My time as Little Lexi on Defected has come to an end since my return to SA. It was a totally rad experience being the girl with the ‘clubbing dirt’ and blogging about it every week on the site… See below all my posts over the 8 months I was stuck in… Big love to the boys at Defected HQ in London- them lucky bastards sitting in their office grooving to the freshest house music all day- tough life eh! :) You can get a dose of the latest Defected wordsex here.
There’s only one question I can ask Erick Morillo when I finally get him on the line, ‘Dude, you are living the dream- how does it feel?’ It’s taken two days and two trips to Defected HQ to get him on the phone; ‘It’s his first day in Ibiza and he’s on his yacht- with some girls,’ -and he basically can’t get to the phone- or so his people tell the Defected people, who tell me. Villa’s, yacht’s and shiny disco balls; man, its tough being at the top!
Erick Morillo really does live it up in style- P.Diddy ain’t got nothing on this man, I’m telling you!- but then, he’s worked his ass off to get there and still is one of the hardest working artists in the business. Erick lives on world-wide gig rotation, produces up a storm, pops out record-breaking albums and has just kicked his record label, Subliminal, back into action after a two year hiatus. Hell, I hope those girls lathered him in sunscreen and fed him chilled fruit with a spoon!
Morillo’s ready for my call the next day and he’s back in business mode, doing last minute preparation for his opening night at Pacha that evening where he presents the labels awakening with a banging launch party for Subliminal Sessions Summer 09. The Erick-mixed, double disc album promises to entertain you with an invigorated subliminal sound and is already receiving rave reviews. ‘This is my new favourite compilation to date, its balls to the floor and sexy!’ He says.
Erick put the label on hold when digital download took the world by chaotic storm- a clever move that possibly saw him save face where other labels lost strength during the trepid technology transition. ‘The music business was in a bit of a flux, nobody knew what was going on, people were downloading music for free everywhere. I made a decision to slow things down as it just didn’t feel right and album sales weren’t good.’
He’s now gone into partnership with Strictly Rhythm and Defected Records, Erick’s label home for years before he started up Subliminal in 1997. ‘I love what Defected has done the last three or four years, they’ve become one of the greatest imprints around the world and Mark Finkelstein, on Strictly Rhythm, has been my business mentor for many years. It just works and we’re back on track.’
To answer my first question; ‘Yes I’m living the dream- it’s really unbelievable that after all these years I’m still doing this, and enjoying myself, so I’m really grateful.’ He tells me, and sweetly apologises. ‘I was having lessons on my boat!’ Morillo doesn’t think the world economy is going to stop party-chasers from getting their sun, sea and disco this year and is looking forward to a great summer on the island.
This year’s theme is ‘Be Bad’ and Erick is all about bringing out the bad-ass in everyone at his weekly Wednesday residency under that red-cherried roof. ‘It’s about forgetting about all the problems in the world, coming in, closing your eyes and letting go. It’s really cheeky- like when you’re doing something you know you not meant to but it just feels so good!’
And Erick knows all about that- I ask him about his favourite not musical indulgence; ‘Well, I’ve recently been enjoying playing Backgammon.’ He says, ‘Backgammon and sex.’ And with that he’s off to ignite Morillo mania on the dancefloor, a very bad boy indeed!
Fresh from the Balearic shores of Wonderland where he indulged audiences with roster that included Luciano, Lady GaGa, Fatboy Slim, and Groove Armada; Pete jumped into position as the new late Friday night presenter on BBC’s Radio 1; a sound shuffle that has shaken up dedicated listeners across the UK. Yep, tune in too early and you might just think Pete has gone wack, but Pete and Miss Annie Mac have simply swapped show times, meaning he comes into the Essential Mix two hours later than before! Pretty cool since no-one hits the clubs before 12 these days anyway, so his mix can still start your weekend and see you to the door!
But that’s not all- the man that coined the phrase for a whole new kind of crazy is off on a month long American adventure at the end of October. Pete will be turning the tables in New York, Miami, LA, Los Vegas and Mexico City, even verging off the beaten track to douse Texas, Vancouver, Washington and Colorado with his sound selection. Pete, potentially initiating a whole new era of ‘Reality Producing’ is spicing up the tour with a Tong Factor talent competition, which no doubt, will go down a storm with budding dj’s and producers around the country!
The competition will give partygoers at each show the opportunity to hand over demo’s on CD or USB, the best of which, Pete will play during the tour. That’s a lot of music he’ll be listening to in his down time- I hope they’re hooking him up with a cosy camper! After the tour, the best tracks will be released on Beatport.com for your downloading pleasure! Pete is renowned for discovering new talent, so many keen ears will be tuning in to hear what he thinks is hot on American soil. You can catch Pete blogging all tour long in an online diary for Beatportal.com.
Little Lexi x
Who knew those randoms that suddenly appear with a 10 inch lens in your face while you’re working up a sexy sweat, could prove to be such a fundamental asset to the art form of clubbing as we know it! It all seems so obvious now- yes, no longer just out to capture you’re unglamorous state in the wee hours of your weekend rampage; one London Nightlife Photographer has pulled together a pretty impressive collection of club shots and thrown them into a nice little exhibition, aptly titled ‘Where We Dance’.
RA Photographer, Nick Ensing, has become a familiar favourite with the Capital’s club scene kids and DJ’s, essentially documenting his own clubbing beat and keeping it distinctly underground and understated cool, shooting at likes of Secretsundaze, Fabric, Plastic People and Sosho among them.
He’s captured the essence of a good night out more than a few dozen times with his own artist flair- and I dare I say, put a few club site photographers to shame- making snapshot memories of people and parties poignant moments in club culture. Exactly how it should be done!
The exhibition launches on 8th October at The Book Club on Shoreditch’s Leonard Street, with dj’s Terry Farley, Kenny Hawkes and Ali Warm on hand to add some appropriate sound effects to the night’s themed affair, and runs until the end of November. If you’re not normally one for glaring at abstract splotches on canvas in cold white rooms, and dark rooms with walls bouncing reverb is more your thing, this should certainly appeal!
It’s not a bad way to spend an afternoon, and will surely inspire your next night out! You can even tell mum about your cultured excursion- I’m sure she’ll be proud!
Little Lexi x
It’s incredible to believe that after an entire season of non-action, DC 10 in Ibiza is still the club everyone’s talking about. Rumours have strategically persisted all summer-long that the infamous warehouse venue was going to throw the bash of all bashes and drop one last closing party- technically an opening and closing party in one!- and in true rebellious style, earlier this week, Circo Loco announced the line-up for its one-off event.
The club was shut down and fined €300,000 by the Spanish government last year for allegedly running with only a restaurant and bar license to their name, and ordered to remain closed for one full year as punishment. Talk about whipping the clown about town! Apparently, the licensing issue is yet to be resolved but, the ban lifts exactly one day before the scheduled event on October 6th and the Circo Loco crew are throwing caution to the wind; going full throttle and giving the party-island people what they’ve been harking on about all summer.
SO, there’s been a clamber from coast to coast as the good people have postponed their departures and several clubs and bars have extended their own closing events to be able to sufficiently milk the extra masses of people still around, as Ibiza’s annual season of mayhem traditionally ends at the end of September. The local’s more than likely welcome the extra mileage they’re getting although the weather has been turning dramatically- with torrential showers literally raining on many vacationers parades for the entire past week.
Well, lets hope October 6th is greeted with an incredible sunrise and that legend of DC10 is restored in the nick of time. Ricardo Villalobo’s leads the pack with sound support from Circo Loco favourites, Tania Vulcano, Clive Henry, Jamie Jones, Dan Ghenacia and Matthais Tanzmann, and making his first and only Ibiza appearance this summer is Crosstown Rebels’ Damian Lazarus. It sounds like a bloody good show- and what a way to show ‘em!
Here’s to DC10 in 2010!
Little Lexi x
So there I am; sangria sipping and waiting for a little sunset action on the other side of the island at Cafe Mambo… Anticipating that momentous daily occurrence when the sun dips coolly beyond the blue waters prompting the crowd on the bank to wave their bottles of San Miguel and cheer in delight at the signalling of another epic nocturnal adventure on the White Isle…
Yep, life doesn’t get much better than this! And who should suddenly appear to take the seat next to mine, but Mr Faithless- Maxi Jazz himself. Maxi Jazz, Sister Bliss and entourage had arrived to indulge a little dinner and drop a teaser set at the infamous sunset-side restaurant, before making way to headline at Pacha.
Later, Bliss dropped her usual moody, banging set to the main room, while Maxi eased out a deep trip-hop set in the Global Room, seemingly quite content playing separates! But as it turned out- the twosome were flecking new material into the tunage and testing it out on the unexpectant audience- and you guessed it; the crowd went wild!
So I did a little investigating; seems the group have been holed up in studio for quite some time and a new album is officially in the works! Their first single ‘Sun to Me’ was released mid-August and while the hot remixes pour in, the group, which includes Rollo Armstrong on production, are hoping for a little ‘Faithless fest’ when they head back to the island for the closing parties next week.
I have no doubt they’re going to lay it down thick and fast this time! If you’re not there in the flesh for the all exclusive album preview- keep an eye on their website which re-launches in October with all Faithless 2009 seriousness! Or get into the new single- it’s going to be all about Faithless on rotation all winter long!
http://faithless.co.uk/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8S9aeyamIPw&feature=related
Little Lexi x
I loved the sound of La Roux before I’d even heard one of her songs; a magazine interview several months ago got to grips with the up-and-coming vocal starlet, Elly Jackson’s quirky, androgynous style- she has an incredible- and expensive- penchant for all things vintage- and revealed a heady fresh attitude not seen since possibly Madonna’s early music career rebellion. La Roux does not conform to the Pop-tart norm and as it turns out- the woman can seriously sing!
La Roux is essentially Elly Jackson on vocals and synths with Ben Langmaid on co-writing and production for an electro-pop sound infusion that runs comparable to the likes of The Eurythmics, David Bowie and Prince. Her debut album went to number 2 on the charts earlier this year and her singles Bulletproof and In For The Kill reached number 1 and 2 on the singles chart respectively. But, In For The Kill has tickled the dance communities’ fancy in a big way- with more than enough bedroom producers bootlegging their own electro-tinged spin on it.
Skream’s Dub Step remix is the one on serious club rotation, the ‘ravey remix’ is being dropped from London and New York, to being the most appropriate soundtrack to many on the White Isle’s disco-vacation. Sander Kleinenberg dropped the tune to a heaving 2 000 strong crowd at Pacha Ibiza last weekend and the audience went into a leisurely 6 minute euphoria!
La Roux makes her first Bestival appearance this Saturday before embarking on a worldwide tour that takes her from Japan to Australia and the US, returning to the UK for a full tour in November. Look out for her next single ‘I’m not your Toy’, to be released in late September- no doubt there will be a sexy slew of dance remixes bouncing off the club walls near you soon enough!
You know the dance music industry isn’t just about being a dj or producer- yes, really! Sometimes the music biz calls for people specialised in other crafty art forms to give their own spin on things and that certainly goes for music photographer, Dan Reid. If the name sounds familiar that’s because Dan is also a dj and established promoter in London, but how he really gets off is taking shots of the world’s biggest and best musicians on stage!
Dan first came to my attention when I stumbled across press pictures of Toolroom Records boss, Mark Knight in his jocks in a local nightclub venue- looking quite content commanding the dark but empty club in his tightie-whities in fact- and after a little Google found that there was quite a bit more to be the man behind the shoot than and taking pics of dj’s in the nick is just the scratching the surface of where this Mr Reid has really poked his lens!
Dan Reid has been a camera man since he was a tiny tot and after being discovered by Sony, has had the fortune of taking his passion to the best level. Dan has hung out with and captured the essence of electronic legends like James Zabiela, Paul Harris, Carl Cox and Sasha, as well as travelling the world to shoot legendary and infamous muso celebs like Lenny Kravitz, Lilly Allen, Kasabian and Oasis. His imagery has been mounted for long life on the covers of DJ Mag, IDJ, and M8 among them and a recent shoot took him to the opening of Space, Ibiza this summer, to photograph the epic clubbing occasion for Pioneer’s 2010 Calendar. Tough life!
It’s good to know if you can’t be a rockstar, you can be a rockstar photographer! Hey, who said you had to be a dj to live the dream? Check out his web pages to keep up with his latest snaps here:
http://www.danreid.co.uk/
http://www.pioneerandspace.com/
Little Lexi x
David Guetta’s always been angling towards a (lot) more commercial success in dance music and with the statement, ‘I don’t want to be credible, I want to be incredible.’ he booked a one way ticket to Hollywood- and superstardom- to prove as much. Well, I suppose somebody had to go on a one man mission to shake up that commercial pop-culture-in-a-can and The number 1 House Dj in the World is really the only man for the job!
Frenchman Guetta is one of the most in demand producers in the world, having well conquered Europe and the UK already, and with his penchant for easy-on-the-ear double-beats he’s hit the Sunset Strip with a well-timed bang. Let’s be honest, R&B artists have been sharing the same song sheet for years and it’s all been sounding very same-same. Same guy, different girl, maybe, but same broken heart and incessant whinging. Guetta’s boxed house happiness is hopefully going to give them something to smile about!
He’s been producing and remixing up glorious sound storms with the likes of Akon, The Black Eyed Pea’s, NERD and Estelle, as well as performing on live studio’s shows with his American A team and gaining more TV time in the US than most Dj’s would see in two lifetimes. Yep, you can see Guetta bopping on the decks behind Kelly Rowland as she belts out the vocal to ‘When Love Takes Over’ on US reality series, So You Think You Can Dance’ and putting a face to the name will no doubt see his star status climb as fast as his production schedule.
Electro Hop, Hip House- call it what you like, but it’s certainly a little bit of Billboard back-bone, if you ask me. I mean, I’m not hugely into commercial music in general, but there’s no denying good pop music when you hear it- and Guetta always bring a certain Euro-quality to the table. Although having said this I can’t lie, the love took over for only for a mere few plays for me and I was well done with that one but track went to Number 1 in the UK Singles Chart in June and was named 2009’s biggest dance crossover anthem! You can download it to your ipod from itunes right now! … But you don’t have to.
First person to spot Guetta papped buying Starbucks in Heat Magazine gets an hour long dance off with me at his next London show. Hehe!
Little Lexi x
Luciano has given himself- and possibly invented- the all time highest ranking of dj superstardom… that of LIVE conductor. The Looch, as some-people-I-know-that-love-techno call him, has rallied the baddest boys of Cadenza Records, assigned them colours to play by and produced one of the most interesting live electronic projects we’ve seen since LIVE became the new IT artist act. -And to clarify; live is playing and making sounds off the cuff in front of the audience and remembering to work them into a frenzy they won’t forget. Yes- not fiddling with a drum kick plugin and Traktor Scratch *Ahem!*… but don’t mind me!
Æther is basically Luciano’s insane brainchild synchronising light, colour, percussion, instruments on Ableton Live and team of cutting-their-own-edge visual artists to create an electronic audio visual extravaganza. A cracking line up in its own right; Mirko Loko, Gregorythme, Laps, Lee Van Dowski and Reboot, with Luciano at the helm, will be performing their exclusive debut at the Creamfields festival in Warrington, just outside Manchester, this Bank Holiday Weekend. The show is conceptual, groundbreaking, and from the odd news snippets and Youtube clips poking their way around cyber clubland; it’s a well rehearsed and technologically disciplined show.
If it lives up to the hype, Æther should be the orgasmic culmination of every single button on the box being pushed- and being pushed out with soul-shifting symmetry and enough boom boom to remind you should be dancing to it. This is all about the latest and greatest electronic gear available, being pushed to the limit. And behold: our very first electronic orchestra has arrived! I’m sure we’re shortly going to be spammed with a slew of terrible imitations, but Æther is the bad boy we need to witness!
I haven’t had the pleasure of seeing The Looch live myself, but his weird tainted artistry has wooed me even more and I’m definitely going to make it my mission to see this composition live in action! Apparently Luciano’s music education started at the age of 2, so his headspace is surely thinking about development in ways beyond the ‘band at 12, decks at 16’ generation- if only we could all have been born a musical prodigy eh? The term ‘AEther’ itself originally stands for the ‘personification of the upper sky’ or something spiritually as such, so expect to be taken on a bit of a space bound journey indeed!
The future of Electronica has just been rewired- and goes live in 5, 4, 3…
Little Lexi x
Portfolio Blog of Holly Jade. Freelance Writer and Music Industry PR. *Likes long dances in the dark.
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