Annie Hall

Annie Hall Live At the Batofar
https://www.mixcloud.com/hiveradio/annie-hall-live-batofar-paris/

Recent DJ Mix
https://soundcloud.com/northern_block/nb-podcast-036-annie-hall

Biography

Annie Hall has been steadily carving a name for herself as an artist who enjoys diversity. Born and bred in Spain, Annie started her life as a DJ having had her first encounter with vinyl from her brother who was a reggae, dubs and roots DJ

With a long time passion for music and a love of experimenting with new sounds Annie isn’t constrained by the same boundaries as others. She has released on labels such as Blank Code, Flash Recordings, Semantica Records, Minnuendo, D1 Recordings and Detroit Underground Recordings. ‘I love creating music from raw synthesis and get unique sounds, sometimes really interesting ones.’

With an eclectic taste in music, Annie creates music across the electronic spectrum, from tracks that are experimental taking the listener on a more complex journey, to tracks that take you straight to the dance floor. Her tracks have a feeling of intensity with dark brooding twists while being intertwined with melodies that give them warmth and keep you firmly on the dance floor.

Annie relocated to Windsor in Canada. On the border with the US, just a river separated her home from the Motor City, and with downtown Detroit only five minutes away in a car Annie drew inspiration from the surrounding differing cultures. ‘It was really interesting living in Windsor. There are a lot of creative people over here, and in detroit.’

Being so close to Detroit allowed her to forge close ties with the music community there, becoming part of Detroit Underground. A multidisciplinary arts collective, it functions ‘primarily as a label dedicated to bridging the gap of modern experimental music and Detroit techno.’

Garnering recognition for her unique expression, in recent years Annie has played at Sonar Festival, Detroit Movement Festival and Dommunie in Tokyo. Her DJ sets are tinged with darkness but have a strong Detroit techno feeling with a dynamic vibe.

Always intensively inventive, Annie’s Halls ability to take the listener on a musical journey can only get more exciting and expressive.

Fast forward to now and Annie has moved back to Spain where she is now living again. Since moving back to Europe Annie has been playing live sets in Berlin, France, Sweden and of course Spain.  Her live set is a hybrid setup of Modular equipment and machines no laptop in sight.

PHIL KIERAN

Dj Mix
https://soundcloud.com/philkieran/phil-kieran-dj-mix-march17

Boiler Room
https://youtu.be/sf-llYgMczM

Biography
When the sun shines, it makes everything better.
But as a child, you were told not to look at it, not to glance up as staring into the fiery depths could destroy your eyes for ever. Most of us did it anyway, the pull of curiosity becoming too strong, feeling in the seconds afterwards that your sight would remain just a blurred glare.

It’s like Phil says: “To understand beauty, you’ve got to know ugly. There’s a dark side to everything and I think people are like that too.” This is the basis for Kieran’s new album Blinded By The Sun, his fourth to date but only the second under his own name.

Kieran is one of Ireland’s best-loved club DJs and techno legends who has worked with everyone from Green Velvet to Peter Hook and Gary Numan. He’s even remixed for Depeche Mode and has worked closely with David Holmes on numerous projects. Kieran previously released an album on Cocoon Records and two under the monikers Le Carousel and Alloy Mental.

Blinded By The Sun is another departure for the producer and electronic master in which he set about to capture the undercurrent that runs through all that beauty and joy. There’s the picture perfect world we all pretend we are living on Facebook and Instagram, coupled with how things really are when you go home at night and close your door on the world. Those times in the wee, small hours when you’re up too late and you can feel the darkness creeping in. For Kieran that darkness has many forms - hanging with the club kids who are on the day three rollover, the hypocrisy in society thanks to obsession with social media, self-doubt, fear of failure. But for Kieran, it’s important to feel that fear and do it anyway.

Kieran explains: “I could do a lot more but these days there’s so much music out there so these days I think it’s more a case of trying to make sure when you do put something out that it’s good. “I feel it’s more important that when you say something, make sure it matters.”
Blinded By The Sun is a record that will matter - when the tendency in the world of dance music is to make EDM by numbers so the cash comes rolling in, Kieran has taken a step towards something different. It’s a record that crosses genres - all strings and instruments on the record were recorded live, there’s no sampling and trickery so what comes out is fresh and new.

Keiran explains: “I only get excited about making music when I think people are going to go ‘What the fuck are you doing?’ “I could easily make techno records that people would just think were good - there are certain types of dance music that you can make that people will like playing in a club but no-one’s going to be amazed by it.”

As a DJ Kieran has travelled the world, witnessing some of the best nights ever held and the worst post party comedowns when the glass cracks and the real stories come out of the dark. “You don’t know that something’s really beautiful unless you’ve seen what ugly is.“I think people are a bit like that. There’s ugly stuff and beautiful stuff at the same time “We’re all a bit of both. 
“For example you constantly get fed all this stuff about Ibiza and people having a good time,.
“But we’ve all seen the seedy side, what can happen when you’ve been up for three days and how the tables can turn in an instant.” “It’s that part of life you really want to try and hide away from but also it’s the place where people can sometimes open up and share things with each other, reveal the truth about who they really are.”

The haunting vocals on most of the tracks come from Jess Brien, a 22-year-old singer who approached Kieran when he was DJing one night in his home town of Belfast. He says:”She came up to me one night and told me she was a singer. I asked her to send me a demo thinking I wouldn’t hear from her. “Next day she sent me something and straight away I asked her to come into the studio. “Jess has a voice with such depth and tone and she captures the spirit of what I was aiming for perfectly.”

Kieran also enlisted the help of Zimbabwean musician Wilson Magwere who escaped the Mugabe regime and ended up in Belfast. David Holmes, Laurent Garnier, Andrew Weatherall and Annie Mac are fans of the record, Weatherall so much so that he has already featured tracks on his radio show. And with the ying and yang, Kieran is feeling nervously optimistic.
“There has to be some hope, and that’s how I wanted the record to end.”

After all, joy always comes at a price but following darkness there’s always another dawn.