Inside Nokia Music

According to trends seen on Nokia’s Ovi Music Store, 2010 is tipped to be the summer of dance as festival season gets into full swing and dance music downloads soar. The genre has now jumped two places up to the sixth most downloaded music category online – behind Pop, Rock and Hip Hop.

According to Ovi, Russia is currently the biggest downloader of dance music, followed by Austria, Netherlands, UK, Switzerland, South Africa, Finland, Italy and Mexico.

Driving this rapid rise is French DJ turned global superstar David Guetta. The research, conducted by Nokia across 36 countries, revealed that Guetta – famous for his chart-topping dance songs When Love Takes Over (featuring Kelly Rowland) and Sexy Bitch (featuring Akon) – currently dominates half of the top ten most downloaded dance tracks on Ovi Music. This makes David Guetta the most downloaded dance artist of all time on Ovi Music, outselling the next four most popular dance artists combined.

TOP 10 DANCE MUSIC ACTS OF ALL TIME

(Based on Ovi Music downloads)

In terms of total downloads on Ovi, dance music is currently the sixth most popular genre, up from eighth place the same time last year – ahead of Indie and Latin music.

“This trends snapshot reveals a growing interest in dance music across the world which has traditionally been a niche genre online” said Ovi Musicologist, Geoff Roberts.

“Artists such as David Guetta are helping bring dance music to the masses, spiking an increase in downloads over the past year. This is only going to increase as we get deeper into festival season – last year dance music downloads peaked between May and September, and this trend looks like it is set to continue this year.”

GLOBAL POPULARITY OF DANCE MUSIC

(based on total Ovi Music downloads)

Check out our playlist of the current most downloaded dance songs, alongside updates on the latest dance additions to the store.

For those who enjoy dance music there are also many great apps on Ovi to enjoy. From the Playlist DJ to instantly create playlists of your favourite tunes, to SmartGrooves Pack 1 to mix built in beats and loops, to Gig Finder to search for local concerts and purchase tickets direct from your mobile, there is something for everyone.

After some crowd commotion I stand to see Michael Eavis take the mic to introduce “two superstars”. Unable to make out who the solitary figure on the stage is, I’m asked by the nearest person if I can see. I promptly take a peek through my 100-400 lens and am utterly gobsmacked to realise it’s none other than Thom Yorke, which immediately prompts the question “Who’s the other superstar?”

After an introductory lap with no sign of the second artist, Yorke takes his place at an upright piano for the title track from his solo debut The Eraser. With a Digital Delay Pedal at foot Yorke then takes the Bass and catches a loop, then takes up the keys for a compositely rich Harrowdown Hill.

After Black Swan the question is answered as Jonny Greenwood joins Yorke for Cymbal Rush, the last of the Thom Yorke solo material before indulging in a stripped down Radiohead set featuring Weird Fishes/Arpeggi and Pyramid Song… But the real magic happens with Karma Police when it gets the loudest singalong of the set.

With Karma Police finished, Yorke and Greenwood experience technical difficultly and begin discussing something among themselves. Silence washes over the crowd for what seems like an eternity and it’s at this point the crowd takes control of the situation and begins to reprise the Karma Police climax. It’s not long before the issue is resolved and Yorke returns to the mic to play the song out again for what is without a doubt the single most magically moment of Glastonbury’s 40th.

They appropriately close the set with Street Spirit (Fade Out) and the tiny speckled goose bumps shine through the sun tortured red skin on my arms like stars in the night.

Flickr Set

Radiohead, Jonny Greenwood and Thom Yorke are available to download now from Nokia/Ovi Music Store and if you’re a Comes With Music member, they’re all free!

The trouble with Glastonbury is having to make choices. It’s not something I’m hugely fond of in everyday life, never mind when it comes to choosing who’s set to watch… and so it all comes down to logistics.

Having suffered from near heat exhaustion the day before with 5 treks between my tent on the western perimeter and the parking area way beyond the eastern perimeter, my choice becomes obvious as the John Peel tent entices me with it’s offering of sanctuary from the blazing sun, and a chance to see Bloc Party frontman Kele Okereke’s solo incarnation.

Now Kele (his solo moniker) has been accused of being a miserable individual in the past, not something that I’ve ever observed, but this has been the general perception of him none the less. Touching down just in time for the start of the set, my eyes adjust from the glare outside to see a spritely Kele take to the stage with his debut solo album opener Walk Tall and it becomes immediately obvious that any of the aforementioned perceptions are either circumstantial, or just plain misperception. Kele’s in a good headspace!

Keeping close to The Boxer’s track order, playing On The Lam, The Other Side and Everything You Wanted sequentially, saving debut solo single Tenderoni until after a Bloc Party medley featuring a dance rendition of Blue Light, The Prayer and the ominously suggestive One More Chance – With consideration to the fact that moments before, Kele makes the bothersome statement “For those of you who don’t know, I used to be in a band”, suggesting that Bloc Party are officially no more!

Following 2 more tracks from The Boxer, we’re treated to the Euro-Techno stomper Flux as the set closer, elevating my mood in combination with my first proper Glasto set of 2010, and a moderately successful test shoot with the obscene lens I hired for the weekend.

Flicker Set

Kele – The Boxer and Bloc Party are both available to download now from Nokia/Ovi Music Store and if you’re a Comes With Music member, they’re all free!

If last week was the widely-lauded (at least within my household) Wooden Week, this week it’s Comeback Week. We have no less than three – count ‘em – three bands with important new releases. And yes, one releasing their debut album, but hey: f**k you. Feeder are about to unleash Renegades, the band’s first album in two years and an important return to their roots. Devo, 80s-era electronic pop-rockers, return with their first proper album in 20 years, while Underworld get back to business with the first single from their upcoming album, their first in three years. Makes me kind of nostalgic, actually. Oh, and the newbies spoiling my finely crafted theme this week? Sound Of Guns. Damn their eyes.

Sound Of Guns – What Came From Fire

Ah yes, this is anthemic stuff – the sort of thing you’d be forgiven for wanting to wave your cigarette lighter at (or fling a p**s-filled bottle at, depending on your persuasion). Sound Of Guns are the next big thing, if the music press are to believed (don’t think for a minute that I include myself as part of that group) and as they’re usually the ones who determine this sort of thing, you’ll probably hear loads about them. Luckily for me I quite like What Came From Fire. Apart from a few Coldplay-esque forays into the middle of the road with tracks like Architects, Collisions and Starts With An End, it’s a record boasting a few genuine fist-pumping party numbers – Alcatraz and Bullets In The Bloodstream being the standouts.

Underworld – Scribble

Not an album, this, but the prelude to one: Scribble is the first single from Underworld’s upcoming album, Barking, which is due out in September, and should put the dance duo back on the popular map. They’ve had criticism from some of their old-school fans (Scribble has memorably been described as ‘Moby on Prozac’ by one less-than-impressed forum poster at Stereogum) but it’s a sunny slice of drum and bass lite that’s easy to nod your head to. And, even better, you can download the radio edit for free from Underworld’s website. If that’s too nancy for your tastes, check out the fizzing Netsky remix on the virtual B-side.

Devo – Something For Everybody

I was worried for a minute that this was an ill-considered change in direction for Simon Cowell’s operatic boy band, but actually Devo is a synth-pop band whose heyday was the late Seventies and early Eighties. Which goes to prove that you really do learn something new everyday. Anyway, to Something For Everybody, an album that’s in turns laughable (laughing with, rather than laughing at, though – it’s an important distinction to make) and admirable. Rooted firmly in the 1980s, it’s a mix of electronic bleepery, rock guitars and programmed drumbeats that’s wonderfully nuts. And nothing whatsoever to do with faux-classical vocalists.

My album of the week:

Feeder – Renegades

Feeder are back and boy, have they been putting away the pies. Renegades is a far heavier collection of tracks than Feeder have become known for and that’s no bad thing – this is a 40-odd minute slab of prime beef that should go down a treat live. Don’t think for a minute that more heavy equals less catchy, mind – several of the tracks here are veritable butchers’ hooks (don’t worry, that’s the end of the meat-metaphors). Boasting a brand-new drummer, Renegades sounds downright invigorating and it no doubt was as refreshing to record as it is to listen to. Tracks like The End, Sentimental and Home drive and thud their way into your ears with sledgehammer surety, while the Call Out shows Feeder haven’t lost any of their finesse for a more radio-friendly guitar-led pop song. Renegades is out on July 5^th and has to be a contender for rock album of the year…

Have at it. All the music featured here is available now, apart from Renegades by Feeder, which is out on July 5th, on Nokia Music Store now and is free to Comes With Music members.

Christmas is a long and distant memory now, but the rebellious backlash towards The X Factor dominating the Christmas number 1 chart spot will live on in the hearts of those that got behind the campaign to take the power back.

After a month long public vote for support acts for the victory gig on 6th June, the line-up has finally been confirmed by Festival Republic… and takes those of us lucky enough to be drawn from the ticket lottery through a rather eclectic line-up… and here it is…

Gallows

Roots Manuva

Gogol Bordello

Rage Against The Machine

Oh, how sweet victory is!

Gallows, Roots Manuva, Gogol Bordello, and Rage Against The Machine are available to download from the Nokia Music Store or download them all for free if you have Comes With Music

As you may or may not already know, Bloc Party frontman Kele Okereke released the tracklisting for his upcoming solo debut a couple days back (finger on the pulse eh?) which is great news for fans like myself to fill the vacuous void of the band’s current hiatus… But it’s a little bittersweet (my buzz-word of the week apparently!) as in an interview in this week’s NME Kele responded to a statement they made about the apparent New York influence by saying “I’d never seen the soul of the city until I recorded my album there. It made me realise I have to move there. I’m going to move there this year.”

This bothers me for two reasons… Firstly, I’ve taken a particular shine to the dude and now I won’t have chance encounters with him as I’ve done in the past, but more importantly where does that leave Bloc Party?… It’s not uncommon for internationally successful artists to live in different countries from the other band members, but Bloc Party’s soul is heavily rooted in East London in my opinion… Only time will tell!

Kele - The Boxer is due for release on the 14th June with first single Tenderoni due later this month… here’s the tracklisting

Walk Tall
On The Lam
Tenderoni
The Other Side
Everything You Wanted
New Rules
Unholy Thoughts
Rise
All The Things I Could Never Say
Yesterday’s Gone

Bloc Party albums are available to download at Nokia Music Store or if you’ve got Comes With Music get them all for free!

Living in Bristol has undoubtedly shaped the types of  music that I listen to.  Drum and Bass is (or was before Dubstep came alone) the most popular underground music in the city.

Being just down the road from London, many of the capitals top DJ’s and producers frequently pop down to Bristol to play gigs.  Now more than ever as there’s an abundance of promoters in this small city trying to get the latest stars of the underground to play at their nights.

Me being one of those promoters in this saturated market I can only promote the music, DJs and producers I believe in.

One of those producers is Heist, a Drum and Bass producer from Braintree who started his production career started just over five years ago.  Since then Heist has seen his tunes shock the Drum and Bass world with many of the top DJs carrying his tunes in their boxes.

As well as signing his releases to a number of big D’n’B labels he has also worked with Goldie on his productions. Engineering the hugely well-received LP ‘Malice in Wonderland’ for the Metalheadz boss together with anthem ‘Is This Real’, the success of which has seen them return to the studio to work on follow-up LP ‘Memoires Of An Afterlife’.

As well as working with a biggest name in the scene Heist has also started his own labels, Sumo Beats and Calypso in order to accommodate the ever-increasing volume of solo work; future plans alongside producers like Lomax, Taxman, Original Sin and Die lurk in the pipeline together with releases on Propaganda and Frontline, keeping the vinyl-buying public on their toes with an impressively expansive repertoire of production credits.

His production styles are varied across the D’n’B spectrum.  As well the the jump up dancefloor tunes many know him for Heist can also lend his talents to more chilled and techy styles which you’ll see released on labels like Fabio’s Creative Source and Goldie’s Metalheadz.

If you happen to live in the great and musical city of Bristol you can catch Heist on Saturday 3^rd April at Basement 45.

Shortly after posting about Polysics in my most anticipated albums of 2009, the band put out a newsletter stating that Keyboard player Kayo would be leaving to “experience life outside the band”. The decision was apparently made a long time ago as it was stated in the newsletter that “Kayo made it a basic policy to not leave the band haphazardly. Even after the decision to graduate was made, she still participated in the recording of two albums as well as many live performances, some which took place abroad”.

Kayo, in my opinion, and that of several other fans I’m sure, is an integral dynamic of the band’s live performances. Standing still for most of the performance, she get’s the biggest response from the audience as the kooky one responsible for all the robotic vocoder gibberish and the sporadic pom-pom shaking outbursts.

Kayo “graduates” from Polysics following the show at the Budokan to take place on March 14, 2010, If you have a chance to catch them before this tragic and emotional day, do not hesitate as the band are understandably going on hiatus and I fear will never be the same again.

I Couldn’t find any crazy pom-pom footage, but here’s a Polysics performance that will give you glimpse into what we’re about to lose.

You’ll be sorely missed, Kayo Polysics.

Polysics are available to download from the Nokia Music Store and is completely free to ‘Comes With Music’ subscribers.

Good marketing has become business critical in the world of music today. That’s why tonnes of money is poured into making music videos, but this doesn’t necessarily make them good. In most cases you will find the scantily clad artist in question aggressively gyrating in your face, in a dangerously flashy room, whilst an onlooking horde of baggy-clothed groupies egg them on. You don’t need a million pounds to make an awe-inspiring video, an interesting and original concept will do. OK Go got it right in 2006 with the video for Here It Goes Again, which is a continuous single take of the band performing an elaborate dance routine on treadmills. This video was responsible for the song’s top 40 chart success in both the US & the UK. To date it has received over 49 million views on YouTube and was awarded a Grammy for the Best Short Form Music Video in 2007.

Now OK Go have set the bar, will they attempt to match their own success with another awe-inspiring video? Yes…

Here’s the video for the new single This Too Shall Pass:

I enjoy a good music video when it’s done properly; here are 5 great videos I have recently rediscovered:

Oren Lavie – Her Morning Elegance

Jape – Floating

Björk – All Is Full of Love

The Avalanches – Frontier Psychiatrist

Fujiya & Miyagi – Ankle Injuries

Here’s a nice little remix from Bristol based new-comer Julio Bashmore which appears on the latest release from Buraka Som Sistema. Giving the original his mellow (UK) Funky House treatment of skippy beats and big bongo style 808’s on the b-line. The young Julio is getting a bit of attention on the underground blog scene with some nice releases and a few mixes here and there. I expect to see his name crop up alot on remix duties this year. The original’s not too shabby either!

Copy and paste this number into the title field of the Nokia/Ovi Music Store search box at the top of the page and press return to be taken directly to the product: OD2DI6858071-03