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- Rinse FM finally gets the recognition it deserves
London's leading pirate radio station, renowned for promoting grime, continues to rule the airwaves with an official licence
It's been a long time at sea for London's leading pirate radio station, but yesterday Rinse FM finally docked, in the sheltered cove of an Ofcom community licence. Starting in 1994 as a jungle station, Rinse FM has moved through as many underground dance genres as it has secret east London locations, and now, after 16 years, has been awarded a legal place on the FM dial.
In the last decade the station became renowned for its role in the birth of grime and dubstep, forging the talents of Dizzee Rascal, Wiley, Roll Deep, Tinchy Stryder, Skream and many others, and helping DJs Logan Sama and Hatcha to get shows on Kiss FM, and Target on BBC 1Xtra. While the announcement yesterday was a genuine surprise, it's taken a number of years. In 2007 the station's owner Gordon "Geeneus" Warren shared with FACT magazine the ill-kept secret that Rinse was looking for a legal FM licence, and promised it would not follow Kiss FM's decline into commercial mediocrity: "We want to be legal. We don't want to be legal to play stupid adverts and make loads of money from advertising. We want to be legal to say; look at our scene, look at what we're doing. We're a business, we're not criminals. We're supplying something that no one else is supplying, and we're professional."
As yet there is no suggestion there will be changes to Rinse FM's music policy, and the station's independent spirit will hopefully be protected by the community licence. The only noticeable difference in the (gulp) mission statement is the "Rinse Academy", which will offer "formal and informal education and training, as well as broadcast and other media opportunities" starting this summer. That, kids, is how you earn brownie points with Ofcom.
While yesterday's announcement came with glowing pledges of industry support, Rinse FM was not always the sleek vessel it is today. Its folklore is as extensive and entertaining as befits a great cultural institution: a personal highlight being the show where a drunk Wiley spent an hour berating and calling out a rival MC, only for the MC in question to turn up at the studio, mob-handed, while the show was still on air.
There is so much that makes Rinse FM special: having to slow-dance around the room with an aerial in search of a better signal, the beguiling patter of the shout-outs, the adverts for raves voiced by MEN WHO MUST HAVE SOME KIND OF HEARING IMPAIRMENT, THE WAY THEY'RE SHOUTING. Best of all is the sheer gusto the DJs have for the music they play, often brand new "dubplates" direct from the producers themselves; tunes that will become the club hits in the weeks, months or even years to come.
While Rinse FM thrives on its parochialism, it has also taken advantage of web technology to reach beyond the radius of a towerblock-mounted aerial. When the station's bid for legal status became serious in 2007, the internet was already exploding pirate radio's block-party intimacy internationally. London's underground scene is now global, and hearing phrases like "big shout out to the Finland crew" on Rinse FM is no longer a surprise.
In London or beyond, pirate radio stations continue to inspire a restless creative zeal that defies the authorities' cat-and-mouse attempts to shut them down. For Steve Bishop, responsible for the recent Rinse: 11 CD as DJ Oneman, the obsession began at school in south London.
"We would record our local station and bring the tapes in, spending break and lunch times checking for new tunes and lyrics from the MCs. Pirate radio has had such a big impact on everything I do. It was like having a rave in your bedroom before you were old enough to rave. I'd tape shows religiously. For Christmas, when I was about 13, I got one of those cheap Aiwa ghetto-blasters, no CD player – just a tape deck with a record button and an FM band. That's all I wanted! A year later I got a pair of decks."
Rinse has long been a "community station", only now it's getting legal recognition for it.
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
Переслать - Music Weekly podcast: Drake and Sleigh Bells
This week, we begin with the soothing tones of Canadian rapper/singer/actor (in that order, perhaps) Drake. The 23-year-old has just released his debut album, Thank Me Later, and explains the background to this soul-searching LP. He also brings Rosie Swash up to speed with his role in teen TV show Degrassi High – for those of you unfamiliar with it, it's more Heartbreak High than Byker Grove.
In Singles Club, Caspar Llewellyn Smith rejoices to the sound of Miriam Makeba's Meet Me at the River, Alexis Petridis puts his hands in the air for John Talabot's remix of Al Usher's Silverhum, while Rosie heaps praise on Janelle Monae's Tightrope.
Finally we hear from Derek and Alexis from Sleigh Bells. The New York duo talk volume and unlikely musical inspiration, and reveal how they came to be signed to MIA's record label, NEET.
That's your lot for this week. As of next Friday, Music Weekly will be coming to you direct from Glastonbury, with four daily shows over the course of the festival. You know where to find us if you want to listen (and follow us on Twitter and Facebook too).
Переслать - Unseen Swells: The Jonas Brothers are the ultimate cock block
The final instalment in our week-long series of previously unpublished Swells blogs is a particularly moving one. After having his Jonas Brothers pitch accepted, Swells was determined to honour his commitment and wrote one final missive from his hospital bed …
The pitch
Why are we increasingly being forced to choose between the Jonas Brothers and twenty-something idiot bloggers who are apparently shocked, shocked I tell you, that Disney is using sex to sell shit to kids. Or is that shit to sell sex to kids? If I honestly had to choose between The Mouse and the cretins who think there's any serious difference between indie landfill and the JBs, I'm going with the mouse.
In what way are, say, the Enemy superior to the Jonas Brothers? In what way are they any different, except that fewer people want to shag them? That's what's going on here. Nobody is having sex with indie bands. Nobody is having sex with piggy little sneery indie-snob bloggers. And yet the Jonas Brothers could, if they wished, fill 9,000 Olympic swimming pools with top-quality, USDA-grade secondary sexual characteristics – AND YET THEY CHOOSE NOT TO! (Unlike, say, David Cassidy who filled his boots).
This make indie Hulk MAD! This make indie Hulk MISOGYNIST!
Seriously, these laddish indie idiots know five chords, have girlie haircuts and can fake a conversation about football in a passable Manc accent and they've somehow convinced themselves that this was their ticket to sexual nirvana? No wonder the JBs make them so angry.
If you were a teenage girl and you had a choice between shagging this or this, then you're going to think about it for, what, maybe one second?
The blog
Imagine a giant, sweet, crumbly sponge dripping with a breathtakingly cold sherry-clouded and cream-sloshed jelly. One is forced into the other and sucked giddy. I have seen this horror happen again and again and again. It is the future.
You will find legions of indie mice men slouching in uneven ranks; part of the 24-block-wide marching band of miserablism. All of whom will insist, insist I tell you, that celibacy is a life choice, an aesthetic and purposeful rejection of the old rock'n'roll lifestyle.
Oh they have sex. These Belgian fishing hat-wearing tramps are getting more than enough. Just not with everybody. All the time. Like they were promised, back when they inhaled from the last few gutterings of the sacred rock'n'roll fire the idea that top totty would hurl itself adroitly at any grubby razor-dodger with two chords and a vaguely Bowie-ish haircut. How shattering it must be to be the last mug on the muso express. To sweat and practise and run through endless training montages and then see every fine young lassie slope off with the bloody DJ.
Oh the DJ! Take pity on the indie mice crushed between a rock and a soft moltenous gloop, the ultimate cock block – the Jonas Brothers.
One outraged squirt was so upset about a recent Jonas Brothers episode of South Park that the lad investigated further and was horrified to discover that the scene where the JBs persuade their audience to stand still and be hosed down with cream actually happens at their concerts. The same girls, of course, are also asked to remain virgins. This investigative journalist was shocked and so am I.
Alas, it turns out that Mickey Mouse is not the Lord Satan as he is portrayed in the same episode of South Park. But I guess you can't have everything. Simply knowing there is a band thoroughly, unreasonably and fanatically dedicated to soaking up sex and then not doing anything with it truly defines evil genius.
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More FeedsПереслать - New album: Kele – The Boxer
He's got bigger biceps and bigger beats ... but do you rate the Bloc Party frontman's solo transformation?
Kele's dropped his band (and his surname) for debut solo album, The Boxer. Premiering today on We7, ahead of its Monday release, the album has been described (by us!) as the natural extension of Bloc Party's move into becoming a "quasi-electronic act". So, does it work for you?
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More FeedsПереслать - Forget Florence – meet the real stars of the festival scene
Getting off at the wrong bus stop led me to an otherworld of free festivals and brilliant bands. Just don't expect to read about Tragic Roundabout or the Tofu Love Frogs in the music press
And the award for hardest-working artist on the festival circuit goes to ... Florence and the Machine? Hot Chip? Dizzee Rascal? Not likely. It's the DIY stars who really deserve the props – relished by veterans of the free festival scene, but never appearing in critics' reviews.
For hardcore festivalgoers, Glastonbury isn't the next fixture, it's this weekend's Solstice. The People's Free festival at Stonehenge no longer exists, so where to go? Watch Tragic Roundabout fire up their chaotic klezmer cauldron in a field somewhere in Worcestershire, join the Hawklords on a retro-space trip on a Welsh farm, or swoon as Eat Static hit the acid-alien-techno button at the Willowman festival on the North Yorkshire moors.
Yet no matter how big, brilliant and groundbreaking the Solstice gathering, you can be fairly certain no national media outlet will bother covering the event – a photo of druids at Stonehenge will suffice – and the only publicity it will get in the local press is if there's been any trouble.
This cultural otherworld has flourished for more than 40 years (and the bands regularly whip large crowds into a frenzy), but aside from the tireless chronicles of Festival Eye, the nomadic troubadours of the summer festival circuit are resolutely ignored by the mainstream. Why? Do some people just dismiss everything not on Glastonbury's Pyramid stage as "crusty"?
Logic doesn't always play a part. Gogol Bordello are feted by Madonna and the mainstream while a dozen British-based bands on the gypsy punk tip are met with complete indifference. Wicked Squad are respected in the dance underground for gypsy techno, and Stenchman for gypsy dubstep, but the free-festival culture that produced much of this remains a music-press taboo. Critics rightly celebrate Tinariwen and nomadic Tuareg sounds, but don't give British traveller music a second thought.
Crass, who sprang from free-festival culture in the mid 1970s, are one of the few revered acts, applauded for their year-zero edge. But there are many more bands deserving similar respect, such as the proto-punk Pink Fairies (long gone but poorly remembered), the nihilist dub poetry of RDF, the furious ceilidh-punk of the Tofu Love Frogs, not to mention recently reformed anarcho funk-punks Zounds and techno-punks, Sicknote.
Much of what's happening on the fringes of the UK festival scene is important. I've been familiar with it ever since, as a teenager in the mid 1980s, I got off at the wrong bus stop and wandered into a free festival in Milton Keynes. Positioned on a flatbed lorry was a one-chord thrash guitarist and a trio of Bacchae-like women taking turns to scream down the mic. Screech Rock and the Mutoid Waste Company's spontaneous collaboration, witnessed by hundreds, documented by no one (until now) was just the start. When NME was fixated on the Blur v Oasis grudge match, I was likely to be found Messed Up with Culture Shock, stuck in a Daydream with Back to the Planet, spun out on Ozrics or tuned into Radio Mongolia.
And the free party continues somewhere each weekend (if not thwarted by draconian laws and riot police) with a host of new ingredients, new generations, but with the same Do It approach exemplified by the Pink Fairies at the People's Free festivals in the 1970s. If you're not a part of it, then you're missing out.
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More FeedsПереслать - Readers recommend: Songs about South America
Last time was all about getting fresh at the weekend. Now, we're heading south of the border ...
There was a surprising amount of antipathy towards the weekend, and not just as a topic on this blog. British songwriters in particular seemed to have no truck with the idea that the weekend equals freedom and instead seemed to see it as just a series of hidebound traditions topped off with the ritual consumption of roasted meat. Who knows, they may even be right, but I'd take it over a Monday any day.
The A-list (read about it and comment on the column) Pains of Being Pure at Heart – Come Saturday; Bruce Springsteen – Out in the street; Ewan MacColl – The Manchester Rambler; Little Richard – Rip it Up; Blur – Sunday Sunday; Sam Cooke – Another Saturday Night; Amadou & Mariam – Beaux Dimanches; The Long Blondes – A Weekend Without Makeup; Neil Young – Out on the Weekend; Margo Guryan – Sunday Morning.
Following swiftly on its heels, the B-list:
Lena Horne – Never On a Sunday
Was trying to think of an adjective other than "smoky" to describe Horne's voice on this coquettish ditty, and ultimately I settled on "creamy". On reflection, I don't think this was wise. A thoroughly charming number all the same.
The Cure's – Friday I'm in Love
While Saturday and Sunday aren't quite afforded the same respect, this celebration of Friday is surely thanks to its role as gatekeeper to the weekend. Not quite what I was looking for lyrically, but a truly great pop song.
The Rascals – Groovin'
Does anybody groove on a Sunday afternoon anymore? This song certainly makes it sound like an admirable practice and worth a B-list for the key change alone.
Paul Robeson – Gloomy Sunday
A standard that's been covered dozens of times but I'd never knowingly heard it before this week. It's a love song as uttered by a ghost and Robeson's tethered vocals are still awesomely powerful.
Toots and the Maytals – Spend the Weekend
Really like this song, there's something that's both simple and complex about the melody that makes it really work and the tempo is fantastic. Love the little taste of piano at the end too.
Lily Allen – Knock 'em Out
Think Lily has made a few B-lists recently, but this was another example of her lyrical prowess that I couldn't really resist. The song details a series of desperate chat-up lines in amusing fashion, on occasion Lily even ends up sounding like Vince Noir.
Organised Konfusion – Black Sunday
Golden age hip-hop with retro flows and an ultra-classic sample (which I believe fact fans, to be from Eugene McDaniels's Jagger the Dagger). The subject matter is standard school-of-hard-knocks stuff, however.
Ultravox – Saturday Night in the City of the Dead
Didn't realise Midge and his crew were ever this punky. Perhaps not surprising that they might tie their colours to more than one style, but with their pop sensibilities still visible, this is good fun.
Al Bowlly – You Ought to See Sally On Sunday
Not to my taste but I liked the window into a different world it offers. Also, having read that two day weekends only really came to the US in the 1930s, I wonder whether this was one of his US releases? Anyone know?
Bill Withers – Harlem
Some socially aware soul, detailing a weekend in Harlem with a smart line in observation ("the hip folks getting home from the party and the good folks just got up") and a musical backdrop that grows louder and grander with each passing minute.
NEW FEATURE! Here are 18 of this week's top 20 songs on one Spotify playlist.
This week's topic is songs about South America. It was suggested by Beltway Bandit. To avoid a French songs scenario I would like to to clarify that it's songs ABOUT South America, not FROM South America. However, if a song is both ABOUT and FROM the continent then it qualifies.
Will be around this week for clarifications (have just about recovered from last weekend's Manbreak in which me and a dozen mates did nothing but watch football and drink. And play table tennis on the Wii), so do ask if you have a question.
The toolbox: Archive, the Marconium, the Spill, the Collabo.
DO post your nominations before midday on Monday if you wish them to be considered.
DO post justifications of your choices wherever possible.
DO NOT post more than one-third of the lyrics of any song.
DO NOT dump lists of nominations – if you must post more than two or three at once, please attempt to justify your choices.
DO be nice to each other!
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More FeedsПереслать - Behind the music: Thom Yorke is wrong to write off the music industry
The Radiohead frontman has advised aspiring musicians to steer clear of major labels. But an evolving industry may still have a role to play in helping artists – even Yorke
In a forthcoming book for GCSE students, Thom Yorke advises aspiring musicians to avoid signing to major labels, calling the music business "a sinking ship". His comments were raised this week at the music industry conference Musexpo, which prompted Rob McDermott (manager of Linkin Park and Pantera) to say, "I take issue with someone whose career was built by an industry, only to turn around and lambast it instead of support it."
Radiohead were signed to EMI for 12 years, a label which has been in the news recently for its financial problems, despite the fact its actual revenue rose last year (it also received another injection of funds recently).
One person who doesn't agree with Yorke's pronouncement about the industry is music manager Tim Clark, whose client Robbie Williams is signed to EMI. When I spoke to Clark last week, he did not rule out the possibility that Williams would continue working with the label once his record deal concludes following his greatest hits album. It's a surprising turnaround for someone who just a couple of years ago compared EMI chairman Guy Hands to a plantation owner. So what's changed? Clark agrees that, if record companies continue to operate in the way they have in the past, their days are numbered. Record sales have been falling at an alarming rate. Digital sales in the US have hit a plateau, and the revenue is not even close to making up for the lost money from physical releases. "There is no solution around the corner," says Clark. "I suspect more people than ever are listening to music, but they're doing it in such a way that they're not parting with any money."
For artists to survive, they'll have to look at other ways of monetising their rights, apart from record sales; playing live, merchandising and synch deals, for example. Clark is a big fan of what he calls "all-rights deals" (he refuses to call them 360 deals, because the term has been corrupted by record companies which use it as an excuse for a land grab without giving anything back). Clark and his partner, David Enthoven, have helped broker all-rights deals for Robbie Williams and Sia. This means the record label puts money into the artist's company, which in turn hires a selection of services while retaining all rights. Sia gets a much bigger slice of the recording royalties than the norm, but it goes back into the company. When the time comes for a profit share to be paid out, Sony gets their share.
The beauty of this kind of deal is that the artist knows exactly how much each service costs, and can use outside companies if they give better value for money. With traditional record deals, lots of costs are overcharged, says Clark: "Once you factor in packaging deductions [most labels deduct packaging from digital royalties], retail discounts, TV advertising discounts [if your record is advertised on TV, your royalty rate goes down for a period] etc, the artist gets less than 10%." He estimates that Sia is 10-15% better off than she'd be from a traditional record deal.
"The record industry is facing a catastrophic time," Clark adds. "It simply cannot sustain its models. I do understand that it's difficult for big companies. It's like turning around a big tanker at sea, but they should focus on their strengths: finance, distribution and marketing."
While Yorke appears to have written off his old label, Clark singles out EMI as a label that's realised the need for change. "It now has a sort of menu of services you can cherry-pick from. It still has an A&R function. It's still signing artists. But, as far as I'm aware, there are more JVs (joint ventures) – partnerships with the artists. That's a step in the right direction."
At Musexpo, other artist managers echoed Clark's view. "It keeps the labels on the game longer," explained Cerne Canning, who manages Franz Ferdinand. "If you give them ancillary rights, labels have got a vested interest to go down the road with you." Sarah Stennett, who co-manages Sugababes, VV Brown and Ellie Goulding, added that while major label deals have dropped in recent years, they're still vital when it comes to investment, as private investors won't invest in new music.
Yorke might not be in dire need of such investment any more, but to implore aspiring musicians to avoid "the music business establishment" is, to me, a bit simplistic (and I suspect some of the people who worked hard at EMI to help Radiohead succeed may feel a bit slighted). My advice would be to get a good manager, as Yorke has, who won't dismiss the help that the music business can provide. After all, Radiohead used Red (owned by Sony) to distribute In Rainbows, and has a partnership with Warner/Chappell Music (part of Warner Music Group) for their publishing.
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More FeedsПереслать - New music: Dr Dre feat Jay-Z – Under Pressure
After 10 years, Dr Dre unveils Under Pressure to an online chorus of 'meh'
Dr Dre's third album has been over 10 years in the making, but finally Detox showed signs of life this month. Under Presure (mercifully not a reworking of the Queen/Bowie song) featuring Jay-Z popped up on blogs yesterday, months after its existence was first mentioned. So far, reaction is mixed, but the consensus seems to be a thumbs down. "Under Pressure sounds like Dre was wearing Beats by Black Eyed Peas headphones," wrote @itsthereal on Twitter, while others posted that it sounded like a Justin Timberlake beat (so a Timbaland beat, then?). What do you think?
Under Pressure – Dr Dre feat Jay-Z (Via Nah Right)
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More FeedsПереслать
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