Interstella 5555 - The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem out on blu-ray

We all remember Daft Punk's timeless classic album "Discovery". You probably also remember the reoccurring theme in the music videos of the singles. That's because Daft Punk teamed up with anime- and manga creator Leiji Matsumoto to produce a feature-length animated musical with the cryptic title "Interstella 5555 - The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem". The film is a visual realisation of the album with every track being an 'episode' in the movie. And now this excellent piece of movie/animation/music/art has been released on Blu-Ray (Yay!).

The story revolves around a band of four famous musicians from another planet that get kidnapped by an evil manager who aims to make them the biggest band and product on planet Earth.

If you haven't seen this movie yet I wholeheartedly suggest you do. Even if anime isn't quite your thing the music from the Discovery album is itself worth a revisit, being riddled with house music gems worthy of hitlist #1 spots in any galaxy. Check out the trailer for yourself!

New track by Surkin

French electro DJ Surkin made his latest single "Ultra Light" available for download today via beatport.

If you haven't heard about Surkin before I thoroughly recommend you check him out. Why not start with the track in question.

And another one of my favourites, "Radio Fireworks"

French house + American dubstep

Producer, remixer, and electro artist SebastiAn released his debut album "Total" in June this year. After the debut single "Embody" we've heard little from the enigmatic artist as he's kept himself busy touring. But here the other day American dubstep/'complextro' wonderboy Skrillex posted his remix of SebastiAn's track "Love In Motion" on his official youtube channel. The original track and remix has been released exclusively for download on beatbox.

Here is the original by SebastiAn.

Then Skrillex takes SebastiAn's Prince-inspired 80's track and sends it surfing on a rainbow through an 8-bit galaxy with the occasional dubstep-disruption in the electro space-time. Much to the delight of Skrillex fans  on youtube. (Sadly though, much time seems spent arguing about whether or not SebastiAn's album cover is "gay!"...)

If you want to read more about SebastiAn you can read this (rare) interview from The Block

A new direction and a tribute to DJ Mehdi

So... I've been thinking, pondering, ruminating, contemplating... Well, actually not that much. I've just decided that I'm going to change my blog into a blog about house music, which I love dearly as some of you might have realised by now. I shall no longer tire your eyes with the wordy ramblings of my inner voice, but rather just please your weirdly shaped ears and highly developed temporal lobes with throbbing bass and thudding beats uncovered by yours truly in the jungle of house music and electronic music. Ah, simple bliss!

I would like to start off this "new" direction of my blog with a tribute to DJ Mehdi. A French DJ whose music I just got to know and love before he so tragically passed away after an accident. I am SO grateful and relieved that I got to see him perform live before he died (as I have written about here)

DJ Mehdi was signed to Ed Banger records who also houses several of France's and (in my inexperienced opinion) the world's most skillful DJ's and electronic artists. I have presented music videos by DJ Mehdi in previous regular "Friday music" blogposts. Here is yet another gem, "Pocket Piano"...

When I saw DJ Mehdi live he was one half of the DJ duo "Carte Blanche" which he formed with English DJ Riton. The accident which lead to DJ Mehdi's death happened while celebrating Riton's birthday. Riton posted to this beautiful tribute video to his blog. Rest in beats, Dj Mehdi. God wanted you at his party.

"Kiss and Fly, Mehdi" from Ryder Jack Susman on Vimeo.

The Hove Festival, day 3: Swedish sway and rainy rave

The bloggers are everywhere at Hove. In one of the portaloos I found this little scribbling:

Roughly translated: "Dear toilet blog! Linkin Park is going on stage now, so gotta run!!! Pee you later!!". Oh, blogger, you so fuuunny. Kinda cute, though.

The third day of the festival turned out the wettest one. It rained pretty much nonstop which does put a dampener on things. Spoilt, posh Norwegian kids aren't used to coping with damp and muddy circumstances in a little tent. You might think I'm slagging them off, but I'm not, because I'm one of them. And that's why I'm not living in a tent this year; I'm too spoilt and wimpy. But the festival mood prevails and conquers all misery and pessimism; and, lo and behold, there was partying even on the third day! Much thanks to our geographical neighbours, the Swedes.

The first artist to get the crowd dancing in the rain was Swedish rapper Timbuktu who is massively popular in Norway. I arrived at the main stage area halfway through his gig as the rain was pouring down, just to find a massive field of bobbing and swaying ponchos and raincoats. On the stage there was a massive party with Timbuktu admirably doing his best to keep the mood of the audience up. And it worked surprisingly well, but for the most part it looked like people had reclined into their ponchos and held individual parties in there, like mobile tents.

Next up was DJ Quik, which was kind of a weird booking. When he was due to come on there were about 2-300 people scattered across that main stage area which can hold 15 000. It looked empty. I'm guessing big shot hip hoppers from the States are used to bigger crowds than that. They looked reluctant when they finally decided to show up on stage almost half an hour late. DJ Quik is (after what I was told) somewhat of a legend within the hip hop world, having worked with Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg and the lot. A photographer from the Norwegian hip hop website kingsize.no said it was quite a random booking to put him on the main stage in between Timbuktu (who is massive in Norway and was bound to get a big crowd) and Big Boi (who is a much more main stream and well known). Anyway, DJ Quik did an excellent job working the small but very dedicated crowd that was there.

Big Boi was up next. As one half of the super duo Outkast, Big Boi was a far bigger name than DJ Quik, which was easy to tell by the growing crowd size. Him and his co-rapper (or whatever you call it?) was doing an awesome job getting the crowd jumping. He also had a massive fellow from his crew walking around in the front pit picking out girls from the crowd to join Big Boi on stage. The awkward bit was that it was quite apparent that neither of them were older than 18. Most of them didn't even have wristbands that allow you to get served alcohol. Still they were given exclusive access wristbands by the bodyguards when they came off stage, a wristband that gives them access to certain parts of the backstage area and the oppotunity to buy spirits, which isn't sold elsewhere in the general festival area. This did NOT go down well with the resident festival security. It doesn't require much imagenation to realise that Big Boi was probably looking for some company for an afterparty. Bunch of charmers.

Didn't I tell you yesterday no more crappy concert pictures from miles away? Here's one anyway. It's Robyn.

A girl watching Robyn from someone's shoulders. Why is everything so much more fun when you're sat on someone's shoulders?

Bring on another Swede to save the day. And by saving the day I mean take it to the moon and blow it up with electronic fireworks and music-induced virtual ecstasy pills. Robyn knows how to make a party. She looks like a little blond school girl (with an amazing sense of fashion) who all of a sudden goes absolutely mental with hardcore aerobic-exercise-boot-camp-aggressive-kickboxing-acid-rave-techno-moves when the music starts. Sexy as HELL. Somehow she manages to be charmingly cute and innocent but with an attitude that would make even one of the festival security-gorillas cower. She literally had 15 000 people jumping up and down, doing overly ambitious aerobic moves in ponchos, and she stole the heart of thousands of boys, including mine. Her band as well, four super skilled electronica musicians, two on keyboard and miscellaneous computer equipment and two on electronic drum kits. Together with a hypnotic display of lights and visual effects the Norwegian crowd was completely and wholeheartedly in her hands. It came as no surprise that every reviewer gave top marks. Which brings me to an important point...

I pity music reviewers. Miserable, arrogant, and intentionally pessimistic human beings. I picture them walking round the festival area from gig to gig with a frown so negative it has become a frozen permanent grimace. There is a paradox with giving gigs a bad review, especially at festivals. My point is, who cares? If someone went to a gig they didn't think was any good they will probably just go watch another gig or go sample the delicious festival cuisine. People are positive and happy during a festival and they sure as hell won't let a disappointing gig bring their mood down (unless it was a bad performance by their favourite band). But it seems this is the insidious task of the gig reviewer, to spread scepticism and negative criticism: "Hey, don't forget to be critical and negative about the performances you watch. Don't have fun ALL the time". Personally I don't think people mind that much if they see a gig that wasn't to their liking As I said, they'll probably just go do something else. Instead, it is annoying and disappointing to be reminded or told that a gig was bad. So why are they spreading this negativity? People were having fun, drinking and dancing along regardless of poor sound quality or unimposing presence by the band. Unlike YOU, Mr. Gig Reviewer who probably were stood on you're own, being cynical and angry at the world, exchanging snidey remarks with your colleagues on twitter. It must be really depressing being sent to gigs for free (gigs that someone else probably would have sold their kidney to be at) being forced to endure music that isn't exactly to your personal liking. You know what? Next time you're doing a gig review and you realise that you don't like the music or the band much, go back to your little shed and send out another one of your journalist automatons who might actually like the music and do a positive gig review. People like hearing enthusiastic positive account of gigs!

Just a little rant there.

Today is the last day of this year's Hove Festival. I'm looking forward to seeing Mars Volta, Kaizers Orchestra, and Deadmau5. I'll be going to Spain for a week tomorrow, but hopefully I'll manage to do a little blog about the last Hove day soon. Thanks for reading my blog, and please leave a comment below!

Hove, day 2: What you see is what you get.

I find the festival atmosphere quite charming, with people being slightly inebriated, excited, happy, and generally silly. I think people become who they really want to be when they're a bit tipsy. People like being sociable, happy, merry. It's just that we let sobriety tether these moods usually. But during a festival, these qualities bloom and prosper. A week of fun and frolic, and some quality music. No wonder people pay the frankly ridiculous price for a full week ticket.

Day 2 of the Hove festival started of in a weird way. My friends recommended I come along to see an art performance. Now, I'm the kind of person who gets a bit sceptical when I hear the phrase 'performance art'... ("Oh no, pretentious, eccentric, spaced-out hippie art?"). But I convinced myself to drop my arrogant prejudices and tag along. I was also convinced by the share number of people who were present. So as we entered the forest where the performance would take place, we were met by this sight...

Eerie and mind-blowing performance art

The woman you see hanging from the tree (apparently by her own hair?!) is the artist, and the people sat in the trees are musicians playing saws...! Then this spine-chilling and ethereal music started playing, as the performance artist (Tori Wrånes) was singing along in an operatic manner while the saw blades were playing. It was mesmerisingly beautiful. If performance art can be this awesome, consider me a convert. Thanks to my good friend, Signe (you are now involuntarily mentioned in my 'zuper blawg') for dragging me along.

Das ist Signe.

Music-wise, the second day of the festival was 'my day'. Kasabian's first gig ever in Norway, the return of The Strokes (have they played Norway before? Thorough blog research...), and Brandon Flowers' solo project. I'm a fan of all of these bands, so I was just looking forward to some good gigs with music that I knew would be solid.

Kasabian finally arrived in Norway.

Kasabian's first gig was convincing in my opinion. It was about time they played Norway! I loved seeing Tom Meighan's arrogant British swagger on a Norwegian stage. Unfortunately, the sound was rubbish. For the main part of the concert all you could hear was bass drum and bass guitar, almost no snare or guitar or electronic sound effects. It really put a dampener on Kasabian's usual pompous and strong sound. Especially their more electronica heavy songs suffered. But their performance was solid. The best bit was when Tom Meighan thanked the Norwegian crowd for being awesome and did the sign of the cross. Funny man.

Next on were The Strokes. I read in the music press that there is murmurings about trouble within the band. But so what? Who cares? Of course, I don't want to see The Strokes break up again, but why focus on trouble in paradise prior to a gig that so many fans are looking forward to? Journalists bug the hell out of me. Anyways, the gig was awesome. The Strokes are awesome. Julian is sexy as hell (despite his slightly Elvis-chubby appearance) and a great laid-back rock'n'roll frontman. The way he talked to the crowd between the songs, leisurely asking how they were doing, letting them know what was going on on stage, changing mics, even stopping a song because he forgot the words. Perhaps not very professional in a conventional sense, but it was all just so laid-back and cool. You almost felt like you were present at a slightly rusty comeback-Strokes rehearsal.

The (casual) Strokes

Then there was the Las Vegas charmer that is Brandon Flowers. He comes across as such a shy, humble, polite and lovable person. His movements on stage are almost a bit awkward and stilted, but at the same time he exudes a stylish arrogance and confidence that only a rockstar can. I love how he makes the crowd feel appreciated and included in the concert. A true master of the stage, even own his own without the bigger presence of The Killers. He even did a guest appearance during Bright Eyes' gig later on, which made the otherwise calm and swaying Bright Eyes fans go absolutely crazy.

Now, as you're looking at the pictures in the blogpost you're probably thinking the same as I am: Rubbish. Sad to say, I don't have a fancy blogger's SLR camera, only my crappy camera phone. But it's not just that. Gig pictures in general are quite uninteresting to watch. As I was snapping a blurry photo of the Brandon Flowers gig with the intention of including it on my blog, this 18 year old girl say to me: "Are you taking a photo of a gig? How old are you? You know those pictures are going to turn out shit anyway, so why don't you put it down and enjoy the gig instead?". Touché. She was right. A picture of a stage in the distance with artists looking like single pixels is not especially interesting for anyone who wasn't there to see. It's not even satisfying for yourself to watch later on! It doesn't capture any of the magic or atmosphere of when you were there. It's nothing but a feeble 'proof' that "I was there!". And so what? You know you were there, and so do the people you want to share it with. So for the next festival blogpost I shan't spam you with blurry gig photos, but rather try a take pictures of... Other stuff...? Like these guys:

My friends Kai Olav, Mari and Erling. They love clapping.

The Hove festival, day 1: Stumbled upon treasure

My humble little hometown of Arendal hosts one of the biggest music festivals in Norway. Since it's in my Hometown I usually go every year. This year's lineup was not particularly interesting for me personally, except for the second day when Kasabian, The Strokes, and Brandon Flowers will be playing. However, I want to tell you about the first day which wasn't really looking that interesting to me... Until I found out that one of my favourite DJs was playing.

I like the mood in festivals. People are happy, smiling, laughing, dancing, drinking, and just generally having a good time. Of course there will always be idiots, arrogant pricks, overly drunk yobbos, and a lot of people who seem more preoccupied with looking good than having a good time. But you've got ignore these people, put a smile on your face and keep on dancing. Or drinking. Or festival-ing. The lineup on the first day was perhaps meant to hit a younger, more 'emo' audience with All Time Low, 30 Seconds to Mars and nu-metal heroes Linkin Park as headliners on the main stage. The stage where I was stood most of the day because I was 'working', ushering photographers in and out of the gap in front of the stage during concerts. The view was good, shame the same can't be said about the music.

But then I had a look in the Festival's own newspaper. A 'band' called Carte Blanche was playing the closing gig at the smallest stage. The face of on of the 'band members' immediately caught my eye. Fucking DJ Mehdi! The DJ whose gig I had missed out when he played Manchester at the Parklife festival! Carte Blanche wasn't a band, it was a DJ duo with DJ Mehdi and a British DJ called Riton. So off to this concert I ran, skipped and jumped, giggling like a little girl who had just been kissed by Jared Leto.

About 200 people were there. Everyone else was watching Chase & Status. They missed out, big time. Proper, proper, world class house music from one of the best DJs in the world and this other British fellow who I had never heard of before, but Oh lawd, he knew his stuff. No one in that tent was standing still, it was impossible not to dance to the music coming out of those speakers. They even had dancers! Two girls who came on now and then to spice up the live show. I know what you're thinking, dancers on the stage sounds a little cheesy, tacky, 'techno club in the 90's-ish', but somehow it wasn't. They did all the funny 80s/90s funny dance moves that people in the crowd hopelessly tried to copy, but they also showed of some real skill with both handstands and dancing on roller skates. It sounds silly, and it was but in a good way. Sort of inspired by the music video from their first single:

Carte Blanche and their roller skating dancers. DJ Mehdi in white, Riton wearing black.

Robot dancing never went out of fashion

The masters at work

I know I'm biased since I'm such a sycophant for French house music, but this truly was a good gig. I seriously doubt you would have been able to be at that gig and not dance (unless you were one of the testosterone-overdosed security guards who kept watch in front of the stage but seemed more preoccupied with pointing at people in the crowd giving them menacing frowns). You know you've seen a good gig when you leave with the feeling that you don't need to see any more bands or artists. For all you care the festival could just finish up and close down. And you're smiling so much it hurts your face. Just listen to this:

But I AM looking forward to today's lineup... Stay tuned for more biased gig reviews.