BigShinyThing

We caught Punx Soundcheck’s mighty DJ/AV set last Friday at our favourite Shoreditch monthly, Film Noir. Launching their new album Black and Gold, they treated us to a storming 90 minutes of hard electro genius, with visuals from Machines are Gonna Kill Us, and Miss OddKidd guesting on vocals.

But don’t take our word for it — get on down to the NFT on Thursday 24th January, to catch them live at the Piccadilly Nite Versions #1 Launch Party. See you there.

[Photo © Darrell Berry 2008]

Vaseline and smilies at the ready: rave is back. In its latest attempt distract those pesky kids from their phones/MySpace profiles/life, the NME has christened a burgeoning music movement new rave. Last week it even featured an indie vs. rave covermount. And it’s not just IPG-generated hype (much). We’re increasingly seeing skinny little things in day-glo clothes and eyes-on-stalks stumbling around Hoxton and savvy fashion brands like Cassetteplaya are getting featured in The Observer.

It’s surely only a matter of time before clubnight Antisocial (usual suspect Trash Fashion’s Jet Storm pictured — from Brixtona’s Flickr stream) gets a double page spread in Vogue. And we’ve caught a few local news items about kids having noisy dance parties in fields. Frankly, we’re old enough to remember Ravey Davey Gravy but also think that noisy repetitive beats tend to be a Good Thing.

Still not convinced? Stick new rave through Flickr. My eyes…

See also our other (Mostly London-centric) club photos and stories.

In a phenomena mirroring the sudden take up of Hotmail in the nineties and the weirdness that was Friendster, myspace is suddenly seems to be playing host to some of the hottest new musical talent around. Oh, and legendary acts including Sparks and Kraftwerk. And Bjork.

Both established musicians and up-and-coming talent can use the service to host their personalised websites (no more annoying webhosting fees or fiddly design) and share tracks with each other. They can also use it to keep in touch and grow their artist networks as well as showcase new track, blog and hook up with other artists (and fans) online. All this for nada — perfect for struggling musicians. It’s already getting to stage where if you want to be in the electro music scene you have to have a profile on myspace.com.

Myspace adminstrators have clearly hooked up to this trend — the main site now boasts ‘myspace music’ which showcases bands that have signed up to the site. They should probably check if the last band that played down The Cock has tipped up yet.

You can currently download legendary chanteuse Billie Ray Martin’s latest tracks from her profile.