Day and Night Digital | Irish Independent

Slow down Bieber

The web loves Justin Bieber. He’s the diminuitive Canadian 16 year-old pop star that keeps on giving. Already this year Bieber has been the subject of a pesky message board 4Chan plan to get him sent to North Korea and his antics have filled up internet tubes consistently. Recent highlights include a Youtube video of him escaping fans on a Segway scooter, footage of him walking into glass twice, tweeting the phone number of a hacker to his 4.5 million followers and bonding over Raekwon with Kanye on Twitter which now looks to be leading to a collaboration between the trio.

Even a former pop star, Mark Wahlberg remarked: “The world needs Justin Bieber. Justin Bieber is like a white Tupac compared to a lot of people out there.”

The latest Bieber sensation may be the best yet. A song appeared on the web last week which was Bieber’s hit U Smile slowed down by 800%.

J. BIEBZ – U SMILE 800% SLOWER by Shamantis

As a result of the slowing down, the song is now over 35 minutes long and is closer to the sound of Sigur Ros jamming with whales in a cold icy ocean. While the original is a potent and saccharine paean to a girl’s eh, smile, the slowed down version is a meandering barrage of crashing notes, ambient chord drones, stretched-out reverb-heavy vocals and lulls. It’s actually a beautiful calming piece of music that has more in common with Icelandic composer Johann Johannsson. It’s epic in feeling as well as in length. It’s the musical equivalent of the time-stretching effect in Inception.
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Day and Night’s Top 10 DJ Mixes

By no means is this a definitive list, but it is a list of the 10 best mixtapes we’ve heard in the last eight months or so. There’s plenty to love here. Do tell us if we’ve left anything out.

1. Four Tet Essential Mix
   Features: Kieran Hebden doing what he does best – playing the best out-there electronic music out there, including Floating Points & Joy Orbison.
2. The Magician – Magic Tape One
   Features: Stephen Fasano introduces his new solo project post- Aeroplane and makes a mark with this funky disco mix.
3. Mike Scott’s Orchestral Pop Fantasia State Mix
   Features:” The point where the two worlds of pop and classical crossover, via a series of well known tracks, obscurities and mash ups. “
4. Autechre FACT Mix
   Features: “An unpredictable, kaleidoscopic affair, rooted in sinuous leftfield hip-hop but with bursts of tremulous ambient electronics, techno, hectic breakbeats and, at one particularly memorable point, metal.”
5. Alex Metric August 2010 Mix
   Features: An hour of solid dancing: Phoenix, Mystery Jets, Holy Ghost!, Tracey Thorn, Boys Noize, Orbital, Kele, Jamaica.

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The best places to get your DJ mix fix

Take a look at your CD collection. Chances are there are a few expertly-chosen DJ compilations on your shelves. DJ mix CDs used to be ten-a-penny In today’s new music world, there are less opportunities for DJs to physically release mix compilations unless they are asked by a still-going-strong series like Fabric or DJ Kicks. The internet is where it’s at in terms of convincing a promoter to book a DJ and an audience to throw down their hard-earned euros on a live set.

Sites like Soundcloud and Mixcloud make it easy for DJs to share their skills with an audience and the number of mixes has been increasing lately with some brilliant sets available. Take Aeroplane for example, the now one-man DJ from Belgium has been uploading mixes of stellar quality to Soundcloud every month since September last year and each one is eternally listenable. The latest mix Late July features disco, house, current remixes and Yoko Ono.

Diplo has been a major proponent in the online mixtape business for about five years now, ever since he released his MIA mixtape – Piracy Funds Terrorism Vol. 1. One of his most recent and notable mixes was another collaboration. This time, Diplo under his Major Lazer project worked with La Roux on Lazerproof, a dancefloor-flavoured collection based on La Roux originals.
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Radiohead’s In Rainbows revolution finally curtailed

In late 2007, all anyone interested in music industry could talk about was Radiohead. In October that year, the band quickly self-released their seventh album In Rainbows through their website and offered fans a “pay what you want” pricing structure that included the price of zero for a period of three months.
The band were hailed as visionaries, despite the many artists who had done something similar before. The difference was – Radiohead are popular. Having left their major label EMI prior to release, the band had no label contract. They still needed to sell physical copies of the album though, so two months later, XL Recordings licensed the album and put it in the shops. Similar deals were struck in other territories in the world.

Last week, the Bittorrent blog TorrentFreak highlighted the nasty repercussions of those deals. Despite largely giving their album away from free digitally (an estimate of 62% of people opted not to pay for the album), TorrentFreak says that industry representative groups Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and the International Federation for the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) have been issuing takedown notices to fans who are sharing the album online recently.

Nothing too out of the ordinary there except for the fact that the songs were given away for free in the first place digitally, so what rights do the labels have to claim infringements against fans when they only have physical licensing deals? And what do Radiohead think of all this? At time of writing, there has been no comment from the band but it would be surprising to learn that the band supported such measures.
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Kanye’s all a Twitter

Youtube, a site that probably everybody who reads this column uses every day has launched a number of new features lately. First up, in recognition that music videos account for 57 percent of most-watch virals on Youtube, Google has introduced a music section to the site at youtube.com/music. It shows the most popular videos of the day as well as a breakdown by genre and curated-playlists. They are also promising a local music listing section in the near future. The addition follows the introduction of full-length movies (youtube.com/movies) where you can watch Animal Farm along with films featuring Jackie Chan, Demi Moore and a slew of Bollywood titles.

If the thought of clicking your mouse is too much to bear then Youtube have thought of that too. Leanback (youtube.com/leanback) is the site’s equivalent of a 24 hour TV channel. It takes videos from subscriptions and serves up non-stop programming based on your preferences.

Also in Youtubeland, the long overdue restriction on uploading videos longer than 10 minutes has been changed to 15. As a celebration and befitting of that ubiquitous Andy Warhol quote and the site’s regular carousel of viral celebrities, they asked users to make a video of their “15 minutes of fame” , which will be showcased on the homepage.

Meanwhile, in Kanyewatch, last week was a veritable feast of Jeezy info as Kanye did two things of interest. First, he made an appearance at the HQs of both Facebook and Twitter, looking dapper in a designer suit and gave acappella performances of new songs Lost in the World, Chain Gang and Mama’s Boyfriend from his forthcoming album. You can watch those videos here.

Secondly, he joined Twitter (@kanyewest)! Oh what delights! It sounds like a small thing but in truth, it’s fascinating reading and confirms the many facets of his personality. He confirmed he’s changed the title of his new album from Good Ass Job to.. something else (clever Kanye), he posted pics of his jet plane and his new massive living room projector screen (rich-ass Kanye), offered business advice (The Apprentice Kanye), ribbed himself for his passion for ancient art (humble Kanye), called himself “The King” a lot (modest Kanye), expressed frustration with being able to get what he wants “What do I have to do to get a simple persian rug with cherub imagery?” (tantrum Kanye) and misspelled Silicon Valley as “Silicone Valley” in his first tweet (nervous Kanye).

Let’s face it. Kanye West is a passionate guy and it’s only a matter of time before something happens to rival his caps lock-fueled “I’m typing so f**king hard I might break my f**king Mac book Air!!!!!!!!” blog rant of times gone by. When it does, with the ease of Twitter, it’ll also be fascinating reading.

Dead Elvis archive: The return of the living dead

At times, we can all feel like the internet moves at a pace that not even Usain Bolt could catch up on. While, there’s always the latest “must-watch” video or Tumblr blog to check out, it’s worth highlighting that the net can also be a valuable resource for collating information on ephemeral topics, microscenes or time periods almost forgotten. Wikipedia proves that. On a local level though, here’s a superb example of such ingenuity.

Dead Elvis was a Irish record label which was active between 1994 and 1999 and put out releases from Wormhole, Rumble, Alan Lambert, The Sewing Room and Jubilee Allstars amongst others. Eamonn Doyle, Marc Carolan, ‘Og’ Crudden and Eamonn Crudden ran the label and Eamonn Crudden recently began posting up songs, memories and multimedia from that time on http://deadelvisarchive.tumblr.com.

The blog is a great resource for reminiscing about the bands playing around Dublin during the 90s but also serves as an insightful history lesson into that period. It all started when Crudden attended the 40th birthday party of a member of one of those bands – Female Hercules earlier this year. “I was prompted to start the blog by the unexpected wave of affection and emotion I felt meeting many of those who contributed in many ways to the quite subcultural scene that Dead Elvis was a part of,” Crudden says.

The reaction so far has been positive. “What has been amazing about the response is the way in which quite a gang of people have started to help me gather material and kind of reconstruct various events of the time,” Crudden explains. “I’m firmly convinced that a lot of the stuff I’m searching out and making available from Dead Elvis bands and their contemporaries is great forgotten treasure.”

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Niches are the new mainstream

This time last year Digital profiled two bloggers who moved into the business side of things. Perez Hiton’s Perezcious record label signed its second act Travis Garland (French popster Sliimy didn’t really work out) around the time mainstream media began to question his grip on the pop zeitgeist while the small-time two-person indie blog Neon Gold has had more influence, serving as the breeding ground for major label successes Marina And The Diamonds, Passion Pit and Ellie Goulding.

Since that time, starting a record label is cool again, judging by the number of music bloggers who are now doing so. In many ways, a blogger starting a small independent label is a simple extension of their modus operandi with the blog – to promote music they are interested in.

Popular alternative Texas-based music blog Gorilla Vs Bear started Forest Family Records along with fellow blogger Weekly Tape Deck three months ago. Far from acting as an MP3-selling hub, the label releases limited vinyl releases from bands they love. So far artists like Cults, Gauntlet Hair and Dent May have been lined up with the first two releases selling out quickly. (more…)

Creative Collaborations: Four brands doing it right

These days no-one blinks an eye if a Grizzly Bear song is featured in a car ad or if Daft Punk pop up alongside other pop culture heavyweights in a commercial for a popular sports brand, the ad itself, managing to cobble together all of these stars into a George Lucas-approved Star Wars concept.

iTunes’ advert spots from five years ago helped launch the career of Feist and others into the mainstream. Corporate patrons have tangible benefits and many more musicians and artists are increasingly comfortable with corporations and brands funding their creativity. Most collaborations are accepted by fans. The exception to the rule, are venerated rock stars whose fanbases can’t marry the blatant commercialism with supposed legendary punk spirit – see Iggy Pop flouncing around for a car insurance company or John Lydon advertising butter.

Despite the uncomfortable relationship between art and commerce, there has been some great examples recently of engaging online campaigns that straddle both successfully. Here are four:

1) The Creators Project – thecreatorsproject.com

A collaboration between Intel and cool bible Vice, The Creators Project kicked off in NYC last month, calling itself “a completely new kind of arts and culture channel for a completely new kind of world.” Basically, this allows the organisers to get in the coolest bands around (M.I.A, Sleigh Bells, The Rapture, Die Antwoord), revered film directors (hello Spike Jonze), art installations and more. Cram them into large warehouse spaces and you’ve got a hot event taking place in London, Seoul, Sao Paolo over the coming months. Even if you can’t make any of the events, the website has tons of original content to peruse and is genuine in engaging the art side of your brain.
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A viral too far

The longest drawn out viral mystery ever produced for the internet, iamamiwhoami, which I wrote about here back in January continues to periodically churn out interesting Youtube music videos without reaching a conclusion.

Originally, the enigmatic productions featuring a blonde woman and lots of vague symbolism was purported to be any one of a range of pop stars and musicians: guesses included Christina Aguilera, Goldfrapp, Lady Gaga, The Knife and Little Boots. None of these were correct and while there is no absolute reveal of the artist in question; many observers (myself included) believe the project is the work of Swedish singer Jonna Lee. The songs featured in the videos have become more memorable while the mystery has all but vanished. A commenter on my site Nialler9.com revealed that the single letter title of the most recent videos spell out ‘B-O-U-N-T-Y’ and that a simple internet domain search on the website iambounty.com reveals that that site is registered to Ms. Lee.

It’s a pity that the viral has dragged on so long, as it has inevitably lost interest of the course of the last seven months. A pity too because the most recent song was actually the best thing I’ve heard from the project. You can see all 12 of the videos here.

Another mystery long-awaiting an answer is “whatever happened to Lauryn Hill?”. The former Fugees singer and solo artist whose The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill album was amongst the best of the ’90s has been absent from music for much of the new century and with gig cancellations, erratic behaviour and stalled recording sessions defining recent years. Hill finally broke the silence last week in an interview with NPR in the US where she talked about the reasons for why she stopped releasing music, her voice and a possible return to the stage. You can hear the whole interview.

Meanwhile, anarchic Photoshop-heavy message board 4Chan devised a cunning plan based around teeny bopper Justin Bieber’s upcoming world tour. Bieber is giving fans around the world an opportunity to decide where he performs. The pranksters at 4Chan have rallied around North Korea as the number one country of choice. The ploy has worked with North Korea at the top spot with over 460,000 votes closely followed by Israel. Somehow, I doubt that Kim Jong Il is the kind of guy who dances on his “ronery” to songs like ‘Baby’ but if he is, and he is truly an internet expert like he claims, then it may be ‘Great Leader’ himself who is doing all the voting.

See the final result.

The vuvuzela’s big buzz – the best of the memes

It’s sure to be a contender for word of the year. It’s been on our minds and in our ears for the last three weeks. It’s a plastic horn that when collectively blown, sounds like bees swarming en masse or more succinctly, “an elephant farting”. Yes, the vuvuzela has taken the South African World Cup and the fanatical world by storm, annoying armchair supporters and being blamed for France’s poor performance in the group games (Sorry lads, I think that might have been your squabbling and tired performances). Naturally enough, once the online world realised there was potential for a  21^st century annoyance, Rickrolling was out the window and it was vuvuzela time.

We mentioned the actual Vuvuzela Time website last week (vuvuzela-time.co.uk),  which adds the sound to any website but since then, the web meme possibilities have exploded. There are mobile apps, a vuvuzela radio site (vuvuzela.fm) playing the sound non-stop and without interruption, an endurance test which asks how long you can blow a vuzuzela (bit.ly/wcendurance),  a Twitter feed (twitter.com/the_vuvuzela) – sample ‘BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ’ and much much more.

The sound has become so ubiquitous that even Youtube has got in on the act, unveiling a vuvuzela button which played the sound of the horns over any video. Also, like the Lord of the Rings with Vuvuzelas parody (bit.ly/vuvlotr), there is a fake film trailer which takes its cue from M Night Shyamalan’s The Happening, possibly one of the worst films of all-time has been re-christened The Buzzening and also features in Nicholas Cage’s “No! Not the bees speech” from The Wicker Man remake (bit.ly/buzzening).

Surely though, as a musical instrument, albeit a crude one note one (B flat to be exact) , the vuvuzela has the potential to be included in popular music? Some valiant producers have tried. Boston’s DJ Ghostdad has gifted the world Vuvuzela Beat (http://bit.ly/vuvbeat), a parping techno funk track which manages to be more irritating than listening to oily Ken doll  and Eurodance producer Basshunter non-stop for 24 hours.

The most salient recorded effort thus far comes from UK dancehall’s Serocee and Rukaika Russell (bit.ly/soundvuv), who wisely chose to keep any vuvuzela samples low in the mix while using the horn as a symbol for global celebration.

Winner in the music stakes though, is an actual Vuvuzela Orchestra from South Africa who mix brass and plastic horns so that there is more on offer than a one note drone. Their performance (http://bit.ly/vuvorch), which was uploaded to Youtube showcases their ability to mix proper South African funk with panache while still incorporating the din of a vuvuzela. All together now – ”BZZZZZZZZZZZZZ BZZZZ BZZZ BZZZZZZZ”