Little Dragons Flying In
Next Monday, 23.5.11, the beloved Swedish band Little Dragon will be performing a show at Tel-Aviv’s Barby venue. The show is part of Shesek’s 10th Anniversary celebrations, and is a step up for us from the previous events in this series, which so far has included DJ sets at the lounge by Tokimonsta and Pangaea. Tickets can be bought at the Barby site, as well as at Shesek and the Michatronix bar.
The show is Little Dragon’s last date of their current European tour, and just a brief second before they hit major summer festivals like Glastonbury and Sonar. I’ve seen them live in London a few years back, and Nadav caught them at the Big Chill, and both times they were magnificent. I truly believe it’s a rare chance for Tel-Aviv to synch in with what the world’s biggest stages are buzzing about.
A quick check revealed to me that Little Dragon are among the artist which have appeared the most times in the Rasham-Kol podcasts since their launch almost 3 years ago (obviously way before we even thought of having them over). A Google check further revealed that our little Botanika site even appears as the last entry on the first results page when searching for “Little Dragon”. Yes, that much love.
For those who don’t know them – here’s a mix I’ve done with some of my favorite songs of theirs, alongside their excellent Gorillaz and Maximum Balloon collaborations (i.m.o stealing the show on both albums), and a sneaky Burial mashup thrown in as a bonus towards the end. Press play.
Podcast: Download (Duration: 42:22 — 77.6MB)
Tracklist and more info after the jump.
Shesek 10 feat. Pangaea
After the amazing session we had early September with the sweet & magnificent Tokimonsta (of LA’s Brainfeeder camp), who came down for our beloved Shesek’s 9th birthday, this coming Thursday, 11.11.2010, will see the first in a row of events planned for Shesek’s 10th year running wild. As the lounge’s resident & musical manager, this series is sort of a private indulgence for me & the Shesek team, through which we’ll be bringing some international musical talents we just can’t help ourselves from having over, and are not seeing it happen elsewhere in Tel-Aviv’s current unpredictable & somewhat narrowed-down nightlife/club scene.
So, we are excited to announce that this Thursday we’ll be hosting at our intimate setting, which will be dressed in it’s clubbiest manner, UK’s finest post-garage/deep-dubstep/whatever u-wanna-call-it PANGAEA, from the Hessle Audio camp (which he runs alongside Ramadanman & Ben UFO).
Pangaea first struck our hears & hearts with late 2008′s “You & I” b/w “Router”, a big Botanika favorite, which brought a much needed breath of deepness into then quite bland & overtly loud dubstep sound. That same track was picked as one of 2008′s highlights at many of the world’s leading electronic music sites.
His flawless series of releases followed with my personal favorite “Bear Witness” (out on Scuba’s Hotflush imprint), 2009′s world applauded “Memories” bootleg, and this January’s exquisite double pack, which contained beauties such as “Why”, “Because of You”, “Yellow Sunset” and the extra deep & techish “5-HTP”. Needless to say, they’re all ace. And from what we’ve heard, he’s a great DJ as well.
Starting proceedings will be Botanika’s NDV, with a beats & bass session to get us all warmed up, followed by our good friends Skillatone, who are not only our next hour neighbors on the 106FM schedule, but also Shesek’s leading dubstep sessionists. Finishing things off into late night territories will be Niv Hadas & myself, combining garage, dubstep & dub-techno. Surely, another session you don’t wanna miss.
As Shesek has a very limited capacity, we strongly recommend you pass by there prior to the event itself, to inquire as on how to ensure your entry. See ya.
Polar Pair on Burntprogress VA 2.1
Probably already familiar to those of you following closely, CDR/Burntprogress is a unique community based platform, in which producers & musicians share new ideas, works in progress, unreleased songs, remixes & related musical creations – in a public space. Founded by Tony Nwachukwu & Gavin Alexander, it began as a monthly night held at London’s Plastic People, spreading over the years into other venues, cities, festivals & even the Tate Britain, as well as international destinations such as Caracas, Berlin, Paris & Tel-Aviv. Since their first visit to Israel a couple of years ago thanks to Anat Cederbaum, who worked at CDR London, and the British Council’s support, we’ve developed a close-knit relationship with the project, concept & people behind it.
Botanika artists Kalbata & NDV (solo and with Polar Pair), have participated at CDR London events (in person or by mail), while I’ve been coordinating (with Michael Cohen & Ofer Tal), the local Tel Aviv branch of CDR, held approx. 3 times a year at the Shesek lounge. It has drawn in many of our local colleagues, as well as an interesting variety of producers we’ve never met before, and I’ve even done a DJ set, comprised solely of CDR Tel-Aviv material, at the Plastic People homebase back in 08′.
CDR/Burntprogress has also evolved into a sort of independent label, releasing now it’s second compilation, “Burntprogress VA 2.1″. It features Polar Pair’s “I Want Some”, a broken-beat meets B-more club hybrid produced some 3 years ago, alongside tracks by Botanika favorites such as Floating Points, Bullion, Paul White, Soundspecies, Mr Beatnik, Tom Trago, Simbad & Titonton. Check it out as via Soundcloud here, and purchase here.
VA2.1 MIXTAPE by burntprogress
Next CDR Tel-Aviv will take place on Sunday, 31.1.09 (the day after Tu Bishvat), at the Shesek lounge. Lilienblum 17, Tel Aviv. Submit your tracks by 11PM.
Shesek & Benji B previews on 106FM
Next week on Botanika FM we’ll be hosting Benji B for a special 2 hours show of Botanika FM meets Deviation, from 22:00 till midnight (+2 GMT). You can read more about Benji’s visit in Tel-Aviv for Shesek’s 8th Birthday party here, and more specifically about the show (and in Hebrew) on Kol HaKampus 106′s site here. While on 106′s site, jump over to this piece, with many of of the local homies and us included, laying down some Shesek all time faves.
Shesek Birthday Bash @ Block, 6.11.09
What can we say about this party that isn’t self-explanatory? The place where Nadav, Idit Ladymoon and all of our homies call home, where I’ve been resident DJ for the past 8 years (and so far still going), the number 1 spot in Tel-Aviv for all things musical & cutting-edge – celebrates 8 years of going at it. The whole Shesek staff will take over the Block club, form the doors to the bar and up the DJ booth. Niv & I, who’ve DJ’ed b2b on Shesek’s opening night back in 2001 (nobody even remembers the exact date anymore), will be accompanied by Benji B of BBC/1Xtra/Deviation fame. A totally egoistic choice of guest DJ but it’s OUR birthday, so it’s our call and a good opportunity if there ever was one to treat ourselves to the max.
Benji started djiing in LDN’s clubs at a teen’s age, grew into radio under Gilles Peterson’s Worldwide wings, and for the past 8 years has been holding his own on 1Xtra since the station’s day 1. His Deviation show, which has just been prolonged to 3 hours and moved into the very central Sunday night spot, is the weekly must-stop for every concerning DJ out there, joining the dots between modern soul, club hip hop, broken beats, quality deep house & techno, FlyLo style beats, Dam Funk heat, funky carnival bangers and the wickedest dubstep tunes around – as long as it’s quality and got soul (in the true and broad sense of the word).
We highly recommend to purchase tickets via presale, as it’s considerably cheaper (50 NIS at Shesek, 60 NIS at Krembo, Psycho Tattoo and Hummus Abu-Dubi, and 80 at the door), and to avoid disappointment. Should be some facebook event page for it somewhere, and anyway we DEFinitely wanna see u there!
