Boiler Room

Boiler Room is a regular livestream from a very small club in London. They do a good job bringing interesting people in like Four Tête, James Blake, Mount Kimbie, Martyn, Theo Parrish, Jamie XX or Little Dragon who play their favorites and edgy tracks. It is watched and discussed simultaneously online and they have a nice podcast running.

I tuned into today’s (tuesday, 19/02/2011) show to listen into the Black Acre session with @bluedaisytwit, @FM_Fox and @Hyetalmusic. To sum it up: Interesting new sounds, I especially liked the Fantastic Mr Fox, cool to watch the musicians editing plus I really got this live feeling: seeing some people dancing in the background, watching the musicians, with a twitter stream, facebook and ustream chat boxes all around the video and people constantly writing stuff.

Mostly people write that they are there watching it, but sometimes also commenting the music, sharing links, tweeting to the bands. Who, and this makes the concept interesting, are mostly also on Twitter and get linked to by the boomboxtv account or by one of the founders and organizers Thristian Richards. But while most performers have accounts, only a few of them would check the discussion while doing music, I assume.

To be honest, there was no real discussion it was more the feeling to be watching the same stuff at the same time that made the experience interesting. And of course, the intimacy of being somehow at a living room party, like you can see in this video, Hudson Mohawke playing a 90ies classics Hip Hop set.

In a Time Out magazine article, Blaise Bellville, the other cofounder, talks about up to 25k viewers when James Blake was on, in this video interview Thristian Richards talks about the concept behind it. Richards is also a dj and Belville used to run “Platform”, a web magazine. It’s offline now, pointing to a new project called Leisure only but I found a nice readplatform.com snapshot from the Wayback machine.

The club is now located at Corsica studios, a small venue inside of railway arches near Elephant & Castle, maybe on their Facebook there is a chance to be invited to the actual performances.

Justice’s Fabric Mix

I wrote about Justice (long time ago, I think: before the hype) and Fabric in London, now here’s the perfect mix: Justice Rejected Fabric mix, via The fastlife (you can also find the playlist there). According to Urb, Fabric did not want to release this mix, instead they sent it to friends. Thanks! Very hard to imagine this soft, poppy discoish and very singalong style at Fabric but it’s GRRREATTT!
For all pop-fans: Tuesday at Maria (Berlin): Robyn!

East London’s first thursdays

First thursdays East LondonEast london is definitely one of the most creative spots in London, if not even in England or the world. It’s a nucleus for recent music developments like Garage, Grime and urban music in general: (here is a great BBC 1Xtra documentary about London’s east end music, and there’s even an East London Blog).

East London consists of neighbourhoods like Hackney, Shoreditch, Whitechapel, Bow, Bethnal Green and so on. Especially the latter is famous for its galleries, e.g. One in the other where the McNally exhib was at. All in former industrial buildings, hidden in basements and behind metal curtains, focusing on young and raw artists, more the art of tomorrow than the art of today one finds in random and commercial central London galleries.

Every first thursday in a month, there is an event, that holds the whole scene together: firstthursdays – Late night art in East London. Over 80 galleries and museums open until 9pm. So, it is like: Tomorrow! If I’d still be in London I’d definitely check it out.

London, Fabric

Fabric LondonGoing out in London is a special thing. More special than in Berlin where going out is something casual, normal and cheap, while in London it’s a celebration. Berlin is great because everybody is just hanging out, having a chilled time, with no stress at all. Can be a little dull because of that too . If you reach a certain limit there is no further, it seems.

London is speed, business, danger, money. And when people go out there, they let loose and forget about their shitty service or administration jobs, they don’t care about the money, they just want to have a good time.
Continue reading

Robert McNally’s first exhbition

Robert McNally artworkTomorrow I am off to London for four days, yay! The occasion couldn’t be more interesting. One of Britains most promising artists holds his first exhibition at Fred galleryOne in the Other, 45 Viner St. Why promising? Not because some of the most influentious collectors (does the name Damian Hurst sound familiar e.g.) have options on his work, no: because it is absolutely amazing.

The man spends months (and I mean it: MONTHS) inside, drawing pictures with pencils in such detail and finesse with such dark humour, love and creativity that the bizarre scenes he depicts bound its spectators for a looong time. Some of his work can be seen on his myspace but the format does not do justice to his art at all. I am not a big expert but his work reminds me of MC Escher as well in his way of drawing as in the absurdity of his subjects.

Best logos and logo trends for 2007

Descending dots are amongst others a major trend in recent logo design, Logolounge found out in their 2007 trends:

Logo Trends 2007
Examples for logos with descending dots, taken from Logolounge

Vivid logos were found by the logo blog: An example for a vivid logo,
taken from Logoblog

A chiseled structure becoming alive is the London 2012 brand that was revealed yesterday. An image movie shows how the logo becomes part of the environment and while the aesthetics of the logo are a matter of taste and I think the idea is pretty unusual and, ehm, edgy, the movie is kind of scary.
London Olypmpics 2012 logo
It might represent the competitive character of the games and the fight to find the best. It might also visualize the mental effects of doping, who knows.

[via Cherryflava]

English breakfast on sunday with The Michelles

EnglishbreakfastsundayberlinThis seems to be a nice idea for a hangovery sunday: Nice music and English breakfast at the (to me yet unknown but instantly appealing) “Daft Pankow”, Falckensteinstr 42, Xberg.

With an afternoon acoustic set by The Michelles, three “Berlondon” boys who have it all: melodies, hooks, choirs, ska, pop, supergrassy, beachboysy “ba-ba-ba”-backgrounds.. And it will be sunny!

Time for some grime: Roll Deep – Rules and regulations

Roll Deep CrewRoll Deep is probably the most famous Grime crew – Dizzie Rascal was part of it, Whiley still is and they are deeply connected with the pirate radio scene. But despite having sold 60000 units of their first album “In at the deep end” so far, and playing liveshows with people like Snoop Dogg in the UK, Asia, Europe, e.g. Grimetime in Berlin, nobody there can afford a us-rapstarlike lifestyle – the 13 members predominantly still live in East-London’s housing estate “The estate”. Still. That might change. (Click for their new video)
Continue reading

DJ for rent!

Marco DelvaiThere will be the great chance to book a DJ from Barcelona for your party in Berlin! Marco Delvai is going to be here and will bring his music. He is a resident in Barcelona’s famous club city hall (best day: sunday evening on the terrace..) and has been playing in many other sites in Spain and lately even in London with Mike Monday on an afterhour called WRONG.

Do you need to know more to be sure he knows what he’s doing? Check out the two mixes at the bottom and another blogpost! This guy is on the rise and you could be part of it. He will be here september 21st (thursday) to sep 26th (tuesday), drop me a mail and we’ll talk about the details! Continue reading