Formerly known as Majorian, Scarlet Chives released their eponymous debut album in their native Denmark a year ago this month. A milestone they marked with two shows at last week’s by:Larm festival in Oslo, one of which I managed to catch, squeezing into the tightly packed Rockefeller Annex venue.

Subsequently I’ve learned that the band features Brian Batz, whose solo project Sleep Party People recently appeared in this very column too. Scarlet Chives is a very different beast though. The diverse vocals of frontwoman Maria Mortensen – for whom I’ve been failing to come up with a better description than ‘an indie Cher Lloyd crossed with Björk and Kate Bush’ since Friday – move from pop to the fringes of opera, and roll across the band’s music, which itself can switch from twinkling guitar pop to ferocious, percussive rock in a very short space of time.

You can hear the album in full here, or check out the video for single, ‘Don’t You Put Your Hands There’, below.

I’m back at my desk after a few days in Oslo for this year’s by:Larm festival, which was great. You can catch up with some of the stuff I got up to here, and expect some of the new bands I saw out there to appear in the Approved column over the next few weeks. But that was last week. What’s happening this week?

01: The BRIT Awards. Flippin heck, everyone, it’s only time for the BRITs again already. And this year the ceremony coincides with Shrove Tuesday. I hope there’ll be lots of pancake-themed jokes. James Corden is presenting again, so I’m sure such things are in safe hands. He’s a bit of a tosser, after all.

02: MusicTank. The first MusicTank event of 2012 takes place this Thursday, looking at the streaming music sector, how it works, how it’s fairing, and what kind of royalties streaming services pay, seeking to address various concerns raised by some artists and smaller labels regarding said royalties during 2011. Beggars Group Director Of Strategy and all round digital guru Simon Wheeler and Danny Ryan of Kudos Records, who has been a defender of the streaming services amid discontent from some parts of the indie community, are among those due to speak.

03: Festival crime conference. Reading and Latitude promoter Festival Republic will again host a conference focusing on combating crime at British music festivals this Wednesday. It will be the fourth year that promoters of many of the UK’s music festivals have come together with law enforcement agencies to share intelligence, discuss best practice and “communicate a strong and cohesive message to criminals that their actions will not be tolerated”.

04: New releases. It’s difficult to know where to start with new releases this week, there are so many of them. You should definitely check out Busdriver‘s latest effort ‘Beaus$Eros’, plus Sleigh Bells, and the first and last album from David’s Lyre, ‘Picture Of Our Youth’. Then there’s still new stuff from Soko, Fucked Up, Apparatjik, Sinead O’Connor, Battles, Jesse Ruins, Gorillaz and Lissie to get through.

05: Gigs. Oh Land will play her postponed show at Heaven in London this Thursday, featuring support from AlunaGeorge. Now that is an awesome pop line-up. Also out on the road this week are First Aid Kit, The Phenomenal Handclap Band, SCUM, Cold Specks, Rodrigo y Gabriela, The War On Drugs and Labrinth. And this Thursday you could also head down to the Royal Albert Hall for a showcase of artists on Double Denim Records.

And don’t forget the CMU podcast is back later this week. I’m sure you wouldn’t. Catch up with all the latest episodes at theCMUwebsite.com/podcast

Andy Malt
Editor, CMU

Hello, people. I am in Oslo. So far I have not been killed by any trams or frozen to death (rumours of temperatures dropping to minus 28 degrees have proven unfounded). I have spent an alarming amount of money on not a lot of beer though. So, you know, swings and that. But why am I in Oslo? I am here for the by:Larm festival, which for the last fifteen years has been showcasing the best in Nordic music to an international audience.

Last night I attended the Nordic Music Prize (the Nordic version of the Mercury Prize), which was a crash course in music from Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Norway and Iceland, with acts we’re all familiar with back in England, like Björk and Lykke Li, up against acts we are less aware of, such as Anna Jarvinen, Siinai and the CMU approved Rubik.

The prize, as it happened, went to one of those lesser known artists, Swedish jazz musician Goran Kajfes for his album ‘XY’. The jury, apparently in unison, said this about the record: “A very distinctive voice unexpectedly united the jury, everybody instantly recognised the love that has gone into the playing and, also, the packaging. It’s an ambitious and warm fusion of sonic elements, from jazz with both African and eastern influences to electronica. This double album really does something that is quite rare: it communicates the pure joy of music”.

After that, I headed out to watch a few bands. Highlights of the evening included the aforementioned Siinai, who put on an impressive show with synth-heavy krautrock-influenced music, and shoegaze outfit Maribel, who rightly packed out the small sweaty basement in which they were playing. From that basement, we then shot up to the eleventh floor of a tower block to catch Gus Gus, but the real high point of the night was catching Iceace playing their loud, angry punk in a church.

This morning I went out on the True Norwegian Black Metal Tour, which was excellent. I’ve read much about the early 90s black metal scene in Norway in numerous articles and the book ‘Lords Of Chaos’, but, having never been to Oslo before, it was often hard to really get a grip on it, or the murders and church burnings it unfortunately became synonymous with.

Piling onto a bus at 9am, we were led by Anders Odden, founder of the band Cadaver and now a member of Satyricon. As someone who was part of that scene, and who counted its leader Øystein ‘Euronymous’ Aarseth as a friend and personal mentor, the tour was filled with first hand accounts and personal insights.

First stop on the tour was Holmenkollen Chapel, the last church to be destroyed in a spate of arson attacks in 1992, this one carried out by Euronymous, his Mayhem bandmate Varg ‘Count Grishnackh’ Vikernes (who would later kill him) and Emperor drummer Bård ‘Faust’ Eithun. Since rebuilt, the church is right up in the hills overlooking Oslo, next to the Holmenkollbakken ski jump – a major landmark in the city.

The views down over Oslo from that high up are stunning, but it’s also clear that once that church, a wooden structure, went up in flames, it must have been clearly viewable from across the whole city; a beacon for the subsequent largely unwanted (by both the musicians and Norwegian officials) media attention brought upon Norwegian black metal.

The second stop of the morning was the site of the Helvete (Hell, in English) record shop, which was owned and run by Euronymous from 1991 to 1993. Back then a hub of the black metal scene, it’s now a very nice coffee shop. However the basement, where many bands met, rehearsed and recorded, still remains intact, much as it was back when Euronymous held court. Led down a narrow staircase and series of corridors we squashed ourselves into a tiny room where the words “BLACK METAL”, painted there by Euronymous himself (and pictured above), are still clearly visible.

Odden gave great accounts of what it was like to be part of that scene, and how it eventually fell apart with the murder of Euronymous by Vikernes in 1993. His personal conclusion of what went wrong (if I can completely simplify it) seemed to be that many of its protagonists had lost their sense of humour. Black metal was no longer about uniting a group of people who considered themselves outsiders, and instead became something more serious and sinister.

That Norway seems to now embrace this period in its musical history, where once it would perhaps rather not have, is a positive thing, I think. For all its darkness, it isn’t something that can be made to go away. And throughout the tour, Odden continually stressed how much great and influential music came out of that scene, something often overshadowed by the actions of a small number of its members.

These days, Norwegian diplomats all receive training in the history of black metal due to the number of requests for information they receive internationally. Odden also noted the irony that his tour (launched in 2008 at Oslo’s Inferno metal festival) is an official part of by:Larm and the current incarnation of Mayhem are due to perform at the festival on Saturday night. Another Oslo festival was once threatened with being shut down if it did not pull Mayhem from its line-up, and in the early 90s black metal bands rarely played shows because few promoters were willing to book them – if you wanted to see such bands play live back then, says Odden, you generally had to go to their rehearsal room.

It did, at times, feel slightly odd to be travelling around these sites as a tourist, particularly as, for all Odden’s stories of the fun he’d had back then, there were plenty of macabre tales of criminal activity, violence and death – the only time he seemed to hold back was when pushed by one of the group to answer questions about the injuries sustained by Euronymous when Vikernes stabbed him to death, claiming not to know anything about it (perhaps understandably, given that he was close to the former). That said, plenty of people go out on Jack The Ripper themed tours near our office in London, and I guess it’s important to explore the negative as well as the positive parts of history.

It made me wonder, also, if in the internet age it would even be possible for such an insular music scene to develop. As has often been said, in the age of mass communication via the internet, it’s near impossible to maintain a local scene that’s cut off from the rest of the world (until, that is, something major happens that’s impossible to ignore – whether it be a surprise hit single or a series of burnt down churches). Even if a group of musicians completely shunned the internet, would they be able to hide themselves away from bloggers, tweeters, and those weird people who upload grainy videos of gigs to YouTube? Maybe some already do – I guess I wouldn’t know, and even if I did, I presumably wouldn’t be able to tell you about it. Not until someone burned a church down in its honour.

Anyway, back to bands I can tell you about, and I still have one more evening of live music to look forward to before I head back to London. Tonight I’m hoping to catch Team Me, The Field, Thom Hell, Husky Rescue, Loney Dear, Icona Pop and I Break Horses, amongst others. Though I would equally settle for seeing a load of brilliant bands I’ve never heard of before – it’s the nature of these events that you never quite know where you’ll end up, basements, tower blocks or churches, which is, of course, why they are so much fun.

Andy Malt
Editor, CMU

PODCAST
There is no podcast this week, due to Chris and I being in different countries, but you can still check out last week’s right here. Excitingly, the podcast is currently featured on iTunes, so I presume we’re doing something right. Check out the full back catalogue, and subscribe via iTunes or RSS here. We’ll be back with another edition next week, rounding up major events in music and making bad jokes as normal.

IN THE NEWS
So, the big shock of the week came, of course, with the death of Whitney Houston, who was found dead in the bath of a Beverley Hills hotel room on Saturday night. Unsurprisingly, tributes poured in for the 48 year old singer, including later in the week one from her godmother Aretha Franklin. Her funeral will take place at the Newark Baptist church where she first sang in public as a child on Saturday. While not open to the public, the ceremony will be streamed online.

There was controversy, too, when Sony Music increased the wholesale price of Houston’s greatest hits compilations, only around twelve hours after her death, leading to an automatic price jump on iTunes. Apple later dropped the price again, while Sony issued a statement blaming an employee for the error.

The Grammy Awards was covered heavily in the press this week, following the ceremony on Sunday. Though perhaps not entirely as its organisers would have wished. Nicki Minaj’s performance was much talked about for being very, very odd, but there was much more criticism of Chris Brown’s two performances, which, coming just three years after he beat Rihanna unconscious in the street after a pre-Grammys party, many felt was tasteless and sent out a bad message. This wasn’t helped by a quote from the Grammys beforehand claiming that the ceremony was the real victim of that particular incident of domestic abuse, and afterwards expletive filled, all caps (and later deleted) tweets from Brown himself, claiming his critics were just jealous of him. His mum apparently isn’t too happy about the outburst – I’m not sure if that makes her a jealous hater too.

The latest takedown of a file-sharing website was an interesting one. The UK’s Serious Organised Crime Agency shut down RnBXclusive.com, replacing it with a message informing users that they could face unlimited fines and prison sentences of up to ten years if they were found to have downloaded files from the site. As well as that, the user’s IP address was displayed with an extra message amounting to “we know where you live”.

There was much criticism of SOCA’s holding page online, not least because the claims about fines and jail time weren’t true – they only apply to people running copyright infringing services on a commercial scale and for profit. The message was duly removed, though SOCA claimed it was only ever intended to be temporary anyway.

As well as all that excitement, there was a lot of action and discussion around copyright legislation too. The Spanish Supreme Court last week agreed to hear an appeal by the Association Of Web Users which claims that the country’s anti-piracy Sinde Law is unconstitutional. Then another Spanish court ruled that a website called Cinetube, which provides links to illegal content from other sources and is likely to be a hot target if and when the Sinde Law goes live, was not, under existing Spanish laws, infringing copyright itself.

Meanwhile, in the States there’s been talk that the IFPI might be considering litigation to force Google to up anti-piracy measures on its search engine, a date was set for EMI’s civil case against ReDigi, and the US content industries updated their copyright watch lists, naming the countries they are most unhappy with in regard to protecting copyright.

Across Europe last weekend various protests against the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement took place, which were followed by the president of the European Parliament expressing concerns about the global intellectual property treaty.

Also in the copyright domain, not specifically a music issue, but one that potentially has implications for all music PR and clippings agencies, the UK Copyright Tribunal this week reaffirmed that a licence is required by any company that emails to paying clients curated lists of links to newspaper or magazine articles – the Newspaper Licensing Agency having previously won a ruling in court that a copyright exists in the headlines of those articles (and any URL made up of the headline). Some worry the principle behind this licence could be extended so that anyone sharing links or accessing newspaper or magazine articles as part of their job would need a licence, though the NLA denies this is so.

So, lots of copyright stuff this week. And then there were some stats. The BPI released its annual review of digital music sales, revealing that digital revenues are up, but, as usual, still aren’t compensating for the fall in physical sales. And if you’re hoping for some more positive news form the music press, you’re going to be disappointed. The latest ABC magazine circulation figures make for pretty gloomy reading.

And finally, Guns N Roses keyboard player Dizzy Reed said that all five original members of the band are now signed up to appear at their Rock N Roll Hall Of Fame induction (though whether they’ll be willing to stand together is another matter), Adele denied that she was planning to take five years off from music, despite saying she would, and Shakira was attacked by a sea lion.

FEATURES AND NEW MUSIC
We had a fine array of features this week. There was an interview with drum n bass star High Contrast, a playlist from the fantastic Team Me, and in his column Eddy Temple-Morris wrote about an amazing sounding live collaboration between Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly, Jehst, and Engine Earz Experiment.

In the Approved column we had 80s influenced cinematic synth-pop trio Selebrities, mysterious LA-based electronic duo Rhye, London-based lo-fi singer-songwriter Keel Her, and producer Magical Mistakes, who comes to us from California via a small Japanese island.

Elsewhere, we had a free EP from Ed Sheeran and Yelawolf, defunct hardcore quintet Throats‘ entire discography for free, an a capella track from The Futureheads, a selection of remixes from We Have Band, plus new videos from Dillinger Escape Plan and iamamiwhoami.

Erik Luebs formerly went by the name Death By Panda before switching to Magical Mistakes. He also formerly live in California, but last year upped sticks and went to live in a small village in a forest on the Japanese island of Kyushu. Not the first place you’d think of when talking about the creator of glitchy, psychedelic, hip hop-influenced electronic tracks, but it seems to work for him.

Luebs released his debut album as Magical Mistakes, ‘Dislocation’, last summer, the first two tracks revealing at the very least an above average interest in Japan by featuring lyrics written in Japanese. It’s an enthralling record, that sits somewhere between Caribou and The Books, at times beat heavy, and at others like the calm centre of a storm.

His latest release, an EP called ‘Special Friends’, is a collection of new solo material, collaborations, and remixes of other artists, and is available via Bandcamp. Opening track ‘Running Water’ instantly shows a progression from the tracks on ‘Dislocation’, with a deeper, warmer sound that is just spellbinding.

Listen to ‘Running Water’ here:

High Contrast, aka producer Lincoln Barrett, has been a leading light of drum n bass for more than a decade now, signing to Hospital Records in 2000 and releasing his debut album, ‘True Colours’, in 2002. His last album, ‘Tough Guys Don’t Dance’ was released in 2007, and in the subsequent five years he’s grown ever more in demand as a DJ and remixer, having created reworks of tracks by artists as diverse as Adele, Utah Saints, Calvin Harris, Kanye West and Coldplay, many of which were collected on his 2009 ‘best of’ compilation, ‘Confidential’.

His fourth studio album, ‘The Agony And The Ecstasy’, is due for release on 27 Feb, and was previewed last year with the release of ‘The First Note Is Silence’, a collaboration with Tiësto and Underworld. This week he releases the second single, the album’s title track, which features vocals by Kid Adrift singer Selah Corbin. Other guest vocalists on the album include Claire Maguire and jazz singer Liane Carrol.

With the new single out, and the album on the way, CMU Editor Andy Malt caught up with High Contrast to ask a few questions.

AM: It’s five years since you released ‘Tough Guys Don’t Dance’. When did you start work on this album?
HC: It’s hard to pinpoint exactly when the album began, as many tracks just start as little sketches, germs of an idea that take varying amounts of time to reach fruition. But it was over the last eighteen months that work on the album became very focused. I needed to take a little break from production after releasing my third studio album and then the ‘greatest hits’ record.

AM: How would you say your sound has developed since your last album?
HC: It seems like this is a more mature album, going deeper than the last one I think. There’s certainly more melancholy in it. Also my previous albums have been very sample orientated, but with the new one I wanted to set myself the challenge of not really using any samples. Often I would write the melodies on keyboards and then get them replayed by musicians on real instruments. This is also the first album where almost every track has a full vocal, and I wrote the lyrics for quite a few myself, something I haven’t done before but really enjoyed.

AM: How did the collaboration with Tiësto and Underworld, ‘The First Note Is Silent’, come about? What was the process by which that track was written?
HC: Underworld got in touch a few years ago wanting me to collaborate on some tracks for their last album and it worked so well that it seemed obvious to get together again for my record. The Tiësto connection came about through his manager who is a big fan of my work. I thought it would be interesting to put him and the Underworld guys on the same track, and a drum n bass track at that. We worked on it separately, sending parts back and fore online, which seems to be the way a lot of people collaborate these days as it’s hard to get three busy artists together in the same room at the same time.

AM: Did you have a list of collaborators for the new album in mind before you started, or did they come along as you worked on the tracks? Selah Corbin appears on three tracks, what drew you to her voice so much?
HC: I prefer to let things happen organically and not chase after them. The collaborators just seemed to fall into place as I progressed through the production of the record. Selah Corbin sang in a band called Kid Adrift, who I directed a music video for, and I was so taken with her voice I had to get her on the album.

AM: In the five years since you released ‘Tough Guys Don’t Dance’, you’ve become something of a go-to guy for remixes. Not that you weren’t remixing stuff before, but did your more recent prolific remixing work influence the way you produced your new album at all?
HC: Remixing is a fun thing to me, the hard work has already been done really, you just get to play around with the great track parts that have been given to you. Calling the new album ‘The Agony And The Ecstasy’ became rather prophetic as it did end up taking an agonisingly long time to finish, and the final mixdown stage got pretty painful, but you do get that special rush when you finally finish it.

AM: How do you approach your remixes – presumably it’s different working on an Adele track to working on an Enter Shikari track?
HC: I try not to go into any production with preconceived ideas. I take each tune on it’s own merits. It’s like beginning again every time which can be time consuming but keeps it fresh for me. This is why my back catalogue is so diverse, I think.

AM: Hospital Records turned fifteen last year. Having been signed to them for more than ten of those years, how have you seen the label develop? How important would you say it’s been to drum n bass?
HC: It’s been an incredible journey best illustrated by the fact that our first label residency club night was at Herbal in London, with a capacity of 250 people, and now we do sell out shows at Brixton Academy with 5000 people. I think Hospital has been a great force for good in drum n bass on many levels. And I get overwhelmed by the amount of fans who tell me that it was one of my tracks that got them into drum n bass in the first place.

AM: Drum n bass has enjoyed a resurgence in popularity over the last few years. What’s your view of the current drum n bass scene? How has it changed from when you started out?
HC: It’s changed so much since I began; it was very much the underdog of dance music back then. I remember house and trance DJs I knew looking down on the genre in the late 90s. Whereas today it’s a complete turnaround, where someone like Tiësto has played some of my tunes in his sets and drum n bass gets a lot of love from daytime Radio 1.

AM: You have various live dates coming up in the next few months, what can people expect from the shows?
HC: I’ll be touring the album extensively, doing the first Hospitality tour of the US in March alongside Netsky and Camo & Krooked. A lot of the shows after that will feature Dynamite MC and a vocalist from my album, Jessy Allen. I’m also getting into mixing visuals live as I DJ so that’s an exciting new avenue of expression for me.

AM: What’s next for you?
HC: Finding ways to combine my love of film with my music production is very intriguing to me and something I’ve wanted to do for years. I’m sure there’ll be some choice remixes coming in the wake of the album too!

I’ve been following the progress of Rose Keeler-Schäffeler, aka Keel Her, closely over the last few weeks. Everyday almost. Which possibly sounds like an odd thing to say, until you see her phenomenal level of output, with new recordings posted to her SoundCloud profile on an almost daily basis. In fact, in the last six months she’s posted over 70 songs. What’s more, her hit rate is incredibly high for someone so prolific.

Her lo-fi recordings may be covered in fuzz with levels ramped up into the red, but that does nothing to mask her talent for writing short, urgent pop songs. And the speed with which she uploads new tracks only adds to that urgency, conjuring up visions of someone who writes both compulsively and eagerly.

At the beginning of February, Italian Beach Babes Records pulled together eight of those songs for a cassette EP, which promptly sold out of its limited run. Still, it’s not like she hasn’t got enough material for another to be produced soon. If the prospect of her SoundCloud page seems daunting, you can also find handy compilations on her Bandcamp page. Although if you’re eager for more, you could also check out her work with American singer-songwriter R Stevie Moore.

For a quicker introduction, listen to ‘Cyber Goth’, here:

I went and saw Mastodon and The Dillinger Escape Plan at Brixton Academy on Saturday night. Mastodon and Dillinger Escape Plan. Well done to whoever thought up that line-up, you win at putting on gigs. Both bands put in amazing performances (as too, apparently, did Red Fang, who I sadly missed). How will this week match up to that excitement? Well, let’s have a look…

01: by:Larm. From Thursday to Saturday this week the finest in new Nordic music will be showcased at the annual by:Larm festival in Oslo. I will be there, which is very exciting (especially as the weather forecast says it’s not going to be nearly as cold as had been predicted). If you’re going, come and say hi in between bands. There are lots of bands playing. I like bands. I like new bands. I like Nordic bands. It’s basically the perfect festival for me.

02: MPG Awards. The Music Producers Guild Awards ceremony returns for its fourth year this Thursday. Taking place at the Café de Paris in London, it will see the people who work to make artists sound great on record celebrated. Will Paul Epworth follow up his Grammy success and take the Producer Of The Year prize (which doubles up as a BRIT Award) for the second time? We just don’t know. But we do know that Beggars Group boss Martin Mills will rightly receive another Outstanding Contribution To Music award.

03: Depeche Mode: 101. In 1989, Depeche Mode went on the road in the US to promote their ‘Music For The Masses’ album, which by then had been out for nearly two years. They had the foresight to take a documentary film crew with them, and stick a load of fans on a bus to provide extra colour (and some fine haircuts). I’m telling you this because that documentary, ‘Depeche Mode: 101′, is on the BBC iPlayer all this week. It’s an amazing film for many reasons, including the fashion, the backstage banter, and the various bits of live footage, particularly that at the Pasadena Rose Bowl with which the film closes.

04: New releases. Current singles chart botherer Gotye finally releases his second album ‘Making Mirrors’ this week. Field Music also have a new album out, as do garage pop types Those Darlins. Meanwhile, Ninja Tune producer Bonobo has a remix album out, Lianne La Havas and Ital both have EPs, and former Primary 1 man Joe Flory has a new single in his guise as Amateur Best.

05: Gigs. There’s a pre-BRITs party on in Shepherds Bush this Sunday and you’re all invited. Well, most of you. The show is being held in aid of War Child and takes place two days before the ceremony itself, with performances from Damon Albarn and Graham Coxon, Ed Sheeran, and Dry The River. Ghostpoet and Gotye both have one-off London shows this week too, as does ex-Gallows frontman Frank Carter, who will be playing his first show with new band Pure Love. Doing the touring thing this week are Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, The Big Pink, Field Music, We Have Band, and that bloody Skrillex bloke.

I don’t think I’ve plugged our podcast here for a while. You’ve probably already listened to it though. I mean, the idea that you wouldn’t listen to it is just inconceivable. Still, just in case it slipped your mind or something, here’s the link.

Andy Malt
Editor, CMU

Yesterday afternoon, there was a brief flurry of excitement when it was announced online that Jay-Z and Kanye West were popping around to the CMU office for a cup of tea. We cursed the fact that we had no biscuits and discussed if we should tidy up a bit, before we started to wonder if the cryptic message that had been sent out really signified that the two hip hoppers were on their way to see us.

Here’s what happened: An email was sent out with an image attached to it. The image placed a map of a small square of Shoreditch (which, as it happened, had CMU HQ more or less in its centre) under the banner ‘WATCH THE THRONE 5PM 09.02.2012′. ‘Watch The Throne’, of course, is the title of Jay-Z and Kanye West’s collaborative album, which was released last year. And 09.02.2012 was yesterday’s date. And 5pm was a time that had not, at that point, yet passed. What could it mean?

Twitter got to work. It almost certainly meant that one or both of the rap stars were on their way to Shoreditch. Probably not Jay-Z, not with the baby whose trademark would need caring for. But Kanye was probably hanging out right at that moment in Shoreditch House or (as The Quietus pointed out) Chariots Roman Spa – both of which were within the map’s boundaries. The Village Underground and Old Blue Last venues were on there too – though the latter only just. So, an impromptu performance, maybe?

But then there’s the Boxpark – Shoreditch’s recently opened ‘trendy fashion labels in storage containers’ set up. Why didn’t we think of that sooner? Last year Kanye and Jay opened a pop-up store in New York. Where better than to open another than in East London’s own pop-up shopping mall? Oh God, it’s happening, it’s definitely happening. Let’s get over there now and be first to waste our hard earned cash on some exclusive Kan-Z tat.

Fortunately we had a podcast to record, so were far too busy to experience the anti-climax first hand. Because finally the news broke. There’d be no Kanye, no Jay, no hip hop fashions in a metal can, rather the video for Watch The Throne album track ‘Niggas In Paris’ was to be projected somewhere. On the concrete wall of Shoreditch High Street Station, above the aformentioned Boxpark, as it happened. Many did venture out to see it though, and once they’d worked out where they were meant to stand, they found themselves shivering in the cold, squinting at a video they couldn’t really see because the sky was not yet dark enough and it was being projected onto a grey wall. Everyone left disappointed.

So, that was the day that Kanye West didn’t come round for tea. Though the question remains, why did anyone think this promotion was a good idea? Who thought that a cryptic message likely to make people think something very exciting indeed was about to happen would be a good way to promote a new video. True Shoreditchers are a strange breed, but surely even they couldn’t be expected to go home all excitable after being dragged into the cold for half an hour to watch a video they couldn’t quite see play out to music they couldn’t quite hear? A video, mind, that was already streaming on YouTube by the time the wintery open air preview began.

It’s a product, I fear, of an obsession with ‘going viral’. If it’s all over the social networks, then it must be good. Sure, the Kan-Z stunt made people aware of the video, but it also resulted in a load of fans and media types being totally underwhelmed. People who then tweeted that fact prolifically shortly after the stunt, complete with links not to the official Watch The Thone promo on YouTube, but to photographs demonstrating just how shit the Shoreditch video preview really was. Perhaps Jay-Z is trying to lose all his cool kid fans now he’s a responsible father.

The Good Suns, though, are presumably trying to attract the cool kids to their party. And while their video stunt this week wasn’t quite the anti-climax of the Kan-Z promotion, I’m not sure it will deliver much better results.

True, this new indie pop outfit from London did score a minor viral hit with the video for their song ‘Pop Wound’, which in just under a week has scored over 40,000 hits on YouTube (which is pretty good for a relatively unknown indie band, and in some ways more impressive than Jay-Z and Kanye getting 650,000 views for their new video in 24 hours, given the difference in the two outfit’s resources and fanbase). But there’s a problem. And the problem is the star of their promo.

I first watched ‘Pop Wound’ because someone tweeted that Lembit Opik had released a music video. Given he attempted to launch himself as a stand-up comedian last year, I wasn’t entirely surprised to hear that the former Lib Dem MP was now having a go at singing. I clicked. I watched. I cringed. I suspected that he might not actually be the singer of this song. But not enough to really digest the fact this was actually a track from a new band that I might want to investigate further.

Everyone else seemed to have the same response as well, so the video quickly became Lembit Opik’s rather than the band’s. The overwhelming majority of the coverage has focussed on the politician, rather than The Good Suns. And in The Evening Standard’s coverage, they weren’t helped by a quote from Opik saying that ‘Pop Wound’ is “a cracking song”. For a new band, the thumbs up from any politician in his 40s is pretty much the equivalent of your mum sending you a Valentine’s Day card.

And it’s notable that despite the flurry of YouTube hits and media coverage, The Good Suns followers on Facebook and Twitter – those profiles linked to from the video’s YouTube page – have not risen to any great degree. And as they weren’t collecting any other data, such as email addresses, it may mean that ultimately the video serves little purpose for the band.

I suppose having videos that overshadow your music isn’t always a bad thing. OK Go, of course, have made a good living out of producing highly innovative videos for their completely forgettable songs. There is genuine excitement whenever they release a new video, people flock in their hundreds of thousands to watch them – the latest, ‘Needing/Getting’, has pulled in nearly eleven million views in four days – but I think I’d struggle to find someone who could hum one of their songs, so I’m not sure how that translates to gigging and such like. YouTube revenue alone, coupled with any sponsorship, might be enough to keep one band going, and OK Go can rightly feel proud of their videos (and they’ve never made anyone stand in the cold to watch them). But I’m still not convinced this is a winning strategy for every or any new band.

It seems to me that if you want a real viral hit, you have to do it by accident. This week’s surprise internet phenomenon (for him as much as anyone else) was Tommy Jordan. He’s not a musician, he has no music in his video, but he does have a daughter, her laptop, a cowboy hat and a gun. This, apparently, is parenting in the digital age.

Andy Malt
Editor, CMU

PODCAST
This week on the podcast Chris and I talk about BitTorrent search engine BTjunkie’s voluntary shutdown, MP3 resale service ReDigi’s ongoing legal battle with EMI, Black Sabbath’s increasingly controversial reunion, and the week’s Madonna news. You’ll be able to listen or download here.

IN THE NEWS
If you’ve been disappointed at the list of celebrities settling out of court with News International over phone hacking (yes you, Steve Coogan), then let’s have three cheers for Charlotte Church, who is so far refusing to back down. Currently it’s looking like she will be the only celebrity hacking victim to go to court (in the near future anyway), and the date is set for later this month (despite NI’s attempts to delay it). Fun, fun.

Also exciting this week was the official confirmation that Warner Music will oppose Universal’s purchase of the EMI record labels. This confirms rumours which began circulating last month and comments made by outgoing WMG chairman Edgar Bronfman Jr last week that the major label would be joining with indie labels in an attempt to block the deal.

Also this week, the RIAA’s chief exec hit back at Wikipedia over its SOPA protest, it was decided that EMI’s case against MP3 reseller ReDigi will go to a full trial, research showed that Amazon is now a bigger entertainment retailer in the UK that HMV, HMV disputed the research, and BitTorrent search engine BTjunkie turned itself off. Many now wonder if others will do the same, following the recent arrests of MegaUpload’s executives and the failure of the Pirate Bay founders’ final appeal.

FEATURES AND NEW MUSIC
This week is Tinnitus Awareness Week, something which, as a tinnitus sufferer, I find slightly bittersweet. After all, I’m aware of tinnitus most of the time. My personal experience of getting help for this condition from my GP, while not 100%, was nowhere near as bad as some others have found. That’s why this year’s TAW focus is on raising awareness of tinnitus amongst GPs. Fellow tinnitus sufferer Eddy Temple-Morris wrote about this in his column this week.

If you’re looking for some music to listen to, FOE picked ten of her favourite songs for our playlist this week. As well as that, we had some great new music from Julia Holter, Kindness, Amplify Dot, and Sleep Party People in the Approved column. You should listen to all of them.

As well as that, we had the new videos from Madonna and MIA, a new track from previously AWOL (and rumoured to have been incarcerated in Samoa) Odd Future member Earl Sweatshirt, a Shabazz Palaces remix of Battles, plus new more music from Perfume Genius, Death Grips, Here We Go Magic, oOoOO, and Letters. Oh, and Graham Coxon wants you to be in his new video.

This beef really happened last week, but indulge me for a moment, please. Last Thursday, Black Sabbath drummer Bill Ward issued a statement saying that he was unable to join the recently reunited band for recording sessions in the UK because he had not yet been presented with a contract he felt he could sign.

Maybe we should skip back a bit. Last year the original line-up of Black Sabbath announced that they were getting back together. It’s not the first time they’ve done so, but previously they’ve only played live. This time, they announced, they would be recording a new album, the first featuring the original line-up for 33 years. Suddenly the get together was elevated above previous reunions, and had a much better PR angle.

When it was announced that Tony Iommi had been diagnosed with cancer earlier this year, the band insisted the reunion would go ahead, adding that they would shift recording sessions from LA to the UK, where Iommi was receiving treatment. And though the possibility of touring was now uncertain, they remained adamant that they would play their headline set at Download Festival as planned.

Which made Ward’s statement all the more surprising. As far as anyone on the outside was concerned, the reunion was a done deal. But throughout all of this, Bill Ward was not even contracted to join in.

“At this time”, he wrote last week, “I would love nothing more than to be able to proceed with the Black Sabbath album and tour. However, I am unable to continue unless a ‘signable’ contract is drawn up; a contract that reflects some dignity and respect toward me as an original member of the band … Several days ago, after nearly a year of trying to negotiate, another ‘unsignable’ contract was handed to me”.

Clearly this is not the sort of statement anyone puts out without thought. It was, presumably, an attempt to force the band’s (or their management’s) hand in the contract negotiations. Though it was a move that failed. The next day, the rest of the band issued their own statement, saying: “We were saddened to hear yesterday via Facebook that Bill declined publicly to participate in our current Black Sabbath plans. We have no choice but to continue recording without him although our door is always open”.

Now, had they read Ward’s statement properly, they would have seen that he had far from “declined publicly to participate” in the reunion. In fact, he said: “I am packed and ready to leave the US for England. More importantly, I definitely want to play on the album, and I definitely want to tour with Black Sabbath”.

He also added, to defuse the obvious accusation, that he was not “holding out for a ‘big piece’ of the action (money) like some kind of blackmail deal”, just that he felt he was not being given proper recognition for his role in the band.

Indeed, without Ward, the whole ‘first album for 33 years’ thing was kind of out of the window. It may be that the “door is always open”, but will Ward want to take part now that the rest of the band have called his bluff? Is the reunion worth its salt without him? Clearly the rest of the band see him as an expendable member of the line-up, though many fans disagree.

What harm this will ultimately do the reunion, whether or not Ward rejoins, remains to be seen. If nothing else, such inter-band bickering highlights that they might not be doing the reunion thing just for the joy of being four old mates back together again, or just for the fans, but rather what’s in the fans’ wallets.

Whatever, most shockingly of all, yesterday afternoon Bill Ward’s personal Facebook page was removed from the list of pages ‘liked’ by the official Black Sabbath page. Oh, the humanity.

Amplify Dot has been popping up here and there for a while now, but in 2012 she seems to be preparing to push full steam ahead, beginning with the release of her new EP, ‘Short Back And Sides’, as well as a collaboration with fellow UK rappers Lioness, Lady Leshurr, Mz Bratt, Baby Blue and RoxXxan, ‘Rock The Mic’.

A prolific collaborator, she also appeared with all of those artists on the Female Takeover Remix of Tinchy Stryder’s ‘Game Over’, and as part of 367 with Lioness and Lady Leshurr on their great remix of Ms Dynamite’s ‘Neva Soft’.

The ‘Neva Soft’ remix appears on ‘Short Back And Sides’, as does A.Dot’s own ‘Semantics’, featuring Kano, which was originally released last summer. But for now let’s concentrate on ‘King Kong’, which came out as a single in December and is elevated to my favourite track in part for the way she delivers the already amazing line: “I’m piecing ‘em together, call me Legoland Windsor”.

When Blood And Biscuits  announced it had signed Sleep Party People last month, a quick check on YouTube to see what they sounded like ended up in an hour long trawl of online videos featuring the band, starting with this entrancing live version of ‘I’m Not Human At All’.

Hailing from Denmark, the project is the work of Brian Batz, plus a gaggle of fellow rabbit-masked accomplices for live performances. The songs are slow, twisted pop that sit somewhere between dreamlike and nightmarish, each linked by Batz’s effects-heavy vocals.

Having already devoured every SPP video and static-image-over-music that YouTube had to offer, I was quick to hit play on ‘A Dark God Heart’ when it popped up in my inbox. Taken from the band’s debut album, ‘We Are Drifting On A Sad Song’, out on 9 Apr with tour dates later the same month, the track is attached to visuals that are simple but moving (and NSFW, I should add), though it’s not the first SPP video preoccupied with death – see also ‘The Dwarf And The Horse (Trentemøller RMX)’.

The snow was fun yesterday, wasn’t it? I built a big snowman and had a snowball fight. See, I’m wholesome. It was less fun this morning now it’s turned all grey and icy. But, hey, it’s going to rain later and wash it all away, and then the whole thing will be officially forgotten. Allowing brain space for this week’s recommended musical delights…

01: Tinnitus Awareness Week. Every year in February the British Tinnitus Association organises Tinnitus Awareness Week, which, if you suffer with tinnitus always raises a wry smile: it would be lovely if I was only aware of tinnitus for one week of every year, rather than on every single day of the year. And mine always seems to get louder around this time of year, as if to mock me. Not that I want any sympathy, I brought it on myself by going to too many gigs without earplugs. I’m the idiot. I just wanted you to be aware of it – look after your ears.

02: Grammy Awards. Can it be that time already? Yes it can. It’s time for the Grammy Awards yet again, which means American music industry types will be rewarded with many parties in return for sitting through the longest and most tedious awards ceremony the world has to offer. But Adele will perform live for the first time since undergoing throat surgery last year, which is nice. And there might be protests against recent cuts to some of the many thousands of Grammy categories. And who doesn’t like a good protest?

03: Xfm New Music Award. Xfm will announce the winner of its annual New Music Award this Wednesday. The prize is given to one debut album each year from a shortlist selected by the station’s listeners. A panel of artists, Xfm presenters and other music industry types select the overall winner, so that the public don’t give it to Beady Eye or something silly like that. Both Gallaghers Noel and Liam appear on the shortlist, along with James Blake, Ed Sheeran, The Vaccines and more.

04: New releases. Sharon Van Etten and Blondes both release albums this week, which you should definitely go out and buy. Or stay in and buy, I suppose. Anything’s possible with digital music. Why not go out and then buy them through your phone? The possibilities are endless. Also out this week are new albums from Of Montreal, Lindstrom, Die Antwoord and Air, plus the first of a four part twelve-inch remix series from Battles and a new EP from A Place To Bury Strangers.

05: Gigs. Things to be excited about this week are the following: Mastodon are playing Brixton Academy on Saturday with support from The Dillinger Escape Plan, Friends are playing in Manchester and London tonight and tomorrow night respectively, Justice are on tour, and, quite possibly best of all, Japanese Queen tribute band Queer are playing their second show of a brief trip to the UK in London tomorrow night. Who needs an Adam Lambert fronted official reunion tour?

Andy Malt
Editor, CMU

Musicians! You’re all making loads of money off your live shows now, right? I mean, that’s how it works these days isn’t it? People keep saying so on blogs and in newspapers so it must be true. And look at Madonna, she’s well and truly raking it in from her live work, and she hardly ever tours. Sure, her gig tickets are really, really expensive, but that doesn’t mean she has any real advantage over you surely? For starters, you probably have fewer costume changes. And it’s not her fault that her fans are all stupid enough to pay any random ticket price she pulls out of a hat is it?

Though, perhaps not all of them are that stupid. Madonna is concerned that when she tours the US to promote her forthcoming new album, ‘MDNA’, some people might think that $300 per ticket is a bit much. These people, she says, don’t know a good thing when they see it. Her last tour was the highest grossing for a solo artist ever, bringing in $408 million by the time it had made its way around the world. And imagine if she brought in less than that next time, people would talk.

Asked by Newsweek if she’d be offering more affordable prices on her next tour, Madge huffed: “People spend $300 on crazy things all the time, things like handbags. So work all year, scrape the money together, and come to my show. I’m worth it”.

I haven’t seen Madonna play live in nearly 20 years, but I’m pretty sure she isn’t worth $300. I don’t think anyone’s worth that sort of money for one evening’s entertainment. I wouldn’t spend that sort of money on a bag either, but if I did, at least I could carry things around in it.

Of course, Madonna doesn’t need the cash, she’s really just keeping up appearances. This is something pretty much all artists at the top level of the industry do these days. There’s no need for their ticket prices to be so high, it’s just posturing to prove how big they are, so they can carry on appearing at the tops of lists in Forbes. Hence Madonna’s apparently genuine belief that she deserves to only play to people who have forked out a significant portion of their pay packet for the privilege.

But here’s the thing. When Madonna fans decide to spend $300 on one of her tickets they make a decision. It’s a decision similar to that anyone would make when spending a similar amount on a hand bag. “How long will this last me?” Or, in the case of the Madonna ticket, “How many gigs do I need to go to this year?” For most consumers, for whom going to gigs is a special event (and for whom buying an album is a twice yearly activity), there’s a finite amount of expendable income that will be set aside for music. So one night with Madge at $300 may well have to be instead of three nights seeing three other acts at $100 each. So the a-listers charging unnecessarily high prices for their tickets inhibits the spread of wealth amongst all other artists.

OK, so my maths here may be a little simplistic, but there’s an argument that a few big name artists absorbing so much consumer spend through their live shows (this doesn’t happen in the recordings market, because the retailers control price point) is having a direct negative impact on musicians further down the food chain. Forget about piracy, Madonna is to blame for everyone’s woes. Well, her and U2.

Proof of this, perhaps, is that at the other end of the supposedly booming live market ticket prices are falling as promoters try to tempt in bigger audiences to drink the beer that funds that part of the industry. But, with grass roots artists’ already meagre performance fees often linked to ticket price, that means while Madonna’s fees rocket, other musicians are playing for less. Or so says Chris T-T, in a blog post on his website this week. He argues that the rising prevalence of gigs charging £3-5 on the door is harming artists’ ability to play gigs regularly, and devaluing the grass roots live scene as a whole.

Certainly it’s true that those artists playing small gigs, especially if they are away from home, often find that they lose money once they’ve hired a van, bought petrol, fed themselves and found somewhere to stay. But Chris also says that the danger of the lower door price – if it works and attracts more beer drinkers – is that the people attracted by the three pound entry fee often aren’t really that interested in the music, meaning a worse experience for both artists and the genuine fans. He makes his points very convincingly, and I urge you to go and read his post in full, here.

So, playing live isn’t necessarily the great solution for the file-sharing age so many commentators claim. Though, maybe if everyone paid a bit more to get into small shows and a lot less to see Madonna, live would be a genuinely useful revenue stream for many more musicians.

Andy Malt
Editor, CMU

PODCAST
Once again, we’ve recorded a podcast for you to listen to, which is very nice of us. This week it features analysis and discussion of The Pirate Bay founders having their appeal knocked back for the final time, the fight to save the legitimate files that were stored on MegaUpload’s servers, U2 manager Paul McGuinness and former Warner Music CEO Edgar Bronfman Jr’s outbursts against Google, and music’s most rebellious rebels, The Ting Tings. Sign up on or bookmark this page, so you’re all primed to tune in as soon as it goes live.

IN THE NEWS
So, two of The Pirate Bay’s three founders and their main funder went to Sweden’s Supreme Court this week to demand that their case be reheard. The Supreme Court said no. This means all four men behind the site should now technically pay their fines and go to jail, though it remains to be seen if either will actually happen. One co-founder, Peter Sunde, said that he was perfectly prepared to go to prison, as he still had the moral high ground.

Meanwhile, U2′s manager Paul McGuinness was telling MIDEM that the new enemy of music is Google; something echoed by Edgar Bronfman Jr at another content industry conference, that one in California, who also said that his soon to be former employer Warner Music will oppose Universal’s purchase of the EMI record labels, as we suspected.

Also this week, it was feared that the legitimate files stored on MegaUpload, which were taken down with no warning along with everything else on the controversial file-transfer website last month, would be deleted by the two hosting companies storing them this week. Mega’s lawyers negotiated a two week reprieve, and then one hosting company said it was working to ensure the files were kept for longer. Meanwhile, the Electronic Frontier Foundation is working on getting people’s files back, as well as preparing to sue on behalf of affected users if necessary. Elsewhere, Mega boss Kim Dotcom failed in a second attempt to be granted bail in New Zealand.

The battle for the funniest quote given to the press was fierce this week. There was Bebo‘s assertation that the reason the mostly forgotten social network was offline earlier in the week was down to a “technical clusterfuck”, plus The Ting Ting‘s claim that they would rather be sick on their shoes than be played on the radio next to David Guetta, Nicki Minaj‘s announcement that she was “queen of London” in a former life, or Mani‘s quite possibly made up quote about finding an extra £2 million in his bank account one day. But I think the award has to go to Diana Meltzer, the ex-wife of late Wind-Up Records founder Alan Meltzer, after he left part of his fortune to a chauffeur and a doorman rather than her.

FEATURES AND NEW MUSIC
This week’s CMU interview was with Rodrigo Sanchez of Rodrigo y Gabriela, as they prepared to tour with the thirteen piece Cuban orchestra they worked with on their latest album, ‘Area 52′. Our playlist, meanwhile, took us through ten of the artists were very excited about seeing at this year’s Great Escape, following the festival’s first line-up announcement. And in his column, Eddy Temple-Morris asked one of life’s more important questions – ‘Terminator’ or ‘Predator’?

The Approved column this week features Battles, who managed to win over a CMU writer previously less than enamoured with them, David’s Lyre, who provided us with a full stream of his debut album, Bernholz, whose debut single is a quite timely ode to Madonna and poverty, and Saint Etienne, who are back after seven years.

As well as that, there was the exciting news that folklorist Alan Lomax‘s entire audio archive is to be made available online, and new music from Jack White, Rolo Tomassi, Fixers, A Place To Bury Strangers, Cate Le Bon, The Darkness and CMU favourite Mallard The Wonderdog.

Madonna hasn’t announced a tour to promote her forthcoming new album yet, but when she does you’d better be prepared to fork out for it if you want to see her. The singer has suggested that tickets in the US could cost $300.

Asked if she’d be making more affordable tickets available to fans this time round after high prices on her last tour helped her break at least two records for a solo artist’s touring revenue, Madge told Newsweek that she had no plans to drop her prices, saying that those who want to see her perform should “start saving your pennies now”. She added: “People spend $300 on crazy things all the time, things like handbags. So work all year, scrape the money together, and come to my show. I’m worth it”.

And if it turns out she’s not, well, good luck trying to get a refund. You can read the full interview via this link, though be warned, she does bang on about Lady Gaga again. That’s becoming quite tedious now.

Jez Berns, or Bernholz, releases his debut single, ‘Austerity Boy’, through Anti-Ghost Moon Ray Records (home also to Gazelle Twin) next month. An homage, or perhaps response, to Madonna’s ‘Material Girl’, it’s pop with its roots firmly placed in experimentation.

In fact, we can trace how Berns reached this point back to his first two releases last year, ‘Consequences 1 (Variations On A Theme)’ and ‘Consequences 2 (Faking It)’. Both released as free downloads, the first is a collection of ideas more than fully formed tracks, while the second is an extended improvisation of ever building looping layers abruptly cut off after fifteen minutes. They had something but weren’t wholly satisfying. However, when reigned in and forced into a pop structure, the Bernholz sound becomes altogether more intriguing.

‘Austerity Boy’ bounces urgently along, rushing to reach its climax, while Berns’ vocal holds it back, focussing on the central hook – the strangely catchy line, “No prosperity for this austerity boy”. Once he sets himself proper boundaries, and stops allowing his mind to wander, Berns has the ability to deliver something great, as is also proved on his cover of Etta James’ ‘I’d Rather Go Blind’, released in tribute to the late singer who died earlier this month.

Released on 19 Mar, ‘Austerity Boy’ will be given its official launch with a gig at the Green Door Store in Brighton on 23 Mar. Bernholz’s debut album, ‘How Things Are Made’, is due for release later this year.

Rodrigo Sánchez and Gabriela Quintero, aka Rodrigo y Gabriela, first began playing together in a thrash metal band in their hometown of Mexico City. When that band split, the duo moved to Dublin and began busking and performing acoustic gigs in the city. A support slot with Damien Rice gave them their break, and they have since built up a rather large following for their mix of metal covers and original songs.

Released last week through Rubyworks, their latest album, ‘Area 52′, sees them recording with a group for the first time. The group in question is a thirteen piece Cuban orchestra from Havana, called CUBA, with whom Rodrigo y Gabriela reworked a selection of songs from their earlier albums.

With UK tour dates, complete with CUBA in tow, coming up next month, CMU Editor Andy Malt spoke to Sánchez to find out more.

AM: You started out playing in a thrash metal band in Mexico. How did you get from there to being an acoustic duo supporting Damien Rice in Ireland?
RS: Our metal band fell apart and after that experience we decided to go travelling and we brought acoustic guitars with us. We went to Dublin because someone said it was a good place for musicians. We really didn’t know very much about Ireland as a country, but it felt good to put ourselves in an alien place. We used to play on Grafton Street; it was cold for us but it was good fun. Damien was a busker then and we met each other playing on the streets.

AM: Metal has remained a heavy influence on your work, both in your original songs and those you’ve chosen to cover over the years. Did you have a plan for your sound when you first started playing together as a duo, or did it just develop naturally?
RS: When we started playing on the street we used to play a lot of cover versions. These were songs that people recognised and we would get a good reaction from. We played the songs we knew from Metallica, Testament, Led Zeppelin. This is the music we like and which inspires us. I think our style developed naturally from this time to what it is now on our original songs.

AM: ‘Area 52′ sees you performing nine of your original songs with a thirteen piece Cuban orchestra. How did that come about?
RS: The record company was asking when we would record new music. We had done two film soundtracks after [2010 album] ’11:11′; and we were on the road for two years promoting it. ‘Area 52′ was an opportunity to take a break and do something fun and different. And we were interested in going to Havana for the cultural and musical experience.

AM: How did you originally foresee the album turning out, and how close is the finished result to that?
RS: It was an experiment at first, to see what it would be like to play with a big band over other musicians. We were curious about Cuba and the music that comes out of there. It started as an interesting experiment but then it grew into something much bigger. It was supposed to be a fill-in album but it became the most ambitious thing we’ve done. It opened our eyes to a lot of things, and opened up paths we were maybe afraid of in terms of experimentation and collaboration.

AM: It’s the first time you’ve recorded as Rodrigo y Gabriela with another group of musicians. Was it easy to adapt to each other’s styles?
RS: We were blown away by the quality of the local players; Gabriela says it was like going to music school, and she was right. They didn’t know who we were – but then again they don’t know who Coldplay are either – it was just about playing together and listening and learning. Those rhythms, you really have to adapt to them. In the beginning, it was painful. I was like a beginner again.

AM: You worked with Alex Wilson on new arrangements of the songs on the album before recording them, did the group then add their own input? Was there much room for improvisation?
RS: Alex was great for bringing all the Cuban musicians together, for guiding them and helping them to adapt to our style, because our styles are very very different. He wrote out the parts for the musicians. They learn classical music from the age of four but they learn Cuban music from their parents. There was a mixture of written down and improvisation. They let fly on their solos.

AM: On ‘Ixtapa’ you’ve also got Anoushka Shankur playing sitar, adding yet another cultural layer to the mix. Did you ever worry that it just wouldn’t work?
RS: It was a risk to mix the two styles, but we have known Anoushka for some time. We met through some friends in India. The whole album was an experiment, a trip into the unknown – that is where the title ‘Area 52′ comes from. We don’t work with other musicians often, so this was the chance to work with Anoushka.

AM: How have the songs changed from their original versions?
RS: The Cuban rhythms are everywhere on the songs. They really change the feel of everything. On ‘Hanuman’ and ’11:11′ I am playing electric guitar for the first time on a record. ‘Hanuman’ was written as a tribute to Carlos Santana – and that sound comes through much more on this version.

AM: You begin a European tour with CUBA next month. What can people expect from the shows?
RS: It is a very new experience for us. It will be the first time ever that it will not just be the two of us on stage. We are still getting used to the idea and figuring out what will work for the show. We will be playing lots of music from ‘Area 52′, but will also have sections where it will be just me and Gab playing songs from other albums.

AM: Will this be the first time you’ve performed live with CUBA?
RS: Yes, it is a completely new show, a new tour. We are beginning the rehearsals now for the tour and we are excited for it to begin. It will be different for us to travel with other musicians around the world. We are used to it being just the two of us and our guitars.

AM: What are you planning to do next?
RS: We will be playing this tour of Europe and then we go to America for a tour there. We also hope to come back in the summer to play at the festivals.

Hey, it’s the end of January. That means we’re well on the way to putting this whole winter business behind us. Now, if I could only find my scarf, the rest of it would probably be a little more bearable. You could take your mind off the cold with the latest CMU podcast or (or indeed and) this selection of events, gigs and new releases that are available for you to enjoy this week. They’ll keep you indoors, at least.

01: MIDEM. The music industry’s jolly to Cannes started this weekend, of course, but there are still two days to go. And today is ‘Visionary Monday’, which sounds impressive. Ad agency Saatchi & Saatchi’s CEO Kevin Roberst will deliver a keynote address on how marketers can build brand loyalty through music partnerships. Plus producer Paul van Dyk and cellist Zoe Keating will discuss how musicians can build a sustainable career with digital tools, and Mark Ronson will talk about the Olympics campaign he’s involved in.

02: Super Bowl. Yeah, I wouldn’t normally feature sporting events in here. And I’m not now, really. There’s some big American football thing happening this coming weekend, but the sport bit is not what I’m interested in. I’m interested in Madonna’s big halftime show. After years of refusing, the singer has finally bowed down and given in to the massive pile of cash she can expect to receive in return for her performance. Plus, that ridiculous film of hers won’t promote itself.

03: Shhh. Music’s often very noisy. Especially live music. Thankfully, annual all-dayer Shhh returns this Saturday with some quiet music that doesn’t involve anyone shouting about how they got drunk in the club or any of that nonsense. Amongst those playing the eight hour event at The Gallery in Bethnal Green, East London are Tom Rogerson of Three Trapped Tigers, Tiny Ruins, Leah Kardos and Rob St John. It will be excellent.

04: New releases. Lana Del Rey‘s album is out, people. You’ve probably already voiced your opinion on it to half the world, but now you can actually listen to it too. Unless your original opinion was based on an illegal download of it I suppose, but I’m sure it wasn’t. The Chemical Brothers‘ live film ‘Don’t Think’ also goes on general release this week, following its premier in Hackney last week. As well as that, Charlotte Gainsbourg releases ‘Stage Whisper’, a collection of previously unreleased studio and live material, and Prinzhorn Dance School have their second album out.

05: Gigs. Following the release of his ’4everevolution’ album last year, Roots Manuva will be out and about around the UK on tour this week, starting tomorrow night in Brighton and ending up at The Roundhouse in London on Saturday. As well as that, Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs, The Misfits, Thomas Truax, and Wild Flag will also be playing shows around the country too.

Andy Malt
Editor, CMU

Hello. How has your week been? I hope it’s been as good as mine, because mine’s been brilliant. Even after I factor in suffering with a cold for much of it. Firstly, there was lots of news to write about (which is the benchmark for any good week), and then last night I saw Giana Factory and Philco Fiction perform at monthly Nordic music showcase Ja Ja Ja.

And this morning I learned of the existence of a place in Warwickshire called Bishop’s Itchington. And it would have been a great week with just that one on its own.

Also, I was finally allowed to tell people about something I’ve been excited about for weeks. Because this week we made our first announcement about this year’s Great Escape music business convention in Brighton, which I’m sure you know by now is programmed by the team here at CMU.

This year, Xfm is celebrating its 20th year on air, having first launched with a series of month-long RSL broadcasts in 1992, before launching fully in 1997. As part of this, the station’s longest serving DJ, John Kennedy, will be interviewed on stage at TGE by fellow radio presenter Jon Hillcock about his 22 years supporting new bands on the radio, and his thirteen years fronting Xfm’s ‘X-posure’ show.

Anyone with an interest in new music knows who John Kennedy is, and most likely feels inadequate next to him. He listens to an enormous amount of music every week, programming twelve hours of radio on ‘X-posure’ each week, and regularly unearths artists who go on to find fame – Adele, The xx and Kate Nash are just a few artists whose demos he’s played before anyone else. His enthusiasm for music is both infectious and inspiring, and he’s a thoroughly lovely person as well.

Also thoroughly lovely and completely dedicated to promoting new music is Jon Hillcock, who started his career in radio when he did work experience on ‘X-posure’. He’s gone on to present his own shows on Xfm and NME Radio, and these days regularly appears on BBC 6music, as well as producing his weekly ‘New Noise’ podcast, which is essential listening.

I hope this doesn’t come across too much as cynical plugging of something I’m involved in. Obviously I’m mentioning it partly because of CMU’s involvement in The Great Escape, but I am completely genuine when I say that I think John Kennedy and Jon Hillcock are two of the best presenters on radio today, and to have them sat on stage talking to each other is a very exciting prospect. And, as I said, being barred from telling everyone I see about all this prior to the official announcement this week has been killing me.

You can find more information on this and the rest of our announcement earlier this week here, or you could just head over to www.escapegreat.com and buy your tickets (which also gets you access to shows by more 300 bands over the course of three days, as well as the entire conference).

Andy Malt
Editor, CMU

PODCAST
On this week’s podcast, we discuss the MegaUpload shutdown and arrests, the passing of the Live Music Bill through the House Of Commons, a little bit of silver lining for HMV, Simon Cowell’s DJ search, and Disney’s Joy Division inspired t-shirt. You should listen to it, for sure. You will be able to do just that this weekend here.

IN THE NEWS
It has been a fantastically busy week in the world of MegaUpload. After the site was shut down last week and several of its execs arrested, the drama has continued. The company quickly hired a top lawyer – who has previously represented the likes of Bill Clinton and Enron – but just as quickly he pulled out citing a conflict of interests. Whether he would have been able to get Mega founder Kim ‘Dotcom’ Schmitz out of prison on bail we’ll never know, but Dotcom is still locked up, amid fears he would escape New Zealand back to his home country Germany where extradition would be more difficult.

Perhaps more interesting was the reaction from other file-transfer sites, some of whom limited their services and deleted unlicensed content. Whether the Mega shutdown was pushing users to legitimate sites or over to other illegal services that carried on as normal is in dispute (it’s probably a bit of both), meanwhile an unlikely conspiracy theory that plans by MegaUpload to launch a direct-to-fan service for artists had prompted the entertainment industries to push for last week’s shutdown was put about too. For more on the goings on with the MegaUpload team this week, look here.

With SOPA and PIPA seemingly put on the back burner, another important anti-piracy document, the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, was signed by most European Union countries with little opposition this week. However, while the EU itself helped negotiate the agreement and signed it, the European Parliament is still to approve it, and there are growing attempts to rally larger protests against it.

Elsewhere in digital news, the Digital Music News blog responded to Grooveshark‘s attempt to force it to hand over information about an alleged whistleblower, failed digital music service Beyond Oblivion applied for bankruptcy protection admitting to debts of anything up to $500 million, Rhapsody formally took over Napster in Europe, Perfume Genius had an advert rejected by YouTube because it found two men standing still to be a bit too racy, and the IFPI said digital music revenues are growing but piracy is still an issue.

The Live Music Bill was passed by the House Of Commons last Friday, with some final amendments approved by the House Of Lords earlier today, which is good news for people who like small gigs, because the hope is there will now be more of them. The Local Government Association welcomed the passing of the Bill, which they had originally opposed, but then backed following some tweaks made last Autumn, though they said they still have one concern about gigs where audience members can bring their own alchohol.

As well as that, HMV announced new deals with its suppliers and the bank, Mick Jagger got angry about being drawn into politics, Tulisa Contostavlos’ arm was allowed to continue waving, Radio 1 announced new multi-media aspects to its chart show, Truck Festival announced it will return this year after financial problems in 2011, Simon Cowell revealed he’s on the look out for DJs, and Disney stopped selling a Joy Division-inspired t-shirt.

FEATURES AND NEW MUSIC
I interviewed Busdriver this week, which was very exciting as his album ‘Fear Of A Black Tangent’ is one of my favourites. I managed to play it cool and not ask “WHY ARE YOU SO AWESOME?” though. As well as that, Eddy Temple-Morris wrote about last week’s interviewees Enter Shikari and how he came to love them. Plus, Pulled Apart By Horses put together a great playlist for us.

In the Approved column this week we had a new track by Miike Snow featuring Lykke Li, a song from Frankie Rose‘s utterly brilliant new album, two tracks from Jesse Ruins‘ new EP, and some cinematic loveliness from A Whisper In The Noise.

Elsewhere on theCMUwebsite.com, we posted a whole load more new music, including tracks by Cypress Hill and Rusko, Saint Etienne, Ladyhawke, Blood Red Shoes, Fair Ohs, The Icarus Line, Sea Of Bees, Poliça, The Doors and Skrillex (you don’t have to click on that one), plus a sampler from Portishead man Geoff Barrow’s label.

There have been a few contenders for Beef Of The Week this week, but when it came down to it, nothing was quite as entertaining as the last seven days in the world of MegaUpload. I’m not 100% sure that an international operation, involving various law enforcement agencies, to arrest a group of men and shut down their company can strictly be referred to as a ‘beef’, but let’s go with it anyway.

So, anyway, as support for legislation in the US aiming to create new powers to block copyright infringing websites waned in Congress after a week of protest online, the US showed it could shut down such a website anyway. Although it should be noted that in this case MegaUpload had many of its servers based in America and its executives are accused of more serious crimes than just copyright infringement, both helping justify such a dramatic swoop.

The jewel in the crown was the arrest of MegaUpload founder Kim ‘Dotcom’ Schmitz, upon whom police swooped at his New Zealand mansion. Aside from the scale and suddenness of the action, it’s Schmitz who elevates this above your usual tedious copyright case. Whenever he’s spoken in the past, the German entrepreneur and convicted criminal has seemed larger than life, but as more details about his glamorous lifestyle, paid for by the millions of dollars he’s earned from the Mega empire, were revealed, it became apparent quite how much this is true. For one thing, he’s 6’7″ and weighs 21.5 stone. For another, he has a penchant for private jets, bubble baths and celebrities, not to mention the interesting array of number plates on his fleet of cars.

His size was the reason his lawyers argued he should be allowed out on bail pending his extradition to the US – he isn’t, they argued, the kind of guy who can sneak through customs – but the judge refused anyway, fearing Schmitz would use criminal connections to smuggle himself back to Germany, where extradition would be more difficult. Two of his associates were bailed though, with a third due to have a decision made today.

With all this going on, MegaUpload dropped a lawsuit against Universal over the previously reported YouTube takedown of the file-transfer company’s all-star promotional song and video, and it was revealed that Schmitz was also preparing for the release of his debut album, which is being worked on by LA-based production company Beets & Produce as we speak.

Perhaps most interesting of all, however, was the affect the swoop on MegaUpload had on other file-sharing websites, some of which limited their services in various ways following the arrests. Filesonic and Fileserver seemingly went furthest, blocking users from doing anything other than uploading and downloading content form their own accounts. How long this will last and what effect it will have long term is not yet clear – although the RIAA is confident that it will boost legit services, Torrentfreak reports that unlicensed sites which have not scaled back their operations are enjoying the boom in users.

Regan Farquhar, aka Busdriver, began rapping at an early age, releasing his first album with a group called 4/29 when he was just thirteen. From there, he began attending workshops for aspiring musicians at The Good Life Café in LA, and later the Project Blowed open mic workshops which grew out of them. Here he began to develop his trademark style, first heard when he guested on various tracks, before he released his debut album as Busdriver, ‘Memoirs Of The Elephant Man’ in 2001.

His smart, funny lyrics and distinct delivery broke through to a wider audience with the 2002 follow-up, ‘Temporary Forever’, and yet further when he signed to Big Dada for his fourth LP, ‘Cosmic Cleavage’ in 2004. A second Big Dada album, the brilliant ‘Fear Of A Black Tangent’, followed, before Busdriver moved to Epitaph for 2007′s ‘RainKillOvercoat’ and 2009′s ‘Jhelli Beam’.

Over the years, Farquhar has collaborated with numerous other artists, including Daedelus, Abstract Rude, Boom Bip and Z-Trip. And in 2010 he formed a band, Physical Forms, with The Mae Shi’s John Byron, releasing a split single with Deerhoof the same year.

Next month Busdriver releases his latest album, ‘Beaus$Eros’, which was produced by Belgian producer Loden, via the label Fake Four. CMU Editor Andy Malt caught up with Farquhar to find out more.

AM: When did you first start making music?
BD: When I was thirteen. I was in a silly rap group. We were like a conscious Kriss-Kross without the charisma. Luckily, I discovered the Good Life Cafe after the group disbanded. I was fourteen by then.

AM: At what point did the distinct style you’re known for now emerge? Was it a style you consciously worked on?
BD: By the time Project Blowed had started in late 1994, I had some idea as to what I wanted to do. Years of performing, recording and experimenting further informed the approaches, but the key inspiration was from my mentor Chu Chu. He was the primary host of The Good Life and a bit of a rap savant. We would session all the time in his Mom’s attic in South Central LA. He managed to stress the importance of the exact kind of bebop jazz that I needed to inform the styles that I was looking for.

AM: How would you say you’ve developed since your debut album?
BD: I’m less afraid. More in command. And unfortunately too self-aware… If I wanted to be the best rhymer in the world for a year I could do it. The key word is ‘if’ though.

AM: When did you start writing ‘Beaus$Eros’?
BD: Immediately after ‘Jhelli Beam’ was released in 2009.

AM: Did you have a clear vision for the new album before you started, both sonically and lyrically? In some ways it seems like your most ‘pop’ release – particularly ‘Kiss Me Back To Life’ – but at the same time it’s very experimental.
BD: It took six months of recording for me to firmly understand what was the proper direction. Loden and I were dabbling with more playful songwriting at first. But when we stumbled upon ‘Utilitarian Uses Of Love’ we started to hear the world that we wanted this album to inhabit. My personal problems had begun bleeding into the work and melody took on a new weight in the vocals. It was very organic. It required us to be a lot more patient than I had been in years, but it ultimately paid off.

AM: Talking of Loden, how did you come to collaborate on the album?
BD: I forget. It feels like I met him a lifetime ago. It was most likely through Mush Records. He put out a couple of records on that label a few years ago.

AM: What was the recording process? Was it a case of firing files back and forth online or did you get together?
BD: During the year and a half that we worked on the album we never met. It wasn’t until a couple of months ago that I saw him briefly in Brussels. But aside from that we hadn’t spoken, Skyped or sexted. It was all via email. All through the exchange of ideas in the form of beats, wav files and rough mixes. The process was incredibly pure.

AM: How did that process differ from how you’ve worked in the past? What would be your preferred method of recording?
BD: I spent less time over-thinking lyrics, more time trusting my instincts. The textures and vocal layering were all very important. I’d never spent so much time focusing on my bridges, but this time around those became super important. The bridges for ‘Bon Bon Fire’, ‘Utilitarian Uses Of Love’ and ‘Picking Band Names’ all took up most of the focus at a certain point in those songs’ production.
The scale of the songs just seemed larger. The methodology behind it this record has become my favourite way to get songs done. I just feel that the sense of accomplishment is far greater than what I’d experienced in a while.

AM: How did Physical Forms come about? Was it a weird adjustment working as part of a band and switching to singing rather than rapping?
BD: Jeff Byron from the Mae Shi reached out to me one day. He said that he wanted to do some recording, but more importantly he opened up about his fight with his hulking drug and alcohol addiction. A musical endeavour seemed like the best way to strengthen his recovery in his eyes… so we started a band. I quietly learned tons about pop/rock song composition and how to deliver heavily layered vocal parts over the course of our first two weeks of all night sessions. I welcomed the opportunity to exist in his universe. The first six months were really fantastic. We made a lot of colourfully irresponsible songs.

AM: Has that informed or changed the way you work on your solo material?
BD: The Physical Forms debut is ‘Beaus$Eros’ sister album for me. They both represent different facets of a singular happening in me. At least from my perspective.

AM: And when will that album be out?
BD: We’ll release our record this year. Soon after ‘Beaus$Eros’.

AM: It’s now more than a decade since you released your debut album, how has the industry changed in that time? Do you think it’s easier or harder to get your music out there now?
BD: It’s way easier to put music out in 2012 (almost effortless), but very difficult to be heard and quite impossible to actually “sell” any of that music. The industry that I arrived in with my breakthrough album ‘Temporary Forever’ doesn’t resemble the current climate at all.

It feels like the amount of prep and market-based knowhow required to reach an audience today has all but lapped how much people spend developing actual musical directions. That being said, there are a lot of great artists breaking through right now. I just have no idea how people fund these acts. The field is so fiercely competitive! Everyone’s content is flying through the air in thick flocks of labelled folders hoping to find a place on your desktop. It’s all a bit maddening.

AM: Do you have any plans to play live in the UK?
BD: Yep. In April hopefully.

AM: Which other artists are you listening to at the moment?
BD: Sonnymoon tUnE-yArDs, Dark Time Sunshine, The Weeknd, Freestyle Fellowship, VerBS, Etta James, Phillip Glass (always)… and other stuff that can’t find anyone responsible for.

AM: What else have you got coming up in 2012?
BD: The Physical Forms album will be released, probably mid year. I’m working on an EP with Del The Funky Homosapien, which I am writing for right now. There is also an EP that I’m producing for a Los Angeles rapper friend of mine. And I don’t know what else – it’s just January so I’m sure other things will present themselves.