MOVEMENT 2010

Every Memorial Day Weekend, artists and party-goers alike, gather in Detroit's Heart Plaza to celebrate techno music in the city that brought it to life. In it's 11th year, Movement, also known as DEMF, has matured substantially in not only the festivals production, but most importantly the talent of the artists. This year Paxahau asked Techno Godfather, Carl Craig to assemble the lineup. I think he did rather well!

http://www.movement.us/

Here are some of the performers I'm particularly excited to see this year. Let me know what you think!

Ida enberg, pictured right, is a swedish born model, DJ, & producer. Ida is not only the sexiest woman in electronic music, but perhaps the most talented!

Ida Enberg & David West - "Abataka"

Ida Enberg - " Disco Volante"

The Next Artist is a Detroit native that makes the pilgrimage to the Detroit Riverfront almost every year. Claude Von Stroke know resides in San Fransisco where he and fellow co-founder, Justin Martin, run one of the hottest labels in house music, Dirtybird Records. The link below is a DJ mix so give it a couple minutes to get going, it will be well worth the time!

Claude Von Stroke - "Vocal Chords"

These next two Artists I included together because they will be closing the festival with back to back live sets. Booka Shade made there first appearance at DEMF in 2007, little known in Detroit they made quite a name for themselves opening for DEMF headliner Jeff Mills. They just released their 4th full length studio album earlier this month on Get Physical Music, the record label they and M.A.N.D.Y. run back in Berlin, and whose podcast you will find in the right column of this blog. Booka Shade will be back again as one of the biggest shows of the year with festival virgins Pretty Lights, out of Denver, Colorado, warming up the crowd. If you don't know who either of these artists are yet, you're welcome!

Pretty Lights - "I Can See It In Your Face"

Booka Shade - "Bad Love" off the new album More!

Booka Shade -"Donut(Interpretation Mix)" off the new album More!

(Booka Shade live in concert)

The last artist is the man responsible for putting all these musicians together for us, Mr. Carl Craig. He helped create techno music back in the 80's with fellow Detroiters and longtime friends, Derrik May, Juan Atkins, and Kevin Saunderson, all of whom will be performing this year. The first song is a remix Carl Craig did on Cadenza Records earlier this year, the second comming off of his 1997 studio album More Songs About Food and Revolutionary Art. This man has been making music for a long time and at the ripe age of 41, he shows no signs of slowing down.

Mirko Loko - "Love Harmonic( Carl Craig's Soundscape Remix)" Another slow builder so be patient

Carl Craig - "At Les"

DISCO 2

HEALTH is a noise-rock band from LA consisting of BJ Miller, Jake Duzsik, John Famiglietti, and Jupiter Keyes. The band has steadily been releasing albums since 2007 with their record label, Lovepump United. Recently the band said they will be releasing a their fourth album, a remix album titled HEALTH//DISCO2, this summer (2010). The album, HEALTH//DISCO2 features remixes of songs off of their 2009 album, GET COLOR, by artists like Crystal Castles, CFCF, Small Black , and Pictureplane; the new remix album also features an all new, non-remixed HEALTH song, "USA Boys".

"USA Boys" is a very interesting song to me, I really like it, it's just an unexpected direction for HEALTH to be going in, but I think the song shows a lot of growth and maturity within the band's writing.
HEALTH-USA Boys


HEALTH//DISCO2 is truly an amazing album, one that I think even people who don't really like the harshness that HEALTH can sometimes bring to the table will enjoy. That being said it was really hard for me to pick my favorite songs off this album, but the decision had to be made, you can download the full album by clicking on the album art above.

HEALTH-In Heat (Javelin remix)

HEALTH-Die Slow (Pictureplane remix)

HEALTH-Nice Girls (Little Loud remix)

Square Hammers

Stepdad began last summer when Ultramark and Cobrazebra started writing songs in their Chicago apartment. In April 2010, the band released their Ordinaire EP following overwhelming support from friends. Stepdad has since relocated to Grand Rapids, MI where they will be performing this Thursday, 5/20/10, at The DAAC as part of Midwest Fest, a festival in which Ultramark has performed 3 years in a row.

The first song I heard by this Midwest pair was "Baby Hammers", and I immediately thought of the first time I heard Passion Pit, just a driving beat topped off with a melody made out of bubbles and giggles.

Stepdad-Baby Hammers

"Squares" is another great song off this EP, it's the epitome of happy, and with a chorus like "...everything's ok!", I dare you not to smile when you listen to this track.

Stepdad-Squares


click on the album art below to download the full Ordinaire EP by Stepdad

Ratatat

LP4

For those of you who are not familiar with this New York duo, be emabarrassed... what have you been listening to?

Ratatat consists of guitarist, Mike Stroud, and bassist, synthesizer, and producer, Evan Mast. LP4, Ratatat's fourth studio album released on XL recordings, is set to release on June 8th. The album is a follow up to the duo's 2008 album, LP3; actually, much of LP4 was recorded during many of the same sessions that produced LP3.

LP4 features the same in-your-face guitar riffs seen on previous releases from this Brooklyn -based duet, but it incorporates other more worldly influences as well.

Ratatat-Party With Children

download the full album here