O2 Shepherds Bush Empire
Monday 10 September 2012
Sold Out
The xx
2:54
THEXX.INFO/
We are very pleased to present The xx at Shepherd’s Bush Empire.
This event is now sold out.
We are very pleased to present The xx at Shepherd’s Bush Empire.
This event is now sold out.
PLEASE NOTE EARLY DOOR TIME OF 6:30pm
Due to high demand, Grimes is back for a 2nd date at Heaven this September
There is a powerful harmony in Grimes. It is a project which is both musical and visual, embodying the arts of 2D, performance, dance, video and sound. Claire Boucher weaves these together to a strong rhythmic effect, “the marriage between the voice of a human and the heartbeat of a machine” [Bullett Magazine].
“the electro cotton-candy of Visions is an inviting entrance into Grimes’ peculiar kind of bliss” – Pitchfork
“White noise crackles underneath poppy snares and spacey, reverberated synths; Boucher uses her voice like a percussive instrument, chopping it up to create staccato punches that break the song’s dance club atmosphere.” – Austinist.com
Plus support from Majical Cloudz, who will also be joining Grimes on stage playing electronic drums
Tickets SOLD OUT
Numbers crewmember and all-round musical genius RUSTIE plays Electrowerkz on the 5th of September.
“A True 21st Century Classic” – Mixmag
“A new benchmark for Electronic Music…. A Modern Masterpiece” – Dazed & Confused
“It’s bombastic, it’s vibrant, it’s neon…and it’s also stunningly good.”
– 9/10, XLR8R
“The Most Exciting Record of the Year. Vicious, gorgeous, stunning and UNFUCKINGBELIEVEABLE” – Notion
“An undeniable and up-to-the-minute rush” – 8.0, Pitchfork
Glasgow’s talent pool clearly runs deep, and if the city’s last few years of genre-busting electronic music have made anything remotely clear it’s that Rustie is one of the deep-fried kingdom’s crown jewels. Emerging with the rest of the multi-talented Numbers crew, and with only a handful of laser-guided releases to his name, his presence far outreaches his focused, evolving discography. Rightly mentioned in the same breath with many of the most innovative producers in the world, astute Pitchfork scribe Martin Clarke once described Rustie’s music “like a metaphor for living in intense digital excess” – something everyone should be able to relate to.
As is often the case, this digital excess also mirrors the excesses of the physical world, and so Rustie time travels for the cocaine-addled synthesizer washes and searing guitar tones of 1980’s pop, the cash-infused bombast of new-millennium R&B, the pit-of-your-stomach ecstasy high of the most classic rave memories and the bloodshot scowl of white-hot pirate radio broadcasts. In 2007, with a new generation of irreverent producers and artists seemingly simultaneously uploading their music to MySpace, Rustie’s ‘Jagz The Smack’ EP was a miniature revelation. In a swift five tracks, it managed to not only synthesize the tone of mid-decade electronic music, but also provided a danceable prediction for much of what would soon be called “UK bass music” (not to mention many other, far less eloquent, names).
It would take three more years to move through a string of now classic 12”s like ‘Zig-Zag’, ‘Bad Science’ and ‘Play Doe/Tempered’, his collaboration with Bristol’s mighty Joker. This unfettered run was capped by a string of essential remixes (or “Resmacks” in the parlance of Rustie) for the likes of Jamie Lidell, Kelis, The Big Pink and Nicki Minaj, leading into his debut EP for Warp, ‘Sunburst’. In another breathless five-track flash, ‘Sunburst’ amalgamated Rustie’s love for obscure Japanese prog-rock, 16-bit video game sonics and icy grime and Detroit techno heft into a fleeting vision of the future of rave music. Snare rolls ricocheted, synths undulated in hypercolor hues and the bass bubbled over, the stage was set.
Now after taking shape in the studio over the course of the past two years, ‘Glass Swords’ arrives, and as the otherworldly landscape of the album artwork suggests, it is epic and alien. Opening with the beguiling synth and guitar meditation that is the album’s title track, this is the last chance to take a deep breath before the rushing neon strains of bright melody and earthquake drums of ‘Flash Back’ and ‘Surph’. Next up ‘Hover Traps’ references the twitchy slap-bass and punchy electronic chords of 80’s funk masters like Midnight Star and Lamont Dozier while ‘City Star’ achieves the perfect balance of tunefulness and menace of the best grime productions. Through the middle of the record, a triptych of tracks present themselves as the model of the updated version of rave music Rustie has mastered. First single (and longtime club favorite) ‘Ultra Thizz’ is all breakdowns and build-ups structured around whip-crack snare drums, while ‘Death Mountain’ and ‘Cry Flames’ deal in the kind of soaring hooks and basement low-end that might very well leave permanent marks on your home stereo.
It is this singular and striking approach which encapsulate both the immediacy of pop and the rampant experimentation of underground electronic music that has set Rustie apart from a wide field of contemporaries and has captured the imaginations of so many in the months since it’s release. Fans range from like-minded artists such as Flying Lotus, Grimes and Gorillaz to media stalwarts NME, BBC Radio 1 and The Guardian, who recently decreed Glass Swords to be the finest debut album of the year. Far from stopping there, a new reworked version of ‘Surph’ recently swept across the UK’s airwaves courting hyperbole from Huw Stephens, Mary Ann Hobbs and Greg James to name but a few.
On Pete Tong’s legendary Essential Mix show, Rustie would deliver a penultimate addition to that shows canon, and one that would become the first Essential Mix ever to be granted an album review by supreme tastemakers Pitchfork (they called it “a joyously fun trip”). It is this distinct take on hard-charging dance music that has seen him convert the same audience as American EDM heavyweights like Diplo and Skrillex without sacrificing his deft, tuneful and at times introspective approach.
As the album draws into its closing tracks, skittish hooks and warm textures sweep in and out of focus without ever losing the warped narrative that effectively joins ‘Glass Swords’ into a startling cohesive whole. As an album, it’s one that doesn’t let up and demands repeat listens to fully appreciate the myriad hum-along melodies and wicked production u-turns, and don’t worry about the jittery over-caffeinated feeling you’ll have after listening…it’s to be expected.
Plus support from Alunageorge & Koreless
ALUNAGEORGE
“Lustrous, sinister and ever so slightly weird” – Pitchfork
“More thrillingly futuristic R&B from this London duo” – The Guardian
“Aluna Francis and George Reid collide with so much flair and ignite each other with so much soul that if they don’t conquer the UK charts by the end of the year – and I mean absolutely obliterate them – it’ll be a huge crime” – The 405
In June, the London duo of producer George Reid and singer Aluna Francis released their debut EP, ‘You Know You Like It’ on the experimental Tri Angle Records. The three tracks seamless marriage of UK glitch and bass culture and sample based production with futuristic R&B sheen and British pop sensibilities packed a contagious punch, winning the accolades of everyone from the NME and The Guardian to Pitchfork and Spin, quickly highlighting AlunaGeorge as one of 2012’s brightest hopes. Hot off the heels of that resounding opening gambit, AlunaGeorge now announce their new single, ‘Your Drums, Your Love’ which will be released on September 3 on Island Records.
Picking up where ‘You Know You Like It’ left off, ‘Your Drums, Your Love’ continues the duo’s streak of cutting-edge club pop. Reid’s liquid synths and rumbling low-end bass provide a glistening backdrop to the sweet allure of Aluna’s voice, soaring with the fragile refrain of “I’ve been treading water for your love”, evoking a distinctly 21st century sensation of dance-floor infatuation. Precision-honed, adventurous and infectiously catchy, ‘Your Drums, Your Love’ is further proof that AlunaGeorge embody 21st century British pop at its most instantly classic and exhilarating.
Following on from their recent tour supporting Friends, AlunaGeorge can now also announce a new run of UK and festival dates:
Sadly, CAMP Basement has closed its doors, and this event will now be taking place at Electrowerkz.
Norfolk retro-futurist Nathan Fake returns with brand new single ‘Iceni Strings’: a typically bold reframing of the Zeitgeist, where burbling organic synths meet a deliciously crunchy techno rattle in one glorious, exuberant pre-apocalyptic braindance.
Unmistakably Nathan Fake, but with a warmer take on the hard-edged techno that dominated previous longplayer ‘Hard Islands’, the deceptively simple melody of ‘Iceni Strings’ resonates with a campfire folk memorability that becomes the Iceni, the ancient Norfolk-dwelling Celtic tribe who lend their name to the title. “I just felt like the whole track had a total Celtic tribal campfire vibe to it!”, Nathan explains.
The cheeky 12” vinyl and digital release comes backed with two equally blistering B- sides: previously unreleased symphonic live anthem ‘Sense Head’, and the fresh-to- tape steely, austere metropolitan soundscape of ‘Bauxite Dream’.
‘Iceni Strings’ is a fitting first single for his nostalgically-titled third album ‘Steam Days’, due for release late August on Border Community.
Tickets available here
Ululululululul! Orchestra of Spheres – Warping spatio-elastoplasticity! Channeling ancient future funk from the IS! Creating spontaneous symmetry in sound!
Orchestra of Spheres takes you to higher dimensions through mathematical ratios of rhythm and the chaos patterns of sound.
Born from the Frederick Street Sound and Light Exploration Society in 2009, the Spheres have developed a cult-like following in their brief existence. Like celestial sponges, they draw on influences far and wide: the hypnotic beats of Kuduro; repetitive minimalist Bornean sape music; free jazz and improvised music and the celestial chimes of gamelan. The Spheres use homemade instruments such as the biscuit tin guitar, electric bass carillon and sexomouse marimba to create their cosmic dancing sound and the spaced out sound worlds.
Plus support from ALEXANDER TUCKER After years perfecting his musical craftsmanship, via numerous album releases for ATP Recordings and U-Sound Archives and collaborations with performers as diverse as Stephen O’Malley (Sunn 0)))) Daniel Beban (Orchestra Of Spheres) and Daniel O’Sullivan (Ulver), Alexander Tucker reached something of a crescendo with 2011′s remarkable “Dorwytch” (Thrill Jockey -included in The Wire’s top 50 albums of 2011), an achievement surpassed only by his constantly mutating live show. Somehow through all of this he has also written a new album which will be released on Thrill Jockey in April 2012 and will be followed by more live excursions, bringing his psych-chamber-doom-pop to ever wider audiences
Download your FREE ticket from www.ticketweb.co.uk
We are really excited to be involved in Beacons this year. We have helped curate a stage for the weekend with Stool Pigeon and Iron Wagon. Our line up on Sunday is:
TOOTS AND THE MAYTALS
THE FELICE BROTHERS
PATRICK WOLF
LANTERNS ON THE LAKE
ERRORS
WILLY MASON
FRANKIE & THE HEARTSTRINGS
ADMIRAL FALLOW
GOODNIGHT LENIN
Here is it: “Milk Famous”: the brand new and highly anticipated third album by White Rabbits. Only this Brooklyn-based band’s combination of Midwestern roots and eclectic musical backgrounds could produce the balance of beauty and bombast that is “Milk Famous.” Produced by Mike McCarthy, “Milk Famous” will be on every person of wealth and taste’s shortlist of Best Records of 2012.
And what else is there to know about White Rabbits, you may ask? Well, plenty…
To begin, not one member of the band has ever perpetrated a ponzi scheme. This fact may sound alarming given how newscasts are, literally, riddled with stories on ponzi schemes these days. But I assure you that if you were to scour most of the internet or visit your local library’s microfiche machines you will not find one ponzi scheme associated with Stephen Patterson (vocals/piano/guitar), Alex Even (guitar), Gregory Roberts (guitar/vocals), Jamie Levinson (drums) or Matthew Clark (drums).
(NOTE: Thats not to say they wouldn’t take your life savings given the chance, but they’ll most likely do it by getting you to buy “Milk Famous” and tickets to all their shows and getting your friends to do the same… which is really not all that dissimilar to a ponzi scheme)
Anyway, White Rabbits’ roots go back to Columbia, MO where Stephen, much like fellow Midwesterner Iggy Pop, was making a living playing the drums in bands alongside much older jazz musicians (in Stephen’s case, authentic grown-up jazz cats—after a youthful run of hardcore punk bands, he was actively shunning popular music for a while), which helped him assimilate to other instruments and orchestration. “It was always a struggle for me early on to learn how to play instruments that had notes. Once I started viewing the keyboards as 88 drums, it really opened up the way I can play.” (It should be noted here that White Rabbits have two drummers, Jamie and Matt, far as I can tell from seeing them live).
It was also during Stephen’s college years majoring in music composition and jazz drumming that he struck up a friendship with Greg while the two were pulling a “High Fidelity” at Streetside Records in Columbia, MO (I don’t know which guy was John Cusack and which was Jack Black–you’ll have to ask them). Greg, Matt and fellow future Rabbit and then-17-year-old high school student Alex needed a drummer for their ingeniously named punk band Texas Chainsaw Mass Choir (how did no one else ever think of that name?) so they asked Stephen to join and just like Michael Corleone in Godfather III, he was pulled back in.
The first White Rabbits incarnation, however, didn’t lumber together until Greg bumped their original singer out of the lead vocal spot. They wrote, recorded, even toured with The Walkmen and Blood Brothers (with whom Texas Chainsaw Mass Choir had previously toured) in this early version–all the while saving every penny from the band’s gigs and Stephen moonlighting as a waiter and house drummer in a Columbia MO jazz joint (where Matt also waited tables, while across town Greg was working a similar job at the Blue Note) in hopes of moving to New York. (Another note: These hopes and dreams probably didn’t involve living together in the same one-room Brooklyn apartment, though it should be said that for Alex–having grown up one of nine siblings–nine!–it was probably a relief!).
The band’s Big Apple prayers were answered, uh sort of, in the form of a fairly awful car accident that resulted in a settlement paid to Stephen that funded the journey to NYC–which is a strangely good analogy for the White Rabbits’ signature trick of wrapping some seriously dark and twisted shit in really pretty packages. The band eventually relocated to New York, soon rearranging the lineup to split vocals and songwriting duties between Stephen and Greg, and working on the material that would become their first album–oh and and getting signed to a record deal after performing their first New York City show. You know, the same way it happens for NO ONE ELSE EVER…
…Except that it happened again between their first and second albums, when tbd Records head honcho Phil Costello (no relation to Elvis, though both have had momentous impact on White Rabbits in their own ways) accidentally caught a White Rabbits set while scouting another band at SXSW and offered them a deal on the spot. Crazier still, Costello turned out to have co-founded the Blue Note with Greg’s old boss Richard King, who along with Costello was BFFs with Stephen and Greg’s former boss, Streetside Records owner Kevin Walsh. None of the above was known to the Rabbits when Costello first approached them, which could lead you to think Damon Lindelof was writing their lives for them.
So… the first White Rabbits album, “Fort Nightly” was released in May 2007 on Say Hey records. Jamie, who had originally been brought on as manager, was recruited as an actual band member as the band realized their increasingly complex and intertwining rhythms required another drummer (and as a manager, Jamie was a fantastic drummer), and such was the beginning of the sound and material that would become album #2.
White Rabbits’ critically acclaimed sophomore album “It’s Frightening” was released in May 2009, featuring what the band felt was a more stripped down, abrasive approach–you know, the tried and true formula for career suicide… which resulted in the song, “Percussion Gun,” which racked up a million hits on Youtube and wound up featured everywhere from “Friday Night Lights” to FIFA World Cup. Do you have any idea how many people watch soccer? Seriously, do you have the slightest idea?
Which brings us to the band’s new album, “Milk Famous,” set to be released on March 6th. The title of the record, “Milk Famous,” Stephen explains as meaning, “To be known but not for something you intended to be known for.” Which you may have figured out on your own. Or you might have wondered for a while what it meant if he hadn’t said that. Or just wondered what becomes of the truly “Milk Famous” late in their careers. Like Bobby Brown. Is he alive? I mean, how stupid are you going to feel if you’re trying to think of other people who are “Milk Famous” when Bobby Brown could be lying face down in a ditch?
“Milk Famous” is both the third White Rabbits album, and the band’s second release for tbd records, the label most famous for being Radiohead’s current home. But technically White Rabbits signed to tbd before Radiohead. And Radiohead just added that second drummer, didn’t they? So I’m not accusing anyone of following in someone else’s footsteps or anything… I’m just saying.
You’ve probably already heard “Heavy Metal,” the first track from “Milk Famous” to go public, which will prepare you for the upcoming single, “Temporary.” Singles are a funny thing, y’know? That is, in terms of someone choosing which song you should listen to first. But with an album as hauntingly textured yet awe-inspiringly pop, we could all benefit from some assistance on a solid starting point.
And your starting point may be loving “Heavy Metal” or it may be loving “Temporary.” But you’ll equally love other songs such as “Back For More” (which Stephen and Alex produced themselves), “I’m Not Me,” “The Day You Won the War,” “I Had It Coming”… Hell, there isn’t a clunker in the bunch. And if you disagree, you are listening to music incorrectly. Go back and start from scratch.
Finally, and somewhat unrelated, I’m told Bobby Brown is definitely not in a ditch. Maybe Elvis Costello could write a sweet tune about Bobby Brown dying in a ditch. I bet it would be vaguely creepy but ridiculously catchy. Kinda’ like the new White Rabbits record. Make sure to ask the band what they think about that when you see them live on tour this year.
Tickets available here
Support from the brilliant LOVEPARK
Palma Violets will be headlining this very special show at the 223 Club, to raise funds to save the basement at Studio 180. They’ll be joined on the bill by Childhood and Famy.
For almost two years The Basement @ Studio 180 has played host to a seemingly endless amount of new and old creative talent. The aim with the space has always been to create a platform accessible to all, where individuals and groups can entertain to a willing and energetic crowd.
Read the NME review of the last time Palma Violets played 180 here.
All artists and all those working on this event are giving up their own time for free to make this night a success, with all door and bar taking going directly to the basement fund.
Turner Prize winner Martin Creed writes direct, compelling songs with the ability to both amuse and perturb. Think… the rhythmic punk of Ian Dury and the wit and pop nous of Glasgow’s Postcard Records.
Martin Creed and his band were recently picked by The Cribs as the Hottest Band In The World Right Now on NME.com, who they supported on their 2012 UK tour. Martin Creed is also much loved by Franz Ferdinand – regular attendees at his gigs and co-producers on his album – as well as label-mates Slow Club.
Not only is Martin Creed a Turner Prize-winning artist of some renown but with ‘Love To You’ has recorded one of this year’s most irresistible albums. With a total running time of less than 40 minutes not a second is wasted. From the spitting vitriol of ‘Fuck Off’ to the heartfelt title track ‘Love To You’, this is an album of short, sharp, funny yet touching songs delivered by Martin and his band.
Join Martin Creed and his Band on 1st August at The Dalston Victoria, for a live show to celebrate the release of the album.
Plus support from TELEMAN and DAVID CUNNINGHAM
For 6 years brother duo ROCKETNUMBERNINE have been honing their unique sound. Starting off as an improv duo for the first 4 years, they decided to cross the sound over and turned heads very quickly – including those of the legendary Kieran Hebden Aka Four Tet and Gilles Peterson. The last 12 months has seen them record a session for Gilles at Radio 1 and perform at The BBC Worldwide Awards Ceromony, tour with both Four Tet and Caribou and perform in collaboration with Four Tet at The Mutek Festival in Montreal. Their first single released on Kieran’s Text label – a 14 minute opus laid down in one take with no overdubs was greatly received.
Plus a very special guest DJ
DOWNLOAD YOUR FREE TICKET HERE
UNDERAGE PRESENTS: Dog is Dead
STRICTLY 14 – 17 year olds. No over 17s or under 14s admitted.
Nottingham five-piece DOG IS DEAD play a special Underage warm up event in advance of their hotly anticipated set at this summer’s Underage festival. Dog Is Dead are a band that have built up the old-fashioned way, honing their thrillingly energetic live show across the UK.