Tim Berg is the latest in a recent flood of dance music stars to emerge from Scandinavia. Following in the footsteps of fellow Swedes Axwell, Laidback Luke, Eric Prydz, Sebastian Ingrosso and Steve Angello; Berg produces stadium filling house music with serious mass appeal. His latest track, ‘Seek Bromance’, is a case in point. Drawing on much of the energy that made trance an inescapable force in the ‘90’s, the record is a radio friendly smash that’s due to hit highly in the UK charts this weekend. At only 19, Berg is quickly making a name as one of the fastest rising young stars in electronic music. He entered the prestigious DJ Mag Top 100 DJ’s poll at #39 this week – outpacing scene legends and old hands such as Daft Punk and Erick Morillo. Although the DJ Mag poll is more a popularity contest than objective rating of skill – with some DJ’s allegedly hyping themselves to victory by pestering fans to vote – the very fact that the producer has managed to gain enough interest to chart so highly gives an indication of how strong his fan base is. With productions under his Avicci alias also gaining plenty of attention from scene tastemakers, Tim Berg is certainly a name that’ll be lighting up the electronic music scene for some time.
This morning Take That tested the bandwidth and phone lines of many ticket merchants as thousands of fans desperately tried to secure tickets for their forthcoming tour. ‘Progress Live 2011’ is their first tour with Robbie Williams for over 16 years and is shaping up to be the biggest musical event in the UK next year.
While many fans were left frustrated while refreshing their computer screen or listening to an engaged tone, the band announced that they would already be adding more dates to deal with the overwhelming demand. To see the full tour dates and for ticket info, head to their website.
It’s been a busy week in the news for the band, as earlier they announced that they are bringing forward the release date of their new album ‘Progress’ to 15th November – thereby avoiding a chart clash with the new JLS album.
And finally … there’s still time to enter our exclusive Golden Tag competition. We recently teamed up with their label Polydor to create a priceless Golden Tag for one lucky UK Shazamer! If you would like to win the chance to attend a once-in-a-lifetime Take That performance followed by an exclusive meet and greet with the band, read on to find out more… Read more…
You can always depend on the soundtrack at Halloween to be predictable. Tracks such as Ray Parker Jr’s ‘Ghostbusters’ and The Specials’ ‘Ghost Town’ seem to go into almost constant rotation from October 30th. As good as ‘The Monster Mash’ is, there are only so many times you want to hear it.
With this in mind, we’ve taken the time out to shed some light on some more obscure – but no less spooky – Halloween tracks.
Siouxsie & The Banshees – Halloween
These 70’s post punkers have the band name and the tracks to make any All Hallows bash go with a swing. The band’s lead singer, Siouxsie Sioux, is still considered one of the most influential artists of her generation and is often referenced by hispsters such as LCD Soundsystem, Tricky and TV On The Radio as a huge inspiration. Taken from the classic 1981 album ‘Juju’, ‘Halloween’ might be the perfect alternative track to play on the 31st.
Rob Zombie – Man Without Fear
You have to give Rob Zombie credit where it’s due, he puts in the work for Halloween. Rather than get in costume once a year, Rob spends 365 days a year looking like he’s ready to go trick or treating. When he’s not spending his time directing cult horror films such as ‘House Of 1000 Corpses’ and ‘The Devils Reject’, Rob churns out substandard metal albums. The music may not be that great, but Rob deserves kudos for his dedication to the undead.
Candadian electro-noise duo Crystal Castles have announced their latest single, a re-recorded version of ‘Not In Love’ with guest vocals from Robert Smith – lead singer of The Cure.
Crystal Castles supported The Cure at the NME Awards last year and it’s clear from this collaboration that they’ve received the seal of approval from Smith: scoring a huge coup by getting the influential singer to add his inimitable tones to the dark, electronic track. While some hardcore fans of The Cure may not be keen to see Smith mixing with young upstarts like Crystal Castles, most will be hard pressed to find fault with this record. In contrast to the original version of ‘Not In Love’, where Crystal Castles’ singer Alice Glass has her vocals twisted through effects, Smith’s unaffected vocal takes the track into almost pop territory.
‘I’m Not In Love’ is released through Fiction Records on December 6th, head here for a preview.
Following on from the fantastic performance from Foxy Shazam, this week French Indie eccentrics The Shoes stopped by Shazam HQ for the latest of our Shazam Sessions. The duo performed their latest single ‘Stay The Same’ – which is taken from their debut self titled album. The track features vocals from Esser who was unable to appear with the band, however the pair cunningly got over this hurdle by playing the singers vocals through a tape deck.
The Shoes, consisting of childhood friends Guillame and Benjamin, have been on our ‘to watch’ list for a while now. After collaborating with Primary 1 on the single ‘People Movin’ and delivering a clutch of impressive remixes for the likes of Mystery Jets, Ladyhawke, Wiley and Marina & The Diamonds, the pair have been cooped away in the studio working on their debut album. While we’ll have to wait a little longer to hear that, the ‘Stay The Same EP’ is currently available on iTunes backed with some awesome remixes – our favourite of which has to be the Étienne De Crécy remix.
Check out their stunning performance above and keep an eye on our YouTube channel for future Shazam Sessions!
Our new Shazam (PRODUCT)REDTM special edition App is out today – available on iPhone and iPod touch. Check out the hot new features including multiple Tag charts, faster tagging options and a shortcut menu to preview clips, buy and share music.
Preview music: 30 sec clips in Tags, Charts and Recommendations to explore new music and remember tagged tracks
See what’s hot and popular: browse Shazam Tag Charts from 20 countries/regions and choose your weekly updates
Identify a track immediately: background listening and tagging on start up options for a faster Tag result
Experience music faster: Tap artwork in My Tags and Charts for shortcut menu to preview, buy and share music
Download the App and we contribute 20% of the price to help fight AIDS in Africa.
‘Shazam’s 5 Minute Guide…’ serves up all you need to know about a given subject in an easy to digest, bite-size chunk. Obscure musical subgenres, flavour of the month singers and leftfield musical buzzwords will all be broken down in this new section. Whether you’re looking to bluff your way through a conversation with a music fanatic or trying to stay on top of the latest trends, ‘Shazam 5 Minute Guide’ is the place to be.
The first ‘5 Minute Guide’ is a whistle stop tour of the world of Dirty South Rap in 2010 – a sub genre that’s been ruling America’s airwaves and clubs with reckless abandon in recent times…
2010 has been a very popular year for the dirty south rappers with names like Gucci Mane, Yo Gotti and Waka Flocka Flame scoring some of the biggest hits in the rap charts. Since A-Trak’s popular mixtape, ‘Dirty South Dance’, it seems as though every hip-hop producer wants a slow paced southern rapper featured on their track.
Although the genre has been big since the late ‘80’s, Gucci Mane’s 2009 album ‘The State Vs. Radric Davis’ can be seen as a tipping point in the genre’s popularity. Before the release of Gucci’s album, there was a surge of dirty south music with artists such as Lil’ Wayne, Bun B and Three Six Mafia making huge waves. Remember the smash hit ‘Ridin’ by Chamillionaire? Well the dirty south phenomenon has hit back harder than ever.
The Axis of Awesome are Australia’s biggest comedy band, their latest video has become a YouTube sensation with over 8 million hits! The ’4 Chord Song’ video is a hilarious mixture of observational humour coupled with great musical talent. Riffing on the idea that all pop music sounds the same: AOA manage to link songs by Mika, Alica Keys, Journey, Black Eyed Peas, The Calling, Bush, A-Ha, Green Day and Lighthouse Family into a chucklesome five minute medley. The video on YouTube shows the band tearing through popular hits from previous decades that all have the same music, specifically 4 chords in a certain order. Watch below for the “Awesome” video.
Jordanm Lee and Benny who make up the band have recently appeared on GMTV and the Scott Mills Radio 1 show, The Axis of Awesome are now ready to unleash their award winning live show ‘Songs In The Key of Awesome’ on the UK. Their first show in the UK will be at Bush Hall on Thursday November 4th.
