air and lcd soundystem first headliners for sonar 2010

The Sonar Festival in Barcelona June 17-19 has announced its first headliners for next summer's edition: Air (above) and LCD Soundsystem. Air will perform in Barcelona on Friday, June 18 and at the festival's A Coruña event Saturday, June 19. LCD does A Coruña on Thursday, June 17 and Barcelona on Friday.


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l.a. gets convention-al

Los Angeles techno promoter Robtronik, a.k.a. Robert Pointer, plans to capitalize on the booming buzz for the genre in the city by organizing a festival he's calling Convention. It's set to happen Sept. 18-20 at locales throughout L.A. Juan Atkins, Paco Osuna, Misstress Barbara, Joel Mull, Stacey Pullen and others have signed up as talkent. The event will take cues from Sonar, Movement and Mutek, according to a statement.

sonar comes to nyc; nyt reviews

The New York Times this week took a look at Sonar's "SonarSound NY," a sort of preview of its Barcelona festival June 18-20. Pop critic Jon Pereles liked Prefuse 73's DJ set, writing that he and his backup crew "blanketed the frequency spectrum with blotches and whooshes of thickly amorphous sound."
[Above: Mr. 73].

sonar brings free showcase to u.s.

The organizers of Bercelona's Sonar festival are bringing their brand stateside for a free concert in New York May 12 at the Baryshnikov Arts Center. "SonarSound NY" will feature Prefuse 73 (above), DJ Rupture, pop act Hidrogenesse, hip-hop trio Del Palo Soundsystem, Barcelona's dj d.a.r.y.l., visuals by No-Domain, and the usual array of art installations.

Reservations are required. More information can be found at Sonar's site or through Ticket Central.

sonar rounds out lineup

The Sonar festival, June 18-20 in Barcelona, this week revealed what will probably the last additions to its 2009 lineup, including:

Orbital, Deadmau5, Grace Jones, Crystal Castles, Moderat, (Modeselektor + Apparat + Pfadfinderei), Ghostly International's Raster Noton and Ostgut Ton, Vincent Gallo, Fever Ray, Micachu and the Shapes, Mujava, SebastiAn, Martyn, Joker, Buraka Som Sistema, Bass Clef, Filastine and more.

Previously.

sonar invades u.k.

Spain's Sonar festival is heading to the U.K. May 15 for "A Taste of Sonar at the Roundhouse" in Camden. Organizers will bring along some of the artists slated for the June 18-20 event in Barcelona, including Erol Alkan's Disco 3000 project, audiovisual project Moderat (Modeselektor + Apparat + Pfadfinderei) and techno titan Jeff Mills (above), who will perform a special audiovisual set titled "The Trip." Info.

sonar reveals more headliners

Spain's Sonar -- officially the 16th Barcelona International Festival of Advanced Music and Multimedia Art -- unveiled more of its lineup today. Besides the aforementioned addition of Orbital, the roster for the June 18-20 event will include Grace Jones (above, without her Jamaican guy), Late of the Pier, Erol Alkan presents Disco 3000, Deadmau5, Ed Banger presents Gazpashow!, Busy P., Dan Le Sac vs. Scroobius Pip, XXXChange of Spank Rock and more. Tix and info.

orbital on board for sonar

Melodic techno duo Orbital, which recently reformed to celebrate 20 years on the scene, is scheduled to perform at the 16th annual Sonar festival, which happens June 18-20 this year. More info, including video from the fraternal pair's 1995 performance at Sonar, here.

dance music news: thursday

-Om Records has dug into its catalog and resurrected some of Kaskade's earlier material for the Bay Area label. The king of smooth house (pictured above) started his career there but has since moved on to Ultra Records. Kaskade - The Om Remixes comes at you Oct. 7 via Om.

-American techno torchbearer John Tejada's band project with Takeshi Nishimoto is bearing fruit this fall. I'm Not A Gun's new album Mirror gets released Oct. 14 via Tejada's own Palette label. Tejada, by the way, is performing live at Fabric in London Saturday with longtime production partner Arian Laviste. (The guy gets the most coveted stage in dance music at the world's greatest club. When's the last time he performed live in the big rooms at Avalon or Vanguard in L.A.? I'm going to guess never).

-Barcelona's techno-flavored Sonar festival has already announced its summer, 2009 dates: June 18-20.

mas y mas

Spain's Sonar Festival continues to expand its lineup, and it's getting a lot dancier. Dubfire, Ricardo Villalobos, Soulwax, DJ Yoda and a Dial Records showcase have been added to the three-day festivities in Barcelona, June 19-21.
[Above: Dubfire gets the interview treatment in his hometown].

tuesday notes

mr. minimal: robert hood

-Detroit's Robert Hood bangs the full-speed-ahead minimal techno for Fabric 39, a mix-CD due April 14. (Actually, it sounds fairly maximal to me). "These days I'm focused purely on minimalism and really embracing minimalism, because it's taken on a life of its own," says the onetime Underground Resistance member and Axis label co-founder. "It's now a music style separate from techno. I would never have imagined that it would take this direction. ... I saw minimalism in life becoming more and more evident - in furniture, in electronics, in art, in automobiles, appliances ..."

Hood is credited with helping to create the genre in the mid-'90s with his M-Plant moniker and with tracks such as 1994's "Minimal Nation."

"I had developed this gray area sound," Hood says. "What I mean by that is in Detroit, even when the sun is out, there's something in the atmosphere. The sky has a gray haze over it. It's got to be something from the industrial factories here. I'd never really heard a sound like that before, and it came from a Roland Juno ... A lot of buildings were abandoned, and there was a lot of lifelessness in the city, especially downtown. The M-Plant, in minimalism, kind of reflected that. I remember thinking of Detroit like a museum. You know, like a work of art, standing still, suspended in time."

-Spundae in San Francisco is celebrating 15 years of club life on Thursday (James Zabiela, Deadmau5) and Friday (Gabriel & Dresden).

-Barcelona's Sonar festival (June 19-21) has revealed its lineup, which includes Ben Watt, Diplo, Frankie Knuckles, Goldfrapp, Justice, M.I.A., Spank Rock, Jimpster and an Ed Banger showcase.

the world (music award) is mine

Weekend notes:

-Recently minted DJ Magazine Top 100 DJs top-tenner David Guetta recently took the World's Bestselling DJ nod at the World Music Awards in Monaco (see flier above).

-Bercelona's beloved, techno-flavored Sonar festival has set the dates for next year's do: June 19-21.

-LA Weekly checks out Kompakt's much-hyped Supermayer album and finds much to be desired. Bravo to the paper not only for having the courage to go against the grain on this one, but to have much more dance music coverage than it has in the past. Since my rant in September about the paper's lame and inconsistent coverage of e-music, it has been hitting me back almost week-to-week with ink on our scene. (All you publicists out there try not to trample over me on your way to pitching the Weekly).

-Kaskade's remix of Britney Spears' "Gimme More" is No. 1 over at XM Satellite Radio's BPM channel chart. The Bay Area smooth-house DJ has launched a MySpace page specifically to promote his remixes.

Thursday notes:

-Kaskade has taken a minute off his exhaustive touring schedule to put together a new mix-CD, Bring The Night, due Aug. 21 on Ultra. The Bay Area-based smooth-house DJ put his remixes of Nelly Furtado and Floetry, along with music by Bob Sinclar and Armand Van Helden, on the 15-track compilation. "For me, this mix is about what's happening right now in the club," states the DJ and producer.

-Remixer and producer Morgan Page has unleashed the first release, his own "Tipping Point EP," on his label, Nuance Recordings. He's also recently wrapped up new remixes of Korn, Stevie Nicks and Corinne Bailey-Rae. And we here he's got even bigger projects in the works.

-Chris Fortier (above) stars in my weekly dance club recommendations for the Los Angeles area.

-Tiesto will help Miami club Mansion celebrate its third anniversary with a DJ performance Aug. 4.

-Bercelona's Sonar festival goes to Frankfurt Oct. 10-12.

(above: chris fortier)