Posts tagged Nile Rodgers.

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‘You’ve heard the snippet, and doubtless indulged in the phoney reproductions pieced together from its couple minutes. The internet’s been ablaze with Get Lucky all week, and it’s more or less kept if not the world then at least the www. spinning. Well, mercifully for all involved really, you can now hear the whole shebang below. Pharrell’s falsetto is every bit as good as it sounded when it first broke free box-fresh on that Coachella-aired excerpt; Nile Rodgers’ guitars effervesce joie de vivre against a quintessential Daft Punk backdrop, and all of a sudden Williams’ infantile gripe of “the present has no rhythm” sounds ludicrously incongruous with the here, the now, and so too the song itself. “Your gift keeps on giving”, Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo et Thomas Bangalter so merci. Even if a comeback single concerning salacious dirty stop-outs may make for unapologetically squirmy subject matter…’ Get Lucky is lifted from the duo’s intensely awaited Random Access Memories LP, which is anticipated May 20th on Columbia Records.

‘You’ve heard the snippet, and doubtless indulged in the phoney reproductions pieced together from its couple minutes. The internet’s been ablaze with Get Lucky all week, and it’s more or less kept if not the world then at least the www. spinning. Well, mercifully for all involved really, you can now hear the whole shebang below. Pharrell’s falsetto is every bit as good as it sounded when it first broke free box-fresh on that Coachella-aired excerpt; Nile Rodgers’ guitars effervesce joie de vivre against a quintessential Daft Punk backdrop, and all of a sudden Williams’ infantile gripe of “the present has no rhythm” sounds ludicrously incongruous with the here, the now, and so too the song itself. “Your gift keeps on giving”, Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo et Thomas Bangalter so merci. Even if a comeback single concerning salacious dirty stop-outs may make for unapologetically squirmy subject matter…’



Get Lucky is lifted from the duo’s intensely awaited Random Access Memories LP, which is anticipated May 20th on Columbia Records.

1 month ago on April 18, 2013 at 10:41am
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“Take me to the jungle/ I wanna go back.” ‘Such is the furore surrounding a couple records this week (namely Jai Paul and Get Lucky, of which this take sounds somewhat more convincing than most floating about the place contemporarily) that the validity of everything is being called into question, as is the time we’re choosing to take formulating opinions, attitudes, and all else. Contemplation has, by and large, been abandoned all but entirely with split-second musings usurping genuine examinations and considered scrutiny. No matter, for Brixton bangers and primal house titans Basement Jaxx last week slipped out comeback single Back 2 The Wild to only slight fanfare, its primordial insistence falling on if not deaf then distracted ears as would a felled tree tumbling groundwards at the dense, verdant heart of an impermeable rainforest. “It’s a freakshow! It’s a peepshow!” an excitable voice declares, and for once it’s one of reason we’re listening in on, for this is Felix Buxton and Simon Ratcliffe returning to basics which, even from a first play, is quite evidently when they’re at their inimitable best. Resonant, ligneous rhythms meet with all manner of twitchy sirens, jumpy klaxons and skittish vocal interjections as the lines between the unruly wilderness and the ever more disorderly urban jungle begin to blur quite wonderfully, all of which can be experienced – officially and in full, I ought add – below.’ Basement Jaxx play the Summer Series at Somerset House July 21st.

“Take me to the jungle/ I wanna go back.”

‘Such is the furore surrounding a couple records this week (namely Jai Paul and Get Lucky, of which this take sounds somewhat more convincing than most floating about the place contemporarily) that the validity of everything is being called into question, as is the time we’re choosing to take formulating opinions, attitudes, and all else. Contemplation has, by and large, been abandoned all but entirely with split-second musings usurping genuine examinations and considered scrutiny. No matter, for Brixton bangers and primal house titans Basement Jaxx last week slipped out comeback single Back 2 The Wild to only slight fanfare, its primordial insistence falling on if not deaf then distracted ears as would a felled tree tumbling groundwards at the dense, verdant heart of an impermeable rainforest. “It’s a freakshow! It’s a peepshow!” an excitable voice declares, and for once it’s one of reason we’re listening in on, for this is Felix Buxton and Simon Ratcliffe returning to basics which, even from a first play, is quite evidently when they’re at their inimitable best. Resonant, ligneous rhythms meet with all manner of twitchy sirens, jumpy klaxons and skittish vocal interjections as the lines between the unruly wilderness and the ever more disorderly urban jungle begin to blur quite wonderfully, all of which can be experienced – officially and in full, I ought add – below.’



Basement Jaxx play the Summer Series at Somerset House July 21st.

1 month ago on April 15, 2013 at 01:26pm
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‘OK, so though we weren’t impatiently awaiting this one ‘til our eyes turned a dilated and deeper shade of bloodshot, I’d have stayed sleepless all week had I known this one was to arrive quite so early this morning. Of course Daft Punk provide absolute Saturday soundtrack – their brand of blithe electropop lends itself to carefree weekends, staying “up all night ‘til the sun” or perhaps rather “to get some” – thus it feels apt that we should ourselves Get Lucky to wake up to today. Though this is so much more than the mere, if immoderately lionised return of the bona fide pioneers of synthetic musics: featuring the (if only superficially) inimitably indolent Pharrell Williams on unprecedentedly smooth vocal duties, it makes for a sly funk track to better a hundred thousand hoaxes. It smacks of Chic (far from a coincidence, given Nile Rodgers’ heavy involvement with Random Access Memories) and as the godfather of soul has recently been quoted as avowing, this is the sound of Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo and Thomas Bangalter not only getting Williams to up his typically casual game, but so too the duo raising both “the bar” and the ante. ”What is this I’m feeling?” Why it’s an abnormally natural form of ecstasy, Pharrell. Ecstasy only heightening the impatience…’

Random Access Memories is anticipated May 20th on Columbia Records.

1 month ago on April 13, 2013 at 09:50am
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‘So we now know who is to play the apex of the Pyramid Stage across the three nights; who is to enrapture the newfangled dance hamlet, Silver Hayes; and who is to promenade The Park (inevitably eye-popping special guests aside, for which my money’s on Atoms for Peace) during this year’s edition of The Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts. Though the best element of this year’s line up thus far? No, it’s not the fact that The Rolling Stones are to start us up come the Saturday night as so many so optimistically postulated for so long, nor is it the plethora of alternatives to Mumford & Sons inexplicably occupying that same illustrious spot come Sunday, but instead the impromptu manner in which it was all announced last Wednesday night. There was no social media fanfare nor countdown; no elaborate launch party, nor natty little video but instead a fairly comprehensive rundown broken up into eleven stages and thrust online with neither word nor warning prefacing its since widely revered arrival. Only through being so ceaselessly impressive has the festival been able to cultivate such a steadfast identity, with the Somerset bash consistently selling out prior to the announcement of even one solitary name… I found out who was headlining a couple weeks back, so there were no gob-agape moments over yonder on ye olde Pyramid (Alex Turner’s Arctic Monkeys of course complete the supposedly esteemed triumvirate of 2013), though elsewhere could be found provocation for plenty of involuntarily excreted gasping. I think the worst thing about this year’s bill – once the thought of Marcus smug as Mumford in a waistcoat has been expunged from thought – is the absolute clusterfuck that is the Friday night: its brutish strength is its only weakness, and I’m already dreading the indecision some three months in advance. For if it’s not to be young Turner et al. it’s Cat Power, provided Chan Marshall shows up at The Park. If she again plays truant, there’s Chic feat. Nile Rodgers who bring the bona fide good times to West Holts or failing that, Nas amid the blips and bleeps of that new-generation dance village aforesaid. Though irrespective of all that irrefutable, and so too irrefutably diverse quality I think I know right where I’ll be, and that’s front and centre for Portishead who play the Other Stage come sundown. Along with The Park Stage, it’s my favourite of the festival’s invariably mucky bandstands and having been magnetised by glorious footage of the trip hop ensemble enthralling the then Jazz World Stage all the way back in ‘98, it’s an incontestable must-see essential as ethanol itself from a subjective perspective. So that’s my Friday made… Similarly, BBC videos of Primal Scream annihilating all proper decorum on the Pyramid Stage back in 2005 have stuck with me ever since first seen from the discomforting comfort of home, and so I’m quietly adrenalised inside to vicariously relive that not so quiet riot from this considerably less Beautiful Future. Then there’s of course the ‘Stones doing their decrepit bit, and then Sunday brings with it the return of Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, as well as Phoenix rising from the charred ashes of 2010 when they played the Other Stage in the midst of a debilitating heatwave, the like of which Glastonbury isn’t exactly renowned. Rufus Wainwright is to serenade the Pyramid, and Fuck Buttons are to obliterate The Park. Though so the idiom goes, that’s just the tip of the bloody iceberg and while hailstones always remain a faint possibility, this year’s festival ushering in a new ice age seems less likely. Iceage will most probably wind up interwoven with the bill somewhere or other at a later date, though for the moment it’s up to the likes of Foals, PiL, Tyler, The Creator and Local Natives to haul hairs up on end. Elsewhere, Elvis Costello & The Imposters are in on the deal, as are fellow ancients Dinosaur Jr.  but another quite astonishing facet of this year’s bill is that whereas the likes of The Smashing Pumpkins, Rodriguez and indeed Phoenix are now headlining festivals the world over, they’re here reduced to peripheral roles within the supporting cast. So too The Weeknd, who is to overhaul The O2 Arena this year, finds himself as far down as line nine of the above lowdown. It’s a testament to the variety on offer, as well as the invariably brawny calibre of the line up and it’s this year all too easy to gloss over the inclusions of Evan Dando, and Devendra Banhart, and Goat, and Melody’s Echo Chamber. The Family Stone, even. But as so many other festivals purport to be (I’d argue that in the UK, only this and Latitude can candidly declare themselves to be “more than just a music festival”), clichéd though it may be there’s so much going on all of the time at Glastonbury that the music is if not secondary, then only a sometime concern. It feels as though you’d require years down Worthy Farm to fully grapple with Glastonbury, and in a mere five days that always end before it feels they’ve begun you’re barely able to chip away at the veneer. Though quite honestly, it’s the sort of one of a kind and once every four years in five (there or thereabouts) experience to engender addiction and immediately enamour. I remember the back of the 2011 programme cited some 700-odd days until its return though with that figure now knocking down through the double digits, the anticipation and impatience grow that bit more fervent as each day quietly ebbs away. Glastonbury, we’re not yet Worthy.’ The full musical line up thus far now looks something stupidly magnificent as the below: Pyramid Stage Arctic Monkeys & The Rolling Stones & Mumford & Sons & Dizzee Rascal & Primal Scream & Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds & Vampire Weekend & The Vaccines & Elvis Costello & The Imposters & Kenny Rogers & Ben Howard & Rita Ora & Rufus Wainwright & Jake Bugg & Professor Green & Laura Mvula & Billy Bragg & Rokia Traoré & First Aid Kit & Haim. Other Stage Portishead & Chase & Status & The xx & Foals & Example & The Smashing Pumpkins & alt-J & Two Door Cinema Club & Public Image Ltd. & Tame Impala & Alabama Shakes & Editors & Azealia Banks & Of Monsters and Men & The Lumineers & Enter Shikari & I Am Kloot & The Hives & Amanda Palmer & The Grand Theft Orchestra. West Holts Stage Chic feat. Nile Rodgers & Public Enemy & The Weeknd & Seasick Steve & Major Lazer & Tom Tom Club & Maverick Sabre & Lianne La Havas & Toro Y Moi & Ondatrópica & Sergio Mendes & Dub Colossus & The Orb & Indigenous People & The Child of Lov & Alice Russell & Goat & BadBadNotGood & The Bombay Royale & Matthew E. White & Riot Jazz. The Park Stage Cat Power & The Horrors & Fuck Buttons & Django Django & Rodriguez & Dinosaur Jr. & Calexico & Steve Mason & Palma Violets & Devendra Banhart & Michael Kiwanuka & Solange & King Krule & Stealing Sheep & Tim Burgess & Melody’s Echo Chamber & Ed Harcourt & Half Moon Run & Josephine & Teleman. John Peel Stage Crystal Castles & Hurts & Phoenix & Bastille & Everything Everything & James Blake & Johnny Marr & The Courteeners & Jessie Ware & Tyler, The Creator & Earl Sweatshirt & Frightened Rabbit & Miles Kane & Local Natives & The Strypes & Savages & Tom Odell & Peace & Daughter & Villagers & Toy & Jagwar Ma. Silver Hayes Nas & Hot Natured & Disclosure & Rudimental & The Family Stone & Skream & Benga & Sub Focus & Charles Bradley & SBTRKT & Netsky & Dogblood & The Congos & The 2 Bears & AlunaGeorge & Julio Bashmore & Wiley & Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs & Gold Panda & David Rodigan. Acoustic Tent Steve Winwood & Sinéad O’Connor & Lucinda Williams & Glen Hansard & Bill Wyman’s Rhythm Kings & Gabrielle Aplin & The Proclaimers & Martha Wainwright & Seth Lakeman & KT Tunstall & Gretchen Peters & Martin Stephenson & The Daintees. Avalon Stage Ben Caplan & Beverley Knight & Crowns & Evan Dando & Gary Clark Jr. & JJ Grey & Mafro & Josh Doyle & Lucy Rose & Mad Dog McCree & Molotov Jukebox & Newton Faulkner & Oysterband & Penguin Café & Shooglenifty & Stornoway & The Destroyers & The Staves & The Urban Voodoo Machine & Vintage Trouble & Xavier Rudd. Block9 Gene Hunt & Tyree Cooper & Maurice Fulton & Greg Wilson & Mosca & Bill Brewster & Grant Nelson & Youngsta & Digital & Spirit & MC Chickaboo & Randall & Flight & Kerri Chandler & Horse Meat Disco & Brawther & Robert Owens & Underground Paris. Spirit of 71 Robyn Hitchcock and the Venus 3 & Slim Chance & Simian Mobile Disco & Terakaft & System 7 vs Eat Static & Don Letts & DJ James Monro & Gypsy Hill & Electric Swing Circus & DJ Tristan & Mixhell. Further informations can be found on the official Glastonbury site, while a resale of any cancelled tickets there may be will take place April 21st. Registration for that is now open, and can be completed here. See you June.

‘So we now know who is to play the apex of the Pyramid Stage across the three nights; who is to enrapture the newfangled dance hamlet, Silver Hayes; and who is to promenade The Park (inevitably eye-popping special guests aside, for which my money’s on Atoms for Peace) during this year’s edition of The Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts. Though the best element of this year’s line up thus far? No, it’s not the fact that The Rolling Stones are to start us up come the Saturday night as so many so optimistically postulated for so long, nor is it the plethora of alternatives to Mumford & Sons inexplicably occupying that same illustrious spot come Sunday, but instead the impromptu manner in which it was all announced last Wednesday night. There was no social media fanfare nor countdown; no elaborate launch party, nor natty little video but instead a fairly comprehensive rundown broken up into eleven stages and thrust online with neither word nor warning prefacing its since widely revered arrival. Only through being so ceaselessly impressive has the festival been able to cultivate such a steadfast identity, with the Somerset bash consistently selling out prior to the announcement of even one solitary name…

I found out who was headlining a couple weeks back, so there were no gob-agape moments over yonder on ye olde Pyramid (Alex Turner’s Arctic Monkeys of course complete the supposedly esteemed triumvirate of 2013), though elsewhere could be found provocation for plenty of involuntarily excreted gasping.

I think the worst thing about this year’s bill – once the thought of Marcus smug as Mumford in a waistcoat has been expunged from thought – is the absolute clusterfuck that is the Friday night: its brutish strength is its only weakness, and I’m already dreading the indecision some three months in advance. For if it’s not to be young Turner et al. it’s Cat Power, provided Chan Marshall shows up at The Park. If she again plays truant, there’s Chic feat. Nile Rodgers who bring the bona fide good times to West Holts or failing that, Nas amid the blips and bleeps of that new-generation dance village aforesaid. Though irrespective of all that irrefutable, and so too irrefutably diverse quality I think I know right where I’ll be, and that’s front and centre for Portishead who play the Other Stage come sundown. Along with The Park Stage, it’s my favourite of the festival’s invariably mucky bandstands and having been magnetised by glorious footage of the trip hop ensemble enthralling the then Jazz World Stage all the way back in ‘98, it’s an incontestable must-see essential as ethanol itself from a subjective perspective. So that’s my Friday made…

Similarly, BBC videos of Primal Scream annihilating all proper decorum on the Pyramid Stage back in 2005 have stuck with me ever since first seen from the discomforting comfort of home, and so I’m quietly adrenalised inside to vicariously relive that not so quiet riot from this considerably less Beautiful Future. Then there’s of course the ‘Stones doing their decrepit bit, and then Sunday brings with it the return of Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, as well as Phoenix rising from the charred ashes of 2010 when they played the Other Stage in the midst of a debilitating heatwave, the like of which Glastonbury isn’t exactly renowned. Rufus Wainwright is to serenade the Pyramid, and Fuck Buttons are to obliterate The Park.

Though so the idiom goes, that’s just the tip of the bloody iceberg and while hailstones always remain a faint possibility, this year’s festival ushering in a new ice age seems less likely. Iceage will most probably wind up interwoven with the bill somewhere or other at a later date, though for the moment it’s up to the likes of Foals, PiL, Tyler, The Creator and Local Natives to haul hairs up on end. Elsewhere, Elvis Costello & The Imposters are in on the deal, as are fellow ancients Dinosaur Jr.  but another quite astonishing facet of this year’s bill is that whereas the likes of The Smashing Pumpkins, Rodriguez and indeed Phoenix are now headlining festivals the world over, they’re here reduced to peripheral roles within the supporting cast. So too The Weeknd, who is to overhaul The O2 Arena this year, finds himself as far down as line nine of the above lowdown. It’s a testament to the variety on offer, as well as the invariably brawny calibre of the line up and it’s this year all too easy to gloss over the inclusions of Evan Dando, and Devendra Banhart, and Goat, and Melody’s Echo Chamber. The Family Stone, even.

But as so many other festivals purport to be (I’d argue that in the UK, only this and Latitude can candidly declare themselves to be “more than just a music festival”), clichéd though it may be there’s so much going on all of the time at Glastonbury that the music is if not secondary, then only a sometime concern. It feels as though you’d require years down Worthy Farm to fully grapple with Glastonbury, and in a mere five days that always end before it feels they’ve begun you’re barely able to chip away at the veneer. Though quite honestly, it’s the sort of one of a kind and once every four years in five (there or thereabouts) experience to engender addiction and immediately enamour.

I remember the back of the 2011 programme cited some 700-odd days until its return though with that figure now knocking down through the double digits, the anticipation and impatience grow that bit more fervent as each day quietly ebbs away. Glastonbury, we’re not yet Worthy.’

The full musical line up thus far now looks something stupidly magnificent as the below:

Pyramid Stage Arctic Monkeys & The Rolling Stones & Mumford & Sons & Dizzee Rascal & Primal Scream & Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds & Vampire Weekend & The Vaccines & Elvis Costello & The Imposters & Kenny Rogers & Ben Howard & Rita Ora & Rufus Wainwright & Jake Bugg & Professor Green & Laura Mvula & Billy Bragg & Rokia Traoré & First Aid Kit & Haim.

Other Stage Portishead & Chase & Status & The xx & Foals & Example & The Smashing Pumpkins & alt-J & Two Door Cinema Club & Public Image Ltd. & Tame Impala & Alabama Shakes & Editors & Azealia Banks & Of Monsters and Men & The Lumineers & Enter Shikari & I Am Kloot & The Hives & Amanda Palmer & The Grand Theft Orchestra.

West Holts Stage Chic feat. Nile Rodgers & Public Enemy & The Weeknd & Seasick Steve & Major Lazer & Tom Tom Club & Maverick Sabre & Lianne La Havas & Toro Y Moi & Ondatrópica & Sergio Mendes & Dub Colossus & The Orb & Indigenous People & The Child of Lov & Alice Russell & Goat & BadBadNotGood & The Bombay Royale & Matthew E. White & Riot Jazz.

The Park Stage Cat Power & The Horrors & Fuck Buttons & Django Django & Rodriguez & Dinosaur Jr. & Calexico & Steve Mason & Palma Violets & Devendra Banhart & Michael Kiwanuka & Solange & King Krule & Stealing Sheep & Tim Burgess & Melody’s Echo Chamber & Ed Harcourt & Half Moon Run & Josephine & Teleman.

John Peel Stage Crystal Castles & Hurts & Phoenix & Bastille & Everything Everything & James Blake & Johnny Marr & The Courteeners & Jessie Ware & Tyler, The Creator & Earl Sweatshirt & Frightened Rabbit & Miles Kane & Local Natives & The Strypes & Savages & Tom Odell & Peace & Daughter & Villagers & Toy & Jagwar Ma.

Silver Hayes Nas & Hot Natured & Disclosure & Rudimental & The Family Stone & Skream & Benga & Sub Focus & Charles Bradley & SBTRKT & Netsky & Dogblood & The Congos & The 2 Bears & AlunaGeorge & Julio Bashmore & Wiley & Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs & Gold Panda & David Rodigan.

Acoustic Tent Steve Winwood & Sinéad O’Connor & Lucinda Williams & Glen Hansard & Bill Wyman’s Rhythm Kings & Gabrielle Aplin & The Proclaimers & Martha Wainwright & Seth Lakeman & KT Tunstall & Gretchen Peters & Martin Stephenson & The Daintees.

Avalon Stage Ben Caplan & Beverley Knight & Crowns & Evan Dando & Gary Clark Jr. & JJ Grey & Mafro & Josh Doyle & Lucy Rose & Mad Dog McCree & Molotov Jukebox & Newton Faulkner & Oysterband & Penguin Café & Shooglenifty & Stornoway & The Destroyers & The Staves & The Urban Voodoo Machine & Vintage Trouble & Xavier Rudd.

Block9 Gene Hunt & Tyree Cooper & Maurice Fulton & Greg Wilson & Mosca & Bill Brewster & Grant Nelson & Youngsta & Digital & Spirit & MC Chickaboo & Randall & Flight & Kerri Chandler & Horse Meat Disco & Brawther & Robert Owens & Underground Paris.

Spirit of 71 Robyn Hitchcock and the Venus 3 & Slim Chance & Simian Mobile Disco & Terakaft & System 7 vs Eat Static & Don Letts & DJ James Monro & Gypsy Hill & Electric Swing Circus & DJ Tristan & Mixhell.

Further informations can be found on the official Glastonbury site, while a resale of any cancelled tickets there may be will take place April 21st. Registration for that is now open, and can be completed here.

See you June.

1 month ago on April 02, 2013 at 01:03pm
4 notes