Circus Maximus Podcast 015 - Onra

Circus Maximus Podcast 015 - Onra
Recorded Live at Montana Shop - Lisbon, Portugal 05/02/2011

No longer avaiable

This work is licenced under a Creative Commons Licence.

Cover design by TOKYO'CLOCK STUDIO.

FACT Night!

Two of our men: Rastronaut and Infestus, alongside Voodookid and Exotique, have been recruited to make up the Fact Magazine PT team of DJs, that will be supporting Jamie XX, Lil Silva, Gala Drop and Tiago Miranda at Lux-Frágil on the 5th of May. 

FACT Magazine PT Launch Party!

What can we say? It's already legendary.

Xoices Bass Music Mix!

Xoices is a dear friend. He is also one of my favourite producers/remixers in the country and a sick DJ. He hosts a weekly radio show on Antena 3 Dance, Música Quebrada - as part of the Fazuma collective (or family as they say). The same collective that is also responsible for the legendary Música Enrolada reggae/hip hop/soul show on Antena 3 and the Angolan electronic band/radio show Batida!

Here's his latest mix!

Xoices Bass Music 2011 - March by Xoices on Mixcloud

Living Off This

Last week we got the news that Institubes, one of our favourite labels, was closing. Read the press release here. 

I had noticed that in the last few months most of the website content had been dedicated to their sub-label, Sound Pellegrino, so we all knew something was wrong. However, you would assume that an indie label this size, even if not making anyone millionaire, could at least stay afloat. Well, I guess not.

It's a scary and depressing thought isn't it?

Since about twelve or so years, any newly founded indie label already knows the deal: Even if you make it big, there's no money in this.

That means that, if you're going to run a label, then you're going to have to fund it off your pocket. But that's only possible if you have good source of income.

Para-One of Institubes

The obvious answer would be to use money from live performances to invest in a label. That means that you're going to have to do make money to survive and still have enough to fund releases and such, or spend most of time working on a day job. But it's kind of a vicious cycle: even nowadays the best kind of promotion it's still a physical release. The thing is, most labels nowadays are not looking for new talent (since releasing anything it's always a loss) and if you don't run your own business then it's going to be hard to break into a scene.

I have always been a defender of internet and file sharing. And I still am, since you can't really ask people to spend money on tunes or records if they're avaiable online for free, and besides, the money that would be spent on such things is being spent on the internet bill. This technology gave us access to free culture, and I still believe that is the future.

That said, I think that if you're selling for a DJ audience it still works, even if it's hard to make a profit. If you're selling for a listener audience then your money must come from somewhere else. Maybe you could take a slice of the ISP money to fund artists?

Times are strange. Nothing really works.

Lots of artists dedicate their entire teen years to their passion only to realize that even your favourite artist does this as a hobby nowadays. Even if you studied music on college.

But hey, that seems to be the main problem of this generation. College education is not meant to transmit knowledge anymore. That would mean that the so-called elites wouldn't be elites anymore. So today college it's only a formality, or a job candidate selection process. Even in Portugal, most public higher education institutions are partially privatly funded, and the first thing they tell you to do when you are accepted is to create a bank account in bank X and to buy a laptop on company Y. Conciliating work and studying is harder, since most colleges no longer offer night classes and they usually require you to do dedicate 100% of your time to that shit. And in the end you still didn't learn enough to get a job.

Protests in Portugal against precarity in the job market

So even if you have a sound engineering or production major, or even a instrument major, the results are the same: since the recording industry doesn't work, you have to rely on public performance. For that to be sucessful you need a promotion mechanism behind you, and that requires financial investment. The problem is all of that used to be centered around the label, and those are no longer a profitable business.

The press-release on which Institubes announced it's end says it all. It ends on a positive note tought, which is: most of the artists of their roster now have sucessful careers. But I bet most of them also do other things for a living.

These are troubled times.

Infestus

Unidade Sonora @ 10xALB

10xalb - Unidade Sonora by Alittlebeat on Mixcloud

The Portuguese bass music godfathers (and founders of Iberian Records) shows us what bass and groove really is. Have a listen!

Exclusive Nave Mãe mix for Gonçalo Castro!

Murdashipa!
Amazing Nave Mãe mix for Gonçalo Castro's Radio show, Algodão Doce, that had already featured an exclusive mix by our man Infestus (this one). Go have a listen, it contains a few unreleased goodies!

Navemãe@Algodãodoce by Navemaesound on Mixcloud

Circus Maximus' special on Ginga Beat!

Last Saturday, our friend Violet, half of A.M.O.R. and one of the hosts of the Ginga Beat show, was kind enough to dedicate one of the episodes to Circus Maximus, playing stuff by Infestus and Rastronaut. Listen to the show on the player below.

Previously, during Oporto HUB, Violet had already interviewed our man Fidbek on Oblá FM. You can listen to that interview right here.

Groovement presents their next release!

Up next on Groovement's amazing series of releases (that in the previous year even featured a couple of Infestus collabs with Ka§par on two different ocasions) we now have a Johnwannes EP with three amazing jackin' tracks. In order to promote the upcoming release, Groovement has put together a promotional video featuring "The White Track". Intense Chicago style action.

Have a listen:

Johnwaynes - White Track from Groovement HQ on Vimeo.

Free tune XII

A while ago Infestus had the opportunity to do his own dub version of a Freddy Locks song. It was never released.

SWGR vol I

SWGR vol I from SW GR on Vimeo.

This is the new regular club night created by Voodookid (of Warface). The first event was last week at Lisbon club, Odessa, and featured (apart from Voodookid himself) our talented young neighbour Exotique, and Sergio. We've been told that the next volume will be in London. Keep checking this page.

The video above was put together by Vinz! (also of Warface).

Respect!

Dub Matiné

Dub Matiné is a weekly stream show hosted by our man WAG, our podcast guest Phatic and Kayo (of MenaceFM).

This friday, the 18th, catch Kayo b2b Phatic playing the best of bass, dubstep, UK funky, house & techno, live on the mix right here!

And here's the Facebook event.

Crisis, Warehouses and Raves

Have you noticed?

Right now DJ-Sets, club culture and rave music is very much in fashion.

Thom Yorke performing his DJ-Set at Low End Theory with Flying Lotus by his side

In the United States, club culture is getting bigger than ever, and it's actually becoming a profitable industry there for the first time. Also a lot of bands and solo artists are now performing DJ-Sets, trying to fit into the electronic music scheme of things. A lot of fans that were buying (or downloading) and listening to music in their homes are now only interested in consuming it the club context (even if at home listening to dj mixes, podcasts or radio shows), because of that, a lot of these artists (especially those on the fringe between pop and electronica) are now forced to have an alternative to their traditional concert.

I mean, don't get me wrong, rock artists making dance music is not new (shit, think of New York and DFA), however, right now it seems that a lot of these acts are trying too hard to look like dance music artists.

Hey, that's not necessarily bad. Recently Thom Yorke played a DJ-Set at Low End Theory and it seems to be have been a success. They launched a promo video of it, but it's not clear how technical he got on the mix. But fuck that, the audience seems to be enjoying it - unlike, for example, Peter Hook of New Order, that went around the world performing a fake DJ-Set that was simply shit.

Those examples aside, there's another reason why DJ-Sets are popular right now. As we all know, the recording artist funding system (a.k.a. music industry) is in crisis (dead?) and the only money left is in gigs. Performing a cheaper version of your live act or concert, such as a DJ-Set (that has the added factor of being an easy way of entertaining a crowd) is a great way of having a lot more gigs, since it allows small promoters to book bigger artists. It's a win win situation.

Also, don't forget that apart from that musical crisis, that seems to have been around for the last ten years, we also have now a global financial and economical crisis, that has a impact in every artist, big or small. So no one minds doing those extra DJ jobs for money.

That same economical crisis is also the main responsable for the whole rave thing being popular right now. First of all, people all over the world are doing crazy/amazing shit (crazy stuff such as overthrowing dictators and joining together for amazingly huge political rallies). They're saying: we've had enough, we won't take any of this shit anymore, we don't give a fuck. All of that revolutionary feeling is usually a powerful incentive por the production of culture, and the communal experience. So it's only expected that more people would vent those feelings by attending raves with their mates and letting go of shit. I don't know, the connection makes sense to me. Maybe because even today raves (even if legal) are still seen as a mild form of rebellion.

The Sun headline in 1989 after a huge illegall rave near Berkshire

In the UK, kid's are taking over abandoned warehouses in the middle of city and throwing smashing raves, similar to what happened in the early 90's. And that's not just a form of rebellion. They're doing that because, well, simply those abandoned warehouses exist.

Simple math right? If there's an economical crisis, then more probably companies will abandon warehouses.

As a last tought, if you read about rave history, the word crisis always comes along. And not just rave I guess. Most key youth movements over the last few decades were triggered by some type of crisis, be it political, economical or social.


Infestus

Circus Maximus Podcast 014 - Mr. F

Circus Maximus Podcast 014 - Mr. F

Tracklist:
01. Prommer & Barck feat Lois Longerling - Lovin
02. Souls of Mischief - '93 Till Infinity
03. Dousk - Loose
04. Ifume - Backslash (Part 1)
05. Osborne - Wait a Minute (Instrumental Mix)
06. Maceo Plex feat. Fabel - Love u Mama
07. Art Bleek - Blue Bird
08. Walker Barnard - Follow The Smoke (Clovis Remix)
09. Lewie Day - Thats The Thing (Lee Curtiss Remix)
10. Jonas, M.in, Mucky Pups - Sidekick
11. Arto Mwambe - Ombala Mbembo
12. Vozmediano - Theres a Light
13. Pepe Arcade - x4 - Isaac Indart Remix (F's Edit)
14. Ashtrax - Freeload (Freelove)
15. TeTe - Zuckerzeit
16. KiNK - Detunator
17. Julio Bashmore - Battle For Middle You
18. Unknown Artist - Untitled (14)


This work is licenced under a Creative Commons Licence.

Cover design by TOKYO'CLOCK STUDIO.

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23Hz and Numaestro mix for Clubbing Spain

23hz & Numaestro - Bass'n'Groove Mix For Clubbing Spain - 21.02.2011 by Iberian Records on Mixcloud

A while ago, our friends from Iberian Records, 23Hz and Numaestro did this mix and interview for Clubbing Spain.

This is what I call bass music. It's heavy, it's gritty, it's soulful! Check it!

Also, last Saturday, Iberian records hosted the Tax Haven Oficial Release party, on which Mr. Gasparov performed his live-act. Here's some blurry videos of the whole thing:

We have been absent

Our blog has been extremly slow of late. It was already slow before, but after the whole Japan thing (and a couple of political events in Portugal aswell) it didn't feel right to post new content. Out of respect for thoses events, we decided it was best to keep quiet for a while (btw, here's a useful link http://www.google.com/crisisresponse/japanquake2011.html).

Our toughts are with Japan, but we must resume our activity.

Rastrocast 005 - Live @ Dark Swing

Rastrocast 005 - Live @ Dark Swing by Rastronaut on Mixcloud

A few days ago Rastronaut released the fifth installment of his podcast series.

It's a live recording of his mix at Dark Swing, the legendary club night hosted by Iberian Records in Lisbon since 2006. Rastronaut was the guest at their latest night a couple of weeks ago, at Club Rubik.

Also avaiable to download here.