The Lowdown: Interview with Kele Okereke of Bloc Party
April 2, 2018 in Interviews, Featured

As part of a continued look back into some of the AltSounds interview archives we stumbled upon this gem of an interview with Kele Okereke of Bloc Party about his solo EP “Candy Flip” that was conducted by the ever brilliant Greg Arthur back in 2014. Expect more from the archives this year as we start to showcase some of our favorite AltSounds interviews of yore. There’s no better form of inspiration than listening to others talk about their craft. If you have 5 minutes read more about the fascinating character that is Kele Okereke. — Hi Kele. Hello. We recently reviewed “Candy Flip” which was great, and we did “Heartbreaker” at the end of last year. I’m not particularly a House music fan, but I really enjoyed them. Thank you. I’m more of an indie/rock n roll fan, so firstly‚ why the change in style? I’ve almost seen three different Kele’s: the Bloc Party Kele, the producer/DJ that you’re doing now, and the kind of in between phase of both where you realized your previous solo records. Well, I guess I don’t really see it as changing my style, I just see it as a continuation of my style. I’m […]

AltSounds TV: Pilot feat. Corey Taylor of Slipknot
March 21, 2018 in Featured

So tonight, after delving through some old Mini DV tapes I ended up going down a rabbit hole of old AltSounds footage and realized that there isn’t a lot of it online. The one gem I did come across however, and that is worth 8+ minutes of everyone’s time is a pilot episode of AltSounds TV we created back in 2010 at Sonisphere, featuring Corey Taylor of Slipknot / Stone Sour. I had created this weird futuristic world through my art and I realized it could be a scene for the cutaway scenes for the pilot of the AltSounds TV show. Next, I met Canz Rickman and we started talking about the realities of making AltSounds a TV show that would be based out of Cardiff. He was gonna handle the filming of things. I was gonna handle the access to the festival, the venue, the band etc. After which we’d collaborate on the final cut. The one and only (thus far) AltSounds TV episode is above and I hope you all enjoy. I thoroughly enjoyed watching this back and remembering this moment in time and I’m inspired to chase the truth that I re-discovered through this film.

Yoko Ono: The Lowdown – Sit down interview with Yoko
January 10, 2018 in Interviews, Featured

Below is an interview we conducted at AltSounds in 2010 with Yoko Ono. Over the coming months, we will be posting some of our favorite pieces from the AltSounds days of yore for everyone’s enjoyment and so that they don’t get lost forever. This interview was conducted by @mitchunlimited and was initially published on January 10th 2010, seven years ago if you can believe that?! I also wrote the forward below all those years ago! Yoko Ono: The Lowdown Yoko Ono needs no introduction. She has been making music for 40+ years, is an artist, a political activist and most famously of all (for me anyway) she was the love of the late John Lennon’s life. Together the pair proved an unstoppable force, both making music together and in particular for their infamous efforts to promote World Peace. Her art, music, and activism was and is still WAY ahead of the crowd and the world would be a much better place today if people had just listened to what John and Yoko had to say way back when. In fact, the world could heed a lot by taking their advice even now. More recently Yoko, released a brand new album, […]

Video of the Day: Ásgeir – Unbound
March 9, 2017 in Music, Featured

“Unbound” by Ásgeir has been doing the rounds at Riot HQ for quite a few weeks now – giving it enough staying power for us to want to share with the rest of the world.  A glitchy, mellow and futuristic sounding song with absolutely stunning falsetto vocals that simply melt in your mouth, “Unbound” is the perfect level of eclectic weirdness that we adore. The beautifully shot and unique video deals in an unknown virtual reality world, where the subjects are able to express their deepest and darkest desires, through a futuristic virtual reality lens.  Throughout the film we watch multiple storylines intertwine, hooking us in right from the beginning until the last note rings out. We’ve been following Ásgeir and his work for many years – it just keeps getting better and better.  We advise everyone that loves this go back and check out more of Ásgeir’s work as it is sure to cleanse your musical palette. Click play and enjoy the magic.

RIOT Experiments: In Looping, Sound, Color & Shapes
February 14, 2017 in Experiments, Featured

We have started to spend some days of the week just experimenting, with no pre-defined goal and with no final outcome.  Above is our first true version of this and is the culmination of a few months work all rolled in to one.  The visuals were put together over the course of a few months, however the theme of playing around with shape, shape movement, vivid colors and repetition remained constant. The music was the final piece of the puzzle, with Chris “MUG5” Maguire finishing this composition just a few days ago.  The audible creation ended up feeling like it would work well with these visuals and after spending a day then matching the visual movements to the music we end up with out first RIOT experiments film. We have placed the film in our journal as this was put together purely for fun and is not a commissioned or official RIOT creative agency production.  That said, it stills offers a look into some of the many sides to the RIOT personality and visual identity.

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The Greatest Playlist Of All Time #1 Q3 2016
September 28, 2016 in Music, Featured

In case you haven’t noticed, at RIOT we absolutely adore music – in case our amazing sister site AltSounds didn’t make you already realize this! It’s our favorite medium for art, no other art form can place you back to a time in your life where you can fully picture and see a whole scene in your head, simply thanks to a certain song that brings it all flooding back. As such, we’re listening to music almost all of the time; in the background as we work, while we walk, skate, cycle, drive, party. Of the thousands of songs we listen to every single month, there are some that stand out from the crowd. The ones that make you skip back instantly and listen again and again and again like a drug habit you can’t kick. These best of the bunch songs are rare though, sometimes very rare with only one coming to us over a two week period, other weeks there might be a few. At the start of July we decided to start putting together a playlist every quarter aptly titled “The Greatest Playlist Of All Time” because, well, it is! We decided on doing one a quarter […]

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Song Of The Day: Kate Tempest – Europe Is Lost
September 13, 2016 in Music, Featured

“Europe is Lost” is Kate Tempest’s protest to the world’s current state of affairs through her lens. It’s an instant hook for anyone listening, with hats tipping towards Cypress Hill in the beat, while Kate spits rhymes with absolute style and lyrical prowess driven by her fantastic British accent. She paints a vivid picture of her world, her take on immigration, the police, selfie culture, life on the weekend in her hometown and many other relevant topics. Her rhymes are relentless and, while she focuses on her close locale, she discusses the bigger picture of the world. “Europe is Lost” challenges a plethora of issues which we’re always a fan of, whether we agree with the content or not (the immigrant / patriotism mentions for example). We’d rather have someone state their thoughts and opinions freely, than suffer the blatant censorship we see all around us. A challenging one for sure, but well worth giving it time.

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