The Happiest Place on Earth

Obscurity

Sat, 25 Feb 2012 04:47:00 +0000

[184] Communication

LITTLE CHIP OFF WHAT WOULD BE A MANIFESTO

IF THERE WR MORE OF IT

It is at least a part of a poet’s duty now to write poems which if subjected to the kind of analysis prescribed for, say, “A” level Eng. Lit. (“Comment on the imagery of this poem.”) (“What do you learn of X’s political views from this poem?”) would produce NOTHING. i.e., poems which cannot be broken down into their component parts any more than a piece of wood can be, with a saw; thrfore organic in some sense other than haphazard. /and from which you cannot extract a MEANING or ESSENCE other than what is apparent and meant; i.e. what I gather of X’s political views from this poem is what X states his political views to be in this poem, nor more nor less; thrfore not a plain statement decorated/made-up/projected/dramatised into “poem” but the statement itself, if it’s worth speaking, if it really exists.

I’m not saying you can’t talk about poetry. You can and should say what is going on, why it is important, and where it leads.

Peter Riley

from Certain Prose of The English Intelligencer

Black Mountain Press (2012)

NEW SIGNING ~~~ NIGHT ANGLES Like it always is, I...

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 11:36:00 +0000

NEW SIGNING ~~~ NIGHT ANGLES

Like it always is, I came across Night Angles on the internet. Last year Tim dropped Aerodynamour over on Force Majeure; I heard it, thought it was great so got in touch and ended up chatting a bit regarding what the plan was. It transpired that there was a lot more going on than just (inter)stellar space-disco and upon hearing some new music last year, we just couldn’t help ourselves…had to snap ‘em up.

Now joined by Laurence Horstman, Night Angles might be perfect for these forthcoming years of austerity - regarding the rings of Saturn, in thrall to the Berlin winter, these are tracks with eyes on the sky and feet firmly planted to the dance floor.

I’m personally very excited to be working with these guys, but I won’t fuck around and use fatuous adjectives for the music, go check out Aerodynamour to get an idea of our point of departure - it’s all over once 2013 tolls so we won’t be cutting any stops, in 2012 there won’t be any space for angels up there in space.

You could go and listen to a mix they recently did for Red Bull, maybe?

You could also come dancing with us. Andrew Weatherall’s a fan and has asked Night Angles to headline live at his SubSonic party, with Optimo and the man himself spinning till sunrise. You can find out more here.

But if you like the sound of free tickets, then head to the Night Angles facebook page for more information - we got ten pairs to get out there.

D/R/U/G/S Among Others Aight, now...

Tue, 20 Dec 2011 11:28:24 +0000

D/R/U/G/S Among Others

Aight, now it’s been a while. Connected came out on December 3rd and we’ve got plans together for D/R/U/G/S, Beat Connection and someone new from the night for 2012. If you’d like to buy yourself some thumping, organic house you can do so in all of these places:

Phonica, Juno, Amazon, iTunes, Tender Age. There are some more but those’re your best bets. You should pick up the last few remaining 12”s before they’re gone because they’re rather pretty, very limited and fairly priced. More news to come, this being updated properly too.

B‘The-Dream //// Glastonbury ...

Sun, 19 Jun 2011 18:04:48 +0100

B‘The-Dream //// Glastonbury

People’ll start arriving in two or three days, we’ll be landing down on Thursday. It’s Glastonbury and it’s going to be relief. Although for other reasons also, we’re there with D/R/U/G/S, who will be playing two sets over the weekend: BBC Introducing, at 1500, on Saturday; Beat Hotel, at 1930, on Sunday.

Otherwise, it’s all a Beyoncé trip…right? The-Dream’s demo for that killer joint 1+1 above. Turns it over into an odd blues track, no time for moaning and a lot of time for bizarre metaphors. Anyway, see you at Rebel Rave w/ Seth Troxler after B’s done on Monday morning.

Photo

Wed, 25 May 2011 20:08:01 +0100

Photo

Fri, 20 May 2011 14:22:10 +0100

THE GREAT ESCAPE Tender...

Tue, 10 May 2011 21:28:00 +0100

THE GREAT ESCAPE

Tender Age have a handful of things at this year’s Great Escape. Beat Connection will be playing two shows on Friday and another two on Saturday. For D/R/U/G/S it’s just three: Friday night, Saturday night, Saturday night. Details are below. Otherwise, we’ll be hosting downstairs at LIFE - a seafront patio and a dancefloor - with an assortment of friends on Thursday 12th. It’s free for most and £3 for the others.

Friday 13th

D/R/U/G/S - Moshi Moshi Afterparty, The Haunt

Beat Connection - Moshi Moshi Afterparty, The Haunt

Drowned in Sound/Recommender Afterparty, Audio

Saturday 14th

D/R/U/G/S - Official TGE Show, Audio

Official TGE Closing Party, Concorde

Beat Connection - Official TGE Show, Hector’s House

Unofficial TGE Closing Party, The Jam

However much I’d love to be releasing Christian AIDS, we...

Fri, 06 May 2011 11:14:47 +0100

However much I’d love to be releasing Christian AIDS, we aren’t. Alas!

seaninsound:

D/R/U/G/S - Love/Lust

Let’s get Friday started with this brooding* bundle of wonder. D/R/U/G/S will be playing DiS’ Saturday night at Great Escape with Seams, Becoming Real and a headline set from Actress. In his 8/10 review of their new EP out via Tender Age (who’re “killin’ it!” at the moment with Christian AIDS and Beat Connection), Dom Gourlay described this perfectly…

Take Love/Lust’s pulsating title track for example: a gradual build-up into late Nineties tranceworld that elicits memories of Alex Paterson’s halcyon period without resorting to the vacuous hedonistic tendencies much of that era was emblazoned with. The more cynical among us could even suggest that maybe if James Blake’s debut long player had followed a similar trajectory we’d be hailing it as a masterpiece rather than ruing over what might have been, but I guess that’s a discussion best left for a different arena. Read more…

For more tracks by acts playing the DiS stages at Great Escape visit: http://soundcloud.com/seaninsound and for more line-up details here.

* = please note: this is not the word bro-noodling

THE HAPPIEST PLACE ON EARTH: OPEN ASSEMBLY II ...

Fri, 06 May 2011 09:12:00 +0100

THE HAPPIEST PLACE ON EARTH: OPEN ASSEMBLY II

ARTHUR BEATRICE

CYMBALS

NIGHT ANGLES

MANE MANE //// AARON KATSNELSON Very...

Thu, 05 May 2011 15:46:00 +0100

MANE MANE //// AARON KATSNELSON

Very excited to have something superb rolling along quietly with Aaron Katsnelson at the moment. The track’s great but the video’s really something else. A huge talent has just popped his head up from under the ice.

May 9 //// Love/Lust //// Beatport On May 9th we’ll be releasing...

Tue, 03 May 2011 20:41:08 +0100

May 9 //// Love/Lust //// Beatport

On May 9th we’ll be releasing TNDR003, D/R/U/G/S’ Love/Lust. Ambient sprawls and 4/4 at your heart. This week, Beatport will be selling it exclusively here, but afterwards you’ll be able to find it everywhere else.

Along with Love/Lust we got what might be a //// classic in Archipelago and two futuristic tech/house/whatever hits with Velodrome I & II. Listen, fall in love and buy it, would you.

TNDR002 Beat Connection -...

Mon, 11 Apr 2011 18:17:23 +0100

TNDR002

Beat Connection - Surf Noir

Today is about Beat Connection’s debut album Surf Noir. It is sometimes pop music, sometimes dance music and entirely electronic. I think there might be one guitar line. Myspace have focused in on them and UK tour dates are on the page so click through.

You could buy the record here:

Because it’s great, as these people thought so as well:

“A must-have soundtrack for the summer” - Sunday Times

“Surf Noir should act as a joyous and (hopefully) seasonal soundtrack for the next few months and beyond” - Drowned in Sound

“it’s with the catchy pop-sensibilities of vocal-heavy tracks…that they burn the brightest.” - Fly

“A true summer electro-pop gem” - Guardian

“a tour de force of pregressive rhythms and sweet melodies” - Line of Best Fit

WEIRD DREAMS Want to...

Sat, 02 Apr 2011 21:08:09 +0100

WEIRD DREAMS

Want to avoid comparisons, they’re bound to break my sleep. Revolving through Weird Dreams, it’s nauseating. Sickening verses, hands in the air chorus’ and songs to die for. They’ve got a record coming out on Sleep All Day and it seems ridiculous to think they wouldn’t have many more planned. Always refreshing to hear a good riff and remember that the guitar isn’t rinsed dry; to hear another percussive shift that pulls the song back through itself. Real music.

...

Tue, 29 Mar 2011 23:09:00 +0100

GRIMES

Websites buggered at the moment anyway - you can’t scroll down - so there’s little reason to write anything. This girls amazing, been on her since some time last year. She’s incredible, deserves to be bigger and will inevitably get bigger with a voice and compositional talent like this…

Beat Connection - TNDR002 On April 11th we’ll be...

Wed, 23 Mar 2011 23:21:26 +0000

Beat Connection - TNDR002

On April 11th we’ll be releasing Beat Connection’s debut album Surf Noir. It is sometimes pop music, sometimes dance music and entirely electronic. I think there might be one guitar line. Either way, I think it’s brilliant and so far it seems as though the press do too. Beat Connection’ll be coming over here to tour the record starting at a Moshi afterparty in Brighton at Great Escape and finishing with a party in Glasgow at the school of art. The dates are on their myspace, the MP3s’ll be buyable/downloadable/playable from the 11th while you can pre-order the CD from all of these places:

Tender Age Store

HMV

Amazon

Beaú Been a surge in...

Sat, 19 Mar 2011 21:41:27 +0000

Beaú

Been a surge in the popularity of dance music in certain circles recently. For whatever reason, it’s brilliant. One tenderly aged friend pointed us towards Beaú and we couldn’t be happier. One of them’s already in a superb new dance act and the other isn’t, evidently they both got something special. You can feel the rest of the song in the first five seconds: a simple, skipped beat which seems to cleave apart dead space and let in some sunshine. It’s spring music, not summer, music which leads out of the dark into the sun (although through the bitter cold and the intermittent rain).

TNDR003 For us,...

Tue, 15 Mar 2011 14:38:00 +0000

TNDR003

For us, D/R/U/G/S were important during most of last year. First heard about on the internet and first experienced at In The City, we couldn’t stay away from Callum Wright and the Trance or House or Techno or Minimal or maybe Rave that he was pushing out of one MPC and a foot pedal. Tender Age are delighted to announce, if in a rather belated fashion, the signing of D/R/U/G/S and the forthcoming release of Love / Lust. It is a song you should have heard in many different manifestations last year and this final, pressed version is both a celebration of those past and a suggestion of what Cal still has to come. Turn over the record - or skip forward one track - and there is a clearer suggestion of one such future. Velodromes I & II are, we think, House or Minimal or…let’s just call it dance music. It’s hard to articulate but Cal could:

“I write new music every day. If I’m in the mood to just write I’ll record all kinds of sounds. I know how I want my tracks to feel but I don’t know how to get there. No one does really. That struggle is what you hear, that’s the music.

Tender Age will release D/R/U/G/S’ Love / Lust on May 9th in both Digital and Vinyl formats.

1. Love / Lust
2. Velodrome I
3. Velodrome II

DROP /...

Thu, 10 Mar 2011 10:29:43 +0000

DROP / DEAD

There’s something about forward slashes. We attended a Well Rounded party last month and Julio Bashmore spent two hours entertaining us. A friend was telling me that the playful, high BPM of UKG - and its recent return to popularity - could logically only progress to faster and faster beats. Last year seemed underlain by a Shangaan Electro compilation, a Juke and Footwork compilation and bands citing that scene as well. Either way, that’s all great but what Drop/Dead’s succeeded in doing is hinting at the capacity for this incredible, aggressive and frankly alienating sound to find its place in the UK now. UK Bass music? Not fucking dumb House music? Shut up, doesn’t matter, dance to it.

LAND OF KINGS //// The Nest Tender Age are...

Fri, 04 Mar 2011 20:17:08 +0000

LAND OF KINGS //// The Nest

Tender Age are helping Moshi Moshi host a venue on the opening night of Land of Kings festival in Dalston. You could buy your tickets here and then come and see Visions of Trees, Gwilym Gold and another while Moshi Moshi, ourselves and James Yuill play some records. Clash think it’s a good idea and there are a whole host of other people playing: Ghostpoet, Romy XX and Django Django are some of them.

Today we release TNDR001, Beat Connection’s debut single...

Mon, 28 Feb 2011 17:27:52 +0000

Today we release TNDR001, Beat Connection’s debut single Silver Screen. With props coming from Drowned in Sound, Metro, Sunday Times, NME, The Line of Best Fit and more throughout the blog world it’d be a mistake to pass this up. Links below.

iTunes - http://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/silver-screen-ep/id415488116?uo=4

Amazon - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Silver-Screen/dp/B004JWZCXA/ref=sr_shvl_album_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1298913606&sr=301-1

Juno - http://www.junodownload.com/artists/Beat+Connection/releases/

Boomkat - http://boomkat.com/downloads/373875-beat-connection-silver-screen

Beatport - https://www.beatport.com/en-US/html/content/release/detail/324074/silver-screen

(Also, if you’ve any interest in amazing Chicago House I’d check out this too).