Krautrock: The Rebirth of Germany

I watched a excellent little documentary called Krautrock: The Rebirth of Germany recently on BBC4. It looked at how Germany established its own unique music scene between the late 60s and 70s with pioneers of electronic music such as Can, Neu!, Faust and of course the legendary Kraftwerk trying to carve their own identity in the world of music which is dominated by American and British influences and culture. Check the doc below.

Regal

The best bit of advice someone ever gave me, "stick to your guns". Looking at event listings for clubs around Dublin these days its great to see an influx of foreign talent. Times for Dublin clubbers it seems are good. On further inspection you cant escape the realisation that the promoters bringing them over are not genuinely interested in the type of music that they play or their significance in the scene as a whole, its clear that they are more interested in getting heads in the door and turning a quick profit. The same people that were pushing "electro" dj's 6 months ago have now switched up, flipped their cap sideways and have booked the latest dubstep, funky or whatever is hot at the moment act to play at their newly named night. Musical mercenaries I suppose. Of course Im not saying that change isnt good,more so, its important to set down a foundation and build on it rather than up sticks and move on just as the next fad arrives.

Thinking about writing this post I suppose I was reflecting on my own musical interests at the moment. Im liking a lot of sounds around now but at the same time I always love hearing something new from a familiar artist. Anyone who has seen Dj Bone in a club will know that he is the epitome of what a solid techno dj should be. Playing effortlessly over 3 decks whilst always maintaining a sky high tempo and keeping the floor rocking at all times. He has a ton of mixes over on his Soundcloud page that you can check out. His production credentials are equally glowing. Heres something I rediscovered over the weekend.

Dj Bone - No Sleep (True to the roots)

Effect

Did a tune swap with a mate of mine recently and was introduced to Motor City Drum Ensemble. Really liked what I heard and I don't usually like House Music. Really well thought out tracks and brilliant use of samples. On the downside though, went to see him the other week when he was playing in the Pod and it was a serious let down. Another case of production skills not transfering into the DJ Booth.

Motor City Drum Ensemble - Raw Cuts 2

Broken Walls

I cant remember an artist recently that Iv looked forward to their next release. The new ep on Hemlock comes from label boss Untold and I must say, I like nearly every track off it. Hes someone thats been attracting a lot of hype lately but he is certainly coming good on it.

Untold - Palamino

Les Bleus

We were robbed last night, no world cup mania next year. No better tonic than rave chords

Bizzare Inc - Raise Me

Shameless Self Promotion

Milk, a track we did not so long ago with Syntonics is now up on Juno. Remixes on the release come from Philly bass heavyweight Dev79, Dublin's bassline Queen Monksee and also head of Breakdown records Dj Obeese. You can get it from Juno here. Also fellow Detrublin writer Teishi 1's debut ep Jekyll is available from today. 4 original cuts of grimey bass goodness backed up with a remix from (cough cough) Sonic 86. You can get that here.

The shape of things that hum

A few years back Channel 4 aired a cool little documentary on classic drum machine and synths. The show features artists such as Orbital, Coldcut and Ray Keith taking about the influences these machines had on their music and the music scenes around them. Below is a look at some of the machines featured on the show.

First up is the Roland TR 808



The Roland TB 303

If You Forgot

So the last DEAF has been and gone. Its really only when you look at the festival retrospectively that you realise just how much effort went in to making it the event that it was. So many quality acts jammed into venues around town, not to mention all of the film, photo and theatre aspects that went into it aswel. There was the argument of course that there was too much going on over a short period of time and that events wouldnt be attended well. Speaking from first hand experience this was pure nonsense. The gigs I went to last week were both packed and great fun so congrats all round to the DEAF team for giving this festival to us for the last 8 years and good luck with the new projects.

One of the gigs I did go to was one that I had been looking forward to for ages. Aux 88 are prob one of my favourite acts and I had never seen them live. They started off with the material from the Mad Professor album, doing that for about an hour before breaking out the classics and finishing up with a preview of the new material. Im not too sure about this, its all 4x4 which for me isnt Aux 88, not saying change isnt good, just that for me I would associate Aux 88 with the techno bass sound, electro beats and to hear them hype up "its 4x4 people", I was just a bit disapointed. Anyway, great gig all round, really good to see a lot of younger heads there really getting down to the music.

Posting a recent mix from Dj Di'Jital that was up on electrobass.net, cant reccomend it highly enough.

Dj Di'Jital - Technobass.net Mix

Detrublin Homegrown 1

This is a feature that will hopefully be on these pages a lot more going forward. We have a huge amount of talent in Dublin and I want to do as much as I can to try and highlight some artists that you may or may not have heard about. First up is someone who was in touch recently and I must say that I was very impressed with the level of production in his tracks. For someone who has only been making beats for a year he's made huge progress in a short amount of time. The artist in question is Shatterfreak. Hes certainly someone who is taking the bull by the horns aswel. He has an ep finished and ready for release on new Irish Imprint Spiralking and come December you can find him running his new night Stomp-O-Rama in the Odeon. Great to see some genuine talent coming out and getting involved. I have for you today a mini mix that Shatterfreak was kind enough to put together especially for the blog showcasing some of his upcoming material.

Shatterfreak - Detrublin Mini Mix

Shatterfreak - Now Iv Got Your Fear
Shatterfreak - Bat Country
Shatterfreak - Mario's Nightmare
Shatterfreak & Diakon - In Sickness & In Stealth
Shatterfreak - A Time Of Crisis

He also has plenty of tracks up on his Souncloud page that are well worth checking out. Def one to watch.