LIGHT ASYLUM

Light Asylum are Shannon Funchess and Bruno Coviello from Brooklyn (New York).

They released their first EP “In Tension” in 2010. The four track EP was re-released in 2011 through Mexican Summer and licensed to Cooperative Music

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CRYSTAL FIGHTERS

Crystal Fighters juxtapose the eerie flavour of traditional Basque folk music with churning basslines and catchy energetic vocals, resulting in a jubilant and uplifting sound unlike any other. They offer raved-up, percussive folktronica, veering from Fischerspooner-style euphoria to Animal Collective-toned delicacy, underpinned by a progressive contemporary London bass sound. Though their distinctive production techniques take in all this and more, Crystal Fighters draw a broader and more profound influence- the energy and wild liberty of the 80s Spanish/Basque ‘anti-todo’ youth movement, including the songs of bands such as Eskorbuto, Sinistro Total and Golpes Bajos.

The story is as engaging as their music ~

‘Crystal Fighters’ is the name of an unfinished opera written by singer Laure’s deceased grandfather during his final months of insanity. She came across it while clearing out the reclusive old man’s remote abode in the Basque countryside, and quickly became obsessed with the scrawls contained within it. Captivated by its seemingly prophetic contents, the band took on the name and attempted to expand upon the wild and deranged spirit of the old man’s writings.

2009 has already been an immense year for Crystal Fighters. Their debut single XTATIC TRUTH was released on the uber hip Kitsune label in June garnering feverish response worldwide. Xtatic Truth was chosen as “Single Of The Week” on BBC Radio 1 by Nick Grimshaw – a monumental feat for a band’s first single; whilst the single also received high praise across both the indie and dance worlds as both the NME and Mixmag awarded it their respective “Single Of The Week/Month” crown. Xtatic Truth also featured on the Kitsune Maison 7 – Lucky One compilation, establishing Crystal Fighters as one of the hottest and most promising new acts in the world.

Not content with this, the band have been busy in the studio remixing, turning their hand to Magic Wands’ “Black Magic” on Young & Lost, peaking at #1 in NME’s “10 Tracks You Have to Hear This Week.” Other remixes in the pipeline for this year include CSS, Master Shortie, and MIT.

Crystal Fighters’ live shows have become legendary – described to be unrelentingly raw, intense, and passionate. Having headlined the Kitsune Maison party in Paris, Durrr, The Great Escape, Stag & Dagger, Dollop, Vice, Cargo, Matter to name a few, the coming months see them go global with shows already booked in Barcelona, Paris, Madrid, Zurich, and Amsterdam.

All this follows the already impressive 2008 which saw the group take London by storm, being featured in all the cutting edge underground press – eg Dazed & Confused, FACT, Clash, Mixmag, iDJ magazine, and a Radio 1 Live Session for Rob da Bank. 2008 was rounded up with their ubiquitous online hit ‘I Love London’ voted in Mixmag’s Top 100 Records for 2008, the only unreleased record in the 100, crashing in ahead of the likes of Toddla T and Bloc Party.

Crystal Fighters are currently in the studio writing their debut album, and the second single “I Love London” will be released via KITSUNE later in the year.

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LEMONADE / GRIMES (DJ SET)

Lemonade

True Panther Sounds is very pleased to announce the forthcoming release of Diver the 2nd album by Lemonade available worldwide on May 29th. Diver is a sensual, bold electronic record, swimming ecstatically in the melodies of early 90?s R&B, UK 2-step Garage, Balearic house and NY freestyle. The trio, Callan Clendenin (vocals), Ben Steidel (synths, bass) and Alex Pasternak (drums, programming) recorded the album over the course of several years, at home in New York, on tour in Brazil between shows, or in their practice space in the basement of an old Catholic school. Ultimately, the album came to life when the band recruited producer Le Chev (Frankie Rose, Fischerspooner, SSION) to add the finishing touches and assist in fully realizing the band’s vision of Diver.

The music that Mary Anne Hobbs once called “pure, agile, hedonistic pop music,” is still there, but in an infinitely more potent and focused form. Callan’s lyricism reaches new intimate lows and ecstatic highs. Where Lemonade used to seek transcendence through psychedelic dance-floor physicality, Callan now looks inward, at the emotions of limited means, the urban everyday, and his attempts to hold on to redemptive love and romance in a cybernetic, information-rich world. Lemonade reference PM Dawn and Sade in the same sentence as Julio Bashmore and Swedish House Mafia. They are sounds of the past synthesized with contemporary dance music boueyed by the most immediate matters of the heart.

“Neptune”, the first taste from Diver, is a case in point. It’s a pure and emotional R&B track, an instant and surprising classic. The single will be released next month with remixes from Mike Simonetti, Jacques Renault, and Sinjin Hawke. Stay tuned for more info.

Grimes

There is a powerful harmony in Grimes. It is a project which is both musical and visual, embodying the arts of 2D, performance, dance, video and sound. Claire Boucher weaves these together to a strong rhythmic effect, “the marriage between the voice of a human and the heartbeat of a machine” [Bullett Magazine].

Boucher, born in Vancouver, Canada, came to Montreal in 2006. Her experience as a performer is deeply embedded in the illegal DIY loft culture of Montreal, where Grimes was one of the prominent figures in the scene surrounding Lab Synthèse – a 4600sq ft re-appropriated textile factory. She developed in a scene where punk ethos and pop music collide, resulting in a distinct sense of community, religiosity and psychedelic revelry.

Visions, Grimes’ forthcoming record, arises as Boucher’s fourth release in less than two years. Geidi Primes (2010), initially released as a limited 30 cassette run and free download, then followed by Halfaxa (2010) – arguably one of the first witch-house or lo-fi R&B releases. On Darkbloom (2011), Grimes begins taking her first steps as a producer, bringing together the experimentation behind her early work and a cutting edge pop aesthetic.

Each album tackles a different set of influences and styles. Her newest album, Visions, incorporates influences as wide as Enya, TLC and Aphex Twin, drawing from genres like New Jack Swing, IDM, New Age, K-pop, Industrial and glitch. This approach has marked Grimes as a curator of culture, and allowed the project to remain flexible and evolving.

A phantasmic state for the deep listener, sourcing the long forgotten spells running alongside humans for centuries and forcing them through a hyper-futuristic filter. Compositional and vocal delivery are coloured with an emotional trauma. Despite a generally upbeat demeanour, an urgency permeates the music. Calling us between our history and the future it uses the pleasure of minimal rhythms and dance to entice, but beyond its rich, software-sculpted cohesiveness, and vocal energy, runs a very real and odd world.

She describes her work as “the only means through which I can be fully expressive. It is both an ethereal escape from, and a violent embrace of my experience. The creative process is a quest for the ultimate sensual, mystical and cathartic experience and the vehicle for my psychic purging.”

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El-P

The son of jazz pianist Harry Keys (born Harry Meline), El-P became involved with the hip hop culture of New York City at an early age. After being expelled from several schools for problems with authority, Meline decided to pursue a career in music. At his 18th birthday party, he met Mr. Len, whom he had hired as a DJ for the night. The two quickly became friends and formed Company Flow in 1993. They released their first vinyl single, “Juvenile Techniques”, in 1993. Bigg Jus later complemented the group and in 1996 the trio released its debut EP, Funcrusher. Subject to a major-label bidding war after the success of the EP, Company Flow waited until it could get a contract on its own terms. The group eventually signed with Rawkus Records, and released its debut full-length album, Funcrusher Plus (1997).
After an instrumental album called Little Johnny From the Hospitul: Breaks & Instrumentals Vol.1 (1999), also on Rawkus, disagreements between El-P and the label led to Company Flow leaving Rawkus. El-P then decided to start his own record label, Definitive Jux (known informally as Def Jux, and extra-formally as Definitive Juxtapositions), and because of critically acclaimed albums such as Cannibal Ox’s The Cold Vein (produced by El-P) and Aesop Rock’s Labor Days, the label quickly rose to prominence.

Company Flow dissolved amicably in 2001 and the following year El-P released his debut solo album, Fantastic Damage, to wide critical acclaim. In 2004, El-P collaborated with the Blue Series Continuum for a jazz-fusion album titled High Water, which received favorable reviews from both the hip hop and jazz worlds, as well as from more mainstream critics independent of both scenes. 2005 saw the release of Collecting the Kid, an odds-and-ends assortment including work from High Water and Bomb The System, in addition to several songs of unknown provenance. El-P’s second proper studio album, I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead, was released on March 20, 2007. It generally received very favorable reviews and became El-P’s most commercially successful album to date, peaking at #78 on the U.S. Billboard 200.

In October 2009, El-P announced that he was working on his third studio album, tentatively titled Cancer For Cure.[2] In August 2011, it was announced that El-P signed with Fat Possum Records, which would be releasing Cancer For Cure. Later that month, El-P also released a single off the upcoming album, via the Adult Swim Singles program. The track is titled “Drones Over BKLYN.” El-P announced on his Facebook page that Cancer For Cure was officially complete on February 22nd, 2012.

El-P also was a part of a group Central Services, which consisted of El-P, Camu Tao, and Allysin Baker. In the fall of 2010, the EP Forever Frozen in Television Time was released exclusively on the Def Jux digital download service.

El-P has contributed productions and guest rhymes to albums by Aesop Rock, Evil Nine, DJ Krush, Murs, Cage, Mr. Lif, Prefuse 73, Del tha Funkee Homosapien, Mike Ladd, The High and Mighty, Jedi Mind Tricks, Aceyalone, Atmosphere, Techno Animal, and Das Racist. He collaborated with Alec Empire on the first Handsome Boy Modeling School album and with Cage and Chino Moreno on the second. He was selected, along with DJ Shadow, to work on Rage Against the Machine frontman Zach de la Rocha’s solo album (which never materialized). He has provided remixes for the likes of Beans (of Anti-Pop Consortium), Beck, Blackalicious, Head Automatica, Hot Hot Heat, Dizzee Rascal, Syd Matters, Nine Inch Nails, Push Button Objects, Rob Sonic, TV on the Radio, and Yasushilde, among others. El-P also provided the soundtrack for the graffiti film Bomb the System.[3][4]

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Big Freedia

Big Freedia is an accomplished “Bounce” Rapper who lives in New Orleans and performs six or more times a week in various venues throughout the city. Bounce is an original urban music rising up from the intimate and fun-loving nature of the housing projects which dominate the city’s street culture. “Sissy Bounce” is the informal name for a derivative of Bounce that has risen to prominence in recent years and features explicitly gay and cross-dressing musicians and themes. Big Freedia is at the forefront of this movement and has had several New Orleans hit singles such as “Gin in My System” and “Azz Everywhere!” from her albums “An Ha, Oh Yeah” (1999) and “Queen Diva” (2003). Freedia began her musical career almost 15 years ago at the Walter L. Cohen High School in New Orleans, where she was enlisted as choir director from her Sophomore to Senior years. She sees her performance as a Bounce artist as an extension of this work, often interacting in a call and response/teacher and student, fashion with her audiences. She recently developed a musical about her life entitled “Catch That Beat” with producer Lucky Johnson. The sold out first run of “Catch That Beat” featured cameo appearances by a who’s who of New Orleans Bounce artists alongside the story of Freedia’s upbringing in New Orleans 3rd Ward. She performs in various venues (often decorated by her own event production business) and has recently begun traveling outside the city with the encouragement and support of the New Orleans Airlift. Big Freedia has always acted as mentor for many younger artists, is currently recording her third record and recently returned from a stellar 6 show run in New York City, performing sold out shows with Spank Rock, Ninjasonik and many others at venues such as Santos Party House, Glasslands, and Sway. This year Freedia will be returning to South By Southwest, performing at multiple events including a retrospective Bounce Showcase and a historic second performance at Gay Bi Gay Gay after a short tour of the west coast with New Orleans collaborators Galactic, whom she performed with on the critically-acclaimed 2010 album “Ya-Ka-May”.

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SpaceGhostPurrp / Trash Talk

SpaceGhostPurrp

Underrated rapper from the 90’s. Hails from Miami Florida and was born on April 1st, 1991 (Purrp Day). His influences include Three 6 Mafia, UGK, DJ Paul, Eazy E, and DJ Screw.

Trash Talk

Genre
Hardcore / Punk

Members
Spencer
Sam
Lee
Garrett

Hometown
Sacramento, CA

Record Label
Trash Talk Collective

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