It seems like only yesterday our little monster was rampaging around the Bay Area like a bass wave on a sugar high. Hard to believe this will be the 5th time the loosely associated autonomous mobile soundsystems of the mutant variety have convened on an undisclosed, secret underground location for maximum sound reinforcement and fun times. That’s right – 2 monstrous walls of sound will be erected, combining the earth-trembling bassbins of 5lowershop & Army of Love with the massive mid-range towers of HAVOCSOUND, crowned by Czech-technology rocket tweeters of the notorious S.P.A.Z. soundsystem for ONE MASSIVE MONSTER OF LOVE 5!!!

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Someone needs to do this:

To The Sopranos:

Good old fashioned techno by Laurent Garnier:

Laurent Garnier – “Crispy Bacon” video

Bay Area producer Mochipet is set to release his genre-jumpin new album, Microphonepet, everywhere on April 1st. Until then, you can listen to 3 tracks right here – “Get Your Whistle Wet” featuring the Hustle Heads; “Mr. Malase” ft. Dopestyle, Human Beings and Casual; and “Hope Again” ft. Mykah9 & Taiwankid:

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-Click the album cover to hear more song samples on Amazon.com-
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The dance craze of the 90’s is aimed to be the dance craze of the new millennium with the return of Utah Saints to the scene! The original UK dance-trance team is kickin it old school in the new video for “Something Good ‘08″:

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As soon as I saw the lineup for the Bang Face Weekender, I started researching flights to England. It’s that exciting! Alas, the dollar is weak and gas ain’t cheap, so it’s only wishful thinking for now. This happens every year with some music festival or another and the lineups just get more siiiiiick every year. Bang Face hails itself as “A Neo-Rave Explosion of Acid, Jungle, Rave Hardcore, Drum & Bass, Breakcore, Techno, Electronica and Abstract Dance” which only hints at the range of amazing talent presented each year. The 3 day festival takes place at the end of April at Camber Sands and features three different staging areas – the Rave/Jungle/Breakcore Room, The Electro/Bass/Techno Room and a round-the-clock chill-out room. ([More →])

Hardcore bangin techno, 8-bit video game music, and hip hop are all very high on my list of favorite kinds of music. It’s rare you hear all three combined, and more rare to hear it done well. There are a handful of mad tunes made with Gameboys, and a few with the Mario Bros. theme song, but “Tetris” by Dacav 5 is one of the best I’ve ever heard.

HearingTest rating: I just want to fire up the soundsystem and blast this! Wake up the neighbors! This one’s a banger!
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The mysterious Swedish/Ukranian electro outfit – Maskinen – have released a new video for “Alla Som Inte Dansar.” If you like Modeselektor type stuff, you’ll probably dig Maskinen… ([More →])

Modeselektor uploaded the new video for “Black Block” from their latest album Happy Birthday! It’s kind of Mad Hatter with apes… I LOVE the little RV Van – I want one! “Black Block” is such a bumpin song, good for cranking up the soundsystem… ([More →])

…Paul Oakenfold and Underworld Played The Warfield in San Francisco on Saturday September 8, 2007…

I was told that Paul Oakenfold had performed all his “mainstream hits” and crowd-pleasers the night before, his second performance featured more experimental pieces and more of his own favorites.

When I walked into the Warfield Theater, there weren’t many people inside and a dj was already playing on stage. He was playing quietly, a nice mix of ravey techno and trance, but it was never announced who he was. Paul Oakenfold silently appeared behind the gear and was talking to a tech for awhile. When he stepped up to the decks at the center of the stage, he was immediately recognized and cheers erupted from the small crowd. I found out early on that this show on Saturday night was added on after the Friday show had already sold most of its tickets, so while Friday night was packed to the gills and somewhat crazy, tonight would be a much smaller crowd with more room to dance and more fresh air to breathe. Excellent! That’s exactly how I like it! I made fast friends with a european raver fella who had been at the previous night’s show and kept me informed about the difference between the two. It sounded like I had inadvertently chosen a night that had more of the elements that would make the show a huge success in my book – room to dance, ventilation, friendly crowd and good music. My new friend also told me that Paul Oakenfold had performed all his “mainstream hits” and crowd-pleasers the night before, his second performance featured more experimental pieces and more of his own favorites.
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I love found-sounds. Especially whole albums of music that were thought to be lost forever, and then one day found again. Even better is when they are found just-in-time for music that was ahead-of-its-time when it was created, before it was lost. Have I lost you? Case in point: Sun Electric began releasing music in 1990 and continued until 2004, but their last full-length album was Via Nostra in 1999. Their music was at the forefront of technology and soundsystem parties at the time, along with contemporaries Orb, Orbital and Future Sounds of London. Sun Electric were pioneers of what would later be called IDM, perfecting the sound with singles and remixes until 2004. Lost + Found (1998-2000) is a collection of ambient electronica that was created by Sun Electric in the late 90’s, during the recording of their Via Nostra album and shortly after. As for the songs that the 2 men produced in those 3 years: they were lost, collecting studio dust. Tom Thiel, half of Sun Electric, says they recently rediscovered the songs, and to their surprise, the music sounds fresh again, not outdated:

The tracks sound different in the context of today’s music. … There isn’t much music like this now, which makes the songs special, in our opinion.

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There have been a few updates to the Underworld tour and the release of their new album since we first reported them in early July. Therefore, I’ve compiled a fresh post with all the goods in one place. Very soon I will be publishing a full review of their beautiful concert in San Francisco last weekend, with photos and video for you to devour. In the meantime, check the schedule here to see when they will be playing near you, and check out the recent video for “Crocodile” off of their new album Oblivion with Bells. ([More →])

HOT HOT HOT!!! This new video RULEZ! I like this version better than anything I’ve ever heard by either artist individually. It takes the amazing energy of Daft Punk’s electronica and the hard-hitting vocals and images of Kanye West. What would it take to get these guys to form a supergroup and put out whole albums of this stuff? ([More →])

Hi Music Fans!
I have been on a whirlwind tour of San Francisco’s finest concerts all weekend and have so much to share with you! I’ve barely slept; all I’ve done is go to shows and edit concert photos…. So, there’s been a lull in new articles for a few days, but I will be back with a fury of good things very soon! Upcoming concert reviews include:

• Murcof and .pig at the SF Electronic Music Festival
• Underworld and Paul Oakenfold at The Warfield Theater
• Nommo Ogo, Kadet Kuhne with Mem 1, and Fred Frith with Patrice Scanlon at SFEMF

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Wizards of lush electronica, Underworld are in the midst of a creative blitz! They recently reworked a few tunes into studio masterpieces, and the flow of ideas and collaborations continues to gush as they try to decide what to use on their forthcoming album… ([More →])