Above and Beyond, the new stars of electronic music, are heading to the place where their genre began. A huge beach bash is scheduled for December 28th in Goa, India. This from DJ magazine:
Above & Beyond will headline with a blazing four-hour DJ set and will also showcase some of the hottest acts from their Anjunabeats stable, including Finland’s Super 8 & DJ Tab, Dutch technoid king Stephen J. Kroos and Australia’s one-to-watch, Jaytech. The event will be televised by MTV India and broadcast on Above & Beyond’s worldwide syndicated radio show ‘Trance Around The World’.
Aside from a handful of Dutch superstars, the future of trance music seems to rest on Above and Beyond’s shoulders. The group is relatively ne to the scene, beginning to enter the limelight in 2002. Still with remixes of song by the likes of Madonna, members Jono Grant, Tony McGuinness, and Paavo Siljamäki seem confident in their sonic skills.Where will trance music go in the next decade? Wherever Above and Beyond take it.
Musician extraordinare Moby, one of the more likable celebs around today, has recently announced that he will release a new studio album (his 9th). The release is slated for early spring of next year. The album, called Last Night, is his first since the double disk set Hotel, which dropped in 2005.According to his web site, though, Moby has been busy. He has had numerous live appearances, and of course, there are the soundtracks. I haven’t counted, but I’m sure Moby has had more songs in movies than any other musician today, save Danny Elfman. Aside from the Jason Bourne movies, he has had literally hundreds of TV and movie tie ins.Live performances and plenty of soundtrack work. Is Moby’s career a blueprint for longevity in the music business? He certainly seems to have avoided any sort of slump, and he has a pretty loyal fan base. There may be no stopping him.
Radiohead has received a great amount of press for the release of their album, In Rainbows. For good reason, a downloaddable version of the album is available on the bands website. Fans are able to name their price for the album. (There is also a “collectors edition” version with bonus CDs availible for a whopping $80 US).
The band has gotten a lot of press for the name your price scheme. Whether this idea is a foreshadowing of things to come remains to be seen. Certainly, music will be the first of the entertainment industries to be forced to embrace so-called new media. The Ipod and Limewire will see to that.
There is no word yet on how much people are paying for In Rainbows. Thom Yorke and the boys have enjoyed so much (critical, popular, and, more than likely, financial) success that they probably aren’t losing sleep over the amount of money in their checking accounts.
Whether Radiohead has a new model for the music business remains to be seen. For now, they are just another wildly popular group of eccentric English musicians drawing attention to themselves.
Indonesia’s rock and roll scene is second to none in Southeast Asia.“Wha’?”The Archipelago, which is the most populous nation south of China, has a very developed recording industry. Labels like EMI have branches in Indonesia, and MTV is a major media force amongst the younger generations. A large share of the music network’s broadcasts is geared towards commercialism. Of course, it’s MTV.However, there seems to be something a little deeper to the music industry. Perhaps it is simply that Indonesia is a young nation and has yet to loose it’s innocence to the ravages of advertising and tabloids. Perhaps, as I like to think, the belief in music is part of the country’s culture.Rock acts like Slank and Dewa pack stadiums when they tour. Though the rock is mostly typical anthem and power pop fare, a few songs with political and religious undertones sneak on the playlists. Dewa, for example, has a recent song, Laskar Cinta, which condemns the views of extreme Muslims. Though a vast majority of Indonesians would be considered completely secular, extremist groups, like the one, which planned the recent bombings on Kuta Beach in Bali, do exist. Along with Slank, Dewa and others seem to be preaching nothing but rock and roll. Judging by the radio airplay and record sales attributed to the bands, not to mention their high visibility on national and regional MTV, Indonesia is eating it up.Perhaps I am reading too much into the success of rock in Indonesia. But I see nothing negative coming out of the fact that most of a generation seems to be embracing the scene so heartily. Even if the current state of indo-rock is based on a fleeting innocence of that generation, one has to ask what would Indonesia be without her music scene?
Why does Kanye West put so much stock in winning the flippin’ MTV music award? Anyone with anything between their ears knows that dreaming about MTV giving you an award or choosing you to stand center stage is like being the class nerd pining for the head cheerleader. You’re setting yourself up for disappointment.
Yes, Kanye had (another) meltdown at an awards show, this time the MTV Awards that featured a comedy act by Brittney Spears that seemed straight out of SNL. Mr. West is becoming more known for acting like a spoiled brat in public than for his music. Apparently the tirade had something to do with not being chosen to open the show or not receiving as many awards as Justin Timberlake.
Gee, Kanye, your mom must be so proud of you.
Here’s what I don’t get: West is a music talent. He has more sonic skills in his left earlobe than most other “musicians” have in their whole body. Why does he have to be validated by MTV? Why does he need to be recognized by a second rate awards show that is obviously going for ratings above all else? He has money. He has (or is it had) the music industry’s respect. He seems to have a healthy level of confidence. Why does he need further validation from a source that most people don’t take very seriously.
I just want to say, “Yo (does anyone say ‘yo’ anymore) Kanye, make it about the music. Come on. You’re making a fool of yourself. For F*#%’s sake, make it about the music.”
Yes and No. From this video it seems obvious that hip-hop has crossed the Pacific.Thaitanium, a rap group from Bangkok, certainly have all the moves down, as you can see. There seems to be a little bit of a goofy old school vibe coming from the group, at least in the above video. There is definitely a Run DMC feel to Malay act Too Phat.They have been the most popular rappers out of East Asia over the past decade.On the surface, these two groups seem to simply be imitating American rappers. I tried to look closer to see if there, for example, is a distinctly Malaysian style of rap just as there are East Coast, West Coast, and Deep south styles.Like I said, these guys are no Asian 50 Cents or Kanye Wests. They seem more old school. There is a freshness in the music and persona of these performers, however. Perhaps it is simply an innocence that has long been absent from the US’s mainstream rap scene. It probably has something to do with the fact that both Thaitanium and Too Phat are still novelties in their home regions. The competition is not so intense.Is hip-hip, then, a global language or simply a worldwide fad? I think the answer to that lies with artists from other lands, like Too Phat. Can they, and those acts who come after them, get to the core of hip-hop? A core that makes hip-hop a medium for communicating experience. This won’t work if they are simply aping the American urban experience. It will if they are able to make it about their own experiences, their own politics, and their own issues. With the American scene morphing from envelope pushing art form to big business, it seems more likely that the excitement and the cutting edge sounds will come from abroad.
Arguably the best anime of the past few years, Samurai Champloo is able to escape the typical rut of anime action series because of its attitude. The show was the creation of Shinichiro Watanabe, whose previous effort, Cowboy Bebop featured the unlikely coupling of space adventure and jazz music. In Champloo, it is the marriage of hip hop and wandering samurai that makes the show so compelling.As with Watanabe’s previous work, there is also an element of wit in Champloo. Not the usual slap-stick fare of the anime genre, mind you. There are plenty of references to Japan’s history, including the the Dutch influence in Japan and Uekiyo-E, a form of Japanese pop art which was well-known during the period when Champloo takes place.The blending of hip hop culture (rap, graffiti, slang) with this period peice is perhaps the most interesting aspect of the series. The music allows Champloo to rise above the category of anime to the category of pop art.
Is this the future of American music?Dengue Fever, a indie rock band from California. They have taken fusion music to new levels. After a trip to Cambodia, where they were haunted by the native folk music, brothers Zac and Ethan Holtzman set about looking for someone to sing in Khmer. Chhom Nimol fronts the six-piece band.Though they are based in the U.S., all the bands lyrics are sung in Khmer. Dengue Fever has gained a bit of a following, playing at last ear’s SXSW music festival. The band’s songs have also been chosen for several soundtracks, including Matt Dillon’s film, City of Ghosts.Is D.F. an anomaly? One might think that the band is the result of a few hipsters who are trying to do something that they deem cool because it flirting with just being plain bizarre.Perhaps that is the case. But the (mild) success of Dengue Fever might point to something a little more substantial. Some American pop is already being infused with international sounds. Latin and African rhythms are everywhere. How much of a stretch is actually singing in another language, even one as obscure as Khmer (about 20 million people speak it, worldwide)? With the internet, and the slow but sure death of the music industry as we know it, who’s to say that globalized bands like Dengue Fever are not at the cutting edge of a trend?
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Radiohead has received a great amount of press for the release of their album, 
