DREAM FACTORY

Norvegian film company Welterwerk is making me love northern Europe even more than I usually do (and this means beyond the human possibilities).
Not only their output is classy, nostalgic and unbelievebly elegant, the coolest thing about this people is that they work with a very down to earth setup: the following video has been shot with an hacked Lumix GH2 camera and some vintage lenses (a japanese one and a german one), which means less than 1000$ of equipment.

In this era of surplus, of fancy people all with their shiny 5Ds, well this just feels so damn good.

Soundtrack: Siriusmo - Nights Off

MOCK YOUR HEAD

Teleport your head into the future with the first single by London's mighty duo Mock & Toof.

Their upcoming album 'Temporary Happiness' is out on the 1st October 2012 under their own label Tiny Sticks.

 
Video by Luke Vyatt

LET'S BREAK THE ICE

Luke Million did it again! After the unbelievable success of his pumping iron workout track "Arnold", he's now paying omage to the Califonia's Governor once again, this time with a synth banger track loaded with puns from the 1997 movie Batman and Robin by none other than the "coolest" villain of all times, the one and only Mr. Freeze.

Now that it's clear that Luke has a crush on Arnie, we are pretty sure that he won't have problems to find some good lines to work on for the next years.

I'VE SEEN THE LIGHT

“This mix ended up being a lot of different things. They are mainly influences of mine, but arranged in a way that would flow. After a night out, the last thing I want to hear is more noise. These are my favorite sparse, moody and beautiful songs. This is what I’d want to listen to on a drive home"

André Allen Anjos, founder of RAC

Visit white light mixes for more gold

TRACKLIST:
Toro Y Moi - Divina
Air - Playground Love
The Stepkids - Legend In My Own Mind
Michael Kiwanuka - I'll Get Along
Beck - The Golden Age
Cass McCombs - County Line
Kindness - House
Hot Chip - In The Privacy Of Our Love
Chromatics - Into The Black
Os Mutantes - O Relógio
Gal Costa / Caetano Veloso - Baby
Peter Bjorn & John - Stay This Way
António Carlos Jobim - Wave
Brazilian Girls - L'Interprete
Peter Sarstedt - Boulevard
Surfer Blood - Drinking Problem
Rivers Cuomo - Ooh
Cornelius - Like A Rolling Stone
Vangelis - Love Theme

WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE

On July the 18th Santeria Milano will bring you 'Analog vs Digital', a show offered from Recipient.cc, a collective of young artists, questioning and pushing the feeble boundaries between art and music. A display of visual and audio perfomances for humans and beyond, questioning the endless contrast between analog and digital, on the tomorrows that will never arrive and the future that could still happen. The sounds of genomes, an animated castle, the robots and other interactive objects will throw you into an imaginary future created from the collective, everything cradled from the live sounds and the analog synths from Rondam.

And here's a little extra from the magic recipient: the sound of the future extracted in the form of an mpfree. Handle with care.

TIME WILL TELL

From the sloppyness of Mtv reality shows to Soulja Boy's label SODMG, with some good work ethic Houston's rapper Riff Raff could probably have become a pro baller, but he choosed to be into dirty south hip hop instead.
Is this for real or just a viral phenomenon? Only time will tell.

SAY WHAT AGAIN

If you've watched Pulp Fiction so many times to be aware that path of the path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men, than you will find Pogo's latest milkshake simply delicious.

DANCE SESSION

Taken from Session Victim's debut album - 'The Haunted House of House' on Delusions of Grandeur, Dark Sienna is such a catcy deep house nugget that it's hard to stay still while listening to it.

Download it from Juno, put your headphones on and dance your weekend away.

Filmed, directed & edited Paul Fegan
Dancer: Janine Fearn

X-RATED SYNTH

Greg Feldwick is 23 years old and from Bath. He makes noises as Slugabed. His first releases were on Stuff, Ramp and then Planet Mu but now he is signed to the mothership, Ninja Tune. His music is suffused with a unique mix of humour, next level production, dancefloor smarts and melancholic emotion.
Single 'SEX' precedes the album Time Team and features remixes from Ninja labelmate Daedelus and Groundislava - get a free download of the Daedelus remix here.

VINYL BOOMBOX

Flat Eric is finally out of jail and enjoying his day in some secret tropical destination.

Be sneaky and steal your 12" array ghetto blaster at Oizo3000.com.

BAMBOOM!

iBamboo is a natural speaker made from a single natural material, bamboo. The natural resonance of the bamboo amplifies the sound produced by the built-in speaker in the iPhone. It is 100% eco-friendly, efficient to manufacture, and produces little waste. These speakers combine the high-tech of the modern day with the simplicity and aesthetics of nature. Since bamboo is a natural material, no two iBamboos are alike. Every piece has the same functional parameters, but each one is unique in its appearance and beauty. As an added benefit, iBamboo improves the feng-shui of your desk or whatever other place you put it.

Despite being made from a material considered stronger than some plastics and metal, users seem worried that the beautifully simple iPhone amplification device may get damaged if made part of their regular travel kit. So here's the new iBamboo Urban design, which is shaped just like its natural elder but is made from recycled plastic. 

DEAR MOMENTS

Since i bought his breakthrough LP Asa Breed in 2007 and played the third track on it, I immediatly twigged that Mattew Dear is not from Detroit but from another galaxy. Depending on whom you ask, he is a DJ, a dance-music producer, an experimental pop artist, a bandleader. Co-founder of the Ghostly International label and its dancefloor offshoot, Spectral Sound, he maintains four aliases (Audion, False, Jabberjaw, and Matthew Dear), each with its own style and distinct visual identity. He straddles multiple musical worlds and belongs to none—and he’s just hitting his stride.

HOT WATERS

Surfer Magazine came out with the 2012 Hot 100 Movie. Featuring the best young surfers in locations all over the globe, the movie is a mind-blowing distillation of the best of the current crop of future stars.

Go to surfermag.com ro download the movie for freeeeeee.

TRACKLIST:
01. "Blood on the Deck" by Thee Oh Sees
02. "Cloud Nine" by Blackfeet Braves
03. "Slave Exchange" by Lil Daggers
04. "Trippin' Like I Do" by Blackfeet Braves
05. "DTV" by Natural Child
06. "The Dream" by Thee Oh Sees
07. "Run Me Over" by The Babies
08. "Long Live Dry Feet" by Dry Feet
09. "Aphrodite" by Phèdre
10. "Oh" by Fidlar
11. "Body Cold" by White Fence

CLOSE YOUR EYES

We're on a countdown for the Melbourne based producer Cosmo Black's Debut EP Break before you Bend, coming in April 2012. While dreaming about it you can grab the free preview track as long as the limited to one thousand download gift lasts.

DRAGON LOVE

How good does it feel when you find someone with your same taste for something? Well usually it feels quite heart-warming, especially when 98% of the people around you are like from another planet.

Dramatically groovy arpeggios, uplifiting melodies and that retro drum that todays dubstep hipsters could never get: Dragon Suplex from Zürich (Switzerland) are producing a lot of extraordinary dreamy synth tunes and a few classy house tracks to go along with it. No matter the genre, their sound is sublime, and it automatically brings out those early 80's feelings. Freaking awesome throwback videos top it up with extra flavour, here's their latest one featuring Ponch & John as special guest stars.

HEROES OF SOUND #1 - MELLE MEL

Melvin Glover was the first rapper ever to call himself "MC" (Master of Ceremony). Other Furious Five members included his brother The Kidd Creole (Nathaniel Glover), Scorpio (Eddie Morris), Rahiem (Guy Todd Williams) & Cowboy (Keith Wiggins). While a member of the group, Cowboy created the term "hip-hop" while teasing a friend who had just joined the US Army, by scat singing the words "hip/hop/hip/hop" in a way that mimicked the rhythmic cadence of marching soldiers.

Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five began recording for Enjoy Records and released "Superrappin'" in 1979. They later moved on to Sugarhill Records and were popular on the R&B charts with party songs, like "Freedom" and The Birthday Party". They released numerous singles, gaining a gold disc for "Freedom," and also toured. In 1982 Melle Mel began to turn to more socially aware subject matter, in particular the Reagan administration's economic (Reaganomics) and drug policies, and their effect on the black community. A song entitled "The Message" became an instant classic and one of the first glimmers of conscious hip-hop. Mel recorded a rap over session musician Duke Bootee's instrumental track "The Jungle". Some of Mel's lyrics on "The Message" were taken directly from "Supperrappin'". Other than Melle Mel, no members of the Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five actually appear on the record. Bootee also contributed vocals (Rahiem was to later lip-sync Bootee's parts in the music video). "The Message" went platinum in less than a month and went on to become arguably the greatest record in hip-hop history. It was the first hip-hop record ever to be added to the United States National Archive of Historic Recordings. Mel would also go on to write songs about struggling life in New York City ("New York, New York"), and making it through life in general ("Survival (The Message 2)"). Grandmaster Flash split from the group after contract disputes between Mele Mel and their promoter Sylvia Robinson in regard to royalties for "The Message". When Flash filed a lawsuit against Sugar Hill Records, their label, the factions of The Furious Five parted.

Mel became known as "Grandmaster Melle Mel" and the leader of the Furious Five. The group went on to produce the anti-drug song "White Lines (Don't Don't Do It)" (the unofficial music video starred up-and-coming actor Laurence Fishburne and was directed by then unknown film student Spike Lee). The record was falsely credited to "Grandmaster + Melle Mel" by Sugarhill Records in order to fool the public into thinking Grandmaster Flash had participated on the record. Mel then gained higher success appearing in the movie Beat Street, with a song based on the movie's title. He became the first rap artist ever to win a Grammy award for "Record of the Year" after performing a memorable rap on Chaka Khan's smash hit song "I Feel for You" which introduced hip-hop to the mainstream R&B audience. Grandmaster Melle Mel & The Furious Five had further hits with "Step Off", "Pump Me Up", "King of the Streets", "Jesse", and "Vice", the latter being released on the soundtrack to the TV show Miami Vice. "Jesse" was a highly political song which urged people to vote for then presidential candidate Jesse Jackson.

In 1988, after an almost 4 year layoff, Mel and Flash reunited and released the album "On The Strength", but with up-and-coming new school artists such as Eric B. & Rakim, DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince, Public Enemy, Boogie Down Productions, and Big Daddy Kane dominating the hip-hop market, the album failed miserably. Mel performed with The King Dream Chorus and Holiday Crew on "King Holiday" aimed at having Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday declared a national holiday. Mel also performed with Artists United Against Apartheid on the anti-apartheid song Sun City aimed at discouraging other artists from performing in South Africa until that government ended its policy of apartheid. Mel ended the decade by winning two more Grammy awards for his work on Quincy Jones "Back On The Block" & "Q - The Autobiography of Quincy Jones" albums...

source: wikipedia

WONDERSOUND

Nick Bertke, better known as Pogo, records sounds from his favourite games and movies, and piece them together like a jigsaw puzzle to create completely new music.
The following piece of creativity, composed using chords and vocal samples recorded from the original Alice In Wonderland Disney cartoons, is worth much more than the 1.5 million dollars spent for the Tim Burton's movie. No doubt about it.

THESE BOOTS ARE MADE FOR GROOVING

Victoria Christina Hesketh, better known by her stage name Little Boots, is one hell of an artist. Her stage name comes from a nickname given to her by a friend, a reference to her unusually small feet. As a musician, Boots sings and plays the piano, keyboards, synthesizer, Stylophone and a Japanese electronic instrument called Tenori-on.

Into the Future, her latest mixtape is such an high level selection of deep electronic vibes that you can only download it in wave format. Quality deserves quality.

INTO THE FUTURE mixtape by LittleBoots

EXERCISE YOUR MIND

CFCF is the stage name of Canadian electronic musician Michael Silver. Based in Montreal, Silver took the name CFCF from the call sign of the city’s CFCF-TV.

His debut LP, ‘Continent’, was an impressive collage of vintage electronic textures evoking grandiose landscapes worthy of a Michael Mann film. ‘The River’, an EP based partly on Werner Herzog’s classic film Fitzcarraldo, deepened a growing obsession with conjuring far-away landscapes and voyages through a style which is at times melancholy, propulsive and ecstatic. Working in genres ranging from house and disco to ambient and new age to rap and R&B, and pulling influences from Peter Gabriel and Popol Vuh to Mr. Fingers and DJ Screw, CFCF’s music is at once versatile and far-reaching yet eminently listenable and recognizably pop, and always vivid.

Since these two releases Silver has stayed busy with a series of evolving mixtapes. ‘Do U Like Nightbus?’ explores the titular “genre” through his remixes of Aaliyah, Ciara and ‘Twin Peaks’, while ‘Reincarnation’ presents a dark mindmeld of exotic chants, pounding drums, R&B crooners and menacing dancefloors. As with his own music, you get the feeling you are embarking on a fantastic journey to an unknown destination.

For his new EP ‘Exercises’, out April 24th on Paper Bag Records, CFCF shows a different side of his palette with a series of subdued piano and synth based pieces. Pulling from influences like Philip Glass, Ryuichi Sakamoto and David Borden, among others, and using institutional architecture and 70s Canadiana as a framework, the EP has a distinctly 20th century feel.

OUR LIVES WORTH FIGHTING FOR

Music is magic and that's a fact.
You know I never go personal on my posts, but with the last enchanting single by the multi talented Santigold it's simply impossible.
I've been far away from home in the last period, in places quite similar to the beautiful Jamaican landscapes you're about to see. After three months, when i came back home, it was snowing and all of a sudden, watching the snow flakes dancing in the air, it was so clear to me that there is much more in life than what i was used to.

Nowadays all i'm doing is stuggling to get it to the way i want it to be, or maybe i should say to the way it's meant to be.
The moody breakbeat, the ultra wise lirycs and the amazing video all toghether they just feel to me like a someone from above sent this thing down so i can be sure that what i'm doing is right.