Australian outfit Jagwar Ma continue their quest to bring a particular baggy brand of indie/dance back to public consciousness with another must-see Eat Your Own Ears show at Shoreditch’s XOYO this Wednesday, 19^th June.

Consisting of Jono Ma and Gabriel Winterfield, the duo have received much acclaim for newly released debut album, Howlin’, and the shows promise to be further fodder for their growing fanbase, as the band gear up for a series of festival dates throughout the summer.

Check back next week for a full review of the XOYO show.

Jagwar Ma
Wednesday 19th June
XOYO, London
32-37 Cowper Street
London
EC2A 4AP
TICKETS: http://www.songkick.com/concerts/16629114-jagwar-ma-at-xoyo
PRICE: £9.00 plus booking fee

 Jagwa Ma also play Scala later in the year:

 Wednesday 23 October
275 Pentonville Road,
LONDON,
N1 9NL
TICKETS: http://www.seetickets.com/event/jagwar-ma/scala/715928
PRICE: £12.50 plus booking fee

Click here to view the embedded video.

Solange set to appear at Night+Day, London

Following successful sell-out  Night + Day events in Lisbon and Berlin,  The xx announced some further additions to the final line-up for their forthcoming London event which will play host to a range of alternative music acts and DJ’s including  London Grammar, Floating Points, Mount Kimbie, Koreless, Solange and Benji B.

The much anticipated event takes place on Saturday 22nd June in the beautiful surroundings of London’s Hatfield House stately home (situated just 21 minutes by train from London Kings Cross).

For more info and tickets, visit:

http://thexx.info/nightanddaylondon#

Full line-up:

THE xx, SOLANGE, POLIÇA, KINDNESS, MOUNT KIMBIE, JON HOPKINS, LONDON GRAMMAR, JAMIE XX (DJ), FLOATING POINTS (DJ), BENJI B (DJ), KORELESS (LIVE), SAMPHA (DJ)

Footage from Night+Day, Berlin

Click here to view the embedded video.

At GBC Mag we are often inundated with countless music preview requests which, more often than we would like, quickly get lost in the mass of emails we receive. Earlier today whilst trawling back through a sea of unread messages, I came across a review request for legendary UK vocalist Omar’s new single The Man (released at the end of last month). Within 5 seconds of clicking on the play button, the neck muscles instinctively start twitching and the finger tapping commences. A grungy bass clarinet b-line, crisp drums, and jazzy horn and string sections sit perfectly below Omar’s soulful stop-start vocals which evoke the essence of neo-soul that make it difficult not to groove to the rhythm. Throw in some moving key changes and twinkling keys and the result is an uplifting neo-soul record which demands you get those neck muscles moving.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Since first breaking through in 1991 on Gilles Petersons Talking Loud label, Omar, who was recently awarded an M.B.E, has become one of our most-respected soul singers, having worked with a manner of musical legends including Stevie Wonder and Erykah Badu. It is somewhat of a shame that soul music in the UK doesn’t enjoy as much success as in the U.S otherwise we would probably see Omar vying for higher chart positions, and competing with American contemporaries such as Musiq Soulchild and Dwele.

The Man is taken from Omar’s forthcoming album, due for release on Freestyle Records in July.

Forthcoming Tour Dates:

Thursday 27th June – Official album launch – Jazz Cafe – London

Friday 28th June –  Official album launch party – Jazz Cafe – London

For more news, visit : http://www.omarmusic.co.uk/

http://www.genelec.com/products/previous-models/8030a/

On the 21^st May, Manchester was graced with the presence of Bonobo who delivered a rich set heavy with bass, brass and beautiful melodies. Joined by Szjerdene and a fantastic band of musicians, the heart of Bonobo Simon Green smashed the small stage of the HMV Ritz filling up the venue with delicious tastes from the new album, The North Borders.  Also joining Bonobo on tour is band 14^th who delivered a beautiful support act with sugary tones to watch out for in the future.

Starting off with the big track ‘Cirrus’ from the new album, Bonobo’s craft was lit up with blue lights and a forest background only adding to the magic that he was delicately orchestrating.  Then Szjerdene- who GBC interviewed this year - comes on with ‘Towers’ which blew the audience away. The young singer is doing exceptionally well with this tour, as she also smashed ‘Stay the Same,’ a tune previously recorded with Andreya Triana.

It is 100% worth seeing Bonobo live. There’s no doubt that the live show exhibits the raw and astonishing musical talent of Simon Green and his musicians. The drums, strings and brass were amazing: they all leave and return to stage for each song they play, reflecting the layers of music that are involved to create the experience. Simon Green is at the heart, in the middle- like an octopus with tentacles each working magic.

Bonobo also delivered ‘Kiara’, with a serious set of strings that built up this tune into a bass heavy experience. Definitely satisfying the electro heads in the crowd but still rich with brass, this session was enchanting and Bonobo then dropped the classic from Black Sands, ‘We Could Live Forever’, a song that took us out of HMV Ritz and placed us on a sunny beach. The addition of the flute took this song to new levels of enchantment. What’s more, Green really raised the bar with a true demonstration of his skills in production and instrumental talent. With all musicians at the forefront of the stage for ‘First Fires’, the song showed how a true collaboration of artists works.

There was also an emotional, impressive solo from the drummer, Jack Baker. Accompanied by the saxophonist the two musicians created an atmosphere loaded with rhythm, continuously building up and up and taking us to a new world. With a fantastic encore and final song ‘Pieces’ with Cornelia, the set was complete and the crowd were thrilled.

Bonobo successfully took us to the beach, into a drum and bass galaxy and into a garden of beautiful strings, brass and the songbird that is Szjerdene. This tour is not to be missed!

Freeze present another jaw-dropping spectacle for the second event of the Summer in 2013. They do so by once again putting forward an event in a set of stunning venue, with Liverpool’s St Luke’s Church and the Kazimer Theatre the scene for a double-headed mind-boggling summer showcase.

Following in the footsteps of St George’s Hall, the Williamson Tunnels and Liverpool Cathedral, St Luke’s, or the ‘Bombed out Church’ as it is affectionately known, will be the environ for an open air party of seismic proportions. A victim of the damage inflicted by the battery of German bombers during the Second World War, St Luke’s roof and windows may have been destroyed but it has since been reborn as a wondrous garden that illustrates the power of endurance. July 13th will see the space transformed into a very special intimate soiree to indulge in some of the most epic of electronic music.

Freeze will be flying in none other than melodic techno bastion Gui Boratto for his only UK gig of the year. The Brazilian’s mesmeric blend of lush electronica and dynamic ethereal grooves has been a captivating presence on the global dance scene for seven years, his orchestral efforts on Kompakt favoured by DJs as wide ranging as Carl Cox, Laurent Garnier, Sven Vath and even Paul van Dyk.

If that wasn’t enough there will be an afterparty of sorts as Freeze’s sibling promotion Little Sister helms continues the fun in another of Liverpool’s gloriously charming venues, the Kazimer. The Kompakt connection continues with label honcho Michaeal Mayer at the helm, returning to Freeze after his awe-inspiring performance in November 2012.

Kompakt stalwart Tobias Thomas will also play both events; his revered status at the label making him the perfect foil for both Gui and Michael’s extended passages into the wider reaches of electronica. Freeze’s resident Jemmy supports at St Luke’s, part of a summer playing for Cream Ibiza and Creamfields, whilst mUmU resident Adele Moss begins her stint at the helm of Little Sister in the Kazimer

Sat 13th July
Freeze and Kompakt present…
Gui Boratto
Tobias Thomas
Jemmy
The Bombed out Church
2pm – 11pm
Little Sister and Kompakt Present
Michael Mayer
Tobias Thomas
Adele Moss
11pm – 4am

www.clubfreeze.co.uk

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It’s been a year since my last visit to Inverness and since then I have not attended a more exciting, more diverse, more atmospheric festival than Rockness. So when I got the chance to return I snatched it up with both hands, despite the 24 hour round trip to and from the north of Scotland.

The thing that impresses so much about Rockness 2012, other than the incredible atmosphere of the pure music lovers it attracts, other than the beautiful setting right beside the world famous Loch, is how they seamlessly combine genres ranging from Pop to grime to Indie Rock to Electro House. This year the festival has stayed consistent in their diversity and packed in an even beefier line up.

Like Rock? This is THE festival for you… the clues in the name I guess. Bands playing this year include Australia’s The Temper Trap, Bombay Bicycle Club, The Futureheads, The Maccabees, and The Vaccines, amongst many more up and coming home grown sounds.

These are threaded together with some of the biggest dance names on the scene today. Basement Jaxx, Example, Skream and Benga, and very special guest Fatboy Slim, all headline this weekend, as well as Ellie Goulding and Plan B, to mix things up in to a special cocktail of carnage that only a country like Scotland can provide.

Another huge part of the Rockness festival has always been it’s comedy element. 2013′s acts include WEE MAN, a little fella with big attitude intent on intimidating his audience, HBO star Jim Jeffries who shot to fame after footage was released on to youtube of him being punched in the head by an offended member of the audience, and the Irish lump of sardonic wit that is Dylan Moran.

London’s Red Bull Studio’s are also making the trip way up north, featuring masters of the electronic scene with acts like Booka Shade, Netsky Live!, Jaguar Skills, Proxy, Bobby Tank, Karma Kid, and Friend Within.

With this many giants of music and comedy performing at the festival it’s easy to focus so intently on them that you can’t see past them. However, this year be sure to dig a little deeper to find the hidden gems. Newly formed bands like London Grammar, who have been likened to Florence and the Machine. Artist’s like Mikill Pane, who’s starting to make noise in British Hip Hop. And one of my personal favourites… Dog is Dead, check them out.

The festival runs from 7th – 9th of June and tickets are still available for General admission and Camping by clicking here

Gambling is a world within itself, a universe of glitz and glamour, well-dressed people sipping cocktails and throwing dice. The casino has featured prominently in Hollywood and the movies, and famous music legends such as Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra and the Rat Pack are all linked by the gambling Mecca that is Las Vegas. Anyone who is anyone in the entertainment business has performed at Caesar’s Palace and the infamous MGM Grand.

Inevitably, gambling found its way into some great casino-inspired songs, music created by the world’s biggest legends.

Elvis Presley – Viva Las Vegas

Jozef K and Winter Son are set to release ‘The Straw That Broke the Camel’s Back’ EP on June 17^th via Last Night On Earth Music. The duo met each other at the legendary Berghain nightclub in Berlin and their passion for music was to be the start of something truly wonderful. The resident Sankeys DJ, Jozef K and Ghosting Season’s, Thomas Ragsdale (who releases music under the name Winter Son too) brought together their devoted love for House, Techno and individual talents, and has created four experimental sounds.

The boys who regularly play live together, performing Jozef’s DJ sets and Winter Son’s Roland TR-808 drum machine (all sounding rather technical ) will invite their fans to listen to the distinctive Techno and Grunge influenced sounding EP this June.

The EP begins with ‘The Straw That Broke The Camel’s Back’, then ‘Peace, Love & Empathy’, ‘Aokigahara Forest’ and finally the ‘Extended Dream Version’ of the first track. Taking us on a vocal and beat traverse, whilst portraying the full essences of what the guys want to achieve.

‘Peace, Love & Empathy’ embosses a chilled and haunted sound and is also dark in parts; the EP has the full elements for a late night / early morning DJ set and is definitely one for a Anja Schneider or Ricardo Villalobos mix. Moving on to ‘Aokigahara Forest’ which pushes the Techno boundaries and steadily builds the beat during; the track is sinister and this could be one song that could be played out where the boys were born, Berghain! The energy of this track is vast and has a musical explosion where dance-floor divas would emotionally and physically be in their element.

Overall ‘The Straw That Broke The Camel’s Back’ EP touches you on a poignant level and takes you through the journey that Jozef K and Winter Son want you to feel with them. The sounds are deep, yet smooth and pick up in all the right places. ‘The Straw That Broke The Camel’s Back (Extended Dream Version)’ finishes off with an unblemished, positive sound that could be a soundtrack to your perfect Ibiza Mambo sunset or a Sankeys after party that is setting the tone through expressive, open music … Good work boys

Follow the artsist here – Jozef K / Winter Son / Last Night On Earth Music

Still reverberating from the incredible event last month which saw Yousef and the legend that is Laurent Garnier work the club for a solid 10 hours to help celebrate the Egg’s decade in London’s Dance music scene. Joining forces, Yousef and Laurent went on to create an aura of audio magic that will be talked about for many, many years by those who bore witness.

June sees Yousef once again curate his Circus event deep in the heart of London’s vibrant underground House and Techno scene.

Joining him will be Parisian based purveyor of Techno influenced grooves, Paul Ritch. Already forging a solid reputation by releasing tracks and remixes on labels such as Get Physical, Quartz records, The Great Wall, Sci+Tec, Drumcode and Cocoon amongst others and DJing at some of the most influential clubs and events globally including Rex Club, Paris, Melkweg, Amsterdam, Pressure @ The Arches, Scotland, and Womb, Japan have received Paul. Alongside luminaries such as Dave Clarke, Paco Osuna and Nic Fanciulli, Paul has engrained himself into the modern day Techno echelons.

Paul’s last appearance in London was at Fabric in October 2012 so this is a well overdue call back to the UK capital.

A truly International line up this month also includes Danish DJ, producer and label owner, Noir. Inspired by the Detroit three of Kevin Saunderson, Derrick May and Juan Atkins and the House, Techno, Acid and rave cultures coming from Chicago, and New York, Noir has been crafting his art and producing sub-heavy, downtempo funk fuelled Tech led tracks such as ‘Around’ since 1997. Around, released in 2011 was a collaboration with Malaysian producer Haze, which received support from Soul Clap, Deetron, Ame, Wolf and Lamb, and many others.

Locking it all together is head honcho, Yousef, back in the UK for a brief stint after his international gigs in South Africa, playing for the first time in Cape Town and Johannesburg to a riotous response and his Circus residency at the newly opened Bomba club in Ibiza. Circus at Bomba opens on Thursday 6th of June, and across the summer it will be featuring a selection of the worlds best electronic music DJs and artists, friends and family of Circus,.

Helping further spread the family and friend ethos of Circus, is the recently released compilation on the Circus recordings imprint, simply entitled ‘Circus X’. Celebrating 10 years of parties in Liverpool, the spiritual home of Circus, Yousef asked many of his friends to produce tracks for this celebratory release, the result, x10 tracks from Guti, Davide Squillance, Tim Green, Green Velvet, Nick Curly, DJ Sneak, Derrick Carter, Carl Cox, Nic Fanciulli and of course the Circus lynchpin, Yousef.

Circus London

Friday 28th June @ Egg London

200 York Way, Islington London, N7 9AX

Yousef, Paul Ritch, and Noir

Room 2 & 3 – Artists TBA

10pm – 8am

Ticket Cost £15 / £17.50 / £19.50 / £22.50 +BF

Tickets http://egg.clubtickets.com/gb/2013-06/28/circus-w-yousef-noir

Artist links

Paul Ritch – http://www.residentadvisor.net/dj/paulritch

Noir – http://www.residentadvisor.net/dj/noir

With festivals appearing at an alarming rate, the task of putting a successful one together has become a much more difficult task. Events such as The Lowpass Weekender – which looked amazing – never even managed their first event amongst the fierce competition. 

When We Are FSTVL announced their first event they seemed more than aware of the challenges an inauguration holds. Their approach was probably the most ambitious we’ve seen from any day event’s debut in recent times; and as we know by now, the more ambitious a project, the more risks it holds.

Upon arriving even though we knew how many arenas to expect, we were still taken aback by the scale of the event. Giant white boxes, mini beaches and tents of all sizes were scattered amongst the the sun soaked fields. For the first five minutes it was hard not to feel lost, but after a quick walk about we quickly found the site’s structure to be logical and easy to navigate. Even with fourteen stages nothing at any point seemed too far away and even amongst the many artist clashes 14 stages caused, it was easy to wonder from tent to tent tasting all the musical flavours provided.

A lot of effort had gone into the production of the stages and the little touches didn’t go unnoticed. Pyrotechnics and dancers accompanied Ricardo Villalobos and Sven Vath on main stage, a massive contrast to the sand between your toes at the tiki-ed out beach stage. It was Defected In The House’s stage/world that proved the highlight for us though. The giant white inflatable box looked like it had landed from out of space. Maintaining an intimate yet energetic vibe the Defected crew had people moving from dawn past dusk, which resulted in them literally bringing the house down:

Click here to view the embedded video.

As with most first events there were teething problems. With so many stages some of the smaller ones lacked any real populace. The spaces would have been better used as either bar/toilet space as queues for these were long; with most sets only at an hour long, waiting 20 minutes for a drink definitely wasn’t the one. One bar before midnight was running so low on drinks they could only provide Tuborg, Gin, Bacardi, tonic water, energy drink and water; a harsh selection when drinks tokens put a beer or cider at £5 and a double and mixer at £7.50.

Separate to this some of the stages lacked volume, the Speaker Box stage in particular struggled with MCs fighting the sound technician all day. People were also given free upgrades to enter the VIP zone, which seemed a little harsh on those who paid for it. It also meant the VIP bar and toilet queues were longer than those that weren’t VIP. That’s not to say the area itself wasn’t amazing, it did offer a quiet escape (bar the queues) for a long drink and table service if you wanted to feel like a baller.

This was only at one or two stages though, and it was more than compensated for by the other stages. The Kehakuma tent was heaving non-stop with DJs such as DJ Sneak and Matthias Tanzmann providing hypnotising groove after hypnotising groove. Elsewhere Boddika and Joy-O inhabited a UFO – perhaps the one that delivered Defected’s galaxy – to deliver hours of nu-old school acid techno.

Overall We Are FSTVL did an excellent job. To host any debut event for 15,000 people is hard work, without taking into consideration the relatively unknown, out of the way location and the sheer ambition seen a lineup that tops a few weekend festivals we can think of.

Even past the lineup, the amount of effort put into giving the audience enjoyment for only 15 hours was phenomenal. I suppose that’s the only way We Are FSTVL did play it safe; sticking to one day. It was kind of sad really, because when the sun woke us up on Sunday we would have been more than happy to do it all again. With the waters tested – and results returned as party – we hope We Are FSTVL can iron out the small problems (much in the way Love Saves The Day did on its second run this year) and return again next year, perhaps for the weekend if we could have our way.

Photo Credit: Paul Underhill Photography