Music

At the core of many of the complaints is the belief that these entertainment spectaculars are tyrannical in their inflexibility. "There's a lot of stuff that's preprogrammed," says Drew Best. "The tracks in a Deadmau5 set precisely trigger the visual and lighting systems. All the imagery is absolutely on beat, and that beat is 128 bpm. If you see Deadmau5 several times in a row, you might see the same show." Earlier this year Deadmau5 incited a furore with his candid admission that everybody at his level basically presses "play" and his assertion that the true artistry comes into play in the recording studio beforehand, not on the stage. In other words, he's a producer who chooses to publicly represent his sound in person, but not a DJ in the traditional sense: a selector who responds to the mood of the crowd. EDM today has come a long way from the early days of house and techno, when sound was privileged over vision, an ethos enshrined in the title of the 1992 Madhouse compilation A … [Read more...] about How rave music conquered America

Scripted by Jonathan Harvey, the performance shows how qualities that in others would come across as arrogance, conceit and Germanic froideur, in Trix seem entirely justified. Time and again, she has proved the naysayers wrong and has had the power not only to reinvent herself, but to bring peace where there is conflict. We laugh – a lot – in support of her resilience. … [Read more...] about Musik review – Pet Shop Boys’ musical evokes Warhol, Dalí and Nico

The film - which also stars Judy Dench, Jennifer Hudson, Ian McKellen, Jason Derulo, Rebel Wilson, and James Corden - has been a commercial failure too, taking in just $27million domestically since its December 20th release. In the international market, it's raked in $33million. … [Read more...] about Taylor Swift insists she has ‘no complaints’ about Cats experience despite musical BOMBING at box office

This West End run coincided, in Alexander’s breezy telling, with the busiest period in his romantic career. “Lot of sex.” He had known that he fancied boys from the age of about 10, though the concept of being gay was something only introduced to him via playground insult; he can remember drawing stick figures in a geography textbook, bewildered, trying to figure out how two men could ever even manage it. These days, Alexander says, “my sexuality is part of my music, part of my identity”, but this was a clunky journey in its early phases and it wasn’t until he arrived in London and got into a first relationship, with the brother of a friend, that he felt he could properly come out to those closest to him. … [Read more...] about Olly Alexander: ‘Success is overwhelming. People talk to you differently’

Classical-dance music is rightly thought of as a corporate invention, created to sell decadent bullshit like water with vitamins in. Which makes Clean Bandit's chemistry all the more impressive. Strings as sprightly as a leprechaun on parole. Fluid bleeps that bubble like fishes blowing air kisses. And most unexpectedly, a piano-house chorus that sounds like the summer of 1995, minus the alcopop headaches. … [Read more...] about St Vincent, Clean Bandit, Gorgon City: this week’s new tracks