Updates

Sonar 2010 looks like one of the events of the year - if you can make it to Spain that is. The Barcelona-based music and arts festival has just announced a new set of artists. Laurent Garnier, Zomby, Pete Tong, The Chemical Brothers, Hudson Mohawke, Booka Shade, Flying Lotus, Joy Orbison, LCD Soundsystem, Air, 2ManyDJs, Hot Chip, Fuck Buttons, Plastikman, Matthew Herbert, Uffie and Cristian Vogel are just some of the names playing at the multi-day, multi-venue event.

Nor is it all electronic music - Jónsi, lead singer of the Icelandic post-rock group Sigur Rós, announced via his site that he will be playing the festival. Radio One DJ Mary Anne Hobbs will host her own showcase at the event with the usual focus on forward-thinking dubstep and UK bass music.

Art, film and interactive design are a big part of Sonar, and each year the event's promoters create very memorable visuals for the year's event. Check out the "teaser video" below to get a glimpse of the current branding.

Sonar 2010 is set to take place in Barcelona and neighboring town A Coruña from June 17-19.

Full lineup

Sónar by Day:

THURSDAY 17
Broadcast (Warp/UK)
Tristan Perich + BCN216 (US-ES)
Tristan Perich "Loud Objects" (US)
Pete Tong (BBC Radio1/UK)
Speech Debelle (Big Dada/UK)
Sounds of Switzerland presented by Mx3.ch and SSR
Larytta (Creaked Records/CH)
Round Table Knights (Deadfish-Made To Play/CH)
Tim & Puma Mimi (Stattmusik/CH-JP)
WienStrom – Contemporary Amplified Vienna presents
dp-S (BigBeak/AT)
Cluster (Klangbad/AT-DE)
ElektroGuzzi (Macro/AT)

FRIDAY 18
Nosaj Thing Visual Show (Alpha Pup/US)
BFlecha (Arkestra/ES)
Delorean (Mushroom Pillow/ES)
Emilio José (Foehn/ES)
Zigmat (Ultra Records/US)
Lesley Flanigan (US)
Phill Niblock + Carlos Casas (US-ES)
spa.RK presents
bRUNA (spa.RK/ES)
Bradien (spa.RK/ES)

SATURDAY 19
Jimi Tenor & Kabu Kabu (Strut/FI)
The Slew feat. Kid Koala (Puget Sound Recordings/US)
Uffie (Ed Banger/US)
King Midas Sound (Hyperdub/UK)
Bomba Estéreo (Nacional Records/CO)
David M (BreakThatBeat/ES)
Noaipre (Arkestra/ES)

Sónar by Night:

THURSDAY JUNE 17
"Japó", the instrumental group BCN216 with the sonic visualisation of Cristian Vogel, Ricard
Marxer and Óscar Sol

FRIDAY JUNE 18
Air (Virgin/FR)
LCD Soundsystem (DFA/US)
Plastikman (M_nus/CA)
Hot Chip (Parlophone/UK)
2manydjs (BE)
Booka Shade (Get Physical/DE)
Carte Blanche (Dj Mehdi + Riton) (Ed Banger/FR-UK)
Sugarhill Gang (Sugar Hill/US)
Hudson Mohawke (Warp-LuckyMe/UK)
Aeroplane (Eskimo/BE)
John Talabot (Hivern/ES)
Cora Novoa (Natura Sonoris/ES)

Mary Anne Hobbs presents
Flying Lotus (Warp/US)
Joy Orbison (Doldrums/UK)
Roska (Roska Kicks & Snares/UK)
Mary Anne Hobbs (BBC Radio1/UK)

SATURDAY JUNE 19
The Chemical Brothers (EMI/UK)
Dizzee Rascal (Dirtee Stank/UK)
Jónsi (Parlophone/IS)
Matthew Herbert's One Club (Accidental/UK)
Fuck Buttons (ATP Recordings/UK)
Sandwell District (Sandwell District/UK)
Zomby (Zomby Productions/UK)
The Pinker Tones (PinkerLand/ES)
LuckyMe presents
American Men (UK)
Machine Drum (UK)
Mike Slott (UK)
The Blessings (UK)
Eclair Fifi & John Computer (back 2 back DJ set) (UK)

SÓNAR GALICIA
Artists confirmed as of 25/02/2010
N.B: The performances of some artists are subject to changes in scheduling.

THURSDAY JUNE 17
LCD Soundsystem (DFA/US)
Uffie (Ed Banger/US)
John Talabot (Hivern/ES)
David M (BreakThatBeat/ES)
Grobas (981 Sessions/ES)
SonarMàtica Galicia
Escoitar.org presents
Sonoscopio / Horacio González (ES)
Augmented Sound / Berio Molina (ES)

FRIDAY JUNE 18
Laurent Garnier (PIAS/FR)
Matthew Herbert's One Club (Accidental/UK)
Broadcast (Warp/UK)
Fuck Buttons (ATP Recordings/UK)
The Slew feat. Kid Koala (Puget Sound Recordings/US)
DJ Ino (House Café Music/ES)
Fat Fish (Artec/ES)

SATURDAY JUNE 19
Air (Virgin/FR)
Hot Chip (Parlophone/UK)
Flying Lotus (Warp/US)
2manydjs (BE)
Booka Shade (Get Physical/DE)
Carte Blanche (Dj Mehdi & Riton) (Ed Banger/FR-UK)
Delorean (Mushroom Pillow/ES)
6pm (Mediosordo/ES)
Fluzo (ES)
Octa Push (Iberian Records/PT)
BFlecha Vs. MwesLee (Arkestra/ES)
Viktor Flores (Sinsal/ES)
Cora Novoa (Natura Sonoris/ES)

For many techno listeners, the Plastikman albums from the mid 90s such as "Sheet One" and Musik" were highly influential, paving the way for the success of the minimal sound, and modern techno in general. Now DJ Richie Hawtin has announced that he will return to the alias for a series of live performances. According to a recent press release, the 2010 Plastikman live experience will incorporate both music and visual elements, and will debut at this year's Timewarp festival in Germany on March 27th. This will be the first in a series of limited dates at various cities around the world.

According to Hawtin, "reinterpreting the 18 year history of Hawtin's Plastikman material, Plastikman Live moves from the acidic atmospheres of 'Sheet One' to the disorienting funk of 'Musik', to the nostalgic moments of 'Artifakts', through the depths of 'Consumed' and into the darkness of 'Closer'; everything re-imagined through the capabilities of modern technology." He will be collaborating with visual artists Derivative and Ali Demirel, who he previously worked with on the 2005, 2006 and 2007 Timewarp events.

Even aside from the Plastikman live performance, the Time Warp lineup is looking quite impressive. It features DJ sets from Laurent Garnier, Sven Vath, Ricardo Villalobos,  Ellen Allien, Loco Dice, Speed J and Magda.

The Plastikman tour comes as Plus 8, the label co-founded by Hawtin, recently celebrated its 100th release with a massive remix compilation featuring reworks of classic tracks by Teste and Hawtin himself. Flashback to some of his "greatest hits" as Plastikman below:

Special effects maestro Joseph Kosinki's sequel to the 1982 sci-fi classic Tron (see the teaser trailer above) has film geeks and techies salivating - even more so when it was announced that Daft Punk would be recording the soundtrack. And the buzz was helped along by a promo event at Comic Con 2009, where what sounded suspiciously like a Daft Punk track played in the background.

Of course, normally fans would have to wait patiently for the soundtrack to actually be released. But in an example of how much DIY remix culture has infiltrated our lives, this background music from the convention, captured on low-quality YouTube video and interrupted frequently by the sound of the crowd, has already spawned dozens of remakes, cover versions and remixes - all before Daft Punk has even confirmed it's their track. Check out some of the fan-created remixes below. We'll get a chance to hear the real version (if we're not all sick of it by then) at the very end of this year. Tron Legacy, according to the film producers, is scheduled to open on December 17th.

Jazzmutant has launched version 2 of their trademark Lemur MIDI controller while also dropping the price about a thousand dollars. The Lemur has long been one of the most innovative DJ mix and live set MIDI controllers, offering the world's first touch screen interface with unlimited control points. The colorful interface for the device can be used to control any DJ mixing software or soft synth program via MIDI, including Ableton Live and Native Instruments software such as Massive and Reaktor. No wonder it's the instrument of choice for artists including Daft Punk, Orbital and Bjork.

Perhaps most excitingly, the touch screen interface can actually be customized completely via Jazz Mutant's Jazz Editor software, which allows DJs and musicians to rearrange, combine and program user interfaces elements which can then be applied to control various parameters in your favorite software program. The new version of the software introduces workflow improvements, as well as better compatibility with popular DJ mix program Ableton Live. At just under $2,000, the device is still not cheap, but as a high-end performance device for DJ mixing and live sets, it's hard to think of a more interesting piece of equipment out there.

Surely one of the standout artists of the past decade was California's Flying Lotus. Not only did he flip instrumental hip hop on its head with his debut LP "Los Angeles," his soundtracking work provides the backdrop for more than a few shows on animated Adult Swim series.

Fellow turntablist The Gaslamp Killer has been kind enough to compile several of Flying Lotus' standout tracks and mix them into one DJ mix, available free from Brainfeeder Records.

Electro was the original techno music. Although electronic sounds were becoming more and more common by the late 70s in both disco and new wave, the critical turning point was when Bronx DJ Afrika Bambaata mixed Kraftwerk's "Trans Europe Express" over rap lyrics and hip hop beats. 

In 2009, electro remains a poorly understood corner of the electronic music world, doubly confusing because the term has been used and reused to mean different things to different people. Artists as diverse as Fischerspooner and Cut Copy have been branded "electro," and for many it just means a poppier version of the techno sound. But the original electro lives on both in the classic records of artists like Model 500 and Underground Resistance, in the production techniques of IDM acts like Clark and Autechre, as well as with a new breed of electro artists, existing mostly in the underground, such as Clatterbox, Andrea Parker and Bitstream. This mix by BASSLINEFM is a trip through the many facets of electro, showcasing tracks out of both current productions and the 80s and 90s.

1. Cynthia Stern - Follow (Warlock Mix) 2. Wee DJs - 80 3. Bass Junkie - Sub-Mission (Control The Bass) 4. AUX 88 - Rated AUX 5. Shiver - Subsonic Soundscape 6. Hrdvsion - Love's Duel 7. Clatterbox - Control Freak 8. Vicarious Bliss - Theme From Vicarious Bliss (Dave Clarke Remix) 9. Underground Resistance - Electronic Warfare 10. Silicon Scally - Dissolve (Weemix) 11. Point B - Split 12. Clark - The Magnet Mine

If nothing else, you have to admire the Pacemaker for its audacity. Like the iPod and the iPhone, Tonium's portable DJ mix capable MP3 player really is the first of its kind. And continuing the parallel, the DJ equipment company has launched a slick advertising campaign aimed at DJs and electronic music heads that is more than a little reminiscent of Apple, if Steve Jobs had maybe dropped a couple tabs like back in the 70s. The goal is fairly clear - Tonium wants to equate their DJ MP3 player with the high end industrial design of companies like Apple, and therefore overcome any resistance out there in the market for swallowing the rather hefty $400 price tag.

So how does the Pacemaker measure up? Rather well, actually, but more in terms of innovation than in terms of quality. It's absolutely not any kind of substitute for actual turntables, or pro DJ CD players, or even professional DJ mix software like Ableton Live. As with most technologies, it has its share of technical glitches that could prove frustrating to unlucky consumers. What it does do rather well is take DJ mixing into a whole new realm - call it casual mixing. Ever get the urge to hear what two tracks on your iPod would sound like beatmatched together? Well, now you can. The Pacemaker makes the act of creat techno, house and trance tracks intuitive and easy enough that you can literally be mixing as you walk down the street - although you might get some puzzled expressions as you constantly fool with the controls on what looks a little like the MP3 player equivalent of those oversized cellphones from the 80s.

Mixing two tracks together in a traditional house/techno DJ format is fairly straightforward - simply load two tracks from an iPod-like list into the two available slots on the device (paralleling a pair of turntables in a real DJ setup), and pressing play while holding down the beatmatch key should sync the tracks in time together. The results aren't always perfect, and like any mixing tool it takes a little bit of practice, but Tonium's beatmatching technology is, for the most part, impressively accurate with little effort on the user's part - at least when it comes to tracks with a straightforward beat structure.

Tracks with long, beatless intros or complex percussion (think IDM rather than house or techno mixes) more often than not result in a mangled disaster out of the box, but Pacemaker also offers a piece of software where you can "prep" songs much as in Ableton to ensure smoother mixing. You can also sync your recorded mix back to the software when you're finished, which is a very cool feature, although the UI could have been a little more carefully thought out.

Besides fading between the two tracks in a typical DJ mix style, there are some fun effects that can be applied, such as filters, looping and EQ. These are depend on moving the touchpad in the right direction combined with holding down a button, so they require a bit more practice than regular mixing. Overall, though, you can definitely have some fun with it once you've mastered the technique (sort of like mastering those button combos in Street Fighter or Mortal Kombat).

So is the Tonium Pacemaker worth the price? Well, not as a substitute for real DJing - despite the novelty of being able to pull off some decent mixes on the go, you'll still miss the level of control you get with a larger, more professional-level setup. Anyone who thinks DJs are going to be dancing around the club with one of these things instead of standing behind the decks is swallowing a little bit too much of the hype. And consumers should be warned that we experienced a number of technical issues with the DJ mix device - it worked on OSX and Windows XP, but on Vista, was unable to recognize the device and charge itself successfully.

This is no small matter, obviously, for many consumers, and reminds you of the perils of dealing with a smaller company, especially one based overseas, although to their credit Tonium offers refunds if any technical problems arise. So while the Pacemaker might not be essential, if you have a little cash to burn and don't might taking a chance on a cutting edge piece of technology, it can make a very cool addition to your collection of electronic devices. It certainly points towards an interesting trend of devices offering new ways to interact with portable music - although it remains to be seen if the Pacemaker will be seen as the first of its kind years from now, or just an MP3 one hit wonder.

One of the most intriguing artists to emerge this year, Falty DL's debut LP, "Love Is A Liability" displayed a unique vision that fell more or less into the current dubstep/ bass movement, while taking inspiration from garage and more soulful house sounds. The release also felt reminiscient of the sound of classic UK IDM, no surprise as Mike Paradinas was apparently providing guidance along the way, and ended up releasing the LP on his Planet Mu label.

Not content to rest on his laurels, Falty DL produced a second stunning release just months later, the "Bravery" EP. "Bravery" continued the bass-heavy, soulful sound of "Love Is A Liability," but if anything felt more mature and developed, borrowing less from the European sound and more from the producer's native New York, even sampling a snippet of rapper Nas on one of the tracks. While both discs might rank of among the best of the year, "Bravery," out now on Planet Mu, gets my vote for the more compelling listen.

You can get a taste of Falty DL's sound on his FACT Magazine Podcast, available below.

Modeselektor return with a hot new single "Art & Cash." It's your typical dub-hip-techno-banger we've come to expect from these guys, but the highlight has got to be this freakishly good (and hilarious) video directed by German motion graphics superstars Pfadfinderei. I think it has something to do with Art Basel...

While we wait for a new album, here's a recent promo DJ mix they did for RA - taking in a typically eclectic mix of techno, dubstep, hip hop, and so on as heard on their debut album "Happy Birthday" as well as collaborations with French hip hop artists TTC. You can read more about Modeselekor here.