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    <pubDate>Thu, 24 Apr 2008 03:07:05 +0000</pubDate>
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    <item>
      <title>[The KOKO Blog] REZon8</title>
      <link>http://www.koko.uk.com/forum/read.php?6,108,108#msg-108</link>
      <author>DZA</author>
      <description><![CDATA[

 Kylie Minogue's ex boyfriend James Gooding once curated an exhibition of computer games at the Barbican. No F***er  was there the day I went so I spent 3 hours, that's 3 hours on the best video game ever built REZ. Basicaly you float through space picking up sounds until you turn into a ball of light. WOW. And this spring its being rereleased 5 years later on as Rez HD on Xbox. Rez was so wierd a game there was even a vibrating interface you could purchase to go with it, in Japan only of course - that came with a protective pouch apparently many many young women loved REZ! Below is an interview with Tetsuya Mizuguchi REZ's developer who besides designing video games directs music videos. One of the music videos included in Lumines II for the song Heavenly Star by Genki Rockets was directed by Mizuguchi, who also co-wrote the lyrics of the song. He is known for collaborating with various DJs and music producers for the soundtracks of his games, including Ken Ishii, Tsuyoshi Suzuki, and more notably Shinichi Osawa a.k.a. Mondo Grosso. 

]]></description>
      <category>The KOKO Blog</category>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.koko.uk.com/forum/read.php?6,108,108#msg-108</guid>
      <pubDate>Thu, 24 Apr 2008 03:07:05 +0000</pubDate>
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    <item>
      <title>[The KOKO Blog] sTYLE wAR</title>
      <link>http://www.koko.uk.com/forum/read.php?6,107,107#msg-107</link>
      <author>DZA</author>
      <description><![CDATA[

Sure you think the kids in your school were intent on causing you misery if you didn't want to confirm to their fun pub way of life but spare a thought for the Mexican Emo's. They have been getting it so bad they and their supporters have been going on marches under threat of death, in Mexico a country on the edge of first and third worlds,  Euro style cultural sophistication including a love of Anglo pop ask Morrisey and American thug culture, style wars are still deadly.]]></description>
      <category>The KOKO Blog</category>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.koko.uk.com/forum/read.php?6,107,107#msg-107</guid>
      <pubDate>Fri, 18 Apr 2008 15:19:39 +0000</pubDate>
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      <title>[The KOKO Blog] Is it an atom bomb? Is it a tombstone?</title>
      <link>http://www.koko.uk.com/forum/read.php?6,106,106#msg-106</link>
      <author>DZA</author>
      <description><![CDATA[

Is it a war zone? -Is it a freak show? - Is it a terror dome? -Is it a radio? -Is it a firewall? -Is it a death toll? -Is it an atom bomb? - Is it a tombstone? 


When it comes to lyrics their are three easy ways to Top of the Pops. List songs that have real power think the - usually not my cup of tea - Billy Joel's 'We Didn't Start the Fire' almost as much as those with sing along chanting choruses perfect for a bit of performer / audience call and respond like Queen's 'We Are the Champions', Cazals Poor Innocent Boys or The Human League's Empire State Human. 


Another sure fire way to score a hit is with a good bit of onamatapea think Blur's La La La La's seen here in Blur's 'For Tomorrow'. 


Anyways the list above comes from the Midnight Juggernauts song Tombstone - a song so good that not only does it credit Juggernauts with an unprecedented second entry on the KOKO blog, it most likely saved my relationship. Bored on the first day of a package holiday I'd been convinced was a good idea, I had a listen of the other half's iTunes, hearing Tombstone reminded  just what great music taste the blonde has. Tombstone sounded modern and epic, intelligent and fierce. 


Midnight Juggernauts are finally releasing Dystopia in the UK on May 19th and Juggernauts are playing at KOKO on May 23rd. Justice called Midnight Juggernauts their favorite band of last year so don't miss em. Sure on say third track Nine Lives, Juggernauts are a bit 10cc, a bit prog - Dystopia is almost a concept album, about escaping the world and venturing across the galaxy - but also vocally. And listen up major labels after that middle youth dance music dollar, Juggernauts are very Air for the naughties. NME described Midnight Juggernauts thus &quot;Like The Rapture with John Carpenter on keys, their pummeling space-disco is the perfect bridge between Bloc Party's indie elegies and a synapse-shredding Justice DJ set&quot; But I think they are way way way better than that.]]></description>
      <category>The KOKO Blog</category>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.koko.uk.com/forum/read.php?6,106,106#msg-106</guid>
      <pubDate>Wed, 02 Apr 2008 15:58:18 +0000</pubDate>
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      <title>[The KOKO Blog] Trance- Hop</title>
      <link>http://www.koko.uk.com/forum/read.php?6,105,105#msg-105</link>
      <author>DZA</author>
      <description><![CDATA[


 Hip-Hop-er's take E is a story as old as rave culture its self, the Prodigy's Liam Howlett was originally a Hip-Hop DJ, and Britain's being less racist/homophobic than our brothers stateside naturally mixed acid synths and techno beats with dub basslines and breaks giving us hardcore and eventually jungle which mentally enough grew out of gay club Heaven's Rage nights. Anyways enuff history already you say you wanna know why I'm telling you this stuff now? Well like I said Hip-Hop and Dance have always mixed,  in the early nineties euro dance like SNAP and Technotronic always featured a rapper so the realignment of mental speed -rap with the kinetic body moving dancefloor moving speed of the beat has been a long time coming. And all of that is forgetting things like France's TTC, Grime, Timbaland's dance style futurism and that album after P-Diddy had been to Ibiza. So this thing Trance-Hop should already make perfect sense to y'all. Big Trance-Hop acts include B.O.B with 'Haterz -Everywhere I go', Wiz Kalifa whose 'Say Yeah' samples commercial trance smash Alice Deejay's 'You're Better Off Alone'. Check out labels like Alabama's Slow Motion Soundz and Paper Route Records.

]]></description>
      <category>The KOKO Blog</category>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.koko.uk.com/forum/read.php?6,105,105#msg-105</guid>
      <pubDate>Fri, 28 Mar 2008 14:41:38 +0000</pubDate>
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      <title>[The KOKO Blog] MGMT are blowing everyone away.</title>
      <link>http://www.koko.uk.com/forum/read.php?6,104,104#msg-104</link>
      <author>DZA</author>
      <description><![CDATA[



Everyone loves electro space rockers MGMT does that mean they're a bad thing? Some say ala MSTRKRFT  MGMT is pronounced management others that this is nonsense. How does a band stick in a bit of Fleetwood Mac  in Time To Pretend and get a bit of Jagger at his most sinister and country rock in Weekend Wars, while sounding uber modern? There's a part of me that thinks eeeerrrrrgghh maybe MGMT are a bit too easy listening, too melodic, but we all need melancholia sometimes don't we? I mean their track Kids has the sort of universally emoting hook that makes you glad to be human even if it is a bit of sad song. If there is someone left who hates MGMT I haven't met them.]]></description>
      <category>The KOKO Blog</category>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.koko.uk.com/forum/read.php?6,104,104#msg-104</guid>
      <pubDate>Fri, 07 Mar 2008 15:17:16 +0000</pubDate>
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      <title>[The KOKO Blog] The New Puritan influence of the Black Lodge and Wu Tang</title>
      <link>http://www.koko.uk.com/forum/read.php?6,103,103#msg-103</link>
      <author>DZA</author>
      <description><![CDATA[

 Nuff has been written about the excellent These New Puritans. But why does Numerology rock so much?  The Puritans own self-comparisons have seen them cite Wu-Tang Clan in every other interview and David Lynch’s extra-dimensional Black Lodge from Twin Peaks in this month’s Nylon magazine, as major influences. Like the Puritans this lot deal in modern mysticism and metaphor; finding the truth through comparison like when the Wu’s Killer Priest rapped: Loungin, between two pillars of ivory – I’m lively, my dome piece is like building stones in Greece; for which hear: I’m clever as Plato – G. Further examples include 1997 film CUBE, people stuck in a cube that’s attacking them and can’t get out because the cube is shape shifting or any of Matthew Barney’s - Mr Bjork - Cremaster Cycle films; which are actually named after the muscle that pulls on your balls. It’s often hard to work out if this is just so much funky mental wank, as the Cremaster Cycle’s name might suggest. Or if the near sexual thrill of realising that you and the Puritans or whoever have a mutual understanding of some next X means something? 

]]></description>
      <category>The KOKO Blog</category>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.koko.uk.com/forum/read.php?6,103,103#msg-103</guid>
      <pubDate>Wed, 20 Feb 2008 18:10:06 +0000</pubDate>
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      <title>[The KOKO Blog] KOKO's new On &amp; Up room</title>
      <link>http://www.koko.uk.com/forum/read.php?6,102,102#msg-102</link>
      <author>DZA</author>
      <description><![CDATA[The Lovely Jonjo @ 1234 festival Shoreditch Park, London

Remember the summer? Remember staying out all weekend in ya plimsoles, t-shirt and jeans, equipped with a cash card and a permanent, and a chemically enhanced grin. I do weren't it great :) For a taster of that sort of madness, you want to get yourself to the sort of club where DJ's are capable of igniting stage invasions. KOKO of course are keen to bring you such a DJ in their new On &amp; Up room taking place every Friday above (get it?) the madness of Club NME, and hosted by The Lovely Jonjo who can be seen above DJ-ing at the 1-2-3-4 festival at Shoreditch Park last summer. He might not be able to bring you sunshine but he sure will make  you dance.]]></description>
      <category>The KOKO Blog</category>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.koko.uk.com/forum/read.php?6,102,102#msg-102</guid>
      <pubDate>Wed, 13 Feb 2008 16:05:39 +0000</pubDate>
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      <title>[The KOKO Blog] 'My glasses are famous'</title>
      <link>http://www.koko.uk.com/forum/read.php?6,101,101#msg-101</link>
      <author>DZA</author>
      <description><![CDATA[

So what someone had a party and it got a bit out of hand, me thinks they wanted him on the program cos his glasses are famous to.
Why don't older people ever admit they are just a little bit jealous of ut's because they have longer to live and life is just a little bit more fun than it was, in whatever past decade they grew up in?
 Don't you think he's probably having the best summer of his life?]]></description>
      <category>The KOKO Blog</category>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.koko.uk.com/forum/read.php?6,101,101#msg-101</guid>
      <pubDate>Wed, 16 Jan 2008 14:03:02 +0000</pubDate>
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      <title>[The KOKO Blog] From KOKO's end of year mag..</title>
      <link>http://www.koko.uk.com/forum/read.php?6,100,100#msg-100</link>
      <author>DZA</author>
      <description><![CDATA[2007's best new band?



2007 was the year 'the nobody is gonna give a fuck about record
sales' mantra really began to look like a reality. Madonna signed a
new deal based on her forthcoming live earnings, Radiohead famously
gave away In Rainbows for whatever people were prepared to pay and
Apple even got EMI to agree to stop encrypting their downloads.

 As this was also the year dance and synthetic sound decisively took
over Britain's alternative music scene and indie was no longer 
synonymous with retro. 2007 belonged to original 21st century
indie-rave re-mixer's Justice for to re-inventing the dance album with
their untitled debut. The talented French men were at the same time
probably more responsible than anyone for the hard but emotive noise 
the NME have termed 'electro mosh', as well as heralding a resurgence
of French music in general. France has longed had a tradition of world
music love, hence its unsurprising that Parisian hipsters have been 
busy marrying a fondness of the globes many flavours of ghetto tech,
with the long running French obsession with disco and house and giving
us the likes of Yelle, TTC and that whole Tecktonic sound.

 Other records worth celebrating include second efforts from   M.I.A
 with her criminally underrated and innovative Kala album and the
Arctic Monkeys who proved they could move the bass, drums, guitar,
band format forward on Favourite Worst Nightmare. Bjork was back in
full futurist effect on Volta and the Chemical Brothers did it again,
with the Ali Love sampling monster Do It Again from We Are The Night.

 See the 07 was truly an outstanding year for music lovers, not even
including KOKO's secret Prince gig but also a frustrating one. What is
it with record companies and lead times? Why aren't obvious talents
Hadouken, Late of The Pier and We Smoke Fags huge stars already? Am I 
the only one who feels in danger of being bored to death by a record
by the time it hits the shelves? After a year that saw the much loved
Klaxons eventual 2007 Mercury prize winner, Myths of The Near Future
released long enough after Atlantis To Interzone fever, to make you
wonder what happened to capitalist concepts like cashing in. We were
also left longing for a Hadouken album, wondering if We Smoke Fags
would ever get a proper release - and subsequently if the world had 
gone mad, I mean how good do a band have to be?]]></description>
      <category>The KOKO Blog</category>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.koko.uk.com/forum/read.php?6,100,100#msg-100</guid>
      <pubDate>Wed, 16 Jan 2008 13:22:06 +0000</pubDate>
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      <title>[The KOKO Blog] Is there a Niche for bassline house?</title>
      <link>http://www.koko.uk.com/forum/read.php?6,99,99#msg-99</link>
      <author>DZA</author>
      <description><![CDATA[

 Niche has been causing a few raised eyebrows recently, what with T2's track at number 2 in the charts, there are those who've have been claiming it's a new genre, others have argued it's a variant of speed garage. Niche is actually the name of the on/off club night in Sheffield that has been running for over ten years, northerners mostly call it bassline house. DJ Matt Mystic claimed in The Voice recently that the form is &quot; bassline-driven- hence the name- so it's probably got more in common with Dub!&quot; Perhaps in truth bassline house with its elements of handbag and of speed-garage it's self a mad mix of jungle and US house, is yet another example of club genres eating themselves and clubbers wanting to experience everything at once. The last couple years or so has been witness to an explosion of acts anyone from Bonde De Role to Icelanders Steed Lord can be sited here who have just been nicking whatever bits of dance heritage they like and putting it together. At the end of the day understanding bassline is easy its about the bass, bass as euphoria, if dub-step were today's jazz, and Grime our Blues, then bassline could well be home to the next Little Richard.  Bassline is sexy its vocal, its dancing, pulling music and nicks bits from every urban-pop genre of the last 20 years, even better its a taste-nazi freezone. Sure its related to a form of preserved 4/4 speed garage, but now the bassline house scene has sucked in so many young refugees from more serious scenes its built up shape shifting momentum all of its own.]]></description>
      <category>The KOKO Blog</category>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.koko.uk.com/forum/read.php?6,99,99#msg-99</guid>
      <pubDate>Fri, 30 Nov 2007 12:02:00 +0000</pubDate>
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      <title>[The KOKO Blog] Apocolypse Now</title>
      <link>http://www.koko.uk.com/forum/read.php?6,98,98#msg-98</link>
      <author>DZA</author>
      <description><![CDATA[There's something apocalyptic in the air at the moment, there is
a new magazine called WAR! run by alt. it kid stylist Molaroid and club nights like called Nuke
Em All and We're All Going To die. And in the best reactionary history of
trends its also an amazing response to that whole New Rave thing that
went on and fits in well with the sort of occultish themes going round the art and fashion peoples heads at the moment.
Whether its the adrenalin rush of a cartoon punk bursting of that last taboo DEATH, or the
rising threat of war in the middle east or from China and
Russia or the fact that back home and on the street, there's dissafected 
youth who might blow you up and some other dissafected ut
who might just wanna smack you up but whatever seems like where all obsessed with WAR.

[attachment 29 m_49f506f3cac386fe04bfd6ae93ab5e5a.gif][attachment 29 m_49f506f3cac386fe04bfd6ae93ab5e5a.gif]
]]></description>
      <category>The KOKO Blog</category>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.koko.uk.com/forum/read.php?6,98,98#msg-98</guid>
      <pubDate>Thu, 15 Nov 2007 18:16:14 +0000</pubDate>
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      <title>[The KOKO Blog] BISHI</title>
      <link>http://www.koko.uk.com/forum/read.php?6,97,97#msg-97</link>
      <author>DZA</author>
      <description><![CDATA[

Bishi tonight and tomorrow will be playing all 12 of the tracks on her new 'Night at the Circus LP' all accompanied by films made by London artists in the magical  200 year old surroundings of Shoreditch Church . You may have heard her new song Never Seen Your Face before which apparently in all its acoustic and sitar glory is about 'that moment when the dancefloor melts'. Bishi is an Anglo Indian beauty a student of Indian classical music now attempting to meld pop master pieces onto those Sitar bones. Bishi first rose to prominence amongst Matthew Glammore's Siren Suite Gang along with Patrick Wolf, that club would morph into the legendary Kashpoint.  Glammore of course was a friend and co-conspirator of ultimate club kid/performance-artist Leigh Bowery and Glammore has proved a great mentor to many over the years. Touchingly during the performance of a sort of a love song, that Bishi and Patrick Wolf wrote for each other before falling out, Wolf took over on the Piano as the words went 'two sides of a coin: indivisible'. Beautiful! Especially as determined as these two peculiar talents probably are they couldn't have been realized in the early days  with out each believing in the other. Find your friends in this life and you can do anything. By the way I wrote 'sort of love song' cos they were both gay then, so in theory at least it should have been a totally artistic and not sexual affair.

]]></description>
      <category>The KOKO Blog</category>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.koko.uk.com/forum/read.php?6,97,97#msg-97</guid>
      <pubDate>Fri, 02 Nov 2007 14:55:21 +0000</pubDate>
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      <title>[The KOKO Blog] OH MY GOD!!!!</title>
      <link>http://www.koko.uk.com/forum/read.php?6,96,96#msg-96</link>
      <author>DZA</author>
      <description><![CDATA[4th Chamber only kicks in without the album version's skit a couple of minuiteS in.



First rule of journalism avoid the first person, but my hero is performing KOKO Sunday 9th of December, GZA or Genius is one of the worlds best rappers, the rappers lyricist and one of the key founders of the Wu-Tang the other was his cousin producer RZA. Besides why do you think I sign my by-lines as DZA its a homage, know what I'm sayyin? Anyways Wu-Tang are of course one of the greatest bands or acts or whatevers of all time, in rap they got to be up there with Jay-Z and Dr Dre most everyone else is just bit players. Anyways GZA aptly for a man named Genius was the brains behind the Wu operation.  A man whose impact on me and my trade, writing, was so profound that when I wrote about Couture fashion -I know forgive me- for The Face magazine R.I.P, I pretty much based the entire article on the skit at the beginning of GZA's 4th Chamber from his first solo album Liquid Swords, he will be playing it in its entirety at KOKO. It goes like this: 'Choose the sword and you will join me. Choose the ball and you will join your mother... in death. You don't understand my words, but you must choose'. In background; Baby gurgling. 'So come boy; choose life or death'. Whaaaa woooo -  then comes a war whirlwind of Wu MC's each out surpassing the last with big up thyself metaphor and building to an un-defeatable crescendo, a style that would be ripped off to maximum killer bee effect on Wu-Tang's Triumph in 1997. It's like an ideal for living where brother backs up brother to take on the world - taking rock n' roll's gang mentality to its logical extreme. If you have any claim to like Hip-Hop or its descendent genres you must be at KOKO on the 9th December. If you are curious about how cerebral and fearful can coalesce - attend. If you want to see a master a Genius, choose the sword, so come boy –to KOKO - and choose life!!!!!!



]]></description>
      <category>The KOKO Blog</category>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.koko.uk.com/forum/read.php?6,96,96#msg-96</guid>
      <pubDate>Fri, 19 Oct 2007 08:56:56 +0000</pubDate>
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      <title>[The KOKO Blog] Frieze Art Week</title>
      <link>http://www.koko.uk.com/forum/read.php?6,95,95#msg-95</link>
      <author>DZA</author>
      <description><![CDATA[Seeing as its Frieze Art Week here in London, thought we should talk art. Weirdly artists tend to be older than music people: is it because they’re so often melancholy types and it takes them years to get their shit together? Or maybe it’s because by the time the people who understand the latest art, have got rich enough to buy it the artists in question are no longer yoots? 
 Most anyone fond of reading the style press will have heard of the !WOWOW! collective. Famous progeny of which include; Hanna Hanra co-founder of music fanzine The P.i.X the poster music magazine, see their Frieze special issue poster of Brit art stars Tim and Sue four x-ing surrounded by Siouxsie Sioux records, Gareth Pugh a fashion designer famous for making dresses that light-up like a Japanese skyscraper and artist who isn't old Matthew Stone. Stone might be more familiar to KOKO regulars as DJ about town Matthew !WOWOW! A major part of Stone’s art is his self-professed role as art Shaman bringing people together and making them believe in their own power. Course this might sound like a load of wank but he’s been pretty good at it so far, he certainly has the magic touch when it comes to publicity. His actual art is the most beautiful photography of his gang, think a baroque version of Larry Clarke – he who made the original, rucksack, drugs and sex film Kids. Yet Stone’s photography doesn’t focus on the oh so obvious stuff of youth culture but instead the turns his friends, people like performance artist The-O - think a cross between Mrilyn Manson and Whitney Houston - not their lifestyle into the stuff of iconography. 

http://www.myspace.com/artshaman  

optimismasculturalrebellion.blogspot.com]]></description>
      <category>The KOKO Blog</category>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.koko.uk.com/forum/read.php?6,95,95#msg-95</guid>
      <pubDate>Fri, 12 Oct 2007 11:43:31 +0000</pubDate>
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      <title>[The KOKO Blog] Getting a Commercial Break</title>
      <link>http://www.koko.uk.com/forum/read.php?6,94,94#msg-94</link>
      <author>DZA</author>
      <description><![CDATA[Everyone knows the record companies revenues have been in free fall, intellectual property such as MP3’s, movies and even books are proving ever harder to earn a crust from, the way to ensure you can make money is to be able to charge for something you physically have to experience either by possessing like say a band t-shirt or being at such as a gig. Simultaneously all that free music on the web, myspace, youtube and the like, as well as all that illegally downloaded has fuelled a booming interest in said live music scene. But there’s another less talked about short cut to riches for bands that’s advertising, we’ve all noted the increased commercialisation of festivals and music venues with sponsors hungry to take advantage of music’s ability to pull the punters in. More intriguing is the growing commissioning of relatively unknown artists to make music for commercials bringing those with an indie sensibility and big money together. Levi’s made a string of acts such as Babylon Zoo, Mr Ozio and Stiltskin famous in the nineties; what was youth culture then is serious business to business stuff now, see the recent New Young Pony Club’s Intel Core Duo ad. Recently much loved KOKO blog favourites Whitey and Cazals have both made ads for VO5 and Sony Ericsson respectively. Where as a band like Go-Team famously sold 5 songs off their last album to the advertising industry. All this points to a future where everything might be free, surely a good thing and something which neatly resolves the internet piracy problem, however big businesses tastes and prejudices will shape the music we listen to more than ever.  Watching Whitey’s Mitsubishi commercial  makes you proud but didn’t he just make a record called Stay on the Outside?



Babylon Zoo Levi's ad above, Whitey Mitsubitshi ad below

]]></description>
      <category>The KOKO Blog</category>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.koko.uk.com/forum/read.php?6,94,94#msg-94</guid>
      <pubDate>Wed, 26 Sep 2007 15:00:19 +0000</pubDate>
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      <title>[The KOKO Blog] Lightspeed is Champion.</title>
      <link>http://www.koko.uk.com/forum/read.php?6,93,93#msg-93</link>
      <author>DZA</author>
      <description><![CDATA[

 While sat in the back of a cab with uber publisher Jefferson Hack a couple of weeks ago, he who owns Dazed &amp; Confused, Another and AnotherMan. Someone who you’d be right in thinking should know who is hot and whose not. Though he loves Lightspeed Champion don’t we all - see Dazed Digital and the latest issue of SuperSuper magazine interviews with the former Test-icicle aka Devonte Hynes for his insightful musings. Lightspeed is particularly good on what he calls Fear – in hyper short people being too worried about appearances. His current favourites are Bat for Lashes though he agreed Late of The Pier are pretty good too, thankfully my taste isn’t totally off then. Bat for Lashes aka Natasha Kahn and her viola, bells and autoharp playing all female backing band, think Bjork on one, have already sold out 29th October at KOKO but there’s still space on Sunday 28th. Its Lightspeed whose really got me too excited at the moment though, the way he bangs on about mathematical comic book worlds he constructed as a kid and his total commitment to being his skinny, stylish self. With so many great singer songwriters out there, its hard to know who to listen to, liking the performer in question has to be a good start, I never wanted to be normal and expect my popstar heroes to feel the same way making Lightspeed Champion.]]></description>
      <category>The KOKO Blog</category>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.koko.uk.com/forum/read.php?6,93,93#msg-93</guid>
      <pubDate>Mon, 24 Sep 2007 18:47:52 +0000</pubDate>
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    <item>
      <title>[The KOKO Blog] OOIOO</title>
      <link>http://www.koko.uk.com/forum/read.php?6,92,92#msg-92</link>
      <author>DZA</author>
      <description><![CDATA[

Fast forward to November 11th and 12th when KOKO gets taken over by record label Thrill Jockey’s 15th  birthday celebration. There’s a mega mix CD present for all who attend the Chicago labels celebratory bash. Thrill Jockey is also one of the webs most useful portals for purchasing obscurist MP3’s. In case you don’t know why you should be grateful Thrill Jockey exist, think what a poorer place the world would be without the likes of Detroit techno punks Adult., who will be appearing on the second night, magical mystical and amazing all girl Japanese noise rock act OOIOO, they're a bit like Californian rockers Health. Check out the youtube of theirs I’ve posted and countless esoteric others including Arbourtem, KTL also on the bill and Mouse on Mars –stick with one of their stoned master pieces long enough and they really bang.]]></description>
      <category>The KOKO Blog</category>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.koko.uk.com/forum/read.php?6,92,92#msg-92</guid>
      <pubDate>Mon, 24 Sep 2007 17:04:29 +0000</pubDate>
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    <item>
      <title>[The KOKO Blog] Dance Music Is Thirty This Year</title>
      <link>http://www.koko.uk.com/forum/read.php?6,91,91#msg-91</link>
      <author>DZA</author>
      <description><![CDATA[

 In the summer of 1977 According to David Bowie, then in the middle of his own groundbreaking 'Berlin Trilogy',  I feel Love’s impact was recognized early on: legendary music producer and committed futurist ‘Brian Eno came running in and said, “I have heard the sound of the future.” … he puts on 'I Feel Love', by Donna Summer … He said, “This is it, look no further. This single is going to change the sound of club music for the next fifteen years.” Which was more or less right.’ 1977 can be seen as dance music’s year zero until Munich based Italian Giorgio Moroder produced Donna Summer’s I Feel Love disco had always involved real instrumentation. Krafwerk were more ambient than dance unitil this point. Britain’s dance pioneers The Human League and arty porn weirdoes Throbbing Gristle both forming in 1977 too. Check out the Cizeta Moroder V16T the $300,000 205mph sportscar superstar Moroder established a company to build.






]]></description>
      <category>The KOKO Blog</category>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.koko.uk.com/forum/read.php?6,91,91#msg-91</guid>
      <pubDate>Thu, 06 Sep 2007 15:45:42 +0000</pubDate>
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    <item>
      <title>[The KOKO Blog] “I Get iT&quot; “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger” &quot;I Run New York&quot;</title>
      <link>http://www.koko.uk.com/forum/read.php?6,90,90#msg-90</link>
      <author>DZA</author>
      <description><![CDATA[ 

As you probably know Kanye West’s Graduation and 50 Cent’s Curtis LP’s are both set for release on Sept 11th.  Hype is in effect, with fiddy threatening to quit the game if he doesn’t make it to numero uno.  50 hastily recorded new tracks I get Money and AYO technology for Curtis when Amusement Park and Straight to the Bank didn't score the usual love, seems he wasn't going out like that. The Timbaland produced AYO technology , with its set in London video and as yet not on sale Lotus and Aston Martin with transmissions that electro-morph into writhing ladies.’ Better yet is ‘The hardest record of the year’ as the tracks build up lets you know, the double bass-lines, one fuzzy, one banging your solar plexus leave you breathless. I Get Money is all Ferraris MONEY, Jagwaars, WOMEN. Kanye of course mashed up Hip-Hop and Daft Punk to get Stronger and word is that Graduation is a stunner.  Competition improves the breed makes it harder, better, faster. Austrian Economics -evolutionary socioligy - Hayek and shit. Is I Get Money basically an evil celebration of materialism proving the devil really does have all the best tunes, maybe even a CIA plot to hook the kids on capitalism or just knock the increasingly political Kanye of his perch? Maybe 50 Cent’s hard work just pays off. Or is Kanye the true artist of the two, able to expand Hip-Hop’s boundaries? PS Robin Thicke 50 Cent collaborator is playing KOKO on the September 24th.


]]></description>
      <category>The KOKO Blog</category>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.koko.uk.com/forum/read.php?6,90,90#msg-90</guid>
      <pubDate>Wed, 05 Sep 2007 07:54:54 +0000</pubDate>
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    <item>
      <title>[The KOKO Blog] Older and Wiser</title>
      <link>http://www.koko.uk.com/forum/read.php?6,89,89#msg-89</link>
      <author>DZA</author>
      <description><![CDATA[

Post Punk’s first ladies 62-year-old Debbie Harry and 50-year-old Siouxsie Sioux are both releasing albums this year. The stunningly beautiful Harry famous for singing Atomic – ‘your hair is beautiful’ - with her band Blondie is about to release her new solo work Necessary Evil.  Soux’s first proper solo album, Mantaray – out in October - is by far the better record, able to compete for attention with Sioux’s earlier work with her band, post punk pioneers The Banshees.  While Siouzsie and The Banshees legacy is complex, some say goth, others trip-hop. Blondie were the classic new wave band having come risen through punk but being resolutely pop, hits included Denis, Heart of Glass, Rapture and The Tide is High. Back in the early eighties Harry was a global icon and the object of many a teenage boys favourite bedroom based solo leisure activity.  Mantaray is a complex full album, lacking filler and only occasionally sounding a bit Goldfrapp. Definitely one of the most listenable records a fifty something has ever made. Yet I’m not really sure we all recognize just how important Sioux is her and The Banshees are a whole diverse musical universe to discover a female Bowie.]]></description>
      <category>The KOKO Blog</category>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.koko.uk.com/forum/read.php?6,89,89#msg-89</guid>
      <pubDate>Tue, 04 Sep 2007 16:53:31 +0000</pubDate>
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    <item>
      <title>[The KOKO Blog] Crystal Castles vs Health - Crimewave</title>
      <link>http://www.koko.uk.com/forum/read.php?6,88,88#msg-88</link>
      <author>DZA</author>
      <description><![CDATA[

 What do we know about Alice and Ethan CrystalCastles? Their too good to be American, and are from Toronto Canada just like MSTRKRFT, did an amazing remix of Klaxon classic Atlantis To Interzone as well as the Liars 'It fit when I was a kid', are named after She-Ra's castle not the Atari game, became a band by accident and go out with each other. 
 Castles make drunken throbbing, wet sounding, shouldn't quite work but thats what makes it so funky, 8 bit song structured, aggressive dance noise, using an old Atari. Nor dance fans is there an over reliance on the soon to become outdated and naff - forgive me MSTRKRFT and Justice - glitch sound. On the forthcoming CrystalCastles vs Health  'Crimewave' they've chilled out and managed to put together a form of melodic pop that isn't a retro embarrassment - quite some achievement. Health are quite a discovery themselves a sort of nu-mystic noise band a millenial Noize band who make tracks called things like 'Triceratops' showing again that Castles have finely honed antenna for working with the next big thing. The band don't really do interviews and their lyrics rarely make much sense instead their art is that holy grail  a new musical form.]]></description>
      <category>The KOKO Blog</category>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.koko.uk.com/forum/read.php?6,88,88#msg-88</guid>
      <pubDate>Fri, 17 Aug 2007 17:34:11 +0000</pubDate>
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    <item>
      <title>[The KOKO Blog] Re: Dubstep Beyond</title>
      <link>http://www.koko.uk.com/forum/read.php?6,85,87#msg-87</link>
      <author>jk</author>
      <description><![CDATA[So when are we gonna get a Dubstep showcase at KOKO then, I'd imagine your acoustics would do it more than enough justice..]]></description>
      <category>The KOKO Blog</category>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.koko.uk.com/forum/read.php?6,85,87#msg-87</guid>
      <pubDate>Tue, 07 Aug 2007 15:40:56 +0000</pubDate>
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    <item>
      <title>[The KOKO Blog] Sentence Banned</title>
      <link>http://www.koko.uk.com/forum/read.php?6,86,86#msg-86</link>
      <author>DZA</author>
      <description><![CDATA[

 Back in January a great and very popular style mag told me I couldn't
write about We Smoke Fags - the best new UK band of the last twelve
months after Hadouken and appearing at Koko in September - because the
editorial staff there had already been told they couldn't write about
Bono Must Die, as it could be offensive: for goodness sake!!!! I mean
Does it Offend You, Yeah? Whom by the way you can catch at Koko's Club
NME on Friday 17th.
 Even if you think Bono is amazing, he's old, has been around forever
and we really should have a bigger rock star by now - unfortunately
Thom Yorke Must Die doesn't have the same ring and offending the
establishment yeah, was always the point of rock n' roll, youth /
rebellion know what I'm sayyin? This rise of the sentence band name
trend, makes for less logo like and cliched band identities, fresher
and different to what has gone before, i.e. its rock n' roll which is
why these sentence bands want to offend you, yeah! That's the point
and there and here is the full stop.]]></description>
      <category>The KOKO Blog</category>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.koko.uk.com/forum/read.php?6,86,86#msg-86</guid>
      <pubDate>Mon, 06 Aug 2007 11:39:13 +0000</pubDate>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>[The KOKO Blog] Dubstep Beyond</title>
      <link>http://www.koko.uk.com/forum/read.php?6,85,85#msg-85</link>
      <author>DZA</author>
      <description><![CDATA[

  After bout two years of my kid bro telling me that dubstep is where
its at; I finally checked out producer Skream DJ live, as opposed to
listening his album. I never could see the point of what I'd perceived
as grime without words, or worse feared might be 'intelligent' grime
neither of which it turns out is an accurate discription. Nor had I and I, a former
jungalist much liked the stuff I'd heard on CD but then as the cliche
goes you really do need to hear dubstep on massive rumbling
speakers: weirdly the sound truly does make you feel sick.
 It doesn't seem to obey the same rising, building and falling rules
as most dance, its not a four to the floor thing. Dubstep's beats are
syncopated like drum n' bass or Timbaland's. The beats come at a fast
138-142bpm but beats are missed and repeation comes in sets rather
than single bars. While the percussion is often at half the tempo of
the track; the double-time bpm comes instead from the bassline. In
case your lost as I would have been trying to explain this without the
help of wikipedia, here's a quote from The Wire magazine where dubstep
DJ and alumnus Kode9 puts it thus &quot;(listeners) have internalized the
&quot;double-time rhythm&quot;: dubstep &quot;is so empty it makes (the listener)
nervous, and you almost fill in the double time yourself, physically,
to compensate&quot;. Then the tune arrives from a weak beated emptyness, as
if travelling through space - rather than time, as most music does -
the noise, bleeps, snyth string, beat, crescendo is all everywhere -
by the way I swear I'd necked nothing stronger than Becks - then
nothing again. Now I understand what stonned kid brother was saying by
it's all about the space. You really do feel as if your making the
whole thing up, which is kinda scary for a journalist late to the next
big thing!]]></description>
      <category>The KOKO Blog</category>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.koko.uk.com/forum/read.php?6,85,85#msg-85</guid>
      <pubDate>Mon, 06 Aug 2007 11:33:30 +0000</pubDate>
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    <item>
      <title>[The KOKO Blog] Posh gaff Sketch goes K-tastic</title>
      <link>http://www.koko.uk.com/forum/read.php?6,84,84#msg-84</link>
      <author>DZA</author>
      <description><![CDATA[

Sketch for those who don't know is a bar and party venue with egg
shaped toilet cubicles, where dinner can easy cost over £100 a head
but you can have your brain taken to another dimension for free. There
are huge video screens covering each massive wall playing a mad
mash-up of fantasy clips from eighties and nineties US kids tv, Sci-
Fi and computer game sequences. The film/media installation comes
courtesy of Paper Rad - one of their videos is above - who make videos
as Wyld Fyle for the likes of The Islands, The Gossip and Beck.
Watching all this computer imagery coming right at you from every
corner, transports the viewer to the future when we'll spend nearly
all our time in magic Internet land: where you can be whoever you want
to be, anything can happen, any place, at the touch of a button - at
light speed, with mad visuals and banging tunes. Bring it on - and be
quick ends 14th August.]]></description>
      <category>The KOKO Blog</category>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.koko.uk.com/forum/read.php?6,84,84#msg-84</guid>
      <pubDate>Fri, 03 Aug 2007 14:03:32 +0000</pubDate>
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    <item>
      <title>[The KOKO Blog] DEAD SOUL BROTHERS</title>
      <link>http://www.koko.uk.com/forum/read.php?6,83,83#msg-83</link>
      <author>DZA</author>
      <description><![CDATA[Watch out for the Dead Soul Brothers, who seem set to be one of the
brighter stars of the unstoppable electro-indie revolution. Its one of
London DJ and producer Herve aka Joshua Harvey's projects. 
Describing Dead Soul's Sound isn't the easiest task think Beatles classic 
Rubber Soul remixed by MSTRKRFT but dirtier and funkier. Oh and 
the grey scale, post new rave and aztec inspired EP artwork is damn pretty 
too. Chorus lines rush you with &quot;I want you to make me go - YEAH YEAH 
YEAH&quot; while the beats grind your ass out. If you can't do an anthem don't 
bother is what I say, hence I'm glad Dead Soul Brothers were bothered 
cos they can.]]></description>
      <category>The KOKO Blog</category>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.koko.uk.com/forum/read.php?6,83,83#msg-83</guid>
      <pubDate>Fri, 27 Jul 2007 12:11:39 +0000</pubDate>
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    <item>
      <title>[The KOKO Blog] Listening to Wooden Records</title>
      <link>http://www.koko.uk.com/forum/read.php?6,82,82#msg-82</link>
      <author>DZA</author>
      <description><![CDATA[

Rolling Stone Ronnie Wood has made Brixton foursome The Thirst the 
first signing to his new label Wooden Records. If you hear The Thirst
before you see them, all those twenty first century bands that draw on
The Jam - Clash continuum spring to mind, like The Metros and the
Littl'ans.  Indeed the band's producer Jake Fior has worked with the
Libertines and Babyshambles in the past. Being black and indie ceased
to be an issue years ago, former Test-icicle Devonte Hynes, Bloc
Party's Kele Okereke and Bono Must Die main man Tobi O' Kandi's presence
is proof of that. Yet we all know rock n' roll is as much about image,
background and boundary breaking as it is the sound so an ALL black
indie band is still a bit WOW even now. Eventually though the music allways 
wins through and if you like the bands listed above The Thirst serve well.]]></description>
      <category>The KOKO Blog</category>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.koko.uk.com/forum/read.php?6,82,82#msg-82</guid>
      <pubDate>Thu, 26 Jul 2007 09:25:07 +0000</pubDate>
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    <item>
      <title>[The KOKO Blog] LIFE CHANGING NEW RECORD STORE</title>
      <link>http://www.koko.uk.com/forum/read.php?6,81,81#msg-81</link>
      <author>DZA</author>
      <description><![CDATA[[attachment 21 RTE_lights-1.jpg]

We all know how boring our amazing city can be before the pubs have
filled up and the clubs opened; so thank god Rough Trade have just
opened a massive East End branch on Dray Walk off Brick Lane. In the
process they have finished off any pretence that Covent Garden's is at
all cool with the closure of their tiny store under Slam City Skates,
though the Notting Hill original is still there. Rough Trade East has
a bar and coffee shop and full schedule of daytime and early evening
record launches, exclusives and secret gigs. Rough Trade's influence
shouldn't be underestimated; when myspace and those secretive music
industry only download sites aren't providing the requisite freshness,
every DJ I know swears the Rough Trade staff's musical mega knowledge 
never fails to excite the ears again. Normally the opening of a shop 
is not going to change your life but if you like music and hanging out 
with those that do; this new musical mecca and east end home from 
home sure will do.]]></description>
      <category>The KOKO Blog</category>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.koko.uk.com/forum/read.php?6,81,81#msg-81</guid>
      <pubDate>Wed, 25 Jul 2007 19:20:58 +0000</pubDate>
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    <item>
      <title>[The KOKO Blog] Justice and the joy of i-Pod battling</title>
      <link>http://www.koko.uk.com/forum/read.php?6,80,80#msg-80</link>
      <author>DZA</author>
      <description><![CDATA[

Justice are playing Koko in September anyone whose seen one of their
rare live appearances will know it gets really messy. The whole crowd
electro moshes to insane almost sexual squelching and glitching and
you feel this mad techno-nerd tribalism yet the in the know crowd are
looking cool as xxxx. Arms are in the air and round strangers; all in
all your glad to be alive in the twenty first century and all I'd had
was a couple of beers. The Ed Banger label whom we have to thank for
the gift that's is Justice music, have also been at the forefront of
the i-pod battle revolution. Having been to one featuring crews lead
by Vice, M.I.A, !WOWOW! and Ed Banger expecting it to be a bit lame I
was blown away, it was the best night I'd had out for like time, and
until I saw Justice! So above for your viewing pleasure is an i-pod
battle vid featuring Justice.]]></description>
      <category>The KOKO Blog</category>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.koko.uk.com/forum/read.php?6,80,80#msg-80</guid>
      <pubDate>Fri, 20 Jul 2007 12:59:32 +0000</pubDate>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>[The KOKO Blog] Grindie's New Era</title>
      <link>http://www.koko.uk.com/forum/read.php?6,79,79#msg-79</link>
      <author>DZA</author>
      <description><![CDATA[

Yes yes y'all. Grindie has now got its own a style lets call it
Homme Boy being as it is part home boy. Like our hero's Dizzee Rascal,
JME and Lethal Bizzel we Homme Boy's wear Nike Air's and NewEra caps
and hoodies. Yet just as grindie gods Hadouken's tunes mix grime
production and rap with art house angst, Homme Boy clobber also features
the tight jeans  Dior Homme (get it?) designer Hedi Slimane and his best 
mates  Cazals, Paddingtons, These New Puritans and even Pete Docherty 
made so ubiquitous. Anyways... back to NewEra's caps they opened a  
London store last month at 72-74 Brewer Street. Watch the video 
above to check your wearing yours right and er fix up look sharp - init.]]></description>
      <category>The KOKO Blog</category>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.koko.uk.com/forum/read.php?6,79,79#msg-79</guid>
      <pubDate>Fri, 20 Jul 2007 11:13:38 +0000</pubDate>
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