“It was surreal…you should’ve seen it. I was playing and people were holding their phones in the air.” Daniel Martin-McCormick, better known as Ital, is recalling about a moment during his gig in London two weeks ago when word broke that pop diva Whitney Houston was found dead in a hotel room in Los Angeles. The songstress’ famous vocal from “I Will Always Love You” is chopped and mashed up on “Doesn’t Matter (If You Love Him),” the opening track on Ital’s Hive Mind due in March. “I always loved the vocal and always thought it would work on a track.”

In this exclusive interview conducted in the South Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, Martin-McCormick, who is known for his work in the band Mi Ami, reveals the evolution of his Ital project, how a random e-mail to Planet Mu got his album signed and the joy he feels when he’s performing live.

Image by Darren Ressler

★★★★☆

Judging a book by its cover usually gets you nowhere, so keep an open mind when taking on Italy’s Opilec compendium. It starts as an electro celebration of keyboards from times passed. There’s never a bad time to delve into the synthetics of Italo-pop, and no worries if your mind is instantly switched to thinking this could be a typical case of very European duplication and retranslation. Opilec confounds first-timer expectations as a) electro-house is being tested as a new musical strand by No More Klein & Mbo, b) it achieves its own piece of lightshow euphoria through the likes of “Bolero” fan Beppe Loda to get you researching and c) it finishes having covered some meaty house and techno featuring names such as Todd Terje and Orlando Voorn, and others to look up such as Eduardo De la Calle and Vaghe Stelle.

The turning point moving the compilation away from becoming a collection of synth fossils also cites an unlikely source, Giorgio Moroder, who is subject to a remix where the veteran behind I-Robots, Gianluca Pandullo, pulls off a slick house groove. From thereon the compilation pretty much leaves the electro and punk behind, attracted to the dance floor’s bright lights. (Or rather the lower lights, as mined by acid sweeper Federico Gandin and deep techno shuffler Playdoughboy.) Not quite two sides of the story, but a label worth investigating whatever mood you may be in.
File under: Ebbro, Nemesi, The Units

Red Bull Music Academy is an annual event bringing together aspiring producers from around the world and putting them in a collaborative setting where they have the opportunity to learn, create, and exchange ideas in tandem with attending lectures led by music legends ranging from Arthur Baker to Zed Bias. Last year’s event in Madrid spawned several interesting recordings that appear on Various Assets, a 35-track compilation out at the end of the month.

We’re pleased to debut Canblaster and Julius Sylvest‘s “ReadY,” a track that was born when the Danish and French mixers got together on the first day of RBMA Madrid.

Check out “ReadY” below and tell us what you think. If you’re interested in attending RMBA NY taking place in the fall, you can find out how to apply here.

★★★☆☆

Kitsuné’s Gildas Loaëc selects the latest French shades and Gallic-styled changing of the avant garde, keen to keep giving you the complete synthesizer symposium. Kitsuné Parisien II features pure ’80s exhibitionism from Juveniles promoting pop in hyper-color, offering a rush above the examples of Parisien intelligence and artiness. For every level-headed Owlle and exacting Pyramid, there’s the completely ironic (well, you’d hope) sound of Birkii’s pretty inflammatory chorus to an otherwise pretty in pink pop effort that reeks of English student troubadour. The variations present a well-dressed motley crew of electro, featuring the glamorous (French linguists LESCOP kitsching up the punk funk), Exotica writhing around in a bad ’80s video, and rock ‘n’ roll room trashing with a butter wouldn’t melt vocalist (About the Girl). Putting hip-hop into the mix as well, Wolfpack Beartrack’s “Modern Realm” is probably pushing its luck.

Most geared for success outside of Tricolore circles is Nameless’ “Angelina”; it has the pop set-up done right, even if it’s far from an original arrangement of guitar drive (the chorus is a good one and the attitude winks knowingly). BeatauCue emerges with a starry-eyed electro-house variable introducing itself to discotheques with a beaming smile, and overall the common denominator is simply keeping things fresh, avoiding weighty agendas. Striking, and that’s not just the poses.
File under: Tomorrow’s World, We Are Knights, Slowdance

Think all that dubstep you play at home isn’t affecting your cat? Well, think again because apparently a new breed of kitties have cat scratch fever and are itchin’ to get on the decks. Led by DJ Harbulz, Cat Scratch DJ is a cardboard mixing deck shaped cat scratching mat that’ll allow the feline in your life the ability to cut up a 12″ one paw at a time. The product features spinning deck and posable tone arm and comes pre-assembled.

According to the instructions, to get kitty interested, “sprinkle a bit of catnip on the deck.” With a little practice your cat can be as good as the ones in the video below.

Wikka wikka meow.

Dave Grohl and his big mouth, right? During his acceptance speech at the Grammy awards last weekend when Foo Fighters won for Best Rock Performance, Mr. G took his moment in the spotlight to speak from his millionaire heart, saying, “Singing into a microphone and learning to play an instrument and learning to do your craft, that’s the most important thing for people to do,” adding, “it’s not about being perfect, it’s not about sounding absolutely correct, it’s not about what goes on in a computer.” The implication? Electronic music isn’t music.

Moments later Grohl’s band played with deadmau5 — an artist whose instrument is a computer — and that fact wasn’t lost on a lot of folks. Grohl’s PR team just released a statement clarifying his original statement. Are you following all this?

“I love music. I love ALL kinds of music,” said Grohl. “From Kyuss to Kraftwerk, Pinetop Perkins to Prodigy, Dead Kennedys to Deadmau5…..I love music. Electronic or acoustic, it doesn’t matter to me….I don’t know how to do what Skrillex does (though I fucking love it) but I do know that the reason he is so loved is because he sounds like Skrillex, and that’s badass.”

Read the full statement below and tell us if you’re buyin’ what he’s sellin’.

Oh, what a night we had last Sunday at the 54th Annual Grammy Awards. The glitz! The Glamour! SEACREST! Where do I begin?? Chillin’ with Lil’ Wayne…meeting Cyndi Lauper’s adorable mother…the complimentary blinking Coldplay bracelet…..much too much to recap. It really is still a bit of a blur. But, if there’s one thing that I remember VERY clearly, it was accepting the Grammy for Best Rock Performance…and then saying this:

“To me this award means a lot because it shows that the human element of music is what’s important. Singing into a microphone and learning to play an instrument and learning to do your craft, that’s the most important thing for people to do… It’s not about being perfect, it’s not about sounding absolutely correct, it’s not about what goes on in a computer. It’s about what goes on in here [your heart] and what goes on in here [your head].”

Not the Gettysburg Address, but hey……I’m a drummer, remember?

Well, me and my big mouth. Never has a 33 second acceptance rant evoked such caps-lock postboard rage as my lil’ ode to analog recording has. OK….maybe Kanye has me on this one, but….Imma let you finish….just wanted to clarify something…

I love music. I love ALL kinds of music. From Kyuss to Kraftwerk, Pinetop Perkins to Prodigy, Dead Kennedys to Deadmau5…..I love music. Electronic or acoustic, it doesn’t matter to me. The simple act of creating music is a beautiful gift that ALL human beings are blessed with. And the diversity of one musician’s personality to the next is what makes music so exciting and…..human.

That’s exactly what I was referring to. The “human element”. That thing that happens when a song speeds up slightly, or a vocal goes a little sharp. That thing that makes people sound like PEOPLE. Somewhere along the line those things became “bad” things, and with the great advances in digital recording technology over the years they became easily “fixed”. The end result? In my humble opinion…..a lot of music that sounds perfect, but lacks personality. The one thing that makes music so exciting in the first place.

And, unfortunately, some of these great advances have taken the focus off of the actual craft of performance. Look, I am not Yngwie Malmsteen. I am not John Bonham. Hell…I’m not even Josh Groban, for that matter. But I try really fucking hard so that I don’t have to rely on anything but my hands and my heart to play a song. I do the best that I possibly can within my limitations, and accept that it sounds like me. Because that’s what I think is most important. It should be real, right? Everybody wants something real.

I don’t know how to do what Skrillex does (though I fucking love it) but I do know that the reason he is so loved is because he sounds like Skrillex, and that’s badass. We have a different process and a different set of tools, but the “craft” is equally as important, I’m sure. I mean…..if it were that easy, anyone could do it, right? (See what I did there?)

So, don’t give me two Crown Royals and then ask me to make a speech at your wedding, because I might just bust into the advantages of recording to 2 inch tape.

Now, I think I have to go scream at some kids to get off my lawn.

Stay frosty.

Davemau5

UMF, once known to the masses as Ultra Music Festival, have announced their 2012 events that will take place in six countries and four continents. The events are as follows: UMF Miami March 23-25; UMF Buenos Aires May 5; UMF Poland July 13 & 14; UMF Korea August 4; UMF Ibiza May 27 & October 7; and UMF Brasil in late 2012

Obligatory press gush from UMF heah honcho Russell Faibisch: “We have wanted to bring UMF to all corners of the world for a long time but have never been willing to rush the expansion or force something that would not be a great festival. UMF has a very high standard of excellence and has built tremendous credibility with fans, artists and industry professionals across the globe. We are very confident that this global expansion, infused with our unique UMF formula, will become a collective of destination festivals that excites and inspires music enthusiasts throughout the world to travel to and experience as this has already been accomplished with very successful festivals we organize in Miami and Brazil.”

Check out UMF’s promo video below.

★★★★☆

As if his ever-swelling profile needed an additional thumbs up, now Cocoon’s marathon man Sven Väth has given the ultimate blessing to Maetrik (a.k.a. Eric Estornel). The two uniting was never going to be anything less than a win-win result – deep house with an edge of expectation where you can feel yourself being lifted by the Spain-based American. Straight into the thick of the action, the bass-bruising “3am” (which follows the suspenseful “The Poem”) puts you in direct contact with the heaving perspiration of a mobbed Ibizan dance floor. Maetrik accomplishes this with a tracklist that’s only ten tunes long – tiny, compared to other mix chop-and-changers – meaning the quality/quantity maxim writes itself.

While he can skulk around the doldrums with the best low end groovers, Maetrik’s punch, almost as if something is rusting or bellyaching underneath (reference: the Cocoon-released “Reason”), is ultimately for the benefit of the pump of the beat; and there’s nothing more pumping than his remix of Popof’s “Blue Dream.” After a doggedly sweaty sequence, the mood is turned on its head with the flick of a wrist – the concluding Balearic paradise-seeker “Under the Sheets”  showing that with Maetrik there’s always light at the end of the tunnel to savor.
File under: Maceo Plex, 6th Borough Project, Mark E

Dublin-based DJ/producer Detboi likes to keep a lot of irons in the proverbial fire. After issuing top releases on Skint, On The Brink and Hervé’s Cheap Thrills (the nine-track Darkside EP is his most recent effort), on February 19 he will release an EP with Mista Men on Cheap Thrills and in March will unveil an EP on Cheap Thrills’ sister label, Deep Thrills. Detboi takes control of our Big Shot Guest Mix series, dropping an exclusive 11-track session overflowing with sexy, funky-ass club tracks by Hervé, Q-Tip (!), Mak + Pasteman and two exclusives from the man himself. Download and enjoy.

Big Shot Guest Mix: Detboi

1. Hervé / “Together” (C.R.S.T. Remix)
2. Q-Tip / “Work It Out” (Disclosure Booty Call Edit)
3. Mak + Pasteman / “So Much” (Demo)
4. Champion / “Lose Control”
5. Detboi / “I Can’t Take It” (Demo)
6. Seiji / “Face Up”
7. Mickey Pearce / “Don’t Ask Don’t Get”
8. Detboi / “Roll Arrangement” (Demo)
9. Seiji / “Frustratin’”
10. Detboi / “Darkside”
11. Detboi / “Thoughts”

The Museum of Modern Art in new York will present its first live retrospective of electronic music pioneers Kraftwerk over eight consecutive evenings from April 10-17. Kraftwerk-Retrospective 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 “comprises complete experience with music, ambient sound, video, set design, and performance.”

The elaborate staging of the performances will combine sound and 3D images to present more than 40 years of musical and technological innovation, with new improvisations and 3D projections. The albums will be performed in chronological order: Autobahn (1974), Radio-Activity (1975), Trans Europe Express (1977), The Man-Machine (1978), Computer World (1981), Techno Pop (1986), The Mix (1991), and Tour de France (2003).

Tickets are $25.00 and will go on sale to the public on Wednesday, February 22, at 12:00 p.m., only at MoMAKraftwerkTickets.showclix.com