We play house Recordings: the label boss

Last Saturday I met up with Bart, better known as Red-D, the label boss of We Play House Recordings.  We picked that one summer day that it was just continually pouring rain to have a photo shoot …  drama in the sky!!  It was a real challenge to get some good shots in between the squalls.  Wind, dark skies, rain,…  a true battle.

I'm working on that shoot and hopefully I can share the result as soon as the sun comes out!!

http://www.weplayhouserecordings.com/

a love letter to autumn

Thank you autumn for treating us better than summer did!!

Music loved autumn as well.. saw some amazing good concerts: Feist, Bon Iver, SBTRKT, Ben Westbeech, Elzhi.

Report: Worldwide festival 2011 -France

The festival season is once again here.  Festi fever everywhere: California had Coachella, Barcelona had Primavera and Sonar ....  Last week, mister Gilles Peterson served  for the 6th time the WorldWide festival under the blazing Mediterranean sun of Sète (France). 

 

After last year I couldn't resist to buy a gold pass for 5 days of stunning music.  In less than 6 hours the high speed train brought us to the South of France.  An hour later we were already dancing on the beats of Prommer & Barck at the C.R.A.C. street party.  

At the most idyllic spot of this fishing town, the magical Théâtre de la Mer we enjoyed the hairy disco tunes of DJ Harvey and the amazing performance of James Blake.  Lucky there was a hot sea-breeze that brushed our goosebumps away.

The Pyramids

With sand between our not so bronzed toes we shaked in the afternoons on the ACD beach where Boiler Room vs. Young Turks, Quantic, Rainer Truby, Dam Funk and local Laurent Garnier made it even more tropical.  

The Phare du Mole lighthouse was the venue for some midnight music tale stories:

Konono 1 with their own individual sound

Raphael Saadiq with a not so likable show, but hey .. we are not complaining  

David Rodigan, a genius teacher in the old school dub step and reggae music

Cut Chemist, fo' sure he can scratch

Mount Kimbie, omg .. I'm blown away 

And the cream de la cream: Jamie xx, Joy Orbison, Flying Lotus live with Dorian Concept and Richard Spaven…  a musical mecca!!

And last but not least our own Belgian music guru Lefto aka the Belgian hip-hop-ambassador and Brownswood soldier.

Lefto

Benji B

Flying Lotus - Richard Spaven - Dorian Concept

Waauw, amazing festival, I think I'm going to move to uhm 'WorldWide'!

I don't think a film career will be on my resume, but here an attempt to make a video and more pictures:

  

  

Sinksen - Sinxen @ Kortrijk

Still in grief for my computer.. couldn't resist the urge to photoshop, so used the pc of a friend to edit some snapshots of yesterdays pleasure in Kortrijk.  

Dj Marcel & Vicky are rocking the place!!  Big love!

Some band in 'De kreun'.. the lights were shining.. music wasn't..

And a new try out of my ahum film skills at the amazing show of Mo & Grazz at Track.  

Short-term convenience

Disposable cameras ..  gotta love them sometimes, but in darkish venues they are just short-term convenience...   The lousy disposable shots were just an illusion of two amazing concerts in the AB in Brussels.  The glorious tones of Caribou lead us to the hazy nostalgia of Beach House!!

You make me smile

Yes yes Aloe, even on a rainy day your sweet, soulful sound makes me smile! Aloe Blacc, another retro soul Stones Throw family member is coming to Belgium soon!

Saturday 16th October @ Depot - Leuven

Sunday 17th October @ Vooruit - Gent (an on-point showcase): attending!!

In times of crisis he sings I said I need dollar dollar, a dollar is what I need And if I share with you my story would you share your dollar with me.  The track was even the hotspot on Studio Brussels radio.

This Street is...

Last year this street was elektronic, this year this street is .. for everyone!! Kids and adults, black and white, purple and pink... the 2010 edition will serve you all folk!

The entire South District around the Walpoortstraat will be the place to be next Saturday! Bike, car, tram 21&22, busses, your feet, ... many ways to get there.

Let's take a brief look at the program:

The Marimain booth and the Mahy stage will be a little Mecca for music lovers. Dj's such as Studio Brussels morning guy Thomas De Soete, rock chick Katia Vlerick, Red D and many more will rock the turntables. You can also catch a glimp of some live acts: Arquettes and the jazzy Backback.

Some pleasure for your eyes will be exhibited in the space of the formal Bernard Gavilan shop. Bue the warrior, a Belgian street artist will show his graffiti work and if you feel an arty farty mood coming up, you can try it yourself!

Besides the music and art, there's a kids corner! So teenagers, twenties and treenagers move and make place for the real kids!! A paradise for sure as they can have face make up by an experienced make-up artist.

Needless to say you should be there!

Saturday September 25th
1pm - 10pm
Walpoortstraat - St.Pietersnieuwstraat

Kr!z

Some months ago I did a shoot of a music making friend.  Shame on me, I still didn't finish those pictures.  I'm not so familiar with the music Kr!z is playing as a dj, but for all you techno lovers go and check his myspace and the one of his record label Token.

Kr!z

Festivalitis: Pukkelpop

The plan:
- going one day to the Pukkelpop festival
- trying to see 12 artists of the more than 60 ones who were on the line-up on Saturday
- take my camera and shoot some people

Reality:
- went one crazy day
- saw 10 of the 12 things I wanted to see
- walked like 100 miles
- enjoyed the sunsine

- brought my camerea.. but.. don't laugh.. forgot my SD card!!! aaarggh so, no shooting at all and I rented a locker to store the cam during the day..

Instead of the expected festival photo shoot, this will be a small report of the nice concerts I've seen..

1 o'clock at the hot hot Chateau..Toro Y moi:
Woowzie, the guys on stage brought a laid back show with seventies and eighties sounds.. I'm a big fan!! (online set on Red Bull Music Academy Radio)

1.45pm running to the Dance Hall for some rave rap of the South African band Die Antwoord.  I know this band since a few months and at first I thought it was a joke.. but it's just so funny to see them performing.  At the end they came back dressed up like some teletubbies for an encore.  One word for the show: funny

2.25pm back to the Chateau (too bad I didn't had a step counter with me...) for some glitch-hop Nosaj Thing beats.  Pronounced as Nosuchthing the young Jason Chung made it even more hot in the Chateau.. no lie.. but it felt like 45 degrees!

3.10pm fresh air and food were calling..  Under the blazing sun in Kiewit I enjoyed some pretty good festival food. Probably enjoyed it too much as we were too late for the Caribou concert.  The sign at the Chateau told us: closed..  noooo .. really wanted to see this.  My tight schedule was mixed up.. but heey no stress.. music enough. High Contrast in the boiler room was the substitute.  Fine Drum and Bass tunes.  

5.10pm Feet were heading towards Chateau again.. Martyn on the line-up, a dj set, not bad at all,but nothing special..

6.40pm dilemma time.. checking The Drums with their summer anthem Let's go surfing or checking mystical rapper/singer Gonjasufi .. Unfortunately I chose Gonjasufi the first big letdown of the day.  I like his album, but this concert was totally not done! Afterwards I heard the Drums were great.. arrrghh..

7.40pm at the Wablief tent the sister of the famous Belgian singer Tim Vanhaemel performed with her electronic music band the Vermin Twins.  She was dressed in an amazing beautiful glitter jumpsuit! Besides the glitter I enjoyed 30 minutes of her show but than we had to run to the Club tent.

8.25pm Au Revoir Simone at the club.. These 3 ladies from Brooklyn brought electronic dream pop.  They filled the Club with melody-laden loveliness.  In the middle of the concert it was time for another dilemma...Flying Lotus was programmed at 9.20pm but to be sure the Chateau wouldn't be closed again we had to be there on time.. I wanted to finish the Simone's show as well...ok, but I didn't want to miss Flying  Lotus at all, so I left the club.

9.20pm Flyloooo time... ooooh god (no, I'm not a believer) but the best tent of the festival had the best names: Flying Lotus!! This music producer with the biggest grimace ever dropped some amazing dub-step, hip-hop, free jazz and even Detroit techno beats sometimes combined with great soul voices.  The whole Chateau loved this guy and partied so hard on his tunes, the tent was almost blowing away!! Need to say more?

10.20pm So impressed by Flying Lotus I forgot the rest of my planned program... I missed The Yeasayer and Jaga Jazzist, but I was still on another planet..  Coffee coffee I was in need for coffee.. ok ..back among the livings..

11.30pm Temperatures were still pretty hot, so partying in a tent was no option.  The whole day was like taking an amazing music bath in a nice atmosphere.  To finish the festival we went to the main stage for the Dewaele Brothers aka 2 many dj's.  The show closed with fire works.

3 hours later, tired but satisfed me and my black festival feet came home.  Pukkelpop, you were great! Happy 25th anniversary!

None of the photographs are mine.

Festivalitis: Lokerse Feesten

It may seem a shame not to take my Nikon or Yashica to a festival to capture those amazing moments, but losing the camera or having it stolen would be even worse.  Two weeks ago I decided to take a disposable cam with me to the Lokerse Feesten (in Lokeren, of course...)

Line-up?  Yes yes, M.I.A. and her lil' pupil Rye Rye were on the program.  Rye Rye, 19 years old 'shaked it to the ground' in only 45 minutes! 

In between the performances of the two Bollywood chicks, it was time to calm down with Moon Safari guys of Air. After Kelly watched the stars, it was time for M.I.A. to pump up the party vibes.  Although a bad sound system on stage and the bad reviews in the newspapers the day after I really enjoyed the show of this Tamil tiger lady!

Soundset

In the MSK (Museum of Fine arts, Gent), the oldest gallery of Belgium is an exhibition of the contemporary artist Stijn Cole.  The artist uses new technologies to create an abstract reality and invites the audience to question their environment.

Soundset is a music project in the context of this exhibition.  During some workshops, participants will have the opportunity to learn the basic of Ableton Live.  Together with Stijn Cole they will search for the perfect sound that fits with his work.

On the nocturne you will hear the result of this project.  This takes place on October the 1st, the workshops take place on September 11th & 12th and 25th & 26th.

Workshops are conducted by professional producers and dj's:

San Soda (We Play House Recordings)
http://www.myspace.com/sansoda
Simon Hold (Pitch & Hold, Love Triangle)
http://soundcloud.com/simon-hold
Roebin De Freitas
http://soundcloud.com/rdf
...

More information and registration can be found on the facebook page of Soundset.

All aboard!

We play house records and the Antwerp Feiern crew hijacked a boat in Ghent to play some nice house tunes. All aboard!

fancy dancing feet

Ghent Festival

You say summer.. I think festivals! Maybe Belgiums finest proud besides beer and chocolates! Really, did you know that half of the European Festival Awards went to Belgian festivals. During the entire year there are over 280, but most of them take place during summer.  Sold out is common lately in the ticket business and even fashion marketing picked in on the festivals.  Shops such as H&M  offer 'festival-outfits'...  festivals are hot!

Zoom zoom, Ghent... The Ghent festival or 'Gentse Fiesten' like we say! 10 days party, theatre, comedy,... all over the city and one of the biggest city festivals in Europe.

Some highlights till so far:

Gent Jazz Festival

Although this jazz event takes place before the 'Gentse Fiesten' it is inherent with it. Held over ten days as well all sorts of jazz musicians and bands are performing here. Last Friday I went to the Cinematic Orchestra and Kruder & Dorfmeister. The first one brought a beautiful concert and the last one was a little bit disappointing.

Avenue L 

More  than 100.000 go into the city center every night of the weekend or bank holidays.  I'm not always in the mood to be crushed by the massive crowd and at the same time to focus on the cobblestoned road.. so yesterday I've chosen to go to Avenue L.  This party concept is housed in the amazing medieval cellar of the NH Hotel. Mustang (also known as Cosy Mozzy) and Villa (the new project of Ghents DJ duo Fredo & Thang) pleased us with 80's tinted fine records!  For example, this Ed-banger one:

More coming up: a party on a boat, PoléPolé a floating festival, ...Oooo I love you summer!!!♥♥

Worldwide festival: you say world .. I say wide

Besides Paris, there's another city of light in France!! Sète, a small idyllic fishing town in the South of France hosted Gilles Peterson his WorldWide Festival (8- 10 July 2010). 

After 12 days on the Frenchie roads we had some time left to witness the first two days of this amazing festival.

I had already a crush on the festival before it started by seeing the exceptional hot looking line-up and unique venues.

The kick off took place in the blazing sun on the street in front of the CRAC (Regional center of contemporary art). Koko and Gilles Peterson were spinning the first tunes and my feet started moving. Between some sunscreen sessions I saw some regular faces from Gent.

 A name on the line-up up I looked forward to see, was Dorian Concept.  Waaauw, this amazing Austrian produces raised the temperatures with his awesome beats!

A shower refreshed us and we were ready to go to the lighthouse Phare Du Mole/St Christ for the rest of the program of day 1.  At the entrance we saw the notification that Gil Scott-Heron, the highlight of day 1 cancelled for personal reasons. What the heck?? 

In the queue at the entrance we met with Ellen (also known as Lemon Lizzy with her fantastic blog) and her boyfriend and joined them to hear our own talented Belgian artist on stage: Lefto! Word! The band of Gil Scott-Heron didn't feel the personal reasons of the man himself and performed 45 minutes on stage. After this nice show and some dub-step tunes of MC Dynamite the Foreign Beggars took over the place and the crowd went totally crazy.  Floating points and Fatima were on the program as well, but I've seen them before and the girls got tired so we went back to the hotel.

Day 2 started on the ACD beach. While dipping myself into the Mediterranean Sea I enjoyed tracks like think twice from J.Dilla.  Lefto and Simbad controlled the turntables and people started dancing on the beach, what a work out!

Salty water and sandy sand were removed again after a shower and we took of to one of the nicest venues I've ever seen: Theatre de la mer.  On stage: the Havana Cultura Band with the female singer Danay Suárez Fernández. Again amazing!! She brought the wonderful track Lagrimas de Soledad and Think Twice.  These tracks are released on the Havana Cultura album on Brownswood records, a must buy!

Poly-Rhytmo de Cotonou brought some nice latino vibes and the crowd started the fiesta. The deafening applause reached the sky so hard that it replied at the end of the concert with a rain shower.  Damn festival, I like you.  As the most of the festival peeps went to the St. Christ venue again, we returned to the hotel,unfortunately.  The morning after we had to leave really early back to Belgium.  But next year, yes I'm already thinking of my agenda of next year, I'm back!!

Good music makes good people come together! Thank you WorldWide, thank you Gilles Peterson

Holiday

Time for a break,
Time for some sunshine,
Time for a holiday, celebrate!

See you back in 2 weeks!

Washed Out and Small Black

Chillwave / glo-fi.. a yes or a no... definitely a yes! This "new" genre broke out in 2009 and the chill-wave hype keeps rising this year!

You may ask yourself, "What the heck is chillwave" The term is picked up from a blogger and it perfectly fits this type of music. Generally it has an '80s influence, it fuses elements of new wave and ambient with dance-y beats and lo-fi... still no idea what it means? Imagine you find some old VHS cassettes on the attic from the late '80s/'90s, you play them in the background while sitting on the beach...

Washed out and small black gave us last night a ride on the chillwave in the Charlatan. Maybe 30 other glo-fi lovers were attending the show, but it was amazing!

Small Black, a band from New York, filled the Charlatan with dreamy summer synth sounds. Washed out, just Ernest Greene, makes bedroom synthpop and started with mostly sample based music. After a while Small Black served as Washed Out's backing band. Great performance!

If you feel the chillwave and you want to ride it yourself.. Pukkelpop will be the place to be! Whased out is on the line-up and the guys from Small Black promissed they will be back in Belgium after finishing their album! Another one man's project to check on Pukkelpop: Toro y Moi!

Small Black and their great song Despicable Dogs:

Belong from Washed out, how chillwavy can it be:

Check:

Washed out myspace
Small Black myspace
Small Black Blogspot

www.pukkelpop.be

Cocorosie (15.05.2010 Les nuits Botanique)

Les nuits Botanique, the annual music festival in a superb setting gives more than 100 musicians from all over the world. This year the highlights include Jamie Lidill, Joanna Newsome, Gil Scott Heron and plenty more. Every year it's a hard job to pick one night out.

I've chosen for an evening at the Cirque Royale to spend and enjoy the show of the twisted sisters CocoRosie (www.cocorosieland.com). Their music is rather difficult to describe, it varies somewhere between freak-folk, avant-pop and trip hop.

Although they grew up in the States, they started their rise to stardom in Europe in 2003. Some hate them, but they won the hearts of tens of thousands music fans and certainly that of my friend I was joining to the show last night. It was her seventh concert!!

Before the crazy show started, we enjoyed the support act of Efterklang. This band from Danemark brings happy indie pop/rock sounds. Magic Chairs is their latest release and it's fun and easy music to listen to. We enjoyed their performance but were waiting for the show of the night.. Cocorosie!

Photographer Samantha West

Bianca and Sierra amazed the Cirque Royale with songs from their previous albums like Werewolf, Rainbowarriors and trippie songs from their new album Grey Oceans like Lemonade. The words in the tracks are better experienced than analyzed. Do not just listen to their album, you have to catch a show of them!

Do you remember the terrible R&b single of Kevin Lyttle: Turn me on, covered by numerous artists, but none of them can match Cocorosie's version. Check the video:

The show featured everything from beat-boxing to tap dancing, bizarre and messy songs with traditional instruments and kids toys. It was amazing!

Please notice that the image credit for the above photos: Photographer Samantha West. Check her website: http://samanthawest.net/

Democrazy presents: MOS DEF

A non photography related post, but truly worth mentioning: Mos Def in the Vooruit! An artist I already follow since the nineties presented his new release 'the ecstatic'.

Critics love saying today's hiphop is devoid of substance and creativity. Mos Def refutes this on all fronts!! He brought a 'supermagic' show that breathed poetry.

A gracious Mos appeared on stage after 15 minutes of beautiful Fela Kuti sounds. After dropping some amazing J.Dilla jewels I got ecstatic.. time for one of my favorite tracks of the moment: R.O.S.E.S. of Georgia Anne Muldrow, which Mos remixed for his latest album.

When I'm down, I just draw some roses

On a pretty piece of paper

With my recipe oooooooooooo-pen

So halfway through, I feel so much better

I imagine happiness, and it runs right to me, such amazing beauty

You don't have to , cut up no roses

Please just leave them living

Got my pencil, got pretty paper

Please don't worry we're forgiven

Mos Def: myspace

Yashica into the dark

My first contact with high speed black and white film. I like the fujifilm neopan 1600 developed @ 3200, it gives a tight grain. The Ilford 3200 doesn't give the same result, the quality is less.

These are some snap shots with the FujiFilm Neopan 1600:
And here some shots with the Ilford 3200: