Feature // Hardwell relaunches djhardwell.com

 I wrote the press release for the relaunch of Hardwell's website this week! You can go to Hardwell's homepage and click on the link as shown in the screenshot below to view it- also directly here- or scroll down as per usual!

Hardwell relaunches djhardwell.com

The world’s #1 DJ and Revealed Recordings head honcho Hardwell, is pleased to announce the relaunch of his website www.djhardwell.com 
 Now featuring an interactive biography including personal family photographs, the chronological timeline maps out Hardwell’s voyage from humble beginnings in his Dutch motherland, over to meteoric superstar, executing sets to packed-out dancefloors worldwide.
 As well as hosting clearly cohesive social media channels, allowing almost nine million fans (and growing) to tap into his substantially consistent output, additional key features also include an integrated media player for ease of listening when browsing, along with a single-page discography overview.
 Rightfully claiming his title as the most socially engaging DJ in electronic music, an interactive world map also provides a comprehensive summary of his approaching live dates, allowing fans to track, stay informed and even purchase tickets in light of his spectacular I AM HARDWELL concept tour, amongst others.
 Joining forces with Beer 'n' Tea and Flashin, two internet companies hailing from Hardwell’s own hometown of Breda, this all new website manages to take his global reaching music and artist presence and turn into in to an overwhelming digital experience. Having always been on the frontline of innovation when it comes down to connecting with his audience, Hardwell fans can now enjoy this experience on a whole new level. Beer 'n' Tea co-owner Berend Buningh: ''We are hugely proud to present this new innovative website to the world, and working with Hardwell has been a truly great experience for us as we’ve managed to realise both our visions of what the ultimate DJ website should look and feel like.”.
With upcoming residencies confirmed alongside the world’s biggest super clubs, including weekly sets at the renowned open-air daytime venue Ushuaïa Ibiza, Hardwell has also invited fans to submit media recorded at his live shows, with the chance to be included in the video for his Prodigy-sampling latest smash, ‘Everybody Is In The Place’.
As 2014 has already proved to be a whirlwind, landmark year for the luminary, it’s only fitting that this modernized, slick new website, mirrors the colossal level of superiority that Hardwell enlists throughout his work.

Words by Yours Truly X

Review // Future Everything Festival

Afternoon! Late last month I was sent down to Manchester's Future Everything Festival for Crack Magazine. Held in various venues of theatres, basments and galleries, Future Everything marries the look at digital innovations across art, music, sport and a whole range of diverse subjects. I caught Evian Christ's curated evening at The RNCM and Darkside at The Ritz, which you can read over here- or below for the full copy, penned in collaboration with Joe Goggins. You can also read it in print by picking up Issue 40 with Pixies on the cover!
Future Everything @ Various Venues

FutureEverything’s premise is one that favours all things forward-thinking. Taking place across Manchester over the course of seven days, their mission to host shows from contemporary music artists at the forefront of innovation as well as art exhibitions, conceptual events and industry conferences is a vision to behold. Crack’s FutureEverything experience kicks off on Thursday night with an appearance from Darkside. Nicholas Jaar and Dave Harrington’s collaborative project brought an eclectic bout of prog-imprinted, tension building electronica to the back end of 2013. With mirror-led visuals that breeze beams of darkness through to a spectrum of colours, the experience feels somewhat transcendental, moody yet sanguine, as melodies and bodies melt into one another, accentuating the deeper levels that cross over live on tracks such as Golden Arrow and Paper Trails.   

 With the city’s Royal Northern College of Music welcoming in an Evian Christ-curated evening, held in its seated theatre, there was uncertainty as to whether or not the formal space would enhance the atmosphere or, alternatively, swallow it whole. TCF, a blackened-out figure before us, projects swirling bass that immerses with his film-score-worthy-weird manipulations. His brave efforts set off abstractly and just a throw too-far leftfield for many in attendance. London’s Visionist immediately follows, marrying his ghostly take on radical, nocturnal grime. A glacial, dubbed-out half hour ensues, forming the most club-worthy set of the night. It’s admirable to watch how this plethora of future-thinking artists adapt with the theatrical environment, especially with the aid of artist Emmanuel Biard, whose lighting spectacular set to the abrasive elements of Evian Christ’s set provides the most amazing part of the evening. 

To say that Julianna Barwick’s set at the RNCM Theatre is more than the sum of its parts would be an enormous understatement; she spends the 40-minute slot stood behind a keyboard, but in truth she barely uses it. It’s the mess of samplers and pedals at her disposal that form the crux of the performance, as she creates a veritable cornucopia of lush soundscapes using little more than her own voice, generously looped. Every time the mass of loops threatens to bubble over into cacophony, she dials them back down in impressively soothing fashion. Tim Hecker’s headline performance, meanwhile, couldn’t be further removed. 

 He’s just barely discernible amongst the shadows as he takes the stage in a pitch-dark theatre, and you spend the first few minutes wondering when the visuals are going to kick in – only to realise, eventually, that there aren’t any. Hecker delivers his entire set in almost total darkness, and it’s a complementary environment; his dark, foreboding sound, often beautiful on record, is utterly punishing live. We spotted a fair few heading for the exits early during a brutal, reverb-laden opening ten minutes. What they missed was a tantalising reinvention of what live electronic music should represent. Enjoyable seems like the wrong word, but exhilarating? Absolutely. 

 And as in previous years, a major part of FutureEverything’s remit was to explore how we interact with sound, and to experiment with it; it wasn’t simply a case of putting on live events. In keeping with that, one of the major installations at the vast ‘pop-up urban experiment’ City Fictions project was BUQS, which saw ninety Ubiquitous Electronic Lifeforms scattered across the city. The devices – produced, as demonstrated at New City Square, using 3D printers – were constructed of plastic casing and contained sensors and motors that allowed them to pick up basic information about their environment and relay them sonically, encouraging direct interaction with the BUQS with user-unique results. Their resemblance to giant insects was intended to conjure up imagery of ‘infestation’, with the suggestion that the units were able to ‘hack’ the landscape, leaving spectators with the resonant reminder that in urban environments, often the most omnipresent technology is near-invisible. 

We entered FutureEverything with a desire to broaden our horizons, and left with shattered preconceptions and with fresh ideas buzzing around in our minds. Looking at the forecasts of digital culture, proving that music is continuing to explore exciting, uncharted new territory and even handing out 130,000 copies of a fictional newspaper issue from 2018, FutureEverything is both inspiring and, at times, somewhat overbearing. If there’s one thing we’ve learnt, it’s that the future is coming, so we might as well embrace it.

Words By Yours Truly & Joe Goggins X

 Images by Gary Brown and Matt Eachus

Feature // Skiddle April Electronic Listings

April's listings have to be some of my favourite of the year. Where Easter used to mean chocolate eggs for breakfast on a Sunday, it now means an extra excuse to dance your legs into a state of numbness all in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. You can read all about my picks for Skiddle over here (Or huuugely unedited below, this month), including a run-down of Stones Throw-er Jon Wayne's hotly anticipated UK dates, as well as Andrew Weatherall playing a 'rave in a cave' for 4/20 (!!!).
Skiddle Electronic listings- April

As April and Easter rear their delectable confectionary-shaped heads around the corner, it seems that the North’s showcases this month are anything but fluffy and plucked from a pastel palette. If you planned a quiet one in pawing over your dissertations or catching up on that paperwork (I did until I composed this very piece…), then the club spaces throwing out the masculine chiefs and underground sizzlers, say otherwise. 

 With the intrusion of the significant LA hip-hop label Stones Throw Records, quite literally submerging the North this month, the opportunity to catch label boss Peanut Butter Wolf in the intimate setting of Leed’s Hi-Fi Club on April 4th, rings as a set that you’d literally kick yourself for being stupid enough to miss. Also making one of it’s UK premiers is the ‘Our Vinyl Weighs A Ton: This Is Stones Throw Records’ feature documentary, as Gorilla’s spacious club area in Manchester is converted into an independent, mini-cinema for the eve come the 3rd. Expect popcorn, hotdogs if you’re lucky, and definitely never-before-seen interviews with the likes of Snoop, Common and Tyler The Creator, talking about the surrounding birth of the influential imprint, over to the growth of hosting one of the most well-respected artist rosters and releases in hip hop. Don’t be thinking it’s all over though, as Jon Wayne plays his debut Manchunian show later on April 30th, bringing the illest beats, soulful undertones and fiercely intelligent flow to Soup Kitchen’s basement. With a little helping hand from local bad boys Metrodome and Sparkz paving the way with their take on classics the only way they know how, it’s set to be a hazed-out, impeccable month. 

 Fancy your bass a whole lot more beefy and home-grown? Then Butterz aficionado Royal-T heading up BPM at The Roadhouse should add a slick of oil to your motor, before Slew Dem veteran JT The Goon orchestrates his instrumental take on nu-grime over at Joshua Brooks. It’s not even close to over yet though, as Youngsta then takes on a rubble-shaking, 90-minute set at the under-renovation Antwerp Mansion thanks to Hit & Run. It looks like you better get your Monday morning sick voice practice in now, whilst I take a look what’s accumulating for the house heads and techno terrors. 

 Moving things along to our old favourites Chibuku and to slow things down after their insane Andy C-headed session in March, Good Friday will bring Columbia’s Shift K3y and Radio 1’s late night chameleon B Traits together, for one of the city’s top holiday bashes. Heading further afield and with Chester’s The Live Rooms turning up the dial with the mid-tempo, deep sounds of Black Butters duo Gorgon City, Ibiza-head Josh butler steps-toe-to-toe in an outer-city clash this month, flaring up behind the decks at Frodsham’s Mersey View. Feel like you need to breathe into a paper bag should you step out of anywhere remotely central, never mind a place where the Tesco Extra’s don’t even stay open till 11pm? Don’t worry, me too but luckily Leeds have our backs should we ever be so silly again. Glasgow’s Optimo nights have gained momentum for over a decade now, spinning out Sunday fun-days’ into a hedonistic powwow of diversity in Scotland, so their three-hour set at Wire should tide you over to Theo Parrish’s Easter Thursday doubled, six hour extension at Nest. 

Golden Ticket 

 Cream-affiliate 303 are making the necessarily bold leap away from traditional venues that hanker most regular evenings in Liverpool, bringing their ‘rave in a cave’ treat of accommodating eclectic master Andrew Weatherall, in the unique Williamson Tunnels heritage site. It’s an wonderfully varied venture that puts-to-shame the saturated Warehouse-venue market the North over, whilst certainly not standing dubious from providing attendees with the rousing, scintillating evening they deserve; Plus it’s all held on 4/20 and if you need your arm twisting any more, then hey, even Lauren agrees…

Words by Yours Truly X

Feature // Alizzz MIXED BY for Thump

I asked Spanish producer Alizzz to contribute to Thump's MIXED BY series and he provided a party selection, fit for brightening up any Monday. I've included the little-under-an-hour mix below, along with some words I wrote to coincide for Thump- oh and the full tracklist if you just keep scrolling!

Alizzz MIXED BY for Thump

Barcelona’s Alizzz has been drenching us all in his elastic works of high-contrast digitalism and hip-hop influenced soundscapes, with releases on labels including MofoHifi and Arkestra since 2012. Fast forward two bonkers years, and Alizzz’s latest ‘Sunshine’ EP offering on Mad Decent’s Jeffrees imprint brings shimmering synths, befuddling tempo changes, and a gurgling dose of bass to the frisky label - with his exclusive MIXED BY offering following suit. Laden with booty clap-inducing Big Sean remixes, Jersey Club big-name re-fits, as well as a slew of unreleased edits and of-the-minute pop gems, Alizzz presents an hour-long ride that cements his audacious persona as a European-centric, US-influenced platter of brilliance.

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{Tracklist: 100s - Ten Freaky Hoes Alizzz feat. Santell - I C U Promnite - She Know it Iggy Azalea feat. Charli XCX - Fancy Falcons - Be quiet Marian Hill - One Time (Imanos Remix) [Unreleased] Siroj - The heat [Unreleased] Seiho - Gold Moon Boots - CYS ARME - Foxxy [Unreleased] LIZ - All them boys Demon's - You are my high (Picard Bros edit) ranko feat. ELOQ & TT the Artist - Dirty Works [Unreleased] Ciara - Sorry (Playground Mob) [Unreleased] Big Sean - Marvin & Chardonnay (Trippy Turtle and Dj Hoodboi remix) Partynextdoor – Persian Rugs (salute Edit) Wave Racer - Bliss Streamers (Patrick Baker vocal edit) [Unreleased] Alizzz - What if Justin Timberlake - TKO (Lido remix) 813 - Lil bear [Unreleased] Brokenhaze - I believe [Unreleased] Flume x Hermitude - Hyperparadise (Ganz remix) Kelly Rowland - Kisses down low (Alizzz remix) Alizzz - That gurl Trey Songz - Neighbors Know My Name (Tk Kayembe RMX) Beyonce - Say my name (Cosmo midnight remix) [Unreleased] Alizzz - Sunshine}

Words by Yours Truly X

Review // Drake @ Phones 4 U Arena

The absolute angels over at Universal sent me to the opening night of Drake's 'Would You Like A tour?' here in Manchester earlier in the week. I (willingly/ unwillingly? Delete as appropriate) dragged Ceej along for throwing out some moves to my favourite non-guilty pleasure, it was an ostentatiously brilliant way to spend a Tuesday night and you can read all about it below!
Drake @ Phones 4 U Arena
Aubrey Drake Graham; Canadian child television wonder, rap superstar and poster boy for the millennial generation of emotional hip-hop, kicked off his ‘Would You Like A (UK) Tour?’ at Manchester’s Phones 4 U Arena on Tuesday. With a surplus of pyrotechnic explosions and splashing out on a reported two million dollar production budget, an additional invite to fellow Canuck The Weeknd to hop aboard his tour bus for this latest ten date run, extends further great promise and growth for tens of thousands of attendees.
 As soon as darkness dawned upon the stage, it seemed that spectators were more interested in Vine-ing blurry six second clips of the self-proclaimed Champagne Papi, rather than allowing their breath to be taken away by a, literally, sparking Tuscan Leather introduction. Holding down his on-stage territory with great audacity and a modest-sized, in-house band setting off his routine every step of the way, Graham distinguishes himself more self-assured and high-energy than ever. Alongside a mean-sounding rendition of Worst Behaviour, 305 To My City and the serenade-worthy Hold On We’re Going Home, non-album track Trophies and flutters of his guest spots on French Montana’s Pop That and A$AP Rocky’s Fuckin' Problems, make crystal clear that the So Far Gone-era classics don’t always have to be present.
 As mentioned, two million dollars is a ridiculously large amount of money by anyone’s standards to reserve solely for production value, however, surely on this titanic scale such bucks can be justified, presented and executed to an outstanding level, of which engages in nothing less than astonishing, a million times over. Or so you would believe. Realising that throughout his ninety-minute spectacular that the colossal chrome lighting rig suspended on the roof of the building, enlisted for Graham to interact more with his crowd, was utilised once for an unnecessarily lengthy period, suddenly the setting felt like a dilatory, showy attempt at being lavish purely for the sake of being lavish. Then comes the corny fifty-foot high monochrome portraits onscreen, tarnishing somewhat the latter-part of the show as wincingly self-appreciating, compared to the unpretentious aura that was present half an hour previous... and don’t even get me started on the cringe-worthy lyric adaptions of Manchester-based puns that were unavoidable come every other verse.
Nonetheless, it’s near impossible to question the OVO head’s methods of practice and sentimental lyrical ease, when he is the solitary figure on stage operating with impeccable execution. Before we know it, it’s a little after eleven and warnings of the impending climax approach; a hip-bumping portrayal of The Motto here, a smoke-rocket led swagger of HYFR there, ‘Would You Like A Tour?’ achieved the career-spanning setlist desired with formidable brilliance and just the perfect side-order of showmanship. Shouting out mentor-figures in the industry including Jay Z and Lil Wayne before bidding his sophomore arena audience goodbye, he needn’t look up nor fall back in comparison when four full-lengths deep, Aubrey Drake Graham has finally graduated with his soft-side flow crown, polished in place.

Words by Yours Truly X

Feature // Skiddle February Electronic Listings

I've been in dissertation hibernation (Along with a month full of suprise visits and big birthdays...), so completely forgot to post my Skiddle picks for February when they first went live earlier this month, whoops! You can read all about my championing of high-denier hosiery and bowing down to Valentines Day over here, with picks including Moderat, Hudson Mohawke and Gilles Peterson. Hold tight, more (Frequent, I promise) posts coming soon!

Words by Yours Truly X

Review // The Closing Party @ WHP

Review // The Closing Party @ WHP

I never thought being offered a badge at 9pm could, nor would, make me feel all kinds of emotion… pre-gin consumption, that is. However, a miniature, robust capsule branded with the text ‘Farewell Victoria’, confirmed that the inevitable had arrived. With an aura of melancholic pride oozing from even the water boys doing their bit from behind a pasting table in the forecourt, in addition to the fact that this periodic ‘closing party’ outdoes itself ever the more per-annum, begs allegiance that a significant night awaits thanks to a profusion of back-to-backs plucked from our wildest dreams.
 It has been impossible as of late to attend one of Oliver Jones’s either solo or Skreamizm-headed outings, without being swept into a syrup-smooth world of disco and funk grooves, yet we ought to have more respect than to measure that this dub veteran would follow the grain of our idle presumptions. Robert Hood’s ‘Paradise’ release under his Floorplan alias this Summer, was a minimal tech-house barrage that included the made-for-opening-your-evening-on-a-high-note ‘Baby Baby’, overflowing with curtailing horns and creditable agility within it’s exhilarating bursts. Skream knows that onslaughts of Detroit-influenced vigour is sure to get the ‘eds respectfully engaged, for the long-haul.
 Paul Woolford and Midland have locked horns in friendly b2b battles throughout the previous year, and despite the pair producing arguably 2013’s biggest dancefloor fillers in the mediums of ‘Untitled’ and ‘Trace’, tonight they opted to take a step back a decade and a double, to satisfy the bulging horde. Double 99’s ‘Rip Groove’ is only ever given the attention it deserves in such a praiseworthy environment with the white-knuckle suspense of its build-up and bass drop, followed by a deeply stringy Tina Moore sample that carries a wealth of intensity. Hold on a second, how does a track so brash even segue into the most sturdy release without nose-diving among the watchful? With the piano house classic of Inner City’s ‘Pennies From Heaven’, causing everyone to spit out their lines of ‘Bring me some love’ with all the toe-tapping and harmonising hands you could ask for, that’s how. As we scope past room one and spy a single Martinez Brother fist-pumping his way through the Jamie Jones- surveilling sea (Sorry for trying to hug you, Chris), two of the UK’s non-producing jewels, Jackmaster and Oneman, came together to perplex the brains off us in room three’s minuscule, mirrored slice of a space.

Although some may see the three hundred capacity room as an ill-fitting choice for such talent that does, inescapably, bring in an audience much bigger than the area can comfortably withstand, thanks to daring track selection and impeccable mixing, everyone is too busy spiralling into a hysterical state of sing-a-long indulgence to care. As near-millennial bangers a la Gorillaz and Basement Jaxx surprise and delight, modern rap anthems from Kanye and Ace Hood max the attitude up- and this wasn’t just variety selected to please the crowds, this was frankly, a special event for those electing what blows out of the speakers, too. Staples across the UK garage spectrum such as The Streets unforgettably intense ‘Blinded By The Lights’ and Artful Dodger’s ‘Movin’ Too Fast’, provide the much-needed antidote to the somewhat unknown soul-jazz of Gregory Porter’s ‘1960 what?’, as well as the downright weird inclusion of a segment entitled ‘Duelling Banjos’ from the 70s movie ‘Deliverance’. There was Drake, The Police, Boddika and Armand Van Helden- I really could go on, yet let it be known that the best set of the season was undoubtedly had here, as unashamed expressions of personality and intrigue were splashed all over the walls…and a spasming Chunky atop Krystal Klear’s shoulders seemed to agree, too.
 Piling out into the baltic Trafford night with the sound of Green Velvet’s ‘Bigger Than Prince’ echoing behind us and an illuminated signed reminder that this really is goodbye, we may be simultaneously beaming from within yet bowing our heads in woe, yet there really is no reason to even slightly take the gloom-and-doom approach. With talks that Warehouse will be moving to a bigger (and presumably better) space with names such as Mayfield Depot cropping up, in addition to a string of one-off events including Moderat at Albert Hall this approaching February, expansion and diversion will only prevail.

Words by Yours Truly // Images by WHP via here X