Archive for November, 2008

Due to an unforeseen mishap at the hands of an unnamed courier, my dear passport, along with my Russian Visa, is now M.I.A. somewhere on the streets of the UK. 

It is therefore with deepest regret that I will have to pull out of my gig at Tendance in St. Petersburg this Saturday night. I was really up for the show and had a lot treats up my sleeve for you guys!

I will do my very best to make sure I return to Russia as quickly as possible once my new passport and Visa arrive (or the old one appears) and will put on an extra special show for everyone to apologise for this weekend.

If anyone happens to stumble across it whilst out and about – I’m sure there are some spare CD’s in my collection that can be used as a reward.

Apologies again and I’m looking forward to seeing you all soon!

Chris

Podcast 005 swings between techie tinged electro and simple deep grooves… two sounds Chris is well known for, both in and out of the studio. His Top 5 begins with a squelchy number from Mr Oizo, followed by ZZT's 'The Worm'.. if you haven't already, get on YouTube and watch the video, it's like a David Attenborough show in super-speed. Next in comes Crazy P's funked up 'Disc Odyssey' and a Tim Weeks remix of 'Restless', out on Opaque. Sitting at the top of Chris' list is Riva Starr with the appropriately titled 'Squash'… you'll see what we mean….

Before the sound takes a deeper direction, we're treated to the vocals of Nanchang Nancy on Baggi Begovic's 'It's only nothing', the Rene Amesz remix. And then it all goes a little bit dark and twisted…

H.O.S.H's 'The valve' sets things up nicely, ahead of another tune which totally fits it's description; 'Congo man' by George F, the Re Dupre remix. Next up come two tracks filled with heavy bass-lines, one from Oliver Dahl and the other by German based Oliver Huntemann. The up tempo beats continue with Fantastic's 'Le club', a track that's got 'big-room' written all over it, before finally peaking with our friend Deadmau5 – Desynchronized, the John Made Remix.

In-line with the tone of this fifth edition podcast, Chris brings things to an end with an electro-clash b-side from Calvin Harris's album 'The girl's and a twenty-nine year old classic from Giorgio Moroder; a man who's pioneering work with synthesizers in the 70's, continues to influence electronic music across the globe.

Catch us next month for our December issue, which promises to hold a special little treat. Until then, good luck with the Christmas shopping!

[You can find a full track-listing at our website and our facebook page.]

Just thought I'd flag up Chris' latest interview with Beatport:

"When you’ve worked with the likes of Kylie, Robbie Williams, Mark Ronson, Lily Allen and Deadmau5, it’s pretty safe to say you’re in demand for remix duty. It should come as no surprise then that the latest name added to the remix list of Chris Lake is hot-to-trot Australian songstress Sia."

Continue reading here…… 

Ok, so I’m not deeply educated in this subject, and to be honest, I am far from an expert when it comes to royalties for artists, but it seems the UK has some out dated copyright laws in relation to the USA and Europe. Have a look at this….

Gordon Brown’s Minister, John Denham, is still refusing to give support and has been attempting to block this Directive in discussions in the European Council of Ministers.

Going on the Prime Ministers recent track record, maybe he is ignoring this law as it won’t put us further into national debt, but hey, that could be me being far too cynical!

Anyway, artists, producers and music lovers… I’d love to hear your thoughts on this subject. For some more info head to the PPL site or my favourite news website: BBC News.

Every now and again I like to have a good old mooch into the celebrity ‘blogosphere’. See what they’re up to, who’s shagging who, and which poor sod has got his or herself checked into rehab that month. I’ve got loads of time for artists who keep their blogs up to date…especially the big’uns.

One girl who’s been making me laugh every now and again (and mostly by mocking herself), is the young Katy Perry. I first read her blog about three months ago and saw a short post linking to an online piece about a local Church suggesting lesbianism would lead to a date with the devil. It made me chuckle…

Today, I visited the blog for only the second time and came across a wicked video she’d re-blogged from DJ Skeet Skeet & Friends. The video is edited by Thomas Von Party, and we have Tiga and Zombie Nation to thank for the music production. The only thing I’d say, is that if you’re squeamish about insects and bugs, this might be a bit too much for you. For me, it’s all about the “Woo’s”!

… I thought I’d share it as a little treat for a Friday. No frills, just going to let the music do the talking:

http://www.risingmusic.co.uk/downloads/Chris%20Lake%20sept%2008%20mix%20160k.mp3

[Track-listing at www.facebook.com/chrislake]

I read this article the other day on the Beatportal site: MXP4: Beyond MP3. Stating:

“Their format, MXP4, takes the MP3 concept, improves the encoding quality, then splits the whole thing into layers and tracks – allowing users to create their own remixes on the fly.

Right now, the format is proprietary and in its early stages, but with the right momentum, it could be a real paradigm shift – even beyond the electronic music community.”

I have to say I’d be genuinely surprised if this caught on widely in the long run. It sounds very fancy and exciting, but the thought of people going to great lengths to make their tracks easily destructed is not something I think many artists will do. It opens yourself up to be sampled way too much, it could make records less special and individual, and finally, records cannot sound the same being mixed like this.  Most tracks have mastering effects on them and it would not be possible to get the same sound of a track the way this is planned to be done. It is a no go for me… just can’t see it working…

Technorati Tags: MXP4,Beatportal