Heat Haze

Really liking this. Doesn’t sound all that ‘Kompakt‘. They launched their album with Luke Abbott and Andy from Fuck Buttons in London the other night. Touring US with Battles now….

http://soundcloud.com/walls_band/sets/walls-coracle-kompakt/

They have a track called Heat Haze. It’s weirdly hot outside. Like, record-breaking hot for October. So here’s a summer song and a song about memories innit:

New Noise

Hello there.

We’re playing a show on Saturday night at the Hare & Hounds Kings Heath. Here’s all the details you will need: Victories At Sea / Free School / Patterns. Victories At Sea are ace. Patterns are coming down from Manchester. Check out the video below. I love it. Sounds like earlier Animal Collective mixed with a bit of older Animal Collective. Which is pretty impressive.

Here’s Victories At Sea playing at Off The Cuff festival a few weeks back:

ThisIsTmrw are DJing in between the live stuff. Don’t get much better like….

Free School Podcast #5 – Get more Redmore

Hello.

Free School bring you episode 5 of their star-studded podcast. This week we allow successful local man Sam Redmore to get drunk and knock over Steve’s stuff whilst he explains himself. Warehouse fires, House-thumpers and sweet sweet soul all get a look-in. Tracks this episode:

1. Magnus International – Kosmetisk
2. Finn Peters – Purple
3. Seams – Focus Energy
4. Ashford & Simpson – Bourgi Bourgi
5. John Maus – Street Light

Here’s the iTunes link: http://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/free-schools-podcast/id433240500

Here’s Sam’s latest edit. We freakin love it…

http://soundcloud.com/samredmore/beef-edit

Enjoy!
Free School x

Cities are the bodies of our collective souls

Round up:

Great blog on the pissy New Street staircase (update: it’s now closed off. For good…) – http://www.birminghamitsnotshit.co.uk/2011/07/danny-smith-requiem-for-a-piss-stained-short-cut.html

 

We did some music for two short films by Film Division.

End credits and Sound FX for Internalised:

Internalised ‘Directors Cut’ from Film Division Productions on Vimeo.

 

 

And the music for the Finders Keepers trailer:

Finders Keepers ‘Canada Cut’ from Film Division Productions on Vimeo.

 

 

Here’s a lovely video by Old Dead Eye

From the City from Old Dead Eye on Vimeo.

 

And for making your way through all that, here’s a great track which Jay Z used for Girls, Girls, Girls:

Tomorrow Never Comes (it did yesterday)

We’re totally stoked to be asked to become resident DJs at the ThisIsTmrw monthly club nights. Taking place at The Bull’s Head in Moseley, expect to hear some of the following:

FLOATING POINTS // NICOLAS JAAR // HORSE MEAT DISCO // JULIO BASHMORE // STAR SLINGER // WASHED OUT // TORO Y MOI // TALKING HEADS // METRONOMY // MATTHEW DEAR // JAMIE XX // XXXY // ACTRESS // LCD SOUNDSYSTEM // HOLY GHOST // GOLD PANDA // JACQUES GREENE // PEARSON SOUND // TENSNAKE // MIDLAND // KERRI CHANDLER // MOTOR CITY DRUM ENSEMBLE // SOFRITO // TODD TERJE

Here are the Facebook event details.

ThisIsTmrw have been at the forefront of FUTURE music in the city for many years now (I remember Lewes Herriot’s posters in The Victoria over 5 years ago and wondering who on earth these promoters were, where they’d come from and who the hell they were going to put on next). Here’s a mix we did for them a while back: http://www.thisistmrw.co.uk/2011/05/27/thisistmrw-mix-12-free-school/

This could get aired:

This probably won’t get a play but I likes dis a lot:

Matt Beck guest stars on Free School (Tirk Records) podcast episode #4!

We’re back! Free School are here with episode 4 of their award-winning podcast.

Despite demanding to be called Sexy Becksy, it was a pleasure to have Matt Beck on Episode 4 of the Free School podcast last night. He’s the dynamo behind This Is Tmrw and Soul Food Project both of which we ENDORSE (free of charge). Among other topics, the Bergheim in Berlin gets a look-in, we discuss the meaning of the word ‘Future-Bass’ and Steve get’s his knees out.

http://itunes.apple.com/gb/pod​cast/free-schools-podcast/id43​3240500

Tracks this episode:

1. Edna Wright – Oops! Here I Go Again
2. Starslinger vs Teams – Punch Drunk Love
3. Hackman – More Than Ever
4. Thundercat – For Love I Come
5. D/R/U/G/S – Love_Lust

Hope you like. Email us here with your thoughts! wearefreeschool@gmail.com

Steve & Andy off of the TAASS Show (The Steve And Andy Show)

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As Serious As Your Life

Hello there everybody. To promote our debut EP, Ranting & Raving, out now on Tirk Records, the lovely people at Brum Notes interviewed us. Below is the full transcript. You can ask us the same questions at more at our EP launch at Digbeth’s  finest hostelry, The Rainbow on August 19th 2011. Facebook event details here. We can’t wait to meet you………..

So, first things first, what are Free School all about?

We’re about making beautiful, timeless electronic dance music. We work on something until it turns into a piece we can listen to forever, it’s really important to us and we are our fiercest critics. We get so enthusiastic about our music because we love listening to it, rather than because we think it deserves praise. We’re not concerned with fashion or trends; you can stifle and sacrifice the things that you do best just to be on the cutting edge.

For those who haven’t heard you, how would you describe yourselves? And who would you name as your influences?

We’ve been variously described as ‘Cosmic Disco’, ‘Synth-wave’, ‘Balearic’ and our current favourite ‘Synth Molesters’! Our music is lush, melodic and bewitching, epic in scale with a strong nod to the dancefloor. Among our influences are Lindstrom, Orbital, Fuck Buttons, Kelley Polar, The Orb, LCD Soundsystem and early Autechre, when they made tunes. There, I’ve said it.

You’ve had some nice support slots so far – what’s been the highlight?

We’ve been really lucky, our debut was with Fujiya & Miyagi, of whom we’re big fans, really really lovely guys too, a real privilege. Mark E as well, such a talent, there may well be something further to report on that soon, watch this space! We DJ’ed at the launch of the Out Of Bounds House label run by The Discomendments guys, they’re pedigree Birmingham House producers. The real highlight has been meeting the people who run the shows in Birmingham, there’s a lot of heart and integrity in what they’re doing, a real credit to the city.

And what have you got planned over the coming months?

Our debut EP ‘Ranting & Raving’ came out on Tirk Records in July so we’re pushing that at the moment and we have an EP launch show at The Rainbow on Aug 19th with the excellent Arc Vel and Greg Bird. We’ve done a remix for Discomendments which will be the first release on the ‘Out Of Bounds’ label, it’s called ‘Tales From The Bunka’ and we’re very very pleased with it. A few of the guys have been playing it out in Croatia over the summer and it’s gone down really well, we just wish we could have been on the beach with them!

We’re just finishing the tracks for the album so we might have another EP out then the album later in the year. Beyond that we’ll be taking our live show to as many places as possible, with the occasional DJ slot in-between.

What are the main ambitions for Free School?

To keep going in the direction we are and not forget why we started doing this, which was to make music that we adore.

Why should we come and see you this month?

We’ve handpicked the acts for the show so it’ll be a fantastic night, Arc Vel creates beautiful, soulful electronica, like Flying Lotus being covered by Boards Of Canada. Greg Bird is Prince meets Ultravox and the wonderful Archmix DJ’s will be in support to glue it all together in their inimitable style. Free School genuinely are a sight to behold, live, and you don’t get a reputation as ‘synth-molestors’ for nothing! Our set up is augmented with a powerhouse of a drummer and we indulge in a fair bit of percussion too.

Anyone else we should look out for in Birmingham at the moment?

Seams is making some amazing music at the moment, Sigmund Frued is well worth checking out, he’s only 16 which beggars belief considering the quality and quantity of his music, you can catch him DJ at the awesome Fantastic Damage nights every month. Sam Redmore is keeping up his eclectic DJ side of things, he’s bringing out more and more production and edit work, which is very exciting. Mark E, goes without saying. Band-wise there’s Victories At Sea and Malpas, they’re both making waves beyond the city at the moment.

The Last Days of Disco or Disco Sucks

I watched the final instalment of Whit Stilman‘s ‘doomed-bourgeois-in-love’ trilogy yesterday, The Last Days of Disco. All three are really hard to get hold of but if you can, do buy them all. It took me around 10 attempts to get in to Metropolitan if I’m honest. Which I am. Mostly. But once I’d gotten over that hurdle, Barcelona was a breeze. And I’m no film critic so I’m not going to dissect them here (I’ll save that for my lucky friends) but here’s a clip where The Lady & The Tramp is discussed. This reminds me of Seinfeld where Jerry and George discuss comic book superheroes or the fudge distribution in a sundae or being a half-man double-team relationship machine:

And how does this relate to Free School? Well, two things. I’m interested in the ‘Disco Sucks’ movement and the film shows this fascinating clip:

There’s also some great music featured, including this little gem:

Steve

Dark Intervals or Keith Jarrett >>> Free School

I want to talk about Keith Jarrett. The man who (reluctantly) helped Miles go electric.

But that’s not what I want to talk about. Responsible for the most popular solo piano recording of all time, the Koln concert, he is a huge inspiration for our track Lemon. His ability to improvise and use the well of music within him to produce a blend of gospel, classical, film music, blues, improv and (almost) pop is mindblowing.

So when me and Andy sat down to improvise (coming from a much different place, obviously) for what became Lemon, I tried to get to a similar place that Mr Jarrett gets to. I AM NOT COMPARING US TO KEITH JARRETT. (I am comparing us to Keith Jarrett)

Mr Jarrett also likes one of my favourite books,  But Beautiful by Geoff Dyer. Go read it if you haven’t already. It’s (But) Beautiful.

So let’s talk….. Do people get the link? Here is Mr Jarrett’s Americana from his 1988 album Dark Intervals and below that is Lemon, taken from our forthcoming EP release on Tirk.

More Ranting & Raving

Episode 3 of the Free School podcast (or as the bloomin’ kids are still calling it, TAASS or The Andy And Steve Show) has arrived! And it arrives just 2 days before my birthday and just a mere 15 days before Andy’s birthday. Thanks for all your best wishes.

http://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/free-schools-podcast/id433240500

Birmingham is 100% fully represented to the absolute max. As is our first EP! Out on Tirk Records on July 11th 2011, it’s called Ranting & Raving and it has remixes from Richard Norris of The Time & Space Machine and Sportloto. It’s available from HMV, Amazon or the wonderful Rough Trade records.

Tracks this week are:

1. Kultra Edits 1
2. The Jones Girls – Dance Turned Into A Romance
3. Gayngs – The Last Prom On Earth
4. Destroyer – Chinatown
5. Steve Reich – 2×5 Movement III Fast (Vacula remix)

Eat it all up…

Andy & Steve
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