Archive for February, 2009

Tonight see’s us take our next step into the new media world. Chris is playing the Camel Club in Huddersfield, for a one off gig as part of Up For It, an initiative set up by my old agency Wolfstar to get the students of Kirklees off their arses and enjoy life beyond pot noodles and day-time TV.

As most of the Wolsftar team are now complete Web 2.0 geeks, and will be in attendance, we thought it’d be a fantastic time to give this KYTE banter a go. Now we’re promising nothing, so please don’t take what I’m about to say as gospel, but and this is a BIG but, there is about a 70% chance that if you check out our chrislakeofficial Kyte channel tonight, (between the hours of 11pm – 3pm GMT), you’ll be able to see real-time footage of Chris and the team. From the minute we pick him up to the minute we put him to bed, we’ll be filming as much as we can, so if you’re a fan or just a tad curious, come check it out! There’s also a chance we’ll get the chat-room sorted as well, although I wouldn’t hope for too much intelligent conversation!  

If you really like the set up, you can post it to anything you want; MySpace, Facebook.. All your blogs etc etc… pretty cool really. As soon as we hit the stop button on any live-streaming, the clip is posted and can be watched again. Oh and please don’t expect the sound quality to be amazing when we get in the club! We’ll be doing some filming with half-decent cameras so should have something up on YouTube and Vimeo pretty quickly. Wish us luck!

What better way to lift spirits at this gloomy mid-week point than by offering up two quality sets? In the right corner, we have the London DJ partnership of Biased Guy, recent friends to the Rising Blog and regulars at the likes of Fabric.To the left… all the way from sunny San Francisco, Ruby Skye resident and well known for material put out on Rising Trax… Max Vangeli!

Now usually we’re giving up Chris’s sets, and it’s all about having a good time, but seeing as these guys are going head to head, and because we like to spark debate, let us know what you think? Is there a clear winner, or are the tunes on both sides of the pond making you shake your ass? Let us know!!

Biased Guy – Mix here – MySpace here

Max Vangeli -Mix here – MySpace here

Sorry ladies and Gents… this one's out of my control.

This is the official statement from Gatecrasher:

"Gatecrasher Loves Nottingham has been forced to shut temporarily due to a serious fire which broke out on Wednesday night at adjacent Queen Street restaurant Soulville Steakhouse.

Six fire crews from Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service attended the blaze and managed to contain the fire to the restaurant.

The fire did not spread extensively to Gatercrasher but the club has suffered serious smoke and heat damage and will remain closed whilst a refurbishment takes place. The extent of the damage is currently being assessed and until that time no guarantees can be made as to when the club will reopen.

Simon Raine, Managing Director of Gatecrasher commented;

“We must commend Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service who did an excellent job in terrible conditions as they prevented this serious fire spreading extensively to neighbouring businesses like ourselves.

However, Gatecrasher was damaged by the fire and unfortunately will remain shut whilst we undergo a refurbishment. The scale of the damage and the time we will have to remain closed is as yet uncertain and will be determined following a formal assessment.

Unfortunately some of the nights we had planned will have to be rescheduled including the debut of phenomenal DJ Chris Lake which was planned for this Friday,

We will reschedule Chris’s date for sometime in the future.

Gatecrasher Nottingham prides itself on having a stunning interior and cutting edge technology so we must take the time to return the interior to its former glory. We will use this essential close down period to refurbish the club making it better than it has ever been.”

Gatercrasher will be back in business as soon as possible and the club has some massive DJs planned in coming months including the Shapeshifters, Pete Tong, Spectrum’s 8th Birthday and David Guetta who plays on Good Friday.

An update on when the club will reopen will be made shortly."

Updates will be posted on the Gatecrasher web-site  at www.gatecrasher.com.

Rising Music has long been a supporter of the biggest and best current trends in terms of the way dance music is portrayed and highlighted through different online ideas. Things like the blogosphere, Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, Myspace and almost everything else with a .com after it has helped to push music further and further into the corners of the world that were before relatively untouched by the corporate wheels of the high-flying record labels.
Two such things that have appeared recently are the sites Awdio.com and Be-at.tv – both of which stream music on demand, but present it in different ways, both going along different routes of interacting with their direct audience. Be@TV chooses to record high quality video and audio, multiple camera angles and gives you the all round experience of being in a club. Awdio on the other hand presents essentially a worldwide clubbing calendar that allows you to stream (audio only) sets from venues around the world. What’s available is presented in a ‘what’s on’ style format – immediately connecting the audience with the feeling that they are actively involved with the world’s clubbing events.

Now I could pretend to you all that I’ve spent hours working out the ins and outs, pros and cons of both websites and investigating their design quality, build quality and stability… but I’m not going to. I just wanted to put the feelers out there and see what peoples thoughts are on the way this interaction either helps or potentially hinders the clubbing world. 

Obviously both are very impressive, useful and fun websites, but are they making clubbing all too easy? No longer do you need to get dressed up, get on the tube, queue in the cold, fight to the cloakroom and get sweated on by the person next to you on the dancefloor. You can sit in your dressing gown, with your girlfriend/boyfriend/friends/dog/cat/parrot/teddy bear with a glass of water and revel in what is essentially the experience of others. Are these types of sites spreading the love of music far and wide and promoting going out clubbing, or are they making it all too easy to not need to go out to the extent that we are all accustomed to? Do they make you want to go clubbing more… or do you feel like it is not ultimately necessary to be in all these places because you can see it all later. A bit like Sky+ and BBC iPlayer for clubs really…

His track If You Knew has been demolishing dance floors for the past two months. Now man of the moment Chris Lake has put out a hell of a competition in line with this weeks release.  

Teaming up with London-based design outfit Urban Species and Track It Down, Chris is offering you the chance to win an original canvas print plus an exclusively customized pair of trainers, cap and t-shirt. Featuring the If You Knew artwork these envy-inducing pieces of kit will probably make your mates foam at the mouth on sight.

Want to win? Stupid question! Then visit www.trackitdown.net and enter your details to be in with a chance. You’ll also be able to read an exclusive interview from Chris, check out his Top 10 Chart from Track It Down’s massive online store and of course, download If You Knew and the scorching set of remixes that come with this amazing track.

Once you’ve had a look at the details, simply email competitions@trackitdown.net with the subject title ‘Chris Lake – If You Knew Competition…. easy hey???

PS. If you’re having any trouble with downloading the release, you can also just head to iTunes – link here: http://ping.fm/J8kNI

Thanks x

For whatever reason I’ve had “International Radio 1…. “ on a shed-load this week. In the kitchen, in the office and in the car… and there’s a few shows I’m genuinely buzzing off. Sarah Cox in the morning… with all her food obsessions and honest northern banter, Zane Lowe in the evenings with his positive Southern Hemisphere enthusiasm and then the lovely Annie Mac.. bass-lines and an Irish accent.. yum! So I thought I’d share some cracking tunes that for one reason or another made my ears prick up and go… yeh man… not heard that in ages! 

Let’s get started with something really easy on the ears. I’m not sure why, but the embed code has been removed from YouTube, so just follow this link: Eddie Brickell and the New Bohemians – What I am.

Next up we go for some classic Foxy Brown and Oh Yeah. I just love the sampling on this record – it’s brilliant!

Now I’m stepping back in time to when I first started having a dabble on the 1s and 2s… single-handedly  clearing a dancefloor in Norway… clearly they just weren’t ready for it! Wildchild – Renegade Master! Watch the original video here or turn it up and click below for the awesome Fat Boy Slim reworking!

Finally, and probably quite an obvious one… my good friend and label owner Chris Lake with the smash hit vocal version of Changes. Again the videos been disabled… hmmmm… this must be a new thing… well I don’t want to finish off like this.. so why don’t you check out Mr Lake having some fun out in Asia. Catch you later folks!

Well well, the time has finally come. Pete Tong gave ‘If You Knew’ its first spin back in November 2008…. here we are three months down the line and it’s officially available for legal download at most digital retailers.

So if you like the track, we’ve gone for a simple starter package, releasing the radio edit, the original and the video. The full package with remixes from ATFC, Feed Me and Hardwell & Rehab will follow shortly.

Unbeknownst to everyone at Rising, the crew at iTunes have listed the Original mix as (electro rock)… we’re a bit confused where that one came from, but hey… these things happen. If you want the full original club mix then go for (Electro Rock) for now!!

So boys and girls, download it here, give us feedback, but most importantly… enjoy the track!

Catch you soon.

I’m back already with good news!

Chris Lake’s latest hot-to-trot dance floor smash has already done the business on international radio, in top jocks’ record boxes and on the Internet forums. Now ‘If You Knew’ featuring Nastala is taking on none other than the mighty behemoth that is MTV Dance – last week going straight in at the #4 position and now added to its playlist!

With literally just days to go until its official release, all eyes are on how well it’ll do in the national charts? Industry insiders and label bods think that the track is making all the right noises – what do you think? Has If You Knew got your disco knickers in a twist? Is it as good as, if not better than Changes? Will you be downloading it on its release? Questions, questions, questions! We invite you to answer

Technorati Tags: Chris Lake Changes,MTV dance,Chris Lake If You Knew,Nastala

Afternoon all! Let me first just say hello to everyone as this is my first venture into the blogging world. My name’s Toby and I work over at Get In!, Chris’s worldwide PR consultancy – it’s a job that I absolutely love, I really couldn’t ask for a better group of people to be working with both in and out of the office. As well as this I also make up one half of Biased Guy which is my DJ alias alongside one of my best friends Guy Laurie. We’ve been DJ’ing together for just over a year now, but separately for about three… we both started at the age of just gone 16 and are both now 19   

We started out together playing week in week out at a club I will always remember called ‘Neighbourhood’, in Notting Hill – it taught us both a lot about playing long sets, to a crowd and a general way of handling the world of dance music. From there we met a lot of great people and moved on to places like Turnmills, Pacha, The Cross, Ministry of Sound, Fabric and more recently up the M1 to Nottingham, Guy’s university city of choice. We love anything with a groove to it, normally ranging anywhere between techno, techy/proggy and good house music, nothing too cheesy, but nothing bog standard either. We like to think we’re quite exciting to watch as performers, always trying to do something a little out of the ordinary or unexpected… always a good thing in a club I think!

Feel free to check out our MySpace to find out where we’re playing or just leave us a friendly message. I am sure to reappear in the blogosphere courtesy of Rising Music in the future and look forward to speaking to you all again soon!

So since I joined back in July, the Rising Music team has grown and developed much faster than I initially anticipated. AND Press, Three Six Zero, our new friends at X Ray and now Get In! PR have all become a solid part of the label’s infrastructure. Amongst the new team members, is youngster Toby Andrews, our account executive at Get In!.

A few months ago the guys at my old agency Wolfstar ran an online debate as to whether or not somebody working in Public Relations/Communications needed a ‘PR’ degree (Stuart – we’re still waiting for the results!). Now without giving him a total ego booster, Toby is definitely a perfect example of a bloke who can handle his own, both in and out of the office – at only 19!! Anyway, expect rants about drinking laws in the U.S, Brick Lane banter, and hopefully some decent mixes every now again. Enter Toby! (… did I big you up enough there mate?!)