Wednesday 30 November 2011, 12:29 | By Andy Malt

Q&A: Ollie Jacob, Memphis Industries

Business Interviews Labels & Publishers

Brothers Ollie and Matt Jacob formed indie label Memphis Industries in 1998, releasing Blue State’s ‘Forever’ EP later the same year. Since then they have gone on to work with The Go! Team, The Pippettes, Field Music, Theoretical Girl, Frankie Rose And The Outs and many more.

This year marks the label’s thirteenth anniversary, which, as they failed to do anything to mark the company’s tenth year, the Jacob brothers have chosen to celebrate instead. To commemorate the occasion, tonight they will head down to Koko in London for a show featuring performances from The Go! Team and Field Music as well as newer signings Dutch Uncles and Colourmusic. Some tickets are still available from www.memphis-industries.com, where each purchase comes with a free download compilation featuring past, present and future tracks from the Memphis Industries catalogue.

Ahead of the show, CMU Editor Andy Malt caught up with Ollie Jacob to find out more about the label, how it came about and what it’s like running an indie record company in the modern world.

AM: What were your backgrounds before you launched Memphis Industries?
OJ: I was promoting clubs and shows down in Brighton, Matt was training to be a lawyer.

AM: When did you first decide to set up the label?
OJ: In 1998 I left Brighton and moved back to London. For some bizarre reason (perhaps a love of music, although that doesn’t entirely explain it) I thought I’d start releasing records, and knew Matt could put some money in and wouldn’t rip me off, so I asked him if he fancied setting up a label. He stupidly said yes. I remember even then being told by literally everyone that the glory days of the record industry were over and there was no future in it.

AM: Were there any other labels that inspired you, or you aspired to be like?
OJ: As well as doing our press in the early days, Tony Morley at The Leaf Label probably gave us the most practical sense of how to set up and run a small label. In terms of aspiration, I think we just wanted to be able to put out whatever tickled us rather than having a rigid musical aesthetic – the label identity was and has been a secondary thing to the artists.

AM: What were your ambitions for the company at that point?
OJ: Right at the start it was literally to figure out how to get a bit of music off a DAT, onto vinyl and then into the shops. I mean there were vague and ill defined notions of what success might mean in the future, but since neither myself nor Matt had ever worked at a label we were very much amateurs.

AM: Did you have any particular ethos for the label when you first started, and have you stuck to it?
OJ: More out of financial constraints than anything else, we exclusively signed bedroom recording artists back then. We only started signing “bands” in around 2005. It’s funny that we’ve kinda gone full circle back to signing home recording types now, with the likes of Hooray For Earth and Elephant.

AM: What have been the highlights of the last thirteen years?
OJ: The first reviews in print we got were always super exciting. And the first time we had one of songs played on daytime radio, The Squire Of Somerton’s ‘Transverberations’ on Mark and Lard (now that carbon dates us). Obviously The Go! Team provided a lot of giggles, cos it took us to a whole new level, with their first SxSW and Fuji Rocks being particular highlights. And working with Field Music is a constant source of joy.

AM: What would you do differently if you were starting out again now?
OJ: Ha – aside from go and get a proper job? In a purely practical sense, we’d take publishing much more seriously.

AM: You started Memphis Industries just before Napster launched. How do you think illegal file-sharing and the rise of the internet in general has effected you?
OJ: I guess it’s largely helped us – the speed a band can work on a global scale, for a label like ours, is unimaginable without the internet, and without file-sharing. Sure there’s the idea that people don’t pay for music any more, but the fact that the rules are constantly being rewritten, and have been since about the time we started, has meant that the playing field is a little more level – everyone is, to a degree making it up as they go along, just like us, and there are new dimensions, new tools and new pitfalls almost every time you go to release a record

AM: Many record labels are now diversifying into other areas of the music business, in addition to recordings. Is this something Memphis Industries has done, or plans to do?
OJ: We’ve been managing The Go! Team since 2005, and have added Field Music and Elephant to that in recent times, although in retrospect we realise how much of what we did in the earlier days would be considered a manager’s remit anyway. We’ve also got a publishing company called Man Mountain Music, that’s started doing some good stuff and is gradually building up nicely.

AM: What’s the most challenging thing about running a label in 2011? And what’s the best thing?
OJ: Persuading people to, y’know, buy music. And I also think the desperate desire for the new has a debilitating effect generally. The best thing is that technology has led to the democratisation and automation of lot of aspects of the biz so a couple of hard grafting monkeys like us can easily run a label.

AM: What can people expect from tonight’s birthday gig? Do you have any surprises planned?
OJ: Four massively different and unique bands showing off their wares for a start. Some free stuff. We’re trying to get the bands to agree to do a ‘We Are The World’ style sing-a-long at the end, but it’s taking some doing. Oh and me drinking expensive booze as if my life depended on it. Although that last one isn’t a surprise.

AM: What’s your favourite version of ‘Walking In Memphis’?
OJ: I’m partial to a bit of Cher myself.

AM: And finally, it’s a tough one, but are there any Memphis Industries releases that you’ve been particularly proud of?
OJ: Well that would be like saying which of your kids is your favourite, and that would be bad parenting. How about it’s always the next record that we’re releasing? Does that neatly get us out of upsetting any of our bands?

Lucky Thirteen – 13 Years Of Memphis Industries:

Approved: Austra – Crying

CMU Approved

What with the pristine production work that sits so prominently on the fringes of ‘Feel It Break’, the debut long player from Canadian sextet Austra, it’s easy to take singer Katie Stelmanis’ voice as a mere accessory – albeit a vital one – to the album’s grand scheme. But, as is accomplished so beautifully in that record’s final track, ‘The Beast’, in which Stelmanis’ soprano is pitched against a spectral piano piece, her voice comes to define Austra’s new cover of Roy Orbison’s ‘Crying’.

Best described in its state circa 1965 as a muted rock n roll shuffle, the band remodel the song as Stelmanis’ very own theatrical monologue, placing her voice at the heart of a delicate scenery of strings, choirs and woodwind, and letting it shine and shiver in all its easy brilliance.

‘Crying’ is one of several extras featuring on the just-released deluxe edition of ‘Feel It Break’, another being a truly twisted remix of album track ‘Beat And The Pulse’ by Slipknot’s Shawn ‘Clown’ Crahan. While you’ll have to seek that out yourself, I’m happy to supply a stream of ‘Crying’, which isn’t at all scary.

Full four year sentence for Conrad Murray

Jacksons v AEG Timeline Legal Top Stories

Dr Conrad Murray was yesterday sentenced to four years in jail for the involuntary manslaughter of Michael Jackson, the longest possible sentence for the crime.

Prior to the sentencing, the prosecution delivered a lengthy statement calling for Judge Michael Pastor to hand the doctor the maximum sentence. Deputy District Attorney David Walgren detailed all of Murray’s various failings in his treatment of the late king of pop, who died from on overdose of the surgical anaesthetic propofol, which Murray was administering to the singer in a domestic setting, with no monitoring equipment, as a cure for insomnia. Various experts told the court during the doctor’s trial that using propofol outside of a hospital and without constant patient monitoring was grossly negligent.

The prosecution also focused on Murray’s seeming efforts to cover his tracks after Jackson stopped breathing, hiding equipment that would have shown he had been administering the propofol, and failing to tell paramedics or staff at the hospital Jackson was taken to about the drug. Prosecutors noted the Conrad Murray TV documentary, shown shortly after his trial, in which the doctor said he didn’t tell other medical staff about the propofol because he didn’t believe it was relevant. This, Walgren implied, was either lies, or another act of gross negligence.

With Conrad Murray again waiving his right to speak, his defence attorney, Ed Chernoff, took to the stand to deliver an emotional plea for leniency, seemingly going into much more detail about his client’s life than even he himself expected. Yes Murray had been negligent in his treatment of Jackson, Chernoff conceded, but didn’t the 56 years of his client’s life prior to the crime count for anything, the lawyer asked: the clean slate, the academic successes against the odds, the grateful patients, the pro bono work for the poor community.

Arguing that his client was not a danger to society, and that he would be punished enough through the revocation of his medical licence, and by being labelled as “the man who killed Michael Jackson” for the rest of his life, Chernoff questioned whether locking Murray up was really necessary. Surely probation, and putting Murray to use through some sort of community service programme, was better for everyone that seeing this man locked up in a small cell?

But Pastor did not concur. Despite insisting that he had indeed considered the “whole book of Murray’s life”, the judge delivered a damning final statement, portraying Murray as a greedy man who shunned his duties as a doctor to please a rich client. Though it seemed that possibly the biggest factor in convincing Pastor that Murray should be denied probation and serve a full four year sentence was the aforementioned TV documentary.

The judge seemed mightily pissed off that Murray, having waived his right to testify in court, had chosen to give his side of the story to the TV cameras. On several occasions Pastor noted that Murray had shown no remorse – nor accepted any responsibility – for Jackson’s death on the TV programme. “Not only isn’t there any remorse”, the judge told the court room, “there’s umbrage and outrage on the part of Dr Murray against the decedent”. After the damning summing up, that the judge denied probation and handed Murray the full four years in jail came as no surprise.

One issue relating to the case remains unresolved though, that being restitution. Pastor said that the Jackson family were due restitution for their loss, but that with the MJ Estate claiming that the cancellation of the ‘This Is It’ tour alone cost the singer’s children over $100 million, that he would need more information regarding the prosecution’s restitution claim than the three line statement from the Estate so far submitted to court.

Chernoff agreed with the judge that the defence would need a full break down of any restitution claim, though he added that there was no way Murray would ever be able to pay those kind of figures, implying that a $100 million claim would therefore be pointless. Of course you could argue that the Michael Jackson catalogue and name is much more valuable to his children and family now he’s dead than it was when he was still alive, though that would probably be a brave argument to field in court. A restitution hearing was scheduled for January.

Outside the court Katherine Jackson welcomed the sentencing, telling reporters that “four years is not enough for someone’s life – it won’t bring [Michael] back – but at least he [Murray] got the maximum sentence”. Meanwhile Chernoff’s colleague on the defence team, Michael Flanagan, said he felt Pastor had been “openly hostile” to Murray from the word go, but conceded that Murray choosing not to testify was probably a mistake, adding to that hostility.

The Murray team now have 60 days to decide whether to appeal. Meanwhile there has been much speculation about just how long the doctor will actually spend behind bars, given how overcrowded the Californian jails are just now, and the fact that Murray’s crime is non-violent. Some reckon he could be moved to a house arrest scenario within a few months.

No crime committed in Smiley Culture death, says IPCC

Legal

The Independent Police Complaints Commission yesterday confirmed that it had found no evidence of a criminal offence in the events surrounding the death of former reggae MC and DJ Smiley Culture, real name David Emmanuel.

As previously reported, Emmanuel died at his Surrey home during a police raid in March. Police attended the reggae man’s house to arrest him on a new drugs charge (he was already facing other drug-related charges) and to search his premises (they seemingly found a small amount of cannabis, but none of the cocaine the suspect was accused of supplying). Three officers conducted the search while a fourth stayed with Emmanuel. But before the search was over Emmanuel had died from a single stab wound. His stabbing, officers have insisted from the start, was self-inflicted.

Police papers seemingly say that Emmanuel, who had been calm throughout the arrest and raid, suddenly became very angry right at the end of their operation as one officer filled out some paperwork. It’s claimed that it was while the officer was distracted filling out a form that Emmanuel grabbed a knife, shouted something like “do you fucking want some of this”, and then stabbed himself. The officers, the official report continues, called for the emergency services more or less immediately, cuffed Emmanuel to “stop him doing any more harm to himself”, and tried to administer first aid.

The IPCC investigation into the incident looked at both the conduct of the four police officers and the planning of the operation as a whole. On the latter issue, the Commission’s report does raise some concerns about the planning that went into the raid, and in particular the risk management process undertaken. As a result, the IPCC will make recommendations to the Metropolitan Police about its planning processes. However, on the conduct of the individual officers, the Commission says there were no specific failings on the part of any one officer, and therefore there wasn’t a case to pass the matter onto the Crown Prosecution Service.

Emmanuel’s family already knew much of this because the IPCC’s Commissioner Mike Franklin wrote to them in September with a summary of his conclusions (and we already knew much of this, because the family spoke to The Guardian at that time). The family remain unhappy with the Commission’s findings, claiming that the report fails to properly address why Emmanuel was cuffed when he died, and that the IPCC’s investigation wasn’t sufficient because, by treating the four officers whose conduct was being reviewed as witnesses rather than suspects, they were not formally interviewed.

The singer’s nephew, Merlin Emmanuel to The Guardian this week: “We firmly believe Smiley was murdered and that the IPCC have let us down and treated us miserably. They promised us a thorough investigation and that they would get to the bottom of what happened. But there are still so many unanswered questions – and the IPCC have now made sure that the officers who saw what happened are never going to be pressed to tell the truth about what happened that day”. The family now plan to launch a private prosecution in relation to their uncle’s death.

Meanwhile, the IPCC report will be sent to the coroner and will be considered at an inquest hearing before a jury, though that won’t take place until after the aforementioned drugs-related criminal proceedings Emmanuel was involved in have been through the courts.

Sonic Youth “ending for a while”

Artist News

Sonic Youth guitarist Lee Ranaldo has said that he is unsure about the future of the band following the announcement last month that co-founders Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon are to divorce. Speaking to Rolling Stone, he said that the band’s recent South American tour dates, which began shortly after Moore and Gordon announced their split, “are certainly the last shows for a while”.

Ranaldo told the magazine: “[The news of the divorce is] not as sudden for me as it’s been in terms of the press and what not. Actually, the tour went really well. It really didn’t affect it all that much. It was a pretty good tour overall. I mean, there was a little bit of tiptoeing around and some different situations with the travelling – you know, they’re not sharing a room any more or anything like that. [But] I would say in general the shows went really well. [Though] it kind of remains to be seen at this point what happens to the future. I think they are certainly the last shows for a while and I guess I’d just leave it at that”.

He added: “I’m feeling optimistic about the future no matter what happens at this point. I mean, every band runs its course. We’ve been together way longer than any of us ever imagined would happen and it’s been for the most part an incredibly pleasurable ride … I’m just happy right now to let the future take its course and I guess I’m kind of thankful that I’ve got this other project that kind of came about on its own. It wasn’t kind of like, well, ‘Oh the band is ending for a while and I’ve got to figure out what to do’. It kind of naturally happened in the course of things so that was a nice way for that to come about”.

The “other project” Ranaldo speaks of is his solo album ‘Between The Times & The Tides’, which will be released through Matador in March.

Black Eyed Peas will return

Artist News

Bad news, everyone. Although “hiatus” is generally a nice way of saying “split”, it seems Black Eyed Peas do intend to return. Though Will.i.am says that when they reunite they will “make beautiful music”, so maybe they’re planning a drastic change of direction.

Speculation about the future of the band has been rife since they announced their plans to go on hiatus, but Will.i.am claims this is just part of their normal routine, telling ‘The Ellen DeGeneres Show’ that they “always have two cycles of records and then … take a break”.

S Club 7 inspired to reform by Steps

Artist News

Although there have been rumblings about a full S Club 7 reunion since about March, their plans seem to have been kicked properly into action now that they’ve seen the success of the Steps reunion. Because who needs dignity when you’ve got a bit of cash in your pocket?

As previously reported, the group’s Jo O’Meara, Bradley McIntosh and Paul Cattermole have been performing as S Club 3 since 2008, trawling the university circuit mainly. But now all of the group’s former members seem keen to return to the stage. A source told The Sun this week: “S Club have seen what’s happened to Steps and want a piece of it. They’re hoping to make a TV show following their reunion, a tour and the release of an updated greatest hits album – just like Steps”.

MIA and Minaj on Madonna album

Artist News

MIA has revealed that she and Nicki Minaj are to appear on one of the tracks being recorded for Madonna’s new album. Well, she tweeted “summond to NYC by bitchesses > MADONNA and @NICKIMINAJ > cofffffiiiiiiieeeeeeeeee it iz a good day to get me tho trustttt bitches”, which amounts to about the same thing. I think.

Halls announces new EP

Gigs & Festivals Releases

Buzzy producer Halls has announced that he will release a new EP, entitled ‘Fragile’, (his first to receive a physical release) on 16 Jan via the increasingly brilliant Sounds Of Sweet Nothing label.

The EP sees him moving away from a purely synth-driven sound and incorporating classical instruments such as piano and strings into the mix too. Ahead of the release, he is due to play his debut live show at Corsica Studios in London on 1 Dec.

Now, you would do well to spend the next five minutes or so watching the stunning video for ‘I Am Not Who You Want’, taken from the ‘Fragile’ EP.

Bleeding Heart Narrative release video ahead of London show

Gigs & Festivals

Following the recent release of their new ‘Bison’ EP, winsome indie types Bleeding Heart Narrative have released a video for new single ‘Shoals’. In order to achieve the desired aesthetic effect in certain scenes, the band agreed to have lots of buckets of water thrown at them while wearing t-shirts emblazoned with the EP artwork. Well, who’s to say what is or isn’t art? They’ll be selling the tees at their next live appearance, which is at Dalston venue The Vortex on 9 Dec.

Justice to tour

Gigs & Festivals

Having further established via their latest album ‘Audio, Video, Disco’ that they just can’t and won’t do things by halves, French electro duo Justice are all set to embark on a 29 date world tour. Said world tour will premiere to bleary-eyed Australian revellers on New Year’s Day. Meanwhile, here’s the more relevant UK portion of the run:

10 Feb: London, Academy
11 Feb: Birmingham, Academy
12 Feb: Glasgow, Academy
13 Feb: Manchester, Academy

We Have Band announce tour

Gigs & Festivals Releases

We Have Band have disclosed details of a forthcoming tour in support of their second album, ‘Ternion’, which is due out in January. Feel free to preview the album’s lead single ‘Where Are Your People’ and its B-side, a cover of The Horrors’ ‘Still Life’, below. Coming complete with a rendition of Washed Out’s ‘Within And Without’, the single will have a digital-only release on 4 Dec.

Now, the dates:

15 Feb: London, Cargo
16 Feb: Birmingham, HMV Institute
17 Feb: Manchester, Ruby Lounge
18 Feb: Dublin, Academy 2
22 Feb: Glasgow, Captains Rest
24 Feb: Bristol, The Cooler
25 Feb: Brighton, Sticky Mike’s Frog Bar

Where Are Your People:

Still Life:

Das Racist to play XOYO show

Gigs & Festivals

Here’s one to scribble into your live diaries in indelible ink. How does Das Racist playing a show at London’s XOYO tomorrow night sound? The Brooklyn hip hop trio will probably give tracks from their debut album, ‘Relax’, a thorough live airing, if that helps.

Devonté Hynes, formerly of Test Icicles and Lightspeed Champion, is booked to perform under his present Blood Orange moniker by way of support.

Sony’s Thomas Hesse to move back to Bertelsmann?

Business News Industry People Labels & Publishers

Thomas Hesse, Sony Music’s President of Global Digital Business, may be about to move back to German media firm and BMG owners Bertelsmann.

Hesse became a senior player at Sony Music via the merger of the Sony record company with the BMG record labels in 2004. He stayed with the Sony music firm after Bertelsmann sold its stake in the SonyBMG joint venture to Sony Corp in 2008, and was a close ally of the music major’s former CEO Rolf Schmidt-Holtz, himself a former BMG man.

Schmidt-Holtz, of course, stepped down at Sony earlier this year to be replaced by former Universal Music top man Doug Morris. Meanwhile, back at Bertelsmann, another of Hesse’s close former colleagues, Thomas Rabe, is about to be promoted from CFO to the CEO role.

It’s thought that with Sony Music now under a new regime, and with Rabe having digital expansion high on his agenda for when he takes over as Bertelsmann CEO, the idea quickly came up for Hesse to move back to the German conglom.

Neither Sony nor Bertelsmann have commented on the rumours.

Bauer research says radio still important for music discovery

Media

Now, you would probably expect new research published by Bauer Radio to say that radio remains the most important place for people to find out about new music and, well, that’s exactly what new research published by Bauer Radio says.

Of course the survey, undertaken mainly to combat the theory that web-based music services are taking over from radio in terms of music discovery, was limited to listeners of the media firm’s Passion Portfolio stations – so the national brands which mainly broadcast on digital platforms – which means these stats don’t account for those who have totally shunned radio. But they do possibly show that, for those people still listening to radio regularly, it remains an important medium for music and new music consumption. And for pop music especially, I don’t think it’s any secret that radio airplay can still make and break acts in the UK.

Anyway, of the Bauer listeners who completed the online survey, 88% had consumed music via radio in the previous seven days, compared to 61% via an MP3 player, 56% via a TV channel, 50% via websites, 46% on CD and 40% via their mobile phone. 48% said that radio was the “main way” they had consumed music in the previous week.

With regards new music, 83% said they found out about new tunes via the radio, someway ahead of the ‘through friends’ thing that social media-obsessed digital services are always going on about, which was mentioned by 53% of this audience. When asked whose music opinions they trusted, 42% said radio, while only 22% their friends.

Commenting on the stats, Bauer’s Robbie McIntosh told reporters: “There have been some suggestions the internet is replacing radio as a music source so we wanted to investigate this and understand the truths about how young passionate music fans are exploring and sharing music. There was also a challenge issued to radio to show its continuing relevance to record companies at the recent Radio Festival, since the internet can connect fans and artists online. Our research of the most active online passionate music fans shows that radio is sitting at the heart of all music discovery, listening and sharing”.

Costello says “Don’t buy my overpriced box set”

And Finally Releases

Elvis Costello has advised his fans not to buy a box set of his music being released by Universal, because he objects to the price it’s being sold for, which is currently £212.66 on Amazon. Indicating that he has been in dispute with his label over the price of the box set release for a while, Costello called the current price point “either a misprint or a satire”, and urged fans not to buy the release.

Meanwhile a statement on the singer songwriter’s official website recommended: “If you want to buy something special for your loved one at this time of seasonal giving, we suggest, ‘Ambassador Of Jazz’ – a cute little imitation suitcase containing ten re-mastered albums by one of the most beautiful and loving revolutionaries who ever lived – Louis Armstrong. The box should be available for under one hundred and fifty American dollars and includes a number of other tricks and treats. [And] frankly the music is vastly superior”.

Ouch. Oh well, at least the Armstrong box set is on another Universal imprint.

Korn: We invented dubstep

And Finally

So, if Korn haven’t annoyed the dubstep community enough already, the band’s frontman Jonathan Davis is now claiming to have invented the genre. As previously reported, the US metaller’s forthcoming new album, ‘The Path Of Totality’, features collaborations with various dubstep producers, including Skrillex.

Davis told Billboard: “We were dubstep before there was dubstep. Tempos at 140 with half-time drums, huge bassed-out riffs. We used to bring out 120 subwoofers and line them across the whole front of the stage, 60 subs per side. We were all about the bass”.

If I remember correctly, Jonathan Davis also once claimed that Korn were the first band to think of putting hip hop and metal together too. Though to be fair, on this occasion I don’t think he was really claiming that he and his bandmates actually invented dubstep, rather that bringing that sound onto their latest album isn’t quite as strange as some are suggesting. And just as Korn’s sound polarised the metal scene in 1994, they’re doing it all over again now.

“These kids are onto something completely innovative and new”, said David. “It’s pure and awesome and underground and heavy and different, not like stale-ass metal and rock n roll. I love them all, but the old school metalheads are not open to change. It’s really cool to see glow sticks at the show, to see dance music culture infiltrating and becoming one with the metal community … I think we’ve opened up a new style that both sides are happy with”.

Guy Ritchie discusses marriage to Madonna

And Finally

Guy Ritchie has said he’s glad he married Madonna, because he got some nice children and a load of money out of it. Awwww.

Speaking to Details, Ritchie said: “I enjoyed my first marriage. It’s definitely not something I regret. The experience was ultimately very positive. I love the kids that came out of it, and I could see no other route to take. But you move on, don’t you? I stepped into a soap opera, and I lived in it for quite a long period of my life. I’ll probably be more eloquent on it ten years from now”.

He continued: “When you end up with a lot of the things you set out to chase and find that you’ve stumbled into all sorts of hollow victories, then you become deeply philosophical. I’m quite happy that that experience was accelerated for me. I’m glad I made money, in other words. And I’m glad I got married”.

Eddy Says: Looking back at 2011, and wishing there was a back up

Eddy Says

December begins this week, which means CMU will be running its end of year features in the run up to Christmas and Eddy will be taking a break until the new year. Traditionally, this is where Eddy reveals his favourite producers, tracks and remixes of the year, but technical problems have delayed that post – I suspect Eddy’s new year’s resolution is to back up his digital music collection at every opportunity! But to get things started, he has decided on his favourite single and album of 2011 (almost), plus he has some new music from Losers for you to listen to.

This is the last Eddy Says of 2011 and, under normal circumstances, would be a retrospective look back at the musical highlights of the year, and a throw forward to my traditional Bombs Of The Year show on Xfm where a best single, best album, best remixer etc would be decided by a democratic vote involving each and every producer and presenter involved in the making of The Remix. OK, that’s just me, but still, that should be a reason enough for a ripple of excitement, a frissante of expectation.

But unfortunately, on Friday night, after the show, my hard drive decided to throw its arms aloft and say “Fuck this! I’ve had enough of being deluged every day with an avalanche of massive zip files full of remixes, of enormous wav files when just a SoundCloud stream would do the job fine”. Then it fell backwards with its eyes open and held its legs stiffly in the air.

I am now full of self-loathing, having been, for several months, ignoring the voice in my head telling me to back up. Plus now I’ve got to go out and buy a new hard drive. Though, on the up side, while I’m out I’ll also get to pick up my late 70s Musicman Bass, that’s been cleaned and re-set-up for Losers’ first London show with our new live line-up.

We’re showcasing tracks from our almost finished new album ‘So We Shall Never Part’ on Wednesday night, supporting Pure Reason Revolution at Heaven. I’m really stoked to be unveiling new songs with such talented musos alongside me. My Losers production partner Tom, of course, but now augmented by Paul Mullen from YourCodeNameIs:Milo and Young Legionnaire on guitar and vocals, plus Mark Heron from Oceansize and Kong on drums. We’re even drafting in a keyboard player for this one, to cope with new songs like this:

This is just a demo version Tom has sent to the Cooper Temple Clause massive, and the finished version has been touched by the phenomenal hand of Jem Godfrey. But while this is an untouched, unmixed and unmastered version, it gives you an idea of where we’re at with this album. Much darker, moodier, and much more emotional.

But back to business, and the normal angle of this Yuletide piece. The premature meltdown of my 500GB hard drive means I won’t be able to go through the year’s music and do a full retrospective justice, so I’ll save that for the first one of 2012. But I will share with you where I’m at with album and single of the year. As I said to Joe and Dan from Nero last week, when we recorded their long overdue full album playback, Xfm Remix Single Of The Year is a no brainer. For me it has to be ‘Me And You’ by Nero, with ‘Blind Faith’ by Chase And Status a close second.

Historically, that Nero single was a musical line in the sand. The first ever dubstep single A-listed by Xfm. I still remember the smiles of people on the dancefloor at Proud Galleries when I was playing that tune a year ago, in the run up to Christmas. The immediate feedback from a dancefloor is the fastest, most honest way to gauge reaction to a record, and the unbridled joy I felt, emanating from almost everybody in that club, was remarkable.

The fact that it was almost a coin toss between Chase And Status and Nero for single of the year, brings me to album of the year, and my conundrum. I sort of knew, in January, when ‘Me And You’ came out, that nothing would beat it for track of the year, in the same way that I knew in August a couple of years back that Calvin Harris’ album would be unbeatable. But the album of the year this time is so close, I’m almost considering a coin toss. In an echo of the battle for single of 2011, it’s down to one family: Chase And Status and their first born son Nero.

I still haven’t decided, although I am hedging towards Chase And Status’ ‘No More Idols’ because of its broader vision. I think it’s an album that’ll be looked back on in ten years time as a body of work that embodied everything that’s great about British dance music right now. A record that stood aloft in the winds of change, and stood FOR that change.

Either way, that and Nero’s ‘Welcome Reality’ are two monumental records that will rank right up there with some of the greatest in your collection. If you haven’t heard Nero’s album yet then wait until 16 Dec, when you’ll hear each track played out on the radio with the two lovely and superbly talented chaps who wrote and produced it in the studio with me.

That, by the way, is just the first festive treat we have for you on The Remix this year. Yes, my Christmas present to you all is as double barrelled as my name, and my album of the year dilemma for that matter. You’ll get the Nero show one week, then, the week after, the whole show, all four hours, will be co-presented by someone I’ve been trying to get on the show for YEARS, the deepest, most musically knowledgeable DJ I’ve ever met: Paul ‘El Hornet’ Harding of Pendulum. His depth of knowledge is astonishing, and that will surely be reflected in the four hour journey we’re about to take.

That show will be available right through the Christmas holidays on www.xfm.co.uk and will be fatter than your stomach come Boxing Day. So until next year, take care of each other. Eat well, drink well and do whatever you can to increase the love in your life. It’s been a pleasure talking to you, thank you for listening.

With much love and good fortune to every single one of you.

X eddy

thecalmzone.net
tinnitus.org.uk
xfm.co.uk

Approved: 0.8syooogeki

CMU Approved

0.8syooogeki, or 0.8秒と衝撃。 to give them their non-Romanised name, or 0.8 Seconds And Shock to give them their Google Translate name, are a duo from Tokyo formed in 2008 by model JM and Tokyo FM presenter Tadaomi Tōyama.

The pair released their debut album, ‘Zoo & Lennon’, the following year via Evol/Actwise. The follow-up, ‘Ichi-bō Ni-bō San-bō Yon-bō Go-bō Roku-bō, Tōyō no Techno’ (‘Blast 1 Blast 2 Blast 3 Blast 4 Blast 5 Blast 6, Far East Techno’) was released in Japan in May this year.

Despite the mention of techno in the title of that latest album, they actually play a form of hybrid punk with strong pop sensibilities. Their recordings are seemingly created by throwing as much as possible at the songs and hoping it somehow all fits together. And somehow that process actually works, ‘…Far East Techno’ (available outside Japan from HearJapan) is a really good album.

It benefits greatly from being completely over the top and totally unlike anything coming out of Western indie circles at the moment (or ever, really). It’s just endless amounts of fun, as you can see from the video for lead single ‘Machizo.Machiko.Hakai’ (something about kids destroying the city), which you can watch below.

Grooveshark emails on label deals: “It’s easier to ask for forgiveness later than it is to ask for permission now”

Business News Digital Grooveshark Timeline Labels & Publishers

Emails from Grooveshark’s Chairman, included in Universal Music’s latest lawsuit against the controversial streaming music platform, indicate that the service’s owners, Escape Media, deliberately set out to make large amounts of unlicensed music available, in order to build audience and generate user data; the plan being that once the firm reached a critical mass of users and stats, the big music companies wouldn’t be able to afford to not do a deal with them.

As previously reported, Universal launched a new lawsuit against Grooveshark last week. The streaming platform allows users to upload content into its libraries, which other users can then access. Although it has licensing deals in place with EMI and a handful of indies, the user-upload element means Grooveshark’s libraries contain many tracks from artists and labels with which it has no arrangements.

While various music types have cried foul regarding that fact, Grooveshark say that it operates a takedown system – removing unlicensed tracks if and when the company is made aware of them – giving it protection from copyright infringement claims under the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

While many in the music business reckon Grooveshark pays only lip service to its takedown commitments, and others believe the streaming company is abusing the safe harbour clauses of the DMCA, this is a grey enough area of US copyright law that if a label was to sue, it could not be assured success in court. In fact precedent in American law suggests that Grooveshark may have a stronger case.

With that in mind, Universal has been trying to find a way to sue where the DMCA takedown defence would not stand up, and to that end last week said it had evidence that staff at Grooveshark itself – including key senior executives – had uploaded a lot of the unlicensed content that can be found on the streaming music platform. The DMCA safe harbours would not apply if it’s the Grooveshark team, rather than users, uploading Universal’s music. Grooveshark says Universal has deliberately misinterpreted data it provided (as part of an earlier lawsuit) in order to make these claims.

More of the legal papers submitted to court by Universal as part of its new lawsuit have now been made public, including emails from Sina Simantob, a partner in one of the investment firms backing Escape Media, who has also taken the post of Chairman of the digital music firm.

C-Net has published two of those emails, one seemingly an internal message to one of Grooveshark’s founders, another to a possible investor, both of which seem to confirm the fears of many in the music business, that Grooveshark’s plan is to screw over rights holders now, so they can grow to a point where content firms are forced to do licensing deals. Cynics would argue that YouTube, the company Grooveshark directors often cite (in the context of “if YouTube is legal, so are we”), pursued a similar strategy in its early days.

In one of the Simantob emails published by C-Net, the investment man writes to a Josh in late 2009, presumably Grooveshark co-founder Josh Greenberg. He notes: “The only thing that I want to add is this: we are achieving all this growth without paying a dime to any of the labels. My favourite story related to our case is the story of a kid who appears in front of the judge for sentencing for the crime of having murdered both his parents saying ‘judge have mercy on me cuz I am an orphan'”.

He continues: “In our case we use the label’s songs till we get a 100 million uniques, by which time we can tell the labels who is listening to their music, where, and then turn around and charge them for the very data we got from them, ensuring that what we pay them in total for streaming is less than what they pay us for data mining. Let’s keep this quite [sic] for as long as we can”.

The second email, to a venture capitalist, comes from April 2010, and in it Simantob writes: “We bet the company on the fact that it is easier to ask for forgiveness than it is to ask for permission. When EMI sued, everyone thought it is the end of the company. Once we settled that suit everyone said EMI was weak anyway so the real Goliath to beat is [Universal Music Group]. Well it took the boys a bit before they could re-group but I think these guys have a real chance to settle with UMG within a year and by that time, they’ll be up to 35 million uniques and a force to be dealt with”.

In reality Universal has never really looked likely to settle on this. As with LimeWire, the sense you get from insiders is that Universal just wants this company sued out of business. And emails like these are only going to add to the resentment felt at many record companies regarding digital firms who skirt around copyright laws to build audience, hoping that mega-user figures will ensure more favourable licensing terms down the line. (Of course some people, including some in the music business, would argue that if the record industry made it easier for digital start-ups to get licences they’d be less likely to go the “ask for forgiveness later” route Simantob advocates, though that’s probably a debate for another day).

All that said, while the Simantob emails published by C-Net will piss off many in both the labels and artist community, they are not the smoking gun required by Universal to prove that Grooveshark staff members routinely upload unlicensed content to their own website, thereby committing copyright infringement. And Grooveshark maintains that Universal’s evidence to back up that allegation – the aforementioned data and an anonymous blog post whose author claims to work at the digital firm – is weak.

Charlotte Church gives evidence to Leveson

Legal Top Stories

Well, someone from the music domain had to show up eventually, didn’t they, the pop world being strangely absent from much of the Hack-gate scandal so far. OK, so we’ve had George Michael and Creation Records boss Alan McGee putting the boot in from the sidelines, but it’s surprising how few music stars have been part of this story to date; perhaps the pop PR community so freely provide gossip to the tabs about their clients, that the journalists never needed to actually hack any pop stars’ phones.

But yesterday a music person did finally appear before the government-instigated Leveson Inquiry into the seedier activities of the press. And it was Charlotte Church, in the tabs from childhood of course, who was on hand to describe the pressures inflicted on music stars who find themselves in the tabloid spotlight. Demonstrating the power – or, at least, the perceived power – of the papers in making or breaking stars in the entertainment business, Church revealed how – aged thirteen – she was urged to waive a £100,000 fee to sing at the wedding of Rupert Murdoch to his third wife Wendi Deng.

She says that she was told that Murdoch’s people had proposed she might sing for free in return for a ‘favour’, ie positive coverage in the newspapers owned by Murdoch’s News International, in particular, presumably, The Sun and the News Of The World. Both management and label, Church added, advised her to take the favour.

She continued: “I remember being told of the offer of the favour [from Murdoch’s people] – to get good press – and I also remember, being thirteen, and thinking ‘why would anyone take a favour of £100,000?’. But I was being advised by my management, and certain members of the record company, that he was a very, very powerful man and could certainly do with a favour of this magnitude”.

The returned favour, though, was short-lived, given the tabloids, including Murdoch’s papers, soon turned against the singer. She recalled: “I was initially marketed by an aggressive record company campaign in which I was branded ‘the voice of an angel’. Little did I know, as a twelve year old, that this description would be used and distorted repeatedly to mock me in catchy tabloid headlines”. She then recalled being “appalled” when, a few years later, The Sun had run a countdown to her sixteenth birthday, alluding to the fact that she was almost old enough to have consensual sex.

Honing in on other tabloid coverage of her personal life, she recalled how The Sun had revealed her first pregnancy before she had even told her family, saying: “I had not told anyone. I can’t see how it came from any other area [other than phone hacking]. My family were really upset that I had not told them first”.

More shocking, perhaps, was the News Of The World’s reporting on her father’s affair, and the impact that reporting had on her mother. Noting that the tabloid had already reported on her mother’s mental health at the time, Church said “they knew how vulnerable she was, but still published the story. It just had a massive impact on my mother’s health, her mental health”. The fact the paper was reporting on her mother’s condition also bothered Church, who adds “the only way they [could] know about that was either through [phone] hacking or the bribing of hospital staff”.

Although, perhaps, Church’s family suffered most from the tabloid intrusion, the singer added that it impacted on other friends and colleagues too, partly because, as the tabloids revealed secrets only a small group of people could have known, Church naturally found herself doubting the people around her – who was it that was leaking information to the press? Having subsequently discovered those secrets were probably obtained by phone hacking, Church admitted the guilt she now feels for having suspected others of providing stories to tabloid journalists.

You can read Church’s full statement here.

New questions raised over Wyclef Jean’s charity

IFPI sues TPB admins through Finnish courts

Legal

The International Federation Of The Phonographic Industry has launched litigation in the Finnish courts against the current administrators of The Pirate Bay, calling on said unknown people to “stop facilitating the unauthorised distribution of music”, and to pay compensation to the IFPI’s members, and rights owners affiliated with Finland’s Copyright Information And Anti-Piracy Center, which is also involved in the legal action.

Quite why the IFPI thinks the Finnish judiciary can succeed where the Swedish courts have failed – ie to actually take the rogue file-sharing website offline – isn’t clear, although in reality the claim against the admins of TPB is a sideshow to the main action here, which is an attempt to get a court order forcing two Finnish ISPs, Sonera and DNA, to block access to the Pirate Bay site.

IFPI Finland successfully got such an order against another Finnish ISP, Elisa, earlier this year, although that net firm is appealing that ruling. If Elisa, Sonera and DNA were all forced to stop their customers from accessing The Pirate Bay, the IFPI say, that would block 80% of Finnish web users (or, at least, 80% of web users not tech savvy enough to circumvent ISP instigated blocks).

As previously reported, in the UK the BPI has also requested various ISPs block access to the Bay, citing the precedent set in the recent MPA v BT case over the file-sharing site Newzbin. The ISPs are yet to officially respond, though it is likely legal action will be required.

TLC singer files for bankruptcy

Legal

The ‘T’ of TLC – T-Boz, or Tionne Watkins – has filed for bankruptcy, according to TMZ. The gossip site reports that Watkins, one third of the one time chart topping girl group, has run up debts in excess of $700,000, and is struggling to pay off the mortgage on her $1.2 million home.

Other reports suggest this is Watkin’s second filing for bankruptcy this year. TMZ adds that the singer says she is owed $250,000 in child support payments from the father of her eleven year old daughter, rapper Mack 10.

Buzzcocks to reunite with Howard Devoto

Artist News

The Buzzcocks will perform with co-founder Howard Devoto for the first time since 1977 next May, according to Louder Than War. Devoto formed the band with Pete Shelley in 1975, but left after the release of their debut EP, ‘Spiral Scratch’, subsequently forming Magazine.

According to LTW, Devoto will now join The Buzzcocks at the end of two upcoming shows, one in London and one in Manchester, and play with them on all four tracks from ‘Spiral Scratch’. The dates are as follows.

25 May: Manchester, Apollo
26 May: London, Brixton Academy

Lana Del Rey christens debut LP

Releases

So, it seems Interscope-signed starlet Lana Del Rey has inadvertently blurted out the title of her debut album to the world’s ravening music press. The revelation came about as she was discussing her forthcoming single, ‘Born To Die’, during an appearance on French television show ‘Tarantata’, when she remarked that her album would bear the same name. A tentative release date of 23 Jan, which reports claim Del Rey also divulged in the same interview, has been attached to the LP.

Perhaps this was all just a contrived means of revealing the news. Perhaps Lana needs media training. Possibly both.

Odd Future’s Mike G drops EP

Releases

Rapper Mike G, one of the more silken-voiced affiliates of Odd Future, has posted up a new EP entitled ‘Award Tour’. Keeping things very much within the OFWGKTA family, the seven-track set features production from Odd Future types Syd Tha Kid, Left Brain and Hodgy Beats. The EP fills the interim between Mike G’s debut album, ‘Ali’, and his as-yet unfinished sophomore suite, ‘Gold’.

As with many releases from the OF camp, you can download the full EP for free from the collective’s Tumblr.

St Spirit announce free single, live date

Gigs & Festivals

Several months since we approved so highly of their debut single ‘Build A Life’, London quintet St Spirit are back with a sequel in ‘New Skin’. Stirring up just as much of the chill and clamorous heartbreak that we admired in that first release, the new song is set to feature on the band’s first EP, which is due out in February of next year. It will be available for free download from the St Spirit website – www.stspirit.com – as of 9 Dec, when the band are also set to play a live show at Cargo.

DRC Music plan Rough Trade showcase

Gigs & Festivals

Members of DRC Music, the Damon Albarn-led collective of electronic producers and Congolese musicians, are to present a “unique collaborative performance” at London’s Rough Trade East on 6 Dec.

As previously reported, Albarn and a cast of producers – not least Kwes, Actress and Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs – recorded DRC Music’s debut album, ‘Kinshasa One Two’, in the Democratic Republic of Congo working with local singers and instrumentalists to raise funds for Oxfam.

With the first line-up announcement expected on Thursday, details are currently scarce. You can, however, procure a free wristband guaranteeing entry, and keep track of future additions to the bill, at the Rough Trade site.

Wednesday 30 November 2011, 12:29 | By Andy Malt

Brothers Ollie and Matt Jacob formed indie label Memphis Industries in 1998, releasing Blue State’s ‘Forever’ EP later the same year. Since then they have gone on to work with The Go! Team, The Pippettes, Field Music, Theoretical Girl, Frankie Rose And The Outs and many more.

READ MORE ABOUT: Memphis Industries

Wednesday 30 November 2011, 12:26 | By Aly Barchi

READ MORE ABOUT: Austra

Wednesday 30 November 2011, 12:23 | By CMU Editorial

READ MORE ABOUT: Conrad Murray | David Walgren | Ed Chernoff | Michael Jackson | Michael Pastor

Wednesday 30 November 2011, 12:19 | By CMU Editorial

READ MORE ABOUT: David Emmanuel | IPCC | Smiley Culture

Wednesday 30 November 2011, 12:15 | By CMU Editorial

READ MORE ABOUT: Lee Ranaldo | Sonic Youth

Wednesday 30 November 2011, 12:14 | By CMU Editorial

READ MORE ABOUT: Black Eyed Peas

Wednesday 30 November 2011, 12:08 | By CMU Editorial

READ MORE ABOUT: S Club 7 | Steps

Wednesday 30 November 2011, 12:03 | By CMU Editorial

READ MORE ABOUT: MIA | Nicki Minaj

Wednesday 30 November 2011, 12:02 | By CMU Editorial

READ MORE ABOUT: Halls

Wednesday 30 November 2011, 11:57 | By CMU Editorial

READ MORE ABOUT: Bleeding Heart Narrative

Wednesday 30 November 2011, 11:55 | By CMU Editorial

READ MORE ABOUT: Justice

Wednesday 30 November 2011, 11:54 | By CMU Editorial

READ MORE ABOUT: We Have Band

Wednesday 30 November 2011, 11:51 | By CMU Editorial

READ MORE ABOUT: Blood Orange | Das Racist

Wednesday 30 November 2011, 11:48 | By CMU Editorial

READ MORE ABOUT: Bertelsmann | BMG | Sony Music | Thomas Hesse

Wednesday 30 November 2011, 11:47 | By CMU Editorial

READ MORE ABOUT: Bauer Media

Wednesday 30 November 2011, 11:45 | By CMU Editorial

READ MORE ABOUT: Elvis Costello | Universal Music

Wednesday 30 November 2011, 11:39 | By CMU Editorial

READ MORE ABOUT: Jonathan Davis | Korn

Wednesday 30 November 2011, 11:38 | By CMU Editorial

READ MORE ABOUT: Guy Ritchie | Madonna

Tuesday 29 November 2011, 11:41 | By Eddy Temple-Morris

READ MORE ABOUT: Chase & Status | Eddy Temple Morris | Nero

Tuesday 29 November 2011, 11:40 | By Andy Malt

READ MORE ABOUT: 0.8syooogeki

Tuesday 29 November 2011, 11:40 | By CMU Editorial

READ MORE ABOUT: DMCA | EMI | Escape Media | Grooveshark | Sina Simantob | Universal Music | YouTube

Tuesday 29 November 2011, 11:36 | By CMU Editorial

READ MORE ABOUT: Charlotte Church | Leveson Inquiry | News International | News Of The World | Rupert Murdoch | The Sun

Tuesday 29 November 2011, 11:31 | By CMU Editorial

READ MORE ABOUT: Amisphere | Wyclef Jean | Yele Haiti Foundation

Tuesday 29 November 2011, 11:28 | By CMU Editorial

READ MORE ABOUT: Copyright | Finland | International Federation Of The Phonographic Industry (IFPI) | Piracy | The Pirate Bay

Tuesday 29 November 2011, 11:26 | By CMU Editorial

READ MORE ABOUT: T-Boz | Tionne Watkins | TLC

Tuesday 29 November 2011, 11:23 | By CMU Editorial

READ MORE ABOUT: Howard Devoto | The Buzzcocks

Tuesday 29 November 2011, 11:17 | By CMU Editorial

READ MORE ABOUT: Lana Del Rey

Tuesday 29 November 2011, 11:16 | By CMU Editorial

READ MORE ABOUT: Mike G | Odd Future

Tuesday 29 November 2011, 11:13 | By CMU Editorial

READ MORE ABOUT: St Spirit

Tuesday 29 November 2011, 11:09 | By CMU Editorial

READ MORE ABOUT: Damon Albarn | DRC Music