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#BOTTOMRIGHTCORNER – THE CTEMF EDITION

Fri, 15 Feb 2013 15:10:28 +0000

Electronic music for the win! This week’s #bottomrightcorner is dedicated to electronic music of all denominations and disciplines! With the CTEMF hype, Cape Town is abuzz with new collaborations, workshops and live events. In case you don’t know what you’ll be in for or if you still need convincing, here are a few of the many, many artists up on the bill this weekend. Enjoy!

Pure Solid feat. Crosby – ‘New World Order’

spooky & d-planet – pure solid

Pioneer Unit‘s founders are purveyors of all things hardcore and real, and DPlanet, with Spo0ky on visuals, they are set to perform some great material this year. After dropping gems at last year’s Riddim Collision Festival in France, with some upcoming dealings with Jarring Effects, they’ve called on Crosby aka Digi-Analog with this brand new track to show us just how far they can take it… And what a great collaboration it is! With a sexy, industrial, rusty roots sound, and Crosby’s robust, vivid and rich vocal tone, they’ve killed it once again with a perfect fit. Catch Pure Solid early at 16:00 on Friday 15 February; they have some fresh new caps as well, so go on… simply because they’re on that ‘smash babylon system shit’, for real!

Floyd Lavine – ‘Dillon: Thirteen ThirtyFive’ (Floyd Lavine Edit)

floyd lavine

Floyd Lavine has done a smashing job on this edit, and is sure to bring that quirky techno-house flavour that we know and love. So smooth, so immaculate, he’s added a deep and rich, much needed oomph to Dillon‘s soft and goosepimple-worthy vocals. Although the original is beautiful in its own right, it needed a beat that would elevate it to dance-floor status, and Mr Lavine has taken this track way beyond, fusing the structured styles of house and his own touches of mellow-y multi-layered goodness. Hopefully he’ll bless us with this one on Sunday 17 February at 22:00 because I for one would love to be on that dancefloor when this jam drops. Cha-cha, cha-cha…

Niskerone – ‘CTEMF/BPM 2012 Mix’

niskerone

The Pied Piper of the drum ‘n’ bass scene in South Africa. Surely, many of you remember your first time on Niskerone‘s dancefloor; when the following thought crossed your mind: I’ve never gotten this lost in sound! His influence on crowds at festivals and clubs alike is ridiculous… if you’ve seen the way audiences react first hand — as part of the mass or not — then you will know what it means to truly move a crowd with your music. In this mix, which is last year’s promo for the CTEMF, he takes some of those familiar radio-friendly tracks and turns them into irresistible DnB body-movers, fused with familiar favourites by the likes of Chase & Status and Rusko. There are rumours of a collab with SFR, so watch out for that. But in the meantime, midnight on Saturday 16 February. Be there. Let go and see what happens.

Black Coffee feat. Bucie -‘Turns Me On’

BLACK COFFEE

Nkosinathi Innocent Maphumulo. What a joke. There is not a splinter of innocence in this man, also known as DJ Black Coffee… Not when you’re responsible for the throngs of people worldwide, young and old, rich and poor, black and white and otherwise who are tuned into his infectious and prolific style. Starting out with nothing but a computer and a mouse to produce his music, he McGyver-ed his way into producing some of the most culturally groundbreaking jams on the house scene to date with the quiet power of one who knows just what his listeners need, and adding live instruments as a final salute to his love for jazz. Bucie’s vocals are sleek, and her harmonisations on this one are a much appreciated touch. At 20:00 on Sunday 17 February, you can witness this man in action, just how we like our coffee — strong, black and hot.

Christian Tiger School – ‘Bateleur’s Divorce’ (Christian Tiger School Remix)

CHRISTIAN TIGER SCHOOL

New kids on the block, oddballs Christian Tiger School are such an audio delicacy. Where often one would find music of this style comparable to a cheese sandwich, Sebastian Zanasi and Luc Vermeer are the Camembert with cranberry coulis. On baby butter lettuce and rocket. On rye. With those recycled brown paper organic serviettes. Tasty, high quality stuff. Bringing a much loved future style à la Flying Lotus and Afta-1, they’ve taken ‘Divorce’ (which is extremely gorgeous music as it is) of Cape Town-based uber-talent Bateleur and turned it into a head-bobbing, soul-encompassing remix that raises the bar tenfold for local electronic music. Our Christine sat down with them for a short music lesson; find out what went down here, then make sure you catch them at 13:00 on Saturday the 16 February. Bon Appétit!

Rebel Clef – ‘I Only Have Eyes For You’

rebel clef

This track is gold. 10 points to you if you can figure out which Fugees song was also inspired by the original Flamingos track… With a lovely vocal covered by the oh-so-wonderful vocalist Martina Topley-Bird, this track is beautifully balanced; not too much and not too little — classy in the most easy of ways with understated beats and gorgeous bass. Most of his mixes have a gloomy vibe about them, which comes as a pleasant and down-to-earth breath of fresh air. All instruments are played by this multi-talented guy, who’s been gracing the Cape Town bass scene for some time now, at spots such as Cold Turkey and Fiction. With a long journey of dabbling in every genre imaginable, with just as many different artists, showing his capabilities in them all — Rebel Clef at this point, only has eyes for bass. No complaints here!

Richie Hawtin – ‘DE9 Fragments.6, Culture Box’

richie hawtin

‘It’s about setting a standard for yourself and progressing yourself. Showing people you can do something interesting that’s more than just dance music.’

– Richie Hawtin via CTEMF

He’s been around the world. He’s made music. He’s made art. He’s been Plastikman. He’s been CircuitBreaker. He’s been UP!, F.U.S.E and Chrome. He’s been banned from the United States. He’s been busy, making 12 full length albums and 9 DJ mixes. He’s been voted Greatest DJ of All Time — 7 times. Richie Hawtin, by now, is probably very tired. Not tired enough however, to come to South Africa for this year’s CTEMF to hold some workshops, perform and teach us a few things about techno and his many endeavors therein. His minimal style is easy to get into, like a comfy pair of shoes, which is what you’ll need for his set at midnight on Friday. Don’t miss this; it’s bound to be unforgettable.

CTEMF 2013

CAPE TOWN ELECTRONIC MUSIC FESTIVAL 2013
V&A BREAKWATER PARKING
FEBRUARY 15 – 17, 2013

FOR TICKETS
FOR THE LINEUP
FOR THE WORKSHOPS

Image Credits:
Pure Solid, Christian Tiger School, DJ Black Coffee, Rebel Clef, Floyd Lavine Niskerone

Interview with Dplanet

one small seed — Thu, 28 Jun 2012 07:40:55 +0000

Pure Solid and Ben Sharpa are back from a six-week-long European tour in support of their collaborative effort, 4th Density Light Show. We caught up with Dplanet (one half of Pure Solid) in order to inquire how the whole ordeal went.

This was your first tour as Pure Solid. How was the overall experience?

Yes, this was our first tour. Ben is a veteran now – this must be his eight or ninth European tour – but it was our first one. It was an amazing experience. We played everywhere, from massive mega-clubs to small co-ops and even a squat. The quality of the sound systems was amazing, although the French laws prohibit more than 104 decibels which is a little bit frustrating, especially when you’re playing on a Funktion-one sound! Some clubs compensate for the lack of volume with an excess of bass, which I’ve got no problem with! In Switzerland we played on a rig so heavy we had to tape our equipment down – anything not taped down vibrated off the table!

Opening for Roots Manuva was amazing. We did three shows with Roots so we got to hang out with him and the Banana Klan, which was cool.

It was also really interesting talking to his tour manager – just to learn more about the reality of life on the road. We also did three shows with Dope D.O.D., who I’m sure are going to be huge stars in the near future. They do hardcore/horrorcore hip-hop over dubstep and other dark electronic beats. Their crowd goes insane – stage diving, crowd surfing, mosh-pits, the whole 9. Fun cats to hang out with and genuinely nice dudes.

Being on the road is exhausting – lots of traveling, sleeping in less than ideal conditions, partying and stress (I was nervous as hell for the first few shows) – but it was one of the best experiences of my life. It made me realise beyond any doubt that being a musician is my calling.

It’s tough being with three other people 24-hours a day, often sleeping in the same room and sharing the same bathroom, but we all got on really well. We had a few little disagreements, which were mostly based on either pre-show stress or lack of sleep, but we had a great time together and I can’t wait for the next one!

What did you miss the most while on tour?

My daughter and clean toilets!

How do European venues and crowds compare to the ones you have experienced in South Africa? What, in your opinion, can we learn from them?

In terms of venues, we really lack the infrastructure in South Africa. The sound system at the squat we played at was better than the one at The Assembly. There is a team of sound engineers and lighting technicians at every venue and you do a thorough sound-check before every show. We also traveled with our own lighting technician who created and executed a lighting plan specifically for our show. Roots Manuva and Dope D.O.D. traveled everywhere with their own sound engineer. Bands take their shows very seriously in Europe – it’s standard.

The lesson is that it’s all about the experience. It doesn’t matter how well you can rap or play an instrument – you have to be able to put on a great show. Obviously that means something different to each band, but the common thread was how much work musicians put into crafting an experience.

In terms of crowds, I was worried that our show would go over people’s heads, or that the music was too niche, but the response was always great. Sometimes people would stand and stare at us, which was disconcerting as we couldn’t tell if they were bored or hating what we were doing – then they’d come up to us afterwards and tell us we had blown their minds! We’re hoping to be able to do the same to people in South Africa. We’re working on doing a couple of big shows here but we realised that we can’t do 4DLS on a small scale. It’s a big show and needs big stages!

Are there any future tours/projects we should be aware of?

We have another European tour lined-up for later this year. Nothing confirmed yet though. We are also planning a series of bigger tours in 2013, which is a cultural exchange year between South Africa and France. We also have a couple of possibilities in South Africa but I don’t want to talk about them until they are signed and sealed. Pure Solid will be playing at the Bombaada Records launch party at Everybody Love Everybody on June 29th.

What five tips do you have for touring musicians?

Take your own toilet paper – it’s rough out there! We had nights where four people had to share a small packet of tissues.
Don’t complain – like I said, it’s rough out there, but it gets worse when someone is whining all the time – don’t be that person.
Don’t lose stuff- it’s easy to do when you’re always travelling but it’s a real pain for everyone – and it gets expensive.
Make sure your iPhone / iPod has got lots of music on it – and you’ve got headphones – there’s a lot of travelling and it can get boring / painful having to listen to someone else’s music.
Have a healthy sense of humour about everything. A lot of the time you’re tired or hungover – small things can turn into big issues unless you can keep everything in perspective.

words: Tseliso Monaheng
images: Anne-Sophie Leens (last three)