This year’s Lovebox was noteable for several reasons. Firstly the event – usually spread out over two days – had expanded to a three day festival, with eager revelers able to kick proceedings off on the Friday. Another factor that worked in Lovebox’s favour this year was the flawless weather. London has recently experienced an enviable amount of sunshine, something that was obviously lapped up by this year’s attendees. Add this to a bulging list of amazing bands, performers and DJ’s and you get what turned out to be a spectacular weekend for all involved. The strength of Lovebox has always been its ability to attract a genre defying, wide ranging line up and this year was no different. Click on the link below to read our full run down of the weekend.
In the extremely unlikely event that you haven’t already noticed, today sees the start of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. As usual anticipation for the event has reached feverish levels as England prepare for their first match against the U.S.A. on Saturday. Traditionally the event inspires a cross section of musicians (and even footballers themselves) to produce musical works that hope to evoke the passion of the occasion.
While every major national team will have their own individual tracks, the concept of a World Cup song seems to take particular resonance with England fans. From the 1970’s squad rabble rousing ‘Back Home’ to New Order’s timeless ‘World In Motion’ – featuring John Barnes’ era defining rap - every major tournament sees a host of artists all vying to conceive the year’s defining anthem.
However, for this year’s tournament things are a little different. In keeping with manager Fabio Capello’s no nonsense approach to management, the Italian has stopped an official theme for this year’s tournament. Undeterred by this, several artists have chanced their hand and tried to capture the public’s imagination before the tournament kicks off. Here are a few of the most interesting attempts:
Dizzee Rascal was the main man last summer in Britain. His singles ‘Bonkers’ and ‘Holiday’ were inescapable throughout the hotter months, while Dizzee’s performances at festivals – particularly Glastonbury – were among the most talked about of the year.
His latest track, ‘Dirtee Disco’, continues the fun loving and dance influenced vein established in recent collaborations with Armand Van Helden and Calvin Harris. A far cry from Dizzee’s early angst ridden grime tracks, ‘Dirtee Disco’ is a summery floor filler built around a filtered house beat and lyrics about boozing and chasing women. Although Dizzee’s switch to quite unashamedly pop influenced sounds may scare off some of his early die-hard following, ‘Dirtee Disco’ is guaranteed to make up a ridiculously rabble rousing part of his live sets over the course of the coming months
‘Dirtee Disco’ is released 24th May and could well feature as part of a forthcoming reissue of Dizzee’s last album, ‘Tounge N’ Cheek’.
Head to Dizzee Rascal’s Myspace for more info and to check the track very soon.
London’s Lovebox festival has now confirmed several acts for this year’s event, including some stellar headline performers. The announcement will no doubt cause gig goers problems in deciding which festival to pick this summer. The weekend, curated by Groove Armada’s Andy Cato and Tom Findlay, has pulled a real coup in securing Roxy Music’s services on the Saturday. Lead singer Brian Ferry commented “There is a song on my album that I have co-written with my friends Groove Armada. They asked me if Roxy would like to perform at Lovebox. We of course thought it would be cool”. The influential 80’s band join Dizzee Rascal and the irrepressible Grace Jones as the events headliners, with the festival now expanding to three days.
Taking place in Victoria Park on the 16th-18th July, the weekend will also see performances from the likes of Hot Chip, Mark Ronson & The Business and Empire Of The Sun – making their first UK appearance. Other notable acts playing are Canadian synth demons Chromeo, Cut Copy, Wild Beasts and Hercules & Love Affair. However anyone whos been to Lovebox will know it’s not just about the bands, the weekend also boasts a fine array of DJ talent including Crookers, Booka Shade and Joy Orbison. For tickets and full line up info, head to the Lovebox site.
Now in its seventh year, Rob Da Bank’s Bestival continues to stand out among the wealth of festivals that take place over the summer. After 2009’s crowd were wowed by German electro pioneers Kraftwerk, expectations were certainly high for this year. Thankfully the Radio 1 DJ has pulled yet another stroke of organisational genius and has come back with a veritable feast of musical goodness. This year’s event takes place on the Isle Of Wight on the 9th to 12th September. Headlining the opening day will be East London’s own Prince of Grime, Dizzee Rascal. Stepping up to the headline slot will surely be no problem for the rapper and no surprise for anyone who witnessed the reaction ‘Bonkers’ received during his Glastonbury set last summer. Also playing will be psychedelic pop masters The Flaming Lips, whose enchanting stage show will no doubt fit in perfectly with the festivals trippy aesthetics.
Making their fifth festival outing at this year’s event will be Hot Chip, whose appearance comes hot on the heels of fourth album, ‘One Life Stand’. If that wasn’t enough, LCD Soundsystem will also be showcasing tracks from their highly anticipated third – and rumoured to be final – album.
As always with Bestival, the headliners are just a small portion of what you will witness over the weekend; with many other bands and DJ’s equally vying for your attention amongst the masses of fancy dressed revellers and unexpected sideshow attractions. The list of acts is already jaw dropping and as the event isn’t until September – it’s only going to get better. For the full line up and ticket info, head to the Bestival website.
Dizzee Rascal’s self produced debut ‘Boy In Da Corner’ crystallised all that was urgent, raw and relevant about British urban music in 2003. Springing from East London’s grime scene – which itself was a brand new musical mixture of hip-hop, 2 step garage and drum & bass influences – Dizzee managed to combine the starkly raw electronic sounds of grime with a viscously witty, often aggressive but always heartfelt delivery. Tracks such as ‘I Luv U’ and ‘Fix Up Look Sharp’ painted a vividly dark picture of urban life but were delivered with shades of social critique and old school rap braggadocio that gave his album a wider appeal.
Unlike albums from his contemporaries from the grime scene, ‘Boy In Da Corner’ managed to achieve both critical and commercial success without diluting the jarring electronic sound of the genre at all. The album remains a critical high water mark of Dizzee’s career despite the fact that the rapper has now gone on to achieve more wide spread acclaim with pop influenced tracks such as, ‘Dance With Me’ and ‘Bonkers’. Winning the Mercury Prize in 2003, the album remains one of the best examples of UK hip hop ever produced.
This week Dizzee Rascal reclaims the top spot in the Shazam Pre-release chart, removing Nneka who falls down to number 10 in the chart. Meanwhile new releases come from the likes of Muse, Mini Viva, Booty Luv and Duck Sauce – a track that was tipped for the top on this very blog over a month ago!
This week Dizzee Rascal tops the Shazam UK Pre-release chart with ‘Holiday’; a record we first tipped for the top over a month ago. New releases come from Taio Cruz, JLS, Nneka and the ever popular Sugababes who are about to launch yet another attack on the charts with ‘Get Sexy’.
After the success of the electro tinged ‘Dance Wiv Me’ and the ravetastic ‘Bonkers’, it should come as no surprise that Dizzee Rascal’s latest single is yet another mish-mash of 3am trance flavours and cockney tinged R&B rhymes. Debuted on the Pyramid stage at Glastonbury two weeks ago in front of 80,000 festival goers, ‘Holiday’ is already being touted as a future number 1 – a fact supported by its presence as ‘Hottest Record In The World’ on Zane Lowe’s tastemaking Radio 1 show.
Featuring grinding peppy electro beats, cheeky lady loving lyrics and an almighty big room house crescendo that provides an almost guaranteed hands in the air moment; ‘Holiday’ is an unquestionably fun record and miles away from the inner city paranoia of his first album, ‘Boy In Da Corner’. Production duties are taken care of once again by lanky Scottish beatsmith Calvin Harris, a man whose knob twiddling skills have earned him two UK number ones in the last nine months.
With Black Eyed Peas dominating the world’s charts with their own brand of energy charged dance music and Kelly Rowland experiencing some of her biggest success after collaborating with commercial house star David Guetta, it looks as though Dizzee’s flirtations with glow stick infused sounds are set to consolidate him as the UK’s premier urban music talent.
