Coachella Review '08

Surprisingly this year was my first visit to Coachella. I had not planned on going and have never been big on music festivals, but this year I made a spontaneous decision to drive down with some friends. The line-up this year included a lot of acts I was excited to see, most of them electronic performers. I had many expectations as to who would blow me away, who would be okay, and who would most likely let me down. For the most part I would say my expectations where all proven to be wrong. Here is the rundown on my Coachella experience and on the performances I saw.

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BLOWN AWAY

Justice
Okay, admittedly I actually didn't expect to be blown away by Justice, it was more of a hope. I had seen a DJ set by Justice before In Hong Kong and enjoyed it greatly, but it didn't quite live up to the hype. Their performance at Coachella lived up to the hype and surpassed it by a long shot. I would go so far as to say it was the best performance I have ever seen. The set was compiled of live remixes of their songs, and also what seemed to (hopefully) be previews of some new tracks to come. The stage set, lights, sound, everything was perfect. The only downfall to the experience was the lack of some people's enthusiasm in the crowd. I will never doubt Justice again.
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Simian Mobile Disco
I wasn't sure what to expect of Simian Mpbile Disco's performance. I had seen videos of how the make their music live, circling around mostly analog instruments tweaking knobs. The show started out a bit slow for me, but by the time the build up to Hustler was being played it was totally on. This performance would probably rank in my top 3 performances of this year's line-up, I was totally blown away.
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Boys Noize
Surprisingly it was the smaller, daytime DJ events that had the best vibe. The crowd at these events seemed to be there specifically for the DJ and the music. Boys Noize has impressed me remix after remix, consistently releasing good tracks. I was then even more impressed when he released his full length album Oi Oi Oi last year. I had high expectations of Boys Boize and they were fully met.
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PLEASANTLY SURPRISED/SHOCKED

Holy F*ck
Holy F*ck has never made a big impression on me before this performance. I have had a hard time sitting down and listening to more than just a few tracks of theirs at once. The live performance by these guys completely shocked me, it is truly live electronic music. The way they sample and loop their music is amazing. I highly recommend seeing them.

Kid Sister, A-Trak & Flosstradamus
It is good to see people making fun, dancey, silly, good hip hop. Kid Sister's performance was pure entertainment. It was fun, light and her music is made for partying. Opening for Kid Sister was the world famous A-Trak who was not surprisingly fantastic, and backing her up was Flosstradamus. I had expected the show to be good, but I was surprised at how good it really was. I would put this performance in my top 5 at Coachella this year.
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Hot Chip
Again, I like a track here and there by Hot Chip, but have never been one to listen to an album in one sitting. Going into the show I expected more of a rock show, but what I got was a dance party. During their live performance their music is so much more energetic, bouncy and fun than on their album. It's always nice to gain that much more respect for a band after seeing them live, and that was my feeling after this show.
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LET DOWNS

Aphex Twin
In my mind Aphex Twin is one of the godfathers of electronic music. With an insane resume/discography I went into the show expecting to be blown away, instead I ended up leaving early. The music was nothing that I had heard from Aphex Twin before, and sounded painfully generic. Maybe I went in with too high of expectations, but regardless it was a big let down.

Mum
I am convinced that there are some artists/bands that just don't really work in the Coachella atmosphere. I would say Mum is one of those bands, especially the time of day they played and their order in the lineup. I had just seen Sebastian and Busy P play their sets, and then moving from that into Mum was a difficult transition. Not only that, but I had expected their set to incorporate a much more of an electronic element. I am a big fan of Mum and their electronic, blippy sound, but their set seemed more symphonic than electronic, and truthfully was just pretty boring.

Fatboy Slim
I decided to see Fatboy Slim mostly out of nostalgia than anything else, also the fact that in most parts of the world he is regarded as a god in the dance music scene. To me he mostly came off as a creepy old guy still trying to relive the glory from his last solid album that was released 8 years ago. Maybe that comes off as sounding a bit harsh, but really the only thing that intrigued me about his performance was the enormous LCD screens he was DJing on top of. His performance, actions, facial expressions all seemed contrived and hokey.
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OTHER WORTHY MENTIONABLES
:: Glitch Mob (Including edIT)
:: Sebastian
:: Stars
:: Yelle
:: Does It Offend You, Yeah?

Adult Swim VS Ghostly

Adult Swim is at it again with yet another surprising music release, this time teaming up with electronic masters Ghostly International. The release is appropriately titled Ghostly Swim and features Ghostly artists like Tycho, Cepia, Dabrye, Matthew Dear and JDSY. I love all those artists, but I was very excited to see that Milosh had contributed to Ghostly Swim. His track titled "Then It Happened" has to be my favorite on the compilation so far. Like Adult Swim's first musical release done with Dangermouse titled The Mouse & The Mask, Ghostly Swim is available as a free download from their site including awesome cover art and music video.

Songbird

I have had my eye on the web browser/music player hybrid Songbird for awhile now. Songbird has recently released version 0.5 and it's looking pretty awesome. Songbird brings you features of other music players like iTunes, playing music from your hard drive and iPod. In addition to these features Songbird also doubles as a web browser that can play/download MP3s directly from music blogs or other music sites. Although I can't really see using Songbird as my primary browser, it is built using the Mozilla platform so you definitely could. Overall I think the new version of Songbird is a solid tool for browsing MP3 blogs. Additional features include downloadable skins or "feathers", iTunes Library Import, LastFM Audioscrobbler plug-in, Album Art Manager and a long list of other available plug-ins.

[Available for Mac OS X, Windows and Linux]

Remix Rush :: Beeper

A-trak has been on a roll lately developing quite the remix resume. "Lately I've been putting more emphasis on production..." says A-trak, and it shows. A-trak seems to have broadened his focus from hip-hop to putting out more electro dance floor bangers. In just the past while he has released remixes for Boys Noize, Kanye West, Digitalism, Architecture In Helsinki, Simian Mobile Disco and more. His latest work was done on Sinden's track "Beeper". To be honest I wasn't all that keen on the original version, but A-trak has added that extra little something that makes it a little more hard and dirty. It's rumored he is currently working on a remix for MSTRKRFT's new release "Bounce", I can't wait for that to drop!

MP3 :: Sinden - Beeper (A-trak Remix)

Remix Rush :: YOA

The Twelves have consistently been dropping good remix after good remix, but it's their recent remix of "YAO" by Theatre Of Disco that I completely fell in love with. This bouncy, electro-pop track infused with the cutest female vocals is the perfect Springtime house party soundtrack. I imagine red plastic cups with names markered on the side, girls with their mascara running down their face from jumping in the pool in their underwear and this track on full blast in the background. Have a listen and see what weird fantasies come to mind when you hear it.

MP3 :: Theatre of Disco - YOA (The Twelves Remix)

Sugar Rush Vol.II

See a few photos from the last party here.

Desktoptopia

Desktoptopia is an awesome little desktop/wallpaper manager that will automatically update your PC or Mac with fresh wallpapers directly from their online vault of wallpapers. Simply install their free software and set your preferences to how often each wallpaper changes and which libraries you want them selected from. They claim to have a panel that only selects the best of wallpapers submitted, and most of them I have seen so far have been pretty cool. However, if for some reason you aren't liking the selected wallpaper you can easily skip to the next.

[Via: Josh Spear]

M83 - Saturdays = Youth

I few days ago, after listening to the new album Saturdays = Youth by M83, I posted the following on Twitter - "the new M83 album... reminds me of everything good about 80s teeny-bopper movie montages." A few days later I read an article in XLR8R's April issue that explained Anthony Gonzalez's inspiration for the entire album was '80s movies, specifically noting The Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink and Say Anything. Then after having a look at the cover art it became apparent. I was shocked to see how well they (produced by Ken Thomas, Ewen Pearson and Anthony Gonzalez) were able to get this across in the album without being cheesy, and still sticking to the original M83 sound. My favorite song on the album is by far "Graveyard Girl", have a listen, also check out the music video.

MP3 :: M83 - Graveyard Girl

Purchase Saturdays = Youth

FeelTheNoise!

New mixtape out by myself - Kidplastik. Feel free to repost and spread around the blogosphere.

MP3 :: Kidplastik - FeelTheNoise! (43:30 Min.)
External Link

Tracklist:
1. Quite Riot - Come On Feel the Noise
2. Plus Move - Boss
3. Classixx - Cold Act Ill (Radio Edit)
4. Boys Noize - Oh! (A-Trak Remix)
5. Ghostface Killah - Charlie Brown (Yuksek Remix)
6. Donovan - Yo!
7. The Bell - I Am History (Whitenoise Remix)
8. Hail Social - Heaven (Designer Drugs Remix)
9. Thieves Like Us - Drugs In My Body (Designer Drugs Remix)
10. Kill The Noise - Hey You (Le Castle Vania Remix)
11. Chromeo - Fancy Footwork (Dusty Diamonds Feet of Fury Remix)
12. Late of the Pier - Space and the Woods (GRUM Remix)
13. Cansei de Ser Sexy - Music Is My Hot Sex, Hot Sex (Kill The Noise Remix)
14. Queens of the Stone Age - Better Living Through Chemistry (Streetlife DJs Remix)
15. Daft Punk - Around the World (Villians' More Cowbell DJ Edit)
16. MSTRKRFT - Bounce (feat. N.O.R.E.)
17. Super Mal - Bigger Than Big (Bag Raiders Remix)
18. HEARTSREVOLUTION - CYOA (Flosstradamus Remix)
19. Alex Gopher - The Game (Bloody Beetroots Remix)
20. The Toxic Avenger - Poker Face (Lies In Disguise Remix)
21. Mr. Miyagi - Pick Your Poison (JFK Remix)

Remix Rush: The Cribs VS Postal Service

It seems any mention of the blip-pop masterminds Postal Service generates mass amounts of buzz along with questions of when their follow-up album to Give Up will be released. This is exactly what happened when I Twittered about having found a recently released remix by Postal Service. I was bombarded with requests from friends as to where they could get their hands on it. The remix seems to have been released late February/early March, and is a rework of the track "I'm A Realist" by English rock band The Cribs. The track isn't exactly all I had hoped for in a new remix by Postal Service, but is a good bouncy tune and would fit nicely with any springtime playlist. With any luck this is an attempt to generate some buzz for an album release this summer!

MP3 :: The Cribs - I'm A Realist (Postal Service Remix)