Whyd London: Launching September 3

Amidst the rows of brick houses bending like waves out from the winding Thames; under the drizzling clouds that mist a population clad in peacoats; a sound resonates. From the east side squatters to Bond street chauffeurs, from the Camden tunnels to the heights of the Shard, music can be heard, in all its glorious forms. For there are few cities in the world more steeped in the brew of music than London. 

So it is with nothing but excitement that we announce our next innovative city community page in the UK’s capitol, launching officially on September 3rd featuring the best of the Whyd community in London: curators, influencers, music lovers, and the music that’s making London move. 

Are you in London? Get in touch so you can be one of the official contributors! 

Share the teaser page on Facebook! http://www.whyd.com/london

Track of the Weekend #90: Jamie XX - “All Under One Roof Raving”

There is not much to left to say about this week, other than the fact that we are all exhausted and on our last legs. Luckily for some, music festivals and vacation are coming next week. As we saw an influx of new music lovers on Whyd this week, we might’ve expected to see something out of the ordinary for the Track of the Weekend this week. Not the case (but definitely check out the trending 80’s version of the Game of Thrones theme song!). 

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Let Process Take You Into The Depths Of Your Mind

Yo! Can you fill us in a little bit about your backstory? Who are you and where are you from? 

Yo! I am Remy (Auymer is my artist name) from the south of France, Marseille, and I have been based in London for four years now. I was working in shops and started to produce and play music there in my hometown and it’s here, in one of the most interesting cities in the world that I met Alice, half French and half Brazilian and also our graphic designer Federico. This city was for all of us a way to expand our interest for electronic music. 

London is a city that is world famous for its music, the standard is really high. What are you bringing to the scene today? 

Process is a new project that we launched in May 2013. After exploring London’s clubs, bars, and private parties, we got amazed and inspired a lot, but we realized that the average entry price was quite high and that the spirit was often quite business oriented. Although we went to so many great venues, with brilliant atmosphere and proper sound systems, we always felt there were quite a lot of standards, and the first one was the high price. We soon realized there was one type of party you couldn’t really find and that was free (or cheap) entry, good vibes, intimate venue, just for the love of music. The normal story in London if you want to put up an event and get to have a “name” in the scene, you need to book a pretty famous DJ to attract people and it helps to have a big venue, already quite known. However, we didn’t want to think this way. 

Instead, we wanted something where people discover new music and new talent. From the beginning we thought that with minimized funds and some contacts, you could organize a party that would make people happy and create the right vibe, without necessarily having an already settled DJ. We thought of having more of a party for everyone, that people wouldn’t need to pay much to have a great night and that everyone could contribute, by telling their friends, playing, proposing ideas, etc… 

We got exactly what we wanted at our first event when we gathered around 100 deep vibe lovers in our intimate venue in East London and hell yeah it was such a great night! So I guess Process is just adding some fresh air to the scene, with no pressure to be successful or competitive in the industry; more of an alternative night with fresh and deep beats in a warm atmosphere… Just a night for fun, about music and great people! 

Tell us about your obsession with deep music. Who should come to your events? 

We are really into all those kinds of post apocalyptic, dark, cerebral, acid, minimalist, and deep electronic music so it goes from deep house to dub to techno. And we keep on expanding our knowledge of it and musical culture here in the UK. It’s a type of music that could not be understood at first if you are not really into this. It might seem harsh and scary but it takes some interest to actually catch the little thing that makes you understand why artists such as Lucy, Tom Dicciccio, Rrose, or Polar Inertia (to name a few) are making this type of music; to understand what they are trying to say and get across. You will then understand the spirits that they put behind their machines. 

What we love the most is to see every time where they are driving us to another dimension that was unknown for us. I am pretty sure that the range of frequencies they use in their productions, which can be really love or really high, creates something in our body and brain. And this is what we want to do with Process, make people aware that this type of music can be really festive, energetic. I try to do a kind of step by step when I play at Process, going from different types of electronic music to drive the crowd to this dark, cerebral, and post apocalyptic dimension. 

It’s taking the crowd through a journey, and what is great about Process is that it is a diverse crowd; people there like many different types of electronic music, and the challenge is to get all of them to follow. And until now, all of them did! Indeed you don’t need to know everything about techno to go crazy on some deep beats, it’s all about explaining where I am trying to get you, and having you follow me! 

When is the next event and what else can we look forward to in 2014? 

The next will be in early 2014, still in one of our intimate venues with the same atmosphere! Then we have a couple of projects in mind, like a series of “open podcasts” in which everyone is invited to be a part of by sending his mix. Also, we have some collaboration in mind, with some like-minded friends to create always a better party and bring quality music. 2014 will be an inspiring year for us, no doubt about that! 

Subscribe to Process London on Whyd, and make sure to check out both Process London's and Auymer Music's Facebook pages! 

Breaking the Barrier Between Physical/Digital & Visual/Sound: The Missing Channel Interview

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1. How long has The Missing Channel been around? How did it start?

The Missing Channel is a multi-shaped label that started as a experimental project in Amsterdam in 2010. It started after four years of playing gigs and creating visuals for music in various places around France and The Netherlands. We have always been interested in linking images with sound, but were quite frustrated by the conventional format of the VJing: it always consists of a screen behind a musician and is always there to somehow complete the music. But practically, it mostly acts on the same level as stage lights. How can we change that? how can both of these media really communicate? The Missing Channel was then created on this motto: always trying to approach music like we approach visuals and the other way around. 

Since 2010, The Missing Channel has been creating events and connecting numerous artists together on the internet first, and then during real gigs or exhibitions. The Missing Channel is more about bringing people together rather than patronizing them like any conventional label would. 

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2. What is unique about The Missing Channel?

The Missing Channel is unique only by its plurality, it is fed by the different actors that all brings their own cultural and artistic background. This joyful mess, somewhere along the creative process, creates a real experimental atmosphere that brings all the actors of the label together in a single movement. 

The Missing Channel is a label for a movement. Especially in a literal sense: it aims at studying music and visuals by experimenting with the moving media that carries and expresses themselves and/or a message. The Missing Channel could be described as a net-label. It was born on the digital medium, the internet, but should not remain intangible, that is why we always try to materialize all the work on a physical level: gigs, exhibitions, books, posters… But those media are not treated as merchandising and especially carriers the work of the Label, each object released carries the concept of The Missing Channel: Why can’t a poster be a song? Why can’t we store an image inside a song? Why can’t a gig be played over internet to cross the physical distances?

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3. Who should listen to your music?

It is always hard to describe an audience especially when you try to think about music and visuals outside the conventional “trend tribes” that characterize external visual outlook along with a specific music genre. Let’s say we like to cross borders, so on the same level we always love when people that usually listen to one specific type of music, who belong to one specific music tribe, end up in one of your gigs listening to our music. And whether they like it or not, there is always an interesting talk that emerges from our confrontation. 

But of course we do electronic music, which means that we do compose music with analog and electronic devices, but that’s all. We are inspired by lots of genres of music and we try to play with composition dogma that exists in electronic music as well as in metal, rap music, etc….

So everybody should listen to our music, everybody with an open mind who wants to expand their usual listening habits. We would not say that people who like “electro” should listen to our music (they can of course) but actually this word was invented at the end of the 80s by major labels in order to embody all the electronic genres and this decision ended up normalizing and narrowing electronic music down until what we know today as “electro music.”

4. In your opinion, how are you changing the dynamic between music and images?

You can only change something when you propose something different and do it in a generous way. What we do are proposals for a new way of seeing the relationship between images and sound. We try to experiment during events, but also when we release new songs, in the digital or physical world. For an example, for the first physical release on The Missing Channel, PaulusP’s Pagus EP, we tried to question how labels usually distribute music: we decided to store the whole EP on mediafire and make is available for free, but the physical version had to add something to that. So we gave away a pack with three visual cards and one CD, the visuals printed on the cards were actually the song directly translated into image form, using a transformation process and the CD was empty, with the URL to download the EP. The whole idea was to question the CD as a medium that carries music and create a real communication between the digital and physical version. And this communication continues with the user as he is able to burn the EP as well as other songs he would judge interesting to juxtapose. 

When we talk about the relationship between music and visuals, we can not avoid the question of the representation of the artist and his music on state. Each live event is for us an opportunity to try to understand the role of the DJ as part of a musical show. This always raises some questions like: does the DJ/Musician have to stage himself, stage his own music? Does this mean that he has to exacerbate his movements? Show his instruments in some sort of attept to prove that he is indeed “making” and not only “playing” (like pressing play on a device) music? That is why every artist on the label have a kind of amateurism in common in their way of crafting music. We all try to make things and not only play them well, and just like an amateur does, when we make things, we experiment, we try, make mistakes but end up most of the time surprising ourselves. 

Thanks for this very innovative look at the music world! Subscribe to The Missing Channel on Whyd for all of their latest tracks! 

Benin City’s Headlining Show: October 30th @ Electrowerkz

For those us you who have been with us for a while, you definitely know Benin City (read the Whyd interview here) London’s electro-brass trio that is rapidly taking the UK by storm. Since they burst on the scene, they have received high acclaim, including the Huffington Post calling them “one of the UK’s most exciting bands.”

Their unique style is infectious: pulsating brass alongside dazzling lyrics that combine to form a sound so complete it’s impossible not to get stuck in your head. Their latest single “Wha Gwan,” signifying a common greeting similar to “What’s up,” is a must-listen. 

So it is no surprise that on October 30th, they will perform for the first time as the headliners at a concert at Electrowerkz. If you’re in London, this is one show that is not to be missed!

Congrats guys and good luck!! 

Interview with soundsearch: Sending Emerging Talent Straight To Your Inbox

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1. There are a lot of music sites out there, why was soundsearch created?

Before soundsearch, we set-up a new music discovery blog. As a result, we were constantly looking for new and unsigned music to feature on the site. The process of finding suitable artists can be a long, lonely, and often unrewarding experience, believe us! Last.fm is good for discovery, but it only recommends you bands of equal size to that which you’re listening. For example, if you’re a fan of Adele, it suggests you listen to Duffy, Jessie J, and Amy Winehouse (to name but a few), most of which you’ll probably already be listening to. Soundcloud is also great to use and has fantastic embeddable widgets for blogs, but is mainly based around genre search which doesn’t really narrow anything down. Spotify and other streaming services attempt to recommend new music, but their artists come from major labels and distribution services such as Ditto Music, as as a listener you never truly discover new and unsigned music. The very fact there are a large number of sites out there can be intimidating to users and fragments an artist’s audience, as well as putting off those looking to discover new and unsigned music. 

We founded soundsearch with the aim of facilitating the discovery and creation of new and unsigned music, giving users an effective discovery tool and artists the opportunity to get their sound heard, as well as collaborate with one another. soundsearch allows you to discover new and unsigned music based on your tastes, after all, music is personal.

The prototype offers users the chance to discover new and unsigned artists based on their current music tastes, with tailored recommendations delivered direct to their inbox. Signing up to this unique new service will introduce you to a new and unsigned artists, together with access to the site’s additional editorial content such as the collection of “discovered” artists.

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2. Who is behind the site?

We (Jack and Rich) met at University and immediately found that we shared the same passion for entrepreneurialism and both had an overwhelming desire to create something from scratch. We’ve been trying different business ideas ever since we met, from organizing city-wide student music festivals, through to creating concoctions of wheatgress, milk thistle and crushed up B12 pills in our attempt to try and make a hangover cure!

When we’re not pouring our souls into our laptops working on soundsearch, Rich works as a chartered surveyor at an engineering consultancy and Jack is a Product Manager at Universal Music. We’d say that we both bring different attributes to our partnership which somehow seem to complement each other. If we think about it, we still find it a bit strange that a lad who grew up on a sheep farm and an aspiring south London DJ get along so well. I guess sharing our passion for music and what that brings to people keeps up pretty close.

3. Can you describe the styles of music you feature?

The very nature of our service means we aren’t biased to any particular genre or style of music. Our goal is to have soundsearch become the destination for all types of bands, musicians, singers, producers, and DJs to upload their sounds and let the site drive the discovery process. As it stands, the music we’ve featured is anything and everything that is exciting to us, from summer dance vibes from the incredible Toyboy & Robin, to a French instrumental post-hardcore artist called Man Is Not A Bird, and more recently the delicate acoustic sounds of singer-songwriter Kimberly Anne.  

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4. You have a brand new site that just launched on Friday, what is it all about?

We have huge ambitions for soundsearch and really believe that it can bring something to the market which could change the music industry forever. Our business plan is made up of a number of assumptions, things which we think music listeners want, and the site before was a prototype to test as many of those assumptions as we could with what little money we had. We’ve been working relentlessly to get our idea out there, hitting the streets of London signing people up, chatting with crowds at festivals to see what people think, and the feedback is encouraging, so we progressed with the new version based on what we heard. We have been lucky to find Myles (our developer) who also has an incredible passion for music, which has driven him on to put the hours in coding. The site works as a portal to find new and unsigned music based on the artists you love, and we don’t see that changing any time soon. The new site will also include our “discovered” artist library, and something new which you are going to have to check out for yourself! 

We are constantly looking for music fans and dynamic individuals to join us on our quest for the discovery of new and unsigned artists. Whether you’re a musician, web developer, talented writer, or if music is your life, we want to hear from you! 

Interview with damn nyc: Outsiders Looking Out

1. Tell us about the team behind damn nyc. How did you start working together? 

We started our project in November 2011 with the idea of documenting and gathering everything that we thought was fun, different, and what we thought deserved the limelight. Most of the artists we chose were emerging artists, mainly because they either didn’t know that they were totally awesome so we wanted to show them that they were, or that they were bringing something new to the public, and it wasn’t getting as many hits as it should. There were a few exceptions, ones that definitely made us think “damn!” However their fame didn’t always translate across international borders, which was what we hoped to accomplish then. We were traveling for a year from New York, Hamburg, Moscow, Philadelphia, and London, and wanted to bring a special taste to our webzine that screamed originality and personality. We like to stay up to date, and move from one topic to another with common themes. 

2. How have your respective backgrounds influenced the things you write about today?

Jan is German, who grew up in Franve. Inna is Russian, who grew up in the states. We’re both outsiders, so we like to look inside everything from a different perspective. We’re also completely different in our approaches but we find ways to spread out and then later come back together with new information - so it works pretty damn well. 

3. Who should read damn nyc?

People that read, listen, get inspired, think, dance, and smile? Anything else in the news is already out there. I don’t think that we have anything in our webzine that is reported on a standard basis - so it’s a window to new, emerging trends that will make you say “damn.” Oh, and if you don’t like the news, create your own news… we’ll probably find you!

4. What are your future plans for the site? Are you looking for contributors?

Yeah! We’re all about collaborations. It’s about expansion, and we look out, not it. 

Make sure you Like the damn nyc Facebook page, follow them on Twitter, and as always subscribe to them on Whyd

Interview with Poejazzi: London Spoken Word Architects

1. Before we get to the specifics of Poejazzi, how do you view the role of poetry in today’s society and how is it tied to music?

We think of poetry as part of everyday life, especially in music, so we have always put the two together because we see them as related. Through our poetry and music nights we wanted people who wouldn’t necessarily have been exposed to much in the way of poetry or who may have believed they wouldn’t enjoy it to find themselves liking it through its connection with something that most of us like: music. 

2. When did you start Poejazzi and what was the original idea?

Poejazzi was originally a monthly night that started six years ago, its founders wanted to create the kind of night they wanted to go to. It developed into an organization and online magazine, poejazzi.com, 18 months ago. Now we are publishing poetry apps (our first one comes out in a month), producing concept shows like our new re-imagining of Allen Ginsberg’s “Howl,” and visual content like live sessions, as well as putting on our regular nights. 

3. Can you define what Spoken Word means to you? How is it unique as a medium of expression?

Spoken word equates to honesty for us. It is unique because it can be accessible and deeply personal at the same time. 

4. Tell us about the tradition of your live events. What is the vibe and who should attend?

The vibe is generally very eclectic, both of us have very broad taste in music so you can expect to see all corners of the alternative world represented, even if it’s pop music, at a Poejazzi night it would be pop music with a twist. We always consider the mood each act evokes and who they should be with on a line up so people get a range of experiences from the night. All of our spoken word acts are as amazing as the music acts, there’s always that equilibrium, so neither is an afterthought. 

We love championing people we think people will be hearing more of or should be and people who may be established but we feel are deserving of even more fandom! From the responses we get from both regular Poejazzi-goers and new faces, the night is a beautiful medium between challenging and entertaining, so there is always a level of innovation or surprise from our acts but there will also be an element of no matter how alternative this may sound that it could be popular once people have been exposed to it because it sounds fantastic. 

We’re pretty selective as a duo about what we like musically and we have to be very critical running an online magazine as well as a night, so we are always putting ourselves in the shoes of the crowd watching and thinking “is this entertaining?” “is this life-changing?” “is this interesting?” because that is what we want from a night out like this. 

5. Who are the minds behind Poejazzi and how did you all come to work together?

Poejazzi is run by partners and music/spoken word obsessives Joshua Idehen and Charlotte Morgan-Nwokenna and all visuals are created by the wonderful director Bruno Ramos. Joshua Idehen is also the vocalist in the band Benin City, founded Poejazzi six years ago with friends and poets Musa Okwonga and Inua Ellams. Inua Ellams is now a guest curator for special nights whilst Musa Okwonga has a very busy and great career in broadcasting, journalism, and music/spoken word. Former editorial assistant Charlotte Morgan-Nwokenna was looking for new challenges and so Joshua convinced her (with cake and promises of future success) that that challenge could be Poejazzi: she joined Poejazzi 18 months ago to help expand the night into an organization that published poetry digitally and has an online magazine. 

6. Can you leave us with your favorite inspirational quote?

Life isn’t about finding yourself, life is about creating yourself.

Thanks guys! Make sure you Like their Facebook page and follow them on Twitter to get the latest updates, and definitely subscribe to them on Whyd to hear some examples of excellent spoken word!