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Five Day Forecast – w/c 19 Sep 2011

By | Published on Monday 19 September 2011

Andy Malt

So, here we enter week two of life with the new look CMU Daily. I hope you found it agreeable during week one. Many of you have been complimentary, so thank you for that!

I hope you all had very lovely weekends. I did, though I’m not sure I did anything that warrants talking about here. It mainly revolved around sitting in various places and talking. I also played ‘Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney’ on my iPhone a bit too much. Pretty sure I could hold my own in a genuine courtroom now. Maybe I’ll do that next week, but here’s what’s happening this week…

01: Polaris Music Prize. It’s nearly two whole weeks since anyone decided what the best album from one single country in the last twelve month period was. I don’t know about you, but I’m getting withdrawal symptoms. Thankfully, the winner of the Polaris Music Prize, which I am contractually obliged to tell you is the Canadian version of the Mercury Prize, is announced today. I’m rooting for either Austra or The Weeknd, but also amongst those on the shortlist are Timber Timbre, Ron Sexsmith, Destroyer, Braids and Arcade Fire.

02: Deezer launch. French streaming music service Deezer is officially launching in the UK this week with a big party at The Hospital Club in Covent Garden on Wednesday. Well, some sort of party, anyway. It might not be that big. But there will be bands playing, so that’s fun. The French streaming service boasts a catalogue of thirteen million tracks plus a bunch of curated genre and artist-based radio channels. The curation, and other editorial whatnots, are what Deezer hope will distinguish its service from other players in the streaming music marketplace. [EDIT: This has now been moved to 11 Oct]

03: Reeperbahn Festival. The Reeperbahn showcase festival and music business conference takes place this week in Hamburg, and the fact that neither I nor anyone from CMU is able to go this year makes us sad, so let’s not talk about that. Let’s talk about how great this festival is. It fills the plethora of venues down Hamburg’s famous Reeperbahn and the surrounding area for three days, and has one of the nicest atmospheres of any city-based festival you could think of. So, hooray for that.

04: New releases. There’s a new Kasabian album out this week. Try not to think about it. Try instead, to think about the soothing new album of piano music from Kid Koala, which soundtracks his new graphic novel ‘Space Cadet’. As well as that, you might like to busy yourself with listening to Jens Lekman and Wavves‘ new EPs, Scroobius Pip‘s solo album, WATERS‘ debut LP, and Tony Bennett‘s new duets record, which, of course, feature’s Amy Winehouse’s final recording.

05: Gigs. There are a few firsts coming up this week, with heavy hip hop outfit Death Grips and Swedish electronic duo Roll The Dice both due to play their debut London shows. Roll The Dice will play at Café Oto in Dalston tomorrow night, while Death Grips hit XOYO on Sunday. Also, CMU approvees Strangers are set to launch their new monthly night, Strangers Club, at Electricity Showrooms in Shoreditch on Thursday. Elsewhere, 65daysofstatic will be performing a live collaboration with Brazilian choreographer Jean Abreu at Queen Elizabeth Hall on London’s Southbank this Wednesday. Other acts you’d do well to check out around the UK this week are Andy C, Esmerine, Love Inks, Ghostpoet and Is Tropical.

Oh, and don’t forget that the CMU podcast returned last week. Chris and I discussed many things, though it was mainly the copyright extension and the slightly complicated method we’ve chosen to allow listeners to get in touch with us.

Andy Malt

Editor, CMU



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