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DECEMBER 23 - JANUARY 8
Earplug is a biweekly email newsletter, delivering a handpicked
selection of news, sounds, videos, and original features for the
international electronic music community.
This week's edition of Earplug comes to you a couple of days early as we
head off for a short break. 2003 may be winding down, but the ongoing
battle between the music industry and downloaders continues to heat up, with
a late December court decision coming out against the RIAA, for trying to
sue its way out if its deep digital morass. But with 25 million downloads
and counting — and a seasonal shortage of iPods — Apple
continues to push the whole industry forward. With so much good music,
technology, and collaboration on the horizon, we can't wait for next year
already. Happy holidays!
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Rebel Yell
In a severe blow to the recording industry's legal crackdown on file sharing, a federal appeals court in Washington DC ruled last Friday that the RIAA's subpoena process was invalid. Reversing a series of earlier decisions, the court held that copyright law does not permit the RIAA to, without a judge's prior authorization, send out subpoenas forcing ISPs to reveal the identity of file swappers. The court noted that "It is not the province of the courts to rewrite [copyright law] in order to make it fit a new and unforeseen internet architecture, no matter how damaging that development has been to the music industry." An attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an organization seeking to protect civil liberties in the digital world, commented that "The effect of the appeals court decision is that we do not lose our privacy simply by connecting to the Internet." However, while they now have greater protection against ISPs disclosing their identities, file swappers are not out of the woods yet — the RIAA can, of course, appeal this decision, and their existing lawsuits are still in play. Furthermore, with a little extra work and expense, the RIAA can still subpoena swappers identities — now they just have to file a lawsuit first. They've vowed to continue their war against P2P, so we can expect them to use this tactic. But, for now at least, it looks like swappers are back online. (CW)
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Three Strikes, You're Out?
This has been a bad couple of weeks for the recording industry. Strike one: Canada rules that it is legal to download copyrighted music from peer-to-peer networks. Strike two: a Dutch supreme court holds it is legal to make KaZaA available for downloading. Strike three: a federal appeals court invalidates the RIAA's most powerful tool for uncovering anonymous file swappers (see above story). But don't count the recording industry out yet. Paid music downloading and MP3 player sales doubled in the past year, and heavy hitters Coke, Amazon, and Wal-Mart are all fine-tuning their online download stores. Industry leader Apple hit 25 million downloads last week and announced the launch of an AOL/iTunes store, even as reports are saying it cannot keep up with the raging demand for its groundbreaking iPod. Bertelsmann and Sony finalized their music merger agreement last week, creating the world's second-largest music company. And just when it thought its antitrust problems were over, Microsoft gets slapped with a $1.1 billion lawsuit from RealNetworks for allegedly using its Windows monopoly to control the digital media player market. The recording industry may be down, but it is evolving rapidly in the face of new challenges — and is far from out. (CW)
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MORE HEADLINES
Tower Leaning to Sale
Sun Capital may buy the struggling retail chain more »
Black Phone
Jay-Z teams up with Nokia more »
Expansion Team
Time Out moves into Chicago more »
Do MP3s come with fries?
The great download giveaway begins more »
New Day Rising
Despite challenges, great music emerges more »
N*E*R*D Up
Pharrell moves into sneakers, fashion more »
Let's Get Ill?
P. Diddy does Broadway more »
Double De La Soul
Two new albums due in 2004 more »
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Artist: |
Philip Jeck |
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| Album: |
7 |
| Label: |
Touch |
| Release: |
November 24 |
Philip Jeck is not your typical turntablist. Like his sometime collaborators Christian Marclay, Otomo Yoshihide, and
Martin Tétreault, Jeck attends not to beats, breaks, and scratching but rather to the massing of sound, looping
and layering scratchy old vinyl until it settles into a kind of rich humus of hiss — fertile soil for the flowering
of unexpected melodic shoots. Using vintage Dansette players, a rudimentary Casio sampler, and effects, Jeck isolates tiny
fragments of songs — often slowed down to 16 RPM, they're rendered utterly unidentifiable — and assembles them
into dense, shifting structures as inviting as Op Art's moiré patterns. His
seventh (not including numerous collaborations) solo LP, 7 — like all of Jeck's work — is nominally ambient,
in that it opens up sprawling, immersive worlds best explored blindfolded. Individual moments blur and dissipate, and you're left
with the sense of having inhabited a vast, harmonic field where all possibilities co-exist at once. (PS)
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Artist: |
Various Artists |
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| Album: |
Music for Children |
| Label: |
Bruchstuecke |
| Release: |
December 5 |
Every youth movement eventually grows up, and so the movement must adapt to its aging adherents.
While Doc Martens savvily introduced a line of miniature eight-eyes for munchkin moonstompers,
Music for Children solemnly attends to the passing of the pacifier — from the mouths
of ravers to those of their babies. Frustrated with the lack of music she and her daughter could
enjoy together, Ruta5's chica Paula commissioned kid-friendly tracks from the likes of Ricardo
Villalobos, Dandy Jack, Lucien Nicolet, and even Sun Electric's Tom Thiel and Max Loderbauer. The
results range from chica & the Folder's Satie-like lullabies to Console's candy-sweet electro, and
from Villalobos' acoustic campfire jam to Thomas Fehlmann's amniotic shuffle. Intriguingly, many of
the tracks come from the burgeoning Chilean diaspora, suggesting that in Latin America, it's children
that have the right to music. (PS)
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Artist: |
Various |
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| Album: |
Pop Ambient 2004 |
| Label: |
Kompakt |
| Release: |
November |
Released on Kompakt, Pop Ambient 2004 is the latest annual
installment in a series of the most emotive and ethereal ambient music being
produced today. For a genre that can sound flat, Eno-derivative, and unoriginal
in its lesser moments, this series shines by showcasing some of the best and
brightest talents in electronic composition — from label regulars like Ulf
Lohmann to up-and-coming new talents like Japan's Tetsuo Sakae (aka Pass Into Silence).
The overall sound of the record is absolutely hypnotizing, with warm, subtle synth pieces
and minimal melodies and progressions. It's completely tranquil, yet cerebral and engaging
at the same time. Highlights include Pass Into Silence's "Sakura" and Donnach Costello's
fragile, guitar-based "To Thee This Night." (CJN)
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Artist: |
Underworld |
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| Album: |
Underworld: 1992-2002 |
| Label: |
Junior Boy's Own |
| Release: |
November 18 |
No one can make records the way Underworld makes records, and this ten-year anthology, full of their
most spine-tingling moments, proves it. It's impossible to talk about the history of dance music
without giving major credit to Rick Smith and Karl Hyde. With early tracks such as "Mmm...Skyscraper
I Love You" and "Rez," they snagged a crossover audience with their driving beats and euphoric chords.
Then they went on to cement themselves forever into punter history with "Born Slippy." The duo continues
to produce solid hits ("Two Months Off") even without original member Darren Emerson, and to create live
performances that reduce worldwide crowds to pogoing in their trainers. (KB)
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Artist: |
Various |
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| Album: |
Dub After Time: A Look Back at BSI Records |
| Label: |
BSI |
| Release: |
November 4 |
Portland's BSI Records has been pumping out dub masterpieces for five years, and
Dub After Time: A Look Back at BSI Records is a detailed retrospective of
the many flavors they've produced. This 13-track collection of B-sides, vinyl-only
tracks, and traditional rocksteady joints covers the dub spectrum, making this CD a
treasure for both confirmed fans and those new to the genre. Deep, reverberating bass
underscores beat-driven tracks such as Solomonic Sound's "Blessed Dub," while Tone
Scientists' "Breaking Down the Walls" is pure nu-jazz dancefloor nirvana. Other tracks,
like "Plastic World Remix" by Henry & Louis Meet Blue & Red, provide meditative, electronic
textures, relaxing bass, and conscious lyrics. Evenly divided between the traditional dub
reggae template and newer (but still roots-oriented) sounds, this disc is an exciting review
of all things dub. (MM)
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Artist: |
Various |
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| Album: |
Flowers in the Attic |
| Label: |
Mint Source Recordings |
| Release: |
November 3 |
Flowers in the Attic exudes pure warmth, from the inviting butternut-colored sleeve to
the engaging selection. Eight quality cuts take the listener on a trip, starting with Crazy
Penis' "Fly" and grooving on through the slinky funk of Shrinkwrap's "Closer" and the Latin-infused
"No Turn Left Unstoned" by Seedy Gonzales. They say it's the journey and not the destination that
makes a trip worth taking, but the highlight of this double LP is definitely the final track.
Putting Byron Stingily's recent remake for Urban Star to shame, the Bent remix of Hall & Oates'
'80s classic "I Can't Go For That" adds a soulful exclamation mark to an already definitive
statement. With only eight tracks to work with, Flowers in the Attic manages to do
something that other compilations fail to do — satisfy the DJ and listener alike. (DeepSix)
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Artist: |
Astor Piazzolla |
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| Album: |
Astor Piazzolla Remixed |
| Label: |
Milan |
| Release: |
October 7 |
Astor Piazzolla, Argentinean master of the bandoneon
(a free reed instrument like an accordion), deconstructed and reconstructed the traditions of tango into the fiery and sublime
"Tango Nuevo." Astor Piazzolla Remixed finds his sexy and mournful tunes embraced by 15 international DJs. Producers
like 4hero, Osunlade, and Nikodemus and Osiris modify his compositions, adding vocals, electronic flourishes, and, most
noticeably, beats — drums are either woven into the tracks or laid beneath them. It isn't always seamless and doesn't
need to be: the looped violin lines in Alexkid's "Luna," the breezy jazz whistling through Koop's "Vuelvo al Sur," and the
synth-spiced romp of John Arnold's "Calambre" stand out among these reinventions, but each track utilizes his inimitable
tone to maximum downtempo effect. (PDS)
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EARPLUG FAVES
Layo & Bushwacka (mix), All Night Long (End)
Soul Position, 8 Million Stories (Rhymesayers)
Candi Station, Candi Station (Honest Jons)
DJ Zinc, Faster (Polydor)
Kenny Dope (Mix) In The House (Defected)
The Stryke Boys, Playtime (Stereo Deluxe)
Krafty Kuts (mix), These Are the Breaks (DMC)
Tara Delong, You Do the Math (Fatal)
ILS, Soul Trader (Marine Parade)
Jay-J (mix), Loveslapped Vol. 3 (Loveslap)
Various, Sounds and Pressure Volume 5 (Pressue Sounds)
Abstract Rude & Tribe Unique, Showtyme! (Battle Axe)
Charles Webster, Remixed on the 24th July (Peacefrog)
Kenny Hawkes (mix), Nite:life 017 (NRK)
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Preview: Back II Life
April 14-21, 2004
Antigua, Caribbean
It's still a long way off, but there's a chance that a month after Miami you
might again get the itch for sun and music, and with only 300 tickets available,
you'll need to be quick to get in on this one. Jazzie B, the
original Funki Dred, dusts off his sound system and takes it to the Caribbean for a rather sophisticated all-inclusive
week of soul in the sun. This is a long way from the humble beginnings of his Soul II Soul project,
started two decades ago in London to throw local
warehouse parties, but growing under the guidance of producer Nellee Hooper,
into one of the UK's biggest and most successful soul collectives. Look for David Rodigan —
he'll be looking westward to Caribbean neighbor Jamaica as he lays down his classic stash of dubplates, while Norman Jay
and Gilles Peterson will also take turns behind the decks. (GR)
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OTHER FESTIVALS
Noise Pop
February 24-29, 2004
San Francisco, CA
Ether '04
Royal Festival Hall, London, UK
March 6-18
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Real Player required for these streams.
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listen » |
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Coldcut, DJ Lazy &
Strictly Kev, Solid Steel radio broadcast, December 15, 2003
Cut-up masters Coldcut end the year right, starting with the Magic Disco Machine and
ending with Nocturnal Emissions — no lie. They're joined by French contest
winner DJ Lazy and long-time cohort Strictly Kev.
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listen » |
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DJ Koze, live on Beta Lounge, December 13, 2003
As opposed to the rumors spreading online, BETALOUNGE is not dead!
Last week they had DJ Koze live in the lounge and he put down a mix of
downbeat and soul as smooth and creamy as hot chocolate.
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Daniel W. Best, radio mix on Milk Audio, December 2003
Daniel W. Best is label honcho for Best Seven Records — a Berlin,
Germany-based reggae dub label. A regular on the Berlin lounge scene,
Daniel has been defining his own sound, a mix of soul, reggae, and dub.
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listen » |
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Chris Lum, exclusive mix
From the super-hot Manchester-based deep house label Flat & Round,
San Francisco's Chris Lum has been riding big acclaim for his recent
release Chairman of the Board, which references his experience as
moderator on the undergroundhouse.net message board.
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listen » |
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DJ Atrack & Chromeo, 80's Funky Stuff mix, December 2003
Still banging the '80s vibe, Atrack & Chromeo bring the funk back.
Not content to rely simply on the irony of playing '80s tracks,
these two dig deep, unearthing some rarely heard gems. Brought to
you by the ever-on-point D*I*R*T*Y sound system.
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listen » |
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DJ Spice, live mix
As one of the leading ladies of drum 'n bass, DJ Spice has been on the scene
since her 1994 track "Beats Back." Since then she has become a major force
with her home label Back2Basics as well as with her gigs around the world.
This set is brought to you by the Belgium drum 'n bass promoters 187-dnb.
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Looking for more hot mix sets and fresh new tracks?
Check out Blentwell for an
ongoing document of the evolution of blended music online.
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watch » |
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Homeboys for the Holidays
Underground hip hop is all about balance. While producers must manage an often problematic mix of innovation and accessibility, MCs must similarly pen verses both lyrically challenging and indelibly hypnotic. It's a tough equation, but when pulled off successfully, there's little as satisfying. RJD2, Def Jux's prized sample slayer, is familiar with such successes, and his video for "The Horror," which draws influences from the works of David Lynch and Memento, is a great example of instrumental hip hop as film scoring. The newest video for Oakland's Zion-1, "The Drill," is also a true representation of sparkling production — with the added quality of zealous lyricism. Incorporating artwork by 40oz Comics' Jim Mahfood and featuring Amp Live, the mixture of live footage and illustration uniquely captures the difficulty of balancing a corporate job and tuition debt with life's myriad challenges. Chicago's Diverse, who dropped this years' brilliant One A.M., teams up with Quannums's Lyrics Born to deliver "Explosive," with an accompanying video proving the duo to be as adept at ping-pong as at the mic. And, lastly, what would any summary of recent underground hip hop videos be without an offering from Aesop Rock, the underground's anointed wunderkind, who alongside director Michael Kuhn hand-delivers "Freeze" in time for the chilly holiday season. Agile and lucid, Aesop Rock's abstract lyrics fit perfectly within the video's noirish urban underground. (SM)
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watch » |
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Name that Tune
According to his website, Ruben Fleischer = The Best. Alongside other famous Rubens like Kincaid and Sierra (Pee-wee spells it with an additional 'e'), Fleischer may very well be the best Ruben out there, and his work for artists DJ Format, Dizzee Rascal, and the Dismemberment Plan sustains such a claim. Since Earplug first wrote about Ruben's Dizzee Rascal clip, his site has been updated with "Dance Commander" — for Detroit's Dolby-surround sound enthusiasts Electric Six — which features a hot pink-clad cadet ordered through an improvised cadence of air guitar and Samantha Fox-like dance magic. Though his videos and short films show Fleischer to have a unique sense of humor, he also possesses a keen eye for design, and his three collaborations with San Francisco producer/MC Gold Chains showcase his broad sensibility. He has most recently been lighting up the screen with videos on behalf of rising breakbeat stars Dizzee Rascal and DJ Format. The Mercury Prize winning Rascal is fast becoming one of the UK's most valued exports, and Fleischer's video for "Fix Up, Look Sharp" finds the perfect motion graphic background for Rascal's unique delivery. Fleischer's work with Format, like his partnership with Gold Chains, is diverse and wildly imaginative, with videos for "Vicious Battle Raps" and "We Know Something" again proving the director's skill with design and humor. The best? That's still to be proved. The best Ruben? For sure. (SM)
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Ventriloquist
Looking for a musical holiday card that doesn't just sound like "Jingle Bells"
programmed for ringtones? Then visit "Let them sing it for you," a
sound art application created by Eric Bünger under the auspices of the Swedish radio
project SRc. Type in any text message and the program "sings" it back to you (and to
whomever you email your missive) by searching a database of words culled and sampled
from pop songs. "Me" comes from UB40's "Red Red Wine," for example, while Chris Isaak
provides your "I" (sure to be a hit with the ladies, all you would-be Casanovas).
Madonna, Phil Collins, the Eurythmics, Sinatra, and even the Crash Test Dummies all
chime in for their single-word roles. With hair metal, e-z listening, reggae, vintage
soul, gospel, disco, and rock 'n roll all colliding, it might sound at first like one
of Akufen's spins through the radio dial. More disorienting still is the fact that
each word is assigned a single musical reference, so repeated words will create
bizarre melodic refrains. (The database is still growing, so you might need to
rephrase your message a few times before you find musical matches for all your
words.) But listen twice and read along, and the aleatory ditty starts to stick in
your memory. Consider it a custom carol you and your loved ones can hum all season
long. (PS)
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Skrufff-E
It's rare to find a journalist writing from the intersection of
club culture, sex, dance music, and politics floating around
the internet, and that's what makes Skrufff-E
newsletter's wide-ranging and occasionally tongue-in-cheek content so remarkable.
Now in its third year, the weekly email is the brainchild of UK journalist Jonty
Skrufff, who has managed to attract a dedicated group of DJs, ravers, rockers,
and artists — including celebrity endorsers DJ Hell, Darren Emerson,
Peaches, and Boy George — who are addicted to his irreverent updates.
Jonty's missives also serve as a one-man syndication service for his numerous
interviews and articles which appear in dozens of magazines and websites. Mark Moore —
the DJ of S-Express fame — has recently joined the Skrufff-E family as the newest
columnist, joining longtime contributor the Barefoot Doctor. (DJP)
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Header Design:
Carly Clark
Mailer Design:
Keats
Editors:
David J. Prince
Philip Sherburne
Sascha Lewis
Christopher N. Hampton
Cyrus Wadia
Jon Spooner
Steve Marchese
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Production:
Mark Mangan
Anjuli Ayer
William Pierce
Sander-Martijn Milks
Husani Oakley
Gray Sevilla
Contributors:
Graeme Rutherford
Mandy Minor
Colin James Nagy
Peter D. Stepek
Kendra Borowski
DeepSix
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Submissions/Feedback |
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Tell us what you think is exciting and worth including in Earplug by dropping us
an email at tips.
Writers interested in getting even more involved should reach us at contribute.
And if what you want to do is criticize, praise, or generally comment on this publication,
please send an email to feedback.
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Header Design |
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We have an open call to create the headers that run at the top of each issue.
If you would like to submit a design, please email us at design
and we'll send you the necessary specs.
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About Us |
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Earplug is an email newsletter dedicated to electronic music and its
many dynamic styles and influences. Published every two weeks, it features a
handpicked selection of music news, cultural spotlights, tip sheets, CD
reviews, original reporting, and music festival previews and reviews.
Earplug offers only pure editorial and unbiased news — no money is
accepted from any artists, labels, promoters, or companies seeking
mention.
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