Festival Line Up Additions: Sonar & Wild in the Country, plus the Cocoon ticket winner!

Holy Schmokes! which festival to do? too many options? Do i go abroad? do i stay here? Well i'm not going to help you with this post. Nope i'm just here to tell you what else has been added to make it even harder to decide.

Firstly, our friends at Sonar have decided to add more. If the Richie Hawtin/M-Nus 10th Birthday showcase wasn't enough, they've only gone and added everyone's favourite Chilean Ricardo Villalobos, deep disher Dubfire and Efdemin! Also Soulwax have been added as part of their "Weekend Never Dies"/"Most of the Remixes" tour. Probably my favourite addition is version 3 of the DJ Yoda audio visual extravaganza, yep the man will be presenting his Magic Cinema Show this year. Can't wait, every time i've seen him do his video thing it has been nothing short of spectacular.

NEW CONFIRMED ARTISTS FOR SÓNAR 2008
Soulwax (live/BE)
Dubfire (DJ set/US)
Ricardo Villalobos (DJ set/CL)
DJ Yoda's Magic Cinema Show (DJ set/UK)
The Black Dog (live/uk)
Quiet Village (live/UK)
Oscar Mulero (DJ set/ES)
Two PIAS DJs (DJ set/ES)

SHOWCASES
Dial Records presents:
Pantha Du Prince (live/DE)
Efdemin (DJ set/DE)

More info and tickets from www.sonar.es

A bit closer to home Renaissance are pulling out all the stops on their third attempt on UK festival Wild in the Country. They've got a M-Nus arena with Hawtin, they've got Sasha, they've got Tenaglia and 2ManyDjs. All the big guns are there, plus some big names in small letters such as Carl Craig, MANDY, Ame and Dixon. And to top it there are a load of bands which have 'The' at the start of their names which are probably massive on the nu-rave skins house party circuit. This year's live headliner comes in a tiny little Icelandic package called Bjork whos been getting rave reviews currently, take a look for yourself. So if you're gonna go to a UK festival Wild in the Country is my recommendation. Apart from the rain last year the festival was spot on. The 3 arenas were decked out immaculately and gave that element of intimacy if you could ever imagine large festival tents doing so. The lineup so far is:

Live

Bjork (UK Festival Exclusive), Soulwax, Foals, Battles, Pendulum, Booka Shade, Hercules & Love Affair, The Presets, Kissy Sell Out, Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip, The Count & Sinden, The Cuban Brothers, Metronomy, Killa Kela, Audion, Heartthrob, The Field, XX Teens, Slagsmalsklubben

DJ's

Sasha, 2manydjs, Danny Tengalia, Richie Hawtin, Mylo (DJ Set), Faithless DJ Set (Sister Bliss + Maxi Jazz), Carl Craig, M.A.N.D.Y., James Zabiela, Dave Seaman, Magda, Marco Carola, Annie Mac, Switch, Ame, Plump DJs, Norman Jay, Yousef, Dixon, Duke Dumont, Serge Santiago, Nightmoves, Audiofly, Inxec, Matt Tolfrey, Marcus James

get your tickets from here, all early birds have gone though, better move quick before the normal tickets go.

Now time for the Cocoon @ The Warehouse Project ticket winner. The winner correctly answered the question "which country does Ricardo Villalobos come from?". The answer was of course Chile. Our winner is:

Liv Tickle from Manchester

Her tie breaker answer was: "I've made a portrait of Ricardo Villalobos using some card, glue and my own toe nail clippings"..... errrr nice girl? Congratulations, however i am now worried about the safety of Mr Villalobos allowing this young woman into the event...

Cocoon @ The Warehouse Project Competition

These days bank holidays = warehouse rave, be it London, Leeds, Manchester or Birmingham all have their own little warehouse space for you to belittle the weekend away. Our pick of the bunch for the forthcoming May bank holiday is of course the Warehouse Project in Manchester. They’ve been doing these shindigs for well over two years now so have got the whole thing running smoothly. The Sub Level Sessions popped up for the Sasha gig last December and had a right old knees up! This May bank holiday looks set to provide some great entertainment. Friday see’s the Soulwax gang back in town yet again; seems people just can’t get enough of their eclectic electronic rock fusion sound. The Sunday sees a medley of drum n bass, hip hop and dubstep with the likes of Roni Size and Skream reverberating those bassbins and DJ Yoda will also be attacking your audio visual senses with his Magic Cinema Show. Obviously here at The Sub Level Sessions we have a penchant for techno, which is why Saturday’s Cocoon night looks particularly good. On the bill is everyone’s favourite Chillean wreck head Ricardo Villalobos alongside long time techno hero Josh Wink. And to top it off young upstart Raresh is on warm up duties, truly a magnificent line-up in one of Manchester’s best venue. Its so good we’re gonna give one lucky winner a pair of tickets!

For your chance to win tickets to Cocoon at The Warehouse Project on the 3^rd May, send your answer to the following questions along with your name to sublevelsessions@googlemail.com. The competition closes 22^nd April 2008 and is open to UK residents only.

What country is Ricardo Villalobos from?

a) Germany

b) Chile

c) Uzbekistan

Tie breaker question: Josh Wink released the track Superfreak. What makes you a super freak?

Saturday 3rd May /// Cocoon
Ricardo Villalobos
Josh Wink
Raresh

£17.50 advance ///
9:30 pm - 5am

Buy Tickets Here

Big Weekends Ahoy!

This weekend sees a variety of good shindigs happening across the country. Our friends Product in Nottingham celebrate their third birthday. It only seems like yesterday when we covered their opening night at the Bomb with Lee Coombes and Si Begg. This year they celebrate their birthday at Stealth in the company of The Klaxons, MANDY and Hector. A mighty lineup across 3 mighty rooms to see a mighty three years in. Happy Birthday Product!

Friday April 18th
Product Third Birthday
Stealth Nottingham UK

3 Rooms. 3 International Guests. 3 Nottingham Exports. 1000 Friends.
The Largest Product Event Yet.
Doors 22:00 - 06:00
Tickets from £10 currently available from Rock City box office, Selectadisc, Funky Monkey, UNU Box Office, official pre-bars and online at www.gigantic.com.

Rescue Rooms: Product A
KLAXONS
RIOTOUS ROCKERS
TILT
Room 1: Product B
M.A.N.D.Y.
MATT TOLFREY
REZ
MATTHEW BURTON
Room 2: Shrink Records
HECTOR
MAX COOPER
POLLYY
DAVE JAMES
MAKAI

Back in London, Hi Tek Soul rolls back into town. This month features a battle of the Derricks as they battle it out with the Chicago and Detroit tools. Derrick Carter will be dropping his trademark boompty Chicago house whilst Derrick May will deliver his blend of techno from the motor city. What makes it even better is that Stacey Pullen is in support, another American legend! Thank you Jim Masters!

19-04-2008
HiTek Soul @ Ministry of Sound
BOX:
Derrick May
Derrick Carter

BAR:
Stacey Pullen (4 hr set)
Jim Masters

BABY BOX: (Holic)
Tomoki Tamara
Jay & Dom
Toni C
Yachi

Where: 103 Gaunt Street, London, SE1 6DP
Nearest Tube: Elephant & Castle
Time: 23:00 - 07:00
Price: £17,£15ADV,£12CONS,£10NUS

If all that isn't enough. Our very own Chris Wan is playing at Relentless on Saturday too. At a Fortress Studios in Old Street. for more info check the web site on how to get your name on the glist. http://www.jsl-productions.com/

Singles Reviewed: Samim - The Lick, King Unique - Hinode, Subb-an - Corridors EP and Itmar Sagi - Black Gold

Samim - The Lick
Samim divided opinion last year with his summer gypsy house hit heater with unexpected plays from claude von stroke right through to jo wiley. Some loved its quirky fun sampling which caused them to do hybrid folk/square/gypsy dances. Others hated the track also for the quirky accordion sample which made people do silly hybrid folk/square/gypsy dances. Either way it brought Samim to everyone’s attention. His follow up or more so the next track he’s releasing is also another quirky one. It takes on a wobbly breakbeat with some Justin Timberlake style lyrics. In fact this track could pass for some kind of Justin Timberlake/Missy Elliot collaboration. As it shifts from its starting breakbeat rhythm to a house friendly 4/4, elements of bollywood percussion and strings filter through. It’s a strange combination, but it seems to work. I can’t imagine the Berlin elite playing this, but I can see the likes of Mehdi et al dropping its quirky rhythms.

If quirky hip house vocals aint you’re thing, then Derrick Carter is here to save the day. He pumps the track up full of chi-town boompty, placing itself somewhere between the Chicago jacking and the fidget sound that Switch pounds out. Derrick cuts and chops the samples up and rearranges them in a haphazard order which creates a bum shaking groove. For those that don’t like the full on hip house vocals, there is a dub which dials down on the words. So everyone can be pleased. Well apart from the deep house and minimal fans. But the Carter mix is full of so much energy you can’t help but love it. 7.5/10

Buy The Lick from Beatport

King unique – Hinode

This is the first I’ve heard from King Unique since their days on the old Junior label. These days the
boys have been putting their tracks out on their own label Curfew with Hinode being the 8^th release.
Hinode is a mix of epic synth sweeps combined with your typical crunchy electro minimal sound. The only description that comes to mind about this track is a poor mans Holden remix of The Sky Was Pink. It is nearly identical in its elements, yet King Unique fail to execute correctly. The beat structure just seems run of the mill, whilst the sweeping synths build to a quite corny faithless trance high. Fergie has a fair attempt at salvaging the package with his techno roller which has plenty of groove and fidget to make any dancefloor move. However this track lacks identity with its typical fidgety minimal techno shuffle. It will rock the floors but will most likely be swept away in the wash of all the other “minimal” tracks out there. 5/10

Subb-an – corridors ep

You’d have thought Subb-an and his Corridors EP would be hailing from on the pulse Berlin, but in fact the young whippersnapper is hailing all the way from Birmingham of all places. How is this possible you might ask? Birmingham is full of trendy mullets, a penchant for the funkiest of funky house and was once the epicentre of all things hard house. Well for the best part you’d be right, but away from the vomit lined gutters of Broad Street lies a party known as Below. Its here where the young Subb-an has been cutting his teeth at Birmingham’s answer to Circo Loco at DC-10.

Corridors is made up of four tracks poking in at the house genre from all sides. Moscow Fighting is a winding moody house track laced with random stabs of a piercing piano. The track slowly progresses with the winding siren synths becoming more and more intense, coupled with the piercing piano through the breaks of the synth makes this track a haunting deep house monster.

Quadroon follows a similar formula to Moscow fighting but flips it round using bright warm synths which shift and phase in over the course of the track leading up to a singular crescendo at the back end. I can really imagine this track slotting nicely into the Below warm up regime during their infamous Birmingham day time BBQs.

The EP is finished off with Poloma another deep house affair which takes a moody approach with its dubby bassline. Unfortunately I find this track quite forgettable out of the lot, yet I can imagine the bassline could really pulsate through a crowd on a larger sound system. It is this bassline that the Ralph Swilinski mix has picked up on, beefing it up and making it angry. The growling bassline dances around a shifting pattern of percussion samples keeping the track simple but strangely infectious with its groove. A great slice of dub tech house if such a genre exists, making this track the standout on the EP. 7/10

Itmar Sagi – Black Gold

Itmar Sagi drops a ballsy Detroit-esque techno track which bubbles synths over a growling bassline. Funk D’Void used this track to kick of his Sci Fi Hi Fi 4 mix and quite rightly so. The track starts ballsy but slowly elevates through a wispy cloudy foreground created by the string synths.

Sammuel L Sessions transforms the track into a techno roller, looping the strings to hypnotise the listener. The loops work creating a dark Fabric room 2 sound which ticks over nicely, but doesn’t provide enough progression to keep it interesting. On the other hand Chymera’s mix is quirky and off beat. Drip feeding you samples of the strings over a dub style break beat before spitting you out the other end in a wash of breathy sweeps.

All three tracks are different with their own take on techno but all three sound fresh; definitely worth a purchase to bring a breath of fresh air to your sets. 8/10

CD Giveaway Winners!

So the entries are in and to emulate Snatch, "all bets are off". If you can remember back to a few weeks ago we had promised copies of Miss Kitten's trashy electronic album "Batbox", The Glimmer's experimental no money album "Are Gee Gee Fazzi" and Sascha Funke's fruitly named "Mango".

So the winners are:

Miss Kitten - Batbox
Elizabeth Smith
Si Quick

The Glimmers - Are Gee Gee Fazzi
Si Quick
Ben Gersham

Sascha Funke - Mango
John Hodgson
James Hansen

You'll be receiving a copy through the post congrats!!