We have just finished a new video with my band Batch ID for the song Ni skrämmer inte mig. The video is animated with the PS3 game WWE'13.
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Crystal Castles live at Trägårn, Göteborg 2013-03-04. For me Crystal Castles has always been a big case of opposites attract. The extrovert and beautiful Alice Glass versus the introvert, almost hidden maestro Ethan Kath. The music seems to be composed of sounds that played solo sounds broken and hostile, but when mixed together often becomes both beautiful and powerful. The live experience is very much in the same vein as their music. The lightshow is not primarily their to make the artists look good; the lights are their to make interesting light effects and has their own part to play at the show. Sometimes it is almost painful for the eyes when the lights hit you at full force. But it works very well with the Crystal Castle concept and turns the show into a very interesting sonic and visual experience. The band is also very generous and plays their most popular songs from all three albums. In the spirit of Christmas. Electro Arc gives away 13 songs for free, all tracks from previous EA-releases. Take an extra close look at track 6. It's a remix I did for Red Industirie on the track Artificial Part III. Tanz! Free music right here! Jan from Kropp The Zone invited us to a real EBM-evening on December first. The club uses the same place, Jazzhuset, as Romo Night. A really great place for smaller venuses with a homey feeling. First onstage this evening were the Gustavsson brothers with their band Kropp. I really like Kropp and their music. It's no fuzz, minimal EBM in the vein of DAF. Drums, a funky baseline and lyrics is all that this band needs to make really good and groovy music. It's also really nice to see Bengt behind a real classical drumkit, giving the songs a live swing that forces your body to move and dance. Kropp got best response during the song Vad ska du ha på dig i kväll? with the whole audience dancing and shouting the lyrics. We even got that song twice as they choose to do it again during the encore. Ekobrottsmyndigheten & happy crowd. Next up was Ekobrottsmyndigheten who had filled the room with happy fans ready to dance and sing along with the band. The band was in party mood and their catchy songs seemed familiar to most of the crowd. Personal favorites from the set was Jimmy and Kängdans. Really nice that so many in party mood showed up to support the bands. The Zone had managed to put on a really good fiesta and I hope that they will keep up the good job in the future. Tanz! Don't usually do this. But I think this is an really imortant topic and I share alot of the opinions in this article. Therefore would I like to share it's content. Read and contemplate - Link to article Refused The festival Way Out West in Göteborg is a festival that always give me mixed emotions. Some years it is the greatest festival in the world and some years it's only confusing. 2012 was not one of the great years for me. The early bookings was very promising with bands like Refused and Florence and the Machine. But much of the later bookings was either not my cup of tea or proved to be a bit disapointing. One of the acts I had hopes for was oldschool rappers De la Soul. Sadly they seemed very old and tired. They had almost turned into a parody and could have shared the stage with Markoolio that day. Bands like First Aid Kit and Laleh delivered great performances, but lacks any kind of edge and prescence to make it interesting. The two main stages has faults when the most popular bands performs. It's hard to see anything from the back and the construction for the mixing space is very obstructing. Purity Ring But there was also some highlights during the 2012 edition of WOW. Refused did a really energetic and cool performance. They really seemed to enjoy themselfs and I finally had a chance to see them perform. Enjoyed every minute of it. Florence and the Machine also did good and delivered a nice show. And what a voice she has... I also had a very good time at Annedalskyrkan (a church) on thursday with Purity Ring and Mazzy Star. Purity Ring was a new acquaintance. They played a nice set with lots of cool lightning. Always fun to find new bands to check out further. Mazzy Star was very dreamy and ambient. There music was very fitting in the church and they choose to perform with almost no lighting. It was very nice just to close the eyes and really listen to beautiful music. Kraftwerk 2012 headliners was Kraftwerk. I will probably upset all my friends and peers now by saying that I thought they where really boring. Their music is magical and they sound great, but their performance is crap. I know that part of the idea of Kraftwerk is anti-rock; but if a part of rock is about having fun and beeing entertaining; then anti-rock becomes just boring. For me any performance is a meeting between performer and audience and an exchange of energy. If the performing part refuses to take part in this exchange it kind of dies. Sure the minimalistic stageing, the lighting and projections is very nicely done... but it also gets very repetative and dull after a couple of songs. And 3D effects??? Kiss tried this back in 1998 during the Psycho Circus tour. If Kiss have tried something and later thought it a bad idea, it's probably a good idea to not go there. I never wanna have to wear 3D goggles at a concert again! To sum it up, 2012 was not a great year for Way Out West. Adding a third day could have been a good idea if they had booked more interesting bands, this year it only made the program feel watered. Alice Cooper Alice played in Göteborg in august at Liseberg. Liseberg is an amusement park and the perfect setting for Alice's show. The show was a classic Alice Cooper show with focus on the many classic songs from the 70's and early 80's. What once was on the edge and shocking is today only entertaining. The make-up, leather, blood, snake and guillotine only make you smile. Looking at the audience, noticing the mix in ages raging from early teens to senior citizens, you really get the feeling that Alice 2012 is wholesome family entertainment. Alice & Ethyl The only time I have an reaction other then smiles and joy is during the song Cold Ethyl, where Alice gets abusive with a female doll. Although I know that the song is a very toung-in-cheek song about necrophilia and keeping a lover in the fridge, it's hard to not read in violence against women in the act. But at the same time, I am happy that I still can get something that feels a bit provocative from the show. The band is almost identical from the last tour a few years back. They are really tight, and the young musicians brings alot of good energy to the music. I havent heard Alice sounding this good since the trash-tour in 1989. The band even nailed the hard to sing harmonics in Poison. My favorite songs is as allways the old classics like 18, Is it my body, Under my wheels and Muscle of love. It's also really cool that they do Feed my Frankenstein, with a really large Alice-monster stomping on stage. Even if Alice Cooper is pretty harmless and more of a Las Vegas halloween show these days, it's really entertaining and the music is some of the best rock songs ever written. I only wish that the show felt less safe and less coreographed. Alice's every move seems as a pose, but maybee a whole life playing rock'n'roll does that to you. And what I really love about Alice is that she really gives the audience what they wish for. Anna Von Haussswolff Pardon me for taking forever to get through my summer here at TanzAnarchy. I've been really busy lately with the release of the Batch ID album and all things surronding that. But here we go again. Day three of Stockholm Music & Arts were really great. Actually it was my second day, since I skipped day two in favour of the Pride festival. I had really been looking forward to see Anna Von Haussswolff who kicked off the last day. But it's really not a good idea to have her playing early in the day, with the sun shining and most of the audience trying to recuperate from the night before. Her dark and drony music would work much better in smoke and darkness at a much more intimate setting. Consequently the concert seemed a bit unfocused and misplaced. Pity, since I really love her music. iamamiwhoami A positive surprise this day was iamamiwhoami. They were new to me, but I really liked their modern approach to synth pop and electro. The singer Jonna Lee has a good voice and had an interesting personality on stage. Really cool show and good music. During the day we were also treated to Buffy Sainte-Marie with a band that must playrickabilly when not touring with Buffy. Strange mix of rock'n'roll, native american chants and 70's protest music. We were also given some african funk from Fatoumata Diawara that afternoon. Interesting, but not my cup of tea. I was mainly waiting for the nights main attraction and the chance to see one of my biggest idols. Björk And finally after the dark had settled over Stockholm, Björk appeared on stage in a costume that must have been inspired by the troll Plupp. She entered the stage with a percussionist, a technician/synth player and a female choir from Iceland. And then they delivered one of the best performances I have ever seen on a festival stage. Plupp Musically she focused on her latest release with bits and pieces from earlier album. I have seen her once before when she toured on the Post album and was very inspired by the dance scene. Today it seems like she draws inspiration from nature and mother earth, and manages to make music from the power of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, but also more subtle things like mitosis and other microscopic processes. The Stockholm Music & Arts was a really diffrent and great festival. Antony and Björk delivered two awesome musical experinces. I really hope that the festival will be able to deliver an equally interesting festival next year. Hopefully with the same focus on great female performers. Björk perfoms Hidden Place at Sthlm Music & Arts Patti Smith There are a couple of things that make this festival very special, and hopefully trendsetting for festivals in the future. After a couple of years with debates on precentage of women performing on festivlas (most agreeing that the number is to low) and some festivals trying to quota women (without succeeding), festival generals saying that there are not enough interesting women preformers to choose from and a few festivals that don't give a fuck. Then it's very nice to have a festival that don't talk but do. Women performers on more then 70% of the spots. But not only is the festival largly represented by women, they are also older women like Patti Smith, Marianne Faithful, Emmylou Harris and Buffy Sainte-Marie; all with careers starting in the 70's. And it worked like a charm, with three sold out days at Skeppsholmen in Stockholm. Sadly I missed about half the festival. I arrived late on the first day, and skipped saturday due to the Pride festival, and the fact that I had a chance to catch the most interesting performers from saturday at the Way Out West-festival the following weekend. Antony and the Johnsons I am happy to have seen Patti Smith perform. I'm not a huge fan of her music, but I am aware of her importance in rock history. She's a very cool lady and a very good performer. Highlights were Because the night and a really vibrant take on Van Morrison's Gloria. Then came Antony (and the Johnsons) with Sveriges Radios Symphony Orchestra. An amazing voice and performance that gave the night a perfect and magic ending. It was beautiful and Antony was in a good mood and seemed to enjoy to end his summer tour in Stockholm. Loved to hear Cripple and the starfish and his version of Beyoncés Crazy in love. More about Stockholm music and Arts in Part 2. Yawn! Stretching... I don't know what happened. I took a few week off for holiday, and then it took a couple more weeks before I came back to the blog. But now I'm back and I have the intention to get back behind the keyboard and start to write about all the wonderful music again. Summer has been quit evenful and I will start to write about a couple of festivals I attended. |
DJ Cy-Berg
Love being at festivals, concerts, clubs and buying, downloading and making music. I want to hear from you. Please leave a comment when you visit.
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