some of the people most of the time they played across all sub genres - wobbling bass, deep rolling bass, jump up, jungle. Even some garage, which was in fact terrible and catalysed the mass exodus towards the Sub Dub tent yet again across what was soon becoming “No mans’ land”. Nearly the entire evening was spent yo yo-ing between the two tents only briefly pausing to chat to each other about how it was 9 o’clock at night and the parents should really have taken their kids home by now. 

Sadly rather infrequently the Sub Dub boys dropped a huge drum and bass tune forcing the crowd into body bending spasms, throwing limbs uncontrollably to the beat of the music. Seeing this response you would have thought they would have continued along this train of musical thought, but they didn’t, yet again forcing the genesis of a movement back to the other arena.

From this point onwards the night really deteriorated. There were some terrible sounds coming from the High Pressure tent and it wasn’t just the below par selection of vinyl from the DJ. The sound system sounded like a passing Vauxhall Nova containing Argos’ own brand 6x9’s on the parcel shelf. 

Even though the elements were unkind to say the least and the music was rather lackluster according to the judges that were the crowd, the real winner was Unity Day.Everywhere we looked people were throwing loose change into the buckets of the volunteers dispelling our overall lamentations of society, realizing the majority of the public aren’t all that bad." 

To find out more about Unity Day visit http://www.unityday.org.uk

Review - Ellen Allien @ The Mint Club, Leeds (25/07/09)

Techno lovers and Saturday night clubbers filled the Mint Club on the 25th to welcome the legendary, and gorgeous, Ellen Allien to Leeds. Read on to see what Rising Digital's Beth made of the night...

 We were slightly miffed when we entered Leeds's Mint Club, firstly because of the Hulk Hogan inspired costume we were graced with in the queue. (Luckily the tanked up fool was told to remove his false moustache and wig before entering.) And secondly, because we'd paid almost £14 for advanced tickets, but the 'on the door prices' were cheaper, £10 before £12 and £12.50 after. Confused? Yeah so were we! Its just as well hard-core fans don't mind what it costs to see their favourite DJ's...



 The club has recently undergone a £500k refurbishment. It boasts a FUNKTION 1 sound system and a cutting edge lighting system called a 'DISCO PANEL' which features in the 'Watergate' club, Berlin – it’s the first of its kind in this country. A rather more questionable feature is the 'mint-inspired' décor - polo shaped stools litter the smoking area. Necessary? I think not. And with a closed in smoking area, it was fair to say every attendee was donning a tell-tale sweaty glean, and a few over-enthusiastic ravers were left gasping for air as the night deteriorated into a sweat box.

 It's just as well our lovely Ellen pulled it out of the bag with her amazing progressive minimal tech set. The club's atmosphere really came into its own around 3am once the general Saturday night clubbers had disappeared to pass out in the doorway of Dixy Chicken. There was a unifying feeling on the dance floor as every shoulder-shake and air-punch was carried out with pure passion and love for the lady on the decks. 



She had a very cool and sophisticated air about her as she grooved along to her own tunes and took a few cheeky puffs on a cigarette.

 Her set deviated from her more well known work with Apparat and demonstrated a more general love of minimal, and although, technically it wasn’t the best set in the world, in terms of progression and construction, the enthusiasm from the crowd and DJ delivered a fully enjoyable evening and showcased some previously unheard material for those in attendance.

 It was clearly a night delivered from one of techno's most confident producers. A fellow raver summed it up perfectly on his Facebook status this morning "Ellen - too cool for her own good, she completely killed it."



 Building her DJ career over the past 17 years Allien has released six albums and created her own record label, BPitch Control in 1999, which includes releases from Sascha Funke and Tok Tok.

 She's also branched out into the fashion industry creating two lines, which she describes as "the everyday quartett line and the rather elegant but nevertheless sexy and cheeky 
mainline." The new Ellen Allien fashion autumn winter 09 collection will be available online in august.

 Her new single 'lover' will be released in August, in the meantime catch her in this cutting edge documentary about electronic music and the people who have become completely lost in it - 'Speaking in Code'. And don't miss the BPitch Control’s Ten Year Birthday Party at the renowned Berlin nightclub, Berghain on Saturday 8th August.

The iLok saga continues;

Ok, so it's time for one of my typical moaning blogs, as I'm in the mood to moan, plus it's a Monday..... who invented the day?!

You might remember I blogged a few months ago about me having a bag of electronics stolen from my laptop bag in San Francisco. Unfortunately for me, the smallest things are the hardest to replace, and in my case, it was my ilok and syncrosoft copyright protection keys I was carrying with me so I could operate my software while touring the USA.  So after many many emails to all the companies I had software with (Steinberg, Arturia, Sony Oxford, Korg, PSP, Vienna Strings, Celemony), I now want to share with you my varying degree of success in getting my licenses back / re-issued.

First off, Arturia, Sony Oxford, PSP, Korg & Celemony, I want to say a massive thank you for your support in reissuing me with licenses for their software. I wish all the other companies were as good as you. Now for the shaming.....    ilok.  I can't say I am a big fan of their customer service.  I followed their online procedure for declaring my ilok stolen, then ordered a replacement ilok to be delivered to my hotel.  I paid for next day delivery.  2 days later, they email me saying there is a problem delivering to a different address other than the one my card is registered to, so need to fax a copy of the card.  I have no fax so email them straight back asking if there is another way I can sort this out asap. I actually never received an email back, and after over a week, I email them to cancel the order.  Nothing back from that either. I ended up buying one from Guitar Center two weeks later. Absolutely rubbish company. 

Next up, Steinberg. Straight up, no reply after initial contact. Just poor, very poor

Finally, the Vienna String Symphony Orchestra collection. They won't issue me a replacement license.  This is the reason given to me:

"The most valuable part of our products is the license which is stored on the key. We don't have access to the licenses on the keys of our users, so we're not able to restore and/or transfer any lost or stolen license to a new key. Also, you cannot use the activation code or serial number for a second time. I'm afraid you'll have to purchase a new license. Basically every user is responsible for his keys and licenses himself, we're not obliged to replace any lost or stolen keys at all, like e.g. lost or stolen jewelry wouldn't be replaced unless it's insured."

Now I understand this point of course, yet where is the protection for my investment?  At least with the ilok system (as much as I dont like it), you're license is safe because if you lose your ilok, they cancel that license and you get a new one re-issued quite easily.  My issue is with the syncrosoft key.  Lose it, you lose your software. I can't stand this setup. I really need to travel with my keys, but with the amount I travel, having these things stolen, or even lost, is a much higher possibility than when it's sat in the back of a computer in a dusty studio. 

I feel I'm one of the minority paying for my software, yet not feeling any protection as a consumer for the money I'm paying. Vienna are offering me a half price license renewal, but I don't want to do this out of principle (even though I do love the software).

Chris (feeling the other end of piracy)

A pat on the back for Deadmau5

Not that he needs it, but when you see an artist rise to fame as quickly as this guy you can't help but say 'nice one mate - fair play to you'. Over the past two years Joel has certainly picked up his share of lovers and haters, but whatever he's doing, it's working. We had the pleasure of hanging out with him a couple of weeks ago - twas mental. But this weekend just gone saw a different kind of fame status. The kind that you get when you've got a track in the UK's Top 40 and pick up a awesome set time on the 'In New Music We Trust' stage at the BBC's annual festival. Now, for those of you who want to see a nice, well balanced clip of the Mau5 doing his thing with the innocent kids of Swindon, check out this out. For those of you who wish to see a slightly more raw Joel in action, raving with the dirt loving northerners, well.... enjoy:

To go out... or to click online, that is the question?

Rising Music has long been a supporter of the biggest and best current trends in terms of the way dance music is portrayed and highlighted through different online ideas. Things like the blogosphere, Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, Myspace and almost everything else with a .com after it has helped to push music further and further into the corners of the world that were before relatively untouched by the corporate wheels of the high-flying record labels.
Two such things that have appeared recently are the sites Awdio.com and Be-at.tv - both of which stream music on demand, but present it in different ways, both going along different routes of interacting with their direct audience. Be@TV chooses to record high quality video and audio, multiple camera angles and gives you the all round experience of being in a club. Awdio on the other hand presents essentially a worldwide clubbing calendar that allows you to stream (audio only) sets from venues around the world. What's available is presented in a 'what's on' style format - immediately connecting the audience with the feeling that they are actively involved with the world's clubbing events.

Now I could pretend to you all that I've spent hours working out the ins and outs, pros and cons of both websites and investigating their design quality, build quality and stability... but I'm not going to. I just wanted to put the feelers out there and see what peoples thoughts are on the way this interaction either helps or potentially hinders the clubbing world. 

Obviously both are very impressive, useful and fun websites, but are they making clubbing all too easy? No longer do you need to get dressed up, get on the tube, queue in the cold, fight to the cloakroom and get sweated on by the person next to you on the dancefloor. You can sit in your dressing gown, with your girlfriend/boyfriend/friends/dog/cat/parrot/teddy bear with a glass of water and revel in what is essentially the experience of others. Are these types of sites spreading the love of music far and wide and promoting going out clubbing, or are they making it all too easy to not need to go out to the extent that we are all accustomed to? Do they make you want to go clubbing more... or do you feel like it is not ultimately necessary to be in all these places because you can see it all later. A bit like Sky+ and BBC iPlayer for clubs really...

Technorati Tags: be@tv,awdio.com

A mini blast from the past:

For whatever reason I've had "International Radio 1.... " on a shed-load this week. In the kitchen, in the office and in the car... and there's a few shows I'm genuinely buzzing off. Sarah Cox in the morning... with all her food obsessions and honest northern banter, Zane Lowe in the evenings with his positive Southern Hemisphere enthusiasm and then the lovely Annie Mac.. bass-lines and an Irish accent.. yum! So I thought I'd share some cracking tunes that for one reason or another made my ears prick up and go... yeh man... not heard that in ages! 

Let's get started with something really easy on the ears. I'm not sure why, but the embed code has been removed from YouTube, so just follow this link: Eddie Brickell and the New Bohemians - What I am.

Next up we go for some classic Foxy Brown and Oh Yeah. I just love the sampling on this record - it's brilliant!

Now I'm stepping back in time to when I first started having a dabble on the 1s and 2s... single-handedly  clearing a dancefloor in Norway... clearly they just weren't ready for it! Wildchild - Renegade Master! Watch the original video here or turn it up and click below for the awesome Fat Boy Slim reworking!

Finally, and probably quite an obvious one... my good friend and label owner Chris Lake with the smash hit vocal version of Changes. Again the videos been disabled... hmmmm... this must be a new thing... well I don't want to finish off like this.. so why don't you check out Mr Lake having some fun out in Asia. Catch you later folks!

Chris Lake @ Essence, Jaarbeurs Utrecht from Rising Music - ontour & online on Vimeo.

Technorati Tags: Chris Lake,Foxy Brown,Eddie Brickell,Wildchild,Fatboyslim,norman cook,Zane lowe,Sarah cox,Annie mac,BBC Radio 1

January 2009: Social media and the music industry

I've come across a few things over the past couple of weeks which I thought would make an interesting kind of... round-up... I suppose would be the best way of describing it. So here goes:

We're now officially on Kyte. Well, Chris is. Nothing too exciting just yet, but what we've got planned should make for some 'interesting' viewing. Streaming shows live, a U.S Tour just round the corner, plus all the random stuff that's going on in the day to day life at Rising Music. Recent chart toppers Alesha Dixon and Lady GaGa are both giving it a fair whack too, although I'm not loving the edited stuff - that's what YouTube's for... and the adverts too... urgh.... In my eyes, Kyte is there for people to see visually raw footage... but maybe that's just too purist. 

It seems Britney Spears and her management have  clocked onto the power of social media - full site now up and running, and done quite ethically too.. i.e you'll see a lot of updates from 'Team Britney' as apposed to two years ago, when her PR team would just pretend to be her. Let's just hope her Twitter account doesn't get hacked again any time soon. The last time, whilst somewhat funny, left me feeling pretty sick.

BBC Radio 1's Nihal is now on Twitter - not a huge fan yet, but then aside from Moyles, Zane and Vernon's shows, for me... it's all about the ladies. I reckon having a pint or three with the likes of Coxy and Annie Mac would be a right laugh.  

The night where I minced for more than four years during the uni-days has launched a blog! That's right, Rob and all the team at Shindig are Web 2.0'd up and I'm loving it. Only problem is at the moment you can't  leave comments... which kind of sucks, but hey, it looks cool and the so far the content is decent - it's early days...

After a short break in December to get his debut album wrapped up, Chris is podcasting again - and I'm liking this one a lot. Easily my favourite to date - nice and techie with some strong/solid house music - and randomly, a slab of Drum 'n' Bass! Who'd of thought it?!

As I type this, the wonderfully controversial Lily Allen has been announced the UK's number one with 'The Fear'. She too has her online act together. Love her or hate her, the lyrics she gets away with hidden ever so slightly by her cute'ish demeanour are in my eyes - legendary. Lets take a quick YouTube break shall we?  

Next up is the subject of micro-blogging. Now we all love a good status update on Facebook, but it's pretty obvious celebrities are getting a kick out of networks like Twitter; maximum interaction with minimum effort - the perfect solution to engage in online banter. Well last Sunday the BBC reported this particular tool has had a growth rate of 1000% - not bad hey?

And last, but certainly not least; Ray, Rachel and the rest of crew had a very special night last Thursday down at the Vendome Mayfair. Why? Quite simply because they launched what can only be described as Facebook for clubbers! I'm going to leave you to experience the site for yourselves, but this shit is amazing. Just go to the beta version of Be At TV, get signed up and enjoy! 

I think that'll do for now. Let's just see what February brings, apart from the long awaited official release of If You Knew of course - plug plug plug!! 9th Feb - buy buy buy - plug plug plug!

Laters!

Chris Lake feat. Nastala 'If You Knew' from Rising Music - ontour & online on Vimeo.

Technorati Tags: BBC radio 1,be @ tv,if you knew feat nastala,chris lake,facebook,lady gaga,alesha dixon,britney spears,Twitter,shindig,chris moyles,nihal,sarah cox,annie mac,zane lowe,vernon kay,Lily Allen

From Katy Perry to ZZT - The Worm Video

Every now and again I like to have a good old mooch into the celebrity 'blogosphere'. See what they're up to, who's shagging who, and which poor sod has got his or herself checked into rehab that month. I've got loads of time for artists who keep their blogs up to date...especially the big'uns.

One girl who's been making me laugh every now and again (and mostly by mocking herself), is the young Katy Perry. I first read her blog about three months ago and saw a short post linking to an online piece about a local Church suggesting lesbianism would lead to a date with the devil. It made me chuckle...

Today, I visited the blog for only the second time and came across a wicked video she'd re-blogged from DJ Skeet Skeet & Friends. The video is edited by Thomas Von Party, and we have Tiga and Zombie Nation to thank for the music production. The only thing I'd say, is that if you're squeamish about insects and bugs, this might be a bit too much for you. For me, it's all about the "Woo's"!

The man who stole the show at the DJ Mag Top 100 party

So, Wednesday night saw the annual DJMag Top 100 Poll winners party @ MOS. Every year this poll receives huge coverage on every forum that discusses dance music. Many hate it, many can't understand how some people manage to get in the top 100 but what we do know is that it is destined to cause controversy.

We turned up @ MOS just before 10 and the queue was 1/4 mile long, no joke! The guestlist queue was nearly as long too! For only £5 (which went to charity - nice one dj mag) you had a who's who of the dj world playing. Deadmau5 (No.11 - highest new entry EVER), Laidback Luke, Mark Knight, David Guetta and the No.1 DJ in the world - ARMIN VAN BUUREN.

But the highlight of the evening for me had to be the host extraodinare - the one and only BEARDYMAN. He was using two EFX1000's to beatbox to the extreme - if you've never seen him before you really should check him out.

Genius!

Technorati Tags: DJMag Top 100,MOS,Deadmau5,Laidback Luke,Mark Knight,David Guetta,ARMIN VAN BUUREN,BEARDYMAN.

Chris Lake gets 'Remixed'

Every once in a while I do actually congratulate Mr Lake on a damn-right great piece of production. Pretty soon we're releasing a track that has quite simply blown me away in terms of an actual piece of music - the boy done good! But until then, ironically, we have a situation whereby Chris isn't 100% happy with his unreleased track 'Deadline'...

Nevertheless, fans from quite literally every corner of the world have been quizzing us about a release date. Well, whilst Chris carries on reworking the track, the extremely talented Rene Amesz has given his interpretation...

Following that, the fast emerging techno enthusiast Adam Shaw has really done a job on it. I know it'll mean I burn this E.P out, but right now I couldn't care less... at times, literally listening to both on repeat! Much respect lads.   

As an added treat, we've included Rudi Stakker's remaking of 'Release' and Mastiksoul's tribal remix of 'Only One'.

Now I had a chat last week with a few lads in the smoke about the debate of 'the end of the album'. I think because of dance-music's natural ability to be mixed, artists will continue to release albums/mix compilations for a long time to come, but the reality is that it's all about singles, especially with pop music. One of the gents put it best when he said: "yeh my daughter's got the latest NOW comp... thing is she's made it herself from buying singles on iTunes."

Music is now being released so quickly and unless brilliant has such a short shelf-life... it has to be about the digital downloads... just to keep up. Don't get me wrong, in my heart there'll always be a place for a piece of vinyl or an album that's simply timeless, but I'm talking about the masses... the quantity of people who globally shape the industry through buyer behaviour.

Whilst maybe I've digressed a little here, my point is that this particular Remixed E.P is right up my street... deep, dark, techy and tribal... all the things I love about house music... so never mind what I 'should' be saying... this is an honest review and a massive plug! As four individual tracks I think they all compliment each other perfectly and make for a superb E.P. Well done to all involved in putting this together. Very nice work!

Click on each link to take you to a promo of the track:

Chris Lake - Deadline (Rene Amesz remix)

Chris Lake - Deadline (Adam Shaw's Close To The Deadline Remix)

Chris Lake - Release (Rudi Stakker remix)

Chris Lake - Only One (Mastiksoul remix) 

Technorati Tags: Chris Lake Remixed E.P,Rene Amesz,Adam Shaw,Rudi Stakker's,Mastiksoul