Continuing with our REWIND! of 2007, here are the Top 10 Electronic Musings on ([HearingTest]) in 2007… All but “Lion” were released this year, and most of them can be found on BLEEP.com or Boomkat.com. 2007 was also a great year for watching the magic of electronic synthesis and we enjoyed watching loads of wonderful videos. I consider myself very lucky to have attended some of the Bay Area’s hottest live electronic music performances and somewhat capture them on video. It’s all here as we REWIND! 2007’s Greatest Hits! ([More →])

Bjork’s new video for “Declare Independence” just dropped along with a bunch of behind the scenes action. Michel Gondry directed the video - his 7th for Bjork! What do you think of it? ([More →])

Busy as Bjork. I’m going to start coining that phrase. Coz when she’s busy, nobody can out-busy her! Last week she finished filming the video for “Wanderlust” in NYC, played two shows in France, did an interview with Spinner and then was heading to the UK for some big music festivals. I thought that was the end of the road trip for her, but it turns out Bjork just doesn’t stop! Energizer batteries need to sign her up as their new mascot! So, while our heads were whirling with this information, Bjork was secretly recording a special Live Session album at Olympic Studios with her current live band. I hope it includes the reacTable synth - that thing is wiiiiiiicked! ([More →])

Matthew Herbert makes great Bjork sounds. “Hidden Place” is one of my all-time favorite Bjork songs, and it was Herbert who produced the beats. He also produced music for 3 songs on Vespertine and remixes of “Pagan Poetry.” He’s most popular for his experimental electronica bordering on atmospheric noise, similar to Matmos (the found-sound audio collage artists who produced and toured with Bjork on Vespertine). ([More →])

Holy Bjork, Synth-Fans! I have been hyping the reactable electronic music instrument to anyone who would listen lately (and here I am doing it again), but I had no idea that Bjork is using one and had it at the Glastonbury Music Festival! Reactable is basically an electronic synthesizer, only it has no keys. Instead, it uses a more intuitive and visual based interface with the musician. Before I try to write 1000 words, let me show you a reactable in action: ([More →])

What a great combination! M.I.A. will open for Bjork on September 11th at the Fox Theatre in Detroit, Michigan and at her two concerts in Nimes, France August 21 and 23. ([More →])

Today there is a veritable feast of new yumminess to satiate any appetite for new sounds of “Innocence”! Bjork announced the winner of the “Innocence” video contest and we found some lovely music blogs that feature the new remixes… ([More →])

Bjork’s Innocence remixes album was released everywhere except the US this week. Here is the tracklist and artwork: ([More →])

Konono No. 1 shot to international stardom like a comet once Bjork revealed their eccentric sounds on Volta. Well, I guess the fame of touring with Bjork didn’t go to their heads because they kept themselves busy recording a new album of their own! FLY describes their experimental music this way:

Playing on scrap metal percussion and spiky metal thumb pianos, they pound out exuberant and rhythmic beats that are distorted through amplifiers made from old car parts. They have taken the traditional music of Congolese Bazombi tribe and electrified it, creating a sound that is both futuristic and primeval.

([More →])

Anybody here love remixes? How about a whole album of remixes of Bjork’s “Innocence”? ([More →])

Bjork was interviewed by the Telegraph about this weekend’s Glastonbury Music Festival. She discusses how much she loves to perform outdoors surrounded by nature and how she doesn’t remember anything about the last time she played Glastonbury in 1994. Ahhhhhh, UK music festivals in the early 90’s. Sigh…. Everyone who attended has trouble remembering what happened, but all seem to have such fond memories…. It’s a fabulous interview with the musical maven, be sure to check it out.

Bjork headlines the Other Stage tonight, while the Arctic Monkeys, Klaxons, Ben Sharpa, and many others perform on different stages.

The Telegraph UK paper
Glastonbury Festival Website
And don’t forget that BBC Radio will be broadcasting and streaming a lot of the live music. They also have this virtual info kiosk to keep you sorted:
Glastonbury Music Fest on BBC Radio

I didn’t believe it when I first heard it, but the proof is undeniable -

Bjork and Michael Jackson are on the same diet. Perhaps they are both aliens. I KNOW Bjork can’t be human! ([More →])

Glastonbury music festival descends upon the English countryside on Friday June 27th. The full lineup is absolutely insane, I can see how this is the biggest rock festival in the UK. Over 200 bands fill the lineup, and a press release states that over 177,000 people are expected to attend! Since I can’t possibly fit the full lineup here, I’ll give you one serious tease instead. In addition to the many stages already announced, I just discovered today that BBC Radio 1 has added their own stage to the festival. The additional lineup includes Tigerstyle, JME, and Ben Sharpa.

BBC Radio Stage Added To Glastonbury:

Friday 22 June

3:00 Jag (BBC Asian Network)
4:00 Tigerstyle (BBC Asian Network)
5:00 Riff Raff (BBC Radio 1)
6:05 Broke’N'£nglish (BBC 1Xtra)
7:10 Riz MC (BBC Asian Network)
8:15 JME (BBC 1Xtra)
9:20 Breaking The Illusion (BBC Radio Humberside)
10:25 Tor (BBC 1Xtra)

Saturday 23 June

3:00 Ben Sharpa (BBC Radio 1)
4:00 How’s My Pop (BBC Radio Lancashire)
5:00 New Cassettes (BBC Radio Northampton)
6:05 OK Tokyo (BBC Radio Berkshire)
7:10 The Ting Tings (BBC Radio Manchester)
8:15 Headliners (BBC Radio Sheffield)
9:20 The Neon Plastix (BBC Radio Sheffield)
10:25 The Ripps (BBC Radio Coventry & Warwickshire)

Sunday 24 June

3:00 Cate Le Bon (BBC Radio Wales)
4:00 Sam Isaac (BBC Radio Hereford & Worcester)
5:00 Eugene McGuinness (BBC Radio 1)
6:05 Rose Kemp (BBC Radio Bristol)
7:10 A Silent Film (BBC Radio Oxford)
8:15 Doll & the Kicks (BBC Southern Counties Radio)
9:20 Pint Shot Riot (BBC Radio Coventry & Warwickshire)
10:25 Radio Luxembourg (BBC Radio Cymru Wales)

More info on the BBC Radio Introducing Stage.

Glastonbury Partial Lineup:

Friday 22nd June 2007

Bjork
Arctic Monkeys
Spiritualized - Acoustic Mainline
Aliens
M.I.A.
Kasabian
The Fratellis
Bloc Party
Amy Winehouse
Gogol Bordello
Arcade Fire
Squarepusher
Rufus Wainwright
Super Furry Animals
Bright Eyes
Modest Mouse
Hot Chip
Maccabees
Mum Ra
Hold Steady
The New Pornographers
Tokyo Police Club
Neds Atomic Dustbin
Tarantism

Saturday 23rd June

Steven Marley with guest Damian Marley
Iration Steppas
Fat Freddy’s Drop
Daddy G
Mad Professor
Vexd
Scotch Egg Band (Drumize)
Shitmatt
Bong Ra
The Killers
The Kooks
Ganga Giri
Paul Weller
Paolo Nutini
Lily Allen
Dirty Pretty Things
The Pipettes
Iggy And The Stooges
Editors
Maximo Park
Gruff Rhys
Babyshambles
Klaxons
CSS
The Long Blondes
The Twang
Get Cape Wearcape Fly
Patrick Wolf
You Say Party We Say Die
Holy Fuck
Four Tet with Eat Your Own Ears DJs
!!!
Ozric Tentacles
Bonde Do Role

Sunday 24th June

The Who
Kaiser Chiefs
Coldcut
Manic Street Preachers
James Morrison
Marley Brothers Present The 30th Anniversary Of Exodus
The Chemical Brothers
Vitalic
Carl Cox
Pendulum Live
The View
The Go! Team
Pete Doherty
Mika
The Rakes
Get Cape Wear Cape Fly
Coldwar Kids
Mark Ronson
The Horrors
Noisettes
Aqualung
Eatstatic
Dub Pistols

For the entire lineup go to the Glastonbury site.
BBC also has a feature-packed page to keep you fully informed right up to the day of the fest itself.
Here is another article that discusses the details necessary to pull off an event of this size, like the £1mil “super fence” built last year to keep out fans who didn’t have tickets. Previous fences were not capable of keeping out thousands of fans who jumped in…

LINKS

JME on mice bass
Ben Sharpa on mice bass
BBC Radio Glastonbury page
Glastonbury Festival website

Bjork! Bjork! Bjork! Dang nothing happened. I thought maybe I could conjure up the faerie queen. Well, she’s probably to busy right now to be conjured. She’s still touring and doing all kinds of press.

For starters, you can find a fabulous interview with Bjork in the amazing online magazine Dummy Mag. It’s a virtual magazine that you actually turn the pages of. I love these tree-free magazines! Her interview is on page 66, but you might not want to skip ahead. There are articles/interviews with Bonde do Role, Justice, Maccabees, Dizzee Rascal, Skull Disco and more with lots of big glossy looking photos. Surprisingly it loads super fast. I need to learn that trick. Must be a flash thing.

Over on the opposite side of the web (literally, from zmag.co.uk to apple.com) Alan Pollard profiled the technical arrangement of Volta for Apple Pro. Alan Pollard has an insider’s perspective as Bjork’s technical director for a full 10 years. He must be pretty good at his job. He’s in charge of the technical aspects of her music, and is especially important to her on tour. In this feature, he talks about how he packs the entire faerie kingdom into a laptop (lemme guess, a MAC laptop) and the details of how to make all her mechanization work seamlessly with her human performance. It’s a stellar read for studio and gear buffs.

M.I.A. Opens For Bjork In France

And, If you are able to catch her 2 shows in Nimes France in August, you will also get to see M.I.A. when she opens for Bjork at these 2 shows!

LINKS

Dummy Mag
Bjork Tech Profile
Bjork website
M.I.A.

Bjork announced on bjork.com today 2 new dates that have been squeezed into her current tour schedule:

A second engagement in Nimes, France and a concert in Italy in July at the NoBordersMusic Festival.

Also, the video contest for fans to create a music video for the song “Innocence” is now closed. Bjork and her faerie subjects now have to watch all of the videos and try to choose the best one to represent their fair kingdom.

Bjork Tour

it’s in descending order for some Bjork reason…

09.08 - V Festival Toronto, Canada
09.02 - Connect Festival , Scotland
08.31 - Electric Picnic , Stradbally, Ireland
08.26 - Festival “Rock en Seine”, Paris, France
08.23 - Arénes de Nimes, Nimes, France
08.21 - Arénes de Nimes, Nimes, France
07.25 - Paleo Festival, Switzerland
07.21 - NoBorders Festival, Udine, Italy
07.18 - Plaza de Toros Las Ventas, Madrid, Spain
07.15 - Palacio Real de la Granja…, Segovia, Spain
07.13 - Guggenheim - Esplanade, Bilbao, Spain
07.08 - Cultuurpark, Amsterdam, Holland
07.05 - Roskilde , DK
07.01 - Open’er, PL
06.28 - Rock Werchter, Belgium
06.22 - Glastonbury, UK