DJ Documentary: Scratch
We'll be introducing a variety of past and more recent documentaries about DJ culture. This time we're taking a look into one of the best movies on the origins of DJ techniques and hip-hop DJ culture in general – SCRATCH.
The movie was released back in 2001, directed by Doug Pray, an American documentary film director, cinematographer, and editor who mostly explores unique subcultures in his films. As the name implies, the focus is on turntablism. But the 90-minute doco takes you from 1970s South Bronx to modern San Fransisco, through the evolution of hip-hop elaborating thereby how the hip-hop DJ came into being. When the early DJs began messing around with the turntables, a whole new world began to emerge. The DJs have been all important in how we hear, play and create music. They’ve not only invented scratching and beat-juggling vinyl, but also inspired break dancing and rap. Starting with Grand Wizard Theodore explaining how he came to scratching in the first place, theres several DJs and artists explaining their connection and personal anecdotes throughout the film.
Watch the full-length documentary right here!
Third week and overall review of Richie Hawtin’s CNTRL: Beyond EDM
We've been keeping a close eye on Richie Hawtin's North-American university tour (read about the introduction here). Last week, we showed you the video clip of the second week of the tour. CNTRL: Beyond EDM has been managed with utmost professionality. Video footage of the electronic music crusade has been presented with superb quality as well.
Here's the recap of the week 3 and a summary of the last week of the tour. Stay tuned for feedback from the tour!
Yolanda Be Cool turning tricks: press conference, new video, upcoming album and ‘Ladies & Mentalmen World Tour’
Few months ago Yolanda Be Cool issued a ’press announcement’ recalling their cross-over hit ’We No Speak Americano’.The huge party anthem topped 16 charts across the globe in 2010. It gets air-time on radio stations to this day. What happened? Why is Yolanda Be Cool urging you do destroy every copy of the track ever printed or downloaded?
The humorous press conference was hosted by the Australian duo consisting of Martinez Johnson, "Durango Slim" Peterson and their lawyer. As ’the beats are no longer fresh’, the song is to be cut from air and never played again. Another reason for this is the fact that their music has been used for many purposes it wasn’t meant to be. They elaborate on this in the press statement. This is pretty funny, check it out!
Of course, if you start to think about it a little more, you realize that this kind of a move is caused by the fact, that Yolanda Be Cool is only known for ’We No Speak Americano’.
As you might remember, the same issue has been bugging Avicii, whose megahit ’Levels’ has been shadowing everything else he’s doing (read about it here).
The Australian dance music duo wants to move on. They want their other stuff getting heard and the ’press conference’ has been a move thowards this direction. As you saw in the video, they also urged you to destroy all copies of the track you might own and visit the Yolanda Be Cool’s official website for a free replacement track titled 'Before Midnight'. The next move is a video for the free track, freshly out of the production rooms. The music video starts by showing a widow in mourning and with these kind of sad undertones. But doesn’t matter, the widow gets over the terrible loss in a matter of minutes and next thing you know, there’s topless women partying in an underground latino club. Not sure about the coherency of the concept behind this one, but at least there’s hot women dancing.
Yolanda Be Cool’s plans dont stop here. In addition to the ’press conference’ and the video, there’s going to be a massive tour promoting their forthcoming album 'Ladies and mentalmen' called accordingly ’Ladies and Mentalmen World Tour’. According to the official website, the Australian DJ/producer duo is going to be performing: ’Everywhere, starting on 30th November’. Yolanda Be Cool is #1781 in The Official Global DJ Rankings, we’ll see if they will prevail in light of these recent efforts of getting their names out there!
‘Don’t be afraid of the dark’ – Nokia and deadmau5 will light up the night!
About a year ago, in November 2012, Nokia organized an impressive spectacle to promote their launch of Nokia Lumia 800. For this, they used Millbank, a 118 metre skyscraper in London. The building’s 800 windows were lit up for the Lumia 800 – a stylish move by Nokia. Each of the building’s windows were covered with special plastic coating, while 16 top notch projectors were placed on the other side of the river. The state of the art light show had the skyscraper twisting and collapsing while deadmau5 played a jacking live set at the foot of the tower.
The crowds were amazed by the show, Nokia’s campaign featuring deadmau5 – a huge success. Now, it’s back! Check out the freshly released teaser below! It doesn’t say much, but it gives way for excitement saying:
’Don’t be afraid of the dark. 28.11.2012. Facebook.com/nokia.uk. #Switch.’
Seems that Nokia have something cool planned with Deadmau5 again. Luckily the wait is over in a week. Meanwhile, watch the videos of the first spectacle and the teaser!
Second week of Richie Hawtin’s CNTRL: Beyond EDM tour
We've been keeping a close eye on Richie Hawtin's North-American university tour (read about the introduction here). Last week, we showed you the video clip of the first week of the tour. The tour has been managed with utmost professionality. Video footage of the electronic music crusade has been presented with superb quality as well.
So this is the video of the 2nd week of CNTRL. This took Richie Hawtin and Loco Dice to Canada, Hawtin's homeland. Maybe the latter fact played the role in such a successful leg of the tour. Hawtin comments the Canadian leg as the most energetic and fun for him this far. They had 4 dates in Canada, ending in Toronto, where Hawtin used to play gigs for 200 bucks back in the day. Now the superstar DJ returns to discuss EDM in universities and he's brought a lot of friends in as well (f.e Garl Greig and DJ Sneak). The video features interviews from Tiga and John Aquiviva.
Stalk with us!