Bonafide Magazine @ MSN: Live Review: Fresh Island Festival

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Live Review: Fresh Island Festival Posted: 31 Jul 2016 02:31 PM PDT Boasting one of the longest coastlines in the Adriatic, Pag is an ancient Croatian island decorated by medieval relics and ramparts, making it a natural choice for R&B royalty and hip-hop's reigning kings and queens to convert into a summer home; the annual Fresh Island Festival a sunny procession of music's biggest and brightest. For many years, picturesque Pag has been more renowned for its lace, sheep's milk and cheese, than it has for its party scene. With the success of the Fresh Island Festival, held yearly in one of the island's two towns – Novalja – Pag is fast becoming one of the continent's premier clubbing destinations. Billed as Europe's leading urban music festival, this year's event – held from Tuesday 12 to Friday 15 July – marked Fresh Island's fifth year of "hip-hop hedonism". Backed by lead sponsor, LELO HEX™ – "the World's First Re-Engineered Condom" – the festival certainly set about providing revelling hip-hop heads with the most pleasurable summer-loving experience possible, rolling out a host of aristocratic names and headliners to match Novalja's stately mediterranean surroundings; delighting tourists, music lovers and festival-goers from all over the world with several lively and entertaining parties over the course of four eventful days. In Chris Brown and Wiz Khalifa, Kehlani and Ty Dolla $ign; not to mention DJ Premier, Statik Selektah, Chip and Skrillex, Fresh Island – staying true to its mission statement of catering to every "urban music need" – lit up what, for many, would have been the first week of summer, with a truly glittering array of R&B, grime, hip-hop and electronic stars; putting together a bass-heavy spectacle of sun-soaked swimming, dancing and drinking. The festival's rousing shows held in Novalja's best open-air clubs on the banks of Zrće beach, the event was a truly eye-catching one; its stunning settings making for a scenic and festive few days. Inviting adventurous sunseekers to acquaint themselves with popular local haunts like Aquarius, Kalypso and Papaya, Fresh Island 2016, as with previous years, offered partygoers a real and charming feel for Pag, its islanders and nightlife; opening their eyes to a different, more spirited side of Croatia. In addition to its line-up of performers and shows, the festival was also enlivened by a range of get togethers and activities; Bonafide's very own Purple Boat Party kicking off Day 1. Hosted by DJ Statik Selektah and Latin Prince, Bonafide made waves with a party on the Adriatic; Statik and co taking sail, soaking up the rays and juking it up along the Croatian coast. Held in honour of the late, great Purple One himself, the Prince-themed party set the tone for the rest of the festival; Statik and Latin Prince's crowd-pleasing sets literally rocking the boat and compelling everyone on-board to turn up to the fullest. Primed with his award-winning and chart-breaking discography, Taylor Gang's finest, Wiz Khalifa – the highlight of the festival's first night – got even wavier, turning up the volume with a deafening array of bangers; and raising the roof off Papaya with an impressive, energetic performance. Reeling off anthem after anthem – including We Dem Boyz, James Bong and On My Level – the enigmatic Pittsburgher lived up to his status as one of rap's biggest stars with a truly electrifying performance. Not to be outdone, beautiful Oakland songstress, Kehlani, turned up the heat in her own inimitable, sultry way; adding some playful soul to the proceedings on Day 2. Flanked by two lithe dancers, the charming 21-year-old showed off some of the moves that once hinted at a promising dance career; confining all the tabloid tattle and social media pablum of the past few months to the wayside with fun, heartfelt renditions of The Way and You Should Be Here; her rapt audience – beaming and dancing – lapping up the rhythms and rays in equal measure. An engaging showcase of popular R&B, the young singer's show was a preview of sorts for the festival's final night; the mere mention of Chris Brown – arguably Fresh Island 2016's biggest draw – raising the hairs on the back of excited concert-goers' necks. That the Virginian superstar managed to leave fans satisfied at the end of Day 3 speaks to his popularity and prodigious gifts as a performer; the beloved crooner making amends for an inauspicious start to the night with an exhibition of showmanship. Having initially dismayed fans by showing up late and then briefly cancelling the show (due to inclement weather), the 27-year-old atoned for the delays and initial disappointment; switching venues to deliver a stellar box-office performance. Marked by lively, dynamic shows, wet and wild pool parties, and amusing grime karaoke, Fresh Island 2016, even with a few hiccups, proved a fun success. Still young, the festival is growing and coming into its own. Not quite the stuff of legends yet, this year's event had more than enough going for it to be remembered in the best of lights – those four days drinking and dancing along the winding stretch of the long Zrće pebble beach a memorable start to a great, festive summer. One that might – just might, the festival calendar permitting – be looked back on as fondly as Pag's storied history; as fondly as medieval myths and lore.

Potholes In My Blog: Outside Lands 2015 Review + Photos: Kendrick Lamar, D’Angelo, and Big Freedia

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• Outside Lands 2015 Review + Photos: Kendrick Lamar, D’Angelo, and Big Freedia
• Potholes In My Blog To Go On Hiatus
• Ohbliv Re-Releases His First Beat-Tape ‘Rugged Tranquility’
• Wale – The Album About Nothing
• Watch Lido & Canblaster In Studio For The Making Of Their Superspeed [EP]
• Watch Yasiin Bey Rap MF DOOM Songs On His Beyondoom Project
• Rapper Big Pooh – Words Paint Pictures
• Listen: SBTRKT’s “Roulette” & “No Less”
• Earl Sweatshirt – I Don’t Like Shit, I Don’t Go Outside

Outside Lands 2015 Review + Photos: Kendrick Lamar, D’Angelo, and Big Freedia Posted: 13 Aug 2015 07:44 AM PDT Editor’s note: Yes, Potholes is still on hiatus, but writer Fred Castano was already set to review this year’s Outside Lands, so here we are. Hope y’all enjoy it and we’ll let you know when and/if anything changes on our site. Second editor’s note: D’Angelo photos by Curtis Stankalis. All other photos by Daniel Ancheta.

Bonafide Magazine @ MSN: Review: Various Artists – Hyperdub 10.4

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Review: Various Artists – Hyperdub 10.4 Posted: 14 Nov 2014 12:51 AM PST Will the circle be unbroken? Hyperdub's ambitious programme of releases for its ten year anniversary has highlighted how the label has managed to redefine the landscape in electronic music since its foundation back in 2004. It has consistently resisted any pigeon hole or deference to trend, most commonly finding itself at the forefront. 10.4, the final compilation marking the decade, sets back to more conventional territory following 10.3 and its ambient, surreal tone. A double record that collects new material on the first disc and compiles favourites on the second, 10.4 is all adrenaline and club surge. Lazer War by Walton is indicative of the pace, with its zipping nasal melody line set alongside insistent booming kicks and claps. This is music for sound systems and clubs, dance music that plays to the galleries without becoming cliché or blandishment. The second disc will be familiar enough to anyone who has followed the label in recent years, with tracks from many of the usual suspects. It is worth pausing to note the sad passing of Stephen Samuel Gordon, aka vocalist The Spaceape, who is represented through a track from his collaborations with label founder Kode9, Love is the Drug. Not since the early work of Tricky has a vocalist so singularly vocalised a distinct kind of inner-city paranoia that is both intense and soporific. it evokes the simultaneous sense of suspense and momentum that is characteristic of a good club experience: an invocation of both tactile exteriority and veering interior motion The new material is of equal standard to the old, and demonstrates the label has not lost its powerful sway on the dance floor. Fhloston Paradigm's The Phoneix builds in layers, becoming colossal as the presence of the keyboard pulses gradually expand and contract through filter sweeps. Even listened to on headphones, it evokes the simultaneous sense of suspense and momentum that is characteristic of a good club experience: an invocation of both tactile exteriority and veering interior motion. Cooly G, who has been perhaps the most present on all the compilations, gives two star turns with Him da Biz and Love Again. Martyn weighs in with Megadrive Generation, which lays down a muscular rhythm that recalls the near-Brazilian grooves of El-B. Its transcendence into discordant chatter and broad warm chords at the end proves to be a satisfying coda. It seems timely, having reached the end of reviewing the compilation series, to state again how significant Hyperdub has become in electronic music in the last ten years. Few labels can boast such high quality control, or the ability to showcase artists and genres well deserving of wider attention. From their recent collaborations with Teklife, and the support demonstrated for relative enigmas such as Burial, Dean Blunt and Inga Copeland, it is clear that this is a label founded on a genuine desire to place the artist and music at the centre of its endeavours. There are few others that can boast that and still demonstrate the same level of success and influence. Congratulations. Here's to another ten. Words: Andrew Spragg

Bonafide Magazine @ MSN: Review: Cooly G – Wait ‘Til Night

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Review: Cooly G – Wait ‘Til Night Posted: 02 Nov 2014 01:14 PM PST Riding high on the wave of sensually-charged, sultry R&B that has slowly but surely meandered its way into the forefront of the electronic underground, Cooly G's second LP is a stripped-back ode to dark bedrooms, crumpled sheets and the things that happen in between them. It is an album about undiluted physical attraction. Wait 'Til Night sees Cooly G, the moniker of Londoner Merrissa Campbell, return to her label birthplace Hyperdub with a collection of R&B tunes that mark a change in direction away from the dancefloor orientated creations that first bought her to the electronic tastemaker's attention back in 2009. It also marks a clearly delineated shift from her first and widely acclaimed 2012 LP, Playin' Me, which saw Campbell offset her raw vocals against a percussive conglomeration of grime-inflected beats and shimmering synth arpeggios. The duration of the LP plays out like a fiery, classic love ballad Instead, Cooly G has created a pointedly different, skeletal sonic framework of sparse, lo-fi instrumentals against which to wax lyrical about the birds and the bees. There is a tangible rawness to the relentless pulse of the album, and a real sense of unbridled, nocturnal passion is captured in the stretched out drum patterns and woozy, heavy punches of bass spattered throughout. The duration of the LP plays out like a fiery, classic love ballad, albeit a digitised one. Campbell alludes to rap on moody closer The 3 of Us, but otherwise these tracks are all straight up sex jams; the single thematic focus of the album means that Wait 'Til Night is a sleek, sweaty beast. Cooly G has a natural penchant for addictive hooks.

Bonafide Magazine @ MSN: Review: Kelis – Food

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Review: Kelis – Food Posted: 15 Apr 2014 12:24 AM PDT   Kelis has been releasing albums for over 15 years now, a fact that seems remarkable when listening to her breakthrough single, Caught Out There. There is still something fresh about the chorus' melody, a swoop of melting keyboard lines that wouldn't be out of place on most contemporary electronica records. It has been a career marked with a number of stand-out songs, often facilitated by production from The Neptunes. Whatever pop success Milkshake may have enjoyed, it remains an inherently strange arrangement with its monster keyboard and chiming beat. This has often been the hallmark of Kelis' best material, a marrying of soulful pop with the punch of the Neptunes' angular instrumentation. With Food, Kelis' fifth album to date, this combination is eschewed in favour of collaborative production and song writing with David Sitek (TV on the Radio) and Todd Simon. It certainly feels different, with lush, far more conventional arrangements that recall some of the later work of TV on the Radio. The brass and percussion combination on Cobbler feels like it could have been lifted straight from Dear Science, albeit with Kelis channelling Curtis Mayfield's delivery throughout the verse. As a singer, she does not display an especially dynamic range, though it has a distinctiveness of tone that sets it apart from many of her peers. Bless the Telephone shows it off in an uncommon light, a measured ballad, set against a male counterpart and guitar. Unfortunate then that the lyrics are saccharine, and that the song feels underdeveloped.

Bonafide Magazine @ MSN: Review: 100s – IVRY

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Review: 100s – IVRY Posted: 27 Mar 2014 01:07 AM PDT   There’s probably some great cosmic force at work that meant I ended up first hearing 100s as I enter the last hundred of my bottomed out overdraft. It helps then that IVRY, the recently released mixtape from the Fool’s Gold signed rapper, produces the complete opposite of the dread I felt when checking my bank balance. This isn’t scraping the barrel of austerity, this is blown-out and downright decadent hip-hop, and flamboyance is easily evidenced as key.

Bonafide Magazine @ MSN: Review: Chuck Inglish – Convertibles

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Review: Chuck Inglish – Convertibles Posted: 18 Mar 2014 06:41 AM PDT   The Cool Kids took an age to release their debut album When Fish Ride Bicycles and Chuck Inglish has followed suit by taking his time in releasing Convertibles, his first solo release bestowed with the title of album over mixtape. It proves to be worth the wait, amounting to a strong showing for a debut, even from someone who's been in the game since '07. A few strange guys lurk in the background of Convertibles. The album is released on an offshoot of Federal Prism Records which is owned by TV on The Radio guitarist/producer Dave Sitek and the whole album was co-produced by Mike Einziger. Einziger might not be a familiar name, but as the guitarist of Incubus and the guy behind the guitar part of Avicii's Wake Me Up, he certainly knows a fair amount about the good and evil spheres of the music world.

Bonafide Magazine @ MSN: Review: Doppelgangaz – Peace Kehd

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Review: Doppelgangaz – Peace Kehd Posted: 04 Mar 2014 01:02 PM PST   For those unfamiliar with them from previous releases, Doppelgangagaz are a pair of MC/producers from Orange County, New York – Matter ov Fact and EP, whose Lone Sharks album broke water last year to some critical acclaim. The album is book-ended by Peace In and Peace Out and starts promisingly enough with squealing moog set against muted piano chord reminiscent of RZA or Jonwayne but after that the production settles into an unsurprising series of vaguely late-90s sounding beats; solid, neck-snapping but rarely memorable. Shit Rock brings some of the wooziness and triplet flows we've seen on the new Mac Miller album over phased breaks and sparse crunchy drums. Nice runs of compound rhymes show EP and Matter Ov Fact flexing some definite skills and is likely the first time "armoire" has been used in a verse to rhyme with "Con-Air" and "armchair". Overall themes don't deviate much from documenting their wayward, 'live rugged' lifestyles and casual misogyny but the album works well as an introduction to an interesting pair of characters. As with all culture, context is everything. Falling somewhere between tribute and pastiche, this feels like it's arrived 15 years too late at a party that's already finished. That being said, as much as it could be criticised for being backward looking, Peace Kehd could also be a comfort blanket for boom-bap fans that never wanted rap music to go any further than whatever their particular golden age was. Words: Kieran Hadley

Bonafide Magazine @ MSN: Review: Schoolboy Q – Oxymoron

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Review: Schoolboy Q – Oxymoron Posted: 27 Feb 2014 05:32 AM PST   Top Dawg Entertainment's roster has been quietly going about their business for a while now. It's no hidden secret that New York hip-hop has been enjoying a purple patch of late, but the Black Hippy crew has slowly been shifting the gaze back towards the West Coast this year with new recruit Isaiah Rashad's Cilivia Demo and now, Schoolboy Q's debut major label album, Oxymoron. One obvious but lazy comparison with Oxymoron would be Kendrick Lamar's 2012 classic good kid, m.A.A.d city, especially in light of the recent drama at the Grammy's, but Q goes in with different intentions. It does share some similar moments of introspection; we are granted the occasional window into Q's dark formative years in the same maad city on Hoover Street ('Had roaches in my cereal/ My uncle stole my stereo') and Prescription/Oxymoron ('What's wrong with me? Now the pressure creep/ I'm stressing deep, even in my sleep').

Bonafide Magazine @ MSN: Review: patten – ESTOILE NAIANT

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Review: patten – ESTOILE NAIANT Posted: 24 Feb 2014 11:03 AM PST   ESTOILE NAIANT is patten's first full-length release on Warp Records after last year's EOLIAN INSTATE EP which served as a teaser for the album as well as being an anagram of his debut LP. patten is a mysterious producer whose music is as difficult to define as the titles of his releases are to explain. Not quite Burial in terms of anonymity, he prefers to give garbled and nonsensical answers to interviewers rather than explicit statements of intent. His carefully crafted persona makes his work all the more absorbing and ESTOILE certainly delivers in that sense. His first album GLAQJO XAACSSO was released on No Pain In Pop to warm reviews that were reluctant to praise the frenetic and scattergun approach to production. ESTOILE is a step in the right direction as the tracks are more identifiable mainly down to the fact that basic melodies last for more than a few seconds.

Bonafide Magazine @ MSN: Review: 10 Years of Phonica

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Review: 10 Years of Phonica Posted: 19 Feb 2014 01:00 AM PST   Over the tumultuous ten years since its inception, Phonica Records has provided a constant reference point for electronic music lovers in London. Whilst the last decade has seen innumerable changes in the arcing and intermingling trajectories of dance music, the record shop – nestled in the cultural heartland of Soho – has obstinately maintained its status as a guiding musical beacon. Founded by a small collective of dance music enthusiasts that included Simon Rigg, Tom and Heidi Relleen, Will Saul and Pete Herbert, the shop quickly established itself amongst the crème de la crème of London's vinyl distributors. With a finger firmly on the pulse of the international dance circuit Phonica became renowned for its rare collections and exotic tastes, which have been lauded by some of the most celebrated artists and music aficionados to pass through the capital. Its unabated growth has been innately entwined with the resurgence of vinyl as the medium du jour of dance music, coupled with a consistently forward thinking music policy and musical community ethos. The launch of its own, acclaimed in-house label as well as numerous in-store gigs and parties has cemented Phonica's position as a London dance music institution.

Bonafide Magazine @ MSN: Review: Ras G – Raw Fruit Vol. 2

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Review: Ras G – Raw Fruit Vol. 2 Posted: 29 Jan 2014 01:44 AM PST "Raw Fruit 2!!! same agenda another raw “cold pressed” blunt smoking green drink sippin beat adventure made at my SpaceBase for I&I to vibe out to" So says the maker himself on the purpose and production for Raw Fruit Vol. 2, the second beat tape in a series of four. Ras G is a producer’s producer. Frequently associated with Brainfeeder, Dakim, Kutmah and the Los Angeles beat scene as a whole, his work takes a more experimental and jazzy approach than many of his contemporaries, but is no less revered because of it. Last year's 2013 album Back on the Planet raised Ras' profile up a few notches from a respected underground beatmaker to psychedelic space voyager. But his latest entry into the Raw Fruits canon shares relatively little in common with his full-length. Anyone expecting more along the lines of Back on the Planet will ultimately find themselves left if not disappointed, then a little bemused. These Raw Fruit tapes were not meant to follow what was a highly praised full-bodied release of high fidelity production values; they are raw, off the cuff cassette tapes, and Vol. 2 heartily conforms to that practise.

Bonafide Magazine @ MSN: Review: Oneohtrix Point Never – R Plus Seven

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Review: Oneohtrix Point Never – R Plus Seven Posted: 27 Oct 2013 11:16 AM PDT The music of Oneohtrix Point Never – the moniker of Daniel Lopatin – will come as a bit of a shock to the first-time listener. That is not to say that the music is abrasive or confrontational, in effect it is quite the reverse. The synthesiser lines and stuttered samples have a soporific quality, and yet there is something about it that prompts a mixture of confusion and confrontation. However, for those prepared to give R Plus Seven a chance this will rapidly become part of the appeal. There are very few people that could claim to be contemporaries in regard to Lopatin's style. James Ferraro, of the now defunct Skaters, could perhaps come close; his 2011 album Far Side Virtual seems a definite touch-stone for R Plus Seven, with its counterbalancing of high-gloss synth pre-sets against a fuzzy audio fidelity.

Bonafide Magazine @ MSN: Sir Froderick x Bonafide Beats #46

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Sir Froderick x Bonafide Beats #46 Posted: 23 Oct 2013 08:55 AM PDT Hot on the heals of our interview with Sir Froderick, comes the latest Bonafide Beats mixtape. Entitled LA Meltdown, Bonafide Beats #46 is an introduction to Sir Froderick’s production skills and penchant for interrupted grooves and stop-start style that distorts the music and keeps the listener interested.

Darkside: Psychic – review

(Other People/Matador)

Darkside is a collaboration between digital minimalist Nicolas Jaar and multi-instrumental jazz refugee Dave Harrington, two New York residents who recently and mischievously remixed all of Daft Punk's Random Access Memories . Generally, electric guitars do not have a natural simpatico with deep digital music. But here, Jaar's staticky nocturnal productions come augmented by guitar and vocals. Jaar has said it is his "rock'n'roll record"; the classy 11-minute Golden Arrow is an accurate taster of the cinematic bent of much of Psychic. The only fusion too far here is Paper Trails, a blues-funk digression from this otherwise elegant experiment: closing track Metatron marries blues and sci-fi much better.

Rating: 3/5

• Electronic music

Kitty Empire

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Jon Hopkins – review

 

Koko, London

The Mercury nominee's organic approach to constructing sound gave his set flesh and feeling

Cultural commenters were aghast this month when the Mercury prize shortlist emerged without a single token classical or jazz entry at the bottom boasting triple-figure odds of winning. Instead, alone in the rank-outsider spot sat the second Mercury nomination for ambient pioneer and Eno and Coldplay associate Jon Hopkins . His King Creosote collaboration Diamond Mine was unjustly passed over in 2011, and his latest album Immunity – a more frug-friendly offering than previous forays into amorphous melody and movie soundtracks – looks destined for similar cult respect; the kudos of the shunned.

Kronos Quartet/Kimmo Pohjonen/Samuli Kosminen – review

 

Barbican, London

The UK premiere of a dazzling electro-folk collaboration between Kronos and two Finnish musicians was a thrilling blitz of sound

Even by Kronos Quartet standards, this was a exhilarating performance. The adventurous Americans have constantly pushed forward the musical boundaries for a string quartet, collaborating with artists from across the globe, while reworking anything from jazz and world music to the avant-garde. Nine years ago, in Helsinki, they gave the world premiere of a work that they had commissioned two Finnish musicians to write, and now, at last, it received its first performance in the UK. Uniko was a constantly shifting kaleidoscope of avant-garde electronica, global folk styles and classical influences, with surround-sound and visual effects added in. It was an extraordinary piece of music.

Fuck Buttons – review

 

SWG3, Glasgow

Hairs tingle and fillings buzz as Andrew Hung and Benjamin John Power set their cosmic electronica to maximum heavy

Their name may invite the use of asterisks, but Fuck Buttons sound more like an obelisk: towering, dark and heavy. Andrew Hung and Benjamin John Power's music was used repeatedly at the London 2012 Olympics opening ceremony, where their fecund electronica helped create and sustain an atmosphere of off-kilter euphoria. They achieved their own podium finish when Slow Focus, their third album, cracked the top 40 this summer.

At this sold-out gig, Hung and Power face each other over a snakepit of cables, effects pedals and black boxes. It looks like the Robot Wars pit lane on a ping pong table, and the bodge-tech vibe is reinforced by a sequencer mounted in roll-on luggage and a stage set-up that includes two motion-sensing Xbox 360 Kinect cameras, hacked to project real-time silhouettes of the duo as they jab and twiddle their gear.

White Lies: Big TV – review

(Fiction)

Death and taxidermy: these used to be the certainties that defined White Lies. These provided at least two song titles, Death and Taxidermy, staking out White Lies' plot in pop's overcrowded churchyard. The west London trio released their debut, To Lose My Life , in January of 2009 (a quiet month), and promptly hit the No 1 spot, eventuallyselling nearly 900,000 copies worldwide. Whether it was any good or not largely depended on your attitude to stone seraphim.

White Lies' songs sulked grandiosely, coupling icy synths to Harry McVeigh's sonorous vocals, a formula previously trialled to lucrative returns by Editors. Unlike Editors, though, who beefed up the scrawny post-punk anomie of Joy Division, White Lies also threw back to bands like the Human League, Depeche Mode and Tears for Fears while glancing hopefully across to the Killers, masters of the stadium synth-pop takeover. Eighties addicts found much to savour in them; likewise, people on an Interpol jag. For all their melodic nous, though, White Lies often sounded like the barely-not-teenagers they were; fixating on the downside, inflating everything out of all proportion.

Washed Out: Paracosm – review

(Weird World)

On this record's title track there's a repeated rippling noise that sounds exactly like the sound effect used to denote the beginning of a "dream sequence" in a tongue-in-cheek movie. "Chillwave", the genre with which Washed Out, or Ernest Greene, is synonymous, was always a tongue-in-cheek name but this remains non-ironic music about nothing more interesting than vague good vibes ("Weekend's almost here now/ It's getting warmer outside"). Weightless, for example, feels just that: a pleasant sensation, but it makes you long for some ballast to alleviate the boredom.