Hailfairy is giving away 2 Three Day Camping Tickets to Oxegen 2010 with thanks to Vodafone Ireland.

All you have to do to win is to Simply upload and tag the most embarrassing festival photo of yourself or a mate to our new Facebook fan page, and get as many people as possible to ‘like’ it!

This competition must end on June 30th so get tagging!

So we’re nearing that time of the year again! Nice few weeks of sunshine and entry into festival season. This year sees Vodafone sponsoring Oxegen’s second stage with auld favourites The Prodigy headlining on Sunday, Black Eyed Peas for all those screaming 16 year olds and Fatboy Slim for all who want to re-live Norman Cook’s 90’s hits.

This is about the 6th time The Prodigy have returned to Witnoxegen and it’s always worth checking out Maxim, Keith and Liam tear the stage and crowd apart with a blend of old and new cult classics from albums as early as ‘Experience’. Check out one of their live version of Their Law below. Nuts!:

The Prodigy – Their Law (live) by poooch

Another act not to be missed for a bop on the Vodafone stage is Andy Cato and Tom Findley aka Groove Armada. The London boys will be no doubt be banging out their most recent ‘Superstylin’ acapella as the video below from Big Day Out 2010 down under shows y’all.

Our final recommendation is simply for atmosphere. If the hype around Florence and her red-haired Machine is anything to go by from last year’s Oxegen and EP,  the crowd’s reaction to The Temper Trap’s hypnotic single ‘Sweet Disposition’ will no doubt blow the lid off the Vodafone stage on Sunday evening.

Finally, based on our ongoing coverage of Irish electronic music and Oxegen in particular over the last few years, we’re going to put ourselves into the running to give away some Oxegen tickets courtesy of Vodafone. Fellow bloggers, get into the mix too at http://www.facebook.com/vodafoneireland

Vodafone Stage Line-up (*newly announced acts):

Fri 9th July
Fatboy Slim
Groove Armada
Scouting for Girls
Plan B
Republic of Loose
Drake*
Fox Avenue

Sat 10th July
The Black Eyed Peas
Doves
Editors
The Cribs
Rise Against
Two Door Cinema Club
Kids in Glass Houses

Sun 11th July
The Prodigy
30 Seconds to Mars
The Temper Trap
Joshua Radin
D12*
Professor Green*
The Knux*

We always loved a Busy P interview, still one of if not the coolest guy in music, although Sven would run him close! The amazing Red Bull academy recently did a 2 Hour! video with the former Dafty Punk manager! If your not aware of the Red Bull Academy website and you have a day to scratch your arse, well there’s a whole days worth of amazing interviews worth checking out.

Full video here

We want one! How amazing is this, song could do with a bit of work though!! 

Behold the awesome majesty of the Lego Sequencer MR II. This brilliant instrument is the work of Yoshi Akai, an avant garde artist/musician/audio mad scientist from Japan currently blowing the minds of folks the world over from his base in Sweden. Akai has turned a background in textile art and design and an interest in sound into some of the most unusual musical instruments ever.

In this particular design, the colors of the blocks determine the sound being played. Stacking multiple blocks into a three-dimensional design creates weird, complex sounds. As he says of the instrument, “This is building sound more than playing sound.“ Yes, it is. And it’s also building awesome.

Well now you know! We absolutely love their new Remix of LOTP’s  “Best in the Class”. Erol played it recently on BBC6, top top top tune! They’re still the best remixers in the business! One of us, possibly both of us, are heading over to Barcelona for Sonar this June. The Dewaele’s are playing, they got us pretty excited at EP will they do it again? Can they still deliver?!

We’re one step closer to the release of ‘Tron The Legacy’, the sequel to 1982’s ‘Tron’, one of the most venerated Sci-fi movies of all time. Directed by Joseph Kosinski and starring newly Oscar-ified Jeff Bridges (who reprises his 1982 role as Jeff Flynn), the movie is about artificial intelligence and gaming. While it’s 3D, its not like Avatar. According to Kosinski “Ours is sort of a “Wizard of Oz” approach. Ninety-eight percent of the 3-D is in the world of “Tron.” The 3-D really starts once we get into the Tron world. We used a newer generation of camera than the one used on “Avatar.” They built it specifically for us”.

So will there be a yellow brick road? We hope not. Will there be some new Daft Punk tracks? We hope so. Apparently Kosinski is a huge electronic music fan and met up with Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel De Homem-Christo 2 years ago to talk about a collaboration on the movie. The French duo have now been working on the soundtrack for over a year and a half, quite unique when you think that they were coming up with tracks before filming even began.

When asked about Daft Punk’s interest in Tron he says “ these guys take “Tron” very seriously. Obviously, “Tron” was a huge influence on them. It was almost like they were interviewing me to make sure that I was going to hold up to the “Tron” legacy. Clearly a huge influence, you only have to see the iconic helmets, the triangular sci-fi style concert stage design and even parts of the “Around the World” vid to see that these two are major Tron fans. So no doubt this is going to be a movie and soundtrack match made in electro scifi heaven.

So all sounds pretty cool really. Jeff Bridges – check. 3D-ness – check. Sci-fi end of the world stuff – check. Daft Punk – check. You only have to wait until late 2010 to see it. In the meantime feast your eyes on the trailer – only released today.

Following the double A side single ‘Waves’ / ‘ Death Suite’ on BoysNoize Records, Erol Alkan and Boys Noize have announced the next double header single ‘Avalanche’ / ‘Lemonade’. The names are flipped around this time as this single is being released by Erol’s label, and you can listen to previews on Erol’s Myspace and Facebook, as well as Boys Noize’s Myspace and Facebook

The previews are short and sweet but sound pretty damn good and certainly whet the appetite. ‘Lemonade’ bangs it out and will no doubt will be a big hit on the Spring/Summer festival circuit. Release date still to be confirmed, but apparently it’s soon so watch this space.

If you find yourself in them parts  - Erol and Boys Noize will be performing together for a special dj set at Miami’s Ultra Festival on March 27th. Or if you’re one of the many thats jetted off down unda in search for sunnier climes and times, catch Boys Noize in Sydney’s Forum on March 20th. Guaranteed to be a good one as he smashed it at Sydney’s Future Music Festival last weekend. Opening with ‘Kontact Me’ and blowing The Prodigy, who were playing at the same time, completely out of the water. Boys Noize loves Sydney and it shows!

If you’re a fan of Erol on BBC6, get involved in a petition to save the station.The BBC have announced they will be closing the digital station. The station is recognised as one of the few remaining outlets for independent music across the music spectrum, and it’s closure will be seen as a blow for music lovers across the world. The 6Mix, which is hosted by Erol, as well as the likes of Soulwax and Andrew Weatherall has been a great success for the station and alternative dance music fans alike.Check out their SaveBB6 page on Facebook, where you can sign the online petition or tweet to your hearts content #saveBBC6music

The Great thing about Bestival other than being a great festival, is that it’s like what T in the Park is to Oxegen. Its a great indicator as to what acts will be arriving on EP’s doorstep the week before.  I love the set up of their website also. I really wish electricpicnic.ie would get it’s act together with theirs. Another sick thing about Bestival was just how much good weather they got last year. I don’t think i saw one picture with a clowd in it. It pissed all EP and then we went on a huge dry run of settled weather all the way into bloody October. I’m still only just getting over this by the way. Weather makes everything in my eyes. Some amazing acts announced already and it’s only the first batch too!

Stand out ones for us are in bold! Oh yeah Dizzee Rascal can piss right off, he needn’t bother coming.

Dizzee Rascal / The Flaming Lips / Hot Chip / LCD Soundsystem / Gil Scott Heron / Chase & Status / Echo and the Bunnymen / Simian Mobile Disco / Delphic / Rolf Harris / Marc Almond / dan le sac Vs Scroobius Pip / Ellie Goulding / Fat Freddy’s Drop / Flying Lotus / Four Tet / Kitty Daisy & Lewis / Stornoway / Tinie Tempah / Vitalic / The Cuban Brothers / Chilly Gonzales / Beardyman / Tunng / Hurts / Gaslamp Killer / The Vegetable Orchestra / Ulrich Schnauss / The Twinkle Brothers / High Llamas / The Antlers / Archie Bronson Outfit / Beth Jeans Houghton / Mixhell / Glen Matlock / Samuel and the Dragon / The Japanese Popstars / The Lost Brothers / Hear We Go Magic / Goldhawks / Countryside Alliance Crew / Laura J Martin / A Genuine Freakshow / Bookhouse Boys / King Charles / Three Trapped Tigers / Worship / French Horn Rebellion / Sisters of Transistors / Spindle and Wit / Starless & Bible Black / The Boy Who Trapped The Sun / Telegraphs / Tim and Sam Band / Unicorn Kid

DJ sets from Rob da Bank plus Annie Mac Presents / David Rodigan / Ewan Pearson / Dixon / Greg Wilson / Nathan Fake / Huw Stephens / Mary Anne Hobbs / Jaguar Skills / Joy Orbison / Horse Meat Disco / DJ Derek / Greg’s Greats / SBTRKT / Ramadanman / Seth Troxler / Untold / The Broken Hearts / Back To The Phuture

Even just a few of these acts would be a good start to things. Now how long will we have to wait to hear Picnic’s first batch?

Phoenix-Fences-Delphic Remix

]]> http://hailfairy.com/album-delphic-acolyte/feed/ 0 http://hailfairy.com/new-midi-controller-nis-kontrol-x1/ http://hailfairy.com/new-midi-controller-nis-kontrol-x1/#comments Wed, 04 Nov 2009 13:25:50 +0000 fairyliquid http://hailfairy.com/?p=987

So here it is. The first DJ controller manufactured by Native Instruments is going to be available in February for  $229 (€199) It’s called the Kontrol X1 and is the same controller shown in the Ritchie Hawtin video we posted on here a while back. The X1 is a dedicated 2-deck controller with FX, loops, loading and transport controls for 2 decks for Traktor, BUT and its a big but is it lacks mixer controls, which sucks. We were really looking forward to this launch,however it wastes buttons on Tap tempo which no one uses anyway as they beatmatch before using in Traktor! Why wait four months to release this when it looks like they’d be good to go now, i think we’ll be keeping our wallets in our pockets for the time being. And $50 just for a bag to carry it in? wtf!

So the wait goes on for a dedicated all in one traktor controller at a reasonable price. First company to realise this is on to a winner. Seems so simple? Yes

More news of it here from Ean Golden and his posse at Djtechtools.com

OK edit some of what we just said!, maybe we got a little ahead of ourselves as we just got a look at some vids over on Native Instruments website amd we’re warming to it a little……. or actually maybe a lot!