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.
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
It’s that time of year; DJ’s Mag’s Top 100 has rolled around and it’s going to try convince us we should all be listening to Trance once again- Armin, Tiesto, Ferry and PVD will no doubt snag the usual top spots- as well as ignite the annual world-wide debate about the infamous comps relevance in the industry. It’s an interesting conversation- mostly deterred by the proud pioneers of smaller, more obscure genre’s of dance music who can’t handle the sound slumming and those who dismiss it for the general cheesy rating of a music culture that prides itself on being underground.
I think the fact the Top 100 exists is reason enough to give it a go and pledge alliance to the dj’s who’ve rocked your socks in the past year, although where the cynic in me starts to feel a nauseous nag is when I see those top 10 boys start to campaign with specialised online advertising that no dj without their very own flying dj box could compete. And then there’s DJ Mag’s diluting some of its repute by encouraging every dj and his dog todownload the press pack and throw themselves into the fray. A bucket load of free branding and promotion for the mag, ye sure, but some of this bandwagon mob would be better spending the energy further fine-tuning their skills than chasing viral superstardom. But then, that’s just me.
The system running the past two years endeavours towards a fair(er) election, with each allowed one go and 5 spots to allocate being simply it! Last night was a repeat of 2008 for me, when I listed 4 and found myself stumped enough to send it through missing a final ‘gap filler’. You see, I want my votes to count, and so they be wasted on trying to push Zabiela and Cattaneo into the Top 10- they don’t need my help to get there. I support the underdog- the in-obvious or oblivious one bubbling on the brink of breaking through and shaking the whole box from the backend. The one that deserves to get onto that goddamn elitist map if so be it.
So my advice? Support the real artists before you support yourself and that two bit track you made that night you hooked up with that girl with that laugh that sounded like industrial vocal acid house. Or something. I dono, I’m just saying…
Little Lexi x
If you haven’t heard of Noise Porn, now’s the time to tune in. Ally and Gellan have been running their free music e-zine slash blog slash really cool place to hang out online and be into all sorts of Electronica for over two years. The Edinburgh based boys initially hammed it up all Scottish like, as a platform for exposing all the juicy electronic Scot sounds they could get their mits on- but this soon spread far and wide and very global as artists who liked their concept of open ended music sharing doused them with their productions.
They cover mainly breaks, electro, house and dubstep, with a splash of techno, hiphop and grime and essentially showcase and promote artists who specifically want to give their music away for free! For want of having the whole world hear it as opposed to making a few quick quid, it’s a pretty win win situation!
Add support from some of the best underground artists and 60 000 hits a month to their website, and a voyage to Mongolia for charity is born. Yep, the two have literally packed it all up and skipped town to embark on an 800 hour mission from London to Mongolia, travelling through Europe, Central Asia and dashing across the Gobi Desert to get there in a fully equipped vehicle loaded with supplies to donate to the Save The Children Charity when they get there.
With more than 800 hours on the road, their electronic obsession got them campaigning for dj’s around the world to provide the soundtrack of support by uploading their mixes and paying a pound to keep them trucking onwards. Mixes and support have poured in from the Krafty Kuts, Foamo, Brodinski, The Fat! Club, Fabric, Always Fridays @ The Egg and DSI making it a very sound cause to submit to indeed!
Who knew listening to Electronica could be this good for the world? You can still join in and submit your mixes to keep them inspired along the journey- their favourites are podcasted on the site for shared listening pleasure- of course! – as well as regular blogging of their adventures on the road. Get involved!
http://mongolianmixtapemarathon.com/
http://www.noiseporn.com/
Little Lexi x
Portfolio Blog of Holly Jade. Freelance Writer and Music Industry PR. *Likes long dances in the dark.
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