Example's 'Playing in the Shadows' album cover and tracklisting

So Example has revealed the album cover for Playing in The Shadows, his third studio album and it will be released 4th September 2011.

Let's take a look:

Some fans have compared it to Calvin Harris and a "murderer".

Amazing.

Next up is the tracklisting which has been revealed. We've added in the names of producers where we can

1. Skies Don't Lie (prod. Funkagenda)
2. Stay Awake (prod. Nero)
3. Changed The Way You Kiss Me (prod. Michael Woods)
4. The Way (prod. Faithless)
5. Natural Disaster - Laidback Luke vs. Example (prod. Laidback Luke)
6. Never Had A Day (prod. Sheldrake and DC Breaks)
7. Microphone (prod. Brookes Brothers)
8. Playing In The Shadows (prod. Chase & Status)
9. Midnight Run (prod. Feed Me)
10. Under The Influence (prod. Skream)
11. Wrong In The Head (prod. Tom Neville and Brookes Brothers)
12. Anything (prod. Dirty South)

We'll add more info on his album as we get it here (e.g. more producers) so bookmark this page and check back!

Here's his next single, 'Stay Awake', if you haven't heard it:

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Glastonbury 2011 highlights

Glastonbury occurred this weekend and as always the BBC extensively covered the festival, filming most of the major artists' sets.

Here are our favourites:

Two Door Cinema Club

Coldplay

Tinie Tempah

The Chemical Brothers

White Lies

Friendly Fires

And of course, the one who blew everyone away... Beyoncé (interview only)

Obviously there were other acts who weren't filmed who we would have featured here, but you can catch full sets from the headliners and more coverage over on bbc.co.uk/glastonbury.

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Tune of the Week #13: 'Melosistible' by NERVO vs. Pryda

Week beginning Monday 27th June 2011

Title: Melosistible
Artist: NEVRO vs. Pryda
Label: N/A
Genre: Progressive House
Available: Now
Download: SoundCloud




It makes a change to have a female producer/DJ, but we got lucky in the fact that NERVO are twin sisters Liv and Mim Nervo. They signed a deal for an artist album with Virgin after rising to fame not just as producers but also songwriters, having written for the likes of David Guetta, Ke$ha and Kylie and are now supporting Britney on the US leg of her Femme Fatale Tour. This track is the combination of the vocals of their single 'Irresistible' with Pryda's 'Melo'. The two go together perfectly. It's available for free on their SoundCloud.

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Big Bad Wolf - Duck Sauce (updated with radio rip)

 

This will probably blow up like their previous single 'Barbra Streisand' did.

This evening Annie Mac will have the first radio play of the new song from Armand Van Helden and A-Trak's project, Duck Sauce. The pair performed at Coachella back in April under the Duck Sauce name and played 'Big Bad Wolf'.



That howl sample.

Tune in to BBC Radio 1 from 7pm (BST) tonight to hear it in full. We'll update the post with a recording later.

Update: Here's the radio rip for your listening pleasure

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Shuffle - Bombay Bicycle Club

Zane Lowe made this his "Hottest Record" on Wednesday and after further inspection, we're going to agree with him. It's quite good.



You can download 'Shuffle' now from everyone's favourite music retailer, iTunes.

Their third studio album, 'A Different Kind of Fix', is out 29th August 2011.

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Free download: Can You Drink - Time Takers

Time Takers today launched their website, and in doing so they are giving away a free track, 'Can You Drink'.

The song continues with the Dutch House sound, although they confirmed that not all of their future music will feature this sound so it will be exciting to hear what direction their music will take. To get the track visit their website www.timetakersmusic.com and sign up to the mailing list.







If you're at Wireless Festival this year then you can catch them on the Friday which we will be doing. Their set will be made up entirely of their own material, although we don't know a time or stage as of yet.

Their debut single, 'She Blows (The Whistle Song)', will be released this summer on Ministry of Sound.

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CALL 911 NOW

Amazing.

I wonder which YouTube video will be next to get sampled in a Skrillex song?

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Little Bad Girl - David Guetta feat. Taio Cruz and Ludacris

Well at least he hasn't ripped off Justin Timberlake this time. It's a markedly better than 'Where Them Girls At', although Ludacris' rap seems a bit unnecessary considering everyone either sides of the Atlantic have heard of Taio Cruz. The instrumental is alright. So Guetta hasn't lost it. Not just yet.

The instrumental has been released on Beatport so expect general release in the next month or two.

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New Chicane album "probably" coming in September

Chicane has announced that he will be releasing a new album, "probably" in "September".

In an interview with Soundhead.tv while in Hungary recently, he confirmed a new album is coming, although with September fast approaching he is yet to finish it. Nick also said that is working with other producers on the album, but did not give any further details. His fifth studio album will again be released through his own label, Modena Records.

He also discussed his live show, saying that he can choose between having band of six members in bigger venues, or a more compact set-up for smaller venues.

Chicane was due to release a new single 'Going Deep', which features London-based rapper Aggi Dukes, on 23rd May 2011 but this didn't occur. With a new remix of the track by Villanaranjos, hopefully the track will see a release soon.




Don't forget to check out Chicane's set at Creamfields this year. He'll be playing on the Sunday on the South Stage.

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Official video: 'Rock 'n' Roll (Will Take You to the Mountain)' - Skrillex

Ever wanted to see how crazy Skrillex's life has been for the past eight months? Well now's your chance.



This the official video to 'Rock 'n' Roll (Will Take You to the Mountain)', the first track on his EP 'Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites. We already knew he had some stage antics but by the looks of it he stage dives at any given opportunity. Since it documents Skrillex on tour there's a ton of cameos from the likes of Steve Aoki, SOFI, deadmau5, Zedd and more.

And yes Skrillex did smash up a laptop in front of a crowd in New Zealand in April because he spilt some drink on it. He even got help smashing it up. Take a look below.

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Example branded a "rassclart" by Alexandra Burke, announces April 2012 arena tour in the process

If you follow Example on Twitter you'll know that he often bashes the music of other artists. Two of these victims have been Alexandra Burke, especially for her No. 1 hit 'Start Without You' and The Saturdays, after he rejected an offer to work with them, presumably to feature in their single 'Higher' which Flo Rida eventually did.

Alexandra Burke eventually caught on yesterday after Example said she had a "PR age" of "41"  and decided to hit back, branding Example a "rassclart" (you can find out the definition here if you don't know), and Example got the hashtag #rassclart trending. Then Rochelle from The Saturdays decided she would use this opportunity to respond to Example, offering him the chance to support them on the band on their December arena tour (which they look really happy about doing in their promo video). Example retorted, saying that he needed some "miming dancers" for his arena tour in April 2012, which he had briefly spoken about last week.

So there we have it folks. Alexandra Burke seems to have lost her good girl image after cutting ties with Simon Cowell's record label and Example is No. 1 for the second week running.

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Tasha Baxter to feature on Madeon's debut EP (#watchthisbirth)

That's pretty much all we know. They're working together on a currently unnamed track, and Tasha has sent the vocals to Madeon.

Madeon's production + Tasha Baxter's vocals = probably an amazing song.

#watchthisbirth

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Guetta rips off Justin Timerlake's LoveStoned for Pandemonium

We were listening to this new Guetta song that's on his latest FMIF compilation, 'Pandemonium', and thought it sounded familiar. And then it hit us.

David Guetta, along with Afrojack who co-produced it, have gone and ripped off a Justin Timberlake song. The underlying chords to the song are the same as the backing of the interlude section of Justin's 2007 single 'LoveStoned', entitled 'I Think She Knows' .

Here's the 'I Think She Knows' interlude:



And now Pandemonium:



In dance music a lot of sampling goes on; that's a fact that we have to deal with. Some of it can be good, some not so. But this is more than just sampling - he's literally copied the notes and hoped no one would notice. The resemblance is uncanny.

Just another example of how David Guetta is getting lazy.

Note: The site does not have a personal vendetta against David Guetta and his music, but we know what he is capable of and wish he would utilise his talent in a better way. We quite like the song otherwise.

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deadmau5 - Where Are My Keys

People go to the LED Festival afterparty at Ministry of Sound, deadmau5 plays an unreleased track, people upload a recording to YouTube, deadmau5 comments the name of the song.



It sounds quite Feed Me-ish, which would probably be considered a plus to most people.

(via Fun With Synthesizers)

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Bodyrox - Teresina EP

Many thanks to one of our regular readers Daniel Muscat (@MuscatPerson) for letting us know about this one.

On an empty SoundCloud page for Bodyrox is "Teresina EP", presumably some kind of new release from the pair, but we are yet to confirm this and what impact this will have on their forthcoming album. The page for the EP has no visible music in it as it is set to private.


If you're still wondering where 'Rubba Dubba' is, then I'm afraid we have no news on that right now. However, MN2S, their management company, seem to think it has already been released:


The album features internationally adored vocalist Luciana, who last teamed up with Bodyrox for the smashing track ‘Rubba Dubba’, released earlier this year.Equally exciting, is news that a forthcoming Bodyrox track is a spectacular remix of The Clash classic, ‘Rock the casbash’ – a special collaboration with Funkagenda that is sure to make a mark on dance floors, as well as music charts, worldwide.


Confused? So are we. But that is some new info on their album - Bodyrox & Funkagenda, which is an interesting prospect.


More news when we get it.

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Portobella album released

As promised by Luciana last week, Portobella's 'Freakin' In Stereo' is now available on iTunes.

Download: iTunes UK, iTunes US

Tracklisting:


1. Freaking In Stereo
2. My Surburbia
3. Say What You Wanna Say
4. Spellbound
5. Spend The Night
6. London Punk
7. Meet Me At The Y Bar
8. Cover Boy
9. Ride
10. Its Not Right

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Example confirms new single: 'Stay Awake'

Firstly, congratulations to Example (and producer Michael Woods) who scored his first ever No. 1 single with 'Changed The Way You Kiss Me' yesterday. It sold 115,000 copies in the UK, but faces stiff competition this week from Calvin Harris and Kelis' collaboration, 'Bounce', another song that we've supported here at NGC. 'Bounce' is right behind Example's effort at No. 2 in the UK iTunes chart so we'll wait and see for the midweeks.


Onto the unreleased: Example has confirmed the details of his new single, 'Stay Awake', the second cut from his third studio album 'Playing in the Shadows'.

In an interview with Digital Spy at Capital FM's Summertime Ball, he confirmed the single was produced by Nero, and that it incorporates elements of Trance and Dubstep.

Example performed 'Stay Awake' while supporting now-disbanded dance band Faithless at The O2 Arena, London in December last year:



The single is expected to be released in late August, with a radio premiere in the "next few weeks".

Update: Oh look he performed it at Rockness festival over the weekend. Sounds good.

Update 2: In full, released 28th August:

Finally, 'Example & DJ Wire present The Playlist' has been released and is available now on iTunes and Amazon.

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Tune of the Week #12: 'Bounce' by Calvin Harris feat. Kelis

Week beginning Monday 13th June 2011

Title: Bounce
Artist: Calvin Harris feat. Kelis
Label: Sony/Columbia/Fly Eye
Genre: Dance/Dance-Pop
Available: Now
Purchase: iTunes UK, Amazon UK





Apparently when Calvin Harris and Kelis went in to the studio to record the song, the latter "brought some flapjacks that her friends had baked". So you might be thinking this song tastes like a flapjack. On further inspection we think the song tastes more like a cupcake with pink icing, 'Awooga' and Kelis' vocals from 'Scream' put in a blender.


  

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A trip down memory lane with Luciana (and Portabella!)

Obviously this isn't an actual trip down memory lane with Luciana, but it's the closest we could get to.

In the past couple of days Luciana has been uploading to her SoundCloud some of her solo material that was post-'Yeah Yeah' but pre-'I Like That', so we're talking around 2007-8. Most of these tracks appeared on a MySpace profile after a record deal she had fell through as the label were more interested in giving them to other artists than to put them out for Luciana.

There's a good few to check out but we though we would embed our favourite that we enjoyed listening to back in the day, 'All of Me':




Now onto some Luciana-based stuff that is actually being released! Luciana used to be in a post-punk/pop group called Portobella, along with Nick Clow and Michael Gray. They released a couple of singles on Island, 'Covered in Punk' in 2004 and 'Viva La Difference!' in 2005, but disbanded soon after due to little mainstream success. Portabella had recorded more material but after disbanding it never saw the light of day. Until now.

Luciana announced to her Facebook fans yesterday that 'Freakin' in Stereo' will be released onto iTunes "very soon", which is great news. We will let you know when it's out.

On a side in 'Viva La Difference!' you can hear similarities with Calvin Harris' 'The Girls'. We're not saying that Calvin has deliberately copied it but it's quite ironic for someone who is always claiming his 2009 hit 'I'm Not Alone' has inspired so many other artists (or their producers)!

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Remix competition time!

Ultra Records have an exciting opportunity for all you budding producers out there! They are giving you the opportunity to remix 'Raining', a single from Kaskade & Adam K and features Sunsun on vocals. The winning remix will be released on Ultra in the UK.



The stems to the track are available to download for free over on SoundCloud. Once you've finished, send them to Ultra via their SoundCloud DropBox. The competition closes on Sunday 17th July 2011, and then the remixes will be judged and the best chosen for release.

Good luck!

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Some new Skrillex releases

Skrillex has released his new EP, 'More Monsters and Sprites', with three new songs and four new remixes of 'Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites'. Our favourite is the Progressive house remix from Kaskade:



It is available to download now on Beatport, and will be on iTunes on Tuesday 21st June.

Another release regarding Skrillex is his remix of 'Cinema' by Benny Benassi feat. Gary Go that we told you about a while ago. It's finally been released in Europe and is available download here.


Finally, Skrillex has featured on the first track of Foreign Beggars' new EP, 'The Harder They Fall'. Their collaboration, 'Still Getting It', has been around on the internet for the last month or so and has now been released on Beatport.

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Example announces UK tour, US interest and Live Lounge appearance

Example has today announced another headline UK tour for this November and December 2011, with 17 gigs and 50,000 tickets on sale.

He also revealed he will be doing an arena tour next "spring".

Expect to hear lots of 'Playing in the Shadows' and all his other hits from his previous two albums.  Tickets go on general release Friday with a pre-sale on Wednesday.

Next up, The Hollywood Reporter has an interesting article on the possibility of Example going out to the States next year to tour "for months" and presumably release an album. After the success of Tinie Tempah in the US, there has now been "a lot of" interest from American record labels. Example also said he wishes to become the "biggest live act in the world", and that next year could be the moment to do so.

To coincide with the release of his new single, Example performed on BBC Radio 1 this morning in the Live Lounge.



After performing 'Changed The Way You Kiss Me', he then revealed his secret cover, 'Don't Sit Down 'Cause I've Moved Your Chair' by Arctic Monkeys.

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Tune of the Week #11: 'Changed The Way You Kiss Me' by Example

Week beginning Monday 6th June 2011

Title: Changed The Way You Kiss Me
Artist: Example
Label: Ministry of Sound
Genre: Dance/Dance-Pop
Available: Now
Purchase: iTunes UK, Amazon UK

There isn't too much to say about this Michael Woods-produced smasher. We reviewed it and gave it 9/10. It's very good. It's out now.

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EP review: 'To The Stars' by Feed Me

Seeing Electro-House and Dubstep on the rise last year, Jon Gooch decided to concentrate his musical efforts into his "side project", Feed Me, and all but abandon the Spor name which is more commonly associated with Drum & Bass. Christmas Day last year brought the release of his first EP under the Feed Me name, 'Feed Me's Big Adventure', which took the EDM world by storm. He's back again with 'To The Stars', which we had high hopes for. These hopes were largely realised, but then again this EP relies on a similar formula to its predecessor so is unsurprising.

The opening to this four track release, 'To The Stars', is quite progressive while still being integrally an Electro-House song. The sustained organ sounds are quite pleasing, if being rather reminiscent of 'Ghosts 'n' Stuff'. The drop marks a distinct change to proceedings, with pulsating electro beats and synths. On the whole execution is pretty solid and sets up the EP quite well.

'Strange Behaviour' is the clear highlight, which features Tasha Baxter's haunting vocals. Following on from 'Cloudburn' this is very much a Dubstep song and the vocals are balanced well by the thumbing bassline. Tasha's vocals are worked in remarkably as they duck in and out of the track. The production is good enough that the track could be an instrumental, but the vocals are impressive and add tremendous amounts of value.

The final two tracks are okay but don't stand out anywhere near as the previous two. 'Pink Lady' seems inspired by the bleepy Dutch House scene, but they don't seem to fit as well into Feed Me's overall sound. 'Pink Lady' has a quite heavy yet progressive bassline and sits in between 'To The Stars' and 'Strange Behaviour' in terms of speed, but does get quite repetitive by the time the drop kicks in. 'Chain Smoker' is of a similar repetitiveness with a ragged feel to it, but does bring in some contrasting synthesised noises. It does seem like a lukewarm end to what is overall a decent EP. Our expectations were quite high coming into this and they were met on the whole. Despite being only four tracks long were are impressed by the depth of the music and the ground that Feed Me covers. 

8/10

Available: Now

Label: mau5trap

Purchase: Beatport

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Skrillex announces 'More Monsters and Sprites' EP

Skrillex has just announced his next EP, 'More Monsters and Sprites'.

Here's a preview:







It has three new tracks and four remixes from his previous release, 'Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites'. He describes it as a bit "more experiemental". In otherwords, extremely rad.

Track listing:

1. First of the Year (Equinox)
2. Ruffneck (Flex)
3. Ruffneck (FULL Flex)
4. Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites (Dirtyphonics Remix)
5. Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites (Phonat Remix)
6. Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites (The Juggernaut Remix)
7. Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites (Kaskade Remix)

It hits Beatport on 7th June 2011 and iTunes 21st June 2011.

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Time Takers put down that beat and when She Blows on my whistle it goes...

This looks rather fancy, doesn't it? This is the official cover art for 'She Blows (The Whistle Song)', the "absolutely banging" debut single from London production duo Time Takers. We've posted about this song obsessively for the past couple of months and it's great to see that they're signed and ready for release.


They have a proper Facebook page you can like with a nice little bio:


With a collectively prolific musical history, DJ producers Damian Powell and Alex Hromcovs joined forces in 2007 to create the dynamic duo, Time Takers and haven’t stopped since. A native of Latvia, Alex was determined to take up a career within the field of producing at an early age. The combination of his inherent talents and extensive experience landed him a director’s role producing music for a renowned Rap group in Latvia where he would quickly gain mass underground appeal. Alex later embarked on a journey towards the English shores where he ultimately achieved a BA in commercial music studies at the University of Westminster.

Damian too set his sights high on a career surrounded by music at a young age working within radio from the tender age of 15 at Choice FM before moving to Kiss FM, where he would became the assistant to the Chris Phillips' Show. It has only been up from here as he has travelled the world showcasing his skills on the decks in the highly respected venues across the globe, including gaining great acclamation in Turkey. Now residing in London, Damian concentrates on the production side of music where he continues to develop and further his skills as a producer/song writer within Time Takers.

Time Takers production credits include the sounds of Dane Bowers, Leo (The Streets), and Lethal Bizzle. Their new single “She Blows (The Whistle Song)” has already been play listed on RADIO 1 XTRA and iPlayer, and played by DJs such as Swerve on Kiss FM and Target on 1 XTRA. Rob Da Bank declares the song is “Absolutely Banging” and Ras Kwame from 1 XTRA calls it a “Real Big Tune!”.


The song is being released in the US on 7th June by Robbins Entertainment, in Holland by Spinnin' Records and in the UK by Ministry of Sound by "late summer". You can buy it from Beatport now, but this is only a promotional release so your local club DJ can play a legitimate copy and not a radio rip!

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Feed Me feat. Tasha Baxter - Strange Behaviour

This is probably the track we are most looking forward to from 'Feed Me to the Stars', the forthcoming EP from Feed Me. Here it is in full:



'Strange Behaviour' will be available exclusively on Beatport along with the rest of the EP this coming Friday.

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Ten things floating our boat in June 2011

Festival season is rapidly approaching and there are some big releases coming up. Take a look at our top 10 for this month:

1. Madeon

This guy has taken the EDM community by storm. Having been relatively unknown before last month, now 17 year old Madeon's remix of 'Raise Your Weapon' by deadmau5 has impressed so many people and is now on the cusp of breaking the Beatport Top 10. He is now being chased up by record labels (similarly to the artist below this time last month) and expects to release an EP in July and gig this summer.

2. Time Takers

A lot can happen in a month. The pair have now been signed to Ministry of Sound and have released 'She Blows (Whistle Song)' on Beatport. Everything is ready for a "late" summer release date. Stay tuned.

3. Tasha Baxter

Feed Me tweeted about 'Ebb & Flow', a solo record from Tasha Baxter, the vocalist to 'Cloudburn' by the former. We gave it a listen and rather enjoyed it and so posted about it. We believe there's more in the pipeline which we look forward to.

4. Lady Gaga

Pretty much everyone on the world knows about this lady, and she released only her second album last month, 'Born This Way' to critical acclaim and sold 215,000 copies in the first week in the UK alone. Our review will be up very soon so hold tight.

5. Feed Me

'Feed Me to the Stars' is something we've written heavily about and is released on Friday exclusively at Beatport. The previews have sounded pretty amazing and after 'Feed Me's Big Adventure we expect big things for the guy who used to prefer going by the name of Spor.

And the rest:
6. Hurts
7. Luciana
8. Example
9. Frankmusik
10. Wireless Festival (We'll be there live on the Friday and now the Saturday, with a full review shortly after.)

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