Electric Copenhagen, featuring Henrik Schwarz and a fanboy

This week Copenhagen turned electric, music-wise, thanks to the electronic music festival Strøm festival.

I know what you must be thinking: 'Some blog this is, telling me about a electronic music festival AFTER it has taken place?' Well, to be honest I barely just found out about it myself. And in the nick of time, because as fate would have it one of my favourite electronic artists, the deep house connoisseur,  Henrik Schwarz, was playing!

So on the Friday I made my way down to Enghaveparken in Copenhagen where they had put up a mini festival with two stages. The entrance fee? 20kr! Let me say that again, more emphatically: 20 KRONER! How's that for an awesome festival?? That is a ridiculously low price considering the artists they had on: Ritchie Hawtin, Octave One, and of course my favourite Henrik Schwarz.

I only went for a couple of hours, on my own... But Oh Lawdy was it worth it. And look who I ran into while waiting for the gig to start! The man himself, Henrik Schwarz! (You'll have to apologise for the poor picture quality but I had to get a snappy picture using the front cam on my phone)

What a gentleman and what an awesome gig it was. One hour of staggeringly beautiful, pumping, neuron firing, first class mixing of deep house. You could give this man a sound sample of an acid jazz sax solo, Tibetan throat singing, Irish folk songs, a four year old banging on a toy xylophone, anything, and Mr. Schwarz would still be able to make an awesome electronic mix out of it! He is one of the most wanted names on the (deep) house scene at the moment because of his musical flair and ability to push and cross boundaries between musical genres.

 If you haven't heard any of his stuff yet I wholeheartedly recommend you do! (Alternative music source)

(And join me in Copenhagen next summer for the next Strøm festival, if they haven't raised the cover charge to 25kr... Which would create an uproar...)

Is this what you want?

There's no denying it. Electronic music is hotter than ever before. It's trendy, it's right, it fills the dance floors and the wallets of club owners and record executives. It's also quick and relatively easy to make. Proof of this is ample, just look at the insane quantities of r'n'b/hip hop/house singles that are being churned out everyday, available for download on iTunes.

Thankfully, there are a few artists out there who still take their electronic music seriously.
Quality over quantity.
Integrity over money.
Individuality over hive mind.

Maybe I'm being fussy? In fact I know I am, but I know what I like. In my (humble?) opinion the really good electronic/house tracks are few and far between.

But the German producer and electronic artist Alex Rihda, better known as Boys Noize gives me new hope. He recently premiered his first track 'What You Want' via Rolling Stone music (click the loudspeaker symbol just under the picture, you luddite), the first teaser from his upcoming album 'Out Of The Black' and I think it sounds dirty and awesome.

HarderBloggerFaster (an excellent music blog you should follow if you like electronic music) described the track as "German Daft Punk on acid". I couldn't have said it better myself. (Like, really.. I couldn't.. That's why I quoted them...) Alex Rihda says the track combines a lot of his favourite elements of electronic music, and I couldn't agree more. There's a bit of Beastie Boys' 'Intergalactic' in there, as well as Daft Punk's distinctive robot voice sound from the 'Human After All' album. Mix it together on top of a fat beat and you've got some pure house goodness.

In my mind, the lines in the track "This is what you want, This is what you get" is Boys Noize reminding us of what proper hard-hitting, well produced house music should sound like. THIS is what you want, not fucking David Guetta... (He also rocks a mean monobrow which at least is 'individual', to put it diplomatically...)


(For a readily accessible teaser you can click the soundcloud link below. To listen to the full track, click the rolling stone music link in the article)

Die Antwoord strikes again

There's something ridiculously enticing about these people, Die Antwoord. It's comedy, it's absurdity, a parody of something that still very real and dark, but at the same time innocent. Haha, seems obvious that they evoke a lot of different feelings in me. Then again, you could just watch their brilliant new video, "Baby's On Fire", and laugh!

Visuals, you say? It's all about the music.

They say you process music better with your eyes closed. It's all about the audio, man, it's all about the music, it's all about the muuuuuh...

Heeeeeello!

Randomness and Star Wars hip-hop robes

So it turns out that British comedian Peter Serafinowicz is proving a rather creative and adept music video director...! The man has directed the music video for Hot Chip's new track "Night & Day", starring both musician/comedian Reggie Watts and supermodel Lara Stone as spaceship flying aliens and actor Terence Stamp as a sort of headmaster/group leader of a band of bouncing dancers dressed in some sort of hip-hop onesie/hoodie-robes inspired by the robes worn by the Jawas in Star Wars... Did somebody say "What"?

Mix in a giant egg-princess on a pedestal and some buff-looking male models and it all makes perfectly no sense at all. By all means, feel free to look for any kind of symbolism (making you either a genius or off your face on drugs) or just enjoy the track...!

(PS! Some words from the director himself: "Many animals were harmed during the making of this video. Regrettably, none of them them made the final edit." P. Serafinowicz)

Rest In Peace Adam Yauch

I just learned that Adam Yauch, or MCA, out of Beastie Boys has passed away at 47. He suffered from cancer and has undergone treatment since 2009. He was the co-founder of Beastie Boys all the way back in 1979...!

I can't exactly call myself an original fan of Beastie Boys, but definitely a fan no less. Nevertheless it's always sad when great musicians die before their time.

I want to share a couple of my Beastie Boys favourites in memory of the great MCA.

"Alive" which was a new track for their 1999 compilation album Beastie Boys Anthology: The Sounds Of Science.

"Intergalactic", one of their most iconic songs (the one that everyone sings along to but no one's sure of the unintelligible lyrics...)

"Body Movin'" which gained massive popularity when remixed by FatBoy Slim 

And of course "Sabotage". No words can do this track AND video justice. 

Icelandic house and World of Warcraft...?

Stumbled across this little piece of deep house from an Icelandic electro group called GusGus. Exotic!

I often find that music videos for electronic music can be very creative, funny, and aesthetically pleasing. However, in some cases it all gets a bit... pretentious... I really like this track, and I guess it sort of induces a feel of drama, graveness, and 'serious faces', haha. But come on, one of the youtube comments even thinks the costumes look like World of Warcraft gear...!

I'm all for a bit of theatre, but it should compliment the music, not make you wonder what this has to do with a group of grown up people running around showing off in an Icelandic landscape, which by the way is undeniably scenic.

The track is good, though!

I also recommend you check out this live performance of theirs if you enjoyed the above track...