by Miné Salkin | Mar 8, 2012 | albums, interviews, live action, news, song of the day, technology, television, Uncategorized
It’s only been 24 hours since this new teaser track was released, but it’s among my favourite tunes so far this year.
Alex Scally and Victoria Legrand, the duo from Baltimore, have been diffusing the pop soundspace with their dreamy textures and pulsing reverb since their 2008 release, Devotion.
After meeting them in person for a
story I wrote for The Block, my admiration quickly intensified into a solid respect for their music and craft… but it’s difficult not to fall in love when two insanely talented musicians keep topping up your glass with more beer.
Enjoy.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuvWc3ToDHg]
by Miné Salkin | Feb 24, 2012 | interviews, live action, news, song of the day, technology, television, Uncategorized
Commodore Ballroom
For EXCLAIM! MAGAZINE
Die Antwoord have been attracting their fair share of attention for the group’s provocative music videos that lend themselves nothing short of viral. The Cape Town originals (whose band name means “the answer” in Afrikaans) boast some of the strangest hip-hop this side of the Northern Hemisphere. With their gritty, Kafka-esque lyrical style and their beat-delivering prowess, they proved to be the best response to a rather grim-looking Vancouver weekend.
The city’s Expendable Youth DJs started off the evening with some turntable delights as the Commodore began to fill with an anticipatory audience, some of which even dressed to resemble DA’s frontman Ninja. While a popular DJ set was not exactly the most appropriate way to usher in an evening of musical weirdness, the Mad Decent team managed to deliver a solid string of catchy dance tunes and smart mash-ups.
Wearing a rather terrifying mask, DJ Hi-Tek began Die Antwoord’s set by baiting the crowd, repeatedly spinning out the threatening slogan that he’d “fuck you in the ass,” while flashes of Die Antwoord music videos revealed a sinister theme. It was almost sensory overload when Ninja (Watkin Tudor Jones) and Yo-Landi Vi$$er (Yolandi Visser) finally exploded onto the stage wearing bright orange sweatsuits for “Fok Julle Naaiers.” Unified by their performance and onstage charisma, the unlikely trio formed a nuclear-type family unit in the strangest way imaginable. No stranger to the notion of being “eye popping,” Visser showed off her midriff, her eyes two black pools, coming off as both terrifying and strangely attractive.
While focusing on delivering rhythms and tunes from their newest offering TEN$ION, the group played some more vintage favourites as well, such as “Beat Boy” and the huge crowd pleaser “Enter the Ninja,” one of their most notorious tracks. With the intent of fully staggering the crowd, Die Antwoord blazed the stage and hit the sweet spot with their blistering rendition of “I Fink U Freeky,” effectively delivering one of the strangest songs in their arsenal.
Gritty, real and yet somehow fantastical, Die Antwoord’s surreal blend of hip-hop, trashy pop culture references and brazen methodology make them one of the most unbelievable acts around, on record and especially live from the stage.
by Miné Salkin | Nov 5, 2011 | interviews, live action, news, song of the day, technology, television, Uncategorized
[vimeo http://vimeo.com/32019579]
Bido Lito! Magazine is a new arts and music publication, representing the local talents of Liverpool’s finest. I made this video to showcase the vision behind the publication, in time with the soft launch of the new website.
As the Online Editor at Bido Lito!, I made some sound friends and had a wonderful time learning about the music scene in Merseyside over the past year.
These pink pages will be sorely missed.
by Miné Salkin | Oct 6, 2011 | interviews, live action, news, song of the day, technology, television, Uncategorized
FOR SEVEN STREETS MAGAZINE
Rhodes is a musical talent you may not have heard of until recently. The five-piece indie rock outfit played a stellar set at Mello Mello on Friday 30th September to finish off a week-long national tour, with ear-ringingly impressive results. They just released an EP with Liverpool’s original E.D.i.L.S. Records alongside the talents of Moonlit Sailor and Elk, and are now heading back into the shadows of songwriting.
Built on lifelong friendships, the group’s synergy onstage truly brings this sentiment alive. Newly reunited with their singer, Alan Croft, who spent the past year on the West Coast of British Columbia, the group rocked out together and delivered one of the most blisteringly loud gigs I’ve experienced. In fact, two days later, the ears are still ringing.
Drummer Michael Davies, despite his off-stage reserve, lets loose on his kit and brings to mind the mathematical side of his craft, with technical beats and jams. Bassist Jon Papavasiliou performs fluidly and dynamically on his chosen weapon, and with the half Greek connotation it’s hard to put Poseidon out of your mind when you’re watching him perform. Guitarists Aaron Noroozi and Michael Connor might have a bit of rivalry going on, staunchly placed on opposite sides of the stage, but the melding of their distorted, melodic sounds is an act of love.
Rhodes is a band that, despite their complex rhythms and math-rock tendencies, they manage to offset the brainy aspects of music writing by fleshing out natural sounds and rich harmonies. Caught somewhere between the brainy tendencies of Foals, and the catchiness of Two Door Cinema Club, their polished sound is bound to take these boys far.
by Miné Salkin | Sep 22, 2011 | interviews, live action, news, song of the day, technology, television, Uncategorized
FOR SEVEN STREETS
It’s unarguable that Liverpool is a stunning creative playground. Backed by a rich history of rebellion and revolution, it’s a hub of music and culture that continues to influence and inspire. Dismembered Empire, an insurrectionary multimedia cabaret, pushes this sentiment to the extremes of the steampunk style— by putting forth the tantilising question—what if Liverpool was the centre for world trade and economic power in the modern age?
The interactive mixed arts and technology project will take place in the mystifying locale of the Williamson Tunnels October 7-8th. Descending into the labyrinth of the tunnels, the audience will be immersed into an alternate version of Liverpool, inhabited by sinister scientists, revolution, bizarro machines and strange music.
Using the steampunk style, a super playful and expressive aesthetic, DE blurs the line bewteen reality and imagination, the nefarious and the benign. Using elements of both real and imagined history, the performance plays out as the ripping apart of two parallel worlds, driven by tensions between industrial mavericks Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla during the Industrial Era.
It’s the brainchild of Jennifer Catterall, an evolutionary biologist with a penchant for theatre and music composition. “DE is all about re-imagining ourselves and thinking, how could we have done something different with our science and technology. It’s all about seeing things from a different point of view.”
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyzrT24nIrI&feature=related]
Dismembered Empire
7th – 8th of October, 7pm at the Williamson Tunnels
For more information, visit http://dismemberedempire.org.uk/
