Ladies Take Control at WEMF
Ladies Take Control at WEMF
Originally uploaded by philipdowney

I have added a bunch of WEMF pictures to flickr as a set. Have a look!

  ¶ 10:20 AM 0 Comments Links to this post

  WEMF report I took quite a few pictures at the WEMF, but this is the one I like most. One woman, dancing by herself, as an intellibeam sweeps by.

I arrived on Friday night, and checked in slowly, just like everybody else. They really needed separate lanes for those who had preregistered and those who were paying.

Highlights of that night included, Chris Liberator, Freaky Flow, Ladies Take Control, and most of all, Pendulum, who were great.

I didn't camp, and came back on Saturday. That night, I enjoyed Hatiras and Mix Master Mike most of all. I was too tired to stay late for MSTRKRFT.

A few other notes:

• I was surprised I didn't feel too old. Older, but not oldest.
• Most DJs are still using vinyl. I thought digital would have dominated. But of course a few laptops and cds were present. I think Mix Master Mike was using Serato and two 1200s, but I'm not sure.
• Kids don't dress up the way they used to. There were a few freaks of course, but not as many as the old days.
• I am too old for the hard dance arena. Everytime I walked by its building, it was either a jackhammer kickdrum, or an endless snare. Always above 150 bpm, of course.

All in all, a good festival.

Labels: dance, dj, House, Music, Tech-house, Techno, trance

  ¶ 6:04 PM 0 Comments Links to this post

  Swoon 196 - July 23, 2007 The Cinematic Orchestra - Familiar Ground (Ninja Tune)
Kate Havnenik - New Day (Universal Republic)
Caribou - Melody Day (Four Tet remix) (Merge)
MSTRKRFT - The Looks (Last Gang)
Digitalism - Zdarlight (EMI)
Mark Ronson - Pretty Green (Rca)
Chromeo - Tenderoni (last Gang)
Danuel Tate - Pushcard (Wagon Repair)
James Zabiela - Human (Renaissance)
Dusty Cabinets - She Forgot Her Banner (Kickboxer)
Alec Troniq - Passengers
Spencer Parker - Beautiful Noise (Ripperton mix)
Junior Boys - Like A Child (Carl Craig mix) (Domino)
Orbital - Impact (The Earth Is Burning) (Ffrr)
Orbital - Impact USA (Ffrr)
Orbital - Impact (Live at the V96 Festival) (Ffrr)
Rabbit in the Moon - Decade (Contagious)

Labels: dance, dj, Music, Swoon, Techno, Tracklist

  ¶ 5:53 PM 0 Comments Links to this post

  Swoon 195 - July 16, 2007 Trentemoller/Buda – Gamma (Minilogue remix)
Kissogram – My Friend Is A Seahorse (Radioslave remix)
The Mole – Steady Down (Wagon Repair)
NAW – Elbow Landlock (Noise Factory)
Will Saul/Lee Jones – Hug the Scary (Aus)
Thomas Mayer – Ueber Wiesen (Kompakt)
Justin Martin – The Sad Piano (Jimpster mix) (Buzzin’ Fly)
Gus Gus – Moss (Tim Deluxe mix)
Minilogue – Inca (WIR)
Ame – Enoi
DJ Remy – Scrap (Armed)
Spooky – New Lights (Strobelight mix)
MSTRKRFT – The Looks (Last Gang)
Beastie Boys – The Melee (Capitol)
Legion of Green Men – Baqup (Post Contemporary)
James Zabiela – Human (Renaissance)
Paul Kalkbrenner – Altes Kamueffel (Bpitchcontrol)
Guy J – Amsterdam

Labels: dance, dj, House, Swoon, Techno, Tracklist

  ¶ 2:31 PM 0 Comments Links to this post

  Rabbit in the Moon - Decade I still remember the first time I heard a Rabbit in the Moon track. I was at a dark, sweaty, overheated rave in Toronto in 1995. Sometime after 2 a.m. Tim Patrick (?) dropped Humate/Rabbit in the Moon's East. It fit into his trance set very well, but it was unlike the other tracks. It stood out because of its unusual breakdown. Instead of being a simple beatless interlude that ends with a big snare drum roll, the breakdown was broken up with breakbeats. But there was still a big snare roll, and right when it hit its peak and should have burst into pounding beats, it didn't. Instead, I was left hanging with high-pitched strings and a little bit of acid in the background. But the acid built, the snares came back in again, and after a furious build, the track then resumed. It was pretty awesome. Two months later I learned it was Rabbit in the Moon's Southern Stimulation remix. It's been become an all-time trance classic since then, and probably their second-most popular release.

It's been a while, and after a number of singles, a lot of remixes of people like Sarah McLachlan, Goldie, Smashing Pumpkins and others, Bunny and David Christophere have released Decade, a cd/dvd compiling old and new tracks from their career together.

The cd contains 12 tracks, covering trance, breakbeats and even some industrial-tinged ebm. It's a good selection, with many great tracks, including Timebomb, Dubassex, Deeper, and a cover version of David Bowie's Let's Dance. It's a great sampling of what they can do.

Their most famous track, O.O.B.E. (Out of Body Experience) is here, as a hidden track after Decade. I assume that after all these years, the Tori Amos samples still haven't been cleared.

On the DVD, you get all the tracks on the cd, except for O.O.B.E., plus a few short tracks to link them together. The videos come in two varieties: live concert footage and regular videos. (In a few of the tracks, they mix these two kinds of footage together.)

I was a little unimpressed by the first half of the dvd. The videos didn't always do the tracks justice. The images are somewhat 'standard' rave-o-fractal computer graphics from the 90s.

But the final 20 minutes of the dvd are tremendously exciting. This comprises "Let's Dance", reimagined as a fight for freedom, "O.B.E.", "God Shiva", and finally "Decade", which is a fantastic ending. Bunny is a great onstage cheerleader, much in the same vein as Keith from Prodigy. That ending more than made up for the slower first half.

Every Rabbit in the Moon should have this, because it's good, and because these tracks aren't easy to find anywhere, or are brand new. For people new to RITM, I can't think of a better place to start.

It went on sale yesterday.

Labels: dance, dj, Music, Techno, trance

  ¶ 3:13 PM 0 Comments Links to this post

  Favourite science images
Following Carl Zimmer, who followed Larry Moran, I've picked my favourite scientific image from the Wellcome Trust's new Creative Commons-licensed image database. I wanted the spectrum of just the sun, but I guess I will have to accept some other stars too.

[Credit: Wellcome Institute, Creative Commons License.]

Labels: astronomy, photography, physics, science

  ¶ 1:30 PM 0 Comments Links to this post

  Swoon 194 - July 9, 2007 Stephan Bodzin - Leuchtkraft (Herzblut)
Discemi - Von Wright Code (Rekids)
The Rice Twins - Can I Say (Kompakt)
Cobblestone Jazz - Saturday Night (Wagon Repair)
Legion of Green Men - Tuggathanug (Post Contemporary)
Element Kuuda - La tempete (Magnanimous)
Apparat - You Don't Know Me (Shitkatapult)
Manhunter - Bodydouble (Ghostly)
Dinky - Horizontal (Ringing)
The Black Dog - Chiba (Soma)
Midnight Operator - Midnight Operator (Wagon Repair)
Krak Street Boyz - Street Power
Tolga Fidan - Tanbulistan
Cultek - Excessive Freqency (Touchin Bass)
Surgeon - Bad Hands Part 2 (Dynamic Tension)
Pete Lazonby - I Miss U (Playhouse)
Rabbit in the Moon - Decade (Deeper)
Agnes - Controversial Advantages (Ripperton's Game Set & Match mix)
Mike Shannon - Playing the Fool (Wagon Repair)
Danuel Tate - I Want My Money Back (Wagon Repair)
Juergen Paape - We Love (Kompakt)
The Viewers - Blank Images (Mezzo-tinto)

Labels: dance, dj, House, Music, Swoon, Techno, Tracklist

  ¶ 12:07 PM 0 Comments Links to this post

  Swoon 193 - July 2, 2007 Ricardo Villalobos - Ichso (Cadenza)
Glitches - A night with tobeunderground (Defrag)
Jon McMillion - Land Ends (Orac)
Lee Curtiss - Over The Influence (Dumb Unit)
Elsiane - Assemblage Point (Universal Music)
Kate Havnevik - Nowhere Warm (Continentica)
Legion of Green Men - (Blowbaq) (Post Contemporary)
Envisage - (Untitled) (Amaranthine)
Burger Voigt - Man Lebt Nur Zweimal (Kompakt)
Rework - Joggin Beat (Roman Fluegel mix) (Playhouse)
MSTRKRFT - Street Justice (Last Gang)
Toby Thomas - A Close Shave (Prins Thomas mix) (Rekids)
Danuel Tate - Pushcard (Wagon Repair)
Crackhaus - Suddenly Brilliant (Onitor)
Cobblestone Jazz - Put Da Lime In Da Coconut (Da Lime In Da Coconut) (Wagon Repair)
Two Lone Swordsmen - Rico's Helly (Rotters Golf Club)
Matthew Dear - Deserter (Four Tet remix) (Ghostly)
Dinky - Lazed (Horizontal)
Junior Boys - In The Morning (Hot Chip mix) (Domino)
Riton - Hammer of Thor (Connaisseur)
Solieb - We Are Moving (Maschine)
Benoit Pioulard - Little A Strongly More Grow I (Ghostly)

Labels: dance, dj, House, Music, Swoon, Techno, Tracklist

  ¶ 11:10 AM 0 Comments Links to this post