The cover of Lars Fenin’s second album for Shitkatapult looks alarmingly like the promotional shots of Burial that came with Untrue, with a silhouetted Fenin set against a cloudy Berlin sky amidst puddles of rain. But rest assured, this is no fanboy homage, nor even particularly moody or urban. In fact, while dubstep may have played a part in shifting Fenin’s sound further away from its dub techno origins, you couldn’t say Been Through is even really a dubstep album. Dub there certainly is, but Fenin is going for more song-based electronics, something like labelmate Apparat’s Walls from last year, only more compelling and less sentimental.

Perhaps the closest sonic analogy might be late '90s post-rock of the City Slang and Soul Static Sound variety, which Fenin’s earlier Shitkatapult 12” ‘Thrill’ also hinted at. There are guitars on ‘Miles and More’, for example, and the scratchy rhythms of the single ‘A Try’ could easily find themselves on to a To Rococo Rot album. ‘Elephants’, meanwhile, is abstract pop with clear dancefloor leanings and synthy pop beats.

Been Through is occasionally tense and brooding, such as on opener ‘Dub Eraldo – Intro’, made with Italian avante garde musician Eraldo Bernocchi, which is all dub pressure pulses and wobbleboard bass, or on the closing track ‘Years Ago’, which pairs a metronomic tin beat with dense hypnotic keyboards. In between, the mood is lighter: ‘Breakin’ is almost happy sounding, lifted up by it’s infectious (or infuriating, depending on your point of view) one finger keyboard melody and shuffling percussion.

Ghanaian-born Berliner Gorbi, who provided the vocals on several early Fenin singles, also adds to the retrospective dub flavour on four tracks. Unfortunately, his vocals on the single from the album ‘A Try’ and the electro pop cut ‘Colorfields’ follow almost the same melody line in parts, which undermines the effect. Gorbi is at his best on the cover of Neil Diamond ‘Red Red Wine’, which is transformed into an electronic roots reggae cover that is thankfully closer to Tony Tribe´s rocksteady version than the UB40 hit. Robert “Scorcha” Williams almost outdoes Gorbi on his one appearance with some heavy vocals on the sound system-esque ‘Complain’, but Gorbi is again in form on the excellent ‘I Guess’ where he lets himself get lost and loose in the hypnotic percussive maze. Importantly, Fenin seems to be content not to over-process any of the vocals, leaving them vulnerable, but also steering them well away from the clichéd dub territory of too many echoes and filters.

The albums greatest quality overall is its intelligence and control. No track is overly long and yet each has its own strong melodic current and well designed structure that develops as the track goes on –many even have short, elaborate codas. These details may give Been Through a weaving flow that adds interest, but overall there is a certain restraint to the record, which combined with the absence of a single binding idea leaves the album just short of being classic electronica.

Tracklist: Fenin - Been Through

01 Dub Eraldo – Intro
02 A try
03 Breakin
04 Colourfields
05 Miles and more
06 So weit so gut
07 Complain
08 Elephants
09 Red wine
10 I guess
11 Years ago

Chris Mann

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And the big new sound of the year is…BOOZECORE.

Nôze come lurching in to the big time with their debut album release on Get Physical and it’s a cocktail of slurred vocals, jolly pianos, sloppy rhythms and maudlin sentiment. In contrast to the prevailing spring break/frat party vibe of maximal music in 2008 or the cultural studies seminar of ‘serious techno’, this album is like you, your friends, some tequila shots and the back room of a pub.

Musically the main inspiration seems to be European folk music, particularly the raucous Balkan variety and an emphasis on genuine instruments (or synthesized approximations of the same) creating loose, easy grooves.

And that looseness is one of the two things that makes Songs on the Rocks so great. This stuff is just easy to dance to because the rhythms feel human and natural not tight and constricted – the beats are somewhat backgrounded instead of imposing themselves on the songs so tracks like ‘Danse Avec Moi’ are perfect for gently bobbing around, beer in hand, as well as more committed dancefloor perambulations. Even more stripped-down beaty instrumentals like ‘Ethiopo’ have woozy brass or off-time strings to move them away from a strict rigidity into something more informal.

Have you ever danced in pajamas? That’s how Nôze feels.

The second thing that makes this great are the vocals. There’s a touch of Gilbert Becaud in the confident moments and more than a little Shane McGowan in the growly emotional ones. It sounds like nothing else around today and means that this is an album that sits quite happily on iPods as well as club systems. Then the lyrics themselves are noteworthy – a mixture of English and French that feels utterly natural for today’s polylingual EU. The songs all focus on bringing to life characters and situations like ‘Slum Girl’s rose seller, or ‘L’inconnu du placard’s Uncle Charlie which give them a fantastical hallucinatory quality.

On the negative side more than a few people are going to find the oompah-oompah groove of songs like ‘Little Bug’ erring too far on the side of cheese. But if like Uncle Charlie you wake up in the morning and have a glass of wine it’s unlikely you’ll feel that way.

Songs on the Rocks is genuinely that reviewer cliché – “a breath of fresh air” (although perhaps “a breath of smoky whisky-flavoured air” might be more accurate). There’s a distinctive and well-realised vision here and it’s a vision that’s both original and more importantly incredibly fun. I’ve got no doubt that Noze’s piano sound, best known on ‘Remember Love’, will soon get ripped off ad nauseam by far lesser artists but that’s just the surface sheen. The ideas that lie below the execution are what makes this shine out as something special.

The album also contains a new contender for anthem status, and a worthy successor to ‘Remember Love’ in ‘You Have to Dance’ (which M.A.N.D.Y. are already closing their sets with). It has a whistles, a reggae-like offbeat stab and most importantly the lyric “You have to dance, you have to dance, you have to dance on this and think about your death / you have to drink, you have to drink, you have to drink all night to remember that you’re alive’. And if that’s not a statement of intent I don’t know what is…

There’s justifiable buzz around this and a strong chance that it will cross over to a more general audience. And even if it doesn’t, everyone should have a place in their collection for an album that straddles pop and techno and that can get the (house) party started even if your guests normally hate electronic music.

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I did a naughty thing. I made a playlist, one that might make Prosumer and Murat Tepeli uncomfortable. It’s called ‘Amnesia vs. Serenity’, and I leave it on shuffle for hours at a time. I wouldn’t have made it under most circumstances—or with nearly any other combination of albums—but in this case, the meeting seemed not so much a tentative experiment as an exhilarating tryst. It’s no light thing to say that Serenity is an ideal counterpoint, a perfect partner for a musico-romantic involvement (across the space of decades) with Larry Heard’s classic productions as Mr. Fingers. And it’s no mean feat that the duo (with help from Elif Biçer’s voice and the prestige of Ostgut behind them) have managed to produce a collection of tracks and songs that not only echo but amplify and renew the passion that they draw their form and voice from. Serenity calls to the classic house trax of mid ‘80s Chicago in the same way that CW Stoneking calls to Robert Johnson and the delta blues; the way that Amy Winehouse (poor thing) calls to Arethra Franklin and Billie Holiday; the way that Jamie Lidell calls to Otis Redding. Maybe, to draw this release into a broader current in music, the loving capture of old spirits presents us with a perfect encapsulation of what it means to be contemporary in the mid ‘00s.

It should be obvious then (following the analog) that Serenity is hardly about the search for new formulas, or even their accidental discovery. ‘Steeped’ in the classics might be a word for it. ‘Staunchly’ house might be another. Within the sound called house, the music of Prosumer, Murat Tepeli and Elif Biçer on Serenity also parallels the neo-classicist productions of Jamal Moss (Hieroglyphic Being), but there are key differences in approach and outcome. Moss’ emphasis is always on ‘the box’, the way he uses it as a tool for exploring a groove that is continually discovering itself. In contrast, Serenity’s strength is in the sparse precision of polished arrangements and the looseness of their movement. Prosumer and Tepeli use their style to rediscover something that was already there, a preset, but a personal one that the machine will only bring forth if you seduce it.

A few highlights: the album’s opener, ‘Serenity’, for the clarity and warmth of Prosumer’s vocal, and the lyrics. ‘Butterfly’, for the ‘beauty and the beast’ contrast between the elevating sweetness of Biçer’s soprano and the sinister growl of the bassline below it. ‘Devotion’, for the sighs of the synth washes and the slow acid line that weaves it all together. ‘Latenight Theme’ for the deliciously brief (eleven seconds) window on the larger melodic theme that contains shades of Isolée’s Rest—also thereby hinting at a possible avenue of musical development for their forthcoming works… guys?

Hinting at such possibilities also brings us to the limits of Serenity as a work of musical creation, as ‘new’ music. Amy Winehouse apparently missed out on the 2007 Mercury Prize because some thought Back to Black was a ‘retro record’ (the guy from the Klaxons said as much). I wonder whether this is a relevant or interesting criticism in 2008. Whether or not this is a problem for you depends on your conception of what ‘new’ music should be. It should be obvious by now that Serenity is not an album of surprises, but of tried and true sounds. You might even call it ‘traditional’; it certainly could just as accurately have been called Fidelity. Personally, such a perfectly faithful articulation of the golden formulas escapes the kinds of caveats that might pursue it. For the many new fans who (hopefully) discover ‘the feeling’ through this album, this also means that Serenity presents an entry into the jacking yesteryear of the Warehouse (via the back door). Either way, Serenity is the golden age recast as the gleaming spirit of the now, and it soars.

Words/PeterChambers

Tracklist: Prosumer & Murat Tepeli - Serenity

01 Serenity
02 I Go Mad
03 Drama Baby (feat. Elif Biçer)
04 Lov (feat. Elif Biçer, recorded live at Panorama Bar)
05 Turn Around (feat. Elif Biçer)
06 The Craze (recorded live at Panorama Bar)
07 Go Silla
08 Makes Me Wanna Dance
09 Give And Take
10 Butterfly (feat. Elif Biçer)
11 Believe (Instrumental Mix)
12 Latenight
13 Latenight Theme
14 Noone Else
15 Solid Mind
16 Devotion
17 Serenity Reprise

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The press notes for the very first artist album in Metalheadz history compare it to landmark drum n bass full lengths such as Timeless or New Forms. Unfortunately, the reality is a little less glowing. Rather than the Pendulum-fueled headbanger breaks that have dominated DnB over the last few years, Call To Mind is more retro-tinged, inhaling the likes of Bukem, Photek, and Two Pages-era 4 Hero and synthesizing them into something that has a lot of variety. Well, at least the CD version released last year did. The 3x12” vinyl—held up at the plant for months due to a pressing error, apparently—unfortunately strips away that range and focuses squarely on the most dancefloor friendly choons.

The first disc is the best of the three. ‘How You Gonna Feel’ has a nice urban feel and features the warm smoothness of Steve Spacek’s voice, while ‘Change’, featuring a guest appearance from fellow Cambridge hip-hop producers the Nextmen, is even better. This side may not be tough enough for kids in the States raised on a steady diet of Linkin Park and Timbaland, but it will certainly get love back home in England for being authentic.

The second disc is more progressive-sounding, underpinned by a touch of blunted Philly soul that’s overall reminiscent of mid-nineties Photek, while disc three is the weakest of the collection with two peak hour steppers that, beside the lush electronic strings on ‘Emily’s Smile’, offer little of the forward thinking drum n bass movement that Commix are said to be a part of and that’s seriously disappointing.

Call To Mind is a decidedly ordinary album. It’s retro feel might be fun, but there’s little of the innovation shown by Goldie and his Metalheadz label the decade previous to show here. Hailed as the return of the genre on its release, ultimately the record only speaks to how low the bar is for DnB these days.

Words/Sean-MichaelYoder

Tracklist: Commix - Call To Mind

A How You Gonna Feel
B Change
C Belleview
D Japanese Electronics
E Emily's Smile
F Strictly

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Hospital Records consistently puts out at least decent, usually good and sometimes great drum n bass tunes, but I've no idea why they showcase their best releases each year under the Hospital Mix aesthetic. The sixth in the budget-priced series is 29 Hospital tracks mixed live across three decks by boy wizard Jon Cyantific, who nabbed Best Breakthrough DJ award at last year's BBC 1Xtra Bass Awards. If that description alone made you want to bust open the piggy bank and rush to your nearest record store, I'm not gonna block the door. But everyone else who still thinks five pounds is too much for an often-incoherent DJ jerk-off session had best hold on to their wallet.

It's hard to figure out exactly who's to blame here. Could it be label founder London Elektricity, who made last year's Hospital Mix Five with the same more-bang-for-your-buck mentality? That mix was still a fair shake better than Six though, so is it Cyantific's fault? He did a bang-up job on his disc for the Hospitalised package two years ago, cutting a wide swathe through the label's tougher territory with loads of clever double drops, teases and a nice flow.

All the same tricks are employed here, so is it the tracks' fault? Not by a longshot, seeing as how Cyantific didn't pass on a single gem from arguably Hospital's best year yet: High Contrast's 'If We Ever,' Apex featuring Ayah on 'Space Between', and the massive Matrix & Futurebound remix of 'System' by Nu:Tone with Natalie Williams. It's a solid selection, but what Cyantific's mix desperately needs is about ten less tracks and ten more minutes.

Problem is, instead of building a coherent set with peaks, troughs and an ending that leaves you wanting more, Cyantific would rather just show off his DJ tricks for an hour and call it a night. His habit of layering songs three-at-a-time is bad enough, coating the crystal clear breakbeats in one tune with the grimy film of those from two others. Most annoyingly, however, is his tendency to replace uplifting breaks with sinister ones: pitting Nu:Tone & Pat Fulgoni's funky 'Beliefs' against his own industrial 'Disconnected', and criminally draining the aforementioned 'System' remix of all its
spine-tingling power by dropping it into his caned-to-death 'Flashback' from 2005. The double-drop works nicely on 'If We Ever' cut with little-known producer Muffler's 'Mermaids.' But even then it's not as good as DJ Hype managed when he slammed it into Dillinja's 'Tunnel Grinder' on his Drum & Bass Arena Presents mix last year.

Like Hype and fellow three-decks jock Andy C, Cyantific is a proud proponent of the ADHDJing style that is so prevalent in DnB. Maybe it's those DJs' years on the scene, but they're much more capable of juggling shitloads of tracks in a short amount of time and still having it all make sense. And while Jon Cyantific has been quoted as saying, "A good DJ is a musician in my book," his mixing has a long way to go before it will reflect that. Go back to the lab and let someone else on next year. My advice to that DJ: less is more.

Words/DaveRinehart

Tracklist: Cyantific - Hospital Mix Six

01 High Contrast – Metamorphosis/Logistics - Inside My Soul
02 Apex featuring Ayah - Space Between
03 Logistics - Glitch
04 High Contrast - The Ghost Of Jungle Past
05 Commix - Scarlet
06 Blame - Hindsight
07 Nu:Tone featuring Pat Fulgoni - Beliefs
08 Cyantific – Disconnected/Logistics - Krusty Bass Rinser
09 Nu:Tone Feat Natalie Williams - System (Matrix & Futurebound Remix)
10 Cyantific & Logistics – Flashback/London Elektricity - Round The Corner (Origin Unknown Remix)
11 Nu:Tone - Second Connection
12 Logistics - Colour Wheel (Friction & K-Tee VIP)
13 High Contrast - If We Ever
14 Muffler - Mermaids
15 Danny Byrd - Shock Out
16 Logistics - Spotlight
17 Makoto & T-Ak - Voyager
18 Nu:Tone - Troopers
19 Mistabishi - No Matter What
20 Logistics - Lullaby
21 Cyantific - Change Your Mind
22 Logistics - Reality Checkpoint
23 Cyantific - Space Station Kru
24 Danny Bryd & The Brookes Brothers - Gold Rush
25 Mistabishi - She Lied
26 High Contrast – Everything's Different (Calibre Remix)

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It feels like the debate around new production software and mp3 distribution is just going to run and run, and to an extent we’re all pretty sick of it now. I’m certainly never checking one of those “VINYL WILL NEVER DIE SUXX0RS” forum threads again. These changes to the way music is made and sold, however, have one effect that hasn’t been talked about that much, and that’s the increase in the number of artist albums. Because it’s so much easier to produce an album and send it out these days, many more artists are doing them. And that’s having an effect on the nature of albums.

So what is a good album? Mango is well produced and there are some really nice tracks on here. The general way it sounds isn’t surprising—there are a lot of clean sounds, trancey basslines and melodies like sunshine on a cold, wintry day. This is what Sascha Funke has always been most liked for—that techno with a poppy edge which brings to mind classic Kompakt (which is odd because he’s on BPitch).

On the other hand it just doesn’t feel unified at all, which is also par for the course for Funke, who’s always been a frustratingly inconsistent producer and one who’s very hard to pin down. He’s done classic techno (‘A Boy’) and unmitigated cheese (‘When Will I be Famous’) and a host of more forgettable releases to boot.

There are three basic styles on Mango. The first is lazy, melodic tunes that sit halfway between club fare and home listening, for example ‘Mango’, ‘Feather’ and ‘Chemin des Figons’. These are well constructed, rich and pleasant to listen to. They’re also not terribly memorable, lacking catchy melodies and not picking out a unique enough mood to really stick in the mind. It’s comedown music, but not the kind that makes you feel better, just the kind that makes you feel like you’re coming down.

More successful are the darker pieces – ‘Lotre (Mehr Fleisch)’ and ‘Double Checked’. ‘Lotre’ is definitely a stand-out and would have been a great single. It’s an epic journey of shifting sounds, drum fills and gothic ambience underscored with punchy and overwhelming bass. There’s a stuttered, cut-up vocal section with a metallic riff that will put a serious boot up the ass of the dancefloor and really get everyone sweating. I can definitely see this track being used to shift the evening into high gear. ‘Double Checked’, which was a single, has a similarly dark edge to it, but is tense rather than intense with a choked-sounding bell doing a staccato jig over a very foursquare rhythm and marginally corny downpitched vocals.

The third style is what I’d call first-wave trance—reminiscent of Rising High or Eye Q records from the early ‘90s. ‘We are Facing the Sun’ is the poppier of the two tracks in this vein, with a Hi-NRG bassline that bounces along satisfyingly under chiming pianos and some jacking snare sections. There are distinct sections to the song so it ‘progresses’ in classic style and that bassline is definitely catchy. Less upbeat is ‘Take a Chance with Me’ which is more spacey in feel with quasi-electro blips and an echoey almost-melody which really reminds me of Oliver Lieb. This is one of those ‘holding pattern’ kind of tracks that don’t take you up or down but rather inward and may be a chance to look around and take in the scenery without leaving the dancefloor.

Finally, worth mentioning is the closer ‘The Fortune Cookie Symphony’, which is an ambient piece. There’s a spoken vocal on the theme of ‘dream on, dreamer’ which falls just the right side of cheese making it feel genuinely inspirational despite some of its downbeat subject matter: “the revolution won’t be televised, won’t be live, won’t happen at all”. The trickling water sounds and melancholic washes complete the mood and dropped at the right time this will make hearts swell or eyes moisten. Not bad for closing mixes with either.

It’s hard to come to an overall conclusion on this record. If an album is just an EP with more tracks to choose from, that’s fine. If on the other hand you’re shooting for something like Asa Breed or From Here we Go Sublime which has that unified feel, and can be put on and listened to all the way through, it’s not. I’d say that the tracks you want here are ‘Lotre’, ‘We are Facing the Sun’ and ‘Fortune Cookie Symphony’. The rest are probably safe to miss. As an EP of three songs, that would be absolutely killer. As an album this is rather less so.

I think that as the quantity of music being produced continues to increase, editing is more important than ever. Nobody wants to check on hundreds of albums every month, we need shortcuts. We need labels like BPitch to stand for quality and to do this it’s important not to put out albums when EPs would be better. That’s why, even though labels as a round piece of paper and a facilitator of distribution are becoming obsolete, the role of the label is has never been more significant.

Words /Jacob Wright

Tracklist: Sascha Funke - Mango

01 Mango
02 We Are Facing The Sun
03 Feather
04 Take A Chance With Me
05 Summer Rain
06 Double Checked
07 Lotre (Mehr Fleisch)
08 Chemin Des Figons
09 The Fortune Cookie Symphony

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Deep house label Buzzin’ Fly signed Caro and Garcia after the suitably dark single ‘Far Away’, released back in 2006. However, the odd coupling of micro-house with electro-pop on Pain Disappears makes it an unlikely choice for the imprint’s first ever artist album. Until you consider that Fly boss Ben Watt established himself as Tracey Thorn’s other half in Everything But The Girl, admired as much for their romantic pop sensibility as their dancefloor friendliness. This is what Rex Club resident Caroline Laher and fellow Paris DJ Garcia seek to emulate, right down to the question marks over the true nature of their “collaboration”. But while the intensely private Thorn and Watt are now confirmed married with kids, if Caroline and Franck were ever an item, they certainly aren’t any more.

Pain Disappears reveals the death of a relationship, which, as always, takes place behind closed doors. The outward signs suggest everything is fine: the wistful single ‘Always You’ and the Ewan Pearson mix that tugged our heart strings late last year; the album’s happy-ever-after title; even its production presents a united front. Caro and Garcia share vocal duties throughout, singing every line side by side as if they were one being. (Granted, a being that can't really sing, but they're carrying on the great French tradition of vocalists whose accent far outweighs their ability, from Serge Gainsbourg to Miss Kittin.) The couple’s double-edged voice is supported by instruments that chime in together, like the twin guitars of ‘Dead Souls’, which reinforce this atmosphere of absolute harmony. But the lyrics tell a different story…

“Dead souls are shouting,
Melancholy is my wife,
Angels are dying,
Love hurts like a knife”

…and all against a backdrop of sheer sonic positivity: the whimsy of early Air, the warm organics of neo-kraut rockers Fujiya & Miyagi and the welling-up emotions of the best haus Berlin has to offer. This juxtaposition of the gleeful and the glum betrays an adolescent delight for wallowing in misery, the reveling in the rollercoaster ride of a teenage crush. As the chorus for ‘Dead Souls’ declares without a hint of irony, “Alright! What a great life”.

This is a romantics’ record. Aside from a micro-house mid-section bolstered by the instrumentals ‘Lost’ and ‘No Name’, Pain Disappears won’t move dancefloors. But if you’re of the right (overly?) emotional state, it can find a place in your heart. If you’ve ever swayed to The Smiths at an indie disco, drunk and alone, or secretly enjoyed having your heart broken, then this is for you. No doubt Ben Watt has done all that and grinned through the tears, but if devotees of his label don’t have the same sentimental streak, this affair could be over before it’s even begun.

Words/JamesGlazebrook

Tracklist: Mlle Caro and Franck Garcia – Pain Disappears

01 Always You
02 Apologies
03 Dead Souls
04 Hold Me
05 I Don't Want
06 Mon Ange
07 Lost
08 No Name
09 No One
10 Reason To Stay
11 Always You (Ewan Pearson Remix)

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When the first Now… This is What I Call Blog House compilation is going to be released (probably a sign of the forthcoming Apocalypse if there was ever one, right?), Parisian imprint Kitsuné will obviously be featured prominently. Sure, at the beginning, Kitsuné was merely just the bastard lovechild of two Daft Punk’s mimickers and some French Touch leftovers designing exclusive and expensive cashmere sweaters and releasing vaguely cheerful house tracks by Romuald and Towa Tei next to the occasional Playgroup number grooving about mad love or Black Strobe getting all excited about Italian fireflies. Then, in early 2005, they signed Digitalism, who spawned almost singlehandedly the whole rock’n’dance collision trend, and this very discovery articulated a shift in aesthetics, one the label’s is still dealing—some would say struggling, but I’d disagree—with today. Their Love, Midnight, X and numerous Maison compilations chronicled both the label’s and the scene’s evolution, and the fifth installment of the Maison series only enhance Kitsuné’s slightly controversial yet legitimate legacy and ongoing relevance.

Latest recruit Fischerspooner (Fischerspooner?!) is, somewhat ironically, opening the compilation with their comeback single: ‘The Best Revenge’, sounding like Pet Shop Boys stuck in an attic with a brass band and a jar full of year-old ketamine (that is actually more exciting that it sounds on paper, by the way). It mostly serves here as a reminder that 1) blog-house/nü-rave wouldn’t even exist if it wasn’t for the breach opened by Electroclash seven years ago and 2) there is still something to be said about vaguely homoerotic and histrionic NYC art school electro-pop from eccentric out-of-touch 30-somethings. Other big names include M.I.A. and the aforementioned Digitalism: ‘XR2’ (Silverlink vs Kicks Like a Mule Remix) exhilaratingly brings us back to a time when music was actually made for jilted generations, while ‘Pogo’ (Digitalism’s Robotic Remix) gets rid of the annoying vocals and guitar parts of the original altogether in favor of pulsating and relentless synths echoing the duo’s scorching live rendition. Mumbling, yeah? Err, I don’t think so.

Even bands that usually appear in rockier guises everywhere else (The Teenagers, Does It Offend You, Yeah?, Cazals) are shown here in DJ-friendly remixed mode, thus making the entire compilation appearing definitely more coherent than the previous ones. Add an Alan Braxe exclusive (the rave-ish ‘Addicted’), a recent Rex the Dog cut (the reliable ‘Circulate’), and a few recent signings for good old-versus-new measure (autoKratz, Pin Me Down, Bitchee Bitchee Ya Ya Ya, Kid, Big Face, all slightly predicable but quite efficient nevertheless), and you get Kitsuné’s very own Now… This is What I Call Blog House compilation… without the Apocalypse and with just the fun.

Overall, then, Kitsuné Maison 5 does exactly what it says on the tin, albeit harder, better, faster, and stronger. What is straight-out-of-rehab Britney doing in the top right corner of the artwork, on the other hand, is anyone’s guess.

Words/StéphaneGirard

Tracklist: Various Artists – Kitsuné Maison Compilation 5

01 Fischerspooner - The Best Revenge
02 Late of the Pier - Broken (Fairy Lights Mix)
03 Alan Braxe - Addicted
04 David E. Sugar - To Yourself
05 Pin Me Down - Cryptic
06 M.I.A - XR2 (Silverlink v Kicks Like a Mule Remix aka 92JUK)
07 The Teenagers - Homecoming (Gentlemen Drivers Rave Mix)
08 autoKratz - Pardon Garçon
09 Digitalism - Pogo (Digitalism's Robotic Remix)
10 DatA - Aerius Light (Kitsuné DJ-Friendly Edit)
11 Does It Offend You, Yeah? - Let's Make Out (Extended Mix)
12 Rex the Dog - Circulate
13 Bitchee Bitchee Ya Ya Ya - Fuck Friend (CSS Remix)
14 Friendly Fires - On Board
15 Big Face - I Wanna Be a Style Crusader (DatA Remix)
16 Kid - I'll Never Know
17 Cazals - To Cut a Long Story Short (Vicarious Bliss Mellotron Mix)

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Justus Köhncke’s two previous full-lengths on Kompakt, Was Ist Musik (2002) and Doppelleben (2005), were slightly frustrating affairs. Both albums were filled with clever pop structures, quality sound design and subtle shifts in mood, but somehow they tended to fall short of pure emotional captivation. Partly of course this was due to Köhncke’s notorious vocals, which are at times just too deadpan and at times just too camp (check his destruction of Jürgen Paape’s seminal ‘So Weit Wie Noch Nie’ for the evidence), but the albums were also occasionally marred by Köhncke’s weakness for soft-focus disco, with kitsch rather than glamorous and decadent results.

Safe and Sound combines many of these tendencies, but happily, it’s a much more satisfying listen. So much so you’ve got to wonder what inspired the difference. Perhaps this more muscular sound is down to Köhncke spending a lot of time in the clubs, or perhaps it’s a product of his new studio (located in an old butcher shop). The newfound help of the album’s co-writer/producer Fred Heimermann (certainly on ‘Tilda’, but likely more) might also be a contributing factor. But perhaps there was just something in the air? Those leaves on the Pop Ambient-esque cover, after all, do look suspiciously like marijuana.

Köhncke’s disco tendency come to the fore on several tracks, but more confidently than on the previous two albums. With its ‘70s strings, ‘Parage’ is downright funky and would, in an ideal world, play on radios in Cadillac cars with whitewall tyres. ‘Molybdän’ lives up to its elemental name (attn non-scientists: ‘molybdenum’ is a heavy metal) and mimics more disco ball glitter than disco sound itself with sparkling stabs of sound and winding analogue washes. More overtly disco is the brilliant opener ‘Yacht’ which pays strong homage to ‘Slave to the Rhythm’, but then develops its own melodic narrative.

Grace Jones isn’t the artist from the past to get name-checked. The first single from the album, ‘Feuerland’, is a cover of Krautrocker Michael Rother’s track from his 1977 LP ‘Flammende Herzen’. Not disco, but big on authentic retro synths and guitars, all underscored by strong beats and a motorik groove. Köhncke also gives himself a work over, updating ‘Love and Dancing’ from Total 7, while ‘$26’, one of the albums most potent tracks, seems to borrow the slick bass riff from Thomas/Mayer’s ‘Panic Room’.

The most notable departure from the past, however, is the absence of vocals. ‘(It’s Gonna be) Alright’ is the only track to feature Köhncke’s voice, and even that is limited to repeating the title as a simple refrain. The music underneath, meanwhile, is promising, but the sentiment of the track is a little too simple to be truly anthemic. Elsewhere purely pop-ambient tracks such as ‘Tilda’ and ‘Spukhafte Fernwirkung’ (trans: ‘Spooky Long-range Effect’) capture more evanescent emotions, and work nicely to change the pace of the album.

Overall, apart from a few flat moments (such as the closing title track), this is an excellent pop techno record.

Words /Chris Mann

Tracklist: Justus Köhncke - Safe and Sound

01 Yacht
02 Molybdän
03 Love and Dancing (Update)
04 Tilda
05 Feuerland
06 Parage
07 (It’s Gonna Be) Alright
08 $26
09 Spukhafte Fernwirkung
10 Safe and Sound

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Miami’s DJ Craze has long been a shoo-in for FabricLive, one of the last obvious choices as the series creaks toward its golden anniversary. FabricLive.38 is loaded with turntable trickery befitting the three-time World DMC champ and Fabric staple, and the tracklist seemingly tries to satisfy every kid who came to the club and danced their ass off to whatever he pulled out and chopped up. It’s an impressive balance of scratch technique, mixing skill, clever sequencing and major attitude. For the first half, that is, after which Craze’s mix loses the last, but equally essential ingredient to a top-shelf FabricLive mix: momentum.

Fans hoping to hear Craze scratch his drum n bass itch have little consolation here, besides a secret sample from last year’s anthem ‘Ladies Night VIP’ by Demo & Cease, and a loud ‘n proud intro by noted MC Armanni Reign. His smirky boast on behalf of Craze amps up into ‘Set It Off’ by New York rapper N.O.R.E. before settling down with two cool-as-a-cucumber tracks by old-school throwback rap duo The Cool Kids. After just four tracks he’s already scratched, cut, looped and beat juggled, which should make even the most frowny-faced, disappointed dnb heads crack a little smile.

So far, so good. All warmed-up and still effortlessly cool, MC Naeem Juwan of Bangers & Cash politely asks Craze, “Turn that beat up, nigga!” He probably wasn’t expecting to hear the Miami Vice theme, which seems grossly out of place but works perfect here, paying tribute to Craze’s home and underlining the mix’s overall ‘80s vibe. It also drops gorgeously into Miami Jam Crew’s ‘Pretty Girls’, which in turn makes a perfect beat for Blaqstarr & Rye Rye’s ‘Shake It To The Ground’ acapella.

At this point, the energy is through the roof and listeners should be eating up everything coming out of Craze’s golden hands. Coasting on his mix’s natural high, he glides it smoothly into the 4/4 beat of Chromeo’s ‘Bonafied Lovin’’, thoughtfully remixed by Eli Escobar with a hilarious rap courtesy of Pase Rock. But it’s not too long before the good vibes fade out, amidst the relentlessly cacophonous Switch remix of Coldcut’s ‘True Skool’. Here, Craze makes his mix’s first big mistake, by spinning out entirely on a Switch track and fading back in with a Bmore Club-infused soul song, which is exactly what Spank Rock did on their FabricLive.33 almost a year ago.

Making an unwelcome reappearance from Diplo’s FabricLive.24 is Debbie Deb’s bizarre electro-pop hybrid ‘When I Hear Music’, opening the door for Craze’s old-school Miami bass showcase, a quartet of tracks all sounding their age, none able to recapture the magic from the first half. ‘Lindsay Lohan’s Revenge’ shows up long after its expiration date—a mean-spirited, music blog novelty track that should’ve never, ever made it off the internets. It’s a toss-up for the worse half of Craze’s closeout: Kanye West sleep-rapping his way through the obligatory guest spot for ‘Pro Nails’ by Kid Sister, his tour DJ A-Trak’s girlfriend, or the stale message of hope to “keep pushin’, harder and harder to achieve whatever you tryin’ to achieve” from…Mr. “Ass-n-Titties” himself, the booty bouncing DJ Assault?! It’s a total crash ’n burn for a mix that started so pristine. Had Craze pinched it off after thirty minutes, this could’ve been golden, but as a full-length mix FabricLive.38 is only half-baked.

Words/DaveRinehart

Tracklist: Craze - FabricLive.38

01 Craze – Intro Ft Armanni Reign
02 NORE – Set It Off Ft Swizz Beatz and J Ru$$
03 Cool Kids – I Rock
04 Cool Kids – Black Mags
05 Bangers and Cash – Loose
06 Tuff Crew – My Part Of Town
07 Jan Hammer – Miami Vice Theme
08 Miami Jam Crew – Pretty Girls
DJ Blaqstarr – Shake It To The Ground Ft Rye Rye (Acapella)
09 Lushus – Ho Fo Sho
10 The Beat Club – Security
11 Chromeo – Bonafied Lovin’ (Eli Escobar Remix Ft Pase Rock)
12 Treasure Fingers – Cross The Dancefloor
13 DJ Blaqstarr – Supastarr
14 Coldcut – True Skool Ft Roots Manuva (Switch Remix)
15 Earth, Wind and Fire – Brazilian Rhyme
16 Armand Van Helden – I Want Your Soul
17 Debbie Deb – When I Hear Music
18 Magic Mike – Magic Mike Cutz The Record
19 Quadrant Six – Body Mechanic
20 DJ Laz – Red Alert
21 Fresh Celeste and M4 Sers – Give It All To Me
22 Bangers And Cash – Shake That
23 The Pase Rock – Lindsay Lohan’s Revenge (Klever Remix)
24 Kazey & Bulldog – Big Truck
25 The Chemical Brothers – Get Yourself High (Switches Rely On Rub)
26 Kid Sister – Pro Nails Remix feat Kanye West
27 DJ Assault – Pushin’ (Deekline, Wizard & Freq Nasty Mix)

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Sebastien Tellier is a tease. His breakthrough hit of summer 2005, ‘La Ritournelle’, took four of its seven minutes to get to the vocals, and the album it introduced offered glimpses of genius, but no real insight into the man himself. Politics pinballed from ballads to electronica to action movie danger music, and covered subjects as diverse as Africa, the fate of Native Americans and, er…zombies. Since then renaissance man Tellier has proven impossible to pin down, by moving onto animation, soundtracks, even acting—both starring in and helping to score Mr. Oizo’s movie Steak. He still likes to defy expectations—being possibly the only singer ever to release a purely instrumental comeback single—but Sexuality, produced by Daft Punk’s Guy Manuel de Homem-Christo, is his most focused and accessible work to date.

For now, Tellier has just one thing on his mind. This album is a musical red light district: sex is everywhere you turn. From the title, which on the review CD comes appended with a suggestive subtitle (‘Woodwork’), to the cover—a tiny man on horseback (Tellier?) looking out onto the vast open frontier of the naked female form—to the sensual video for the single ’Sexual Sportswear’. Most of the track names explicitly refer to love and love-making, and those that don’t hint at the man’s prowess (‘Une Heure’, ‘Fingers of Steel’), proclivities (‘L’amour et la Violence’) and possibly even length (‘Kilometer’). It seems that Sébastien’s genitals have a greater attention span than his brain, and following them has given him some much-needed direction.

This is Tellier’s Let’s Get It On, his Erotica. The sultry late night mood of Sexuality borrows from these, and a host of other seminal (in every sense of the word) sources. Sébastien gets all Gaye on ‘Elle’ and ropes in Madonna groan-a-likes for the slow jams ‘Pomme’ and ‘Kilometer’, which could otherwise be a Neptunes-produced Timberlake tune. Guy Man is the perfect producer for the schizophrenic singer, drawing all his influences into a tight framework that reins in his greatest excesses while allowing him room to breathe…heavily. He is allowed to indulge long-standing fetishes like corny soft rock chord progressions (‘Look’), Vangelis synths (‘Sexual Sportswear’) and basslines not heard since Kate Bush’s ‘80s work (‘Une Heure’)—but never at the expense of a good song. The success of this measured approach can be heard in ‘Divine’, in which Tellier is given just a couple of instruments, a drum machine, his own voice and three minutes to create a pocket symphony, his answer to ‘Good Vibrations’.

Sexuality is the best work in years from both the artist and the producer. Once the album is spent, the listener knows the formerly enigmatic Tellier intimately, and trusts that there will be life after Daft Punk for Guy Manuel de Homem-Christo. Guy Man is best known for performing variations on a theme, and a tired one at that (when was the last time you listened to Human After All?), but if he can successfully translate the wild ambitions of someone this eccentric, a promising production career beckons.

Words/JamesGlazebrook

Tracklist: Sebastien Tellier - Sexuality

01 Roche
02 Kilometer
03 Look
04 Divine
05 Pomme
06 Une Heure
07 Sexual Sportswear
08 Elle
09 Fingers of Steel
10 Manty
11 L’amour et la Violence

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It's evident from Lazare that French duo Guillaume Grosso and Jeremy Duval are dedicated students: the album is littered with nods to various styles spanning the last four decades of electronic music. They've also clearly got a passion for copious range of genres, and (to their praise) experiment freely between Italo, hip-hop, pop, ambient, post-Justice grind and angsty guitar songs. If this sounds like it should press the button marked 'hell yeah' then you're right, it should, but 'Lazare' leaves the listener frustratingly unmoved. The album is given a studied polish that strongly recalls John Carpenter—many tracks sound like they were made on clunking ‘80s analogue banks—and throughout are the kind of noises almost stolen from the closing credits of films like The Running Man or the original Assault on Precinct 13. I say a studied polish because the problem is that it's too polished. The modish sheen is enticing and alluring—and hollow. The feeling you're left with is Principles prize their slightly pretentious aesthetic above everything and the content comes second.

This is annoying because Lazare threatens to, and occasionally does, make your pulse jump and your eyebrows arch to the back of your head. Like when Vast Aire of Cannibal Ox fame spits furiously over a rabid electronic crescendo on 'Napoleon', or the airy slow italo of 'A Mountain for President', where Sébastien Tellier guests on vocals and synths, or the catch and release spasm of 'Golem' which evokes the better tracks from Justice and Jackson and His Computer Band. Two of the slower tracks are also enchanting, 'Akeshore' in particular sounding like what flying through clouds would be like.

Too often, though, songs begin then never fully develop, as if the initial pulse was not enough to sustain it for four minutes. Too often it's only for a small part of the track you're hooked in and too often you're left hankering for more quality. In the end Lazare is held back from being great by the same affliction that bedevilled Kavinsky's 1984--that presentation seems more important than substance. Perhaps live the pressure of performance would cause 'Principles' to shake off their cool and bring out their obvious talent because on record it hovers in the background, aloof and frequently out of reach.

Words /Daniel Bates

Tracklist: Principles Of Geometry - Lazare

01 Matin
02 Titan
03 Napoleon
04 Colfax
05 Golem
06 A Mountain For President
07 Shaberhill
08 Ninehundredandeightyeight
09 Interstate Highway System
10 Charles & Ray
11 Debra
12 Prophet
13 Akeshore
14 Corvo Sulla Città
15 Letom Redrum
16 Messiah

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When rumors started floating around the interwebs that Canadian electropopsters Junior Boys were about to take charge of the latest Body Language mix on Get Physical, a few eyebrows were raised. First establishing itself as a self-promotional vehicle for the label’s own artists (M.A.N.D.Y., DJ T.), the series, with the likes of Jesse Rose (fidget house), Dixon (deep house) and Château Flight (Italo-tinged house), started to get slightly more cutting-edge, all-encompassing, and thus more engaging, in recent months. No wonder fans were afraid of seeing it suddenly turn into Another Late Night-type select-first-mix-later collection with nothing else but amateurs at the helms.

See, very few people—yours truly included—seem to be aware of the fact Junior Boys are not only accomplished studio maestros in their own rights, but actual DJs in their spare time. Matt Didemus has his own residency in a Berlin club, apparently, while Jeremy Greenspan is not afraid of showing his DJing skills alongside collaborators such as Morgan Geist. Consequently, it turns out their take on the famous series is a surprisingly convincing affair that shows an innate sense of dynamics, progression, and even, at times, drama. The album’s opening tracks make for a perfect entry into their sonic world, especially when Supermayer’s ‘Saturndays’ gets pumped up by the DJ Hell remix of Chelonis R. Jones’ ‘Deer in the Headlights’, thus allowing Junior boys to revisit Get Physical’s recent yet neglected past (the Radio Slave remix of ‘Deer…’ got all the attention 18 months ago even though the Hell remix is the one that truly enhanced the original) while showing us they perfectly understand the dance floor’s imperatives.

Elsewhere, baroque yet irreproachable transitions are aplenty, like the way, at the album’s core, Gui.tar’s hippie house leaves place to Stereo Image’s Hot-Chip-lite electro-pop, then to Matthew Dear’s best Talking Head cold funk impersonation on ‘You Know What I Would Do’ and Pushé’s disco-ish digital and cheesy moves. Even more telling is their end-of-album combination: after a string of slo-mo numbers (including a brand new contemplative and plaintive composition from the Boys themselves), Chloé’s acclaimed ‘Be Kind to Me’, which remains one of the most creepy and haunting track you’ll get to hear these days, is weirdly yet effectively juxtaposed with Bill Nelson’s cheerful and high-spirited 1982 instrumental ‘When your Dream of Perfect Beauty Comes True’. Therein lies Junior Boys’ DJing craft: their attention floats with concerting ease from one corner of their discothèque and from one mood to the other, from one epoch to one emotion, without ever sounding like they’re suffering from any sort of attention deficit and without ever leaving us feeling disoriented or confused.

In the end, then, listening to Junior Boys DJing is a surprisingly fulfilling affair, especially after seeing them in concert. On the outdoor Sonar stage last June, Junior Boys live, unfortunately, was nothing short of excruciating: the mixing board was obviously fucked, machines sounded definitely out of synch, Greenspan’s vocals were anemic at best, and the duo’s own aura of melancholia left place to two slightly out-of-shape guys and their banal technical difficulties. For future public displays of talents, maybe it’d be better if they stuck to turntables, considering how candidly good they are here. Truth be told, their artistry was always designed for more private surroundings anyway and is supposed to be appreciated under anything that is not the burning Catalan sun. After two confessional and intimate electronic pop albums best suited for emo-tinged, alone-in-bedroom moments, who knew Junior Boys had it in them to actually recreate the elusive feeling of dancing in your head with your own heart as a partner on a DJ mix? Now that is some unexpected body language I wouldn’t mind hearing them speak more often.

Words/StéphaneGirard

Tracklist: Junior Boys - Body Language Vol. 6

01 Sorcerer - Surfing At Midnight (Prins Thomas Miks)
02 Supermayer - Saturndays
03 Chelonis R. Jones - Deer In The Headlights (DJ Hell Remix)
04 Love Nine – Feedback
05 Kreon & Lemos Feat. Feeboy - Fola
06 Kelley Polar - Rosenband (Magic Tim's Instrumental Version)
07 Steadycam - In The Moog For Love
08 Radio Slave - Screaming Hands (Cosmo Vitelli Radioaktivitat Remix)
09 Studio - Life's A Beach! (Todd Terje Beach House Mix)
10 Gui.tar - Love Started To Shine
11 Stereo Image - Dark Chapter
12 Matthew Dear - You Know What I Would Do
13 Pushé - Don't Take Your Love Away
14 Visage - I'm Still Searching
15 Junior Boys - No Kinda Man
16 Rework - Love Love Love Yeah (Chloé Remix)
17 f0st3r - bl3w r0d30 d3m0
18 Chloé - Be Kind To Me
19 Bill Nelson - When Your Dream Of Perfect Beauty Comes True

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London house trio X-Press 2 mix the latest volume in NRK's Coast2Coast series.

From New Jersey (Kerri Chandler) and Chicago (Ron Trent) to Berlin (Âme) then back to Baltimore (Karizma), NRK’s Coast2Coast mix series has been following house players around the globe, and next up the series pulls up in London for a volume from X-Press 2, aka Diesel, Rocky and Ashley Beedle.

Previous editions have included the same tracks on mixed and unmixed discs but X-Press 2's volume is a double disc set of thirty mixed cuts including best-of-2007 picks from Stefan Goldmann, Dennis Ferrer and Etienne Jaumet as well as older tracks from house and techno legends such as Carl Craig, Mr. Fingers and Phuture.

Tracklist

CD01 Mixed by X-Press 2

01 X-Press 2 feat Bernard Fowler - Don't Make Me Wait (Acoustic Version)
02 Johnny Blas - Picadillo (Carl Craig Extended version)
03 Farley & Rocky - The Cobra
04 Ron Basejam - For The People, By The People (Schmoov Mix)
05 3-Voices - Escape (Inst.)
06 Blackjoy - Untitled (Solid Groove Mix)
07 Presence - The Strength (Within)
08 As One - Germanium (Los Hermanos Revival Mix)
09 Master C&J - Dub Love
10 Joint Venture - Love & Happiness
11 Katcha - Touched By God (Peace Division mix)
12 Phuture - Inside Out (Roy's Rad Nomad Mix)
13 X-Press 2 feat Rob Harvey - Kill 100 (Lost Heroes Mix)
14 Mr Fingers - Stars

CD02 Mixed by X-Press 2

01 Skat - This Is
02 Stefan Goldman - Lunatic Fringe
03 Alton Miller feat. Lady Linn - Possibilities (Boddhi Satva's Ancestral Dub Mix)
04 Etienne Jaumet - Repeat Again After Me (Ame Mix)
05 Andre Kraml feat. Schad Privat - Dirty Fingernails
06 Solomun - Jungle River Cruise
07 Marlow & Claudia Nehls - Water (Jackmate Remix)
08 Art Of Tones - Praise
09 Dennis Ferrer - Transitions
10 Johannes Heil - All For One (Tobi Neumann's Swingin Mix)
11 Frankie Valentine - Paradise Regained (Slam Mode Mix)
12 Audion - Noiser
13 Paul Ritch - Nordbanhof
14 Michel De Hey vs Grooveyard - Compound
15 Robbie Rivera - Sound Xpress
16 Oxia - Domino

'Coast2Coast' mixed by X-Press 2 arrives on NRK on February 25, 2008.

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St. Louis techno producer Butane promises dark, detail-oriented minimal on his debut album Becoming out in March.

The seven-track album, which arrives on 2x12” and digital but not on CD, is the product of six months away from music for Butane, known to his family as Andrew Rasse. “Moving to Berlin around Christmas of last year kind of forced me to take a break from studio work for nearly six months,” says Butane. “Then when I came back to Berlin in June after Sonar, I slowed my travel schedule down and spent a lot of time reading philosophy and just generally enjoying the Berlin summer.”

“When I finally took all the pent-up creative energy from those past six months into the studio with me to write the album, it all just came pouring out. I fine tuned it over the next few months, testing some of the tracks while out DJing, and this is the final result.”

“I really wanted to present something a bit different than what I had done before,” adds Butane. “And approaching this as an album enabled me to do that. I feel like these tracks all somehow belong together.”

Tracklist

A1 Collapse
A2 A Rave Mistake (Remix)
B Hallucinate
C1 From the Beginning
C2 Wanderer
D1 I Didn't Know
D2 Reflection

’Becoming’ by Butane is out on Alphahouse on March 17, 2008.

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Here's a way to clever way to combat piracy: Belgian discoists The Glimmers are giving away their debut album for free at gigs.

The Glimmers' Mo Becha and David Fouquaert have put out plenty of mix compilations on labels such as Fabric, !K7 and Eskimo, but for their first artist album they've decided to take a different route. Instead of putting the album out on a record label proper, the pair are firing up their CD burners and making it available for absolutely nothing for punters who turn up to their club dates.

Titled Gee Gee Fazzi after a track by ex-Yello member Carlos Peron, the album promises to be as eclectic as The Glimmers record collection with studio hook-ups with Princess Superstar, Lindstrom & Prins Thomas, Padded Cell, Freeform Five's Anu Pillai and Ray Mang. There's also a cover of Olivia Newton-John’s aerobics classic ‘Physical’ and a rethink of Spanish rave anthem 'Esta Si, Esta No (Asi Me Gusta A Mi)'.

Tracklist

00. Intro by Cantankerous
01. Frantic
02. Physical
03. Kobe's In Columbia
04. Time For Action
05. I'd Much Rather Go (Out With The Boys)
06. Esta Si, Esta No (Esta Me Gusta A Mi)
07. Kiss Me
08. Wanna Make Out
09. Wanna Make Out (Part II)
10. Music For Dreams

You can grab a copy of the album at any of the official Gee Gee Fazzi tour dates throughout 2008. Here are the dates confirmed so far:

Feb 2 Firefly, Nottingham
Feb 16 Crush, Cookies, Berlin
Feb 22 KVS, Brussels
Feb 23 Together, Turnmills, London
Feb 29 Razzmatazz, Barcelona
Mar 1 Groove Dynasty, Oostende
Mar 7 Noxx, Antwerp
Mar 8 Tivoli, Utrecht
Mar 14 Melkweg, Amsterdam
Mar 15 Death Disco, The Arches, Glasgow
Mar 21 Anarchic, Brussels
Mar 22 Make Up Club, Ghent

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On December 6th, Tiësto’s album ‘Elements of Life’ was nominated for one of the most prestigious awards in recorded music, a GRAMMY in the Best Electronic/Dance Album category. ‘Elements of Life’ released by Virgin / Nebula Music, continues its success, having sold over 60,000 albums in the UK & Ireland to date and reaching golden and platinum status in numerous other countries globally. The other nominees in the category of Best Electronic/Dance Album are Justice, Shiny Toy Guns, LCD Soundsystem and The Chemical Brothers.

To support his album Tiësto has been touring with his Elements of Life world tour, selling out venues in the US such as the LA Sports Arena with an attendance of 15,000 people and the prestigious Hammerstein Ballroom in New York two nights in a row. The tour lands in almost all continents from North-to-South America, Europe, South Africa and Asia, reaching hundreds of thousands of people with each single event on the globe being sold out in advance.

“It has always been a dream for me to be nominated for a Grammy. I have been working on this album for over a year and therefore am very happy with the nomination.” says Tiësto, “It’s a recognition for all the hard work!”

Nominees are selected through a voting process with members and record companies submitting entries. Submissions are then screened for eligibility and category placement by 150 experts in various fields, to ensure that entered recordings meet specific qualifications. The Academy’s voting members, all involved in the creative and technical processes of recording, then participate in the nominating process that determines the five finalists in each category; and the final voting process which determines the GRAMMY winners.

This is the 50th Anniversary year for the Grammy organization, and the GRAMMY Award show will take place on February 10, 2008 in Los Angeles, CA. USA.
www.tiesto.com

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