Videos of whats to come this week at Cargo!

The Phenomenal Handclap Band – Live in NYC

Merdan Taplak – Metisse

Memory Tapes -  Bicycle

Retribution Gospel Choir – Hide It Away

Brother Ali – Take Me Home

Adam F is confirmed to play Cargo on April 2nd Get your Tickets from Ticketweb!

 
Inspired by her teenage years at the legendary Haçienda in Manchester Lottie has gone on to become a major presence on the European club circuit. Winning awards such as Sony Ericsson Musik magazines “Best New DJ” and Dancestars “Best breakthrough DJ” in the last decade she found her first residency at Londons infamous club Turnmills.

Having remixed everyone from Jamiroquai to Caged Baby, and teaming up with Serge Santiago for their much loved rave anthem remix of It’s Magic” Lottie has now teamed up with Pete Martin from Coburn under the Dr Strangelove alias. They’ve already remixed David Guetta, hot new indie act A Human and have new material coming out at the end of the summer, the first single entitled “Strange Times”.

Listen to Lottie’s Mixes!!

Detroit Social Club

After a packed out Headlining show at Cargo last week, we caught up with Detroit Social Club, They spoke about Twitter, Supporting Oasis, Peace and love and Flaming Lips!

Who are Detroit Social Club…in a nut shell?

6 fragile characters making a bit of noise and singing about their lives. David is the one at the front, Greenie is the one at the back, Chris has the bass, Johnny has the guitar, Dale stands behind the keyboard and Welshy does loads of different thing.

Your front man has described him self as a vibe creator, what’s your vibe for 2010?

 Peace and love to all men. We just want to get on the road as much as we can, experience as much as we can this year, see some places we haven’t seen, and carry on writing music. Were all fit and healthy people who want to make the most of this chance that has fortunately been put in our path.

You supported Oasis in 2009, Are you going to miss them? You think they’ll be back?

I’m probably not going to miss them, because I didn’t really listen to any of their later stuff. I miss the old Oasis, that I listened to as a kid, every day. But I think the time was probably right. I really hope they don’t get back together, so they can be remembered how they should be. It wouldn’t be right if they went on for 200 years like the Rolling Stones.

What do you consider to be your greatest pressures, in this increasingly digital age?

 I don’t think any of a persons greatest pressures should be based within music, or related to a digital age, but obviously the media is evolving, music can rely less on TV or radio, or even literature anymore. It has to adapt to become an internet based media, and I think the adaptation hasn’t occurred fully yet. I don’t even think some people in the industry realise that they need to adapt. They are the ones who’ll get, and are getting, stung. As a band nowadays you are expected to do so much yourself, like twitter, facebook, myspace, bebo. All that stuff. Ten years ago you could just concentrate on the music, on writing songs, you wouldn’t have to worry that you haven’t done a new blog for a week and a half. I genuinely think this pressure on bands to do all the networking stuff is diluting the quality of their music. Having said that, It’s an enjoyable part of it, conversing with new people about music, in it’s own right its a beautiful thing.

What’s the best and worst Gig you have been to?

The best gig I’ve ever been to, no word of a lie, was Flaming Lips at Rockness last year. Amazing show. The worst gig I’ve ever been to?! I’d probably upset a few people if I was honest here, so I’ll be diplomatic and say The Hoosiers at Newcastle Uni two years ago. To be fair, I only went because we were supporting them for freshers week.

What new bands have you been listening to?

There aren’t a great deal of new bands around that I have fallen in love with. I think that’s more down to not having as much time available anymore to make the effort. I really like what I’ve heard by The Big Pink, I think they’re great.

What can we expect from the latest album?

 I think the album will surprise a lot of people. Whether that’s in a good way, or a bad way, only time will tell. It’s taken quite a while to do, and we’ve kind of fell out of the loop a little bit until this tour kicked off, but I’m proud of a lot of the album, so hopefully other people will catch on too.

 Any famous last words?

 Anything I said wouldn’t really be that famous, so Id say Do unto others as you would have others do unto you. Moses, very wise man.

MEN are confirmed to play Cargo 12th April, Last time they were over our friends over at SPOONFED Interviewd them, see what that had to say ….

Fronted by two thirds of Le Tigre, Brooklyn-based performance collective MEN aren’t like your usual indie/art band. The project of JD Samson and Johanna Fateman, they focus on the radical potential of dance and make booty-shaking tunes that speak of issues as diverse as wartime economies, sexual compromise, and demanding liberties.

I caught up with JD and bandmates Ginger and Michael in Brighton to hear more about their musical endeavours, their love for Dizzee Rascal and the pitfalls of political dance.

Can you explain how MEN came about after Le Tigre’s hiatus in 2006?

JD: Le Tigre finished and we each individually had our own projects. Johanna and I had been DJing a lot and we decided to turn our duo into a collective, bringing in Michael and Ginger. We’ve completed around seven or eight songs and we have a couple more to record, then hopefully we’ll have our record finished in about a month.

Le Tigre’s music was notoriously politically charged. How is it different writing as MEN and what issues are the new songs covering?

JD: We’re artists and activists and that’s who we are as people. All of us are separate from the band and all of us are queer – that’s a big part of our lives. We spend a lot of time paying attention to our politics so I think our music naturally ends up being politically charged. It’s less something that we feel forced to do, it’s just natural to us.

Do you think that as long as you’re making music and art that the subject matter is always going to be about your political stances?

JD: I think working with Kathleen and Jo [Le Tigre] has taught me about writing in this way. Most people’s songs are about love but I was schooled in this way that music is about life, not just about love, so it can be about anything.

Ginger: I don’t think it’s that the topics are that pre-determined. It’s not like we set out to write an album that’s a queer activist project – it’s just the way we live our lives, the way we think, the people around us, the things that we’re doing.

The production and sound of the new tracks is a lot slicker than the recognisably lo-fi sounds of Le Tigre. Was that a conscious decision?

JD: It’s come from all different things. One thing is that I’ve learnt a lot. Being with Le Tigre until ‘This Island’, we all became better musicians. DJing helped me to analyse music. Working with Ginger and Michael, both instrumentalists, has helped to understand the music better. Le Tigre was such an experiment – pushing buttons and making some amazing things happen but it really was so experimental.

Who are you listening to these days?

JD: We’re really into Dizzee Rascal’s new album. The production is incredible!
Do you not find the song ‘Freaky Freaky’ [in which Dizzee reels off a list of girls’ names and various sexual encounters with them in detail] degrading and offensive to women?

JD: It’s a bit like that other song..

Michael: [Sings] A little bit of Monica..!

JD: Yeah! The Mambo Number 5! In the states Dizzee is really underground. His music is innovative; it refers to so many different periods of music.

Ginger: I feel like you could listen to this and be offended from a really essentialist feminist standpoint.

You’ve recently been working with Christina Aguilera on her new album. What other female artists would you like to work with?

JD: I have so much respect for the artists that are at that popstar level. The amount of work that they put in is pretty crazy. I really respect Lady Gaga – she’s an incredible performance artist which is cool. I don’t know? Joan Armatrading?

What would your ultimate milestone be as MEN?

Ginger: If we could open for Joan Armatrading! [Cheers] Or record a song with her.

Michael: I think something interesting that’s happening is that not all of our audience is queer. I think it’s interesting because we’re obviously totally gay, yet we have really straight dudes feeling this. It’s nice to appeal to not just a queer audience.

Ginger: Another grand vision is to do a major touring act, like a festival model with a bunch of queer bands that would tour and there would be this following of people that would come and travel with us until we ended up with this ridiculously huge queer festival somewhere !

One of our regular DJs ‘White Tyson’ has made a banging new mix, mashing up some UK funky, 2 step and tropical vibes- check it out:

Photo: Paule Jarrot

Art Rock project HTRK, pronounced ‘Hate Rock’ and also known as Hate Rock Trio, began performing in Melbourne 2003. After their former group, Portraits of Hugo Perez, disbanded, bassist Sean Stewart and guitarist Nigel Yang recruited vocalist Jonnine D with aims to create a project like The Birthday Party with slow mechanical repetition (courtesy of sparse primitive drum machine loops and Jonnine playing percussion), ghostly cold wave electronics and deafening guitar feedback. The bands aesthetic of excessively slow tempos, androgynous vocals, insistent repetition and extremely high-volume performance drastically clashed with the ’80s garage-rock revival scene that was reaching peak popularity in Melbourne. This prompted a mass exodus of bands from Melbourne relocating in Europe.

The trio followed their love of all things noise-rock, shoegaze and experimental electronica to Berlin, where they recorded an EP. A single live take captured on borrowed equipment is the closest document of the bands uncompromising live shows. ‘Nostalgia’ was self-released in a limited run of 500 but the band attracted critical attention and British Label Fire Records re-released the EP in 2007.

Two years later and having signed for Blast First Petite (Suicide, Pansonic, Alan Vega, The Slits) the trio were invited to record their debut full-length, ‘Marry Me Tonight,’ by the ubiquitous Melbourne producer Lindsay Gravina. The late, great Rowland S Howard (The Birthday Party & The Bad Seeds) shared the production duties and also occasionally contributed on guitar. ‘Marry Me Tonight‘ stands as a more refined, streamlined piece of work without sacrificing the harsh industrial repetition which previously defined the band.

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HTRK took time out of their busy touring schedule supporting The Horrors to answer a few questions.

Production duties on ‘Marry Me Tonight’ were handed over to former The Birthday Party guitarist Rowland S Howard. What were the main reasons behind this collaboration and how have TBF influenced your sound?

We’ve always been big fans of Rowland… admiring him only from afar until he approached us with the idea of producing… When we sat down together and listened to our demos for the album he talked about making the album quite pop so that younger people (or the young at heart) could easily fall in love with it. There is a particular type of romance that Rowland embodies…The Birthday Party has this romance too, beneath the violence and delirium and oblivion.

What are the 5 albums that have most influenced you?

NY – Toshimaru Nakamura and Keith Rowe – Weather Sky, Hungry Ghosts – s/t, Thela – Argentina, Blixa Bargeld – Commissioned Music and Vladislav Delay – Multila

SS – Sonic Youth ‘Evol’, Pita ‘Get Out’, Oval ‘94 Diskont’, Suicide ‘The First Album’, Ø – Oleva

What was the reason behind leaving Melbourne and heading to London (via an extended stopover in Berlin) and how have these cities influenced your sound?

We had only discussed moving cities as a vague possibility but then Jonn turned up to rehearsal with three flights to Berlin put on her credit card. We were quite bored with the music scene in Melbourne and wanted to find a stranger atmosphere to live. Living in Berlin galvanised our sound rather than changed it, though when thinking back it is a bit of a black hole…. London’s influence is as yet unknown but new stuff is definitely more languid or luxuriant.

What was the first record you ever bought? And where did you buy it?

SS – Ice-T ‘Home Invasion’ on cassette, purchased at Brash’s in Chadstsone Shopping Centre

JS – Bon Jovi ‘Slippery When Wet’ at a record shop in East Bentleigh, Melbourne

What’s the best book you’ve read and film you’ve seen in the last 6 months?

NY – ‘Try’ by Dennis Cooper and best films are ‘Slow Slidings of Pleasure’ by Robbe-Grillet, ‘In the city of Sylvia’ by José Luis Guerín and ‘Blissfully Yours’ by Apichatpong ‘Joe’ Weerasethakul.

SS – ‘The Coming Insurrection’ by The Invisible Committee and ‘Synecdoche’

JS – ‘Romancing Opiates: Pharmacological Lies and the Addiction Bureaucracy’ by Theodore Dalrymple and the film ‘Lizard in a woman’s skin’ by Lucio Fulci

Do you have an appreciation – a love, even – of other acts on the Blast First Records (Suicide, Sonic Youth, Liars, Dinosaur Jr) and did their history with the label lead to you to signing with Blast First Petite?

We love all that stuff, especially Pan Sonic and Fushitsusha.

What bands have you seen and wanted to be a part of?

None

Do you read your own press?

Sometimes, as market research

Can you explain how you became involved in the Fire Records ‘James Joyce – Chamber Music’ compilation?

Fire asked us as a last-minute favour to contribute a musical verse…we knew nothing about the poem beforehand and still don’t.

Can you explain your interpretation and in what way has Joyce influenced your song writing?

We recorded it swiftly and there’s no influence there, it’s all just silent intuition

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In conjunction with HTRK’s headline show at Cargo, the band are kindly giving away this exclusive mixtape of influences and favourite tracks.

Listen + Download here

Download here

Tracklisting

1. Nacht – R. Strauss (Berlin Philharmonic)
2. Blume (French Version) – Einsturzende Neubauten
3. Dark River – Coil
4. Wait for Me – Vangelis
5. Epsilon in Malaysian Pale – Edgar Froese
6. Workuta – Blixa Bargeld
7. Rockin’ Back Inside My Heart – Julee Cruise
8. October Love Song – Chris and Cosey
9. Johnny and Mary – Robert Palmer

Holy Ghost! are a DJ and production duo who undeniably deserve that exclamation mark. It’s been a little more than 2 years since electro wizards, Nick Millhiser and Alex Frankel unleashed their debut single, “Hold On,” a disco tinged affair of cosmic Italo keyboards and a processed bassline that could easily be on loan from early New Order. They used to be in a J Dilla inspired rap group called Automato, whose debut album was produced by Tim Goldsworthy and James Murphy of DFA. This prompted Millhiser and Frankel to get involved in a variety of DFA productions and they became touring and recording members of the Juan Maclean. They’ve created inspired remixes for Moby, Phoenix, MGMT and Cut Copy, and had one of their own tracks featured on a compilation from French electronic dance imprint Kitsune. Now they’re busy working on a highly-anticipated album of their own music and preparing to play live, both of which will demonstrate their love of analogue synthesisers, rare disco and what they describe as “ancient production techniques”.

Holy Ghost! bring their love for cool, clean, synthed-up dance and the warmer, more organic variety beloved of late-70’s NYC to their new single, “I Will Come Back,” a five and a half-minute dance floor epic, featuring the angelic voices of the Brooklyn Youth Chorus. This latest single is being given away as a FREE DOWNLOAD from Green Label Sound, an exclusive singles label single designed to elevate and empower independent artists.

Holy Ghost! – I Will Come Back

New Wave enthusiasts might have spotted that the songs accompanying video is pretty much a scene-by-scene recreation of New Order’s “Confusion” video; large doses of 80’s NYC night-life footage, pizza and producer Arthur Baker (who has apparently not aged since starring in “Confusion”!). I’d recommend pressing play at exactly the same time for the best comparison.

New Order – Confusion

Getting legendary producer Arthur Baker to reprise his role in the video was Holy Ghost!’s biggest coup. Apparently they met him on a night out on the town and after explaining what they planned on doing he insisted on playing himself (James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem was initially cast for this role). Also appearing in the video is Nancy Whang of the Juan Maclean.

Cargo is delighted to have secured Holy Ghost! for an extra long set this NYE: DFA vs Horse Meat Disco

London-based indie label, Young & Lost Club was a project born in early 2005 that now, four years later, is thriving in the competitive waters of the music industry. From the early days when they produced the Pyrrha Girls fanzine, to which a certain Mr Pete Doherty contributed; Nadia Dahlawi and Sara Jade have set up an empire of sorts. From running regular nights at Soho dive The Push Bar to commandeering the upstairs room of indie uber-club Frog, the pair put their contacts to good use and turned their attentions to setting up their very own label

The label’s first single was released in March 2005, a double A–side from retro killer song smiths Vincent Vincent and the Villains. This 1,000 run single sold out almost instantly only to appear on eBay a few weeks later going for three times the price. Since this landmark first release, the label has been responsible for the debut singles from Noah and the Whale, Larrikin Love, Good Shoes, Pull Tiger Tail, Fear of Flying and Johnny Flynn amongst other acclaimed bands. Along the way, Nadia and Sara have honed their skills as DJs and, still known to everyone as the Pyrrha Girls, have graced the hippest dance-floors across the globe.

Nadia took time out of running a record label and successful club night to chat to Cargo…

Hi Nadia, what was the inspiration behind the label?

We started Young & Lost Club because at the time there were really no singles labels for new bands around.  We wanted to create a kind of singles club where people collected every release and came down to the club to see the bands play live as well.

What was your musical background prior to starting a label?

We didn’t have much musical background before starting the label; we ran a small fanzine all through school which was called Pyrrha Fanzine. We were the first to write about Razorlight and Peter Doherty used to contribute as well.  We did a few club nights at Notting Hill Arts Club to go along with the launch with bands like Art Brut, Lupen Crook and Special Needs playing.

What release are you most proud of?

We are proud of every release we have put out but I think we are especially proud of Noah and The Whales first album “Peaceful The World Lays Me Down.”  It was our first album and stayed in the top 5 for a month.

Do you release music purely on the basis of a personal love for a band or do you have to weigh up whether it will sell?

We release music purely on the basis of our personal love for a band! I’m not sure if that’s always worked out for the best for us but we wouldn’t do it any other way!

Are there any bands that you came close to signing; artists that you would have loved to have worked with but, for whatever reason, didn’t work out?

No luckily we have always been able to work with all our favourite bands.

What are some of your favourite bands that aren’t on your label?

We are very big fan of The Strokes! We also love Vampire Weekend, a new band from Manchester called Egyptian Hip Hop and Celestial Bodies

How do you identify artists that you want to sign?

They are usually bands that we know and we look for a full package in a way, for example as good live as they are on records.  We also like our acts to be involved in their artwork and videos as we feel it comes across better to their audience.

Who would you say are the next up and coming artists that we should look out for?

We are really excited about Loverman, the band are writing lots of new songs at the moment and there are plans for a single out in January time. [You can download an exclusive track here.] We also love a new London band called Lunar Youth.

What are the key points in a band getting their music noticed and creating a buzz?

We feel live shows are really important.  Also its great when a band is really involved in all aspects from their artwork, to running their own myspace and even running their own club night.  So many bands are really lazy these days and get a manager and agent really early on and it feels like they loose their whole identity along the way.

Do you place a strong importance on the overall aesthetic of the label (sleeve artwork / website / club night poster design) or is it purely about the strength of the music?

We feel it’s really important for the overall aesthetic of the label to be about Young and Lost Club, not just the music.  Neill (ex member of Vincent Vincent and The Villains) does all our artwork and we feel he is a really important member of the team.  He definitely understands the label and always comes up with great flyers and web designs for us.

Musically, do you think the label is maturing in regards to the singles you are releasing and the artists you are signing?

Yes I think so. We do a lot more EPs now which we were not experienced enough to do at the beginning. Also we are doing a free fortnightly download from our website now as well.

Do the artists on Y&L completely reflect your taste in music?

Yes they do reflect our music taste although we do love Jackson Brown and Fleetwood Mac as well!

Is it more important to sustain the vinyl release ethos of the label or to distribute to a wider audience digitally?

We do release digitally as well now through itunes and through our fortnightly free download section of our website.  We still feel vinyl releases will always have a place though.  Most of our releases sell out within a month so people definitely still have a desire for physical versions of music in their lives.

Finally, what can we expect at the Young & Lost night at Cargo on the 13^th November?

Dead Kids will be headlining – they are a really amazing live band and always win over fans.  Also Loverman will be main support, their live shows are amazing as well.  We have been to about 150 Loverman live shows now and never get bored of watching them. Also come down early to check out Grass Houses they are a new London band that are creating quite a buzz. There will also be all our favourite Y&L Djs as well so expect dancing right up until 3am!

Cargo is teaming up with Young & Lost Club on Friday 13th November for a wild trip on the dark side featuring Dead Kids, Loverman & Grass Houses.  This is a Free Fridays event so make sure you arrive early to avoid the queues.

For the past three years, Allez-Allez have developed an enviable reputation as two of London’s most in demand and respected bloggers, DJs and remixers. Their weekly podcast has featured guest appearances from the likes of Four Tet, Nathan Fake, Ewan Pearson, Matias Aguayo, Tobias Thomas, Hot Chip, Animal Collective and Optimo to name but a few, they have played host to Kompakt’s series of London parties including Supermayer, The Field, Gui Boratto and DJ Koze amongst others, as well as DJ dates in Berlin, Barcelona,  Krakow, Cologne and beyond. They are also soon to launch their own imprint Amazing Sounds, with the first release of Harmonia & Brian Eno remixed by none other than modern day innovators Shackleton & Appleblim! Well received, forward thinking Allez-Allez remixes for the likes of Fever Ray, Simian Mobile Disco, Hot Chip and Telepathe are now followed by a debut single for Cologne’s highly respected Kickboxer imprint.

To whet your appetite for the next Allez-Allez & KCC party on the 14^th November, which turns its attention to the brilliant Playhouse records, we are giving away this exclusive mix .

Tracklist

MD3 – Pressure Cooker (Moan mix)
Max Mohr – Assonja Swynja
The Mole – For The Lost
Avus – Approach With A Smile
Gabriel Ananda – Bell
allez-allez – Defeatist
Meat Beat Manifesto – Original Control (Version 2)
Click Box – Step Sessions
Cold Cave – Heavenly Metals
Precious System – The Voice From Planet Love (Dixon Chic-A-Go edit)
BDI – City & Industry
Max Berlin – Elle & Moi (Joakim remix)
Oni Ayhun – OAR003
allez-allez – Six Down Six Across

Also, check out this mix by the brilliant Matias Aguayo. Catch him at the Allez-Allez  & KCC party on the 12th December.