GIG: Mark Rae @ Inkcoherent - 1st June

After waiting patiently behind two singles, a dope video, and a neon-blue triangle shaped vinyl, Union is ready to unleash the most musically challenging, painstakingly crafted, MC-packed album in the dawn of 2012 - Analogtronics. Featuring Talib Kweli, Elzhi, MF DOOM, Roc Marciano, Guilty Simpson, and more, Union produces space-aged bangers that mold perfectly around each guest, in addition to sprinkling in a few lush, eye-widening instrumentals.
This is the full length we have all been waiting for, as bonus tracks provide over twenty songs hypnotic interstellar boop-bap.
Union consists of two Parisian producers whose otherworldly approach to analog-driven, melodically abstract, sample free hip-hop inspired Fat Beats Records to extend a label invitation immediately. When a mysterious, monolithic, glossy black package arrived at FBHQ with nothing more than a cryptic note and an unlabeled CD inside, the staff wasn’t sure if Stanley Kubrick had risen from the dead to make mixtapes or if their lives were about to be transformed forever. Luckily it was the latter, and today the legendary label is poised to unleash Union’s debut album Analogtronics on an unsuspecting Earth in the Fall of 2011.
Union was born when OJ, a Dilla-obsessed beat junkie with an unhealthy obsession for science fiction, met Gold, a jazzhead whose vast collection of vintage keyboards and synths left little room in his flat for trifling vanities like clothing and kitchen appliances.
Though both shared a parallel vision for the music of tomorrow, they each occupied opposite corners of Paris’ electro underground when their worlds collided in 2009. OJ, upon catching a flash of Gold’s keyboard prowess at a Belleville loft party, approached the funky technician immediately in hopes of applying his melodic touch to a nearly finished beat tape. Gold loved what he heard, and thus two unique creative energies become one distinct Union.
Tracklisting & Sounclips: 1. Intro 2. Mystery Part I 3. Time Leak feat. Talib Kweli & Sly Johnson 4. Cocomango feat. MF DOOM 5. Light Odyssey 6. Good Morning feat. Moka Only 7. Song for Janasa feat. Rachel 8. Wings feat. Elzhi 9. Fallin’ feat. Rapper Big Pooh & Janice 10. Blue 11. Preset Mars feat. Roc Marciano 12. October Rush 13. Digital Delight feat. Guilty Simpson 14. Space B-boy 15. Sky Dust 16. Baby Mama feat. Mani Hoffmann 17. Mystery Part II
Having long ago cemented his name as dance music’s key commentator and historian, in-tandem building an illustrious career as a DJ and producer over the past 30 years, music aficionado Bill Brewster is finally heading to Australia and New Zealand for his first ever down-under DJ tour this May.
His books ‘Last Night A DJ Saved My Life’ and ‘The Record Players – DJ Revolutionaries’ helped to define dance music culture, the industry that surrounds it and the main figureheads who have helped to shape into the force that it is today. ‘Last Night A DJ Saved My Life’ has been translated into seven different languages, including Portuguese, Japanese, Serbo-Croat, Spanish, Italian etc, and has now sold over 150,000 copies worldwide, around 100,000 of that in English. His other book ‘How To DJ Properly)’ has been translated six times, including French, Italian and Portuguese, with sales of around 110,000 in English and another 30,000+ in other languages.
His first delving into the world of recorded works came back in 1982 when the band he was singing with called Group Therapy released the album ‘Arty-Fact’. Since then he has re-rubbed the likes of The Beat Assassins, Superstars of Rock, two times Brit awards nominee Elkie Brooks, Jackson 5 and seven times Grammy nominee David Gamson and has his own project with Alex Tepper (ex-Futureshock) called Hotel Motel. From the year 2000, he has also been busy compiling and mixing compilation releases, having completed 10 out on labels including Hooj Choons, Universal, Capitol, Strut and Harmless. Known by a number of his peers as ‘the Oracle’, Bill has an enviable knack of foreseeing trends long before they have become a reality.
It’s no wonder that for more than three decades he has been the go-to man for media and alike when it comes to opinions and grounded predictions into the future of dance music. His website www.djhistory.com is a portal for like minded individuals. “What I love about dance music is it’s a technology-driven industry so you never quite know in which way it will turn or twist and I love finding out about new things. It’s what’s kept me fiending for the next big thing for the past 35 years”
Replicating his knowledge and love of music in a club environment, Bill began Djing in 1986. He was a founding resident of Fabric, going on to play weekly for 6 years. Emphasising his musical diversity on the decks, one week he would come on after Sasha in the main room to finish the night, the next he would be sparring with Leo Zero in Room 3 playing mental disco records and Balearic biscuits.
For his coming Australian/New Zealand tour, Bill has been scouring through his massive record collection to bring a mix of definitive classics, that will sit alongside up to the moment bombs to get the dancefloor pumping. “I’m psyched about coming to Australia and New Zealand not least because I’ve heard it’s warmer than Grimsby. I’ve been furiously digging out some forgotten gems in my records room for the trip and I’m looking forward to busting some of them out, so hold on to your corsets”
Comments
0 Comments