The Shoes have been locked in dark rooms applying the finishing touches to their debut album due early 2011.
The French dynamic duo have been calling on all the friends they've met on their
travels over the last few years to help them realise their musical dreams. Its some guest list..and is testament to the contagious enthusiasm and er....'joie de vivre' that Guillaume and Ben always bring to their dj sets, remixes, live shows and late nights that this stella crew jumped at the chance to feature on the debut album.

Esser (Transgressive/Chocolate Industries) features on two tracks lending his distinctive vocal stylings and also banging the drums. Rumour has it that the next single in France will be the addictive 'Stay The Same' and a killer remix package is being assembled. Primary 1's on there but you know that already from the release on uber-cool 50 bones label a while back. The beats have been refreshed and the songs gone a little darker. Just how we like it. Tim from Liverpool mavericks 'Wave Machines' reassembled one of the tracks and got all sleazy on the lyrics - its going to make you blush. The Cock and Bull Kid did her thing on the dramatic groove of 'Cliche' which is drenched in middle eastern flavours. Looking for a pianist on the track 'Wolf Under The Moon' it could only be Gonzalez who's added his skills to this psychedelic pop track featuring our friends from Reims 'The Bewitched Hands On The Top Of Our Heads'. There's more but lets save some surprises.

To mix all these ingredients together into a musical delicacy The Shoes called on their friend Lexxx (Crystal Castles, Golden Silvers, Esser, Everthing Everything). A month holed up in darkest Hackney in a bizarre art deco apartment - Miami Vice via E8 - meant that the album could finally be completed. There's dancefloor moments that will be familiar to those that have kept abreast of the remixes (Primary 1, Marina and the Diamonds, Golden Silvers, Esser, Ladyhawke etc) over the last couple of years but there's also dark electronic pop songs that you're going to fall in love with.

The Shoes managed to squeeze a quick trip to Japan in where they ate sushi, shoppped relentlessly and even found the time to dj at the Womb in Tokyo and Osaka. Japanese friends The 80 Kidz were in Tokyo and begged The Shoes for a remix of their new single - Ben also added vocals to a track on their last album.

Oh yeah i forgot - we've got photos by the legendary 'GAVIN WATSON' taken earlier in the year down in Brighton. Look for classic Gavin photos adorning the French release of 'People Movin' and destined for future artwork...To be continued

Ras Jammy presents Suns of Dub  a label, group & performing dub-production team creating a unique sound experience driven by dub influenced genres, merging live instruments, and original Rockers Reggae Sounds with a new age dub style innovative ideas, Suns of Dub incorporates live melodica & dubbing, deejaying, and composition into one musical entity. The Team is lead by Ras Jammy who manages a community of musicians, producers & artists under the production label 

sunsofdub@gmail.com

Wade Allain-Marcus  
(Vocals / Guitar)
Christopher Larkin    
(Guitar / Vocals)

www.dartagnantheband.com

A thriving media organization at the forefront of digital innovation, NPR creates and distributes award-winning news, information, and music programming to a network of 975 independent stations. Through them, NPR programming reaches 26 million listeners every week.

The Starkiller (AKA Super Hans AKA Che Guerrilla) has been making electronic music and remixes since the late 1990s. He likes to keep things slow - his favourite BPM is 111. 

Influences are (among others) Giorgio Moroder, Kraftwerk, Hall & Oates, Daft Punk, Chic, and lots of other lesser known but equally important artists.

Twitter / TikTok: Skrillex

F*CK U SKRILLEX YOU THINK UR ANDY WARHOL BUT UR NOT!! <3 out now: https://skrillex.lnk.to/fus


Get more music from Skrillex
Spotify: https://skrillex.lnk.to/Spotify
Apple Music: https://skrillex.lnk.to/AppleMusic
YouTube: https://skrillex.lnk.to/YouTube

No one could have imagined at that time what to expect - like Xavier de Maistre himself, when he decided to change the face of the harp 16 years ago. Today he plays pieces like "Moldau" by Smetana in breathtaking precision and presents masterful pieces of music that are usually played by an entire orchestra.

Meanwhile, a worldwide audience listens to his virtuosity and enjoys the unprecedented sounds. Pieces, that no harpist played before, or even thought about - like the Haydn piano concertos. Not only that makes him one of the most extraordinary musicians, even masters of this time.

Xavier de Maistre began to study harp with 9 years. Like many other famous musicians, all started with love - but in this case not as expected the love to his harp. It was rather the love for his former teacher, who offered extra harp lessons. Early, it turned out that Xavier has a great talent and no wonder he started with 25 years to play for the Vienna Philharmonic. Before that he played 3 years for the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and in 1998 Xavier won the first prize of the "USA International Harp Competition“, the major harp competitions in the world. But since Xavier´s family is not from a traditional harp-playing dynasty they put great importance to a solid education. So Xavier started his study of politics at the „Institut des Sciences Politiques“ in Paris and spent 1 year in London at the „London School of Economics ", when he finally decided to prefer music to the political studies. For a musician, he achieved very early what all harpists dream of – a position in one of the best orchestras in the world, the Vienna Philharmonic.

However Xavier de Maistre was about to go on. To see this point as the highlight of the career, which would definitely be a great honor for most of the harpists, and aslo for Xavier, but it was also a kind of sad moment. He achieved the ultimate goal of a harpist at age 25. Through his countless appearances and his keen ambition he has always wants to refute the long-existing bias of the harp - played in the background by angel-like women. Thanks to his his quick anticipation, intelligence and tremendous skill, he has played many pieces as a soloist with the harp and delighted thousands of listeners. Finally, he succeeds to establish the harp as an independent instrument. During his career, many great conductors such as Riccardo Muti, Sir Simon Rattle, Sir Andre Previn, and Daniele Gatti became curious on him and his passion and asked him to play with them. A long series of concerts follows, convincing the audience that Xavier de Maistre is undoubtedly the master of his instrument. Not for nothing, beside famous conductors, also the most successful singers like Barbara Bonney, Kathleen Battle and Diana Damrau played with him. Likewise, of course, the long list of world-renowned opera houses which he had already visited: Theatre des Champs Elysees Paris, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Musikverein Vienna, Tokyo Opera City, Lincoln Center New York, Salzburg Festival, La Scala Milan and many others.

No wonder, Xavier´s enthusiasm and his gift to play will not put an end to this success story. Awarded with the Echo Klassik Award 2009 for his album "Nuit d'Etoiles" as "Instrumentalist of the Year" (Sony Music) he reaps the fruits of his labor.

For more than 9 years Xavier de Maistre is working as a professor at the Musikhochschule Hamburg and now also teaches at the Julliard School in New York, at the Toho University in Tokyo and in London at Trinity College. After 11 years with the Vienna Philharmonic Xavier leaves his position in order to devote himself to his international solo career - a step that no harpist has done before.

DearestEssie is following