DUB GABRIEL

THE PYRAMIDS

founded 1971 at ohio's legendary ANTIOCH college where,
among others, CECIL TAYLOR was
teaching as a professor,
this then very youthful
group soon embarked on an amazing cultural
odyssey which lead them, via europe (important stops included AMSTERDAM and PARIS) to AFRICA.
there they visited the legendary rock churches in LALIBELA (ETHOPIA),
which lend one of their albums the name, and lived in
GHANA and KENYA for a while, listening to and playing with local master
musicians all along the way. PYRAMIDS
members included (and include again) the never resting
IDRIS ACKAMOOR and his then-wife, flautist
MARGEAUX ACKAMOOR (nŽ SIMMONS).

2007 brought a highly
energetic reunion of the group in the original
line-up, which has performed several shows in
the SAN FRANCISCO bay area now, boosting their trademark sound
of massive afrocentric drumming meets ecstatic group improvisations.
2010 will not only bring the reissue of
all 3 PYRAMIDS albums on cd and as digital download on chicago's mighty
IKEF imprint, but also the band's first ever tour in europe since the early days.
please get in touch now
if you you feel intrigued to
host these amazing musicians.
no doubt: this is FIRE MUSIC in its best sense.

check THE PYRAMIDS, old & new on youtube:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJ-rK0o4OWQ

other PYRAMIDS links:
www.50milesofelbowroom.com/artists/pyramids.html
meshes.blogspot.com/2007/06/music-of-adris-ackamoor-1971-2004.html

JAHTARI presents:

JAHTARI is hailing from germany's main sub-bass hub LEIPZIG,
the label's artists feed the circuits
of their laptops with vintage computer game soundtracks, mind and body massaging
bass and horns that make the walls of babylon bow down low.
for the lack of a better term they call their
style DIGITAL LAPTOP REGGAE, combining the best elements of 80's digi dub,
crisp C64 aesthetics and the spirit of classic jamaican dub.

JAN GLEICHMAR co-runs the whole shebang,
which functions both as an internet and a "real" label, releasing vinyl,
cds and even 8-tracks in almost
every format available; under his DISRUPT guise and armed with joystick
and ataris he can also be considered
one of the label's most prolific live acts.
recently he teamed up with scotland's hardest rocking female MC, SOOM T,
who is widely known for her countless
collaborations - with berlin's BUS, with THE BUG, MUNGO HIFI only to mention a few...

FELIX KUBIN

2010 is a lucky year for the whirlwind wizard of manual, FELIX KUBIN.

in march ECHOHAUS was premiered, a live concert for headphone ensemble
and electronics as a part of the prolific MAERZMUSIK festival in berlin.
ECHOHAUS, a collaboration with members
of hamburg's ENSEMBLE INTƒGRALES and legendary producer TOBIAS LEVIN,
is displaying FELIX' amazing talent for serious contemporary
composition, adding a new facet to his art - next to his
much-loved analogue-synth-driven electro
punk stand up shows and his work as an acclaimed radioplaywright
for national and international broadcasting.

in april the video to FELIX KUBIN's take on
KLAUS NOMI's classic ÒLIGHTNING STRIKESÓ won the prestigious audience
award at OBERHAUSEN FILM FESTIVAL.

all of these restless activities
finally made him the cover boy of the WIRE MAGAZINÕs june 2010 edition.

for later this year there are two massive new FELIX KUBIN releases in
the pipeline: PLAT DE RƒSISTANCE on
france's WWILKO and ECHOHAUS on hamburgÕs
dekorder - both to be released in september 2010.

next to his beloved stand-up electro punk solo shows,
FELIX KUBIN is always keen to stage ECHOHAUS where ever possible.

ECHOHAUS trailer: www.youtube.com
LIGHTNING STRIKES video: www.tape.tv

OVAL

MARKUS POPP is OVAL: a laptop legend and one
of the most influential forces in contemporary electronic
music (names he worked with / for include BJ…RK, RYUICHI SAKAMOTO,
TORTOISE, MOUSE ON MARS).

it took MARKUS quite some time to finish O,
his first official release after COMMERS (2001) and PROCESS (2000) - the
revolutionary cd which brought you,
next to the actual music, the software which was used to produce it,
allowing everyone to create her or his own OVAL sounds.

O, an epic offering highlighting
no less than 70 tracks will be out on CHICAGO's THRILL JOCKEY
in september, we guess you can call it a comeback:
skipping his former hi-tech equipment in
favor of a cheap stock PC outfitted with stock sounds and stock plug-ins, OVAL now
delivers an even more mature and mellow music than his classic "shuffling cd
sound" of the nineties, while still being able
to maintain an amazing sense of fragile
beauty and pop sensibility.
enriched with super abstract
noises and hand-programmed, pulsating free form
drums O is redefining electronic listening music in 2010.

the limited edition of OH, a vinyl only
EP was sold out in only a couple of days - we suppose the former
glitch meister has still a fanbase out there...
allow your friendly PLANET ROCK team
to send you your personal pre-release copy of O!

BOMB SQUAD

breaking news: BOMB SQUAD will finally
release the first three albums under their own name later in 2010!

legendary production unit BOMB SQUAD has produced
some of the most influential hiphop gems of all times
(including PUBLIC ENEMY's IT TAKES A
NATION OF MILLIONS TO HOLD US BACK and ICE CUBE's AMERIKKKA'S MOST WANTED),
developed sampling as an art form in its own
right and forever changed the way we listen to popular music.
now main man HANK SHOCKLEE returns as a crowd pleasing soundsystem,
a mighty and rocking show, which is
driven by the full force of the bass,
incorporating latest tendencies in dancefloor music such
as dubstep and ignoring conventional boundaries between man and machine.
HANK SHOCKLEE calls it FUTURE DUB, we don't
mind what you call it, as long as you don't stop to dance!

sample maniacs: don't hesitate to download
the set of songs the SQUAD has been using to create
IT TAKES A NATION OF MILLIONS - a massive effort featuring
no less than 62 tracks:
samplesets.blogspot.com

see the man himself talk about the probably
most influential hiphop album of all times:
http://pitchfork.com

listen to BOMB SQUAD mixes here:
redbullmusicacademyradio.com/shows/1907/
redbullmusicacademyradio.com/shows/1857/
redbullmusicacademyradio.com/shows/1633/

CIRCLE

they are back with a veagance after hibernating for almost 2 years:
finnlandÕs cult number one, CIRCLE,
is finally blasting the NEW WAVE OF FINNISH HEAVY METAL (NWOFHM) on the international club and
festival stages again, including a show at ROSKILDE FESTIVAL on july 2.
make sure to catch their equally
explosive and hypnotic live shows in
the grey area between kraut, psychedlic, hard and math rock.
no doubt: formed in 1991, CIRCLE is the most visible and
prolific name in the
finnish rock underground.

see CIRCLE live in concert in SAN FRANCISCO here:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FWftvvaVok

CLUSTER

CLUSTER's new album QUA, their first studio
recording in 14 years, , was released by KLANGBAD in january 2010 / their
classic SKY releases of the 70es and early 80es are
currently being reissued by BUREAU B.

people like BRIAN ENO, DAVID BOWIE,
AUTECHRE, TORTOISE and MOUSE ON MARS are quoting CLUSTER as a major inspiration for their music. the legend goes
that ENO enjoyed working and hanging out with CLUSTER in their hideout in a former farm house in rural FORST
so much, that BOWIE literally had to drag his then producer
back to finish his album. CLUSTER can be easily understood
as "the originators of the space age" (as they have been
dubbed in japan) or the forefathers of the recent COSMIC DISCO hype.
at the age of 75 and 66 HANS-JOACHIM ROEDELIUS and DIETER MOEBIUS are stronger and
more vital than ever, touring worldwide,
maintaining their almost naive pleasure to
constantly re-invent their unmistakable music on stage.

not for the faint at heart, CLUSTER is also available with the
astral doom metal / disco collective
CHROME HOOF (CLUSTER have also contributed to the HOOFS' new album) and -
for a maximum of eye candie - together with
austria's leading visualists LUMA.LAUNISCH.

see CLUSTER interviewed by EGON (STONES THROW) here:
www.redbullmusicacademy.com

LAU NAU

LAU NAU (ne LAURA NAUKKARINEN) is the godmother of the recently much discussed finnish psych folk scene.
her latest album, NUKKUU, released on
chicago's LOCUST music, is nothing less than a proof of her
full artistry: these are more than just songs, these are
haunting soundscapes of an intoxicating sweetness, snapshots of a music old and new.
you can hear ethereal whispering voices backed
by ancient and strange instruments slightly out
of tune, chaos and structure striking a
confusing balance.

KAMMERFLIMMER KOLLEKTIEF

they are the godfathers of cosmic country: karlsruhe's finest are
taking their delicate and cinematic MONGREL MUSIC to the stage again.
In dialogue with sound itself, the collective,
nowadays mostly performing as a trio around main man THOMAS WEBER,
is merging electronic data folk with real instruments and even more so,
with body and soul. the group's latest record,
a song-infused offering called WILDLING is highlighting
the voice of HEIKE AUMÜLLER and features a lovely LEE
SCRATCH PERRY cover called BIRD IN HAND; listen to WILDLING here:
http://www.kammerflimmer.com/wildling.php

listen to an exclusive KAMMERFLIMMER DJ mix by THOMAS WEBER here:
www.self-titledmag.com

AWESOME TAPES FROM AFRICA

after a stint in GHANA researching the local
hip-hop movement, BROOKLYN's BRIAN SHIMKOVITZ has accumulated
hundreds of cassette tapes of rare african music
from ZIMBABWE to ETHIOPIA to SENEGAL.
he has been sharing his bounty through his immensely popular
blog AWESOME TAPES FROM AFRICA, who he takes now on the road as a DJ.
expect a highly explosive and
danceable trip to the amazing
music cultures of an entire continent.

listen to an AWESOME TAPE DJ mix here:
www.xlr8r.com/podcast/2009/07/awesome-tapes-africa

NEXT LIFE

NEXT LIFE are now a trio,
featuring norwegian black / trash metal master ANDERS HANGARD on drums.
while the last few months
NEXT LIFE did not only hammer out the breathtaking RESURRECTION EP and
opened for black metal
legends MAYHEM (winning legendary singer ATTILA CSIHAR as a new fan) at
BERLIN's VOLKSB†HNE, but
also joined OWEN PALLETT (the artist formerly known as FINAL FANTASY) in
an unlikely but successful
combination for the UK leg
of his european tour.

now the new three piece is eager to play more special events able to cope
with the madness they are able
to unleash on stage (a full scale tour is supposed to happen later - after
the release of a new album on
belgium's CONSPIRACY
early in 2011).

while NEXT LIFE's unique mixture of aggressive speed metal riffs and the
virtual worlds of old 8-bit
game consoles could be easily ending up as a sheer exercise in male geekness,
their almost theatrical liv
presentations highlighting intense light effects and videos deny that, providing
an abstract, almost artsy
meta level to the probably most brutal onslaught of musical madness you've ever
heard! these 20 minutes of
pure energy will change your
life, promised!

THE SOAP&SKIN WITH ENSEMBLE

ANJA PLASCHG is only 20. with the release of her
acclaimed debut album LOVETUNE FOR VACUUM she proved not only to
her critics that she is so much more than the next fräuleinwunder or your
latest teenage myspace hype. after gigs with the likes of PATTI SMITH, MARIANNE FAITHFUL
and JOHN CALE and the sold out album release tour (more than 900 fans attended
the hamburg show), she is now presenting her ensemble, a chamber
orchestra with delicate strings and horns.

FOOD FOR ANIMALS

these kids from the outskirts of DC
and baltimore preach the MARYLAND SLANG, while their style is only very
vaguely described by the term hiphop.
their distorted beats sample snippets off old free jazz records,
while the words are namechecking legendary types such the NYC gay icon, avant
cellist & disco producer ARTHUR RUSSEL. beware, this bunch of hungry mammals definitely take the musical
approach of posses like DÄLEK or PUBLIC ENEMY to the next
level!
check out FOOD FOR ANIMALS'
award winning, first ever music video, featuring the animals' rapper VULTURE VOLTAIRE
as a butt-naked, animated character... "contains animated human nudity, some disturbing foodity,
and exposed virtual schlong",
as an american blog puts it: www.the-landjugend.com/?p=2065

THE NO-NECK BLUES BAND (NNCK)

are you guys ready for the definite freak-out? this unique
american 7 piece ensemble is definitely one of the most confusing and best live
groups to get these days: outsider folk,
fluxus performance madness, psychedelia, improv and outrock,
it all can be found in their genre-blasting musical brew.

KILLL

(jaga jazzist / single unit, oslo)
always available for festivals and special events
www.killl.org, www.myspace.com/killlnorway

currently
KILLL, a norwegian all-star ensemble consisting of
members of JAGA JAZZIST, JR EWING and SINGLE UNIT,
are searching a label for their first release - a live DVD. while this
wouldn't make a lot of sense for
most of bands, it is perfectly logical from
KILLL's point of perspective: the group is a live-only
project and able to
establish an enormous tension in concert
between the hyper-discpline of
their metal riff work and its often chaotic and
unpredictable digital real time
remix. even more so, KILLL's music can hardly be
imagined without its visual
representation: the brutal light designs by KYRRELYS (warning: not for the
faint at hard, and
even explicitly forbidden for pregnant and
epileptic persons): the
world's first and most excellent digital meta metal outfit is an amazing shock therapy for all
your senses.

DAVID TOOP

(serpents' tail / continuum books, london)
always available
www.davidtoop.com, www.myspace.com/davidtoop

new book: SINISTER RESONANCE out now on CONTINUUM BOOKS

a lecture in sound Ð and a sound lecture! let the godfather
of british music journalism, mr. RAP ATTACK and OCEAN OF SOUND himself,
teach you with his unmistakable mixture of multimedia lecture and dj set,
when words and music (and the meaning of both) become one.