John Talabot is a youngster from Barcelona with a rather special way of approaching music. His influences range from flamenco to northern soul, from African music to traditional Asian songs.


His first commercial effort on German label Permanent Vacation included the A side “Afrika” plus another two tracks,”Naomi” and “Korlee” . Shortly after (June 2009), “Sunshine” debuted via Talabot’s own label Hivern.


“Sunshine” resurfaced on a limited blue vinyl with mixes by Delorean and Blondes (May 2010) after the original made it to Pitchfork’s best new music of their 2009 list. At the same time Permanent Vacation launched his second release for the label: “Matilda’s Dream”


2011 saw the release of a four track EP, “Families”, via Young Turks. The title track features vocals by Glasser.


His first artist album, “ƒin”, will be released in 2012 and it contains eleven brand new tracks, featuring Pional and Ekhi.

-via last.fm
John Talabot on Facebook

“Our musical chemistry has always existed in the context of actually playing,” explains Sam Haar, one-half of the Brooklyn-based duo Blondes. “From pre-written material in our old post-punk band to recent tracks that were completely improvised, it’s all about capturing music in the moment; all about hearing our hands shape samples, toy with our instruments, and turn tons of knobs.”


While they developed a deep love for club-oriented music alongside many different bands at Oberlin College, Haar and his recurring creative partner, Zach Steinman, didn’t apply their collective skills to a studio setting until last year’s Touched EP. A restless snapshot of their earliest material—each with its own “internal logic and process”—the record was haunted by the ghosts in the machines of such sound sculptors as Manuel Göttsching, the Belleville Three, and DFA’s keyboard-collecting dark horse, Gavin Russom. Which explains why it featured a left field remix from Oneohtrix Point Never and earned the respect of discriminating dancefloors and blissed-out living rooms in equal measure.


As for what came next, Blondes avoided the allure of a rushed debut record for three separate 12-inch sessions: one at Atlantic Sound Studio on the brink of Brooklyn’s East River, and a pair of sparring matches in the group’s own rehearsal/recording space, where they can mold their music without worrying about time or money.

All of which up the ante of Touched’s transcendent techno tendencies while maintaining the flesh and blood feel of such early standouts as “Moondance” and “Spanish Fly.” Whether your needle’s pierced the runaway piano riffs of “Pleasure” or the speaker-panning synth pads and bruised beats of “Hater,” it’s easy to imagine Blondes’ new material working in such adventurous environs as New York’s Paradise Garage, one of David Mancuso’s infamous Loft parties, or a particularly epic house party on the very outskirts of Brooklyn.


No wonder why Blondes made a conscious decision to release its RVNG Intl. trilogy on vinyl first, with a long player pressing of all six tracks and a handful of freshly-cut recordings on the way later this year.


“Digital media overload often belittles music as an experience,” says Haar. “Vinyl encourages that kind of listening—hearing everything in realtime just like how we made it. I guess the proper word here would be ‘human’.”

Rumors of NYC nightlife’s demise have been greatly exaggerated. While the ever-pervasive rumors of “no dancing allowed” and draconian cabaret laws continue to reverberate around the world’s cities, the state of underground dance music in the big apple is indeed much stronger. This is thanks, in no small part, to the efforts of Dave Pianka and Josh Houtkin (DJing as Dave P and JDH, respectively). The two have been responsible for bringing over some of the most credible DJs and live bands and giving them a proper venue and environment in which to play. In addition, they have honed their DJ and production skills over the years, and are increasingly breaking new records and sounds with their back-to-back sets. Dave has also recently kicked into gear with production duties, contributing remixes of established acts like the Klaxons and Bloc Party.

The two first met through Josh’s affiliation with Flyer, a now-defunct cultural magazine. They were frequently booked separately to DJ at the same parties in NYC, often in the same rooms.

“We both came from very similar musical backgrounds growing up in the punk/hardcore scene,” says Dave. “We both basically progressed in the same direction from there, into indie rock and into the more electronic sounds where we find ourselves now.”

Says Josh, “Our influences come from a pretty wide variety of places. We both were heavily into the early-90’s punk/ indie scene. Fugazi, Dischord Records, Bikini Kill, that sort of stuff.”

The two quickly teamed up, expanding their horizons into techno, electro and other permutations of dance music. In early 2004, they started a party called Fixed at the Tribeca Grand hotel, where they quickly established a forward-thinking booking policy that found heavyweight, Berlin-based techno jocks like Ewan Pearson playing one week, with on-the-rise indie acts such as the Long Blondes the next. To date, blue-chip artists like Erol Alkan, Soulwax, Whitey, Justice, Digitalism, the Klaxons, Peaches, LCD Soundsystem, Mylo, Vitalic, Simian Mobile Disco, The Rapture, Art Brut, Tim Sweeney, and many more have all made appearances.

In a city full of nights with style over substance, Fixed is now known as a party with an eclectic crowd of sincere music lovers, where all sorts of interesting styles and genres find a place to come together.

“Aside from our musical upbringing, we are both influenced by nights such as Optimo, Trash, and Bugged Out!, says Josh. “These are great parties that don’t necessarily have a musical “policy” or “style.” For us, every style of music is good and merits attention.”

In terms of their DJing, the two have forged a defined musical understanding over the years. They often play back-to-back, each pushing one and other to find the perfect record to follow another with. “There are times when Josh and I are djing and one of us will put on a record and we’ll both reach for a track to play out of it and then realize that we both grabbed the same one,” says Dave. “We’re both very conscious of flow.”

Their Go Commando! Mix features many artists the two have brought over to perform, and also represents a broad cross-section of the styles and genres they play in a night. Joakim’s pop-funk kicks off the mix representing the more melodic side of their collective taste, later panning through avant-disco Stylings of Prins Thomas and In Flagranti, the deep, brooding techno of Swedish performers The Knife, into an electro barnstormer from Vitalic and finally touching down on a beautiful note with the panning synth swells of Superpitcher and Michael Mayer’s remix of Gui Borratto’s “Like You.”

Going forward, JDH and Dave P look forward to continuing helping interesting acts around the world establish a beachhead on US shores, as well as continuing to bring their act on the road. With recent DJ tours in Canada, Spain, the UK and Germany, they’re finding wider acclaim on a global stage while keeping up the ravenous appetite for breaking new sounds.

www.igetrvng.com

fixednyc.com

soundcloud.com/jdh_fixed