news

31-07-2008
woolfy!!!
woolfy!!!

Los Angeles , circa 1999 D- Hastie & Simon “Woolfy” James meet in a run down bar in downtown LA ..a pint ? aayy a pint will do fine ..  you make music , I make music , let’s make music .. The two embarked on what’s become an eight year adventure .. Their first release on Chicago’s Guidance Recordings was Kingsburg , a track that’s appeared on many compilations , including house legend Tony Humphries at Fabric .. From there, the full length, Between Here & Now was released, which made serious waves on the electronic scene and put Projections on the map .. The lads have become well known in Los Angeles for their knock down drag ‘em out parties.. Dropping a concoction of spaced-out house , dubbed disco , funk & beard rock .. the dancefloors  last forever .. As well as Dj’ing ,  Projections keeps busy in many other projects such as the disco-rocker outfit Woolfy on Rong Records (NY) , and the supa heavy funk band Orgone on Ubiquity / Nuff Rope Records (CA/UK) .. Projections has recently released a 12” on Rong , which receives heavy rotation by DFA frontman James Murphy .A new release on the laidback Permanent Vacation label called Return Of Starlight , and a cheeky edit on the Nuff Rope label out of London .. What’s in the future ?? A hell of a lot more … like a new record deal with Sunshine Enterprises and a resulting full length Album that will be released Spring 2008.

 

 

Originally hailing from London, Woolfy started hitting the clubs in Los Angeles '91, back in the Flammable Liquid era and later Does Your Mama Know, and onto The Harvey Sessions. Started dj?ing in '95, founded the deep house & funk club Pressure, and went on to be  resident for Stereophonic at the legendary Fais Do Do. He started Projections with Dan Hastie (Breakestra / Orgone) in 2000 as well as the rude boy band Sounds From The Ward. Projections went on to be signed by Guidance recordings and released the lp „Between Here & Now” and various  singles. He's also worked with Plant Life, Orgone & Pharcyde. While in N.Y. playing at TOTH (Turntables on the Hudson), he met Dj Spun of Rong Records playing at his local. A few bottles of rum later, Rong records was releasing the Woolfy / Projections split single, a  few spliffs later and „If You Know What?s Good For Ya!!” was complete ..
Woolfy owns a pub called The Scotland Yard with his dad, retired rocker Pat Fairley of the band The Marmalade. Woolfy's Thursday night Soul Collective is renowned for having true live funk, roots and disco (the real shit) ..
His influences include dirty disco, the rare 12"s from 73 - 84 , a  bit of English punk, pub funk, and liquor.

14-07-2008
kraak en smaak dj set, feat. tom wieland
kraak en smaak dj set, feat. tom wieland

KRAAK EN SMAAK DJ SET 19TH OF JULY

 

this is the one not to miss. these guys are sooo awesome, not only are they a fab band, that just wouldnt be enough. they where also voted best dj´s this winter, by the dutch music press and dutch musisians, during the "duiveltjes" award.

and now, this saturday, kraak en smaak will do an awesome dj set at planetarium with club new amsterdam!!!

club new amsterdam will host the night and have invited mr. tom wieland, aka 7 samurai (compost, gamm) to join the turntable devils on the decks.

and enfunk terrible majestic mood will also spinn some of his favvy trxx


Heineken, Van Gogh, Kraak & Smaak. The three most famous things to come out of Holland. Ever. In that order. Ok so maybe a bit of an exaggeration but the last three years have been an incredible ride for the band considered to be Holland’s hottest live act and as they release their second album things seem set to get even crazier.

Rewind a couple of years and we find three dutch guys plotting world domination from their hometown of Leiden. Since releasing their debut album Boogie Angst they have played over 200 live band gigs, they’ve been hailed by I-DJ as a “Must see live band” they’ve supported the stadium-rocking Faithless on their European tour and played some of the most prestigious gigs in the USA including Coachella Festival, SXSW Festival, the Miami Winter Music Conference as well as playing headline sell-out gigs on the West and East Coast on their last tour.

Although Kraak & Smaak originally started out as a studio project for the founder members Oscar De Jong, Mark Kneppers & Wim Plug it quickly became one of the hottest live and DJ properties in dance music. The live band has the addition of Ro Krom – drummer & vocalist, Rose – vocalist and Marc on the bass guitar. Coupled with the keyboards, FX and percussion played by the band themselves it’s a formidable slice of funk on the floor with the epic moments provided by K&S’s more leftfield output. For DJ sets band member DJ Sargon, Mark and Wim are the main spinners capable of laying down an eclectic sound that makes them as happy spinning in the tiny basement of a deep funk night as it does dropping huge riffs to festival crowds.

In the UK, the boys have rocked shows for Club nights like AIR, Fingerlickin’ and Chew The Fat and Breakspoll  For this summer they have Glastonbury, Bloom, Lovebox and Big Chill festivals lined up in the UK as well as Sziget and 10 days Off amongst others in Europe.

When it came out, their debut album Boogie Angst stood out because it sounded like nothing else around. The K&S brand of future funk led to their singles being supported by the cream of Radio 1. Annie Nightingale was the first to support the band and invited K&S to record a guestmix for her show. Annie Mac, Pete Tong and Rob Da Bank also came to the party with Rob even licensing their first single Money in the Bag for his Blue Room compilation CD. Their breaking sound led to a whole host of requests for remixes with Jamiroquai at the front of the queue as well as Mark Rae (a particular beauty of a mix that’s big with the jazz heads) Max Sedgley (who Rob da Bank asked the band to do a mix of), Richard Dorfmeister (whose Kruder&Dorfmeister Sessions album has been an inspiration to the band) and friends and family like Fort Knox Five, Soul of Man and Skeewiff. These remixes were collected onto a double album (they’d been busy) called The Remix Sessions which was released last year.

So after touring the planet in support of their debut album and remixing all their peers and heroes, the time came for the band to start recording their second album. In the early part of 07 they hit the studio for the first sessions with a second burst of recording after the summer festival season.
“The goodwill we got from our first album opened some doors for us” says mark  “We wanted to write with the people who are in the band as the core of the album but we also had met some people along the way who had got us excited and it was great that when we contacted them they wanted to work with us. We’ve got a killer track with Ben Westbeech on vocals which is lined up as the first proper single from the new album and another that we wrote with Mark Brydon from Moloko as the second. We’ve got vocal tracks with Rose and Ro in the bank and a killer track with rapper Dudley Perkins from Stones Throw who we’ve had respect for over time”.

“The new album is a bit more grown up than the first album” says Wim “We’ve worked with some of our heroes and that’s had an effect. We still want to write tracks that rock it on a dancefloor but we’ve also done an incredible cinematic track with Carmel who was a famous jazz singer in the 80’s.” “Our dream collaboration is still Thom Yorke from Radiohead though – so if anyone can hook it up we’re ready and waiting” interjects Mark.

“We’ve kept the trademark K&S sound of funk and Fender Rhodes on some of the tracks” says Oscar  “but tracks like Plastic People have a tougher edge. It’s a natural result of playing to bigger festival crowds and seeing bands like Faithless tear crowds apart with big dark riffs. We still want to keep the party funk element to our live show but you need those dark ride moments that make it happen for the big crowds. We were really pleased when Sander Kleinenberg licensed an upfront version of one of our new album tracks for his Renaissance compilation. I don’t think that would have happened with Boogie Angst”.

The band are still raving vinyl heads with Mark’s personal collection topping 50,000. He owns two vinyl record stores in Amsterdam and Leiden and is still a firm supporter of the format. Wim is also a vinyl man but studio head Oscar is more of a film buff. “ The track we wrote with Carmel would be perfect for a David Lynch film” says Oscar “and melancholic soundtracks can be a real inspiration for emotional electronic and downtempo music”.

Unlike some of their contemporaries the guys are looking forward to hitting the road with the band again. “I like the simplicity “says Oscar “ there is only one goal - get to the gig - do the gig - do the after party – move on. There’s no complications and you end up in these places you would never visit on holiday. If you go on holiday you go to a beach somewhere but the places we’ve seen we would never have seen if it wasn’t for the band. We’ve already had some massive high points like pulling into LA in our tour bus to play a sell out gig at the El Rey with our name up in the classic American style on the front of the theatre but we’re still a baby band, the best is yet to come – it will be a long time before you hear us moaning about going on tour”.   

Kraak & Smaak released their second album Plastic People in April 08. The single Squeeze Me featuring Ben Westbeech was a hit across Europe and was supported by Pete Tong, Annie Mac, Zane Lowe, Annie Nightingale and Trevor Nelson on Radio 1. The band are gearing up for their second single Plastic People which will be released this summer and are currently in the studio remixing Sam Sparro’s second single.     

(picture by michael mees)
_

12-06-2008
discocult
discocult

 


discocult collective feat. dj rubedo and vj martin duvall at eurogherkin
DISCOCULT is Sugar Factory’s own monthly clubnight. it is a musical and visual clash of fashion, cross dancing, disco, cult and art. the collaboration of this "creative collective" of local amsterdam clubscene, art- and fashion heroes makes discocult an theatrical-musical adventure. A night filled with a mixture of sturdy and subtle tracks, always placed in an ever rejuvenating mix by international guests of the global dance scene.

it's disco, it's cult.. with a whip of fashion and a whisp of art and theatre.

DJ'S
all discocult's  resident dj's and guest dj's are unique in the way they bring out their own, melodious mix. think of a fresh mix of funk, jazz, electro, house, disco, latin, bossa, hip-hop, break-beat, psycadellica, post punk and glam rock. Well known tunes and hyper hits are blended into new exiting dance floor mixes.

this is what makes discocult different, new, and fresh. DISCOCULT has style, without using a style bible, it is fashion, without being fashionistic, the atmosphere is open, warm and intimate. paaahhhhty!

discocult guests of past and future: stereo deluxe, superstar dj's, electric kassi, dublex inc, morpheus, mr. and mrs. cameron, ursula 1000, marflow, djuma soundsystem,
lars moston, pinie wang and the first lady o.b.t.

DISCOCULT IN VIENNA
DISCOCULT are:  freestyle-shaman dj graham b. and funk-alchemist dj rubedo (jacek rajewski), renaissance androgenous and operatieve fashionista martin duvall who puts discocult in a framework of rebellious, bizarre and hyper-realistic video art. diva destynee, the host of the night, who is the icing of the cake with her special MC set.
in vienna, discocult will be respresented by DJ RUBEDO and MARTIN DUVALL