Bloc Festival co-founder blames “dull hipsters” for the death of rave culture, two new music creation apps released for iOS, and synth icon Keith Emerson passes away aged 71.
DUB-Russel’s Semi-Modular Beat Machine. Designed and developed for the past six years based on the performance experience and sound philosophy of DUB-Russel, 2020 turns the Japanese electronic music group’s semi-modular Max-MSP performance patch and beat machine into a product. Watch it in action above, and find out more over at their Kickstarter campaign here.
“Dull hipsters in broad daylight – why I’m done with today’s dance music.” The Fader tells the story of Bloc Festival, explaining the roots of the festival and what they’ll be working on next, following their recent announcement that this year’s event will be the final Bloc. Read that here. Meanwhile, Bloc co-founder George Hull, writing for The Spectator, claims that “dull hipsters” have killed rave culture. Read it here.
DJ Derek, 1942-2016. A regular on the festival and club circuit, with a compilation album released on Trojan Records, the accountant who rose to national fame from the Bristol reggae scene by MCing in patois over his collection of personally recorded MiniDiscs, DJ Derek has tragically passed away, police confirmed this week. Find out more here.
Blocs Wave for iOS. New Novation sub-brand Blocs announces a new music-creation app for iOS designed to inspire new ideas. Blocs Wave has a real-time ‘stretch loop’ concept at its heart, combines professional sounds from a wide range of genres, and allows you to tweak sounds using beautiful touchable waveforms. Watch it in action above, and find out more here.
Focusrite Launch Red 4Pre Interface. Focusrite have launched the “pinnacle” of their range, the Red 4Pre, a 58-in/64-out interface that combines four specially-developed mic preamps, plus high-headroom instrument inputs, with dual Thunderbolt 2, dual Pro Tools HD DigiLink and Dante network audio connectivity. Check it out above.
Synth icon Keith Emerson, 1944-2016. The girlfriend of Emerson, Lake and Palmer keyboardist Keith Emerson has said his recent suicide may have been in some part caused by the health conditions that affected his live performances, which had “made him depressed, nervous and anxious”. More information here.
New Positions at Ableton Berlin. Ableton are accepting applications for new full-time Technical Support Team Agent positions at their Berlin location. Applicants should enjoy “testing and reproduction scenarios, including working with a wide variety of third-party hardware and software”, and “solving difficult problems”. Click here for more information and to apply.
Music Creation For All With Skram. Inspired by the custom setups used by experienced electronic musicians to streamline their music production and performance, the creators of Björk and Daft Punk‘s stage tech offer music creation for all with their new iOS app Skram, which provides an immediate tool for seasoned musicians and enables newcomers to quickly produce convincing results. Watch it in action above, and find out more here.