Once again Mr Lake finds himself packing his bags for a series of gigs across the beautiful South American country, Brazil. The only difference from previous trips to the place he call's his future home, is this time he's wrapped up his favourite little box which the lovely peeps over at Awdio supplied him with back at WMC 2009. For those who can't remember is first experiences during the last North American tour, this magical little piece of kit will allow Chris to stream his sets live across the internet. All you need to do is head to www.awdio.com and click 'events'. From there you can easily see what's on and what's scheduled. Last week we had a barbq at my pad and started rather early... we managed to tune into HOME in Sydney, Australia and listen to more six hours of undisturbed house-music... this shit is genius! For Chris it all kicks off tomorrow (Aug 14th) around 2am Rio time.... followed by sets from Club Anzu, Mokai, Nasala and Club Giv. So ladies and gents, there's no listen again functions... this is straight up time and place. If you miss it, it's gone!
You'll also be able to follow his movements on twitter and hopefully we'll be able to get some decent video footage up too!
Just in case you're not familiar with the current Chris Lake sound, check out this recent mix he's done... although in Brazil, he swears the rhythm is different... so lets just see what he comes up with!
So festival season is upon us once again! Sunshine, wellies, red noses, warm cider fuzziness and for those more hardcore than ‘girly day event’ me, your trusty tents. For those of you in possession of an iPhone – your prayers may well have been answered. The most latest and greatest iPhone app? The TentFinder! Yes ladies and gents, using the latest GPS technology you can simply load the app when next to your tent and apply a ‘GPS stamp’. Bosh. Your virtual compass, with a handy built in torch, will then guide you (in my case it would be unsteadily) back to your beloved, much needed, tent.
I feel it's my duty at this point to also mention the Glastonbury iPhone app – now this is the serious stuff. Yawn. I’ll make it quick. This takes it to a whole new level. Ok, I admit it, being able to see each stage and the acts listed is handy. Yet to ‘schedule’ the acts you want to see in an organizer has well and truly got my goat. It’s a festival! Staggering from one tent to the next, trying to work out which tents you are actually in, stumbling across some random act you never intended on seeing and being blown away is the essence of festival! The thing that then kicks ten bells out of my aforementioned ‘gotten’ goat is being able to connect to iTunes and buy the music. Isn’t the following jaded week at work, in between facebook tagging of course, exactly when this is meant to be done?
Ok, that wasn’t quick, but back to the tent app. My favourite bit has to be determining the nearest source of a pint. Which is the nearest bar? Voila! Or even toilets. My only criticism is it can’t measure the length of the queues at each place for you. There’s something for you techies to work on. Oh and one more spanner – charging the blessed iPhone….
Well here at the rising team we all love a good music festival, as you can imagine, many of us live for them. So following a phone call from a good friend down under this morning I was informed not only of her health, the weather and plans for the weekend but a different kind of festival. The purpose of the call was to tell me the Opera House was lit up in leopard print and she thought I would like it. Before anyone says it - no, I do not wear leopard print, but rather have a like of random things. So she was right.
Upon further research I discovered Vivid Sydney, a festival of music light and ideas. If I was in Sydney right now? I think I'd kick off my weekend by heading down to The Rocks where, with lights, the recreation of a convict ship in 1814 bursting into flames will take place. Quite suitably random. Ah Mr Lake, if only you could have stayed on an extra week.....
Ah the final leg of a six week tour. Apologies for the quality, but a certain airline managed to lose our bags (and camera charger...gutted), so we turned to Darren and my pretty awful 2megapixel Blackberry. Never the less, I hope we captured just how shit scared we were of flying towards the end... and for that matter, how fatigue made Chris kind of lose the plot for an hour or six. In the words of a certain Chef.... DONE!
The first gig of the last weekend of the tour. We were beyond hysteria, totally deluded and most of our day to day manners had gone. Yet still... one track into the set and with a Corona in hand, Chris battled on.
Exhausted after three days in the big apple, Chris and the crew set sail for Philadelphia. The 125 Lounge turned out to be a randomly wonderful night, but was followed by Chris' darkest day of the tour. Fatigue had kicked in. Strangely enough, with the help of in-laws and Macca, he pulled through to smash Detroit's Nove Lounge floor to pieces. Arguably one of top gigs of the tour. Next stop: D.C.
So I'm just say here, chilling out in San Antonio, Texas, after a very hectic weekend of gigs. it all started off when we left San Diego, having chilled out with the promoter there, Tim Ortiz (thanks again for the hospitality Tim, can't wait to get back), we jumped in the car and drove across the desert on route 8, with a few wrong turns, bags of dorito's, bottled water, and tired lazy 'long journey humor', we ate up the 374miles in just under 6 hours. Now a few people warned us we would find the journey quite boring, but I found it anything but. Some of the scenery was stunning, and it was very refreshing seeing America from a car and not a plane. It was completely worthwhile. So that night I played the Cream Stereo lounge in Scottsdale. Firstly, I made the mistake of insisting I drive all the way to Scottsdale from San Diego, and as a result felt pretty lousy when I got to the club, but as soon as I walked in, I was raring for the night ahead, and the result was a great relaxed and fun vibe, so I had a great time. The perfect Wednesday! Next stop, Sacramento.
Now I was a little unfortunate at this gig. I arrived under an under cast sky in the afternoon, but by the time of the gig in the evening, the rain had started coming down, the streets were heavily waterlogged, and it was not great weather to be going out in. My hotel was about 20 steps away from the club, and I got soaked in that time. As a result the club was maybe only 50-60% full, but thank you to all who turned up. You were pretty hardcore. We got given more drinks that night than we could handle, and as a result, Sebastian from Rising Music ended up ridiculously drunk! Poor boy!
So onto the Friday @ Rich's in Houston, Texas. This gig was sick. The club was packed, and the crowd were well up for it, and it was my turn to get a bit effected by the alcohol. I can't wait to return! We then hopped on the plane to Dallas to play at the Lizard Lounge. Really cool old skool venue. Was a bit concerned how my music was going to down cos the music was really really pumping when I came in, but I brought it down, and the crowd lapped it up. Thank you! In both Dallas and Houston we were put up in the ZaZa hotel's. I recommend this place to anyone. Great balance of classic and chic. Going off on one here a bit, but both Sebastian and I were very impressed.
So the last gig brought me to here, San Antonio, where I played an outdoor event at Dolce. Now for me as a DJ, this was a lot of fun. The police complained 3 times about the noise, eventually resulting in the party getting cut slightly short. They never did say if they liked the music or not! Props to the crazy people who decided (completely unprovoked by me of course) to jump into the very cold pool to dance. You made the party :)
So now I am here, chilling out on my off day before heading to NYC for my album launch party with Laidback Luke @ Cielo. I loved this club the last time I played so I cannot wait to get back and do it all again.
Just to end on a debatable question (and I'm just asking the question here remember), after having spent the past 5 hours listening to the new digital download releases / top selling records etc, it has really made me think quite hard about the direction many producers / labels seem to be choosing with their releases. Is the current trend of bringing old / classic / and not so classic records up to 2009, blocking the way for creative music and ideas?
Well well... a few months ago when we decided to get into the blogging community, I thought it would take much longer to get the real debates going on here. But here we are, three months in a we've had some right old banter... Mr Lake throwing in the 'live' debate, which I think is still getting comments... the morals of illegal digital downloads... and lets not forget our mission to stamp out bullshit online companies trying to make a quick buck...
Well amongst all this fierce debate, I thought I'd throw in this video to remind everyone that whilst we take the industry very seriously, we also know how to have a bloody great night out! Here's some footage from Cream's Ibiza closing party and its 16th birthday up in the pool.
As the person who tends to put these films together I have complete creative rights... which usually ends up with me mocking Chris in one way or another... well this time Karma has bitten me back! So Mr SebastiEn Leger... apologies for my typing error... and just for the record... I have been a fan of yours since your Victory E.P... if that redeems me at all.
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