MY ROBOT FRIEND
My Robot Friend is the over-the-top project of New York music producer & visual arts performer Howard Robot, whose live performances mesmerize with quirky technopop, computer animations, general “new media” topsy-turveydom, and his legendary costume, an interactive suit of blinking and whirring L.E.D. lights and electroluminescent wire.
Berlin Festival draws nearer! Only one week to go until our acts from Suede to Primal Scream to Public Enemy to Mr. Oizo to Beirut take over Tempelhof Airport and Arena Berlin. If you hesitated until now to buy your ticket, don’t worry. All ticket categories will be available until Thursday evening via our website. On the 9th and 10th September, all tickets will be available at the Tempelhof Airport and Arena Berlin box offices.
CocknBullKid is a pseudonym of Anita Blay (born 1985, Hackney). CocknBullKid’s style, it should be said, resides firmly on the dark side of pop. There’s an almost Trojan quality to it – Anita’s ever-expanding repertoire is a subversive, sometimes sinister, and always sublime mix of sex, death, ugliness, wit and depravity, found amidst The Everyday and pegged onto supremely inventive pop melodies. “I’ve always thought pop should never just be saccharine” she says, “It should be black and tortured too. There’s no point otherwise.”
The Cobra Killer duo of Gina V. D’Orio and Annika Trost began as part of Alec Empire’s Digital hardcore movement. Both were part of other bands signed to Empire’s Digital Hardcore Recordings label—Gina was in EC8OR, and Annika was in Shizuo. Cobra Killer was arguably one of the most playful DHR bands, in contrast to the revolutionary bombast of most.
When Empire’s label cut back on its bands, many of the DHR groups folded, but D’Orio and Trost kept going. They have released four albums and are currently on the Monika Enterprise label.
MusicForDriving recommends this documentary. Went to see it on last years CPH DOX. Actually we went there by accident. We had tickets for Michael Jackson This Is It, but the people walking into another room looked much more interesting, so we took a chance which played well out. Here is a short describtion:
Presented by Future Cinema in association with Warp Films, directed by All Tomorrow’s People and Jonathan Caouette. This film documents the history of the long running All Tomorrow’s Parties Music Festival, which is often described as a “post-punk DIY bricolage.” The film was created by both fans and musicians who attended the festivals, with Super8, camcorders and even mobile phones. There are some great performances from Grizzly Bear, Sonic Youth, Battles, Belle and Sebastian, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Les Savy Fav, Fuck Buttons, Iggy Pop, and the list goes on and on.
Whitey is an ongoing solo project by N.J Whitey. He is a hard character to pin down- his genre-twisting songs swing wildly between styles, and his dismissive attitude towards the music industry means there are few shows, and even fewer interviews. He sings, programs, plays guitar, keys, bass and drums but has no formal qualifications and is totally self taught. His live shows are haphazard- some are an uplifting rhythmic experience, whilst some occur in deliberately darkened rooms and are hedonistic affairs drenched with chaotic walls of feedback and electronic noise.
Documentary following a generation of post-punk musicians who took the synthesiser from the experimental fringes to the centre of the pop stage.
In the late 1970s, small pockets of electronic artists including the Human League, Daniel Miller and Cabaret Volatire were inspired by Kraftwerk and JG Ballard and dreamt of the sound of the future against the backdrop of bleak, high-rise Britain.
The crossover moment came in 1979 when Gary Numan’s appearance on Top of the Pops with Tubeway Army’s Are Friends Electric heralded the arrival of synthpop. Four lads from Basildon known as Depeche Mode would come to own the new sound whilst post-punk bands like Ultravox, Soft Cell, OMD and Yazoo took the synth out of the pages of the NME and onto the front page of Smash Hits. By 1983, acts like Pet Shop Boys and New Order were showing that the future of electronic music would lie in dance music.
Contributors include Philip Oakey, Vince Clarke, Martin Gore, Bernard Sumner, Gary Numan and Neil Tennant.
Cabaret Voltaire were a British music group from Sheffield, England.
Initially composed of Stephen Mallinder, Richard H. Kirk and Chris Watson, the group was named after the Cabaret Voltaire, a nightclub in Zurich, Switzerland that was a centre for the early Dada movement.
Their earliest performances were dada-influenced performance art, but Cabaret Voltaire later developed into one of the most prolific and important groups to blend pop with dance music, techno, dub, house and experimental electronic music.
