The return of being a Libertine.....Or is it?

Ahhh the sweet return of The Libertines, a fame found on guerilla gigs and the undenying spirit of if you set your mind to achievement it can literally be done, when The Strokes were swooning around with their VU tones, these guys were in London waiting for a manager to say "Hey, look these guys fit the British bill", 6 years on from the split (the central theme being drugs), Pete, Carl, John and Gary (yes there are 2 other members) have joined forces once again to to bring back the raw style that gripped the indie nation from 2001-2004, but is this a good idea?

When they first broke onto the scene, the implosion was small, back in the days where Conor McNicholas and his team needed to champion a new era these guys were it, no air polishing, no bullshit, this is what they were, 4 guys from London who turned up in pubs, kebab shops, anywhere that would take them, that rawness and openess with die hard fans to stage 'The rooms of Albion' meant so much, and their eponymous debut 'Up The Bracket', with the dancing Mick Jones again just cemented their legacy in the noughties.

Now i'm not going into the ins and out of the split, its been well documented and in the meantime we've seen Babyshambles, Dirty Pretty Things, various solo outings and even Mr.Barat don a fake American accent in his debut in theatre surroundings, but when Zane Lowe and his incredibly annoying voice announced what many had anticipated at around 7:20pm I couldnt help thinking that with all what The Libertines stood for had been diminished, the likely lads who made the relationship between fans and artist possible had agreed to play Reading/Leeds, and i'm pretty sure alot of £££ had something to do with it.

With Mr.Barat explaining earlier in the year that he was 'too busy to reform The Libertines' it makes me even more certain that money was the ultimate heroin (sorry) to play not the hardcore fan base who admired their uniqueness, now don't get me wrong, I think its great that they managed to get together and will undoubtedly played a raucous show far from clean cut, but when I look at the media it gets me wondering, has my love for them subsided a notch.

BBC, ITN showbiz (jeeeeeez), Channel 5, MTV, all these media super powers who wouldnt give a long log about them before the drugs, Kate Moss, Imprisonment now make it a media circus that surely I believe waves away the freedom that they cherished with fans, earlier tonight a press conference at a North London pub, where the questions were not, new material? Up The Bracket in full? Anymore gigs? Future of Carl's solo career? Babyshambles on hiatus? But, 'Pete you still on drugs? Is this helping? Have you talked about the reasons you split? What is it about the £1.5 Million thats so appealing? To which a stout Mr Doherty did intelligently reply "£1.2 Million actually, whats interesting about it is how much will be left after tax". The mainstream media circus has made this less about an influential indie revival band but more about what sells papers, the underlying issues that a genuine music fan doesn't give a solitary shit about, hence why my initial excitement is slowly deteriorating.

I hope they can take back to the good old days, lads if your going to do it, DO IT PROPERLY, don't just announce, few guinesses infront of the mainstream circus and wait till August, lets have the guerilla gigs, the anarchy, albion rooms, pub acoustic sessions, lead us up into a 2001 lave of fun filled debauchery that made us love you in the first place, please whatever you do, take the £££ and ditch the fundamentals that made you so so great, make us believe again in that bands dont have to take a corporate cock shafting to make it, make us believe lads, make us believe.

FOALS - Total Life Forever so far.....

Is this a total release from math rock fury of Antidotes or a V sign to the hype that surrounded them relentlessly when they were first playing house parties in their native Oxford just so long as they had a half decent meal and a sofa bed? Whatever it is, Foals second album entitled 'Total Life Forever' on initial listen to their first 2 singles 'This Orient' and 'Spanish Sahara' seemed to be taking drastic measures in coming across rather spectacularly different to the Antidotes era.

When Spanish Sahara first hit the radio airwaves, I felt like i'd been watching the end of some epic emotional romantic film that only ended in tradegy but 'This Orient' does dispell my theory of love lost with a stripped down version of velocity displayed on Antidotes. A change from the initial hype, behind initial cynicism (lets face we all do it when change comes), I can sense that this could be a landmark year for the 5 piece, much like the formula for great creatives in the alternative scene, a delayed reaction to second album pressures seems to formulate a master piece (just look at Primary Colours in 2009, and we all said it was all about the 28 inch waist and the 6 ft hair).

The secluded hub of Sweden with Clor mainman Luke Smith has seemed to have had a dramatic impact in the direction Foals have headed for their sophomore release, early reviews seem to suggest the ode to being Oxford's Battles tribute band have been well and truely left behind and have found themselves comfortable in moving on, lets hope May 10th brings about a superb second release.....

Tracklisting -

01 Blue Blood
02 Miami
03 Total Life Forever
04 Black Gold
05 Spanish Sahara
06 This Orient
07 Fugue
08 After Glow
09 Alabaster
10 Two Trees
11 What Remains

Single Review - Erol alkan/Boyz Noize - Avalanche/Lemonade

GET IT GET IT GET IT GET IT GET IT GET IT GET IT GET IT GET IT GET IT GET IT GET IT!

Latest release from Erol alkan in collaboration with german hit makers Boyz Noize in particular Lemonade, released on Beatport a couple of days ago, I'll just say this, it once again pushes the boundaries of electronica to levels that are beyond hardcore but yet commercially appealing, expect this one to be a huge summer anthem, now East and West dance tents at Glasto the list is growing on my dance like a twat to when my drunk ass stumbles to your holy surroundings around 23:30.........PLEASE ME.

A Day for Independents - Ed Banger

Redefining UK dancefloors in the noughties and way into our new decade of future hits, Ed Banger and in particular Pedro Winter have set a master class on how to churn out a outlasting plateau of hits that make dancefloors become sweaty hip t-shirt orgies with the occasional gurn.

Since starting the label in 2002, where the French music scene, internationally anyway was defined by what record Daft Punk was releasing, a year after discovery and we still couldnt get enough of the subtle synth oritentated tones that were asking for just that song 'one more time' and 'harder, better, faster, stronger', but in the midst of this dominance Mr.Winter seeked to bring about the electronic fever pitch in the form of new artists and my word how the success rolled in.

But it wasn't an overnight grandeur of endless success, it took 2 upstarts who received national notieriety in the form of winning a school competition to shape the mould and bring about the Ed Banger magic dust which seems to be sprinkled everywhere in this year 2010, with the help of Simian Mobile Disco and a handy remix of 'We are your friends' the labels stock options (i know there arent any but it popped into my brainbox) sky rocketed, it had reached the mainstream ears of people who seeked an Obama style change in dance music, we had grown a little tired of DP inactivity and the swift turn of the head for the parisian underground but finally...... YES WE HAD FOUND SOMETHING!

Out of the blue its almost as if magic was happening, Uffie, a long time label fiend found success with Pop the Glock, Justice travelled 'Across the Universe' (check out the DVD = AMAZING) in support of that oh so lovely symbol, Mr.Oizo saw a resurgence and we were introduced to new artists such as Krazy Baldhead, Busy P (Pedro Winter) DJ Mehdi and Sebastien, a new fever pitch of noise which seemed to resemble this revolution screaching UK dancefloors until people were forced to engage in throwing down some drunken shapes.

This is a new day for independents, as it appears the premise of mainstream success is to move on to the mainstream labels and that what has recently happened with the labels biggest stars Justice who the world expects a killer second album on the newly revamped Elektra records, in the meantime not to discourage Mr.Winter we have Breakbot who is killing the UK dance scene at the moment with his Baby I'm Yours song in particular the siriusmo remix (below, PLAY), in the meantime lets hope France keeps throwing these gems onto British shores and Mr Winter devles deeper into the Parisian underworld to seek out new talent for nurturing.

In light of a 'potential' closure of 6 Music, great news for Indie bands

You may be vaguely aware that some YouTube videos aren't embeddable on external sites, like ours, or indeed on many blogs. This is because record labels don't get any revenue from their artists' clips that are posted elsewhere - other than the main YouTube website. Aside from, y'know, all that PROMOTION which an embeddable video would cause.

This caused much consternation from bands and bloggers alike, and rightly. If you're going to make a video, you want people to actually watch it, after all. The most prominent of the outspoken artists are those fine makers of viral music videos OK GO, who expressed their disgust and annoyance at the whole thing - and their record label, EMI - earlier in the year.

Thankfully, and finally, things may now be moving in the right direction to this (via Wired), as on YouTube's newly-launched 'Musicians Wanted' channel, artists will be able to make money through video views, including views which are on external sites, with embedded content. A statement, to be posted on YouTube's blog reads:
“Whether you make hip-hop, folk, noise-rock, jazz or a genre of your own invention, we are looking for all types of original music video content.”

However, the videos uploaded to the partner page actually have to be videos, not that old trick of an mp3 uploaded to a background image and no moving pictures. That would be cheating. The sections, devoted to independent music, will be searchable in the aim of helping people sift through the mass of content which will feature.
So, although independent artists may not get the amount of revenue that major labels do, at least it will leave them not having to split the revenue with their record label. All of this is very much A Good Thing.

Glenn Brown, YouTube's head of business said:
“Our goal in all these partner programs is to help people get to that point where they hear the most beautiful words a creative person can hear, which is ‘You can quit your day job,’ and some of our partners have already done that.”
As mentioned previously, OK GO were pretty narked at the whole thing, and wrote an open letter recently. Funnily enough, they were one of the first bands to sign up to 'Musicians Wanted'. Damian Kulash, of OK GO, told Wired:

“What’s tremendously freeing about starting our own label is that we can now distribute our work however we want to, and we can look for new and interesting ways to make a living off of it without constantly chafing against the constraints of a big label with a rat’s nest of conflicting agendas.

“The YouTube Partners Program, and specifically the Musicians Wanted division of it, is a great example. We can distribute our videos the way we want to (embeddable!), and actually make some money off it, to boot. A couple months ago our hands were tied by the embedding restrictions at our label, and the money that was generated from our streams wasn’t winding up in our pocket. Now we’re enabling embedding and we’ll collect a check every month. It’s a pretty obvious win/win.

Credit to Drowned in Sound for the article

GAGGLE + SBTRKT - New artists in 2010

As I click on GAGGLE's Myspace i'm awash with slogans such as scary, sexy, lick, GIRLS! And its band members seem to be SO much different to the norm , this in comparison to the like rubbish we see on TV these days namely shite TV music competitions, and with probably one of the few decent DJ's left on Radio 1 singing your prasies you would think GAGGLE = YES PLEASEEEEE! But on getting my listening game on its hard to think this group wont go beyond a hapless attempt to be so different the alternative fizz will turn into a bottle of coke in the fridge with the lid left open for a couple of days.

For those who don't know GAGGLE are a 20+ piece choir set up by god knows, their brash claims for the alternative are not without credit, I mean where else are you going to see a 20 piece girl outfit who dress like Jesus' disciples and sing in a frightening cohesion, but on listening to 'I hear flies' (their debut single) I can't see the musical differential that an alternative music scene needs more and more of these days as we head on out of the noughties. To be fair I haven't seen them live and I'm sure watching that cohesion on stage would be a sight to see but what I have heard from the medium of many internet sites I found myself bored, and thats a position that no music lover wants to find themselves in. By all means judge for yourself, hey its only my opinion but with all the imagination and innovation in the world to form a band the music has to sound the same also and unfortunately I just don't feel that, below is their debut single, I Hear Flies:-

From the brash and 'innovative' GAGGLE (pictured right if you dont know), we go to Young Turks latest protege in the form of SBTRKT. When The XX first burst on scene with their debut album it seemed we had another label who had the talent to seek out future successes and it seems the A&R squares have found their next artist, in the illusive Dub Step/Electro artist. Much like Burial, SBTRKT has taken the musical formula of hiding behind masks and keeping information scarce on his background, what we do know is that he's from London and his remixes of Basement Jaxx (Scars), These New Puritans (We Want War) and on a more commercial level the ever BRILLIANT! Tinnie Tempah (Pass Out, what else!!) and with his own tunes namely 'Timeless', I get the feeling we could have another illusive artist who makes the neccassary impact on the electronic stage.

Praises heaped on by Mary Anne Hobbs and Giles Peterson add to this illusive artists credibility, the synths and arrangements that he crafts has an instant listenble quality to it and I definately believe the added mix of remixes and own songs will see him get the recognition further into the year we go. Below is one of his own songs, 'Timeless' enjoy -

A Way for Independents in 2010.......Phantasy Sound

Erol Alkan, one of the most important DJ's of our generation, mixmag DJ of the year and pioneer of indie remixes when the whole scene imploded into a guitar based haven with its positive effects (initial) and now in 2010 feeling more saturated than the average Rik Waller meal. But with his work with the likes of Mylo, Bloc Party, Long Blondes, Klaxons, Justice, Daft Punk and also trying his hand at producing the Mystery Jets album 'Twenty One', the DJ (now SLASH producer) has ventured into crafting his own record label Phantasy Sounds.

A fairly underground scene is usually the formula when artists create their own record label, The Beats, Ed Banger, Bingo Recordings and on a guitar based riff level Big Brother (but people probably know that one), but with Erol his music is starting to reach the limited edition mainstream with his mix of alternative indie and early club classics.

Most notably of his 7 (thats right just 7!) releases so far, such songs like Bangkok by German hit maker Boris Dlugosch, Dance Area AA 24/7 and to more extent the shift in change for Late of the Pier (coming from the back end of the tired guitar scene into this), with such releases coming through Phantasy and their first album to be released by Connan Mockasin (reminds me of early Brian Jonestown Massacre), again a lays a shift in the diversity of Phantasy releases.

A continuation of independents throughout 2010 continues, below is the latest release from Late of the Pier 'Best in the Class' AND whats probably gonna be a club record of the year called Lemonade by Mr Erol Alkan and Boyz Noize BUT released on Beatport (more on them next week), AND I could only get a minute + of it because it hasnt been released yet but will be next week.

PHANTASY!!