Electronic Music NewsWe Are the Night
The News Review:
- We Are the Night
- Christina up close
- Wholesome to the Corr
- Gay icons rock Berkeley for a cause in post-Pride ‘True Colors'…
We Are the Night
Pitchforkmedia.com – Jul 2, 2007
More than a decade after the release of their debut album 1995′s Exit Planet Dust they remain inextricably tied to Big Beat electronica a genre that had already fallen out of fashion by the time the tech bubble burst. Since most of America’s hopes for so-called “electronica” were pinned on a cynically marketed next-big-thingism its chart failure has tended to overshadow everything else– including a fair critical appraisal as Salon’s Michelle Goldberg demonstrated in a pan of the Chemical Brothers’ 2002 album Come With Us: “Commercially the mid-to-late-90s conceit that electronic music would wrest the airwaves from guitar rock dinosaurs has proved as fanciful as the idea that online video rental could be a billion-dollar business. You don’t need to have the Chemicals’ Singles 93-03 video compilation in your Netflix queue to question the relevance of that statement: Electronica was a failure as a mass-culture lifestyle trend. But it was successful too in one important area: producing memorable pop records. Even in the post-crash doldrums of the early 2000s the Chemical Brothers sustained their creative stride more effectively than most other artists clogging up the modern rock charts 30 notches above them. Albums like Come With Us and 2005′s Push the Button were more pacekeepers than trendsetters sure but there was a cohesive freedom to them a sort of universal dance music catchall vibe that cross-evolved through acid house electro hip-hop and whatever else they could layer big explosive bass over… But it was successful too in one important area: producing memorable pop records. Even in the post-crash doldrums of the early 2000s the Chemical Brothers sustained their creative stride more effectively than most other artists clogging up the modern rock charts 30 notches above them. Albums like Come With Us and 2005′s Push the Button were more pacekeepers than trendsetters sure but there was a cohesive freedom to them a sort of universal dance music catchall vibe that cross-evolved through acid house electro hip-hop and whatever else they could layer big explosive bass over. Even as their returns began to diminish the further they got from the staggering peak of Dig Your wn Hole the mild creative downturn wasn’t significant enough to damage the overall feeling of optimistic psychedelic egalitarianism embedded in their music. This though this We Are the Night– no come on not now. Not after Fatboy Slim’s Palookaville and the Prodigy’s Always utnumbered Never utgunned and rbital’s The Blue Album and Daft Punk’s Human After All and the last two Moby records. Just because Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons are falling off the cliff a few years later than most of the other once-great hopes of 90s dance music doesn’t make the plummet any less frustrating or embarrassing.
Christina up close
Inquirer.net – Jul 2, 2007
Makati City phone: 887-0526] are all about. At the forefront of this innovation are veteran DJs who consistently play new music: Adrian Cuenca Funk Avy Houseboy Lady Trinity James Bald 008 Mulan and Travis Monsod. Get ready to experience the sound of cutting-edge dance music from electro to techno and everything else in between. The “Rewired: Reconnecting Manila Clubbing” series will take place on July 7 July 14 August 4 and August 18.
Wholesome to the Corr
Irish Independent – Jul 2, 2007
Yet there is a curious balance of the exotic and ordinary in her unaffected poise her looks almost at odds with her unpretentious wide-eyed manner and girlish good humour. “I could never dream of being cool. ” “You play music with your brothers and sisters people think you love to be close and cuddle all the time. I can’t tell you how many photographers come along and say ‘Hey can we just have you all having a pillow fight on the bed?’ Do you think that happens to U2?” With her married siblings raising families Corr now the only single in the group released her solo debut Ten Feet High this week. Produced by Nellee Hooper the man behind classics by Massive Attack and Bjork it is perhaps not what her fan base might have expected ditching Celtic instrumentation and smooth arrangements for a bright contemporary electro-pop sonic framework. It opens with the resolutely unwholesome Hello Boys a dirty flirty synth-glam stomp in which Andrea casts herself as enthusiastic prostitute. “I love escaping into character” she says… ” “You play music with your brothers and sisters people think you love to be close and cuddle all the time. I can’t tell you how many photographers come along and say ‘Hey can we just have you all having a pillow fight on the bed?’ Do you think that happens to U2?” With her married siblings raising families Corr now the only single in the group released her solo debut Ten Feet High this week. Produced by Nellee Hooper the man behind classics by Massive Attack and Bjork it is perhaps not what her fan base might have expected ditching Celtic instrumentation and smooth arrangements for a bright contemporary electro-pop sonic framework. It opens with the resolutely unwholesome Hello Boys a dirty flirty synth-glam stomp in which Andrea casts herself as enthusiastic prostitute. “I love escaping into character” she says. “It’s a chance to try on people that you wouldn’t be brave or stupid enough to be in real life. “You don’t have to take responsibility for depraved or debauched behaviour.
Gay icons rock Berkeley for a cause in post-Pride ‘True Colors'…
San Francisco Chronicle – Jul 2, 2007
n the ballad “I’m Gonna Be Strong” and a slow bluesy reinvention of “She Bop” she crossed near-operatic range with cabaret attitude and her own eccentric pop sensibility. She rocked out on an electric guitar for her cover of Prince’s “When U Were Mine” and transformed “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” into a sing-along declaration of yes empowerment. Erasure the 2-decade-old electro-dance duo that’s just released its best album in years “Light at the End of the World” warmed up the crowd for Lauper by turning the outdoor theater into an open-sky disco. While Vince Clarke sequenced the music and a trio of singers shimmied and harmonized vocalist Andy Bell interspersed new songs (“Sunday Girl” “I Could Fall in Love With You” “Sucker for Love”) with familiar rave-ups like “h L’amour” and “A Little Respect. ” Bell proudly wore a Debbie Harry T-shirt with Platinum Blonde emblazoned across the front. During her own set the lady herself still blonde (though not platinum) and still infuriatingly beautiful sidestepped Blondie nostalgia to focus on solo material that included samples from her upcoming “Necessary Evil” album. Harry sashayed across the stage with the confidence of a veteran diva whether delivering power-pop sweets such as “French Kissin’ in the USA” and the new single “Two Times Blue” getting playfully glam with “White ut” or doing straight-up rock on “Rush Rush” and the clever “You’re Too Hot… She rocked out on an electric guitar for her cover of Prince’s “When U Were Mine” and transformed “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” into a sing-along declaration of yes empowerment. Erasure the 2-decade-old electro-dance duo that’s just released its best album in years “Light at the End of the World” warmed up the crowd for Lauper by turning the outdoor theater into an open-sky disco. While Vince Clarke sequenced the music and a trio of singers shimmied and harmonized vocalist Andy Bell interspersed new songs (“Sunday Girl” “I Could Fall in Love With You” “Sucker for Love”) with familiar rave-ups like “h L’amour” and “A Little Respect. ” Bell proudly wore a Debbie Harry T-shirt with Platinum Blonde emblazoned across the front. During her own set the lady herself still blonde (though not platinum) and still infuriatingly beautiful sidestepped Blondie nostalgia to focus on solo material that included samples from her upcoming “Necessary Evil” album. Harry sashayed across the stage with the confidence of a veteran diva whether delivering power-pop sweets such as “French Kissin’ in the USA” and the new single “Two Times Blue” getting playfully glam with “White ut” or doing straight-up rock on “Rush Rush” and the clever “You’re Too Hot. ” The Dresden Dolls and Toronto band the Cliks began the night with short but powerful sets; Lauper closed it with the tour’s namesake song “True Colors” as giant balloons floated over the audience.