Apparently K-Swiss has decided to pull out the big guns.

Introducing...Kenny Powers, K-Swiss enthusiast.

Signing Mr. Powers to the K-Swiss endorsement roster wasn't easy; he had a list of demands and some great ideas right off the bat. Check out the video below!

Caution! NSFW! (Or just wear headphones)

Looking for some events for both before and during Lollapalooza? Look no further!

Express is hosting a few party/concerts at the Hard Rock Hotel/Express Cafe in Chicago with performances by Nneka, Stars, Neon Trees, The Constellations and more!

The first show/party is Perez Hilton's (yes that Perez Hilton) 'One Night In Chicago' at the Hard Rock Hotel with B.o.B., Lissie, Nneka, and more. Details on entrance below!

The second event is three days of music at the Express Cafe@The Music Lounge in the Hard Rock Hotel with performances by The Constellations, Stars, Neon Trees and more! Check out all the info below.

Keep up with all of the Express happenings here.

Check out the line-ups and all other info below and we'll see you there!

Continue reading at FILTERmagazine.com

Label founders Jan Krueger and Daze Maxim tear it up in this two hour snippet of their 7 hour back-to-back set at Club Der Visionaere in Berlin last month.

All UAD-2 SOLO, DUO and QUAD DSP Accelerator Packages now feature smaller, “greener” packaging, and include the new “Analog Classics” Software Bundle at no additional cost.

Be sure to download Prince Polo – Yellow Shirt

The Future Sound of Reggae is a compliation series committed to expanding musical horizons by releasing a broad cross-section of Caribbean-influenced music from around the globe. Actress Mena Suvari and DubShot Records have joined forces to spread positive music from different regions. Most known for her many film and television appearances, Los Angeles based actress Mena Suvari has long been an admirer of Jamaican music and its culture. As a result of this passion for the genre and its birthplace, Mena has constructed a diverse network of singers, musicians, DJs, and producers to showcase. DubShot Records is a New York based hybrid label that showcases an evolution in musical styles. Featuring prominent artist’s inspired by (or derived from) Caribbean sounds, the label has solidified an international movement that has been in existence for decades, yet remains under the radar. The first series of Future Sound releases, FSOR Vol. 2, has blended an eclectic mix of styles from the indigenous genres of Dub, Roots, and Dancehall to foreign influenced Hip Hop, Electro, and Rock. The compilation has left no stone unturned.

Check out these links for the rest of your DubShot needs

www.dubshotrecords.blog.com
www.dubshotrecords.ning.com
www.imeem.com/dubshotrecords
myspace.com/dubshotrecords.com

UK artist Florence + The Machine has been nominated for four MTV Video Music Awards (what does MTV and music videos have to do with each other?) for her video "Dog Days Are Over."

The lovely lady is up for Video of the Year, Best Rock Video, Best Cinematography and Best Art Direction. Check out the video below.

You can see Florence's beauty in person while she is out on her North American tour!

Make sure you pick up her debut album Lungs which is out now.

Tour Dates:

October
30 - New Orleans, LA - Voodoo Music Festival
31 - Boston, MA - House of Blues

November
1 - New York, NY - Terminal 5
2 - New York, NY - Terminal 5
3 - Toronto, ON - Sound Academy
5 - Oakland, CA - Fox Theater
6 - Los Angeles, CA - Wiltern (SOLD OUT)
7 - Los Angeles, CA - Wiltern

Continue reading at FILTERmagazine.com

Virus Attack Chandigarh Newsline “I haven't heard any Indian electronic music,” said Eisen ahead of the concert, “but I've heard some of the mainstream Bollywood stuff. ... and more »

First of all, the correct pronunciation rhymes with "vogue." The Guardian gives an overview of the history and sound of the legendary synth manufacturer.

When Martinez takes to the decks at this Saturday's Fuse Saturday Night Rave at London's Hearn Street Car Park, expect to hear lots of upfront, unreleased promos mixed with eternal house classics. That's certainly the theme of the batch of Weekend Weapons he's selected for Beatportal, with tantalizing entries from Alex Celler, Livio & Roby, Supplement Facts, and more. As a special bonus, Martinez also shared a few contextual picks with us, including his favorite set opener, his surefire bassline weapon, and the record that will never, ever leave his box. (We'll give you one hint: it's a "moody" selection.) Read on for Martinez' comments, and if you're in London this weekend, don't forget to check him out alongside DJ T and Matthias Tanzmann at the Fuse Saturday Night Rave.

Read more on Beatportal

Operating systems aside, the most important “platform” for your music may be the work environment you create for yourself to produce. Seeing that physical environment for someone else can be an inspiration, and certainly a window into their personality. So, as I look through the workspaces submitted by readers, I asked the terrific blog TRASH_AUDIO to select a few of the favorites from their series, “Workspace and Environment.” Rather than ask the usual, bland music journalistic questions of artists, they explore those artists’ creation spaces, and discuss process through that context. (Eat your heart out, MTV Cribs.) TRASH_AUDIO also has a new site address, so go enjoy: http://trashaudio.com/ It’s worth checking out the whole site, but here are their top five favorite workspaces and environments, in no particular order. Some are the tangles of wires you might expect, others more unusual, clean digital environments like the images I chose here (if only because I’m more used to seeing the tangles of wires). 1. Finnish-born Sasu Ripatti of Vladislav Delay and Luomo has found an acoustically-wonderful, isolated environment on an island, an environment surrounded by trees and far from people. On the road, it’s just one laptop, one Korg nanoKEY, and an audio interface, to which he adds Faderfox MIDI controllers, small KAOSS pads, and effects pedals for live gigs. 2. Alec Empire stays true to his Berlin roots with an all-white minimal studio. It’s distraction-free – and having a big, dedicated studio space means no neighbors. Think loud. “Actually you wouldn’t really find much colour in there,” he tells TRASH-AUDIO. “And what surprises visitors is that we have no paintings or posters or anything visual up on the walls. I really find this distracting. Somehow my mind would get off path. The great thing is that we can record whenever we want.” On the road, it’s a Mac and Digidesign gear, but most importantly, a big mobile hard drive, so sounds can come along with him for constant revision. Add to that an iPhone as a musical notebook for sketching ideas. 3. Alessandro Cortini, an Italian-born artist living in the US, focuses on Buchla modular gear as the center of his workspace, with the monome and MLR as the software accompaniment. Corners of the space, he says, are dedicated to different working styles – modular, drum machine, computer – but everything is within reach, which to me is also the epitome of the brilliant Buchla design itself. If you can’t afford a modular (and certainly most of us can’t afford a Buchla 200), perhaps the ergonomics is the single most important lesson to learn here. 4. Mavis Concave, Robert Inhuman and Vankmen of Realicide adapt to a variety of environments – the corner of someone’s room, different homes. As Mavis says, the people in your surroundings often matter more than the architecture: “I need to have enough physical space for my gear and be surrounded by people who encourage the work that I am doing. I can’t be surrounded by people who write off my music production as a nuisance to have in the household. That is probably the biggest creativity/productivity block there is for me.” And for fans of hardware (you’re heard in the poll, don’t worry), that means favorite gear that can go in a car trunk, like the Korg ElecTribe ES-1 (called out by both Mavis and Robert). 5. Atom TM. I just love this, because seeing look-alike studios is boring, because I feel strongly that aesthetics around you can provide visual stimulation for your sonic creativity centers, and because it defies conventional wisdom. So I have to just run the whole quote – decoration instead of gear. (Next – perhaps decorated gear?) Take that, blank white walls of Berlin!

“Decoration instead of gear” became the motto. All my workspaces had to have big windows and if possible a nice view (even though I tend to close the curtains in summer during daytime). I don’t like “studio” atmosphere. I don’t like cables, gear and the entire tech-look. Environments that make me feel well and relaxed are usually of a different type. I like old furniture, warm colours, ornaments and in general everything that does not look contemporary. The contemporary look usually is contaminated with bad taste and pretentious design. Further, the decoration itself helps to absorb reflections and creates a dryer sound. I can say that the decoration itself, that is, obtaining/installing as well as creating amongst it, gives me more satisfaction than obtaining/installing equipment. I can see why “studios” have to look “tech”, that is because the studio owner needs to impress the entirely clueless cast of customers. There is no reason whatever to follow that look, just because it is somewhat implied in the equipment itself. In general I’m very sensible when it comes to “making music”. I find it hard to focus in other studios that don’t fit my aesthetics and sound. I think that my workspace is a perfect combination of the technical-, creative- and aethetic aspects of my work and it has become what it is through a long development of those three components.

I also see in that story the greatest typo ever, which is that “Ableton Live” is identified by Surachai as “Analog Live.” I think we have a new column name, perhaps with a faux-Abletron visual identity. Maybe all those white walls blinded me — that’s no typo; Analog Live is the name of an event. (Create Analog Music, indeed!) Whether or not any of these approaches is meaningful to you may vary. But to me, just hearing people make decisions to reorganize their space is refreshing. I find sometimes even an arbitrary change of scenery can help unstop creative juices. Let us know if the same is true for you.

Every month, dozens of great albums get released on Beatport, but they can often get lost in the shuffle of tracks and EPs. We single out some of our favorites for the Album of the Week, but that barely scratches the surface. To help you keep up with the best in Beatport’s catalog, here’s a roundup of some of the key full-lengths that came out in July (plus a few from June that we forgot about!), including albums from John Digweed, Hernan Cattaneo, Jimmy Edgar, Mount Kimbie, James Pants, Tiefschwarz, Wehbba, and many more, and ranging from ambient and chillout to deepest tech house and proper, no-holds-barred techno.

Read more on Beatportal

Detroit luminary and techno pioneer, Rick Wilhite has announced that he will be releasing an extra special compilation called Vibes New & Rare Musicon Rush Hour Recordings coming this September.

Vibes New & Rare Music is named after Wilhites record store in Detroit, and as with the store he wants to use this compilation as a platform for soulful productions by some of his peers, like Marcellus Pittman, Glenn Underground and fellow 3 Chairs member Theo Parrish, as well as young blood such as Kyle Hall and Marc King. Wilhite’s own productions have made it on to the compilation as well, under his moniker The Godson.

Check out the tracklist for a full look at the compilation.

Tracklist
01. Theo Parrish - When I'm Gone
02. Glenn Underground - Ninja
03. Ricardo Miranda - Urbanism
04. Derwyn Hall - Kaliedescope
05. The Godson & Kyle Hall - Microburst
06. The Godson - Analog Love
07. Marcellus Pittman - In Due Time
08. Kyle Hall - After Fall
09. Urban Tribe - First Mistake
10. Vincent Halliburton - Something I Feel
11. Marc King - Can U Feel It

Rush Hour will release Rick Wilhite's Vibes New & Rare Music in September 2010 until then though, there is a four-part 12-inch series of the same name available with all tracks but Derwyn Hall's 'Kaliedescope', which is previously unreleased.

Rent asunder, the moniker of the seemingly long-in-hiding Los Angeles band Autolux breaks down to a prefix indicating "automatic" followed by the Latin word for "light." Their debut album, released in 2005, was called Future Perfect. And at that moment, their particular star did, indeed, seem to shine effortlessly brightly. Both their name and the title, then, appeared to be a statements of admirably optimistic intent--signed as they were to the burgeoning and Sony-backed label (DMZ, apparently referencing Korea's Demilitarized Zone, which we are all aware the music business is anything but) of godhead producer T-Bone Burnett, and championed by none other than iconic iconoclastic filmmakers Joel and Ethan Coen.

Five years hence, bruised by the vagaries of the biz, drummer Carla Azar, bassist Eugene Goreshter, and guitarist Greg Edwards (they all sing) have a second album that flaunts another optimistic, new wavey title, Transit Transit, and actually finds them rather undiminished by the struggles. Azar recounts without a whiff of regret in her tone.

“T-Bone had just come off working on [the Coen brothers film] O Brother, Where Art Thou. At that time, they just decided to put a label together to put the soundtrack out. T-Bone had seen us, and said he wanted to sign us. It was really great.”

But…then?

“We were forced into a cave,” she continues. “It’s really boring—the first part of it is that we were on a label that wouldn’t release us from our contract but also wouldn’t give us money to make a new record. They didn’t know what to do with us, and they knew they would have to pay us to drop us, so we were sort of stuck in Purgatory.”

If their debut was a masterstroke of beautiful noise, the self-produced Transit Transit sounds like a band finding virtuosity amidst the dissonance. The opening and title track might remind you of Cocteau Twins, Sigur Ros, even Primal Scream, with its ethereal psychedelics and backwards tracked drumming. It’s followed by “Census”, its monotone vocals and caustic guitar standing in distinct opposition to all that pretty preceding it. Azar then plays breathy 30’s crooner lost in the forest of trippy dippy on “The Bouncing Wall”, which is awash in fantastically surrealist imagery (“I am free / The wall is bouncing / The lights are green / I am melting”). The surprises continue in abundance.

“There are so many strange songs on this record,” she observes, “I don’t know how you can even categorize them at all. We were actually aiming for farther back to bands like Can. In fact, they were so modern, that a lot of bands now are influenced by them.”

Farther back, indeed. While the rhythmic haywire of feral, determinedly abrasive tracks like “Kissproof” and “Headless Sky” bear the stamp of all that drug-addled 70’s Krautrock experimentation, there’s also a Pink Floydian sense of space and atmosphere throughout and the sort of lush, enveloping harmonies that would not be out of place on, dare we say it, a Beach Boys album.

For her part, Azar pleads blissful ignorance of current trends, choosing instead to pay her respect to what she considers more urgent, explosive points on the musical chronology.

“We’re sort of living in a bubble,” she confesses. “But those really powerful scenes that happened in the 80’s, like No Wave…I think you just don’t find those anymore.”

Like the No Wave bands, Autolux will probably continue to suffer the “art band” tag, lazily assigned to anyone not bound by the dull tenets and boundaries of “alternative” rock & roll. But what actually lingers most after a few listens to Transit Transit is its unrepentant romanticism, the sense that it might have all been the product of a few nights are particularly vivid and extravagant dreaming. And even when Azar intellectualizes a bit, it’s only to make a point about music’s ethereal and enigmatic hold over our fragile and peculiar humanity.

“There’s a study that I read about in Scientific American,” she recalls, “and it said that the memories that are attached to emotions on the highest level are those associated with music.”

It’s a weird, weird science, to be sure. F

Ambient auteur Brian Eno is to release an album on Warp Records, a label that almost certainly owes a bigger debt to Eno than any other artist. Imagine if Music for Airports or Here Come The Warm Jets were never made and it's pretty hard to imagine a world where Boards of Canada, Authechre, The Black Dog or Aphex Twin would exist.

Fellow electronic pioneer John Hopkins and producer/guitarist Leo Abraham, who are both long term collaborators of Eno, have also worked on the album. There is no official word from Warp on the finer details, just a new website where you can sign up for information. Although now removed, there was this insightful quote on Hopkins blog;

[the album] ".. contains the fruits of several years of jams between the three of us. I've not heard anything quite like it – it sounds 'live' and 'alien' at the same time. Some things have been permitted to survive, which only Brian would have had the courage to let go, and it's so much the better for it"

Which sounds pretty exciting to us. Watch this space for more information or you can sign up for more information here.

Turkish singer Ahu has featured on some of the most heavily rotated tracks on my iPod over the last few years. As Dolly on Flying Lotus’s ‘Roberta Flack’, or on Soundspecies’ ‘Can We Call it Love’ or more recently, on the monstrous boogie tune, Grooveman Spot’s ‘Affection’ - she seems to be the singer of choice for forward thinking producers.

In fact, her CV reads like a who’s who of the modern electronica. Flying Lotus, Bullion, Soundspecies, Grooveman Spot, Emanative and Mr Beatnik to name a few of her most recent collaborators. In turn, she has been receiving universal praise from the likes of Benji B, Theo Parrish and Giles Peterson alike. Now it’s time for her to release an album of her own.

One-Handed Music, home to Paul White, Bullion and now Ahu will be releasing her debut. The first single is ‘To:Love’ produced by Paul White and featuring a killer remix from Dimlite. The album is due later in the year, but if this single is anything to go buy, it is shaping up to be one of the finest albums of the year. No doubt.

‘To:Love’ will be available on One-Handed Music on September 13th. For a preview, check the entry on Rush Hour here.